Paul was confronting a similar situation to that in the churches of Galatia.
It wasn't the relativistic postmodernism that we deal with,
but the churches were indeed tolerating false teachers
and heresies that destroy the gospel and its influence.
The issue, at least at first, with the Galatians
is not so much that they've already become fully apostate,
you'll notice even in the very first verse,
there is an action verb that is a continuing action.
It's not a completed action that they are deserting,
not that they have deserted.
There is something in Paul's mind where he is not willing yet to say
that they have become full apostates to the faith.
His issue, at least on the surface,
is that they are beginning to tolerate other apostates to the faith,
that they are tolerating within their churches,
that they are tolerating within their scope of doctrine,
things that destroy the gospel.
And he uses this letter to confront the false teachers.
He affirms the gospel of grace that had been preached to these people,
that had saved these people.
And he warns the churches that the doctrines that they are beginning to tolerate
are setting them and others on the road to eternal hell.
But before we jump into these verses,
let's take just a moment before we start talking about defending the gospel
to understanding what the gospel is to begin with.
So what is the gospel?
Let's just work through a few of maybe Paul's own writings about the gospel.
Remember 1 Corinthians 15?
Paul is writing that amazing chapter on resurrection,
not only on Christ's resurrection, but the resurrection of the saints.
And he opens the chapter by saying,
I would remind you brothers of the gospel,
the good news that I preach to you,
which you received,
in which you stand,
and by which you are being saved.
And here's what he says it is.
As of first importance,
Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the scriptures.
He was buried
and he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the scriptures.
So if somebody were to come to you and say,
in just in one,
really one or two statements,
tell me what is the gospel?
Paul tells us the gospel is very simply,
Jesus died for our sins
in accordance with the scriptures.
He was buried
and then he rose from the dead
in accordance with the scriptures.
That's the gospel.
That the only hope of eternal salvation we have
does not lie in anything that we do,
but it lies in something
that Christ has already done.
That the forgiveness we receive
is not something that we can earn
through religious observance
or anything else.
It is given to us.
We receive it through faith
in the finished work of Christ on the cross.
And we've spent the last several weeks
looking at that
very, very closely in Mark's gospel.
that the purpose of Christ's death
was not just to be a model
or an example for us.
It was an efficacious death.
It was sufficient
to actually provide satisfaction
against God's wrath
that the kids learned about
on Thursday night.
Jesus told Nicodemus
that in his current state
of unbelief and in sin,
that he was condemned already.
He was living in that moment
underneath the wrath of God
for his sin.
But because of what Christ
has done on the cross,
God has taken his wrath
for the sins of his people
and he has put it on his son,
fully satisfying his justice
so that he can then come
to all who believe
and he can give instead of judgment,
eternal life.
And all of that comes
not by what we do,
but through what Christ has done.
Christ died for our sins
according to the Bible.
He was buried
and he was raised
according to the Bible.
Paul goes on in Romans chapter 1
to say that this is the thing
that actually has power to save.
He says,
I'm not ashamed of this gospel
for it is the power of God
for salvation
to everyone who believes.
In other words,
he's so convinced
in the faithfulness
of this gospel
that he says it
and it alone
has the power to save.
He writes to the Ephesians
in chapter 2 and verse 8,
you know the verse well,
that it is by grace
you've been saved through faith.
This is not your own doing,
he says.
It's a gift of God,
not of works,
so that no man may boast.
So here's the gospel.
It's the power of God to save
and that salvation
is not based on what we do,
it's based on the grace of God.
It's a gospel of grace.
And then he encourages his team
as he is passing off the scene
at the end of his life
to continue to defend this gospel.
He writes to Timothy,
in 2 Timothy chapter 1,
do not be ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord,
but share in suffering
for the gospel
by the power of God
who saved us,
called us with a holy calling,
not because of our works,
but because of his own purpose of grace,
which he gave us in Christ Jesus
before the ages began.
Loved ones,
this is the gospel.
There is no other one.
This is it.
And it's a wonderful gospel.
It's a glorious gospel of grace,
and it alone has the message of salvation.
For Peter and John said,
there is salvation in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven
given among men
by which we must be saved.
Writing to the Corinthians,
Paul says that there is one body,
that is one body of believers,
and there is one Lord,
and there is one hope,
and there is one spirit,
and there is one faith,
and there is one baptism.
There is one gospel,
and we must affirm
and defend this gospel of grace.
Otherwise,
by deserting God and his gospel,
we will follow the path to hell
and lead those under our influence
on the way there.
So when Paul writes to these churches in Galatia,
he is not writing casually.
You understand now
why he doesn't take time
in the beginning to thank them.
There's nothing to thank.
This becomes less
of a letter of encouragement to believers,
and it is structured more like
an evangelistic letter
to those who may not actually be converted.
And there is a great gravity and weight
to the things that he says,
and we need to heed these verses
personally and as a church.
So let's look at it together.
The first thing,
just two really main points to look through.
First one is,
I want you to see
the exclusivity of the gospel of grace.
The exclusivity
of the gospel of grace.
So in verses six and seven,
we see the situation presented,
at least in summary form.
Paul was shocked
to hear these professing Christians
were deserting God
and distorting the gospel.
So he opens his correspondence
with a passionate affirmation
of the exclusivity of the gospel.
There is only one gospel,
in other words, he's saying.
Let's look at verse six.
We see them deserting God.
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.
I'm blown away, he says.
This word for astonishment,
thalmatso,
is the same one used by Matthew
when he describes that scene
with Jesus and the disciples
on the boat in the Sea of Galilee.
And remember in the middle of the night,
the big storm comes up
and it's beating the ship to pieces
and the disciples are afraid
they're gonna die
and Jesus is asleep in the back
and someone runs and gets Jesus
and there's that famous statement,
Jesus, do you not care that we're dying?
And do you remember what Jesus did?
He goes to the front of the boat perhaps
or maybe he just gets up where he is
and he says three words,
peace be still.
And with the sound of his voice,
he harnesses all of creation.
The waves that are beating the ship apart
become smooth as glass.
The wind completely stops.
It is a miracle of miracles, so to speak.
And then Matthew says
that the disciples in that moment marveled,
which in our language doesn't seem like much,
but when you put it into the context
of what they were experiencing in that moment,
it literally means their jaws were dropped.
They were speechless.
They knew nothing to say
and then the other gospels say
that this marveling actually led to fear on their part.
What manner of man is this, they said,
that even the wind and the seas obey him.
Same word Paul uses here,
thou matzo.
I'm astonished.
My jaw has hit the floor.
Same word that is used for the disciples by Luke
on the day of Jesus's resurrection
when he appears into the room later that night
and he just shows up in the middle of the room
and he has that mill of fish right in front of them
and it says thou matzo in regards to the disciples.
They're blown away.
They've just seen a person resurrected from the dead
appear in front of them suddenly.
Now imagine how that might feel.
Be terrifying.
Be overwhelmed with amazement.
That's what Paul says he feels in this moment.
I'm blown away.
I'm astonished at how quickly
you have turned to another gospel.
So his astonishment is not just about the fact
that they are entertaining and tolerating false gospels.
It's the fact that they've done it so quickly.
You know, dating New Testament letters
isn't always an easy thing to do.
It's tricky.
But the evidence suggests
that at the time Paul wrote this letter
to the Galatian churches,
it was only about a year
after he had actually helped to establish these churches.
That's fast.
It's a reminder that the early season following our conversion
is often the most exciting.
It's also the most volatile.
because Satan wastes no time trying to destroy our faith.
Because for us to stay too excited about our faith for very long
is going to become an influence on others
who might turn to the gospel as well.
And the early days of our faith
is often the most challenged of our faith.
That's not to say that as we grow
and as we get older
that it doesn't become more difficult.
It's just the challenges begin to change
and they take different shapes for each of us.
But it's only through faithfulness to the word,
reliance on the Holy Spirit
that we develop this spiritual maturity
that is necessary for fighting off these attacks.
Well, these fledgling churches had not had time
to develop that level of maturity.
And it didn't take long for false teachers to come in
and to begin to deceive
so that these young believers were beginning to turn away.
Notice that Paul's accusation here
is not that they were deserting the gospel,
but that they were deserting God.
Look at it in verse 6.
I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him
who called you in the grace of Christ.
This turning from the gospel was not an action on its own.
It was the means by which they were deserting God himself.
You cannot separate love for God from faith in his truth.
You can't separate discipleship from faithfulness to the gospel.
And think about it.
These Galatians would have immediately affirmed a love for Jesus.
But Paul's priority in writing to them
was that by turning to a false gospel,
they were in reality deserting the very God
that they claimed to love and to know and to follow.
Because it's impossible to be a disciple of Jesus
and tolerate a different gospel than he taught.
It's not possible.
And I see in this verse a warning
against the modern notions of deconstruction
within Christian communities.
Do you know what I mean?
Do you understand what I mean when I say that?
There is this, you can find all kinds of articles about it.
It feels like every other day there's another apostate Christian
and there's an article that's written about them
and how they have gone through this process of deconstruction
that has ultimately led to them leaving the faith altogether.
It is kind of a buzzword right now
that indicates kind of tearing apart everything that you've ever believed
to find some other kind of truth or your truth
or however it is that you might term it.
True deconstruction implies that there is a systematic dismantling
of the trappings of religion
in order that we might get to the foundations of Christianity
which is the gospel.
So that if we talked about Legos a couple weeks ago, right kiddos?
Let's say we were to build a castle out of Legos this morning.
There would be a difference between John Moseley coming through
and saying, hi-yah!
Karate chopping the castle apart, right?
There's a difference between that and Clementine coming to the castle
and saying, you know, instead of just karate chopping the thing
and destroying it to start over,
why don't we just kind of take it apart piece by piece
to see where the instability actually was
and then we'll reconstruct it better.
Okay, that's true deconstruction.
It's a systematic dismantling that gets us to the gospel
so that then we can reconstruct our lives and our faith
and our beliefs on the gospel itself.
Another word for this is reformation.
And this is something that we're always doing as Christians.
We're always looking at the peripheral things in the church.
We're always looking at the traditions of the church,
the things that we cling to so tightly
and evaluate them against the truth of the gospel.
Are they actually serving the purpose of the gospel?
So that coming out of the Reformation in the 16th century,
that phrase, always reforming, would be true for us today.
That's the true sense of deconstruction.
But what's happening in many Christian circles today
is not deconstruction.
It's demolition.
And what people have done is for legitimate reasons in some cases,
because of church hurt or the ubiquitous headlines
about abuses in the church and physical abuses
and spiritual abuses and all these kinds of things.
And there's these people that have spent their lives in Christianity
and maybe it was a superficial life or whatever it was.
And they begin not to deconstruct their faith.
They just demolish it altogether.
And when they bring the wrecking ball in,
they destroy the gospel with it.
So what comes out on the other end
is not a reconstructed faith built on the truth
absent of man worship
or absent of all the trappings of religion
that would aggravate us and frustrate us in our walk with Christ.
What actually comes out on the other end
is a tolerance of a false gospel,
whether you call it that or not,
bending to cultural whims,
turning to a gospel of their own making.
They've utterly deserted God.
And that's what Paul's getting across.
You think that you're just improving or strengthening your faith
or whatever it is.
That's not actually what you're doing, Galatians.
You're deserting God.
And if you're in one of those positions right now
of quote-unquote deconstruction,
just as a word of warning,
make sure in the process of reforming your faith
that you don't demolish God,
that you don't desert Him in the process.
So they're deserting God.
Second thing we see here in verse 7
is they're distorting the gospel.
That's how they're deserting God,
by distorting the gospel.
Verse 7, not that there is another one,
but there are some who trouble you
and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
The false teachers who were troubling the Galatians,
we find as we continue reading the letter,
they were what we refer to as Judaizers,
which were Jews who claimed to be followers of Jesus,
that Jesus was necessary for salvation,
but they taught one must get to Jesus through Judaism.
So that they insisted that salvation from Jesus
could only be achieved by someone
who first converts to Judaism,
and with that comes taking the sign of circumcision,
or at least affirming as a woman
that you would agree that circumcision would be necessary,
and then you adopt the Old Testament laws
in regards to ceremonies, rituals, dietary restrictions.
So that the seduction of this kind of teaching
is that it does not outright deny Christ.
That's why it's so deceptive.
They didn't deny Christ.
They didn't deny that He was useless.
They actually affirm, though,
that we need Jesus as a part of this equation.
His sacrifice really does mean something to what we're doing,
but it's not everything.
It's not sufficient on its own.
You also need the law.
You need these ceremonies.
You need the Sabbath.
You need the dietary restrictions.
You need the circumcision.
And once you come through that pathway,
that pathway is the only way to really get to Jesus
and receive eternal salvation and forgiveness of sins.
So rather than denying the gospel,
they distort it.
But to distort the gospel is to destroy it.
That's Paul's point.
And he says it at other points in the letter.
Chapter 2 and verse 21,
you could probably just look there quickly with your eyes.
It's probably on the same page.
Chapter 2, verse 21,
I do not nullify the grace of God,
for if righteousness were through the law,
as the Judaizers were teaching,
then Christ died for no purpose.
In other words, they're distorting the gospel.
They're destroying it.
You can't have a righteousness on your own.
You can't have a righteousness that comes in any way
through the law.
And if you can attain a righteousness in any way
through the law,
there was no purpose for Jesus then to die.
So the Judaizers then,
they're not simply enhancing the gospel.
They're actually destroying the gospel.
Look at chapter 3.
It might still be on the same page there for you.
And at verse 10,
for all who rely on works of the law
are under a curse.
For it's written,
cursed be everyone
who does not abide by all things
written in the book of the law
and do them.
Now it is evident, Paul writes,
that no one is justified before God by the law,
for the righteous shall live by faith.
That's a quote from Habakkuk.
But the law is not of faith.
Rather, the one who does them
shall live by them.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law
by becoming a curse for us.
For it is written,
cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree
so that in Christ Jesus,
the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles
so that we might receive the promised spirit
through faith.
You see what Paul's getting across here?
You can't have works in faith.
It doesn't work.
They're not compatible.
Righteousness from the law
and righteousness by faith
are not complementary.
They're not compatible.
They're antonyms.
They don't work that way.
It's one or the other.
This is really no different
from the false gospels
that we deal with today.
It's no different from
the teachings that salvation
comes through observance of the sacraments
or through penance
or the mediation of saints.
It's no different from those who would say
that your baptism is salvific in some way,
that Jesus is great and you need him
and we're so grateful for him,
but you won't be saved until you get baptized
and that in your baptism,
that salvation is then made complete.
That's a heresy not to be tolerated.
Can I tell you that there's a lot of Baptist churches
like ours who do the same thing.
They don't do it with baptism.
They do it in other subtle ways.
They preach superficial gospels,
superficial explanations of truth.
And they suggest that your salvation
is on the action of a moment.
That if you walk this aisle
and if you say this prayer
and if you fill this card,
you're good.
So that in the end,
people are not embracing Jesus alone for salvation.
I wonder how many people we know
who have set their hope
on something in addition to Jesus.
In their hearts,
they're trusting not the finished work of Christ.
They're trusting their baptism
or they're trusting their observance
of religious formalities or rituals.
They're trusting this prayer that they prayed
or they're trusting some other superficial thing
other than the gospel.
It's not that they take the gospel out.
It's that they are deceived into thinking
that it's not the gospel alone.
We need to remember that Jesus
plus anything else equals nothing.
That's what Paul is expressing to these Galatians.
You can't add circumcision to Jesus.
If you add circumcision to Jesus,
you end up with no gospel.
If you add the Sabbath to Jesus,
you end up with no gospel.
If you add baptism to Jesus,
you end up with no gospel.
If you add a ritualistic prayer to Jesus,
you end up with no gospel.
MacArthur says,
Paul is not friendly to that.
He doesn't see that as a minor detail.
What harm if they want to be circumcised?
What harm if they want to keep the Sabbath?
What harm if they want to follow rituals
and ceremonies and dietary laws?
What harm is that?
It's deadly harm, he says.
It's damning harm.
Because if you add any work of any kind to the gospel,
you have undone grace.
And the gospel that we proclaim
and the gospel that we believe for salvation,
the gospel that we defend is the gospel of grace,
not grace plus anything else.
It's grace and grace alone.
And to add any other thing to it
is to nullify the grace of God,
Paul says.
And his famous remarks about the man on the middle cross,
I'm sure all of you have probably,
at least on some level,
are familiar with this clip.
Alistair Begg said,
if you were to die tonight
and try to gain entry into heaven,
what would you say?
And he says,
if you or I answer that in the first person,
we have immediately gone wrong.
Because I,
because I have faith,
because I am this,
because I got baptized,
because my dad was a preacher,
or because this,
or because I,
I,
I.
No,
he says.
Loved ones,
the only proper answer
is in the third person.
Because he,
because he took my sin,
because he died my death,
because he rose from the dead,
because in the context of what he was saying,
he said I could come.
And that's exactly what Jesus did.
He said come to me,
all who are weak and heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
It's not about what you do.
It's not about an action that you perform.
It's about him,
and him alone.
There is one gospel,
and if you try to add anything to it at all,
it becomes no gospel at all.
It removes then,
the only good news
that actually makes it gospel.
The exclusivity of the gospel,
we see the second thing,
and we're done.
The destroyers of the gospel of grace.
Look with me at verse eight.
But 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.
As we've 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.
Paul's speaking through hyperbole here.
He doesn't actually anticipate
that there will come a time in his ministry
that he will change his preaching of the gospel.
Neither did he intend to say
that it's even possible for an angel,
a true angel from heaven,
to preach a different gospel
than the gospel of God.
That's not what he means to insist here.
He's speaking in hyperbole.
His point is that the gospel of grace through Jesus
is not the exclusive gospel
because he says it is.
It's the exclusive gospel
because God says it is.
Do you see the difference here?
That's why he throws himself in here.
That's why he throws the angelic beings in here.
That it's not about what the messenger says.
It's not my gospel.
It's not my authority.
This is God's gospel.
This is his authority.
It's his word that has told us these things.
It is his spirit that has affirmed these things.
It is his son who has accomplished these things.
This isn't my gospel, it's his.
And if anyone, including me,
were to come into your church
and preach any other gospel
other than what you have received,
let him be accursed.
Which brings us to an important point of application,
I think, regarding celebrity individuals
within Christianity.
Be careful that your faith isn't based
merely on what your favorite preacher says
or what your favorite musicians sing.
don't accept something just because I say it
or because someone that you actually respect says it.
No.
We can't do that.
If your faith isn't based on the word of God,
you will inevitably fall into whatever error
your favorite Christian succumbs to.
There is nothing unique about me.
There was nothing particularly unique about Paul
other than the way the Lord used him.
And Paul says,
if you base your faith
and your gospel
and your doctrine solely on me,
you're gonna go wrong.
Because if I and the weakness of my flesh go wrong,
you're gonna follow me there.
It's not about me, he says.
It's about the word.
It's about the truth of God.
It's about his gospel.
We must get in the habit of,
as so many of you are,
and I love it so much,
we're blessed as a church
to have people we would call as noble Bereans,
like in Acts 16,
examining the scriptures
and as Paul said,
destroying arguments
that exalt themselves against the truth of God.
We are blessed as a church
with many people who do that.
And let me just echo what Paul says.
If at any point,
it doesn't matter if I'm the founding pastor,
whatever title you would give me,
if at any point,
Jared Blankenship stands up here
on a Sunday morning or any other time
and starts to add things to the gospel of grace,
it is time for you noble Bereans
to find a new pastor.
Paul says,
this is not about me.
This is about the truth.
And so don't follow me on the road to error,
don't follow an angel on the road to error.
Trust the Bible.
Trust God.
Because many false teachers are everywhere.
And the Bible warns time and time again
that these destroyers of the gospel
are not always easy to identify.
Matthew chapter seven,
in the Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus said,
beware of false prophets
who come to you in sheep's clothing.
Inwardly,
they're ravenous wolves.
Be careful who you read after.
Be careful who you listen to
on their sermon podcast.
Be careful who you watch on TV.
Be careful who it is
that you begin to follow.
Always judge everything by the truth of God,
not the winsomeness of a personality
or the seeming effectiveness
of somebody's preaching.
Some of you have been a part of ministries before
who seem to be abundantly fruitful
only to find out
that the one driving with their personality
was involved in some type of sickening sin
and had to be disqualified.
You know what that's like.
And if we set our hopes on those people,
when they fall,
we will either fall
or we'll be absolutely devastated
and we'll be tempted
to be like those deconstructionists
that we talked about earlier.
So hurt that we stop going to church
because we think that the church
is just full of a bunch of people
that aren't worth associating with anymore.
We stop listening to preachers
because we assume that all the preachers
are just as bad as this one.
If this one could fool me,
the rest of them could fool me.
If this guy was a proponent of that thing,
I'm going to make sure
that I don't listen to that thing anymore.
You see, we got to be careful with that.
1 Timothy 6, Paul told Timothy,
he said,
if anyone teaches a different gospel,
a different doctrine
and does not agree
with sound words of Jesus Christ
and the teaching
that accords with godliness,
he's puffed up,
puffed up with conceit
and understands nothing,
he says.
In Acts 20,
he says to the Ephesian elders,
I know that after my departure,
fierce wolves will come in among you,
not sparing the flock.
And then he takes it a step further.
He says,
and from among your own selves,
even among the elders
of your own church,
there may be some men
who arise speaking twisted things
to draw away the disciples
after them
instead of after Christ.
And he says,
so be alert.
So church,
be alert.
Be alert.
What will happen
to these destroyers
of the gospel?
Paul tells us
in verse 8 and 9,
he repeats it.
They will be accursed.
This word,
anathema,
has the implication
of one who is being devoted
to destruction.
The word itself means devoted to
or devoted to something.
In the scripture,
it's always put in the context
of negativity or a curse.
So we take from that
that what Paul intends to say
is that these people
are devoted by God
to destruction.
They are accursed
in that sense.
It's the same word he uses
to the Corinthians,
1 Corinthians 16, 22,
to describe those
who do not love
the Lord Jesus.
It's the same word he uses
in chapter 3 and verse 13.
We read it just a moment ago
to describe what Jesus
became for us.
He became anathema
for us.
This is not the kind of word
someone uses
to say that God
is going to put them
in a time out
for a little while.
Or as Gus would say,
get a nice talking to.
That's not the kind of word
Paul's using here, Gus.
No.
The Galatians were flirting
with a damning heresy
that had eternal consequences.
He intentionally repeats himself,
making the point absolutely clear.
Those who attempt
to change the gospel
are devoted by God,
the judge,
to eternal hell.
And why do you think
he's so concerned
to be repetitive
and to express this
to these believers
in Galatia?
Because if you end up
hitching your wagon
to a false teacher,
you will follow them
on the path
to destruction.
That's why he's writing.
He's not writing
because his feelings
are hurt,
that they're listening
to another teacher
more than they're listening
to him.
That's not Paul's purpose.
He's writing
because the very salvation
of their souls
is at stake
and the continuation
of the true gospel
is at stake.
That's why we must affirm this.
That's why we must defend
this truth.
So let's wrap it up.
There's one gospel.
It must not only be believed,
it must be defended.
And we cannot take
a casual approach
to these things.
We must remain steadfast,
firm
in our convictions
about God
and his truth.
but I want to finish
by addressing
anyone
who may be concerned
that
your tolerance
has led God
to remove
his salvation
from you.
And I want to point out
that's not what Paul
is dealing with here
with the Galatians.
He wasn't assuming
that the believers
in Galatia
were unconverted
or in danger
of having their salvation
taken away.
that's not what he's saying.
Salvation is eternal.
That's why the Bible
calls it
eternal salvation.
Everlasting life.
Meaning that
once you have it,
you get to keep it.
Because you didn't get it
for something you did,
you received it
because of something
Christ has done.
And his work
cannot be undone.
It will not be undone.
That is his promise
to us
and it's a promise
you can trust.
But the Bible
makes it clear also
that the authenticity
of our salvation
is revealed
in the fruitfulness
of our lives.
Jesus said this,
by their fruits
you will know them,
he said.
The apostles
repeated that
time and again.
So Paul's warning
here to the Galatians
was to get
the true believers,
the truly converted ones,
back on track
because we all
need that sometimes.
We all have moments
where for one reason
or another
maybe we're deceived
that we're drawn away
from certain things
about the truth
and if we have
the Holy Spirit
living within us
which is promised
at conversion,
we know that
with the preaching
of the gospel
we will be realigned
with the working
of the Holy Spirit.
We know the Bible
tells us that's true.
Paul's writing
so that the truly converted
will be reformed.
They'll be put
back on track
affirming
and defending the gospel.
But he's also writing
that the truly unconverted
would be exposed
as such.
That brings up
the question
about individuals
who at some point
in their life
appear to be
genuine Christians
but later deny
the faith
and become apostate.
How are we supposed
to process that?
John helps us there.
1 John 2
and verse 19
he says
they went out
from us
but they were not
of us
for if they had been
of us
they would have
continued with us
but they went out
that it might
become plain
that they are
all not
of us.
In other words
he's saying
you see it
in the fruitfulness
of their life.
Upon hearing
the faithful
preaching of the gospel
do they realign
to the truth of God
or do they continue
in error
rejecting the truth
of the gospel?
Well that's what
reveals to us
whether or not
their conversion
was ever legitimate
or whether they were
like though
the seed
that Jesus said
sometimes
it sprouts
for just a moment
and it appears
to be something genuine
but it quickly
fades away
either through
the persecutions
of life
or the deceitfulness
of sin.
Those who abandon
the faith
prove that they
never truly belong
to God
but those who
do belong to God
will hear the warnings
of Galatians 1
and strengthen
their faith
in the one true gospel.
not because
they're smarter
than the other guys
but because
it is the grace
of Christ
that holds us fast
not our ability
to hold on
to him.
Sometimes
we hear people
say
and I've probably
said something
like this before
in the midst
of a difficult trial
and we would say
I'm just trying
to cling on
just trying
to hold on
to him
and I understand
why we say that
because from our
perspective
that's all we're
doing
we're just
trying to hold
on.
The truth
of the matter
is when it
comes to our
salvation
you can hold
on as tight
as you want
and it won't
mean anything
if he's not
holding on
to you
and that's
the point.
You fall
into some
kind of
deception
or some
kind of
tolerance
if you've
got some
doubts
and you're
just trying
to work
through all
the stuff
be assured
that if
you have
been truly
converted
you have
the witness
of the Holy
Spirit
in your life
Jesus is
the one
holding you.
We sing
about this.
Great songs
we sing
about this.
When I fear
my faith
will fail
Christ
will hold
me fast.
Not me
grabbing myself
by the bootstraps
and giving myself
a kick in the
pants
and just
getting my
head right.
No
that won't
do it
because your
head's always
going to
fail.
No
Christ
will hold
us fast.
When the
tempter
would prevail
he will
hold me
fast.
I could
never
keep my
hold
through
life's
fearful
path
for my
love is
often
cold.
He
must
hold
me
fast.
And
that's
the
blessing
of it
all.
Todd
Wilson
said
using
scripture
by his
own
power
God
will
quote
guard
us
through
faith
for
salvation
ready
to be
revealed
in the
last
time.
That's
1 Peter
1
5.
He's
more
than
able
to
keep
us
from
stumbling
and
to
present
you
blameless
before
the
presence
of
his
glory
with
great
joy.
That's
Jude
24.
Think
about
that
one.
Remember
what
Jesus
told
his
disciples?
He
says
all
that
the
father
gives
me
will
come
to
me
and
no
one
that
comes
to
me
will
ever
be
cast
out.
He
says
this
charge
I
have
received
from
my
father
that
anyone
who
belongs
to
him
will
not
be
abandoned
they
will
not
be
left
out.
So
to
say
that
at
some
point
Jesus
is
going
to
let
me
go
says
either
that
Jesus
is
not
sufficient
enough
for
your
salvation
or
he
is
not
capable
of
holding
you
in
your
salvation
and
we
know
both
of
those
things
are
absolutely
!
false.
He
indeed
is
sufficient.
!
Only
he
does
and
so
Jude
says
he
is
able
to
keep
you
from
stumbling
and
to
present
you
blameless
before
God
because
that's
the
task
he's
been
given
and
if
you
belong
to
him
he
will
present
you
before
his
father
he
goes
on
he
who
called
you
to
his
eternal
!
glory
in
Christ
will
himself
restore
!
confirm!
strengthen!
establish
you
that's
1 Peter
5
10
he
will
quote
sustain
you
to
the
end
guiltless
in
the
day
of
our
Lord
Jesus
Christ
1 Corinthians
1
8
indeed
Paul
says
I
am
sure
of
this
quote
that
he
who
began
a
good
work
in
you
will
bring
it
to
completion
at
the
day
of
Christ
Philippians
1
6
quote
he
who
calls
you
is
faithful
he
will
surely
!
do
it
that's
1 Thessalonians
5
24
you
won't
do it
he
will
do it
you
won't
always
be
faithful
he
is
always
faithful
so
the
questions
remain
this
is
the
gospel
it's
the
only
one
will
you
believe
it
will
you
believe
it
and
will
you
defend
it
defend
it
to
your
family
defend
it
to
your
friends
defend
it
to
our
community
because
there's
only
one