1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,880 Well thank you Gary, thank you Joel for reading the passage. Thank you for giving the context 2 00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:13,740 from the start. We're going to be looking at, so the whole passage was read and we're 3 00:00:13,740 --> 00:00:22,540 going to be looking today at verses 6 to verse 9. So keep that open in front of you so that 4 00:00:22,540 --> 00:00:33,940 you can follow along. Let me pray for us before we go further. Our Heavenly Father, we thank 5 00:00:33,940 --> 00:00:40,440 you for your grace in the Gospel. We thank you that you've given it to us, that we have 6 00:00:40,440 --> 00:00:49,160 our Bibles, that from start to finish speak of your Gospel of Jesus. We pray today that 7 00:00:49,160 --> 00:00:55,560 you take it from the page and plant it in our heart and we ask this in Jesus' name, 8 00:00:55,560 --> 00:01:06,520 Amen. I had the privilege for a short time to be a second officer in charge of a volunteer 9 00:01:06,520 --> 00:01:13,160 fire and emergency services unit. And we, I did this when I lived in a small town, so 10 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:19,480 it was very small, we're all volunteers but we did everything. Like we were all there 11 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:25,520 was and so we did searches and we did road rescue and bushfires and we did structural 12 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:32,720 firefighting which is, you know, when buildings, when houses are burning down. And when you 13 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:42,680 turn up to that kind of a job, to a structural job, things are moving very fast, right? There's 14 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:48,360 a lot going on there, you've got, there's flames coming out of a building, there are 15 00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:54,600 people screaming, there are people moving and if you're in charge of that fire, if you're 16 00:01:54,600 --> 00:02:01,640 in charge of the job, then you need to communicate very clearly to the people that you're working 17 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:07,360 with so that they know exactly what they're doing. There's no time for mucking around, 18 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:12,640 there's no time for doubling up or for people doing the wrong thing. Things have to happen 19 00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:23,240 really fast. And you need, when you communicate, you need each person's absolute full attention 20 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:27,720 for the time that you have. You only have a couple of seconds to communicate with them 21 00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:35,160 but they have to hear you in that time. And they teach you in the training kind of a technique 22 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:40,760 for doing that, for how to get somebody's attention to communicate clearly. And what 23 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:47,360 they teach you is, one thing that, one way you can do it, is that you put your hand on 24 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:53,240 their shoulder. So you make physical contact, hand to shoulder, then you look them in the 25 00:02:53,240 --> 00:03:00,120 eye, so it's eye contact, then you say their name and then you give a clear instruction. 26 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:07,120 Okay? So it's like, it's like hand on the shoulder, Jen, I want you to operate the pump. 27 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:11,920 This person will be Vaughan. I want you on line one, roll a 60, roll a 40, water on the 28 00:03:11,920 --> 00:03:18,400 roof. Now, Alan, I want you to back up Vaughan, roll a 60, roll a 40, go. Peter, I want you 29 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:25,440 on the hose reel, get the water on that, protect that vehicle now. Right? And so it goes, you 30 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:30,200 go through all the people, each person as we go through and we give them instructions. 31 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:37,200 And the thing is, that was kind of in my past, but I've kind of maintained this in my life, 32 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:43,920 you know, this technique of communication. If I ever need to get something really clearly 33 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:50,920 through to somebody, then I can use that same thing. So when Margaret's going out shopping, 34 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:57,920 right, you'll see me, honey, don't forget the ice cream. Now, in this passage, Paul 35 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:10,480 cannot make eye contact with the Galatians and he can't reach them through the pages, 36 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:17,480 but in every way he does absolutely everything that he can to ensure that his message has 37 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:29,120 the maximum impact. Right? And look at that, look at the opening words. So he's moved from 38 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:35,000 an introduction that's kind of compulsory in the letter, in the ancient world, and he 39 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:42,000 moves on to these opening words. He says, I am astonished. Right? So those words, they 40 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:49,360 carry so much drama. It is incomprehensible to Paul that they would turn to another Gospel. 41 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:56,680 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting. Right? The word deserting there has so much 42 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:02,320 impact. He could have said that, you know, he's surprised that they're listening to other 43 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:09,320 ideas or exploring other options, but he uses this word and he talks, the word has this 44 00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:16,320 kind of idea of a soldier leaving their post, somebody transferring their allegiance from 45 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:24,840 their post, their army, their king, to the enemy. All right, there's no half way in what 46 00:05:24,840 --> 00:05:31,840 he's saying. We believe the true Gospel or we believe an enemy Gospel. And notice what 47 00:05:31,840 --> 00:05:38,840 or who they're deserting. He says, I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one 48 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:47,480 who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different Gospel. So 49 00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:53,160 to believe a different message is to desert the one who spoke that message. And in this 50 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:58,920 case, they're talking about God. God is the one who's called them. So he's writing to 51 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:05,000 a church, he's writing, this is a Christian church and he's saying to them that what they're 52 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:12,000 doing is deserting God. And notice why this is so urgent, why he's using this language 53 00:06:13,720 --> 00:06:20,720 to arrest them. He says that they are deserting. Right? So this is an action that is still 54 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:27,720 taking place. The house is burning down. So right now their entire lives are on fire and 55 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:36,720 Paul needs to act with urgency. In the next verse he says that those who teach a different 56 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:43,720 Gospel are trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ. Pervert, there is a deliberate action 57 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:50,720 there. Their desire is to pervert this Gospel. And the next verse after that makes it just 58 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:58,720 how clear, how serious this is. How serious it is to be perverting this Gospel. So at 59 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:06,720 this point the volume is pushed right up where on overdrive he says, he says even if he and 60 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:13,720 his co-workers brought a different Gospel. Right? So that's, he's using absolutely exaggerated 61 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:20,720 terms at this point. Obviously he's not going to do that but even if that was to happen, 62 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:27,720 even if the angels themselves came proclaiming a different Gospel, then and here Paul drops 63 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:34,720 the A-bomb. Right? He uses a word, the word anathema. We take the English word anathema 64 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:43,720 from that and that's the word meaning to be under God's curse. To have the weight of God's 65 00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:50,720 wrath on you. And if you do not repent, if you're in that state and you do not repent 66 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:57,720 of it, it means that you are eternally condemned. There is nothing stronger that Paul can say 67 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:06,720 about people who are claiming to be Christians and preaching a different message. And just 68 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:14,720 to be clear, just say that we really, really have this. Alright? Just to make it even stronger, 69 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:20,720 just to make sure that nobody could kind of say, well you know, Paul's a passionate guy 70 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:25,720 and maybe he didn't really mean to use the A-word. Just in case he says it again in verse 71 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:32,720 9, as we have already said, now I say again, if anybody is preaching to you a Gospel other 72 00:08:32,720 --> 00:08:39,720 than what you have accepted, let them be under God's curse. Right? There is nothing more 73 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:48,720 weighty. There is nothing more weighty that Paul could be saying to the Galatians and 74 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:55,720 no more weighty way to put it. And that goes for us too. There is nothing more weighty 75 00:08:55,720 --> 00:09:01,720 that Paul could be saying to the Galatians and no more weighty way to put it. And that 76 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:08,720 goes for us too. There is nothing more important than what we're considering right here. There 77 00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:14,880 is nothing more important that we could be doing this morning. Right? So let the house 78 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:21,880 burn down because this here, this is more important. And if we're really going to get 79 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:28,880 to what this is saying to us and how it applies to us today, then we need to do a few things. 80 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:36,080 Firstly, we need to understand what is the Gospel. Right? We need to understand it. Secondly, 81 00:09:36,680 --> 00:09:43,680 we need to understand something about why Paul comes out so strongly about this other 82 00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:50,880 Gospel. So what kind of a thing should we be warned about? And thirdly, we need to make 83 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:57,880 sure that we are not going to do what the Galatians are doing. That we're not in danger 84 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:04,440 of deserting the Gospel and to do that we need to become aware of false Gospels that 85 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:11,440 could, we could potentially hear or hear preach today. So firstly, what is the Gospel? And 86 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:20,040 even before we sort of say what is the Christian Gospel, we could ask the question of what 87 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:27,040 is a Gospel? What does the Word really mean? And you'd think that the answer to this of 88 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:33,960 what is the Gospel and what is a Gospel would be fairly easy because it's probably the most 89 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:40,960 used word in Christendom. It's the word that we bandy around all over the place. In fact, 90 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:47,160 it's the word of the moment. Everything today, if you notice that everything today has the 91 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:53,520 word Gospel attached to it. So that we used to do ministry, like people like me and people 92 00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:58,280 like Michael and Eldon, people who are working in churches, we used to do ministry. But now 93 00:10:58,280 --> 00:11:05,280 we do Gospel ministry. It's actually the same as when we were doing ministry before but 94 00:11:05,320 --> 00:11:12,160 it sounds better because it's Gospel ministry. In fact, we do Gospel everything. We do Gospel 95 00:11:12,160 --> 00:11:17,320 centered preaching. We used to preach, now we do Gospel centered preaching. We do Gospel 96 00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:23,960 centered counselling, Gospel centered leadership. You can do Gospel centered parenting and you 97 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:30,960 can have a Gospel centered marriage. I'm thinking of marketing a range of Gospel centered candles. 98 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:42,600 They might be a top seller at a certain bookshop. In the ancient world, a Gospel was a monumental 99 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:49,600 announcement. It almost always has to do with the rise and fall of kingdoms or kings. For 100 00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:58,080 example, an old king is defeated and your leader rises up to the position of king, that 101 00:11:58,080 --> 00:12:05,080 is a Gospel. Or an enemy comes against your kingdom and your king defeats the enemy, that 102 00:12:06,040 --> 00:12:17,040 is a Gospel. So we say that a Gospel is good news but that doesn't capture it entirely. 103 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:22,960 For example, it's good news that Margaret remembered the ice cream but it's not the 104 00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:29,960 Gospel of the ice cream. A Gospel is good news in the sense that it means victory, like 105 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:43,840 your king has risen or your kingdom has been defended and so you're saved. But it's more 106 00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:50,840 than that. It's more than good news. It is a monumental announcement of national significance. 107 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:57,840 If that's what a Gospel is generally, how does that apply to the Christian Gospel? That 108 00:13:00,840 --> 00:13:07,080 should be fairly easy because people will say things like, do you know the Gospel? As 109 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:13,160 if we could repeat the Gospel in a simple formula. But again, it's not quite as easy 110 00:13:13,160 --> 00:13:18,840 as that because when we look at the Bible, it seems that different parts of the Bible 111 00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:25,400 express the Gospel in slightly different ways because they're talking about different aspects 112 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:32,400 of the same great message. At the centre of the Gospel is the announcement of God's reign, 113 00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:40,260 that the kingdom of God has been established. But at the same time is that there are a number 114 00:13:40,260 --> 00:13:47,260 of ideas that are attached to that, that unnecessary parts of it are necessary to understand it. 115 00:13:47,260 --> 00:13:54,260 In Isaiah 52 and verse 7 it says, how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who 116 00:13:57,820 --> 00:14:04,820 bring good news. So the good news there, that is the Gospel. So those who proclaim a Gospel, 117 00:14:06,180 --> 00:14:11,900 who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who bring salvation, who say to Zion, this 118 00:14:11,900 --> 00:14:18,900 is it, this is what they're saying, your God reigns. So there's the Gospel in a nutshell, 119 00:14:19,980 --> 00:14:26,980 your God reigns. Mark summarises Jesus' teaching like this. This is at the start of Mark in 120 00:14:28,340 --> 00:14:35,340 chapter 1, verses 14 and 15. It says, after John, so he's talking about John the Baptist, 121 00:14:35,340 --> 00:14:42,340 after John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news. So he's 122 00:14:42,340 --> 00:14:49,340 proclaiming the Gospel of God. So proclaiming the good news of God, the time has come, he 123 00:14:49,340 --> 00:14:56,340 said, the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe the good news, repent and believe 124 00:14:56,340 --> 00:15:03,340 the Gospel. So again, we have the Gospel and another way to say your God reigns is to say, 125 00:15:06,940 --> 00:15:13,940 the kingdom of God has come near. That's just another way of saying the same thing. Notice 126 00:15:14,420 --> 00:15:21,420 that Jesus includes our response to the Gospel. So our response is that we need to repent 127 00:15:21,420 --> 00:15:28,420 and believe. So that's kind of the central idea of the Gospel, this idea of God's reign, 128 00:15:28,420 --> 00:15:35,420 of God's kingdom coming. But how does that kingdom get established? So you notice that 129 00:15:36,940 --> 00:15:43,940 Jesus said there in the Mark passage that the kingdom has come near. But how does it 130 00:15:43,940 --> 00:15:50,940 come near? And how does it come fully? Well, it comes through the King and the King is 131 00:15:51,540 --> 00:15:58,540 Jesus. And in particular, it comes through his death and resurrection. So Jesus dies 132 00:15:59,340 --> 00:16:06,340 to win a people for that kingdom, a people for himself as the King, and he rises to be 133 00:16:06,340 --> 00:16:13,340 given authority over all things. So the centre of the Gospel is Jesus' reign or his kingdom, 134 00:16:14,340 --> 00:16:20,340 but that Gospel, that reign or the kingdom cannot be separated from the identity of the 135 00:16:20,340 --> 00:16:27,340 King of that kingdom. And it cannot be separated from the King's work to establish that kingdom. 136 00:16:27,340 --> 00:16:34,340 It cannot be separated from the King's work to establish that kingdom. Okay, so we have 137 00:16:35,580 --> 00:16:41,460 God's reign, we have the King and his identity and his work, but we can take a step further 138 00:16:41,460 --> 00:16:48,460 and ask, how do we personally become involved or become part of that kingdom? It's one thing 139 00:16:48,460 --> 00:16:55,460 to say that the kingdom has been established or the kingdom has come, but if you think 140 00:16:56,020 --> 00:17:03,020 about it, that announcement is almost cruel if the Gospel's not for us. If there's a 141 00:17:03,020 --> 00:17:09,020 kingdom or if there's a party going on somewhere but we're not invited, that would not be a 142 00:17:09,020 --> 00:17:16,020 good news or a Gospel for us if there's no way to enter it. But if the kingdom of God 143 00:17:22,180 --> 00:17:29,180 is a holy kingdom, then how can I as a sinner come into it? And the answer to that is that 144 00:17:29,180 --> 00:17:36,180 we can be forgiven for our sins as we repent and believe because the King took the punishment 145 00:17:39,180 --> 00:17:46,180 on himself. So the question of how am I saved is kind of bolted onto the Gospel as well. 146 00:17:49,180 --> 00:17:55,180 It's not just that there is a kingdom and God is reigning, but that God is standing 147 00:17:55,180 --> 00:18:02,180 with open arms welcoming you into the kingdom. So the Gospel, what is the Gospel? The Gospel 148 00:18:03,180 --> 00:18:10,180 then is the central teachings of Christianity, but it isn't a formula. It's a collection 149 00:18:11,180 --> 00:18:16,180 of ideas. At the heart of the message is God's reign, but linked to that are a number of 150 00:18:16,180 --> 00:18:23,180 other things that give that context and explain how it relates to us. So if that is what the 151 00:18:25,180 --> 00:18:32,180 Gospel is that Paul is talking about, how is that contradicted by the false teachers 152 00:18:33,180 --> 00:18:40,180 in Galatia and why should they be under God's curse? Well as Michael said last week, the 153 00:18:40,180 --> 00:18:47,180 teaching people, so people who have become Christians, they're teaching them that they 154 00:18:47,180 --> 00:18:53,180 also need to be circumcised and that they need to keep the Jewish law in order to be 155 00:18:53,180 --> 00:19:00,180 saved. Now that contradicts the Gospel because firstly it would mean that the Gospel is not 156 00:19:00,180 --> 00:19:07,180 gracious, that God is essentially not standing with open arms to welcome us into the kingdom 157 00:19:07,180 --> 00:19:14,180 through faith, because it implies that there's still some work that we need to do. And secondly, 158 00:19:16,180 --> 00:19:23,180 it undermines the Gospel because it undermines the work of the King. So the Gospel is not 159 00:19:23,180 --> 00:19:30,180 just a work that we need to do. And secondly, it undermines the Gospel because it undermines 160 00:19:31,180 --> 00:19:38,180 the work of the King. It suggests that there's still something lacking in his work, that 161 00:19:38,180 --> 00:19:45,180 his death isn't quite enough to bring us forgiveness, that his resurrection doesn't quite indicate 162 00:19:45,180 --> 00:19:52,180 that we're justified because we still need to add to it. And the thing is that if the 163 00:19:52,180 --> 00:19:59,180 people believe these central truths of the Gospel, then we are not saved because it's 164 00:20:01,180 --> 00:20:07,180 through the Gospel that we're saved. It is by believing the Gospel that brings us into 165 00:20:07,180 --> 00:20:14,180 the kingdom. And if we're believing a different Gospel, then we do not have our salvation. 166 00:20:14,180 --> 00:20:21,180 And this is why Paul can say that he is astonished that they've so easily deserted it, because 167 00:20:24,180 --> 00:20:31,180 it means that they're throwing away their salvation by believing a different Gospel. 168 00:20:31,180 --> 00:20:38,180 That's why he can talk so, so strongly about people who preach a different Gospel. It's 169 00:20:38,180 --> 00:20:45,180 because they are robbing people of their salvation. And this brings us to the third point, because 170 00:20:48,180 --> 00:20:55,180 although as a group, as a church culture, we might be persuaded to take on some aspects 171 00:20:58,180 --> 00:21:05,180 of the Jewish law, I don't think that believing that our men need to be circumcised is the 172 00:21:05,180 --> 00:21:12,180 most likely heresy that we're going to fall into. So what I want to do is to present three 173 00:21:14,180 --> 00:21:21,180 false Gospels that we may come across and think about the way that they undermine the 174 00:21:22,180 --> 00:21:29,180 Gospel and think about the way that we need to be warned not to fall into these things. 175 00:21:29,180 --> 00:21:36,180 The first of these I'm actually going to cheat and I'm going to bundle a couple together, 176 00:21:36,180 --> 00:21:43,180 right, so that I can say that they're one. And what I want to talk about is the various 177 00:21:44,180 --> 00:21:51,180 cults that we have about. Now many of these groups, so I'm thinking of Jehovah's Witnesses, 178 00:21:51,180 --> 00:21:58,180 Church of the Latter Day Saints, many of these are non-Trinitarian. But not all cults are 179 00:22:01,180 --> 00:22:08,180 non-Trinitarian and actually not all non-Trinitarian groups are actually cults. So we need to kind 180 00:22:10,180 --> 00:22:17,180 of split these two ideas up. And the attack on the Trinity, not to believe the Trinity, 181 00:22:17,180 --> 00:22:24,180 is absolutely an attack on the Gospel because when you do that, when you undermine the Trinity, 182 00:22:28,180 --> 00:22:35,180 you change the identity of the King. So when you change the identity of the King, you change 183 00:22:36,180 --> 00:22:43,180 the Gospel. Also if you teach, as some of these groups do, that Jesus is not fully divine, 184 00:22:43,180 --> 00:22:50,180 then that means that he cannot fully pay for all of our sins. He might be able to pay for 185 00:22:50,180 --> 00:22:57,180 the sin of one person, but he cannot pay for all of our sins unless his sacrifice is of 186 00:22:59,180 --> 00:23:06,180 enormous value, is of infinite value. So this kind of non-Trinitarian nature does undermine 187 00:23:06,180 --> 00:23:13,180 the Gospel. But what I want to focus on about these groups is the way that they are cultish. 188 00:23:15,180 --> 00:23:22,180 And what I mean by cultish is that for many of these groups, your salvation is tied to 189 00:23:23,180 --> 00:23:29,180 your membership, your membership to that church or to that organisation, so that you cannot 190 00:23:29,180 --> 00:23:36,180 escape. And that links us a little bit with our passage because circumcision was the sign 191 00:23:37,180 --> 00:23:44,180 of being part of the ethnic nation of Israel. Now salvation through membership of a particular 192 00:23:47,180 --> 00:23:54,180 group is a straight contradiction of the Gospel. What a group like that has done is they have 193 00:23:54,180 --> 00:24:01,180 taken the kingdom of God and they have replaced that with their own church. The Gospel is 194 00:24:01,180 --> 00:24:08,180 the kingdom and we enter into the kingdom through allegiance to the king. If you belong 195 00:24:09,180 --> 00:24:15,180 to the king, you belong to the kingdom. But if you make that, if you change that message 196 00:24:15,180 --> 00:24:23,180 and you make it allegiance to your church, if you make that the criteria for entry, then you have 197 00:24:24,180 --> 00:24:31,180 undermined the king and you are preaching a different Gospel and you are under God's 198 00:24:32,180 --> 00:24:39,180 curse. Let's be clear about this guys. If this church is under God's curse, then you 199 00:24:39,180 --> 00:24:49,180 are under God's curse. Let's be clear about this guys. If this church or any other ever 200 00:24:50,180 --> 00:24:57,180 preaches that you need to be a member here to be saved, then please leave us and never 201 00:24:58,180 --> 00:25:05,180 come back because your leaders would be shysters and peddlers of a different Gospel. 202 00:25:05,180 --> 00:25:11,180 Membership is important here. We love people coming into membership but there is no sense 203 00:25:12,180 --> 00:25:20,180 that it can save you. So when you have Jehovah's Witnesses come to your door, you need to 204 00:25:21,180 --> 00:25:27,180 realise that they are part of a group that they cannot leave. Their salvation depends 205 00:25:27,180 --> 00:25:35,180 on their membership. As they do that, as you go into a group like this, what happens is 206 00:25:36,180 --> 00:25:42,180 that you become more and more cut off from people on the outside, from your friends and 207 00:25:43,180 --> 00:25:51,180 your family and you become more and more isolated into this group. So when they are at your 208 00:25:51,180 --> 00:25:58,180 front door, you can have the best arguments against the Trinity. I teach systematic theology. 209 00:25:59,180 --> 00:26:05,180 I can lecture for an hour on John chapter 1, just verse 1 and break down every word in 210 00:26:06,180 --> 00:26:13,180 that passage for you. It is completely useless when the Jehovah's are at the door because 211 00:26:14,180 --> 00:26:18,180 they have already been trained in that. They have already been trained in the fact that 212 00:26:18,180 --> 00:26:22,180 they are going to have good arguments. In fact, if you watch very carefully, what they 213 00:26:23,180 --> 00:26:28,180 will do is they will stop exactly where they are, they will smile and nod while you speak 214 00:26:29,180 --> 00:26:33,180 and then when you have finished, they will start at exactly where they were and they 215 00:26:34,180 --> 00:26:39,180 will keep going because they are on script. So your arguments won't have impact because 216 00:26:39,180 --> 00:26:47,180 what they need, they need to be attached to this group. So what we really should say to 217 00:26:48,180 --> 00:26:56,180 these people, we should be able to promise people like that sincerely that if they leave 218 00:26:57,180 --> 00:27:03,180 their church, then we can promise them that they will find family at this church. That's 219 00:27:03,180 --> 00:27:09,180 the best thing that we can do. And then we need to be that church and I believe we are 220 00:27:10,180 --> 00:27:15,180 that church. A church that is so transformed by the gospel that we can be brothers and 221 00:27:16,180 --> 00:27:22,180 sisters to people who have been former cult members and then show them the grace and the 222 00:27:23,180 --> 00:27:29,180 freedom of the gospel. And that's what we are all about and that is the gospel in action. 223 00:27:29,180 --> 00:27:37,180 The second false gospel that I want to address is the prosperity gospel. And when I call 224 00:27:38,180 --> 00:27:43,180 this a gospel, I mean what Paul means in verse 7 when he says that this is not a gospel at 225 00:27:44,180 --> 00:27:51,180 all. This is the fastest spreading heresy today. It acts on a massive world scale. It 226 00:27:51,180 --> 00:27:58,180 started in the US but is most prevalent today actually in Africa, Asia and Central and South 227 00:27:59,180 --> 00:28:06,180 America. And as we talk about this, what I want you to do is to notice the link between 228 00:28:07,180 --> 00:28:15,180 what a gospel sees as the problem or essentially what sin is in their mind and then how the 229 00:28:15,180 --> 00:28:23,180 gospel then solves that problem. So according to the prosperity gospel, our problem is that 230 00:28:24,180 --> 00:28:32,180 we are poor or that we are sick or that we are generally not being victorious in the 231 00:28:33,180 --> 00:28:42,180 game of life. And Jesus in his death somehow wins us prosperity over these things. So the 232 00:28:42,180 --> 00:28:52,180 prosperity gospel says that you are a child of the most high God. Why would the king want 233 00:28:53,180 --> 00:28:59,180 you to drive around in a Mazda 3 with the paint peeling off when you could be driving 234 00:29:00,180 --> 00:29:05,180 a Lamborghini? Does anyone drive a Lambo? I didn't mean to pick on Lambos. Yeah, okay. 235 00:29:05,180 --> 00:29:13,180 Alright, I'll trade for my Mazda 3. Right, so in that gospel there is no eternal kingdom. 236 00:29:14,180 --> 00:29:21,180 It is about your best life now. And the greatest cruelty of this gospel is where they find 237 00:29:22,180 --> 00:29:27,180 a place for faith because we need to find a place for faith. It's written in the Bible. 238 00:29:27,180 --> 00:29:36,180 It says that if you don't achieve your health and your wealth and your best life now, it is 239 00:29:37,180 --> 00:29:46,180 because of your lack of faith. Alright, what a convenient teaching for pastors who are 240 00:29:47,180 --> 00:29:52,180 achieving their best life now. How are they achieving their best life now? Well, because 241 00:29:52,180 --> 00:29:59,180 they're telling people to express their faith by giving more and more money. Imagine taking 242 00:30:00,180 --> 00:30:06,180 money from people who don't have it so that you can have more and then telling them that 243 00:30:07,180 --> 00:30:13,180 if they believe hard enough, God will give it back to them. This is a gospel of shysters 244 00:30:13,180 --> 00:30:23,180 who are under God's curse. And it undermines the gospel of a suffering king, a king who 245 00:30:24,180 --> 00:30:31,180 invites us to join in his suffering for the kingdom. The last gospel I want to talk about 246 00:30:32,180 --> 00:30:40,180 is a lot more subtle and it's less obviously wrong and so then a lot more likely to creep 247 00:30:40,180 --> 00:30:47,180 into our lives and into our church. And I think that it is the gospel that is prevalent 248 00:30:48,180 --> 00:30:57,180 in our city, even amongst evangelical churches. And it's a little like prosperity but it works 249 00:30:58,180 --> 00:31:08,180 entirely differently. So it pictures the fundamental problem as being our brokenness, our weakness 250 00:31:08,180 --> 00:31:14,180 or somehow our spiritual lacking. Now all that is true so it's picturing something that 251 00:31:15,180 --> 00:31:21,180 is actually correct. Okay, we are those things. We are broken people. We are weak and we are 252 00:31:22,180 --> 00:31:29,180 spiritually weak and need building up. All of these things are problems that exist in 253 00:31:29,180 --> 00:31:37,180 our world today because of the fall of mankind. But they are not our fundamental problem. 254 00:31:38,180 --> 00:31:45,180 They are the results of our fundamental problem. If God has established a holy kingdom, 255 00:31:46,180 --> 00:31:53,180 then the problem is not that I am broken or that I am not reaching my potential. The problem 256 00:31:53,180 --> 00:32:02,180 is that I am sinful and God is angry with me. And then in this gospel, the solution to 257 00:32:03,180 --> 00:32:11,180 our brokenness is that God is making us whole again through the gospel and so that we can 258 00:32:12,180 --> 00:32:18,180 reach our potential in Christ. And so for example, if you look at, you see this a lot 259 00:32:18,180 --> 00:32:25,180 in websites for youth ministries. We could do this by looking at websites for churches 260 00:32:26,180 --> 00:32:31,180 or preaching or in a number of other ways but we see this, one way we see this is through 261 00:32:32,180 --> 00:32:37,180 youth ministries. So this is the splash text. You can look this up on the Youth Alive website. 262 00:32:38,180 --> 00:32:45,180 This is the first piece of text that you get when you look that up. It says, not a week 263 00:32:45,180 --> 00:32:54,180 goes by without the media reporting appalling statistics regarding the youth crisis within 264 00:32:55,180 --> 00:33:02,180 Australia today. It is statistics like this that drive the heart of every member of Youth 265 00:33:03,180 --> 00:33:08,180 Alive. So what is the problem that we are dealing with? The problem is that we look 266 00:33:08,180 --> 00:33:14,180 at the youth today and we see that there are bad youth statistics. So we need to do something 267 00:33:15,180 --> 00:33:19,180 about that. Youth are broken. The youth are weak and we need to do that. Now I am not 268 00:33:20,180 --> 00:33:27,180 disagreeing with that. That is not a particularly new problem, is it? I grew up in the 80s and 269 00:33:28,180 --> 00:33:32,180 the 90s and I am sure people were looking at us when I was that age and they were saying 270 00:33:32,180 --> 00:33:37,180 the problem is the youth today. Those people grew up in the 60s and the 70s and I am sure 271 00:33:38,180 --> 00:33:43,180 there are people looking at them and saying the problem is the youth today. So this is 272 00:33:44,180 --> 00:33:50,180 the problem that is identified. Our young people are the future of our nation and we 273 00:33:51,180 --> 00:33:56,180 believe this is a future worth living. So what are we building here? We are building 274 00:33:56,180 --> 00:34:03,180 the nation of Australia through helping our youth. Therefore it is our purpose to bring 275 00:34:04,180 --> 00:34:11,180 a message of hope and encouragement to those in need and then go beyond this by providing 276 00:34:13,180 --> 00:34:20,180 genuine support through local youth groups in helping teenagers realise their potential. 277 00:34:20,180 --> 00:34:27,180 There it is. There is the Gospel of Potential. What are we doing? How do we counteract the 278 00:34:28,180 --> 00:34:33,180 problem of the brokenness of youth? Well we give them a message of hope and encouragement 279 00:34:34,180 --> 00:34:41,180 so that they can reach their potential. This is not the prosperity gospel, is it? It falls 280 00:34:42,180 --> 00:34:47,180 short of promising people the world. It is falling short of promising that they can have 281 00:34:47,180 --> 00:34:54,180 this if only they believe hard enough. But it does undermine the gospel. Firstly it undermines 282 00:34:55,180 --> 00:35:02,180 the grace of the gospel. If our problem really is that we are weak and that we are broken, 283 00:35:03,180 --> 00:35:10,180 if that is our fundamental problem, then why wouldn't God fix that? Surely we would fix 284 00:35:10,180 --> 00:35:17,180 that problem. There is no grace in fixing that. But God is truly gracious in the gospel when 285 00:35:19,180 --> 00:35:26,180 we realise that we are enemies, that the problem is our sin and God is angry at our sin and 286 00:35:28,180 --> 00:35:35,180 we are enemies of God and yet we are not going to be able to fix that problem. We are going 287 00:35:35,180 --> 00:35:42,180 to be angry at our sin and we are enemies of God and yet, and yet while we were still 288 00:35:42,180 --> 00:35:49,180 enemies, God has made it possible to enter into his kingdom. Secondly it changes the 289 00:35:50,180 --> 00:35:57,180 work of Christ. The cross becomes bearing our weakness, not bearing the wrath of God. 290 00:35:57,180 --> 00:36:04,180 If that is the case, then there is no longer an atonement, there is no longer a sacrifice 291 00:36:05,180 --> 00:36:12,180 that is taking place where the King himself offers himself to take the punishment in our 292 00:36:14,180 --> 00:36:21,180 place. Thirdly it is a problem because if the focus is saving us from bad youth statistics 293 00:36:21,180 --> 00:36:28,180 rather than from God's punishment, then there is no real sense of hell. We are not being 294 00:36:31,180 --> 00:36:38,180 saved out of a kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light. We are just being saved 295 00:36:40,180 --> 00:36:47,180 out of a bad situation. Popular YouTube channel, The Bible Project, they are the first YouTube 296 00:36:47,180 --> 00:36:54,180 channel. Popular YouTube channel, The Bible Project, promotes this view, this gospel of 297 00:36:55,180 --> 00:37:02,180 potential. Interestingly one of its two co-founders, a guy called Tim Mackey, no longer believes 298 00:37:02,180 --> 00:37:09,180 in a traditional view of hell. For Mackey, hell is not a destination for sinners who 299 00:37:09,180 --> 00:37:16,180 rebel against God. Hell is our lives that are created through our brokenness. Hell itself 300 00:37:18,180 --> 00:37:25,180 is the brokenness of life. In the end this gospel of brokenness and potential becomes 301 00:37:26,180 --> 00:37:33,180 all about us, all about me and my journey that I'm on. God's glory becomes the tagline 302 00:37:33,180 --> 00:37:40,180 to our shallow existence. This is not a gospel that is worth dying for and it's an affront 303 00:37:43,180 --> 00:37:50,180 to a gospel of grace and justice. So bringing all this together, Paul uses strong and provocative 304 00:37:50,180 --> 00:37:57,180 language to get the church to realise the danger they're in. It's so strong because 305 00:37:58,180 --> 00:38:05,180 they are deserting. They're in the process of doing it. If we recognise that in ourselves, 306 00:38:08,180 --> 00:38:15,180 if we recognise that in our church, then we are in the process of doing it. We are in 307 00:38:15,180 --> 00:38:19,180 the process of doing it. If we recognise that in ourselves, if we recognise that in our 308 00:38:19,180 --> 00:38:25,180 church, then we need to take extreme measures to pull ourselves back. We need to be brutal. 309 00:38:25,180 --> 00:38:32,180 We need to be honest about it. Churches can teach different things on minor points and 310 00:38:33,180 --> 00:38:40,180 that is fine. That is fine on those points. There is no way that we would say that people 311 00:38:40,180 --> 00:38:47,180 are under God's curse for having differences in minor areas. But when it comes to the gospel, 312 00:38:48,180 --> 00:38:55,180 salvation is at stake. So church, hand on the shoulder, looking you in the eyes. Do 313 00:38:57,180 --> 00:39:04,180 not settle for a false gospel. Hold true to the gospel of Christ. Be willing to fight 314 00:39:04,180 --> 00:39:11,180 for it. Fight for it because it is true. Fight for it because it is something eternally true, 315 00:39:13,180 --> 00:39:20,180 something eternally pure and good and gracious and it's worth fighting for. Let me pray. 316 00:39:23,180 --> 00:39:30,180 Heavenly Father, it is your gospel. It is not ours. It is the gospel of Christ. It is 317 00:39:30,180 --> 00:39:37,180 the gospel of your Son. The gospel of God. We pray that you protect us. We do not think 318 00:39:38,180 --> 00:39:45,180 that we are so foolish that we couldn't believe false teaching. Please correct us and rebuke 319 00:39:46,180 --> 00:39:53,180 us. Please never let this church fall into a false gospel. Please preserve us for your 320 00:39:53,180 --> 00:40:00,180 sake. Amen.