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June, 2020 |
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Preached by Dr. Gene Scott on September 1, 1985 There be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Galatians 1:7 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 TURN IN YOUR BIBLE TO GALATIANS 1. Paul says in verse 7, “There be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.” There is no tyranny like the tyranny of perverts. All perverts want their perversion to be accepted as normal. That is what is wrong with so much of the church; the perverts have taken over, and they fear anyone who sheds light from the Scriptures on their perversion, exposing it for the abnormality that it is. Paul began his epistle saying, “Paul, an apostle (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead); and all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: Grace be to you . . .” The word “grace” is a translation of the Greek word charis, which means “unmerited favor.” Paul is saying, “Unmerited favor be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins . . .” I want us to see how foolish the perverts really are. They are willing to admit that Jesus paid the price for our past sins, but then they say that once we are saved we had better not sin anymore. Let’s think about this for a moment. Paul was writing in the first century A.D., some 20 or 30 years after Christ had died on the cross. Yet Paul clearly says that Jesus gave Himself for our sins, using the past tense. How could Christ have given Himself years earlier for sins that Paul and these Galatian Christians hadn’t yet committed? God couldn’t possibly have known what those sins would be! How could God pluck a sin off of Paul and put it on Jesus when Paul hadn’t yet committed it? I am being ludicrous, of course, to show the folly of those who pervert the gospel. Jesus died for every sin: past, present and future. Some people claim that Paul was only writing about our condition of sin and not our specific sins, but Paul knew how to say what he meant. He clearly says that Christ “gave himself for our sins,” not “our sin.” Jesus didn’t just die for the sinner; as our Mediator, He paid the penalty for every specific sin. Isaiah 53:6 says, “The LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” We all commit sins continuously, and your pastor is no exception. I must confess I sinned while driving on the freeway this morning. It was more than just the unkind name I called the driver of a little car covered with “Honk if you love Jesus” stickers, who almost kept me from making it to church. Jesus said that if you hate someone in your heart, you are as guilty as a murderer, and by that standard I am guilty of about seven counts! But Christ gave Himself for those very sins I committed this morning. Those who preach from the Bible by lifting a text out of its context fail to recognize that Paul was writing to Christians when he said that Jesus gave Himself for our sins. Paul was not writing to the unsaved. Many people like to compartmentalize Christianity. They think of a sinner who has had a wondrous experience of coming to know the Lord, and they apply the Bible verses about forgiveness. But going forward, now that the man is “saved,” they apply the verses about “walking worthily” and “cleansing oneself,” and so forth. No, the message of forgiveness applies both before and after we come to know the Lord. The Galatian church had been invaded by perverts who came from Jerusalem to look them over, judge them, and impose their Judaistic traditions upon them. The Galatian Christians had been wondrously saved by the grace of God and gifted with His Spirit because of their faith; but then they succumbed to the pressure from these judgmental legalists. That is why Paul had to remind them of what he had taught them in the first place, saying, “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us . . .” The perverts say you must deliver yourself, but Jesus gave Himself for our sins in order that He might deliver us! Keep those things in mind as we now turn to the book of Ephesians, which comes right after the book of Galatians. Paul was once again writing to Gentile Christians who had already received the gospel, not to sinners who had never heard it; and he says in Ephesians 2:1, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins . . .” That is a description of those to whom he was writing. Note that the words “hath he quickened” are in italics in the King James Version, which means they were added by the translators and are not in the original text. It does no harm to omit these words and read, “And you who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation,” or our behavior, “in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” There was no difference between us in our beginning; we were all the same, given over to the desires of the flesh. We had one boss; our desires cracked the whip and we ran in the direction they wanted us to run. This is true from the moment we are born. Have you ever watched a newborn baby? You either give it what it wants when it wants it, or you have to endure a lot of screaming. There is nothing new about that old nature that resides in all of us. What is new comes in the next few verses: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved); and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Some critic might say, “You certainly don’t act like someone who is seated in heavenly places.” I don’t care what any critic thinks; God’s word says I am already seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus! Paul’s epistles highlight three aspects of the saving experience. First, when our faith strikes a connection with the heart of God, He places our sins on Christ, on the cross. The second thing that God does is He places His Spirit into us. The deposit of God’s substance is placed in us at His initiative, as an act of grace in response to our trust in Him. In that sense, we are “born again,” a new life is miraculously formed that is just as real as the life that forms from the joinder of sperm with an egg. That little nucleus of His life is as substantial and real as the power that raised Jesus from the grave. That is why the Resurrection is so crucial to the Christian faith. This new life has the capacity to penetrate our being and dwell in us with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and enabled Him to pierce through the rock that sealed His tomb and to ascend into glory. The third thing that God does is view us as a finished product, seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He looks at us as though we are already there. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians concentrates on this aspect of God’s saving work. When Paul says that God has “raised us up together, and made us sit together,” he deliberately uses the plural “us” to make a point. Whether we have recently come to the faith or have been walking with God for a long time, God views us equally as seated together in Christ. God’s Spirit abiding in us changes some of us more than others on this path of godliness. There are some who have just come out of heathenism and were attracted by the knowledge that they don’t have to be perfect to be a Christian. The simple act of trusting in God resulted in the implant of His Spirit setting them free, with their sins placed on Christ. And then there are those who have walked in this way for many years. Though they may not even be aware of it, these lifelong Christians embody certain traits that all of us would like to have. As the Spirit of God continues to dwell in us over time, we too will possess those traits. And they are not the obvious traits that legalistic Christians like to point to, such as how they dress or how they speak, or whether or not they smoke a cigar. The remarkable thing is that in this dimension of salvation we are all the same in His sight. The stumbling babe in Christ and the mature Christian are equal; God views us all as finished in Christ. But there is another equalizing factor that most people don’t consider. Young rakes like to think they have done a whole lot of sinning in their short lives, but they have not discovered anything new. God has put more sins on Christ during the lifetime of an 85-year-old man than that of a 30-year-old. The biblical meaning of sin is simply “to fall short of God’s standard,” and no matter how saintly an octogenarian may appear, 85 years of short-falling add up to more sinning than 30 years ever could. In order for God to see all of us as seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, He equalizes every one of us at these two points: Jesus has to come a greater distance to the new Christian, but He has to bear a greater weight of sin for the older Christian who has had a lifetime of falling short. When the embryonic life of God’s Spirit is first placed in us, we are still the product of having been dead in trespasses and sins. We have been living only in the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh; and the longer we have lived that way, the greater the flesh has become entrenched. When salvation comes through faith, God’s life in us starts anew to work on controlling the old nature in us. That is why we have no business playing God and judging someone else’s Christianity by their outward performance. Only God sees the heart. In response to our faith, God places His life in us where we are, as we are, without demanding any change from us at that moment. He instantly imputes all of our sins, past, present and future, onto Christ. And as we maintain our faith connection, any additional sin just flows right to Calvary. What is more, every accusation of Satan that comes through the mouth of perverters of the gospel is silenced by God. In Zechariah 3, the prophet saw a vision of Joshua the high priest who was clothed in dirty garments, representing all of God’s people stained by sin. Satan was standing there to accuse, but God rebuked the accuser, saying “The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan!” Today, God says of His church, “I see them clothed in Christ,” and the accuser cannot say anything against Christ’s performance! Whether you feel anything or not, God’s word says that Christ is formed in your heart by faith. And as long as you stay connected by faith, God’s power will change you in spite of yourself. It is like plugging an electrical cord into an outlet. The outcome is certain and predetermined unless you unplug the cord. There was a comedy movie made in the 1960s that I like to use as an analogy of the salvation process. It starred Don Knotts as The Reluctant Astronaut, who didn’t want to be launched into space. As long as he stayed inside the spaceship, he was going to fly, reluctant though he may be. He could claw at the floor to try to keep from becoming airborne; but once the rocket engines ignited, the outcome was inevitable. To continue the analogy, the force of gravity fought against the power of the engines for a while, but nothing could stop the spaceship from being launched into space. The power of the engines ultimately overcame the power of gravity, just as the power of God’s Spirit in us will ultimately overpower the desires of the flesh. That’s why I say, “When God puts His Spirit into you, look out!” Whether you wanted it not, a new life has come to dwell in you, and that new life has different appetites than the old one. That new life is God-oriented, instead of being flesh and death-oriented. And that new life will change you. The tradition-bound Christian will say, “Why can’t I see the change? How can I know if someone is really saved or not?” And I would say, “Fool, it’s none of your business. You didn’t die to save anyone, and neither did I.” Christ died to purchase us, and we belong to Him! Maybe God wants to show off His ability to redeem the worst of sinners. No one has the right to question or interfere with His magnificent work. Frankly, if your pastor is half as bad as some of my critics claim I am, what a glorious exhibition of God’s power I will be! He might put me on a pedestal in heaven and say, “Look, no one thought it could be done, but I did it; I saved him!” In fact, that is exactly what Paul says next in Ephesians 2:7, “That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” For God to save a sinner like me shows off the exceeding riches of His grace. But there are some Christians who imagine they are so close to perfection that one deep breath will bring them right over the line and into heaven. If they were really as perfect as they pretended to be, God would get no credit for saving them. As for us ordinary sinners, God can really show us off and get the glory He is due! I believe that Paul was saying essentially the same thing about himself. What Jesus did at Calvary gained an estate so inexhaustible that He can dip into it to show forth the exceeding riches of His grace. Paul says in verse 8, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Faith is all it takes to receive this gift. If you don’t know how to practice faith, one way is to start tithing. It is a genuine act of faith to recognize God’s claim on you and on all that you have. Some people think it is a dangerous doctrine to teach that we are saved by grace alone, for our faith alone. They are afraid of what we might do once we know we are free. I am amazed that there are many people in the traditional church who have become so perverted that they no longer believe in God’s power to save! They are certain they must tell the new converts, “Now you can’t do this or that anymore.” The record of the early twentieth century revivals shows otherwise. When people were saved by the preaching of the gospel, they suddenly no longer wanted to do some of the things they used to do. No one had to tell them to stop. I have preached to heathen on foreign soil who knew they were sinners. No one had to tell them they were. Some of them were like the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, paying terrible penances to heathen gods, bowing down in subjection to some witch doctor or literally cutting themselves. They gladly received the glorious good news of the gospel. As soon as they learned that God would save them and put His life in them when they trusted in Him, they would grab hold of His word, start reading it and start claiming His promises. I have seen people transformed overnight. Preachers have lost sight of the power of the gospel to change people, which is why they focus on surface behavior. I have even heard a preacher condemning women for wearing shorts, saying that shorts incite lust. God is not bothered by shorts, though I suspect that this particular preacher had shorts on his mind. Tell me, has eternal salvation been reduced down to whether or not a person wears shorts? I don’t believe that any preacher in history has ever saved anyone by preaching a message for or against wearing certain kinds of clothing. Nor do I think that such preaching has ever affected the frequency of illicit sex, either in thought or in deed. All that kind of preaching does is intensify the desire in normal people to tune out the preacher. Why can’t preachers simply preach the grace of God, instead of such asininity? “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” That’s what those perverters of the gospel are doing: boasting. Regardless of how holy they sound and how many empty “amens” they say, it is only the boasting of men to get the approval of other Christians. A woman wearing shorts who is acting in faith pleases God more than any boasting preacher pleases Him. We have nothing to boast about or to glory in, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and the wonderful gift of His grace! Thank God for His amazing grace! 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