I'll invite you tonight to Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1. We'll read verses 6 through 16 with the title being, A Different Gospel. A Different Gospel. Galatians 1 verse 6. I am astonished. that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. If even we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me, In order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone. Let's pray. Father, powerful is your word. Powerful is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray for your help tonight. we might speak forth your truth, that you might give us ears to hear and minds and hearts to understand, that we might be settled on the gospel, the truth of the gospel, that we might glory in the gospel. Help us, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Here's the question for you tonight, is the gospel that you are believing the true gospel? Is the gospel you are believing the true gospel? Now, I'm going to ask a question at the end that will reveal the true measure of the gospel you believe. Be ready for that. Now, we know that there are blatant attacks against the gospel, and they're usually easily to spot. When you see that someone's teaching something so blatant, so contrary to the gospel, you pick up on that immediately and you recognize it. But as well, there are subtle attacks that are not as recognizable. and can slip past the unsuspecting eye. We must be alert, we must be on guard against the attacks that come against the gospel. It's our motto here at GBC that we are seeking to be known for the gospel. So we must be aware that the enemy is acting, active, roaring, prowling, seeking to pervert and change the simplicity of the gospel of grace. I've been thinking recently about the gospel and how I preached and pastored for 20 years with a tainted gospel, a different gospel, because it was in the midst of the fallout of my life that God indicated to me that I didn't know the gospel. How did I not know the gospel? I had preached for 20 years. Did I not know the gospel? We shall see. Of course, in this passage that we read, the Apostle Paul is addressing the church at Galatia. And right out of the gate, he confronts the issue. He states that they are turning to a different gospel. There in verse six, they're turning to a different gospel. They're being led in a way that is away from the gospel. Now, any change of the gospel is another gospel. Any adding to or taking away at any point is to pervert the gospel. Whose is the gospel? Who does the gospel belong to? It is the gospel of God. It's God's gospel. Amen? So, if it's God's gospel, whose is it not? It's not an angel's and it's not man's. It's God's gospel. Let's notice a few things in the passage there. The first thing we notice is that Paul is astonished. The King James says, I marvel that you are so soon removed. The ESV says, so easily or so quickly deserting. Paul was bewildered. He was confused even that the believers in Galatia had received the gospel of grace and could turn away from it. He's thinking, how can this be? The gospel and all of its grace and glory, you now turn to something else that's not as gracious and is not as glorious. How can this be? It's blowing his mind. He's astonished. He's marveling. It would be like standing and looking at some glorious landscape that God has created in this magnificent creation. And anyone in their right mind would stand and be in awe of what they are beholding with their eyes. And then here's one that looks at it and says, oh, that's nice. And he returns to his phone looking at stupid memes. How could you turn away from such a glorious gospel? How can you be led astray? And this is, he was astonished. He was marveling at this. They're straying off the truth of the gospel. Now he indicates in the passage how and why, and quite simply it's to please men. to go along with the crowd, to not ruffle feathers, that the men who were leading them astray, I mean, these were men of God, surely they won't lead us astray. What was their problem? They were not being good Bereans. They were not searching the scriptures to see if what they were being taught was in accordance with the word of God. So he's astonished. That's the first thing that I noticed there. The second thing is that a moving away of the gospel of grace is moving away from Christ Himself. Did you see that? I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him, moving away from Him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel. A moving away of the gospel is a moving away from Christ himself. They were deserting him. How can you do that? How can you turn away from him who is everything, who is all in all? And he's astonished that they're moving away from the gospel and moving away from the gospel is moving away from Christ Himself. And in verse 7 he makes the statement there, not that there is another gospel. There is not another gospel. There are not two gospels. There are not three gospels. There's not many gospels as you want. There's only one gospel. There is no other gospel. There's only one. And it's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work. Then he says there are those who would pervert or distort the gospel. There in verse 7, not that there is another one, but there are some who would trouble you and want to distort the gospel, to lead you away, to make the gospel something that it's not. There are enemies of the gospel. And many they are in our day. Paul's confronting it early on in the life of the church. And he's seeing that there are those who would come against the gospel, they would try to change the gospel, they would try to make the gospel something else. And we are facing that today as well. Many who want to change, many who want to just tweak it a little bit. So, in verses 8 and 9, we see that we need to check the source. Notice this. But even if we are an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we've preached to you, let him be accursed." If we said before, say, I again, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. If the source is not the Word of God and does not comply with Scripture, let that source be accursed. Be careful who you listen to. Some may sound good, but be not sound. A lot of voices out there saying a lot of things. Some good, some great, some glorious, some not so good, some not great, some not the gospel. It's a different gospel. Then in verses 10 and 11 we see it's not man's gospel. For am I now seeking the approval of man? Or am I seeking the approval of God? Who am I trying to please here? Am I trying to please man or am I trying to please God? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be the servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me, what? Is not man's gospel. It's not man's gospel. Therein is the rub. Therein is the rub. In verses 13 through 16, Paul gives his testimony, and the summation of Paul's testimony concerning his conversion and what the gospel is, is the revealing of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to a soul. He says it toward the end, that God was pleased to reveal His Son to me in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles." What is the preaching of the gospel? It's preaching Christ. It's preaching Christ. Christ is revealed in the gospel. How does the scripture say it? That the light of the gospel shines into your heart, right? The light of the gospel shines into your heart, and what do you see? The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Paul actually alludes to this, that it's not a man's gospel when he opened it back in verse 1, when he said, Paul an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ. So he's getting to the point that this is not about men, it's not about pleasing men, it's not a man's gospel, it's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. None of this. None of the gospel is man's doing. Now, we understand that the Galatians were being influenced by the Jewish believers who were attempting to add to the gospel by keeping the law. And yes, you have faith, you must believe by faith, but then you keep the law. It was circumcision in particular that was being added to the gospel here, changing the gospel, making it not the gospel. They were proposing that the Gentiles must be circumcised for them to be true believers. So what was the underlying motive in this? Again, to please man, to have men fall in line with what they were proposing. That is what Paul's emphasis at the beginning and in this is that it's not man's gospel. It's not about pleasing man. Now, the past month or two, I've been to a couple of conferences meeting new people and sharing testimonies, and so I've repeated my testimony multiple times, and if you've heard my testimony, I've preached and pastored for 20 years, and in that it was revealed that I didn't know the gospel. So even in sharing my testimony recently, it made me start evaluating, okay, what was different? What was different? How was it a different gospel that I was promoting? My dear Diane, my wife, reminded me recently that one of the things that was instrumental in that was a sermon that I'd listened to by Paris Readhead, 10 shekels and a shirt. And thinking back on that, and then I'll speak on more of that in a minute, but that was instrumental in my awakening. It was even before I came to the doctrines of grace, understanding those things. But then by the providence of God, I was led to sermons by Paul Washer. And I was listening to those sermons, and this is part of my, everything that he was preaching against, I was doing. And I knew he was right. I was a proponent of the sinner's prayer. I had told people who had prayed it to write the date down in their Bible and when the devil comes and tries to make you doubt, you go back and you look at that date and remember that prayer you prayed. I would preach funerals of drunks and druggies and tell people they were going to heaven because when they were a kid, they prayed a prayer and asked Jesus into their hearts. And because of that, they were a child of God and nothing could change that. When someone would come to me with doubts about their salvation, my immediate question would be, and it almost rolls off my tongue, I said it so much, has there ever been a time in your life when you prayed and asked Jesus into your heart? You may argue that those things are not harmful, but I say that's another gospel. That's a different gospel. So I began to preach against these things and preach against the sinner's prayer. Do you realize that the sinner's prayer is the gospel to a lot of people? They understand that that is the gospel. Many say it's damning more souls to hell than anything in history. I would preach and I would say that if you're trusting in a prayer to save you, you're going to hell. Boy, the people flipped out. Even some stated that I was preaching something off the wall. Listen to what I said, if you're trusting in a prayer to save you, you're going to hell. Then I would follow that up with, you must trust Christ and Him alone. You must trust Christ and Him alone for salvation. How is that off the wall? That is who you must trust. Not an action performed by saying a prayer or being baptized or being circumcised. You must repent and believe the gospel. Others would say, I was preaching the same thing, it's just semantics. That he still means the same thing, he's just saying it in a different way. No, I was finally preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. removing their crutches and relics and gimmicks and putting them at Christ. They'd never heard that before. To make way to the true gospel, Sometimes the false gospel you're trusting needs to be revealed, dismantled, and destroyed. What are you believing concerning the gospel? In my testimony, I was, by the providence of God, able to attend a fellowship conference in Denton, Texas. And it was there I heard preaching. unlike I'd ever heard. It was, of course, different. And looking back, I was able to determine the difference. And it's the difference that makes all the difference. The preaching that I was now hearing was God-centered, Christ-centered preaching. It was God-glorifying and Christ-exalting. What was I used to? What was I trained in? Man-centered preaching. And that's a man-centered gospel. Now, it wasn't stated that way, and I don't believe it was intentional. It was just a subtle misrepresentation of the gospel. It was though not stated exactly like this, but the chief end of the gospel is the salvation of man. That doesn't sound harmful, does it? The chief end of the gospel is the salvation of man. Or maybe just the purpose of the gospel is the salvation of man. Yes, the purpose of the gospel is the salvation of man, but it's not the end. It's not the end. I was told once by my pastor at the time, who was the president of the seminary that I was attending, that the first love that the church of Ephesus was leaving, you've left your first love, was soul winning. That the first love is soul winning. That ought to be our first love. No, our first love is to God and Christ. And when we love God first, when we love God right, we're gonna love our neighbor and we're gonna wanna win our neighbors, amen? So you see that little twisting, that little, the emphasis was put on man. Paul in our text is adamant that the gospel is not of man. Don't hear me wrong, I'm not saying, now listen to this. I'm not saying that the gospel is not for man, It is a means by which we are saved, but the chief end of the gospel is not the salvation of man. The chief end of the gospel is the glory of God. It's the glory of God. It's the chief end of everything. The glory of God. The sermon by Parrish Readhead, 10 shekels and a shirt, I've seen some of you kind of nod, it's about how humanism and pragmatism has infiltrated the gospel. The sermon was preached, I believe, in the 50s, so if it was a problem then, how much more is it a problem now that humanism has worked its way into so many pulpits? Humanistic philosophy, making its way into the pulpit, has turned the focus away from God and put it on man. In the sermon, he surmises that humanism is that the chief end of all things is the happiness of man. Now that's a pretty good definition, but there are many definitions. You look up humanism right now, you'll find a bunch of different definitions, but basically it's a system of philosophy that seeks the advancement of the human experience. That humans are capable of bettering their lives and the lives of those around them and lives into the future without God. Without God? Exactly. That's not right. And this is accomplished through science and art and compassion. Now, think about that for a minute and think about in the realm of religious leaders, what's the best example of this? I'll give you his initials, Joel Osteen. What's his book? Your Best Life Now. That's humanism, a hundred percent. Now, this is a great question to ask when listening to a sermon online, when you're listening to a sermon online, or if you're listening to a song on Caleb, here's something good you can think about. Who and what is the focus on? Is it seeking to glorify me, or is it seeking to glorify God? Is it focusing me on me or me on God? Is it what God has done for me, which is not bad in itself, but does it direct me to worship God for who he is and what he's done and not overshadowing him with me? Making him the focus of what he's done Making God, listening to a sermon, listening to a song that makes him the focus of what he's done for me is okay. But making me the focus for what he's done for me is not okay. Why? Because it's not about me. Sometimes we hear a lot of this in this vein. you were worth dying for. While there may be a hint of truth in that, again it puts the focus on me. I really wasn't worth dying for. I was worth sending to hell. Is there worth in the soul of a man? Absolutely. What will it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his soul? But the prophet is not us. The value is that the lamb that was slain may receive the reward of his suffering. Right? In the sermon by Parrish Readhead, he capsulates how humanism has infected the gospel with this statement, and I'll quote, I'm afraid that it has become so subtle that it goes everywhere. What is it? In essence is this, the philosophical postulate that the end of all being is the happiness of man. has been sort of covered over with evangelical terms and biblical doctrine until God reigns in heaven for the happiness of man. Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man. The angels exist for the happiness of man. Everything is for the happiness of man. And he says, I submit to you that this is unchristian. Didn't God intend to make man happy? Yes, but as a byproduct, not the primary product." What are we doing? Why are we here this evening? What is the end purpose of the gospel? Is it to save poor dying men from a bad God who wants to send them to hell? Or is it to save evil sinners who are doing everything for their own glory that they might turn and glorify God who has sent His Son to save them from their sins to save them from their own self-glorifying, that they might then turn and give God all the glory. It's due unto Him, by the way. What's due unto Him? Glory. What glory? All of it. All the glory. Here's the end question that will determine the underlayment of your gospel understanding. Think about it. Why do you want your children to be saved? Why do you want your friends and loved ones to be saved? Why is it that you were saved? Why did you want to be saved? The need for salvation is not to escape hell and that you will have a better life. It's for the glory of God. It's for the glory of God. Do you want your children and your friends to be saved so God will get glory from their lives? Do you want them to be saved for their benefit? Do you want them to be saved for your peace of mind? You see that? You see the subtlety of that? Or do we want them to be saved so that they can glorify God? So, in conclusion, what was the difference in the gospel I preached before and the gospel I now understand? The difference was the emphasis or the context or the intended end of the gospel. That's what was off. I preached the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but what was the end purpose of that death, burial, and resurrection? In essence, it was the betterment of man, to improve on the condition of man, to save him from a bad, burning hell. Does man need to be saved from that? Yes! Yes! But why should he be saved from that? To save his hide? I would even say back then that it was for the glory of God, but not with as much emphasis as it was to escape hell. So what was I doing? I was trying to convince people that they needed to be saved from something bad that was going to happen to them. I was trying to convince people that you're going to hell and you're sinning, and that's true, but I wanted to save them from that. so that they wouldn't have to suffer that. That's a selfish, driven motive. Reedhead would call it humanism. Think about that. What is the reality? The reality is that lost people, men and women, boys and girls, are robbing God of the glory that is due Him. They are robbing God of the glory that is due Him. They are sinning against the holy God that has granted them life, breath, and being, and they are consuming it for their own passion, for their own glory. What does the Scripture say? For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You're not glorifying God the way you were created to. You need to be saved to that end. Come to Christ that He might get the glory from you that He deserves. He deserves to be worshipped and praised and lifted high because He bought you with a price. His own life and His own blood. He has purchased you. Does He not deserve the glory that is due unto Him? 1 Corinthians 6.20 says, For we were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. With all that is within you, glorify God. What is the chief end of man? to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Let's bow. Father, may you have helped us to see that a subtle difference And even the emphasis or the intent of the gospel can be a different gospel. It's all about your glory. You would think that in trying to convince men to escape a burning hell, that they would run to escape that, but they don't. It's a weird thing, but to bear the point that we are so evil, that we are so corrupt, that a glorious being would give us life. and we would use it for our own selfish reasons. What is wrong with us? Sin still abides, sin still stalks us, but when we can see the light of the glory of God. You, O God, in the face of Jesus Christ, we can no longer be the same. Oh, that you might shine in our heart. Oh, that you might rekindle and renew sight for us to see. that all glory goes to Christ. It's in his name we pray.