Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: God's calling people. God loves people. God wants people to accept this message. God wants people to be forgiven. It says in 2 Peter Chapter 3, God's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Announcer (Male): Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled Galatians. Let's listen in as JP gives part two of "The Narrow Truth of Grace."

JP Jones: The message of salvation in Jesus Christ begins with God and ends with God. It's to His glory, and it leads to life, you see. But the gospel of grace is a gospel all about Jesus. It's His authority. It's His life, death, and resurrection. It's His purpose to rescue us.

And Paul is trying to make a case because he's going to say some unbelievable things in the rest of this book. But before he does, he wants to say, "Listen, this is not just my opinion. This comes with the very authority of Christ. It's based upon the teaching of Christ, the life of Christ, the death of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ. And it rescues us and gives God glory."

Paul continues in this letter he's introducing this concept of the gospel of grace. He says there's the truth of the gospel of grace. It's all about Christ. And then he says there's a narrowness of the gospel of grace. Listen to what he says in Galatians 1:6-9.

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned. As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than the one that you accepted, let him be eternally condemned."

Wow. Do you hear what Paul is saying in this passage? He's talking about how narrow the gospel of grace really is. It's not a gospel that says anybody can come anyway they want to come. No, it is a gospel that says anybody can come, but the only way you can come is by Christ's standard. It's a narrow truth. It's a narrow road.

The invitation is open to anybody and everybody. The opportunity should be given to every person, but to respond, it's a narrow road of response. Paul says that grace stands in antithesis to every other worldview, every other religion, every other so-called gospel. In fact, he says it's really not even a gospel because it's not good news.

The nature of the case is good news, and any message other than grace is not good news. Any message other than grace is not good news. The only option other than grace is works. Those could be religious works, intellectual works, social works, whatever, some form of good deeds.

What Paul says here and goes on to explain in the rest of Galatians is the reason that's not good news is twofold. First and foremost, it's not the way God says we come to Him. But secondly, it's a deceptive message because what it presents to offer is if you do certain good deeds, you're in. But what it doesn't tell you is nobody can ever do those good deeds.

So any perverted form of Christianity, or any false religious view, or any secular perspective that's based on good deeds, what they don't tell you is nobody can live up to the good deed standard. I remember a conversation I had with a student up at UC Santa Barbara several years ago. He thought he was a really good guy and he didn't need God, and he didn't feel like God should ever judge him because he'd never really heard the whole teaching of Christianity in the first place.

I said, "Fair enough. In fact, the Bible says that God is not going to judge you on something you've never heard." "Really?" I said, "Yeah." I read to him a passage out of Romans Chapter 2 where it talks about how God has written the law on the hearts of people and our conscience convict us or defend us on the day of judgment. Then I said, "Let me ask you a question. Are you a sociopath?"

He said, "No." I said, "So you have a moral conscience." He goes, "Yeah." I go, "So you have an idea in your mind of right and wrong." "Yeah." "So there's some things you think are right and some things you think are wrong." He said, "Yeah." Then I asked him this: "Do you always do the things that you think are right and you never do the things that you think are wrong?"

He goes, "What do you mean?" I go, "Your whole life, have you lived 100% consistently with your own moral view? You've never done anything that you think is wrong and you've only done things that you think are right." He goes, "Well, no." I said, "Well, you know what? God's not going to use His law to judge you. He's going to use your law, and by your law, you condemn yourself."

Works condemn us. Grace saves us. That's why Paul is hot and bothered about this topic because he says anybody who believes something other than this, they're lost. And anybody who teaches something other than this, they cause other people to be lost.

There's a narrowness to grace. Paul says that we've been called by the grace of Christ. Verse 6: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ." God's calling people. God loves people. God wants people to receive this message. God wants people to accept this message. God wants people to be forgiven.

It says in 2 Peter Chapter 3, "God's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." In 1 Timothy Chapter 2, "This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth." In the Hebrew Scriptures in Ezekiel Chapter 18, it says, "God takes no pleasure in the death of any man who dies. Therefore repent and live."

God's calling people and He's calling people by grace, you see. He's called you by the grace of Christ. Paul says he's writing to the Galatians. He says, "I'm astonished you so quickly desert the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel."

Now when he says, "I'm amazed that you're so quickly deserting this message," he's not measuring that from when they first heard it until now. Paul was the one who introduced the gospel to these folks in Galatia. No, what has happened is that there's been some false teachers who came to the churches in Galatia after Paul had been there.

They said, "No, what Paul told you is not true. Here's the real deal." They presented a false message. Paul says, "I'm surprised that it's been such a short amount of time from when you heard that false message until now and you've already deserted from the truth. You're already getting infected by this stuff."

Notice what he says. When you move away from fully believing in grace alone, verse 6, "I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ." Do you see how he connects that? When we entertain ideas and accept ideas and move away from believing in grace alone for salvation, we're really deserting God.

It's not just ideas. "Oh, you know, there's just a marketplace of ideas and we can believe whatever we want to believe and we're just talking about ideas." No, when we believe the wrong ideas, we reject God because His ideas are the truth. And when we reject the truth, we reject the one who gave us the truth.

That's why it's so important, Paul is arguing. So this is an awesome message of grace, but it's a narrow, narrow message, which really shouldn't surprise us because if you were with us back when we were doing our study on the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher who ever lived, the religion of Jesus looking at the Sermon on the Mount.

Remember how Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew Chapter 7? There's a broad road and a narrow road. The broad road leads to destruction; it's the narrow road that leads to life. There's a broad gate and a narrow gate. The broad gate leads to destruction and the narrow gate leads to life. And he just contrasts, it's a narrow path.

There are all kinds of ideas: religious, secular, philosophical, but they all lead to hell. There's only a narrow path that leads to life. Paul says the gospel of grace has a narrowness about it. He says, "I'm astonished that you're so quickly deserting the one who called you by the gospel of grace and turning to a different gospel."

Paul uses a play on terms. In the Greek language, there are two Greek words that are translated as the English word "another." They are the Greek words *allos* and *heteros*. *Allos* is another, but another of the exact same kind. *Heteros* is another, but another of a different kind.

So in theology, we talk about orthodoxy, which is biblical Christianity, and heterodoxy, which is false doctrine because it's another doctrine, but it's a different kind, false. It's *heteros*. In John Chapter 14, Jesus is teaching about how He's going to the Father and He's not going to leave us alone. He's going to send a Comforter, the Helper, who will be with us forever, the Spirit of Truth.

He says, "I'm going to send you another Helper." He uses the word *allos*. In other words, there's the Father, there's Jesus, and there's another Helper, the Holy Spirit, another of the exact same kind. Exact same kind as who? Exact same kind as Jesus and the Father. Here, he says, "You're believing another gospel." But not *allos*, but *heteros*. It's another, but it's of a completely different kind.

So the NIV version says it's a different gospel. And then the next verse, verse 7, says, "Which is really no gospel at all." That's the whole point. Gospel is good news. You're believing a *heteros euangelion*, that's the Greek word for good news. You're believing a *heteros* gospel, a different gospel. But you know what? Come to think of it, because it's a different gospel, it's really not even a gospel. It's not good news, it's bad news. It doesn't give you life, it condemns you.

So why are you believing something that condemns you? Don't be deceived. Don't be fooled. Don't let some charlatan or false prophet, or some guy on TV selling some product convince you these are the five easy steps to fulfillment in life, or some book at the bookstore that says, "This is the true way of spirituality," but it's really the way of death. Or some preacher who says, "Listen to me because I'm really going to tell you."

No. Anybody says, "Listen to me," but doesn't say, "Listen to me because I'm listening to Christ," don't listen to them. Paul says it's really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion; they're trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. Do you realize that false ideas do not spring up in a vacuum?

Anytime I've ever talked to anybody in counseling, discipleship, sharing my faith, and they tell me some kind of wacky idea, 100% of the time—and I'm not just, this is not hyperbole, I'm just using that for literary device—100% of the time, I ask them, "Where did you get that idea?" And they didn't go, "Oh, I just thought of it myself." No, they read it in some book. They heard it from some guy on TV. They went to some weird church and some preacher was saying it.

False ideas come from false teachers. False ideas come from false teachers. And the world's full of false teachers. Jesus warned us about that. Most of the letters of the New Testament warn us about that. The Apostle Paul at the church of Ephesus, when he's about to leave, he says, "Hey, I'm innocent of the blood of all men." Acts Chapter 20. "I've not ceased from preaching to you the whole gospel of God. But after I leave, there are going to be savage wolves that come in and try to attack you. So I commit you to the word of God's grace, which is able to sanctify you."

False ideas come from false teachers. So he says there's some false teachers that have been teaching a gospel that's a different gospel that really isn't a gospel. And it's so subtle because it doesn't have to be in neon lights: "False Doctrine." No, it's not usually a rejection of grace, a rejection of faith, a rejection of Christ. It's usually this—and again, this is what was struggling with the Galatians—it was grace plus faith plus something else equals salvation.

And anytime you add something else to the equation, you've distorted it and perverted it. It's like a mathematical formula: 1 plus 2 equals 3. All right? 1 plus 2 equals 3. That's the only way you can get there. 1 plus 2 plus 4 does not equal 3. 1 plus 2 plus 5 does not equal 3. 3 plus 4 does not equal 3. No, the only numbers that add up to get to 3 are 1 plus 2 equals 3.

The only way to get to salvation is grace plus faith. You add anything else, it's not salvation. You take away grace or faith, it's not salvation. Take away grace and faith, it's not salvation. The only way to get to salvation is grace plus faith, and that's it. So Paul says there's a narrowness to this gospel message.

And in fact, verse 8, "If we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned. As we have already said, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel other than the one that you accepted, let him be eternally condemned." He says it twice because I'm sure they read it and go, "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. What did you just say?"

Because they understood what he just said. So he says it twice. He uses the pronouncement *anathema*. When I coached Pop Warner football, my son was playing, he was 13. I coached all these kids that were 13, 14 years old. I was a defensive coach. We're in the huddle one day at practice and two kids were kind having an argument one another and one of them said, "Go to hell."

I said, "Hey, we're not going to use that kind of language out here. And you know what? If you knew what hell was like, you'd never tell someone to go there." The kid went, "Okay, Coach." I am not—trust me—I'm not overstating what Paul is saying here when he says *anathema*, eternally condemned.

If someone is preaching, teaching, writing a false gospel, Jesus said they should have a millstone around their neck and thrown to the deepest part of the sea if they do anything to deceive any of these little ones. Because salvation is at stake. Last thing: There's the truth of the gospel of grace, the narrowness of the gospel of grace. There's a cost.

You got to listen quick. Verse 10: "Am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." Paul says, "You know what? I've thought about it and God's my audience, and I'm trying to please Christ."

If I were trying to please men, I wouldn't say it like this. If I were trying to win over an audience of people, I would never use this kind of harshness and severity in my language. I'd be pluralistic and politically correct, and I'd say we ought to be tolerant of everything and if it works for you, that's good. And what works for me works for me, and what works for you works for you, and you can believe whatever you want to believe and can't we just all get along?

He goes, "But you know what? I'm not doing that. I'm trying to please Christ. At the end of the day, I got to stand before God. And so I'm just speaking the truth, the truth about grace." And so there's a cost factor for me because some of you don't like me now because I just said this. Some of you don't want to support me now. Some of you are going to be talking about me at lunch after you read this letter because I just said this stuff.

That costs me something, but I'm not trying to win the approval of men. I'm going to be approved by God and that's all it really matters. You've heard this before. I think it is appropriate. Paul was one of these kind of guys: The fellowship of the unashamed. I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have crossed the line.

The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living and small planning and smooth knees and colorless dreams and tinted visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence or positions or promotion, plaudits or popularity. I don't have to be right. I don't have to be first. I don't have to be recognized, praised, or rewarded. I live by faith and I lean on God's presence, and I walk with patience. I'm lifted up in prayer and I labor with the power of the Holy Spirit. My faith is set and my goal is heaven. My road is narrow and my way is rough.

My companions will sometimes be few, but I won't be bought. I won't compromise. I won't be deterred. I won't be lured away. I won't be divided. I won't flinch. I'm not going to hesitate and I won't negotiate with the enemy, and I won't give in to mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, or let up until I have prayed up and stored up for the cause of Christ.

I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He returns for His own, He'll have no problem recognizing me. I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The gospel of Jesus Christ, it sets us free, forgives our sins, gives us eternal life. It is good, good, good news. But it's a narrow message. It's a unique message. It's by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And it's like a line drawn in the sand, and we're either on this side of it or we cross the line and believe the gospel.

Announcer (Male): What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250.

For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, *Facing Goliath*. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Let me ask you a question. It's the question that I asked and stated in the message. Have you crossed the line by believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ? You see, the world can be divided up into two classes of people: those who know Jesus Christ by God's grace and those who are outside of God's grace because they've rejected Jesus Christ.

John says in his letter of 1 John, "And this is the witness, that God has given us eternal life; this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life." Paul in Galatians Chapter 1 is passionately defending the gospel of grace because life and death are at stake. Heaven and hell are at stake.

In fact, the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 1, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one which we have preached to you, let him be eternally condemned." Paul says that there's only one gospel that can save people. It's the gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And if someone preaches a different gospel than that gospel, they should be eternally condemned.

This past week I had a conversation with someone and we were talking about the gospel of Jesus, and the person that I was talking to was a follower of a religious cult. They had perverted the truth of grace. They'd perverted the message of Jesus. They'd perverted the salvation truth of the Bible. Now they were a gracious person, they were a kind person, but they were wrong, sincerely wrong. And they were going around telling other people the false ideas of their belief system.

And as we were in a conversation, I looked at them and I said, "You know, it's just really sad." And they said, "Well, what's sad?" And I said, "It's sad that you are deceived." It sort of took them back. They said, "What do you mean I'm deceived?" I said, "You're deceived by Satan because the Bible clearly teaches that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And because you're rejecting who Jesus Christ is, you're lost and you're going to hell."

What a powerful thing to say to someone. But when I said it, I said it with real compassion because they had perverted the gospel of grace and as a result, they are lost. Paul says that there's only one way we can be saved. It's through Jesus Christ and His grace alone. And anyone who is trusting in anything else is trusting in a false gospel. And anyone who shares a way of salvation other than the grace of Jesus Christ is sharing a false gospel.

Life and death are at stake. Heaven and hell are at stake. There is a narrow truth to the gospel and it deserves—it deserves our total commitment to proclaim it and to defend it. Wherever you are in your spiritual journey, my prayer is that you are trusting in the gospel of God's grace because that's the gospel that will save you.

Let me pray. Lord, I pray for anyone and everyone who's listening to this message that if they've never trusted in Christ alone for their salvation, in grace alone for their salvation, they would do it right now. Wherever they are, they would say, "Lord Jesus, save me. Save me by your grace. I confess I'm a sinner. I'm acknowledging that I'm separated from you. I need you and I need Jesus Christ. Save me by your grace."

If you're saying that right now, let me give you the confidence of God's word that God hears that prayer and is answering it, and by grace, He saves you. That's the good news.

Announcer (Male): We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.