The Church of Eleven22 - S02E10 - Not Bitten or Devoured by One Another

Episode Date: June 14, 2021

We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Our salvation can’t be earned. ¹³ For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. ¹⁴ For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. - Galatians 5:13-15

Welcome to Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin. The Church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And we're praying this message helps you deepen your relationship with him. Now let's dive in. Hey, church family. Welcome back to Deepen. What an incredible weekend we had last weekend when Pastor Cam Triggs brought the word. He always does such a good job.

He's a dear friend of mine. And I so appreciate him being able to come in. and share God's word with us. Just as a little recap, he was talking about John chapter 5, when Jesus really goes toe to toe with a bunch of religious leaders, and they have just completely missed the point. They completely missed the point. And so he says this, and Jesus says this to the religious leaders in John chapter 5.

He says, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. and it is they that bear witness about me. Now, don't miss the point, man. I'm a Bible guy. I love the word. I want you to love the word. And the way that we know Jesus is through the word. And when we surrender our life to him,

he gives us the spirit to live in us, and the spirit of God teaches us the word. But what was happening in these religious leaders is they fell in love with the law of God and they missed out on the lawgiver himself. They fell in love with God's little W word, and they missed out on the word who had become flesh and dwelt among us. And all of us, by the way,

the long you go to church, you realize the more likely you are to be your religious person. I know for a lot of you, and especially, man, you're watching a deep and divo or listening to it in your car or whatever. You're really into this stuff, all right? you're like a you're your your varsity you're not just showing up to be entertained man you're trying to get some stuff out of it and one of the things we always have to pay attention to that we can do is we can we can move away from a relationship with jesus christ and move towards religious activity as if it is our religious activity and personal preferences that gain us a right standing before

god and when we do that we move away from jesus and we move away from his gospel And so he says, you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life. And it is they that bear witness about me, Jesus. Yet, you refuse to come to me. That's what he says, that you may have life. You want eternal life? Come to Jesus. And he goes on to say later in verse 45, do not think that I will accuse you to the Father.

There is one who accuses you, Moses on whom you have set your hope. for if you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. In other words, what he's saying is, you think that you have a right standing before God because you can keep the law, Pharisees. You think because you don't drink smoke or two or go with girls who do that somehow God is impressed with you. And I don't have to accuse you before the Father. Moses accuses you before the Father because if you break even one of the laws,

then you have a broken relationship with God. And then he says, and, but if you actually knew Moses, you would actually know me because everything in the old covenant is pointing to the serpent crusher, the lamb, who has come, and Jesus is saying, I am he. And the whole point that we went through this last weekend is this, is that this church, this movement, it's a movement for all people to discover and deepen. And here's the most important part, a relationship with Jesus. Not sin management, not keeping a bunch of rules, but a relationship with Jesus. that makes me think of what was happening when Paul writes to the church in Galatia.

Okay? The church in Galatia is a church that Paul planted, and then there was a group of people that were called the Judaizers that moved in. And when they moved in, what they did is they began to add to the gospel. They said, all right, if you're going to be a Christian, I mean, if you're going to be like a real Christian, then what you've got to do is, yes, you have to believe in Jesus, but plus you also have to follow the law. And the particular law that they were talking about is you had to obey the old covenant law of circumcision.

And circumcision was a symbol of God's covenant with God's people, Israel. But when Jesus come, Jesus says, I have fulfilled the law. And so there's a whole bunch of ceremonial law of the old covenant that does not apply anymore. pointing to the fact that the Savior was coming. And the Galatians were like, yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe, but it's not just Jesus alone that equals salvation. It's Jesus plus something that you have to do that equals salvation. And while you think that that may just be some Old Testament situation,

it happens all the time in today's church. I mean, there are denominations that say it's not Christ alone. It's Jesus plus communion, or it's Jesus plus baptism. or it's Jesus plus anything. And I'm telling you, Jesus plus nothing equals everything. And Jesus plus anything ain't nothing. Because it means that you are believing in your own good works. And so Paul says this.

In fact, Galatians is like the meanest letter in the New Testament. Every other New Testament epistle, Paul has a pretty like warm and welcoming opening, like to the Philippians. he goes, I remember our tears together. I long to see you. It's right for me to feel this way about you. When he writes to Timothy, he says the same thing. I remember praying together.

I remember our times together. When he writes through the Galatians, he's like, hey, what's up? My name's Paul. Let's go. He says, I am astonished that you were so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. And the different gospel they were turning to is not the simple limitation of Jesus to come to me, but yes, you come to Jesus in your belief,

but you better add to it some sort of religious ritual or you don't get to actually come to Jesus. And he goes, I'm astonished that you're 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, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one that we preach to you, let him be a curse. That means go to hell.

So, like if Joseph Smith gets a special message from an angel in a cave that is different from Christ's life, Christ's death, Christ's resurrection, and our salvation in that alone, I don't care if it's an angel that gives you that message. That angel is not an angel of Jesus. That angel is a demon. Let him be a cursed. He says, as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a God, gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. You see, here is the gospel that we are saved, that Christ came, lived a perfect life, died in our place, was resurrected on the third day, that whoever would believe in him, put their

trust in him, then your sins would be washed away. You'd be adopted into the family of God. Now, for sure, when you get run over by the grace train, it changes the way you look and live for the rest of your life, no doubt. But that the gospel is not behavior modification, but salvation is by the substitutionary atoning life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone.

And if you add anything to that, anything to that, whether it's circumcision or communion, whether it's some Old Testament law or it's some new evangelical behavior, if you add anything to that, then you are distorting the gospel. In chapter 3, verse 1, Paul says, Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Like somebody has put a spell on you. He remembers the day when he shared the good news of the gospel of Jesus,

and they actually believed it. So then when he gets to chapter 5, this is where we're going to find our one another. He says this, for freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. The yoke of slavery that he's talking about is works-based righteousness. He says, the law of Moses is a yoke of slavery if you think that salvation is achieved and not received, that the good news that the gospel is not sin management. It's not grabbing onto your sin and by your own power managing it.

Now, for sure, we need to, with the spirits help, try to kill the sin that's trying to kill us, without a doubt. It's called mortification. and for sure we should make great efforts, grace-filled efforts to put ourselves in environments that stir our affections for the Lord. But the gospel is that the verdict precedes their performance. So he says, look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, which means a human work, if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify, again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

So he's saying, if you want to pick one of these laws, then you've got to keep all 613. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcisions count for anything, but only faith working through love, that salvation is by faith, not by works. Now, but the Bible does make it clear, is if you are actually saved, then for sure you get to work and you are God's workmanship that saved two good works, but you're not saved by good work.

He goes on to say in verse 7, you were running well, and who hindered you from obeying the truth? And again, it happens all the time. That church and church people can be focused on the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Christ's life, deaths, and resurrection, and our faith that when he died on the cross, somehow that counted for us. That is the gospel. Don't ever allow anybody else to add anything to that gospel. Now, again, I say this all the time. Are there byproducts of the gospel without a doubt? And if a fruit, I mean, if a tree isn't bearing fruit, then the tree is dead. So for sure, there's all kind of fruit that come from that gospel. Love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, loving your neighbor as yourself, serving the poor and the least of these, fighting for justice, all of these kinds of things. But those activities are just symptoms of the gospel-infected life. They are not in and of themselves the gospel. This is what Paul is saying in Galatians. He says, this persuasion is not from him who calls you a little leaven, levens the whole lump. In other words, you get a little bit of workspace righteousness. mixed in with your gospel soup and the whole thing goes bad.

Verse 10, he says, I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view. And the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is, but if I brothers still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who were unsettled with you

would emasculate themselves. Here's what he's saying. if you're earmuff the kids if you're listening to this you know what circumcision is physically here's what he's saying he's saying the next time you teach circumcision i wish those that were teaching it wouldn't just do the circumcision they would go ahead and take off the whole situation that's what he's saying emasculate themselves pretty stark talk pretty extreme talk for the reason that he would talk that intensely for you were called to freedom, brothers.

We don't use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. We talked about that one already. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. We talked about that. This is a warning. This is a warning that it's a statement of fact

that in Christ we have been set free from the law. Now, our salvation through faith by grace, excuse me, yeah, we have been saved by grace through faith. There it is. By grace through faith. It is not mean that we have freedom to sin. It means we have freedom from sin. We are free from the penalty of sin. We are free from the power of sin in our life. And one day in heaven, we will be free from the very presence of sin at all. So don't use your freedom to cause other people to stumble. But love your neighbor as yourself. And then this is where we get to our one another.

if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you were not consumed by one another. In other words, destruction comes when we forget the gospel, when we begin to add to the gospel. And I'm telling you what's happening on these stupid things is all over Christendom right now, that the church is devouring one another. One group says this thing, and one group says that thing, and then there are all these tribes It's just attacking one another and attacking one another and be careful, be careful, be careful. When Christians begin to squabble over things that are not the gospel. And never forget, it's all about a relationship with Jesus through his life, death, and resurrection.

And that relationship with him changes all of our other relationships. But beware of anyone that would add anything to the good news of the simple gospel. that Christ stepped out of heaven, was born on this earth, he lived a perfect life. He died in your place to pay the full debt of your sin. And if you would believe that when he died on the cross, they counted for you, then you would receive eternal life. And when he resurrected from the grave, he put death to death. May we not bite and devour one another squabbling over things that people want to add to that gospel.

This is the gospel. and because that gospel has infected us on the inside, may we live gospel infected lives, may we have all kinds of symptoms like love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. And because of what Christ has done on our behalf, may we spend the rest of our lives taking the good news of this gospel to the ends of this earth. May we be so busy serving the least of these in our community and to the very ends of the earth that we've got no time to bite and devour one another.

because we are pressing on towards the goal that he has set forth for us. May we never be bewitched by any false gospel as if our works earn our salvation, but may we always know we are saved by the finished work of Christ, and once we have put our faith in that gospel, that gospel propels us and compels us to love one another and serve one another and share the gospel with one another. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, I pray.

pray for our church, God. I pray that we would always remain gospel focus, gospel-centered. That we would not let this culture, we would not let false doctrines, we would not let anyone add to this beautiful gospel that you have given us. And Lord, we pray that as we keep our eyes focused on you, focused on Jesus, that we would never bite and devour one another. That we would be humble, we would love one another. We'd be patient with one another. that we would encourage one another and that we would link arm and arm

to do what you have called us to do to take the good news of this gospel to the ends of the earth that we would serve the least of these that everything we did would lift up the name of Jesus for your glory and our joy we pray in in Jesus' name.

Amen. Thank you for joining us for Deepen with Pastor Jobi Martin. If you're looking for additional resources to help you further deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ, visit C-O-E-22.com slash resources. We're praying this message you heard today helps you experience God in a unique and fresh way.

And as always, be free.