%% DATAVIEW_PUBLISHER: start ```dataview TABLE WITHOUT ID this["sermon series"] AS "Series", location AS "Location", subjects AS "Subjects", takeaways AS "Takeaways", this["sermon link"] AS "Sermon Link" WHERE file.path = this.file.path ``` %% | Series | Location | Subjects | Takeaways | Sermon Link | | ---------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- | | [[Allison on Galatians\|Allison on Galatians]] | [[Topics/Emmaus Orthodox Presbyterian Church.md\|Emmaus Orthodox Presbyterian Church]] | <ul><li>[[Library/The Bible (WEB)/00 - About/Subjects in the Bible/Good News.md\|Good News]]</li></ul> | <ul><li>The true Gospel of Christ is the most important Good News you could ever hear. </li></ul> | \- | %% DATAVIEW_PUBLISHER: end %% ## 💡Big Idea >- The true Gospel of Christ is the most important Good News you could ever hear. ### Takeaways and Next Steps - Trust in Christ and nothing else. ## 📖Bible Passage >[!NOTE]+ [^1][[Gal-01#v6|Galatians 1:6-7]] >I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different "[[Good News|good news]]", but there isn't another "good news." Only there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Good News of Christ. [[Gal-01#v7|]] ## Points - The [[Good News]] of Jesus Christ is the best news that has ever come into this world. - Only the gospel tells us about ourselves and our needs - Only the Gospel tells us about God - The Gospel is not an invention from man but a glorious creation from God. - [[Gal-01#v12|Galatians 1.12]] For I didn't receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ. - Only the Gospel allows our relationship with God to be restored. - There are two options that face everyone - Eternal punishment and wrath - Eternal glory beyond the highest flights of the imagination. - That is what is offered in the Gospel. - This is what has moved martyrs and saints and Christians throughout history. - This is what enabled Paul to say *For to me, to live is Christ but to dies is gain.* - The vital question: **How can these blessings become mine?** - How can I know God as my Father? How can I pray to Him with confidence and assurance? How can I become the inheritor and possessor of these wonderful gifts? ### Why this Gospel is most important - this is **the** most important thing that we could ever consider - This matter is so important that Paul withstood Peter, a fellow Apostle of Christ #### The rediscovery of this truth led to the reformation - the Roman Catholics wrongly taught a false Gospel. #### this truth brought faith and joy to saints throughout the centuries - example Peter in Acts 12 - Spurgeon, Whitfield and so many others looked upon the true Gospel and came into the liberty of Christ - [[Gal-02#v16|Galatians 2.16]] yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law. - This is what Paul had to correct Peter on ### What Justification is not - Justification by faith only is the most glorious bit of the Gospel - **What is [[justification]]?** - Why does it matter what it is? - If you not justified before God then you are without hope and lost. - But if you are justified then this is most precious. - What does justification by faith only mean? - [[through faith alone|sola fide]] - What sola fide **is NOT**: - The whole Bible teaches us about this. - Paul hated sola fide for years and persecuted the church. Why? Because he had not discovered how he can become an heir of God. - **Birth is not a qualification.** The Jews thought that they inherit from God simply because of their lineage - **Circumcision** is not a qualification - **Kosher and following the Jewish Law is not a qualification** - Keeping the Law will not make you right with God because you and I will inevitably fail to keep the Law. - [[Rom-03#v20|Romans 3.20]] Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. - [[Rom-10#v3|Romans 10:3-5]] For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn't subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, "The one who does them will live by them." [[Rom-10#v4|]][[Rom-10#v5|]] - He does not say the man who **knows** those things will live by them. He says the man who **does** those things will live. It is not enough to **know** the law. We must live by it. - If you fail to keep even one point of the law then you not be justified by the Law. - Jesus taught that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with **all** your heart, soul, mind and strength. **Who can keep this?** None but Christ. - **Baptism is not qualification** - **Even by being *religious* you cannot be a true Christian** - No man was more religious than Paul. He was zealous for God and yet the whole time he was lost and damned. - Of all those whom God abominates, God abominates these people the most. Those who try to justify themselves. - The circumcision that matters is not outward but inward. We need God to circumcise our hearts. - ## Application - So then how **are** we justified? How then can we become a Christian? **Only God can make you a Christian**. - Only the Judge alone on His throne can declare me justified. - What can I do? I can do nothing except what the tax collector did in Jesus’ parable. He cried out *Lord have mercy on me, a sinner?* - I have no righteous Of my own. And yet He declares me righteous - Does that mean that this judgment is a lie? How can He call me righteous when I am not? - It is because His Son is perfectly righteous. - He has taken all of my sins on Him and Christ has paid the price for me. - And He has taken all of Christ’s righteousness on me and it is as if I had never sinned at all. - What are the tests and proofs that you are justified by faith? - I want you to be [[assurance of salvation|assured]] that you are justified by Him so that you are confident in Him. - [[Gal-03]], and [[Rom-04]] show us. - Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness. - You must believe that you are righteous by Him, despite all the sin in your life. - Trust in Him and nothing else. --- ## Further Study - --- ## 💬Discussion Questions 1. # Footnotes [^1]: