September 15
Isaiah 19:1-21:17 | PS 59:1-17 | Prov 23:13-14 | Gal 2:1-16
How has salvation become all about us and our works and our ability rather than what it really is, all about Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross? One concession, one false teaching, ever so slight, year after year added onto the simple message of grace, and after 2000 years the Christian faith is nearly unrecognizable. The overwhelming majority of those who call themselves Christians if asked, would tell you they are heaven bound because they are a good person. Where is the gospel message in that? Jewish people, years after the destruction of their Temple in AD 70, have changed Yom Kippur away from a sacrifice before God for the atonement of their sins and replaced it with a day of reflection weighing their good works and their bad works, hoping the good works will outweigh the bad ones, making them acceptable to God, yet they should clearly know from Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’” How did they drift so far? Weaken or alter the gospel message even one drop, and it ceases to be the gospel message. This is why being biblically illiterate is so dangerous. Without the Bible as our foundation you will be following a god of your own making, trusting in a salvation which has little to do about Jesus and everything to do with yourself.
Paul understood the danger of this, as he stood firm against those trying to insert changes to the simple gospel message, as we read in Galatians 2:4-5, “And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.” So emphatic was Paul, that he publicly went against Peter on a particular issue which was a compromise on grace, as detailed in 2:11-14. For Paul, and hopefully for us the simplicity of the gospel message should never be toyed or compromised with, as we read in 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
This is what Paul said to all of those who lifted up their works, their goodness as a means of righteousness, in Galatians 2:21, “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” I don’t care how sweet your mother was or how special your child is, if they trust their eternal salvation on their sweetness and being special their destination will not be good. Jesus clearly said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Sorry, the path of salvation by “ good works” leads the majority through the wide gate and onto the wide path that leads to hell. It is so simple. We are sinners, pure and simple. God is perfect. Imperfect sinners can not join a perfect God in heaven unless they are rendered pure. This can only happen by being washed clean by the blood of Jesus. Repentance and acceptance that is the simple gospel message.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: