August 17, 2025 | Counterfeit Cures

Counterfeit Cures | Galatians Part 2

Galatians 1:6–10

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. But even if 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. (ESV)

In his sermon Counterfeit Cures on Galatians 1:6–10, Jed Gillis warns that false gospels are like dangerous “cures” that promise healing but lead to destruction. Just as misguided treatments in history brought death instead of health, spiritual counterfeits threaten the soul. Paul’s strong language to the Galatians shows how serious it is to desert God’s grace in Christ and turn to distorted teachings. Gillis explained that adding anything to the gospel—law-keeping, approval, prosperity, pleasure, productivity, or even tradition—changes it into something that no longer saves or gives rest. These substitutes may look good or feel religious, but they can’t bring peace because they always demand more and offer no forgiveness when we fail. Only the true gospel of Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, provides lasting relief, forgiveness, and rest. Gillis urged listeners to recognize the “counterfeit cures” they might chase and to hold fast to God’s unmerited grace, the only real good news.

Transcript of Counterfeit Cures | Galatians Part 2

Galatians chapter one, and we're gonna pick up in, in verse six in just a minute. Before we do that, curious, does anybody recognize the name Linda Hazard? I kind of guessed not. Good to see I anticipated that right.

In the early 19 hundreds in a small town in Washington State, really late 18 hundreds into the early 19 hundreds, there was a woman named Linda Hazard. And people would come to her because they were dealing with various physical or mental maladies, and she believed all of those issues came from impure blood because of digestive issues. So her cure that she would prescribe was to pursue, uh, radical extended fasts as well as other means to purge the body.

And eventually her facility became known as Starvation Heights. After numerous deaths from starvation, she was criminally investigated. She became labeled by some as the state of Washington's first female serial killer.

But the story is even a little more sad than that. It's not merely that she was vicious or cruel, although arguably she was, but she actually believed the false cure that she presented. Later, she died from attempting the same treatment for herself. So Pastor Jed, what on earth does that have to do with Galatians?

Well, humanity after the fall is hopelessly sick, and if we don't diagnose the problem correctly. We won't pursue the right cures and not everything that claims to be a cure is helpful. False cures can in fact be fatal. Just like with Linda Hazzard.

Troubled by False Teachers

As we begin this book, there's a group of false teachers who have been troubling the churches of Galatia. You see at the beginning of this chapter, it's not just one church of Galatians, it's the churches of Galatia and. These false teachers have been troubling them.

In order to do that, they didn't have to look like enemies. They didn't have to be malicious or cruel in their intent. All they had to do to challenge and shake and trouble the churches of Galatia was to distort, or we could translate that word, reverse the gospel of grace through Jesus Christ. But Paul knew what these false teachers brought was in fact not a cure. It was actually deadly.

Reading Galatians 1:6-10

So we pick up what he said in verse six. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to, 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 we preach to you, let him be a cursed, 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 a cursed.

Who Were the Galatians?

Paul doesn't start with a lot of pleasantries. In the book of Galatians, he has a quick introduction, which we looked at last week. But this weighs on his heart so much, and I think there's probably some historic reasons for that. I didn't address this last week, but when you think about, well, who are these people?

We know the letter to the Romans was written to the church at Rome. Well, what are, what's the churches of Galatia? What is that? Well, there's a couple theories and you could go read people who debate different ones. One of them, they'll call the the Southern Galatian Theory. That means there's a geographic region of Galatia and Paul's writing to that group saying I the churches that are in this geographic region.

That's one theory. The other theory is a, a northern theory where instead of Galatians referring to a geographic area, it refers to an ethnic group. Now, the term Galatians can be used either way. I'm not gonna get into all the details of the argument. If you want to find 'em, you can either look 'em up or come talk to me and I, I'll share some more with you.

I think the Southern one makes sense more sense with what Paul says when he writes. So I'm assuming this is the, the geographical location, which, if that's the case, when we look in the book of Acts, we also see that these would've been some of the first converts Paul went to on his missionary journeys.

Paul's Care for the Galatians

And you know, when you, when you travel and you go to some of the, the first people you connect with, there's a special place in your heart for those people. I'm sure Paul cared about all the people he went and preached the gospel to, but there was a sense that he looked at them with fondness. You were the, some of the first people I preached this gospel to as I traveled, and they had responded well.

And so that's why here it's like he doesn't have time to go through some of the, the pleasantries and all the other conversations. He just says, I am astonished. I'm blown away. I'm bewildered. I'm shocked that you have left this gospel that is so good that I taught you and you are at least in danger of deserting it.

It's not an emotionless theological treatise. Paul's writing to people he loves and he cares about, and he knows what it will mean for them if they accept this different gospel. We'll come back to that in just a minute. If they accept what these false teachers are teaching them, he knows what it will mean for them.

Paul's Strong Language

In this language, it's, it's all strong. I'm astonished. That's not a small word, right? That is that he's not using it merely for effect. He's like, I can't believe this. This is terrible. Later he'll say, oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Paul's view of the gospel of grace is that it is so good that for you to take anything that would distort that gospel, you'd have to be under some kind of evil spell.

That's what that language is used. Therefore, I'm astonished who's bewitched you. The language of you are so quickly deserting him. We use that word still for the same reason they use the Greek word deserting. Someone as a soldier is among the worst things you could do. That's what he's referring to. It's the same word for when a soldier says, forget it. I'm deserting. Or when when a traitor. When a Benedict Arnold. When a turncoat leaves, this is the word that the Greeks would use for it. You are deserting or you're in danger of deserting the army of betraying the one who should have your allegiance.

It says I'm and, and notice it's not merely you're in danger of leaving a theological idea. Notice the way he words it in verse six. I'm astonished you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ. I'm astonished you're leaving the God of grace. Paul's saying, I told you about God's grace. Why would you leave something so good? It's so serious that Paul makes some of his strongest statements.

Let False Teachers be Accursed

In verse eight and nine. If, if we as an apostle, so if the Apostle Paul walks in, that's what he's saying, okay. If I come in and tell you anything but the grace of God through Jesus Christ, if I teach any other kind of gospel, let me be condemned to hell. That's what a curse means.

If anyone else, and he says it twice, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, it's the right place to use this language. Let him be damned to hell. That's literally what Paul is saying. Not in a flippant way. In a very serious way. He's saying, if you mess with the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of grace through Jesus, that he's already described in verse four, the one who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.

He loves the Galatians so much. He knows the only cure for what's wrong in their souls is the gospel of grace from Jesus Christ. So he says, listen, you listen very carefully. If someone messes up the gospel, let 'em be cursed.

What Does "Gospel" Mean?

So if this is so important, we need to pause and say, wait, what? What is a gospel? I don't mean just what is the gospel, like the gospel of Jesus? That's one question. But Paul uses the term gospel here as a, as a category. He says they're bringing to you a different gospel, and he says it's not really different.

We'll, we'll talk about that in a second, but he's using it as a category. He's saying there's a kind of announcement that is a gospel. A gospel is is a message. The word literally means good news. A gospel is a message, an announcement of good news that is supposed to impact your life. It's supposed to give you relief or rest from something.

You know, it's not really good news for you if it doesn't impact you. If I were to tell you that somewhere, somewhere around the world, there's someone who just received this incredible gift and now they used to be poor and now they're rich, you might think, well, that's cool, but it's not really good news for you.

Like it's good news for them, but if it doesn't impact your life, it's not good news for you. So a gospel. It's a message, an announcement of good news that is supposed to give you relief or rest or joy in some way.

Now there's a couple types. It's a type of good news to say, here's a future hope. If I were to tell you, life's gonna be miserable for the next 30 years, but at the end of that, it's gonna be the best you could have imagined. Well, you say that's good news, but it's not the kind of news I really want to hear.

I'd prefer some better news if I were to tell you. The good news is that the wrongs you have done aren't held against you, but now you've gotta, you've gotta live really good now and make sure you don't have any other problems. If you're accused of a crime and you go in and the judge says, we're gonna throw this out as your first offense.

You don't need to pay this ticket, et cetera, you say, great, thank you. That is good news. But then he looks at you and says, don't do it again, because otherwise you'll face the penalty. But it's good news.

But I'd argue it's not the best Good news. I think the best good news that we could have is the kind that gives rest to our soul boast in the past and the present and the future. That's what the best good news would be.

The False Gospel of Following the Mosaic Law

So if a gospel is an announcement of good news, here's how you can get rest in your soul. Then we need to look at what is actually being taught. He's clearly angry about what they're teaching. So let's call these people for the moment. I'm gonna call them the, the agitators, because literally the word here that says, uh, they are troubling you in verse seven. That's the root we get. Something is agitated, it's shaken.

So what are these false teachers, these agitators coming in and teaching? Well, we can look, as we go throughout the book, we'll see some more things, but some of what we see is they're teaching them to follow the Mosaic law. The law given to Moses specifically, it included circumcision as part of connecting to God's promises through Abraham.

But also later, he said, he speaks to the Galatians. Paul says, you're observing days and months and seasons. He's like, you're observing these ritual calendar events as if that's what gives you favor with God. You've turned from thinking, I received this purely through grace, and you're thinking now this obedience, this performance of the right rituals is what gives me favor or fuller blessing from God.

So the Galatians are faced with a confusing dilemma. I want you to put yourself in in their shoes. First off, this is a fairly early book. That means you had the Old Testament and maybe you had a copy or two of one of the gospels, or maybe you've heard one of 'em and read one. Or most likely in the early church, you probably can't read. So somebody read to you. So you have really limited amount of information and most of what you have is the Old Testament.

And then Paul has come and he's taught you grace. He's taught you the gospel and you say, this is wonderful. I want the gospel. Praise God for that. Now, Paul's gone on. Paul's co-laborers have gone on and here comes in our modern world, we'll say, here comes some guys who just look slick.

They've got, they've got their suits on. They look polished and put together. They say, oh, by the way, we're from Jerusalem. They probably didn't speak with a Southern accent, but we'll go with it. We're from Jerusalem. James, Peter. Yeah, we know them. Peter's our friend. You can't jump online and double check this, right?

You can't go, oh, I've got Peter on speed dial. Let me call and see what's going on in Jerusalem. You don't have any way to do that. All you know is Paul taught me this great message and he told me that we need to grow in maturity and learn more about how to live with God. Okay, great. Here comes some people who say they know James and Peter and they're telling us, here's what you need to do.

Yes, Paul gave you the gospel, but they want to either slight either change it or add to it, which also changes it. By coming and saying, you need to live, perform in a certain way in order to have like the next level of Christianity. The gospel's great, fine, but there's something better deeper. That's what these teachers are doing.

Adding to the Gospel Changes the Gospel

They're shaking the Galatians by saying, here's a way you can enter a second tier of Christian experience. They're telling him, in order to really have God's power and favor and blessing in your life, the gospel isn't enough.

Remember we said Grace is unmerited favor, not just unmerited forgiveness and not just unmerited tolerance, but grace through the, through Jesus is God shows undeserved favor to you.

So these teachers come and they say, yeah, that's how it starts. But if you wanna stay in God's favor or be in God's favor, so much more full in a deeper way, here's what you have to do. This happens all the time. People add to the gospel all the time, and it's appealing to us because we all wanna be deeper with God, right?

We all say, yeah, I, I wanna go deeper, but the pathway to being deeper with God. It is not to put aside the gospel. It's not to go deeper somewhere else because the gospel's not sufficient. It's to go deeper into the gospel and its implications for your lives. We never graduate from God's grace. Those of you who have walked with God for a long time, you know this.

You don't graduate from God's grace. You go deeper in your understanding of his grace. You don't go from, well, I was saved by unmerited favor, but now I earn this. And that's not Christian maturity. That's not deeper. Some of the people in this room can tell you, I know so much more now how I don't deserve God's favor than I did when I started.

And yet, I love God's favor so much more than I did when I started. They didn't start at the gospel, go somewhere else. They went deeper in the gospel. But these agitators, these troublers, they're coming to Galatians who don't have the New Testament. They can't jump on a phone call with Peter or Paul and check, and they've started to wonder.

A Different Kind of Gospel

The way he talks about the gospel here is instructive because he says in verse six, you are turning to a different gospel. Now the, the word there for different is that there's another gospel of a different kind. He's not really saying, here's gospel A, here's gospel B. They're the same. He's saying the true gospel's.

Here you're turning to another announcement that says you can have rest or relief. Another thing that claims to be good news, and he emphasizes, he says, it's not really another one, verse seven. Not that there is another one. The word for another there is, is another of the same kind. So he starts with this.

He says, you're turning to a different gospel, another of a different kind. And he emphasizes not that there's another of the same kind. There's a million ideas out there where people will say, here's how you find rest for your soul. They're all over the place. What Paul's doing here is saying the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ is not like those.

It's a separate category, but the Galatians are tempted to turn to something else. It's claimed as a gospel. Here's good news. That's what these teachers are doing. They're saying, we've got good news for you, but actually it's undermining grace. We see this later in chapter two in his correction, and we'll get to this in a few weeks.

Paul says, I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Says, look what they're teaching you would nullify, would make the grace of God unimportant. They're undermining God's grace.

Later in chapter five, he says, if you want to keep the law, you're severed from Christ. He says, you can't have both, which makes sense, right? You can't have the joy of purely undeserved favor while also saying. I have to do this to deserve favor. They can't fit together, but that's precisely what the false teachers are trying to do.

If You Add to the Gospel, You Don't Have the Gospel Anymore

I want to tell you, Paul is pointing out if any gospel. Any good news, here's how you can live your life and find rest and relief in the past, in the present, in the future. If any gospel that you hear removes the unmerited favor of God, the grace of God as the basis and the means of your approval, it's not the same kind of gospel as the grace of Christ.

Paul drives this again in the strongest language he can. When he says in verse seven, some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ, literally want to reverse the gospel of Christ.

In our modern, pluralistic world, we're. We're so wired to think here's a good suggestion, but if I go online, I can find all kinds of good suggestions. So maybe there'll be something good here and something good here and something good here to add. Paul's saying you can't do that with the gospel because when you add something to the gospel of Jesus, you don't have the gospel of Jesus anymore.

So anything that replaces the gospel so changes God's message that it's not good news anymore, but not just replaces. Let's go a step further. In verse eight, he says, if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you literally the construction here in Greek is a gospel set alongside.

It's contrary, not in the sense that they're saying absolute opposite things, but he's drawing your attention to something that says, if the good news is I can be approved by God's favor alone. If you set anything else alongside that, you no longer have the good news.

Putting Conditions on the Gospel Depletes the Gospel of It's Meaning

Think about it this way. Think about human relationships. If you say, husbands, don't try this, but husbands, if you said to your wife, I love you, no matter what happens unconditionally all the time, you can say that, that's fine. Don't say the next part, and I'll love you as long as you, you know, have dinner ready at this time, every day.

The first statement doesn't mean anything anymore, does it? See, you can't put unmerited unconditional grace alongside performance to earn favor. They do not work together. Whatever you put there, it could be dinner, it could be a clean house. It could be working your job well, it could be parenting, it could be trips to school. It doesn't matter. Whatever you put alongside undeserved grace and unconditional love makes it no longer undeserved grace or unconditional love.

When he says the gospel contrary, he's saying not only the obvious things where somebody comes along and says, no, it's not the gospel of Jesus Christ. You have to do good works, and if you're good outweighs your bad, then therefore you can be right with God. That's obviously against the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But he's also saying when someone comes alongside and says, yes, the gospel of Jesus Christ, but if you wanna really enjoy the deeper favor of God that you don't quite have yet, then the gospel of Jesus plus.

That's the strongest language Paul gives. Paul says, look, if you claim to endorse the gospel, but put something else alongside it, that's when he says, let them be cursed because it changes what the gospel actually is.

Two Contradictory Cures Ends in Death

For years, the primary treatment for malaria was quinine, and it worked sometimes fairly often.

But sometimes it didn't work completely. So doctors would also prescribe, this sounds like a terrible idea, but they would prescribe arsenic compounds, which also when used correctly medically did some good, but when they would treat malaria with quinine and arsenic compounds. Both of those attack your neurological system.

I don't know how all that works. Somebody else can give you the scientific pathway, but people would die from a good cure and actually a pretty good cure over here. For some things used together,

Paul knew that in adding anything alongside the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ. The false teachers were adding arsenic to the cure of the gospel. He knew it was fatal. That's why he's so strong and says, I'm astonished. Don't desert. Let those be a curse to her doing this. 'cause he knew it would not give them rest for their souls.

It was no longer good news.

Some Potential False Cures that Tempt Us

So this morning we all feel at times unrest. We all feel the weight. We feel guilt, we feel shame in different ways. We need a gospel, a good news that says, here's how I deal with that. Where are we tempted to look? What cures do we look towards? And as we go through, the book of Galatians will see the specific false teachings that these teachers are teaching, and we'll see how Paul directly addresses it.

But this morning what I want to do is just go through some potential. False cures. Ask yourself, do I look to these things to give me relief or rest in my soul?

Man's Approval

We might have the approval gospel. I think if people approve of me, then my soul can rest. It might be something like this.

Uh, Ray Orland and his commentary on Proverbs described modern humanity this way. Here's our manmade religion. Our God is human approval. Our heaven is the spotlight. Our hell is bad reviews, and our ritual of worship is keeping up appearances.

That's one gospel, gospel. It's one good news. Here's how you can have rest be good enough that the people around you approve of you. We can try that. We might think I'm smarter than that. I don't care what other people think about me because it might be my own approval that I'm actually living for.

When we think we're succeeding, I think people do approve of me. We can be so afraid that I'll slip up. See if all your energy, if your soul is okay, because you keep up appearances. You have to be terrified that you might not keep up appearances.

Have you ever been worried that people might find you out? They might decide you're just an imposter. What are we looking to for rest in our souls? When we think we're succeeding, we're afraid we'll slip up. When we think we failed, we have to hide it because the good news for our soul when we look to approval, the good news is not one of grace and forgiveness. It's one of performance. And measuring up the gospel of approval asks more than you can give. And it crushes you when you fail.

Prosperity Gospel

That doesn't sound like good news, so let's try a different one. Maybe we have the prosperity gospel and we think if I measure up, if I live a good enough life, then I'll get stuff. And if I have the right stuff, then my soul can rest. Now we define being good enough or measuring up in a thousand different ways.

We say, well, if I give enough to people, if I attend church, if I'm basically kind to people, if I avoid major sins, like we can define it all kinds of different ways. But the essence of the good news is if I live the right way, then I'll have the right stuff. Then I'll have rest in my soul, or I have rest in my soul because I'm in control. The way I live determines my experience.

But this gospel suffers the same problems as approval. How much is enough for my soul to rest? When do I say I've done enough good things? So now I get the good stuff and I just relax? Well, when do I ever get to that point? I don't. What happens if I fail?

Say the prosperity gospel sounds good until you're coming back after you've messed up a lot and say, uhoh, that's not a good sign for the rest of my life. That's not good news. And then our experiences raises questions too, because you look around and see people who lived good lives seemingly, but they suffer. And you see people who lived awful lives and they seem to prosper.

Pleasure

So we say, maybe it's not about the stuff I possess. Maybe it's not about controlling that. We'll call it the the pleasure gospel. When I need rest for my soul, I'll just go to the right places and I'll just be a consumer and enjoy what I can find.

In this case, our God is really ourselves. Our heaven is pleasure. Our hell is suffering. And our ritual of worship could look like all kinds of things. Maybe it's drugs and excessive alcohol. Maybe it's pornography or mindless, sinful entertainment. Maybe it's food or laziness, whatever gives us pleasure. This is one good news claims to be. Here's all you have to do. Enjoy whatever you enjoy and that'll give your soul rest. But we know better, don't we Say when Is it ever enough?

You eat the best steak you've ever had, and the pleasure is just unimaginably good. And guess what? Tomorrow you're hungry. It's always true. Enjoyment of God's good. Gifts is wonderful, but it will not give us rest in our souls, and if we look to it as if it will, it's just a counterfeit cure that's deadly.

If we take the gospel and put alongside it pleasure, or approval or prosperity, we find the gospel is no longer really good news. Because we polluted it.

Productivity

Well, then we say, what about the the productivity gospel? You guys can imagine what that might sound like. If I can accomplish enough things, then my soul will have rest.

If I can get the to-do list whittled down enough, then I'll rest or a very end of this. If I get the career I want and find fulfillment in that, then my soul can find rest. In this case, our, our God is efficiency. Our heaven is a finished project. Our hell is being overwhelmed, and our ritual of worship is just accomplishing the next task.

Many of those things can be good. Approval can be wonderful. Pleasure is one of God's gifts. Prosperity is one of God's gifts. Productivity is a good thing from God, but if that's what is going to make your soul be okay, that's gonna give you rest. It gives you refuge and relief from the difficulties and challenges. It will never do it.

It doesn't work because again, it's never enough. Have you noticed your to-do list? Always repopulates? It always does. It's never enough. And what about the days when you say, I just messed it all up? All I did was add things. I didn't accomplish anything. It's never enough. And there's no forgiveness when you fail.

So then we say it's not about the amount of things, it's if I can just accomplish the things that I do well enough. Right? It's not gonna be the productivity gospel. It's like the excellence gospel. I'm only gonna do one thing, but it's gonna be great. My soul will rest in that. No, it won't.

Rest

So we swing the pendulum again. We say, okay, I know productivity can't help me. If I accomplish it really well, that doesn't give me rest in my soul. So I'm gonna learn from others' mistakes. I'm gonna work on my work life balance. We have this kind of self-care gospel that says I'll just take enough things off my to-do list.

If I can just retire early, not have to accomplish anything, then my soul will find rest. But like all of these gospels, it might work for a time, but eventually you find it's never enough for your soul to be satisfied and for your soul to rest, and there's no forgiveness when you fail.

Humans are magnificently and sometimes sinfully creative. We can come up with all kinds of things to put alongside the gospel of the grace of Jesus.

Sincerity

We might put sincerity there. Call it the sincerity gospel. I know I don't measure up in everything. I know I'm not perfect, but I'm sincere, so my soul's gonna be okay. I'm glad you're sincere. I don't want you to be hypocritical or lying. But that's not what's going to give you rest in your soul. It's just an attempt to control my unrest by performing the right way, I can't measure up so I lower the bar as far as I have to so that it works.

I maybe we put alongside the gospel of the grace of Jesus, we put alongside different versions of tradition. That's where I'm gonna take refuge.

Nostalgia

Maybe it's simple nostalgia. I wanna live in the good old ways. There was a country song that said I Miss Mayberry, where everything was black and white. Yeah.

Why does that appeal to us? Part of it appeals to us because we say my soul is okay if things are familiar enough. It feels in control. My rest in my soul. Maybe it's cultural tradition, maybe it's personal tradition. This is just the way my family did it. Maybe it's religious tradition. We always sing these songs, not other ones.

We look to, this is the teaching I've heard, and I can't examine that and see if it's right or wrong.

We look back and say, my soul may not really be at rest. But the way we've always done it is good enough to be close to rest.

Only Jesus Can Give You Rest

Again, these things cannot be said alongside the gospel. I don't think you can hear Paul this say, I don't think you can hear Paul's words and over-exaggerate the importance of what he's saying. He's saying in the biggest terms he can. The gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ is what gives rest for your soul.

And if you put anything alongside it, the gospel plus this, it's no longer the gospel and it will not give you rest in your soul. False gospels only have power because they tap into some truth and pervert it. Some of the things I just listed are very good gifts from our father. I am glad we have 2000 years of believers who have tried to follow him.

I'm glad we have multiple generations in this room. There are good traditions. I am glad that we can look back and say, God has given me good things to enjoy. God has given me approval with him and with his people. I am glad for these things. There are great, wonderful things, but every one of them has the same kinds of problems.

They cannot give rest for our souls, and if we try to say the gospel plus this, we'll just find that It's like adding arsenic compounds to quinine. It doesn't heal our souls. We find ourselves in bondage.

We Are Tempted From Multiple Angles

And I think if we were only faced with one false gospel, we'd see through it pretty quickly. We know if you take an empty glass and try to drink from it, it won't satisfy your thirst first.

And if I were to tell you the rest for your soul comes through having enough money, you'd say, nah, I know better. If I picked any one of those and said, this is what will make your soul have relief and rest that you can just count on for all of your life. You'd say, no, it doesn't work like that. But I'm afraid sometimes we think the empty glass won't satisfy my thirst, but maybe if I sip out of 40 different empty glasses, I'll be satisfied.

So what we do, we feel the unrest in our souls. We feel I don't measure up. We feel, I don't even approve of myself, so we try to work a little harder. When that doesn't work, we try to work a little more. When that doesn't work, we chase a little pleasure. When that doesn't work, we do some good works. When that doesn't work, we try to find something that just feels good to numb us.

We chase all of these different things in little tastes, and what starts out trying to work hard and do good works may end in. Bitterness vengeful thoughts, addiction, because we're trying to find something to give our souls peace and none of them work. That's because we turned from the God of grace.

Remember, he doesn't say. Merely, you've deserted the gospel. He says You are quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ? These are teachers from Jerusalem J. They're Jews who are troubling them. They're the religious people. They're the God-fearing people. That's what they claim. They come along saying, yeah, good.

Glad you have what you have, but I want to help you go deeper and understand how your performance really earns you favor with God. It's the religious looking people who are troubling them. The church's greatest enemies are never, it's persecutor. They're people who pervert and twist the true gospel.

If you don't believe that. Go look at what's happened in the Chinese church as persecution comes or around the world throughout history. External persecution is terrible, but it doesn't eat at the church the way perversion of the gospel does.

You can't add anything to the gospel of Jesus Christ as a way of earning favor with God. You can't add church attendance. You can't add fasting. You can't add prayer. Say, whoa. Prayer's a good thing, right? Yes, of course. But if you pray because you think that is going to earn you favor with God, you are missing the joy and the comfort of the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ.

If you think church attendance makes God say, you know, I actually do like that person. You're deserting the grace of God through Jesus. I, God can and does use things like prayer, but prayer is not a gatekeeper for his favor, God shows unmerited favor. Every good news that we've talked about, every false gospel you can find, other than the grace of Christ, it only brings a curse. They're thieves, they steal rest from your soul. They don't give it.

Reality Crushes False Gospels

But in our experience, we know reality relentlessly crushes false gospels. Whatever you say, I'll find rest in this. If it's not Jesus, just give it time. You'll see it won't work. That's because every one of them has the same two problems. They're never enough and there's no forgiveness when you fail. They cannot be good news.

So like Paul says, a little different context in Romans seven, he says, oh, wretched man that I am. Do you feel that you say, I do rush to this false gospel and this one and this one and this one, and they never seem to work. It's awful. Who will deliver me from this body of death? And Paul and Romans has given that answer.

Grace And Peace Only Come through the Gospel of Jesus

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. I He's also already given that answer in Galatians grace to you and peace from God our father. The false gospels are never enough. We already talked about it this morning. Jesus said It is finished. It's enough when you say, I don't measure up, and my soul feels that, but Jesus said he did measure up and it is finished. It is enough.

Enough for what? Enough for God to be satisfied. If he's satisfied, I think we're okay. Enough to absorb all of God's wrath on our sins so that he is not tolerating us. He's completely for us, enough for us to be approved or to be justified.

The false gospels are never enough and there's no forgiveness when you fail. The true gospel of Jesus Christ, Jesus said is enough, and what happens when we fail? We confess and we find an advocate with God, Jesus before his throne. We have a God who announces himself in Exodus. He's a God who's merciful and gracious, who keeps steadfast love.

We have a God who died for us while we were sinners, so our future sin can't turn him against us because he knew about all of that. And we were sinners when he died. For us. Unlike every false gospel, the gospel of God's grace, his unmerited favor towards everyone who trusts in him does not leave you straining for a little bit more and wallowing in guilt.

The gospel of God's grace says it is enough, and our savior's forgiveness is sufficient.

So grace to you. And peace and rest. The real gospel gives you rest in your souls. Romans five says, therefore, having been justified by faith, by our reliance on him, we have peace with God.

Peace that is enough to give you rest in your soul. And as he said, we overflow in worship To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

So I want to ask you, what gospel are you functionally believing? How many of those false gospels or hundreds others we could chase, do you find your soul swinging towards? If I could just have this, then my soul could rest.

They might look religious. They might look like good works. They might look like ugly sins. You'd rather stay hidden and no one knew about.

But the invitation is there's only one real gospel. Real good news. Come to the savior who is enough. And who forgives you when you fall? I wanna invite you just to take a minute wherever God's spirit has brought conviction to you, wherever you recognize struggles in your heart, would you run to Jesus trust in God's unmerited favor for you?

I'll ask the music team to come back up, and then we'll sing together and rejoice in the goodness of Jesus.