Synod Sermon by Rev John MacLeod
Galatians 1:9. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
At the very outset of the Epistle, Paul draws attention to his apostleship and the source of his appointment to that office: “Not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead”. This fact seems to do more than hint that a situation had arisen in the churches in Galatia that necessitated his intervention and the assertion of that authority invested in him by the great Head of the Church. In his salutation there is no commendation, no mention of any well doing on their part; it rather suggests that he is writing as one set for “the defence and confirmation of the gospel”.
We all know that Paul was certainly an apostle, called directly by the risen Saviour to that office, having appeared to him as “one born out of due time”. After being arrested on the way to Damascus, and after being led by the hand into the city, Ananias was to be summoned to reveal to him the answer to that enquiry: “What wilt Thou have me to do?” And the answer was that from henceforth he was to be Christ’s chosen vessel, “to bear [His] name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel”. It was in that capacity – as “the Apostle of the Gentiles” – that he came in due time to plant the churches in Galatia. There he had preached the gospel to them, the same gospel as had been committed to the other apostles, who were also directly commissioned by Christ after His resurrection, before His ascension to heaven. When Paul came to be associated with the other apostles, it was found that there was no difference between the doctrine which he preached and the doctrine which the Lord Jesus had instructed them to teach in going forth to disciple all nations, as embraced in His own summary: “all things whatsoever I have commanded you”.
But here in Galatia, hard on the heels of Paul, there had arrived “enemies of the cross of Christ” (as identified by him in another context). But here they are identified as those who troubled the Galatian churches and sought to pervert the gospel – that is, to change it around from being a matter of grace to being a matter of works; in a sense, taking it out of the hands of God and placing it in the hands of men. Paul’s language indicates the seriousness with which he views their departure from what he had taught them and their transferring to, and embracing, the heretical views of the Judaisers. He marvels that they are so soon removed from Him that called them “into the grace
1The sermon preached at the opening of the meetings of Synod in May 2018. It has been significantly edited by Mr MacLeod for publication.
of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another”. The matter at issue here is the sovereignty of God as far as salvation is concerned and that the sinner is not in any sense justified “by the works of the law . . . for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Gal 2:16).
We shall consider: (1.) The gospel which they had received; (2.) What is supposed: the preaching of another gospel to them; (3.) The end of such as preach another gospel: let him be accursed.
1. The gospel which they had received. The gospel which they had received was “the glorious gospel of Christ”, that gospel committed to Paul, that to which he had been separated, and that, as he now reminds them (“so say I now again”), he had faithfully delivered to them when he first arrived among them. He regarded himself as on sure ground, having received it not “of man, neither was [he] taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ”. Having received it from that source, he was to prove himself faithful, from that very moment when visited by Ananias, through whom the answer to his question, “What wilt Thou have me to do?” was provided. Paul was to be faithful as Christ’s “chosen vessel” in preaching it wherever he was directed. He was not only to preach it as he received it, but also to defend it, if and when the occasion required him to do so.
As to the Corinthians, so also to the Galatians, he delivered what he had received. His summary to the Corinthians was “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures”. It is always helpful when brethren are united – of the same mind in defending the truth. It is notable that those who were with Paul at the time when this epistle was written are mentioned in his salutation. As to the matter at issue, Paul does not delay to introduce it. In doing so, he gives us a statement that is perhaps as compact and as emphatic a scripture in regard to the sovereignty of God in man’s salvation as may be found in the whole Bible: “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (Gal 1:3-5).
When his departure was at hand, he was able to leave on record that he had “kept the faith”, and it is for us, as ministers, to be followers of Him, not shunning to declare all the counsel of God, exalting Christ above all, directing attention to Him with a view to persuading hearers to embrace Him as freely offered in the gospel. In handling the Word of God, which we are to commit to others coming after us, we must be careful, as Paul was, not to introduce anything of our own or seek to change anything in order to suit our hearers or to gain the applause of men.
The gospel we have then is Paul’s gospel – the gospel of the grace of God. It taught that we are “justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified”. It was the gospel he had received, and he received it not of man, neither was he taught it, but by direct revelation from heaven. We have the privilege of having that gospel preserved to us by men who proved themselves to be faithful. That is why we are here tonight – because Rev Donald Macfarlane and Rev Donald Macdonald, supported by faithful students such as Neil Cameron, separated from the Declaratory Act Free Church and formed the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The constitution of the Disruption Free Church having been vitiated, they saw the danger the Church was in and that the only way in which they could preserve that constitution inviolate, and the whole doctrine of The Westminster Confession of Faith, was to separate in an orderly manner.
We are here this evening, distinct from other Churches, because they regarded that gospel which was committed to them as that which they were pledged to hand over unimpaired to others coming after them. Woe betide us if we fail to do the same in regard to those coming after us! We are to be on our guard lest Arminianism enter in among us and, for that matter, Hyper-calvinism. Whatever difficulty we may have in reconciling the command to believe and one’s inability to believe, there is no contradiction in the mind of the One who has directed that His gospel be preached in this manner. We must never lose sight of the obligation we are under to preach the free offer of the gospel. In this connection I cannot do better than quote a most clear and succinct statement from the pen of Charles Calder Mackintosh: “It is plain that if any of us shall perish for ever, it is not through want of mercy in God or want of merit in Christ to save us, and it is not through want of the fullest, freest and most gratuitous tender of both to every soul that hears the gospel that we perish, but it is through our own wilful and most criminal contempt of the mercy of God and the Saviour of a lost world”.
If any preach any other gospel unto you who are hearers here tonight; if you hear what amounts to a departure from the gospel that Paul preached, the gospel that was committed to the Apostles, the gospel that Paul committed to Timothy, who, in turn, was to commit it “to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also”, we are confident that you would note that to be the case. If we sense that something has been said that is not consistent with what is written in the Word of God, then we are, Berean-like, to search the Scriptures to find out if these things are indeed so. If error is found, ministers are to become defenders of the gospel and follow Paul, who had the care of so many churches.
2. What is supposed: the preaching of another gospel to them. Hard on the heels of Paul came those who were out to pervert, or to turn around, the gospel of Christ. It was “another gospel: which is not another”. They taught that salvation was not altogether of sovereign grace, but that sinners were able, and under obligation, to make their own contribution; in a sense it was to take it out of the hands of God and place it in the hands of men. Those perverters of the gospel made circumcision a condition of salvation – as well as the observance of other ritual practices, prescribed in the Mosaic law but now abrogated by the coming of Christ and the ushering in of the New Testament dispensation. Some might think that, as the Galatians had not after all returned to heathenish practices, their departure from the gospel of Christ was not all that significant, but the holy, righteous indignation with which Paul condemns it reveals how serious a matter he regarded it.
The error that crept into the churches in Galatia resembles in some measure the errors that were embraced in the Declaratory Act which was passed in 1892 and which one old minister of the past, who is now in glory, summed up in one word: Arminianism. In condemning Arminianism, the late Rev William MacLean wrote a booklet which he entitled Arminianism: Another Gospel, which is worth reading – containing, as it does, much that is valuable for us to receive, to know and to keep in mind. We are not saying that the Galatian heresy exactly fits what we commonly think of as Arminianism, but it fits to this extent, that it was a “partitioning of salvation”, which is William Cunningham’s definition of Arminianism – a dividing of salvation between the sinner and Christ. Such a view reflects adversely on the finished work of Christ, as if it was not sufficient and the sinner was obliged to make his own contribution. That is what was totally rejected by Paul and which we also reject as being inconsistent with the Word of God and our Confession of Faith. It is the religion of the natural man.
The natural man likes to be told that he has some ability of his own. “Rabbi” Duncan opined that “it is a gey come doon”2 for the sinner to be told that he has nothing at all. We hold in honoured remembrance our founding fathers, who discerned the subtle introduction of Arminianism (“another gospel”) in the Declaratory Act. What they stood for and what they defended was what was precious in their eyes, so precious that they forsook all to follow their Master and to do their utmost to hand it down unimpaired to those who would come after them. That accounts for our meeting here this evening as the Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland and, we trust, by the grace of God seeking to adhere to the creed and constitution of the Disruption Free Church of Scotland, of which we are the true heirs.
2It is to be very much brought down (Scots).
3. The end of such as preach another gospel: let him be accursed. Paul uses language that indicates how much he felt it necessary to bring the Galatians to consider the seriousness of their departure from what he had taught and maintained among them. He marvels that they had so soon departed from what he had preached while present with them. It was as if they had been bewitched and that accounted for their failure to obey the gospel. They did not lack light, for it was not a glimmering taper, as Hugh Martin has it, that had been lit among them, but the sun shining in its strength. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor 4:3-4). Satan, posing as an angel of light, had come with his agents hard on Paul’s heels, and Paul identifies them in another context as “enemies of the cross of Christ”.
But Paul says, “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that we have preached unto you, let him be accursed”. How solemn! What a fearful state awaits Christless ministers who do not bring the gospel of the grace of God! It is a fearful thing for a sinner to fall into the hands of the living God, if he passes from time to eternity without having undergone a saving change. But how much more shall be the condemnation or the judgement passed on ministers who have taken upon themselves to preach the gospel of Christ, if they do not preach it faithfully, as Paul did, not shunning to declare “all the counsel of God”.
The glory of the Divine Redeemer was affected by what the Judaisers taught and, in view of this, Paul is repeating with solemn emphasis what he had already said to them: “As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed”. What great care must be exercised by all who take upon themselves to handle the Word of God. It is no light matter to be found in a pulpit. We have to give account to Him before whose judgement seat we are to appear and who is making known beforehand that to add to, or to take away from, the doctrine of His holy Word merits His holy displeasure. Calvin thinks that Paul is referring to excommunication rather than final perdition, but we know that, in the absence of repentance, such “false apostles” will surely hear these dread words sounding in their ears: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”.
There is a momentously important statement at the end of the Bible that should sink right down deep into our ears and, in conclusion, I quote it here: “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the
plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen” (Rev 22:18-21).