Fishkill Baptist Church
Sunday May 3, 2026

      • Isaiah 1:18KJV1900

      • Psalm 66:1–5ESV

  • All The Earth
  • Christus Victor (Amen)

      • Galatians 3:1–3NIV2011

      • Colossians 2:2–3NIV2011

  • Living Hope
  • This I Believe (The Creed)
  • Doxology
  • Intro: Theme/Topic (What’s the problem, the question, etc.)
    Earlier this week, my oldest daughter and I were excited to sit down and watch one of the Celtics playoff games together.
    We saw the game was available on Peacock, so, we fired up the app and navigated the menu to find the game — but instead of seeing the game… we hit a wall.
    It said the game was available—but only if you had the “Plus” subscription.
    Apparently, what we had… wasn’t enough.
    We had access—but not full access. We were in—but not all the way in. If we wanted the real thing, we needed something more.
    This experience was very disappointing and frustrating!
    But that’s how these subscription services work, isn’t it?
    You sign up. You get started. But then you keep seeing all the things you don’t have:
    “Unlock premium features”
    “Upgrade for full access”
    “You’re missing out…”
    And slowly, it starts to feel like what you have… isn’t really enough.
    Like you’re using a limited sub par version.
    And if we’re honest, that’s how many people experience the Christian life.
    We believe the gospel. We’ve trusted in Christ. But somewhere along the way, we start to feel like:
    This can’t be the whole thing. There must be something more. Something’s missing.
    But what was happening in the Galatian churches Paul writes to was even more serious than that.
    They weren’t just being told, “Upgrade your experience.”
    They were being told,
    “What you have isn’t enough to count.”
    “Yes, you believe in Jesus—that’s good… but unless you add circumcision, unless you keep the law, you’re not really part of God’s people.”
    In other words:
    Jesus is necessary… but not sufficient.
    And if we’re honest, while we may not say that out loud… we can start to live like it’s true.
    So here’s the question we need to wrestle with this morning:

    Can we trust the gospel we’ve received—and is it really enough, or do we need something more?

    Now, to answer that question, we need to understand what we’re reading.
    When we open Galatians, we’re reading someone else’s mail.
    This is a real letter, written to real churches, dealing with a real crisis.
    This is one of the earliest letters written by the Apostle Paul—likely not long after his first missionary journey we looked at recently in Acts.
    These were churches Paul himself had planted on his first missionary journey—places like Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.
    We’ve seen these people come to faith.
    But after Paul left, other teachers came in—who are often called the Judaizers.
    They claimed to believe in Jesus, but they were teaching that faith in Jesus alone was not enough. That if Gentiles really wanted to belong to God’s people, they needed to adopt the Jewish law—starting with circumcision.
    Luke writes about them in Acts 15 saying…
    Acts 15:1 ESV
    But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
    Acts 15:5 ESV
    …and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”
    And in doing this, they weren’t just distorting the gospel—they were also undermining Paul himself.
    Because if they could convince these believers that Paul wasn’t a legitimate apostle, then they could convince the Galatians that his gospel wasn’t trustworthy.
    And Paul sees this for what it is.
    This isn’t a small disagreement. This isn’t a secondary issue.
    When you tamper with the gospel, you don’t just tweak Christianity—
    you lose it.
    So with that in mind, let’s turn to our text for this morning: Galatians 1:1–5.
    If you need to use a pew Bible, you’ll find today’s text on page 1154. Once you’re there, please stand with me if you are able and follow along with me as I read...
    Galatians 1:1–5 ESV
    Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
    This God’s Word!
    Prayer
    Father may the light of Your Word shine on our hearts this morning that we may see the beauty of Jesus and Your Grace poured out lavishly to us through Him. And may this grace not only save us but may it transform us. We ask this in Jesus name — Amen!
    Intro: Formal (give context to passage, setting the scene, big idea)
    Now at first glance, what we just read might seem like a standard introduction—just a greeting.
    But this is actually the longest opening Paul gives in any of his letters.
    And that’s because this letter is loaded.
    Even in these opening lines, Paul is already giving us a preview of everything he’s about to address:
    His authority as an apostle
    The divine origin of the gospel
    The centrality of grace
    In fact, Paul actually begins and ends this letter with Grace — It’s the bookends that hold this letter together.
    And for Paul, grace is what it’s all about. He uses this word 7x in the six chapter in Galatians.
    He uses it 100x across all his New Testament writings — That’s almost twice as many times as all the other NT writers combined!
    But before Paul confronts these churches… before he corrects them…
    He lays the foundation.
    And it brings us right back to the question we asked a moment ago:

    Can we trust the gospel we’ve received—and is it really enough, or do we need something more?

    Here’s the answer Paul begins to give us right from the start:

    We can trust the gospel because it comes from God.
And it is enough for us because the grace that frees us is the grace we need to live it out.

    And in these opening verses, I want to show you 3 things Paul is showing us here:
    A Gospel We Can Trust
    A Grace We Don’t Earn
    A Freedom We Live In
    That’s where we’re going this morning.
    Let’s start with verse 1…

    A Gospel We Can Trust

    Notice immediately how Paul begins:
    “Paul, an apostle…”
    That’s not just a nice greeting—that’s an intentional claim.
    And it’s a claim we need to understand.
    The word apostle simply means “sent one.” But in the New Testament, it has a much more specific meaning.
    John Stott defines an apostle this way:

    “A special messenger, with a special status, enjoying an authority and commission that came from a body higher than himself.”

    In other words, an apostle is not just someone who is sent—they are someone who is sent with authority.
    Jesus Himself used this title.
    From among all His disciples, He chose twelve, called them apostles, and sent them out as His official representatives.
    They were:
    Personally chosen by Jesus
    Directly taught by Jesus
    Specifically commissioned by Jesus
    And authorized to speak in His name
    This is a small, unique, and unrepeatable group.
    And that’s important.
    Because Paul is claiming to belong to that group.
    And notice—he elaborates on this more here than in any of his other letters.
    Why?
    Because his apostleship was being questioned.
    But understand—this isn’t about Paul protecting his reputation or pride.
    This is about protecting the gospel.
    Because if they can discredit Paul… they can dismiss his message.
    So Paul says in verse 1:
    His apostleship is, “not from men nor through man…”
    That’s emphatic.
    He’s saying:
    “I was not appointed by a committee.” “I was not authorized by the other apostles.” “No human being put me in this position.”
    Instead:
    “through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead…”
    His authority is directly from God.
    Not indirectly. Not secondhand. Not passed along.
    Divine.
    And that’s the point.
    Paul defends his authority because the gospel’s authority is at stake.
    If his message is from man— it can be debated, adjusted, and improved.
    But if it’s from God—
    it must be received, trusted, and obeyed.
    ———————————————————-
    Now, we need to be clear here:
    There are no apostles today in this sense.
    No one today has been personally commissioned and taught by the risen Christ the way the apostles were.
    This is where we need to think carefully about what many believe today.
    The Catholic Church teaches that apostolic authority continues today through succession—ultimately centered in the Pope as the successor of Peter.
    But no Pope has been directly commissioned and taught by Jesus the way the apostles were.
    That kind of authority is not passed down through an office.
    Now there are some movements today that claim God is restoring apostles—leaders who carry special authority and direction for the church.
    But in the New Testament, apostles were uniquely commissioned by the risen Christ and served as the foundation of the church.
    So, today, we don’t look to new apostles for authority—we look to the apostles’ teaching, preserved for us in the Scriptures.
    That’s why authorship matters.
    Because authority matters.
    And this is why, even today, false teaching almost always begins with an attack on the Bible’s authority.
    Groups like:
    Mormons
    Jehovah’s Witnesses
    Islam
    All, in different ways, claim that the Bible is either incomplete, corrupted, or insufficient—and that something more is needed.
    Do you hear the echo of Galatians?
    “What you have… isn’t enough.”
    And it’s not just those groups.
    Since the Enlightenment, many have questioned whether the Bible can really be trusted at all.
    They’ll say:
    “It’s just a human book”
    “Written from human experience”
    “We’ve outgrown parts of it”
    And once that happens, everything begins to shift.
    Because if the Bible is not God’s Word—
    then it’s not the authority. — We are!
    And the results are devastating.
    If we decide what’s true:
    The virgin birth becomes optional
    The deity of Christ becomes negotiable
    The resurrection becomes symbolic
    Jesus becomes:
    A teacher
    A moral example
    One option among many
    Sin gets minimized. The cross becomes unnecessary.
    And grace?
    Grace gets replaced with effort.
    Church, when the authority of God’s Word is eroded—
    the gospel doesn’t get adjusted… it begins to unravel.
    But before we look out there—
    we need to look in here.
    Because Paul didn’t write Galatians to warn them about problems “out there.”
    He wrote to expose a danger in their own hearts.
    Because you can reject all of those faulty groups I just mentioned on paper…
    …and still live like a Galatian every day.
    It shows up in subtle ways.
    When you begin to question what God has clearly said— because it’s inconvenient… or costly… or uncomfortable.
    It shows up when you start to rationalize sin:
    “Did God really mean that?” “Maybe that’s just cultural…” “Maybe that doesn’t apply anymore…”
    It shows up when you quietly place your judgment over God’s Word.
    And church, that’s not new.
    That’s as old as the garden.
    When the serpent said to Eve in Genesis 3:1
    Genesis 3:1 ESV
    “Did God actually say…?”
    That’s where it always begins.
    Not by rejecting God’s Word outright—
    but by questioning it’s authority
    And once you do that…
    you’re already on the path to adding something more.
    So if we can trust the gospel—because it comes from God—
    then the next question is:
    What kind of gospel is it?
    Let’s look now at verse 3…

    A Grace We Don’t Earn

    Remember—these false teachers went after Paul’s authority so they could attack his gospel.
    So it’s not a polite formality that Paul begins with these words:
    “Grace to you and peace…”
    With these words Paul has just proclaimed the gospel in miniature.
    In fact, in verses 3–5, Paul compresses the entire gospel he’s about to unpack throughout the letter.
    Let’s look more closely at Paul’s gospel here:
    Notice first the nature of salvation:
    “Grace to you and peace…”
    The gospel brings you Peace.
    Peace with God. Peace with others. Peace within.
    But it starts by having peace with God.
    Because apart from Christ, we are not neutral toward God—we are in rebellion against Him.
    The Bible says we are enemies.
    Not misunderstood. Enemies.
    Which means our deepest need is not self-improvement—
    it’s forgiveness and reconciliation.
    That’s what salvation is.
    But Paul adds something more in verse 4:
    Christ “gave himself for our sins to deliver us…”
    That word “deliver” means to rescue.
    It’s the word Luke used in Acts when:
    God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt
    When Peter was freed from prison
    And when Paul was rescued from a violent mob
    Do you see the picture?
    Salvation is not coaching—it’s a rescue mission.
    Because the truth is we are slaves in bondage:
    To our sin
    And to what Paul calls “this present evil age”
    So the gospel is not a self-help plan—
    It is a rescue mission.
    Christianity is not:
    “Try harder, do better, fix yourself.”
    Christianity is:
    “You cannot save yourself—So, God has come to save you.”
    Now notice the source of this salvation:
    “Grace comes to us… from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”
    Grace is unmerited favor!
    Not earned. Not deserved. Not achieved.
    Given.
    And Paul shows us how both God theSon and God the Father are involved:
    First the Son:
    “Gave himself for our sins…”
    That word “for” means in our place.
    This is substitution.
    Jesus did not come to give you a second chance to fix your life.
    He came to do for you what you could never do for yourself.
    He took your place. He bore your sin. He paid your debt.
    Next the Father:
    He raised Jesus from the dead (v.1) to prove the sacrifice was accepted
    Then we see in verse 4, that He willed our rescue — This was His plan from the beginning!
    And not because of anything good He saw in us—
    but according to His will.
    Before you ever sought Him— He purposed to rescue you.
    That’s why Paul ends in verse 5:
    “to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
    Because if salvation is:
    by grace
    from God
    through Christ’s death
    according to God’s will
    Then we contribute nothing.
    And God gets All the glory.
    Let’s be honest:
    If we contributed even a small part— we would take some of the credit.
    But Paul is clear:
    We don’t bring anything to the table—except the sin that made our rescue necessary.
    And this is where grace is hard:
    Because grace is not natural to us.
    We are wired for earning.
    We see this across religions—and even in our culture—the message is the same:
    There is a path you must follow to make yourself right.
    The Five Pillars of Islam
    The Eightfold Path of Buddhism
    Or just modern self-improvement: be better, try harder, fix yourself
    Different systems—same message:
    The burden is on you.
    But the gospel is different.
    It doesn’t say:
    “Here’s what you must do to reach God.”
    It says:
    “Here’s what God has done to rescue you.”
    Imagine you’re drowning in the ocean.
    Every other system throws you a manual on how to swim!
    But the gospel shows us a God who dives in after you… and pulls you out!
    And maybe that’s you this morning.
    And you’ve been striving for a long time in search of peace.
    Trying to be better. Trying to fix yourself. Trying to earn peace.
    And you’re exhausted.
    Because deep down—you know:
    It’s never enough.
    Hear this clearly:
    Jesus has already done everything necessary to make you right with God.
    You don’t need something more.
    You need Him.
    So stop striving.
    Come to Christ.
    Turn from your sin. Trust in Him. Rest in what He has done for you.
    Take Him at His word:
    Matthew 11:28 ESV
    Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
    Not:
    “Try harder.”
    But:
    “Come.”
    But even after we are saved by grace — there are still traces of a performance mentality that we struggle with.
    And that’s exactly why Paul doesn’t just tell us how we’re saved— he shows us what that grace actually does every day!
    Look again with me at verse 4 to see third thing Paul shows us here…

    A Freedom We Live In

    We’ve established that we don’t earn our salvation…
    But if we’re honest, we often live like we have to maintain it.
    We start measuring ourselves:
    by how consistent we’ve been
    how disciplined we’ve been
    how we compare to others
    And when we’re doing well, we feel close to God. When we’re not—we feel distant.
    Do you see what’s happening when we do this?
    We’ve received grace… but we’re not yet living in it.
    And this is exactly why Paul wrote Galatians.
    Not just to show us how we’re saved by grace—
    but to show us our need to return to grace again and again if we’re going to move forward in our faith.
    And here’s the problem: when we take our eyes off of grace, legalism is quick to fill the void!
    Legalism is working by our own power, according to our own rules, to earn God’s favor.
    And this is a trap every one of us is prone to.
    We do this when we start thinking:
    “If I read my Bible more…” “If I pray more…” “If I give more…” “If I serve more…”
    “Then God will be more pleased with me.”
    Now hear me clearly:
    Those things are good. And we should do them.
    But not as a way to earn or increase God’s favor.
    Because when we do:
    If we succeed — we become proud
    If we fail — we feel crushed
    Either way—we’ve taken our eyes off grace.
    Church, here is the shocking truth of Christianity:
    God’s pleasure over you is not based on your performance—
it’s based on Christ’s performance.
    Now look again at verse 4:
    Christ “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.”
    Remember, that word “deliver” means rescue—but not just rescue from guilt.
    But it’s also a rescue from power.
    The Bible speaks of two ages:
    This present evil age
    And the age to come
    Because of Jesus, the age to come has already broken into the present.
    That’s why Jesus could say in Luke 17…
    Luke 17:21 ESV
    “Behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
    And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:31
    1 Corinthians 7:31 ESV
    “The present form of this world is passing away.”
    So here’s where we live now:
    Between two ages…
    One is fading. One is coming.
    And if you are in Christ—
    you have already been transferred.
    As Paul says in Colossians 1…
    Colossians 1:13 ESV
    “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.”
    Here’s what this means for your life today:
    The power this world once had over you…
    has been broken.
    You are no longer a slave.
    So you don’t have to:
    chase what the world chases
    love what the world loves
    or live how this world lives
    You are free.
    But don’t miss this—
    This is not a freedom to do whatever you want.
    This is a freedom to finally become who you were made to be.
    And here’s the difference: Because of grace:
    We don’t obey God to earn His favor.
    We obey because we already have it.
    We don’t strive in our own strength.
    We rely on Christ’s power at work within us.
    We’re not driven by fear.
    We’re moved by grace.
    But when we take our eyes off grace…
    we relapse.
    When we forget our freedom…
    we start living like slaves again.
    We drift back into:
    striving
    measuring
    proving
    performing
    And the solution is always the same:
    Return to grace.
    Not once.
    Not occasionally.
    But constantly.
    Because grace is not just what saves you—
    it’s what sustains you.
    It’s like oxygen for your soul.
    You don’t outgrow it.
    You live on it.
    So let me ask you:
    Where are you slipping back into performance?
    Where are you trying to prove yourself?
    Where are you measuring your worth by how well you’re doing?
    Hear this again:
    By grace, you are already a citizen of Christ’s kingdom.
    Christ’s death didn’t just secure your forgiveness—
    it purchased your freedom.
    Freedom to live differently. Freedom to walk with God. Freedom to become who you were created to be.
    Because the grace that frees you…
is the grace you need to live it out.
    Conclusion/Response (Gospel & Repent/Believe)
    Let me take you back to that moment earlier this week.
    When my daughter and I thought we could watch the Celtics game… only to find out—
    “What we had wasn’t enough.”
    If we wanted the full experience… we needed something more.
    That’s frustrating when it comes to a streaming service.
    But that’s devastating when it comes to the gospel.
    Because that’s exactly the message the Galatians were being told:
    “Jesus is good… but not enough.” “Grace is real… but not sufficient.” “If you really want to belong—you need something more.”
    And Paul writes this letter to say:
    No!
    So let’s come back to the question we’ve been asking:
    Can we trust the gospel we’ve received—and is it really enough, or do we need something more?
    And here’s Paul’s answer—clear and decisive:
    We can trust the gospel because it comes from God.
And it is enough for us because the grace that frees us is the grace we need to live it out.
    We’ve seen that in three ways:
    A Gospel We Can Trust Because it’s not from man—it’s from God
    A Grace We Don’t Earn Because Christ has done everything necessary to make you right with God
    A Freedom We Live In Because You are no longer a slave—you are free to live a new life by grace
    So here’s the question now:
    What are you adding?
    Where are you believing—even subtly—
    “Grace isn’t quite enough… I need something more”?
    Maybe for you, it’s performance.
    You feel close to God when you’re doing well… and distant when you’re not.
    Maybe it’s comparison.
    Maybe it’s control.
    Maybe it’s trying to prove—to God, to others, or to yourself—that you’re enough.
    Hear this clearly:
    You don’t need something more.
    You don’t need to upgrade the gospel.
    You don’t need a “plus” version of grace.
    What you have in Christ is not lacking.
    He is enough.
    So stop striving to earn what Christ has already secured.
    Stop trying to improve what God has already declared complete.
    Stop living like a slave when you’ve been set free.
    And instead—
    Return to grace.
    Rest in grace.
    Live from grace.
    Because the grace that saves you…
    is the same grace you need to carry you forward.
    And when that finally sinks in—
    your heart won’t just be relieved…
    it will erupt in like the Apostle Paul:
    O for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer’s praise, The glories of my God and King, The triumphs of His grace!
    He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoner free; His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.
    Prayer
    Father, we thank You that in Jesus Christ, we have not been given something partial—but something complete. Thank You that the grace and peace we have received from You, is enough.
    Forgive us God for the ways we drift from Your grace— for the ways we try to add to it, improve it, or prove ourselves apart from it.
    Fix our eyes again on Christ— on His finished work, on His sufficient grace, on the freedom He’s secured for us.
    And as we now lift our voices to sing, let us not sing as people striving… but as people who’ve been rescued.
    May our hearts rest in Your grace, and let our praise rise from it.
    We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
    Closing Song: Amazing Grace
    Closing Words:
    “Amazing grace… how sweet the sound… that saved a wretch like me…”
    That’s not just a song.
    That’s your story—if you are in Christ.
    Final Gospel Appeal:
    But if you’re here this morning and that’s not yet your story—
    it can be.
    Not by doing more.
    But by receiving what Christ has already done for you.
    So hear this one more time:
    You don’t need something more.
    You only need Jesus.
    Receive Him today:
    Turn from your sin. Trust in Christ. And rest in His finished work.
    And if that’s something God is stirring in your heart right now, don’t leave here without talking to someone.
    There will be some people up front here after the service that would love to talk and pray with you about this.
    Next Steps for Believers:
    And for those of you who do know Christ—
    what’s your next step?
    Where is God calling you to return to grace?
    If you’ve been living in performance mode—He’s calling you to rest
    If you’ve been drifting—He’s calling you to come back
    Don’t just hear the Word today—
    respond to it.
    Faith is a journey — so what’s your next step?
    Baptism
    Membership
    Discipleship Groups
    Serving (VBS?)
    Let us know how we can help you take your next step by taping that white tag in your pew with your phone and filling out our next steps form.
    Missional Charge:
    Church, we are surrounded by people who are living every day under the weight of:
    “I’m not enough… I need something more.”
    They are striving. Searching. Exhausted.
    And we have the message they need:
    Not what they must do— but what Christ has already done.
    So go this week—
    As people who are free
    As people who are resting in grace
    As people who are ready to share this good news of grace
    Point them to Jesus — Where true joy is found!
    Benediction:
    Now receive this benediction from: Romans 15:13…
    “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
    Amen! Church you are sent! Go, in peace!

      • Acts 15:1ESV

      • Acts 15:5ESV

      • Galatians 1:1–5ESV

      • Genesis 3:1ESV

      • Matthew 11:28ESV

      • Luke 17:21ESV

      • 1 Corinthians 7:31ESV

      • Colossians 1:13ESV

  • Amazing Grace
Fishkill Baptist Church
lori@fishkillbaptist.org
845-896-9386
http://fishkillbaptist.net
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