Okay, Galatians chapter 5, and we saw last week the call of Paul to the Galatians not to be moved from the true gospel, to stand fast in the gospel that brings liberty, and not to be diverted because he's dividing that which is true, the true gospel of grace, from the poison of religion. because the poison of religion makes that one truth that saves of God in Christ of no effect if you add that poison to it. We want to look this morning at verses 7 down to 15, so just follow with me as I read these.

Ye did run well, he says to them. Ye did run well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded. But he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased. I would they were even cut off, which trouble you. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word. Even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Okay. Ecumenism in religion, perhaps it's not a word you hear quite so much these days, but it was very popular that all religions are basically the same and we can bring them all together. But we now have a king in this country, and the role of king, rightly or wrongly, used to be defender of the faith. You know the scripture talks about the faith once delivered to the saints. The scripture talks of that faith once delivered to the saints. And the monarch of this country used to be the defender of that faith, defender of the faith.

But King Charles said when he was still the Prince of Wales that he didn't want to be defender of the faith, he wanted to be defender of faith. Whatever faith suits you, so that we could all be together, so that we can all be inclusive. And social inclusivity is the standard of the society in which we live. There's acceptance all around of diversity. If you work for any big organization, as I used to do, you will have to go on diversity training so that you're trained in this. As I said in my Revelation book at some point, I said, what the world now calls diversity, if you subject it to the scrutiny of the Scriptures, the Bible, it would be perversity, would be a better description.

But it's all aiming for world improvement. But the reality... of the world in which we live, the society in which we live, is just as judges. Judges chapter 12 verse 25. What was wrong with their society? Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Anarchy. Every man did that which he thought was right for himself, irrespective of what it did to anybody else. And that philosophy boils down to the philosophy of Babel. It's a false path, promising eternal peace and bliss, but totally impossible to attain, because it violates that which is essential, which is the satisfaction of the divine justice of God.

Christ Jesus is the only way to the Father. He said that. No man comes to the Father but by Him. Christ Jesus is the only way to the Kingdom of God. Not climbing up the Tower of Babel, you can imagine, what that means in the context of the society in which we live today. Under Holy Spirit inspiration, and never forget that, Paul was writing under Holy Spirit inspiration, he has been dividing what, there's a phrase in the book of Jeremiah, in chapter 15 of Jeremiah, and verse 19. It says this, let me read this to you. Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me. And if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth. Let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them.

He's talking about the truth of God and the way to eternal life. And he says, it's all mixed up. There's that which is precious, which is the truth of God as God has revealed it, and there's that which is vile, which is what man in his fallen state has done to distort that message of God. It's the truth of the gospel from the error of works-based fleshly religion. That's what he's talking about, and it's what this passage is about. separating the precious truth of God from the vile error of false religion.

So there's a call here in these verses. In verses 7 and 8, there's a call. Ye did run well, who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? People had come in to the Galatian churches and they'd spread a doctrine, they'd spread a teaching that went counter to the gospel that Paul had preached and the people were inclined to follow it.

He says this persuasion, this teaching doesn't come of him that called you, of him that calleth you. By preaching of Paul's gospel, and Paul's gospel was what he calls in the early part of Romans the gospel of God, by preaching that gospel God the Spirit had called these Galatian Gentiles, these Gentile idolaters, out of the darkness of their false religion into light, like the Thessalonians. They had turned to God, the true God, from their idols to serve the living God.

He called them out of that darkness into that light by the preaching of the gospel, for it is by the preaching of the gospel that it pleased God to save those who believe. And he'd shown them, Paul had shown these Galatians their redemption accomplished. Your sin debt is paid for, is what that means. He'd settled them in the confident hope of an eternal inheritance. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day.

They were settled in a confident hope of inheritance in eternity. They'd rested their souls in Christ. But these peddlers of spiritual error had come in and had seemingly removed them from that call of God's grace to another perverted gospel. Look there in chapter 1 and verse 6, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you. unto the grace of Christ, unto another gospel, which is not another, but there would be some that trouble you, there's that word again, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. And then he goes on to pronounce a severe condemnation of those that were peddling that error.

These peddlers of spiritual error had removed them. They'd allowed themselves to be removed from God's calling to grace to another perverted non-gospel. They had begun well. Ye did run well, he says. Who did hinder you? Who are these that hindered you? You were on that narrow way to eternal life. Who was it that hindered you that you should not obey the truth, that you should not believe the truth of the gospel? This persuasion, this doctrine, it doesn't come from God. It doesn't come from God who called you. Whoever these false teachers were, they were deceptive, very deceptive. The people, the Galatian believers, had looked at them and, well, they've come from Jerusalem. They've got all the right credentials. They say that they're coming with apostolic authority. Not like Paul, he wasn't a proper apostle. No, no, he was one born out of due time. But they came down from Jerusalem from the proper apostles. And oh, they were such nice people. Oh, gosh, they were so nice. They appeared like angels of light. Oh, they were doing the work of God. And oh, what sweet people they were. But they were messengers from Satan. They were the evangelists of Satan's false gospel, because they appealed to the flesh. They appealed to sinful reason, to weak wills.

But God calls effectually. When God calls, the God who called you, when God calls, he calls effectually, irresistibly. He calls counter to fleshly reason, and he does it by the new birth. He is the one. It says in John, doesn't it, that the people of God, his people, are born again by the Spirit of God. And it says they're born not of blood, not of human genetics, they're born not of blood, this new man of the Spirit of God, nor of the will of the flesh. It wasn't the will that decided, I have decided to follow Jesus. No, no, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. How then? But God, by the will of God. It's by the will of God that they had been called.

Romans chapter 9 verse 16 says this, so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy. It isn't of the will of man that you become a child of God, that you become a new child, born again of the Spirit of God, with that new nature inside. It's of God. It's not of human effort, but it's of the mercy of God. In 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9, which we read right at the start, it says that God called his people out of darkness into his marvelous light. For the gospel of grace, when you've seen it, is marvelous light. It's wonderful. It's God's work in his people, because Jesus said, I know I quote this verse often, but the Jews asked Jesus, what is the work that we must do to make God pleased with us? And he said, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent.

But note this, yes, that's the work you must do to be pleasing to God, is to believe on his son, but he says, this is the work of God. It's God's work. That work of giving you a believing heart is the work that God does in his people. Jesus warned of false prophets like these that had come to Galatia. In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 7, he states it very, very clearly in verse 15. He says to them, and the same message repeatedly in different places, goes out to the believers, goes out to the people of God, churches in the New Testament, beware of false prophets. He says they come to you looking like nice, cuddly, soft, white sheep, come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves, they're fierce, savage wolves. They don't look at what they... These people had come looking like angels of light, but they were bringing a message which would poison their souls. They were bringing a message which would make Christ profit them nothing. A message which would make Christ of no effect to them in the business of salvation. And you know it doesn't take much. Look at verse nine. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Leaven, yeast, little bit of yeast. make bread three or four times a week in a bread maker, and it doesn't take much yeast to make it work. Only a little bit in a big lump, and it leavens it, and it spreads. But what he's saying is, a little bit of poison goes an awful long way.

Apparently, apparently, I don't know how true this is, but I can well imagine it, apparently rat poison is 99% good food, and that's why the rats eat it. It's enticing to them because it's 99% good food. But the 1% that isn't good food is poison, that is fatal.

And the Christian gospel calls us, doesn't it? The Christian gospel calls believers to be gentle with all people, to be tolerant of all people, to be peaceful. It says, as much as lies in you, live at peace with all men. When it comes to day-to-day interaction, Be gentle, be tolerant, be peaceful, but be absolutely inflexible regarding the purity of the gospel of grace. Be absolutely inflexible. We cannot have any compromise. We cannot allow... error to creep in.

Verse 10, the true people of God can't be swayed. He says, I have confidence in you because there in Galatia, there must be those who are truly the Lords and they cannot be shaken. He says, I've got confidence in you that you will be none otherwise minded. But he that troubleth you, those that are trying to divert you, they will bear their judgment, whoever they are.

You see how inflexible Paul is with these false teachers coming in, adding things to the pure gospel of grace, which renders it poison to their souls. So let's be clear about what identifies the true gospel. The marks of truth versus the error of religion. Look at verse 11. I, brethren, If I yet preach circumcision, like these people were preaching, obedience to the law of Moses, why do I yet suffer persecution? What he's saying is, I don't preach that, and that's why I get persecuted. If I did preach circumcision, if I did preach what they want you to submit to, I wouldn't suffer persecution.

You see, if he had preached circumcision to go along with them, the offense of the cross would be ceased. And that's what I've called this message, the offense of the cross. Because God's truth of gospel grace is offensive to all but those who are effectually called by God's spirit. It is. God's truth is offensive. God's truth, as it's revealed in this book, the scripture, is offensive to all religion. to all but those who are effectually called by God's Spirit to faith in Christ.

I remember Bill Clarke in one of his Echos de la Verité messages in French years and years ago, and I remember him hearing him say it, it was probably the early 1990s, and I was quite shocked at what he said, and I'm sure his audience was shocked, but he said, you asked me, what is the biggest enemy of the truth of the gospel of grace? And he said, this is my answer, religion. Religion is the biggest enemy of the truth of God's grace.

How can we distinguish between Truth of the gospel and the error, the poison. How can we distinguish between the 99% good food and the 1% poison? Well, Don Faulkner wrote eight stubborn statements, and I'm going to use those as the basis for the next few minutes of this message. And it's the same thing, I can't remember whether it was Henry Mayan that originally said them, but they still ring very true.

Here are eight statements, eight statements that help us to distinguish the precious from the vile, the truth of God from that which is poisonous error.

Number one, number one, I'll give you the Latin term for it because it was the motto of the Reformation and of the Reformers, sola scriptura. You know what that means? The Bible alone. The Bible alone. What you mean, not the Bible plus our confessions? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. So the writings of men can be very useful, and there have been some very good stuff, but you've always got to beware, because in the writings of men, there is always the precious, And there is the vial.

Separate the precious from the vial. Beware of confessions. Beware of writings added to the scriptures. Always treat them with caution. Yes, take the precious. Take the precious. There's lots been written that is highly good food for the people of God. But beware of that which is vial. You will even find some where there's a lot of precious stuff and then you will come across stuff that is vile. And listen, I have no doubt that in what I do and say and others who try to preach the gospel, we're all fallible and that there may be things that people can find faults with according to the scripture. That's because we're weak and frail and human. We're not infallible. Nobody is infallible apart from God and Christ and this book. So beware of that, the Bible and the Bible alone.

How many churches we were in which claimed to abide by the Bible, but the more and more you read it, and the more and more you know what the true gospel is, the more you find that much of their teachings and their practices were things which were added to the Bible alone.

Secondly, Sovereignty. What does this religion that's coming along to try and persuade you to follow it say about God's sovereignty? This is the fact according to scripture. This is the fact. God alone has determined the citizenship of his kingdom before time began. God alone has chosen who shall make up the multitudes before the throne in the kingdom of God in eternity, and he did it before the beginning of time. He didn't make it possible for anybody and everybody that wants to. He didn't. He determined it before the beginning of time. And that's how you know it is a gospel and a salvation which is effectual. In time, he orders all things, as it says in Romans 8, 28, all things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. In time, as we live, he orders all things to accomplish his eternal decree of all of those people, whoever they might be, and we don't know who they are, to come to his kingdom.

Thirdly, the depravity of man. We are all what the scripture calls depraved. Adam and his race are all utterly depraved in sin. Flesh is incapable of improvement. False religion teaches you that flesh can grow in holiness, that it can progressively improve in sanctification, preparedness for heaven, that this life is a training ground, getting ready for heaven. In a sense, there's a shred of truth in what you say, because obviously, the longer we live in the light of the knowledge of God's truth, the more our hearts are attuned to the hopes and the bliss of heaven. But we in the flesh do not get any better. Flesh is incapable of improvement, because Paul said, In him that is in my flesh there dwells no good thing, not a little bit of a good thing, no good thing. He said that he wasn't worthy to be called an apostle. He said that he was not improving. He said, finally, he said, I am the chief of sinners. So depravity. That's what it says. False teachers will teach you that there's some hope in man. Their false gospel will show some hope in man.

Fourthly, and I've already implied it with the sovereignty of God, but election, election. It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that showed his mercy. Jesus, our Lord, our God come in the flesh, laid down his life, who for? for the sheep. He said, I lay down my life for the sheep, for the people that God chose in Christ before the beginning of time. He said in Isaiah 53, for the transgressions of my people was he stricken. The angel said to Joseph, you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save His people from their sins. And it's them and them alone for whom Christ died.

Jesus did not die to make it possible for all men to be saved if they would only believe. That was the error of Andrew Fuller and his like a couple of hundred years ago. Not at all. He laid down his life for a particular people. It's called in the five points of Calvinism, it's called limited atonement. We call it particular redemption. He died for the people the Father gave to him before the beginning of time. This is the will of the Father. that of all that he has given him, he should lose nothing. He died for them, and he will bring them home to eternal glory.

The election of God is one of these fundamental points of truth, truth which is precious in the revelation of God, and it needs to be separated and kept separate from that which is vile in religion. Christ alone accomplished the salvation of his people. He finished it, as he said on the cross, John 19 verse 30. It is finished. The three probably most profound words ever uttered. The salvation of the people of God was finished by the work on the cross that Christ accomplished and completed. The salvation of his elect multitude justified his people before the judgment of God, and sanctified his people to prepare them for glory. For by one offering he has perfected forever those that are sanctified.

It isn't Christ plus fleshly efforts to fit us, to fit sinful flesh for eternal glory. You know what that is? If you're talking about there's somebody that's been clothed in the garments of salvation, that somebody that has been clothed by God in the righteous robe of Christ, the righteousness of Christ, and the pictures of it are throughout scripture. But then we come along with our righteousnesses in the flesh. Isaiah 64, verse six, all our righteousnesses are filthy rags in his sight. To try to add to the work of Christ is to try to sew patches of filthy rags on the righteous robe, the garments of salvation that Christ has accomplished for his people.

Sixthly, Holy Spirit regeneration. It is the Holy Spirit's prerogative, in accordance with God's sovereign decree, to give life to the people of God in time. Because we're all born children of Adam, we're all born sinners without thought for God, in darkness, and at the time of the choosing of the Holy Spirit of God, in accordance with the eternal covenant, He comes and he gives life to those who are dead in trespasses and sins. He shines light into the darkened hearts of his people. He causes them to see the things that they never could see. Jesus said it to Nicodemus. He said, the spirit blows where it listeth. Just like the wind, you don't know where it's come from or where it's going to. So it is with the spirit of God. It's his prerogative to come. We are all At the mercy, can I use that word, of the Spirit of God to shine his light, to open hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so, what is our cry? We cannot demand anything of God, but we can pray, God be merciful to me, the sinner. We can pray, Lord, whilst on others you are calling, do not pass me by. Lord, shine your light into my heart. We can pray this. We can heed the call of Christ to come unto him. If you hear him calling, come unto me, then come to him, come believing, and the spirit of God will shine his light into your heart.

Seventhly, God keeps his people to the very end. He brings all of his people to his glorious inheritance. And of that, we can be absolutely confident. There is not a chance that he will lose anything. This is the will of the father that sent Christ, he said, that of all that he has given me, I should lose nothing, but shall raise it up at the last day. And that's the message of the true gospel. That's the precious truth of God.

And then finally, eight, Christ having fulfilled In this life, every demand, every picture of the Mosaic law, his people in him are completely free from its yoke of bondage. The law of Moses is not the believer's rule of life. Christ and his gospel is the believer's rule of life. Gospel law is what believers obey, motivated by love. You see, He has done it all for his people, and his people are absolutely free from that, because he has fulfilled it. Christ, as we read earlier in Romans chapter 10, verse 4, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Look at verse 13. Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. Don't use it as license to sin, but by love serve one another. It's by love that we fulfill the righteous demands of the law. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

These eight biblical points mark the dividing line between God's gospel and Satan's religious deception. They divide what Jeremiah said, the precious from the vile. Those holding to the latter, the vile, concept of man-assisted religion and assisted way to heaven, they persecute the true people of God. Verse 11, I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased? they are offended by it. Religious peddlers are offended by the true gospel of nothing other than grace. Why? Because truth illuminates the worthlessness of their own value, the worthlessness of any contribution that they might make to their fitness for heaven. They think that they can make a contribution to their fitness for heaven, I remember a dear old lady, and I've told you many times before, but it still sticks very vividly in my memory, is this old lady who said that she was trying so hard to talk to her neighbours, and this was the reason she gave. She didn't want to go into the presence of the Lord empty-handed. Oh dear. What does that hymn say? Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.

They don't like it because the truth illuminates the worthlessness of their own contribution to their heavenly worth. And what do we believe? Romans 3 verse 4 says this, let God be true, let God's word be true, but every man a liar by comparison. We believe the word of God, sola scriptura. So then, The offense of the cross, I brethren, verse 11, if I preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased, and I would they were even cut off, which trouble you.

If Paul still preached circumcision, if he still preached mosaic Jewish law, though circumcision was given to Abraham, but nevertheless it was continued, it was the right, it was the mark. If he still preached circumcision, as the thing which would make you better in the sight of God, if it would improve you in the sight of God, if it would make you more fit for eternal glory and to inherit the promise of the kingdom of God.

If he still preached that that was necessary, because he had preached it, he had preached it. When he was Saul of Tarsus and a Pharisee, there was none quite like him as the Pharisees go. If he'd still preached what he, as Saul of Tarsus, was so keen to push forward, the false teachers would not persecute him. They'd regard him as one of them and perfectly acceptable. And he'd perfectly align with those who've said, well, we've got all of this heritage, but now we can add this new stuff that's been done by this Jesus of Nazareth. That's very, very good. And he wouldn't be persecuted by them.

How did they persecute him? they denigrated his preaching. They told the Galatians not to believe Paul because he wasn't a proper apostle. They denied his message. They persuaded the Galatians that he, Paul, was their enemy. Look at verse 16 of chapter 4. You see? They were telling the people, the believers in Galatia, in the Galatian churches, don't have anything to do with Paul. He says, Why? Because what Paul had said, the gospel of grace, causes offense.

In verse 23 of the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, he says, we preach Christ crucified. What's your message? Christ crucified, and what that accomplished for the salvation of the people God loved before the beginning of time. We preach Christ crucified. How is that received? And to the Jews, it's a stumbling block. And unto the Greeks, it's foolishness. To those who are Gentiles without any heritage of the Old Testament or any of that sort of stuff, it's a message which is just foolishness. It's the foolishness of preaching. It's the foolishness to them of the message preached.

How is it that your state in eternity can be determined by what happened to a man on a cross at Calvary 2,000 years ago? How can that be the case? It's foolishness, you see. This is what the unbelieving mind thinks of it. and to the religious mind, the Jewish religious mind, the fact that he should come, not a conquering king to restore the Jewish empire and get rid of the Roman rule and to reign from Jerusalem. The fact that he didn't come like that, he didn't come as a king on a great majestic stallion, but he came as a humble, meek, suffering servant on a colt, on a foal, the colt of an ass into Jerusalem to die the death.

It's a stumbling block. It doesn't fit. How can that accomplish salvation? It's something that they stumbled over. And again and again throughout the scripture, that is quoted. That he that they stumble over is become the head of the corner. He's become the chief cornerstone. The temple of God was a picture of the kingdom of God. The temple of God was built out of stones quarried specifically for their place. And the church of God and the kingdom of God is built out of living stones. People called out of this work. world, quarried out of this world of humanity and fitted for the kingdom of God. He says, you are living stones. We read it in 1 Peter chapter 2. You are living stones.

But that message offends the message of the religious folks. What about their worth? What about their works? What about their goodness?

In Romans chapter 9, Paul, again we read this before, he says then in verse 30 of chapter 9, what shall we say then? that the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, they weren't trying to get right with God, the Gentiles, the non-Jews, they have attained to righteousness. Even the righteousness which is of faith, they believe the gospel of grace. And as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness, because of what Abraham believed in, which was the substitutionary redemption accomplished by the promised seed of the woman, that was the faith that these Gentiles believed. By that, they attained righteousness, the righteousness of faith.

But Israel, the Jews, the nation, which followed after the law of righteousness, trying to get right with God by what they did, they haven't attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they sought it not by faith, as it were, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. They tripped over Christ as the only way of salvation. As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion, I lay in the kingdom of God, a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

There it is quite clearly, and in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 6, Wherefore, also, it is contained in the Scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone. There it is again. You'd find it, actually, in Isaiah chapter 28.

elect and precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them which be disobedient in unbelieving the stone which the builders the builders were the were the jewish leaders the builders of the kingdom of god but they rejected the one cornerstone the stumbling stone which is christ he the same is made the head of the corner he's made the the foundation stone you know In old building techniques, there was the foundation stone, which was the big, solid, absolutely perfect one placed, and everything else was built relative to that. He has become to them a stone of stumbling, a stone to trip over, not to build on, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto they were also appointed.

So then, We're ostracized by many who claim gospel truth because we don't submit to their particular religious practices. In verse 29 of chapter four, he then that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, and so it is now. Even now, if you stand for the true gospel of grace, religion with whatever standard it comes, if it adds to the work of Christ, they will persecute you. They will be offended by you. Religion corrupted with any trace of the leaven of the flesh will persecute that true religion built on the promise of God alone.

And what does it say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son. Don't tolerate their doctrinal poison. Live at peace with all men, but when it comes to the truth of the gospel, don't tolerate their doctrinal poison. Put them out. In Galatians chapter 1, Paul pronounces a dreadful curse upon those bringing that false gospel. Let them be accursed. Let them be eternally damned. Don't tolerate their teaching. Don't embrace them as Christian brethren. See them for what they are. They're part of Satan's flood.

In Revelation 12, the devil is so annoyed that he's been cast out of heaven. that in that picture he casts out a flood from his mouth and the intention of that flood is to sweep the woman, the believing church, off her feet and back into conformity with works-based religion. Don't let him do it.

Liberty and license, verse 13. You've been called to liberty. Don't use your liberty as a license for sin, but by love serve one another. The false teachers have been driving believers to law for works of righteousness. They've been accusing the gospel of Christ alone and nothing else added. as that which promotes licentiousness.

In Jude's little epistle, in verse 4, he says, There are certain men crept in unawares, secretly, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. That's open sinfulness, lustfulness, sexual immorality, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. They make out that the gospel of Christ alone is the thing which promotes sinfulness.

Gospel liberty is not license to sin that grace may abound, but gospel love fulfills the law's objectives in the face of the tendency of flesh to sin. It's a constant conflict as long as believers live, and we're going to see more of that next time when we get into the last half of chapter five.

But for now, for now, Hear the words of Joshua to Israel as they were coming into the promised land. Who is on the Lord's side? He said, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. Is it going to be the precious truth of the gospel of Christ alone or that which is vile, anything added to it?

As for me and my house, said Joshua, we will serve the Lord and we will, God permitting us and God strengthening us. Amen.