Okay, well, we're back in Galatians. Galatians, I want to look at a fairly long section from verse 11 of chapter 1, well, possibly even before that, down to verse 10 of chapter 2. And I've called it Gospel Liberty from Bondage. Gospel liberty, freedom from the bondage of religion. Gospel liberty. Jesus said, the truth shall make you free. And if the truth shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Gospel liberty from bondage. Religion devised by man enslaves. The gospel, declared by God, liberates, sets free.

We, all of us, all people, all from Adam down the ages, all, are the creation of God. We have our life from God. We do not exist apart from God. He has created all things. You cannot explain this universe, this world, this earth in which we live without the creation of God, even though men stupidly, foolishly try to. But they cannot do it. They really cannot do it. And yet, although we're the creation of God, we're rebels against God by nature. We're sinners alienated from God. We're what he calls enemies. We're at enmity with God. We're guilty of rebelling against the rightful rule of the God who made us. And we're condemned. The just penalty of this is eternal separation. And what do we call that? We call it hell, because that's what the Bible calls it.

You say, that's very harsh. You say, don't you realize we're pretty good people altogether? We're such lovely people here, there, and everywhere. Not according to the declaration of God. Let me remind you, Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 says this, where Paul is quoting Psalms and other scriptures, he says, as it is written, concerning you and me and everyone else in the human race, he says, there is none righteous, no, not one. Oh, they're lovely people, they're such good... No, the scripture says, there is none righteous, no, not one, as God counts righteousness. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre, a grave. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps, of snakes, is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

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Gosh, that's a good indictment, isn't it? That's a good, honest, picture of the world as it is, the news that we hear all the time. It's evil all around us, and that's us by nature. You say it's not the nice people. It is fundamentally at the core. According to scripture, it is.

And we know that it is appointed to man to die once. In the day you eat thereof, said God to Adam, in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And it has gone on ever since. And he died, and he died, and he died, and we still do. It's appointed to man. to die once, and then the judgment.

And the question comes up, what should I do to be right with God? That was Job's question. What should I do? Because it determines whether I spend eternity in heaven, the bliss of God, or in hell. In hell, weeping and gnashing of teeth, said Jesus. What determines the difference?

Answer, it's the gospel of God. The good news declared by God in his word. But there's only one gospel. There's only one gospel that is the gospel of God. But Satan seeks to corrupt that gospel. Satan seeks to deceive. He seeks to trick the multitude that God has purposed to save. seeks to get heretics, false brethren, as it says in chapter two and verse four of Galatians, because of false brethren, false brethren. He gets false brethren. They seem like brethren, they look like brethren, they want you to accept them as brethren, but they're false, they're not true.

And he gets them to mix the works of man with the saving work of Christ. And if you do that, what does it say? You have to turn over a page to chapter five of Galatians and verse two. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, and he could have said if you had anything that you think, that you claim gives you favour and advantage with God, anything, he uses the word circumcised because that was just the one thing that those Jewish zealots were homed in on. If ye be circumcised, he said, if you do that, if you add anything to what Christ has done, Christ shall profit you nothing. Christ shall profit you nothing. To get to heaven you must have Christ, but if you add anything to his finished work, Christ shall profit you nothing. That's what it says so clearly. He couldn't be clearer, could he?

If there's only one gospel, look, you know, let me remind you what he says in verses 8 and 9 of the first chapter. He says, there's only one gospel, and he says, if anybody comes preaching anything else, let him be accursed. I don't care who he is, an angel from heaven. We ourselves, Paul the Apostle, if we preach unto you any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, the true one gospel of God, let him be accursed. And then he says, just in case you didn't hear me the first time, he repeats it in verse 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 Eternally condemned is what that means.

So-called Christianity today is riddled with very good forgeries of God's gospel. But forgeries they are, and worthless they are regarding eternal life. Verse 7 of chapter 1 says this, another gospel, which is not another, but a perversion of the gospel. It's a perversion of the gospel. They would pervert the gospel of Christ. Those who preach the forgeries are accursed according to what Paul says here. This is the Word of God. And all who follow their lies are accursed.

So then I want to ask look at three things this morning. The gospel's origin. Where did Paul get this gospel of God from? And then satanic opposition to that gospel, and then the call that we have to contend for the truth of the one gospel.

So the true gospel's origin. Paul had traveled far and wide preaching his gospel. He'd been sent out by the church at Antioch not Antioch in Pisidia, the other one down nearer Israel. He'd been commissioned, he and Barnabas, to go out from Antioch and to preach the gospel far and wide, for Jesus had said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. And he'd gone out with this message, believing, believing. What it says in, I mean, He went out before it was said in Acts 13, 48, but it's the same principle applies. Those that God had ordained to eternal life, when they preached the gospel, they believed because the Holy Spirit gave life. And there were many converts, but also there were many opposers. You only have to turn back a couple of pages. to 2 Corinthians 11 and verses 13 to 15, where Paul warns about them. He says, such are false apostles, deceitful workers. They're preaching things that sound like God's truth, but they're false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, claiming to be that very thing. And no marvel, don't wonder. for Satan himself is transformed into the likeness of an angel of light. He doesn't appear as a devil with horns that's going to do you harm, he appears as an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers, look, they're his ministers, also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.

No, Paul insisted his gospel was that one true gospel. So let's ask him where he learned it. Where did he learn that one true gospel that was so essential? Look at verses 11 and 12 of chapter 1. "'I certify you, brethren,' says Paul, "'I certify you, I testify Brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me, the gospel I preached, I didn't get it from man. It's not after man. I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it by man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Where did you get your gospel from, Paul? God taught me directly. The Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God, I don't know how, but miraculously, Paul was given that revelation from heaven. It's like it says in Matthew chapter 11 and verse 25, Jesus said this, at that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things, the gospel things, from the wise and the prudent, wise and prudent in worldly wisdom. and has revealed them unto babes, little children, innocent little children, revealed them unto those that the world despises as having no light and intelligence of their own. Why did God do it that way? Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.

Paul didn't learn the gospel from his Jewish teachers, and he had the very best of the Jewish teachers. He sat, he tells us, in one of his testimonies in the Acts of the Apostles. He was taught by Gamaliel in Jerusalem. There was no finer teacher of Jewish history, of Jewish religion than Gamaliel. in Jerusalem, and Paul sat at his feet. He learned from him that he couldn't have got a better teacher of the Jewish religion.

But he didn't get it either when he practiced that religion. He didn't get it from his religious practice. The gospel didn't come to him because he'd been a good Pharisee. In Philippians chapter three, he tells us that all of that, all of his record, which was better than any of the other Pharisees, he could say. He said, I did it better than all the rest of them. But what value did he put upon all of that work? You would think for God. He thought it was for God at the time. He said, I count it but done. That's how much I value it. I count it, but dung! It's of no value whatsoever.

He didn't get it by personal reasoning and logic and human wisdom and deduction, for it pleased God that by wisdom, man's wisdom, the wisdom of this world, they shouldn't find the wisdom of God. He didn't get it from the other apostles in Jerusalem, because he didn't go up to Jerusalem. He said in verse 16, he said he conferred not with flesh and blood with other people. And he didn't go up to Jerusalem to see what the gospel was from the apostles that were before him. He went into Arabia and returned again to Damascus.

No, it wasn't from the other apostles in Jerusalem. but with God alone in Arabia and Damascus, direct from God by revelation. And he says, look, verse 20, he says, the things which I'm telling you about how I got this gospel, before with God as my witness, and you don't, you don't tell lies in front of God who is your witness for God sees everything, he says, I'm telling you absolutely the truth. I'm not lying. This is the truth. This is how I got the gospel.

In verses 21 and 22 of chapter 1, He says, afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. That's north, that's way away from Jerusalem. And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea. There where the apostles and the leaders were down in the south, he didn't go near there. He went straight up north to Antioch. He bypassed Judea.

But look what it says in verse 23. What they'd heard of him What those who knew of him had heard was that he which had persecuted the church in Jerusalem so vehemently, so vigorously in times past, he that persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.

I've told you before, but Gospel truth is by revelation of God in the heart of each one who believes. Yes, I know. But when we study it and we take it on board, there's a great comfort in seeing how God has done it. What God tells us, unlike other religions which have stupid stories that are just utterly beyond any credibility, The Gospel of God and the truth of God stands up to reason. And I find this fact, that this man, who was such a vehement opposer of the Church of Christ, of the Gospel of Christ, in a moment was turned into one who preached that Jesus of Nazareth was very Christ, was the very truth. I find that such a powerful affirmation of the faith that we believe 2,000 years later.

And then he says, In verse 1 of chapter 2, after 14 years, 14 years, then finally he went up to Jerusalem and shared what he had learned of Christ. That's the passage that was read to us earlier from Acts chapter 15, which is known as the Council of Jerusalem. to determine together, the apostles and the church leaders together, to put their seal of approval on what was the true gospel of God's grace in Christ. And he did that 14 years later. He went and shared what he had learned of Christ directly, And what he had preached, he went and shared it with the apostles and leaders. And what was their conclusion of it? Look at verse 9 of chapter 2. And when James, Cephas, that's Peter, and John, who seemed to be pillars, pillars of the church, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision, the Jews. They welcomed him and Barnabas gladly as they were. Gladly for the gospel that he preached. They required nothing more that was added to him. So that's the true gospel's origin. Paul got it by direct revelation from God in Christ Jesus. That's the truth.

Christ came down from heaven. He says in the Gospels again and again, he came down from heaven to reveal the truth that is hidden from generations but revealed by God to his saints. But of course, The way God has ordained things. We live in a world where there is satanic opposition to the things of God. Never forget, never be daunted. Be aware of who he is. He's a prowling lion, as says Peter, seeking whom he might destroy. He's a powerful force, he really is, but be in no doubt, Satan is God's Satan for God's purposes. God is sovereign even over Satan.

Satan opposes the Church of God. Satan opposes the Gospel of God. He opposes the Kingdom of God. If you turn, and I know I turn often to it, but Revelation chapter 12, just remind yourself of this. Revelation chapter 12, and we see in a little... potted history of the whole thing, that there is God's church, the woman clothed with the Son, God's people, God's people who He's going to save. And from that woman, that people, comes the one who is to be the Messiah, the Child, the Son of God is to come into this world. And He comes and the devil seeks to destroy Him, the devil seeks to devour Him. as he's born, as soon as he's born and the devil seeks to stop him from accomplishing his purpose and there was war in heaven and of course what happened was that Christ accomplished his purpose and he was caught up to God and to his throne and salvation was accomplished but Satan was cast out, because why? The blood of the Lamb. He was the accuser of the brethren, but he had no means of accusing, for Christ had dealt with the sins of his people. So he's cast out, and it says he makes war. He makes war. Verse 13, when the dragon saw that he was... This is Satan. When he saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman. He persecuted the Church of God, which brought forth the Christ of God.

And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, their wings of faith, that she might fly into a wilderness, a separation from this world of Satan, into her place where God feeds her, He nourishes her for a time and times and half a time from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth a flood of water to try and wash her off her feet and wash her back into conformity with this world. But the earth helps the woman, God helps the woman.

And the dragon, it says in verse 17, was wrath, was furious, was angry with the woman, with the church, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed. That's believers in every age, which keep the commandments of God. What are the commandments of God? To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Satan makes war against God's church by sowing subtle lies to divert God's elect from the true faith. He sends among the churches spiritual wolves. They're not You know, in this eco-friendly day, we're meant to regard everything as nice and cuddly and, you know, basically human beings wrapped up in fur coats that are doing us no harm. Be careful, they're wolves. They're wolves. If you come across a pack of hungry wolves, you're in for trouble. Wolves, wolves is what the scripture talks about, but they're dressed in sheep's clothing. They look outwardly like sheep. Jesus said it, Matthew 7, 15 in the Sermon on the Mount, beware of false prophets. You, me, all of us, you out there listening, you listening to the message, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing. Oh, they look like they're true prophets. They look harmless. They've just got nice soft woolly coats on. But inwardly, they are ravening wolves, they are fierce, ferocious wolves that want to devour you. They seem like they, they might seem like they have the true gospel. They look well-meaning, but their message is the lie of Satan and not God's gospel. Their message claims to get you to eternal bliss, but not via the saving work. Now, this is important. Not via the saving work of Christ alone. I cannot stress that strongly enough. It's the message of Scripture. It's Christ alone. Christ alone. Nothing added to it.

Peter warns about these that come along, seeking to delude. He says in chapter 2 of his second epistle, verse 1, But there were false prophets also among the people, all down the ages there were, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily, subtly, sneaking in unawares, shall bring in damnable heresies, their heresies, their untruths, which will send you to hell if you believe them, even denying the Lord that brought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. Beware of them.

Their message is what we read in Acts chapter 15 at the Council of Jerusalem. In Acts 15 and verse 1, certain men, which came down from Judea, where to? To Antioch, where Paul and Barnabas had been ministering, having gone on their missionary journeys. Certain men, certain people from the church in Jerusalem, certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. This gospel's all well and good, but you've got to add to it circumcision. You've got to add to it the laws of Moses, otherwise you cannot be saved. The work of Christ alone is not enough. You must add to the work of Christ to be saved. And that was the error.

Verse 5 is exactly the same. Verse 5, there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, as they were disputing this, and they were sent to Jerusalem to settle it. But when they came to Jerusalem, there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, which professed to believe, saying, which professed to be the disciples of Christ, even though they retained their Jewish religion. There rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, which believed, saying, that it was needful, it's necessary, to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. That was absolutely clear. That was what was being said. And Paul and Barnabas, because of the dispute they had with them, they'd gone there and there it was, clear, right in their face, in Jerusalem. There were those who claimed, those who had been Pharisees and who claimed to be believers, saying the gospel of Christ alone is not enough. You must be circumcised. You must keep the law of Moses. When you look at so-called Christian religion around this country, around the world today, gosh, I'm telling you, the more deeply and finally you look at it and hear what they're actually saying, They're saying pretty much the same as those professing Pharisees in Jerusalem, because they add all sorts to Christ and him alone. They say, They say God requires a contribution from you without which you won't be qualified for God's kingdom.

But in verse 3 of Galatians chapter 2, verse 3, neither Titus, who was with me being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. The Jerusalem apostles and elders themselves circumcised Jews, they accepted uncircumcised Greek Titus as he was, without circumcision. They were false brethren, you see. They seemed like true brethren, but they were false. All their confidence of heaven looked like, you might think, it was resting in Christ's finished work, but they were adding to it.

You see, They were resting, the true believers rest in the work of God alone, in Him and Him alone. What is it that we should do to do the work of God? Believe on Him whom He has sent. That's the work of God, and there's nothing else to be added to it. But these people, they had this message which was false, they said that that was insufficient, and you had to do more, you had to keep Moses' law, you had to be circumcised, you had to do all of these other things. They had to come back under the yoke of legal bondage.

It says, as it describes in Colossians chapter 2 that we were looking at a few weeks ago, in verse 16, Paul says there to the Colossians, don't let anyone judge you. about what you eat or what you drink, meat or drink, or in respect of holy days or religious days that you observe, or a new moon or Sabbath days. They were just a shadow, all these Old Testament types. They were a picture, but the body, the truth, is Christ.

Don't let any man beguile you of your reward in voluntary humility. Don't let any man... Take away the reward that you have in Christ alone by adding to it things that you do of voluntary humility, worshipping of angels, intruding into things that is not seen, and not holding the head, which is Christ. Wherefore, if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why are you living in the world Are you subject to ordinances? And they're ordinances of men who say, don't touch that. Oh, oh, you better not taste that. Oh, don't drink that. Don't, don't handle that. No, no, don't. All of these things which Paul says are to perish with the using. These are just the things of this world.

For the kingdom of God is not, as Romans says, is not about meat or drink or these other things. It's about grace. It's about love. It's about truth. All these things just have a outward show. of wisdom in will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body, but not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. It's bondage. You see, if you do follow that, then When you do these things that these religious people tell you you've got to do, there's always the question, have I done it well enough for God? If I have to add something to what Christ has done, is the bit that I do, do I do it well enough? And of course the answer is no, of course, you've fallen short, so try harder. And therein is the bondage, is the bondage of religion.

The bondage of religion, it's what Peter said, in that council of Jerusalem, in Acts chapter 15, in verse 10, he says this to them. Why tempt ye God to put a yoke, a yoke of bondage, on the neck of the disciples, these believing Gentile disciples? He says, why are you putting a burden on them? Why are you bringing them back into bondage? You see, he says, look, be honest. Our Jewish fathers couldn't keep that yoke, couldn't keep that extra thing they had to do, and nor were we. Let's be honest, we weren't able to do it either. So don't do that.

The false brethren are happy when you conform. Ah, they say. Your liberty of the gospel is dangerous because your liberty in the gospel is in actual fact a license to sin as you wish. That's what they say. You've got to be careful. You've got to add all these other things because your liberty in the gospel that Christ has paid for all your sins gives you, you say, it gives you license to sin as you want.

Paul addresses this in Romans 6, first two verses. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, of course not. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Paul was clear in denouncing blatant open sin. He denounced adultery, incest, fornication, sodomy, stealing, lying to one another, murder, infidel. He wasn't a licensed to sin man. No. He was clear in denouncing it. What he's saying is what Jude says in his epistle, in the little epistle of Jude just before Revelation. In verse four, he said, there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Ungodly men, what is their ungodliness? What were they doing? They were turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. They were turning the grace of God the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Lasciviousness is a feeling of a license to sin, as you wish. They were turning it into something which incites a lust to sin. That's false, he says.

Certain men crept in unawares, who were of old, ordained unto this condemnation. He calls them ungodly men, because they were saying that the gospel that liberates from legal bondage is inciting people to sin. No, it's not. No, it's not. The true gospel of God doesn't make void the law. Rather, the true gospel of God, as Romans 3.31 says, establishes the law. Because gospel grace and love, true love, is the law's fulfillment. It says that in Romans 13, verses 8 and 10. Love is the fulfillment of the law.

What is it that constrains the behavior of the believing people of God? It's not the law that constrains it, it's the love of Christ that constrains his people in their behavior. So then, we are to contend for the truth. We're to contend, we're to maintain it, were to be sticklers for the one true gospel.

So in response to false brethren, who, these false brethren had come to Antioch from Jerusalem, and they were claiming, ah, right, now, you know, you've been learning, you people at Antioch and the churches around there, you've been learning from This guy Paul, you know, this upstart that just suddenly came out of nowhere, we don't know where he was from, but he's certainly not from Jerusalem. No, you know, he doesn't come from Jerusalem. But we do, we do come from Jerusalem. We've come down from headquarters. We've come down from the church's headquarters. And we've come down with the stamp of real apostles. Not somebody who claims to be an apostle like Paul. Not as one born out of due time, as he himself said. No, we're the real deal, they were saying. We've come from HQ. And we've come to tell you what is right.

But it says in Acts 15, when they came, in Acts 15 and verse 2, as was read to us earlier, when therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that they should go and settle the issue up in Jerusalem with the apostles there. There was no small dissension. Whatever their claimed credentials, These people, down from HQ, down from Jerusalem, Paul's gospel was direct from God. So they contended for the truth of that gospel. They contended for it. They majored on it. It was vital to them.

Again, referring to Jude in verse 3, Beloved, When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort you that you should, listen, exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. The word of God calls his believing people not to just sit on it and stay silent, earnestly contend for the truth of the gospel, the gospel of God, the one true gospel. To earnestly contend for the truth of God.

You know, In situations that arise where we come across the people of this world, if we're the people of God, God here calls us, earnestly contend for the truth of God. It's the gospel of Christ alone that saves, as opposed to the gospel, so-called, of Christ plus other things that you add, and that is no gospel at all. That leads to eternal loss. This isn't a matter of equally valid Opinions and all right if you want to add something to the gospel of Christ, that's okay, but I'll stick to my opinion No earnestly contend for the truth The truth is Christ and him alone and it's a matter. It's a matter of life and death and death. He says, with God are the issues of death. He says that in the Psalms, and it's so true. With God are the issues of death. We all face it. Every last one of us, at some stage, we all face it. With God are the issues of death. And whether you've got the right gospel or not is a matter of life and death.

The elect of God, the elect multitude that We don't know, but they're known to God, every last one of them, every last one of them. The elect of God must all be saved, and they must all believe the one true gospel of God, as it's revealed in scripture.

What is the work that we must do to do the work of God? This is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. How do you know that you are among that multitude that God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world? Answer, you believe the one true gospel of God. If you're in False religion, but you're one of his children. As soon as you hear the true gospel, you'll say, that's it, that's the true gospel. I've heard testimony, and I could add mine to it, of many down the years who were in false religion, who had believed a brand of Christianity that wasn't the truth, but they remember. the time when they heard the true gospel of grace in Christ and him alone. And it was, everything else was just thrown away. It was like Paul with his pharisaical religion. It was just ditched there and then. You believe the one gospel. If you've been deluded, if you've been tricked into believing another, Revelation 18, four says, come out of her my people. Second Corinthians six verse 17 says, come out from among them. You know, the world's religion will tell you, oh, you mustn't separate. Oh, that's terrible to have schisms and fall out and go your different ways. What does the scripture say? It says, on the principle of this one true gospel, if you're hearing a falsehood of a gospel, come out from that place. Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord.

Even if you end up, oh, surely it can't be right that we end up entirely on our own. and just us and nobody else, surely that cannot be wrong. Surely, surely God is big enough for churches that are true to have lots and lots of life going on. No, even if you end up in a solitary wilderness separation from corrupted religion, God will feed you there. In that Revelation chapter 12 that we looked at earlier, he feeds the woman in her isolation from this world.

Paul was united with the Jerusalem apostles and leaders. They heard what he and Barnabas had been preaching, and they concluded that preaching this gospel from God to the Gentiles was the fulfillment of Old Testament scripture. We read right at the start, we read Amos chapter nine. Amos chapter nine, and we read, in that day, the day of salvation, I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen. and close up the breaches thereof. And I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old. Oh, they're going to reestablish the kingdom of God in Israel in the Middle East with a rebuilt Jerusalem then. That's what a lot of people think that means. That they may possess the remnant of Edom. They're the unbelieving peoples all around, and of all the heathen. People that are heathen, which are called by my name, says God, says the Lord, that doeth this. What does that mean? I said we'd find out from the apostles and the church leaders.

James, who was the actual physical sibling of our Lord Jesus Christ, and not an apostle in the sense that he'd been chosen by Christ in his earthly ministry, but an apostle in the sense of the word of apostle as a messenger of truth. Acts 15 and verse 15, when they'd heard what God was doing at the preaching of Paul and Barnabas and with the church up in Antioch, without Mosaic law and Mosaic circumcision and all of these other rites, that God was saving a people out of the unbelieving world around, out of the heathen roundabout. James says this, What you've just heard, he says, agrees with the words of the prophets. And he quotes Amos chapter 9, verses 11 and 12. After this, I will return. What you're seeing with these Gentiles believing is this. It's the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, being rebuilt. And the ruins of it being set up again. And the residue of men, that's Edom and all the heathen round about. that they might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, because his people are from every tribe and tongue and kindred." It's the Lord who says this, who does all of these things.

They silenced the false brethren with a letter to Antioch. that they took back with them to say, you carry on believing just the gospel. We require nothing more of you in terms of legal obedience. Just don't do things that provoke other people round about unnecessarily. That's all that they said. But what you're doing is believing the truth. And they gave Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship.

So how does that apply to us today? I believe that we have the mind of Christ. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 2.16. We have the mind of Christ. We're not, you say, you're so small you're insignificant. Well, we don't mind being insignificant. But we're not some obscure sect rebelling against mainstream gold-plated Christianity. How do I say that? insofar as we preach and believe the gospel according to the scriptures. That's why we seek to call ourselves Biblical Gospel Church. We're not promised crowds and popularity as the mark of our validity, but we are assured of God's care and keeping till he brings all his church to glory. Amen.