All right, if you wish to follow
along, turn to Galatians again, chapter one. Galatians chapter
one. I wanna go back and read what I've
covered the past, for a couple Sundays. Then I'll mention my
text in particular when we get to the verses. Paul began this
letter by Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man. but by
Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead
and all the brethren which are with me and to the churches of
Galatia. Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself
for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world
according to the will of God and our Father. To whom be glory
forever and ever, amen. Now here's our actual text. that
you're so soon removed from him that called you into the grace
of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there
be some that would trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto
you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that
ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade
men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Now, our brother and apostle
Paul now begins to confront the problem in Galatia head-on. Now, later through the letter,
he will deal with some of the details, but here he speaks of
the perilous situation that had arisen in the churches of Galatia. The problem was a false gospel,
a false message, a dangerous gospel, not And I don't say this
to throw off, because I don't know a lot of these, you see
some places, full gospel assembly. Well, if your gospel ain't full,
it ain't the gospel of God. It was a false, the problem was
a false gospel. A dangerous gospel. And as Paul
puts it here, a perverted gospel. In other words, no gospel at
all. That's the whole point. No gospel
at all. In fact, it was an accursed message
perpetrated by cursed men. And that's what he says here
in verse eight and nine. He said, even if an angel from heaven.
Now, see people today love visions, don't they? They love seeing
signs and visions. But if something speaks to you
in a dream at night, it's not speaking this word, it's not
the truth of God. I mean, you've got people that
will trust their vision over the word of God. And I'm reminded
when I say that of the Apostle Peter, when he wrote that we
have a more sure word of prophecy, even above what he, Peter, James,
and John experienced on the Mount of Transfiguration. I mean, Christ
was transfigured in front of them. And God the Father spoke
from heaven, and two saints of time past appeared there with
Christ. And Peter said, I've seen this
with my own eyes. But he has a more sure word of
prophecy. This book. Isn't that amazing? This book.
Now let us always keep that in mind. Now I just have two thoughts
today from our text. I'll spend most of my time on
the second one probably, but just two thoughts from our text.
And God willing later, we'll go back, I'm not gonna just pass
it up, we'll go back and we'll start looking at specifically
verses six through 10, and we'll break down some of these things
in particular. But just a couple thoughts that came to my mind
as I read this last week. Since one who is removed from
the gospel, and that's what Paul was afraid of here, that they
actually removed from the gospel, they were believing this perverted
gospel, this message that is no gospel at all. But think about
this thought. Since one who is removed from
the gospel is in a precarious position, at best, a precarious
position, how much also is one in danger who has never heard
the gospel at all? You see what I'm saying? You
see that? What about those who've just never heard? They're going
to perish without any hope. I know there are those who believe
that, and we usually, we include all of us to an extent, we talk
about the heathen who've never heard the gospel and they'll
be okay. They're not going to be okay. They're not going to
be okay. But think about this. Okay, that's certainly true.
These people are in danger. They need the gospel preached
to them. But aren't you glad that God sends his preachers?
He doesn't depend on his preachers. He sends his preachers. You see
that? I thank God for that. I thank
God for that. But think about this. Those who've
never heard the gospel, but think about this. What about those
in our day who've heard only the perversion? and don't even
know. They've heard a gospel, but that
he quotes. They have a gospel, but that
he quotes. But they've never actually heard
the gospel. Now what we preach here and what's
preached in other places has been preached for millennia. It was actually preached first
by God himself when he talked about the seed of the woman crushing
the serpent's head. That's the promise of the Messiah.
I'm kind of persuaded it was the Messiah promising himself,
as far as I understand the scripture. The thing about it, there are
people today that only know the perversion. They're lost. You see, maybe
this'll help solidify what I'm trying to say. There are people
who think, well, all these people I hear who believe, they've heard
Bible preaching, they've heard at least preaching from the Bible,
they maybe made a profession of faith, they've been baptized,
they joined the church, they try to live a moral life. They're all saved, but then maybe
one day you start coming to a knowledge of the truth. It don't happen
that way. You're either converted by the
truth or you're not converted at all. And if your conversion
is based upon a perversion, then your conversion is false. It's
as false as the message you believe. Think about it. How many people
in this world believe in Jesus? They believe in the facts of
his birth, maybe even his eternality, and then his birth in the flesh,
his righteous life, his death, his burial, his resurrection,
his ascension. But their message is about rituals. rituals, and because they go
through the rituals, they think that somehow they're a child
of God. That's a perverted gospel. Think about many who, this decisionism,
they heard about Jesus, they know the same thing as these
ritualistic people do, and they make their decision, they walk
the aisle, they pray the prayer, and they're sincere. They're
not trying to fool anybody, they're sincere. The problem is they're
believing a perversion. They're not believing the truth,
but think even further. Think about those who preach
another Jesus. Remember, the Apostle Paul warned
us in one of the Corinthians, they're gonna preach another
Jesus and by another spirit. You don't come to the doctrines
of grace, you come to Christ. As I had that young fellow that
asked me at Penny's dad's funeral, he said, well, when did you come
to believe these things? I said, when God saved me. He
was just speechless. Well, he thinks, well, we're
all saved. You've just come to this other
understanding. It's just not so. Paul says,
I'm marveled that you're so soon removed from him. What if they've
never really been with him to start with? That's scary. Now, that's it on the first point. Here's the second one. Here's
the second thought. The gospel is set. The gospel is established. The gospel is certain. The gospel is unchanging. The gospel is not fluid. It never adjust to suit the times
or the people of the times. The gospel is what it is from
all eternity because this is the gospel of the eternal God. You know, let me give you a quote. This quote is by Sir Richard
Hill and he made this quote. Whenever the gospel is so hashed,
and cooked up, that it becomes palatable to the taste of human
wisdom, it ceases to be the gospel that Paul preached. And I say,
amen, amen. But in light of this, you see
this, you know, people say, but we got to kind of take the edge
off. If you take the edge off, you
got no gospel. It needs to be a little less offensive. If you
take the offense away, it's no longer the gospel. You see, just
a few thoughts. If altered at all, I'm talking
about the message you preach. If you're preaching the message,
but if you begin to alter it at all, it's not the gospel. It's a perversion. Even if you're
using biblical rituals, circumcision, observing days and months and
times and years, right? But we know, we've read through
the letter before, this is nothing new to us, that to introduce
One act of human nature, one act of man into the gospel is
to open up that Pandora's box. You remember, was it Hezekiah? Correct me if I'm wrong. They
found the brazen serpent, or they had the brazen serpent,
and what were they doing? They were worshiping that thing. Burning incense to
it. Now had that thing not been ordained
of God? Had it not? Yes it had. It was ordained of
God, but never to be worshiped. And what did Hezekiah do? Now
here's the brazen serpent that Moses made. Not a replica by
what we see, Paul. The actual brazen serpent. And he ground that thing up into
powder and told the people to drink it here. Here, drink it. And then people get upset because
we tell that people that baptism is nothing more than a answering
of a good conscience toward God. And that's, listen, all it is. But that's enough. Because that's
what God ordained it for. Again, if altered at all, it's
not the gospel, it's a perversion, which, Paul says, is not another
but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. But then again, think of this. I mean, folks, there
are people today that's never actually heard the message of
free reigning grace. What we preach is so foreign
to them because they've been hoodwinked. They have been indoctrinated
into this God loves everybody. And the whole world agrees to
that, right? besides a handful of people here
and there. Anything that the whole world agrees to concerning
this book, you can pretty much cast it off to the side. I mean,
when you got people standing up at sporting events, even boxing
matches, where two men are beating one another's brains half out,
and they stand up to the side, God loves you. And I wish to
God that somebody had another one. Maybe he does, maybe he
don't, you know? This world thinks God owes them
his love. This world thinks God owed them
his son, and he did not. He owes us nothing. He owes us
nothing. But here's another thought. If
adjustment is made to suit men's pleasure, it's perversion. Which message, the message that
we preach here, or the message that is generally preached out
there, which one is more received? That message out there. That
message out there. For do I now persuade men or
God? This word persuade here is not,
we get God to do something. That's not the use of the word.
Or do I seek to please men? That's what he's talking about.
Please men. For if I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. It is that simple. and yet that
profound. What did Paul say? Come out from
among them. That's even false Christianity. But we need to, don't we all
need to work together, preacher? No. You remember what the Apostle
John said. If somebody comes into your house
and doesn't breathe the doctrine of Christ, you don't let him
in your house, you don't even bid him Godspeed. Because if
you do, you're complicit in his false message. Isn't that what
John went on to say? I'm paraphrasing, that's what
he went on to say. What was it they called Earl
in that newspaper, he was a separatist. Said, a separatist, that's what
God's people's got to be. Again, come out from among them
and be ye separate, saith the Lord. We're not all working together
for the same goal, And the goal is not getting to heaven. That's
not the goal. The goal is worshiping Christ.
The goal is to believe the record God gave of his son. If you are
there, if God puts you there, if you believe the record God
gave of his son, you believe that record, then heaven will
be your glory. But it would be no glory at all
if Christ were not there. See, everybody just wants to
go to heaven. They don't care, they could care less about Jesus Christ.
Just get me to heaven. Heaven, I'm gonna say this, heaven
would be hell apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Because most
people think of heaven strictly and completely from a fleshly
standpoint. I don't have to be sick anymore.
Don't have to get old and suffer anymore. I don't have to have
troubles anymore. That ain't what heaven's about.
I thank God it's included, Ellen, in that. But that ain't what
it's about. It's about worshiping Jesus Christ, sitting on his
throne. And somebody says, you want to
do that eternally? I sure do. I sure do. I can't explain it, don't have
to. Just, oh God, that day. when we can see him as he is,
and we will be what? Like him. Like him. So again, if altered, if the
message we preach, if we're preaching the gospel, if the message is
altered at all, it's not the gospel, it's a perversion. If
adjustment is made to suit men's pleasure, it is still a perversion. Well, but look at how many more
people believe out there and what's being preached out there
than here. It don't matter. It does not matter. Christ left
the masses and went to one town in Samaria for one woman. Now that gospel spread from that
woman to others in her village, but he went there, Jack, for
one woman. See, God's salvation is about
quality. It's not about quantity. And
yet this world is called up with quantity. More, more. But isn't that just nothing more
than flesh? Flesh, flesh. What did our Lord say? There
were many widows in Israel in the time of, was it Elijah? And
God didn't feed one of them. He fed just one old Gentile widow.
and there were many lepers in Israel, and God didn't heal one
of them. He sent his prophet to one Syrian. And you know what those people
did? They took him out to the brow of the hill and would have
cast him down headlong were it not for the fact that he held
his life in his own power. You see, the gospel, as we will
see, God willing, later, the gospel is meant to have an edge
about it. The gospel is meant to be offensive. I know we live in a society where
all offense, they're trying to get rid of all offense. Bless
God, if we're preaching this gospel, we'll offend everyone
we tell it to. Even if you're one of God's elect,
the first thing that'll rise up in you is, I don't like that
message. I don't like that message. And
we will continue in that despicable, corrupt state until God Almighty,
as Paul says, breathes life. And then, when we begin to hear
that message, it's like, this is different. I distinctly remember
the first time that I began to hear the gospel. One man, God
sent one man to me, and I used to think to myself, this man
is nuts. And I fought against it. and
I lied about it, and I criticized it, Mack, until God Almighty
put me under his feet in the dirt before Jesus Christ. I began
to read this Bible, and Jack, I was seeing things that I didn't
even know was there, but I'd read it over and over and over. Now, here's the third point.
If the gospel's offensive character is watered down, softened, or
manipulated to take away its edge, it's perversion. It's perversion. You remember,
look at Galatians chapter five. Let's read that verse. Galatians
chapter five, look at what Paul said. Verse 11, and I, brethren,
And I won't spend a lot of time on this. We'll look at this God-willing
letter. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision. What's he
talking about? Watering down the gospel. Adding something
to the gospel. Even though it's circumcision,
okay? If I preach circumcision. Now,
Paul preached about circumcision, but he didn't preach circumcision.
You see the difference? He mentioned circumcision, no
doubt, in many of his messages. He wrote about it in many of
his letters. but he didn't preach circumcision. What did he preach? A person. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Read it again. He says, and I, brethren, if
I yet preach circumcision, why do I suffer persecution? Then
is the offense of the cross ceased. You see, God uses this gospel
to cut to the very soul of our being. to reveal to us what we
truly are in the fall of Adam and in ourselves. And it hurts. When God's gospel begins to cut
you, it hurts. You don't walk down an aisle
chewing your bubble gum and popping bubbles, smiling and happy. God
brings you down. As Henry Mahan said, God's never
saved a person until God's revealed to that person they're lost.
God's never spiritually healed a person until he makes them
see that they are wounded mortally. God never lifts a person up to
the glories and honors and majesty of Jesus Christ until he puts
them in the dust at his feet. As a matter of fact, I might
as well say this, we'll look at it more later. Paul makes
a statement in his letters, if I build again the things which
I once destroyed, Strong language. If I build again the things which
I once destroyed, that's the language he uses. We'll look
at that later, God willing. I make myself a transgressor.
You see that? But here's what, this gospel
gets a hold of a man or a woman, and by the power of the spirit
of God, they cannot let it go. They try to run from it and they
run right into it, just like old Jonah, trying his best to
run from God. And who did he run into? God,
huh, didn't he? God. Here's Peter out there denying
the Lord, cursing and swearing. I don't know the so and so. Some
kind of strong language. I don't know the so and so. But
what did our Lord do? He turned around and looked at
Peter. And it was not a look of condemnation. It was a look
of mercy. He was, Peter, when Christ looked
at, I'm not gonna try to make the facial expression. I have
no idea, Mac, what the facial, how it looked. But I know this,
when Peter just seen Christ look at him, it broke him down. He told me this was going to
happen. He told me this was going to
happen. And yet Christ had all the mercy and grace and compassion
toward Peter right after he had denied the Lord three times. You remember when they told the
women to go back and tell the disciples, tell them I'm risen,
and tell Peter. And tell Peter, why? Because
Christ didn't hate him. He was giving himself for Peter
while Peter was casting aspersions into his very mouth. That's the
same thing he does for us, brothers and sisters. So again, let me
read old Richard Hill one more time and I'll close this up.
Whenever the gospel is so hashed and cooked up that it becomes
palatable to the taste of human wisdom, it ceases to be the gospel
Paul preached. Which is better, if I actually
believe God? Ask and answer a couple questions.
Which is better if I actually believe, I didn't say believe
in God, though that's certainly a part of it, is to believe God.
If God's word says this, then I believe this. Even if I can't
make all the thises fit. You see what I'm saying? If it
says it in the book, it means it. But there's one thing about
this book. We must make distinction, and
Paul does most ably in this letter. He is inspired by the Spirit
of God to write, we must make distinction between the first
covenant and the second covenant. Because if you read the first
covenant, the old covenant, with only eyes of the old covenant,
you're gonna miss the second, the better covenant. And God
willing, we'll look at that later too. So which is actually better
if I actually believe God? Is it better for me to actually
believe what God has gifted us with, this book, or is it better
for me to believe what I think about the book? How many times
I've heard people, the conversation comes up, religion comes up,
you try to talk with someone about what God's done for you,
about who Christ is, and they say, well, I know what I believe.
Well, does it matter? If you're not believing the record
God gave of his son, you're calling God a liar. Mm-hmm. I consider that to be dangerous
ground to stand on, don't you? To call your maker a liar? It ain't about what even I believe.
I still find myself being corrected as I read more and more of this
book, as I hear other men preach, as I read other books. I find
myself jack-corrected in my thinking over and over and over. And I must admit that, as the
one preacher said, that even my repentance needs to be repented
of. I don't even get my repentance
right. It's often piecemeal. Okay, I'll turn away from that. You know what I say to folks?
Go ahead and choose. Choose your opinion. You'll perish. You'll perish. God, this is a
prayer, this is a prayer. God, please, oh God, I beg of
you, lovingly, graciously, mercifully, compassionately, force me to
heed your actual revelation given in this book. Correct my errors. Straighten me out. And I know
it will continue to be until I awake in his likeness. But
aren't you glad, now turn with me to Hebrews. You know this
passage, but let me find it. Hebrews chapter 12. I'll close
with prayer after reading this, making a comment or two. Wherefore,
seeing we also are compassionate about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and to see him which
doth so easily beset us, let us run with patience the race
that is set before us. looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that
endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
you be wearied in faith in your minds. But it's so tough, it
ain't nothing like what Christ went through. Dealing with my
sin is so horrible, it's nothing about like what Christ went through
when he dealt with our sin. When they were put in his body,
when he hung on the tree. You have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin, but here it is. And have you
forgotten the exhortation? Which speaketh unto you as unto
what? Children, my children. Son, you
see that? Despise not thou the chastening
or the correction of the Lord, nor fate when thou art rebuked
of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he corrects. You see it? If he's
correcting you, it's cause he loved you. If he didn't love
you, he just let you go. He just let you go. For whom
the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth. How many? every
son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards. You are illegitimate,
you're not real, not truly a child of God, not sons, and as I said,
It's been, it's probably been several years ago. What does
that word bastard really mean? What's it mean in the Greek?
It means bastard. That's what it means. Isn't that
offensive? Isn't that an offensive, it's
an offensive word. But Jack, it's the facts. If you're without
chastisement, you are, I would be a bastard and not a son. Oh God, help us to continually
keep the edge on the gospel. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your grace and mercy. And Lord, as we conclude here
and go to the water, Lord, be with us and may it be that Tommy
and Jody, as they have this opportunity, this time to publicly confess
you and obey your command in baptism, be with them and be
with us as we engage in this thing. In Christ's name, amen.