It's good to see everybody today.
Missed you guys last week. Missed Daniel
the last couple weeks. Glad he got to go see his family
down in Arkansas. It's good to be back. We, last time we were together
here, a couple of weeks ago, we began our verse-by-verse exposition
of the book of Galatians. And we looked at Galatians chapter
one, verses one through five the last time. And we're gonna
pick up from there and move on this morning. Let's bow and have a word of
prayer before we begin. Father, we come this morning
and we're so thankful for the day that you've given to us,
the beautiful sunshine and the cool weather that you've given
us. We thank you for the opportunity that we have, once again, together
in your name, together as your people, around your word. And
Father, we just pray the Holy Spirit be with us today. We need
the help of the Spirit to worship, We desire in our hearts to worship
you rightly and to do that in spirit and in truth, we need
the spirit. And so Father, we ask that you
would bring the spirit today into our hearts and into our
minds to give us understanding. Father, I pray that you would
help me to preach your word, to bring into recollection the
things that you have taught me and the things that you have
placed within your word that I might faithfully open up God's
word and explain it and preach it, proclaim it. Father, we pray
that the gospel of Jesus Christ might be heard this morning. We pray that Christ would be
glorified, that he'd be honored, that he'd be the center of our
attention this morning. And Father, I pray for those
that are here and those that are listening. Lord, we pray
that you give them hearing ears, that you would encourage and
edify them by the preaching of the word. And Father, we pray
as we just sang, as we come out of the busyness of this life,
that we might rest and to hear from you today, Lord, as we worship
and hear your word proclaimed. We pray, Lord, that we might
put away all the busyness of this life from our mind, that
you, by your spirit, might give us attentiveness to the preaching
Lord, we pray for those that are not here this morning. We
pray that you would keep them wherever they are, that you might
minister unto them, Father. And Lord, we're so grateful that
we have an opportunity to come and worship each week as you
have provided for us. And Lord, we just continue to
lift up our country. And we pray for it, Lord, that
you might bring repentance to your people. Lord, that you might
turn this wicked generation back towards you, Lord, that you might
turn this country back. to a more moral and right country
as it pertains to the human flesh. But Lord, more importantly, as
it pertains to you, we pray that you would give us Christian leaders,
that you would give us people in our government that desire
the things of God and the honor of God. So Father, we just lift
up our country. We lift up our friends and our
family, Lord, to now the ones that are in need, the ones who
have ailments. Lord, we just pray for them.
We know that you are the great physician, that you can heal
all things, and that you also are the great God of peace, who
can bring peace to any tumultuous family and lifestyle. Lord, we
just pray that you can cleanse all these things, and that by
your grace and by your will, these things will be done. And
so may we see and know and understand, and that we might seek your will
in all things, in Christ's name, amen. We began last week looking at
Galatians chapter one, and we looked at the first five verses.
In those first five verses, we've seen that Paul introduced himself,
as he does in most letters, and that in this letter, Paul has introduced himself as an apostle,
but a little bit more forcefully than he has in some of his other
letters. And as I mentioned last time
we were together, the reason for this expansion or at least
this forcefulness of his introduction as an apostle is because of the
content of what he is about to engage in. See, the Galatian
churches have, at this point, have begun to be lured away from
the gospel that Paul had delivered unto them from the very beginning. And that in this luring, they
have now began to participate in and to listen to the Judaizers. And the Judaizers, all those
were Jews who professed to be Christians, who believe that
you were saved by grace, but you were still obligated to keep
the law. You were still obligated to be
under the law and to practice the laws of Moses, that God had
given to Moses. And so Paul, before he even gets
started in addressing their drifting away from the gospel, he has
laid down the groundwork for why, number one, they should
have listened to him in the first place. But second of all, his
authority in coming with this correction that he's about to
unleash upon him here in this letter. And so he is reminding
them that he is not just merely an apostle. If you remember,
we talked about that word apostle, that that word apostle means
a messenger. And we've seen that there was
a couple of kinds of apostles in the New Testament. There was
apostles like Barnabas, who had been made a messenger of the
church, sent by the church. And so he went out and shared
the gospel alongside the apostle Paul and other apostles. These
men like Luke and all these who were not apostles, but were in
the sense of Peter, James, and John, and Paul, and the other
apostles, but in the sense of they came alongside of those
apostles, those original apostles, and they aided them in their
work and in their ministry, and they were sent as messengers
of the church. In that sense, they were apostles.
But here, Paul is opening this letter by enforcing the fact
that he is an apostle, not of men, neither by men. So he wasn't
called of men, he wasn't sent by men, but by Jesus Christ and
God the Father. And so Paul was sent by Christ
to be a apostle to the Gentiles. And so that introduction lays
ground and puts force behind the fact that what I'm about
to deliver you in this letter is for your good, it's for your
instructions, it's reproof and rebuke. Remember Paul writing
to Timothy, he said that all scripture has been given by inspiration
of God and is profitable. And it's profitable for the very
thing that he's about to do here, for to correct, to reprove, to
rebuke them. And he's going to, he's gonna
rebuke them for what they've done. He's gonna reprove them
by correcting them. Whenever he corrects them, he'll
reprove them back to the gospel. and instruct them in righteousness
and how they are to walk in faith and not under the law. And so
we see that this first five verses here is laying this groundwork
for what we're about to dive in starting today. But I also
want you to pay close attention to what he also said. He said,
it's not just for those who are in Galatia. And all the brethren
which are with me unto the churches of Galatia, grace be to you."
There were multiple churches in Galatia, right? But we also
find that he said that this letter needs to be read in other places. Whenever we look at Galatians chapter six, We
see that this letter or this instruction about walking in
faith and not under works or law, we see he says, this is
for as many as walk according to this rule, be on them and
mercy and upon the Israel of God, okay? The Israel of God
is all the elect of God, the spiritual children of God, that's
the Israel of God. We know that from other writings
with Paul. I won't get into that today. I'm sure that most of
you understand that and know that. If not, we can definitely
provide scripture to show that the Israel of God is the elect
people of God. It's a spiritual family, not
a physical family, okay? It's not a physical ethnic, group
of people, but a spiritual group of people. We are family through
the spirit, not through the flesh. Now, so he says that Jesus who
gave himself for our sins, gave himself 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. So the apostle His authority
is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, who not only sent him
as an apostle, but also sent him with the gospel of Jesus
Christ so that those people would be grounded in the faith. They
would be grounded in the gospel. Now, read with me this morning,
as I start in verse six, and I'm gonna read down to verse
nine. It says, I marvel that ye are 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 trouble you and
would pervert the gospel of Christ. Notice it's the gospel of Christ. It's Christ's gospel. Christ
is the one who delivered the gospel. You say, well, wait a
minute, I thought the gospel was first delivered by John.
Well, that's when the preaching of the gospel in the New Testament
age, where the veil that had been over in the Old Testament,
and it had been in types and foreshadows, The preaching of
John the Baptist was where the tide turned. John came as a prophet
preaching repentance and faith and preaching the gospel of Jesus
Christ openly, not in type and foreshadow. And so the Bible
tells us that the gospel began with John in its proclamation
in the way that we understand it now. not as they understood
it in the Old Testament in types and foreshadows and prophecy,
but now begins to preach it, that repentance and faith in
the land that was there to take away the sin of the world, okay? So John the Baptist may have
been the first person to begin the New Testament preaching of
the gospel, but brethren, the gospel was preached all through
the Old Testament in the types and foreshadows to the people
of God, through the prophets of God, to the men of God that
God had revealed himself to. But brethren, the first person
to preach the gospel was Jesus Christ in the garden. Jesus preached
the gospel because the gospel is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the gospel that is his gospel. Nobody made up this gospel. Nobody
thought this gospel out. It was his gospel. He's the one
who is the word of God and he proclaims that word in flesh. Jesus came in flesh in the garden
and proclaimed the gospel. We see that in Genesis where
he preaches to Adam and to Eve, his grace and his mercy in the
shedding of blood, in the covering of their sinfulness and the non-acceptance
of their righteousness by them sowing their fig leaves together.
but providing them a covering of their own that he gave them
at the expense and the price of blood and death, by the way. So Jesus is the one who preached
the gospel first. It's his gospel, but it is the
gospel of Jesus Christ because it's the gospel about Jesus Christ. The good news in the word gospel,
we're gonna talk a little bit more about that, Lord willing,
next week. We're gonna talk about the definition
of the gospel, but just quickly here, the word gospel means good
news or good tidings, okay? And so whenever we go to preach
the good news or to proclaim the good news, it's the good
news about Jesus Christ. It's not about a salvation plan. So many people today, they think
that the gospel is giving a plan of salvation. Let me give you
the Romans road. These are the steps that you
ought to take, that you need to understand. For all sin becomes
short of the glory of God, that all of sin, or that because of
sin, that the wages of sin is death, and all of sin becomes
short of the glory of God. And just write down the little
Romans road that we used to give out as tracts and things like
that. And then when you get down in there, but you know, if you
repent, Call upon the name of the Lord. If you reach out and
take his hand, or if you make a decision for Jesus Christ to
pray this prayer, or whatever the case might be, then you'll
be saved. Listen, the gospel is not an
offer of salvation. It's not an invitation to come
to get saved. The gospel is a proclamation
of salvation. It's the good news that God in
Christ has saved his people from their sins. It is a finished
work. It is a completed work. There
is no conditions for salvation. Salvation, and that's why that's
such a good news, brother, because whenever you have been given
the spiritual understanding that the Bible speaks about that must
be had to know, and just, Really, with me quickly, turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. I want you to see this, that I'm
not just kind of making this up. I'm not following some man's
doctrine. I'm not following some theological
system. We don't care about Calvin. We
don't care about Luther. We don't care about the Reformers.
We don't care about Reformed faith and what it teaches, creeds
and confessions. We wanna know what does God's
word say? And God's word is very clear here. The Bible says, but
in verse nine, chapter two, verse nine in 1 Corinthians, but as
it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him, but God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit. So these things that we're about
to talk about, these spiritual things, and specifically what
we're fixing to see here in the 12th verse, are things that are
revealed by the Spirit. They have to be revealed. It's
not something that comes from man. That's why Paul is making
the assertion in the first five verses that, listen, this gospel
that has come to you is a divine gospel. It is a gospel that came
from God himself. God willed this gospel. God purposed this gospel. And God has preached this gospel. He has given it to me. I directly
give it straight to you. And there is no other gospel
because there is no other good news except the good news of
Jesus Christ and what he has done. That's why that's so important. an apostle of Jesus Christ, a
messenger sent from Christ, not from man. See, we may send a
man out of here, and we may be wrong in some things, and that
man, as he goes, may be wrong in some things. But the apostles
that Jesus called to himself, he specifically called, he by
his own mouth delivered the gospel. There wasn't this Is that what
the Spirit means? Is that what the Spirit means?
See, whenever we study the Bible, the Bible says that the Spirit
will lead us into all truth and that it will be our teacher.
But, brethren, He doesn't teach us all the truth right at the
same time. He brings us into the grace and
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ gradually. And as he gradually
does that, some things we look at the scripture and we think
it means this, but as we go along life's road and the spirit teaches
us more correctly, then we begin to understand, hey, I was looking
at that the wrong way. Now I understand that it means
this. And we see that. So yes, the spirit does teach
us and it does lead us into truth, but the apostles heard directly
from Jesus at that point, this is the gospel and this is what
it means. Jesus preached to them. And so
Paul is reiterating that and saying, listen, there is no other
gospel. There is only one gospel and
it's the gospel of Christ. Now, back where I was in Corinthians,
it's revealed. It's not learned. It's not studied. The gospel is not learned or
studied. It's not conveyed from parent
to child. It's not conveyed from preacher
to congregate. It is revealed. If you're here
today and you know the gospel, if you believe the gospel, if
you love the true gospel of Jesus Christ, it's because it's been
revealed to you by the Holy Spirit. I didn't convince you of that.
while I may be preaching that truth to you and teaching you
the things of the scripture until the Holy Spirit teaches you inwardly
that that is the truth and the word of God, then it's not truth
to you. It's not, you'll never know it.
You'll never understand it. No one is gonna find out God
by searching. Nobody is gonna know his gospel
by studying. They're gonna know it by the
revelation of the spirit as they study. Whenever they study the
word of God, the spirit will reveal it. That's what is being
said here. I have not seen, heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man the things that God hath
prepared for them that love him. Now, he didn't prepare it, and
if you love me, I'll give it to you. No, the ones who love
God are the ones who God has already foreloved. See, the reason
we love God is because he first loved us, and the only ones that
God has loved are the ones that He has called from eternity. The ones that He has given to
Christ, those are the ones that God loves. The Bible teaches,
and I know that this is a hard teaching, and I know it's not
a popular teaching, and I know that it's not preached in many
of the churches in this town and around the world, but God
does not love everybody. The Bible is clear about that. There is, I can give you at least
five passages that I know of, that teaches us that God does
not love everybody, that He only has love for His people. Those that He has given to Christ
from eternity, the elect of God, those are the ones that God has
loved, and He has loved them with an everlasting love. And
so the Bible says that we love Him because He first loved us. See, the cause of our love to
Him is His love towards us. What was His love towards us?
By not only sending His Son, but also in what that Son did,
now sends His Spirit into our heart, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father, where we begin to love God because His love has been
shed abroad in our heart. So see, brethren, this is a revealed
thing to the people that God has loved because the people
that love God, the people in verse nine there, the ones who
love Him, who are those people? Those people are the ones that
God loved, who set His love upon them and gave them His love that they
might love Him back. See, we would never love God
apart from that. But look what he says, verse 10, but God hath
revealed them, what? The things prepared. What is
he talking about? Well, remember, our salvation
is an eternal salvation. Our gospel is an eternal gospel.
It began before the world began. Our salvation was given to us
before the world began. Our union with Christ was given
to us before the world began. Our life began before the world
began. And so brethren, God has prepared
this for his people before the foundation of the world. That's
why Ephesians 1 says that he's given us all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus before the foundation of
the world. But he says, but God hath revealed
them unto us by his spirit, for the spirit searches all things,
yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things
of man, save the spirit of man which is in him. So basically
he's saying, you know, you can't understand a man unless you're
the spirit of man. Nobody really understands. We
have psychologists and psychiatrists and things like that that try
to shrink people's head and try to, you know, understand human
nature and human, actions and things like that and everything,
but nobody really knows the heart of man except the man himself.
I know what's going on inside me, you don't. I can fake things
on the outside, I can make myself look one way or the other way,
we can be chameleons. But listen, the spirit of man
knows. He says, even so the things of
God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. And it's only as the
Spirit reveals Him. But look at verse 12. It says,
now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is of God. We have received the Spirit of
God, or the Spirit of Christ, or received Christ. However you
wanna say that, the Bible uses those all connectively. that
we might know the things that are, what? Freely given to us. Which things also we speak not
in the words which man's wisdoms teach, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, but the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. Now, brethren, back
in Galatians, whenever we are preaching the gospel of Jesus
Christ, this gospel is a revealed thing. It's not a learned thing.
It's not a taught thing. It's revealed to us inwardly
by the Spirit. But listen, what Paul was saying
to the Corinthians, that gospel that is proclaimed is not an
invitation. It's not an offer. It's a proclamation
of what Christ has already done, which He has prepared before
in glory, that He has already given to us, that He is secured
for us by His work of righteousness, and that He is applying to us
by His Spirit. And how do we come to know that? by the Spirit that comes within
us and reveals that we have. That's why the Bible says, because
ye are sons, he has sent the Spirit of God into us. See, the
Spirit of God is sent into us because we were already sons
of God, children of God. We were sons of God, and so the
Spirit came into only the sons of God at the appointed time. And what was his job to reveal
Christ? His job was to reveal Christ
Jesus. And so he's coming to the heart
and he's revealed something. What has he revealed? Well, Corinthians
tells us that he has revealed what has been freely given to
us, not asked of us to accomplish. You see the difference there?
That's why I say the gospel is not an offer. We don't offer
salvation to anybody. We don't invite people to salvation. We don't command people to salvation,
brethren. We proclaim the gospel and God
is the one who gathers his sheep. But brethren, don't be mistaken. There's only one gospel that
the Holy Spirit proclaims to the heart, and that is the gospel
of free salvation. Any gospel of conditions is not
the gospel of Christ. It's not the gospel of the messenger
of Christ. It's not the gospel that the
Holy Spirit of Christ will teach to you. The gospel of free salvation. And we have this debate going
on within sovereign grace circles on whether or not those who are
still believing in free will and stuff like that, whether
or not we can call them brothers in Christ and all like that. And I've been very adamant in
my position on that. I do not believe that the Bible
gives us any warrant anywhere to call anyone who does not believe
sovereign grace, they cannot be called a brother or sister
in Christ. And the reason for that is because
if they still believe that salvation is conditioned upon that Jesus
has made it possible, but yet you have to, by faith, receive
him, you have to pray this prayer, or you have to say this thing,
or kneel at an altar, or be baptized, or join a church, or whatever
the case might be. If there's anything that you
have to do before God will give it to you, that's conditionalism,
that's conditions. The Bible says that the Holy
Spirit will not preach to you a gospel of conditions, but a
gospel of free salvation. Those things that are freely
given to you Not held out for you to take, but given to you. I've mentioned this illustration
before. That word given, some people say, well, yeah, well,
you can give somebody a gift, but it doesn't become theirs
unless they reach out and take it. So God has given us this
gift, but we have to reach out and take it. No, that's not what
we're talking about. God has given you. That word
given is passive on your part, active on God's part. You don't
take a gift to receive the gift. The gift is given to you whether
or not you've received it or not. And matter of fact, if we
go with what the scripture says, the gift of salvation was given
to us before the foundation of the world. So thus, again, there
is no way it has anything to do with the receiving that makes
the gift given. It has the fact that God has
given, has actively given that gift to us. But that word given,
we can use that in a different way. Daniel can give me a black eye. Stand up here, punch me right
in the eye and give me a black eye. I didn't ask for that. I didn't reach out and grab it.
I didn't take it from him, but I surely received it from him.
He give it to me and I received it, but I was passive in the
whole thing. He punched me in the eye. Now, we're not going to do that,
right? No. Okay. But that's what we're talking
about here. So, Paul here says this. Look
back at our verses. It says, I marvel that ye are
so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of
Christ. I'm going to deal with that phrase
here in just a minute. Into the grace of Christ unto
another gospel, which is not another. So Paul here is making
clear that whatever it is that they have called them into and
anything other than the gospel that Jesus give us is not another
gospel. So what does that tell me? You
can't believe a partial gospel. You can't believe a semi-gospel. You can't believe another gospel
and be considered a child of grace that has been converted. Now, I will say this, and I mentioned
a while ago, we cannot call those brothers or sisters in Christ
who are still believing Arminian, or parentheses, free will doctrine. We cannot call them brothers
and sisters. Now, having said that, that does not mean that
they may not be one of God's elect who have yet to be brought
and converted from unbelief. You say, well, what do you mean
unbelief? They believe in Jesus, that he
died and was buried and was resurrected. That's not all the gospel. Matter of fact, Paul, whenever
he said that, he said how Jesus died according to scriptures.
and was buried and raised according to the scriptures. See, it's
the according to the scriptures part that they're leaving out.
How and why did Jesus die according to the scriptures and for whom? And what was the purpose of the
resurrection? And the significance of it? See, it's just not a story
to tell people that they might believe that he did it. But it's an inward work of the
Spirit who reveals that to them, that teaches them that there's
nothing that you can do to get this. And God doesn't require
anything by your hand. You have been chosen from the
foundation of the world to be the recipients of it. And He
and His work alone is all that you need. There's no need for
you to try on your own. to get to God, to keep yourself
with God, to make yourself right before God. You are not righteous,
no not one, and you'll never will be in this lifetime in this
flesh. And so Paul is saying here, there
is not another gospel. There's not a semi-gospel, brethren. Whenever the Spirit comes to
teach us, it teaches us The true gospel of freely given. So yes, can somebody who is an
Arminian, who believes in free will, decisionism, I've made
a decision for Christ, I've chosen Christ, I've come to Christ,
I believed upon Christ, I repented and Christ saved me because I
repented and believed and came to him. Received him, opened
up the door of my heart, let him in. All those things that
we preach as Armenians, I've preached as an Armenian. Is that
the gospel? No, that's not the gospel. Anybody
preaching that is preaching a false gospel. And if you're a child
of grace, you should repudiate that. You should repudiate that. just as Paul is repudiating that
with the Galatians right here, just as Paul was repudiating
it with everybody that he had contact with who had veered from
the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we have friends, we have
loved ones, we have former churches that we all have been associated
with and have that we know, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, uncles,
aunts, and best friends and all that and whatnot, that are in
this place, that are in this position, and we have to deal
with that. But brethren, listen, we cannot
let those things dictate to us what the gospel is. We cannot
compromise the gospel because of family ties, because of friendships,
because of church ties or former church ties. We cannot let that
dictate to us the gospel. The word of God dictates to us
the gospel. And Paul here is clearly telling
them, listen, anything besides the gospel of Jesus Christ is
not another gospel. It's just not up for grabs. It's
not up for us to say, well, they believe most of the gospel and
they have a good heart. And I believe that they're trying
to serve the Lord. Man, they're in church every
time the doors are open and they preach and teach. They go down
to the nursing home to teach. They go to the hospitals and
visit. They give their money every week.
They do all these things to help the sick and the elderly and
all that kind of stuff. Listen to me. We all can do that
in the flesh. We can do every bit of that in
the flesh. That does not mean, listen, the identifying mark
of a child of grace is they have been made believers. They have
been given faith to believe in the righteousness of Christ alone,
apart from any conditions, that which is freely given to us. That's the identifying mark of
the child of grace. And he will then be given to
love the God that is that God of the Bible, that Jesus of the
Bible, that gospel of the Bible, and the people that love that
gospel. They will love their brethren,
they will love God, That God being preached, that Jesus is
being preached, they'll love that. It's very important, brethren,
that we understand that. Anything less is compromise of
the gospel. And if we compromise the gospel,
we are compromising Jesus Christ. And if we compromise Jesus Christ,
what we are doing is we are saying that what Jesus did is not enough. He did not finish His work. He
did not save His people from their sin. He did not complete
the work that was given to Him to complete. He did not fulfill
the covenant of grace that He promised that He would do. Brethren, listen, when Paul says
this, he is saying it with all the force of an apostle, with
all the force of one who had heard from the direct lips of
Jesus Christ. Any other preaching besides this
is not gospel. It's not good news. So what does
that mean? Whenever you're preaching to
somebody that Jesus has done All that He can do for you, but
you have to receive it. You have to step out of that
aisle and take His hand. You have to repent. If you don't
repent, He'll never, it's there for you if you'll just come.
We sing a song today to that tune, Just As I Am. We used to
sing that song ad nauseum at invitations, youth camps and
stuff like that. I have decided to follow Jesus.
No turning back. Listen, it's not up to you. It's
not up to you. It's not up to you to decide
to follow Jesus. It's not up to you to not turn
back. The Bible and the Gospel says that's all up to Jesus.
Are you trusting in your faith? Are you trusting in your decisions? Your fortitude? Your change of
heart and change of mind in the flesh? trusting that Christ has
done all for you and is keeping you. And that you have no righteousness
before him, but only the righteousness that is his imputed to you, which
is not another gospel is forceful brethren. But look what it says,
but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. Look in Acts chapter 15 if you
would. What is Paul speaking of? We'll
look in Acts chapter 15 in verse 1. It said, certain men which came
down from Judea taught the brethren and said, except ye be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When therefore
Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with
them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other
men should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders
about this question. and being brought on their way
by the church, they passed through Phoenice and Samaria, declaring
the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto
all the brethren. And when they were come to Jerusalem,
they were received of the church and of the apostles and elders,
and they declared all things that God had done with them.
But there rose up certain of the sect of Pharisees which believed,
saying that it was needful to circumcise them and to command
them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came
together for to consider this matter. And when there had been
much disputing, Peter rose up and said to them, men and brethren,
you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us
that the Gentiles by the mouth by my mouth should hear the word
of the gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying
their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God
to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we were able to bear? but we believe that
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved
even as they." Then all the multitude kept silent and gave audience
to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God
had wrought among the Gentiles by them. And after they had held
their peace, James answers saying, men and brethren, hearken unto
me. Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the
Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name, and to
this agree the words of the prophets as it is written. After this,
I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David,
which is fallen down and will build again the ruins thereof
and will set it up that the residue of men might seek after the Lord
and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, save the Lord,
who do with all these things." Side note, there's where the
tabernacle of David was rebuilt. It's not in the future millennium
or going close to the tribulation time, all right? It's right there. The prophet that spoke of that,
Amos, I believe it was, preached a rebuilding of the tabernacle,
David, what had to do with the inclusion of the Gentiles. Knowing
unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world, wherefore
my sentence is that we trouble not them which are among the
Gentiles are turned to God, but that we write unto them that
they abstain from pollution of idols and from fornication and
from things strangled and from blood. For Moses of old time
hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the
synagogues every Sabbath day. Then pleased that the apostles
and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own
company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, surnamed
Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren, and they
wrote letters by them after this manner, the apostles and elders
and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the
Gentiles of Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. For as much as we
have heard that certain which went out from us have troubled
you with words, subverting your souls saying you must be circumcised
and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment. So we see that this was even
happening even before word got out to Galatia, it was happening
with Anion. And what was the result of that?
The apostles, Peter, James, all those that were up at Jerusalem,
the church that was in Jerusalem, they all listened in on what
Paul and Barnabas had to say about what was going on. about
the Judaizers coming and preaching that you could not be saved unless
you were circumcised. So there was a condition that
had to be met to be saved and that you could not continue being
saved if you did not keep the law of Moses. Now, brethren,
we have the same Judaizers today. They just look different. They are preaching the same false
gospel, but they look different. They come to us in a suit of
clothes that looks like Christians. But they come saying the same
thing. You cannot be saved unless you take out circumcision, put
in, repent. Take out circumcision, put in,
believe. Take out circumcision, put in,
baptize. Take out circumcision, put church
member. Take out circumcision, put, you know, run around the
block three times, hooting and hollering like a coyote. You
know, whatever. The thing is, is that there is no
condition to be saved. Jesus accomplished that work
alone. And to continue to be saved is
not by keeping the law. So, we see that today, brethren.
We see the people that still say that there's a condition
that you must do in order to get saved, and that there's a
righteousness that you gotta keep before God to stay saved,
or to at least stay right with God. We use that word a lot,
don't we? Have you heard that word a lot?
Oh, they're just not right with God. Oh, we need to get right
with God. What is that actually? Have you
ever stopped to think what is that actually saying? To get
right with God? That means to make yourself righteous
before God. That's what we're actually saying
when we say that. That's what that phrase means. Now, people
may be using it not understanding what the phrase is that they're
using and how it's being meant, but that's what that actually
means, to say we need to get right before God is meaning to
the person saying it and meaning to the people that are hearing
it, or they're at least implying it, that I'm not living righteously. I need to live righteously. Otherwise, God is going to be
unhappy with me, or in some denominations, God will not save me, or in some
denominations, I will lose my salvation. but to get right with
God, to stay right with God, to be right with God, all that
is the works of the flesh trying to be righteous before a holy
God, and there is none who are righteous before God except Christ. So brethren, the lies of the
false gospel in the modern Christian quote unquote churches today
is do this to get saved, Live right to stay saved. Live right
to keep relationship with God. Live right to have his favor.
Brethren, that's not the gospel. That's not good news. See, I
said, well, the Bible is good news, right? Well, it's not good
news because if you take the scriptures, you'll find that
God does not accept any condition for salvation. So if you're trying
to be saved by doing a conditional thing, you'll never be saved.
That's not good news to tell somebody to do this because they
can't do that. Even if they do that, it's not
acceptable before God for their salvation. The only thing that
was acceptable to God for their salvation was the death of Christ. And their obedience If you're
preaching to people that they have to obey and keep that obedience
to stay right with God or to stay saved or to keep your salvation
and all that kind of stuff, if you're preaching that, that's
not good news because we know that every one of us fall daily.
Every one of us cannot keep the law. There's no one that can
keep the law. So it's not good news. If you
have a preacher that is preaching those things, A condition to
get saved. A righteousness that you need
to keep before God to please Him and to stay right with Him
or to continue in your salvation. He is preaching lies. Why stay under those lies? Christ commands His people. Revelation 18. Christ commands
His people. Come out of her, my people, talking
to the... And listen, it's not me saying
this. I'm not being harsh and mean. The Bible calls those types
of churches harlots. They are the Church of Babylon. It doesn't matter whether it
has Baptist in the name, Church of God in the name, Church of
Christ in the name, unaffiliated in the name, independent, Catholic,
It doesn't matter what the denomination, what the religion is. The only
thing that separates the true church of Jesus Christ, true
churches of Jesus Christ and everything else is sovereign grace, gospel. Every
denomination, every religion preaches conditional salvation. You have to maintain righteousness.
You have to do something to get saved. That's why they all can
go hold hands together and, you know, do ministry together in
all the towns. They can hold hands together
and say, we're all in this together, serving the same Jesus, the same
God. No, they're not. They're serving
Satan. They are children of Satan, serving
Satan. But brethren, the Bible says
that among them are some of us. I was one of them. The Lord called
me out. The Lord has called almost every
one of us out that are here today from those types of churches.
But in Revelation 18, he calls to the harlot. He calls to that
church of Babylon, and there's only one other church. They're
either a Christ church or anti-Christ church. All other churches except the
true churches of Jesus Christ, and whenever I say true churches,
I'm not saying just Baptist churches. I'm saying that those who have
the doctrine and the ordinances that Jesus has given to that
church to continue for now until he comes, those are the true
churches. Those have the doctrine of Christ
and the ordinances of Christ. Anything else is a false church,
a false Christian. false gospel, false worship,
false Jesus, false God, false everything. It's all false. And
just like a true harlot in our world, what does she do? She dresses up to make herself
something that she's not. Tonight, she's Susie. Tomorrow,
she's Ruby. Tomorrow, or the day after that,
she might be, you know, Jane. Tonight, she's a redhead. Tomorrow,
she's a brunette. Next day, she may be a blonde. She dresses up to suit her suitor. She dresses up to suit the one
she is trying to entice. And Jesus is calling into that
and he's saying, come out of her. not come out of them. He didn't say come out of them.
He said, come out of her. There's only one harlot. So whether it's, like I said,
Baptist church of God, whatever the case might be, he said, come
out of her, my people. So we know, that's why I say,
We may not be able to call them brothers now, but God is calling
people out of those places and he is calling them and converting
them to the free and grace of Jesus Christ. He is calling them
into the grace of Christ. Now, I said I would come back
to that phrase. Look at it if you would. I marvel that you are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel. Now, some may look at that and
talk about that they've called them into salvation. I've looked
at this several times in the past, and I looked at it again
this time whenever I studied this, and I think this does not
mean into salvation. I don't think this is what this
is talking about. Whenever it says that, I marvel that you're so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel. I don't think that means into
salvation. The word into, if you look most of the places in
the scripture, you find that we are called by his grace. That is by grace, God has saved
us. By grace, he has called us. but here it says that he has
called into grace. See, to be saved is for grace
to be bestowed upon us, but here he is calling us into grace. So what do I mean by that? I
think this is referring to God calling us into the faith of
grace, into the belief of grace, into looking and seeing that
salvation is not of works, but is of grace. It's of grace alone. Whenever he called us into grace,
he called us into the doctrine of grace alone. He called us
into the doctrine of sovereign grace, of free grace, of imputed
righteousness, Grace that is bestowed upon us and not earned
or worked for or conditioned upon. He has called us into the belief
of grace alone. That's what Corinthians was saying.
That whenever the Holy Spirit is given us, he's given to us
because we're already saved. Because grace has already been
given to us. But even though it's been given
to us, we have to be called into it to believe it, to receive
it, to look to it alone. We look to grace alone as our salvation. We're saved
by grace through the faith of Jesus Christ. See, it's grace that saves us
and we are called out of works religion, out of dead works,
believing to believe on grace. So Paul is saying here, and notice
that it's contrasted with another gospel. So that's why I believe
that this phrase into the grace of Christ isn't talking about
that he's called us into salvation. Although that word called into,
may refer or called by grace, can definitely mean salvation
in 2 Timothy 2, or 2 Timothy 1, 9 and 10. But look, I'll give
you an illustration. Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Peter. Oh, it is hot in here. Extremely hot in here. Get a fan or turn off, open a
window. Sit there and fan me. What'd I say, 1 Peter? Look, 1 Peter, and I believe
it's in chapter 2. Yes. 1 Peter 2 in verse 9. Look how this word called is
used, okay? We know that the Bible speaks
of calling in different ways, and I've preached on that before.
There's a calling that has to do with the election. That was
in 2 Peter, yeah, 2 Peter 1, 9 and 10. that He hath called
us with a holy calling, not according to our words, but according to
His purpose, and grace which was given to us. Grace was given
to us. See, it's always God giving us
grace, or He's called us by grace. He bestowed grace upon us. That's
why we're in the position that we are in, okay? Grace being,
as a verb, given verb. He has graced us with this, graced
us with this. He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. That's grace. Grace is blessing
upon us, okay? And that we are called by that
grace. That grace that was bestowed
upon us called us. But listen, here we see called
is used in a different way. It is a leading out or leading
to. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood and a holy nation. a peculiar people that
ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light." So
he has called you out of darkness and called you into light. Okay? So here we see that that phrase
called into is referring to lead you from one place that was not
good to another place that is good. He called you from darkness. We
were in darkness. We were darkness, the Bible says,
but he called us into life. He called us from the darkness
of our dead and trespasses and sin. He called us in the deadness
of our spiritual awareness, our spiritual ability, our spiritual
knowledge, our spiritual acumen. He called us from dead spiritually
to life spiritually. but He also called us from the
thinking of darkness. We were darkness, we walked in
darkness, we walked as children of wrath, we walked as children
of this world that are under the prince of the power of the
air. We walked in that and He called us to a different way
of walking. He called us to a different way
of thinking. So it isn't just called into
salvation, but it is called in the cognitive spiritual understanding
of knowing the difference between the gospel of grace and another
gospel. He called us into the gospel
of grace. Who are these people? Most of
these people were Jews, as we've talked about last time. This
was a congregation of mixed Jews and Gentiles. That most of these
Jews had been under the law and they've been called out of works
religion to a gospel of grace. That's why it was so hard for
these Jews to comprehend that, because they had been under the
law for all this time. That's why that meeting in Jerusalem
was taking place, is because the people of the law, under
the law, the Jews, had been taught and ingrained to keep the law,
keep the law, keep the law, but they thought it was for their
own righteousness. But it wasn't. See, they had
misunderstood. And so because of that, they
thought it was by the law, by conditions, that they were being
saved and kept. But whenever Christ came and
began to say, you have heard it said, but I now tell you. How often did Jesus say those
words? Your leaders have said, but hear
what I have to say. You've heard it said, but here's
what I'm saying. See, Jesus was shedding light
on what it all meant. The apostles was given that understanding,
so they shed light on what it all means. And here we see that
Paul is saying that you were called into grace by Christ Jesus
and the preaching of the gospel. You were called and converted
to believe in grace alone But now, these Judaizers who are
preaching a mixed system of grace and works, which is no gospel,
well, at least they've got the grace part right. If you've got works, you've got
works. Paul makes that clear, right? If it's of grace, there is no
more works. But if it's of works, there is
no more grace. It's either one or the other.
Black and white, I mentioned to the church in Delaware last
week that the kind of person that I am, I am, it's either
black or white with me. I mean, I am that kind of a person.
It's either black or white. It's either right or it's wrong.
This gray area of the gospel, there is no gray area of the
gospel, brethren. No gray area at all. It's either
what Christ preached or it's another gospel. That's what Paul
is saying, which is not another. You've either been called into
the belief of free grace, what's freely been given to you, and
that is what the Spirit teaches. Or if you're following after
another gospel that preaches conditions and keeping a righteousness
before God by obedience, then you're preaching another
gospel, you're listening to another gospel, you've believed another
gospel, you've been baptized unto another gospel, and you
are worshiping under another gospel that is worshiping another
Jesus. It's black or white. And so many
people, even sovereign grace, there are a lot of sovereign
grace people who are trying to make that a gray area. Charles
Spurgeon was one of the greatest gray area guys there was. Look at verse seven, which is
not another gospel, but there'll be some that trouble you and
would pervert the gospel of Christ. What's Paul saying here? Any
other gospel that is preached is a perversion, is a perversion
of the gospel of Christ Jesus. How do you feel about that? Oh,
it's all pride. My family loves the Lord. They're
just, you know, they may not be preaching all of the gospel,
but they're preaching some. No, they're preaching a perverted
gospel. My son, my daughter, my aunt
and my uncle, my best friend, he's been my
best friend for 90 years. 100 years. Listen, I got some best
friends. When I say best friends, I got
some really good friends who are preaching false Gospels.
I got family that are preaching decisional
Gospels. And I pray that God would call
them into grace, by His grace, into grace. because any other gospel is a
perversion of the gospel of Christ. And listen, brethren, any perversion
of the gospel is a perversion of Christ because the gospel
is Christ. The gospel is the good news of
Christ and him crucified. The gospel is the good news of
what Christ has accomplished. has finished, has done. So if
you pervert the gospel, you're not just perverting a plan or
a option, you are perverting Christ himself. You are lying. That's what a perversion is,
is a lie, an untruth about something else. We look today and we see And
we're even seeing it on commercials now. I've seen two commercials
last night, two different commercials last night that have incorporated
men, men with men, and women with women married together as
a couple. One of them is some commercial
about some sort of prescription medicine that you
can take to help keep to help you from getting HIV or to keep
HIV stuff down, everything like that, or to help you to continue
to be promiscuous with a man or a woman and not have the effects
that you might possibly get from that. And then the other one,
I can't remember now exactly what it was, but it just was
a, oh, it was a Walmart commercial, a commercial for Walmart. And
it showed these two men together. That's a perversion. Not just
because of the act that they are committing, but it's a lie,
a twisting of what God has said about marriage. God has said
that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. And any other thing is a perversion
of that. It's not homosexuality, it's
sodomy. That's what God calls it. Call
it what it is. Let's not try to soften the blow.
It's sodomy, it's a perversion of marriage. It's a perversion
of a relationship. And whenever men try to act as
women and women try to act as men, that's a perversion of what
God has made. And whenever God has said that
this is a man, this is a woman, a man is gonna be stronger than
a woman. A man is gonna have characteristics
different than a woman. A man is gonna be made up different
because God has made man to be the head of the family, to be
the head of the household, to be the leaders within the community,
to be the leaders within the church. And so the makeup is
different. God has made us that way. And
women, they're equal in the fact that they have a They're made
up completely different, and they have a completely different
role. Yes, are they equal? Yes, but they do not have the
same role as the man. And to blur those lines is a
perversion of how God made man. God made man and woman, woman
to be submissive to man. And listen, this right here is
getting blown out in a lot of churches today where they are
just completely and listen, there's a lot of people right now that
whenever you preach this type of stuff, they're saying that
you are an abuser. It's a perversion and whenever
we look at that and we look at and we look at these men who
are trying to be like women and women trying to be like men or
two men marrying each other or two women marrying each other.
or whatever this carnival thing is of a man trying to act like
a woman but dressed up like a clown. I mean with all this makeup and
I mean this drag queen stuff, transgender junk, all this kind
of stuff. Listen, I heard the other day
in an article, I know I've gotten way off topic. I heard the other
day in an article that there were some people went to one
of those one, two, in three or whatever, one of those DNA where
you go and get your DNA test and it tells you what all that
you are, you know, that a man who has decided that he's
a woman and is becoming a, you know, trying to transition to
become a woman and identifies as a woman and has even, I guess,
had some operations to get to become a woman. He went to that
to have his DNA tested. And whenever it came back on
the report, it said that he had so many X chromosomes, so many
Y chromosomes, identifying him as a man. He was upset about
that. And they wrote to that company
and said, is there not anything that the DNA test people can
do to make transgender people not feel bad when they get their
results. Now, we all look at that and
we think, that's stupid, ain't it? That's a perversion. That's the same word, brethren,
that we used right here in anybody that preaches any other gospel
than free grace. free salvation. It's a perversion of the gospel,
thus it is perverting Christ. That's meaning that Christ is
not who he says he was, did not do what he said he was gonna
do, has not accomplished what he said he is going to accomplish. And he strengthens that, look
at verse eight. But though we, or an angel from
heaven, What does that word have angel mean? That word angel like
apostle means messenger. If we are a messenger from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you. Then that which we have
received or that we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. How serious is it to say No,
I'm not going to listen to that gospel anymore. No, I'm not going
to go to that church that preaches that type of gospel anymore.
No, I'm not going to have that guy come preach in my pulpit
anymore who believes the perverted gospels. Who are preaching perverted Christ's? Brethren, Paul was adamant He
said, let them be accursed. Let them be anathema. Let them
be cursed. If anybody preaches anything,
I don't know how much stronger to get than that. But yet we
have people that are out there that compromise and say, well,
it's all right. I know I was one of them. You
don't know how long I struggled. Before I finally came out from
that. I struggled for two or three
years before I came out from that. But listen. The Bible says that
my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. They don't follow
their daddy or mommy. They don't follow their aunts
or uncles or sisters or brothers or grandsons or grandmothers
and grandfathers. They don't follow church people. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. Have you ever thought why some
people may not be following Christ in coming out from among these
perverted gospel churches? Have you ever wondered that?
Have you ever thought maybe it's because they're not his sheep? Because I can guarantee you that
all his sheep will hear him and follow him and will be brought
into the grace of Christ. Not just saved, they'll be brought
into the grace of Christ, into the knowledge of his grace, into
the belief of his grace, the faith in his grace alone. They'll be brought into that.
And brethren, anything outside of that is unbelief. They have
not yet to begin to believe. They're believing something else,
but they're not believing the gospel. So we can't call them
believers. And if they're not believers,
how can we call them brothers and sisters in Christ? Because
the brothers and sisters in Christ believe on his name. It doesn't get much simpler than
that. I know it gets much harder than that, but it isn't more simple than
that. He says here, it's another gospel and it's a perversion
of Christ. And if you continue to preach it, you need to be cursed. You should be cursed. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach, if any man, Now I know that word
man is supplied there by the translators, it's not actually
in the original. So it would say, if any preach, I kind of
like that better actually. If any preach any other gospel unto you than
that you received, let it be accursed. Paul hit the ground running with
this letter, didn't he? He said, listen, this is a serious
matter, Galatians. You guys are drifting off into
something that you think is okay, and that modern preaching and
teaching may be saying is okay, but it's not okay. Take it from the lips of one
who heard it from the lips of God himself. If you preach something
else besides what I told you he said, you're preaching another
gospel and you're perverting the gospel of Christ. And any
man who does that, even if he's an angel from heaven, let him
be accursed. Now, brethren, I exhort you.
I exhort you to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and not another. I exhort you as Paul did the
Galatians. To not be moved away, to not
be swerved away, to not be, as he says here, to be removed,
to be troubled. We say that phrase a lot, don't
we? Hey man, don't let it trouble you. What does that mean? Don't
let it eat upon your conscience. Don't think about it. What are
we not to think about? Don't think about those false
Gospels. Don't trouble yourself with them false Gospels. We are being removed from the
preaching of grace to falling back into works, to falling back
into, and as we've seen in the Jerusalem meeting, what did they
say? They say, listen, why should
we tell the Gentiles to even be under the law when we for
centuries have been under the law and not one of our ancestors
has ever kept the law, not one. So why put that yoke on these
men who have never even had this on them? So what's that telling
us now? Why should we preach the law
to people who cannot keep the law? Is there a place for the
law? Absolutely there is, and we're
gonna talk about that. But brethren, it's not in the
gospel. The law is antithetical to the gospel. The law is opposite
of grace. The law and works go together. Grace is opposite of that. Grace and faith go together.
We have faith in grace. That's not a woman, by the way. We have faith in grace alone.
Because of Christ alone, what he has done for us. And we'll
stop right there, brethren. Does anybody have any questions
or anything you'd like to add to this? We'll stop right there, and Lord
willing, we will pick up in verse 10. Matter of fact, probably
next week, I said I was gonna define what the gospel is, and
we're gonna talk a little bit, and kinda maybe expand upon what
Paul is saying in verses eight and nine a little bit more, and
see that it's not just here that the Bible tells us to watch our
doctrine closely, but there is a lot of places in scripture
that tells us that there is only one gospel, that there is only
one gospel, and that that gospel is the one that we should be
preaching and teaching and holding to. So we'll pick up with that,
Lord willing, next Lord's day. Anybody got anything? All right, let's go. Heavenly Father, what heavy words
that we have looked at in your word today and what serious application
that it has within our lives. And Father, I know for many who
are not only here, who have gone through these very things, but
those who are listening or maybe watching by Facebook or whoever
it is that tunes in may have actually possibly gone through
the same things that all of us have gone through. of believing
that we could be saved through a decision that we have made
or that we offer Christ who wants to save people, but they don't
come to him and they can't be saved unless they do certain
things. Father, we're humbled to know that this only comes
by revelation and that if we believe it and we receive these
things, it's only been because your spirit has been given to
us to know these things, to know the things freely given to us.
So Father, Lord, we pray. We do, we pray for our family.
We pray for our friends, our former churches who are still
under these perverted gospels. who are still believing in conditions
for salvation and is perverting the work of Christ, who is lying
about Christ, Lord, we pray for them. And we know that we're
not any better than any of them. We know that we have not done
anything to deserve what we know and understand and believe and
trust and love you. We know that we don't deserve
any of that and that we, by nature, are just like they are and that
we are guilty before God in all of our sins And if it had not
been for Christ and his work on our behalf, we would be in
the exact same place. And Father, we do not pridefully
strut before you or before anybody else, but in dust and ashes,
so to speak, we prostrate ourselves before you and say thank you
for your grace. We know that our righteousness
is as a filthy rags, We know that every one of us has missed
the mark. We know that every one of us
is only doing evil continually. But that only you by your spirit. Within us reveals the things
of Christ to us that we might know and believe. So father,
we're grateful today. We thank the Lord Jesus Christ
this morning for The blood that was shed on our behalf that not
only forgave our sins, but made us righteous before God. That
even now, whenever we fail him, and we often do, that there is
no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Father, I pray that this message,
that the Holy Spirit might give understanding to those who are
here. and to those that are listening
and watching as well, Father, if that be your will. But Father,
I pray that we might know that, and I pray, Lord, that by your
Spirit, you might draw your sheep to yourself, that you might give
them repentance to repent from their wrong thinking, from their
dead works of righteousness before you, and that they might believe
free grace alone. and that they might be obedient
to Christ, that as they believe those things to be for them,
that they will present themselves before the church to be baptized
in accordance to your scriptures and in obedience to your command.
And Father, that they might join the church in the service of
grace and the gospel, in the service of one another, Father,
that they might be able to partake of the ordinances of the church
and that they might be able to serve and minister through the
church. Lord, we just pray for their souls. We pray, Lord, for
those listening as well that you might call into repentance
those who have been believing on dead works, on false gospels
all these years. Lord, we pray that they will
take, that you will give them faith to stand without compromise. I know it's hard, Lord, it was
truly hard for all of us to stand up and say we were wrong, that
we were being deceiving all these years saying that we were Christians
while yet we were in unbelief towards your gospel. Father,
may we be given to understand that and that you might give
us strength, courage, and faith to not compromise the gospel
but even more importantly, not compromise our blessed Savior
Jesus and who he is before men. Lord, we thank you and we praise
you today and we ask that you'd keep us as we leave this place,
that you might be with us once again as we meet next Lord's
Day. But Lord, we pray you come quickly. We pray you come. We'd rather
be with you in person. And so Lord, we just pray if
that be. the time that you come between now and then. And so,
Father, again, we thank you for all that you are and all that
you've done for us. We pray you keep our members
that are not here, and may you keep them safe. And it's in Jesus'
name we pray, amen.