Turn with me, if you would, this
morning to Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1. Again, we'll see how far my voice
got, so I don't know what the deal is. When I got here this
morning, it just It's not that it's scratchy or anything necessarily,
it's just that it's weak and quivery. I don't know, maybe the Lord doesn't
want me to say anything today. Let's bow and have a word of
prayer before we begin. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we come to you this morning humbly asking, Lord, that you would
meet with us today as we have just sung, brethren have met
for worship, All is vain unless the spirit of the Holy One come
down. Lord, we need your guidance. We need your direction. We need
your enduring power upon us. Lord, we just pray that today
that as we open up the scriptures and as we sing these praises
and as we pray to you and as we honor Christ in our meeting
here today, we pray that it's all pleasing in your sight. that
it's done according to spirit and in truth. Father, Lord, I
just pray that as we preach this message this morning, Lord, I
pray that you just might edify your people, Lord, that it might
be pleasing and honoring to you as well. Lord, I pray for my
voice. If it's your will that I speak,
Lord, that you would help my voice to overcome the weakness
of the flesh and be able to speak until you are done saying what
you need said. But Father, if you have nothing
for me to say, Lord, I pray that you'd shut my mouth. Lord, I
pray for these brethren that are here today. I pray, Lord,
that you would just give them edifying words today that they
might be encouraged in the Lord. I pray, Lord, that they would
grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus through the
teaching and ministry of the word of God. Lord, we pray for
those that are here. that have not been converted,
that may have not been converted. Father, we pray that you just
might, by your Holy Spirit's power, open up their eyes to
the need of salvation and their need of Christ and their hope
and where it lies is only in the crucified and risen one. And so, Father Lord, we know
you have people in every place. We know that you have people
coming out of Harlot churches, we know that you have people
coming from countries and villages and places that are idolatrous,
atheistic, despising the one and true God. But Father, we
know that that does not make a difference. That your grace
abounds over every sin, over every falsity that's out there. We know that the Holy Spirit
has freedom to move and to work in the hearts of men without
their consent, without a preacher, without anything to bear on that
soul other than the life itself that is being given. And so Father,
we pray that today that the Spirit would just have his way with
all of his people. And Lord, I just ask now that
you just might help me again, in Jesus' name we pray. Brethren, over the years, I've come to learn and understand
that there is basically, you know, we had a lot of different
discussions and debates about doctrine and about the gospel.
What exactly entails the gospel? How much of the gospel is it
that we need to know? You know, a lot of discussions
that's out there And one thing that I've come to learn is there
is basically two trains of thought, two camps, two ways to look at
the gospel. And I believe that every gospel
that's out there, and I say every gospel, there's only one gospel,
but every professed gospel that's out there going to fall into
one of these two categories. It's either going to be what
I do or what he has done. The gospel that says what I do
is a gospel of works and the gospel that says what he done
is a gospel of grace. But within that gospel of grace,
one can easily say, I believe in what he has done, yet still
stay in the camp of what I do. And I hear this often from men
that, yes, we believe that we are saved by the death of Jesus
Christ, but, and then they start adding their things to that,
that salvation comes by believing the gospel, believing a certain
amount of the gospel, by coming to church, by being baptized,
by being a member of a church, by doing good deeds, if your
good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, by keeping the law, by
keeping the Sabbath, by keeping the Old Testament rituals. I
mean, there's all kinds of things that men can say, but you have
to do this. And even among men who preach
sovereign grace, there is still this place of Christ died and
was buried and was resurrected, we believe that, and that's where
our foundation of salvation comes from, but it doesn't stop there. You have to believe. Unless you
believe, then you will not receive. Unless you do this, unless you
do that, then we are looking at a salvation that wasn't completed
in Christ, that wasn't finished, we're looking at a salvation
That is based upon not only the legal work of Christ, but the
experiential work of man. And that's not where salvation
comes. And do we take a hard stand?
Should we take a hard stand on the gospel and define what is
the gospel? Well, I believe we should. The
gospel is something that is of utmost importance. And I think
there should be a defining of what that gospel is. If we don't
define what the gospel is, then how are we to be the bearers
of the gospel? The Bible says that the church
is the pillar and the ground of truth and that we are to go
with the gospel and to make disciples. If we don't know what the gospel
is and we can't share what the gospel is, if it's just this
kind of vague thing that's out there that, well, you might not
be able to believe all of it, but you can believe some of it,
then, you know, then how are we to go and to make disciples?
Now, the question comes down to this is, whenever we preach
the gospel, is that's what making people Christians? Well, no,
that's not what makes people Christians. But that's what the
one who has been born again listens to, and the faith that has been
given to them draws them to that gospel. is they hear that truth. And if there are those that are
out there that says, well, I profess Jesus Christ, but I don't believe
what you believe as far as sovereign grace is concerned, then they're
believing another gospel. Their hope lies not in sovereign
grace, but in synergistic work between them and God. And there
isn't no middle ground. I don't believe there is any
middle ground here. Yes, I firmly believe, brethren,
that we will grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We begin to learn more of his scriptures, more of Christ,
more of our salvation. You know, we sing that song,
you know, more and more about Jesus, you know, more of his
grace that we see and learn, we see from the word of God.
And I believe that we grow in that, but fundamentally, experientially,
initially, when we are born again and given the understanding of
the spirit, we are taught of God and we are taught that gospel
that is no other gospel, but the true gospel. He doesn't teach
us and leave us in false gospels. He doesn't leave us believing
and preaching and sharing false gospels with other people. Now,
I believe everything else in the word of God, we begin to
learn, but fundamentally, that is of utmost support because
that is what tells us that we are His. That's what lets us
know that we have hope. If we don't know what that hope,
how that hope comes about, then how are we to even have hope?
If our hope is in something that we must do, then if we fail,
then we don't get that. There is no hope. If our hope
isn't something that we have to maintain, then our hope isn't
in Christ, it's in our maintaining. And that, as anybody in here
can attest, that falters. There are a lot of days that
I don't do what I should do. And if my keeping is kept upon
my law keeping, upon my obedience, my righteousness, my working,
my love for the Lord, my love for the word of God, my love
for the brethren, if that is hinged upon my keeping of salvation. If that's what hinges the keeping
of my salvation, then brethren, I'm gonna be lost in and out
and in and out and in and out all the time because it wavers.
And there's no hope in that. There's no hope in Jesus made
salvation possible, but you have to either figure it out, learn
of it, you have to come to it, grasp it, accept it, receive
it, all this stuff. All this stuff that is preached
in this freewillism, there's no hope in that. Because
at the end of the day, if I choose something, I can choose not to
have that. If I can be convinced that this
is right, I can also be convinced that this is wrong, if it's all
about intellect. If it's all about just understanding.
If it's all about just changing the object of my faith as I've
heard my whole entire life growing up. It's who you put the, it's
the object of your faith. You move in place, instead of
putting the object of your faith in yourself, you're putting the
object of your faith in the object of your faith is now Christ.
And that's who you trust. You don't trust yourself, you
trust Christ. Well, listen, if I can take,
if I, in my flesh, in my natural man, can change the object of
my faith from myself to Christ, then I can take it away from
Christ and put it back on my faith when Christ doesn't do
what I think should be done. Whenever God isn't working, whenever
I go and pray for someone to be saved, when I pray for healing
for somebody who's sick, Whenever I pray for someone who's had
financial issues that needs help, whenever I pray for anything
like that, and God decides that's not my will, and I'm not gonna
do that, then all of a sudden I'll say, well, I don't trust
you anymore. You said if I pray for these things, I'm gonna get
it. So I'm gonna take my faith back into myself, and I'm gonna
get out there and go try to do what I need to do to get done
what needs to be done in my understanding. See, we can easily take our faith
away from Christ. But how does this work? You know,
someone may say, well, that's not how it works, brother. Once
you're saved, you're always saved. Well, how are you always saved?
Once you're saved, you will never wanna go back. Why would you
ever wanna go back? Well, why would I ever wanna go in the
first place? If salvation in Christ is such
an amazing thing, then why are there millions of people that
don't? If Christ and His gospel and
God and who He is is such a wonderful thing, which it is, by the way,
then why did it take so long for me to see that? Was it because
I just was dumb? Was I intellect? Was it not pretty
enough at one time? I mean, what was it? See, it
don't work. See, anything that has to do
with I can do this. I can take my faith and place
it in another object. I can take my trust and place
it in something else. I can do this. I can quit not
believing and start believing. The natural man cannot do that.
As a matter of fact, the Bible says that we can't do that. A
bad tree will only produce bad fruit. A good tree can only produce
good fruit. The ground must first be plowed.
It must first be made good. for the seed to take hold and
to take root. And then only that seed that
comes from God is gonna be planted in there. And it's gonna grow,
it's gonna show forth fruit. So this whole notion of a gospel
that says, I can do, I can choose, I can make my destiny, I can
change all this stuff, is antithetical to the word of God whenever the
word of God says that we cannot do that and that's not how Christ
did it. Whenever we look at the scriptures and we see that the
Bible is clear about that salvation was something that was done in
eternity. It was settled in eternity. It
was already not only decreed and planned, but it was finished
in eternity. As far as the covenant was made,
Christ came forth as the surety. He made the vow to God that I
will save these people. I will go and I will save these
people according to the law. And so Christ did come and he
came under the law. He fulfilled the law. And he
redeemed us from the transgression against the law. And so he did
that. And whenever he came and did
that, everyone for whom he did that for, the Bible is very clear
that that atonement that redemption is made, and they are no longer
held accountable to that. But if all Jesus did was come
and make that possible, well, I died so that that covenant
might go into effect only if you will now do this. Nowhere
in Scripture does it say that in the Old Testament. Now, look
with me at Galatians, and I say all this because, again, two
camps. It's either the camp of works
or the camp of grace. Either we have to do something
to be saved or we are saved irregardless of anything that we do. And that
doesn't mean that we're gonna live our lives like hell and
go out there and live debauchery and filthy and dirty and vulgar
and, you know, do whatever we wanna do. I'm not saying that.
I am saying that salvation in its legal sense to be justified
and sanctified before God has absolutely nothing to do with
what I do. Now, salvation as far as reading
the word of God and seeing God says, if you'll do this, you'll
be blessed. And then I do that. And hey, sure enough, man, I'm
blessed. If he says, stay away from these
things because they're harmful for you. And I don't stay away
from, guess what? I shouldn't listen to that. I
would have been saved from having to go through that if I would
have done what Jesus said, right? And so we look at the gospel
and we see that there are these two camps, either something that
Jesus did, and then everything else that happens to us because
of what Jesus did is also governed by sovereign grace. But look
with me there in Galatians chapter one, Starting in verse one, it says, Paul, an apostle, not
of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father
who raised him from the dead. So Paul immediately, this letter
to the Galatians, now remember, the church at Galatia, the churches
at Galatia, there are more than one, by the way, we'll see that
here in a minute, There were churches in Galatia and Paul
was writing a letter and this letter was being passed around
to these churches. And it had a specific message
in this letter because there was a certain problem that was
beginning to creep in to these Galatian churches that Paul had
already been to. Matter of fact, all these Galatian
churches came from the ministry work that Paul had been doing
in that area of preaching the gospel. And as these people throughout
Galatia began to believe, they were gathered into churches,
local congregations, okay? Which by the way, everybody watching
and listening today, obviously we're not doing our church series
this morning. I'm taking a break from that
today. We'll resume back with that in the days to come. They
were gathered into local churches and they were given all things
whatsoever Christ had commanded. Paul was following the commission
that Jesus gave that first New Testament church. Make disciples,
baptize them, and then teach them all things whatsoever Christ
had commanded. And so he taught that to these
churches. The same thing that Jesus taught
those first apostles and that was taught to that first church,
and as they were dispersed from Jerusalem, and they went out
into all the world, and they began to preach the gospel, and
these churches began to come together, those people told them
the same thing that was told to them in Jerusalem. And so these churches was founded
upon the faith once delivered to the saints. And Paul here
is saying from the very beginning, I am an apostle. What's an apostle? What does the word apostle mean?
It means a messenger, right? It means a special messenger.
An apostle was someone who was specifically chosen by Christ
to be a minister of his gospel and was sent. And one of the
qualifications for that was that they had had to have been with
Christ or seen the risen Christ, and have been taught by him directly
and sent by him directly. All 12 of the apostles at the
very beginning was chosen by Christ out of the rest of the
disciples and made apostles. Paul was chosen as an apostle
to the Gentiles, and Paul makes that clear. He says, I was an
apostle who was born out of due time. He didn't mean that, he
was not talking about his physical birth, But he was, and he wasn't
talking about his spiritual birth, but he was talking about his
birth as becoming an apostle. Him coming into the apostleship. He was one born out of due time.
He wasn't there with the original apostles and made part of the
original apostles. He was one that came afterwards.
Why? Because God had a different apostolic ministry for him. The first 12 apostles was sent
to Jerusalem, to the children of Israel, to the remnant of
God within Israel. That's who they were to be ministering to. But Paul was
made a minister to go unto the world and unto the Gentiles and
to make known the things of God. And he says here, I'm not an
apostle of men. I'm not going around telling
people the messages of men. Okay? He's not a messenger of
men. So oftentimes we see preachers
today who are messengers of men. They tell them what the seminary
told them to tell. They tell them what the commentaries
tell you to tell. They tell you what the, you know,
grandpa or grandma or whoever tells you to tell. They're not
messengers of men. He said, I'm not a messenger
of men. And he said, neither am I a messenger
by men. Nobody appointed me. but Christ. And all the brethren which are
with me unto the churches of Galatia, grace be to you and
peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, who
gave himself for our sins. Whose sins? Well, here in context,
he's saying all the brethren which are with Paul, and unto
the churches of Galatia. Is that the only ones that Christ
died for? Well, no. But he's definitely making it
clear that it's only those who are Christ that he died for.
Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from
the present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. So there we see there is an effectual
nature to the death of Christ and the fact that he gave himself
that he might deliver us. So everyone whom Christ dies
for, he delivers. If Christ does not deliver, then he didn't die for them.
Okay? On the other hand, if he died
for them and he doesn't deliver, then Christ failed. We have no
hope. Christ was given, he said, who
gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this
present evil world according to the will of God our Father.
So it was the Father's will that everyone for whom Christ died
for be delivered. That is effectual, particular
redemption. Christ died for a particular
people, that that particular people will be delivered. His name is Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. Now, if that's not part of the
gospel, if that is not what is included in your gospel, then
you're preaching another gospel. And if you believe that it's
okay to keep believing that gospel and preaching that gospel, you
are blaspheming the work of Jesus Christ, who the Bible here clearly
says that he gave himself that he might deliver. Not might make
it possible, but that he might deliver. Look at verse five. To whom be glory forever and
ever, amen. Why? Because he did it. He accomplished it. He receives
the glory, not only from the Father, but one of these days
we'll receive the glory from all mankind because of His perfect
salvation. He will receive glory and honor
from us because we will bow down and praise His name for saving
us apart from anything that we have done. All those who see
Him who do not believe on Christ will see that He was able to
save to the uttermost those who were in Christ Jesus, given to
Christ Jesus, who were His, that even though they were just like
them, whose sin was many, whose transgressions was much, who
could not naturally be anything towards God, that they see that
this group of people who was the same as us was translated,
transported from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of
life, who was made something that they weren't. We were just
like them, but yet they were able to be this. Why? Because
of the grace and the mercy of God. The only reason those people
stand there is because of Christ's grace and mercy. If Christ doesn't
deliver, then his death was in vain. and the gospel that preaches
that there are people for whom Christ died that will not be
saved, if there are those who are preaching that Christ died
for everybody and not everybody gets saved, then they're preaching
a blasphemous gospel. Verse six, I marvel that ye are
so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of
Christ unto another gospel. Which is the gospel that we are
called into? The gospel of grace. Not the gospel of synergism,
not the gospel of works, not the gospel of hold my hand and
help me, Jesus. Not the gospel of just give me
enough rope and I can do it myself, okay? Have y'all ever heard that
illustration? I used to hear that illustration
from preachers, especially in children's camps and things like
that, that salvation is like a man who had fallen into a hole
and everything, and Jesus throws out the lifeline down there.
All you gotta do is climb out of it. Brethren, we can't do
that. He doesn't do that. What does
he do? He reaches down in the hole and he picks us up out of
that. Matter of fact, almost the identical thing that David,
I believe was the one that said it, that he took me out of the
miry clay. He pulled me up out of the miry
clay. No, we don't do the things for ourself. The gospel that
is, the gospel that calls us out of unbelief is the gospel
of grace, not the gospel of works. I marvel that ye are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ,
unto another gospel. So any other gospel other than
the gospel of grace, and there's only one kind of grace, and that's
sovereign grace. There's no such thing as merited
grace. That is an oxymoron, okay? That is antithetical. You cannot
have merited Grace, grace is either grace or it's works. You're either being paid for
doing something, so it's a payment, wages, or it's grace. I told you all that example before.
I work for a company, I'm paid a salary. Every week I'm paid
the same salary. And I get that salary because
I go out and I fix x-ray machines. I go from place to place to place
to place. Whenever somebody's broke down, I fix their x-ray
machine. When somebody buys a new one,
I go put it in and teach them how to use it. And at the end
of two weeks, my boss writes me a check. Well, he doesn't
write me a check. He deposits into my bank electronically. We don't write checks hardly
anymore today. There ain't no paper checks. Anyway, he, in
exchange for my services for two weeks, gives me money, wages. Now, if he would say, here, here's
my grace to you. I'd say, what grace? I beg to
differ that. I went out and earned that. I
worked all those hours, drove all those miles, fixed all those
machines. I mean, that's not grace. That
you giving me what you owe me, you know, we traded services
You said you would provide a service for me if I would provide a service
for you I provide that service and your service was to exchange
that with money Now come at the end of the year Occasionally my boss will give
me something extra He'll give me a bonus Meaning that he give
me what he owed me for my work, but then he give me extra money
that I didn't work for. Now that is being gracious. That
is being graceful. To have a bonus given to me was
me getting something that I didn't work for, that I didn't ask for,
that I didn't earn. But he just give it to me out
of the kindness of his heart. He said, here, I want to give
you a bonus. Now that's a different story,
that is grace. But if it's something that I
had to do before I could get that, that is wages. And Paul said that the gospel
that we are called unto and called by is the gospel of grace, and
anything besides that is another gospel. So if they are preaching
a gospel that isn't grace only, then it's another gospel. He says, look at verse seven,
which is not another. Some people are gonna call it
a gospel, right? You know, we know all these people
out there that preach free will, and they say, well, we're out
there preaching the gospel. Well, just because you call it
a gospel doesn't mean it is a gospel. There's a false gospel and there's
a true gospel. And there are people that are
out there that are truly, and listen, and I want everybody
to understand this, they are well-meaning people. Some of them are in their heart,
they think that they truly are doing works of service for Christ. They truly think that they are
being zealous for God and doing God's work and they are preaching
the gospel and helping the people with their messages, and they
really truly believe that. And that's because their mind
has been deceived, not only by their nature, but by this world.
And we're gonna see that in a minute. We're gonna see that that happens
to people all over the place. A lot of our loved ones that
we know have a form of godliness, but deny the power that God has
to do that. They think it has to be something
that they submit to, that something that they have to ask for, that
they have to accept or receive or keep up so many good works
or whatever, you know. But we have loved ones and friends
that we know that are truly zealous people for a religious thing,
but yet they do not serve the true gospel. He says, which is
not another. So any other gospel apart from
grace is not another gospel. Some people say, well, it's a,
you know, there's enough of the gospel in there that that's okay.
They just don't know enough yet. No, you're still preaching another
gospel. And I'm not saying that the people
that are doing that are not maybe elect of God, who will one day
be called out of that. I'm not saying that they've not
been saved because Christ saved us legally by his work alone. It didn't have anything to do
with what church they went to, what gospel they begin to believe
or anything like that. Their salvation did not hinge
on that. Their conversion will come from
the true gospel. They will repent of false gospel
belief and turn to true gospel belief as God calls them out. But until they do that, we can't
say that they're gospel believers, right? How can you say someone's
a gospel believer whenever they're not believing the gospel? Just
because they say, I love God, I love Jesus, and I go to church,
that doesn't make anybody a believer or a brother in Christ. He says,
which is not another, but there are some that trouble you. So
Paul is saying, you Galatian churches, there's some influence
coming from the outside into your churches. And they would
pervert the gospel of Christ. They're wanting to take that
gospel and they're gonna pervert it, they're gonna twist it, they're
gonna make it sound like it's good, but in the end, again,
it comes back to the place where it's not a gospel. He said, there
were some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Can the gospel of Christ be perverted? Yes. Can there be perversion
gospels out there of Christ? Yes. Paul right here is saying
that the gospel of Christ can be perverted. You can pervert
the gospel of Christ and preach a perverted gospel. And when
I say perverted, I'm not talking about sexual perversion. I'm
talking about that you take the gospel and you make it what it's
not. You make it something less than it, that's what a pervert
is, by the way, you know? A pervert is someone who is deviant,
who is base, who is, you know, and you take the gospel and make
it something that is base. You make it something that it's
not. You take the glory or the purity out of it. And whenever
we preach something other than Christ alone, whenever we preach
anything other than the sovereign grace of God, of a finished work
of Christ, of a effectual work of Christ, of a true redeemed
people of God. If we preach anything less than
that, we're not preaching a pure gospel, we're preaching a tainted
gospel. And so just like homosexuality,
just like pedophilia, just like bestiality, all these things
are perversions of the true thing that God has given men and women.
The gospel of Jesus Christ, if it's perverted with free will
and decisionism, gospel regenerationism, all these things that man has
to make a response for, then we have now made that something
less pure than we see it in the word of God. We have perverted
the gospel of Christ. And he says, now listen to what
he says about that. He didn't say, Now, those guys
are still your brothers. Just go on and keep loving them
and fellowshiping with them and everything, and they just don't
have quite the knowledge yet, and one of these days, just keep
on doing it. Now, what did he say? He says,
but though we, he's including himself, Paul. He said, but though
we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, then
that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. He didn't say, you know, let
him be corrected. That's not what he said. Now, should we try to correct
the brother? Absolutely. If we have friends
and family or any that come among us or rise up in here, one of
these days, brother Ed stands up, starts talking, you know,
some sort of, you know, doctrine contrary to the scripture, We
have an obligation and a love for Brother Ed to go to him and
to reprove and correct him. And we should be long-suffering
in that. And we should work with that and try to teach him that,
take him to the scriptures. But if he doesn't listen, guess
what happens? Sorry, Brother Ed, you're gonna have to go. As much as we might love Brother
Ed, sometimes that will happen. in
churches. But Paul said this, though we
are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than
that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. So it probably would be good
for us to know what was the gospel that was preached by Paul? Well,
you know what the gospel that was preached by Paul? It was
the one that was preached by Jesus. Same gospel. And so we ought to be, if we're
preaching the gospel, we ought to be preaching the same gospel
as Jesus. And Jesus wasn't out there saying,
I love everybody. I'm going to die for all of you.
And if you'll only just receive me, I'll come into your heart.
Jesus didn't say that. Jesus said, I know those who
are mine and you believe not because you're not my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice and listen to me. I am the good shepherd,
I lay down my life for my sheep. He said, the reason you don't
believe is because you are your father, the devil, and his deeds
you're gonna do. That's the gospel Jesus preached.
That's the gospel that Jesus taught Paul. And that's the gospel
that Paul gave to the Galatian churches, who have now began
to deviate from that because there have been men who came
from outside, began to pervert, say, now, that's not really true
now, come on. You're being a little harsh there,
you're being a sectarian. You're being seclusive. Why,
if you preach that doctrine, you'll never have anybody to
fellowship with. Well, brethren, we know a lot
of people that preach this doctrine and we have people to fellowship
with. He says, let him be a curse.
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. Now that is not my word, that's
God's word. Listen, that's not even Paul's
word. Even though Paul wrote that, this Bible is given by
inspiration of God, that is the words of God that have been pinned
down by Paul. God said that. And who are we
to say, well, it's all right, we shouldn't really need to be
that judgmental. And here's the issue, look at
verse 10. For do I now persuade men or
God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
Listen, it isn't our business to worry about what men think
about us individually, us corporately as a church, me as a pastor,
as a preacher, as a minister of God over this Facebook Live
over the audio sermons. It doesn't matter. We're not
there to persuade men because only God can persuade. We're
not there to persuade men. We are there to declare the truth. The truth is that Jesus died
for his people, that they were saved. that there is nothing
that can save them from being saved or keep them from being
saved. There is nothing that they can
do to lose it. There is nothing that they can
do to get it. It is theirs. And any gospel that we preach
outside of that is another gospel. And God says, if that's the case,
then let you be accursed. We're not worried about persuading
men. We're not in the persuasion business.
We're not in the numbers building business. We're not here to try
to get the most people in that we can just to have the numbers. People are so concerned about
having so many people in their church so that they can tell
everybody, whoa, how many do you run on Sunday? Man, I tell
you what, I got so sick of that as a Southern Baptist. I got
so sick of that every time you go to a church, For one, it hits
you right in the face. Soon as you walk in their church,
there's those little tote boards up there that they put their,
how many that they had in church, or how many they had in Sunday
school, how many they had in worship, how many they visited
this week, how many brought their Bibles, how much money that they
have, and all that stuff is just plastered. Soon as you walk in
the door, it's like, look what we've done this week. Immediately you get the exaltation
of man and his word, soon as you walk in the door. But if
you don't see that and you get into the pew, then you hear all
about me, me, me, me, me, I, I, I, I, I, you, you, you, you. And whenever you come, especially
as a minister or assignment and somebody, oh yeah, well, how
many, how much, how many do you run in your church, brother?
That's one of the first questions. When you go, when we'd go to
a Bible conference, we'd go to a youth thing and you'd meet
another preacher or pastor or something like that. Oh yeah,
well, where do you pastor? Oh yeah, well, how many do you run? Well,
the last I understood, I was a pastor. I don't run sheep. I lead them. I don't run sheep. You can't
run sheep. You have to lead sheep. You run goats. But you don't run sheep. We don't
run anything. And it don't matter how many
we have here. Your church that has 5,000 people
doesn't mean you're more spiritual than us that has 15. We gauge ourselves on that. And
so we see there's this perversion that even though we may say we
believe in Jesus and him crucified and him crucified only, but yet
then we turn around and in our practice, in our vocabulary,
which by the way, the Bible says what's in the heart comes up
in the mouth, right? In our vocabulary, what do we
talk about? We talk about how we do this
and how we do that and how we do this and how we do that and
how you can do this and you can do that and how all this, and
it's all about we, we, we, we, we, and then whenever you start
looking about the gospel, then it's also filled with I and we. He says, if any man preach any
other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be
accursed. For now, do I now persuade men of God, or do I seek to please
men? For if I yet please men, guess
what? What'd he say? I should not be
the servant of Christ. You know what the servants of
Christ are doing? Now remember in our study on the church, who's
the servants of Christ? The church, right? The local
congregation. We're called here, and this is
where our place of service is. And through this, in this place
and through this place, if we preach a gospel that is not the
true gospel, then guess what? No matter how much work we do,
no matter how many countries we go to, no matter how many
missionaries we might try to support, no matter how much literature,
I could go back there in a desk and start writing books for days
and have books on the bestseller list. Well, I don't know, my
writing ain't that good, so we probably wouldn't make the bestseller
list, but I could put books out in bookstores and I can have,
you know, of blogs on the internet that has all this kind of stuff
on there. And we can, you know, we can start baptizing people
left and right and all this kind of stuff. And guess what? At
the end of the day, it don't matter what all that is. If we,
if our gospel is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, all that serving,
quote unquote, serving we did was not serving Christ. We serve
Christ by serving his people and we serve his people by giving
them the gospel. Not false gospels. For if I yet please men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. Why do we believe that those
churches out there aren't true New Testament churches who preach
a different gospel? Because it says right here that
if you're preaching another gospel, number one, you should be a curse.
Number two, you're not a servant of God. You're not a servant
of God. No matter how much you think
you're serving God, you are not serving God, you are actually
serving Satan in your Christian religious activity when you're
preaching another gospel. Look at verse 11, he says, but
I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
of me is not after man. Paul said, listen, when I came
to you, The message I give you, the gospel that I preach to you
was not a gospel after man. It wasn't devised by man. It has nothing to do with man. But yet the free will gospel
is all about the man, right? It's talking about the man in
everything. God loves you so much that he wants you to be
saved. And so he's given a plan for
you, he has a plan for you, and if you will just accept him,
if you'll receive him, if you'll submit to him, if you'll believe
in him, then he will give it to you. See, it's all about man. It's all about man. God can't
do anything unless you let him. Let go and let God. It's God and the man, but you
have to, Allow him to do it. You have to allow him in. I don't want to serve God like
that. That guy's no better than anybody else if he has to be
let to do something. My children can't do anything
unless I tell them they can. My children can't do anything
unless I let them. Does that make me God? No, but what we have is people
who want to bring God down to that level of mentality. We want
a God that is powerless to do what he wants to do, but he loves
us so much that he'll just give us our own choice because he
loves us, because he really wants us to love him. Well, brethren,
we really do love God and it isn't because we chose to do
it. It's because we were freed to do it. We were bound by sin
in our nature that couldn't love God, but he overcome our nature
and our sin by quickening us, irresistible grace. If it wasn't
for irresistible grace coming in and breaking up that fallow
ground and ripping out that heart of stone and putting in that
heart of flesh, guess what? You wouldn't have ever had the
capacity to love God. If you wanna love God, Pray for
irresistible grace. If you wanna love God, pray that
he would give you that heart that would do that. Because listen,
if you don't do it, then there ain't no hope for you to love
him. God isn't waiting for people to love him. He is working in
lives of people to make them where they can love him. Do we
freely come to Christ? Absolutely we freely come to
Christ. Do we love Christ? Yes, because
He first loved us. How did He love us? In that He
gave His Son for us, and in Him giving His Son for us, He has
sent His Spirit into us, whereby we cry, I'm a father. Sovereign
work, sovereign grace, Christ alone, God alone. I didn't choose
it, I didn't want it, I didn't pick it. Praise God, He gave
it, because now that I have it, I am thankful that He has. It's not after man. The gospel
is not after man. It's not about what man does
or man is. Verse 12, for I neither received
it of man, neither was I taught it, but by revelation of Jesus
Christ. So again, we go back to the fact
that what Paul originally taught the Galatians, this gospel that
is the gospel of grace, that's not another gospel, was given
to him by Jesus Christ. And so to say, if we preach anything
other than what Paul preached, if we preach anything other than
what Jesus preached, that's another gospel. And Paul goes into it,
what we were just talking about. He says, for ye have heard of
my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that
beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it and
profited in the Jews' religion. Notice, now it's the Jews' religion. He didn't say it was God's religion.
He didn't say it was Christ's religion. He said it was the
Jews' religion. And I profited in the Jews' religion
above many my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly
zealous of the traditions of my fathers. Listen, he was all
about being a religious man. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his, what? Grace. There again, the gospel
was the gospel of grace. The gospel preached unto Paul
who brought Paul, who Paul in turn is turning around and preaching
to others because he's seen that that gospel was such a wonderful
gospel to him, was that it's a gospel of grace. Why was it
such a wonderful thing to Paul that he was called by grace?
and not by works, because he had spent his whole life works,
in works. He'd spent his whole life under
the work system, under the law, doing the works of the law and
seeing that it was not profiting him. And then when given spiritualized,
he's saying, wow, all that stuff that I'd done was just religious
traditions of men and inactivity, and I was not the servant of
God, of Christ. He says, but when it pleased
God, but when it pleased God, not whenever, but when I've changed
my mind, whenever I chose a different path, whenever I read Spurgeon,
whenever I read Gill, whenever the 1689 came to me, you know,
he didn't say that. He said, but when it pleased
God. who separated me from my mother's womb. What is he saying
there? He said that even though I was in all this activity beforehand,
I still was the elect child of grace and God had a plan for
me to be this apostle before I even knew it. I wasn't even,
he separated me to God for his purpose in my mother's womb.
Before the children, Jacob and Esau, before either one of them
had done anything, good or bad, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand. He said to one, I love, to the
other, I hate. We are separated before we were
ever born. Why? That's because we were saved
before we were ever born. Why is that? Because we were
saved before we were ever created. We were saved in the eternal
counsel of God, and it's being made manifest now, first in the
appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and by the quickening
of the people of God. He says, but when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace to reveal His Son in me, not to reveal a plan, or
not to reveal something that I had to do, he said, whenever
he revealed his son in me, that I might preach him among
the heathen. Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither
went I up to Jerusalem, to them which were, so what's he saying
here? I didn't confer with men about what I needed to do or
what I needed to learn. Jesus was enough for me. Got
all these people that always wanna lambast the men, who preach
that we have direct revelation by Jesus himself through the
word of God by the Holy Spirit. We are taught by the Holy Spirit
and we don't need higher education. We don't need seminaries. We
don't need someone else to tell us what that means. We don't
need a commentary. We don't need a confession of
faith by those who went before us. We don't need to even know
history about anything to know what this Bible says. that the
Holy Spirit is enough for us. And Paul said, I didn't confer
with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem. Well,
what does that mean? I didn't go up to the big dogs.
I didn't go up to the other apostles and say, all right, well, tell
me everything you know. He said, no, I sought the Lord. What'd
he say here? He said, neither went I up to
Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went
into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three
years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him
15 days. But other of the apostles saw
I none save James, the Lord's brother. Now the things which
I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not." And then he goes on to say, Afterwards,
I came into the regions of Syria and Sicilia and was unknown by
face unto the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. But they
had heard only that he had persecuted us in times past. Now preaches
the faith that once he destroyed." Now, what do I get out of that? Well, those zealous religious
people who think they're serving God, who think they're serving
Christ with their false gospel, all they are doing is destroying
the faith once delivered to the saints. See, Christ give the
faith once to the saints. And those apostles took that
faith and taught that to that first church in Jerusalem. And
that church in Jerusalem, whenever they were dispersed and they
went out among the regions and they began to gather into other
churches, what did they do? The elders of those churches
that rose up in those churches that God had gifted to preach
and to pastor them churches. You know what they started doing?
They started preaching what Christ told them to preach. And that
faith that was once delivered to the saints began to perpetuate
to other churches that were growing as they began the commission. And those churches found other
churches and those churches, other churches came from. And
as we go on down the line, as the people of God began to spread
out all over the world, these churches came into, and they
were the pillar and the ground of truth. They were holding the
truth. And that faith that is once delivered to the saints
is the doctrine of Christ. That's the doctrine of Christ.
And here, Paul says that what he used to do in persecuting
that, That system that he held to, all it was doing was destroying
the faith. In times past, now preaches the
faith which he once destroyed, and they glorified God in me. You know what made the people
of God glorify God? When Paul began to preach the
right gospel, to serve the right Christ. Is it not important? Is the gospel
not important? Is it okay just to abide with those who don't
believe the gospel but believe a form of a type of gospel? No, no. Let me read you a couple of things
before we get out of here. Look with me, if you would, back
at 1 John. and uh what am i looking for here Yes, I'm sorry, you're right.
In 2 John, in 2 John, not 1 John. 2 John, look at verse 9 if you would. Now Paul's already given us a
stern warning that anybody who comes with another gospel other
than the gospel of grace, other than the gospel that Jesus preached,
let them be accursed, okay? But look at what the Apostle
John wrote. He says in verse nine, whosoever
transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath
not God. So if you don't abide in the
doctrine of Christ, then you are transgressing. the doctrine
of Christ. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. So as far as what the Bible tells
us, what our understanding is, is if they don't have the doctrine
of Christ, then they're not of God. And until they have the
doctrine of Christ, That's how we must understand them to be.
None of us in here knows who's the elect, right? Does anybody
here have an elect meter? You know, I don't have a special
pair of glasses that when I put them on, all the elect turn orange
and I know who they are, okay? We don't know that. How do we
know who our brothers and sisters in Christ are? By their profession
of faith, not their profession of, faith in Christ, but their
profession of faith in what they believe. Because if what they
believe is in tune with what the Bible says, then they've
been given faith. Because the faith of Jesus Christ
that is given to his elect will believe what the Bible believes
about him. And so the only way that we know
and can say, you're a brother in Christ, you're a sister in
Christ, and whenever we come, what did, what did, when Peter,
whenever they came and they were pricked in their hearts, Peter
said, you know, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be baptized.
Believe on what? What were they to believe? Just
that he died? That he resurrected? Is that what they were, all you
gotta do is just believe that Jesus died and resurrected No,
because there are heathens that believe that there was a legitimate
Jesus who died and was resurrected. Is it well that he died for our
sins? Is that all you need to believe? That Jesus died and
that he was buried and that he was resurrected for people's
sins? Well, no, because the Bible says
in Corinthians that Paul said that I delivered unto you first
that Jesus died according to the scriptures. and that he was
buried, and that he was raised according to the scriptures.
Well, we probably ought to go back and find out what the scriptures
were preaching, excuse me, what the scriptures were preaching
about how Jesus was to die, for what reason, and why he was to
be resurrected, and what that had to do with anything. That
would be a good thing for us to do. And if we're preaching
the gospel that doesn't tell the truth on what that scripture
says, then we're not teaching the gospel. Now, let me give
an example real quick before we go on to read here in 2 John. I have family on my grandmother's
side who are Mormons. The Mormons believe that Jesus
is the Son of God. The Mormons believe, or at least
these Mormons believe, I don't know what all Mormons believe
of them, I'm only in contact with them, has been with them,
I know of what other Mormons believe from other people, but
they believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. They believe that Jesus came
in the flesh. They believe that Jesus died
for the sins of the world. They believe that Jesus was buried
and that he was raised back to life and that Jesus ascended
in the heaven. That's eight things that they
believe like we believe, right? They believe that someone has
to believe in Jesus. That's nine things. They believe
that baptism is by immersion. They immerse their people. They
was immersed. So they believe in immersion
baptism, which is a sign and show of death, burial, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. They congregate into churches. So they're following the Lord's
command of gathering into churches. Would you call them your brother
in Christ? Those Mormons? Would you believe that they are
preaching the gospel? Would you accept them into your
membership? Well, could we accept them into our membership here? Now, anybody watching or listening
is gonna say, well, no. Okay, so my question now is,
no upon what reason? Because they're confessing that
Jesus is the Messiah, that Jesus died for the sins, that Jesus
was buried, was resurrected. They're believing what 1 Corinthians,
that he died, was buried and was resurrected. That's the gospel,
brother. You're making the gospel more than it is, okay? Well,
the Mormons believe that. So is their gospel your gospel?
Can you shake hands with them and say, brother, receive them
into full fellowship into the church? No. Why? On what grounds? Why would
you say no to that? Based upon what? Well, they have
other doctrine that's not correct, right? And what they believe
about Jesus's death is incorrect. And what they believe about Jesus
in his entirety is not correct, because they believe that there
are other gods besides one God. They believe that there are a
lot of things that when you are baptized that you can be baptized
for the dead, and that other people can be saved by your baptism. You know, they have a lot of
doctrine that's not right, but they do have a lot of doctrine
that's right in some aspects of it, right? But we don't call
them brethren, and we're not willing to let them be members
of our church holding to that doctrine. We would tell them,
until you repent of that doctrine, you can't be a member of this
church. We wouldn't call them a brother in Christ, we'd call
them an unbeliever. They're believing in a different gospel. Matter
of fact, we call them cults. But what are we doing? We're
drawing a line saying that you have to at least believe this
doctrine to be considered a believer. Well, brethren, that's all we're
doing. We're drawing a line. But where are we drawing the
line? We're drawing the line where Christ drew the line, where
Paul drew the line. It's a gospel of grace and grace
alone. We're drawing the line saying
that Jesus, whenever he said that he was given a people and
only those people are his sheep and only those people will believe,
only those people are the ones that he died for, that that's
his gospel. And if that's his gospel, any
other gospel is a false gospel and not the true gospel. You're
not serving Christ by preaching that gospel and spreading that
gospel. You're actually destroying the faith. And so John here says,
who of so ever transgresseth and transgresseth, and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine,
receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed." Now,
who is the house? Well, can that mean your personal
house? Well, I guess that could be true. We're not to have any
kind of fellowship with them is what this is saying? No, this
is talking about the church. We're the house of the living
God. If somebody comes, don't listen to them, and that's what
Paul was telling the Corinthians, or excuse me, the Galatians.
There are some that are coming among you who are perverting
the gospel. You shouldn't have anything to do with them. You
shouldn't be letting them come into your house. That's what Paul
was telling the Corinthians whenever they had the man who was the
fornicator in there, and they weren't kicking him out. disciplining
him. They said, listen, you're allowing
this to happen. Matter of fact, Paul was more
down on them for not disciplining than he was on the man who was
fornicating. The warning came to them. You should have kicked
this man out. Why? Because a little leaven
leavens the whole lump. And so he told them, he said,
you need to get them out of here. That's why he was telling the
other churches that Hymenaeus and Philetus were like gangrene. That's why he was telling that
Hymenaeus and Alexander the coppersmith, you got to watch out for them
because they're saying that the resurrection has already taken place. And
he said, I've delivered them over to Satan. Just like he said
about the Caribbean man, you should have delivered that man
unto Satan. Not coddled them and say, well,
it's all right. They just, they're seeing through glass darkly.
We see through a glass darkly, brother, but listen, one thing
that the Holy Spirit makes clear of is how we have been given
this free salvation. That is exactly in 1 Corinthians. He tells us that we have been
given these things. 1 Corinthians, let me, I'll turn
over there. You don't have to turn over there. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 12,
he says, but we have received not the spirit of the world,
but the spirit, which is of God, that, We might know the things
that are freely given unto us. Not that we might know the things
that we have to work for. Not the things that we have to
do to get it. That we might know the things
that have been freely, that are freely given to us of God. Why? Because the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit, but he that is spiritual
judges all things. We have known it because we have
the Spirit of God. We have the Spirit of Christ.
but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, even the deep things of God. One of the things that is definitely
given to us whenever we are born of God is a clear view of who
saved us and how he did it. Everything else, yeah, we're
gonna learn more about that. And even that, even the gospel,
we're gonna be learning more about the depths of that Then
we do, but we're definitely gonna know it was him and him alone
and nothing else. It wasn't my choice. It wasn't
my free will. It wasn't none of that stuff,
brethren. And so John says that if they come among you, do not
let them into your house. We are not to bring them into
our membership. We're not to accept them. But why are we not
to? Because they don't have the doctrine
of Christ. They can be zealous for religious
works, but if they don't have the doctrine of Christ, they
are not our brothers in Christ. as far as we can tell at that
point. Would they be a brother in Christ? Who knows? One of
these days, the Lord may bring them out of the harlot. Well, there was a lot more that
I wanted to get to, but man, we've been kind of going here
for a while. I'm starting to get a little lightheaded from
the, my blood pressure is up for the intensity of the message,
I guess. Anyway, we'll go ahead and just
do what? That's why you feel tired when
you get done preaching. Yeah, so we'll just call it quits
for right there. There is some other things that
I really would like to express, and maybe I'll do that Lord willing
next week, because I'd like to look at 1 Corinthians 15. That
talks about Paul preaching the gospel of him who died and was
buried and was resurrected according to the scriptures. and maybe
look at some of those Old Testament scriptures. So we might pick
that up, Lord willing, again next week in our little break
here in our messages on the church. So does anybody have anything
that you'd like to add? Or any correction or reproof? Run me out on the rail? All right,
well let's bow. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we thank you again for this day, and we thank you for your mercy
and the grace that you've given us through the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, we know that the things
that have been said here this morning, many people can look
at and just think that, oh, well, you're more superior than somebody
else. No, Father, we know that it's only by the grace of God
that we know what we know and have been given to believe what
we've been given to believe. to understand the things that
we have given to understand. And we in no wise think that
we can force anybody or make anybody learn these things, but
that with patience and long suffering, we continue to correct and to
reprove those. And we pray that God would be
willing peradventure to grant them repentance and to the acknowledging
of the truth. And we know that it's only in
his timeframe and so that we preach these things and teach
these things with patience and long suffering. We pray that
you'd give us that, Father, because oftentimes, whenever we deal
with people and we begin to speak in these things, we can become
very impatient and unloving and unkind. And so, Father, just
let us know when to speak and when to be quiet. When we've
said enough, as you say in your scripture, sometimes we just
have to shake the dust off of our feet and go on. Sometimes
we're casting pearl before swine, And so, Lord, I just pray that
you would help us to discern those things, give us wisdom,
and help us. But more than anything, Father,
grant us love and patience for our brethren as we minister to
them. And as we are being ministered
to, Father, the thing goes both ways. Sometimes we need to be
ministered to and receive correction and rebuke, and may we do that
with gentleness and with with love, knowing that our brothers
and sisters in Christ love us and are looking out for us. And
Father Lord, I pray that you would just be with our church
as you might minister among us and through us. And Father Lord,
I pray that you might bring others to us, Lord, that believe the
word of God as we do, and that you might find a place for them
here to serve and to minister with us and alongside of us.
And I pray for the food that we're about to eat. that you
might nourish our bodies. So thank you for these ladies
and the preparations that are made each week. Lord, we just
are grateful for that, for everyone involved. And Lord, I just ask
that you just bless it all now. And it's in Christ's name that
we can come and pray these things. Amen.