Okay, well, we're coming to start a series of studies in the letter to the Galatians, Paul's epistle to the Galatians, and I just want to look this morning at the first five verses of the epistle. and I've called this message The Gospel of God Declared. The Gospel of God Declared. We live in a world of fakes and delusions all around us. I know you all experience this. Ever since I've had a mobile phone, which is a wonderful thing in all sorts of ways, being able to communicate, but every day I am bombarded with things from people who are not true, not real. They're trying to con me out of my money. And we're all a subject to this. We live in a world of fakes and delusions. Scammers are everywhere whose use of their intelligence is aimed at defrauding people. making you lose money, even making you lose your life. How do we discern what's right and what's wrong? There's great care needed, isn't there? There's a big industry in selling things to help protect you from all of this sort of stuff. There's great care needed to protect your property, your money, your home, your family, life itself. And it's no less true with religion, because all of it, all religion claims to guide you to eternal life, to guide you to a heavenly bliss, if you stick to their directions. You know, there's a Latin phrase, it's caveat emptor, which means, let the buyer beware, be careful. In law, you know, there's all sorts of consumer protection laws, but when it comes down to it, Be on your guard. Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware. Be careful what you accept. And it's equally so with religion. The Lord Jesus warned in Matthew 24 and verse 24. He said this. false christs shall arise and false prophets false preachers and the world is full of them there's loads of them and what what will they do they'll show great signs and wonders they'll be impressive boy people will be seduced by their message, will be conned by what they're saying, insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect, the very people of God, destined for eternity. They're so deceiving, they're so enticing, that if it were possible, but it isn't, they would deceive even the elect. Be in no doubt, the delusions and the cons of religion all around us are very, very powerful. What do they do? It's as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7, 13. He said, there's a very wide gate that leads to a very broad way and at the end of it is destruction. They put, they seduce people to get on that, go through that wide gate and onto that broad way that leads to destruction. And religion has its confessions. All religion, not just that called Christian, they have their confessions. their creeds, their scriptures, their denominations, the sects with their new revelations. But you know what the motto of the Reformation was? The motto of the Reformation was sola scriptura, Latin again. Only the scriptures, the scriptures alone, the Bible alone. But even many who say that, there are many in so-called Christian churches who say, yes, they abide by the principle of sola scriptura, But in practice, they place a higher value on their confessions, on their denominational traditions, on the writings of ones that have gone before, which are just basically, however good they might be, when it comes down to it, they're the words of man, written down. It's sola scriptura, the Bible and the Bible alone. The Catholic Church for many, many hundreds of years kept the scriptures in Latin. Why? So that the ordinary people couldn't read it and understand it. They left it so that if you wanted to know what the Bible said, you had to ask a priest who would tell you how to interpret it. It wasn't available. There was so much, the likes of Tyndale and Wycliffe and those from hundreds of years ago who sought to put the scriptures into the language that the people could understand. And look at the persecution that they received from organized religion. Religion didn't want that. Religion wanted to be able to continue to tell people what they ought to do. There's a good example in the scriptures of the right approach. It's in Acts chapter 17 and verse 11 when Paul had been to Thessalonica and had been treated badly and they were about to be treated with violence, and the brethren in Thessalonica got them away to Berea nearby. And it says, the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. You would think they were gluttons for punishment in doing that, wouldn't you? They went again to the place that kept bringing persecution, but they thought that there, there would be people more likely to pay attention to the word of God. But it says of the Bereans, the Berean people, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica. What made them more noble? In that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. You hear a man preach, you know what you should do if you're like the noble Bereans? You hear me preach. You know what you should do if you're like the noble Bereans? Search the scriptures. Have a look. Dig it out. See. Are these things so? Are these things the truth? Is this the truth of God? Well then, what is the biblical message regarding the way to eternal life? All religion will tell you it has a way to eternal life. But what's the biblical message regarding the way to eternal life? John 14, verse 6, Jesus said, Thomas said, we don't know the way. How do we know the way? John 14, verse 6. Jesus said, I am the way. A man is the way. As a man is a hiding place, a man is the way to God. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father. No man comes to God. No man comes to the kingdom of God, knows God, knows eternal life, experiences it. without me, except by me. It's in him and him alone. So then, what's the purpose of this letter? These six chapters that they were divided into by the guy that divided the scriptures up into chapters and verses, very usefully actually. What's the purpose of this letter to the Galatians? Paul and his colleagues had gone out into the world. Jesus had said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Paul and his colleagues had been sent out from Antioch. The Holy Spirit said, separate me, Paul and Barnabas, and then later Silas, and send them out into the world. And they went into the middle of Turkey, what is today modern Turkey. They went into the middle of Turkey, and that area was Galatia. And they established by preaching lots of churches in Galatia. You notice this is a letter not just to the church, to the churches that are in Galatia. some people had believed in the next door province to Galatia was Pisidia. And there was another Antioch, Antioch in Pisidia, not the Antioch that they were sent out from. And in Antioch of Pisidia, next to Galatia, when they started preaching the gospel, he said, I've finished with preaching to the Jews because they keep rejecting. I'm going to the Gentiles. And they preached to the Gentiles in Antioch in Pisidia. And the Gentiles received the word, many of them, with gladness. And it says, they preached, and it says in Acts 13, 48, that as they preached, it says this, those of those Gentile Pisidians, Antiochian Pisidians, those that were ordained to eternal life believed. What a comfort, isn't it? When we preach, it's not the power of oratory, or the power of logic, or the wisdom of words. It's the Holy Spirit. Those that were ordained to eternal life believed, because he called them with an irresistible call. When the Holy Spirit calls a person from darkness to light, from the power of the kingdom of this world, the darkness of this world, into the marvelous light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, There's a call, but it's irresistible. You cannot resist it. He has his way. And Paul had stayed there for quite a while in Galatia, ministering to these churches that were there. He'd ministered to them. He knew quite a lot of them. He speaks about it in a way quite affectionately, about how much they had loved him and been prepared to give themselves. He talks about them being prepared to give their eyes for him. It might even be an indication that the thorn in his flesh that he had was an eyesight problem. We don't know this for sure, but he says, some of you were even prepared to give me your own eyes. They were very affectionately bound together. He knew them, but he'd had to move on because that was his calling. His calling was that he would preach the gospel throughout the Gentile world. So he went on and left them in the hands of teachers of their own. But, of course, there was always the warning that in any assembly false teachers will arise. And Paul had heard of their deception by false teachers, particularly ones that had come from Jerusalem who claimed to be Christians but were very much entrenched in their Jewish Mosaic Law tradition. They were preaching Christ plus other things that they regarded as necessary. And they were saying, yes, what Paul preached to you is absolutely fine, but you know, he didn't go far enough. He didn't go far enough. There's all these other things that we know about, because we've come from HQ, we've come from Jerusalem, and this is where it all started, you know. So we really know these things very, very well. And really, you know, yeah, what Paul said was okay, but you, You're not going to get to heaven unless you add all these other things. You've got to add all these other Jewish rituals. You've got to add all of these other denominational practices. Sound familiar? Of course it does. It's religion throughout. It's Christian so-called religion throughout. There's the gospel that is proclaimed here, but there's the other bits and pieces that you can't get away from, that you have to add. So he writes to them this letter to bring them back to the narrow way to life, off that broad way that leads to destruction. And this letter of Paul... This letter is not just a letter. It's not just one person's opinion. This is scripture. The Apostle Peter said in one of his epistles that the writings of Paul were scripture. He said they twist the writings of Paul as they do all the other scriptures. The writings of Paul is scripture. This is scripture. This is inspired, which means that it is breathed by God. God, the Holy Spirit, breathed the truth of this. You will never work it out by human logic. You will never work it out by science. You will never work it out by human philosophy, because all of that is fallen. You will only work it out if the Holy Spirit reveals it to you. It's inspired. It's God-breathed. It guided Luther, Martin Luther, out of Catholic error. This epistle, above all others, guided Luther out of Catholic error. He read it and he said, this is not what that so-called church teaches. And he was persecuted for it, but he came out. And he nailed his theses on the door of the cathedral at Wittenberg, wasn't it, or something like that. And it was this that triggered him. It was looking at this letter to the Galatians by Paul that triggered him. It speaks down the ages, and it speaks to us today. What I want as we start this letter and as we go through it, I want the message of this letter to wipe clean the record of whatever religious traditions we might have held, and to answer the question regarding the true gospel, what saith the scripture? That's Romans 3 something or other. What does the scripture say? Like the noble Bereans, let's search the scriptures. What does the scripture say? Because the scripture won't say anything that contradicts it. We read in Jeremiah, about the new covenant that God promises to make with his people, with his church. Not like the covenant of works, not like the covenant that required you to do, but the covenant that was the covenant of grace in his Son. So then I've got three points this morning from these first five verses. Paul's credentials Paul's greeting, and finally, and probably it'll take most of the time, Paul's message. So, let's look at Paul's credentials. The letter starts, you know, normally we go, dear so and so to whom I'm writing, and not that many people write letters, they write emails these days, don't they? But you used to write a letter, you'd open the letter up and you'd go, dear you, what I've got to say to you. Oh, it's from him. Right, that came right at the end. Well, when they wrote these epistles, it was right at the very start that it was Paul. Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead and all the brethren that are with me unto the churches of Galatia. Grace and peace. So his credentials, he's an apostle. He's a messenger of God's truth, which is what apostle means. It's a messenger of God's truth. He was appointed by God himself. God in the person of his Son. God in the person of his Son is no less God than God the Father. They're co-equal with the Spirit. He was appointed by God, but it was in the person of his Son that he appointed him. In Acts chapter 9, you know this, it's so well known, the account of Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee going to Damascus with letters of authority to go and to round up any that proclaimed to be, or admitted to be Christians, and to punish them and to take them bound to Jerusalem for trial, and if necessary, to have them killed. He was vehement, he tells us again and again, in his testimonies, throughout the Acts of the Apostles, how vehement he was against the Church of God. And he's on his way to Damascus. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? and the Lord told him to go on from there. He was stopped dead in his tracks. He wasn't appointed by men. He was taught in the school of the Pharisees by the renowned and respected teacher Gamaliel. You read that in Acts 22 verse 3 where he's recounting his testimony. He was a student of Gamaliel and he was a top class student of Gamaliel. It says he sat at his feet indicating the way in which they sat on the floor while the teacher lectured to them. And he was a student of Gamaliel, highly respected. But he says, no, I'm not an apostle taught by men. That's not how I became an apostle. It's God that called me. made known, God manifest in Jesus Christ. God manifest in the one who was crucified. He knew that that one had been crucified, and now he knows he's risen from the dead. He'd heard them say he was risen from the dead. Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the dead. He, Paul, is one of the... It says in Revelation 21, 14, there are twelves all over the place, some of it is symbolical of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. He is one of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. You might say, what about Matthias? At the end of Acts chapter 1, because Judas Iscariot had betrayed Jesus and they knew there ought to be 12, they decided that they would draw lots and decide pick out some candidates and then draw lots and see which one would replace Judas as the 12th apostle. And the lot fell on Matthias. And you read that at the end of Acts chapter 1. And then, you know what it tells us about Matthias from then on? Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was a mistake they made. And this human fallibility It wasn't Matthias that was the twelfth apostle, it was the apostle Paul. The apostles had seen the risen Christ. He says himself, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 8, that last of all, he was seen of the apostles, last of all he was seen of me also, he says, of Paul also, as of one born out of due time. He wasn't with the others when they were apostles. He was born out of due time, but he saw the risen Lord. Paul was, as it says in Acts 9.15, when he goes to Damascus, and his sight is given back to him, and brother Ananias comes to him, and he says to the Lord, persuading Ananias to go to this man whom Ananias and the Christians feared greatly, he said, go to him, go to him and give him his sight back. He said, for he is a chosen vessel unto me. God said that to Ananias. The Lord Jesus Christ said that. He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the children and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And of course, Paul did suffer for the sake of the Lord. He was to bear the Lord's name. He was to bear the... The name of the Lord speaks of his divine person. who this is. This is God, our creator. This is God, the author of life. This is God, the sustainer of all things. This is God, infinite in majesty and glory. And his redeeming work, he was to bear the Lord's name, for the Lord's name, you cannot have that name without the redeeming work of the Lord. That his purpose was to save a multitude of sinners from their sins. His name is the gospel message, the good news message of salvation to the world which is full of sinners, but a multitude of those sinners, some of those sinners, the elect of God, are called into this light of life which is shining in the Lord's name. It's not just Paul's opinions to set against the opinions of others. This is God's word from heaven to his people in the world through the channel of this apostle. We need to search it. It's the scripture. Search the scriptures to see whether this gospel of God is true. And be careful. what you do with this letter. Be careful how we handle this letter because being like, being scripture, not like, being scripture, we must treat it as scripture. And as the warnings are given, there's a warning in Deuteronomy and then it's echoed right at the end of Revelation. Don't add a thing to it and don't take anything away from it. Believe it as it is, neither add to it nor take away from it. This, yes, it's got the characteristics of Paul written all over it. That's why, for example, I firmly believe that Hebrews, although it doesn't mention Paul's name, was written by Paul because it's so characteristic of the writings of Paul. This has got the writings of the man, Paul, but nevertheless, it was breathed by the Holy Spirit. Now then, his greeting, verse three, grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. When we greet somebody, when we say good morning to somebody, we're wishing that person well, but we haven't got any power or ability whatsoever to influence the morning. You know, good morning, but we can't make them have a good morning or a bad morning. It's just being friendly. We can't do anything to influence their morning. But Paul asks God to bless his readers with grace, for God is able to do above all that we ask or think. He asks God to bless his readers with grace, which I know some of you will know the mnemonic of that. God's riches at Christ's expense, to bless with the riches of heaven. This is a divine blessing, a divine favor poured out of the infinite store of divine good and peace. The peace of God from the God of peace. What is peace? It's an absence of enmity. It's an absence of hostility. It's an absence of wrath for sin, for God is angry with the wicked, with sin every day. It's an absence of that. He says in Psalm 32, speaking of this blessing of grace in Psalm 32, the writer, David writes, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. This is the blessing he wants, the blessings of grace, to know that your transgression, your sin, which would bar you from God and heaven, is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, doesn't charge with iniquity. At that judgment seat of Christ will not be charged with the iniquity of sin. He's a sinner in the flesh, but he won't be charged with it because it's been dealt with in Christ. In whose spirit there is no guile. This is the new man that God has given. What a blessing to be amongst that people, the man whose sins are forgiven. What a blessed condition. You know how good it feels when you've fallen out. Fallouts occur all the time with a friend or with a spouse or with whoever else it might be. And then how good it feels when you're reconciled, when it's soothed over, when you're reconciled, when you're friends again, when there's peace between you, when the enmity's gone. How much more to be reconciled, to be at peace with God? But how can we sinners come into the possession of peace with God? And this brings me to my main piece, Paul's message, verses three and four. Grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world. according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. If anyone has peace with God, it's by God's grace, by God's sovereign grace. God's sovereign grace is the grace that he alone for his own reasons and own purpose bestows. He showed that grace to his people before the beginning of time. He put his people, that multitude that he loved from before the beginning of time, in eternal union with himself, with God. He bound them with himself in the person of his Son, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God the Father. It's not in anything else. It's in nothing that we contribute. You see, read it. Does it say that anything else is required? It's not in anything else. Nothing we contribute. Not even our believing. For that believing is just the evidence that we were united with Christ. It says that He, Christ, He said Himself, Matthew 20 and verse 28, He came to earth as a man. God became man. Why? To give His life. a ransom for many. He gave himself for our sins. His life, his life, the life of God, the life of God, this is, can you understand this? The life of God was poured out in precious blood to satisfy divine justice for the sins of the beloved multitude with which he was united from before the beginning of time. He says in Acts chapter 20 and verse 28, Paul speaking to the elders from Ephesus on the beach at Miletus, that God purchased his church with his own blood. How could God, who is Spirit, purchase his church with his own blood? I've said it many times, but I don't care how often I say it. You can accuse me of constant repetition. It's worth repeating. God had to become man that he might pay for his church with his own blood. God became man. He came and took upon him the form of a servant. He took upon him the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without sin, and in a human body, born of Mary, he's a proper human being, like you and me, proper human being, with the the actual characteristics of a man, and yet, with the infinite power of Almighty God, he poured out his lifeblood for the sins of his beloved multitude, the people that he loved with an everlasting love. He gave his life for the sins of his people. It says there in verse 4, he gave himself for our sins. Who's the our? Our is the people of God, the elect of God. He gave himself for the sins of his people. For the sins of his people, his elect multitude, loved everlastingly, chosen in Christ, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1 verse 4. Just as he saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his grace, which he gave us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He, before the beginning of time, I think it says there in 2 Timothy 1 verse 9, he betrothed his people. This multitude that he loved before the foundation of the world, he betrothed. Do you know what betrothal is? It's a promise of marriage. A betrothal is an engagement. It's a promise of marriage. And you know, The laws of this land have become very lax because there used to be a law that you could be taken to court and sued for breach of promise. That was it, wasn't it? It was Gilbert and Sullivan. Trial by jury was a breach of promise trial. The man had promised to marry the girl and then he'd broken his promise and gone off with somebody else. A breach of promise, that's betrothal, betrothal. But in the scriptures, God is very, very clear about his marriage to his people. There's the marriage supper of the Lamb coming. There's that eternal communion, intimate communion of God with his people. It says in Hosea, the prophet Hosea, It says in chapter two of Hosea, verse 19, that he betrothed his people to him forever. That's a clear, clear thing. Search the scriptures to see whether these things are true. There you go, Hosea, he betrothed, he betrothed his people to himself forever. And that's why salvation. biblical salvation, not the false sham, idolatrous gospel of this world's religion, this world's Christianity, which doesn't achieve anything other than a A fingers crossed hope that it might have worked for you. No, this is why it's effectual. This is why it works, because God specifically did it for a particular people. And he says it clearly in his word. It's not for all without exception, with an offer to be accepted or rejected. He loved a multitude of people. He gave his life a ransom for the sins of his people. He died and he rose for the justification of his people, so that his people stand justified. There are some, even in quite orthodox Christian circles, who say, oh, we've got to dread the day when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ because the books are going to be opened and I've got to give an account for everything I've said and I've done. No, you haven't. They're taken away. It's taken away. He says it in his word. It's taken away. It's dealt with. That day is not going to be a day for the people of God of fear and dread. It's going to be a day of rejoicing. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. That is the word that will be said by God to his people, the people he's loved and he's redeemed. He rose and he died. for their justification. The accounts of divine justice are settled, they're cleared. That alone has accomplished the objective. What was the objective? Entry into the kingdom of God. That has accomplished it, and that alone, with no contribution from me. And it's for all the people of God, and we come in all sorts of varieties. There's Daniel, in the Babylonian captivity. Daniel, of whom I don't think we read any negative word about. Most of God's, you know, Abraham was a liar. He lied about Sarah being his sister and not his wife. All sorts of ones. David was an adulterer and a murderer. All sorts of things. But Daniel, we don't read a word negatively about Daniel. And what a star, what a shining example. Oh, he's gonna get into heaven, isn't he? What about Manasseh, the worst of all the kings? The worst of all the kings, he was a dreadful king. The terrible practices, but before his end of his life, he was saved. Even he, even he was saved. Simon Peter, Simon Peter, the rough fisherman, the one always willing to spout his mouth off. Put his mouth in, what do they say? Put his mouth in gear before he engaged brain or something like that. He would always speak first. And he betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet for him, for him, this one thing has accomplished his entry into the kingdom of God. What about the penitent thief on the cross next to Jesus? Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Verily, verily, I say unto you, this day you shall be with me in paradise, for whosoever believeth, whosoever believeth, nothing of them contributes anything to the accomplishment of their salvation from sin. Whosoever believeth. Religion tells you that it's too good to be true. It does, all the time. Religion tells you, oh, you can't go believing that gospel, it's a dreadful thing. Read the article that I put in the bulletin starting off with Martin Luther and how the Catholic Church accused him of antinomianism and being the most evil dreadful doctrine that you could ever tell people because they'll go out and sin and do all sorts of terrible things and I've seen it for myself. when the gospel has been clearly preached amongst British evangelicals 40 years ago. We've seen it for ourselves, how they rose up in anger and fury about it. They would not accept it. They would not. It couldn't possibly be true. It's too good to be true. But it is true, because let God be true. and every man with his opinions a liar. God has said it himself in his word. This is the word of God and he said it. He did not pay the ransom with creation's resources. He didn't pay the ransom for the sins of his people with the resources of creation. What does it say? He gave himself a ransom for many. He gave himself for our sins. Why? Why? because of his great love wherewith he loved us. Ephesians 2 verse 4, for his great love wherewith he loved us. What has he accomplished? What has he accomplished? Look there, that he might deliver us from this present evil world. It's accomplished deliverance from this present evil world. In Colossians 1 that we were thinking about some weeks ago, Colossians 1 13, that God has delivered us His people, from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, or as it might be translated, the kingdom of the Son of His love. God willed it. God willed it. And if God willed it, who can stop it? He says again and again, if He wills, who can stop it? John 6, 39, This is the will of my Father, that of all that He has given me, said Jesus, this is the will of my Father, that of all the people that He has given me, and there is a people that He has given to Christ, there is a multitude, a finite multitude, and you only know who they are when they come to believe the truth. There are some who are in disbelief now, in unbelief now, but they might be amongst those people. If they believe the truth, that will be the evidence that they are amongst that number. This is the will of the Father, that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing. Not one of them will miss out on heaven, but I will raise it up at the last day. That last day is when judgment comes, when this world ends, when we all must stand before the judgment seat of Christ and his people he will raise up at the last day. All his people, chosen before time, will be brought safely to God's kingdom by nothing other than the accomplishment of the triune God. Nothing other than the accomplishment of the triune God. So you say, so tell me what to do. I hear what you're saying. I hear that you're saying this. I'll have a look at the scriptures. I'll see if it's true. So tell me what to do. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and anybody else in your household. Look Look to him. Rest in what he's done. Rejoice in what he's done. It's as simple as that, and yet it's so profound. If you turn back a page in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 11, and verses three and four, he says of them, he says, great concern for the Corinthians, but he says, I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in the Garden of Eden through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from, listen to this, the simplicity that is in Christ. The gospel is the most profound thing ever, but yet at the same time, it's the simplest thing. Don't let your mind be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which we have not received, which you might well bear with it, you might well accept it. He feared for them that that, but no, don't let that be the case. Look how Paul puts it, in 1 Corinthians. Just go back to 1 Corinthians and chapter 15 and the first few verses there, and I'll be quick. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15, the first four verses, The gospel is what saves from sin. I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you... How complicated is this? How is it accomplished? Think about some great contract in business, in world business, and how... Tortuously complex it is, but look, listen to this. I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. See, it's simple. The simplicity that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the good news. This is the gospel from heaven. This is the gospel from the Holy Spirit via Paul the Apostle. This is the gospel of free grace. And as we sing sometimes, and if free grace, why not for me? Why not for me? Why not for me? This message alone, verse 5, to whom be glory, God and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. This message alone gives glory to God. Other than believe, and that is God's work, he says this is the work of God. What should we do to do the work of God? Believe on him whom he sent. Other than believe, and that is God's work, What has it told you that you need to do to be right with God? Answer, absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. For the gospel has accomplished everything. The gospel has accomplished everything.