I invite you this morning to
turn again to the book of Galatians and to those verses that I read
to you a few moments ago. I struggle with my ministry, and I call it mine, believing
God has called me to it. and sent me forth with it and
holds me accountable for it. If those things don't make chill
bumps run up and down your back, you're no preacher. I can tell
you that. I struggle with my attitude and
conduct. And I study, I struggle with
my presentation of the gospel. I don't want to cast any aspersion
on the gospel of God or upon my Lord whose gospel it is and
whose ambassador I am. What I desire is to hold nothing
back Hold nothing back in telling
you the truth and at the same time be understanding and compassionate
to them I preach to. If you don't think that's difficult,
you try it. You try it. Paul said to the elders at Ephesus
that he kept back nothing that was profitable unto them. But testifying of Jesus to the
Jews and the Greeks alike concerning repentance toward God and faith
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's the ministry, that's
what it is. That's what we do and that's
why we struggle. Now the only way I can tell you
the truth is to tell you the truth. The passage that you have open
before you this morning is as pertinent today as it was
when the Holy Ghost inspired Paul to write it. It is as true
and as active today as it was in his day. My subject this morning is just
this. Preachers or perverts, you're
one or the other. There's nothing else in between.
Nothing else in between. We like to make allowances for
churches that our kids go to, or that our fathers and mothers
go to, or that our dearest relatives go to. We like to make allowances
for those things. or perhaps they look at me the
same way, I don't know, but I just know this, in this chapter, and
when I'm done with this chapter this morning, I hope that you'll
see this. There are just two kinds of people who stand before
the people dealing with the things of God. Preachers, called of
God, or perverts, one or the other. There are no gray areas. There are not some pretty good,
You're either a preacher or you're a pervert, one or the other. No matter what the name is on
the building, it has to take its place in one of these two
religions, works or grace, one or the other. If you're not one,
you're the other. And the scripture said, if it
be of grace, then is it no more of works. Otherwise, grace is
no more grace. If it be of grace, it cannot
be of works. If it be of works, it cannot
be of grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. Grace is set before us in the
scripture as a sovereign attribute of God. It's not a passion. It's a sovereign attribute of
God. This is the very character of
God. I will be gracious. That's how
he defines grace. It's set before us in the scripture
as the sovereign attribute of God. and one he exercises toward the
salvation of his elect with no consideration for their works
whatsoever. Let that sink in. Let that sink
in. Solely upon the work of Jesus
Christ, our Lord and Savior. Grace and truth, the scripture
says, came by Jesus Christ. God is gracious. He always was
gracious. He always will be gracious. That's
who God is. Is that right? That's God. This
grace is an attribute of God. It's the very character of God.
But that grace cannot come to men apart from the Lord Jesus
Christ. And truth, same thing about truth. People tell me all the time,
well, I was just sitting in my closet and I got a vision. No,
you didn't. And if you did, it wasn't of
God. God reveals truth through Jesus Christ. Grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. No other way to get it. Works is the religion whose father is the devil. That's
what he told those Pharisees. He said, you are of your father,
the devil. You're not of God. They said
they were. He said, you're not. They said, God is our father.
He said, no, Satan is your father. Works is a religion whose father
is the devil, it is satanic, it glorifies man and not God. It promotes man, not God. It doesn't talk about the glory
of God, it talks about the glory of man. It doesn't talk about
the welfare of God, it talks about the welfare of man. It feeds on man's work and not
God's. It trusts man's work, not God's
work. And any religion, now get this,
write it down if you have to and read it again. Any religion
that looks to man in any degree for the salvation of sinners
is Antichrist. It's Antichrist. And it's contrary
to Christ, it's against Christ, and it's not of Christ. And both
the religion of grace and the religion of works has men to
promote their religion. They have all kinds of names.
Preachers and pastors, evangelists, popes, priests, bishops, fathers,
reverend, pontiff, on and on. Master. Doctor. There's no end to it. But here
in Galatians, Paul gives only two names to those who represent
these two religions. One of them is preacher, and
the other one is pervert. Paul tells us in Galatians 1,
Verses 15 and 16, that God called him by his grace to reveal his
son in him, that he might preach him among the heathen. So whatever
this gospel is, it's a him, not a what? It's Christ. He preached Christ. God revealed Christ to him so
he could preach it. And in verses six through nine,
he tells us there are some who would pervert the gospel of Christ. A perversion of the gospel is
anything other than what Paul had preached to them before.
Isn't that what he says here? If they come to you and they
preach any other gospel other than the gospel I preach to you,
let him be accursed. You consider that man accursed
of God. They're not a greater threat
to your soul and to the souls of any local church than the
poison of legalism. There's not anything on this
earth that's going to be more appealing to you as a natural
man than legalism. And what I mean by legalism is
anything pertaining to a person's acceptance with God due to their
obedience to the law of Moses or of anything they do which
would contribute to the salvation of their soul according to any
idea or any concept that they might have. Legalism is an old
enemy. It goes back to the Garden of
Eden. Here's these two boys taught
by their father Adam. And he told them, when you come
to worship God, you bring a lamb. And they told him why. That lamb
represents that promised seed of woman. That lamb is going
to be the Christ. This is the Deliverer. This is
the Savior. God revealed it to him. Back
in that garden. And here they come. And one of
them, he brings the lamb. And he brings it and he cuts
its throat and he lays that lamb on the altar. And he worships
God. By faith, it says, he brought
the lamb. By faith. But not Cain. What did Cain do? He worked hard. He worked hard. He grew him some
big old carrots. I imagine them carrots that long.
Great big old carrots. Boy, he had cabbage, he had all
of the most gorgeous vegetables you've ever seen in your life.
And he brought all these things, big old watermelon, 100-pound
watermelon, bring it out there and lay it all out there in a
row, put them thumbs in behind them suspenders and said, I'm
giving this all to God. You know what God did? He spit
on his sacrifice. He gave it no acknowledgment
whatsoever. He just walked past like it wasn't
even there. He had respect under Abel, but
he had no respect under Cain. Cain didn't get an honorable
mention. He didn't get anything. God looked at his works and saw
exactly what they were, an abomination before God. Works and legalism
is an old enemy. It goes back to the garden. It
goes back to the garden. And it's persisted throughout
every generation, and I have no reason to think it will not
continue until the Lord returns. Legalism is the basis, now listen
to me. It is the basis of all idea of
free willism. Legalism. Legalism. If man cannot work in some degree
to make himself acceptable to God, then his will cannot be
free. And even if it were, it couldn't
do him any good. He'd still be unable to win God's
approval. And it's exactly this error that
Paul addresses in his letter to the Galatians. And Paul uses
the harshest language against any man who would dare to introduce
such a doctrine into the minds of men and women. who have already
escaped the darkness of this world. He says things like, let
them be accursed of God. That's pretty harsh language,
isn't it? He didn't just say, don't listen to them. He said,
let them be accursed. In the book of John, He says this, if they come to
you and bring not the doctrine of Christ, don't invite them
into your house and don't bid them Godspeed. Don't say the
Lord bless you. Don't say that. Shut the door. He says things like let them
be accursed of God and he calls them here perverts. Well, what
is a pervert? I'm taking this straight out
of the dictionary. It means one who has turned from what is right. It means to change something
into something worse. It means to employ something
wrongfully and misuse it. It means to turn something the
wrong way. And he plainly tells us this
error removes us, that is, in our minds, from the hope of the
gospel unto another gospel. And then he rushes to tell us
which is not another, but there be some that would trouble you
and would pervert the gospel of Christ. He uses terms like
bewitching, You know, back in the day, they burnt witches.
Paul uses a strong, this was a strong terminology to Paul.
Who hath bewitched you? Who hath cast their spell over
you? That you should not obey the
truth, and especially you before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been
evidently set forth and crucified among you. Legalism is not just
an error in doctrine or in misconception of an immature believer. Legalism is Antichrist. And it is an abomination to God. You know, I'm going to make this
application. It may be a little gross for
you, but live with it. In our day, we've got men who
are so vile that they will kidnap a four-, five-year-old little
girl or boy and sexually abuse that little child and then murder
it. I just want you to think on how
horrific that is in your mind. You imagine that little daughter,
that little grandchild, that little thing that you love so
dearly and somebody doing that to that little child. Would you
say that's an abomination to you? Spiritually, that's exactly
how God in his word pictures the false preaching of the gospel. He calls all such religion in
Revelation 17 5, the great mother of harlots. Now listen to this,
and abominations of the earth. That's false religion that he's
talking about. And I cannot use language strong
enough to emphasize the hideousness of legalism. As Paul opens his
letter to these churches, he establishes three or four things.
First of all, that he had the authority to rebuke them, and
this authority was given him of God. Now, that's what comes down to
it. Who's he think he is? Well, you better determine that. It'll do you well to determine
that. Who's he think he is? Well, I tell you who I think
I am. I think that I'm the ambassador
of Christ as though God did beseech you by me. That's how the scripture
defines it. If I'm not, then I'm deceived. But it do you the utmost good.
This is the first thing Paul did. He established his calling
before them. He was an apostle. And our faith
is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Now he establishes
this. The apostle was the highest office
in the church. Because he once persecuted the
church and because he had not been seen while Christ was here
on the earth, his enemies had a lot of ammunition to shoot
him down. They said he ain't no apostle.
Peter might be an apostle, John might be an apostle. They walked
with the Lord, they were taught by the Lord, but not him, not
him. And they drive away the world.
Even the apostles elected Matthias, which God didn't tell them to
do. He didn't instruct them to do that. They just got together
and said, and boy, that's why we don't have business meetings.
That's it. That's exactly what we do. We
sit around and reason things out. Here's what we need to do.
Judas is gone. He can't be an apostle, so we
need to elect somebody. Well, who are we going to get?
I don't know. What about old Matthias? We'll
get him. God wasn't in that. Matthias
never did anything, as far as I can tell. He may have been
a believer. Don't know. But he never really
did anything, and he certainly was no apostle. But God Out of
the norm to show that he's a sovereign God, he calls Paul out of season
and calls him up to the third heaven and teaches him the gospel
the same as he taught those other men, maybe more. He establishes his apostleship. His authority, verse one, Galatians
one, was not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and
God the Father who raised him from the dead. Now according to Ephesians chapter
four, every sanctioned office in the church was given by the
resurrected Christ. This is the victorious Christ.
This is not the Christ whose name was called into question.
This is the Christ whom God raised from the dead and declared to
the whole earth that this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. And he not only raised him from
the dead, but he sent his angels and they gathered him on a cloud
and took him into glory where he sat down at the right hand
of God. Paul said, my authority is not
of man. It's not by man, but by Jesus
Christ, my Lord. That's who sent me. That's who
sent me. And though he might welcome the
right hand of fellowship, and he did take the right hand of
fellowship, his authority didn't rest in their handshakes and
in their approval. And he didn't run down there
to get it. He preached two or three years for everyone down
there. And when Peter was threatened
by the established structure of his day, they said unto him,
we forbid thee to preach any more in that name. Peter said, okay, I won't preach.
No, that ain't what he said. That ain't what he said. Peter said, I believe we ought
to obey God rather than man. And what Paul is telling these
Galatians is that there was at the right hand of God the Father,
the King of kings and Lord of lords, the blessed and only potentate. And his authority was based on
this resurrected Christ. And he was here by his sovereign
will and carried his word to them. And then secondly, he tells
them in no uncertain terms that the gospel he preached was the
gospel given to him by God himself. God gave me this gospel. Now
I'll tell you when you'll quit namby-pambying around and start
telling people the truth is when you realize God gave you this
gospel. I don't give two hoots what men
think about what I preach. I have his gospel, I have his
word to prove it. It's his gospel. Not up for men
to, well, I accept it. Really? Really? Can you even
imagine that? Can you look yourself in the
mirror and imagine yourself putting your acceptance on something
that God said or God commanded? Huh? No, we just bow down and
receive it. Sure you do. Not up for your
acceptance. This gospel preached by me, he
said, was given to me by God. Verse 11, look at this. But I
certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached to
me is not after man. I didn't receive it of man, I
wasn't taught it by man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Verse 16, he revealed his son
in me that I might preach him among the heathen. So here we have a man who holds
the highest office in the church, who is himself called and taught
this gospel by Christ himself, and therefore the gospel he preaches
is beyond question. There's no recourse, there's
no argument, there's no reason to doubt what this man writes. Well, you say, they didn't know
that. They did when God accompanied him with miracles and wonders
and signs. That certified him to be the
apostle of God. You read about it in Hebrews
chapter two. Same thing accompanied the Lord when he was on this
earth, accompanied his apostles when he sent them out. They laid
people down just so the shadow of Peter passing by would go
over top of them and raise them from the dead. There's no argument here. If
this man is who he says he is, now if he's not who he says he
is, then there's all kinds of room for argument. But if he's
who he says he is, and he represents whom he says he does, and he
can prove it by the word of God, then you better listen to him.
You better listen to him. His writings are inspired of
God, they're directed by God's authority and providence, and
to refuse to bow to this word carries the most severe punishment
there is, being accursed of God. Now, as an apostle and being
inspired by the Holy Ghost, Paul establishes his gospel in the
simplest of terms. I spent half my life trying to
define the gospel. Watch Paul use this one word
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He said, I marvel
that you're so soon removed from him, and not the gospel, him,
unto another gospel. There's him, and then there's
another gospel. How do I know if that man, how
do you know this morning if this man is standing before you preaching
the gospel? Because I preach him. Him. Neither is there salvation
in any other, none other name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved. I preach him. If I preach election,
I preach election in Christ. It's according as he hath chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world. Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by him. By him. Wherein we're accepted in him. We have wisdom that God's abounded
toward us in him. In whom we've received now the
adoption. We've received, now we're heirs
through Him in whom God first trusted. Who
do you trust? In Him. Where's salvation at? In Him. Where's sanctification
at? In Him. Of God are we in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. I don't preach man, I don't preach
man's acceptance, I don't preach man's glory, I preach him. He gave himself for us. And it was according to the will
of God. Paul said, I can't believe that
you left this for that. I can't believe you're so soon
removed from him to another gospel. I'll never forget, Brother Scott
got up to preach one night. He said, I want you to take your
bibles. No, he said, I want you to take your hymn books and turn
to page 800 and something. And we all knew there wasn't
800 pages in the hymn book, but we all reached for it. He said,
not that kind of hymn book, H-I-M, the hymn book. To hymn, give
all the prophets witness. It's a hymn book, isn't it? And
his gospel is a hymn gospel. It's all about him. It's all
about him. Galatians 1.6 says, I marvel
that you're so soon removed from him that called you into the
grace of Christ. That's where the grace of God
is in Christ. You have Christ, you believe
on Christ, you have the grace of God. You're so soon removed from him
that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. And him is the only word in any
language that's sufficient to set forth the gospel of the grace
of God. No other way to set it forth. Herein is love. You want to know
what love means? Herein is love. Not that we loved
Him, but that He loved us and gave Himself for us. This Gospel is a person. And
the person is set before us in the Holy Scriptures as the Son
of God. John calls Him the Word. In the
beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and
the Word was God. And in this one person is the
full and complete revelation of God. You see, it's the revelation
of God that is eternal life. Is that correct? That eternal
life is to know God. It's to know God. And everything that God intended
to say and to teach and reveal, to preach to men and angels,
is altogether bottled up in the person of Jesus Christ, the eternal
Word. And John goes on to tell us that
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. John 1.14. Why? Why? Why must God the Son take to
Himself the being of a man? Well, Paul tells us in our text
here in Galatians 1.4, He gave Himself for our sins. In order
to do that, the Word must be made flesh. In Galatians 4.4 it said, when
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son
made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. He gave
himself for us to deliver us from this present evil world.
And here he's not addressing all the evils of a depraved soul,
but the ignorance and blindness of fallen men who walk according
to the prince of the power there. In other words, you keep that.
He's talking about deliverance from this present evil world.
He's not just talking about all the vices and the bars and the
brothels and all this stuff out here in the world. He's talking
about legalistic preaching. He's talking about antichrist
religion. to deliver us from this present
evil world. That foul spirit who leads men
to trust in and hope in another gospel, another Jesus, by another
spirit. And Christ gave himself for us
to deliver us, and that deliverance is according to the will of God
our Father. Now this is the gospel, hymn.
Him, you listen to him. I challenge you, you listen.
You turn your radio on this afternoon. Turn your television on. You
won't have to go far. You'll find one of them. He'd
be on there. He might be a Baptist. He might
be a Catholic. He might be a Presbyterian. I don't know who he is. But you
listen to him. If he's not preaching him, if he's not preaching Christ,
he's not a preacher. He's a pervert. He's a pervert. All said he revealed his son
in me that I might preach him among the heathen. Now the scriptures
tell us that Christ is all. What's that mean? It means just
what's that? He's all. He's all. What do you need to be saved? You need him who is all. You
need sanctified. That one offering, He has sanctified
us forever. You need perfection. He has perfected
us forever. What do you need? You need righteousness.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
who believes. Christ is all. There's nothing else to preach. He's all. Somebody said, well, you're not
preaching. I see these signs, the full gospel. Ain't no gospel
in it. Christ is all. If you preach
Him, that's a full gospel. Listen to these scriptures. It
pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. Fullness of revelation. No man
knoweth the Father save the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal
Him. Fullness of power and purpose. Paul said God saved us and called
us with a heavenly calling, not according to our works, but according
to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. Every office required of God
for the salvation of His elect was assigned to Christ by God's
appointment. He is the head, the federal head
and representative of the church. He is the one mediator between
God and men. He is the one high priest, the
prophet, the king, the savior, the substitute, the surety, and
the testator of the will of God. He's all. Christ is all. What
else can you preach but Christ? I'll preach you, you need to
tell that church that it's wrong to steal. Is there anybody in
this place, little kids, old women, old men, is there anybody
here this morning that don't know it's wrong to steal? You've
got a conscience and your conscience tells you that. I don't need
to tell you not to steal. What I need to do is work on
that motivation to steal. And you know it's the love of
Christ that constraineth us. That's right. I can't even constrain
you without preaching Christ. Christ is all. He's all. I shun not, Paul said, to declare
unto you the whole counsel of God. What was the whole counsel
of God? Christ and Him crucified. He's our intercessor, He's our
Lord, He's our brother. Of God are we in Him, and He
made all things unto us. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you're complete in Him. Can you imagine? We don't like to think of this,
and I don't know why, because the scripture tells us to let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. All the
fullness of the Godhead is in Him, And salvation is being in
Him. You want to have peace? Imagine
that. I'm in Him. All my soul. I can have peace no matter what. What if God comes in and by some
dread disease takes me out so fast I can't even... I'm in Him. I'm in Him. You're dead, He said,
but your life is hid with God and Christ. And when Christ shall appear,
then shall you also appear with Him in glory, because you're
in Him. As He is, so are we in this world. We're in Him. In Him. The Galatians had heard this
gospel set before them, and the power of God's Spirit has crucified,
Christ in Him crucified. Christ whose obedience is our
righteousness and whose death is our redemption. In Colossians
121, he writes this, and you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. if you continue
in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel. What is the hope of the gospel?
Christ in you. Huh? That's the hope of the gospel. The gospel is a person. These
apostles preach Christ and Him crucified, Christ resurrected
and seated in glory, Christ come into the flesh accomplishing
the redemptive will of God. So here's the question. Did he
do what he came to do? Did he? Did he do what he came
to do? God said he did. He said he did. He cried out
on that cross. One of the last words that he
cried out, it's finished. It's finished. And then he said,
into thy hands, Father, I commend my spirit into his hands. Now
if it wasn't finished, he wouldn't have come out of that tomb. But
God raised him from the dead. Brethren, this man Jesus of Nazareth
is God. He doesn't try to do anything,
he does it. He's not trying to save men's
souls, he's saving his people from their sins. And everything
God requires of the sinner, He's received at the hands of His
Son. We are complete in Him. The scripture actually says in
Ephesians chapter 2, if you read about it, we're quickened together
with Him, raised with Him from the dead, and seated together
with Him in glory right now. That's that union. And I don't need the law. He
has exalted the law and made it honorable. I don't need it
to constrain me. The love of Christ constrains
me. Actually, the scripture said the law's not made for a righteous
man. Made for the lawless, isn't it? Disobedient, ungodly, for sinners,
for unholy and profane men, murderers and manslayers, and those who
would defile themselves of mankind. I don't need the law to live
by or to assist me in my salvation. Christ himself came into the
world to save sinners of whom I'm to. And he's all sufficient. I preached to you about the ark
and everything I need's in the ark. Christ is my ark. I don't need to go outside the
ark. I just stay in the ark. rooted and grounded in him, and
beware lest any man beguile you. There is another gospel which
is no gospel. What one preacher I know wrote
in a book and said it's the un-gospel. That's what it is. The un-gospel. And that gospel that's an un-gospel,
which is not a gospel, it is the gospel of free will, works,
religion, legalism, in all its various appearances. There's only two kinds of religion
in the world, works and grace, and those who preach these things
are either preachers or perverts, one or the other. It's either
all Christ or all man, all grace or all works. And so serious
is this truth that Paul said in Galatians 2.21, I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
died in vain. no wonder that an abomination
before god came brought those vegetables and laid them out
and they were pretty to him and pretty to everybody around him
but it mocked the person and the death of christ and the purpose
and grace of god it mocked it and that's what makes it an abomination
before god it's to ignore the life and death of jesus christ
as either a total failure or completely unnecessary. It's
to deny God's authority over you and spit on the gift of His
ambassadors. It's to trodden underfoot the
Son of God and to despise the Spirit of His grace. Preacher or pervert, make up
your mind. Make up your mind. If he does
not preach Christ, he's a pervert. Count him accursed of God. If
he preaches the grace of God in Christ alone, love him, listen
to him, and receive his teaching and worship God. Is that what that passage teaches?
You study it for yourselves. He said, I don't care If somebody
comes preaching another gospel, though he be an angel from heaven,
he said, though I myself come, you count him accursed. You count
him accursed. Is that too strong? That's exactly
what this book teaches. And I tell you, when we find
out how rare this gospel is, And how glorious that work of
Christ is with this religion, it'll make you nauseous to listen
to it. It'll make you nauseous. And
you'll see it, you'll see it a mile away. You can smell it
before it gets you. It's an abomination before God.
But oh, that gospel of Christ. Why wouldn't anybody want Christ? My soul, everything that you
long for is in Him. Everything. It's all in Him.
It's just resting in Him and rejoicing in Him, looking to
Him, waiting for Him. It's all about Him. Lord bless
you.