Galatians chapter 4, and I want
to read just a few verses this morning. Here in verse 13. Galatians chapter
4 and verse 13. You know, you know. how through infirmity of the
flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation,
my trial, my weakness, my infirmity, which was in my flesh, ye despised
not, nor rejected. But you received me as a messenger
of God, an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus himself. Where
is then the blessedness you speak of? For I bear you record that
if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own
eyes and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy?
Because I tell you the truth, they zealously affect you, but
not well. Yea, they would exclude you that
ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously
affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present
with you. You know how through infirmity
of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you. I preached the gospel
unto you. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. Paul said, I'm determined to
know nothing among you but Christ and Him crucified. He preached
the Gospel. He preached repentance towards
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He preached the whole
counsel of God. He preached the Holy Scripture.
He said, when I came to you, I came saying none other thing. I said nothing. but what Moses
and the prophets said should come, that Christ should suffer
and raise from the dead, and that He should show light to
the people and to the Gentiles. I preach the gospel. Paul not only preached the gospel,
he preached it to everybody. He preached it to everybody he
had had opportunity to. I wish I could say that. I preached
to great and I preached to small. This man preached to kings, and
he preached to slaves. He preached to governors, he
preached to captains, he preached to old people, young people,
rich people, and poor people. I have made all things to all
people, he said. I preach to everybody. I preach
the gospel, and I preach it to small, and I preach it to the
great. I am not ashamed of the gospel,
of Jesus Christ. I preached it. I preached it
to you the first time I met you. I didn't come to you to socialize
with you. I came the first time I met you
to preach the gospel to you at the very first. I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God. So as
much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel. I preach
the gospel to you." How did Paul preach the gospel? We're told
here in our text. He said, you know, through infirmity
of my flesh. Through the weakness. That means
frailty. I don't know if he was sick. We know that he had this thorn
in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him. He was a
weak man in his flesh. were told that Paul was a man
that if you looked at him, if you saw him, you realized that
this man was weak physically. He wasn't a strong man. He wasn't
a robust man. He said, you know, you know. You looked at me and you knew
that I was weak in my flesh. I had these infirmities in my
body. And here's what he said about
that, and what was said about him. His letters say they are
weighty and they're powerful, but his bodily presence is weak. He was a weak man, and that's
very important. We'll see that in a minute. When
you saw Paul, you didn't look at a healthy-looking, robust
man, but here's some of the things that he said about himself. He
said, I fast often. He was probably a skinny man.
He said, five times I was whipped of the Jews. 195 times they tied him to a
post and whipped his back and his chest with a whip of leather. He said, three times I was beaten
with Roman rods. That could kill you. And it has
killed people. He said, once was I stoned, and
you remember they left him for dead? Can you imagine the scars
he had on his face? If you go to stone a man, you
didn't throw stones at his legs. You sought to kill him. You hit
him in the head. I bear in my body the marks of
the Lord Jesus. Ain't that what he said? You
can look at that man and tell that he suffered for the cause
of Christ. He said, three times I suffered
shipwreck. A day and a night I was in the
deep, in the ocean, cleaving probably to abort from the ship. And he had this devil that God
had sent unto him, this evil spirit to buffet his flesh. And
he said, it grieved me and it hindered me. And he even prayed,
Lord let this depart from me. And the Lord said, my grace is
sufficient for thee. And what I'm saying is, you don't
suffer things like this without the marks of these things, the
evidence of these things being in your body. He suffered these
things. And he said it was due probably
to some of these things that when you looked upon me, he said,
as I stood before you preaching the gospel, you realized that
in my flesh I was a weak man. I was a weak man. So he preached
the gospel, but he says, I preached it to you out of great weakness,
infirmity of my flesh, and something else I think here that he includes
in this weakness, the way in which he preached the gospel. The manner in which he preached.
His delivery. How did Paul preach the gospel?
Well, he said this, it was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom. It was with excellency of speech. He had never been sent off to
the seminars and trained on how to speak. He had the spirit of
the mastery. He spoke with simple words. The
common men could listen to this man and understand what he was
saying. He was a plain man, and he was
a humble man, and when you heard him speak, you understood what
he was saying. You may not believe it, but you
understood what he was preaching. He was plain. He said, I'd rather
say five words with my understanding that I might teach you than ten
thousand words in an unknown tongue. When I preach, he said,
it's essential that I use words that you understand. You must
be born again. That's five words. And Paul said,
I'd rather use that language that you can understand what
I'm saying than all the eloquent speech that learned men may preach
and teach with. Joe and I was watching a few
days ago this politician preaching, He was speaking on the TV and
we were watching him. And the crowds were wide-eyed
and they were almost in a swoon as they sat and listened to this
man. And boy, he was on a roll. And as I sat and listened to
that man, and they interviewed some people after he had been
speaking to them, and almost all of them said, he's convinced
me. He's got my vote. I never heard a man could speak
like that. But me and Joe looked at each
other after sitting and listening to him a few minutes, and both
of us thought the same thing. What is he talking about? What
is he talking about? He's talking about all these
things, but what does that mean? What does that mean? Everybody's
going to vote for him, but nobody can tell you why. Boy, he can
give a speech. And what he was doing was pumping
up this flesh, working up the flesh, working up this hype.
And some of the words that he was using could sure get your
attention. But it meant nothing. It meant nothing. And the Apostle
Paul is saying here, that's not the way that I preach. He didn't
preach with hype. He didn't preach with human ability
or natural reasoning to convince men. When you heard Paul preach,
you didn't say, man, at the words he can use. You sure didn't have
to have your dictionary, would you, to look up his words. When
I came to you, he said, I came not with excellency of speech
or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. It
was simple speech. Here's what he said about it.
His bodily presence is weak, but his speech is contemptible. And that word contemptible means
it's not highly esteemed. Paul preaches like a man that's
unschooled. Oh, he's smart. He's brilliant. And he preaches the mysteries
of Christ. But he sets it forth, Glenn,
in such words that everybody can understand what he's saying.
That's what he's saying. I came preaching to you. Not
excellent. I'm rude in speech. Ain't that
what he said? I am rude in speech. Christ sent me to do what to
preach. You know we need preachers like
this today, don't we? You know what kind of preachers
I want to listen to. I want to listen to a preacher
that God is humbled. If you want to hear some good
preaching, you just wait until Brother Fortner recovers from
his illness. Wait until God lays him flat
on his back for a few weeks, and humbles him, takes away some
of the dross, and if you want to hear some good preaching,
you go sit under his preaching for a while. That's the way God
does people. That's the way He does His preachers.
He humbles them. He humbles them. And then when
they come back to the pulpit, boy, they're simple, and they're
plain, and they're full of humility. So Paul says here, I preached
the gospel to you, I preached it in the weakness of my flesh,
and I preached it in simplicity. I preached the gospel to you.
Now what does this tell us? It tells us this, that the success
of the gospel preached is not dependent upon the energy of
the flesh. It's not dependent for its success
upon the ability of human reason or the eloquency of the human
tongue to persuade people of the truth of it. Paul never had
any of those things. He never had an eloquent tongue.
He was a man who was weak in the flesh and yet looked at the
success of the gospel as he preached it. I am not come with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, but I am come declaring to you the simple
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was talking with a lady the
other day, and she was telling me that there was coming a day,
she said, that the church was going to be raptured. All the
believers were going to be taken out, All that was going to be
left in the world was going to be the lost. And she said, then God was going
to send an angel from heaven. And then He was going to preach
the everlasting gospel. And God had to send an angel
to preach because there was no man left to preach it. And people
had to be brought to faith, so somebody had to preach the gospel.
So God's going to send this angel, and He's going to preach what
she called the everlasting gospel. And she said that gospel was
different than the gospel that Paul preached. You know what Paul said, if an
angel come preaching another gospel, then he preached, let
it be a curse. Why don't God use angels to preach the gospel?
Why does He use men like us, people like us? Why does He take
a poor, trembling, weak man and cause that man to preach
the gospel to other men? Why does He save that way? Because
God is determined not only to save man, but He's determined
the way in which He's going to save man, and He's determined
the way because He's determined He's going to get glory for doing
it. And if one of these mighty angels
come down from heaven to preach, what glory would God get? Everybody
would believe an angel, wouldn't they? You would think they would. But the Lord takes a poor, weak
sinner, and He puts this knowledge of Christ in that sinner's heart,
and He goes and tells another sinner about this glorious gospel. That's the way God does things,
and that's the way He gets glory from it. The world looks upon
preaching as being foolish, but God uses it to save people, and
He gets the glory from it. Paul said about his ministry,
about preachers, he said, God has sent this light into our
hearts. And he's given the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He's put the
knowledge of the Gospel in my heart. And then he says, I've
got this treasure, this gift to preach the Gospel, this ability
to preach the Gospel. And he said, this treasure is
in this earthen vessel. Oh, ain't it a treasure? Don't
you count it a treasure when somebody gets up before you and
takes the text and just starts preaching the gospel to you?
And your soul is strengthened. Your spirit rejoices in it. And
when we're without a pastor and when we're without a preacher,
ain't it awful? It's just awful, ain't it? Paul said, it's a treasure. Boy, it's a wealth when God puts
this knowledge in a man and he begins to preach it out. But
he said, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, in these
weak vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. The flesh has nothing to do with
preaching the gospel. It's just a mouthpiece. It's
just a voice. In this weak body, the excellency
of the power is of God and not of us. And I tell you, when you
look upon the flesh and you see its weakness, its utter weakness,
and its helplessness, then is where you see this power really
is of God and it's not of us. It's of God. I'm not ashamed
of the Gospel. For it is the power of God to
salvation. I'm not the power of God to salvation.
My preaching and my speech is not the power of God, but the
gospel that we preach. That's the power of God. And
we may preach it in utter weakness. And we may preach it in utter
simplicity. But it's not our speech and it's
not our strength with which we preach. that makes this power
effectual. It's the gospel itself that does
it. We worry sometimes, don't we
worry sometimes that when we preach to lost people and when
we witness to lost people, oh, we just don't have the words
to say. We just don't have any liberty. We don't have any power.
We don't have the ability to say what we want to say. Well,
brethren, don't worry about that. It's not the way you say something.
It's not your abilities. It's the gospel. That's what
saves men. You may preach it. You may teach
it. You may testify of it in utter weakness. And you may go
off and be embarrassed about it all. But it's the gospel that
contains the power of God. And that's what saves men. Not
our abilities. I went one time to hear a preacher
preach. I never will forget this. This has probably been 25 or
30 years ago, a long time ago. And I knew the man had been sick,
very sick. And he got in the pulpit. It
was so evident that he was sick when he got in the pulpit. And
he read his text where those four men brought that man with
a posse to the Lord Jesus and led him down through the roof.
Remember that? And he entitled his message, preached probably
ten minutes, and he entitled his message, Helpers of the Helpless. And he was so weak that he could
hardly speak. But I'll never have forgot that
message. It wasn't the way he spoke. It wasn't the eloquence,
because he had none. But it was the power of what
he was preaching. that stayed with me. I remember
one time going off to preach, and when I got in the pulpit,
I felt like I had nothing to say. I read my text and stumbled
around a few minutes and tried to search for something to say,
and finally quit and come home. And I was so embarrassed. I thought,
if they never see me again, we'll both be happy. And I hadn't been
home but a couple of days, and I got a letter from a lady in
that congregation. And she said, when you read your
text and began to speak, she said, that went home to my heart
in power and assurance. Brothers and sisters, it's not
who we are. It's not the strength or the
boldness with which we speak. It's not our ability to speak.
But it's the gospel itself that contains the power of God. I
came to you and preached to you in the utter infirmity of my
flesh. And my speech and my preaching
was not with excellency of speech, but I just declared to you the
testimony of God." And that's what saves, isn't it? That's
what saves. It's the power of God. It's the
power of God. One man said this, he said, there
is an excellent power in the gospel of Christ to convict a
person of sin, to enlighten his understanding, and to convert
his soul, and reveal the Lord Jesus in his saving power, and
to rejoice the spirit of that person. And it doesn't come from
anything but from the gospel itself. It's in the Gospel. It's in the Gospel. Look at the effect now in verses
14 and 15. In the light of that, look at
the effect. I preach the Gospel unto you.
And here in verse 14 and verse 15, look at these three things. Look at the effect that the preached
Gospel had upon these people. In verse 14, in my temptation,
my trial, my weakness, my infirmity, which was in my flesh, ye despise
not, nor reject it, but receive me as a messenger of God, even
as Christ Jesus." Let me paraphrase this to you. And here's what
Paul is saying in this verse. My temptation, my weakness, and
my simple speech you did not despise, but you heard the message
that I preached, and the truth of it went home to your hearts,
and you were convinced that what I was preaching was a message
from God." That's what he said. And you could not reject me,
nor could you reject the message that I preached. You were so
convinced of the message that you latched hold of me, the messenger,
and accepted us both. Now what do we see in that? The
gospel is a convincing message. It's a convincing message. Paul said, when I first preached
it to you, though I preached it the way I did, It came to
you in power, in convincing power, the Spirit of God manifested
to your conscience the truth of what I was preaching. You
received the Gospel as a message from God. And I tell you, that's what happens.
That's what happened here in this situation. When the Apostle
Paul comes here preaching to Galatians, these Galatians, You
know what he preached. He preached the same thing that
we preach. He started preaching the depravity of man, the depravity
of the human heart, that men are guilty before God. Paul went
and preached some of the very same things that I preach to
you. Here you are without God and without hope in this world.
And what makes your situation so bad is you can't remedy it. There's nothing you can do about
it. But God in great love sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and He was willing to become a curse for you to reconcile
you to God. And you know as He preached this,
they said, well, this is a message from God. There's no doubt about
this message. God has sent this message. This
is not for man, this is of God. Ain't that what the Apostles
Paul said? They felt the power of the truth of what he was preaching. And they said why this poor,
humble, trite apostle is a messenger of God. You don't have to worry
about somebody going to get mad at you if you witness the gospel
to them. You don't have to worry about
that. Just preach on, brothers and sisters. If God takes it
to their heart, they'll receive you. And they'll receive the
message. Oh, John Bunyan, I was reading
a passage from one of his works one time, well, his biography.
And he was telling about the Lord had so humbled him and showed
him what a wretch he was. And he said, I felt so naked
before God and so guilty. And said, I just went. I went
from my secret chambers where God was teaching me of what a
wretch I was. And he said, I went and preached
it to the congregation. And he said, the more I told
them of how naked they were, and how they must be clothed
in the righteousness of Christ, or they must perish. He said,
the more I told them of these things, the more they flocked
to hear me. I tell you, when God takes the simple gospel home
to a man's heart, he'll receive it. And he won't get mad at the
messenger. He'll say, oh, this is from God.
This is from God. I remember when I was about probably
six or seven years old. I was out in front of an old
log house in Beverly Springs, Tennessee. And God spoke to my heart. And
the first thing he told me was, you're a sinner against me. And
I never did get over that. When God speaks to a man's heart,
there's no doubt left about it. I don't know if I'm a sinner
or not, then God's not taught you. I don't know if I need Christ
or not, then God's not taught you. When God teaches you, Brother
Moose told us last Sunday morning, what happens? They come to Christ. There's no doubt anymore. When
Paul came preaching the gospel to these people, they said, oh,
that's a message from God. There's no doubt about that.
There's no doubt about that. It's a message from God. The
very nature of the gospel, it's the very nature of the gospel
that when you really hear it, even if it's the first time,
you know it's a message from God. Even though it makes you
afraid, even though it humbles you, you cannot deny it. All you can do is become a humble
seeker of mercy. That's all you can do. You sure
can't deny it. You can't deny it. It's sad for
my heart that there's a lot of people that have sat here in
this congregation for a while and they'll leave. They'll leave. They're not worried about their
souls anymore. And all I can conclude is this, God has never
taught them. He just never taught them. They
never had a message given to them of God. It has nothing to
do with a preacher. It has nothing to do with the
way in which he preaches. But it's the gospel of God. Secondly,
first of all then, they received it as a message from God. And
verse 15, here is something else. Look at this. Verse 15, where is then the blessedness
that you speak of? Verse 15, first of all, they
received it as the message of God, and when they believed it,
what did they say? This is a blessed thing. I don't
know, I doubt if they could speak to any depths of it, but they
could speak to what they had experienced. And Paul said, you
come to me and you told me about what you had experienced. I remembered,
he said. And you was talking about what
a blessed thing it was. A happy thing. Blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven. And you spoke about that blessedness.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Blessed is the man to whom God
imputeth righteousness without works. And you spoke of that
blessedness. You experienced some of it. You
were so happy. You were so full of joy. Amazing
grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once
was lost and now I'm found. How does that make you feel?
when you first realized that you had been found? How did that
make you feel? Can you speak to something of
the blessedness of that? I'm found! I'm found! How precious! I'm found! Was
grace that taught my heart to fear? And oh, I was so tormented
with it! I couldn't enjoy my sins anymore!
I was afraid. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't
even enjoy my family. I couldn't work. It was grace
that taught my heart to fear. And then grace my fear relieved. How precious did that grace appear.
You remember that. Wasn't that wonderful? Couldn't
you speak to something of the blessedness of that? That you
truly found rest? for your soul in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Where is then the blessedness
that you speak of? You were a happy people, Paul
said. I was there. I witnessed it. You were so full
of joy. Can you imagine in the Gospels, those people who came to the
Lord Jesus Christ to be healed by Him and to be saved by Him,
can you imagine how happy those people were. You remember that
leper that came to the Lord that was full of leprosy. If you just think about that
one person that he came to the Lord Jesus and knelt down at
His feet and said, Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.
And the Scripture says that man was full of leprosy. There was a time when He got
up one morning, and he looked at his arm, and it had a scab
on his arm. And he went and showed his wife.
And she said, you did keep an eye on that. Put some salve on
that. That don't look good. And the next day, it had spread. And it looked awful. And it scared
him, and it scared her. And she said, you need to go
to the priest. And let him look at that. He's educated in this.
That could possibly be leprosy. And oh my, a fear struck through
that poor man's heart. Oh, I hope it ain't leprosy.
And he couldn't sleep. And the next day he went to the
priest. And he said, I need you to check this. I've got some
sores on my arm and the priest examined it. And he shut him
up for a couple of days. And said, let's see what's going
on with you. And they brought him back out
and the priest looked at him again, and this time he was spread all
over his shoulders and his chest. And the priest looked at him
and examined him and said, you've got leprosy. And you know what
that was? That was a death sentence. You've
got leprosy. Can you imagine the terror that
struck that man's soul? I've got leprosy. I'm going to
die with leprosy. I'm going to die a horrible death.
And the priest wouldn't let him go. They held him there until
someone else went and got the clothes out of his house. He
wasn't even allowed to go say goodbye to his family. They put
him outside the city. He had to dwell with the other
lepers. And then his skin started decaying and rotting. Fever wracked
his brain. Sometimes hype out of his head.
He was full of leprosy. And now he was at the point of
death. And he makes his way to the Lord Jesus. And he bows down
there before Him and says, Lord, if You will, You can make me
clean. And immediately, as soon as the
Lord said, I will, be thou clean, immediately the leprosy left
him and he was cleansed. Can you imagine how that man
felt? The Lord said, don't you tell anybody. Don't you tell
anybody. Lord, he can't keep this quiet.
He's jumping. He's shouting. He's joyful. He's
headed home to see his wife and children. And the Scripture says
he blazed abroad. He just told everybody he ran
into. He was a happy man. He was a joyful man. Brothers
and sisters, ain't that the way we felt? In our souls, in our
spirit, when the Lord saved us from sin? When He made us to
know something about it? Weren't we so happy? Weren't
we so joyful? I tell you, we may be cold and
indifferent now. And we may have, to our own shame,
left our first love. God help us if we have. But there
was a time when we were utterly amazed and caught up with a wonder
that God had saved us. If there has never been a time
that you were not caught up with the wonder of it and the amazement
of it, that God in heaven, the triune God, had saved you, then
I doubt seriously if you know Him. Oh, where is then the blessedness,
the blessedness you speak of? Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and calls us to approach unto thee. Oh, He's a blessed
man. And the more the Lord lets you
know something about it, the more happy you are. Here's the
third effect that this gospel preached had upon them. I preached
the gospel to you at the first. It's here in the last part of
verse 15. Look at this. Where is then the blessedness
you speak of? For I bear you record. I bear
you witness that if it had been possible, you would have plucked
out your own eyes and have given them to me." That's the effect
the gospel had upon these people. It went to their hearts. They
received it as a message from God. It filled their souls with
joy. They were overwhelmed in this
gospel of grace that had forgiven their sins, washed them, saved
them. And now, look what great love
it had filled them with. Paul said, if you could have,
you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. I was reading an article in the
paper, yesterday I guess it was, about a church there in Muncie
had closed. They said they had only, I think,
18 or 20 members left. the offerings that they were
getting wasn't enough to pay the gas bill. And I'm not here to judge their
situation. I don't know it. But my point is this. It's clear to see how the gospel
affects those who believe it in regard to their giving. I was talking to a friend of
mine one time, and he said, you're telling me that I've got to give
10% of my earnings. I didn't say anything about that.
I never have and never will. I did say this. If you ever find
out what the Lord has done for you, you'll give yourself to
Him. It's not about 10%. It's about
giving yourself. Can you imagine the pain It would
be to pluck out your eyes. And these people didn't have
any doctors today that we have. They couldn't put you to sleep
and take out your eyes. He said, pluck your eyes out
and give them to me. Can you imagine the pain of that?
And to spend the rest of your days in darkness? But Paul said,
I bear you record. You would have done it if you
could have. And given your eyes to me. What's
the gospel about? It's about giving. For God so
loved the world that He gave." That's where it began at. Well,
it began even before that, didn't it? Way back in eternity. Christ
said, He gave me a people. And now He says, God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Gave Him to a world
that didn't even know Him. Gave Him to a nation that hated
Him and rejected Him. Gave Him upon a cross for the
ungodly. And the Son of God gave Himself
for our sins. It's all about giving, ain't
it? The Son of Man didn't come to be ministered unto, but I
came to minister and give my life around Him. I come to give
you my body for your sins upon a cross. I come to give you my
blood to atone for your iniquities. Giving, giving, giving. And when
He went back to heaven, He prayed to the Father and He gave us
the Holy Spirit. And when He comes into our hearts,
He gives us His fruits of love and joy and peace and goodness
and longsuffering and gentleness and temperance and faith. It's
all about giving. And when this triune God comes
in to abide with us, He brings the same attitude with Him. And
He just keeps on giving through us. One of the best evidences
that a person believes the Gospel, he just gives and gives and gives. Listen to this, I was hungry
and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger and you gave
me a place. You tucked me in. I was naked
and you gave me clothes. I was sick and you gave me a
visit. And I was in prison, and you
gave me your heart, your compassion. You've come unto me. Give it. Give it. I bear you
record, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your
eyes and given them to me. And brothers and sisters, here's
the point that I wanted to make. Look what a gracious, loving,
caring attitude was put in the hearts of these people. You can't
deny it. And where did it all begin? Where
did it all begin? When this man of God, when this
weak man, this tried apostle, went preaching the gospel of
the grace of Christ to them. It was the gospel that had such
an effect upon these people. That's all you can attribute
it to, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in verse 16,
ain't this so sad? Look at this. Notice how they
changed. Am I therefore become your enemy
because I tell you the truth? Am I become your enemy? Paul
hasn't changed. His message hasn't changed. But
boy, these Galatians had changed. Paul was their friend. as a messenger
of God. But now, he says, am I become
your enemy? What had happened to these people?
We saw it in the first chapter. Here's what happened to them.
They left Christ and His gospel. I marvel that you're so soon
removed from Him that calls you into the grace of Christ and
to another gospel. Well, aren't we mutable? Aren't
we changing? Don't that scare you to death?
God have mercy upon us not to trust ourselves. There are days,
and I'll be honest with you, my heart is so cold and my heart
is so dead, it scares me to death. And there's only one place that
I can find a refuge and wait and hope in the Lord, and that's
in the Gospel of Christ. If we're as bad as we are now
and we believe the gospel, what's going to happen to us if we leave
the gospel? We're goners, aren't we? If the righteous scarcely
be saved, in our eyes it seems like we are. What will happen
to us if we leave the gospel? These Galatians were doing well.
They were rejoicing. They were so full of love that
they were ready to pluck out their eyes and give them to Paul.
And then what did they do? Oh, they left the gospel of Christ.
And now look at them. Now look at them. Brothers and
sisters, the gospel not only saves us, but it keeps us. We
don't go on to something better. The same grace that keeps us,
we need to grow in the knowledge of it. Don't forsake Christ for
Moses or anything else. Cleave to Christ. Are you going
to be in a mess? I've got to hear the gospel.
I thought last weekend when Moose came up, all that week, I thought
and I prayed to this end, Lord, I've got to hear the gospel this
weekend. I'm tired of hearing myself. I've got to hear the
gospel. And boy, as I sat there and Moose
preached, oh, my heart rejoiced and I fed on it all week this
week of what he said last weekend. I've got to hear it. I've got
to hear it often. Is that the way you feel? I don't have to be here every
service, and you don't have to be either. But I tell you, I'm afraid not
to be. I'm afraid God's going to bless the preacher, and he's
going to say some things, and I wasn't here to hear it. If you have a big meal spread
on your table and I'm in the neighborhood, I may come by because
I love to eat. I've got to eat. And that's the
way we feel about the gospel then. We've got to have it. Ain't
nothing else keep us straight. We're as crooked as we can be.
No, it's only the gospel that'll keep us straight. More about
Jesus would I know. More of His grace to others show. More of His saving fullness,
see. More of His love who died for
me. That's what we want. Mary said
it at Jesus' feet and heard His Word. And He said she's chosen
that good part. It ain't going to be taken away
from her. And I'll close with this. This
is it. Verse 17 and verse 18. They zealously affect you these
false teachers and preachers, but not well. But not well. It's possible to
have a zeal to do evil. We see that in our day, don't
we? There's people right now in our day killing people, murdering
people, blowing them up for the hundreds out of religious zeal. One of the most dangerous things
in the world The most dangerous thing in the world, I think history
proves it, is not communism, fascism, dictatorships. The most dangerous thing in the
world is a religious seal without knowledge. Without knowledge. The Jews can pass land and sea
to make one proselyte. They prayed often on the street
corners. They were very, very zealous people, but they had
no knowledge of God in Christ. That's Daniel saying. They zealously
affect you, but not well. But not well. And he said in
verse 18, it's good to be always zealous in a good thing. When
is it good to be zealous? Well, for the cause of God and
truth. We ought to always have zeal for God and for truth. Brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable,
always abounded in the work of the Lord, always zealous for
His work. Let's pray.