will be preaching for us. So
remember that. In Galatians chapter 1, I want
to read these two verses to you and comment just for a few minutes.
Make a few comments. Galatians chapter 1, verse 8
and verse 9. But though we are an angel from
heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we
have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before,
so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Let him
be banned or excommunicated, anathema, be accursed. Now, from the beginning of the
gospel, from the beginning of time, really, men have divided
themselves into camps. One camp says, we have the gospel. And another camp says, no, we
have the gospel. In every camp, there's usually
dogmatism. There's narrow, strict views. There's points that's unyielding. Every camp has these. Every camp,
no matter what camp a man's in, he has points that he says, I
won't yield. I won't yield on this. It was
a few months ago that Pope Benedict reaffirmed what the Catholic
Church has believed for centuries, that there's no salvation outside
the Holy Roman Catholic Church. I'm glad he reaffirmed that,
because they do believe that. He's in that camp. Many Camelites, and Brother Larry
will, I think, bear witness to this, they will say in a very
dogmatic fashion that if you're not baptized in water, that you
cannot this act. Is that true, Brother Larry?
Not all, but there's some like that. There is some branches
of Baptists, and you and I know some of them, that strictly teach
that if you're not their branch of the Baptists, that you're
not in the body of Christ at all. And if you're saved when
you get to heaven, you'll be so far away that you won't be
able to see the glory of the Savior. These are camps. Somebody will say, oh, Brother
Bruce, I had a fellow tell me one time, you're a good old soul. You're a good old soul. You don't have that mean-spiritedness,
that hatefulness that some men have. Well, I hope I don't. I
hope I don't. I hope I am a good old soul.
I hope I'm not mean-spirited like some people are. But I do
confess this unto you, that the gospel I believed, the gospel
that saved me, the gospel I preach and promote examines, hit judges,
and hit curses. everything that's contrary to
it. Now that's pretty narrow, isn't
it? So the whole world finds itself in one camp or another. Now some people think that the
Lord Jesus Christ came to this world to unite all these camps. That everybody put all their
wood on one fire, And we'll have this amazing fire that we can
finally win the world through peace and harmony. But that's
not why he came. I came not to send peace on the
earth, but I came to send a soul. And we read here in verses 8
and 9, our text, and we realize this gospel of the grace of Christ
is uncompromising. It's dogmatic. It's narrow. And it pronounces all other camps
to be accursed. And it says basically they're
walking in the light of the fire that they've kindled themselves. This is the way it is today,
and brothers and sisters, it's the way it was in the apostles'
day, and it was this way in Cain and Abel's day. This is the gospel
of the grace of Christ, Abel said. And Cain says, no it's
not, and I'll kill you to prove it. The Apostle Paul said in
this very book, in the sixth chapter in verse 14, I glory
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the same thing
as saying here, I glory in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. I glory in the gospel. And then
he went on to make this statement. He said, by whom the world is
crucified unto me. I glory in the cross by whom
the world is crucified unto me." In other words, he says, when
I look at the world, I count it to be a criminal against God. It tells me of its free will,
and I say, no, you're in bondage to the devil. It tells me how
wise it is, and I say, you're ignorant of God. It tells me
of its righteousness, and I call it filthy rags. I condemn this
world as a criminal. I crucify this world. And what
does the world do to you, Paul? It crucifies me in turn. I am
crucified to this world, and this world looks upon me and
counts me to be a criminal, a disturber of their peace. A narrow-minded
heretic is what they think of me. And after the way which they
call heresy, so worship I the God and Father of the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the way it's meant to
be. I came not to send peace, but a sword. Find your camp. This be my advice to everybody.
Find your camp and get in it. And see who's got the last fire
burning. You say, Bruce, I don't think
I want to get in any camp. I just don't care. No, you've
got to be in the camp. You got to be in a camp. No,
I just, I don't care. Well, maybe you're in the camp
of, I don't care. I don't care. Somebody's in that
camp, you know. A lot of people in the camp,
I just don't care. Don't tell me about it. I just
don't care. Well, you're in the camp of, I just don't care. And
some people's in the camp of, I care. I really do care. I just got other things I care
about more. I married a wife and I can't
come. I bought five yurts of oxen and I can't come. I bought
a piece of ground. Please have me excused. I don't want to seem hateful
about it. I don't want to seem argumentative.
I don't want to have this narrow view. I just want to be excused. They're in that camp, aren't
they? But everybody's in a camp. Everybody's in a camp. We come here to Our text in verses
8 and 9, and the gospel looks at all these camps, and here's
what it says. If you're not with me, you're
against me. If you don't put out your fire
and come here and sit in the light of the Lord, then you're
cursed. You're cursed. If somebody asked
me what I thought was the most dogmatic, the most narrow religion
in this world today, you know what I'd say without reservation,
without any hesitation. It's biblical Christianity. We say, boy, Ishlam, what a narrow-minded,
dogmatic religion that is. It doesn't even compare to biblical
Christianity. The Son of God looked the most
religious people in the world right in their eyes and said,
except you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sin. He sat one night and talked with
a man, a ruler of the Pharisees, a master of Israel. And he told
him that if you're not born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of
Heaven. If you don't believe that I am
He, you shall die in your sin. Brother, that's narrow ain't
it? That's pretty much dogmatic. I don't know of another religion
in this world that judges men's motives, that judges the intents
of men's hearts, that requires a man to deny himself and lose
his life and take up his cross and follow Jesus Christ. He that
loveth Father More than me can't be my disciple. He that loves
his mother, or his wife, or his brother, or his sister, or his
lands, or his houses, or even his own life more than me cannot
be my disciple. Biblical Christianity, the Kingdom
of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the most uncompromising religion
in this world. It will not compromise just to
get a hearing. It will not compromise to gain
a following. Christ did not come into this
world to befriend this world or to win its friendship. He
did not. He even tells us those who will
be a friend of this world, they are the enemies of God. He utterly rejects the friendship
of this world, even when they said, we want to make you a king
and bow down to you. He refused. He turned to a great multitude
that was following him one day, and he said, any of you who want
to be my disciple, any of you who want to be my disciple, then hate your father. Hate your
mother. Hate your wife, hate your brothers
and your sisters, and your own life also, or you cannot be my
disciple. Anything that rivals me, you
got to put it behind you, or you cannot be my disciple. Multitude was following him,
and he said, you got to count the cost. Count the cost. Which of you, he said, is going
to build a building and you don't sit down first and see if you've
got enough thumbs to finish it? Les, when you've laid that foundation,
you run out of money and you have to quit and people look
at you and mock you. He said, if you're going to come
after me, make sure you really want me. Make sure you're really
going to follow me. Because if you get started and
you don't complete, people are going to laugh at you. He ain't
going to make it. What a demand. What a demand. What's the Lord Jesus teaching
us when He says, except you deny yourself, hate yourself, lose
your life, you cannot be my disciple. What He's saying to us is this,
to come to Christ and to follow Christ is an honor. It's not
a right any man has. It's a privilege and it's an
honor. But it's an honor that he gives
to none but upon his own terms. And what is that? I'm all or
I'm nothing. I'm everything or I won't be
anything. See if this ain't so. The spirit
of this world is a spirit of compromise. It's a spirit of
compromise. Every realm that you look in,
around us or in us, this world is a spirit of compromise. I saw a documentary not long
ago concerning the Mormons. And they realized the need to
get into politics. They thought if they didn't get
into politics that they were going to be left behind in this
new age. But to get into politics, there
was one or two doctrines and some practices they were going
to have to deny. One of them was polygamy, and
they loved that polygamy. Ever since Joseph Smith, their
founder, they loved polygamy. But they said, they got their
leaders together and said, here's what we'll do to get into politics. We'll compromise. And that they
did. And they turned those out that
would not cease to practice polygamy. Those people out there now that's
practicing polygamy, those are the true Mormons. These other
fellows are compromisers. I was listening to one dear old
preacher not too long ago on tape. He's dead now, but he was
talking about the Southern Baptists. They had their soul winning programs.
Their modern day soul winning programs. And he said what the
Southern Baptists come to realize was this, that you could not
have the old gospel of Calvinism and maintain modern day soul
winning. So what did they do? They said,
let's compromise. Well, why are you going to compromise?
We're going to compromise the gospel. And they threw out the
old gospel of B.H. Carroll and Brother Barnard and
some of the others. Husbands and wives all over our
nation have been living with a desire to act like teenagers
and to live in pleasure and be irresponsible. But what will
they have to do to gain their ends, break their marriage vows,
lie, and become unfaithful? Do they do that? Do they do that? We are a people today that has
this overwhelming need of being entertained And they're willing
to sit and watch sinful acts and listen to the God of heaven's
name being used in vain. And what do we have to do to
sit and watch that and listen to that? We have to compromise
our conscience, don't we? Have to compromise our conscience.
And we live vexed because of it. I saw this news article just
the other day in the mid-90s. The pharmaceutical companies
realized there was a lot of money to be made in legal over-the-counter
drugs. So they sent a bunch of their
representatives in southern Indiana in the mid-90s to sell these
drugs. And I just read in the paper
just this last week where they said now in southern Indiana
we have an epidemic of illegal drug use. The pharmaceuticals
gained their ends. They made billions of dollars
and they're still today. But what did they have to do
to gain their ends? They had to compromise their
integrity. They had to throw out any compassion
or concern that they had for their fellow man. Compromise,
that's what I'm saying. This world is a spirit of compromise. I remember something else that
happened in the mid-70s. I saw this, I don't know for
sure when it started, but I saw this and I was made aware of
this in the mid and late 70s. I remember when we had worship
service and we had groups that sang. Three people or four people
would sing. Most of you remember this. And
they sang in the worship services. They sang for the local church
and what a blessing it was. Or they sang when we had gatherings
in our homes at prayer meetings or picnics. The trios would sing. And then somebody found out that
there was a lot of fame and fortune in groups singing. So what did
they do? They left the local churches. They started renting their big
auditoriums and gathering in fields and parks. And those who feared God, those
who said in the local church, we won't be a part of this, let
them go, let them go. And you and I see it today, don't
we? Some of you have told me about it. We see what's happening
in those singing groups today, these gospel singing groups. You don't see the blessings of
God on it anymore, do you? But God's beginning to curse
it. They compromised. When you leave the local church,
you compromise. And that's why I'm bringing these
examples out to you. I'm simply saying this. The spirit
of the world in every realm that you and I live in is a spirit
of compromise until we come here to the Holy Scripture. Until
we come here to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Until
we come to the Kingdom and rule of the King who sits upon His
throne. And then what do we see? We see
a narrow way. We see a straight gate. We see
dogmatism without any willingness to compromise whatsoever. But we see this in our text,
a willingness, even a quickness to curse anything that's contrary
to the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
love the way the Apostle Paul said this in verse 8, He said,
if I come to you, if we apostles come to you and preach another
gospel than I've already preached, let me be accursed. There's no
compromise. God will not compromise with
me. He accepts no man's person. If Peter or James or John comes
to you and preaches another gospel than I preached, let him be accursed. And then he says this, If an
elect angel comes down from heaven, and he preaches a gospel contrary
to what I've preached, let him be a curse. I was reading a little
testimony, well, it's a commentary of what a man wrote one day,
and he was talking about the rapture of the church. And he
said, during the tribulation period, just before the tribulation
period, the church was going to be called out. Every believer
was going to leave here. And then there was going to be
a gospel preached, he said, that he called the everlasting gospel.
And he said, now some people will ask, since there's no believers
here to preach this everlasting gospel, who's going to preach
it? And he said, an angel is going to preach it. And he said,
it's not the gospel Paul preached, it's the everlasting gospel. I thought, well, well, well.
What should we do with that angel when he comes down and preaches
another gospel? Let him be a curse. Let him be a curse. There ain't
but one gospel. God preached the gospel to Abraham.
Christ preached the gospel. John the Baptist preached the
gospel. These apostles preached the gospel. And they were so
dogmatic about it. They said, no, we are an angel
from heaven. Preach any other gospel than
what we preached. Let him be a curse. Well, these false teachers that
came down here among these Galatian believers, they said this, we
don't deny Paul preached the gospel to you, but he just preached
the first step of being saved. To be completely saved, you must
be circumcised and adapt the rigid lifestyle of the Jews. Paul never intended for the gospel
of the grace of Christ to save you apart from these ceremonies
and these holy days and feast days. That's what they were saying.
They would have said if Paul had stayed down here long enough,
he would have told you the gospel of the grace of Christ wasn't
enough to save you in and of itself. There's more to the gospel. There's a fuller gospel. Have
you ever heard of the full gospel? My sister used to live in Munson.
She had a pastor that lived next to her. He pastored the full
gospel temple. The full gospel. Well, the Apostle Paul goes ahead
here now in verse 9. Here's what he said. If any man
preach any other gospel unto you than that which you have
received, Let him be accursed. See how he changes that? They
said, sure, the apostle Paul preached the gospel to you, but
it's not the whole gospel. There's more that you must need
to be saved. So Paul comes back in verse 9
and said, if they preach any other gospel to you, then that
which you have already received, let them be accursed. And what
did they receive? Well, he tells us in verse 6,
it's the gospel of the grace of Christ. And what is the gospel
of the grace of Christ? He tells us in verse 4 what it
is. Who gave himself for our sins. That's the gospel of the grace
of Christ. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world." A man sees himself to be a sinner,
condemned and guilty before God. He sees the Son of God, the Lamb
of God, bearing his sins, atoning for his sins, putting his sins
away, and he believes in this Christ I tell you, that man has
heard and believed the gospel of the salvation of his soul,
and he don't need anything else to save him. He don't need anything else to
save him. If you see and you trust in the
Christ who stood in your room and in your stead, and His blood
atoned for your sins and your hope, and your faith and your
trust is in Him alone, then you don't need anything else. That's
the gospel. And if that's the gospel that
has saved you, that's the gospel that you've received, then you
don't need anything else. You don't need anything else. Look over here with me in Acts
chapter 15. Someone read this to us just the other day. Look
at it again. Acts chapter 15. Look here in verse 4. Acts chapter 15. Look in verse
4. Here's where they have the council here in Jerusalem. Where
Paul and some of the others went up there and they had this council
over where a man is saved by the gospel of Christ. The grace
of Christ works if the law enters into it. In verse 4, And when
they were come to Jerusalem, Paul and his crowd, they were
received of the church and of the apostles and elders, and
they declared all things that God had done with them, that
is, among the Gentiles. But there arose up certain of
the set of the Pharisees which believed, saying, that it was
needful to circumcise them, and command them to keep the law
of Moses. And the apostles and elders came
together to consider of this matter." Now see what the controversy
was? We believe in Christ, they said.
We believe in the gospel of the grace of Christ. But that's not
enough. You have to be circumcised and
keep the law of Moses. And when there had been much
disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, men and brethren,
You know how that God, a good while ago, made choice among
us that the Gentiles, by my mouth, should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. And God, who knoweth the hearts,
bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did
unto us. Now what grounds did God give
the Holy Ghost to these men? Were they baptized? Were they
seeking some special work of grace? Were they seeking a baptism
in the Holy Spirit? On what grounds did God give
His Holy Spirit to dwell in their hearts? Well, He told us there
in verse 7, the last part of it, "...the Gentiles by My mouth
should hear the word of the gospel, and believe, and upon believing
God gave them the Holy Spirit in their hearts." That's the
grounds upon which God gives the Spirit to a man. Hearing
the Gospel and believing it. I never heard of anybody in all
the Word of God seeking the Holy Spirit. If I have, please remind me.
If I missed this, have you ever seen any place in the Scripture
where anybody went seeking the Holy Spirit? They had the Gospel preached
to them, they believed it, and they received the Holy Spirit.
upon belief. It wasn't even an issue. In verse 9, He put no difference
between the Jews and the Gentiles, purifying their hearts by faith.
Now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the necks
of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able
to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they." Now here's Peter,
a great apostle, been preaching for years, walked with the Lord
Jesus Christ, knew Him, a man held in high esteem all over
the country, every place he went. And how did he say that he was
saved? And what was his hope of being
saved at last? Was it that he had adapted this
Jewish lifestyle that required him to keep all of these ceremonies
and feast days and live this rigid lifestyle? No. He said,
I'm going to be saved by grace, just like everybody else, just
like the Gentiles. Why is this so important? Why
do we have to be careful here? Well, somebody may do us like
they did these Galatian believers. Somebody may come to us and tell
us, you've got to get beyond Christ. There's more than Christ and
His grace. And if you believe Him, you're
going to be in trouble. We grow as believers, but we
grow in grace. and knowledge of the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Let this mind be in you that
was in Christ Jesus. What do we want? We want more
of the mind of Christ. What kind of person was he? Meek
and lowly in heart. Counted himself as a servant. Bound himself down and became
obedient unto death. That was the mind of Christ.
As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk you in Him." Rooted
in Him. You know what roots do, don't
you? They go down in the ground and they suck the sap, they suck
the life, and send it out into the stems of the plant. Rooted in Christ. We suck our
life from Him, don't we? Build up in Him. You and I spend
our lives humbly learning of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
the way we grow. Not just learning, but humbly
learning. Looking to Christ, following
Christ, coming to Christ, and the very instant we stop coming
to Him and go somewhere else, we're in trouble. The minute
you quit looking to Him and look somewhere else, you're in trouble. And the minute you stop believing
in Him and begin to believe in something else, you're in trouble.
We do not need something else beside Jesus Christ and His grace. We do not need something else
to go along with Jesus Christ and His grace. We need more of
Christ. We need to learn of Him, come
to Him, look to Him, follow Him, and live up on Him. And as we
do this, everything else will take its place. I assure you
of that. You turn from Him and you talk
about growing, you'll just grow in flesh, you'll grow in pride. But when you look to Christ,
and you humbly learn of Him, and you grow in the grace and
knowledge of Him, that's when you grow. Those apostles at Jerusalem read
it to us last week. They wrote that letter to the
Gentiles, those Gentile churches. And they said, four things we're
going to require of you, and that's all. Abstain from idols. Don't you eat meat offered to
idols. And the second thing was, don't
commit fornication. That's an awful, ungodly sin.
Flee fornication. And the third thing was, don't
eat things that strangle. The only thing is, don't let
the blood congeal in the vein and in the flesh, and eat that
blood there in the flesh. And don't drink blood. Those
four things. And they said, if you do that, you'll do well. You cleave to the Lord Jesus
Christ as you have received Him, walk in Him, and you'll do well.
You'll do well. How did we receive Christ? How
does a man receive Christ? I'll tell you how we receive
Christ. We receive a full Christ into an empty heart. That's the
way we receive Him. Walking Him that way. Walking
Him that way. When you received Him, you was
nothing and He was everything. Walk there. Walk there. As you have received Him, walk
in Him, and you'll do well. Look back over at our text in
chapter 5, and I'll close with this. See, this is the danger
that you and I face. And I don't think that's an understatement
when I say a danger that we face as true believers. We grow. We grow. You've never seen a little baby. Mercedes, she ain't going to
stay that size. She's going to grow. Because
she's eating, she's drinking, she's exercising. If I see her
a year from now and she's that size, you know what I'm going
to tell them? You better get Mercedes to the doctor. She's
got a problem. But here's the danger you and
I face. We grow, but we've got to be
so careful as we grow that we don't get legalistic and self-righteous. I've been there, haven't you?
We've got this old man within us that we absolutely can't shake
loose. He is self-righteous. Always,
always, I'm condemning other people for sins that I allow
in my own life. Did you ever do that? How could
that sorry thing do something like that? Well, you're guilty
of it yourself. Did you forget? I'm willing to
put other people under very strict rules that I won't follow myself. We're a mess. We're a mess. It's
when we look to Christ and live upon the Lord Jesus Christ and
follow Him according to the rule of His Word, graciously and lovingly
cleaved to Him, that's when we do well. And if we try to add
anything to Him, oh, we get in all kinds of trouble. And that
was the whole problem of these mid-years. Paul said, that gospel
that I preached to you and you received it, you just received
it. The gospel of the grace of Christ.
That He gave Himself for your sins to deliver you from this
present evil world. When that's all you had, you
did well. You did well. You ran so well. You were so joyful in your soul.
But now you've turned to all these ceremonies. Now you're
trying to add something. Now you're big shots. And now
you're in trouble. That's what he said here in this
text. Look here in chapter 5 and verse 6. Galatians 5 and 6. In
Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love. The life I now live, I live by
faith in the Son of God. You'll never go wrong, brothers
and sisters, get up in the morning and look to Christ. You'll never
go wrong looking to Christ all the day long. You'll never go
wrong if you pillar your sleepy head and the last glance you
take is towards heaven and your mediator. You'll never go wrong
living by faith in Christ. And you'll never love anybody
anymore than when you're living by faith in Christ. Verse 7,
you did run well when you had nothing but Christ
and His grace. to uphold you. You did run well. Who hath hindered you that you
should not obey the truth? This persuasion, this conviction
cometh not from God that called you. Mr. Palmer said this in our bulletin
this morning. Am I growing in grace? And here's
what he said. You got it in your bulletin. He is a growing Christian to
whom Christ is more and more precious. As our estimate of
Christ rises, our estimate of ourselves necessarily becomes
lower. To believers, Christ is everything. He is all their salvation. If
we are guilty, He has atoned. If we are vile, He is worthy. If we are nothing, He is all
in all. To be in Christ is heaven begun. To be with Christ and like Christ
is heaven completed. He to whom Christ is precious,
to whom the Word of God is sweeter than honey, to whom sin is odious,
to whom secret devotion is a delight, who strives to honor his Master
in his life, who regards this world as a broken idol, has passed
from death unto life. And brothers and sisters, that's
the way we grow. That's the manner of true Christian
growth. When Christ becomes more precious,
when we become more vile in our own eyes, when we esteem others
better than themselves, and when the world and the things of this
world becomes less appealing to our hearts. Paul said, though our outward
man perish, our inward man is renewed day by day. God bless His Word.