Doesn't matter what you pick up, whether it's a paper or a magazine, turn on the radio, turn on the television, we're constantly bombarded by advertising. The internet seems to generate revenue after revenue. What from? From advertising. They always seem to be sending out their subtle, subliminal messages calling us to buy their wares, calling us to buy their product. It's nearly like a modern day paper of Ham. Do you remember he came and played his pipe and took the children all the way out to that setting and the fable? But does not modern advertising do something similar? We're caught up and we're distracted. It takes our minds away. Distractions are all around us. Some people call it advertising. I see it more of a distraction. The words distraction seem to be all around us. It's interesting when you sit on the bus and you listen to people and they're discussing things and they were very serious about some topic one time and I was just sitting listening. And what was it they were so serious about? It was something that was going on in the soap and the television and it was as if it was real. They were living it out in their own lives. They were distracted by this thing and the soap and yet it seemed to mean so much to them. But we live in days of distractions. How many times maybe you've heard it or maybe it's been a personal thought of your own. I'm driven to distraction. I don't know what to do. I can't concentrate on one thing. My mind is constantly being buzzed by distractions, calling out for my time here and calling out for my time there. And yet sometimes we're distracted because of ourselves, because of our own intemperance, lack of discipline or lack of self-control. And I can find no better examples than modern media. The mobile phone. Now I know the mobile phone is very useful. But how many people become obsessed with it? It's as if, did I hear it ring? Even though it didn't. And we have to check it. Did someone send me a message? And it becomes a distraction. And maybe it's, I hope someone sent me a message. I can't live my life without it. I can't go anywhere without it. I nearly feel it's part of me and we become distracted with it or what about the internet there's some useful things on it but how often we go and we're going to do some research we want to find out some snippet of information and we sit down and switch on the computer and you see the advertisements down either side and very quickly we're distracted and the time seems to go past The minutes turn into half hours and hours and we've used up the time and then we suddenly remember what we had set out to do. We had become distracted. We'd gone off at a tangent and then finally we remember to come back. I read recently to you and maybe there are people who surf the internet. I'm not saying you shouldn't surf the internet but just be careful of the time. They're saying that The internet and using the internet is changing how we think. It's changing how we think. I was reading in the Times one day there and it was a guy who's written a book. I haven't got the book yet but he's saying it's changing how we think. But we can be distracted. We can be distracted by a lack of temperance on our own behalf but we can be distracted by others. Have you ever seen a magician at work? What does he do? His hands, they're always moving. They're moving here, moving there. What for? To cause a distraction. To take your eyes away from what's really going on. Sleight of hand, what does it do? It deceives the eye. And what's he doing? He's causing a distraction. To take your mind away from what's really going on. I'll tell you another one. Pickpockets. They use distractions. They'll operate in teams. One will bump into you to cause what? A distraction. To take your mind away from what's really going on. To allow the other person to dip your pocket and take your money. And here's a piece of advice. If you're ever in a country and you see pickpockets beware. Do you know who's the most culpable for putting that sign up? It'll be the pickpocket themselves. Why? When you see this saying, what's your automatic reaction? To check where your wallet or your purse or your money is. And what have you just done? You've just given the pickpocket the information where your wallet is. He calls the distraction and then take your money. Distractions, they're all around us. A few days ago or weeks ago in the news, there was the Trump who fooled Hitler. MI5 or MI6 concocted the story around this dead Trump. They said that he was in the Secret Service and what did they do? They strapped documents to his hand and dumped his body off. But they had made up the whole story around him. What for? To cause a distraction. So when the Germans would pick up the information they would think it was the truth. To take the minds away they were creating a distraction. Let me pause a minute and ask you, how easily are you and I distracted? We go to the place of prayer, it is on the phone how often it goes, or we sit down to read the scriptures and have a quiet time with the Lord and there are always things to come and distract us. How easily are we distracted from reading and praying? And here are the people at the church at Galatia. Do you know what happened to them here? They were distracted in their walk with the Lord. Their mind was taken off Christ and put on other things. And here's Paul, he says, verse 6 and 7, I marvel. Think of old Paul sitting down penning this letter. Now he wouldn't have been penning it in English, he would have been penning it in Greek. I marvel that ye are so sin removed from him. Can you see him as he sits down and pens those words with a heavy heart? That these people who once walked well with the Lord are removed from him, removed from him that calls you into the grace of Christ onto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Do you know what had happened? Judaizers had come in among the flock at Galatia. Oh yes, they said, yes, just like those folks in Bristol, you need Christ. But Christ just isn't enough. You need the works of the law. What were they doing? They were corrupting the Word of God. They were taking them away from the liberty in Christ. They had come with a false message. Oh yes, you can have Christ, but Christ isn't enough. You need the works of the law. And I believe Paul just sits there in amazement as he pens those words I'm sure with a heavy heart as he considers the people of God. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him. Their eyes had been taken from the Saviour. Their eyes had been distracted from the Lord. and their eyes had been placed on something else. They had been taken away and moved. And so this evening I just want to consider for a few minutes unwittingly distracted. People who were distracted from following the Lord. First thing I want you to notice is they were changed by a false message. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you unto the grace of Christ onto another gospel. Their minds were taken off Christ and put on the works of the law. These people at Galatia, countenanced, they listened to a different message. They listened to a false message. And it was the false message that had caused them to change. You know how often we pride ourselves and think, I don't change. Stand my ground and I don't move. But regardless of how we think, we're liable to change. There's only one who's the same yesterday, today and forever. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. But we're liable to change. We can be changed by what we hear. We can be changed by what we see, what we read, what we listen to. We can be influenced by messages. We can be influenced by words. And here were people who knew Christ. Here were people who were in Christ and yet sadly they fell foul to another gospel. To a gospel that was completely different. They were corrupted by this false message that they were prepared to listen to. In Greek there are two words for other and we've got them here in verse 6 and verse 7. One is Heteros, found here in verse 6, another gospel, something completely different. And then, which is not another, in verse 7 there's another Greek word, Alos. Heteros, the best way for me to explain Heteros is something completely different. Have you ever heard two people described as chalk and cheese? They're completely different. They don't resemble one another. They're chalk and cheese. And this is what Paul's saying here. I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ onto another gospel. They had shifted away their focus from Christ and they were listening to another gospel. Something that was completely different. What was it? It was the works of the law. Yet they had started off and they had trusted Christ and now they were trusting the works of their own hands. Something different, something completely different. The second word is alos and the easiest way for me to describe alos is an allotrope. It looks different but it's the same. There's maybe some students here and teachers because of the school and some of them maybe teach chemistry but in chemistry there's a term called allotrope. It means a compound with different forms and the best way to describe it is if you've been at home tonight and it's good to see you here but if you've been home a cold watery night like that what would you do? You'd put a shovel of coal in the fire. Now the constituent of coal is carbon. You put coal in the fire that's carbon. Do you know what an allotrope of carbon is? It's not just coal. Those girls who are engaged or married, you'll have one of those in your finger. Diamond. Oh yes, you'd want a shovel full of diamonds rather than a shovel full of coal. Why? Because it's more valuable. But it's an allotrope. It's the same constituent compound but it looks slightly different. But here's this, they had moved to another gospel. Something completely different. As different as day and night, they had moved from trusting Christ to trusting the works of their hands. They had moved from liberty to bondage. They had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. They were distracted from following Christ by listening to a false message. Do you know where you will find yourself? If you go away from Christ and follow another gospel, there will be some, verse 7, but there will be some that trouble you. See that word trouble means to agitate, to cause discontent. Could that be a reason why some Christians are discontent in these days? Because in reality they are not trusting Christ fully. They are trying to do things by themselves to try and please God instead of trusting the finished work of Christ. Trusting fully upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do I say this? To listen to a false message? Because I believe there is a word of warning for each one of us. That we would examine what we listen to. That we would consider what we read. What we are influenced by. I believe we live in subtle days. We don't have the open persecution of the centuries gone past when people were put to the stake. But we've got the subtle psychological pressure put on the people of God to conform to the world's standards. See what it means? It gives the idea of subtlety. It gives the idea of deviousness. the constant drip of a false message will have its effect. I don't know if there's anyone here interested in World War II history. Could you read Goebbels? The propaganda minister for Nazi Germany put the message out, the false message, and he just bombarded the people with the false message to influence their minds. take a stone and you let the water drip on it, it doesn't make much of an effect. You see over time that drip, drip, drip will change the form of the stone. What am I saying? We need to be in constant communion in these days with Christ. We need to have our eyes upon the Saviour, studying His Word, trusting His Word, and not to be influenced by the false message of the world's propaganda machine. Secondly, they were convinced by a false messenger. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that calls ye unto the grace of Christ, unto another gospel, which is not another, but there were some that troubled you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. They would pervert the gospel See that word pervert? It means to turn around. It means to twist. Have you ever worked with anyone and you've said, boy, he's a real twister. You say something and he just takes your words and twists them round. Have you ever met somebody, well that's what these people here were doing, false messengers. They were twisting the Word of God. Oh yes, you can have Christ. But Christ isn't enough, you need the works of the law. Isn't the greatest counterfeit that which comes very very close to the original? See what they were doing here, oh yes you can have Christ, but Christ isn't enough. They were perverting the gospel of Christ and saying Christ isn't enough, you need the works of the law. They didn't need the works of the law. They needed Christ and Christ alone. They had changed the message of the gospel. They had twisted the claims of Christ that Christ wasn't enough. These men there was no shame in them. They had no problem deceiving the people of God. They had no problem telling them lies. And yet sadly the people of God were influenced by them. I've no doubt these teachers, these Judaizers came with great titles, great claims. They maybe come with certificates from the greatest colleges of their day. And isn't it often the case when some come with great claims and great titles to their name that they're so easily believed? I think of Professor Stephen Huck, and you know he's a professor at Cambridge. He's a fantastic mathematician but he wrote a book recently saying the big bang happened that there's no God or anything and he found mathematics to prove it. How many people believe Professor Stephen Hawking because he's a professor you know even though he goes against the word of God. And people are taken in, why? Because they don't know the word of God. They're convinced by those who come with a false message because these messengers come with great tables. Or what about Professor Dawkins? He goes to Oxford, you know. Oh, he's wrote books. And how many people believe him because he's a professor and yet he's no time for God. He said God doesn't exist. He wrote the book, The God Delusion. And yet how many people will be convinced because he's a professor, he comes with the great titles and therefore because he's got great titles he must be believed. He might be good at his job but you see when it comes to the things of God he's not to be believed. His word is to be disregarded. We're to come to the word of God. We're to try the spirits. We're to test the spirits. We're to test what people say. Not by our own philosophies. Not by our own ideas and own standards. But by the Word of God. What am I saying? We need to get back to the Word of God. That it permeates our minds. That they'll not be taken unawares by those who come with great claims and false messages. We're to do the litmus test. Let me go back to the chemistry. We'll go to a chemistry class and say there was a substance there and over here, or if I was to mix with that substance an acid, it would explode. Or if I was to mix an alkali with it, it would be a passive reaction. And someone said, well, I think that's an alkali. Do you what? I would want to test it. I don't know about you, but I would want to test it. whether that was an acid or alkali before I mixed them. Why? Because the consequences are too catastrophic. If you said it was an alkali and I ended up it was an acid, it would explode. It would be a catastrophe. What would you do? You would do the litmus test. An independent test that would turn red to blue or blue to red, whichever one it is. I'm not that quick in the chemistry at the moment but you'd want to do the litmus test to check and make sure or to check what people say by the word of God please don't leave here tonight and say that I told you to distrust what everybody says that's not what I want I want you to check what people say with the word of God test the spirit to see if it were so. A few months ago we had a visitor to England, the Pope of Rome. He came to England and he came with a message of sorrow. A message of sorrow because of priests involved in the abuse of the innocent and abuse of children. And if you were looking on as he expressed his message of sorrow, you would be taken in and think wasn't he very, very sincere. And how many people I wonder were taken in by his words of sincerity. But in reality, I don't believe him. Two weeks before, bishops who had handed in their resignation, responsible for covering up the abuse, he refused them. It doesn't tie up. His words and his actions, they're irreconcilable. They don't tie up. And we're to test the words and test the actions. We're not to be deceived by false messengers. We're not to be fooled with those as they would come with. Using eloquent words. We're to test them with the truth of God's Word. Do we stop and try the spirits to see if they're of God or not? We're not to be deceived by false messengers. But here's sadly the last one. They were converted to a false philosophy. The upset of the people of Galatia listening to a false message promulgated by false messengers caused them to change. See that word removed. It means to transpose. It means to change two things around. Mathematics, you transpose a matrix. The elements move around. Or someone at the back comes to the front or someone from the front goes to the back. They're transposed. What have they done? They have changed position. It also means to transfer, to fall away. It means to desert. World War One. They were held in very low esteem, those who deserted. Those who were at the front line and left their colleagues to the fight and left, they were deserters. And that's what this word removed means, to desert. Who had they deserted? They had deserted Him. They had deserted the Lord Jesus Christ. They had moved position. They had been poisoned by a false message, promulgated by false messengers. What am I trying to say? It's imperative that we don't let our guard down. It's imperative that we're not conditioned by the world and the world's subtle messages. We need to have our minds alert in these days. There's a very sad thing about this here. They were removed and it happened. passively. This is the thing that I find saddest of all. The word removed here is in the passive voice, not the active voice. Well, there's probably English scholars here. I preferred maths and science, but I'll try and explain what this means. And maybe if there's an English teacher at school tomorrow, you can go and verify it or maybe clarify it better. But this word removed is in the passive Now the example I'll use for you tonight is I throw a stone. That's the act of which I, the subject, perform the action throw and I threw a stone, the object. But I could turn it round and say the stone was thrown by me. The subject, the stone, was acted upon and thrown. Here's what happened here. The people were removed from him. They were in the passive voice. What was it that acted upon the people of God here at Galatia to remove them? It was a false message and the false messengers. That was the instrumentality that took the people of God away from Christ. They were bombarded by a false message, promulgated by false messengers and it took them away from Christ. See what it gives? It gives the idea of simplicity. It gives the idea of subtlety. And it happened and they didn't even seem to notice. It happened in their lives. It happened right to them. and they didn't even seem to notice as it happened to them. It must be the greatest deception of all. People can be changed by what they hear. People can be changed by what they listen to. I throw it out as a question. We're coming to the 60th anniversary of our church. I wasn't around at the beginning. But those around at the beginning, would you say it's the same 60 years ago as it is today? Have we changed? I throw it out just to make us think, cause us to think in these days. But I live in a day today and there are subtle measures abound. We've got political correctness, the controlled use of language. And if you control language what do you do? You control those who use the language. If you're not allowed to say something I find the next step is you don't think it. And it's nearly a form of thought control. We're bombarded by falsehood in every hand. Let me ask you a question. When you hear the word abortion and the and the murder of the innocent? Does it make righteous indignation rise in your heart? Or because you've heard it day in and day out, month in and month out, it has no effect on us whatsoever. We're conditioned by the words. And what are they starting now? Euthanasia. You see them introducing it in the media and we're conditioned now to euthanasia. That it might just be required for those who want to terminate their lives. And yet God says we're not to kill. We're bombarded by falsehood on every hand. Euphemisms. We don't call it abortion anymore. It's a termination. Or what about all religions? We're going to God. Oh yes, well we're all going different routes. But we're going to the same God. Is that not a common message today? I've had Christians come up and ask me concerned in us. There's only one way. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. I think there's no greater example in the Bible than Cain and Abel. They came with their offerings to God. God accepted Abel's way because he came God's way. Cain, he came his own way. He was rejected of God. And yet we've got the conditioning all around us. There's only, there's one God and we're all going different routes. That's not the teaching of Scripture. We need to know the Scriptures and contend earnestly for the faith. It's a big problem in Bristol. It's a sodomite lobby. It'll be a big problem In Ulster, before very long, when I read or heard the media about Mr. Brown in Londonderry, does it concern us? And what does the world call it? It's only an alternative lifestyle. And yet God condemns it. He calls it, in his word, an abomination. And yet the world spews out its false message. May it not condition our minds. May our minds be taken up with Christ and taken up with his word. Here were people who were distracted in following the Saviour. Now Paul could have went in with a big stick and beat them round the head. He knew the condition of the church at Galatia but I love the words he uses there in verse 3 and 4. 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. And in the midst of their backsliding, do you know what Paul does? He brings their minds back to the Saviour. He reminds them of Christ. He reminds them of what he had done at Calvary, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world. Oh, that the Lord would deliver us from the influence of the world in these days. that we would keep Christ at the forefront of our minds and that we would study the word of God. Without a vision the people perish, they are exposed when there is no preaching of the word of God but then there is corruption of the word of God. We need to be alert and careful in these days. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to come and again I pray for you and we would your prayers for us as we go to the mainland, but most of all we'll keep our eyes on Christ, that we'll know his word and that we'll not be influenced by the word and its subtle false messages.