Chapter number one. You know, we need a focal point in our life. We need an unchanging, unmoving focal point, a compass for ships. Now we have the global positioning system which functions in a much more sophisticated manner, go back further than that and you see the being directed by the stars you know the finding a fixed point in the sky and traveling their ship that direction using that star as the as long as they're heading to that they know they're heading the right direction and uh... we need to have that in our life a fixed point unchanging point in today's world they want to remove the fixed points They want to say everything's relative, that there is no absolutes. There is no consistency of things. The world would have us tear down every single absolute there is. But as Christians, we know there's some absolutes. And we need to have our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ. The focal point for the believer should be the cross. that reference point that guides us through our life, that is our establishing direction, you know, a focal point gives us a clear direction from A to B and we know that we're going to get there by following that route. We're going to safely arrive where we're supposed to be. I was teaching Melissa some stuff about driving, you know, she's got to get her hours in, so trying to do a little bit of driving. We're still at the point where going around the corner, and you go like this. And I said, hon, you need to try and go smoothly around the corner. The goal is you need to look down there where you want to get to, and you track around the corner smoothly. Don't do like this all the way around the corner. And so she's working on that. Yeah, OK, we're going to make that slow and even. I said, yeah, it'll be a lot more comfortable for your riders. that are with you. So she's working on that. But having that looking way down there, and that's what we need to do in our lives. And the cross of Jesus Christ is the focal point for the Christian. I want you to know that the apostate world would have the focal point be the church. The apostate world would have the focal point be the traditions of men. Maybe even the founder of the movement, maybe even the writings that they wrote. But what we need is Jesus Christ and His Word. We see here this challenge given to us in Galatians 1, verses 6-10, which I have entitled, The Desertion of the Gospel. He says, I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you unto the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. We see the desertion of the gospel here, first of all, by those that were tricked by Satan. In verse number six, Paul's amazement comes out where he says, initially, he says, boy, I marvel, I'm amazed, I'm shocked at how quickly ye can be pulled away and how soon ye can drift from what you knew. And it is truly a sad and heartbreaking thing, Christian, when people that knew the truth depart from it. when people that were once here in God's house and heard the messages and said amen and went soul winning and helped on the bus route and were part of Work Party and did John and Romans distribution and they were doing what every believer here is a part of, pursuing, and now all of a sudden they're gone. They've departed from the faith. And you say, well, what happened to them? That's heartbreaking. It's marveling sometimes. You sit back in amazement and wonder, how could they be so active and participate so heartily in things and then all of a sudden be gone? What is it that caused them to pull away? I want you to know that they're tricked by Satan. He said, I marvel. Paul's amazement, we see his accusation about those that turned away. The Christians of Galatia knew the truth. The Judaizers in that region, Paul was there, and Paul preached unto them the truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and Paul being a well-renowned and respected man, J. Vernon McGee said, basically, that he could see the Judaizers coming along and saying, well, of course Paul is a good man, and of course he shared with you the truth about the gospel, and that is all well and good and a very good thing indeed, and you should believe the gospel. But you also need to follow the law. And he tried to, the Judaizers quickly pulled them away. And as we introduced the book of Galatians, we told you a little bit about their character and the kind of people that they were and how the pursuit of knowledge and having that Greek influence on their culture impacted them some possibly in their readily acceptance of new, what you would call higher thought. Oh, here's another level that we need to observe. And that, of course, appeals to man. Man enjoys being intellectual. Man enjoys, that's part of Satan's appeal. I don't know why men enjoy or look for a perverted gospel. To me, it doesn't make any sense. Why would you say, on one hand, here is a gospel that's 100% free. You don't have to work for it. God did it all. All you got to do is accept it by faith. And over here, you've got to observe the sacraments. You've got to be baptized. You've got to keep the Lent. You've got to, you know, follow the Pope. You've got to do all these things in order to keep your salvation. Why would men choose to be over here? Because it's pride. Because this is what I can do. It's Satan's appeal to men. He's subtle. He's seducing spirit that draws men away as he appeals to their pride and to their own desire. That old saying, flattery will get you everywhere, pretty much applies. It's still true today. Brother Glover was telling me about a young applicant for his work, graduate from college, engineering degree, ready to go to work at Whiting-Turner. And on the application, this applicant said, well, what I need in the workplace is consistent and steady affirmation of my good work. And I need essentially a pat on the back and I need you to tell me I'm doing a good job consistently in order for me to continue to perform. For you. Brother Glover was like, what? Yeah, I don't know that you're going to be a good fit here. You know, it's just some time ago that he was sharing that with me, so I don't remember all the exact details, but that idea that we certainly enjoy being patted on the back. We certainly enjoy being told we're doing a good job, and that's not just this person, it's all of us, really, if we're honest. We enjoy being told we're doing a good job, but our performance shouldn't be based on that. It's always right to do right, amen? We should do right. But Satan likes to appeal to our pride, and that's where men would say, oh, I would rather work for my salvation because then it's something I've accomplished. Beloved, there's no place for feelings. in the establishment of truth. Satan likes to play on your feelings. Satan likes to manipulate your emotions. He pretends he loves you, while all the while destroying what you hold dear. We see these churches today that make a lot about love and very little about sin. and we see how they're flourishing. Why? Because men like to be told they're doing good. It causes men to desert and depart from the gospel until Satan causes you to leave your first love for a false love. Paul tells us in Corinthians that there is in 2 Corinthians, I'll read it to you, 2 Corinthians 11, verses 3 and 4, he says, but I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Okay, he's talking about the gospel. He says your mind's gonna be corrupted. The gospel is simple. It doesn't have to be hard. Why do you enjoy making it so hard? And in verse number four he says, for he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted. He says, hey, there's gonna be some that come and they're gonna preach another Jesus, they're gonna preach another spirit, they're gonna preach another gospel. Those are not what you receive. That's not what Paul told you about. Because there's some that are tricked by Satan. We see that there are troubled by some in verse number seven. Verse number seven opens up with a unusual statement. He says, which is not another. It almost seems as a contradictory statement. Because he says, I marvel that ye so soon be removed from him that called you unto the grace of Christ unto another gospel. And then verse seven opens up and says, which is not another? You're like, wait a minute, Paul. Is it another gospel or isn't it? Well, here's the thing. What he's saying is that there is no other gospel. When you're talking about the truth of the fact that there is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and there are many other things that can be sold as a gospel, but they're not the gospel. You can sell a tofu burger and call it a burger, but it ain't beef, amen. It is not beef. It is not the same thing. Things that are different are not the same. It doesn't matter if you call it the same. And that's what he's saying. He's saying, listen, they stand up and they preach another gospel, but it's not another gospel. Matter of fact, it's not the gospel at all, because there's only one gospel, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he says, you know, beloved, there are Satan's apostles. In 2 Corinthians 11, verses 13, he says, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. These are the apostles he mentioned here, Satan's apostles. He says in verse number seven there, he says, which is not another, but there are some that trouble you. You see, those apostles of Satan, those deceitful workers of iniquity, those that are set forth with the plan and the agenda to pull people away from the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Satan's apostles, they have an agenda, and they trouble you. I want you to know they bring anxiety. They bring trouble. When you sit under false apostles, your soul is gonna be troubled. Can I tell you today the church is troubled with a weak, watered-down gospel, an anemic gospel that does not demand repentance, that does not call for a change in your life for you to turn from your sin? I remember in college, I didn't see it, but one of our professors said something about this church that was started, I think it was in Texas, but the church was a drive-in church. And on their billboard it said, come as you are, stay in your car. And I don't remember if the billboard said that or if just the professor said it, and he says, and leave as you were. Come as you are, stay in your car, and leave as you were. doesn't demand any change. God demands change. This watered down gospel lacks any real conviction or conversion. We see man's objection, not objection, abjection, Abjection means downcast condition, abasement or degradation. We see that here because he says, the sum that would trouble you, they would pervert the gospel of Christ. These men take the pure unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ and they pervert it. They cast it down, they degradate it. The perverted gospel, is anything that's not the gospel of Christ. Can I tell you Romanism is a false gospel? Those that sit under this teaching of good works and the following of the sacraments and the practicing of saying the rosary and lighting candles for the dead and following the Pope and praying to Mary and observing visions, this is a false gospel. and it's sending people to hell. All religious cults that are out there, and there are so many, they're too numerous to mention them all, but some of those that are more prominent cults today that are sending people to hell, Christian Science, the Moonies, JWs, Mormons, these are false gospels. If you believe what they teach, You cannot know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. What they believe about Jesus Christ, we saw this when we were studying the book of Jude, the way to define or to very quickly recognize if somebody is teaching a false gospel is what do they believe about Jesus? What do they say about Christ? Can I tell you those that teach and practice baptismal regeneration are teaching a false gospel? This would be churches that, by and large, would be classified as Protestant churches. Many people like to call the Baptist Protestant, but if you know some church history, you know that Baptists aren't Protestant. We didn't come out of the Roman Catholic Church, which is what Protestant means, to protest against the church. So because many of them came out of the Catholic Church, like Lutherans, Episcopals, Orthodox, These churches that came out of the Catholic Church, they practiced baptismal regeneration, which means that, yes, you've got to be saved, and some of them to different varying degrees, how much importance they put on your salvation and how much importance they put on baptismal regeneration, that you also have to be baptized to be saved. I'm not sure what they do with a thief on the cross. or the numerous passages of scripture. You see, there are a couple passages of scripture that say things like, you must be saved and baptized to enter the kingdom of heaven. And they would take that and say, oh, see, it's very clearly taught here. But if there's a contradictory scripture, there's not a contradiction, your understanding is incorrect. So they take those and try and teach an entire doctrine off of it, and I don't have time tonight to get into refuting baptismal regeneration, but I want you to know that the Lutheran Church, the Anglican Church, the Orthodox Church, the Episcopal Church, all of these that were offshoots of the Roman Catholic Church that still practice baptismal regeneration are teaching a false gospel. Any church, religion, or group that teaches salvation by works is leading souls to hell. Some people have asked me, well, is it possible for somebody to be in one of these churches and be saved, truly saved? What I'll tell you is the further you get down this list, the further you get from the truth, the less likely that's so. Methodists have some doctrinal differences, but there was a time that the Methodists were a very strong gospel preaching church. A lot of the songs we sing in our hymn book are from Methodist preachers and writers. Methodists many, many years ago went away from the truth of the gospel, but there's probably a lot of Methodists because at one time they were very close to the truth. But what I'm saying is you take this list and you go the further down this list you go, the less likely there is somebody there. It is possible for somebody to have read the scriptures. Martin Luther, a priest in the Catholic Church, came to the place where he realized justification was by faith and faith alone. So yes, it's possible, and Luther did not separate from the Catholic Church far enough. He took a step away because he said, hey, what they're teaching is wrong, but he didn't go far enough. He didn't get all the way in line with the scriptures in many areas, and that is what hurt their movement. But I'm saying the further down you get to Jehovah's Witness, and if you're there, what they believe about Jesus Christ, if that's what you believe, you cannot be saved. So is it possible? Yes, but the further down the list you go, the less likely it is the case. They are very sincere and it's really heartbreaking because there are so many people that are filling these places that gather and preach a false gospel. And those that are following those groups are sincere as the day is long, and they desire and want to know the truth, and they want to do what they need to do to know the Lord, but they're being taught wrong. And it's sending them to a devil's hell. That's why we see this troubled by some. but there be some that trouble you." There's always going to be some of these Satan's apostles that are troubling the church because they're teaching false gospel. We see in verses 8 and 9 that it says very clearly, you've got to believe the truth or you're going to suffer. He says, I think it's notable here that he says an angel, though an angel from heaven come to you. I'm sure you guys know this, but Joseph Smith reported that an angel appeared unto him and gave him the scriptures that now the Mormon church is led by. I knew that already. I did not know a couple things in my research here, but I don't know if the angel that appeared unto him is Moroni, Moroni? Do you know that the golden statue on top of the cathedral in, sorry, the temple, they call it a temple, the temple in D.C. is a likeness or an image of that angel? Yep, blowing his trumpet. The Bible's very clear. Though an angel appear unto you and give you something different than this, I mean, I don't know what kind of a vision he had, if he had a vision at all, or if he just made it up on his own. But, you look at the scripture, and the very first thing, if an angel appears unto you and tells you something that's contrary to this, you say, hey, get thee behind me, Satan. Because that's not the truth. Yet he would establish and build an entire religion that has many thousands and millions of followers, probably around the world. That is false! According to LDSliving.com, Smith was visited consistently by angels, too numerous to count, many times dictating his actions and telling him what to do for the church. Including, and the list of angels that they had on there was too long for me to list, but I guess it's the angel of Moses, Elias, Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moroni, and the list goes on and on. These angels appearing unto him. But the Bible is clear. If an angel appears unto you and tells you anything but this gospel, let him be accursed. Accursed. That word means damned. Let him be accursed. You know AI, how smart things are getting? Do you know culture has crept into my MacBook? Into my word processing software? I typed this into my notes, accursed means damned. And I got a little pop-up window that said, this word might be offensive to some of your readers. Culture has crept in. Well, I don't quote John MacArthur much, but he said, truth is offensive. And you know what? If it offends them, let them be offended, because they've been offending God long enough. That's what it means. It comes from the Greek word, which is interpreted in our scripture several places, anathema. In 1 Corinthians 16.22, it says, if a man loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. Let him be cursed. Let him be damned. If they follow this false gospel, they'll end up in a place called hell. That's what it means. And this is, beloved, why Paul was so fervent in his defense of the truth, and why it's so heartbreaking to see sincere people following false religions. This feeling-based and experience-based gospel is hurting the kingdom of God. Men today would sooner believe an experience they had than the truth of the word of God. God wrote it, God said it, and you could show them chapter and verse and say, look, what does it say right there? And they'll say, but I saw, or I was in a car wreck, and when that happened, this happened, or I was, it's some experience that they wanna hold onto. I was witnessing to a guy at his front door one time, and he was explaining to me how he knew God. And he got in trouble with the law and was arrested and put in jail. He said he was laying in that cell the first night in jail, and they locked the door, shut all the lights off. He said, I was laying in bed, and then I just started to levitate out of my bed. And I rose up in the air about 10, 15 inches and just stayed there a little while. And then I dropped back to the mattress. And that's how I know that I'm in the hands of God. Well, I don't know what he was smoking. But I can tell you that didn't happen. And that's not how you get into the hands of God. And I tried to talk to him at his door and say, well, the Bible does not say, that's not how the Bible says you get to know God. That's not how you're introduced to God. You may have had that experience, but can I show you what the Bible, what God's word says about how to know him? He wasn't interested. He's like, no, I'm good. I'm good. We see it lastly this evening, the target for service. Verse number 10. Paul says, why do I tell you this truth? Why do I preach so hard? Why do I give it to you straight? He says, for do I now persuade men or God? Do I speak to please men? For if yet I please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. We see, beloved, that Paul's aim here was to please God. He throws out the question and says, for do I now persuade men, that literally means to solicit favor. Do I now strive to solicit favor of men? Am I seeking to or striving to get somebody's approval or am I looking to please God? We know he's looking to please God. What does it say in verse number one? Galatians chapter one and verse number one. He says, Paul, an apostle, not of men, Neither by men, but by Jesus Christ. And we looked at that in the introduction that he was called of God and knew God had called him to do this task. And therefore, when he preached the truth and when he shared what God had for him, he did so with the authority of the word of God and with God's compassion, but also the truth of God. Because his goal was, his aim was not to please those that were sitting in front of him, but to please Almighty God. Note the progression of arrangement that's here. As you see this movement of three areas of persuading men, you see the persuading men, first of all, that's soliciting favor. And then we see pleasing men, or do I seek to please men? That is striving to please men. So there's an effort first to just solicit some favor, and then there's a striving, a working to try and please men. But then the implication at the end of that verse, he says, for if yet I please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. What he's saying is there's a third level there, and that is if you're, Soliciting favor and striving to please that you soon will become a servant of men instead of a servant of God. That's the problem with our modern church. Churches that are built around soliciting favor, striving to please those that are coming, instead of pleasing God first and foremost and letting God challenge and change us from the inside. What it boils down to is who are you trying to please? Beloved, when you're delighted more in your own discipline than you are in the divine, there's a problem. This is what the problem was here in Galatians. These men who found a measure of righteousness in following the law and securing their salvation by observing their own righteousness. And beloved, when our pleasure, when our walk with God becomes more about my personal discipline in my life than with the relationship with the Master, There's a problem. When I'm more interested in observing my rituals than I am of spending time with him, there's a problem. Do you desire tonight to please men or please God? You say, well, of course I want to please God. Here's how you can check. Would you still do it if only God knew about it? Are you more interested in what God thinks or what man thinks? You know, our devices are listening all the time. And you know, when you start talking about something, you can start talking about elements for your heater. And now on your way home tonight, Your phone's going to be sending you ads for elements for heaters. Because they're listening all the time. And I was pondering this the other day, and I thought, you know, men today, I mean, you're on camera somewhere everywhere. I mean, everything is recorded. And there is no such thing as privacy. It's gone. You might as well just give it up, OK? Just don't worry about it. Because they know everything about you already. I mean, you put in that information when you sign into a website, and they ask you your security questions. What was your first dog? And where did you go to college? What was your mother's maiden name? And over the years, I've filled many of those things out, and the questions keep changing. And they're getting more and more details, more and more information. It's all getting saved. And everything is tracked, every single purchase you make, everything you do. And you say, oh, well, hey. Even so, Lord, come quickly. Just come on, Lord, we're ready, I know. But here's what hit me the other day, maybe again, I know it's no great revelation, but I thought, you know, people today are concerned about being on camera and what people might see and it's gonna get recorded. God sees it all. And he always has. Everything that we do. Do you seek to please men? Are you more worried about what man is gonna see you perform or do something? Or would you do it even if nobody else knew about it? You know, when we were kids, we always went to church and had services. We never missed growing up on vacation and everything like that, we would go. But there was a couple times, maybe there was a snowstorm or something and we were snowed in. And of course, as a kid, I'm like, yes, a day off, don't have to go to church today. But what did that do? Nobody knew. Nobody saw us. Nobody would have said anything one way or the other. Got us all out of bed. Got us all dressed. Came down, sat in the living room, and we had church. This is before there was any streaming or any way to watch anything online. This is enough years ago that that was really our only option. We were snowed in, couldn't get out and go anywhere. Many people would have said, oh, well, we can't go to church, so no big deal. We'll just skip church today. Not that. Nobody else knew about it. But he said, no, we're going to have church. Do you seek to please men? Or do you seek to please God? Nobody else really sees your walk. But are you walking with them or are you walking with God? Very few people see your witness. But are you pleasing God or pleasing men? That's what it boils down to. Desiring to please God. Today, many people would rather look righteous than be righteous. We see people's attempt here, this striving, the working for. Let me ask you, where's your effort? Where is your work invested? You see a wrong focus point? will cause you to invest your life, your effort, your work in the wrong place. We need a fixed point, the gospel of Jesus Christ, that I may know him and the glory of his resurrection, the power of his resurrection. That fixed point, if we keep that point, it'll guide our actions, how we live each day, what it is we're doing, who it is we're pleasing. Anyone seeking to please men will soon become a slave to men. I would much rather be a slave to the Lord. Seek to please him. How many of you know you can't make men happy? Yeah, you just can't. I mean, you know, you can make one or two happy. Can't make everybody happy, and those one or two that were happy aren't going to be happy next week. It's just the way men are. And when that's your life's focus, to try and please men, it's going to be very hard on you emotionally. It's going to be real stress for you. But we can get up in the morning and say, God, I want to please you today, and lay our head on the pillow at night and say, to the best of my ability, I honored God today. I pleased him. And the marvelous thing about our Lord and Savior is we know when we didn't. And we can come to him and say, Lord, you know I wanted to, but I know I messed up right here. I know I didn't please you in this. Forgive me and help me do better. And God will help us do better. What an amazing God we serve. J. Vernon McGee said, let's be honest, friend. Christ doesn't want your old life. He wants to give you a new one. We really have nothing to commit to him, but he wants to do something through you. God is asking, can he live through you today? Let's stand to our feet with our heads bowed and eyes closed.