Let's turn our attention then to Galatians chapter one, beginning at verse one, this is the word of our God. Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our God, and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men? For if I still please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man, for I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. You may be seated. Let us pray. Oh Lord, our God, we do ask that you would send your spirit among us, that we might hear and understand your word. We ask that you would be with the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts, that they might be pleasing and acceptable in your sight, oh Lord, our rock and our redeemer. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Economists estimate that each year, the economy loses $500 billion to counterfeits, counterfeit products that are purchased instead of the real thing. Last year, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency confiscated more than $2.5 billion worth of counterfeit goods in 23,000 different raids. Counterfeits are all over the place. If you happen to be someone that's in the market for a luxury good, perhaps you know this better than many. Because if you are to go on the street of New York City or Atlanta, particularly New York City, you might be offered by someone who's wearing a trench coat and they open it up, a Rolex for a very good price. And you might find with some measure of laughter, but maybe a little bit of disappointment, that it's not a Rolex when the machine doesn't wind. Or maybe you've happened to buy the gift of a coach bag for a woman that you love only to see the C fall off of it because it was counterfeit. Or maybe you've had the experience of a $100 bill being given to you in exchange for a product only to find out that United States was misspelled. All of these things happen with counterfeit goods. They're not the real thing. How are you to avoid counterfeits? Well, anybody that has studied this, and probably many that haven't studied it, would tell you to make sure that you're purchasing from a reputable seller. Find out the origin of the product that's being sold. If you're confident in the origin, you can be confident that you're getting a real product. Well, God spoke to the Galatians through the Apostle Paul for a very similar reason. There were counterfeits going out through the church in Galatia. There were counterfeit preachers presenting a counterfeit gospel, a counterfeit message from God himself, and many were being deceived. In lieu of the truth, they were giving lies. In lieu of the gospel of salvation through the free gift of God, they were selling a salvation by faith plus works. Counterfeits all over Galatia. And so Paul was called of God to preach the pure gospel, to remind the people of the pure religion, of the truth of Christianity, of the message that he had been sent to preach to Jew and Gentile alike. And as he comes to Galatia in the writing, he marvels. He marvels that after giving them the real gospel, by giving them the real thing, that they would so quickly go after counterfeits, other gospels that are no gospels at all. In particular, he's concerned about the gospel of works, the gospel that would include circumcision. But how many false gospels are around us today? They've multiplied in many different ways. We certainly have the works-based gospels today in all sorts of manifestations. We have forms-based gospel that have a picture of Christianity, but they deny the power thereof. We have prosperity gospels in more churches than we could count that tell you the gospel is about wealth and success instead about taking up your cross and following Christ. What is to be done in an era, in a place, in a state town with so many counterfeits around it? God would call us to go back to the origin. To find out where the message we believed came from. For this reason, that we might know the true gospel that sets us free. That we might be warned from counterfeiters that would seek to lead us to destruction. And that we might set our minds on those real things that are above and not on those things of earth. That is to say that we would follow God and not follow men. I want us to consider the text from Galatians chapter one today in three points. And the first point is simply this, the supernatural message, the supernatural message. I want us to be very clear today on what the message is. What are we talking about? And children, if you want to know what the message is, it's this. It's the gospel. Paul is very concerned to make known the gospel message, the faithful gospel message. Now, if you're like me, when you hear the word gospel, perhaps You give a little bit of a sigh, because how often do you hear this word? The gospel is all over the place. There's gospel genres of music. People are called gospel singers. This is a gospel radio station. And it may or may not be that. The word is used so often in churches. People talk about the gospel. They use it in their church titles. And the church may or may not preach the gospel. But don't let the misuse of the word cause you to turn your ear away from the proper use of the word gospel. That's what Paul wants young and old to know today. What is the gospel message? What is it that Paul was preaching? Well, the secret service has two primary functions in our country. It's to protect important people and it's to protect the money. The Secret Service is concerned with protecting money. If there's counterfeit money, the Secret Service is the one that will go and track it down and bring people to justice. Do you know how they train secret service agents to be able to detect counterfeit money? Many different ways they train them, but one important way is they want the secret service agents to be able to recognize real money. They train them on what is real and what is right, so that when they look at something wrong, whether or not they've seen it before, they know where it differs from the real thing. And because it differs from the real thing, they know it's counterfeit. Well, Paul is doing something very similar with the gospel. Because there's all these counterfeits out there, he wants us to know again the real gospel, the true gospel, the saving gospel. And so he takes us to the real thing. And I would ask you, do you know the gospel? Do you know the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Paul, as is so often the case, he can't get through the opening greeting without presenting the gospel. He does that in verses three or four that we read a few minutes ago. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. There is the gospel in three verses that Jesus Christ came to shed his blood for sinners for the glory of God almighty. In first Timothy chapter one in verse 15, Paul will do it in one verse. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief, there is the gospel in one verse. Jesus does this in John 3 on several occasions. Verse 15, the gospel in a single verse. Verse 16, the gospel in a single verse. There are many of our favorite Bible verses in the Old and the New Testaments. We're in a very small package, one or two verses, the gospel is presented, and it was that particular presentation of the gospel that saved us. The gospel, what can we say about it? How great is the message of salvation through the free grace and free gift of Jesus Christ? In a verse, the gospel is very simple. In its depth, the gospel is unsearchable. In its coverage, the gospel is all sufficient to cover all of our sins. In its glory, the gospel is wondrous, and we will delight in it even through glory. In its reach, the gospel goes out to all. In its power, the gospel gives eternal life. In its cost, the gospel is freely offered to you, though it costs the Son of God his own life. And in its source, the gospel is Jesus Christ. The gospel is Jesus Christ. So if we are concerned, as Paul is concerned, to tell us the origin of the gospel, where did it come from? We must ask ourselves this question, where did Jesus come from? Where is he from? If the gospel is Jesus Christ, where did he come from? Well, notice what Paul does in Galatians chapter one and verse one. Paul does something, I wonder how often we think about how frequently scripture testifies to the deity of Christ. Do you ever have the Mormons or the Jehovah's Witnesses knock on your door and they wanna tell you about Jesus Christ? And if you're, some people will respond and say, yes, I believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God and God the Son, that he is one with the Father, that there is one God and only one God, and he has revealed himself in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are co-eternal, co-equal, that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, and then they'll tell you if they stay. Tell you, no, we don't believe that, that's not true. And then they'll tell you the Bible doesn't say it because they've distorted the Bible. The Bible says it on almost every page. Don't be deceived by that message. Don't think that there are only a few places where the deity of Christ is proclaimed in scripture. It is throughout in the Old Testament and everywhere in the New Testament. Look at verse one of Galatians 1, testifying to the deity of Jesus Christ. Paul, an apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father. Do you see what Paul is doing at the greeting? Jesus is no mere man. Otherwise, Paul would have been called by a man. Jesus isn't mere man. He is the eternal divine son of God who was from all eternity and will be to all eternity. God in the flesh come to us and in the fullness of time, which we'll celebrate 24 days from today in the fullness of time, God took to himself. true body and a reasonable soul so that the eternal God is now in one person, God and man in two distinct natures forever. Right from the first verse, Paul is getting at the origin of Jesus Christ. He has no beginning. He has no end. He's not a mere man. He is God in the flesh. Tells us something about Jesus. This is one we should listen to. This is one who's not like any other prophet. He's not like any other teacher. He's not like Paul. He's not like Peter. He's not like any philosopher. He's altogether different. And he called Paul to preach the message concerning himself. Jesus is from all eternity. Maybe you're getting your Christmas cards ready, or you're starting to receive some, and you'll see John chapter one on some of them, won't you? There in that first verse, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In the 14th verse, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, the one that created the worlds, that in the beginning, God is referring to the Father, yes, and to the Son, and to the Spirit. In the beginning, God was already there. And God took on flesh. This is the eternal Son of God that we're brought face to face with. And He came. for this reason, in verse five, that he would have all the glory forever and ever, amen. Here is the origin of Jesus Christ. He is the eternal Son of God. You must devote yourselves to Christ. He is Jehovah in the flesh. You must listen to him and to him only. You must listen to him as he truly is, the risen, divine, ruling king. No mere man who was created first among many other men, but the eternal God who has come to men. Do you think of the gospel and think of a person? Do you think of the gospel and think of Jesus Christ? That's what Paul wants you to do today. That's what Paul wants you to do always, because that's what Jesus wants you to do, to see like Simeon, the salvation of God in Jesus Christ, because he is the gospel himself. I fear that one of the great challenges that the church has today in America is a great love for intellectualism. Great love for the academy and don't hear me wrong, praise God for intellect that he's given us and praise God for many theologians that he's raised up to proclaim his word faithfully. But what if, what if for some, intellectualism is the end in and of itself? What if for some they've come into the reformed faith because they love the consistency of the doctrine and praise God that they love the consistency of the doctrine. When it's proclaimed faithfully, it's always consistent. But what if they come merely for the consistency of the doctrine? What if they can defend the reformed faith against Arminianism like John Owen, but they've never come to know John Owen's God? What if they can teach systematics like John Calvin and his institutes, but they've never come to know John Calvin's God? What if they can speak of the Bible and remember it like John Bunyan could, but they've never come to know John Bunyan's God? The doctrine is not an end in and of itself. The doctrine brings us to God. The doctrine brings us to Jesus Christ. As you think of the gospel, start with the person. Start with the God man, Jesus Christ. He's the beginning and the end of the gospel. And all faithful doctrine points itself to him. He is the beginning. He is the end. He is the alpha. He is the omega. He is the one that is coming again. Love him. And as you study your scripture, love it and love its doctrine. as it reveals to you more and more of the Savior who you must love. We have a supernatural message come to us from the eternal God, but I'd like us to think in the second place of the supernatural outpouring of the gospel. The supernatural outpouring. Children, if an elder were to ask you, why should you honor your parents? A very good answer for them would be, because the Bible tells me to do so. That would be a good answer. If an elder asked you, why should you believe the gospel? Another good answer would be, because the Bible tells me to do so. The gospel that comes to us comes to us from the very word of God. And here's where Paul in those verses six through 10 is making a contrast. In contrast to the word of God, where the true gospel comes from, the counterfeit gospels come from men. The counterfeit gospels come from men. They come from someplace other than the Bible. Consider a few examples of that with me. The Roman Catholicism, where does its authority come from? They'll say the Bible, but they'll tell you right next to the Bible is the tradition of the church and the magisterium who get to speak with the authority of the apostles, so they say. And the pope who speaks ex cathedra, out of the church or out of the seat. with the Apostle Peter descending upon him, as it were, that he could speak this way. You need, in the Roman Catholic system, you need the tradition of the Church and the authority of the Magisterium in order to understand the Word of God. The Bible is insufficient for you in the Roman Catholic religion. The Bible's not enough. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not enough. And so that's why works is brought into the Roman Catholic system. Oh, grace, grace, grace, they'll say. But it's not only grace. Grace to cover original sin. We believe in grace alone for original sin. But if you want to get to heaven, you've got to work and merit your way to heaven. Another gospel. counterfeit. But you notice why it's counterfeit. Men are teaching their own doctrine as the commandments and gospel of God, and it's not. Where is it coming from? Where is this message coming from? From God or from man? You can take many of the Pentecostal churches. I'm not saying charismatic, but some of the Pentecostal churches that would do strange things and offer to you on a Sunday morning, as I'm sure all around North Carolina, just like they are in my state of Georgia, they are offering to you apostles, apostles, who are telling the people in the pew what God told them last night to tell the church. And what God told them is not in the Bible. In fact, that's why the people need to come to church, because they can't hear God's word anywhere else. That's what they're teaching. That's what they're teaching all over. It's having a great impact in our foreign missions, especially in Africa, but in other places as well. This gospel, that is the word of God coming through men who are living today, the word is insufficient. Maybe some of you are thinking, I need to hear it from that person and I can't know it without that person. Does that remind you of anything historically? The Gnostic lies. The Gnostic lies of the, really, it's happening already at the time of the New Testament, but went on for several centuries. That you need to have this secret knowledge, this secret wisdom that could only come from others. Those are counterfeits, run away from them. If they say, come with me into the desert and I'll show you Christ, don't go with them. Here is Christ, revealed in his word for you, that all men and women might know it. If they say, come, come to this cave and I'll show you Christ, don't go with them. Christ is revealed in his word. God has given to you himself in his word that you might know him truthfully. I mentioned the Mormons already. Do you know that the Mormons at the top of their leadership level, they have 12 apostles? They're always excited to take false religion and multiply it. That's what they do. 12 apostles and hard questions have to go to them and they decide and all the church has to follow. Why? because they're following men. They're following counterfeits. And the people, the millions that are following Mormonism are following an insufficient Bible and men that must tell the men how to get to heaven. There's something missing from all that, isn't there? Supernatural. The supernatural revelation is missing. Where is God speaking to man? It's men speaking to men. Some of them will claim God, but when you test it, contradicts the word of God. And may God to contradict. Look at what Paul says in our text in verses 11 and 12. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached to me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Three things that Paul denies here. First, he denies that it's according to man. That is to say, man didn't come up with this gospel. Do you think about the glories of the gospel of Jesus Christ? What man has ever come up with this idea that God who made all things and made them perfect and then man sinned against God and rejected him and rebelled against him and did what was right in his own eyes and would worship false idols and even though he gave them all kinds of mercies, they would go after other gods, they would reproach his name, and then he would say, I am the Lord, the Lord, merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. What god would say such a thing? Do you know any religion of the world that has ever come up with that? That's utter folly, no one would do it. Because it takes the glory away from the man and makes the man the sinner, which he is, and it gives all glory to God. This gospel did not originate with man. When Jesus says, or as God says in Isaiah chapter one, stop praying to me, your prayers are vain. You're worshiping me and you're worshiping other gods. I don't even want to hear them anymore. And then he says, let's reason together. Your sins, they're like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they're red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Come unto me, you that are weary and heavy laden, says Jesus, and I will give you rest. What gospel says such a thing? What man-made gospel says it? There is none. There's no religion that's ever done that in the history of the world. This didn't come from men. That's the first denial. Did not originate with man. But it didn't originate with man, that is true. And Paul didn't receive it from men. Think about this. The gospel was already out at this time, but Paul didn't receive it from men. No man gave to him a book and said, here's the gospel, read it and preach it. It never happened. The gospel was not taught to Paul from men. And that's his third denial. Neither was I taught it. No one gave me the book. Nobody taught it to me. When Paul was saved on the road to Damascus and he went to Ananias, Ananias didn't teach him the gospel. The gospel came in another way. I'm going to say even this, the gospel didn't originate with the apostles. The gospel did not originate with the apostles. What was the heresy of the Judaizers? The Judaizers were those that followed Paul. If you can imagine, imagine me being here this morning. And then I walk out in a few minutes and then someone else comes in and says the exact opposite of what I'm saying. That's what the Judaizers were doing to Paul. They would follow him from city to city, church to church. And as he said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, period. They came in and said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and go get circumcised and thou shalt be saved. It was happening right after the other one. But what was it that they said in particular? They would say that they spoke on behalf of the apostles. They would say that they spoke on behalf of God. This was their argument. In chapter two, I'll reference it in a minute. In chapter two, the Judaizers came from James. They said they were coming from James and Peter's led away into their sin. But this is refuted in two ways, and Paul wants us to see this. First, the gospel did not originate with the apostles. I come to that again. Christ, Christ Jesus, revealed it to the apostles. The apostles did not originate the Christian faith. Christ revealed it to the apostles who wrote it down. There's evidence against apostolic succession in Galatians. I wish we had time to go through it all. But Galatians chapter two is that account that Paul gives of when he was, when he was, when he was north of Jerusalem and I think it was in Antioch, when he was in Antioch with the saints and Peter was with him and they were eating and the Judaizers came in and when Peter saw them, he was afraid of them and he stood up from eating with the Gentiles and he walked over and he sat down with the Judaizers. Do you remember that account? Paul says, I resisted Peter to his face. And then Barnabas was carried away with his lies. And many other problems happened in Antioch because Peter went and sat with the Judaizers and wouldn't sit with the Gentiles because they were uncircumcised. What part of the apostle's teaching is gonna be succeeded down through the ages to the Roman Catholic Church? Because Peter was far from perfect. It's not all the teaching of the apostles that we follow. It's that which was revealed to Christ in the word of God that we follow. That's the gospel that we follow. If we, Paul says, the apostles, or an angel from heaven like Moroni, the Mormon angel, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached, let him be accursed. Paul is calling a curse down upon himself and on all the apostles if he should preach anything else, but Christ crucified fully, freely for all that would believe on him. Think about that. If we preach another gospel, let him be accursed. That's why Paul withstands Peter to his face. Because Peter, by his very action, was preaching another gospel. By getting up from the uncircumcised Christian Gentiles and moving across the room, he was denying the gospel of salvation by free grace alone. And so Paul resists him to his face. We can say this from scripture. And it shouldn't give us joy to say it, but it is the truth. The Pope of Rome is accursed because he's preaching another gospel. The apostles of Mormonism are cursed because they're preaching another gospel. And everyone that preaches any other gospel from what you read and hear preached from this word is accursed because they're bringing something that doesn't save, but only damns. Don't go with them. But there's a second reason that we can say that this word did not originate, was not taught by man. And that is this, we contest man's word against this great. Test it against the Bible. Test the word of men against the Bible. You should be doing that with me as you hear the word proclaimed. You should be doing that, and I say this in a proper way, not questioning your pastor every week, but checking what your pastor says according to the scripture, like the Bereans did, even when the Apostle Paul preached to them, because they knew that an apostle was not infallible, and that an apostle could make a mistake. even as Peter did, tested against the word of God. God doesn't contradict himself. If God contradicted himself, he wouldn't be God. God's word is pure. It's the same yesterday, today and forever because God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Let me give you the illustration of this. First Kings chapter 13. The kingdom has been divided. There's now the Northern kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam and the Southern kingdom of Judah under Rehoboam. And Jeroboam didn't want all his people going back to Judah, so he set up the golden calves, two of them, one in Dan, one in Bethel, so that the people would go and worship there. He's repeating the sin of the wilderness. And God sends a prophet, we're not told his name, but he's called the young prophet in first Kings 13. God sent a prophet to go prophesy against Jeroboam. And he went and Jeroboam put out his hand and cursed the prophet and Jeroboam's hand was withered. Jeroboam asked the prophet to pray for him. The young prophet prayed for him and Jeroboam's hand was restored. And then Jeroboam said to the young prophet, come with me back to my house. I want to put on a feast for you. He went from wanting to kill him. He saw the sign, he only wants to and the young prophet says, no, the word of God came to me saying, don't stop there, don't eat with them, return the way you came, go back to Judah immediately. He's tempted to stay and immediately he puts up the word of God, resists the temptation of Jeroboam and goes back towards Judah. But then there's this old prophet in Israel. And the old prophet goes out to find the young prophet. And he finds the young prophet foolishly sitting by a tree. He should have been running to Judah, but he stops shortly after he's outside of Bethel. The old prophet finds him and the old prophet says, come with me to my house in Israel and eat with me. Today I've prepared food and a feast. And the young prophet rightfully says, no, because God told me not to. I must go back to Judah. The word of the Lord has been spoken to me. And the old prophet says to him, the word of the Lord also came to me. And he negated that word to you. And he told me that you should come to my house. And the young prophet listened. And he went to the old prophet's house. Do you know what happened to him? Some of you children maybe haven't heard this before, but when he left that house disobeying God, a lion met him in the way and the lion killed him and stood over his body because he rejected the word of God. He believed a lie that God could contradict God. God cannot contradict God. The word of man, if a man says this is God's word and you see it the opposite of what the Bible says, the man is wrong. God's word is right. Let every man be a liar and God be true. God's word will not contradict itself. If we or an angel from heaven should preach any other gospel than what has been preached, let him be. The gospel of God then didn't come from all these ways, but here's how it did come. It came through the revelation of Jesus Christ at the end of verse 12. The revelation of Jesus Christ. We see this language used in other places. First Corinthians 11 is one of those places where at the institution of the Lord's Supper, Paul says this under the inspiration of God, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. He's not delivering his own word. He received it from God. Or 1 Corinthians 15, that great statement of the gospel, 1 Corinthians 15 and verse three, for I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He is preaching something that he received. He's preaching what he received by the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is the same word that's used for the title of the last book of the Bible, revelation. The revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what Paul is preaching. It's not originating with man. It's not taught by man. He didn't receive it from man. But that gospel that he preaches was received by the revelation of Jesus Christ himself. The Roman Catholics, if they know their Bible, they'll push back with something like Ephesians 2.20, talking about the apostles being the foundation and Jesus Christ being the cornerstone. What is the foundation of the apostles? What is the foundation of the apostles? Is it their office? Is it merely their office? I'm an apostle, therefore, I'm the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, certainly not, Judas was there. Judas was there. What is the foundation of the apostles? Do you remember in that 18th or 16th chapter of Matthew, where Jesus is asking his disciples, who do men say that I am? And they say, oh, some say Elijah and some John the Baptist and some something else. And Peter says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus says, flesh and blood hasn't revealed it to you, but this has been revealed to you. And on this rock, I will build my church. On this foundation, what is the foundation? Jesus Christ, his gospel is the foundation. That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and all who look to Him in faith shall be saved. There is the foundation. Christ is the cornerstone of it. And though Peter may fall in Galatians chapter 2, though Paul may fall, though disciples and apostles may make mistakes, yet the foundation remains. The cornerstone is the same, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That is the foundation. And anyone that says they have the foundation of the apostles because they're following in their succession, you say, if you profess not Christ alone by saving people through his grace alone and through faith alone, then you are preaching another gospel. You have no foundation at all. The foundation of the gospel. is Jesus Christ himself and his disciples confessed it. Well, in the third place, I want us to look briefly at the supernatural effect of the supernatural message that has been supernaturally poured out. Look at the effect on Paul. Here's Paul, he'll tell us in other places, I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin no less. As it relates to committed to the Jewish religion or the Pharisees of which he was a chief, he said, I persecuted Christians. I put many to death. It was Paul who was standing there, who organized the stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter seven. They laid down their feet at a young man's, or they laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Paul or Saul at the time. That's who Saul was. Saul was wicked through and through. Saul hated Christ and he hated his gospel. But the effect of this supernatural message when it reaches an unconverted person like Saul is great, it's tremendous, it's supernatural. No one else can explain it. What happened as Paul is going to Damascus? He's going there to persecute more Christians. When suddenly the light from heaven shines and it's so bright, he's blinded by the light, temporarily blinded for several days. And what happens in that light? Jesus Christ speaks to him. Jesus Christ meets him. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting thou me? And Saul says, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. And Saul goes from being the persecutor of Christians to the preacher of the Christian gospel. He goes from being the one who was stoning to the one who would be stoned for the gospel. He would be shipwrecked multiple times. He'd be whipped, beaten, left for dead, imprisoned over and over, tormented. for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. How does one go from that to this? It's because there's a supernatural effect of this gospel. This is no weak gospel. Children, if your friends ever make fun of you, young people, if you're in college and your colleges are telling you this is madness, this is foolishness, oh that we'd have more fools believing this message. because this is the supernatural effect of the powerful message of God, that dead sinners come to life, that those that are lost in sin, whatever it might be, whatever horrible sin that you can think of, when God applies his word to his people by the power of the Spirit, they are brought from death to life. That is the effect. I wonder if you look at yourself. You that are trusting in Christ today, isn't that what the Lord did for you? You were in your sin, you were in rebellion against God, maybe not to the same extent that we would see with Paul, but you were in rebellion against God, and you heard the word, maybe a friend read it to you, or you're sitting in a church like this one, and you heard the gospel preached, and at that instant, or shortly thereafter, the chains fell off, the bonds were free, you rose, went forth, and followed the Lord. Is that your testimony? God is all powerful working through his gospel to save sinners. But let me tell you another effect. I don't mean this only in the way of salvation, though I especially like you to think about it in the way of salvation. But what about the power of the message of the gospel in the one that is saved? Is it just powerful for the moment of conversion and then it does nothing else afterwards? Or does God sustain us by the power of his word all through our lives until glory? I wonder if you've heard of the name John Harper before. This is a man that they should make a movie about. John Harper was a Scottish evangelist, a pastor in the early 1900s. And he had been to the United States to preach at the Moody Church in Chicago. And there was great effect, great revival was happening in the United States and in Europe at that time. And it was so successful that they asked him to come back. And so John Harper took his daughter and his sister, his wife had previously died. He took his daughter and his sister and they were gonna sail across the ocean and go to the Moody Church for revival. There was just one problem. John Harper happened to book himself and his family tickets on the Titanic for its inaugural voyage. And everybody knows what happened to the Titanic, it hit an iceberg. John Harper did a couple things as they knew the ship was going down. He first made provision for his sister and his little daughter. He made sure they had life jackets and got on a lifeboat. He then went around the ship and he was preaching. And he was telling people that they must repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ now. There was still time, but if they didn't, they would perish. Perish in the ice water, but perish for all eternity in hell. He preached the word. He was on the ship until it went down and he found himself in the icy water. And he was one of the few with a life jacket. He went over to a man that was holding on to a piece of debris. And he said to the man, have you been bored again? And the man said, I have not. He took off his life jacket, he gave it to the man, and he said, God sent his only begotten son into the world that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. You are gonna perish and therefore you need this life jacket more than I do. John Harper drowned or froze to death. The other man lived. Four years later, in Canada, there was a reunion of the survivors of the Titanic. And everyone stood up and talked about how they were delivered that night, how they survived. And this man stood up and he said, John Harper spoke to me and I was John Harper's last convert. And that man went on to proclaim Christ crucified because the power of God is not only in the instance of conversion, which it is and it's described there in that story, but it goes on through all of life so that Christians can die for the faith with rejoicing because they're dying for Christ. How can someone do that? The power of God, the effect of the message, the effect of the Holy Spirit on the sinner's life. We know what we've been saved from and we know what we've been saved for. And so we must live this life for the glory of God now and through all our days. It is a powerful message. It has great power and effect. Look out in the world today. The world is in need of the gospel. Oh, that it would be preached. Oh, that our young men would be trained by their parents to know that the gospel ministry is a worthy calling. that to be a missionary going off to foreign lands where there might be sickness, sorrow, sadness, grief, and an early death, that that is a noble and worthwhile life. Do your children know that, parents? Do they know that you will support them if God works in them to desire to go? Do you know why many don't go? Because their parents want them to pursue something with more pleasure and money in this life. That's why they don't go. Parents should be preparing their children to go, to go and to preach this gospel to every nation, language, tribe, and tongue today. Let me ask you this. I don't know you all, I know some. But are there any in here that don't yet believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you not tasted and seen something of the power of God and the salvation? What keeps you back from believing in him? What would keep you back from him who says, give nothing and receive everything. You don't need to bring money. You don't need to bring a purse. You don't need to bring wine, oil, nothing. Come, come to the living waters. It's freely offered. It's freely given by the Lord Jesus Christ. All who come, none are denied, but seek the Lord now. because this day, at this hour, he can be found. You can still call upon the name of the Lord and be saved, but the hour is coming when you shall seek for the Lord, and it will be too late, because the door of salvation will have been shut. The ark door will be closed. Jesus Christ will be descending on the clouds with great glory, and judgment will be rendered out. Don't wait to look for that day. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ today. Come to him. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are many counterfeits out there. They have all sorts of reasons why they would give you a counterfeit gospel. Tonight we'll consider some of those. Come back tonight. But they don't have any power in them to bring you from the misery of this life to the joys of heaven. They have no power. But we are not ashamed to preach the gospel that's been preached today. Because there's power in this gospel. Power unto salvation for sinners like me, the chief of them all, who grew up in a church, hearing the word of God and sinned against that word that I heard. Far worse the sins that I do than the sins of someone who hasn't heard. And yet, there is power through the blood of Christ for me. And if for me, surely for you, So come to the Lord Jesus Christ, come to him, receive him with faith, confess your sins before him, and you shall find everlasting life. Only the gospel brings life to the dead. So it's only the gospel that Paul could preach. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached to me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Amen.