Amen. I love that rendition. It's actually the original, right, to that? I actually like that one, amen. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus, amen. We'll open up your Bibles to Galatians chapter one. As we begin today to dive in to what I see as the sternest, harshest letter penned by the Apostle Paul, many people would point to one of the letters to the church at Corinth, But I see this as even more stern because as messed up as Corinth was, they were messed up with their sin as believers. And in Galatians, we were dealing with the compromising of the gospel. And here we're going to look at the harshest letter that I see that the Apostle Paul writes. We're gonna look today at Paul's salutation. We're gonna look at the first five verses. And so let's read it. Open your Bibles with me. I'm gonna read Galatians 1. I'm gonna read the first five verses. Paul, an apostle, not sent from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord, for this wonderful book that you wrote through the Apostle Paul. We pray now, Lord, that you would be with us, your Holy Spirit would lead us and guide us into all truth. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, before Paul writes this letter to the churches in Galatia, some 15 to 20 years before Let's rewind a little bit and let's look at who Paul was at the time. He was actually called Saul. And before he wrote this, 15 to 20 years before this, Saul had a red hot zeal to persecute the very church of Jesus Christ. We read very early on in the book of Acts chapter eight, we see that Saul consented to the death of Stephen. Acts chapter eight. Verse 3, but Paul began ravaging the church. This is right after he consented. He put in heartily agreement with putting Stephen to death. And it says in verse 1 of chapter 8, and on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem. And Saul, in verse 3, began ravaging the church, not just calling names as a way of persecution, but he was ravaging this church. It says he entered house after house. We've never seen this type of persecution. But Saul, before he became Paul and wrote to the Galatians, was entering house to house and dragging off men and women and was delivering them into prison. Saul had a red hot zeal to persecute the church of God. He even mentions this later on in Galatians chapter one, verse 13, where he says, you have heard of my former conduct in Jerusalem. How I used to persecute the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it, he says. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen being far more zealous for the traditions of my fathers. In Acts 22 verse 4, Paul says, I persecuted this way to the death. binding and delivering both men and women into prisons. In Acts chapter 9, verse 1 and 2, it says, Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Saul was intent upon destroying the church of Jesus Christ. He had a passion, a zeal, a desire, not just to persecute Christians, but to destroy and put an end to this uprising of what he believed was a false religion. In Acts 26 9 says, so then I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus the Nazarene. And he says this again of his former life in 1 Timothy 1, verse 13, even though he says, I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, he says. So Paul, Saul at the time, was in a rage against the Christian church. He had zeal, but zeal without knowledge. Then you know what happened. You know the conversion of Paul in Acts chapter nine. Our Lord Jesus visits him, knocks him off his horse, converts him, and then blinds him, tells him to get up, go to the city where he'd be healed. And then Paul went from being a persecutor of the church to being an apostle of the church. Now, fast forward. 15, 20 years later, Paul finds himself once again in a red-hot passion, in a red-hot zeal, only this time it's with the Holy Spirit and it's with knowledge. Paul once again finds himself with an aggressive mentality, sanctified to be sure and no doubt, but Paul was red hot when he picked up his pen to write this letter to the churches in Galatia. It's with this sanctified zeal now for the truth, with this sanctified passion now with the Holy Spirit, Paul picks up his pen and he writes. Paul knew just how dire the situation was. Just as the unconverted Saul thought he was doing the right thing by squelching the false religion, now Paul converted with the Holy Spirit, with zeal, with knowledge, knows just how dire the situation is. He recently, as we'll find out, he just recently rebuked Peter for compromising the gospel. There was mounting pressure, not just in Galatia, but all over the area from Jerusalem to Syria and Galatia. There was this pressure from these Judaizers who were coming and saying, yes, believe in Jesus, but you also have to be circumcised to be saved. Yes, believe in Jesus, but you also have to follow the Mosaic law to be saved. And Paul knew that this was all coming to a head and he was not apathetic. He did not sit back and just hope for the best as many do today when the false gospels are preached in our culture. He did not have that mentality that many have today when there's false gospels being preached on corners across from here, all over your area, all over the nation, all over our culture, Paul wasn't like many today who would just say, you know what, just let them be. Just pray for them. Right? Just love on them and pray that God would open their eyes. You don't see Paul sitting back and saying, you know what, we're just gonna pray for these Judaizers. We're just gonna sit back and we're gonna pray and ask God to open their eyes. No, he knew how dire of a situation this was, friends. The very church of Jesus Christ was on the line. God's glory was on the line. God's gospel was on the line. Men and women's eternity was on the line. That's how serious of a situation Paul found himself when he picked up this pen to write the book of Galatians. And it's with this zeal and commitment to the truth that Paul sits down and writes this letter. From the very beginning of Galatians, in his salutation, we see just how serious Paul is taking the situation. Here in the first five verses, we see Paul's salutation, and even in the salutation, he sets the agenda and the tone for the entire letter. He addresses two issues here. in the salutation for why Paul is writing in the first place. Number one, the nature of his apostolic authority. The nature of his apostolic authority. Number two, the nature of the gospel. He addresses the very two things in his salutation which constitute the rest of the letter. Now, we see in Paul's writings, he has a salutation in every one of his writings, right? It usually goes something like this, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from God, a father and Lord Jesus Christ. That's how most of his salutations are. There's some differences here and there, but the salutation in Galatians is by far the most distinct of any of the salutations that he gives in his letter, with the exception of the book of Romans. The book of Romans, Paul gives a pretty lengthy, actually the longest, salutation of all of his writings, probably because he never was in Rome at the time. He didn't start any of those churches, he didn't spend a lot of time with them to give them apostolic theology, and so the whole point of Romans is to basically give a dissertation on the gospel to provide that theology for the church in Rome. And so the salutation, if you were to compare it, it's pretty lengthy. There's a lot of doctrine in Paul's salutation to Romans. But outside of that, most of his salutations are very short, to the point, grace and peace to you from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. He says that here, but he also makes some distinctions. here in the book of Galatians that helps us to understand the reason why he's writing this letter and it encompasses these two things, the nature of his apostolic authority, and the nature of the gospel. So let's first look at the nature of his apostolic authority. Look at verse one with me. He says, Paul, an apostle, not sent by men nor through men, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. So right off the bat, Paul, an apostle. He calls himself an apostle. And here's the truth that we need to know. Paul is setting forth and laying down his apostolic authority from the get-go, and the truth that Paul is and was an apostle commissioned by Jesus Christ means that we must submit to his holy inspired writing. To reject Paul's instructions and holy scripture is to reject God. You remember Jesus, when he sent out his apostles, he said, those who accept you, accept me. Those who reject you, reject me. Many today reject Paul's writings. They say, I love Jesus, I love his writings, but that Paul He's a chauvinist. He hates women. So we're just going to reject Paul's writings. Much of the LGBTQ synagogues of Satan deny the authority of the apostle Paul, and they do this to fit their godless lifestyle. With technology today, you can see all of the female prophets and priests that stand up and say, you know, Paul, this isn't God's word, or they try to do away with Paul, and it's not just the women's preaching thing, there's a lot of other areas where people don't like Paul's writings. And so they discount it and they look for ways to attack the authority, the apostolic authority of the Apostle Paul, especially in the homosexual circles. They try to fit their lifestyle by discrediting the Apostle Paul and his writings. So the attempts to undermine Paul have been around since the first century. It's nothing new. the Judaizers in the first century sought to discredit Paul's apostleship. And Paul addresses this immediately in his salutation. He says, Paul, an apostle, but look what he says, not sent from men, nor through man, your version might say, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. where the word apostle, apostolos in the Greek, means a delegate or a messenger, one sent forth with orders. Now the term can be used in a broad sense, and it is in the Bible. In Philippians chapter 2 verse 25, The apostle Paul talks about Epaphroditus, who is your apostle and minister to my time of need, or messenger. It's used in a broad sense. He's not saying that Epaphroditus was an apostle, capital A, but an apostle as in a messenger, lowercase a. Same thing with Barnabas. Barnabas is referenced as an apostle, a messenger, although he wasn't an apostle, one of the apostles commissioned by Christ. Jesus uses the word or the word in Greek is used when Jesus in John 13 16 It says, truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is the one who sent greater than the one who sent him. And he uses apostolos there in the Greek. The one who is sent, the apostle, right, is not greater than the one who sent him. He's not talking about capital A apostles there. That word can just be used in a general sense as one who is sent with a message, sent with a mission, or sent with orders. However, this term Apostolos is used to denote the capital A Apostles commissioned by Christ. So Christ had many disciples, not all disciples were apostles. And Jesus appointed apostles in Luke 6, verse 12 through 13. If you recall, he spent the whole night in prayer. And then in verse 13, it says, when day came, he called his disciples, right, the followers, the students, he called them and chose 12 of them whom he named as apostles, apostolos. Apostles spoke with the authority of Jesus Christ, and that's who commissioned them. You reject the apostle, and you're rejecting God. So Paul addresses the source of his apostleship. He'll go on after in the first chapter and in chapter two, where he establishes his credentials, but even in right here in the salutation, he says, he's an apostle, not sent from men nor through man. Now it's interesting, he uses two prepositions. He wants to make the point that my apostleship is not earthly derived. He says that his apostleship is not sent from men. He uses the preposition there, apo, not sent from men. And it's the same preposition we get apostolos from, the sent one, OK? It's not apo, not sent from men, nor through man, which is the preposition dia, through or by. My apostleship doesn't come from man, it's not through man, but it's Dea Jesus Christ. It's through Jesus Christ. And it's through God the Father, who, by the way, was the one who raised him from the dead. You see what he's doing here, friends? You see, the Judaizers were attacking Paul's apostolic authority. They were saying, don't believe Paul, he's not a true apostle. We are the experts. We're the authority. And Paul's saying, now look here, from the get-go, my apostleship did not come from Peter, did not come from James, John, not anybody, but it came through Jesus Christ. It came through God the Father who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Paul is employing apostolic authority from the get-go. He's making his appeal for what he's about to say, he's making his appeal to authority. Now, normally, when you make arguments from authority, that's called a logical fallacy. When someone says, I'm right because I have a degree, or I'm right because I'm the authority. When they don't want to argue based on the merits of their proposition, we call that a fallacy. It's an argument of authority or argument from authority. And that's normally a logical fallacy, except when your appeal to the authority is 2 3rds of the Holy Trinity. Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. Then it's not a logical fallacy. It is an appeal to true authority. No doubt when Paul was starting and establishing these churches in Galatia and spending time with them, there's no doubt in my mind that he was sharing with them how he came to be an apostle, how he came to be called by Jesus Christ. No doubt they knew the account of his conversion, the road on Damascus. No doubt they would have known that the other apostles had accepted him as an apostle. And he explains that later on in the book, how Peter and James and John gave him the right hand of fellowship. They would have known all of that. And so Paul, again, is reminding them, look, my apostleship, my authority is from Jesus Christ, not from man. He says then in verse two, if you look, he says, and all the brothers who are with me, all the brethren, that words often used for believers. So even here, Paul is establishing his credentials. He's saying, I'm not operating in a silo. I'm writing you from being with all of the brothers. They would have known Paul was either writing from the home base in Antioch or from Jerusalem. So he's saying, look, Paul, I'm an apostle. from Jesus Christ. I'm writing to you with all the brethren with me, right? So we are the ones that are speaking the truth, not these false Judaizers that are coming and trying discounting my apostleship. So let's look now at Paul's greeting. Okay, so he establishes his apostleship, which he's going to dive into more later in the chapter. But now Paul gives a greeting in verse two. He says, this is to the churches of Galatia. Now we went through this last week. More than likely, these were the cities in the southern region of Galatia, whom Paul spread the gospel and established churches. In Acts 13 and 14, you can look at those up. Cities like Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. Paul would have Paul established these churches. And so he says, this letter is to you, the churches of Galatia. So this was meant to be a circular letter to be read throughout the churches in the region. So then in verse three he says, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This was a common greeting from Paul. Almost all of his letters start with these two terms, grace and peace. You know, I think sometimes we can just gloss over that. Oh, yeah, grace and peace. But do we understand the implications of God's grace and what true peace, shalom, means? He's not saying, you know, have some type of, you know, Zen-like experience and just be, you know, peaceful, right? Martin Luther once said that grace and peace are the two terms that constitute all of Christianity. God's grace, if not for God's grace, none of us would be saved. And peace, he's speaking the peace that we have with God through Jesus Christ. Romans 5.1, therefore, having been justified by faith, it says, we have peace with God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, when the apostle Paul was knocked off his horse on the road to Damascus, what did Jesus say? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Right? And what did Paul say? Paul automatically knew it was Jesus Christ, because he said, Lord, He knew who he was. The same one he was persecuting, he knew who he was. He said, Lord, what shall I do? Paul knew that he was an enemy of Jesus Christ. And through that conversion experience, he became at peace with God. You, my friend, are an enemy to God if you've not come to Christ through repentance and faith. We are by nature children of his wrath. We are by nature an enemy of God. But God showed his love for you and for his enemies by sending his only son. And so when Paul says grace and peace, he's speaking of the peace that he found through faith in Jesus Christ. The peace of once being an enemy to God, and now he's been reconciled through the death of his son. Grace and peace, he says, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. When I look at verse four, it's here where Paul's greeting begins to vary much more and differ much more than his other greetings. Paul then addresses the very nature of the gospel. So it's the second part of this whole book that he addresses here in the salutation, the nature of his apostolic authority, and now the nature of the gospel. Verse four says, bringing in the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of God our Father. There it is, friends. He gave himself for our sins. He gave himself for our sins. That is the very essence of the gospel. That is the very reason Paul is writing. to defend the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that you can have peace with God through Jesus Christ, who gave himself for your sins. Jesus gave himself, friends. This is repeated later in Galatians 2 verse 20, where Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer that I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. Paul's putting this as a reminder to the Galatians at the very beginning of this epistle, the essence of the gospel that Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins. We need constant reminder of that. We're never too mature as a Christian to go past the truth of the gospel, to go past the truth that Jesus gave himself for our sins. And this is all throughout the Bible. Matthew 20, 28, just as the son of man, Jesus says, did not come to be served, but to serve and to what? To give his life as a ransom for many. Ephesians five, verse two, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and what? Gave himself. He gave himself, it says, up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Titus 2.14, speaking of Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, he says, to redeem us from every lawless deed. Luke 22.19, and when he had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, this is my body, which is what? Given for you. do this in remembrance of me. When we take of the Lord's Supper each Lord's Day, this is what we do. We remember that Jesus Christ gave his body to die on the cross for our sins. He gave himself for our sins. This is referencing his atoning sacrifice, him taking the place of sinners, him being the once for all sacrifice for our sins. That you and I deserve to be on that cross. You and I deserve to suffer the wrath of God. But Jesus, in your place, as your substitute, like you, think about that for a moment, friends. Jesus was, if you're in Christ, you've been saved. You've been washed by the blood of Christ. You've been born again. He gave himself as a substitute. Don't think about all the people he died for. Think about you. He gave himself for you. He gave up his body to suffer the wrath of God for you. We are never too good of a Christian to move beyond that truth. We need constant reminding of that. We so easily forget that Jesus gave himself for us, for, more specifically, it says, for our sins. Paul doesn't stop there. He actually gives a reason for this. Why did Jesus give himself for our sins? Why did he become your substitutionary atonement? It says it right here in the text. So that he might rescue us from this present evil age. Now, this doesn't mean that he would rescue us from this present evil age physically, right? It doesn't mean that we're to be like the Amish, and yet he's gonna rescue us, and I'm not gonna be part of the evil world. That's not what he means there. But that he would rescue us, listen, from the power of the evil age. He gave himself for our sins so that he would rescue us from the power of this evil age. Before you came to Christ, friends, you were under the power of this evil age. You were under the power of the evil one. You were in the realm of darkness. You were in the domain of Satan's kingdom. But when you came to Christ, he transferred you from that kingdom of darkness, from the kingdom of Satan's reign, into the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Before you came to Christ, you were under that power. You were engaged in evil deeds. Hostile in mind, Colossians 121 says. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. as it says in Ephesians 2 verse two says, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of our flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. In other words, before you came to Christ, if you're in Christ, before you came to Christ, you walked according to the prince of the power of the air. You walked in darkness. You walked in the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too. Not only did we walk in darkness, but we walked in darkness indulging in the desires of our flesh But guess what friends if you're in Christ God saved you not just so that you'd be saved He saved you unto righteousness. He saved you to something Okay, if not, he would save you and then take you out of this world But he saved you unto righteousness He saved you to be a shining light in a dark world. He saved you, friends, to rescue you from your own sinful nature, to rescue you from the darkness of this world. Excuse me. He rescued you to take you from being a slave to sin, to be a slave of righteousness. Have you ever thought in those terms? Romans 6 says this in verse 16. Do you not know that when you go on presenting yourself to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? My thanks be to God. that though you were slaves of sin, he's talking to believers, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were given over, and having been freed from sin, that's what we see in our text, that he gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this evil age. That's what he's saying here in Romans. He's saying, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Many Christians today are waiving the Christian liberty. I'm free. I'm not fettered to these rules in the Bible. You know, I live by the Spirit, and if the Spirit tells me it's okay to do something, I know what God's Word says, but that's the letter, and the letter kills. Have you ever heard that? Rational thinking? It's irrational. And many Christian evangelicals even are raving, waving the Christian liberty flag, saying, I'm free. I'm free because I'm in Christ, right? Yes, we're free. But guess what? We're free from sin. And we're a slave, the Bible says. We are now a slave of righteousness. We are a slave to Christ. And that's what a converted heart desires. That's one sign of true conversion, that you desire to be a slave, to be obedient to God's word, that you desire that if you come to believe that what the Bible says is true in this area, come hell or high water, I am going to obey with all my heart, my soul, my strength. That is a mark of conversion. But the one who says, you know what, I know the Bible says, you know, don't kill, but God knows my situation, so I'm gonna go into this abortion clinic. I mean, how many times have you heard that out at the abortion mill, right? I know what God's word says, but God knows my situation, and he's already said it's okay, okay? That is irrational thinking, and it's anti-biblical. We are to be slaves of righteousness, but guess what? Our obedience is not to earn God's favor, because we can't earn it. Our obedience is not to earn salvation, because we can't do it. Our obedience is out of our love for Christ. Because he has died for our sins, because he's rescued us from darkness and from sin and from hell, it's with that love. That's the fuel. That gives us the fuel to obey him, and that's why we obey him. Not to earn his favor, we can't do enough to earn more favor from God. He's already shown that on the cross. So finally, we see Paul's doxology. We see doxology here in verse 5. He says, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. A doxology is just a theological term that means an expression of praise. Paul, after addressing the nature of his apostolic authority, and now he addresses the nature of the gospel, he can't do anything but to break out in a praise to Yahweh. And he says, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. And that's the way he ends this salutation with a expression of praise to Yahweh. To whom be the glory, he says, forever and ever. Amen. You know, there's five solas of the Reformation. Sola means only. coined by anyone in particular, but it was sort of synthesizing the key doctrines of the Reformation that were saved by God's grace alone. That's one of the solas. Through faith alone, sola fide. In Christ alone, solus Christus. According to the scriptures, alone, sola scriptura. And the last one is sola deo gloria, for the glory of God alone, and that's what Paul is saying here. He's addressing the nature of the gospel and it's all for the glory of God. To whom be the glory forever and ever. Your salvation is to the glory of God. Your sanctification is for the glory of God. You being a slave to righteousness and killing your sin is for the glory of God. The gospel is for the glory of God. But when the gospel is compromised, God's glory is diminished. When the gospel is compromised, God's glory is robbed. When the gospel, on the other hand, is proclaimed with clarity, God's glory is on display. So it begs the question, friends, Does the gospel cause you to break out in a doxology? Does hearing the gospel for the millionth time cause you to break out in a praise to Yahweh? When the gospel is preached, do you explode with adoration and thankfulness to God? Or are you just like, eh, I've heard that a thousand times. Okay, teach me something new. This is an indication that your heart might not be right. You could be saved, but your heart has grown cold to the things of God. Or perhaps maybe you're not saved. If hearing the truth of the gospel doesn't uh fan the flames in your heart to love for god and love for his gospel and love for his mercy and grace then friends we need to examine our own hearts maybe it's because you haven't truly embraced the true gospel maybe that's why it doesn't move your heart so i want to conclude by asking you as we see the apostle paul red hot picking up this pen zealous for the gospel. What makes you red hot? Now, I'm not talking about, you know, unhindered anger, right? The Bible says that we ought to hate the things that God hates, right? But we're not to have this type of anger. We're actually to put away all anger. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the zeal and the passion when you know, for instance, a little child's being hurt. Are you apathetic about that? You know of a little child that's being hurt and you go do something about it. You're going to go do something. You're going to be red hot with zeal and passion to protect that innocent child. So my question is what makes you passionate? What makes you zealous? What makes you burn with the zeal that Paul burned with when he wrote this letter? What makes the fire burn in your heart? Do you react with the same passion as Paul, which is wrought by the Holy Spirit? Paul wasn't a super human. It was all the Holy Spirit's work. A better question is, do you react with the same passion as Jesus when the gospel is compromised? Do you react with that same passion when the gospel is twisted, when the gospel is compromised into a false gospel? which we'll see Paul says, which is no gospel at all. How do you react? Are you apathetic? Are you courageous? Are you zealous? I ask friends because there's many false gospels out there, many false gospels out there. And these false gospels, friends, they lead people to hell. And these false teachers that perpetuate these false gospels are leading people to hell. Think about it. The Judaizers were just adding one little thing to salvation. Just one. Just get circumcised. Then you're saved. They added one thing. And then they added another thing. Well, keep the laws of Moses. And you see how Paul reacts. There are many false gospels out there. So as the saints of the church, my question to you is, what are you going to do about it? It's not just the preacher's job to refute the false gospels out there. It's your job. It's your job in your circle of friends. What are you going to do with the circle of friends who are being led away by the false gospels of Jehovah's Witness or Mormonism or Roman Catholicism? What are you going to do about when you have family members that are believing these false gospels of Jesus plus or a Jesus that doesn't exist? What are you going to do about it? I believe that God gave us this book here of Galatians as a way to employ us into the ministry of defending the gospel of Jesus Christ within our own circles of influence. So my question is, do you even care? Does it even bother you that friends, family, coworkers, neighbors are being led away to hell with a false gospel? And maybe you don't care because you haven't embraced the true gospel for yourself. Of salvation comes by faith alone in Christ alone. Maybe you need to embrace the true gospel, and maybe you're trusting in your works. Maybe you believe in Jesus, but you're also believing in your works are good enough to go to heaven. Maybe, yes, you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but you also believe that your baptism when you were younger saves you. Maybe you believe in Jesus, but you're walking the sinner's aisle or saying the sinner's prayer. Maybe you're trusting in that. Maybe you're trusting in fill-in-the-blank, your good deeds. That's Jesus plus and that's a false gospel. Maybe you need to come to Christ in faith alone. All your faith in Christ and what he's done and none in what you have done or could do. So as we continue to dive in to the book of Galatians, let's ask ourselves these burning and probing questions. Have I embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ? And am I defending the gospel as the Lord would see fit for me to defend the gospel of Jesus Christ? We need less weak-kneed Christians who are afraid to say anything for fear of offending somebody. As Charles Spurgeon said, if my friends are going to go to hell, let them trip over me on their way. I would rather cause somebody to be offended and to hear the truth as hard as it might be. And look, I got family members that have embraced false gospels of Roman Catholicism, and I understand the difficulty it is, but what will you say? When you stand before God and your family member or friend or coworker is in hell because they've believed a false gospel and you knew them your entire life and you wouldn't say a word. You wouldn't send them something, a letter, a gospel track, something to share the truth with them, as offensive as it might be, and doing it with love. Listen, Paul's sternness is not to the people that are twisted. In some aspects they were because they were letting them into the church, but when Paul and when Jesus were stern, they were stern to the ones perpetuating the false gospels. And they were gentle and trying to pull out of the fire the ones who were believing the false gospel. So you don't go reaming somebody, right, unless it's somebody teaching that false gospel. There's a time and a place for that. You know, but with love and compassion, you plead with them. Please, you are believing a false gospel that is unbiblical, that is nowhere in Scripture. It is by faith alone. None of your works, none of your religious activity, none of whatever it is, that's a false gospel. Some people need to hear it, and God will do the work, but we have to We have to not be so afraid of man. We have to fear God, and God will give you the grace. Pray, seek the Lord. He'll give you the words. He'll give you the grace that you need, and he'll see you through it. But let's be courageous for the gospel. Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so very much for your word. Father, I thank you. Lord, by your grace, you revealed to me that I believed a false gospel of works, a false gospel that I thought I was going to heaven because I was confirmed in a religious organization. I put my trust and check in the boxes. And I thank you, Lord, as blinded as I was, that you removed those blinders and you brought to me the true gospel of Jesus Christ. of faith alone in Christ. And I thank you for each man, woman, boy, and girl here, Lord, that has embraced the gospel. I pray, Lord, you would help us, God, by the power of your Holy Spirit to have courage, Lord, to face the false gospels of our day. The false gospel of the cults such as Mormonism and Jehovah's Witness, the false prosperity gospels, Lord, the Roman Catholicism false gospel, Lord, and all the rest. Lord, even the Southern Belt false gospel of growing up in church makes me a Christian. Help us, Lord, to have courage. to share the gospel uncompromised with those around us. Give us the grace that we need. Oh Lord, we're so feeble. Lord, I am so feeble when it comes to these things. But Lord, you give us the grace. Help us, God. Give us courage. And Lord, if and when we're rejected, Father, I pray that you would be with us. Help us, Lord, to know as the apostle, or as Jesus said, that when they reject us, when we're preaching the message or proclaiming the message, they're not rejecting us, they're rejecting you. Help us to do it with all patience, loving kindness. We thank you, Lord. We give you all honor and praise in Jesus' name. Amen.