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Our call to worship this morning
is the first two verses of Psalm 123. To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes
of servants look to the head of their master, as the eyes
of a maidservant to the head of her mistress, so our eyes
look to the Lord our God till he has mercy upon us. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, our God,
we do look to you this morning. We praise you. Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, one true and only, three in one, our God, we come
to praise you and worship you this morning. Thank you that
you have put it in our hearts to come. Please help us to worship
you. Lord, we do look to you and we
call upon you. Please do have mercy upon us.
Poor sinners, And thank you for sending your son to give hope
for sinners like us. Salvation. Please come and meet
with us now and bless our worship. For Jesus' sake and in his name
we pray. Amen. Turn with me if you would
to kill 100. Holy, holy, holy. Stand with
me. Lord God Almighty, early in the
morning, our song shall rise to Thee. Holy, holy, holy, personal and
mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. All the saints adoring, Casting
down their golden crowns Around the glassy stream. of heaven falling down before
thee, who were, can are, can evermore shall be. Holy Behold Him, though the darkness
blinding, Though the eye of sinful man Thine glory may not see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love, and purity. All that works shall praise the
Lord. holy, merciful, and mighty, God
in three Persons, blessed Trinity. Amen. Please remain standing
and turn with me, if you would, in the back of your hill at page
846. Let's recite the Nicene Creed together. Page 846. We believe in one God, the Father
of Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible
and invisible, and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten
Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God,
Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not yet, being
of one substance with the Father, I knew all things for Mary, who
before us and before our salvation came down from heaven, and was
incarnate of the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made
man, and was crucified also for us under the Pontius Pilate.
He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according
to the Scriptures. and we believe in the Holy Spirit. And with the Father and the Son
together is His worship and glorifying, which is loved by the prophets.
And we believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. We acknowledge
one baptism for the remission of sins, and we look for the
resurrection of the dead. We praise You that we can come
to You even boldly before Your throne of grace, but only in
Christ. And so we do. And we come and
we confess our faults before You, our failures to keep Your
commandments, Lord, our failures to obey. are a weak and needy lot, and
we need your amazing grace. And Lord, we praise you that
we can come and confess our sins. We can acknowledge that we are
not able to stand before you, accepting Christ, and you show
us mercy. You even sent your Son to pay
the debt of our sin upon the cross, shedding his own blood,
so that we would have hope, that we would have forgiveness, that
we would have our debt paid. And thank you for His righteousness
that is imputed to us when we trust in Christ. And we thank
you that we have a right standing before you in Him. Lord, grant
to us forgiveness and help us to walk in forgiveness, to walk
in repentance. and bring forth true righteousness
for Jesus' sake and in His name. Amen. The assurance of forgiveness
this morning is from Galatians chapter 3, verse 13. Christ redeemed
us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For
it is written, Cursing is everyone who is hanged on a tree. Christ paid the debt of our sin. Praise His name. Turn with me, if you would, to
hymn 19. And you're going to sing with
me. We've got no return home. We praise thy name with all our
heart. I sing to hear thy goodness sing. Through all the world, you worship
me. Through all the world. the angels cry the heavens and
the earth on high. The only, only, holy king, Lord
God of hosts, they ever sing. Lord God of hosts, So join the glorious song, and
prophets swell the altar. Oh, Lord, we praise you. we worship and adore. World without end, forevermore. World without end, forevermore. Amen. God, thank you again for your
amazing mercy. Thank you for your kindness. And we ask your continued blessing
upon us as we worship you, as we continue to worship you, Lord.
Thank you for your glorious gospel. Thank you for calling us out
of darkness, deep darkness, Lord, and shining the light of your
dear son upon our hearts. the life of your word so that
we can see our path. Lord, please continue to show
us, continue to shine, make your word a lamp to our feet and a
light to our way, and help us to walk upon it by your grace,
doing what is, according to your word, what is pleasing in your
sight. Lord, we acknowledge that is not for merit. But it's because
you have saved us and because your love has set upon us that
we want to do what is pleasing in your sight. And so help us,
Lord. Help us to do that. And we love
you because you first loved us. Help our love for you to grow.
Strengthen our faith. Encourage us, Lord. Help us to
be running this race of the Christian life with faith and strength. Lord, it's only in your strength
Lord, we praise you for the Thorntons and their willingness to travel,
to be with us week after week. Thank you for their faithfulness. It is a testament of your faithfulness,
O Lord, and we ask you to continue to be faithful even as Pastor
Thornton gets up to preach. Please come and preach through
him. Lord, would we be impacted and changed by your word, that
you would prick our hearts to want to pluck up strength and
zeal to follow you more faithfully and more closely and help us
here. Lord, we pray for those who have illness, and even those
who aren't with us this day, we pray for the equals, and ask
your blessings upon them. We pray for Joe's family. We pray for the New Christ. Lord,
we pray for Melissa with her back. Please say your healing
hand. And we ask that you would help us, Lord, as we go about
our weeks this week. Lord, we all have so many different
irons in the fire, so many different things going, school starting,
and Lord, our jobs are busy. Please help us to be faithful
and diligent. and all that we do and to do
it is unto you and not man. To remember that our math lesson
is to be done unto you, that we're doing it for you. Or whatever
it is that our boss is telling us to do, help us remember that
you are our ultimate boss and we love to please you. Help us
to also be humble as spouses and parents. Lord, we need lots
of grace. Those are two of the most humbling
jobs on the planet that you've given us, and so we need grace
to do it with great joy and humility. Lord, be with us as we go about
our weeks. Be with us now as we continue
to worship you. We pray these things in Jesus'
holy and powerful name. Turn with me, if you would, to
Deuteronomy chapter 29. I'll read verses 16 through 20
for our Old Testament passage. And actually, if you'll bear
with me, I'll back up to verse 10. Please give careful attention,
though it's very worded. You are standing today, all of
you, before the Lord your God, the heads of your tribes, your
elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, your little
ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, from the
one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, so
that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God,
which the Lord your God is making with you today, that He may establish
you today as His people, and that He may be your God as He
promised you, And as you swore to your fathers, to Abraham,
to Isaac, and to Jacob, it is not with you alone that I am
making this sworn covenant, but with whoever is standing here
with us today before the Lord our God, and with whoever is
not here with us today. You know how we lived in the
land of Egypt, and how we came from the midst of the nations
to which you passed. And you have seen their detestable
things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold which
were among them. Beware, lest there be among you
a man or woman or plant or tribe whose heart is turning away today
from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware, lest there be among you
a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he
hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself and
his heart, saying, I shall be saved, though I walk in the stubbornness
of my heart. This will lead to the sweeping
away of moist and dry alike. The Lord will not be willing
to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy
will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this
book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name
from under heaven. This ends the reading of God's
word. This passage reminded me of a
passage this week of the warning that the Apostle Paul gives to
the church in Galatia, and to us, that we would not have a
hard or stubborn heart, that our hearts would not turn away,
particularly when we've started the race already. And so may
the Lord Hopefully everyone has an insert
in their bulletin for installing that. I hope you've heard of
it before. But if not, I hope you'll pick it up pretty quick.
Stand with me if you're able. The gift of grace is Jesus, my
Redeemer. There is no more for heaven now
to give. He is my joy, my righteousness,
and freedom. My sacred song, my deed, and
I will sing. Oh, it's my hope. My hope is only Jesus. but I am found to In weakness and in joy sleep. For in my need His power is the
strength. To this I hold my shepherd Willie
Kennedy. Through the heatless valley he
will lead. I know I am. I am. With every breath I long to follow
Jesus For He has said that He will bring me home And day by
day I know He will renew me Until I stand with joy for the Lord
Yes, I know, my hope is only in Jesus All the glory evermore
to Him When the race is complete, still
my lips shall repeat, Death not I, but through Christ in me. When the race is complete, still
my lips shall repeat, Death not I, but through Christ in me. Please turn to Hebrews chapter
12. We'll be reading verses 1 through 2. Therefore, since we also have
such a great crowd of witnesses surrounding us, let's rid ourselves
of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us,
and let's run with endurance the race that is set before us.
looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who
for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So good to see everybody this
morning. Well, the passage I'm preaching
from this morning is Galatians 5, beginning in verse 7. Let's
hear what God has to say from His Word. You are running well. Who hinders
you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from Him
who calls you. A little love in women is the
whole love. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take
no other view. And the one who is troubling
you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. This ends the reading of this
portion of God's Word. Let us pray. Gracious God, Heavenly
Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank you that it is the very
word of God, inerrant, infallible. Lord, thank you that in your
good providence you have preserved your word so that we are not
left wandering around aimlessly not knowing the truth. Thank
you that as our Lord promised, you will know the truth and the
truth will set you free. And so we give you thanks and
we request this morning that you would open our ears, open
our hearts, open our minds, to this blessed word. May we learn
from it. May we be committed to it. Because
soon, we will stand before you. Blessed now we pray, in Jesus'
name. Amen. So the title is Running the Race. And there's three questions that
I would like for you to consider as we go through this. And one
is, do I know the way? Do I know the way? Number two,
do I know the obstacles? And number three, am I committed
to the finish line? In my study this week, I was
looking at racing and I Looked at many different races, foot
racing, racing on the football field, and I noticed that there
was a football player, one time a professional football player,
who ran the wrong way. I can't give you his name or
the date, but he was a Minnesota Viking, I can tell you that.
And I didn't even know I was gonna use it until just a minute
ago. You know, he thought he was going
the right way, but he was going the opposite way that you should
run to score points in a football game. I mean, if he thought he
was doing good, right? You know, I sometimes talk to
students and they'll say, well, I don't believe that, as if that
just, well, that takes everybody, you know? No problem, man, if
you don't believe it, it's... No, the truth is objective. The truth
is objective. It's there whether you believe
it or not. You know, our personal subjective belief is not the
test of truth. God has revealed Himself, and
He's made it very clear just reading the Bible. The Bible
is an amazing book, self-authenticating. There's nothing else like it
in the world. And I said this recently, and
I'm not going to repeat it, but I will say this. You know, I
don't need a flashlight to convince me that the sun exists up in
the sky, right? I don't need a lesser light to
convince me that the sun exists. The sun testifies of itself. And that's why we believe in
the sun out here in the solar system, S-U-N. And the Bible's like that. It's
self-attesting. It is amazing. It is consistent
from Genesis to Revelation. And so one thing that I want
to do as I talk about the way is that I want to bring you some
of the Gospel from the Old Testament because the Gospel is the way
and the only way. And so before I get into some
of the Old Testament gospel, which is the same as the New
Testament gospel, I want to repeat the verses we're looking at.
You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying
the truth? The truth is to be obeyed. It's
not that we're trying to earn our salvation by obeying it.
Let's get that clear right now. But the truth and the gospel
are to be obeyed. We have been told to believe
what God has revealed. It's not optional. Matter of
fact, how dare we come up with an opinion that contradicts the
gospel? How dare we do that? You know, one of the reformers
compared us to earthworms and lice. And a little girl came up to
me a few weeks ago after I mentioned snakes and spiders. Well, how
about earthworms and lice? I mean, compared to God, one
of the reformers said, we're earthworms and lice. Yeah, who
are we to come up against God? Well, we are not to do that. So Paul, through the Holy Spirit,
Galatians 5 said, who hinders you? from obeying the truth. Now, next verse. This persuasion
does not come from him who calls you. In other words, this did
not come from God. What's the background here? We're
going through the biblical lessons. They are denying the gospel. False teachers have come in and
have said, well, you know, that's good about Jesus. That's good,
but you mean something else. You need to keep the law a little
bit to be saved. You need to be circumcised. You
need to observe certain days and months and years. And if
you really want to be saved, now that Jesus stuff, that's
good, but it's not good. Well, today, many of the false
teachers have gone so far as against Jesus and the gospel
of faith, they don't even believe in the gospel at all. Of course,
these Judaizers, It comes right down to it. They didn't believe
it either. But today, they're much more blatant against Jesus
in the gospel. Galatians 5, verse 9 says, a
little lemon. Lemon's a whole lump of dough,
and our cooks here know very well, you put a little yeast
in the bread, just a little yeast, and it permeates the whole thing,
right? Now, I never break the level
brick, but I know this. And then the last verse, verse
10, I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will adopt
no other means. In other words, you're going
to get away from this, what the false teachers are teaching. He expresses
confidence in them. But the one who is disturbing
you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. In other words, the Word
of God is saying there's no room for this false teaching. There's
no place for it. Those who propagate this false
teaching are going to be judged. He will bear his judgment. So they were not ruining the
race anymore. The churches at Galatia had gone
off course. Now, I won't say they turned
tail and started running the complete opposite way, but they
were veering off. Like I did that time I fell asleep
on the interstate. Woke up and I saw grass. I wasn't
going the other way. That's before my commitment to
coffee all the time when I'm driving. But now, as far as the Old Testament,
the first promise, Genesis 3.15, where God is talking to Adam
and Eve and Satan, and He says, in verse 15, and I will put enmity
between you and the woman, between Satan and the woman, and between
your seed and her seed, and he will bruise your head, and you
will bruise him on the heel. Speaking of the Messiah, he's
gonna bruise the head of Satan's and his seed. And the heel of the Messiah is
gonna be bruised, but the head is gonna be crushed of the enemy.
Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, it says in 1 John.
Okay, so I want us to jump ahead. I mean, there's so much gospel
in the Old Testament, but I wanna go to Isaiah 53, which is such
a wonderful passage, and I'm not gonna read the whole passage,
but I do wanna point out a few things here. In verse four, surely
our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried, yet we
ourselves esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
So here's one who's carrying the griefs of other people, the
sorrows of other people, and then in verse five, but he was
pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Notice that word, our, O-U-R.
Our iniquities, our transgressions, the chastening for our well-being,
our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed.
It's all about forgiveness here. It's all about the substitutionary
atonement of the Lord Jesus. Three times the word, our. Our
transgressions, our iniquities, our chastening. Chastening, our
punishment. And then verse 6. All of us like
sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his
own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity
of us all to fall on Him. Whose iniquity? Ours. To fall
on Him. You see what's going on here? Here's the Messiah taking, in
a substitutionary way, He's taking what we deserve. And then in verse 8, by oppression and judgment, He
was taken away. and asked for his generation
who considered that he was cut off out of the land and the living
for the transgressions of my people. He was cut off, not for
his own transgressions, but the transgressions of my people,
God says, to whom the stroke. And then in the New American
Standard, they add, was due. To whom the stroke. You see,
these people deserve the stroke. And then in verse 10, that the
Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grieve if he would
render himself as a guilt offering, a guilt offering to atone for
guilt. We're all guilty because we've
all sinned. And he gave himself as an offering
to atone for guilt. And it goes on to say, he will
see his offspring. He will prolong his days and
the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. You
see, he's going to see his offspring because he's coming back from
the dead. Resurrection talk right here. Now listen to this, verse 11.
And as a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and
be satisfied by his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant,
will justify the many, and he will bear their iniquities. And
see, there's the word justify that we find in Galatians. Galatians is all about justification
by faith where the believer is declared righteous and receives
the very substitutionary righteousness of Jesus Christ put onto his
account, her account. Praise the Lord, Father, bless
him. My servant will justify the many as he will bear their
iniquities. He's bearing the iniquities of
his people. Not his own iniquities, because
he didn't have any. And then the last verse here
from Isaiah 53, 12. Therefore, I will allot him a
portion with the graves, and he will divide the booty with
the strong. In other words, the wealth. The booty, the wealth. Old language. Because He poured out Himself
to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He Himself bore the sin of
many and interceded for the transgressors. See, that's all about the Messiah
dying for the sins of His people and coming back to life. This
Messiah who had no sin of His own. He justified the many. And then we come to the New Testament,
and it says, the Word, John 1, 14, the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us, and we saw His glory. Glory as the only begotten
from the Father, full of grace and truth. You know, Stephen,
the martyr in the book of Acts, the deacon who was preaching,
He started out saying, this is the God of glory. The God of
glory. And here comes Jesus, John 1,
14. And we saw His glory. Glory is the only begotten from
the Father, full of grace and truth. Full of grace and truth. Truth. You see, Paul brings up truth
here. Why? Look at verse 7. You are running
well. Who hinders you from obeying
the truth? You see, there is such a thing
as truth. Now, there's a lot of people
opposed to the gospel. A lot of people opposed to the
Lord Jesus. That doesn't change the fact
that He is true and He spoke truth. Now, we live in an age,
very bizarre, that some people don't believe the truth until
you press them down on it a little bit. A student said to me, I
don't believe in truth. I said, didn't you tell me you
work down here at Exit 7? He said, yeah. I said, is that
true? Oh, well, there is such a thing as truth. Yes. Or the girl who walked up to
me at Appalachian State and said, there is no certainty. And I
looked at her and said, are you certain? There's no certainty.
And we laughed. True, there is certainty. And
yet they make these self-refuting statements. Richard Rorty said,
the truth is there is no truth. Well, that's a self-refuting
statement. If that's true, that there's no truth, then his statement's
not true either. You see, we're living in bizarre
times. We're living in confusing times.
where the postmodern philosophy has permeated the society, a
philosophy of utter confusion. But Jesus said this in John 8,
32, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
And Paul is saying here, you were running away on whom hindered
you from obeying the truth. You see, there's some smooth-talking
people who speak against truth. There's some very dignified people
appearing to be very dignified and well-spoken and well-dressed
who speak against truth. That doesn't mean it doesn't
exist. Jesus said it does. And he also said this, John 14,
6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to
the Father but through me. He said the only way to get to
the Father. The only way to get to heaven
was through the Lord Jesus. The only way. There's no alternative.
This, what was going on at Galatians, oh, you know, yeah, you believe
in Jesus, but you need to keep the law. That's not the way to
God. That's inexcusable. Matter of fact, those who believe
that are lost. And he says, right here in Galatians,
do you follow from grace? If you want to keep the law,
Christ will be of no benefit to you, none whatsoever. In John 17, 17, Jesus says, sanctify
them in the truth. Your word is truth. What kind of God would leave
us without the truth? I mean, it's kind of like the
GPS over there in northern Israel right now. If you're driving
around northern Israel, it'll tell you you're in the Beirut
airport. So, you know, if his model wants
to guide a missile using GPS, it's going to land in the Beirut
airport. They've messed up the GPS on purpose. Well, if you
can't rely on the GPS, how are you going to get from point A
to point B? Well, when it comes to salvation, we're going to
trust God's Word. You know, if we don't believe the
Word of God, we just might as well throw it all out. There's
nothing left. Now, the false teachers won't
do that. They'll claim, oh, well, Jesus, you know, He'd be ashamed
of you Christians today. That's what they'll say. They'll
say, Jesus never taught this stuff that you're teaching. Like
a substitutionary atonement? Him being put to death first.
Jesus never taught that. They'll say it's a lie. It's
right here in the Bible. And it makes perfect sense. You
know, with the law of God written on our hearts, we all have some
understanding of justice. That's why even little children
will say, that's not fair. Because even little children
have an idea of what's fair and what's just and what's not. I
was asked in your class one time, do you believe in justice? Because I knew they all did.
One guy said, there is no justice on the earth. I said, the only
way you could say that is you have to know that there's such
a thing as justice and use that standard to determine that it's
not here on the earth. And he admitted it. You see,
we have a built-in, now it can get messed up, there's no doubt.
Our sense of justice, our sense of anything can get messed up,
that's why we need to stick to the Bible. And we need to be
rooted in the Bible, because the winds blow. Have you seen
some of this damage from the hurricane and the tropical storm,
Debbie? And throughout history, you've
seen this, the damage from the wind. Well, the wind's a false
doctrine below. And if we're not rooted in the
truth, they can sweep us away. And we'll be lost forever. You see, it's our job, with the
Lord's help, to maintain our faith. It's our job as Christians with
the help of God to examine what we're taught and to make sure
it's biblical. And we need to be humble enough
to make sure it's biblical. You know, when you first become
a Christian, you first start reading the Bible, you may have
some trouble interpreting it. And so you need to be careful.
That's why we have teachers and preachers in the church, but
you need to always check them out by the Bible. Now, we're talking about the
gospel from the New Testament now, and Jesus said this in John
8, 24, Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins,
for unless you believe that I am Him, you will die in your sins.
In other words, you believe in me, and you won't die in your
sins. But if you don't believe in me,
your sins are still on your back when you die. In other words,
you're still responsible for your sins if you don't believe
in Jesus. Now, that's a terrible situation to be in. Because there's no other way
to be saved except through the Lord Jesus and Him taking our
sin. There's no other way. There's
no alternative. We may help a lot of people.
We think we're helping a lot of people somehow. That's not
going to do it. We may do good works, what we
call good works, which I don't think God would agree necessarily,
because a good work is done for the glory of God, done in obedience
to God. If we die on our sins, we don't
get a hit. And so today is the day of salvation.
This is the period of time to get right with God. Now, see, Jesus is telling the
Gospel right here, unless you believe in Me, you'll die in
your sins. What's He saying? If you believe
in Me, you won't die in your sins. And look what else He says. Mark
10, 45. For even the Son of Man, his
favorite title for himself from Daniel, the book of Daniel, we'll
go back and read it, I believe it's chapter seven. His favorite
title for himself was Son of Man, and you can go back and
read how that Son of Man, his deity, his God. For even the
Son of Man did not come, what's he talking about did not come?
Came from heaven. For even the Son of Man did not
come to be served. but to serve and to give his
life a ransom for many. A ransom, a payment. He came to give his life as a
payment for our sins, not his own, he didn't have any. Now,
only he can pay for our sins. We can't pay for them. And he's not just going to say,
oh, that's okay. No big deal. No, it's a big deal.
It's a huge deal. It's so huge that in chapter
one of Galatians, he said, if anybody comes to you with a different
gospel, let them be accursed. And this is the word of God.
This is not Paul's opinion. If they come with a different
gospel, let them be accursed. Whether it's me or an angel from
heaven, let them be accursed. Do we dare come up with an opinion
against what God has revealed here in His Word? It's very dangerous. But Jesus said
He came to give His life. He tells us why He came. To serve
and to give His life as a ransom, as a payment Well, why do we
need a payment? Because God is just. God is just. And He's the justifier. For those who believe, He'll
forgive and take your sin and put it on Jesus and take His
righteousness and put it on the believer. Now listen to this, Jesus still
talking about the gospel in Luke 13. Now on the same occasion,
there were some present who reported to him about the Galileans whose
blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices. So apparently they
were getting ready to sacrifice. And so Pilate has them all killed,
has their blood mixed with the sacrificial blood. Not very nice
dude. And then Jesus says about them,
you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all
other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you,
no. But unless you repent, you will
all likewise perish. Unless you repent. Now what does
repentance mean? It means you change your mind.
Okay, I accept the gospel. I accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. I accept this as truth. There's
no better explanation out there than the gospel. You know, I was in Peru, and
I saw these four people that look like hippies. I may have
told you this before, but they ran a foundation where they tried
to administer hallucinogenic drugs and microdusts to people
who were depressed and stuff like that. And they've got a
lot of major colleges doing this research. And so we had several
days of conversation And I told him I had just lectured
on August Huxley's book, The Doors of Perception, which promotes
this, promotes the use of hallucinogenic drugs to help people to come
to the truth, which Huxley never did. He actually, in that book,
thinks of himself as a bamboo piece of wood. He says that. He's looking at some furniture,
he's writing down everything that happens while he's tripping,
and he identifies with a stick of wood. And he thinks he's that
stick of wood. Now, I mock this in my classes. I say, you know,
how would you like to say, hey, I need you to go to school. Well,
I can't, I'm a stick of wood. I can't go to the yard every
day, I'm a stick of wood. I mean, do we really want this?
Do we really consider this truth, that a man can be a stick of
wood? And yet I was playing golf with the, pharmacy professor
who just read the book and didn't even notice that and he's so
blind. He was gonna go back and read it. But I asked one of these California
hippies, and I say this as a former hippie myself, I said, could you be wrong about
everything that you're promoting? He said, yes, good for you. And
I said, no, God has revealed himself. Oh, he got so mad. He
said, I'll never talk to you about religion again. He's furious.
He admitted that he can be wrong about everything. And I said,
no, I'm not wrong about religion because God has revealed himself.
Furious, but he admitted that he can be wrong about everything.
Everything that his whole life was based upon. So Jesus is telling, unless you
repent, you know, you think that happened to the Galileans because
they were worse than you? No. It's going to happen to anybody
that doesn't believe. Anybody that doesn't believe
is going to be in hell. Why? Because it's willful rebellion. The gospel, the truth about God, The very existence of God is
out here in nature, and the gospel is being promoted all the time. And I asked some unbelievers
one time, and I may never die of hurt, and I said, do you ever
think about God? And the guy said, every day. Every day? Well, what's that all about?
God is prompting people to believe, to investigate, to look into
this. But God is revealing himself
and that's what Jesus said in John 27 and 28 with chapter 10. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them.
I give it. It's a gift. I give eternal life to
them and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out
of my hand. You know, we get to feeling insecure
sometimes. And we get the feeling like we've
got to earn our salvation, and we get the feeling like, I don't
even know if I'm a Christian or not. And then the devil's
whispering from every corner, look what you've done. Look who
you are. Look how you failed God. And
Jesus says, no one can snatch them out of my hand. Now, the
second question, do I know the obstacles? 2 Corinthians 11, 14 says, no wonder
for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Satan doesn't
show his norm at first. Satan comes across as a polished
teacher, well-spoken. Somebody you'd like to listen
to, you like the way they pronounce their words, you like the stories
that they tell, they're very polished. And that Satan disguises himself
as an angel of light, a messenger of, here's what's true, take
it from me. Don't worry about that Bible.
They wouldn't even go so far as to say that. They're just
like, let's not focus. I heard one of them say, you
know, we don't need to focus so much on personal salvation.
That's why he's good at trying to steer people away from personal
salvation. When Paul says, obey the truth,
he's implying that there's falsehood out there. That they need to
obey the truth and not the falsehood. You see, there's people who turn
the grace of God into license. I've met many of them on campuses.
And they're like, oh, Jesus died for sin. We all sin. So what
are you talking about, ladies and gentlemen? They're trying
to throw repentance out the window. And you see what they're doing.
They're not building their house upon the rock, as Jesus said
in Matthew 7, 24. Therefore, everyone who hears
these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a
wise man who built his house upon the rock. You know, if you build a house
upon sand, look at it. It's coming down. It's just a
matter of time. If our worldview, if our gospel
is not built upon the word of God, it's coming down and it's
not going to save anybody. So Paul says, we are destroying
speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge
of God. And we are taking every thought
captive to the obedience of Christ. Now, you know, sometimes we get
a little nervous talking about the obedience of Christ because
we don't want to put people under law because Christians are under
grace and we're not being saved by obedience. But here's the
thing. He makes us willing. This is part of being born again,
which he said you must be born again. Part of being born again
is part of the new covenant is that we want to obey him. You know what Jesus' love language
is? doing good works, deeds. He says, if you love me, keep
my commandments. And then Paul says, look, we're
destroying speculations and every lofty thing. This is what we
have to do in evangelism. Everything that comes up against
the knowledge of God. What's Paul doing here? Yes,
he's being severe with them. But at the same time, he's expressing
confidence in them. Now, in evangelism, we have to
be bold. We have to speak against these
things that they come up. But we need to express some confidence,
too, as Paul does here. Look what he says. He says in
verse 10, I have confidence in the Lord that you will take another
view. And the one who is troubling you, he will bear the penalty,
whoever he is. So we need to give some confidence.
But at the same time, we need to be severe and denouncing anybody
that tampers with the gospel. As Paul is doing here, he's saying,
if anybody comes to you with a different gospel, let him be
a curse. I mean, this is severe language. Why? Because the stakes
are so high. There's no alternative to being
saved by Christ. And then we have the sealing.
of the Holy Spirit, just like your driver's license, if you
have one, has the seal of the state on it. In Him, you also, after listening
to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having
also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of
promise. Do you have the Holy Spirit?
Are you in the race to win it? Are your eyes on the prize? Are
you committed to finishing the race? You know, God says in Isaiah
65, too, I spread out my hands all day long to every day's people
who walk in the way which is not good, following their own
thoughts. Do you have thoughts that go
against the Word of God? If you do, you're in trouble.
If you have I don't think so. Who are you to go up against
God? Who are you, really, if you're
making war against God? Now, you think that's too strong
a statement? You know what it says in Ephesians 6? Put on the
full armor of God. Why do we need to put on armor?
Because we're in war. We are in war. Spiritual warfare. And you know what? The truth
is not popular, and we want to be popular. We want to be well-spoken
of. We want ease. But I'll tell you, sometimes
you can't have that if you're going to stand for the truth
and fight for the truth. Now, I'm not saying you need
to stand for it everywhere. Jesus said, don't get that which
is holy to dogs, so turn around and turn to your friends. Don't cast your pearls before
swine. I'm not saying you always have to say something. There's times where it's actually
better if you don't. But God says, look, I'll spread
my hands out all day long. to a rebellious people who are
walking away, which is not good, following their own thoughts.
Whose thoughts are we following? Are we going to agree with God?
Or are we going to go with the culture? Here's what the culture
says. And you know, one of the problems
with the culture is, the culture thinks, oh, we're
the new people. We know everything. Forget history.
Forget the past, look at us, you know, we've risen above this
now. They were kind of stupid back
then. No, they weren't. I mean, some of them might have
been, but. You know, just to completely
dismiss history. You know, to come up today with
a book and say, well, here's what Jesus really meant, and
this is new. Also, so Jesus neglected the church throughout all the
history of the New Testament and the Old Testament? And now you've figured this out?
No. Romans 2, 5, 8, about the cause
of your stubbornness and unrepentant hearts, you're storing up wrath
for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God. You hear what he's saying? Storing
up wrath? You know what that means? You
store up your crops in the harvest time, right? You store them up,
you sell them. You go to the grocery store,
you store up some groceries for the time to come. And people
are storing up wrath because they're unrepentant. Storing
up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath. See, the day of
wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. who will render
to each person according to his deeds, to those who by perseverance
in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal
life, and to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the
truth, but obey in righteousness wrath and indignation. Now that's not salvation by works,
and that's not back under the law, but here's the fact, God's
people obey him. Generally speaking, and when
we don't, we go back and look for that once for all sacrifice
that paid it off. And my last point and question,
do I have my eyes on the finish line? And Paul tells him he's
got confidence in this, and we are to maintain the truth. And the Lord helps us to resist
the winds, lest we be blown about by every wind of darkness. every
false teaching. If we don't know the Bible and
if we're not praying and believing and taking advantage of the means
of grace, we become weaker and weaker and we're weakening up
already. We need to be rooted in Christ
and only seek in peace and love of God, not what the culture
gives. We need to be careful that we're
not cowardly for worldly peace and an easy life. You know, we
have a saying, one bad apple spoils the bunch. And a stabbing
lamb can infect the entire flock. The ectoparasites, like mites,
spread. And so, it says a little lemon
lemons the whole lump. We need to deal with 11 as soon
as it comes up, as soon as false teaching arises. Maybe we don't
like what the Bible says about something. We need to pray about
that. We need to look, and we need
to ask God for his help. If we're not liking something
the Bible teaches, we need help, and we're all there at some time
or another. He says, I've got confidence
in you in the Lord, verse 10. Put on the armor of God. And
I'm gonna close with this. Colossians 1, 22 and 23. Yet he has now reconciled you
in his blessed body through death. That's talking about Christ. He has reconciled you in his
blessed body through death, in order to present you before him
holy and blameless and beyond reproach, if indeed you continue
in the faith firmly established and steadfast and not moved away
from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed
in all creation under heaven and in which I pause, not moved
away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, like these
Galatians and like these false teachers have been moved. He's reconciled us. And He's going to present us
holy and blameless and beyond reproach before long. I say before
long because life is short and you never know. If indeed you continue in the
faith firmly, you know what? Perseverance is a truth in the
Bible. Those who are truly saved will
persevere. Jesus said it's those who persevere
to the end who are saved. I've seen some people go off
the rails. They're walking with God for
years and maybe even decades and then they go off the rails.
John and First John, they went out and promised. They were not
really of us. Now, we want to try to get anybody who's straying
back on track, like Paul's doing here. We want to severely rebuke,
sternly rebuke, but have confidence in them, too, because this is
dead serious. And the best way I know how to explain it is,
if you have some black powder under your sink, that looked
just like sugar, but was actually rat poison. And your little child
was about to sprinkle that on their cereal, but you go, honey,
let's not do that. Stop! That's what you're going
to do. You're going to be stern. You
know better than that, sweetheart. That's poison. I'm going to put
that in a different place. So we've got to be careful sometimes.
And evangelism is tough sometimes. So, let's pray. Gracious God, Heavenly Father,
thank you that this Christian life is compared to a race. And
you've shown us the way. And you've set us on course.
And you've shown us the obstacles. May we not get sleepy. and inattentive. May we not get careless. May
we be like the Bereans who looked at your word to make sure they
were being taught correctly and thank you that you've not left
us without a sure guide in your word and in your spirit. And
then may we all be committed to the finish line. Because your word tells us it's
those who persevere to the end who are saved. And you prayed,
Lord Jesus, in John 17, that the Father would keep us. And
Lord, thank you that you will keep your people. Now, we may get careless and
wander astray, but you will convict us by your Spirit and have others
rise up and tell us the truth. And may we be responsive because
in our persevering, You have told us to rely upon You and
to be open to You. So help us to persevere in reliance
and faith and realizing that You will help us to stand against
the winds of false doctrine. And may we be open to Your Word
regardless of how unpopular they make us. Because all that matters
in the end is that we be with You. Because the world is passing
away. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
And so to remind us of what Christ has done, we have the Lord's
Supper here. And let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask you to
set apart these ordinary elements that are a sign and a seal of
what Christ has done. Thank you for this. This visual
representation of the truth that we can even taste the truth here.
Truth we can taste. This ordinary bread and juice
represents the sacrificial death and resurrection of our Lord
Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen. And on the night
in which he was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it. He
said, this is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance
of me. So we ask that you examine yourself.
If they're beating up, repent with sin. Repent now or don't
partake. He said, this is my body, Jorgen,
for you do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup
after supper. He said, this cup is a new covenant
in my blood. Parentheses and repentance. Amen. He said, this cup is the new covenant
in my blood. That's the covenant of the changed
life and the forgiveness of sin. Let's partake of it together. I must pray. Precious God, Heavenly
Father, thank You that You're so kind to us to give us Your
Son. And though He was rich, yet for
our sakes He became poor. Your love, Father, for You so
loved the world that You gave Your only begotten Son that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. you gave him, now we give to
you a portion of what you've given to us financially. For the furtherance of this glorious
gospel, we pray in Christ's name, amen. Praise Him, all creatures here
below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly
hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. Amen. And now, just before I pronounce
the benediction, I want to announce that we will have some evangelism
Saturday, about two weeks from now, right here on campus, from
4 to 6.30, over here in front of the cafeteria in the public
area. It could be open-air preaching.
Maybe me and Justin Hook will do some open-air preaching. I
know I will, Lord willing. And, you know, if you don't mind
that, you want to hand out gospel tracts, or you want to come and
just love on the people, the college students need a lot of
love, bring some cookies or anything, and let's go fishing. Because God will honor our efforts. Now, if you're not ready to do
that, that's fine. Or if you're busy, that's fine.
But if you're interested, please realize that In the preaching,
we may do what Paul did against this false gospel. We may denounce,
and we have to preach against sin, because everybody thinks
they're fine. Everybody thinks they're good.
And it's only when you start preaching against sin that they
begin to realize, oh, wait a minute, what is this? So sin will be
preached against. Some people won't like it. So,
you know, that's what it's going to be about. Tracts, a little
bit of preaching, some loving on the students, conversations,
one-on-one. So if you're interested, come,
speak to me if you have any questions. Justin and I both have experience
preaching in the open air. And it's a wonderful thing. It's the way they did evangelism
in the New Testament. You know, when Paul said to Timothy,
do the work of an evangelist, what would he have thought? Well,
he knew Paul was an evangelist. Paul went out and preached in
the cities where they rioted. And it's really not unusual to
have a riot when you're up in there preaching. It happens. But that doesn't mean it's a
failure by any means. It's what we are to expect sometimes. We also see people get converted
to the praise of the Lord. And we see other people thinking
and inquiring. So anyway, enough said about
that, I think. But did I pray for the food yet? I'm kind
of rattled today because Melissa's not feeling well. And I went
to the cancer doctor and froze a lot of places off. I made about
five or six, shockingly. So anyway, that's my excuse. So what? Benediction. Benediction
and prayer for the food, right? Now by the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit be with us all, now and forever. Amen. And
now the prayer for the food. Josh, would you pray for the
food, please? Lord our God, thank you for your glorious gospel
and thank you for your people. And Lord, we ask that you would
please bless this meal to the nourishment of our bodies. Thank
you so much for those who prepared the raw food. And thank you for
the rest of us who will participate. Please bless our feasting and
our fellowship together now for Jesus' sake and in his name we
pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you.
Running the Race
Series Galatians
| Sermon ID | 813241316556568 |
| Duration | 1:23:22 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Galatians 5:7-10 |
| Language | English |
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