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.