Alright, will you please open up your Bibles with me to the book of Galatians chapter number 2. Galatians chapter 2, we're going to be reading verses 1 through 10. The Apostle Paul is continuing his sort of autobiography as a defense of his apostolic authority to basically call down fire from heaven on those who would distort the gospel. These first couple of chapters in Galatians, you know, Paul is really something else here. This is awesome. So let's read beginning Galatians chapter two, verse number one. Paul writes, then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. And I went up because of a revelation and set before them, though privately before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery. To them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seem to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me from mine to the Gentiles, And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived that the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. Father, we ask the blessing of Your Holy Spirit upon His inspired Word. It comes from Him. It is divine. There is no error. There is no contradiction. There is nothing here that we can't build our lives upon. And so God, we pray that You would take this Word, Lord, use it whether it needs to be a hammer, whether it needs to be some type of surgical tool, or whether it needs to be the healing balm of grace. Whatever it needs to be to each of us today, we pray that You would use it to transform us to be like Jesus Christ, who we love and we long to see. We pray this in His name. Amen. So, there is a strange thing happening in America right now. And you say, preacher, tell us something that we don't know. There's a strange thing happening. We are in a period where many of our freedoms, our constitutional freedoms are being systematically assaulted, especially in terms of our religious freedoms. You think back to COVID when they wouldn't let us come to church. Our freedom of speech. Yeah, the amen corner is strong today. I'm feeling pretty good about that. But you know what's so strange about this is that this attack on our freedom, it's not coming from China. It's not coming from Russia or any Islamic nation. It's coming from within our own country. Well, something similar was happening in the churches of Galatia. There were false teachers creeping in, undermining the freedom of the Galatians, the freedom that they had in Christ, by redefining the gospel of grace to include the works of law. That's what the false teachers were doing. That's how you attack spiritual freedom, is you impose law upon it. These false teachers, they were not just in Galatia. Our text today describes a time when they were spying on Paul in Jerusalem in an effort to undermine the gospel while at the same time claiming to be believers. But they were not. Because Paul calls them what? False brothers. They were wolves in sheep's clothing, you see. They were the ones that Jesus warned us about in Matthew 7.15 when He said, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. They claim to be from God, they claim to be faithful to God's Word, but they have only come to devour the sheep while pretending to protect the sheep. Just like the kind of thing that's happening in our country today. Right? But Paul knew how to deal with these false brothers. These wolves in sheep's clothing. And in this episode from his own life and ministry, that is the subject of our passage today, we're going to see that in every generation, the gospel must be protected from error and preserved in its purity for the sake of the church. The gospel must be protected and preserved in every generation for the sake of the church. That's the big takeaway from this passage today. And I want us to see three truths here that actually show us how to do that, how to protect and preserve the gospel. The first is that gospel unity must be pursued. Gospel unity must be pursued. Let's look together once again at verse number 1. Paul says, then after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas taking Titus along with me. So this is most likely 14 years after Paul's original conversion on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9. I don't know, Matt, what you're preaching next week over here, but I imagine it's going to be Acts 9, maybe? Something like that. So you kids are going to hear about Paul's conversion next week. But now Paul is on his way to Jerusalem for a second time after visiting Peter in Jerusalem some years earlier. But now he's back. And he's not alone. He takes Barnabas and Titus with him. Barnabas was a prominent leader in the early church. Acts 4.36 says that his name means son of encouragement. Son of encouragement. That's what Barnabas means. Titus was a young man who had been converted through Paul's ministry. And Paul calls Titus his true son in the faith in Titus 1.4. So Paul, Barnabas, and Titus were in Jerusalem, but why? Why were they there? Why did they go? Look at verse number two. He says, I went up, by the way, you always go up to Jerusalem. Anytime you're reading your Bible, when the writers talk about going to Jerusalem, it's always going up. Doesn't matter where they're at. You go, that sounds, don't we go up the pike here? Is that what, I mean somebody told me that, it's always up to Pike, I don't know. Well, it was up to Jerusalem, okay? I went up because of a revelation and set before them, meaning the Jerusalem church leaders, though privately before those who seemed influential, we'll understand that in a minute, the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had run in vain. So Paul goes to Jerusalem because the Spirit of God told him to go. and connect with the leaders of the church there to make sure that the gospel he was preaching was the same gospel they were preaching. Now, don't misunderstand. Paul did not go to Jerusalem to see if his gospel was right, if it was theologically correct. And he was not looking for their approval. Remember, in chapter 1, of Galatians, he said that the gospel was given to him by revelation of Jesus Christ. And he also said that he wasn't seeking the approval of any man. So he goes to Jerusalem solely to pursue gospel unity with the apostles who were there. That's why he went. He knew what he was preaching was right. He wanted to go and connect with these brothers. He knew that a unified gospel was crucial to the mission of the church. Listen, there is a critical application from his Jerusalem visit 2,000 years ago to us today. Here it is. We are living in a time of incredible division. Not just politically or culturally in our country, but also in the church. We are living in a We're divided. And it's only getting worse, it seems. Now, I'm not talking about the natural sort of divisions that kind of arise from differing views on secondary issues or minor issues of theology. I mean, that's to be expected. That's why we have denominations. We all see through a glass darkly, right? That's what 1 Corinthians 13, 12 says. I'm not talking about that kind of division. I'm talking about division in the church over the fundamental truths of the faith. Truths from God's Word that have been clear for 2,000 years that are suddenly not so clear anymore. Truths that have been black and white from the moment they were written down that are now being nuanced to death. Listen, I am so tired of hearing about nuance. And there is much division in the church because of this. So where then do we find unity? We find it around the gospel. The gospel that says God is holy, man is sinful, Jesus is the remedy, and we need to repent and believe. Right? And there's nothing that we bring to the cross except our sin and our deep need for Jesus. That is what keeps the church united in these divisive and perilous times. And that's the only thing that will keep us united. We're certainly not going to unite, be able to be united around, well, our view of the gifts of the Spirit or the particular mode of baptism. or our eschatological doctrines is, you know, when's Jesus coming back? We're not gonna be, no, we can be united around the gospel. And as faithful Christians and as a faithful church, we need to pursue that kind of gospel unity with those who are faithful to the gospel. But there are always those who are hard at work to distort the gospel and disrupt the unity of the church. Right? They're called false brothers. Paul calls them that. And this brings us to our second main truth from this passage. That gospel drift must be opposed. Gospel drift must be opposed. Look at verse 3. Paul says, but even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was Greek. Yet, because of false brothers secretly brought in who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus so that they might bring us into slavery. So Titus, this Gentile Christian convert here now in the heart of Judaism in Jerusalem, you know, he presented a bit of a problem for the Judaizers. You see, circumcision, I'm assuming we all know what that is. Parents, you need to tell your children what that is. I've got a little definition here, but I just don't want to, you know, Listen, I'm serious. When your children hear, when they read the Bible, when they hear teaching and preaching from the Bible and they see this word, they need to know what it means. So you parents teach your children about circumcision. But circumcision was a big deal to the Jews. That's an understatement. That might be the understatement of the century. circumcision was a big deal to Jews. It was originally given in Genesis 17 as the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham, and circumcision eventually became the essential identity of the Jews Because under the old covenant, it was a requirement to be a part of the people of God. All males had to be circumcised. And so now, for the gospel of this Jewish Messiah to say that circumcision was not required to be a part of God's covenant people. Friends, that was a massive, monumental shift. And many Jews couldn't take it. They could not accept that. Circumcision was no longer required to be a part of the people of God. So while they may have verbally professed Jesus as the Messiah, they also insisted that circumcision and other law keeping was necessary to be saved, not just faith in Jesus. But here comes Paul. Here comes Paul, the man who once tried to destroy the faith, but now preaches it. And he's got this young man with him named Titus. He was an uncircumcised Gentile Christian. Now this is a problem in Jerusalem. And Paul says that false brothers. You know who he's talking about there? He's talking about these Jewish professing Christians who insisted on keeping to the Old Testament law. They had crept in. They snuck into the church. They were spying out the freedom that the Christians had in Jesus. Now what kind of freedom is he talking about here? The freedom that Paul is talking about is the freedom from trying to be made right with God through law keeping. But why? Because Christ had already done that in His perfect life in active obedience to the law in our place. And His righteousness is counted to us solely by faith in Him. That's it. Now be careful. Because you know, when you start preaching grace, everybody goes, they immediately jump off the other side of the pool. and think, well, he says we can do whatever we want to and be saved. Paul never, never, when you read Romans, that's the conclusion they came to. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? He had to address that. But listen friends, if I'm gonna err on any side, it's gonna be on the side of grace. Because that's where Paul landed. And that's what I need. I don't know about you. But I need grace this morning. Yes, every day. But Paul never implies that Christians can just live any way they want because they're freed from the law. That issue comes up later in Galatians. We'll get to it in a few chapters. But Paul always insists on the inability of the law to do anything but condemn us before a holy God, because we cannot keep the law in a way that satisfies the perfect righteousness of God. You want to go to heaven? You need to be perfect. Are you perfect? No. Well, somebody's got to be perfect. So you need somebody else's perfection. Listen, friends, you can try to keep the law. Just take the Ten Commandments, don't worry about the other 600, you know, little laws that we're adding on later. Just take the Ten. Friends, we break them every single day. Starting with the first one, you shall have no other gods before me. We break it every single day when we put something else before the Lord. These Judaizers here, the ones who were adding circumcision to the gospel, friends, we need to understand that Paul did not consider them true Christians. He did not consider them true Christians even though they professed to be. He didn't say, The Judaizers, they believe a little differently than we do, but they're still saved. No, he didn't say that. He didn't consider them Christians at all. He called them false brothers. Why? Because the point on which they disagreed was the Gospel itself. It wasn't about the timing of the rapture, the gift of tongues, they disagreed on the gospel itself. And friends, when the gospel is tampered with in any way, whoever is doing that tampering is not a Christian. That's what, I mean, am I reading it wrong? That's what Paul says. So he calls them false brothers. Oh, they had an outward form of religion. But inwardly, they did not know the very God, the very Messiah that they professed to know. In France, the church is full of these kinds of people today. People who tweak the Gospel to add in man-made rules and forms of religion. The church is full of it. I'm going to give you a few examples. The Gospel of Mormonism is a man-made, works-based Gospel. I have this booklet, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I found this in one of those little mailbox libraries, you know, that are in the town. There's one down the street from our house. And we walk and I found this. I always look in there and I took it out. It's called the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that's sort of a white looking Jesus, but I don't think that's true. I mean, he was a Jew, so his complexion looked a little darker than that, to say the least. But here it is. Anyway, this little booklet called the gospel of Jesus Christ is anything but the gospel. Check this out. I read through it multiple times. Here's the list of things right here in this booklet that the Mormons used to define the gospel. Number one is repentance. Well, that sounds like a good start, but not really. Because for them, repentance is a work whereby we must, quote, recognize and feel sorry for our wrongdoing and stop doing what is wrong and strive to never do it again. That's how they define repentance. Now, we'll talk about it in a minute. Then we have to confess our sins to the Lord and ask for forgiveness to God, right? Next we have to, get this, we have to make restitution. It's in the book. And quote, do all you can to correct the problem your actions may have caused. Now keep in mind, this is what they call the gospel. You need to make restitution and do all you can to correct the problem your actions may have caused. Do y'all catch all that emphasis on us, and our works, and our effort, and our striving? Next, we have to keep the commandments. Listen to this monstrosity. They write, Obeying the commandments, this is straight out of the book, quote, Obeying the commandments brings the power of the gospel into your life, end quote. What? Obeying the commandments brings the power of the gospel into your life? Friends, that is a point-blank lie. That is a horrific distortion of the gospel. Obedience to the commandments does not bring the power of the gospel into our lives. It is the gospel that frees us from the tyranny and the condemnation of the law because of our inability to obey the commandments in the first place. Next, we have to acknowledge the Savior. Well, they finally did it. They finally brought Jesus into their gospel. But of course, their Jesus is an altogether different Jesus, isn't it? Isn't He? In Mormonism, Jesus is the spirit brother of Satan. That's no joke. Lucifer and Jesus are spirit brothers in Mormon theology. Next we must be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost through confirmation and the laying on of hands by Mormon elders. Now that's some really bad theology right there. Next we have to receive the sacrament, meaning the bread and cup, right? communion, which for them is bread and water, not bread and wine like the Bible prescribes. You're not going to think about that. Listen, the shed blood of Jesus Christ, which is symbolized in the wine, or we use grape juice here, but it's red, it's deep red, right? The shed blood of Jesus offends all man-made religion. They cannot stand it. Then lastly, in the Mormon gospel, we have to endure to the end. But what that means for them is to keep to their system of works-based religion for the rest of our lives if we have any hope of getting to heaven at all. Friends, that is a hellish gospel. That has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus Christ. It will damn you to hell if you believe it. That's just one example of a distorted gospel. We could mention the distorted prosperity gospel, or the distorted social gospel, or the distorted LGBT affirming gospel, or the distorted believe and look like me or you're not saved gospel. Man, that's a big one in the church today. That's a really insidious one too. Believe or look like me or you're not saved. like preachers who say that if you don't read from the King James Version of the Bible, then you're not saved. I've heard that. I've sat in churches and have been told that before. Or those who shun people who come into their church who might look different from them. You know, they may be all tattooed up. They may have blue hair. Friend, you may not have any tattoos. You may not have any body piercings. You may not have blue hair. But that doesn't make you any more holy in the eyes of God than the person who does. And we absolutely cannot attach our personal beliefs and preferences to the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we make the gospel about anything but repentance and faith alone and the sufficiency of the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ to atone for our sin and to reconcile us to God, if we make it about anything other than that, then we have drifted from the gospel. And there's all kinds of gospel drift in the church today. So what do we do? Where did my amen corner go over here? What do we do? How do we respond to those who are like the Judaizers that Paul was dealing with here, who drift from the pure simplicity of the gospel? You see, the gospel is simple. Repent and believe. That's it. When the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas, he asked them, he said, what must I do to be saved? What did they say? Did they give him this? He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and your house. So what do we do? With those modern-day Judaizers who are in every church. Paul said they sneak in, they slip in, they spy out our freedom. What do we do? We oppose them. We resist them with every ounce of gospel strength in our being. Look at verse 5. Paul says, "...to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you." See, when these false brothers snuck up on Paul, in Jerusalem and insisted that Titus be circumcised or he wasn't truly saved. Paul was like, not today. Not on my watch. Not for one second will we compromise the free gospel of grace to keep your rules. Titus will not be circumcised today and I will oppose you to the death to protect the purity of the gospel. Now I don't know if that's what Paul really said. Who knows what he really said? But I've been reading Paul for a while. And if you read between the lines in his letters, you can tell when he's really agitated. And friends, he's in rare form here in Jerusalem. And there'll be no doubt about it next week. You come back next week, you might see something you've never seen in the Bible because Paul goes, he straight up goes toe-to-toe with the Apostle Peter like Rocky Balboa in Apollo Creed. Nothing gets this man sideways like somebody diminishing the finished and sufficient work of Jesus Christ by adding some human work or merit to the gospel. He goes crazy when it happens. And I want to tell you, church, we have to be like that today. We need to be like Paul. Not for one second will we yield in submission to your distorted gospel. We cannot stand quietly by while the gospel of Jesus Christ is tampered with by false brothers, wolves in sheep's clothing. We can't stand by. Listen, we're not going to make a lot of friends that way. People will say all kinds of ugly things about us. But if we lose the gospel, the one that Paul preached, the one that's biblical, if we lose the gospel, we lose Christianity. Christianity just becomes another man-made, works-based religion like every other religion on earth. That's why Paul says in verse 5, look at the end of it, "...so that the truth of the gospel might be," what? "...preserved for you." He says, I'm standing my ground. So that the gospel is preserved for the church. This is about faithfulness to carry out the mission of the church, to preach the gospel of grace to all nations. Starting right here on Franklin Pike. in our homes, in our workplaces, in our community, in the State House, in the White House, and everywhere that Jesus, in the fullness of His Gospel, has not been preached and honored as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's what's at stake here. I've heard people say this, You know, the greatest threat to Christianity is this and that, and you know, Christianity is going to die and all that. I think Elon Musk might have come out with some comments recently about the death of Christianity if we don't make a change. Let me tell you something that will end Christianity if we lose the gospel. That'll be the end of it. As a matter of fact, there's a quote in your bulletin. I want to read it. John Piper. He's one of the guys that I quote who's actually still living. He says this, the good news to the world is that right standing before God was totally paid for by the death of Christ at Calvary and can be enjoyed only through faith in Him. Here it is, any requirement that causes us to rely on our work and not Christ's work is the end of the gospel. But it's not just the end of the gospel, it's the end of Christianity. That's what's at stake. That's why this is so important. That's why Paul was all riled up here in Jerusalem over this circumcision thing. Because there's a deeper thing going on here than just some kind of circumcision. This is about the truth of what makes a man a sinner right before a holy God. And it's nothing that we do. In this passage, we see that gospel ministry must be affirmed. Gospel ministry must be affirmed. Let's just look briefly and hopefully quickly through verses 6 through 10. Paul says, and from those who seem to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no impartiality. Those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, meaning the Gentiles, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, meaning the Jews, for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me from mine to the Gentiles. And when James and Cephas, now that's also Peter, and I don't know why Paul kind of alternates between this Peter and Cephas deal here. I almost think, you know, he's writing this letter in retrospect. He knows what's coming on in the next few verses in chapter 2. And I think Cephas might, this is my personal opinion, that might be his aggravated name for Peter. You know, when my mom used to call me Brian Lamar Henson, right? When they bring out that middle name, something. Anyway. You'll understand what I'm getting at next week. Verse 9, when James and Cephas, who was Peter and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me. Notice they perceived it, they didn't give it, they perceived it. They gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only they asked us to remember the poor. The very thing I was eager to do. So here we have Peter, James, and John in Jerusalem. Now these three men, and later, even beginning now, along with Paul, were the foremost leaders of the New Testament church. The James here, however, is the brother of Jesus, not James the disciple. Because I know we hear Peter, James, and John a lot in the Gospels. This is not the same trio. Peter and John are the same, but the James here was the half-brother of the Lord, not James the disciple, because he had already been killed by King Herod a few years earlier in Acts chapter 12. But Paul says they seemed to be pillars. Now that's an interesting phrase that kind of deserves some attention this morning. What does that mean, they seem to be pillars? By saying that, that they seemed to be pillars of the church, right? He's talking about these are important people, important men in the church. By saying that they seem to be, Paul is not being sarcastic. Or he's not diminishing their status as leaders in any way. In fact, he's actually recognizing their unique authority and influence in the church. While at the same time, refraining from putting them on a pedestal because they were still just men. Just like him. You see? They were fallible men. Just like Paul. And again, we'll see that really clear next week in the behavior of Peter. No surprise with Peter. But the point here, the bigger point, is that true gospel ministry needs to be recognized and affirmed by the church. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. Peter was the apostle to the Jews. They both affirmed one another but neither held the other in such regard that they were beyond criticism. Right? Paul opposes Peter in the next episode in Galatians 2. And Peter in 2 Peter 3.16 says that Paul writes things that are hard to understand. So there was a mutual respect and affirmation between these two brothers, but there was none of this celebrity preacher kind of admiration like we see in the church today. Friends, Paul was not dazzled by the big three, Peter, James, and John. He models for us the way that we should relate to prominent leaders in the church today. You see, there are some Christians, and maybe even some in here, There are some believers who will follow and defend their favorite preacher no matter what he does. No matter what. That's not right. That is not right. Whoever your favorite preacher is, whether it's Hagee or who else is on TV, I don't know. I don't know, who else is on TV? I don't watch those TV preachers. Oh, no, no, she don't even count. No, no, no. She didn't even make the, no, no. David Jeremiah, Charles Stanley, John MacArthur, Jack Hibbs. Brian Henson, I'm just kidding. Whoever your favorite preacher is, you need to remember that he is fallible. And you should not just passively believe anything that he says or teaches just because he's the one saying it. In so much as what he preaches accords with the clear truth of this book and the gospel of grace, he should be honored, he should be listened to. But if he drifts, Uh-oh is right. If he drifts and persists in that drift, he should be marked and avoided. You hear me? If your favorite preacher drifts and if he persists in that drift, he should be marked and avoided. Friends, there have been more than a few preachers that I have respected and listened to in the past that I would absolutely not recommend to you today. Mark Driscoll, Josh Harris, by the way, Josh Harris completely just, he abandoned the faith altogether. Thabiti Anyabwile, J.D. Greer, he was a Southern Baptist, used to be, at one point he was the president of the SBC. Russell Moore, Tim Keller, You may not recognize many of those names because they are not actually on TV, but they have been huge influences in mainstream evangelical Christianity over the past several decades. Huge influences. Friends, don't get bit by the celebrity preacher bug. And don't let them dazzle you. They are just men. And I am certainly just a man. And a weak one at that. But like Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, 9, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. See, the point is that when you find your identity in Christ, He can use your weaknesses. His power is perfected in your weaknesses. That's not actually part of this sermon, but anyway. One more thing from this last point here about affirming gospel ministry as a church. us, meaning Bethel Church, we need to affirm and partner with those churches and ministries that are faithful to the gospel and oppose those that aren't. We don't have to agree on every single point of doctrine. There is a historic, creedal, and confessional Christianity that has done all the theological heavy lifting of setting boundaries for what are and what are not essentials of the historic Christian faith. And as long as we stay within those boundaries, seeing through a glass darkly, on some of these minor, lesser issues. As long as we stay within those boundaries, we can give the right hand of fellowship to other faithful churches and ministries who have the same goal that we do, to see God glorified in the salvation of sinners and to see His kingdom expanded here on the earth. The gospel is the heart of our message and our mission. Those are the kind of churches and ministries that we need to affirm So I want to challenge us in two ways this morning. Number one, I want to call us as a church to recommit to the pure simplicity of the gospel. That's it. The pure simplicity of the gospel. You don't have to write this kind of booklet with all these lists of do's and don'ts in it to explain the gospel. Holy God is our Creator. We are responsible to Him. We rebelled, we sinned against Him, but in His amazing mercy, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to live, die, and be raised for all who would believe and put their trust in Him to be made right with God. There is no merit, there is no work for us to do. Friends, it doesn't matter how clean, how moral a life we live. I'm talking about grace and works here. It doesn't matter how often we go to church. It doesn't matter how much we give. It doesn't matter if we preach in the pulpit or if we teach in the Sunday school class. It doesn't matter if we serve the meal or clean the church. None of that improves our standing before an infinitely holy God one bit. Now those are all good things, but they cannot save us. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And I want to call us to recommit to that core gospel. Secondly, I want to call those who have never genuinely responded to the gospel in repentance and faith to do that today. The other day, one of my good friends here, a dear sister, And Bethel Church told me, she said this, she said, you know, one of the things that you always bang on is that God is holy and we are not. And I want to bang on it again. Friend, you cannot be good enough. God is too holy for that. You cannot add one microcosmic amount of goodness that would cause God to look at you in any other way than a rebel deserving His just wrath. But He has given us Christ. So flee to Christ today. Kneel at the cross. Abandon yourself. and receive the perfect, precious, and priceless righteousness of Christ by faith, and you will be saved. That's it. That's it. Let's bow for prayer.