Have this wonderful morning already with the sun shining and the opportunity now to come into this place and have an opportunity to experience our Sabbath with one another. This morning as we come, I hope that you've got some great energy as we move very quickly through the next set of verses in the book of Galatians. But as always, I'm gonna ask you this morning to stand, and we're gonna have the opportunity to sing this wonderful song, and we're gonna sing together, if you will, the first and the last verse. So let's sing it together. ♪ Almighty Fortress is our God ♪ ♪ A balk we're never failing ♪ Our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing, for still our ancient foe Does seek to work us low, His craft and power are great, And armed with cruel hate, On earth is not His equal. That word above all earthly powers, God, thanks to Him, abideth. The Spirit and the gifts are ours, through him who with us sideth. Let good and kindred go, this mortal life also. the body they may kill. God's truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for this day that You've given to us, an opportunity to open up Your Word. We thank You, Father, for the inspired book of Galatians, that in this book we have the opportunity to once again to be reminded how strategic we are often in regards to giving the Gospel, and giving the Gospel deliberately in the pure way as it was given to us within Your Holy Word. We thank you, Father, that we can see in the lives of the Galatians somewhat of what the 21st century church is today, that has so quickly removed itself and deserted the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We would pray, Father, that in our own lives, that we might in fact each and every day embrace the gospel, both in its message that it gives to us of a salvation that is in Christ alone, but the gospel that works within our life as we live it out in this world that you have placed us in. We now pray, Father, that you would Let our ears be able to hear. May we, Father, in this day have opportunity to rejoice in all things that you have given unto us. And in your name we pray, amen. So as you're sitting down, if you'll greet one another, if you see someone that is a visitor to you, let me encourage you to, in fact, say hello to them. So we are in the book of Galatians. If you're just coming with us into this study, please be seated. We are in the third session of this teaching. And so we are looking forward as we begin to move through the book, a reminder to you that we spoke in terms of the fact that in regards to this, Within the 13 or 14 weeks that we have together, we will examine all of the verses, but some of them we'll have to do in chunks, just given the nature of the book of Galatians. Now, can you believe it? That we are, in fact, in teaching number three. It's unfortunate that those that are just listening to me cannot see the slide, but if you saw the slide, you would see my granddaughter. Now, these were her words on the right-hand side, not my own, and I'll read them to you. Enjoy. Personally think my grandfather is a pretty good teacher, but if you get bored, you can borrow my crayons. Good morning, Magdalene. All right. Here we go together. 149 verses in the book of Galatians. We are in chapter number one. In the first session, what we did is to look at an overview perspective and look at the gospel of Jesus Christ. We looked in terms of what the gospel is and had the opportunity to see the richness of those that have been before us in regards to the handling of this book of Galatians. In the second period, last week, we started in chapter number one, looking at verses one through five. Now, the message that is given to the Galatians is given into an enclave of relatively new converts that were in Asia Minor, the southern region of Galatia. He wrote what we believe is perhaps the oldest document within the New Testament. certainly we think his first writing of epistles, the one that would be older in the New Testament, James. And so we look at Paul and as he comes to the Galatian believers, he has in fact in his missionary journeys had the opportunity to birth the these four or five churches that are brought together within this region. He has spoken to them the gospel of Jesus Christ as it has been given to him, not through the agency of man, but of God. There are questions upon which these Galatian believers now having teachers coming in and giving to them a different version, if you will, of the gospel. And so Paul writes to them. And among the things that he's going to answer is in regards to how are men and women to be put right with God? How can Christians in the midst of a pagan culture, where there are those that are coming in within the church, calling themselves Christians and perhaps believers, but giving a different gospel? Or is there really anything other than the gospel and all others are simply counterfeit? And so the details of the struggles within the Galatian believers and within this church is not unlike that that we face within the 21st century. John MacArthur would say Galatians deals with the important issues, law, grace, works, the gospel, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, our Lord's death. His resurrection, salvation, sanctification, that's a lot. but all critical when you begin to examine the gospel and the elements of what are therein. But the primary message of the book of Galatians is freedom, freedom from sin, freedom from judgment, freedom from hell, freedom from all forms of spiritual bondage, and liberation into the glorious purposes and the grace of God. And so about 20 times in this short epistle of six chapters, we'll come across some form of the word bondage or freedom. And last week you remember that one of the things that I asked you you might want to do is to go through the book of Galatians, all six verses, and determine what the key words are in there. And oftentimes those key words are established by the number of times a word is repeated within a text. So, my working title right now is the Gospel of Free Grace. You know, I do not seek active righteousness. I ought to have and perform it, but I declare even if I did have it and performed it, I cannot trust in it or stand up before the judgment of God or the basis of it. So, I embrace the righteousness of God. We'll see if it stands. When we look at Galatians 1 through 5, within those five verses, another thing that I shared with is a teacher that when you're studying a book, you ought to consider outlining the book. It's easy. It's a matter of getting a pen to paper or your fingers on a computer keyboard, looking at the text and saying, what does it say? Verses 1 through 5 are tremendously rich. In fact, one would say, many of those that have handled this text would say, in verses 1 through 5, you in fact have the summary of what occurs in chapters 1 through 6. In this, you saw the opening greeting. Paul, the apostle, he's going to defend his apostleship. He's going to say it's not from men or man's agency. He said it's through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. He says, I have the brethren with me. And we talked about the fact that in this Christian life, that we live in this fight that we have as a temporary resident on this dark world. We need the brethren to be with us. And so he has the brethren with us. He also uses this to say, I am an apostle, and these are the brethren. There is a difference. For he comes as a messenger, an ambassador, an emissary from God himself in the proclamation of the gospel. He has the recipients. The church is of Galatia. And then He gives this wonderful blessing that we talked about in regards to grace and peace. And we said with grace, grace is the source of salvation. Peace follows grace. So the source of the blessing, God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The enactment of the blessing, Christ's death for our sin. The purpose of the blessing that we might be delivered from this evil age and the guarantor of the blessing is God the Father himself. And then he ended with the doxology. Now in verse number four, when we examine verse number four, we said that if you want to look at this, you can look at it in terms of the fact of a summary of the gospel. And in the summary of the gospel we see that Christ gave Himself for our sin. That affirms that the purpose of Christ's coming was to be a sin offering. He sets us free from this present evil age. He rescues the believer from dangers. We're not removed from this world until we die, but we are rescued from this present age, the moment we are still in Jesus. We are in the world, but we are not of it. We have been transformed and we are different. We have taken off the old man and put on the new man. And we have the ability with the Holy Spirit within our life to continue to enable us to walk sometimes this difficult life that we can call the daily grind. And Christ was obedient to the will of the Father. Salvation was removed from the will of man, and it sits solely within Him. And then we came and we ended with the doxology. And within the doxology, I love it, because the Apostle Paul, so often within his text, he's going through a text, and he'll have what we call a doxology moment. And in that doxology moment, he reflects back. And I imagine that as he writes these with bold letters from his own hand, he writes and he says, how wonderful it is that God has made me an apostle, that he has given me the commission and the authority to carry the message of the gospel to the world and to the Gentiles. And that in that, he has given me brethren to walk with. He has given me the opportunity, in fact, to see the gospel at work within my own life. So he says, to whom be the glory forever. And one of the things that we want to remember, that though this particular section of scripture within the New Testament has some very harsh words toward the believer, Nevertheless, we see Paul giving glory. And so is it with us. Even in the moments that sometimes seem dark, great opportunity that we may glorify God. And then he ends with amen. Now, I like amens. Now, I wish we had more amens. I've been in a church that amens and I've been in a church that doesn't amen. This is kind of a church that nods its head. Just wish there was a little bit verbal that would come out at the same time. But this word associated with amen, when he says amen, it is like the translation that is given from the Canaanite speaking Christian, who says, when he says amen, he says, with all my heart, this is what I wish. So when the Word of God is taught, when it is preached, when it is unfolded in front of us, there ought surely to be an amen in our heart, and maybe sometimes it'll actually come out. Now, I'm in a discussion these days with one of the sisters in the church, and she and I have both agreed to the fact that after the songs, we ought to sing amen. Any of you think about that? We look and we see them, we see this thing called Amen, and somehow we skip over it. But that Amen, what's it say? I have sung the word of God because that's what we do here at Grace. And guess what? With all my heart, this is what I wish. Oh, that you might be a mighty fortress to me, Father. regardless of what comes against me, the waves that are there, whether it be mankind pushing against the gates of the fortress, or the winds that blow, or the water that overcomes and overflows, you are a mighty fortress. You are my God. So Paul says, Amen. Now, we would expect coming out of this, perhaps, I did, here is Paul, he's just had his doxology moment, and in his doxology moment, I'm thinking, wow, he's really gonna come into some joyful greeting to the Galatians. But we're gonna find that that's not what he does. He moves from that doxology, and he says what? I'm amazed. that you are so quickly deserting Him who could call you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, He is to be accursed. Strong language. This is some of the strongest language that you will hear the Apostle Paul say toward a congregation or toward one who has come into that congregation and speaks something other than the gospel. which is from God. So he says he is to be accursed, and we'll look at that word, but you should stop for a moment. Just accursed causes me to be most fearful. But if you translate it, translate it this way. He is to be damned. It's a hard word. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you receive, he is to be accursed. Now, if you're any doubt in your mind as a recipient of Galatian, who is in fact reading this letter in one of the churches, you're gonna look at it and say, why'd you repeat it? Well, I guess I kind of grew up and my father would tell me something once and it was like, really? Are you serious? And then he'd say it again and I'd say, I get it. So Paul gives that to us. Now it is clear from Acts 13, 14. And to understand really many of the epistles, you need to go back to Acts. And I wish that I had the time in this teaching opportunity to take you into Acts and walk you through Acts. We'll do that a little bit when we look at the Jerusalem Council. But it's clear from Acts 13, 14 that God had greatly blessed the missionary efforts of Paul and Barnabas in South Galatia. There were believers that were won, churches planted, elders appointed, miracles displayed. And now in the afterglow of this great awakening that has occurred for the gospel being introduced for the first time, can you imagine it? Words never heard before. A savior that they did not know. A reality that there was nothing that they had to do, for all the work had been done, grace by faith through Christ alone. So, Paul harbored great hope, but they were abandoning the gospel. They were allowing someone to dilute it. Allowing someone to change it and add to it. And he says, I am astonished, you foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you? You were running a good race. So, when we see these verses, I want to say up front, before you fade out on me, that if you look at this text, if you had the opportunity to take away a slide, take away this slide. Why is dancing with desertion so devastatingly dangerous? This few verses tell you that. In six it says, because it abandons the grace of Jesus Christ. The grace of Jesus Christ is clear, it is spoken, it is written by the inspired hand And there is no doubt, there is no fudging of what that grace is. You see in this verse, in the latter part of verse six and seven, because alternate gospels, like alternate realities, don't exist. So you will see when he unfolds this, and he talks about a different gospel, and then he stops for a moment, and he says, it's not a gospel at all. It's not a gospel. There is but one gospel. Then he says because the authentic gospel is as immutable as God's nature. And then because in an anathema is promised as a eternal consequence. You see in the church of Galatia, in that region where they were, there were like the church of Grace Baptist Chapel. There are those that are here that we might assume are in Christ, but are not in Christ. And there are those that simply are in the process of growing, and they are so easily deceived. That's why in a church, you go to a church that speaks and preaches the Word of God. And you have the ability to go into it and to understand it and to test it that is there. So he says, I'm amazed. That amazed is a wonderful thing. In my life, I have been amazed a few times within my life. And so I would probably use this vocabulary that's there. Astonished, marveled, astounded, surprised. You know, a literary device used in the Greek letters to express irritation, irony, shock. It's present tense. It's, I just keep on thinking over and over and over in my mind, and I just continually am amazed. How could you desert so quickly the gospel? So the shock was due to the fact this thing so quickly. So there are many that will look at it and say, well, what is that so quickly? Is that so quickly the time that was elapsed since you preached the gospel that was there? Or is it in regards to the fact that the Galatians had defected from the gospel of grace immediately after they heard this Judaizing message? and likely perhaps the former. But nevertheless, he is amazed. And it's important for us to remember these Galatians were true believers, some of them who had to salvation and the power of the Holy Spirit. They were Christian brothers who had become seriously confused. Now, this Greek word called you know, deserting. I'm one of these laymen who over the course of time in my teaching, you know, it is very dangerous in terms of trying to say, this is the Greek and take it apart. There's great learning that takes place. But as a layman, we still can get appreciation of the Greek and what it means. We can go to those that are faithful men in the examination, Bereans of the Word of God, who teach us. And so when you look at that word deserting, it's reflective. What's that mean? They were deserting voluntarily. It wasn't that someone was coming alongside them and forcing them to say, sign here. They were voluntarily. We could look at that and say, that's tragic. But inside the 21st century church today, the church is so easily deserting the gospel of Jesus Christ. because it tickles the ear, it tickles the fancy, it's comfortable because it looks like the outside world, and so you don't have to behave differently when you go inside it. The words aren't harsh, and even to come into salvation, all you gotta do is say, read or repeat a simple prayer, and then there's no cost associated with, in fact, being in Christ. You can prosper now, You can have a smile upon your heart, and everything is joyful, and tomorrow is going to be a brighter day, and my bald spot is going to go away." So they were not passively being removed, but were in the process of removing themselves from the sphere of grace. Do you know why, even if I become a little irritated that this church and fellowships do not provide classic Coca-Cola for me to drink, and I have to bring my own, do I leave it or desert it? No, I don't. Why? Because it's not the color of the carpet. It is not in regard to the fact whether I like the music or not, and it doesn't necessarily relate to me. In this particular case, I will tell you our music very much relates to us, and I hope we do more and more and more in the Psalms. But it's because of the gospel that is being spoken, the examples that are within the congregation, the brothers that will look and say, time out. So the false teachers were accountable for corruption of God's truth, but you and I need to understand, just like the Galatians Christians, we are accountable for being so easily misled and oftentimes pursuing this thing that some of us would call legalism. So, there it is. This word deserting also gives the meaning associated with changing one mind. Again, Paul was using the present tense, so he's saying this is something that is ongoing. Perhaps you have not yet been sold on this which is being taught by these false teachers, and you are in the process of deserting. But let it be understood, deserting is abandoning. leaving to the side, going off and forgiving that which you have been taught, which was not through the agency of man, as I was not, but the message of the living God. So what does he say to them? Your spiritual turncoats. And that he used this verb in the sense of a continuous present, you are deserting, you are in the process of leaving. But listen, even though the false teachers had made great inroads among them, and the situation was desperate, it was not beyond hope. And that's the wonderful thing that we have about the Word, isn't it? Are the experience of our lives, as we see a difficult situation, and how God has been faithful and handled it in the past, and we can look back and we say, God, as you were faithful here, I believe that you will be faithful here. Paul would say later in 2 Corinthians 4, 8, Paul was hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, not in despair. And then toward the end of the chapter, in chapter 5, he will speak in terms of the fact of what? that there's a confidence that they can recover. So we see in there that he comes and he says, I'm amazed that you were so quickly deserting him who called you by grace. You know, Paul tells these Galatian turncoats to beware who have so readily and rashly started turning away. There can be no mistaking his words to them. It is impossible to forsake the gospel without forsaking God. You need to etch that in your mind. When you pervert the gospel through your actions and your choices, as you live out the gospel in faith, When you abandon the gospel, what you're saying is you have abandoned God. So, they were not getting a gracious gospel. They were adopting a new philosophical position. They were not trading one idea, set of ideas for another. They could not give up the gospel without giving up God. So he says, I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel. As he talks to them, he talks to them in regards and he says, and if you remember in Acts 20, 24, Paul says, but I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. It is the good news, a God who is gracious to undeserving sinners, like the Galatians and like us. In grace he gave his son to die for us. In grace he calls us to himself. In grace he justifies us when we believe. So, Paul, what's the danger? Those that are in Christ, that heard the gospel and believed, they are assured of their salvation. So they're having a moment. Is that so dangerous? They're not going to lose their salvation. But the danger is they will give in to Satan's reinterpretation of the gospel and consequently As we can now read in Ephesians 4.14, they will be like children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine. And then though a true believer cannot lose salvation, they will cease to have a clear understanding of the gospel to proclaim to the world. And God will not be glorified. Our problem is if we do not learn the gospel. You know, there are many things that have helped me over the years. One is to have a godly woman as a maid. Diane, for years, has a page, and on the other side another page, and it walks through the gospel. not just the gospel, but the manifestations and the obedience to the gospel. And now she does it by memory. I have seen her do it on a daily basis. Why? Because she wants to remember the gospel, etched, so that there isn't the tossing back and forth. Now, you say, well, wait a minute. Are they going to go all the way? Are they going to go all the way and abandon the gospel? If they do that, if some of them do that, what do we know about them? And oftentimes within a church, we do not want to come to that conclusion. We want to believe that everyone that comes through the door, everyone that joins the church, everyone that's been a member, been part of our fellowship, have been with us, that they've always been with us in Christ. But John 2, 18 and 19, they went out from us because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out from us that we might know that they were never of us. So if they were false believers in the Galatian churches, they would potentially totally defect because they never did belong. Hard. Now, then he says in terms of that, you're doing it for a different gospel. And then he says, which is really not another, there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. You know, what he says is, it is not only different in kind, it is not a gospel at all. It is not another gospel even when considered in a numerical way. There can only be one message of good news. one message. So the Galatians were turning to an opposition gospel, diametrically opposed to Paul's message of grace, and this opposition gospel was not an alternative one. And so it is a false gospel. Now, which is really not another? Keep in mind that God's grace involves something more than man's salvation. We not only are saved by grace, but we live by grace. We stand in grace. It is the foundation for the Christian life. Grace gives us the strength. We need to be victorious soldiers. Grace enables us to suffer without complaining and even to use that suffering for God's glory. When a Christian turns away from living by God's grace, he must depend on his own power. And what's that going to lead to? I can tell you. Disappointment, misery, failure. moving out of the sphere of grace into the sphere of loss, ceasing to depend on God's resources and depending on our own resources. See, we often forget that this salvation by grace in Christ alone is an experience that lasts and is lived out in our life here on earth all into eternity. grace enabling us. That's why when I look at scripture, I like one translation that when it speaks of grace, it talks about super abounding grace. The super abounding grace that God gives to us. And if we believe something else, if we believe that it is not of God and that we can do it, it's about us. truly we have failed. Only there are some who are disturbing you who want to distort the gospel of Christ. We know it's called some men came down from Judea. We believe that those are Judaizers who are promoting a different gospel. And in the life of the churches, if Paul feared other than this Fear of God, this correct fear of God. Paul feared nothing so much as false doctrine since it is the underlying source of godly behavior. His deep concern for the spiritual welfare of the Corinthian believers would be fully as appropriate for the church today. And so what does he say? But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. Verse 1 comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached. Or you receive a different spirit which you have not received or a different gospel which you have not accepted. That's why in one of my life verses when I get into Romans and I look at chapter 12 and I look at verse 2 it says, don't be conformed by the world, don't bite into a different gospel, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We did not check out our mind. when we became servants of Christ. He uses that mind. And in that mind, he gives to us also, I do not know where it dwells, but in there dwells this thing called the conscience. My daughter and I were talking about that other day. Listen to your conscience sometimes. Because you may find that that which is your conscience is the Holy Spirit working within your life to give you insight that there are some who are disturbing you. So this is what Calvin would write. Calvin would write and he would say, The false apostles who had deceived the Galatians to advance their own claims pretended that they had received a commission from the apostles. Their method of infiltration was to get, it believed that they represented the apostles and delivered a message for them. But they took away from Paul the name and the authority of apostle. In attacking Paul, they were attacking the truth of the gospel. So who were they? Well, they were those that were bewitching them. And probably it came to Paul by some means that there were those that were coming from Jerusalem that believed that circumcision must occur, that yes, you are in Christ, but if you are to be fully in Christ, I'll use my example again that I used in a previous week, but in a different way. I can remember the University of Tennessee campus as a Christian, part of inner varsity. Inside of inner varsity, as we were talking, we were sharing with one another. Within a few weeks, there was a brother that came to me and said, Ron, do you think you're in Christ? I said, yeah, I've been saved. This is my testimony. This is the work that has occurred and the fruit and why I am confident in that. He says, but do you have all of Christ? Do you have all of the Holy Spirit? And he said, Ron, if you really want to experience a dynamic Christian life, You will fall upon your knees and you will pray that you might speak in tongues and that you would be baptized with the Holy Spirit so the fullness of God would rest in you. And then you'll be a warrior, mighty to fight and preach the gospel. Sounds so good. I want everything there is. If God has something for me, surely I want that. So the message of the Judaizers that would say, yes, everything that Paul has said is right, but he just left a few things out. And so let's share those with you. So, He speaks to them. He levels two charges against them. You know, they're disturbing you and they're distorting the gospel. When you look at disturbing, it means throw into confusion. It literally means to shake at the very foundation. At the very foundation of the truth that you have been given, these people have come in and they are trying to erode your foundation. They are disturbing you. And they want to distort you. They want to take something that you thought that you understood and you have and turn it around. So, Two things, law does not moderately pollute grace, but reverses and destroys it. Think about that one for a while. And where the gospel is perverted, the church is unsettled, it is disturbed. And so, we move. I'm amazed that you're so quickly deserting. Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. There is only one gospel. There is only one and one alone gospel of free grace. The gospel is the gospel because it is God's gospel. Because the gospel is God's gospel, there will never be another. There is no other gospel. Sinners must either receive this one true gospel or be eternally condemned. Got that? So if you're sitting there and saying, this thing that he's talking about in regards to the gospel, that Christ dying for our sin, in terms of that, His resurrection, That gospel, that's not what I understand. God offers the free gift of eternal life through faith in his son, Jesus Christ, who died for our sin and rose again. If we reject this gift, what else can God possibly do to save us? So, not the gospel. So here I've got about four or five minutes, but I want you to look at this because I think it is so important. Joel Osteen is a pastor. He is not a motivational speaker. He speaks and preaches the gospel to the largest congregation in the United States of America. But what's lacking in there? The gospel according to Osteen preaches a different gospel than what many people grew up with. His version is one where if you smile and always say positive things, life will work in your favor. Success is measured by wealth and anyone who is suffering or struggling financially has done something wrong. But there are believers that turn on Joel Osteen and they say, Man, he's a dynamic speaker. This really sounds good. I need to have a more positive outlook in terms of that. God desires for me to be my very most. He is a me-centric message. Turn him off. Condemn him. He is accursed. But it is amazing what we watch. Don't just accept whatever comes your way in life. You were born to win. You were born for greatness. You were created to be a champion in life. Boy, doesn't that sound good. Not the gospel. Rick Warren. Rick Warren today has done this. He has fundamentally changed thousands of pastors and the way that they approach the gospel. He has sold, in the Purpose Driven Life, to date, 70 million copies of that book. Over 10 years ago, I was in a Baptist church. I was teaching. At the time I was teaching, I believe, in Romans. And the leadership said, time out. Don't teach through Romans. Everybody, we want you to do the purpose-driven life. The purpose-driven life. Many of you may have gone through that. Many of you may appreciate that, that book, but I want to first carry you to nine marks. Here's nine marks. Again, none of this is to disparage the five purposes that Warren promotes. The purposes in themselves are solidly biblical, nor is it any of this to impugn Warren's motives for writing the book. The difficulty is that even though the gospel is not presented clearly to the unbelieving reader, Warren presumes to reach anyone who prays the prayer is nevertheless immediately affirmed in their conversion and encouraged in their insurance. Yet even if the gospel had been presented clearly, the effects of Warren's evangelistic method is to produce questionable converts and the effect of the purpose-driven model is to replace the primacy of the gospel with the primacy of purpose. If you've read that book and you like it, read back through it again with a different lens and see how the gospel fits. Now I'm gonna end with this one. And I'll pick up next week. Not the gospel. Some of you may love John MacArthur. Some of you may not appreciate John MacArthur. This is John MacArthur responding to Rick Warren and his book, The Purpose-Filled Life. John MacArthur says, how does he know who is in the family of God? No repentance, no judgment, no hell, no heaven, no self-denial, no discussion of sin, no laying down the law of God against which the sinner is broken. No sense of guilt, no sense of condemnation, no fear of eternal punishment. That is an inadequate gospel. That is a gospel that I will tell you contributes to apostasy. It will contribute to defection because people are going to come to that which they think is the saving message, and when it doesn't do anything, they're gone. A shallow gospel presentation that doesn't present the reality of eternal judgment, the reality of the law of God, the reality of condemnation, eternal hell, does not warn of God's wrath, that does not crush the sinner under the weight of his violation of the law of God, that does not make him stand before God guilty. The gospel presentation that doesn't do that isn't a faithful gospel presentation. And then to tell somebody, welcome to the family, as if you knew. This is fantasy. The stronger the gospel message, listen, the harder the gospel message. The more demanding, the more law is incorporated into it. The more guilt is produced by it. The more the sinner trembles, the more conviction, the more fear, the greater the understanding of hell and judgment, the less likely it is to generate a false response. The Jews knew enough about God and they walked away. We want to make sure that when people, if they walk away, they're walking away from the knowledge of the truth, not some superficial, non-saving message that doesn't even mention the resurrection without which you couldn't save because you can't be saved if you don't confess Jesus Christ as Lord and believe in his heart that God what? Raised him from the dead. Why do I share that with you? We are to proclaim the gospel and proclaim its purity. And we must proclaim the gospel in a manner that somewhere about 45 years ago, after a deep conviction, I changed the way in the words that I used. But when I share, I say this. Heaven is a free gift, but it'll cost you everything that you are. That is why Paul and Galatians will say, I am crucified in Christ. Nevertheless, I live, not yet I, but Christ lives in me. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for this day. We thank You, Father, for Your Gospel. We thank You, Father, that it is so clear within the Word. Oh, Father, forgive us when we read things intentionally that might carry us away from the purity of that which has been written by the inspired messengers that You gave to us. We pray that in our life that the gospel might be fully expressed and demonstrated in our walk. May we find ourselves, Father, not perplexed, not disturbed, our foundation shaken, not allowing something to take the place of that which is within your Word. May we, Father, be conscious of those that speak falsely. And may we not simply pass them by and whisper something under our breath. But may they be challenged that indeed the bright light of the gospel would be, in fact, purified by your saints. giving light to this world in the midst of darkness. And in your name we pray, amen.