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We'll continue our series in Galatians, and we'll consider together Galatians 1:6-9. I'd like us to read from verses 1 to 10, so we can follow along in the context. Galatians chapter one, beginning at verse number one:

Paul, an apostle not from men nor through men, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead, and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

I marvel that you are turning so soon from Him who called you into the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

Let's pray.

Father, we pray that by Your Spirit and through Your word, You will change us from glory into glory and prepare us for heaven. We ask for the power of Your truth, the power of the Holy Spirit. Help us, Lord, we pray, to be worshipers of the great God of grace. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

When we considered verse number one, we looked at Paul, who was an apostle of Jesus Christ, and how he established his authority as an apostle and the importance of that for the church. And then we looked at last week the gospel that this apostle preached. Paul's calling, his office, was from God, not through man, came to him, and the message that he brought was equally of God and not of himself. And Paul has been describing this in the opening verses of this epistle to help the church understand that the gospel that he brings to them is the gospel which they should not move away from. And so last week, we looked at this gospel that is a gospel that is fundamentally gracious, but its grace doesn't only mean that Christ died for their sins, but it also goes on to show that this same Christ who died for their sins reaches into their sinful condition and redeems them from their sin. So that He is both one who suffered and died, but one also who rescues those for whom He died from their sin, so that they might have eternal life.

And now, as we come to verses six to nine of this text, we actually come to the verses of Scripture that show us the occasion for this epistle. Why is Paul writing the book of Galatians? Why is he going to the length of what he's going through to write this epistle? Well, Paul opens up showing us in verses six to nine the occasion for this writing. He starts with these words in verse number six: "I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him who called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel." And Paul somehow got wind or idea or heard from some quarter of the Christian church that the churches that he planted in the region of South Galatia are now turning away from the gospel that he once brought to them. And so, Paul writes this epistle because of that problem. He is writing a corrective epistle. He is correcting the errors that existed in the churches that he and Barnabas planted in South Galatia. And the way he starts his epistle is, yes, he gives a gospel greeting, laying down the foundation of the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ. But then he goes on to let his heart out immediately.

He does that by showing these words: "I marvel." I marvel. And to marvel means to stand in awe or to be amazed. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Marvel not that I say unto you, you must be born again." Don't be surprised, Nicodemus. Don't be shocked. The people marveled at the teachings of Jesus. You can see that they were astonished at His doctrine. The people were astonished and marveled at the miracles of Jesus when they saw people raised from the dead and healed, and the blind were given sight and things like this. But very rarely and unusually is it used in this case, as it is here in this text of Scripture. Paul is as astonished as those who saw the miracles, as those who heard the teaching, with regards not to what was happening positively in the lives of the churches of those people that he planted, but what was happening negatively. "I am amazed. I am awestruck that you who have been called by God into the grace of Christ would be turning away and turning from another gospel." They're moving so soon, so rashly, so quickly. Perhaps there was a little contemplation between the time of their reception of the gospel and their now moving away and being carried away by the Judaizers. Perhaps there was a little bit of time. "So soon, what's happened? So swift," and it shocked Paul. They perhaps never asked him, "Hey, Paul, we've been hearing these things by the Judaizers; can you give us a little bit of insight as to what's happening?" And we don't hear anything about that. Paul's like, "I'm shocked. I'm awestruck that you would move away so soon from that gospel."

Now this word "I marvel" is a word filled with passion. Paul is highly concerned. He can't believe what he is seeing. I can't help but think to myself of the modern sentiment and opinions of what people might think of Paul's reaction. There'll be many today that will be like, "Come on, Paul, what's the big deal? Settle down. I mean, what's happened? You know, these guys, sure, they're still in church. Settle down, you know, that's everyone has their own little beliefs, Paul. You have yours; they have theirs. What's the big deal?" You could hear the modern sentiment saying, "Hey, doctrine's divisive, Paul. Don't worry about what they're believing now. What's wrong with another gospel? Sure, gospel, good news. Another one, why not? Give people freedom. Don't make people feel like they need to conform to that teaching that you brought them when you first planted that church. Maybe they want to change their ways. Give them some room. Why are you so amazed, Paul? Settle down, calm down, Paul." Especially when he starts using the words "let him be accursed." Well, now you're really stepping on people's toes, Paul.

But Paul's arguments that bring him to verses six to nine show us why he has a reason to respond in such a way. In verse one, Paul has been saying, "I am an apostle not from man nor through man, but through God the Father and Jesus Christ." And then he goes on in verses three to four to say that the grace and peace that I'm praying that is brought to you comes from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. And this grace and peace which you have experienced and that I desire for you to continue to experience comes from heaven. And now he goes on to say also, we looked at in verses five and four last week, that it was through this gospel of grace that came from heaven. It was according to the will of God the Father and Jesus Christ who gave Himself for our sins that this message has come to you, this gospel message. And what Paul is simply saying before he even gets to the place where he says, "I now marvel," he's simply saying this: the message that was preached to you was not from man but from God. And Paul's marveling is in this sense: he is concerned not that they're moving from the opinions of one man to another man, but that they are moving from that which God had given them through the apostle Paul, that preaching of the blessed gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what Paul is saying here is that this gospel comes from heaven. There is no room for sentiments or opinions. This is divine revelation sent down from above that is vital and fundamental to your salvation and your faith.

Paul's point is this: "I marvel, and yes, let him be accursed," because they are turning away from Him. You see, this is God's gospel, and what God says matters, and yes, therefore, doctrine matters, especially the doctrine that saved the people in the region of South Galatia, especially the doctrine that built them up in their most holy faith, that gospel that was brought to them by the apostle Paul that made the church what she was. And Paul is right within his sphere of reaction, if I could say, to respond in such a manner of amazement and to declare those who preach another gospel as accursed.

Because the gospel that he preaches is not his gospel in the sense that it was originated in him. It is a gospel of God. How would you feel if you saw someone hurting or damaging or potentially threatening the lives of your most precious loved ones? What would be a fitting response to someone who you saw poisoning the food or the drink that your children or your wife or your dearest friends was about to have? Would it be a fitting response to warn, to tell your family and your friends to stay away from that one that is poisoning? I think if someone was to act other than that marveling, other than that warning, other than that passionate response, we would question whether or not that person really cared.

But what Paul is showing us here is that his reaction and his response is not an unloving response. In fact, it is quite the opposite. What he understands here is that what they are moving from is the very thing that saved their souls, the very thing that made them right with God, the precious gospel of Christ. And for Paul to just sit there and say, "Yeah, whatever you want to do with regards to that is fine," would be for him to be unloving to those people that he reached with that gospel. In fact, it is an appropriate response. And Paul's concern here in verse number six is that he is marveling that they are turning away so soon from Him who called you into the grace of Christ through a different gospel. The concern was that the church was apostatizing. They were turning away or deserting. And the word means to transfer or to change, but it refers specifically to one who transfers or changes their allegiance to another. You think of an army soldier that is on this side of the army, right? And they're fighting for this country. And all of a sudden, they, you know, get in the trenches somewhere, change their gears to the other side, and they start coming at the other army. He's like, "This is what's happening. There's been a change. There's been a traitor." Talk about this as a turncoat. A turncoat was that guy that they used to put their symbol of their representation on their garments. And a turncoat was someone who would turn the coat so no one would see who they would be siding with. And what Paul is saying here is that you are turning away, you are deserting, you are acting as traitors concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ and God. And he uses the present tense here to show that this is not being done finally and completely, but they are turning. They are in the process of turning. And what Paul's trying to do is to grab them on their way to destruction and say, "Do not listen to the Judaizers. They're turning you from Him who called you into the grace of Christ." He says, "I marvel that you are so soon removed or so soon turning away." And then he says, "from Him." Now, hang on a minute. You'd think they're turning away from the gospel, Paul, not from God. He says, "from Him." They are turning away from Him.

Now the churches of Galatia would have disagreed with this statement 100%. They'd be like, "Paul, we're not turning away from God. In fact, we are completing that which God has started. We're going back to the Old Testament. We're going back to the law. We're going back to those things that God said there regarding circumcision and all that. And we're adding those things in." If anything, they would have thought that they were getting closer to God by their alteration of the message of Paul. But Paul reminds them that no, no, you are turning away from Him who called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel. And he's saying, going to another gospel means that you turn away from God. And when you turn away from God, you turn away from the grace of Christ which God Himself brought you into through the gospel. You see, what was happening here is that the churches of Galatia were seeking to add works to grace. And what Paul was saying is then grace is no more grace, and you have turned away from the God of grace that established you by the gospel of grace when it was first preached to you in South Galatia. Paul's saying, "No, no, you're moving away from Him."

He says you're moving away from Him to another gospel. And then he goes on to say, "which is not another." Now, there are two words that Paul uses here for another. The first is "heteros," which means another, not of the same kind, different. And what Paul's saying is you're moving away to a different gospel. And then he says, "which is not another." And he uses a different word there, "allos," which is not another in the sense of not a second or the same gospel. And what Paul is simply saying is that this other gospel that you are turning to is not an alternative gospel. It is not a second gospel or a gospel 2.0. It's actually not another gospel. He's saying is you are turning from, you're going to a different gospel, which ultimately is not another gospel. It is not good news. It does not tell you and bring you into the grace of Christ. It's a non-gospel. And it describes what was happening to that gospel is that the gospel that he was preaching is that it was being perverted. Look at verse number seven with me, "which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ." To pervert, to change, to alter. Now the way that they were doing this is that they were adding to it, but they by adding to it were changing it.

Let me just help you understand the importance of what the word pervert means here. It means to alter and to change, but it is used in a dramatic sense. And let me explain this to you. When the Bible talks about light being turned into darkness, and that word is used with regards to that. Bible also talks about turning your laughter into mourning. And it also is talking about that kind of change, that kind of alteration. And this word that is used and translated here as pervert or this alteration or change is talking about a change that is affecting that gospel message fundamentally. As much as light is from darkness and as much as is laughter to mourning, it is entirely different because of that perversion, because of that alteration.

And what Paul is simply saying here is if you add any works to grace, that gospel is like light to darkness. It is not the same. It's such a perversion that it fundamentally changes in its very essence. To illustrate this best would be the same as if I added poison to water. If I add poison to water, let me ask you, is what I give you water or is it poison? It's poison. No one calls water that contains poison water because it has been fundamentally changed by the addition, the perversion, by the corruption. And in like manner, what Paul is saying here is you add works to grace, you essentially have poured poison into water, and if you drink that poison, you will die. And he wants the churches of Galatia to understand the severity of what it means to turn away to another gospel from God.

Go to Galatians chapter 3, verse 10; look at how it was being altered. Paul, we know by what he's addressing or what he says, we know what by what he was addressing. It says, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things which are written in the book of the law to do them.' But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for 'the just shall live by faith.' Yet the law is not of faith, but 'the man who does them shall live by them.' Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,' that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

And what Paul is showing us here is that these people were moving from the gospel of faith alone to a gospel that it was inclusive of the works of the law. And Paul was saying this is no gospel at all if you're going to mingle works with faith. Because what he's simply saying there is this, that anyone who wants to keep the law is a debtor to do the entire law. He says in verse number 10, "for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, because 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things which are written in the book of the law to do them.'" And what was happening in this church is they're saying, "We'll take some of the law and some of the law and some of the law and perfect our salvation by it." And Paul was saying, "You do that, you are under obligation to keep every one of those 613 laws, and if you don't keep them perfectly, you are under the curse." But Paul's whole argument is to say the cross of Jesus Christ was the very thing that dealt with the curse. It was the law that brought us under the curse because we could not keep it perfectly, and he's saying Christ became cursed for us. And so you want to go back to the very thing that cursed you because you couldn't keep it perfectly as a rule for your life? He's saying, "This is a perversion of the very gospel of Jesus Christ who died to do that which we could not do by keeping the law and imputing righteousness to us through faith in His name."

And Paul's saying, "I'm shocked that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel, and there are people that are troubling you in the church that are pouring that poison into that water, and you are drinking it. I can't believe it." And then he goes on in verses eight and nine. He says in Galatians 1:8-9, "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we've said before, so I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed."

Paul is commanding the church to respond in a certain way to those that trouble them. What Paul is essentially saying is he gives the imperative, the command here, a strong term, he says, "Let them be accursed," or as it is literally in the original language, "let them be anathema." Let them be anathema. Let those that trouble you be anathema. Let them be under the curse of God. That's what it means to be anathema. Anathema means that object which is devoted to destruction. That object which God Himself is, if I could say, cursing. That God is judging. That God is bringing the wrath of the violation of the law against them.

You know the blessings and cursings in Deuteronomy? This is the idea, and what Paul is saying is those that preach another gospel, those that teach you to add works to grace, he says you should regard them as people that are cursed by God. That's strong language. I mean, perhaps one of the strongest language ever to be found in all the Scriptures. "Let him be accursed." What would it mean for the church? Well, I think the only thing I can understand that it would mean for the church is that the church would practice discipline toward those ones, and they would be regarded as a heathen and a publican. One who was really under the curse of God. The judgment of God. All that they would practice discipline and deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Obviously, with a view to their restoration, but nevertheless, Paul does say these words, "let him be accursed."

Now, this is not personal. It's theological. Paul's saying, though we or an angel from heaven preaches any other gospel, let him be accursed. And then he goes on in verse number nine to say, if anyone preaches another gospel, let him be accursed. You know what his whole point is to say? It doesn't matter who it is. God is not a respecter of persons when it comes to His truth. That it doesn't matter if it's me, it wouldn't even matter, hyperbole, if it was an angel from heaven, and it wouldn't even matter if it was your best friend or your neighbor or your brother or your sister. What he simply is saying to you, if someone troubles the church of God with regards to another gospel in order to pervert the gospel, you have a duty before God to regard that one, yes, in pity, but to nonetheless regard them as cursed by God. God's not a respecter of persons, and it ain't personal. What Paul is helping us understand here is that the gospel of God's important. It's not personal. It's important. He wants the church to understand that this is not something that you negotiate with. This is not something that we're like, "Hey, it's not a big deal, you know, like whatever. We can work together in the gospel work, yeah, you have a different gospel than I do, but that's okay." It's not okay. It's not okay when the souls of men hang in the balance over that gospel message that is preached. It's not okay when people are brought out of the grace of Christ to another gospel, to be left in their works under the curse of God and under the judgment of God. It's not okay to watch someone drink poison and not be concerned about them, or to let someone poison the cup of your loved one. It's not okay, and what Paul is saying here is that the danger that comes from letting that other gospel permeate and pervade the true gospel and the church is that it would lead to the damnation of souls, and therefore, better you regard that one as damned than you yourself be damned and the entire church with you.

The gospel was once for all delivered unto the saints, and what Paul is saying is it is to be preserved. It is to be guarded, and I tell you now, it is to be preserved and guarded by the people of God. It is our duty as Christians to hold fast the gospel, to proclaim the gospel, to defend the gospel, and what Paul is saying here is that church of Jesus Christ down at Galatia, you need to draw a line in the sand somewhere. You just got to draw a line somewhere. It's a fitting response to draw a line when the gospel is about to be crossed. If the gospel is about to be perverted, you draw your line in the sand and say, "You're not going to pass through this. We're not going to let this gospel be corrupted," and what Paul is saying is it is important for the church to respond that way. If another gospel is a damnable heresy that damns men's souls to hell, what Paul is saying is that deadly heresy must be addressed. It cannot go on unchecked, and so we learn some things here from Paul's teaching.

We learn, first of all, that the gospel is an identifiable, definable, and final truth that cannot be added to or improved upon. Listen to what Paul says here. He says, "If we or an angel or anyone preaches another gospel than that which you have received, let him be accursed." What Paul is simply saying here is that that gospel is a message that is received, that you can identify, and you can use as a rule by which you judge every other gospel. That's really important. Do you have a definable, identifiable message of the gospel that cannot be added to? The church does. It's the message of the good news of Jesus Christ that Paul preached, that they received, that we have heard, that we have received. That there is one God, holy in heaven, who has called sinners into the grace of Christ, and as we looked at last week, He has done this by giving Himself for our sins, and that He has done this by coming to us as a deliverer and rescuing us from our sins, and He has done this according to His grace, and it is to be received through faith alone in Jesus Christ, that Savior. It is a message that teaches us that we cannot be justified by our works. We can never stand right in the sight of God. We can never be viewed as holy before God by the things that we do. We are viewed as holy and righteous before God by the work of Jesus Christ and His work alone. This is that gospel that was brought to the people of Galatia. This is the gospel that was safeguarded, and it's a clear, identifiable, definable, final truth that God has brought to His people.

It is not the ethical teachings of Jesus. You hear people talking about the gospel, and then all of a sudden, they break into the Beatitudes. You're thinking, "Mate, where are you going?" You ask someone, "What is the gospel?" They say, "Oh, the Ten Commandments." They really don't know what's going on there. Regulations, you'll find out that it's definitely not the Ten Commandments. You ask someone, "What is the gospel?" They say, "Yes, yes, we read them every day, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John." What is the gospel? It's just the story of Jesus. Is it just the story of Jesus? What about the story of Jesus? And what's the response there? The gospel is something that may be obeyed. We obey the gospel. How do we obey it? Well, it calls us to repentance and faith. Some people say, "Yes, the gospel, yes, yes, of course, we receive grace through a sacramental system of works. We just do what the church tells us, and we go through, you know, baptism, we go through this. This is the gospel. This is how we receive God's grace." That is not necessarily a message that may be received and a message that has power to save, is it? That sounds like something a sinner has to do in order to be justified.

And that is not the gospel. And the question then comes to us, can you define the gospel? Can you, right now, in your heart, in your mind, define what the gospel of Jesus is? What that message that came to you in your sin, that rescued you from this present evil age, that brought you into the grace of Christ? Do you know it? Can you share it with someone else? Do you know it as a clear, true reality in your life? I'm afraid that many people that profess to know Jesus Christ, that even sit in evangelical churches today, cannot delineate and describe to you the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But Paul also goes on to show us, not only that it's a message that may be received and therefore is a definable thing that we can judge other messages by and truths by, but he goes on to show us that it's exclusive to having a relationship with God. He says, "I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him or so soon turning away from Him who called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel." As I mentioned before, I'll say again, what Paul's saying here is you cannot have another gospel and have Him. Let me say that again: you cannot have another gospel and have a relationship to Him. A true saving relationship to God can only be had by the true gospel, so that their turning away from that gospel was a turning away from Him. No one who believes in another gospel knows God in a saving way, and therefore we must not be deceived. Jesus said, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also." And what you think of Christ and what you think of His work determines your knowledge about what you think of God.

And what Jesus is telling His disciples, and what Paul is even saying this, whatever's come to you has come from Jesus Christ and God the Father because they are harmonized in unity concerning the grace of Christ. God sent His Son into the world to save men and women from their sins, and therefore, what God says of His Son, you should believe of His Son. That's a very important truth, isn't it? How many people today think that people of other religions know God? That they have a true relationship with God? They use the God talk, they mention things about God, they might even know scriptures concerning God. The Jews knew a lot about God. The Judaizers, in fact, knew a whole lot about God, and they knew a whole lot about the scriptures. But Paul says, "You follow their gospel, you're turning away from Him." Which indicates that those that were troubling them were not in a true relationship to Him.

You see, what Paul is helping the church to understand is that the gospel is exclusive. It's exclusive to a relationship with God. You cannot know God apart from the gospel. You cannot have a true, genuine relationship with God—I mean, know Him in a saving way—experimentally and mentally and knowing Him truly without knowing the gospel. Which means it's not enough when people say, "I know God." Tell me about Christ. Tell me about the gospel. Because it seems today that in the church today—and I talk very broadly when I say the church—is that there is this understanding that all the religions, they know God, whether they're Muslim, whether they're Hindu, whether they're Buddhist, whatever they are, and it's all good. We all worship the same God. You've heard that before, I'm sure. We all worship the same God. We all know the same God. We're all just praying to the same God. I want to ask you that. Is Paul saying that in this passage? Not at all. He's saying you don't know that gospel, you don't know God. You turn away from that gospel, you turn away from God. And that's really important because no matter the cloud and air of religiosity in the world today, a true knowledge of God that's saving only belongs to those who really know Christ and God through the gospel.

Having your gospel right is vital to your relationship with God, and therefore, what Paul says is that there is no other gospel. There is no other good news. There is no other message that will bring you to Him. You want to turn away from Him, where are you going to go? He has the words of eternal life. It is His truth that saves. It is His gospel that delivers us from darkness and brings us into the kingdom of light. There's no alternative good news. There is no other gospel of grace. Everything else is a sham. Everything else is a fake. Everything else will cause your soul to be damned but the message that Paul brought to the churches of Galatia, by which I've just explained to you. There are not many roads that lead to God.

And it's not true that God is in every religion, and therefore, what Paul is telling the church here, it really matters what you believe about the gospel. It really matters what you believe about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It really matters. The ecumenical council of the 1940s and '50s, around that period of time, was marked by a breakthrough, apparently, in Christianity, where the Roman Catholic Church opened up their doors to the other religions, and the Pope had them all on stage as if they were all worshipping the same God. The Spiritist, the Muslim—it is even commonly understood that the Catholic Church believes that they find God and receive grace in whatever way that they do, even though it's not true. Of course, it's not right, and the way that they teach, they believe is right, but they believe that God's grace is extending to all those other places as well, in our own unique way. What does Paul say? No. It's another gospel. It's another God.

What I mean by that is there may be aspects of what they believe of God to be true. But their relationship to God cannot be had apart from the true gospel. And that's part of the deception. A bit of poison still water, but it's poison, and that's the thing, what Paul's trying to bring out here, and therefore, we as God's people must understand the importance of the gospel and not treat it just like anything else. We should safeguard it. We should believe it. We should learn it. We should teach it to our children. We should hear it preached from the pulpit week in, week out. We should make it known to the nations as the only hope of salvation for the world, and what is so troubling about the church of Jesus Christ today is that a lot of people can explain to you some of their pet doctrines, but when you get back to the gospel and ask them what is the gospel, then they start to stumble, and they're not so versed in that heart of their faith.

Be careful of the dangers of moving away from a clear gospel message. Some people turn away from the gospel because they're attracted to the outward forms of certain religion and the tradition, and to them, that is more glorious than the gospel. The atmosphere, the aesthetics, the feeling that the religion brings to the person makes them feel like they're having an encounter with God, but my friend, there is no encounter with God apart from the gospel. How do we reach God but through the gospel of Jesus Christ?

There are so many people that would rather stay with their tradition and perish because it makes them feel warm, but we should be so committed to the gospel that when I hear it said time and time again, my heart is warmed. "I love to tell the story," says the hymn writer, "to those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. And when, and when in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song, it will be the old, old story which I have loved so long." I got news for you, dear people of God, that in heaven, there will be no new message that we'll be hearing, but the old gospel that saves. We will be singing the praises of the Lamb who purchased us with His blood, people out of every kindred, out of every tribe and every tongue and every nation, and we will be bowing before Him with wonder, love, and praise, praising the Lamb that was slain. And if we are looking for anything else rather than the Lamb, and we want to glory in anything else rather than the Lamb, if we are finding our assurance in anything else rather than the cross of Jesus Christ, beware that we are moving away from Him who called us to the grace of Christ.

We need to love Him; we love Him by His gospel. Paul says to the church at Corinth, "I declare to you the gospel which I preached unto you, by which you also are saved, in which you stand, and he says by which you also are saved if you hold fast that word which I preached unto you unless you believed in vain." You know what he's saying? Hold fast the word I preached to you; that's the gospel. Don't hold fast your preferences and your traditions and your other things. Make sure you got two hands firmly gripped on that gospel. Hold fast to it. In Hebrews chapter two, verse one to three, says, "Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" Do not think because you attend church week after week that you are not in danger of turning away from Him who called you into the grace of Christ. You've got to hold fast the gospel with all your heart. Hold, believe, proclaim, and make known. Draw your line in the sand theologically and say, "Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God," and defy all false gospels as false, and do not be ashamed of the reproach that may come for bearing the name of Jesus Christ, and do not be deceived. The Judaizers believed in Jesus, but Paul said, "Let them be accursed." The Judaizers believed the Bible; they referenced the Bible, but Paul says, "Let them be accursed." The Judaizers may have been good men in human standards, but Paul says, "Let them be accursed." If they're leading people away from Christ, then they're not good. In fact, if anyone understands the gospel, we understand that there is none good.

And so we wouldn't be worried about good, if I could say, be worried about God's truth. And so, may God keep us from becoming naive to the theological dangers that surround us. May God help us to be as passionate as Paul and marvel when we see others turning from another gospel and give us a heart and love to say to them, "Please, be careful. Watch out, there's danger there. Danger that will damn your soul." We should not have affiliation with heretics. For what fellowship has light with darkness? What concord has Belial and God, or Satan and God? These things ought not to be so. Can two walk together except they be agreed? The resounding answer with regards to that is no. And so let us be unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us pray.