Thank You Mark again for leading us. What a beautiful morning! Good to see you all here this morning. Welcome! We're beginning a new book this morning in our Sunday studies. We just finished the book of Joshua last week in Joshua chapter 24, and I want to say again what a tremendous encouragement it has been for me to teach and preach through the book of Joshua. I learned a lot, enjoyed it very much. I hope that the Lord used it for your edification as well.

We're gonna shift gears a bit and go back to a New Testament epistle this morning written to the church. And I believe this epistle is one of the most important that we could study at this time with the circumstances and condition of the evangelical church. The first message I preached at Living Hope Church was in Galatians 1 verses 6 to 10 on Non-compromise, and that was, if I remember correctly, August of 2005, so just about 17 years ago. Sometime shortly thereafter, I preached through the letter to the Galatians. 

But it's been a long time, and of course most of you were not here for that. The Arnswalds are here this morning. They were probably here for that. Welcome, good to see you guys! This is not an easy book to preach. There are some very hard things here, especially by way of implication and application for us. Paul is pretty worked up about what's going on in the churches there in Galatia concerning the perverting of the gospel of Christ. 

He had traveled into that region. Galatia is a region, not a city. And there were several churches in those cities. Paul had gone in, preaching the gospel. He had fruit there, founded churches, and now they were drifting away. They were being taken captive by hollow and deceptive philosophy. In his writing, he is very direct, very serious, and forcefully corrective. He's going to come out with both barrels blazing right here at the beginning of chapter 1. 

But this is a message that the church needs today. Each of us as believers in Jesus Christ must come to terms with and understand if we are going to have a right understanding of the gospel and be effective as ministers of that good news, as ambassadors for Jesus Christ. Our brothers and sisters in Christ, if we, the church, the believers in Jesus Christ, don't have a clear understanding of the gospel and the application of that truth that we must make as witnesses, then who will bring the truth to the world? 

Who will lead men to faith in Jesus Christ? For it is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation, and faith comes by hearing, specifically hearing a message about Jesus—an accurate message, a clear message. Well, legalistic Jews, sometimes called Judaizers, were following Paul wherever he went. He was going into these Gentile regions and preaching the gospel of grace, and God was saving those who believed. Churches were founded, there was great fruit. 

But then these false teachers were coming in and preaching another gospel, another way, which Paul says is not another. It's not good news at all. They were confusing the brethren, they were perverting the gospel and causing a great disruption to the furtherance of the gospel and the growth of the church. There is no more important matter; there is nothing that matters more than the believer in Jesus Christ having a clear understanding of the gospel if he is to be effective as a witness.

And also, if he's to live not by the letter, but by the Spirit. That's sort of the second theme that runs through this epistle is freedom in Christ—that we have liberty in Christ, that we're no longer under the law. But now we live by the Spirit, and the Galatians, we will see, were going back to the law as a rule of life, and that was inhibiting their growth as well as not having a clear message for the lost. 

I'm afraid that we in the church today have many who have been affected by this kind of false teaching, have, as Paul writes, put up with false teachers in a false way and led themselves into confusion and ineffectiveness, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. It's my great desire that every believer at Living Hope Church has an abundantly clear understanding of the gospel, a great ability to discern a false message and false teachers, and the courage to identify them and warn the brethren concerning them. 

For my brothers and sisters, the gospel is at stake and the eternal lives of men are what is at risk if we don't have the gospel right and the fortitude to apply this great truth to those who would trouble you, confuse you, and pervert the gospel of Christ. This was the heart of Paul as he wrote these words, and it is my heart as we begin a difficult but vitally important study of the book of Galatians. Let's look at Galatians 1 at verse 1. 

Paul an apostle, not from men nor through man, 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 away so soon from him who called you in 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 that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema, 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 please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. I'll have four points for you on our outline: first, perverting the gospel; second, why it matters; third, doing hard things; and fourth, true love. 

From the very beginning of the church, we see by the epistles written by Paul, James, Jude, and Peter that there were false teachers continually seeking to twist and pervert the gospel of Christ. This is the work of Satan and his ministers, his demons, and his representatives. We learn in 2nd Corinthians 11 that they do their best work in the pulpits of churches.

If you turn to 2nd Corinthians 11 with me, please, we will read that passage that Paul wrote to Corinth. In Corinth, he also had false teachers that were attacking him and undermining his authority and his apostleship, saying that he was not a true apostle, saying that they had the authority. 

2nd Corinthians 11:1, he says, "Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly." He doesn't want to defend himself, but it's necessary for him to defend himself in order to defend his authority and his message. He says, "And indeed you do bear with me, for I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it. 

For I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles. Even though I am untrained in speech, yet I am not in knowledge, but we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things. Did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you, and when I was present with you and in need, I was a burden to no one, for what I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied.

And in everything, I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself. As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows. But what I do, look at this verse, what I do, I will also continue to do that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. 

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. We're going to see that one of the central tactics of the evil one through his false teachers was to attack the authority of God's messengers—in this case, Paul. 

We see the same thing in the book of Galatians. The first two chapters are written to defend his apostleship. They attacked the message; they perverted the gospel, preaching another Jesus, but they also attacked the messenger. Remember, at this time, there was no New Testament. The scriptures were not complete. The church heard the doctrine of the Apostles. God bore witness with them with signs and wonders to confirm that their message was from Him. 

But the teaching rested with the Apostles and their associates and successors. If Satan could undermine the confidence of the believers in the Apostles, such as Paul, if they could set themselves as the authority from God or from the church in Jerusalem—from James, the brother of Jesus, as the Judaizers attempted to do, then they could undermine the teaching, the doctrine, the very message of the gospel, the truth concerning Jesus Christ. 

We see the same thing in the church today. False teachers seek to undermine the authority of the Word of God and point us to all kinds of wisdom in the world—the wisdom of men. They seek to twist, to pervert it, to lead believers from the Word of God. In the time of the early church, the Apostles' ministry, the attack was on the authority of Paul, the Apostles, and their doctrine. In our day, it is an attack on the authority of the Word of God as our sole source of truth in all things that pertain to life and godliness. 

So in Corinth and in Galatia, Paul was constantly attacked as to his calling, his ministry, his apostleship, his authority. We will see this as a central theme in Galatians, especially in those first two chapters. But the same was true here in Corinth where false teachers were preaching another Jesus. He says, "Did you know that there is another Jesus?" Paul says, "I fear." I fear for you that if someone comes to your town, to your church, preaching another gospel, another Jesus, you may well put up with it. You may be deceived from the simplicity that is in Christ. 

This was the case in the region of Galatia. The legalistic Jews had come from Jerusalem, and they were against Paul. They were seeking to undermine his authority, his message, directly attacking him. The message they preached was heteros, Paul says—a different, another gospel—not homo, hetero, you know, different, not the same. Paul says, "which is not another." He says, "It's not good news!" This message they preached of faith plus works, I mean all you have to do is keep the law.

I remember years ago when I came home from church one day when we lived in Pence. We pulled up, and I saw the Jehovah's Witnesses were at the neighbor's door and they were coming my way. And of course, I had just come from church and had my Bible, and I got out. My wife went in the house and I went and stood under the pine tree waiting on them to come down the sidewalk. 

These three young men came and they started talking to me, wanting to give me literature. I said, "Let me just ask you this. What do I have to do to go to heaven?" And they said, "Well, you can't go." I said, "Oh, yeah? Sorry. How do I get to the good place? Alright, how do I get one?" And they said, "Well, you need to keep the law." I said, "What do you mean, need to keep the law? Well, you shall not murder, shan't commit adultery." So I said, "Boys, how's that going for you? How's it going for you keeping the law to earn your righteousness?" 

And two of them, they were just there to meet an obligation. But the one engaged me, and we talked quite a bit. But the point is, it's not good news. If someone says to you you need to keep the law in order to make it to heaven, why? Because there is no law which can be given, Paul says, which man can keep. If man could earn his own righteousness by keeping a law, then such a law would have been given. 

But the truth is, it's not a good message. It's not good news. It's damnation to hell when you seek to establish your own righteousness. It's a perversion of the gospel. These Judaizers taught faith in Jesus. They taught that a man must believe Jesus and his death, burial, and resurrection. They preached that you must believe Jesus, but they added to that works. They taught that in addition to faith, a person must be circumcised and he must keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. 

They had a council meeting concerning this in Acts 15. Turn over to Acts 15. We'll look at that passage. Acts 15:1, "And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, 'Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.'" 

"Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question." I love that phrase. "They had no small dissension and dispute with them." Can you imagine what that looked like with Paul there and Barnabas? Paul was serious about this; this was the gospel. 

"So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy to all the brethren. And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them. But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying, 'It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.'" 

Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter, and when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them, "Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God who knows the heart acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 

Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? That's the law he's referring to. But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved in the same manner as they." Then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul, declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles. 

We're going to see, when we get to chapter 3, a little bit of a transition where Paul begins to talk about the life of the believers in that church and how they were being affected by this idea of the law as a rule of life or binding the law upon the believers. He begins to talk about walking, and he says, "Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit?" 

They were saved by grace through faith. "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect?" That's sanctification. Being made perfect—how you live, how you walk, being transformed outwardly to what's consistent with who you are inwardly. "Are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" In other words, "Were you saved by grace through faith and now you're being sanctified by keeping the law?" Paul says, "You're foolish. You're foolish." 

And Peter stands up and makes the same statement here. We're not justified by the works of the law; we're not sanctified by the works of the law. But salvation is entirely by God's grace because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. If you look at verse 5 again in that text, it says, "Some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses." 

My brothers and sisters, as we move through our study of the book of Galatians, we're going to make some hard applications. These men were perverting the gospel. They were troubling the believers. We will see that even Peter got caught up in this. And Paul says, "I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed." He was confusing the situation when he withdrew himself. 

You know, he was down there with the Gentiles in Galatia, having a great time with Paul, having a ham sandwich, and then all of a sudden, here came the Judaizers, the legalistic Jews. What did Peter do? He withdrew himself. He wouldn't eat their food anymore. He sat with the Pharisees. Paul withstood him to his face. I'm afraid, I fear, as Paul says, that we have a much more widespread problem with this in the evangelical church today. 

And the essence of Paul's warning is that a man must be judged by what he preaches and teaches according to the gospel. We see some very strong words in the first verses of this chapter. There are no flowery introductions or even any commendations as we find in every other letter that Paul wrote. He always starts out telling them about what they're doing right. Not in Galatians. He jumps right in. Paul is right. He's right to it. He's not playing around. 

If anyone, even I or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel, let him be cursed to hell. This word of cursed is to be assigned to judgment, to be separated from God, destined to the lake of fire. This is how serious this is, my friends, and this heresy is rampant in the world of Christendom today, and it is troubling, affecting, leading astray the true churches and true believers in the evangelical world. 

It is a faith plus works perversion of the gospel. So the question is, why does it matter? Why does it matter? I mean, can't we all just get along? I mean, isn't it better that we just compromise a little bit as not to offend? What does Paul say about the gospel? The gospel is an offense. And my friends, we shouldn't be offending at other points when it's not necessary, but we should be offending at the point of truth. 

We should be offending at the point of the gospel. We should be pointing out those who are false teachers and telling men the truth in love. That's what this is all about. Why does the perversion of the gospel matter? It matters because without the truth, no one can be saved. Apart from hearing the true message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus alone and His finished work on the cross, His death, burial, and resurrection, apart from this clear message, a man cannot believe and be saved, receiving the very righteousness of God by faith. 

So any perversion of the gospel must be damned, and anyone who preaches a false gospel must be accursed. Now I can stand here and preach loud and clear, "Do you believe Jesus? Do you have faith in Him? Do you believe in salvation by grace through faith alone in Jesus alone?" And I believe most everyone here would affirm these truths, would give a hearty amen, and feel good about that. But what if we make application of this truth in our world as Paul and Jesus and Peter and Jude and James did in their time? 

In John 8, Jesus told the Pharisees they were sons of Satan. In Matthew 23, He said they were whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones, the blind leading the blind into a ditch. Listen to the words of Peter, 2 Peter 2.1. He says, "But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction, and many will follow their destructive ways." 

That's what matters, my friends. Many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the truth will be blasphemed. This is exactly the issue that Paul's dealing with in Galatia—false teachers teaching lies and destructive heresies and drawing away the brethren from the truth. Turn over to Jude with me. 

I remember years ago I was preaching in Jude and Dr. Jim would get up here and read the text and I'd lean over to Bobby and say, "Am I preaching on that?" I mean, these are strong words in Jude. Jude 1.3. He says, "Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." 

Jude says, "I really wanted to write something nice. I really wanted to encourage you and write about the gospel and our salvation. But I found it necessary, I was compelled because of what's going on in the church, to encourage you to contend earnestly for the faith—the body of truth, the Bible—that which was delivered to us. He says, 'For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation—ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.'" 

"But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of that great day, as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." 

"Likewise also, these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.' But these, these false teachers, they speak evil of whatever they do not know, and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah." 

Think about those examples. They've gone the way of Cain, self-righteousness, works, envy, murder. They've run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit. Peter says they're in it for the filthy lucre in the old King James. They're in it for the money. And they've perished in the rebellion of Korah. What did Korah do? He challenged God's authority. He challenged the man whom God set as the authority over them, and the earth swallowed him up. 

"These are spots in your love feast." This word here means it's like a rock in a shipping channel. You imagine if you're in your boat and there's a big rock just beneath the surface and it's going to rip open the hull and sink your boat. "They're in your love feast. They're in the communion service with the believers in the church. While they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water. They make all kinds of promises. They never deliver. They're carried about by the winds—late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots—raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame, wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." 

You get the idea that God takes false doctrine very seriously? And why does it matter? Because a false gospel sends men to hell. And if believers are confused, drawn away, putting up with, affirming those who preach another Jesus—a Jesus who cannot save, a Jesus who is insufficient, who is not the Jesus of the Bible—then there's no hope for the lost. 

My brothers and sisters, it matters that we get the gospel right, and I know you would affirm the truth of the gospel. What if I said by way of application that the Roman Catholic Church is a false church that preaches a false gospel and is accursed by God? Are you good with that? Do you affirm that? Because it does. It preaches faith plus works—that salvation is by good works, religious rituals, sacraments, not by grace through faith alone. 

I can quote doctrine from Vatican Council II, I've read it all. They had a council like they had in Acts 15—a council in Trent—where they made dozens of anathemas, accursed against anyone who would say you're not saved by works. They say that you must be baptized to enter the church. You enter the church through baptism as through a door. And if you are not in the church, there's no salvation. 

They say that Jesus Christ's sacrifice was insufficient, that by our sufferings and our good works and our giving, we make up for what was lacking in Christ's sacrifice. What if I said that those who add baptism to faith in Jesus for salvation—such as the Lutheran churches and Martin Luther himself, who wrote in the Augsburg Confession that baptism is necessary for salvation and that the faith of God is imparted to the infant through the waters of baptism—what if I said that he's a false teacher? Would you affirm that? 

Any man or church who preaches another gospel is accursed. Anyone who adds works or rites, rituals, or sacraments to grace and faith alone for salvation is no different than the Judaizers in Galatia. And we as believers in Jesus Christ must come to terms with these truths and make these applications in our lives, our communities, and our families if we are going to bring the gospel message to them. 

Who's going to preach to grandma if we just have some minor doctrinal differences? We can have minor doctrinal differences; that's okay. We can't disagree on the gospel. We must have the clear, pure gospel of grace, and we must bring it to our lost loved ones in our lives, our religious friends and family. What does a church teach? What does a man preach? 

The heart of the message here by Paul is to judge him by his gospel. If it is not clear, if it adds anything to Jesus, then call out, warn the brethren, and recognize he is accursed from God. Romans 16:17, Paul says, "I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple." 

The word "note" here means to call out publicly by name, to warn the brethren about those who cause divisions and offenses. What's the criteria? Contrary to the doctrine which you learned? And make yourself aloof from them. Avoid them. I fear that if someone preaches another gospel, another Jesus, you may well put up with it. You may well tolerate it. There are many false gospels tolerated by the evangelical church today, and it causes confusion and an unclear message and witness and ineffectiveness and unfruitfulness in the church. 

And this is why, my friends, we must do hard things. We must do hard things. Mark 16:15, Jesus said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." That's a hard thing. Jesus also told them they’ll be hated, that even their own family members will turn against them. They will be persecuted, taken before judges, imprisoned, and even martyred because of their witness for Him, because they would speak the truth. These are hard things. 

Jude 1:23, "But others saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh." When we speak the truth in love, we are rescuing men from the fire. We are pulling them away from lies and error and certain damnation and bringing them into the truth. This is serious business, my friends. The eternal destiny of the souls of men is at stake, and we are the messengers. We are the sent ones, the heralds of the good news. 

Let's be clear. Let's be clear concerning the gospel. There is no love apart from the truth. So often the charge is laid that those who speak the truth—who warn the brethren, point out false doctrine and false teachers—are unloving, and it can be done in an unloving way for sure. But this is the furthest thing from the truth, because love can only be based in truth. 

To lie to someone to make them feel better is not loving, especially considering the gravity of eternity. And to affirm a false church, a false teacher, a false gospel is not loving. It's very dangerous. The entire purpose of the local body of believers, the reason we meet here together, is to be built up in the truth, to keep us from error, to equip and prepare us to go out and do the work of ministry, particularly evangelism. 

This is what Paul talks about in Ephesians 4. He gave some to be pastor-teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Listen to verse 14: "That we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting." 

But speaking the truth in love. Speak the truth in love, my friends, but please speak the truth. And if these things are hard, if there's a bit of confusion about the clear gospel—the application of it in our world—then keep studying, keep coming to fellowship, and grow and hear the Word so that we might no longer be children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. This is what we see in so much of the evangelical church today. No truth, no teaching, no doctrine, no courage in preaching; and therefore, believers are blown like the wind. They're tossed to and fro from this to that with no discernment and no fruit.

In John 15, Jesus tells us that we will be His disciples for an express purpose. What is that purpose? That we would bear much fruit for the glory of God. The Scriptures make abundantly clear that fruit, sanctification, and evangelism are by the Word of God. They're by the truth of God. Apart from the truth, there's no love, there's no salvation. 

Jesus, Paul, James, Peter, Jude—they all confronted false teaching and false teachers head-on, dispelling the error with the truth, but they were willing to tell it like it is for the sake of the brethren and the purity of the gospel. Those who teach a false way of salvation are not a little off. We don't just disagree on some minor doctrines. Even though they claim the name of Jesus and faith in Him, if they add anything to Jesus, they pervert the gospel and lead men to hell. 

They are ministers of Satan, Paul says, masquerading as angels of light, and they must be silenced. Turn to Titus 1.5 with me, please. Titus 1 at verse 5. Now Titus was a son in the faith of Paul, who was a protege, he was raising him up to be a pastor, and he says in Titus 1.5, "For this reason I left you in Crete." 

Why did Paul leave Titus in Crete? "That you should set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. If a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of dissipation or insubordination, for a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God—not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled—holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convict those who contradict. 

For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision," listen to this, "whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not for the sake of dishonest gain." Here Paul points out the Jews, the circumcision, the Judaizers as those who teach a false gospel, and he exhorts Titus to shut their mouths with sound doctrine. This is his role in the churches on Crete—to appoint elders in every city to oversee, to protect the believers, to teach them the truth, to refute the error. 

Who are the false teachers, the most dangerous to the church? The ones who teach another Jesus—a Jesus who cannot save, a Jesus who's insufficient, a Jesus who points you to yourself and your works and your own righteousness? Notice the words of Paul in those first verses of Galatians. 

Paul, an apostle, he says, "Not from men nor through man, 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." Now listen to this: "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." 

God chose Paul; God sent Paul; Jesus met with Paul. Look at verse 4, speaking of Jesus: "Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil age." How does this salvation work? What is the essence of the gospel? It is God who willed to save us. It is God who designed the way of salvation, who carried out this plan in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who gave himself for our sins. It is Jesus who delivered us from this present evil age. 

It is Jesus who accomplished our salvation at the cross when He said, "It is finished," and He suffered the wrath of God for all the sins of the world. It is Jesus who did the work of salvation by His death, burial, and resurrection, and God declared Him to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. Just exactly what did you do in all this? Just exactly what did you do to earn your salvation, to contribute to the saving work of Jesus? Nothing. Nothing. Jesus paid it all. 

All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow. Salvation is by grace through faith alone and Jesus alone. It is not by works of righteousness that we have done, but by His mercy He saved us. By grace through faith, by imputation of His righteousness to us, by faith because of what Jesus did. Let's close with Romans 4. Turn over to Romans 4:1, please. Paul has just explained clearly the gospel in Romans 3:19 to 26. 

He said that salvation is not by works, not by the law, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets through faith in Jesus Christ. Now if you look at Romans 4:1, Paul says, "What then shall we say that Abraham our father is found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." 

Listen to these stunning words. "Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness." Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin." 

Salvation comes not by works, but by grace through faith in Jesus. God imputes His righteousness to us when we turn from our own self-righteousness and our religion and our works, and we turn to Jesus in faith alone. God makes us fit for heaven. He does that. Anyone who would pervert this gospel, who would bind the believers with the law, require religious work or sacrament for salvation, or add anything to the completed work of Jesus for our complete salvation, steals the glory from God. 

God gets all the glory. Why? Because He is the one who saves me by His grace through faith in His Son. Anyone who preaches another gospel, another Jesus, must be marked out, noted, and we must understand that this false message comes directly from the one masquerading as an angel of light. And we must have the courage to condemn, to warn against false teachers and a false gospel, for the souls of men, the gospel of Christ, and the glory of God are at stake. 

It's the false teaching, the lies, the error that we hate. It's not the people. It's not the people caught in these things. And as I think about this book of Galatians, I think about teaching, this is not something I would say to lost people, right? They need to hear the gospel. But we as believers need to be clear about what the gospel is. And that's what this book is about. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for your Word, your truth. We thank you that you tell us the truth. We're thankful that you tell us the hard things. And Father, I just pray that you would help us to love men as you love men, be willing to love men enough to tell them the truth and to do that in a way that shows the love of Christ, shows our desire for them to be saved, your desire for them to be saved, to come to Jesus and place their faith wholly in Him. In Jesus' name we pray.