NC Chapels
Clint Chiles | Galatians 1:11-24
Good morning, good morning and what the sigma to each of you. You think it's weird me saying it, it's just as weird as when you guys say it, so it's good to be here. Open your Bibles, if you would, to Galatians chapter number one. I was contacted by Pastor Rexilius about preaching chapel, he goes, we're doing Galatians. What text? I said, I know what text I want, I want this certain text, I can't have it. I said, I bet your zanger took it, he goes, yes, he did. I said, fine, give me the next one and so that's where I'm at this morning. It's good to be together, I'm excited that you are going through the book of Galatians and I pray that our time together is profitable and God honoring. I'm going to read Galatians chapter one and I'm going to go verses 11 through 24. Galatians one, 11 through 24. I write, for I would have you no brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel, for I did not receive it from any man nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it, and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely jealous was I for the traditions of my fathers, but when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained within 15 days, but I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother. And what I am writing to you before God, I do not lie, that I went into the regions of Syria and Silesia, and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, "He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and they glorified God because of me." Let's open this morning with the Word of Prayer. Father in Heaven, we thank you for the opportunity to open the sacred scriptures this morning, the Word that you have given to us. Your Word is truth, Lord. And Father, as we jump into our text this morning, I pray that the Word of God will not return void, that it will accomplish its intended purpose, that if there are those here that do not know Christ, that today would be the day of salvation, and that for those who do know Christ, that we may take a good hard look at our lives and cherish Christ even more. Thank you for all that you do. It's in Christ's name, Amen. I have a confession to make. You may not know this about me, but I am a big Nebraska cornhusker fan, huge. In fact, you can often hear me yell just randomly in the car, "Go big red." You say that, "Now, Mr. Charles, if I know anything about you, you're not a huge Husker fan." No, no, you don't understand, like I really love it, I mean, huge. You say, "Mr. Charles, hold on a second." You clearly love your Iowa Hawkeyes. You brought an Iowa Hawkeye at bottle of the chapel. Your wife teaches English and has an entire shelf dedicated to the Iowa Hawkeyes and Caitlin Clark. I've seen you post on social media, Hawkeye stuff left and right. What do you mean? No, no, you don't understand. Ignore the evidence. I'm a Husker fan, and you look at me and you go, "What's going on, man?" You say, "Mr. Charles has lost it." He says he's one thing, but there's complete evidence the other way that he's not, and you'd be right. Why? Because what we say and do matters, we look at the evidence to find out whether something is true or not. You could say that about a lot of different things. In fact, when you have court cases and someone goes on trial, there's a prosecution, and there is a defense attorney who is going to do his best to look at the evidence to say the evidence points here or the evidence points there. So maybe the old question this morning would fit well for our property, our text. There's an old adage that says, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" In other words, if you claim to be a Christian, is there evidence that you really are? And for our text this morning, the purpose of our passage is a true saving face means a complete life change. To be saved is to be transformed from the inside out. The evidence of salvation, in other words, the evidence that you've truly repented of your sins and given your life to Jesus Christ is a transformed, changed life that bears God-honoring fruit. You cannot be a Christian and be unchanged. I'm going to say that slower, so you can write that down. You cannot be a Christian and be unchanged. Paul tells us clearly that the gospel is the power of God to salvation. It's a transforming work from the inside out. It's a complete overhaul of your inner man, your spirit. There is an old man, new man, you're changed. As you saw last week, maybe a quick introduction or a quick recap, Paul's writing to the church of Galatia, and he's angry, and we know that he's angry because of the issue at hand. This is the only New Testament letter that Paul writes in which there was no thanksgiving and no point does he say, "I thank God for you." We say, "Why is he angry?" Because what is at stake here is the gospel. We can fight over eschatology, we can fight over a mode of baptism, and we can have some fun debates on other things, but what we cannot mess around with is the gospel. You have to get it right because, again, it is the power of God to salvation. What had happened was, after Paul had come to Galatia and had started the church, he'd preached the gospel, people were saved, people learned as the Judaizers had come in and said, "That Paul, they were challenging the fact that he's not an apostle." They were challenging his gospel. You want to believe Jesus, that's fine, but you've got to keep the law as well, which is not the gospel. It's not believing Jesus and do good things, and then you'll be saved. That's a tampered gospel. It's not the gospel. So this morning, Paul is going to show us in verses 11 through 24 that the gospel he preaches is true, and he knows it's true because there's evidence of drastic change. So if you want a title for my message today, you can go, "Evidence of saving faith, if you will." I have divided the text into four points, if you will, and I'll give those to you here as we go. Number one is this, there is only one true gospel. So in order to move on, we've got to start with verses 11 and 12 and say, "There's only one real gospel." Again, verse 11, "For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel." In other words, when Paul came into southern Galatia, he comes bearing the message, the gospel, the good news, and the good news is this, is that although we are sinners, we deserve hell, we are born enemies of God by birth and by choice, the good news is that God in his kindness has sent his son Jesus to die for us, and that we can be saved through repentance and faith, we turn from our sins and give our life to Christ, and he says in verse 11, "The gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel." In fact, he says in verse 12, "For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." Paul says that his gospel was not from man, meaning it wasn't earthly or bound up. It wasn't something that someone had created. And then he tells us in verse 12, he says, "I didn't receive it from any man, nor was I taught it." In other words, the truth of the gospel actually didn't come to him from another person, which is how you and I would share the gospel. Paul's conversion was radical. Well, at some level, all conversion is. Every conversion is a miracle of God, but Paul's circumstances were a little different. As he tells us in verse 12, he says, "Nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." Now, I don't have time today to go back to Acts 9. Most of you are probably familiar with the conversion of Saul Tarsus. And what does Saul do? Saul is, we're going to see he's going around, he's doing his thing, and then boom, on the way to Damascus, it changes. Jesus reveals himself and says everything that you believe against me is wrong. This is all true, and he saved. And so when he starts out by saying, he says, "Listen, guys, the gospel I bring to you, I receive from Christ himself. I met Jesus on the road to Damascus. This is where I learn the gospel, and this is what happened." There are a lot of different imitations out there. I have a Ph.D. in Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper is awesome, I'll fight you on. I'll fight you on the gospel, and that Dr. Pepper is the greatest soda ever. But if you know anything about soda, there's always a knock-off. Probably the most famous is Mr. Pib. So I'll go to a restaurant, and I've done this before, I said, "Hi, I would like Dr. Pepper." So, no, we have Mr. Pib. It's like, "What do you eat?" That's not even the same thing. "Could you think you are offering me this trash? Don't do that." I'll go to Walmart and get Dr. Thunder and bring that to me and call it Dr. Pepper. It's not the same thing. There's only one. There's only one gospel, but there's many that claim to be the gospel. Again, what is the gospel? We need to define our terms, and I'm confident Mr. Zanger hit this well. The gospel, the good news, is that we are sinners, but although we are sinners, God sent his son, born of a virgin, who will descend this life, who laid his life down as an atonement, as an habitiation for our sins, who satisfied the wrath of God, and that those of us who turn from our sin, the Bible calls it repentance, and place our faith in Jesus are saved. That is the gospel. The gospel is that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. We have no hope apart from that, although you will hear others present what they would are used to gospel, but it's not. We believe in salvation. The Bible presents that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. So it's not, as a Judaism, it's not Jesus plus following the law. It's not Jesus plus baptism, it's not Jesus plus Mary, it's not Jesus plus good words. It's Jesus and Jesus alone that saves us. Please understand this, anytime you add anything to the gospel, you are watering down the work of Christ on the cross. In other words, Jesus' death is not enough to save you. You need to add something to it to make it happen, and that is a false gospel. Again, Romans 1, 16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for as the power of God to salvation to anyone who believes." There's only one gospel, and that's what Paul brought to Galatia. And his evidence of the truth, of the gospel that he preached, in other words, he's playing defense. He's on the defense. These Judaism attacked them, these people are starting to believe, well maybe Paul didn't bring the right gospel, maybe this is, you know, these people were in danger of being subverted by these Judaizers, so now Paul's on the defense, and what he's going to do now is he is going to bring evidence that the gospel that he preached was the real gospel. You say, "What evidence is he going to bring?" He's going to show his life. He's going to show his testimony. He's going to tell the Galatians, "Look at me and tell me that the gospel that I preach is a false gospel." Again, the main point of our entire text here is that when Christ saves you, he changes you from the inside out. You don't do the things you used to do. You don't think the way you used to think. You are free to actually honor God and glorify God the way you're supposed to. Okay, let's go move to our second point. Point number one, there's only one true gospel, and this is to our second point, Paul's life before Christ. I'll tell you right now how we're going to move. He's going to talk about his life before, what happened, and what happened afterwards, right? His life before Christ, his conversion, and his life in Christ now. So before I move forward, though, I need to define my term before Christ, what do you say? You say, what does it mean to be his life before Christ? Well, it means that before he was saved. It means in his unregenerate natural state, before he had been changed by God, this was the life that he lived. You have it before Christ, everyone does. When you live selfishly, you live your own way, you can live under delusion, under a lie, you can follow a false religion, a false gospel, but it's the life before Jesus shows up. So again, let's start with verse 11. He says, "For I would have you no brothers, but the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel, for I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." Verse 13, "For you have heard of my life in Judaism." Paul was a big deal, Paul was a big deal before his conversion, he was very popular. And he says, listen, I was so popular that you were aware of who I used to be. In fact, he tells us what he used to be, because this is very important for his testimony, verse 13. "For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it." You say, what was Paul like before? He was a champion of Judaism, which when we read the New Testament is what the Pharisees were part of, he was a Pharisee actually, is the idea that the traditions of man, in other words, you have the Bible, but then you have extra laws and rules that were man-made, and he focused on this and neglected Jesus as the truth of the Old Testament. So he is working in a works-based system like, man, look how good I am, I'm so spiritual. And he says in verse 13 that he was working his way up, oh, sorry, let's verse 14. Verse 13, "For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, so how would you characterize his life?" Verse 13, "He persecuted," in other words, "to persecute means to go after, to make life difficult, to take vengeance on someone for whatever reason." And he says here in verse 13 that who did he persecute? He persecuted the church of God. He hated Christians, and why did he hate Christians? Because he hated Jesus. You have to remember when Jesus came on the sea, I'm preaching through the Gospel of Luke right now. When Jesus came on the scene, he didn't have a halo and float three feet off the ground. He looked just like you and I. He went and he taught and spoke the truth of God's word. He didn't miracles. He raised the dead. He had quite the following and people were happy to see the miracles and to be fed and do all this stuff. But just because you see that doesn't mean you believe. The fame of Jesus had spread and Paul was very aware of that. And he hated Jesus because he knew Jesus' claim that he was the Messiah, the claim that he was the Son of God, the chosen one of God. So verse 13, he says, "You heard what I used to do. I persecuted the church." And how did he persecute the church of God? He tells us violently. It's one thing to make fun of somebody. It's one thing to verbally assault somebody. But he says he did it violently. What does that look like? And we know from Acts and in other places, he would take people and he would throw them into jail because they believed in Jesus. In fact in Acts 8, we see the first martyr, the stoning of Stephen and that passage closes us out by telling us that there's a young man watching us all take place. His name, Saul of Tarsus, we know him as Paul. He hated Christians and he hated anybody who would articulate that this Old Testament coming Messiah, the coming Savior was Jesus. Again, verse 13, "I persecuted the church of God, vilely, and what did you? I tried to destroy it. I want to wipe it out." I mean, that's a pretty strong hatred. That is a terrible disposition. So how would we summarize this? Not only is he doing with verse 14, but he says, "And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many in my own age, among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my father." In other words, not only was I persecuting the church, not only did I hate Jesus, I was doing so good at it. I was getting job promotions within Judaism. In other words, you're a young, it's a kind of like a business magazine, it's like an up-and-coming entrepreneur who's just doing really well, this is the religious version of that. Paul was smart, he knew his stuff, and he was persecuting, and he was advancing, man. He thought he had the life. He hated Jesus, he hated the church, he violently opposed it, he killed Christians, he inflicted pain upon them. As Ephesians tells us, "But God," this leads to our third point, God's sovereign intervention. Again, your first point, there's only one true gospel, and as evidence of that, now Paul's going to give his life, which is point two, Paul's life before Christ. Man, I hated Jesus. When you hate somebody, you realize that that's just not a superficial thing, to hate someone is a deep-seated heart-desire, and that's to be acted upon. I hate you within my soul, how dare you say that Jesus is the Messiah, we're going to take you out. In fact, I'm going to help the Jewish faith, the Judaism here, by wiping the church out, but God had other plans. Again, verse 13, "For you have heard of my life in Judaism," remember before Christ how I persecuted the church of God violently, and I tried to destroy it, verse 14, "and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age, among people, among my people." So extremely, Zealous, for the traditions of my fathers, verse 15, "But," a good old conjunction. It's just some English now, a conjunction, but he's going to contrast now this. I was doing this, but now I'm not doing it anymore because something happened. Something life-shattering, life-altering, verse 15, "But when he who had set me apart before I was born." Yes, the Bible tells us from Paul's own writing that before Christ, you and I are blind. In fact, Romans tells us, as you'll get to Mr. Zanger's Romans class, is that you are doubly blinded. Your sin blinds you and then Satan has blinded you. So you are born hating God even though you might know who he is. You don't love God as he has revealed himself because you don't see him. You don't see the beauty of God. So we are born, the Bible says, as God's enemies. We hate God as he is. So Paul says in verse 15, "But when he who had set me apart before I was born," in other words, that he was blind in his sin, but before he was even born, God had chosen to set him apart. In other words, I've got a plan for you, and what is that plan? It's to save him. I want you to look at me right now and understand this. In Acts 9, when Paul meets Jesus, he's not looking for Jesus. In fact, if he were to meet Jesus, I'm sure he'd probably want to take him out again. He hates him. But in verse 14, like we said, this is what I was doing. I was advancing in my own age, I was extremely zealous, I was 15, but when God who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace, in other words, he had chosen me before birth to save me, and he called me by his grace, which is unmerited for me. There was nothing in me where God says, "You know what? I think I just might save him." No, no. I think God's pleasure to do this. God would be perfectly holy and just to let all of us die in our sin, but God in his kindness tells Paul not you, and this decision was made in each one of the pasts. Verse 15, "But when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace," verse 16, "was pleased," I like that word. It's "pleased." God took pleasure in taking this wicked sinful man and saying, "You're mine." I think with some beautiful stories, if you've ever seen for the adults in the room, those dog commercials or animal commercials about animal cruelty, and they play Sarah McLaughlin in the background, they pull at your heartstrings, you've got to give money because you want to save an animal, right? Well, if you ever been around some of these animal shelters, some of these dogs come out of extremely terrible situations, they've been beaten, they've been abused, and so their disposition is what? They're angry. And what's neat and interesting is that when you take some of these animals and you put them around a caring and loving person, they treat this owner like it's an enemy, but then they realize that this thing is not in my enemy, it's beautiful and wondrous. It loves me. Now, you could say that's essentially the Christian face. We hate God. We don't like him, but God opens us and opens our blind eyes and we realize, "Oh, wow, what I hated is actually for me." So Paul verses 13 and verse 14, he is hating the church. He doesn't want anything. I'm stressing this for a reason, guys. He wants nothing to do with Christians. He's actively trying to destroy the church. He hates Jesus, but in verses 15 and 16, God chooses to open his eyes and to save him. Again, verse 15, "But when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son and me, why? In order that I might preach him among the Gentiles." But only did God save him, God saved him for a purpose. In other words, I'm going to save you and now I've only got a plan for you, you don't even know what it is yet. But what was the plan that he had already been saved for and he turned it he passed? Verse 16, "That I might preach him," who's him? It's Jesus. You say, "Hold on a second." He hates Jesus, he hates the church, he's killing Christians and God is going to save him and give him a message to declare and what is he declaring? The awesomeness and the centrality of Jesus of Nazareth. There's only one word to describe that, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing that God will take any of us and say, "You deserve hell, but I'm going to save you." Not because you've earned it, not because you've earned it, not because you're smarter, not because you're wiser, because I'm gracious and loving and kind. Welcome to my family. This leads us to our fourth point. Your first point again, there's only one true gospel and his evidence of that Paul lays down his testimony. So for your second point, Paul's life before Christ, then you see point number three, God's sovereign intervention. So what happens in his intervention? Again, Acts 9, he's on the road to Damascus, God opens his eyes, Jesus is there on the road and says, "Listen, you're persecuting me." And he recognizes the truth of what he's been hearing and he believes. Jesus of Nazareth truly is the Son of God, I believe. Remember, he's sent to Ananias' house where the faith is articulated more clearly. So we go from point number two, Paul's life before Christ, point number three, God's sovereign intervention to our fourth and final point, Paul's life after Christ. I'll make a passing comment. I had a theology professor tell me this in Bible college and I'll never forget it. He says, "If the Bible ever loses its wonderment, it's not the Bible's fault, it's yours." In other words, we, you and I, should be able to come to the Scriptures and see the beauty and the wonder of the truth therein. And if we ever come as believers and we open the Scriptures, it just becomes boring. It's not an issue with the Word of God, it's the issue with our heart. And for me, this Galatians passage here is one of those passages where how can you not read this and not be moved as a believer about the graciousness, kindness and love of God towards those of us who wanted nothing to do with him. Again, verse 15 going into the rest of our passage, but when he who had sent me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son and me. Why? Then I might preach him among the Gentiles, what happened? Verse 16, "I did not immediately consult with anyone." In other words, when I came a believer, I didn't run around and tell everybody. I've got to realize this was a massive change. He went from hating Jesus to now loving him and being equipped to preach the gospel to those who don't know him either. Again, verse 16, "I did not immediately consult with anyone," verse 17, "nor did I go to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me." In other words, I didn't immediately go check with people. I didn't even go to Jerusalem to talk to the apostles. Here's what I did, verse 17, "I went into Arabia and returned again to Damascus." I spent some time alone. Imagine if Paul being, again, we don't know his age, we'll say he's 30. You have believed one thing all of your life, all of your life. God sovereignly intervenes, and now you love what you hated. There's a rewiring that's going to take place, but it's a beautiful rewiring, because now Paul was reading the Old Testament with blind eyes, now that the Spirit of God indwells him, he sees the intended meaning of the text, and he says, "Oh my gosh, the Old Testament, the suffering Messiah was there the whole time. How did I miss it?" Jesus and blinds us. So once he comes to faith, he doesn't go anywhere. He spends time alone, if you will, so it's a time with God. Verse 18, "Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas." The word Cephas there is Peter. Three years after his conversion, he decides to go to Jerusalem, and he's going to see the head apostle. And the text tells us in verse 18 that he's going to stay with him 15 days apart from that verse 19, "But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother." That's the half brother of Jesus, the first pastor of the church in Jerusalem. He went and saw the head apostle, and he went and saw the pastor of the church in Jerusalem. And then he doubles down here in verse 20. He kind of, you know, you're telling a story, and then you've got to make a side comment like, "Listen to me. Focus here." Again, verse 20, he says, "In what? I am writing to you before God. I do not lie." In other words, understand what I'm trying to get at here. Again, verse 20, "And what I am writing to you before God, I do not lie." Verse 21, "Then I went into the regions of Syria and Silesia." So he went to Jerusalem, he leaves after 15 days. He goes into Syria, he goes into Silesia, then what? Verse 22. "And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea." That's hard for you to understand, but there used to be a time when not everybody had cell phones. Social media is a rather new convention. See, I'll date myself here. Okay. So, I mean, not like awkwardly, I'm going to take myself out on a date, although I should treat myself, girl, go, go. So the teachers, so we have Facebook, right? Some of us have Facebook, whatever. But I mean, before that, it was like MSN messenger, ALMS, AOL messenger. And remember, ICQ, some of our older folks here like me, ICQ, no, okay, anyways, hey, thank you. And you get our hips checked out afterwards together, maybe we can go, yeah, okay, good. But the idea is that you could take, today you could take a picture, oh, did you see this person? In other words, fame and all that kind of stuff happens, like, you can look up what a person looks like. You can get the details. There's probably a Wikipedia page about him, you know, there's a fan page or whatever. You're going to find out what a person looks like in a matter of seconds. Not so in first century Jerusalem. Jesus's fame came by word of mouth. He did his miracles, he taught, he raised the dead, and people would tell other people, oh my gosh, there's this guy, Jesus, and he can, he can raise the dead. There's a guy here, he's going toe to toe with the religious leaders, and he's putting them in their place. Come and see. That also works the other way. There's a guy by the name of solotarsis who is persecuting and killing Christians. There's no posters or pictures, hey, look out for this guy, look out for this guy, why? Because that's not a thing, all they knew is they heard what, this is what solotarsis does, this is what Paul does. So what's beautiful is that Paul comes to Christ, he spends some time away, he goes to Jerusalem, and now he's starting to go through these different churches. Again, verse 21, then I went to the regions of Syria and Silesia, and was, I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ, so they didn't know who I was, but watch, verse 23, they only were hearing, again, that's how information is transferred, it's an all tradition, this is, you talk, that's how we communicate during 1st century, they were only, they were only were hearing it said, what were they hearing? He who used to persecute us, remember solotarsis, remember what he used to do, he'd go, remember he killed Uncle Joe, he did all of that stuff, he was dispersed into the whole church, remember? verse 23, they only were hearing it said, he who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, he was killing Christians, and now he's proclaiming the message that he was killing people for preaching, verse 24, and they glorified God because of me, what happened salvation took place, and when you come to faith in Christ you go from hating Jesus, from not caring about Jesus, to loving and cherishing him as you're all, and that has ramifications, they have, Jesus have come in, they have attacked Paul's apostleship, they've attacked his gospel, and now he's on the defense, he says, listen, you know the gospel is true because I'm living evidence of a changed life, you just don't, it's like he football teams, it's like he changed his mind in politics, he went from hating something to loving something, you don't do that by nature, there has to be a supernatural intervention, what is that supernatural intervention, the gospel reaches your ears, God opens your eyes and you repent and believe. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, and the evidence of that, is that you live differently, you love the God that you hated, there's two things I want to say, in other words, when we read the text we study it, we say, oh that's great, but now we've got to take it and think through it, until the rubber meets this road type of stuff. So my first question is to everybody, to trust in Jesus as your savior is to be transformed, is to be made new. It's not like you get polished off, like something's dusty, and like, oh it looks better, no, it's to take something and to radically change it, Paul will tell us that the old man died and you have a new life. So my question for you this morning is simply this, have you been changed? You say, Pastor Glenn, I attend a Christian school, that wasn't the question. I love Nebraska Christian, but there are inherent dangers about living in a Christian bubble, because you can identify with a Christian, you can identify Christianity, but not actually be a Christian. Attending Nebraska Christian doesn't make you a Christian. Everything Church doesn't make you a Christian. Going to Oana, growing up, I love the Oana program, does not make you a Christian. Do you know what makes you a Christian? Seeing your sin for what it really is, repenting of it, and trusting in Jesus to save you. Maybe I should ask this a different way. Is Jesus precious to you? Because if he's not, I think we need to do some soul searching. If you can say that you're a Christian, look at me now, if you say you're a Christian, and there's not been a life change from the inside out, we have to say, okay, let's hold back a second. I'm not saying you live a perfect life, because none of us do. But if you say I'm a Christian, and you used to look at pornography, and you still do, come on now, or you looked at dirt, you were in the dirty jokes and all that kind of stuff, and you still do that stuff, or you say you place your faith in Jesus, but nothing's really changed. We need to go back and look at the root here. What did you mean that you trusted Christ? Do you understand the gospel? It may be here that some of you really didn't understand it. Most of you guys know I sub, some of you guys know I sub at Central City a handful of times. It's my little mission field. And I can't tell you how many kids I run into, who when they find out I'm a pastor, they say, "I'm a Christian." I say, "Oh, okay." And you just start probing very lightly, and you find out very quickly what they think Christianity is and what biblical Christianity is, two different things. And it hurts my heart. When I, seven years ago, when I accepted the call to come to Grace Bible Fellowship, I had a pastor friend tell me, "Why are you going to Nebraska?" And his idea was like, it's difficult. He said, "If all the places in the world are going to Nebraska be different because people everywhere think they're already Christians." One pastor says it well. He feels like he's a missionary to the reached. I've got to get people to see what the gospel really is and see that people who think they're Christians, you know what? I don't believe this. I believe what you're saying and show them that they're not. So students, I think we need to take a good soul heart check, have I repented of my sins and give them my life to Christ, and is there evidence of that in my life? And can I say this as well, if you say pastor, "Clin, I'm not saved." You know, I've been living a lot. You know, we could, we're really good about deceiving other people, but you know who you can't deceive God and yourself. You can self-swindle pretty well, but deep down, you give evidence to your sin daily and you know it. But if you're here and you don't know Christ, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians, "As God's a mouthpiece now, can I beg you? Be reconciled to God." You can cry out from your own, from your heart right now and say, "Lord forgive me, I'm a sinner. I know that I deserve punishment. I believe Jesus died from me." I would give my life to him. And if you have questions, listen to me, if you have questions, talk to your Bible teachers, talk to your teachers in general, talk to any of your teachers here in the staff, listen to me. That's a prerequisite for teaching here, by the way, is to know Jesus, and they would love nothing. The only thing that they would love more than teaching you, their subject, is to show you the truth of Christ in the gospel, Paul-Mr. Zanger's side, Paul-Mr. Ostrand, Mr. Falk, pull any of them aside and say, "I really have questions about this." Then let me say this second thing. For those of us who know Christ, you say, "Pastor, I know I'm a Christian. I know I've given my life to Christ." I say, "Praise God, brother. Praise God, sister." Let me ask you this. Does your life reflect that you know Christ? This goes back to that original question. Is there enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian? And I'm going to ask some of the similar questions I just said, "Listen, gentlemen, this age, pornography, it's got to stop. You're hurting yourself. You're damaging your mind, and it doesn't honor God." Ladies, the same for you. The things that we watch on television, the things we scroll through, we swipe through on social media, if it doesn't honor God, it needs to go. Holiness is a good thing. You've been set apart to be a vocal mouthpiece for the Almighty God, and we cannot reflect Him if we're living in sin. In fact, Jesus said in John 14, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." So let me close with this. There's one gospel, and that gospel is that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone, and when you have believed said gospel, there will be a transformation. Jesus will become precious, and you will actively serve Him. And if you're here, and if you don't know that you're saved, talk to somebody. If you're here and you are saved, and you're struggling with some sin, talk to somebody. Jesus is infinitely worth it. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank You for the opportunity to open the text this morning. And I thank You for the students that are here, the faculty that are here. And Lord, I pray first and foremost for the school, from the administration down to the teachers, to all other faculty and staff, that Christ will be precious and the focus of their faith, and I pray, Lord, for those students here who do not know Christ, that even today that they may repent and believe, and for those who do not, who do know Christ, that they would examine themselves to rid themselves of ungodly fruit and to pursue Christ's likeness at all costs. We love You, and it's in Jesus' name. Amen. [APPLAUSE] [BLANK_AUDIO]