NC Chapels
Eric Zanger | Galatians 1:6-10
No, they get here at 7.05 on a Wednesday morning to practice. So I think it's fair for us to just thank them. So if you would, give them a round of applause. Thank you, Chappell team. I want you to imagine two scenarios with me, OK? Scenario number one. Imagine you've been drinking water from our water fountain. But an enemy has put a little bit of poison in the water supply. He's just kind of modified it a little bit. Seems like water. But a little poison won't hurt you, right? Second, imagine Mr. Falk and Mr. O and Mr. Manken. They come to you and they say, we've got an important task for you. We need you to align the field for the home football game this weekend, Friday night. This is super important. It's the home opener. And so you start in the end zone. But as you go, you're off by one degree. By the time you reach the other zone, you're well, of course. And the coaches are furious with you. How did you mess that up? Now we can't run a play into the corner of the end zone. What are you doing? Well, I hear you. But Mr. Z, one degree over 100 yards is only 5.2 feet. Mr. Falk, don't we have the best math department ever? Like, they just figure that out right in their heads. I get that. I hear you. Here's the deal. That's what I want you to understand. Even the slightest distortion has a great and vast impact. Even the slightest distortion has a huge, huge impact. Because Galatians, this entire letter is about the defense of the gospel. It is about getting the gospel right. Because when we are wrong about the gospel, two terrible things happen. First and foremost, sinners are not saved. And secondly, God is not glorified. And so in C, we must get the gospel right. It is the most important reality in all of the universe. You can be right everywhere else. But if you are wrong about the gospel, you are wrong. Again, if you're flying a plane and you're one degree off, by the time you think you're at your destination, you are far away from where you wanted to be. And so during the days of the Galatians, what had happened is that there was this battle over circumcision and a battle over the Old Testament law. And the reason why Paul is writing this letter is because he, as the apostle, he is defending the gospel. And that's why he starts this letter with this idea of his apostleship is not from man, but it is from God. He's about to open up a, I don't know what to call it. He's about to take a two by four and beat the Galatians with it because they have strayed, they have gone away from the purity of the gospel. And so you have this big problem. And Paul is just here. I'm going to set the record straight. You need to know what is true. That's the whole reason for this letter. Because Paul is a missionary and is a church planter. What he would do is he would go from town to town, he'd preach the gospel, people would get saved, he'd establish a church, and then he'd go on. And he'd leave, and he'd go on to the next town. But in Galatia, what had happened in this region is a group of people came in after Paul and they were called the Judaizers. And in essence, what they said was, in order to be a true Christian, you needed to become Jewish first, and you needed to do this right called circumcision. Wait, what, Paul is going to war over circumcision? That's what this battle's about. That's what this war is about. This is crazy, why would we even do that? Because it's a gospel issue. It got in the way of the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ was at stake. And so Paul rose up in opposition to what was going on. It's fascinating to me that these people were wrong about something that people today, we don't even think it matters. But because it affected the gospel, Paul was going to war. And that's what this letter is all about, Paul at war. So let's just hear this loud and clear and see. The gospel is not a small issue. It is worth going to war over. It is worth setting up battle lines over. It is worth it. And what you're going to hear as we look at this text today is we are going to hear Paul going to war. And as I read the text, you need to understand that in almost every single letter, Paul would do a standard greeting, which was covered last week by Jimmy. And then what Paul would typically do after a standard greeting, Grace and Peace to You, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, then He would say something like I thank my God for, and then something that happened in the church that God had done in the church. There is nothing like that in this letter. Paul is furious. And so he goes immediately to a rebuke and that's where we're going to pick it up. All right, so that's where we're at. And so I'm going to pick up in Galatians chapter one, verse six, we'll read through verse 10. And if you would, if you're able, please stand for the reading of the Word of God. The Word of God. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there is some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you have received, let him be accursed. Verse 10, "For am I now seeking the approval of man "or of God or am I trying to please man? "If I was still trying to please man, "I would not be a servant of Christ." All right, join me in prayer. You can say it if you want, join me in prayer. Oh God, there is only one gospel. There's only one true gospel. There's only one true message that saves the soul. There is only one gospel that radically transforms us from being haters of God to being lovers of God. And may we be those that, oh, that we take our stand for the gospel, that we would be those who love and embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ and what he has done for sinful people, who have no merit in themselves to bring themselves before a just and holy God. And so Father, may I preach as a dying man to dying men so that Father you would get the glory and people would be transformed by the power of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. I've entitled to sermon, only one true gospel, only one true treasure. Only one true gospel, only one true treasure. We're an exam in this text and as we go through it, I want to set before you four headings under which to kind of put some thoughts. They're all alliterations, so English department, there you are, followed by some applications. So these are all alliterative. The first one is out of verse six and the first heading is astonished apostle. Astonished apostle. The second heading is two parts to it. The first one is gullible Galatians. The second part of it is troublesome teachers. Astonished apostle, gullible Galatians, troublesome teachers. Third part, glorious gospel. Glorious gospel. Fourth part, Paul's passion. That's verse 10. So again, astonished apostle, that's verse six. Gullible Galatians, that's verses six and seven. Troublesome teachers, that's verse seven. Glorious gospel, that's verses seven through nine. And then finally, Paul's passion, that's verse 10. All right, so let's dig in. Look it up, Paul, starts verse six. I am astonished. That's where I get this idea of our first heading. Astonished apostle, verse six. I am astonished. The Greek word astonished it. It carries with it the idea of being shocked out of his senses. Okay, every once in a while, I'll go on YouTube and I'll watch sports highlights of crazy dribbles, crazy tennis shots, crazy shots in soccer, crazy whatever. And I watch as eyes get open, mouth goes agape when fellow players watch the superstars of the sport and they're just like, wow. And it kind of looks like that. Whoa, Steph Curry shooting from half court. Wow. Wow. And that's kind of the sense of Paul. He's like, what? He's shocked at this. He's blown away. Why would you do such a thing? That's kind of the view. Or you kind of come home and maybe your dog out and he's just done what dogs do. And you're just like, ah, why would you do that? With your eyes wide open, your teeth kind of gritted. And that's Paul. Why would you do such a thing? What's he blown away by? Well, he's blown away by how quickly they've been in Christ and pursued a lie. And that's what leads to our second point. And so second heading, gullible Galatians. This is verses six and seven. So you have an astonished apostle at the gullible Galatians. Look at how this verse goes on. Paul says, I am astonished that you are so quickly, so quickly, deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ. Keywords here in this little section are quickly. It's, it's, it's with haste. It's speedily, you're, you're so quickly running away. And, and then the other keyword is deserting. You're going over to the other party. It's the idea. You are quickly kind of leaving your abandon in your post. And, and what are they going over to? They're quickly deserting. What are they going? Keep reading. They're going to a different gospel. It's what they're doing. God preached the gospel through Paul. People were converted and income these Judaizers with a different gospel, a different even early on. And they just, they're like, yeah. That's what we really want. We want to do something. I mean, they just quickly desert. They just left whole treachery. Be like the volleyball team. You, you go to Sutton tomorrow and the first point, not Sutton, Shelton tomorrow, sorry. You go to Sutton, Shelton tomorrow and the first point, somebody serves it in the net and one of you runs off court. And you say, I'm done with this. And you come in with Shelton's uniform. And you go check in as like the middle blocker. That's what it is. First point in and they're out. I'm out. Now this gospel stuff. So quickly, they deserted. This is not the food you eat after dinner. That's dessert. And this is not the place we're standing in. That's a desert. This is the verb. This is to desert. This is to leave your post. This is to leave God. That's what's happening here. Paul makes it abundantly clear. The Galatians were abandoning the gospel. They were turning their backs in the grace of Christ and they were pursuing something different altogether. They had given themselves to God. And in a very short time, they had been led wholly astray and started to embrace opinions which perverted and destroyed the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, how foolish. Which gets us to our next heading. The troublesome teachers. And that's verse seven. Look at verse seven. There are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. Key word here is trouble. The idea is of agitating. Think of like a washing machine and agitates the clothes. It stirs them up. Disturb. It's the idea of setting in motion. What needs to remain still? That's so important. There is a faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Paul preached the true gospel. It should be a subtle thing. It should be settled back. It's done. It's finished. It's still. It's just there. You believe it. It's there. It's true. And then here come the troublemakers. And you're trying to stir it up. Don't listen to Paul. He's holding out something from you. You're gonna do this to really receive the grace of Christ. You're gonna do something else to really receive God's love. You're the troublemakers for your students. This is why we sing what we sing. You're singing self-truths to yourself. Hallelujah. All I have is Christ. Hallelujah. Jesus is my life. We're singing these things to settle these truths. Truths deep down in our hearts so that they're there and they're in our souls. And I just beg you, come eager to sing. It makes me mental and maybe I should start calling it out. Seeing people and they're sort of singing. But then they're like, hey, Sophie, what's up? Hey, what do you think about cross country? You're not doing cross country, are you? You're doing volleyball. What do you think of volleyball? Oh, it's awesome. And then halfway through the song you haven't thought of things. Anyway, through the song, you haven't thought of thing about the word. You haven't sung it. It hasn't gone into your heart. And then you wonder why you're listless. We give you good songs with good doctrine that you would grow, that it would be a settled fact in your life. Second key word is distort, distort. And it means to change or to corrupt. And what are they distorting the gospel? They are distorting the gospel of Jesus Christ. So here's the deal. Again, a group of people had come in after Paul had taught and said that in order to be a true Christian, you needed to receive circumcision. You had to have this happen. And that was their good news. Jesus isn't enough. You had to do something. And the Galatians, they bought it. They bought it. They bought the distorted gospel. They bought the stirring up. Instead of it being settled in their hearts, this is what the gospel is. This is how I'm loved by God. It just kind of agitated in there that an open mind, and they heard a different gospel, and they turned away from the true gospel. Oh, and see, I just want to pause here. I just want to pause here. We're two verses in. Paul is angry. He's angry at the Galatians because they abandoned Christ and pursued that, which is not the gospel. And Paul's flabbergasted. Why? Why would anyone leave the life transforming, life-altering, life-giving gospel message? It's liberating. And why would you go to something different? He's angry at these group of people, and then he's angry at the false teachers who had come in because they took the gospel and they distorted it. And usually, I wait for application questions until the end. I'm just going to give you a couple right now just to think through as we get through these first two verses. Question number one. What distortions of the gospel are you buying? What are you buying out there that distorts the true gospel of faith in Christ and forgiveness in Christ and a righteousness of Christ given to you? So you're perfect in God's sight. What are you buying? Second. Langer one, abbreviate as you need. Where the Christian faith is meant to be a settled thing in your heart. Where are you allowing it to be stirred up continually? So it's supposed to be the settled fact. Where are you letting it get agitated? Where are you sticking your faith and putting it in the washing machine and watching it go, and put on the spin cycle and all of that? Why and where are you allowing it to be stirred up unnecessarily? Please hear this loud and clear. The Christian faith can withstand any question ever asked of it. It absolutely can. I'm not proclaiming pie in the sky, religion, where, say, la vie, and you just kind of look to heaven, and you don't really think about some of the big questions of life, and oh, it's just fake. No, I'm not saying that. And I'm certainly not saying when the things get hard, you bear your head in the sand like an ostrich. I'm not saying that either. We teach the truth project here. We teach Christian worldview here. I teach a class called cultural apologetics here. The Christian faith holds up. It just does. You need to know that loud and clear Christianity holds. It will not fail. Every other religion that has come against it, every empire, every philosopher, everything that has come against it fails, and Christ remains. But for you, I'm leaning on you, running to things that will cause you to doubt. You track it with that. You start running to things that agitate your spirit, agitate your soul. Mr. Folks pastor came here a couple of years ago, Kelly Larson, and he talked about the things that we watch, the things that we take in. It's like a little mud that you're falling against a white backdrop. And what it does is it might come off, but it leaves this residue. What sort of residue are you leaving that causes you to doubt the goodness of God in Jesus Christ? And how can you fight against that? Your soul is worth that warfare. It is. It is. It is. Students, your teachers here, your administration here, everyone is here with one purpose and one purpose only, that you would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it, that you would find salvation in him and in him alone, and then you would live out that faith and fear and in trembling that you would grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And if you learn history, and if you learn grammar, and if you learn science, and if you learn the Pythagorean Theorems along the way that Hallelujah prays the Lord. But do you know Christ? And more importantly, does Christ know you? You had troublesome teachers in Galatia. Very troublesome. I don't know about the other teachers. I pray to the Lord, I'm not troublesome. Huh, that'd be the worst. Troublesome zanger. Stirring up doubt in the gospel of Christ. That would be the worst. We want nothing to get in the way of the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. And so with that kind of in mind, let's go there now. The glorious gospel heading number three. The glorious gospel versus seven through nine. I skipped a few words in verse seven. Maybe some of you caught that. That was intentional. Let's go back to them. I want to read all of this in its proper order. So did you see this? So I'm going to start again in verse six, so you kind of feel where Paul's going with this. So this is some dramatic embellishment maybe in the reading. Paul, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Now focus, focus, focus, focus, not that there is another one. But there is some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. So in verse seven, Paul makes this abundantly clear. There is no other gospel. There's no other else you can go. There's no other else to turn. There is only one true gospel. And see, there are so many so-called gospels. But there is only one true gospel. And it is the true gospel that you much must preach to others. And it is the true gospel that you must defend. And it is the true gospel that you must preach to yourself, tell Spurgeon rightly said about this whole idea of so-called gospels or different gospels. He said this. He said discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Spurgeon goes on. He said, rather, it is the difference between determining what is right from almost right, almost, almost right. If you're almost right, you're still wrong. We almost won. You're still lost. I almost made that shot. I still missed it. I almost obeyed. Well, you disobeyed. We almost were on time. Nah, you were late. Or I saw this this weekend or a couple of weekends ago. Nebraska football. We always almost win. Almost. Almost. So there is the true gospel and there are countless, almost gospels. Countless of them. And almost gospels are not the true gospel. And so Paul goes on in verse eight, says, if we, the apostles, or an angel from heaven, with all the glory of an angel from heaven, preaches to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. Then in verse nine you repeat himself. And again, I need to pause here. Those of you who have taken my class, you know I teach her minutics. And one of the things I've told you is look for repetition. Repetition shows emphasis. He wants zero misunderstandings. He wants to drive this point home. And he says, as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one I preach to you, or the one you received, let him be accursed. The word that is translated accursed is anathema in Greek. The idea of this word is to let him be devoted to destruction. Let him be sent to hell. Let him be damned. Martin Luther says about this verse. Paul casts out the very flames of fire, and his zeal is so fervent that it begins almost to curse the angels. Oh, and see, get this of such importance is the gospel that any distortion sets you on the path to hell. And Paul doesn't care. False teachers, they're wrong. Angels with a distorted gospel, they're wrong. Therefore, Mormons with the angel Marani giving a new book of Mormon wrong. What about Islam and the angel Gabriel going to Muhammad? Wrong. Why? Because it runs contrary to the gospel. Anyone who comes with a distorted gospel, they are wrong. Add something to the gospel, wrong. Take something from the gospel, wrong. All of your students, it is the pure gospel that saves. Don't accept any cheap imitation. Don't get the knockoff version of the gospel. Because the gospel changes everything. It changes our lives. It costs us our lives. We're diagonally. It's the point. We're supposed to die every day. It costs us our sin. Oh, but we gain Christ. We give Him all that you would want to know Christ in the power of His resurrection. Oh, because He is so worthy. And He is so good all that you would taste and see that the Lord is good. He is good. Finally, verse 10, forthheading Paul's passion. Paul's passion. Let's just read it. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I was still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. His goal, Paul's passion, his entire goal was to please God. He wants to be approved by God. Paul's primary concern is not what man says or what man thinks. His goal is not to please man or to be an ear tickler. No, no. His desire was to please God. His desire was to be a servant of Jesus Christ. One commentator states, you cannot both be a servant of Christ and a man pleaser. Can't do both. You can't serve Christ and please man. Albert Barnes said, "One of the main differences between Christians in the world is that others aim to please man." The Christian aims to please God. And this is a great difference. This isn't even a one degree difference. This is a vast difference. J.C. Rall said, "The passionate man who loves Jesus Christ burns for one thing, and that one thing is to please God and to advance God's glory. Resolve and see. Above all, above all, you will live to please Christ. Make that your mission statement. Make that your life ambition. I will live to please Christ. Above all, I will not be a man pleaser. Above all, I will serve the Lord Jesus Christ." Because again, the gospel is the power of God into salvation for everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The gospel saves us. The gospel trains us. The gospel keeps us. The gospel leads us home. Where else are we going to go? The gospel is all about him. It's about the work of Christ. It's all about what He has done for us. And so, dear student, where do we go from here? What do we do with this? Well, from the text, we learn the importance of the gospel. Preaching it, defending it. From the text, we learn that the highest aim of our life should be to please God. So NC, got a couple of applications for you. Four, four applications. Number one, preach the gospel to others. I want you to think about the circles that you run in. The people that you see outside of school. Do you think any of them need the gospel? Do the people outside of NC that you rub shoulders with? Do they know that you're a Christian? Or are you just an NC Christian? You just kind of play the talk here and play the game. Oh, yeah, just in case, and that's good, yeah. You don't know what it means. And then you go out into the world and you just like them. Are you Christian in name only here? And then out there is how you really live? Do they know? Do they know you're a believer? Somebody said about John Bunyan. I've said this often about Mr. Mankin. Scott Johnson, Stroh, Mr. Falk, the men I get to work with. John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress. They said that if you cut him anywhere, he wouldn't bleed. Blood, he'd bleed bibbleen. He was just so saturated with the Bible that if you cut him anywhere, the Bible would just flow out of him. Are you that type of person? In amidst all of the other goals that you have for your life, can that be a goal for you? I'm going to please Christ by being so Bible-saturated that I just can't help it. It was his enemy. Secondly, I want you to defend the gospel against attacks. This is what Paul did, going to war when the gospel was at stake. And sadly, yes, there are attacks against the gospel from outside the church. And sadly, there are attacks on the gospel from within. And so you need to have that discernment. It's kind of a bad word in our day and age. You need to have this discernment of what is true and what is false. And what is true and what is almost true. You need to know the real thing so well that any sort of counterfeit, it just doesn't even stand the test. There's no way. No way. Third, preach the gospel to yourself. Not as students come up to me and say, context, context, context. It's not really an important thing. It's this. We must preach the gospel to ourselves every single day. Why? Because you are going to go through dark nights of the soul. You will. You will. And it is the gospel that gets you through those things. It is reminding yourself of the love of God in Christ Jesus that gets you through. Think of it this way. The older I get, the more that I see, I need to preach the gospel to me, to me. Fourth, honor Christ with your life. I don't care what you do. I don't care what vocation God gives you. You can honor Christ there. I don't care if you dig ditches. You can honor Christ in that. You're going to have to be a pastor to honor Christ. So as we closed, told you to defend the gospel, to preach the gospel to others, to preach it to yourself. What is this gospel? What is this gospel? I'm glad you asked. It's very basic. We have sermons and acts. We have descriptions of the gospel and the epistles. And what it is, is the gospel is about Jesus Christ. It is about Christ. It's a series of truths about Christ. And Paul summarizes these in 1 Corinthians 15, 3 through 6. And the idea is, is that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. He was buried. He rose on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. And then he talks about the fact that Jesus Christ, in his resurrected state, appeared to many. There were witnesses of this resurrection. The gospel people need to hear is the life and ministry of Christ. That's what they need. Jesus changed my life, is a wonderful testimony, but it is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. God loves you, and as a wonderful plan for your life, is great news, but it's not the gospel. Ask Jesus into your heart, is not the gospel. Your life is not the gospel. My life is not the gospel. His life is the gospel. The power of God into salvation is the gospel of Jesus Christ and what he has done. The gospel is specific content, and it is not about you. The content focuses attention on the person and work of Jesus Christ. His virgin birth, His perfect life, the cross and His substitutionary atonement for sinners like us, the resurrection of Christ. Why? Why is this so important? Why is it about him? Because Paul states in Romans 4.25 that he died. He was delivered up for our trespasses. He died for our sins, and he was raised for our justification. That's our only hope. That is our only hope. The gospel alone solves the problem every one of us faces. Every one of us faces. I don't care where you're from. I don't care who your mommy is. I don't care who your daddy is. I don't care what's going on in your life. All of us face this one problem. And it's how can I be embraced and accepted by a holy God? That's it. That is the number one problem we all face, because the reality is, God is holy. And he is perfect. And dear students, you are not. I'm not either. And if you think you are, how about just a three-question test to see whether you're really good or not? You don't have to raise your hand ever tell a lie. That makes you a liar. Ever steal something, no matter the value. Maybe you knocked off a little bit early from work and yet counted it. Makes you a thief. Ever want something that somebody else has? Makes you covetous. Oh, I passed all three. OK. How about this? Have you loved the Lord your God with all of your heart for every second of your life? Have you loved him with all of your mind for every second of your life? Have you loved him with all of your strength? All of your might, everything that you are? No. Neither have I. Neither have I. And so the question then rises. How? How? Accept us. We trample on his gifts and his grace on a daily basis. How can God accept us? And that is answered by a simple message through faith in Jesus Christ, through trusting in him, through turning away from sin, from dying to self, from flinging yourself on the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. That's the hope that we have. And you need to know that every distortion adds to or takes away something from the finished work of Jesus Christ. So here the Judaizers were saying Christ's work, not enough. You got to do something. And see, we had nothing. We had nothing. You weren't Yogi Bear. I was smarter than the average bear. You're not that guy. You weren't smarter than your friend. The spirit of God moves in a heart. And we are made brand new. And I pray that you would see the gospel the way John Bunyan saw it. Run, John, run. The law demands. It gives me neither feet nor hands. Far better news the gospel brings. It bids me fly and gives me wings. At the end of the day, the true gospel is a series of facts. It's a series of true statements about a real person who really lived and he really died and he really rose. And only then, only then do we get around to us and the benefits added to us by faith. So what about you? What about us? Again, I'm glad you asked. In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 3 verses, this is what's true about us. We are dead in sin. We are dead in trespasses. We are those who follow this world, but it's God, it hates God. We follow Satan. We are the son of disobedience. We live in the passions of our flesh. We carry out the sinful desires of both the body and the mind. We are by nature children of wrath. And so what we bring to the table in this great exchange between us and God is the sin that made the cross necessary. That's what we bring. And so students, the gospel starts with bad news because we're bad. We're not good. Happy Wednesday. Happy Picture Day. Smile. Flash those pearly lights, but remember, you're not good. Okay. Happy thoughts on a Wednesday morning for you. Here's the beauty. Verse 4 of Ephesians. Mr. Falk read it yesterday. I love God's providence, but God. So we have all of this reality, but God. Oh, this is so important and we should be on all of our tombstones, but God. But God. What about God? He who's rich in mercy, he was full of great love, he who made us alive, he who saved us by grace, he who raised us up, he who showcases us as trophies of his incredible kindness. And then the greatest news of all, four by grace, have you been saved through faith? And this is not your doing, it is a gift of God, not a result of works that no man may boast. Do you see? You see, this is the gospel that we need. We have sinned against the Holy God. We have broken God's law every day. We are a rebel against him. We are an enemy of God. All of us are, but Christ died, the just for the unjust to bring us to God. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And he died, but he rose and so we live as Christians in light of the empty tomb and in the light of the empty tomb and Jesus Christ beckons us to turn to him so that all who turn to Christ in faith will find him to be a welcome and perfect savior, so that all who turn to Christ in faith will be welcomed home all and see when you, when we get gripped by the grace of God like Paul did and you understand the beauty of it and it ravishes your soul. You will do everything to preach to others, preach it to yourself and defend it against attacks and best of all, and see as you preach the gospel to yourself. You will. You will sell for no gospel. You will settle for distortions of the gospel. If you have tasted of the true food of the gospel and you have drunk from the deep well of grace, why, oh, why would we settle for cheap knockoffs? Why would we? Don't be like the Galatians, don't be duped, hold fast to this gospel for this is where life is found, whereas we will soon sing. There is one gospel where hope is found. The empty tomb still speaks for death could not be keep my savior down. He lives and I am free. Let's pray. Almighty God, thank you for the gospel that changes, converts, frees us, frees us from sins tyranny, frees us to live a life that is pleasing and honoring to you. There is only one gospel that we can stand on. There is only one gospel where hope is found. Christ is our only hope. And so Father, I pray for students who do not know Christ, that you by the preaching of the word, that you through the songs that we have sung and are about to sing, that you would awaken us and that we would follow and repent of faith, but God who is so good so as to save us and for believers in this room, or may we be heralds of the gospel of Christ, all that you would do that work in each of our hearts. We pray His name, amen. 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