The Shape of Glory

I want to encourage you to turn if you have a Bible to the book of Galatians, or the book of Galatians. I haven't studied it specifically it word for word like I that I like to do when I do an epistle. But the Apostle Paul is pretty worked up about something, which is something that's been making me excited in America and Europe for many years. And so I thought that that's what we will do this weekend. And so if you can, tomorrow morning, or sometime tonight, or whatever, read it over, it isn't long at six short chapters, to get a picture of the whole thing. Because obviously, we can only pick and choose some major themes, three to be specific. And it's all around the subject that Paul deals with, when he begins in this chapter. Now the apostle Paul, before we read any passage, and we're gonna have to skip, as I said, back here on there, in the epistle, Paul is in Rome, you remember, he was arrested in Jerusalem, spent two years along the way of Syria. And then he was put on a ship. And they remember the ship was broken up in the ocean, in the Mediterranean Sea, that he finally got to Rome, the details of how long he was in jail in Rome. Some of the Epistles definitely were written when he was in jail, if you've been to Rome, or if someday you go to Rome, and you haven't seen what they say, is the jail or the hole in the ground, because it isn't really a jail. We imagine a jail to be one of today's penitentiaries with television, hot tubs, and you know, all that stuff. This was literally a hole in the ground. And if you asked to see it, if you go to Rome ever, they'll show it to you. And although it's been touched up a bit, and it probably is the place where he was 2000 years ago, it was not a fun place to be. And some of the Epistles he wrote straight from, from being tied to a church with a chain to a Roman, a Roman soldier. In Colossians verses he actually says, Remember my chains. In other words, he was chained to a Roman soldier. And when he writes to Timothy, also, he was perhaps left loose to go to, to Courtland Rome, but he was in jail and tied to a Roman soldier. So it wasn't like he was having a great fun time. In Rome. It wasn't a holiday. It wasn't a tour, I am sure Paul wouldn't have said Rome was my favorite vacation, because I don't think he saw it as a holiday at all. It was just a prison. And the most pathetic thing that I can ever think of in the Bible is when Paul says in chapter four, the last chapter, according to the theologians, they were written by Paul that's in the Bible, for sure. He says, In my first trial, no one stood with me. I was alone. But the Lord stood by my side. And it breaks your heart to think that the great Apostle Paul didn't have an entourage, nobody went to court with him. He was all alone. It just breaks your heart, you'd be like saying, I wish I'd have been alive, I would have gone well, maybe not, you know, if you know they're going to arrest you, you probably wouldn't have gone and you say, I'll pray for you, Paul. But Paul was all by himself. And so now he's writing here to the Galatians. Galatia is an area of what today we call Turkey. It isn't a city. When I was young, I thought it was a city for some reason. It's a whole area. It's like a region zone, a region of of what today we call Turkey. So there was probably more than one church. Undoubtedly, many villages, or many towns had congregations by the time he wrote this letter, and he's writing to the people of the area. And the main thing to remember as we begin to read is, you will notice that as soon as he begins, usually in his epistles, it has been pointed out by many people, but in his epistle, he begins and he gives greetings and he says, I thank my God for you and your great and your faithful and praise the Lord for your faith and all that in this epistle, he tears right into them, because they will going through very strange times. And one of the things that is very clear, is something that I feel is happening today in the USA, following what's happened in Europe to many years ago. And that is a disdain for the Word of God are watering down and changing the message of Jesus Christ, trying to adapt it to the times and trying to accommodate to people who are coming in and teaching whatever they they felt was right. So the apostle Paul, and so tonight, I've got only one title for this chapter, and I call it the glorious message that isn't very creative. But as I meditated on it, I thought it is a glorious message. I believe this is for such a time as this. Not not perhaps for everybody in this room. But I think there's a tone developing in the USA of looking down. You have people who say I read the passage in a second I'm giving you why I picked this passage. There are some people today going around saying, you know, I'm a Red Letter Bible guy, I'm a red letter, Christian. And what they mean by that, obviously, those Bibles that print the words of Jesus and red, well, these guys are basically saying with that cold term, that they only read the words of Jesus. And there was a buddy of mine in Portland, a very distinguished guy, graduate from a super Bible College. And he's writing a little book on his own. Nobody's asked him to do it, but he was telling me about it. And he said, I read in the Great Commission where Jesus says, teaching, baptizing them, etc, teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you. And he said to himself, we're having lunch. And he told me this. He said, I realized that I don't recall anyone ever going a series on what the Lord Jesus has commanded, I have, but he hasn't. And then he said, I want to just stick with the words of Jesus. Now, this is a guy who is Evangelical, fundamental, good guy with a good college, not playing games of any kind. I don't think he realized what he said. But he said to me, you know, the epistles are just Paul's interpretation of the words of Jesus, I don't know who you know, now, if he begins to see that kind of thing, what's going on other places, the epistles are inspired by the Holy Spirit. So we're getting to the place brothers and sisters were even as we think about reaching out to those who do not know the glorious person of Jesus Christ, if you begin to doubt what the Scripture says, and you begin to water down the meaning of it, eventually, all you have is you got Europe all over again. And that ain't a pretty sight spiritually, the Europeans have become more atheistic than the Soviet Union ever was. So that's the background, why I'm working up to say, let's read what Paul says to the Galatians. Who would have thought the Galatians were converted to Christ, evangelize and became a church by the work of the apostle Paul himself. And yet, suddenly, he suddenly realizes, wow, something's going on up in the region of Galatia. that frightens the socks off me. And so he writes this letter, and here we go, let's read chapter one, most of it will probably go from one to 17. Okay, listen to the word of the Lord. Paul, an apostle said, not from men, no, by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God, the Father, who raised them from the dead, and all the brothers with me, to the churches in Galatia. So there you go, there was a series of churches in this region called Galatia. I think the first point he makes in this paragraph that we just read is, it is not a human commission that I'm carrying out. But God's great commission. That's what I entitled it. In this one, the next little paragraph is really the next two verses, and I called it a short version of redemption through Jesus Christ, He reminds them of what he preached when he was there, and, and the redemption, here we go, Grace and peace to you, from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. So there's a quick statement of the of redemption and what it means. Then the next paragraph, he bluntly gets straight to the point here, and Paul is ready to go to war, the situation is dire. The situation of the Galatians is serious, and he hits it right off the gate. He says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion, and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach a gospel other than the one we preach to you, let him be eternally condemned, as we have already said, so now I said, again, if anybody is preaching to you, our gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned. Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. So he gets to the point very bluntly, very quickly, he's using the shock treatment to wake the Galatians. Up. Here comes a letter from Paul, they weren't piling on emails in those days. There was no Twitter, no text messaging. I mean, when a letter came, it took weeks to get over there. Hear it comes on boom, he hits them right between the eyes to wake them up, something was going on. And Alicia was serious. So what is it? Well, here we go, I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up, I did not receive it from any man. Nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God, and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism, beyond many Jews of my own age, he was a young man at that point. And I was extremely zealous for the tradition of my father's. But when God who set me apart from birth, and call me by His grace, was pleased to reveal his son and me, so that I might preach him among the nations. I did not consult any map, nor did I go up to Jerusalem, to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia, and later returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem, to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him for 15 days, I saw none of the other apostles, only James, the Lord's brother, I assure you before God, that what I'm writing is no lie. Later, I went to Syria and Cilicia, I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ, they only heard the report, the man who formally persecuted us is now preaching the faith that he wants tried to destroy. And so they praise God, because of me. So this is a heavy chapter. But you know, brothers and sisters, we have to face the reality. We live in real time in a secularized United States, where, yes, there's still a tradition of Christianity. And it's a beautiful tradition, the freedom, the freedom that there is in America, there's no country like it. I was with the governor of Arizona yesterday. She's a Lutheran believer in Christ. And we had about, I don't know, 45 minutes, maybe chatting and laughing, and, you know, she won by a landslide, and so on. And she, she has assistants that pray with her whenever they have a difficult decision. She said, We just get together and we bow our heads, and we pray. And apparently, I don't live here. But he said that the media has often picked up on that and cannot be rated her that they would put God in the middle of politics, like they don't need it. And anyway, it was a good time with her talk. He That's America. But you know, there's also an undercurrent, that I sense that even in our circle of people who really believe in Jesus Christ, and who are serious about the things of God, who care about the suffering, and the hungry, and the lonely, and people who even want to see people rescued from drug addiction, from alcoholism, from greed from broken homes, and they're sad kids, the 50% of American kids who come from broken homes, and they're angry, and rightly so et cetera. We want to see people rescued. But you know, the interesting thing is that they the USA, we have a situation, you know that we have to watch it, because we're beginning to water down. I'm a red letter, Christian. Oh, wonderful. So the rest of the New Testament isn't the Word of God. Fabulous. That's the way to go. That's a way to end up like France and Germany and England, empty churches, cynical professors, atheists who speak in cathedrals, that's a great way to salvage our country, isn't it? But nevertheless, it can happen. And it happened so fast. That's the thing. That's what astonished the apostle Paul, but let's take it one at a time. First of all, what's so glorious about the good news of Jesus Christ is that it's so understandable. Look, What's complicated about this? What does it say in verse one and two, sent not from men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God, the Father, who raised them from the dead, and all the brothers, even a child can understand it, the gospel, the good news, the beauty of it is, is that it's so deep, and yet so understandable, so easy to get if you're even open to knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ. And then the next paragraph, although there's a heavy concept that isn't also complicated to understand, he says, Grace, the goodness of God, peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself up for our sins, to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for it. It's nothing complicated. If you're hungry for God, if you have a sense of guilt, if you realize that alone, you cannot face life, or you can face regular life but not eternal life. And when death comes, you need God. Then what happens is you can understand the gospel When I arrived in Chile last week, and of course, the big theme was the 33, miners, et cetera. But we were going to straight from Buenos itis arrived, and I loaded my bags at the Marriott. And then we they were taking me to a TV show. And the producer was in the lobby waiting to put us in a cab or something, a car and take us over to the TV station here, his boy, a preteen a 12 year old boy, they stole kid, and the dad, who's just recently come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. He said to his son, okay, say goodbye to Mr. Lau, because we are going home with mom, and I'm taking him over to the studio. And then he said, You wanted Palau to pray for you with you. So that left to talk to somebody else? And I said to him, So how old are you? And he said, 12. And I said, you know, I was 12 when I gave my heart to Jesus Christ that a guy who was 21 sat me down and explained to me how to how to receive Christ that your dad said you wanted to pray, or you want me to pray with you? And he said, Yeah, I'd like you to pray with me. I said, let me ask you something. Before I pray with you. Have you ever received Christ into your heart? Your dad apparently did so very recently. He said, No, I never have. I said, Would you like to? I mean, he's 12 years old? And he said, Yes. So I said, let's get behind. There was some big columns. And there were people in the lobby, but it's a very big lobby. So I said, let's see, let's get behind this column. Let me explain to you how you can know Jesus. And I use the same verse that my counselor gave me 60 Some years ago, when I gave my heart to Christ, Romans, they're nine and 10. If you confess with your lips, Jesus was Lord, believe in your heart. God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. And I said, Do you believe in Jesus Christ, that He was risen from the dead? He said, Yes, I do. You really do. Yes, I do. I believe it. I've heard it in church, Catholic Church, and yes, I do. And I said, Now, are you willing to confess Him as your Lord, he said, I'd like to. So I use the technique my counselor did with me. If you, Luis confessed with your lips, Louise, that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart, Louise, that God raised Him from the dead you, Louise shall be saved. And I use the boy's name. And he said, I get it. I said, Well, are you ready? I mean, it wasn't 10 minutes. Of course, he had the background, but that boy understood, and he wanted to know Jesus. So the good news of Jesus Christ isn't such a complicated thing. Some days, we humans have made it complicated. We religious people, so to speak, I've made it complicated. I've often said, you know, when the thief was on the cross, the one who repented, you remember, they both mark the Savior, they both made fun of him, they both insulted him and challenge them, get yourself off a cross and get us off the cross. Then one repents and says, Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom. And the Lord didn't say, Sorry, buddy, you don't have time to go to Communion, you can't get baptized, you're about to die, and I can, I'm not getting off this cross and you're not getting off yours. He said, today, you will be with Me in Paradise. And that man died knowing that that night he went home to heaven is that simple, but we complicated. And so you know, the apostle Paul is basically saying to these Galatians Hey, remember when I was there only a few weeks, a few months or years ago, remember what I told you? It wasn't that complicated. And that's what makes it glorious. And you know what I found? Now, the older I'm getting, the simpler I'm presenting the good news of Jesus Christ. I pick a simple passage lately. I've used the old verse, Second Corinthians 517. And I encourage you to use it when you talk to someone, just one verse. I had gotten to the place in the last few years that my messages were like a theological treatise, you know, and I began to wonder why people weren't getting converted. Because I was acting like a theologian, not an evangelist, I picked up several millions 517 If anyone is in Christ, you're a new person altogether, the oldest pass let us go. That's it, and break it down. And I've seen more people come to Christ by doing that. The latest one that I use this summer, in various churches in the USA, and hundreds of people have come to Christ in just one weekend has been eternal life, the great God's greatest gift. God has given us eternal life. First, Peter, 510 and 11. This life is a dishonor whoever has the Son of God has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. Question, do you have the Son of God? Then you have life? You don't have the Son of God, you better get him quick because you never know when your turn will come. I you know, I keeping it so simple and basic, and hundreds are coming to Christ, very intelligent people, Eva da da, who say finally I get it. And you know, I do believe the simpler we present the basic message about Jesus Christ the better. The second thing you notice in verses six to nine, is that the good news message is on changeable. We don't have any authority, any Right. Or we shouldn't have the the incredible goal of pretending to change what The Word of God says, God has spoken. God has given us His Word. And we have no right to change it. And the Apostle Paul is so upset. You notice how he starts out, he says, I am astonished. That's how he started. I am astonished that you Galatians he says, that you have so quickly, so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ. So he's basically say, wait a minute, you Galatians This is the word of the Lord. This isn't something that man made up. And that's why he makes the point a little later. I didn't get it from men. I wasn't commissioned by men, Jesus Christ spoke to me. And all of you in this room, of course, remember how Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, out of the blue at noon, the Lord speaks to Paul falls off his donkey. The Lord talks to me wakes up and he's blind. And the Lord speaks to him, tells him who he is, tells him what to do. And he says, I received it by revelation of God, and now you are trying to change it. What's, where did this come from? And he's appalled at them. And he speaks very strongly. And we'll get to that in a few moments. But what the point is making here is, it is unchangeable. This is an eternal truth. This is God's word. Therefore, how dare you fellows even consider the possibility of watering down the message of Jesus Christ. And we'll get to the point a little later about this business of eternally condemned. So first, it's understandable. So it's nothing complicated. I'm brothers and sisters, when we when you try to witness to your buddies at work, the neighborhood, the club, wherever you have a chance, an airplane, wherever the Lord puts you. Remember, keep it simple, because it is simple. It's not shallow, is the most profound thing in the whole universe, to meet the living God, but we can put it over simply, we don't have to complicate things to prove that we're intelligent. I must admit that at one time, because I was brought up with a bunch of pretty well educated people. I always wanted to prove that gospel is intelligent, that gospel is bright. Being a Christian is not a moronic thing. There are bright people who believe in Jesus Christ. And I was always trying to prove that Christianity is what it is a very rational and beautiful truth. And it's okay to do that, in some circumstances. But sometimes we carry it too far. Keep it simple and understand. Second, it's unchangeable. Some people are beginning to say it. But that's the same old thing. Yes, thank you very much. It's the same old thing. Never get tired of telling John 316. Because for some people is absolutely super news. The third thing he makes here, resist, that is clearly a very radical message. Look at verses 10 and 11. And we'll be back to the other one, if time a lot. Look at 10 and 11am, I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God, am I trying to please man, if I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man. Nor was I taught it rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. And then he tells you how radical the message was, for you have heard of my previous way in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God, and I tried to destroy it. I was advancing, etc. Paul, you remember, and we need to be reminded, was a highly intellectual man. He was educated by probably the best known professor of his day. He was obviously came from a wealthy family, or he could have never studied under one tutor, like the man he sat under in Jerusalem. He was highly connected to all the powerful people in the Jewish state. At that time, Paul was a top level intellectual, highly connected from a wealthy Hall. And yet, there was a dark side to Paul, there was a hatred against Jesus. It were hated against the followers. It was an insane obsession. He wanted to jail them forced them to blaspheme. And what really made him feel guilty. Remember in other passages was that he says, I tried to force both men and women to blaspheme against you. He was on a crazy, crazy campaign to destroy the followers of Jesus, in spite of his education, his success, his connections, and his cash, he was nevertheless a dark soul. And you know, that is how it is, but the message of Christ has got power. And the great thing to never forget is, it seems so innocent in some ways. You tell them God loves you. He sent His Son into the world he was born with a blessed Virgin Mary, without a human father, the Holy Spirit overshadowed her and and so he was God and man, not just man, but the God man. And, and so then he lived a perfect life and he died on the cross and He rose from the dead. He assumed get into heaven and he's coming back. And if you want to know God and honest enough to admit you sin, his blood will wash away your guilt, you will become a child of God, you have eternal life, you become a temple of God, your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and you know him for yourself. And when you die, you go to heaven. Now, it just seems like such a simple story, but it's dynamite. And the Apostle Paul himself says in the famous verse, Romans 116, I am not ashamed of the Good News, the Gospel, because it is the dynamite of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. And the Apostle Paul is saying, this is a radical message. It's understandable, it's unchangeable, but it's called power is God dynamic dynamite power, it changes even a crazy man like me, that's what he's really saying, I was advancing ahead of all the young fellows in our religion. But when they Jesus met the revolutionize me with a simple message, who are you, Lord, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. What shall I do, Lord, go to Damascus. And you will be told what to do. That was the beginning of Paul's transformation. So when you tried to reach out, we all want to dream up new methodologies. And that's good, new communication ways. That's good. But in the end, it's the message of Jesus Christ as the dynamite that you need to transform people's lives. So we must never forget that. And you know, it has great power. And we must never forget it. Don't ever think we have to be super creative. We all think about that, from time to that, listen, just give them the simple, it has atomic power, it has dynamite inside it. So that's what Paul is saying here. He was trying for him, he was recreated. He was a new soul. In fact, God even changed his name from Saul to Paul. Now, the next point we're making about the glorious message, and I finally wrap it up in a few minutes. Why are we making these points? Because just about everybody in this room, believes all this. But nevertheless, it's worth remembering. Look at verses 11 and 12. Again, it is revealed by God therefore It's Supernatural. We did again, he says, verse 12, I did not receive it from any man. No, was I taught it, rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. Now, what he's saying here is very simple. This is not a religion that was created by a bunch of guys getting together in Jerusalem and saying, let's remap something about our Messiah that was supposed to come, how shall we put it together? Paul is saying, and then he goes on. If we have time, you notice the argument when we were reading, he says, I was converted on the road to Damascus, Jesus Christ spoke to me directly. The very stuff that Peter and the other apostles were preaching in Jerusalem. He taught me, I never saw them for three years, only after three years after I've been preaching, that I finally go to Jerusalem. I met with Peter and James and nobody else. Then 14 years later, I went back to Jerusalem, and they confirmed that what I was preaching was what they were preaching. So what he's saying is, I didn't learn it at the university. I didn't get it at the seminary. I didn't read any books by Peter, or James or any of the other 11 apostles. He said, I got it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ. And you know, brothers and sisters, to anybody in our day, making a sort of a mocking remark that they're red letter Christians is a dangerous thing. And if it's a buddy of yours, tell them hey, you better think through what you're talking about. Because what you're doing is denigrating the truth that Jesus Christ revealed through the apostles about the gospel of Jesus it serious visit. Now, the next point about the message here, number five, I think it is, is that this glorious message is centered on the cross of Jesus Christ. And in this epistle, not necessarily in this passage, he mentions twice the crucifixion first, in verse one, when he talks about the resurrection, which of course, is part of what we call the finished work of Christ. So there you are, that's what it is. He gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age. There he goes, the cross of Jesus Christ again, and then through the epistle, over and over, he refers to the crucifixion. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live, but it's not i It's Christ living in me, that's in 220. Then three, one, you notice what he says, You foolish Galatians, who has B Witched. You before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. So Paul is saying, Look, when I came to Malaysia, all I did was present to you the work of Christ on the cross, and He uses a very interesting term. The experts in Greek tell us you notice what he says, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. The Greek word is pro graphical. Graphical is where we get the word for graphics, you know, a graphic picture I grew I think movie a graphic book, what is it very graphically portrayed? And he says, when I came to you, you foolish Galatians I graphically portrayed to you the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And that's what you believed. What are you going back to foolish things. So then he goes on about to cross a little later on in chapter three, verse 13, I'm sure you thought of it. Christ redeemed us or rescued us from the curse of the law, becoming our curse for us. Because it is written curse. It is everyone who is hung on a tree. So you notice, Paul, in these just few quick verses, really, it's only six little chapters, there's not even a chapter in an ordinary book, he goes over and over again, that the great message of God through Jesus Christ is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The other day, I was in Chile, and the city and a minister from a more traditional denomination, who is very active, and he was on the committee, but he was waiting for me when I finished. And that night I spoke about Jesus say, if the sun set you free, you shall be free indeed. And I made just three points. He says, you free from your conscience of sin, by the blood that he gave on the cross, He sets you free from your chains of sin, by the Holy Spirit that comes to live in your life. And he sets you free from the condemnation of sin by the resurrection from the dead. But I majored on point number one I somehow felt led to do that, about the blood of Jesus Christ, the crucifixion, and that Christ sets us free from our conscience of sin, by the blood that he gave on the cross. When I got off the platform, this clergyman from a very traditional denomination, a fabulous man, by the way, but he embraced me and he said, Luis, I get it, I get it. I've been trying to figure out why the Lord uses you. And some of us see so little fruit. I get it. It's the cross. It's the cross. And He was saying this out loud. You know, as I got off the platform, he said, We haven't been preaching the cross. We have a memory and he was just very effusive. He Lobos look charismatic. But he was just traditional, and he was so excited. But he kept on and the next day, he said to me, you know, Louise, this is the thing, we are missing it because we forget the grace of Jesus Christ. And you know, that can happen to the best of us, you know, you begin to feel that that's all hat. You know, every kid in Sunday school knows that. Don't keep hammering at home. There was a meeting not long ago, in the United States. Basically, these were leaders from the city, and they said, We want to bring unity to our city. But we'd like to do it on the basis of only season of service. We don't want to do it around the two days of preaching the gospel at the park, can we do it? One of the local guys was not even our team said, No, you can only do it if you unite around the cross of Christ and the preaching of the gospel. And they they were arguing about it. And one of them finally said that, you know, that business of the proclamation of the gospel is so old hat. It's so old, the same old thing. And these are evangelical leaders, who think that proclaiming the cross of Christ is the same old thing, like everybody knows it, what a boring thing. Let's do something more exciting. Now, these are not heretics. These are not people who are out to destroy Biblical Christianity. They're very sincere people, I have evidence of that I can tell you, but nevertheless, just to see such a thing, so we mustn't let this happen to us, the cross of Jesus Christ. So why is Paul so worked up on with this, I finish? It's this, verses six to nine, which we read off chapter one. Paul is really serious about this deviation from the good news of Jesus Christ, and uses a term that the NIV, very gently unkindly says, Shall be eternally condemned in the King James, I think it is a one as he says, you'll be cursed. You know, if you change the good news, you are cursed, and that's not a joke. So let's read it again verses where he specifically says, verse eight, even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach a good news that than the one we preached to you, let him be cursed. We have already said it. So now I'll say it again. If anybody preaches to your gospel, other than the one you accepted, let him be cursed. What's he so worked up about? What were these people doing? What is it they were changing, that Paul gets so strong? And listen, just Paul, of course, as we know, is the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul, basically, what they were doing some innocent enough, what they were basically saying, as you read the rest of the epistle, and we know from other passages was that if you really want to be a successful Christian, a victorious Christian, full orbed complete Christian, you must be circumcised, just like Moses said, in the Old Testament. And you should also keep some of the festivals that were part of the Old Covenant. We don't have time to go over this. But if you read the Epistle to the Hebrews, you know what it says about the Old Covenant, it's finished, it's over. It's important, forget it, we learn lessons from it. But we live under the New Covenant, the old one was a preparation, that God prepared the wave of Jesus Christ. So it wasn't like these fellows were heretical, in the sense of really trying to rip out some passages from the Word of God, they were simply adding a few things. So even a minor deviation from what is in Scripture is not to be tolerated in our own hearts. If we really want to walk in the light with God, God is perfectly capable of revealing what He wants us to know, in writing, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through the apostles, which is exactly what he did. So we can trust the word of God, that it speaks to us and speaks all over the world. You know, to me, one of the intriguing things in the joy of the Lord being good to us, and giving us the privilege of going into so many countries is that wherever you go, the word of God has the same power. You know, it speaks to Chinese people. It speaks to mountain people in Vietnam, it speaks to regular Vietnamese, it speaks to Latin Americans, it speaks to my Portugal's which is our tribe down in Chile, the word of God is so from God, that every tribe and people a nation, when they hear it, they say, I get it, those who are honest, who want to get it. And so what Paul is really saying by the Holy Spirit is, you are not free to add to the Word of God, but he hasn't revealed. And you know, one interesting verse, I'll throw it out, and then I must come to the end. But look at first Corinthians chapter four. So today we were discussing with a friend of mine, about a certain point of doctrine that's floating around America, but I won't even mention it. But I quoted this verse in First Corinthians chapter four, verse six, this is an important biblical principle that you should remember when you feel tempted, oh, man, I've heard everything else. Let's delve into something new and fresh. Look at what it says in verse six of First Corinthians four, verse six. Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollo's for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, Do not go beyond what is written, do not go beyond what is written, you know, God has left us a book of Revelation, the book of the whole revelation of God, which in most translations, and publishing is about 1200 pages, there's plenty there to fill a lifetime of study, prayer, meditation, and all the rest of it. He says, don't go beyond what is with, don't start speculating. In Deuteronomy 2929, it says, the things that are hidden, belongs to the Lord our God, but those who are revealed, belong to us and to our children forever. What God has kept in his own counsel, leave it with the Lord, the things that are hidden, belong to the Lord our God, but those that are revealed belong to us and to our children, forever, there is so much here, don't battle with things that are not revealed. It'll give you a lot of peace. And if somebody wants to delve into say, you know, that is an interesting point of speculation, but there's so much that we can enjoy that has been revealed. When we get to heaven, we'll get the rest of the story. And it's going to be very exciting. But in the meantime, there's plenty here to keep even the deepest theologian entertain at least 50 years, I can keep you entertained. So that's what the apostles all worked up about. But he he's called a curse, just because they were adding a few little goodies that were in the Old Testament. Somebody's arguing with a Galatians. Good. Oh, said But look, it's in the Old Testament. Yeah, yeah. But this is the new covenant. Now. That was the Old Covenant don't dump on me. What happened? In the old days, we are called to freedom. Okay, the last the two last points, I'll mention it and said that the last next, the last point is the OH WAIT ON deviations? How do we handle it as elders and leaders, many of you here today, are leaders in your church. If somebody comes up with something added or taken away, and you feel, hey, this needs to be dealt with. There's a time there's a time to be openly, sometimes a bit aggressively strong depending on the circumstance. The apostle Paul here is kind of aggressive. He's saying to them, Hey, I'm astonished that you people, you are turning against the one who called you, you're actually actually turning you're deserting the one. It isn't just a little a minor little thing. Let's shoot in the Sabbath. And let's put in circumcision and just a few little goodies from the Old Testament. month, Paul says, You are deserting the one who called you and give you this grace, this beautiful gift of eternal life. You're trying now to perfect by the flesh, what he gave you as a gift by the Holy Spirit. The second thing is, we must always when we do discipline, do a kindly and gently and lovingly, forcefully but kindly, and in chapter six, for those of you who are elders and pastors in the church, even when it's a heresy, we do it lovingly, we do it kindly. We do it gently. And it even tells us searching your own heart lets you also be tempted. So yes, you've got to be forceful, like Paul was, but always in a kind, merciful and gentle way with self searching, thrown in so that we don't act like we're holier than thou. I'm bright, you're stupid. I'm very intelligent, you don't have it. I know more than you do. It isn't that is a humble, gentle rebuking, searching your heart anyway, I thought I'd put that in. Because we mentioned Paul was tough. The next point is that this glorious message must be preached, because that's what we're about proclaiming the good news at home and abroad, one on one, and to crowds. And then the final point is that there is deep simplicity in the gospel. But it is simple depth. It isn't shallow, it isn't just easy believe ism, as it's sometimes called, or used to be called in the past. It is it is serious and deep stuff. I was talking to two businessmen in Chile, who one is from Argentina, and one from Chile. And I got to know them for the first time in my life. I didn't even know they existed until this last week. And one of them came from Argentina, to speak well, together with our, with our festivals, we also do in Latin America, in particular, we have a session, or a day in which we do a course for entrepreneurs. And we bring fellows sometimes from the States, sometimes from other countries, to come and give a talk to young people in the churches, and to pastors about starting a business, aiming for success. Looking at success as a good thing. In many parts of the world. I'm not sure exactly why I think it's a misreading of what Scripture says about money. You know, the love of money is the root of all evil. And, and so the idea that somehow wanting to make money is an evil thing. I'll get into perhaps a little detail tomorrow. But anyway, we brought these two fellows to address about two or 3000. Pastors and young people from the churches who dream of success, who think can I be a successful person, make good money and be a godly Christian? And the answer, of course, Abraham was one of the richest men in the world. David was a rich guy. I mean, there's a lot of rich and successful and spiritual people in the Bible, but it needs to be taught both to the clergy who do the preaching in in the Spanish speaking world, for sure. But I understand Africa isn't the same in the, and so on. There's a sort of a bias against those who succeeded and so on. So we do that as part of the festival. Behind the scenes. In Santiago. We had about 3000, pastors and young people. So it was a pretty good impact. By the way these two fellows gave, both of them had the same experience, although they didn't know each other. In fact, they never met. The Argentine guy came the first part of the week. He never met the Chilean, the Chilean game, and their story is absolutely fantastic. Both of them, absolutely poor, the one from Argentina, his parents split, when he was a little boy, the grandparents took him, they were poor. The sister went to school in the morning, and then he went in the afternoon because they didn't have enough clothes. In Argentina in those days, as the students went with us a thing that was sort of like, you know, a night gown that you put a thing over yourself, you know, it was sort of a uniform or a strange, uniform. I don't know what the word is in English. In Spanish is Dylan Tom. Anyway, it's, it's something you put on anyway. So boys and girls use it. So he would wear his sister shoes, which are too small for him, and this sort of thing robe and went to school. By sixth grade he'd given up so he was out on the streets. By age, he was hustling on the streets trying to pick up stuff, sell it, pick up cardboard, which is a big thing over there, sell cardboard for a few pennies to take to his grandparents, and they were dry. And he'd have that then by by age 15. He was kind of getting into real business, the other fellow the Chilean, same thing, utterly dirt poor, I understand the word dirt poor. I mean, living in the dirt. That's what it means. And when he was eight, he began to go fishing, and they began to pick up fake. Then when he was 15. He he was a captain of a fishing boat. And then finally now he has 16 fishing, monogamous fishing ships and he's got other companies and all sorts of things. The man apparently is a millionaire. But the thing that got me was So how much they don't the Lord these guys, one of them is 48, the Chilean, the other ones only 42. And they've experienced so much in life that they Argentine fellow, when he was 21, he was so lonely. He was so abandoned. They figured he could never, nobody would ever marry him. He had such a low self esteem as we say, he disliked himself as parents didn't love him, his grandparents were dead. He was out on the street fooling around with the ladies partying, but feeling totally lost. And one day he was going to commit suicide. And there was a lake where people would often jump and commit suicide. And he thought, that's the best way out, life is miserable. No woman would ever marry me. If she did, I wouldn't know how to treat her. I've never been in a home where you know how to treat a woman. So he was going on a Sunday morning to jump off his bridge into the lake where people committed suicide and that part of Southern Chile. And as he did, he still can't tell you why, instead of going right, where you do the jumping in the people who committed suicide, he went left, he hurts his anyways, he heard some singing, and there was a, you know, just a little chapel. He walks in, he hears the gospel for the first time and he gets converted on the spot. His whole life was transformed. He he realized there was hope that there was a future that God was on his side that he was a child of God now and cetera, et cetera. They discipled him well. So finally, he meets his wife, and they've got this. They're millionaires now travelled to Europe, traveled to Asia. And you know, when you look at him, and you look at his background, and then one of them and tomorrow, I'll give you more details, but he sat down, across from me over breakfast, because somebody said, You got to meet this guy. And he exhorted me. And I'll tell you tomorrow what he said, because it's too long for tonight. But he looked at me straight in the eye, and he says, I want you to look at me. He said, I got a word from the Lord for you. I was brought up with others sort of, you know, when a guy walks up to you and say, he's got a word from the Lord, I say, Where's the door I want out of here. But I took it seriously, this guy was serious, and so simple, very little education. But he works with God and you know it. He had two of his boys with him. One was eight. And he gave me a socket t shirt as a gift boy did. And the other fellow, the other boy 13, Charlie Carlitos. And the guy spoke to me about it really, I felt, wow, here's a guy with no education. Incredible good brains, totally committed to Christ serious about the Lord. And he's given me a word. And it was a word that I really needed at that moment, and this moment in our team's life. So my thought was, you don't have to be, although education is fantastic, the more the merrier most of the time. But nevertheless, you don't have to be highly educated, to know God, to know God deeply, to walk with a God, and to really have a word from God for another person. And you know, that's what Paul is saying to the Galatians. You guys are adding to what already is complete. Just stay with what the Lord has said, and you will have power and you will be spiritually deep. And you will have a word from God. For other people, there will be authority. I felt as I listened to this fellow who is 30 years younger than me, you know, everybody yelled at me. At holidays. This guy is 30 years or any sitting there. And he's asking me to look at him, so he can give me a word from the Lord. I thought, Lord, I want to be that kind of a person to that when I speak as authority. There's power, there's depth. So let's stick with the Word of God. Amen. Let's pray shall we? Our Father in heaven. I thank you so much for the sisters, and brothers and couples and friends, some single, some alone, some divorce, some widows, widowers, Lord, we thank you, that you called us like you did the apostle Paul, not necessarily in the same fashion, not necessarily falling off our donkeys in the middle of the day on the highway. But you have spoken to us, and you've revealed yourself to us. And we know you're their father, because you chose to reveal your son in us. We thank you this evening, Lord, for the reminder, the solemn reminder, the serious reminder that your word is perfect, and simple, and divine, and powerful dynamite. And Lord, we don't want to deviate from it. We want to enjoy it every day. You have spoken to us all father, he has spoken to us by the Holy Spirit in us. He has spoken to us in your son Jesus Christ. You speak to us as we look at the beautiful creation around here, as we hear the birds singing and the flowers blooming and the weather fantastic. But you have also spoken to us in the written word. And Lord we want to To listen to it, enjoy it, obey it and see the fruit of it in our lives. So, Lord, please speak to each one of us because you know where each one of us is, and where we are personally. So, Lord, use us and bless us to be a blessing to everybody we touch and may this week of oh god glorify you. We ask it in the name of Jesus your son, amen. This is Kevin Palau, one of loose Palau sons. Toward the end of Dad's life. He had zero regrets about spending his years sharing the good news. He was convinced that an even greater harvest was waiting in the generations to come. We agree and we're continuing the work dad started. We are passionate about bringing the Gospel to every person on the planet. Millions still don't know the hope that's found only in Jesus Christ. If dad was here today, I think he would say don't wait. share Jesus today, wherever you go. If you'd like to join with us in spreading the good news around the world, you can visit luispalau.org to give a God honoring gift today. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Thank you for being with us today. God bless you