Sermon

Unyielding Gospel Faithfulness | Galatians 2:1-10

Grace Christian Church Armadale

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  1. We're reading verses 1 to 10 today. Karen's going to read that for us. If you're using one of the

  2. Bibles provided on the chairs, you'll find it on page 943. Thanks Karen.

  3. Galatians chapter 2 and I'm starting at verse 1.

    Galatians 2 chapter mention

  4. Then after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also.

  5. I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders,

  6. I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was

  7. not running and had not been running my race in vain. Yet not even Titus who was with me was

  8. compelled to be circumcised even though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false

  9. believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us

  10. slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved

  11. for you. As for those who were held in high esteem, whatever they were makes no difference

  12. to me. God does not show favoritism. They added nothing to my message. On the contrary,

  13. they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised

  14. just as Peter had been to the circumcised. For God who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the

  15. circumcised was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Cephas and John, those

  16. esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized

  17. the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

  18. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been

  19. eager to do all along. And this is God's word. All right, well, morning everyone. I just want

  20. to pray to begin. So please join me as we pray. Heavenly Father, we give you praise and thanks.

  21. You are the great and awesome Almighty God. You rule this world that you've made and we praise

  22. you Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thank you that you love us so much. Thank you Father that you

  23. sent your only Son. Thank you Jesus that you came down to this world that you'd made to live

  24. perfectly, to reveal yourself to us and then to go to the cross for us. Lord, thank you that you

  25. have risen and that you have ascended, that you reign in power forevermore. We thank you Holy

  26. Spirit that you are with us and in us and we pray that you would make us understand your word this

  27. morning. Lord, show us the truth in your word that you have for us and Lord use it and we pray that

  28. you would work by your spirit to make us more like Christ. We pray that you would bless us with great

  29. unity and joy in Christ and we pray these things for his glory. Amen. I normally preach from the

  30. ESV and so I've just got one of the Bibles from here but I brought this one which I have that looks

  31. a bit 80s because it's got different people on the front but it's just a New Testament here and

  32. I've got this one here so the NIV. It is wonderful to be here with you and I want to send greetings

  33. from High Wycombe to all the brothers and sisters here. It's a joy to be united in the Gospel of our

  34. Lord Jesus and thank you for having me. It's wonderful to be here with you all. A question for

  35. you this morning. What would you be willing to take a stand for? What would you be willing to

  36. take a stand for? What would you be willing to put it all on the line for? What things in your life

  37. or people in your life would you be willing to take a stand for, to endure whatever may come if

  38. you take a stand? And today we're going to see the Apostle Paul take a stand for the Gospel. Now I

  39. understand you've been working through the book of Galatians and this is a letter from the Apostle

  40. Paul but not only Paul, all the brothers in that area who were agreed on what needed to be said to

  41. these churches in Galatia in this part of Asia Minor. It was a letter that is a heavy-hitting

  42. letter. I'm sure you would have already seen some of the confronting language the Apostle Paul uses

  43. as he talks about the seriousness of there being no other Gospel as the series is entitled. We have

  44. Paul sharing this message that isn't just something Paul's come up with or Paul and a few of his

  45. friends but the message that God has given to him to share with these people and it's affirming the

  46. truth of the Gospel that comes from God and glorifies God. And Paul has warned the Galatians

  47. of the danger of counterfeit Gospels. You see counterfeits are worse than worthless. You know

  48. if I try and use fake money not only does the fake money not work but they send you to jail. There

  49. are consequences for embracing the counterfeit and that's true with the Gospel. If you embrace a

  50. counterfeit Gospel, a fake false Gospel, not only does it not give what it promises it actually ends

  51. up in the just judgment of God. And so there is an utmost importance to getting the Gospel right and

  52. that's what the book of Galatians shows us and teaches us. Paul says in chapter 1 verse 8 that

  53. even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a Gospel contrary to the one we preach to

  54. you let him be accursed or condemned. So this is of utmost importance that the Gospel is right and

  55. we know what it is. And you can see that Paul wasn't on about pleasing man. He was on about

  56. living for the Lord. He didn't mind what people thought of him. He wasn't fearing man. He was

  57. fearing the Lord. He wasn't seeking comfort or pleasure in this life. He was seeking the glory of God.

  58. And people were initially a bit suspicious of Paul and if you know anything about Paul in his

  59. former life as a zealous persecutor of the church you could understand why they would be a bit

  60. suspicious of him. He seems like a really badly disguised double agent come in to undo a lot of

  61. the Gospel work. I mean here's this guy who's been trying to round up Christians and kill them. Now

  62. all of a sudden proclaiming the Gospel? What's happening there? People are initially very

  63. suspicious of him and in today's passage we're going to see how Paul is recognized. Firstly he's

  64. recognized as a true apostle. Secondly we're going to see that he preaches the true Gospel and then

  65. we're going to see him take a stand for that Gospel. That Paul is a true apostle. That he

  66. preaches the true Gospel and he takes a stand for that Gospel. Up to now in the book of Galatians

  67. Paul has shown his credentials as an apostle. He's someone who's been called by Jesus Christ

  68. specifically given the commission and the office as an apostle. Jesus appeared to him on the road

  69. to Damascus and radically changed his life and gave him a call to preach the Gospel. I want you

  70. to think about, you may be familiar with business cards. We don't see them as much today but when

  71. people give each other a card to say here's my number, here's my details. I'd like to imagine

  72. what Paul's business card would have looked like before the Lord Jesus intervened in his life. It

  73. might be something like this. Saul of Tarsus, zealous persecutor of the church, show me the way

  74. and I'll show them the way to prison or certain death. Something like that. And then afterwards

  75. Paul, an apostle of Jesus, saved sinner, preacher of God's Gospel, showing people the way to

  76. salvation in Christ even if I get locked up or killed for it. You see that radical change in his

  77. life? He would have needed a whole new set of business cards. He is just completely different.

  78. You see how God turned him around, changed his life completely. He changed him from being someone

  79. who breathed murder and threats against Christians, rounding them up trying to kill them, trying to

  80. wipe the Gospel off the face of the earth to being someone who would go and non-violently proclaim

  81. that message, being willing to endure whatever persecution may come for doing so. Radical,

  82. radical change in his life, spreading the message of Jesus that he once was trying to stamp out.

  83. In various situations in our lives you may come across questions where people ask, you know,

  84. is this person legit or are they true to who they claim to be? You might be familiar with people

  85. asking those kinds of questions. People, you know, make a claim and then we kind of have to work out

  86. whether that claim is legitimate, whether it's true. And people who do this, sometimes you might

  87. have people sort of say, my house or my acreage is now a country, you know, and then you know maybe

  88. mint some coins and say we're no longer part of Australia. This is a different country now, you

  89. need a new passport to come in and visit. If I did that in my house and then it would be a bit crazy.

  90. And one of the ways that we can see whether those kind of claims are legitimate is whether other

  91. legitimate countries in this instance recognise that. So if I said, you know, my house is now no

  92. longer part of Australia, it is its own country. No one, no other country in the world is going to

  93. recognise that. And so you can see that by looking at what a country that is recognised and the other

  94. countries that are recognised think of this claim, you can see whether that's legitimate. I'll give

  95. you another example. If I told you I was part of the British royal family and you went and asked

  96. them, they would tell you it's a load of nonsense. It's not true. But if there was someone who really

  97. was part of the British royal family and they said to you they are, you could go and ask them and

  98. they'd be able to track the line down and find, yeah, you know, they're the 64th second cousin or

  99. whatever of the Queen and work that out. And so if they are legitimate, then those who we know to

  100. be legitimate will authenticate that claim. Do you see how that works? So one country recognises the

  101. status of another country. Someone in a royal family recognises the status of someone else in a royal

  102. family. Well today, with the Apostle Paul, we see his claim to be an apostle authenticated by the

  103. Apostles, by the other Apostles. We have the other Apostles who were with Jesus, who were called and

  104. sent by Jesus. They recognise, yes, Paul, you are a true apostle. This guy is one of us. He's saved,

  105. he's called and sent by the same Jesus who saved, called and sent us. And that comes from the other

  106. Apostles. That's huge because here's this former zealous persecutor of the church who was rounding

  107. up the Christians wanting to kill them, wanting to wipe out the message of the gospel of Jesus,

  108. he's being recognised as a true apostle by the other Apostles. The men who walked with Jesus,

  109. the men who spent their lives with him, they'd come out of various backgrounds and they see Paul

  110. as a true apostle. Yes, indeed. And we see that they notice something about him in verse 9. It

  111. says, James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me.

  112. They looked at Paul and they saw a saved man. They saw someone that Jesus Christ had rescued out of

  113. his former sinful lifestyle. They recognised the grace that was at work in Paul because it was the

  114. same grace that was at work in them. You can see that in verse 9. No other explanation can truly

  115. satisfy to explain this change in Paul's life. Nothing else would satisfy, nothing could explain

  116. this complete turnaround of wanting to kill Christians to being willing to be murdered

  117. as a Christian. The same message that he was trying to get rid of, now he was willing to be

  118. gotten rid of for. The only real satisfactory explanation is that God had worked in him. That

  119. God had indeed given him a new heart, taken away his cold dead heart and given him a heart of flesh.

  120. That he put his spirit within him, that he'd given him new life in Christ. And the Apostles

  121. themselves, they reached this conclusion. Yes, Paul, you're a partaker of the same grace that

  122. we are partakers of, called in the same way that we are called. That God really has changed you.

  123. And Paul is bringing a message. This message he's bringing from the position of being an Apostle.

  124. And this message that he's bringing is the true gospel. You see, he's a true Apostle and the message

  125. that he's preaching is a true gospel. Now very significantly, the message that Paul is preaching

  126. is the same as the message the other Apostles were preaching. He's just told us in chapter 1,

  127. that there is no other gospel and for anyone to embrace another gospel leads to the just

  128. condemnation from God. So if Paul was saying, hey, if he's been recognized as a true Apostle,

  129. but he's off preaching a different gospel to what they were preaching, that would be a massive

  130. problem. That's unthinkable. If he's the same as the other Apostles in that he's been saved,

  131. called and sent by Jesus, then he must be preaching the same gospel. Paul has a revelation to go up

  132. to Jerusalem to see the Apostles. And he's going there to make sure that the gospel he's preaching

  133. is the true gospel. He says, hey guys, this is the gospel that I've been preaching. I want to make

  134. sure that I'm not laboring in vain, that I haven't been misleading people or doing anything like that.

  135. And they confirm that yes, yes brother, you are preaching the true gospel. He met with the heavy

  136. hitters, the pillars as he calls them, James, John and Simon Peter, men who are Apostles of Jesus

  137. Christ and all of these guys found agreement with one another. He went up in verse 2 because of that

  138. revelation and he sets before them privately the gospel that he's been preaching. He's showing them

  139. the good news, the massive news message of salvation in Jesus Christ alone, by grace alone,

  140. through faith alone, in Christ alone, for God's glory alone, according to Scripture alone. And

  141. he shares that message and they are saying yes, that is the same message. And even Titus, who in

  142. verse 3 we hear of, he's a Greek and he's not forced to be circumcised. So we see that the

  143. Apostles are saying, yeah, they're all in agreement. They're not saying, oh yeah, actually Titus,

  144. you need to be circumcised. They're not saying, Titus, you come from a Gentile background, you

  145. need to now come under the law and fulfill that. They're not doing that. They're offering Paul the

  146. right hand of fellowship in verse 9. It says, once they perceived the grace given to me, they gave the

  147. right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the

  148. circumcised. And that right hand of fellowship is pretty much what it is today. There's a recognition

  149. to it. A few years ago, when many of us weren't shaking hands, I went to a home open with my

  150. parents, they were looking for a new home, and I went to shake the hand of the guy who was there

  151. and he said, oh, how about I acknowledge you this way? And he gave me a fist bump. And as I was

  152. reading this and thinking about this, it reminded me that there is an acknowledgement and a welcome

  153. and a hospitality and a recognition of one another when we shake one another's hand. So that, I have

  154. no issue with the guy giving me a fist bump. I'm just using this as an example to remind us that

  155. I'm hitting your microphone again, I'm sorry. My pulpit, I think it comes up from the back,

  156. but I occasionally still bump it. But anyway, the reality is when we shake hands, when we look one

  157. another in the eye, when we recognize one another, there's a fellowship there. There's a true

  158. relationship there. And there's a recognition there. And that's what's happening here. The

  159. Apostles recognizing Paul as one of them, and Barnabas too. And they are seeing him as an

  160. Apostle, a true Apostle, and one who preaches the true gospel. The true gospel, because it's the

  161. same gospel of Jesus Christ that the other Apostles were preaching too. It's the same gospel. It's not

  162. a different gospel. If Paul had come there, and he was, you know, zealous persecutor of the church

  163. formally, and he gets there and he's saying, hey, here's the gospel I've got, and it's different,

  164. there is no way these Apostles are going to recognize Paul as a fellow Apostle. And there's

  165. no way they're going to recognize his gospel as the true gospel. But what happens is they see Paul,

  166. they see that he's received the grace of Jesus Christ, and they see that he preaches the grace

  167. of Jesus Christ. They see a man who's been saved, they see a brother in Christ, they see a fellow

  168. Apostle who preaches the same gospel. And this gospel is the massive news of salvation in Jesus.

  169. No one else can save us. Only Jesus can. And the massive news is that he has come, and he has lived

  170. perfectly, that he has died on the cross to take our sin upon himself, to bear the penalty for our

  171. rebellion against God, bearing the wrath of God in our place on the cross, that he put our sin to

  172. death, that he is risen from the grave powerfully, destroying the power of sin, death, and the devil,

  173. and he is ascended on high, and he reigns, and that for all who are in Christ, we now have eternal

  174. life, eternal life and the hope, secure hope of life forever with him, and being made right in him,

  175. not having a righteousness of our own, but a righteousness that comes from Christ himself,

  176. clothed in him. He's the King of Kings. Jesus is the Lord of Lords. He's the only one who can save

  177. us. And this is the true gospel, the gospel that was preached by Jesus, the gospel that we see in

  178. the Old Testament pointing towards the fulfillment, and we see the other apostles preaching, and they

  179. see Paul preach it too. And you notice there, they say that, remember the poor. That's what they say,

  180. and Paul says, that's the very thing I was eager to do. This gospel bears fruit, and it leads to

  181. change in our lives. That change is not what saves us, that change points to the saving grace of

  182. Christ who has worked in us. And you'll see in some of Paul's letters where he'll ask for collections

  183. for the brothers who are doing it tough. You see a real partnership in the gospel there, and it's

  184. not that they're saying, hey Paul, we think you've got some of the gospel right, but really you need

  185. to start embracing circumcision. That's not what they're saying at all. They're not saying, Paul,

  186. actually we see it more as a works-based salvation. They're not saying that at all. They're saying

  187. they agree. They agree with the same gospel that is centered on the grace of Christ Jesus. That is

  188. the gospel of our salvation. And they're saying that gospel bears fruit, and Paul's saying, I

  189. completely agree. And one of the ways in which that happens is the caring for the needs of brothers

  190. and sisters. Because when Jesus saves us, he saves us into a family, we become a part of the family

  191. of God. We can now call God the almighty creator of heaven and earth, our Father. We become brothers

  192. and sisters. We're adopted in Christ Jesus. We have his Holy Spirit come and live in us. And so

  193. those blessings are unfathomable and wonderful and rich and joyful. And it is his grace, not

  194. our works that leads to us receiving this blessing. That's the true gospel. In today's

  195. passage, we're only coming up to verse 10. And so when Paul takes a stand for the gospel here,

  196. we're going to see how he takes a stand today against false brothers. But in this section,

  197. you'll, as you continue in Galatians, you'll see Paul take a stand not only against false brothers,

  198. but against real brothers who get things wrong. You'll see Paul take a stand for the gospel,

  199. both against false brothers, which we'll look at today, and then against real brothers,

  200. who make mistakes and get things wrong. So we're going to look today at Paul taking a stand for

  201. this true gospel. He's a true apostle. He's preaching the true gospel, and he's taking a

  202. stand for that gospel. And he won't back down. The true gospel of salvation by grace alone,

  203. through faith alone, in Christ alone, glorifies God. Doesn't glorify us, because God is the one

  204. who has done it. He's the one who saves us. He's the one who receives all of the glory.

  205. And now there were false brothers at that time, trying to infiltrate the church, to spy out the

  206. freedom that is ours in Christ Jesus. You know, notice it's like espionage sort of language,

  207. like spies, you know. That's the kind of language that's being used here of these false brothers.

  208. They're like spies coming in to try and undo the gospel. They are false brothers, pretending

  209. that they're brothers, and they're operating in this sneaky, underhanded way to try and undermine

  210. the gospel. They're acting like they're Christians, like they believe in Jesus, but their endgame is

  211. getting people to submit to the Jewish law, and particularly trying to save yourself through the

  212. Jewish law. That's what they're trying to do. They're trying to enslave them to saving themselves,

  213. because we can never save ourselves. And so that's slavery. It's never going to work. It's a horrible

  214. thing to try and do. And it ultimately is just ends up being dishonouring to God, and it leads

  215. into judgment at the end. But as you notice, it sounds like something old Paul would have been all

  216. for, you know, works and all of that. That's exactly what old Paul was standing for, but not

  217. new Paul. Paul, who's been radically changed by Jesus, he has been saved by him. Paul knows that

  218. he wasn't saved by what he did. In Galatians, Paul says that if righteousness, you know, could be by

  219. works of the law, then Christ died for no purpose. But Christ did die for a purpose, and that purpose

  220. is to save and rescue us. And eternity is at stake here. In chapter two, in verse five, Paul says of

  221. these false brothers, we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the

  222. gospel might be preserved for you. He didn't submit, and those along with him didn't submit to the false

  223. brothers and their false gospel, even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be

  224. preserved for you. They were unyielding in their faithfulness to the gospel. They faced attacks,

  225. and they didn't compromise. They didn't give an inch or a centimeter or a millimeter or an

  226. anemone. He didn't give anything. He didn't in any way compromise. He held his ground and stood firm

  227. on the gospel, knowing it to be true, and knowing that what these false brothers were preaching was

  228. ultimately a false gospel. A gospel about trying to save yourself. A gospel that tries to glorify

  229. man. A gospel that leads to judgment, because it's not the real gospel. It's a false gospel. It's a

  230. lie. The true gospel glorifies God. It's about who the Lord Jesus is and what He's done for us on the

  231. cross, and about how He has rescued us, and it glorifies Him. We don't deserve any of the glory.

  232. It all goes to God. He's the one who saved us. He's the one who rescued us. People in that time,

  233. and we see it today as well, they can often misunderstand or misapply the Old Testament,

  234. and look at commands in the Old Testament, and think this must be God saying you need to do these

  235. things in order to save yourself. But I'll give you an example. In Exodus 20, when God gives the

  236. law there, He said, I'm the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of

  237. the house of slavery, and then He says that you shall have no other gods before me or besides me.

  238. So you can see that it's always motivated by the grace of God, and yet people had looked at the

  239. Old Testament, misapplied it, and taken it to mean something that it didn't. The reality is that Paul

  240. knows that the gospel is the most important message ever, and he knew that to compromise on

  241. it would lead to judgment. And Paul doesn't want anyone to go to judgment, and we don't either.

  242. In verse 6, he talks about these guys being influential and making no difference to him.

  243. This is verse 6 of my small Bible is folded back, so I'm going to open it in the big one. Yes,

  244. in verse 6, so verse 5 he's spoken about the false brothers, in verse 6 he talks about those

  245. who are influential, and he's saying it makes no difference to me, God shows no favoritism. We see

  246. that Paul has confidence in the gospel, and these apostles recognized that he was preaching the same

  247. gospel. The false brothers didn't recognize that gospel. They were preaching lies and deception.

  248. Brothers and sisters, we have every reason to have confidence in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

  249. It's the gospel that doesn't come from man. I mean, if you think for a second, if I was going

  250. to come up with a gospel, if you were going to come up with a gospel just in your human sinful

  251. thinking before God influences your life, we would think of something that gives us the glory,

  252. wouldn't we? We would think of something that makes it about us, that makes it about man and

  253. our success and our rising to the top and all that. That's what happened in the Old Testament,

  254. the other Bible for instance. We would make it about us and our glory and try to make a name

  255. for ourselves, but that's not the true gospel. The true gospel is about God and His glory and

  256. His name being the name above every name, the Lord Jesus, and seeing Him save us. And so we see that

  257. at a fundamental level, this is the message that comes from God and is true. It's not a message

  258. that is made up by sinful humans. It's a message that comes from God and is true. If you look into

  259. how many people have had a look into the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you'll see that

  260. many people who go in, look into the resurrection of Jesus to try and disprove it, in the end become

  261. Christians because they reached the conclusion that He really did rise from the dead. We have

  262. every reason for confidence in Jesus and what He's done. The next thing that I want to point out

  263. is that we need to take a stand for the gospel. You see, Paul saw these false brothers, he saw

  264. these guys saying, we're here to help the Galatians reach fullness or whatever, and their idea of that

  265. was to try and enslave them to saving themselves. And Paul is saying, no, no, no, no, I'm taking a

  266. stand. I'm not giving any ground. I am holding fast to the gospel, whatever may come. And you'll see

  267. him do that, not only with these false brothers, but in the next section as well, against real

  268. brothers who get it wrong. And we need to do the same. We need to hold fast to the gospel and not

  269. give any ground. If there's one thing worth taking a stand for in this life, ever, it is the gospel

  270. of Jesus Christ. He, Jesus, He's the one who's done everything for us, and He's the one worthy of us

  271. taking a stand for. And whether it's online, maybe you like to listen to a preacher, if you've got a

  272. favorite preacher, if they compromise on the gospel, we need to take a stand for the gospel

  273. and not listen to lies. Whether it's people who kind of come into church and try and work their

  274. way in to take us off track of the gospel, we need to take a stand for the gospel. We need to not give

  275. any ground. We need to hold fast to Jesus who has saved us, not try to save ourselves, not try to

  276. think that we contribute something to our salvation, not try to think that we somehow do part of the

  277. work. No, Jesus paid it all on the cross. He has sufficiently and completely dealt with our sin so

  278. that we can stand before God righteous in His sight, not because of anything we've done,

  279. but because of what He's done in us and what He's done for us on the cross and in His resurrection.

  280. I don't know what that would look like exactly for you. Maybe you've got friends or people you

  281. know who are standing for something else, who are not standing for the gospel. Maybe you know of

  282. people who say they're a Christian, but they're trying to kind of add in works to what they're

  283. saying it means to be a Christian. And maybe for you it will look like just actually saying

  284. something when that comes up. How many of us have heard someone say, yeah, you know, there's a whole

  285. lot of religions out there, but really when you all boil it down, it just comes to being a good

  286. person. Just be a nice person and you know, maybe God will let you into heaven when you die. That's

  287. what it's all about. I mean, how many of us have heard that? I heard that all the time. And it's

  288. just not true. We don't need to just, you know, try and pretend that we're a nice person and all

  289. the rest of it. God sees our hearts. God sees the corruption in our hearts and He is a just judge.

  290. And so if we were going to rely on ourselves, the thought of standing before the holy almighty God,

  291. who is the just judge, who's standing by yourself, that is a horrifying and terrifying prospect.

  292. But if you are in Christ Jesus, you have every reason for confidence because He has already

  293. paid the penalty for your sin. He has already rescued you from what you deserve, from all of

  294. your sin, from everything in our natural self that is against God. He's paid for it. He's rescued you

  295. from it. He's made you into a new creation in Him. And so now you can live a joyful life in Him,

  296. not trying to save yourself, not enslaved to this kind of, I'm just going to try and work my way

  297. into God's good books. No, your name's in the book of life because of Jesus Christ. So you can have

  298. every confidence in Him and you can take a stand for the gospel and you can take that stand because

  299. you know Jesus died for you. And you know that to even give the tiniest measurement possible over

  300. to say that it's part us and part Him, completely dishonours God and robs Him of His glory. No,

  301. it's not that God did His bit and we're doing our bit. No, it's God has saved us. Jesus has rescued

  302. us. He's the one who paid it all. And so next time you hear someone say something like that,

  303. in loving kindness and tenderness, hold out the truth of the gospel. And when you find people who

  304. come in and try and, whether it's people on the inside or who are kind of trying to infiltrate

  305. the church, whether it's leaders, whoever it is, hold fast to the gospel. Don't be led astray. You

  306. know, Paul says even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one

  307. we preach to you, let him be accursed or condemned. So even if an angel appeared right now and we all

  308. knew it was an angel telling us a false gospel, we must not listen to it. Hold fast to the truth of

  309. the gospel. Stand firm in the freedom Christ has won for you and don't give an inch. Don't give an

  310. iota. Don't give anything. Do not compromise because any compromise opposes the gospel.

  311. Let's turn away from all self-righteousness, poor contempt on all of our pride, all of our attempts

  312. at pleasing men with man's false gospels. And let's rest on Christ alone for he is our only hope

  313. in life and death. Will you pray with me, please? Lord Jesus, we come to you today. You are God and

  314. you are glorious. And we Lord, we fail in so many ways. Lord, we have all sinned and fallen short

  315. of your glory. Have mercy on us, we pray. We turn from our sin to you Jesus. We trust in you. We ask

  316. for your mercy and grace and we thank you that you have made us into new creations for all who

  317. believe in you. That you have clothed us in your righteousness. That you've taken on our sin. That

  318. you've paid for it all. Thank you that this is the true gospel that Paul who is a true apostle

  319. preached as the other apostles preach. And Lord help us to take a stand for this true gospel.

  320. Whether it's with our neighbors, whether it's with people that we know who claim to be Christians,

  321. whether it's leaders, whoever it is Lord, help us to firmly and faithfully rest on Christ and take

  322. a stand for the gospel. Lord grant that we would not be people who compromise. Grant that grace

  323. Christian church here in Armidale Lord would be a faithful witness to you. That this church would be

  324. a place where the gospel is not compromised on. Where the truth of salvation by grace alone,

  325. through faith alone in Christ alone that glorifies you alone Lord. That that would be held forth

  326. faithfully. That there would be no false teaching. That there would be truth coming forth from this

  327. place. We pray that it would be a light in this area and we pray Lord that you would be pleased

  328. to bring people in who at the present are trusting in false gospels. But upon hearing your gospel

  329. and by the work of your spirit would come to trust you and have life in Jesus and in his name.

  330. Lord we thank you. Thank you for your grace. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen.