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[0:00] Welcome to Built on God's Word, the preaching and teaching ministry of Highland Park Baptist Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.! Elder Lee Roberts teaches on Galatians 1, verses 6-10.

[0:14] ! Paul even skipped his typical comment about how he prays for the recipients.

[0:40] Instead, Paul almost immediately jumped into a summary of the gospel. That gospel summary is in Galatians 1, verses 3-5. Let's go ahead and read those verses.

[0:52] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

[1:09] Tonight's passage reveals why Paul took that approach. Let's go ahead and read our text for tonight. Again, that's Galatians 1, verses 6-10. Paul said, 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.

[1:27] Not that there is another one, but there are 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 preached to you, let him be accursed.

[1:42] As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God?

[1:56] Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. In Galatia, false teachers were spreading a false gospel.

[2:10] To make matters worse, the Galatians were listening to them. True believers should never take lightly any distortion of the true gospel. And tonight's verses show us how Paul reacted to such a distortion.

[2:24] In these verses, Paul strongly emphasizes that only the gospel of Christ is true. Anyone who contradicts that true gospel is a false teacher who should be accursed by God.

[2:37] That is the main idea. Only the gospel of Christ is true. Anyone who contradicts the true gospel is a false teacher who should be accursed by God.

[2:47] Put yourself in Paul's sandals. You go out to start these churches through many personal tribulations. You travel over mountains. You face danger.

[2:58] You're left for dead before you see some people coming to Christ. And you finally see some churches forming and taking root. But then immediately after these churches are established, you hear that those new believers are turning away from the faith because they are being influenced by false teachers.

[3:14] So how would you respond to that if you were Paul? Well, some people refer to this letter as an angry letter. A better way to think of it is a warning letter.

[3:27] Paul was warning the church members that they were falling victim to those false teachers. Let's hope that if we find ourselves in the same position as Paul did, we will want to shout a warning as well.

[3:40] When a warning is necessary, that warning takes precedence over pleasantries. The best way to recognize a false gospel is to compare it to the true gospel.

[3:51] That means every believer needs to know the true gospel as it is revealed by Scripture. When we say that this church is a church built on God's Word, we mean that.

[4:02] We should always be verifying that what we do and teach aligns with Scripture. We'll break tonight's text into three sections, starting with verses 6 and 7.

[4:14] And in those verses, we see the astonishment. So the astonishment is the first thing for your handout. Listen to verses 6 and 7 again.

[4:26] Paul said, 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 are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

[4:42] The Greek word translated as astonished in verse 6 has been variously translated as astonished or marveled, amazed, astounded, or surprised.

[4:56] Paul was genuinely shocked at the news he received from Galatia. That shock was further deepened because the slippage of the Galatians had occurred so quickly. This phrase could refer to either the short duration of time that had elapsed since Paul first preached the gospel in Galatia, or it could mean that the Galatians had immediately lapsed from the true faith as soon as they were confronted with the message of the false teachers.

[5:22] Paul may have intended both meanings here. Relatively speaking, the little time had passed since Paul had taught the churches, and those churches seemed eager to embrace different teachings.

[5:34] Paul says he is astonished that the Galatians are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. The Greek word translated deserting means to transfer one's allegiance.

[5:50] It's used of soldiers in an army who revolt or desert, or of men who change sides in politics or philosophy. The desertion written about here is a deliberate act.

[6:03] Certainly Paul would have been upset if the Galatians simply had drifted away from true teaching, but the Galatians' situation was even worse. They were intentionally turning away from what Paul had taught them and instead following the false teachers.

[6:20] Pay particular attention to how Paul describes the people's desertion. He says, you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ. Notice that he says deserting him instead of deserting it.

[6:37] The true gospel is God's gospel. That gospel is so closely identified with God that when people turn from the true gospel, they are turning from God himself.

[6:48] The true gospel is what Paul summarized in Acts chapter 20, verse 24. Acts chapter 20, verse 24 is where Paul said, But I do not account my life of any value, nor is precious to myself, if only I may finish my course in the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

[7:15] The true gospel is the gospel of the grace of God. The true gospel is good news of a God who is so gracious to undeserving sinners. In grace, God gave his son to die for us.

[7:29] In grace, God calls us to himself. In grace, God justifies us when we believe. 2 Corinthians 5.18 says, All is from God, meaning that all is from grace.

[7:43] Nothing is due to our efforts, our merits, or our works. Everything in salvation is due to the grace of God. The Galatians were doing something even more disturbing than turning from the true gospel.

[7:59] The end of verse 6 says that they were turning to a different gospel. The idea of a counterfeit is what Paul means by different. The gospel taught by the false teachers was a counterfeit.

[8:14] The believers were in the process of removing themselves from the sphere of grace. The false teachers were accountable for their corruption of God's truth, but the Galatian Christians were accountable for being so easily misled by it to pursue legalism.

[8:30] The false teachers moving into Galatia were Judaizers. In Acts 15.1, John summarized the Judaizers' message.

[8:43] It says, But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

[8:55] Judaizers accepted that you must believe in Jesus for salvation, but they stressed that you must be circumcised and keep the Jewish law as well. In other words, you must finish by your obedience to the law what Christ began on the cross.

[9:11] You must add your works to the work of Christ. You must finish Christ's unfinished work. The thought of the Galatians turning to a different teaching seems surprising to us.

[9:24] And that is why Paul's letter is as much a warning to us now as it was for the original readers back then. We should never get overconfident that we can never be led astray.

[9:36] The Galatians had been privileged to be taught by the greatest teacher the church has ever known, apart from Jesus himself. Yet they readily rejected the truths of grace that they had learned from Paul.

[9:48] There's a great and urgent need for preaching and teaching that continually repeats the central truths of the gospel. It's possible for even long-time believers to lose a firm grip on those truths and allow themselves to be weakened and perverted by ideas that purportedly improve on the pure and plain teachings of Scripture.

[10:08] That's why we must study the Bible diligently ourselves and make sure we regularly expose ourselves to sound teaching. We always need to stay on guard, but we should never panic.

[10:21] We know how to avoid falling victim to false teaching. If Paul had stopped with the end of verse 6 when he talked about the Galatians turning to another gospel, that would have been very confusing.

[10:35] He quickly clarified his words by the phrase that starts verse 7. He said there, not that there is another one. Paul wants to make sure that the people understand that the Judaizer's gospel is no gospel at all.

[10:52] Any teaching that adds, subtracts, or changes something about the gospel results in something that is no gospel. The only gospel of God is the gospel of grace, which is the gospel of divine redemption, totally apart from any work or merit of man.

[11:12] Ephesians 2, verses 8-10 remind us that we are saved by grace and that we are God's workmanship. We read Ephesians 2, verses 8-10 often, but those verses are worth hearing again.

[11:26] So here are Ephesians 2, verses 8-10. Romans 5-2 reminds us that God gives us the faith needed to stand strong in the gospel.

[12:00] Listen to Romans 5-2. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

[12:16] We live in grace from the moment of salvation, and if grace ever stopped, we would lose our undeserved salvation and perish in sin. The grace of Christ is God's free and sovereign act of love and mercy in granting salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus, apart from anything man are or can do.

[12:39] It's also the sustaining grace that gives us salvation and takes us all the way to glorification. It's absurd to accept a gracious salvation and then try to maintain righteousness through human efforts, ceremonies, or rituals.

[12:56] The Judaizers who plagued the early church claimed to be Christian, and much of their doctrine was orthodox. They claimed to believe all the truths that other Christians believed.

[13:08] They never purported to overtly deny the gospel. They claimed to be improving it by adding requirements, ceremonies, and standards of the Old Covenant.

[13:20] But anything added to grace destroys that grace just as surely as does anything that's taken from grace. When law, even God's own law, is added to His grace, His grace ceases to be grace.

[13:35] Our salvation, past, present, and future, is entirely a work of God. We keep restating that same message in different ways.

[13:47] Any teaching that adds, subtracts, or changes something about the gospel results in something that is no gospel. In the Galatians case, Judaizers were adding law to the gospel.

[14:01] That may sound harmless, but consider what a drop of poison does to a large container of water. A single drop of poison in a large container can make all the water lethal.

[14:15] And a single false idea that in any way undercuts God's grace poisons the whole system of belief. The most destructive dangers to the church have never been atheism, pagan religions, or cults that openly deny scripture, but rather supposedly Christian movements that accept so much biblical truth that their unscriptural doctrines seem relatively harmless and insignificant.

[14:41] This is where we need to be careful. We know that true believers can never lose their salvation. However, true believers can lose the joy of their salvation, and they can do things that disrupt the fellowship between them and God.

[14:59] Legalism puts up a barrier that comes between believers' fellowship with God. Legalism also puts unnecessary requirements on new believers.

[15:09] The end of verse 7 summarizes the negative impact that legalism can have on even those people who are truly saved. Paul said there, But there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

[15:28] False systems labeled as Christianity always distort the nature and work of Jesus Christ. Those who deny Christ altogether are easily seen as the unbelievers they are.

[15:41] But those who claim to teach and follow Christ while undermining the gospel of His grace are immeasurably more dangerous. These people give the appearance of leading others to Christ while they are building barriers to salvation by grace.

[15:57] The one true gospel is about Christ. Christ's gospel is the gospel of atonement. Christ's gospel declares the full remission of sin and divine justification of sinners based on the atonement.

[16:11] The counterfeit gospel preached by the Judaizers was based upon the work of Christ plus human endeavor, such as circumcision and Jewish ceremonies. We're reminded of the seriousness of gospel defection.

[16:26] To add to the gospel, whether works, baptism, sacraments, or anything else, is to detract from the gospel. Paul says that the false teachers are troubling the church.

[16:41] The Greek word for trouble there means to shake or agitate. The Galatian congregations had been thrown by the false teachers into a state of turmoil.

[16:51] They had intellectual confusion on one hand and warring factions on the other. That same word for trouble was used of Herod when he heard about the birth of the king of the Jews in Matthew chapter 2 verse 3.

[17:06] It was used of the disciples when they saw Jesus walking on the water and of Zacharias when he saw the angel of the Lord. It was also used by Jesus in his command, Let not your hearts be troubled.

[17:22] The churches of Galatia were being shaken to their very foundations by the false teaching of the unregenerate Judaizers. Those Judaizers were acknowledging the basic truths about Jesus Christ, but were spiritually disturbing and subverting the believers by adding works to grace.

[17:42] The least bit of law added to the gospel of Christ reverses its character and turns it into what is contrary to God's gracious provision of salvation and sanctification based entirely on the merits of his sinless, sin-bearing son.

[18:00] John MacArthur said, Law does not moderately pollute grace, but reverses and destroys it. As a means of salvation, the two are diametrically opposite and cannot coexist.

[18:14] Grace can be destroyed, but it cannot be modified. Grace can be rejected, but it cannot be changed. Verses 6 and 7 showed us the two chief characteristics of the false teachers.

[18:29] They were troubling the church and changing the gospel. Those two things go together. To tamper with the gospel is always to trouble the church.

[18:43] Even if you've never read Galatians before, you can tell by Paul's words and his tone that he was very upset with the Judaizers. Paul made his feelings even more plain in verses 8 and 9.

[18:55] Let's move on to those verses as we look at the second section of the lesson. In verses 8 and 9, we see the accursed.

[19:07] So the accursed is what we'll look at next. Here are those verses again. Paul said in verses 8 and 9 of Galatians 1, As we have said before, so now I say again, If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

[19:40] You can see why accursed is the heading for this section. Paul uses that word in both verses. The word translated accursed is anathematized.

[19:52] This term is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for the word ban. Items that were devoted to the ban were to be destroyed. In 1 Corinthians 16.22, Paul used the same term for eternal damnation.

[20:09] He said, If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Paul was pronouncing, Let everyone who teaches another gospel be eternally damned.

[20:23] Paul establishes the principle that no matter how important the person, if he changes the gospel, he will be accursed. With that definition of accursed in mind, let's dig into verses 8 and 9.

[20:38] Listen to verse 8 one more time. Paul said, But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

[20:53] Paul's writing in this section is harsh. However, he applies the possible curse to himself first before he applies it to anyone else. Paul first pronounces the curse on himself and his colleagues if he or any of them changes the gospel.

[21:11] That helps us see how serious the issue is. Paul says that he would rather be eternally damned than mislead people with false teaching. In verse 8, Paul also applies the curse to an angel from heaven if that angel tried to change the gospel.

[21:29] By introducing angels into the discussion, Paul makes the point that no one in all of creation has the authority to change the gospel. Some think that Paul had the account of 1 Kings chapter 13 in mind when he wrote about an angel supposedly delivering a new message.

[21:50] In 1 Kings chapter 13, God commanded a prophet from Judah to give a message of judgment to King Jeroboam. God also commanded that prophet to avoid eating or drinking on his way home.

[22:03] On his way home, the prophet from Judah met another prophet who invited him to come eat and drink with him. We'll pick up the narrative starting with the prophet from Judah's response in 1 Kings chapter 13 verses 16 and 17 and we'll read all the way to 1 Kings chapter 13 verse 24.

[22:23] Here are 1 Kings chapter 13 verses 16 through 24. And he said, I may not return with you or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.

[22:38] For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, you shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came. And he said to him, I also am a prophet as you are.

[22:52] And an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord saying, bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied to him.

[23:04] So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water. And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back.

[23:16] And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah. Thus says the Lord, because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you, but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, eat no bread and drink no water.

[23:36] Your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers. And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he settled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back.

[23:48] And as he went away, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And as his body was thrown in the road, the donkey stood beside it. The lion also stood beside the body.

[24:01] The prophet from Judah, a true prophet, was led astray by someone who falsely claimed to have a message from an angel. That mistake cost the true prophet his physical life.

[24:17] Paul was even more prophetic with his pronouncement about additional revelation from an angel than he would have realized at the time. Can you think of a religion today that claims to have additional revelation from an angel?

[24:31] Mormonism claims that Joseph Smith received revelations through an angel. The Latter-day Saints are just one of the other religions that claim a false gospel.

[24:44] We need to pray that God will enlighten our LDS friends and colleagues with the true gospel before it is too late for them. Setting aside for a moment the LDS church's false beliefs that Christ was a created being, listen to how they distort the gospel by adding works to that gospel, similar to how the false teachers were doing in Galatia.

[25:09] The Book of Mormon says in 2 Nephi 25, verse 23, Until you get to the ending of that verse, the verse from the Book of Mormon sounds fine.

[25:40] But grace that saves people only after all that they can do is no grace at all. False teaching, like what the Galatians face, is still alive and well today.

[25:54] Paul desires that these false teachers should come under the divine ban, curse, or anathema. That is, he expresses the wish that God's judgment will fall upon them.

[26:06] Believers will surely avoid giving such false teachers a welcome or a hearing and refuse to receive or listen to them because the false teachers are those whom God has rejected.

[26:19] The devil disturbs the church as much by error as by evil. When he cannot entice Christian people into sin, the devil deceives them with false doctrine.

[26:32] Some people today dismiss Paul's outburst against the false teachers as an inappropriate temper tantrum. Such people say that we should be tolerant of different beliefs, but Paul was anything but tolerant.

[26:47] Those people are wrong to criticize Paul. He was doing exactly what he should have been doing. The curse of the apostle, or the curse of God which the apostle desires, is universal.

[27:03] It rests upon any and every teacher who distorts the essence of the gospel and propagates the distortion. There is no exception. In verse 8, Paul specifically applies the curse to angels as well as men.

[27:19] Then he adds himself also. The fact that he includes himself clears him of the charge of personal spite or animosity. Paul's curse is uttered deliberately and with conscious responsibility to God.

[27:37] Look at verse 9 now where Paul repeats the curse again. Verse 9 says, John Stott discussed two reasons why Paul so strongly wrote against the false teachers.

[28:02] The first is that the glory of Christ was at stake. To make men's works necessary for salvation, even as a supplement to the work of Christ, is derogatory to Christ's finished work.

[28:16] It is to imply that Christ's work was in some way unsatisfactory and that men need to add it and improve on it. It is, in effect, to declare the cross redundant.

[28:30] Listen to what Paul later says in Galatians 2, verse 21. Galatians 2, chapter 21 is where Paul said, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

[28:49] The second reason Stott gives for Paul's opposition to the false teachers is this. The good of men's souls was also at stake.

[29:01] Paul was writing about something that is fundamental to the gospel. He was writing about those who teach false views and mislead others by their teaching. Paul cared deeply for the souls of men.

[29:14] In Romans, chapter 9, verse 3, Paul declared that he would be willing himself to be accursed if others could be saved. He knew that the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation.

[29:28] To corrupt the gospel was to destroy the way of salvation and so to send to ruin souls who might have been saved by it. Jesus himself taught the same thing as Paul.

[29:43] Listen to what Jesus said in Mark, chapter 9, verse 42. Jesus said, Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and if he were thrown into the sea.

[30:05] That's a poetic way to say that anyone who teaches a false gospel will be accursed. Paul, far from contradicting the spirit of Christ, was actually expressing it.

[30:18] We live in an age when it's considered very narrow-minded and intolerant to have any clear and strong opinions, let alone to disagree sharply with anybody else.

[30:29] As for desiring false teachers to fall under the curse of God and to be treated as such by the church, the very idea is inconceivable to many. Getting back to our Galatians text, Paul seems to sense how his readers will react.

[30:48] He seems to sense that the people will say something like, Paul, you are going to make the false teachers angry. Consider backing off. After all, we should be tolerant of different opinions.

[31:00] Paul answers those anticipated objections in verse 10, the last section of our study tonight. In verse 10, we see the approval.

[31:11] So the approval is the third thing that we'll look at. Paul emphatically states whom he is trying to please and why he is trying to please him. Look at verse 10 again.

[31:24] Paul wrote, For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

[31:39] If Paul desired to be a people pleaser, then he would never have turned his life over to Christ. He was formerly admired for his Pharisaical zeal.

[31:51] If his goal were admiration, then he would have remained a Pharisee. Paul knew Jesus' words to the Pharisees in John chapter 5, verses 39 through 44.

[32:05] In John chapter 5, verses 39 through 44, Jesus told the Pharisees, You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.

[32:17] And it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

[32:32] I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

[32:51] The Pharisees were seeking glory from themselves and other people rather than from God. Paul knew where that would lead. Proverbs 9, verse 25 warns about that too.

[33:06] Proverbs 9, verse 25 says, The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. So listen to that one more time.

[33:19] The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. The word for fear there often means to reverence or to stand in awe of or to worship.

[33:33] Seeking the approval of people then is idolatry. In concerning yourself with what everyone else thinks about you, you are worshiping people rather than God.

[33:47] Thinking about the meaning of that statement, ask yourself this question. Are you a servant of Christ? If the answer is yes, adore Christ in your heart.

[34:00] Recognize the grace that he has given you and the death that he endured for you. Contend for this message with courage and with power of the Spirit that is yours in Christ.

[34:14] Remember the main idea. Only the gospel of Christ is true. Anyone who contradicts the true gospel is a false teacher who should be accursed by God.

[34:27] Many false systems are attractive because they emotionally appeal to love, brotherhood, unity, and harmony. Many false teachers are popular because they seem to be warm and pleasant and claim to have great love for God and for others.

[34:47] It is because distortions of the gospel by such deceptive personalities are so appealing that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Think about the false gospels that we have today that really are no gospel at all.

[35:05] The gospel of material prosperity teaches that Jesus is the way to financial gain. The gospel of family values teaches that Jesus is the way to a happy home.

[35:18] The gospel of self, which teaches that Jesus is the way to personal fulfillment, is another one of the false gospels today. And then we have the gospel of religious tradition that teaches that Jesus is the way to respectability.

[35:34] Finally, the gospel of morality teaches that Jesus is the way to be a good person. What makes these other so-called gospels so dangerous is that the things they offer all are beneficial.

[35:49] Yet, as good as these things are, when they become for us a sort of a gospel, we are in danger of turning away from the only gospel there is. Listen to this quote from Martin Luther.

[36:03] It was written a long time ago, but it sounds like he could have said it today. Martin Luther said, There is a clear and present danger that the devil may take away from us the pure doctrine of faith and may substitute for it the doctrines of works and of human traditions.

[36:19] It is very necessary, therefore, that this doctrine of faith be continually read and heard in public. The church's greatest danger is the counterfeit gospel inside the church.

[36:36] The Judaizers never wore t-shirts that said, I'm a false teacher. What made them so dangerous was that they knew how to talk the Christian talk. They used all the right terminology.

[36:48] They talked about how they got saved. They told people to trust in Christ. But the Christ they taught was not the Christ of the Bible.

[37:00] Leroy Lawson listed eight characteristics of cults, and these also can apply to false teachers. The first characteristic is an overpowering, charismatic leader.

[37:14] Think about the ones we have seen in the past. We've seen Jim Jones, we've seen Reverend Moon, and we've seen Joseph Smith. Those cults are founded on a dynamic leader who claims direct access to the mind of God.

[37:29] A second characteristic is the absolute authority of this leader. Sometimes the leader is called a prophet, sometimes he's called a president, often he's called father.

[37:41] The title is less important than the fact that by deed and word, he assumes a power superior to that of Jesus Christ. A third characteristic is the use of Jesus' name, but denial of Jesus' authority.

[37:57] Many cults ride on the Lord's coattails, even claiming to be Christian, but then replace the Bible with their own so-called holy books. They usurp Jesus' sovereignty by so-called later revelations or proclamations handed down by the leader.

[38:16] A fourth characteristic is the presence of secret rites and doctrine. If there are doctrines that are hidden from outsiders, or if there are sacred rites in the temple, or secret passwords that cannot be observed or learned by everyone, then the organization cannot be genuinely Christian.

[38:36] In Christ, there are no secrets. A Christian church has nothing to hide from the world. Its doctrines are found in an open book and can be examined by believer and non-believer alike.

[38:49] Its meetings are open to the world. Its rites are performed in view of anyone who wishes to see. Christ hides nothing. A fifth characteristic is the proliferation of rules.

[39:05] A sixth characteristic is salvation by works. A seventh characteristic is a sense of spiritual superiority. Rule book religion specializes in producing Pharisees.

[39:21] These masters of ecclesiastical gamesmanship memorize the regulations and doggedly follow them. They also keep score. They can measure their spirituality by the number of points earned.

[39:34] Their competitive spirit keeps them far ahead of their contemporaries who are less adept at playing by the rules of their religious games. Finally, the eighth characteristic is that a cult or a false teacher claims to have all the answers.

[39:52] When you reduce spiritual things to rules, regulations, and rituals, when you have systematized and defined and delimited God into manageable categories, then you can bend all the questions to fit your preset answers.

[40:07] Few, if any, cults or false teachers admit the existence of any knowledge that their systems haven't fully accounted for and cannot explain away. Knowing these eight characteristics may be helpful, but the best way to spot a false teacher or a counterfeit gospel is to know how to recognize the true gospel.

[40:28] Everything we have said about the true gospel can be summarized in two statements. First, the true gospel magnifies the free grace of God.

[40:40] Second, the true gospel is the gospel of the apostles of Jesus Christ. When we talk about the true gospel magnifying the free grace of God, we mean that it is the gospel of grace, of God's free and unmerited favor.

[40:57] To turn from him who called you in the grace of Christ is to turn from the true gospel. Whatever teachers start exalting man implying that he can contribute anything to his salvation by his morality, religion, philosophy, or respectability, that person is corrupting the gospel of grace.

[41:19] The true gospel also is the gospel of the apostles of Jesus Christ. The New Testament gospel is the standard by which all systems and opinions are to be tested.

[41:32] The gospel which the apostles preached and which is now recorded in the New Testament is that true gospel. Any other system is to be rejected. As Paul said in Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.

[41:53] It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this reminder of what the true gospel is, and that there is only one true gospel.

[42:12] Encourage us to keep learning it, to make it so ingrained in our hearts that we can easily spot any deviation from it. help us to confront others who try to promote that false gospel anywhere in the world.

[42:28] And Lord, help us be willing to share your grace and mercy with anyone we meet. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. To learn more, visit us in person or see the website at highlandparkbaptist.net.