Defining and Defending the Gospel: Galatians 2:1-10

Well, good morning. It is good to be with you this morning. We're in Cottonwood. We're driving up here, and evidently it has been a while since I have ventured north, because as soon as we started leaving the valley,

I was commenting on how everything has changed. I didn't know they had built all that stuff up north of Old Balpinnacle Peak or Happy Valley Road.

I just only have one question, where do all those people work? Where do we get the water?

I haven't figured that part out either. It's just absolutely amazing. I moved here to the

Phoenix area in 1974, and things didn't look like they do now in 1974.

Things have changed a lot. It is good to be up here in a slightly cooler climb.

I left my house yesterday afternoon to go to my office. The thermometer is reading 115 .4

on my back porch, so it's nice to be where it's probably not going to get up to 115 this afternoon.

That's for certain. This morning and this afternoon, I would like to speak to you about defining and defending the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I felt probably the best way to do that would be to work through the second chapter of the book of Galatians in two parts.

We will be looking at the first ten verses this morning, and then this afternoon we'll do 11 through 21 that divides out just about where we need it to divide out at.

I'm always most comfortable in the text itself. I think that the word of God ministers to the people of God.

But I would like to begin by making at least a few comments as to why it is important for us to be doing this this morning.

We live in a day and age where the society around us each and every day seeks to convince us that things like the truth of the gospel are not knowable.

The way that our society thinks is that if you say this is right, and that means this is wrong, that you are hateful, you are unloving, you are arrogant.

And so the very essence of the Christian faith, which shows that God has acted decisively and purposely in Jesus Christ and him only, our society teaches us to be ashamed of that message.

How dare you think that you know the truth and other people are deceived, other people are in error.

That pressure is placed upon us in every context of our society.

That pressure is placed upon us in the workplace. That pressure is placed upon us when we expose ourselves to the entertainment and the media of the world in subtle ways and in much more overt ways in our society today.

The pressure is being placed upon us. And since this is a men's conference, I'll go ahead and say being placed upon us men to adopt a new kind of Christianity.

A Christianity that is politically correct. A neutered

Christianity. A Christianity that makes no claims about what God has done, but says, well, you know,

I find great meaning in my understanding of my religious faith.

What does that mean? Does that not require us to believe that religious faith is merely a personal thing?

It has no claim to speak of transcendent truth. It's just my personal opinion.

And as it becomes more and more a part of our society, that the feelings of individuals have become the new greatest good, we dare not offend anyone.

What happened to men who had a backbone anyways? We can't offend anyone.

Well, except for Christians who can be offended right and left and upside and backwards and everything else. And that's okay.

But any minority religious group, well, you know, that's why there are even townships in the

United Kingdom that have canceled all their Christmas celebrations because they don't want to offend the Muslims.

And people want us to become Europe. They want us to become the neutered people of Europe.

And I say, no, thank you. Now, the gospel likewise cannot be forced into a form where it no longer makes transcendent claims upon every person in every culture at every time.

The gospel doesn't fit in that. You have to start tearing out the very heart of the gospel to make it fit into this politically correct realm.

And so given that there is a tremendous amount of pressure upon us, does the word of God equip us to stand firm against those pressures?

Does the word of God give to us guidelines? Does it give to us the passion to stand firm in the midst of a faithless generation?

I believe in the second chapter of Galatians, we are given more than sufficient evidence of the fact that the gospel is

God's highest priority. If it is the single means by which he has chosen to glorify himself, then clearly if we want our priorities to be the same priorities as the spirit would have us to have, if we want to honor

Jesus Christ, if we want to follow the apostolic example, then the gospel cannot be merely some set of theological opinions that we can abandon or embrace at will.

It cannot be a message where we get to make a decision as to what it is. It has to have transcendent value.

It has to be relevant to every culture, every language, every time, every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

And it has to be something we can be passionate in embracing and defending. And that's exactly what we see in Galatians chapter 2.

So I'm going to sort of step over this way so we can all see this together. And I'd like to look at the first 10 verses this morning in defining the gospel, because this is where the world will tell you, we can't do this any longer.

You Christians who thought that you could define the gospel, you've missed the boat.

You don't understand. And I hate to tell you, but as a seminary professor,

I know a little bit about what life is like in the seminary and the vast majority of seminaries today.

Systematic theology is no longer the queen of the classes. Systematic theology has moved over to the history section.

Because you see, the view of Scripture has been so degraded that the idea that there is one truth revealed in Scripture is by far the minority opinion amongst all theological seminaries in the world today.

That's why I say it's now in the church history section. People actually stand around going, can you believe there was a time when people actually thought that the

Bible had one message? That you could actually derive a consistent system of truth in the

Bible? Boy, those people were naive. And the people who believe that are given all of the opportunities to speak to the media.

They're the ones that are asked to speak for Christianity today. Except for some reason,

God's absolute providence in forcing Larry King to have John MacArthur on once in a while. That's the only time anyone actually stands up and says, actually, this is the truth.

And everybody else he has on goes, well, I'm not really sure. And that's what's going on.

Let's look at Galatians chapter 2 before I preach to you. Okay. Then after an interval of 14 years, this is

Paul speaking, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. It was because of a revelation that I went up and I submitted them the gospel, which

I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who are reputation for fear that I might be running or had run in vain, but not even

Titus who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.

But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy on our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus in order to bring us into bondage.

But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

But from those who were of high reputation, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality.

Well, those who were of reputation attributed nothing to me, but on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to be uncircumcised, just as Peter had been uncircumcised for he who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to circumcise, effectually worked for me also with the

Gentiles and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who repude to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship so that we might go to the

Gentiles and they to circumcise. They only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing

I was eager to do. Now let's move back to the beginning here and let's walk through this section because we have here a discussion of how the gospel itself is being defined.

Remember the context of the book of relations. There is no book in the New Testament that has stronger language in it than this epistle.

I remember when I debated Barry Lynn. I don't know if any of you know who Barry Lynn is, but he's head of Americans United, the

Separation of Church and State. He's a United Church of Christ minister, ACLU board member. Every time the people want the absolute leftist viewpoint of religious things, they have

Barry Lynn on. He and I debated whether homosexuality is consistent with biblical Christianity back in 2001 on Long Island in New York.

The debate did not go very well for Barry Lynn. In fact, later we made the videos available.

He tried to sue us to suppress the videos and he lost. But anyway, during the course of the debate,

I brought up the book of Galatians. Now here's a man who, believe it or not, actually claimed to be able to receive the same kind of revelation as the apostle

Paul. And here he stood in front of an audience and informed us, well, yeah, no,

I don't accept the authority of the book of Galatians. It's over the top. It's over the top.

Well, there are some senses in which it is over the top. Other than Jesus' words in Matthew chapter 23,

I can't think of any other text in the New Testament that comes even close to the strength of the language that Paul uses in the book of Galatians.

Remember how he began, if anyone preaches to you a gospel of the gospel which we have preached unto you, let him be anathema, that is under the curse of God, not under my curse, not under an apostolic curse, which would be serious enough in and of itself, but let him be under the very curse of God.

And in that text, beginning of Galatians, he tells us that there are not multiple gospels. When he says there'll be those who have preached to you another gospel, he says, which is not another.

And he uses two Greek words to differentiate another of a different kind, which is not another of the same kind.

There are not multiple gospels. But there are many people today who call themselves

Christians who believe there are multiple gospels. They believe that, well, you know, in my church we believe this.

But you know, I know down the road they have a completely different understanding. But you know, they're just such good folks.

And I don't want to offend anybody. And I don't want anyone to think that I'm mean or narrow -minded.

So, you know, I'm sure God will just sort of sort it all out at the end. That wasn't the apostolic preaching.

Paul knew that there were men who had come into the churches of Galatia, and they had a different gospel.

Now, the amazing thing is when you work through this text and you find out what they were preaching, in comparison to the wild heresies that are preached under the name of Christianity today, these

Judaizers, most people today would go, oh, come on. You're splitting hairs here. Come on.

All they're doing is they're looking at the Old Testament. And the Old Testament talks about circumcision.

And the Old Testament says this is the eternal ordinance. And all they're saying is you need to get into that covenant.

Jesus is the Messiah for the Jews. All you've got to do is be circumcised, enter into that covenant. Then you believe in Jesus and you're saved.

They're only adding one little thing. Who do you think you are,

Paul, to be so narrow minded? Well, truth has the nature of being very specific.

It is a truth that in the United States of America you drive on the right side of the road.

It is an untruth in America you drive on the left side of the road. Now, there's not that much of a difference.

There's just one little line down the middle. But aren't you glad most of us are pretty serious about that particular truth?

We see that. We live that way. People can't live the way that our modern society thinks.

You can't go, well, you know, liquid, cold water, acetone.

They're not the same to me. I think I can drink either one. Oh, no problem. No one lives that way.

But when it comes to spirituality, the assumption is there is no truth.

You see, we recognize there is a truth about, well, laws of physics, gravity, things like that, no problem.

Science, well, science is the source of all truth, is it not? And so things about the difference between water and acetone, yeah, okay, that's a scientific thing.

But you see, no one really knows about this religion thing. There are so many different opinions, you see.

And what is the underlying assumption of that way of thinking? It's the oldest temptation in the book.

Yea, hath God said? Wasn't that the very first recorded temptation?

Yea, hath God said? Isn't that what the serpent said in the garden? Are you sure

God can speak with clarity? Are you sure you understood him right?

Oh, that temptation continues on. In our land today, in our culture today, for Christians, the great temptation is to go, you know,

I want to be accepted. I want to be loved. None of us like that look from someone we know that they are offended by what we've had to say.

None of us go out looking for that. Well, I guess I do know some people do that, but I'm not amongst them.

Some people I think I am, but I don't know what I do. That's not me. I mean,

Lord willing, we'll be in London in November of this year. I'm going to two debates with Muslims there in London.

And then I'm going to Speaker's Corner. Anybody ever seen Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park? Speaker's Corner is an open air preaching area.

And the Muslims and the Christians get together every Sunday afternoon there. And you stand up and you preach.

And the Muslims are closer than you are to me right now. And they're not exactly like quiet Baptists while you're preaching.

And I'm going to see some real disapproving looks. I understand that.

None of us go looking for that. We know when someone is becoming offended by what we're saying.

And so it's so easy for us to adopt the silent Christian attitude, the silent

Christian perspective, where the gospel by your action becomes a mere opinion that has no more validity for someone else than a mere opinion would have.

That is not the power of the gospel. That is not the Christian message. And the enemy of our souls knows that he doesn't really have to worry too much more about us once he has forced us to adopt the position that says the gospel is not worthy of my public defense.

It is not worthy of my counting the cost. And may

I just say in passing that as I have over the past number of years turned my attention very fully to the study of Islam, to the study of the

Quran and Arabic and the history of Islam and the apologetic issues therein.

You cannot study Islam without being reminded on a regular basis of how many of our brothers and sisters this day suffer persecution at the hands of Muslim states.

Many of our brothers and sisters this day. Yes, the communists do it. China, North Korea.

They experience persecution from Hindus in India. Believe it or not, it does happen.

Southern Mexico from Roman Catholics at times. Evangelical churches there will find themselves in great trouble.

But the large majority of the persecution that takes place in our world today does so at the hands of Islam.

And yet we have brothers and sisters who stand firm and proclaim the gospel even at the cost of their freedom, their family and their lives.

And I cannot help but be challenged at how easy we have it in our land in comparison to them.

Last year, I had the opportunity of recording a whole series of television lectures to be translated into Farsi for satellite broadcast in Iran.

And it was because when when people in the West asked the Iranian Christians, what do you want most from us?

They didn't want iPods or computers or pews or things like that.

They said we need apologetics. We need to be able to teach our people and our children the truth, the faith so that we might continue to give an answer.

What a challenge to us. Are we passionate about the gospel?

Well, the Apostle Paul was. And the Apostle Paul goes up to Jerusalem.

I remember this is very early on in the history of the church. The mission to the

Gentiles was very new. God had to lower a sheep from heaven three times to get through the thick skull of Peter.

And even then, even having gotten through once, the veil went back down again, even for Peter.

Traditions are hard to get through. And so Paul has been ministering the gospel to Gentiles and he has not been forcing those

Gentiles to be circumcised. That's why he says here, Titus, even when he went to Jerusalem, was not compelled to be circumcised.

He's demonstrating the consistency that exists between his proclamation and the proclamation of Peter and James and John.

Because what has happened is these Judaizers who've gone to the churches of Galatia saying that Paul is a rebel.

That Paul is not consistent with the real apostles. The real apostles were Jesus. Paul only claims to have seen

Jesus on the road to Damascus. And so he's, you need to understand, you need to be circumcised.

Remember what Paul is going to say at the end of Galatians. He's going to say, to those of you who seek to be circumcised, you have been cut off from Christ.

You've been severed from grace. Strong words to those seeking to be justified by keeping the law.

And so Paul is demonstrating, no, there is only one gospel coming from the apostles. And if you compare this section with Acts chapter 15, you'll see how in that early church setting, as this issue came forward, the apostles gathered together.

Paul tells about what God has done. Peter gets up. He tells about what God has done in his life, how

God has taught him not to call on the unclean. Then James stands up and gives the decision. It was the big issue of the early church.

You didn't want to have a Jewish Christian church and then a Gentile Christian church.

That split just simply could not exist in Paul's mind. And so Paul goes up.

He says, Titus himself did not have to be circumcised, but why did I go up?

Why did I go up? Here's where we need to dig in. Notice what he says.

It was because of pseudo Adelphoi, false brethren.

Now, by the way, I don't know if the pastor here ever uses a laser. Do you ever use a laser to point

This is just your standard laser. So you can see a little laser there. That's your little standard laser. You know, that's, that's nice, but I'm a geek.

So I don't have just a standard laser. I have the kind of laser that if you fall asleep while I'm speaking,

I can fire this in your mouth and the whole head will blow. So that'll keep you awake.

So what I want to point something out, we've got to make sure to replace the screen afterwards because it can sort of burn a hole right in the middle.

Here's, here's a turn. Yeah, I got a green one of these kind of shoots down the airline.

So with that, yeah, I've got one. Why does Paul go up? See this term, false brethren, pseudo

Adelphoi. You know what Philadelphia means, right? City of brotherly love.

You know, a pseudo is a pseudonym, false name. So false brethren, it was because of false brethren who had snuck in.

Now, before I say anything more about that thing for just a moment, how many people in the church today would have sufficient confidence in the truth, the word of God, and the clarity of God's revelation to identify almost anybody as a false brother?

Oh, but didn't Jesus say, judge not, lest ye be judged. Oh, there's the most misused passage in all the

Bibles today, isn't it? You're not supposed to have discernment.

You're not supposed to tell difference between right and wrong. What did Jesus actually say? For by the standard by which you judge, you yourself will be judged.

We are called to make decisions. Jesus himself talked about good fruit and bad fruit.

How can you know if it's good fruit or bad fruit if you don't make a decision about it? It's amazing how people use and misuse that text.

False brethren. What that means is these people had crept in. They're not outside the church.

They're not down in the first Unitarian Universalist church, you know, praying to Mother Gaia or something like that.

They're outside the, you know, those people outside the church. These people have come inside. Remember what

Paul said in Acts chapter 20? He warned the Ephesian elders. The time is coming when ravenous wolves will arise from amongst you.

They will look like you. They will dress like you. They will speak like you.

And when they see you, they will walk up and stick their hand out and say, how are you doing, brother?

That's how it's always been done. Heretics don't show up in the back room and paint polka dots just trying to, hey,

I'm here to spread heresy. They don't do it that way. They dress like us. They speak like us.

And what makes it difficult is most of us don't want to say you're not my brother. We want to embrace someone as our brother, right?

But Paul says these are false brethren. They make the claim.

The claim does not match the reality. Well, what's the basis of that?

What's the basis of that? We divide over some pretty stupid things. Baptists are really good at dividing, aren't they?

I remember I was down in Georgia and a Presbyterian pastor, a friend of mine and I, we were going to visit the

Andersonville prison. If any of you know anything about the War of Northern Aggression, which is what it's called in Georgia.

I mean, if you say civil war, there they go. There was nothing civil about it. In fact,

I walked out of a church in Texas once on the back of a bumper. It said, uh, north one, south zero, halftime.

Okay. All right. But anyway, uh, so we were going to Andersonville prison.

We're driving his back roads, countries, uh, back roads and through the country. And there's the first Baptist church.

There's the second Baptist church. There's the third Baptist church. And then we found the fourth Baptist. I think we found the 11th

Baptist church. I'm not sure. They all probably split off from one thing. You know what they split over? Stuff like what color the pews are, you know, what's up, what tempo you're supposed to sing the hymns at.

We don't have that problem in our church. We only have one tempo and it's slow, very slow. So we divide over silly things and people look at Paul and go, wow, he's telling us to divide.

What was the foundation of the division? Are there things worthy of dividing over?

Yes. And you know what? If we're really focused on the things that are worthy of dividing over, guess what the result is?

We're not nearly as quick to divide over the silly things. It is a lack of having the proper focus that is so often the result of disruptions in the

Christian fellowship. And so we have false brethren and they have snuck in, secretly brought in.

They haven't been open. There is a nefarious purpose in their thoughts.

They have not been open about what they're doing. They have secretly come into the fellowship and what are they doing?

They have snuck in to spy out our liberty.

They don't want people to have liberty. The very essence of human religion is the creation of mechanisms whereby we as humans can control

God's power so that we as religious leaders then can control the people.

That's the very essence of human religion. Think about all the religious, unbiblical traditions that have developed over the ages and what are they there to do?

They're there to keep God from being free. So you channel God's grace through all these, you know, sacraments and things like that.

And then the leaders who control those means now have control over the people. The very essence of human religion.

And these people have snuck into the church to spy out the liberty which we have in Christ Jesus.

The freedom, literally, which we have in Christ Jesus. But then what does it say?

Just so they might pick off just a few disciples? No. This is going to sound strange to you, but I've said it before.

Heresy is not a victimless crime. Heresy is immoral.

Heresy is sinful. You see, there's a test for how deeply you have been influenced by the way this world thinks because from the world's perspective, heresy is merely differences of opinion.

But the Apostle Paul said, these false brethren and how does Peter put it?

Jude put it, their condemnation is from of old. God's judgment will come upon them.

You don't play with God's truth. You don't trifle with these things.

And he says, these have come into the church for a purpose. They had a purpose, in our cause, in order to bring us into bondage, servitude.

They're not there just because, well they just have a different understanding.

And that's what is absolutely driving me crazy about certain elements of evangelicalism today.

There are certain people who actually are getting together with the Mormons to have ecumenical dialogue.

Now, I don't have any problem with having ecumenical dialogue with Mormons. I've done it for a long, long time. You go out to the

Mormon temple, you pass out tracts, you have ecumenical dialogue. You say, this is the gospel that isn't repentance and belief.

And then you trust the Holy Spirit to do His work. And it works. I'll go up to Salt Lake City and I will debate

NYU scholars and that's called ecumenical dialogue. But I ain't compromising anything.

Let's all get together and you share with us your experience.

And then we'll share our experience. And we'll be closer to one another.

What? There are people and there are major institutions that have the idea that you can sort of bring people one little step at a time, a little bit closer to maybe becoming a

Christian eventually. Now, in case you're wondering, Mormonism teaches that there are many gods, that God, the

God of this planet was once a man who lived on another planet and Jesus is a separate one. He's the first God, the spirit child of him. And there are literally billions and billions and billions of gods.

That's called polytheism. That's called idolatry. And when

Paul speaks to the Galatians in chapter three, he says, you must worship those which are by nature not gods.

But now you worship the true God. There wasn't some incremental, well, we moved one generation a little bit closer than that, a little bit closer.

No, it was that's idolatry. Turn and worship the one true God. And to see people in the church today using this incrementalism is maddening in light of the biblical revelation.

They want to bring you into servitude.

Remember, Paul was saying this about people who would be sitting in the pews, there weren't pews back then, but you know what

I mean, in the fellowship of those little churches in Galatia when his letter was read on Lord's Day morning.

Can you imagine what that was like when this letter arrived? You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife because the person sitting next to you is one of the false brethren that Paul was talking about.

I don't think they had a great offering that day. VBS may have been disrupted that week, but Paul had to do it.

Paul had to do it. Why did he have to do it? Why? Why not? Come on,

Paul, in the book of Acts, as long as Paul was around, there's always this disruption and there's all this difficulty and then they leave, the church is at peace.

So maybe it's just Paul's fault because he's calling people false brethren and saying they want to put you in bondage.

Notice what he says, we did not yield in subjection to them for even a moment.

We stood against them. There was never a time where we compromised.

There was never a time we said, well, and see, this is how the mainline denominations have been destroyed.

Any of you old enough to have been following this for a while? Think about some of the mainline denominations today.

Look at the Episcopalians. Look at the liberal Presbyterians. Look at the liberal

Lutherans. And you look at them today and you go, they're ordaining, practicing homosexuals as bishops.

And they have collapsed on every single cultural point where the gospel impacts the culture.

Every single point. Where did it all start? Well, first of all, it always started with the degradation of the view of the Word of God.

Always. Always. But have you noticed what the mechanism is? You'll hear where one of these groups will vote down another move toward apostasy.

And everyone's like, yeah, but you know what happens? All that means is it's been referred back to a committee for next year.

It's called the death of orthodoxy by committee. And when you keep entertaining it and you keep entertaining it and you keep entertaining it over and over again, eventually, like the beating of the waves on the seashore, the rocks are turned to sand.

And we wonder how denominations that my parents tell me, and when they were young, there were still people who believed in the

Word of God and preached the Word of God. Today, you look at those denominations and they are religious, social, and what was the process?

You keep allowing the false teachers to bring up their teaching and to gain more disciples and to nuance their message.

And the result is always the same. We did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour.

For what reason? Now, here's where I got to camp a little bit because this is the issue.

Twice this phrase appears in Paul's epistles.

It's going to appear in the text we look at this afternoon and it appears here. But one of the reasons why

Paul, this teaching, no longer resonates in the halls of academia, it no longer resonates from the pulpit in so many buildings called churches today, is because if you really push someone and say, do you believe that the truth of the gospel can be known in our day?

A large majority, in the honesty of their hearts, not in a group, but in the honesty of their hearts will say, no,

I don't believe that anymore. I saw many people. When I graduated from Grand Canyon, the only theological education available in Phoenix at the time without moving, and since my son was conceived around that time, moving was not an option when you were born in a church house, was

Fuller Theological Seminary. Now, Fuller in Phoenix is a whole lot more conservative in the 1980s than Fuller anywhere is today.

And it was good for me at that time because as an apologist, when it defends the faith, it was good to have to be fighting for all the time while you're in seminary anyways.

And it was good on that level. But the sad thing was I saw so many people coming into that program, confident in what they believe, and then graduating with a master's degree in Confucian.

Graduating with a master's degree in Confucian. Because all of a sudden they come in thinking, well, doesn't everyone believe this?

And then all of a sudden they're exposed to all these different viewpoints. And of course, in the academy, as long as you have a series of letters after your name, you must be accorded great respect and honor.

And so abject heretics. Well, he was a great scholar though.

And people lack the discernment to be able to look at liberal material, pull the good out.

They're good at doing their research anyways. They're really good at bibliographies and stuff like that. But then leave the dross aside.

They get hit with all this stuff and they become convinced, you know what? There's so many opinions out there.

There's so many smart people that believe different things. Who am I? And of course, that really is the question.

Who am I? That was the question at the time of the

Reformation. Luther, who are you? Who are you to stand against all this?

Look at those buildings. Look at that Thomas Aquinas guy. Look at all those books.

Who are you? Who are any of us?

And if, of course, it was up to you or to me, that would be a very valid question. It's not up to either one of us.

It's not me. The real issue is has God spoken with Claremont?

And can we still know it? Has God preserved His Word for us? That's where a lot of the attack is today, folks, and I can't even begin to touch this this morning.

But a lot of the attack today is to attack whether we can trust this.

In January of next year, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, I will be debating Bart Ehrman.

Bart Ehrman is considered the leading textual critical scholar in the United States today. His book,

Misquoting Jesus, was a New York Times bestseller. He's the one PBS, public broadcasting always goes to.

He was a graduate of Moody Bible Institute, Wheaton College, went to Princeton, became an agnostic, an apostate, and studied under Bruce Metzger.

And he is the chief source now for the new atheists, you know, the

Richard Dawkins of the world, the Christopher Hitchens of the world. They all look to Bart Ehrman for their ability to dismiss the

New Testament as a relevant document. We will be debating, does the existence of textual variation preclude the possibility of inspiration?

And I would covet your prayers for that encounter because I think it will be one of the most important debates that I've ever done.

I've had the opportunity to debate John Dominic Crossan, John Shelby Spong, people like this.

But Bart Ehrman, I think that debate will be one of the most important debates that we've ever done.

And that's where the focus of the attack is today, is on whether you can trust what this word has to say.

The Apostle Paul had a priority. And the priority was the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Everything else he did flowed from the centrality of his commission to proclaim the whole counsel of God.

Indeed, he said to the Ephesian elders, I am innocent of the blood of every man because when it came to the proclamation of God's truth,

I held nothing back. He did not fear the face of man because he feared the face of his

Lord. And that is where we have to be today. Let me tell you something.

I know how to keep a ministry very small. I've been doing it for 25 years.

Alpha Omega Ministries began in 1982, uh, 83. So it's 25 years old.

It'll be in October, I think October 4th. This year is our 25th anniversary. There are two of us in the ministry.

Two people, that's it. We've got some faithful volunteers, but it's just the two of us. And we live on a shoestring budget and we always will.

You know why? You want to keep your ministry very small. Here's what you do. Um, first of all, you become convinced that the gospel is, the purity of the gospel is the central aspect of what you must be doing in apologetics.

And therefore you are forced to address very uncomfortable subjects. For example, you discuss

Roman Catholicism. Oh, that'll make sure you stay real small. Talk about offending people.

You talk about Roman Catholicism. And I've engaged at least all of those

Catholic apologists who are willing to debate in about three dozen moderated public debates over the years.

And I am forced by my examination of this book of Galatians and my examination of the dogmatic teachings of the

Roman Catholic Church to conclude that in comparison to Judaizers, the Roman Catholic Church has gone far beyond anything the

Judaizers ever thought of adding to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And because of that, if the

Apostle Paul says that gospel of the Judaizers will only condemn you, it will not save you.

If you love the Roman Catholic, you will tell them the same thing about the mass and purgatory and indulgences and the

Marian dogmas and all these other things that have nothing to do with the proclamation of the

Apostles of Jesus Christ, nothing to do with inspired scripture whatsoever. And that will keep your ministry very small, because many people with deep pockets go, but my

Aunt Marie is a wonderful Catholic. So don't you tell me there's something wrong with Roman.

That'll keep you small. In any case, if uber small, then address Islam. That's the, that'll be the camel that broke the, that'll be a straw that broke the camel's back.

I'm convinced the truth of the gospel was known to the Apostle Paul, and I am convinced that it is the purpose of God that the truth of the gospel will be the means by which he builds his church.

And since the church has been built for 2000 years, it exists here in Cottonwood, it exists in Phoenix, it exists in Uganda, it exists in Siberia.

Why? Because the truth of the gospel is still amongst us. And if that's the case, then there are certain things we cannot do.

And one of those things we cannot do is we cannot compromise when false brethren sneak in amongst us and try to take us captive.

Because if we compromise for even an hour, what does this text say? The truth of the gospel will not abide, will not remain with you.

You think this book was easy for Paul to write? You think this letter was simple for him to write? It was not. He says he wrote it with tears because he knew the great turmoil that would result when these words were read in the presence of those churches.

He knew the great, the number of tears would be shed amongst the believers. He didn't do this just simply because he liked to argue.

But he recognized that if we have godly priorities, we will have to make decisions based upon fidelity to the gospel.

And the world won't like it. There are many times when people made those decisions and their times, their places, their contexts, berated them and condemned them for so doing.

But they are the very same men we look back upon today and thank god that they refused to compromise.

Remember Athanasius? Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. He was but a deacon at the council of Nicaea, where they gathered and the full deity of Jesus Christ was affirmed.

But what most people don't know is that in the decades after Nicaea, it became the minority viewpoint.

The Arians, the ancient equivalents of the Jehovah's Witnesses, even though the Arians were considerably more orthodox than today's

Jehovah's Witnesses are, and they didn't have watchtowers in the waist, thankfully. They took over the church, the external church.

There were entire councils that met, that condemned the view of Nicaea, that had more bishops at the council than Nicaea did.

Even the Bishop of Rome, Liberius, signed the Arianized Sermion Creed. Five times

Athanasius was kicked out of his church for refusing to submit.

Now think about it. At that time and that day, Athanasius, who do you think you are?

You're going against all these bishops. You're going against all these men. Do you think you're wiser than all these people?

You see, we get stuck on that. We need to be very quick to say, this has nothing to do with me.

It has to do with God's Word. God has spoken. Let us go to the pages of Scripture.

That's what Athanasius did. And that's why the Nicene Faith, which affirms the full deity of Jesus Christ, not only survived, but conquered.

Because the Arians couldn't do that. Oh yeah, they had their people who argued, but the reality is you cannot go to the

Word of God consistently and not see the full deity of Christ. So it was his commitment to that authority, that perspicuity, that sufficiency of Scripture that gave him the strength to spend many years in exile, away from his people, in hiding.

But he did it because he had the right priorities. The early church had to struggle with these things.

The early church had to deal with the fact that at that time there were people who wanted to, as Galatians 1 says, twist or pervert the gospel.

That can be a huge perversion like Mormonism, or that can be just enough to make it so it doesn't work anymore.

Sometimes the subtle errors are the most difficult to identify. But they desired to twist the gospel, to change the gospel, and Paul and the apostles said no.

There will be no compromise. There will be no additions. There will be no additions even that sound and look good.

I mean, wow, we're only talking about circumcision. It's been the tradition down,

God's people down for the ages. This was the sign. Who do you think you are changing this?

The apostles said no, because he needed to understand. If you say it's faith in Christ plus, then you're saying faith in Christ is not enough.

That will be what we focus on this afternoon. That's what comes out in Paul's words at that point.

But I want you to understand, I want you to hear, because of their faithfulness, their spirit -inspired faithfulness, the truth of the gospel remains with us.

And you may not ever have some of the incredible opportunities that I don't deserve, but I've been given.

I remember two summers ago, standing behind a pulpit of the

Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, Charles Haddon Spurgeon's church, and preaching to the packed house.

By the way, that particular pulpit has a clock on it. It's always set for 40 minutes, because Spurgeon said he never preached more than 40 minutes.

And when the pastor of that church gives the pulpit to you as he leaves, he starts the clock. By the way, you're looking at the only man, the first man, and I think so far the only man, to have ever preached in the

Metropolitan Tabernacle from a tablet PC. That's why

I may never be back. But anyway, you may never have those opportunities, you may never debate

John Dominic Crossan or stand in front of Muslims in London. Does that mean the gospel should be somehow less important to you?

Every one of us is called to live the gospel in the entirety of our lives.

And sometimes, many times, it's easier to do it in front of an angry group of people than it is to do it day in, day out, in your own lives.

You get the adrenaline going. When you know you're in the minority, but it's the day in and the day out, you say, well, you mean there's a direct relationship between the gospel, justification by faith, and how

I live each and every day? You better believe this. That's why we're here today. We stand before God justified solely by the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Read Romans 3 and 4. Read about the blessed man to whom God imputes righteousness and He does not count their sins against Him.

Why? Because He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us. That is the reason why you can open your eyes in the morning and not fear the wrath of God coming upon you.

Because if you have cast yourself upon Christ, God's wrath has already met Him fully in your place.

That's the only reason you can have peace with God, is because of the perfection of the gospel. But if we then recognize that, if we then recognize our utter dependence upon Him, then we must also recognize

His Lordship in our lives. We have died and our lives have been hidden with Christ in God.

We are therefore to seek the things that are above, not the things that are on the earth. If we have died and our lives are hidden with Christ in God, then our lives must be marked as being supernatural.

There is an application that must be being made. If your religion is only

Sunday morning, maybe even Sunday night and Wednesday night, but it's not Tuesday afternoon, there's a problem.

A major problem. There's a lot of very fluffy evangelicalism,

I call it evangelicalism, in our world. There are people who have 20 ,000 people showing up on a

Sunday morning in a huge sports arena, and the man stands down in front and just soothes the conscience.

Oh, God loves you. You're so good in this sight. They're false teachers giving a false hope to people who need to be told about sin and the wrath of God and the

Savior who saves people. So that's why we're here today. The truth of the gospel has been preserved for us.

We need to apply it and defend it and declare it. Let's close our time for a minute. Indeed, our

Heavenly Father, we do pray that by your

Spirit and only by your Spirit, that you would write upon our hearts in such a way that the gospel must be our highest priority.

This is how you glorify yourself. This is what has been given to us. It is the only power given to the church that can change the hearts of men and women.

So may we be passionate about that gospel. Be with us this day as we consider your truth.

May we recognize the privilege that we have to gather in freedom to do this.

May we not leave this place unchanged. We plead this in the name of our