Guarding The Gospel - [Galatians 1:6-10]

What I want us to look at today, I want you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Galatians chapter 1, and I want to begin by reading the text that will be the focus of our exposition this morning, Galatians chapter 1.

On Sunday evenings in our church for the last year, I've been preaching through the book of Galatians on Sunday evenings. I have to tell you, I chose to preach through the book of Galatians, one reason, I've never preached through it before.

I wanted a short New Testament book, but I had no idea really what I was getting into. This is like licking my finger and sticking it into an electrical socket. This book is dynamic, it is powerful, it is alive.

The Apostle Paul wrote 13 epistles, and of all the epistles that he wrote without question, this is the fieriest epistle that he ever wrote. In fact, he normally dictated his letters to a secretary who would take down the dictation, but not for this epistle.

Paul took pen in hand himself, and he wrote it in his own handwriting, and he wrote it in boxcar-sized letters, so that anyone who has eyeballs in their head can read exactly what he has to say. It is such a polemic, declarative epistle, Martin Luther called it his wife.

This is my Katie Von Bora. My heart is married to this book. There are two books in the New Testament that set forth the article by which the church rises or falls, the doctrine of justification by faith alone, 1 Romans, 2 Galatians.

And what we have in this epistle in concentrated form is what Paul will expand in Romans and give a much more detailed explanation. But here in Galatians, Paul is battling for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is a good fight.

There is a noble fight. But wise is the man who knows which hills to die on, major on the majors and minor on the minors. And this is one of those hills that Paul goes to the mat concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This epistle is on fire. This epistle has a current of electricity that is surging through its pages. This book grabs us by the lapel and draws us up in our seat and draws us to the very mind of God in such a very definitive and passionate way.

So, I want to begin by reading what will be our text for this Lord's Day, Galatians 1 verses 6 through 10. As I read this, let me just get this off my chest. As I read this, this is where Paul normally says, I am so thankful for you people.

I pray for you constantly. I rejoice in God. I am so thankful to the Lord for you. And there is none of that in this epistle. Paul is not thankful. He has got a bee in his bonnet that needs to be unleashed.

And I want you to feel what Paul felt. I want you to be angry about that for which Paul was angry. If you're a godly person, you will love what God loves and you will hate what God hates. Your heart will beat with the heart of God.

And in this section is where he normally tosses out the bouquets of pastoral endearment to those to whom he is ministering. But Paul is like a racehorse. And as he starts this letter, the gates are open and he comes charging out and it just blurts out of him exactly what is on his mind and heart.

He cannot suppress it. He cannot hold it back. He cuts through the normal platitudes and he speaks the mind of God. We need to have an IV hookup of these verses. We need to have this infused into our soul.

Galatians 1 verses 6 through 10. I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another. Only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

But even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. He is to be damned and he is to go to hell before he can influence anybody else with his corrupt, foul message.

Verse 9, as we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you receive from me, he is to be accursed. For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God?

Or am I striving to please men? If I were still striving to please men, I would not, I would not, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. Every generation of believers in the church have had to fight for the purity and the exclusivity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are no exceptions. Beginning in the first and second centuries, Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Justin Martyr gave their own lives unto death to guard and to protect the very gospel of Jesus Christ. Irenaeus fought the Gnostic heresy in the second century.

Polycarp fought the Roman procouncil in the second century at the cost of his own blood. Cyprian fought apostasy in the third century and was sentenced to die by the sword. And he removed his garments and knelt to the knee and he said before his head was lopped off, thanks be to God.

Athanasius fought Arianism in the fourth century, which denied the very deity of Jesus Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity. Athanasius stood contra mandra against the world if necessary. Augustine warred against Pelagius and his denial of the fall of the human race in Adam.

And his repudiation of the exclusive claim of sovereign grace and Augustine went to the mat to defend the gospel in his generation. John Wycliffe, John Hus, Martin Luther attacked the perverted gospel of the Roman Catholic Church with its corrupt system of human works and merit.

John Calvin fired volley after volley against Rome and its foul gospel as well as against the Libertines and the Unitarians and all perversities of the gospel. Calvin fought the good fight to preserve the purity of the one saving gospel of Christ.

And in subsequent generations, every Christian leader has had to weigh in in his hour of history to protect its purity and its exclusivity. John Rogers, I preach with a picture of John Rogers at the front of my Bible and in the back of the preaching Bible, him being burned at the stake.

The first of the Marian martyrs, the first who was torched by Bloody Mary, fought against the Roman Catholic Church over the nature of the Lord's Supper in order to preserve the purity of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer were burned at the stake at Oxford for the purity of the gospel. Ridley, Latimer were fastened to the same stake back to back and they were both torched at the same time.

And Latimer asserted to Ridley, play the man, Master Ridley. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out. Jonathan Edwards, here in the colonies, fought for the purity of the gospel against Arminianism and against antinomianism.

And when the gospel was all but silenced in the church of England, George Whitefield went out into the open fields. He went out into the marketplaces. He went out into Boston Common and into the open places being barred from the churches.

And he said, I've come here today to talk to you about your soul and would preach you must be born again. Ashebelle Nettleton fought for the units for the purity of the gospel against Charles Finney. Charles Haddon Spurgeon fought the downgrade controversy and basically died of a broken heart as he fought, he fought, he fought for the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Any minister worth his salt has weighed in in his hour of history to preserve the purity and the exclusivity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Nobody gets a free pass. Every Christian leader has fought for the gospel.

This is what Paul is doing. In these very verses, he is fighting for the gospel and he will spend virtually his entire ministry in hand-to-hand combat for the gospel. He would fight against incipient Gnosticism among the Ephesians.

He would war against secular philosophy and Jewish legalism and Eastern mysticism and strict asceticism among the Colossians. He would battle against those denying the resurrection of Christ among the Corinthians.

He would wrestle against fanaticism among the Thessalonians. But here, he contended with Jewish legalism among the Galatians. This struggle would prove to be one of the most demanding contests of his ministry.

In this defense of the gospel, Paul waged war against a group of false teachers who had come into the church after his absence known as the Judaizers. The Judaizers sought to bring the church back under the Old Covenant and to bring a message that mixed law and grace, works and faith.

And in the process, they had totally compromised and corrupted the gospel of Christ such that it was no longer the gospel at all. And in response, the Apostle Paul fired back with this letter. It was a red-hot epistle that was sent to the churches at Galatia as a wake-up call for them.

Paul said, I was just there with you. I told you this was going to happen. There will be those who will come in after me. And no more do I leave town than you people have folded up like a tent. And you have caved in to these false teachers who have come and they have mangled the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul minces no words. He breathes holy fire. He tells all perverters of the gospel to go to hell lest they influence anyone else. If they are not going to repent and believe in the purity of the gospel.

And so Paul must address the church. He must set the matter straight. As soon as he takes pen in hand and begins to write, he goes straight for the juggler. And it is time for adult conversation. We live in an hour and you live in a region in which the gospel has been compromised to the heights of heaven.

There are so many attacks upon the purity and the exclusivity of the gospel of Jesus Christ in this region. As well as every region. But it is in spades here. From the cults. From the false religions.

From the Roman Catholic Church. From the new perspective on Paul. From non-lordship advocates. To social gospel proponents. To universalists. To Unitarians. And many other threats on the gospel. This church is an island of truth in the midst of an ocean of damnable lies.

It is incumbent upon each one of us to maintain the high ground of the purity and the exclusivity of the gospel of Jesus Christ at all costs. We need to hear Paul's words in these verses. And they need to stir our blood.

Even if God has not called you to preach. You need to stand with the one who is called to preach. And say, Pastor, we are with you and we will follow you in assault on hell with a water pistol. We will do anything to uphold the standard of sound words in the gospel in this hour.

The line is drawn in the sand. And soldiers of the cross and soldiers of the gospel must stand up and cross the line and weigh in and be counted in this hour of history. As we look at these verses, verses 6 through 10, there are four main headings that I want to give you.

I want to set them before you right now. This is the track we're going to run on. In verses 6 through 7, Paul's amazement. The end of verse 7, Paul's adversaries. Verses 8 and 9, Paul's anathemas. And verse 10, Paul's aim.

May God get this into our blood and into our brain. Number 1, verses 6 and 7a, Paul's amazement. Paul begins by expressing his absolute astonishment over the Galatians. Verse 6 begins, I am amazed. This is a very strong word, amazed.

It means to be astonished, to be bewildered, to be shocked. Paul is, in essence, saying, I am dumbfounded. This blows my mind. I am stunned that you are so quickly... Paul says, I was just there. I have no more left town.

That you are so quickly deserting him. The word deserting, do you see it in verse 6? It's a military term. We would say today it means to go AWOL. It's used of a soldier abandoning his position or deserting his post.

And Paul is saying, that is what you have done. You have come to Christ. You are saved. God has placed you on the wall to be a watchman. And in the middle of the night, when the need is the greatest, for you to have the trumpet, to sound the alarm, to hold forth the truth, you have deserted God.

I can't imagine a more devastating thing to be said. It's in the present tense. Meaning, they were right then at that moment, capitulating and caving in to the pressure of these other seducing teachers.

You see the word him? That you are so quickly deserting him. Understand this. To desert the gospel is to desert God. God is one with his gospel. And Paul says, you're not just simply deserting a system of theology.

You are deserting the very God that is set forth in this theology. You are like military deserters. You are spiritual turncoats. You are Benedict Arnolds. You are defectors of the worst kind. I was just with you.

God himself is the gospel. John Piper has a book called God is the Gospel. It speaks of the solidarity of God and his gospel. Why is this? Because every attribute of God is most vividly displayed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is as if every line of theology intersects in the gospel like a beautiful tapestry. Every thread of God's being is woven into and through the gospel such that it is a tight unit. It is in the gospel that we most clearly see the holiness of God.

And that God is transcendent and majestic and high and lifted up. And there is an infinite chasm separating holy God from sinful man. You cave in on that and you have caved in on the holiness of God. It is in the gospel that we see the righteousness of God most fully put on display.

That God requires absolute perfect righteousness in order to be received into his presence. And that the only hope that we have for acceptance with a holy God is to be imputed the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.

You give that up and you have turned away from the character of God. It is in the gospel that we see the wrath of God most vividly put on display. As Christ there on the cross lifted up for us. As he became sin for us.

We see the wrath of almighty God unleashed with fury upon his son. And his son, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? You depart from this gospel and you are departing and turning your back on the wrath, the holiness and the righteousness of God.

You have invented a God of your own making. It is in the gospel that we see the grace of God's salvation freely offered to sinners without cost. If anyone thirsts, let him come into me and drink, Jesus said.

Offered freely to sinners as Jesus has paid it all at Calvary's cross. The wages of sin is death and he took it upon himself. It is in the gospel that we see the immutability of God. That there is only one unchanging way of salvation, Old Testament and New Testament.

It is in the gospel. It is in the gospel that we see the eternality of God offering eternal life. It's in the gospel that we see the power of God. God able to save the chief of sinners. It is in the gospel that we see the truth of God, the reality of a saving enterprise.

It is in the gospel that we see the sovereignty of God. Him saving all of his elect. I want to say again, God is the gospel and when you give up the high ground of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you have given up on God himself for every attribute of God is poured in and through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

He is one with his gospel. Paul adds concerning him whom you are deserting in verse 6, who called you by the grace of God. This is intended to shame them. This is intended to sting them. This is intended to rebuke them.

This God who has sovereignly and efficaciously summoned you out of the world by his one true saving gospel and now that you stand on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, having been drawn and called and regenerated, you now would turn your back on this God and his gospel.

Note, for a different gospel. There are only two kinds of gospels. True gospel, false gospel. Saving gospel, non-saving gospel. This word for different, heteros, denotes another of a totally different kind.

We would say apples and oranges, totally different kind. This different gospel, at the end of verse 6, Paul says that you have been seduced by is a non-saving false gospel of Jewish legalism. It is a counterfeit gospel.

It is a fake message. It is a sham salvation. It is a rip-off religion. It is a mangled message that you have received. You have given up diamonds for dirt. And at the beginning of verse 7, Paul says, which is really not another.

As if to say there is only one gospel and there is no other way that anyone can be saved except by this one gospel. Are we in agreement on this today? Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father but through me. Jesus claimed to have a complete monopoly on access to God. Peter said, there is salvation in no other name. For there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Paul wrote, for there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And John wrote, he who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son does not have life. Listen, all of God's eggs in the gospel of Christ are in Christ alone.

Proverbs 14, 12, there is a way that seems right to a man. The Unitarian message. The Roman Catholic self-righteousness. The liberals. The Unitarians. They want to talk about God. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the end of death.

I want to ask you, why is Jesus the only way? Because no one else was ever born of a virgin. No one else ever lived a sinless and perfect life. No one else offers a perfect righteousness to you to be charged to your account.

No one else was ever lifted up on the cross for you. No one else had your sins transferred to them. No one else became the wrath bearer from God for your sins than Christ. No one else has propitiated the wrath of God towards you.

No one else has reconciled you to a holy God. No one else has redeemed you from the pit. No one else has been buried and raised from the dead for your justification. No one else has ascended to the right hand of God the Father and makes intercession for you on your behalf that you might be forever saved.

Not Buddha. Not Allah. Not Mary. Not the Pope. Not Mary Baker Eddy. And I saw some exhibit on her downtown yesterday. Gave me a pain I couldn't locate. I thought, we ought to hang our heads in shame over this.

People paying money to go in and see it. Are you kidding me? Not some Unitarian being. Not Joseph Smith. And certainly not you by your good works. No one else but Jesus, the God-man, can save you from your sins.

Paul was amazed. He was astonished that they should be so quickly deserting Him who called them by His grace. Are we not astonished as well? In this region, once the high ground of Biblical Calvinism, one foot on the slippery slope of Arminianism, it's never stopped.

It's gone down to liberalism, ecumenicalism, universalism, Unitarianism, agnosticism, down to atheism. Our jaws ought to be dropped this morning that it has happened before our very eyes and it is going on this very day.

We should be astonished when we see certain so-called Christian leaders go on Larry King Live and punt the gospel. Listen to this. Larry King interviewing a panel of so-called spiritual experts. Little Deepak, what's his name, and whoever else.

King. Because we've had ministers on who said, you either believe in Christ or you don't. I wonder who would have said that on Larry King Live. Johnny Mac. If you believe in Christ, he's quoting MacArthur.

If you believe in Christ, you are going to heaven. And if you don't believe in Christ, no matter what you've done in your life, King said, you ain't. The Christian leader responds. You can see him every day on television.

Yeah, I don't know. There's probably a balance. I believe you have to know Christ, but I think that if you know Christ, if you're a believer in God, you're going to have to have some good works. I think it's a cop out to say I'm a Christian, but I don't ever do anything.

Listen, buddy, that wasn't even the question. King, what if you're Jewish or Muslim? Now, this is on international television, okay? What if you're Jewish or Muslim and you don't accept Christ at all?

Answer. You know, I think you'd make a great weatherman with that dopey smile. You know, I'm very careful about saying who would and who wouldn't go to heaven. I don't know. King, if you believe you have to believe in Christ, they're wrong, aren't they?

You talk about being lobbed a softball to knock it over the green monster, out into that turnpike. We had to pay 14 times yesterday to get wherever we're trying to go. That thing's been paid off long ago.

I don't understand what's going on, but anyway, y 'all just keep paying. If you believe you have to believe in Christ, they're wrong, aren't they? I don't know. If I believe they're wrong, I spent a lot of time in India with my father.

I don't know about all their religion, but I know they love God. I don't know. I've seen their sincerity, so I don't know. Close quote. Hell cannot be hot enough to desert the Savior and turn your back like a spineless wimp on the one true saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

You cannot sit in an air-conditioned studio, propped up in the cushiest chair, be wired and be lobbed a softball, and you totally punt. If that doesn't make you mad, I wonder if your heart even beats for Christ.

Paul's astonished. Let us not be like the frog in the kettle who has become so adjusted to the room temperature that we no longer feel a sense of outrage on the corrupting of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Second, I want you to see Paul's adversaries, and that's what they are. They are enemies of the cross. They are enemies of the gospel. They are enemies of Christ. Therefore, they are enemies of the preacher who stands on the gospel and who stands on the truth.

In verse 7, only there are some. Now, here's the first time he mentions the false teachers. Only there are some. It is obvious who they are. There is no need for any further information. There are some who are disturbing you.

That's what a false gospel does. This word disturb means to shake up, to agitate, to trouble. False teachers are troublers of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and these Judaizers had so corrupted the gospel that they were attempting to pull the very foundation of the church out from underneath her and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Praise God for a preacher who will tell it like it is. They were distorting the gospel of Christ. The word means to change something into its very opposite. That is to say, this Galatian heresy is a total, complete reversal of the one true gospel.

It is as far away, polarized, juxtaposition, totally opposite from the one true gospel as anything can possibly be. They have perverted the gospel. They have tampered with it. They have diluted it. And to tamper with the gospel is to trouble the church.

Specifically, these false teachers known as Judaizers were teaching Christ and grace and faith are good. They use the vocabulary. They use the words. They speak of it positively, but only as far as they go.

It is a bridge that doesn't quite connect to the other side. So, human works are also necessary. Religious effort is also required if you are to have acceptance with God. You must keep the law and do your part to be righteous.

You are justified by faith and works. You are sanctified by fleshly efforts. They said you have to be circumcised to be saved. You have to keep the Ten Commandments. You have to observe the holy days.

You have to practice ceremonial law. All of this, and Paul will say later in this gospel, then Christ died needlessly. Galatians 2 .20, then Calvary is the blunder of the ages. Calvary is not sufficient to totally in full pay one's sin debt.

There are many such adversaries of the gospel today. They acknowledge a place for the cross. They talk about grace. They talk about faith. They talk about salvation. But you get them down to the bottom line, and they say salvation is by faith and good works, faith and water baptism, faith and church membership, faith and speaking in tongues, faith and Hail Mary's, faith and the mass, faith and last rites, faith and the treasury of merit, faith and buying indulgences.

They claim that all of this is necessary for salvation. And there are so many different versions of these adversaries. They deny the Trinity. They deny the absolute deity of Christ. They deny the Lordship of Christ.

They deny His virgin birth, His sinless life, His substitutionary death, His divine nature, His bodily resurrection, His second coming. They deny the forensic imputation of the righteousness of Christ by faith alone.

Listen, and you hear this clearly. If Jesus is not the only way to heaven, He is no way to heaven. It is all or nothing. The true gospel, Paul will amplify in this book, chapter 1, verse 4, just to touch on it for a moment.

The Lord Jesus Christ, listen, all three of those words are important. Lord, His sovereign name. Jesus, His saving name. Christ, His strong name. The Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself, speaking of His substitutionary sacrifice upon Calvary's cross, no one took His life.

He gave Himself. Notice, for our sins. It was a substitutionary, vicarious, penal death on our behalf so that He might rescue us. Rescue us from what? It is rescue us from who? From God Himself and His wrath.

From this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. These were Paul's adversaries. They are the adversaries of every true born-again believer. There is no middle ground. There is true gospel.

There is false gospel. And false gospel are the enemies of God. Number three, Paul's anathemas. Verses 9 and 10. These false teachers, the Judaizers, sought to undermine Paul's authority and teaching in every way they could.

And so Paul is put in a position where he has to respond boldly. And so he says in verse 8,. But even if we, referring to himself, referring to Barnabas, referring eventually to Timothy and Luke and anyone in his inner circle, no one gets a free pass on this.

Even Paul himself. Even if we are an angel from heaven, be it Michael, be it Gabriel, be it the chief angels, be it the ruling angels, be it the seraphim, be it the cherubim, be it the guardian angels, be it any of the elect angels, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you.

Contrary to salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Paul says, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, He is to be accursed. We do not apologize for this. We do not back off of that.

We do not say, well, what Paul was meaning to say here. Listen, Paul said exactly what God wanted him to say. He is to be accursed. Anathema means to be consigned to the flames of eternal hell below. It means to be doomed to destruction.

It means to be damned. Martin Luther put it at this point, here Paul is preaching fire. His zeal is so fervent that he almost begins to curse the angels themselves. There is no room for neutrality here.

No room for passivity. This is a time for the people of God to step forward and to guard the gospel and to fight for the truth. Paul is absolutely seething at this moment. James Montgomery Boyce writes, How can it be otherwise?

If the gospel Paul preaches is true, then both the glory of Jesus Christ and the salvation of men are at stake. If men can be saved by works, Boyce says, Christ has died in vain, and the cross is emptied of meaning.

If men, Boyce says, are taught a false gospel, they are being led from the one thing that can save them and are being turned to destruction. Jesus said it would be better for a millstone to be put around your neck and for you to be cast into the ocean than for you to say anything that would cause one of these little ones to stumble.

And if that were not enough, in verse 9 Paul now reloads, in case you didn't get it the first time. He reloads in verse 9 and says, As we have said before. Referring to when he was there in Galatia himself when he preached the gospel and the church was planted.

He said all of this to them then. They are sinning in the face of pure gospel light. Paul has already told them this. And he says in verse 9,. So I say again now. Nothing has changed from Paul. What I told you when I was there is what I'm telling you again now.

If any man, be he an apostle or an angel, if any man is preaching, present tense, meaning it was going on that very moment as he wrote. If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed.

He is to be damned. And if he will not repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and for his repentance to be as well known as his heresy, then he must go to hell now. Such a false teacher will be consigned to the hottest part of the bowels of hell because they have tampered and corrupted the one true saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

I want to say again, Paul is saying this when he would normally say, Oh I thank God for you. Your every remembrance brings me joy. I just pray constantly for you. You will know the will of God. On and on and on and on.

Paul speaks to them as directly in this epistle as he ever spoke to any church. And so must we. Jesus said in Matthew 7 verse 15, Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

You will know them by their fruits, by the fruit of their life, by the fruit of their message, by the fruit of their converts. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles are they.

So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears what? Bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

That is anathema. So then, Jesus said, You will know them by their fruits. The final heading I want you to see is Paul's aim in verse 10. As Paul concludes this section, he gets down to the bottom line.

I want you to hang with me on this because these questions must be answered by everyone here today. If you are breathing and in this building, you must answer these questions. For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God?

Or am I striving to please men? Paul's rationale is if he is seeking the favor of men, he would certainly tone down the rhetoric, would he not? And if I was seeking and courting your approval here today, I would be preaching something totally different than this text.

I really don't care what you think. I got on a plane and have flown up here to please God and to tell you the truth from God's Word. Paul is not courting the approval of the Judaizers, nor anyone sympathetic to their corrupt message.

Paul is obviously seeking the approbation of God by speaking what he is saying and how he is saying it. This kind of confrontive harsh language was hardly calculated to win approval with the Galatians.

Men pleasers do not hurl out anathemas, but for Paul and for you and for me, we must please God. Now, I'm going to give you the point of the day right now. Tune back in. I'm going to lean over this pulpit.

If you please God, it does not matter whom you displease. And if you displease God, it does not matter whom you please. Your whole life is very simple. You please God and you let the chips fall where they may.

And if they burn you at the stake, then you say with the early martyrs, thanks be to God. Do you remember when they were stoning Stephen before the Sanhedrin in Acts chapter 7? He said, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised people, you are always resisting the truth.

And they took up stones and they began to stone him. Do you remember what happened? He was allowed to see into the very inner throne room of heaven. That's pretty good. And he saw the Lord Jesus Christ standing in heaven.

Every time Jesus is seen in heaven, He is seated. Because of the finished work of the high priestly sacrifice of Christ. There is no more sacrifice to be made. He is seated. But in this instance, Christ must stand.

As if to say, Son, if you'll stand for me on the earth, I'll stand for you in heaven. Every time you stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth and guard the gospel and protect its message, heaven is applauding.

Christ is standing. Because it is His gospel. And He cannot be separated from His gospel. He concludes verse 10, If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. Would to God we could get that into the depths of our souls.