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. . Well, good evening, everyone. Welcome to Mountain Baptist Church. Take your song books and turn to song 236. Song 236 will sing, No Not One. And if you would stand, we'll sing song 236. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No not one, no not one. None else could heal all our souls' diseases. No not one, no not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No not one, no not one. No friend like him is so high and holy. No not one, no not one. And yet no friend is so meek and lowly. No not one, no not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No not one, no not one. There's not an hour that he is not near us. No not one, no not one. No night so dark but his love can cheer us. No not one, no not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No not one, no not one. Did ever saint find his friend, forsake him? No not one, no not one. Or sinner find that he would not take him? No not one, no not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No not one, no not one. Was there a gift like the Savior given? No not one, no not one. Will he refuse us a home in heaven? No not one, no not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No not one, no not one. Alright let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you God for today. Thank you God for just Mountain Baptist Church and Lord the stand that it takes on your word. I pray Lord that it would always be so and I pray that you would just bless our pastor tonight. Fill me with your power and spirit for it's in Jesus name I ask all of it. Amen. And you may be seated. And turn to song 248. Song 248. We'll sing Now I Belong to Jesus. Song 248. Now I belong to him. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. Not for the years of time alone but for eternity. Once I was lost in sin degradation. Jesus came down to bring me salvation. Lifted me up from the sorrow and shame. Now I belong to him. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. Not for the years of time alone but for eternity. Joy floods my soul for Jesus has saved me. Freed me from sin that long had enslaved me. His precious blood he gave to redeem. Now I belong to him. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. Not for the years of time alone but for eternity. Amen. So welcome to Mount Baptist Church on this Wednesday evening. And I just want to welcome back our Belize mission trip men, women, children. So that was a great success. Did you guys have a good time? But yeah, we're going to have to make this thing a yearly thing for sure. And I'm going to have to go with you next time. But anyway, so that's very exciting. It's awesome to hear all those reports. And other news, our YouTube channel is not coming back. So I got an email from them. They're like, yeah, no, we made the right choice. You know, something to that effect. They pretty much just said, yeah, no, we're going to keep you suspended. So anyway, it is what it is. You know, I kind of figured that would happen. But we're still streaming somewhere. But that being said, yeah, that's YouTube. So as far as the service times, everything's the same on the list here. Soul winning times, we have our main soul winning time on Sunday. And I would imagine next week we'll probably get back to our regional soul winning times there. So I figured we'll give you guys a break this week. When are you going to get back to soul winning, huh? I'm just kidding. But our Bible memory is Galatians chapter 3. And speaking of Galatians, we are going to be jumping into Galatians for a Bible study on these Wednesday nights. So we're going to be starting in Galatians 1 tonight. So excited about that. One of my favorite books, obviously, in the New Testament. Philippians chapter 4 and verse 7 is our memory verse for the week. And upcoming events, we have the prayer meetings on the upcoming events. And really September is really where we got a lot of stuff going on. So September is always a busy week, or busy week, busy month with the anniversary. But even this year we have our church retreat at the end of September. So don't forget about that. If you have any questions about that, let me know. And then as far as birthdays, no, anniversaries. Oh, we can sing happy anniversary to the Simonses. Or we can do it on Sunday, but I figure we can do it now. So that's tomorrow, right? How many years? Five. So we'll sing happy anniversary to them. And then the pregnancy list here. So be in prayer for all the ladies on the pregnancy list. And all that. Definitely a blessing with all the babies. That's pretty much all I've got for announcements so far, or tonight. Brother Dave is going to come and sing one more song. Who's doing the scripture? So Brother Joseph is going to be reading Galatians 1 for us after we sing happy anniversary song. You got it. All right, take your songbooks and turn to song 257. We'll sing Look and Live. But we have to sing happy anniversary to the Simons family. You plan that out, going to Belize so you wouldn't have to do anything for your anniversary. That's smart, brother. That's thinking right there. So what do you want? All right. So five years. We'll sing happy anniversary to you. And here we go. Ready? Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary. God bless you. Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary, folks. And we'll sing song 257. I've a message from the Lord. Hallelujah. The message unto you I'll give. Tis recorded in his word. Hallelujah. It is only that you look and live. Look and live, my brother, live. Look to Jesus now and live. Tis recorded in his word. Hallelujah. It is only that you look and live. I've a message full of love. Hallelujah. A message, oh, my friend, for you. Tis recorded from above. Hallelujah. Jesus said it and I know it is true. Look and live, my brother, live. Look to Jesus now and live. Tis recorded in his word. Hallelujah. It is only that you look and live. Life is offered unto you. Hallelujah. Eternal life thy soul shall have. If you only look to him. Hallelujah. Look to Jesus who alone can save. Look and live, my brother, live. Look to Jesus now and live. Tis recorded in his word. Hallelujah. It is only that you look and live. I will tell you how I came. Hallelujah. To Jesus when he made me whole. Twas believing on his name. Hallelujah. I trusted and he saved my soul. Look and live, my brother, live. Look to Jesus now and live. Tis recorded in his word. Hallelujah. It is only that you look and live. All right, if you take your Bibles and turn to Galatians chapter one, we'll have brother Joseph come and read that for us. Galatians chapter one. And found your place there, if you'll say amen. Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised him from the dead. And all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia. Grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I marvel that you are soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there will be some that trouble you that would pervert the gospel of Christ. Be though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that we have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if it yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it, and profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mothers womb and called me by his grace to reveal a son in me that I might preach him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him fifteen days. But of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother. Now the things which I write unto you behold before God I lie not. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Caecilia and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ. But they had heard only that which persecute us in the times past now preaches the faith which was once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me. Let's pray. Lord Father thank you for this time. We are able to gather here midweek. Lord thank you for the safe travels and the soul winning in Belize. Lord thank you for your pure and holy word you have given to us in this study in Galatians. Be with Pastor Robinson and edify us in Jesus name. Amen. So you're there in Galatians chapter one and we are starting a new study. And so Galatians chapter one we'll be going through the whole book, Lord willing here. And one of my favorite books and we're obviously memorizing this as a church. And when I committed this to memory it was just one of those books that I was just like that was the one. That was the one. If there was anyone to memorize it was this one right here. So if you haven't already started memorizing Galatians, hopefully after we get done with this study through here you'll want to memorize Galatians. But starting off here in verse one it says, Paul an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. So the first thing that he gets to here is he's saying I'm an apostle but it's not by man. He wasn't ordained by man to be an apostle. Because you could say that well I'm a pastor of this church and technically obviously I'm ordained by God in the sense of the laying on of hands. But it was a man, a pastor, who basically ordained me. And a church that ordained me to pastor this church. But Paul's saying they didn't lay hands on me. It wasn't like the other apostles laid hands on him and said you're now an apostle. He's stating a fact here and the reason that I believe one of the big reasons he keeps stating this is because he was born out of due time which we'll get to. But at the same time the idea is that he wasn't one of the twelve. He was obviously after a lot of the other apostles and all that. And so this also shows you that there's more than twelve apostles which I'll definitely show and prove that to you in this passage here. But that being said is that where does he get his authority from? Where does he get his apostleship from? From the Lord himself. And he's making that very clear that his authority comes from God. Now notice in verse two here it says... Now when you're reading this, sometimes it's easy to read past these introductions because they're very similar. It's like Paul an apostle. Paul the servant of God. An apostle according to the will of God and the faith of God's elect. And it goes into these different things but there's still some information that's being said in this introduction that will tell you who he's talking to, why he's talking to them, stuff like that. And first of all we see here that in verse two it says... So the first thing that you have to realize is that this isn't like the church in Galatia. These are churches in Galatia. So we're dealing with multiple churches that are in Galatia and that's just something to note. And you'll see later on in this chapter that you have the churches in Judea. And you may think that while there's... you only think of one church is the church in Jerusalem, right? But in Judea there was multiple local churches. It wasn't just in Jerusalem. And in Galatia, you know, it was multiple churches as well. It says in verse three... And I love this verse, you know, but you think about all these verses where you think about he was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin. And the idea that he's the savior of all men, especially those that believe, he was manifest... You know, just all these verses you think about taking away the sins of the world, but how about this one? He gave himself for our sins. You know, this verse here just kind of pops out in the fact that he obviously died for us, to redeem us, but the Bible says he gave himself for our sins and the idea is that he's the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And I love how different books say it in different ways, right? And it's not always saying the same exact way that he's, you know, say he's the remission for our sins, you know, or, you know, he's the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And just the different ways and facets in which, you know, the Word of God states how he's taking care of our sins, right? He's washed us from our sins, but it's because he took it upon him. Now, when you think of Galatia, where is Galatia, right? So, just to give you an idea of the area where it's at, go to 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 1. I believe it was in like Asia Minor, right? If you think of modern day Turkey, which obviously Asia, if you think about Asia, encompasses like Israel and Saudi Arabia and all that, right? So, when you think of Asia, you're talking about Russia. You're talking about India. You're talking about China. You're talking about the Middle East, right? The Middle East is not its own continent, okay? You know, most people think of the Middle East as its own thing, which I understand what you're doing, right? You know, when you think of an Asian, you don't think of Russians, okay? When you think of Asians, you don't think of like the Turks or something like that. But, you know, the continent of Asia, at that time, you know, there was a lot of churches that are being started up and there were Greek speaking places, by the way, too. So, you have Galatia, the Ephesians. Now, we know that was in Asia because that's the seven churches written, you know, the seven churches in Asia in Revelation. So, Ephesians is the first one mentioned there, so we know that's where that's at. But, Galatia is not far from where, you know, Ephesus would have been. Now, when I say that, use that loosely, I just mean it's like in the same location, right? All those churches were around each other and all that. But in 1 Peter 1 and verse 1, it says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. And so, he's talking about a specific area, right? And that's where these places are at, right? And Asia, you know, I believe is just kind of giving you the broader sense of where he's talking about. But, you know, just so you have a general idea where you're at, because obviously when you're dealing with certain books in the Bible, you're like, where are we at, right? What region are we in, right? So Corinth, where are you at? You're in Greece, right? Thessalonica, where are you at? You're in Greece. So, you have a location of where you're at. Romans, where are you at? Rome, right? So, the idea, though, is that Galatia, that's about the area you're at. You're in the same kind of area where Ephesus is at, or Cappadocia, you know, like all these different places that you see in the book of Acts, right? Now, Galatians chapter 1 really sets you up for the book. You know, what's the book about? Like, what's he addressing, okay? So, first of all, we know who he's addressing. He's addressing the churches in Galatia, hence the name of the book, right? So, that's why we're talking about the Galatians. But, we also see the main premise of why he's writing the book of Galatians. Now, that's important, right? When you think about why a book is written, you know, or what's the purpose of the book, that will tell you what the theme of the book is about. And this is the theme, okay? The theme right here is the fact that there's people in the churches of Galatia that are troubling them and perverting the Gospel, okay? So, the premise of this book is the fact that, hey, there's people that are perverting the Gospel, and Paul's cleaning it up, okay? And this whole epistle is about cleaning up the Gospel, making it crystal clear that it's by grace through faith and not by works. And, specifically, not a circumcision, okay? So, notice what it says in verse 6 here. It says, Now, I preached a whole sermon, and I would say, look it up, but it's gone. It's called Another Gospel, okay? And I was touching on this sermon, or this idea, but the whole idea here is that they've removed, they've been removed from the grace of Christ, right? From him that called him unto the grace of Christ, and it went on to another Gospel. So, another Gospel is someone that's basically going away from grace and putting in works, essentially, and that's a perversion of the Gospel. Specifically, what they were doing is they were adding in circumcision. And we'll see that in Galatians 5, where they were trying to say you had to be circumcised to be saved. This book is actually going to talk about a story that happens in the Book of Acts about that exact thing, where there are people in Jerusalem that came down saying you must be circumcised to be saved, okay? So, this book is really addressing something that happened in the Book of Acts, and, specifically, we're dealing with the Galatians are dealing with this, okay? So, it's not just in Galatia, though, because obviously in Jerusalem they had this problem, where there's people that are perverting the Gospel with this. But, notice what it says in verse 8. It says in verse 8, But though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, then that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you, then that ye have received, let him be accursed. So, when anybody gets mad at me, or mad at any preacher that would basically tell a false prophet to go to hell because they're preaching a false gospel, then you've got a problem with the Word of God, okay? Now, you say, well, that's Paul writing it. He says that he's an apostle, not by men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father. You know what? This is under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. You know what the Bible's saying? You know what God's saying to us? Is that if anybody, I don't care who it is, preaches another gospel, let him be accursed. And you know what that means? It means let him go to hell. And, I mean, could you take it any other way? Do you think that someone that's preaching another gospel is actually saved? If someone's preaching to you, you need to be circumcised to be saved. If you don't get circumcised, you're not saved. Would you tell me that person's saved? People can be mixed up, but false prophets and someone that's just ignorant and mixed up, like Paul, obviously, did things ignorantly and unbelief. There's ignorance, but then most of these people that are preaching a false gospel are not ignorant. They know what the truth is. And they're openly fighting against what the truth is when it comes to the gospel. Now, I love this passage because it hits all bases, meaning that it says, Notice that he starts off with that. Even if I come to you preaching another gospel than that which you've already received, he's basically saying, let me be accursed. He's putting himself in that position, basically saying, what was preached unto you first, that's what was right. And it doesn't matter if I come to you, if anybody that's with me comes to you, if an angel comes down from heaven, or if any man were to come to you with another gospel, let them be accursed. That's what he's stating. You know what's interesting is how many false religions are started by some angel coming down and talking to somebody, right? I mean, think of Joseph Smith, right? Or, you know, you think of Muhammad, right? Muhammad had this angel talk to him and all this stuff. And it just seems like there's always this angel that has this story to tell them. And, you know, some new revelation to bring up some new cult or something like that. And what the Bible specifically addresses that, okay? Did you know the Bible talked about Muhammad? It's right here in Galatians chapter 1. You know what, it's not blessed to be, or peace be upon Muhammad, or blessed be his name, it's let him be accursed. You're like, oh, you're going to get cancelled from YouTube. Too late. You know what, YouTube, you can be accursed too. You already are anyway. But the idea here is that he's covering all bases. And he's basically saying, if we, if an angel, I mean, what else do you got, okay? Unless the Lord himself comes and talks to you, you know what, then you need to stick with what you've already received. And by the way, there's not multiple gospels. You know how ridiculous that would be? To think, I mean, especially, think about this, right? Because these dispensational dipsticks that think that people are saved differently in different dispensations, think about this verse right here. Think about how that would apply, because they literally believe that there's a different gospel in the millennium. That there's a different gospel in the tribulation, okay? Let's buy works in the tribulation, and if you get the mark of the beast, you know, all this stuff, then you lost your salvation. And they literally will teach that type of stuff. It's like, well, Paul's saying, if you preach any other gospel, let them be accursed. Because they'll be like, well, there's the gospel of the kingdom, there's Jesus' gospel, there's the gospel of Paul, there's the gospel of Peter. Like, I'm not even joking. Like, they have, like, a bunch of different gospels. Let alone, like, in the Old Testament, who knows, you know, like, there's, who knows what all they try to pull out. Because there's all different types of dispensational arguments, or, like, people out there that have whatever number they have. But, the idea here is that, you see how ridiculous that would be? And by the way, you know what John the Baptist preached is the same what Jesus preached, which is the same what Peter preached, which is the same what Paul preached, which is the same which Abraham preached, which is the same that Noah preached, which is the same that Adam preached, which is the same that Seth preached. It's been the same because it's the everlasting gospel. Because it's always been, believe in the Lord, and thou shalt be saved. You know, Abraham believed in the Lord, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Guess what? It wasn't unto him only, but also unto us also that shall believe on him that it'll be imputed unto us also. And, you know what? This is a serious thing. And to the point where you have Galatians saying, you know, or Paul saying to the Galatians that if anybody comes to you, if anybody comes to you preaching another gospel, let them be accursed. Think of Jude, right? He writes, Jude's writing this book and he's saying that, you know, I wrote to you that you should earnestly contend for the faith, which was first delivered unto the saints, or once delivered unto the saints, right? And the idea is that you're contending for the faith, you're contending for the gospel. And if there's anything that should be contended for, it should be the gospel. And I'm sick and tired of preachers saying, oh, you know, well, this repentance of sins, it's a non-issue, you know. Or this, if it is anywhere close to the gospel, it is an issue. That's why the King James Bible is an issue with me, because faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of ink for all, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Guess what? The word of God is linked to the gospel, so therefore, that is an issue. And you know what? When it comes to the gospel not being perverted, and the gospel being by grace, guess what? Repenting of your sins is an issue, because Jonah 3.10 says that he saw their works that they turned from their evil way. That's an issue. So, if you're going to be clear on anything, and if you're going to fight for anything, or contend for anything, or if you're going to put down a curse on anybody, you know what's going to be for? For perverting the gospel. And you know what? It needs to be crystal clear. And, you know, even when I got saved, there were things that just were not explained well. You know, when it came to how people were saved in the Old Testament. I'm just going to tell you straight up, that was not explained well at the churches I went to, you know. That just was not, it wasn't clear. I'm not saying that they said something wrong, I'm just saying that it wasn't explained. You know, sometimes what's, it's not what's preached, it's what's not preached. Right? And you know what? Sometimes it's not preached because they don't know. Okay? And listen, I'm not here to judge them for, you know, not preaching something they don't know, because I don't think they should preach something they don't know. But, here's the thing, as a preacher, you should figure it out. Okay? If you're going to figure out anything, when it comes to Genesis to Revelation, you know what you should figure out? The gospel. And figure out how that works. And because there's such a strong condemnation that if you mess that up. Okay? Now I'm not saying that someone that's saved is going to lose their salvation or anything like that. What I'm stating here though is that it needs to be crystal clear. Because there's people that are constantly coming in with false doctrine. Constantly trying to muddy the waters. Constantly trying to pervert the gospel. It's literally like a different gospel of the week, right? I mean, we ran into a lady that I, you know, we were trying to invite her to church and she's like, I'm gospel. I'm like, I don't even know what that means. Or she said, I'm the, did she say I'm the gospel? Or I am gospel. I am gospel, right? And I'm like, you're good news? Like, what are you talking about? Is that like a movement? Is that like a church? And, to be honest with you, I didn't even care to look it up. But, that being said, you know, if there's anything to contend for, if there's anything to condemn others for, it's for that right there. Now, another way to say this is, you know, preaching another Jesus. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 is that they're preaching another Jesus. You know, I don't use this example a lot, or I don't really explain it this way, but I used to a lot when I was out soul winning. Was, I would always go to 1 John 5, 13, you know, and kind of start off the conversation with that. But I'd always kind of come back to 1 John 5, 10, and 11 and talk about the record, okay? And what I would specifically say is that there's a lot of Jesuses out in the world, right? There's a lot of people that, you know, a lot of religions that claim they believe in Jesus, right? But I said, we need to believe in the Jesus of the Bible. Meaning that, you know, there's a Mormon Jesus, there's, you know, there's a Jesus in Islam, right? But who's the Jesus of the Bible? Meaning that there's other Jesuses. Does that make sense? There's other Gospels, but what does Galatians say? It says that, you know, they're bringing another Gospel, right? Which is not another, okay? So these people that are bringing another Jesus, basically it would be the same thing, which is not another, right? We know that there's only one Jesus, there's only one Gospel. One. One, not two. There's only one Jesus, there's only one Gospel. But in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 3, it says, But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we had not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another Gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. He's basically saying that he's afraid that they're gonna basically, you know, basically take in somebody that's preaching another Jesus, another Gospel, or another spirit, right? And he's basically stating that, what are they doing? They're getting deceived subtly, just like Eve was in the garden, and the idea there is that they're getting away from the simplicity. Anytime that you get a false Gospel, you know what happens? It's complicated. They're always complicated. There's nothing complicated about believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You know, our Gospel presentation may take 40 minutes sometimes, but it's only because we're trying to rip all this other stuff saying, it's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, right? It all comes back to, you don't have to go to church because it's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You don't have to confess your sins because it's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You don't have to, you know, get baptized because it's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And we're usually, like, tearing down all these arguments, but the idea here is that it's the simplicity that is in Christ, because it's for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of worksless any man should boast. And it's simple, but you know what the serpent does? He's constantly trying to complicate it a little bit. Because, you know what, most people are thinking it can't be that simple. That's too easy. And that's the serpent subtly. See, the serpent's not going to, you know, basically jump into a church and be like, all right, you know what, we're wrong about it being by grace. It's actually straight up by works, not by grace. I mean, show me a church and I'm not saying it's not out there, okay? Listen, we're in 2021. There's some crazy weird stuff that you would never imagine. There might actually be a church that literally says it's not by grace, okay? But let's just face it. Most any church out there besides, like, the Hail Satan church or something like that is going to say it's by grace. But what are they doing? They're mixing in works. They're complicating it. They're moving away from the simplicity that's in it. And so that's what it's stating here. When you're talking about another gospel, you're talking about perverting it. It's not completely different. It's twisting it. It's, you know, perverting it to the point. And listen, and if by grace then isn't no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. So you say, well, how much work would pervert the gospel? Any. All. Take your pick. You add one little bit in there, it's perverted, okay? Now, when it comes to being accursed, notice what it says in 1 Corinthians 16. And you may have heard this term anathema. Now, in 1 Corinthians 16, basically this is just a transliteration. And sometimes the Bible does this where it won't, it'll just use a transliteration of a word, right? And it does that with baptism. And that's where the Puritans, for example, didn't want baptize to be in there, because they wanted like immerse or like a definition, you know, like an English word for it. I don't, you know, obviously I believe the King James Bible is perfect, but obviously baptism means immersion, so it would have been fine if they would have put immersion. But at the same time, there are cases like in this case where instead of saying accursed, it says anathema, and it says in verse 22, so 1 Corinthians 16 verse 22, it says, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. So anathema is literally a Greek word that means accursed, okay? And so that's, but here it's even, it's going even further. It's not even like if someone preaches another gospel. It's saying if someone doesn't love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. So let me ask you a question. What if someone hates the Lord Jesus Christ? Okay, you say are there people out there that hate the Lord Jesus Christ? Yes, there are people out there that hate the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does the Bible say? Let him be anathema maranatha. And so when someone says you should never curse anybody, Galatians 1. You should never curse anybody, 1 Corinthians chapter 16. And I can show you others, but for sake of time, you know, there's just two right there. Now go down to Galatians, you're in Galatians 1 again. Galatians 1 and verse 10. Verse 10 there says, for do I now persuade YouTube or men or God? No. It says do I now persuade men or God? Okay, I love this verse. This is a verse that I'm constantly like looking back at and saying this is what I want to be. This is who I want to be, right? It says in verse 10, for do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Notice that, you know, and obviously Jesus says this, the fact that you can't, you know, basically have two masters. You either love the one or hate the other. And the idea is that if you're out to please men, then you're not going to be pleasing God. You're not going to be the servant of God if you're pleasing men and seeking to please men. Now, it's fine to please men as long as you're still pleasing God, okay? And the Bible talks about that basically trying to please all men and trying to be, you know, a blessing to others. But that's obviously if you're pleasing God. But if there's a choice between pleasing God or pleasing men, guess what? You need to please God and not man. And you know what? I don't give a rip if someone doesn't like me as long as God likes me, right? If God is pleased with me, that's all that matters. And go to John chapter 12, John chapter 12. I'm going to show you a case where you have saved people that would rather please men than God, okay? I believe these people are saved that we're going to be looking at right here. But Paul is too, right? Paul's writing this and says, he's basically stating that, do I now please men or God? Basically, do I persuade men or God? And the idea is that he's not here to just make friends with everybody, okay? And if someone has a different gospel, I'm not their friend. I'm not here to just like buddy up with people that don't believe right on the gospel. Listen, I'm not going to buddy up with the Methodist, with the Church of Christ, and with all these other people that don't believe right on the gospel. Guess what? I'm not going to buddy up with an independent fundamental Baptist that doesn't have the gospel crystal clear either. I don't care if you have Baptist or you're King James only for that matter. If you're messed up on the gospel, we're not friends. And you know what? That's fine with me. And I'm not here to try to find, you know, I don't really seek out the pastors in the area and say, hey, you know, we need to connect, we need to, you know, see if we can all be friends or whatever. If a pastor wanted to reach out to me and wanted to talk to me, I'm not going to shun them, you know, and just be like, no, I don't talk to anybody but, you know, my church members and the friends I already got, you know. Obviously I would, but guess what? No one's reached out to me except for the like tell me about crazy people that have, you know, like a crazy person that left our church and went to theirs, okay? Actually didn't leave our church, we kicked them out. So, but that being said is that, you know, I'm not here to try to buddy up with all the pastors and even the saved ones, even the ones that got the gospel right, I'm not exactly like just itching to be friends with all of them, okay? I'm not against it, but at the same time, how much the more am I not going to be friends with someone that's not clear on the gospel? And in John chapter 12 and verse 42, Nevertheless, among the chief rulers also many believed on him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue. Now, I believe the Bible, this is the narrator speaking, it says many of the chief rulers also, or it says believed on him, right? So you know what that means? They believed on him, okay? This isn't a question, and listen, unless you don't believe that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but everlasting life, then you have to, I mean, you have to believe that these people are saved, okay? They believed, but they didn't confess them openly, why? Because they'd be put out of the synagogue because anybody that would basically confess Christ was thrown out. I mean, that's why, if you remember the man that was made to see, that was blind from birth, you remember the parents didn't want to confess or say anything about Jesus because they knew that if they did they'd be thrown out of the temple, okay? And notice in verse 43 though, for they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. Listen pastor out there, listen preacher out there, if you love the praise of men more than of God then you're in the wrong position, okay? And listen Christian, I don't care if you are a preacher or a pastor, you know what? You need to love God more than men. You need to obey God rather than men. You need to love the praise of God rather than the praise of men. Listen, the praise of men in the end is going to mean nothing, but the praise of God is eternal. Okay, I'm talking to Christians, I'm not talking about heaven or hell here. I'm talking about the fact that if you live for God, love him, serve him, listen, the praises that God will give you and the rewards that God will give you, no one on earth, I don't care if you're Jeff Bezos, is that his name? The richest man on earth? He just went up into space or something like that? I don't care if you're the richest man on earth, whatever the richest man on earth right now, how much money he has, if he gave you all of his money right now, that would not even come close to what God would give you, okay? And that takes faith to realize that, and listen, the praise of men is immediate, by the way, too. And you know what? Our country, and just in general, a fat and sassy type of nation, they always want instant gratification. And the praise of men is instant gratification. But the praise of God, the praises of God may not be instant. They can be, but they're most of the time not instant. And a lot of the times, it's not even going to be in this life. It's going to be after we die. It's going to be for eternity. But you've got to just keep those eternal things in view when it comes to serving God. See, now, things may be rough. Now, people may treat you like the offscoring scouring of men, and the idea that they detest you, they're just like, you're that Christian, you're that Bible thumper, you're that person that hates the queers, you're that person that does this or that, and it's like, well, we believe the Bible. We believe the Bible, and you know what? To believe the Bible, and to proclaim what the Bible says, you can't care about whether you're pleasing men or not. Because if you care about pleasing men, then you're not going to preach the whole Bible. If you care about pleasing men all the time, you're not going to go out soul winning. Because you're going to run into people that are going to be offended at it. You're going to run into people that aren't going to praise you for it, and that are going to make fun of you, or they're going to cuss you out or something like that, and you're just not going to please all men. And listen, by the way, you know what you should get down? You can't please everybody. Anyway. I don't care if you just threw out the fact of Christianity and like preaching the Bible. Do you know this, that you can't please everybody? So why are you trying to do it? So the only person you should be caring about pleasing is God. But see, when you please God, you know what you're going to do? You're going to please your wife, you're going to please your kids, you're going to please your co-workers, you're going to please your employer, you're going to please all these people, because pleasing God and doing what He says will actually, you know, basically cause you to do right, cause you to be better at everything you do in life. Now, Galatians chapter 1 and verse 11 here, notice Paul here, because he starts off the book stating that he's an apostle, but it's not by men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised Him from the dead. And he's also stating here that, I believe that he's stating that he was not preached the gospel by man, but by Jesus Christ himself. Now, Galatians 1 and verse 11 here, it says, But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. Now, that term after means like according to, right? It's basically saying that the gospel is not according to man, it's not like made up by man, okay? And he's giving a reason why, okay? Because he just got done saying that if we or an angel or any man preach unto you any other gospel than that you have received, let it be a curse. But he's basically saying, I certify you though that the gospel which you've received, or which we preached unto you, that is not according to man, meaning that this is of God, okay? And notice why, verse 12, For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. So, I believe that when he was on the road to Damascus, when he saw that great light, I believe actually that's when he heard the gospel. Now, go to Acts chapter 26. I just want to talk about this real quick because, Now, if you don't believe me on this, if you have a different view on this, that's fine. You know, if you think that he got saved by Ananias later on at Damascus, I'm not against you. But I believe Galatians 1 is the proof text to me stating that he wasn't taught it by man, okay? So, the gospel that's not according to man was not taught to him by man. That's what it's stating there. Now, if you can explain that to me any other way, I'm all ears, okay? As far as, like, how he wasn't taught it by man, but yet Ananias taught him the gospel. Now, obviously, you can be extra spiritual and be like, well, but it's faith done by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It's like, yeah, but he's making a whole point to say, like, listen, there's a reason why I know for sure that this is the right gospel. And, anyway, I'm going to show you here the fact that in some of the places when he recounts, he doesn't give all the information that's said, okay? In Acts 26, we actually see a lot more things that Jesus said. Because when you look at, like, Acts 9 or Acts 22, because he recounts this, right? Acts 9 is where it actually happened. Acts 22, 26 is where he's recounting it. Remember, it's King Agrippa and Festus and all that stuff. But that being said is that in some places, it's just basically, you just see, you know, why, you know, why persecute us out. I mean, you know, and he's basically saying, you know, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And you kind of just get a few things that Jesus says. But notice here in verse 14, so Acts 26 and verse 14. And when we were all fallen, I'm sorry, and when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecute us thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecute us. But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Now, I don't know about you, but I see the gospel in there. Now, that doesn't mean that this is the gospel that he's saying to him because he could have said it before. Because in the Bible, we don't always get the whole record of what's being said. Case in point, if you go to chapter 9, you won't see any of this, meaning that it doesn't state everything that's said. You didn't see any of this that was said, but it obviously was said. And so, we see here that he's talking about the gospel, about the forgiveness of sins, by what? By faith that is in Jesus, right? And he's specific to faith that is in me. So, it's not like he didn't hear how you get forgiveness of sins before he got the Ananias. Does that make sense? He definitely heard that. Okay, now go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Now, the reason why I think a lot of people don't want to believe that Paul got saved on the road to Damascus is because, you know, there's a lot of people out there that would believe, well, they would say, well, you know, Jesus can still come down and save people, and get people saved and preached in the gospel. And they'll say, well, and they kind of put this box here that's not really there. Meaning this is they'll say, well, Jesus only got people saved in his earthly ministry before he was resurrected. Well, show me chapter and verse where it says that. Now, I'm not saying, I'm going to show you that I don't believe he's doing that anymore, okay? I'm going to show you that Paul is the exception that proves the rule. And I'm going to show you that he's an exception that proves the rule when it comes to being an apostle. So, I believe that same thing applies to him getting saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't believe anybody else is. I believe he was the last that Jesus got saved physically from preaching the gospel, okay? Now, look what it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 8. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 8. Talking about being seen of Jesus, seeing the resurrection, it says, And last of all, he was seen of me also, as one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that I am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. You know what he's stating here? He's the last to be called an apostle. He's the last to be an apostle. He's the last to see Jesus. So, is anybody else going to see Jesus after this before he comes in the clouds? No. Why? 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 8, okay? But, think about this, okay? What did it mean to be an apostle? They were apostles because they were eyewitnesses of his resurrection. Guess what? Paul was the last to be an eyewitness of his resurrection. This is clearly after the 40 days in which he showed himself and then ascended up into heaven and seated at the right hand of the father, okay? No doubt, okay? We're after, like, Stephen was murdered and Saul, you know, he was a young man, that they put his clothes at his feet and all that, so we're clearly way after that. But what it's stating here is that he's one born out of due time. He's the exception that proves the rule, right? Meaning that, yes, all the other apostles were apostles because they saw his resurrection for those 40 days after his resurrection, which he appeared unto them at different times and different groups and all that stuff, right? But Paul was still an apostle, right? So, if you try to fit this box, like, no, you can only be an apostle if it was before he ascended up and then was seated at the right hand of the father. What about Paul? Okay? Or, no, he couldn't have gotten saved by Jesus because, you know what? It was only in Jesus' earthly ministry, okay? Again, where does it say that? But I'll say this, is that he was last of all, or it says, last of all, he was seen of me also as one, as a one born out of due time. Now, I don't know about you, but that seems like, you know, being born again, not of corrupt will see, but of incorrupt by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Now, what's interesting about this, you say, well, when else has God, you know, preached the gospel? I don't know, how about Galatians 3, where it says, the scripture, seeing this before, preached unto Abraham the gospel. Who did? The scripture preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, And thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed. Who preached to Abraham the gospel? Right? Now, God who at sundry times and in diverse manners, spake in time passed unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. I don't believe God speaking out of the sky, like we're prophets and we're hearing all this, you know, audibly, but it also talks about the dispensation of angels. That's why I believe he's even bringing up, if an angel bring unto you any of the gospel, is because angels would speak the people of the word of God, okay? But go to Acts chapter 22, Acts chapter 22, and one of the reasons you say, well, what's your big point of why you're saying that he got saved on the road to Damascus? Because Acts 22 makes more sense to me that way. Galatians 1, you'd have to explain to me how he didn't, he wasn't taught the gospel by man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ, what does that mean? Okay? You've got to explain to me what that means. And if you can't explain that to me, what that means, then you kind of lost me, okay? Because to me, that's crystal clear at saying that, you know, that it was taught by the revelation of Jesus Christ, you know, him basically shining a light unto him and speaking to him in a revelation, okay? But in Acts chapter 22 and verse 12, this is where he comes to Ananias. It says, And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews, which dwelt there, came unto me and stood and said unto me, Brother Saul received thy sight in the same hour I looked up upon him. So first of all, this story makes a lot of sense. Let's say you go with what I believe, okay, that he got saved. Then when Ananias says, Brother Saul, that feels a little better, doesn't it? Now, it could be that he's talking brother in the flesh, so I'm not negating that, okay? I'm not saying that that couldn't be the case, that he's just talking like, brother Saul as far as in the flesh, but I believe he's saying brother Saul in the fact that they're brothers in Christ, okay? That they're not just, you know, Israelites, okay? Now, keep reading there, in verse 14, and he said, The God of our fathers had chosen thee, and thou shouldest know his will, and see that just one, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. So he saw him, and Ananias is saying that you saw him and you heard his voice. It says, And now why terriest thou, arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord? Now, a lot of people say, well, this is why they believe he got saved after the road to Damascus, but do you see something's out of order here? Now, again, I'm not against some of it, and I used to believe that too, is that this is talking about he called upon the name of the Lord, got saved, and then he got baptized, but don't you see a little difference in the order? I mean, if you talk to somebody about the Gospel, would you say you need to get baptized, and you need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to wash away your sins, right? It doesn't seem to make sense in the order, okay? But let's say he got saved by the revelation of Jesus Christ, it was taught him, he got saved, then he comes to Ananias, he's telling him what he must do, now he's saying, what's the next step? What's the next step after you get saved? Get baptized. And then what's the washing away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord? By the way, either way you look at this, the baptism's not washing away your sins, okay? The calling on the name of the Lord is. Now obviously, if you call on the name of the Lord, who starts to call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, but also, if you go to 1 John chapter 1, 1 John chapter 1, you know that we're supposed to call upon the name of the Lord, and we're supposed to be daily washing away our sins, okay? And something you'll see, and for the sake of time I'm not going to go into this because I've already preached on this before, but look at John the Baptist, look at the passages where John the Baptist was baptizing people, and see how many times when people were baptized they were confessing their sins after they got baptized. Because there's many scriptures that they were getting baptized, confessing their sins, and giving glory to God, okay? So this was something that was happening, they would believe, and then he would baptize them, and then they would confess their sins, okay? Now the baptism doesn't save them, and the confessing of your sins doesn't save them, okay? But notice what it says in 1 John chapter 1 verse 7, it says, But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, in the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. So we're talking about saved people saying, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, okay? The truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Think about this, what was Paul just, where was he going, okay? What had he been doing before Jesus appeared unto him? He was literally going into cities and hailing men and women and casting them into prison, and he gave consent on the Christians being put to death. And this is a myth, okay, that when you get saved, you know, it's all under the blood, okay? Physically speaking. Now when you get saved, yes, spiritually speaking, everything is under the blood, you're completely cleansed. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Whosoever is born of God sinneth not, the Bible says, and is not imputed unto him anymore. But physically speaking, just as much as when he told his disciples that you're clean every whit, but you need to wash your feet, okay? Meaning this is that you're completely clean, but your flesh, speaking of, you know, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, he, you know, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, then, you know, the idea here is that, think about this, Paul is on the road to Damascus, he's obviously against the will of God, he's going after Christians, okay? Now he did it ignorantly and unbelief, and obviously God had mercy on him. He gets saved, he goes to Ananias. What was going on with Ananias? He had, I mean, Paul was blinded, right? That's the part of the story I really didn't kind of hit on, but he was blinded, right? Ananias, you know, he's going to him to get healed, and Ananias is like, why are you tearing? Get baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord, meaning that you need to get right with God, meaning physically, okay? Go get baptized, confess your sins, and go on your way and do what you got to do, okay? Now, should that be the only time he's confessing his sins? No, because we should be doing that on a daily basis, right? That's something we should be doing, but specifically, biblically speaking, that was something that was stated that people were doing after they got baptized. So, I believe that Acts 22 makes a lot more sense if he got saved on the road to Damascus. Galatians 1, 11, and verse 12 makes a lot of sense that he got saved on the road to Damascus, okay? Now, if you have a different opinion than me, then you're unsaved. No, I'm just kidding. Obviously, you know, we can all have different opinions on that, as long as we all believe that he was saved by faith, okay? Can we all agree on that? Paul was saved by grace through faith. When he got saved exactly, we can differ on that, but that's my reasoning. That's why I believe it. And Galatians 1 is actually the crucial point on why I believe that, okay? Galatians 1 is why I took that stance, okay? Not Acts 22, but to me, Acts 22 makes more sense with that application, okay? Now, go to Galatians 1 and verse 13. Notice what it says here in verse 13. So what do we have here? Notice that it doesn't say that he was in time passing the Lord's religion or anything like that. It's the Jews religion, okay? This is the Jews religion. You know what this says? Judaism, okay? And what does it equate it to? Because it says that he profited in the Jews religion. Notice in verse 14, he profited in the Jews religion. What's he equate that to? Meaning he was more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. Judaism is a bunch of traditions. Don't believe me? What's their holy book? The Talmud, which is a rabbinic type of, basically all these books written by rabbis about all the traditions and their teachings and all that, okay? Judaism is just, you know, a tradition religion, okay? The traditions of the fathers. Mark chapter 7, notice what Jesus says here in Mark chapter 7 verse 6. Mark chapter 7 verse 6, it says this, As it is written, this people on earth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. So when Paul's talking about the Jews' religion, what's he equated to? Their traditions, which are not the commandments of God. Listen, Judaism today, and by the way, that's why YouTube took me down, okay? YouTube didn't like the fact that I had marching to Zion at almost 100,000 views. And they didn't like my sermon called Judaism, the Anti-Christ Religion. But remember this, who is a liar but he that denieth Jesus the Christ, he's anti-Christ, that denieth the Father and the Son. There's many deceivers going out into the world that deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an anti-Christ. You don't like that, you don't like the Bible, so YouTube, guess what, you're anti-Christ too. And the thing is that here it's stating that, you know what, the Jews' religion is traditions. It's traditions of men. Now traditions in generality, you know, like as far as isn't inherently wrong, right? You can have a tradition, okay, and it not be against God. But what's going on is that they're making void the law of God by their traditions. And, you know what, obviously, we're not in Philippians, but he basically says, all that stuff about traditions and the Jews' religion, he says he counts it but done. That he may win Christ and be found in him, not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God, which is by faith. And so he's basically saying, that's all done, you know, that's nothing. Compared to Christ, the commandment, you know, and the righteousness, which is by faith, you know. And now go to James chapter 1, James chapter 1, because religion isn't always bad. In this case, yes. In this case, religion is bad. Okay, when you are, when your traditions go against the commandments of God, when your traditions make void the commandments of God, guess what, that's a wicked religion. And when a religion rejects that Jesus is the Christ and says that he is some bastard son of Pantera, some Roman soldier, and says that Mary's a whore, and that he's in hell right now in hot escrimon, then guess what, that's an anti-Christ religion and I have no love for the religion. Now do I love Jews? Yes. I want them to get saved. And just as much as I love Muslims, when just because their prophet is a pedophile doesn't mean they're all pedophiles. Okay. You're like, man, you're just preaching, you know, like, you're just going to get kicked off. I'm already kicked off, so I don't have to worry about any of that, okay. Not that I, you know, obviously I preached all that, that's why I got kicked off. But you know what, maybe it's just a little more heavy tonight. But I'm also in a chapter talking about, you know, another gospel and people being accursed because of that. And guess what, Judaism is one of those. And Paul's stating that, you know, he's basically stating that, hey, you know, I profited above many of my equals in my own nation. Why? Because he's more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of his fathers. And so I love how this passage just equates traditions with religion. Notice what good religion is, though, or pure religion. James chapter 1 and verse 26 says, if any man among you seem to be religious, and bry with not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. So if someone thinks to be religious, they're religious, but they're just flapping off the mouth, okay. You think you're spiritual, and then you're just flapping off the mouth and just, you know, basically can't hold back your tongue. You know what, don't tell me about your vain religion then. Okay. Now, notice what it says specifically here in verse 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. I believe that you have two things that's being mentioned here. Pure religion and being undefiled. Pure religion is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. And, you know what, being undefiled before God is to keep yourself unspotted from the world. And so pure religion, you know, if you think about our church, you know, as far as religion, or you want to have a good tradition or a good thing that you're doing is that you're relieving the widows and fatherless. You know, and the reason that I think this is important is because in America today, you know, that's why the welfare system is like, well, that's the only way to do it. You know, how are you going to take care of people that literally can't take care of themselves? Well, you must tax everybody, give it to a government organization, and say that they're God and they can figure it out. Okay, that's what's been going on for centuries now, or not centuries, but decades, I mean, as far as the welfare system in America. You know what should happen is that people should be going to church. And I'm not saying to just give it out to anybody, you know, like to help out anybody. Listen, if we have a widow or someone that's fatherless, okay, think about this. If you had a family, and we have tons of families in this church, if you had a family where a father died, and, you know, this is why they're like, well, you know, you have to have two incomes because, you know, you can't just have the father working because what if he died? That's why church is important, okay, because if that happened, if we had a family where a father died, then we're going to take care of that family. We're going to take care of the widow and we're going to take care of the fatherless until they get back on their feet. Okay, does that make sense? That is pure religion, and that's what should be going on. But you know what, people, you know, you know why it goes into the government? Because no one wants to go to church anymore. You know, so don't blame me that, or don't blame Christians, you know, as far as like our church for not wanting to be charitable or whatever. The idea here is I'm not going to give, we're not going to give money to the person on the street that we don't know from Adam. Because that person just wants to go get drugs or whatever. But if you know what, if you fear God and you're trying to serve the Lord and you're in a church and you're going to the church faithfully, listen, if God forbid something like that were to happen, where you're in a position where you can't take care of your family because the husband dies or the father dies in that family, listen, the church is obligated, I believe, to take care of them. Now obviously a widow that's a widow indeed, meaning that actually if someone is over 60, if a woman is over 60 and her husband dies, then literally the church, if there's no family, and that's what it's basically saying, if there's no family to take care of her, then the church is to take her on and just basically take care of her the rest of her life. And she basically is on staff. She does things. She ministers unto the saints and does these different things. It's not like she's just sitting like a lump on the log. But I'm just saying that the church takes care of them. And that's the idea is that, and you say, what about the men? Get a job! Work! When I'm talking about women and children, you notice that it says widows and fatherless, meaning that it's talking about children that don't have a father because the father's not there to take care of them. And then because the husband dies and is not able to take care of the wife. That's pure religion. Not this, you know, basically pretense of religion that's Judaism. But going on here, go to Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1. I'm going to try to hurry up here. We're almost done. Galatians 1 and verse 15 here. So he's basically talking about his past. Then he's talking about basically the future here. He just got done talking about how he wasn't taught the gospel but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. And time passed. This is what he did. He was injurious, all this stuff, to the church. But it says in verse 15 there, it says, It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace to reveal His Son to me, that I might preach Him among the heathen. Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. So notice that when he gets saved, he doesn't immediately, and what's it mean by not conferring with flesh and blood, meaning that what he gets to later on is that he didn't just go back to where all the apostles were at and be like, I'm one of you guys now and get in with all the big wigs. Because you think later on in Galatians he's going to talk about the pillars, right? Cephas, James, and John, who seem to be pillars. There was, to a fault, a hierarchy within the apostles. Paul's going to face about that in the next chapter, so I don't want to get ahead of myself, but there was, to a fault, kind of a hierarchy of the apostles where they kind of had more clout. Some of them had more clout than others, okay? And the idea here is that he didn't go chasing clout. You know, that's what I read when I see this, is that when he got saved, he wasn't about just getting into the limelight immediately. He went off and actually three years later before he came to Jerusalem, okay? He said, what does it mean by, you know, when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb? I basically believe he's just acknowledging that God is the one that basically brought him into this world, but he's also the one that called him by his grace and, you know, is the reason that he got saved, right? He's just giving God the credit to the fact that he came into this world. I don't think there's anything over spiritual necessarily about what he's trying to say here with this, but besides the fact that, you know, God is the one that forms you in the womb, so obviously he can separate you from your mother's womb, you know, all that's true. But go to Galatians chapter 1 and verse 18, it says, Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him fifteen days. But other the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother. So notice that even when he comes back after three years, he's not seen of anybody but Peter and James the Lord's brother when he was in Jerusalem. Now, part of this, I think, had to do with the fact that a lot of them didn't believe that he was, like, on their side. If you go through the book of Acts, which I'm not going to go to for the sake of time, but basically they just, a lot of them didn't believe that he actually got saved and all that, right, because it's just, like, this guy is the one that was, like, our arch enemy. It's like your arch enemy gets saved and you're just, like, okay, I'll believe that, but, you know, basically, like, okay, but I'm not getting near that, you know. It's, like, it's an elaborate ruse, you know. He's, like, getting in and he's going to, like, trick us. We're all going to get together, you know, and then it's this sting operation or something like that. You can imagine all the stuff that would be going through your head, right. I mean, this guy's literally going into places, pulling people out of their house, and then you can imagine that he could probably, that someone would think of that and be, like, I'm going to pretend like I'm one of them and I'm going to get in and get them all together and then we attack, you know. But 1 Corinthians 15, the thing that I want to mention here is the fact that James, the Lord's brother, is an apostle as well. Notice that it says in verse 19, but other the apostles saw I none, saved James the Lord's brother. That means accept the Lord's brother, right, meaning that he's an apostle, right. That wouldn't make sense any other way besides that James, the Lord's brother, is an apostle. And so, we know that his brothers didn't even get saved until later, okay. In the book of John, he's saying that his brethren did not yet believe on him when he was going up to the, they're like, you're going to go up to the feast and they're kind of, like, tempting him to basically show himself openly and all this stuff. And the Bible states that they didn't believe on him. So, you have people that didn't believe, you know, his brothers that didn't believe on him at the very beginning, but then James is one of the apostles, okay. Not one of the twelve, okay, because you have James, the son of Alphaeus, and then you have James, the son of Zebedee. There's a lot of Jameses, okay, but James, the Lord's brother, was also an apostle, okay. And the reason for that is because I believe there's a lot of apostles. Paul the apostle is the proof that there's not just twelve, okay. Because you have the twelve, you have the eleven, right, Judas obviously was the devil, but then Matthias was picked to be the twelve. So, there's the twelve apostles, right. So, when you're talking about twelve apostles, those are them. Okay, Acts chapter one, boom. But, Paul and every one of his epistles is like, I'm an apostle, okay. So, he's definitely an apostle. James, the Lord's brother, is an apostle. I can show you another place where it says Barnabas is an apostle, okay. Why? Because in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, in verse 5, notice what it says. Dealing with the resurrection, or dealing with the gospel, which is, you know, the death, burial, and resurrection. It says in verse 5, in that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, and am not mean to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. This whole passage right here is talking about apostles, okay. Meaning this is that I believe that there was actually probably more than five hundred apostles. Which were what? Eyewitnesses of his resurrection that were sent forth to bear witness of the resurrection, okay. And I believe this could even be James that we're talking about right here. It says he was seen of James, and then of all the apostles. So, let me ask you this. I mean, if you have like, Paul's an apostle in this list, and he's talking about being seen of five hundred brethren at once, and then of all the apostles, seems like there's even more than that, okay. Now, that being said, I just want to make that point because, you know, there's weird doctrines out there where people will say, well, some people will say, well, Paul should have been the twelfth, and there's only twelve. It's like, well, you've got problems, because James is an apostle, and Barnabas is an apostle, and 1 Corinthians 15 makes it seem like there's a lot more apostles than that. But Paul's definitely an apostle. Would you say Matthias was not an apostle? Okay. And the last thing to show you here is that, notice what it says in Galatians 1, verse 20. It says, So, we see here that, you know, this is, Galatians is nice because, Galatians 1 anyway, is nice because it basically gives you a rundown of where he went, okay. Acts kind of leaves a little bit of blanks there, meaning that you see Barnabas going to get Paul and all that, or Saul at the time, but then he's called Paul. And, but here it kind of shows you that, hey, you know, when he got saved, he went to Arabia, actually. So, he was in Damascus with Ananias, then he went to Arabia, then he came back to Damascus. That's the story where they let him down in the basket, if you remember. I'm never going to forget that Bible trivia question, because last time we paid Bible trivia, I missed that question about him coming down the basket where he was at. It was in Damascus. Anyway, so that's that story right there. Then he goes to Jerusalem, then he comes back, you know, and stating that where he's going and all that. Now, a lot of the times, this is where he's in Antioch, which is in Syria, right. So, when it says that he was in the regions of Syria and Cilicia, that makes a lot of sense, right, because he was in Antioch, that's where they were first called Christians, and Paul's being, like, coming back and forth from Antioch, okay. And so, and then the last part of this is just basically stating that everybody was hearing that the person that was persecuting them in time past, their archenemy is now preaching the faith with which once he destroyed and they're glorifying God. So, imagine that. Imagine that your archenemy, and you know what, there's sometimes, you know, there was a man named Doug Saunders who was, like, this big atheist, right, and he would make fun of Christians that would come to his door preaching them the gospel. Then he got saved and he got on fire for God. I'm not sure where he's at now in life, you know, but he was, like, out just preaching the gospel, and we would go preaching the gospel with him, but it just kind of just reminded me a little bit of Paul's story and the fact that, like, here's a guy that would kind of make fun of people for coming to him with the gospel, but then later on he's just like, yeah, I always knew there was a God. I would talk to, you know, talk to him and all this stuff. You know, there's no real true, no one's an atheist. They know there's a God, and how he just kind of turned that to being, like, on fire for the Lord. And it's interesting how that works, how people that sometimes don't grow up in it and are kind of, you know, in a false religion or whatever, then they get saved. Those people sometimes are the most on fire people that you'll meet because they know the difference. And listen, those that are growing up in this church don't take it for granted. You could still be as on fire as Paul, but listen, Paul came out of some stuff and he realized how wrong he was and then he just was on fire after that. But you can still be on fire and grow up in it, okay? It's just actually, I think, a little harder sometimes to be on fire for God when you have all this given to you, okay? It's just given to you, like, you know, spoon fed to you, but the people that weren't in it when they grew up, they had to earn it. Now, I'm not talking about salvation. I'm talking about earning the knowledge, right? Earning the, going through, like, as far as, like, earning, like, the reading the Bible and figuring it out and going through the study. You know what? Those people that do that are going to know it more than anybody else, okay? And I'll say this, is that reading is very important because you can have sermons and I can preach you sermons every single week, but that shouldn't be your only learning, okay? You need to figure it out yourself. Listen, the stuff I'm showing you about Paul and the road to Damascus and all that, look up that stuff yourself and figure that out for yourself and know it for yourself. Try it, test it, you know, and just put it through the fire and you know what? That'll get you on fire and that'll help you to know it for sure and know that this is true. So, Galatians 1, we're going to go through the book of Galatians, Lord willing, and let's end with a word of prayer. To Heavenly Father, we thank you for today and thank you for your word. Thank you for the book of Galatians and just help me to preach it correctly and Lord, just pray that we use the book of Galatians all the time, especially out of soul winning. And Lord, we love you and pray all this in Jesus Christ's name, Amen. By the day, we'll come and sing one more song and then we'll be dismissed. All right, song 259 in your songbooks. If I can get there. If you would stand, we'll sing Jesus saved, song 259. Amen.