This sermon emphasizes the importance of God's grace and the need to focus on Him rather than seeking approval from others. It highlights the astonishment at turning away from the grace of Christ to a works-based gospel, stressing the eternal condemnation for distorting the true message of salvation. The speaker underscores the priority of pleasing God over pleasing people and the significance of baptism as a public declaration of faith and association with Jesus Christ.

You know, yesterday I was at this, speaking at another pastor's conference, and lately every conference I go to, one of the things I talk about is how much I love Cornerstone Church. You know, I tell these guys, and I realized this yesterday when I was doing this up in the Bay Area. I was telling them, man, you've got to understand my church, and I'm telling them about all the things that are going on, and I realized when I come back here, typically every weekend I look for what's wrong and try to fix it, and I look at all these needs in the world, and I tell you, man, we've got to change this, we've got to change this, you guys don't talk to each other, what's wrong with you, you know, and all that stuff, and yet when I'm away from here, I'm telling everyone, oh man, I've got the greatest church in the world, and everyone's jealous, you know, and I realize, you know what, I never tell you guys how thrilled I am about Cornerstone Church and all the great things that are going on, and I was thinking about this this week a lot, I mean a lot this week, where God was just revealing to me, man, it's happening here, you know, remember last weekend when I talked about the human trafficking and everything that's going on with that, and we're all bummed out, well, during the 11 o'clock service, you know, there was one girl in the 11 o'clock service, and she goes, that's what I do, I live in Burma, I've been there for the last six years, and I'm just back on break for a few weeks, I'm like, no way, she rescues those kids out of slavery, and then another girl, 11 o'clock service, goes, yeah, that's what I do, too, I'm in East Africa, I'm just back here for a few weeks on break, I thought, no way, both of you guys do that, it's just such a cool thing to know, like, in our own congregation, whatever need I bring up, in fact, right before service, I was thinking to myself, okay, I can't go to Thailand and rescue kids or whatever else, but what can I do here, and I thought, wow, maybe I should go to Hollywood or something, and walk the streets, you know, you know what I'm talking about, but maybe that's what I need to do, is actually be in Hollywood and helping prostitutes and whoever else is out there, just the down and out, talking to them, and then, sure enough, after 11 o'clock service, three guys come up and they're just talking about what they did the night before, and they go, yeah, every Saturday night, after service, we walk down in Hollywood, and just talk to people, and try to help people, they're down and out, and I'm like, no way, I was just thinking about doing that, and they said, yeah, just last night, they go, we were talking to this guy who was selling CDs or whatever, and we're like, we're not really interested, but can we buy you dinner, and the guy's like, sure, you know, and he's like, where are you guys taking me, and they're like, wherever you want, and he goes, all right, let's go to Hooters, and they're telling me the story about the three of them walking with this guy to Hooters, and he's going, are you okay with this, you know, and they're like, man, I don't want to go, you know, but we promised him anywhere, and do we back off on our word, or what do we do, and they're just wrestling the whole way, going, oh, man, what do we do, what do we do, and they get there, and there's a 45 minute wait, and the guy goes, oh, let's go somewhere else, and they're like, oh, good, you know, but it was just, I was so excited, it's like, man, every single need that I bring up, everything I bring up, there's always a group of people that jump on it, and, you know, with the child trafficking unit, people start looking into that this week, and sending me links, and we're trying to figure out how can we get involved, being right over in the valley, it's like every single thing, man, when someone from India comes, and says, hey, we sponsor some kids, hundreds of kids get sponsored, we sponsor some pastors, pastors get sponsored, whatever is brought up, when I said, hey, we need some people to move to Lima, Peru, and help these people out, suddenly we had all these applications, like, well, don't all go, we got to, you know, some of you stay here, you know, we're having a Mexico trip in a couple weeks, and again, over 800 people signed up, going, yeah, let's go to Mexico, you know, and you guys are going, and you're doing, in fact, Friday morning, Friday morning, you know, my wife's at home, throwing up on the kids, and I, she's pregnant, and I take the two youngest, like, oh, let me get them out of here, that's not fair, and I take them to the park, you know, and I'm just taking them over to the park, and we're playing, someone from Cornerstone's over there, you know, just, hey, you want a sandwich, I'm like, sure, he has all these ice chests and everything else, I'm like, what are you doing, having a party? He goes, no, I come here Friday mornings, and just feed the homeless, and have Bible study with them, and just talk to them about the Word, I used to be in drugs, and I used to be an addict, and I know what it's like, and I'm like, you know, I just start welling up with tears, because it just seems like everywhere I go, there's Cornerstone people just doing stuff, and then so many have left and gone to the ends of the earth, just to go and tell people about Jesus, and some don't even tell me about it, I get emails later, hey, by the way, I'm in Mexico, you know, and I'm doing this now, I'm doing this now, and I just thought, wow, I don't want to go on to another thing, without first acknowledging that, man, this church is amazing, and God is doing some great things right now, I mean, there are just a bunch of freaks in this room, that will literally do whatever, whatever for the Kingdom of God, and that's what I've been praying for, for so long, and it's just so fun, and as I talk to other pastors, they just go, no way, no way, and I just forget how strange things are here, how unique things are here, and I just wanted a moment to just remember that, and just be excited about it, before we just move on to the next thing, in fact, I got a letter this week from Dave Phillips from Children's Hunger Fund, as we were, he heard the sermon on the human trafficking, and he just wanted to remind us, he goes, I just want to remind you and encourage you with the global touch that Cornerstone is having, even in the area of child trafficking, through Children's Hunger Fund, in Cambodia, they've been able to, because of our support, they've been able to help literally thousands of young girls in the garment factories of Phnom Penh, and hundreds of these girls have come to know Christ, and have been helped out of prostitution, hundreds more have been provided these life skills, so that they don't have to go into that lifestyle, the same is true, he says, in Indonesia, where more than 150 girls have been freed from prostitution and child pornography, another 50 boys or more freed from the sex trade, similar stories in Eastern Europe, North Korea, India, China, parts of Africa, where they remove these children from prostitution and abuse, and several times they've brought children out of slavery in Sudan, Africa, he says, that's all in addition to the other things that we've been able to do through Children's Hunger Fund, they just wired another 20 grand over to Uganda, because of the flooding over there, in Sarodi, and another 10,000 out to Ghana, they just sent 1.2 million meals to Sudan, they're talking about how our support helped them, because the orphanages in the Ukraine are just terrible, this is some of the worst he's ever seen, and they have these mattresses that get soaked with urine, and then in the wintertime, as it's getting cold now, all these diseases just grow in these mattresses, and he says, through our support, they've been able to send over 1,300 bedsets that are plastic-covered mattresses, you know, to these 20 orphanages that are Christian-run, where they're teaching them the Word of God, and now we're providing for them as well, and he just said, you know what, we just want to make sure Cornerstone knows how much is being done, and yeah, there's a world out there of hurt, there's so much need and so much more that needs to be done, but there needs to be times when we just stop and go, you know what, things are pretty good, we're making a difference, we're having an impact, in fact, you guys, this gave me chills this week, you guys didn't know this, well you know that we committed a million dollars to Children's Hunger Fund this year, it's a pretty lofty goal, and so that means every three months, we would write a check for a quarter million dollars, we wrote a check three months ago, so another one was due this week, but I didn't announce it, I didn't say anything, I just thought, okay, let's just see what happens, no one knows, our typical offering is about $90,000 a week, we've been averaging about $90,000 to $100,000 per week, that's a lot of money, this week we're going to write this check for $250,000, and things have been down, and just take a wild guess at what the offering was last weekend, $251,000, that's so cool, and no one knew, no one knew, it was just this crazy largest weekend ever, $251,000, and we need $250,000, and so I took my wife out, but it's just, man, it was like $251,000, man, I just, I saw that, are you kidding me, there's no way, there's no way that just happened, man, and I love that, because to me, it was just another affirmation from God going, you know, you're on the right track, you know what I mean, where it's like, that doesn't make any sense, that doesn't make any sense, because really, it's been one of those things where it's like, okay, we're going to give half away, but how are we going to do this, okay, we're going to give a million dollars, but how are we going to do this, but we just did it, and this has been the way my life's been, I've always seen it in my own life, but I wanted to see it in the church, I wanted to, okay, God, you came through for me as an individual all of my life, but how about for the church, okay, okay, one more story, I know I've got to go on, but man, just personally, this year, remember in the beginning of the year, I said, hey, just pray about what you think God may want you to give this year to this new vision of caring for the poor, and the 50-50 thing, and even the new project, you know, which pray for that, because this is a big week, we sent a letter, and we're waiting to hear back, but when I was praying personally, you know, I was telling you guys to pray for it, and I gave you a moment of silence, and I'm up here praying every service, and every service, I felt like I heard a number in my head, and I don't know if it's the Holy Spirit, you know how you just don't know, you don't know if that's really God, or you're just making it up in your head, but in my mind, I felt like God wanted me, me, to give $50,000, and I'm going, I don't even know if I want to make $50,000 this year, give $50,000, and I just, but every service, I thought, oh, that's the number that's coming to my head, so I said, God, okay, I'd love to give $50,000, but you've got to give me $50,000, so I can give away the $50,000, you know, and just, I just said, you know, but if that's what you want to do, that'd be great, I'd love to give that much, well, anyways, just recently, I finished this book, right, and it was just, it was just something I felt like I had to write, I didn't think anyone would be interested in it, but pretty soon, all these publishers wanted this book, and wow, my book, you know, it's a little scratch and sniff, Barney Repents, you know, it's just, it's just like, who would want this, you know, and so they started bidding it, anyways, long story short, I end up with these two that I really like, these two publishers, and this one, this one, they, you know, they're the best, they distribute more Christian books than anyone else, and they were, they said they'd give me $60,000 for this book, but then there was this other company, okay, and they weren't as big, and they, but they had such a heart for the poor, and they were showing me their vision where all the money that they make, you know, they're trying so hard to get resources, they have like 280,000 pastors in India that they give resources to 250,000 in China that they give resources to, and they're just saying, America has too much, you know, the money we make, we want to use it to give resources to the pastors overseas who wouldn't learn anything, you know, and don't have the same knowledge we do, and I thought, wow, that's, that's so cool, this Christian-owned company and everything else, and, but they were only offering like 30 grand, and I was wrestling, because I'm thinking, well, if I get more, then I can give away more, and everything else, and I sat the kids down, and even told my two oldest kids, I go, so what decision do we make, and do we go with the guys that are giving us more, or the people that are giving to the poor, and my old daughter goes, duh, and she goes, you give to the people who are giving to the poor, and I go, well, that's kind of where mom and I were looking to, and so that's what we're going to do, so, you know, in my heart, it was like, oh, but I could give the 50,000 to them, and it's like, ah, but this just feels right, it seems right, and so we call them up, we call these guys up, and they're just thrilled, they're going, no way, you know, and then they go, did you get our new offer, and I'm like, no, I'm okay, what, what new offer, they go, it's in the mail, and I'm like, no way, they had sent a second offer, which they want to go with, and they're offering me $100,000, I thought, no way, I was just nuts, $100,000, and they go, and if you sign a deal for a second book, we'll give you another 50 grand advance, I'm like, you know, it was just like, I mean, my wife's crying, I'm going, we're rich, you know, it's just, it's just this crazy, crazy, like, I can't believe what is going on, me, me, I got six digits coming this year, you know, and it's like, wow, it's just was this crazy thing, and you know how cool it is to then, a week later, sit my kids down and go, okay, remember the choice that we made, guess what, they're giving Daddy $150,000, and then, you know, just their eyes light up, and I can say, you guys, isn't that the way God always has worked with us? Remember, every time we bring these things up to you girls, because when you get bigger, and you get married, I want you to think about the way Mom and Dad lived, and I want you to remember how good God was, so that you would never think about marrying someone that would lead you in any other direction than in the ways of God, and to remember how good God always was when we lived by faith, and you always care for the poor, you always care, because he always does this to us, you know, and how the Bible teaches, you know, where he says, you know, when I was a young man, now I'm old, and one thing I've never seen is that the children of the generous man begging for bread, it just doesn't happen. God takes care of those who are generous, it says that he refreshes those, those, those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed, and just people sit down with the kids and show them, look, this is the way God works. It's just such a great way to live. I share this stuff, I hope that I never come across like, wow, hey, look what I do, I really care for the poor. I come up here and go, man, how else do you want to live? Man, I just think it's so stinking boring to be selfish. It's so boring to be selfish, to try to hoard everything and scrape by week to week, oh, are we going to make it? Are we going to get everything we want? And you never have enough? That's the type of life you want to live? Man, I'm going, no, the life to live is just going, man, let's just give, let's just give, I don't know, I don't know if, you know, but we're doing it for the right reasons, and let's just watch, see if God comes through, and to see how he's come through for us as a family, and now as a church, it's just, there's no greater way to live. Man, I thank God that he made me a giver. It's the grace of God. Because do you really want to be selfish? Do you really want to be greedy and hoard? See, God, it's not about all these things we have to do. It's about all these things we get to do. I mean, what, I just can't imagine living life any other way. God has been so good, so good, so good. And it's just his grace. That's why one thing I don't want to happen in this room is for us to go, hey, look at all the things we do. Don't you come alive when you do that? Man, when I meet you and talk to you guys who are now just taking steps of faith, there's this new life in you that I've never seen before. You're more excited than ever. Some of you who just started giving, and you're seeing the results of that. There's a new joy in your life. And it's not this, look at us, look at how much we suffer for the Lord. It's like, wow, I really feel sorry for the people who are self-centered. They don't know how good life can be when you think about others first, and you think about God first. It's a great way to live. And I bring that up because we're about to start this book of Galatians. And in the book of Galatians, it's all about God. It's all about God's grace. See, the Galatian churches, they used to be, when they started, they were great churches. They were great churches because all the focus was on God. And all the focus was about how much God had done. But what had happened was people came into the church, and they started teaching this false doctrine. They said, well, Jesus is good, and yeah, he kind of forgives your sins, but you also have to do this, this, this, this, and this. And these Galatians were believing it. And they're going, oh, so we have to do things in addition to what Jesus did on the cross in order to really be Christians and on and on and on. And Paul's saying, no, no, no, no, no. No, you do things because you want to do them. You don't have to do them. You do it out of joy. In fact, it's out of grace that you get to do these things. And then he just brings them back to grace, grace, grace, grace, grace. And I just just as a church, I hope that we never I pray we never get arrogant. Look at what we've done, because here's the thing. At first glance, you know, the majority of the people in the world think to themselves, I want to do a bunch of good things because it makes me feel better about myself. And I think God will think more highly of me. And most people think that by doing good works, they're going to get to heaven. And at first glance, that seems somewhat noble. You know, what's wrong with that? He wants to do a bunch of good works. So at the end of his life, you can say, look, God, look at all that I've done. He wants to earn. He doesn't want to just take this stuff from God. He wants to earn it. What is wrong with that? What is wrong with a nice person trying to do good works and earning their way to heaven? See, first glance, the world looks and goes, that is very noble. And yet you guys, no, no, no, it's not. That is very arrogant. And it and it puts all the focus on you. See, because then suddenly at the end of your life, you go, hey, look what I did. I earned this. And God has given you what you earned. And so it's all about you. Look at what you did. You did. You did. And Paul says that's not the gospel. The gospel is about look at what God did for you. You didn't earn a thing. And at the end, it's about his amazing grace that he gave you something you didn't deserve. And now suddenly he gets all of the glory. And that's why Paul says, you this is this is an evil doctrine. It's not noble. It's not beautiful for you to think you're doing all these good things and earning God's favor. That just puts all the attention on you and gives you all the glory when this isn't about you. This is about a God who has given you so much, so much that you don't deserve. So Paul writes in Galatians 1 1. He says, Paul, an apostle sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God, the father who raised him from the dead. And all the brothers with me to the churches in Galatia. So Paul starts off saying this is Paul, you know, back then, right, right. And the way they wrote their letters is they would put their name first. It just makes sense, right, because, you know, why when we get a letter, we look at the bottom who wrote it. Well, why not put your name first? That's what they did. I don't know who changed that. I was dumb. But so he says, Paul, he is from Paul and he calls himself an apostle. An apostle literally is the word a sent one. They used to have talked about this before. They used to have those ships back then called apostolic ships. An apostolic ship had one function. It was to take cargo from one place to another. And so in the same way, Paul says, look, that's what I am. I'm an apostle. That means I take the goods. I take the gospel from one place to another. In the early church, it was a literal position of an apostle. These were people who who had gifts of miracles that authenticated what they were saying. These were people that had this gift of going from place to place and really starting churches and pioneering things. And Paul says, I'm a sent one. But then he makes a comment that he says, I'm not sent from men. I'm not sent from man or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God, the father who raised him from the dead. Paul saying, listen to what I do, I do because God told me to do it because I was sent from God to do this. And that's such a beautiful thing to say. You see, I don't know if you feel this way at all, but I I look at that and go, you know what? I believe I was sent from God. Why am I standing up here on the stage? Is it because I was looking for a job and went through the classifieds and said, maybe pastor? No, and it wasn't it wasn't like a bunch of people said, hey, you know what you'd be really good at. No, it's just. At the core of my being, I really believe that I was created for this. I think God, you made me. To teach people about your word, you made me to go to these different places and tell them about you. I believe I'm created for that and I was sent by God to say these things. And it's an awesome feeling. I think, wow, that's my that's the point of my existence. And I love knowing that I was sent by God to say things by God himself. What an absolute honor. My question is, is do you feel that way about your life? Are you just doing stuff or are you doing things that you believe that you were created for that God sent you, put you on this earth to do those things? Because later on in verse 14, we'll look at it next week, but he says he goes, I was set apart from birth. Even all that time I rebelled against Jesus. It was just all a part of this plan. And I got to this point and I know this is something God wants me to do. See, but but we all need to have a sense in which there's a purpose for my life. I'm not just some random accident. I was made for this and I'm sent from God to do this very task that I'm doing. That's why I love the way some of you, you, you feel called. You go, no, God wants me here in Singing Valley or God wants me in Moorpark. God wants me in Thousand Oaks. He wants me in this area, you know, and because he's called me here. Now, some people that live out here, you guys are out preaching in the prisons on Sunday mornings. You know, some of you guys are here and yet you feel like, no, my ministry is in corporate America and I'm starting Bible studies right there. Some of you are saying, no, I'm here to make an absolute fortune to give that away to other people. Some of you are pastoring people in your own neighborhood, but you know, you go, you know what? This is what I'm supposed to do. This is what I was sent by God to do. I'm not just living life and getting by day to day. There are things I'm supposed to do on this earth. You guys, it's the only way to live. The only way to live. And then so he says, he writes this to the churches in Galatia, but in verse three, he says a very important word, grace, grace and peace to you from God, our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. He says, grace and peace, grace. Make sure you understand the word grace because we're going to be talking about a lot in the next few weeks. The word grace is unmerited favor. The word grace is someone just gives you something you didn't earn. You don't deserve grace. Grace, grace, grace is, I'll show you grace. I'll show you grace. I'll show someone grace. Grace is, uh, what's your name? Sue. There you go. A hundred dollars. Yeah, I'm rich. I'm okay. Sue. Okay. So, so grace is, is just going, why'd you pick her? I don't know. She's in the aisle. It's easy. I just, grace is, well, what did she do? She just sat down. Why didn't you cut? Grace is just, that doesn't make any sense. You don't just walk up to someone and give someone something that they didn't earn. They didn't deserve. That's grace. You just give it to the person and you have to understand this. You've got to get this. You are not here because you're these great people. You're not going to be in heaven because you did all of this stuff. You're going to be in heaven because of grace, because God just looks at you and goes, I'm going to save you. All the junk that you've ever done that you could never make up. I'm just going to erase it all. Okay. You don't have to pay for anything. It says that I'm going to have my son. My son, he'll pay for all of it. So you just get forgiveness just for believing in him. You get it. I'm just going to give it to you and you're stuck there going, wait a second. You're telling me right now, everything I've ever done, I've done some pretty bad things. You're just going to forgive all of that. And then you're going to let me inherit heaven. You're just going to let me walk right through heaven's doors without doing a thing. Just, just, just walk in and receive this inheritance as a child of God. You're just going to hand it to me. Yeah. That's what grace means. And we go nuts thinking about that. And people rebel against that and go, no, no, no, you're not doing that for me. I'm going to earn it. I'm going to do it. And why? Because we want it. We want it to be about us rather than at the end going, no way you did all of this and all eyes being on God, all eyes being on Jesus. And the word says who gave himself for our sins. He gave himself for our sins. We didn't earn any of that. He just gave, gave himself for our sins to rescue us. He came to rescue us. It says from this present evil age. Now, I know also a lot of people in this present evil age believe that we're in a good age and that people are inherently good. I'm saying, wow, if you read the news lately, and you guys were sending me links this week, when I talked about human trafficking and you guys sent me these links from these different places and you just want to kill yourself at some point, go, are you kidding me? This is what's going on in the world. And you think about all these millions of little kids. I mean, you're sending me links from China where they can only have one kid. And so, you know, they wait for the boy and the things that they'll just do with the girls and sell them and throw them all. It's just, these are people. And you start looking at all of the different holocausts that have taken place throughout history. You're going, wow, I didn't know. When you look at all the things that are going on in different places right now, this very moment, and you're going to say, oh, no, these are all good people. No, it's just, it's just this evil age that we live in. And God looking down saying, well, look at the evil they're involved in. I'll send my son and I'll rescue them from, from all of that. It says he'll rescue us from this present evil age. When he says that he rescues us, the idea of rescuing us and taking us from this path of danger is he's talking about all evil. You see, evil, evil is not a good thing. Evil lands you in hell. Evil, it's not just the, but it's not just the punishment for evil that he's rescuing us from. He's rescuing us from evil itself because we, not only do we not want to be punished for our sin, but in our hearts, do we really even want to be sinners? In other words, when I was praying this week and I'm praying for these kids and my heart's just broken for what's going on in the world, a cool thing happened to me this week. I began to get sad, not just for the victims, but also for the culprits. So I started thinking, do you really want to be a molester? Do you really grow up thinking that's what I want to be? I thought, these people must come go to bed at night thinking, look at me, what a loser I am. And I mean, some of you, some of the things that you've gone through and some of you that are stuck in some things right now, was it really your life's goal to be an addict? You don't want that for yourself. You look at yourself and you're just as mad about it as everyone around you. Like, I don't want to be an addict, but man, it's just what I became. Whether it's drugs or alcohol, I haven't met any kids that go, one day I'm going to be an alcoholic. It's not like you aspire to that. You don't like it. In the same way, there's some of you that are addicted to pornography and you're looking at yourself going, man, look at me, a 30, 40, 50-year-old man staring at a computer screen at naked images. You just think to yourself, what a loser I am. Some of you that have been unfaithful to your spouses, is that really what you wanted to be? Unfaithful, that's the example you wanted for your kids? Or deep in your heart, you wanted to be faithful and you don't want to be known as an adulterer? Some of you girls, all the way through high school, you've already slept with different guys and kind of known as a whore? That's what you wanted for yourself? You really wanted that? Some of you guys are beating up on your wives physically? I mean, don't you just sit at home at night going, what a loser, I hit a girl. I'm a loser. See, these aren't things that you're after. You know, some are so materialistic and you just have to have the nice things and everything else and you're going, I don't want to be this way. I don't want to be greedy. I'd love to be a person that actually loved other people and cared about others more than myself. You see, it's like I don't want to be angry. Some of you, the way you talk to your kids, you know, sometimes they can just get on your nerves and you say things, you're like, oh, I've become a yeller. I'm screaming at my kids. I don't want to be this. You know, don't you understand this sin is we agree with God. These aren't good things. And so we're saying, God, rescue me from the penalty of all of these things, but also rescue me from these things themselves. See, and Jesus says that he came to rescue us from all of this. So that, yeah, we're in this world, but we're not of it. We don't live that way. You don't think that way. And God really can come into your life. He says, man, when you are saved, that's what that whole series about the Holy Spirit was about. He says, I will rescue you. I'll rescue you from the coming wrath, but I'll also rescue you from yourself, from this person that you've become that you don't want to be. You're seeing me, you're seeing Jesus and you're saying, no, I want to be like him because, well, I'll put my spirit inside of you then. And then you can start putting to death these things that you and I both hate. And I'll rescue you from this present evil age. And you just sit there and go, you're kidding me. So not only are you not going to punish me for all those things I've done, but now you're going to empower me so that I don't have to do those things anymore. And like the Bible says, now I will become the slave to righteousness. You're just going to, you're just going to hand that to me. The guy goes, yeah, that's my grace, grace, and peace to you. And then you have peace. That's a gift of God. How many people on this earth do not have peace and are stressed out, striving for something, never have enough rather than just going, things are good. You've got peace. You see, because if you don't have grace, you don't have peace. Because if you don't understand the grace of God, then you're going to spend your whole life going, oh man, am I good enough? Am I good enough? Am I good enough? Now can I go to heaven? Now that I make up for everything I did? There's no peace in that. See, peace is the result of salvation and grace is the cause of it. Because of the grace of God that you're saved. And because you're saved, you have this peace where you go, wow, Jesus already did everything. This is a pretty good deal. And he's put his spirit in me. And now I can spend the rest of my life becoming the person that he wants me to be. See, what did I do for that? Nothing. He just handed it to me. And he says that he did that. He rescued us according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Like I said, who gets the glory forever and ever? God. This way at the end we go, man, God, I can't believe you did all that for me. You're an awesome God. You're amazing, amazing grace. And we just spend eternity saying, God, I can't believe you did this for me. I can't believe you did this for me. I can't believe you did this for me. And all eyes are on God, the giver, the giver, the giver, not on us. See, it's not noble to have a work salvation. It's arrogant. It's because you want to feel like you did it. And God says, why are you taking my glory away? I'm a giver. I just wanted to give you that. I don't want you to say, well, I'm going to, I'm going to make, I'm going to make up for that hundred dollars you gave me. I'm going to, I'll show you. He's like, no, I just wanted to give it. Take it. Go away. Just take it. Just enjoy it. And then just thank me. Say, wow, that was cool. That was really cool. God just gave me grace. And that's why Paul says in verse six, I'm blown away. Paul says, I am astonished. The word is, he goes, this is like a miracle. This is unbelievable. He goes, I'm astonished. And what he's astonished by, he goes, I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and you're turning to another gospel. He goes, so God gives you all of that. And then you decide, well, I want to try something different. I'm going to try working. He's like, why would you do that to him? He goes, I'm completely confused here. I'm amazed here. I'm astonished that you would so quickly desert. And when he uses the word, you quickly desert the one who called you. It's not just leaving him, but it's the idea of switching sides. Say, now you're going to turn against the God who gave you all that grace and go, no, you will not do that. I'm going to do another system. I don't like your system. I'm going to work for my salvation. He goes, you're just going to desert him like that? And you're going to go to this other system of works. He goes, verse 7, which is really no gospel at all. That word gospel is the word good news. He goes, he goes, this isn't good news. You left the good news to go to your works type, lack of peace, no grace type religion because what kind of gospel is that? That's not good news. He goes, evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. And then he says this, but if we, or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preach to you, let him be eternally condemned. As we've already said, so now I say again, if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned. Well, those are pretty strong words. Paul says, look, I don't care if I come back to you and say something different than what I told you and said, well, now you've got to do this and this and this. He goes, if that's the case, he goes, then let me be eternally condemned. Eternally condemned. I was looking at that word because I'm like, man, what is that? Can that really mean that? Eternally condemned. And I looked at his word, anathema. And it's this idea of handing something over to God without the blessing of God for him to curse and for him to have his way in a judgment type of way. And this ultimate excommunication is what this word is about. It is ultimate getting out of my presence. It's the idea of hell. And Paul says, I don't care. He's using hyperbole. He goes, I don't care if this beautiful angel, you know, flies down with his halo on his head and everything else and goes, hey, we got to work for some things, too. He goes, I don't care if an angel tells you that, then that angel should go to hell. That's literally what he's saying here, because if I come and teach you anything different other than the grace of God. If anyone tells you anything different than the grace of God, you should go to hell. Those are strong words because that's not the way we typically think. We think, well, but if he's a nice guy and he just seems to be doing a bunch of good works and spreading his love everywhere and he's just saying that we got to do some things also in addition, is that so bad? Paul says, yeah. He says, you don't judge a person by their appearance. You have to judge them by their message. That's why he goes, I don't care if it's an angel from heaven. I don't care how beautiful the person is. If they tell you, you've got to earn your way and they take the focus off the grace of Christ to hell with them. Those are his words. Now, does that mean that if someone starts telling you, you know, some other doctrine, you go go to hell? You know that? No, no. It because we love those people and we care for them. But do you understand Paul's point, though? Because he makes it even clearer in the verse in verse 10, he says, am I trying to win the approval of men? Or of God? Am I trying to please men if I were trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. I'll close with that because he says, look, I know that's offensive. He goes, but I'm not here to please people. I'm not here to have everyone like me. See, some of you guys will write me notes this week. You'll call me and say, hey, that was offensive. I'm like, I know. I know. It's not like I don't know. I know that's it's very offensive to you because you thought your whole life you're such a good person. You've done these good things. You're going to earn your way to heaven. And here's a guy up front telling you, no, you're not good and you're not going to earn your way. It's not good enough. And you're actually being arrogant and self-centered. And this is about God and not about you. And you don't like that. You want it to be about you. That's offensive. But like Paul says, he goes, if I were trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. You got to make a choice in life. See, our first allegiance has to be to God over mom, dad, brother, sister, wife, kids, friends, whoever. Your first allegiance has to be God. That's why Paul says, I don't care how nice that guy is. I don't care how nice that angel looked. I don't care. But if you're taking away from the grace of God, my first priority is to defend my God. Am I supposed to love you as I love myself? Yes. But the number one commandment is love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. He is my first priority. He goes, I'm not on this earth trying to please a bunch of people trying to make everyone like me. I'm here winning the approval of God. He's what matters to me. And so if you are going to take the focus off of him and onto yourself to hell with you. You be eternally condemned then, because this isn't about you. This is about my God. And this isn't even about me, because if I tell you something and it's about me, then you know what the hell with me. This is about God. God is so good. God rescued you. You were a mess and you were headed for destruction. And he goes, let me just hand you some grace here. Let me just have my son pay for everything you did on that cross. Let me have him rise again and let me give you some resurrection power so that you can now get rid of all these things that you, you want to be rescued from. That's the power of the Holy Spirit. And some people have asked me, they've said, well, you know, you have such an emphasis on baptism and, and I'm going, well, that's biblical. They're like, well, then aren't you turning baptism into a work? Aren't you saying, well, you got to work then because you got to do this baptism. I'm like, I don't get that really. Like, is that really a work? Like, like when I asked my wife to marry me, she didn't go, are we going to have to publicly, do I have to publicly acknowledge you in a wedding ceremony? And I had to walk down an aisle. Was that her response? Like, oh, so you're telling, okay, if I marry you, you're saying I have to have a wedding. No, that wasn't her response. Thank God. No, it was this idea that that's not a work. That's like, wow, are you kidding me? You're going to, we're going to get married. And she was strutting down that aisle going, yeah, I'm marrying the sexiest man on earth. You know, it was just, it was a rush. It was just this public confession. Look at me, I'm with Francis. I'm embellishing a little bit. It's that idea. It's that idea of man, that's baptism. It's like, are you kidding me? I'm going to be joined into an eternal relationship with God. He's going to forgive everything. He says I can live with him forever and ever. I want to publicly stand before you and say, I am married to Jesus Christ, that he is coming into this life. He's changing me. I'm spending, he's accepting me. He's accepting me with all of my trash. He's accepting me and rescuing me from this life. I want to jump in that water and just proclaim to the world that's baptism. So please don't reduce it to a work that where you're earning your salvation by getting wet. Okay. It's, it's, it's not a work. It's never been a work. It was something where the believer just says, yeah, I want to associate myself with Jesus Christ. If that means everyone hates me, everyone hates me. So be it. But I love this Jesus. He saved me by his grace, by his grace, by his grace. It's all about him.