This sermon delves into the essence of the gospel according to the book of Galatians, emphasizing the distinction between living by the law and living by faith in Jesus Christ. It highlights the need to understand the true gospel as Christ-centered, focusing on His sacrifice for our sins and deliverance from the present evil age. The sermon challenges believers to examine their lives for evidence of true salvation through transformed hearts and fruit of the Spirit, rather than mere professions of faith.

Galatians chapter 1 and verse 1. Paul an apostle not from men nor through man but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. And all the brethren who are with me, grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. To him be glory forever and ever, amen. I marvel that you are turning so away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel which is not another but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than that which we preach to you, let him be accursed. For we have said before so now I say again if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men or God or do I seek to please men for if I still pleased men I would not be a bondservant of Christ. And what I want to share with you this afternoon or speak with you on this afternoon is on the gospel according to the book of Galatians. The gospel according to Galatians. Now what we're going to do is do a very quick tour right through the book of Galatians from the beginning through the end. I'm going to cherry pick some verses that highlight the subject of the gospel. And I know that the moment I say well I'm going to preach about the gospel most of you probably say well I I know the gospel I know what the gospel is. Well if I thought you knew I would not insult you by trying to preach something that you already know. You say well you know that that's an insult in itself because we are Christians this is a Christian Church we know what the gospel is. The problem is that most Christians today don't know what the gospel is. Because we live in a time when there is another gospel being preached and it is not the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is not the gospel that Paul preached. I thank God for this church and other churches like this that that do still preach the gospel but there are not many. And so I want for us to re-understand refresh our memories as to what the gospel is according to Paul in the book of Galatians. Now I know when we get to the book of Galatians the we immediately say well this isn't about the gospel this is about law and not being bound by the law. And obviously that is what Paul is addressing. Paul addresses this particular problem in the churches in Galatia. Remember Galatia was not one church but a series of churches in a area in a region called Galatia. And the problem was that they had moved away from the gospel back to the law. And so it was a mixture of law and grace a mixture of the New Testament and the Old Testament. And obviously that is the primary thing that Paul deals with. But in this process he deals with the gospel and expresses very clearly what the gospel is so that they might be reminded what it is that they have moved away from. And so it's very useful for us then to re-examine the book of Galatians from this perspective and to understand then what the gospel is according to Galatians. And as I've said I'm going to go through this very quickly. You may have noticed me looking at the clock and making notes. I need to time myself so that I can try and get through this in the time we have because there is a lot of material here. Normally a study on the book of Galatians would take me a year in our churches. We go through it verse by verse and word by word. Now we don't have that luxury today but I want for us to get this overview. And sometimes it's necessary for us to step back and get an overview of a book so that we are able then to more intelligently look at the details within that book. So I'm going to begin right at the very beginning. I'm going to start in verse four and jump back to verse one. Now here's one of the problems we have when we read these epistles of Paul. When we get to this first section verses one through five we say well this is the normal greetings that Paul is giving and so we ignore that. We say well there's not much in that because Paul is saying remember that these letters are different to the way that we write letters. Not that we write letters anymore but the older ones who remember writing letters. You would have the address at the top. You would write dear so-and-so. You'd write the letter and then you would sign who wrote the letter. Now those days they did it a little differently. The letter would begin with saying who's writing the letter, who they are writing to, and then some kind of greeting. And so this is that part and most Christians just ignore that. And yet right in the beginning because this is what the subject is all about, because it is about the gospel, Paul begins by spelling out the gospel in these first few verses. And so look at verse four. Now verse three says grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. That's part of the greeting. But because he wants to establish the gospel, he then inserts verse four. Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present age, evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. He gave himself for our sins. And when he says he gave himself, he's clearly meaning he gave himself to die on that cross for our sins. And then the other part of the gospel is right there in verse one. Verse one says Paul an apostle not from men nor through man but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. There is the whole gospel. Now I know you say well there's a lot missing in that gospel. And that's the problem is because the gospel that we commonly understand in modern evangelical churches is a man-centered gospel. And probably the highlight of that or the really a classical version of that are the four spiritual laws. You've sinned. God has a wonderful plan for your life. Jesus wants to give you that plan and I'm summarizing. I don't remember exactly because I don't want to remember those. But you'll see that in every one of those four spiritual laws it's about me and God's plan for me and what he did for me. You say well isn't that the gospel? Actually it's not the gospel. There is a definition of the gospel and it's very clearly defined by Paul as the definition. If you turn back with me to two books back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Now 1 Corinthians 15 is known as the resurrection chapter but at the beginning of that chapter is a definitive definition of the gospel. If there's any definition of the gospel in the whole of the Bible this is it. And so he begins and says moreover brethren I declare to you the gospel. He says I'm explaining to you I'm declaring to you the gospel that I preached to you which also you received and in which you stand. So this is the gospel that you received this is what saved you this is what you continue to be saved by. Verse two by which also you are saved if you hold fast the word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all. Where do we find those words also? 1 Corinthians 11 in the Lord's Supper. I declare I delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed. So I delivered to you. He says this is what I preached this is how you got saved. That first Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Now the I'm not going to speak about the burial part while that is an important part that is not the core of the gospel. The burial is proof of his death because the same way as he says he died he was buried the death the burial is proof that he died he then says he was raised and then he spends the rest of the chapter giving proof for the resurrection. So there's really only two points here are not three and the points are that he died and that he rose. But notice that that if that is the definition of the gospel and focus is the definition of the gospel if that is the definition of the gospel you'll see that we don't really feature in that story. The only place we feature is for our sins. But it was he who died it was he who rose again and that is the gospel. The gospel is a Christ-centered message it is not a man-centered message. It's not what you can get and I can get out of it and what the features advantages and benefits of the gospel is. But it is what Christ has done and the only thing that we are the beneficiaries of what he has done because we are sinners. And if we understand that it was our sin that nailed him to the cross it was our sin that necessitated him to die for us we say well I want that. But you see because we don't want people to feel bad we don't want to get into the whole sin thing and make people feel guilty we now have to sell the gospel on its features advantages and benefits. What are those things? Well those are sales things. So what will the gospel do for you? Well it will make you give you peace. You'll go to heaven. It will fix your family problems. It will make you feel good about yourself and the list goes on and on and on of all the wonderful things that will happen if you become a Christian. And yet Paul's definition of the gospel is no you're a dirty rotten sinner and you are damned and you are destined to hell but Jesus is the answer. And when we understand that we say well give me Jesus. But when we don't understand how bad we really are we say well you know I can continue in my sin I can continue with what I have and who I am and I just add Christianity to my to my life to the portfolio of my life. So having said then that that is the definition if we go back to Galatians then you'll see that he's repeating exactly that same definition. He raised him from the dead in verse 1 and verse 4 he gave himself for our sins. It's remarkably similar to what he said in 1 Corinthians 15. That he died for our sins and that he was raised on the third day. That is the essence and that is the heart of the gospel. Now Paul goes on and he says that the benefit that we get is not that we will be rich and happy and and blessed and and have peace and all of these kinds of things. But he expresses the benefit for us of the gospel in verse 4 and I'm back in Galatians 1.4 that he might deliver us from this present evil age. That's the benefit and the result of the gospel. That he might deliver us, set us free, bring us out of this present evil age. And that's exactly why I say so few Christians understand the gospel today because most Christians are still bound by this present evil age. The old King James uses the word world, this present evil world. The Greek word is aion which really means age more than anything else and really refers to the dispensation of this world. How this world functions and works and thinks and the philosophies of this world. And he says that he died, he rose again to deliver us from the world. Now we use the word saved and we saw that word saved in 1 Corinthians 15. That he has saved us. And you ask most Christians what have you saved from? They'll say I'm saved from hell. I'm not going to embarrass you by asking you to vote on that. But let me tell you that that's not what we're saved from. And if I didn't get your attention hopefully I have your attention now. When it speaks about saving us it doesn't mean we're saved from hell. What did he save us from? Well again we have to go to the Bible for the definition and the definition is in Matthew chapter 1 you will call his name Jesus. Because and Jesus means God saves. Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. To be saved does not mean to be saved from hell. That is a byproduct of our salvation. But we are saved out of our sins. And that word saved from their sins. He will save them from their sins. The Greek word is ek meaning out of. The same idea here. He has delivered us out of this present evil age. He's translated us into the kingdom of his son. Into another dimension. Into another world. Into another realm if you will. We are no longer citizens of this world. We are citizens of heaven. We no longer live by the principles of this world. We live by the principles of heaven. So there's the gospel stated for us very clearly in the first four verses. Christ died for our sins. He was raised again and he did so to deliver us. Set us free from this present evil age. Now of course there's the warning which we've read and I'm not going to go through that in too much time detail. But he speaks then in verse 6 of the fact that there is another gospel. He says I'm amazed that you you turn so quickly to another gospel. So right there at the very beginning Paul is still alive and there's already another gospel. And if there was another gospel then then there's another gospel now. And in fact he speaks elsewhere in Corinthians that there's not just another gospel but there's another Jesus. Now folk I contend that the gospel that is preached in many evangelical churches today is another gospel. The Jesus that is preached is another Jesus. Just by the way and you know my pet hate is the prosperity message. That is another Jesus. A Jesus who wants to make you rich. Doesn't particularly care about your sin. He's more interested in your financial and physical welfare. It's another Jesus. And so Paul says be careful there are other Gospels. And we'll see in a moment that the other Gospels look remarkably like the true gospel. And remember what Paul is addressing here is a people who were true born-again Christians in the sense that they they heard Paul preach the gospel. They got saved. They got baptized. But what they were now doing is just adding to the gospel the law. Their own set of rules based on the Old Testament. And Paul says that's another gospel. Now folk here's the problem. Another gospel is not necessarily the gospel of Buddha or of Confucius or some other kind of God or deity. Another gospel is when Paul refers to another gospel it is the true gospel that either has something subtracted from it or something added to it. One of the other Gospels that is being preached today is a gospel from which repentance has been subtracted. Takes repentance out of the gospel you no longer have the true gospel. You add to the gospel anything else and you do not and you no longer have the true gospel. So there's the warning then about another gospel. Now in verse 10 he says am I here to please men or am I pleasing God? Am I a servant of man or a servant of the Lord? That's really the the question he's asking. Again those who preach another gospel are serving men. They're interested in what men say and think because men pay their salaries, help them to get rich or whatever it is. Paul says I don't care what you think. I only care what my master says. I'm beholden to him to preach the truth and the only true gospel and not what men say or think. In verse 11 he says that this gospel is not of human origin. Now to give you the background to the book of Galatians or to the section of the book of Galatians Paul goes to great lengths to prove that he received his gospel and when I say his gospel the way that he understood the gospel the way he preached and taught the gospel that he received that directly from Jesus Christ and he spends most of the rest of that chapter and some of chapter 2 proving the fact that he was never taught by the other apostles. Paul says I didn't none of them taught me. I received this directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I'm going to come back to that idea in one moment but I want for us just to understand that the gospel is not designed by any man and that's one of the things that sets the true gospel and Christianity apart from every other religion in the world because every other religion has been concocted and been thought of by men. Doesn't matter what religion it is. It's what it's man's idea of how we can reach Nirvana, how we can have peace, how we can get to heaven, how we can be assimilated in the in the great God or whatever nonsense they believe but there is only one message in this whole world that came directly from God without human intervention that was not just designed in heaven but that was executed by heaven itself as the father took his own precious son part of the Trinity part of the Godhead and nailed him to that cross in our place. It's the only gospel that can save. It's the only gospel that comes from heaven and I'm amazed and I think that together with Paul, Paul says I'm amazed that you so soon moved away from this gospel to something which is man-made, human philosophies, human ideas when in fact we have the best of heaven available to us in the word and in the in the true gospel and yet you can go to Christian bookstores today, not that there are many of those, go to amazon.com where you'll find a couple of good books and you'll find a thousand of other thousand other books, millions of other books preaching all sorts of human ideas and human philosophies and human wisdom that has nothing to do with that which comes from God and so the gospel comes from heaven alone. Now Paul then goes on in chapter two and he speaks about the fact and he goes through his whole life story how that he didn't go up to Jerusalem, he had one meeting very briefly with Peter, he went back into the Arabian Desert, he spent time there with God, we believe it was during that time that he was caught up into the third heaven, saw those unspeakable things and God spoke to him and I'm not sure in what exact way but so that Paul understood the message of the gospel and so a number of times Paul says I've received this from the Lord. Now of course we need to be very careful because today there are many preachers who say well I received a message from God but that message is not confirmed by the scriptures. God told me, be careful if any preacher tells you God told me. Now I'm not saying that God cannot speak to us, of course he speaks to us, but the moment it contradicts the word of God it's no longer God speaking to us because God does not contradict himself and here's the thing, Paul says then I was saved for about 17 years, during that time I received the gospel, I never spoke to anyone except for a few days with Peter, but Peter didn't tell me very much, you read between the lines and then Paul said then I felt the need to go to Jerusalem after all of this period to go and check whether I believed the truth. Now folks that's a tremendous lesson for us, don't just assume you know the truth, unfortunately there are many Christians today who go and surf the internet and cobble together out of thin air or out of the ether, out of the internet their own doctrine, their own gospel and they say well I know stuff that nobody else knows, I have my own version of the truth and God revealed it to me, well does it check out and who do we check with? We need to check with those who know something, those who are somewhat in those days in Paul's ministry, who were the people who really knew the gospel outside of Paul? Well those who had walked with Jesus and so Paul says I decided to go to Jerusalem to go and check whether what I taught was the truth and so we're in verse 6 and 7, let's read those quickly, but from those who seem to be something and he's meaning the other Apostles, whether they were it makes no difference to me, God shows personal favoritism to no man, in other words not only they have the truth I also have the truth basically Paul is saying for those who seem to be something added nothing to me, can you see that? Paul is saying I walked with God and God revealed most of the New Testament to me, all of these epistles, all of our doctrine based on Paul's doctrine and he says I went to go and speak to the other Apostles in Jerusalem and they added nothing to me, in other words they knew nothing that I did not know, so what does that mean? It means that Paul had the truth because clearly what Paul had and when he said this is what I believe and Peter and the other Apostles said this is what we believe it was the same thing and remember the Old Testament the law says that by the word of two or three witnesses every word will be confirmed and so Peter and John and the other Apostles received from the Lord Jesus when he walked physically on the earth Paul received from the risen Christ he says as one born out of due time but when we compared the message it was the same message, they couldn't tell me anything I didn't know hadn't already received I didn't already know and that's a tremendous confirmation to me and to my own heart to know that we believe the truth because it's not just the 12 who concocted some kind of message and try to preach and shove this message down the throats of 2,000 years of Christians but Paul says I independently got the same message and that tells us that the message is the truth now if you believe something that you but you're the only person in the world who believes that there's a problem with that first of all there's a problem with pride because what makes you or me so special that God has told us something that he hasn't told anyone else are we really that special? In fact the reality is that there are there are countless Christians and I had to deal with one indirectly through another set of elders a week or two ago who believe that they're the only ones in the world who have the truth if you if you're the only one you don't have the truth that's it's as simple as that now there's a minority we understand that brought us the way many there are that lead go on that road to destruction but at the same time he's not left us without witnesses and he's not left us without confirmation we have 2,000 years of true Christianity not in the apostate churches but in the true churches that continued from the Apostles through to today and their witness is constant and it's the same and so we need to check and we need to make sure all right so let me move to verse 16 and I'm already running way behind time verse 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ even we who have believed in Christ Jesus that he might be we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law but by the works of the law no flesh be justified so there's a new aspect to the gospel justification what is justification mean well I'm sure you know the simple little little saying just as if I've never sinned made righteous made just before God and of course we use this big fancy word we speak about forensic righteousness in other words God declares us legally righteous does that mean that we have no more sin that we never sin anymore well remember John deals with us in these first God is your first epistle and he says if we say with we're without sin we make God a liar in other words we still sin we all do sin but God has declared us righteous he has declared us just on what basis on the basis that Jesus took my sin and gave to me his righteousness we call that imputed righteousness and so we've been made just how does this become active how do we get this how do we get this to to work for us well by faith and that's the point and you'll find the word faith appears 23 times in this book the word law appears 32 times but the word faith appears 23 times and so it's when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ now the problem is that there are many who say I believe on the Lord Jesus but they don't really believe you see if I really believe I would live a different kind of life you believe in hell I think Pastor Shane teaches hell I don't think this is one of those churches that says there is no hell do you believe in hell I wouldn't answer so quickly if I were you because if we really believed hell we would live different kinds of lives we would have a different approach to evangelism in fact I say that for myself and God has been dealing with me on that the last few weeks and I have to confess that I don't really believe in hell because if I did it would change my approach it would have changed my preaching so you see we say we believe but do we really believe is that a reality is heaven a reality is what Jesus did on the cross real because if it is if I really believe that can I continue in my sin when I understand what it cost him to die in my place upon that cross of Calvary you see we say we believe but many times we don't so we are justified made righteous by simply believing on the Lord Jesus Christ not by works lest any man should boast now I want to jump across to verse 20 and verse 20 gives us the result of the gospel this is how the gospel now has its impact or its effect upon us and as we as we get to this you're going to see that again there's a huge challenge in this I've been crucified with Christ it is no longer I that live but Christ lives in me in the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith by faith in the Son of God who loved me gave himself for me now I don't have the time to and I'd really love to have more time to analyze this particular verse but here's here here is the result of the gospel the result of the gospel is not just that Christ died 2,000 years ago and was raised but that I died with him then I am dead to my old self that is the effect of the gospel that I am crucified I'm dead and that the life that I now have is not my life but it's him living through me now be careful before I catch you out again is that true in our lives is it really you living or is it him living through you in fact the reality is that for many of us and most of us unfortunately the reality is that I'm still trying to live my life now remember you say well you know what what's this got to do with the context that Paul's dealing with the law well the moment you're trying to live by a set of rules and laws you're trying to do it you're trying to live your own life trying to get yourself in proper shape and and and that's commendable but it falls short from the understanding that I am dead it's no longer I that is living but it is Christ who's living in me and the life which I now live in this flesh in this body I'm living by faith in the Son of God not in my own ability to save myself my own ability to improve myself my own ability to keep myself but simply in trust in what he has done at the cross and that he will complete the work that he's begun even to the day that he comes again that is the outworking of the gospel verse 21 just the next verse there says I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness comes through the Lord then Christ died in vain now I just want to sum that up very very quickly and say that if there is any other way in which you can attain to righteousness if there's any book or video or DVD or YouTube out there that says if you follow these five principles then you will attain to righteousness if there is any set of laws whether it's the Old Testament laws or whether it's the bylaws of a church that says this is how you attain to righteousness what you have done is you have said no thank you to the death of Christ Christ died in vain because I think I can save myself by living by my laws or by God's laws or by the church's laws or any other law chapter 3 verse 11 emphasizes again I'm justified by not justified by the law then chapter 4 verse 4 and here he's gonna sum up the gospel again he's restating it again you'll see how and he's going to restate it at the end so at the beginning he said here's the gospel in the middle he's going to tell us here's the gospel in the end he's going to give us the gospel again so chapter 4 verse 4 but when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons and because you are sons God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying out Abba father therefore you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an heir of God through Christ so there's the whole gospel again and so he died for us that he might redeem us by us to himself why does he need to redeem us because we were sold under sin we were slaves to sin we could not do what we needed to do we could not that could not do the right thing because we were in slave to sin because sin owned us but he says Christ paid the price to redeem us from sin to redeem us to himself elsewhere he speaks of fact about the fact that we might become the slaves of righteousness but here he's saying that we are no longer slaves but we are now sons and that's a very important concept and it's a very important concept that we need to establish in our own hearts how is your relationship with God do you serve him or are you a son you remember the prodigal son who went away and he came back and he says father I'm no longer worthy to be called your son make me your servant and what does the father do he restores him to his sonship again but there was the older boy you remember who never went away and he's angry about the celebrations and he comes to his father or his father goes to him because he's outside he won't come in and what does he say these many years have I served you the younger boy says I will be your servant I'm not worthy to be a son and the father makes him a son the older boy the father says you've always been my son you've always been with me you've always been my son but what was he in his own heart he was a servant he was obeying the rules he was doing what he believed he needed to do to stay out of trouble he was not serving the father from the heart of saying what the father has is mine and his purposes and his goals are mine because all of this is going to be mine one day the other boys taken he share he didn't understand that he was a son and so he works as a as a clock watching servant doing the minimum just to get away with what what he needed to do and folks the reality is that are many Christians who are not sons but they are servants trying to live by the rules but not serving from a principle of saying I'm a son and the father's goals and ideals and principles are mine I get away with what I can get away with because I'm a servant I'm not living as a son who says I have to have a standard to live up to because I'm a son no servant does the minimum and unfortunately the reality is that many Christians live a servant relationship with God they don't want to go to hell they don't want to be judged they want to be rewarded they want to get paid at the end of the day so they do the minimum they need to do they'll pay the minimum tithe do I have to do and I don't believe in tithing by the way but they'll calculate and they'll argue do I pay before taxes or after taxes now the moment you ask me that question you're saying to me you're a servant and not a son who says everything I have is the father's and everything that the father has is mine so it doesn't matter I'll give him whatever I need to give him I'll give him everything because it's all mine anyway so there's there's the the outworking of the gospel again and then let's go to chapter 5 and I want to spend a little bit of time in chapter 5 now the problem in chapter 5 is that we we have the section from verse 16 onwards that deals with the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit and we say well what does that have to do with the gospel well fuck this is this is where it breaks down for many people today because we say I believe in the gospel I say I believe I'm saved I I'm justified I I'm a son and not a servant but Paul gives us a series of tests and that's what these are this is not a Paul is not giving us a list when and and you remember he's giving us the the works of the flesh are evident verse 19 adultery fornication uncleanness lewdness idolatry sorcery hatred contentious jealousies outbursts of wrath selfish ambitions dissensions heresies envy murder drunkenness revelries and the like and then verse 22 the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control against such there is no law now what is that to most Christians it becomes a law now what's the purpose of the purpose of the book the purpose of the book is to say we are not saved by law we are saved by faith in what Christ did and yet the very point that Paul is making and I'll explain with the point that he's making in a moment but he we turn this into a set of laws and we say you mustn't do the first list you must do the second list but it's just another set of laws now if if Paul has just spent all this time discrediting the principle of living by the law as a servant obeying rules then why will he institute another set of laws for us so clearly this cannot be a set of laws a set of negative laws you shall not and a set of positive laws that you shall so what is Paul doing here what Paul is doing here is he is giving us a test by which we can test ourselves and that's all it is as to whether we are saved or not saved I know this is going to rattle a few cages how do you know you're saved oh well brother you know I have a little card here I signed it in 1923 and I accepted Jesus as my Savior I'm saved well I have bad news for you the Bible doesn't say that that's a test of salvation anywhere notice what Paul says he gives that list the deeds of the flesh and he comes to the end of that list verse 21 end of verse 21 that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God now we look at that list and we say well I you know I I don't murder I don't worship idols I don't commit adultery but look at some of the other things in that list hatred nothing you hate no one you hate contentions arguments you never argue jealousies never been jealous of somebody else's highly or spiritual gifts envy forces those who do these things will not go to heaven now remember it's not my gospel this is what Paul is saying those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God so what does this mean does it mean that if I'm saved and I commit one of these sins I'm going to be damned well clearly not because the point of the book is that I'm not saved by the keeping of the law I'm saved by what Christ has done but the point that Paul is making here and this is not the only place he makes us he makes the same point in Corinthians you find a similar list of Corinthians a similar list in Ephesians here in Galatians in Romans and then finally in the book of Revelation not Paul but John same point outside are liars and all sorts of other things so what what does this mean this means that this is the evidence of a regenerate heart and remember he's not speaking about those who sometimes do something they ought not to do because remember we spoke about John earlier that we say we were without sin we lie may God alive so we all sin the point here is that this is if this is our lifestyle if the thing that controls and dominates your life is envy there is a question as to whether you're truly born again if your lifestyle is one of drunkenness there is a question as to whether you're truly born again that's the point that he's making here and that's the point he makes in almost every one of his epistles if we are truly born again remember what is the basis on which I'm born again that I am crucified with Christ it's no longer I that live but Christ is living in me if Christ is living in me how can I be a drunkard is it possible for Christ to be a drunkard of course not now I know this is rattling some folk in fact I take no pleasure in in making you feel uncomfortable but I believe it's absolutely essential that we make sure that we are indeed born again because heaven is real and hell is real and if you say well I you know I believe I'm saved because because pastor so-and-so told me that I'm saved I'm born again you need to get that assurance from Jesus Christ and that evidence needs to be evident in your life and what Paul is speaking about here is fruit and in fact he calls the next list the fruit of the Spirit what is fruit fruit is what proves the tree remember Matthew chapter 7 by their fruit you will know them and the fruit of someone who is born again is love joy peace long-suffering and the nine things in that list is that what marks your life or are these other things the things that define your life and folk here's the here's the problem we say well I'm saved by faith I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that's all that matters no if you truly believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as we saw then there is a work that happens that I'm dead that the old things are passed away all things have become new and in those all things it includes my desires it includes my character and my personality it includes my responses and my reactions and folk I'm deeply concerned that in our effort to say we've got away from the law we're simply standing by faith we have rejected the past part of Paul's message here which says no if you you're indeed saved by faith but that salvation that regeneration has evidence and that evidence is in a changed life now for this is absolutely crucial I grew up in evangelical and Pentecostal churches and was taught very as a young young man that when you baptize you baptize people on the confession of their faith and in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit I no longer baptized on that formula because I believe that it is an empty formula because people will confess salvation when in fact there is no evidence that they are truly born again and so now I only baptize and I will only baptize when I can truly baptize on the confession of your faith and on the evidence of a changed life the evidence of a changed life don't tell me you're born again and you're still in your sin because he came to save us where from out of our sins and if you're still in your sin if you're continuing in sin then you are not born again it doesn't matter how many times you prayed the sinner's prayer it doesn't matter how much you how many decision cards you signed it doesn't matter how many pastors told you that you're born again if you're born again there must be evidence and the evidence is in the fruit of the Spirit is there evidence to that salvation I don't remember exactly how the story goes but there's a question that if if we if you lived in a persecuted country would be there be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian is there enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian if you were taken to court today could they prove beyond a shadow of a doubt never mind your confession can they prove that you are indeed a Christian that's the point that Paul is making in in this section now I'm going to close with the summation or the summary of the gospel in chapter 6 verse 14 but God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world there's the gospel how did he say it in chapter 2 verse 20 I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives in me the life which I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me he's just saying the same thing now he's saying when I was saved when we are born again we are dead to the world the world is dead to us is that true or are you still very much alive to the world and is the world very much alive to you folk we must check it's absolutely imperative when when I fly to foreign countries and maybe I'm paranoid but my wife will tell you I check a hundred times do I have a ticket and do I have my passport and when I wake up in the plane in the middle of the night do I have my passport do I have my ticket and folk if I'm if it's if it's so important to make sure that you're that you have what it takes to get to England or to get to South Africa is it not more important to make sure you have what it takes to get to heaven amen