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00:00 Last week we um talked about the gospel uh roughly what it was. Um today the
00:08 question is is there a gospel 2.0? Uh is there a variation on a team? Is there an
00:14 upgrade? Everybody's got some new teaching. Um this is the outline of Galatians. Uh we're going to be doing
00:21 still the introduction to the gospel. uh next few weeks uh brother Yidian Arnold and the rest we'll deal with his
00:28 personal defense of gospel ministry theological defense and then practical application so this is how it's going to
00:34 go so today is there a gospel 2.0 what is a gospel 2.0 at all how does it affect us and how do we know we have the
00:41 real gospel the the true gospel. So three questions very simply uh put forward to us. The first question uh is
00:48 just a background. The Galatians came from a group of people called the Kelts
00:53 which actually populate all the way up including Ireland I think. Yep. All the
00:59 way. So so some of Richard's uh uh ancestors may be here. They went down to
01:06 Galatia and that's where they were and a very divided church be because you have
01:12 this uh question of uh people from Jerusalem coming and telling them look
01:17 you don't have the full gospel. We got bits of the gospel that you quite missed out. So in order to become a Christian
01:23 you must become a Jew first as it were. All right. They don't add elements to it. So let's look at the text very
01:29 quickly here. I am astonished you are so quickly deserting him who called you into the grace of Christ. You're
01:35 deserting him turning to a different gospel. Not that there's another one but there
01:42 someone to trouble you or to distort the gospel of Christ. These are very very
01:48 strong words. In fact, if you look at the structure of the letter, Paul always goes through the introduction part of
01:54 the introduction grace and peace and then say thank God for all of you no thanksgiving at all. He gets so excited,
01:59 right? Goes right in the T of them. All right. And this is the issue. You're having another gospel coming in. And uh
02:05 look at the words he uses. You're deserting God. It's a different gospel. It's a deliberate distortion. It's not
02:12 even a gospel at all. If you change this bits of the gospel, the gospel disappears. It is no longer a gospel at
02:19 all. I this is a recent uh medical chit that went around
02:26 and this doctor wrote the diagnosis. Did you see the diagnosis? Chicken chop. The
02:31 chicken is the same. I mean, but there's a big difference between the same word chicken and then different ending is you got chicken pox and chicken chop. Two
02:38 different things, right? Imagine going to operating room say give I'm going to operate on the chicken chop. Where's the chicken? All right. So, changing the
02:45 word. Well, it's just more than changing the word. Uh, I am astonished that your cook so quickly deserting him who called
02:52 you into the grace of Christ. The word deserting is changing slides, turning
02:58 inside out, being basically a Benedict Arnold, being a traitor. Remember the
03:04 four fellers in and per you know they the jump ship from Pakatan to BN, you know, or to be independent and they lost
03:10 government. It's as serious as that you're deserting. Um, not that there's another one, but there are some who
03:18 trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. And the word distort here means reverse the order. The whole
03:25 sin which these people are doing, they're just basically reversing the order. Instead of chicken chop, it's
03:31 chop chicken. All right, it's reversing the How are they reversing the order? The order is I have lived a good life.
03:37 Therefore, I received the grace of Christ. I have received the grace of God. Therefore, I have lived a good
03:44 life. What they did was you change this one into this one. Just a little bit.
03:50 Chop chicken chop. All right. And that in itself destroys the faith completely.
03:57 These are Judaizers. What they want to do is that we give God something, we obey the Maic law and then God accepts
04:05 us. Complete opposite. Um they they have all sorts of laws. uh some food that you
04:12 can eat or you cannot eat uh which is taken from the Old Testament uh laws which are taken from Old Testament which
04:19 we do not have to follow anymore. And they said these are the things that you need to follow so that God will be able
04:25 to accept you. But it says even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to
04:31 you a gospel contrary to one we preach you let him be a curse as we have said before. So now again I say to you if
04:37 anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you receive let him be accursed. Do you know what he's
04:42 saying? He's saying there's only one historical gospel. You know that means
04:48 if Paul comes in two months later and tell you another one then he will be cursed. Not even Paul himself coming in
04:55 two months later on telling a different story would be correct. It is the historical gospel that one gospel which
05:01 he shared with them uh in in the first place. Joseph Smith uh foundered the
05:07 Mormon faith um was uh uh in a forest very avid Christian. He's praying and
05:13 praying and praying and then he actually went to the forest and had a revelation from God. An angel appeared to him in
05:20 light and and he wrote the book of the Mormons and it says no man or woman in
05:27 this disensation will ever enter the kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph. Oh, Joseph is like tax
05:32 collector. they collect the toll. So this is what he was revealed. Uh it says
05:39 he reigns there as supreme as a being in his fear, capacity and calling as God
05:45 does in heaven. He's like God. This is a man who receives a vision. So it doesn't matter whether it's Paul or somebody
05:50 receives a vision. It is not the correct gospel. Many church some churches uh uh
05:56 later on started this idea of purgatory. what Christ has done for you on the
06:01 cross and and and very clear Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself our sins to deliver us from the present evil age not
06:06 enough so therefore when you die you have got to go to a place that you be
06:11 roasted until you're well done and then when chuk roasting right then then you could go to heaven you see what
06:18 I mean that makes Christ work insufficient uh then you've got prayers let's say
06:23 you're you're you're already dead right they got a whole kind got a whole bunch of guys to come and then they pray for
06:29 you. The more they pray for you, the more likely you go to heaven. So all these problems of gospel 2.0 is they add
06:36 works on top of what Christ has done. And essentially that's a problem. But if
06:42 you think that only happens in the Catholic Church, let me give you a a lesson here. This is Charles Finey. He's
06:49 called the father of American uh revivalism, responsible for the second
06:54 awakening in about 1700s. Okay? Very influential figure. This is what he
06:59 says. Under the gospel, sinners are not justified by having obedience of Jesus
07:04 Christ set down to their account as if he had obeyed the law for them or in
07:10 theirstead. Christ died as an example of moral and then what we have to do is to
07:16 strive for moral perfection. If you sin, the penalty still remains.
07:22 You see what I mean? And so therefore, the death of Christ is only an example. And as he went and preached all over the country and many people came to know
07:28 Christ. But the issue here was perfectionism. He scared people in the kingdom of God by telling them a lot
07:34 about hell. And the other thing is that they have to work very very hard in order to be accepted by God. This is a
07:41 gospel 2.0 and a very very famous evangelical figure. He says we are now
07:47 comp how are we saved? We are now being saved by complete surrender to God. They will ask you are you completely
07:54 surrendered to God or you only half? You see what I mean? Or you you have the
07:59 right beliefs, right doctrine or right behavior. If you have all those things,
08:04 then God will accept you. That's the gospel 2.0. Now there are certain
08:10 ramifications. If that happens, if you have a gospel like that, then the
08:16 problem is what will happen to you? What will you be motivated by? If you have a gospel 2.0, Oh, that is basically
08:23 man-made. Then you will be motivated by fear and insecurity because you don't
08:29 know if whatever you do is good enough. God doesn't come and tell you, "Ah, hello Moby. You're you're good enough
08:36 this week. What about next week?" You don't know whether you're good enough next week. So therefore, you're always led by fear and insecurity. And you obey
08:43 in order to get things from God. Now if you actually have the true gospel you'll be grateful and will be joyful and you
08:51 delight to obey God to be like him because you have already been saved. The motivation is different. The motivation
08:56 is love in reciprocation and gratitude. Whereas the other one the motivation fear and insecurity because you don't
09:03 know whether God has accepted you or not. Here is a picture of the uh Rembrandt's
09:08 uh uh drawing and you can see this in um in St. Petersburg of the return of the
09:14 prodigal son and the prodigal son is like that before he returns to his father he's thinking I'm here feeding
09:22 pigs life and then pig food I can't even eat uh life can't be worse than this suppose I go home if I go home I will
09:31 tell my father I have sinned against you I am no longer worthy to be called your son treat me as one of your hired
09:38 servants now how many of you think this is very humble put your hands
09:43 Oh, no. Don't you see a Chinese movie like that?
09:49 Well, well, do you think he's very proud? Yes. No. Typical Malaysian. Nobody put
09:56 hands up. Well, well, he is because he has failed. So when he goes back to his
10:03 father, he wants to be a servant, make enough money to pay back the debt. And
10:09 so therefore, he walks in front of his father says, "Hey, I'm my own man. I earn my own way. He doesn't want his
10:15 father to forgive him. He doesn't want the father to show him grace." That that's the difference. And a lot of
10:21 motivation gospel 2.0 is that we have to deserve it. We have to suffer enough so
10:27 that then God will be obligated to accept us. We cannot just throw ourselves at God's feet. That's the
10:32 problem with gospel 2.0. What happens when bad things happen? If you believe in the gospel 2.0, Oh, man-made gospel.
10:39 You get very angry. You get angry at two people, yourself and or God. Now, you get angry yourself. Why?
10:45 Because you're supposed to live up to a particular standard. You're supposed to be the good guy. And yet, you failed.
10:51 So, you get angry yourself. Or you could be like Job. You think you
10:56 lived a good life and then bad things happen to you. Who do you get angry with? God. I serve God. Worship leader
11:03 15 years. Now, he does this to me. What? I'm walking off. And and some of us who serve for many
11:09 many years have some sort of hidden feeling that God kind of owes you
11:14 because you sacrificed this, you gave up your family, you were chased out of your house, you become a Christian, all these other things that you had and that God
11:21 sort of owes you. Uh and that's the motivation when you got gospel 2.0. Where else if you got the real gospel,
11:27 whenever bad things happen, you struggle. It's difficult but you accept it as part of pruning process which god
11:34 trains you when you're criticized. Ah this is very good. You come to church people criticize you all the time. The
11:40 best place to learn is to be coming to the church right you are watch the next
11:46 time you criticize somebody whether they play guitar correctly or sings out of tune or whatever you watch what they do.
11:52 If they get extremely angry and devastated and raw really freaks out and
11:58 never turn up for practice next day, then you know they've got the wrong gospel because their performance, their
12:06 self-esteem is based on what they can do. Try that. You know, step on so many
12:13 people's toes. Tell them it's not quite a good sermon. Finish. Uh you preach yourself like Peter, I'm not coming
12:19 anymore. uh it's performance-based. Um or else if you are gospel-based, you
12:25 struggle, but your self-esteem is built on Christ. So what? I'm a lousy preacher. It's okay. You know, Jesus
12:31 died for me. Already done. Tap out. Everything's fine, right? I'm going to go to heaven already. So what? I'm the
12:37 lousy preacher. So I preach uh at Gamma. I don't do in main service. Okay. It's all right. Let's work. So So that's the
12:44 way you take it. Now if you have and this is Peter's hypocrisy
12:49 before certain men came from James he was eating with the Gentiles but when they came he withdrew back and separate
12:55 himself fearing the circumcision party. So therefore he is a man pleaser it's
13:01 performancebased isn't it? Don't you he doesn't want to be criticized. Oh how come you sit there and eat with the Gentiles? My goodness poor you know how
13:09 can and know then because he's afraid because his performance breaks he doesn't want to be criticized so
13:15 therefore he moves away and sits with all the kosher Jews can you see this affects even Peter subconsciously what
13:23 about your prayer life if your gospel 2.0 Oh, your prayer life will be full of
13:28 petition. Oh, God, please help me my exam, my driving test or my wife's going to leave me. Uh uh you try to control
13:36 circumstances because your life revolves around circumstances. If you are
13:41 gospel-based, mainly your prayer will be praised and adoration because all you need is
13:46 already given to you in Christ. All done and all you need to do is just praise God. There circumstances are difficult.
13:52 You pray about them. They're part of your repertoire when you pray, but it's not consistent just on petitions. It
13:59 will affect your view of yourself. You walk around, you either feel very proud
14:04 or feel like a failure. You feel very proud because you preached a great
14:09 sermon or you helped out here and there or you're very successful your job. But because the gospel 2.0 know is man-made
14:17 and it depends on your performance. S you either feel very proud or if you are not successful in your business, not
14:22 successful in ministry, they kicked you off the worship team, then you feel like a failure and you don't know and you
14:28 can't face people. Where else if the gospel populates your life, then you will feel confident and humble. Remember
14:36 the guy called Matthew Boschet, right? The one who who's is in who's David's uh
14:41 uh table. He's there at the king's table. Why? Because the king by grace brings him there, but he's also lame. So
14:48 Christians are like my sister said, we are at the table, but we're still lame,
14:54 right? Justified sinners. And our spiritual acceptability. Well,
15:00 how does God accept us? Well, if we have gospel 2.0, Oh, we idolize talents and
15:07 we look at how clever we are, how moral we are, how much we sacrifice for God,
15:13 how much discipline we have for God, what's our social status. And these things are so important to us to our
15:18 self-justification that we keep working harder and harder and harder because
15:23 it's basically uh uh these things we idolize. Where else on the other hand if you have a gospel you enjoy yes gospel
15:30 your your family your work your gifts the money you earn but they're not 100% everything they're not the ultimate to
15:36 you hold it loosely in your hands so even Titus who was with me was not
15:41 forced to be circumcised though he was a Greek because of false uh uh brothers
15:47 secretly brought in who slipped into spy our freedom that we have in Christ so
15:52 that they might bring us into slavery. The whole idea of gospel 2.0 owe is that
15:57 they will take your freedom away because everything is based on your performance
16:05 and not on what Christ has done. Our attitude towards others if we are on gospel 2.0 where it's based on your
16:11 performance, you become unsympathetic, superior. We like to win arguments. Why?
16:17 Because you're so clever. Because everything is based on your performance. And then you look at other
16:22 people, how come they go to the gro cafe when they finish drinking they leave it there? You think of servant. I hear this
16:28 all the time. You know, say what the f he he drop it the floor so terrible. And
16:33 when Christians are criticizing each other left, right, and center, man, you know, it's like a war zone. I don't want
16:39 to stand near the the cafe. You know, you guys are a lot better now than we first started. Let me put this away.
16:46 All right. But I I now understand why there's so many complaints and criticism in church simply because people are
16:53 working on gospel 2.0. They're totally unsympathetic to other people. You sit
16:58 down conversation, how much of the conversation revolves on him, how much on how bad that one is, that one is
17:04 good. So you're like, you know, 50% bad, 50% good, who is good, who's bad, who,
17:10 you know, it's it's terrible because we're working on this. But if you actually have the gospel, then you know
17:16 that all of you are bad and we're all receive grace and we're more forgiving.
17:22 And that's the kind of church we want to be uh transformed by the gospel of Jesus
17:27 Christ. The other way people try to distort the gospel that we see nowadays
17:33 and not necessarily in the Galatian situation. I'm just diverting a little bit because we're on the topic anyway.
17:38 All right? So he's not uh isogating it is that you've got the gospel of felt needs. You've got a whole change of
17:45 today in our atmosphere of church is the gospel of felt needs. For example, if you have low self-esteem, come and join
17:52 Jesus Christ. You know why? You matter to God. If you've got you crave thrills,
17:57 come and join Jesus Christ because you get the thrills that fulfill. If you are unhappy, unfulfilled, come and join
18:04 Jesus Christ because you get fulfillment through Jesus Christ. If you are lonely, come and find Jesus Christ as your
18:10 friend. You see, every point, the reference point is you. The reference
18:17 point isn't God. And so therefore, you have got a gospel 2.0 where the focus is
18:23 us instead of God. Our needs in case of in instead of sin, our fulfillment
18:28 instead of righteousness, our and this is attractive and this is really stupid.
18:33 You take this kind of gospel, you go and do, nobody will come in. That's why there's a lot of pressure for for for
18:40 for churches to change. The false gospel often please people for am I now seeking
18:45 the approval of God or man? Am I trying to please men? If I was still trying to
18:51 please men, I wouldn't be a servant of Christ. And so this gospel of felt needs
18:57 is something where you really want to be attractive to men. So therefore we stay
19:02 relevant. We've got all sorts of bells and whistles in our worship and the way we do church, right? So the people are comfortable. You come to church, you
19:08 talk about righteousness, you talk about sin, you talk about condemnation. Nobody wants that. And so therefore we adapt to
19:14 the times to stay relevant. Uh and then there are those who take advantage. There are many who are insubordinate empty talkers and deceivers especially
19:21 those of the circumcision party. They might be silenced since they're upsetting the whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to
19:27 teach. Again, false teaching comes because people want to gain. This is an example of someone uh uh who
19:35 published a 40-day or purpose video. A and this is another example of a gospel
19:41 of felt needs. I'll read this to you. Dear God, I want to know your purpose for my life. I
19:48 don't want to base the rest of my life on wrong things. I want to take the first step in preparing for eternity by
19:55 getting to know you, Jesus Christ. I don't understand how much uh by but as
20:00 much as I know how I want to open my life to you. Make yourself real to me
20:06 and use this series in my life to help me know what you made me for. Right.
20:12 Okay. Authors orders respond. Now that you've just prayed that prayer for the first time, I want to congratulate you.
20:18 Become part of the family of God. Wow. You read go to read again. I want
20:25 to know your purpose. I don't want to base my life on wrong things. I want to take the first step.
20:32 I don't know how, but as much as I know how, I want to open my life to you. Make yourself real and use this series to
20:37 help me. And now you become Christian already. They've lowered the bar so much that we
20:44 must the treasury in the church must be really lower. You want to attract people to come in. This is not how the gospel
20:50 is. The consequences are even if we an angel Paul says let him be accursed
20:57 twice he put a curse because he's so upset the wrong gospel of the wrong thing will destroy a person eternally
21:05 now so we we know what is a a gospel 2.0 we know how it affects us so we look in
21:11 our lives many of us will have elements of gospel 2.0 at all in our life. Okay?
21:18 Because that old habit dies hard. So, how do we know we have the true gospel?
21:24 That's the last section of my sermon this morning. First of all, what does gospel mean? It means good news. Why is
21:33 it good news to you? Let me just honestly ask you, why is the gospel good news to you? Is it good news because I
21:40 get to go to heaven? Is it good news because I can be with my
21:46 dead loved one, my wife or family or brother or sister or mother? Is it good news because I'm saved from hell? Very
21:55 hot. I don't like hot countries. I like cold or because I get forgiveness of my sin.
22:02 Are all these the reasons why this is a good news? Very very important. Why is it on Gallion? Um recently Leonard Nemoy
22:10 died at 83. How many of you don't know who Leonard Nemo is? Put your hands up.
22:17 Okay. You know 50 years ago there was a show called Star Trek.
22:24 How many of you haven't watched Star Trek? Put your hands up. Okay. Few few
22:29 few jun Trek was a very very um a famous show.
22:35 First show on on on on space exploration. It really plumbed the
22:41 depths of human imagination uh and joy because you know here we going all over the universe. You imagine
22:47 you're the master of the universe and Captain Kirk is going all over the place. It is such a big cult following
22:53 you know and and u he died he has this sign what is it called? What is it like
22:59 my my fingers can't do. It's a Vulcan sign. Live long and prosper or something. Then he died. Um
23:06 every year they have a a Star Trek convention. You see all calm. They all dress up and they all have the Vulcan
23:12 sign. Well, my finger cannot do that. Arnold can. All right. And then they all dress up. Even the ladies, they will
23:18 wear this and they have this phaser gun. Everyone come and talk. They'll discuss this episode, that episode. They're all
23:24 excited to them. It's like heaven, right? All right. And then they they'll sit in this even the bad guys, you know,
23:30 even the bad guys come uh and then they'll sit in this makeelie uh uh enterprise and they'll have great fun.
23:37 Imagine you go to a Star Trek Enterprise uh uh convention and talking about this
23:42 episode, Captain Ohara, Captain This, Captain That, and you say, "Why are you here?" "Oh, I'm here for the Yizang."
23:49 I heard God got good yizang here. Hello. You see, that's the whole idea of
23:56 Christianity, whole idea of heaven, the whole idea of the gospel, it's all focused. When you go to heaven, it'll
24:01 all be like Star Trek in the sense that all the stuff that you've been reading in the Bible every Sunday, Bible studying and all that and everyone will
24:07 be interacting with God and you are there for the Yizang. Just think about it. That's not the good
24:14 news. Look at the good news. Grace to you and peace from God our father and
24:19 the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according the will of
24:26 our God and Father. To whom be glory forever and ever. What is the focus of
24:33 this three verses? The focus of these three verses is God.
24:40 It's God. The will of God for the glory of God. The gospel is about God. It
24:46 ain't about you. Wake up. If you think it's all about you, wrong
24:53 gospel. It's all about God. when you come up here and do worship just down there. Did you have a good time or did
24:59 God have a good time? It's all about him. It's not about you. You could have a wretched time, but it's all about him.
25:06 Uh the heart of the gospel is actually the glory of God. So, we need to
25:12 reorientate our horrible gospel. You go to so many churches, they got it all upside down. Instead of seeking to
25:18 glorify God, they're seeking to glorify themselves. uh we we are uh the gospel
25:23 initiated by God and is for God's glory. Here's a picture. I want to give you a very simple picture. Here's man. Here is
25:31 God and the reality that sin that you've done and wrath is poured on you because
25:36 of God. And what is the gospel? The gospel is merely a story or a historical
25:42 event whereby the sin is removed and then you are brought back into peace
25:47 with God. Shalom. And it's not because you deserved it. It is by grace. And the
25:53 whole idea is so that man can therefore approximate God and enjoy his glory. So
26:01 it's like going to a Star. You cannot go to a Star Trek convention. You never watch Star Trek before you go Star Trek.
26:08 Who's the fellow? William Shatner. Don't know who he is of William Shatner. Walk away. Who is that?
26:14 Leonard Nemoy. Uh beam me up Scotty. Who is Scotty? Is that the Is that the elevator? Is that you got because you
26:21 have no idea the whole idea of the gospel is actually the glory of God so that you can approach the most perfect
26:28 person in the entire universe. It is the glory of God. If you look at the glory of God in nature, it's actually
26:35 beautiful but it is not the total glory of God. The most indepth picture we have
26:42 of the glory of God actually is on the cross. It is based on a historical
26:48 event. If you look at the cross, you see Jesus Christ, you see the cross and you
26:53 see resurrection. This event is the most beautiful glorious event. And God's
26:59 glory in Corinthians they say is seen in the face of Christ. How is it seen in
27:04 the face of Christ? Let me give you an example. God's glory uh of God is in Christ. You see, we admire God
27:13 for his uncompromising justice, but even more because this is a justice
27:19 tempered with mercy. We admire him for his power, but we admire him even more
27:26 because in the cross, this power is mingled with what? Humility. We admire
27:32 him for his majesty. But on the cross, we see majesty together with meekness. is a dimension
27:39 which you don't see unless you see the cross. Otherwise, God becomes like the God here glory all the time. But this
27:48 glory is actually accentuated when you see glory together with
27:54 humility uh when you see majesty with meekness where you see dominion of a a
28:01 incomparable magnificent God. And yet Jesus is perfectly obedient in submission. He's a God who's worthy of
28:08 all good and yet had a patience to suffer all evil. He is a God who who
28:14 basically steals the the the storm be still and yet on the cross refuses to
28:21 get down. So the dimension of God's glory you know is expanded because you bring the aspect
28:28 of humility suffering for us and the love that you see is expanded. So it's
28:36 God's. So what is the gospel? The gospel is the glory of God in the face of
28:41 Christ. So therefore this glory of God in the face of Christ should power our lives.
28:50 How does it power? It powers our repentance. Why do we repent? You know I
28:56 have many people who come to know Christ. They they will repent. Oh I s
29:02 I'm such a bad person. I did this sin and that sin and I feel really really bad and maybe we woke ourselves up to
29:07 feel really really bad then only God will accept us right but that's not the
29:13 way godly repentance you know what godly repentance is let me give you a story I had a patient who was a Malay gentleman
29:19 who suffered for 20 years with prostate problems difficulty passing water wake
29:24 up 15 times at night cannot sleep and he just ples down that's all he does okay
29:31 he suffered really badly and one day he he had an operation so we unplug the
29:36 hole you know so he can pee well he comes back after the surgery and he's
29:42 overjoyed and he's also very sad you see you can be joyful and sad at the same time you
29:48 know why why is sad well he's overjoyed because oh doctor I'm fantastic I can
29:53 piss and hit the wall at 50 paces you know you know wonderful and then it
29:60 turns out but damn I wasted 20 years of my life.
30:05 You know, his unhappiness uh was regret because of the last 20 years of your
30:11 life suffering like a dog wearing diapers and now you can piss like the wind. And so therefore, repentance is
30:20 what repentance is based on joybased sorrow. When you compare, you see,
30:26 repentance is comparing something good with something bad. It must be relative.
30:33 If repentance is just me, I'm bad. I'm bad. I need to be bad. God for me to
30:39 accept me, then that's a wrong kind of repentance. You must see the beauty of Christ and the crap life that you lived.
30:46 And you realize, God, I lived a crap life. I only parted. I drank booze. I
30:51 was selfish. All of those things brought no joy compared to the joy of knowing Jesus Christ. But if you take that part
30:57 out, you just because I fall below the standard. I drank booze. I was an
31:03 unethical person according to my own standard. That's not repentance. The repentance when you hook it on to the
31:09 beauty of Jesus Christ. You see the beauty of Jesus Christ. Then you see what a crap life you live. That's godly
31:15 sorrow. And that's godly sorrow doesn't destroy you. Okay? Because it lifts you
31:20 up. And then it allows you see that kind of godly sorrow will allow you to live
31:25 powerfully and victoriously for Jesus Christ. Because what happens now you ask my patient would you like to go back to
31:33 10 years ago? No way. Because I used to get up 15 times a day.
31:38 Now I don't get up at night. I'm pissing. Well, he's not going to look back. That's how you have the power to
31:44 change. When you see the beauty of Christ, you don't want to do all those things. You don't want to do immorality.
31:50 You don't achieve on your taxes. You don't do all that. You know why? Because as the beauty of Christ grows and grows,
31:55 the power for you to change your life because it is innate. Because you realize your life is crap. If you sin,
32:01 it is crap. So the more Bible study you do, the more you're convinced the beauty of Christ.
32:06 So the repentance and the moving away from the evil becomes easier and easier
32:11 and easier. John Piper says in his new book, Gospel, God is the gospel. If
32:18 people are not awakened to the preciousness of God and the beauty of his glory in the face of Christ, the
32:24 sorrow of their contrition will not be owing to their failure to cherish God and prize his glory. It will be owing to
32:31 the fear of hell, foolishness of their former behavior or the wages of their
32:36 former life. But none of those are these are grounds for contrition by themselves
32:42 is an honor to God. So if you are repentant of your sins simply because you fear going to hell or you think it's
32:50 very I've been very stupid you know or the wages of the former life none of them will glorify God. It's only when
32:57 you compare to the beauty of God when you're awakened to the preciousness of God then you realize you have godly
33:04 repentance. That's very very important. Uh Oscar Shin let me give you another example is a famous Jew gentleman German
33:12 businessman who lived during World War II. And what he was famous for, they made
33:17 did a movie called Shinder's List uh was because he he had a factory and he knew
33:23 that the more Jews he hired for his factory, the more they will be saved from our switch,
33:30 right? And they won't be burned, they won't be killed. And so therefore, he ran a business that lost money. And
33:36 every time he got money, enough money, he saved up money, he would buy another Jew, buy another Jew, so that they would
33:41 be saved. And in fact he saved almost a thousand Jews and their descendants have grown to 7,000. This is eternal. You
33:49 know at the end of the war you ask him he had joy and he had sorrow. His joy
33:58 was because of all the Jews that were saved. His sorrow was what? I should
34:05 have sold that car. I gotten that money and buy one more Jew.
34:11 You see what I mean? It's because of the joy. It's a joy. It's a sorrow based on
34:17 the joy of Oscar for Oscar Schindler. Second of all, it allows us to to when
34:24 you focus on God's glory to respond rightly to his blessings. You can do to
34:30 these two animals, you feed them, you pet them, you kiss them.
34:36 The dog will say, "You must be God. You love me, you pat me, you look after
34:42 me, you must be God. The cat is different. You know, I must be God.
34:48 Because you love me, you cat, you you look after me, you kiss me, you worship me, I must be God.
34:54 And nowadays, our Christians are like this, you know. And you're talking about blessing. Oh,
34:59 God is so good. God, actually, I'm so wonderful. You got like called a Rapunzel complex, you know, where you
35:05 have this beautiful girl and she's got long hair and she's up in a tower and all the suitors will come and try to
35:10 climb up on her hair and to get to her and she thinks, "Oh, I'm wonderful." And sometimes you've got this spiritual we
35:16 call a spiritual hypocrite you know where all your oh I'm so terrible but but god you know it's basically because
35:24 you you you know God is the one that there are some songs that do there's one song is called um above all power or
35:31 something and the end you see the song it's got dubious ending the dubious ending is that above all he thought
35:38 about me Jesus did everything just for me it's a little old me you can pick up
35:43 it's a bit subtle But actually he did it because of the glory of God, not just because of me. Here is another subtle
35:49 twist. Um thirdly, if we focus on the glory of God, the gospel is about the
35:55 glory of God. It conquers our pain. I have a experience of uh being in ICU
36:02 and and with a particular patient and supposed to be praying for that patient and then this lady comes in, you know,
36:07 basically uh obviously from another church and brushes everybody's eyes. come you know uh and and there was a
36:13 patient lying down there you must believe in God you will be healed no problem we'll take care of this no
36:19 negativity nothing God will heal you let's pray everybody come come she like
36:25 took over the whole room and there was not a shadow of doubt and this is what we call a one-dimensional Christian only
36:32 one dimension what if the patient not healed what happen if God doesn't want to comply with your plan
36:38 because you're sinful yeah Then you blame the patient. Right. Okay. Yeah. Right. The brother
36:44 there testify and then you cause a lot of pain because you're a one-dimensional Christian. But as far as you are
36:50 concerned, God is there to serve you. You pray means much favored. Otherwise, God useless.
36:56 So you come into this situation, it's very difficult for me to react at a time because am I going to say hey hello
37:01 caveat caveat and a poor patient is in the middle. It's very difficult. So, so if you actually understand that the
37:07 gospel is about the glory of God, you won't be a one-dimensional Christian. Here is Paul. He prayed three times for
37:14 his thorn to be removed. And this is what God says. He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made
37:20 perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast more more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in
37:26 me. For the sake of Christ, I'm content with weakness, insults, hardship, persecutions, calamities. For when I am
37:32 weak, I am strong. You see, there's a dimension of the glory of God that is beyond the one
37:39 dimension that you see for you. Glory of God means healed. Nothing else. If that's the
37:46 case, then people like this cannot glorify God. One-dimensional Christianity has no place for Nick
37:52 Vichek, no place for Joanie. And yet people like that have glorify
37:58 God even more because despite their deferments, right? They can speak to
38:04 300,000 people and many accept Christ. Why? Because to see him glorify God is a
38:10 lot more better than seeing you. Because you got, if I last counted, he
38:15 then got two hands and two legs. This fellow only got nothing. Only one little stub at the bottom and he still
38:21 glorifies God. So you actually miss out a dimension of the glory of God that is
38:27 not present. You see, and that's why the cross is weakness. Weakness exalts God.
38:34 And you have a one-dimensional Christianity. It has no place for all these things. And you have left with a
38:40 caricature of Christ that cannot stand the test of time
38:46 and experience of life. This is a one-dimensional spirituality. If you look at uh Abu Bakr uh uh Baghdadi, head
38:54 of ISIL, we will take revenge even if it takes a while. We will take revenge and
39:00 every amount of harm against the Umrah will be responded with multitudes more against the perpetrator. One day when
39:07 the they all will walk everywhere as a master of having honor being revert with
39:13 his head raised high and his dignity preserved, anyone who dares to offend him will be disciplined. And any hand
39:19 that reaches out to harm you will be cut off. Onedimensional. I could replace
39:24 this name with a Christian during crusades. He could be with Christian during crusades. I could replace his name. Let me take another
39:32 letter from a Christian who was captured by Abu Baka Bakdadi and who was killed.
39:42 And this is a letter written to her parents before she died. Her name was
39:47 Kayla Moola and she wrote the last letter before she died. I remember mom
39:53 always telling me that in all in the end the only one you really have is God. And
39:59 she's in prison for one year uh in uh under ISIS and they tried to marry her off to one of them. Uh I have come to a
40:07 place in experience where in every sense of the word I have surrendered myself to
40:12 our creator because there's literally no one else. She's stuck in prisoner. But the time in prison has made us focus to
40:20 understand what mom has told her. I what you really have is God. Let me read you
40:25 the next line. By God, by your prayers, I have felt tenderly cradled in freef
40:32 fall. I have been shown in darkness light and have learned that even in
40:37 prison, one can be free. I am grateful.
40:43 One has a one-dimensional idea of victory and glory of God. Abu Bakr Baghdadi and one was killed. But you see
40:51 the beauty. Which one glorifies God more? Spartan will sit in prison
40:57 tortured and then get bombed to die. But yet in her beauty she has learned the
41:03 most important thing in the world is what? The glory of God in the face of
41:10 Christ. And this glorifies God. The challenge for us this morning is which
41:16 gospel will you be operating under. You see there are two founders. Let me give
41:22 you end with two founders. You've got Buddha and you've got God.
41:29 One is man-made and one is God made. They both had one word when they died. When he died he says never cease
41:35 striving. when he died. Sorry, you know, he's not I was, you know, what did Jesus
41:42 say when he died? He is finished. It is finished. It is
41:48 finished. All right. So, one says never cease striving. The other one says it is
41:54 finished. So, when we live our lives, if you've got gospel 2.0,
41:60 never cease striving. It's never the end. It all depends on you. If you got
42:05 the true gospel, Jesus Christ has done the work. It is
42:10 finished. Your debt is paid. And the life that you now live, you live to the
42:15 glory of God, to his honor. But this is not apparent. You tell 15 people this,
42:22 only maybe two will get it. And the reason why you don't get it is because the God of this world has blinded you. A
42:28 lot of people think they heard the gospel again and again and it really never click. You know, you know why it doesn't click? because the god of this
42:35 world has blinded your eyes when when Paul talks to the Corinthians in in 2
42:40 Corinthians chapter 4. He he he actually chastises and sometimes alter the gospel to make it more appealing because not
42:46 many people become Christian. But he he tell but he he tells them that if the
42:51 reason why they don't accept him is because their eye minds are being blinded. So his prayer for them will be
42:59 for God said for the God who said let light shine out of darkness has shown
43:05 our hearts to give light to the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Or the two out of 15 who
43:12 come to know God it'll suddenly click. You'll be hearing the gospel 1500 times
43:18 in your life and suddenly it will click and because the light bulb goes on and
43:23 suddenly you see the beauty of God the glory of God in the face of Christ and
43:30 that is the gospel that is a prayer for all of us as we go through the gospel in Galatians and you come and join us in
43:36 gamma because we're going to do Galatians as well we'll really drill down slowly but surely the glory the
43:44 light of God will just come on and we will see Jesus as the most beautiful
43:50 person on the face of earth. And then we'll be empowered to glorify him and
43:56 live as victorious Christians.
