Destined for Victory

Guest: I am concerned as a 21st century preacher in America. I am concerned about how quickly we are turning from what we knew to be right. And now we've bought into all kinds of philosophies that are telling us things that are not consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Always glad to have you with us.

Guest: You know, false teaching has been around from the very beginning when Satan twisted the words of God in the Garden of Eden. The New Testament is filled with warnings about false teachers, and today, right here in America, the problem persists. How can we recognize the difference between the true gospel of Christ and a false version of it? That's the question we'll answer over the next couple of days here on Destined for Victory.

Guest: But before we get going, let me remind you about our website, pastorpaul.net, where you can listen to any recent Destined for Victory message on demand. You'll also find links to our social media and a quick way to download our free app. That's pastorpaul.net. Okay, let's get to today's message now from Pastor Paul, titled, "Learn to Discern."

Paul Sheppard: You know, Christ came to set us free. And we need to understand the nature of that freedom and the outworking of that freedom. And few places in scripture will help you grasp that like the book of Galatians. In fact, if I had to sum up the theme of Galatians, and you said, "You can only use one word. Tell me what the theme of Galatians is," the word I would use is freedom.

Paul Sheppard: It is a book that teaches us what it means to be free in Christ. You could easily characterize the book of Galatians as a spiritual emancipation proclamation. In it, the Apostle Paul says, we were bound, and Christ came to set us free.

Paul Sheppard: So, we need to understand the nature of that freedom. And I want to spend some time looking at the key passages in this book, and I trust God will use it to really elevate our thinking and our living, rejoicing in the God who came to set the captives free.

Paul Sheppard: No one would have been better qualified to write such a letter than the Apostle Paul, because he knew what it was like to be bound by the law, bound by religious dogma. Paul, before he got saved, was a Pharisee. Paul, before he got saved, paid great attention to the details of the law, and he, along with the Pharisees, spent a great deal of time making sure that the Jewish community understood that they had to cross every T and dot every I, that they had to live by the laws and the traditions and the customs that they were given.

Paul Sheppard: So, he knew what it was like to be fixated upon and bound by the law. And after his conversion, he discovered what it meant to be free. Paul had been bound. Paul is now free, and Paul writes this letter to say, "Free is better." I don't know if you know about it in your life, but some of us can testify, "I was bound. I am free, and free is better."

Paul Sheppard: It's better to be free. It's better to walk in the joy of the Lord. It's better to serve God out of a want-to, not a have-to. It's better when you don't have a religion that just weighs you down and bogs you down, and you got to grab a little book every time you want to do something and see if it's all right.

Paul Sheppard: It's better to have Christ living in you, who is the hope of glory. Have the Holy Spirit working through you. Holy Spirit will tell you things that you won't even find in a little book. He'll say, "Here's what I want you to do today. Here's what I want you to focus on." And it's free. You're free to walk with God in the light and the truth of his word.

Paul Sheppard: And so Paul makes this case in the letter to the churches of Galatia. Now, the specific purpose of this letter, just to finish laying a foundation. The specific purpose of the letter was to refute the claims of the Judaizers. And if you're going to understand Galatians, you got to understand who the Judaizers were. These were people who acknowledged that, yes, Jesus is the Messiah.

Paul Sheppard: But they insisted that in order for us Gentiles to be saved, they saw that Gentiles were having the gospel preached to them, and people who were non-Jewish by background were now coming into the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And they insisted that, yes, Jesus is the Messiah, but these Gentiles have to become Jews if they're really going to be saved.

Paul Sheppard: They insisted that you could not be a Gentile and be saved without effectively becoming Jewish. You had to be circumcised as a male. You had to, both male and female, adhere to the practices and the traditions and the customs of the law. That was the only way to be saved. In other words, the Judaizers said, "What Jesus did on the cross is not enough. It takes Jesus plus Judaism to save you."

Paul Sheppard: Now, that was the Judaizers. They insisted that you had to obey the law in order to be saved. And so Paul comes along. This is a region where he preached in his first missionary journey. When you read the book of Acts, you understand that in Acts 13, the Lord commissioned Paul and Barnabas to go out and begin to raise up churches and preach the gospel where the Lord would send them.

Paul Sheppard: And as a result of that first missionary journey, several churches were established as people accepted the gospel. And the region of Galatia, which is modern-day Turkey, was one of the regions where people came to know Jesus Christ as savior, and the churches in the region of Galatia were established. So when Paul goes off, preaches in other places, finally gets back and is serving God in his home territory, he gets word that the Judaizers have gone to the churches of Galatia and said, "Listen, I don't care what Paul told you. If you are going to be saved, you not only have to accept Jesus as Messiah, but you have to adhere to the law and to circumcision."

Paul Sheppard: So Paul writes to refute that. Paul writes to tell them that that is not the truth, and he is going to, as we're going to see, is very strong in his language. Now, before I jump into the meat of that, notice what Paul says. Look with me at Galatians chapter 1, verse 3. He says, "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Typical greeting.

Paul Sheppard: Then he says, "who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." Jesus came, Paul said, to rescue us from the present evil age. What is he talking about? Is he talking about some vast evil network that it developed in the first century? This letter was written somewhere around 49 AD. Is he talking about something sinister that was taking place historically? Not at all.

Paul Sheppard: The evil age is the age in which all of us live, where we live among people who have refused and rejected the gospel, and instead live proudly in their sins. I want to let you know that the evil age didn't die out in the first or second or third century. You and I who live in the 21st century live in an evil age.

Paul Sheppard: And it's evil not just because of what people do. It's evil because we refuse to accept the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. I want you to understand that evil can't be narrowed down to a list of top 10 sins. See, a lot of folks think that, you know, sin is, okay, sin is lying, stealing, adultery, and you think that's sin. No, sin is more widespread than that.

Paul Sheppard: Paul said we live in an evil age because people have refused to accept the glorious gospel, which is the only thing that'll free us from our sins. So, when you're not freed from your sins, you live in an evil state. It doesn't mean you're a mean person. It just means you live outside of the will of God. When I'm not saved, I'm living outside of the will of God.

Paul Sheppard: What I do, how I think, how I behave, how I make my decisions is all according to something other than God's plan. So you need to understand evil so that you come to understand what it means to be free. I was bound in my own ways of living out of the will of God before Christ came into my life. And so you don't have to be a murderer to be evil.

Paul Sheppard: Evil is life the way God didn't intend it. That's the definition for evil. And that'll help us get rid of this notion, you know, sometimes you think, you know, a person say, "They're really a very nice person, and I just hope that they soon come to know the Lord." I know what you mean, but really, technically, none of us can be good until we understand and walk with a good God.

Paul Sheppard: It means, now if you compare them to an axe murderer, they look pretty good. You know, not going around with a chainsaw, something like that. But the fact of the matter is, when I don't live according to God's will for my life, I'm living according to this present evil age. Meaning, the way I make my decisions, the way I think, the way I behave, the way I act and react, my motives, all of that, I don't take God into consideration, I do what I want to do.

Paul Sheppard: And Paul says, "That's living in the present evil age." Before I know Christ, I can't truly love the way God wants me to love because love comes from God. And so what I end up doing is, I end up practicing lust rather than love. Because the love comes from God. God's the only one who can teach me how to put other people's best interest ahead of my own. Other than that, my tendency naturally is going to be to put my own interests first.

Paul Sheppard: First law of nature is self-preservation. First law of serving Christ and walking with him is he gives us the power to deny ourselves and do God's will. And so I can walk in love, not in lust, when I accept Christ. I can enjoy the trappings of success if I know Christ and walk with him. Whereas if I don't know Christ and don't walk with him, there's going to be a strong tendency for me to be greedy and self-serving with the things I have.

Paul Sheppard: And look at what's happening in our world, for instance, right now. We're seeing financial collapse because people look out after themselves first. And they leave you hanging, and your portfolio is in trouble right now. And you're asking Jesus to help you right now. Because there are people with whom we have trusted our resources who are not looking out for our best interests.

Paul Sheppard: They're looking out for theirs. They need Jesus.

Guest: Don't go away. The rest of today's Destined for Victory message, featuring Pastor Paul Sheppard, is coming right up. In John 14:6, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Our mission here at Destined for Victory is to share that timeless truth, Jesus himself, so that as many people as possible can be saved. You can help keep these messages coming your way by sending a generous gift today. Visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. That's pastorpaul.net. Or call 855-339-5500. Well, the truth of the gospel will set you free. Anything else will keep you in bondage. Now, let's get you back to the rest of today's message. Learn to discern.

Paul Sheppard: All those companies on Wall Street need Jesus. When you see that ticker tape going by, and you see all those, you know, abbreviations representing all the places where your stocks and bonds are, just pray. "Father, in the name of Jesus, oh God. Oh, Lord." You better pray over them if you want to retire one day.

Paul Sheppard: So, Paul calls it, he refers to this as the present evil age. Meaning, whenever you live life outside of God's will, you can't get righteous, godly, good results. So he calls it living according to the evil age. Now, I want you to notice also that unlike the other letters that Paul wrote in the New Testament, Galatians doesn't have an expression of thanksgiving to God for that church.

Paul Sheppard: When you look at Paul's letter to the church in Rome, when you look at his letters to the church of Corinthians, when you look at Corinth, when you look at the letters to the church at Ephesus or Colossae or Thessalonica, you'll all see somewhere in the first couple of verses, you'll see in all of them Paul say, "I thank God for you." Look at Galatians. He's not thanking God for these folks.

Paul Sheppard: Look at it. When he gets through with the greeting, "Grace and peace to you from our 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 him be glory forever and ever, Amen." You would expect to read, "I thank my God in every remembrance of you." Look at what he says. "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel."

Paul Sheppard: Paul says, "I'm not thanking God for y'all. I'm scared of y'all. You're frightening me. I can't believe what I heard about you. You got to be kidding." That's his attitude. He's astonished. Why is he astonished? Because they are quickly turning from the gospel. Quickly turning from and deserting the one who called them and turning from the pure gospel to what he says is a different gospel. And then he's clear to note, but it's really no gospel at all.

Paul Sheppard: What's he talking about? He's talking about the fact that the Judaizers have had some influence and impact in this church. There are people who have been saying, "Yeah, you know, yeah, that is true. That you can't just accept Christ and call yourself going to heaven and being saved. It's got to be more to it than that. After all, God wouldn't have given the law unless he wanted somebody to pay attention to the law."

Paul Sheppard: And so the next thing you know, Paul hears that the people in the churches of Galatia are beginning to practice Christianity plus Judaism. And he said, "I am astonished. I can't believe what I'm hearing." Look at what he says then. He says in verse 7, "Not only is it really no gospel at all," he says, "some people are throwing you into confusion and trying to pervert the gospel of Christ."

Paul Sheppard: And then he says, I mean, it's the first few verses of the letter. He says, "Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned." Paul is trying to grab them by the throat and say, "Listen, I don't care who told you that you had to have Christ plus something else."

Paul Sheppard: He said, "If you hear any other message other than what we preached when I came through town, telling y'all about a God who loved you enough to send his son to die for your sins and to give you right standing with God," he said, "that's the message that saves you. It's the only message that will ever save you. And if you hear anybody preach something different, he said, 'Let that person be eternally condemned'."

Paul Sheppard: Now, here's why I'm preaching it in the 21st century. Not because we are so bothered by Judaizers, but because we have a whole lot of voices that are telling us things that if we're not careful, we'll start buying the lies. And in so doing, we'll start perverting the gospel of Christ.

Paul Sheppard: I am concerned as a 21st century preacher in America. I am concerned about how quickly we are turning from what we knew to be right. And now we've bought into all kinds of voices and all kinds of philosophies, some religious, some non-religious, but voices that are telling us things that are not consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul Sheppard: And so here's my point to you, here's my plea to you: For God's sake, learn to discern truth from error. Because Jesus said truth will set you free. Error will lead you back into bondage and ultimately to destruction. We got to buy the truth and not sell it. And it's interesting that we got to buy it now because we used to own it.

Paul Sheppard: But we sold it. We sold it to other philosophies, we sold it to other religions, we sold it to other people just telling us what they thought, and we bought it. And our society has bought it, and now things that used to be a given are all up for grabs. It is amazing that we live in a country now where folk are trying to figure out where it's okay to say, "In God we trust."

Paul Sheppard: I mean, trying to figure it out. Having a whole court case over whether you can say in God we trust, and, you know, folk will, well, you know, that's because it's supposed to be separation of church and state. That's not a church. That's not church. That's recognizing a supreme being who was honored by those who founded this country. And when they said there is to be freedom of religion, they didn't mean freedom from religion.

Paul Sheppard: They meant there was to be freedom to worship. If you happen to worship some other God, or you happen to practice some other religion, the government will not impose its own religion upon you and force you to become a worshiper. But they didn't say we were going to sell God down the river. And now we live in a society where people are trying to figure out how to have a Supreme Court that strikes down the right of a court to have on its wall the Ten Commandments.

Paul Sheppard: So let me get this straight. We want to have a court that objectively decides moral right from wrong, and you want to take God out of the equation. And so your objective law comes from where exactly? We're confused. We don't know which way is north. And whenever you take away the objective truth, you're left with confusion. You can't have anything but confusion.

Paul Sheppard: Let me show you right quick. I want everybody to kind of look around, see where we are in this location, in this building, see where the street is situated. Leg horn street's out there. Ring stor is down there, San Antonio's up there. All right, now, given that little bit of information, I want all of you all to point north when I count to three. All right?

Paul Sheppard: All right, here we go. One, two, three. Point to north. Look around, look around, look around, look at this, look at this. Folk are pointing everywhere. You know why? Because none of us have a compass. Some folks are pointing up. Some folks are, "I will look to the hills from whence coming my help."

Paul Sheppard: If we had a compass, we could all quit trying to figure out where north is, and somebody would look at the compass and say, "Ladies and gentlemen, north is," and they would point us in the right direction. And at that point, there's no need of you talking about, "Now, how you, just because who said you knew where north was? See, your north doesn't have to be my north."

Paul Sheppard: And that's where we are as a society. We have lost our natural minds. And just like Paul said to the churches of Galatia, I and every other faithful gospel preacher ought to be saying, "I'm astonished that we have lost our way, and we have decided that objective truth is now up for grabs." And I'm here to plead with you in Christ's name to rediscover the simplicity of the gospel of Christ and to understand that Jesus doesn't need our help in order to save us.

Paul Sheppard: If we could have saved ourselves, he'd have stayed in heaven. He came all the way from heaven down because with all of our works, we could not save ourselves. We were lost and undone without God and his son. No hope, no help, no rescue available for ourselves. And Jesus came and got us out of sin and made us free in Christ.

Guest: Jesus warned us that false prophets would come and they would attempt to deceive as many as they could, including the people of God. How can you guard against it? Immerse yourself in God's word. Get to know his truth so well that you won't be deceived by anything less. If you want to spot a counterfeit, memorize the real thing.

Guest: If you haven't already downloaded our free mobile app, now is a great time to do it. Search Destined for Victory at the App Store and listen to these messages wherever you go. That's the Destined for Victory mobile app. Download it today, absolutely free. Well, I'm sure there's someone in your life, a friend, a coworker, a family member, with whom you want to share the gospel, but you've never quite had the right words to say.

Guest: If so, you're going to love this month's Destined for Victory resource, "You Are So Loved." This booklet is a short, readable gospel presentation that doesn't feel like a tract, and it just might open a door you've been praying to have open for years. That's "You Are So Loved," our thank-you gift today for your generous donation to Destined for Victory. You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500. Or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Paul Sheppard: Don't let anything or anyone move us from the truth. And there are a lot of voices that are competing for your ear, and there are a lot of people who are trying to tell you something that contradicts the word. Thus, we have to learn to discern.

Guest: That's next time in our continuing message, Learn to Discern. Until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are Destined for Victory.