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Holy Scripture this evening comes from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and chapter uh one. In the copy that I have, it begins on page one thousand and twelve. And we take up our reading there in chapter one and verse ten. Now I plead with you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you both be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each one of you says, I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas. No, I am of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I have baptized in my own name. And now skipping to verse eighteen: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. And God give us good understanding of his word. My introduction to Bishop Stortford has been all too short as far as I am concerned, but has been a most encouraging time to me. I have been waited on hand and foot and pampered, you wouldn't believe how, as I have lived among you these few brief hours. And it has been invigorating to see your enthusiasm for God and his word and his work. So thank you for inviting me, even for this fleeting few moments, to join you in your spiritual activities. Now, our last talk in this series is entitled Don't Fluff the Gospel. And if you don't understand my idiom, let me explain what that's meant to mean, you'll see. It is a little exhortation that we're giving to ourselves tonight, that we must be very careful as Christians, both in what we say and in what we do, and even in the way we organize our churches. We must be careful always not to obscure the knife-edge clarity of the gospel that has been entrusted to our charge. And I hope, if time permits me, to suggest three areas in which this exhortation holds good. Before I get down to the first one, however, I- I'd like to tell you a story. It's a biblical story. I think you'll recognize it when I tell it. You've known it if you when ever went to Sunday school, you learned it there. So let me tell you it in brief. When Joshua had brought the Israelites of the Old Testament into the land of Canaan, and they had settled down, God warned them not to compromise with the idolatry of the surrounding cities. But time and again, they did precisely that, and got involved in all kind of mumbo jumbo and nonsense idolatry with all its perversions, moral and sexual. And when they found themselves in great trouble, they called to God to deliver them and repented of their folly. And God, in his mercy, would raise up a deliverer for them, to deliver them from captivity, and judges to judge them and bring them to repentance and back to God. That happened many times. But in the end, they seem to have got tired of that a little bit. And they came to the present judge, who was called Samuel, and said, now look here, Samuel, you've been a good chap, really, on the whole, but your sons are useless. So now what we're suggesting to you, Samuel, is this: your office of judge and deliverer and all that is really old-fashioned stuff, and it won't suit the modern age, you see. So what we suggest you do is to make us a king, you see, to fight our battles for us. And Samuel eventually explained and put it back to them, what they were actually saying. He said, you know, in times past, when by your folly you got yourselves in various predicaments, and you called to God, he raised up deliverers for you and delivered you from your enemies. But when you saw the king of Ammon come against you, then you kind of lost your nerve or something. You see, I suppose it's true to say, with an old Ammonite king, with all these host of warriors coming down the road at them, pell mell, it was a nerve-wracking thing to have to have a prayer meeting, I suspect, and pray to God to raise up a deliverer. I mean, what happened if God didn't answer your prayer? That would be very difficult. And so said Samuel, what you did when you saw the king of Ammon come, you asked that you be given a monarch, a hereditary monarch. The idea was that if you had a monarch in place when the enemy came, you'd be okay, wouldn't you? Because you'd have a military commander in the person of the sovereign to lead out your troops to battle. And incidentally, perhaps you wouldn't have to do so much that praying business. I mean, you wouldn't have to wait on God to raise up and deliver if you've got a king there already there in place, would you now? And it seemed a jolly good idea to them. So anybody with any spiritual sense can see that any organization, however good in itself, that obviates, that gets rid of the need to pray so much is a very questionable and dangerous organization. Well, Samuel felt offended, so we're told, and he complained to God bitterly about it, and and and God explained, all right, Samuel, but it's not really you they've rejected, but it's me they've rejected. And then God did what was seemingly a a very curious thing. He said, uh, Samuel, in spite of the fact that by implication they're rejecting me, I, I, I, I will answer their request and I'll give them a king. And so, Samuel, you are to go and anoint. And God named the man eventually. It was Saul, the son of Kish. Well, came the day when Samuel had to present this Saul to the gathered nation. This is God's answer to your request. He's going to give you a king. And the record says that when they saw this Saul, they veritably clapped their hands with joy and glee. Well done, God. Just what we wanted. Because, you see, Saul was a big man. He was head and shoulders above every man, and that's what you want. If you're going to overcome your enemies, you want a big man, do you not? They thought God was marvelous. Well, this big man Saul, he he did win victories for them. Some of his methods were blood curdling, but that's beside the point. He did for a while, uh, work wonders, until one day there came out of the Philistine camp a very colossus of a man. His name was Goliath. He had a helmet like a ca- a trash can and a spear like a telegraph post. Armored like a tank he was, and had an armor bearer beside. And there's the trouble with putting your, your faith in a big man instead of God. He's all right, your big man, until a bigger man comes. When Goliath strode out of the camp of the Philistines, Saul was scared stiff and skulked in his tent, afraid to go and meet him. And so, incidentally, was Jonathan, great warrior though Jonathan was. And Israel were in a pickle in this single hero combat method of warfare. When David came up and heard what the trouble was, and eventually went to Saul and said, Your Majesty, I will go and fight him. Oh, don't talk nonsense, said Saul. How could you possibly go? You're only a can- cadet, and he's a man of war from his youth. Ah, but, uh, David said, I, I, I have faith in the Lord. I've had personal experience of God's intervention when I was keeping the sheep, you see. And a bear came the lion, and I trusted in God, and I, I, I destroyed them both and saved the sheep. And God will do the same here. Well, if you must go, said Saul, take my armor with you. And David tried to take on, uh, fit on the armor, but it wouldn't fit anywhere, and David, that is useless. It was daft, wasn't it? Because, I mean, to take Saul's spear, you imagine, uh, David going on, off in the Goliath, now get, let me get near enough to poke this into you. Well, it wouldn't have gone with any, it's not within any reach. Uh, Goliath's spear would have skewered him. And so David rejected Saul's armor and went out to meet the heavily armed Goliath with simply a stick and a swing. When Goliath saw him coming against him, he was deeply offended to see Israel put up a youth. Well, it would be like putting me in a boxing ring with the world champion heavyweight boxer. The man wouldn't trouble to box me. Be an insult to put me in contest with him. Poor Goliath, his moustache went up and down. He was so furious, you'll say. And then when he saw David was armed with a stick, well, he exploded. You coming to me with such a ridiculous little stick, like a man would take to drive a dog out of his backyard. But he cursed him by all his gods. And then David answered and said, you see, Goliath, let me tell you what the real issue here is today. Not a question of who has the biggest armory or which of us is the bigger man. The issue at stake is you've defied the armies of the living God, and today God is going to defeat you. Hence my impossibly weak weapons that seem to you ridiculous. God is going to use these weak things to confound you, the mighty, that all the earth may know that there's a God in Israel. And so it happened. As they advanced to meet it- meet each other, David threw a stone by his sling and felled the giant to the ground, and then went and used his own sword to cut off Goliath's head. A vivid example in the Old Testament of a lesson pointing out the dangers of putting one's faith in big men instead of in God. And a vivid example of the way God cures that attitude of heart in his people by deliberately using what the world would count impossibly weak and foolish methods. You say, what on earth has that all got to do with tonight's message, don't fluff the gospel? Well, we'll take the first example. Paul had planted a church in Corinth, had he not? Quite a large church. But presently he heard with dismay what was happening in the church at Corinth. Instead of being content with Christ and being Christians, they were now dividing themselves into different camps and cliques around some of the prominent men in early Christianity and taking them as their heroes. So some said, I'm of Paul, you know, and others said, I'm of Apollos, and others said, no, I'm of Cephas, you'll see. And they were dividing the church. Oh, you could understand a bit, I suppose, how it happened. Some said, you know, uh, uh, I like Paul. Oh, he is such a profound thinker. You know that other fellow, Peter? Well, he was only a fisherman, and he can't give you the same intricate theology as Paul. We are of Paul, they said. And you're of Paul at all? Poor you. Yeah. Others said, oh, but we like Peter, we can't stick that Paul, you know, he's so intellectualized and all this doctrine, whereas Peter, he's got such a warm personal heart, you see, so we, we, we're Peter's men. Yeah. And others said, well, well, not for us, either of them. Uh, there's Apollos, you see. Now he was an orator, trained in the oratorical arts. Do you know, in the ancient world, the ancient world in Rome and Greece, they loved oratory. They hadn't got TV, you see, and they loved oratory, and their idea of a public entertainment was to go and sit in a theatre all day long on stone seats in the open air and listen to summary orators holding forth and judging who was the best orator, you see, to get the prize. I think it wouldn't be so, so good entertainment nowadays, but anyway, that's how they did, you see. And Apollos, he was an orator. Oh, the way he preached and the way he said Mesopotamia, it was so moving, you see. And they began, some of them, to make a, a denomination around Apollos. We are Apollosites. And had Paul let it go on, it would have obscured the gospel completely, wouldn't it? Who are you? Instead of saying we're Christians and following of Jesus Christ, they would say we are Apollosites. Well, who are you then? Well, we're Christians, but we're, we're Apollites, you see. We're not like those others. Oh. And some followed Peter. Said he was the first bishop of the church or something. And, uh, uh, so they divided God's people and seriously compromised the central truth of the gospel. And Paul protests most vigorously. Call yourself Paulites? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? That is a fundamental mistake, isn't it? Yes, Paul preached Christ and preached the crucified Christ and justification through faith in his name, but between Paul and Christ, there was an impossible gift. Paul needed to be saved, just like anybody else. Christ, and only Christ, was the savior. I was asked once, in my youth, and in my youth I was impossibly, uh, you know, crude, uh, do see. I was asked by a committee of people in my city, they were going to have a gospel campaign, and they asked me to come along to a private meeting and advise them on how to go about it to be the most effective in their gospel campaign. And I said to them, wasn't I rude? I said, you'll say, I think the first thing to do is to make sure you don't undercut the evangelist. Well, they said, what do you mean? I said, well, it's a very funny thing. If you walk around this city and watch the noticeboards outside the churches, the last name you would be likely to read on it would be Christ. You'll find all sorts of other names galore. Instead of the only name that counts, that is Christ. This is important, isn't it? You begin to get the idea, don't fluff the gospel. There is no salvation even in the eminent service of servants of God. They w- they cannot save us. Only Christ can save us. Our message is to the world. We preach Christ and him crucified. And Paul goes on to protest. He says, you'll see, brethren, this business of making calling yourself after Paul and Paulus and Peter and so on is derogatory to Christ. Who was it that was crucified for you? Paul? Were you baptized in the name of, uh, uh, of Paul? That would sound funny, isn't it? No Christians I ever heard of ever got round to doing that. Thank God for that. I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and Paul. That would sound very funny, wouldn't it? No Christians known to me have ever done any such thing? Of course not. God, in fact, has set himself against this. He wants to cure us of this faith in big men. And that's why God, says Paul, has chosen the weak things. For the very message of the gospel appears to many a worldly mind as being both impossibly weak and almost foolish. The message of the cross, you'll see, is to the Jew a scandal, and to the Greek it is utter folly. Why has God chosen it? God has chosen it to destroy our faith in man, in big man, that is for salvation. And to show us that our only hope of salvation is in God and is his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not the rich man boast in his riches, and let not the wise man put his confidence in his wisdom. Let not the strong man put his confidence in his might. Let him that glories and puts his confidence anywhere, let him that glories, glories in the Lord. Would you allow me as a visitor, having a visitor's pardon, you'll see, for being blunt. Would you allow me to ask, are you in Christ? You say yes. Who put you in Christ? Well, you say there came a wonderful preacher to our church. You see, and I listen to this preacher, and oh, he put me in Christ. I hope that isn't true. Because if that is true, that your preacher put you in Christ, one day another preacher will come and he'll take you out of Christ. How did you get in Christ? Says Paul, of God are you in Christ Jesus, who's made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that he that glories shall glory in none other than God. Sit back and savor it just a moment, will you? I'm in Christ. Who put me in? Oh, God put me in Christ. Marvelous, isn't it? God's wisdom, God's power, God's Christ. And when it came to, uh, trusting Christ and being received by Christ and being put into Christ, it was God that put me in Christ. As we begin, so let us carry on. Thank God for all the helps, apostles, and evangelists, and pastors, and teachers. We are grateful to God for every one of them, but in the end, our faith is in God. There was another area, uh, as we read Paul's writings, where, uh, the Christians again, and some of them eminent Christians, on occasions fluff the gospel. The one I'm going to mention to you now is found in Galatians chapter two, And I'll read just a few verses. If you're interested, you should read the whole context. But this is Galatians chapter two, beginning in verse eleven. Now, when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed. For becer- before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite. That's strong words, isn't it? Played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, if you, being a Jew, live in the manner of the Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as the Jews? We who are Jews by nature are not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. We should read the whole context, really, but let me just get it in. The question at stake here is once more the gospel, of course, but this time it is the gospel in the sense of on what conditions are we saved? What do you have to do to be saved? Is it by our works? No. Scripture is quite adamant. By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Ah, but wait a minute. Is it, uh, by faith, of course, but also by our, our good works and religious ordinances? Uh, Dulce, uh, uh, do they help? The question at stake here in this context was this. Jews brought up in Jewish families, according to the Old Testament, all the males were circumcised on the eighth day after birth. And that was a sign of various things between God and them. But many of them had got it into their head that to be saved, you had at least to be circumcised. They didn't, they couldn't have told you exactly how that helped, but they thought it was necessary. And we read in the Acts of the Apostles about when some of the apostles gathered together to discuss these matters in Jerusalem, there came down some of the Pharisees from Jerusalem who believed, that is, they professed to be Christians. And they rose up and said, look here, let's get this clear. The Gentiles must be circumcised. You cannot be saved unless you be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. Whereupon there was no little contention among the apostles. And why did it come so vigorous? Because this lay at the very heart of the gospel. One day we have to stand before God, don't we? The question is whether he will or he will not receive us into his heaven. On what ground can we be saved? Can we be sure of God's acceptance? This is at the very heart of the gospel. And to fluff the gospel at this level and at this point is very serious indeed. Now, actually, the Apostle Peter was just as clear in his mind as was Paul on the matter. In fact, at that great, uh, discussion in Jerusalem, record of which is in Acts chapter fifteen, When there had been much discussion, and Paul had described, like missionaries are wont to, all the work that they had done and how many folks had been converted all round the Roman Empire, and the believers were rejoicing at it, then they had to come to the rub. Now, exactly what are the terms of being saved, of being justified, of having peace with God. And whereas some of these Pharisees who claimed they were Christians argued, ah, but except these Gentiles, uh, uh, keep the law of Moses and are circumcised, they cannot be saved. You have to add this ritual then, and the food laws o- of, uh, of Israel to faith in Christ. In all. And Peter wouldn't hear of it. Oh, I think they see him, sturdy fisherman that he was, you'll see. Ah, he got up, and he delivered in the name of all the other apostles of note the verdict. Said he, it is our conviction, gentlemen, that it is by the grace of the Lord Jesus that we Jews are to be saved, and to be saved in exactly the same manner as the Gentiles. Circumcision and the food laws are nothing to do with it. Salvation and peace with God and acceptance with God are totally on the ground of God's grace and the free gift of salvation. Good old Peter standing up. And then he had a little trick or two, and he s- well, not a trick, but a few extra arguments, he said. For he said, you will observe, gentlemen, won't you, that when it was a question of taking the gospel to the Gentiles, it wasn't you God chose, it was me. That was the point, wasn't it? Yes, for Peter was the man that God sent down to Cornelius the Roman, officially to introduce the gospel of Christ to Cornelius. And that was quite an experience for Peter. He went as a Jew and, and, and, and went to a meal in Cornelius's house. Well, that was against a lot of Jewish thinking, that was. They thought that was defiling to eat food in a Gentile's house. But anyway, he went, and he preached the gospel. And as he was preaching, Cornelius and his friends, uh, repented of sin and received the Savior by faith, and the Holy Spirit came on them. And so Peter said, well, as God has cleansed their hearts by faith and given them the Holy Spirit, then they deserve to be baptized. But notice the order. First they believed and were saved, justified. God gave them his Holy Spirit, and then, and only then, were they baptized. Salvation first, and baptized, baptism next. Well, when some of the apostles of Jerusalem heard this, it was so unusual, they called Peter on the, onto the red carpet, so to speak, and said, Peter, is it true what we've heard of you? What was that? You went down, uh, to a Gentile Cornelius. Yes, I did that. And you actually went to his house and drank coffee with him? Yes. But Peter, what will you do next? Oh, but it wasn't my fault, he said, because he was a little bit scared underneath. You see, I couldn't help it. All I did was preach the gospel to them, and God went and gave them his Holy Spirit. Well, I couldn't stop God, could I now? Well, that was a good excuse. Yes. Underlines what happened, doesn't it? He reminded the council of it in the great discussion. That God gave them witness. They heard the gospel from my mouth of Jesus Christ and him crucified, and through him is forgiveness of sins, and all who believe are forgiven, simply by the grace of God, through faith in Christ. And God gave witness of it. He cleansed their hearts by faith and gave them the Holy Spirit, just as he's given us the Holy Spirit. That was Peter and what he really believed. Whether it was before then or afterwards, the historians disagree on the chronology, and we need not spend time on it. But he was at a conference, a Christian conference, like they have in Bishop's Torture from time to time. He was at a conference, you see, eh eh at one stage, and uh, at Antioch. And Paul was there, and so were the other apostles, and uh they had this nice conference, and Peter was there. And during those uh uh uh sessions, uh, they had meals put on, you see, like as I say, these conferences do. And, uh, Peter was quite happy to eat alongside of the Gentile believers. All one in Christ, you see, saved on the same ground, to be accepted both in the church and socially. And then there came down certain gentlemen from Judea. And Peter got the coggy waggles, I suppose, and rose up from the dinner table, and no, I don't know what he said, whether he said he felt well or had a stomach ache or something, and was about to disappear through the door to his bedroom, and Paul went and stood in the door and said, no, you don't, Peter. No, you don't, my boy. No stomach ache with you. He he he wouldn't let him go. And what was at stake? Well, Paul will tell you nothing less than the truth of the gospel was at stake. You'll say, Peter, he says, you believe, don't you? What you believe in your heart of hearts is that people are saved simply by faith in Christ and not by any ritual of any kind, and certainly not by the food laws of Judaism or circumcision, simply by faith in Christ. And in your heart you believe that these Gentile believers are just as much saved as you, saved on the same ground as you, and that's what you believe. But when these men came down from Judea, Peter, you, and now Paul used some very strong words. You dissembled, says the Old English. This is more than that, the Greek word he uses is hypocrisy. You played the hypocrite. Strong words. There are two forms of hypocrisy, you know. One is pretending that you are, or that you believe what you're not. That's one form of hypocrisy. There is another form of hypocrisy, and that is to pretend you don't believe what you do believe. And here was Peter pretending by his action that he didn't believe what, in fact, he did believe. What he did believe, that these Gentiles were saved by grace exactly as the Jew, and circumcision was irrelevant, any ritual was irrelevant, saved by the grace of God, and as much saved as Peter himself was. That's what he believed the gospel said, and it is what the gospel says. But when these fellows came down, he acted as if he didn't believe that. And withdrew from the Gentiles and wouldn't eat with them. Why was it serious? Because he was fluffing the gospel, that's why. And Paul, recalling such incidents that had happened, he says, why I took the stand I did was that the truth of the gospel should remain and continue right down to you. And we may thank God that Paul took that vigorous action at Antioch, because if Peter had got away with that, we tonight sitting here would not be completely certain of the terms of salvation, would we? Do you have to be sa- circumcised to be saved, or does it sort of help if you're circumcised? Do you have to be baptized to be saved? Does it help to have some religious ceremony performed on you as a child, or Or not? not? I was in Germany in the bad old days, I mean when, uh, Berlin was, um, um, um, divided, you know. And I was invited to go along and to preach in what is called a prayer house. Very charming folks they were. And the leader in the prayer house invited me to come and expound the Acts of the Apostles for a week. And he had a quiet word in my ear. He said, now look here, go easy on the baptism bit. He said, you'll see, because some of our ladies here, they were brought up in another tradition, and they're very sensitive about, uh, baptism, you'll see. They were baptized as infants, uh, so go easy if you can on the baptism bit. Well, I confess it's remarkably difficult to preach through the Acts for a week and go easy on the baptism bit, but you know, I thought I had succeeded. But my heart came to a climax one evening as the senior German ladies came up, delightful folks they were, and and uh uh uh very uh elegant. And they said, what do you think about baptism? Uh a- and the leader of the congregation was standing by my side. Now, what on earth would you say now, I said to myself. Well, I said, different people, Christians hold different views about this. Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, but what do you think they said? So I was on the spot, wasn't I? So what I said was this. I don't know what you would have said. I said, well, uh, you say you were baptized as infants? Yes, we were. I said, I wasn't. My parents didn't have me baptized as a child. I got baptized after I had trusted Christ, you'll see, but I wasn't baptized as a child. I said, tell me, there was you in your pram as an infant, and there was me in my pram as an infant, and you were baptized, and I wasn't. Now, when it came to salvation, would God have saved you because your parents had baptized you, but would have left me to perish because I wasn't baptized? Was there really some difference between me and you? And to give them their due, they said, no, of course not. No. So let's not quarrel about that detail, but about the real substantial fact, the question of on what terms is anyone saved, justified, and has peace with God. Let us not ever behave in such a way that we appear not to believe what we do in our heart of hearts believe. And finally, I come to another way in which some of the early Christians were inclined to fluff the gospel. And the details about that are to be found in Colossians chapter two. And we shall not read them for time's sake, but I point out the passage to them, to you. Uh, and uh, it's the passage, chapter two verse six. to the end of the chapter. Now, Paul is writing here to people that had been converted, saved, redeemed. You have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. God has delivered you from the power of darkness and translated you into the kingdom of his dear son. Marvelous gospel, of course. But, as you know, the Christian, these Christian folks, very commendably, once they were saved, then they saw the need to make progress in spiritual life, because salvation and the new birth is beginning, isn't it? It's the beginning of the Christian life, to be born again by the spirit of God through faith in Christ. We become, so to speak, babies in the family of God, and then we have to grow up. That will mean, among other things, disciplining ourselves, disciplining ourselves to spend time in prayer with God, to read his word, to learn his word and his will, and to learn how to avail ourselves of the power of God's Holy Spirit so that we should live commendably, uh, for Christ. But these good Christian folks, yes, they had that desire, but then there came teachers around that area with various recipes for developing the Christian life. And some of them recommended philosophy, as it is here translated. You'll say, they would have said, look, here, it's perfectly okay to begin your Christian life by faith in Christ. That's lovely. But now you'll need more than that. You'll need philosophy to make progress. Now, I used to teach philosophy, so I should be careful what I say. Ordinary straightforward philosophy is a very useful tool. It can tell us how to think and think straight. And when we become Christians, we are called upon by God to think. We have to love the Lord our God with all our minds as well as our hearts. You'll say. We don't all have the same shape, uh, size of brain, I suppose, but whatever we have as Christians, we must use it. We must think. In intellect, be grown up men, says the Holy Spirit himself. Philosophy can help us to think straight. Let me tell you that philosophy has no answers. No answers. You want to prove it, read some philosophy books, but listen to Professor Kenny of Oxford. Philosophy promises so much, it delivers very little. There is no agreement in philosophical circles on what the ultimate truth is. But here, Paul is not talking about ordinary straight philosophy. He's talking about what we should call theosophy. You'll see the kind of material that you will find nowadays in Christian science, for instance, or extreme, uh, so-called spirituality. And this taught that if you wanted to make progress in the Christian life, they could tell you certain techniques that will bring you up, uh, by, uh, mental control and teach all about the angels and the ranks of angels, you'll see, and how you could get through these, uh, ranks of angels without harming yourself and come up at length to God and have the vision of God. That may sound queer to you, but I even in Belfast, where I live, some years ago, there came a thing called the Divine Light Mission. And a young lady knocked on my door one afternoon and said, uh, would I be interested in the Divine Light Mission? Uh, they were having a campaign in Belfast, and if I cared, she could tell me how I could go to London on payment of a small fee, there I could see the... Yes, of course I'd like to see the light, but which kind of light did you see? I said, you see, the Bible says that even the devil transforms himself into an angel of light. I've no doubt you saw the light, but which light was it? Well, that led to a lot of conversation, of course. But it's not an old-fashioned thing merely, it is a modern thing with all kinds of mysticism and theories about the angels. You'll find it in Hinduism, a force of some kinds, and in Buddhism. How you learn the philosophy, and by dint of mental control, you come to find your true inner self. And when you eventually find your true inner self, you'll find that that self is God in you. I haven't the time to tell you how our conversation ended, except to say this. The leader of their campaign was worried that we were talking so long at my back door that he came across and said, you narrow-minded evangelical you, uh, do you see, we believe the same as you. We believe that Jesus is the Christ. I said, you don't, do you? Yes, we do. I said, you don't. And there were two milk bottles on my doorstep in those days, in the days when you could get milk delivered, you see, and didn't have to go to Tesco's for it, uh, do you see? And there there was the two milk bottles, and I said to the gentleman, there's two bottles there, aren't they? Yes. And inside is milk. Yes. I said, you would call them two bottles, wouldn't you? Yes. You wouldn't call them two milks, would you? Because though they're two bottles, the stuff inside is just milk. Yes, he said. Mm-hmm. I said, you don't believe that Jesus Chri- Jesus is a Christ at all, do you? We do. I said, no, you don't. You believe the Christ is the great world spirit, don't you? And that Jesus Christ in his day gave himself to the great world spirit, and the great world spirit filled him. But now your man, the leader of your Divine Light Mission, he's just like Christ, he is the modern Christ and the great world spirit is filling him. That's what you believe, isn't it? Yes, he said, well, if you must insist, that is what I believe, and went away like Nariman in a rage. The Bible is very clear. Whoever says that Jesus, whoever says that Jesus is not the Christ, this is the liar, every spirit that confesses not that Jesus is the Christ. That is important. And Paul has to warn these dear believers about this pseudo recipe for developing spiritual life. You receive Christ as Savior, walk in him. You don't need to go outside him, for in him is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and all the riches of wisdom and knowledge are in him. And he who died to save you is enough to keep you and to perfect you in holiness. You need nothing outside of Christ. And then there are some people that felt it were very important to keep holy days. Well, holy days are not bad things, are they? The Jews had them galore, holy days, uh, Sabbaths and things, and so on. Nothing wrong in themselves. And in Christian world, uh, Christendom has developed holy days, hasn't it? Christmas and Easter and... Well, we used to have Whitsun, but now the Labour government has removed that, so we have a May Day holiday or something. And I find the younger folks nowadays don't know what Whitsun is or was, uh, do they? It's a mystery to them. Never mind. There were all these, uh, Christian, uh, uh, special days. But there's a weakness there, you know? Particularly if you're thinking of developing spiritual life. Because they are what the Bible says, a shadow. But the real substance is Christ. Oh, what a fuss we can have about Christmas time, can't we? And the commercialization of it is tremendous. There are some dear people that go to church only at Christmas time and such like times. No harm in going to church. Oh, but we need to get hold of this. Those holy days are only a s- a shadow, at best a symbol, and to have just the shadow, but not the reality. Oh, what a disastrous pity that is. He was born, and they called his name Jesus, for he should save his people from their sins. And if we have not been saved by receiving the Savior and ourselves forgiven, then holy days are but a shadow, and we will miss, we are missing the substance. And then there were those who wanted ecstatic experiences in the spirit. And they would tell you that you could rise, if you listen to them, and join in the worship of angels and hear the songs and tongues of angels. Great stuff, they said it was. And Paul says, well, he doesn't deny that something happening inside their brains, their, what he calls their fleshly mind, they are having an experience. But whether that experience is genuine Christianity is another thing altogether. For it to be genuine Christianity, it's not enough to have some experiences in my head. I need to hold fast the head, which is Christ. For all ongoing, ever deepening spirituality is found not trying to join the angels, but to go far beyond them, to come to him who is the head of all principality and power, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden, and by my contact living contact with him, that Christ, the head of the Christian body, supply to me all that is needed by way of spiritual progress. And finally, some of them said, what you want to do is to engage in what we nowadays call asceticism, you know, being severe on the body, taking the discipline, as it's called in some, uh, context, and whipping yourself hard, or going on pilgrimages and things and really putting yourself physically through all kinds of hardships. And Paul says, well, that kind of thing has an appearance of being marvelous and very impressive, but it's no good. Not for developing true holiness. No good whatsoever against the indulgence of the flesh, and not necessary. Yes, we have to discipline our bodies as Christians and develop self-control, but merely, uh, being hard on the body and think that that by itself makes you spiritual is not true. Let me end by telling you a story. When I went first to live in Ireland, and what a lovely country it is, and let me say how kind they have been to this Englishman in their midst, so much so I am half Irish now, you'll see, much to my improvement. I'm what re- uh, the Irish regard as an improved Englishman, you'll see. But I was told that way in the west there is a mountain, and sometime in August, thousands of people climb this mountain of a night time, starting about twelve o'clock. So some friends of mine got me, I was young then, and uh, we decided we'd climb this mountain, you'll see, along with the pilgrims. So we arrived at the base at about twelve o'clock at night, and in the west of Ireland in that time of the year, it's only sort of twilight-ish, it doesn't get dark till about an hour or so later. And there we were on the little path that led up towards the mountain, and there were stalls of all sorts of kinds selling things, chips and all sorts of ornaments and various other things, you'll see, and the people were beginning to collect and ready to climb. And as I looked in the semi-darkness there, I saw a lady, some about thirty years old, with no shoes or stockings on. Well, that mountain, when you get two-thirds of the way up, the rest of it is just shale, jagged bits of rock, and you put your foot on them to climb, and it's one step forward and two step backwards if you're not careful. And I thought she's never going to do that if she's not going up there with no shoes on. So, being a a a a a blase Englishman, I suppose, I I gradually sidled near her, and I said, you see, I say, excuse me, madam, I'm I'm an Englishman. I I've not s- seen anything like this before. You see? Mm, uh, I said, I I I are you going to climb the mountain tonight? Yes, he was. Mm, I said, that's very interesting. I said, I see you're you've got no shoes on, no so- no stockings. Uh, uh, are you going to, uh, climb the mountain in your bare feet? Yes, she said, I am. I said, you must love God enormously. To climb a mountain like that in your bare feet. Oh yes, he said. I said, tell me, my dear, how does it help? Uh, why does God want you to do this? How does it help? She said, I'm not telling anybody. Even my friends didn't know I was going to do it. Uh, I'm not saying. I said, well, of course, I don't want to intrude at all on your pre- private devotions, of course not. I said, tell me though, would it, if your mother were in purgatory, would it help to get her out? Yes, she said it would. My heart nearly broke. All the cruelty of it. All that God, the God of heaven who gave his son to die at Calvary, would charge a woman with that in order to get her mother freedom out of purgatory and her self-salvation. Well, it is not so. Let Paul, the inspired apostle, tell us that this is bogus. We're not blaming that dear woman. She didn't get the idea herself. She was told it by other people. That salvation is through Christ and only through Christ. Oh, beware of pseudo spiritual recipes for the development of holy living. Christ who saved us by dying for us at Calvary and giving us his Holy Spirit. There's enough in Christ for all we need, both here for developing our spirituality and for all eternity. Then I thank you for your patience, and I have stolen ten minutes of your time. Forgive me if you can find it so.