Let's turn in our Bibles now
to the book of Galatians chapter 6. I want to begin reading at verse
11. Last week I preached on the first
part of this verse concerning the issue of sowing and reaping. Sowing forth the grace of God.
That's what we as individual believers are to do. That's what
we as a collective body, the church, are to do. We don't sow
to the flesh. Those who sow to the flesh reap
to the flesh, and that's deadly. We sow to the grace of God. We
preach the gospel. We witness and live by the gospel. and seek to honor God in our
lives and in our thoughts and our attitudes, all of that. Well, now Paul, as he closes
out this letter, he says in verse 11, he says, Galatians 6, 11,
you see how large a letter I have written unto you with my own
hand. Paul personally sat down and penned this letter. Now,
you say, well, didn't he do all of them that way? No, a lot of
times what Paul would do is he would dictate the letter and
he had sort of like a secretary or someone to write it actually
for him. But here in Galatia, the churches
of Galatia, which the Lord had used Paul to start these churches,
There was a pressing, serious problem that had been creeping
into the church subtly by false professing Christians, those
who claim to believe Christ, but who didn't because they were
trying to mix grace, the grace of God, with the works of men
under the law. Now, I've heard people say, well,
that preacher mixes grace and works. Well, that's an impossibility. You cannot mix grace and works.
Paul wrote about that in Romans chapter 11. He said, listen,
if you preach grace, it's all of grace or it's no grace. If
you preach works, it's all of works or no works. Those who
try to mix grace and works, you know what they're preaching?
They're preaching works, period. That's the way it is. But to
preach the grace of God is to preach all of salvation, all
of it, in every realm of it, the eternal realm, the legal
realm, the spiritual realm, the glorified
realm, all passages, all life by God's grace based upon the
merits, the earning power, Of one person, the Lord Jesus Christ,
God manifest in the flesh, and His work of obedience unto death
on the cross of Calvary. It's all in Christ. Conditioned on Christ. Not conditioned
on you or me. Not conditioned on keeping the
law, whatever facet of the law that intrigues you. Here you
had in Galatia what Paul calls Judaizers. And what they were,
they were Jews who claimed to be Christian, but they also claimed
that in order for a person to really be saved, I mean really
be saved, and to really have assurance of salvation and to
really be righteous, that person not only had to look to Jesus
Christ for salvation, but he or she also had to look to themselves
in keeping facets of the law. For example, if you were a Gentile
male, they would have said, now you're saved, but in order to
be really saved and to stay saved and to be righteous, you've got
to be circumcised. Paul dealt with that quite a
bit in the book of Galatians. He told them back in Galatians
chapter 5, if you Gentile males, if you were circumcised for that
reason, Christ will profit you nothing. That's a denial of Christ. Others would say, well, you're
saved by grace, but you've got to keep the law. You've got to
add your obedience to really be sure. That's what we call
works-based assurance, rather. It's really works-based salvation,
but it's works-based assurance. How does true godly assurance
come to the people of God? And the Bible's clear, and I
quote it all the time, Hebrews 12 too, looking unto Jesus, the
author and the finisher of our faith. I know I'm saved. I have assurance of my salvation.
And we're gonna talk about that in just a moment. Because Christ
did all the work. He obeyed the law. He was crucified
in my place. He's my surety. He's my substitute. He's my redeemer. He's my life
giver. He's my keeper, preserving me. And He will come and glorify
me with Himself. And it's all in Him. And He is
my assurance. The Bible talks about that. They
will have perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Fix your
mind on Christ. The glory of His person, the
power of His finished work. Not on this counterfeit that's
being preached all over the place. This one who tries to say, but
can't unless you let him. Don't have faith in your faith,
have faith in Christ. All of that. And so Paul was
dealing with that in these Judaizers, these false professors. And so
he says in verse 11, you see how large a letter I've written
unto you with my own hand? And he says in verse 12, look
at this, as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh.
In other words, they wanted to be seen in the flesh. Look at me, I'm saved, that kind
of thing. And he says, they constrain you
to be circumcised. These Judaizers were constraining
these Gentile men, who were believers, to be circumcised. And he said,
only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. In other words, if believers,
for example, in Jerusalem, if they had given in to this heresy,
They would not have been persecuted. They would not have been tortured.
They'd not have been arrested or killed. All you have to say,
you know, when we preach the gospel and say this is the only
way of salvation, and anybody who's ignorant of or not submitted
to the righteousness of God in Christ is lost, that makes people
mad, makes them angry. But all you have to do is concede
to them, well, but you're saved, you're okay, you're my brother
or sister in Christ, and that removes, that softens the blow.
That removes the anger. And that's what Paul's saying.
They don't want to suffer persecution from unbelieving Jews. And so
they compromise it. They compromise it. And so he
says in verse 13, for neither they themselves who are circumcised
keep the law. In other words, they may be circumcised,
but they don't keep the law. They're sinners, as we all are. A person who says that they are
made righteous by their law keeping is not only lying to us, he's
lying to himself. Because you don't keep the law. Now you say, well, I'm trying
to keep the law. Well, that's OK. If you're trying to keep
it for salvation, that's not OK. But yes, we should try to
be obedient. We should try to be loving people.
But if we fool ourselves into thinking that we do enough to
either earn or merit or deserve God's blessings of salvation,
we're fooling ourselves. And that's what Paul's saying
here. They don't keep the law. Neither they themselves who are
circumcised keep the law, verse 13, but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. What he's saying, they may boast
in your flesh. Look at what I did. I brought
this convert. I had a people, a man tell me
one time, he said, he said, I've led over a thousand people to
Christ. Now think about that. That's
glorying in his flesh. That word glory there means boast,
and I'm gonna get to that in verse 14. So let me read these
three verses here. Verse 14, this is what I'm gonna
focus on in just a few minutes. But God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature or a new creation. And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel
of God. That's the title of the message,
the Israel of God. Several weeks ago, Brother Jim
preached a message on the true Israel of God. I believe your
main text was in Romans 9, wasn't it, somewhere? And that's a good
passage, talking about they are not all Israel who are of Israel,
neither are they Abraham's seed. In other words, he's making a
distinction there between physical Israel, the nation, and spiritual
Israel, which is the church, the true church. And that's what
I want to talk about, the Israel of God. I put an article in the
bulletin today called, Who Are God's Elect? When I was growing
up in false religion, anytime we would see the word elect in
the Bible, the preacher or the Sunday school teacher would always
tell us, well, that's referring to Israel. Talking about the
nation Israel, occupying that piece of ground in the Mideast.
And they'd say, that's God's elect. And so I always believed,
well, they wouldn't lie to me, I didn't think. But what it is,
they were speaking out of ignorance. They didn't realize what it was.
Well, the Bible does speak of the physical nation of Israel
in the Old Testament and sometimes in the New Testament. But it
also makes a distinction between the true Israel, what you preached
on. the Israel of God that we read about here in verse 16. The peace and mercy upon the
Israel of God. And it's an interesting thing.
Well, the true Israel of God, the spiritual nation, they are
God's elect. And I wrote this article that
said, who are God's elect? And I'm not gonna read the whole
article, well, maybe I will, I don't know. Anyway, it says,
they are those whom the Lord chose to save and gave to his
son before the foundation of the world. That's what election
means. Who did the electing there? God
did. He chose his people to save and gave them to Christ, put
all of the responsibility and accountability of their salvation
on Christ. The Bible speaks of it in 2 Timothy
1 and verse 9 and 10, talks about a salvation that God gave to
his people in Christ before the world began. But who are they? And I'll put it here, they are
those who are justified in God's sight based upon Christ's righteousness
imputed. That's who God's elect are, they're
justified. Who shall lay anything to the charge of what? God's elect, Romans 8.33. It's God that justify. What is
it to be justified? It's to be forgiven of all my
sins on a just ground. And what is the only just ground?
The blood of Christ. It's what we sang about. Come
thou fount of every blessing. The fount of His blood. That's
His death to pay the debt of our sins as our surety and our
substitute and our redeemer. And that satisfies the justice
of God against us. because it came upon him. He
died for the sins of his sheep. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement, the punishment
that would bring peace between God and his people was upon Christ
and he satisfied justice. To be justified is to be declared
righteous in the sight of God on a just ground. And what is
the just ground? The righteousness of Christ accounted,
imputed to his people. So that's who the elect are.
Well, how do you know who the elect are? Well, they are those
whom God gives life and calls to Christ by the Holy Spirit
under the preaching of the gospel. And that's where we come to our
text here. Think about it. Here is the testimony of God's
elect. Here is the testimony of Christ's
sheep. Here is the testimony of the
true Israel of God. And it says, but God forbid that
I should glory, meaning should boast or should have assurance. That's what that means. You boast,
we boast, we brag. Somebody says, I'm a Christian.
Well, how do you know that? In whom or what do you glory?
Well, I made a profession when I was 12 and got baptized. Is
that your boast? Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory, boast, have confidence, save or accept in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ. God forbid that I should have
any confidence or assurance or boast in anything but the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And when He says the cross, He's
not talking about an emblem. He's not talking about something
you wear around your neck. He's talking about the glorious
person and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is God manifest in the flesh, who came to die for His sheep,
the cross and satisfied justice working out a perfect righteousness
by which God could be just and justify sinners like us. So Paul
says, God forbid that I should glory. That word glory is real.
In these verses, these three verses, they're packed with meaning.
For example, this word glory is found several times in the
New Testament It's found in 1 Corinthians 1 where he talks about, let him
that gloryeth, glory in this. Don't glory in the flesh, glory
that you know God, you know Christ. You know the Lord and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. Don't glory in anything else.
Don't put your confidence anywhere else. Don't put it in your church
membership. Don't put it in your works. Don't
put it in your baptism. Don't even put it in your experiences.
You know, a lot of people do that. They say, well, I know
I was saved when this happened. Listen, there's a lot of things
that'll happen to you in your life. Some of them be like a
religious experience, some of them won't. But Paul says, God
forbid that I should glory except in one experience, and that's
the experience of Jesus Christ on that cross. Dying for my sins,
being buried and raised again the third day. That's his blood,
that's his righteousness, that's the merit of his obedience unto
death. Christ earned it all for me.
God gave it all to me. You know the Bible says in Ephesians
2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith that
not of yourselves, not of works, lest any man should boast. That
word boast is the same as glory here. Philippians 3, 3, we are
the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit. and rejoice in Christ Jesus. That word rejoice is the same
word as glory here. And have no confidence in the
flesh. Our confidence is in Christ. As he is identified and distinguished
and revealed in God's word. God forbid that I should glory
in anything else. And you know when he said there
in Philippians 3, when he says we are the circumcision, he's
not talking about physical circumcision. Jim brought this out in Romans
2. He says, in Romans chapter 2,
he's talking about Jews, and a Jew was somebody who was from
the tribe of Judah. But he's talking about spiritual,
being a spiritual Jew, like a spiritual Israelite. And in Romans 2, 28,
he says, for he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither
is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh, But he
is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the
heart in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of
men, but of God. When Paul said there in Philippians
3, for we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and
rejoice in Christ, Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,
he's talking about the circumcision of the heart. What is the heart? It's the mind, it's the affection,
it's the will, it's the conscience, it's the center being of all
of us. And when that heart, when we're
given a new heart by God, he brings us to faith in Christ,
to glory in Christ, and he cuts away the filth of the flesh in
the sense of repentance of dead works and idolatry. He causes
us, like Paul in Philippians 3, to count it all but done that
I may win Christ and be found in Him. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. And he goes on to say back here in our text, in Galatians
6, 14, he says, I glory only in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the spirit, that's the spiritual Israel that he's
talking about. That's the Israel of God. In whom or what do you
glory? Am I a member of the Israel of
God? Am I a member of that nation?
Well, what do you glory in? What do you boast in? Where's
your confidence of salvation? Of a right relationship with
God? Well, it's in Christ crucified and risen from the dead. And
he says, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. In other words, what he's saying there is because
I glory only in Christ, crucified, the world, the world in unbelief
is dead to me. But I'm dead to the world. I'm
separated from the world because of my glory. And what is my glory? Christ crucified. That's the
Israel of God. And then look at verse 15. He
says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature or a new creation. What
he's saying there is this, that when it comes to salvation by
the grace of God in Christ, being God's elect, being a spiritual
Jew, spiritual Israel, it doesn't matter where physically, nationally,
ethnically, you're a Jew or a Gentile. Doesn't matter if you're black
or white, male or female. Those differences make nothing,
no headway in the kingdom of God. But what does is, have you
been made a new creature in Christ? Now, another way of saying that
is this, have you been born again by the Spirit? been made a new
creature, a new creation. How do I know if I've been born
again by the Spirit? Do you glory in anyone or anything
other than Christ crucified and risen from the dead? Because
if you do, it was not the Spirit of God that led you that way.
If you glory in anything, if you boast or have confidence
in anything for salvation, but Christ crucified and risen from
the dead, you're still blind. You haven't been born again.
You don't have eyes to see. You're still deaf spiritually.
Do you hear what I'm saying? You say, I'm not just talking
about with the physical ear. Remember Christ told his disciples,
blessed are your eyes for they see, blessed are your ears for
they hear. How do I know my ears and eyes
have been blessed? Do you glory in Christ crucified
and risen, His righteousness alone, His blood alone? Because
if you do, if you glory in anything else, you've not been made a
new creature. Because in Christ Jesus, nothing
else matters. That's right, as far as being
justified before God, As far as having a right relationship
with God, as far as the forgiveness of sins, as far as having a perfect
righteousness before God, nothing else matters except Jesus Christ
crucified and risen from the dead. The merits of his obedience
unto death, his righteousness imputed. So look at verse 16. And as many as walk according
to this rule, That word rule's an interesting word. It's like
a measuring rod. We get the word cannon from it. Cannon, not meaning a cannon
you shoot a cannonball out of, but cannon meaning a body of
doctrine, what you believe. And it was often used like a
round rod that was straight and you laid something up against
it to straighten it out. And that rule is stated back
up in our first text, verse there, verse 14. What is the rule that
we walk by, that we live by? He says, as many as walk, conduct
themselves in any way according to this rule. What rule? God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That rule, the gospel rule. That's our rule. We measure ourselves by the gospel. We measure our church by the
gospel. If you go to a church where the
gospel's not preached, you're not walking according to this
rule. If you go where they preach work salvation, or salvation
conditioned on sinners, conditioned in anyone, you're not walking
by this rule. This is the rule, say, it's the
gospel. God said that he's appointed
a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained, and that he hath given assurance
unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead. Now,
what does that tell me? That tells me that in order to
pass the test of God's judgment, I've got to have a righteousness
that is measured by Christ. And how can I have such a righteousness?
There's no way I can get that by my works. There's no way you
can get it by your works. You can say, well, I've had a
good day today and I've done the best I could. Yes, but you
still fall short. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. That's the glory of God in Christ.
I've got to have a perfect righteousness. How can I have such a thing?
Only as I stand before God counted in Christ, chosen in Christ,
redeemed by the blood of Christ, justified in Him based on His
righteousness laid to my charge as my sins were charged to Him,
His righteousness to me. That's the only way I can have
such a righteousness, a perfect righteousness that can never
change. Let me say this to you on this
issue, because we're talking about confidence, glory, boasting,
all of that. Whatever it is that we have confidence
in and assurance of our salvation, it must be perfect, it must be
unchangeable, and it must be incorruptible. Think about that. Where are you gonna find such
a confidence? Only in the person and work of Christ. Nowhere else.
You're not gonna find it anywhere else. Mom and dad doesn't have
it. You don't have it. Your religious
leaders don't have it. Only in Christ. And that's the
rule. And what does he say? Now, if
you're walking by that rule, it gives evidence of this. Peace
be on them. What peace? That peace which
comes from believing, looking to Christ. that peace that passes
understanding, having God reconciled to me, a sinner, and this sinner
reconciled to God on one basis, one grant, the perfect righteousness
of Christ, freely imputed to me and made known to me by the
Holy Spirit in the preaching of the gospel. For the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. Therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, from knowledge revealed
to knowledge received. For the just shall live by faith.
Peace with God. Think about it. I quoted earlier,
he is at peace whose mind is stayed on thee. Assurance. Isaiah spoke of it in his prophecies. Oh, that assurance of salvation
that brings peace to our hearts and our minds. Our hearts cleansed
by the blood of Christ. Our consciences washed clean
by the blood of Christ. Look over at Hebrews chapter
10. That's one of the most blessed verses that makes this so clear
to God's people in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 19. And here he's
talking about the death of Christ for his people. he'd already
said by one offering Christ hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. Think about that, he'd already
said that by the one sacrifice for sins Christ satisfied the
justice of God and sat down at the right hand of God. All of
it's done And he says in verse 19 of Hebrews 10, having therefore
brethren boldness, that boldness there is liberty based upon assurance,
freedom, liberty of conscience, boldness to enter into the holiest,
the very holiest place. What is that? That's the presence
of almighty God. How do you have such confidence
for that? And I always make this clear. Understand that going
in to worship God, going in to meet with God and commune with
God, God knows our thoughts. He knows our hearts. We can't
fool him. So how can we as sinners go in
with confidence? Well, look at it, verse 19, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. That's it. That's just another way of saying
the merits of his obedience unto death. That's another way of
saying his righteousness imputed. And he says in verse 20, by a
new and living way, which Christ hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say his flesh, it's in him giving his
body to the slayers on the cross to die for our sins. Verse 21,
having a high priest over the house of God, look at verse 22.
Let us draw near with a true heart, a sincere heart, in full
assurance of faith. What is the full assurance of
faith? Well, it's faith in myself that I've believed and done enough.
No. The full assurance of faith is
the full assurance of salvation that I have by faith looking
unto Jesus, looking to Christ. Having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience. An evil conscience is a condemned
conscience. An evil conscience is a legal
conscience. And our bodies washed with pure
water, the blood of Jesus Christ. We go back to our text, Galatians
6. Peace be on them. Think about
it. I want peace. How about you? And mercy. Now this mercy here refers to
the compassion of God that brings his people to salvation. It's
not just some general idea of mercy. You see, we're to be merciful
to anyone, everyone. But God's mercy here is only
to his people. It refers to those who are vessels
of mercy aforeprepared unto glory, God's chosen people, who walk
by this rule, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of Christ. God's being merciful. And one
thing I can tell you about mercy, you don't deserve it and you
don't earn it. Neither do I. And therefore he says, and upon
the Israel of God. The word Israel, you know how
it comes from. Originally back in the Old Testament,
Jacob, remember Jacob. He was a kind of a unscrupulous
character. He had his problems, we all do.
Usually when the Bible uses Jacob as a metaphor or a symbol, it's
for sinners saved by the grace of God. Showing that we don't
deserve it, don't earn it, as we always say. But you see there,
Jacob, whose name literally means supplanter, It's like he undercut
his brother Jacob and Esau, the twins, you remember. Well, Jacob
wrestled with an angel, which I believe, and most scholars
agree with me, that that was a pre-incarnate visitation of
Christ. But here's the issue. He wrestled with that angel.
And he said, I won't let you go until you bless me. It's kind
of like how God's people, by faith, grab hold of Christ and
say, I'm gonna hold on for dear life. And God at that time, Jacob
prevailed and God at that time changed his name from Jacob to
Israel. And what it literally means,
you can look at it in one of two ways. It literally means
God has prevailed. That's what it means. God has
prevailed. Now some say, well it means prevailing
with God because Jacob did prevail. But think about it now, how do
sinners prevail with God? The only way we prevail with
God is by looking to Christ and resting in Him. Who is the victor
who won all of our battles? Who has earned all of our blessings?
But it means God has prevailed. When does God prevail over his
people? Well, he's got his sovereign
hand of providence over us all of our lives. But the prevailing
here has to do when God the Holy Spirit brings us to bow from
our rebellion and our unbelief and our darkness in thinking
that we can boast in anything of ourselves. and brings us to
be submitted to Christ and His righteousness alone. Paul spoke
of it in Romans 10, those who were not submitted to the righteousness
of God in Christ, going about to establish their own righteousness,
which is of the law. They're lost. And he said, for
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. That's the Israel of God. And
then in the New Testament, The word Israel has more of the meaning
of being a prince, prince of God. Well, doesn't that fit? Turn back to Galatians 4 and
I'll conclude with this. Galatians 4 and verse 4. What
is a prince? I know prince, you've got the
name prince. What is a prince? A prince is a son of a king.
A princess is a daughter of a king. Well, isn't that what we are?
According to God's grace? Being children of God? Well,
look at verse four of Galatians four. But when the fullness of
the time was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman. God
sent forth his son, that's the deity of Christ. made of a woman,
that's the perfect sinless humanity of Christ, made under the law,
that's the salvation that's conditioned on Christ, to redeem them that
were under the law, that's his elect, his people, that's the
Israel of God, that we might receive the adoption of sons. That's the prince. That's the
princesses. And because you are sons, by
God's grace, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, that is a legal slave, but a son, a prince. And if a
son, then an heir of God through Christ. Isn't that a beautiful
picture of salvation by the grace of God? Of the assurance that
not only we can have, But the assurance that we are to have,
according to God's word, as we glory in Christ, crucified and
risen from the dead. And that is the Israel of God. That's the true Israel. That's
spiritual Israel. A spiritual nation formed and
gathered by God and brought under the headship of Christ. That's
what it is. to have that confidence. All
right.