Let's open our Bibles to Galatians
chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. Now today's
message is called glorying in the flesh. Now religious folks,
and I was there, like to glory in the flesh. Like to glory. You've experienced that too,
haven't you brother Charlie? Like to glory in the flesh. Like to boast about What they've
done, and I went to this one website, I heard about this Christian
group, so I went to this one website, and I knew as soon as
I read that the founder had supposedly, supposedly, why do you have to
even put this in? Led over 250,000 people to Christ. It's like, okay, I'm done, I'm
done. That's just boasting. Christ is the one who saves,
right? I was thinking about this. You can lead a horse to water,
but you can't make him drink, can you? Right? All the gospel preachers, we're
just messengers. I like what Norm Wells said,
and Jane and I would talk about this. We're mailmen. We're delivering a letter. Now sometimes folk get awful
mad at the mailman, right? But that's all we are, we're
just mailmen, delivering the report, as Isaiah said. Who hath
believed our report? And the report comes from God.
He sent His Son, the only Savior of sinners, to bleed and to die
and to redeem His people from their sins. Oh my! And last week, in our study in
the book of Galatians, we looked at how the Scriptures encouraged
the saints of God And that God's ordained us to good works, and
those good works in no way, absolutely no way justify us. As a matter
of fact, we usually don't even know when we're doing them. I
don't know when I'm doing them, do you? I just look at my works and I see
myself in all of them. Right? Do you? That's how we
are. We have so much sin in us, don't
we? But praise God, He's ordained us to good works to do for Him.
to do for him, to bring him all the glory. And it's a fruit,
these good works that God has ordained, they're fruit of us
being born again. They're not fruit of the Spirit,
but they follow salvation. They follow regeneration. Is
it good to desire to serve the Lord? Yeah, it is, isn't it?
Do we do it up to what we even put our own standards to do?
No. But is God pleased with us serving him? Absolutely, in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? So we don't
have to bang our head against the wall or, well, not that we
do that, or say that, oh, I'm just not good enough. How many
times can we do that? How many times can we, first
thing we say, we degrade ourselves, don't we? We don't have no, we
don't need anyone degrading us, we degrade ourselves, don't we?
You ever notice that? Well, praise God we have salvation
in Christ. Right? Praise God that he lived
the perfect life for us. Praise God that he fulfilled
the law of God for us that we could never do. Oh my. Now let's
look at Galatians 6 here. We're going to be, now I thought,
I thought we had maybe one message left. I started looking at this
text yesterday. And I'm like, there's like four
or five messages in here. So we're going to slow walk these
last verses. It always happens, eh, brother
Shane? Oh my goodness. I'm looking at this and stuff's
just popping out at me at the last few verses. Well, we got,
we'll be a few more weeks in Galatians. So we may hit 90 to
100 messages pretty soon. We don't know yet. So, oh my
goodness. Okay, let's read this last, the
last portion of Galatians chapter six, verses 11 to 18. So seven
verses here. You see how large a letter I've
written unto you with mine own hand. As many as desire to make
a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised,
only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the
law. Look at that. Not even the people who say they
keep the law keep the law. Not even those who are circumcised
keep the law. We're a bunch of lawbreakers,
aren't we, by nature? Oh, isn't that amazing? But desire
to have you circumcised, look at this, that they may glory
in your flesh. That's why I called the message
glorying in the flesh. These false teachers were glorying
in the fact that they had these converts, that they submitted
themselves to circumcision. But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. There's a whole
message by itself right there, right? Oh my. And as many as
walk in, according to this world, peace beyond them, in mercy upon
the Israel of God. When we look at that verse, we're
going to look at the Israel of God, beloved. From henceforth
let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord
Jesus." Paul being beaten 39 times. What was that? 39 times less one? Five times? That's enough to kill a person,
they say, when they do it once. My oh my. Brethren, the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. To the Galatians,
written from Rome. Now these Galatian saints were
in the Roman province of Gaul. Paul had went there and established
many churches in Gaul and so this letter is to be passed around
to the various churches in the Roman province of Gaul. Now the
Roman people had conquered Gaul. Julius Caesar had went through
there and conquered Gaul. It took them many years though.
They were fierce warrior people. They have their roots in Celtic,
from the Celts that came over across into that area where Gaul
was, which was right above the mountains in Italy. and into
a little bit of where we would say now France and all that area. The Celts came across and mixed
with the folks there and they became the Gauls. And the Gauls
were very superstitious people. They could be swayed very easily
by something new. Julius Caesar wrote that, that
there are superstitious people who could be swayed by anything
new that came along. Well, here comes the Judaizers.
Something new. What's the old saying? If it's
new, it isn't true. Right? Oh my. Oh my. And so he had established the
churches in Gaul. The Lord had used him to establish
the churches in Gaul. And by the grace of God working
through him, these churches had been established. And so Paul
had a personal relationship with them like I have with you all.
They had a bond together. They loved each other. And so
these churches were very dear to him because The Lord had used
him to establish some of these churches. And so, you know how
our hearts get knit together, even with our fellow churches
too. And your hearts just get knit together with the preachers
and with the folks. And there's just that bond you can't explain
about. Like how we have with Norm too, Norm and Nancy. And
when they come here, we have such a bond with them. It's wonderful,
it's like they're family. And they are family. And the
other folks in the other churches are family too, aren't they?
Oh my. And look what's brought forth
here. Paul's written this letter by his own hand. And the large
letter there doesn't mean the type of, some folks say it means
the type of print. It means just the larger letter.
It's six chapters long in R. That's all. As compared to Philippians
and Philemon. It's a larger letter. And a lot
of folks, John Gill is the guy I lean on a lot, and he was bringing
forth that because they were so dear to him, that he wrote
a long letter to them. Because he personally knows them.
He personally knows them. So he writes this letter with
his own hand. Now some letters he would dictate
and someone would write them for him. But they were still,
the Holy Spirit put the words in Paul, right? To be penned
down, but someone else would pen them down for him. And look
at verse 11. You see how large a letter I've
written unto you with mine own hand. We see here the affection that
the Apostle has for the Galatians. Personal affection. He didn't
merely tell someone what he wanted written down. He sat down and
penned these words all by himself. And it caused him great grief.
You know what causes a preacher great grief when we find out
that someone's fallen into false doctrine? Into following a lie? That causes so much grief. It causes grief in you too, doesn't
it, when you hear that, right? Oh my. So it's not just the preacher,
but all of God's saints. And somehow word had gotten to
Paul about what was going on. He's in Rome. So some concerned brethren either
wrote Paul or went to Paul and said, Brother Paul, this is going
on. And we know it's all orchestrated
by God, the Holy Spirit, that this letter is going to go there,
right? And now here it is for our learning too. Isn't that
amazing? God's sovereignty. I see God's sovereignty more
and more every day of my life now. I see more of his sovereignty
at work. As I listen to ways like we talked
about how God's preserved us and kept us. Before we were even saved. Oh
my, we didn't ruin our lives. Many times I could have ruined
my life. by my own shenanigans. But God
preserved me, kept me, all mine. So we see here that he's written
this letter by his own hands. He calls attention to this fact. He's calling attention to it
because he wants them to know, I love you and I care for you.
And I'm very concerned about what's going on. So this is an expression, this
verse here is an expression of his great affection for the saints
in Galatia, or the saints in Gaul, in the Galatian churches,
because it's written to the Galatians. There's multiple churches. Isn't
that amazing? What affection he has for them.
And so he's going to stress this. I've written this letter with
my own hands. No one helped me. I wrote it by myself. We know,
of course, it comes from God the Holy Spirit, doesn't it?
And he would be the first to acknowledge that, too. Oh, my. Were he alive today? So he cared deeply for them.
He cared for their well-being. More importantly, he cared for
their souls, didn't he? If he didn't care for their souls,
he would have just said to the messenger or whoever let him
know, well, you go and tell him to straighten out. Or just leave
him alone. No, he cares deeply for them.
And he knows that what the Judaizers are peddling is nothing but a
false gospel. Nothing but a watered down perversion
of the true gospel. Nothing but a false gospel that
adds man's works to salvation. How does Paul know this? Well,
he's been taught by the Holy Spirit of God, the true gospel,
hasn't he? He's been taught that salvation's not by anything we
do, and we know through his writings, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us. For by grace you
are saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It's a gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, right? It's his work,
beloved. And Paul knows this. And he knows
that salvation has nothing to do with us other than us being
receivers of this mercy and this grace, being chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world by God the Father, and
regenerated by the power of God the Holy Spirit. And so when
he hears about these folks trying to justify themselves, because
that's what they're trying to do, anytime you see someone in
religion, they are trying to justify themselves before God
by something they do. That's all they're trying to
do. They don't think they need Christ. They don't know God. They don't know the true God.
So they have a God in their imagination, and they think, well, if I'm
good, you're not good at all. Neither am I. Right? There's none good, no, not one.
That's our natural state. You know, even after believers,
we're not, after we were saved, we're still not good, are we?
We still see it all the time, more than once a day too, right? Oh my. Oh my. Isn't it incredible that God,
he doesn't, he doesn't destroy us. Because we're, he loves us. Oh
my. My, oh my. So he calls attention to the
fact of this great expression of affection for the saints at
Galatia. In Romans 622, or 1622, it says, I, Tartus, who wrote
this epistle, salute you in the Lord. So at that one, Paul was
dictating the letter of the Romans to Titus. This one he wrote by hand. Can
you imagine, could you imagine as he's writing this letter and
the faces that are coming back to him? It'd be like me writing a letter
and thinking about Charlie. Marsha's there. Diane's there. And the affection and the love
that we have for one another. Steve's there. Oh, Jane too.
Brian. Right? You just see how that
would work? And God stirs that love because
remember, our hearts been knit together in love, hasn't it?
Right? We're not the people we used
to be. Now we care for God's people. Now we love the Bible.
Now we love the gospel. Now we love our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the errors which they've
been exposed to, which are satanic errors, right? Because they're
an attack on the gospel. It's a perversion, Paul tells
us in Galatians chapter one, that that which the Judaizers
are peddling is nothing but a perversion of the gospel. It's not a gospel
at all, he says. Is it good news if man has to
do something? That's horrible, isn't it? That's the worst news
you could ever tell anybody, that you've got to do something
to be saved. Because it's impossible. But the good news is Christ died
for sinners, such as you and I. And all who come to him, all
who come to him, all who come to him shall be saved. Isn't
that wonderful? And he says, come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will, I will give you rest. Have we found rest, beloved?
Oh, we found rest from our labors, Zane, we found rest from all
those religious labors, haven't we? We just look to Christ now. My, Sister Marjorie, we found
rest for our souls now, haven't we? We just look to Christ. We're
eternally saved. In the Greek, perpetually, eternal
life is perpetual life. We have perpetual life in Christ,
eternal life in Christ. We may die here, but I'll tell
you what, that's when we start living. The saints are more alive
in heaven down here, beloved. Tommy Bell told me when Ma Bell
died, said, well, she left the land of the dead and went to
the land of the living. My, isn't that wonderful? That'll
make your heart sing, won't it? My, oh my, beloved. Oh may God give us a heart that
cares for our brothers and sisters like he gave to Paul here. Oh
my, oh my, my oh my. So he's written this letter himself
in order to set things right too. We're going to see that
he's going to bring forth in the next two verses and then
later on as we go down in the next few weeks, he is going to
just reiterate again what he's already taught in the whole epistle.
And he's going to sum it all up again by bringing it before
their faces again. Bringing it before their ears.
You know why? You know why? Because we forget
so quick. That's why we have to hear the
gospel every week, because we forget. We are so easily swayed
by things going on. All of us. This is why, isn't
it comforting to know that God sends preachers, fellow sinners
saved by grace, to tell us and to comfort our souls by the preaching
of the gospel, and tell us, if you're in Christ, you're safe.
He died for sinners. Are you sinitarily like me? Amen,
man, we're sinners saved by grace, aren't we, brother? Oh, my. We
can celebrate, brother. We have a hope. We have a hope
in Christ. My, it's wonderful. So Paul,
he loves these folks like we love each other. And he wants
them to not get caught up in the air of those legalists, right? The perversion of the gospel. And that's what Paul called it.
He called it a perversion of the gospel. Oh, my. And these, again, these false
teachers, they're peddling a false gospel of man's works. Man has
to be circumcised to be saved. So they're peddling this false
gospel by adding to the works of Christ. And think of this. They've added man's works to
the finished work of Christ. It just shows you how depraved
we are. This is God who came down. This
is God in the flesh. Sister Barbara came down to save
us from all our sins. God Himself. And these Judaizers
are saying, well, you gotta do this along with His work to be
saved. Otherwise, you're not really
saved. But God Himself has redeemed my soul. God Himself. If God's
done it, and He's perfect and sinless, which He is, then all
my sinful works could do is pollute it, right? And Paul says, pervert
it. Do you see how guarded the Holy
Spirit is on the gospel of God's grace? Do you see how guarded
he is about salvation through Christ alone, that he would have
Paul pen those words? Let's look in Galatians chapter
one. It's important for us to look
at this here. Galatians chapter one. Oh my. And remember, the
true author is God the Holy Spirit, but Paul's writing these words
that have been put on his heart. He's writing it to the Galatians. Look at this. And look how right
away, right away, this is wonderful, Brother Brian, we're gonna rejoice
over this. Right away, look at verse three. Grace be to you
and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for our sins. Paul is setting forth right away,
before he corrects any error, he's setting forth the true gospel.
Christ died for our sins, brother. Hallelujah. Oh my! It's wonderful! Why? That he might deliver us from
this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. Sister, we've been delivered
from our sins in Christ according to the will of the Father. My! This is good news for sinners,
isn't it? It's wonderful news for sinners.
Look at this though. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. I marvel that you are so
soon removed from him, that being Christ and the Father, that called
you unto the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is
not another, but there be some that would trouble you and would
pervert the gospel of Christ. Oh my. But though we or an angel
from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, Then that which
we have preached unto you, let them be accursed. Now that's
let them be damned in the Greek. That's how serious it is. To
add, to add man's works to the gospel of grace. Let them be
damned. And now we get a glimpse in the fact that Paul preached
Christ in him crucified, right? Because he says if any man preach
any other gospel unto you, and that which we have preached.
And we know that he preached salvation through Christ alone
plus nothing. If any man comes to you with
another gospel, that's why we're to be Bereans, right? Even when
you listen to me, you're to be Bereans and search the scriptures,
see if these things are true. Right? Oh my. That's what I appreciate
about you guys. You read your Bibles, you study,
you look. What the scriptures say. It's
wonderful. So Paul, because of his great
love for them, he's already warned them in chapter 1 that this is
nothing but a perversion of the true gospel. And he's going to reiterate again
and sum up what he wrote them. Look at verse, in these closing
sentences. We're only going to look to verse 13 today. But look
what he writes here in verse 12. And as many as desire to
make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised.
They're saying, you must be circumcised to be saved, only lest they should
suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. And in this letter,
Paul's exposing the false teaching of the Judaizers. And he cannot
conclude this letter with, again, without taking some further notice
of them and exposing their hypocrisy and their ambition. They want
nothing but to brag about those who get circumcised. It's just
another notch on their belt. Remember old gunslingers used
to put notches every time they killed someone? Well, these guys are spiritual
killers, aren't they? Never thought of that till just
now. Spiritual killers. Oh, my. And we see in this text here,
they like the glory of man. Turn if you would to Matthew
chapter 6. Look at this. Matthew chapter 6. We'll see
our Lord here. I always like going to our Lord's
words and seeing what he says about this stuff. And you know,
he warns about these kind of teachers. And he uses the leaders
of Israel as an example. The religious leaders of Israel
as an example. Look at this, Matthew chapter 6. Starting in
verses 1 to 5. Here's a warning from our King.
Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of
them. Don't do something to be seen of man. Remember the Pharisees? He stood out in the thing. Oh
God, I thank you that I'm not like that man over there. So
everybody could hear him. He probably prayed out loud so
everybody could hear him. And there's that publican going,
God be merciful to me of this sin. And I bet you he said it
in such a way that hardly anyone heard it. My oh my, look at this. Otherwise
ye have no reward of your father which is in heaven. Therefore
when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee.
Don't say, I did all this stuff for the Lord. Well, you know, people do that
when they just start telling you everything they've done. I do this, and I do that at my
church, and I do this, and I do that. Where's Christ? Oh, oh, oh, yeah. My, oh my. Therefore when thou
doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the
hypocrites do in the synagogue and in the streets." Oh, see
these guys used to walk along with their great big robes. That's
why I said when you see those fellows with the collar, they're
just showing you how holy they are. How much they think they're holier
than you are. Nothing but a dead dog sinner
like me. But I'm saved by the grace of
God. I sure hope they are. Oh my. Ah, look at this. They do in
the synagogues and in the streets that they may have what? Glory
of man. That's what they're seeking.
That's what they're seeking. They're seeking man's attention.
They're seeking man's attention. Verily I say unto you, they have
the reward. Oh yeah, they do. but when thou
doest thy alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand
doeth. Thy alms may be in secret, and thy father which seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray, standing
in the synagogues and in the corner of the streets, that they
may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
I'll never forget, I was eating at a restaurant one time with
a couple of religious guys and we sat down I started eating
my sandwich, and they go, you're not going to pray? I said, how
do you know I didn't pray already? I don't have to pray out loud.
I pray in my heart. Thank you, Lord, for this food.
Thank you so much. Glory to your name. I don't have
to put a big show on. I'm not ashamed to pray. No,
I pray in my heart. Scripture tells us here, I don't
have to broom my voice out so everybody in the restaurant knows
that I'm a Christian. What does that accomplish? Most
times those guys sit there, they're a bunch of gramps. They do, because I was one of
them, I know. They think they're better than
all of us. Oh my Lord. So just pray in your
heart. You get some food put in front
of you, just pray in your heart. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. My. So this is what's being said
here about the religious leaders in Israel. It can be said about
the Pharisees in our text as well. Or the Judaizers in Galatians. Their religion's an outward show.
It's an outward show, beloved. And that's what we see there.
In Matthew 6, their religion's an outward show. See, God looks
at the inside, doesn't he? Man looks on the outside. Well,
they're a pretty good fella. Well, yeah, when you compare
him to you or to someone else, someone looks good. But who are
we to compare ourselves with? Christ. And what happens? Everybody's
toast. You compare yourself and I compare
myself to Christ, we're both gonna be in the dust, beloved.
Go in glory to your name that you saved me, Lord Jesus. Praise
your mighty name, you cleansed me in your precious blood and
redeemed my eternal soul. Oh my! But these folks, they
congratulate one another on their spirituality and their religious
devotions and practices. Beloved, our salvation's complete.
We don't need nothing added. It's already done. Right? Our priests have finished work.
Christ did it 2,000 years ago. It's perfect. Hallelujah. He saved us by his blood. He obtained eternal redemption
for us by dying on the cross. He rose again for our justification. And he's seated right now at
the right hand of the Father interceding for us. He did it
all. Praise His mighty name. And we
glory in Him, don't we? We glory in Christ, beloved.
Look at verse 13 here. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised,
that they may glory in your flesh. They just want the attention.
They want to be able to say, oh yeah, that guy's one of mine. Spurgeon said this one time.
Somebody said, oh, that guy there, man, he really likes your preaching.
And Spurgeon said, yeah, unfortunately, he's one of mine. And the guy was talking. He said,
what do you mean? He goes, it's one of my converts, not one of
God's converts. Beware, following the preacher
and idolizing the preacher. That's what Spurgeon said. My,
that's just so sad. And that's from a guy who preached
so many messages and just centered on Christ, didn't he? We don't want our own converts,
no way. No, I desire you to follow the one I preached, Christ Jesus
the Lord. He's the one. He's the one we
have to look to. Oh my, so these religious preachers,
they preach the law, circumcision, to be safe, and they don't even
keep the law themselves, the scripture says here. For neither
they themselves who are circumcised keep the law. Look at that. They're like this. Do as I say,
not as I do. You ever met people like that? Religious folks? Do as I say,
not as I do. outward show below in the flesh
cannot satisfy one part of the law not one I'm gonna I'm gonna
give you a few things of who who are we the glory and quickly
I know I'm run out of time here I'm gonna push it back to the
limit but okay so the name of the message is glorying in in
in the flash right who are we the glory in both the Old Testament
new I'll give you scriptures if you want to write it down
all read them first Chronicles 16 verses 27 Says this, glory and honor are
in His presence, strength and gladness are in His place. Give
unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord
glory and strength. That's who we're to glory in,
right? Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Bring
an offering and come before Him. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of His holiness. Psalm 29.2, give unto the Lord
the glory due unto His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of His holiness. And then in the New Testament,
1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31, whether therefore you eat or
drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Do it all to His glory. And then,
for all the promises of God are yea, and in Him, amen, that's
being Christ, unto the glory of God by us. Now unto God and
our Father be glory forever and ever, amen. Philippians 4.20,
2 Peter 3.18, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever, amen. And
in one of my favorite verses, Jude 25, to the wise, the only
wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion, and power
both now and forever, amen. Amen. It's over. Nothing more
to say. Brother Steve, can you close
us in prayer?