Galatians chapter 6. Let's go to the Lord before we
begin. Our great God and our Father, we thank you for bringing
us to this place and assembling us here together. We ask now
that you would give us your spirit, that you would speak these words
to our hearts and make us to look to Christ and
rejoice in him. Thank you for all your blessings,
Father. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Galatians 6, in verse
4. Now, we saw that Paul spoke of
restoring brethren. We touched on this a little bit,
but not very much. But at the end, in verse 4, he
said, But let every man prove his own work. Prove means to
test, to try, to examine. He's saying, Seek to it, I'm
looking to Christ. Believing on Christ, using the
gospel of Christ, asking Christ will be done, waiting on Christ. Then shall he have rejoicing
in himself alone and not in another. Then our rejoicing will be in
Christ, it will be in our heart, in him, and not in another, not
in the wisdom of men. Now there's a contrast in verse
12. He says, 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, but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. 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." Paul had experienced
the power of God's grace He had experienced the mercy of Christ. The Lord had come to him and
spoken to him in power, and he had experienced this. The Lord
sent Annas to him, speaking to him the things that Christ would
have delivered, and he experienced the power of the Gospel himself.
And so he is teaching us here to glory only in Christ and Him
crucified. He is teaching us here that use
the gospel and try to restore and try to, so that we rejoice
in what Christ alone has done, what he's able to work in the
hearts of his people, rather than in what we made others do. Now I want to notice first this
contrast in the Pharisee. Why do, why did the Pharisees
constrain men rather than use the gospel of Christ and him
crucified? Why did they do that? First, Paul said, they desire
to make a fair show in the flesh. He said, as many as desire to
make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised. And you know you can put anything
there for circumcision. It's not exactly the act that
makes it law. It's the motive and it's using
another means besides the glory of Christ and Him crucified.
You remember Paul had Timothy circumcised so it wouldn't be
a distraction as they went in and preached the gospel in the
synagogue. So it's not the actual act that makes it law, it's the
motive. It's the motive. It's using another means to coerce. They desire to make a fair show
in the flesh. They want to show themselves
superior to others. They want to show that they constrained
others to do something. They want to do it to add numbers
to their assembly, to attract more. The more numbers, the more
others will be attracted. And desiring this fair show is
because the natural man has not seen, he's not experienced in
his own heart the power of God through the gospel, through the
preaching of the gospel. He's not seen his own depravity,
his own inability, his own vileness before God. Christ has not been
made his only righteousness. Paul said that in Romans 10 in
verse 1. He said, Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. For I bear them record they have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
That's a person. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So this is what
the Pharisee has not experienced. And secondly, verse 12, he says,
Only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. To use the gospel of Christ means
that we're not going to get any glory. We're not going to be
able to say we constrained anybody. And to preach the gospel of Christ
is offensive to natural man. To declare that God the Father
chose whom he would in Christ before the world was made, he
chose Christ and chose his people in Christ for Christ to do everything
to bring us to glory, that's offensive to a man that's trusting
his own will. To declare that Christ came forth
and laid down his life and accomplished the redemption of his particular
people, that he didn't fail, he wasn't just trying to make
it possible, he accomplished it. And he's now calling out
those he redeemed through this gospel. He's going to speak irresistibly
through the Spirit in the heart and call His people to Himself
and give us life and faith to believe on Him. And it's not
of man's will, it's of God's mercy. And that's offensive.
And that will bring about persecution by them that have enmity in their
heart toward God. They'll lose numbers. Men will
lose numbers if they preach Christ. They'll have to wait on the Lord
to add to the church daily such as should be saved. And there'll
be some persecution. It requires patience that God
gives and faith in Christ to preach, pray, and wait. Preach, pray, and wait. And in 3, he says here, they
seek to glory in what they coerce others to do. He says in verse
13, neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law,
but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. Glory in you. He says they do
not keep the law. They do not keep the law. The
law is only kept one way. in perfect righteousness with
no sin. That's the only way the law is
kept. In perfect righteousness with
no sin. And the only one who ever kept
the law in perfect righteousness with no sin is Christ Jesus the
Lord. And the way His righteousness,
He made His people the righteousness of God in Him. And the way His
righteousness is imputed to us is through God-given faith apart
from our works. And that's how we're made the
righteousness of God, is by Christ. He is that righteousness. That's
given to us through faith. Natural men haven't experienced
the power of God's grace through the gospel. They've not had the
rejoicing, their heart is not rejoicing in Christ. When Paul
spoke up there about proving our own selves, that our rejoicing
will be in ourselves, he's not saying we're going to rejoice
in something we've done. The rejoicing is in Christ. We're looking to Christ and rejoicing
in what He's done. He says in Himself because it's
in your heart. You see what He's done. You believe
Him. You trust Him and you see Him and what He's able to do. But they don't have this rejoicing.
Paul calls, or James called it, being a double-minded man. That
is somebody who is mixing grace with works. He's minding, trying
to mind the things of God, but he's really minding the things
of the flesh. It's not having faith in Christ.
Therefore, there's no faith in Christ's ability to work from
His throne in glory through this gospel in the hearts of His people.
He really is doing that. So men would rejoice in what
they constrained others to do, casting out some and encouraging
others to fit the mold. You see these large churches
and they do a lot of going out door to door and things and a
lot of that is because it's a revolving door. You've got to keep bringing
people in the front because people keep going out the back. This casting out some and coercing
others is seeking vain glory. He said there in verse 26, chapter
5 verse 26, let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one
another, envying one another. That's what the preaching of
works is. The Lord said that men, when
they come to God in the day of judgment and stand before Him,
they're even going to boast before Him in what they did in others,
what they constrained others to do. He said, many will say
to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your
name and in thy name? We've cast out devils. We cast
them out. And in thy name done many wonderful
works. And Paul is saying they're looking
at these converts they made and saying look at these wonderful
works. And I'll profess unto them I never knew you. Depart
from me ye that work iniquity. This is what Paul is speaking
about as well when he said they that are after the flesh do mind
the things of the flesh. But they that are after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit. To be carnally minded is death,
to be spiritually minded is life and peace. This is who Paul was
speaking about when he said in Philippians 2, 3, beware of dogs,
beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are
the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in
Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. not in our own
and not in another. This is what Paul means by let
us prove our own work. Make certain that we're glorying
only in Christ, only in our Redeemer, Christ and Him crucified, trusting
Christ, using the means of the gospel that God has ordained,
and praying to Him, depending upon Him, and waiting on Him
to do the work. That's why I said back up there
in Galatians 6.1, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. This is so tempting for us because
we have an old Ishmael in us, a proud man in us that wants
to... We don't want to wait on God.
We don't want to wait on Christ to work. Bear ye one another's
burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think
himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own
work. This is not something another can do for me and not something
another can do for you. Prove your own work. Trust in
Christ. Then he shall have rejoicing
in himself alone, rejoicing in Christ, and not in another. Not
in another. Not in the fact Somebody constrained
him to do something and not in that he constrained somebody
else to do something. For every man shall bear his
own burden. We're going to each stand before God and nobody's
going to answer for us but us. We're going to stand there ourselves
before the Lord. So believers born of the Spirit,
we're not trying to make a fair show in the flesh. We're not
trying to make ourselves appear better than others. We are not
trying to coerce men so we can rejoice in what we made them
do. We are waiting on the Lord. We know something about His power
and His grace and we wait on the Lord. Then look here, this
is why, this is so, Christ brings his people to glory only in the
cross of Christ. Paul said, 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. The Spirit
has given us faith to behold Christ and the death of the cross
and see that in Christ is all our salvation. He's all our righteousness,
He's all our hope. Paul said they constrain you
lest they should bear persecution for the cross of Christ. When
you look to Christ, when He walked this earth, Christ bore persecution
and He bore reproach. He is the gospel and He preached
the gospel. He declared He Himself is the
way, the truth and the life. He declared He's the righteousness
of His people. He preached the gospel, and he
bore persecution, he bore reproach because of that. But even Christ
pleased not himself, but as it's written, the reproaches of them
that reproach thee fell on me. He is the gospel, and he declared
the gospel. And he would not take the offense
out of the gospel. That's what Paul said back up
in Galatians 5. In verse 11 he said, if I yet
preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the
offense of the cross seized. Just give a man one thing to
do and you won't receive any of that enmity of the natural
heart. Give him something to do to contribute to Christ's
work and he will not find fault with you. And then Christ, after He went
to that cross and laid down His life, He satisfied God's infinite
justice fully, put away the sin of His people completely. And
then He sent the gospel to us. And by His Spirit, He spoke effectively
into our heart. And by Christ, now the world's
crucified unto us and we're crucified to the world. That's a very good
definition of what it is to be sanctified. is to be dead to
the world and the world dead to you. Separated. Made to rest in Christ only and
trust Christ only. But he made us experience the
power of this gospel. He is the power. He's the wisdom
and power of God. He made us experience this power
in our heart when he called you. When He called you by His grace,
He gave you life, He gave you faith. Paul said, whereunto He
called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He purged our conscience by His
blood. That's how He gave us repentance
from dead works. By His blood. Beholding He is
our completion and our acceptance. And His calling is by His will. It's not by our will. His calling
was by His will. We're saved by God's will. He
made us willing in the day of His power. Not by the power and
wisdom of men. We were born not of blood, not
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And His calling is by the gospel. That's how 1 Corinthians 1 says
it pleased God to save through the foolishness of preaching.
And so He sent us the gospel that gives the triune God in
Christ all the glory and doesn't give sinners any glory. The only
thing we can glory in is the fact that we sinned and He saves
us from our sin. He loved His people. We didn't
love Him. He chose us. We didn't choose
Him. He quickened us and robed us. We didn't do that by ourselves.
He did that. And He drew us to Him and He
continues to do so. It's not like the world says
when they tell you to make your decision for Christ. Choose Christ. And the Lord makes it to where
He makes Himself all in your heart And he takes away the choices. He becomes all. You see that
without him you have nothing. And he brings you to believe
on him. It's irresistible. You can't but believe on him
and follow him. This is why Paul said he experienced
this. And so now we're not comparing
ourselves with others. That's not how we measure ourselves
by comparing ourselves with others. We're not desiring a fair show
in the flesh. We're not trying to impress people
and do stuff to be seen to men. We're not attempting to constrain
others to do. Paul said in 2nd Corinthians
4.1, he said, therefore seeing we have this ministry as we have
received mercy, That's how we received this ministry, that's
how we were called, that's how He brought us to faith, and that's
how He sustains us, by His mercy. And knowing that and experiencing
that, we faint not. That's the only way we don't,
by Him. but have renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, not handling the
word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth
of the gospel of Christ, preaching Christ in Him crucified. Commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God, but if our gospel's hid,
it's hid to them that are lost. whom the God of this world hath
blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
we're not preaching man. We're not preaching man, we're
preaching Christ Jesus the Lord. and ourselves your servants for
Jesus' sake. For God, this is how we came
to have this mercy, this is how we experienced this power. For
God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels. Why did God save you and me who
have no power in ourselves to do anything except what we receive
from God? Why did He save us the way He
did through the preaching of the Gospel, through another earthen
vessel preaching the Word? Why did He save us this way and
then send us forth as earthen vessels to preach the Word? That
the power, the excellency of the power may be of God and not
of us. Not of us. And lastly, I want
you to see this. It's Christ's love and grace
that makes his saints more ready to receive sinners and restore
fallen brethren than to coerce and cast them out. That's a last resort. Paul said,
him that's weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful
disputations. Not doubting and not disputing
them. That's to reject Christ. It really is. Having experienced this power
through the preaching of the gospel, we know Christ is able
to save to the uttermost. Paul said, to his own master
he stands or falls. To his own master. That's Christ. He said, yea, he shall be held
up for God's able to make him stand. Nobody else is. The sad
thing is, let me read on verse 19, he says, let us therefore
follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith
one may edify one another. And he says at the end of verse
23, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. This is the danger
right here. You can coerce men into doing
anything, just about. But if it's not of faith, it's
sin. It's coercing men to sin. We believe in Christ by the faith
of Christ who lives in us. Our faith is of Christ. Of Christ
are we given faith. Of Christ our faith is increased.
It's of Christ of His faithfulness that we're justified. Look back
at Galatians 2.16. And if your Bible doesn't have
this distinction between of and in, that's not good because this
is an important distinction. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law but by the faith of Christ. That's Christ's
work right there. That's him, his person and his
work. We're justified by what he did.
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ. Now that's your faith
he's given you to believe in him. that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Look at
Galatians 2 and verse 20. I am crucified with Christ, I
am dead to the law, nevertheless I live, yet it is not even I
that lives. But Christ liveth in me, and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith
of the Son of God. His faithfulness working. The
same One who loved me and gave Himself for me. And so now by
His grace, having been given faith by the faith of Christ,
and having Christ abiding in you, now by faith we behold the
Head, Christ the Head, who is the Head of the body, who is
the Head of every member of the body, the Church. And it is from
Him, Scripture says, All the body by joints and bands have
nourishment ministered and knit together and increase with the
increase of God. Who did the apostles ask for
an increase of faith? In Luke 17, verse 5, the apostles
said, Unto the Lord increase our faith. He is the only one
that can. He is the only one that can.
Weak faith though, if somebody has weak faith, And they've fallen, and they need restoring. Weak
faith is of Christ, just like strong faith is of Christ. They're
both of Christ, according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
And only Christ gives the increase. So Paul said here, let us prove
our own work by Christ working in us, That's how we're going
to prove it by Christ working in us to make us look out of
ourselves to Him and trust Christ so that we speak these things
of the Gospel and this truth of the Gospel. Reminding each
other what Christ has done and what He is to us. It's that message
Christ is going to use in every situation. It's what He used
the very first time He called you to Him. It's what He's going
to keep using. And then Christ gets all the
glory. Because He gave the faith, and He increased the faith, and
He made His child stand, and He gets all the glory. We don't
get any. But whatsoever is not of faith,
whatever is not of Christ, not by faith in Christ, is sin. That's why Paul preached Christ
and Him crucified. He said, the gospel is the means
God ordained. And listen to what he said about
this. Our brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power." What he's describing here is
demonstration of the Spirit and of power. To preach Christ only,
and Him crucified. To be so humbled by a view of
your own total nothingness, that you're not preaching down to
those you preach to, because you're on the bottom. That's the only way we can read
the scripture or preach the scripture is first to be slain by it and
then to see Christ as our only righteousness in it. And he said, and this is how
I came to you that your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of men but in the power of God. It's not in how the man speaks
or with what power he speaks or how he speaks. From what we
see in the scripture, Paul was probably a stuttering man who
was blind and crooked and bent over and his bodily presence
was weak. There was nothing about him to
commend him to anybody. Because it's not of us, it's
of God. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
So that He that glories, let Him glory in who? In the Lord.
Let's end with Ephesians 3. Just a few pages to your right
there, if you're using a Bible. Ephesians 3. So we'll have this rejoicing
in our own heart in Christ. You hear what he's saying? It's
in Christ. It's not by power and wisdom of men. It's by the
constraint of Christ's love shed abroad in our heart, which he
sheds abroad in the hearts of brethren through this gospel.
This is what Paul prayed for, Ephesians 3.14. For this cause
I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of
whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named, that He
would grant you, that He would grant you, according to the riches
of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the
inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that
ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that
ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." That's what
he works in his people. That's what He has to work in
us, to humble us and keep us looking only to Him, speaking
only of Him, and waiting only on Him to do the work. That's what Paul's saying here.
Alright, let's go to the Lord. Our great God and our Father,
we do thank You that You raised Christ to your right
hand. You made Him the head over your
church. Thankful, Lord, that there is
a holy and righteous God-man there who is our life, who knows
our infirmities and knows that we're dust. who Himself has walked where
we walked, depended upon you, and who is just expert in ministering to
His people. Lord, we ask You to fill our
hearts with this love of Christ that You would Make us see how secure Your people
are in Christ and how complete Your people are in Christ. That You'd make us bow to Him. Make us hate our sins and our
shortcomings so much so, Lord, that we can't Do anything but rejoice in your
mercy and rejoice in it toward our brethren. How gracious you've been to your
people. How continually long-suffering
and gracious you are to us. We thank You, Lord, and we ask
You that You would bless this Word to our hearts and make us
to be faithful to Your Word, faithful
to Your Gospel, faithful to Christ, and just be an earthen vessels that
You'd just use us to pour out the truth of the Gospel. point
one another away from ourselves and away from these vain things
below and keep our affection. Sit single on Christ and fill
our hearts with that hope and that love of knowing one day
soon, Lord, you're going to bring us to yourself. Knit your body together. We ask
you give the increase as only you can. Make us receive and not doubt. Seek things that make for peace.
Lord, would you work this in our heart? We really are asking
you, would you work this in your people? We give You the glory, we give
You the honor. We praise Your name, Lord. We thank You for being holy and
righteous and all Your mercy to us. Lord, thank You for forgiveness
of sin. Thank You for purging us and
cleansing us and keeping us robed in Christ's righteousness. It's
in His precious name we ask these things. Amen.