Well, it's good to see everybody
this morning and good to have Terrence Miranda with us. It's
a happy day. We're going to be baptizing two
young believers, thankful to God for them. I want you to turn
with me in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter
6. Let's begin reading in verse
14. 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, a new creation that avails. And as many as walk
according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon
the Israel of God. Now everyone is under a rule
of life. Everybody is under a rule of
life. Nobody is free from a rule of
life that governs their heart. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans
6 in verse 16, he said, Know ye not that to whom ye yield
yourselves to obey? His servants you are to whom
you obey. whether of sin unto righteousness. I mean, whether of sin unto death
or obedience unto righteousness. There's two rules. We're under
one of those two masters, under one of those two rules. But God
be thanked, and He's the only one to be thanked, that you were
the servants of sin. I'm speaking to believers. were
the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart. And that's the key. That's the
key of our text. You've obeyed from the heart. That form of
doctrine which was delivered you, being then made free from
sin, you became the servants of righteousness. The rule of
the believer is under. because we've been made a new
creation in the heart. The rule a believer is under
is to glory in none but the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's why. It's because circumcision availeth,
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but being made a new creature, a new creation inwardly by Christ. That's what avails. That's what
avails. Today we're going to witness
the baptism of Abigail Lutter and Jordan Whitehead. And as we witness their baptism,
they're going to be publicly confessing that they are now
under this rule of Christ. They're confessing they glory
only in Christ. They're confessing that neither
circumcision avails them anything nor uncircumcision. They are
confessing that the only thing that avails is being made an
entirely new creation by the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what
we confess in believers baptism. So what I want you to understand,
and especially these two, and everybody else here, we need
to be reminded of this constantly. The rule of life that a believer
is under is Christ Jesus. by whom we have been made new. We follow Christ. We are led
of Christ. We are corrected by Christ. Everything is following Christ. A couple of weeks ago, John Keller
and I were down in West Virginia and we left the motel and on
our way over to the church building, I didn't know how to get there.
And my pastor Marvin Stoniker was there. And I said, Marvin,
I'm just going to follow you. And we got on the interstate
and we drove along. And I told John, I said, John,
we've been driving now for about five or six miles. I said, I
haven't looked at one sign. I haven't looked at one exit.
I've been keeping my eye on Marvin because I'm following him. That's
what it is to follow Christ. We keep our eye on Him and we
learn everything from Him. Now first of all, our text declares
to us that in Christ Jesus circumcision avails nothing but a new creation
is what avails. Now we spend most of our time,
when we deal with this text, we spend most of our time here.
And I'm going to deal with this portion of it, but I want to
get on to this second thing that's said. Because I think it's very,
very important in our day. Now, from Abraham's day until
Christ came, circumcision was something. The outward ordinance
of circumcision was something. Circumcision pointed to our unrighteousness
before the law and the pollution of our nature. And it pointed
to that because circumcision typified the two things necessary
to make God's elect a brand new creation. It pointed to that
work Christ accomplished on the cross when He shed His blood
and put away our sins and made His people the righteousness
of God in Him. The only way the law could be
fulfilled was by Christ coming and fulfilling it and establishing
it completely for His people. That was the only way it could
be fulfilled. The only way we could be made new before that
law was for Christ to establish it for us. And that's what He
accomplished. And the second thing that circumcision pictured
is that inward work of grace Christ performs through the Holy
Spirit when He circumcises the heart and makes you a new creation
within, giving you a new nature, making you a partaker of the
divine nature. Those are the two things that
were typified by circumcision. Look over a few pages to your
right at Colossians 2 and verse 10. Colossians 2, 10. It says you are complete in Christ,
which is the head of all principality and power. That word complete
is the same word used in the verse just before it when it
says Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You are that
full in Christ. You are as full and complete
in Christ as Christ is the fullness of the Godhead in a body. Now
that's complete. That's complete. "...in whom
also you're circumcised with the circumcision made without
your hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the flesh
by the circumcision of Christ. We were buried with Him when
He was baptized in the judgment of God, wherein also you're risen
with Him through the faith of the operation of God who raised
Him from the dead." And you, being dead in your sins, in your
corrupt nature, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened
together with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses,
blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us, taking the law out of the way. He took it out of the way,
nailing it to His cross, and He spoiled principalities and
powers, There's nobody that's going to have dominion over Christ.
Not the law, not principalities, not powers. He made a show of
them openly triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge
you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or of the
new moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things
to come but the body. is of Christ. Christ is what
all those things pictured. So there we see, brethren, that
circumcision was something. It pictured what Christ would
accomplish. But now that Christ has come
and accomplished it, and when He's accomplished it in your
heart, He makes you to behold, fleshly circumcision avails nothing.
And that's That circumcision was something in Abraham's day
because it was the sign and seal to Abraham that he was the father
of all who believe out of many nations. It was a sign and seal
to Abraham that God had an elect people that He was going to call
out from among both the Jews and the Gentiles from all nations. It was a sign. Christ on the
cross is a sign to us. He's the sign to us that we're
complete. And Christ in the heart is the
seal to us. And that was the sign and seal
represented by circumcision that he was the father of all who
believed. And as far as a natural mark
is concerned, circumcision was the mark that distinguished Jews
from all other people in the world. it brought them under
that old covenant law. And it showed them to be a different
people from anybody else in this world. So when Paul came declaring
Christ is the end of the law, the Judaizers, those that had
been under circumcision and had put their trust in the law, they
wanted that new believers, to be Gentile believers, to be circumcised. And any Jews that were saved
by grace that hadn't been circumcised yet, they wanted them circumcised.
They wanted you to be circumcised. But Paul knew this. If they compelled
believers, if they compelled believers to do this one old
covenant work, then they would be obligated to do the whole
law. And they'd be counting Christ's
blood vanity. they'd be saying Christ's blood
wasn't effectual to fulfill the law. The truth of the gospel
would cease because Christ is the one who broke down that middle
wall of partition. He's the one who established
the law for His people. So Paul wouldn't consent to it
for a minute. When they wanted to compel believers
to be circumcised into flesh, Paul said, no sir. No sir. We will not stand for that. We
will not stand for that because We won't stand for it to make
them righteous and we won't stand for it to make them sanctified
either. The believers are not made righteous or made holy by
our works under the law. Christ is both. We glory only in Christ. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of Christ. I've been made righteous and
holy by Christ. by Christ. And so Paul told them
this back in Galatians 5 and verse 1. Paul said, Stand fast, therefore,
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. Stand fast. Behold, and don't be entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For
I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is
a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you have
fallen from grace. You have left grace altogether.
The mark, you see, that distinguishes all God's elect. This was so
even under that old covenant. It's just what the outward mark
pictured. But this was true of Abraham.
It was true of every believer under Moses, in Moses' day. The
mark that distinguishes a believer is that inward circumcision of
the heart that Christ performs, which makes us look out of ourselves
and rely entirely upon Christ and glory only in Christ. That's
the work that brings us under, not the old covenant law, but
under the everlasting covenant of grace. You see the parallel
between the old and the new? It brought us under this everlasting
covenant of grace so that we glory only in Christ. Paul told
the Pharisees in Romans 2.28, He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly. He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly. Now we are talking about the definition of a true
Jew according to God. He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh.
He is a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart. in the Spirit, not in the letter, in the Spirit. You and I can't accomplish anything
in the Spirit. We can't give ourselves a new
spirit. God can do that, but we can't. So this works of God,
that's why He says, whose praise is not of men, but of God. He said again over in Philippians
3, 3, we are the circumcision. We are the true Jew. We are the
true Israel of God. which worship God in the Spirit. That's that new creation. We
worship God in the Spirit. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus
with glory only in Christ. And we have no confidence in
the flesh whatsoever. I found this interesting. I thought
this was very interesting. When the Jews, the natural Jews,
speak of fleshly circumcision, this is what they say. They say
great is circumcision. It is equal to all the precepts
of the law. For notwithstanding all the commands
which Abraham our father did, he was not called perfect until
he was circumcised. As it is written in Genesis 17,
walk before me and be thou perfect. That's what God said after he
was circumcised. That statement is absolutely true, but it's
not true of fleshly circumcision. It's true when a man's been circumcised
in the heart and made new by what Christ did for us on the
cross and by what Christ did for us in the heart. That's when
it's true. We just read, you're complete
in Him. This work is equal to all the
precepts of the law because faith makes you lay hold of Christ
who established you. And it gives you love in your heart, which
is the fulfillment of the law. Circumcision, inward circumcision,
is equal to all the precepts of the law, because you're complete
in Christ by the circumcision of Christ. By the circumcision
of Christ. Through faith in Christ, we've
established the whole law of God, contrary to those who accuse
us of making the law void, because we say we rest in Christ. Those
who say through faith in Christ we don't make the law void but
we actually go and try to fulfill it with the work of our hands,
they're not getting the meaning of that text. They don't even
believe God. That's not what faith is, what
faith is saying there. True faith rests in Christ knowing
I'm not making void the law, I'm establishing the law by trusting
Christ who established it for me. If you are ever compelled
by somebody to come back under the law and you're told that
there's something you must do or you must not do to make you
justified or sanctified, don't do it. Don't do it. Stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. And if somebody tells you you
can be more justified or more sanctified than what Christ makes
His people, don't buy that. Don't buy that. Stand fast in
this liberty. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. That is what it
is to glory in Christ alone. Now secondly, our text declares
in Christ Jesus neither does uncircumcision avail anything,
but being made a new creation, a new creature. Now this is where
I want to camp for a little while. I have a great fear. I have a
great fear that young believers, babies in Christ, when they hear
us say we're not saved by the works of the law, that they think
what we're saying is that it does not matter how you live
in this world. That's not what we're saying.
Now listen to me. The Gentile believers were the
uncircumcised. You and I are Gentiles. We were
never under the old covenant law of Moses. Ever. Ever. Gentiles have never been under
that old covenant law of Moses. Never. But even with that being
the case, that doesn't avail for us in the least. You know
why? Because we're all legalists by
nature. And we want to come to God by
our works by nature. So just because we're not under
that law and never were under that law, that don't avail us
anything. We had to be made a new creation
by Christ, by God's grace, the same as His elect who were under
that law. Only Christ can do that. Only Christ can make us
new. We had to be given faith to rest in Christ and we had
to be made to be constrained by His love toward good works. Because otherwise, a good work
is not a good work if your motive is to try to gain acceptance
with God. That makes it be a bad work. A motive, the motive that
makes it to be a good work is you're constrained by Christ's
love for you and your love for Him and for your brethren. Else
we would take that true doctrine. Now listen to this. If we're
not circumcised in the heart, we'll take true doctrine and
we'll use it legally the same way men use the law. Turn over
to Galatians 5 again. Galatians 5 and verse 6. In Christ Jesus, He says here,
He is showing you what a new creature is in a different language. Showing you a different light
on what new creature means. Verse 6, In Christ Jesus, neither
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love. Faith which worketh by love.
This is what Christ creates when He creates a new man within us.
Christ is the faithful one. And when the faithful one takes
up dwelling in us by the Spirit, He gives you faith. He is the
essence of us having faith and believing on Him. Because now
we have life from Him and faith from Him. And God whose love
creates love in the heart of His child. Believers are not
ruled by law. We are not motivated by law.
We don't live by the old covenant law at all. The just shall live
by faith. And the law is not of faith.
We live by faith. So though we never were under
that law, it didn't avail. We had to be made new by Christ
in order to believe Christ for all righteousness and all holiness,
all wisdom, all redemption, all. And we had to be made new to
have a motive of love. We had to be made new. But now
let's take it a little further. The uncircumcision are also those
who boast in their liberty. Those who think liberty frees
us to live after the flesh. Or they may believe the five
points of Calvinism. But they imagine that liberty
means we're free to live after the flesh. They imagine the believer
is not under any rule. They say, since salvation is
by grace, it doesn't matter how I live or what I do. Let me ask
you something. Fathers, does it matter to you
if your child dishonors your name? Mothers, does it matter
to you if your child disobeys you? What pleases us? when their desire and their heart
is to please us because they love us. The same is true with
God. To say we are not under any kind
of rule, it doesn't matter how we live, is false. Nothing could
be further from the truth. Now those who do that are true
antinomians. Now you know we are accused of
being antinomians all the time. You can't preach grace without
being accused of being an antinomian. Christ, the Pharisees, the self-righteous,
the self-sanctifiers, they called our Master a gluttonous man and
a drunk. Paul, they said, he's against
the law. He teaches men everywhere against
the law. And Christ said, you and I can
expect the same thing. They're going to call you an
antinomian if you declare that we're saved entirely by Christ
apart from our works. They're going to call you against
the law. But understand this, God's servants are not against
the law. And don't let us be once be found
guilty of saying to others or living as if liberty in Christ
gives us a license to sin. It does not. Freedom from the
law is not a license to do evil. It is not. So look at what Paul
says in Galatians 5.13. Brethren, you've been called
unto liberty. We're free from the law. We're
free from sin. He that's dead is freed from
sin. We're justified from sin. And we're even free from the
dominating yoke of sin ruling us now. Else we wouldn't be able
to believe Christ. We're free from that. You've
been called to liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh. Don't use liberty as an opportunity
to live after the flesh. Now here's the opposite of living
after the flesh. But by love, serve one another. That's true liberty. For all
the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself. But if you bite and devour one
another rather than serve one another, if you live after the
flesh rather than serve one another, take heed that you be not consumed
one of another. That's the end result of it.
This I say then, walk in the Spirit. as Christ's new creature,
and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. You see, the
legalist and the antinomian, the one who says he's for the
law, and saved by the law, and sanctified by the law, and the
one who says he won't have anything to do with the law because he's
free, both of them are serving one, that's self. Both of them
serve self, but Christ's new creatures serve one another.
serve one another. Well, another form of uncircumcision
says this. Oh, Brother Tom thinks he ought
to observe a certain day. And I told him, you must stop
that or you can't be saved. I told him, I hate all legalists. You know, it was not faith in
Christ and it was not love to brethren that came there to Galatia
and began to compel believers to be circumcised and come back
under the yoke of the law. That was not faith in Christ
and that was not love. That was not the work of being
made a new creation. We saw last time, I showed you
in Galatians 2, Paul said, if I say I'm justified by Christ
and I'm found a sinner, is Christ the minister of sin? And what
he's saying there is while I say I'm justified by Christ, I turn
again to the law and again to try to sanctify and justify myself
and yoke others with the law. Is that the sanctification Christ
ministers in the hearts of His people? God forbid. That's a
man making himself a transgressor. Paul says in another place here,
this persuasion didn't come of him that called you. No sir,
it didn't. That was not grace, that was
legalism, that was mixing law and grace, which is just all
works. But let me tell you this, it's
the same legal works mongering if I condemn a weak brother who
thinks he should observe things in the old covenant law. Now
hear what I said. He's a brother. He believes he's
saved by Christ. He believes he's depraved and
that he glories only in Christ. He believes that Christ is the
only hope he has, that Christ made him a new creation. That's
all his hope. And from that heart that's in
love to Christ, he wants to honor Christ. And he thinks he's doing
so by going back to that old covenant law and observing days
and times and seasons. But he's a believer. He's a believer. He's not trying to compel others
to do it. He just believes this is honoring to God. I am not
believing on Christ to do the work in His heart through the
gospel if I try to compel Him and condemn Him if He doesn't
obey me. I'm being as much a Pharisee
as the other. That's true. That's true. I'm making salvation dependent
upon the work of abstaining from the law. That's not salvation. Salvation is Christ being made
a new creation. Uncircumcision don't avail you
anything. You know you're not under the law, good for you.
Don't think that's saving you by knowing that. We're saved
by Christ making us a new creation. I'm glorying in my uncircumcision
if I make the kingdom of God to be about meat and drink in
any way. Or about a certain level of knowledge in any way. Faith,
which worketh by love, remembers this. Look at Galatians 6 and
verse 1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, Here he is in the midst of Galatia, and here's
his brethren that Paul loved and his heart yearns for, and
they're being influenced by these Judaizers. They think they ought
to observe some of these things that they're telling them they
ought to observe under the law. And they're doing some of these things.
They look like they're totally free will works religionists
by doing that. You know what Paul does? He takes
the time to write this letter to show them their freedom in
Christ, to show them their liberty in Christ. And He calls them
brethren all through it. Now those He was harsh toward
were those pharisaical teachers that were promoting that lie.
Christ was gentle and tender to sinners who were under that
false teaching and teaching them the truth. He was gentle with
them when He walked this earth. He was hard towards those blind
leaders is who He was hard toward. But even then, some of them He
saved. The one writing His letters is an example. Brethren, if a
man is overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, are you
really strong? Are you really strong? Here's
what the spiritual man does. Restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness. Meekness is dependent on God
to do the work. That's what meekness does. Considering
thyself, lest thou also be tempted, bear ye one another's burden.
their burden on you. And so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man thinks himself to
be something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. That's why
we need to consider ourselves lest we be tempted. We start
thinking we know something, knowledge puffs up, love edifies. We start thinking we're something
and we know something and he ought to know what I know and
if he don't know what I know, then he's lost. He deceiveth himself. Well, let every man prove his
own work. Prove your own self to be trusting
Christ. How? By meekness of wisdom, by
trusting Christ to teach this brother, and to turn this brother,
and correct this brother. All you are sent to do is declare
Christ to them. Trust Christ to do the work. and prove that you believe Christ
by doing that. And then you'll have rejoicing
in yourself alone and not in another. What does he mean by
that? You know, later when he says the Pharisees, they compel
others to be circumcised so they can glory in what they constrain
you to do. You see, if I'm really trusting Christ, I'm going to
restore the fallen brother by declaring Christ to him. And
I'm going to wait on Christ to work it in his heart. I can't
feed a T-bone steak to a baby and make him be an adult overnight.
And you can't do that with a child of God either. You have to give
him a little bit a little bit and a little bit and wait on
God to do it. And it's a trying work to wait
on God without taking it to your own hand. If you take it in your
own hand, you're going to defile it. And not only Him, you're
going to defile you. But see, if I really trust Him and really
trust Christ, I'll prove it by waiting on Him. And then, the
glory I'll have is that it's in Christ, in my own heart, rather
than glorying and, well, let's see what I've got Him to do.
Here is Paul's answer in another place. Over in Romans 14. Listen
to this. Romans 14 verse 1. Him that is
weak in the faith receive you, but not to doubtful disputation.
Don't be disputing. Don't be disputing. For one believeth
that he may eat all things, another who is weak eats herbs. And this
applies to a lot of different areas. He is just using things
concerning eating and drinking. Let not him that eateth despise
him that eateth not. And let not him which eateth
not judge him that eateth. For God hath received him. Meaning both of them. God's received
them. You got one there who seizes
liberty. You got one there who don't understand
it. But God's received him. We're talking about true believers.
Who are you? Who am I to judge another man's
servant? How do we like it when other
parents come and say, you're not, you're not, let me take
your child over to the side and let me teach your child what
they ought to be doing. That's not your child, that's
my child. Well, that's not your child, that's Christ's child.
That's what he's saying. That's Christ. To his own master
he stands or fall, yea, he should be holding up, for God is able
to make him stand. Look at verse 13. Let us not
therefore judge one another any more, but judge this rather,
that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his
brother's way. I know, and I'm persuaded by
the Lord Jesus that there's nothing unclean of itself, but to him
that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. You know if there's something
in your conscience you believe, to you, and it may be an error,
but to you, that's right and the other's wrong. And until
God purges your conscience and teaches you the truth, I can't
convince you of it. And if you turn and believe something
just because I compelled you to believe it, somebody else
will come along and compel you not to believe it. You've got
to wait on Christ. Look, but if thy brother be grieved
with thy meat, if he's grieved with any way of your liberty,
now walkest thou not charitably? Destroy not him with thy meat
for whom Christ died? Those called by grace have to
be careful not to exalt ourselves over the legalist whom God has
yet to call. We don't know, but they might
be some of God's elect. That's what he was telling the
Gentiles in Romans 11. They were kind of getting high-minded
and they were thinking that all these natural Israelites were
broken off so I could be grafted in. And Paul said, understand
that God's reprobation of men is always just. They were broken
off because of unbelief. God sends them strong delusion
that they might believe a lie because they receive not the
love of the truth. If you go back, look in Romans
9 when Paul said, he was declaring there that the children of promise
are by God's grace. He said those twins were in the
womb, they had done either good or evil. And he said that the
promise of God according to election might stand of him that calleth, not of him
that worketh, he said, the elder shall serve the younger. That's
what he told Rebekah when those twins were in her womb before
they'd done any good or evil. That's to show us God's grace,
God's saving grace is free and sovereign by His sovereign will,
not based on any good or evil in us. And then he said, as it's
written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And if
you read Malachi 3, that's where that comes from. And you'll find
out that was after Esau came forth and said, I don't want
this birthright. I despise this birthright. I
don't believe God. I don't believe that's anything.
And he sold it to serve himself. And God turned him over to reprobation.
God laid his Ladies Mountain low. Everywhere you find that
there is reprobation, it's because God's just. There's always a
for connected to it or a because connected to it. And those who
were of old ordained to this condemnation were ordained whenever
they sinned against God. And the Israelites, he told them
in Isaiah 65, and he said, I'm turning you over. He ordained
them to that destruction that Peter was talking about. And
it's all included in God's eternal covenant of purpose. And how
to explain that? I can't. But I'm telling you,
when God turns a man over, it's just because God's just. It's
just. The wages of sin is death. That means you earned it. If
I go to hell, it's all my fault. But the gift of God is eternal
life. If I'm saved, God gets the glory. God gets the glory. So he told them the natural branches
were broken off because of unbelief. And he told them, don't be high
minded, but fear. Fear. Don't have an attitude
against the legalists that you're better than them because you
believe you're free and they don't. The only reason you believe
is God's grace. That's it. That's it. And the
uncircumcision will say this. Well, I don't care what another
thinks. I don't care what anybody else thinks. I'm free. I can
live like I want to live. Turn to 1 Corinthians 8. 1 Corinthians
8. I'm showing you what it is to
glory in Christ. I'm showing you what it is to
glory in Christ. I'm showing you what it is to trust Christ
to work in His people. I'm showing you what it is not
to try to influence people for the good or for the bad by you
and compel them by you. I'm showing you what it is to
preach Christ and wait on Christ. This is what's the product of
the new creation, the fruit of the new creation. A man says,
I don't care what another thinks. Here's what Christ's new creation
says. This is how you obey Christ and
this is why. 1 Corinthians 8.12. He said,
when you sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience,
they don't know they're at liberty to eat or drink this or that,
and you say, I'm going to do it anyway. And you compel them
to do it. They follow your example and
they do it, but they don't have the faith to do it. And so they
immediately think they're condemned because they hadn't done it.
They fall into all this guilt and trouble because they didn't
do it in faith. Because Christ didn't give them
the faith to do it. You've wounded their weak conscience. And when
you sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience,
you sin against Christ. What does the new man say? Wherefore,
since Christ tells me that, wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend,
I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my
brother to offend. See, here's Paul's point in talking
about this uncircumcision. And get this carefully. Get this
carefully. There are many who have switched
from the Ten Commandments to the Five Points of Calvinism
who are as hard-hearted and self-exalting and provokers who have not moved
an inch from trusting self. If there was not something to
argue about, they would have no interest in the gospel at
all. Have you ever met people like that? When I was younger
and immature, I thought I got to slay all the dragons. And
so I set out to slay all the falsehoods in the world. And
the more I saw Christ, and the sweeter Christ became, the more
I just preached Christ. And as all the old preachers
used to say, if you want to expose a crooked stick, just lay a straight
stick down beside it. And when you start preaching
Christ, and start preaching His glory, and His beauty, and His
righteousness, and His holiness, and His wisdom, and His redemption,
those hard-hearted, self-made five-point Calvinists
just kind of disappear, and they don't want to talk to you anymore.
You're not joining in with them to condemn all the legalists
anymore. Well, you know how that work was done? Just preaching
Christ. Just preach Christ. Just declare
Christ. In sweetness, in kindness, in
grace. The gospel is offensive enough.
We don't have to make it offensive. Just trust Christ. So lastly,
this is what he said here. I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians
7.19. One more place and he tells us
how it is used in this place and I think this is important.
Verse 19, 1 Corinthians 7.19. This is what it is to be a new
creature. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing,
but the keeping of the commandments of God, that is something. That
is something. Just like he said, but a new
creature, that is something. Just like he said, by faith which
works by love, that's something. Here he's saying, by keeping
the commandments of God, that's something. When Christ makes
us a new creation, we delight in the law of God after the inward
man. We would go and fulfill the whole
law of Moses if we could, but we can't. But the light and easy
yoke of Christ is twofold. Believe on Christ. God says this
is the work of Him This is the work of God, right? Christ said
this is the work of God. You should believe on Him whom He
sent. Believing on Christ, all that law is established. And
love one another. And love one another. And we
can't do that except by His grace. And it's by the preaching of
the Gospel that we do it. He gives you faith to rest in
Christ for all. And He gives you love in your
heart so that you are constrained by the love of Christ. You hear
Christ say to you this. Here is His command to you. Everything
written in this book, in the New Testament especially, the
precepts of the Gospel, are Christ speaking. They are Christ speaking.
And He says, Be ye there followers of God as dear children. And
walk in love as Christ hath also loved us
and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to
God for a sweet smell and savor. God's righteous servant, our
substitute, followed God our Father as a dear child. And in
love to the Father and love to His brethren, He gave Himself
for us. And He is to God that offering
that is a sweet smelling savor for His people by which we are
accepted of God. When we were dirty in our sins,
He laid aside His rights and His liberties. Didn't He? I hate it when I hear us talking
and I do this about my rights and I have a right to this. There
is one man that walked this earth that had liberty and had rights.
And He laid them aside. He laid aside His glory, and
He humbled Himself, and He took the form of a servant, and He
didn't make Himself to be known by anybody. And He was obedient
to the death of the cross. He literally, He said, you that
are spiritual, restore your brethren, bear their burden. He literally
took our burden. He bore our sin in His body on
the tree. And He bore the judgment we deserve
on that tree. And He says, now, you walk in
love toward your stumbling, faltering, ignorant brethren just like I've
walked in love and given myself for you, my stumbling, ignorant,
faltering child. How many times could He have
turned to Peter and said, Peter, I'm done with you? How many times
could He have done that with me? And He didn't. He said, now you love your brethren
that way. You love them that way. To show us, because we're
so ignorant, when the disciples' feet was dirty, their walk was
dirty, you know what He did? He bent down at their feet. He
didn't exalt Himself. He bent down at their feet and
washed their feet. And He said, now I've given you an example.
I'm your Lord. I'm your Master. But I've given
you an example that you should do as I've done and wash one
another's feet. The circumcision would have said,
would have whipped them, came to them and whipped them, and
said, now you better get to cleaning your feet before you can come
back into our fellowship. The uncircumcision would have
said, that don't matter if your feet are dirty. Come on, we're
going to get them more dirty. We're free. God's child, the one made
a new creature, lays aside his rights, bows down, bears with
their faults, bears with their burden, bears with their error,
bears with all of it so that he can point them to Christ because
he knows Christ is their only hope. Their only hope. Concerning our liberty now, let
me say this and I'll be finished. If someone tries to compel us
to be circumcised or to be uncircumcised, they try to compel you to live
under the law or they try to compel you to throw off all rule
altogether. stand fast in the true liberty
wherewith Christ is made us free. Don't be entangled with that
bondage because both of them are bondage. But if we're not
compelled, if you're not compelled and you see that your liberty,
what you have a right to do because God's made you free, you see
what you have a right to do is going to offend a weak brother
or it's going to be a distraction to a lost sinner so that he can't
hear the gospel of Christ, then you lay aside your liberty. Lay
it aside. It's not about me. It's not about
my right. It's about Christ being glorified
and getting the glory for teaching His people. That same man over
there that said, stand fast in your liberty, also said this
in 1 Corinthians 9.12. He said, we suffer He said, We
have this power but we haven't used it. We suffer all things
lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. He said in verse 19,
For though I be free from all men, yet I've made myself servant
unto all that I might gain no more. He said down there in verse
23, This I do for the gospel's sake that I might be partaker
thereof with you. Look over here at 1 Corinthians
10.31. Here's the law of Christ right here. Here's what it is
to be a new creation. Here's our rule. And it's not
like the letter of the law. This rule is spirit. And it applies to every occasion,
every situation, whatever you face, anytime, period. Here it is. 1 Corinthians 10
31. Whether therefore you eat or
drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give
none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles. Don't give offense to the circumcision
or the uncircumcision, nor to the church of God, nor to those
that are made new creatures. Even as I please all men in all
things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many
that they may be saved. Be ye followers of me. Did you
learn this from the law, Paul? From the letter of the law? Did
you learn it from the uncircumcision or from the circumcision? Even
as I also am a follower of Christ. That's liberty. That's liberty. To be set free. To follow Christ. When they're baptized, they're
going to be confessing that liberty is not in circumcision, it's
not in law keeping, and liberty is not in throwing off the yoke
of the law. But liberty is being made a new creature. Liberty
is obeying the commands of Christ, our new master. And liberty is
trusting Him and doing everything by the constraint of His love.
That's liberty. You walk in that liberty, bud,
you'll be in good shape. God will keep you. God will correct
you. God will save you. And He'll do that for you, brethren.
He'll do that for you. So you don't have to jump on
Him and try to rule everything on Him. And you don't have to
try to run roughshod over her. If you trust Christ and love
Christ more than you love each other, you bow to Him. Bow to His rule. Trust Him to
teach each other, correct each other. You just love each other.
Point each other to Christ. Christ will take care of it.
He'll take care of it. The same is true with us toward
our pastors. The same is true with us toward
our brethren. The same is true with us toward the Law Center.
Christ will take care of it. Trust Him. Go home tonight and
read Colossians 3.10. You'll see what it is to put
this new man on and walk in Him. Alright, brethren. Our great God and our Father,
what tremendous mercy You've shown to sinners like us. What
great abounding grace You've shown to send forth Your Son
and make us new creations. Lord, we thank You, You didn't
look to anything of our old self. Thankful that You didn't use
anything of our old nature. Lord, we're thankful that You
did it all. And all the glory and honor is under You. We thank
You, Lord, for these two young believers. Whatever you have in store for
them, Lord, we trust your will. We trust your ability. We trust
your grace. We trust you. We thank you for them, because
what you've done for them glorifies Christ. That's what we want. Lord, help them to hear the words
that were spoken here today. Help us all to hear them and
help us to have these words rooted so deep in our heart that hell
can't get them out. And cause us, Lord, to bow. Bow
to you. Bow to our brethren. Submit ourselves to one another,
casting all our care on Christ and trusting that you will provide
for us. Lord, forgive us of our haughtiness.
Forgive us of walking in circumcision and walking in uncircumcision.
Please crucify that old man. Keep him down. Keep us, Lord,
ever alive and looking to You and our new man. Forgive us our
sins, Father, for Christ's sake and Your glory. We ask it in
His name. Amen.