Alright brethren, let's take
your Bibles and turn to Galatians. Galatians chapter 2. Paul is describing that the false
doctrine, the false gospel, which is no gospel, that was now troubling
the churches in Galatia, that had come to those churches there
in Galatia, it had come to the churches in Antioch, in Syria,
and Cilicia. And Paul, Paul's response to
that was to preach Christ alone and asserted that Christ is our
salvation. He's your justification, brethren. He's your sanctification. Christ
is your all. And Paul, being moved by the
Spirit of God, saw that so clearly. and made that his emphasis, his
focus was to preach nothing to the brethren save Jesus Christ
and him crucified because he is salvation. He is the justification
of God. He is your righteousness. He's
the one who put away your sin. And there's nothing that you
or I add to that, that we need to add or can add to what Christ
has done for us. And so I've titled the message
that which Paul did, Preach Christ Alone. That's the emphasis. That's
what we're called to do, preach Christ alone. Now he says in
Galatians 2 verse 1, Then fourteen years after I went up again to
Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also. And I went
up by revelation, he says. Meaning, there's a reason that
Paul went to Jerusalem. He was compelled by the Lord
to go to Jerusalem. It tells us, turn over to Acts
15. Let's leave a marker in Galatians, but when you get to Acts 15,
put a marker there as well, because there's a few verses we'll be
reading from that chapter. In Acts 15, verse 1, We see there that certain men
which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, except
ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. So here were some men that came
from Judea to the churches. They would follow after where
the gospel had been preached by an apostle such as Paul. They would follow behind them
and they thought that they were adding something of value. They thought that they could
add something to the understanding of the brethren that was needful,
that would help them, that would sanctify them, that would make
them grow in their understanding of Christ. they were preaching
bondage. They thought they were adding
something, but they added nothing to the gospel, and what they
really were doing was preaching bondage. They were destroying
the work of Christ. They were tearing it down, so
to speak. They were not adding anything
of value, but adding that which is burned up, that which is garbage,
that which is dung. And so, What we see is that Christ
is the sinner's liberty. Christ delivers his people. Christ
opens the prison door and sets the prisoners free. Christ doesn't
bring us deeper into bondage. He delivers his people from bondage. He is our liberty. He is our
freedom. He's our deliverer. He's our
savior. He's our all. And so Christ delivers
his people from the yoking bondage of the law of Moses. that except
you perform some religious acts, some religious service, unless
you add and grow and go deeper into religion, you cannot be
saved. That's a lie. That's not the
gospel. Christ is all, all your salvation. Now there are things that believers
don't do, that we don't want to do. When the Lord delivers
us, he delivers us from the love of sin and from just going on
practicing the same lusts and sinful things that we did before
we were saved. In other words, we're not going
to claim to believe Christ and then continue on practicing idolatry
and worshiping multiple gods and just saying, well, it doesn't
matter what you choose. There's many ways to God. The
Lord, the Spirit teaches us not to speak like that because we
know that's false. There's not a broad way that
leads to salvation. There's a narrow way, and that
way is Christ. He teaches us that. He delivers
us from that, and he teaches us not to do things that harm
our neighbor, a brother, or a neighbor, someone inside the church or
outside the church. We're not going to do those things
that harm our brethren because it's not love. We're not going
to steal from our brethren and lie to them. We're not going
to commit adultery with their spouses and covet those things
that they have. The Spirit teaches us that. He
teaches us that. He turns us from those things
to love our brethren. But that is not your justification. That's not your salvation. Now
our Lord summed up what I just said there in Mark 12 verses
30 and 31 when he said, thou shalt love The Lord thy God, with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with
all thy strength, this is the first commandment. And the second
is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment
greater than these. No believer seeks to walk contrary
to those things. We don't seek to walk contrary
to the truth that's declared there. We are still in this sinful
flesh, and we see the weaknesses and the infirmities of this flesh. And so we lean on the Lord, and
we look to the Lord, help me, Lord, to love you as I ought
to love you. Help me to love my brethren and
others in this world as I ought to love them. because in ourselves
we are weak and foolish and we do things that sometimes are
contrary to the gospel. and because we see our need of
the Savior. But we do those things not to
justify ourselves. We don't do those things with
an understanding that we're sanctifying ourselves. Sometimes we feel
like that, but the Lord shows us, no, no, your delight is Christ. Your salvation is Christ. We glory in Him. He's all our
salvation. And so we seek to honor our God
because we are saved. and because we are children of
God, washed in the blood of Christ. And we have the Spirit of God,
whereby we're born again, born from above by the Spirit of God. And we walk in newness of life
by faith, not trusting in the things that we do, not looking
and saying, oh, there's my assurance. No, Christ is all our assurance,
and he's all our salvation. We are assured of the love of
God in Christ. And salvation is by Him and the
washing of His blood. That's our hope and our salvation. And you know that because the
Spirit teaches us that. So when someone stands up and
says, except GBX or Y or Z, you cannot be saved, except you do
this or do that and stop doing this, except you do these things,
you cannot be saved. We know that's not truth. That's false. Christ is all of
my salvation. He's everything that God needs
and requires of me. He's all my salvation. And so we know it's false because
by saying those things, except you do this, except you be like
this, you cannot be saved. They're putting X, Y, and Z on
the same level with Christ. They're making a hint that those
things are necessary for your salvation, and they're putting
a yoke on your neck and something in your hand for you to do. And so in this case, they were
saying, except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye
cannot be saved. And so they tried teaching this
falsehood in Antioch, and they went and convinced those in Galatia
of it as well. Though it was fought against
hard in Antioch. And so, turn over to Galatians
five. Look at Galatians five, verse
two through six. Paul's very clear here, having
gone through this in Antioch, He's telling them the same things,
warning them, this is not salvation, what you're doing. Galatians
5.2, Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised,
If this is a condition of your salvation, right? We know today
that many sons have been circumcised. It's more of a health thing,
a common thing. That's not the issue. It's when
it's done because you think this is grace. This is sanctification. This is something I need to do.
to be pleasing to God. This is the next step now. I
believed on Christ and now I gotta keep on going further. I gotta
get circumcised now and I gotta do other things. He's saying
if you be circumcised as a condition of your salvation, Christ shall
profit you nothing. And I can say that because Paul
did circumcise Timothy so as not to make him a stumbling block
to others where they were ministering. But it wasn't for salvation.
There's no contradiction there. But if you trust in the things
that you do, what he's saying there is 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're fallen from grace. For we through the spirit
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love. Because the spirit dwells in
the people of God. You're a temple of the living
God. You're his child. He dwells in
you and he teaches you and keeps you and sustains you and provides
for you and keeps your heart looking to him. So today there
may not, there are some people that are so fixated with the
law of Moses that they do think that circumcision is necessary
as a condition of salvation. But there's not many that are
teaching that. But regardless of that, that legalistic false
spirit is very present in our day. We see it in ourselves.
We see that legalism in our own thoughts and look at things that
we do sometimes and think, Things are going good with me and the
Lord, and we look at those things, and then we're reminded, Lord,
forgive me. You're all my hope. You're all
my salvation. I thank you for how you turn
my heart. I thank you for how you teach
me, but it's all of Him. You know, even when we're taught
to pray, not according to my will, but thy will be done, Thank
the Lord because that is the Lord turning your heart. That
is the Lord teaching you that he's everything, that it's his
will be done. We don't first pray, not my will,
but thy will be done. The Lord says, ah, you're getting
it now. No, we're blessed by the Lord when we pray and seek
his will to be done. And so we see that, that, that
legalistic spirit in, in our own minds, as well as very present
in the churches so-called in our day. But brethren, for your
justification, your sanctification, We don't look to the law of Moses
as a rule of life. We don't look to any religious
practice as necessary for our salvation, even baptism. It was
commanded of us of the Lord to be baptized. You that believe,
be baptized, believing, calling upon the Lord to cleanse you
of your sins, but trusting Him that He's all. But that doesn't
save us any more than the thief on the cross was saved. We didn't
add anything to our salvation. We didn't add anything to the
work of Christ. Christ is all our salvation. We just rose in
faith, did what the Lord said to do, but it didn't add to our
salvation. So neither circumcision, not
Sabbath keeping, nor the law as a rule of life is our hope. That's a snare and a slippery
slope. Because you're taking your eyes
off Christ and you're looking to something that you're doing,
believing that it's adding in some measure to your salvation. And Paul said, when you do that,
Christ shall profit you nothing. Christ shall profit you nothing.
Now, understand what I'm saying. Fruits of righteousness are born
in the people of God. The Lord has ordained good works
that we should walk in them. And so you that are washed in
the blood of Christ, you're led by the Spirit of Christ. And
he gives you things to do. Oftentimes, you don't even know
it. Oftentimes, you don't even realize the good that you're
doing for someone in the church or a brother. We don't usually
see it or know it. But men of the flesh will take
of these fruits and start looking for them, for evidences and for
assurances and for comforts for themselves or they'll look to
a ceremonial religious practice and they'll make one of them
or both of them condition, a condition for their salvation and for you. They'll look to make it a condition
of salvation that they might make their boast. and have confidence
in something that they've done for the Lord, in something in
their own salvation. And so, they would say that by
what I'm saying, I'm on the slippery slope. But the reality is, when
they add something to Christ, they've now gone on the broad
way that leadeth to destruction. where you can't even see Christ.
There's so many distractions and so many things, you don't
even see Christ anymore because you're so busy focusing on your
religion rather than glorying in He that saves you. And on
that narrow way, there's only one person to see, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because we know, Lord keep me,
help me. I know what I am in this flesh,
I know what my heart is, I know what my mind is, Lord keep Have
mercy, save me, Lord. Keep me ever looking to you. And that's what we see on the
narrow way is Christ alone. So except ye keep the moral law
after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. No! We live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me. We live by him. Him alone. Look at what Paul writes in Galatians
5 chapter 5 verse 13 and 14. He says for brethren We see that
we're saved by Christ and we walk by faith. So he says, brethren,
ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law
is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself. And so the spear gives us that
word and we hear it in the heart where Christ dwells by faith. We hear it. It's the Lord that
keeps us. We're not looking to the law
of Moses to know how to walk. We look to Christ and he teaches
us how to walk. That's what our Lord means when
he said in Jeremiah 31, 33, I will put my law in their inward parts
and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they
shall be my people. We don't look to tablets of stone. to know how to live and how to
treat people. We have the spirit of God who
teaches us to love, to do unto others as you would have done
unto you. If you don't want to be punched in the face, don't
punch someone in the face. If you don't want to have something
stolen from you, don't steal from another. If you would have
others be patient with you, be patient with them. Show them
the grace that you've been shown by the Lord and love your brethren
and love those that that you come in contact with. You don't
need tablets of stone to teach you that and to tell you that.
You have the Spirit of God. that keeps you and teaches you.
Again, Paul said in Romans 6, verses 12 through 14, he said,
let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should
obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have
dominion over you, for you're not under the law, but under
grace." And so we're reminded, the tablets of stone, the Ten
Commandments, and any part of the Law of Moses, that's not
our rule of life. We're not walking contrary to
those things in the Ten Commandments. We live them by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And when we do fall, when we
do sin, our Lord teaches us and turns us back to himself and
shows us again that Christ is our all and our salvation. So except ye be under the blood
of Christ, ye cannot be saved. except you be purchased and cleansed
with the blood of the dear Savior, the Son of God, the sacrifice
for the sins of the people. Except we be cleansed by His
blood, we cannot be saved. But there's nothing else added
to that. You're either saved by Christ or we're not saved
at all. We're saved by Him. And so, our
Lord, He's the one that brings us under the blood. It's all
of His grace. We don't even get ourselves to
the blood. We look to Him, we cry out to
Him, we seek Him, we pray to Him, and we're burdened to look
to Him and brought to see Him, and it's all of His grace. It's
all of His grace, because salvation belongeth unto the Lord. It belongs
to Him, Psalm 3, 8. Whom He came to save, they shall
hear the voice of the Son of God. We shall follow Him. Our Lord said in John 8, 12,
He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the light of life. That's not a command to your
flesh. That's a promise of God to you, His people. You that
are His, you shall follow Him and you shall be taken from darkness
and you, looking to Christ, have the light of life. He's teaching
you. He's turning our minds. He's
stripping us of that vain religious baggage we all have collected
over the years and try to keep around in the sin of this flesh
But thank God for his grace and his mercy, which is long-suffering
to us were in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we trust him.
And even when we're fools and think more highly of ourselves
than we ought to think, our God is merciful and teaches us and
corrects us and keeps our wandering hearts, turns us back to Christ. We see here that the will of
our God in Christ is that He will be gracious to you, His
chosen elect people. God's purpose and will for you
in Christ is that He will be gracious to you. That's such
a sweet, sweet meditation to think of the kindness, the love,
and the mercy of our God in Christ, His Son. And so we preach the
gospel to all because God is going to testify those that are
His by revealing faith in their hearts, to trust Christ, to confess,
yes, Lord, it's not my works, not my works of righteousness.
It's not my religion that saves. It's not even my faith. All of
it is the gift of God to me, unmerited, undeserved in Christ. And when he arose from the dead,
he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. And so that
faith whereby you trust Christ, that too is the gift of God for
you in Christ Jesus. And so Paul says here, I went
up by revelation. I wasn't summoned by a church
that's over me. They're not my rulers, I went
by revelation. Christ revealed to me that this
is the gospel right here, Paul, and I'm sending you up to Jerusalem
to declare the gospel, to preach the gospel, to faithfully stand
and declare the gospel, that the gospel might continue with
my people, that they not be overtaken with that which is false. And
so, verse two, Well, and then Paul seeing the importance of
it, he spoke to the church at Antioch, and the church at Antioch
agreed, and they sent Paul with Barnabas, and those two took
Titus with them also. Now Galatians 1, before we go
to Acts 15, Galatians 2, 2. And I went up by revelation and
communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles.
I went and preached that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles,
but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means
I should run or had run in vain." And what he's saying is, by doing
nothing, by staying here and not going as the Lord directed
me to go, that I should do nothing and allow the false gospel to
just come in and take over the teachings in the churches. That's
what he's saying. then I would have just run in vain. All the
labors would have been for nothing because the false gospel would
have come in and overtaken him. So Paul went to the others that
were the rulers over those churches in Jerusalem, the apostles and
the elders, the respected men, and we read now in Acts 15 verse
4. says, and when they were come
to Jerusalem they were received, this is writing of Paul and Barnabas
and Titus, they were received of the church and of the apostles
and elders and they declared all things that God had done
with them. In other words, Paul is declaring
to them, communicating unto them that gospel which I preach among
the Gentiles. He went and laid it out plainly,
the simplicity of Christ, declaring we are saved by the blood of
Christ and nothing more. We're saved by Christ. And he
declared it right there in the midst of them so that he would
know, do they know the gospel? Do they understand what God has
revealed to me in Christ? To know that it's not Christ
plus, it's Christ alone. Christ alone, brethren, salvation
is by the blood of our Savior. It's by His work, His sacrifice. He is our salvation. He is our
Savior, and He delivers us from the yoke of the law for righteousness. And so Christ, having come, a
willing sacrifice for His people, because He loves you, who now
believe in him revealed he loves you by the faith which he has
given to you, Christ has come as our substitute to put away
our sin. and the life which we now live,
we live by Christ, having been born again by the Spirit of God,
which is sent unto us of the Father and the Son that we might
live and know that which Christ has done for us in putting away
our sin. And the Spirit drives out that
enmity that's in our hearts by nature against the God that we
should trust him and believe him according to all the promises
which he's given to us by the prophets. And that's where it
keeps us, right? As Paul will say a little bit
later in Galatians 3.3, having begun in the spirit, are ye now
made perfect by the flesh? The law isn't made for a righteous
man, but the unrighteous. And you that are in Christ are
righteous. And so that law is speaking to
the flesh. And we look, we live by the spirit,
looking to Christ. That is our life. We're not turned
back to fleshly things. and the whippings and the beatings
and the punishments and the threats of the law, looking to tablets
of stone, we live by the spirit of God. And so when they heard
Paul declare Christ and the salvation that God had wrought for the
people, they agreed with Paul completely. They understood,
they agreed with him. And the evidence that Paul gives
in Galatians 2.3, you know what he says? Coming right back to
15, but in Galatians 2.3 he says, but neither Titus, who was with
me being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. Yes, Titus
wasn't persuaded by their arguments, but what he's saying there, the
thrust of what he's saying is the apostles that were there
and the brethren that heard me speak and agreed with me did
not oblige or tell Titus, well wait a minute, He's a Greek.
He's not circumcised. He needs to be circumcised. He
needs to do some things here for him to be accepted by us.
No, he says he wasn't compelled. The apostles in Jerusalem didn't
compel Titus. He's still uncircumcised to this
day. That's what he's saying there.
So he's saying the brethren in Jerusalem agree fully with the
gospel I've preached to you, because they didn't compel Titus.
They didn't try to have him do anything to make him equal with
them. He's already equal by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now go back to Acts 15, Acts
15, and we'll pick up in verse five, and we see that this is
exactly what Peter says with his own words in that council. Verse five, he's reminding them
of how the Lord used Peter to preach the gospel first to the
Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. And he says, in God, verse eight,
I'm sorry, in verse eight now, in God which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying
their hearts by faith. It did not matter that they weren't
circumcised. they were purified in their hearts
by faith. Now, therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon
the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were
able to bear? But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they. These men, the Cornelius and
those that Paul preached to, the Gentiles, they were all saved
without the law, without having to come under the law. They were
all saved looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is sufficient
to save and to add anything more is to have no profit in Christ. He'll profit you nothing. So
when you read what they did write to the churches, you notice there's
no mention of circumcision, there's no mention of Sabbath keeping,
there's no mention of going back to the law for a rule of life. The only thing that they mention
is those things which would prove to be a stumbling block to Jews,
because they said Moses is preached in the synagogue every Sabbath
day. They're hearing these things. So we just, all we ask is that
you avoid those things, that smell of idolatry. That's what
they said there in verse 20, that they abstain from pollutions
of idols and from fornication, their orgies that they would
do, and from things strangled and from blood. Just avoid those
things that smell of idolatry. That's all we ask because the
Jews are having a tough time hearing the gospel. They're having
a tough time because they're beholden to the law and we're
preaching the truth, but all we ask is that you avoid those
things that smell of idle worship. And so Paul labored for the truth
of the gospel. Why? That the gospel, verse five,
Galatians 2.5, that the truth of the gospel might continue
with you as it does for us, brethren, to this day. because the Lord
preserved the truth of the gospel to convince us and show us Christ
is all. He's all your salvation. We don't add anything. And so
don't be turned from the simplicity that is in Christ. He is our
Savior. Let me close with Colossians
2. Let's go to Colossians 2. read from verse 6 down to 11. Paul says, Colossians 2.6, As
ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him. We receive him. It doesn't matter
how you were raised. He's not saying you just trust
in the things that you were raised in. If it's a false gospel, don't
trust in that. that you walk in Christ as you've
received him, by grace, by grace, by the faith which God has given
to you. That's how we've received him. That's how we have a knowledge
of him. You continue in that simplicity, rooted and built
up in him, established in the faith. as ye have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware, lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit, just as these Judaizers were
doing, with trying to wordcraftly say, well, you know, you need
to grow and mature now and get yourselves circumcised. That's
philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the
rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him, in
Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye
are complete in him, which is the head of all principality
and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ. So Paul's saying to us,
Christ is all. He's sufficient every way for
everything. You have everything that have
Christ. You stay right there in him.
Believe him, brethren, and rejoice in him. Give God thanks for him.
Amen. All right, let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace to us in Christ and that you have have
healed us and turned our hearts by faith, cleansing our hearts
by faith, the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is given
to us, whereby we look to and behold our justification, our
sanctification, our wisdom, our redemption, our righteousness,
our all, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord, making him everything
to us and requiring nothing more of us but him. And Lord, we thank
you how you teach us and grow us and lead us. But we know that
it is all of Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. All right, brethren, so let's
take, we'll come back. Let's do five minutes after 11
we'll start. We'll touch 15 minutes for you
online.