Last week, when I looked at this
last message, I thought that I was finishing up the book of
Galatians, and then I got the last two verses, and the Lord
gave me the message from these two verses. So I pray the Lord
will bless the message this morning. The title of the message is Bearing
Christ's Mark. Bearing Christ's Mark. The Apostle says in verse 16,
he says, as many as walk according to this rule, peace beyond them
and mercy and upon the Israel of God. From henceforth, let
no man trouble me. For I bear in my body the marks
of the Lord Jesus. Brethren. The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Bearing the marks of Christ. First of all, in verse 17 is
our text, and the first thing that Paul does in this conclusion
is he gives a warning. A warning. Having fully, completely
now, sufficiently, expounded the gospel of God's grace to
this church. After giving it everything, after
constant exhortation, constant biblical doctrine, he says, let
nobody bother me anymore. I've said all that I needed to
say. He sufficiently explained the
gospel that salvation The salvation of the souls of men is in no
way accomplished by the law of God. Salvation is not by our
obedience to any portion of the Old Testament law. And he gives
a warning to all false teachers to those who would trust in their
own works to earn God's favor. From henceforth, let no man trouble
me." In other words, if you will not believe on Jesus Christ alone
as your complete justification before God, then there's nothing
more I can do for you. There's nothing more I can do
but preach the gospel. We are like, exactly like the
sower in the parable of Christ. He said, a sower went forth to
sow. He threw out the seed. I know that most people, when
we plant, we plant in a row, one at a time, but they didn't
plant that way. They threw the seed at a venture. They didn't know where the seed
would land. They had no idea exactly how the seed would grow.
And that's exactly it this morning. I cast out the Word of God today,
and I have no idea where it goes. I have no idea what it does to
you. I can't judge this by the look
on your face. I've seen people do this, nod
in agreement and not hear a word I've said. And I remember I used
to pretend to be asleep, and I heard. I heard. You know, I don't do anything
but cast the Word of God out. It's God that must work in you
both to will and do of His good pleasure. God saves men, not
me. Not me. And if you won't believe the
gospel, there's nothing more I can say to you. There's nothing. There is no hope. Believers in
Christ, we must be a faithful witness of Jesus Christ and Him
crucified, Jesus Christ and Him raised from the dead. That's
the gospel. That's the message of hope. Jesus
said that as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that He might draw
all men to himself. You see, he draws men. He was
lifted up. He was raised from the dead.
He sends his Spirit to quicken whomsoever he will. God is sovereign,
and salvation is absolutely, completely of free and sovereign
grace. All I can do is tell you what
God has done, but I cannot apply it to your heart. And all believers,
all believers in Christ, we know that we are like that demoniac
of Gadara. If you remember that demoniac,
he saw the Lord coming and he ran to him and his first What
have I to do with thee, thou Son of God, the Son of the Most
High? Art thou come to torment me before
the time?" Is not the preaching of the gospel before God saves
us torment? Is it not torment to serve the
living God in this vile flesh? Yes. Yes, it is. That's why I always tell you,
if you don't like Church, if you don't like to worship, you're
going to hate heaven. Because heaven is just like this. It's God's people centered around
the person of Christ, worshiping Him all throughout eternity. I remember one man saying, I
don't care if the streets in heaven are made of gold or dirt. as long as Christ is there. As
long as Christ is there. And friends, we were saved just
like that man was delivered from those evil spirits. Even so, we were redeemed in
the same way. It was the Lord Jesus Christ that
had mercy on this wicked man, on this demon-possessed man,
and delivered him by the word of his power and set him at liberty. This man walked among the tombs.
This man could not be chained. That's exactly how we are by
nature. We could not be chained. We would
not be chained. All the while, we didn't know
it, but we were chained. Chained to our sins. In bondage
to our nature. walking after our own lusts.
But I tell you that Jesus Christ has come to set those type of
people free. You see, He didn't come for those
people that were the herders of swine. Matter of fact, they
didn't want any part of Him. They saw what great miracle he
did, and they were so worried about the earthly possessions
that they lost, that they missed the Son of God. He was there. And I'll tell you, just like
this demoniac, we are found at his feet. This is what we're
doing this morning, is we are coming to the feet of the risen
Lord Jesus Christ this morning. We are coming to worship Him,
to praise Him, to speak and boast of Him, to boast in glory in
Him. We come to sit at His feet, and
we are clothed and in our right minds. The world don't think
you're in your right mind. The world thinks you're crazy.
You are insane. You people from Indiana, you
are insane. You know that? This world thinks
you insane to come so far to hear, to hear the gospel of Jesus
Christ. But we're not insane. We know
they're mad. We know they're rushing headlong
into hell as though it were heaven, having no thoughts or cares for
the honor or glory of Christ. But we also, like this demoniac,
you know, he wanted to go with Christ, didn't he? Christ was
getting into the boat and he was right on his heels. He said,
I want to go with you. Wherever you go, I want to go.
What did our Lord tell him? He said, Go now and tell thy
friends what great thing, how great things God has done for
you. How great are the things that
God has done for us? How great? How great is our salvation! How great are the things that
God has done in giving us His compassion and His mercy and
His grace, and yes, most of all, giving us His Son! How great! How glorious is the gift of God
in saving such worthless rebels as we are! Well, how great was
that! How great was His even taking
into thought this man who nobody else would want to be around. It's outcast. How great the Lord has given
us his righteousness. Now, I know this to be true.
The more we see the greatness of our salvation, the more we
will tell others how great our salvation is. Is great. And I'll tell you,
if we think little of our salvation, surely we would be ashamed. Jesus said in Luke 7, about that woman who came to
his feet. She was a prostitute. She was
cast out. She was a wicked woman, and everybody
knew her reputation. And Simon, that Pharisee, said,
look at him. If he were a prophet, he'd know
who that woman is. Everybody knows she's a prostitute. What is he doing, letting her
touch his feet? And she wept on his feet and
dried them with her hair. And Jesus said unto Simon, he
said, this woman has many sins. She's a great sinner. And her sins, which are many,
are forgiven. For she loved much, but to whom
little is forgiven, the same loveth little." How much has
God forgiven concerning your sin? How high, if we were to
stack our sin, how high would our sins reach? And yet, they being so many,
He frankly, freely forgave us of all our sins. Is that not great? Is that not
a message worth talking to sinners about? Is that not a message
worth proclaiming? Yes, it is. It is a message that
God's people should proclaim steadfastly. The apostles surely
showed this church the great gospel of God's grace and that
all other gospels. Are nothing. Isn't that what
this book is about? We've been studying this book
for a long time, this book of Galatians, isn't that what it's
about? Proving. That there is only one gospel. There's not many ways to God.
There's not many gospels. There's only one gospel. Only one. Salvation by grace
through faith in Christ alone. That's it. There is no other
way. There is no other way. Friends, salvation is in the
hands of God. It's not in your decision. It's
not in your thoughts. It's not in my thoughts. It's
not in our will. It is in the will of God to give
it to whomsoever He will. I'll tell you what, if that doesn't
strike fear into the hearts of the lost, I don't know what will. If that doesn't cause them to
yield before Christ, rightly recognizing that if He sent us
all to hell, He would be just. I have two children. If God saves them, it will be
because of His gracious mercy. And if He damns them, He's still
good. He's still good in everything
He does. My friends, that's the God of
heaven and that's the God we serve. A sovereign God. Majestic. Yet merciful. Kind. Rich in mercy. How lightly and frivolously do
false prophets teach the works and free will religion of our
day? How they just spout off things. They have no idea what they're
saying. Lost and blind. And how lightly
do they hold the holiness of God. How lightly do they hold the
holiness of God and the offering of Jesus Christ that they subject God and His
salvation to their own will? Can you imagine that? Can you imagine a petty, puny
God like that? A God who loves everyone and
can't save anyone? It's not a God at all. A Christ
that died for all men without exception is no Christ at all. Why? Because there are men in
hell this morning, and if Christ died for them, He is a failure.
He is a failure. But praise God, that Christ is
not our Christ. That God is not our God! Our
God is sovereign. Be warned, all of you who will
not submit to the righteousness of Christ by the free, eternal,
immutable grace and love of God. Be warned, all of you who will try to share
in God's glory. To us who have been born again
to life and faith in Christ, how were we born again? We were born again of the Spirit
of God by the preaching of the gospel. The one and only gospel. God made Christ to be all our
wisdom, all our righteousness, all our sanctification and all
our redemption. As it is written, He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. You see, my salvation rests completely
and absolutely in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
add nothing to His work of salvation, nothing. Why then would we not go out? Why would we not go out then
and speak plainly and boldly concerning this gospel of God's
free grace to sinners? Friends, the gospel message Again,
it is not for us to apply to anyone. It is for us to tell
others. Go. Tell your friends how great,
how great things God has done for you. Number two, the suffering witness. We are not only to witness. We
are not only to warn men concerning the false gospel of this religious
age. We are also to be suffering witnesses. Look at this in your text. He
said, From henceforth let no man trouble me. I've preached
the gospel to you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Salvation is of the Lord without
the works of the law. For I bear in my body the marks. of Lord Jesus Christ. I bear in my body the marks.
What does that mean? What is he talking about? The
word there is a stigma. Stigma. Some people, some foolish religious
people, believe that he was talking about the literal wounds of Christ's
hands and feet. Hogwash. That's foolish. Friends, these are nothing more
than the mark of Christ on the soul of His people. You remember in the Old Testament
when you had the bond slave, and he was enslaved and he married
a woman and he had children, and when it was time for him
to go free, if he wanted to stay, if he wanted to stay with his
family, He would confess, I love my master, I love my wife, I
love my children, and he would put his ear on a post and they
would take a spike and ram it through his ear. He was marked
forever. He was forever marked! Marked a slave. Marked a servant. And Paul said, everyone who believes
in Christ, you're marked. I'll tell you what, you could
look at the Apostle Paul and you could see the whip marks all
over his back. You could see the places where
they had stoned him and left him for dead. Truly, the Apostle
Paul had marks on the outside of his body. Truly, he suffered. being a witness for Christ. There's
no doubt about that. Friends, even though we might
not suffer marks of this physical body, truly, every believer will
suffer the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will suffer
persecution in this life for the preaching of the gospel. Jesus promised In this world,
you shall, not maybe, not might, you shall have tribulation. He said the world hates you because
it first hated me. Jesus Christ is our prime example
of how we are to suffer for the gospel. As a lamb before her shears is
dumb, so he opened not his mouth." Humility. Humility. Friends, we are not going to
change anyone for the better. We're not going to be able to
wrestle someone into believing this gospel. Stop trying. Throw
the seed and leave it alone. Leave it alone. Stop tinkering
with it. You'll get no glory from it.
If God is going to save His people, He Himself will receive all the
glory. Leave it alone. Bear patiently
the suffering of grief and pain. He was wounded. for our transgression,
he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed." Our Lord suffered a wrongful
death. Isn't that right? Did he deserve
that? Absolutely not. But yet he voluntarily
laid down his life. Go and do the same. Bear the mark of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Friends, do not expect that being
a disciple of Christ will excuse you from suffering. I don't know
how many times I've heard believers in Christ say this. They say,
well, this is causing me pain. This surely is not the will of
God. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Surely God wouldn't want us to
do without this or do without that. If you're doing without
it, yes, he is. He's willing for you to do without
it. We are to expect tribulation.
Jesus said, no man can be my disciple unless he take up his
cross and follow me. If any man hate not his father
and his mother and his sister and his brother and yea, his
own life, also he cannot, is that clear? Cannot be my disciple. Unless you bear the mark, you
cannot be his disciple. Now, many people are pretending.
Many people are pretending. But God's people are not pretending.
We're not playing church. Friends, I am preaching a message
to dying men as a dying man. This life is as a vapor It appears
for a while and it's gone. And the sufferings of this life
are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed
when our Lord Jesus Christ comes and receives us to himself. Why then do we complain so much? Why is it we murmur so much? and kick so hard against the
will of our gracious Father who has done so great things for
us. May God help us. May God strengthen
us so that when we preach the gospel to someone and they reject
the gospel, they hate the gospel, we can say this, don't trouble
me anymore, for I bear in my body the marks of Christ. I'm
His servant. I don't seek to please men. I'm
not here to please men. I'm here to serve God. I'm here
to tell you what God says. Other than that, I'm of no use
to you. But I know this, that Christ
will save His people from their sins. How do I know that? Because
He has saved His people from their sins on the cross. And
in time, He'll call them. And they'll come. They'll come. May the Lord help us to be witnesses
of Christ, to bear in our body the marks of Christ, to suffer
patiently. We rejoice in Why? For tribulation worketh
patience. Patience experience, and experience
hope, and hope maketh not ashamed of how great things God has done
for us. I pray the Lord will bless this
to you.