Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. If you would like to turn with
me in your Bible to Galatians chapter 6, I would like for us
to look this morning at how the Apostle Paul finished his letter
to the Galatians. He said in Galatians 6 verse
11, you see how large a letter I have written unto you with
mine own hand. He said, I wrote this to you
with my own hand. The apostle Paul loved the Galatians. It's very clear that he, he loved
them dearly, very dearly. The Lord used him to bring the
gospel to them. He was with them. He preached
to them. And they believed it. The Lord
sent His Spirit. The Lord did a work of grace
in their heart. And they truly did believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul loved them in the faith
as true brethren. The bond of Christ. That's what
God does for His people. He creates a true love, loving
bond in his spirit, in his blood. With that being said, the apostle
Paul very sharply rebuked the Galatians throughout this entire
letter. He corrected them on many things
throughout this letter. I would encourage you to read
this entire letter. Go back to chapter 1 and read
through the whole thing. And you'll see that He very sharply
corrected them and rebuked them and taught them. And the reason
is because He loved them. He loved them. Look with me,
if you would, back at chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1. He began
the letter by saying to them, I cannot believe you have departed
from the gospel that was originally brought to you, that the gospel
that you believed, he said in chapter one, verse one, Paul,
an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ. I was made an apostle by Jesus
Christ and God, the father who raised him from the dead. and
all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia. Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace.
He said that's my desire for you. Who gave himself for our
sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world
according to the will of God and our Father. Everything happens
according to the will of God, our Father. To whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen. He said in verse six, I
marvel that you are so soon removed from him that calleth you into
the grace of Christ unto another gospel. I marvel. Which is not
another. But there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said
before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. For do I
now persuade men or God Or do I seek to please men? For if
I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." If
I seek to please men, he said, then I'm not the servant of Christ.
So he told them, he said, I marvel, I marvel. He said, you know that
there's only one gospel. He said, there is not another
gospel. Not at all. In chapter 3 he said,
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should
not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth, crucified among you? He has been evidently, clearly
set forth, crucified among you. And he said in chapter two, verse
21, I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. So he corrected them,
but he did it because he loved them. He loved them whom the
Lord loves. He chastens. He chastens. He does that through his word.
and the things that were written to these Galatians, they are
written to us. If God loves us, He will chasten
us for our sin and teach us and instruct us through His Word.
He'll bring us back to Him every time through His Word. So these things are written for
us, written for our learning, our correction, and it's because
we're loved of God. If we are loved of God, He will
truly pierce the heart with these things. Paul dearly loved the
Galatians and he told them back in our text, back in Galatians
6 verse 11, you see how large a letter I have written unto
you with mine own hand. Rarely did he write with his
own hand. Rarely. Usually he would speak
it and someone else would pen it for him. because he had eyesight
issues. And so someone else would write
it for him and he would sign the closing remark with his own
hand. But he said in verse 11, you
see how large a letter I've written unto you with my own hand. He's saying this was important
to me. I want you to know how important
this is. I want you to know this is the
issue for me. This is life and death to me.
It's the issue for you, life and death to you. So he said,
I'm writing to you in my own hand. All of these words, verse
12, he said, 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." He's saying, I just
want to remind you one more time, as you and I go through these
scriptures together, we're going to notice the Apostle Paul, all
of these apostles, all of God's prophets in the Old Testament,
they had one great task laid on them from God Almighty, to
expose error. And we do that through preaching
Christ. We do that through declaring
truth. Christ crucified. But in declaring
Christ crucified, we must expose the error that is being told
to men and women. And Paul is telling them, here,
I've written this large letter to you with my own hand and I'm
closing it this way. I want to remind you one more
time. If this is the last time I get
to speak to you, and I say the same thing this morning, if this
is the last time I get to speak to you, I want to say one more
time. Paul said, I want to say one
more time. I want to remind you one more time about these false
preachers who are confusing you. lying to you, distracting you
from the one issue that's needful, the cross of Jesus Christ. I just want to point you to the
cross of Christ one more time. One more time, I want to tell
you the only thing needful one more time, I want to declare
the issue, I want to expose everything that is not the issue. and declare
to you and point you to the one and only issue of life there
is, the cross of Jesus Christ. Paul told them everything that
these false men are doing, they're doing it just to be seen of men.
They're just doing it to be seen of each other. That's the only
reason they're doing it. And he's telling us the truth.
He's telling us the truth. It's just an outward show. That's
all religion really is. I pray the Lord would give us
some wisdom, some discernment. I pray that He would open our
eyes, allow us to not be fooled by these things, not have this
wool pulled over our eyes. Let's look around. Let's see
all of this that's going on in religion today. It's a distraction. It's a distraction from the issue
The issue is our sin and the one remedy there is for it. Paul
said it's just an outward show. They're trying to make everybody
happy so that they won't be persecuted by anybody. They just want everybody to set aside this one great thing
that exposes them for what they are. the cross of Christ. Nobody wants to be exposed for
what they are. So they bring this outward show
and they distract me and they just want everybody to be happy.
They want the Jews to be happy. They want the Greeks to be happy.
They want everybody to be happy and that's religion. That is
religion. Paul said, don't be fooled by
it. I repeat what God has written through this man. Don't be fooled
by it. We're going to go meet God. Don't be fooled by it. He said, they're wanting you
to be circumcised. That was the issue of their day.
That was the big gospel salvation issue. You had to be circumcised.
We have issues just like it today. That's really not one of them
anymore. But we have, Christianity has issues just like that. He
said, they're wanting you to be circumcised. They're wanting
you to follow all these rules and these ordinances in order
to be saved. In order to be saved. And he
said, they're telling you all of this because they do not want
to be persecuted for preaching God's free grace. That's what he's telling them.
They don't want to be persecuted. If a man preaches God's free
grace. God himself said you'll be persecuted
for that and they don't want to be persecuted for it. They
don't don't want to be persecuted for saying Jesus Christ paid
it all rest. They don't want to be persecuted
for that. They don't want to be persecuted for saying Christ
obeyed the law. Completely. For us. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. Christ is. Stop right there at
what He did and how He obeyed it. Stop right there. They don't want to be persecuted
for saying, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. Yeah, but don't you have to do
this and don't you have to do that? Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Believe what He said. Believe
on what He did. Believe on His blood. Believe
on God's acceptance of Him and all those who are in Him. And
thou shalt be saved. You preach that alone and God
said you'll be persecuted for it. Paul said these men are not
willing to be persecuted for that. They don't want to be persecuted
for saying faith to believe God. comes from God. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. That is a gift from God. You can't do it by nature. God
has to do it for you. God has to do it for me. God
gets all the glory for it. That's His point. You tell men
God gets all the glory and salvation, even in believing on Him. Yes,
believe on Him, thou shalt be saved, but God gets the glory
for us believing on Him. Faith is not of ourselves, that's
a gift of God. They're not willing to be persecuted
for telling men that. They don't want to be persecuted
for saying baptism is not salvation. They're not willing to be persecuted
for that. Baptism is not salvation. Paul said circumcision is not
salvation. And we repeat today the same
thing that was written in the scripture. Baptism is not salvation. The blood of Jesus Christ is. The blood of Jesus Christ is.
Circumcision is not salvation. The blood of Jesus Christ is. Keeping the Sabbath is not salvation. The blood of Jesus Christ is. Church membership is not salvation. The blood of Jesus Christ is.
Somebody say, well, are you saved? Well, yeah, I go to church. That's
not salvation. Church membership is not salvation.
The blood of Jesus Christ is. Keeping God's law is not salvation. The blood of Jesus Christ is. Christ is. Christ is. We are complete in Him. We're complete in Him. Paul said
these other men are not willing to be persecuted for saying that.
But he said that declaration of truth is the only gospel there
is. That's the only good news there
is. There's only one gospel. Christ is the gospel. There's
only one message that saves. The message of Christ is that
message. And so he said, don't listen
to these other men if they're not telling you that. Verse 12,
he said, 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. He told them this is exactly
what they're doing. He said they are circumcised.
They themselves are, but they don't keep the law. They're talking
about keeping the law through circumcision, but he said they
don't keep the law. He said, I know they don't keep
the law. They cannot keep God's holy law, their flesh. They can't. They're telling you to do something
that the flesh cannot do. They're telling you to keep this
little piece of the law. They say, now you've got to be
circumcised. You've got to keep the law. If
God's going to accept you, you've got to keep His law, so you've
got to be circumcised. They're telling you, keep this
little piece of the law and you'll be justified before God. And
men do that with anything. For some, it's baptism. For some,
it's something else. They say, now you got to keep
God's law, so you do this one little piece of it and God will
be happy with you. You'll be justified before God.
That is not so. That's not so. In order to be
justified before God, a person cannot be a sinner. In order to be justified before
God, A person cannot be a sinner in any way, any shape, or any
form at any point in his life. He cannot used to have been a
sinner. Ever. Never. A completely clean
record. He must keep the whole law of
God perfectly. That's impossible. I'm here to
tell all of us, me and you, that's impossible. That is impossible
for sinful flesh to do. It cannot do it. It cannot do
it. But he said these men are wanting
to brag. They're just wanting to brag.
They're wanting to put another notch on their belt. One will ask another one, how
many baptisms did you have last month, brother? Just trying to
brag to each other. Just trying to rack up accomplishments
for themselves. Paul said, recognize the fact
that these are false preachers who are glorying in the flesh,
the whole focus, their whole mind, their whole thought, their
whole message is the flesh. what the flesh is doing, what
the flesh is attaining, what the flesh is accomplishing. They're
glorying in everything that you can see on the outside. On the outside. And our Lord
gave a parable one time. He said, they're, they're whited
sepulchers on the outside. They're all pretty and shiny
on the outside. He said, inside, they're full of dead men's bones. glorying on what you can see
on the outside, the work that is produced on the outside, and
they are not glorying in the work that only God can do on
the inside. Only God can do a work on the
inside, he said, they're sure not glorying in the work that
Christ has already accomplished. If they were, they'd be preaching
it, they'd be saying it's finished. You don't have to do this or
do that. Just trust Christ. It's finished. And then they
tell you that ability to trust is of God. He finished that too.
He's the author of our faith and the finisher of our faith.
Now with His work, just believe God. Through His ability, through
His gift, just believe God. Paul, I love this. He said, I
can't remember who I baptized. He said, I can't remember if
I baptized any of you. I can't remember at all. Maybe
a few here, maybe a few there. You know what he said? First
Corinthians, he said, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to
preach the gospel. He said, I thank God I didn't
baptize any of you. Now, let me ask you this. If
baptism was salvation, if it was salvation, why would God's
apostle, the writer of half the New Testament say, I thank God
none of you were saved under my ministry. He said, I thank
God, none of you, I didn't baptize any of you. Or you would have
said I baptized in my own name. Why would he say that? If that
was salvation, why would God's Apostle say that? He said, Christ
did not send me to baptize. Why? Because that fleshly outward
deed is not salvation. It's a precious picture of what
is. the immersion that the Holy Spirit
does for a soul into the blood of Jesus Christ. God's Holy Spirit
physically lays hold on a soul and totally, not just sprinkles,
totally immerses that soul in the blood of Jesus Christ. And
the outward show of baptism is a precious picture of the work
that only God can do. on the soul of a sinner, but
it's not salvation. We don't trust in the tap water
that comes from any city anywhere. And Paul said, if I glory, I
don't glory in any of these other things. He said, if I glory,
it's not going to be in how many people I baptized. I'll tell
you that. He said, if I glory, verse 14, God forbid. 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." He said, if I glory, it's going
to be one place. God forbid that I glory in anything
other than the cross of Jesus Christ. the cross of Jesus Christ, what
God purposed to do for sinners, the whole reason Christ came,
what Christ did do for sinners, what Christ accomplished in completeness
for sinners. God forbid that the glory should
go anywhere. but to the crucified Christ.
That's where all the glory goes. Paul said, He is my glory. He is my glory. He's my rejoicing.
My rejoicing is not in myself. It's not in my works. It's not
in anything that God does through me. It's not in anything God
does through me. My rejoicing is in Christ. Nothing in this world is my glory. Nothing in this world is my happiness. He said this world is crucified
to me. And only the work of God in a
center can say that what he's saying is the importance of this
world that's crucified to me. The importance of this world,
the love of this world. He's saying my heart is elsewhere
now. The fear of this world, the fear of what man can do to
me. He's about to tell us in just
a second, I've had everything done to me that a man can have
done to me. I've suffered. He said, riches, honor, fame,
everything. It's all dead to me. Every bit
of it. None of those things compare
to the cross of my God. Not the cross itself, the Christ
who hung on it. The Christ of the cross. He said,
thank God the sin of this world is dead to me. The sin of this
world. It was nailed to the cross and
I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. He said, through the Christ of
the cross, because of him, the world is crucified to me. And
he said, I'm crucified to the world. I'm crucified to the law
that God gave to the world. As far as the law is concerned,
God's people are dead. They died in Christ. The law
said you need to die. They died. Done. Crucified to the law. Crucified
with him. And that's where God will keep
us. And the world will move on without us, and that's fine.
That's fine. Dead to the world, the world
is dead to us. Christ is our life. Christ is
our life. Verse 15, he said, For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature. Paul said the only thing that
will avail anything is God creating a new creature in us. A new creature. Men can try to
obey whatever they want to obey. They can disobey whatever they
want to disobey. They can say the law is everything
to me. They can say the law is nothing to me. Either way, nothing
will avail anything for us unless Christ creates a new creature
in here. He must create a new man, a new
work, one that loves God, one that gives all the glory to Christ
for everything he did. One that doesn't just love correct
doctrine, one that loves Him. One that doesn't just love these
ordinances, one that loves Him. One that doesn't just love His
law and His cross, one that loves Him. Verse 16, He said, as many
as walk according to this rule, dead to the law, dead to the
world, alive in Christ. Peace be on them and mercy and
upon the Israel of God. God's chosen. From henceforth
let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord
Jesus. He said, I've suffered everything.
I've been beaten, stoned. You can look at my body. I suffer
all this for the preaching of the gospel. But he said in verse
18, Brethren, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your
spirit. Amen. He said, I love you. That's what he's saying. And
I pray grace and peace be with you all for Christ's sake, for
the glory of his cross sake. Till next week, may the Lord
bless his word to our hearts. You have been listening to a
message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign Grace
Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message or to hear other messages of Sovereign Grace, you can write
to our physical mailing address at 905 Yadkin Street, Kingsport,
Tennessee 37660 or log on to our website at ksgctn.org. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 10.45 a.m., and 6 o'clock
p.m. Wednesday evening at 7.30 p.m. Please tune in next week for
another message of God's free and sovereign grace.