Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. Now, I told
the Sunday school class that what I'm doing this morning,
I did it in the Sunday school lesson, and I'm going to do it
here in this message, is sort of get back to the basics. That's
why I've entitled this message, Back to the Basics. And I'm going
to preach from a passage that's well familiar to this congregation. I know when I was here years
past, I've probably preached on it many times. But sometimes
we always need to hear the gospel. There's no argument or debate
there because we feed upon the gospel. It is our lifeblood to
hear Christ exalted, Christ and Him crucified, because that's
the heart of the message. of our message is the foundation
of our faith. What I'm going to deal with this
morning has to do with that, the foundation of our faith,
the subject of our preaching, and the foundation of our fellowship,
what holds us together in truth. Paul writes here in verse 14
of Galatians 6, he says, 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. And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel
of God." Now those are the three verses that I want to deal with
this morning in this Back to the Basics message. And as I've
said before and said many times, the gospel is a simple message.
And I think about this quite often as I grow older. Men and women are dying in unbelief. I look around and you see crowds
of people in religion, in other walks of life, going about their
business, their everyday life. And men and women are dying,
and actually we say going to hell. And it's such a sad situation. Most have never even heard the
gospel. They've heard something they
call gospel. Many, I'll even say most, believe they believe
the gospel or know the gospel. But their gospel is not God's
gospel. It's not the gospel of Christ
and Him crucified, the gospel of the cross. You listen on television
today and most of the time what you hear is just religious pep
talks, moral pep talks, psychology of the power of positive thinking.
There's a man out in Texas that comes on probably just about
every station in the United States. They say he's got the biggest
church in the world, or at least in the United States. They had
to buy a baseball stadium, or some kind of arena, or some basketball
arena, or something like that, to fill their train. And it's
filled. And if you listen to his messages, it's really, he
has a joke for his introduction, and then three points, and then
he tells people how to think positively about themselves.
And a reporter asked him, Said, why don't you ever preach on
sin? And he said, well, I don't want
to preach on something so negative. Now to me, that's like asking
an oncologist, and I'm not going to insult your intelligence,
but if you don't know what an oncologist is, that's a cancer
doctor. That's like a cancer doctor who
has patients, but he never talks to them about cancer. Never even
brings it up, never even mentions it, because it's too negative,
you see. In other words, it won't deal with reality. Another reporter
asked this same pastor, he said this, he said, why do you never
mention Jesus Christ? And the man never does. Maybe
once in a while. And he said, well, that's not
my gift, he said. And when he said that, here's
what shot through my mind, I said, well, you're exactly right. That's
not your gift. God hasn't enlightened your eyes
to the glory of Christ and what he accomplished at Calvary. Now,
whenever you deal with men and women, especially those who are
religious or who have been brought up in some form of religion,
especially if it's what's called Christianity, one of the things
that they want to know is the same thing that the Philippian
jailer asked the Apostle Paul. What must I do to be saved? Now
we know that when people ask that question, unless they've
been enlightened by the Spirit of God and brought to a saving
knowledge of their sinfulness and a saving knowledge of the
grace of God in Christ and His blood and righteousness, we know
that that question is never asked. in the way that it ought to be
asked. Most people, in other words,
what I'm saying, most people, when they ask that question,
what they're wanting you to do is give them something to do
in order to earn their salvation or to recommend themselves unto
God, because that's human nature. That's what we all believe and
rest in. That's what we all think by nature. That's the natural
man that receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Give me
something to do. What makes them peaceable and
comfortable in what religions give them to do, that depends.
Depends on their culture. Depends on how they've been brought
up. There's a lot of different things.
That's why people, when they go church hopping, they're looking
for a church, they have to find an acceptable level of works
that they can do in each given congregation in order to enable
them to speak peace to themselves. Some people don't need as much,
so they might lean toward Catholicism. All you've got to do there is
just do anything you want to and then go confess to the priest.
Some people may need a little more, so they'll go to the Pentecostals
and the Holiness, and they've got the taste not, touch not,
handle not, throw out their television sets and all of that. They need
more. But whenever that question is asked, what should we say? Well, I'll tell you what Paul
said to the Philippian jailer. He said, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, people say, well, you know,
some of the staunch Calvinistic thinkers come along and say,
well, now wait a minute, you can't tell them that because they'll
think their faith is a work. Well, I know what the natural
man does with faith. But here's the key to the whole
thing. And here's the simplicity of it. You see, you've got to
do what Paul did to the Philippian jailer. You've got to take that
man and you've got to preach Christ to him. You've got to
preach the gospel. Now, what does the gospel say?
Well, look at the first line here of Galatians chapter 6 and
verse 14. Paul has been dealing with a
church or several churches in an area called Galatia here.
He had come there, he had preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the gospel of Christ teaches
sinners who cannot save themselves, who have nothing good in or about
themselves, to recommend them unto God or to make them righteous
and holy before God. The gospel tells sinners that
all of salvation, All of it, completely, all of it, totally,
all that God requires, all that we need can be found only in
the person and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
cannot find it in yourself, you cannot find it in your church
or your family or in your occupation or in anything you do or think
about not doing. It is only in the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. so that any sinner who trusts
Him, believes in Him, and rests in Him is saved. Now, false preachers
had crept into these churches, and they wanted to put conditions
upon the people, either in order to be saved, or justified before
God, or to be kept saved, and kept justified. And Paul said
that's a false gospel. And here's the motto. Here's
the banner. of true faith and gospel preaching. Verse 14, But God forbid that
I should glory, save, or accept in one thing the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as I've said before, you
know the cross there is not speaking of a piece of wood. It's not
speaking of something you hang around your neck. That's speaking
of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul says this is
the subject of our preaching. Our preaching is aimed toward
showing sinners that there is no hope of salvation. There's
no hope of being made right before God, justified before God, except
in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what did He
finish? What did He do on that cross?
Well, He made an end of sin. He took the people of God and
their sins upon himself, and he drank damnation dry, and that
enables God to be just to justify the ungodly. And as I said before,
that's what God always had in view. Everything in God's eternal
purpose, redemptive purpose, everything in eternity and time
centers on the cross. Everything in gospel preaching
centers on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything in faith,
saving faith, centers on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What he finished, he made an end of sin, he brought in everlasting
righteousness, the scripture says. His obedience unto death
is the righteousness that God requires and we need for salvation. Our sins were charged to him,
his righteousness charged to us. That's the imputed righteousness
of Christ. Now, when Paul says, God forbid
that I should glory, except in that, what he means is, that
word glory there, it means to boast in. It means to have confidence
in. It means to have peace based
upon. Some say it means to rejoice,
and that rejoice there means to have confidence. It is the
same word, go over to the book of Philippians chapter 3. It's
the same word that Paul used over here in Philippians 3, in
verse 3, when he says, Rejoice. And incidentally, this verse
here is a great definition of what it is to be a Christian. He says in verse 3, For we are
the circumcision. Now what does he mean by that?
Well, what he's talking, and I'm going to show you this in
just a moment in more detail. But read the first two verses
here, Philippians 3. He says, Finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord. Now that means to joy in the
Lord. And then to write the same things to you, to me, is not
grievous, but for you to say. And he says, Beware of dogs,
beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. Now, the dog
there, beware of dogs, that was, dogs was a common term that the
Jews used for Gentiles. And it wasn't just, the dog that
they had in mind was not pure bread with papers. The dog they
had in mind was an old cur dog that rummaged around in the garbage
dump trying to stay alive that nobody wanted. Nobody wanted
to take care of. That's how they thought of Gentiles. Well, who's he talking about
here? He says beware of dogs. He shows
you. Beware of evil workers. Now who
are these evil workers? They're preachers who are preaching
another gospel. Paul identified them over in
Galatians 1 as those who preach another gospel. He said those
who preach any other gospel than that which we preach. He calls
them evil workers. And then he calls them the concision.
That word concision is a play on words. It's a play on the
word circumcision. And what he's saying is, these
false preachers came in to the churches at Galatia, and they'd
say something like this. They'd say, well now, I know
you believe in Christ, and your salvation is in Him, but you
have to be circumcised in order to really be saved. You haven't
done that part yet. You haven't met that condition
yet. You're not really holy. Until you're circumcised. You're
not really just before God. You're not really saved until
you're circumcised. They were Judaizers. Now Paul
calls them the concision. What that literally means is
the mutilators. He's saying if you submit to
them, all you're doing is allowing them to mutilate you. Because
circumcision doesn't mean a thing in the kingdom of God, whether
you're circumcised or uncircumcised. And then he goes on, he says
in verse 3, but we are the circumcision. Now, what is he talking about?
Well, hold your finger there, Philippians 3, and go to Romans
chapter 2. Now, they would claim to be the
circumcision. Well, physically speaking, they were. Because
every Jewish male had to be circumcised on the 8th day. Somebody asked
me one time, why the 8th day? Because 8 is the number of new
beginnings in the Bible. New beginnings. And when that
child was circumcised, that male child was circumcised, that was
the beginning for him. The beginning of his manhood
under the covenant. That was the beginning of his
part in the covenant with Abraham. And so the 8th day was the day.
Well look at verse 28 of Romans 2. But now Paul says, they're
the concision, we're the circumcision. He says, verse 28, For he is
not a Jew which is one outwardly, physically, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. Now Paul's talking about a circumcision
here that's not fleshly, not physical. Not of the physical
nation of the Jews. He's talking about a spiritual
circumcision. Look at it, verse 29. But he
is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter. That is not according
to the old covenant law, or the Abrahamic law, whose praise is
not of men, but of God. Now what's he talking about?
He's talking about spiritual circumcision. What is that? It's
the new birth. You must be born again. When
does God circumcise the heart? When He sends His Spirit to bring
us under the preaching of the gospel of Christ and Him crucified,
and He gives us a new heart. He changes our heart. He cuts
away the filth of the flesh, our works, our righteousnesses,
and causes us to rest in Christ. And you know what that is for
the believer? It's a new beginning. That's a new beginning. That's
when your spiritual life began. And that's what that Old Testament
circumcision picture. Now the Jews thought that that
physical circumcision meant this, that we're children of God. Paul
says no. No. You're the concision. Verse
3 of Philippians 3 now. We are the circumcision. We're
the children of God. We're the children of Abraham.
We believe the same gospel Abraham believed. We're justified upon
the same ground that Abraham was justified, the imputed righteousness
of Christ. They rejected the gospel. Christ, in John chapter 8, He
said, I know your children of Abraham according to the flesh,
but not spiritually. He says, you're of your father
the devil spiritually. He said, Abraham, believe me.
He said, if you believed Abraham, you'd believe me. Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, and he saw it, and he was glad. Abraham was
justified, saved, sanctified, made holy, made fit for heaven,
and entitled to eternal life on the same basis that every
sinner who rests in Christ, glories in the cross of Christ, believes. And this is what he's saying.
We're the circumcision. We've been circumcised in the
heart. We're born again. Now, how do you know that? Well,
look here. Which worship God in spirit. That means two things. First of all, it means we worship
God according as God reveals Himself in His Word. In other words, whatever God
says about Himself in this book, that's the way we worship God.
We don't fight it. The Holy Spirit has given us
a heart to submit to the Word of God. If the Bible says that
God is absolutely and totally sovereign in all things, that's
the way we worship Him. If it says He's the God who elected
a people before the foundation of the world, that's the way
we worship Him. If that's what this book says.
You say, well that's not what everybody out here is preaching.
It doesn't matter. We worship God in spirit. If this book says
that God justifies the ungodly based upon the shed blood and
imputed righteousness of Christ alone, that's the way we worship
Him. That's it. And he says here that we worship
in spirit. It also means we worship Him
from the heart. In other words, it's not ceremony.
It's not outward ceremony. It's not just duty. But it's
from the heart. God has given us a heart. He
circumcised the heart. He's given us a heart to worship
God. To worship Him in Christ. We'll look at the next slide.
verse 3 of Philippians 3, and rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now
that word rejoice is the same word, that Greek word, that's
translated glory in Galatians 6.14. What Paul's saying here,
and you can see it by the next line, is that I have no confidence
except in Christ Jesus. My confidence, my peace, my assurance,
my faith, everything that I am as a justified sinner, as a regenerate
sinner, everything that I am as one who is looking forward
to spending eternity in heaven with God, everything I have is
wrapped up in the person and the finished work of Christ. And therefore I have no confidence
in the flesh. I have no confidence in anything
I am or anything I do. My confidence is who Christ is
and what He's done. Now go back to Galatians 6.14.
That's what Paul's saying here. God forbid that I should glory,
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ.
Resting in Him and His finished work. When somebody asks you,
well, what must I do? Just tell them, well, you must
rest in Christ. You've got to rest in Christ.
In other words, you do nothing in order to attain or maintain
salvation. You do nothing in order to make
yourself righteous or to justify yourself before God. You rest
in Christ. You glory in Christ. And Him
crucified. What He accomplished on Calvary
in His obedience and death. All the wisdom that God requires
of me, I find complete in Christ. All the righteousness that God
requires of me, I find complete in Christ. Don't find any in
myself, find it in Him. All the sanctification, holiness
that I need and God requires, I find completely in Christ.
And all the redemption that God requires and that I need, I find
completely in Christ. I have glory in the cross of
Christ. Now, that's the believer's motto. Now, look on in verse
14. He says, "...by whom the world is crucified unto me, and
I unto the world." Crucifixion means death. And what Paul is
saying is, because I walk according to this rule, God forbid that
I should glory, except in the cross of Christ, I'm dead to
the world, and the world is dead to me. I'm not of the world. I'm in it. But I'm a pilgrim. I'm a sojourner. That's what
he said. We're citizens of another kingdom,
the kingdom of God. We're aliens in this world, the
scripture says. One time we were alienated from
God in our minds by our wicked works. But now, having been brought
to God through Christ, based on His finished work, and justified
based on His righteousness, now I'm not alienated from God, I'm
alienated from the world. The world's dead to me, and I'm
dead to the world. Now look at verse 15. He says,
for in Christ Jesus, my standing in Christ Jesus means this, neither
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision. It doesn't
matter whether I'm a Jew or a Gentile. The only thing that matters is
that I'm in Christ. And he says, but a new creature. Now that
word creature is creation. Sometimes in the Bible, you see
that word creature or creation, it refers to the whole church.
Christ is the creator of the church. The church is His creation. Ephesians 3 speaks of that when
it talks about the middle wall partition being broken down.
And Christ has brought together both Jew and Gentile into the
church. Now that doesn't mean that Christ
has brought every single individual Jew into the church. And it doesn't
mean that Christ has brought every single individual Gentile
into the church. It means that Christ has brought
all of his sheep into the church, both Jew and Gentile. He has
some sheep among the Gentiles. He has some sheep among the Jews.
They're God's elect. God justified them. Christ redeemed
them. The Holy Spirit will regenerate
and call them. He brings them into the church.
The church is made up. It's a creation. Made up of God's
elect, both Jew and Gentile. How do you know who they are?
They glory in the cross of Jesus Christ. That's how you know. Now what are you glorying in?
Where's your hope of salvation? Who are you resting in? Where
is your righteousness? Where is your sanctification?
Where is your redemption? Who are you looking to? People
run around and say, oh, I just wonder if I'm one of God's elect.
The Bible never tells you to sit down and wonder if you're
one of God's elect. You won't find that in any scripture. What
does the scripture tell you to do? Glory in the cross of Christ. Rest in Christ. Believe in Him. Repent of your dead works and
your former idolatry. Get off the dung heap of religion
and run to Christ and lay hold of Him. What is your glory? Huh? You say, well, I had an
experience back when I was 12 years old. I had a dream. Well,
the Bible says don't glory in that. If that's where your confidence
is, too bad. You say, well, I was baptized
when I was 14. If that's where your confidence is, what's your
problem? You haven't been circumcised
in heart and ears. You're not glorying in the cross.
I have no claim to fame. I have no peace, I have no assurance,
except in one place, the person and the finished work of Christ.
His righteousness alone. Now the creation here, the church,
is made up of sinners who have that same motto. If your glory
ain't in the cross and in him alone, then you're my brother
or you're my sister. And we ought to be in fellowship.
And then some people say that the creation here refers to the
individual believer, and that could very well be. The creation
of the church. Christ said, I will build my
church upon this rock. He told Peter, I'll build my
church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.
But a believer, a born again sinner, is a creation of God. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter
2 and verse 8, By grace have you been saved? Through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast." And then he says, "...but we are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." In other
words, the good works are not the cause or the ground of our
salvation. The good works are not our righteousness
before God. The good works are the fruit
and the result and the effect of our salvation by the grace
of God. So he says that circumcision doesn't mean anything. It doesn't
matter whether you're a Jew. God didn't save you because you were
a Jew. And when God justified you based on the righteousness
of Christ, He did not take into mind your Jewishness or your
heritage. or your view of the Law of Moses.
You were a sinner who was in need of salvation by the mercy
and grace of God. And then it doesn't matter if
you're a Gentile. When God justified you based on the blood and righteousness
of His Son, He did not justify you having in mind your Gentileness
or anything else. except the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Whenever God justifies a sinner,
whenever He justified any sinner, He had in view, He had in mind,
the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And that's it. And people can
argue one way or the other about when it happened and all that.
It was always founded right here. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then look at
verse 16. Now he says, and as many as walk
according to this rule. Now that word rule, you may have
heard of the word canon, C-A-N-O-N. And that's not a cannon you shoot
a cannonball out of like in war. But the canon of scripture, or
the canon of doctrine, The body of doctrine. Many times the old
writers would write what they called a body of divinity. And
what that was, it was a codified, systematic, ordered statement
of beliefs that came from the Bible. What he's saying here
is that this is the believer's body of divinity. This is the
believer's canon of doctrine. Do you walk according to this
rule? Now, what is the rule? Well,
he already said it. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when it comes
to my relationship with God, when it comes to my standing
before God, nothing else matters. This is the only thing that gains
me access into the presence of a holy God, what Christ accomplished
on the cross. The only thing that makes me
accepted before God, what Christ accomplished on the cross. His
blood washing away my sins, and His righteousness justifying
me before a holy God. That's the only thing that matters.
Now, if you're walking according to this rule, here's what my
attitude towards you should be. And if I'm walking according
to this rule, here's what your attitude towards me should be.
Here's what it says, look at it, verse 16. Peace be on them. Now what does that mean? That
means they're not at odds, obviously. That means there's fellowship,
there's unity, there's love, there's union. First of all,
those who walk according to that rule, they give evidence that
peace has been made between them and God. When Christ was made
sin on the cross, having those sins charged or imputed or laid
to his account, Those who walk according to this rule, that
means your sins were laid on Him. And His righteousness is
laid on you. Imputed to you. Peace be on them. You're at peace with God. And
then, and mercy. God has shown mercy to that one
who walks according to this rule. God's been merciful. That word
mercy there means compassion. Sometimes you'll see the word
mercy and it means propitiation. You've seen that term. It's three
times in the New Testament. What does that mean? Well, Christ
is our propitiation. When the publican You remember
the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, when the Publican
stood and beat upon his breast and said, God be merciful to
me, the sinner. The word merciful there is like
propitiation. He's saying God be propitious.
What does that mean? It simply means that here's a
sinner who's standing before a holy God, knowing that he deserves
nothing but condemnation and death based upon his best efforts
to keep the law. And he knows the only way that
he can be saved and justified, the only way that God can show
him mercy is based upon the death of an appointed, God-sent, willing
substitute who would shed blood to satisfy the justice of God
for his sins. Justice has to be satisfied.
Righteousness has to be established. And so he begs for mercy upon
that basis. God, send me a Savior. Send me
a substitute. Well, there's only one. And that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's the only one who accomplished
it at Calvary. So then God's been merciful to
them. And then he says, "...upon the Israel of God." Now, I've
heard writers especially, or preachers especially, here of
late say that that's referring to the land of Palestine and
its inhabitants as it exists today. And that is absolutely
not true. Now, I want to show you a progression
of Scripture And I want you to follow this along. If you don't
have time to turn to him, just write him down. Some of you have
already seen this. But first of all, I want you
to go back to Romans chapter 9. Who is the Israel of God? Well,
he had already said in Galatians 6 there that circumcision doesn't
mean a thing here. Or uncircumcision. He's not talking
about national identities here when he says the Israel of God.
He's not talking about a national physical earthly identity. He's
not talking about citizens of a particular country here on
earth today or then or in the future. When he says the Israel
of God. First of all, the context itself
shows you. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about people. who walk according to a certain
rule. And the certain rule is God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. But look at Romans chapter 9.
Let me tell you what Paul's taught about Israel. Now he's talking
here in Romans 9 first of all about national Israel. Paul wasn't
Israelite by physical birth. And he even said he was led by
the Holy Spirit to write these words up here. He said, I have
continual sorrow in my heart for them. They're lost. He said,
they don't know Christ. They've rejected Christ. He said,
I could even wish myself accursed from God, from Christ for my
brethren, my kinsmen, who are Israelites. He said in verse
4, he said, to whom pertaineth the adoption. God adopted that
nation back in the Old Testament as recorded. And the glory, God
revealed himself in special ways, the covenants, the covenant with
Abraham, the covenant with Moses, the covenant with David, you're
going down through. The giving of the law, that's not just the
Ten Commandments, but that's the whole law. The service of
God, they had the priesthood. The promises, promise of the
physical land and physical prosperity. Verse 5, Whose are the fathers,
and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came? Christ himself
physically was a Jew. He was born of the tribe of Judah,
of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was over all
God blessed forever. But the majority of that nation
rejected Christ. They rejected Him. Now not all
of them. Let me tell you something now,
the majority of the Gentiles reject Him too, but not all of
them. And yet if you go back to passages in the Old Testament
like Isaiah 45, you'll see words like this, Israel shall be saved. Paul quoted that in Romans 11.
And he said it this way, all Israel shall be saved. What is
he talking about? Did God make a promise to save
Israel, but it's of no effect? Did God promise to save people,
but He either could not or would not? If He could not, then we're
of all people most miserable. Because if God couldn't save
Israel, I'm going to tell you something, He couldn't save us either. If
He would not, then He's a liar. But we know that's not so. In
fact, the Bible says, let God be true and every what? Man a
liar. So you can't say God could not
save them. And you can't say God would not.
Who's he talking about? Well, look at verse 6 of Romans
9. He says, No, not as though the
word of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. Is that clear? Somebody said,
Do words mean anything? For they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. Neither, because they are the
seed of Abraham, are they all children. What he's saying is
just because you're a physical seed of Abraham doesn't mean
you're a child of God. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. Now what's that talking about?
Isaac was the child of promise. Do you remember? Ishmael was
the child of the flesh with Hagar. Isaac was the child of promise.
What's the point he's making? Look at verse 8. That is, they
which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children
of God. Read that again. They which are
the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God.
But the children of the what? Promise are counted for the seed. What promise is he talking about?
He's talking about the promise of salvation and final glory
based on the grace of God. based on the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the promise. Now, look
over at Galatians chapter 3. In Galatians chapter 3, Paul
is making the point that sinners are not saved by keeping the
law. Sinners are not saved by physical circumcision. Sinners
are not saved because they are a physical Jew. And he says in
verse 26 of Galatians chapter 3, for you are all the children
of God. Now you see that? You with me? Galatians 3, 26. You are all
the children of God. How? By faith in Christ Jesus. What is faith in Christ Jesus?
God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross, as our Lord
Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Do you really
believe that? Is the cross of Christ your glory? That means you're a child of
God. You say, well, but I'm not doing
well enough. Well, you never will. Get over
it. Don't stop trying. But you're doing well enough
will not make you a child of God. And if you ever think you're
doing well enough, what does that make you? That makes you
a self-righteous unbeliever. Who are you trusting here? Whose
righteousness are you trusting? Somebody says, well, I'm not
good enough, or I don't do enough. Well, you never will. Not in
this life. Look on verse 27. He says, For
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Baptism there does not mean water baptism. People are confused
about that. I don't want to get into all
that because it takes too long. But what baptized means, the
word baptized, I've heard people say, well, the word baptized
means immersion. Well, and they use that to water
immerse. Well, there's only one form of
the ordinance, and that is immersion in water. That's right. But the
word baptized simply means united with. That's all it means. And
we get to immerse it. You're immersed into, literally.
But you're immersed into Christ. It means union with Christ. That's
what baptized means. And he says, for as many as you
have been united into Christ. How were we baptized into Christ?
Before the foundation of the world in divine election. We
were united in Him. At the cross, we were united
to Him. He died for our sins. He established
the righteousness based upon which God justifies it. And in
regeneration, we're united to Him. And He says, as many of
you have been united into Christ, you've put on Christ. To put
on Christ means to rest in Him, to believe in Him, to lay hold
of Him. He's my glory. Now He says, there,
now look at verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek. Now the word Greek there is just
another way of saying Gentile, because it was a Greek world
back then. Anybody who was anybody spoke Greek. What he's saying
is that if you've been united into Christ, and if He's your
glory, there's neither Jew nor Greek. It's gone. That distinction's gone. Still
in the world you've got that distinction, but in the Kingdom
of God, that distinction is gone. And he says there's neither bond
nor free, there's neither male nor female. There's still males
and females, but what he's saying here is that your salvation has
nothing to do with whether you're a male or a female. It has to
do with one thing. God forbid that I should glory,
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, for
you're all one in Christ Jesus, and if you be Christ, if you
belong to Him, then are you Abraham's seed. Who? I'm a Gentile. You're Abraham's spiritual seed. And he says, "...and heirs according
to the promise." Now, when he says back here in Galatians 6.16, "...Peace be on them and mercy
upon the Israel of God." Who is the Israel of God? It's every
sinner who walks according to this rule. God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now
that is the foundation of our preaching, our faith, our fellowship,
our whole lives before our Holy God and with each other.