Turn with me, if you would, to
Galatians chapter 6. This is the last study in this
wonderful book. Next week, Lord willing, we'll
be starting the study of the book of Philippians. This is
the last study in this series. It's been a wonderful journey,
hasn't it? It's been just incredible. I think we're over 100 messages
now. We're pretty close. And it's been just an incredible
journey through this book. which brings forth that salvation
is through Christ alone, not by any works of man, and that
we're justified in and through Christ alone and by his works. Today we're going to look at
suffering for Christ. Suffering for Christ. Now we who are the people of
God, we will suffer some way for what we believe. Maybe from
family members or friends. Maybe more mental abuse or verbal
abuse. And then sometimes there's things
that people go through physically for the cause of Christ. And
Paul, in this portion here that we're going to look at, he says,
for I bear in my body the marks of Jesus Christ. Paul, before
he was saved, was solitaris, and he persecuted the church
and wasted it, which in the Greek is destroyed it. He tried to
stamp it out. willingly and happily went and
grabbed Christians out of their homes and didn't matter what
age they were or if they were male or female, he wanted to
take that sect called Christianity and stamp it out. But our God
is sovereign, isn't he? And little did Paul know that
he was a chosen vessel of Christ. Little did he know as he was
trying to destroy the preaching and the teaching of
Christ in him crucified that he would later on become one
who would proclaim it himself. And one who would bear the marks of what he went through because
he would not deny Christ. And Paul has by inspirational
Holy Spirit of God masterfully set forth salvation in and through
Christ alone before the Galatians and before we who are the saints
of God today, haven't we? By reading this book and going
through this book And this study has in no way
been exhausted, but we who are the redeemed of the Lord have
been very blessed by this study, haven't we? We've grown in grace
and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, all by the power of God,
the Holy Spirit. And we've learned more and more
about our wonderful, merciful Savior. So let's read verses
11 to 18. Our text will be the last two
verses of this chapter. 11 to 18. You see how large a letter I
have written unto you with mine own hand. As many as desire to
make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised. Only less they should suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ. For they neither themselves
who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. 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. Excuse me. 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. And this is written to
the Galatians from Rome. Now the moment our new life in
Christ, from the moment our new life in Christ begins to the
moment of our departure from this life, we walk according
to this rule. Our eye is focused upon Christ. Our faith is centered upon Christ. And it is in Christ and Christ
alone that the believer finds acceptance with God. There's
no acceptance with God outside of Christ. None at all. And we
see in verse 16 that, look at that, peace be on them and mercy
upon the Israel of God. Beloved, we've received peace
and mercy. How can a sinner find and receive
peace from God? only through the Lord Jesus Christ,
right? Only through Him. The only way
a sinner can find peace with God, which we found, Brother
Charlie, is through Christ Jesus, our Lord. There's no other hope. There's no other way to have
peace with God. And God's mercy, it's a sovereign
mercy. It's a sovereign mercy, beloved.
And he bestows his unspeakable gift only on those who were redeemed
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let us marvel in this, beloved. God has forgiven us for Christ's
sake. Not because of anything in us,
but for Christ's sake. because of him, because of his
finished perfect sin atoning work. Oh, let us rejoice, beloved. Let us rejoice. God has purchased
our eternal souls with his own blood. If we trust Christ and him alone
for our salvation, we are one of those whom he purchased. with the shedding of his blood
on Calvary's cross. And remember, in light of the
church being the Israel of God, the Scriptures declare this wonderful
truth. He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly, so born into Judaism. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, You must be born again. Inwardly. And circumcision is
that of the heart. It's an operation of God upon
our hearts, beloved. In the spirit, not in the letter,
whose praise is not of men, but of God. That's why, Brother Charter,
that's why now we want to give praise to God for what he's done
for us. I remember in religion, I used
to think it was me that did something. Well, I found out I was totally
wrong. I could pray a thousand prayers
and it wouldn't do nothing. You must be born again. You must
be. You could walk a thousand aisles.
Won't do nothing. You can reform your life. You
can't change inwardly. It comes by the power of God,
doesn't it? And it happens just like that.
And it's all by God's, the Holy Spirit's
almighty power. In every hell-deserving sinner,
that's what we are, right? We are hell-deserving sinners.
But every hell-deserving sinner who experiences the miracle of
the new birth, being born again, is a member of spiritual Israel. And is called in verse 16, the
Israel of God. We're spiritual Jews, beloved. My! Let's read verses 16 and
17 again together. And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace be on them. Well, that peace comes through
Christ and mercy. Beloved, we've obtained mercy,
Paul wrote, in Christ and upon the Israel of God. Now, look
what he says here in verse 17. From henceforth, let no man trouble
me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Now
all false religionists and all false religions boast of something
they've done. It's normal. They boast because
their glory is in themselves, right? Not in the glory of God,
but their glory is in themselves. I was there. I know it. It's
true. You glory in yourself. You don't even think you are,
but you are. You're glorying in yourself. Oh, I prayed a prayer.
I accepted Christ. I, I, I, I, I, I, right? You know what I say to people
now? The Lord saved me. Because that's what he did. The
Lord saved me. Oh, my. I don't like hearing,
oh, they got saved, or they get saved. The Lord saved me. The Lord saved them. And I know
it's semantics. I know people say, well, it's
just semantics. The Lord saved us. Let's give Him all the glory. They didn't just get saved. That
sounds like it happened by accident, doesn't it? No, God sovereignly
moved in their lives and drew us to Christ. Oh my, may He do
that to one who's listening today who does not know Christ. Oh
my. And the legalists, the legalists
boast of their own righteousness. I was there, I know, Vicki can
attest, I was a Pharisee, boasted of my own self-righteousness,
looking at other people, saying, how can they be a Christian and
do that? Meanwhile, I was just, oh my gosh, dead in trespasses
and sin still, in religion. My, then I learned doctrine,
I became even more dangerous. Doctrine without grace is not
good. Not at all. Yeah, exactly brother. Yeah,
but when God shows you grace and that doctrine ties in, oh,
it's the most beautiful thing. The election of God, God choosing
the people that would never choose him. Christ redeeming the people
with his own precious blood. Oh my. Knowing now our total
depravity, knowing how dead in sin we were, that our nature
was dead, our spirit was dead, there was no hope, we were graveyard
dead, and God made us alive. You must be born again. And it's
wonderful to the believer. It's absolutely wonderful. My oh my. Some boast that they
are becoming more sanctified, more holy. I still don't understand
that. I know we're being conformed
to the image of the sun, I know that. I know we're growing in
grace, but I feel like the more I grow in grace, the more I realize
how much of a sinner I am. Is it so for you? And the more
sin I see around in the world too, but more so in myself than
anywhere else. My oh my. And some believe they can be
sanctified by keeping the law of Moses or by, in this case,
with the Judaizers being circumcised. And Paul says it don't matter
if you're circumcised or you're uncircumcised. What matters is
you must be born again. You must be a new creature. That's
what matters. Everything else is just noise. Just noise. And the Judaizers here, they'd
bewitched the Galatians by their religious lies, and they boasted
in the fact that they'd been circumcised and were saved by
obeying the law of Moses. And Paul in this letter has clearly
stated and explained the doctrine of justification in and through
Christ alone. And he has proved, as we've read
through the scriptures of this book, read through this book,
he's proved that salvation's not of works, but it's all of
grace. You must be born again. And he
set forth that circumcision and other rituals of the ceremonial
law were not necessary for salvation. As a matter of fact, they only
bring condemnation. That's what they bring. They
bring, they bring condemnation. God's law, laws and justice will only bring condemnation
to those who trust in their own works. It'll find them guilty. They're already guilty. Do you
know the whole world's already guilty before God? We were there, guilty. Praise God, though. We've been
released, haven't we? That message on Wednesday, we've
been released, beloved. Set free by the precious blood
of Christ. Oh my. And we see here in first
17, let's read again. From henceforth let no man trouble
me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We see here Paul stating in an authoritative way that you're
not gonna give me any more trouble about this. Because I bear in
my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. He bears in his
body the suffering he's went through for the gospel. Do you
know he received 39 stripes five times? Could you imagine what
his back would have been like when he took off his cloak? Could
you imagine what his back looked like? Now one time, Zane and
I were talking about this, one time 39 stripes, Dave we were
talking about this on Wednesday too, one time 39 stripes would,
could kill a man. Five times. five times beloved. And he just
kept preaching. And they beat him. They beat
him because he was preaching the gospel. That's the only reason. That's the only reason. And so he says, I'll have no
more objections. No more. I bear in my body the
marks. of the persecution that I've
faced for preaching the gospel. I have no further trouble about
preaching the gospel. No more. I won't hear anything
else. He's basically saying, shut your
mouth. I won't hear anything else. Now,
he loves these people. He loves them dearly. And what's
happening is the Judaizers are saying, well, he's not an apostle.
He has no authority to preach. He can't do this. He's not sent
by God. And he says, I bear my marks,
the fact that I've been persecuted for what I believe. My oh my, you talk about, you
just talk about stopping the mouth, say. Yeah, and Christ, think of what
Christ bore for us. And even in heaven, your hands
and feet are still pierced in heaven. We're going to look upon
him who was pierced for us, beloved. Oh my. My. So Paul's like a seasoned
soldier. He's a seasoned soldier of the
cross. And when a soldier goes into battle, he expects to get
wounds. Dottie Bell told me a long time
ago, Wayne, you're a soldier now. You're a soldier for Christ. And you're going to get knife
wounds. And you're going to get spear wounds. You're going to
get gunshot wounds. And he said, and some of them
are going to come from behind, where you don't even expect it,
from your own ranks. Yeah. And he says, some are going
to come from before you. He says, but remember, the Lord's
always with you. The Lord's always with you, no matter what. no
matter what. He's always with us. My oh my. And so Paul held up the marks
of the Lord Jesus Christ that he bore in his own body, which
came from beatings and stonings, which he suffered, what, for
the furtherance of the gospel. He suffered these things for
the furtherance of the gospel. Why are we here today? Why does
this church exist here? For the furtherance of the gospel,
beloved. God's got us together as his
sheep. Wonderful. We feel like family. We're family,
aren't we? And we get to love, to enjoy
that fact, that closeness we have. But we're here for the
furtherance of the gospel. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful,
beloved, that we get to even be a part of that. My. One commentator said, Paul was
like an old soldier that's holding up like his hand, and he's lost
a finger. He's like, I lost this one in
that battle over there, and I lost a thumb over here. and explaining
to the recruits where these different things came from. I read, I've
been reading some books on the Roman legions, you guys know
that, and the funny part is when the seasoned veteran shows up
and he's just got the ribbons, he's covered all over, and the
new recruits are like, oh. That's kind of like what Paul,
right? He bare in his body the marks, beloved. My oh my. But see, like the Apostle Paul,
or like the Apostles in Acts 5, who remember they rejoiced
over their suffering. they rejoiced over their suffering.
Remember this? And to him they agreed and when they had called
the apostles and beaten them, which remember is skinned in
the Greek, they commanded that they should not speak in the
name of Jesus and let them go. And they departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing that they were coward worthy to suffer
shame for his name. And daily in the temple and in
every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
That's what Paul was like too. Going through all these sufferings
Look at verse 17 again. For henceforth let no man trouble
me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, he bore these scars. And
again, like a soldier who holds up a stub of an arm lost in battle
to show his devotion and bravery, Paul says, don't bother me anymore
with your false accusations. I bear in my body the very marks
of what I've suffered for Christ. Oh my. My oh my. Don't bother me with
your claims of will worship and righteousness by the law, he's
saying to them. No more of that. No more of that. Preach Christ crucified and I'll
tell you what, sufferings will follow. You talk to any preacher,
you talk to any saint, we've all went through things. All
of us. for our stand for the gospel. My. Now Paul, he suffered. He suffered through a lot of
things. Turn, if you would, to 2 Corinthians
chapter 11. He's going to give us a broad
view here of his sufferings. And remember, this is all penned
down by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, kept for our learning.
For our learning. And think of this, through all
these things we're going to read, God never forsook him. He was with Paul through all
these things, just like he's with you and I, beloved, through
every single trial we go through, through every single day we go
through, and every single second. And in this chapter, in chapter
11, up in the beginning part of it, Paul continues to expose
the false teachers. Continues to expose the false
teachers in the churches who sought to lessen his influence
and who were preaching another gospel. And he calls them false
apostles, deceitful workers, and ministers of Satan. Strong
language. But remember who the true author
of these words are. God the Holy Spirit. And in denouncing
these false apostles, these deceitful workers, and these ministers
of Satan, he feels it's necessary to defend his apostleship and
his ministry among the Corinthians. And he calls to attention his
dedication to the gospel and his own sufferings in the service
of Christ. And remember, he suffers all
these things, beloved, for the furtherance of the gospel. He's not glorying in these things
for himself. Not at all. He's just going to
count to them the sufferings that he's went through. And we
know by what we've learned in scriptures in our walk with Christ
and by the illuminating power of God the Holy Spirit, again,
that he was never forsaken by God. Isn't that wonderful? Through
all these things. And he suffers for the sake of
the church universal, too. Now we're going to see him speak
of his sufferings again. Paul continues to vindicate himself
and defend his ministry in his message of justification by faith
alone, which is in Christ alone. And the false teachers here at
Corinth had said that Paul was weak and contemptible. He's a
gnarly fella. They said, oh, he's rude in his
speech. And they urged the people to
reject Paul and follow them. So, Paul was forced to expose
them. You can read that in the first
15 verses of this chapter. Paul was forced to expose them
and defend himself. Which are in verses, we're going
to see part of it in verses 16 to 18. We're going to start in
2 Corinthians 11 verse 16. He's going to defend himself
first, a little bit here, and then he's going to speak of his
sufferings for the cause of Christ. And just let this sink in as
we're reading this. 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse
16. I say again, let no man think
me a fool. If otherwise, yet as a fool,
receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it
not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly in the confidence
of boasting. Seeing that many glory after
the flesh, I'll glory also. For ye suffer fools, gladly seeing
yourselves are wise. So these folks, they think they're
a lot wiser than they are, aren't they? For if ye suffer, if a
man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take
you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face,
I speak as concerning reproach, hatred, hatred. As though we had been weak, halibut,
whereinsoever any is bold, I speak foolishly, I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? So are these
false teachers Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of
Abraham? So am I. Now here we go. Look
at verse, well we're looking at verse 24
in a second, but look at verse 23. Are they ministers of Christ?
I speak as a fool. I am more. Oh, he's flipping the tables
on them, isn't he? He's flipping the tables on them,
beloved. In labors, more abundant. In
stripes, above measure. In prisons, more frequent. In
deaths, oft. Now, here we go. Of the Jews,
five times received I forty stripes. Save one. Five times! Yeah! Brother, five times. Like I said, one of these things
could kill a man easily or leave them where they couldn't function
properly. Amen, brother. You see grace
here, don't you? We see God giving grace and strength
where it's needed. Oh my, look at this though. Okay,
that's enough right there, right? Oh, he's gonna keep going here.
Thrice was I beaten with rods. Three times beaten with rods.
You ever see somebody take a rod to somebody or a baseball bat
to someone? Three times. Once I was stoned. Remember they
left him? They left him there thinking he was dead. We're going
to see that in our study of acts. Yeah. They left him there. They
thought he was dead. He got up. He wasn't dead. Oh my goodness. Thrice, three
times I suffered shipwreck. Three times he was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been
in the deep. He spent a day and a night in
the deep. Sharks moving around probably. Them sharks couldn't
eat him though. He was divinely protected, just
like Daniel was in the lion's den, wasn't he? Oh man, I'll
tell you. I'll tell you. Look at this.
In journeyings often, in perils of water, so on water, in perils
of robbers, back then when you traveled on the roads, there
was a good chance you were going to be robbed by highwaymen. My oh my. Imperils in the city,
imperils in the wilderness, imperils in the sea, imperils among false
brethren. Oh my. In weariness and painfulness,
in watchings often, in hunger, in thirst, in fasting, often
in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are
without, that which cometh upon me daily in the care of the churches,
the weight of the churches. He praying for him. Who is weak,
and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will
glory of the things which concern my infirmities. The God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore, knoweth
that I lie not. In Damascus, the governor, Artaeus,
the king, or under Artaeus, the king, kept the city of the Damascus
with a garrison desires to apprehend me. The governor. Man, he got a lot
of soldiers to send out. They were hunting Paul down like
an animal. And through a window in the basket
was I let down by the wall and escaped his hands. You see, the
Savior protects his blood-bought children, doesn't he? Those he's redeemed with his
precious, precious blood. He's going to protect them. He's
going to watch over them. We see it right there. And we've
seen it in our own lives, haven't we? Every day, Brother Dave, yeah.
And times when we don't even know too, hey. Times when we
don't even know. Yeah, moment by moment, day by
day. He's so good. And remember this, he's a loving
shepherd. He's a loving shepherd. He watches over us with love
and care. My oh my. And that's how he watches
over us. And why? Because he's redeemed
us with his precious blood. Because he paid the price that
God demanded for our sins. Redeeming us out from under the
law. The law found us guilty, didn't it? And the only way for us to be
saved is through Christ and his righteousness. And you know,
the gospel reveals the righteousness of God. Who's the righteousness
of God? Christ is. Amen, brother. Jesus.
He's the righteousness of God, isn't he? The gospel reveals Christ, the
sinner's only hope. The sinner's only hope. Isn't
God so good to us? Isn't He so merciful to us? All the time, eh? All the time. Brother Charlie, would you close
us in prayer, brother?