Last week's message in Galatians
was called glorying in the flesh, which we saw that is not something
we should do, and it's something that false teachers do. They
glory in their converts, supposed converts, or their supposed people
who follow them. But today we're going to look
at glorying in Christ alone. That's who for the believer we
should be glorying in. we should be glorying in Christ
in him alone and what he's done for us because i'll tell you
what what he's done for us saving our eternal souls is absolutely
amazing and and to know that it's god who did that it's just
incredible it's just absolutely incredible and we can't really
even fathom that we believe it by faith but oh my it's just
so much isn't it to think that all our sins are forgiven i mean
every one of them Every thought sin, every word sin, even sins
we don't even know we're committing. Which are many. Just as much
as word and deed sins. It's all washed clean under the
blood. I mean, even the ones that might
keep us awake at night. all washed under the blood. Praise the Lord God Almighty. I mean, they're gone. They're
gone. That's amazing, isn't it, Brother
Travis, to think that, that we're washed clean and that God looks
at us and sees us blameless and covered in the righteousness
of Christ. That's just incredible. It makes you excited. Like Brian
said, it makes you want to stand up and shout, doesn't it? But
it's truth. It's so true. You know how it
excites our hearts when we hear that Christ died for us on Calvary's
cross, based upon nothing in us, but all by the will, the
will of the Father. No wonder we glory in Him alone. No wonder we give Him all the
glory, honor, and praise. Right? Oh my. Praise his mighty
name is right, Brother Dave. Yes. He gets it all. Who's getting all the praise
in heaven, beloved? The Lord. He's getting it all. There's
no one there going, well I want a little bit. No. They're all
giving him the praise and glory, aren't they? And one day we will
too, without sin. Oh my. Oh, it'd be wonderful,
wouldn't it? My, turn if you will to Galatians
chapter 6. We're almost done this letter. It's been wonderful,
just been wonderful. Oh my. Last week we're in verse
11, we saw that Paul wrote the letter to the Galatian churches
with his own hand. Oh my. And this rightness of
his for Paul was a labor of love because he loved the Galatian
churches. The Lord had used him to establish
the Galatian churches, so they were very dear to him, very near
to him. When he wrote to the Colossians, he'd never actually
been to Coloss. But these Galatian churches,
he'd been there. He'd built friendships like we
have. Not just brotherhood, but friendships as well. He's built
that with the different churches. And they're young churches. And
they're being influenced by these false teachers now who've come
in. And Paul says, I wrote this with my own hand. I didn't dictate
it to anyone. I wrote it with my own hands,
so that shows his love and affection for them. It shows the heart
of the Apostle Paul and the great concern he had for them. They'd
been overtaken in a fall, and Paul was attempting to restore
them, knowing that they'd been exposed to the teachings of the
false preachers and had fallen into a sinful trap, just like
any of us could, right? Just like, look at, I love this
in verse six. Look at this, verse one of chapter
six. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, would ye which are spiritual restore such a man?
Don't kick him while he's down. Restore him. Come alongside him. Why? Right, in a spirit of meekness,
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. My. We're just as prone to sin as
any of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We come alongside
them, don't we? My. Do you know when the Israelites
went into the land, I listened to that message, Brother Zane.
When the Israelites went into the land, it was a message by
Brother Norm Wells. If you get a chance on Sermon
Auto, he started a new series in Judges. Oh my. But he was
saying that when the Israelites went into the land, they were
still dwelling with the Canaanites. And he spiritualized that and
said, we're still dealing with the Canaanites too. That's our
flesh. Isn't that amazing? So we best not kick our brethren
when they're down, right? Because oh, Canaanite flesh will
just wring its ugly head, won't it? Praise God for forgiveness
of all our sins, right? Praise God. Praise God it's washed
in the blood, all our sins. Okay, let's read this, starting
in verse 11 to verse 18. You see how large a letter I've
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 lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. For neither they themselves, who are circumcised, keep the
law. We looked at that last week. They try to force people to keep
the law. They can only keep it themselves. Only keep it themselves. The Pharisees were masters at
that. But desire to have you circumcised,
that they may glory in your flesh. So that's where the title of
the message came from last week, that these Judaizers and false
teachers will glory in the flesh of those who they supposedly
have come to their side or their point of view. But look what
Paul writes, this is our text, verse 14. But God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto me. I'm ruined to the world.
Are you? We're ruined to the world, beloved. Oh my. And I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus, neither
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature." So what Paul's doing here, he's doing what he did
at the very beginning of the letter. He's reaffirming that
what he's been teaching throughout the letter, that salvation is
in Christ alone, not through circumcision, not through the
works of man. And he says, I don't have anything
to glory in, except in the cross of Christ, except in the Lord
Jesus Christ and what he's done for me at Calvary's cross. That's
the only thing we have the glory in, isn't it? And that's it. That's all we
want to do. Now, I remember being in religion,
beloved. I remember knocking on doors
and thinking, why aren't these other believers doing this? Why?
Just so full of self-righteousness, just so full of... I remember
that. It was awful. It was horrible.
And so when I read this, that's how I feel when I see about them
glorying it. Well, I went out and did that.
And back then, I was doing it for supposed rewards, which has
nothing to do with what the scripture says. My, oh my. Our reward is Christ. Do we need
anything else, too? No, we got Christ, don't we? We don't need
nothing else, do we? We got everything in Christ.
So this glory in the flesh is just being puffed up. Paul says,
I don't got nothing to glory in. And remember, Paul was a
genius. I think he was. That man knew
different languages. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. We're going to see that when
we study Philippians. And he says, all that I just count as
dung. Nothing. Nothing. My oh my. But look at what he's saying
here. He's saying all I can glory in is the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't have nothing else to glory in. Why? Why? Well the
answer is in verse 15. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availed anything nor uncircumcision but a new creature born again
by the Holy Spirit of God. Look at that. Isn't that wonderful? And what did Christ our King
say? You must be born again. I was listening. You guys know
I love hockey. And I was listening to this hockey's
ministry thing. And they had five different hockey
players on there. And I try not to, I try not to,
I try just to listen. But you know, not one of them
mentioned being born again. They said, well, I accepted and
I did this. Not one of them. Not one of them.
said, well, when the Lord saved me and I was born again, not
one of them mentioned regeneration. Because modern, and this is just
like this stuff, they've replaced, modern religions replaced circumcision
with, you gotta repeat this prayer, bow your head and repeat this
prayer. There's no Holy Spirit regeneration.
But I'll tell you what, when you're a new creature in Christ,
can we testify to this, beloved? When you're a new creature in
Christ, hey, I'm born again of the Holy Spirit of God. He saved
my soul. He showed me Christ who I never
knew. I never knew. I love what Tom
said. One time we were out for breakfast,
Tom says, it's a revelation. He has to reveal himself or we
don't ever know him. That's right. We'd still be dead in sin, brother,
if he hadn't revealed himself to us, right? All of us as believers. But praise God, he revealed himself
to us. And praise God, we're born again
by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. He did it all, beloved. He regenerated us. He gave us
faith to look to Christ, who finished the work. See, it's a profound message,
and yet it's simple, and yet people stumble over it. Because
they say, well, what do I have to do? You don't have nothing
to do. Just look to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shall be saved. Do you believe? There's the question,
right? Do you believe? Oh, Lord, I believe.
Help my unbelief, though, Lord. Please help my unbelief, though.
But I believe. I'm clinging to you. You're the
only one. I'm not going to look anywhere
else but to you. And it's so refreshing, isn't
it? It's so freeing, isn't it? It's so liberating. See, the
Judaizers put these folks under bondage, beloved. You have to
do this. And that's religion. You can
put anything in there that religion tells you you have to do. I'm
telling you what, it's awful. But praise be to God. If the
sun will set, you're free. You're free indeed. You're free
indeed. We're free, aren't we, Brother
Charlie? My, oh my, we're free. Free in Christ. It's wonderful.
And it says, and as many as walk according to this rule, peace
be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. So we got
two more new messages. If you can see, we got the new
creature in verse 15, and then we got the folks called the Israel
of God. That's God's people. That's his
elect. From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in
my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had been beaten
five times. 39 stripes. They say once will kill
a man. Five times. He bore the marks,
didn't he? This was once, he was once a
destroyer and waster of the church. And God told our dear brother,
he's a chosen vessel. Now bring it home, beloved. Every one of God's people is
a chosen vessel. Every single one of us. My, that's grace, isn't it? That's
mercy, isn't it? That's incredible. So Paul's
bringing this epistle to a close, but again, The true author is
the Holy Spirit of God. He's moving Paul. And he said,
obviously he felt it very important to expose the false teachers
and their false doctrine. Look at verses 12 to 13. As many
as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain
you to be circumcised, only lest they suffer persecution for the
cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law. Oh, look at that. but desire
to have you circumcised, desire to bring you under bondage. They
don't put themselves under bondage, but they desire you to be under
bondage. Oh, Paul's saying, that they may glory in your flesh,
that they may say, got another notch. Zane tells me a story about when
he was in Bible college and one of his friends, or one of the
students in the college, Well, the professor, yeah, had heard
that a student didn't witness right, didn't tell him about
the Lord. And so he ran over to that guy, and supposedly the
guy made a profession. He said, what did he say? Got
another one? Got another crown, right? Another jewel in my crown. That's called glowing in the
flesh. If someone's saved, who saved
them? Yeah, yeah. Right? Let's give Him the glory, eh?
Let's give God all the glory. See, these guys were glorying
in the flesh. And compelling someone to be
circumcised in order to be saved is, again, a doctrine of works,
right? It's a doctrine of works. It has nothing to do with grace.
And again, it just puts people into bondage. So Paul's writing
here, and again, the Holy Spirit knows the hearts of man, right? And the minds of man. And he
has Paul pen. They don't even keep the law
themselves. They desire you to be under the law, but they don't
even keep it themselves. Praise God for freedom in Christ,
beloved. For freedom in Christ. Oh, and
we've seen and we're gonna see in our study of Acts today that
false preachers and usually their followers who are not truly saved,
they actually hate the gospel of Christ. They don't want anything
to do with it. Because of course it reveals
that what's their teaching is false. Have you ever noticed that we
humans, we think we know the way. We think we know how to
get to heaven. We think we, in our natural state,
and we were all there, think, well, I'm a good person. I'm
not that bad. And if I just do these things,
then surely a God who's God of love won't cast me into hell.
You see how man's thinking is so warped? We've all sinned against
God. We all deserve condemnation.
And then here it is for us. Oh my, praise God. God says,
you're not going to suffer wrath. You're not going to suffer wrath. All, and there was nothing in
us, was there, that made him choose us? As a matter of fact,
what was in us would make anyone else go, I don't want nothing
to do with them. And God and love. You're a vessel of honor. For
maternity. For maternity. This is what makes
grace amazing, isn't it? This is why Paul said, I can't
glory in nothing else. I can't glory in anything else
but Christ. Because this, you know, and remember,
he wasted the church. He was destroying the church.
That's what wasted means in the Greek. He was destroying the
church. The people were terrified of him. And then the Lord saves
him, right? He's regenerated on Damascus
Road, born again by the Holy Spirit of God. How do we know?
He says, he said, he called him Lord. Oh my. I did a sermon years back
called, They Called Him Lord. Remember the leper? Lord, you
know, the thief on the cross, Lord, just remember me. Lord,
he's our Lord, isn't he? He's our Savior. He's our rescuer from our sins. He rescued, let us think this,
in every one of us, let us think this. He rescued me, and you
can say I, right, from my sins. Not just a few of them, But all
of them. And I'm the one who deserves
the condemnation for those sins. I'm the one who deserves the
wrath of God for those sins. And yet it all fell on Christ
in my room and place. How can I not but glory in God
then? Now we see how Paul, think of
that with Paul. How can he not but glory in God? What mercy? Not the same mercy
we've received, beloved. The same grace we've received
in Christ. All because he shed his blood
for us and redeemed us with his precious, precious blood on Calvary's
cross. You know, scripture calls us
the ungodly. And Christ came to save the ungodly. Isn't that amazing? God himself,
the holy one, the sinless one, as we looked at on Wednesday,
came to save his people from their sins. And he did it, didn't
he? Where's he right now? Someone
tell me, where's he right now? He's in glory, isn't he? That's
right, he's risen! And God is satisfied with that
sacrifice, he's raised for our justification, and how can we
but knock glory in God? How can Paul not glory in anything? How can we not glory in anything
but God and God alone? As Brother Henry used to say,
the only thing I contributed to my salvation was my sin. I did the sin and he did the
saving. And so I need to be saved from
my sins, and God did it through Christ Jesus our Lord, and by
the regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit. Glory be to
God. Glory be to God. We have a lot
to rejoice about, don't we? We have a lot to be joyful. Now,
I know circumstances can get us down, and they always do,
because we're all human. But oh, let us look to this.
Let us look to the crucified one. Let us look to Christ and
know the fact that the work is finished. We're redeemed, beloved. We were redeemed 2,000 years
ago. My, oh, my. Turn, if you would,
to Philippians, Philippians chapter 3. Oh my. My oh my. Look at this in Philippians chapter
3. Look at this. Verse 17, starting in verse 17.
Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk
so as ye have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I have
told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are
enemies of the cross of Christ. Now what's their end? Well, it
tells us here, whose end is destruction, and this would be the Judaizers,
if the Lord didn't save them, if the Lord left them in their
sin, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and
whose glory is is in their shame who mind earthly things." Now
we're going to see that too this morning with the Sanhedrin who
Peter and James and John or the Apostles are bought before. They're
more concerned about power and wealth. Their own glory. Just like these Judaizers here.
Look at this. For our conversation, that's our lifestyle, is in heaven. Do you know our inheritance is
already waiting for us? Sealed up. And do you know we're
marked by the Holy Spirit of God? We're marked by God already.
We're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. We're already done. And our inheritance
is there waiting for us, and it's undefiled, incorruptible. Nothing can corrupt it, because
it's in Christ. Right? From whence also we look
for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. We look to our Savior. We're awaiting Him whether He
comes again in our lifetime or when He takes us home to glory.
We're just looking to Christ, aren't we? Isn't that wonderful? Look at this. Who shall change
our vile body. Just like that. Brother Norm
said, that's the portal, right in the presence of the Lord.
Remember Star Trek with the beam me up thing and all that? But you remember how it used
to be where they'd still show the bodies, and it'd be like
that, boom, gone. Oh, isn't that wonderful? Oh,
my. And God will change our vile
bodies, right? That it may be fashioned like
unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is
able, look at that, able, able to subdue what? All things. Our God is able to subdue all
things, beloved. That's our God. Oh, it's wonderful. All things unto Himself. Did
He not subdue our wild spirits? Right? Oh man, He subdued us. And think of this. I want us
to think about this too. And this will make you just give
glory to God. How many times has He restrained us? How many times has He restrained
us? We don't even know. From falling into sin. Right? From doing something that would
have ruined our lives. I believe when we get the glory
we're gonna find out he did a lot more for us than we even realize. Just in this life keeping us.
Keeping us from falling. I'll tell you what. Let's just
glory in God. Let's just glory in the Lord
for the great things he's done. Oh my. You know. Somebody said this, God created
us to love people and use things, but sinful men love things and
use people. I remember being there. So once
again, Paul is now going to sit before them. That which he's
been expounding on throughout this whole epistle. And remember,
these Galatians, they're of a Celtic, they're from the Celtic nations,
and they came over from England. But they're Celtic, and they're
very superstitious, very superstitious, very easily swayed by Julius
Caesar said of the Gauls, he said, I've not seen a people
that can be swayed back and forth. Right? To different views. And
that's what these folks were. They were Gauls. They were Galatians. And the Celtic folks had come
down and intermixed with the people that were in there. And
then they're very superstitious. They're
very taken away by new things. And here comes a new thing after
Paul's been there and preached the gospel and laid a foundation.
Here comes a new thing. These Judaizers come in and say,
you have to be circumcised to be saved. Well, some of them
are, oh, wow. I never, you know, just kidding. It's in their nature
and it's in ours, isn't it? To be dazzled by things. Keep
looking to Christ. Look what Paul does. This is
wonderful. Paul's once again going to set before them the
one thing needful for salvation. He just keeps saying, you know
what? Henry used to say he plays a one-string fiddle. This is
like a carpenter hitting the same nail over and over and over
again. You ever have a nail you're hammering
and it just won't go in? You just keep, you gotta keep
on going, don't you? Gospel preacher, we just keep
hitting that same nail. Christ. Salvation in Christ. There's no other way. Look at this in verse 14 again,
but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified on me and
I unto the world. So we see in this wonderful text
that we should just glory in God alone. Now that's the hardest
thing for a believer to do is just rest and trust in Christ
because we're fleshy. We still have the Canaanite,
right? Living with the Israelite, right? The spirit and the flesh,
they war against each other, right? But look at how he expresses
his dislike of one glorying in himself. He uses himself as an
example and he says, but God forbid that I should glory. This is the Apostle Paul. He
had established churches all over and he says, God forbid
that I should glory in those things. Nope. And he's bringing forth
the fact that he has nothing to glory in, in himself. And
this is true for every one of us as born-again, blood-washed
believers, right? We don't have anything to glory in with ourselves.
And nothing in our outward, worldly privileges, nothing in what we
maintained intelligence-wise, nothing by, nothing. It's all
given to us by God. Sovereign grace, salvation, and
free grace changes our view of everything, doesn't it? Because
He's ruling and reigning. And again, think of what He knows. Think of what He's learned. Think
of what He's been taught. And He's going to write a good
portion of the New Testament. And He says, I don't have anything
to glory in. saving the cross of Christ. He's not going to glory in his
gifts, he's not going to glory in his attainments, he's not
going to glory in anything because he knows that he's been taught
by the Holy Spirit of God, he's been given faith to believe,
he's been born again by the Holy Spirit of God, and he knows it
all comes from him. Without the Holy Spirit regenerating
us, we'd still be dead in trespasses and sins. Isn't that amazing? And so the Apostle Paul is being
led by the Holy Spirit of God, who again is a true author of
scripture, that the only one we can glory in is the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, in Christ we have perfect
acceptance. We are perfectly accepted by God in Christ. Perfect means perfect too. There
is no God going, well, you know, no, we're in Christ. See, that's
the most important thing. We're in Christ. And He's redeemed us perfectly
by His precious blood. He's the perfect Lamb of God.
Right? And if God wasn't satisfied with
His sacrifice, He never would have rose from the grave. And now He's the perfect mediator
for us between God and man. Right? God tells us this, that he has
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 2 Timothy 1.9. So let us never forget that.
Let us never forget that the gospel is an announcement and
proclamation of redemption accomplished. It's done. It's finished. How? by the sacrifice of God's
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, according to God's will, for who? Sinners
such as we. How can we not but glory in God? Oh, how can we not but glory
in God? Oh my. Let's read that again, it says,
But God forbid that I should glory and save in the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me
and I unto the world. In other words, He's saying,
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Let us glory in the Lord. Why? Well, because Christ dwells
in us, because he's our life, because he's our salvation, because
he's our redemption, because he's our king. He's our everything,
isn't he? He's our everything. And so that
being the truth, then the world is crucified unto us. Right? Paul's bringing forth that the
world's now dead to him. It's now dead to him. And this gave him boldness. This
gave Paul boldness, right? To preach the gospel. He no longer
feared man. He no longer feared man. We're
going to see that in the book of Acts, too, this morning. The
apostles didn't fear the Sanhedrin. Because they said it's better
that we fear God than man. Oh my. So let we who are the
redeemed of the Lord rejoice. We no longer have to fear the
handwriting of ordinances that were against us. Why? Because they were nailed to Christ's
cross. They were whitewashed by the
precious blood of Christ. If God before us, who can be
against us? It's God that justifies, right?
Who justifies us? We don't justify ourselves, we
can't. But God's justified us through Christ, hasn't he? That's
wonderful, I'll tell you why. And because Christ's risen from
the grave, because all power in heaven and earth is given
to him, because he's my righteousness, because he's removed the curse
of the law from me, and all that was against me and every believer,
how can we not but glory in Christ, in Christ alone. There's nothing
else for us to glory in, is there, Brother Travis? We've got nothing
else to glory in. He gets all the glory. He gets
all the honor and praise. He saved me. Hallelujah, as David
said earlier. Praise His mighty name. My. My, oh my. Paul not only said
Because of Jesus Christ, the world is crucified unto me, he
also said, and I unto the world. We're ruined for the world. We can't go back into the world,
beloved. We may for a while, but God's gonna pull us right
back out, isn't he? Oh my. And do any of us want
to leave Christ? No. He's the lover of my soul. As Peter said, where shall we
go without the words of eternal life? By God's sovereign power, Paul
became a new creature in Christ. He's born again. That's what
we're going to look at next week. Old things passed away, beloved.
Old things passed away. And so the world had no affection
for him and he had no affection for the world. And that's true
for us as believers. We live in this world, we partake
in the things in this world, but we're looking to go home,
aren't we? We're just pilgrims and strangers
traveling through this world. Brother Brian, we're gonna make
it home one day by God's grace and mercy. You're gonna take
us home. That's wonderful. Oh, it's a promise, Brother Dave,
yeah? And like Abraham approved his love by being willing to
obey God when he offered up his own son Isaac as a sacrifice,
oh my, Isaac meant more to Abraham than life itself. And our Lord
was testing Abraham. In his mind, Abraham actually
did kill Isaac, because remember he said, well, if the Lord's
gonna slay him, if I slay him, God's just gonna raise him up
again. So in his mind, he's already
thinking, well, that's what, and God will just raise him up.
But God said no, because he was just a pitcher, right? He's a
pitcher of God offering up his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And God didn't, God didn't say
hold that knife, did he? It was plunged into Christ for
us. The sword of God's justice, Spurgeon used to say, the sword
of God's justice was unseathed and plunged into Christ. for
us. What are we going to say, beloved?
Glory be to God, right? Amen. Glory be to God. There's nothing else to glory
in but Christ. Nothing else. I finally made it. Nothing else
to glory in, is there? My oh my. Isn't God so good?
Isn't He so wonderful? I'll tell you what. Nothing like
the Lord Jesus Christ. who saved our eternal souls by
the shedding of his precious, precious blood. My. Brother Brian, you want to close
us in prayer?