here before us. Galatians chapter
2. Galatians chapter 2. And last
week we looked at how Paul preached the one true gospel when he went
up to Jerusalem to visit the Apostles. And he went up to Jerusalem
to clarify again to clarify and preach to the
apostles that they would know that he's preaching the same
gospel as they are. And also, the apostles sent him
back with letters to the Galatian churches, letting them know that
Paul and them preached the same gospel, the same gospel. And circumcision was not part
of the gospel. Fleshy circumcision. Today we're
going to look at spiritual circumcision. That is real. Spiritual circumcision
is real. It's the circumcision of the
heart. And it's the operation of the Holy Spirit of God. And Paul called the gospel, the
one true gospel, if we look in verse two, He called it that
gospel. It says here in verse two, and
I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that gospel which I
preached. So that's what he went up there.
He went up there to preach the gospel to them. And it says,
but privately to them which were of reputation less by any means
I should run or had run in vain. And the reason he did it privately,
several commentators bring this forth, is it wouldn't give the
Judaizers who were in Jerusalem it wouldn't give them the ability
to debate. Because I'll tell you what, all they would have
done is got in there and started causing trouble and saying, you
must be circumcised to be saved. That's another gospel. So Paul
goes up to the apostles privately and he preaches the gospel to
them and they rejoice. They rejoice. Let's read the
context for our verse today. And what did Paul preach? Well,
he preached salvation in Christ alone, right? He preached that
the blood of God, the elect of God, are redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ. That it's the work of Christ
and what he's done. You see, our salvation is outside
of ourselves. We have nothing to do with our
salvation except the sin. Right? And that's not salvation,
is it? We're saved from our sins, though,
aren't we? So the only thing we own is our
sin. And Christ, the perfect one, died in our room and place.
He atoned for our sin. He satisfied God's law and justice. And he finished the work. So with that in our minds, let's
read here, Galatians chapter two, verses one to 10. Then 14
years after, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and
took Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation and
communicated unto them that gospel, which I preached among the Gentiles,
but privately to them, which were of reputation, lest by any
means I should run or had run in vain. But neither Titus was
with me, But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was
compelled to be circumcised. And that because of false brethren,
unawares, bought in, who came in privately to spy out our liberty,
which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us again
into bondage." All false teachers will bring people into bondage,
will try to bring God's people into bondage. That's what they
do. And not just God's people, they want to yoke anybody they
can. under bondage. Do this, do that, don't do this,
don't do that. It's a due religion. What we
believe is done. Christ finished the work. It's
done. My salvation is complete and so is yours if you're one
of the Lord's people. It's done. It's finished. to whom we gave place by subjection,
no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue
with you. So he didn't even give him place. Didn't even give him
an opportunity to speak. My, do you know, I heard Tom
Harden preach this week, and this is true. He said anyone
who preaches the false gospel is an enemy of the one true gospel. Plain and simple. Plain and simple. They're an enemy, they're an
antichrist. in thought, because anything that goes against the
finished work of Christ, that's why the old-timers used to call
the Catholic Church the Antichrist. Well, it's not just the Catholic
Church, it's any false religion. Any religion that's against Christ,
the finished work of Christ is Antichrist. That's what that
is. It's a spirit. Antichrist is
a spirit. And that's what it is. It's against Christ. It's
against the free and sovereign grace of Christ. It says here, but of those who
seem to be somewhat, look at this. But of those who seem to
be somewhat, whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to
me. God accepted no man's person. That's a pretty leveling statement,
isn't it? For they who seem to be somewhat
in confidence added nothing to me. But contrarize when they
saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me as the
gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter. For he that wrought
effectively in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same
was mighty in me toward the Gentiles. Now I love this. Paul's given
all the glory to God. He's given all the glory to God.
He says this isn't of me, this isn't of Peter. This is of God. God sends his preachers to whomever
he pleases. To whomever he pleases. And when
James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived
that perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave
to me in Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should
go unto the heathen and they unto the circumcision. Only they
would that we should remember the poor, the same which I also
was forward to do. Now let's read verse three. This
is our text today. This one little verse will be
our whole text today. Look at this. But neither Titus,
who was with me being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. So, again, what are the false
teachers teaching? The false teachers are saying
you must be circumcised to be saved, along with the work of
Christ. But Titus is a born-again, blood-washed saint. He's just
like you and I. And he knows that's an error. He's been taught. The only way
he knows is because he's been taught that that's not the truth.
See, God the Holy Spirit's done something for him. He's been
circumcised in the heart, not the flesh. See, circumcision
of the flesh won't save anyone. It won't save anyone. But circumcision
of the heart will. You must be born again, our king
said, right? It's the Holy Spirit. Do you
know the Holy Spirit performs that operation in us? Do you
know it's an operation of God? We are God's people who have
had spiritual heart surgery. We have. We've had spiritual
heart surgery, beloved. We have a new heart now. Not
a new ticker here, this heart of flesh, but we have a new heart
spiritually, don't we? Oh, we sure do. And now, under
the old Jewish economy, circumcision had both a moral and a ceremonial
significance. It was very important to the
Jews. Very important to them. And think of this, it was difficult,
it was difficult for some of the Jews who were converted to
do away with circumcision. You know why? Because it had to do, doing away with
circumcision is doing away with the whole Mosaic law. Everything they'd been taught
from a young age. Yeah, it's huge. It's huge when
you think of it that way. Everything they've been taught,
they find out, is no longer in place. Because all those sacrifices,
right, pointed to Christ, right? Circumcision was a picture of
spiritual circumcision, which in the New Testament is you must
be born again. So many of them weren't quite
ready for this. They weren't quite ready. That's
why Paul wrote the letter of Hebrews. It shows that Christ
is so much more magnificent, so much more superior than the
law, because the law and the prophets, they testify of him.
It's a hymn book that we read, being Christ. You've often heard
us preachers say that, it's a hymn book. It really is, H-I-M. It's
all about Christ. It's all about him. From Genesis
all the way to Revelation. And remember this too, the Mosaic
Law was ordained by God. It was ordained by God in the
hands of angels. And it had been the true religion
for 4,000 years. Right? So it was very difficult
for these Jewish believers as it is with many today who still
hold to the law, to realize that the whole Mosaic system was typical
and transitory. It pointed to Christ. So now
that Christ is here and he's come and gave himself a life,
there's no need for sacrifices, is there? So why are people worried about
reinstituting sacrifices in the Temple Mount? I remember one preacher friend
of mine, you know what he told me? I've mentioned this before,
but I'm going to mention it again. He told me if they did that,
that would be an abomination to God. That would be like spitting
in God's eye. You know why? Because the sacrifices are done.
See, they were just shadows, right? The substance has come. So there's no need for them anymore.
There's no need for them. The substance has come, the Passover
lamb. I love the story of when they
put the blood on the lentils. That's one of my favorite narratives
in the scriptures. I just absolutely get thrilled
when I read that. Because there was no difference
really between the Egyptians and the Israelites, except the
Israelites were God's people, right? But the blood. That was
the only difference. The only difference between you
and I and anybody else in this world is the blood of Christ,
beloved. That's the only difference. were
covered in the precious blood of Christ. And the Israelites, they weren't
deserving of that, were they? But God had mercy on them, didn't
he? Because they were his people. You know, we've been his people
for eternity. We didn't even know it. We don't deserve it,
but God's had mercy on us, hasn't he? And now we say hallelujah. Now we praise the Lord. What
a great blessing. So this issue really wasn't just
over circumcision. it was over the whole Mosaic
Law. That's really what it was. There was some in Jerusalem,
some among the church who had made a profession but still was
really hanging on to that Mosaic Law, still in bondage to that
Mosaic Law. You know, there's still folks
today that actually want to live under the Mosaic Law. There's
supposedly Christians that do that. I met a few of them. I told them why. When I met them,
I said, why? Why would you want to put yourself
under that bondage again? Right? Can you fulfill one of
the laws? I can't fulfill one of the laws.
Not one. But Christ fulfilled them all
for us, didn't he? That's good news. That's good news. That's the most wonderful news
I've ever heard in my life, to be honest with you. That Christ
died in my room and place and shed his blood, just like the
Passover lamb, right? The innocent lamb shed his blood
for the Israelites that night. Remember, it's a picture, beloved.
It's a picture. And the only one who made him
to differ is God. Same one with us. The only one
who made us to differ is God. The precious, precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I ask you this question, which
I asked last week, are Christians obliged to keep Moses' law, or
are they free from it? Amen. We're free. Now we love
God's law, don't we, because it comes from him. What does
it do? It shows his holiness. It shows
his righteousness. But we can never fulfill it.
We are free, beloved. We are so free. We do not know
how free we are. Now, you talk like this, and
people say, well, somebody's going to say, they can go out
that door and do whatever they want. Not a believer, right? We're all smiling, because not
us. We know we can't do that. You ever been tempted, and then
you just pray to the Lord, and he just takes it away? Just takes
it away from you? Oh, it's wonderful. You rejoice,
don't you? You rejoice, you don't give in
to that flesh. See, the flesh loves sin. This body of sin.
That's one of the wonderful things when we get to glory, is we won't
have this body of flesh anymore. We won't have, oh wretched man
that I am, which every believer says. We won't say I'm the chief
of sinners, although we know we're safe sinners, but we won't
be struggling with this body anymore, beloved. It'll be wondrous,
won't it? No more temptation, no more sin.
Oh, I can't even imagine, but it's true. It's true, beloved. Oh, we're so free. So this very
question about are Christians under the law, this has been
a question for years. It's divided the church, as we
see it started early. And it's divided the church for
years. So Paul, he goes up to Jerusalem
to settle it. See, even today, if there's any
arguments about that, we just need to take folks to the book
of Galatians. Paul clears it all up in this book. We're gonna
see that as we study it. We're justified by faith alone,
through Christ alone, and our faith is God-given. Christ is
our justification, beloved. Christ is our righteousness.
Christ is our sanctification. Christ is our wisdom. Christ
is our redemption. He's everything. Again, salvation
is outside of ourselves. Scott Richardson used to say
that we look outside of ourselves and we look up to Christ. That's
what we do. We look to another. He's our
hope. He's our refuge. He is the lover
of our souls. My, so believers aren't under
the law. We're free from the law, beloved.
But again, we still hold it in high regard because it reflects
the holiness of God. Right? It shows us that God will
not, and God will not bend his justice and say, well, Wayne,
I know you're a sinner, but I'm going to just let you off. No,
Christ had to die for me. Oh, how horrendous is my sin
when I think of Christ went to die for me. But then I, in wonder
and awe, realize, and I know you do too, oh, how much he loves
me. That he would have done that.
That he did that. Oh my. And not only did he save
us, but he keeps us. And not only does he keep us,
but he's going to take us to glory one day. And we're going
to be spending eternity with him. We can't even grasp that
because we're constrained by time. We're in time and space.
He's not. He's outside of time and space. He's not constrained
by anything that we're constrained by. Isn't that amazing? God entered time and space, completed
the work that he was sent to do, the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and then left time and space and is back right now where
he came from, up in glory. Oh my, it's wonderful. And remember this too. One of
the reasons why we're not under the law is Christ is what? The end, E-N-D, of the law for
righteousness. He's the end of the law for righteousness.
He is our righteousness. He established that perfect righteousness
that we're now clothed in, beloved. That which we could never do,
he's done it for us because he loves us with an eternal love. Now we see in our text here,
let's read verse three again, but neither Titus who was with
me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. Now, Titus
traveled with Paul and Barnabas up to Jerusalem, and he was not
compelled to be circumcised because he believed the one true gospel.
He believed the gospel that Paul preached. How did he believe
it and why? Because he's born again. He's
been born again of the Holy Spirit of God. He's had that spiritual
circumcision done in his heart, the operation of God, Right? And now he has faith. God gave
him that faith. He has faith and he believes
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the object in the center of
our faith. And the gospel is all about him
and what he's done. The gospel tells us what we are. Sinners. Right? That we can't help ourselves
and save ourselves, but it tells us about a great redeemer. who's
done everything that God requires for our salvation. He completed
it all. And Titus and Timothy, they believed
that. They believed the one true gospel.
And Titus had learned that all he needed for salvation was in
Christ. He learned that, as Paul said,
Christ is our all in all. He'd been born again by the regenerating
power of God the Holy Spirit. He'd also been taught by the
Holy Spirit of God the one true gospel, just like us. Did we
know the gospel before we were born again? We didn't have a
clue about it. I didn't have a clue about it. I'd heard about
church and I'd heard about religion. Again, I was a Catholic and all
that. followed their traditions, but I did not know Christ. I
had no idea who he was. I was so wrapped up in the God
of my imagination that I thought God would outweigh me, would
put me in the scales of my good. My good would outweigh my bad.
Oh my gosh, was I in for a big surprise. I'm so evil that I'd
never be able to pay for any of my sins, but hallelujah, now
I stand before you a saved man, a saved sinner because of what
Christ done. My. So Titus was trusting in
nothing but Christ and his finished work. He wasn't trusting in anything
he could do to be saved, but just trusting in Christ alone.
Therefore, he felt no need to follow the false teachers. He
didn't feel any need to be circumcised, because he's born again. He didn't
feel any need for it. He knew the truth. It had been
revealed to him. And he believed the truth. He
believed that salvation was in Christ alone. He believed that
salvation was of the Lord. That's what he believed. So I'll
tell you what, though. Beware, my dear brethren. Beware.
Beware of anyone who tries to yoke you under bondage. Beware
of them. Beware of anyone who tries to add anything to the
finished work of Christ by telling you, you have to do this or you
have to do that. There's groups out there that
says you have to be baptized to be saved. That's the Church
of Christ. That's wrong. That's another gospel. There's
a group out there that says you must speak in tongues to be born
again or to be saved. That's another gospel. That's
not the true gospel. There's the Catholic Church that
says you must attend the Catholic Church or you're anathema. You're
damned. That's another gospel. My mom
got stuck up in that. She was so terrified to leave
the Catholic Church because she thought the salvation of her
soul was wrapped up in being in that church. That's wrong. That's wrong. Then there's others
who say you must worship on Saturdays. That's the seventh day of Advent.
That's another gospel. No matter what else they say,
anybody who adds that to your salvation, that's another gospel,
beloved. And then there's the cults who
are, we just know that they're, there's subtle ones though, isn't
there? Very subtle. And those ones I just mentioned
are the subtle ones. We know Mormonism is wrong. We
know that Jehovah Witnesses are wrong. We know that just by looking
at their doctrine and seeing what they believe. The Jehovah
Witnesses don't believe in the Trinity. They don't see the Holy
Spirit. They just see him as some entity.
But no, he's God. He's God. My goodness. Anybody who diminishes the work
of Christ And his finished work, by adding man's works or anything
we have to do, that's another gospel. What they're basically saying
to us when they say that is Christ's work wasn't good enough. Well,
I'll tell you what. I don't want no part of this
sinful man being involved in my salvation because I'd be lost
and going to hell. And that's true for everyone
who believes those false religions. Praise be to God. Salvation is
the Lord. He saved us, beloved. He saved
us. He's redeemed us by his precious, precious blood. We're no longer
under bondage. There is nothing we have to do
to continue to be saved. We're saved. There's nothing
we have to do. Just look to Christ. That's what
we do every day. Isn't it hard to do? Isn't it hard to look
to Christ all the time with all this stuff flying in the world? See, he's constant. We're like
this. He's constant, beloved. Oh, what comfort that gives our
souls, no matter what the situation. As I said last week, nothing
in this world can alter the fact that the true believer is saved. Nothing can alter our salvation.
Nothing. We're in His grip. We're in the
grip of Christ, beloved. And we're also in the Father's
grip, too. Oh, my. It's wonderful. Oh, and here
keep us from falling. Here present us to the Father,
blameless. Now let's look at verse 3 again. But neither Titus,
who is with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.
See the word compelled there? In the Greek, when we look at
that, we think, well, compelled. What does that mean? Well, in
the Greek here, in this section, it means to force, to be necessary,
to compel by external violence. What a lot of commentators think
is that the false brethren in the Galatian churches were compelling
Titus to be circumcised, and even maybe some of the false
brethren in Jerusalem, because they'd obviously run into some
of them. They were compelling him that he must be. They're
saying, it's necessary. You've got to do this. And Titus would not yield to
those false teachings. By the grace of God, he would
not yield to those false teachings, those false brethren, which we're
going to look at next, or in a couple weeks, those false brethren. My, oh, my. And he was a Greek. He wouldn't have been circumcised
at an early age. Now, his mother was a Jewish
lady, but his dad wasn't. And he wouldn't have been circumcised
being a Greek. Not at all. Not at all. His dad wouldn't have wanted
to have nothing to do with that. My oh my. Therefore, Titus was
an uncircumcised Gentile. But beloved God, he'd been circumcised
in his heart. Do you know that? God had performed
an operation on him. God, the Holy Spirit, had performed
spiritual surgery. You know that's what he does
for every one of us? Turn, if you would, to Colossians, chapter
2. Colossians, chapter 2. He gave Titus a heart transplant,
a spiritual heart transplant. God took that old stony heart
out of him and gave him a heart of flesh, gave him a heart that
hungered and thirsted after Christ. See, we're new creatures in Christ,
aren't we? We're not what we used to be. Look at this, I love
this. Again, this is one of my favorite portions in the scriptures
here, Colossians chapter two. I especially like verses 14 and
15, but we're gonna read verses 10 to 15 here. And we're gonna
see the spiritual surgery that God does here. Look at this,
what a magnificent statement in verse 10. And ye are complete
in him. We could just stop there and
I could preach for years there. I'll tell you, complete in Christ.
My, which is the head of all principality and power, in whom
also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands and putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ." Look at that. A circumcision made
without hands. Beloved, this is talking about
spiritual circumcision. This is talking about the circumcision
of the heart. This is what happened to you
on the way home. When God regenerated you, brother Brian, there was
a circumcision of the heart done right there on that spot. You
didn't know? Lord did an operation on you,
brother. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. Look at this. Oh, look at this. In whom also
you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands
and putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ. buried with him in baptism, wherein
also you are raised with him. Look at this, look at this. Through
the faith of the what? Operation of God. See, God performs spiritual surgery
on us. The dead becomes living, right? Still got this body of flesh,
but inside we're a new creature. Or been an operation done. The
dead being raised, spiritual dead being raised to life, quickened
by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. You must be born again,
that's what that's talking about. Look at that though, I love this
fact here that says, the operation of God is his work, beloved. Tom, you and I have talked about
how Christ must reveal himself to us or we never, never know
him. That's what this is talking about. He reveals himself to
us. Remember, he said, you must be
born again. So we know that regeneration, being born again. Regeneration
is just a fancy name saying born again. We know that to be born
again, then you're given faith. You don't have faith before you're
born again. No man has faith. No natural man or woman has faith.
But I'll tell you what, after this spiritual surgery is done,
we have faith. And we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. A team
of wild horses couldn't stop us from running to Christ, could
they? No, no. Oh, look at this. Who hath raised
him from the dead. So the same power that was exercised
to raise Christ from the dead is the same power that raises
us from our spiritual deadness, beloved. Look at that. That's
amazing grace, isn't it? That's amazing. And then look
at this. These are my, these following verses here. I just,
I got, I had to, I had to put them in last night. I'm like,
I got to put those in. I got to add those in because this
is just, this is just wonderful here. And you being dead in your
sins, that's our natural state, in the uncircumcision of your
flesh, right? Notice that, the uncircumcision
of our flesh, right? Hath he quickened with him, having
forgiven you what? All trespasses, I mean everyone. All means all there. All means
all. That means all the sins we ever
commit in our life, all means all, doesn't it? It doesn't say
some. It doesn't say before you were
saved, the sins before you were saved. No, it says all. How incredible is such a little
word. Three letters, all. All, all
of them. Forgiving you all trespasses.
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us. Remember the written things that were all against us? All
our sins? Blotting them out. You can't
even see them anymore. They're gone. That was against
us, which was contrary to us. And He took it out of the way,
nailing it to His cross. It is finished. and having obtained eternal redemption
for us. That's what he did, beloved.
And the one who has eternal life can give it to whomever he pleases,
can he? Hallelujah. Praise the mighty name of Jesus
that he gave it to us. Undeserving, unmerited sinners. And I'll tell you, we're going
to spend the rest of our days on this earth praising him, and then
we're going to spend eternity praising him for what he's done
for us. When he starts our lips praising
him, they're never going to stop. Death's not going to stop. Death's
not going to stop us from praising God. My physical body won't praise
him anymore, but what are we going to get? We're going to
get a new body. Got aches and pains right now?
Got things going wrong with his body, my sugar's all over the
board, right? And then sometimes it's good. I don't have no problem
with sugar in heaven. Amen. No trouble. You don't have
no trouble with hernias. They're gone, man. Gone. No more cancer, no more sickness,
nothing. Gone. Gone. Nothing. Oh my. It'll be amazing. It'll be amazing. Heaven spoiled
Prince of powers and powers, he made a show of them, openly
triumphing over them. In it. So that the, in verse
11 it says, the circumcision made without hands, that's the
operation of God, beloved. That's him spiritually circumcising
us. Circumcision of the heart. You know, I'd never heard of
that. I'd never heard that till the Lord saved me. In religion,
I'd never heard about that. Never heard about that. Because
in the religion I was, they never talked about being born again.
Even though the Lord said you must be born again. I never heard
anything about that at all. It was all about me. All about
what I had to do. Well, praise God. Praise God that the Holy Spirit
performs this operation in us. because we could never do it
ourselves. So Titus, he says, I'm not going to do that. I'm
not going to get circumcised because I'm completing Christ.
He heard Paul preach. I guarantee you this isn't the
first time that Paul said we're completing Christ. So he heard Paul preach the gospel,
and he believed it, beloved. He believed it. My. And complete in Colossians 2.10
means complete. We're absolutely complete. Hallelujah. And God sends the spirit of his
son into the heart of Titus. He received the sign and the
seal of the new covenant. The circumcision made without
hands.