Turn with me, if you would, over
to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. We'll be looking this morning
at verses. Lord willing, if we get through
them all. Lord willing, verses 14 through
18. We left off last week on verse
14. I wanted to pick back up with
that again. Not last week, the week before
last. Last time I was here. But I'd like to pick up with
that again. I ask for those who are tuning in by Facebook or
sermon audio to bear with me. I've been under the weather the
last couple of days, so I might go into a coughing fit. But just
don't laugh too hard if I do. Galatians chapter 6. Start reading
the verse 14, read down to 18. It says, but God forbid that
I should glory saved in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world was 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 in upon the Israel
of God. For 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. Father,
Lord, we come to you now and we just ask that you'll be with
us as we meet today. We ask you to be with us in spirit,
truth, and that by that spirit, you would lead us to worship
you in spirit and truth. Lord, we pray that you would
just Edify your body today. I pray Lord that you would help
me to minister the word of God to speak things that are true
to Keep me from error Lord. I pray that you would enable
my body to Be able to preach this morning Lord, and I just
ask that you just like Give ears to hear give heart to understand
or we recognize your sovereignty power over all things, and Lord,
that you are the great physician. You can touch and minister healing.
You can give ability. Lord, we know that you can grant
salvation and life to anyone that you desire, that you have
elected from the foundation of the world. And so, Lord, we just
look to you today as our sovereign ruler, our sovereign leader.
We give our praise and our worship to you today. Lord, we pray that
in these passages that said before us that we might find Christ
and that he might be exalted in this message and in these
verses that we have before us. Lord, may we always be mindful
of Christ being the center of all things. And Lord, I just
pray once again that you just might be with us today and that
you might help us as we come before you this morning with
our prayer, with our uplifted hearts, with our praise, with
our preaching, Lord, that these things might be pleasing to you. And it's in Jesus' name that
we pray. Amen. Paul concludes this letter to
the Galatians. And there's not been a lot of
frivolous comments made by Paul in this letter. It started out getting right
down to the point and it's been right to the point ever since
the very end. And as I read through this letter
and I see Paul's intent, I see not only his intent as why he
wrote the letter, but his intent fervor of attacking the situation
head on right at the very beginning and not letting up to the very
end here. I mean, he really doesn't even
give his usual salutations and his usual endings like he normally does
with several verses of tell this person hello and tell this person
hello and thank this person for this or that and all of this
stuff. I mean, he is in the doctrinal
correction all the way down to the very end. Verse 18, he says,
brother, Let the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,
with your spirit. Amen. I mean, so to the very
last verse, he is intent in setting the Corinthians straight on the
doctrine of justification, on the doctrine of how the Lord
saves his people. And it's not by works of righteousness,
which we do, not by the law, it's not by Christ and the law. It's only by Christ alone. And
he has made this letter, he has made in this letter that point
over and over and over again. And we don't see anything different
as we end out this letter. Now a lot of times, brethren,
as preachers, whenever we begin to preach, we begin to think
of things that we're going to preach on and we seek the Lord
and what he would have us to preach. And of course, And things
like this, whenever we preach expositionally, verse by verse
through different books of the Bible and everything, we kind
of have before us what we're going to preach next. And sometimes
the Lord will lead me to interject in that to do something different.
And sometimes whenever we're going through these passages,
the Lord will direct us more on one thing than another thing
that might be in those passages. So in these things, there's probably
a lot of other things that could have been hit on. And as time
goes by and we come back to Galatians again, I'm sure that there'll
be opportunity to preach on those things as the Lord sees fit. But a lot of times whenever preachers
are preparing and looking over the passages of Scripture that
the Lord's laying upon their heart to talk about and to preach
about, a lot of times we start picking
out things that we want to preach about, little topics that we
want to preach about. and we try to seek out things
that we're familiar with. And whenever we preach expositionally,
verse by verse, it's hard to do that. You have to deal with
the context that's before you each and every time. So that's
why I like to do the expositional preaching, is because it keeps
us on track of going through the Bible in a systematic way,
going through the Bible, as the Bible says, verse by verse and
line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there
a little, learning the things that God has told us as we look
at His Word. However, no matter what section
of the Bible that we're in and no matter what passages we're
preaching on, And even if we're not preaching expositionally,
verse by verse, but preaching topically, we're still going
to be dealing with verses. No matter what topic we pick
in those verses to talk about, the very center of everything
that we preach should be Christ Jesus. And we see that in Paul's words here in verse 14. He said,
but God forbid that I should glory saved in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. If you remember last time we
were together, we've seen in verse 11 says, you see how large
a letter I've written unto you with my own hand. And as many
as desire to make a fair show of the flesh, they constrain
you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised,
that they may glory in your flesh." So Paul here has talked about
the fact that there are certain preachers that come among the
Galatians and they were preaching the law. And the reason they
were preaching the law is so that by those people's adherence
or their attempt at adhering to the law, that they could show
themselves as good shepherds who has got the flock to obey
and to do what they've commanded. They've got something to point
to. They can pat themselves on the back that they've been a
good instructor of the sheep and they've got them whipped
in line and following the law. And they could boast in their
obedience. These men themselves, they boast
in their own obedience. They think that they are keeping
the law. If you remember the Pharisees, whenever Jesus walked
among them. And these Pharisees, they thought
that they were keeping the law of Moses. They thought that they
were doing everything and was being and making for themselves
a righteousness before God by keeping the law. But what did
Jesus tell those Pharisees? He said that you are a brood
of vipers, that you are whitewashed sepulchres. What did he mean
by that? Y'all know what a sepulchre is?
Anybody know what a sepulchre is? Sepulchre is a grave or a
tomb, okay? Sepulchre is a place where they
lay dead bodies in. And he said that you are a whitewashed
sepulchre. Meaning that you've taken and
you've whitewashed the outside. You've made it all clean and
you've maybe even put paint on it and made it look all pretty. But it still doesn't change the
fact that inside still is a bunch of dead man's bones. It's death
on the inside. And he said, you guys are cleaning
yourselves up on the outside and making yourself look presentable
to those with the standard of yourselves among yourselves to
each other. And you're making yourselves
look good in your own eyes among each other. And you've whitewashed
your outside, but it has done nothing for the inside. The inside
is still dead man's bones. You can't do anything. And you're
a brood of vipers. You're still serpents. You're
still children of the devil. You're not children of God. Children of God have been born
from above. They have a new man on the inside.
They have the inside clean. But they realize that the outside
is filthy and will be filthy until the day they die. And so
they realize that there is a futility in trying to keep the
law There's a futility for righteousness. There's a futility to try to
keep the law for righteousness. There's a futility in trying
to clean yourself up on the outside, because in the natural man, the
pig will always return to the pig's side. The dog will always
return to his vomit. He's always going to come back
to what he truly is. He's always going to go back
to his own nature. And so the flesh is always going
to produce the things of the flesh. We can try to clean ourselves
up on the outside all that we want, but that is never going
to produce a righteousness before God. And Paul here is saying,
these men have come and they have tried to force you and to
urge you to continue to keep the law of Moses for a righteousness
that you're never going to obtain. And he said, these men do this
so that they may glory in your flesh. The only reason someone
would continue to pump you to do the law is so that you would
adhere to that. And in adhering to that, then
they can lay claim to the fact that they helped you on to righteousness. And that's what preachers all
over the place do. They go from church to church in revivals,
and they come in and they swoop in, and they think that they
can clean up the church and get them back on the right track,
that they can clean up their their immoralities, they can
clean up their sins, they can clean up their walk and everything. And then whenever they leave,
they can pat themselves on the back on how many decisions was
made, how many rededications was made, how many things were
there. And like I've said before, in the past, in Oklahoma, there
used to be a state paper of the Southern Baptists. And in the
back of that state paper, they used to always put, like they
had classifieds. Well, they had to deal in there
for revivals. And they would boast about how many people they
got saved, how many people they baptized, how many people rededicated
their life to Jesus, how many committed themselves to mission
work or something to that effect. And then the evangelists, all
those revivalists, they would put their ads in the back of
that, you know, and they would always put in those revival reports.
After all those meetings, they'd say, evangelists, so and so,
and if they had a music group or something there, they'd put
the music group there. who led that revival, so that you might
know and advertise that if you want to get your church cleaned
up like ours, you can call this guy. Listen, Paul says that's
glorying in the flesh. We're glorying in the flesh.
Now, that's looking from one person looking outward to other
people. Look at ourselves. Let's look at ourselves. We can
glory in the flesh whenever we think that we can perform a righteousness
before God. Oh, look, Lord, I've come to
church. Oh, Lord, look, I've read my Bible. Oh, Lord, look,
I did this or did that, or hey, I didn't do this or I didn't
do that. You know, whatever the case might
be, whether it's things that we do or things that we keep
ourselves from doing, whenever we think that that is making
a righteousness before God, wherein He has accepted us into the beloved
or keeps us in the beloved because of that, then we have erred in
our understanding and we are now glorying in our flesh. And Paul here, and this isn't
the only place that Paul has said this, Paul says, and look
at verse 14 again, these are very strong words that Paul is
saying here. He said, but God forbid that
I should glory, save or accept in the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. See, brethren, whenever we preach
and whenever we teach and whenever we encourage, whenever we rebuke,
instruct, correct, all those things that has to do with the
life within the church and our preaching to each other, teaching
each other, whenever as we've seen in the verses before, whenever
those who are overcoming a fault and we come alongside of them
and we rebuke them and reprove them, we come with the Word of
God. And at the center of that always
is the finished work of Jesus Christ. Whenever we see that
someone is at sin, they may fall into despair and they may think
that they have gone too far and the Lord will not be pleased
with them. What do we remind them? There is therefore now
no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because
Christ is your substitute. He paid the penalty for all of
your sins. You no more are held accountable
because of those sins. Those sins have been washed away.
They've been covered by his blood as far as the east is from the
west. He's removed them. What happens whenever someone
is overcome with a fault and they begin to think incorrectly
about the Word of God and begin to see some doctrine that is
not found in God's Word? What do we do? We come and by
the Word of God, we correct and rebuke them and we remind them,
hey, this isn't about you. It isn't about what you think.
It's about what God's Word says and what has been revealed about
His Son. It's about Jesus Christ. Whenever you think that you're
making a righteousness for yourself, and doing good in that righteous
work. What do we do? We come and we
remind each other. It's not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. By the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost. It is God who has saved us. It
is Christ who has performed all things for us, is doing all things
in us. It is the work of God alone. And so we remind each other that
the works of the flesh will never be pleasing to God. They can
never be pleasing to God. It's not anything He's going
to accept for justification, sanctification, glorification,
nothing. It's never going to be anything.
And so Paul says here, God forbid, may God never allow it to be
so that I would glory in anything except for in the cross of Jesus
Christ. Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I want to just say at the outset,
especially for those that are watching that do not come to
this church, whether it's our church, or not, I'm not necessarily
saying you have to come to our church or anything like that.
You need to go where the Lord leads you. You need to go where
there's a spiritual church, but if your preacher doesn't center
on Christ in all things and salvation isn't centered upon Christ and
the preaching is not centered upon Christ and it's always about
you do this, you do this, you do this, you have to do this,
let God do this. You have to let God do that.
Let God be the Lord of your life. Let God have control. Yield yourself
to Him and then He will do this. It isn't about that. God doesn't
wait for us to do anything before He accomplishes His purposes. If God wants to change your heart,
He's going to change your heart. He's not going to ask you nicely,
will you please let me be the Lord of your life? No, He's going
to change your heart and He's going to be the Lord of your
life. He's going to do that. So if your preacher's not preaching
those things, you might want to start looking for another
place to go that is more scripturally sound. 1 Corinthians chapter
1, look with me if you would, starting verse 20. I want to
start at verse 18. Paul writing to the Corinthians,
he says, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness. But to us which are saved, it
is the power of God which are saved. To us which are saved,
the preaching of the cross is the power of God. Okay? It isn't the power of God to
make you saved. You're already saved. To those
who are saved, it's the power of God. See, we're already saved
and the preaching of the cross to them who have already been
saved becomes the power of God to what? to convert us, to convert
us from our wrong thinking, to grant us repentance. It's the
power of God to give us right understanding of Christ and who
He is. It's also the power of God to
increase our faith in Him. He gives out that measure of
faith and how does He do that? He does that by the Word of God. It says, For the preaching of
the cross, and let me stop for just a minute in case anybody
might get confused or doesn't know what we're talking about
here. Whenever we're talking about the preaching of the cross,
we're not talking about two wooden beams stuck together, okay? When
Paul says, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Jesus
Christ, or whenever he says here, the preaching of the cross, and
as we're going to see here in verse 23, whenever he says that
we preach Christ's crucifixion, whenever we're talking about
The cross, we're not talking about the actual cross, right? I hope you understand that. We're
not talking about two wooden beams. We're talking about the
activity that is happening in the crucifixion. We're talking
about what Christ has done as your substitute in his perfect
obedience to the Father on our behalf and keeping the law, in
his perfect atonement of being that spotless lamb who even though
he had not sinned, he became sin for us, and then he was under
the full and total wrath of God on our behalf. That's what we
mean when we say we preach the cross, we're preaching all the
details of the cross, not just that Christ died, and that he
was buried, and that he was resurrected. That's part of it, but that's
the very bare minimum of it. Listen, even unbelievers, for the most part, believe that
Jesus died on the cross and was buried and resurrected. Even
unbelievers who don't profess Jesus Christ sometimes will believe
those things as historical facts. But brethren, whenever we talk
about the cross, we're talking about everything that it means.
Who was being represented in the cross? It was all that the
Father had given the Son. That's who Christ was dying for.
Christ was dying for His elect. So whenever Paul says, I glory
in nothing except for the cross of Jesus Christ, he's saying,
I'm glory in nothing except for the finished work of what Christ
did on behalf of His people for all eternity, as He has stood
as their substitute, as their Redeemer, as their surety, and
that is He came in time and He lived a perfect life for them. Therefore, they, everyone that
is in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, The
keeping of the law has been laid to their account because Jesus
did it for them. He didn't come to say, I've come
to give you an example that you might walk like I walk, and then
I will accept you. Now, Jesus did say that he had
laid an example for us, but he laid an example for us to learn
to be in submission to the Father, to Him. to be in submission to
Him. As Jesus submitted Himself, we
are to submit ourselves unto God. We're to look unto Him. We're to trust in Him. We're
to follow and do what He has called us to do, right? He never
is calling us to be perfect so that we might be accepted, because
the Bible is replete in saying that there is no way that we
could ever accomplish that. So whenever we are preaching
the cross, whenever Paul is saying he's preaching the cross, again,
he's not saying death, burial, and resurrection only. He's talking
about the whole gamut, how Christ has substituted for a specific
group of people, and that specific group of people that Christ substituted
for, that death or that life, that death was efficacious, meaning
it affected that. It actually was laid to that
account. It isn't something that's supposal,
okay? He didn't just make salvation
something possible, but he actually did it. He actually saved his
people when he did that. And what we hear a lot of in
preaching today in modern Christianity, quote unquote Christianity, is
that God has made a way through Christ that you might be saved. Christ has died and he waits
for you to accept him or to receive him. or to believe on Him, or
to trust Him. Some churches just require you
to make some sort of a lit profession, come down the aisle, sign some
little form, go through the water baptistry, and then they say,
okay, you're saved. Write it down in front of your
book and don't ever forget that, that that's the day that you
were saved. Remember, that is not how that works. Jesus has
saved everyone for whom He died. And whenever He died on the cross,
everyone for whom He died, that was laid to their account. Based
upon that, not upon what you do. It's outside of you. All
salvation is outside of you. You are just the recipient of
it. You're the free gift of it, or the free recipient of it.
Okay? Didn't do nothing for it. It's
just free. You didn't ask for it. You didn't
work your way to it. Christ chose you before the foundation
of the world. God chose you before the foundation
of the world and gave you to Christ. Christ died for you,
and that is yours. Now, Paul goes on to say, he
says, For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Now, what's Paul talking about? The preaching of the cross is
foolishness. But to us, it is the power of
God. To those who have been given
life, to those who have been given spiritual understanding,
we realize that what Christ did in the cross is the power of
God unto salvation. That's the power of God. That's
what saves. What saves is what Christ did,
not what we know, not what we receive, not what we believe,
and not what we act out. Salvation is what Christ did. What we do after that once we
have been given life is all because of being saved. It's all the
outflow of being saved. And then Paul here is saying
that whenever we preach this gospel, whenever we preach this
message, the message of the cross, it's foolishness to the wise
people out there because they don't understand that. And the
reason why is because ingrained in the mind of the natural man
is the thought that they can produce righteousness, that they
can obey laws, that they can keep God's laws, and that they
can make a righteousness that God, when it's all said and done,
is gonna weigh my good and my bad, and He's gonna be gracious
and loving, because He's a loving God. He's a gracious God, and
He's gonna know my heart, that I meant good, even though I did
a lot of bad stuff, He's gonna know that I meant well, You know,
I hear people say that all the time. Well, God knows my heart.
Whenever you talk to them about something that they are doing
contrary to scripture, they say, well, God knows my heart. Yeah,
God does know your heart. Know what he says about your
heart? Your heart is deceitfully wicked above all things, and
who can know it? Know what he says about your heart? He says
it's only evil continually. That's what God says about your
heart. That's what he says about your heart. Yeah, God knows your
heart all right. And unless God removes that heart
of flesh or stone and puts in a heart of flesh, puts in His
Spirit, you're going to continue to think you can keep your own
righteousness. You're going to keep your own
righteousness. And whenever someone like me or somebody else that
preaches these things, these truths, preaches, you mean to
tell me that we're just to trust that Jesus has done it all for
us? that all of his obedience is all that is required. What
Jesus did in obeying and what Jesus did in dying. That's it.
All we got to do is just trust that. And I don't have to do
anything on my own. And that's all. And then we preach
that. That's foolishness to people.
What do they think? Well, that can't be. Surely you
got to be holy. The Bible says be ye holy for
I am holy. Keep these commandments. do these
things. There's all these prescriptions
in God's Word for us to do these things. Now, brethren, I'm not
going to presume upon what God does in and through us because
He has promised that He would do His good pleasure in us. He would work in us to do His
good pleasure. The Bible says that He is in
us and that He is working these things out and that we will walk
in all the works that God has ordained for us to do. What those
works are and how they come forth and what they look like, all
I know is that they are spiritual work and not the work of the
flesh. And so I trust that God's doing that because He said He's
going to do that. I trust that those things will
be evident because God has said that they will be things that
we will do. But I'm never going to try to
point to anything that I'm doing and say, there it is. I've got
it because there it is. because anything that I do comes
from the flesh. So I have to trust that God is
doing the work and that it is being performed and that it is
being finished the way that God has said He would do it. Now,
whether or not I can understand it, point to it, look to it,
I can't. But I know it's happening because
He said it would happen. To other people, that sounds
like foolishness. But to us, The power of God. The power of God not only to
legally save us, but to experientially keep us, trusting Christ Jesus
to experientially grow us in the grace and knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ, experientially preserve us until the day of
Christ, to keep us in the faith. How does He do that? He does
it by His Spirit. Is He doing that? Yes. Does it
always look like He's doing that? No. There's sometimes I sin. There's sometimes I don't want
to preach. There's sometimes I don't want to go to church.
Listen, as nice as you people are, there's sometimes I don't
want to be around you. Just to be honest, and I'm sure
you have the same thoughts about me and the church and the preaching. But we come, why? Because we're
drawn by God. We're kept by God to come. Just like this morning, I didn't
feel good. I almost thought about not preaching today and having
anything today because I didn't feel good. But know what? I desire
to do it. We weren't here last week. I
missed having church last week. Something inside of us, the Spirit
of God that is, compels us, pushes us, does those things in us. He works in us to will and to
do. And I just trust that he's doing
that. And yes, does it sound foolish? Yes, to those who don't
know Christ, to those who don't have spiritual understanding,
to those who don't have a trust only in Christ and thinks that
the flesh is something that we have to exercise. Yeah, that
is foolishness. But to those who have been given
to understand, we know. We know the struggle just like
Paul did. With my mind, I serve the law of God, but with my flesh,
I serve the law of sin. I want to do good, but every
time I want to do good, sin's right there with me. What a wretched
man I am. I'm no good. I'm worthless. I'm not a very good servant.
At the end of the day, when I've done all that I've done, all
I can say is I'm an unprofitable servant. That's what the Bible
says. And that's how we feel. That's how we walk through life,
feeling that way. But brethren, know that in you
dwells no good thing in the flesh, but what's inside of us by the
spiritual life that's been given to us is perfect and holy and
righteous. And God will keep us. Let's go
on. Verse 20 says, Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where
is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. See, people thought
that they could figure out God by smart learning. Even today,
there are men who go to seminaries and they think that by going
to seminaries and going to higher education and being taught by
other men, that they can come to know God better. They think
that they can go to a seminary and that some professor, theologian,
or somebody like that can teach them how to know God better,
how to know God more, how to know the Bible more, or teach
them how to be a preacher. Brethren, those things are spiritual
works of God alone. Only the Spirit can do those
things. The Spirit is our teacher. Listen, I know men that have
never stepped foot in a seminary that has more spiritual depth
and understanding of God's Word and can preach like you've never
heard preaching, exalting Christ Jesus, pulling from all of the
Bible everywhere, scriptures and types and foreshadows and
exalting Christ and all those things, and never was taught
by man. Listen, is there any good in
seminaries? I don't know. I don't know. Some men that have
gone have said that they learned the Greek and the Hebrew there,
even that's subjective. But brethren, listen, I know
one thing. You can't have a better teacher than the Holy Spirit.
And the Bible says God give us his spirit so they might teach
us. And so I have more trust and faith in the spirit of God
than I do in the arm of the flesh. He says, for after that, in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Now,
this is the people that believe, okay? To save them that believe,
not to save them that are unbelievers. Did you notice that? Look back
there at that verse. He says, by the foolishness of
preaching to save them that believe, not them that unbelieve. that
do not believe. Now that's just kind of opposite
of what we're being told in modern day Christianity again. We're
told we're going to go out there and preach so that we might save
the unbeliever. But here it says the foolishness
of preaching is to save them that do believe. Those who have
already been given belief. How are they already given belief?
How can they believe? How can they believe? Remember the passage Who hath
believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been
extended? How can they believe if they
have not heard? Well, the only way that they can hear is whenever
the arm of the Lord has been extended to them. Whenever the
power of God, and we've seen that the power of God is Christ
and the work of Christ, the power of God, the preaching of what
Christ did, The power of God in salvation is the work of Christ
on the cross. And whenever we preach that to
them who have been given spiritual understanding and hearing, they
have been given faith. They believe those things. They
already are believers. They are already faith recipients. Whenever they hear that, it saves
them from wrong knowledge. of unrighteous preaching. Whenever
they preach about things being done by the law, by your own
self, by your own will, by your own decision, whenever they hear
the preaching of the cross, it keeps them from listening and
going astray to these other gospels. The preaching of the cross is
the power to live that belief to those who have already been
saved. Verse 22, for the Jews require
a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ
crucified. See, this is Paul again, he's
saying we preach Christ crucified. We don't preach Moses and you
keeping the law. We don't preach you being born
into a Christian household. We preach Christ and him crucified. He says, unto the Jews, it's
a stumbling block. It's a stumbling block to the
Jews because they think that righteousness comes by Moses,
by the law. To the Greeks, they think that
salvation comes by higher learning and by wisdom. And so whenever
you preach Christ and him crucified, a man hanging on a tree, dying,
is how I'm going to be saved? That doesn't make any sense.
That's foolishness. It don't line up. How does that
save me? To the Jew, it's, that's not
my Messiah. My Messiah was supposed to come
and tell us how good of an Israelite group that we are because we've
been keeping his laws. And now he's going to eradicate
all of our enemies, prop us up on a pedestal, and we're going
to rule with him forever and ever. That's their thought of
it. Both parties had it all wrong. But what did Paul write? He said,
we preach to them Christ crucified. We preach Christ crucified. Look at chapter 2 and verse 2.
I'm sorry, verse 1. And I brethren, when I came to
you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. I'm sure Paul was very eloquent
in his speech, as we can tell in his writing. But I am thankful
that it doesn't require eloquent speech. I'd be out on my ear
if it required someone that was an eloquent speaker. I'm a horrible
speaker. I mean, I just mash up the English
language horribly. My thoughts are erratic. My speech,
I forget what I'm talking about sometimes right in the middle
of a sentence, you know. If it depended upon how well
of a speaker or preacher I was, then all is hopeless for anyone
that I'm the minister to. But Paul said here he came not
with excellency of speech or wisdom. See, it wasn't there
that I'm gonna try to, I'm gonna try to coerce you or I'm gonna
try to convince you by debate and by, you know, great words. You know, whenever I was a younger
preacher, especially when I come to the doctrines of grace, I
like to use these big, long theological words to try to make it look
like I knew more than I really actually did. And so I throw
out all these words to people that, especially that I knew,
didn't know them words, so that it would make me feel smarter.
and they're not quite as smart and that they might learn something
if they listen to me. That's bad, ain't it? That's
bad. That's glorying in myself. That's
glorying in my flesh. That's trying to get you to follow
after me so that I might glory in your flesh. That's exactly
what we're talking about. He said, I didn't come with excellency
of speech or wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of your
own God. Here it is, verse two, for I determined not to know
anything among you saved Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We all knew the importance of preaching
the Gospel wasn't about, even though all these other things
are important, the center point of all preaching always comes
down to what is the finished work of Jesus Christ. Look with
me, if you would, at Philippians chapter 3 and verse 7. Philippians chapter three and
verse seven. Now you remember this is the
chapter, this is the portion of the Philippian letter where
Paul was talking about how all the good things that he had done.
Matter of fact, we can just back up a little bit. In verse four he says, Though
I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man
thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I more." He said, if you want to compare, if we want to get
down to the brass tacks of comparing ourselves in the flesh, if you
want to go by the standard of the flesh. Now, Paul isn't here
saying that we should look to the flesh. He's using this in
sarcasm to show how stupid we are, for one. and judging between
our flesh because the flesh produces nothing. But he's also trying
to show how his mentality, how his thinking changed, how he
was converted, how he was saved. Remember, we just read it, how
the preaching of the cross, it's foolishness of those, but to
them, the preaching of the cross saves them. How does it save
them? It saves them from wrong thinking. Well, the preaching
of the cross saved Paul from wrong thinking because he thought
he was something when he wasn't. Look here, it says, though I
might have also confidence in the flesh of any other man, thinking
that he had wherever he might trust in the flesh, I am more.
Circumcised on the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, and a Hebrew of the Hebrews. As touching the
law, I was a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Paul said, here, if you want to get down and you want to start
checking off the little ticks on who's keeping the law better
than anybody else, brother, you ain't gonna find another better
man than me. But he says, but what things were counted gain
to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things. and do count them but dung, that
I may win Christ." Now we've talked about this just even here
recently, that Paul, whenever he'd come to see Christ Jesus
and the righteousness that was given him in Christ, he'd seen,
all the righteousness that I've been trying to amass for myself
by trying to keep the law, which I now see I can't do, has been
foolish, has been dumb, it's a bunch of pile of poop. See,
I've been comparing myself with other Israelites. I've been comparing
myself with other fallen people, other sinful people, other people
that don't have the ability to keep God's law. I've been judging
the standard by them, when the standard has never been them.
The standard has been God and His holiness. Christ's righteousness
is the standard. And whenever I compare myself
to Christ's standard, I always fall short. And so he said, at that point,
everything that I have done to try to obtain righteousness by
doing good deeds and works and law keeping and all the things,
he said, it's all worthless. It's all dumb compared to what
he has in Christ. Jesus said, and be found in him. He said, my mind completely changed. I'm no longer seeking a righteousness
of my own. But all I desire is just to be
found in Him. If I could just be found in Him,
I don't have any worries about God and what He's going to judge
me in righteousness. Because if I'm in Him, then I'm
righteous as He is righteous. Because all those who are in
Christ Jesus have been given that righteousness. And so He
says, I'll be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. So see, that's
what Paul said is the most important, is that we not try to accrue
a righteousness of our own, but that we, by faith, look to Christ,
and that we desire that alone. That I might know him in the
power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering,
being made conformable unto his death. Now remember that. being
in fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his
death, because we want to see that here in our verses here
in just a minute. So let's turn back to Galatians
chapter 6. So we see the preaching of the
cross is of utmost importance to us. That is the foundation
of the gospel. It is the gospel. The preaching
of what Christ has done and accomplished is the gospel. And to preach
something that you do is not part of the gospel. It's not
even an inkling part of the gospel. It's not like, well, this is
the gospel, but this is the subsection of the gospel. It's not even
that. It has nothing to do with the gospel. Your response has
nothing to do with what the gospel actually is. The gospel is completely
and totally outside of you. what Christ has done. But let's
go back to Galatians chapter 6 and let's look. He says, Now
Paul here is saying that because of what Christ has done for him
and in the life that he has given us and everything, that now our
desires are no longer to be accepted
of this world. I am crucified. The world is
crucified unto me and I unto the world. I don't desire to
follow after the world in the way the world is trying to obtain
righteousness. And the world no longer has any
hold on me, on anything that I do. He says, for in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision.
but a new creature. Now, Paul's already basically
kind of said this. Let's go back to chapter five
and verse six. Paul said, for in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love. And so Paul here is reiterating
that same truth here again. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision. Whether you're a law keeper or
you're not a law keeper has nothing to do with your salvation. Okay? Salvation doesn't come by anything
that you have done, whether it be good or bad. Remember in Romans
chapter 9, let me go there so I don't misquote it. In Romans
chapter 9, in verse 11, the scripture says,
for the children being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil. That the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.
It was said unto her that elders shall serve the younger. As it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. So here we see that this choice
of God had nothing to do with good or bad. And I've had people
say, You know, and even pointed out the fact that I teach and
believe that God saves people and it doesn't matter whether
or not they've done good or bad. So God doesn't even take account
their sin and everything. Well, according to the scriptures,
he doesn't. That whenever he sends people to hell, he does
send them to hell because of their sin against him. He does
send them to hell because of their unbelief, but brother,
that isn't the reason why he chooses one and not the other.
They are going to hell justly because of their sin, but that
doesn't have any effect on why God chose one and not the other.
God specifically says here, it didn't have anything to do with
whether or not they had done good or bad, but it was according
to God's choice, according to God's election. that God chose
one and not the other. Okay, so back in verse 15. For it doesn't matter whether
they have been circumcised or uncircumcised. It doesn't mean
anything if you're a law keeper or a non-law keeper in the regards
of circumcision or the law of Moses, because everybody is a
law breaker when it comes to the law of Moses. So this doesn't
have anything to do with how I want to say, but it says, but
a new creature. What is it that availeth? Well,
what availeth is the fact that we have been made a new creature. A new creature. Look at 2 Corinthians
again. Go back to 2 Corinthians. Chapter
5. Look at verse 17. We'll be just
about done. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17. It says, therefore, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things become new. And all things are of God who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. So we are a new creature. It's not God has taken that old
man and reworked that old man or made that old man better.
It's a completely new creature. We're a new creation in Christ
Jesus. God didn't, whenever we were
born of the spirit, God didn't take something that was messed
up and make it fixed. He didn't take something that
was old and make it newer. He actually created something
new in and of us that was not there until he put it there.
Okay? It's a new creation. Look at
Ephesians 4, verse 24. Ephesians 4, verse 24. It says, "...that ye put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."
So that new man, that new creature, that new spirit that has been
put in us is created, it says here, is created in righteousness
and true holiness. Not a holiness that we keep on
the outside, but a holiness that is true holiness. It is holy
because God is holy. It's His life. That holiness
that Christ has springs from His life. He is holy as Christ
because He is holy as God. He is holy because that is His
nature. Holiness is His nature. And the
new man, the inner man, that man born from above, the new
creation, this man here that we're talking about, is created
in righteousness and true holiness. So I ask, what's getting better
for those who think that we're getting more and more holy? Well,
what's getting more and more holy? The outside is the flesh
that can never be good, that can never do anything pleasing
to God. And the inner man, the new man, the new creature, the
Bible says here, is created in righteousness and true holiness.
And if we look back in 1 John, the Bible says, cannot sin. So
what's getting more holy? What's getting more righteous?
It's not the outward man because it's perishing. The Bible says
it's perishing every day. But the inner man is renewed
every day. It's the same. It continues. It perseveres.
It's the same day after day after day after day. And it grows in
grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So brother, that's
progressive sanctification I don't find anywhere in the scriptures.
And I don't find that there is an outward righteousness that
we procure by doing the law. These things are things that
come from the inward man, by the Spirit of God who works in
us. These are things that are worked out of us, and they are
spiritual works, not works in the flesh. Look back, if you will, in Galatians
chapter 6. It says, For Christ Jesus neither
circumcision obeyed with anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature. And here it is. And this is probably
one of the best ways to end this whole thing. Because if you remember,
where did this all start, brother? Where did this letter start?
Paul was writing to the Galatian churches, which was a Gentile
church. They weren't Jews, they were Gentiles. But yet they had
been They had been deceived by some Jews that had come down
from Jerusalem and said, you gotta keep the law of Moses to
be saved and to stay saved. Okay? And so they were saying,
you need to be like us Jews and keep the law. Then you'll be
a true Israelite. The Israelites keep the law,
right? But here, Paul, says, and as
many as walk according to this rule, what rule is he talking
about? Well, the rule of trusting Christ
alone for our righteousness. Of glorying only in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Not having our own righteousness,
but having a righteousness that comes from Christ alone. mattering whether it's circumcision
or uncircumcision, but just the fact that we are made a new creature
in Christ Jesus, and that new creature is holy, it is righteous.
That's foolishness to people because they say, well, I see
you, you do sins. I sure do. My flesh sins every
day. But that man on the inner man,
it doesn't. And that's the man that God is concerned with. That's
the man here that availeth. not the outer man, but the inner
man. As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them. See, whenever we walk knowing
that it's Christ alone and that it is by our efforts of law keeping,
that brings a great peace to the child of grace because we
realize all my good efforts are failing. All my righteousness
is not working. I'm not ever going to attain
that level of holiness that God requires. And so to hear Guess
what? Put it all down and rest. Put
it all down and rest. It's God who works in you to
will Him to do His good pleasure. Just trust what He's doing. Trust
His salvation. Trust His work in you. And that every sin that you've committed,
every sin that you will commit, Christ has died for. And every
work that He's ordained for you to work out, you're going to
work out because He's doing it. You're not going to miss one.
You don't have to worry about it. And so that's why He's saying
here, there's going to be peace for those who walk according
to this rule. If you're walking according to
the rule of Moses, you don't keep trying to keep all these
laws, you're not going to have peace, brother. But it says,
peace on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God. The true Israel
of God, not Jews. The true Israel of God are all
those spiritual children of Christ. All those ones who have been
given the Spirit of God are the true Israel of God. He says,
from henceforth, let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the
marks of the Lord Jesus. Now, what does he mean by that?
That he bears in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember, Jesus said, hey, if they persecuted me, they're going
to persecute you. They hated me, they're going
to hate you too. They said bad things about me, they're going
to say bad things about you. Whenever you're faithful to preach
and to share everything that I've commanded you to share,
then they're going to hate you. They're not going to like you.
They're going to separate from you. They're going to distance
themselves from you. They're going to talk bad about
you. They're going to not include you. There's going to be a lot
of stuff that's going to come down your way that is going to
be hard because of this gospel. And brethren, it truly has. He
says, let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks
of the Lord. He said, listen, those men, and he said it, remember
back whenever he said it earlier? He said, if those guys are telling
you the truth, like I told you the truth of what Jesus said,
how come they're not receiving any persecution? They're not
receiving any persecution. But whenever I come and tell
you the truth, I'm receiving persecution for it. That shows
you that what I'm saying is the truth. What they're saying is
not the truth because they're not being persecuted for that.
And here he says this. He says, I bear in my body the
marks of the Lord. The very fact that I'm receiving
all this persecution and ridicule and hatred from these religious
men ought to show you the very fact that this gospel is true. I, like the Lord, am receiving
the marks on my body, not true physical marks, even though he
did get physically hurt and put in jail and all that kind of
stuff. But he's saying, listen, I'm showing the fact of this.
And listen, brother, in this life, we are going to have much
persecution, much tribulation. In my life, for being a preacher,
I received persecution in my job, my previous job. I receive persecution because
of that. There's things that have distanced
me and my family because of what I believe. So there's separation. The Bible says that this gospel
is going to put mother against daughter, father against son.
It's going to pit families against each other because of this gospel.
And it has. It has. It truly has. Not that
I don't love my mom and dad and love my aunts and uncles and
cousins and everybody like that. I love them dearly. But there's
just a fundamental difference in what we believe the gospel
to be and how it's to be preached and about righteousness and how
righteousness is obtained and about how it isn't about what
we do, but it is about what Christ has done And it's not about us
giving God the option to be Lord of our life, but that He is,
that He actually is doing all this stuff. But more than anything, it's
about God's sovereignty and choosing who He wants and who He doesn't.
That's the big kicker, you know. He says, brethren, the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. So brethren, whenever we
preach this message, whenever we preach Christ and Him crucified,
whenever we preach Christ only for righteousness. We're going
to bear in our body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
going to be persecuted. But brethren, I pray that the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us as we continue to
preach this. And I pray that he keeps me faithful
and you faithful. This church, I pray that he keeps
us faithful and not give in to this world. That we might be
truly crucified to the world. and not let it dictate what we
preach and what we don't preach. You see so many churches today,
they just preach whatever people want to hear. And they do that
so that they can keep their numbers up, keep the money rolling in,
keep the fame and fortune and all that stuff going and everything.
But here we are, just a little group of people here, standing
against thousands upon thousands. And I pray that the only way
that we can, I know that the only way that we can stay faithful
is if the Lord grants that. that we stay faithful to Him.
And that 20, 30, 50 years down the road that there still be
a church here in Joplin, whenever I'm dead and gone, whenever I'm
in the grave, that there'll be someone else standing in this
pulpit preaching and declaring the free and sovereign grace
of Jesus Christ. And so, well, that concludes
our walk through Galatians. And does anybody have any questions?
comments. Like I said, I'm sure that there
was a lot of things I could have hit on through this thing, and
maybe one time again we'll go through this later on down the
line as the Lord sees fit, but we'll conclude with that. I'll
be honest with you, I don't know exactly where I'm going to go
next. We'll see where the Lord leads me on that this week, but
we will end with that. I don't have a word for it. Father, we thank you for this
day, and we thank you once again for your grace and your mercy.
We thank you for the Word of God that is the testimony of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We thank you for all that it
says about him. We thank you for the Old Testament,
that there are all the many types and foreshadows. We see our overcoming
Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer. We see our kinsman Redeemer. We see our We see our land without
spot, without blemish. We see the scapegoat. We see all the things, Lord,
that exemplify who our Christ is. And through the New Testament,
we see proclaimed vividly the very work of Christ on our behalf.
And we're so grateful, Lord, that you've given us this preserved
word to be able to read and to preach and, Father, to find comfort
in. And, Lord, we thank you for the
church. the time to come together to
be edified, Lord, to be built up in the most holy faith as
we fellowship with each other. I pray, Lord, today that you
have fed your sheep, that you have kept me from error, Lord,
and if anything that I've said has been a blasphemy to your
word and to your son, Lord, I pray that you would correct me in
my understanding, that you would make me have right knowledge
of those things. But Father, Lord, I pray that
you would continue Lord, that this church will be a light in
this town of the truth. We pray that you bring others,
Lord, to meet with us that may be your people here in this town,
who may even be in other churches, Lord, that you're calling now.
We ask, Lord, that you just might help them and lead them to be
able to worship with us. Again, we thank you for all that
you've done and all that you will do. as the time progresses,
Lord, in your purpose. And we look forward to your return.
We pray, come quickly, Lord Jesus, to remove us from this world
of sin, this body of death, from the evil that is around, Lord,
and that your righteousness might be seen and that judgment might
come upon evil and, Lord, that we might enter in to our everlasting
reward. So, Father, we thank you for
Christ, what he has done. It's in his name that we pray.
Amen.