If you wish to follow along, it's the same verse as last week. Galatians 4 verse 21. Just one phrase from the Apostle Paul speaking to the churches of Galatia. And throughout this epistle, he is warning them of the dangers of trying to keep the law for any acceptance with God whatsoever. before you're saved, after you're saved, for final glory. And he wrote these words, tell me ye that desire to be under the law, see the word, the law, and he's talking about the Mosaic law. There at Galatia in that region, circumcision was the main thing that they were pushing. Tell me ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? Now remember, that context is paramount to thus saith the Lord.

I don't, there's no way I could count, I wouldn't even remember all the times that someone has come to me, even where I work, and someone comes to me, and I guess maybe they even memorize a verse that they have a concern about, and they quote that one verse, they want me to explain the truth of God to them from that one verse.

There's a few reasons why we do that. One, we're unregenerate and we don't care. We're really trying to prove our point. We think we see something in that verse and we want to see if somebody else will back us up on it. Or, we're just plain out lazy. We're just plain out lazy. It takes a little longer to actually read the context to see what the writer actually was saying, okay? Context is paramount.

Again, I emphasize, I'm not saying that it's wrong for a preacher to take one word or one phrase and preach from that phrase. I'm not saying that, but if he's preaching from just one word or a phrase or whatever it is, it better be the truth of God from the preponderant testimony of scripture and not pushing his own ideas or opinions.

The word law, and I thought I would, I turned in my concordance to the word law and I was gonna count so I could tell you how many times it was used in the Old Testament and how many times the word law was used in the New Testament. And when I just looked at the pages after flipping through about two or three of them, I said, I'm not gonna count. It's hundreds of times the word law is used in the Old Testament. And hundreds of times the word law is used in the New Testament.

And they do not all mean the same thing. Context shows and demands, especially even our context, it shows and demands that the word cannot always mean the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments. And remember that the Ten Commandments basically summarize all the other hundreds of commandments that are in the law. And two, in the Decalogue, our Lord himself said, summarize the 10. That's love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Because if that's true, if you could really do those, you wouldn't have any trouble with the others.

Now we have seen thus far, and I'm not going to go back over Most of these, we've seen thus far, the word law can mean the Ten Commandments, Romans 7, 7 through 16 and verse 22. We've seen that the word law can mean this, the principle or the motivating factor of indwelling sin and evil that still exists in the believer.

Paul's already spoke about that, Romans 7, 21 and 23. A third use of the word law is the law of the Levitical priesthood, which is directly connected to the Decalogue. Because when God gave Israel the Ten Commandments, he then gave Moses all these other commandments and these rites and ceremonies and sacrifices to go along with it. So you have the law of the Levitical priesthood, Hebrews 7, verse 16. A fourth use of the word law is the ruling principle or that ruling factor of faith or the ruling factor or the ruling principle of works. Paul calls it the law of faith and the law of works.

The law of works is connected or could be connected to the Decalogue. but it doesn't necessarily have to be. It may be church works. It may be ecclesiastical works, soul winning, singing in the choir, teaching a Sunday school class. You see what I'm saying? But all of those have to do with this principle of works. And Paul put it this way, it's either grace or it's works, it can't be both. If it's of grace, it's no longer of works. If it's of works, it's no longer of grace. That's why he calls it this law of faith or this law of works, Romans 3, verse 27.

Then we have the word law used as the ruling principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, Romans 8, verses two through four. what is amazing to me. I understand why a free will, what we call Arminian, I understand why a free willer would feel that once you're saved, then you gotta continue to work and put forth all this effort to continue to be saved because they believe you're saved by what you do to start with. I understand that.

But people who believe or profess free grace, and profess they believe that God has the power to raise the spiritually dead out of their grave of spiritual death, but yet God doesn't have the power to keep me, and to hold me, and direct me, and lead me. It's the most inconsistent thing that ever existed on the face of the earth. The free willers are far more, far more consistent than many so-called grace people when it comes to that.

All right, now let's pick back up on number six. I mentioned this one. Remember, I'm gonna give you seven, and I've got two I want to deal with this morning. I'm not going into all the others. When you read the scripture, read the context. Don't be, hoodwinked in yourself and don't be hoodwinked by others who take the word law. See there, you're supposed to keep the Ten Commandments. It don't work that way. Number six, and it's in Galatians chapter six. I read it last time. The word law is used as if the ruling or motivating factor of Christ, and that is to bear one another's burdens. Galatians 6, one and two. And I basically said this last Sunday, but I wanna state it again just as a starting point.

Brethren, if any man, now remember the context, okay? Brethren, if any man be overtaken, you see it? Overtaken in a fault. In other words, those who are actually called by the gospel, but they're hoodwinked by these legalizers. That's the context of this. It's not just if you see somebody and they lost their temper, all right, it's ready to call a synod and get this thing all straightened out. You understand what I'm saying? It's not about that.

It's about someone beginning to err from the truth, not just committing a sin. Brethren, if any man be overtaken in a fault, and the word fault means a sidestep, a lapse, a deviation, okay? Translated, it's translated fall, fault, offense, sin, or trespass all throughout the scripture. So brethren, if any man be overtaken in a fault, unbelievers are nothing but overtaken in faults, okay? But believers are not, okay? But believers can be overtaken in a fault. And here the specific fault is what? Turning from grace back to works, okay? Brethren, if any man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, do you see it?

Ye which are spiritual. In other words, this is not the really great Christians, okay? It's anybody that believes Christ other than these Judaizers who believe Christ, but we're adding law back into Christ, okay? That's what spiritual means, to be alive from the dead, to have been called by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

And then here it is, here's where the statement is. Bear ye one another's burdens. Okay, that means a weight or a heavy load. Okay. Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill not the law of Moses, but the law of Christ. God's people are not against law. They're not against the law of Moses. We just know we can't keep it. If I could, I would. I would love to. And I would say, well, I quit trying two years ago. Oh, no, I still have a bout every once in a while.

Well, I try to do a little better. But remember, the law's not asking you to do better. It demands we do perfectly. Bear you one another's burdens. Now let me go through this. Like I said, I kind of covered this. Think about this. This is to bear one another's burdens. This is the law of Christ. Here's a second thought on this. Bearing one another's burdens. This is the law of Christ.

Christ alone and Christ only bore our sins as a representative and as a substitute. We cannot do that for one another. He bore our burdens on the tree. I cannot bear your burdens in that way. And you cannot bear my burdens in that way. As a matter of fact, so thorough was his bearing our burdens on the tree that if you read, and I'm not gonna go back and look at all that. I wanna deal with number seven with most of my time.

If you go back and look at Hebrews chapter one, verses one through three, he purged our sins. And then he sat down on the right hand of God the Father. I'm summarizing all three of those verses. He purged our sins. What do you do when you purge something? You get rid of it. You get rid of it, okay? And he did that by himself. Okay? By himself. I cannot do that for you. You cannot do that for me. 1 Peter 2, 21 through 24 says, he bear our sins in his own body on the tree. I cannot do that for you. You cannot do that for me. Isaiah 53 verses one through five. And let me just read. I do want to read those and then I'll just move on. Isaiah 53.

Verse one, who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he, this is speaking of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who was then yet to come. Now he already existed, but he was yet to come in human flesh. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant. Now even right here is talking about his being a little baby. Okay? As a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground.

He was in the lineage of King David, but that was nothing at that time. When he came along, that was nothing at that time. As a root out of dry ground, he had no form nor comeliness. He was not a man that you looked at and said, man, there's an outstanding figure of male specimen. He was not that. He was not that. And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

This is why when people say, well, Jesus came to me and I seen him. Rarely any of them say that what happened when they get this encounter with Jesus, reply like the Apostle John did when he seed him on Patmos, I fell at his feet as one dead. This is the one who lay on his breast at the supper. They were just nestled up against the Lord. And when he seed him, Matt glorified, he fell at his feet as one dead. Look.

There is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. And that's the way we all are in our unregenerate state. Surely he hath borne, here it is, our griefs and carried our sorrows, but even though that's true, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Had we been in our unregenerate state, and had we been at Calvary's tree when he's hung, we would have balked like everybody else did.

Surely, but he was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised, and that's more than just a blood spot coming up from a hit. That's crushed, that's the word. He was bruised for our transgression. He was bruised for our, or I'm sorry, he was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement, the correction of our peace was upon him and with his stripes.

Think about it, even when Isaiah was prophesying, hundreds of years before it actually took place, he said, and with his stripes we are healed. You see it? So again, Christ alone and Christ only bore our sins as representative, as substitute, as our redeemer from sin and sins. But here's the third thing under this sixth heading, this fulfilling the law of Christ, bearing one another's burdens.

We can, however, bear the weight of another by sympathy and by empathy. In sympathy, we provide comfort because we know falls happen, okay? We know falls happen. In empathy, we seek deep connection to the person, to comfort that person, because we know what it is to actually have fallen ourselves, okay? Those two things are different, but they're both true. Sympathy and empathy. Remember what I told you, it was embrace, not this. And it's real hard not to do this. Real hard to do just that, okay? Apart from the law of Christ.

Why do you think Peter fell? And I heard Henry Mahan say this years ago. I don't know all the reasons why, but I can tell you one why. Because when he stood there on the day of Pentecost filled with the Spirit of God, knowing he had to tell these people that you crucified the Lord of glory and denied him, he knew down in here, I did too. I did too. So while he still warned them, Jack, with strong language, he still had what?

Sympathy and empathy. That's how we bear one another's burdens. I know religion in general now wants to tell you exactly how to do that. No, it's just do this, embrace, don't do this. Okay? I think the spirit of God's wise enough for whatever occasion arises, for him to guide us into the truth and not me sit up here and make up then rules and laws of how we fulfill the law of Christ. You understand what I'm saying? Circumstances vary and sometimes they vary exponentially.

So there is no cookie cutter, here's the way you do this. But religion loves to do that, okay? Remember, embrace, not point the finger. Now, here's number seven. Now, if you wish to follow along, and I would encourage you to do so if you can right now, turn to James. James chapter one.

There is, this word law is used this way. It's written down by James as this, the perfect law of liberty. which seems to be a contradiction in terms. And it is if you're unregenerate. It is if you're unregenerate. But if you have the Spirit of God, you will begin to see. Now, look at what is written here.

I'm gonna read through it, then I'll go back with five, I'll give you just five statements that summarize five different parts of what James says about this. Remember, it's context. Verse 18, now what's before it still applies, but in verse 18, James makes this astounded statement. In other words, he sets the precedent for what he's about to say.

Verse 18, of his own will, who is that? God. God, right? Of his own will begat he us. That is, brought us forth like a woman in labor. Not just being pregnant, but in labor, and that labor has come to full term, and she what? Brings a child forth. That's the meaning of the word. Of his own will begat he us. How? With the word of truth. Now that is particular.

That's not just, well, somebody believes in creation, not evolution, they're saved. You see, that's true, but it's not the truth. Well, that person now loves other people. Well, that certainly ought to be true if you're born of God, okay? but even sinners love one another.

Our Lord Jesus Christ said so, did he not? It's the word of truth. What are we talking about? The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only means God uses to bring us forth. That's why when you talk to somebody, that's why I'm a Christian, tell me what your conversion was. And if it doesn't have anything to do with hearing the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, they have a false conversion.

And I'm not being hard, I'm being true to the word of his own will. Beget he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Wherefore, so see, he's not stopped with this thought. That's the context, right? Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Why?

Because by nature, we do hate that gospel. Even after God saves you, there's still that old man in you that says, I don't like that. That can't be all there is to it. It can't be just Jesus Christ and him crucified. But we also, what swift to hear, slow to speak. How impossible that is apart from the grace of God. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, wherefore. So he's still continuing the same context, right? Are you up to speed here? Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. And we'll go back and give you five things I told you, but why do we need to lay it apart? Cause it's still there.

Just like Paul did, most people, a lot of people think that when you're saved, that all of a sudden all the sinful desires go away. That's when they really show up. Before God regenerates you and converts you by the gospel, you don't think much about it until something really bad happens and you've messed up so bad that it affects everything around you. As the scripture puts it this way, we drink iniquity like water, like water. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word.

So this is, and I'm gonna try to illustrate this, people. I'll try to explain it for those that maybe not see this on the video. It's ingrafted. It comes from out here and it invades in here. It's not something that by nature is in here and you work on it. It's the ingrafted. Now it goes in, but it's ingrafted. It's not like the, remember the four kinds of ground.

So all four had the good word of God, the truth of the gospel preached to them, but it didn't profit all four pieces of ground, did it? Receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. Is it important? Is the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of truth important?

Yeah, because it's how we're first brought forth. And it's that engrafting, it's engrafted, and it's not in the Greek, it's not in the past tense, and it's over with. It keeps on going. We are converted. I had one fellow here years ago get upset about this. Well, he said, well, Peter wasn't saved until after, because the Lord told him, when you're converted, you're gonna strengthen your brethren. We are converted over and over and over and over.

That's one of the sure signs that it's the engrafted word. It don't let you go. Even if you try to turn from it, God won't let you go. But that doesn't mean we just sit down in a lazy sorry state either. Receive with meekness the engrafted word, keeping your mouth shut and ears open. But be ye doers of the word.

Do you see it? What's the context? The gospel. What is to do to obey the gospel? To believe. To believe the record God gave of his son. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Remember what Paul told the Thessalonians? I know you're one of God's elect. How can you know that? That took place before the world was.

Because our gospel came not to you in what word only but in power and in much assurance and in the Holy Ghost. And who are we assured of when this engrafted word invades and begets us forth? We're assured of Him, not us. The longer I've been saved, the more unsure I am about myself in everything.

Be you doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his face in a glass, a mirror, okay, in a glass. For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth the manner of man he was, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty.

What is that? That's Christ. That's the only place where you can have a law and still have liberty at the same time. The perfect law of liberty. And continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in, not by, see it? In his deed. What is that?

To believe God. Believing God honors God. God is delighted in our believing his son. And I don't mean this blasphemously, but it makes God the father happy. Joyous when we believe the record he gave of his son. He counted it to Abraham as what? Righteousness. Not because his believing had some great power, but because the son did. You see it?

Okay, if any man among you seem to be religious and brileth not his tongue, now does that mean if I just slip up on a curse word? Remember the context. How is it that you don't brileth your tongue? It's when we begin to boast about ourselves. When we begin to talk about what we have done for the Lord.

Now, I'm not saying it's okay. I know somebody gonna hear what Walter preached. Walter said it's okay to go out and cuss. It's not what I said, and it's not what I meant, but I'm going to say it so anybody who says I said that, they are a liar. But that's not the context. Do you see the context? You hear the gospel, and it says bow down to Jesus Christ. It says, okay, I will, but they turn away from that.

That mirror there. And what do they do? They forget what they've seen. They forget what kind of man they was, who he was. What's the gospel tell me I am? A sinner. If Christ had to do that, if the Father had to do that to Christ, how bad must I be? Bad. Bad, okay? Hmm. If any man among you seem to be religious and bridle if not his tongue, but deceive with his own what? Heart.

The scripture tells us to take sides with God against ourself. Our Lord himself told us we've done all that is our duty to do. When we've done all that's our duty to do, what we're to say? We are but unprofitable servants. If I say anything different than that, what am I doing?

I'm not bridling. My tongue, you see it? This man's religion, but deceiveth his own heart. This man's religion is what? Empty, useless, pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fathers, fatherless, orphans, Okay, and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from, not by. You cannot help how the world's going to treat you because you got to live in this world and they're not gonna change for you. They're not gonna change for me, for me. And to keep himself unspotted from the world. Note several key thoughts. I've already mentioned all five of them. But we'll look at it again. Think about it.

The sanctifying and preserving rule, okay, or principle here, the law, okay, is God's will. Isn't that the way it starts out? Of his own will. Not his will, mostly in a little bit of hours. It's not of blood, nor is it the will of the flesh, nor is it the will of man, but it is a sovereign act of God. The sanctifying and preserving rule or principle or law is God's will, verse 18. The sanctifying and preserving means that God uses is the gospel, verse 18. This demands profound attention and submission to the gospel. Verses 19 through 25.

You see it? James warns then of a vain profession because it does happen. It even happened in the days of the apostles. Mac, when they had great powers beyond what God gives us today, they had power to go around and heal people. Heal them of infirmities. Manifest God's power among them. And yet they still had false professors rise up among themselves.

Why? Because it's gotta be an act of God. It's not an act of men. And God's going to use the gospel to do this in spite of the men that he's using the gospel to do this with. You don't listen to a preacher because he's perfect. You listen to him because he's speaking. Thus saith the Lord. James warns of a vain profession. And then James illustrates, and there's more than just this. But James illustrate this true profession of grace.

To what? To visit. And that does not mean just go see them. It means to care for them. That's what visit oft times in the New Testament means, to actually help somebody out with something. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the orphans and the widows in their affliction.

Isn't that right back to Galatians chapter six? Now, we are to bear one another's, not just a burden, but our what? Burdens. Mmm, how about this passage? I'll just I'll throw this one in because it goes with this Paul Paul talks about it. I just read it a moment ago where Paul was preaching I just happen to notice a verse above it. It says to pray all men ought to pray and what lift up holy hands You heard that it's in the book.

You know what? Most people think that mean they don't look at context. They don't look at practice They don't look at the way things really are you know what they think it means. I Now this is gonna go off camera, but you know what that actually means? Penny's in distress. Penny's troubled. And her hands hang down. You know what I mean? And you do this. Lift up. Holy hell. You didn't say lift up your ugly ass. I'm telling you this is the truth, folks. It ain't you do this for God.

Let's get ahold of somebody that touch, that connection, hold their hand. Tell them you love them and you understand. And if you can help them, if you got the means to help them, then help them even if you got to do without because you do. Now if you don't have them, God knows that. He put you where you are. That's what all this means. To visit the orphans and the widows doesn't mean just to go see them at the house when they're in bad shape. It means to help them out.

Now, I'm winding this up right now. Turn back to Galatians now, and I will sum this up the best way that I know how. And that's, once again, I know I've done this over and over on many of these messages. There's only one way to really sum this up where I know, Paul, that I'm gonna tell the truth of God about summing up these seven things here. And I will read it to you, Galatians chapter six, beginning in verse 12. This is a summary of these seven things concerning law and any other use of the word law in this book.

As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised. But what's the real reason? They probably won't say it, but what's the real reason? Only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. That's just, it's too much God only and not enough God and little bit of man.

And I'm saying any true God sent man is saved. Salvation is an act of God from beginning to end. That's from eternity to eternity as we say, and maybe that ain't the best way to say it. I understand that. And that's from your initial conversion all the way to your glorification. It's an act of God. It's up to him, not you. If he ever leaves any of it to ourself, Paul, we won't just do this. We will fall away. We will go into apostasy, okay?

Lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ, for neither they themselves, who are circumcised, keep the law. They brag about it, but they don't keep the law. only one man ever did, that was Jesus Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised, why, that they may boast in your flesh, look what I got them to do. I got them straightened out. I got them walking right now.

And you can add in any other rule other than this one, other than this one, any other rule any other law other than this one, but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. That's got both sides covered, does it not? Now maybe, God willing, when we get here, if we're still living, we'll break that down a little more, but that's both sides of the coin covered, is it not? I'm crucified to the world by an act of Christ, and the world's crucified to me, how?

By an act of Christ, not what I do. So even when we try to do what James says, okay, we best not rely on ourself. As Don Fortner used to say, lean on Jesus, and lean hard on Jesus. Lean everything on Jesus. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world's crucified, and to me, and to the world, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor answer.

Well, at least I ain't tried to keep the law. You can be proud in that. You can be proud in that. You know? It's not about what we do or don't do. It's about Jesus Christ and what he's done. The cross of Christ. Somebody says it can't be that simple. That's why we miss it. It's that treasure hid in a field. Now think of it. A treasure hid where? In a field. Not in a forest. Not in a city. In a field. You ever heard the old phrase, I didn't see it because it's right there in plain sight? It's right there in the field. The problem is not that we don't see it, we don't like it. We don't love it. We don't want it.

Look, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, what avails but a new creature. And that lets me know this. God is the creator, we are the new creature. It's a work of God. He just keeps hammering on this. Right here in the end, he's summing it up, hammering on it, and hammering on it. Look, and as many as walk according to this rule. There's your rule to walk by. You want it all? There's your law right there. There's your rule. As many as walk by this rule, why, it ain't me. I'm nothing. I'm less than nothing. I'm less than the small dust of the balance. I'm reputed as nothing.

He, Jesus Christ, is everything. As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God. And then he puts this, you know, it's always to me, To me, Tommy, it's like Paul, if the spirit moves him, Paul's poured his heart out in this letter. It's short, but man, it's just right down to the bones where we live, you know?

Look, from henceforth, let no man trouble me. I don't want to hear it anymore. I don't want to hear the lies. It's time for this to stop. You see what he's saying? From henceforth, let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. And that man suffered far more for the preaching of the gospel than I have so far. Now folks, that could change. That could change. Things could get really bad for God's people. If this world ever really starts hearing what we're really preaching, think about it. You know how they're gonna react towards it if they ever really hear it?

From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Well, man, but give us some more rules, right? We all like the rules. But you know why we really like them? Not so we'll be better, but so we can brag about it. That's why it really is. Not so we can actually, being better is fine, but we want to brag about it. We want to point at self. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, so be it. You see that? So be it.