Galatians chapter 6, and we'll
read from verse 11. You see how large a letter I
have written unto you with mine own hand. As many as desire to
make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised,
only 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. But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature. And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel
of God. From henceforth let no man trouble
me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Amen. Well, We're just returning to
the book of Galatians and we've reached the last section, the
final section in our study of this delightful little book.
And the apostle opens this by referencing the large size of
letter that he has written to the Galatians. some people have
thought that this is because the letters that he had written
were large, that he had written large letters and that this was
perhaps because he had poor eyesight. Others have said that he was
referring to the length of the letter, although other epistles
are significantly longer than this. For example, Romans and
Corinthians are longer epistles. And it may be that the point
is simply that the apostle is noting that he has actually written
this letter, it's in his own handwriting, personally, rather
than dictated to a scribe or an amanuensis as he sometimes
appears to have done and certainly did do in other epistles where
he merely dictated the letter as it came to his heart. But I think there's a lovely
reminder here of the inspiration of scripture. This is Paul's
epistle to the churches of Galatia. But it carries the weight of
God's truth for all generations. And Paul wrote it but he did
so by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And what he wrote
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and
for instruction in righteousness. This epistle from the hand of
Paul contains for doctrine the glorious gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace. It reproves all who preach another
gospel which isn't another gospel at all because it tells fallen
men who have neither ability nor desire to please God and
to do something for God and to make themselves righteous and
acceptable to God. So it has doctrine, it has reproof. It corrects those who come under
the influence of false teaching by turning them again to look
away from their error and to the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus
Christ. and of course it instructs us
that divine righteousness is a gift of God's grace that comes
to men and women according to the promise of God and can be
enjoyed only by faith and by trusting in Jesus Christ. So
the Apostle Paul in writing this letter is burdened by a concern
that he has heard about amongst the Galatians but in doing so
he was prompted and motivated and inspired by the Holy Spirit
to write the very truth of God the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ and convey that to these brothers and sisters, but in
a way that would prove useful and blessed to all the generations
that followed. And we have to thank the Lord
for that, that here we are, so many hundreds of years later,
almost 2,000 years later, enjoying the benefits of the
Apostle's burden for his friends amongst the Galatians. And this
has been Paul's message, this message of the righteousness
of God freely bestowed right through this epistle. And here in the closing section,
he continues to insist upon the point. He's calling out these
false teachers. He's contradicting them, those
who would desire to make a fair show in the flesh. and by that
he means that they teach and promote a person's ability and
duty to do things outwardly in order to please God and that's
to do things outwardly either in the appearance of their body
or in the actions of their conduct, or by the testimony of their
lips. And all of these things may seem
to be very important to us. The way that we appear, we've
not to appear ostentatious, we've not to appear proud, we've not
to appear in ways that in any way do harm to others. despite
to the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the things that
we do, we've got to be careful and thoughtful and reflective
upon the things that we do. In the way that we speak, we
should be circumspect, we should be, again, desiring to honour
and serve the Lord in our testimony, one with another, and with the
people around about us. But let us never imagine that
either our appearance or our actions or our talk and our testimony
is going to recommend us to God that we might be any more righteous
or holy or indeed discourage God from in any way looking upon
us as holy in the Lord Jesus Christ. These things that are
outward do not recommend us to God. And he accuses these preachers
of pressing circumcision upon the Galatians at the expense
of the true gospel. And he attributes their motivation
to the fear of man, lest they should suffer persecution for
the cross of Christ. These false teachers talked up
man's abilities and they denied God's grace in order to win glory
for the creature. Either the Galatians themselves
or, in this case, for the false preachers themselves. And the
Apostle Paul says that will not do. It has to be the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ that we glory in. It has to be that we
receive no peace, no encouragement, no help from our own labours,
but only from the work of the Lord. That is the essence of
the Gospel. And the Apostle, by speaking
about the cross of Christ, referring to the person and the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, especially in the context of him dying in
our place. Paul's message was substitutionary
atonement by the death of Jesus Christ. The Saviour in dying
bore our sins and carried them in his own body and thereby removed
from his people, those whom he represented under the law, all
their sin. Took it all away so that there
is no sin seen in them. by God. We are cleansed, we are
forgiven, we are reconciled to God by the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we have been redeemed from
the curse of the law. The law has no more to say against
us because we have been made holy according to the promise
of His grace. And these false preachers, these
Judaizers amongst the Galatians, they promoted a work's righteousness. But, says Paul, they themselves
are not righteous by their works. The teacher isn't, so how can
he teach others to be like him? For by the works of the law,
he says, shall no flesh be justified. And these men gloried in their
own fleshy works and they gloried in a way of personal prestige
and the promotion of their reputation by pressing the Galatian believers
into their way of thinking. and by corralling the Galatian
churches to follow another course of conduct than that which had
been taught by the apostle. And I think that it has an interesting
application even today, because in so many churches today, a
great emphasis is laid on outward aspects that have no real meaning
as far as the spiritual realities are concerned. Let me give you
some examples. Churches today lay great emphasis
on numbers. They lay great emphasis on the
size of congregations, or on the income that they generate,
or the initiatives that they are able to promote, or the church
projects that are working, or how successful this particular
aspect of their work is amongst the children, or amongst foreign
nationals, or whatever it might be. And because of these impacts
on their community, the way of engagement and involvement, these
are seen as measures of the church's success. But that's just another
way of glorying in the flesh. Scripturally, a person's glory
and a church's glory is not in its outward actions at all, but
in Christ-centred worship. And Paul says, God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not
in the number of converts enrolled, not in the churches planted,
not in the size of the congregations, not in the social impact achieved. or the personal influence exerted
but in the cross of Jesus Christ and Paul expressly tells the
Corinthians that no flesh shall glory in God's sight. Preachers,
musicians, elders, Even an improper emphasis on personal testimony
can all be ways of glorying in the flesh. And those who stand
up before congregations have to be careful about the way in
which their own prestige can be promoted. And let us always
remember that we are nothing except for what the Lord Jesus
Christ has made us in himself. Salvation does not consist in
what we do. It has nothing to do with our
desires, our efforts or our attainments and it is all to do with what
Christ has accomplished on the cross and what he as the church's
head is in God's view. And insofar as God is pleased
with his well-beloved Son, that is, he's pleased with what he
has done on the cross as his people's representative, he is
both well-pleased with him and he is well-pleased with us in
him. The only thing that matters is
whether we are a new creature in Christ. The only thing is
being born again from above. Everything sinful, everything
reprehensible, everything unfit for God's presence is taken away
in the blood of Jesus Christ. And everything needful and everything
commendable and everything fitting is supplied by the grace of God. Out of Christ we have nothing.
Though the world applauds it and praises it, And in Christ
we have everything, though the world looks on in disgust. Paul says, in Christ Jesus, neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature. And it's that new creation that
is the essence of our union and acceptance with God. If a man
or a woman is a new creature in Christ, that is all that matters. If that man and woman is not
in Christ and not a new creature, then neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision, by which we understand all the efforts and attempts
to gain and obtain God's approval by the works of the law or by
any other kind of works, avails nothing. This is the rule of
life that the apostle would have us understand. It's the rule
of life that he would have us follow and he would teach this
to the Galatians and he would teach it to us through them. It is the rule of obedience that
characterises all true believers, to see our righteousness wholly
and exclusively in Christ. This is the rule that he says
he would have us walk. He says, as many as walk according
to this rule, peace be on them and mercy upon them. and mercy and upon the Israel
of God. It is this that he has been speaking
about at the end of the previous chapter when he talks about living
in the spirit and walking in the spirit. It is as we endeavour
to see all our spiritual standing to be vested in the completed
work of the Lord Jesus Christ that we will have a sense of
God's peace and a sense of his mercy. Those who alternatively
impose the law, the law of Moses, to be, as they say, the believer's
rule of life, and teach that thereby a believer becomes more
holy and more sanctified and more pleasing to God, are deceiving
themselves and deceiving those that they teach. The rule that
we are to live by is the rule of faith. The standard of righteousness
we seek is the righteousness of Christ. The purity of life
to which we aspire is the perfect holiness that comes by imputation
from God. And that cannot be improved upon. And that doesn't mean that believers
are lawless or amoral or against God's law in some way. On the
contrary, we are honouring God's law because we believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled it and satisfied it as no one
else could. And furthermore, as believers
and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we acknowledge that we
are being daily conformed to the image of Christ. And that
happens through all the troubles and the trials and the experiences
that we have in this life, difficult as they often are. We desire
to honour Him. in that lightness, in that conformity
and to serve and honour him as a mark of gratitude and worship. This isn't a burden, this is
a pleasure to be the people of God when we understand that he
has made us all that we are. And it's upon such men and women
that God's mercy and true peace rests, because we are no longer
weighed down with the heavy yoke of duty and obedience, but we
bear the light yoke of resting in Christ for all our holiness,
for all our righteousness, for all our justification, and for
all our sanctification. and that's true peace, that is
the peace that passeth understanding. Paul's final comments appear
to imply that for him this is the end of the matter. He says,
from henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the
marks of the Lord Jesus. This is the end of the matter.
I don't want to hear any more on this. And I don't think that
there's an aggressiveness at all there. The apostle is simply
saying, I've come to the end of what I have to say on this
matter. There's no more to be added. He calls these men and
women his brethren. and he displays his good hope
that they will take his admonitions and his corrections seriously
and graciously. He has said all that can be said,
that's the final word on the matter, he can add no more. He has brought forth every argument
and every encouragement and spoken the full truth in love. and he'll
hear no more arguments from the troublemakers and no more protests
from their disciples. The marks that Paul bore in his
body were the wound marks that he received for preaching this
gospel and the persecution that he endured for upholding these
truths. He had those marks on his body,
he didn't have to say any more. He paid the price for preaching
this truth and that was a testimony in itself. And I think in closing
that Paul's final words in this delightful little epistle reflect
his desire for the spiritual growth and well-being of soul
for these brothers and sisters in Galatia, these brothers and
sisters in Christ. He says, the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. And grace is what we all
need. More grace. More grace to see
the Lord, more grace to hear him speak, more grace to feel
his presence, more grace to serve him in our walk and our conversation. Grace that we all might abound
in grace and exercise it more for the benefit of one another
and for the glory of God and for the praise of our Saviour.
God's grace is the most precious gift in this life. If we have
that, we have riches beyond measure. So I trust that Paul's wish for
his Galatian friends will be our wish, both for ourselves
and for our brothers and sisters in the Lord. our desire that
our own souls and the souls of our brothers and sisters may
have the greater experience of grace and may we all learn the
lessons of this precious little epistle and may these lessons
abide with us and strengthen us in our hope and peace in Jesus
Christ. Amen.