Okay, you can be seated. Turn with me, if you will, to
the book of Galatians. Let me say thank you for your
kindness to Shelby and I and for the privilege of being with
you. We have been looking forward to this. Sorry our times to visit
are so limited. but we will have more time in
another day for that delightful privilege. I want to commend your pastor to you. I'm glad he's not here for this
reason this morning. It'd be difficult to say what
I want to say with him sitting in front of me. You probably
have some appreciation for his labors. It is a Big load, a delightful
load, but a big load to drive down here every Sunday afternoon
after preaching in Pikeville, preach to you, drive home, and
been doing it for a long time. And I commend him to you. He's a faithful, faithful, faithful
man, like few I know, like few I know. He committed to the cause
of Christ, committed to the gospel of God's grace, gifted in understanding
the scriptures, and gifted in preaching the gospel. And I ask
you to pray for him as he labors in Piteville and as he labors
here with you as well until God sends you a pastor. All right,
Galatians, we'll begin in chapter 1. My text this morning is Galatians
chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Got a long text but a short message. I'm going to wind up in chapter
6 in verse 14. where Paul says 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 my subject
is glorying in the cross glorying in the cross the gospel is defined
in many ways in scripture That is defined with various words,
defined throughout the New Testament particularly, and it is always
defined as the good news of grace. Not good advice, not good counsel,
good news. The gospel is the announcement
of something, not counsel to do something. The gospel is the
declaration of something, not advice to sinners about what
they should do. It is the declaration of good
news, the good news of salvation by free grace through the redemption
that is in Jesus Christ the Lord. And it gives all praise, honor,
and glory to the triune Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
and none to man. That's the distinguishing characteristic
of the gospel and the preaching of the gospel. The gospel of
God's grace gives no honor to human flesh, gives no praise
to man for anything he is or does, but rather declares that
man is what he is, an ignorant, lost, dead rebel before God Almighty
with no capabilities to change his condition or any desire to
do so. Man by nature is dead in trespasses
and in sins. And if man is saved, he's saved
by the work of the triune God. Salvation is done purposefully
from eternity by God the Father in sovereign predestination.
Salvation is done meritoriously by God the Son in His obedience
unto death as our substitute, redeeming us from the curse of
the law. Salvation is done effectually
and manifestly by God the Holy Spirit when he calls the dead
sinner to life and resurrection life in Jesus Christ the Lord.
And salvation shall be done completely when he presents us faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the praise
of God our Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Here in Galatians chapter 1 verse
3, the gospel is described as the good news of grace and peace
from God. Grace be unto you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the
announcement and the proclamation of redemption accomplished for
sinners by the sacrifice of God's darling son that Accomplished
redemption that brings grace and peace to sinners in verse
4 Who gave himself for our sins? Gave himself because of our sins
for this purpose that he might deliver us from this present
evil world According to the will of God and our father to whom
be glory forever and ever amen The gospel then is a declaration
of an accomplished redemption. Jesus Christ, when he died at
Calvary, did not die merely to make it possible for sinners
to be saved. He did not die merely to provide
a way for sinners to be saved. Jesus Christ, when he died, actually
did something. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law. He put away our sins by the sacrifice
of himself. He satisfied the justice of God. He brought in everlasting righteousness. He made an end of the transgression.
He fulfilled the law all on behalf of his chosen people, those people
given to him in covenant mercy before the world began. Now,
look at verse 6, Galatians 1. And learn this, learn it well.
You've heard it many times. Hear it one more time. Every
other gospel is a sham, a pretense, a false gospel, and damning to
all who believe it. Did you hear me? It is a sham,
a pretense, a false gospel, and damning to all who believe it.
If you don't believe that, make this your last meeting, go up
here and join any of these churches in town. There's not any need
for another religious organization in Kingsport, Tennessee. There's
not any need for the sacrifices, the commitment, the cost. There's
no need, there's no difference, no need. The gospel of God's
free grace declaring redemption accomplished by Christ is the
only gospel there is. Look at verse 6. I marvel that
ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace
of Christ unto another gospel. These Galatians were on the edge,
teetering between law and grace, between the work of Christ and
the works of man, between the will of God and the will of man
as the determining factors in God's salvation. And Paul says,
I marvel that you are so soon removed from me, the one who
called you by the preaching of the gospel, who called you into
the grace of God unto another gospel, so soon removed from
God who called you into the grace of God unto another gospel. Any
other gospel, every other message that men preach, by which men
mix works and grace, the work of Christ and the work of man,
God's will and man's will, God's praise and man's praise, mixing
the two together, is damning to the souls of men. Look at
it now, verse 7. You're removed to another gospel,
which is not another. Another gospel which is totally
different. Totally different. But there be some that trouble
you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Pervert the gospel. How do you do that? How do you
do that? Let me see if I can illustrate it for you so that
you can't possibly misunderstand it. All of you here except Brother
Dwight and myself and maybe a couple of the ladies are too young to
understand. I forgot about Lonnie. You'll
understand. Y'all remember the days of the liberals. Heard about
the liberal controversies. How was it that the liberals
did what they did and stayed in old mainline established churches
with no trouble? They used the very same words
that other folks used when talking about the work of Christ and
we're talking about the word of God and we're talking about
God and the gospel and salvation they use the very same words
they talked about resurrection and they talked about the new
birth and they talked about the word of God but what they did
is they just if you can picture a word you reach inside and pull
out all the guts just pull out everything inside that word and
put back in there what you want to In other words, they used
the same words, but gave them totally different meanings. So
if you walked up to one of these liberal fellows and said, I hear
you don't believe in the new birth. Well, I do too. I do too. But if you listen to how he describes
the new birth, he's just talking about a social change. He's just
talking, you hear about these folks, you hear this kind of
talk all the time on television today. Politicians talk about
Christians and Christianity and being born again Christians,
all that stuff, as if there was some other kind. They talk about
Christianity and don't have a clue what they're talking about. They
have no idea what this book refers to when it refers to those disciples
who were called Christians. They don't have any idea. And
in the preaching of our day, Men use exactly the same words
that we use when speaking of the gospel. They use substitution. They use the word redemption.
They use the word atonement. All those words. But they mean
something else. They speak of salvation by grace. I don't know where the papist
church is right here, but you go listen to those. They talk
to you about salvation by grace. If you go to the Mormon church,
they talk about salvation by grace. If you go to the Adventist
church, they talk about salvation by grace. And if you go to the
Baptist church, they talk about salvation by grace. And they're
all talking about the same thing. They're talking about grace to
which you add something. All of them. They're all preaching
the same things. We didn't all get along so well. They have
different costumes and different organizations, but they all preach
exactly the same thing. Talk about redemption. They're
talking about Christ having made redemption possible. Talk about
atonement, they talk about Christ making it possible for sins to
be atoned by his blood. Talk about forgiveness, they
talk about God being willing to forgive sin. Not accomplished
forgiveness, not accomplished redemption, not accomplished
salvation. Paul says this is not even similar to the gospel,
it's not another. They pervert the gospel of Christ.
Now watch verse 8. But though we are an angel from
heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we
have preached unto you. Let that person be damned forever. Let him be accursed. Let him
be accursed. Boy, you don't dare say anything
like that. No, but God did and we don't
dare change it. Let him be accursed. As we said
unto you before, so say I now again, If any man preach any
other gospel unto you, then that you have received, let him be
accursed. Chapter two. Here, the apostle begins to explain
the meaning, telling us how to distinguish the true from the
false. In the second chapter, he asserts
that we are justified by Christ alone without any work performed
by us. Now, when you read through the
New Testament, particularly reading Paul's epistles, you can't help
noticing something that almost seems redundant. Almost every
time Paul says we're saved by grace, he'll turn right around
within a sentence or two and he'll say, now, just in case
you don't understand what I'm saying, your works ain't got
anything to do with it. Just in case you don't understand
what I'm saying, we're saved by Christ. That means not by
you. We're saved by grace, that means not by your works. We're
saved by what God does, that means you're not saved by what
you do. Read this, Galatians 2 verse
16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Not by faith in Jesus
Christ. We receive justification by faith
in Christ, but we're justified by the faith of Jesus Christ,
by his faithful obedience to God as our representative. Even
we had believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by
the faith of Christ. You see how he speaks? We believed
in him that we might be justified by his faith. Not by the works
of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified
Look at verse 20 verse 19 For I through the law and dead to
the law What does the law do it condemns? That's all it can
do that. I might live unto God. I am crucified
with Christ Now that doesn't Read as well in the English translation
as it ought. I The word really is, I was crucified
with Christ. It's in the past tense. Not,
you know, I'm daily being more and more crucified with Christ.
Not I'm crucifying myself with Christ. When Christ died, I died. When he obeyed God, I obeyed
God in him. He was my substitute and is my
substitute. When he died at Calvary, I died
in him. He is my substitute. I was crucified
with Christ. Now watch it. Nevertheless, I
live. Yet not I. That new man living
in me, that's Christ living in me. Made partakers of the divine
nature. That holy thing born of God that
cannot sin. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh. Wait a minute, Paul, you said
it wasn't you. Well, it is. Was not it is Yes,
it is It is because i'm one with him And he's one with me reno. I live by the faith of the son
of god who loved me and gave himself for me I do not frustrate
the grace of god And this is a frustration of grace frustration
It's been a while since i've been really frustrated really
frustrated Your children will get frustrated, especially when
they're young, trying to do something. All of a sudden, just throw it
in the air. Just a mess. Frustrated. Everything brought
to nothing. Everything you've worked at brought
to nothing. Now listen to me. If righteousness
comes by the law, Christ is dead in vain. That is to declare the
grace of God. Nothing. A frustration. No, no,
if righteousness can be had by something men do there's no reason
for Christ to die chapter 3 Now thus far we get along pretty
good with most fellows who claim to believe grace and We declare
that there's just one gospel the justifications by grace alone
through Christ alone, but now We come to sanctification We
just Better not talk too plainly about that. Well, let's talk
real plain. Sanctification, the word is holiness. Sanctification, that holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord. Sanctification, the
new birth and life in Christ Jesus in this world is also the
work of God's free grace. Now capitalize this in your mind,
alone. Alone. We're redeemed by Christ,
justified by Christ, and sanctified by Christ without our own obedience
to the law, or to religious traditions, or to religious customs. The
law was our schoolmaster unto Christ. Once Christ has come,
Once he has come to us in saving grace, by the saving revelation
of God's grace, we have come to him by faith. We're no longer
under the law. The law is no longer our schoolmaster. Let me see if I can illustrate
it. Several years ago, I was preaching in North Carolina,
down in North Wilkes-Barre. I got on the elevator and started
to go. Shelby and I were going to the
services, and I saw a fellow. I hadn't seen him since I was
11 or 12 years old. He was my sixth grade teacher
and looked exactly the same. I said, excuse me, sir, and stuck
out my hand. I said, I'm Don Fortner. You
probably won't remember me. Are you Bob Spitzer? He said,
oh, I remember you. He was my sixth grade teacher. He frequently caused me great
pain on my backside. They were allowed to in those
days. He was just a one-armed fella, had polio in his right
arm, I believe it is, those in his left arm. And one day he
caught me horsing around in the hallway with some other fellas,
and literally, I was a good-sized bull when I was 11 years old,
He grabbed my belt buckle, picked me up, and shoved me through
the wall. Literally. My period was sitting
in the library when he got done. He had the right to. My parents
gave him the right. The law gave him the right. He
was my schoolmaster. And you know what I could do
about it? Nothing. If I told mom or dad
what he did, you know what I'd get? He was my schoolmaster. He had dominion over me. He had
the right to punish me in any way he saw fit. He was my schoolmaster. Now let me tell you something.
He and I have gotten to be good friends since then. We've visited
a good bit. He's now disabled so much he
can't get around, but he used to come listen to me preach every
time I was in the area. And he's come to visit us. He's a good
friend. He hadn't changed in him. He hadn't changed at all.
But I've outgrown his tutelage. I'm a full-grown man now. He
wouldn't dare do things he used to do, even if he thought I needed
it. He's no longer my schoolmaster. Chris, Christ has come to you
in his saving grace and brought you into the glorious liberty
of the sons of God. That means you have nothing else
to fret about from the law. Has the law changed? No. I like
it now. I'm delighted with it now, but
I'm not afraid of it. Not afraid of it. Galatians three verse
one. Those who live by faith in Christ no longer live under
the yoke of the law. And those who pretend to live
under the yoke of the law do not live by faith in Christ. They know nothing of God's grace.
Oh, foolish Galatians, who have bewitched you? Who has cast a
spell over you? That you should not obey the
truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set
forth crucified among you. This only would I learn of you.
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit, are you now made perfect in the flesh? Made perfect
by the flesh? What a foolish thing. How was
it that you started in this way of grace. God picked me up from the dung
heap of fallen humanity and set my feet on the rock, Christ Jesus.
And you suspect you can improve on that? You really think you
can do better than that? You've begun in the spirit and
now you pretend to be made perfect by the flesh? Chapter 4. If you read this chapter, Paul
does a marvelous thing. He takes a historic narrative
about Sarah and her son, Isaac, and Sarah's handmaid, Hagar,
and Hagar's son, Ishmael, and he tells us that these people
and everything related to these people is an allegory. Does that mean Paul is saying
these things didn't really happen? No. No. What's he telling us? The reason they happened was
by God's direction and by God's providence to tell us a story
and give us a picture of God's saving grace. Mmm, an allegory. I tried to tell you this last
night. Every particle of Old Testament history is an allegory. Every particle is a spiritual
lesson, a spiritual picture. It is intended to tell the story
of God's redeeming, free, and saving grace through Jesus Christ
the Lord. Every particle. What do you do
with the child of works? Ishmael. You remember how Abraham
and Sarah got Ishmael? Sarah said, now, Abraham, honey,
I know God made a promise. He said he's going to give us
a son, but honey, I'm not getting any younger. And you're not either.
And we don't have this boy yet. The Lord must surely expect us
to do something. And whenever you do something
to win God's promise and God's favor and God's salvation, you
always wind up with Ishmael. And whenever God's promise comes,
Sarah says, Abraham, it's either me and Isaac or Hagar and Ishmael. Throw her out. and throw the
baby out too. There's no room in my house for
Hagar and her son. And God said to Abraham, this
time your wife is right. Pay attention. Pay attention. There's no room in the house
of grace for the works of the law. There's no room in the kingdom
of God for the works of the flesh. There's no room in the course
of salvation for man's merit. It's either mercy or merit. There's no room for both. As
a matter of fact, if you put one in, you push the other out.
Let's see if that's not what Paul says in chapter 5. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. And be not in agreement
again with the bondage, not the bondage of Moses' law, and certainly
not the bondage of religious tradition and custom." Man, I
just get so sick of religious tradition and custom. It's even
worse than trying to put folks under the Ten Commandments. People have their notions about
religion. and what you ought to do and
ought not to do, how you ought to dress and ought not to dress,
where you ought to go and ought not to go, what you ought to
eat and ought not to eat. I had this experience right after
our conference. I was telling Tony about it the
other night right as we got here. On Sunday afternoon after the
conference was over, a fellow visiting us for the first time,
he drove up on Saturday night and he came in. I don't know
what he had seen or heard, but something disturbed him and he
wanted to talk and he caught me on a good day. I was willing
to talk plain. He came in asking me about what Christians ought
to do. I've been doing what I'm doing this morning for 40 years.
I've been preaching the gospel of God's grace since I was 17
years old. And I've had lots of folks to come to me, men and
women, wanting to ask me questions about what Christians ought to
do. Brother Don, do you believe a Christian ought to smoke? Brother
Don, do you believe a Christian ought to drink beer? Brother
Don, do you believe a Christian ought to wear shorts? Brother
Don, do you believe a Christian ought to go to the picture show?
Brother Don, do you believe a Christian man ought to have long hair?
Brother Don, do you believe a Christian ought to be bald headed? There's
all kinds of nonsense. Let me tell you what, I've never
had one to ask. I've never had this happen. Not
in 40 years. I'm still waiting for it to happen.
Still waiting for it to happen. I've never had anybody to walk
up to me and say, Sam Perkins comes up to me and he says, Brother
Don, I've been doing this and that and other, do you think
I ought to? Not one time. The question is always about
Chris. It's always about somebody else.
It's always about what somebody else ought to do. That's what
legalism always does. It makes Pharisees out of us
to set in judgment over one another and refuse to accept one another
as sinners saved by God's free grace and leave God's people
in God's hands. No, no, I won't tell you what
Christians ought to do. You don't know what you ought
to do. Love your brother. Be gracious to your brother.
Seek to understand him. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if you be
circumcised, hmm, do any of you men have an appointment anytime
soon to go to the hospital to get circumcised? Well, does that
not apply to us? Yes, it applies to us, men and
women. He's not just talking about circumcision.
If you do anything, read your Bible, go to church, pray, Sing
your hymns, dress a certain way, make sacrifices, give your body
to be burned. If you do anything by which you
hope to win God's favor, to keep God's favor, or to improve your
standing in God's favor, watch this, Christ shall profit you
nothing. You've missed Christ altogether.
You don't trust Christ. Read on. For I testify again
to every man that is circumcised, he's a debtor to the whole law.
Christ is become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are
justified by what you do, justified by the law, you've fallen from
grace. For we through the Spirit do
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. The rest of the chapter. The rest of this fifth chapter
explains that to live by the law is to live after the flesh. Those who pretend by their outward
show of religious duty to be most spiritual are only declaring
themselves to be of the flesh. They fulfill the lust of the
flesh. Believers live in the Spirit, they live by the Spirit,
and they walk in the Spirit. I wish I could make this clear.
Oh, I wish I could. We have this idea that walking
in the Spirit is a... We've accepted the Roman Catholic
Pentecostal notion that walking in the Spirit is somehow just
getting above everybody else and walking on the clouds and
you're just, oh, you're so spiritual. You're so, oh, did you hear him
pray? He sounds so spiritual. Oh, he
looks so spiritual. Oh, they dress so spiritual.
I wonder how you do that. Reckon how you do that. The spirits
are not something you see. Flesh is what you see. Spirits
are not something that impresses man. Flesh impresses man. But what is it to walk in the
Spirit? To walk in the Spirit is to believe on the Son of God. It is to live by faith in Jesus
Christ the Lord. That's what it is to walk in
the Spirit. But Brother Don, surely we've got to do something.
That's what I'm telling you. No. No. Salvation by grace. We live by faith in Jesus Christ
the Lord. We walk in the Spirit. But doesn't
anything depend on us? Not a thing. Not a thing. It
all depends on Him. Everything depends on Him. I
hang everything on Him. To be filled with the Spirit
is what Paul speaks of in chapter 6. Grace teaches us to be gracious. The love of God teaches people
to love one another. Mercy experience teaches people
to be merciful. The kingdom of God, our Savior,
teaches saved sinners to be kind one to another. Look at this.
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, your brother falls. And we do. Somebody said, what
if we sin? What if we do? What if we don't? When is it you didn't sin? what
is you did that didn't involve sin and we fall and sometimes
fall publicly sometimes privately but fall we do and When your
brother is overtaken in a fault the fault seems to have consumed
him the fault seems ready to destroy him Restore such in one
now watch this in the spirit of meekness. I Meekness? Meekness? Meekness. You know, that's, uh,
you remember Gandhi? That's meekness. No. No. Meekness? Oh, he's such a meek
man. Listen to how he talks. That
ain't it. Moses was the meekest man of
his day. If Moses was the meekest man
in the day he lived, meekness ain't got anything to do with
what folks think it is. Meekness is not a pretentious
show. Moses took on Pharaoh with nothing but a stick. I mean,
he walked into the king's court, the mightiest king in the world,
with nothing but a stick and made demands. In the name of
God, that's called meekness. Meekness. Meekness is considering
thyself, knowing who you are and whose you are. Now, you find a man or woman
who knows who they are, and whose they are, belonging to God, sinners
saved by free grace. You needn't try to control them.
It ain't going to happen. It ain't going to happen. You
needn't try to shove them into a mold. It ain't going to happen.
Considering thyself, knowing that you're nothing but a sinner
saved by grace. Come on, brother. It's going
to be all right. And you pick him up and carry
his burden. Bear ye one another's burdens
and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to
be something when he's nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own
work That is, prove the work of God in himself. Prove the
work of God's grace in himself. Prove his own work. And then
he shall have rejoicing in himself alone. Not in what men say about
him, but in what he knows God says about him. And not in another. For every man shall bear his
own burden. Verse 10. As we have therefore opportunity,
let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are
the household of faith. Now verse 14. But God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified unto me. and I unto the world."
What does Paul mean when he speaks of the cross? He's not talking about the historic
fact of the cross and he certainly isn't talking about that wooden
pole on which the Son of God hung. If I could find the original
cross and I knew I had the original I'd burn it to ashes and scatter
the ashes in the sea because fools would worship it just like
fools do today. And to worship it is to make
a religious idol out of it. To worship it is to make a religious
symbol out of it. To worship it is to in any way
set it up as something to be honored. If a man were to take
a dagger and stab my wife to death, you think I'd take that
dagger and hang it up in my living room? What nonsense. No, no, no, no. When Paul speaks about the cross,
he's not talking about that physical cross on which the Savior died.
And he's not talking about signs of the cross, or pictures of
the cross, or images of the cross. He's talking about the doctrine
of the cross. The gospel of God's free grace. The cross of our Lord Jesus,
who is the Christ. He's talking about legal propitiation. He's talking about substitutionary
redemption. He's talking about free justification
by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in his obedience unto death.
As it is used here in the New Testament. As it's commonly used
in the epistles. The word cross here refers simply
to the gospel. not the old rugged cross about
which sloppy religious sentimentalists sing. No, no, no. The cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, how is it that he gloried
in the cross? He declared the doctrine of the
cross to be the one theme of Holy Scripture and the one and
only hope of sinners before God Almighty. He said in Philippians
3, we are the circumcision. We are the true people of God.
We are truly God's covenant people, which worship God in the Spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Paul gloried in the cross, declaring
the cross to be the only means of reconciliation to and acceptance
with God for guilty sinners. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
is that which makes it possible for God to be just and the justifier
of the ungodly. It is the cross of Christ that
makes it possible for sinners to enter into glory. Therefore,
save sinners Rejoice to say with the Apostle God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Everything
about the doctrine of the cross is glorious It was a glorious
Savior who died upon the curse tree It is a glorious salvation
which he accomplished for his people and it is upon the curse
tree that by Christ crucified as the God-man our substitute
that the glory of God is seen and he by his death raises ruined
sinners up to a glorious inheritance. Why did Paul glory in the cross?
Because the cross reveals the glory of the eternal God. The cross, Christ crucified is
that in which the glory of God shines brilliantly. We see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see now that which
God Almighty declares to be His glory. And His glory is the saving
of His people by the sacrifice of His Son. That glory we must
and shall declare as long as God gives us breath to this generation. Amen. Bless now your word, our
Father, and these your people for Christ's sake. Bless our
time of fellowship together. Make us fruitful in this generation
for much good to the glory of our Redeemer. Amen. All right,
you're dismissed.