Brother Don was trying to find
some room to set people. I thought of a story an old deacon
friend of mine told me one time years ago. He said the fellows
went to a worship service, a house full of people, and the preacher
was preaching on the major prophets. And he just kept preaching, kept
preaching, had nothing to say, but kept preaching on the major
prophets. Went from one major prophet to the next major prophet,
Finally, he announced if he could find room enough, he was going
to say something about a minor prophet. And one of the fellows
stood up and he said, Brother, you can set him right here. I'm
going home. Over in Galatians chapter 5,
if you turn there from my text this evening, Galatians chapter
5. I want to begin in verse 2 and
read through verse 5. Behold, I Paul, saying to you,
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For
I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he
is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is to come of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are
fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. If you be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. I think if anyone would read
the Holy Scriptures and be honest, as they read them, that they'd
have to come to the conclusion that the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is not only the most joyful sound that a man's heart could
ever hear, but the doctrine of the gospel is the most dogmatic. It's the strictest, the most
narrow religion, doctrine, truth in all of this world. If you
be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. The Apostle
Paul is not saying that to be circumcised is the unpardonable
sin. Jews in the Old Testament were
circumcised. Many, many people in the New
Testament were circumcised. Timothy was circumcised. But
Paul here uses this circumcision to represent to us works religion. A man to seek to be justified
by his own marriage, by his own works before God. He says that
in verse 4. And let me read it to you like
this. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever are
you are justified by your own obedience, by your own religious
efforts, by your own merits, you are fallen from grace. So
he uses this word circumstances in here to represent to us works
religion being justified by the works of the law. We find this
also, and you remember this very well, in the 15th chapter of
Acts, where they came down from Judea, certainly the brethren,
and taught the churches. The brethren, except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. You can't be
justified before God. You can't be forgiven. You can't
be made righteous. You can't have a righteousness
that God will accept, except you be circumcised. But then
in verse 5 of that chapter, it shows you even how more deceitful
self-righteousness is. There rose up certain of the
Pharisees which believed. They believed that Jesus Christ
was the Son of God, that He took our humanity, He lived a holy
life, died upon the cross, was buried and rose again, and He's
the only mediator between God and man. They believed. And yet, here's what they said.
Yet, to be saved, you must be circumcised after the manner
of Moses. What must I do to be saved? If
you ask them, they would tell you, first and foremost, you
must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But they could never
stop there. Then they quickly added, and
you must be circumcised, and you must keep the law of Moses. Now there's many passages that
speaks to us of this subject, Men seeking to be justified by
works, by their own obedience. The Lord Jesus spake in an entire
parable in Luke 18 of that Pharisee who went up to the temple to
pray. And he spake this parable to
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous. That's
what the parable's about. And he said, this Pharisee went
up to the temple and he stood and prayed, and I would imagine
the first thing he trusted in was his prayer. He prayed. Could a man trust
in his own prayer? My dad told me one time, my dad
was one of the most self-righteous men that I've ever known in my
life. He died an awful, agonizing, fearful death. But he told me
one time, we were talking about salvation, he said, if a man's
going to be saved, he's going to have to pray real, real hard. Real hard. Who prayed harder
than the prophets of Baal? Who prayed longer than the Pharisees? They prayed on the street corners,
they prayed in the widows' houses, they prayed long prayers. Bruce,
don't you believe we should pray? Don't you believe we should pray
often and pray long, not if we trust in them to be justified? And our Master went on to tell
about this Pharisee. He said, Lord, I thank you that
I'm not like other men are. I've never committed extortion.
I'm not an adulterer. I'm not an unjust man. I fast
twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I possess. And he might as well go ahead
and said it. I can't understand why everybody
else ain't just like me. See, self-righteousness is not
just bragging about what we do or don't do in and of ourselves.
It's despising those and looking down at those who are not just
like we are. And we can't understand why they're
not. If I can do it, I've got the
will to do it, I have the ability to do it, and I can't understand,
and it aggravates me to no end that everybody else isn't living
just like I'm living. Now, he could go ahead and said
that, but the Master said that self-righteous people despise
others. And why did he do that? Because
they're not just like me. I believe in Jesus. I've given
my life to Jesus. And I've become a better person.
And I can't understand why everybody else don't do just what I've
done. And get their act together and straighten up their lives
and live and do just like I do. I have a dear neighbor, very
dear neighbor. She told me one day, she said,
I can't understand why people don't come to Jesus. Do you understand why people
don't come to Jesus Christ and to God by Him? Do you understand
that? Why did you come? When did you come? I don't understand
why everybody else don't come to Christ. I've come. Self-righteousness is one of
the most deceitful things in all of this world. It comes in
many shapes and many forms and many colors. Circumcision is works religion,
and it's done out of an attitude of self-sufficiency, self-ability,
and the power of the human will. And it's a strange thing, self-righteousness
is. because it professes to go to
Calvary, and yet it finds Moses there. And it makes Moses the justifier,
and it makes Jesus Christ the judge and condemner. That's self-righteousness. And verse 2, Paul tells us here,
if there is anything, even one single act, that you have done,
or something that's been done for you or to you on the behalf
of some mere man, and you trust to that, Christ shall profit
you nothing. If one hearth's breath of a man's
salvation rests upon his own works and merit, upon his own
character, upon his own conduct, he will not be saved. The Jews said, except you be
circumcised, you cannot be saved. Paul said, if you are circumcised,
you cannot be saved. Behold! Behold! Paul is saying, observe what
I'm about to say. I'm going to surprise and shock
this religious world. Behold! I, Paul, say unto you, if one
hurts breath of your salvation, is dependent upon you and your
merit, Christ shall profit you nothing. What's he saying? He's
saying you must be saved by the grace of Christ or you cannot
be saved. We must be saved by the grace
of Christ or we cannot be saved. I, Paul, am telling you this.
Well, who's Paul? Who is he anyway? Who does he
think he is? to tell me what I can believe
and what I can't believe. Who is he to judge me? Who is
Paul anyway? He's God's apostle. He's Christ's
ambassador. And he didn't receive his apostleship
from any of the other apostles. He didn't learn anything from
them. The Lord Jesus Christ revealed these words to the Apostle Paul
and he tells the Apostle Paul to write these words down that
you and I may read them and hear them and learn the way of eternal
salvation. Paul is no mere man. He was born
in sin like you and I are. He lived in sin, hated Christ,
destroyed the Church of God, but he's an Apostle of God. taught
of God from heaven itself. Heaven gave this man his authority
and hell knows him and hell hated him. And Paul's teaching is the doctrine
of Christ. It's the doctrine of God. It's
the doctrine of Christianity. And those who profess to be Christians
and do not believe the apostles' gospel, they are enemies of the
cross of Christ. They are enemies of God, no matter
what they profess, or who they profess, or how loud they profess
it. You and I have come here this
evening to worship. We've come here, most of us,
to profess to be Christ. We profess to be Christian. We
need to ask ourselves this question as we gather here and sit this
evening. Am I justified right now? Or am I condemned? Is my precious soul at this very
moment secured in Jesus Christ, or is my soul exposed to the
awful wrath of God? And the only way to settle that
issue and determine the answer to that question is come here
to this man's gospel, to what he says, and settle the issue
in that light. Am I saved by the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, or do I have something to do with I call saying to you, if you
be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. In other
words, you won't derive, you won't receive one saving benefit
from Jesus Christ. Not one. Whatever natural gifts
and whatever natural blessings He gives to you, If you be circumcised,
you will not receive one single saving benefit from the blessed
Son of God. Christ, who saved multitudes
of others, will not save you. Him that has pleaded the cause
of numbers and numbers of thousands will not speak one word on your
behalf. The Son of God who has washed
multitudes from their sin in His own blood will not offer
you one drop of His blood to cleanse you. And He that has revealed mercy
to tens and tens of thousands will show you nothing but a stern
face. And on the Day of Judgment when
He says to His, Come, ye blessed of My Father, He will say to
you, Depart from Me, ye cursed. Those who seek to save themselves
in the least measure, by their own merits and works, no matter
how humble and unassuming it may appear. It may be a humble
prayer, or the shedding of tears, or frames of mind. But if a man
rests in these things, he will receive nothing savingly from
the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing. Nothing. He will deliberately
and willingly and justly withhold all. Nothing. Nothing. Is this the straight gate or
is it not? Is this not the narrow way that
leads to life? I am that way. I am that way. The world rises up and says that's
too narrow. That's too dogmatic. That's the
gospel. That's the gospel. It's meant
to be in our way. He is that way. And apart from
Him, we cannot be saved. Apart from Him holy. Apart from
His free grace that He gives us, we cannot be saved. There's
none other name. There's no other merit. No other
obedience. No other blood. No other word.
No other power under heaven. given to us by which we must
be saved in Jesus Christ. Well, if Christ will not profit
us anything then how can we therefore hope to
be saved? If I trust anything or I put
anything with the Lord Jesus Christ and I cannot be saved
except I be saved by Him alone and His grace alone, how then
can I hope to be saved? Well, here it is in verse 3.
Look at this. I testify to every man that is circumcised that
he is a debtor to do the whole law. I won't have Christ and
His grace. Then here's all that's left.
You're debtor to do the whole law. Now here's the trouble we
face with that. Any man can be circumcised. We can do a lot of things, can't
we? As human beings, I can take an account of all my finances
and I can pay 10, 20, 30, 50 percent of whatever I want to
pay of my finances as time. I can gather all of my goods
up, everything that I have, my property, my bank account, I
can figure everything up and give every bit of it to feed
the poor. I can do that. I'd have to divorce
my wife. I can't divorce me. But I could
do that. I'll tell you what else we could
do, and there's people that have did this. There are people who
have enough willpower and enough stubbornness about them. that
they'd lay down their life for any cause that they believe in.
We could possibly give our body to be burned. We can do a lot
of things. But in doing all these things
that we have the ability to do, and the power to do, and the
will to do, and by trusting in those things, we obligate ourselves
to do what we cannot do. And that's to keep the law of
God. That's what Paul is saying. You don't want Christ freely?
You don't want to be saved by His grace? Then here, here is
what God requires of you. From the cradle to your grave,
absolute obedience, holiness. Not one single foolish thought. Not one sinful motive. Not one
harsh word. No thought of God. that's unbecoming
His holiness. And when you do not live up to
what that law requires of you, then all that's left is to be
found in your sins, charged with the debt of your iniquities.
And if Christ will not save us, we're left there condemned of
God and be assigned to hell for all eternity. Fallen sinners don't have the
prerogative to set the criteria for what they must do to be justified. God has already set that. And
it's either perfection in yourself or find it in another. Either
standing before God in yourself with your works of righteousness,
which are filthy rags, or to be found in the perfect person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul goes on in verse 4. Look
at this. Christ is become of no effect
unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you have fallen from grace. Some read this like this. You have abolished Christ. If
you be circumcised to be justified, you have abolished Christ. He's
become of no effect. You have vanished Him. There
is no Christ. Can you imagine if there was
no Christ? Everybody goes to hell. Men,
women, children, babies, everybody goes to hell that's born. There's
no Christ. If there's no Christ, there's
no way back to God. There's no way back to God, there's
no heaven. What's left is hell. It don't matter who we are, what
we've done, what we believe. When we live, we live without
any hope, and when we die, we die without God, because there's
no Christ. He's been banished. Paul says here, if you're seeking
to justify yourself before God, partly by Christ and partly by
your works, then there's no Christ for you. You've abolished Him
altogether. Don't mention His name. There
is no such person for you. Don't talk about His precious
blood. There is no such thing for you. Don't talk about His
intercessions on your behalf. There is no mediator for you.
There's no Christ for you. If you're not saved wholly by
Him, you've abolished Him. You've banished Him. Don't mention
His name. There is no such person. What
a horrible thought to think of. Jesus Christ must save us by
His own doing and dying, and He must do it alone by Himself.
Or else there is no such person as Jesus Christ. And no such
thing as grace. And no such thing as free salvation
from the awful wrath of God. Christ is become of no effect
unto you. You and I are living in a day,
just about everybody that dies goes to heaven. Once you become a pastor, you
have to go to all these funerals. And you have to endear what the
preacher says about the person. And remember when they called
Levithan, Jesus called Levithan. Just a very few people today,
real, real bad people, is the only ones not going to heaven.
But what does the Bible say? The Bible says if a man does
not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, he's under the awful
wrath of God. If he dies there, he'll perish. Except you believe
that I am He, you'll die in your sin. What about those who profess
to believe in Christ and believe too that He's a great Savior
and that He's done a great part to save them, but now the rest
is up to them? What about those people? Well,
surely when they die, they're going to heaven. But what does
the Bible say? By grace are you saved through
faith. Not of yourself, just the gift of God. Not of works.
Not of works. What about those who profess
Christ has done all? Christ has done all. Except. There is this one little thing
that I can do. What about those? Hear the words
of Paul, this great apostle. Withstands those people as surely
as the law withstands open and profane sinners. There's no Christ
for anybody but those who are saved by Christ alone. Christ must be all or he's nothing. That's what Paul said. He must
be all or he's nothing. There was a time when Christianity
believed this. True Christianity still believes
this. There was a time when professing Christianity professed to believe
this, but not in our day. Christ is all. Someone asked
Brother Scott Richardson one time, he said, Scott, is Christ
enough? Scott said, if he's all you got, he is. And you can't be saved if that's
not your opinion, and your belief, and your doctrine. The world says this is too narrow.
Well, I told you before I started preaching the message. It is
narrow. It is dark. Jesus Christ, the
dear and blessed Son of God, joined Himself to our humanity
to save sinners by doing for them what they could not. and would not do for themselves.
That's the teaching of God's Word. That's the Gospel. And
if we don't believe it, then we're fallen from the Gospel
altogether. And dying will be lost forever. Who will be saved then? Who will be saved? Those who
are enabled by the grace of the Holy Spirit to put all their
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll be saved. Those who are enabled by the
Spirit of grace to put all their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
A man cannot trust Christ apart from the Holy Spirit. A dead
man cannot trust Christ even though he's commanded to. But
as soon as the Spirit enters him and gives him faith immediately,
he trusts Christ. And you don't trust Him partly.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart. If thou believest with
all thine heart. And as soon as the poor heart
trusts Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has
begun that work in his heart, and it means that all Christ
is, and all Christ has done, and all Christ possesses belongs
to that believing heart. Is that what you said? And this
becomes such good news to the poor believing sinner. that though
he finds himself yet to be compassed with sin and awful infirmities,
and often he cries, I'm vile and I'm wretched, yet because
the Holy Spirit has granted him faith to believe and gave him
sight of such a wonderful Savior, he is willing and he is thankful
and feels himself greatly privileged to wait and live in the hope
of when this life is over he shall go to be with him that
loved him and gave himself for him and rest until the resurrection
morning and then be raised in the very likeness of the Lord
his righteousness into a world where there dwells nothing but
righteousness and he's content and thankful and he waits And
he hopes in this same Christ that he believes in. And I tell
you, you can't obtain that hope by the works of the law. That
comes through the grace of Christ alone. One thing I want to read
for you in closing. Dear William Tyndale described
the gospel. And here's what he said about
the gospel. This dear man was burned at the stake Here's what
he said about the gospel. The New Testament is a book wherein
are contained the promises of God and the deeds of those that
believe them or believe them not. That which we call gospel
is a Greek word and means good, merry, glad, and joyful tidings
that makes a man's heart glad, and maketh him sing and dance,
and leap for joy. This gospel is called the New
Testament because as a man, when he shall die, appoints his goods
to be dealt with and shared after his death among those whom he
names as his heirs, even so Christ, before his death, commanded and
appointed that such gospel or tidings should be declared throughout
all the world, and therewith to give unto all that believe
all his goods, that is, his life, wherewith he swallowed and devoured
death, his righteousness, wherewith he banished sin, his salvation,
wherewith he overcame eternal damnation. How can the wretched
man that is in sin and in danger of death and hell, hear a more
joyful thing than such a glad and comfortable tidings of Christ,
so that he cannot help but be glad and laugh from the low bottom
of his heart if he but believes that these tidings are true. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. But add anything to it, and it's
not the gospel. It must be strict. It must be
narrow. It must put us in the dust. I will never receive it
as the gospel. Thank God for the gospel.