Galatians chapter six, and I
want to begin reading here in verse twelve. I just want to
pull three or four verses here out of this chapter. I'm not so much concerned
about the context. They're contexts to themselves.
I think they're very applicable to today. Galatians chapter six
and verse twelve. As many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh. They constrain you to be circumcised. They compel 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 they desire to have
you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. But God
forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto
the world." There's two religions in this world, brothers and sisters.
There always has been but two. There is at this present time,
and there will never cease to be but two religions. One is
flesh. That's all it is, is flesh. The
other is true. The other is of God. It's of
the heart. And that's the two religions
that you and I will look at from our text this morning. One is
heart worship. It's spiritual worship. It's
communion with God. That's a true religion. The hour
is coming, and now is, our Master said, when the true worshipers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For he seeks such
to worship Him. For God is a spirit, and they
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
The Apostle says we're of the true circumcision. We haven't
been circumcised in our flesh, but we've been circumcised in
our hearts. And we worship God in spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. There is a heart worship of God.
And there is a heart faith. The heart believeth unto righteousness. There is doing the will of God
from the heart. See that? It is a heart religion. I'll give them a new heart, and
I'll put a new spirit within them, and I'll cause them to
walk in My stature and keep My judgments and do them. I'll put
My laws in their minds, and I'll write them in their hearts, and
I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people."
A heart love for God. for the Lord Jesus Christ, for
His gospel, for His ways, for His people. But it's a heart. It's a heart. The love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts. He that loveth is born of God,
because God is love. Son, keep your heart. Keep your
heart with all diligence. For out of it are the issues
of life. There's no true worship. There's no true faith. There's
no true communion with God except it be from the heart. Keep your
heart with all diligence. When the heart worships in spirit
and in truth, it's accepted to God. You may be here this morning,
dear saint, And you may be laid low. The rod of God may be heavy
upon your back. You may be in temptations and
trials. But I'm telling you this morning,
if you're a worshipper of God in your heart, then your work,
your worship, your service is accepted of God. That's true
religion. It's heart. It's a heart worship,
a heart religion. And there's another kind of religion
that's not true, and it's the religion of the flesh. And Paul tells us about it here
in verse 12. He says this, as many as desire
to make a fair show in the flesh. Isn't that almost embarrassing
to read? Don't you feel disgusted almost
when you read that? A fair show in the flesh. A fleshly show. It's not worship. It's not service that's regulated
by the Word of God. It's not guided by truth. It's not heart worship. It's
not spiritual worship. It's fleshly worship. It's carnal
worship. It's natural. It's the religion
of the natural man. It's flesh, and it's a show. And it almost sickens us even
to read this, because don't we see so much show in ourselves? Everything the Pharisees did,
and the scribes, and the religionists of our Lord's day, they did it
for one reason. to be seen of men." The Lord
says, you in deeds, you appear righteous to men. They look upon
you as being righteous, and you love it when they call you rabbi
and master and father. You appear righteous, but within Your heart, your spirit, you're
full of hypocrisy and you're full of wickedness. Oh, they
fasted. They loved to go out and fast.
And why did they fast? To be seen of men. They loved
to pray standing on the street corners to be seen of men. They
prayed in the widows' houses long prayers to be seen of men. They dressed to be seen of men. and they can pass land and sea
to make one convert, and it was just to be seen of men. The Apostle Peter said to Simon
the Sorcerer, your heart is not right with God. He was baptized,
but his heart was not right with God. He followed Peter and the
church, but his heart was not right with God. And if the heart
is not right with God, there's no acceptable worship. If the heart is not right with
God, there's no acceptable service. If the heart is not right with
God, there's no saving faith. The heart, it's a heart issue,
brothers and sisters. All flesh can do is put on a
show. make a fair show in the flesh. And you wonder, as we look around
us in this religious hour, how much is being done, and it's
being done just to appeal to the flesh, just to be recognized
of man. I saw a few days ago a man in
his religious garb, had on a long robe and a little pointed hat
on his head. And he had what looked to me
to be a coffee pot. It looked just like my coffee
pot on a chain. But he had a fire built in it.
It was smoking. And he was walking through the
crowd, swinging his little coffee pot on a chain, blessing the
people. And they were bowing and giving
signs. What is that? That's flash. Flash. It's a fair show in the
flash. And you wonder sometimes even
in the neon signs, the flashing signs that the churches are putting
up now. And they're announcing their
dynamic speakers. You wonder how much of that is
just flesh. A show in the flesh. And anything that's done to appeal
to flesh is not acceptable to God. Two types of religion. There's the true heart spiritual
worship and service. A heart faith in Jesus Christ.
And then there's flesh. There's flesh. This is what the
Word of God says about flesh. Romans chapter 8 and verse 9.
They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Flesh cannot please God. But
you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that
the Spirit of Christ dwell in you. You're born of the Spirit. You're led of the Spirit. Your
worship is a spiritual worship. It has nothing to do with being
seen in this flesh. Neither in the flesh can not
please God. Romans 3.20, By the deeds of
the flesh, by the works of the flesh, There shall no flesh be
justified in His sight." Everything that the flesh could do, all
the works that it could muster up, going and giving everything
that it possessed. If I give my body to be burned,
it profiteth me nothing. By the works of the flesh, no
flesh shall be justified in God's sight. God doesn't accept flesh. He doesn't accept fleshly worship. Listen to Isaiah chapter 40 and
verse 6. All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth. It just
withers away. And the flower thereof, the beauty
of it, It fades. It fades. What is flesh? It's just fading, withering grass. That's all it is. Have you ever
heard people say, I'm not a sinner anymore? I ain't sinned in twenty
years. I just don't sin anymore. Some
of those old people, they're getting old. They get weak and
bent over and rankled and sickly. And you want some time to go
up to some of them and say, are you sure? What's your problem? You're aging. You're fading just
like the rest of us. You're withering up just like
the rest of us. What's that the effects of? Sin. Sin. Don't put your confidence, brothers
and sisters, in the flesh. The best we can do is keep it
beat down. Keep it under subjection. It's
vile. And it must be changed before
it can enter the presence and glory of God. Use it as it houses your soul
to glorify your Father in heaven. Oh, but for Christ's sake, don't
put any confidence in it. It's fading. It's a withering
thing. The Bible says that no flesh
is going to stand before an unholy God and boast. God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world. Why? To confound the wise. God has chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the mighty and the insignificant
things and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things
that are. Why has God did that? That no
flesh should glory in His. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, He that glories,
let him glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is the difference
between true worship and true religion and that which is not
true. One is of the heart that God
has renewed, that He's regenerated, that the Lord Jesus lives in,
and the other is mere flesh. One is accepted and the other
is rejected. It's the most difficult thing
sometimes for you and I to worship and serve the Lord without this
miserable flesh. And it makes us say with Paul,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? But you know
what? It makes us recognize and distinguish
between the true religion and the false religion. You know yourselves, don't you?
God has taught you yourself. And you know this old flesh with
all its in all its glory. I don't care if it's open and
profane flesh or if it's religious flesh. You know that it ain't
nothing but flesh. And you long to get out of it.
You long to put it aside and not be hindered by it and worship
God in spirit and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. But these
men don't desire that that Paul's talking about. Did you notice
how he said that? They desire. That's what they love. That's
where they get their confidence. You hate it, but they love it. And that's the difference between
the saint and the unregenerate. And look what he says in the
last portion of verse 12. He says you're in the last portion
of verse 12. They constrain you to be circumcised
only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. They tell you that it's necessary
for you to submit to the law of Moses, to be circumcised and
keep the ceremonial law and adopt all of these traditions and live
the strict lifestyle that the Jews lived. You've got to be
circumcised. and keep the law of Moses. That's
what they said. In Acts chapter 15 verse 5 you
see that. The Pharisees said it's necessary
to circumcise them and command them to keep the law of Moses. Why did they do this? Why did
they say it's necessary now for you to be circumcised and keep
the law of Moses and live like the Jews live? Keep all the ceremonies
Keep all the feast days. It's necessary for you to do
that. Here's why they said that. Here's why they taught that.
Lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. If they profess the cross of
Christ, and they profess the Christ of the cross as the Scripture
revealed Him, They suffer persecution. You
can't be a Christian, brothers and sisters. You can't believe
in Christ and the Bible without being persecuted by false religion. Now, you can't. They're diametrically
opposed. And here these Jews, they were
teaching you have to be circumcised. If they quit preaching circumcision,
and say salvation's in Christ alone, oh my, they'd be put out
of the synagogues. Did you know that? Let me give
you two or three examples, and the examples of this abound in
the Word of God and in our experience. All of us have seen this. You
remember the blind man? He was born blind in John chapter
9. The Lord Jesus gave him his sight.
spit on the ground and made some clay and put it on his eyes and
said, go wash in the pool of Siloam. And he did, and his eyes
were opened. And the Pharisees heard of that. And they called him up before
their counsel to question him. And they said, how did you receive
your sight? And he told them what happened. This man called
Jesus of Nazareth, made spittle, put it on my eyes and told me
what to do. And I did it. And I saw. They said, we don't
believe you. Where's your parents at? And they called his parents.
And they said, is this your son? Was he born blind? How then does
he see? And they said, we know this. He's our son. And we know that
he sees. But we don't know how. Yes, they
did. Yes, they did. Why did they lie
about it? Isn't that amazing? If you had
a child that was born blind and suddenly someone opened his eyes,
wouldn't you say, so-and-so did it? Why, sure, Jesus and Nazareth,
but they didn't. And you know why? The Bible says
in the 22nd verse of that chapter, the Jews had already agreed that
if anybody professed Jesus to be the Christ, he was to be put
out of the synagogue. They feared the Jews. And in
the 12th chapter, verse 42, we have this written. Among the
chief rulers, many believed on him, but because of the Pharisees,
they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the
sin of God." I had a friend of mine, some of you know him. Years
ago he was an evangelist, a very popular evangelist from down
south. He used to come up in here and he could preach to anybody.
And then listen to him. He preached to Nazarenes. He
preached the Church of God. He preached to free will Baptists,
independent Baptists. And he had a slick, sly way of
preaching, and everybody agreed with him. And then the Lord, to somebody,
something happened. He began to preach more truth. He became more clear on the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ. And you know what happened? He
started losing His support. I know this to be a fact because
I knew Him personally. His congregations began to dwell
on Him. The Nazarenes, the free willed
Baptists was ready to quit calling Him to preach. And I was with him the night.
I was there the very night. He got up in the pulpit not far
from here. And he says, I want it to go
on record, and it went on record, that I do not believe in the
unconditional election of God. I want it to go on record that
I do not believe in particular redemption, that Christ died
for those in hell as well as those in heaven. I do not believe
in irresistible grace. I want it to go on record. It
went on record. It went on record. I sat in his
house a few weeks before then and talked to him about these
truths. And we had sweet fellowship, I thought, together. What happened
to this man? Hard looks. That's tough to take. When you look at the congregation,
and you're preaching the truth, and you're getting a hard look,
and when you shake hands, the handshake is weak, and when you
go to the offering box, there's nothing in it. And when you're
afraid you're going to lose your position, he became afraid. So what did
he do? He went back to free will. Why? We have it right here in their
text, don't we? "...lest they should suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ." Brothers and sisters, it's been said so
often, any old fish can float downstream. A dead fish floats
downstream. But when the Lord opens your
heart, you're going against the grain. You're going against the
current. And if you believe in the truth,
mark it down. You're going to suffer for it. And I mean sometimes there will
be a temptation because of fear to deny the truth. We have a
good example of that in the second chapter of Galatians. Peter came
down to Antioch and was set in Eden with the Gentiles. Eden
pork. Eden chicken. Things that the
law forbid him to eat. And he was enjoying fellowship
with the Gentiles. He wasn't living like the Jews.
Well, here come Jews. Here come some Jews down from
Jerusalem. And you know what Peter did?
He got afraid. And he got up from Eden and fellowshiped
with the Gentiles. And he went over and sat with
a few Jews. And Paul said, Peter, Peter,
you're to be blamed, my friend. Because you've just denied the
cross out of fear. That's what he says about these
Pharisees, these law keepers. And here in verse 13 of our text,
Galatians chapter 6, and look in verse 13. The apostle gives
us a reason here why these men won't suffer persecution. First,
he said, because they're afraid. They're afraid of persecution.
They'll believe a lie and preach a lie because they know if they
preach the truth, they'll be persecuted. But he gives another reason here
also. And here he tells us why they're afraid of persecution. They put too much honor. They're
too attached to the flesh. Look here at what he says. For
neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but
they desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh."
This word glory means to take pride in, to take pleasure in,
satisfaction in, to rejoice in and exalt in. They love the things of the flesh. They'd rather have men to honor
them than to God, for God's honor. They'd rather have men to speak
well of them than God to speak well of them. The Scripture says,
as I referred to just a minute ago, they can pass land and sea
to make one proselyte. They'd go into Crete just to
make one proselyte and bring him back to Jerusalem and say,
look here, we've got a convert. And people would stand up in
class and say, oh, bless your heart. What an evangelical outreach
you have. And they'd glory in that. Oh,
I love to hear that. They'd just figure their faces
while they fast. And men would look at them and
say, oh, what a self-denying person that is. And they just
ate that up. They had put a little bugle in
the mouth of a little servant, and he had blowed the trumpet
while they brought in their bags to put in the treasure, and to
have people to say, oh, what a generous person he is. They gloried in the flesh. They
loved it. They loved it. They loved for
men to speak well of them. And they weren't concerned with
keeping the law. Verse 13 here says Paul said,
they don't keep the law. They compel you to keep it, but
they don't keep it themselves. The Lord Jesus said they even
make boys the law by their silly traditions and by their commandments. Do you know what their motive
was? They loved the flesh. Self-gratification. Self-congratulations. Self-glorification. That's what
they're all about. Flesh. They love it. They love
it. Has the Lord beat you off from
it? I tell you, the flesh, we love it so much, we'd rather
please it and gratify it than to please the Lord if He don't
beat us off of it. There's men that would rather
have a stadium full of people and preach a lie to them because
they love the flesh. They glory in that. Brother Todd
Maverick told me a while ago, he said, you know what a successful
ministry is? Not just for a pastor, but for
the congregation. You know what a successful church
is? You know what a successful preacher is? He's not a man who
has his name out there in the world for men to brag on him. He's not a man that has a legacy
that he's leaving to this world of sermons and books and articles. He's not a man that has huge
congregations. That may or may not be a successful
ministry. Most of it is not. But you know
what a successful ministry is. You know how to tell if this
church is successful. When it holds to the truth, and
nothing but the truth, till its dying day. That's it. Come hell, come high
waters, come trials, come forsaken, come temptations, comes the hatred
of the world. Buy the truth and sell it not. That's success, ain't it? That's success. We do that. We may remain little with a few
in the pew, but if we do that, we're successful. We're successful. They glory in the flesh. And if a man glories in his flesh,
if he loves the flesh, and that's all he wants, glorying in other
men and having men to glory in him, what's he going to do? Make a fair show. That's his
confidence, isn't it? Make a fair show. And he won't suffer. He won't
suffer. Now verse 14, look at this. This
is one of those little buts. But God forbid that I should
glory. God forbid that I should take
pride. God forbid that I should have
pleasure in and rejoice and be exalted in anything but the cross
of our Lord Jesus. Ours were He glorious. And if
you're here this morning and you're begotten of God, and your
religion's a heart religion, that's where you glory to. In
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul could have gloried in a
lot of things, could he not? Look how many churches he established.
Look how many epistles he wrote. Look how many tongues he spoke
in. He could have gloried in a lot of things. I labored more
abundantly than you all, but he says, I glory in one thing,
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, the redeeming cross of the Lord
Jesus. Why? Well, listen to these reasons. Therefore we discover the love
of God for our souls, is it not? Not that we love God, but He
loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. You want to see the love of God,
there's one place to see it, and that's the cross. And that's
the first place we'll see it. And we'll not see it any greater
than there on the cross. Therefore we see how God can
be just and justify the ungodly. How can man be just with God
when we go to the cross? That question is answered. It
is at the cross where we see our sins punished to the fullest
extent that justice requires. God cannot save at the expense
of His justice. He cannot save us and leave us
in our sins. He cannot sweep our sins under
the rug. His mercy won't allow it. His
justice won't allow it. What must be done with our sin? They must be punished. And that's what we see, brothers
and sisters, at the cross. Sin is punished. It's there at
the cross where we see our eternal redemption accomplished. It's at the cross we see God's
smiling, reconciled, You see God's frown? You may
be at the wrong mountain. You're scared to approach Him
to God? All you see is His anger? All you feel is His indignation?
Then go to the cross! It's at the cross where you'll
see His smiling face! It is at the cross where you
will see a reconciled God and where you will see Him made peace
on your behalf. That is where we see Satan given
his deadly wound and his works destroyed. It is at the cross. That is where we see death. overwhelmed
and overcome because Jesus Christ died in our room and in our stead. If your sin-burdened soul has
gone to the cross and you found relief there, I tell you a glory in that cross
until your dying day. Ever since, by faith, I saw the
stream Thy flowing wounds supplied. Redeeming love has been my theme. It shall be till I die." That's
what we see at the cross. I tell you, He'll kill flesh.
When you go to the cross, He'll kill flesh. This show, this show,
it's over with Him. From then on, it's heart worship. The last portion of verse 14, Paul does something here. He
describes his relationship with this world and this world's relationship
with him. He tells us here how he looks
upon the world and how the world now looks upon him. He says,
the world used to look upon me different. They used to glory
in me. When I preach circumcision and
I preach the traditions of men and the commandments of men and
keeping the law of Moses, oh, the world loves me. They bragged
on me and said, what a man of God he is. Paul said, when I
was brought to the cross and my message changed, then their
opinion changed to me. But he said, you know something?
My opinion changed to them too. And here's the way he says it.
I am crucified by Christ, by His cross. I am crucified unto
the world, and the world is crucified unto me. Paul says, here the
world stands, and they're glorying in the flesh. And here I stand,
I'm glorying in the cross. They're proud of flesh, I'm proud
of the cross. Their confidence is in the flesh,
my confidence is in the cross. And he said we're enemies, one
to another. They count me criminal, and I
count them criminal. What did they do with murderers?
They crucified them, didn't they? What did they do with thieves?
They crucified them. That's what those thieves were doing on the
cross. Why did they crucify them? Because they were criminal. And
Paul looks upon this unbelieving unregenerate world and he judges
them and their works to be criminal against heaven. He takes their
best works outside the Lord Jesus Christ and says that's filthy
rags. That's works of iniquity. They write their statements of
faith that contradict holy scriptures and promotes traditions of men
and the commandments of men. And Paul condemns their statements
with them as being criminal against him. No more than the works of
natural man, or maybe devils. You guys are criminal, he said.
You're criminal against God, against the Son of God, against
the Word of God. You're criminal. And they'd make
their statements, and he would take their statements dragging
and screaming and nailed it to the cross. He said, I want everybody
that passes by here to see what I've done. I've crucified their
fleshly worship. It's criminal. I've crucified
their Armenian free will statements. It's criminal. And he said, I
want everybody that passes by here to know it, that it's a
criminal. to God, and it's right where
it ought to be, on a cross. Some people want to know why
sometimes we preach like this, why you condemn everything and
everybody. We don't condemn everything and everybody, just everything
outside of Christ, just everything apart from the gospel. Why don't you go along with these
Mormons? Why are you so hard on the Mormons?
Because they believe that Jesus Christ is a creature. Why would you condemn, why would
you crucify a Jehovah Witness? Because they don't believe that
Jesus Christ is God. Nail him up. Nail him on the cross. He's criminal. Put him right there where he
belongs. Why in the world would you condemn
the Church of Christ? Why would you call them criminals?
Because they believe in baptismal regeneration. Why would you condemn those who
say a decision will save you? Because a decision won't save
you. A new birth will save you. What about the power of the sinner's
will to save him? We know it to the cross. It's
criminal. What about a sinner's prayer
will save him? Say this prayer and it will save
you. It's criminal. It's criminal. Isn't that what
Paul said? He said, I glory in the cross
of Jesus Christ. And therefore, the world condemns
me, crucifies me as a criminal, and I crucify it as a criminal.
When Martin Luther put his 95 theses on the wall there at Wittenberg,
you know what he was doing? He was crucifying Catholicism
with all its pomp and show. They're criminals against God.
And what happens? The world in turn looked at this
apostle, and it looked at you. And you know what the world will
say? You are disturbant of our peace. I had some peace. I had some confidence until you
come along teaching this flesh business that it's vile and that
God won't accept it. And you've disturbed my peace.
And a disturber of the peace should be crucified. And that's
what they do to you. You ain't fit to live, they tell
you. With all this free grace and sovereign grace and reign
in grace. This need for blood to cleanse
you and the need for the Holy Spirit to regenerate you. We
know nothing about that! You criminals! You're not fit
to live. Ain't that what they said to
Paul? You pestiment fellow. Brothers and sisters, there's
no reconciling the world and the true church. There's no reconciling
darkness with light, the devil with Christ. It cannot be. And if you and I allow it to
be, we owe that to our unfaithfulness. You say, Bruce, where do you
get that at? Listen to the words of Christ Himself. The world
cannot hate you, but me it hates. But Lord Jesus, you're holy.
You're good. You're just. You come down from
heaven and people hate you. The world hates me. But, Lord,
why? Why would the world hate you? Because I testify of it. I've been called on the witness
stand. And I have evidence. I have proof. And I'm here to
bear witness of the truth. What is this world like? What
is his standing with God? Moral standing, spiritual standing
with God. Oh, I testify. And what's the
testimony of the Son of God? The works thereof are evil. Evil. No, no. This is a world, brothers
and sisters, that's perverted. This is a world that went astray
back in Adam and Eve, and it's still astray today. And you must
be born again. You must be delivered from the
flesh. You must be born of the Spirit. We must have a new birth.
We must be saved outside of ourselves. We must be saved by another alone,
Jesus Christ. And I tell you what, you'll never
reconcile the true with the false. And God give us grace not to
even try. And give us grace to suffer and
bear the burden of the day for His glory. Amen. Let's pray.