finishing up Galatians unless
the Lord shows me something else in studies. I thoroughly enjoyed
going through Galatians. It felt like the Lord has really
revealed himself and the purpose of Galatians. He allowed us to
see his face. We don't take that for granted.
He didn't have to reveal his face. He chose to, and I'm thankful,
truly thankful that he did. Galatians chapter six. One of
the easiest ways to determine God's gospel, the difference
between God's gospel and a counterfeit, is ask yourself this, who gets
all the glory? All the glory. Now, all means
all, and sometimes we use words that we don't really think, that
don't really go. Like sometimes you might say
all, but it's really not all. You know, whenever we say all is
all pertaining to God's gospel and God getting all the glory,
it's every bit of it. There's none left. He gets all
of it. So one of the easiest ways to
know whether or not someone's preaching the gospel or someone's
preaching a counterfeit is to ask yourself, who gets all the
glory? If I am made righteous, who gets
the glory? If I've been justified, who gets
the glory? If I've been sanctified, who
gets the glory? This is the question I have for us today. Who gets
all the glory? I was reminded while I like watching
sports, I don't care to tell you. And I was reminded of watching
sports the other day. They got on broadcast with one
of the star players, and they were really proud of his efforts
and everything that he had done. And he said, man, I couldn't
have done it without my team. They really, they had my back.
They had to pave the way. There's no way I could have done
this without my team. Did you know that's not how it is with
the Lord Jesus Christ? We don't hoist him up and brag on him
because of Or he doesn't, I said that backwards. He don't hoist
us up and brag on us as his teammates. That was a one man show. Do you
understand what I'm saying? On the cross of Calvary, he did
it all by himself. All by himself. But preachers
preach that he needed our help. Yeah, we're gonna get to glory
and it's gonna be like, yeah, we did our part and you did your
part and we're a great team. No, it's God did the whole thing.
Who gets all the glory and salvation? If it's not God, then it's not
God's gospel. It's that simple. Let's read
this together. Scripture to back that up is
Hebrews chapter one. It says when he had by himself
purged our sins, he sat down. He did it all by himself, didn't
he? All right. Galatians chapter six. And we're going to begin
reading verse 11. We'll read to the end of the
chapter. You see how large a letter I have written to you with my
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 into 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 you, be with your spirit, amen. Unto
the Galatians written from Rome. That verse where he says, God
forbid that I should glory, save the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where I got the title
from, Who Gets All the Glory? Who Gets All the Glory? He said
just a moment ago that they want to glory in your flesh. Then
he says, God forbid I glory, saving the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So who gets all the glory? I have three questions
this morning. Who gets all the glory in adoption? Who gets all
the glory in redemption or justification? And who gets all the glory for
regeneration and sanctification? That's the three questions I
have this morning. I hope to answer if the Lord be our help. First
one is who gets all the glory in adoption? Well, we can start
with a carnal allegory. We can talk about natural adoption. An orphan infant, is going to
be adopted by a set of parents. And what does that orphan infant
have to do with that adoption? What does it contribute? What
does it allow or not allow? What does it communicate? It's an infant. It's an orphan
infant. The parents do everything, do
they not? The parents have to enter into a contract. The parents
have to go fetch the child. The parents have to redeem the
child. It costs money. To redeem something means you
pay the price. They have to redeem the child. So who gets all the
glory in that adoption? Does the child get the glory?
The parents do. In salvation, our Heavenly Father
chose in the covenant of grace. to redeem a people, to predestinate
them to be conformed to the image of his son, to predestinate them
to be the children of adoption. In doing so, it required him
to make a payment. That payment was the blood of
the lamb on the cross of Calvary. All those that he chose in the
covenant of grace, the lamb of God died for and therefore redeemed
back to God. When the fullness of time comes,
the spirit goes and fetches. each one of God's elect that
he died for. No, it's not us that chose. It's not us that paid. It's not
us that did anything. God, who is rich in mercy, we're
in his great love, he loved us. God saved his people from their
sin all by himself. God gets all the glory in adoption,
in election. He gets all the glory in it.
If I find myself adopted, It's because he did it all. Everything
required, he did it. I didn't do it, he did it. God's people are chosen. Not according to our will, but
according to his will. Not according to our purpose,
but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to
us before time ever began. We're chosen by God, according
to his will, according to his purpose, all by grace. All by
grace. By his own will begat he us.
I'm reminded in the scripture of an allegory, a story, if you
will, of Mephibosheth. Most of us know the story of
Mephibosheth very well. But was it not so with Mephibosheth that
he had no hope of having any relationship with the king whatsoever,
because he was the enemy of the king, by being born Saul's son,
he had a claim on the throne. He was lame on both of his feet.
Someone dropped him whenever the Philistines had invaded.
So he didn't even do it to himself. Well, that's us by nature. We
didn't make ourselves sinners. We were born sinners because
Adam fell in the garden. So that's the picture there.
Secondly, now he's down in a place called Mykar in Lodabar. of no
bread. There's no bread there. It's
a barren wasteland of no bread. That's how that translates. One
day, 2 Samuel chapter 9, David said, this is just how it starts.
Like there's no, this is just the beginning of the brand new
chapter. He says, is there any left of
the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's
sake? Now what we need to know and understand is really important
is Jonathan and David entered into a covenant, a contract,
a covenant that they would take care of each other's families
if something would happen to the other. So if David would
have died, Jonathan would have taken care of his kids or families,
and vice versa. David remembers this covenant
that he made with Jonathan. And so Mephibosheth had no ability. He was lame on both of his feet.
He had no ability to get to the palace. He had no ability to
not find the wrath of the king when he got to the palace. And
he was hiding down in Lodomar. But David said, is there any
left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness? Not for his
sake, but for Jonathan's sake. That's so important. And Ziba
spoke up, which was one of Saul's servants, and said, yes, there
is one. His name's Epiphasheth. He's
laying on both of his feet. He tells him where he's at, just as I've
already described. And David says these words, go fetch him. Fetch him. They go to Bephibosheth's
place and get him, bring him back to the palace. Bephibosheth
falls flat on his face before the king and David says, fear
not for surely I will show thee kindness for Jonathan's sake.
I'll show thee kindness for Jonathan's sake. And what does he say? What
is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as
I am? David don't even respond to him.
Doesn't even answer that question. It's not for him. It was for
Jonathan. It was because of Jonathan. It was because of him. And he
said, he gave Ziba the servant and all these sons, gave them
to Mephibosheth to tend after him, to work the fields for him.
He couldn't work and he was gonna put the ring on his finger, a
robe on his back and put him at the table. He said, you're
gonna eat bread continually at the king's table from now on.
And that's literally how the chapter ends. So Mephibosheth
did eat at the king's table for the rest of his life. Now you
talk about a glorious picture. of how our Lord is absolutely
sovereign and gets all the glory in our salvation in this particular
time in adoption. Phibosheth couldn't get to the
palace, had no hope of getting to the palace. He was an outcast
just as you and I are sinners. We can't approach God. He would
kill us in our sin. That's just how he has to be.
Justice. Yes, he's a just and holy God. As a matter of fact,
he told Moses, no man has looked upon the Lord and lived, and
lived. So, Mephibosheth had no hope
of getting there. So what does David do, the king?
Well, because of a covenant between David and Jonathan, he sends
Ziba, picture of the Holy Spirit, going and getting Mephibosheth
out of that place of no bread and bringing him to the king's
palace. Who's the king? It'd be the Lord Jesus Christ,
would it not? And he falls before the Lord, in this picture, and
he says unto him, what is thy servant that thou shouldest look
upon such a dead dog as I am? I said that wrong. The king would
be the father because whenever the father saw Mephibosheth,
he saw Jonathan. He saw Jonathan. He remembered
the love that he had towards Jonathan. And that's the only
reason that you and I have any hope is because we've been made in
the image and likeness of the Lord on the inward man, the new
man. So when he sees us, he sees the
blood, he sees his son, and he's well satisfied. Best part is,
though, is out of not anything that we have done or nothing
that we deserve, our Lord says to us, surely I will show mercy
on you for Jonathan's sake, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ,
I'm going to show mercy to you. And he puts us at his table,
and he puts his robe of righteousness on our back, and he puts the
sun's ring on our finger, and we sit, that's what that was,
that's what that signifies, is sonship. He puts him at the table,
And I like to think that nobody knew Mephibosheth was lame on
his feet when he's sitting at that table. He's sitting at a
table with, no doubt, a nice drapery or tablecloth on it. Nobody can see his infirmity
anymore. Why? Do you reckon that that tablecloth was probably
the color red with the blood that covers his infirmity? Isn't
that the picture there? Scripture doesn't say it was
red, but I like to think it was. So we're covered by the blood
and we get to eat. What do we eat at the king's table? We get
to eat the body. Of the Lord Jesus Christ, we get to drink
the sweet wine of his blood. We get to feast on the lamb forever. We drink from the fountain of
living water forever and ever and ever. The Lord is the one
that gets all the glory in adoption. The Lord is the one that gets
all the glory in salvation. All the glory. This is why Paul
said, God forbid I should glory save
in the cross. Christ? Who gets all the glory in Mephibosheth's
story? The king. Who gets all the glory
in our salvation? The king of kings and Lord of
lords. That's who. Second question is who gets all
the glory in redemption and justification? Does my redemption depend on
me in any way? Does my justification depend
on my merits in any way? If it does, I get glory. If it
does, I get some glory. If there's something I can do
to earn justification, if there's something I can do to earn righteousness,
if there's something I can do to make myself be redeemed, I
get some glory. I get some glory out of it. Christ
said it this way, I have come to do thy will, O God. Then he
said, I have finished the work you have given me. And he says,
of all that you have given me, I've lost none. And then he says,
it is finished. My justification, My redemption is entirely based
upon the merits and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
entirely based on the same covenant, the covenant of grace that we
just talked about with Jonathan and David. We're the benefactors of it,
but we're down in Lodivar. We have no hope of getting to
God. He had to come to us. And this is why it's so glorious,
the gospel is, is because it shows us as what we are, incapable,
unable, and yet God, who is rich in mercy, choosing to save us
from our sin, choosing to become a man, choosing to bear our sin
in his own body upon the tree. This was the purpose of him to
come. It was to redeem. It wasn't to make a way where
you could choose to be redeemed. It was to actually redeem. It
was actually to redeem. John 18.37 says, Pilate's talking
to the Lord, and Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king
then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that
I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came
I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.
Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. That tells
me that there's some that's not of the truth, but those that
are of the truth hear his voice. He came to declare this truth
about who he is, And his miracles, his works testified to who he
was, and yet they still couldn't see him. Isn't that amazing?
Some of them still couldn't see him. Even though he was healing
people, raising the dead, they could not see him because they
were in the flesh. We talked about that the first hour. And yet
he declared this truth about who God is, about what we are
by nature, and about him being the savior of his people. And they hated him for it. Then
whenever he was done with that ministry, the ministry of preaching,
came a point in time for him to die. This was why he came
to this earth, to die in order to redeem you and I, his chosen
people. This death was the death that
was owed to us. I don't, it'd be silly to think
someone would attempt to do something by giving their life. You'd want
to know for sure that you were saving somebody if you were going
to die. I mean, that's just, to me, we're
in the flesh. You know what I'm saying? We
can't even fathom. But our Lord chose to drink of the cup of
damnation. He chose to drink of the cup
of wrath. Every drop until it was completely emptied. He chose
to die in our room instead. He chose to save us by His own
self. Even the Father forsook Him on
the cross of Calvary. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. Why? Because that's the only way you and I could be saved.
It can't be by what we do and by what we do not do. For if
it was, Christ died in vain. But He did not die in vain. He
died on purpose. And the purpose was to redeem
His chosen people, to save them, to justify them before God. to
justify them before the law. This is what he accomplished
all by himself. I quote this verse probably about
every time I stand, but I love this verse. God hath made him
to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Somebody asked me the other day,
what does that mean? I said, it means what it says. I'm not going to argue
with them. It says he bore our sin in his own body on the tree.
If the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't made to be guilty, then the Father
killed him or executed him in vain. The Lord's judgment's right
and true. Justice had to be satisfied. He was bearing about our sin
in his own body on the tree. Somebody says, I don't understand
that. I don't understand it either. I'm just telling you what the
scripture says. But here's the good part, though. This is the
glorious news. endured the full wrath of the Father. But just
as in Noah's time, whenever Noah had built the ark according to
the word of the Lord, the Lord said, go into the ark, and he
shut the door. Noah didn't shut the door. I
like that. God shut the door. If he can shut it, Noah could
shut it, he could get it back open, couldn't he? But no, God's
the one that opens the doors and shuts the doors. We don't
open doors and shut doors. They're on that boat, and the water is
coming. I mean, the rain's dropping down, and the waters are going
higher and higher, and the boat's floating. But they put something
on the outside called pitch. And you know what that word pitch
actually translate to also? Atonement. Atonement. The blood is likened unto atonement.
When he said, put the blood upon the doorpost and the lintel in
the Old Testament. And he said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over
you. It means when I see the atonement, I'll pass over you. So here we are on the ark, here
Noah is on the ark rather, and the wind's blowing and the rains
are falling, but yet not one drop, by God's grace, not one
drop fell upon anybody in that ark. Why? Because that is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, because his
atoning blood hath covered us, not one drop of wrath is going
to fall upon an elect child of God. See, the Lord gets all the
glory in redemption, all the glory. He gets all the glory
in his people's justification, all the glory. There's none left
to share because he already has it all. Because we were in him when he
died, we died, died to the law. died to sin the scripture says.
When he was resurrected we were resurrected, now we're seated
in him as perfectly righteous. Who gets the glory of redemption
and justification? He does. God does. The Lord Jesus
Christ does. 1 Peter 1.18-19 says, For as
much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things of silver and gold from your vain conversation, received
by tradition from your fathers, but you were redeemed by the
precious blood of Christ as a lamb without spot and without blemish. Without blemish and without spot.
What redeemed you? The blood of Christ. The blood
of Christ. My last question, who gets all
the glory and regeneration? Or in sanctification, who gets
all the glory and regeneration and sanctification? There are
those who would have you believe that you must do something to
be saved in order to be born again, to be regenerated and
or sanctified. There's those that preach those
things. This is not true. Titus 3, 5, and I quote this
all the time, but it's not by works of righteousness, which
we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. It's God who
sends his spirit, just like Ziba to Mephibosheth. It's the Lord
that does the work. He has to come to where the sinner's
at. We can't go to where he is. That's what he told the disciples.
Where I go, you cannot come. You cannot come. But if I go
away, I'll come again and receive you unto myself, that where I
am, there you may be also. It has to come to the center.
The Lord has to come to the center or we'll never be regenerated.
Just like the maniac of Gadara. That's an amazing story. If you
look at the sea that the Lord came on, He went from the topmost
point of that sea down to the lowest point of that sea. Well,
that's a picture of His condescension from glory to becoming a man. And when He arrives there at
this tomb, don't you just love He arrives at the right place
at the right time? I mean, who else can do that
but God? I love that. He's the only one that can be
four days late and be right on time. Isn't that amazing? He gets to
the graveyard where this maniac was, and I'll remind us, the
maniac had been bound in chains and fetters, and he had cut himself
daily. He would break the chains, and
he would cut himself, and he didn't have any clothes on. He
was naked. He was out of his mind, completely out of his mind.
He comes up, but he recognizes who's coming towards him, because
he runs towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And the scripture says,
he falls on his face and worships, and said, have you come to torment
us before the time? Jesus, have you come to, they
knew who he was. They knew who he was. And the Lord rebukes,
or he asks him, what's your name? He said, Legion, for we are many.
And the Lord rebukes him, and they begged him not to send the
demons out of him away into the country, but let us go to the
herd of swine that was close by. And that's what they did.
Lord bade them, and I love that the Lord had to let them leave.
They had to ask permission. It just shows His Lordship. We
see a man, that's all our flesh can see, but this was God. The
demons were like, can we please go to these hogs? And the Lord's
like, yes, I'll allow that. I love that, that sovereignty,
that control. Well, they went over to the hogs,
got in the hogs. The hogs went crazy, ran down
the hill, jumped in the ocean, and they drowned. The farmers
were so angry. When they came to the Lord, they
found the maniac three ways. They found the maniac. He was
seated, not working. Not working. No longer cutting
himself to try to say, okay, I've sacrificed this. That's
what the picture of, I've sacrificed this in my life so God will be
pleased with me. Or I've done this in my life, I'm gonna make
a new promise to God. And then they break that promise.
I'm gonna make a new promise to God. I'm gonna rededicate
my life. I mean, these are things that are in religion that people
just do over and over and over. But he was seated now. See, he
wasn't working anymore. And he was clothed. And the reason
he was seated is because he was in his right mind. What's that?
That God is God and I am not, and if I'm going to be regenerated,
he's gonna have to come to me, rebuke, he's got to make me alive,
rebuke all the demonic influences we have whenever we're not in
Christ. I mean, I always have said either God's got you or
the devil's got you, and that's just how it is. And so thanks
be to God. He's a God of mercy and grace.
He doesn't leave us to ourself as his people. That being said,
if the Lord doesn't come just like that to you and I, and clothe
us in his righteousness, cause us to sit and rest on his Sabbath,
and put us in our right mind that Christ is all in salvation,
if he doesn't sanctify us by his spirit alone, we won't be
regenerated, we won't be sanctified. So the question is, who gets
all the glory and regeneration and sanctification? The Lord
Jesus Christ does. Where is boasting then? For works,
there is none. There is no boasting. Not in
the flesh, we boast in the Lord. God forbid that I glory save
in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. What did that man, that
maniac have as his hope of being regenerated? The Lord saved him. We understand that, right? I
mean, the Lord saved him. There's sufficient evidence.
Same thing with the woman at the well. I mean, there's no
difference. What hope did he have of being
regenerated? He had tried everything he possibly could. He was out
of his mind. Isn't that us? Aren't we born maniacs when it
comes to the things of God? We don't have a clue anything
about God. We know, we see the word Jesus and we're taught what
that means. We see a story in the Bible. We see this and that,
but all that, it's, well, it's like we said the first hour,
it's rules, it's, We don't view it as fact, we view it as something
that needs to be done rather than know this is just how it
is. The Lord comes to us and puts us in our right mind, doesn't
he? All by his grace. This maniac was like all in false
religion, offering himself up to God in hopes of glorifying
self. Christ comes to him and he's
found clothed, seated, and in his right mind. That is the picture
of how the Lord regenerates his people. He comes to them by his
spirit, through his gospel. No matter the circumstances,
you weren't looking for God when he found you. I know you weren't
because I wasn't, nobody is. We can't, where you gonna look?
Where we gonna look? He came and found us. He's the
one, he's not lost, we were. He has to come to where we are
because we're lost. Oh, and when he does, we're gonna be found
robed in his righteousness, seated, resting in the Sabbath, and in
our right mind. In our right mind. We have the exact picture of
how the Lord regenerates and makes his people sanctified by
his spirit. So our closing question remains, who gets all the glory
in adoption and election? Who gets all the glory in redemption
and justification? And who gets all the glory in
regeneration and sanctification? The Lord Jesus Christ does, God
does alone. Salvation is of the Lord and
salvation is all of grace. I ended both messages with that
and didn't even mean to. Salvation is of the Lord and
salvation is all by his grace. Let's pray. Father, thank you
that salvation truly is by grace. Call us to believe, bless us
to our understanding in Christ's name, amen.