Thank you, Mark, for leading us again. Good morning to everyone. Beautiful winter day. Looks like we're going to have some nice weather for a couple weeks. So praise the Lord for that. After last week, it was a little tough.

Well, we've come to the end of our study of the book of Galatians this morning in chapter 6. And this is a sad thing for me because I love this letter. This letter is so important for the church today. And I'd really like to just start over and go back through the whole thing again, because it's so rich and there's so much to learn. I've taught through this epistle several times and preached through it at least twice. But this time, I believe we really grasp the essence of the book. 

And that is Paul's concern about the false gospel of the Judaizers having an adverse effect on the believers' understanding of sanctification of the Christian life. This is not a letter about justification, primarily. It's not a letter about ceremonial and civil laws of the Jews, primarily. It's a letter that is concerned with the believers going back to the law of Moses, including the moral law, as a way of producing holiness in their lives as a means of sanctification. 

We've seen this so clearly as we've studied carefully, verse by verse, through the book. And we see it clearly again this morning in Paul's closing words to this important epistle. If we only had these last eight verses of the whole letter, we would understand the heart, the message, the intent of Paul in his writing. He's concerned about those who would go to religion, to ritual, to ceremony, but particularly to law keeping in order to live a holy life to bring glory to God. 

And he states clearly that those who most love the law, who want to be the teachers of the law, who promote the law as a rule of life, they do not even keep the law. And Paul understood this better than anyone. No one loved the law of God more than Saul of Tarsus. No one delighted in the law more than he did. No one sought to establish his own righteousness with more zeal than Saul. He looked to the ceremony, the tradition, the Ten Commandments as a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, the one who excelled far past his contemporaries in religious zeal and accomplishment. 

In Philippians 3, he says, though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. He says, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Like the rich young ruler, he had kept all these things outwardly since his youth. 

Paul knew about righteousness in the law. He loved it. He lived for it. And he even killed for it. Paul thought that he would establish his own righteousness through law keeping. But God showed him the true intent and nature of the law of God, the law of death and condemnation, which brings only wrath. 

In Romans 7, 7, it says, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet. But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law, sin was dead. I was alive once without the law. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. Therefore, the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not. But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. 

When Paul looked back on his own experience, and really the experience of every man and Adam, what did he see? When he looked inside at the law of covetousness, not outward righteousness concerning the jots and tittles of the law, but the true intent of the law, when he understood this, what did he find as the most self-righteous Jew in Israel? 

Look at Romans 7:14 with me, please. This is what Paul found concerning his life. He says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin, a slave to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do. If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good, but now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 

For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells, for the will is present with me. But how to perform what is good, I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil that I will not to do, that I practice. Now, if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 

He wanted to establish his own righteousness through law keeping. When he tried to do that, what was the result? Verse 21, I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God, according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. 

Paul describes what happens to the man who looks to his own power, his own ability, and to the law as a means of righteousness. Continual, utter, perpetual defeat, as the sin that dwells in his members brings him into captivity and dominates and controls his members, leading to sin always and continually. And so the law that Saul thought was to bring him life and righteousness and the reward of God, Paul found to bring death. 

And he found that life and righteousness and holiness came not through the law, but through grace, through the Spirit of God. Look at Romans 7:6. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. 

Look at Romans 8:1, where he picks this up again. For there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. 

On account of sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. The righteous requirement of the law is love, according to Romans 13. And here we find the truth of the Christian life of sanctification. It's not by the law, not by any law, but by the power of the Holy Spirit living in us, strengthening our inner man, as Mark read this morning from Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:14, as our spirit witnesses with His Spirit because of the new creation, the regeneration that we experienced in our death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus. 

This is the message of our text. This is the message of the book of Galatians. That's why I keep preaching it to you. Let's look together at our text in Galatians 6:11. Paul writes, see with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand. As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. 

For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh. But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation. 

And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. From now on, let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

I've given you five points on your outline this morning. First, compromise. Second, circumcision in the flesh. Third, boasting in the cross. Fourth, crucified. And fifth, a new creation.

Well, in verse 11, Paul's passion in this letter comes to full display. He says, see, look, with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand. Paul's custom was to dictate his letters. And a friend would act as a scribe to write down what Paul said. And the custom was that these letters were written in small letters in a cursive style joined together, which was the common way of writing a letter to a friend or an associate. 

But when Paul wrote Galatians, he wrote it in one inch high block style letters, which was another way of writing. And he most likely did this so that he could see what he was writing. You remember that he had some sort of eye condition as he mentions in this epistle. Many scholars think it was a disease of the eye that caused a lot of discharge and oozing, which along with being unattractive, caused Paul to have a very difficult time seeing clearly. So the emphasis here is that Paul went into great pains to write this letter himself, the whole letter, as the aorist tense indicates in this verse. 

And he did this because of his great love and passion for the believers in Galatia and because of the great importance of what he was writing. You can kind of imagine Paul getting the news about what was going on in Galatia, and he just immediately sat down with pen and scroll and wrote this out because he was so concerned about a false gospel inhibiting the Christian life and running the race. So Paul says, look at how important this is, how passionate I am in my love for you as I wrote in such large letters with my own hand this vital message to you. 

Well, next we see in verse 12, compromise. And this is most interesting to me. In verse 12, it says, as many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. I find a great application in the church today in this verse. Here, Paul speaks of the legalistic Jews, and he says, these false teachers are really only concerned with outward appearances. And the real motivation is to go along to get along with the status quo so that they might not rock the boat and cause themselves trouble. 

You see, if you preach the cross of Christ, you're asking for trouble in this world. From the world, yes, but most of all from religion. From those who name the name of Christ but deny him by their doctrines. Organized religion has been and will continue to be the greatest persecutor of the true church. 

I was rereading some of the great book, *The Reformers and Their Stepchildren* recently. Some of you have read that book; the rest of you should. So fascinating to examine what happened during the founding and dark ages of the Roman Catholic Church as well as the time of the reformers. The true church has existed since the time of Pentecost, but it has been a rough road for much of the last couple thousand years for the true church. One might think that the dictates of Constantine relieved the persecution of Christians, and yet the true church through all time, unwilling to compromise the doctrines of God's word, has continued to experience persecution. 

This was true in the time of Augustine as well as throughout the history of the Roman Catholic Church, and it was true in the time of the Reformation and beyond. Luther called the true Christians *donatisten* because they were anti-sacralists, meaning they did not believe in a state religion nor the use of force to compel men to come into the church. He called them *Stabler* or staff carrier because they believed that a man must hear the gospel of Christ and come to faith of his own will and volition. 

He called them dualists because they saw the world as existing of believers and unbelievers, those in Christ and those in Adam rather than seeing all men as under the authority of the state church. And he called the man a Baptist because they held to believers' baptism rather than the impartation of faith and salvation through the waters of baptism of infants. 

The reformers persecuted those who held to these beliefs, doctrines that we hold today and find very important. The true church experiences persecution when they refuse to go along to get along with the prevailing religion of the day. This was true in Paul's day with the Jews, as he notes here. It was true in Augustine's time in the rule and reign of the Roman church. And it was true in the time of the reformers as well as they sought to establish state churches whereby the government was the enforcement arm of the official church. All you had to do was go along to get along. All they had to do in Switzerland was deny the faith and accept infant baptism, and they wouldn't have been drowned in those rivers by the reformers. 

It's true today. If you want to avoid trouble, compromise. Lay aside the doctrines, focus on so-called love and accept and approve of any and all teaching. But if you take a stand, if you hold to biblical truth and doctrine concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ, then you will find trouble. And that's exactly what Paul is highlighting in our text. These legalistic Jews wanted to avoid the persecution that came with preaching the cross of Christ. They wanted to impress and promote the established Jewish religion and bring the Christians under the authority of the Law of Moses so that they might boast of converts and avoid persecution. 

As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. If you stand for the cross, if you stand for the truth, that means that everything else is false. And you set yourself against that. And most often, it's the prevailing wisdom of the world and religion all around us. 

Next in our text at verses 13 and 14, we see circumcision in the flesh versus boasting in the cross. For not even those who are circumcised, verse 13, keep the law. But they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. 

In religion, in the Judaism of Paul's day, the mainline Christian denominations of our day, the faithful experience a purely religious life. It's an outward show, a ceremonial and ritual exercise. There is no crucifixion of the old man, no new birth, no recreation. And the strong salient point that Paul is making in verse 13 is that those who teach the law as a way of life, who bind the believers with the law of God, who say that a man must keep the law in order to be saved, they themselves do not keep the law. 

This is true of every religion because there's no possibility of holiness through external means. The faithful of religion seek to atone for their sins by outward works, rites, and rituals and seek holiness through external means. But the problem with this is that the carnal man cannot please God. He is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. He has no power over the sin that dwells in him, that rules in his members to bear fruit unto death. 

You can shine up the outside. Peter writes about this in 2 Peter with some very vivid language, and he talks about those who have escaped the corruption of the world, have I got the word right? Not corruption. Pollution. Who have escaped the pollution of the world, the outside world, by coming into the church, but they still have the inner corruption that causes them to be dogs and sows, he says. 

He says you can clean up a sow, but she'll return to wallowing in her mire. Romans 7:5 says, for when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit unto death. As much as Saul of Tarsus sought to establish his own righteousness through the law, what did he find in this pursuit? What conclusion did he come to? 

There's a law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. This man was in captivity to the law of sin, but Romans 8:2 says, I've been made free from the law of sin, which is in my members. We read before his testimony of his former life in Judaism, seeking to establish his own righteousness through the law in Philippians 3, but what he found when he came to understand his sinfulness and the true demands of the internal law of covetousness was that he could not keep the law of God, and thus he turned to Jesus, and he sought his righteousness, which was imparted to Paul through faith alone. 

Philippians 3:7 says, but what things were gained to me, all of his life, all of that upbringing, all of that teaching, all of those customs, all of that zeal, he says, all these things that were gained to me, I have counted lost for Christ. And indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. 

Listen to verse 9, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law. Listen to those words, could he be more clear? Be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. 

Those who teach the law as a way to righteousness and holiness, who place a yoke on the necks of the disciples that we cannot bear, those who say that the law is, that law-keeping is the only way to heaven, Paul says they don't even keep the law. He says the same thing in Romans 2, turn over to Romans 2:1 with me please. You remember the end of Romans 1 where he lists out the sinners of the world, the drunkards and homosexuals and prostitutes and thieves, and in 2:1 he says, therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge. 

For in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 

That in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. The religious Jews sat in judgment of the sinners, the prostitutes and the tax collectors, and they condemned them for their sin, but Paul says in judging them, you judge yourselves because you are sinners just the same. 

You don't keep the law either. Verse 17 of chapter 2, indeed you are called a Jew and rest on the law and make your boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourselves are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. 

You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach to the man should not steal, do you steal? You who say do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? That's true for every man that's ever lived since Adam except Jesus. 

There is no righteousness through the law for justification or sanctification. Paul's been teaching us this truth over and over and over throughout the book of Galatians. Those who bind the believers with the law of God as a rule of life, they don't even keep the law. And they often talk about direction and not perfection. But the fact is that the law requires one thing: perfection. This is so clear throughout the Scriptures. The fact is that the law can only bring wrath as it gives rise to the sin that lives in our members and produces fruit unto death. 

Paul says they may teach the law, but they don't even keep the law. They may boast in the flesh, but I will only boast in the cross of Christ. The way to righteousness is not through the law, but through the death, through crucifixion, through the new birth, the new creation. Turn over to 1 Timothy 1 with me, please. 

1 Timothy 1:3, Paul writing to the young pastor Timothy in Ephesus, he says, I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine. What doctrine? The doctrine of grace and faith. He says, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from good conscience and from sincere faith. 

Teach grace and faith, Timothy, love from a pure heart because of the new creation. Look at verse 6. He says, from which some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, manslayers. Could there be a clearer statement? The law is not for a righteous person. 

The law has served its purpose to show us our sin and lead us to faith in Christ. Now the basis for a holy life is not the law, but the new creation. That's what Paul is saying. I have been crucified, Paul says. I will boast in the cross of Christ. God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world, for in Christ Jesus. Are you in Christ Jesus? You believe Jesus? Are you in Christ Jesus? He says if you're in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation. 

The cross is the dividing line between the false and the true, between the Judaizers and their gospel of works and circumcision and law-keeping and the gospel of grace by faith. But what is interesting to note here is that Paul does not, in this context, tie the cross to justification, to a legal declaration of righteousness and the substitutionary atonement aspect of the cross. He ties it to personal crucifixion in our union with Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection to regeneration and the new birth. 

In Christ, Paul writes in verse 15, a new creation is what matters. In religion, in works righteousness, outward ceremony and ritual are everything. Get some robes and a big hat and some incense, and we'll all walk around and parade in the pomp and circumstance of the Judaizers was the centrality of their religion. It was all that was there. There was no new creation. There was no new birth. But in Christ, none of that is of any importance. It avails nothing, only a new creation. 

The cross and its biblical framework of truth, the full doctrine of the cross, is the basis of the Christian life of righteousness and holiness. It's the new birth that affects this new creation on the inside. In Romans 6:5, Paul said, if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him in order that the body controlled by indwelling sin might be rendered powerless. You love that truth? That we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin. 

Let me ask you this, what does religious ceremony do for righteous and holy living? What does circumcision accomplish? What does baptism accomplish? Nothing of substance. It's a picture of the reality. It's a picture of the substance of the new birth. That's why immersion is the only biblical mode of baptism, because water baptism is meant to be a picture, a symbol, of our death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus. It's not the substance. The substance is regeneration. The substance is crucifixion. The substance is a new creation by the grace and power of God through faith. 

Romans 6 tells us that we were crucified with Jesus, that we were buried with him, that we were raised to newness of life, that we are dead to sin and alive to God, that death no longer has dominion over us. We sang this morning, no fear in death. How do you like that? No fear in death. I remember Doug and I having a conversation one time, troubled because a professing believer was just absolutely terrified to die. And that gives you some concern, right? 

I mean, not that we like the process, not that, you know, and I haven't been there so I can't speak to it. But what I'm saying is, we have no fear of what comes after the process, right? We have no fear of hell and condemnation. We have no fear in death. We died to sin, we died to the law, we're no longer held by it, no longer lived by it. What law? The Mosaic law, all of it, yes, including the Ten Commandments, that's what Paul uses, thou shalt not covet, as an example in Romans 7. 

And Paul says the law engraved on tablets of stone in 2 Corinthians 3. We were held by the law, we were dominated and controlled by indwelling sin in Adam, but Romans 8:2 tells us that in Christ we have been made free from the law of sin and death so that we are now free from the controlling power of sin and we can love. We can love God and we can love men, something that we could not do in Adam. 

The message of Paul here is to the believers in the churches of Galatia. He is very concerned about the false teaching of the Judaizers affecting their understanding of the Christian life of sanctification. And his point here in our text is that it is the cross that we must come back to, that we must focus on, that we must boast in as the way to life and the way of life. 

We do not boast in the flesh, in the law, in our own righteousness. We boast only in Christ, only in the cross. And it is His sufficiency, it is His life in us that produces the fruit of righteousness. He told us what the Christian life is like in John 15. We're a branch abiding in the vine. Without Him we can do nothing. 

Only Jesus can live the Christian life. And God has chosen and commanded that it is by grace through faith in full dependence on Him, on His Spirit imparting strength to our inner man, on Jesus' life in us as we walk by faith. The really crucial part of this letter, in my opinion, is chapters 2 and 3. And as we close our study, I want to go back to that section and see the truth that Paul closes with here in our text, that the Christian life is one of grace and faith, not law and flesh. 

Look at Galatians 2:11 with me, please. Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed. For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. 

So here you have a situation, you know, people isolating themselves. You think, well, what, you know, how big a deal is this? Peter doesn't want to eat a ham sandwich with the Gentiles. Is that a problem? Is this really a big deal? Paul says, when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, it sounds like a pretty big deal. When they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, if you being a Jew live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? 

Paul's talking about how we live. He's not talking about justification. He's talking about the Christian life. He's talking about sanctification. He says that when Peter and Barnabas and the other Jews were carried away with the hypocrisy of the false teaching of the Judaizers and they refused to eat with the Gentiles any longer, they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel. Clearly, Paul's talking about how the gospel truth impacts our understanding of the Christian life. It's not that we are saved by grace through faith apart from the works of the law, and then our sanctification is wrapped up in the works of the law, or dependent on the moral law of God. 

We see this so clearly in chapter 3, verse 1, Paul says, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Justification. How were you saved? Were you saved by the works of the law? No. You were saved by the hearing of faith. You heard the gospel and believed Jesus. That's how you were saved. 

Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Sanctification. Does that come through the works of the law? I with Paul must ask those in the church today who say that the moral law of God, the Mosaic law, is binding on the believer as a means to, or a rule of life, are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 

When we go back to the law as a means of holiness, then we abandon the grace of God, as Paul said so well in chapter 5. And look at what he said following that incident with Peter, where he was not straightforward about the grace gospel life. Look at verse 18 of chapter 2. Paul says, For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. If I go back to the law as a way of life, I make myself a transgressor. 

For I through the law died to the law, why Paul? In order that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. 

If I build again those things which I destroyed, the law, if I go back to the law, then I become a transgressor. Please pay attention to what Paul's teaching us in this great epistle. I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. This is the purpose of the law of Moses, why it came to show us our sin, to lead us to faith in Christ. I through the law died to the law, in order that I might now live to God. This is precisely what he teaches in Romans 7. 

We have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. And then Paul summarizes the Christian life so succinctly and accurately in that Galatians 2:20 and 21, that we have been crucified, and we now walk by faith, that it's Jesus who lives in us. I don't know how else Paul can say it more clearly. But I pray that we will grasp, we will really grasp and take for ourselves the great, important truth of his words written to the Galatians, and that we will not be confused by the false gospel of life by the law, but that we will learn what it means to live by the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, to have the Word of Christ dwell in us richly, to see the fruit of righteousness that can only be produced by the grace of God as we walk by faith, abiding in Jesus, looking unto Jesus as we run this race. 

I watched *The Chosen* the other night, the last episode, and you can think what you want about that, and that's fine, but I find it to be entertaining. They showed the passage where Jesus was in Nazareth and he was in the temple and he read that great passage from Isaiah and he talked about the joy and the release of the prisoners and all that, but he stopped in the middle of that verse because the next verse talked about judgment. And the rabbi there asked him, why did you stop? And he said, because this is fulfilled today in your hearing. I didn't come to judge; I came to save. 

Well, then they got a little upset with him there, remember, and they were going to throw him off a cliff. Well, in the artistic license of the show, the rabbi said, we must carry out the law of Moses, and Jesus went eye to eye and said, I am the law of Moses. I thought about that in relation to what Paul's saying. We don't need the law of Moses because Jesus is the law of Moses. Jesus is the fulfillment of all of that. And Jesus is our faith; Jesus is our life; Jesus is the only way that there can be holiness in my life. Looking unto Jesus. 

Not looking to myself and my works, not looking at you and your works. Looking unto Jesus. Our great desire is for a holy life that's a witness in this world and that brings glory to God. This can only come by an abiding relationship with Jesus. One day at a time, one moment at a time, living, walking by grace through faith as He lives His life out through us. 

We have to know these great truths; we have to understand them; we have to believe them. But, my friends, then we have to apply them. That's what this is all about. Live it out. Be who you are. When do we see Paul use the law? Colossians 3:9? Don't lie to one another. Why? Isn't that law? Yeah. What's he say? Don't lie to one another because that's not who you are anymore. You've put off the old man; you've put on the new man. This isn't consistent with who you are. That's why you shouldn't be a liar. Same thing in 1 Corinthians. What's he say? Such were some of you, but you've been washed. This isn't who you are. This isn't consistent with who you are. Why? Because of a new creation. 

That's what Paul's saying. In Christ, all this religious stuff is meaningless. Circumcision, uncircumcision means nothing. Only a new creation. Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank You for Your Word, Your truth. We thank You for this great epistle written to the Galatians dealing with such a serious issue of a false gospel and the impact that a false gospel can have on our understanding of how it is You intend for us to live a holy life, to live the Christian life, in order to be a witness, in order to bring glory to You. You have told us so clearly in Your Word that it's You who are able, that it's Your grace, that it's Your power, that it's Your life in us that produces holiness. Help us to look to Jesus. Help us to abide in Him. Help us to know Your Word, to be in Your Word, to be totally immersed, to have the Word of Christ dwell in us richly so that we think Your thoughts and help us to yield to You, to believe You, to walk in the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, to live by the newness of the Spirit, not the oldness of the letter. 

Father, we thank You for what You've done in our lives and thank You for saving us, for changing us, for releasing us from the power of sin, from the law, from the fear of death. Thank You for the hope that we have. Thank You for Your grace each and every day as we walk on this earth. Help us to obey You. Help us to bring men to You to believe. Help us to glorify You in all that we do. In Jesus' name.