Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Pastor Ed says salvation is all about God's grace.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Do you know by now that a priest can't save you? A church can't save you. A pastor can't save you. A grandfather can't save you. Your last name doesn't save you. Only the blood of Jesus Christ saves a man and a woman. That's it. No man can do that work. You can't pay enough. You can't do enough. It is completely, 100% a work of the grace of God. You can't earn it. You don't deserve it, but you can receive it. That's salvation.

Guest (Male): Hey, welcome again to Abounding Grace. As we've studied Galatians these past few months, we've seen this epistle is all about grace. So, it's not surprising that the Apostle Paul would end the letter on the note of grace. Today, Pastor Ed will point out some principles that we do well to learn so we won't be ripped off by false teaching when that comes our way. Join us now in Galatians chapter 6 for part one of "It's All About Grace."

Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles, open them to Galatians chapter 6 today. We're going to pick up in verse 11. Galatians chapter 6. I've entitled our Bible study, "It's All About Grace." Today we come to the end of our study through Galatians. It was much faster to finish Galatians than it was the book of Acts. It took us nine months and 26 Bible studies to finish Galatians, whereas the book of Acts took us almost three years to finish. But it's a different book, and it was a different purpose that God gave us the book of Acts as we go back to basics.

Galatians also gives us a basic, and that's the basic of grace. The Galatian believers then and we now need to know and be reminded of how wonderful it is to be set free by Jesus, to be set free from the bondage of sin and the life that we were living, to know that we're saved and brought into a right relationship with God through grace by faith, rejecting legalism. If you're going to live in the grace of God in the freedom, you have to reject a few things. Besides rejecting the big things like sin, you also have to reject legalism, any kind of outward pressure that might push upon you to think that you can do anything to earn God's favor, that you have God's favor already, receiving grace and enjoying life.

If you want to hold your places quickly in Ephesians chapter 2, it's the next book over, we learn this important principle. It's as clear as clear can be in Ephesians chapter 2 beginning in verse 8, where it says, "By grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God." Verse 9, "Not of works lest anyone should boast." Let me just say, the works there would include circumcision, which was the big work that was given to the Galatians in order to be saved. They were saved by grace, they were enjoying freedom, they're born again, and then this group of false teachers come in that we know them as the Judaizers and said, "Oh no, no, no. It's not that easy. You need to be circumcised."

So, the Bible is very clear. It's not of works. Circumcision certainly would be a work. Of course, we don't talk about circumcision today. What do we say? Water baptism. That's what you hear today. There are churches today that will teach you that you cannot be saved until you're water baptized. That is so untrue. Water baptism is a work of righteousness. It is not a work toward righteousness. So that when you come on Wednesday and you go, "Well, I think I want to get saved so I'm going to be water baptized," and you come and you get into the waters as an unsaved person, when you get out of the water, the only thing that will happen to you unless you repent of your sin is you're going to get wet. That's it.

Water doesn't save anyone, whether it's in the waters here in the sanctuary, whether we go out to the reservoir and we're baptizing. Even at the reservoir or if we take you right here to the side with a hose and squirt you down, all that will happen is you'll get wet. You need to repent of your sins and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is your savior and choose to follow him, and then you're water baptized. But there will be those, maybe some of you have met them, that will say, "Hey, where were you water baptized?" "Well, in the reservoir." "Well, you're not saved." "What? What do you mean I'm not saved? You have no idea what God's done in my life. You have no idea what he's done in my family. What do you mean I'm not saved?" Well, no, you're not, and they won't even accept your testimony. They'll just keep going and going because their understanding of the scriptures is skewed. They don't understand that it's not of works, and we'll get into Ephesians 2 in a later study.

But back in Galatians, Paul is winding his letter down. This is the end, this is the last half of the last chapter, and he says in verse 11, "See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand." Usually, Paul would dictate his notes to a scribe, and that scribe would write down his letters. But this letter was so essential, I believe, that he penned it himself with large letters, probably because of an eye disease he picked up along the way in his missionary journeys. He wants to make a final emphatic statement. Now there are some, if you read commentaries, you'll see there are some that say, "No, no, no, a scribe wrote most of Galatians but just this last portion was written by his hand." I don't really see that as a valid understanding of this. I think he wrote the whole thing because this was important to him and he loved the Galatians and he was stirred up because of them being ripped off by grace.

He says in verse 12, "As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these try to 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 glory in your flesh." There's an interesting phrase here I want you to mark, "make a good showing in the flesh." You see that phrase, "make a good showing in the flesh"? Here's the word, one word to describe that sentence: hypocrisy. This is another way of seeing the word hypocrisy. A hypocrite is a two-faced person. The word comes to us from the Greek plays. It's the Greek word *hupokrites*. It comes to us from the Greek plays, and if you can think about it, the Greek plays they would wear masks as they played a part. So, if they wanted to play a happy part, they'd wear a happy mask. They could wear a happy mask and still be sad behind the mask. So, they're portraying one thing, but there's something totally different. They want to take off that mask of happy and play a sad person, they want to play a man, they want to play a woman, they would put a mask on.

Here is a great definition of hypocrisy and that is, those that are hypocrites want to make a great showing in the flesh. They desire you to think something about them that isn't actually true. Over the years as I've met hypocrites face to face, it's so like I just wish people that are hypocrites would spend that time following Jesus. If they would just spend the time that they spend trying to fake it out and try to lie to people, if they would just spend that time following Jesus, they'd be amazing believers. But instead, there are people that just want to make a good showing in the flesh. They just want you to think something about them. They want to make a good showing outwardly.

But outward religion isn't from God. Outward religion isn't from God. The gospel of grace is always inward. It's all God. You have to be, Jesus said, born again. That's what he told Nicodemus. Nicodemus, this religious man who dedicated his life to leading others in the ways of God, when he comes to Jesus, he hears Jesus has a compelling message and he comes to have it explained to him. Jesus looks him in the eye and says, "You gotta be born again, Nicodemus." You have to be born again. And his processing of that statement was probably similar to how we might process it. "What do you mean born again? What do I need to do? Do I need to climb into my mother's womb? What are you talking about?" And Jesus said, "No, no, no. This is completely a work of my Father. You can't do this yourself. No, of course I don't want you to crawl up in your mother's. Of course, that's impossible."

Salvation is impossible in the work of man. Instead, it's all inside. Those that came to the Galatians, Paul again winding down, he's given all this theology, he's given all the background, he's explained grace to them, but now he's reminding them again about these people. And if you just learn these principles, you too will not be ripped off by false teaching. Now you may not know today, you might say, "But Ed, I don't know the Bible and I haven't read it all through yet and I don't quite understand it maybe the way you do, pastor." You don't need to. Because there are tell-tale signs of those that are coming to you with a false message.

And the very first one you need to watch out for is they try to make an outward showing to influence you. Today in our world, our world is captured by online social media influencers. They use that word. They want to capture your attention and influence you. Of course, with social media it's usually influencing you to buy something, which they're quite successful at, both the people and the companies. But in the spiritual realm, the influence is to take you away from truth. Being instruments in the hands of the enemy to take you away from truth. And the first thing they do is they try to make a good showing in the flesh.

Notice the next thing they do: they try to compel you to be circumcised. They try to compel you to do something that is unbiblical, to believe something that is unbiblical. I mean, obviously, you would never get circumcised if you didn't believe it first. So they try to get you to believe something that isn't biblical. Today it wouldn't be circumcision, it would be water baptism or some outward work, some list of works. But it's all outward. It's all outward.

Next notice what they do. They're doing this and here's their motive: they don't want to suffer, it says in verse 12, "the persecution of the cross of Christ." They want to avoid the cross. I don't need to say much about many pulpits today that are filled with men and even women that don't believe in the cross and don't believe in the blood of Jesus and don't believe in the crucifixion and the resurrection. It's mind-blowing, but it's true, trying to get away from the cross. Now there's a good reason why people would want to stay away from the cross, and that is the cross says that we're sinners. And who wants to hear that? And the cross says that we need to be saved. And the cross reminds us we need to repent and we need to be redeemed and we need to be reconciled, we need to be restored into a holy relationship with the Almighty God.

The world doesn't like that message. And perhaps even some of you don't like that message as we come face to face with the reality of our own depravity, our own humanity. It's more than just a little mistake or it's more than just the way I was raised or it's more than just the culture I'm in. It's more. There is a fundamental issue between me and God and the Bible calls it sin. Every single one of us, the Bible says we've all sinned. But there are those within the spiritual realm that want to avoid the cross. If you ever meet someone that wants to avoid the cross, you need to avoid them.

The cross, the greatest message of the cross, is the love of God for you. Oh, that was also something that Jesus told Nicodemus, by the way. The most famous Bible verse of all time, John chapter 3 verse 16, was given to Nicodemus in response to his question. That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. That is the message of the cross, the gospel in summary. The gospel in summary is John 3:16, the significance of what Jesus has done for you and for me.

He says in verse 13 now, notice, "For not even those who are circumcised keep the law." Another statement of hypocrisy. They come and demand something, but they themselves don't even keep the law. They don't keep the law, you don't keep the law. Why? Because we can't. That's not why the law was given. We learned earlier that the law was a schoolmaster or a tutor and the lesson that the law was teaching us, not only of the holiness of God and not only of the righteousness of God, we learn all about God's desires and God's revelation of himself in the law, but there's another thing the law teaches us and that is this: you're not holy and you're not righteous and you have a need to bridge that gap between holiness and unholiness, righteousness and unrighteousness. That's the message of the cross.

And he says, "Not even those that are circumcised that are following keep the law." But instead again, here's the next desire: "They desire to have you circumcised so that they may glory in your flesh." Imagine that, the height of hypocrisy. They don't live the life that they command you to live. And by your following of them, they are able to say, "Look at how important I am." Doesn't that sound like the influencing world today? This is exactly, "Hey, look at how many followers I have. Look how many people click. Look how many people like." They grab, but they're not living the life you're living. But you're aspiring to live the life they're living. It's just such a rip-off.

Well, it happened spiritually too. "They desire to have you circumcised." I mean, it's a higher price for the Galatians. They want you to do what they tell you to do so they can brag about you doing what they told you. "Oh look how many people do what we tell them to do. Look how many people we have. Look at this notch in my belt. Look at my numbers. Look at my followers." It's here in the first century, but on a much greater price to pay.

Again, notice that word "compel" in verse 12. That literally is the word putting pressure on you. Hypocrisy has a pressure to it to keep up, to keep up, to keep up. It reminded me as I was putting this message together a few weeks ago of a time where I was approached, I actually received a phone call from another pastor who was pressuring me. It felt like I was in high school again, and I felt this peer pressure from this pastor. He was pressuring me to attend an event. And out of his mouth, he said this. He said the quiet part out loud. I knew what was happening, but he literally said it like it was okay. He was pressuring me to attend an event with him so people would think we're in unity. And we aren't in unity. I'm not in unity with the brother. But he wanted people to think that we are for whatever reason. He wanted to say, like it says here, "I can glory because look, we're together." But we're not together. And I didn't go. I told him no. You're being a hypocrite. This is exactly why I don't want to go. This is exactly why our relationship is strained because you're going in a direction I can't go.

And we all face this kind of pressure. Jesus, you can jot it down, we won't go there, but in Matthew chapter 23, some of the strongest words, the strongest rebuke from the mouth of Jesus were against religious hypocrites. He says it over and over again, "You hypocrites, you hypocrites, you hypocrites" in Matthew chapter 23.

He says in verse 14 now, "But God forbid." Again, part of the letter to the Galatians was, "I know what you guys are hearing and saying, but I'm telling you, remember I was with you. Remember how God used me in your life." Part of their turning to false teaching was turning away from true teaching and turning away from the man that gave it to them, Paul. And so he says, "But God forbid that I should glory 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."

Pretty strong contrast and giving narrowing down for the Galatian believers two options: you can avoid the cross or you can celebrate the cross. You can leave and walk away from the cross or you can cling to it for all that it gives. He says, "If I'm going to glory in anything, not going to glory in what I've done, not going to glory how God used me," he could say, "Don't you remember I was there, all the sacrifice?" He says, "No, no. If I'm going to glory in anything, it's going to be in the cross. It's not going to be in circumcision or not circumcision. It's not going to be in some outward work."

I mean, when you think of circumcision for a second, just understand, it's one human being doing something to another human being. It's outward. It's completely outward. There's really no spiritual significance to the outward work. It's a human work. But salvation is something that's done in the heart by God, not another human.

Do you know by now that a priest can't save you? A church can't save you. A pastor can't save you. A grandfather can't save you. Your last name doesn't save you. Only the blood of Jesus Christ saves a man and a woman. That's it. No man can do that work. You can't pay enough. You can't do enough. It is completely, 100% a work of the grace of God. You can't earn it. You don't deserve it, but you can receive it. That's salvation.

So when we glory, we glory in the cross. Here's the problem. We may not be religious hypocrites ourselves, although there's always hypocrisy in all of us, so none of us are innocent of hypocrisy. But we may not be as bad as this, but here's an issue that we really have to deal with, and that is human pride is always looking for a way around the cross. Because the cross means something. It means sacrifice. It means crucifixion. It means pain. It means dying to yourself. Crucifixion, the cross has meaning to it. God is God and I am not. I need to repent. My sin is ever before me. When I think of the cross, I also know that my pride will want to get me around the cross. It will want to take me my own way. "Oh yes, we love the Bible. Yes, I love the morality of Jesus. I think he said a lot of great things." But the cross? I don't know about the cross.

Religion doesn't like the cross, cults don't like the cross, false teachers don't like the cross. They like themselves. They'd rather point to themselves. You know the sign of a cult is always when they point you to their organization or they point you to their pamphlets or they point you away from you don't have any I just want you to know right now, there's no fear in ever opening your Bible and reading it. You don't ever have to fear that. You can open your Bible and read it and God will give you the message that he has for you. You don't need somebody's pamphlet, somebody's book, somebody's organization. If you have the Bible, God will speak to you. All you have to do is read it. Just let him speak directly to your heart.

But in our pride, we refuse to humble ourselves. And in our pride, we move around the cross. We don't like self-sacrifice. We don't like personal pain. We don't naturally think of others more highly than ourselves. So the cross becomes something distant from us. Paul says, "If I'm going to glory in anything, I need to glory in the cross of what Jesus has done for my life." That's grace.

Guest (Male): Pastor Ed Taylor on Abounding Grace and his message, "It's All About Grace." This is our final look at Galatians. You can hear it again at aboundinggraceradio.com. That's a good place to go to catch up on what you may have missed in the series as well.

Here in the month of July, we've picked out an excellent book from David Wilkerson, "The Jesus Person Promise Book." It contains over 800 promises from the word of God, helping you discover hope, grace, and healing for almost every spiritual and personal problem encountered today. It would make a meaningful gift for that special someone or a pocket companion for you. And we'll send it to you when you support Abounding Grace with a gift of $25 or more today. Reach us toll-free at 877-30-GRACE or go online to calvaryco.store. And thank you for your support. It helps us get the word out on stations like this one all across the nation. Large or small, God is using your gifts in great ways. I wish I could share all the emails and phone calls that come in as evidence of that. To make a donation, just visit aboundinggraceradio.com or call 877-30-GRACE. We'll finish up Galatians next time we're together for Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed. See you tomorrow.