Pastor Esteban Garcia wraps up our series in Galatians.
Bloomington Bible Church Sermons
Galatians 6:14-18
Bibles to the book of Galatians all the way to the end. Lord willing, we will actually be finishing the book of Galatians this Sunday. So if you are joining us today for the first time, then we've been working through the book of Galatians kind of on and off, and today, my hope is to be able to kind of give you a big picture summary of what the book is all about through as we finished the last few verses and give you some concluding thoughts as Paul gives them to us. To catch us up to speed, last time, so two weeks ago, we covered verses 11 through 13, and we preached against selfish ambition and our desire for comfort, especially those two are idols and they're intent. Those two, if you're focusing on selfish ambition and comfort, will make you focus on works of the flesh. And the result of this, if you're focusing on selfish ambition, you're focusing on your own comfort, eventually it'll lead to hypocrisy. You live a life that will look nice on the outside, but on the inside in your heart, which is what God cares about, will be far from God. So our call from last week is to embrace the suffering when it comes. It's a good way to fight against that tendency that we have to be selfish and just focus on our comfort to embrace the suffering when it comes just as Christ embrace his suffering for us. This morning we will look at verses 14 through 18, they're in Galatians chapter six, and we'll consider mainly two points, the boasts of our hearts. So where's your confidence and your love of the world? Now, why does this matter? We don't get this today, we don't get the end of Galatians. It has eternal implications, eternal significance, because where you put your confidence matters. If you boast in anything other than in Christ, then this cross, what you will do is you'll make idols in your heart and you'll detract from God's glory. Also, if you choose to love the world and the things of the world, you'll get distracted and you'll start living for lesser things than what God made you to live for. So if you don't heed these warnings this morning, you will lose that on peace, everlasting peace, the peace that we all want and mercy that is only possible through Jesus Christ. This matters. Well, let's go, let's go to God in prayer and ask Him to help us. Father, these things are too big for any of us. Do you know our hearts? Do you know that it is so easy for us to start living for ourselves, start living for the things of the world that are so alluring? We need your help to orient our hearts to what matters. Would you open our eyes to see your word, to see the truths in your word reveal to us that they would take hold in our hearts so that we could live lives that are pleasing to you? Father, help our confidence to be found in you, not in ourselves, not in our flesh. Help us to love you, first and foremost, and the things of you, rather the things that stand opposed to you. Would you help us this morning? Would you give me clarity of speech? Would you spur our hearts towards godliness? Lord, if some of us have been walking away from you and you need to bring us back, Lord, I pray that this morning would be the message that would remind us of the great hope that we have. So help us to live for you and to boast and have our confidence in the cross of Christ. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. So if you look at your Bibles, let me give you what we're gonna be looking through. Verse 14 begins with the two results of living by faith. So if you're living with book of Galatians, it's all about living by faith, not by works of the flesh. If you live by faith, you will no longer boast in the flesh and the world will be crucified to you. Verse 15 gives you one of the reasons. It gives you a grounding reason. Why does this matter? Well, it matters because all that matters is whether you are a new creation or not. Everything else is of secondary importance. Then verse 16 gives you another reason. This time is more like a motivating reason. Well, why would you want to pursue this? Why would you want to boast in the Lord? If you want to have peace and mercy, only comes for those who walk in these things. And lastly, verse 17 and 18, but verse 17 is a reminder that the trials will still come, but will yield good. So last time we saw that the false teachers were intent on works of the flesh. They wanted to focus not just themselves. They wanted others to focus on just what were they doing in the flesh. But that's not because they were pious and they cared about God, it's because they were pleasing themselves. So let's read verse 14. Paul says, "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Stop there for now. Paul has no boast, but the cross of Christ. It is the only good that Paul has. And this is a theme in all of Paul's writings. He is constantly talking about where boast should be, where his boast stands. In his boast, a couple of things that he says, his boast is in the Lord several times. He's boast in his weaknesses. And then he boasts in his sheep. So let me just give you a couple of examples so we know what we're talking about. If you would flip in your Bibles, second Corinthians to just a few pages, the second Corinthians, go to chapter 10. Verse 15 through 18. So this is second Corinthians, not first Corinthians, that would help. "Pulse says, 'We do not boast beyond limit "in the labor's of others, "but our hope is that as your faith increases, "our area of influence among you may be in greatly enlarged. "So that we may preach the gospel and lands beyond you. "Without boasting of work already done "in another's area of influence." Verse 17, "Let them one who boasts, "bost in the Lord. "For it is not the one who commends himself was approved, "but the one whom the Lord commends." Now turn a page, chapter 12, verse nine. Paul says, "But he said to me, "'My grace is sufficient for you. "'For my power is made perfect in weakness. "'Therefore I will boast all the more gladly "'of my weaknesses.' "So he boasts of his weakness wise so that the power of Christ "may rest upon me." Okay, one more reference, go after Galatians. So keep a finger in Galatians there and go to Philippians, chapter three. So here is a section where Paul basically gives his resume. His great resume as a Christian, and the things that he could boast, and the things that he could have confidence in. So go to verse four. "Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh." Also, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the 8th day, the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, acid of law affairs, the estazeal, a persecutor of the church. Acid righteous this under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as laws for the sake of Christ. In other words, here's the false teachers that have been boasting in the flesh. So you have to do this, this, this, that. Paul says, I have done all of that. I have done all of that in more. If you wanted somebody to boast, I could boast in all of those things. But whatever gain I had, I counted as laws for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as laws because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the laws of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. So Paul loses all of his reasons to boast because he wants to gain Christ. All of it is rubbish. All the things that he could give his life to you, that he could look good before others. All of it does not matter because none of it will last. And none of it compares. So again, where you put your confidence has eternal significance. And ask yourself, what are you trusting in? What are you thinking about a lot? What are you talking to others about? What is the thing that you're putting your confidence in day after day? And if you're putting your confidence in the flesh and the things that you can do for yourself and for others, we'll see and we have seen it as for nothing. And if you put it in yourself, you will not be approved. It is not the one who commends himself who's approved. Our confidence needs to be in nothing but the cross of Christ. The fact that Jesus died for your sins. He paid the penalty fully and completely. That is the only confidence that we can have. And when Paul says there, so go back to Galatians. Verse 14, "Far be it for me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Right, except that is the only thing that Paul says, that is the only thing that I have that I can cling to. Everything else that I could cling to will crumble. I can only cling to the fact that Jesus died for me. That is my identity. That is my hope. To us Christians, we cannot be ashamed of the fact that Jesus died. The world wants you to be ashamed of the fact that your God died on the cross. We serve a God who died for us that rose again, who was victorious. And that is our boast. That the only good thing ultimately that you have is the Christ chose to die for you. That is it. So what does it mean to boast in the cross of Christ? How can you actually boast in the cross of Jesus? For what it means is that you hold the cross as your greatest possession, as your greatest item. It is your greatest happiness. Here's how Calvin says it. Where man's highest good exists, there is his glory. Where man's highest good exists, there is his glory. The things that you boast in, that is the thing that you believe is your highest good. And if Christ is your highest good, then he is your glory. He is your reason to boast. You will boast of him before others. So when you boast in the cross, it means that nothing else is as important or satisfying to you as the fact that Jesus died on the cross. So hopefully you can think of a few things that you're putting your confidence in. But if you're still struggling, well, how do I know? What am I trusting in? Well, oftentimes I think we all have those thoughts. So I went just like maybe late at night and you're just thinking, well, I'm going to die one day. And then when I die, will God really be pleased by me? Have I done enough to be pleased? Like, have I done enough? I know I'm the sinner, but have I done enough? And you start thinking about all the reasons why maybe God chose me because I've done this or I'm this kind of person or I've built this for myself. And clearly, I'm better at this other person and so I'm doing. There's many reasons we have to put confidence in the flesh. There's many reasons that all of us can point and be like, that is why I think Jesus probably chose me. But the fact of the matter of none of those things are it. None of those things are good enough for Christ to have mercy on you. It is only because of his great love that he chose you when you did not deserve it. So what gives you peace when you're troubled? What gives you comfort and afflictions? It should not be how good you are, how good of a person you've been or the kingdom that you've built. Now the only thing you can cling to and should cling to is that Jesus made you his by his blood. That because he shed his blood, you are now righteous. That ought to be your greatest and only confidence in this life. If you don't have that, you don't have anything else. There's nothing else worth boasting in. Now that's not very popular in our day, is it? That's that you have nothing to boast in in yourself is not popular at all. In fact, you are encouraged to be proud of yourself, right? You're encouraged to think about a person who's sufficient and who has it all together and who's powerful. And you're enough, boast in your achievements. Boasting is all over. Everywhere you see, there's boasting. You don't have to go very far to see that. Right? What's, what's June according to the world? It's Pride Month, right? We have forgotten God so much that instead of feeling shame for rejecting his good order, we want to boast in the fact that we're rebelling against God. You will have to answer before God for that rebellion. If I was clear, God hates the proud, but it gives grace to the humble. Just, just know you are bombarded all the time, tempted to boast in yourself. Boasting is everywhere. Okay, let me give you some examples. You guys, if you've been with us for a little bit, you'll know that Joel and I have been really helped by Calvin and Luther. They're commentarians as we work through the book of Galatians and they've been really, really helpful. And it would not be fair, I think, for us to finish our serious in Galatians without touching on the Roman Catholic Church. Right? We have here and there, but they pretty much gave up application on every single verse. There's always something about the Roman Catholic Church. And I don't know that that's necessarily our battle here this morning, but it is helpful, I think, for us to see this. So the Roman Catholic Church is a great example of boasting in the flesh. That is what it is. They boast in the flesh, they boast in the things that they can do and not on the cross of Christ. What do you mean? All the Roman Catholic Church, they pride themselves, right? What are the things that they're so proud of is the fact that they have a rich history. They'd say, "We are the ones with the history, we're the ones who have all of this history and knowledge." We're the true and real church. So they boast, right, as if they are the real and only church, but lost sight of the most important thing. They lost sight of the fact that the cross of Christ is sufficient, and there's nothing else that you can add to Christ's sacrifice. And by putting confidence in the flesh, you're actually detracting from a Christ that on the cross. So again, boasting in the wrong thing, and losing sight of the thing that matters most dearly. So just like the false teachers here in our passage, they focus on the flesh to feel better about themselves. So just remember, when you're focusing on the flesh, the things that you do, you might be living like a Roman Catholic, all right? And don't live like a Roman Catholic. But it's everywhere too, it's there in all of our hearts as well. You have temptations to boast. You do this in your workplace. You do this with extended family. It happens in the church. Okay, you think you are more holy than Godly than your fellow church member a lot of the times, right? You wouldn't say this, but a lot of you believe that if everybody just lived like you did, if everybody just served as much as you did, the church would just be a better place. We would be much better and stronger if everyone was like you. The truth is, you're sometimes very unaware of your weaknesses. So be careful, this lives in all of our hearts. We so desperately want to boast and think so highly of ourselves. This is our natural disposition. This starts from a young age. You don't have to teach this to kids. Back then, the illustration just from last week, we were teaching the pre-K classroom last week. And I'm sharing this illustration not to say anything about your parenting. My daughter was in that classroom too, so I'm not saying anything about that, but just to illustrate the hearts of mankind. And I forget what the icebreaker question was, but after that something led to me asking the kids if they felt like they could beat me in a race. It's like, who in this classroom, again, these are three, four-year-olds and it's like, who do you think can beat me in a race? We had maybe ten kids. How many do you think raised a hand and they thought they could beat me in a race? All ten. All ten thought I could beat me in a race. Now, I don't have to be the fastest person out there to know. I'm twice their size, right? None of you kids are beating me. But that is, I just showed that to illustrate that to you, we think so highly of ourselves. And we just want to be the fastest, the strongest, the best-looking, the most popular, and that doesn't die just because you get older. It just looks a little bit different. You start boasting in different things. So it's in your heart, you're all tempted to boast. Do you know what that is? Do you know what you're tempted to boast in? If you don't, you should ask someone to help you. Okay, maybe you're tempted to boast in your success. You've done really well for yourself. Others should see you and think, oh man, here she has it all together. Maybe your accomplishments, maybe your kids, and how well behaved they are, and how they're doing so well out in the world. Whatever it is, repent of your boasting, repent of that. See it as for what truly is, truly is. Well, Paul, call it, or call it rubbish. All of your accomplishments, all of your success, all your kingdom ultimately is rubbish. So what does it look like to repent? Okay, remember, repenting doesn't mean you stop doing that, though you should stop doing something. You start doing the opposite. You put off what's unrighteous, and you put on what's right. You start doing the things that God's called you to do. You don't just stop stealing, and just sit in your chair, do nothing. You start giving, you start working, you start sharing generously. So you stop boasting, call it stop boasting, stop boasting in yourself. Start boasting in the Lord, but you know you're still tempted to boast in yourself, so start humbling yourself. Be humble. God gives grace to the humble. And a really good way to do this, especially if you recognize that you want others to look so highly on you, is to start showing your weaknesses. You know you're weak, and you just want to hide it. So instead of having others see you as strong and share all the great things that you're doing, start sharing ways that you're failing, that you're needing help, that you want their prayer for, because you don't have it together. And remember, if you don't humble yourself, God will have to humble you. So start doing this now. Be humble. Some ways you can do this, some examples. Let's say you take great pride in just being, you're just an awesome parent. You're just the best dad, you're the best mom, you just know you're great. So how could you repent of knowing that that lives in you? Well, stop talking about how great you are, stop talking about all the things that your kids are doing that the other kids are not doing. Instead, tell the other person. I got really angry with my kids yesterday, and I really need you to pray for me, because I know that that lives in my heart, and I don't want that to affect my family. Now, if you share that with them, they may not think that you're a great father, a great mother. But you know what you'll do is you'll have someone praying for you, and that will help your sanctification in your godliness. You might lose on the approval of man, but God will be pleased by that, and that is far, far better. So just share something you're struggling with, and then don't defend yourself. Don't go, "Oh, but I did it," because just let it be, don't defend yourself. Be willing to be and feel ashamed for just a little bit, because it'll be good for your humility. Okay, another example. If you recognize that you just tend to feel superior to someone else in the church, you're like, "I just feel like I'm definitely better than this other guy." Go and find reasons that they are ways that God has been gifting them. Go and tell them and praise them. Tell them, "Brother, I'm really glad that you are this way, and that is something that I am not good in." And so I just want you to say and acknowledge that. Can do that in front of other people. Maybe don't do it this Sunday, or everyone else will just think, "Oh man, he feels so much better than me." But again, think about, I think I feel superior. I know that I'm not, but the only thing that you have is the grace of God. And so how can you actually go and encourage and build someone else up that you so desperately want to tear down because of your pride? Okay, that's the point. Another way, if you think your opinion is always right, and I've said to some of you guys, so this will not be a surprise. If you think you're always right on something, on everything, basically, find opportunities to say that you're wrong. Find opportunities to say that you're wrong. Okay, don't be wrong on, you know, you don't go and say, "Well, Jesus didn't die for me." Be wrong on, be willing to be wrong on minor things. Things that you know is like, "Okay, that part doesn't really matter, and I know that I may be wrong." Have some humility to say, "I may not know it all." Here's the illustration, for some reason you just kept coming to mind this week. I'm in my 30s now, and I feel old, and I know some of you are like this not old at all, but I feel old. And one of the ways that I feel old is because I care about things that I used to not care about, right? I care about how my lawn looks. And now YouTube recommends videos to me about how to care for your lawn, and just like, "I did not care about this just a couple years ago." And on top of that, we have neighbors who are retired and who spend all of their time making their yard look really, really nice. And that's just like, "Man, that would be awesome to just have that." The illustration that kept coming to mind is, "I want to live so desperately as to if my yard doesn't have any weeds." Right, "I want my yard to look perfect, manicured, do not have any problems." And I want other people to be able to see that and be like, "Wow, that's a great yard." The reality is, it's not. We don't have the time to spend on it. We don't have the money to make it look like that. And in fact, even when I do spend money and put effort, I end up messing it up. I go by, we didn't feed, and then I put too much on, and I end up burning my grass. So not only did I make it look worse, now it's just a constant reminder of the fact that this is not my battle. But in a similar way, right, we all so desperately want to live as if our hearts don't have weeds in them. We want to live and put our own appearance before others, as if we have it all together, and we have so many reasons to boast. And we're just so great, and look at me. And we forget, right, that Christ is made powerful in our weaknesses. God is magnified when we are weak, because He is our strength. So boast in your weaknesses, boast in the fact that you needed Christ to save you. And don't hide the fact that there are weeds in the garden of your heart. Again, there's a lot of applications, but the question is, what do you need to repent of? And how can you start turning and giving confidence, not to yourself, but to Christ in His work? Let's keep going. Let's read verse 14 and finish verse 14. "If I be it from me, do boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." And in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which, so it's pointing back to the cross, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. So what is one of the results of the fact that we trust in the cross of Christ is that the world is dead to us, that the world has been crucified to me. What is that, that I have been crucified to the world? So that's one of the results of living by faith. What does this mean? Well, in some ways, that's not too different than what he said in chapter 5. He says, "Those who belong to Jesus have crucified the flesh with His patches and desires, they are at the end of the fruits of the Spirit." So the crucified means to put to death. Crucified means it lives no longer. You put it to death once and for all. What do you do with things that are dead? You toss them, right? You have no need for things that are dead. What do you do with a dead bug when your kid calls you and scared of a spider and you step on it? You don't leave it there. That's a reminder. You don't put it on a pedestal. You don't start doing things for it. You throw it away. You get rid of things that are dead because they don't matter to you. So to crucify the world is to do just that. To know that it's power is dead when Christ shed His blood on the cross. And so now it is dead to you and you look at it with this day in contempt. The world has no power, has no life. You don't want to do anything to do with it anymore. You find no joy or satisfaction in it. And what is the world? The world is anything that is not of Christ, right? Not of God. Anything in this world that can distract you from the things of God. And in turn too, right? You are crucified to the world. Which means the world now hates you because you reject that you have clung to Christ and they hate that. So that means your bosses will hate you, your friends will hate you because of your love for Christ. But you're not worried about that. Why? Because their opinion is meaningless to you. Again, the world is dead to you. You don't live for the world, you live for something far better than what this world can offer. But in all of our hearts lives desire to want the world, to gain the world, right? It is very alluring. It's like the apple to Adam and Eve, right? It was pleasing to the eye. It looked so good, it looked pleasing to eat and bite. And yet it led to their death and our death. The world is alluring. But you must kill that desire. You must kill the desire to live for just things that end now. Live, don't live for your hobbies. Don't live for your friends. Don't live for your entertainment. Don't live to be exalted by others. Those things are shallow and bring no joy or satisfaction. Again, I think I said it last time, but the choice is yours. You can choose to live for the world and gain the world. But that's it for you. Or you can choose to gain Christ in all of His blessings forever. But you cannot have both. You cannot cling to one without losing the other. It is a choice. And your temptation is to try to compromise and say, well maybe there is a way for me to get both. Maybe I can proclaim Christ but live like the world and I will be accepted at the end of the day, God will still find me pleasing. But God will not have that. You cannot hold on to Christ and the world. You have to choose, which means if your friends are rejecting Christ, you cannot hold on to your friends in Christ. It doesn't mean you can't be friendly with others, but there's got to be a distinction. If your kids reject Christ, then you love them. But you cannot long for their approval more than Christ. You must choose will you live for God or will you live for the world? And you should choose to live for Christ. Why? Let's get to that. A few motivations, verse 15. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision but a new creation. Again, this whole book Paul has been condemning the false teachers because they were saying that you have to be circumcised in order to be saved. And now Paul is saying the worst of the flesh don't mean anything. Circumcision counts for anything. Neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision. The worst of the flesh, the things that you do, don't ultimately matter. What matters is a new creation. That is all that matters. Your works are of no value. All the things that you give to your life, they will pass. They are of no meaning beyond today. You might be a great person. But if you live for this world, you will one day be forgotten. And what you have word for will be forgotten forever. But the theme of Galatians, right? Your words don't gain you standing before God. It's only faith in Christ. So whether you are a new creation is the only thing that will last. That is the question, are you a new creation? And only God can bring that about. God put you on earth so you can know him. And so at the end of your life, the only question that matters is, has God given you a new heart? Has he saved you? Has he redeemed you? Has he made you a new creature? Has he given you his Holy Spirit? Are you new because of what Christ has done and your faith in him? That is what will matter at the end of your life. You will not care about the things that you accomplish. You will not care about what your friends think in that moment. When you are standing before the Heavenly Father, what you should care about is that Jesus make me new. That is the difference between life and eternal death. So can you answer that question with faith? Can you answer that confidently knowing that Jesus has given you a new life? And you should have confidence. You should feel assured of these things. If you don't, please talk to one of us. We would love nothing more than just to be able to sit with you and help you and give you that confidence. You can actually live in this life with confidence that you will live with your Savior forever more. You don't have to doubt these things. You can live sure. So why should you live for Christ and crucify the world? Because you are living for the things that matter, new creation. Verse 16, two more reasons. And for us, for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. So the two reasons are peace and mercy are saved for those who walk in these truths. But before we get to this, let me just go there. Why does Paul say and upon the Israel of God? So as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. Why does he have to clarify the Israel of God? Well, very likely Paul is using this term to take shots of the false teachers. Right? What are they boast in? They think that they are the true Israelites. They think that they are doing the things that God has called the people of God to do. And so their confidence is in their position as Jews. Their confidence in their birth and their practices. They think that they are the real Israel because of their physical characters. It's the flesh when in reality God has rejected them. Who is the Israel of God? Israel of God as we've seen in our previous chapters are those who have been justified by faith. Not all sons of Abraham are true sons of Abraham. Those who have faith are the true sons of Abraham, the true Israelites. So it is by faith that we receive the blessings of peace and mercy. Which means that if you do not have faith, if you do not cling to Christ as your confidence, you will not know what mercy is in this life or the next. If you do not have faith, you will not know true peace. You can choose to go through life proud of yourself. And yet being a constant state of despair, always struggling, always wrestling, never feeling like you're getting anywhere. And the reason why a lot of the times we suffer and we wrestle with these things is because we refuse to believe and repent. We want to so desperately live for ourselves and it's making you miserable. That you are living when you're living away from God is making you miserable and will make you even more miserable if you continue to walk in it. But God did not make you for mystery. Church, God made you to know him and to trust him and live with him and joy and peace with mercy. You don't have to suffer in your unbelief. You can turn and trust in Christ. It is only those who boast in Christ and him alone that will know peace and mercy all their days. Now verse 17, let's read it. And by the way, let me just say this too, like touching back on verse 16. Life is hard. There are things that are really, really, really difficult. And verse 17 is a reminder that we will suffer. There will still be marks on our body from the suffering. But that doesn't mean you have to exaggerate your suffering. You will suffer. There will try as well come. But if you choose to continue to reject Christ, you will suffer more than you need to. Obedience brings joy and blessing and disobedience brings pain and cursing. That's what we teach our kids. That's what we need to believe. Marriage is hard. Marriage can be really hard. You have two sinners working, trying to parent a kid. You have all these things that are really hard. You know what makes it harder? It's when you live for yourself and you don't live for God. So your marriage does not have to be as hard as it is. Trust Christ. Ask for help. There's joy that can be found in things like marriage and friendship and parenting because God made those things. So yes, they will be hard. They will be difficult. This doesn't mean it's all going to be roses and rainbows. But at the same time, you can't actually find joy and peace and mercy in those things because God has made them for you to be able to know Him. So trials will come. Difficulties are still present in the life of the church. It's not like you cling on to Christ and suffering ends. No, Paul says from now on, "Let no one cost me trouble." He's done with these false teachers. "Let no one cost me troubles for I bear my body the marks of Jesus." Paul knows mercy, Paul knows peace, and yet his body shows that he has suffered. What are these marks of suffering that he's talking about? Well, we don't know exactly what Paul's referring to, but they are evidences of his suffering. Paul, no doubt, had physical scars from his ministry. He received numerous beatings. So many examples and instances where he suffered greatly because he was trying to proclaim the gospel. And he received all these things for Christ's sake. And so know this, for the Christian suffering will come. But suffering can produce something better because God is in control. As you trust Him and you suffer for Him, God can actually be accomplishing good things through your suffering. Again, a really good picture of that is pregnancy, right? It's hard. It's difficult and not pleasant in many ways, and I'm glad I don't have to go through it. But what are the marks when you go through pregnancy as stretch marks? Your body has to be stretched to be able to bring life. And a lot of times, right, you just want to hate those stretch marks, but they are a reminder of the gift of childbirth. In fact, it is amazing that God found you worthy to be able to carry a child. And those stretch marks, right, are wonderful in a great reason to rejoice when you see your kids praising Jesus on Sunday mornings. You can rejoice in those stretch marks because they brought so much joy and so much life. On a similar way, you will have marks of your suffering for Christ. Living for God means that oftentimes you will have scars, sometimes physically, but it's not like we're getting beaten every other day for being Christians now. More than anything, we'll experience other kinds of scars and marks, rejection of friends, ridicule from the world, deep wounds from loved ones. And many of you have those. Many of you have faced family turning from you because you've chosen to obey and follow Christ. And God knows that. And God is pleased by those marks. And you know how we know that God is pleased by those marks? Because Christ is pleased by His marks. Let me end with this. If I could summarize Galatians now as we look through the book, the question really is for you is where is your confidence? Is it in the works of the flesh or is it in the cross of Christ? If you focus on the flesh like the false teachers, you will die. If you cling to Christ, you will live. Jesus does not despise His own suffering. Cling to Him, cling to the Wong that is not embarrassed or ashamed of the suffering that He went through for you. Jesus died. He died, suffered greatly, was crucified, the nails went through His arms and His legs, His side was pierced. He died on the cross in agony with Christ. He was buried, dead for three days, and came back to life. And now He was in the glorified body. He was perfect without blemish. But do you know what remained of Jesus in His glorified body? When He came back and He met His disciples in His glorified body, first they didn't even recognize Him. He could just appear now out of nowhere His human limitations were no longer there. He was the glorified Christ and they could see Him. But you know what remained in that glorified body were the marks of His crucifixion. He could point, He could take the Thomas. Thomas, look, touch my hands, feel my side. I am the Christ who died. I am the Christ who will boast in the cross. And so Thomas, the one who didn't have faith, could believe and could see, then the Christ had risen from the dead. Jesus could have erased those marks. He is glorified. He has nothing else. He has no human limitations. But yet, they remain because the cross is Christ's glory. His greatest glory, His greatest display of love and faithfulness is the cross. And now the cross is your greatest glory to live for Him. Let's pray. Father, thank you for these truths. Thank you for the book of Galatians. Thank you for the encouragement to live by faith and not by works of the flesh. Father, would you give us insight into the ways in which we need to, the things that we need to do to live accordingly? Would you help us to know specifically the practical ways that we need to take these truths seriously? Would you help us to turn from ourselves and from the works that we so desperately want to cling to and instead? See them as rubbish. See them as nothing and only focus on the fact that we are a new creation by the blood of Christ. So thank you, Jesus, for your cross. Thank you for your love. And now we know that, just Father, as you sent your son to die for us, how much more will you give us all things? So Father, we pray that you would give us faith, that you would give us hope, that you would give us eyes to see the things that we need to do. Go before us, Lord, and help us because we are too weak to do this in ourselves. We pray asking for your help in Jesus' name. Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING]