Walk by This Principle

we have this Sunday and next Sunday and then we'll start first Corinthians after that so I get the privilege of doing the last three verses and then Mike's going to do a entire book of Galatians summary in one message whoa he's gonna need he's gonna need to rest up starting now so pretty cool stuff yeah incredible book incredible time I know As Zoe said the teachers learn so much and I think you know just I think we what a privilege I mean Mike and I this is uncharted territory for us. So over a year now. We've been teaching together and So it's been pretty amazing All right, thank you, okay, so I entitled today's message walk by this principle and Hopefully you'll see that shortly.

So let's look at the outline. This is from Macaulay plus a little bit of Roger in here toward the end. I kind of expanded his. So it's a Macaulay Roger outline. So actually this section 11 through 18, this is the part where I showed you the little mocked up scroll.

Remember that where this guy in Minnesota, He tried to mock up what he thought were the last eight verses of Galatians, and it shows where Paul starts writing in this big capital. They call them unsealed letters. So this section we've been covering the last couple of weeks is that section. So it was very important to Paul these words.

So he first talks about the motives of the legalists by this dramatic effect, and their hypocrisy. You know, they wanted to make a good showing in the flesh, come off as good. They wanted to compel the Galatian believers to be circumcised, but they couldn't keep the law themselves. They wanted to boast what a great job they had done in making these people be circumcised. Not good motives. Then last week we talked about Paul's boasting.

And actually I found that 14 and 15 are just really incredible verses. So I'm going to, at the end, when I get through these last three verses here, 16 through 18, I'm going to do a little summary based upon those two verses. So the conclusion is, walk by this principle, the first half of verse 16.

Then, peace and mercy be upon thee, Paul says. And then Paul's request, he makes a request to the Galatian believers. He asks them to do something, kind of an unusual thing that Paul would ask, it seems like to me, and others have commented on that. And then finally, his typical grace be to you, he offers grace, the grace message, if you will, at the end of many of his books.

Okay, so here's the verses. Those who will walk by this rule We're going to look at that idea peace and mercy be upon thee upon the God of the Israel of God We're going to talk about what that means For now on let no one cause you trouble for me for I bear on my body the brand marks of Jesus Paul certainly did that we're going to see an account of that in several places in scriptures an account of the brand marks he bore for Jesus and And then finally, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Brethren, Amen.

Okay, so let's look at the very first part, 16a. So I like, actually in this case, I like the Merriman translation, and that's kind of where I got walked by this principle, the title of this message. Because the rule kind of comes off of the I'll show you what we're talking about here.

And he's referring back, he's asking, he's requesting the Galatian believers to live by a principle. That's what he's asking them to do. The subject are the Galatian believers, as many as in the Merriman translation. And walk is the verb, it's in the future tense. He's asking them in the future to do something based upon who they are in Christ, basically. And this word walk signifies to walk in a line, to keep in step.

And we saw this earlier in Galatians 5.25. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Very much the same idea. If we live by the Spirit, that's our position, if you will. Let us walk, let us conduct our lives by the Spirit.

So in this case, he's asking them to conduct their lives based upon something else previous. By this principle, In principle, here, is anything straight used to examine other things? I think of Phil right here. A plumb line. He uses a plumb line. You use plumb lines? I'm sure you do, right? I mean, we have laser stuff these days, but as a, we said, this is not Sunday school, but anyway, I think a plumb line still exists. And it's a rule, a rule of conduct or behavior. This principle is a rule of conduct or behavior. So let's take that thought and go forward. So what is the principle being talked about here?

So I think if you look, and if you go back to the previous verse, the principle is expressed Verse 15 is a new creation in Christ, right? That's kind of what he said. He said, you know in verse 15 He says for neither is circumcision anything or uncircumcision anything But a new creation and you could say in Christ you could add to that a new creation in Christ That's a focus of a believers life. Not some mark in the flesh not any set of rules or conduct It's a new creation in Christ and all that encompasses so that's what this that's what the principle he's asking them to live by And there's a several verses that kind of bring out this word principle or rule Philippians 316 I have it in two different translations first one is however let us keep living by the same standard and principle to which we have attained very much the ideal we've attained the standard we've obtained our position in Christ live by that standard and then we translates it only one thing so far as we have come let us keep our lives in the same path you know and that's the message that we you know we all think about in here week in week out we have what we are in Christ live by that don't don't go astray from that Okay, and then actually Merriman says Paul sets forth a principle Circumcision and or uncircumcision means absolutely nothing in the church age the new creation Affected by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ means everything So that's that's the focus then in that time for the Galatians is to be our focus now Okay, so the last the B part of the verse is Peace and mercy be upon them and upon the God of Israel.

So let's see if we can figure out what that's saying. So it's a compound subject, peace and mercy. Be is an implied verb. The modifiers are upon them. And I would add a little bit more. I should have had upon them as referring to Galatian believers. So he's saying peace and mercy be upon the Galatian believers. But he doesn't stop there.

And or even upon the Israel of God. So I think it's actually not as hard as it might be. You say, Israel of God, what in the world does that mean? Well, I think it's talking about true Israel, right? True Israel are believers, right? They're believing Jews. That's who true Israel is, right? So he's offering peace and mercy be upon them, upon believing Israel, believing Jews.

So I like to look at this first a little bit Flip it around a little bit, because if you already are a believer, you already have God's peace, right? And we live by the fact that we are a new creation, that principle from the A part, we realize that we have God's peace and His mercy. That's the order, I think, that's appropriate for a believer to think about. We don't gain additional peace and mercy. And by me, I can't wish upon you peace and mercy. I think he's saying, based upon what you have in that principle from the first part, peace and mercy are upon you based upon that.

Hopefully that explains it. If it doesn't, come and see me. Verse 17. And this is an interesting verse. It says, From now on, let no one cause me trouble. From now on let no one cause me or let no one give me trouble or trouble to me Trouble here is to strike to beat whale grief and so on So Paul apparently is making a and I look through this when there was some disagreement But overall Paul is apparently making an appeal, you know Paul had in his ministry with the Galatian believers Think how many times I was going to count up how many times the word I? circumcision was mentioned in the book of Galatians.

I was going to do that search this morning, I just forgot. But it's a lot, right? I mean, Bonnie says, Roger, if I hear circumcision one more time from you... I've heard it too many times. Think how many times Paul has talked about that. He just went over and over and over.

What does it take you guys to, you know, get the message? That's what he's saying. Okay? So he's appealing to the Galatians, the ones that are true believers. He said, He makes an appeal. He says, you know, I've had it with these Judaizers. So actually, Vine has it. The Apostle Paul refuses to allow himself to be distracted further by the Judaizers. They just wouldn't give up. They just would not give up.

So he says, from now on, let no one trouble me because of that. And he says, you know, They're talking about a mark in the body. Let me tell you about marks in the body. And he's going to, in the last part of the verse, he's going to account for marks in the body. For I bear on my body the brand marks of Jesus. If anyone else, and I don't know of any person I can think of, even stories of great Christians, you know, that used to be a radio program, probably still is somewhere, but, for I bear on my body the brand marks of Jesus. So here's a verse that talks about that. 2 Corinthians 11, 23, Are they servants of Christ? I speak as if insane.

I'm more so in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beatings without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes. If you remember, in the accounts that 40 lashes was the limit, but the Jews were careful. They backed off one, so they gave you 39 lashes. Well, in most cases, 39 lashes would kill a person. If I read their accounts, 39 lashes, a person would die most times.

So Paul was beaten five times. He had marks in his body. So the Jews are saying, you've got to have marks in the circumcision. They know nothing about marks in the body. Three times I was beaten with rods, with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure. So Paul, Paul had the marks of his faith. The Judaizer is kind of a silly mark, right? For that time, it was God's desire, but to bring it forward in the Christian faith made no sense. He has no place in the Christian faith.

Okay, so now let's go on here. So the final part here, verse 18, So I just listed several verses here. from Romans it ends the grace of grace of God I'm sorry I can't even read the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you from 2nd Thessalonians and then so our verse it has the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit brethren so I just I was just thinking here you know we Through this last, maybe, chapter 5, we talk about walking by the Spirit. And I kind of wondered if he wasn't referring, when he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, in essence saying we respond to Christ by God's grace by walking by the Spirit. That's one of his primary messages in chapter 5. Walk by the Spirit.

And you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh So that kind of hit me as being maybe that's the reason he kind of a little bit deviated Be with be with you be with you be with you all and then be with your spirit brethren Okay, so now so I want to take some time just to kind of I did it last week a little bit we talked about 14 and 15 which are really important verses but may it never be that I would boast and except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation." So there's at least three major points in this. The first one is The believer is boasting that glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's 14a. Then 14... Let me just make sure I got it here. Actually it's 14c. There's actually three parts to that. Except the cross of... So it's actually 14c, if you divide it in three sections. The Lord Jesus has separated the believer from the world system. We're going to talk about that some more.

And every believer is a new creation in Christ. So pretty important points that our boasting is only in our Savior, only in His accomplishments on the cross. The Lord Jesus has not only separated us from our sin nature, He separated us from the world system. And then lastly, the believer is a new creation.

So let's just have a couple of charts on each of those topics. So what does it mean to boast in the Lord Jesus Christ? So boast here is, and actually it's translated, if you look at a lot of the translations, it's translated many times glory or exalt. Those are good words. And it comes across, as I pointed out last week, a bad sense and a good sense. I'm going to focus on the good sense.

And we exalt or boast in the hope of the glory of God Remember hope when when God is the is the person the hope is being thought of talked about is an absolute certainty God doesn't doesn't work in the hope soul You know hit when he when it says we the hope of the glory of God. That's the absolute certainty of the glory of God and not only this in Romans 11 a 511 a But not only this, but we also exalt or boast in glory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He who boasts is to boast in the Lord.

And then lastly here, in Philippians 3.3, for we are the true circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God and glory or boast in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. So your takeaway from this is that boasting always focuses on our Savior, always points to Him, is always involved in what He's accomplished. It's never about something that we've accomplished. So I have a few other statements on that.

Man's boasting is to be in the total sufficiency of God's grace. We are to boast in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in man's ability or in his flesh. If we boast, we are to boast in the Lord, Paul's been this is interesting one Paul's boasting remember when he He has thorn in the flesh. You know, he said Paul boasted in his weakness to spotlight the power of Christ, you know, he said When I am weak then I am strong so he saw his weakness as something that that God had allowed for a purpose and And that was that spotlighted his power so he could boast about that Okay, so that's That's a believer's boasting that glorifies God, and it's in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Actually, I had more. I forgot. Okay, that's terrible. Alright, a couple more points. Paul tells us what is worthy of a boasting. And actually, the part I kind of left out there, it's, we're to boast in the Lord, but actually, specifically, primarily, is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The focus of our Christian life is not some religious ritual like baptism, but the cross of Christ.

As I mentioned, I think this is true, Mike has shared with me a couple of times that his mom, stop me, raise your hand Mike and I'll get off base here. His mom would, with the grandchildren, she would say, oh his diaper needs to be changed, or her diaper needs to be changed. He'd go in and she would baptize. Her grandchildren, I think that's true, he mentioned. So baptism can be used, and I assume she totally believed that would save them. That's a misuse of baptism. Baptism is a result of us believing. So there can be misuses of baptism. I got all my bullets coming in the wrong time there, but anyway.

The cross of Christ is God's emphatic pronunciation to the world that all men are sinners, including men who try to keep the law. Okay, so now to the second point. The Lord Jesus Christ has separated us or crucified us, the believer, to the world system.

And this is an interesting, you know, a really interesting one because it says, through whom the world has been crucified to me, I have been crucified to the world, so it's a two-way aspect here, and I talked about this last week a little bit the cosmos the entire world system It's an evil world system ruled by Satan and the flesh You know the flesh of man now some people say well. I can't I couldn't help myself because it was so You know tantalizing or we're enticed by the world system the the old the sinful nature is it buys into that Believers are in the world, but not out of the world my old mountaintop Example there I Courtney like they're no mountaintop example You know it doesn't the Lord Nowhere in Scripture. Do we see that that God tells us to isolate ourselves even though it would seem Maybe for a time you could argue that but not on a permanent basis We're to be involved in the place where God has us. We're in the world system in this system ruled by Satan for His glory. But what's interesting is we don't have a connection with the world system.

Crucified is put to death on a cross. And death means separation, so we've been separated from this world system. And it's through whom the Lord Jesus' separation was accomplished, through His death on the cross. And that fits in really well with, you know, if you read Romans 6, these are the wonderful things about our identification with Christ, the moment we believe. When Christ was crucified, we were crucified. We're co-crucified with Him, co-buried, co-resurrected with Him to newness of life. So you take that package of separation along with the separation of the world and we're not of this place. We're heavenly citizens. We've been crucified to the world and all the aspects of that.

It can only interface with the old nature, with the old man. It can't interface or be at home with the new creation in Christ. They're incompatible. The world system has been crucified, separated from us. because it's incompatible with the new creation.

We're heavenly citizens. So number three, every believer is a new creation in Christ. And actually, the more I looked at this, the more I thought, boy, there's just so much more. So I tried another little go to summary here. Kainos, new in quality, not new in time. So it's a new quality creation, different than the old. It's primarily the act of creating, the Greek word. It also signifies the product or the creature.

And boy, 2 Corinthians 5.17 is such a key verse here. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. The quality of this new creation is the main emphasis here in this verse. It's the quality. It's what's in view.

The result is a new birth and being regenerated by the Spirit. The new creation is regenerated by man with every believer. Other names, if you look in Colossians and in 1 Peter, you'll see names like the new man or the hidden man. I think that refers to this new creation in Christ.

And then just kind of comparing the old with an old things passed away. The old things are all that were in Adam, that which we are enslaved to. And then the new things, the new things are all that we are in Christ. I mentioned last week, Chafer has documented those in his Riches of God's Grace.

Foreknowledge, elect of God, predestined, chosen, called, and so on. I thought I'd just finish off here with, I looked, kind of looking at this idea of new, new in quality. There are a variety of different concepts in scripture that use that word new. There's a new covenant, there's a new commandment, that's in John 13, a new commandment I give unto you that you love one another just as I have loved you. The new creation we just talked about. The new man, as it's referred to in Colossians there, Ephesians. New things, in Ephesians.

And then we have to look forward to a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem. So God has given us that we are a new creation in Him and we have these wonderful new things to look forward to, new and quality things to look forward to as He takes us into eternity.

All right, maybe a little bit early today. So next week, look forward to Mike's summary. It ought to be good. And so thank you. Dear Father, we thank you so much for today. Father, we thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior. We thank you for the wonderful book of Galatians, the time we spent here just pondering and understanding what you have for us there. In Christ's name, amen.