Grand Glorying
(No. 3451)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1915.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORDS-DAY EVENING, JULY
5, 1868.
"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the
world." Galatians 6:14.
WITH that, "God forbid," Paul makes a clean sweep of every other ground
of boasting and casts himself upon the one only chosen object of his
soul's glorying. And yet, if you will think of it, Paul had, after the
fashion of other men, many things in which he might have gloried. If it
had so pleased him, he might have boasted of his pedigree, for he was
"a Hebrew of the Hebrews." He could trace his genealogy, as the pure
Hebrews could, up to that great fountain of nobility–Abraham himself!
If he had pleased, he might have boasted in the precision of the former
ritual which he had practiced, for he could say that as touching the
Law of God, he had been a Pharisee–a man observant of the minutest
points of the very letter of the Law, careful for its doctrinal
tittles, not allowing even the gnat to escape him, but straining after
it with care. And yet the Apostle did not care to boast, either of his
pedigree or of his ritualism. He casts them both aside and though he
had once gloried in them, he now counted them but dross, that he might
win Christ and be found in Him! Surely, if the Apostle had wished it,
he might have gloried in his martyr life. He did once give a list of
what he had suffered, and he added, "I have become a fool in glorying;
you have compelled me." Had he not been beaten with rods, shipwrecked,
subject to perils from robbers, perils from false brethren,
imprisonment and stones? And yet you never hear him glory in that
wonderful martyr life of his! Among the Apostles, he was no less than
the chief in that which he suffered, and yet he says, "God forbid that
I should glory in it." He might have gloried in the Revelation which he
received. Who among us has ever seen or heard what Paul was made to see
and hear when he was caught up into the third heavens to hear things
which it is not lawful for a man to utter? He might, if he had chosen
to boast, have boasted in this Revelation, but he did not do so. "God
forbid," said he, "that I should glory," and that, "God forbid,"
includes even that Revelation! Among scholars Paul might have taken an
eminent position. He was well qualified to speak in the Areopagus, for
even there, in that profound assembly, was probably not one with
greater knowledge and of more subtle mind than he, who was once called,
"Saul of Tarsus." Read the Epistles, Brothers and Sisters! Why, the
Apostle has the instinct of Bacon and the insight of Sir Isaac Newton!
The man seems to have looked through a question, where others would
have looked round about it and have seen nothing. Yet, though he must
have felt a human delight in the talents which God had given him–and
must have known that he possessed them–he still says concerning them,
"God forbid that I should glory." He seems to take all that he had, all
that he did, and all that he was, and put it all away–and come forward
with no other theme upon his lips, and no greater love in his heart,
except this–Jesus Crucified for the sons of men. Jesus to be great
among the nations. Jesus, the slaughtered Lamb, to be made unto men
their life from the dead, their salvation from going down into the Pit.
"God forbid," he says–that memorable speech, that eloquent
declaration, that glorious self-denying, yet exalting resolve–"God
forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ!" We shall be brief upon each point at this time, but the first
enquiry must naturally be–
I. WHAT IS THIS CROSS IN WHICH PAUL RESOLVED TO GLORY?
You need not to be told, my Brothers and Sisters, that Paul set no
store by the material cross, or by the "sign of the cross." You know
that the making of the sign of the cross, and the paying of religious
reverence to that, is as great a superstition as the belief in witches
and, perhaps, as men come to be enlightened, they will wonder how it is
that some men could have thought that there could be more sanctity
about a cross than about a circle or the parallelogram, for really
there is no holiness in the sign of the cross, and I sometimes wish
that some Christians would not countenance that emblem, since it seems
to imply a superstitious reverence to that kind of thing. Paul meant no
such thing. He would have abandoned in contempt any superstitious use
of the cross or the crucifix, and he would do so now if he were here
and I hope the result would be that, as at Ephesus they burned their
conjuring hosts, so now men would put their chasubles, their albs and
all their fripperies and upholstery together and burn them in one
glorious pile as the result of the preaching of the true Cross of
Christ!
What did the Apostle mean, then? He meant, in a single word, the great
Doctrine of the Atonement offered for sin by the Son of God upon Mount
Calvary. "The Cross" is the short term for "substitutionary suffering,"
for "vicarious Sacrifice," for the offering up of the Just for the
unjust, that He might bring us to God. The Apostle was never cloudy
about this matter. Wherever he went, he preached that God was in Christ
reconciling the world with Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them. His declarations were always clear. "Him has God set forth to be
a propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins, only, but for the
sins of the whole world." He was always saying that Jesus Christ took
our sins and bore them in His own body on the tree–that He was
punished instead of us, that the claims of Divine Justice were met by
the death of the Redeemer, that He was made a curse for us that we
might be enriched and blessed of God in Him–that He made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. Paul's great master-point was that Jesus actually suffered to
vindicate the Divine Justice by enduring, instead of us, the punishment
due to our sins!
And he also meant by it that Gospel which springs out of the Cross, and
which is contained in these few words, "He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved." "He that believes on Him is not condemned."
"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Paul told
the people that the Son of God was made Man and suffered in human form
to take away human guilt, and that whoever, the wide world over, would
come and rest in what Christ had done, would be saved. This was the
Gospel which he proclaimed in every place. For barbarian and Scythian,
this was the Gospel! For the Greek and the Jew, the same! For the
illiterate, for the learned, for the king and for the peasant, it was
always his one theme–a bleeding Savior and a sinner looking to Him–a
living Christ dying, that a dying world might live! This is that Gospel
which we preach from Sabbath to Sabbath, which will save your souls,
and which you delight to sing of in words like these–
"There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins! And
sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains."
This was "the Cross" which Paul resolved to glory in!
II. WHAT WAS THERE IN THIS PARTICULAR DOCTRINE OR FACT FOR THE APOSTLE
TO GLORY IN
AT ALL?
The answer is, first, that there is glory in the fact, itself. It is a
fact entirely by itself, unique, unparalleled. The mythology of the
heathens had invented many, many strange things, but among them all
there is nothing so beautiful, even if it were not true, nothing so
perfect in its imagery, as this–that God, the offended One, should
give up His Only Begotten in order that Justice might not be injured.
At the same time, His mercy might have full sweep, that the Only
Begotten should die that the offending ones might live! There is
nothing like this in the whole range of human poetry! Men had fine
poetic imaginings before, and there were Prophetic declarations of the
coming of Christ, and they prophesied some wonderful things, but of all
the poets of all the nations, it may be said that they never conceived
anything like this–the offended One dies so that the offenders might
live! "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God first loved us."
"Beloved, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us."
That one fact that God descended from the royalties of Heaven, that He
might take upon Himself the servitude of earth in the form of Man and
offer Himself a Sacrifice for sin, reveals the Infinite Wisdom,
together with the Infinite Love of God, besides casting a brilliant
light upon all His other attributes. It stands a marvel of marvels, a
wonder of wonders, in which the Believer may glory, glory as much as he
will! You know we do not doubt about this fact. We hold it, no, we are
sure of it, and it is a very great reality to us. I was passing, some
years ago, a Socinian chapel in this great London of ours, and I saw an
announcement of the subjects upon which sermons were to be delivered.
If I remember rightly, there was to be a
sermon on the morning of one Sunday upon some political subject–and in
the evening there was to be a sermon upon the crucifixion, but the word
was spelt "crucifction" And I thought, "Ah, just so, and though you may
not mean it, it is just that with you–it is nothing more to you than a
mere fiction, but to us it is real." We believe that the blood of Jesus
really takes away sin. We believe that He really laid down His life to
redeem us from our iniquity–and to us the most real, sublime, grand,
soul-moving thing beneath Heaven, and even in Heaven is this–that
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and died that He might
save them! The Apostle, then, gloried in the fact as a fact.
And next, the Apostle gloried in the fact viewing the simplicity of
it–the simplicity of the Doctrine which grew out of the fact. It is
frequently said, "Oh, these evangelical preachers, these men that
preach up Christ, these popular preach-ers–they are very
shallow-brained men! They talk mere platitudes. They do not read the
German philosophers, they do not go to the bottom of the thing and stir
the mud–they are content with just telling the people really such
plain and common things that you cannot expect enlightened people in
this 19th Century to care to go and hear them." It is a very odd thing
that they are the only people who do go to hear them! That only shows,
I suppose, that there are plenty of people who are shallow, too. But we
boast, if in anything, in the sheer simplicity of this Truth of God
that we preach. If the Cross of Christ were a marvelous riddle, the
answer to which none could guess but a philosopher trained for 50
years, if we understood it so, we should feel as if it were scarcely
worthwhile for us to tell it, since there would be so few that could be
benefited by it! But we thank God that we have a simple Gospel to
preach to you, because there are so many in this world who need saving
quite as much as the wisest, but who could not be saved if the Gospel
were not simple. I thank God that when Christ is preached in the Union
House, He is believed there, and when Christ is preached to the most
benighted nation, He is received there! And He is just as sweet and
precious to those who cannot read as to those who are the best
educated. No, we do not, and never will, blush because the Gospel is
simply, "Believe and live." We think that every statement of great
truth, before it can do good to the heart, must be simple. It seems to
us that its simplicity is a part of its grandeur–that it is more
God-like, to give us a Gospel which can be spoken in few words by
simple men, than to give us something involved and intertwisted–the
meaning of which we would never be able to guess! We thank God, dear
Hearer, that it does not need many minutes to tell you what you must do
to be saved! Believe in Jesus, that is, trust Him–trust Him with all
your heart! Cast yourself flat upon Him–you cannot fall any lower when
you are down there! Cast yourself on His arms, rely upon His merits,
and you are saved! God forbid that we should glory save in this very
simplicity, which some persons so fiercely decry!
Paul gloried, and we glory, in the next place, in the freeness and
suitability of the Gospel The Apostle never found himself in a place
where the Gospel was not suitable. Sometimes some of you young men who
are here tonight may have to go out to supply pulpits, and you may be
apt to ask yourselves and ask one another, "Well, what subject shall I
take?" I answer you–wherever you go, preach Jesus Christ–and that
will suit every congregation! And if it does not, the congregation that
is unsuited by it will not be suited at all–and they ought to have
twice as much of it till they are suited with it! Preach up Jesus
Christ! No matter how noble the audience, or how poor, still preach the
Atonement. Preach up the dying Savior, instead of men, and it never can
be out of season. Those men who, for the sake of variety and freshness,
run away from their Bibles, are like men who, for the sake of wealth,
run away from a substantial business which brings them in their
thousands in order to speculate where bankruptcy must be their only
gain. Close to the Cross! There is no such variety as in that one
theme! It is like a diamond with a thousand facets, each one reflecting
its own sweet light. You shall preach Jesus Christ to the angels in
Heaven throughout eternity and make known to them the unsearchable
riches of God in Christ Jesus–and you will never exhaust the theme!
What a blessing, though, that this Cross of Christ should be so
suitable to every person we meet with! If you take the Cross of Jesus
Christ into the condemned cell, there is nothing else that is so likely
to awaken that slumbering soul! If you take it to our criminals–alas,
that there are so many–it is the only balm of Gilead to them! Go with
it to the lodging houses, and the back slums, and the street corners of
St. Giles's, or where you will, and this story of the Man, Christ
Jesus, who loved and died, touches all hearts!
You have heard of the Greenlanders. The missionaries thought they
ought, first, to instruct them in the Doctrine of the Trinity, so they
preached away to them of the Godhead, but the Greenlander did not care
about it. But one of them, while interpreting, I think, the third
chapter of John, came across that blessed passage, "God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
might not perish, but have everlasting life," and the Greenlan-ders
stopped him and said, Why did you not tell us that before?" "Oh, I
thought I had better begin by telling you of some of the other Truths
of God." "But we knew all those, or could have guessed them–why didn't
you tell us this be-fore?"From that moment the good Moravians lifted up
Christ as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and the eyes
and hearts of the Greenlanders began to look to Him–and Jesus Christ
was the Glory of that land! We may say of this Doctrine of the Cross,
as David did of Goliath's sword, "There is none like it." It is
suitable in all places, wherever we may be found.
Truly, Brothers and Sisters, Paul might well glory in the Cross if you
will kindly remember the great results which are sure to come from its
constant and faithful preaching. There is no land where the Cross has
been lifted up, but is the better for it. Even those countries in which
we have been compelled to regard missions as a failure, have still
received much blessing as the result. If the people have not been
converted, yet still the bringing of the Light of God into contact with
their thick darkness has done something, though not all that we could
wish. See yonder South Sea Islands, where the savage is clothed and in
his right mind. Go tonight, if you can, on the wings of imagination, to
the Bechuana villages, where Mr. Moffat labored among the Bushmen,
about the existence of whose souls even there was once some doubt, and
see what has been done there! Yes, and even in this land, with all our
sins, how different are we from our savage forefathers, and how can
Edinburgh, and London, and Glasgow tell you how the putting down of a
district church or chapel has turned the heathen population of these
days into a Christian community! This is the great lever to uplift the
masses. Where Jesus is preached, signs and effects follow in which we
may well rejoice. How many a home that was once filthy and miserable
has been cheered and comforted, now that father is a Christian! How
many a man who used to reel in and out of the gin shops or the public
houses, now delights to sing another song, and to drink of other wines
on the lees, well refined! What changes Divine Grace is making among
us! How some of us could tell of them as long as we live, we,
ourselves, being changed! We will then say, "God forbid that I should
glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."
You know, as I was last night turning over this text in my mind, I shut
my eyes and saw–for you see a great deal more with your eyes shut than
with them open sometimes–as I looked I thought I saw a Cross before me
and it began to grow. I saw it as I had never seen it before. It grew
upon me–grew every moment. I saw it go downward into the earth, and as
its foot descended, graves began to open–for resurrection comes from
the Cross–and Hell, itself, began to tremble, for nothing shakes the
infernal kingdom like the Cross! Then I looked up, and the Cross had
been growing till it reached up to Heaven, bearing with it tens of
thousands of redeemed souls, and I thought of that verse–
"In the Cross of Christ I glory, Towering o'er the wrecks of time! All
the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime." I turned my
eyes lower and I saw its transverse beams, and these began to stretch
to the east and to the west, and they took away the sins of all God's
people and carried them into the place of forgetfulness, where they
never shall be found, while a shadow, broad as the universe, seemed to
fall upon creatures off all kinds! And wherever it fell, the shadow
dropped with the benedictions of Heaven. Oh, that Crucifixion of the
Lord Jesus–how deep, how high, how broad! The imagination cannot
conceive it, but the soul delights in it!
And then, as I seemed to look with eyes closed, I thought I saw in my
vision a flock of doves, fluttered and afraid, and well they might be,
for there were archers after them and the sharp arrows all but pierced
their breasts. No, some fell sorely wounded. And they flitted to the
groves and they flew to the far-off sea, and to the wilderness, but the
sharp shafts pursued them everywhere, and the doves found no rest for
the soles of their feet. At last one day they lighted on the Cross, and
they marked that every shaft fell short–and some that were shot at
them with double force were splintered and bro-ken–and fell upon the
ground! Not a single dove was hurt, but all found shelter there. Lord,
make me one of those doves! And may my soul escape the arrows of my
spiritual foes. Let me find shelter on my Savior's precious Cross, for
there is shelter there, and there, alone!
And then the picture changed and I saw before me the whole earth, as it
now looks, without rain, and it was all parched and browned, and seemed
ready to be burned. The plants hung down their heads and the flowers
seemed to be pining for the tears of the angels to drop down upon them
from Heaven, but nothing came. Yet I noticed that all along, wherever
the shadow of the Cross fell, it was all verdant as in spring, and
every flower seemed as if it did drink in the dew and opened its cup
towards the light that streamed from the Cross. 'Twas all fertile there
where the shadow of the Cross fell, but all barren elsewhere. And is it
not so? Wherever there is the influence of the atoning blood, wherever
the Cross is
fully preached and received, every soul is blessed, happy and
fruitful–but where it is not so, there is an arid waste on which the
dew of Heaven falls not.
And while I thought I saw before me a caravan, and there were camels,
and hundreds of men, the drivers of the camels, and they were all hot,
and panting, and fainting. They went to the well and rolled away the
stone, but they found no water there. So they went onward, ready to
drop at every step. Before them they thought they saw a cooling stream,
but it was a mirage, and they were mocked. But I thought I saw them
suddenly halt at the foot of the Cross, and just at the bottom of it
there sprang up a clear and crystal spring, and each one drank, and
went on his way refreshed. And what are the sons of men, but a great
caravan on the way to realms unknown? And where is there water for so
much as one of them, except at the foot of the Cross? If they drink
there, they live! If they drink not there, there is nothing for them.
Many other things passed before me, but I cannot detail them now, for
we have spent too much time upon this second point and must pass to the
third. The third point, very briefly discussed, is this–
III. IF WE DO GLORY IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST, HOW SHALL WE PROVE IT?
We must prove it by trusting in the Cross. The Atonement must have our
only confidence, or else it were vain to say that we glory in it.
We must prove it, next, by holding fast the Doctrine when others
challenge it We must be confident about this vicarious Sacrifice of
Christ, let others say what they may.
We must prove it by our zeal in propagating it according to the best of
our ability. We must endeavor, as much as lies in us, to tell the good
news to others, that whoever believes has everlasting life.
But there are some here who are called to the ministry and, therefore,
to them let me say that we must prove that we glory in it most by being
prepared to suffer for it Any man who is called to the ministry may, if
he will, take an example from yonder dome of St. Paul's Cathedral.
There you see the Cross above the globe. You must put from this point
on, the Cross above the world in all your calculations! To preach Jesus
and to win souls–not to gain money or human applause–must be the way
in which you prove that you glory in the Cross!
But the principal way is by constantly preaching about it. What shall I
say to young men who are about to enter the ministry that shall be more
useful to them than this? Keep to the Cross! Keep to the Cross! Always
preach up Jesus Christ! Always preach up Jesus Christ! I think no
sermon should be without the Doctrine of Salvation by faith in it. I
would not close a single discourse without at least something about
believing in Jesus and living. Oh, that our tongues would speak of
nothing but Jesus! Oh, that we were something like Rutherford, who is
said to have had a squeaking voice on every other subject, but when he
began to speak of Christ, the little man would grow tall and his voice
become full, so that the Duke, who was one of his hearers, shouted,
"Now, Man, you're on the right string!" Oh, surely, this is a theme
that might inspire the very dumb and make the dead to rise, to tell of
Jesus Christ's most wondrous love!
I have thus, as well in the short time I had allowed, shown how we may
glory in the Cross. But if we do so, according to the text, we are not
to expect to go to Heaven in silver slippers, for the Apostle adds, "By
which the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." There are
two crosses in that saying–there is the world crucified, there, and
there is Paul crucified, here. What means he by this? Why, he means
that ever since he fell in love with Jesus Christ, he lost all love for
the world! It seemed to him to be a poor, crucified, dying thing, and
he turned away from it just as you would from a criminal whom you might
see hanging in chains–and would desire to go anywhere rather than see
the poor being. So Paul seemed to see the world on gallows–hung up
there. "There," he said, "that is what I think of you and all your
pomp, and all your power, and all your wealth, and all your fame! You
are on the gallows, a malefactor, nailed up, crucified! I would not
give a fig for you! I would not turn on my heels to speak to you–all
that you could give me would no more suit my taste than as if husks
were given to me. Give them to your own swine and let them fatten
thereon!"
You know the world is not crucified to "the successors of the Apostle,"
and all others who preach merely as a profession. They get their living
out of it–they are endowed by the world–the State or the church pays
them! The world is not crucified to them. That is the change that has
come over the times, but to the first Apostle, the world was crucified.
And now observe the other Cross. There is Paul on that. The world
thinks as little of Paul as Paul does of the world. The world says,
"Oh, that harebrained Paul! He was once sensible, but he has gone mad
upon that stubborn notion about the Crucified One! The man is a fool."
So the world crucifies him. It was something like the case of Luther,
when he said, "There is no love lost between me and the Pope of Rome.
He hates me and I also hate him with all my heart, and soul, and
strength." So is it with the world and the genuine Christian. If he
glories in Christ, he must expect to be misunderstood, misrepresented
and attacked. And, on the other hand, he will say that he would sooner
have the world's scorn than its honor! He would sooner have its hate
than its love, for the love of the world is enmity against God. Blessed
are you when they shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for
Christ's sake and the Gospel's. Set your account, you Christians, upon
rough weather and get seaworthy vessels that will stand a gale or two!
Ask the Lord to give you Grace enough to suffer and endure for that
precious Savior who will give you reward enough when you see Him face
to face, for one hour with Him will make up for it all! Therefore, be
faithful, and may the Lord help you thus to glory in the Cross of
Christ. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GALATIANS 4:12-31; 5:1-4,19-26; 6:1-11.
GALATIANS 4:12-31
Verse 12. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as you are: you
have not injured me at all. He had told them the Gospel, and other
teachers had come in and alienated their affections. He says, "Now I am
just the same to you as ever I was. I wish you would have the same love
to me."
13, 14. You know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the
Gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh
you despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God,
even as Christ Jesus. He dwells upon that. They had been so
enthusiastic about his teaching when he first taught them, that he
feels grieved that now they have gone aside to other teaching–not
because it injured him, but because it injured them.
15. Where is then the blessedness you spoke of?When you said that you
were happy to live in Paul's days, glad to listen to so simple and
plain a teacher?
15, 16. For I bear you record that if it had been possible, you would
have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Have I
therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?'Ah, there
are many who have incurred enmity through speaking the Gospel very
plainly, for the natural tendency of man is towards ceremony, towards
some form of legal righteousness–he must have something aesthetic,
something that delights his sensuous nature, something that he can see
and hear, to mix up that with the simplicity of faith–and Paul was as
clear as noonday against everything of that kind, and so the Galatians,
at last, were angry with him. Well, he could not help that, but it did
grieve him.
17. They zealously court you, but not for good; yes, they would exclude
you, that you might be zealous for them. They would, if they could,
turn you out of our love that you might run after them. These false
teachers would shut us out of your hearts that your hearts might go
after them.
18-21. But it is always good to be zealous in a good thing, and not
only when I am present with you. My little children, of whom I travail
in birth again until Christ is formed in you, I desire to be present
with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. Tell
me, you that desire to be under the Law, do you not hear the Law?Will
you not listen to what the Law, itself, teaches? Here is a little bit
from one of its first books, the book of Genesis.
22. 23. For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a
bondmaid, and the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the feshi. In the strength of Abraham.
23. But he of the freewoman was by promise. In the power of God, born
after both father and mother had ceased to be capable of becoming
parents, born in the power of God!
24. Which things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants: the
one from the Mount Sinai, which genders to bondage, which is Hagar.
Those that are under the Law are the children, therefore, of the
bondwoman–they are born slaves.
25. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem
which now is, and is in bondage with her children. It is old Judaism
coming from Sinai, "This do, and you shall live," and all the children
that are born under it are children of nature–they are not the
children of promise.
26. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us
all.This is Sarah, and they that believe are the Isaac-children, the
children of holy laughter, born according to the power of God.
27-29. For it is written, Rejoice, you barren that bears not break
forth and cry, you that travails not for the desolate has many more
children than she which has an husband, Now we, brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the
flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
The child of Hagar could not stand the child of Sarah, and they that
seek salvation by the works of the Law, and by outward ceremonies,
cannot endure the children of faith.
30, 31. Nevertheless what says the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman
and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the
son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the
bondwoman, but of the free.
GALATIANS 5.
Verses 1-4. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ had
made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if you are circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is
circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole Law. Christ is become
of no effect unto you whoever of you are justified by the Law; you are
fallen from Grace. If you mean to have anything to do with salvation by
works, get you gone–you are the children of the bondwoman!
Verses 19-21. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these:
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasci-viousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like A
black catalog, but sin is very prolific. We must take care that we
avoid each one of these works of the flesh, or else we shall give no
proof that we are led by the Spirit of God and possess the Grace of
God.
21. Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times
past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of
God. Read over the list. Put the question to conscience, "Am I guilty
of such things?" If so, do not suppose that the holding of orthodox
Doctrine will save you, or that any kind of religious ceremony will
save you! You must be delivered from these lusts of the flesh–these
deeds of the flesh–or you cannot inherit the Kingdom of God!
22, 23. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance:
against such there is no la . Surely, neither human nor Divine! These
are things which are commended on all hands. But if we do not have
them–if they are not found in us–then we have not the Spirit, for if
we had the Spirit, we would bear the fruit of the Spirit!
24-26. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the
affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the
Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vainglory, A very common sin–wishing
to shine. Whether we deserve to be honored or not, still wanting to be
the lead horse in the team, and to take the leading place. "Let us not
be desirous of vainglory."
26. Provoking one another, envying one another. If each would strive to
do the greatest deeds of love and each were willing to take the lowest
place, then this evil would never again be known!
GALATIANS 6.
Verse 1. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in a fault, you which are
spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering
yourself, lest you also be tempted. When Christians fall into a fault,
it is on account of their traveling slowly on the road to Heaven. Hence
the expression, "If he is overtaken with a fault." He would not have
been overtaken if he had been traveling faster! If his heart had been
quick in the ways of the Lord, he would have outstripped the
temptation. Now, when a Brother falls into sin, it is too often the
habit to push him down–to cast him out and forget him. But
spiritually-minded persons must not do so. We must seek the restoration
of the Brother or Sister. Is there not more joy over the sheep that was
lost than over those that went not astray? Have we not the best reason
to deal tenderly with wanderers, since we cannot tell that we may not
need the same generous offices for ourselves? "Considering yourself
lest you also be tempted." He seems to take it for granted that we
probably would, if we were tempted as the other Brother was.
2. Bear you one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Help each other. If you have a light load, take a part of somebody
else's.
3. For if a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he
deceives himself.Mainly deceives himself. Other people generally find
it out. It is no use estimating your fortune at so many millions, for
it will not make it so! And it is of no use estimating yourself at a
very high price, because it does not make it so. "He deceives himself."
4-5. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have
rejoicing in himself, alone, and not in another For every man shall
bear his own burden. There are burdens of care and sorrow which we can
help others to bear, but the burdens of responsibility each man must
carry for himself. The load of service for the Master must be carried
personally. And let us be glad to shoulder it, since Christ has done so
much for us. And how else can we express gratitude but by serving Him?
6. Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teaches
in all good things. If he gives you spirituals, do not suffer him to
lack for temporals.
7. 8. Be not deceived: God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that
shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh
reap– What the flesh always comes to, by-and-by–
8. Corruption. But he that sows to the Spirit– By faith in Christ–by
being led by the Spirit–
8-10. Shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be
weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, it we faint not.
As we have, therefore, opportunity, let us do good unto all men,
especially unto them who are of the household of faith. They have a
first claim upon us. They are nearest of kin. They are our Brothers and
Sisters in Christ. Let them have a Benjamin's portion!
11. You see how large a letter I have written unto you with my own
hand. Paul did not often write his own Epistles. It is thought that he
had a defect of the eyes. He generally employed a secretary. When he
did write, he wrote generally in great capitals. I suppose that is what
he meant. "You see how emphatic my writing is–what great characters I
have made in writing to you." Or he may have meant that for a letter,
written by him, this was a lengthy one.