Take Up The Cause of Christ

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, you remember what Paul said? Follow me as I follow Christ. In the modern church, we like to think of, well, I follow Jesus.

I don't follow any man. But do you realize you are following someone? You are following a man. You are following men. Someone can say, well, I only follow Jesus. I don't follow anyone else. Everyone follows somebody.

People follow celebrities. People follow politicians. People follow their friends. People follow a family member. Everybody is following somebody. You can say that's not true for you. I promise you it is.

Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. And part of that is don't follow the Judaizers. They're going to lead you astray. You need to follow an apostle of Christ. So, Paul is basically saying in verses 12 through 13 that the Judaizers, you know, they're trying to get, what was their goal?

What did the Judaizers want the Galatians to do? They wanted them to do something. So, if you were to convert to Jesus, if you were to be saved, you had to have a medical procedure, basically.

What was it?

Right.

You had to be circumcised. They don't want to face opposition from the Jews because that's where all the pressure was coming from the Jews, about the law and circumcision. So, they basically caved to that and said in order to be a follower of Jesus, you need to be circumcised.

And they were teaching the law. What was their purpose in teaching the law? Paul describes it basically, they just want to boast and brag about how they made you their own disciples. So, if somebody was circumcised, one of the Judaizers could say, yes, that's because of me.

I convinced him to do that. So, it was a way of boasting about how they had their own followers. In Acts chapter 20, verse 30, Paul warned the Ephesian elders. You can just make a note of this, Acts 20, verse 30.

He said, also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. The word perverse basically means to distort or to twist the truth, to twist the scripture.

And today, in the 21st century, you know, the more things change, really the more they stay the same. There are preachers who, you know, for some subjects, they want to twist the word of God. So, the Judaizers were teaching things that were popular.

And today, you have to watch out for the same thing. Teach, people are teaching things that are popular. And then there's those other subjects that they don't want to touch with a 10-foot pole. So, they're about boasting and converting their own disciples.

Look at verse 14. What did Paul want to boast about? How many followers he had? How many disciples that he had? No, he said, but God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

I want you to think for a moment. Can you say that same thing? That this world has been crucified to me. The more time goes on, the more we grow in our walk with Christ, the less and less we should be clinging to the things of the world.

Paul said the world had been crucified to him. What does that mean? The Greek word translated world is what? Who knows?

Yeah, cosmos.

So, basically, there's one sense where God so loved the world. God loved humanity. God loved the people of this world. And we should love the people of this world. But there's another sense that we should not love the world.

We should not love the world system. We should not love the ways of the world. Jesus said all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That's what we are not to love.

You know, we need to start to learn how to loosen our grip from the things of the world. How do we do that? Well, it's easy to get ensnared in the things of the world, the ways of the world. You know, whatever the new movement is that's popular today.

I never thought, and I'm not commenting on for or against. I just never thought I would see Ukrainian flags flying in the United States of America. But, you know, it's whatever the next thing is and people are on board.

And, again, I'm not saying anything to shame on you or you should do this. It's just there's the next big thing, right? There's the next thing in the culture and people just kind of go along with whatever it is.

Well, some of the things in the world are some things we shouldn't get involved with. I told you yesterday, it was on the news, and this wasn't a critic. This is somebody who is advocating for this. They said that yesterday was the first day of organized protests and that this summer is going to be a summer of rage.

Organize, protest, rioting. You realize, and I haven't commented on it much because I don't want to delve into the whole area of politics, but you understand we're living in the middle of a revolution.

It's real easy to get ensnared and, okay, I'm on this side or other people are over here on this side. This is the kind of thing Paul is talking about. The world has been crucified to me. I'm not going to take up some cause and bear arms and take up some cause of the world.

He's saying this world has been crucified to me, and if I'm going to boast, I'm going to boast in what? If I'm going to take up a cause, I'm going to take up a cause in what? If you're going to take up a cause, you need to take up the cause of Christ.

If you're going to take to the streets, you need to take to the streets with the gospel of Christ. If you're going to talk and talk and talk and go on Facebook and post all about all these things, you know you can do what you want.

You don't have to listen to me, but I'm speaking what Paul is speaking. The world should be crucified. We need to take up the cause of Christ. If we need to boast, if we're going to boast about anything, boast in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Am I wrong or am I going off the deep end here? I don't care what the next movement is, because you know, after this summer, it's going to be something else. This fall, it'll be something else. Next year, it's going to be something else, and I find it sad when people just follow along.

They're like sheep. They're like, they will believe anything. Now, we're like sheep too. We're sheep as well, but who are we following? The Lord Jesus Christ. I should just end on that and not a high note, but a few more verses to get through.

The Cross of Christ Versus the World

Paul is talking about a new creation. Verse 15, he says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision avails anything but what? A new creation. The new creation here is the new man in Jesus Christ.

In John chapter three, Jesus talks about this. It's about being born again, right? Being born from above. Second Corinthians 517, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new. So sometimes we refer to ourselves as born again Christians. Now, that's really redundant because the only type of true Christian there is is a born again Christian.

What's he talking about? A personal conversion. There has to be a personal conversion. You know, Christianity isn't about getting baptized or joining a local church or having a Bible and reading it or praying.

Now, all that's good and we should be doing it, but none of it means anything if there is no personal conversion of the heart. A new creation means that something has happened. There's something new. A change has occurred.

There's something here now that wasn't there before. A new heart. New desires. A renewed mind. And we're being transformed into who we were to who God wants us to be. Paul's point here in Galatians is that whether a person is circumcised or not, you know, that's really not the issue.

The issue is, are you a new creature? Verse 16, he says, and as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. So if people are not walking according to that rule and they're not born again, then they don't have that peace and mercy.

But we want them to, right? We want them to. And we want to reach out to people. And I talked about the people who are following along and whatever the next cause is. We're not against them. We're for them.

That's why I take the time to even say that. Because we love people and we want to reach people for Christ. Now this statement, the Israel of God, we'll close on this. What is the Israel of God? Now there's some people who disagree.

Some people say that the Israel of God is the Church of God. Well, the Church is not Israel. The Church is what? The Ecclesia. The Church is the Church. The Church is made up of Jew and Gentile. This is another thing we sort of take for granted.

That back in the 1st Century Jews and Gentiles would barely even speak to each other. They wanted nothing to do with each other. And in Christ God brought the two together. What an amazing thing. It would be like today if all the racial wounds were just healed through Christ.

You know what?

They're going to be.

They're going to be.

And some places they are. So this is an amazing thing. But the Israel of God is who? The Israel of God are those Jews who accepted Christ as their Savior. The Gentiles who believed in Jesus, they're a new creation.

Those Jews who believed in Jesus, they are the true Israel of God. Paul said in Romans Chapter 2, It doesn't matter what's in your flesh. It doesn't matter so much what you're doing or what procedure you have done.

What matters is the heart.

Amen?

That's what matters most. So the Israel of God are those Jews who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah. And those Gentiles who are involved in all sorts of pagan religions and idolatry. And you know there are probably some people sitting here.

Before you came to Christ you were mixed up in all sorts of different things. And God saved you out of that. And now you are a new creature in Christ. There was a personal conversion. And I'm just going to end on that note.

I pray that each person listening has experienced that personal conversion to Christ. It's not that you got your name on some membership list. It's not that maybe you were even dunked in the water at one point.

But now you have a heart for the things of God. Circumcision, baptism, all that stuff. What matters is that you're a new creation in Christ. And Paul ends in verse 18. Brethren, and this is to you. He says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Amen.

Let's close. Father, how thankful we are for your grace. And where sin did abound, grace abounded much more. And Lord, if there's anyone listening this morning who has never given their life to Christ.

Never become a follower of Christ. Believing on his name. I pray that they would do it now. So that you would give them a full pardon of their sins. In one day, life eternal in your kingdom. I pray it all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message. Or if you'd like more information about the ministry. Visit our website, MorrisCornickChurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.