Turn back in your Bibles this
morning to Galatians 6. Galatians chapter 6. In one of the verses that was read this morning, Paul uses an expression that
is a very strong expression. And he uses that expression about
like 14 or 15 times in his epistles. And that expression is God forbid. Let me just quickly read you
the verses that that expression is used in. And listen carefully,
because it's important in every verse. In Romans 3 and verse 3, he says,
For what, if some did not believe, shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect, God forbid. Let God be true,
but every man a liar. And then in that same chapter
in verse 5, he says, Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance? I speak
as a man. God forbid, for then how shall
God judge the world? In that same chapter, Romans
3, in verse 31, do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish
the law. one of Romans 6, what shall we
say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? In verse 15 of Romans
6, What then shall we sin because
we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid. In Romans 7 and verse 7, what
shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. In verse 13, was then that which
is good made death unto me? God forbid. And then in Romans 9 and verse
14, he says, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid. If you notice, In
most of these instances, he is making this statement and expression
in reply to his own question, which is simply the question
of most men. In Romans 11 and verse 1, I say
then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite of
the seed of Abraham, and of the tribe of Benjamin." Romans 11
and verse 11. I say then, have they stumbled
that they should fall? God forbid. And then in 1 Corinthians
6 and verse 15, he says, No ye not, that your bodies are the
members of Christ? Shall I then take the members
of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid." And
then to this book that we have come to this morning in Galatians
2 and verse 17, he writes, But if, while we seek to be justified
by Christ, We ourselves also are found sinners. Is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. And then in Galatians
3 and verse 21, is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given which could have given life Verily, righteousness
should have been by the law. And then here in our text, in
Galatians chapter 6, what is the last one, I believe, in verse
14. Listen to what he says. But God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. What does the apostle mean when
he uses this word, glory? It's not a word that we use in
this way much in our day. But to glory in something means
to make a boast. It means to have pleasure in. to have satisfaction with or
to joy or to rejoice in something. It means to have confidence and
to rely on or trust in and depend on. That's what it is to really
glory in something. I'll read you a verse of Scripture. You can turn there if you will.
We're going to come to this in just a moment. But look down
at what it says in 1 Corinthians and the very first chapter and
the last verse. This is actually something that
is stated also in the Old Testament. But in I Corinthians chapter
1 and verse 31, he says that according as it is written, He
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. So what Paul is
doing here is just exactly what He is commanded by God, He and
every one of His people to do, they are to glory in none other
and nothing else but God. Glory in Him. And if you look at the previous
verses, what He is talking about here, He is writing to these
people into whose midst these Judaizers have come into. And they are trying to set forth
a gospel mixture, which is really no mixture at all. It is just
another gospel. And they are trying to have these
Gentiles especially, to be circumcised, to do other things that were
commanded under the law of Moses, not for the good of these people. They had another motive and reason. And that motive and reason is
said to be in verse 12, he says, as many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh. They're not interested in something
that is spiritual and for the good of those that they teach. But they are interested in a
display that will be to their own exultation in the flesh. They constrain you to be circumcised
only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. There are a lot of people in
Paul's day, there are a lot of people that are associated with
these Judaizers, that if they can get these to whom Paul has
preached the gospel of the grace of God in Christ, if they can
get them in some way to identify with the law of Moses, they themselves
will not be persecuted for their message of Christ and His cross. They had a message of Christ
and His cross, but they mixed the law with it so that they
would not themselves be persecuted. And look what it says in verse
13. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law. They didn't keep the law themselves. But they desire to have you circumcised
to participate in some ritual or ceremony of the law that they
may glory in your flesh. You see, that's the easiest thing. Men like sometimes to have power
over individuals. And they do things in this world
in order to be able to glory in what they have brought others
to do. And so it is against that very
thing that Paul says, God forbid. But most importantly, What we
need to know is what does he mean when he talks about this
cross? God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, in that very
statement, He distinguishes and sets apart from every other,
especially these who preach a cross by which they would also glory
in your flesh, and He calls it the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when He says that, He was
not talking about that piece of wood on which He hung. He was not talking about something
made out of wood that can be copied or raised up even today
at Easter time. He was not talking about that
symbol of a cross. You see, the Scripture records
for us that even under the law it was commanded to each and
every one, thou shalt not make unto me any graven image. Is that true? No exceptions. Thou shalt not make unto me any
graven image. Why? Because God is not worshipped
and is not known by any of these things. He is only worshipped
spiritually, and that by the aid of the Holy Spirit in spirit
and in truth. So what Paul is talking about
here has something to do with the truth. And He is not talking
about a gesture of the hand. And He is not even talking about
that cross which is representative of the believer's self-denial
when He commands His people to take up their cross and follow
Him. There is no curse in the believer's
cross. He is talking here and elsewhere
in the Scriptures by the Spirit of God about the doctrine or
gospel of the crucified Christ. No matter what he does, no matter
what he preaches, no matter how God blesses him or uses him. He says, God forbid that at any
time or in light of any accomplishment and in the face of every teaching,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ." You see, he did not, like these he speaks of,
preach circumcision or any blend or mixture of law and grace or
works in Christ. He did not preach anything except
this crucified Christ as the one thing necessary to salvation. It was Christ crucified plus
nothing. Absolutely nothing. It is the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ And it includes in his person and work absolutely no
other. Turn back to that first chapter
of I Corinthians. I Corinthians chapter 1 and look
down at verse 17 and listen again to the Apostle of God. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect." In other words,
there is obviously a way of preaching the cross, hiding what is represented
and who it is that is represented in what he calls the wisdom of
man's words. He said, I don't preach that.
I was not sent to preach in that manner. And he said, the reason
why some do this is because the preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolishness. those who are perishing. He says,
this preaching of a crucified Christ, of a dying Savior, it
is foolishness to them. But unto us which are saved,
or which are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent? Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? All you have to do is look around
you and read the history of this world. By the wisdom of man,
nothing has ever improved. For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom, or by that worldly wisdom, knew
not God, it pleased God. By the foolishness of preachers,
That's the means and method, but it also means here, by the
foolishness in the eyes of man of this preaching of a dying
Christ, to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign,
and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. unto the Jews a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called,
but unto them which are called, called by God mightily, effectually,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. So what is plainly declared and
manifest in this preaching of the cross is the glory and salvation
that is in Him and in no other. Now, there are some things that
without a shadow of a doubt, the cross declares and manifests
and reveals and shows. And the first thing is this.
The cross shows us truly what we are. Now, man can stand up and preach
law and fear and all the other things that are used to blast
men and women in the name of God, but he says that the cross,
this preaching of the cross, will alone show us what we really
are. In other words, it reveals this
awful and desperate state of every fallen son of Adam and
shows us the absolute bankruptcy and helplessness of every sinner
to save themselves. If there was a way, that any
of us, and I might say the best of us, could ever save ourselves
or offer up to God a righteousness that He would accept if there
was in any way we could please God, there would be no need for
the cross. All of which these things made
God, becoming a man, and enduring the shame and suffering the cross
and dying there in order to accomplish our salvation, an absolute necessity. In other words, what it boils
down to is this. God does not have to save anybody. But if He saves such as we are
of Adam's fallen race, if He saves such as we are as vile,
helpless, bind, dead sinners, then He has to do it by the cross. He has to do it because that
is what it takes. And in this cross that we are
to have preached to us in the dying of the Son of God, it shows
that all the imagined works of men, and the worth of men, and
the will of men, and the ways of men which always seem right
to them, they are nothing but vanity. They
are the ways that seem right to a man, the end thereof are
the way of death. It is to say, when any part of
our will or our works, anything that is done by us or anything
we abstain from doing, When we put that in as any part of this
equation of salvation, it makes God to look as if He doesn't
know what we are, and He doesn't know what is right and good,
and He doesn't know what to do to save us. And it stains the pride of man,
and it shuts up the boasting of men and women, and it leaves
everyone hopeless without Christ. That's why men don't want to
hear the cross preached. That's why they'd rather be told
how to live and what to do and all that. In the cross is a mirror
that shows us how wicked we are, how sinful we are, and how bankrupt
we are to offer to God anything that would save us. We are so
vile and wicked that God Himself had to come in human flesh and
leave the very portals of glory and in that flesh not simply
come and live, though He did a sinless life, but He had to
die to save us. He had to perish in that dying
death of the cross. And this is only seen in the
cross and no way other, not in our introspection, not in what
men say that we are, but in what God shows us that we are, because
it took Christ to suffer in our place where we perish. Look back in Galatians chapter
5. at the eleventh verse. Paul,
in this same vein of thought, says, And I, brethren, if I yet
preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the
offense of the cross ceased. If these men say they're preaching
the same thing that I do, if I am preaching this circumcision
or this salvation which in part is by some work or obedience
to the law, then why is it that I'm being persecuted and they're
not? And if I were really preaching
this circumcision or obedience to the law or works added to
the free grace of God, then the offense or the offensiveness
of the cross would be ceased. You see, it's a very easy thing to take and to preach what would
be for the most part the gospel of a crucified Christ, and yet
add enough human works, or enough human merit, or enough acts of
human will to make it inoffensive to men, then it's not the gospel. And there's no telling how many
preachers stand in this world, and they're like They're like
a man shooting a gun or a bow and arrow at a target. And they're
just shooting and they're just hitting all around the bullseye. But they never hit the bullseye. They never hit the gospel of
Christ crucified plus nothing. They're always qualifying. They're always making salvation
in Christ if you just come and receive Him. Or salvation in
Christ if you just obey Him in this part or another. Paul said that's not the gospel
of grace. That's not the gospel of Christ. You see, the preaching of Christ
crucified is that in which he declares his marvelous power
and his amazing grace in the salvation of all his people. And he shows in it how he can
as this thrice holy God. who is of purer eyes than to
behold iniquity, who cannot just simply gloss over sin. He shows in this how it is that
he can, as a just God, at the same time justify us and declares
that this is the only way, this is the wisdom of God. Old John Gill says this, this
is foolishness in the esteem of many. And that is because
man's wisdom has no hand either in forming the scheme of it or
in the discovery of it to the sons of men. Man cannot originate
it. He did not. And he cannot reveal
it. It is very disagreeable to the
carnal reason of man. Yea, it is a display of the highest
wisdom. is what angels approve of and
desire to look into, is wiser than the wisdom of men. It has
made foolish the wisdom of this world and is what is only able
to make a man wise unto salvation. And yet this doctrine is accounted
foolish, yea, foolishness itself. But to whom is it so? to them
that perish." What difference does it make
if every body around us makes this one gospel, this one
message, this one way, this crucified Christ, what is it if everyone
around us counts it as absolute, utter foolishness? if that only reveals that they're
perishing. And if God enabling us to believe
it means that we are among those that He is saving. I tell you, the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ shows us what we really are. Not only that,
the cross This preaching of Christ crucified also shows us the very
attributes of God. What men say, such as in the
things of this creation, men say in them is this revelation
of God, which is true, but it is only a revelation of condemnation. not of salvation. There is only one revelation
of God in salvation, and that is God as He displays all His
attributes and shows each and every one of them in a perfect
harmony with each other, and that is in the cross of Christ
crucified. You can know God's the Creator
and die in your sins. You can say He's good. You can
say He's the one who blesses. You can say even He's sovereign. But it's in the cross. It's in this person. It's in
something He's done. that displays the glory of God. And everything else is a distorted view, especially
of the love of God. When Paul says to his people,
to the Lord's people, to believers, that nothing shall be able to
separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus."
What's he talking about there? He's talking about the display
of God's love, and yet God, who at the same time hates everyone
outside of Christ, with a holy and a just hatred. He is talking
about this God who is gracious, and yet just at the same time,
who is merciful, but who is righteous at the same time. You see, today's Gospels, today's
preachings, and today's Opinions about God are so riddled with
inconsistencies and contradictions, and yet men do not even stop
to think about it. So many salvations that dishonor
and misrepresent God. If I give you one verse, I've
given it to you a lot of times. But everyone ought to take one
verse that is found in the book of Proverbs in the seventeenth
chapter and the fifteenth verse and think about what is said
in this verse. God says, He that justifies the
wicked. And he that condemns the just,
even they both are abomination to the Lord." In other words,
if you say that an obviously wicked person is righteous, or
if you say that a righteous person ought to be condemned, that even naturally is abomination
to the Lord. And yet, Joe, if God says to you, and
says especially of you as a sinner, that you are righteous, and then
On that cross, in the Lord Jesus Christ, His perfect sinless Son,
He looks at him and condemns him to death. Hadn't He violated His own nature? Hadn't He violated His own law
and justice? Hadn't He violated His own self? That would be true everywhere
except the cross. But in the cross, in this Christ
crucified, is a display of the perfections of God, the will
of God, and the great work of God. We find there God's righteousness. Paul said, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to
the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith." How can the righteousness of
God be revealed? in the gospel, because it's the gospel of this
crucified Christ. Because God, in the cross death
of His Son, shows that He is right, that He has always been
right, and that He will for eternity be right for saving His people
whose sins He made to meet on Christ and whose righteousness
He made their own. He is right to put His Son to
death. And He is right to set them free.
Because He has made Him to be sin. He has counted Him as that
wicked one and condemned Him, He has counted us in Him as righteous
and declared us to be so." You won't find that anywhere else
except in the gospel of Christ crucified. Paul again, for what
the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us. In Romans 8, Paul puts them side
by side. He said, it is God that justifies. It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again for us. That's how it is. And it is God's power and wisdom
displayed, as we read in 1 Corinthians 1, but unto them which are called,
whether they are Jews or Greeks, Christ, the power of God and
the wisdom of God. We hadn't talked about the power
of God when we talked about what God can do. And we especially
haven't talked about the power of God, if we talk about the
power of God, if sinners will let Him do it. He says only in this gospel of
Christ, only in the cross death of Christ, that is the power
of God, the authority of God, the ability of God, and the wisdom
of God. And certainly, as I said, here
is the love of God and the mercy of God and the grace of God in
its clearest, singular, most wonderful display. Back in chapter
2 of Galatians, in verse 20, Paul says it like this, I am
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me." Paul in II Corinthians 5, that
most marvelous verse, he says, "...for he hath made him to be
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." And there probably isn't a verse
that says it much more clearly than that twenty-fourth verse
of Romans chapter three. He says, being justified freely
by His grace. Now, I'm maybe different from
some because I believe that God justified
by that act, and that's what it is, an act of God. And all
that God has to do, whatever it be, whenever it be, is to
act in righteousness. All He has to do is to declare
something based upon He Himself accomplishing
it. And it's done. There's nobody
can stop Him. There's no way He can fail. And
that is particularly true if He does it in Christ. Because I believe that the only
way He could bless us, being the holy God He is, the only
way He could bless us with all spiritual blessings is as righteous
persons in Christ, and especially if we consider that all spiritual
blessings are bound to include justification. But there are others who say that
he justified us at the cross. Now, there is one thing for sure.
And that is, whether before the world began or at the cross,
it's all out of our hands. Is that not right? It's all out
of our hands. And I'm not going to argue with
anybody. I'm not going to consider it
a point of doctrine upon which we'll either divide or fellowship. But what it says here is this,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, through the cross, death, and sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If He declared His people all
righteous in Christ, before the world began, it was through the
redemption that is in Christ. If He actually did it at the
cross, it is still through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. That's always where His love
is, where His mercy is, where He justifies freely by His grace. He loves every one of those that
He chose and gave to Christ in that covenant. And the cross
is the evidence of God's love for these sinners. And if He
does not actually save every one of them fully in this cross,
what good is His love? That's a pitiful love. that is
only a kind of spirit of benevolence. Now, suppose, this will be a
real supposition to you, suppose I'm standing over here and I've
got 20 billion dollars in the bank. Jerry, you're over here, you're
in desperate, dire straits. You don't even have enough money
for food and clothes and all this kind of stuff, everything
you need. Things that would be just paltry
to me. And I say, Jerry, I love you. But I'm not going to help you.
I'm not going to buy that food for you. I'm not going to buy
those clothes for you. I'm not going to rescue you out
of your debts and all that. But I love you. The very first
thing you'd say probably, and you'd be right to do it, is that
some love you got. And here's a bunch of people
standing up and telling another, well, God loves you. He owns
the world. He owns everything. He made everything.
He can do anything He wants to. But He'd never save you against
His will. That's some grace. That's some
love. That's a pitiful mercy. Did His love? Satisfy His justice? Only in the cross. Did His love
actually accomplish the redemption of His people? Yes, through the
cross. Is His love sovereign and almighty
and everlasting? Absolutely, in Christ crucified. I love this verse in Psalm 85. where he says mercy and truth
are met together. Well, the truth about us is we're
sinners. And yet he says mercy and truth
are met together. Not only that, righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. That's God in the sinner meeting.
Where is that? in the cross of Christ crucified. It is the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, God's Son. He made it a success. He displayed a victorious act
of love. He made a total satisfaction
of God's justice in the place of His people. In this cross
of Christ crucified is a full accomplishment of God's will,
a fulfilling of His Word, a glorifying of His holy being, a full saving
of all His people. And Paul gloried But He gloried
only in the cross. He gloried in the effects that
He accomplished in His crucifixion. He gloried in the peace and the
pardon and the righteousness and the life and the salvation
and the eternal glory which comes to believers through the death
of the cross. He gloried in Christ. as His
wisdom, His righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He gloried in this peace and
reconciliation that He made by the blood of His cross. He gloried
in the pardon and atonement and satisfaction that He wrought
by offering Himself up as the sacrifice of sin. That's the
cross. That's not a cross. It's not
even the cross when it's not distinguishing who, it's the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it says a lot, shows a lot, but it shows us,
lastly, a clear example for us. Somebody says, well, what about
godly living? What about telling folks how
to live? I tell you, I could stand up here for days on end,
and I could never tell you like the cross tells you. If you see
the cross, if you see this dying Savior, I know that the redeeming
love and grace that Christ displays on the cross, it can never be
duplicated. But those who are saved altogether
by such grace and love, they are also who because of
this, because of Christ's sacrificial love, they do the good works which God has ordained that they
do, even in the natural realm. We will do more because somebody
who has done for us than we will simply because we're told to
do. My mom and dad told me a lot
of things to do. But I'll have to say that the
great motivation for me doing any of those things was because
of what they'd done for me. How could I hurt, how could I
disobey those who had done so much for me? And this faith that the Bible
talks about that belongs to the people of God, that He gives
as a gift, He says it's a faith that works by love. We're motivated because of the
love of God for us. And we are to imitate this Spirit,
an example of love, and holiness, and self-sacrifice, and humility,
and submission to God's will, and the seeking of God's glory
to all, and especially our brethren, because of what He's done for
us. And if we don't do that, we've
never really seen what He's done for us. Paul to the Ephesians, Be ye
therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love. as Christ also hath loved us,
and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a
sweet-smelling savor. Peter, for even hereunto were
you called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an
example. that we should follow in his
steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth. Who when he was reviled, reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. I ought to just read that. 1 Peter 2. verse 21 through 24, who suffered for us, leaving
us an example that we should follow in His steps. That's what
makes this so-called, what would Jesus do, so stupid. You don't have to ask yourself
what would Jesus do if He's left us an example. We know what He
would do. And we're to follow in His steps. Listen to what He says. What
did He do? He did no sin. You say, well,
I can't do that. No, but I sure wish I could.
And I pray for grace from God to live as much according to
that as I might possibly live. Neither was guile found in His
mouth. Only that which praises God,
which attributes all glory to Him, which thanks Him, our mouths
run off the most foolish dribble. Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again. He didn't
respond in kind. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but he committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Who is this? He who his own self
bear our sins in his body on the tree, that we, being dead
to sins, should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed. Now, what are you glorying in? He that glories, let him glory
in the Lord. And may that Spirit, which is
none other than the Spirit of God being us, that brought this kind of indignation, it almost
seems, when he's reminded of all those
around him who glory in themselves, glory in their own flesh, glory
in what they've done for others and all these things. He said,
God forbid that I should glory if I live to be a hundred and
ten on this earth, if I'm able to be a help to the Lord's people. Whatever it is, let me at no
point glory in anything or anyone, and especially in myself. But
let me glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we repent of every other. As we live and as these things
in our flesh swell up, well, I did this, or I don't do this
anymore, you know. Lord, I repent of that. And I glory only in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we have sung this morning, may this gracious God be merciful
to us in this Christ crucified and give us spiritual life and
that faith which characterizes it that we might, as we've sung,
survey the wondrous cross. And then as the hymn writer said, poor contempt on all our pride. This is the only message. And whether we have a small crowd
or whether we have a big crowd, In the matter of our sin, and in the matter of our lives, may Christ crucified be all to all of us. Our gracious God and Savior, How we will, I do believe, when we stand in your presence, saved by this crucified Christ, realize just how little we really entered in, understood,
and certainly appreciate it, and thank you for Christ and Him crucified. Lord, enable us to see. Enable
us to look to Him alone, to this work alone. And give us more grace. that we might live to your glory
with thankful hearts and before this world who offers up all
these other things to glory in. May this be our constant response,
God forbid, that we should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom this perishing world, our every association
with the first Adam, is crucified unto us and we unto
this world. We are in the new creation. And that is because of Christ
crucified. Help us as we go out into this
week. Bless us for Christ's sake, for
we pray in his name. Amen.