You have been concerned about
my father and my mother, especially since her recent heart troubles.
And I thank you for that on their behalf. Thank you. They appreciate
your prayers and your thoughts and your concerns. And she's
doing remarkably well, just remarkably well. She was very, very ill. Uh, We thought we might have
lost her, but Lord was merciful to us and has given her a very
speedy recovery, and she is just doing well, so well that we were
able to come here. We thought we might have to stay
home and care for them, but she's just doing real well, so we're
thankful. Would you turn with me to Galatians
chapter 6? Galatians chapter 6. Read one verse with me. Verse 14. Galatians 6 verse 14. Paul is writing and he is addressing
the church there. There was some Pharisees and
all who were glorying and various things. And he said, 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, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when we take any subject,
these preachers, those who attempt to do this, When we take any
subject from God's Word, it's above us. We, like Job, must
say, I've spoken things to wonderful men. But when we get on this
subject, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the gospel,
and we get on this subject, who is sufficient for these things?
Who can possibly declare the glory of the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. For what it's worth, when Brother
Todd asked me to come here about a month or so ago, I knew immediately
what I was going to deal with, this birth. That doesn't happen
very often. But the more I looked at it and
the more I thought about it, I thought, it's too big for me. But I do have this subject. And
I thought to myself, I'm going to fail at this. I'm not going
to be able to declare, as I should, as it deserves, as He deserves,
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But didn't
our Lord say He always causes us to triumph? If I just declare
it, If we just read it. When's the last time you've read
the account of our Lord being crucified? Go with me to Matthew
chapter 27. If you are like me, it may have
been a while since you've done so. I went back and read it and
I encourage all of you to read all four gospel accounts of our
Lord being crucified. We need to read it constantly.
We need to think on it daily. But here in Matthew 27, if we're
going to talk about the glory of the cross, we need to read,
at least read part of the account of our Lord being crucified.
Look at Matthew 27, and each gospel gives additional things
to the account. Verse 24, Pilate saw that he
could prevail nothing, but rather a tumult was made. He took water
and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent
of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. Then answered all
the people and said, His blood be upon us and on our children. Then released he Barabbas, a
notable criminal, unto them. And when he had scourged, whipped
Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. And then the soldiers
of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered
unto him the whole band of soldiers and they stripped him and put
on him a scarlet robe. When they planted a crown of
thorns, we just sang, crown him with many crowns. Well, this
is the crown that man would put on his head. And they put it
on his head, jammed it on his head, a reed in his right hand,
and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hey,
old King of the Jews. And they spit on him and took
the reed and smote him on the head. And after they mocked him, they
took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him and
led him away to crucify him, nail him to a tree. Down in verse 34, they gave him
vinegar to drink, mingled with gall, a bitter herb. When he
had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified
him, nailed him to a tree, parted his garments, casting lots, that
it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet. They
parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they
cast lots. And sitting down, they watched
him there, gawked at him. Set up over his head his accusation
written, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Two thieves crucified
with him, one on the right hand, another on the left. They that
passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, saying, thou that
destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself.
If thou, if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
Likewise the chief priest, mocking him with the tribes and elders,
saying, He saved others, Himself He cannot save. If He be the
King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will
believe Him. He trusted in God. Let Him deliver Him now, if He
will have Him. He said, I'm the Son of God.
The thieves also that were crucified with Him cast the same in His
teeth. Now from the sixth hour there
was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about
the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani, that is to say, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there
when they heard that said, this man calleth for a lice. Straightway
one of them ran, took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and
put it on a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, let's
see whether Elias will come to save him. And Jesus, when he
cried with a loud voice, healed up the ghost. We'll stop there. How did that make you feel right
now? The believer, the one who loves
the Lord Jesus Christ, goes through every emotion. Sorrow, yes. You can't help but feel sorrow
that our Lord had to endure that. Anger, guilt, shame, knowing why he
was there on account of you. Wonder, amazement, worship, admiration,
glory. Is it any wonder Paul said, God
forbid, that I should glory, boast of, brag about. In another
place he said, I'm determined not to know anything among you,
not to look into, not to be taken up with anything in this world
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Oh, to be like that. Now the cross, I need not tell
most of you this, that the cross that Paul said he gloried in
was not that tree upon which the Lord hung. Not the piece
of wood. No true believer would glory
in that piece of wood. Nor would they make it a symbol
of any sort, which is an idol. I'm not being too strong when I say that. That those who make some kind
of religious symbol out of the cross of Christ, a crucifix of
sort, that wear it, are not only idolaters, but they are not glorifying
the Lord, they're glorifying themselves. That's why they wear
it. That's why people wear those things. They're not trying to
glorify the Lord Jesus Christ who hung there, glorify themselves,
showing you what good Christians they are. Now that's a fact. A child of God would never wear
such a thing. God called it an abomination,
the abominable thing. Takes away from His glory. Now
if you would ask the average person today, what do you think
of the cross? Because religion has so degenerated,
degraded, Because the offense of the cross has been removed,
that there's no talk of God's holiness, no talk of God's justice,
no talk of the wrath of God. No talk of sin, God's wrath against
sin, the necessity of Christ going to the cross to shed his
blood for that sin. The only way whereby sin could
be removed, because religion has done that. When you ask the
average person about the cross, they will think of a piece of
wood or a piece of jewelry, won't they? And say, oh, the cross,
well, I have one of those. Got a nice one with diamonds
all over it. Isn't that a fact? The glory in the cross of Christ
is the glory in the one who hung there and why he hung there.
It's the glory in the Christ of the cross. That's what Paul
meant when he said we glory, God forbid that I should glory
in saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The glory of the cross begins
with the God who purposed it. The wisdom of God who purposed
the cross. The only way whereby sin can
be removed. John Newton, one of my favorite
old writers, I'll never forget. I read a message by him when
I was a very young believer, and the title of it was The Character
and Genius of the Gospel. And we call men geniuses. No, no, no, no, no. In light
of the gospel, there are no geniuses. The character and genius of the
gospel. Listen, let me just tell you what it's about the God according
to his will and purpose in his infinite wisdom for his honor
and glory and the glory of his son over and above creation though
the heavens declare his glory and the firmament showeth his
handiwork over and above that glorious creation for the glory
and honor of his son the Lord Jesus Christ who was his delight
before the world began the son whom he loved That God, in order
to display and set forth His full glory, the glory of His
character, the glory of all of His attributes, the glory of
His holiness, the glory of His righteousness, the glory of His
justice, the glory of His love, the glory of His mercy, the glory
of His grace, the glory of His goodness, devised not a way but
the only way whereby all of those characteristics could be displayed
in His fullness. The only way whereby God who
is holy, who must punish sin, can justify a guilty sinner. The only way whereby God can
punish the sinner for his sin and let him go stop free. That's
a genius. The only way God can kill the
soul that sinneth and yet make it alive forever. The only way
God can have his law satisfied completely and yet spare the
transgressors of that law. By sending His Holy Son to keep
that law forever. I'm just telling you the fact
of it. By sending His Holy Son to keep
that perfect law. No one could do it. He alone
did it. And then by His Son going to
Calvary's tree and being made sin for His people. and going
to Calvary's tree, making his soul an offering for sin, laying
on him the iniquity of all of his people, bearing their iniquities
and thereby sin being put away and those people being declared
righteous before God forever. The glory of the cross. At the cross, you've heard these
You've heard all of these things before. I'm not telling you anything
that you haven't heard before. But at the cross we see many
things. These things are only clearly
seen at the cross. We see the utter depravity and
evil of mankind. Nowhere is it seen like it's
seen at Calvary Street. I asked Brother Don what he was
going to preach on, and he told me Romans 7. I said, good, that
goes well with it. Only a Romans 7 sinner can glory in the cross. Right? We say that often. Only a real
sinner, a hell deserving sinner, there's no other kind. Only a
sinner like that can appreciate in glory in the cross of Christ,
one who knows that this is what it took to put away their sins.
No other kind. Luke's account of the crucifixion
says, the whole multitude arose and led him to be crucified. And they were with loud voices,
instant, all together, unanimous, voicing their hatred of the Son
of God, saying, crucify. Crucifixion and I read that account
and we should our Lord when he was going to the cross that was
buried his cross and some women were weeping for him and remember
he stopped and said don't weep for me and when I say we feel
sorrow at the reading that account we don't feel sorry for him he
told us not to do we feel sorrow for what he had to endure though
we do we love it But he had to do that if he didn't do it. We
rejoice in the crop. If he didn't go there, our sins
wouldn't be gone. We'd die and our sins wouldn't.
But he turned to those women and said, don't weep for me,
weep for yourselves and for your children. And then he went on
to say, if they did these things in a green tree, what's it going
to be like in a dry tree? We're in that dry tree. We're
in that dry tree, these very last of the last days. where
most people could care less. I know there's a lot of religion
going on today. But so few people know what happened on the cross,
why Christ came, what he did there, and who he did it for.
And most people could care less, isn't that right? You talk about
the cross, and as I said, they degenerate it so much. The evil
of mankind, that's not just a doctrine, it's a reality. And a Roman seven
sinner knows But if it wasn't for Christ being crucified, I'd
be in hell right now. Isn't that right? God came to this earth. Holiness
came to this earth. And man hates holiness. And man
got his hands on God, and he killed him, didn't he? I did
it. You can't be indifferent to the
cross of Christ. No one is indifferent to the
cross of Christ. You cannot merely ignore it and
say you're not interested in Him. That's to kill Him. If you
ignore someone, that means you don't pay any attention to them,
it means you don't care whether they live or die, do you? And
God sent His Son down here for the likes of these rotten sinners,
and for someone to hear about that and say, that doesn't interest
me, is to say, I don't care whether He came or not. I don't care
if he lived or if he died. It doesn't matter to me. What
do you think God thinks about that? At the cross we see what man
thinks of God. And at the cross we see what
God thinks of man. The holiness and justice and
righteousness of God is not seen anywhere as it is seen at the
cross. Does God hate sin? And by that I mean a sinner.
You can't separate a sin and a sinner. We are what we do. You hear false religions say
that today, don't you? God loves a sinner and hates
his sin. You can't separate the two. We are what we do. We do what we do because that's
what we are. Isn't that right? God is angry with the wicked
every day. Does God hate sin? He sure does.
He made His Son to be sin. God's wrath was poured out on
him. Will God punish and kill the sinner? He sure will. Christ
was made sin and not merely by imputation. Or he wouldn't have
allowed him to be tortured as he was. Do you hear me? He would have just killed him
and not allowed him to go through such That was a display. God's the one that purposed the
cross and everything that happened there. Man didn't devise all
of that. God wrote it down in the scriptures long before it
happened. To show his utter hatred of sin. What should be done to
sin on the cross. His back was beaten. His beard
pulled out. hung on display before all to
see to be made a mockery, that's what God thinks of sin. And so Christ was made sin and
if He wasn't actually made sin, He wouldn't have gone through
all that way. But He was put on display as what God thinks
of sin. God who is holy, God who is just,
God who is righteous and loves righteousness, hates but God. But God is love. We don't start there, do we?
When you preach the gospel, you don't start there. The love of
God means nothing to someone who doesn't know something of
the holiness of God. The love of God means nothing to someone
who doesn't know something of the awfulness of sin. But God
is love. Turn with me to Romans 5. I was
going to quote this to you, but I don't want to presume that
everyone knows these verses by heart, and it means more to you
if you look at it. No. I don't want to turn to too
many, but it means more if you actually look at it with your
own eyes. We quote these all the time. The amazing love of
God for, yes, sinners. And he had to We had to have
been in Christ before the foundation of the world or he couldn't have
loved us good. God who's too holy to look on sin. God who
loves righteousness and hates iniquity. We had to be in Christ
before the world began, didn't we? Had to be. But the amazing
love of God, look here in Romans chapter 5. Mercy and grace of
God, look at chapter 5 verse 7. Now, scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure, For a good man, some won't even
dare to die. I might die, I think I might
die for some of you. And I consider you good men,
good women, I do. But if it came right down to
it, I don't know if I would or not. I sure don't know if I'd
take one of my precious darling children, my only daughter, and
sacrifice her for you. I don't think it would. But God commended His love toward us
while yet sinners, the very ones that hated Him, Christ died for them, sent His
only begotten Son, here in His love, Not that we loved him. No, we hated him. Brother Scott
used to... Remember that time when somebody
came in and was bragging on a relative of theirs? He said, he's a good
man, this and that and the other. It's his fault. He's a good man.
Scott said, he's got one problem. He hates God. Remember that? Oh, how I loved Brother Scott.
Didn't you? He told it like it was. He was hated for it. But
that's a fact. And I did. I did. Didn't we, Marvin? How long did
some of you go without giving Him a thought? God was not in
all your thoughts. How long? Right now. Who in here is here,
forced to be here and wish you were someplace else? I was. But God. You're in His love. Not that
we love God. Oh, that He loved us. Send His Son to be a propitiation
of bloody sacrifice for those that hate Him. lay down his life
for the very ones that put him on that cross. Now that's love
isn't it? Don't talk about love. If you're
going to talk about love, talk about that love. Herein is greater
love with no man than this. Love. Mercy. Mercy. Over in Numbers chapter
14, God knowing what he was going to
do, but yet wrote this down, he told, and Moses was interceded
on behalf of those no good Israelites. Those Israelites were a bunch
of no good, ungrateful, hard-hearted, stiff-necked people. The whole
Bible's full of stories of the children of Israel. Why? Because
that's us. That's the people of God. Every one of us. We're
no different, no better than they are. Well, they had kept
sinning and kept disbelieving God and kept rebelling against
Him, and God said, how long am I going to put up with them?
How many things do I have to show them before they'll believe
me? Remember that? Numbers 14. And Moses stood up
as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He interceded on behalf
of them. God said, I'm just going to kill
them all. Moses, I'm going to make out of you a new seed. Moses
stood up on their behalf. There's one mediator between
God and me and the man, Christ Jesus. And that was who Moses
represented, okay? He stood up and said, now, if
the Egyptians hear this, they'll hear that you weren't able to
save them. But you said you were and you're not able to. If they
hear this, your name will be blasphemed. And then Moses pleaded this.
He said, show your great power. It's going to take great power
to save these no good wretches. It's going to take great power.
What's the great power of God? He said, show your great power.
He said, you're long-suffering. This is the greatest power of
God. He said, you're great in mercy. It takes great mercy to
save a great sinner. You know what David said? Pardon
my iniquity, for it's great. When God described His mercy
in Isaiah 55, He said, it's higher than the heavens are above the
earth. His greatness, the greatest power of God is His willingness
to save rotten, wretched sinners like us. And His mercy in sending
His beloved Son down here to do what He did for the likes
of us. That's mercy. You know, there
are two things that it is impossible for us to do. Two things are
impossible for us to do. And Christ did them both. Number
one, to take the blame that belongs to someone else. To take the blame for something
that somebody else did. That's impossible for us to do. Especially if they're an enemy
of yours. You know Christ's glory is in
not only what He said, but what He didn't say. And when He stood there before
His accusers, when He stood there on my behalf, when He stood there
as a representative of His people, being blamed for everything that
He was not guilty of, He spoke not a word. That's glory, isn't
it? There's a proverb, and I didn't
write it down, but it says, it's the glory of a man to pass by
a transgression. That he that forgiveth or hath
mercy is greater than he that winneth the city. It's impossible for us to do,
but that's what the Lord Jesus Christ did. And then, the next
thing impossible for us to do is give someone the credit for
what we did do. You just can't do it, unless
it's somebody you really love. And even then, you're going to
try to make it found out. Aren't you? That's what Christ did. When
we talk about Him giving us His righteousness, and God us walking
into glory, and God saying to the likes of us, well done thou
good and faithful servant. God forbid that I should glory
saving the cross of God. The mercy of God, the grace of
God, nowhere is displayed as it is at Calvary's trip. God's
sparing those that killed His Son, giving them full, free,
pardoned forgiveness of sins. Go back to Galatians 6 with me
again now. And this is why the apostles
say that God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And he mentions three crosses
here. Those who glory in the Christ of the cross. The two crosses, the two other
crosses spoken of here. And those who glory in the Christ
of the cross and what He did there, dare not, would not ever
bring up anything that they've ever done, as our brother said.
Oh, no, no, no. That's blasphemy. No one glories
in the cross that would ever mention their will or their works
or their decision or anything they ever did. No one could possibly
glory in what Christ did on the cross and bring that up and say
that. No, can't do it. Can't do it. You can't glory in the Christ
of the Cross if you don't believe He effectually and particularly
redeemed His people and put away their sin. Didn't try to save,
didn't die for the whole world. You're not glorying in the Christ
of the Cross if you believe anything other than particular redemption.
Because you know that your hope is that Christ put away your
sin. That when God sees the blood,
He'll pass over you. You know that. And the world and everything
in it, all they say and do. Look at here. There's another
cross. It says, by whom the world is crucified unto me. Three crosses
he speaks of. With glory alone in Christ on
the cross. And in the world is crucified
unto. In light of Christ being crucified. My poor attempts here tonight,
but maybe the Lord will use something we've read. But in light of Christ
being crucified, the glorious Son of God doing what He did,
who on earth could we possibly be impressed with? The world clamors to see and
to hear and to touch and be around the so-called celebrities of
this world. They call them stars. And they're God-haters. Most
of these so-called celebrities, they don't even believe God is.
They hate Him. God's not in their thoughts.
But people deify them and glorify them and brag on them, call them
great men in light of Christ and Him crucified. Who is great
upon this earth, huh? Who could we possibly glory and
brag about, huh? We're all guilty of that, aren't
we? We're all starstruck at times, huh? But they're really not, most
people, all people are not worth the rope to take the hang of.
That's beginning with me, these preachers. Preachers are nothing. That's what Paul said, didn't
he? I plant, I water, I'm nothing. One time they got in a popularity
contest at Corinth and Paul said, Paul didn't die for you. Didn't
he? Apollos didn't die for you. That's
carnal. God forbid that I should glory
and brag on and boast of anybody but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Who or what on earth? What could
we possibly be impressed with and admire in light of Christ
and Him crucified? And the thoughts and opinions
of this God-hating world. David said, I hate them that
hate thee. I quoted that to a fellow one
time, some religious fellow, and he was shocked. Apparently
he'd never read it. We were talking about false preachers
and false prophets and what they're saying about God, and I said,
I hate them. That's what David said. Do not I hate them that
hate thee. You'd hate somebody bringing
your loved one down, won't you? Well, if you love God supremely,
you hate those that are lying on Him and His Son. And what
they're doing to His glory and His honor, don't you? And His
Word. And the people that follow them.
Yeah, I hate them with a perfect hatred. Religion is anti-Christ in the
name of Christ. He said the world's crucified
man. The religions of the world, the thoughts and opinions and
pursuits and the way of this world, he said, is crucified
man. Away with it. Away with it. Don't want to be
a part of it. And he said here, look at verse
14, he said, and I unto the world. There's another cross and I need
to be on it. I need to be on it. I'm crucified
unto the world. In light of Christ being crucified,
What could anyone possibly say about me that would offend me? Really. Spurgeon used to say,
if somebody says something bad about you, just be glad they
don't say the whole truth. Just be glad it doesn't all come
out. But isn't that right? How could I be offended when
Christ, blameless, took the blame? That's the only thing that will
keep us from being offended. Only thing. Only thing. What
sacrifice have I made? What work have I done? Whom have I forgiven? I mean
completely forgiven. When have I ever strived against
sin unto blood? In light of Christ's crucifixion,
huh? What if I endure it? For us to be slighted, for us
to be insulted, for us to be abused, for us to be ridiculed
and said it not or neglected or evil spoken of, in light of
Jesus Christ, we all should say, I deserve it all. Hang me there. Hang me there. I used to sing
a song like that. I should have been crucified.
And that's a fact. Only for those who glory in the
cross will they see their need to be crucified in this world,
by the world. And he said, you will be hated.
You will be crucified. If it were possible, they'd hang
you on a cross. Oh, my. In light of Christ and
Him crucified, the only thing that will kill self-pride is
the The only thing that will kill self-love is the cross of
fire. The only thing that will effectively
do it. The only thing that will give
real repentance is Christ's crucifixion. Nothing else will do it. As you
see Him doing that for you. The only thing that will subdue
our lusts and our passions, the only thing. He did that because
of what I do. It's the only thing that will
subdue His pain, that crucifies the lust and the affection therein,
the flesh. The only thing that will make
us merciful, the only thing, is Christ to crucify. The only thing that will make
us gracious, the only thing that will make us forgiving, the only
thing, the only thing, this is it, is to see Christ crucified. That's
why Paul said, God forbid, that I should glory, saving the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let the world be crucified to
me and me unto the world. Everybody in glory knows why
they're there. Everybody. Because Christ died. Everyone of them. Well, my mother was lying in
that hospital bed after enduring pain and suffering. And I came
from her. I'm her seed. I'm her offspring. And there were many around her.
And you would have been there. There were others that would
have been there if they could have. But most of her offspring
were there. And the offspring of her offspring.
And husbands and wives of the offspring were all around there,
weren't we? We're all there for one person. I thought about this when she's
lying there. I looked around, everybody was there. They were
all there that loved her. They were all there that came
from her. They were all there because of
her. They were there because of her, okay? And I thought,
that's glory, isn't it? Everybody in glory knows why
they're there. Nobody's going to be there that
doesn't love Christ. Nobody's going to be there that doesn't
know who Christ is and what He did and glory in what He did
for them. Nobody's going to be there. But
those that glory in the Christ of the cross. That's why they
all sing right now as we meet. They're singing right now. Unto
Him. that loved us and washed us from
our sin in his own blood. God forbid that I should glow
saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.