Good morning. Turn to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. Let me read from verse 11 through
verse 18, the end of the chapter. And Doug, you lead us in prayer. You see how large a letter I
have written unto you with mine own hand. As many as desire to
make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised,
only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised,
that they may glory in your flesh. 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. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature, a new creation. And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace, be on them in mercy upon the Israel of God.
From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the
marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen." The title of the lesson, We Glory
Only in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it's evident
through the scriptures here in Galatians that we have looked
at, and the other epistles that Paul wrote, that Paul loved the
Lord's church probably more than anyone else other than the Lord.
I mean, it's so evident. He said he endured all things
for the elect's sake. He endured them all. At one time
he said this, he wrote this, he said, if it were possible,
if this would save my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the
flesh, I would be accursed from Christ. And you know, he meant
that. That was not just a statement, you know, that sounded good.
Paul really meant that. He said, if my being accursed
from Christ, separated from Christ, perish in hell, If that would
save my brethren, I'd do it. I'd do it. That's how much he
loved the church. That's how much he loved his
brethren, you know. And if the Lord would save him,
he would be willing to be accursed. That's strong love. Now that's
strong love. Now he says in verse 11, and
he shows by this verse how much he loved them. You see how large
a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand." You
know, all the other epistles, Paul is the author of them, but
he dictated them. Someone else wrote them, but
Paul took in hand to write this epistle. And he wrote it to them. He wanted them to know how much
he loved them. And he wrote this epistle to
them to express his love, not only to correct them, not just
to correct, but to express. his genuine love for them, and
how much their turning away from the gospel grieved him. You know,
it's, as a pastor, it's grievous to see someone leave, to see
someone leave the gospel. You know, there's one particular
person comes to my mind after sitting under, sat under Henry
for years, and then one day said, I don't believe that no more.
I'm like, that is so heartbreaking. It's so heartbreaking. And for
Paul, it was a real grief to him that they should turn to
another gospel. But he sets this in the right
light of these Judaizers that came among them, these false
apostles, these false preachers. And he lets them know that the
real motive for them coming and doing what they are doing is
not for their good, but it's for their own personal glory.
You see, in verse 12, For as many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh, the sole purpose of these false preachers, and
even today, the sole purpose is to promote their own glory,
their own agenda, their own well-being. And He says, that's why they
constrain you to be circumcised. Getting you to convert over to
their way is their glory. It's their glory to get you to
convert over to their way. Getting you in our day, getting
you to be baptized, getting you to accept Jesus as your personal
Savior, getting you to make a decision for Christ, that's their glory. It's their glory. You hear this, and I've heard
this, how many were saved in the last meeting? You know, they'll
have revivals, you know, back home in that area that, you know,
they have their revivals, what they call the revivals. And here's
what they want to know. Here's what somebody will always
ask, how many were saved? How many converts did you have?
It was one man that I talked to a few years, some years ago
before I came here. They had their revival and they
were having, well, they were having a Bible, summer Bible
school, that's what it was. They were having a summer Bible
school. And he came in, he told me, he
said, we had, he told me how many children, this is sad, this
is sad as can be, how many children they got converted. He told me
a number of children they got converted. You didn't get them
converted, you gave them a false hope. You've given them a false
refuge at such a young age, and now they're going to look back
to that time. They're not going to look to Christ. They're going
to look back to a time and a place and say, that's when I was saved. They do this for their own glory,
their own glory. One of the questions that I get
asked so many times is, how many is in your congregation? I get
asked that question so many times. It's a numbers game. It's literally
a numbers game. Religion is big business, and
it's a numbers game. I don't know. You know, I can
tell you this is so. I've never counted how many people
are here. I've never counted them. Because I remember what
God did to David when he started counting Israel. I don't count. I don't know. I don't know. Of course, you can look at the
place and give a guess, but I don't know. I don't go count and see
how many people are here each week. I preach to those who are
here. I preach to those who show up.
And you know the ones that are here are supposed to be here.
Everybody here this morning is not here by accident. Not one
person ever crosses the path of the gospel by accident. God
Almighty is crossing my path and your path on purpose. He's
doing it on purpose. Here's a second reason Paul says
they constrain you to be circumcised. It's this, "...lest they suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ." There's too much persecution
in the cross of Christ as the cross of Christ. His cross. You see, they compromised in
order to get along. They didn't want to suffer persecution
from their countrymen, the Jews. They didn't want to suffer persecution
for Christ's sake. They didn't want to do that for
Christ's sake. That was just too much. So they compromised. Don't we see that going on today
with transgender, homosexuality? There was a church in this area
that had put out a statement that they no longer was against
that. They're no longer against that.
Let me tell you something. Here's what we are against. First
of all, what God is. What God is against. I am no
more against, now listen, I'm no more against homosexuality,
transgender, than I am self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is just, it's
worse. Self-righteousness robs God of
His chief glory, His redemptive glory. Now that's just as wrong. You know, the Lord said to Capernaum.
You remember Capernaum was His city. He said, If the mighty
works which were done in you had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah,
they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Of
course, here's a direct revelation of God's sovereignty. Why didn't
He do it? He knew it. He says, if I had
done this in that day, they would have repented, but He didn't
do it. It was God's purpose to bring that place into judgment
and leave us an example of what God's going to do to all those
who sin, all those who are outside of Christ. But here, we're not
going to compromise. We're not going to give in to
the peer pressure of our day and set the Word of God aside.
We're not going to do it. And as this thing keeps going,
sooner or later, we're going to find out. Sooner or later,
as this country keeps going in that direction, it's going to
put the church and state at odds with one another. It's going
to put the government and the church in a direct collision.
You think Satan doesn't know that. You think he's not behind
that. You think he doesn't know. He's not going to get rid of
religion. He's going to get rid of the gospel. You know, if this,
if right now, if the gospel of the glory of God, of sovereign
grace, if it were to leave this country, this would still be
one of the most religious countries on earth. It wouldn't become
atheist. It'd still be very religious,
except it would just be totally compromised. Anything, everything. You know, you believe this? Well,
come on. Well, you believe that? Well, come on. It doesn't matter.
It don't matter. We're all just like that commercial. Jesus gets us. That's pathetic. That's pathetic. In other words,
he understands all of our sinfulness and wretchedness. I tell you
this, I do say, sinners come on, but I tell you this, as Paul
said, old wretched man that I am, but you ain't going to live like
one. You ain't going to live like one. There's going to be
a change. There'll be a change. But here's
why they want you to be circumcised, because they don't want to suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ. They don't want to suffer
persecution for salvation in Christ alone apart from any works
in any way, shape, or form. We are not saved by being baptized.
We are not saved by observing days or months or years. We are
not saved by any of these things. We are saved by faith in Christ
Jesus alone. Alone. And even that faith is
a gift of God. That's what the Word of God said,
just that faith is a gift of God. For he says here in verse
13, For neither they themselves who are circumcised, the Jews,
keep the law. They don't keep the law. He said
they don't keep what they're trying to get you to do. What
they're trying to get you to keep, they don't keep. but desire
to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh,
that brag on you as being their convert. You're their convert. None of you are my converts.
I don't care if God saved 10,000 and brought them in here, they're
not my converts, they're His. They are His. Salvation's of
the Lord. Regeneration's of the Lord. Conversion
is of the Lord. It's not me. I'm just a messenger. As John said, I'm just a voice.
That's all I am. I'm just a voice. That's all
I am. But now we do glory. We do glory. He said, they glory in your flesh.
They glory in themselves. But now we do glory because everyone
is going to glory in something or someone. Everyone. Everyone
is going to glory in something or someone. But Paul gives us
in verse 14 what the believer or the one the believer glories
in. Here is our glory. But God forbid that I, God forbid
this, that I should glory save or in anything, save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. by whom the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. God forbid that I should glory
in anything except the person and work of my Lord for me." You know, when God saves a sinner,
this is going to happen. When God saves a sinner, this
is going to happen. He's going to kill all those
things that sinner naturally glories in. This is one of the
processes that happens when God saves a sinner. We naturally
glory in the flesh. There are those who glory in
their ancestry, their family tree. You know, the Jews said,
We be not sinners. Paul said, I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He said, at one time, I gloried
in my ancestry. You know, the family tree has
got to come down. It's got to be cut down. You
know, we quit looking back into the family tree and we just look
to that one who hung on the tree, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
must lay the ax to the root of the tree. And we quit glorying
in that. And then we quit, he's got to
kill our religious profession. Paul said he was a Hebrew of
the Hebrews, and then what did he say he was? A Pharisee of
the Pharisees. He said, I was a Pharisee of
the Pharisees. I was one of the chief Pharisees.
Self-righteous. Self-righteous. You know, one of the things that
God has to kill in us is pride of place, pride of race, and
the most dangerous of all, pride of grace. He's got to kill that. Is grace still amazing to you?
Is it still amazing that God saved you? Have you ever found
yourself sitting at home, all to yourself, and it just astounds
you that God has saved you? You've got family members who
don't believe, And yet you do. And that's humbling. It's humbling
when you realize that you do, you believe the gospel. I believe
the gospel. And one of the encouraging things
about that I believe the gospel is that I know, I know in my
heart I believe it because I can't help it. I cannot unbelieve it. I can't unbelieve it. I believe
it. God has made it that evident
to me, as evident as that sun shining out there. The gospel,
is that real to me? Jesus Christ, is that real to
me? You walk outside, the light is shining, and you see the trees,
and you see the gardens, and you see everything in the light
of that sun. And I know, I know, I understand
the gospel in the light that God's given me in the face of
Jesus Christ. I know it. And it just astounds
me, it's amazing to me that God would save me. And that's one
of my, probably my chief desire, is that the Lord would save me.
That's my chief desire, Lord save me. Peter said when he was
about to drown, Lord save me or I'll perish. Save me, I can't
save myself, I can't do anything, I can't stop this or that, I
can't save myself, you gotta save me. You gotta save me. God forbid that I should glory,
he's gotta kill this, our glory and our talents and our gifts. One of the things that we have
to learn, and I had to learn this, I had to learn this, and
I'm still learning it, I'm still learning it. I had to learn I
can't preach. There was a time when I went
to the preacher school, I thought, I believe, felt strongly I was
called to preach. And Henry wrote me a letter.
He said, a desire to make Christ known does not constitute a call
to the ministry. He said, because all God's children
desire to make him known. I thought, what a wise statement. What a wise statement. But when
I went there, I went there with a desire to preach the gospel.
And I'm telling you, after two years being in that preacher
school, I didn't want Henry to call me even to pray. I didn't want
to be called on to pray. I didn't want to be called on
to preach. Because I thought I couldn't do it. I couldn't
do it. Until God kills what we think
that is our gifts and talents until he makes us realize that
we can't do anything. Christ said, without me, you
can do nothing. I can't stand here this morning
and do this because I was in a study all week. I can only
do this because the Lord enables me to do it. I prayed this morning. I did.
I prayed this morning before coming out here. I said, Lord,
bless this message because I can't do it even though I've studied
all week. It doesn't matter. I realized that. I realized all
the studying I've done doesn't matter. And if he doesn't bless,
all I'll do is just follow an outline. But he's got to bless. And then he's got to kill the
pride that's in us. Oh my. Yeah, I tell you what, pride
will grow on concrete. It will. It'll grow anywhere.
You don't even have to fertilize it. I was reading on a package
the other day, I was wanting to put out a little food plot,
and it said, it grows in hard weather. That's pride. It grows in hard weather, harsh
weather. Then it's, now I tell you, here's something else. He's
got to kill our morality. You know that young man that
came to the Lord, he said, all these I've done from my youth
up. He said, keep the commandments. He said, all these, you know,
his morality became his undoing. These nuns, first thing I thought
of this morning when I was going back over this, these nuns, they
go to this, is it called a monastery they go into? A convent, yeah. I couldn't think of the name.
They'd go into a convent, they'd declare it celibacy. You know,
we're just gonna, we're gonna stay pure. Well, your mind and
heart's not pure, I guarantee you that. I bet you, yeah, I
ain't gonna say it. Yeah, your mind and heart, that's
a sewer. But listen now, we do glory. We glory in the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't glory in the wood, we
glory in the person hanging on it. And this cross is all the
glorious work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's all
His work. It's His work as our surety, His work as our federal
head, our representative, our brother, our high priest, everything,
the Lamb of God. We glory in all that He is, the
full Christ. Not just part of Him, but the
full Christ. We glory in Him. It's all the
soul-suffering, sanctifying, satisfying work of Jesus Christ. It's all His resurrection, His
ascension, His glory. The cross of Christ is all that
He is, all that He does, and all that He'll do. And we glory
in it. We glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now
why is it right to glory in the cross? Why? Well, one of the
first reasons is this, because the one hanging on that cross
is God. He never ceased to be God when
they nailed Him to the cross. He never ceased to be God. Paul
speaks of God purchasing the church with His own blood in
Acts 20.28, I believe it is. He never ceased to be God. Philip
said, My Lord and my God when he looked at the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then we glory in Him and it's right to glory in Him because
He's the Redeemer appointed by the Father. He's my Redeemer. He's my near kinsman. He's my
brother. He literally is my brother. He
really is. And then it's right to glory
in Him because His blood is the atonement of our sins. It's right
to glory in the cross of Christ because through His blood we
have the atonement. And it's only right to glory
in His cross because it's, listen, the message of the cross is true.
What I'm telling you is true. This is not a version. This is
not our version of it. This is the cross. This message
is true. Who hath believed I report, and
to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? It's a true message. The message of Christ crucified
is true. Two thousand years ago, give
or take a few years, Jesus Christ, Son of God, God in human flesh,
was nailed to a cross. He was nailed to a cross, and
the message of that cross The message that says of God, of
Christ, and of us is true. It's true. It's a message that
God has given to us, His Son. God has given to us, through
His Son, reconciliation. Anybody interested in being reconciled
to God? Is anybody interested? Is anyone
interested in how that you, how that I, I can stand before a
holy God. Who can stand before such a one
as terrible as God? Well, I'll tell you how in Christ
Crucified. When we talk about the cross
of Christ, we're talking about Christ and Him crucified. That's what
we're talking about. Life by His death is real. Cleansing
by His blood is real. Righteousness by His obedience
is real. It's real, and it's right to
glory in Him. It's not right to glory in anything else. It's
right to glory in Him. Why do we glory in the cross
of Christ? Because it glorifies God in all His attributes. Creation
glorifies a part of God, the wisdom of God, the power of God,
the goodness of God. But we cannot understand by creation
the grace of God, the mercy of God, how God can be a just God
and a savior. You're not going to look at a
tree and find that out. But you will look at the one who hung
on a tree and find that out. That's where you understand who
God is and how God can be just. And that's where in Jesus Christ,
in Jesus Christ, all of God's attributes are glorified, holy
and just, gracious and merciful. That's where righteousness and
peace can kiss each other. He's at the cross. And then we
glory in it because of this, it meets the need of every sinner
saved by it. It meets every need I have. There's
not one need I have that Christ and Him crucified doesn't meet.
It meets it all. For example, are you thirsty? Drink. He said, come to the water
and drink. Are you hungry? Eat. Are you
weary? Rest. Come unto me and I'll give
you rest. Are you filthy? Wash. Confused? Sit at his feet and learn of
him. Sick? He's the balm of Gilead. He's everything. And we glory
in the cross because of the results of it. Peace with God. Reconciliation
to God. Joy in the Lord. We now rejoice
in Christ. And probably at the top of all
of it, and this one's been, I don't know why, but I guess the Lord
just put it on my heart this week to think about, but Sons
of God. I've been thinking this week,
it's been pressed on my mind that I preach to the sons and
daughters of God every week. You're the ones He died for.
You're the ones He suffered for. And I keep thinking how serious
I ought to take this, how much more serious I ought to take
it. Now listen, and I'll close here.
Paul says that we glory in the cross of Christ, and he says
something else in here, "...by whom the world is crucified to
me, and I unto the world." Paul is saying, I fell out of love
with the world, and the world has fallen out of love with me.
The world doesn't love you no more. It doesn't love you at
all. Paul, like Abraham, was looking
for a city whose builder and maker is God. Are we looking
for that city too? Are we really looking for that
city also? Are we not strangers and pilgrims
in this world? We sure are. But Paul says here, by whom the
world's crucified to me and I unto the world. He's talking about
being crucified to the honors that men give. You know, most
so-called churches now, when they call a man, they wanna know
if he's been to the seminary, what degrees does he have by
his name. God recognizes no degrees. Here's my degree, sinner in need
of mercy. That's my degree. And I never
get above that. The honors of men mean nothing.
Seriously, they mean nothing. The applause and praise of men
do not attract me now. Now, it takes a little while
for this to really settle in. As babes in Christ, even as young
men in Christ, we still struggle with this. You know, we struggle
with it because that old Adamic nature is still with us. But
as we grow older, I thought this morning, I thought it was a matter
that I was thinking of and I thought and I said, Lord, thy will be
done. When I was a young man, there were things I wanted to
do. And to say, thy will be done, I will be honest with you, I
can feel it. Because I wanted to do it. It'd
be like saying, Lord, if it's your will, don't let it rain
today, because I want to do something. And you're thinking, I really
want to do that. I hope it doesn't rain, or I
hope it doesn't. But you know, as I've gotten older, there's
nothing more comforting to me than to say, thy will be done.
There's nothing more comforting. I mean, I really find rest and
peace in that. There was a time, even as a young believer, that
I could say that, and I knew to say that, and I knew it was
right, but I could feel a little twinge because I was afraid it
wasn't His will and I wanted to do it. Well, now I'm afraid
the opposite direction. I'm afraid of doing it against
His will. Lord, Thy will be done. Thy will be done. The world's crucified to me,
and I unto the world. The applause of the men don't
mean anything now. What the world thinks of me doesn't
matter. It's what God thinks of me. The riches of this world
don't draw me now like they used to. They used to draw me. The
unsearchable riches of Christ draw me now. That thrills my
soul. That's what draws my heart. I
want those durable riches. That can't be stolen. And the
world's crucified to me. The world doesn't love me anymore.
The Jews wanted to kill him. The world didn't enjoy his company.
The world doesn't enjoy your company. Your phone will quit
ringing. They won't call you no more.
They won't call you. They won't do it. If you were
of the world, the Lord said they would love you. The world would
love you. And we'll give you an example and I'll close. Two
thieves hanging on a cross. Remember those two thieves hanging
on a cross? At one time they were friends. I'm sure they were
friends. They ran together. I'm sure they
got caught. Probably got caught at the same time. They stole
together. But something happened. One was crucified on a tree.
One was crucified with Jesus Christ. What a difference. One was crucified on a tree.
One was crucified with Christ. There was a separation of affections.
One still loved the world and wanted to come down from the
cross. And he would whip right back to what he was doing. The
other one wanted to go and be with him in paradise. He didn't
ask to come off that cross no more. He said, Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. See, the other one, he just wanted
to continue to live on in this world and continue doing what
he's doing. The other one didn't. It was a separation of affection.
And this is one of the things that separates you and the world
is your affection. Peter, do you love me more than
these? Turn over to Jeremiah 9 real
quick. In Jeremiah 9 verse 23-24, Thus
saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither
let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory
in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this, that
he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which
exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these things I delight, saith the Lord.