Your turn's coming. Let me ask you to turn in your
Bible to our text for this morning, which is a follow-up on what
we've done this past Wednesday and last Sunday morning. Galatians
chapter 6, the last chapter of Galatians. The very next book
to follow chapter 6 of Galatians is Ephesians. You might find
that easier to find. Galatians chapter 6, and our
verse is verse 14. Doug kept talking about markers,
and I bet I got a dozen in here. If I had to turn to them, I would
be hard-pressed. Now let us beg for the Lord to take His gospel that is all Christ
from start to finish and speak it to us in such a way that we'll
never forget it. Christ is everything. Christ
is all. He's my all in all. Alright,
may we pray. Lord, we're amazed when we look at the thermometer
outside and find such bitterly cold weather. And yet, if you have brought us to a saving
knowledge of the precious Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. We know
that whatever it is, is because you have determined it to be,
and it is your prerogative, and it
never changes, that you rule in heaven, in earth, and in hell,
and that you do as you please Every second of every day, of
every week, of every month, of every year, for all time and
eternity. Whatever you do, we have no other word except
to say, it must be right. It has to be. Cannot be otherwise. I may complain, and I suppose
we'll do that till we leave this world, but if you're our God, Christ
our Savior, the Holy Spirit who performed the miracle of the
new birth in our souls, Lord, we're glad to be here. if you would but presence yourself
among us, take up your own cause, open this Bible to us like never
before, that we might be brought first
of all to believe and love and adore and worship your Son, the
Lord Jesus. And then, Lord, for you to show
us something about ourselves. Oh, we're just sinners. Nothing
more, nothing less. But if we're in Christ, we are
His, and He is ours. Here we are this morning in a
very comfortable place, plenty of heat, and what a wonder to be able
now to look at this book and perhaps discover some things
we've never discovered before. But this is your prerogative
and not ours. We hope, we pray, we beseech
you that you'll own your word in this place. Thank you for
this, people, these dear friends. Lord, come, speak to us, we pray. Amen. Galatians 6.14, But God forbid
that I should glory, except in the cross, of our Lord Jesus Christ," now
Paul is adding this statement, "...by whom the world is crucified
unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
avails anything nor uncircumcision." Now that was a subject, a very
hot burner subject in Paul's day. that the Jews were trying
to get everybody to be circumcised, and that the gospel required
no such thing. And yet it was very difficult
to get those churches to turn from that when it had been poisoned
by some Jewish people who were trying to add Christ to Moses.
And of course, the law of Moses required that you were to have
that circumcision. Verse 16, and as many as walk
according to this rule. What rule? The rule is simply this, in Jesus
Christ, neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creation. A new creation. So let's take
a look at this subject in regard to the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. What is this cross that Paul
is talking about in Galatians chapter 6? First of all, it is
not talking about a literal, physical, actual cross. though
there was one. But thank God it cannot be found. If it were, it would be full
and overrunning with people to come worship it as an idol. And
you and I would be among them if God does not prevent it. So
it's not the literal cross. It's not the actual wood or the
material of the cross. It's not the physical cross at
all. Not at all. This cross is talking
about a death. God dying in our room place instead. That, my friend, is the cross. To hang one around our necks,
to wear one as a, whatever you call these things that keep a
necktie from jumping around, that's pure idolatry. It's just
absolute idolatry. We are to worship God in Christ,
not the cross. Somebody said if one of our loved
ones were put to death in the gas chamber, you think you'd
be wearing an emblem of that, you know, to tell everybody?
No. You sure wouldn't. Not if you
got a lick of sense, you wouldn't. But that's what is happening
in regard to the cross. There are on church steeples
across this nation and world. And I wish we didn't even have
a steeple myself. But I'll guarantee if there had
been a cross on top of it, it wouldn't have survived however
many years I've been here because I'd have worn out my whatever
gun I could find, at the time I didn't have any except maybe
a BB gun, but I could have started with that. But it's meaningless. The minute the worshippers leave
this building, it's just like any other building in this county. It just happens to be it's built
in such a way as to accommodate people in various size groups
and what have you. So if this cross is not in that
literal, material, physical cross, nor the sign of the cross, what
is it in? It is in the person who died
on that cross. Who was it? Obviously, there were two others
that died, one on either side of Him. But their deaths cannot
change anything. But that one in the middle, oh
that one, It is the God-Man Christ Jesus. Therefore, we say, God
forbid, for us to glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'll confess this to you, and
I don't care who you tell, but my brain does not work like it
did not too long ago. I don't know just when all this
started changing, but I have to write more things down than
I used to have and all that, and it's tough. It is tough. I'd appreciate your prayers in
that respect. Here is what we must glory in
when we talk about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
first one has to do with atonement, or sometimes you might run into
it in some writings, at-one-ment. That is, that certain persons
who have come to know the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, and have
been redeemed and saved and regenerated by Him, this is an atonement
that is accomplished. We can add nothing to it nor
take anything from it. It did not leave us anything
to do. And why preachers can keep on
saying it, I do not know. God's done all He can do. Listen,
if God's done all He can do, let's go somewhere and play a
round of golf or do whatever you can do. This place wouldn't
be worth two cent if that were the case. In Luke chapter 9 and verse 31,
and please don't turn unless you just... Now if you got one
of them electronic jibber-doos, whatever they are, you're welcome
to go to it. But I'm going to have it read
before you guys get to it and then I'll have another one. Alright,
in Luke chapter 9 verse 31, it reads, "...who appeared in glory,
This is on the Mount of Transfiguration. Our Lord, Peter, James, and John,
and Moses, and Elijah had a little meeting on that mountain on this
occasion, who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease, which
He should accomplish at Jerusalem. The only death of a human nature
in this whole world that called his death an accomplishment. Next time you go to a funeral, listen for that and see what
you find out. Second thing about this, is that
this glorious cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is a cross that
proclaims reconciliation with God. Christ, by His shed blood,
has reconciled all of His people to God. people who had already
lived their lives on this planet for thousands of years, people
who were alive at that exact moment, and people until the
end of time, will prove that Christ has reconciled every last
single one of those precious souls that God gave to Christ
in the covenant of peace in old eternity. Then there's another
scripture to back this one up, and I won't tell you what it
is yet. And having made peace, Christ having made peace through
the blood of His cross. The blood. Not the wood, the blood. having made peace through the
blood of Christ by Him, by the Lord Jesus, to reconcile, this
is God, to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him, I say,
whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. That is
wonderful, wonderful news. Then a third aspect of this cross
is not only atonement and reconciliation, but it is what we have come to
know as substitution. Christ went to the cross as his
people's substitute. If he died, they cannot die.
That is not as a penalty for sin. We're all going to die one
way or another unless our Lord comes back in our lifetime. And
my lifetime is getting kind of short. Let me read you another
statement. That one was out of Colossians
1.20 and this one is in Isaiah. I'll go that far. Surely He has
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem
Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded, Christ on
the cross was wounded for our transgressions. Now everybody
cannot have that hour, oh you are. But every soul for whom God put
into the care and keeping of our Lord Jesus Christ, those
people must indeed be believers and be brought to
this glorious esteem. Can you say this about yourself? Can I say this? In regard to
Christ, surely He has borne my griefs? I know the King James
says, our griefs. But do I know that He was bearing
my griefs? Not your girlfriend breaking
up with you. That ain't what we're talking
about when it comes to grief. We're talking about the grief
of sin. The grief of damnation. The grief
of condemnation. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. All of us. All of us. Some on
the high road, some on the low road, and some on the middle
road. But we've all gone as far from God as we could get. We
have him in our vocabulary. And we tell people that we're
pleasing Him in whatever it is that we undertake to do, but
these things are virtually meaningless except for us to understand what
it is that I'm reading to you now straight out of the book
of Isaiah. He was wounded for our transgressions. If He was, you must Be saved. You must. He will save you. I don't know when, but he will.
Wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, he had none of his own. The chastisement
of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we're healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray. I told you this just recently,
but let me remind you another time. I dare you to read from
about the middle part of Matthew 25 to the end, where our Lord
is speaking of judgment day and He's the judge. And He's judging
just two kinds of people in this whole universe, just two kinds.
One is sheep and the other is a goat. And sheep don't quit being sheep
and goats don't quit being goats. Now think about that. And what
He says about those sheep, and when He gets through talking,
they say, Lord, we don't remember doing any of these things for
You. And then He talks about the goats. And when He gets through
describing them, they say, we don't remember not having done
these things for You. Now somebody is in a world of
hurt, and it is the goat. Though he's in sheep's clothing,
he's still a goat. Still a goat. All we like sheep have gone astray,
we've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all. Now let me clarify that statement.
laid on Christ, what burden? The burden of sin,
rebellion, ungodliness, unfaithfulness, everything you can imagine. But
it's only for the sheep. It's only for the sheep. Christ
died for His sheep. You'll find that in John chapter
10. Now we come, letting that be
enough on the term the cross, we come now to preach this cross in preaching
the gospel of Christ. So let's identify what the gospel
of Christ is as best we can. Now this was an extremely long,
well not Nine verses long, which ain't
terribly big, but it's in the book of Proverbs and it's in
chapter 8. Proverbs chapter 8. Now, in this Proverbs 8, I want
you to look at some statements that have to do with the eternality
of Christ. That Christ is eternal. He's always been, He is, and
He always will be. Hebrews something or other says
the same, chapter 13 I think says, yesterday, today, and forever. But I want you to listen carefully
as we read. You look at it on your Bible
and I'll read it out of this one. The Lord blessed me in the
beginning of His way." This is Christ speaking about God the
Father before His works of old, before this world was made or
anything else was created on this globe. I was set up from everlasting. Now, how far back is everlasting? It's infinite. It never ends.
That's how long our Savior has been possessed by God the Father
in this glorious work of redemption on Calvary's tree. Before His
works of old, verse 23, I was set up from everlasting, from
the beginning, or ever, that is before, The earth was. You know what that means? This gospel, that's all grace, was already entered into by the
holy three in one before there was ever such a thing as a sinner. And then Adam sinned. And all
His descendants, you and me and everybody else, except Christ,
are born with that sin nature. And we love being a sinner. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, wherever the earth was. When there were
no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled before
the hills, was I brought forth." How can this be? In the mind
and purpose and will of God. And it's just as good as done,
no matter how many centuries it takes to get to His birth
in Bethlehem. Before the mountains, verse 25,
were settled, before the hills was I brought forth. While as yet He had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world, When He prepared the heavens, I was there. When
He set a compass upon the face of the deep, Christ was there. And if you read Colossians, it
adds a good bit more to that than we can find looking at it
in these words. You know what they are? There
ain't nothing made that Christ didn't make. You ever heard that? Colossians 1 or 2, I forget which,
I think chapter 1. Verse 28, when He established
the clouds above, Christ was there. When He strengthened the
mountains of the deep, Christ was there. And He's not there
just to look. He speaks and it's done. When He gave to the sea His decree,
you can come this far and no further. We can't do that to
a washtub. But Christ says it, not just
to one ocean, but all the oceans and bodies of water wherever
it is on this globe. When He gave to the sea His decree
that the waters should not pass His commandment, when He appointed
the foundations of the earth Then I was by Him as one brought
up with Him." Now, how you can call God being brought up, I
don't know. But it ain't the way you and
I are brought up. "...as one brought up with Him,"
in verse 30, "...and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always
before Him, Here's our last verse in this reading, "...rejoicing
in the habitable part of the earth, and my delights were with
the sons of men." How come the Lord Jesus has delights for people
of the human race? Because that's what he's going
to be wearing when he comes into this world. A human nature. What an awesome statement that
is. To preach the gospel, we have
to preach messages like that. Not be scared. You couldn't get
by with it in any other church in this county, but so what?
Somebody might hear it. Oh, but this is something. Second thing about preaching
the cross is to preach the incarnation. And I've lost that. Let me see
if I can retrieve it. If you can find some paper that
won't shake, I would love to have it. Here it is. You should know this by heart,
and so should I. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest. in the flesh. Christ Jesus is
God in the flesh. Justified in the Spirit, that
is, by the Holy Spirit of God, seen of angels. Boy, this is
something that hasn't always been preached unto the Gentiles. Paul had gotten a lot of hurt
in the book of Acts in regard to that, didn't he, Doug? Yes,
indeed. Believed on in the world. What
a miracle. What a miracle. Made higher. I'm jumping. I think I'm a jig. Preached to the Gentiles, believed
on in the world, and received up into glory. Then we come in
the, if I can find my place, in regard to the incarnation,
which we've just covered in 1 Timothy 3.16, then we come to His holy
life, Christ living, as a man on this earth for over 30 years. Some say 32 or 3, some say 30. It doesn't matter which it is.
Whatever it is, it is. But in regard to this holy life
that our Bibles speak of, let's see if I can find that. Yes. This is found in Hebrews. For such a high priest became
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, was made higher than the heavens. who
needs not daily, as those high priests in the Jewish system
of the Old Testament, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own
sins and then for the sins of the people. For this he did once
when he offered up himself." Christ is our sacrifice. What a wonderful, wonderful statement. Then in Hebrews again, we want
to speak of His holy life and sacrificial death. Let me see
if I can find my place here. Here it is. But Christ being
come, a high priest of good things to come by a greater and more
perfect sacrifice, not made with hands, that is to say, not of
this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but
by His own blood. Christ, by His own blood, entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies
to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offer himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? And for this cause He is the
Mediator. Christ is the one and only Mediator
between God and men. That is the God-man, Christ Jesus. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the
world has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself." His death is absolutely a sacrifice. And for anybody
to just blow smoke at such a statement as that, do not know who God
is and who they are and what grace is. But I know that many
of you do, and I'm so thankful and glad. Sometimes I suspect
I don't have any knowledge whatsoever in that regard, but thankfully
it doesn't last. Oh, there are just so many other
places. Let me see what my... I need to... move to the last
point, which is the third one, and that is the cross. At the
cross of Christ, everything is exposed and everyone speaks. And the places that we speak,
let's see if I can find This comes out of the Gospel
of Luke. And this has to do with what we say, what we are saying
in regard to Christ and to His Gospel. But His citizens, this is one
of the parables of our Savior, in Luke's Gospel, but his citizens
hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not
have this man to reign over us. Do you ever remember anything
close kin to that? Because if you don't, I don't
know if you know him or not. Part of knowing Him is knowing
us, ourselves. Ourselves. How about, this is the last time
I will ask you to turn. And it is, give me a second,
Psalm The second Psalm, it is one of the plainest and
clearest statements anywhere in the Scriptures in regard to
this subject. Alright, I'd like to read to
you. Well, shoot, let's just read
the whole psalm. It's only 12 verses long. Have you found it? Psalm 2 verse
1? Got it. Alright. Why do the heathen, which may
also be Gentiles, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine
a vain thing? Why is it that we have so much
trouble thinking rightly about the grace of God in Christ? The
kings of the earth set themselves against Christ, and the rulers
took counsel against The Lord and against His Anointed, that's
the Lord God Jehovah, and the Anointed One is our Lord Jesus
Christ. And here's what we said. But
preacher, this is what they said. We're just like them. We're born thinking the same
thing. Let us break their bands asunder. and cast their cords from us. Let's just all charge at one
time and tell God to get out of the way. We don't want Him
and we don't need Him. Let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us. He that sits in the heavens
shall laugh And the Lord is so disturbed
that He goes to crying. No, it says, the Lord shall have
them in side-splitting laughter. It's derision is the word. Then shall He speak unto them
in His wrath, and vex them in His sordid pleasure. And guess what God says next.
Are you following me? Yet, you said I couldn't, you
said you wouldn't let me, yet have I set my King upon my holy
hill of Zion." Now, put that in plain old English, it means
that after we've said all we can say and we're exhausted from
what we've said, telling God He can do this and He can't do
that, He just goes ahead and does it anyway. Ah, my goodness alive! Yet have
I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree,
this is our Savior speaking, the Lord
has said unto me, you are my son, this day have I begotten
you. And look at the next statement,
verse 8. Ask of me and I shall give you
the heathen for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for your possession. Sounds to me like if you've got
Christ, you've got everything there is. Problem is, we don't know that,
do we? That ain't our thinking at all. Then it is said concerning our
Lord, you shall break them with a rod of iron, you shall dash
them in pieces like potter's vessels. And now the Holy Spirit
speaks in the final three verses starting at verse 10. Be wise
now therefore, O you kings, be instructed you judges of the
earth, serve the Lord, with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss
the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the way. When
His wrath is kindled, but a little, a little, blessed are all they
that put their trust in Him. And that statement is as true
right now as it was the day David penned it. Hallelujah.