Thank you. Open your Bibles to
Galatians chapter 6, if you would. The book of Galatians chapter
6. We know that the legalists had
infiltrated the church at Galatia. These, the apostles said, entered
in preaching another gospel. There is no other gospel but
the gospel of grace. There is no other gospel but
the gospel of Christ Jesus. And any message that introduces
the necessity of a contribution on the part of a sinner to their
salvation is another gospel. We are not trying to be uncooperative,
or unkind, or whatever is the right word to use, but here's
the fact of the matter. We stand in opposition to all
false religion. Now, you say, preacher, you're
saying that you're right and everybody else is wrong. I'm
saying God's right. And we're all wrong. And we've
got to get into this book. We've got to find out what God
has to say about himself. God has not been silent. God
has spoken. God has made known who he is
and what his standards are. And God has said that he must
punish sin. And in this book, he sets us
forth as being great Bible sinners. If you take offense at being
named a sinner, well, you'll just have to bear the offense
because nobody's going to apologize to you. I said in the funeral
the other day, the biggest sinner is standing before you. We're
all guilty of violating God's law. Let's just say what we are. We're worms of the dust. We're
wretched creatures. Somebody says, I'm just not going
to stand for you to speak to me that way. Well then, there's
the exit doors. But if you want to have somebody
be honest with you, then you listen. Because you see, we're
in an awfully bad shape. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. And Adam, our father, we fell. And we fell to our death. To our death. To our spiritual
death. And unless God does something
for us, we will remain dead, spiritually dead, forever. Our only hope is for God Almighty
to do something for poor sinners like you and me. And bless our
God's name. In amazing wisdom and in infinite
knowledge, God fashioned the gospel. God ordained this Good
News of Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, coming into this
world. And in union with our nature,
in union with our nature, He would meet the Law of God, every
demand of the Law, and He would honor it. And then, having honored the
Law in His life, He would go to the cross of shame, the cross
of death. And there He would bear that
righteous penalty of the law, which is death for sin. The Word
of God says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's life
in Christ Jesus. In fact, He is our life. He is
our salvation. God in His infinite wisdom found
the only way whereby He remains just and righteous and holy and
He can save, He can forgive, He can wash away our sins and
that's only in the substitutionary death and the blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ. These men who infiltrated the
church of Galatia said that's all well and good, but you got
to keep the law. Who was it? Somebody back in
the office said they're all the time saying something about grace
and then adding the word but to it. Add the word but to it. Whenever somebody adds a but
to it, that's a goat adding a but. It's a goat said but. They bud. But God's people are thankful
for the gospel, for the glad tidings of free grace. That salvation
is fully conditioned upon the Lord Jesus. Well, the apostle
in the book of Galatians, he says, if anybody comes preaching
any other gospel, then I preach to you. Well, what gospel did
he preach? The everlasting gospel. He preached
the same gospel that all the Old Testament prophets preached.
He preached the same gospel our Savior preached. It says that
the Lord Jesus went forth preaching the gospel. This man preached
the same gospel the rest of the apostles preached. He preached
the same gospel as the evangelists preached. Glory be to God, we're still
preaching this gospel. Hey preacher, where'd you get
your gospel from? I got it from God's Word. And it's the same gospel His
servants have been preaching down through the years. Don't
you pay any mind to that reference Bible that says there are six
or seven different gospels according to the various dispensations
of the different ages in which men have lived. You know, there
are folks who even dare to say that the gospel the Apostle Paul
preached was different from the gospel that our Lord Jesus preached. Well, that is utter foolishness. That's utter nonsense. There
is but one gospel. The Apostle said, if anybody
comes preaching any other gospel, let him be anathema, let him
be damned. He said, I am not going to stand
for another gospel. There is only one message of
glad tidings. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, these infiltrators into
the church, they came preaching this works religion. And they
are just works mongers. We were talking about various
denominations back in the office a little earlier. And I just
made this statement. Listen, they are all peas in
the same pot. It doesn't matter what the name,
doesn't matter what the denominational name is, what the church name
is, all those who preach salvation conditioned upon man's will,
conditioned upon man's works, conditioned upon man's righteousness,
conditioned upon man's obedience, they're preaching a false gospel
and they're all going to perish. They are the blind leading the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
they are all going to fall into the ditch. I don't want to be
blind. And I don't want to lead people
in further blindness. I want to lead people into the
light. And the only light there is, is the light of God's own
Word. The light of the truth. The light
of Him who is the light. Now notice what the Apostle says
here in Galatians chapter 6, and he says this in verse 12,
As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain
you to be circumcised, that is, to obey the law. And the only
reason they do that, he goes on to say, is only lest they
should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. He says,
for neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law,
but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh,
that they may joy in your flesh. that they may boast in your flesh,
that they may rejoice in your flesh, that they may glory in
your flesh. But he says, but God forbid that
I should glory. God prevent me. This is what
the word prevent or the word forbid means. God forbid me from
glorying in anything like this. May God keep us from glorying
in any of our accomplishments, in any of our gifts. May God
keep us from that. May He prevent us from glorying. Because I'll guarantee you this,
that's our tendency. We just want a little bit of
glory. Just give me a, just brag on
me a little, just a little pat on the back. That'll sure help
me a lot. Just tell me how good I am. Tell
me how valuable I am. He says, but God forbid, God
prevent me. God keep me from getting, from
seeking any glory. But God forbid that I should
glory save or accept in this. Saving the cross. Saving the
death. Saving the substitutionary work. Saving that which happened at
Calvary. He and His work of redemption,
let that be our glory. Let that be our glory. What name do you want to have
in the community? Well, we want our church to have
a name of being a charitable church. Well, I believe we are
charitable. I believe we give. We give to
feed the hungry and give to various sorts of programs like that.
What kind of name do you want to have in the community? What
reputation do you want to have in the community? Well, I want
to have a reputation of being kind people, people who are forgiving,
people who are easy to get along with. I tell you, you should
be the best neighbor in the neighborhood. That's right. You're a child of God. You've
been forgiven. You forgive. You've been shown
mercy. You show mercy. Oh, how generous
God has been to you. Now, you be generous to your
neighbors. What name do you want in our church? What reputation
do you want to have for our church in this community? Well, mainly
this, that we glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
they preach over there at 13th Street Baptist Church. What do
you folks preach? We preach Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Yeah, but what else do you preach?
Nothing else. Nothing else. We have one message
day in, day out. Sunday in, Sunday out. But doesn't
that get old? No. It doesn't get old to us. It's the same message. It's as
sweet. In fact, it grows sweeter. The
message of grace grows sweeter through the years, don't you
think? It's more precious to us and I think it's because we
understand more of who we are and our awful dilemma and the
depths to which God had to reach down and pull us up. We recognize
more of our depravity, more of our rottenness, more of our filth,
more of our spiritual stench. And that's a result of God giving
us more light. He has enabled us through the
years to see more of what we are and therefore more of who
He is and what He has done for us. And we value His grace more. The Apostle Paul says, therefore,
God forbid, God keep me from glorying in anything else save
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now if ever there was a man that
could have some things to glory in, to joy in, to boast in, to
rejoice in, it would be the man who was led of the Spirit of
God to write this. But he didn't glory in his privileges,
he didn't glory in his pedigree. You read in Philippians chapter
3, he said, I'm the Hebrew of the Hebrews. And my mama was
a Hebrew and my daddy was a Hebrew. I can trace my lineage all the
way back to Abraham. What about you? He said, and
I excelled above many of my equals. I'll guarantee you this, whatever
Saul of Tarsus intended to do, he did it with all of his might.
And when he set out to persecute God's church, he did that with
all of his might. And he says so. Whatever he set
out to do, he pursued it with a fervent zeal. He said, I'm
not going to glory in my upbringing. I'm not going to glory in my
pedigree. I'm not going to glory in my
background. You know, he was brought up at
the feet of Gamaliel. He was the most famous teacher
of the ages. And I tell you, if Saul of Tarsus
had not been met by the sovereign Savior, if he had not been saved
by free and sovereign grace, he would have risen to the very
top of the Jewish religion. He was an absolutely brilliant
man and had gifts beyond many others. But he never gloried
in the gifts. He never did. Did you know he
wrote, if you include the book of Hebrews, he wrote over half
the New Testament? Well, I tell you, if there's
something that calls a man to glory a little bit, here's the
very Bible that we have tonight. This man was used in the Spirit
of God to write over half the New Testament. I would think,
you know, you go into town and somebody meets you and says,
who are you? Well, I'm writing over half the New Testament,
I'll tell you. I didn't just get into town on the back of
a pickup truck. I'm somebody. But he never talked
like that. In fact, whenever he did defend
his apostleship, he said this, I speak as a fool. Isn't that
right? That's what he said. I speak
as a fool. And there were those who so opposed him that on occasion
he had to stand up and say, now wait a minute. I'm not one whit
behind the chief apostles. But he didn't like to do that.
And he wasn't defending himself personally. He was defending
his ministry. He was defending his office as
a preacher of the gospel. This was an unusual man. And
if ever a man had a reason to glory, it would be in the fact
he founded so many churches. He traveled so many miles preaching
the gospel. Why, he traveled more miles than
any other apostle. And you can go to the back of
your Bible, to the maps, and look at his three missionary
journeys. And you look at all the miles that he traveled, and
you say, oh my, this man was a worker. In our language today,
we'd say, he was a workaholic. Well, he never rested except
for those times they threw him in prison. He'd get a little
rest in, but other than that he was always busy doing the
Lord's work. But he never gloried in it. He
never gloried in it. And sufferings, you can read
in What is the book, 2 Corinthians?
He talks about all the things that happened to him. And you
know, we're glad to tell somebody, well, how are you feeling today?
Well, I've got a headache, let me tell you about it. Asked the Apostle Paul, how you
doing? He could say, well, I'll tell you what, I've been in prison,
I've been in dungeon, I've been in shipwrecks, I've been hungry,
I've been naked, I've been out in the cold, I've been beaten,
anything else you want to know? And besides that, he said, there's
the care of the churches that falls upon me. But he didn't
glory in those things. No, not at all. He said this,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. I started this morning to say,
to answer this question, why did he glory in the cross or
how did he glory in the cross? He gloried in the cross by making
it the singular object of his ministry. He said, I have a determination
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Let's us have that determination. Deep down in our hearts. And
I'm talking to you folks who are, you're members of this church. You've been here. Let's all,
we've all got to have this same determination. be steadfast in
the gospel. Oh, God, help us to take a stand. This is a day when nobody hardly
takes a stand for anything. It's like anything goes today. When it comes to the gospel,
let us be like, who was it, Luther, who said, here I stand, I can
do no other. I'm just not going to move from,
I'm not going to move from the position of grace. I am not going
to move from the position of full effectual redemption by
Jesus Christ. I am just not going to move from
imputed righteousness. You can talk all you want to
about how something good and holy and wonderful is within
you and God looks within you and sees what's within you and
therefore He accepts you for what He sees within you, but
I'll just stick to the Word of God that says we're accepted
in Christ Jesus. I'll just stick to the Word of
God that says our righteousness is in the righteousness of a
person who's in glory. I'm righteous in Him. I'm going
to stick to the Bible. I want to stick to the Word of
God. And you can preach about man's free will from now to the
proverbial cows come home, but I'll say it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth the mercy.
Let's just stick to the old past. Go and stick to the old gospel.
Salvation is by grace alone. Let's make this the singular
object of our ministry. Let's have this determination. Well, you're not going to be
very popular with people. I'm not interested in popularity. I'm not interested in winning
the approval of the world. I'm not interested in cooperating
with the religions all around us. I'm interested in glorifying
Jesus Christ. That's what I'm interested in
doing. And God knows my heart, and God knows your heart, too.
He knows your heart. What are we all about here? We're
all about magnifying our God. Glorifying our God. How did Paul
glory in the cross? He made it the singular object
of his ministry. And I'll tell you something else,
he gloried in the cross by acknowledging, this is my only ground of acceptance
with God. That's how you glory in the cross.
There are not a multitude of ways to be saved. You got somebody
over here preaching you got to be baptized to be saved? Got
somebody over here preaching said you got to walk the aisle
and make a decision to be saved? Got somebody over here that says
you got to keep the Sabbath, which they say is Saturday, to
be saved? You got somebody else that says
you got to be good to be saved? The Apostle Paul, he preached
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says this is the only ground
of acceptance with God right here. If you're interested in
your soul's salvation, you better study the cross. You better study
substitution. You better study the sacrifice
of our Savior. Study about the grace of God.
How did he glory in the cross? He trusted the merits of the
cross. I have no merits, no merits at
all. All of my righteousness is as
filthy rags. My works before conversion have
no merit before God, and my works since conversion have no merits
before God. I only trust the merits of Jesus
Christ and His cross. His blood is my only confidence. What about you? His righteousness
only covers me. I am accepted in His beauties
alone. What about you? Well, you trust
Him. Who do you trust? You trust in your decision? You
trust in your experience? Always bothers me when I say
something to somebody. I ask, well, how are things between
you and the Lord? Well, let me tell you about my
experience 25 years ago. Let me tell you how I was in
that. It was a little white church out in the country. I can still
see it preaching. I remember them singing, sweet
hour of prayer. And I remember this feeling come
over me. Oh, watch those feelings. Luther
said, feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. I trust the Word of God, naught
else is worth believing. The Word of God alone. How did
Paul glory in the cross? He trusted its merits. And then
he lived upon its strength. We don't have any strength. The
apostle Paul didn't. I don't and you don't. Whenever
somebody tells me I'm so weak, I say, yeah, you are. So am I. But we have a mighty Savior who
saves. who keeps us. By His cross He
put sin away. He canceled our indebtedness.
He removed every sin stain. He eliminated from the divine
record every stench, every smell, of our sinfulness against God,
and now all that's registered before us, before God about us,
is a perfect righteousness. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Had He glory in the cross, He proclaimed its glory. He wouldn't
glory in anything else, He just refused to. Not in His carnal
privileges as a Jew, not in his moral, civil, or legal righteousness,
not in his gifts, not in his attainments, not in his labors,
not in his successes, not in anything he had ever done. He
gloried only in Jesus Christ the Lord. He proclaimed the glory of the
cross. That is the glory of the one
who died on the cross. The glory of the one who ordained
the cross and the glory of the one who reveals the cross. That's
what he did. Like the Apostle Paul, I can
say I glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and I'll give
you five reasons. I glory in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ because in it I see a compassion revealed. Many years
ago, back when I was in Bible college in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, we had a Welshman came to the school and he was a professor
for a short while. And he gave us an outline to
the preachers. He gave us an outline on Galatians
chapter 6 and verse 14. And I wrote it down in the Bible
I carried then. And every time I get a new Bible,
I'll write it down in that Bible as well. This outline is not
original with me. It comes from a Welshman who
is now with the Lord. But it's a wonderful outline.
And here it is. I glory in the cross of Christ
because I see in it God's compassion revealed. Would you know the
love of God? Look at the cross. Herein is
love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins. You want to see God's
compassion revealed? Look at the cross. Look at the
cross. And there you'll see that God
loves us with an everlasting love. He loved us savingly. He loved us sovereignly. He loved
us to give us a substitute. He loved us to sacrifice his
own son to save us. God loves us unconditionally. God loves us unendingly. I see a compassion revealed at
the cross. This professor said, and I echo
his words, I glory in the cross because I see in it a conquest
realized. Not only a compassion revealed,
but a conquest realized. Our Lord Jesus didn't die as
a helpless victim. Oh no. He didn't die as a frustrated
reformer. Oh no. He didn't die as a defeated
martyr. Oh no. He didn't die as a rebellious
king. Oh, no. He died and it was a
great conquest that he realized. He died as the satisfaction of
divine justice. He's the propitiation for our
sins. He's the one who satisfied justice. He died to conquer and bind Satan. He crushed his head. You read
Revelation chapter 20. He came down here to this earth. Our Lord Jesus did and He took
on the great enmity Enemy of our souls and he defeated him
at the cross He said in John 12 now is the judgment of this
world now shall the prince of this world be cast out And I
if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me this
he said signifying what death is should die Here's the conquest
realized. Here's the victor. He wasn't
the defeated one on the cross. The cross is the place of victory,
don't you see? It's a place of conquest. That's
where the mighty conqueror died. And when he died, every enemy
of God's elect died there. And our Lord Jesus arose again
and He took captivity, captivity. All of our foes, He defeated
them all. We're more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. I glory in the cross because
I see in it a conquest realized. I see that He died and secured
the salvation of His people. Thirdly, I glory in the cross
because I see in it a covenant respected. a covenant respected,
a legal binding agreement drawn up in the council chambers of
God Almighty. an everlasting covenant, a covenant
of grace. The blood of the Lord Jesus is
the blood of that covenant. It's the blood that was shed
and sealed the covenant. And He who wrote the covenant,
He who wrote His last will and covenant died. He sealed the
covenant with His blood and He came back from the dead to make
sure everybody's name who's in the covenant, who's in His last
will and testament, receives exactly what He purposed that
they would have. You write out your last will
in Testament. You say, okay, I want so-and-so
to have this and so-and-so to have that. And then you die.
Got the legal folks involved in it. It may take a while for
your wishes to come to pass. In fact, somebody might hire
a lawyer and say, hey, I don't like that last will and testament
that old Jim Byrd wrote because he left me out. And then some
lawyer causes a stink and it gets changed. But listen, our
Lord Jesus Christ, His will can't be changed because He ever lives. to make sure that His last will
and testament, everything that He ordained for His people, will
receive it all. He's the mighty conqueror. I
see a covenant respected. He's the surety of the covenant,
He's the mediator of the covenant, He's the messenger of the covenant,
and He's the revealer of the covenant. And in that covenant,
He was assigned the work to do. He said in John chapter 17, I
have finished the work thou hast given me to do. The work that
the Father assigned Him was to save His people from their sin.
And He said, I delight to do thy will, O God. And He did it. Fourthly, I glory in the cross
because I see in it a curse removed. The death of our Lord Jesus,
that was because of a curse. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. But He bore the curse, don't
you see? He bore the curse. He put us
in right standing with God. He's been punished. The law has
exacted from Him the full penalty for our sins. The curse has been
removed. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. And fifthly, I glory in the cross
because I see in it the Christian rule of life. Notice what he
says in verse 16. And as many as walk according
to this rule. That word rule is standard or
straight line. As many as walk according to
this rule. peace be on them and mercy and
upon the Israel of God. Measure all other messages by
this straight line of the gospel. Live by the rule of the gospel.
Now listen, people of God, we're not under the mosaic law. We're
not under the law of sacrifices and special days and holy days
and dietary laws and offerings and all of those sorts of things.
We're not under the laws of religious traditions invented by men. But preacher, the world expects
us to do thus and so. I don't live according to the
expectations of the world. I'm under a different rule. I'm
under the rule of King Jesus. I'm under the rule of the Gospel.
We live under the very comfortable rule of the Gospel. And here
is the rule. It's very simple. If somebody
asks you tomorrow, you got rules at your church? Yeah, preacher
gave us one rule yesterday. And here's the rule. Love Jesus
Christ with all your heart and live as you will. Is that okay? That's a simple rule. That's
not 10 of them, it's not 15, it's not 5, it's 1. Love the
Lord Jesus Christ and live as you will. You don't have to lay down laws
and rules and regulations for people. Love Jesus Christ and
live as you will. See, if you love Jesus Christ,
you won't cheat or lie or steal, all those kinds of things, right?
We have a different motivation than the world has. We love Christ. The cross of Christ is the Christian's
rule of life. Let me give you these last two
things back up in verse 14. He says, but God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Watch
this, by whom the world is crucified unto me. That is the apostle
Paul had crucified the world. with all of its vain philosophies,
the world with all of its empty glories, the world with all of
its opposition to the gospel. He said, I crucify myself to
the world. Crucified by that, he means for
us to understand he's dead to the world. I tell you, when the
Spirit of God brings you to rejoice in Jesus Christ and His glorious
work of redemption, this salvation by grace, you will immediately
be dead to the world's religions, to the world's philosophies,
and to the world's opposition to the gospel. The child of God
will say to the world, you can take me off your list of being
in opposition to God. You can stay in opposition to
God if you want to, but you count me out. You can count me out. I won't be a party to your defiance
of God, your determination to eliminate God from all the programs,
and your desire to eliminate God from the very vocabulary. Take my name off the roll in
promoting man and seeking to dethrone God. He said the world
is crucified unto me. I crucify the world because its
joys cannot last, its riches they cannot give me happiness.
Its smile cannot make me happy, and its frown will not disturb
me. I'm dead to it. I don't court
its approval, I don't seek its fame, and I don't want to go
to hell with it. I'm crucified to the world. I'll
use the things of this world, but I'm not going to live for
the world. I'm not a friend to this world any longer because
this world is anti-God, it's anti-Christ, and if you love
the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's anti-you as well. And he said,
and I unto the world, that is, just like I've crucified the
world, he said, the world's had it with me too. The world has marked me off their
list. This world is absolutely opposed
to the gospel that I love. This world is opposed to the
people of God. It's opposed to the preachers
of the gospel. This world is opposed to my Lord
and to all of His children. This world is not a friend to
grace, it is not a friend to the Lord, and it is not a friend
to those who stand up and dare to say, I love the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace. The world had no use for the
apostle Paul anymore. It had no affection for him.
It had nothing but absolute contempt for him. And finally, the world
killed him. But that's alright. That's alright. Because he said absent from the
body means present with the Lord. I crucify the world and the world's
crucified me. I've set my sights on another
crucifixion. That's the crucifixion of my
Lord. And who he is and what he did on that cross, that just
means everything to me. He means everything to me. And
by His grace I'll live for Him. I'll love Him. I'll believe Him. I'll just keep
on preaching His gospel until He comes and takes me. in death
or till he comes and takes us all home at one time. And that
sure would be lovely, wouldn't it? If we could just all go home
at once. And I hope it'll be that way. And when he said, lo, I come
quickly, I'd say like the Apostle John. Even so, come Lord Jesus,
it'd just be wonderful if you'd just come right now, just as
soon as we sing this last song. In fact, Lord, you don't even
have to wait for us to sing this last song. Just take us home
now! We'll see Him face to face and
we'll glory in His cross throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. What a friend we have in Jesus. That's our last song. What is
it? 354. 354.