All right, let's look back at
Matthew chapter 2. I really am just going to focus
in on one phrase here in verse 2. As you know, as Brother Ron
read, this is the account that the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew
to write concerning the wise men, ones whom we normally think
of as three kings, but the wise men who came from the east to
Jerusalem to see the Lord Jesus Christ. And they said in verse
two, they came to Herod, and of course you know about Herod,
he was an evil, wicked, ungodly, unbelieving king. Politically
and economically, he was considered to be one of the great kings
of Israel. But religiously speaking, concerning the word of God and
the terms of the old covenant, he was a wicked king. But they
came to Herod and they asked this question in verse two saying,
where is he that is born king of the Jews? That's the title
of the message, born king of the Jews. Now that could be,
I know to most of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ, who know
the gospel, who know the scriptures or somewhat familiar with the
scriptures, that's not a strange thing to us. to identify the
Lord Jesus Christ as king of the Jews. But most people today
who are thinking about these issues and these passages or
sing about this, just about every song they sing today speaks in
some way of Christ who came into the world talking about his birth,
that he is a king, the king has come. People talk about his king
and his kingdom. And here the wise men, they were
looking for the one who was born king of the Jews. And I wonder
sometimes, I don't really wonder sometimes, I know. I mean, I
say it that way. I know most people don't think
about what they're singing and what they're hearing. So many
people, we read these scriptures, we don't think about them. Don't
get caught up in that. Don't just come in and hear the
scriptures read and preached and go away not thinking about
them. If I could force myself to think
or force you to think, think about what you're reading. Think
about what these things say. Born king of the Jews. Do you
know, for example, do you know, for example, that Jesus of Nazareth
never, never sat on a Jewish throne? He never sat on a Jewish throne.
He never sat on David's literal throne in Jerusalem. And yet,
it says he's born king of the Jews. So, if he's talking about
the Jewish nation here, then you'd have to say he failed. Somebody said, well, this is
future though. This is the millennial kingdom. Well, we're living in
the millennial kingdom now, but I'm not going to get into all
that today. But every prophecy doesn't speak of his kingdom
and his being a king having to do with the future involved with
his second coming. Now, it's true when he comes
again, he's going to gather his kingdom, his church, he's going
to make his enemies his footstool, and he's going to rule and reign
forever. But he's already reigning, he's already ruling. Is there
any believer here that would doubt that? No, the Lord Jesus
Christ reigns supreme even now. And every prophecy, and I'm going
to show you a few of them, we read one of them at the opening
of the script, speaks of his kingdom and his kingship as connected
with his first coming and the great work that he would do in
that first coming. And it's not just simply being
born, that's part of it. He had to become incarnate, but
it has to do with his life, his keeping of the law, his death
on the cross, his burial, his resurrection under glory. When
he came into this world and he began his public ministry, he
was about 30 years old in his humanity. Think about that, that's
amazing isn't it? He who is the great I am. He
was about 30 years old in his humanity. But his first messages
had to do with this, repent ye for the kingdom of God or the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. That means it's come, I'm here
to establish it. It's not way off in the future
now. It is at hand. All right? And I know some people
make a big theological argument about the difference between
the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, but there is no difference.
Kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are one and the same.
That's right. And he said it's at hand. It's
at hand. So what is this about being born
King of the Jews? I'll tell you something, he was
born King of the Jews, he lived on this earth King of the Jews,
he died King of the Jews, he was buried King of the Jews,
and he was resurrected King of the Jews, and he ascended unto
glory King of the Jews, and he is now seated at the right hand
of the Father in heaven making intercession for his people,
his kingdom, his subjects. He's king of the Jews. He's coming
back again as the king of the Jews. What is this talking about?
Well, I wanna give you four questions to consider here that'll help
you think about what you read, when we sing the hymns, what
they mean. And here's the first question,
number one, Who is this king? It's kind of a compound question,
but they go together. Who is this king and what kind
of king is he? Who is this king and what kind
of king is he? Now, if you don't know who he
is and what kind of king he is, then it's useless for you to
sing about the king or sing about his kingdom. But who is this
king? Well, look back up in chapter
one. And this is in verse 18, talking
about the birth of Christ. Now the birth of Jesus, now you
know the name Jesus, what that name means. We're gonna see it
here in just a minute. Now the birth of Jesus Christ
was on this wise. This is the way it happened,
that's what he's saying here. When as his mother Mary was espoused
to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the
Holy Ghost. That's the incarnation. What
does the word incarnation mean? It means the word was made flesh. We have the word carnal, incarnation,
that means the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The
eternal word, that's God. And he says, she was found with
child of the Holy Ghost, not with the aid of man. This was
not the union of, this is not the fruit of the coming together
of a husband and a wife. This was the fruit of the Holy
Spirit, this humanity that was created for the Lord Jesus Christ
in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Isaiah chapter seven spoke of
it. A virgin shall conceive and bear a son. But that wasn't the
first prophecy of it. That was about 700 years before
this happened, when Isaiah said that. But go all the way back
to Genesis chapter three in verse 15 and you hear him prophesied
as the seed of woman. Woman has no seed. But you see
he was conceived in the womb of the virgin by the Holy Spirit
without the aid of man. He wasn't born like you and me.
He wasn't born of Adam in sin. Born dead spiritually like we
were. Fallen, ruined, depraved. And so it says in verse 19, then
Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her
a public example, was minded to put her away privily, hide
her away because of the public shame. But while he thought on
these things, behold, the angel of the Lord, a messenger of the
Lord, appeared unto them in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David,
Now, Joseph and Mary both were descendants of David and from
the tribe of Judah. He said, Joseph, thou son of
David, fear not to take away unto thee Mary thy wife, for
that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And look
at verse 21. Now, who is this king? It says,
she shall bring forth a son, thou shalt call his name Jesus. What's Jesus mean? Some people
say, well, it means Savior. It means more than that. It means
God, our Savior. You see this person here, this
king here, he's not a martyr, he's not just a wise leader,
he's not even just a powerful leader, he's God in human flesh. That's what that name Jesus,
that name Jesus is the Greek equivalent to the name Joshua
or Yeshua in the Old Testament. God saves or God our savior. And it says, for he shall save
his people from their sins. What kind of king is he going
to be? He's going to be a successful king. He's going to save his
people from their sins, whoever his people are. And it says in
verse 22, now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which
was spoken of the Lord by the prophet. And this is goes back
to Isaiah seven that I've quoted before. Behold, a virgin shall
be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call
his name Emmanuel. He has many names. because it
takes many names to describe him. Emmanuel, which being interpreted,
is God with us. He's God with us. Now that's
who this king is. But what kind of king is he going
to be? Well, we've been studying the book of Zechariah in our
evening services. Look back at Zechariah chapter 6. It's next
to the last book of the Old Testament. Zechariah chapter 6. This is
a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And this is important. What kind
of king is he? Well, verse 12 speaks of the
coming of the Messiah in this way. Zechariah 6 and verse 12. I've been preaching on this and
I've just finished it up this past Wednesday, but look at verse
12. He says, "...and speak unto him," that is telling Zechariah
to speak unto the high priest of that day whose name was Joshua.
He was a man named Joshua. He was the high priest of Israel
in that day. And you know the high priest, he was a type of
Christ And here's this man named Joshua, and it says, Thus speak
the Lord of hosts, speak of the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold,
the man whose name is the branch. Now, anytime you see that name,
the branch, like that, that's a prophecy of Christ. He is the
branch in the sense that's speaking of his humanity, God in human
flesh. And he shall grow up out of his
place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. That's the
church. He's going to build the church. Remember, he told his
disciples. It's recorded in Matthew 16. He said, upon this rock,
I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it. And then verse 13 says, even he shall build the
temple of the Lord and he shall bear the glory. He's going to
build the church. He's going to get the glory. He shall bear the
glory. We don't get the glory, he does.
And if you know him, that's all right with you. And he says,
and he shall sit and rule upon his throne. Now there's a king.
Only a king sits upon a throne, but look here, it says, and he
shall be a priest upon his throne. And the council of peace shall
be between them both. He's going to be a priest on
a throne. That's what kind of king he's
going to be. He's going to be both a king
and a priest. Now under the old covenant law, that could not
happen. You couldn't have a king who
is a priest, and you couldn't have a priest who is a king.
Now, why not? Because it was under the law of Moses that the
kings, the rightful kings, the godly kings, though few there
were, were to be from the tribe of Judah. That's the tribe of
David. Remember back in Genesis 49,
when Jacob was blessing his son, he looked at Judah and he said,
the scepter, what's the scepter? That's the king's, that was a
rod that the king held, the staff of the king, which represented
his power and authority. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, that tribe of Judah, the family of Judah, until Shiloh
come, Genesis 49, 10. And that Shiloh there, there's
a lot of argument what that means, but basically it refers to a
man at rest and it refers to peace. That's what it refers
to. And Shiloh there is the Messiah.
So it's just another way of identifying Christ. And what he's saying
there to Judah is that the kingship, the staff of government, was
going to be handed down through that tribe of Judah in an earthly
way until Messiah would come. And then it would depart from
Judah. The scepter would depart. Then that earthly kingship would
end. There'd be no more kings of Israel
because that would be the end of it. The scepter would then
depart from Judah. And so what he's talking about
there, how Christ, he's a priest-king, he couldn't be both a priest
and a king under the old covenant. First of all, Christ in his humanity,
he was from the tribe of Judah. The scripture says that he was
made of the seed of David according to the flesh. He wasn't from
the tribe of Levi or the tribe of Aaron. He couldn't be a priest
in that old covenant. And yet he was a priest after
a different order. Now what kind of king is he?
He's a king priest. What does that mean? Well, look
back at Matthew chapter two. Let me show you something here.
Verse 11. You know, these three kings,
they came from the east. We're not told a lot about them. There's a lot of legend about
these three kings. Some people even try to name
them. I think that's foolish. You don't know their names. And
even if you did, big deal. It's not important, it's not
recorded here, you know? I mean, it's not necessary that you know
their names. They were just three wise men. Apparently they were
wise in the things of the Lord. They were looking for Christ. That's the issue. But they brought
gifts, verse 11. It says in Matthew 2, 11, when
they were coming to the house, they saw the young child with
Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. When they
had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts. Now,
the three gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Now, those gifts are
typical. They're symbolic. What do they
represent? Well, gold represents kingship. Sometimes it'll represent divinity,
but it's the same thing. God is king. That's what that
gold means. This is the most precious metal
on earth. And so it represents kingship. Well, this one, Jesus of Nazareth,
is king. Now, what is frankincense? Well,
that was a spice that was used in the priesthood in their ceremonies.
The old covenant priesthood used frankincense in their ceremonies. And what was that priesthood?
Well, the priesthood, you remember, that was the ceremonial law by which God typified the atonement. You know, the high priest, he
was typical of Christ, our great high priest. One time a year
on the Day of Atonement, he would go into the Holy of Holies with
the blood of a lamb. And he'd sprinkle that blood
in the Holy of Holies above the mercy seat and all throughout. And all of that was a picture
of how God saves sinners through the substitutionary work of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is our great high priest, who is our
substitute, our offering, our sin-bearer. He was made sin,
Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And how He stands in our place
bringing forth God's justice, paying our debt in full by the
price of his precious blood. That's what that picture. And
so what he's saying here in these gifts that he's going to be king
and he's going to be priest and then there's myrrh. Now myrrh
was a spice that they used to anoint dead bodies. Sometimes
it was used for embalming. So it speaks of death. Now what
kind of king is he going to be? He's going to be a king and a
priest by death. Now let me show you that. Go
back to Isaiah chapter 9 that I read in the opening of the
service. Now listen to what this says. This is the kind of king
he's going to be. This is the kind of person he
is. He's God and man in one person. He's a king priest. He says in
verse 6, remember, He's a child born. That's His humanity. He's the Son given. That's His
deity. Has no beginning, no end. And
all this, the government shall be upon His shoulder. What government?
When it talks about it being upon His shoulder, that means
He's going to carry the weight of it. That means He's got the
responsibility for it. All the burdens of it are upon
His shoulder. All of it's conditioned on Him.
All of it's qualifications, all of it's stipulations, all of
it's conditions placed upon Him. And so the government of God's
grace, the government of salvation, the government of the kingdom
will be upon His shoulders and He's worthy. Look at His name.
His name identifies Him and distinguishes Him and says something about
His ability. His name shall be called Wonderful.
His name shall be called Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father. Now we believe in God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the distinction of persons
in the Trinity. This is not confusing that there.
When it's speaking of Christ as the Father, it's talking about
his redemptive work, which brings forth his seed. Just like when
a man and a woman marry and they come together and they have a
child. Well, out of Christ's death comes his seed. So he's
the everlasting father in that sense. He's the prince of peace,
that's Shiloh. But look at verse seven. Of the
increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end.
That means he's not gonna fail. And then upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom to order it. Here's his kingdom, and to
establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth
even forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
How's he going to establish this kingdom with judgment and with
justice? How's he gonna do it? Through
his death on the cross. For the sins of his people charged
to him, imputed to him. Look over at Jeremiah chapter
23. Turn over a few pages to Jeremiah.
You see, the Old Testament, and we could go to so many other
verses here, but the Old Testament tells us what kind of king he's
going to be. And for us, what kind of king
he is. Look at verse 5 of Jeremiah 23. It says, Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 23, 5. Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous
branch. There's that branch again. And
a king shall reign and prosper. and shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. How's he gonna do that? By his
obedience unto death, to pay the sin debt for his people,
to redeem us by the precious price of his blood. And what's
that gonna result in? Look at verse six. In his days,
Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. Who's that
talking about? Well, hold on. He says, in his
name whereby which he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. He's going to establish righteousness. That scepter that shall not depart
from Judah until Shiloh come, it's a scepter of righteousness.
Let me go to the second question. What kind of kingdom does he
rule? Well, as I told you, in his earthly life, he never sat
on a Jewish throne. What kind of kingdom is his kingdom? You know, over in the book of
John chapter 18, let me just read this to you, John chapter
18, he's standing before Pilate, the Lord Jesus Christ, Pontius
Pilate. And it says, Pilate entered into
the judgment hall again and called Jesus and said to him, art thou
the king of the Jews? Well, the stock answer to that
would be yes, he was born king of the Jews. But look what happened
here, it says, Jesus answered him, sayest thou this thing of
thyself, or did others tell thee of me? Are you saying this of
yourself, or did you hear this from other people? Pilate answered,
he said, well, am I a Jew? I mean, are you treating me like
one of these Jews? Thine own nation and the chief
priests have delivered thee unto me, what hast thou done? And
Jesus answered, and he said, my kingdom, now listen to, John
18, he said, my kingdom is not of this world. Do you hear that? My kingdom is not of this world.
He says, if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants
fight? We'd take up swords and guns
and whatever. That's the kind of kingdom this
was. He said that I should not be delivered unto the Jews. If
my kingdom were of this world, the Jews would not have me in
their custody. He says, but now is my kingdom
not from hence. It's not from here, it's not
from the earth. Pilate therefore said unto him, art thou a king
then? And Jesus answered him, thou sayest that I am a king.
To this end was I born. For this cause came I into the
world, he said, that I should bear witness unto the truth.
Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. It's a kingdom
of truth. It's not of this world, it's
a spiritual kingdom. That's the kind of kingdom he
has. In Luke 17, in verses 20 and
21, he told his disciples, he said, the kingdom of God is within
you. Now, what kind of kingdom is
it? It's a spiritual kingdom. It's
not an earthly kingdom. It has not to do with earthly
thrones and earthly territories and earthly armies and earthly
weapons. It's a spiritual kingdom. It's
a kingdom of the heart. It's a kingdom of the mind, the
affections, the will. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians chapter
10, he said, though we walk in this physical flesh, we don't
war after the flesh, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. The weapons of our warfare are
spiritual. It's truth. It's the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace. in and by the Lord Jesus Christ,
who he is, what he did, why he did it, where he is now. What
kind of kingdom is it? It's a spiritual kingdom. Here's
the third question. Listen to this. What are the qualifications
to enter his kingdom? What are the qualifications to
enter his kingdom? There are three. Three qualifications. Number one is justification. What does it take for a sinner
to be just with God? And the answer is righteousness,
that's the qualification. Righteousness. Christ said this
to the Pharisees of his day. He said in Matthew 5 and verse
20, Sermon on the Mount, listen to it. He said, for I say unto
you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven. What is he saying there? Well,
simply put, it's like this. Pick out the best people on earth,
the best man, the best woman on earth that ever has lived,
ever is living, or ever will live. And however righteous in
your eyes that person is, you've got to have a righteousness that
exceeds theirs. That's what he's saying. These
Pharisees and the Sadducees and these religious leaders, they
were the most righteous people in the eyes, righteous men in
the eyes of the people. And he tells them, he said, well,
you've got to exceed that. You've got to be better than
that. Well, how good must you be to enter the kingdom of heaven?
Well, the answer, again, simply put, is perfect. The Bible says,
they who are of the works of the law are under the curse,
for as it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not
in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. That's how good we have to be. The scripture says among
men born of Adam in Romans chapter 3 and verse 10 there's none righteous,
no not one. Verses 11 and 12 it says there's
none that doeth good, no not one. Where does that leave us?
I'll tell you exactly where it leaves us. He said it later on
in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter 6 and verse
33 he said, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Stop trying to establish one
of your own. Stop trying to work your way
into heaven. Stop trying to work your way
into being good enough. You cannot do it. That's why
Emmanuel came into the world. That's why he came to this earth.
That by his obedience unto death, he would establish and execute
judgment and justice. Why? Because you can't do it
and I can't do it. For all is sin and comes sure
the glory of God. The best of the best, the worst
of the worst, there's none righteous, no, not one. Seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness. What is his name whereby he shall
be called? Jeremiah 23, 6, the Lord our
righteousness. What is that talking about? That's
talking about the merit, the quality, the value, the goodness,
the perfection, the completeness of the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. on my behalf, charged, accounted,
imputed to me. That's why he was made sin. That's
why my sins were accounted, charged to him. And that's why he died
guilty and cursed under the judgment of God for the sins of his sheep
so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
That's the first qualification. Here's another way to put it.
I must be in Christ. If I'm not in Christ, I'm not
qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven. If I stand on my own,
pleading the best that I have to offer, I'm not qualified.
I'll fall short. But if I have Christ, I'm complete. I'm sanctified. I'm justified. Here's the second qualification.
Regeneration. That's the new birth. In John
chapter 3 and verse 3, Christ told Nicodemus, He says, verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God. He went on to say, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God. We must be justified in
Christ, that's the ground of salvation, and as a result, we
must be born again by the Spirit. That's the fruit of the work
of Christ. Christ said in Matthew chapter seven and verse 21, not
everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father,
which is in heaven. Now, what is it to do the will
of the father? It's to look to Christ, it's to rest in him,
it's to believe in him, it's to follow him. You must be born
again. Here's the third qualification.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. The third qualification is glorification. we must be glorified. What does that mean? It means
not only must we be justified by the imputed righteousness
of Christ, and not only must we be regenerated by the spirit
of Christ, given life, given faith, brought to repentance,
but we must be perfect in ourselves. Why is that? Look at verse 50.
of 1 Corinthians 15. Here's the reason. Now this I
say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God. Flesh and blood can't do it.
Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show
you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
That's that change of glorification. That's when we'll leave these
vile bodies. Paul called it the body of this
death or this body of death. Oh, wretched man that I am, subject
to sin and change and corruption. He says, will be changed, verse
52, in a moment in the twinkling of eye at the last trump, for
the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible
and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. I don't
think there's any of us. Maybe some of you young people
might be so bold as to think this would be a possibility,
but us older folks, we know better. I don't think any of us older
folks would want to live eternally in these vile bodies. Would we? We must be changed. Earl said,
no way. All right, here's the last question.
Now remember he said back there, turn to Romans 2. He said back
there in Matthew 2, he said he was born king of the Jews. Now
think about it. Romans 2. Who are these Jews? Now, we get a lot of flack over
this next one. Because whenever you see phrases
like that, born king of the Jews, Judah shall be saved, Israel
shall be saved, most people They move that back to the future,
to some future kingdom where Christ is going to come and set
up his kingdom in Palestine and rule from Palestine among the
ethnic Jews. I don't believe that's what the
Bible teaches. I believe that what he's talking about is a
spiritual nation, spiritual Israel, made up of God's people out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. I won't have time
to go over all those scriptures, but let me just give you a couple.
Here's Romans 2 and verse 28. Look at what the Apostle Paul
writes by inspiration of the Spirit. He says, for he is not
a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision.
Circumcision was a way of referring to the Jews. Uncircumcision was
a way of referring to the Gentiles. He says, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit,
not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. He's
talking about spiritual Jews. What is circumcision of the heart?
It's exactly what it is, it's the new birth. It's a sinner
who's brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works.
Let me show you another one. Look at Philippians chapter three.
And I could show you a bunch more. A lot of people today, they'll
deny what I'm telling you now and they'll call it replacement
theology. You might have heard that term.
Because they say, well, what we're doing is wrongly replacing
the Jewish nation with the church. Well, first of all, it is not
replacement theology. God never replaced anything with
anything. Alright? But it is fulfillment
theology. It's God fulfilling His purpose
all along. God has a people out of the Jewish
nation. The Bible teaches that in Romans
chapter 11. God's got a remnant according to the election of
grace. But it has nothing to do with being born in Palestine.
It has nothing to do with being of the pedigree of Abraham. It
has nothing to do with being physically circumcised. In other
words, all who are in the kingdom of heaven Under this one who
was born king of the Jews, they come into the kingdom under the
headship of Christ. Not denying Christ, but under
the headship of Christ. But look here in Philippians
chapter three and verse three, Paul writes, talking to the Jew
and Gentile here, he says, for we are the circumcision. We're the spiritual kingdom,
the spiritual nation. How do you know? We worship God
in the spirit. and rejoice in Christ Jesus.
We have confidence in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. You see that? That's a spiritual
Jew. Now one more and I'll quit. Look
at Galatians chapter 6 and look at verse 14. Galatians 6 and verse 14. He says, but God be thanked But
God forbid that I should glory. Now that word glory is the same
word as rejoice in Philippians 3 when he said we rejoice in
Christ Jesus. Well the same word rejoice there
is glory here. It means to boast. That's what
it means. It means it has to do with having
confidence. God forbid that I should boast
or have confidence save, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, Christ in Him crucified. My confidence of salvation, of
righteousness, of forgiveness, of eternal life and glory is
not in myself, it's not in you, it's in Christ who died for my
sins and brought forth righteousness for me. And he says, by whom
the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world, for in
Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision.
Doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile in Christ Jesus,
that's not the issue. Here's the issue, a new creation.
Where did that take place? On the cross. Read Ephesians
chapter two, you can read that on your own. That speaks of Christ
bringing about the new creation by his death. Now look at verse
16, he says, and as many as walk according to this rule, this
doctrine, What doctrine? God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace be on them. They're at peace with God. And
mercy. God has had mercy upon them and
upon the Israel of God. What's the Israel of God? Those
who walk according to this rule. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross. Now that's, that's the king and
his kingdom. Yes, he was born king of the
Jews, never sat on an earthly throne, but he sits on a spiritual
throne and he's sovereign over all things and he rules and reigns
to bring all things under his feet to the praise of the glory
of his father and to the salvation of his people.