Open your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Galatians, Galatians chapter 6. The name of the message is dead to the world, dead to the world. Now, an old preacher friend of mine, one time, after the Lord saved me, and I heard the preaching of the grace of God in Christ, the complete, finished, sinatonic work of Christ, he told me this. He said, you're ruined for religion now, because you can't stand, you won't be able to stand to listen to preaching about works. and you're ruined for the world.

And that's true, isn't it? That's so true. We are called out of this world. We live in this world, right? But we're not of the world anymore. We were, but now we're not. It's amazing. And now the world is dead to us. It's dead to us. False religion is dead to us, isn't it? Oh, it's amazing. So we're now dead to the world.

And Paul has been dealing with false teachers in the book of Galatians in chapter six here. He's finishing up the epistle. He's been dealing with these false teachers who said, well, does Paul really preach the gospel? Is he really preaching the gospel?

And then they're going around telling people, Well, you know, you have to believe on Christ and then be circumcised to be saved. And they also, the Colossians were dealing with the Gnostics who said, well, we have this secret knowledge that Paul doesn't have, and we're gonna tell you about it, but you have become a convert of ours. And so these false teachers, these are guys who are the Judaizers, the lawmongers, who said, you must do this. to be saved, along with belief on Christ. And Paul said to us right away in this epistle, in the first chapter, if anyone comes to you with another gospel, let him be accursed. In the Greek, that's let him be damned.

It's serious business. To pervert the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is serious, damnable heresy. It's serious. Oh, my. And you know, it's funny because our reformed fathers, they would flat out declare it heresy. They would declare it heresy. But so many in certain circles now, oh no, we don't want to call Arminianism heresy. No, no, no. But they did. Oh my, how things have changed. See, I'm gonna preach to you the grace of God in Christ plus absolutely nothing. Nothing that we do. Nothing. My, let's read Galatians chapter six, verse 14. Oh, here we go. Here we go. These false teachers been telling people, you gotta be circumcised along with believing on Jesus to be saved.

And Paul is just masterfully by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, the true words, the true author, The true author of these words is God, the Holy Spirit. That's why when we read them, all of a sudden something will light up for us, because the true author is giving us an insight in those words. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, it's beautiful, beloved. It's beautiful. So let's read this one verse. Galatians 6, 14.

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. Now, these are wonderful words which the Holy Spirit of God has had Paul pen down, and they're very to the point, aren't they? They're very to the point. And he's writing to the churches in Galatia which are Celtic people, a Celtic people, and Galatia is a province of Rome, it's been taken over, and it's a tribal land, there's different tribes, and they fight each other, and they fought the Romans for years, and then the Romans conquered them, and so they're very tribal people, but they've been Romanized now, And look what Paul says so clearly here, and I want us to really focus on this. He said, Paul says, I glory in the cross of Christ. Look at that, look at those words.

But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now lots of people glory about things they do, right? We can do that too, even as believers. But what we see here is Paul is centering us on Christ, right? He's giving the compass pointing north, true north, true north, beloved. And look what he says here. Oh, may God the Holy Spirit allow us to say these things too. I glory in the cross of Christ. So Paul, what he's saying here, he's saying, my chief glory, my chief rejoicing, My chief delight is in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not in myself, not in my works, not what I might do on the side, right? Not like some hobby or something I do, whether it be podcasting or this or that. He says, I glory in Christ alone. He is my chief delight. He's my chief delight. Oh, I don't glory in myself, I don't glory in any works I've done. He says, he doesn't even glory in whatsoever God has him doing. He's a preacher, he's an evangelist, he's an ambassador, but he glories in the one who he serves. He says, I glory in Christ alone. Oh my. He's saying, I don't even glory in what God is doing through me. I glory in my King. I glory in the one who saved my soul. My, you know what? There'd be a lot of disagreements and a lot of arguments solved if we just gloried in Christ alone, wouldn't there? Oh, my. Do you see? This is the key, beloved. It's the key to unity. It's the key to peace. Oh, glorying in Christ alone. Isn't it wonderful? I'll tell you, it's so wonderful.

He didn't glory in the wood of the cross, but he gloried in the person who suffered on that cross, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my. He gloried in the effects of Christ's obedience, in the effects of Christ's perfect sin atoning work on the cross. He gloried in the one who sets his people free, who came to save his people from their sins. the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the sent one, the Messiah, who through his blood and righteousness has saved his people from their sins. Oh my. He didn't glory in anything else but Christ. That was his chief glory, beloved. And we who are the born-again, blood-washed people of God, we are the only glory in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Who's made unto us by God, right? Think of this. He's made unto us by God, wisdom. He's all our wisdom. He's made unto us by God, our righteousness. My, we're clothed in His perfect righteousness. He's made unto us by God, our sanctification. We're holy in Him. There's nothing holy above us, but we're made holy in Christ. And He is made unto us by God our redemption. Oh, He saved us from our sins. We can't save ourselves, but Christ saved every one of His sheep, didn't He? And He's gonna bring every one of them home. And how did He save them? How did He save them? How did He redeem them?

By His precious blood. He gave His life for us, beloved, at Calvary's Cross. As Charlie and I were talking today, He was burned for our iniquity. He was crushed for our iniquities. My the chastisement of our peace fell upon him and by his stripes were healed That's the God man.

That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only Savior of sinners. There's no other Praise his mighty mighty name beloved Oh, and we see here that he's trusting in the perfect redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I glory in Christ alone, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's where he redeemed us, beloved, at Calvary's cross. Oh, it's glorious. Oh, it's glorious. We also see that Paul is unbending, unbendingly declaring that with every fiber of our being, with every thought, word, and deed, we who are the redeemed of the Lord are determined to put no confidence in the flesh at all, no confidence in us.

But all our glory and all our confidence is in the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone. Glory to his name. And notice that Paul does not suggest or imply any other course or action on the part of the believer. No. The crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ settled, absolutely settled everything having to do with our acceptance before God. Christ saved us from our sins. Glory to his name. Is there any other reason to glory? All glory to his name.

And beloved God, rejoice, we are complete in Christ. He's all our righteousness, he's all our wisdom, he's all our sanctification, and we're made holy through his perfect sin-atoning work. We're sanctified in Christ Jesus. We've been redeemed by God himself, God in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We no longer trust in our works, and we have nothing to do, with people saying you can gain merit and favor with God by what you do. That's the biggest lie from the pit of hell. Oh my, we can't gain any merit and favor with God. All the merit comes from our Savior.

All the acceptance with God comes through the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. And we say glory to His name. We cast away and we disavow, we deny, we despise, we discredit, we disdain and disown any notion of anything that even hints that we have something to do with the salvation of our souls, or that we have something to do with the continuation of the salvation of our souls. All the glory, all the honor, all the praise for our salvation from our sins belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone.

Let's read that verse again, Galatians 6, 14. 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. Oh, look at this. We see here that Paul's declaring that this wondrous redemption in and through the Lord Jesus Christ and by him alone, fully and solely accomplished by Christ alone on Calvary's cross, brings two new results. Two results. Number one, the world is crucified unto us. It's crucified unto us. And number two, we are crucified unto the world. Oh, my.

This means that the world and its useless religion is nothing to us, nothing to we who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It has no effect upon us. It's dead. It's dead works religion. You add anything man has to do to be saved, it's dead works religion. You do anything that man has to do to continue to be saved, it's dead works religion.

That's all it is. That's all. And I unapologetically proclaim that. It's the truth. It's the truth. Religion, false religion, works religion, is a living death. It thrives like a maggot on the dead tissue of the self-righteous. My, and it's satisfied only by corruption. Because any works corrupt the grace of God. Any works that are added to the grace of God corrupts it.

It's not the gospel. No. Beloved of God, we're new creatures in Christ, right? And the world does not understand us. The world knows nothing of us. It can't understand how we can just trust Christ. And that's by the grace of God, isn't it? How we could just cast ourself upon Him.

See, the world looks at religion and it says, oh, all religions are the same. No, they're not. True religion is true grace. See, there's only really two religions in this world, one's works and one's grace. One's by something you do along either with Christ or not even with some other religion. And the other one is the grace of God in Christ, period. I'm saved by the grace of God in Christ. I'm saved by his sin-atoning work.

But see, the world looks at believers and they lump us in with Catholics and they lump us in with all these other people. Nope. Nope. To me, Catholicism is the biggest cult in the world. It's a works-based, sin-damning setup. It's a master counterfeit. And it promotes work salvation.

Some say, well, Wayne, you might want to apologize. I will not apologize for that. I will not apologize. I'm an ex-Catholic. The Lord saved me out of that awful system. I pray for people who are Catholics that the Lord would save them. But that system is a damnable system. Oh, my. May God, the Holy Spirit, move and save, save those Catholics. Oh my.

But we are now dead to the world. The world doesn't, it knows nothing of us. It hated our Savior and it hates us. Oh, it doesn't help us, nor does it try to soothe us. No, no. No, we reckon ourselves now dead to the world, don't we? Dead to the world, dead to the world. So let's bury it. No, we live in the world, but we're not of the world anymore, beloved. We're dead to the world that moves and motivates itself by self-righteousness.

We have no part in that anymore, do we? No, no, no, no. The world looks at us, they think we're foolish. They discount our talk of sovereign grace. They laugh us to scorn. And the world is amazed that we neither desire nor embrace anything that it loves. And anything it relies on for salvation, which is all words, we want nothing to do. And they look at us and go, what?

You believe you're saved by Christ alone and his work alone, through his blood and righteousness alone? Amen and amen. Right? Absolutely. 100%. So we're dead to religion, free will religion. We're dead to that, aren't we? Oh, yeah. We're dead to the invitation system that religion uses. We're dead to its bow your head and repeat a prayer nonsense. We're dead to its altars, the mourning altars. Oh, people mourning. Same people every week. Oh, my.

We're dead to the world's merits, that salvation comes by something you do. We're dead to that. No, we glory in Christ alone. We glory in Christ alone. Oh, we are crucified with Christ. Oh, my. Therefore, brethren, let us reckon it to be so. Amen and amen.