Who is speaking? This is the Apostle Paul. And I think it's so significant that he begins this final statement with, you see how large a letter I have written unto you. Paul had great problems with his sight and had other people dictate for him. He would tell them what to write. They would write it. But here he says, I'm writing this one. And the large letters are spoken of because of his problems with his sight. But he said, what I'm saying is so important to me, I'm the one writing this. I wonder how long it took him, how many pages it was with these big, long letters.

Paul the Apostle. Now everybody's gonna glory in something. You and I are going to glory in something. What does Paul glory in? God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. How much do you and I know about that? Now, if we know anything about it, we're going to glory in the cross exactly as Paul did.

Now, Paul was the man God used more than any other man to expound the gospel. He is the apostle that took the place of Judas. I think it's interesting in Acts chapter one, Peter chose two people and they said, Show us which one you've chose. Neither. Paul is the man that took the place of Judas, and he's the man God used more than any other man to expound his gospel. And before his conversion, he manifested a greater hate for the Lord Jesus Christ than the average person. Let me show you that in Acts chapter seven. This is after the stoning of Stephen. It says they cast him out of the city and stoned him. Acts chapter 7 verse 58, they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. Chapter 8 verse 1, and Saul was consenting unto his death. He was giving complete agreement unto his death. And at that time, there's a great persecution against the church. Look at Acts chapter nine. And Saul, yet breathing out, notice the language. Breathing out, when he was breathing, this is what was coming out. This is how bad he hated Jesus Christ.

He was breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of Christ. of the Lord, and went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that he found any of this way, the way of Christ, the way of the gospel, whether men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

Now, some have speculated, and it's just a speculation, but I think it's a good one, that the rich young ruler and Paul are the same people. Now, this can't be proven, but they, certainly showed a lot of characteristics that were very similar. And Mark chapter 10 does say that when the Lord looked at the rich young ruler, behold, he loved him. Now that tells me that the rich young ruler was saved. Behold, he loved him. And look at their similarity in characteristics.

They were both rich young men, They both thought they kept the law. They're the only two people who said that, touching the righteousness which is in the law. I was blameless. I thought I was. And they were both eaten up with covetousness. So if it's not Paul, it's somebody very much like Paul. They're around the same age. I think that's interesting.

But he wanted to prove Christ wrong. He wanted to expose Christ because of his personal anger with what the Lord had said to him. Now, I repeat, Paul had a remarkable conversion experience. The Lord himself met him on the road to Damascus. A light above the brightness of the sun shined toward him.

That's where I think he lost his sight because of that. I think where those problems came from. And he was used to write scripture. He was the founder of most of the churches in the New Testament. You think about this man, Paul. He was brought up into the third heavens and taught by the Lord Jesus Christ directly the gospel. That's quite a resume, isn't it? And what does Paul say?

God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not gonna glory in how God has used me. I'm not gonna glory in how he's taken me up into the third heavens. I'm not gonna glory in how he's used me to write scripture. I'm not going to glory in how he made me an apostle.

One thing I'm gonna glory, nothing else, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, is that stamped in my heart? Is that stamped in your heart? You would not dare glory, have confidence, take credit in anything but what Christ did. Not what you've done, not how he's used you, but what Christ has done.

And if anybody could glory, nobody can, I realize that, but if anybody could, Paul could. But he said, God forbid, he had some understanding. He had some spiritual understanding. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now look what he says in verse 12.

As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh. That would represent all human religion. How things look on the outside, the appearance, a fair show in the flesh. I want you to be impressed with me. I want you to be impressed with how God has used me. I want you to be impressed with my life, my character. I want it to appear that I'm somebody God's hands on. I want to make a fair show of the flesh. I want to impress you.

What did the Lord say with regard to those people who prayed publicly, standing on the corners of the streets, sounded a trumpet before them when they were giving alms so everybody could know they're doing it, let you know that they were fasting? All their works they do to be seen of men. a fair show in the flesh. All their works they do to be seen of men.

It's what is called the lust of the eyes. Being more concerned about pleasing men than God. Being more concerned about what men see than what God sees. The lust of the eyes. Somebody says the lust of the eyes is seeing something and want it. No, the lust of the eyes is being controlled by what other people think. The fear of man. Now many desire to make a fair show in the flesh. They constrain you, they force you, they urge you to be circumcised. Now the issue of circumcision really is not physical circumcision.

Turn to Acts chapter 15, we've looked at this, the whole A book of Galatians really is centered in this event, in Acts chapter 15. Verse 1, and certain men which came down from Judea, that's the church at Jerusalem. They came out of the church of which James was the pastor, the Lord's brother. And they taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be.

Now, circumcision represents works. And really, circumcision, as painful as it might be, is the easiest command to keep. I might be able to endure the pain of circumcision and say, well, I've kept that one, but I can't not lie. I mean, I can't keep from lying. I can't keep from lusting. You take any of the commandments, I can't do them. I haven't kept them one time. Circumcision, if anything, is the easiest, as hard as it is, it's the easiest commandment to keep. You could go through that pain if that would save your soul and keep you from going to hell forever.

Verse two, wherefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them. They determined, I mean, Paul and Barabbas had a fight over this. They said, no way, no way, this is not true. We're not, we're not gonna bow to this for a second.

So they determined that Paul and Barabbas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem and to the apostles and elders about this question, about whether or not you had to be circumcised. And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Pharnacia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy to all the brethren. And when they would come to Jerusalem, They were received of the church and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all the things which God had done with them, but there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed."

Now that doesn't say believers. It says certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed. This is what they were identified with, the Pharisee religion. It says they believed, they claimed to be Christians, but they were still Pharisees. Here's what they said, it was needful, it was necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Salvation dependent upon what you do. Now that's the issue, is salvation dependent ultimately on what you do or what he has done. That is the issue. It's always been the issue. It's the issue right now. It always will be the issue. Works or Christ. Back to our text.

For as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised. You know, Here's the reason only less they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. If a man preaches the cross, the world will object. You see, it takes away what the world's hoping in.

Paul said, if I preach circumcision, then it's the offense of the cross ceased. The offense of the cross says you and I have absolutely nothing to do with our standing before God. It's wholly based on what he has done. Who he is and what he has done, plus nothing, minus nothing, Christ is all your works count for nothing.

That's offensive. That's going to lead men to sin. That's not giving anybody a motive to obey. That is offensive. We don't believe that. Error always has a bad motive. They're preaching circumcision to enable them to avoid being persecuted for the preaching of the cross. Now, I love what he says in verse 13.

For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law. This is pure hypocrisy. Them calling upon you to be circumcised to keep the law, they don't keep the law. They're nothing but hypocrites, that's all it is. That's foolishness. They don't keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh.

Look how I have influenced this person for good. I've won this person to Christ. I've done something. God's used me. I've been an influence in this person's life and look how they do now. I'm a soul winner. No, you're a soul murderer is what you are. That's not soul winning. That's just making people twofold more the child of hell than you are. But they desire to influence you and then say, see, look what I've done. But, verse 14. God forbid, may it never be, perish the thought that I should glory, that I should have confidence in anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I hope it goes without saying that he's not talking about the wood that he was nailed to. Most likely, the cross was not this, anyway. It was a pole. And his hands were nailed up over that pole. And people used the cross as jewelry. I don't want to have anything to do with that, as far as a cross. I want to stay away from it. This is a crude illustration, but what if somebody I loved was executed in an electric chair and I had an electric chair on my necklace or what? It's just, it's not the wood. It's what the cross says. Jesus Christ nailed to a cross is the whole counsel of God. I want you to chew on that. Jesus Christ nailed violently to a cross is the whole counsel of God.

Revelation 13, he's called the lamb slain. from the foundation of the world. Before time began, before there was a universe, before the creation, he was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This is God's eternal purpose. God created the universe so Christ could be nailed to the cross. The fall of Adam took place for the cross. The cross was not a response to Adam's fall. Adam's fall was for the cross of Christ.

This is God's eternal purpose. It's the most God-like thing God ever did. And I say that, I hope, with fear and trembling. It's the full manifestation of the character of God. Every attribute of God is on display in the cross. The cross is God's revelation of himself. What an awe-inspiring thought. This is God's revelation to us of his own character, of his purpose. His purpose is the cross, of his justice, his justice manifest in punishing sin, even if it's on his own son. God is the only one who's truly no respect for persons. No one else is.

He is, and he demonstrated that when his son was nailed to the cross, when the sins of God's elect became his sins, and he actually became guilty of the commission of them. Now, he never sinned. You and I know that. He couldn't sin. He was incapable of sin. But when my sin was given to him, he became guilty of the commission of that sin. He didn't die on the cross as an innocent victim. He died on the cross as guilty before God and God's justice put him to death.

This is a demonstration of the sovereignty of God. Remember, there were three crosses. On the one to the left, he was passed by. The one on the right, Christ saved him. This is a demonstration of the love of God, how God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Every attribute of God is manifest in the cross of Christ.

Now that's how important That's how glorious this is. And Paul says, God forbid, perish the thought, may it never be that I glory in anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is how God can be just and justify the ungodly. I hope that never becomes just a doctrine that we agree with, but something we're all struck by and amazed by, that God can be absolutely just, perfectly holy, righteous, and yet justify me, make it to where I'm not guilty, I've never sinned, I stand perfect in his sight. This is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. God forbid that I should glory saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul speaks of two other crucifixions in this verse. God forbid that I should glory saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

By whom? And I like the way he said by whom. He didn't say by which or it. You can't separate the person of Christ and the cross of Christ. They can't be separated. This is who he is. By whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. Now by the world he doesn't mean planet earth. This is God's creation. It's beautiful. We love it. We admire him as the mighty creator.

He's not talking about the beautiful creation. He's talking about that world of which John said, love not the world. All that's of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the father, but of the world. And the world passes away in the lust thereof. That's the world he's talking about.

I think it's so significant that there were three crosses. The cross in the middle, we have a man dying for sin. The cross on the left, we have a man dying in his sin. The cross on the right, we have a man dying unto sin. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified unto me.

It has no value. It's offensive. When I think of the lust of the flesh and knowing that's still in me, I hate it. Let it be put to death. The lust of the eyes, being more concerned about what men see than what God sees, why that's utterly offensive. How can you believe which receive honor one another and not that honor that comes from God only? It's offensive. The pride of life, how? Pride. What do you have to be proud of? What can you give yourself credit for?

Nothing. It's offensive. It's a crucified thing to me. I put no more value on it than I would a dead crucified thing. Now that's what an understanding of the cross does. When I see the glory of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that I'm glorying in, I see the world to have no more value than a crucified thing. Offensive. Get it out of my sight. And he says, I'm also crucified unto the world. The world views me in the same way. It has no love for me. It sees me as no more valuable than a crucified thing.

May we be enabled to say with Paul, God forbid that I should glory. saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Upon the cross of Jesus mine eyes at times can see the very dying form of one who suffered there for me. And from my smitten heart with tears, two wonders I confess, the wonders of his glorious love and my own worthlessness. I take across thy shadow from my abiding place. I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of his face, content to let the world go by, to know no gain or loss, my sinful self, my only shame, my glory, all the cross. Amen.