Turn back to the book of Galatians. Galatians 6. The Lord willing, verse 14 will serve as our text. The title is, In Whom Do I Glory? In Whom Do I Glory? Again, verse 14, we read, but God forbid, 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. I was thinking about this question, what does man glory in? We certainly wouldn't have time to go through all the things that man glories in. We find so many things and they usually all connect back somehow to our pride.

In Jeremiah 9.23, we read this, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord. You know, any time a verse of scripture, we should be attentive to all scripture, but any time a verse of scripture starts with thus saith the Lord, that should grab, that should certainly grab our attention. And this is what we read, thus saith the Lord.

Let not the wise man, if the Lord's given you some wisdom, what's the instruction? Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. What about strength? Let not the mighty man glory in his might. What about wealth? He says, let not the rich man glory in his riches.

But if we read on to verse 24 of Jeremiah 9, it says, but let him that glorieth, if you need something to glory in, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me. that he understands and knoweth that I am the Lord, which exercise lovingkindness, and judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things, in these things do I delight, saith the Lord."

We tend to glory in this flesh. We tend to trust in this flesh. And you know, the Apostle Paul, he could have certainly boasted many, many things. He could have been probably one of the most honored masters, one of the most honored rabbis among those men. He wrote in Philippians 3, he said, if any other man thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh more."

He said, I'm more than that. He said, I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee. He said, concerning zeal, he said, I persecuted the church. touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless. In another place, he said, I profited in the Jews' religion above many, above many of my equals.

And he stood in high esteem of those people, of his fellow professors. But when he learned the truth, When God stopped him and blinded him and put him in the dirt, he said all those things. Later, he would say that he would say, all those things that were gained to me, he said, I just count them but loss. He said, yea, doubtless, I count all things but loss for this one thing. for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord.

Paul says here in our text, he said, I glory in the cross of Christ. That's my chief glory. That's my rejoicing. That's my delight. It's in the person and work of Christ. Not in myself, not in my works, not even in anything God has enabled me to do. But I glory in Christ and Christ alone. Well, let's look at this verse here again this evening. First, he said, I glory in the cross of Christ. So let's consider for a moment the glory of the cross. The glory of the cross, not that physical structure, not the wood of the cross, not something I wear or something I hang off my mirror or put up on the wall. We don't need, we have enough idols. And an idol can, listen, it can be anything, okay? An idol can be anything. But here's one thing that's true of an idol. An idol cannot save you.

Isaiah 4520, he said, assemble yourselves and come. Draw together ye that are escaped of the nations. He said they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot save. Remember when Moses came down from the mountain with those tables of stone and he saw that calf? I just can't imagine it.

One minute he's up on that mountain in the presence of God himself and when he come down off that mountain, here's all the people gathered around a golden calf. that the people had made. There they are dancing and carrying on, and we read that Moses' anger, his wrath was waxed hot. And he cast those tables of stone down to the ground, and then he took that golden calf, which they had made, and he burned it. He burned it in fire, and he made it into powder, and he strawed it upon the water, And then he made the children of Israel drink of it. The idols of the heathen are silver and gold. They're the works of men's hands. Scripture says they have mouths, but they speak not. They have eyes, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not. Neither is there any breath in their mouth. Something that doesn't have any breath in its mouth is dead. And he said, they that make them, they that make these idols, they that worship these idols, they're just like them. And so are they that trust in them.

Paul's not saying, God forbid that I should glory in a block of wood or, again, any other image, any other symbol. He said, I glory in the cross. I glory in justification. That that occurred on the cross. I glory in the atonement of sin. I glory in that which was accomplished by the death of Christ on that cross. What happened on it? That cross, listen, it points to It points to suffering. Suffering for sin. When our Lord hung on that cross, He suffered for sin. He, on that cross, endured the punishment of sin. The crucified Lord. And that is promised and pictured and prophesied throughout all the scriptures. Remember all the way back there in the garden when Adam, when he disobeyed God, when he sinned against God? And what was the first thing he did? Same thing we typically do when little kids do that. We all do this, huh? We get in trouble and we try to hide. Try to hide. He disobeyed God and he hid from God. But you can't hide from God, can you? God found him.

And the first thing he did was he slew an animal. Think about that. There was bloodshed. He slew that animal and he took the skin of that animal and he did what Adam and Eve could not do. They thought they'd use their hands and knit together some leaves and make an apron. That couldn't cover their sin. God slew an animal and He took the coat of that animal and He covered them. He made a covering for them. Covered their sin. Covered their shame.

Listen, when their sin results in death, and that's what that sacrifice is. He suffered in our place. He took our death, He took our sin, He took our shame, and He bore it there on the cross. The first blood we read, the first blood shed in Scripture we read about was shed to cover a man's sin.

That's not a coincidence. That's a picture. That's a picture of the death of our Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ, Christ the Lamb of God, He must shed His blood. He must do that. He must die for this purpose, to put away our sin. And that's what He did. He put away our sin, and listen, He covers His people with a perfect robe of righteousness. The death of a sacrifice. What is the wage of sin? It's death, isn't it? It's the shedding of blood. That's what happened on the cross. We must have a blood sacrifice without the shedding of blood. No remission. There's no remission.

That was also pictured in that Passover lamb. There in the book of Exodus. That lamb, think about its characteristics. It had to be without blemish. It was taken out from the fold. That lamb, it was a yearling. A year old, it was killed in the prime of its life and roasted with fire. It suffered. A lamb without spot or blemish, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world." Remember, again, go back there to that Passover. Remember what God said as He passed? He said, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Well, that hasn't changed. God doesn't, we change, we change like the weather. God doesn't change. And when He sees the blood, when He sees the blood of His Son, He passes over His people.

The glory of the cross. There at Calvary, when our Lord laid down his life. And we have full redemption, full atonement. God is fully satisfied. His law, His holy law, that which requires perfection is satisfied. The debt, the debt is paid in full. Jesus paid it all. All the debt of sin had left a crimson stain and he washed it white as snow. By his stripes, he suffered on that cross. By his stripes, what's the result? We are healed. The glory, the glory of the cross. Well, consider this. Second, consider the victory, the victory of the cross. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. Look at verse 57. First Corinthians 15 verse 57. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory. Where's that found?

The victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. By the death, by the death of his cross, He's declared victory over sin. He's put it away. He's put sin away by the sacrifice of himself. Finished. Made an end to it. Victory over its reigning power. Victory over its condemning power. Victory over the law having answered every demand. He bore the penalty. He delivered his people. Delivered from the curse and condemnation of sin. By one offering, one, by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. the victory of the cross. What did he declare? He declared victory, didn't he? He said, it is finished.

Well, third, in Galatians 5, we read, Galatians 5 11, we read of the offense of the cross. The offense of the cross. Turn to Galatians 5. Look at verse 11. And I, brethren, if I preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased. He said, if I preach circumcision, or listen, for that matter, any other work added to the work of Christ, anything added to the person and work of Christ than the doctrine of the cross, that the offense of that, it would cease.

There wouldn't be any. You know, this world, and in that, this religious world, they have absolutely no objection to a man named Jesus being a partial Savior. In fact, they embrace it. It's Christ being a total and complete Savior that they deny. That's what offends them. His power, His right to save whom He will.

In Luke 4.25, our Lord, He spoke and He said, you'll recall this, He said, He said, I told you truth.

He said, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months. Great famine was throughout all of the land. But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto one place, Sarepta, city of Sidon, unto a woman who was a widow. And then he gave him another example. He said there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed. There were all kinds of lepers. The Lord was pleased to save one. He was pleased to save Naaman the Syrian.

And you know when he said that, when he said that, that whole crowd of people, they didn't rejoice. They were filled with wrath. And if you read that, if you go back just a few minutes earlier when he was talking, it said that some of those folks there, they wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. One minute they loved everything he was saying, but when he got to the point of saving whom he will, how he will, his power to save. They took him to the brow of a hill on which their city was built to cast him over head first. They rose up and they thrust him out of the city.

Scripture says this, there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There's but one Savior and He alone saves. Psalm 62 7, it says, in God is my salvation and my glory, the rock of my strength, my refuge, It's in God. It's all in Him. And He needs nothing. He needs nothing from man. By the deeds of the law, by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in His sight. The offense of the cross.

You know, it offends man's dignity. Man likes to be called a lot of things, he likes titles, but the Word of God says this, we're sinners. We're sinners, dead and trespasses in sin. That offends man's dignity. It offends because it comes by revelation. God's Word, the Gospel must be revealed. We read that after that, the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, but it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Listen, the gospel of a crucified Savior in the place of sinful man, it offends man's pride.

Give man something to do. That's our desire. By nature, that's our desire. Give me something to do. Give me something to do to save myself. Give me something to do to perform a righteous work. You do that, he'd gladly do it, right? a ceremony to observe, something special to do, a duty to perform. And the natural man will give every effort he has.

But pride, pride will not let a man come to God as he is, as a helpless, hopeless sinner apart from God's mercy. to come to Him as a beggar, to fall at our feet and beg for mercy. Scripture says this, that salvation gets not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His Mercy. Aren't we thankful that he's merciful, that he's long-suffering?

You see that, the offense, the offense of the cross, the glory of the cross, the victory of the cross, the offense of the cross. And listen, we also find in the word of God the preaching of the cross. Scripture says this, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved, what is it?

It is the power of God. The preaching of salvation by the grace of God alone by a crucified Savior. We declare righteousness. peace, reconciliation by the blood of his cross. A sufficient sacrifice, an atonement, atonement by Christ who offered himself on that cross in the room instead of his people. That's foolishness to those who are perishing. whether they're in the church or whether they're in this world. But scripture says this, unto us who are being saved, us who are saved, it is the power of God.

It's in Christ crucified that we see how God can both be a just God and a savior, that he can be just and justifier. God forbid. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. That's what we preach. We preach Christ crucified. And then last, last we read of the enemies. The enemies of the cross.

Quickly, turn with me to Philippians 3. Turn over just a few pages to Philippians 3. Here we read Philippians 3.18, for many walk of whom I've told you often and they'll tell you even weeping."

Paul, he took no pride in this. He found no joy in this. He said, I tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Who are those enemies? Well, those that would hold to ceremony and circumcision and not Christ alone. Those that would look to the deeds of the law for their salvation rather than looking to Christ. They're enemies of the cross. Who are enemies of the cross? Those that would glory in this flesh.

Those that are more interested in Converts rather than true conversion. Numbers, interested more in numbers than in those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Those that are more interested in the gifts as opposed to the giver, he that gives life. enemies of the cross, those who would turn the grace of God into nothing more than a license to sin.

It's just convenient for my lifestyle. But listen, their end, it's no wonder Paul said this weeping. Their end is destruction. because their God is nothing more than an idol. Nothing more than a block of wood up here. They worship an idol rather than the true and living God. What they glory in is what they truly ought to be ashamed of. Enemies of the cross of Christ. And I tell you this, he said the last enemy that's going to be destroyed is death. You know what that tells me? Every enemy of his is going to be destroyed. Turn back to Galatians 6, 14. We'll close.

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. God forbid. That's strong language, isn't it? God forbid that I should glory in anything, that I should glory in any one But Christ.

Christ who suffered on the tree. His obedience. His sacrifice. Christ who is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification and redemption. Christ who is all. And Paul goes on and he says this, he said, this world is crucified unto me. its riches, its honor, its recognition, everything it has to offer. He said, it is crucified to me.

It's dead to me. He said, I have no need of it. And then he says, I'm crucified to the world. This world, it has no affection for me. And he said, I have no affection for it. You know, we're told, we're told this, to love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. In fact, he goes on to say, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Well, in closing, let me, we read this to begin back in the book of Jeremiah, thus saith the Lord. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glory, glory in this, that he understands and he knows me, that he knows the Lord, that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, and judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things, in these things do I delight, saith the Lord. God forbid, God forbid that I should glory in anything save the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. All right, Isaac, come lead us in a closing