Back to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. I know that no man is sufficient to describe
the glory of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that when most of the
people stood there at the cross and
saw this happening, this was witnessed, there was a time when
there was a people who watched this happen. They saw a gory
mess of what they witnessed. They saw a man whose visage,
it says, was marred more than any other person. He was whipped. His back was lacerated. He had a crown of thorns planted
on his head and they drove it down on his head. Blood streaming
from all over his body. They nailed His hands to that
cross and they nailed His feet there. And what looked like a defeated person is the chiefest of God's
glory. Isn't that amazing? Paul saw
that. I want to see that. I believe
I see some of it. I believe I see something of
it. And I believe many of you see
something of it. But we need to see it. We need
to see it in such a way that it becomes everything. That like when we looked at last
week Paul on the road to Damascus when he was rehearsing and telling
what the Lord did for him. He said there was a brightness
that was above the noonday sun. That's the way I want to see
this, above everything else in this life. As I get older, I do realize
more and more of the nothingness and the vanity and the swiftness
It's going by so fast. Jason just turned 30. I'm thinking,
my goodness. I can't believe this. You know, it just seemed like
yesterday that I had just came and sat under Henry's ministry,
23 years old. And then here I am, 52. It's
just gone by like that. And the only thing that really
truly now means anything, and I hope 10
years from now I can say this even with more conviction, is the cross of Christ. Now,
he's not talking about a piece of wood. You know that. We've been well taught. He's
not talking about a piece of wood. He's talking about the
sacrifice. When Paul talks here about the cross of Christ, He's
talking about the sacrifice and the atonement made at Calvary
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, that's what I glory
in. Now, we know that Paul gloried in his person as God. He's God
manifested in the flesh. He gloried in his power. He's
able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God. But
when Paul said, God forbid that I should glory, He took us to
the cross. Because right there is where
God saved you. Through the sacrifice and atoning blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Paul was not a hypocrite.
He was not a hypocrite. He did not tell others not to
glory in this flesh and then turn around and do so himself. Those Jews would condemn people.
for not keeping the law while breaking the law at the same
time. Look over in Romans chapter 2.
Paul was not guilty of this. God saved him from it. He says
in verse 17, Paul said, Behold, thou art called a Jew, and you
rest in the law and you makest thy boast of God, and knowest
his will, you claim to know his will, and approvest of things
that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law, and
art confident that thou art thyself, that thou thyself art a guide
of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor
of the foolish, a teacher of babes which has the form of knowledge,
and of the truth in the law. Thou therefore wouldst teachest
another, teachest thou not thyself? Don't you teach yourself? Thou
that preachest, a man should not steal. Dost thou steal? Thou
that sayest, a man should not commit adultery. Dost thou commit
adultery? Thou that abhors idols. Dost
thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of
the law through breaking the law dishonest thou God. He said,
you're not keeping the law. You tell men not to steal, but
in your heart you cover it. You tell them not to commit adultery,
but in your heart you cover it. Paul is not guilty of that. God
saved him from it. God saved him from it. And when
Paul was brought to faith in Christ, he truly, now this is
not just a statement that sounds good and religious, but Paul
truly counted all things as loss. Paul counted everything outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ as absolute vanity. Nothing. Absolute nothing. He did not hold back one thing
to brag on. Not one. He counted it all as
loss. He counted his heritage as loss. Nothing to glory in. He looked
at his heritage and he said, there's nothing in that to glory
in. There's nothing in that to recommend
me to God. The Jews said, we be Abraham's
seed. They said in one place, we are
Abraham's, we've never been in bondage. I wonder who their history
teacher was. They were in bondage at that
time. Paul could trace his heritage
back to Abraham. He was a Jew through and through. But he would not glory in his
heritage anymore. Then Paul counted his religious
education. and his devotion to God at that
time as loss and not worthy to even mention. Unworthy to even
be brought up. He said it is absolute over Philippians
3. You know that chapter well. He
said it is absolutely loss. No gain in it. Not to me. Not
before God. There's no gain in it. I know
people take a lot of pride in their education. Whether religious
or secular, it doesn't matter. They take a lot of pride in it.
But before God, it means nothing. Paul said that he had the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ. Now that means everything. Now
we need an education. We need an education. It'll help
you make a living. But I'm telling you this, if
you don't know Christ, it's all worthless. That's the truth. I'd rather be done as a bank
mule and know Christ and be taught to be very educated and ignorant
of Him. Who's the wisdom of God? Who's
the key of knowledge? I'd rather be. That's what Paul's saying. He
said he counted these things as lost. Paul was a Pharisee. He was well educated. He was
very orthodox. Yet, he said, this is nothing
to glory in. Absolutely nothing to glory in. If anybody could
have glory, he could have, couldn't he? He said, if anyone over-flipped
his three, if anyone had confidence in the flesh, I have more. I'll put my credentials up against
you. He said, I'll tell you this, it doesn't mean anything. It
means absolutely nothing. It's not worth the paper it's
written on. Many like the glory in their
family heritage, their religious endeavors, which means absolutely
nothing before God. Jesus Christ means everything
to God. And He means everything to the
believer. He's our all in all. He is. Then Paul would not glory
in his knowledge. Paul was given an abundance of
revelation. This man was taken to the third
heaven. He saw things, he said, which
was not lawful to utter, not possible to put in human language.
He went to the third heaven. God took him there. But he would
not glory in that. He did not come back and say,
I'm the man, now listen to me, I'm the man that God took to
the third heaven. He wouldn't glory in it. He talked
about glory. He said, God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we know anything spiritually,
if we know anything savingly, God the Holy Spirit revealed
it to us. He revealed it to us. Our Lord
said, He shall take the things of mine and show it unto you. Reveal it unto you. If you know
Christ! If you truly know Him, if you
truly know the worth of the atonement and the righteousness of Christ,
God revealed that to you. Blessed are your eyes, you see,
and your ears, you hear. There's a whole lot of people
tonight that don't see who you see or hear who you hear. They don't know it. That's why
Paul said to those Corinthians, what do you have that you didn't
receive? And if you received it, then why brag about it as
if you didn't receive it, as if you came up with it? Oh, he
said, I am what I am by the grace of God. I believe we can say
this. I know who I know. I know whom I know by the grace
of God. And then Paul would not glory
in his gifts. He had the spirit of discernment.
He had the gift to heal. He had the gift of prophecy.
He had the gift of speaking in tongues, different languages.
But God forbid, He said that I should glory in these things.
These are gifts. These are gifts. You know what
gifts are? Gifts. They're given to you. If someone gives you a gift,
you didn't pay them for it, it was given to you. That's all
it is. It's a gift. They were given
to us freely as God saw fit. The gift of preach, the gift
of prayer, the gift to give. There are different gifts in
the body of Christ, but they are just that, they're gifts.
Given freely as God sees fit. And they are to be used for the
body of Christ. The gift of preaching is not
given to me for me. It's given to me for you. If God's given you a gift of
generosity or of the ability to pray, and I believe prayer
is a gift. I mean, we all pray, but some
people have the gift to pray. And the gift to a different thing. It's for the body. You know,
the talents that I have, whatever they may be, The talents that
I have, physically and mentally, my whole body is good for my
whole body, isn't it? My whole body benefits from it.
That's the word I'm trying to find. My whole person benefits
from it. And the gifts that He gives to
us, the whole body of Christ benefits from it. It's not just
for me in particular, it's for all of us. What's it for? And then Paul
would not glory in his faith. He knew that God gave him faith. He knew that faith is a gift
of God. You know that? You know that. You know if it
wasn't for the grace of God, you wouldn't believe it all.
You know that. Paul knew that. And when he preached
to the Jews, He never preached as though they were stupid for
not believing him. He never preached like that.
He preached like that. He said, I expect you to believe
me. I want you to believe me. You ought to believe this. But
he knew faith is a gift of God. It's the gift of God. We live in a world of unbelief.
Very few people believe God. And those who do, it's given
to them. It's given to them. However, Paul did glory. You know, we
are going to glory, aren't we? It's just our makeup. We are
going to glory in something or someone. If it kills us, we're
going to do it. Now, until grace comes along,
I know what we glory in. Well, we have mirrors all over
the house. Everywhere we go, there's a mirror. Because we're
going to glory in ourselves until God commands His light to shine
into our hearts and allows us to see His glory in the face
of Jesus Christ. So Paul did glory. He gloried. It says here in the cross, of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what He says here. He
says over here, of our Lord, God forbid that
I should glory, save, or accept in the cross of our Lord. That's who's hanging on that
cross. That's who died on the cross.
Who? Our Lord. By what He said in
that statement. He covered all the bases, didn't
he? I tell you, when God speaks,
He doesn't have to write volumes. He just speaks. He can say so
much in such a short period of time. And He said, Our Lord Jesus
Christ. He covered it all. Everywhere
Paul went, Christ crucified was His message. It was His message. He gloryed in Him. And He never
changed His message to suit the crowd. Never. He preached Christ
crucified to the rich. He preached Christ crucified
to the religious people of His day, the Jews. He preached Christ
crucified. He didn't change the message
for them. He preached Christ crucified. He preached Christ
crucified to the heathen. His message never changed. And I thought this today. Why? Because everyone of them is lost.
The rich man, the poor man, the religious man. All of them are lost until God comes along
and saves them. Until God comes along and commands
life. And life. They're lost. And this is the
only message that God is going to bless. If God blesses this
congregation, if He brings more sheep into this fold, it's going
to be through the faithful preaching of the cross of Christ. Christ
crucified. We're not going to change it
so that it will take the edge off from it and we can maybe
get a little more people to come. I don't want that. We are here
to glorify Him. And He'll do what He will. He'll
save whom He will. But He won't save apart from
this message. No one will be saved apart from
this message. Not at all. That's what He says over here
in the first part of this chapter. Look over here in chapter 1.
Paul says in verse 6 to these Galatians, because some people
had come in, Paul's preachers, preaching another gospel. Paul
says in verse 6, I marvel that you are so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel, which is not another. There is not another. They call
it another. They call it the gospel, but
it's not. But there be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ, that change it, add to it or take away from
it. But though we are an angel, from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you. Let him be accursed. This is the only message
that God will bless in saving sinners. This is the message. Christ crucified. The blood of
Christ. The sufferings of Christ. The
sacrifice of Christ that you want your children to hear. You
don't want them to hear any other message. Because God's not going
to save any other man by any other way. This is the only message that
saves, and listen, this is the only message that keeps a man
saved. It's the only gospel that keeps a man saved. No other will. Now when Paul
said that he gloried in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, he's
saying that he gloried in the atonement. Brethren, we have
the atonement for our sins. Sometimes we hear that so much,
it just kind of goes over us, doesn't it? Sometimes we read
certain Scriptures, we've heard them so much and read them, that
we just kind of let them go over us. But we have the atonement. God is appeased toward us. Believers, He's appeased toward
us. God is pleased with us in Christ. We have the atonement
through the blood of Christ for our sins. If God has ever made
you to know what sin is, you'll rejoice. You'll rejoice. Look over in Romans chapter 5.
Over here in Romans chapter 5. He says in verse 11, And not only so, but we also
joy And that's a real joy, joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ for whom we have now received the atonement. We've received
the atonement now. Our sins have been atoned for.
God is pleased. God is appeased. Then Paul gloried in the justification
that we have through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. This
is why He gloried in the cross. This is what this encompasses.
Atonement. Justified. Justified in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's what it says back over here
in Romans. I've got this over here in Romans
9. In Romans chapter 5 verse 9. It says, Much more then be
now justified by His blood. We shall be saved from wrath
through Him. We have this. No person has ever
been justified any other way. No other way. No person has ever
been justified any other way than by the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ. And then Paul gloryed in the
righteousness that came out of that. That came out of the cross
of Christ. For the first time, Paul counted his righteousness
for the first time. He counted his righteousness
as absolutely worthless. It's not so hard to get people
to count their sins as worthless, is it? You can get people to
say, well, I shouldn't have done that, or I wish I hadn't done
that. But it's hard to get a person
off of his or her righteousness. It's hard to get someone to take
their righteousness, their right doing, which they think is right
doing, It's hard to get them to take that and throw it in
the trash. There's a lot of things we throw
in the trash. But getting a person to take
all their goodness and all that they count as good about themselves
and put it in the trash. And for the first time, Paul
put it all in the trash. And he counted it as done. And he counted the righteousness
of Jesus Christ as everything. Everything. Look over at Philippians
3. Over here at Philippians 3. Listen, let me read here in verse
8. Paul says, yeah, doubtless, and
I count all things in case I happen to miss it or I didn't mention
it. He said, I'll cover it with this. I count all things but
loss. for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things. I've given all things up. And
do count them but what? Done. That's pretty strong, isn't
it? Done. That I may win Christ. That I may have Christ. Listen. And be found in Him. It's like Noah was found in the
ark. Paul says, I will be found in
Him. Not having my own righteousness,
my own merits, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that
I might know Him. Do you know Him? Well, I believe I do, but sometimes
I feel like I barely do. And to tell you the truth, I
probably barely do. He's the wisdom of God. We have
not scratched that surface. That I might know Him, and listen,
and the power of His resurrection. I read an article once, or a
message, and it said, and know the power of His resurrected
life. Isn't that something to know? The power of His life in
me. I know something about the power
of sin. Oh, I want to know the power of His resurrection and
the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His
death, if by any means I might attain. Now, you know he's talking
here just by any old way. He's talking about Christ. I
might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Oh, that I might
know Him. All glory also here. Paul gloried
in the freeness of the Gospel. Aren't you glad we didn't have
to pay to come in that door? We weren't charged to come in
here. You're not charged for this message. We give freely
because the Lord's given to us. We don't put a charge on anybody.
Paul gloried in the freeness of the Gospel. At one time, he
worked hard for it. One time, no one worked harder
for being saved than Paul. And then one day he found out
it's free. What a relief. Oh, I don't have
that kind of money. I just don't have that ability.
Free! Our Lord said, freely you have
received, freely give. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come to the water. Come, buy, eat, buy wine, milk
without money, without price. Why do you spend money except
for that which is not bread? We have a gospel to preach that's
free to sinners. That's what made those religious
people awesome. That's what made them mad. They did all that work. That's like that young man that
stayed home and the prodigal left. He said, Father, I stayed
here I have obeyed you, even though I would have liked to
have been doing that. I stay here. And I have been obedient. I have done what you wanted me
to do. And here you offer up a calf
and have a feast for this rebel, for this son that left and got
to fulfill the lust of his flesh. And I stayed here and didn't
do that. I tell you, you cannot put a price
on God's love, can you? You cannot buy God's love by
obedience. You don't buy love by obedience.
Not God's love. He loved us. He said this in
Hosea, I loved them freely. I loved them freely. We have
a gospel to preach that's free. You don't need to bring a lamb.
In the Old Testament, they had to bring a lamb. Now, it cost
you, didn't it? You had to purchase that lamb. You had to buy that
lamb. Somehow, you had to come up with
the lamb. But here, you just receive one. You don't bring a righteousness,
you receive one. You don't bring blood, you receive
the blood. As many as what? Received Him. Then gave He power or the right
to become the sons of God. You don't bring water. He is
the water. Come. Come and drink of the water
of life. Freely. Freely. The whole amount of money can
purchase this salvation. You know, men want everything
free, don't they? Except salvation. Except salvation. We'll work for that. We want
everything else free. We want to win the lottery so
we have plenty of money to have what we want. But they don't want salvation
to be free. Because that does away with all boasting and all
bragging and gives God all the glory. That's what it does. in the power of the cross of
Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation.
That's what he says in Romans 1.16. Paul knew by his own experience
that the only thing that could break a sinner's heart and bring
him to receive and love the Lord Jesus Christ is the preaching
of Christ crucified. That's what brought him. He heard
Stephen. He heard Ananias, and God broke
his heart. He knew, Paul knew by experience,
the message that God uses to save sinners. This is the dynamite
of God. God will not honor any other
message. Not at all. It's Christ crucified. Then Paul, glory, listen, in
the realness of it, Is this really real to you? I
sat back and asked myself today. Is this real to me? I don't want
to be religious. I don't. I'd rather be the other
way if I'm just going to be religious. This is real. This is real. Substitution is real. Jesus Christ,
the Son of God is real. Christ dying to redeem sinners
is real. Christ risen is real. Christ seated at God's right
hand is real. Being made complete in Him is
real. And that's why Paul, when he
went preaching the gospel, he had a real message to preach. He just preached with sustenance.
And this is how we ought to preach. We better preach. with such conviction. Because it's real. This is not, as one person said,
the opium of the people. It's not a drug. It's not something
to help us get by. This is real. Christ as my Lord
is real. Lord, what would you have me
to do? It's not what do I want to do
today. even though we do that too much. He's real. And we have something
real to tell sinners. We do. And Paul gloryed in the
results of the cross of Christ. He had got results now. Peace with God. There is real
peace with God. Some people don't. Reconciled to Him? Joy in the
Lord? No condemnation? Sons of God? That's results, isn't it? I'll tell you though, present-day
preaching leaves it with no results unless you do something with
it. I'm glad he got results without my part in it. And then Paul says, by the cross
of Christ the world is crucified unto me and I am to the world.
The world does not love me and I do not love the world anymore.
One time he did. Religious as he was, Paul loved
the world. He loved the system that he was
in. He loved the principles that
he had. And it was all world. He was
as lost as a As Donny Bell says, a white goose in a snowstorm.
He didn't know God from that wall. You wouldn't have known
that, would you? If you'd have known Paul, you'd
have thought he was the best man in town. And he was the most
lost man in town. But he says here, the world doesn't
love me and I don't love the world. Martin Luther said this,
there is no love lost between me and the Pope of Rome. He hates
me and I also hate him with all my heart, soul, and strength.
That's what Martin Luther said. There's no love lost, but to
amend the poem. He hates me and I hate him. Christ
said, do not I hate them with a perfect hatred? Of course,
it's over in the psalm. That's what Christ is speaking. Everything outside of Christ
is a lie and it's vanity. What we have in him is Then Paul gloried in the fact
that the gospel of Christ crucified meets the need of every sinner
that meets with it. If you have a need, a real need,
I'm talking about a spiritual need, it can all be met at Christ crucified. It can all be met at the cross
of Christ. That's what Paul's saying. Are
you thirsty? Drink. Drink of Him. Not just one time, continually.
We drink of Him daily. You know, I drink water daily.
And the believer drinks of Christ daily. Are you hungry? Eat! Eat the bread of life! Not just one time, daily! People who are not hungry, who
are not thirsty, are dead people. I've never seen a dead person
want something to drink or want something to eat. That's for
living people. And those who are thirsty after
Christ and you're hungry, that's signs of life. That's signs of
spiritual life. Are you weary? Rest. He said,
come unto me and rest. Are you filthy? Wash. Wash in
the blood. Are you confused? Sit and learn
of Him. Are you sick? Here's the balm
of Gilead. Are you poor? All things are
yours in Christ. All things. A person may be poor in the things of this world,
but if that person is in Christ, his riches cannot be counted.
He has the same unsearchable riches that Christ has. He just
doesn't know it all yet. Someday, we're going to spend
an eternity finding out about it. Really. We are going to spend
an eternity finding out about the unsearchable riches of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was so taken up with Christ
crucified that all else became as nothing. And Christ became
all in all. I want that for me. And I want
that for you. I want us to be obsessed with
Him. Let me read you in closing. Look at verse 15. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature. All this applies to a new creature,
a new creation. Now here's Henry's commentary
on this. Circumcision and obedience to any of the rituals and ceremonies
can profit you nothing before God for justification and righteousness. Abstinence from these rituals
and ceremonies can profit you nothing. That which is profitable
and of eternal value is a new creature, being made new in Christ,
a new creation. The new creature consists of
a new spiritual man in Christ Jesus. That's what it consists
of. It doesn't consist of principles, just principles. Principles come
from that new nature. That's where it comes from. Now
you have new principles, but they come from some place. That
new man. He said the new creature consists
of a new spiritual man in Christ Jesus. A new glory of Christ
motivated by a real love for him. Without, now this is me saying
this, this is, end of quote. Without this new creation, we
cannot glory in the cross of Christ. Because the benefits
belong to Him, not the old creation. The benefits belong to the new
man. That's why Paul gloried in it. And that is exactly why
Religious lost people cannot glory in the cross of Christ
because the benefits don't belong to them. And they can't see or
understand or even begin to grasp what the believer has in Christ. God forbid that I should glory
except or save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
the world is crucified unto me. Just like those two thieves.
I thought of this today. I thought there were two thieves
hanging there. One was crucified with Christ. The other was crucified and put
to death without Christ. Paul said, By whom the world
is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. He is my everything. Everything. I know it's easy. And this is what struck me so
much today when I started looking at this. It struck me how easy it is to
get sidetracked. It truly is. It's so easy to
get sidetracked. There's so much that draws our attention. So
much we are attracted to. This flesh is still flesh. It's
not any different. My flesh is not any different
today than the day I was born. It's still wretched. And it's
still attracted to some things. Like Donnie said one time, he
said, I still have one leg that wants to go dancing. That's what
he said. And I identify with him. He said,
I still have one leg that wants to go dancing. He said that in
a conference years ago, and I have never forgot that. And every now and then. Every
now and then you want to go back to it. But we've got to be brought
back to this. We've got to be brought back
to this. And it's my responsibility standing here to keep this in
front of us. Because this is it. Christ is
our glory. He's our end. Okay.