Good morning, everyone. Every time that I'm here, I profess my love to you. I hope
you know how much I love you. But it does my heart so much
good to drive up to this building and drive past your house. I just can't help being in this
position, being called to do this. I can't help but thank
the Lord for the men before us and the generation before us.
And I was just thinking that the
Lord gave brother Don the greatest blessing that any man can receive
on this earth. And that is he let him preach
Christ crucified until the day he called him home. He didn't
veer to another gospel. And that's all I want. I want to stay on the one thing
needful, the one man needful. And then I was sitting there
thinking, he received the greatest blessing on earth, but he received
the greatest blessing now in glory. He's not preaching anymore.
Scripture says that in that day, No man is going to say to his
brother, know the Lord. You need to know the Lord. It's
not going to happen anymore. He said, they're all going to
know me. And I just couldn't help but think of Brother Don,
Brother Henry, Brother Maurice, Brother Scott. They're all sitting
now. They're not preaching anymore. They're listening to the preacher.
Just imagine what they're hearing now. But what a blessing, and
thank you for having me sincerely. I'm honored. We're all honored
to be here. It's just our great privilege. We're just blessed people all
the way around, aren't we? And I do love you very much.
Turn with me to Galatians chapter 1. Our message is going to come
from Galatians 6, but I want to begin the message by pointing
out the opening words that the Apostle Paul gave in this letter. Galatians 1 verse 1, it says, Paul, an apostle, not of men,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who
raised Him from the dead. And all the brethren which are
with me unto the churches of Galatia, grace be to you and
peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. who
gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this
present evil world. According to the will of God
and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. To whom be glory forever
and ever. Amen. Paul opened this letter
with grace and peace from God the Father, through the Lord
Jesus Christ, all because he gave himself for our sins. Sometimes There are so many things
that by the Lord's grace I know. But every now and then the Lord
lets me enter into some things. And there's just a few things
in this message that just really struck me. And one of them is
this. He gave Himself for our sins. That is just... You just can't fathom that. He
gave Himself for our sins. That's an amazing statement.
He did that, that He might deliver us, all of His people, all that the
Father gave to Him. He delivered us from this present
evil world, and that's what this place is. It's an evil world,
and it's because of us. It's because we're evil, we've
made it to be this way. And He did that according to
the will of God, our Father. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Spirit. Collectively, that was their
will concerning us. Verse 5 says, To whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen. To Him be the glory. To Him be all the glory forever. Amen. That's how Paul opened
this letter to the Galatians. To Him be the glory. All the
glory goes to Him. Now I want us to look at how
Paul closed the letter. Turn with me if you would to
chapter 6. Galatians 6 verse 14 says, 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." He opened
the letter by saying, Christ deserves all the glory for the
cross that He suffered. That's how He opened this letter.
Christ deserves all the glory for the cross that He suffered.
And He ended the letter by saying, God forbid that I should glory
in anything but the cross that Christ suffered. God forbid. All the glory goes to Him. All
of it. The word glory means, when you
look up the word, it means to boast of. It means to vaunt,
and that word vaunt means to boast of excessively. To boast
of, to boast of excessively. It means to promote. It means
to give credit to. God forbid that I should give
that to anything but the cross that our Lord Jesus Christ suffered. God forbid. God's people glory
in the cross. We glory in the cross. God's people boast of the cross. strikes me how there are some
people that I have met, and they want to talk doctrine, they want
to talk election, they want to talk this, they want to talk
that, but it's like we never get to the person in that cross
somehow. And my heart can't settle down
until we get to Him and Him crucified. We can talk about a lot of true
things. Some of you know what I'm talking about. You know,
people want to talk doctrine. I love correct doctrine. Christ
is my doctor. And it's about Him. God forbid
that we glory, we boast of the cross. We vaunt the cross. We promote the cross. We give
credit to the cross. The Christ of the cross. Along
with those definitions, the word glory also means rejoice in. That's one of the definitions
too. Rejoice in. God's people rejoice in the cross. Thank God for the cross. Thank
God for the cross. If we want to get to the heart
of it all, it's the cross. We rejoice in. and we vaunt and
we lift up and we magnify, we praise and we thank God for the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to spend our time
this morning seeing what it is about the cross, okay? That's
how we start is we say, we glory in the cross. Well, here's the
next question. Why? What is it about the cross that
causes us to glory? Why do we glory in the cross?
And what is it about the cross that causes us to glory? I want
us to see what it is exactly about the cross that is so glorious. I have seven things from the
scripture that I want to bring our attention to concerning the
cross. And I believe with each one of
these, if we are God's people, we will say, that's glorious. That really is glorious. If the
Lord will let us enter into this, we will say how glorious that
is. What a truth worthy to be gloried
in. Seven glorious truths. Seven facts concerning the cross. Now I have a scripture for each
one of them. plus a couple more. So I'm going
to ask everybody to warm up your turning finger. We're going to
turn a little bit, okay? I don't like to overturn people,
but I am a turner, and every time I travel somewhere, everybody
in Kingsport knows that, but every time I travel, I tell everybody,
we're going to turn a little bit. But I have one for each
of these seven things, a scripture for each one, and here's the
first one, okay? We glory in who it was exactly
that hung on that cross. Alright, that's the first thing
we glory in. Turn with me to John 19. John 19. Look with me at verse
19. It says, And Pilate wrote a title, and
put it on the cross, and the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth,
the King of the Jews. Who hung on that cross? Just
think about this. The King did. Our King. Our King. I love how the scripture
refers to Him as our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our King hung there for us. That was the King hanging there
for us. Look at verse 5, it says, Then
came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and a purple
robe, and Pilate said unto them, Behold the man. Who is the man? Look at verse 14. And it was
the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour, and
he said unto the Jews, Behold your king. Who is the king? Verse 19 says, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth, our King. That was our King. What does
it mean to say that He is the King? What exactly does that
mean to say that He is our King to the fullest degree? He is
the King, God's King. Well, turn with me to 1 Timothy
chapter 1. 1 Timothy 1 verse 17 says, Now unto the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God, the honor and glory forever and
ever. Amen. Who is the King? God Almighty. God Almighty is the King, the
only wise God that there is. Across my page here, 1 Timothy
3 verse 16, it says, and without controversy, great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. God was justified in the Spirit. God was seen of angels. God was
preached unto the Gentiles, God was believed on in the world,
and God was received up in glory. God was. So that's the first
thing that we glory in concerning the cross. We glory in who it
was exactly that hung on that cross for us. False religion
has no idea who hung on the cross. No idea. They say Jesus did. Well, who is that? That was Jesus
of Nazareth. Well, who is that? God Almighty. The King. The One who sits on
the throne. The King hung there. Did we not
glory in that? That's amazing. Alright, here's
the second thing. And what a glorious thing this
is. So, so glorious. If we've never gloried in this,
I pray the Lord will let us glory in it right now. Turn with me
if you would to Matthew 27. Thank God for this. Thank God for this. Matthew 27 verse 37 says, And he set up over his head his
accusation written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then were
there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and
another on the left. And they that passed by reviled
him, wagging their heads and saying, Thou that destroyest
the temple and buildest it in three days, save Thyself, if
Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross." If Thou be the Son of God, come
down from the cross. Did He? God's people glory in the fact
we vaunt, we praise, we give indescribable thanks, and we
rejoice in the fact that He did not come down. We rejoice in
the fact that He did not come down. Thank God He did not come
down. We will cry that to Him for all
of eternity. Thank God you did not come down.
I can't wait to be in that glorious congregation and cry to Him at
the top of my lungs. Thank God you did not come down.
Let me see those scars again. Thank God you didn't come down.
All the spitting and reviling and cursing and mocking Thank God. Why didn't He come
down? It's because verse 42 says, He saved others. And in order
to do that, He could not save Himself. He saved others Himself. He cannot save. If He was going
to be our saving substitute, He could not save Himself. Verse 41 says, the chief priest
and the scribes and the elders, they said that to him, mocking
him. Likewise also the chief priest
mocking him with the scribes and the elders. What's amazing
is, their great mockery is our great glory. They were mocking
him for the fact that he did not come down and would not come
down. That's our great glory. We glory in who it was that hung
on that cross. That was God the King. And we
glory in the fact that He did not come down. Thank God He didn't
come down. He stayed on that cross until
the moment that He cried, it is finished, and bowed His head
and gave up the ghost. That old wife just made mention
of it, that song that Ed Hale wrote, I'll be looking for scars
up in heaven. Scars that love held on the tree. Scars that turned judgment to
mercy for a hell-deserving sinner like me. I am a hell-deserving
sinner. And I know it. And I knew it
driving over here this morning. I was thinking about it in the
car. And my glory is in the fact that
His judgment is my mercy. His love turned judgment to mercy
for a hell-deserving sinner like me. How glorious it is to think
that He would not come down. His love for His people held
Him right there. Here's the third thing. Turn
with me to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians 2 verse 5 says, Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross." We glory in the obedience of the cross. Hebrews 5 says, Though Christ
was a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things that He suffered.
Our shame and our sin is all because of the fact that we cannot
obey God. We did not obey God. We cannot
obey God. Men and women who try to convince
themselves that they can and they have that ability to, they
are deceiving themselves. in the flesh, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. We cannot obey His law to the
strict demands that He has commanded of us. We can't. We just cannot. So Christ came and He obeyed
God for us. And I'm so thankful for this.
He came and He obeyed God for us all the way down to God's
demands of our death for our sin against Him. He obeyed God
all the way to death for us. Christ made Himself to be the
servant of God for His people, in the place of His people, on
behalf of His people. And because of that, verse 9
says, God also hath highly exalted
him and given him a name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. That's another thing I can't
wait to do. I can't wait to be in that congregation and hear
the name, Jesus, all hail the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to
see a number no man can number hit their knees. And I want to
be one of them. I want to see every knee bow.
I want to hear every tongue confess. All glory goes to him. All glory
goes to him. So we glory in who hung on that
cross for us. We glory in the fact that He
didn't come down. We glory in the obedience that
was displayed to God on our behalf. In Him, we have perfect obedience
with God. We have perfect obedience with
God. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, not
my will, but thine be done. He said, Father, I delight to
do Thy will. And He also said, I delight to
give that obedience to My people. Thank God for that. Number four. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
5. Galatians 5. Verse 11. It says, And I, brethren, if
I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. Paul said, If I preached the
works of the law, then the offense of the cross would cease." If
I preached works, there would be no offense in my message.
Every one of these, if you haven't noticed, every one of these scriptures
mentions the cross. Everything we're reading has
the cross in it. And Paul said, if I preached
works, the offense of the cross would cease. There would be no
offense in the message. God's people glory in the offense. We glory in the offense of the
cross. What does that mean? When we
talk about the offense of the cross, what does that mean? Look
at verse 1. It says, Stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. What he's saying
in this chapter is, our works play no role in our salvation. I was reading the bulletin in
the first article just above that short, that Brother Don
wrote, right? I should have brought it up here
and read it to you. If you haven't read it yet, read it. Our works
play no role in our salvation. None whatsoever. They don't in
the beginning, they don't in the middle, and they don't in
the end. No role. Verse 2 says, Behold,
I, Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised... Why would
they be circumcised? Well, the law told them to. The
Bible said God wants you to be circumcised. So they did it. Verse 2, Behold, I, Paul, say
unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Verse 6, what that means is, if you're holding to that circumcision,
Verse 6, For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love."
Faith, look into Christ. We have no part in our salvation. We contribute nothing to the
work of our salvation. This is solely in the hands of
Christ alone. And in that, Paul said, is the
offense. I had it in my mind that whenever
I got to Kingsport, I was going to make everybody mad because
I was going to call them a sinner. And they would not want to hear
that. And I learned that people are not so offended by that. I was a little shocked by it.
I used to think, well, they're not going to like this. I'm going
to call them a sinner. They know they are. Whether they're
willing to openly admit it or not, they know they are. The moment though that you tell
them that salvation from that sin, all of it lies in the hands
of Jesus Christ alone. The moment you tell them it is
His will alone and not theirs. It is His decision alone and
not... Wait a minute, you mean I don't
even have a say in the matter? Once you tell men and women it
is His ability alone, not theirs. He does it all, they do nothing.
That's where the offense comes in. The moment that truth comes out,
it offends the flesh of men and women. It crushes their pride. It crushes their worth. It crushes
everything that they think they are before God. And it leaves
them helpless before the throne. It leaves them at His mercy.
That's where it leaves them. It leaves them as beggars in
need of the mercy of God Almighty. And hearing that Christ by Himself
purged our sins, that is so offensive to the unbelieving world. By
Himself. By Himself. Let me ask you this.
Is it to us? Is that offensive to us? Is hearing that Christ did it
all... Okay, just think about this.
Christ did it all. He left nothing undone. There's
nothing for you to do. Christ paid it all. Christ satisfied
it all. And Christ gets the sole credit
for it all. Is that an offense to us? That's
our glory. That's our glory. We praise and
laud and cheer the High King of Heaven for that because of
what that means for us. What His finished work means
for us. Alright, here's the fifth thing.
Look with me at Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 verse 13, it says,
But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made
nigh by the blood of Christ, for He is our peace, who hath
made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments, contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he
might reconcile. both unto God in one body by
the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." What does Christ accomplishing
it all mean for us? It means reconciliation for us. I love reconciliation. I do. I do. I thank God for reconciliation. That's what it means. Two parties
who were totally at odds, join back together. In love, in unity. Hark the herald angels sing,
glory to the newborn king, peace on earth and mercy mild, God
and sinners reconciled. It means righteousness and peace
can now kiss each other. Even though the natural flesh
of mankind hates the sovereign, solitary work of the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's people glory in it because of what it means for
them. Union, unity, reconciliation
with God, peace with God. So we glory in who hung on that
cross. Who it is that hung on that cross.
We glory in the fact that He did not come down. Every time
I say this, it just makes me happy inside. I thank God for
the fact that He didn't come down. We glory in the obedience
of the cross. We glory in what the world considers
to be the offense of the cross. He did it alone. He by Himself
purged our sins. Because we glory in the reconciliation
of the cross. Now here's the sixth thing. Turn
with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Verse 17 says, For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none of that. We glory in
the gospel of the cross. The gospel means good news. Good
news. We glory in the good news of
the cross. Our message is a good news message. It really is. Even though the
flesh of man naturally doesn't want to hear it, naturally hates
it, it is good news. Start to finish, it is good news. We glory in the good news of
the Gospel. We have, our Lord has given to
us in the pages of His Word, we have right here the most glorious
message that has ever been told. It's a message of rest. It's a message of peace. It's
a message of relief. The Gospel is so relieving. It's
just so relieving. I think about in Pilgrim's Progress. Pilgrim. He was carrying this
burden on his back and he couldn't get rid of this burden until
somebody told him where to go. Yon Wicked Gate. That straight
and narrow way. And he traveled it until he got
to the foot of the cross. And as soon as he got to the
foot of the cross, he looked up and the burden fell off his back.
That's what I feel like whenever The Lord lets me enter into this.
It's just so relieving. It's just so restful. It's just
so peaceful. It's a message of a finished
work. A finished work. The alternative
to this, which is being preached all over Danville this morning.
The alternative to this is a message of no rest at all. No rest! Because the work is
not finished. You'd better go to work. You
want to be saved, don't you? Well, then you had better go
to work. There's no rest to be had yet.
There's no peace to be had yet. If you don't make it for yourself,
you want peace with God, don't you? Have you made your peace
with God? What you're doing is not good
enough. What horrible news. What horrible
news. What bad news that would be if
that's what God had written in His Word. But glory to God in
the highest, that's not what He wrote. Thank God that's not
what He wrote. In the message of the cross,
He has declared to us the glory of the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the wonderful news of rest
and peace and relief that that finished work has brought to
us. Paul said in Romans 1 verse 15, As much as in me is, I am
ready to preach the good news gospel of the cross to you. And
I say the same thing. It is my great delight, it's
my pleasure to preach the good news gospel of the cross to myself,
to you. What a privilege, what an honor.
We glory in the gospel of the cross. And that leads us to the
last thing that we'll point out for this message, number seven.
We glory in the joy of the cross. Not just our joy, We all know
it means joy for us, but not just our joy, His joy. We glory
in His joy. Turn with me to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12 verse 2 says, Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before Him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. Do we not glory in the fact that
the cross brought such great joy to Him? Knowing the suffering
and the pain and the agony that it brought to Him. We know the
deep, deep agony that it brought to Him. But does it not bring
joy to our hearts realizing the joy that he also experienced
in his heart, knowing that he was accomplishing this for his
bride, for his love, for his own. That just warms my heart, just
knowing when he set his face like a flint, he didn't do that
out of duty, mere duty, He did that out of love. He wanted his
bride redeemed. He wanted the love of his life
to be with him where he was. And he went and got her. And he bowed his head, he gave
up his ghost. Out of love for her. I want her. And he laid in that
tomb for three days in absolute faith, crying, My God will not
leave my soul in hell. And when he arose from the dead
and walked out of that tomb, I can only envision heaven erupting
with joy. Just joy. Can't you imagine the
angels watching him walk out of that tomb? Thank God. Thank God. Also that
He can say, Father, here she is, I've got her. And she's spotless. And holy and unblameable and
unreprovable in our sight. Does that not warm your heart?
That's glory. You know, people say, had I been
alive back then, I would have stopped that. I don't want to
stop that. I have glory in it. We glory in who hung on that
cross for us. We glory in the fact that He
did not come down. We glory in His obedience. We
glory in what the world sees to be an offense. We glory in the reconciliation
of it. We glory in the good news of
it. and we glory in the joy that it brought to every party involved. The cross brought joy to God
the Father, joy to God the Son, joy to God the Spirit, joy to
all of God's people, joy to all of heaven, joy to everybody. The cross brought joy to everybody,
every party involved. God forbid that we should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be glory
forever and ever. Amen. Thank you. Thank you for having me.