We should turn to Galatians chapter
six. So happy to be with you. Love
this church, love your pastor, and he could testify there's
not a week that goes by that we don't speak and discuss the
gospel and the scriptures. Just honored to be here. Galatians
chapter six, I'd like to read verse 16. and as many as walk according
to this rule. Peace beyond them and mercy and
upon the Israel of God. I've entitled this message, The
Believer's Rule of Life. And the first statement that
I would like to make is this is what the Bible says the believer's
rule of life is. You just read it with me. This
is what the Bible says the believer's rule of life is. The word walk in our text, as
many as walk according to this rule, is found five times in
the New Testament. Once it's translated, walking
orderly. Your walk is your life. Your
walk is the direction you're going. Your walk is your conversation. As many as walk according to
this rule. This is a measuring rod, is what
the word means. It's where we get the word canon
from. You've heard of the canon of scripture. And this is a closed
canon. There are no new revelations. And in this rule, we have the
measuring stick for everything we hear. If it's not according
to this rule, if it's not according to the scriptures, it's not true. As many as walk according to
this rule peace beyond them. Do you know that the only people
who have true peace, a well-grounded peace, are the people who walk
according to this rule. Everybody who walks according
to this rule has peace. Anybody who doesn't walk according
to this rule doesn't have true peace. And I'm talking about
the peace of God that passes understanding. I'm talking about
that peace that Christ achieved on Calvary's tree when he completely
satisfied God and put away all the sins of God's elect and God
is completely satisfied with everybody that his son died for. And I find my peace the same
place God finds peace in what God As many as walk according to
this rule, peace and mercy be upon them. You see, the only
people that God has had mercy on are people who walk according
to this rule. If I don't walk according to
this rule, I don't know anything about the mercy of God. People
who walk according to this rule, oh, the mercy of God, the saving
mercy of God is upon them. It looks what he says in verse
16. As many as walk according to
this rule, this standard of measurement, peace be on them and mercy and
upon the Israel of God. This is the true Israel of God.
This is not that nation in the Middle East. That's not the true
Israel of God. This is every believer. Every believer is the
true Israel of God. Every believer is the true Jew.
This is what the true Jews do. They walk according to this rule. Now if you ask the average person,
what is the believer's rule of life? How would they respond? Well, probably most people would
say the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are the
rule by which you should order your life and walk. I love the Ten Commandments. I like what Paul said. I love
what Paul said. I delight in the law of God after the inward
man. And I don't try to keep the Ten
Commandments. I've kept them. When Christ kept
them, I kept them. And I stand perfectly righteous
before those Ten Commandments. But understand this, the Ten
Commandments are not the rule of the believer's life. There's
only one thing the Ten Commandments do, expose sin. And that's all they were ever
meant to do. Ten commandments are not the
rule of the believer's life. And if they are the rule of the
believer's life, guess what? I failed. And so have you. And me and you have not kept
one commandment one time. Now do you believe that? So whether
you believe it or not, and if you don't believe it, it's because
you don't really understand the law. If you have any understanding
of the law, you'll know you haven't kept one commandment one time. So I repeat, if the Ten Commandments
are the rule of a believer's life, me and you are in big trouble.
because we don't get one commandment one time. I think of when that
man said to the Lord, what's the greatest commandment? He
said, to love the Lord God with all your heart and all your mind
and all your soul and all your strength and the second is like
unto it, to love your neighbors yourself. You know what that
means? That means I'm in the continual action of committing
the greatest sin. Not loving God with all my heart
and with all my soul and all my strength, nonstop. The law was meant to expose sin,
and no one can keep the law. We love God's law. I would not
in any way speak disrespectfully of God's holy law. I love God's
law. It's a reflection of his holy
character. But here's what the Bible says the believer's rule
of life is. As many as walk according to
this rule, Peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of
God. Now here's a rule, if you're a believer, you can keep. Not
just admire it. Actually walk according to this
rule. Well, look what he said previously,
verse 15, for in Christ Jesus. Watch where I wanna be. I wanna
be in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus speaks of union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're in Christ Jesus, when
God looks at you, he sees his son. You're in him. Is it any wonder Paul said, oh,
that I'm in Christ and be found in him. When God comes looking
for me, there's only one place I want to be found, in him. Not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law, But that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God, by faith, in Christ Jesus. This speaks of union with
the Lord Jesus Christ, being united to him, one with him. Both he that sanctifies and they
who are sanctified are all of one. For the witch cause he's
not ashamed to call them brethren. He's not ashamed to own me, that's
my brother. Now Paul says in verse 15, in
Christ Jesus, neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creation, a new creature. Now is that the rule we walk
according to? Well, it's certainly included
in it. If you're in Christ, you're a
new creation. Now what's the point in creation?
You didn't have anything to do with it. That's the point. When God created the universe,
he didn't consult with you. He didn't ask you about it. He
did it as an act of his own will. Well, what about the second creation? Did he consult with you? No. You were birthed into the kingdom
through his word, a creative act of God. You are a new creature
in Christ. It's not a cooperative effort
between God and man, and anything outside of that is not walking
according to this rule. For instance, if you believe
in free will, now by free will I don't mean that people do what
they want to do. Whatever you do, you're doing
what you want to do. But the will is not free in the
sense that it's controlled by an evil nature. And to speak
of free will is a denial that salvation is the creative act
of God. It's saying that I do something in order to make it
happen. And if you believe in free will and that sins, like
I said, there's no such thing. Your will is controlled by your nature.
God doesn't have a free will. God can't sin. God is holy. God is immutable. His will is
controlled by his nature. But if someone promotes this
doctrine of free will in saying salvation is up to you to do
something, to accept what he did, to make it work, you're
denying that salvation is a creative act of God. So that's certainly
included in this. But here's what I believe that
Paul is speaking of specifically. Verse 14, when he said, God forbid, that I should glory, saved in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom? Not by what or not by
which, but by whom? The world is crucified unto me. The world that so many find such
pleasure in and desire for, In light of the cross, I see it
as a crucified thing. And you know what? The world
pretty much looks the same way to me because of what I believe
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here is the believer's rule
of life. God forbid. That's strong language. May it never be so. God forbid
that I should glory. that I should have confidence
in, that I should rejoice in, anything save the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is our rule, this is
our law, this is our standard of measurement, glorying only
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what does that mean?
Well, I love his name. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's our. He's mine. He's our. This is
the heritage of every believer. This is personal. He's our Lord
Jesus Christ. He's our Lord. You know, the
Lord is the one whose will is done. He demonstrated his lordship
in creation when he spake the world into existence as an act
of his will. His will is done in everything
in providence because whatever's taking place, it's his will being
done. What about nothing? Whatever
it is, it's his will being done. He's the Christ. He's the Lord Jesus, the savior
of his people. He's the Christ. I love to think
of his offices as the Christ. He's God's prophet. And he's
like no other prophet. Because every other prophet saith,
thus saith the Lord. He never said that. He said,
I say unto you. He's God's priest. And he's like no other priest.
Every other priest brought blood that can never put away sin. The blood of an animal sacrifice.
But this priest brings his own blood. And God is satisfied with that
blood. perfect in Christ Jesus. He's
God's king. He's like no other king. Every
other king has a borrowed power. Whatever authority and power
they have, God gave it to them. Not to, it's been a couple of
years ago, but I was listening to the radio and somebody says,
here's the five most powerful men in the world. And I just,
I sort of thought, they don't have any power. None at all. Power belongeth unto the Lord. And Christ Jesus has power inherently. It's His because of who He is.
He is our Lord Jesus Christ. We glory, we boast, we rejoice,
we have confidence in only the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
our rule of life. Give me something else. What? This is our rule
of law. This takes care of everything.
And if I don't see this, it's because I've never understood
the gospel. God forbid that I should glory
save in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this was Paul speaking. Paul, as far as men go, he's
my hero. I love Paul. Paul was used by
God more than any other man. He was used to write 13 books
in the Bible. He was the one God used to announced the gospel of grace
more clearly than anybody else. He was taken up into the third
heaven and taught the gospel directly by the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. Can you imagine that? This is
Paul speaking, and he says, God forbid that I glory in any of
that. What's wrong with that? God forbid
that I glory in any of that. God forbid that I glory. God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, the cross, the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, what is the cross? Well, somebody says
it's the wood that's shaped like that, that the Lord was crucified
on. Well, for one thing, it wasn't that, it was a pole. It was a
pole. You think that they would take
the time to make a cross? No, they'd just stretch them
up on a pole. As a matter of fact, this idea didn't come around
until the third century, or fourth century, whenever it was, when
Constantine had that vision and announced that Christianity was
now the religion of Rome, and everything went down from there,
you know, from his, it was, it was, the very idea, it's not,
you know, people use this as jewelry and stuff, and it's just,
it's not that in the first place, it's a pole. But we're not talking
about the wood in the first place. Yes, our Lord was crucified on
a wooden stake on a tree. And the Roman church is sold
and claimed to have this spread out all over the world. They
got relics and stuff of it. We're not talking about that. By the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, four
things. must be said, or the cross is
not preached. Number one, who died? Matter
of fact, that's the most important point. Everything else flows
from that. Who died? The second question
is, why did he die? The third question is, for whom
did he die? And the fourth question is, what
did he accomplish by his death? Now, I can't preach the cross. I can't believe the cross. I
can't glory in the cross without some understanding of those four
things. So simple. Who died? Now, let me repeat, that is the
most important point. It determines everything else. who died. I love the way Paul
answered, it's Christ that died. It's the son of God. It's the
second person of the Trinity. It's the creator. It's the God-man,
Christ Jesus. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. The one who died is the one who
is the Lord. The one who died is the one who
is controlling everything going through your mind right now.
He's absolutely sovereign. The one who died is the one who
controls every event. It is Christ. It is the God man. It is he who is all powerful.
It is he who is absolutely sovereign. It's he who is altogether lovely.
It's Christ that died. It's the son of God. that died,
and that determines everything else. The doctrine becomes obvious
if we can see who it was that died. It's the God-man. But why did he die? Well, let
me give you four reasons why did Jesus Christ die. He was
nailed to a cross, and this is the God-man. This is the second
person of the Trinity. This is the Son of God, the Son
of Mary. Why did he die? First, for the
glory of God. That's always gotta be the first
point. For the glory of God. You see, through the death of
the Son of God, God glorified every one of his attributes.
Every one of his attributes is seen in the death of Christ. We see his holiness, we see his
wisdom, how he's made a way to be just and justify the ungodly.
We see his righteousness. Oh, he's perfectly righteous
and he can't accept anything but a perfect righteousness.
Every attribute, his sovereignty, whatever you want to say, it's
all made known in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
died for the glory of his father. He said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also might glorify thee. Why was he hanging on that cross? For the glory of his father. Here's the second reason. Why
did he die? The purpose of God. This is the eternal purpose which
he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, Revelation chapter
13 verse 8 calls him the lamb slain. from the foundation of
the world. Now, Christ was slain before
time began. That's what the Bible says. I don't understand it, but it's
literally the lamb having been slain. Yes, he had to come in
time and be slain physically, but he's the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Now listen to this real carefully.
God doesn't have purposes. He has one purpose. And that one purpose is vitally
connected to the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
That is the purpose of God. He created the universe for the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The fall happened
for this one reason. The lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Understand this, the death of
Christ was not God's response to the fall. The fall was for
the cross. That was God's purpose. You see, God's got one purpose. Only one. The lamb slain. from the foundation of the world. The third reason he died was
he died to save his people from their sins. Matthew 1.21, thou
shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from
their sins. And beloved, that is what I need.
I need to be saved from my sins. I can't save myself from my sins.
I need to be saved from my sins. And I need Him to do it all. He was hanging on that cross
because the wages of sin is death. He never sinned, you put that
out so clearly in his person, he never sinned. Yet he actually became guilty
of the commission of my sin. Now that's what was going on
on the cross. My sin became his sin. And he was actually guilty of
the commission of it. God wouldn't kill him, damn him,
if that wasn't so. God's just. He's not gonna punish
where there's no sin. He actually became guilty of
the commission of my sin. And he yet has always remained
the spotless, holy, harmless Lamb of God. Somebody says, explain
that. Now, why would you ask anybody
to explain something like that? We can't explain that. That's
just who he is. He's glorious. It's not something
to be explained, but believed and relied on him as the spotless
lamb of God. You see, when he died, his death,
did something no other death could do. Not something I could
do or you could do. He satisfied God. Hell is eternal. And you know why hell is eternal?
Because there's never any satisfaction. The only way I would know to
illustrate this is I've got one child, and somebody murdered
my child. And they said, well, here's a
million dollars. Will you be satisfied? No. Here's a billion. Will you be satisfied? No. There
can be no satisfaction for that. but Christ Jesus the Lord actually
satisfied. He satisfied the justice of God. So God is satisfied with everybody
he died for. Well, that's who died, why did
he die? Here's the third question, for
whom did he die? And this issue is all important. Somebody says, why make an issue
of that? Well, the Bible sure does. Seems to be a mighty good
reason to do it. For whom did he die? He died
for the elect. He died for his sheep. He died
for his church. He died for his bride. He died
for those God gave him before the foundation of the world.
Now, to say that he died for all men without exception is
to not preach the gospel. It's to preach salvation by works. What you do makes what he did
work. And that's works. You can't call
it anything else. He died for the elect. Somebody doesn't preach, just
doesn't preach the gospel. They don't really understand the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. For whom did he die? His people. Now, is there someone who becomes
uncomfortable thinking, well, how can I know if I'm one of
his people? I see the scripture teaches that
he died for the elect. I see he loved the church and
gave himself for it. I see that. Well, how can I know
if he died for me? Listen to this scripture. were yet without strength. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. If you are without strength and
ungodly, would that describe you? If you are without strength
and ungodly, Christ died for you. I guarantee you. 1 Timothy 1.15 says Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief. If you're a sinner, Christ died
for you. You know, I want to say this.
Most people believe that Christ died for all men. If that's so,
that's the general message. Christ died for everybody to
make salvation available for everybody. If he did, he's a
failure. If he intended to save everybody
and everybody's not saved, he's a failure. And God is not just. He would punish the same sin
twice. That's a denial of the very justice
of God. And his blood didn't actually
accomplish anything. It's up to what you do with that
blood, if that is the case. You see, this point is so important. For whom did he die? Who died? It's Christ that died. Why did he die? For whom did
he die? And the last point under this
is what did he achieve by his death? I love when the Lord is on the
Mount of Transfiguration and he's speaking with Moses and
Elijah and we know what the subject matter was from Luke chapter
9 verse 31, they spake of the decease which he should accomplish
in Jerusalem. Now what did he accomplish by
his death? He accomplished the complete
salvation of everybody he died for. That's what he meant when
he said it is finished. Now this is the rule of scripture.
No scripture really is understood apart from glorying only in the
cross. I think of the seed of woman
crushing the serpent's head Him bruising her heel. What's that
but the cross? I think of Abel bringing that
blood sacrifice and the scripture said God had respect to Abel
and to his offering. What is that but the cross that
could make God respect somebody like me or you? Through the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every sacrifice, the Passover,
the Day of Atonement, No story in the Old Testament is understood
apart from the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. No doctrine of
the scriptures understood apart from the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And anything that I hear that
leaves me glorying in something other than the cross has the
stench of death to it. It's antichrist and nothing more. You see, the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ, yes, we glory in the cross. It's all the glory. Let me show you what I mean by
that. Would you turn to Romans chapter eight? Verse 31. What shall we
then say to these things? If God be for us, Who can be against us? And this is all about the cross.
It's talking about God's foreknowledge, his justification, and all those
things. I realize that, but it's all realized in the cross. If
God be for you in the cross, who can be against you in any
way? Look at verse 32. He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? You know what
that means? That means there's absolutely
nothing that can prevent him from freely giving you all things,
and there's nothing you can do to mess this up. Verse 33, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect because of the cross? Nothing can even be laid to your
charge. Nothing can be brought up to
accuse you. It's been put away. That's how complete the work
of the cross is. This is why Paul said, I'm not
gonna glory anything else. Verse 34, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Nothing
to condemn me for. Why? It's Christ, not yea rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also makes intercession for us. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, precious is that flow that makes me white as snow. No other
fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That's what it means to glory
in the cross. And let me tell you this, too.
If you glory in the cross, all you want to hear is the cross. Somebody says, I can't see that.
Well, then you ain't ever seen the cross. That's the problem. If you ever see, if you ever
glory in the cross, you'll be like Paul. You'll say, I'm determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And you know, this is all that's needed for motivation. Glory
in the cross. I love it when Paul is exhorting
the believers in 2 Corinthians 8 to give. Giving is important. Don't think it's not. Giving
is important. But what is the argument he uses? You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. That though he was rich, yet
for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty
might be rich. Now here's a rule to live by
and fight off anything that's contrary to it. Glorying only. Rejoicing only. Resting only
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now as many as walk according
to this rule, peace. That's the only place there is
peace. Mercy. You've been a recipient
of the mercy of God. This is the true Israel. This
is the true Jew. I love what Paul said in Philippians
chapter three, verse 30. This is my closing statement.
We are the circumcision. We're the true Jews. Don't think
those fellows in Palestine, that's not what this is about. We are
the circumcision, which worship God. in the Spirit. The only way there is worship
is by the Holy Spirit of God. Well, how do I know when that
kind of worship is going on? We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We glory in Christ Jesus. We
glory in the cross of Christ. You know what he said after that?
Wherever there's glory in the cross, we put no confidence in
the flesh. May the Lord enable us all to
glory in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.