Shortly after I started in college
in Winston-Salem at Piedmont Bible College, shortly after
Shelby and I were married, of course I was already in trouble
because of the gospel of God's grace, and during chapel services
we were required to attend, I had to sit as close to the pulpit
as, I guess I was the only person in the whole school who had an
assigned seat. They wanted to keep an eye on me. And one morning
during chapel, they had asked a fellow to stop by the school
to visit and preach in chapel. It was a Welshman by the name
of Tommy Lawrence, Thomas George Lawrence. I suppose all of you
know what it is to have a specific time when you hear a message
from God that's just stamped on your heart and you remember
it, remember it almost as though it were yesterday. that I had
been put under theological surveillance. That meant I couldn't graduate
from school unless I signed a doctrinal statement denying the gospel
of God's grace. And I was informed of it that
morning. And I went into chapel, and Mr. Lawrence announced as
his text, Galatians chapter 6 and verse 14. God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he proceeded
to preach as only he could and preached specifically to me.
He said, I must glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
because it is a compassion revealed and spoke of God's eternal electing
love to his people. And he said, second, I must glory
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ because it is a covenant
respected. And he spoke to us about God's
covenant grace in Christ. By this time, the president of
the school, sitting right behind him on the pulpit, he was an
old man and he was bald-headed and his veins were just popping
out. Oh, he was angry. And the professors, sitting over
there where they always sat, were enraged. And I was just
laughing my heart out. Ah, such a delightful message.
And then he said, third, I must glory in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ because it is a conquest realized. And he spoke of our
Savior's triumph over sin, death, hell, and particularly over Satan. And then he said, I must glory
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ because it is a curse
removed, and spoke about effectual redemption. He made this statement. You've heard me make it many
times since. He said, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall
never be discovered a miscarriage. And I thought I would just float
away. And every time he'd make a statement, everybody else was
quiet and whispering back and forth. And I was, I'd, amen. He'd look at me and say, what
do you think about that? And I said, that's fantastic. That's wonderful. Amen. And after the message was
done, I walked up to him on the platform and I said, I don't
know who you are, where you came from or where you're going, but
I'm gonna tell you nothing like that's ever been preached from
this pulpit. Now, since I've been around here, And it probably
won't be again. But I haven't forgotten the message,
and I want to go over those points of his message in just a little
bit as I try, as God the Holy Ghost will enable me to talk
to you about what Paul means here in Galatians 6, 14, when
he says, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. What does Paul mean by the cross? We live in such an idolatrous,
superstitious age that you can hardly drive a mile anywhere
in the United States where there's any population at all and not
see crosses by the roadside. Symbols of the cross, images
of the cross. People have crosses in front
of the church buildings, have crosses on top of their church
building. You can't hardly buy anything religious that doesn't
have a cross on it. Paul is not talking. about the wooden cross
upon which our Savior died. He's not talking about that silly,
sloppy, sentimental song folks sing, the old rugged cross. He's
not talking about that. He's not talking about merely
the historic fact that our Lord Jesus died upon the cross. And
he's certainly not talking about some mysterious, magical, superstitious
sign of the cross. You know, however it is, the
papers do that nonsense. What Paul is talking about is
the glorious saving doctrine of the cross. Anytime we sing
about or speak about the cross, understand this is what we're
referring to. Not the historic fact that Christ
died on the cross. not the piece of wood upon which
the Son of God died. If I could find that piece of
wood, I'd burn it to ashes and scatter it in the ocean, because
men and women are so foolish they'd worship the piece of wood.
But rather we're talking about the glorious gospel doctrine
of the cross, that which is revealed in the accomplishment of Jesus
Christ when he died upon the cursed tree. We're talking about
blood atonement. Atonement made by the precious
blood of Jesus Christ which was symbolized in all the Old Testament
sacrifices. All of those burnt offerings,
all of the sacrifices, the Paschal Lamb, all the sacrifices of the
Old Testament referred to atonement. Atonement made for sin. Ceremonial atonement. But the
picture was of that which Christ would accomplish by the sacrifice
of Himself when He, by His death, reconciled God's elect to God
by the precious blood He shed at Calvary, paying the debt for
our sins. The doctrine of the cross is
what the Scriptures speak of as propitiation. A legal propitiation
for sin. Our Lord Jesus made a penal sacrifice. He made a legal sacrifice. He died under the penalty of
God's law to make a justice satisfying sacrifice for sin. A propitiation
is that by which law, justice, and righteousness is satisfied.
A propitiation for sin is that by which God on His throne, in
all His holiness, righteousness, justice, and truth, is satisfied
and will not, therefore, charge His people with sin. He charged
our sins upon Christ, our surety, and found satisfaction in the
blood of our dear Savior, and now the Lord God declares, fury
is not in me. God in heaven has no reason to
be angry with any sinner for whom Christ died. God in heaven has no reason to
be angry with any sinner for whom Christ died because Christ
fully satisfied the justice of God for our sins. The doctrine
of the cross glorious gospel doctrine of substitution. This
atonement that Christ made, this propitiation that Christ made,
He made for His people as our substitute. Turn to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, 2 Corinthians 5, this very, very familiar text of Scripture. Read it with me again. This is
the very heart of the revelation of God. very heart of the gospel. Christ died in the room instead
of God's elect. We insist upon, I said it this
morning, I said it last week, I'll probably say it again when
I preach to you Friday night during the conference. We insist
upon, we proclaim without any apology whatever, but with utter
boldness that Jesus Christ actually redeemed every sinner for whom
he died at Calvary. If Christ died for the world,
one of two things must be acknowledged. Either everybody in the world
shall be saved, and God has no reason ever to send anybody to
hell because Christ died for them, or else the death of Christ
is utterly meaningless. There's no in-between ground.
He is an utter failure and no God and you're yet in your sins.
But that is not the doctrine of Scripture. Christ died in
my place as my substitute. When one of the other preachers
comes and stands here and preaches for me, he stands in as my substitute
in this place. That means there's no room here
for me. He's standing in my place. When
Christ took on Himself our sin, and suffered the wrath of God
as our substitute. He did so in our room, in our
stead, and there's no room for us. This is the accomplishment
of substitutionary redemption. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse
17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. God
says, I blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions. and
will not remember thy sins." They're gone. Behold, all things
are become new. He's given us a new record, a
new nature. He's given us a new standing.
Made us the very righteousness of God. And this is God's work. All things are of God, who hath
reconciled us. Who hath reconciled us. Now,
we spend our days in rebellion against God. We spend our days
hating God. We spend our days fighting against
God. And we must be reconciled to
God in the sense that we lay down our arms. This is what happens
in conversion. But the reconciliation was done
before ever we were born. God was in Christ reconciling
his people to himself. Now watch what it says. who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. Every sinner for whom
Jesus Christ died was by his death reconciled to God, and
hath given to us the ministry, the service of reconciliation,
proclaiming reconciliation, urging sinners to be reconciled to God,
to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world, Not everybody in the world. That's
as obvious as the nose on your face if you read this book with
any care at all. Reconciling his elect throughout
the world. Reconciling the world of his
elect unto himself. How is that? Not imputing their
trespasses unto them. Not imputing their trespasses
unto them. And He has committed to us the
word of reconciliation, the message of reconciliation. And this is
it. Now then, we're ambassadors for
Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead. We call on you as the
ambassadors of God in Christ Jesus. Be ye reconciled to God. Quit fighting against God. Quit your rebellion against God.
Stack arms before the throne of his majesty. Bow to the throne
of his grace. And here's the reason. For he
hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. The doctrine of the
cross is the doctrine of free complete, perfect, everlasting
justification by the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. Justified
freely by His grace we are through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. As it is used here, and that
is as it is commonly used throughout the scriptures, here in Galatians
6 14, the word cross refers to the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The cross of Christ is the revelation
of the very glory of God in the redemption of chosen sinners
by the sacrifice of God's Son. You see the glory of God only
here. You see the glory of God only
here. We see various displays of God's
glory to some degree in various aspects of His creation. But
we see the glory of God, all the character of God's righteousness,
justice, and truth, mercy, love, and grace revealed fully, only
in the crucified Christ, only in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Pagans, glory in religious relics. Idolaters, glory in religious
images, signs, and symbols. ignorant people, glory in religious
feelings, emotions, and experiences. Now that takes in just about
all the religion of this world. Either relics or images and signs
and symbols are feelings, emotions, and experiences. People point
to these things. Either they're relics that they
cherish, Or their images and signs and symbols representing
God and salvation and grace. Or their feelings, emotions and
experiences. And they say, now that is how
I know I'm a Christian. That is how I know that I know
God. That is how I know I've been
saved. That's true of the whole religious
world. Not of God's people. God's people
glory in the gospel of Christ. I repeat, not in the old rugged
cross sentimentalists sing about, but in the old, old story of
redeeming blood and redemption accomplished by the blood of
Christ. We glory in that which is the revelation of God's glory. Now, let me try to deal with
this two or three ways. First, how did Paul glory in
the cross? Notice the title he gives. It
is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the cross of Him
who is our Lord, our Master, our King, our God. It is the cross of Him whose
name is Jesus, Savior, our Deliverer, He who is God, our Savior, come
in human flesh, Christ. It is the cross of our Lord Jesus
who is the Christ. That one who has come in the
flesh and fulfilled all that the prophecies and promises of
the Old Testament spoke of concerning the Christ, the Messiah, who
would come into this world. The word glory means to exalt,
to boast of, to rejoice in. Paul exalted. He boasted of. He rejoiced in the sin-atoning
death of the Lord Jesus upon the cursed tree. He exalted the
doctrine of the cross as the doctrine of this book. Everything in the book. Everything
in the book. Every event in the history of
the Jews. Everything about creation. Everything
in the law. All the events recorded in scripture
during our Lord's earthly ministry. All the events portrayed in the
acts of the apostles. All the doctrine of the epistles. Everything in this book points
to, identifies, and proclaims Jesus Christ crucified. That
is the message of the book. I don't know how to stress this
sufficiently. This is not a book about religious
morality. It's not what it's about. It's
not what it's about. But Brother Dunn, doesn't it
teach us how to live right? Of course it does. But that's not
what the book's about. This is not a book about religious
history. What it says about history is
exact and precise. This is not a book about miracles
and wonders and signs. Those miracles recorded in the
book are real. They are real. But all those
things are intended and designed of God to identify the person
and work of our crucified Redeemer. Everything. Now, preachers preach
and sometimes I hear fellows take a text of scripture or a
verse or a statement and just run wild with it and say, I see
Jesus here. I'm not interested in that. I
want to know what God, the Holy Spirit, intended by that. That's
what it is to preach the book. Preach what God has revealed
in the book about the Savior. I just spoke to a preacher some
length last week who asked me about these things and I said
to him, if I'm going through a passage of Scripture, expounding
a text of Scripture, and I come across a verse or a portion of
Scripture that I don't understand, I'm not going to stand up here
and speculate to you about what it means. But rather, seek the
message from God. And if God doesn't give it to
me, I'll pass over it and come back to it another day. But the
servant of God seeks God's message in the book, and when he sees
it, sees it clearly. Everything in the book is about
Christ and Him crucified. Paul said, determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. He said woe is unto me if I preach
not the gospel. If when I preach I don't preach
the gospel I haven't preached as God's messenger. If when I
preach I don't tell sinners God saves sinners and how they can
get it by faith in His Son. I haven't preached the Gospel.
I've just given you a lecture about religion. Nothing more.
Paul gloried in the cross as the message of Holy Scripture.
And he gloried in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ as the
only grounds upon which sinners can come to God. The only means
by which sinners can be accepted of God. The only means by which
God can be just and justify the ungodly. The only way God can
both punish sin to the full satisfaction of justice and forgive sin freely
and completely is by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. If
you would come to God, you must come to God trusting Jesus Christ
the crucified Savior as all your redemption. all your righteousness,
all your acceptance with God. That means you must cast off
your own righteousness. Cast off your filthy rag's righteousness. That goodness that you think
is yours before God, cast it off. Naked, come to Christ for
dress. Helpless, come to him for grace. The only way you can come to
God is bring Christ Jesus, the Lord. as your sacrifice, your
propitiation, your atonement, your acceptance with God. The
doctrine of the cross is the doctrine of this book. It is
the only grounds of acceptance with God, and it is the only
ground of confident hope before God. We want to look in ourselves.
This is true of you and of me. It is just our carnal, corrupt,
sinful nature. We want something in ourselves
that we can get hold of. We want something in ourselves
to give us peace, a feeling, an experience, a change of life,
a way of behavior, something we can look to and say, now there,
that's it, now I know Christ died for me because I have this.
Because I've done that and I hold on to me. That's trusting in
yourself, Alvin. That's trusting in yourself.
The only confident hope any sinner has before God is the sacrifice
of Christ. My dear friend, Brother Merle
Hart, sit back down. I admire you, buddy. I really
do. I speak well of you. But nothing I know about you
can give you hope before God. And certainly nothing you know
about yourself can. Nothing. Nothing. Oh, but you
don't know what a faithful man he is. That's not any hope. But
you don't know how steadfast he is. That's not any hope. You
don't know how devoted he is. That's not any hope. That's not
it. What's your hope? My only hope, my only plea, is
that Christ died and died for me. That's all. I cast all my
hope upon the crucified Son of God." The Apostle preached the
cross, boasting of Christ's death as the only means of reconciliation
and acceptance with God, the only means of salvation for guilty
sinners. If righteousness comes any other
way, then Christ is dead in vain. Well, what does Paul mean about
the glory of the cross? Everything about the doctrine
of the cross is glorious. It was a glorious Savior who
died in our stead. That one who was transfigured
before Peter, James, and John. Transfigured so that His countenance
was light. And they beheld Him in His glory
before His sacrifice. God testifying, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. He died for the glorious purpose
of redeeming his people from the fall. His death reveals the
glory of God so that the glory of God shines to sinners in the
face of Christ crucified. And by the death of our Lord
Jesus Christ, he raises ruined sinners up to a glorious inheritance. No wonder Paul exclaimed to these
Galatians who had been taught by their Judaizing deceivers
to glory in their selves, to glory in their righteousness,
to glory in their goodness, to glory in their religious experience,
to glory in their obedience to the law. He says, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Why? What is the glory of the cross?
Now let me repeat what Dr. Lawrence told me that day when
he was preaching for us in Western Salem. Because it is a compassion
revealed. Much is said these days about
the love of God. And people compare the love of
God to lots of things. Here is the revelation of the
love of God. so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. God loved his people, scattered
through all the world among the ruins of fallen humanity. To
this degree, he so loved. That's a word that speaks of
something beyond measure. He so loved. He so loved His
people scattered through the world in Adam's fall. He so loved
His people that He gave His only begotten Son, the darling of
His heart, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. This is how we spot. This is how we see. This is how
we know the love of God. He laid down His life for us. John says, and this was manifested,
the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten
Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love. Not that we loved God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. The enormous load of all my guilt
was on my Savior laid, the sinless one, God's spotless Lamb, for
sinners' sin was made. And in the darkest pangs of death,
He wept and prayed for me, loved and embraced my wretched soul
when nailed to the tree. Oh, love, amazing love, beyond
the reach of mortal tongue, Savior, your love shall be the theme
of everlasting song. Second, we glory in the cross
of our Lord Jesus because it is a covenant respected. We talk
in this place much about covenant grace. Turn back to Jeremiah
31. Let's look at it one more time.
Long before the world began, God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Ghost entered into a covenant of grace by which
the salvation of God's elect was infallibly secured. Here
we read it in Jeremiah 31 and verse 31. Behold the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which
my covenant they break, although I was a husband unto them, saith
the Lord. But this shall be the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my law in their inward
parts. That means I'll regenerate them.
I'll make them new creatures. I'll make them partakers of the
divine nature. And I will be their God, and
they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more,
every man his neighbor saying, and every man his brother saying,
Know the Lord. For they shall all know me, priest
unto God, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith
the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will not remember their sins. By his obedience unto death,
our Lord Jesus, as our substitute, Fulfilled and ratified the everlasting
covenant of God's grace is Described in the ninth chapter of Hebrews
as the testament his testament It was put into force by his
death is described in Hebrews 13 again as the covenant the
God of peace Brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that
great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting
covenant Most of my friends know that
my middle initial is S. I'm often asked, what does the
S stand for? And I generally tell them it
stands for sweetheart. But most don't believe it. My
name is Donald Stewart Fortner. I have absolutely no idea why. The last name I understand, that
was my daddy's name, my granddaddy's name. But Donald and Stewart,
I don't understand. Don't understand. Why on earth
did my mother name me Donald Stewart? I don't know, except
that in 1950, about every other boy born in the South was named
either Donald or Ronald. But the name doesn't have any
connection with me. Don means a mighty ruler or a
little brown stranger, and I'm not either. I was named Donald
Stuart Fortner by my parents, because before the world began,
in a book called the Book of Life, written by the finger of
God, My name was written in heaven beneath the name of my Lord the
Lamb, Donald Stuart Faulkner. That's why. The glory of the
cross is this. It is a conquest realized. Turn
to John chapter 12. John chapter 12. Hear what our
Savior says. I dealt with this some this morning. Verse 31. Now is the judgment
of the world, the judgment of this world. The word judgment
may refer to God judging the world in Christ. It certainly
does. It may be translated the crisis
of the world, the hinge on which everything turns, the hinge of
world history, the turning point of the world. You have somebody
in the hospital gravely ill. and had to undergo surgery. And
the doctor comes out and says, the next few hours are critical.
Critical. That means everything's going
to turn right here. Right here. Here is the hinge
upon which history turns. The sacrifice of God's darling
son. God made the world for this purpose. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. He who is the woman's seed came
here to crush the serpent's head by his death upon the tree. And
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
me. I, lifted up from the earth,
will be a magnet to draw out my elect from the four corners
of the earth unto me. This he said, signifying what
death he should die. Upon the cross, the Lord Jesus
justified His elect, conquered Satan, and procured the Spirit's
effectual call for the everlasting salvation of all His people. Now, turn to Galatians chapter
3. Here's the fourth thing Mr. Lawrence said. I must glory in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ because it is a curse removed. Oh, what a statement. The blood
of Christ cannot fail to save every soul for whom that blood
was shed, because the blood of Christ poured out unto death
upon the cross has fully removed the curse of the law from God's
elect. Sam, it wasn't an attempt to
remove the curse. It wasn't something by which
he made it possible for the curse to be removed. The cross of Christ
has removed from us the curse of the law. For that reason,
Mr. Lawrence said, the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ shall never be discovered a miscarriage.
for he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Look at Galatians 3. Christ hath
redeemed us, delivered us by blood, delivered us by ransom
price, from the curse of the law. How is that? Being made
a curse for us. There is therefore now condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. There cannot be. There is no
curse where there is no guilt. There is no curse where there's
no offense. There is no curse where there's
no transgression. There's no curse where there's
no sin. There's no curse where there's
no iniquity. And Christ has put away our sins,
our iniquities, our transgressions, all together. And He's redeemed
us from the curse of the law. When He was made sin for us,
He was made a curse for us. That cursed thing. He said, Behold,
O Lord, and see, I am become vile. My guiltiness is not hid from
thee. He who died in our stead, bearing
our sins in his body on the tree, was made a curse. And when he
was made a curse, he delivered us from the curse. Complete atonement
our Savior made delivering us from the curse of the law Let
me give you one more thing turn back to Galatians chapter 6 for
a moment. Look at verse 16 God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Because this is
a comfortable rule in verse 16 Paul is still talking about the
glory of the cross. He says, as many as walk according
to this rule. What rule? The rule of the cross. Peace be on them. Peace shall be on them. Peace
shall be on them. If you walk according to this
rule, peace shall be on you and upon the Israel of God, the whole
host of God's elect. In other words, all who live
Under the dominion of the cross, find peace with God and live
in peace. Turn back to Matthew chapter
11 for a moment. Hear our Lord's tender call and
invitation to sinners. Begin at verse 25. Matthew 11, 25. At that time,
Jesus answered and said, I thank thee O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, even so, Father,
for so it seem good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither
knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son
will reveal him. Come unto me. All ye that labor
enter heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. O sinner, come to Christ
and find rest for your souls. Come to Christ and enter into
the blessed Sabbath rest of faith. Quit working and believe on the
Son of God. Quit trying to make up to God.
Quit trying to perform something to make yourself accepted with
God. Trust Christ and enter into rest. And he goes on to say,
take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me. Come and slip under his yoke, slip under his yoke, bow to Christ, and learn of him,
for he promises, I'm meek and lonely in heart, and you shall
find rest unto your souls. Trials come. Heartaches come. Difficulties come. Adversities
come. Pains come. What do you do? What do you do? We run here and
there and we wring our hands and we make our plans and we
say we're praying. And we run here and there and wring our
hands and do what we can and we try to pray. And we run here
and there and wring our hands and try to do something and try
to pray. and we're uneasy, uneasy. Difficulties come and you lay
awake at night and try to keep your wife or your husband from
knowing you're laying there troubled, tossing on your pillow until
you're graciously compelled at your wit's end to bow to Christ. You've done right, your will
be done. And somehow, marvelously, when
you take His yoke upon you, you find rest unto your souls. Oh, how easy life is, bowing
to Him. How easy life is, living by this
rule. He who loved me and gave himself
for me does all things well. You find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy. Haven't
you found it so? Haven't you found it so? My yoke
is easy. The yoke of the law, that's horrible.
But this, His yoke, bowing to the crucified Redeemer, Bowing
to him who loved you and gave himself for you and now sits
upon the throne of glory bowing to him He says my yoke is easy
and my burden is light God give you grace to bow to him Take
his yoke upon you and find rest unto your souls. Amen