turn to chapter 6 of Galatians,
Galatians chapter 6, I'm going to read the last portion of this
chapter from verse 11 to the end where we read, You see how
large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand,
as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain
you to be circumcised, only lest they should suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. 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. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature. And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace beyond them, and mercy, and upon the Israel
of God. From henceforth let no man trouble
me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, Amen. Neither they themselves who are
circumcised keep the law but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh 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. We read here in verse 14 this
tremendous verse in which Paul speaks of that in which he glories,
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's glorying is not in man,
not in himself, not in works, not in those whom he has seen
brought to life in Christ in the church. He doesn't glory
in the numbers in the churches. He doesn't glory in the size
of the churches. He doesn't glory in anything
which is of man or in man. His glory is in Christ and his
cross. Unlike the legalist of whom he
speaks, in verse 13. For the legalist and those who
had sought to lead the Galatians astray, gloried in self. They gloried in their works,
they gloried in their effects upon others. They would have
the Galatians to be circumcised that they might glory in their
flesh. that they might say, look at
those who follow us, look at this great company and how they
live, look at the effects of our teaching, look at the numbers
we have, that they may take pride, not just in their own conduct,
but in their effects upon others and the numbers who follow. Their glory is not in Christ
alone, not in His cross, but in man, his works, in numbers. You see they're like today, where
much a religion glories in its effects, glories in the numbers
who follow. How much a religion seeks to
have the people come in, seeks to attract, seeks to build up.
where despite all the talk, all the use of Christ's name, the
reality is that the Glorian is not in Christ, but in the flesh. In the flesh. Lest they suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ and the message of that
cross. Not so, Paul. Paul gloried in
the cross. Paul gloried in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ. God forbid that he should glory
in anything else. For in the cross, he saw deliverance,
salvation, redemption, justification, He saw in the cross the complete
separation of the flesh from the spirit, of this world from
the next, of heaven and the things of heaven
from earth and the things of the earth. Paul looked through
the cross at the glory to come. He looked through the cross seeing
his sins taken away and his sin taken away and the righteousness
of God by the faith of Jesus Christ imputed under him. He
looked through the cross out of darkness into light, out of
self unto Christ, out of this world into the heights of glory
to come. Yes, Paul gloried in the cross. He gloried in the cross because
upon the cross he saw his Saviour crucified for him. A Saviour
whose love overwhelmed Paul. A Saviour whose power Paul saw
was invincible. A Saviour whose wisdom and knowledge
is beyond compare. A Saviour whose righteousness
is without blemish, without spot, perfect in everything. A Saviour
whose glory is brighter than the noonday sun. Yes, Paul gloried
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in the cross, he
saw his Saviour crucified for him, and he saw himself crucified
with Christ upon that cross, and he saw in Christ his salvation. He saw in him his Lord, his King,
one who loved him, though he deserved his wrath and judgment.
One who set his mercy upon him, though he deserved his condemnation. One who looked upon Paul, a wretched,
rebellious sinner, no longer in anger, but in mercy, love,
and forgiveness. Yes, Paul gloried not in Sabbath,
but in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you? Do you? In what do you glory? In what
do you rejoice? This world, the things of this
world, that which you have done, that which you will do, your
hopes, your dreams, your ambitions. Or do you glory? in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The cross. The cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ by whom Paul says the world is crucified unto me
and I unto the world. The cross. Of course by the cross here Paul
speaks not simply of that upon which Christ was crucified. He
speaks not simply of the instrument of torture, awful though it is. But he speaks of what happened
to and in Christ as he died upon it. He speaks of the doctrine
of the cross. He glories in the wonderful doctrine,
the wonderful teaching, the meaning of the cross. And he glories
in the doctrine of the cross, specifically. Not only the blood of Christ
shed upon it, not only the blood that washed away his sins, those
sins which he had committed, But here in Galatians Paul's
glorying is specifically in the doctrine of the cross. For there
is that set down in Scripture which concerns the shedding of
blood in Christ's death, which washes away our sins. And there
is that set down in Scripture which concerns the crucifixion
of the old man Adam upon the cross. which takes away our sin,
what we are, not just what we've done, but what we are in ourselves. Paul's glorying is in that doctrine
which not only washed him clean on the outside, which not only
blotted out that which he had done, but that which transformed
and changed him and took away that which he was and made him
something new in Christ who died and suffered in his place upon
the cross. The doctrine of the cross 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. The effects of the cross, the
doctrine of the cross, what Christ wrought upon the cross, the effect
of the cross is total It's total. Upon the cross, the flesh, the
old nature, what we are in Adam as fallen sinners, is slain,
crucified, destroyed. The flesh, the old man is not
merely forgiven. and told to go on and never sin
again but the old man is destroyed he's slain that we might rise
again not in Adam not as some patched up improvement of what
we once were but that we might rise again new in Christ a new
man with a new life new nature. The flesh is slain not forgiven,
it's taken away not improved, it's destroyed not added to. Taken away. The doctrine of the
cross as I say is not about our sin specifically but our sin,
what we are in Adam. This is the concluding height
to which Paul reaches in the book of Galatians, in which he's
taught our deliverance from the law. For the law concerned the
old man as it was in Adam, man in this world, man born of the
flesh, in order to condemn man in this world, to shut him up
guilty before God, and to give him nowhere to go but to the
cross, to show him that he cannot be improved, to show him that
the law and any rule of righteousness cannot be used to improve himself,
but that he is utterly condemned and slain under it, and his only
deliverance, his only salvation is to be found in that which
gives him a new life, a new nature, that which makes him a new creature,
that which makes him anew. And to this end Paul never once
mentions the blood in Galatians for he's not speaking of the
forgiveness of our sins here but how we might be delivered
from the flesh that we should live and walk in the spirit.
How we might be saved transformed, given a new life, made new creatures
in Christ. He speaks of a total and a radical
change, a radical salvation. He speaks of the problem of our
old man, our sin, that which dwells within us, the corruption
within and our deliverance from it. Not what we've done but what
we are, our flesh, our old nature, our old man in Adam, that is
what must be crucified, that is what had to be slain and that
is what was crucified in Christ upon the cross. Paul cries out
in verses 19 and 20 of Galatians 2 he says I through the law am
dead to the Lord that I might live unto God because for this
reason because I am crucified with Christ I'm crucified it's
not simply that Christ was crucified for me But I was there in Him. I died with Him. When Christ
was nailed to the tree, nailed to the cross, when the wrath
of God was poured out upon the sins of His people in Him, when
it was poured out upon their sin in Him, that which He was
made to be in their place, they were crucified with Him. Yes,
I am crucified with Christ, he says. Nevertheless I live, yet
not I. But Christ liveth in me, and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. but righteousness never came
by the law because the law was sent to condemn what I was in
Adam in the flesh and that was slain was crucified with Christ
and it's taken away and righteousness comes by faith of Jesus Christ
who died in my stead and rose again nevertheless I live yet
not I but Christ liveth in me. He rose and I rose with him and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That
faith by which the righteousness of God was brought in in judgment
upon the cross for me By which sin was judged against that standard
of righteousness, the very righteousness of God. By which sin was blotted
out until sin was no more and all that was to be seen was Christ. Light, perfection, purity and
righteousness and everlasting life. And there is my life. I live. Yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. I through the law am dead to
the law, that I might live unto God. The law respected the old
man, the old man has been crucified, the law has been nailed to the
cross with the old man, nailed to the cross and taken away.
as we read in Colossians. It's been nailed, the handwriting
of ordinances, that law was nailed to the cross, nailed with Adam,
nailed with Saul as he once was. I am crucified with Christ, that
law nailed me to the cross. And under it I died. Yet that
law haven't been taken away. I rise again, dead to the law. but alive unto God. I rise that
I might live unto God. I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Yes, the cross respects the old
man. That is what must be crucified. And that is what was crucified. The doctrine of the cross is
about deliverance. Deliverance from sin, from the
flesh, from the old man, from the old nature. And from all
that concerns and respects the old man. From the world. From that in which the old man
was made, that in which he lives, this earth, this world, this
fear, time itself. When Saul was crucified with
Christ, he was crucified unto the world. He glories in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified
under him and he unto the world. Why? Because the world was that
in which his old man lived, that in which the old man was concerned. The old man was of the earth,
earthy, of this natural realm, fallen. evil, rebellious, corrupt
and all that is of this world respects that old man. The law which was given to condemn
him and shut him up unto Christ concerned his conduct in this
world. It commanded his worship of God
in this world. It commanded his conduct towards
other men in this world. It commanded his keeping of the
Sabbath in this world. It commanded his not coveting
the things of this world. It commanded his not committing
adultery as those who are married and given unto marriage in this
world. But in the cross Paul is crucified
unto this world and the world is crucified unto him. He's alive
in Christ. He's alive in another world.
Where there is no marriage, no male, no female. Where there
are no days. No six days of labour and a seventh
day of rest, but an eternal Sabbath, an everlasting Sabbath. Every
day in that world to come is the Sabbath, is the Sabbath rest
in Christ. Paul is alive in that world,
that heavenly kingdom to come. As he rose in Christ, he rose
a new creature, a new man. still dwelling in this world
for the time being. But in his mentality, in his
thoughts, in his life within, in that life of the Spirit, that
new life within his heart, he's in another world. Another world,
another place, a heavenly kingdom. He's crucified unto this world. And this world is crucified under
him. Yes, the cross concerns deliverance,
deliverance from all of that. Sin, the flesh, the old man and
the world. And the law concerned all of
that. The law, we read, is the strength
of sin. The law is that which, when commanded
towards the sinner, stirs up the sin within the old man, the
flesh. It stirs it up, it kindles it
like a fire is kindled. And in stirring it up, the man
falls and stumbles and sins all the more. And the condemnation
of the law comes down upon him. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians
15, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. Sin is that which dwells in our
old man. The law concerning the old man
was the strength for that sin. When it kindled it, when it strengthened
it, the sin bubbled up to the surface. And the sin brought
down the condemnation and death. Death reigns in the mortality
of our old man in Adam. But in Christ, who delivered
us from sin, who delivered his people at the cross, From sin,
from the flesh, from the old man, in Christ there is no more
death. There is but everlasting life.
Death is swallowed up in victory. So Paul can cry out, O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? As Paul writes earlier in 1 Corinthians,
there is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon
and another glory of the stars. For one star differeth from another
star in glory. So also is the resurrection of
the dead. It is sown in corruption, it
is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is
raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is
raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It
is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there
is a spiritual body. And so it is written the first
man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening
spirit. Howbeit that was not first which
is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that
which is spiritual. The first man Adam is of the
earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. As is the earthy, such are they
also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, We in Christ shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. All those
in Christ, all those who have been crucified with him, they
shall be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye at the
last trump. For the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder Paul
gloried in the cross, because he knew that the sting of death
had been taken away. He knew that in the cross the
grave had no victory. Death was swallowed up in the
victory of Christ upon the cross. When he was crucified with Christ,
he died never to die again. When he was slain with Christ,
he died to rise again in almighty power. In Christ the flesh would
be taken away forevermore. In Christ sin would be blotted
out, taken away, destroyed in the old man Adam. In Christ the
law was taken out of sight, never to condemn again. In Christ there
was deliverance. Total, complete and everlasting
deliverance. The cross delivers entirely,
totally, forevermore, from the old man, from sin, and from the
world, and from the world. God forbid that I should glory,
Paul says, saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Yes, Paul
says by the cross he is crucified unto the world and the world
unto him. What does he mean? What does
he mean by the world? He means all that the world is,
all that the world stands for. the love of the world, the love
of the riches and the pleasures of this world, the mentality
of the world, the thinking of this world, the attitudes of
this world, the love of the world's applause, the world's acclaim,
its praise, its glory. From this the cross separates,
it severs, it parts, it crucifies. The world is crucified unto me
and I unto the world. Once Paul, in the heights of
his religion as a Jew, as a Pharisee of the Pharisees, sought to approach
unto God through his own works. and in so doing he sought the
glory and the praise that was to be found in religion in this
world. He lived by the mentality of
a wisdom below. He walked in the pride of his
own life. He loved the applause of man. He wanted to be thought well
of for his own righteousness. He sought the glory that can
be found here below, the world. But when he came to see Christ
crucified for him, when God arrested him in his sinful condition,
when God showed Paul how utterly dark and blind he was, how utterly
sinful he was before him, how corrupt he was, how even his
righteousnesses, even his religion, even his good works were corrupt. When he saw face to face what
he really was before God, and when he came face to face with
Christ his Saviour, then everything changed. All his grip upon this
world, all his seeking the praise and the glory that is to be found
in this world, fell aside when he looked upon Christ upon that
cross when he saw himself crucified with Christ upon that cross his
affections, his thoughts, his desires, his love was changed
forevermore all his grasping of all that
is in this world came to an end He sought none of this world's
pleasure, none of this world's glory, none of this world's riches,
none of this world's praise, even in the things of religion.
He sought none of the praise of man. He cared not what men
would say of him. He would gladly suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ and the message of Christ's gospel. He'd
suffer all men turning against Him. He'd suffer all men crying
out that He should die, as they cried out against His Master
that He should die. He cared no longer for this world. He cared only for Christ and
His glory. Only for Christ and His Kingdom.
Only for Christ and the world to come. Only for the glory of
the world to come. The world and all that it is
and all that it means was crucified under Paul and he was crucified
unto it. What do you know of this? Have
you come this way? Have you come to the cross and
seen the glory which is in the cross? Has it separated you from
all that you were? All that you wanted, all that
you desired, all that you gloried. Has Christ become so wonderful
and glorious in your sight that all that is here below is so
disgusting, so vile, so worthless in comparison. Paul gloried in the cross. Paul
gloried in the cross because all that he was in Adam was slain
in the cross. He was delivered from it and
all that it was. And he gloried in the cross for
in the cross, as Christ rose from the dead, having taken away
all sin, all condemnation, having wrought a great victory upon
that cross, Through the cross he rose in Christ with a new
life, a new mentality, new thoughts, new affections, righteousness. He rose with Christ. Now I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. Yes, the cross, the doctrine
of the cross has a consequence. If we are slain, if we were crucified
like Paul with Christ, if we were, then there's a consequence,
a wonderful consequence, a tremendous consequence. If we were slain,
then we have, we will, we do rise again in Christ. We rise again in Christ, we have
new life in Him. We die in the cross but we rise
again. Christ died and he rose again
victorious. He's alive forevermore, he's
alive today. He died and he rose again. Paul died and Paul rose again. If you died with Christ then
in Christ you rise again. Do you believe it? Do you know
him? Do you know Christ? Do you know his life? Have you
risen with him? Many will scoff at the truth
that Christ truly rose from the dead. At this time of year, the
world will be brought to hear that Christ died and Christ rose. and the natural man scoffs at
the possibility. You and I scoff at the possibility
in our natural state. It's not normal to us. Death
is the normality. We think we live, we die, we
live, we die and that's all that can be. And yet the scriptures
testify of a certainty that Christ rose from the dead. Well, do
you believe it? Well, I tell you that you will
only believe that Christ rose from the dead if you too rise
from the dead. If you rise from the dead yourself,
then in that hour, at that moment, you will look and you will believe
that Christ rose for you. That's when you believe and not
before. You will believe that Christ
rose because by the power of the Spirit of God under the preaching
of the Gospel, you're brought to be risen from the dead yourself. You who were once dead in trespasses
and sins, you who were once slain in Adam, fallen in sin, corrupt,
in the grave, walking dead, when you come to see the cross, and
what it means when you come to see yourself crucified with Christ
upon it, when you come to see your sins destroyed in Him and
in His flesh, and your sins washed away by His blood, when you come
to see the Lord judged and answered in Christ upon the cross in your
place, when you come to see Him rising victorious over sin, death
and hell, for you in particular. Then and only then has the Spirit
of God given you life. Life to see, life to believe. He opens your eyes, He opens
your ears, He puts faith in your heart to look. and to know and
to see that that one who came out of the tomb that that one
who had power to lay down his life and to take it again that
that one who by whose mighty power the great stone upon the
sepulchre was rolled away and could not hold him in the tomb
that that one rose again when you see him risen it's because
you too have risen in Him, alive. From the cross flows life, from
the message of the cross the gospel flows life, everlasting
life, everlasting, glorious, eternal life. we've spoken before
of the trees in the garden that there are two trees that one
the one that slew the old man Adam that slew him and his wife
when they disobeyed God was called the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil and they were dazzled by it they thought its fruit
was good to eat but when they ate it slew them and there was
another tree in the midst of the garden called the tree of
life which if they had eaten of it they would have lived forever
and we've said that at the cross the cross is as a tree of life
to those that look unto Christ upon it for in the cross there
is everlasting life and the tree of life is that which pictures
Christ and his resurrection and his everlasting life and power
but truly at the cross both these trees meet. For it's the effect
of the first tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
that one that slew man, which was the reason why Christ should
be slain. It's the first tree that slew
him. It's the first tree that law,
that commandment, which nailed him to the cross, which nailed
Paul in him to the cross, which nailed the sinner to the cross
and condemned. But it's the tree of life. which
could not be held to the cross, and which could not hold Christ
and hold Paul in him to the cross, but which because of that life
that could not be taken away, that could not be quenched, that
could not be held down, is that tree of life, Christ by which
all his people rise again in him. Yes, there are two trees. Here the trees meet, but the
one is taken out of sight forevermore, and the other is lifted up in
glory forevermore. And in that glory into which
Paul looked as he looked through the cross out of the earth into
the everlasting heavenly glory, in that glory he sees Christ
sat victorious. In that glory he sees a tree
of life in the midst of the kingdom of God, the holy city, the new
Jerusalem, out of which flows a river, a river of life. He
sees that tree of life, he sees his Saviour, he sees him in the
glory. And he looks out of this world
through the cross at a sure and certain salvation in Christ,
in whom he has life. Life. Life even now in this world. Life even now as he journeys
through this world looking through the cross to that which will
come. A new life. Life of a different order. A
life which is not of this world but of another. A heavenly life. A life dwelt on things above
not earth below. A life that comes from Christ
in the glory. Oh where are your thoughts and
affections? Are they above? Are they set
upon Christ and his life or are they on the things below? The
things of time and sense, the things of earth, of the old man
Adam. Are they in Christ or in man? What do you know of this life,
this heavenly life, this eternal everlasting life, this life that
flows through the cross from the tree of life? Do you know
it? Because it's real. It's real. Christ really rose from the dead. Christ really lives this day. Christ really reigns on high
in glory and Christ really reigns in the hearts of all those who
have been brought to the cross to behold him crucified for them
and they crucified in him and the world crucified unto them
and they unto the world. Those who look unto him and see
everlasting life in their Saviour, slain for them. If you believe
on this Christ who really rose from the dead then it's because
you have really risen from the dead, well have you? Are you
looking? Are you looking to this cross?
Is this in which you glory? Oh Paul gloried in the cross
for in the cross he saw salvation. In the cross he had deliverance,
in the cross he had everlasting life. But Paul gloried most in
the cross, because it is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he gloried in Christ his
Saviour. He gloried in that one upon it. He gloried in him who loved him
and gave himself for him. Do you glory in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ? Do you glory in Christ? Is he your Saviour? God forbid,
God forbid, Paul says, 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. Amen.