Let's begin our message with
verse 1 of Galatians chapter 6. Paul says, Brethren, now this is an indication that
he's writing to people who believe themselves to be brethren, we
are redeemed. We can say that the Lord has
had mercy upon us. lifted us from our darkness,
brought us into his light, lifted us from death, brought us into
a living relationship with Christ. I'm redeemed. I'm a child of
God. You're redeemed. You're children
of the King. You love Christ. You believe
on him. But in spite of that, we're still human beings. Everybody
in this building who is a saved person who knows Christ, who's
indwelt with the spirit of grace and holiness, is still a human
being. We're still in the world, we're
still in the flesh. The desires of the flesh are
still with us, the motions of the flesh and of sin. And the
potential to fall is in every person here. Whether it be a fall in spirit
or a fall in attitude or a fall in the flesh or whatever, the
potential is in every believer here. We're not perfect. We're
perfect in Christ, but we're not perfect in the flesh. We're
still subject to tempers, to emotions, to malice, to prejudice,
to envy. The jealousy, the greed, the
covetousness, pride. These motions of sin are battles
in which we're engaged every day. So he says, brethren, knowing
that to be true, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are mature in Christ,
ye who are spiritual, ye who are children of God, Don't meet
together in a discipline committee and withdraw your membership
from him, kick him out in the street, make a public example
of him. Do what? Restore him. Forgive
him. Restore him. And do it in the
spirit of meekness. Do it in the spirit of meekness,
not in the spirit of pride. Now, we're going to let you back
in and give you one more chance. Put you on probation for six
months. Now, do it in the spirit of meekness
and humility. Watch it now. Consider yourself.
It didn't say, lest you fall, lest you be tempted, because
all in the world has to happen for a fellow to fall is to be
tempted. Only God upholds us, only God restrains us, only God
keeps us by his grace. Now, don't forget that. He said,
brethren, if a man be overtaken, a woman, a person be consumed
with envy or pride or selfishness or greed or these things, don't
separate them from your fellowship. Restore them. Put your arms around
them and love them and forgive them and remember them. that
you're a human being too. And he says in verse 2, bear
one another's burden. Now what this word burden is,
bear one another's frailties, bear one another's infirmities,
bear one another's weaknesses. Now there's an area where you're
especially strong. But there's another area in which
you're not so strong. There's another area where someone
else is stronger. There's another area where someone
else is weak. We're different personalities.
I know we're saved. You say, well, God gives us the
victory. Yeah, God gives us the victory. It's not attained from here.
It's a gift. And God gives us gifts as pleases
Him. And they're just, we have different
personalities and we have different infirmities and different frailties
and different Different weaknesses and so he's what he's saying
here is don't withdraw your fellowship from a person because he talks
too much Don't withdraw your fellowship from a person because
he says things you ought not say Well, you say this fella's
not as generous as I am. Well He's not as strong as you
are in that area, but there may be another area where he's stronger
than you are This fellow's not as kind as
maybe I am, or you are, but in another area he's stronger than
you are. So what Paul is saying here is that we have weaknesses
and infirmities, and we have frailties, and so don't withdraw
yourself from that person, but help him bear that frailty, that
infirmity, help him with it, encourage him in it, And so fulfilled
the law of Christ. What's the law of Christ? It's
the royal law of love. Love overcomes a multitude of
impurities. Love overcomes a multitude of
frailties and weaknesses. Love covereth all things, believeth
all things, beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all
things. When everything else fails, love
continues. And I can demonstrate that so
easily. Now, I have a good friend, a
preacher brother, and he may hear this tape, they see this
VCR, but he knows this is so, and I know it's so. And I prayed for his son. His
son is in prison. And what happened is a very unfortunate
thing, that the boy, they say, was drinking. Got out on the
highway, started around a car, hit head on into a group of college
kids and killed three of them. And I sentenced him to the penitentiary
for 15 years. I know the young, he's 21, 22
years old. I'm writing to him, Martha sent
him books and other preachers were praying for him. His mother is beside herself. Now she's just, it's devastating,
you can imagine, can't you? But the mother of the boys that
he killed wants him in jail. His mother wants him out. They
want him in, you see what I'm talking about? Now you put yourself
in the same position. If it was my son, I'd want him
out. But if it's my son he killed, I don't want him either. See
the difference? And this is what Paul is saying
here in Galatians. He said, now wait a minute. Now
hold on here now. We're saved. We belong to God.
We love Christ. Christ is our Lord, but we're
still human beings. And we have those weaknesses
and infirmities, and we're subject to bad judgment. We're subject
to selfish judgment. We're subject to a self-centered
way. It's like all these fellas back
in the Vietnam War. They'd call and send the troops
over, send the Marines over, go over and bomb them. They didn't
have any boys in the Marines. That does make a difference,
doesn't it? Fly their airplanes over and none of their sons were
flying airplanes. You see, we're flesh, aren't
we? And what we've got to learn to do, he says here, is put up
with one another, understand one another. Put yourself in
the other person's place. I put myself in my preacher friend's
place. I want his boy out. I understand
that. But try to put yourself in the
other people's place. You see what I'm talking about?
We need the mind and heart of Christ to feel after one another. You see this? Fulfilling the
law of Christ, he said, you love one another as I loved you. And
you know how Christ loved me? Just like I am. That's how he
loved. He loved me when I was an enemy.
He loved me when I was a reprobate. He loved me when I was a rebel.
And he even loves me now. And there ain't nothing about
me lovable. That's just being honest, isn't it? Not in his
sight. Nothing commendable, but he loves
me. And we've got to learn to love like that. That's the royal
law of Christ. You want to fulfill it? Well,
fulfill it. Start doing it. Love each other. All right, now what would be
verse 3? If a man thinks himself to be something. You know, man
at his best state is altogether vanity. As Scripture says, our
righteousness is a filthy rag. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. So anybody out here that sits
in judgment on others and finds fault with others and looks down
your nose at others and has a holier-than-thou attitude and a pious attitude
and always downgrading and gossiping and cutting down other people,
you think yourself to be something. And if you think yourself to
be something when you're nothing, you're deceived. That's what
he said. You're deceived. Even the great
apostle Paul said, I'm nothing. He recognized his guilt. He said,
I'm not one whit behind the chief apostle, but I'm nothing. I'm
nothing. Now look at this next verse.
No reason to have any trouble with it. But let every man prove
his own worth. And then shall he have rejoicing
in himself alone, and not in another, for every man shall
bear his own burden." Isn't that strange? He said back here in
verse 2, bear ye one another's burden. Now he says every man
bears his own burden. He's talking about two different
things. Righted in his content. In this verse 2 there, he's saying
this, that there's something wrong with all of us. Plenty
of things wrong. So if a man's overtaken in a
fault, ye which are spiritual, restore him, love him, forgive
him, put your arms around him, understand him, and bear his
burden, his infirmity, his weakness, his frailty, and so fulfill the
law of Christ. Now if you think you're something
when you're nothing, you deceive yourself. Now here's what he's
saying in that verse forward. It's easy to compare ourselves
with a weaker brother. It's easy for us to say somebody
does something or says something or has a certain, you know, attitude. Attitude. You say, well, I can't
understand that person. One day he's high and the next day he's
low. One day he's moody and one day he speaks and one day he
doesn't speak. And I just think I just quit speaking altogether.
Now, wait a minute. Don't compare yourself. How are
you? Well, I'm always happy. Don't compare yourself with him.
And don't pick out, if you're going to show me your righteousness
and goodness and piety, don't pick out the weaker brethren.
I'll tell you how you do it. Pick out God and then show me
how good you are. That's what Paul said. Don't
compare yourself with the weaker brethren. Don't compare yourself
with the weaker brethren and think you're something. We're
not to prove ourselves by the actions of others. We're not
to prove ourselves by the weakness of others. We're not to prove
ourselves by the infirmity of others. We're to prove ourselves
in the light of God's holiness. Now if you can find a measure
of growth in yourself, if you find some faith, if you find
some love, if you find some grace, if you find some ability to forgive,
rejoice in what God's done for you, not comparing yourself with
somebody else. That's what he's saying here.
For every man's accountable to God alone. Now look at it again
in the light of that. But let every man prove his own
work. His own gift, his own ability,
his own strength, his own maturity. Prove it how? Why not prove it
by looking at somebody weaker? Prove it in the light of God's
holiness, prove it in the light of God's grace, prove it in the
light of God's righteousness, and then he'll have rejoicing
in himself and not in somebody else. See what I'm talking about? It's
very clear. For every man shall bear his
own burden. Every man's accountable for his
own action. Every man's accountable for his
own relationship with God in this thing. Now, verse 6, he
says, let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto
him that teacheth in all good things. This is the subject Paul
deals with in 2 Corinthians. It has to do with the support
and care of those who preach the Word. Now, my friends, I realize there
are a lot of people in the ministry that ought not be that. There are a lot of people in
the ministry that are covetous, greedy of filthy lucre, greedy
of possessions. I know that. I know there are
men who are an embarrassment, a shame to the gospel ministry. But it's our business to find
out who they are who are God's servants and God's preachers
and who are men who are devoting their time and their effort and
whatever gifts God's given them to teach the word of God, to
preach the gospel. They're devoting full time to
reading and studying and praying and writing and preaching and
teaching and communicating to others the good news, the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Now, he said, those who are communicating
to you and teaching you and helping you in the things of God, Then
you help them. Paul said, if I minister to you
spiritual things, is it wrong for me to participate in your
carnal things? And this church has always been
very good about that. Yes, the Lord's blessed you. Where you find grace, you find
graciousness. And you have done that. And then
he said in verse 7, now don't be deceived. God is not mocked. whatsoever man soweth, that shall
he also reap." This has to do with giving, has to do with sharing,
has to do with opening your hearts and opening your pocketbooks
and opening your hands to those who are in need. Or he said in
verse 8, he that soweth to the flesh, if that's all that a man's
interested in, he's interested in finer clothes and richer food
and greater possessions and houses and land and diamonds and jewels
and And all these things, if that's what he's interested in,
that's what he sows to the flesh. He spends his money for that.
He makes his investments. That's all you're interested
in. You shall of the flesh reap corruption. There's no return
there. You see, the fashion of this
world, whether it be clothes they rot, cars they wear out,
homes they decay, food you eat it and it goes out the draft,
there's no permanency there. And if that's where you sow,
if that's where you plant your garden, if that's where your
interest is, if that's where your investments are, then that's
what you're going to reap. You reap the decay and the corruption
and the fading of that. When you come to the end of life,
that's what you've invested in, that's what you've bought, that's
what you've had your interest, and that's what you get. But
he said, he that soweth to the Spirit, This is the spirit of
grace and the spirit of generosity and the spirit of sharing and
the spirit of giving and the spirit of helping, the spirit
of reaching out. Well, if that's his spirit, he's
going to reap that. He's going to reap the joy of
it. He's going to reap the returns of it. He's going to reap the
happiness of it. He's going to reap the friends that surround him
and the people that are grateful and those that he's helped. He's
going to have a satisfaction. You come to the end of life and
you've given your life to certain things. And if those things are
all decayed, you're an unhappy person. But if you've given your
life to things that God has blessed and God has prospered, you can
be satisfied, be happy, be happy. Wood, hay, and stubble, that's
consumed. But gold, silver, and precious
stone, it endures. He said in verse 9, and let's
not be weary in well-doing. And I know this, I know that,
boy, I tell you, ingratitude. You say, well, I helped this
man, that man, the other man, and they're just, they're ungrateful,
they don't even say thank you, they just take it for granted.
I know the ingratitude of us people. And I know the failure. You say, well, we've lifted him
ten times and he just keeps on. I know that. And it's easy to
become weary in well-doing if you're looking for men to come
up to the expectation. Yeah, you'll go with it. But
now, we're not looking for men. It's like a fellow said to me
one time, I gave a man some money and I just know he went out and
spent it on a drink. Well, what he did with it is between him
and God. Your spirit and willingness to
give it to him is between you and God. I'm not, Martha, when you give
those people a check to go up here and buy groceries, when
you hand it to them, that's it. God blesses your generosity and
your willingness to give. What they do with it, that's
between them and God or them and the devil or somebody. You
see what I'm saying? When we give, we don't control
that gift once it leaves our hands. If we seek to control
it, then we're not giving it willingly. We're not giving it
in the spirit of Christ. You see what I'm talking about?
Just go ahead, use some wisdom and judgment. I know that. We
have to do that. But you can't follow it to its
end. You say, I just wasted it. No, you didn't waste it. If you
gave unto the Lord willingly, cheerfully, God will bless it.
And that's what he's saying. Don't be weary in well-doing. Don't be weary in this business
of forgiving the brother, or embracing, or restoring. Just keep on. Don't get weary.
Don't get faint. Don't give up. For he said, you're
going to reap in God's own time, in due season. Don't quit praying
for your boys and girls. You may be sixty years old, your
children in their thirties, and you haven't seen any of them
saved, well just quit putting on old quills. In due season. In due season. Whose season?
God's season. Time's God's, not ours. That's
right. And when, I don't care how many
times a fellow's bit your hand, keep feeding him. That's what
I said, isn't that right, Jim? Keep feeding him. Because really,
you're doing it as unto the Lord. You're not doing it for man's
praise, you're doing it as unto the Lord. So just keep on, don't
be weary in due season, you'll faint. And verse 10 says, as
you therefore have opportunity. I'm not ever asking a man to
give what he doesn't have. Or pledge what he doesn't have. I'm saying as we have opportunity. God will open the door. I find
this personally, I find this personally, God lays something
on my heart and I need to go ahead and do it. Now if I sit
around and have a council meeting with the flesh, you ever do that? Have a council meeting with the
flesh and figure out whether it's, you know, the practical
or this sort of thing, the thing for me to do is do it. If God
opens the door and God lays it on my heart and I have the means
and the opportunity, do it. For whom? For all men. But specially,
look, specially, unto them who are the household of faith. I
tell you this, I tell you this, it's better to be overly generous and even Folks take advantage
of it. It's better to be overly bent,
overly generous, and even if folks take advantage, even if
folks are not grateful, even if they miss you, it's better
to be overly generous than to be tight, to be greedy. Really, it's better. Because
see, God, He said, He said, cast your bread on the waters. Give
with an open hand. Give as unto the Lord. Help others,
regardless of who it is. Even those who are ungrateful,
all men. But now here's what he said,
especially, especially those that are household of faith.
You see, this is our own family. And like when I mentioned this
family in Alabama, this is a household of faith. And I felt a great
liberty to ask for help for them. This is a household of faith.
You see, verse 11, what a large letter I've written to you. what
a large letter I've written to you with my 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." Paul's talking about these false teachers.
He said they're interested in numbers, fair show in the flesh. They're interested in crowds,
they're interested in applause, they're interested in recognition,
they're interested in statistics, reports, a show in the flesh. So what do they preach? They
preach works, they preach ordinances, they preach deeds of righteousness
for acceptance before God. And I tell you, Sid, why they
preach these things, look at verse 12, lest they should suffer
persecution for the gospel of Christ, the cross of Christ.
Tell you why they preach these things, they avoid preaching
that which they know is offensive. And that's the cross of Christ. That's the reason I've often
said it's not so much what some of these preachers are saying,
it's what they're not saying. And they say works, and they
say ordinances, and they say giving, and they say all these
things, and healing, and they say the gifts of the Spirit,
and they say all these things. But they're saying these things
and avoiding the message that's offensive. The cross of Christ. That's where they'd get the feedback.
Just like that bunch said to our Lord, we don't stone you
for good work, we stone you for what you're saying. You're a
man and you say you're God. That's where the offense is.
For he said, verse 13, they don't keep the law. These fellas that
are so strict in the Sabbath keep, they don't keep the Sabbath.
These fellas that are always going back to the law, the law,
the law, the law, they don't keep the law. Who are they trying
to keep? To offend in one point is to
be guilty of the whole thing. They who claim to be so pious,
they're not really pious. But he said what they're doing
is this. They desire to have you come under their bondage
so they can glory in you. I've won me another convert.
I've got so many following me. This fellow believes like I do.
They're proselyters. They're parasites is what they
are. They're not out trying to preach the gospel, reach the
lost for Christ. They're trying to get people
in the church to see things their way, do things their way. Parasites. And they're not keeping the law
themselves. They have no holiness if they
have any loss in Christ. But they want to get you to doing
things this way, you see, don't have a Christmas tree, don't
celebrate Easter, don't do it like I am, then I can say I've
won over another person. I've trapped another fellow in
my bondage of law. See what I'm talking about? I've trapped another fellow.
Why isn't that man expending his energy out witnessing to
the laws? Down the street there, there's
a fellow that don't even believe the Bible is God's Word. Go work
on him a little bit. But this is what he said. He
said, these fellows that desire to make a show in the flesh,
they constrain you to don't eat pork, don't do this, keep this
day, that day, follow this rule, that rule, follow that rule.
And they constrain you to be, he uses the word circumcised
because it all comes under the same thing. But you do this,
and the reason they're doing this is lest they should suffer
persecution for the true message. Christ is our righteousness.
Christ is our holiness. Christ is our redemption. Christ
is our justification. That's where the battle is. At
least I'll tell you why they do that. They don't keep the
law. Why, at any point where they
claim to be righteous, God could charge them anywhere with error
of spirit air of attitude, holy of the vow, pride, God could,
why he could find a hole in their armor anywhere to stick the air
of his justice. They're not holy, but they're
getting you to do this so they can glory in your flesh. That's exactly right. And then he comes on with this
verse, but God forbid, God forbid, God forbid, that's as close as
Paul comes to cursing. Barnard came closer than that.
God forbid. See, it makes him mad. He gets
upset. This term, God forbid, is a phrase
Paul often uses to emphasize a point. God forbid. God forbid. That I should blow in a Sabbath
or a certain diet. or circumcision or certain laws
and rules and regulations imposed upon people until Christ came
to fulfill it all. God forbid. He uses that about
four other times. Turn to Romans 3. Let me show
you one over here. Romans chapter 3. God forbid. This is how serious it is. In
Romans chapter 3, verse 3. Now he says, what if some didn't
believe? Some folks didn't believe God,
didn't believe the Bible, didn't believe Christ. Shall their unbelief
make the faith of God without effect? Shall the unbelief of
Israel make the purpose of God null and void? Shall the unbelief
of one man or a nation defeat the sovereign purpose of God
to save his elect? God forbid, Paul says. That's
pretty upset what God forbid. All right, look at Romans 3,
6. Verse 5 says, if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of
God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh
vengeance? Well, here's what he's saying
here. If God uses my sin and my unrighteousness
to glorify his grace and mercy to me through Christ, Now, as
he said, in the eternal future, he's going to glorify the riches
of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. He
took a low-down rascal and saved him and exalted him to the throne,
and he's going to get glorified. Well, Paul said, well, if God
Almighty uses my unrighteousness to magnify his righteousness,
then how would God be just to punish any man for sin?" He said,
God forbid that you could think such a thing. Look at Romans 3.31. He keeps
using it in this chapter. He says here in Romans, do we
make void the law through faith? If a man believes on Christ,
does that mean he lives in unholiness and ungodliness and disgrace?
God forbid! We don't destroy the law, we
establish it. Our Lord honored the law. He
honored the law, satisfied the law. Faith doesn't make void
the law of God, it establishes the law. God forbid that a fellowship... People say, well, you're saved
without law, live like an outlaw. God forbid. We're saved by grace
or we just live in disgrace. God forbid, Paul said. Who ever
thought of such a thing? Oh, I look at Romans 6, 1. Here's
another place he used it. Back there in verse 21 of chapter
5. He said, Where grace, as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through the righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Well,
if where sin did abound, grace did much more abound, then shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. God forbid. That's the most ridiculous
thing he said I ever heard. Now, over here in our text, in
Galatians 6, So he'd been talking about this showing the flesh,
this put on religion, this glory in the flesh. We had 220 conversions. We had all this. We had so many
first times, so many second times, so many third times, so many
rededications, so many family, all this. We're growing. We've
had to extend our walls and all this sort of thing. He says,
God forbid, God forbid. that I should glory save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." With a clean sweep, with a clean
sweep, with a sweep of his hand, he sweeps away all grounds of
boasting and glorying and declares that the one object of his delight,
the one object of his glory, the one object of his soul's
joy is not what he's done or anybody else has done, it's what
Christ has done, the person and work of Christ. Now brethren, this fell apart. Now we're talking about, we're
not talking about, as Brother Barnard said, a one-gallus evangelist
in the hills of West Virginia who came into town on the back
of a pickup truck that has nothing really to boast of. stomping
his feet and hollering, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross. This man Paul had some things in which he might have
gloated. Come on. What about his pedigree? High
born religiously, traced his pedigree to Abraham without any
trouble. What about his education? Even
the old king said, I hear you've been studying too much. He might have gloryed in his
morality, considering the law blameless. He might have gloryed
in his apostleship. He was noted as the chief apostle.
He might have gloryed in his revelation. Wait a minute now.
I read all these folks about getting baptized in the Holy
Ghost and the different visions they've seen and all that. This
man here went to the third heaven. I know that. He might have gloried in his
gifts. He speaks with tongues more than you all," he said.
He might have gloried in his writings. He wrote 12 or 13 books
in the New Testament. He might have gloried in his
sufferings. He suffered as no man other than Christ suffered. But here, with a sweep of his
hand, he seems to push all this aside, and sincerely, earnestly,
from his very innermost being, He cries, God forbid, in the
greatest horror, that I should glory, save in the cross of my
Lord Jesus Christ. Now what is this cross in which
he glory? Let me give you this. What is
this cross he's talking about? I preach Christ crucified. We
preach the cross. The preaching of the cross is
to them. What is this cross? Well, it's certainly like Bob
brought out in his message. You saw the girl on the plane
wearing the crosses and her ears and wearing them around her neck.
That's not the cross Paul's talking about. That's nothing but superstition. I'd heap rather have a rabbit's
foot than a cross, because it wouldn't make much difference,
really. You might come off lighter with a rabbit's foot. That's
right. Or a horseshoe hanging over my
garage door. And I always get tickled when
I drive into people's barns or something, there's a horseshoe
over the door, you know, that's good luck charm. What that is
really, you say, I just got it up there. I know. You broke that mirror, you just,
you know, what'd you do? Seven years, bad lover, spilt
the salt, just stood on my shoulder, you know, just playing with the
kids. I'll tell you how to find out.
If somebody really, really believes that these things are idolatry,
take one of these crosses or one of these pictures of Jesus
and build a fire in your backyard and go out there and burn it
and see how they react. See how they react. Just flat burn it.
Just have a neighborhood burn it and see how they react to
it. And Paul wasn't referring to
the cross on which the Lord died. Let me tell you something. Now,
I thought about this. I thought about this. If they
could find that cross on which the Lord Jesus Christ died, I
mean the actual cross, if they could actually find it authentically
without any question, and they left it up to me what to do with
it, I'd say burn it. Boy, man, my soul, no, my soul
wasn't thinking about it. You see that, and this is in
the book of Kings. Let me tell you now, I'm serious
about this. This old flesh is given to idolatry. It loves to hold beads, it loves
to have a cross on the pulpit or on the steeple of the church.
We like the atmosphere. This flesh, it's idolatry. They who worship God, worship
Him in spirit and truth, have no confidence in the flesh. But
they found that, they got that brazen serpent that Moses made
on God's orders, you know, and lifted it up, and the people
looked to it, and they were healed. You know what they did with that
brazen serpent? They did exactly what they do if they found the
Ark of Moses, or the Ark of the Covenant, or the cross on which
Christ died. They'd worship the blooming thing.
And I'll tell you this, you don't think you got it in you? If you
found it, and they gave it to you, what would you do with it?
Now, think a little bit. Oh, I tell you, I'd pray, that'd
be my place of devotion, be your place of damnation. I'm telling
you. Oh, I'd put it, we'd put it up
here in the church, and we'd have a moment of silence and
look that way here. We'd let our children hold it,
damn their souls. Moses took, I mean, Hezekiah
took that brazen serpent to which the people looked, which Moses
made, and ground it to powder. Did you know that? And he called
it a worthless piece of brass. A worthless piece of brass. I
wish I could emphasize this like it ought to be emphasized. Modern-day
religion, we're just the sign of the cross. Symbols and crucifixes
and all these these are idols The cross that Paul's talking
about God forbid that I should glory save in the cross Paul's
talking here about the atonement Christ made on that cross I've
given you the blood upon the altar to make an atonement for
your soul in Christ we have received an atonement for And this word
cross is a short word for substitution. He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him by his stripes we're healed. My friends, I'm telling
you the truth now. With all the sentimentality and
emotion and pressures, peer pressure and religious pressure of today,
Please don't get caught up in this idolatry of form and ceremony
and work. Christ put us away this first
that he may establish the second. It's in him. The cross is a short word for
reconciliation. God was in Christ reconciling
the world. The cross is a word for sin offering. By one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. He's our, our mercies. He's our blessings. We don't
look for luck. We're not in the hands of luck.
We're in the hands of our Lord. He bought us. We're His property.
We belong to Him. He'll bless us or whatever He's
pleased to do. This cross is a full satisfaction
and honoring of God's justice. He's just and justifier. He's
a just God and a Savior. We worship only Him. You see, this cross is death,
and yet it's eternal life. This cross is shame, and yet
it's eternal glory. This cross is loss, but it's
infinite gain. This cross is foolishness, but
it's the wisdom of God. This cross condemns, and yet
it pardons in full. This cross is God's justice revealed,
and yet it's God's mercy revealed. This cross is humiliation, yet
it's exaltation. This cross is hell, but it's
the door of heaven. But it's not a cross. It's the
person and work of Christ. It's Him. We don't look to a
cross. We don't make a cross. We don't
build a cross. We just put all that stuff down,
days. And when I said, well, I'll go
back to Christmas. Christmas ain't nothing. Easter,
all the rest of these heathen holidays. Christ is all. Christ is all. He's all in all. And I don't need a cross to rub
in here, and my pocket beads to count, and something to wear,
and something to look to. Like a preacher in a Baptist
church not long ago said he had a picture of what he called Christ
back here, and he turned the spotlight on it. This is so.
Now let's everybody bow and meditate for a minute while we look to
the Lord up here. That's heathen idolatry. Let's look to the Lord. Now,
like I've said so often, Brother Scott Richardson said, you come
to Christ, but don't you move a muscle. You look to Christ,
but don't you look at any image or any visual aid. or anything
like that. Don't look. Look to Him. Look
to Him with a heart. Love Him. Trust Him. Believe Him. Commit thyself to
Him. Love one another. Walk in truth
and grace and graciousness and love and compassion. Give evidence
that God dwells within you. Brethren, give evidence. And I believe if He is, you will.
I do.