O God, deep in all the deeps
of this foundation boundless, free, holy as a mighty ocean,
in His fullness over me, under me, The honor around me Is the firmament
of thy love Leading onward, leading onward To our glorious Christmas
Oh, the living love of Jesus raised from shore to shore. How he loved them, never loved
them, Jesus never, never more. How he watched them, for his
love beside him, called them all his own. I'll forbid thee
interceding on truth or myth on the throne. Let it be love of Jesus, love
of every, love the best. Tis an ocean, that's the blessing,
Tis our baby, sweet of breast. All I need, the love of Jesus,
is I have nothing to fear. And in His feet, love to glory,
for in His feet, love to be. Paul says you see how large a
letter is written in my own hand. As many as desire to make a prayer
shield of flesh, they constrain circumcised on their destination
to 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 go there, 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 with a new creature. And as many
as walk according to this one, peace be on them, and mercy upon
the Israel of God. Our Father, we bless you and
thank you for your Word, the clarity of it, the beauty of
it, the plainness of it. The message of Jesus Christ begins
in the first part of Genesis and ends in the Revelation. We
thank you for the mercy that you have spread around in our
hearts, the grace that you share upon us. We thank you for the
opportunity to be gathered here by the Word of Jesus Christ today,
especially to take the Lord's table in commemoration of His
death. Father, we pray for those who are sick and going through
trials. Remember Brother Wayne as he's fallen again. It didn't
hurt him. We're thankful for that. Watch
over him. Pray, Father, for Greg Bender
and his family as they're suffering in this situation where they
don't have any answers for, right? Pray that you give them peace
and comfort. Pray for me, Parks. Christie, Jackson, and Kate,
Bruce, and Sam, minister to Him. Pray to give Him peace and comfort,
ease His pain. Pray for Brother Fred as he's
awaiting the results of his bone marrow tap, and plenty of mechanical
re-treatment. Pray to be with Him, watch over
Him very thoroughly as He manages to. Pray for those who have lost
loved ones. under each other and pray. Father,
we pray that you'd be with us this day in the power of your
spirit, to take the things of Christ that are given unto us,
to show us our Savior high above the earth, having accomplished
salvation for his people, cause us to treasure him, and worship
him. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Christ of the Colts. on the hill I will. ? To the Christ of the cross ?
? For he is the King I must crown ? ? For the rising of the cross
? ? So despised by the world ? ? As a wondrous attraction
too ? In the dear land of God, let
his glory abode, To bear all my sin on the tree. So I'll cherish the Christ of
the cross, And before his throne I'll bow down, I will sing to the Christ that
doth come forth. For he is the King I must crown. In the Christ I will go. His blood shall refine the heart
of the community I see. Glory open my eyes, and I'll
be fine. Glory open, and I won't be strong. So I'll cherish the Christ on
the cross. And before He's gone, I'll bow
down. To the Christ of the cross, I
was carefully drew, His shame and reproach gladly bear. Thank you, Lord. Father again, we approach in
the name of Jesus Christ. Our blessed Saviour, the Christ
of the Cross, who stood in our ruin's stead, died the death
that we owe to you, paid for our sin debt fully, and sent
it with our right hand, having purged our sins, now sits seated
on the throne of grace. We praise you that He came for
this great, wondrous mission of mercy, saved four sinners,
wretched and undone and unclean, and having no end We thank you for blessing faith.
We know that everything we have is a gift, and we know that all
good and perfect gifts come from above, from the Father of lights,
and there is no barrier that shall shut up time. As we return
unto thee, that which you have freely given us, let us do so
with joy and thanksgiving. We pray in Christ's name, amen. so so So, in Galatians chapter 6. All week
long, verse 14 has been on my mind. I go to bed at night, wake
up in the morning. God forbid that I should go to
see the cross of Christ while the world is crucified under
me and I unto the world. This passage has been on my mind
the entire week. My poor old brain has been calling
it up daily, all day long, and I wondered if it was some sort
of reminder Perhaps I wasn't being clear enough in my preaching.
Perhaps it was a reminder that as a preacher of the gospel,
this is my bailiwick. This is where I live and breathe.
At any rate, Deb said they were going to sing the Christ of the
Cross. So here we go. Paul says, you see how large
a letter I have written unto you with my own hand. As you know, this was a love
letter, a very personal letter, so important that Paul penned
it in his own hand. He usually had his disciples
wrote his words down and sent it to the various churches. But this one he wrote with his
own hand, distinguishing that the subject and the people addressed
here were very close to his heart. Verse 14, Paul makes a powerful
and exclusive statement. and it is an answer to the heinous
tactics of the Judaizers that have crept in to rob the believers
of their liberty and deletion. Verses 12 and 13, he says, as
many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain
you to be circumcised or to keep the law, only lest they should
suffer persecution from the cross. They do what they do because
they know that if they preach the cross, and only the cross,
and only Christ and Him crucified, that they will suffer persecution.
Rest assured, that goes true today. That goes true today. If you give men something to
do, anything, just a little thing, a tiny little finger, they'll
agree with you, they'll go along with you. But if you tell them
you did nothing for your salvation, And Christ did it all. And you're
resting totally on Him. And trusting Him for all things.
Nothing from yourselves. You will suffer persecution for
it. You will be hated for that. These men were clandestine espionage
agents. And they are teaching that men
should pour in something other than they ought to go in. They desire to make a fair show
in the flesh, and the reason is always the same, to bring
attention to themselves by showing the oh so profoundly religious
effect they have on their converts. Matthew 23, our Lord described
the Pharisees as such as those who do what they do to be seen
of men. The reason they do it is so somebody
will pat them on the back and give them applause. And they
constrain you to be circumcised. That means they pressure you
to adhere to the law by employing tactics to make you feel guilty
or with the promise of some blessing or performance. and make it your
duty and account that you should be able to live righteously by
the law. This is the fatal error addressed
in this entire epistle of Galatians. They do what they do only lest
they should suffer persecution for the cause. This is the main
goal of what they do. They do what they do so nobody
be mad at them. So they incorporate whatever
bit of the world is necessary to keep people off their back.
These men in Galatia that came in, these persecutors, these
Judaizers, they were not men who denied the gospel. They simply
added something to it. They didn't deny the gospel.
They said Jesus is the Savior. They said believe on Jesus and
you shall be saved. But there's more to it than that. You've got to do something else.
they would gladly suffer if they thought they would merit something
by it. But they detest anything that diminishes or disowns their
self, which comes from the preaching of the cross of Christ. To preach
the gospel correctly, to set it before men in its right way,
as clear as a human being can do, is to deny yourself altogether. And that doesn't mean that you
don't drink, smoke, chew, or mess around with folks who do.
That means you say you, you, yourself, are nothing. That's what denying yourself
means. You're nothing. And you contributed nothing to
your salvation or the keeping of yourself until the day when
you reach glory. That wondrous message declares
that your life, no matter how well it is lived, or religiously
pursued, plays absolutely no part in your salvation, your
righteousness, or your acceptance before God. And to such, as Paul
is describing the gospel as scandalous, and it was offensive, he said
in chapter 5 verse 11, he said, Brethren, I declare unto you,
If I yet preach circumcision, why do I suffer persecution?
Then is the offense of the cross removed? He said if I preached
circumcision, I wouldn't be persecuted. But the offense of the cross
is removed. Why is the cross defensive? From
what I just stated. It takes you out of the picture,
out of the equation. and leaves you entirely holy
in the hands of the true and living God. These folks held
that such salvation required nothing from the one saved, no
works that could be recorded, no lives affected for good, no
evidence of godliness, yet they were perfect for God, those who
preached the gospel. And these folks believed that
if you preached that, you would open the floodgates of sin. and
would scandalize the very holiness of God. You see, the preaching
of the cross cost you everything about you. It cost you yourself, your pride,
your merit, your wisdom, your sense of self-worth, your self-worth. It all goes down the tubes. when you believe the gospel of
Jesus Christ. One man said, the first thing
you do after you hear the gospel, when God opens your eyes and
opens your ears to hear the gospel, the first thing you do is go
to the graveyard and bury everything, bury everything. He says, when
neither they themselves who are circumcised keep them all, They
are not open law breakers. No man has ever kept the law
for righteousness in life. We know that. Paul makes that
clear in this very epistle. Their keeping of the law was
what Paul called manure or dung in Philippians chapter 3. He
said, I count all this before and after Christ that I have
dung as dung and manure and fit only for the stream. These folks
are pretenders of righteousness who live for one reason, to control
others from their most secret. That's what they do. They use
the poor people to control you. The gospel preacher says, go your way. You are free. You are at liberty. The gospel
preacher says, love Christ. and do as you please. That's what the gospel preacher
said. He ain't afraid of you. He ain't
afraid you're going to fall. He knows you're going to fall.
Just like he's going to fall every day. But he's not holding
anything out for you. He's letting you free. In Isaiah
55, our Lord told people that were very religious and held
people in control, and did what they did for strife. He said, that's not the fast
that I have ordained. The fast that I have ordained
is to break the shackles, to set men free, to turn them loose,
to feed them, to clothe them, and to send them on the way.
That's what we do when we preach the gospel. They desire to have
you circumcised, that they may glory in you, your flesh. They
want the glory in you. Not in Christ, but in you. Their ministries, so-called,
are designed to display their successors and disdain the effects
of the preaching of the cross of Christ. Their churches boast
of numbers. They have the things that they
do for God. That's what they do. This is
what we do for Jesus. We build orphanages. They'll
stand before Christ is spoken in Matthew chapter 7 and say,
didn't we prophesy in thy name? Didn't we preach in your name?
Didn't we do great wonders in your name? Did not we cast out
devils in your name? They make a show of those ex-people
they call them. They bring them up to the pulpit.
This is an ex-prostitute. This is an ex-drunk. That's not a child of God. A child of God ain't X nothing
except a Jesus X all together. They boast of what they do. They
boast in their flesh. They glory in it. Paul's answer
to this soul-slave religion is singular and precise and absolute. He simply says this, but, God
forbid, It's not on that statement of
Paul's letter of aversion to anything. It's not the pure gospel,
because you already see it. If anybody else in verse chapter
1, if anybody else, whether it be an angel from heaven or a
man from the earth, come and preach any other gospel than
I preached unto you, may them be encouraged. May them be encouraged. May them go to hell. That's what
he's saying. If you preach any other gospel than the gospel
Paul preached, go to hell. That's what he's saying. He said,
I determined to know nothing among you, said Jesus Christ,
and Him crucified. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospels. This is the singular theme of
Paul's message. This is his life. Paul doesn't preach to live,
he lives to preach. He said, God forbid that I should
go to save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he's talking
about not the cross itself, but the Christ of the cross. The
cross itself is a trinket. It's a trinket that people put
on walls, on pulpits, and on top of steeples and churches.
And steeples are like phallic symbols. Just check it out. That's
all they are. People decorate the walls with
it. Some people carry it around on
the end of a stick and shake it around. What is a cross? A cross is an
implement of capital punishment. So you might as well wear an electric chair. Because that's
what it is. A symbol of capital punishment. That's the cross that he's talking
about. God certainly did that. That's
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. There and there along, something
happens. Something amazing happens. We get our crooks from that.
And when you're talking about crooks, you're talking about
the important thing. The one thing that everything
else kind of hangs on. This is the nucleus of all that
is and was and ever shall be. It's the nucleus. It's the nucleus
of all events, it's the nucleus of the universe, it's the nucleus
of God, the glory of God. It's the cross, the cross, the
hinge upon which all things hang. And all things are referenced
to this hour of power, this hour of greatness, this hour of glorious
accomplishment on the cross of God. is involved in salvation. And
it was forever settled there. The elect were redeemed there. They were bought and paid for
there. They were sanctified there. They were made to be holy before
God. Not only were they sanctified,
they were perfected there. I know what you are and you know
what I am. But today in this assembly, if you're a child of
God, I'm talking to perfect people. Not in themselves, but they were
perfected by the Lord Jesus Christ. And at the appointed time for
them to hear the gospel, God ran them into a preacher. They
received faith and believed. They were granted repentance,
eyes to see and ears to hear. And God was there when this cross
of Christ was satisfied. propitiated, appeased, for the
sins of his people. Their sins were put away, their
everlasting righteousness was brought in, and the prophecy
was sealed. Their death was dealt a death
blow. The prophecies of the Old Testament were complete. They
were everything pertaining to salvation. Everything. pertaining
to salvation was forever settled in all for whom Christ died.
All for whom Christ died on that cross were eternally saved. Else he was a faker. And he ain't
no faker. He said because of what he did
the world is crucified unto me. on the cross of Christ, the world,
and it's religion and it's damning power, were revealed for what they were.
I remember being in religion most of my life. When the Lord
opened my eyes, I saw that this old, I was a Calvinist preacher,
a reformer, a legalist, straightened out everybody's life. I was real
kooky, but I was doing everybody else's right. glory in their
flesh. That's what I was doing. And
that night when the gospel came to me, I saw that everything
I had done up to that point, everything I could do, and everything
I held dear, was of absolutely no value. It was like an empty
bucket. The believer does not glory in
passing things, he glories in death, which is eternal glory.
the world and all it meant was crucified that night and the
day when our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified unto me and I was
crucified unto the Lord when a believer is brought to
faith in Christ alone by the gospel the world is done with
him religion is done with him I remember many years ago my
father began to see the truth of the gospel. He went to his
preacher in the Southern Baptist Church and says, what does this
word elect mean? What does that mean? He didn't
know, but he had seen the inscription and wanted to understand what
it meant and what happened when the deacons came up and said,
you may believe here now, you don't believe that anymore. And he did. He went to a church
that did believe that and preached that gospel. The world's done
with you. You don't think so? Tell them
the truth. You'll find out. They're done with you. All together. He is hated and despised because
he refuses to be equated to anything but Christ. He refuses to participate
in the world's religion. He openly confesses that he had
nothing to do with his salvation. That he is nothing and can do
nothing and will make him appealing to God. They will make him appealing
to God. He looks at his life before knowing Christ is nothing,
and his life after knowing Christ has had nothing to do with his
acceptance of the Lord God. What matters? God forbid that
I should only say the cross of Jesus Christ. The believer disdains
his own righteousness and claims that Christ is his only righteousness.
He refused to even claim that faith is a thing that he had
anything to do with. It was a gift of God given to
him and he can't boast of it. And it's a lot of words. He denies
his worth. He denies his worth. He denies
his words. Declaring that Christ is all
things to him. And all because 2,000 years ago
on a hill outside Jerusalem called Golgotha, the place where our
Lord Jesus Christ actually died. And in his death he accomplished
something. The only death on human record
that actually accomplished something. We don't think of death as an
accomplishment. Death is the end of everything. That's the
way we think of death. We don't accomplish anything.
I remember my grandmother had a sister. named Ruth, grandma
was named Fern, and sister named Ruth, they hated each other. Ruth died, they had her casket
in a pretty blue dress and had that beautiful red hair wound
up in a bun. My grandma walked up to the casket
and looked at her and said, They hate him. They hate him. But that's true. But it was an
issue. That's why I'm going to have
a closed casket if I have to. He proclaims for all
who will hear, he does, that the best thing he's ever done,
the very best thing, The kindest, gentlest, most philanthropic,
sweetest, most merciful thing he has ever done is absolutely
full of sin and worthy of death. What I'm doing here this morning
has enough sin in it to send 10,000 wolves to hell. You know
why? There's none good but God. Even
Jesus Christ. The believer's life long mantra
is, Lord, save me, or I perish. The world hears him and thinks
he's saved, but they're not saved. That's what happens. When you
tell people the truth, it kills their religion. It sticks a hole
in their hope and pride. And they say, well, you're saying
I'm not saved. I've never said that to anybody. That's what
they've heard and that's what they will hear if they're trusting
in anything other than Jesus Christ alone. They'll hear they're
not saved and you tell them the truth. I hope the world is crucified
unto me. I do. Why? Because in Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything nor circumcision. What I do or don't do is not
even remotely considered. Those who claim a righteousness
by the law, they are nothing. Their lies are of no consequence.
Those who boast that they were not concluded under the law,
they boast that they were never under the law, they're nothing
too. Neither circumcision nor unsurcircumcision
availeth anything. To look at yourself in any capacity
pertaining to salvation is to avail nothing. If you and I were
to be saved, if you and I are saved, you would have taken the
act of creator, making something entirely new, and before that
instant did not exist, you'd say, well I feel like I've always
been the same. The connection is always going
to be the same and it ain't never going to get no better. But something new is happening. You can actually see that there's
a new planet in place. You couldn't see that before.
You couldn't see that. What happened? A new creature.
A new creation. A new thing. And it's not a thing
that will never die. Salvation is the act of sovereign
creation. In Christ, in essence, it is
the act of the Creator. What you do or do not do is to
go away. You do not act in salvation.
You are acting upon it. I use the illustration of a flower
falling in the sun many times because I grew up believing a
flower falling in the sun. Because if you have a flower
in the window and the sun rises over here, that flower will bend
toward that sun. And if it goes past the window,
it'll follow that sun all day long. Until the sun goes down. You
say, well, that flower follows the sun. But it doesn't. God
made that flower. He created that flower with these
wonderful cells in its stem. They're heliocentric, photocentric
cells. And they elongate. That's right. They elongate. on the one side
of the stem, and shrunk on the other side of the stem. When
the sun is on this side, thus the flower bends toward the sun. And as the sun moves, the leaves
extend, and the leaves decrease, and it stands back to normal.
And as the sun moves again, the leaves decrease, and the leaves
extend, and it bends. You say, that flower is doing
something. No, it's not. It's being acted upon. by the
Son that God made to cause it. He says, as many as walk according
to this rule. What's the rule? People want
a rule. Preacher, you've got to have
some kind of rule, don't you? You need a rule. You feel like you
need some kind of rule to govern your life? Well, if you do, here
it is. As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them. and mercy upon the Israel of
God. We know the Israel of God is the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The rule is verse 14. This is your rule. Make it your
rule. People say you don't have a rule.
Say I do too. I've got a rule. This is my rule.
God will be and I shall go. Same in the cross of Christ.
By whom the world is crucified unto me. and I to the world. Follow this rule, walk according
to this rule, peace will be upon you, and mercy will be upon you. Isaiah 32, 17 says, The work
of righteousness, which is Christ's work, shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness,
quietness, and assurance forever. God forbid, and I should go. You ever serve a day? Stan, would you ever serve a
day? This is one of the things that
God gave us that adheres to the rule that
Paul has just set forth. Glory in the death of Jesus Christ. Glory in the cross. What we're
going to do here in just a minute is glory in the cross of Christ. Because when we take these elements
of the Passover that it used and turn them into what's called
the Lord's Table, the Lord's Supper, we take these elements,
we eat that unleavened bread and drink that wine, we're saving
something. You know what we're saving? God
forbid that I should go over and save the cross of Christ.
He said we do show forth His death until it comes again. That's
the beauty of this. Baptism is the same thing. We're
buried in the water, we die and we set forth His death. Now we
take this table, and we're saying, by eating these elements, what
Paul said in Galatians 6.2. This is what binds us together. This is what makes us what we
are in Christ. This glorious table. This is for believers. Not for unbelievers, this is
for those who can say, discern the body and blood of Christ,
who can say and understand, my hope, is this burden and this
righteousness of Jesus Christ. My hope is His body and His blood
and nothing else. And if you can do that freely,
joyful, thankfully, and full of praise, receive this statement
of desire to show forth Christ dead until He's come again. On
the night He was betrayed, we bless the elements of the Passover
and pass them out. Let's ask the Lord to bless us.
Father, bless this period of time, a very short period of
time, we have to take the elements of the state, unless these elements,
that we might understand what they mean, the body of Jesus
Christ was broken for us, and his blood was shed for us. Let
us do so with joy, and thanksgiving, and the knowledge that we in
this whole dark world Have a place where there is light and joy. And share a brotherhood, sisterhood,
that the world can know nothing about. God bless you. Bless us to understand now. Okay. Thanks. And the night our Lord was betrayed,
he took bread, and the Passover feast, and he broke it in the
hand of his disciples. He said, take heed. This is not a lot
for a few. As long as you do it, you do it. I'm going to tell you how to keep
your cup after you've blessed it. He said, this cup is the
New Testament, a new cup. This is a new covenant in my
blood. As often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you do so for my death. Would you be free from your burden
of sin? There's power in the blood, power
in the blood. Would your evil victory win? There's wonderful power in the
blood. There is power, power, wonder-working
power in the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working
power in the precious blood of the Lamb. I got that juice. Did you? Get the strawberry kiwi, it's
not bad. Did you get it? Oh okay. We are.