Galatians 6 verse 14 "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."
When we speak here of the cross it is not the wooden cross that we have in mind. There are 3 indications of the cross in the New Testament. In John 19 we read of the cross of Jesus "and there stood by the cross of Jesus Mary his mother and his mother`s sister" and along with 4 woman with John the disciple whom he loved. In the epistles we read of the cross of Christ. Here we have read "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." The great difference is this - when we speak of the cross of Jesus we speak of the wooden instrument on which he died and there is no merit in the wooden cross. It is the instrument of torture and the instrument chosen by God to fulfill the scriptures when Christ died for our sin. Many people exalt the wooden cross they bear it as a token and bow to worship it as a symbol but the wooden cross cannot bring salvation to an. So when we think of that wooden cross it is called the cross of Jesus. When we come to the Epistles we read of the cross of Christ, it is the great doctrine of atonement. At Calvary`s cross his precious blood was shed, the life was given, he died for our sins according to the scriptures. It is more than those outward sufferings though. We would never minimise them but in the total darkness of Calvary he knew no sin, who did no sin, who could not sin. He became answerable for our sins and died an atoning death that we might forever be free and so when we preach the gospel we preach the cross of Christ. In the text the wonderful words of one of the greatest servants of God ever lived, who beforehand was a persecutor of the saints, before his conversion an enemy of the cross of Christ but when he was saved he said "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" What is the difference between the cross of Jesus and the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ? Here it is not the wooden instrument neither is it the doctrine but it points us to the one and only person who could make the offering for sin, the person on the cross our Lord Jesus Christ. That is what adds great significance to this gospel. We preach that in order that you could be saved. There is only one person could go to the cross to make that atonement and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten son of the Father. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." So we are going to preach Christ crucified in heaven tonight a risen man coming back and offer to you salvation on the authority of the scriptures, on the grounds of the work of the cross. Now the cross ranges right throughout the bible, it is the central theme of all the scriptures, it amazes me that sometimes it is not central in our gospel preaching. The preaching of the gospel emphasises the atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is central to all our teaching.
In the Pentateuch, the first five books of the bible we have pictures of the cross or the cross foreshadowed. Beautiful incidents are given and offerings are presented and in those ancient scriptures the cross is foreshadowed. When we come to the Psalms, the poetic books the 5 poetic books in the middle of our bible here we have the feelings of the Saviour as he hung upon the cross. These were prewritten hundreds of years before he died "my God my God why hast thou forsaken me" In other words "why art thou so far from helping me and the words of my roaring". Here we have the feelings of the Saviour as he hung upon the cross 1000 years before he was there "they pierced my hands and my feet." When we come to the prophecies like Isaiah and Ezekiel we have the foretellings of the cross in the prophetic books of the bible. So the Old Testament points forward to the facts of Calvary that are revealed in the gospels. When we enter the New Testament they tell many things about the Saviour but each of them spend the greater part of their writings upon the facts relating to the cross.
When we come to the books of the Acts and the Epistles we have the fruits of the cross. Every one of us that is going to heaven, we are the fruits of Calvary, the fruits of the cross. We are not going on any merits of our own, we are not going by baptism or prayers or sacraments but we are going because Christ died for the ungodly Romans 5 verse 6 and we took our place as ungodly sinners and believed that he made the atonement. He paid it all. He cried "it is finished" and the bible says "by grace are ye saved" Ephesians 2 verse 8, 9 "and by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Titus 3 "not by works by righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us." You can be saved on the grounds of the cross, on the grounds of the shed blood of our blessed Redeemer . There is no other way to be saved.
When we come to the book of the Revelation we have the full future of the benefits of the cross in the redeemed in heaven, the fragrance of the cross reaching out into heaven. What do they sing about in heaven? They don`t sing about the wonders of that place at all but they sing about the blood and about the lamb who died and rose again. The lamb is the theme of their chorus. "Thou didst redeem us unto God by thy blood." The precious blood is the theme of heavens eternal anthem and the cross will be spoken about throughout the ages that are to come by men redeemed from every nation and kindred and tribe and family on earth. When we gather home we will speak of the cross, we will sing of the cross and we will adore the one who died upon the cross. So we see then the importance of the cross in relationship to the gospel and to the bible.
The apostle Paul had many things in which he could have gloried as a man. He could have gloried in his race and in his education and in his ability. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees as touching the law blameless. He was a man of super intelligence and intelligence and yet here he writes "God forbid that I should glory." We live in an age when men are glorying in their abilities, in their successes, in their riches. Nations glory in their expertise and in their inventions and all around us proud men glories in himself and in the abilities that he has. Believers have only one thing in which to glory - "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Every believer should move in humility, should be marked by the meekness of Christ and glory only in one thing. That ever our worthless name was written in life`s eternal book. We glory in the deeds of the Saviour not in our own deeds.
Notice what the apostle says here - not that I should glory in the birth of Jesus. The birth of the Saviour is most important. We are living in an age now when modernism denies the fundamental of the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Men are prying into it and trying to expose it as a fallacy and deny the truth of it. There would be no gospel to preach here if Christ had not been virgin born but his virgin birth did not atone for my sin. W e rejoice that he came into humanity. God`s word says "when the fullness of the time was come God sent forth his son born of a woman made under the law." (Galatians 4 verse 4). The virgin birth is the basis to the coming into of this world. The incarnation means in flesh. The incarnation is not his virgin birth. His virgin birth was the door to the incarnation. The son of God came from heaven to be born of a virgin. As to his humanity he had no humanity before he came. He brought deity with him and took humanity by means of the virgin birth without an earthly father, a miracle. We believe it with all our hearts. It is basic to Christianity. The Son of God becoming a man down here in order that he might go to Calvary for you and me. He did not say God forbid that I should glory save in the birth because he valued the birth. Every Christian appreciates the birth of the Saviour but his birth would never bring me salvation without the cross. The cross is necessary.
He did not say God forbid that I should glory save in the life of the Saviour. That was the only spotless life that was ever here. From the manger of his lowly birth until he hung in death upon the tree he was totally sinless, spotless and undefiled. We believe in the total purity and impeccability of our Lord Jesus Christ. His footsteps never went astray, his mind was never altered, his thoughts were ever pure. Everything he touched was right and every word he spake was perfect. He is the Son of God and only one that was absolutely stainless and sinless, that could become answerable for our sins. There was only one man who could make the atonement. All other are sinners and deserve to die but he died for us that we might live for ever. Paul appreciates his life. He speaks of the gentleness and meekness of the Saviour. He tells us he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, that he was found in fashion as a man and was marked by grace and beauty as he moved here but his life could not save me without his death. "God forbid that I should glory save in the death in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." The point is the importance and value of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The cross is the gateway to life, it is the door to the kingdom, it is the place where the work was done and God has proven his delight in that work by raising his son the third day from among the dead. 26% of clergymen in England deny the resurrection of Christ. If Christ be not risen, if he is not a living man in heaven there is no salvation for you but the fact is the tomb was empty and the linen wrappings lay as they had been around his body. He came through the wrappings, he appeared to many for 40 days and in full view of disciples he ascended literally and physically to heaven. "Christ died for our sins and was buried and was raised again the third day according to the scriptures." We preach not only the cross but the resurrection and the glorified man in heaven bearing the wounds of Calvary and coming back one day. Behold I come quickly." You have a soul to be saved and foundation is important. If you build on the sand of religion, of works and prayers and baptism you will never be in heaven There is only one foundation for heaven. 1 Corinthians 3 "other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which is Christ Jesus." A man building a house in Matthew 7 the Saviour said he built upon the sand and when the storms came his shelter fell around him and he perished and great was the fall of it Another man dug deep and found the rock. What are you building on for eternity? Have you ever made the great discovery that you were building on the sand? Building on a foundation that will not stand for eternity. A profession that has no reality You have got to get to the cross for salvation or perish. You have got to come by faith and see that Christ died and look up and trust a living man You are not asked to place your confidence in a dead Saviour but you are asked to place your confidence in a living Christ who once died upon a cross and was buried and is living and is able to save to the end all that come unto God by him. Every man, woman and boy and girl in this world, wherever we go must learn the meaning of the foundation. "It is appointed unto man once to die." Are you depending on the fact that Christ died for guilty sinners? Why did Paul glory in the cross. He gloried in the cross because it showed that all men are sinners. The bible places great emphasis on sin. Sin in its root and its fruit is sadly overlooked. Men are calling it a misfortune of the human race. The bible says that sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. One of the saddest chapters of our bibles is Genesis 3. It is no allegory, it is no parable, it is a reality The first man that was in this world represents all of us. That first man sinned against God and when he was driven out of the garden we all went out. The bible tells me of great 2 headships that are in the world and the first is Adam "in Adam all die and all have died" We are all sinners whether born in any land, whether our parents were believers or unbelievers. Psalm 51 "I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me." Jesus said "if you die in your sins where I am you cannot come". "There shall in no wise enter into it any sin that is defiled". No sinner will ever stand in heaven unless his sins have been blotted out and forgiven unless he has obtained salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. This condition is worldwide. The bible says there is not a righteous man on the earth not one that sinneth not. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." It doesn`t matter our colour, conditions have nothing to do with it. Its a world of ungodly sinners and it is a world where sin is on the increase. In every centre of this world sin is rampant and one of these days God will say "times up." Are you ready for that day? What about the sin question in your life? "The wages of sin is death." The greatest crime in this world was the shedding of the Saviour`s blood and God will visit this scene one day in judgement. We are guilty, all of us. The cross shows the the wickedness of the human heart. "The heart of man is desperately wicked above all things who can know it." The deceitfulness and wickedness of a human heart is more deceitful that Satan himself. There is only one thing that change a heart. Reformation cannot do it. Only one thing can change a life - knowing the Lord as our personal Saviour and friend. A man who professes Christ and he is not changed in his thinking has no right to call himself a Christian. Christianity is Christ, Christianity is living Christ. Because I started at the cross I have different thinking, different attitudes, kindness, gentleness, meekness, grace, forgiveness, love, tenderness, caring. Christ cares, Christ loved, Christ forgave, Christ was interested in people Christianity is living Christ and it begins at the cross. Have you been there? It is for eternity. If you miss the cross you will never be in heaven. You need Christ for living. You cannot live without him. In the hour of death you will never make it, you will go down to hell if you miss Christ and it is easy done. The multitudes are doing it. If you miss the cross you miss everything. Will you repent, turn to the Saviour whatever it may cost you, whatever religion you turn your back on, whatever pleasure holds you bound, whatever sin has you bound his blood can make the vilest clean. Change your mind, change your ways. "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Have you accepted the love of Christ? "Whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." When the Saviour died on the cross he made provision for you to be in heaven. You need not perish "I am the door by me if any man enter in". Have you entered yet? "He that believeth on the Father hath everlasting life ." What will your answer be?
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