Glorying in the Cross

I'm going to ask you to turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 6. I want to bring you to the last message in this series that we've preached and taught on penal substitution. It's not something I would normally deal with, but yet when things happen in the body of Christ the Church, we are compelled to preach things when they're attacked, or when certain aspects that maybe usually we wouldn't consider deeply. Doesn't God use controversy? Doesn't God use attacks on the Gospel? Isn't much of the epistles that Paul wrote, aren't they written in response to crisis or trouble breaking out in real churches? He's not just writing nice, academic, theological, sound doctrinal letters to encourage. Often Paul is writing to the Romans or Galatians or Corinthians dealing with problems or issues that arise and the Holy Spirit moved in the midst of that. I believe he moves that way in a local church or with a preacher or with what's happening in the body of Christ globally. I believe situations arise and then I'm compelled to preach more clearly, deeply, distinctly, accurately on something that I might take for granted. We all know, we all believe, we all understand it's not under threat, so I don't deal with it deeply. But when something's being attacked, confused, twisted, perverted, then do you know what I have to do? I have to go into a whole series, break it down, go slow, be careful, because I go great leaders are being deceived in this hour. Great knowledgeable preachers are getting confused in their thinking and so we are forced to come back. This is how God operates all through church history. I want you to go to Galatians chapter 6 and this is part 12, our last message. And I can't get away from this. For weeks this has ruled with me and I knew I had to finish on this verse and on this portion of scripture in Galatians chapter 6. We're going to read from verse 12, but my text is verse 14. And this is my message, glorying in the cross, glorying in the cross. Galatians chapter 6 verse 12. 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, and this is my text here tonight, this verse, 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. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word and truth. Thank you for this series, O God, that even in the midst of confusion and error, nor God of prominent persons rising up and beginning to pervert and twist and change the simplicity of the gospel, nor God that you raise up truth, that you stir our hearts, O God, that you use controversy to make a preacher like me to preach again the simplicity of this gospel, the clarity of it, the profoundness of it and the depths of it, nor God, we're asking of you, will you bless and seal this entire series to us? Don't let us lose the power of it and the truth of it, nor God, that we have been justified by faith alone and not by works, not by our righteousness, but by the finished work of Calvary, that we're asking, O God, that your Holy Spirit would come and bear witness and teach us the cross and show us the victory, O God. Show us what it means to be born again, nor God, and saved by the precious blood of the Lamb. Show us what it means to have Christ's righteousness imputed to us as a free gift. Show us what it means, O God, to have the bleeding Lamb set before us, the one who bore our sin, the one who paid the penalty that should have fallen upon us, my God, the one who granted unto us his perfect righteousness, Lord God, and we experience that divine exchange at Calvary. We love you tonight, and Father, as we finish this series, teach us, help us, Lord God, to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord God, I pray, help us, teach us how to boost, how to make it alone, singularly, Lord God, our boosting, our rejoicing, our joy evermore, in Jesus' mighty name, amen. My message is glorying in the cross, and this is a fitting way to finish our series here tonight. We have now had 11 messages, this is the 12th, and we want to finish this. We have been on a battlefield over this issue of Christ bleeding and dying as the Lamb of God. We have been in a battle, but it's not the world fighting against us, it's heretics in the church, false teachers in the church, those who ought to know better, beginning to say that Jesus didn't bear the sins of all the world, that my sins weren't laid upon him. Can you imagine a preacher in the church calling himself a Christian, but denying the basics of what happened on the cross? They deny Jesus didn't bear your sin, they deny that his righteousness became yours, they begin to change it, and you know what they finally portray to you and I, is that the cross was a sad accident, that no plan of God was there, but in the defeat of it, in the sad happening of it, that we simply say, well at least Christ was a good example of loving your enemies. What a disaster. Listen to me before I embark on this message tonight. The cross was not a tragic accident, it was not a disaster, it didn't happen just out of the blue. I can prove it, Acts chapter 2, 23, and it says, him, speaking of Christ, being delivered, notice this, he's being delivered, handed over to die on the cross, who delivered him? Him being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. In other words, God determinate him, Christ being delivered, handed over to Jew and Gentile, to Roman soldiers, to the Jewish authorities. He was delivered or handed over. Do you realize they couldn't have taken him? All the armies of the world could not have taken God's Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you remember once they come to throw him at the beginning of his ministry, on his first sermon? You think preachers aren't meant to be controversial or say anything to disturb people? I'm going to tell you, in Christ's first message, they took him to the brow of the hill to throw them over. You know what the Bible says? He walked through them because it wasn't his hour, it wasn't his time. They could not even touch him. It's the beginning of his ministry. But do you know what the Bible does teach? Him, Christ, being delivered by the determinate counsel of God. You know what that means? That in eternity past, before creation, before man was created, that God had a determinate plan. The cross was not a tragic disaster or an accident. Do you realize the cross, the Lamb of God being slain, was actually in the heart and center of God's plan from before all of creation? It wasn't an accident. It was all meant to happen. And God made a determinate plan. And believe me, when God makes a plan, nobody stands against that. He determines. In other words, he says, this is going to happen. Christ is going to be taken by wicked hands. He is going to be crucified and nailed to a cross. It was part of God's eternal plan. Not a sad accident and foreknowledge of God. If you want to understand what words like determinate and foreknowledge mean, study Acts 2.23. Study how it affects Christ first before you start saying, oh, it can't mean that about a Christian. Foreknowledge can't mean that. Did God just look down through time and see they would crucify him and then foreknew it? Is that foreknowledge? Absolutely not. God didn't look down and go, oh, look what they're doing to my son. You know what? I better make a plan about that. That is not foreknowledge. Foreknowledge has nothing to do with incidents. You know, some Christians think God just looked down through time because he's God. Sees it all happens and then starts acting. That is rubbish. That is bad theology. That is error. You know what our God done? God was in control. God had a plan. But I'm getting off my track here. I want to come to my message here tonight. But what I'm saying at the start, as we finish this series and embarking on this last message, the cross was not an accident. It was not a mistake. All those heretics who deny penal substitution, that's what they make it. Oh, Christ was an example how to respond to your enemies. Is that all you see in the cross? You've changed the gospel then. But my message tonight, glorying in the cross, and I've got three points. Number one, the exclusion of every other boost. When you deal with the real cross, when you believe the message of the real cross, when you experience it and it changes your life, when the cross really changes your life, then your testimony is going to be Paul's in verse 14. But God forbid that I, notice that I, Paul's speaking about himself. He's not imposing that on you. He's giving you a testimony. God forbid that I should glory. He meant this. Save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. My point here, the exclusion of every other boost. Do you know how you recognize a real Christian? With the real gospel? Or a real preacher with the real gospel? Do you know how you recognize them? By this statement, God forbid that I should glory. Save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Find a real preacher. They will say this. This burns in their heart. This dominates everything of their entire life. You want to identify a real Christian, then identify this. Find one who says, God forbid that I should boost. Save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, before God, they are saying, God forbid. That's a dogmatic statement. They're saying, God, make it that I cannot but boost in the cross. God forbid that I should boost in anything else. In myself, or religion, or good works, or any popular ministries. He is saying, God forbid. He's calling upon God to affect him, to influence him. God, don't let me boost in anything. Do you know how dangerous boosting is? Do you realize the real cross, the real gospel, and real preaching actually excludes every other boost? And it only tolerates at least one boost. One singular, boosting. Paul says here, God forbid. God, make it that it cannot be that I should glory in anything. I want you to notice carefully. This is a dominant word for this whole message, and you've got to understand it. The word glory. Paul says, forbid that I should glory. Save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. See, the mark of a real Christian is he glories in the cross. The real preacher glories. That's the word. But what does that word mean? To glory means to boost in it, to rejoice in it, to have joy in it. Let's go further. It means to trust in it alone, to revel in it, to live for it. That this singular thing is the center of your life, your experience, your salvation. It is the meaning of everything to do with your life. This one thing alone matters. This is what you boost in. This is what you glory in. This is what you make much in. If you're going to boost in anything, it will be this singular thing. Can I ask you tonight, Christian, do you boost in the cross? Have you actually neglected boosting in the cross? Because here you've got the greatest of apostles saying, God forbid. He's actually calling God, oh God, please, please, oh please, do not let me boost in anything but this. Do you realize this is the only thing you can safely boost in and you're meant to boost in it? You are meant to be proud of it. This is the thing you need to preach and promote. This is the one thing that you need to be proud of. What are you proud of in your Christian life? What are you proud of about this church? What's the thing in this church that you note above all others? And please don't tell me any other answer I want to tell you here tonight. You'll discourage this preacher. You see, our boosting as a church, my boosting as a preacher, your boosting as a Christian is to be singularly, only, safely in the cross of Christ. If you boost in anything else, if you put your trust, your confidence, and when you get talking to other Christians and you begin to boast about certain things in your life, you're on dangerous ground. Do you realize how dangerous pride is? Boosting in yourself, that your boosting could move to what you have done, my works, my accomplishment, my faith, my repentance, all that I've done in the Lord, my charity, my giving, my missions, my preaching, my service, my souls, my church. Do you realize that Paul is saying here, I cannot boost in anything but this one thing. Notice it's the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ he boosts in. Don't call it the cross. Do you hear me tonight? Everyone talks about the cross as if it's the cross. It's the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. If he had not hung there or died there, it means nothing. We are talking about a single cross. There were many crosses in our world, but we're dealing with one. And that day in generation when Paul says, I boast in the cross, I glory in the cross, God forbid that I'd boast in anything but the cross, but the cross of Jesus Christ. Do you realize in that hour that the average Roman citizen, what they thought of the cross, when you mentioned the word cross or said, I preach the cross or I glory in the cross. If you walked into Ephesus or into Rome or into Jerusalem or into any of the great cities of that ancient world, and you stood up in the high street and said, I boast in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you realize everyone on the high street would think you're a madman, you're a crazy man. You know why? Because in that generation, outside of the gospel, outside of this one cross, do you know what the average Roman citizen thought about this object called the cross? A cross was an instrument of terrible, tragic pain, suffering and death. You didn't hang someone on a cross, let them suffer for three hours, then let them off again. It never happened. When you got nailed to a cross or you put a cross on your shoulder and began walking down the road, you're never coming back. Your life is long over. And so the cross was a thing of pain. It was a thing of shame. You didn't want to be identified with the cross. You must be a criminal, a vile pervert. You must be wicked. You must be one of the scum of the earth to actually be carrying a cross or dying a cross or to be identified with a cross. The cross was a symbol of disgrace and shame. Even in that hour and generation, it was disgusting. To be identified with the cross was a disgusting thing. But for Paul, it was his pride, his boosting and his glory. I boast in the cross. It's the only thing I boast in. It's the only thing safe to boast in, that I boast in the cross of Christ. He goes on to say, he says, save in. God forbid that I should boast in anything. Save in. In other words, he's saying there's only one thing, not all the other things, only one thing. God forbid that I should boast in anything, anything, absolutely anything. Save in. In other words, his boast was exclusive, singular. It was one. He only had one safe thing to boast in. You know what? You only have one thing to boast in. You dare not boast. Oh, I cast demons out. Beware. What did Christ say to the disciples when they came back? He said, I beheld Satan fall from heaven. You know what he was saying? The same pride in you. Oh yes, it's good to rejoice. You cast demons out. Yet Christ is saying, I see pride behind that. You say you've got authority over demons. You're in ministry. You're casting demons out. Christ immediately says, beware. I beheld, I, Jesus, beheld Satan, Lucifer fall from heaven. You know why? Pride had him cast out of heaven. Boasting in ministry can be so dangerous. Most preachers don't even have a clue. Boasting in ministry can be so dangerous. Most Christians don't have a clue. They do some little thing and they get pride. Are you serious? Are you real? Do you know there's only one place to take refuge? In the cross, run to the cross. You can only boast in it. It's not safe. Yes, let God use you. Pray that God uses you. Let God use you. Do the works. Heal the sick. Cast out demons. Go pray for the lost. Go reach out to those in need. Go show charity. Do it all. But don't ever claim it for yourself. You have not done anything. Remember Jesus in the parable? He said, after you've done everything, you need to say, I'm just an unprofitable servant. I've got nothing to boast in. Should you have done everything perfectly in your Christian life? You know what? You're an unprofitable servant. I didn't teach that. Jesus taught that. When you do all his will, obey him, follow him, you've got nothing to boast in. Saints of God, if this begins to dawn on you, you're going to understand what we said for 12 messages. And you'll understand the heart of this, that anything, no matter how good it is, how right it is, is actually dangerous for you to boast in, or to put your trust in, or your confidence in, or your focus in, or your joy in, unless it is the finished work of the cross. Notice he says, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the cross. We were just singing it there. In the cross. He didn't say a cross. He said the cross, the cross. In other words, he's speaking about a particular cross. One cross, a single cross, not them all. Many men died in crosses. Many had their feet nailed, their hands nailed. Some had to have had their side pierced, definitely. Surely some along the way must have had a crown of thorns along this journey. Amidst all the tens, and tens, and tens of thousands of criminals that were crucified. So it wasn't strange for these physical things to be inflicted upon Jesus Christ or upon others. It wasn't strange. When it says we are to boast, or to glory, or to rejoice in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, when he talks about the cross, he's not talking about the bit of wood. He's not even talking essentially about the historic fact, the day, or the hours that it happened. He is not boasting in the event, although it was a very real event. He's not making his glory to be on a historic fact. And it was a historic fact. Not even what happened there. Do you think he's boasting? Nails went through his feet, a crown of thorns. See that movie, The Passion by Mel Gibson. I never watched it. I never will watch it. You can ask me after if you want to know about that. It's got the stations of the cross all through it. Churches all across this land, and the Western world used it for evangelism. And that's brilliant. If they want to do that, fine. I actually think that glorying in the gore of the cross is not what this is talking about. I don't glory in the blood, and the gore, and the pain. That's not what he's saying. That isn't, yes, that affects people sentimentally, but that is not the power of the gospel. You see, Paul, when he says, I glory in the cross, isn't saying I glory in the gore, the pain, the agony, the nails, the thorns, the suffering, the weapon. He's not glorying in that. It is a historic fact. We would have nothing to preach if it didn't actually happen. But do you know what he's saying? When he uses the word cross all through the New Testament, every time you read the cross, it's not talking about the wood, the physical event. You know what it's talking about? The message of the cross. He's actually talking about what was accomplished by God the Father at that historic day, at that historic hour. What God the Father was accomplishing on that cross through all of those things. It wasn't those things. It was what God the Father was actually doing. What was accomplished, the doctrine of the cross, no wooden cross ever saved any man, but the truth, the doctrine. You see, if you don't understand what happened on the cross, what good is it for you? You could say Jesus died there. Jesus bled there. There was a lot of suffering. But do you know about justification by faith or imputation of your sin to Christ? Do you know that happened? Do you know that his righteousness was imputed to you? Do you know that the wrath of God was poured out there? If you don't understand that, you do not understand the cross. And so we're not boasting. We're not proud. We're not making our glory to be the suffering or just the historical events. And please understand me, it historically happened. If it didn't historically happen, then nothing was accomplished. You know what God didn't just decide, I forgive you. I redeem you. I justify you. I change you. He had to accomplish a historic event. He had to send his son to die. Roman soldiers had to take him, nail him to a cross. They had to falsely accuse him. He had to die on the cross. That had to happen. Then God actually done this. God accomplished nothing without a physical, literal, real event, without actually happening there. And so you begin to see here, here's Paul the apostle, boasting, glorying in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please don't get me wrong. I believe in the fact, the necessity of the shedding of the blood. I preach it constantly. But what I'm saying is, it's not those things in themselves. It is what God accomplished through the shedding of the blood. He become the lamb of God that was prophesied for millennia. He became the substitute for sin. He became the fulfillment of every prophecy and of every single promise. So we cannot boast in ourselves. That's excluded. Saints of God, let me apply this to our whole series. When Paul says, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, do you know what I'm glorying in? I'm boasting in. I'm making my joy. That there on the cross, Jesus dying there. Do you know what was accomplished? My salvation, my redemption, the blood forgave me. My sin was imputed to him. He bore my sin, the weight of my sin, the punishment, the wrath, the penalty. All of that was accomplished. When I boast on the cross, I'm saying, I understand the cross. I know what happened on the cross. It wasn't a historic event alone. I know my sins were there. I was crucified with him there. He bare my sin. He carried away my sin. He become the sinner's substitute. This is what actually happened. And do you know when you boast in that, when you actually glory in that, of what Christ has done, you know what's excluded at the cross? You can't boast. The real cross, when you come to it, your good works. Boasting in them is excluded. That's how I know if you've been to Calvary. Or that's how I know, are you straying away from Calvary? Are you standing with a clear vision on the cross? As soon as you get a Christian who begins to follow after good deeds, to be accepted by God, our accomplishment, the importance of our righteousness above the righteousness of Christ, and I don't deny personal righteousness, not at all. When you begin to boast in what you have done, when you boast in your faith, Paul said faith was a gift. When you boast in your repentance, Paul said repentance was a gift. In other words, it's of grace. And if a thing is of grace, how do you boast in it? Can you boast in your repentance? And I believe in repentance. I believe in genuine heartfelt repentance. If you don't turn from your sin, you're in serious trouble. Repentance is a gift. It comes from God. It's part of salvation. But if you're boasting, I repented, look what I've turned from. Be very careful. Look at my faith. I put faith in God. Where do you think that faith come from? Do you honestly think you by your own self would have done that? If you boast in your faith, there's something wrong with your faith. If you boast in your repentance, there's something wrong with that. If you boast in your good works, and I believe in good works, all of us should be bringing forth good works. Where are your good works tonight? But don't boast in them. If that becomes your boast, your glory, your joy, then there's something fundamentally wrong. At the cross, all of these things are excluded. And so you see that the cross, when Paul writes to the Romans, the cross is at the center. When he writes to the Corinthians, the cross is at the center. Here, when he writes to the Galatians, the cross is at the center. In Ephesians 2 and 9, like we dealt with in the last message, he writes, not a works, lest any man should boast. Do you realize works religion creates boasting? When someone's boasting over their religion, it is innate to works, but it's not a grace, not a works. Salvation is not a works. The cross is not a works. The real gospel is not a works because as soon as you're saved by works, I'm going to get myself saved or stay saved. You honestly think you can keep yourself saved? I thought the Bible says, we are kept. We are guarded. We're kept in place. We're kept in this walk. How? By the power of God, through faith. Through faith again. It's this very same way. Are you scared of falling away? Are you scared that you can't keep this walk or keep walking with God or stay holy? Are you scared of that? Then what are you going to do? Work hard? Work really hard? Are you going to do that? Well, the Bible says you are kept, absolutely kept in place by the power of God. Don't you want that? How do you do it? By faith. By faith in Christ. Not by hard work to keep yourself. It is by faith alone in Christ alone. Romans 3, 27. Where is boasting then? It's excluded in the real gospel. By what law? Of works? Nay, no, but by the law of faith. How do you exclude boasting in your religion from your life? By living by faith. When you live by faith, you realize I've got very little to boast in. But when you really live by faith, you live right, you walk right, you stay right. That's how you know that it is faith. Faith has a remarkable part about it. You won't boast in yourself. It's not about you or your accomplishments. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of law. Number two. So number one, the exclusion of every other boast. When you really come to the cross and you understand it's his imputed righteousness. Your sin was imputed to him on the cross. He bore the penalty of your sin. He become your lamb on the cross. See when that happens, you realize this is the real gospel. When you believe the gospel right, you live right, you walk right, you don't boast. But you know what? When religion goes wrong and men start boasting, well, it's by good works. You keep yourself, you save yourself. You've just got to add this and you've just got to do this to be saved. You're in dangerous ground. Number two, those who do not glory in the cross. Here's Paul, this great apostle boasting saying, but God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ. We see Paul boasting in the finished work of the cross. The work of the cross that Christ accomplished there, that the father accomplished through Christ on the cross. He boasts in it. Do you know what? I boast in imputed righteousness. I boast that my sin was laid upon Christ on the cross. I boast in the blood of the lamb. I really do. But you know what? There are those who do not glory in the cross, not like Paul, not like Paul. They do not glory. Look what it says in verse 12, as many as desire. Now in verse 14, what we've been reading about Paul boasting in the cross. Look at the first word of verse 14. What is it? It's the word but. But God forbid. Do you know what that means? There's something before that. But you know, my teacher always taught me, don't start a sentence with but, but it's just not good grammar. Don't do that. But when we read but, the Holy Spirit knew a lot better than one or two of my teachers. But when the Holy Spirit starts with but in this verse 14, it means the reason comes in the two previous verses. Why is Paul saying here? God forbid that I should boast in anything, anything. Why is Paul saying that? Why is he saying I only want to boast in the cross? Why is he saying this? Why is he saying I glory in what happened on the cross? Why is he saying that? Well, we're told in verse 12 and 13. Verse 12. 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. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised. And notice why. Before he says verse 14, look what he says. That they may glory in your flesh. Why did he begin talking about what he glories in, what he boasts in, that he boasts only in the cross? It's because he's just been talking about many, many coming into the churches. These are not sinners. These are not people in the world. They're not pagans. Do you know who these many are? And the whole book of Galatians is written about this many. Many who desire to make a fair show in the flesh. They had come into the churches of Galatia. Do you know they believed in the cross? Do you know they claim to be born again? They claim to be preachers. They claim to believe in the scriptures. They claim to believe Jesus did die on the cross. His blood was shed. Oh yes, they believed all that. But do you know what else? They said, but you need to add something to that. Unless you get circumcised, you're not a real Christian, a full Christian, or a proper Christian. Oh yes, we believe the Bible. We believe in Jesus. We believe in the cross. We preach all of these things. But this one thing, you need to be circumcised. After all, doesn't it say in the scriptures that you're meant to be circumcised? Abraham was, David was, Moses was. You younger believers need to be on your guard because you know what most of you have never encountered is the errors and the heresies that have swept through the church. You've been protected in this church. You've been guarded and sheltered from that. But I want to tell you, when you're out in the mainstream of the church and here comes the latest movement through the church and great leaders and intellectual Bible teachers and popular famous leaders, and they begin following something and saying, you need this. If you're not careful, if you're not boosting in the cross, if you don't have a single vision of what Jesus done on the cross, if you don't understand that, you're in great danger. Paul begins to point out those who do not glory in the cross. They preach the cross. They talk about the cross. They claim to believe in the cross. Remember where we started in Philippians, where Paul writes about the enemies of the cross. Who were they? People who said they were born again. People who said they were Christians. And yet Paul says, I know by your lifestyle, by how you conduct yourself, you're an enemy of the cross. You can have someone in the church come preaching the cross with their lips, but by what they teach or how they live, they prove themselves. They're an enemy of the cross. Not your enemy primarily. They're an enemy. They hate. That's why we have all these teachers in the church tonight that Christ bore our sins on the cross. You know what they are? They're enemies of the cross. They say they preach the cross. They talk incessantly about the cross. They talk about Jesus every day, but they're preaching against what happened on the cross. They said, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. You know what they are? They are enemies. And so Paul deals again in Galatians with the very same thing. The many. In the entire book of Galatians, he talks about this problem beginning in Jerusalem, then spreading to Antioch, where he was a Bible teacher. And then finally now, it's come to the whole region of Galatia. Many churches. And so you have a spiritual movement in the early church. Do you think spiritual movements breaking in on the church is a new thing? You know, I've watched my lifetime. Here comes another one. I expected it almost just any moment. I was waiting on it. Here it comes. The latest fad with its new books, its new preachers, its new worship, its new churches, its new everything. It's large. It's mega. And everybody, you have got to buy this book. You've got to buy it on the Blood Moons. Where did that ever go? Oh, the Blood Moons, New York bestseller. Everyone was talking about Blood Moons. Everyone said it's going to happen in November. Where'd it go? They made a fortune. You know, that guy's jumped on about 10 other buses since then. And still the same Christians who jumped on the red Blood Moon bus. Guess what? They're on the latest bus. Here they are, the very same folk. It's just they've gathered more. The same folk following the same fads time after time. When are we going to wake up church? When are we going to get back to the cross and say, I don't need a new revelation about Blood Moons affecting the politics in Israel. What I need to do is boast in the cross of Jesus Christ. This is an issue of salvation. Those other things will lead you further and further away. Look what he says about these many in verse 12. They make a fair show in the flesh. That means they make a display. Outwardly, their countenance is joyous. They get so enthralled with this. They are so excited. They desire to make a fair show in the flesh. This is their motive. We want to make a public show. You know, a preacher of the cross goes, Hide me behind the cross. Don't let me be seen. Don't let it be my words. Let me die, but let Christ be revealed. That's a real preacher. But you know what these do? They want to make a fair, public, widespread show. We've got to advertise. We'll bring in alcoholic companies to finance our evangelism. That's what they've done in Britain years ago. Imagine paying an alcoholic company to evangelize every single home in Britain. And in case you think that was some heretic, it wasn't. It was the greatest evangelist who I most respected in the world in that generation. Do you hear me? What begins to happen in our day, in our generation? They make a fair show. They want to be public. They care about advertising. They care about making converts to their message, their movement, their latest fad. And notice how dangerous this was. Paul says what it was. They constrain you to be circumcised. They are actually putting pressure on you for you've got to get circumcised. This is absolutely necessary. You're not a real Christian without this. You may think that's only something of the past, but it's not. There are movements coming through the church today and they say, unless you're baptized in water, you are not born again. Unless you're baptized in a certain way. They actually say water baptism saves you. There's even a group and they're very, very small in Ireland. You can hardly find them even if you try. But they say, unless you're baptized in water, the way we say you should be, and then speaking in tongues, you're not born again. When they have their evangelism, they say, we had 10 baptized, we had five baptized, we had two baptized. Why don't you talk about people getting born again or saved or washed in the blood or repentant or getting right with God? Why is it you're always saying, we baptized too? Usually that means that they stole from other churches, people who already believed in Christ and began playing with their minds. They don't get converts off the streets to this. They go into churches. They speak to people who already believe in Christ and they go, you need to speak in tongues or you're not a real Christian. Or you need to meet on the Saturday Sabbath. The Saturday Sabbath is essential to the law. And if you don't keep the Saturday Sabbath, you are not a law abiding Christian. I'm not gonna get into that. We need an entire series of at least three messages and I planned it for two or three years, just never got there that far. Do you know the Saturday Sabbath is at the heart of the Mosaic law? It's fundamental. It's a sign. I'm not in the Mosaic law. That's the old covenant. That's the covenant of Moses. I don't keep the 10 commandments for salvation. Oh, but surely you keep the 10 commandments. I keep nine of them because they're re-taught by the apostles. That Saturday Sabbath is not taught again in the New Testament. It's not brought forth the other nine are. And why are we going back to the law of Moses? Do you see how all of these things begin to come into the church? So whether it's you need to speak in tongues to be saved, keep the Sabbath or be baptized and water our way, you're not really saved. All these movements are through the church. You need this, you need that, you need the other. You need all the curses broken off of you, your genealogy. Where did Paul ever do that once in the whole New Testament? But I'll tell you where he boosted in the cross. I'll tell you time and time and time again where he preached the cross and he said, Christ bear our sin. And his righteousness has impugned us. I can give all of that teaching but not the breaking of curses. Why do we have these movements that jump on? Inner healing, deliverance, breaking of curses, thing after thing after thing. Would you mind showing me the chapter in the New Testament where you get that? I mean an entire chapter. Would you show me where they practice that? Because I can show you where they practice what I believe in practicing in the church of this day. You see, I believe those who go back to law become legalists, they keep the law. All we've said in this series, remember going back to Cain, Genesis chapter four, Cain and Abel, two gospels. Both of them believe in the same God. Both of them are listening to the same God. Both of them raised in the same family and one of them goes the way of bloodshed and for a sin to be made right with God, to have it imputed to him by faith. The other one says, look at all my good works. Do you realize in every church people grew up together who can believe differently, fundamentally and yet believe all the basic points? Legalism is a very dangerous thing. In the book of Galatians, Paul starts in Galatians chapter one, dealing, this is an issue of the gospel. Why is Paul saying, I glory in the cross of Jesus Christ? He's just said, there's others who are glorying in you. You know what they're doing? They're coming into real churches and they're trying to proselyte, make converts to you so you join their movement. They're not interested about your sin being forgiven or you being made righteous in the garment of Christ. They're not interested in that. They're actually trying to get you to join them. They also don't want persecuted. You see, Judaism would persecute them if they go too far. And so they say, keep circumcision. You've got to be circumcised or we could be persecuted by legal old fashioned religion. And so neither they themselves are circum... For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law. It's not holiness they're interested in. We want you circumcised. What, you want me living right? No, we want you circumcised. We want you baptized in a wheelie bin. We want you to follow our little thing. What, you're interested in purity, not lying. No, no, no, no. Don't worry about that. Just get circumcised. Do you realize how danger... This is how legalists think. This goes all the way back to Cain. My good works. And then what happens when God doesn't accept it? He gets angry with his brother and then he kills his brother. You know, those who are in works, it's hard. I've worked hard. See, they're boosting in themselves. Cain, you're a proud man who boosts my growth. I spent months growing this. I thought it was the rain. Thought it was God created all of this. Why are you claiming all the glory? I worked hard. I dug up those stupid weeds that are here because of my mommy and daddy. It's their fault. I've worked hard to bring this harvest. I did it all. God help you. Do you know what? You don't know the gospel. You don't know the Jesus of the Bible. You don't know the cross. Listen very carefully. Galatians 1 and 6. Paul's speaking to them. I marvel that you're so soon removed. You know that word removed means to exchange, to transfer over, change sides. It's like if Munster was playing Ulster in the rugby. And here I am on the Munster team and I'm standing there with my Munster top on, ready to play for Munster. And just as the game kicks off, I throw off my Munster top, run over to the other side, pick up an Ulster top and go, ha ha, there, nothing's changed. I'm still the same Malcolmson. You know what? You bunch would point the finger and say, you hypocrite, you traitor, you deceiver. You've gone over to the other side. You know what Paul is saying here? I marvel. I'm shocked. I'm dumbfounded. I can't even speak. I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ. All these churches, all these believers have been called by the grace of God. Now Paul is saying, I am utterly dumbfounded and shocked that you're changing sides. What are you doing? All these churches en masse, they have exchanged. They've gone from grace to law. You know what? They're no longer boasting in the cross, boasting in blood atonement, boasting that Christ bare my sin. And it's so simple. Jesus bore my sin. Oh, we don't believe that anymore. What am I going to say? Oh, we're sure we're all Christians. Doesn't matter if you deny that Christ bore our sins or if you still believe that. We're all Christians. We all believe in the cross. We all believe in Jesus. Paul didn't say that. You know what? He says you've been removed. You've changed sides. You've moved away from him that called you into the grace of God to stand knowing that the cross is your only boast. You're in the grace of God. I can tell if the grace of God's on your life because you boast in the cross and it's not some other emphasis. This word removed means to be removed to something else, to put something else in its place, to revolt, desert or apostatize. You know, all through the church, we've got men and women who have rebelled against the real message of the cross, the real finished work of the cross. They don't glory in it anymore. They said it's a tragic accident per Jesus. But what an example. He is our example. Isn't it amazing that God loved us at the cross? You don't believe the message of the cross anymore. You have destroyed it. You have wrecked it. And like Paul, we've got to say again, you've been removed from the grace of God. If you deny penal substitution, if you deny the imputation of righteousness, you don't have a gospel. You have lost the message of grace. Now it's all down to your works, your efforts, your ideas, your doctrines, your Christianity, your relationship with God. It's no longer based on the finished work of the cross. And Paul says, you've been moved away from this call to the grace of God onto another gospel, another gospel. Paul says you've actually changed sides. The word another there is heteros. It means another different man and woman. I'm a heterosexual. Okay. There's no confusing that. I'm not confused. No one's going to educate me out of this. I hope I'm not alone. Onto another. You say I'm a heteros. There's a heteros gospel. It's altogether different. Nothing like the real. That false gospel of law, the new gimmicks. Since this is what keeps me all through the years on the same track, going right down, preach the cross, preach the blood, preach blood atonement, preach imputation, preach substitution, preach justification by faith. Don't get sidetracked off that or you'll destroy your gospel. You won't. Oh yes, you can still use the name Jesus, still talk about the cross, still be in the church, still be famous, but you've changed side. That is not the same gospel. Since we need to identify the false gospel and say, that's not the same as my gospel. That's radically different to another, to an absolute other. And he says, you perverted the gospel. You've changed it. It means turn it inside out or back to front. I have listened to some of these men carefully. I would not want you young believers to listen to them because they're so shrewd, so cunning. They quote scripture. Hold on. Circumcision is commanded in scripture by Moses. David, you're talking about David being justified by faith. David was circumcised. It's biblical. See when they start arguing like that, you better be very careful. You're with shrewd men. You know what Paul says? If anyone, though we, Paul speaks about himself, though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than what we have previously preached, let him be accursed. Even Paul said, if I come back to you in a year's time and I change my message, hey guys, new revelation, a new message of grace, a new understanding of the law. I've radically changed. I was wrong all these years. You ought to be going, hold on a second. Just stop there. Just put your brakes on. We are going to scrutinize you. No, this is revelation. The Holy Spirit. Well, what was it before? You know, Paul says, even if an angel comes and preaches anything else, let him be accursed. Let him be anathema, anathema maranatha, accursed, damned to hell without any hope or second chance until the Lord Jesus Christ comes. This is why Paul in Galatians 3, one says, oh foolish Galatians, who have bewitched you. Do you know what bewitching? He's talking about these teachers in the church. They're Christians. They preach about the cross. They come talking about Jesus. They say, we're born again. They'll give you a testimony. Oh, I come out and say, I used to be immoral, but now I'm born again. And more than that, I'm a full Christian. You need circumcised. You need to be a part of our movement. You know what Paul says? You that have believed them are bewitched. It means you've got fascinated or intrigued by them making strong assertions and affirmations and forcing you and persuading you and you've been won over by all the YouTube videos. And now you're fascinated. You're intrigued. You're like someone deceived. You're like a witch casting a spell. And now we can't even wake you up. We can't get your attention. What about the cross? No, no. It's Saturday Sabbath. No, it's the cross. No, no, no. Brother Keith, you don't realize. It's water baptism. No, it's not. Brother Keith, it's some other teaching. No, it's not. It's the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for you. He suffered for your sins. His righteousness become yours. That's the gospel. That's the power of this. Why is it we get bored with that and we get moved away? Who had bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth, crucified among you? You know what he's saying? When you had your eyes on the cross, Christ crucified. When your eyes are on that simple faith, you know what happens? You do the truth. You keep the truth. You live holy. You live obediently. If you as a believer start struggling to obey God and live holy, I want to tell you your number one problem is you've taken your eyes off the cross and you're now moving from grace to law. Because you know when you walk by grace, you live right. And there's power there to do right and make the right decision and live by the world. But do you know as soon as you grow weary and get caught up with Christianity and the things of the church and you don't have power, Paul says this time and time again in Galatians 5.4, Christ has become of no effect unto you. He's talking to Christians, Christians in the churches. Christ has become of none effect. He used to be of effect, but there's no effect on you, no power. Whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. Third and finally, let me finish briefly. The victory of a crucified Christian. Look at the rest of this verse where Paul speaks here. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then notice this third and last point. And this is my point. The victory of a crucified Christian by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. That's a strange thing to put after you've talked about boosting in the cross. I'm not boosting in anything else. I'm boosting only in the cross. It's strange then to finish the sentence by saying by whom, by that cross that I'm boosting in, by that cross, by that person on the cross, it's by this work that I boost in and only boost in that by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. Very strange thing to say. And this is what we're going to close with. What's the world he's talking about? And this is where I need you to think before we close. I'm not talking about the world, the world out there of sinners. That isn't the context. What's he talking about? He's talking about all of these Christians coming into the Galatian churches who are boosting. They're boosting you. Praise God, Jimmy got crucified. Sorry, got circumcised. He's a real Christian. They're boosting in you. They're boosting in you keeping the law. Praise God, not over the cross. Aren't you great? You went on a mission trip and you've done this and you've done that and you believe God. Be very careful where we put the emphasis. It's on the cross. So Paul here says, I don't want to boost in anything else by whom the world is crucified unto me. What world is he speaking about? The word world there is the Greek word cosmos. Cosmos, it can mean the universe. You know that. Cosmos can also mean the entire population. Or here's its third meaning. And this is what it means in most cases, most of 30 cases in the New Testament. The word cosmos, this is its meaning. The organized world, a specific realm of the world. Do you know what I believe it's talking about? The religious world in this verse. The world the Galatians had stepped into. The world of keeping the law. The world of Cain. The world of this movement that was breaking in on the church. You know what Paul was saying? By whom the world is crucified unto me. What world was crucified unto you, Paul? The world of keeping the law to be righteous. Of being circumcised. Of keeping the Saturday Sabbath. Do you know what? That entire world, that ordered, logical, organized society. This is what the word means. The outward order of our culture. The way things are entirely organized. How we think in society. How we act our customs, habits, traditions in the church. An organized popular way to think, speak and act amongst those that claim to be born again Christians. And yet it is not the cross. It's not the blood atonement of Christ. And yet it's a new popular world of Christianity sweeping through the church in this hour. You know what Paul said? I boost in the cross, why? Because in the cross, that world of popular Christianity was crucified unto me. It is dead to me. It's been nailed to the cross. All these movements. Since that's why I'm unaffected by the Hillsong's movement or some other Bethel movement with their fake glory cloud. I'm telling you, I'm unaffected by it. I don't mock lightly. Until I watch, I listen. I'm careful of what I say. But I want to tell you every new movement that comes through. Let's test it by the cross. Does it line up with the cross? I'm boosting in the cross. My power to live right is in the cross. My glory is in the cross. My joy is in the cross. A new movement comes in. You need this. You need to buy all these books. Really? You really think that? You know what? The latest cosmos, Paul could say, that world of religion sweeping through the Galatian churches was crucified at the cross. It is dead. It has been nailed to the cross. Do you know what you crucify? By whom the world is crucified? Unto me. That world is crucified unto me. Do you know what? God thought it was so bad it needed nailed to the cross. We're talking about morality and the law of Moses. We're talking about just doing what's right. We're talking about boasting and good deeds. Paul says that is so dangerous. Christ nailed it to his cross. He treated it like a convicted criminal. He judged it, condemned it, punished it to death. Why are you trying to live a form of Christianity that was nailed to the cross, that was crucified with Christ? Then he says, and I unto the world. I have died to that world. Paul used to be the greatest Judaizer. He was the greatest Jew. He was the greatest Pharisee. He was the greatest legalist. Do you know what Paul said? He says, I boast on the cross. You don't realize how much I glory in the cross. Why is that, Paul? I died on the cross. My whole world of religion died. My flesh, my old man, my body of sin, my flesh, something in my life changed that day when I met Christ. It was because of the cross. My life in that world of religion finished that day. All in one fell swoop. The cross is so powerful that when I met Christ, it was all over. Religion was gone. I used to pride myself above all others. I am such a high achiever. I am such a militant religious believer in God. You know what? It all died. He ended his days of boasting in himself, his deeds, his works, his accomplishment. And he was crucified. This is God's estimate of that world. And he accepted it. He utterly accepted it. I have passed through a personal experience of the cross that has changed how I think, how I act, how I speak. And now for me to live is Christ. For me to live. One last verse, verse 15. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision. Don't get proud. We are not circumcised. I'm so proud. I didn't get caught with that movement. We're outside those movements. We are a Jesus, people. You're boosting and something. That's dangerous ground. We've got good teaching. We're sound in the faith. We didn't fall for the errors. Do you realize how dangerous that is? Are you boosting in that? We're a sound church. We're a biblical church. Do not boast in that. Boast in Christ and him crucified. That's the only safe place. Oh, we're so safe. No, you're not. You're in such danger. Do you think you could sit here and say, I'm so safe because I'm an LCC. You're so deceived. I can't even begin to tell you. You're so deceived to say something like that or to think it or believe it. You're in greater danger here than you would be in the worst heretical church if you think that. But if you sit here and say, I boast and rejoice and glory in what Jesus Christ done on the cross. He bare my sin and he gave me his imputed righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. You know what? When you really see the cross as it is, a new glory on the cross, you're a new creature. I'm born again. You can't have your sins imputed to Christ without being a new creature. You can't experience the righteousness of Christ imputed to you without becoming a new creature. To say that you can have your sins born by Christ and you are the righteousness of God, but you're not a new creature. You still lie. You still connive. You still act the same way. You're lying. You're theologically trying to steal those truths. You're using those fire insurance. But if you're not a new creature, you never experienced penal substitution. You never experienced the imputation of Christ's righteousness because the mark of a real Christian is a new creature. Will you stand with me here? Lord Jesus, we thank you, God. Father, as we finish this entire series, as we come to the end of these messages, even this message tonight, Lord God, we glory. Our boost is in the cross. I boost in Calvary. Lord God, we dare not boost in ourselves or one another. We dare not boost in a preacher or a church or a movement. Lord God, we only boost in the crucified Savior. That's the only place for us to rest our hope, our confidence, and our joy. And my God, I pray as a church, captivate us through God. Lord God, lay hold of us tonight and make our eyes be single upon what Christ done on the cross. Father, we pray for the power of this gospel, that it would come upon us. Lord God, let us be set at liberty. Lord God, where we've fallen back into law or legalism or the ritual of Christianity. Lord God, where we have lost the ability to obey you or to run well or to walk in the spirit. Lord God, I pray bring repentance. Lord God, not to. Lord God, for them to embark on their good deeds again, to recover themselves. But by faith coming back. Lord God, the gift of repentance and of restoration, where they put faith in the blood and return to where they began in Jesus' mighty name. Hallelujah.