Now, if you have your Bibles, I'd like you to turn with me to one of Paul's epistles, the epistle to the Galatians, Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. We finished reading through this book not too long ago in our morning worship service, and I'd like us to focus on the last chapter. And you will note as we read in the last chapter, there is a lot of practical instruction given to us as Paul often does in his last of his letters. But we find, of course, in the midst of the practical instruction, the very facts of the doctrines that he is so vehemently taught throughout the rest of the epistle. So I'd like you to follow as I read the entire chapter, and then we'll focus our attention on verse 14. Galatians chapter 6. Brethren, If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. for each one shall bear his own load. Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life. Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially those who are of the household of faith. See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand. As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But God forbid that I should boast. except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. From now on, let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. The text that I want to focus our attention on for this brief time of meditation is found in the 14th verse of this chapter, chapter 6, verse 14. The apostle is coming back to the statements that he has made earlier very strongly concerning that error that had crept into the churches at Galatia and Galatia, and that is the Judaizers adding to the gospel the fact that they needed to be circumcised as well as to believe in Christ. Actually, adding to the work of Christ when they say that on the cross. And in this text he says to us, he says, but God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to simply look again, review in your minds the meaning of the cross and what it means and should mean to us. Now the word boast here is a word that has been translated in the ASV glory all the way through. Whenever that word, the original word is found in the King James, it's translated glory. But there is a distinction between the word glory and this word boast. The word we could use perhaps as synonyms or other meanings that help us to see exactly what is said here. Sometimes we think of boasting as is something that is always evil, because I am boasting among myself or about self. The boast here is meaning something about one's treasure, one's gem. It's something that is very important. It's his pride and joy. It's like a windfall. It's something precious to him. So he says he cannot boast in himself at all, but he does have a reason to boast, and that is, of course, on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The term that is used here, the cross, It's a term that is an expression that has more than one meaning in the Bible. We want to know exactly what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, but God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is he saying here in this epistle to the Galatians? This is the point I want us to look at this afternoon, very briefly. First of all, The term cross sometimes means that literal wooden cross on which the Lord Jesus Christ was nailed to when he died on Calvary. The literal wooden cross. Sometimes that's exactly what it means. This is what the Apostle Paul meant and had in mind when he told the Philippians that Christ became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. That literal wooden cross. This is not, however, the meaning of the cross, the term cross, in the Apostle's text here where he says he boasted in that cross. The Apostle would surely have shrunk back with a sense of horror about the idea of boasting in a piece of wood. I don't have any doubt that the Apostle would have denounced the Roman Catholic adoration of the cross. I don't doubt that he would have denounced the Roman Catholic adoration of the crucifixion as profane and blasphemous and idolatrous. It was not the literal wooden cross he was boasting in. That is one, however, way in which that word cross is translated, or the meaning of that word term cross, when he was nailed and put to death on Calvary. But a second term has a second meaning. Sometimes the term cross means the afflictions and trials that believers in Christ have to go through when they follow Christ faithfully. We know what that means. This is the sense in which the Lord Jesus himself uses the word when he says in Matthew 10, 38, and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Those are afflictions and trials. Cross, our cross that we need to bear. This also is not the sense in which the Apostle Paul uses the word when he writes to the Galatians. The Apostle Paul knew that cross well. We know that. He carried that cross patiently. But he is not speaking of that cross here in the book of Galatians. So the term sometimes means that literal wooden cross, which the Lord Jesus was nailed to and put to death in Calvary. The term cross sometimes means the afflictions and trials that believers in Christ have to go through when they follow Christ faithfully. A third meaning that the term cross also has, and that is in some places the term cross means the doctrine of Christ crucified for sinners. This is referring to the atonement that he made for sinners by his suffering for them on the cross. This is referring to that complete and perfect sacrifice for sin that He offered up when He gave Himself and His own body to be crucified. In short, in this one phrase, the cross in Galatians 14 stands for Christ's crucified, the true Savior. This is the meaning which the Apostle Paul uses in the expression when he tells the Corinthians The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. This is the meaning which he meant when he wrote to the Galatians, for God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Very simply, he means here that he boasts in, he gloried in, nothing but Christ crucified as the salvation for his soul. This is where he boasted. This is what he gloried in. This is what his focus was upon. This was what was so important to him, the salvation of his soul by the means of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ crucified is the joy and the delight, the comfort and the peace, the hope and the confidence the foundation and the resting place, the ark and the refuge, the food and the medicine of the Apostle Paul's soul. This is what it meant to him, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, the atoning work with his work on that cross. He did not think of what he had done himself and suffered himself. He said, God forbid that I should boast. Not himself. He did not meditate on his own goodness and his own righteousness. No, his focus was upon something far better, more important. and that's the atoning work of the Lord Jesus. He loved to think of what Christ had done and what Christ had suffered, what was accomplished on the cross and the atonement for his own sins. He loved to think of the death of Christ. He loved to think of the righteousness of Christ, the atonement of Christ, the blood of Christ, the finished work of Christ. He boasted in that work on the cross. He was in this that he gloried. because this was the light of his soul, the real light of his soul. This is the subject he loved to preach about. The Apostle Paul was a man who traveled the world proclaiming to sinners that the Son of God had shed his own heart's blood to save sinners. He traveled the world telling people this. He walked through this world telling people that Jesus Christ had loved sinners and died for sin on the cross. He boasted in that cross, that's how valuable it was to him. Notice how he says to the Corinthian church, he said, I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins. It was a focal point of his life and, of course, of his ministry. In the same book, 1 Corinthians 2, he says, I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified, the message of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul was a blaspheming, persecuting Pharisee who had been washed by the blood of Christ. And he could not hold his peace about it. He was never tired of telling the story of the cross. He gloried in it. He boasted in it. This is the subject he loved to dwell upon. Whenever he wrote to the Christians, to the believers in their various churches, it is important for us to notice how full his epistles are of the suffering and death of Christ. It's important to know how they run through, in his epistles, they run through with the thoughts that breathe and the words that speak about Christ's dying love and power. the first epistle, I mean in the epistle of Galatians, I'm sorry, Ephesians, he begins by thanking God for the believers and then he begins to tell them, he says, he prayed for them and one of the requests that he prayed for was that they would know what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. This was a focal point on him. Even in his prayers for the saints, for the believers, it's his desire that they would know something of the power of Christ, the power of God in raising Christ from the dead. Again, a focal point in all of his letters. And this isn't to do sinners who are trying to get converted. This is to believers. This is so valuable. His heart was moved by this memory of the cross. His heart seemed full of the subject of the cross. He opens the subject constantly. He returns to it continually in all of his letters. You take note as you read them and how often it's referenced to the cross. This, of course, is the golden theme that runs through all of his doctrinal teaching and his practical exhortations, as we've read here. It's the cross. When he tells the Galatians what they're to do and how they're to respond as Christians, then he comes right back to the same theme of the cross. He boasts of the cross. He seems to think that the most advanced Christian can never hear too much about the cross. We can never hear too much about the cross. One of the things that brings joy to my heart is hearing from this pulpit how often in our prayers and the ministry of the Word is the cross, the vitalness of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what the Apostle Paul lived for all of his life since the time of his conversion. He told the Galatians, he said, The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. who loved me and gave himself for me. That's the atoning work of Christ on the cross. What was it that made the apostle so strong in his labors that he did? What made him so willing to work that he did? What made him so untiring and endeavoring to save some? What made him so persevering, so patient in his labors in the proclamation of the gospel? We know the secret to it all. He was always feeding by faith on Christ's body and Christ's blood. Jesus Christ was the meat and the drink of his soul. May it be that way with us. And God in his infinite wisdom has set before us that memory of the cross, the memory of Christ's crucifixion for us. We can rest assured the apostle was right in his life in focusing his attention upon the cross. and seeing again and again the value of that cross to him. We can depend upon it that it was the cross of Christ, the death of Christ on that cross, to make atonement for sinners. That is the very central part of the whole Bible. This is the truth which begins in the book of Genesis. The sea of the woman bruising the servant's head was nothing but the prophecy of Christ's crucifixion. This is the truth that shines, though sometimes veiled, as we heard this morning. Yet through – all of it is through the law of Moses and through the history of the Jews. We see it in the daily sacrifices. We see it in the Passover lamb. We see it continually in the shedding of the blood and the tabernacle and the temple. All these were emblems of Christ crucified. This is the truth that we see honored in the vision at the last book of the Bible when it was read. In Revelation 5-6 it says in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, we are told in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain. Even in the midst of heavenly glory, we get a view of Christ crucified, the cross. If we take away the cross of Christ from the Bible, it's a dark book. It doesn't have the meaning of the book itself. It's like the Egyptian hieroglyphics when We have them without the key to interpret the meaning of the scriptures itself. The Bible is very interesting, it's very wonderful, but there's no real value to it if we leave out the cross of Christ. It's the central thread that runs through the whole thing. And we must know this. We must know this today. We may know a great deal about the Bible, but we must know about the cross of Christ. It must be focal point in all of our thinking. We may know the outlines of the history that it contains, that the scriptures contain, the dates and the events that are described, just as a man knows the history of his own country. We may know the names of men and women mentioned in the Bible, just as a man knows some of the world's great leaders like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, Napoleon. We may know the men and women of the Bible like that. We may know some of the precepts of the Bible and admire those precepts just as we know some of the great names who are great thinkers in days past. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, these men who have gotten our attention with their minds. But if we have not found Christ crucified, the very foundation of the whole book of the Bible, then we have very little profit that comes from our knowledge of the Bible. Our faith, then, in that condition, is like a sky without a sun. It's like a compass without a needle. It's like a clock without power, a light without electricity. Nothing there. No power, no reason for it to be. And such is the Bible, if we have not the cross of Christ as the center part of it. If we don't have the cross of Christ, the Bible will not be a comfort to you. It will not save your soul from hell. You may know a good deal about Christ by a kind of head knowledge. We may know who he was and where he was born and what he did. We may know his miracles, his sayings, his prophecies, and all of his ordinances. We may know how he lived, how he suffered, and how he died. But unless we know the power of Christ's cross by experience, the power of Christ's cross, I mean by that, unless we know and feel within the blood that was shed upon that cross has washed away our own particular sins, unless we are willing to confess that our salvation depends entirely upon the work that Christ did upon that cross, unless that be the case, Christ will profit us nothing. The mere knowing Christ's name will never save us. We must know His cross and His blood, or else we will die in our sins. We must beware of a faith where there is not much of the cross. There are places of worship today where there is very little about the cross. The real message of the cross is not there. Christ crucified is not proclaimed from the pulpit. The Lamb of God is not lifted up, and salvation by faith in Him is not freely proclaimed. There are certain activities that we as Christians need to do and certain benefits we can get from Bible principles, but the cross is not important. The Apostle Paul, he wanted to boast in nothing else but the cross. That was vital and important to him. You see, if that is not the case, everything is wrong. No matter how many precepts and how our lives may be changed by certain, the cross of Christ is vital for us to know. We must beware of places where the cross is not proclaimed and preached. It is not apostolical. That would never satisfy the Apostle Paul. The real cross of Christ cannot be left out of our worship. The Savior in his work of atonement and complete salvation must always be the central part of God's teaching. The Apostle Paul gloried, boasted in nothing but the cross, and we must strive to be just like him. We have the privilege to do that tonight, to focus our attention upon him. We must let Jesus Christ crucified fully before our eyes, before the eyes of our soul. We must see him. We must let Jesus Christ be exalted as we focus upon his death and crucifixion. We must not let any teaching come before him and between him and us. We must not fall into the Galatians' error and add something to minimize the importance of the cross. We must not think that anyone in this day can be of any guidance to us other than the message of the cross, which is our hope. We must not be ashamed of these old patterns and old paths which have been given to us in the scriptures, which have been given to us by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We must not let the talk of modern teachers who might talk about a Catholicity where there's a unity and oneness. No, a cross is what's important, vitally important. And we must not give Christ's honor to another. Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah 9.24 these words when he quoted or was giving to us the Word of God. He says, Let him who glories, glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, exercising loving kindness and judgment and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord. The Apostle Paul quotes that in 2 Corinthians 10.17 when he says, But he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. And tonight we have before us on the table the emblems that remind us of the sacrifice of Christ. It is our privilege to focus our attention again and again and again upon the crucifixion of Christ, the cross of Christ, the atoning work of Christ, that which is the focal point of our life and which was that which the Apostle Paul boasted in. What a message, what a hope, what an encouragement the supper ought to mean to all of us. Let's pray. Father, tonight we would bow before your presence again as we all, your people, gather around the table. We pray that we would again have a sense of the awesome truth of the atoning work of your Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, on our behalf. May it not be something that we have heard before that only comes to us as a simple statement that we've heard before. Lord, may it come before us to remind us again, this is what we can glory in. This is what we must glory in. We pray for your help for us again. to boast in this cross of Christ. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.