Tonight, I invite you to turn with me to Galatians 6 as we read the very last portion, the last verses of Paul's epistle to the Galatian believers, beginning at verse 11 through the end, considering in a particular way verse 14 tonight. Galatians 6, beginning at verse 11. Hear now the Word of God. The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit, writes, See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand. Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God. Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. But beloved in Christ the Lord, so often Christ's crucifixion and death is treated on this Good Friday evening, or for those who have a Maundy Thursday service, so often Christ's crucifixion and death is treated as a sad, as a depressing occasion. It's observed by so many with such a somber mood, all because poor Jesus suffered terribly and died a horrible death, which is indeed true. but is that how we are to observe this redemptive event to ask the question that way is to answer it isn't it it's a redemptive event and indeed any somber mood any sadness that may accompany our observance of this event is only because of the reason that Jesus died on the cross which is our sin we were the guilty Jesus went to the cross because of poor us but Paul teaches us that the cross of Jesus is not to be thought of in terms of poor, poor Jesus but the cross of Jesus is to be seen as a reason to celebrate it is to be seen as a reason to have confidence it is to be seen as a reason to boast now boys and girls ordinarily when we think of boasting we often think of it in the negative sense, don't we? We think of bragging and arrogance and patting oneself on the back. In the negative sense, one who boasts, you see, is expressing pride in themself and in their own accomplishments. And generally speaking, when one is boasting, that one really is revealing what it is that one relies on and what is the support of that one's life, what that one's life is built on. When one is boasting, that one is really giving a demonstration of where that one places their trust. When they boast in themselves, they're looking to themselves for all these things. But Paul's boasting, beloved, is far from prideful. It is far from arrogant because it is not in himself. It is in another as Paul's boasting is boasting in Christ's cross alone. And to boast in the cross of Jesus Christ is to boast, to glory, to exult in Christ crucified and all that He accomplished by His crucifixion and death. This was so important to Paul that he says very strongly, may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, God forbid. God forbid that I should ever boast in anything but that cross. God forbid that I should ever take my eyes off of Jesus and instead boast in myself or boast in the things of this world which are only a dead end. Paul's trust was in Christ and his cross alone, first of all, for reconciliation with God. And in the second place, for separation with the world. First, he boasts in the cross of Christ for reconciliation with God. Again, he says, may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we need to understand that that statement by Paul at that time was an amazing statement. Because in that day, the cross of Jesus was an unlikely object of confidence. In our day, we have romanticized it. We've made it into jewelry. We wear it on our t-shirts. We have it up in the front of our churches, on our steeples, on the hilltops. There are some who even worship it. In many ways, we have romanticized the cross, but it was far from being romanticized in the day of Paul, in the day of Christ Jesus. Instead, it was scandalous. And Paul points to that scandalous nature when he says in 1 Corinthians 1.23, but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. It was a stumbling block because the cross meant that one who was crucified upon it was under the curse of God, was, as it were, hated by God. And punishment by way of the cross was reserved for the lowest of the low, the worst of the worst, and one who died on a cross was considered to be full of disgrace and dishonor and shame, they wouldn't even want to take the word cross upon their lips. They did everything they could not to say that one word. It was scandalous. It was a stumbling block. But it was also foolishness. That's where men died. Jesus died there. Where's the victory? Where's the hope in that? That's a sign of weakness and defeat, not victory. That's common sense, isn't it? And history proves to us that at the end of a battle, it's those who are alive, not those who are dead. But those who are alive are the ones who are victorious. Only one who is foolish would look for hope in the death of another. The cross was an unlikely object of confidence because it was scandalous, but also it was humbling. That is, when the cross is viewed correctly, the cross is a mirror of our own unworthiness. The cross of Jesus exposes man's desperate condition. It exposes man's utter moral spiritual bankruptcy that made Christ suffering and his cross necessary. The cross of Jesus reveals our inability, our lack of ability, to be reconciled with God by our work or according to our own terms. And therefore the cross of Jesus, beloved, reveals the foolishness of all human pride. It reveals that the greatest accomplishment that you or I could ever come upon or do is nothing in the sight of God when it comes to reconciliation, restoration with Him, salvation with Him. You see, the cross takes away any and every conceivable reason for self-confidence and boasting versus the Judaizers. See, Paul's entire letter we know and other writings were a warning against the Judaizers, those who boasted in the flesh, those who gloried in their human efforts as a means to do their fair share in accomplishing salvation, in reconciliation with God and finding favor with Him. Indeed, Paul gives that warning throughout this small letter. But especially notice in verses 12 and 13, he says, Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. He said the Judaizers wanted to avoid persecution. You see, in the Jewish community, to accept Christ wholeheartedly and Christ alone, and therefore to depart from all of the Jewish traditions, all the ceremonies, circumcision, the sacrifices, everything, to accept Christ alone and forsake all of those things came with bitter persecution. Ostracism. Being shoved out of the community. Threats. Lies. Physical, mental, torture. For so many, it simply wasn't worth it. But Paul says, along with them not wanting to be persecuted, he says, they want to boast about your flesh, about the flesh of the Gentile Christians. You see, the Judaizers' goal was to get as many Gentiles circumcised as possible because that then would be an outward sign of their success. Look how many converts we have made. Look at how effective we are in our work. But Paul taught over and over again that circumcision, that the works of the law are meaningless, they're worthless, they're useless for our reconciliation, for our restoration with God, for our salvation. And therefore the Judaizers were like the princes and the mortal men of Psalm 146, of whom the psalmist says, when their spirit departs, they return to the ground. On that very day, their plans come to nothing. The Judaizers boasting died with them. Dear people of God, you can only boast in and see the wonder of the cross when you and I first see our own unworthiness and inability and poor contempt on all our pride as we have sung. Only then can we see the cross and we're talking about all that Christ accomplished there for you and me. Only then can we see the cross, the whole cross, and nothing but the cross as our one and only treasure, as that golden key, as it were, for reconciliation with God. Because the cross of Jesus also reveals God's mercy for those who are totally hopeless and helpless. It reveals God's mercy as we see there His love. As Paul says in Romans 5, verse 8, but God demonstrates His own love for us in this while we were still sinners. Christ died for us. It also reveals His mercy is there. We see the power and the wisdom of God. You see, this is something only He could accomplish, only He could do, only He could think up. Only the Son of God, who Himself is divine, was qualified to pay for our sin because He was sinless. only He was capable to bear the eternal burden of God's wrath against our sin. You see, beloved, the cross is where God's justice and His mercy came together, where they met in His Son. His justice poured out against us, but upon His Son, His mercy poured out upon us for the sake of His Son. There on that cross, His justice and mercy met for our complete redemption. That's Paul's boast, isn't it? When he boasts in the cross of Christ, he is boasting in complete salvation. All the theological buzzwords we can put with it, justification, sanctification, preservation, glorification, the entire package, it's all there. Because Jesus Christ left nothing undone. And therefore, the only acceptable boasting, when it comes to ourselves. The only acceptable boasting about ourselves is to boast in our weakness. To boast in our helplessness apart from God's grace. To boast, I can't do it. But instead, to boast in Jesus Christ. To boast in the grace of God and the price that His Son paid on Calvary to redeem us. Because indeed, the reason for Christ and His cross was simply because salvation was impossible for mankind. Can we say it any plainer than that? Impossible. We simply could not accomplish it. We needed another because we were dead in our trespasses and sins. But in Christ and His work alone, beloved, we find hope in the sight of God. That's Paul's boast. Hope in the cross of Jesus. And for those who believe in Jesus Christ by grace through faith, those whose lives are built on His perfect work, then along with a new relationship of reconciliation with God, the believer experiences a different relationship with the world. As Paul boasts in Christ's cross alone, in the second place, for separation with the world. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Notice the result of Christ crucified is a double crucifixion for the believer. A double crucifixion, as Paul speaks, first of all, of the crucified world. The world is crucified to me. Cut off to me, Paul says. Dead to Paul. Because Paul is a new creation by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. And therefore he has a new master and a new allegiance, new desires, a new direction, a new heart. New love. And therefore the world is crucified to him. And he's talking there about the world of all earthly pleasures and treasures and honors and all the things of the world that would draw one's soul away from Christ and instead to put confidence in themselves or in something else. For Paul, we know what that was. He says it plainly in Philippians chapter 3 where he's talking about putting no confidence in the flesh. He says, For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reason for such confidence, if anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law of Pharisee, as for zeal persecuting the church, as for legalistic righteousness, follows. If anybody was able to earn their way into God's good graces, it would have been Paul. But he says, you can't do that. It's impossible. And instead, he says, because of the cross of Jesus Christ, he boasts that whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, garbage, that I may gain Christ. His heavenly citizenship because of Christ and His cross transformed his relationship to the things of this world, those things that give confidence to mankind. Those things for Paul had lost their charm. They had lost their influence on him. They had lost their power over Paul. They became dead to him, unimportant to him. For Paul, this world and the things of this world are only useful if they are used to honor and glorify God and to advance his kingdom. and those things that Paul had once boasted in were replaced by the things of God. The things that delight him. His will. The fruit of the Spirit. All because of Christ and His cross. You see, Paul no longer was dominated by the things of this world, nor by his own accomplishments, but his desire, beloved, was to surrender himself completely to Christ crucified as Lord and Savior. His desire was that the power of the crucified and risen Savior be present, ever present, in his life. His desire was to preach everywhere the Gospel and to courageously defend the Gospel of Christ crucified against every single attack. And Paul, beloved, is a representative for all believers, for you and me, and what we have because of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And therefore, we must ask ourselves, too, how do we see this world? How do we see our place in this world? Well, may we see it not as something to become intimate with. May we see it not as something to take selfish pleasure in, or something in which to find confidence and comfort, but instead, may we see this world as a field of labor, in which we might be used of God to bring the good news of salvation through Christ crucified and Him alone. May we see this world as a means by which to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Indeed, it's not easy because boasting in the cross of Christ results in a separation with the world in another way. As Paul not only talks about the crucified world, but he talks about the crucified believer. Not only has the world been crucified to me, he says, but I to the world, I have been crucified to the world. Cut off from the world's perspective. You see, the Christian, and now sadly we need to qualify this and say the true believer, the true Christian, because so many in our day call themselves Christians. We know that. But they have absolutely no idea what we are doing in here tonight, why we are here. They have no idea about Christ crucified. And they look, they live no different from the world. But the true Christian becomes an object of contempt and foolishness and ridicule to the world, to all who place their confidence in their own flesh and in the things of the world. The world hates Christians and Christianity. And I suspect that we would all agree that we are sensing this hatred more and more and more every day. But the world hates Christians and Christianity because our faith alone in Jesus Christ is an indictment against the lie which the world has embraced. And the world hates Christians because Christians and the church comes with a scandalous message of the cross. And indeed, the result, beloved, is a double crucifixion. The world to the believer and the believer to the world. Paul says it in another way in Romans chapter 12. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. But those who walk by the Holy Spirit live out this double crucifixion in His strength. But indeed, beloved, today, today from the world's perspective, it is a scandal to believe and to teach and to preach that the distinctive acts of Christ's death and resurrection are the only way by which we can be reconciled to God. By which we can be saved. To the world, that is a scandalous message. Because to the world, that message is intolerable. That's how they see it. That we are intolerant. That message to them is exclusive. You can't have that. That message is considered by the world to be really a message of hate because it doesn't accept whatever way of salvation that someone may happen to believe. Yet, congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, only this message is the true message of love. Because this message of Christ crucified is the message of the only salvation which all of mankind so desperately needs. It is a message of hope. Indeed, there is hope. And the question is not why are there not many ways of hope, many ways of salvation. But indeed, why did God even bother to give one? But indeed, it is the message of the only hope we need. Because apart from Christ crucified, there is only eternal death under the heavy torment of God's wrath. But because of our Savior's perfect work, beloved, accomplished and completed on Calvary's tree, those who by the grace of God believe in Him, those who trust only in Him, are separated from the world of Satan and sin, which would only eternally destroy and are reconciled at peace with, in favor with God, with the confidence that He will bring us to Himself in glory. Reconciled with God, which means that we are no longer under His curse, but we are forever in his grace all because of that which we may boast about, we must boast about, the cross of Jesus. And beloved, as we come to the Lord's table tonight, we proclaim the cross of Christ. We proclaim Christ crucified. For Paul says, as often as you do this, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. As we partake in faith and receive this spiritual nourishment, we declare the saving work of Jesus Christ. It is a visible boasting, not in what we have done for God, but in what Jesus Christ has done for us and given to us in His mercy alone. On this Good Friday evening, beloved, we celebrate. Oh, we celebrate. We celebrate the crucifixion of our living Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that we might live with him and rejoice in him forever. Alleluia. What a Savior. Amen.