Summary
The sermon emphasizes the importance of living by faith in Jesus Christ alone, as opposed to the false teachings in Galatians that advocate for "Jesus plus" works like circumcision. Pastor Jason highlights that true salvation comes through faith in Christ's sacrifice, not through adherence to the law. The sermon contrasts the false teachers' motivations of fear and pride with Paul's boasting in the cross, which symbolizes suffering and salvation. Pastor Jason also urges believers to depend on Christ's work, declare the gospel, and defend its supremacy, while living humbly and serving others.

Sermon Transcript

Sowing to the Flesh vs. Sowing to the Spirit

Now we began this series in Galatians some four months ago, on 20th of May. I want to know how many of you were with us when we started this series, 20th of May, the first sermon in Galatians. Can I see a show of hands? Half only, ah? Wah, the other half, don’t know where you all…[laughs]. I think many of you were with us when we first started this series. And I want to remind you what this book is all about. Well, the need for this letter written to the Galatians is because some false teachers have crept into the church, teaching and beguiling people, saying, “Jesus alone is not enough to save you. Yes, you can believe in Jesus, but you also need to add to that circumcision. You need to be more like the Jews who were circumcised. You need to keep the religious festivals, and you also need to keep the law. You need to do all these things because Jesus alone is not enough. You need to add to it your works.” So they preach “Jesus plus something”. And as a result, the people of God are now cut off from the grace of God in Jesus Christ. They are living according to the flesh and not according to grace.

False Teachings and Their Impact on the Church

And the result of this church is that they begin to be biting and devouring one another. When they are living in the flesh, when you are dependent upon yourself, you are not walking in the Spirit—that will be the outcome. They were a divisive bunch of people, and the church was in danger of implosion. We also read in [Galatians] 5:26 that they were conceited and they were provoking and envying one another. So false teachings have come into the church saying “Jesus plus something”. And Paul wrote this letter as a stern warning not to follow their teaching, nor to follow them.

About two months ago, I was at Yio Chu Kang sports hall. I went to the toilet to relieve myself, to take a pee. I was standing in front of the urinal. Okay, this is a bit gross, but I started to pee, and as I pee-ed, I felt some liquid on my feet [audience laughs]. I'm glad you're following the sermon so far.

“Ew,” I thought to myself, “am I aiming wrong? Am I peeing wrong? No, I'm peeing correctly! But there is liquid coming onto my feet!” And later on, as I am done, I took a look at the urinal, and this is what it looks like [Pastor Jason projects a video of a leaking urinal on the screen]. Can you see? Can you see right here? Can you see that? I put it on loop so that you can see, you can't miss this… over and over and over again. There is this stream of fluid coming from, I think, a broken bottle trap or something like that. And I'm pretty sure what's flowing onto my leg was not my own pee only. That's absolutely disgusting! It's smelly, it's dirty! Oh my! I'm so thankful there is at least a shower that I can wash that all off. But it's gross, and I wish somebody had told me! I just wish somebody would have given us a warning.

The life of the people in Galatia was stinky, smelly, dirty. And the apostle, Paul, realized it was an absolute need to set up a huge warning to the Galatians: “Don't follow them! They are like that faulty urinal that will result in stinky, dirty lives.” So Paul had to establish the truth, and so Galatians is: establishing the right standing before God is never going to be achieved by the works of the law. It's never going to be given to you because you did well, or because you obeyed well, or because you kept all the commandments. Why? Because nobody, nobody can obey God and keep the law to the degree that it is good enough for God. Because God is perfect and holy, and we are never going to be able to get a right standing on our own. That's the bad news of the Bible. But let me tell you the good news. The good news is that this right standing can be received by faith in Jesus Christ. Your life may be like my life—rotten, sinful, rebellious. But the good news that the Bible tells us is: Jesus paid it all on the cross. Why did His Son come? His Son came to die and rise again to be our substitute, to be our ransom, to be our Savior. And you can get all that simply by turning from your sin and believing in Jesus Christ. So Paul is saying, “Jesus alone is enough.” It is not “Jesus plus something”. “Jesus plus nothing” is what we need to be saved. That is Galatians in a nutshell.

But today we come to the final portion of Galatians in verses 11 to 18, and we are going to see a focus on boasting in the cross. If salvation is received by faith in Jesus and Jesus alone, then we need to understand what it means to boast in Jesus, to boast in the cross, and that's the finale that Paul gives us.

Paul’s Authentication and Emphasis in Galatians

So let me try to take you through these eight verses in a simple fashion. I'm cognizant that there are children in our midst, so let's do it simply. The first thing I'd like us to notice is that Paul lays down a message of emphasis. What do you mean? Well, let's look at what he says: “See, look with what large letters I'm writing to you with my own hand.” Now, these words seem very strange to us, because that's not what we do, but that's what is done. Then Paul writes, saying, “I'm writing to you with my own hand.” Huh? [If] you don't write with your own hand, then write with what?

Well, it is well understood that, in those days, Paul would usually need the help of an assistant or a secretary. The technical word is “amanuensis”, someone who writes on behalf of the person who is actually dictating. So Paul would probably speak, and the amanuensis or the secretary or assistant will put it into words. But to authenticate that this is truly from Paul, he would then write on his own, probably the last sentence, which is commonly done.

If you can see, in First Corinthians: “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand”. It's repeated again in Colossians. It's repeated again in Second Thessalonians, and it's repeated again in Philemon. At this point of time, Paul says, “I'm writing to you with my own hand”. Special thing in Galatians—not just one sentence, but I think an entire paragraph from verse 11 to 18. This is not strange to VIPs. People like you and me, we say, “Huh? You need someone to write for you one meh?” But for VIPs, even in our day, I think they get people to write for them. For example, when our former Prime Minister wrote to President Tharman Shanmugaratnam for resignation as prime minister, he also wrote a letter in such a fashion where you can see, this is his own handwriting [Pastor Jason points to the opening and closing of the letter], and these probably, I think, were typed by someone else [Pastor Jason points to the other paragraphs of the letter].

So when Paul says, “I write with my own hand”, don't be surprised. He's just saying, “These are my final words that I personally will write.” And he's saying, “I'm writing these words with large letters.” What do you mean by large letters? Some people think he got eyesight problem. Can't see very clearly, so big font. But most commentators understand the large letters are for emphasis. He's saying, “These words that I write to you are very important. That's why I write it very big!” Because in those days they don't have punctuation marks, don't have exclamation mark, question mark, don't have! So to emphasize, he writes it in large letters, almost like this. Don't miss this in bold, large letters, exclamation mark, underline, whatever. But just large letters to say, “This is important.”

A month after I was at Yio Chu Kang Sports Hall, I went back, and I'm glad to see they have done something about it [the urinal]. They pasted these large tapes all around. Warning! This is important! Don't pee there. If you pee there, you pee at your own risk. So what we are going to read is therefore something important. Paul makes emphasis with that one sentence in verse 11. What is he going to focus on?

Exposing the False Teachers

Number one, he's going to do an exposé. He's going to expose the false teachers. Children are here, and I know some of you children may be familiar with Taylor Swift. Ah, yes, you see, I know, sure, sure familiar. And Taylor Swift was in town and had concerts. But I'm not talking about Taylor Swift per se. I'm talking about people who tried to get tickets. You know, it was a mighty fight to get some tickets. And so I read that there was this lady—I hope she's not in church today. Her name is “Fu something something”, and she managed to cheat some 80 over people of $119,000. These people who were scammed of their money decided to set up a Telegram group chat to expose this certain lady, “Fu something, something”. They wanted her to be known to the public so that no one else would fall into this scam.

And I think the apostle Paul is doing an exposé the same way. He exposes the false teachers by saying, “They are people who force you to be circumcised, not because it's really good for you, not because it's necessary for you, not because God requires it of you, but because they want to make a good showing in the flesh, they just want to do it for the sake of men.” They wanted people to see. Why? So that they themselves will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. So it seems like there are people who are persecuting Christians because the Christians are not being circumcised. It probably comes from the Jews who wanted Christians, who claim to be the people of God, to also be circumcised. So out of fear of this group of people, these false teachers say to the Galatians, “You must be circumcised, because if you don't get circumcised, I get into trouble.”

So they don't really care for the Galatians. They just care about themselves. Not only that, Paul says that these people are hypocrites, because they who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law. They tell you to be circumcised because that's part of the law. But in their own life, even though they are circumcised, other areas of life are kept apart from the law. They don't obey God, they don't love God. They are mere hypocrites who want circumcision just for a showing of the flesh.

And not only that, Paul piles on the accusations by saying they are braggarts. They just want you to be circumcised, to be another statistic in their missionary boasts. They tell people how many people have been circumcised by them to brag about themselves. So in summary, Paul exposes the false teachers to be people who are… what? Bullies. They force you to be circumcised. They are cowards because they do this out of fear of persecution. They are hypocrites because they seem to teach the law, but they themselves don’t obey the law, and they are braggarts. They are arrogant people because they just want to boast in your flesh. They are people who are motivated not by love, but fear and pride, and they don't really care about the Galatians. We say in Chinese, “guà yáng tóu , mài gǒu ròu”. Well, it just means you hang a goat's head, but actually, you don't sell a goat—you just sell dog's meat.

Which reminds me this week of some pandas in China, in a zoo in China. And people like to go and say, “Wow, what cute pandas!” Until they realize that this panda also barks, and this panda also pants with the tongue hanging out. And eventually it was exposed that they are not pandas, but Chow Chow dogs that are painted black and white. Well, the apostle Paul is doing a similar exposé. He's revealing that these false teachers are not genuine pandas, but they are dogs. They don't really love you. They don't really care for you. They don't preach truth to serve you. They don't.

Now, so far, I hope you are following me. Children, can you follow? Don't like that, leh. Children, children, can you follow so far? [audience laughs] Okay, if you can't follow me in the first two points, I will definitely lose you for the third point. So maybe reverse psychology works. So the third point will be really tough, because the third point may be a bit technical, but I hope you can still follow along.

Contrasting Paul’s Boasting with the False Teachers

The third point is now Paul contrasting himself from the false teachers. He's exposing them, saying that they just like to brag in their flesh to make themselves look good. But Paul now says, “I'm also going to brag, I'm also going to rejoice, I'm also going to exalt. But I am not going to do this like you guys, to make yourself look good. I'm going to brag because I want to make God look good.” So he's going to give an exaltation, or he's going to boast and rejoice, but he's going to rejoice, boast and exalt in the cross of Jesus Christ. So he's going to boast, but for a very different motive and reason. He says, “Far be it… I'm not going to be like those false teachers who brag just to make themselves look good, but I'm going to boast in the cross of our Lord.”

Now, why would someone boast about the cross? You see, it's strange. It's not strange for us today, because the cross seems to be quite cool. You see in church buildings we have the cross, and some of you may also be wearing a cross! The cross is something that is quite delightful or pleasant today—acceptable today. But in those days, it is not, because the cross is a symbol of suffering and shame. The cross is the most cruel way to kill someone, because you don't kill the person quick and fast—you kill the person slowly, with great agony. We have described the sufferings on the cross physically several times in this church. I will not recap that, but it's a symbol of suffering and pain. It's almost like someone saying today, “I glory in an electric chair.” Can you imagine someone wearing a necklace of an electric chair? That's not cool! Or it can be glory in a hangman's noose. That's not cool! Or glory in a syringe and needle that injects lethal poison to kill you. That's not cool!

But Paul says, “I rejoice, I exalt, I boast in the cross.” Why? Let’s read on. Because Paul says, “This cross is by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” Now I know what you're thinking immediately. When we read the word “world” in the Bible, we think about verses like “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world”. When we think about the “world” as a power that seduces us, that tempts us, that draws us, that lures us away from Christ. So we may think that Paul is saying, “Oh, I boast in the cross because I'm no more seduced, I'm no more lured, I'm no more attracted to the world.”

But I think that is probably not what Paul has in mind. He's not thinking about the world here as a kind of seductive power. The reason why I don't think that is so is because he goes on to say, “For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything.” Now circumcision is not so much about satisfaction, right? No one gets a thrill out of getting circumcised. Trust me—I've worked in KK Hospital in that same department for at least six months, and the number one surgery we do is circumcision of kids. And no kid comes in saying, “I want to be circumcised.” And no kid after circumcision says, “I'm so glad I got circumcised.” No one. All right? So this is not about satisfaction or seduction. This has to do with salvation. This has to do with justification—having a right standing before God. And we must read “the world” together with “circumcision”, because of the connecting word “for”. So Paul is saying, “I rejoice in the cross.” Why? Because that's the instrument by which this world is dead to me, and I'm dead to the world in the sense that circumcision is now meaningless to me and powerless over me. So Paul is saying, the “world” here is not about seductions, but it has to do with salvation. It has to do with justification.

Maybe I put it in another way—this world here offers salvation, or at least seems to offer salvation, because Paul earlier on spoke about the elementary principles of the world. Now this requires you to be kind of with us in Galatians 4 to make it easier, but if you're not with us—in summary, Paul says the elementary principles of the world is the operating system of all religions in this world. Every religion in this world works on this basic principle that the world gives to people who want to know God and the operating system is that of works: self-works, self-righteousness. We call that legalism.

Legalism is trying to obey God's laws in our own strength in order to find a right standing before God. The world's operating system for religion is my works, my achievements. And Paul is saying the world's principle for salvation does not save. This is the point the world cannot save. In particular, the world's operating system of legalism cannot save. No matter which religion you go to, it's always going to be: “You deserve it. You earn it. You work for it.” And Paul says it doesn't work. It won't save. The world's OS [operating system] cannot save.

And then he goes on to say, “The world has been crucified to me.” What does he mean? It means that the world's system of legalism is dead to me. It is useless; it is powerless; it cannot save. So he's saying, “Legalism is useless and dead to me.” And then the next phrase “I to the world” means “I am dead, and legalism has no hold over a dead man.” When you are dead, the laws of Singapore cannot govern you. You know that? It's true. Don't believe, you try. When you are dead, the law has no hold over you, and so when he says, “I am dead to the world”, it means that “I am no more enslaved to the operating system of the law of the world”. I do not need to keep obeying the commandments to be right with God anymore. I died with Christ. So with the first statement, “the world has been crucified to me”, he's saying, “Legalism is useless. I'm not dependent on it.” And on the second statement, “I am dead to the world; I'm not enslaved to the world”, means I will no more be dominated by it. But it all means I glory in the cross, because the cross really saves, but the world cannot save. I will not depend on it. It's dead to me, and I'm not going to be enslaved or dominated by it, because I'm dead to it.

So if you look at it again, Paul says, “I glory in the cross. I rejoice in the cross. I boast in the cross because the cross really gave me life—eternal life, spiritual life. But the world cannot save me! The world is useless to me! The world is powerless to me! Why? Because circumcision never saves.” You get his logic? And so he says, “I boast in the cross, because it's at the cross where I am made a new creation.” When did I get new life? When was I born again? When was I alive to God? Christ, on the cross, died and paid for my sins. And now, because of Him, I am a new creation. All the circumcision, all the legalism, all the works I did in time past—they never saved me, but Christ did, and now I glory in the cross.

This is consistent with what he has written so far: “I am crucified with Christ, but it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” A new creation. Why? Because of the works of the law? No! Because of Christ. Can the law save you? No, the law only curses you. But Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. He did it all. He paid it all. You have a debt of sin you can never pay for, my friends! You can never pay for, but Jesus paid it all. Wow! He paid it all on the cross! If someone pays for all your debt today, would you rejoice? Jesus paid for an insurmountable debt for us. “I rejoice in the cross” makes sense. And because of Jesus, we now are adopted. I'm not not just a stranger to God, I'm part of his family. By what? Your works? No, but by Christ and what He has done.

And because we are adopted as sons, we also receive the Spirit of his Son in our hearts, and we become heirs of God. Everything that Jesus possesses in the coming Kingdom, we possess together with Him. We are heirs and co-heirs together with Christ. Jesus did for us what we can never do for ourselves. And because of Jesus, we receive all the unimaginable blessings. And therefore Paul says, “I boast, rejoice and exalt at the cross.” I hope it makes sense to you; it really makes sense for me. So children, if you can't follow me so far, wake up. Let's try the last three verses, all right?

The True Israel of God

“And as for all who walk by this rule”, Paul says, “peace and mercy be upon them.” Now, in these ending words, Paul now says that “I wish and I pray peace and mercy for those who walk by this rule.” What is this rule? Well, I have no time to really explain, but I think this “walk by this rule” here refers to living by faith in Jesus and not by legalism or the works of the law. So the peace of God and the mercy from God is to be given to those who believe in Jesus Christ. That, I think, is the essence.

And this statement, “and upon the Israel of God”, I think is unfortunately confusing. Because the word “and” in the Greek can also be translated “even”. When you say “and”, it seems to be group one, group two. But if it is “even”, then it is the same group of people. And I think it should be the same group of people. Because in Galatians, Paul had been explaining that the true offspring of Abraham are not necessarily racial Jews, but the true offspring of Abraham are the people of faith, whether you are Jew or Gentile. So the true Israel of God—the true people of God—are not those with the genetics of a Jew, but those with the faith like that of Abraham. So peace and mercy will be on those who walk by faith like Abraham walked. And this group of people ultimately will be the true Israel of God.

He goes on to say in verse 17, “From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” He's giving his final authenticating proof. The false teachers are scared of persecution, so they don't preach Jesus alone. But Paul says, “I'm a true servant. I preach the true gospel, which carries the offence of the cross, and for that, I suffer persecution. And so on my body, I bear the marks of Jesus. So don't you ever doubt me. I'm not like the false teachers who want a cushy, easy, persecution-less life. I've borne the marks. I've been persecuted for the sake of Christ.” And he ends off with saying, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers.” So he ends off with the message of the whole book of Galatians: grace. Salvation is all by grace and not by the works of the law. So this, I think, is a fitting finale to the book of Galatians—exposing the false teachers, emphasizing on the glory of the cross and reminding one and all to walk in the same way that peace and mercy may be upon us.

Practical Application of Boasting in the Cross

On Zoom on Tuesday—I meet the CG leaders on Zoom every Tuesday—and there was this question that was asked. Verse 14 in Galatians seems to say that Paul emphasizes he only boasts in the cross of Christ. So what does this really mean? How can we apply this to our daily lives, and what does this look like, practically? So I thought it would be good for us, in some applicatory considerations, to think, “What does it mean for you and I to boast in a cross?”

I think very simply, number one, to glory, to boast, to rejoice in the cross means we must be a people who depend on Christ and His finished work as our justification before God. It means we must be a people who are very clear doctrinally, theologically in our hearts, that nothing else saves us—not coming to church, not your pastor praying, not that you read your Bible, not that you give money to the church. The only thing that saves is faith in Jesus Christ, because Jesus is the only one who paid for your sins. Remember, a right standing with God is not achieved by the works of the law—not what we do—but it's received by faith in Jesus Christ. People mock Christians. I know of people who mock Christians. I have personal experience of people who mock, “Why would you believe in something like this and so on and so forth?” But that's where I stand on. That's what I depend on. What do I hope to say when I stand before God, when I die? I say, “I have nothing to justify. I'm a sinner, I'm rotten, I'm wretched, I'm rebellious, but God, my Savior, Jesus, died for me.” That's what I stand on.

How about Paul? Does Paul have things to boast about in the flesh? Plenty. He says, “I was circumcised on the eighth day.” You say circumcision is necessary? Okay, I'm circumcised. You say a Jew is someone who is saved. He says, “Well, I'm really of the people of Israel. I'm from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I got the right genes. How about the law? Well, I am a Pharisee. I'm an expert at the law. I memorize Scripture. How about zeal? I'm a persecutor of the church. I'm as hot and as fervent as anyone can be. And what about righteousness under the law in terms of observing the external things that the Pharisees teach? I've kept them flawlessly.” So Paul says, “I have a lot to boast about, friends. I have a lot to glory about in the flesh, friends.” But he says, “All these things, on the final analysis, I count them but dung. They are useless. Everything that I was speaking about just now, they are nothing when it compares to the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ.” In fact, he's saying, “I'm not going to have a righteousness of my own that comes from the law. I'm not depending on my Jewishness or my circumcision or my meticulous keeping of the law. I don't depend on all that. But I depend on Christ. I look to Christ by faith.” So if we really understand the cross, we will be a people who will depend on the cross and the cross alone—”Jesus plus nothing else”.

To glory in a cross, number two, I think, is to declare the message of the cross. I was meeting with a dear man, a pastor from the Salvation Army. And I've grown to appreciate his heart for God and for his people. And he was sharing that one of the prayer requests he regularly prays for for his organization, Salvation Army, is that they would live up to its name—be truly an army that brings about salvation. You see, Salvation Army has existed for a long time, and they are really a worldwide organization. In many parts of the world, and even in Singapore, they have several branches, isn't it? But with anything as time goes by, as it gets further and further from the start point, there's always a danger that we get diluted or distracted from the original mission of preaching the gospel. So he says, “My prayer for my organization”—I think he's a humble man, very honest about it—he says, “is that we would live up to its name, Salvation Army, to preach the gospel.” And he also says, “I often wonder what our founder, General William Booth, would think when he comes back and looks at the church today.” To which his colleague, also in the same group as we shared, said, “Oh, I think he will look very sian [tired and listless]. Why look very sian? Because that's how he looks all the time. In our office, we have this picture—he always looks like that. So he will look very sian.” He says, “Oh, he will be rather disappointed.” Now, I think again, both of them are being very humble about this. I think Salvation Army has done great work, and they have blessed many people, I'm sure.

But that also stirs me to think, if not William Booth comes, but if Jesus Christ comes to Gospel Light [Christian Church], will He also like that? Because over time, maybe some of us begin to think, “Aiya, every Sunday you talk about Jesus, every Sunday you talk about the cross. So boring. Can you talk about more exciting things like Hezbollah chief got killed, or the Israel-Hamas war, or about politics and stuff like that? More exciting, more relevant!” Well, I think I want to follow Paul when he said, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Paul is an extremely smart guy. There's no question. He's extremely wise, extremely learned, experienced and so on. But in all that, he said, “Even though I know a lot of things, I'm determined to know nothing among you except Jesus and Him crucified. This is my focus. Why? Because this allows people to have their faith rest, not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. So I am not ashamed. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”

I hope… I actually quite worried about… not worried… I will be concerned about my own soul. I don't think I can be complacent about what I will become in 10, 20, 30 years’ time, but my hope and prayer is that I will keep to be centered in the gospel and that till the day I die, if I'm given the privilege to teach God's word, I would remember First Corinthians 2, Romans 1. I hope that even after we are gone, the generations to come in Gospel Light would say, “I want to boast in the cross, and I will declare the message of the cross. Nothing else.” Could we be such a church? I wonder and I pray.

Defending the Supremacy of the Cross

To boast in the cross, I think, thirdly, is that we need to defend the purity and the supremacy of the cross of Jesus Christ. As you know, the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church visited Singapore recently, about two weeks ago. And he held an interesting inter-religious dialogue with young people of various backgrounds, and in that dialogue, he said something that stirred up a lot of controversy. Actually, not just Singapore, but people all over the world took note of what he said and were debating online. I think even up till today. Now, obviously I was not at the dialogue, and I don't understand Italian, so I took a transcript or a translation right from the Vatican. So this one original one, from them one, not I say one. It's from their website. And what was controversial with what the Pope said was these statements, “All religions are paths to God. I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine. But God is for everyone, and therefore we are all God's children. There is only one God, and religions are like languages, paths to reach God, some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian.”

Now that is confusing to some, because it became a talking point for Catholic World Report and other similar websites. What did Pope Francis say in Singapore about religions as paths to God? And the author would go on to explain and talk about it. And we also have this in the Benedictine College Media and Culture article: “Did Pope Francis just say all religions are equally true?” In fact, there was an archbishop who flatly says, “That is not true. Not all religions seek the same God.” So I think in the Catholic circle, there is a lot of discussion about this. But this is not just amongst the Catholics. Even in Singapore, our Rajaratnam School of International Studies puts up an article by Paul Hedges: ‘“Every religion is the way to God.” Did the Pope depart from Catholic teaching?’ Now I have not interviewed the Pope. I did not ask him further questions. I only put up what has been put up on public domain for you to consider. And this is an interesting point to consider for ourselves.

But the point is this: is the Bible ambiguous on the supremacy or purity of the cross? No, because the Bible is absolutely crystal clear. In Acts 4 we read, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Very clear. Not many paths—one, one name, no other name. In fact, Jesus made it crystal clear Himself when He says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, but by me.” And we need to defend this message. And we must never waver from this message. We must never give an inch to this message. We must be like Paul saying, “The world and the operating system of the world cannot save. It's dead to me, and I'm dead to the world. But I will glory, I will boast, I will exalt in the cross of Christ, because it's the only message that saves. I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.” So we must depend on this gospel. We must declare this gospel. May this be our message, and we must defend the gospel, even if it needs be that we may follow Paul to be persecuted.

And finally, I hope as a church, we will display the gospel. Instead of having this freedom in Christ to live our selfish ambitions and lusts, Paul says, “Use this freedom to serve one another. Be humble. Don't be conceited. Don't provoke. Don’t envy. Don't bite, don't devour, but lovingly serve one another. Let us not compel people to do things for our name's sake, for our face, for our own reputation. Let us sit at the foot of the cross humbly, give our lives for Jesus.” Why? Because I don't want to boast in myself. I don't want to boast in our church. I don't want to boast in anything else, but in the cross of Jesus Christ. “When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride”—that is what it means to boast in the cross.

Final Prayer and Blessing

Let's bow for a word of prayer together. Father, we thank You today for Your word. I pray that as Your people, we will be reflecting on what it means to glory in the cross. Help some here today who are not yet saved to find salvation in Jesus Christ. May they depend on the finished work of Jesus Christ to be saved. And then I pray that as Your people, we would be faithfully declaring the gospel, defending the gospel, and, perhaps most of all, displaying the gospel. May Gospel Light be a church about Your gospel. May we shine this light far and bright. Keep us from ourselves. Lord, help us to pour contempt on all our pride. I thank You for our little children who are joining us today. O Lord, I know it's a long, complicated sermon, but whatever it is, may they come to faith in our Savior too. Have mercy upon their little hearts. So thank You, Jesus, keep me near the cross. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.