Our scripture reading this evening is from the New Testament letter of Paul to the Galatians. I invite you to turn in your Bible with me to Galatians chapter 6. And there we read the closing section of Paul's letter to the Galatians starting at verse 11. Reading from the word of the Lord, Galatians 6 beginning at verse 11. See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for those who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. From now on, 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. This truly is the word of the Lord. Dear Congregation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it's always a little bit remarkable to me that when we have a news conference of political leaders, if anyone from the military is there, let's say a general, quite often the general will appear in his military uniform with the medals, the medals across his chest. And I suppose, I don't know what they all mean, what they all stand for, but obviously, because of various activities in the military forces, a person in the military is awarded a medal. And we all know what a purple heart is. If one is wounded in the service, one is awarded a purple heart. And it's a way to say to others, as you see the purple heart, that in the defense of my country, I suffered a wound. Paul says in verse 17, don't bother me because I bear on my bodies wounds, the marks of Jesus. The word in the Greek is stigmata, stigmata, the stigmas of Jesus. I bear in my body those marks. Now, I suppose in being awarded a medal, one can boast. One can boast in that. May Christians boast. Jesus says they may, but only for one reason, one cause. Let me boast in nothing except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So I want us to focus this evening upon Galatians 6, verses 11 through 18, under the theme, even bruised we can boast in the cross. Even bruised we can boast in the cross. And notice, first of all, how Paul speaks of being ashamed of the cross, secondly, crucified at the cross, thirdly, bruised because of the cross, and finally, blessed through the cross. Even if you are bruised, people of God, maybe because you are bruised, you can boast in the cross. Paul is now near the end of his letter to the Galatians. We think it is one of his earliest letters. And more than likely, he has dictated this letter to a kind of scribe or secretary. But then the ending comes where he adds a personal touch to the letter that he has written through his secretary. It's sort of like adding a note at the very end. But this note is different than other endings to Paul's letters. He adds a few lines himself, verse 11. It's kind of his signature. And he says, do you notice how I write with large letters? Now scholars debate what that means. Had Paul suffered an injury in his hand so that he was sort of forced to write with larger letters? He couldn't write very small. Possibly. Did he suffer from poor eyesight that would have pressed him, pushed him to write with larger letters? That's possible also. But others say, and I think they may be right, that the reason he writes with large letters is to draw attention to what he's saying. to draw attention to his message. Because this is Paul's last time in this letter to address his concerns about the Judaizers. Now, you've probably run across that term before. It's not a term that is in the letter to the Galatians itself. But scholars talk about the Judaizers as a very conservative Jewish Christian element in the early church. Yes, they believed Jesus was the Messiah, but many of them had Pharisaic backgrounds, and therefore they were fully convinced that if you were a Christian, you should not only believe that Jesus is the Messiah, but you had to keep everything in the Mosaic law. All of the ceremonies of Mosaic law was still required. Well, that would require circumcision, the feast days, the dietary laws, all of that is still required of the Christians. And in that way, you would show to the world that you were a truly righteous believer. Well, Paul now takes writing instrument in hand himself. And these are his last jabs. at the Judaizers, the ones who thought that Mosaic prescriptions, circumcision especially, had to be observed. And now we know what he thinks. Here Paul comes out in all honesty to address us, what he thinks of those people who are troubling the Galatians, bringing another gospel. Not that there is another gospel. There is only one gospel. It is the gospel that Paul preached. Think of what he says in the first chapter. If anyone else, including angels from heaven, comes down and preaches another gospel to you, let him be accursed. Let him be anathema. Let him suffer the destruction of God. There is no other gospel. And these Judaizers were bringing a different gospel. What does Paul think of them? He considers them fearful, inconsistent, and insincere. They were putting on a good show in the flesh in order to avoid being persecuted for the cross. Now, a Gentile standing back and looking at this controversy in the early church would consider circumcision to be a strange, a good showing in the flesh, but to Because gentiles would have considered that a very savage tattoo. But to orthodox conservative pharisaic Jews, this is great. We know from Jewish records that pharisees would, some pharisees, would go through the Mediterranean world and they would visit synagogues where gentiles were starting to worship. And they would press upon these Gentiles the practice of circumcision. Because then you could be fully Jewish. You could be fully accepted by God. It was their mission work. Because it represented numbers. I remember my father would get this church magazine from a fellow Christian at his work in Pella. And it was the kind of magazine where they would talk Yeah, a revival was held in this church on this date. There were 15 who came to Christ, three renewals, two recommitments. I mean, it was all calculated. It was numbers. And Orthodox conservative Jews say, the more numbers we get shows to us we've made progress in the growth of our beliefs. And so you carry that over into the Christian church, and therefore, to accept this practice of circumcision, it's a good showing. It's numbers. So they press this ritual upon Gentile Christians. Now, I don't doubt that there were some Judaizers who were sincere in their belief that this was necessary. But look at verse 12. Paul is strongly implying that they are neither genuine nor sincere. They were braggarts and windbags who were boasting not in Jesus Christ, but in that quote, good showing in the flesh. In fact, they were just chickens, as we would say, big chickens. They're really scared of being persecuted by other Jews, harassed by the Orthodox Jewish neighbors, and therefore They are ashamed of the cross. They are afraid of being bruised, and therefore all of their boasting is empty and hollow. Paul denounces, as well, their actions. He denounces their motives in verse 12, but in verse 13, he denounces their actions. They insisted that circumcision, a fairly minor ceremony of Mosaic law, that that be kept. But even they themselves do not keep the law. And obedience is what really matters, isn't it? Not to ceremonies, first of all, but to the heart of the matter. Now, Jesus made that very clear. He said to Jews, you are so careful to tithe mint and cumin, the seeds that you harvest, you tithe that very carefully, but you forgot justice and mercy The weight here matters of the law. And so in their actions, these Judaizers were just hypocrites, straining out gnats and mosquitoes as they meanwhile swallow camels whole. Because if the Jews do not keep the whole law, then why drag Gentiles into a practice of the ceremonies? What's gone wrong? What has gone wrong? Perhaps one reason might be that these Judaizers have gone wrong is that Judaism had become very self-centered and very secular. Now we use that word secular a lot. What do we mean? The word secular by itself means a focus upon this world, a focus upon this life. But it means cutting life into portions and sections. And you make one of those sections religion, while all the other sections are your life, your marriage, your business, your recreation. Okay? Religion belongs to one section of life. Let's say it consists, therefore, of sitting in a church for an hour every Sunday. and perhaps saying quickie prayers at mealtimes. You know what quickie prayers are. Lord bless this food and drink for Jesus sake, amen. Prayers that hardly reach the ceiling. But you've said the prayer, haven't you? You've said the prayer. But then you leave Christianity out of the rest of life. It doesn't make any difference on how you live as a family. It doesn't make any difference in your politics, your education. your business, your recreation. And so this is what people do. They can shrink their Christianity to one section of life, but then they salve their conscience by making that one section beautiful and gaudy. So that one hour in a church is a ritual that is impressive. beautiful, colorful, musically right on key, glorious. But then it's just for one hour. Or how about this? Some people make family values. Now, I'm not against family values, but traditional family values, that's where my Christianity rests. Maybe personal habits. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I obey the law. I don't speed in Waupun, Wisconsin. I follow certain personal habits. Now, brothers and sisters, you could do all of those things without the cross. But Christianity without the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is not Christianity. We probably all have very moral neighbors who have no time for Jesus Christ, but they're good and decent people. And so Christianity without the cross, the whole cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is not Christianity. It becomes then a secular show, a place where people can hide in order to avoid getting bruised and beaten by the world. It's easy to do rituals. That's easy. But to live seven days a week, 24 hours each day, as a full-bodied, full-souled follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's difficult. And we live in a culture, especially in America, that says, you can be Christians, just keep it in the closet. That's why we have politicians who say, personally, I'm against abortion, but I would never want to force any of my views on anyone else, which is a recipe for Hitler and Stalin. Because societies cannot operate in moral vacuums. And if there is no moral order defined by God and his word, you get chaos. But people can stand chaos only for so long. And then the cry for law and order arises. And Hitler and Stalin come along and say, I'll give you law and order. What can be your boast then if Christianity is merely private, personal habits? If it's merely a beautiful ritual for an hour on Sunday and nothing else? Many Christians mean well, but they are afraid when people find out that they claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. I've experienced that many times. I know exactly what I'm talking about, the fear that comes into my own heart and soul when you wonder if people know that I'm a Christian in this setting, am I going to be laughed at, ridiculed, mocked, or the cold shoulder? They just avoid me. None of us want to be left out, laughed at, mocked, harassed, will they treat me differently? Freedom-loving Americans can become quite intolerant when Christianity makes itself heard in the public square. Keep it in your private closet, please. That's the message we get again and again and again. And you say, but we have on our currency, on our money, in God we trust. Yes, we say that, but we're happy if God is nothing more than an elderly gentleman who stays in the basement. He can be there. He exists, but he may not say anything. Try posting the Ten Commandments on a public building and see what reaction you get. We can believe in God. We can even say we trust in him, but he may not say anything to us. He may not talk. In Israel today, if Jewish children convert to Christianity and accept Jesus as the Messiah, they will be mocked, beaten, and stoned by other children. In some Muslim countries in North Africa and the Middle East, when a Christian is baptized, leaving Islam and undergoing Christian baptism, his life is in danger. I once remembered teaching Egyptian Christians on the island of Cyprus And I asked one of them, in Egypt, if someone, a Muslim student goes to study, let's say, in America, while on an American campus, he is converted to Christ, and he goes back to his native Egypt. Now, Egypt is one of the more enlightened countries. They don't enforce Sharia law there. Christian churches are, they exist in, I've preached in them, they are in Egypt. But I said, Convert goes back to Egypt. What will they do to him? And they said they will kill him. Not the government, but the society around them. They will kill him. He will be dead. And therefore, in those contexts, when you become a believer and you undergo baptism, that's not just something you do on a Sunday as a ritual. That's life or death. That's life or death. And so many Christians do not become baptized. And before I condemn them, what would I do in that situation? I can talk bravely here in Waupon, Wisconsin, but in that context, what would I do? How many of you would have come here tonight for worship if it was against the law and the police were in a car watching the cars pull in, getting your license plate numbers? Would you have come? Christianity, Reformed Christianity, is not for weaklings. Weaklings cannot boast in the cross. Now, the reason for boasting in the cross is because of what the cross of Jesus Christ is. Well, what is it? To Jews, it was a stumbling block. To the Greeks, mere foolishness. And on the surface, it appears to be that place where this rabbi from Nazareth, this rabbi who came from the north, this teacher called Jesus, met a very, very sad and tragic end. They crucified him. That was the death of criminals and slaves. It's like a hangman's gallows. It's like the electric chair or lethal injection, methods by which some of our states put terrible criminals to death. The cross. There's glory there. And Paul will boast in that? It speaks of death and with that of failure, of shame, of misery, and of weakness. It was the death that was cursed by God in Deuteronomy. It was the great circumcision of our sins through the death of Jesus Christ. It represents God's judgment on our sin and our iniquities and miseries upon our secularism. It was God's awesome justice. And in this cross alone, Paul will glory. But the cross is a killer. Look at verse 14. It is a killer because it saw not only the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to what Paul says. It represents the death of the world to me and my death to the world. Three deaths. Christ's death, the world's death, my death. Paul's life is so governed, so controlled, so ruled by the cross that the sinful world no longer holds any charms for him. Money, power, national news coverage, All of that means nothing to him anymore. Nothing at all. It has no attraction for him. The world here in verse 14 represents that sinful society. As it is organized against God, it has nothing going for it. Nothing. It died through Jesus Christ on the cross. And Paul will boast that this one cross has put the world, the entire old order, to death. But there's more to the cross. For the cross of Jesus Christ is the death of Paul to the world. Now, how could we understand that? Paul had been, before his conversion, he had been a faultless, blameless, Pharisaic Jew. Philippians 3. I mean, what more did he need? I was blameless. Now, that's 100%. That's graduation with the highest honors. I am a blameless Jew. But he looks at that and he says, that's all garbage, rubbish. Rubbish means nothing to me anymore. Nothing. It is as if the richest man in the world gave up all of his money, all of his human advantages, all of the power that he has through his money, and he gives it away and he takes out a small, tiny, little, insignificant apartment somewhere. And we would look at that and say, well, that's crazy. That makes no sense. The world considers such a person to be out of their mind. The sinful world must consider us to be dead. They take one look at the Christian church, and they think, man, you Christians are just a bunch of deadbeats. You want no fun at all. You know, in the days of the Roman Empire, many things were said about us Christians. They accused us of cannibalism. We ate the body, drank the blood of our savior. They thought we were incestuous. We called each other brothers and sisters. What does that mean? But one of the charges against the Christians was this. They threw the word apathetic at us. Apathetic, meaning you have no passions. When there's great gladiator games going on in the Coliseum, you don't attend. What's the matter with you? It's great sport to watch people fight to the death. Christians shun the vain philosophy of the day. We want nothing to do with that. They rejected the public religion. We will not burn incense to Caesar and say Caesar is Lord. We will not do that. Jesus is Lord. And then the cry would go up to the lions, to the lions. You know, when Christians met in the early days, and occasionally persecution would burst out. Persecution wasn't all the time every year in every place. It would burst out here and there. What that meant is the group that met on the Lord's Day might have members missing the next Lord's Day because they were dead, beheaded, fed to the lions. Christianity in the early days and in these days is not for weaklings. What the world considered important, the Christians said, doesn't mean a thing to us. What the world threw away, the Christians picked up. I mean, many pagans, if they didn't want a child, would take their child to the public dump and leave a baby there. The Christians would go there regularly to find these children and rescue them and then raise them as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ until the Roman government said, no, you may do that. Our country is not the first anti-baby regime in the world. What causes this? What makes people live this way? It's the cross. the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It represents, it was where the son of God took on the sins of all of his elect, really and truly, and he paid the debt you and I could not pay. He saw this cup of God's wrath before him and he drank it to the very dregs. He paid that debt so completely that he could say on the cross, it is finished. the debt is paid in full. This cross makes us new creatures under God's control in such a way that as far as the world is concerned, you might as well be dead. What do you think, therefore, would be a greater badge of honor or a cause for boasting? A ritual of Mosaic law? or the cross where our Savior died, where the world died to us and we died to that world. What would be the greater reason for boasting? Well, it's not a contest, is it? It's the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now, brothers and sisters, to claim the cross as your only way of salvation and the only means of holiness, it will endanger your life. We've clearly hinted at that earlier. It did for Paul. Beaten, imprisoned, stones thrown at him, left for dead. If you boast in the cross, you will offend people. And we do not want to be offensive. Personally, we should never be offensive. Let the gospel offend. Let that offend. We don't have to become ugly people in our following of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you value your life in any way, then stick close to the cross. Come what may, beatings, ridicule, rejection. For that's where our life is. That's where our boasting is in the cross of Jesus. Think of Paul. When he preached in the city of Lystra, near the Galatian cities, very influential Jews stirred up so much trouble that they stoned him and left him as dead. Now, to be pummeled with stones, and we're not talking pebbles either, is brutal. Because it's a slow, painful death if you die from it. Well, he was so unconscious they thought he was dead. God spared his life. Let no one trouble Paul. Judaizers don't harass this man. He bears on his own body the marks of Jesus. He's got the scars, the metals, the purple heart to show that he is Jesus man. Judaizers boasted of cut flesh, big deal if the heart and the life are not converted. If it's merely external, it means nothing. And Paul himself was circumcised on the eighth day. He, his parents were observers of Torah. So there's no criticism on Paul on that point, but for Paul, All that concern for that old ceremonial ritual counted for nothing. His boast of the cross, the killer of the old life. His body now bears the marks, the nicks, the cuts, the scars that show that he belongs to Jesus. In the Middle Ages, you probably have heard of St. Francis of Assisi. He reportedly had on his own body the stigmata. If you're wondering what that is, read a history book. It is reported that he had a mysterious bleeding in his hands, in his side, and on his feet. These are the stigmata. That is to say, in his own body, he showed bleeding in the place where Christ himself was wounded. In modern times, there was a priest in Italy, Padre Pio, who reportedly had the same. I can't comment on that. I remember seeing pictures of his hands always wrapped in white cloth because he was constantly bleeding out of his palms. Now, I don't know what medical doctors would have said about it, but reportedly he had the stigmata. Is that what Paul's talking about? No. No. So let's not go pursuing that. That's not what Paul is talking about, bleeding in the palms and in the feet and side. The Bible means something else. The Christians' stigmas are always the things in our life that show that we have a mysterious sharing in Christ's own sufferings. If they hated and rejected him, they will hate and reject us. That's why in history there have been Christian husbands who have been deserted by unbelieving wives, and believing wives who have been beaten and bruised by un-Christian husbands. There are Christians who may lose their jobs because of the demands, un-Christian demands of the boss. Works of mercy and of necessity may have to be done on the Christian Sabbath, but if it is not necessary, we lay down the tools of our trade on Sundays. Not because work is evil, But because God has said, you must reserve that time in which you trust me for life to go on, you must have that time of worship and being refreshed. You need that time to think about another reality called the new heavens and the new earth. You see, if Christians compromised or treated their faith as secular, private, individualistic, and only good for my closet, They will never bother you. They will never bother you. But if the cross determines your life, and it does, and it must, then when you boast in the cross and let its shadow fall over you, you will be persecuted, bruised, and rejected. They did the same to Jesus, our master. Do not be surprised when they do the same things to us. You know, we sing a song It's a beautiful song. Jesus, keep me near the cross. Jesus, keep me near the cross. Don't sing that song too lightly or too easily. Because as you get nearer to the cross, congregation, all that boasted pomp and show that we might have thought important will now just fade. Because at the cross we will realize Sin is serious stuff, so serious that it required the death, not of another animal, not even the best neighbor that I have, it required the death of the God-man, Jesus Christ, the pure Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. In this world, you will always have persecutions and afflictions, said Jesus, but cheer up, take heart, I've overcome this world. He says that even before he's gone to the cross, before the resurrection, he's able to affirm I have already overcome this world. And therefore, amidst all of your bruising and persecution, brothers and sisters, glory in the cross, glory in it. Jesus has overcome the world, the devil, and our sinful nature in order to give you a new world, a new creation. That's why Paul can say, circumcision amounts to nothing. Uncircumcision amounts to nothing. What matters is a new creation. And that's exactly what God is preparing for his people right now. That's what matters. And that's why the doorway to that new creation, there's only one doorway. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know him? I know you've heard about him, but do you embrace him? His cross. That's where my sin was judged. I must take my sins to Jesus because he alone, his blood alone can make me whiter than snow. I believe in his resurrection. That's mine. I reject all of my vain hopes. It's time to stop. rationalizing my sinful life it's time to come clean and confess I'm a broken person I'm broken but God's grace is able to put me back together again Paul he takes a traditional Jewish benediction He takes a Jewish, where does he say that? Verse 16, peace and mercy be upon the Israel of God. But he now directs it to the true Israel. The church is the true Israel of God. Blessed because of the cross. And so brothers and sisters, we will boast, we must boast in fact, for God has blessed you in every way. But it begins in his son at the glorious cross. It will rule your life, it will determine your walk, because it is that funnel through which the grace of God is channeled and brings blessing to us in this world. Ever afraid? I am. Look to Jesus at the cross. Are you troubled by persistent sins, weaknesses, temptations, the burdens of living? Look to Jesus. who died on the cross to take those burdens away, to heal us of our sins and weaknesses. Your life lacks power? Look to Christ. For there is the one whose strength and grace and power gives us what we need. A new life comes to us through Christ at the cross. You want to boast of something? May I boast in nothing other than the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. You might be beaten and bruised because of it, but what of it? What of it? The only thing that they are beating and bruising is the body that I got from the first Adam. I have a new body awaiting me, made like Christ's own glorious body. You might be bruised and beaten because of it, but at the cross, you are forever safe, forever blessed. This is gospel. Amen. Let us pray. Gracious God, we thank you for this hour where we could be together to sit under your word to read of how the Apostle Paul, himself beaten, bruised in many, many ways, left for dead is still able to confess that he would have us know nothing except the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants us to remember Christ, descended from David, risen from the dead.