Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Galatians chapter 2 and verse
20, where the Apostle Paul testifies this, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. and the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2 verse 20, and upon
my spirit this afternoon, is just the last three words, himself
for me. the method doctrine of substitution
and a very personal application of the word. Before we come to
that I want to look at the lead up here and notice several things
in it and the rest of the verse as well. Doctrine results in very practical
things, at least it should do. It's one thing just to have a
set of teachings or doctrines, it's another thing to actually
put them into practice. Now these Galatians, they had
received the gospel that salvation is through faith of Christ alone. But other church teachers came
to them and said, no, you need to be circumcised, you need to
keep the law as well. Adding that to the doctrine of
justification by faith alone, so not alone. And so that doctrine,
they were making that of none effect because they were adding
works to it. And Paul, by way of an illustration,
because he had come from the church at Jerusalem that had
determined that the Gentiles did not need to be circumcised,
they had to abstain from bloods and abstain from fornication,
but they need not be circumcised. In Ephesians it is very clear
that that barrier is broken down between Jew and Gentile. It isn't lawful or wasn't under
the law for a Jew and a Gentile to sit and eat together. This you can trace right back
to Joseph when his brothers came. They didn't know that he was
a Hebrew. They didn't know he was one of
his brethren. They thought he just sat separate from the Egyptians
and separate from them because he was a very important person,
his next uncle Pharaoh. But if he'd have sat with them,
looking like an Egyptian, they wouldn't have allowed it. If
he'd have sat with the Egyptians, they wouldn't have allowed it
because they knew he was a Hebrew. So he could only sit separate.
But here we have the case of Peter. Now, Paul sets forth first
that he was viewing James Cephas, that is Peter, and John as pillars. And he came to them, they gave
to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship. So you wouldn't
think that when a group of three highly esteemed ministers, apostles
as they were, had given the right hand of fellowship, that you'd
then be bold enough to turn around and tell one of them off because
they were walking wrongly. But that is what he did, because
he saw what a significance it was, because before the Jews
came, Peter He was sitting with the Gentiles, which was correct,
that Aria was taken down. But then when the Jews came,
the fear of man brings a snare. So he separated and he went on
his own, or went out just with the Jews. And Paul saw that this
was undermining all his teaching and his doctrine. It wasn't just
enough to say that there he has taken down his word, but not
practice it, not walk in that way. And so that is why he then
reproved him before them all, because he saw it was even affecting
Barnabas who was with him, it was affecting other people. We
can be sure you might have a right doctrine, you practice it wrongly,
And especially if you're in a position of authority, a deacon, a minister,
or a church member, or a husband and a wife, that the children
and others will start imitating and following that, just blindly
following that. And this is what Paul is noticing.
It is a reminder to us that Peter was inspired in what he wrote
that is recorded in the Word of God. But that doesn't mean
to say that he was inspired to the extent that everything he
did was perfect and spotless and upright. He is openly reproved
here. And of course we have the time
when our Lord was on earth, that Peter was commended by the Lord
when he confessed that thou art in Christ the Son of the Living
God. He said, flesh and blood have
not revealed unto thee that my Father which is in heaven. But
then when our Lord starts to reveal how he is to suffer, bleed,
and die, then Peter says, this shall not be unto thee. He would
have the Lord come back from a path of tribulation. The Lord
rebuked him. There's Satan speaking through
him. Get thee behind me, Satan. Now
save us not the things that be of God, but which be of men. And so again, We are reminded
that the best of men are men at best, and they do make mistakes,
and we do need discernment. We are not to just blindly follow
without checking, following the scriptures first. And we have
these lessons through the scripture in that way. Another thing that I would draw
attention to with this verse and with verse 16, And that is
a difference that is between our Bibles, translation, the
King James Version, and the ESV Version. Because the ESV, instead
of, I'll take our text, where it says that the life which I
now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
the ESV would say, I live by faith in the Son of God. And we have the same in verse
16 as well, knowing that a man is not justified by the works
of the law, but by the faith of Jesus not Christ. not by faith
in Jesus Christ, yes our faith does point to the Lord Jesus
Christ, but the message of the inspired word is that faith comes
from Jesus Christ, of Jesus Christ, and by that faith we live in
everything we do. All of our lives we are looking
to Christ in all what we observe, all our practices. Whatsoever
and not of faith is sin. With the ESV translation it leads
to the thought, well we can exercise duty faith. That faith comes
from us. We have faith already given and
we can exercise it in Jesus Christ. And just the changing of the
wording can really affect the doctrine. And then it affects
the practice as well. And so these two verses are a
real reminder of that. So the apostle then, he says
in the verse before our text, I through the law am dead to
the law, for I might live unto God. Of course he's referring
back to Romans 7, where he said, I was alive without the law once,
but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. That which was ordained unto
life, I found to be unto death. Because that law which is just
and good and righteous, that it slew me. It brought him in
as a guilty transgressor, and that was a schoolmaster for him.
unto Christ. It was the means to bring him
to seek for mercy, for grace from Christ alone. And so this
is why it can be so clear with the Galatians that it's not by
works, it's not by deeds. It was the law of God, by the
law is the knowledge of sin. And he found this, that rather
than the law being a means of getting more and more accepted
with God, when we know what the law really commands, how holy
and righteous it is and we cannot fulfil it, it teaches us more
and more that it is only through Christ that we can be saved.
There is no other way. It is faith that Christ gives
us that is then centred upon Him. And so the picture that
he puts in this verse, our text, he says, I am crucified with
Christ. Now, of course, he wasn't literally,
there was two thieves crucified with him, but in a spiritual
way. Crucifixion is a very slow, painful
death, held to the cross until death. And while we are in the
body, then we, as our Lord said, are to take up our cross and
to follow the Lord. We ourselves are to be separated
from the world and to take up the cross of following the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so he says here, though I
am crucified in Christ, daily bearing his cross, daily fighting
against sin, resisting sin, seeking to walk by the faith of Christ,
he says, nevertheless I lived, and then he clarifies that as
well, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And that is true of every
believer, that Christ lives in them, I in them, and thou in
me, made perfect in one. There is a union between Christ
and his people. And your bodies, they are the
tabernacle of the Holy Ghost. And it is a blessed thing to
realize. Shall I take my body, my temple,
where Christ dwells, and make it to be partakers with the world
or idolaters? And so he says that it is not
I that live, but Christ liveth in me. and the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. So in all that he does, I wonder
how much we can say, the things that we do in our lives, that
we live by the faith of the Son of God. I can look back to my
days of unredempiracy When I did not seek the Lord, I did not
pray, I didn't watch His hand in providence at all, the Lord
guided me through schooling, into a job, right through an
apprenticeship, before I was called by grace. Now I can look
back and I can see times in schooling, in my work, in getting that job,
in things that happened in it, that were providentially ordered
by God. If I'd have been praying then,
I would have said, that was an answer to prayer, that was an
answer to prayer. Those were things overruled for
good. And yet, I was not seeking at
all to walk by faith or anything. But when we are called, when
we are given the faith of Jesus Christ, then we no longer order
our lives like that as if there was not a God, There is no overruling
providence. We are mindful that there is.
And because we know that, that then affects what we do. We are
watching His hand in providence. We are making things a matter
of prayer. It is where we are able to be
submissive. When there's a shut door, which
before we might have been frustrated with, it is affecting how we
actually live. And this is what I said at the
beginning, there's a difference. We might have doctrine, but doctrine
must be mirrored by our lives. Now if someone is coming before
the church, we don't just hear a testimony and say, well this
is a wonderful spiritual testimony. We look at their lives too. Does
their life bear witness to that? Is it life look like the picture
of the world and the testimony looks like the church, or is
it the two go actually together? And that is vital, that by their
fruits ye shall know them. The true work of God will always
bring forth fruits to the honor and glory of God and be a separation
from the world and the spirit of him. Now he points to, the
Son of God, that He lives by the faith of, and then testifies,
He loved me and gave Himself for me. He is able to trace to
the everlasting, eternal love of God, and this is the reason
why He lives as He does. But I want to look at these last
three words. It's a beautiful illustration
of the substitutionary offering of Christ, Himself for me. I want to look at three points. Firstly, the great doctrine of
substitution. And then secondly, Himself gave
himself, and then thirdly, for me. Firstly, the great doctrine of
substitution. You know, every doctrine, the
whole plan of salvation, is all appointed and ordered by God. We can think sometimes that,
well these things just happen, but it's good for us to really
see how God has ordered it, the lines that he's done. If we think
of in this country, when someone would go to law, then already
there's the law of land. There's already guidelines in
which Things can be allowed, people can be condemned or let
off, they're all there. And they're there because those
laws have been made perhaps over many, many years, and then they've
been interpreted by the courts. They don't just happen, they're
there. And so with the word of God, with the whole plan of salvation, If you think of just the, what
seems to be a random statement in the Old Testament, cursed
is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. Why? Why is everyone
that's cursed that hangs on a tree? Because God has said it is so.
That's why. Nothing inherent in it that makes
it so except that God has said that. And then when you come
to the crucifixion, there is our Lord hanging upon the tree.
He bears a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone
that hangeth upon a tree. So that was already established.
You think of the law of redeeming as in needing to be a near kinsman. That is established in the Old
Testament, in the law of God. When you come to the book of
Ruth, you find it is then worked out. But it's already there. It already is allowed that someone
that is related can act the part of a near kinsman and redeem,
which Boaz was able to do for Ruth. But that revision was already
put there. And dear friends, do look at
the provisions in the Gospel, the provisions that God has already
put there. You know, if someone had said,
well, there's a whole lump of money that is available, and
if you're between the ages of this and this, you're eligible,
and if you have this and this savings, you're not, and you
look at the prescriptions that are put there as to who's available
for that money, and you look down there, and you say, actually,
that is for me. I can make an application for
that, because according to their rules, I fit those rules. Now if we look at the gospel
provisions, And we look at what God has set forth as if for sinners,
and for those that hunger, and those that thirst after righteousness. And we look at these provisions
and we say, God has pronounced these provisions. He's pronounced
these blessings that these are those for whom Christ died. These are those for whom this
gospel And it's good then to look through the word of God
and to see these things and to lay hold of them and to plead
them and to plead those promises that God has given. Well, in
our text with the substitution, this is something. What if God
had said, no substitution? If you sin, you pay the debt. And there's no way you can ask
any and get anyone else to pay it for you. Well, no man can
redeem his own brother in that way, because we're all sinners.
And like the nearer kinsman in Ruth, he said, I cannot redeem. Because if we were to try and
redeem a brother without the shedding of blood, there's no
remission. As soon as we shed our blood, we're dead. Eternally,
we're lost. So we cannot redeem another. There is the possibility put
in scripture of a substitute, as long as that substitute is
perfect and spotless and won't be destroyed himself in redeeming
another. He must be able to die but not
die eternally. He must be able not to be under
the power of death and must be able to be a real substitute. Our Lord has no sin in Him, no
cause of death in Him, the law had no demand upon Him, He did
not have to die Himself, but He could by a voluntary act die
in the place of another one. And so we see right through Scripture,
we see Abraham told to go up to Mount Moriah with his son
and to offer him up on the altar, and Abraham did. And as he was
going up the mountain, Isaac says, the fire, the wood, but
where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my
son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
a bit later when we come to himself. But when Isaac was put on the
altar, and the night about to be approached into him, the angel-lord
called upon him, stopped him, showed him a ram, caught by its
horns, and so that it wasn't torn fleece in the thicket, It
had to be a spotless ram to be offered up, and he offered that
up in the stead of his son. So there Abraham saw very clearly
a substitute. Once it was going to be Isaac
killed, and now it is the ram killed instead. And when he killed
the ram, he would have thought, this could have been my son.
When he saw the flame consuming the ram, this could have been
my son. But here is my Son next to me, His wrath is taken, the
death instead has been a substitute offering." This was reiterated
again in Egypt with the Passover. The angel of the Lord was to
go through that night and all the first born would be slain
in the land. But Israel was given a way that
they would escape, and it was through a substitute. They had
to kill the Passover lamb. The blood had to be put upon
the doorpost and the lintel. And God said, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. When I see there has been a substitute
offering, when I see that my command has been fulfilled, and
you are sheltering beneath our blood, I will pass over you.
There was death in all the houses that night, but it wasn't all
the first born of the children of Israel, it was the lambs instead. This is God emphasizing again
this provision of a substitute. Then when the children of Israel
came into the wilderness, and it was set for them later when
they were coming to the Promised Land as well, they had to, and you can read
about this in Numbers chapter three, they had to number the
children of Israel, the firstborn of the children of Israel, and
they had to number the Levites and they had to match them off
one to another. So the Levites were to redeem
the firstborn of Israel. So it's at the end of that chapter
3, so when they counted them, There was a mismatch. So those
to be redeemed, 200, 3 score and 13, 273, the first born of the children
of Israel, were more than the Levites. Did they just say, well
it doesn't matter? We'll have a substitute for some,
We haven't got enough Levites for the others, it just doesn't
matter. No, they had to take five shekels apiece after the
shekel of the sanctuary and then they were to give them instead
of the Levites. So it's one for one substitute. Sometimes you might be ordering
things from the supermarket and they say, I haven't got The bread
that you want will give you a substitute. You can have this. And you look
at it and you say, I don't want that, so I'll hand it back. You won't accept it. And usually
it's one for one, sometimes it's not. But in the scriptures, the
provision here in Numbers, it had to be right. And we find
this through Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, adjust weight and adjust balance,
is of the Lord. You get what you pay for. You
don't use a bag of deceitful ways. You make sure that the
full payment is actually paid for. But again with the Levites
here, it was emphasizing this same doctrine, this same teaching,
there needs to be a payment, there needs to be death, there
needs to be a redemption, and it can be done by a substitution,
by someone else doing it for you. Now there's many things
in life where that is not the case. We are not to have a substitute. You think of if you're doing
the exam, Younger ones, you can't think, well, my friend is better
at maths than me, he can go and take my exam. Or you're taking
a driving test and saying, I don't think I'm gonna pass, I'm gonna
put a substitute. My brother looks like me, he
can do it for me. That's not allowed, you can't
do that. But in the way of salvation, there is that provision. of a substitution. So I want
to look then secondly at this word Himself. Gave Himself for
me. Gave Himself. The Eternal Son of God. Gave Himself. Go back to Abraham. God will provide himself a lamb. And it's not like we provide,
if we were to provide something, we might be buying it and saying,
well, we are giving this thing. But it's actually ourselves that
is what is being given. And so with the Lord Jesus Christ,
it was a giving of himself. The father, says the hymn writer,
sent the son. The willing son obeyed. No price, no payment, nothing
in reward, except, you might say, the people that he was to
purchase, they were going to be His. But this offering was a freewill
offering, and that was another thing that was right through
the Old Testament, for an offering to be accepted, it had to be
a freewill offering. And so with our Lord. In Hebrews,
the writer, he says that if he is a high priest, he must have
somewhat to offer. He couldn't be a high priest
if he's got nothing to offer. The high priests after the Old
Testament, they were offering the bulls and the goats. But
if our Lord is to be the offerer, what is He going to offer? Well,
He gave Himself. He offered Himself. So when we
think of the substitutionary, the provision of a substitute,
and then we find the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Who is himself? You know, when Solomon was dedicating
the temple, he says, Will God in very deed dwell upon the earth? The heaven of heavens cannot
contain the house, is this house that I have built. Job, he says, I know that my
Redeemer liveth. He shall stand in the latter
day upon the earth. Emmanuel, God with us, God manifest
in the flesh. And so when you have Himself,
our Lord, what is comprised in that Himself? The mystery of
godliness, the eternal God, made of a woman, made under the law,
that He would redeem those that are under the law, put Himself
in the position where he could be a substitute. To speak reverently,
that God outside of Christ could not have been a substitute. It
must be a near kinsman actually to be under that same law, to
be of the seed of Abraham. And so here we read himself,
we're not reading about two different people, we're not reading about
God and someone else, another man, our Lord is one Lord, but
two natures. And in such a nature be able
to then give himself as an offering. Now there's a preparation for
that. So he needed to be born, he needed to come into this world,
he needed to be proved that he was spotless. So he must be tested,
must be tried by Satan, he must go through this world, and then
he must be able to bear his people's sin. He must be in a position
to do for them what they could not do for themselves. Those that are outside of Christ,
and this includes any here outside of Christ, the other side of
the grave of the judgment, you must bear your own sins on yourself
and endure the wrath of God upon you, with no one else then to
take them, no one else to stand in your place, just you before
a holy and righteous God. It's a solemn thought, isn't
it? And all of God's people, the Lord has already borne their
sins in His own body on the tree. The important thing is to know,
are we God's people? Has He borne our sins? And if
He has, then that will be known by calling here, being known
by being brought to view the Lord Jesus Christ in our place. The Lord said, I, if I be lifted
up above the earth, will draw all men unto me. This is a beautiful
thing of the gospel, because as the Lord Jesus Christ is preached
and set forth as this substitute, as this way of escape from the
wrath to come, as a hope beyond the grave, a hope for a hell-deserving
sinner, The Lord said that no man cometh unto me except the
Father which sent me draw him. I will be lifted up off above
the earth. I will draw all men unto me. Those are beautiful times when
you hear a sermon preached, when you hear Christ preached, and
you feel your heart as if you would sit on the edge of the
sea, and you're drawn to those things that are being set forth.
This is what you need, this is the hope for me, this is God's
plan, this is God's purpose, and it's opened up. Those two
on the way to Emmaus, they assessed how they'd heard when the Lord
revealed Himself to them. They said, did not our heart
burn within us while He talked with us by the way and opened
to us the Scriptures? in all the scriptures, the things
concerning Himself. This is His Himself. This is
what Paul is speaking of here. Gave Himself. And it was how
the Eternal Way to Emmaus described what made their heart burn. He
was speaking about Himself. How much do we know about Himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ? How much is He attracted to us? We attracted to Him, drawn to
Him, seeing Him our only home. To think, why did the hymn writer
write this? I could from all things parted
be, but never, never, Lord, from Thee. What did they see? Why
was the Lord so necessary, so indispensable to them? Why is
it that I'm hard and cold and unfeeling and see no need of
them? In Isaiah we read that He is a root out of dry ground
in no form, nor comeliness that we should desire Him. That is
by nature. If you this afternoon could say,
well, that's actually me. I don't see a beauty, attractiveness
in Christ at all, then be very, very concerned. Be very concerned
to live and to die in that position, the most solemn position. Pray to Lord, pray, Lord, reveal
Thyself to me, show me Thyself, draw me to Thee, that I might see what I have
not as yet seen, what I am persuaded others have seen, but I have
not seen. Open now my eyes to the psalmist,
that I might behold wondrous things out of Thy love. that
which I see not, teach thou that." All of God's children, before
they were brought to saving faith in Christ, were dead in sin. They saw no beauty in Christ. Do not write yourself off from
being saved or one of God's children because now you don't see any
beauty in Him. All of God's children had that
time in their lives that they didn't either. There is a time
when the Lord begins, and may your prayer be that that be,
hastened on, that the Lord will bless this servant, and the next
servant your prayer is to, Lord bless him through this word.
And you go home, and you start reading your Bible, and ask that
the Lord will bless you, and show you in that, like the eunuch,
in a passage that he didn't know, he couldn't see Christ in it,
he couldn't understand it. that God sent Philip and he opened
up to him in that scripture the Lord Jesus Christ. In one sermon
he was brought to faith, brought to see Christ in that passage
and brought to want to be baptised. The Lord does the same thing
today. It's His work but it's vital, vital that we be saved
or else we'll be lost. We need that substitute of the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself. With the other word here, Himself
for me. For me. It's personal, isn't
it? You might say, but wasn't, didn't
Christ offer Himself and give Himself up for an innumerable
multitude that shall be in heaven? But all of His people, all of
His sheep, yes He did. But what is absolutely vital
for you and me is to be able to save for me. What will avail us if everybody
in this chapel is saved, but I'm not, but you're not? It's vital that it be. This is really a wonderful profession
of personal faith, to be able to say this, who loved me and
gave himself for me. This is the faith that Christ
gives to his children, and they see and persuaded of it, because
of what they view and see in Christ, how they need Him, and
how they see that He has been a substitute for them. That is
why in the Lord's Supper, we show forth the Lord's death.
Those for whom Christ died, they are not to forget this, and God
in mercy has given that ordinance to constantly remind them It
is Christ that died. He is the substitute for you.
Church, never forget, Christ has died in your place. He has
suffered in your place. Always remember that. Not your
works, not your righteousness, not your goodness, but the gift
of God, the gift of the Son of God for me. But you know, as we go on, more
and more, we will know our sinnership. More and more we will know what
was in Ezekiel. Turn again, thou son of man,
thou shalt see greater abominations than these." The more that we
know of Christ, the more that He will then show us really what
we are. And He showed us that at first
we'd be crushed beneath the sight of Him. And He told the growing
race and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Naturally we think we're growing
in grace, we're getting better and better, more and more holy,
more and more sanctified. No, grace and works are opposite. More and more in our own feelings,
we will feel more and more a sinner, more and more hell deserving,
to be able to say more and more, why me? Why was I made to hear
thy voice? I enter Wally's room. Millions
make a wretched choice, rather starve than come. Why me? For each child of God, they know
what that, for me, means. But the apostle would say, I'm
not worthy to be an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.
For me, who was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, who put the Lord's
people to death, who punished them, who hated the Lord Jesus,
for me. And each one would say for me,
in all my sinfulness, all my lust, my worldliness, my carnality,
my corrupt heart, my evil thoughts, my evil affections, my evil desires,
that which is within me that I recoil at myself or me, The
Lord gave himself for me. We will remain sinners to our
dying day, and it is a fight God should, and we're told in
Hebrews, you're not yet resisted unto blood, striving against
sin. We're brought to hate sin, but
to have the mastery over it ourselves, Paul says, the good that I would,
I do not, The evil that I would not, that I do, I wretched man
that I am. If I do that which I would not,
is not more I that doeth, but sin that dwelleth in me. But
sin does dwell in us. And so we need to know more and
more and clearer and clearer how and why we are saved. We're
not saved by goodness of ourselves. The Lord gave me a substitute.
God showed me that substitute, brought me to trust in Him. He gave me a new heart and new
desires and new affections, made me willing to walk in His ways,
to see a beauty in Him where I didn't see before, and to trust
in that substitutionary offering that He made for me. the empty
tomb, a risen saviour, an accepted sacrifice for me. Himself for me. They're just
three words, but how vital they are. How important that we know
about himself, that we know about ourselves, and to be able to
put the two together like this. May this text be used by you
as a prayer. I plead that the Lord would make
this to be your testimony and what you see the Lord has done
for you, Himself for me. The Lord add His blessings.