This hour we're going to be in
the same place as we were last hour, Galatians chapter 2. Galatians
chapter 2. Somebody told me this week that
they know a lot of preachers that just preach around certain
things in the Bible. that they don't want to preach about. And
I said, well, we're going verse by verse. So it's hard to do
that. Paul said he didn't come enticing words of man's wisdom,
but by demonstration of the spirit and with power, he preached the
whole canon of God's word. And that's what we try to do.
Galatians chapter two. There's a statement Henry Mahan
used to make. He said, if you're wrong on the fall, you're wrong
on it all. And what he meant by that was,
is if you don't realize the Lord doesn't reveal how bad you really
are as a sinner, how bad we really are by nature, how far we truly
fell in our father Adam, then we really don't understand our
need for the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're wrong on the fall,
you're wrong on it all. We are totally depraved. That means
we are unable to please God in any way, unable to do anything
that would merit righteousness with God or to fix any part of
our sin problem. If we're wrong on the fall, we're
wrong on it all. It means that we are totally and utterly dependent
upon grace to be saved. How true is that? If we believe
we can fix our depravity of our nature, we're gravely mistaken.
Nobody can fix it. You see all throughout scripture,
you see, well, Adam tried to fix it the first time, didn't
he? Tried to make covering of fig leaves. So he sewed together
and they said, Lord said, where art thou, Adam? I love when our
Lord does things like that. He said, Lord knew exactly where
Adam was. He's hiding in the trees. He
knew what he's doing. He had to hide himself. Why? Because he was
sinful. He was sinful. He was embarrassed. He was guilty.
He'd covered himself with fig leaves thinking that that would
fix the problem. And the Lord said, who told you you were naked?
Who told you that? Have you eaten of the tree? You're
going to confess to me, Adam, but you did. And you know what
he said? It's the funniest thing to me
is that Adam didn't say, yes, Lord, it's true. I did eat of
the tree. He said, well, the woman you gave me, she's the problem. She gave me the fruit and I ate
it. Isn't that us by nature? He wouldn't even take blame for
it. He wouldn't even become guilty
for it. He's like, yeah, I did, but it's really her fault. That's
what we are by nature. That's our depravity. It's our
depravity. We excuse ourself and we accuse
others. That's what we do by nature.
Scripture says, no flesh shall glory in his presence. Paul says
here, that no flesh shall be justified by the deeds of the
law. This is the message here in Galatians, no flesh will be
justified by the deeds of the law. And you're going to find
out me and Rob didn't talk about this message that I recall, but
what he just read has everything to do with the message. And,
and, uh, we may turn back to first Corinthians two later on,
I don't know, but. As I said first hour, the law was not given
to justify. The law was given to make everyone
guilty, that every mouth may be stopped, that every single
mouth may be stopped before God. They would become guilty. Paul
is further cementing these truths with these words. Look in verse
16, chapter two of Galatians. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ. and not by the works of the law.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if,
while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also
are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God
forbid. For if I build again the things
which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I, through
the law, am dead to the law that I might live unto God. I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the
flesh, 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. I
do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness came
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Notice especially in
verse 20, these words, Christ liveth in me. That's the title
of this message. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. That's our title, Christ liveth
in me. What a glorious mystery. What
a glorious mystery, Christ liveth in me, right now? Right now, I can't see that,
can you see that? Well, the flesh can't mind the things of the
spirit for their foolishness unto him. That's what Rob just
read. Flesh can't see spiritual things or can it do spiritual
things in any way, shape or form. That's why when somebody tells
you, you have to make a choice in salvation. No, that's the
flesh making a choice. It's not, that's not spiritual.
That's a work that's going to the law for righteousness. Christ
must give faith and say, seek ye my face. That's how that works.
He's the one that's got to save us or we won't be saved. What
a glorious mystery, Christ liveth in me. And I want to preach this
so clearly and plainly and simply. Our flesh oftentimes wants to
complicate things. This isn't complicated. We always
build upon the simplicity of the gospel, the simplicity that's
found in Christ, that Christ is all. That's our rock that
we build off of. Everything God requires, he must provide. So
if Christ is in me, he's the one that did it all by himself. That's a guarantee. can only
be understood and believed by the gift of faith, all by his
grace. Christ lives in every one of
his people, just as every single person that's ever lived were
in the loins of Adam whenever Adam fell in the garden. We were
in the loins of Adam, and we were guilty by association with
Adam. We became guilty, and had to suffer the consequences, same
consequences as our father Adam. Just as he was made guilty, and
just as he was punished, and we know that punishment, it's
the death penalty. We know that's what that is. And that's what
God has us charged with, is that sin, that's the sin of the fall.
That's why I say if we're wrong on the fall, we're wrong on it
all. We're charged not only with, we're charged not just because
of our sin personally, but were charged and made sinners from
the fall in the garden. Everything that came after Adam's
seed is born with the nature of Adam, born with the nature
of Adam. That which is born must have
a nature. And so now we see our nature is corrupted. Our nature
is wrong. Our nature is self-ish in every
way. We want to be our own gods. We
want to do what we want to do. That's our nature. But the good
news of the gospel is, is when we were Before time ever began,
we were in the loins of Christ. His people were in the loins
of Christ. What did that accomplish? That brought forth new life.
That brought forth a new birth. That brought forth salvation.
That's what that did. Just as we were damned and doomed
by the fall of man in the garden by our father Adam, we were saved
into eternal life by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the
cross of Calvary once and for all. Scripture says that the fall
passed upon all, and there's no escaping that. I mean, I don't,
I think Henry said it the best. I mean, if you're wrong on the
fall, you're wrong on it all. But if you miss that point, that everyone's
fallen and the fall was great. The fall was not a little, I
mean, we fell all the way down. Completely. Well, David said
it like this, the Lord's pulled me out of the mire, the clay,
put my feet upon a solid rock, established my goings and put
a new song in my mouth, even praise unto God. So we were down
in the mirey clay pit of sin and we were doomed. We couldn't
get out of there, but God reached down and he chose some people
unto salvation and he put them upon his rock. We heard the first
hour, the wise man built his house on the rock. Lord's the
doer of that, isn't he? Lord's the doer of that. Just as we were made guilty because
of Adam, we are made innocent because of the finished work
of our substitute surety, the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with
me to Romans chapter five. Here we have a contrast of our
father, Adam, and his death by disobedience, and the obedience
of our Lord and Savior. It's a contrast. Look at verse 12. Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. That's
simple, isn't it? That's simple. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Death passed upon all men. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless,
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is a figure
of him that was to come. But not as the offense, for also
is the free gift. For if through the offense of
one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by
grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many.
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the
judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many
offenses unto justification." So you have the judgment of God
unto condemnation in Adam. But on the flip side of that,
the transgression that we had, Christ taking it out of the way,
nailing it to his cross, putting it away, we've been justified
freely by his grace. So we're alive in Christ because
now we're dead to the law because we died in Christ. That's what
the verse we just read. I live, nevertheless not I, Christ
live within me. That's what all that's talking
about. That's what all that's talking about. 17, for if by one man's
offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even by
the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Here we have a contrast of the
fall. And here we have a contrast of
the death that equaled by that fall with the eternal life because
of the obedience of Jesus Christ. Do you see any claws? You know
what a claws is? It's a part of a contract at
the bottom of a, uh, it's the part of, at the bottom of a contract,
it's an addendum or it's a, um, it's something that, uh, I can't
think of the right word. I think everybody knows what
a clause is. Anyway, there's no clause here. It was God that
did it. Righteousness came by the Lord
Jesus Christ. It doesn't say you and I have to do anything
here. He's saying that righteousness didn't come by the law and it
certainly didn't come by Adam. Adam was the reason that we fell.
It was according to the Lord's purpose and according to his
purpose, according to his will, but Adam fell. And because of
that, all have sinned, all are dead by nature, we're born dead.
Spiritually speaking, not a little bit, we're dead completely. That's
what the fall did, is it killed the soul is born dead in trespasses
and in sin. And unless God himself, becomes
a man, and he did, and dies on the cross, our substitute surety,
and sheds his blood, we're going to remain dead. And unless he
makes us alive by grace, through faith, we're never gonna come
to him. We're never gonna come to him.
But that is exactly what he says right here. The glorious part
is, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound,
but where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. That's
the hope of the believer. Grace is the hope of the believer. This puts our total depravity
in perfect perspective, just as we had nothing to do with
the fall and we were all made guilty. So by the obedience of
one, all of his people were made righteous. We're just depraved
creatures and yet the Lord chooses to make us righteous, chooses
to make us justified, chooses to save us from our sin. That's
what Christ Jesus did. His chosen people were in Him
on the tree, in Him on the tree. Therefore they were made the
righteousness of God by His obedience, justified by His blood, sanctified
by His death, by His obedience, by His sacrifice. Turn right with me to Galatians
chapter two. verse 20 again, 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. We've clearly seen that the Lord's
chosen people have always, always been in Christ. But that's not
what I titled the message. I didn't put us, I didn't put
the title, we're in Christ, that'd have been just fine, because
that's true, and we're gonna see that later on. But the title
is Christ in, Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. How's this possible? Ask you,
how's that possible? Christ liveth in me. Paul calls
it a mystery. Paul says in Colossians chapter
127, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. He calls it a mystery. It's a
mystery. Concerning God's chosen people,
our hope of glory is Christ in us. Christ in us is our hope
of glory. Remember when Christ was praying
John chapter seven, his intercessory prayer, he said to his father,
I in them, talking about his people, his chosen people, I
in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one,
and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved
them as thou hast loved me. What a wonder. What a, well,
mystery's a good way to put it, but what a, how wonderful is
the thought, Christ lives in me. He live in me now? Right now? This isn't going to
happen later, because I still see my sin. That's all your flesh
will be able to see. That's all your flesh won't see
spiritual things. You won't be able to see good
works that you're doing because you're looking to Christ or it's
not a good work. Flesh can't mind the things of
the spirit. They're impossible to believe by our flesh. So how
do we have the eternal sovereign God over all and through all
and in you all, the scripture says. How is he in his people? How is he in me right now? Well,
he told Nicodemus, you must be born again. Nicodemus came to
the Lord at night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that you're,
let's turn over to John chapter three. I'll show it to you. I knew we'd have lengthy reading,
so I was trying not to turn, but I want you to see this. John chapter three. There was
a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we
know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can
do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Now,
I love our Lord's authority, and I love how he responds. He
doesn't acknowledge what the man said. Look at this, verse
two, or verse three. Jesus answered and said unto
him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. I mean, he got right to
the point. He didn't mix words with him. He didn't acknowledge
what he said. He didn't say, yes, I'm from God. He didn't,
the man might as well not even said anything. The Lord didn't,
he got to the problem, didn't he? Right to it. Like, no, you
came here because you need to know something. except you be
born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Well, Nicodemus
don't understand anything spiritual at this point. He said, how can
a man, when he is old, enter his mother's room a second time
and be born? That's not possible. That's an impossibility. Well,
the Lord tell him, that which is flesh is flesh. That which
is spirit is spirit. Marvel not, I say unto you, you
must be born again. Look at verse five. Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of
flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I say unto thee, you must be born again. And then
he tells us how they're born. The wind blow where it listeth.
Thou hearest the sound thereof, but can't tell whence it come
or whether it goeth. So is everyone that is born of
the spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, how can these
things be? How can it be Christ lives in
me? How can it be that a man is born
again? Jesus answered and said unto
him, art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and
testify that we have seen and ye receive not our witness. If
I told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you
believe if I tell you heavenly things? No man hath ascended
up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son
of man, which is in heaven. Then he tells him, he starts
talking about his crucifixion. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son be lifted up, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent his Son into
the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved. That's one of those verses, verse
16, that gets thrown around a lot. But believing is the gift of
faith. I want to be really clear on that. But I also want to tell
us that if you go back to verse eight, it tells you how you're
born again. The wind. Well, what's the wind?
That's the breath of God. That's the Lord's spirit. He
just told him you had to be born from above with the water and water and the spirit. You gotta
be born, except it may be born of water. And then what's water?
Well, the scripture says that he might sanctify and cleanse
the church with the washing of water by the word. That's what
the water is. It's the fountain of living water.
This is how his people are born again. It's the preaching of
the gospel. The scripture tells us in Romans chapter one, verse
16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. That's the power of God into
salvation, the gospel. That's how we are born again,
born of water, born of his spirit. He chooses to come to a center.
He chooses to breathe the breath of life into that center and
say, live, just as he did Lazarus. Lazarus come forth and Lazarus
came forth. Once we are made alive, and it's
simultaneous, the Lord gives us repentance and faith at the
same time, we now see ourself as the sinner, and we see him
as the Savior. We must have a substitute. We
see that we must have a substitute. We must have a surety. We must
have Christ in us. And whenever all that happens,
that's exactly what you have, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Peter said, being born again,
not of a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Not Adam's sinful seed,
not Adam's sinful nature, but Christ's seed. Perfect and holy
and just and true. We are born again of his seed. The tree bore fruit after its
kind. We are his people. in the sheep
of his pasture, the scripture tells us. And being his people,
he births us into his family. We are literally born again.
If you're his, he's come to you. At some point in your life, he
will come to you. You won't know the hour or the
time, and you won't look back on it and say, I know that it
was January the 2nd, 2002 at four o'clock. That's when that,
no, you won't know that. I promise you won't know that.
You know why? Because it's not a decision that you make. All you know is
all of a sudden, one day, you're gonna start believing. That's
everybody's experience, isn't it? You're just going to start
believing. You go like, that's the truth. I can't believe I didn't see
that before. And the Bible is going to rewrite itself completely
in front of you. It is. It's going to read totally different.
You're going to see Jesus Christ in every single page. You're
going to say, how did I not see that before? There he is. How
did I not see that before? There he is. This is the new
man created in righteousness. This is the spiritual man that
the Lord gives to his people. This is the mind of Christ. Let
this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus, the scripture
says. Not born of Adam's sinful seed, but we're born of Christ's
righteous seed. Now, anything born has a nature,
doesn't it? Man has a nature. Our nature
is in Adam. Our nature is an Adamaic nature. That one tricked me up. Adamaic
nature. Well, guess what? You're born
of the Lord's seed, you have his nature, the nature that he's
pleased with, the nature that looks to God, that believes on
the Lord Jesus Christ by faith alone. Listen to what Colossians
3.9 says, Lie not one to another, seeing that ye put off the old
man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is
renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.
He's renewed in the image. So when God sees me, he literally,
not figuratively, not metaphorically, he literally sees Jesus Christ
and is satisfied with me. He literally sees when he looks
at you, if you're one of his and he looks at you, he sees
Jesus Christ, and he's well pleased, perfectly righteous. Isn't that
glorious? Doesn't see sin, doesn't see
doubt, doesn't see unbelief, doesn't see our, our guilt and
our shame. He took it all away, nailed it
to his cross. It's gone. He don't see it anymore. It's
all past tense. We're now born from above, born
with his the spiritual nature right now inwardly. And by his
spirit, this new man is created in the very image of God. 2 Corinthians
5 to 17 says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new
creature. Old things are passed away, behold,
all things are come new. New man, a new creature, new
nature. Somebody says, yeah, but I still
sin. Not your new man. The new man cannot sin. The new
man cannot sin. The new man looks to Christ as
all of his wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
The new man never sinned one time. Isn't that glorious? Ephesians 4.24, that you put
on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness. That new man is created in righteousness
and true holiness. Everything born has a nature,
and by this new birth, we have a new nature. Scripture gives
us an allegory of this. Rebecca, you remember Rebecca,
Isaac's wife, she was carrying twins, Jacob and Esau. We'll
find that out later on. But she was travailing, she was
in anguish, she was having a lot of pains, and she was praying
to the Lord. She said, Lord, if it be so,
why am I thus? The Lord said, two nations are
in your womb. Two men, two different men are
in your womb. And what he told her, he said, the elder shall
serve the younger. That's what he told her. Well, Esau was born
first, but as Esau's being born, Jacob reaches out and grabs his
heel. Well, what's that a picture of?
That's a picture of the old man, the flesh, being restrained by
the new man. That's what that picture of,
that's what that picture of. In Genesis 38, we have another
picture of this. This is the old and the new man. Judah had
two sons, Perez, in Zerah, Perez and Zerah. Now Zerah sticks his
hand out of the womb when he's being born. So they tie a red
cord around his hand and say, okay, he's born first. But then
it draws back and his brother Perez comes out. And then that's
what Perez means to breach forth. And then Zerah was born. And they said, well, how is it
that he breached forth on the other one? Well, this is a picture,
this is a glorious picture of the elder serving the younger,
but you have the new man that is washed in the blood of Christ
before it's even born, if you wanna put it that way, before
we're even made known unto it, before we're even called out
of darkness into light, we're in Christ right now. Isn't that
glorious? Somebody said, I don't understand
that. I don't either, but I believe it. I don't either, but I believe
it. I believe it by faith. We're in Christ, washed in the
blood, not just right now, but before time ever began. The Lord's never seen us out
of Christ, not one time. All that scarlet thread represented
the blood, being covered in the blood, and it was, there's only
one of them was covered in the blood, wasn't it? This is the
new man created in righteousness. He's born in the image of God,
born of the Spirit, That means that every single elect child
of God reflects Jesus Christ in everything, as far as God's
concerned. I can't get over that, because
I know, and you know, probably thinking the same thing. You
walk down the street, you know that you're thinking things you
wish you wouldn't. You know that you're saying things that you wish you
didn't. You're doing things all the time. Oh, wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Ain't that
the truth? God says, no, no, my son did the work well. It's finished. He says, you're
beautiful. You're perfectly spotless, sinless,
justified, sanctified. And as far as God's concerned,
we're glorified. We're already seated in the heavenlies with
him. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. I can't attain to it.
That's what one writer said. Listen to this, behold, John
3, one and two. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth this
not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. Not gonna be. Now are we the
sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that we shall be like him when we
see him, for we'll see him as he is. God's people have Christ
in us. the hope of glory, and God is
satisfied with Christ alone. Paul said this, for I reckon
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
to the glory that shall be revealed in you. That means it's in there
right now. The glory that shall be revealed
in you. It's already in you. The Lord's
gonna reveal it. It's not gonna be, it is right
now. Now this flesh's nature never
changes. God didn't come to give us A
better fleshly nature. Some men preach that. It's not
true. Your nature is going to stay the same. You're going to
have a warfare that goes on inside of you forever. You're going
to have one nature, one man, a new man created in righteousness
that looks to Christ alone as his only hope of salvation. You've
got the flesh that hates him. That's the truth of it. The flesh
that hates him won't come to him. despises him, he says, away
with this man. But you're kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
time. That's good news, isn't it? The Lord keeps his people. The new man, even though flesh's
nature will never be changed, the new man is seen as perfectly
righteous before God with a perfect nature right now. Now let's finish
by going back to Galatians 2. Verse 20, 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." By his death, we died to the law.
By his sacrifice, we have been redeemed. By his blood, we have
been justified. Every person that he died for
has been made the very righteousness of God. Because he who knew no
sin was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. This is what he did. This is
the finished work of Christ. It is complete and it is full.
Nothing lacking. His elect are given his spirit,
his nature in the inner man. Therefore God is satisfied to
look upon us and pardon us because we have Christ in us, the hope
of glory. His resurrection is evidence
that we've been justified. His ascension is evidence that
The father said, come sit you here at my right hand. I'll make
your enemies my footstools. And where are we? Well, John
17 told us, I in them and thou in me. We're in him and he is
in us. I love this gospel, don't you?
It's glorious. It's glorious. God is satisfied
with his people because of the work of Christ. The work is finished.
Nothing more to do. Nothing more to do in salvation.
God is satisfied. It's Christ that lives in his
people. Let's pray. Father, we are thankful
for this mystery that you keep hidden to the wise and prudent
and you reveal it unto babes. Lord, we ask that you would take
it and cause us to understand it for your glory and honor.
In Christ's name, amen.