Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Galatians. Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2. In Galatians chapter 2, in verse
20, Turn that page there. The Apostle Paul says, 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. Let's pray. Our Father, this evening we thank
you for the blessed privilege to be together in your name. I pray that you'd bless the Word
to our hearts and our understanding. Lord, help us worship, help us
to see, hear, help us to believe, and forgive us for Christ's sake.
Amen. There was a time when every believer can think
back and say this in his heart. I once thought before the Lord
called me out of darkness that I was spiritually alive. Every believer remembers a time
when you had some confidence in your spiritual profession,
in your whatever, whatever. You felt that in yourself, something
that you had done, that you were alive in Christ. Paul says in
Philippians 3, 5, and 6, he said concerning himself, circumcise
the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee,
concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching righteousness
which is in the law, blameless. I was blameless in my mind before
God. He says in Romans 7, 9, I was
alive without the law once. That is, without a true understanding
of the law's demand perfect obedience for righteousness. Now listen, if there is anything
that you or I have to do, if the Lord has done 99.99 and the
only thing that's left is Point zero one for me. If that's all I've got to do,
then I believe in salvation by the works of the law. That's
salvation by works of the law, by obedience. But now, for the law to look upon me and
say, justify it. No charge. There has got to be
in me, if I'm looking to just do something now, righteousness
must have been performed in every thought, every intent. No sin could have ever slipped
in there, and I just thought it, Mark. If there was ever a time when
there was any deviation in word or thought or deed, intent, anything, I'm a sinner. I am a sinner before
God. Now whenever the Lord is pleased
to save one of His own, this is what He's going to do first.
He's going to show us the spiritual, impotent sinner that we are. He shows us the self-righteousness
of our old carnal nature. And this is what happens. He
commands the light of the glory of Christ Himself to shine out
of darkness and to shine in our heart and give us the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now here's what happens. He's
going to make a new creature. He's going to make a new creation. Whenever God spoke this world
into existence, what did He make it out of? Nothing. Nothing. He didn't take atoms, He made
atoms. He created everything by the Word of His power. Just that thought is just...
Only God can do that. Made everything out of nothing,
and here it is. And sustains it by the Word of
His power. And by Him, by Christ, all things
consist, held together, operate. Sun comes up just like it's supposed
to, just one minute apart every day, every day, every day. Seasons
right on time, everything. Made it out of nothing. That's
exactly what He does when He makes a new creature. He just
makes a new creation. Created. in Christ Jesus, born
from above. And then when he does this, that
sinner admits, then, I was dead. I was dead. Now you that know
him, now listen. Think back before the Lord. I'm not saying think back on
the day, the hour. There was a time when the Lord
began to deal with you. I've heard people say, you know,
when did you first realize you had life? Well, I don't know,
I was real young. Well, it was before then. You
had it before then. When did you have spiritual life?
Whenever the Lord created life in me and revealed Himself to
me. And I saw. I didn't realize. I saw. When the Lord is pleased, turn
to Ezekiel, hold your place, turn to Ezekiel 16. When the
Lord is pleased, now this is absolutely, this is probably
one of the most clear passages of Scripture. Now here is regeneration. Ezekiel chapter 16, look at verse
6. Ezekiel 16, 6, then I'll look
at verses 8 to 10. Now listen to this. Ezekiel 16, 6, And when I passed
by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto
thee, When thou wast in thy own blood, What does that mean? You're
dead. You were dead. Dead in trespasses and sin. He
told Adam, in the day you eat, you're going to die. There will
be no spiritual perception, no understanding of God, no understanding
of yourself, in your blood you died. The blood of Adam. Death. You were in your own blood. And when thou wast in thy own
blood, I said unto thee, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, Live. Look at verse 8. And when I passed
by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time
of love. I spread my skirt over thee,
covered thy nakedness, yea, I swear unto thee, entered into a covenant
with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. In your understanding, we've
always been the Lord's. He's always loved His people.
Then washed I thee with water, yea, I thoroughly washed away
thy blood from thee, I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee
also with broidered work, shod thee with badger skin, I girded
thee about with fine linen. What is that? The fine linen
is the righteousness of the saints. And I covered thee with silk.
Now let me ask you this, at what point did that one that was polluted
in their own blood, that little infant navel wasn't cut, at what
point did they do anything to have life imparted to them? Here's
what happens in regeneration. Almighty God speaks life. through the preaching of the
gospel. God's pleased through the preaching of the gospel.
Paul said, I'm not ashamed. That gospel goes forth, the Spirit
of God pleased to bless it, and He blesses it, and He says to
the object of His mercy, live. And that sinner lives. That sinner
is born from above. He's quickened to life in Christ. Now that life, that life, That
Paul referred to back in Galatians 2.20, he said, that life which
I now live in the flesh. And he's not talking about the
carnal nature there. He's talking about physical life. Now there's a life that we're
living right now in this flesh. I mean, you're talking about
just the life that we're standing. We're alive. The life that I
now live in the flesh. There's a life that every believer
possesses. And it's not a life that you
can visibly look at. I mean, you can see my hand move.
You can see that. You can see me blink. You hear
my voice. I move and you presume I'm alive. I have life within. Now this
life that we now live in the flesh is not a life that you
can actually see with the carnal mind, but I'll tell you this,
a believer perceives it in his heart. His mind is now spiritually
toward Christ. It thinks upon Him. He has a
love for the One that he's never seen. You've never seen Him like
some did see Him, but not now. But I tell you what, you know
Him and you hear His voice and you perceive His presence. When you hear that Scripture,
where two or three are gathered together in My name, I'm in the
midst of you, you know it, you believe it. You believe it's
here. You're convinced of that. It's a life that is known and
enjoyed by faith. It's a heavenly life. There's
a new man there. Created in righteousness. Philippians
3.20 says, for our conversation is in heaven. Our citizenship. Our walk. You talk to an unbeliever
about your walk, your conversation being heavenly. And they may
acknowledge and say, oh yeah, they don't have a clue what you're
talking about. They know nothing of the joy of the Lord. The heart burning when you see
Him revealed and the Spirit of God speaks to you in the Scriptures.
They don't know that. This life is a life of being
justified before God. Justified by God's grace. Evidenced by faith. Faith evidences that Almighty
God has justified you by grace. Justification. Robert Hawker
gave this definition. I thought it was so good I wrote
it down. The act of God's free grace whereby He freely pardons
and accepts the sinner having delivered him from the guilt,
the dominion, and the punishment of sin by the shed blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ on the sinner's behalf." Justification. What is that? Justification.
The law looks at a sinner, justified, and says there is no evidence
that there has ever been an infraction made. Never. Never. That new life created
in Christ Jesus, born of God, that new man cannot sin because
the Lord's seed remains in him. The life of a believer is the
life of Christ Himself. He cannot sin. And the law looks
and says there's never been, in that new man, there's never
been one deviation never justified. That's why the Apostle Paul declared
in verse 16 of Galatians 2, he says this, knowing that a man
is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ. I've mentioned that before, but
look at your Bible there. King James Version, this is what
it's going to say. By the faith, we're not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. The faith of Christ. No exceptions. Why must we be justified by the
faith of Christ? Here's the reason. The law of
God demands perfect obedience. The least deviation in obedience
makes the offender subject to the absolute full penalty of
the law. I must have a righteousness that
Almighty God looks upon and says, no infraction, no thoughts, no
deviation, no sin, nothing. Justified before God. The soul
that sinneth is going to die. Now I can tell you this, knowing
just how much I know about myself, I'm going to go ahead and admit
I'm a sinner. Born in Adam, I'm a sinner. And
by the deeds of the law, what can the law do? It exposes sin. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. That's what the law does. You know, there's a stop sign. Stop sign. That stop sign, It doesn't make me stop, but
it'll tell you if I broke the law. That stop sign says to me,
stop, stop. I drive through that stop sign,
you can call it whatever you want to. Rolling stop, I looked,
nothing was coming, I broke the law. The law exposes sin. So therefore, by the deeds of
the law, no flesh is going to be justified. The law tells us
what we are, sinners. All of sin comes short of the
glory of God. So a man is not justified by the works of the
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Paul reiterated that
in verse 20. We looked at 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. So what is your
righteousness before God? It's not that I walked down an
aisle, it's not that I was baptized, it's not that I... nothing, nothing. Here is the only justification. This is the only righteousness
before God that God accepts. It is the faith of Jesus Christ
charged to me. His faith. His righteousness
imputed to me. His obedience before God. There's only been one man that
God Almighty ever said unto him, this is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. I'm well pleased. That well pleased. That obedience that God saw,
this is the righteousness of the saints. God would charge
a sinner with righteousness. The righteousness of Christ. But here's the second thing.
So the life that I now live in the flesh, My righteousness before
God is the righteousness of Christ. Not mine. I don't have any. The righteousness that I have
in myself is the same righteousness that I was born with. It's still
filthy rags. It's still filthy rags. But here's
the second thing. The life that a believer lives
in the flesh right now is a life of faith in Jesus Christ. Now let's look at it again, Galatians
2.20, I'm 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. Alright, now look at verse 16. 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. What
does that mean? That means that we truly believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that His righteousness is charged to us. We believe
in Him. But I'll tell you this, our faith in Him is not what
justifies us. It is the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ by which we're justified before God. We truly
believe in Him. We believe that His faith, His
obedience is our faith and our obedience before God. We don't
trust in ourselves. Man by nature trusts in his faith. We need a righteousness that
is greater than you and I could ever produce. We know and believe
that we're justified by His righteousness. I want you to look at Matthew
3.17. Matthew 3.17. Lo, a voice from heaven saying,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Look at John
8.29. John 8.29. He that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone,
for I do always those things that please Him." What does a
believer believe? We believe in Him. I trust Him. I don't trust myself, because
there's nothing in me to trust. I trust the Lord. By faith, we
know that His righteousness is our righteousness, because we
are one with Him. Look at Romans 3, 21-22. Romans 3, 21-22. But now, the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there
is no difference." Righteousness before God must be His righteousness
imputed to us. And we believe it. We believe
in Him. Back in Galatians. Two, thirdly,
the life that a believer lives in the flesh, the scripture says,
that believer is dead to the law. Look at verse 19. Apostle
Paul says, for I, through the law, am dead to the law. Now I can tell you this, that
first law he spoke of is the law of Christ, the declaration
of Christ, the doctrine of Christ. through the law, the knowledge,
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm dead to the law,
the Mosaic law for righteousness, that I might live unto God. So
when he said that the life that a believer lives in the flesh
right now, that he's dead to the law, what does he mean? He wasn't saying that he regarded
God's law as being anything other than holy and just and good. Paul was not saying anything
in a derogatory way concerning God's law. When he said, I'm
dead to it, as if he was saying, I just don't regard it. No, he
wasn't saying that at all. What he was saying is that he,
under no circumstances, sought life and righteousness by keeping
it. He was dead to it as far as fearing
its accusations and its curse and its terror and its penalties. He was dead to it as far as it
being a covenant for salvation. He was delivered from that. See
before when he was circumcised on the right day and his mom
and daddy were both Hebrews and all these things, he was alive
once in his mind without a knowledge of the law. But when the law
came, he said, I died. I died. I realized the severity
of the law, the demands of the law. But now, he says, he's dead
to the law, meaning that he's delivered from the thought of
having righteousness before God by keeping the law. Fourthly,
the life that a believer lives in the flesh is a life Verse
20 says, being crucified with Christ. Now it is a historical
fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. Everybody that
has any kind of a hearing or knowledge of anything, they've
heard of the crucifixion. They know that. Demons know that.
I mean, it's a common fact. But now Paul is saying something
that a believer truly understands and knows that has been revealed
by the Spirit of God. He said, I am crucified with
Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ went
to the cross, I do understand that He as one
man was upon that cross Physically. There was one man on that cross. But I can tell you this based
upon scripture. According to this word right
there, Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. We are convinced that the Lord
God of heaven chose us, put us in Christ to be represented by
is about the best way I can explain being in Christ. Before the foundation
of the world. And being in Christ, being His
body, His spiritual body, His delights were with the sons of
men when there was God. Before the mountains, before
anything was made, His delights were with His people. He knew
them. He said, I've always loved you. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Betrothed Himself to His bride.
Eternally. These things are too high for
us. But we believe them. We know
them to be so. The Scripture declares that when
the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, according to this
Scripture, He died not merely as one man, but he died as the
representative, as the federal head. All of his people were
in him. They were all in him when he
died. And being crucified with him
was the actual, virtual dying and crucifying of all of his
people. We were all there with Him at
Calvary. Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ. And being found in Him, and that's
where God Almighty has always seen His people, being found
in Him, crucified with Him, justice was satisfied for all for whom
He suffered. When He died, we were there. When He was buried, we were there. When He rose, we were there.
When He ascended, we were there. And we're seated together with
Him. Now, you say, I don't figure that
out. I can't figure that out. God
is eternal. And the way the Lord says it is, it is. What a thought! In Him, we've already died. I'm dead. The law has slain me
in Christ. And now, there is therefore now
no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus. Why? Because
in Christ, I've been punished. In the Lord Jesus Christ, My
surety. He has borne the curse, being
made a curse for me. Death has no sting. The grave has no power over God's
people. Paul said, I'm crucified with
Him. But here's the fifth thing. about
the life that a believer lives in the flesh, he says, nevertheless,
I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. Wonder of all wonders. The believer
is himself. He is an I. Paul refers to himself
as I. Verse 20, I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. There's an I that was born. Look at Romans 7. I'm going to
close this down here. Romans 7, verse 15. There's an I, there's two I's,
two me's, two men in a believer. There's two I's. Look at verse
15, Romans 7, 15. For that which I do, now there's
an old man right there. There's an old man. That which
I do, I allow not. No not, I don't agree with. Is there anything that you, as
a believer, that you find yourself doing, word, thought, or deed,
that you don't agree with? But that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, what that new man would, that do I not. But what I hate,
that new man, that do I. There's two me's. And the believer
that lives in the flesh, in this life right now, he's got two
eyes. There's an old man that is a
rebel, and there's a new man that's a believer, and he walks
before God. There's that old man. And that
old man, let me tell you this, look at Romans 6.6, just turn
back a page. Romans 6.6, that old man is what
was crucified with Christ. Romans 6.6, this is a real easy one to prove
here. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin. What man deserved to die? The old man. There's an old man, the scripture
says, that was crucified with him. And the presence of him
is still here. He's still here. And he's still
hassling me. And I don't agree with him. And
I hate what I do. And what I don't want to do,
that's what I do. Oh, wretched man that I am. But there's a
new I there. There's a new man. And that new
man, the apostle says, that's Christ liveth in me. That's what verse 20. I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. Formed in the soul, dwells in
the heart. We're reunited to Him. One with
Him. My old eye and my new eye war
against each other. There's a war that's going on. This new eye calls that old eye
exactly what that old eye is. A wretched man. Oh, wretched
man that I am. Who shall separate me from the
body of this dead? Turn to the last scripture right
here, 1 Corinthians 15. Who shall separate me from the
body of this death? Let me tell you what's going
to happen. 1 Corinthians 15. Now there's a life that we're
living right now, believers living right now. What it is, it's this
new man, this new life that I live right now in the flesh, this
new man. It's a life that is totally justified by the faith
of Jesus Christ. That's what it is. It's a new
man. It's a life that I live right
now in the flesh that by faith believes Christ and looks to
Him and believes that His righteousness, His faith is imputed to me. It's
life that I'm living right now that absolutely knows that I
have been crucified with Christ. When He died, I was there. I was there. God's just. And
I died in a substitute. That lamb that, in the Old Testament,
when they sacrificed that lamb and that blood was sprinkled.
That lamb, picture of Him. There's my death right there.
I died in Him. And now there's a life that I
live right now. I was crucified with Him, but
yet I lived. And the life that I live is the
very life of Christ that has been formed in me. Christ in
you. The hope of glory. And one of
these days, very soon, this is what's going to happen. 1 Corinthians
15, 50-58. Now this I say, brethren, flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment,
in the twinkle of an eye, the last trumpet shall sound, the
dead shall be raised incorruptible. We shall be changed. For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, this
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O
death, where is thy staying? O grave, where is thy victory?
Sting of death is sin, strength of sin is the law, but thanks
be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you
know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." That's a new
man. A new man created in righteousness. And we're living right now in
the flesh. There's a sinner, saved by the
grace of God, living. Some things that he knows about
himself is that his righteousness is the righteousness of Christ.
He believes that. He doesn't trust in himself.
He knows he died in the Lord, died with Christ, crucified with
Him. But he's living right now in the life that he lives right
now is the life of Christ himself formed in him. Lord bless our
hearts with these words for Christ's sake.