Galatians chapter 5. I've entitled this, The Crucifixion
of God's People. The Crucifixion of God's People. A text will be found in verse
24. The apostle says, and they that are Christ's. Those who
belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. giving you again the context
of this verse. The Apostle Paul, having proved
justification before God is not by the works of the law or by
the flesh, but accomplished by the faith of Jesus Christ, And
that that justification is applied by the Holy Spirit to those who
are born again of the Spirit of God, in which we are given
faith to believe on Jesus Christ. So those that believe, those
that trust in Christ, are justified. We are justified by the faith
of Christ, by the work of Christ, not by the works of the flesh
nor by the obedience of the law. Never is the believer ever to
return to the law. The law can do nothing for us
but condemn. The law cannot justify. And so then we who are in Christ
are free from the law. If the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. We are free from the law. We
are indeed free from the guilt of sin. We are indeed free from
the power of sin. But the Paul would not have us
ignorant that we are not yet free from the corruption of the
old nature that resides in us. So in verse 13, look back there,
Paul says, For brethren, we have been called unto liberty. That's
exactly what I just said. You're justified. You're free
from the law. Now Paul doesn't want us ignorant of that old
nature, so he exhorts us to this. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, to the old man, to the old nature that was given
us in Adam. That nature that is holy, completely,
and absolutely corrupt. Therefore, use not your liberty,
that justification that you have been justified before God, use
that not as an occasion for the flesh. He says that because he knows
the mind of the flesh. He knows the mind of our old
nature. the mind of the old nature is
what let us if it were saved by grace if saved by grace then let sin abound so grace
may abound isn't that the mind of the natural man it is god
forbid that we should think such an evil thought jesus told us
this that which is born of the flesh is flesh now which is born
of the flesh, it will live flesh, it will die flesh, and that nature
cannot be altered or made to do that which is good. Isn't
this the experience of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7 who
said this, For we know the law is spiritual, but I am carnal,
sold under sin. In my flesh, he said, dwelleth
no good thing. He says in another place in Romans
8 that the carnal mind is enmity, is enmity, is enmity, constantly,
perpetually at enmity against God. For it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. This nature does not
change when we were saved. It is vitally important that
we understand this. It is vitally important that
we receive this. Otherwise, we are in trouble.
Why? Because we will use liberty as
an occasion to the flesh. And when we are born again, the
old man, the old man of sin isn't eradicated, but I don't want
to leave you without this truth, that the old man is forever put
down. The old man and his corruption
is forever dethroned in your heart. He is no longer the power
ruling over you. Why? Because that which is born
of spirit is spirit. When Christ came in and made
a new nature, it was by that nature, by that spirit, that
the old man was forever conquered. This nature that God made is
after the image of Christ in His righteousness. So then this
new nature, which is good news, it cannot sin. This is good news
for you and me. It cannot sin. John said, Whosoever
is born of God sinneth not. Now we know that he is talking
about the inner man. The old man can do nothing but
sin, and the new man can do nothing but righteousness. And these
two natures residing in one man, that is in every believer, there's
a constant and perpetual warfare within us. So then, every believer,
every believer is surrounded by enemies. Is that not true?
The world is your enemy. Satan is your enemy. What is
your greatest enemy? Self. Self is the greatest foe the
believer faces. Imagine if we had not self. Satan would be no enemy. He would
be no temptation by the world if we had no self, but self is
allured to those things and that's why he is the greatest. He never
leaves me. Self is always with me. And so
Paul, knowing the struggling that lay within the heart of
every saint, exhorts them to do the only reasonable thing.
Use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh. Walk in the spirit
that you will not and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I'm going to get to this later,
but to walk in the Spirit is simply faith in Christ. Is that
not the operation of the Spirit? The Spirit of God, Christ said,
would testify of me. The operation of the Spirit of
God is to keep our eyes fixed on Him. If our eyes are fixed
on Him, we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Not to
say you won't have them, but you will not fulfill them if
our eyes are fixed on Him. Now, I want you to also understand
why Paul is saying this. Knowing that the nature of these
Galatians, this church... Paul says that no one was more
upset at these Judaizers than he was. In verse 12, he said,
look, I wish that God would kill them. That's what he wished. He said, I wish that they were
cut off that trouble you. I wish that God would kill them.
So he was upset with those men, as he rightly should have been
as their pastor. But then, Paul, after delivering
the Word of God, after it was preached, there would be some
who were taken in by these deceivers. You not see that? That some in
this church, though true believers, were duped. Some would be taken in because
of the weakness of their flesh. They might be for a time seduced
by these liars. But if they should repent and
forsake the lies, those that were spirituals must do what? What must believers do when other
believers fall? We who have not been duped, Are
we to chide them? Are we to be angry with them? No. We are to restore such an
one, gently, with meekness. And that's Paul's intent here.
He desires that this church be made whole. He desires that those
who had fallen come back. Those that have not fallen should
embrace them in love. Look what he says in this, in
verse 14 for all the law I'm sorry look verse 13 again use
not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh but by love serve
one another saying look I know you're going to be tempted to
be angry I know you're going to be tempted to chide them but
instead love them Why? Because you have two natures
in you. You should be careful. So as
not to fulfill the lust of your flesh, which is to be puffed
up, isn't it? Imagine that they had chided
you all those years for your faith, your faithfulness in the
gospel, and then all of a sudden they were proved wrong by the
apostle. It would be our fleshly desire to chasten them, to chide
them. Paul said, no. No. Don't give
an occasion to the flesh, but in love serve one another. And
so Paul makes manifest then the vast difference between the works
of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. And he gives that
list there, telling them that there'll be a struggle in themselves,
the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
These two are contrary one to another. Then he gives the list
in verse 19 through verse 21 of the works of the flesh. And
in verse 22 and 23, he gives the fruit of the spirit. Now this fruit that is to be
performed in every believer is not done by the power of the
natural man. This is why it's not called the
work of the Spirit, but rather the fruit of the Spirit. This fruit of the Spirit is done solely and completely
by the power of the Spirit in every believer, in every heart
of every believer. Now then, I would ask you, who are they
that set at liberty? And this is not for everyone,
is it? This message is not for everyone. This message is only
for specific people. Imagine if the lost man were
to try to produce the fruit of the Spirit. It's impossible. It can't be done. This is not
to everyone, because not everyone is set at liberty. Who are those
set at liberty? Who are exhorted to walk in the
Spirit, be led by the Spirit, and not yield to the flesh, but
rather have the fruit of the Spirit? Who? Paul describes them
in our text. Look at this in verse 24. and they that are Christ's. Those that belong to Christ alone
are exhorted here. And that's my first point. This
is talking to all who belong to Christ. All who belong to
Christ. I want you to understand this.
Every believer in Christ, we know this. And we freely rejoice
in this truth. We are slaves. That is an unpopular
word today, isn't it? Slavery. Oh boy, like everybody
in this nation has ever been enslaved or even had any idea
of what slavery is, and yet they talk about it all the time. Horrible. Our slavery is good. I love to
be enslaved to Christ. We are servants of Christ. That's
what the word means in the literal language. Paul said, I am a slave
to Jesus Christ. I am His servant. He is my King,
my Lord, my Master. This is not something we bemoan.
This is something we rejoice in. He is my King. I am His servant. I am His servant. We are servants
of Christ. He is our King and we are His
humble subjects. You who are believers in Christ,
let your heart rejoice and sing because of this. Don't you know
this? You belong to Him. You belong
to Him. Now what part of you belongs
to Him? Better yet, what part of you
does not belong to Him? We are His Lock, stock, and barrel. Everything
belongs to Him. Our soul, our spirit, our body,
our mind, our heart, and our will. Everything belongs to Christ. If you are Christ, everything
belongs to Him. The natural man has no longing
to belong to Christ. He does not want to be owned
by Christ and says in his heart, I shall not, I will not have
this man to rule over me. How many religious folks say
they give their heart to Christ, but longingly always give their
body to sin. that is not one that belongs
to Christ. We who belong to Christ, everything we have, everyone
around us, belongs to Him. Ourselves, our children, our
lives, our health, our future, our jobs, our money, everything
belongs to Him. Everything. Are you Christ's? Yes. Yes, everything belongs
to Him. All of it. They rejected, but
we love it. How graciously did the Spirit
of God come and expose your sin? Was that not the most gracious
thing He could have done? Expose your sin and make you
to feel your need of Him. How sharply did His arrows pierce
our soul? Convict us of sin and guilt and
uncleanness. Show us our need of a Savior,
and how sweetly did the gospel of grace come and reveal Christ
to us. The Spirit of God moved on our
hearts and caused us to submit. That sweet word of Christ, come
unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Listen, take my yoke upon you. What does that mean? That means
subject all yourself to me. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. For my yoke is easy. I am meek
and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. And so then we came,
and as we came to Christ, we recognized this truth. We belong
to Him. Now then, I want you to see three
things about our belonging to Christ. How is it that you belong
to Him? You belong to Him I know this. Everyone belongs to Him. He is
God. But this is a peculiar belonging. This is an effectual belonging. This is one of kinship, of sonship
belonging. First of all, you belong to Him
because of the Father's gift. The Father's gift. You belong
to Him because of the purchase of His blood, and you belong
to Him by the conquest of the Spirit. Let's look at these.
You belong to Christ because the Father gave you to Christ.
That's why you belong to Christ. Remember, believer, that our
salvation did not start at our faith. It did not start there. That's when you first experienced
it, but that's not when it started. Your salvation started in eternity. It started in the election of
God's grace. We belong to Christ because the
Father in election gave us to Christ. God the Father made Him to be
surety made Him to be the High Priest, made Him to be the mediator
of our salvation. And so often we are troubled
again because of that flesh, because of our sin we are troubled.
We are troubled within because we begin to feel as though we
have been left of God. And you know what? We deserve to be left. We do
not deserve His mercy. But of course, it wouldn't be
mercy if we deserved it, right? We feel as though we are left
because of the vileness of our nature. We feel as though He
should leave us. But let us remember that He loved
us long before we ever sinned. Look at this in Isaiah 43. Go
to Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43, and look at the last
two verses there in Isaiah 43. You who belong to Christ, tell
me if this doesn't ring true to your own heart. Thy first father hath sinned,
and thy teachers have transgressed against me. Therefore I have
profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse
and Israel to the reproaches. Is this not true of our first
father? Our first father had sinned and brought reproach upon
all his princes, and even Jacob to the curse. Even the elect
of God were put under the curse and reproaches. But notice in
verse 1 of chapter 44, Yet now hear, O Jacob, my servant. Ah,
look at that. There's that word again. Servant.
Slave. O Jacob, my slave. My servant. and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus saith the Lord that made
thee, that formed thee from the womb, which will help thee. Fear
not, O Jacob, my servant, and thou gesturen." Why? Why should
they not fear? I have chosen thee. I have chosen
thee. Believer in Christ, You who belong
to Christ, do not fear. Do not fear. Why? Because the Father has given
you to the Son. The Father has chosen you. And here is the joy of our election,
that our salvation then was never grounded or based upon what the
elect should do for God. We could not and would not ever
please God. Therefore, God, in a covenant
of grace, gave us to the care of His Son. We were chosen and
given to Christ to be our surety and eternal covenant, and He,
as our representative, should provide salvation for us. You know, believer, this to be
true. You were chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundation of
the world. You were chosen before the foundation
of the world. You were put into Christ, into
union with Him, that He should make you holy. And so then, as this gift, all
of our salvation was entirely, completely dependent upon Christ. It's exactly what happened with
that illustration, the picture of Judah and Benjamin. Remember
that Joseph sent back his brothers to get Benjamin. And Jacob would
not let Benjamin go. He'd already thought he had lost
Joseph. He was not going to lose Benjamin. And Judah stood and
said, I will be surety for the lad. If I bring not him again,
let me bear the blame. That's what a surety is. Jesus
himself says this in the covenant of grace. If I fail to bring
them, let me bear the blame. And of
course you know this, that Christ would not fail. He cannot fail. Now what the Scripture says,
He cannot fail nor be discouraged. And so then we were His by gift. Second, we were His by purchase.
Jesus, having been chosen of God to be our surety, came into
the world to fulfill that covenant. To fulfill that covenant. In
John chapter 6, In verse 37, Jesus says, all that the Father
giveth me, isn't that the gift? That's exactly what we were given
to Him. All that the Father gave me shall
come to me. And Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He says in verse 39, this is
the will of the Father which has sent me that of all He had
given me I should lose nothing. Now how can He know that? How
can he be sure of that? Verse 38 is the key. For I came
down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him
that sent me. This is the Father's will. That's what he came to
do. He came to save all that were
given to him. Therefore Jesus knew surely that
all the elect would come to him, and he would lose none of them. And this was the will of God
that Jesus Christ should provide for us both righteousness and
redemption. You that belong to Christ, I
want you to know He has provided righteousness. He has accomplished
your righteousness. He has fulfilled the works and
deeds of the law perfectly in your stead. And by an act of
obedience and faith, Christ offered Himself to God without spot,
without blemish. He offered Himself to be made
sin for us who knew no sin, that you who are given to Him, you
who He has been made surety for, that you should be made righteous. The righteousness of God as you
are in union with Him. This is the benefit of belonging
to Christ, isn't it? This is our benefit. That Christ
hath put away all our sin. If these words could ring in
our hearts forever, what comfort would that be? Christ put away
all our sin. Christ put away all our sin. You remember old Gomer, the prostitute? What a picture of us. She was
vile. She was used. She was no good
for God or man. But God commanded his prophet
to go and buy her and marry her. What a picture it is of our Lord
Jesus Christ who came to the slave market of sin and purchased
us with his own blood. Who would willingly do that? And yet he did. Why? He said, you belong to me. You're mine. And so He, like
Peter, said, We are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold of your vain conversation, received by tradition of your
fathers, but redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as a
Lamb without blemish and without spot. He laid down His life for
the sheep. Therefore, the song of those
who are His is this. Thou art worthy to take the book,
and open the seals thereof. For Thou hast been slain, and
hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood." You have bought us. You've purchased us with Your
own blood, and made us unto our God kings and priests. And thirdly, we are Christ by
conquest. By conquest. Though we were chosen
and loved of the Father, though we were purchased by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, by nature we were in full rebellion
against Him. Our whole souls and whole hearts
were set fully to do evil And we said with everyone else, I
will not, I will not, I will not have this man to rule over
me. Against the God that ruled the
sky, I fought with hand uplifted high. Despised the mention of
his grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. Enwrapped in
thick Egyptian night and fond of darkness more than light,
madly I ran the sinful race, secure without a hiding place. All but thus the eternal counsel
ran, Almighty Love, arrest that man! I felt the arrows of distress
and found I had no hiding place. This is what God does with everyone
that belongs to Him. He arrests us. He conquers us
by His Holy Spirit. He comes and takes the Word of
God and makes it effectual. Ere long a heavenly voice I heard. Mercy's angel form appeared,
who led me on with gentle pace. Where? To Jesus Christ, my hiding
place. What did He say? On Him, almighty
vengeance fell that must have sunk the world to hell. He bore
it for His chosen race. and thus became their hiding
place it is at this moment the walls
of rebellion fail like those walls of jericho they
fell flat they fell flat we were conquered by him by his almighty
shout he came with the sword girded upon his thigh when glory
and majesty riding prosperously, and the arrows of his word sharp,
they pierced our heart, and we fell before him. Thy throne, O God, is forever.
Thy scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. When God conquered
you, It is because He set up His throne in you. His throne
is set up in your heart, and He is your King. He is your Lord
and Savior. Have you been conquered by Him?
Have you been conquered by Him? Oh, that's good news if you have,
because you're conquered because you were given to Christ. You
were conquered because you were purchased. You were conquered
because of a covenant of grace. And everyone who is conquered,
there will be marks of this conquest. There will be marks. There will
be evidence of this conquest. Now Paul gives us a couple here,
and this is my second point. The mark of everyone who belongs
to Christ. This mark is, look at your text
again, go back there, look at your text. They that are Christ
by gift, by purchase, and by conquest, what have they done? They have crucified the flesh. Every single one of them have
crucified the flesh. Now what in the world does that
mean? A lot of confusion with that
statement. There shouldn't be. But there
he is. Those who belong to Christ. What
does this mean? Well, I'm going to tell you a
couple of things it don't mean. It doesn't mean that you're free
from sinning, that you're free from... Well, I've already explained
that, that we all have the old man of sin in us. It doesn't... And it doesn't mean that you're
to go around mortifying your body, beating your body into
submission. Many in the old churches, that's
what they used to do when they had an evil thought, is they'd
take a whip, and they would whip themselves, trying to beat their
bodies under subjection. That doesn't work. That doesn't
work. There is no carnal means to stop
the old man from sinning. Why? The whole head is sick.
The whole heart is faint. What it means is this. I'm going
to give you a couple of things that it... a few things that
it does mean. It means this. That those who belong to Christ
have had their old man crucified when Christ was crucified. They
have crucified the flesh in Him. Our flesh, our sin, was crucified
when our representative was crucified in our stead. We have crucified
this flesh. This flesh and this sin nature
is forever removed from the sight of God and cannot condemn us. It's been crucified. Because
of our union with Him, when He lived and obtained righteousness
by His obedience, so did we. And when He died at the cross,
our old man of sin died before the justice of God. What a joy
is this! You know what you have to do
to crucify the flesh? Nothing. It's already been done. This is not something that you
do. It's something that has been done! It is something that's
been accomplished by the work of Jesus Christ. Paul said this,
I am what? Crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. We sing that song, it is well
with my soul. Oh my sin, oh the bliss of this
glorious thought. My sin, listen, not in part,
but the whole. was nailed to the cross and I
bear it no more praise the Lord it is well with my soul second
thing is we have crucified the flesh in this means that we have
mortified all other hopes of the flesh to save us When we
came to Christ, what did we do? We abandoned every other hope
but Him. We mortified every hope of the
flesh having anything to do with our salvation. It's crucified
to us. Isn't that what Paul says when
he talked about his religion? He said, I count it but done
that I may win Christ and be found in Him. And that's what
we did, isn't it? Haven't you done that, you that
have come to Christ? You've crucified every other hope. I don't have any hope in this
flesh. I don't trust anything in this flesh. What does that
mean? I've crucified it. It's gone. We trust only in Him
to save our souls. So you that belong to Christ,
have you not crucified every other hope but Him? Hope in this
flesh? Of course you have. When the
Lord asked His disciples, will you go away also? They said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? They've already crucified every
other hope in Him. They put everything on Him. So have we. We've crucified
everything else. I like that illustration there.
Remember when Paul was in that ship, and he was going, they're
taking to Rome. He said, we're not supposed to
sail. Don't sail. The ship's going to be lost.
And they didn't listen. They went out there, and in that
storm, they were fixing to come ashore, and Paul, the Lord visited
Paul, and He said this, No man is to leave this ship. If anyone
leaves this ship, you'll all die. And you remember, when that storm
came in, those men were trying to make for the lifeboats. And
what did the sailors do? They cut the lifeboats. Isn't
that exactly what the Spirit did when we came to Christ? They
cut every other lifeboat but Him. We're dependent solely upon Christ. And having crucified the flesh,
what this also means is a daily, constant mortification of the
deeds, the thoughts, and the lusts of the old man. Self. Remember, I told you who
your biggest enemy is. It's self. Listen to what J.C. Philpott said about self. He
said, this serpent, self, can so creep and crawl, can so twist
and turn, and can disguise itself under false appearances, that
it is often hidden from ourselves. The greatest enemy of our souls
is self. He who we carry in our own bosom,
your daily, hourly, and very present companion, that entwines
himself in nearly every thought of your heart, puffs up with
pride, inflames with lust, inflates presumptions, works under feigned
humility and false holiness." Listen, God is determined God is determined to stop the
pride of man and his glory. He will never let self wear the
crown of victory. It must be crucified, denied,
and mortified. I want you to understand this.
God will not let self rule. Have you found that out already?
That He's not going to allow that? every time he will put it down
in the believer those who belong to cry he will aren't you thankful
for that so then as we are commanded i don't want you to shut this
bitch responsibility is mentioned in the word of god just as much
as sovereignty we are responsible to mortify this way but the power will not be found
in you but i tell you this you must
do it you must here's how look at that next verse if we live
in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit god does not leave
you without the means to put down the what is it it is to
walk in the spirit i don't know if i mentioned this
last time when i did the uh... when i went over the through
the spirit did you notice faith was in the center always was
confounded as to why faith. Since faith is the root grace
and it's the grace that begins, then why is it not at the beginning?
Well, love is the preeminent grace and it is at the beginning.
Faith is in the middle because it is the hinge on which all
the other graces swing. You can't love without faith.
You can't be meek without faith. You can't be temperate without
faith. You can't be gentle without faith.
Faith is the ground, grace, upon which all these others are built.
And so how do we mortify the deeds of the body? Faith. Looking to Christ for everything. Dependent on Christ for everything. And listen, if we are totally
dependent on Him, the lusts of the flesh and the
affections and lusts of that old man are stifled. They cannot operate together. Like I said, self may deceive
you. You may be saying, well, you're doing all this and it's
building up your pride. Be careful of self. Look how
humble I am. I'm so humble. Well, that's not faith in Christ,
that's self. Look at me, I'm so faithful.
Well, that's self. Well, I just know God's going
to... Presumption. Depend on Him for everything
and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Are you Christ? Do you belong
to Him? What's the mark of that? Well, I'm so glad. We're His
by gift, His by purchase, His by conquest. And the mark of
that is this. We look to Him. We believe in
Him and have crucified every other hope. We have crucified
this body in Him. When He died, we died. And my
life is totally dependent on Him. I pray God will help us
in every good work that we should always, that we should be zealous
for good works. Isn't that just right? Isn't
that just reasonable? If you live in the Spirit, isn't it
just reasonable to live by the Spirit? It is. Oh God help us
who are yours to do that. I pray God will. Let's be dismissed
in prayer.