Galatians chapter 5 and verse
24, the title of the message tonight is, I belong to Christ. I belong to Christ. Galatians
chapter 5 and verse 24. The scripture says, and they
that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts. Now, last week we finished looking
at the fruit of the Spirit. We saw that love, joy, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, or moderation,
these are the fruit of the Spirit of God. We know that this fruit
is of the Spirit of God and no man can, by nature, produce one
of these fruits. Not one of these graces is ever
going to be produced by natural man. These are the gifts of God
to His children. And we, by nature, We know that
we only can perform the works of the flesh. Everything that
is self-centered, we can do that. We can handle that by ourselves.
And that's the only thing we can handle. Anything that's involving
self and the lusts of our flesh, we can't do those fruits of the
Spirit without the Spirit of God working in us and through
us. But all we that have the spirit
of God dwelling in us who have been given life and faith. We
have all of these good graces and are these graces are worked
in and through us. By practice. So then in verse
24, Paul concludes that he makes a conclusion of that and he makes
a qualifying statement, a qualifying statement to those who are given
the fruit of the Spirit. They are Christ's. They are Christ's. and they have crucified the flesh
with the lust thereof." I want us to look at this verse in two
parts. First of all, I want us to see they that are Christ's. They that are Christ's. And then
I want us to see the qualifying mark of those that are Christ's. They have crucified the flesh
and the lust thereof. Now, they that are Christ's. This speaks of those who are
the possession of Jesus Christ. Those who are the possession
of Jesus Christ as a king possesses a kingdom. As a master possesses
his slaves. As a husband possesses his wife
or his bride. And as a father possesses his
children, so does Christ possess His church. He owns them. He owns them. They belong to
Him alone. Now, we know that as Creator
of all things, Jesus Christ has authority over all flesh, and
as Creator, everybody belongs to Him. Everybody in the world
belongs to Christ. All men do. John says all things
that were made were made by Him. And as a divine right of creation,
He owns all things. He owns all things. All things
belong to Him. So no matter how men reject Christ,
no matter what men do or what they say, if they say, I will
not have this man to rule over me, that doesn't matter. That
doesn't matter because He still rules over them. He still has
divine right of authority. He is the Creator of all things. Man says he does not want Him
to rule, but Jesus said, all flesh is given to me. Friends, in Him we live and move
and have our being. If we made it here tonight, it
is because of the hand of Christ that gave us breath and safety
to make it here. Each and every one of us are
owned by Him from birth. And though men kick and spit
against the sovereign Lord Jesus Christ, He still owns them. And they will do all His pleasure. Every man will do all His pleasure. Even evil men. What does the
Scripture say concerning Pharaoh in Romans chapter 9? What does
it say concerning Pharaoh in Romans chapter 9 and verse 17?
For the Scripture saith Pharaoh, unto Pharaoh, even for this same
purpose have I raised thee up." You see, men look at Pharaoh.
And they look at all of the things that the Egyptians had done,
the pyramids, and the great things that they had done through their
pharaohs. And God said to Pharaoh, I raised
you up not because of the pyramids, I raised you up not to show your
greatness, but I raised you up to show My greatness. He raised
Pharaoh up to be the king of the known world, to show his
own power. And that was it. That was the
only reason. that God gives. He says, I raise
you up to show My might, to declare My name among all
the inhabitants of the earth. Therefore, hath He mercy on whom
He will, and whom He will, He hardeneth. Same verse of Scripture says,
Hath not the potter power over the clay? Have you ever seen
somebody mold clay? How easily is clay molded in
the hands of a potter. Even more easily is man molded
in the shape in the hands of Christ. He molds some men to
vessels of honor and some men He molds to vessels of dishonor. He does with men whatsoever He
hath pleased. This is the Christ that owns
everyone. This is the Christ to whom all
men belong. And all men do belong to Him
in this, and do as He pleases, even the workers of iniquity.
Scripture says, the wrath of man shall praise Him, and the
remainder of wrath He shall... What? Restrain. He restrains it if it doesn't
praise Him, if it doesn't give Him glory. All men belong to
Christ in this sense. But in the verse that we have
before us, this is not speaking of all men in general belonging
to Christ. Rather, this is a particular
people. A particular people He has in
focus. A people who are Christ's possession. Now, the ones spoken of here
are not only by His by creation, But they are His in three particular
ways. First of all, they are His by
predestination. These that are here in our text,
they that are Christ, they that are Christ are Christ by predestination. They are Christ by purchase,
and then they are Christ by possession. Three things. Predestination,
purchase, and possession. First of all, they are Christ
by predestination or election. They that are Christ's, these
are they that belong to Him and were given to Him of the sovereign
will of Almighty God the Father. They were given to Christ before
the world began in the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace. You see, God the Father of His
own sovereign will and purpose chose some of Adam's fallen race
that He would claim as His own. He chose some that He would claim
as His own. And He chose them not according
to any works that they would do. Well, how do we know that? Because He chose them before
they did any works. The Scripture says that we were
chosen in Him, Ephesians 1-4, we were chosen in Him before
the foundation of the world. seeing we had no good works or
even evil works. We had nothing. And yet Christ
chose a people. Did not choose them according
to anything they would do in the future, seeing that all of
them would be born of the same sinful lump. Scripture says that
of the same lump, He molds some to honor and some to dishonor. In other words, you that are
believers in Christ, you that know that you were elected in
Christ before the foundation of the world, you weren't taken
from a different lump. We were taken from the same lump,
the same mass of fallen humanity. We all were taken of that lump
and God chose some out for His own possession, for His own possession. He chose some to be vessels of
honor and then He gave them to His Son to be His bride, to be
His children, to be His portion, to be His peculiar treasure. Praise God for His grace and
mercy to choose some of Adam's fallen race. Friends, if there
was no election, there would be no salvation. Election, as
the Scripture tells us, is unto salvation. See, no man would have ever willingly
chose God. No man would ever willingly choose
God by nature because he is unable by nature to choose Him. He is
unable to be willing to choose Christ. He cannot. Scripture says, no man can come
unto Me. That speaks of ability. None
of us had the ability to come unless the Father which has sent
Christ draw us. And he will draw his elect. He
will draw them that he has chosen. Praise God for election. Now,
I'll tell you this, men will choose a God of their own imagination,
all right? They'll choose Him as long as
their God will bow to their free sovereign will. They'll choose
Him. They'll have that man, that God
to reign over them. But they will not turn and bow
to the sovereign Lord God of heaven and earth. They will not
because they cannot. No man could ever come to God
unless God had not ordained him first to eternal life and faith. Psalm 135 verse 4 says, For the
Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for a peculiar treasure. Praise God He chose some. Praise
God there is hope. Jesus speaks of this chosen people,
His peculiar treasure in John 6, when He says, All that the
Father giveth Me shall come to Me. This is the will of the Father
which has sent Me, that all which He hath given Me I should lose
nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. You see, the
Father has given Christ a people. He gave Christ a people from
all eternity. He chose them and gave them to
His Son in a covenant of grace to be their Savior, to be their
Redeemer, to be their surety. So then all of those that are
Christ's, hear this, if you are Christ tonight, you are Christ
because God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation. Number two, they that are Christ
are Christ by purchase. by purchase. God, who chose a
people in sovereign election, had in the covenant of grace
given them to His Son to be their Redeemer. This was because of
sin. God had chosen His people But in order for them to come
unto God, something must be done regarding their sin. God knowing and determining the
fall of Adam, that all his elect would be born in sin, and that
his justice must be satisfied, He, Jesus Christ, agreed to come
and pay the debt for the sin of God's elect that He might
bring them to God. You see, He must come and purchase
them. God chose them, and Christ had
agreed to come and purchase them. All of us, by nature, being sinners,
we stand in need of redemption. Every child of Adam, my friend,
you need redemption. You need atonement for sin. I look at my children. My children
need a Redeemer. They need a Savior. All of us by nature need that. That is someone to come and pay
the sin debt. that we owe to God. What does
the Scripture say of the debt of sin? What is the price of
sin? We think lightly of sin by nature,
don't we? We think lightly of it. Oh, I
just lied. That don't mean anything. I just
thought a bad thing. I'm sure that that doesn't count
for anything. What does the Scripture say about
sin? How does God view sin? The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. Scripture don't speak lightly
of sin, does it? God doesn't think lightly of
sin. And because sin requires such
a cost My friend, God sent His Son to pay that for His people. You see, it was our sin that
separated us from God. And He in His justice and holiness
could not bring us to Himself. He could not bring us to Himself
unless the price of sin was paid in full. And this is what Jesus Christ
has done for His people, for those whom the Father has given
Him. He who is the eternal Son of
God came and took upon Himself human flesh and became a servant
of God to do His will, to obey His law, to honor His name in
holy perfection. Why? Because none of us could. None of us could. He obeyed the law of God and
honored the name of God. All of which was required of
us. So he being the perfect man. Represented all the elect of
God and merited for them the righteousness of God. That's
what he did. He merited for them the righteousness
of God. They that are Christ are Christ,
and he has merited the righteousness of God for them. But that wasn't
enough, was it? To obey the law of God was not
enough. You can't put righteousness on
sin, can you? You can't do that. Why? Because
it would be sin. Therefore, Christ not only provided
the righteousness by His faithful life and obedience, but He also
provided it by His death. By His death. By His own blood. Oh, that men would see the exceeding
sinfulness of sin. Oh, by God's grace, that I would
see more the exceeding sinfulness of my sin. How are we going to see that?
How are we going to know how sinful sin is? Friends, look
at the cross. Look at the cross and see what
God thinks of sin. See that when God imputed our
sins to His Son, He killed Him. He killed His own Son because of our sin. My friends, if we want to see
the price of sin, look at the cross. To see that God spared not His
own Son, but laid on Him the iniquity of all those that are
His. My friends, there was no other
way. You realize that? That there was no other way.
There was no other way that God could bring us to Himself without
the purchase, without satisfying His justice. God could not bring
us to Himself. But my friends, He saw that the
way was Christ. And Christ purchased our redemption. He purchased it. He paid the
sin debt for all of those that are God's elect by His blood. And see that His blood, it did
exactly what He purposed it to do. You see, when He sent His
Son to purchase His people, you mark it down, He purchased them. He did it! He accomplished it! What God required of us, His
people, Christ has provided already and accomplished it. You see,
the Scriptures do not speak of a weak, effeminate Savior that
accomplished nothing. The Scripture speaks and says,
He shall not fail nor be discouraged. The Scripture says that He shall
save His people from their sins. My friends, those are successful
words. And that speaks of a successful Savior who accomplished it. Jesus Christ Himself says, All
that the Father giveth Me, they shall come to Me. All that the Father giveth Me,
I shall lose nothing. What blasphemy, my friend, is
universal atonement in light of such Scripture? What blasphemy
it is to say that the blood of Christ failed in purchasing His
people? In saying that God died for the
world and saved none is blasphemy. But those that are Christ's We have this precious promise. He has purchased us with His
own blood. He has purchased us with His
own blood. Peter says in 1 Peter chapter
3 and verse 12, For Christ also hath once suffered. Isn't that special? Isn't that
special that He once suffered? I can't tell you how many times
in Scripture that is. There are many times in the book
of Hebrews it said He offered one sacrifice for sins and sat
down. Why? He accomplished it! He did
it! It's done. It's finished. He
has redeemed and paid the sin debt of all those that the Father
has given Him. Therefore, all that have been
purchased by His blood, they truly do belong to Him. They belong to Him. And number
three, they that are Christ's are His by possession. Possession. You see, all those that were
chosen by the Father, purchased by the blood of Christ, will
also be possessed or indwelt by the Spirit of Christ. Everyone that He purchases, my
friend, He purchased by His blood. You can mark this down. They
shall have the Spirit of Christ in time. They shall. Paul makes
this very clear in Romans 8, chapter 8 and verse 9. Now, if
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, they are none of His. Do you have the Spirit of Christ
dwelling in you? You're His. If you do, you're
His. You belong to Him. But if you
have not the Spirit of Christ, you are none of His. None of
His purchased possession. Now, man can know all about election,
predestination. He can know all about the sufferings
of Christ academically. He can be schooled in matters
of theology and doctrine and be well-versed in Calvinism. But no man can claim the right
to belong to Christ in a particular saving manner unless he has the
Spirit of God living in his body. Living in his body. You see, it's only when the Spirit
of God comes in power by the preaching of the Word of God
that the man is regenerated and raised from the dead in his soul. And the Spirit opens a man's
eyes and he sees his sin and need of a Savior. It's then a man sees that he
is vile and undone before God. And at that great moment of despair,
that great moment of grief, a man sees that God would be absolutely just and
right to send them to hell for all eternity. I've seen that, haven't you?
Have you seen that? Have you been there? When the Spirit of God moves
on a man, he will be there. But at that moment, when a man
is all hopeless and helpless and cannot please God in his
righteousness and knows that God would be just if he left
him alone in his sins to die. Praise God, the Spirit never
stops there. He never stops there when he
moves on one of Christ's children. Spirit then reveals to that man
Christ and His finished work. Only, that there is only one
way that God could be just and still accept him. and that is
by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. When the Spirit
of God brings a man here, It is only when a man can see and
hold claim to be Christ is when he comes to Christ empty of himself. He comes to Christ with nothing
but his sin. And he comes in in pleading for
mercy before the feet of Christ. And he comes in by faith and
sees the work of Christ as the only redemption price that God
will accept. rather that God has accepted,
already accepted. He comes to him by faith and
believing on Christ. It is then that the grace of
God in election, the grace of God in redemption is made real
and effectual to the soul of that man. That none, that not,
that not that God chose a people, My friends, when I came to faith
in Christ by the grace of God, I knew that God chose a people,
but I knew this better, God chose me. I knew that Christ died for a
people long before I came to Christ, but when I came to Christ,
I knew that Christ died for me. It's personal. It was very personal. When a man comes to Christ by
faith, he sees that he belongs to Christ. He belongs to Christ. We who are born of the Spirit
of God are personally interested in the things of Christ because
we now, by the grace of God, see Christ as our Lord and our
Savior. We bow to Him as our all in all,
as our Master and Redeemer. We by faith recognize that we
are not our own, but we have been bought with a price, even
the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Do you belong to Christ? Are you a servant of Christ or
a servant of self? Have you come to Christ by faith? If we have truly been elected
redeemed and possessed by the Spirit of God, it will be manifest
by coming to Christ by faith. You know, I came to Christ several
years ago by faith, but even now at this present moment, I'm
still coming to Christ by faith. Remember, faith is an ever-present
now. I'm coming to Christ now. I come now and even now. ever presently coming to Christ. We saw that faith is a fruit
of the Spirit a few weeks ago. We saw that a man must be given
faith. Faith isn't something that comes
natural to a man, but it must be a gift of God. I'll tell you,
there are many who claim to profess faith today. Let me ask you this, is it not easy
to say, I believe in Jesus? How many people do you know say
that? I don't tell you the truth. I don't think I've... In this
city, as big as it is, I have probably met five people that
confess they don't know Christ. Five, probably. There's a lot of people say,
I believe in Jesus, sure. I have faith, no problem. That's
easy to say. Remember that scribe that ran
to Jesus? And he said, Lord, what must
I do to inherit eternal life? And Christ, recognizing the man
desiring to do something, said, well, you know the law. What
is it? What does the law say? And he said, well, you love the Lord,
your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your
strength, all your mind, love your neighbors yourself. And Jesus
said, thou shalt answer, well, go do that. Go do that. And you'll you'll live. You'll
earn life if you can do that. And what did the scribe say?
The Scripture says that he wanted to justify himself. He wanted
to make sure that he was going to justify himself. And he said,
who is my neighbor? Do you notice that he didn't
say anything about loving God? Why? We all know that he didn't
love God with all of his heart, with all of his soul, with all
of his strength, with all of his mind. But why did he stick on the neighbor
part? Because no one could see his
love for God, everybody could see his love for his neighbor,
couldn't he? So he had to clarify that so he can justify himself. He thought they were two distinct
things, but Christ showed him in the parable of the Good Samaritan
that they are one in the same thing. If a man believes in Christ,
he will also follow Christ. He will also follow Christ and
walk with Christ. He'll live, desire to live like
Christ. You see, it's easy to say we
believe in Jesus, but James said faith without works is dead being
alone. My friends, if your faith is
all you have, something's wrong with that kind of faith. That's
not true faith. That's academic understanding
of the Scriptures. If there is no life change, there
is no life. That is the truth. Works, my friend, never produce
faith. Never. But my friends, faith
will and always does produce works. Always. Always. Our text says they that are Christ.
Look at this qualification. Look at this qualification right
here now. They that are Christ. We know that those that are Christ
are predestinated. We know that they're purchased.
We know that they come by faith. But here's a qualifying mark. They that are Christ have crucified
the flesh with the affections and lusts. They have crucified the flesh
with the affections and lusts. This is the qualifying mark of
true faith. Every child of God recognizes
that our old man, our old nature, Our corrupt nature has been crucified
with Christ. We recognize that, don't we?
We recognize that our nature has been crucified with Christ.
What does that mean? That means all of the damning
power of our sin nature has been crucified with Christ And therefore,
it's done away with. The penalty of our wicked, evil
nature has been done away with by the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We recognize that. We recognize
that. We know that when Christ died,
He made an end of our sin, crying, It is finished. And this made It's made us aware, this is made
aware to us by regeneration. And now by the Spirit of God,
the old man no longer has dominion over us. But we do know this,
the old man is not yet dead, is he? That old man, he was crucified
with Christ, but yet we still know he's kicking. We still know He's alive. But yet, in the believer, the
old man is crucified in that he is restrained and no longer
enjoys the freedom of dominion as he once had. That's what he
means. This Scripture here, it says,
they that are Christ have crucified. They that are Christ, in other
translations it says this, they that are Christ have crucified
for themselves their flesh. They themselves have crucified
their flesh. Children of God, they that are
Christ, have crucified to themselves the flesh. That is the action
of true faith. to mortify the deeds of the body. This is true faith. True faith
hates sin. There was a time I didn't hate
myself. Matter of fact, I loved myself
more than everybody else. I did. It is a truth. It is a fact. I loved myself. And even when I was sacrificing
for others, I was doing it for myself. But when Christ came,
when Christ revealed to me that He had crucified my flesh, He
also revealed to me that I must continue to mortify the deeds
of this body. I loathe myself. That's not popular in modern
self-esteem issue circles, is it? Go to a little self-help
group and talk about that. You'll get kicked out. You'll
get kicked out of there. Friends, we as believers, if
we are true believers, we do mortify, we hate this flesh and
despise it and long for nothing but it to be gone. Hate this
flesh. They that belong to Christ crucify
this flesh with contempt. Jesus said in Matthew 16, if
any man come after me, Let Him deny Himself, take up His cross, and follow me. That is to take up the cross
of self-denial. And I'm not talking about denying
yourself meat on Friday. I'm not talking about fasting
two times a week. I'm not talking about religious
ceremony, bodily exercise that profits nothing. I'm not talking
about that. That's not self-denial. That's
not self-denial. But to deny oneself is to deny
one's flesh to boast of anything good in themselves. Take up your
cross. You that are Christ, we take
up our cross. and gladly boast none of ourself
and boast only in our Savior. We that deny ourself and follow
Christ, we deny that we have any righteousness of ourselves
and all of our righteousness comes from Christ. We deny the
fleshly desires of the flesh and follow after the fruit of
the Spirit. To deny oneself is to own Christ
as our all in all and see ourselves that in our flesh dwelleth no
good thing. To crucify our flesh, my friends,
we must quickly cut it off at every sight of sin. And make no mistake about it,
when we cut it off, it's just as like you're pulling your own
right eye out and cutting off your own right arm. Yet, my friends, to us, it is
a great thing to mortify the deeds of this body. It's a good
thing to follow after Christ. Let us therefore reckon ourselves
dead to sin, but alive to God. If we live in the Spirit, Paul
says in the next verse, let us also walk in the Spirit. And
all who do not deny themselves, do not deny their own righteousness,
but go about to establish their own righteousness, they're not
Christ's. They're not Christ's. But we who believe, we who believe. We who are Christ's, do we not
see Him as everything? Do we not gladly crucify this
flesh and all its desires? Yes. So that Christ might have
the preeminence in everything. These are Christ's. Are you Christ's? Do you belong
to Him? If you do, praise God. You have great assurance of hope.
He predestinated you. He purchased you. And He possesses
you even now. And my friends, I know it's tough.
I know the struggles that we all go through. We all have these
common struggles of sin. We do. Let us pray for one another about
this. so that we may walk like our
Savior. That's my desire, isn't it? It's
like that song we sang before. You know, we desire that. I understand
the impossibility of it. But that doesn't stop us from
striving for it, does it? No. I pray that God bless this
to our hearts. This stand will be dismissed
in prayer. Bob, would you lead us in prayer,
please? Father in heaven, thank you for the privilege of coming
here to worship the King of Glory. Father in heaven. Yes. Lord,
thank you for salvation. Thank you for the message that
we have heard. Yes. And we've been blessed by
it. Bless our pastor, and keep him
in thy care. In Jesus' name, amen.