Galatians chapter 2. Galatians
chapter 2. And let's look at verse 20. Galatians
chapter 2 and verse 20. Everybody's familiar with this
verse of scripture. You've heard it quoted so many
times. And every single one of us in
here who know the Lord Could use this verse of scripture to
be our testimony. To say this is our experience. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live. You could be you talking. Yet
not I, I'm living. Yet not I, I'm not the one living. But Christ liveth in me. And
the life which I now live in the flesh, while I live on this
earth, live in this body, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. Seven blessed truths
I want to deal with here, if I can, from this verse of scripture. Seven blessed truths. And oh,
the first one, you know, this is This is us. This is us. This is us. And the first blessed
truth is, is that God should love, should love a soul like
me. Huh? Ain't that what he said? Who loved me, the Son of God,
who loved me, loved me. And this man that he's talking
about, Paul, who has wrote this verse of scripture, who penned
this, was a persecutor. was injurious. He was a blasphemer. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
He despised Christ and everything about him. And yet, one day on
the Damascus road, God laid hold on him. And then when Paul learned
the gospel, God taught him the gospel. You know what he said? He said, When it please God,
who separated me from my mother's womb, and then called me by His
grace, and called me by His grace, that I should preach, that I
should be a preacher of the gospel of the grace of God. And that
is when me and one of the young men was talking this morning
after the service. I said, we're talking about the
Son of God, the mystery of godliness, that Christ was as much man as
if he was not God, and as much God as if he was not man, yet
he was not two, he wasn't a split personality, two distinct persons
in one person. He had humanity, just like you
and I, sin accepted. And he was God manifest in the
flesh. And no wonder that's the greatest
mystery known in all the universe. Great is the mystery of godliness.
The first thing is God manifest in the flesh. The second mystery
I said to him is this. The second mystery that occurs
to me and you is that God should love me. How can it be, how can
it be that thou my God shouldst die for me? How can it be that
God should love me or love you. Now you know it says that God
loved Jacob and he hated Esau. And Mr. Spurgeon said one time,
I can understand why he would hate Esau and why he'd hate anybody.
But oh, what a mystery that he should love Jacob and that he
should love me. And yet, not only would He love
us, He didn't start loving us in time. He made us feel His
love in time. He made us experience His love
in time. But there never was a time that
He did not love us. Never was a time. He said, Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and with cords, cords of
loving kindness I drew thee. By man, what man did he draw
us by? The Lord Jesus Christ, cords
of loving kindness. Oh, look over with me in Ezekiel,
Ezekiel 16, just a minute. And look what
it says here. In verse eight. Oh, listen, this is, First of all, in verse 6 he says,
And when I passed by thee, talking about this little infant, Thought
out, when I passed by thee, Saw thee polluted in thine own blood, And I said unto thee, When thou
wast in thy blood, I said, Live, yea, I said unto thee, When thou
wast in thy blood, live. And then look what he said in
verse 8, Now when I passed by thee, And looked upon thee, Behold,
thy time was the time of love. It was time for me, it was time
for you to experience my love. It's time for you to know what
it is to be loved. It's time for you to experience,
to feel, to rejoice in, to be made known the love. And that
thy time was the time of love, and I spread my skirt over you.
I took my robe of righteousness, I took my robe of glory, and
I spread it over you, and I covered your nakedness. And then I swear
unto you, and God, because He could swear by no greater, swore
by Himself. I swear unto thee, and entered
into covenant with thee, saith the Lord, and thou becamest mine. And I'll tell you what, wherever
there's love, Shirley and I was talking about it before leaving
the house this evening, that love always treats the one loved better than they treat themselves.
And love always wants the best and provides the best for the
one that's loved. Now you and I can't do that the
way we would like to do it, but our Lord Jesus Christ can. He
can provide the very best for those that He loves. He provides
everything that they need. They need food, He feeds them.
They need clothes, He gives them His righteousness. They need
acceptance, He makes us accepted in the beloved. They need grace,
He gives us grace in Christ before the world ever began. We need
peace, He made peace through the blood of His cross. Oh, listen. We don't say, woe is me anymore.
We say, oh, He took that flame and put it on our lips. And oh,
we're cleansed, we're cleansed. LOVE MUST PROVIDE THE BEST FOR
THE ONE IT CAN LOVE. AND THEN BACK OVER IN OUR TEXT
AGAIN, NOT ONLY THAT THE SON OF GOD SHOULD LOVE SOMEBODY LIKE
SAUL OF TARSUS AND LOVED ME OR LOVED YOU, YOU KNOW THE ONLY
ANSWER WE CAN FIND, AND WHILE WE LOOK AT IT BEFORE WE LOOK
AT THE NEXT, THE ONLY ANSWER WE CAN FIND IS EPHESIANS 1 AND
7, AND THAT'S BECAUSE IT SAID FOR EVEN SO IT PLEASED HIM. Father, our Lord said it this
way, Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and
hast revealed it unto babes. Even so, Father, it seemed good
in your sight." Seemed good in your sight. And look at the second
thing, not only that we should be loved, but that the Son of
God should be crucified. This One who loved us, He says,
and I am crucified with Christ. That the Son of God should be
crucified, Do you know, beloved, that I, Lord Jesus Christ, and
then he says that I'm crucified with Christ. Crucified with Christ. You know
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ was no afterthought. It was something
that just didn't get out of control. It was not a mob that just got
out of control. It wasn't just a situation that
got out of control. And so our Lord Jesus Christ
was just a mob got out of control and decided they was going to
crucify him and kill him. No, no, no. The crucifixion of
our Lord Jesus Christ and the death of our Lord Jesus had ALWAYS
been determined before the foundation of the world. And I'm going to
show you that. You keep Galatians 3 and look
in Acts chapter 2 with me. Not for just a minute. But we'll turn over here until
we figure out what we want to say, won't we, Gary? But that
the Son of God should be crucified. You know, there's two people
involved in the death of Christ, and our God meant it to be this
way. He said in Acts chapter 2 and verse 22, Peter is preaching
on the day of Pentecost. Ye men of Israel, hear these
words. Listen to what I've got to say.
Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, that's the
only man that's ever been proved of God among all men. Nobody
else has been God Abraham was afraid but only to be approved
of God He said he was approved of God among you. And how do
you know he's approved by miracles? Nobody else did the miracles
that he did nobody ever opened the blind eyes of a man born
blind like him nobody ever raised the dead by just calling their
name and then he says by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by Him in the midst of you, and you, you know it! You were
there, you know it yourselves. And then, Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. How many
times did our Lord tell His disciples that the Son of Man must go up
to Jerusalem, must be delivered into the hands of men, must suffer
at the hands of men, must die, and must rise again the third
day. And the scripture says they were hidden from their eyes.
Him, Him, this man, Jesus of Nazareth, approved of God, Him
being delivered by the determinate counsel. God determined His will
and foreknowledge of God. Then He turned around and said,
But you did it. You did it. And God's gonna charge you with
the death of Christ. And you, by wicked hands, have
crucified and slain. So it's two people involved.
God determined for it to be done. These men didn't know that. And
you and I didn't know that. And yet our Lord Jesus was crucified
and the cross is a manifestation of God's character like no other
place on the planet. No other thing. That's the greatest
event between the histories is the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The death of Christ on the cross
is the epic of all history. Everything from Adam and the
creation of Adam until the last person on this earth all culminates
in this one thing right here. All the determination of salvation,
all the determination of salvation and righteousness and everything
about God was manifested clearly on that cross and the death of
Christ on that cross. When our Lord Jesus was crucified,
justice was crucified for us too. Wrath died there against
us that day. Sin died with him. Grace come from that cross. Love come from that cross. Justice
come back to us and said, I cannot charge you with sin. Wrath comes
back to us and said, I cannot be angry with you anymore. Why? Because the Son of God,
what a wonder, what a truth, what a blessed glorious truth,
that the Son of God should be crucified. Oh, that He should
be, that it was necessary. And oh, look what else it says
here in this verse. Not only that Christ should be
crucified, I am crucified with Christ. And oh, that's what He's
talking about, crucified. And here's the second, third
thing is that Christ should give Himself for me. And God who loved
me and gave himself for me, that when he was crucified on that
cross, that he should give himself for sinners, for me, for me. You know, when our Lord Jesus
Christ died on that cross, he was dying for a multitude that
no man can number, but he was dying for individuals. That's
what Paul said. He said, He loved me and gave
Himself for me. That gets down to just you and
me. I cannot say that He died for
you, but I can say that He gave Himself for me. How can I say
He gave Himself for me? Because I believe Him. I believe
Him. I rejoice in Him. I'm overwhelmed
by the Gospel. I'm overwhelmed by the grace
of God. Overwhelmed by the love of God. Overwhelmed by the goodness of
God, the kindness of God, the patience of God. Overwhelmed
that justice refuses to come and charge me with any sin. Overwhelmed
that the wrath of God will never ever fall on me. That I'll go
into eternity. with peace of heart and peace
of conscience and peace of mind knowing that He gave Himself
for me. What reason are you going to
stand before, what's your justification to stand before God? Christ loved
me and gave Himself for me. When He is hanging on that cross,
He was bearing your sin, yours, and He is bearing mine. And He
done it for individuals. And He comes and He saves men
and women individually. Oh, bless His holy name. That
Christ should give Himself for me, give Himself for sinners.
Look over here in Galatians 1-4, just a minute. Oh, this is Paul
said that he gave himself for the Christ died for sinners of
whom I am chief. Oh, to be made to be a sinner.
Oh, so Scott Rich used to say, oh, the more you can convince
me of my sin, the more and more you convince me that I'm going
to have mercy from God. God will give me mercy. He only
shows mercy and grace to sinners. HE ONLY COME TO CALL SINNERS.
HE ONLY COME TO SAVE SINNERS. HE COME TO SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM
THEIR SIN. AND OH, IF YOU EVER BECOME A
SINNER, YOU CAN SAY YOU'RE A SAVED MAN. AND ONCE YOU EVER BECOME
A SINNER, YOU'LL BE A SINNER ALL THE DAYS OF YOUR LIFE. And
because you are a sinner all the days of your life, it'll
make you run to Christ, desire Christ, need Christ, embrace
Christ, bow to Christ, hunger for Christ, thirst for Christ,
need Christ more than you need the breath you breathe. Look what he said here in Ephesians
or Galatians 1.4. Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father. And from our Lord Jesus Christ,
listen to it, who gave himself for our sins and the reason being that he
might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will
of God our Father. He was doing the will of God.
to save us from this old evil, evil world. And not, you know,
I was thinking of this this afternoon, talking about evil world. You
know, we think about that world out there being evil, but the
world right around us was evil. My world, my little old world,
just me and my wife and my kids, and the people, my little old
world, just around me was evil. I didn't have to worry about
it out there, it just was around me. My little old circle, my
microcosm of a world. That's what he saves me from,
that evil world that's in me, evil world that's around me.
And oh, look over in Romans 5 with me just a minute. What? Sorry. Where do we get done? Romans 5 and
verse 6. Oh, that Christ should give himself
for sinners, give himself for us. He became sin who knew no
sin. Sin was actually put away by
his blessed sacrifice. Look here in Romans 5, 6. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, according to the time, Christ died for
the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. If a man is righteous, why would
you need to die for him? He's already righteous. And that's
what our Lord Jesus, you read it tonight, you'll die in your
sins because you're righteous. Our Lord says you're gonna stay,
you say, well, you said if you, are we blind also? And he said,
and our Lord said, if you see, if you say you're blind, your
sin will be gone because you see, your sin's gonna remain.
But oh, listen, yet peradventure for a good man. Oh, he's a good
fella, boy. I hate to see him die, but I
don't know, I don't think I'd die for him. But listen to this,
but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, yet sinners, Christ died for us. Oh, back over in Galatians 2. Oh, that we should be loved,
that he should be crucified, that he should give himself for
us, for me, for you, and then that a man should be crucified
with Christ. He said, I am crucified with
Christ. You know what crucifixion was?
It was a death. And our Lord Jesus Christ in
his death, He died first to the world, He
died to sin, He died to the law, dead to wrath, dead to justice,
and everything that our Lord Jesus Christ did. That's why
Paul said, I'm crucified with Him. I was so one with Him and
so identified with Him and so joined to Him that everything
He did, I did in Him. And that's scriptural from everything
about our relationship with Christ. What He did, we did. Oh, look over here in Galatians
6.14. Look in Galatians 6.14. Oh, this is substitution, real
substitution. I'm crucified with Christ. We're dead to sin. Is Christ
being crucified, being dead to sin? Because He died, He's no
longer, He's dead to sin. And when He died and we died
with Him, we died to sin. People say, oh, you need to quit
your sin and I'm dead to sin. People say, you know, you can
die for Christ. I tell you what, I've already
died with Christ. But look in Galatians 6.14, But
God forbid that I should glory, save in
the cross, boast in, rejoice in, only in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, listen to it, three people crucified here,
by whom the world is crucified unto me. That world absolutely
out there means nothing to us, holds no enamorment for us. It's
wisdom, it's power, it's glory. By whom the world is crucified
unto me, and I unto the world. So Christ was crucified, I was
crucified, and the world was crucified. And now listen in Ephesians 2,
Ephesians right over to your right. Ephesians 2, I'm crucified
with Christ. And all listen, who is he that
condemneth? It's Christ that died. In Ephesians
2, look what it said here in verse 10. No, excuse me, verse 9. 5 and
6, I'll get it right in a minute. Can't read my own writing. Shirley
was reading it the other day and she said, what is this? What
is this? What is this? Oh, I am pitiful writing. That's why I tell you to turn
one place and I'm in another because it looks... You think
I'm bad? You ought to see Todd Nivert's. How he even reads it, I don't
know. It is pitiful. But oh, here, look what he says
in Ephesians. Even when we were dead in sins,
hath God quickened us together with Christ. Did you see that? When God raised Christ from the
dead and quickened Him from the dead, He quickened us together
with Him. And look here what else He said,
"...and hath raised us up together." Gave us life with Christ. Raised
us up from the grave with Christ. And then when He ascended into
glory, He made us set together in heavenly places. Where at?
In Christ Jesus. And look in verse 10 of chapter
1, In the dispensation of the fullness of time he might gather
together in one in one, gathered together in one, all the things
are in Christ. Things are in heaven and things
are on earth. Oh, we're gonna meet Him in the
air and everybody's gonna, oh, God's gonna gather together all
of one that's in Christ. All those that's in glory and
all those on the earth. He's gonna put us all together
one of these days. Huh? Oh my, bless His name, that a
man should be crucified with Christ. We died, James, we're
dead. Dead to sin, dead to the law.
We died with Christ, dead to the world. And then back over
again in Galatians 2. Not only that you died, crucified
with Christ, but that you should still be alive after you've died
with Christ. For I'm crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live. How can you be dead and alive
at the same time? Because we're joined to Christ.
Because He lives, we live. Huh? Nevertheless, I live. Now, I still have a will. I still
have a personality. I still am who I am. I'm Donnie
Bell, and I'll be the way I am. I was born this way. I'll let
my personality set, my will set, my emotions are set, my personality
set. When God saved me, He didn't
change my personality. He changed my relationship with
Himself. Gave me a new person inside me,
a new nature inside me, but He never changed the old person
at all. And that's why Paul says, nevertheless, I live. And I'm
living as the Apostle Paul. I'm living as Paul. I'm not living
as somebody way up yonder in the heavens. I'm living here
on this earth. I'm living. But how are we living? Well,
we live unto God. We live with righteousness and
there's two men in us, spirit and flesh, and it's the spiritual
man that's living. It's the spiritual man that's
alive and has to deal with this old miserable rotten flesh. Galatians
5.17, look what it says, nevertheless I live. We're alive under God. We're alive under righteousness.
We're alive under His scriptures. We're alive. We live. And that
verse, this word comes to us and quickens us and gives us
life and speaks to us. Galatians 5, 17. For the flesh
lusts against the Spirit. You see how that Spirit's capitalized?
That's the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit against the flesh.
These are absolutely against one another. Contrary to one
another. Oh, I mean they just button heads. So that you cannot do the things
that you would. You can't. You can't. And then
I want to show you one other thing. Look in Romans chapter
seven with me. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, we're living. We have to live. We're still
living in this world. And we have a struggle while
we live in this world. And that's why we come and hear
the gospel. That's why we need the gospel. That's why we need
the Word of God. That's why we need to be with
one another. That's why I love to be in with
preachers, is when I'm with preachers. You know, the scripture said
in Proverbs, iron sharpens iron. And that's why we come to hear
the gospel, that iron sharpens iron. We need it. We got to have
it. Because, you know, I've told
you this before, in jungles, in jungles. Jungle will take
over quick. I mean, it just grows and grows
and grows. You get down and even in the South Carolina and Georgia
and you get on them coasts, they got to keep all that stuff trimmed
back around all these resorts or else it just take them over.
And down in Mexico, you know, they have those great old big
pyramids down, those Mayan pyramids they have down there. There's
lots of them that they ain't even gonna bother uncovering
because they'd have too much jungle over. But they find them
and they start cutting that jungle back. We was at a place called
Palenque one time. Down there, me and Henry and
several fellows was going down to Chiapas. And we stopped at
this place called Palenque and there was people out there with
machetes all day, every day, cutting back the jungle. So people
could stay in their cabins and eat in their restaurants and
all that, just beating the jungle back. Why did they have to do
that? Because it would overtake it
and overcome it. Well, that's what me and you,
that's what our flesh is. The gospel is God's sword to
keep the jungle beat back. To keep the brush from absolutely
overwhelming us. The gospel keeps the jungle off
of us. Or it would just Overwhelming, isn't it? And that's
what Paul means here in Romans 5.15. Look at that. We've went
through this so many times. And this is, again, this could
be our testimony. This could be, we could all attest
to this for ourselves. You could read this and say that's
me, me, me, me, me. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, that do I not. What I would do, I don't. But
what I hate, That do I. If you ever said something to
somebody or done something to somebody or committed an act
and you said, oh, oh, why did, oh, I hate that. I hate myself
for saying that. I despise it. Then you hate it. If then I do that that I would
not, if I ended up doing things that I wouldn't, I can sit under
the law that it's good. Because I wouldn't even know
I was doing wrong if it wasn't for the law of God and the Spirit
of God in me. Now then, it's no more I that
do it, but what is it that's doing it in me? It's S-I-N. That thing that's part and parcel
of our nature. For I know, I know some things,
Paul said, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. In my flesh dwells no good thing. I've got the will, or the wills
present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I can't find
it. Sometimes I just can't find it.
I can't find myself with the ability to do it. And look what
he said, for the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which
I would not, that do I, that do I. Dad, do I? Oh my, that's where we are. That's
how we are sometimes. And oh, and he goes on to say,
now, if I do that, that I would not, it's no more me that does
it. It's not, it's not, it's not that new nature in me. It's
not that, that seat of Christ in me. What is it then Paul? It's sin. Sin. Sin. I find then this principle that
when I would do good, evil is right there with me too. For
I delight, I just rejoice in the law of God. Now notice the
difference here between flesh and the inward man. that man
that's inside me, I delight in God. But I see another law in
my members, in my mind, in my flesh, in my memory, in my tongue,
in my hands, in my imagination, warring against the law of my
mind, bringing me into the captivity of the law of sin, also which
is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am. who shall deliver me from this
body of death. So you see, it's absolute. What
a blessed truth that a crucified man, dead man, should still live,
live under God, live under Christ. And now let me look at the sixth
one over here in Galatians 2. Here's the sixth blessed truth.
That a crucified Christ should live in a crucified man, I am
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I. It's not me living. Who is it
then, Paul? Christ living in me. Christ in
you, the hope of glory. This is an amazing thing that
God, who inhabits eternity, and Christ who said, let there be
light and there was light, can come and dwell in a man. live in a man and you know that
he's in you. You know that Christ is in you.
You know that Christ lives in you. How else could you rejoice
in the gospel? How else could you delight in
the Word of God? How else could you want to know
Christ and be with Christ and rejoice in Christ without Christ
being in you? Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in you. Christ in me. Christ in you. That's our hope. of glory. When He comes in His glory, we
will also be glorified with Him. And then the last thing is this,
not only that a crucified Christ should live in a crucified man,
yet not I but Christ liveth in me. That this crucified man,
this man who still lives, he lives by faith on Christ Himself. Christ liveth in me and the life
which I now live in this flesh I live by who? By the faith of the Son of God. I live by the faith of that One
who loved me, that One who gave Himself for me, that One who
was crucified for me, that One that I was crucified with Him
and died with Him, that One that gives me life, that One that
lives in me, that's the person that I live by the faith of. The life I now live in this flesh,
I live it believing Jesus Christ. Who else am I going to believe?
Who else am I going to trust? Who else can I look to? And I've asked this question
so many times before. When you get in trouble, when
you start seeking, when you're in trouble or you're burdened,
or you're just praying, who do you look to? When you get in
a situation, do you run to, if you know Christ or not, do you
run to Him or do you run to something else? I tell you what, if Christ is
in you, then you go to Christ outside you. You cannot go to nobody else.
Peggy told me that yesterday. She said, I cannot go, I cannot
live without Him. I need Him, I got to have Him,
and I want Him. And I don't care how long we
live in this world. And some of it, but I'm telling
you, We're looking outside ourselves. Everything about our salvation
was taken care of outside ourselves. Our sins was put away outside
ourselves. Christ lives in heaven. Everything that our salvation
has nothing to do with is right here. Has everything to do with
Him outside of us. Everything that He accomplished
for us. That's why we say it's done. It's finished. Now what
are you gonna do? I'm gonna rest. When the work's
done, I'm gonna sit down and relax. I'm gonna rest in Christ,
repose my soul in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ain't that a wonderful
place to repose and rest? Ah, oh, so good, so good, so
good. Oh, our Lord Jesus. Oh, our blessed,
blessed Savior. Oh, how, how loving, how forgiving,
how precious you are to those of us that believe. Oh, Lord,
our very hearts and souls goes out to you, need you, want you. Thank you for the gospel. Oh,
Lord, this gospel. It's beyond, it's beyond the
natural man. that Lord, you made us to know
it, believe it. And Lord Jesus, we trust you,
we look to you, ask for you to do for us congregation, cause
us to grow, cause us to flourish. But in all that you do for us,
cause us to love you, to desire you, and honor you and glorify
you as a body of believers. And then as each individual person,
We ask these things in his blessed holy name. Amen. Amen. Jesus. Jesus.