You'll find my subject there
in verse 20, where the apostle said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I. I live, yet not I. That sounds
almost like contradiction. No, I live, yet it's not I that's
living. How can you live and yet not
be the one doing the living? Well, that's what he says. And
the life which I now live in the flesh, in this body, in this
world, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me
and gave himself for me." So here's an apostle who talks about,
I live, yet not I live, and I live a life now, which I live now. And when he talks about the life
that he lives now, it means that there was a life It wasn't like
the life he lives now before this happened. This is a new
life to him. The life I now live. So that
means he lived a life different than the life he now lived. And
I believe all of us could say that. It wasn't the life he used
to live. You keep Galatians 2. Look in
Acts chapter 9. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. Acts chapter 9. And he used to live a life of
self-righteousness, religious ambition, a persecutor. He told, when he wrote to Timothy,
he said, I was before a blasphemer, a persecutor. I was injurious, but I obtained
mercy. And here's the life that he used
to live. Romans, I mean, Acts chapter 9 and verse 1 said, and
Saul, Yet, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples
of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters
to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this
way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound
unto Jerusalem. Here's a man, he says, now the
life I live. That's what he used to live.
Persecuted the church. persecuted the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Christ put him down on the Damascus Road, he said, Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? Because what he did against the
Lord's people, he'd done it against Christ himself. And here in Galatians
again, look back over here in Galatians and look at chapter
1, verse 13 and 14. Here's another thing. So the
life that he says, I now live, was not the life that he used
to live. blaspheme or persecute, he says, you have heard of my
conversation or my manner of life in time past in the Jews'
religion. The Jews' religion. The religion
of the Jews. The religion of one God. The
religion of ceremony. The religion of law. The religion
of washings. Clean and unclean, the religion
of feasts, and holy days, and sacrifices, and the priesthood,
and the temple, and the worship. He said, you've heard of my manner
of life and times past in the Jews' religion. Now listen to
this, how that beyond measure, who could measure how I persecuted
the church of God? Not only persecuted, but wasted
it. And listen to this, talking about ambitious, and profited
in the Jews' religion. I profited in it. I gained some
ground in it. I was somebody in it. I had a
name among those people. Be more exceedingly serious of
the traditions of my fathers. So that's the man. That's the
life he used to live. And he says, now the life which
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. So here is the
saying, what is the life? What is the life that he now
lives? Well, I'll tell you one thing, where he said here in
Galatians 2.20, he said, The life that I now live, I live
yet not I, but the life which I now live in the flesh. Whatever
the life it is, but he's living right now. It's the same life
that every believer lives. The same life. We were as lost
as Paul was. We may not have been as persecuted
in the church like he did, but we were just lost as he was.
And so we had a life one time without Christ and without God,
but now what is this life that he's talking about? Well, look
in verse 16 here of Galatians 2. What is the life that he now
lives? What is this life which he says,
yet not I, but Christ? He says, first of all, it's a
life justified without the deeds of the law. He says, verse 16,
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. By the
works of the law, he says down in that last part of the verse,
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Now when
he's talking about the law, he's talking about not just the Ten
Commandments. He's talking about ceremonies
and rituals and All the things and rituals that
people go through in religion, he says, the law is more, it's
like ceremonies. You had certain dress codes.
You had certain things you could do and you couldn't do. You had
dietary codes. You had altars you had to go
to. You had gifts you had to give. You had sacrifices you
had to make. And so he's talking about all the law. He's talking
about all the ceremonies and all the riches and all the things
that a man wants to be justified before God. If a man wants to
come before God with some work he's performed, If some merit
he has, some deed he's done, some ritual he's been through,
some altar he's been on, some priest he's bowed down before,
if he wants to come before God like that, the apostle says,
by no flesh, nor by any law, any ceremony, any ritual, shall
no flesh come before God and be justified. None. None whatsoever. And you know
the scriptures tells us That if you offend in one point, in
one point, James 2.10 says if you offend in one point, you're
guilty of all of it. You're guilty of all of it. And
that's what he says, you know, he says that we know that the
law says to them that are under the law that every mouth may
be stopped. And when you face the law, and
you face its ceremonies and its rituals, and face its commandments,
you have to say, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. So every mouth is
stopped. Do you love God with all your
heart? Guilty. Do you love your neighbor as
yourself? Guilty. Have you offered a perfect sacrifice
from your heart? Guilty. Have you ever offered
a perfect prayer? Guilty. Have you ever done everything
just exactly right? Guilty. Well, some things I haven't
done, but have you always done what's good? Guilty. And so your
mouth is stopped, because by the law comes the knowledge of
what? S-I-N. When I look at that law,
I see capital letters, S-I-N. And you that desire to be under
the law of the apostles says, don't you hear it? Don't you
hear it? Those that are under the law
are under bondage. So if a man thinks he can be
justified and accepted of God by anything he's thought, said,
done, or performed at any time in his life, God says you can't. You can't do it. And so that's
what he's saying on life. We live a life justified without
the beast. I was reading a fellow the other
day from a seminary. He had a whole series on the
law and on the sanctification and that. And he was doing just,
I mean, he was going gangbusters about a believer's relationship
to the law. I mean, he's going gangbusters. Greenville Theological
Seminary, down at Taylor Miss Seminary, he's going gangbusters
about it. And then he lost his notes. He
said, I've dropped my notes, and I've got them mixed up, and
I don't want them. But he was doing just exactly right, the
believer's relationship to the law. And when he lost his notes,
He brought us right back under. He said, now listen, we're not
justified by the law, but we're sure enough sanctified by it.
How can we be sanctified by something that tells us that we're sinners?
It always convinces you of sin. How can anything that makes you
a sinner and tells you a sinner and gives you a knowledge of
sin, how can you go back to it and be sanctified by it? Well,
that's pronounced you guilty. Huh? Can't be done. And that's why Paul says, in
my flesh, in my flesh does no good. Ain't that what he says? Look what he said here in Galatians
3. You know, the law can't forgive sin. It can't forgive sin, just
give you knowledge of sin. And look what he says here. Oh
foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you? Who's
come and bewitched you? Who's come and entangled your
mind? Who's come and put a voodoo spell on you? Who's come and
put a spell on you and brought you that you should not obey
the truth? There was a time you obeyed,
but now you don't. But this is evident that Jesus
Christ hath been evidently sent forth, crucified among you. Christ
crucified has been preached to you, sent forth among you, and
what he has dared to accomplish, and how satisfied God. And he
says, but I want to ask you this question, this only what I learned
of you. Would you tell me this and answer
me this question? Did you receive the Holy Spirit
by the works of the Lord? Did you go to ceremonies? Did
you go to the altars? Did you go to your rituals? Did
you go to your candles? Did you go to your priest? Did
you get on your knees? Did you do something that made
you receive the Spirit? Or was it when you was hearing
the gospel that the Holy Spirit came to you? Huh? Are you so
foolish? Are you such a big fool that
you think in having begun by the Spirit, the Spirit of God
regenerated you? The Spirit of God taught you
Christ? The Spirit of God brought you life? The Spirit of God gave
you sight? The Spirit of God quickened you
from the dead and revealed Christ to your heart? Are you so foolish
having begun in the Spirit? Now you're going to go back here
to the law to be sanctified and made perfect? Oh, no, we ain't gonna do that.
Uh-uh. Oh, and what he's talking about
here in Galatians 2.16 is to be justified in God's sight.
Listen to me. To be justified in God's sight
is to be free from guilt. If I'm justified in God's sight,
then I'm not guilty. God will not clear a guilty man.
And to be justified in God's sight is to be free from guilt.
And if I'm free from guilt, then I'm free from punishment. God
only punishes the guilty. And if I'm not guilty, then I'm
free from punishment. And if I'm free from that, beloved,
and look what he said here in verse 17. I want you, I'm going
to explain this verse to you right here. He says, but if while
we seek to be justified by Christ, Galatians 2.17, we ourselves
are also found sinners. Is therefore Christ the minister
of sin? God forbid. What he's saying
was, And he says that in verse 18, if I build again the things
I destroy, if I go back to the law, if I seek to be justified
by Christ plus the law, plus my works, plus my obedience,
you know what that makes Christ? Because I'm a sinner when it
comes to law in any way, shape, form, or fashion. He says, does
that make Christ the minister of sin then? God forbid. Christ ain't gonna justify anybody
under the law. He justifies you by His blood
and His righteousness. And so you see, and then He says,
not only is there a life, and that's what kind of life we're
living, yet not I, but we live by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now here's the life that we do
live, He said in verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law. Now listen to it. This is how
it felt. Here's the life that we live. 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. Do you know how we're justified? By the faith of Christ. Now,
what do you think that means? Even we which have believed in
Jesus Christ, justified by the faith of Christ. This means right
here, we're justified by the faithfulness of Christ. Not our
faith in Christ, His faithfulness. That's what that means. His faithfulness. All He's got to do is look at
me at one time. And me and Bruce Crafter, we
talked about this today. God keep us. Keep us believing. Keep us pleasing. Keep me loyal. Keep me true. Keep me in the
gospel. Do not never leave me to myself,
to my own understanding. Don't let me make shipwreck of
the faith. And whatever's necessary, and God knows this, and He will
do it, He will do it, He will do it. Whatever's necessary to
keep me, keep me in whatever condition He has to keep me in
my heart, whether it's flat on my back, To keep me trusting
Christ and Him alone and His faithfulness, that's what I want.
I want to be true and faithful. And so we're justified by the
faithfulness of Christ. Never our faith. That's why we
say, Lord, keep us. Lord, if our faith is perfect,
then we wouldn't need to be kept. But His faith is perfect. He
was faithful to God. What was He faithful to? Well,
He was faithful to His God. This is my beloved Son. I'm always
well pleased in Him. This is my Son. Hear Him. He
does always those things that please me. Nobody else ever said
that about Him. And not only is He faithful to
His God, I mean He was faithful to His God. He said, Father,
I always hear it's Me. And I called on You, not for
my sake, but everybody else around here. I know what You're going
to do. I know what you're going to do,
but I want everybody else to know that you hear me. And oh beloved, he is faithful
to his God, and he is faithful to the Lord. And I mean in every
goddamn letter, when his mother and daddy went to battle him,
and they took him at eight days old and had him circumcised,
and they took him at 40 days old and offered him as the firstborn
son, and offered two turtledoves for him, and the shedding of
blood there for him, he kept the law all the days of his life.
From the time, if his custom was, he went into the synagogue. I mean, he is faithful to the
law, every ceremony, every ritual, every sacrifice. I mean, he was
perfect before God's law. God could look at him, and in
his heart, in his mind, in his soul, and say, there's nothing
about my law that I can find wrong with him. Spotless. Without sin, without blemish.
And I tell you, he was faithful to the eternal purpose of God.
God had an eternal purpose. God's purpose didn't start when
he said, let there be light. God's purpose began before the
world ever began, and it'll stop whenever the world ceases to
be. God does things on the basis
of eternal God. He has to do things on the basis
of eternity. Hell, He gave time for us. Show
us how to spell our days. Make me to know my days. Make
me to number my days. Give me wisdom. He made time
for us. He don't need time. And we're
going to be in time when time will be no more. That'll be something when time
won't be anymore, won't it? And that's quickly coming. For
some of us, it's going to be a time when time won't be no
more. But that's what He does. And you know, He fulfilled God's
eternal purpose. And not only that, but listen
to me now. He was faithful to death. Even the death of the cross.
He said, for this hour, for this cause came I into this world.
My hour is now coming. It's here. It's on me. And He
was faithful to His death, faithful to the hour, faithful to the
cross. He was Jehovah's righteous servant,
and He was faithful. And He was faithful to His people,
to do everything that was necessary. Necessary. I lay down my life
for the shame. I give my life for ransom for
many. And if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto me. I'll
draw every kind and kindred and nation and tongue of people unto
myself. And so, beloved, it's His faithfulness.
And I bless God that He's faithful. He's faithful to me, and He is
faithful to me today. Was He faithful to you today? Was He faithful to you yesterday?
You reckon if you make it to tomorrow, you reckon he'll be
faithful to you tomorrow? When maybe you'll go for hours
and he won't cross your mind, you reckon he'll be faithful
to you? You reckon you go two or three days and don't pick
up his books, you reckon he'll be faithful to you? Oh, he'll be faithful. Bless
his name. Bless his name. He cannot deny
himself. And if he's in you, he can't
deny you. And know, beloved, this faith that we're justified
by, it's the faith that trusts, that knows the work and the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know the work that He did.
We know the person of Christ. And faith is the gift of God.
And this gift of God apprehends and sees the value of the Lord
Jesus. How valuable is Christ? And the
value of the work of And all this faith that God gave us to
look to Christ, beloved, it always looks to what He did. Never looks
to itself. Never talks about itself. And
then let me show you something else about it here. In verse
19. And not only is it a life lived without justification by
the law, it's a life lived justified by the faith of the Son of God.
Real faithfulness. And we trust Him and who He is
and what He does. Never, never. No confidence in
our flesh. Then he says, And as the lark
lived unto God, for he said, I through the law, verse 19,
am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. Now, what in the
world does he mean, I'm dead to the law? I'm dead to it. Now, let me tell you something,
that I might live unto God. There was a time that he says,
After the righteousness of the law, I was blameless. I was blameless. Now he says, I'm dead to it.
Now the law we know don't die. The law can't die. It's just
holy and good. So how can we be dead to it?
Same way Christ was. He not only fulfilled it, but
he also suffered his penalty. The wages of sin is death. The
curse of the law. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in awe. So the curse of the law came
upon Christ. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. And thy Lord Jesus Christ, He
took that law, and He nailed it to His cross, and He died
to that law. Died to its penalty. And everybody,
when He was raised again from the dead, He walked in newness
of life, raised from the dead to the glory of God. And we come
dead to the law just like Christ is dead. You know, I'll tell
you, the law can't die, but we can, and we do it through Christ. And He freed us from its demands,
and He freed us from its curse. The law cannot, who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Who's going to lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Now that's a Christ, that's what
Apostle Paul calls the heaven itself before him. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? David would you? Michael would you? God would you? Christ would you? Would all the angels in heaven
come forth and lay anything to the charge of God's elect? No! Why not? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather, He's risen again! Not only is He risen, but He's
set down. How come He's set down? Because
He finished the work. Well, who's going to condemn us then?
Nobody, because it's God that justifies us. Oh, my. And that's what happens. Sin
receives its strength from the Lord. Now, what do I mean by
that? Whenever somebody tries to go under the law, law sin
gets stronger and stronger the more you try to... Let me illustrate
like this, and I've told you this before. Just go lay down
the law. When you go home this evening, lay down the law to
your wife or your husband. Just lay down the law. I said,
you're not going to speak until you've spoken to. I want supper
on tomorrow night. I want it at six o'clock. And
I want it hot. This is what I want. And if it
ain't there, I said, this will be it. something to pay. Just
lay down the law, and you know what's going to happen. Well, you know what you can do
with your law, don't you? You know what you can do with
your supper tomorrow night? You know, you can stick me four or
five days before you can even keep me sticking to the house.
And that's what the Scriptures mean by the God's law is the
strength of sin. And that's why people are always
struggling to make peace with God. Because when you go under
the law, the law, all it does is make you realize your sin,
and you try to get over one thing, and sin gets thrown in another
spot. You'll overcome one sin over here, you think, but it'll
get stronger in another place. You understand what I'm saying? But the Scriptures tells us sin, does not have the dominion over
us. Why not? Because we're not under
law, but we're under grace. And that's why we're dead to
the law. And this law, beloved, when Christ, we live a life under
God now. And this life saves us from self,
this life of Christ. It gives us life. It's a life
where Christ has made us free from the law of sin and death.
Now we're alive under God. That was a time we didn't know
God. Now we're alive under God. We live unto God. We call on
God. We look to God. We need God. We converse with God. Our very
hearts go out to Him. We live unto Him. We talk to Him. We fellowship
with Him. We trust Him. And we hide in
Him. You know, the safest place to hide from God is in God. David says, you know what he
says? He says, the Lord is my defense. And then last of all, look what
it says here in verse 20. It's a life crucified with Christ. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. I'm crucified with Christ. You
know, crucifixion is a very, very painful death. Painful death. And it's a painful remedy, but
it's necessary. And let me tell you something
about this crucifixion. When Paul said, I'm crucified
with Christ, You know there's a, and I've got a message in
there, and I'm going to, I started wanting to preach it tonight,
but I'll save it, but it's talking about our union with Christ,
being one with Christ. Crucifixion is a horrible death. And the only people that were
crucified were criminals. Criminals. People who were considered
criminals. And so they took Christ, and
you know what the crime they put on His cross? King of the
Jews. King of the Jews. And when he
was crucified, Paul said, I was crucified with him. You mean
the same one who says he was a blasphemer and a persecutor
and injurious? The one who said he was beyond
measure, persecuted and wasted the Church of God, profited in
the Jews' religion? You mean this is the man who
said, I was crucified with Christ? And crucifixion is a painful
death. Now there's three died on Calvary that day. There's
three things that died on the cross that day. I died on the
cross that day. As far as God's concerned, I
was crucified with Christ. If Paul was, I was. Is that not
right? Now look over in Galatians 6.14.
Let me tell you what I'm talking about. Three were crucified on
Calvary. Three things were crucified.
Three people. He said in Galatians 6.14, but
God forbid that I should glory, boast, rejoice in, only in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now watch this. By whom the world
is crucified unto me. The world is crucified unto me.
The world out there. What does the world hold for
me? What does the world hold for me? What does it have for
me? heartache and sorrow, drugs, misery, anxiety. You listen to
people and you get paranoid and you think the economy is going
this way, that way, and all that. But listen, the world, and you
know, when you thank Him, you understand that the world's dead.
Dead. The dead, things that's dead
has no attraction for you. It's ugly. And the world and
its system and its pride, and its ambition, and its economic
system, and its religion, and all the world, and all of us.
Any way you want to look at it, it's dead, and it's rotten, and
it's corrupt, and it stinks. Oh, the world, we're crucified
unto it. And watch what it is, and I unto the world. See, we
were crucified with Christ. The world was crucified unto
us, and we were crucified unto the world. The world don't like
us no better than we like it. All you've got to do is start
talking to them about Christ, His electing grace, His mercy
given to you in Christ. A fellow told me the other day
about how he joined the church, and I said, it's a wonder that
had anything to do with you. He didn't hardly know what to
think about that. Oh my, this is how we died to
sin. Christ died, crucified on Calvary,
the believer crucified on Calvary, and the world all died on Calvary. And this is how we died to sin.
This is how we died to the law. This is how we died to the world.
This is how we died to our old man. Our old man was crucified
with Christ. And as far as God was concerned,
we're dead to the world, the world's dead to us, and we're
dead to sin, because we've crucified with Christ. And then, what does
he say there in Galatians 2.20? Here I am! How can you be dead or alive?
Same way Christ was dead and now lives. Huh? And then it's
the life indwelt by Christ. And yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. It's not I, but Christ liveth
in me. This is the life he lives in the flesh by Christ in him.
He has become a new person. He said, it's not I, it's not
me, it's not I, but it's Christ in me. The life I'm living is
Christ. I cannot live the life of flesh,
but the life in me, it's a new, it's not I, it's a new man, it's
a new person, a new will. A new person, a new power that
now rules and reigns in me. Christ in you, the hope of glory,
the apostle said. Look over here in Ephesians,
to your right, Ephesians 3, with me real quick, verse 16. You know, when you look in a mirror as face answers to face
in a mirror, or as the scripture says, face answers to face in
the water. Christ in us answers to Christ in His Word, and Christ
by the Spirit. Now, when you hear the Gospel
preaching, Christ in you reacts to Christ from the Scriptures,
to the things that are said about Christ in the Scriptures. If
there is life in you, then the life of this will move that life
of Christ in you. Is that not right? But here in
Ephesians 3.16 it says this. that he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by
his Spirit, by the Holy Spirit, in the inner man. Now listen,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you being
rooted and grounded in love. Oh my. Our Lord Jesus said, I'm
the vine, you're the branches, and without me you can do nothing.
And I'll tell you something, beloved, a new man, this new
man crucified with Christ, yet not I, but the life that I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. It's Christ in me. That
new man must live on new things. He can't live on dead things.
He must live on the gospel. He must live on Christ. He must
live on the Word. He must live on prayer. He must
live with the saints. And I said that last, but here's
the last one. And I forgot about this one. And then it's the life
here in verse 20. It's the life that continues
by the faith of the Son of God. He said in verse 20, I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in
me. And the life in which I now live
in the flesh, that I live in this body, right here, right
now, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me. I live by the faith of the Son
of God. A life is begun by looking to
Christ. Faith, when it's first born in
the heart, it starts looking to Christ. It cries out to Christ. It looks to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then the way it starts, that's the way it'll continue. If it
starts by faith, it cannot do... We walk not by sight, but by
faith. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. You see, He's the author and
finisher of our faith. He started it, and He'll bring
an end to it. And I do know this about Him.
The more you know Him, the more you know Him, not about Him,
know Him, the more you know Him, the more intimate acquaintance
you have with Him, the more you'll trust Him. I'll tell you that,
won't you? The more you know Him, the more
you'll trust Him. And I'll tell you that, not all
that, but the more you know Him, The more intimate you become
with Him, you just, you can't help but
trust Him. Can any of you right now stop
trusting Christ? Can you not look to Him right
now? Can you stop? You can't do it. Can't do it. Our blessed, blessed, blessed
Savior, praise be unto your holy, glorious name, who is like unto
thee in kindness and mercy and grace. Thank you for allowing
us to meet here tonight. Thank you for this life that
you've given us in Christ. The life that we live now in
this flesh, in this world, we live it, yet not us, but Christ
in us. And we bless you for that. Father,
we pray again for our children, our grandchildren. Oh Lord, touch
their hearts. Make them understand their lost,
lost, lost condition. And touch the hearts of every
soul here tonight. To your glory. To your glory. And our good. For Christ's sake. Amen.