Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2. The name
of the message is Christ's great love manifested. Christ's great
love manifested. Now, last week we looked at the
middle portion of verse 20. Let's read that whole verse,
Galatians 2.20. It says, I'm crucified with Christ.
So that was the first portion we looked at, the fact that we
were spiritually crucified with Christ. And then it says, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.
So we looked at that last week, how now we're new creatures in
Christ now, new creations in Christ. And we no longer live
a self-centered life anymore. Now we live a life wanting to
serve the Lord Jesus Christ now, desiring to serve him. Not as
some maliciously say of what we believe, you can go out and
do whatever you want. No, we want to serve the Lord.
We desire to serve the Lord, don't we? We used to serve self,
and now we no longer do that. We have a new nature in us now.
We have the Holy Spirit in us, teaching us and guiding us through
this world. And the fruit that we have unto
God is fruit that He works in us, not that we work in ourselves. But it's Him working that joy,
that peace, that love within us, beloved. It's wonderful.
It's absolutely wonderful. And we're new creatures in Christ
by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. He's regenerated us by
His almighty power. And remember, He's no less God
than the Father and the Son, too. They're all equal, right? They're all equal. And it's by
His power that He's regenerated us. It's by His power that He's
given us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and look
to Christ in Him alone, who is the object of God-given faith,
right? He's the true object of God-given
faith. Again, we used to look to self. I did. I looked this
up. I thought, well, I'm a good person.
No, I'm not. Right? I found out after the Lord revealed
Himself to me, I'm not a good person. I'm a sinner. I need
Christ. And then He's the object of that
faith that God gave you and I, right, to believe and to look
to Him. And He's the object of that faith.
We will spend the rest of our lives, beloved, and this is amazing,
looking to Christ. Look into Christ. All the different
things that occur in our lives, we're just going to keep looking
to Him, aren't we? By God's grace. You know that scripture that
says, He who endures to the end? Do you know who keeps us enduring
to the end? God. See, people take, religious
folks take that verse and say, See, you got to endure to the
end or you can lose your salvation. That's not what that verse is
teaching. That enduring is God keeping us, beloved, because
we can't keep ourselves, can we? We can't endure on our own,
can we? But by God's grace and by God's
mercy, he keeps us from falling, right? He keeps us enduring to
the end. He gets all the glory. He gets
it all. We don't seek to glorify ourselves
in any way anymore. It's all him. And I find the
more, I don't know if you find this, I think you do, that the
more you learn in scriptures, the more you realize how much
we need to just rely on him. how much he carries us, how much
he takes us through circumstances and things in our lives, how
much he's ever with us. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. And we learn that's true, don't we? He says
it and we believe it, but then we learn it. We experience it
in our lives, don't we? We experience it as we live by
faith on Christ. Look into Christ. We experience
that wonderful truth that he never leaves us. He'll never
forsake us because we're his. And this new life is no longer
like the old life. This new life now is dependent
upon Christ. It's not dependent upon the ineffectual
works of man, right? Because that's what our works
are, they're ineffectual, they can't do anything. Can't save us. Can't make us righteous. Can't
make us holy. So we're not relying anymore
on our own ineffectual works. Now we're relying on the work
of Christ and what He's done. What He's done. He's the one. He's the one who saved us. He's
the one who keeps us. It's Him. It's all Him. And now we can draw near to God
because we're clothed in His righteousness. Because He, look
at the last part of this verse, because he loved us and gave
himself for me. We're clothed in his righteousness,
beloved. Now we're accepted by God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's amazing. That's absolutely
incredible. And he's all our righteousness,
isn't he? He's all our acceptance before God. There's nothing in
us that would make us acceptable to God. It's all him. It's all
Christ and him alone, nothing. Nothing in us at all. Nothing
in us at all. All Him. All Him. So instead
of attempting to live this life in obedience to a set of rules
or to the Mosaic Law or the legal enactments of the Mosaic Law,
Paul, who knows all about that stuff, now yields himself to
the power of God the Holy Spirit. Now yields himself to to the
Holy Spirit of God, the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. And this
is true of every born-again believer. That's true of every one of us
who are saved. We now yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit within us,
don't we? We're under new management, aren't we? You ever see when
a restaurant or a building changes owner? Under new management.
We're under new management, beloved. It's no longer Satan himself
and sin, it's Christ Jesus our Lord. He's our, we, oh my, now
we just look to him. We no longer have to yield to
a set of rules or a form of legal enactments to be saved or think
we'll be saved. And now we live a life unto our
great God. Now we live a life unto Christ.
Now we deserve to be servants for him. Bore my ear, Lord. Bore my ear. I'm yours forever. Bore my ear. Remember that when
they got their ear bored, the Israelites, that meant they were
servants to the master for the rest of their lives. Bore my
ear, Lord. Oh my, I'm yours. I'm yours,
Lord Jesus. My, instead of a sinner with
a totally depraved nature, attempting to find acceptance with God by
our attempted obedience now to a set of outward laws, now the
believer in Christ is living a life with a new principle,
a new principle, beloved. That of the indwelling Holy Spirit
of God who will again teach us the things of Christ, right?
He'll lead us into all truth, won't he? He'll lead us into
all truth. And how does he do that? By his
almighty power. Remember, he's just as much God
as the Father and the Son. And so by His almighty power,
He guides us and directs us and leads us into truth, all truth,
and that truth is Christ. The scripture says He won't speak
of Himself. Your point is right to Christ alone. Your point is
right to Christ and Christ alone. I gotta stick to my microphone
here. They're all waving at me here. I get too excited here.
Oh my. Oh, so now let's read verse 20
in a context. We read verse 20 there by itself.
Now let's read verse 20 in a context. of the scripture here. Starting
in verse 15, and we'll go to verse 21. And we'll see that
he gave his life as our substitute, beloved. It's wonderful, he gave
his life as our substitute. We who are Jews by nature and
not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
So that's how we're justified, looking to Christ. Looking to
Christ, so plain. And that faith, remember, is
God-given faith, right? He gives it to us. It's wonderful.
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ. So the only way for us
to be saved is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what Paul told the Philippians right? Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shall be saved. So clear. That we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if
well we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also
are found sinners Is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God
forbid, God forbid. For if I build again the things
which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through
the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. In the life which I now live,
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. And he writes,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. So we see the
context now of our verse in verse 20. And now today we're gonna
be looking at the latter part of this verse, who, that being
Christ, loved me and gave himself for me. Now these are the words
of the Apostle Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. But
that's true of every one of us, isn't it? That's true of every single born-again,
blood-washed believer. Christ loved us and still loves
us. And he gave his life for us,
willingly. He willingly gave his life for
us, beloved. Willingly. My, the King of Glory did that. The Word of God did that. And
remember, Christ wasn't crucified in private, was he? No, it was
very public, wasn't it? Very outside the camp, but very
public on Calvary's cross. And he died publicly as a representative
of all his people. He died publicly as a representative
of all his people. When he died for sin, it was
our sin that he died. It was our sin. When the wrath
of God fell upon him, that was for our sin, beloved. When he cried, it is finished,
that was for our salvation. It's complete. He's the sinless,
spotless lamb of God. And as a result of him dying
publicly and for our sins, which were imputed to him, We have
now become dead to the law. We're dead to the law. Because the scripture says the
soul that sinneth it shall die, right? So Christ is the perfect
substitute, the perfect lamb of God dies before God's law.
That means that now all those who he died for are now dead
to the law. No claim. The law has no claim,
absolutely none. The justice of God has no claim,
because it's already been satisfied. And God is satisfied because
he raised Christ from the dead, right? And the scripture says,
plainly says, that he was raised for our justification. We're accepted in the beloved.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the most wonderful news.
We're dead to the justice of God. Christ's death became the
spring of our new life, beloved. It's the spring of our new life.
For by His death, He overcame death for us. Death's lost its
sting now for us. When we die as believers, boom,
we're right in glory in His presence because of what He's done for
us. Oh, my. And He overcame death for us,
and by His stripes, we're healed. Right? By His stripes, we're
healed. The prophet declared that. but he was wounded for
our transgressions. He was buried for our iniquity.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we were healed. Oh, it's wonderful. The gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ dying for sinners is the greatest news
this world has ever heard. It's the greatest news. So spiritually
we were crucified with Christ, And we're said to be buried with
him in baptism, when we're baptized, we're said to be buried with
him in baptism. And we're said to rise with him in his death,
right? When he died, we rose with him.
And heaven being risen with him, now we're already seated in heavenly
places in Christ. I can't even totally understand
that, can you? But the Bible says it, so well, the scripture
says it, I believe it then. I don't understand it, but I
believe it. Oh my. And he's expressly said to have
entered in as our forerunner, beloved, into heaven. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews
chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. Oh my. He's our forerunner. He
did this after his death upon the cross. And he did this in his life,
he was our mediator, in his life and his death, he's our substitute,
beloved. And the love that he had for
us, the love that Christ the sinless one had for us was fully
manifest in the very fact that he gave himself for us, that
he loved us and that he gave himself for us. And again, he
did it willingly, beloved, he did it willingly. Look at this
in Hebrews chapter 6, verses 17 to 20. We're in God willing
more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise. That's
God's elect. We're called the heirs of promise,
beloved. The heirs of promise. And remember, all the promises
of God are yea and amen in Christ, right? Oh, it's wonderful. The immutability of his counsel
confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which
it was impossible for God to lie, We might have a strong consolation. That consolation in the Greek
is a strong comfort. Do we not have a strong comfort
in Christ? What a hope. What comfort we
have in Christ, beloved. Who have fled for refuge. Now
we're like refugees fleeing. Fleeing to Christ, aren't we?
This whole world's burning up in sin and everything. We're
running to Christ! And we're sinners and we're running to
Christ and He accepts us. because he's redeemed us, beloved,
with his precious blood. We fled to lay hold upon the
hope that's set before us. What's that hope? Here's the
hope set before everyone as I'm preaching here. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the only savior of sinners. And Paul said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Do you believe? Oh, flee to him. He's the only
hope. He's the only refuge. He's the
only comfort that you'll ever find in this world and in the
world to come. And that hope is set before us
every time the gospel is preached too. That hope is set before
us. And we as God's people, we need
it, don't we? I was listening to a preacher,
I listened to four of his messages this week. Man, he just set the
hope before me. I felt like shouting after every
message. It was wonderful. Christ and
Him crucified, the only Savior of sinners. Oh my, keep telling
me, keep telling me about it. I love it. You love it too, right? Oh, it's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Which hope we have is an anchor
of the soul. You know the big ships in the
sea, they drop that anchor, eh? And it holds them there, doesn't
it? Big storm come along, they're being tossed to and fro, and
that anchor just holds them right there. My, we're tossed to and
fro in the storms of this life, aren't we? And that anchor holds,
doesn't it? See, this anchor is anchored
to heaven. It's anchored to Christ. Isn't that wonderful? It's anchored
far above the storms of this life, beloved. In the troubles
of this life, our anchor is the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will
hold us, won't he? Here, keep us. Here, never leave
us, nor forsake us. Here, never let us go. My, oh
my. Both sure and steadfast, in which
entereth into that within the veil. Whither the forerunner
is entered for us, even Jesus, there he is. He's already entered
into heaven. That's why we're seated in heavenly
places, because we're in him, again. Wow, that's amazing, isn't
it? We don't understand it, but that's
true. Because he's the representative, he's the head. Just as we were all in Adam when
he fell, we're all in Christ when he rose again. Oh, it's
wonderful. Oh, it's wonderful. So that when we breathe our last
breath, we're in the presence of the Lord. Oh, my. Brother Newell's been up there
for a couple weeks already, eh? But there's no time there, is
there? There's no time. My, it's incredible. In every
department of Christ's offices, prophet, priest, and king, he
fulfilled it all. He fulfilled it all. And he did
it very publicly, didn't he? He did it very publicly. Let's
read verse 19. of this chapter again, it says,
for I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live
unto God. So how was Paul then dead to the law? In Christ, right?
In Christ, by Christ being crucified for him. And it says that we
might live unto God. Well, the answer to that statement
there is in verse 20. For I, through the law, am dead
to the law. How? I'm crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. How might we live unto God? Well,
Christ lives 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. Remember, the flesh never changed,
right? The flesh didn't change. We have a new spirit within us
now, a new creature within us. We're new creatures in Christ.
Bodily, we didn't change, but inside. So that life that we
live is the life inside. Because physically we haven't
changed. Now we're new creatures in Christ. Now we live by the
faith of the Son. That's what's being brought forth
here. This life here isn't physical life, it's spiritual life, beloved.
It's spiritual life. Because again, physically we
haven't changed, but oh, we sure changed inside, haven't we? Oh,
we have. We have. We have new thoughts. Thoughts about God that we never
had before. Thoughts about the scriptures that we never had
before. Thoughts about the gospel that we never had before. Thoughts
about the Lord's people that we never had before. It's amazing. It's absolutely incredible. And
it's all a work of God. And each true born-again blood-washed
believer in Christ can proclaim that I'm dead to the law. How? Because I'm crucified with Christ
and now I might live unto God by that new life within me. Now,
do we battle with the flesh all the time? Oh, yeah, we do, don't
we? Oh, yeah. That's why the scripture says
the spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak. I'll tell you
what. Now we understand why Paul said,
oh, wretched man that I am. And now we understand the joy
that he felt and that there's no condemnation to those in Christ
Jesus who walk not of the flesh, but what? After the spirit. See,
it's an inward life now. It's an inward life. It's incredible. So every, again, true blood-washed
believer can proclaim, I'm dead to the law, that I might live
unto God, that I might live unto God. Now again, now we joyfully
live lives unto God, unto our great King. I'm dead to the law that I may
live unto God, because the life that I now live in the flesh,
I live by what? The faith of the Son of God. I used to live
a life that was all self, because I had a dead nature. You see? Now I'm born again. Now I live
by the faith of the Son of God, right? We live by God-given faith. Look into Christ, what we never
did before. It's just absolutely incredible
that God would take a dead rebel and make him alive, and then
turn his praises into sacrifice joy! praising him, and giving
him all the glory. It's absolutely incredible. In the preaching of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the believer in Christ finds out
the reason why Christ came down from heaven. We find the reason.
Because we often say, Christ died for me? Yes, and there's
a reason for it. There's a purpose for it. There's
a reason for it. And through the preaching of
the gospel, we find out that Christ came down from heaven
to save us from our sins. To save us from our sins. Why? Well, who loved me and gave himself for me. Oh, my. So through the preaching
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we find out that the
sinless, holy Son of God left heaven. The second person of
the Trinity, very God of God, just as much God as the Father
and just as much God as the Holy Spirit, the Son of God, left
heaven. Left heaven. came into this world,
beloved, born of a virgin, a body already prepared for Him by the
Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit of God. Comes into this
world, this sin-cursed world, right? But it's His world, isn't
it? He made it. But when He made it, it was perfect,
wasn't it? But it's still His world! He's still King! He's
born King, beloved! The very King of Kings becomes
a man. The Lord of Lords becomes a man.
Why? Because He loved me. And He's come to give Himself
for me. Why? Isn't that amazing? There's sinners who Christ loves. They're sinners who Christ gave
himself for. And when the Lord saves us, we
marvel that we're included in that number, don't we? I'm part
of that number. No wonder we say for the rest
of our lives, glory be to God. Praise his mighty name. No wonder
our hearts are filled with praise and joy and love as the Holy
Spirit works in us and teaches us what Christ done for us. It's
absolutely amazing. And we see here, Paul bringing
this grand subject too. It's a grand subject, beloved.
In our studies in John 17, we've seen the love of God, the eternal
love of God is the very reason why Christ came, to save his
people from their sins. And here we see it too. Paul's
bringing forth this grand subject of the eternal love of Christ
and his substitutionary death for us, his eternal love of his
people, and then his giving, sacrificial giving of his life
for us. He's the sinless one, we're the
sinners. And it also brings out the great
eternal love of God for his people. Look at this. He puts to the forefront first
the love of God, And then he puts to the forefront
that love is now manifested because Christ gave his life for us. So he talks first about the love,
who loved me. That's an eternal love, unchanging
love, right? And then he shows the manifestation
of that love who gave himself for me, the sinless one, gave
himself for me. Every believer can say that.
See, these words of Paul are suitable for all of us, aren't
they? We who are his people. He gave himself. No wonder the
believer desires now. No wonder we now desire to live
for God. Christ has loved me with an eternal
love. And He gave Himself for me to manifest that love to me?
My, all I want to do is serve my King now. Used to shake my
fist at Him, right? By our sin. But now, all that's
forgiven, beloved. It's all gone. The only one who
thinks about it is us. You ever think of that? In God's
eyes, our sins are gone, beloved. But it's we who drag ourselves
through the mud, right? God's forgiven us for all our
sins, beloved. Let us rejoice. Let us confess
our sin, but let us rejoice that they're all forgiven. They're
all forgiven. My. And this compels us to be
in awe and wonder that the Lord Jesus Christ, the sinless one,
would love me, would love me a sinner, and would give his
life for me. And this is something that the
believer never gets over. Paul's even mentioning it here.
It's something we're never gonna get over, the fact that Christ
loved me and gave himself for me. We're never gonna get over
that, beloved. I hope we never do. It's wondrous,
isn't it? It's absolutely wondrous. And
remember, it's the Holy Spirit who inspired Paul to write these
words that are fitting for us too, right? We know that if we were left
to ourselves, if I had been left to myself, I'd have been right
to my doom, beloved. I know it. I know it. I'd have just been doing the
same thing that I was doing till the day I died, if God had just
left me where I was. You know how I know that? I got
high school friends on Facebook, you know what they're doing?
Lord hasn't saved them and they're still doing everything. And I'd
have been right there beside them with a big ol' smile on
my face. But by God's grace and mercy,
He rescued me. Remember this, if you're a child
of God, He rescued you. He rescued you. He rescued me.
He saved us from our sins. He rescued us, beloved. My. God sent his son to save us from
our sins by the shedding of his precious, precious blood to redeem
us, to purchase us out from under the law. That's why we're dead
to the law now. He's purchased us out from under
the law by the shedding of his blood. The redemption price was
his blood and he redeemed us, the giving of his life and he
redeemed us out from under the law. And His grace and mercy is so
wondrously bought forth in this verse, isn't it? And marvel at
this, beloved God, that we're now dead to the world. Now we're
dead to the world, but we're alive unto God now. Isn't that
amazing? We still carry this body of flesh
around, but we're dead to the world, but now we're alive to
God. And we have a vital union with Christ now. He's the head,
we're the body. He's the vine, we're the branches.
And that fruit again comes up through the vine, doesn't it?
A branch can't make no fruit by itself. You cut a branch off
a tree, it just dies. But you leave that branch attached
to that vine, that trunk, it'll produce leaves, won't it, and
fruit. And the leaves are just a different kind of fruit, right?
If it's an apple tree, then it'll produce apples. My oh my. It's amazing. So note this blessed
union with Christ here before us. The new creature in Christ,
we have a new nature which guides us and directs us. Now we look
to Christ instead of looking to self. Now we look to Christ
for salvation instead of looking at our own works. Let's read verse 20 again, it
says, 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 gonna close with a few verses
here, listen to these. Deuteronomy 7, 8. But because
the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which
he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord bought you, out
with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the land, the house
of the bondman, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." Deuteronomy
7 verse 8. Now, in that it's talking about
Israel being delivered from Egypt, but remember, the world's a type
of Egypt, right? We've been delivered from the
world, beloved. We've been released and set free, redeemed from the
bondman, from the strongman, from Satan and our sin. We've
been redeemed. We've been redeemed by the blood
of Christ. We say, praise be to our great God. And then 1
John 4.10 said, here in his love, not that we love God, but he
loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins,
to be the sacrifice for our sins. That's how God manifested his
love for us. He sent his sinless son to die
in our room and place. And then, and then, even when
we were dead in trespasses and sins, Christ still loved us. Because this love, remember,
is an eternal love. Now, how do we know that? Well, the scripture
says we love him because he first loved us. How long has he loved
us for? From eternity. That's a long
time. It doesn't end. Isn't that amazing? Oh, so marvel at these words,
beloved God. Marvel at these words, the last
part of this text here. He loved me. and he gave himself
for me. Paul's love for Christ is being
brought forth here by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. And
Paul so passionately hangs everything on Christ here, doesn't he? This
verse, he hangs everything on Christ in this verse. And he
sums it up with the very fact that Christ loved me and gave
himself for me. That's just zipping it right
up, isn't it? That's finishing it right up. And Paul views Christ's great
love for his people as the cause of him giving himself for him.
And again, he views the effect of that great love, the manifestation
of that great love, by the fact that Christ gave himself for
him. My, my, and may we who are the
people of God rejoice. May we rejoice. This is wonderful.
This is incredible. Absolutely incredible that God
has loved us with an eternal love, and that God the Son gave
himself for us. Wonder of wonders, it's just
absolutely amazing.