Well, I need to first say what
a joy it is to be here tonight. I've had the privilege of being
here all week and working with the students at the Master's
Seminary. And many of them are here tonight and I'm so glad
to look into your faces and see you. And others of you have become
very dear friends of mine. Whenever I come to Grace, I always
feel like I'm going to a high school reunion, or a college
reunion and seeing old friends that I haven't seen in a while.
So it is so good to be with you and I'm so grateful for your
pastor extending this invitation to me. I know he's begun a series
on the book of Acts and he's laying this foundation and I'm
so thankful that he would allow me to step in at this time and
my prayer is that the Lord would greatly encourage us. many times
have stood in this pulpit and it's a shepherd's conference
or a strange fire or something like that and the type of message
is a...is a polemic message and usually trying to combat something
that's out there, fight the good fight. But tonight, I really
would like to bring a more...far more pastoral message. and to
encourage you in the Lord and to strengthen your commitment
to the Lord Jesus Christ and to remind you some of the mercies
that He has bestowed upon you. So, I invite you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to the book of Galatians, Galatians
chapter 2 and tonight I want to focus on just one verse. I
want to focus on Galatians 2 and verse 20. The title of the message
is, A Life-Changing Encounter with the Living Christ. I want
to begin by reading what will be our text for tonight and to
set it before your eyes and before your hearts again and we'll work
our way through this wonderful verse. The Apostle Paul writes. I have been crucified with Christ
and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me
and gave Himself up for me." Some verses in the Bible are
such a profound statement of faith. that they immediately
become favorite verses. They seem to reach higher and
tower over other verses in the Bible. It's not that they're
any more inspired because all Scripture is inspired by God
and all texts are equally inspired. But these verses state the truth
in such a profound and pungent way that they become etched in
our minds and anchored in our hearts. I believe Galatians 2
verse 20 is such a verse, such a succinct statement of profound
truth. For most of us here tonight,
it is one of our favorite verses in the Bible. Now for some of
you here tonight, it is your singular most favorite verse
in the Bible, perhaps a life verse. For virtually all of us,
we can almost quote it from memory. Even if you were never a part
of Awana, you can quote it from memory because it's just found
its way into our heart and it means so much to us as Christians. And for each of us who are truly
converted to Christ, this text is our testimony. It is our spiritual
autobiography. In this verse, Paul is intensely
personal. In fact, he could not speak any
more in the first person. I want you to look at the verse
one more time with me and note the number of times the Apostle
Paul says, I or me. Watch as I read it. I have been
crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but
Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me
and gave Himself up for me." In this one verse, Paul says,
I, or me, a total of seven times. I'm not aware of another verse
in Scripture in which Paul is more personal with us as he writes. This verse for Paul reminds us
that Christianity is not an institutional religion. It is not a religion
of outward facades and empty ritual. Instead, Christianity
is all about personally knowing Jesus Christ and for Jesus Christ
to live within our hearts. Christianity is Christ. It is knowing Christ. It is following
Christ. It is loving Christ. It is worshiping
Christ. It is obeying Christ. Christianity
is Christ. And Paul tells us in this verse
of our glorious union with Christ and the fact that Jesus lives
within every believer and it could not be any more intimate
and personal and close than what Paul describes here in this text. And so I want us to look carefully
tonight at this passage. I want us to dig into this gold
mine. I want us to open the treasure
vault and pull out some of the nuggets and some of its diamonds
and that tonight we would be greatly blessed as we are reminded
of the glorious relationship that we have with our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. There are three main headings
as I look at verse 20 that I want to set before you. And the first,
as we begin looking at verse 20, is Paul's crucifixion with
Christ. And Paul begins by telling us
here that he has suffered a devastating death in his own life. And he begins in verse 20, I
have been crucified with Christ. Now Paul is saying that when
Jesus died upon the cross, He died with Christ upon the cross. Now Paul, of course, is not speaking
literally in the sense that Paul was physically present at Calvary
some twenty years earlier when Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem. And Paul is not saying that he
was like one of the thieves on both sides of Christ, that he
was there on a real cross being crucified while Jesus was being
crucified. Instead, Paul is saying something
far more profound. He speaks of his union with Christ,
that whatever was experienced by the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul
also experienced. By virtue of being in Christ,
everything that happened to Christ happened to Paul. When Paul on
the Damascus Road was converted to the Lord Jesus Christ, he
instantly became a believer and when he believed in Jesus Christ,
he was placed in Christ. And by being in Christ, those
experiences that happened to Christ now happened to Paul because
he was in Christ. This truth is known as the believer's
union with Christ. It is sometimes called the believer's
mystical union with Christ. It is the truth that when we
believe in Jesus Christ, we are placed into Christ. And His death
becomes our death. His resurrection becomes our
resurrection. His ascension becomes our ascension. And His enthronement becomes
our being seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. The Scottish theologian John
Murray writes that this truth of the believer's union with
Christ is, quote, the central truth of the whole doctrine of
salvation, close quote. The great German Reformer Martin
Luther writes, concerning our union with Christ, you are so
cemented to Christ. that He and you are as one person
which cannot be separated but remains attached to Him forever. We as believers in Jesus Christ
are inseparably identified with Christ and it is as if we died
His physical painful death with Him. It is as if we were raised
from the dead with Him. It is as though we are seated
with Him now in heavenly places. This is our union with Christ. I want you, if you would, please,
to turn back to Romans chapter 6 and I want us to look at a
parallel passage that the Apostle Paul has written to the Romans
that fleshes this out just a little bit more. This spiritual union
that every believer has with Christ is taught so clearly in
this passage in Romans chapter 6. Beginning in verse 3, the
Apostle Paul writes, Or do you not know? And when he begins
verse 3 this way, he is saying that this is a basic elementary
truth in the Christian faith, that you ought to know this.
This is a basic theological doctrinal truth. So he says in verse 3,
do you not know? It's a rhetorical question, the
answer of which is, yes you do know this. that all of us who
have been baptized into Christ Jesus. This refers to spirit
baptism, not water baptism. There is not a drop of water
in Romans chapter 6. This is the work of God the Holy
Spirit placing us into Christ Jesus. To be identified, to be
baptized with Christ means we are immersed into Christ. We
are placed into Christ, that we are now in this glorious position
in Christ. And then he says, we who have
been baptized into Christ have been baptized into His death. Which is to say, we are so one
with Jesus Christ and we have been placed into Christ that
when He died upon the cross for our sins, we died to sin. In verse 4, therefore we have
been buried with Him. Not only have we been crucified
with Him, but we have been buried with Him through baptism into
death so that as Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory
of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. This being
raised with Christ speaks of being raised to a new life in
Christ, that we are dead to our old life. We are alive to a new
life in Christ and we have been dramatically changed by being
placed into Christ. He continues in verse 5, for
if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death,
certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.
Verse 6, knowing this, that our old self. That is everything
that we once were in Adam. And let me remind us all that
we were all in Adam and when Adam sinned, we sinned. And when
Adam fell, we fell. And when death came to Adam,
death came to us because of our identity with Adam. There is a sense in which there
are only two men in the history of the world, Adam and Christ. And everyone is in either Adam
or they are in Christ. They are either in death or they
are in life. And when we were born into this
world, we were born in Adam. That's why we have to be born
again in order that we might be placed in Christ. But when
Adam sinned, we sinned. When he fell, we fell. And when
death came to him, death came to us. That is why we were born. We went forth from our mother's
womb speaking lies. So, verse 6, knowing this, that
our old self, all that we were in Adam, was crucified with him. Verse 8, now if we have died
with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. In these verses we see we've
been crucified with Christ, we have been buried with Christ,
we have been raised with Christ and we now live with Christ. This is our union with Christ. In Ephesians chapter 2 and in
verse 5, Paul teaches this very same foundational truth that
John Murray says really becomes the cornerstone of understanding
salvation. In Ephesians 2 and verse 5, Paul
says, Paul writes, even when we were dead in our transgressions,
God made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been
saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We have been made alive with
Christ, we have been raised up with Christ and we are now seated
with Christ. In Colossians chapter 2 and in
verse 12, the Apostle Paul writes exactly the same truth. And in Colossians 2 and verse
12, Paul writes, having been buried with Him in baptism, and
this refers to Spirit baptism, in which you were also raised
up with Him. through faith in the working
of God who raised Him from the dead. And then at the end of
verse...or in verse 13, when you were dead in your transgressions
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together
with Him. What a glorious union we have
with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are placed into Christ. And each of these realities that
came true in the life of Christ have now become true in our own
lives. While you're hearing Colossians
2, look at verse 20. Paul reiterates this very same
truth again. He writes, if you have died with
Christ, and really that could be translated, since you have
died with Christ, to the elementary principles of the world. This
is just a fundamental truth. And look at chapter 3 and verse
3. For you have died and your life
is hidden with Christ in God." What a basic truth this is in
the Christian life. When Jesus died for sin, Paul
died to sin. When Jesus was raised from the
dead, Paul was raised to newness of life. When Jesus ascended
into heaven, Paul ascended. and was presented faultless before
the throne, when Jesus was seated at the right hand of the Father,
Paul was seated with Him in the heavenly places. And what was
true for Paul is true for every one of us here tonight who have
believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit has
placed us into Christ and these glorious truths have become reality
in our lives. We have died to our old life.
We have died to our old self. We are now alive unto God and
we are alive unto a new life which the Lord has given to us.
Come back, if you would, to Galatians now chapter 2 and we have...what
we have seen is that this is a primary teaching for the Apostle
Paul. This is foundational for understanding
the Christian life. And so when Paul says in Galatians
2 verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ, a couple of things
to point out here. First of all, in the original
language, this verb tense, have been crucified, is a verb tense
that signifies completed action in the past with ongoing continuous
consequences. What Paul is saying, when I was
crucified with Christ, I was crucified once and for all. My old life, the old Paul is
dead and buried. The old Paul will never come
back to life again. The old Paul was crucified and
he is dead to his former manner of life. The second thing to
let you see here, in the original language, this is a passive voice
verb, meaning Paul didn't do this. He says, I have been crucified,
someone else did this to me and it was God who crucified the
Lord Jesus...crucified the Apostle Paul as soon as he believed in
Jesus Christ. And the other thing I would draw
to your attention is that the word Christ in the original language
begins the sentence. And that is called putting it
in the emphatic position. That is what Paul wants to draw
our attention to. It's not to the personal pronoun
I, it is to the reality of Jesus Christ. All of these mentions
of I, four times he says I in verse 20, three times he says
me. Paul's not trying to make himself
out to be the hero of this verse by continually talking about
himself. He is glorying in the Lord Jesus
Christ and he puts Christ at the very beginning of this sentence
to draw our attention to this. This literally reads, Christ
I have been crucified with. So that the whole focus is upon
the glorious work of Jesus Christ and Paul is saying all that is
good in Him is the result of Jesus Christ. Beloved, this is
good news because all of us, what we once were before we were
converted, we were in Adam, we were carnal, we were fleshly,
we were dead in sin, we were alive to the things of the world
and that old self needed to die if we are to live a new life.
We have more than just pardon and forgiveness. We have more
than just a new standing before God, as glorious as that is. We actually have a new life in
Christ and our old life is over. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creation. The old things have passed away
and behold, new things have come. This is where Paul begins this
verse, his crucifixion with Christ. Two thousand years ago when Jesus
hung on that cross, there is a very real sense that you were
in Christ and when He died, you died with Him. He died for your
sin, but you died with Christ and you died to sin. My home
church where I was called to preach is in Memphis, Tennessee,
a church called Bellevue Baptist Church. Adrian Rogers was the
pastor that I was under when I was called to preach, a powerful
preacher of the Word of God. Many years before Adrian Rogers
was the pastor, there was a very famous Baptist preacher who really
was the man who made this wonderful church what it became. His name
was R.G. Robert G. Lee, and when I was
called into the ministry, he was about 90 years old, and some
ladies in the church set up for me to go see R.G. Lee and go
to his house and sit down and talk to him about going into
the ministry. Well many years earlier, he made
his first trip to the Holy Land. And he took a group of people
from the church and led them on the trip to the Holy Land.
It was the first time that he had ever gone. They eventually
made their way to Jerusalem and then they went to Golgotha, to
Calvary. And as they gathered there, the
tour guide said, how many of you have ever been to Calvary? Dr. Lee raised his hand. And
the tour guide said, now wait a minute, you said at the airport
you have never come to Jerusalem and to the Holy Land and Calvary.
And R.G. Lee said the truth. I was here
two thousand years ago, I was in Christ and when He died, I
died. When I was in my youth group
many years ago, we used to sing a chorus. Were you there when
they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified
my Lord? Oh, oh, oh, sometimes it causes
me to tremble. Were you there when they crucified
my Lord? If you are a believer in Jesus
Christ, you were there and you were more than just there, you
were being crucified with Christ as He hung upon that cross and
you were dying to your old life, you were dying to your old self,
you were dying to the Law and all the requirements of it in
order to have a works righteousness, there was a death to your life. and you no longer are the same
person, that old self has been crucified and has been buried. That's the first truth Paul tells
us here. And that ought to be a source
of enormous encouragement to us tonight. Some people, and
no doubt in a large gathering of believers like we have here
tonight, some people carry the past around with them. They carry
haunting memories of sin and they carry sometimes a sense
of guilt that they should not. They must...you must remember,
if you would be one of those, that not only have you been pardoned
in full by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He
has washed you from the top of your head to the bottom of your
feet, and you have been presented faultless before the throne of
God. But you should also know that that old life that you once
lived before you came to Christ, you have been crucified with
Christ and you have been buried with Christ and it is a once
and for all death and that old life will never raise its ugly
head again. That's the first, Paul's crucifixion
with Christ. Now second, I want you to note,
Paul's communion with Christ. As we continue to look at verse
20, Paul writes these words, and it is no longer I who live. What Paul is saying, the old
Paul is no longer living. His old life is over. He is talking about His spiritual
life before conversion. He is...it is no longer I who
live. That old Paul is dead. And that
old person you once were is dead and you no longer live, that
old person. He then says, but Christ lives
in me. We have been raised with Christ,
we are now a new person and we have a new life and in this new
person, Jesus Christ now lives in us. The word lives here is
in the present tense. We have been crucified in the
past and it's over. But we now in the present live
every moment of every day with Jesus Christ living and reigning
within us. When he says, Christ lives in
me, he is referring to the new Paul, the new man that he is
now by grace in Jesus Christ. The crucified Christ has been
raised from the dead. Jesus is alive. Only a living
man can live inside of us. And Paul is saying that Christ
is alive, He has been raised from the dead and He now lives
and He lives in me and that old Paul died but Christ now lives
in the new Paul. That is what he is saying. And
all this means that Paul is an entirely new person by the grace
of God because the old Paul is no longer alive and the new Paul
is fully alive and there is another person now living inside of him
and this person is Jesus Christ. Think about that. Christ lives
in us. Colossians 1, 27 says, Christ
in you, not merely near us, He's not merely next to us, He's not
merely upon us in a superficial way, He actually lives in us
by His Spirit. Jesus lives at the very deepest
level of our being. It is not a superficial relationship
that we have with Him. No, it is a living relationship. He lives in the depths of our
soul. He could not be any more at the
very epicenter of our being. And because Christ lives in us,
His life becomes our life. His thoughts become our thoughts. His priorities become our priorities. His passions, our passions. What He loves, we are now loving. And what He hates, we are now
hating. Jesus lives in us and He is living
His life out through us. What a supernatural life we live
in the Christian life. Christianity is not so much us
living for Christ as Christ living in us and through us. The reason that we live for Christ
is because Christ lives in us and He gives us the grace and
He gives us the power to live for Him and it is from the inside
out. Jesus lives in us. That means
He is directing us. He is driving us. He's not just
hanging out in us in a passive way. No, to the contrary, Jesus
lives in us and this means He dominates my new life that He
has given to me. He is the Lord of my life and
He now empowers me. He enables me. He equips me. He energizes me and every demand
upon my life is in reality a demand upon Christ who lives in me to
supply me all that I need. We now live in Christ, by Christ,
for Christ, through Christ, and to Christ. No wonder we say the
Christian life is Christ. He is everything to us. He is
the Alpha and the Omega, not only of our salvation but of
our sanctification as well. What an encouragement this should
be to us tonight, that each one of us who are believers Our lives
have become the royal residence for the King of kings and the
Lord of lords. Our very heart has become His
throne room and He lives within us. He is reigning within us. And no matter where we go, Christ
lives in us. And no matter what we face, Christ
lives in us. And no matter what we are called
upon to do in the will of God, Christ lives in us. And He supplies
all that we need to meet every challenge, to resist every temptation,
to persevere in every trial. We are never alone. Christ is
in partnership with us. And in reality, He is the Lord
over us. So Paul, as he writes to the
Galatians. talks about not only His crucifixion
with Christ, but His very communion with Christ and the close fellowship
that he has with the living Christ moment by moment. He is closer
to Christ than any earthly relationship that he has. He is closer to
Christ than any communion that he would ever have with another
person because Christ is in him on the very inside. Finally,
I want you to see Paul's confidence in Christ. And Paul wants us
to know that though it is Christ who lives in him, this does not
mean that Paul is passive or inactive. To the contrary, Paul
is actively moving out by faith and moving forward by faith as
he lives his Christian life. Notice how verse 20 continues.
and the life which I now live in the flesh." Talking about
his...this life in his mortal body, this life in his daily
life. And when he says, in the life
which I now live in the flesh, Paul is referring to this new
life in Christ that is contained in his...in his flesh. He says, I live by faith in the
Son of God. When he says, I live by faith,
again this verb tense, I live is in the present tense, meaning
every moment of every day. In contrast with him being crucified
with Christ in the past, now every step of life's journey,
he lives by faith in the Son of God. Paul now lives by trusting
in Christ. looking to Christ, leaning on
Christ, relying upon Christ, resting in Christ. Paul is saying
as he trusts Christ moment by moment, Christ is working in
him and Christ is working through him and enabling him to do all
that he does. In fact, this is really a statement
of the sufficiency of Christ in the life of the believer.
that he lives by faith simply in the sole object of Jesus Christ. The idea is he finds everything
that he needs in Christ as he lives his Christian life. Faith
in Christ and in Christ alone is for Paul to live a dynamic,
victorious life that Christ is enough. And if you have Christ,
you have everything that you could possibly need. This emphasis
upon faith here is very intentional by Paul. It is a truth that he
began talking about in verse 16. If you would let your eye
look a few verses earlier in verse 16, Paul makes a very strong
statement about justification by faith. Paul says, and I want
you to note, too, the negative denial and the positive assertion
in this verse. There's no wiggle room when you
speak with negative denial and positive assertion. Paul is a
master theologian. Paul is a master teacher. He
makes this statement now with pinpoint accuracy. There can
be no misunderstanding with what Paul is saying. A man is not
justified by the works of the Law, but through faith in Christ."
Negative denial, denial, positive assertion. In other words, we
cannot work our way to heaven. We cannot try to meet the requirements
of the Law and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps in order
to find acceptance with a holy God in heaven. He says we are
not justified by the works of the Law. but through faith in
Christ Jesus. That Jesus has met all the requirements
of the Law and when we put our faith in Christ, His perfect
keeping of the Law is imputed to us, it is reckoned to our
accounts and we are clothed with His very perfect righteousness. He continues to write in verse
16, even we have believed in Christ Jesus. so that we may
be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law,
since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified."
What a stark contrast Paul is making here between one trying
to justify themselves before God by the works of the law and
the other by putting faith in Jesus Christ. And Paul says no
one can be saved by keeping the works of the Law, it is by faith
alone in Christ alone. And as he writes this, it is
a strong polemic against the Judaizers who had come into the
churches of Galatia and had brought this teaching of trying to put
the people under the Law in order that they might try to work their
way to heaven. And Paul slam-dunks that false
gospel and in this verse, verse 16, he says how salvation comes. Earlier in the first chapter,
he said, if anyone preaches another gospel, let him be accursed. There is no other way of salvation
but through faith in Jesus Christ. Well as we come down to verse
20, Paul is speaking not of justification but of sanctification. And the
Judaizers not only were corrupting the gospel, but for those who
were already justified by faith alone, the Judaizers were trying
to derail their Christian life. and put them back under the Law,
the ceremonial Law, and trying to lead them into the practice
of circumcision as adults, and the practice of holy feasts,
and all of the rituals of the Old Testament ceremonial Law. And so as Paul writes what he
does here in verse 20, it is a very strong refuting of the
Judaizers who are trying to put the believers back under the
law that has been fulfilled at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
and is no longer in standing. So that is why in verse 20 Paul
is emphasizing, I live by faith in the Son of God, that Paul
is not capitulating to the false teaching of the Judaizers and
he is wanting the Galatians and he is wanting you and me to stand
strong in our faith in Jesus Christ. Now this faith does not
mean that there are not requirements of obedience in the Christian
life. If we said that there were not, that would be antinomianism.
No, we are to obey the commandments of Christ. And we are to obey
the imperatives in the New Testament and those in the Old Testament
that are reinforced in the New Testament. And so our faith in
Christ is a living faith, it is an obeying faith, but it is
faith in Christ. Now he comes to the end of verse
20. And he tells us why he is so motivated to live by faith
in Christ. And he adds this, who loved me
and gave Himself up for me. Who could not put faith in a
Savior like this, who so loved us unconditionally? that when
He went to the cross, there He was lifted up to die and He bore
our sins in His body upon the cross. He suffered under the
wrath of God. He shed His blood to make an
atonement for our sins. And Christ did this with eternal
love, infinite love, indescribable love. He loved us and gave Himself
up. for us." And this love points
back to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Christ demonstrated
His love, He gave Himself up for us. No one took His life.
He gave it intentionally, volitionally. He was not a victim. He was a
victor at the cross. He had authority to lay His life
down. He had authority to take it back
up again. His blood was not spilt. His blood was poured out. He
gave Himself up for us on that cruel cross. That horrific execution,
that torturous death that He suffered upon that cross. And
Paul says, this is why I'm so motivated to live for Him. If
the Lord Jesus Christ died for me, then I must live for Him.
If He gave Himself up for me, then I must give myself up for
Him. This for Paul was his driving
motivation. If you were to lift up the hood
of Paul's life and look down in the engine and see what was
driving his life. It was this supreme love of Jesus
Christ demonstrated towards Him at the cross as He gave Himself
up for Him. Now please note also that He
said, who loved Me and gave Himself up for Me. Other passages of
Scripture talk about...talks about Christ giving Himself up
for a world of Jews and a world of Gentiles. And other passages
talk about Christ dying for the church and for those who believe,
But here, this is so personal for Paul. It is as if if there
had been no one else in the world, Jesus would have died for me.
If no one else would have been the object of the Lord's death,
He died for me. This is where saving faith is
born. When you come to that place where
you say and believe, it's not just that He died for someone
else. but that He died for me upon that cross. He died in my
place. He suffered my death upon that
cross. It was my sin that was transferred
to Him. He shed His blood for me. He satisfied the wrath of God
towards me. He reconciled me to God. He redeemed me out of the slave
market of sin. It becomes...when it is this
personal. That is the soil in which saving
faith is born. When you come to the place where
you can say, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for
me upon that cross. I want to ask you tonight, can
you say that Christ Jesus has died for me upon Calvary's cross? That it is this personal, not
just that He died for a vast number that no man can count,
but that upon that cross He died for you to bear your sin and
to reconcile you to a holy God in heaven. This is the life-changing
encounter that Paul had with the living Christ. And it is
the very same life-changing encounter that every one of us today have
with Christ when we commit our lives to Him, for He is still
alive, He is still upon His throne and He still comes to live inside
those who put their faith and who put their trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It has been well said, if your
religion has not changed your life, you better change your
religion. because the real thing will dramatically and radically
change your life. There is no way you can say that
I have believed in Jesus Christ if you're still living the old
life, if you're still living as you once lived. Christ is
too powerful of a Savior. He is too strong in His death.
He changes everyone who commits their lives to Him. And so if
you have never believed upon Jesus Christ, I call you tonight. to turn to Him, to tell Him what
a sinner you are. He is the friend of sinners.
He loves to receive sinners and to crown His grace upon them. And if you would commit your
life to Jesus Christ, not by trying to keep the works of the
Law, but by personal faith in the living, risen Christ. If you would commit your life
to Christ tonight, He would immediately save you. He would save you from
the wrath of God. He would save you of an eternity
in hell. And He would come to live inside
of you. And He would change your life
dramatically. He would give you the very best
life anyone could ever live. And your old self would be...would
be dead. You would have been crucified
with Christ and there would be a resurrection within your soul
and you would be alive unto God and alive unto Christ and you
would live in newness of life, a brand new life. If you would believe upon Christ,
He will bring about this glorious transformation. And for those
of us who have already committed our lives to Christ, the greatest
adventure any of us can ever know is to walk with Christ. It is to follow Christ. It is
to have Christ living inside of us and to have the abundant
life that only Jesus Christ can give. Let us give thanks to our
great God in heaven for giving us such a glorious Savior who
has saved us, not only from the penalty of our sin, but has saved
us from our old life and who has given us now a new life in
Jesus Christ. Let us close in a word of prayer.
Father in heaven, how we thank You for Your amazing grace. that has been lavished upon such
sinners as we are. Thank You that You have justified
us by faith in Your Son, Jesus Christ. You have clothed us with
the perfect righteousness of Christ and You have already presented
us faultless before Your throne. How we thank You for this good
news, this indescribable good news. And Father, we thank You
that You have given Your Son to live inside of us and that
He is living out the reality through us of what You have called
us to do and to live and to be. I pray that tonight You would
make us all the more humble. as we would realize that the
living Christ has made His abode within us. I pray that You would
encourage our hearts and strengthen us as we live by faith in the
Son of God. And as we would be discouraged,
and as we would be filled with dismay, remind us that this Christ
loved us and He gave Himself up for us and that we are supremely
loved by our glorious Savior. May all discouragement be turned
into bright hope. because we have become the object
of His saving love. We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.