Galatians

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[2:37] In the epistle to the Galatians, chapter 2 and the 20th verse, the epistle to the Galatians, the second chapter and verse 20.

[3:26] I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

[3:43] And 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.

[3:59] In his address unto the churches of Galatia, we find that he uses a very different method of introduction unto them.

[4:22] In the other epistles, namely to the church at Ephesus and Colossae, you find that he so commences his introduction with the words that he is writing to them that are in Christ, that he is writing to the faithful in Christ Jesus.

[4:51] No such salutation precedes that which he brings forth in this epistle unto the churches of Galatia.

[5:03] But he does direct their minds and their hearts straight away unto the source of every blessing and every favor that is bestowed upon them, even in and through one person.

[5:25] And therefore he serves. Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever.

[6:02] You will oftentimes note that in his epistles, he is again and again rendering unto God the glory that is due unto his name, for all that has been made known unto him and to others concerning this great mystery, which is made known unto all them who are born again of the Spirit.

[6:33] And so here he takes us to the very source, he takes us to the very fountain of all that a sinner may indeed be the recipient of in the eternal grace of God toward him.

[6:52] And in consequence of that grace, there is the reconciliation unto God that he is no longer an enemy of God, but that he is brought into a sweet and a blessed relationship unto God, and the consequent peace, peace drilling the heart to that individual.

[7:21] The great source, he says, it is according to the will of God and our Father. Everything that relates unto your salvation, he declares, has its source and its origin in God and in God alone.

[7:41] It is not found in man. Whatever man may do, whatever he may say so to attempt to do, it will all fail.

[7:54] He is utterly unable to save his own soul. And the only reason that salvation is proclaimed is by reason of that great grace which is made manifest in God the Father, whereby, according to his own will, he was pleased so to draw up this wonderful plan of salvation.

[8:28] It is a marvelous thing to remember and remember that in our text there is a very personal touch. It is a wonderful thing to remember that before the foundation of the world, before time began, God knew everyone that he had so set apart to be the inheritors of those blessings which he would communicate unto them through the person and work of the Son of God.

[9:09] They would be brought to know them by the Holy Spirit's teaching. then in everything that relates unto our salvation, we are utterly and entirely dependent upon that will and that purpose of God in Christ Jesus.

[9:33] What a wonderful thing for you to know that your name, if you are a real Christian, that your name was recorded in connection with all that he set apart, his Son, unto this work of atonement and redemption, that your name was there and then inscribed and recorded upon the very heart of him who was to be the representative representative of all those whom the Lord so designed to bring unto himself that you were known before time began.

[10:17] This was always a matter of astonishment, you know, unto Paul. In much of the language that he uses, he realizes and confesses his utter inability to comprehend the magnitude and the greatness of that grace which had been bestowed upon him wholly and solely in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

[10:54] Oh, he ever had in his understanding and his recollection what he was by nature. He had constantly before him as he so oft times mentions it in these epistles of those seasons wherein he was an enemy of God, an enemy by wicked works, one who was fighting and rebelling against God.

[11:28] And yet he says, oh, the amazing wonder that God in his infinite grace and his manifested favor should so from all eternity have given me that place in the person and work of Jesus whereby I should be brought so to be made a partaker of the heavenly riches of that grace.

[12:02] If your conversion, my dear hero, if that wherein you have been made alive unto the things of God doth never cause you any astonishment or amazement, I very much doubt as to whether you are a Christian.

[12:23] If you are, then you will fall down at his feet. You will glorify and adore that wonderful grace of your Father in Christ Jesus that he in the greatness of the love that he bore towards you and of which Paul speaks in our text, that in the greatness of the love that he bore towards you, he gave that gift, yes, which is beyond all defining, but that gift of his only begotten Son that he should so come and represent you in his own person before the Father in everything that he did, in everything that he wrought, in all that was connection, that was in connection with his atonement, that in it all there was the presentation of yourself in him.

[13:42] I am crucified with Christ. There is a setting forth in the only begotten Son of God that wherein there is the answer unto the infinite holiness and the righteousness of God.

[14:05] It is according to the will of God and our Father. let me here for a moment stay and remind you that if thought of the work of grace has indeed been commenced within my heart, it is bound to be carried on.

[14:30] It is bound to be effectual in that wherein God hath so appointed the end. why? Because it is according to his will and he is in one mind and who can change him?

[14:50] There is nothing in the whole universe which shall ever be able as it were to persuade him to act in a different way which is not in accordance with his own will concerning you.

[15:07] Let the devil come. Let the whole host of hell come. Let everything that relates unto sin and its evil and the world and the flesh let them all come and they shall find that they are confounded that they are indeed brought to naught by that divine and infinite and immutable will of God towards you.

[15:35] in Christ Jesus. No wonder he declared that they are kept as a very apple of his eye. But again let us remember the wonder of it.

[15:52] He says it is according to the will of God and our Father. What is this will? What is that purpose?

[16:04] that that grace, that that peace might be in your possession as you are found in Christ Jesus in all his substitutionary work on your behalf on Calvary's tree.

[16:24] It is there that God accounted for that which was relative unto the sins of his people. He who is infinitely holy who can with no degree look upon sin nevertheless in that infinite righteousness so gave of his only begotten son that in him the sinless one the one who was separate from sinners the one who was undeviled that in him there might indeed be that wherein there is a lamb without blemish one who may indeed offer a pure offering unto God render a sacrifice for this people taking upon himself the burden of that which God hath laid upon him what that burden was it is indefinable we cannot conceive it that he the holy and the sinless one should in that precious manhood so have endured that wherein the sin of all his people was laid upon him but divinity's ingerling rays sustained him till nature was dead in everything that he did there is to be found that which is relative unto the fact that it is

[18:22] Emmanuel God with us God in his infinite perfection in his sinlessness rendering unto God all that his divine justice required at the hands of them who had sinned against his holy law yes here is one then who by reason of that offering gives such a blessed and a glorious and an eternal efficacy unto it there is no need for the offering to be repeated there is no need for that which is even maybe taking down being going on down the road this morning wearing that which is relative unto substantiation substantiation there may be the setting forth in the wafer that which they declare is a part of the body of

[19:30] Christ oh no let us remember it's only a simple fact but it may clear the way in some person's mind that when he broke the bread unto his disciples and said this is my body which is broken for you he was there in person at that time I repeat it he was there in person at that time no that which is relative unto the element the sign is but the symbol and the setting forth of the great work which he was going to perform for his people so he gave himself for our sins he gave himself what a wonderful expression that is don't you think we oftentimes read the word of God very glibly and flippantly oh yes we pass over these little words and these small sentences as though oh well they're all a part of that which is recorded in the chapter and we forget that in those significant paragraphs there are the great depths there is to be found the hidden treasure and we do well when we are brought to meditate and to contemplate not in that wherein we may so retain within our minds scripture but in that wherein we are brought in the word to behold him and to see him and to receive him and to know him as our own personal savior and redeemer yes here is he who is the express image of his person the brightness of the father's glory here is he who took upon himself that nature of thine yet without sin that he having your name recorded in his heart might indeed undertake for you that which he knew you could never possibly do for yourself and that outside himself you must be utterly lost destruction could be your only end and so in the infinite love of that one who loved me and gave himself for me he took upon himself that which related unto your own case bore it to the frost rendered unto

[22:43] God all that justice required send forth the triumphant cry it is finished commits his spirit unto his father rises again on that third day and now he is in glory and now his eye is upon us this very moment yea he is very near unto his people true he is always near in that which relates unto the whole of the universe but he is peculiarly and blessedly near unto them who are brought to know what sinners they are what dependence they alone have in him that all the blessings even in that wherein in the very babe and

[23:49] God hath revealed these things unto babes and it is in this that the Lord Jesus Christ gloried in as much unto the worldly ways and the prudent these things were hidden but to the one who becomes as a little child and except he becomes such he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven then unto such a babe a babe who doesn't know everything at once a babe in whom it takes time to discernment and understanding and so forth but even unto the babe he is pleased so to convey the blessings of what of eternal life that which he giveth shall grow what he giveth shall bear fruit to his honor and glory nevertheless

[24:54] I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me do you understand these truths do you say yes I do understand them because I believe that through the grace of God in Christ Jesus he hath made these things known to me by the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit hath taken the things of Christ and he made him very precious and very dear unto your soul you couldn't exist without him now could you your whole life as it were would seem to be such a blank such an emptiness apart from this dear friend this lover of your soul to whom you can have recourse yes that he might deliver you from this present evil world deliverance we're all a part of fallen mankind we have nothing to boast of against another no not one single degree of boasting if

[26:19] I look around if I see them whose eyes are blinded that they cannot see the blessedness of the gospel I remind myself that's me that is exactly the position in which I was in oh yes I may have been brought up by godly parents it may have been a habitual practice with me to have so attended upon the means of grace but in that which is relative to any real personal personal intimate realization of union with Christ I was utterly destitute of it meant nothing to me it was foolishness nonsense such it always is unto the world the world by wisdom knew not god and everything that relates unto the gospel is absolute nonsense unto him the natural mind cannot receive the things of the spirit he may theorize he may philosophize about these things but it doesn't bring him into the realization of his own state and condition why because he's always working and striving for something that he may attain to in and of himself he has not the glory of god in view but art thou then delivered from this present evil world oh yes you are not what you were you live in the world you are still a part of it it is the life which you now live in the flesh it is like our lord said in his intercessory prayer

[28:28] I pray not that thou should take them out of the world but that thou should keep them from the evil and he has put into your heart that which is the communication of his grace to you in Christ Jesus that you have a different taste you have a different outlook you have a different mind to that which the world possesses you can find it when you talk with sons why to them it doesn't mean a thing and it means everything to you to them it is sheer oh they might say that the man is indeed mad why they called poor mad didn't they and yet you were never more sane in your life than when you could declare what the grace of

[29:35] God had done to you so we see that I have said these things as the foundation as it were unto the testimony of Paul which he is now giving vent to I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ live in me and the life I now live I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me now you know Paul's heart was very troubled it almost when you read this epistle to the church of Galatians as though you can detect the agonizing of his own mind and soul relative unto certain people who were so found in connection with this glorious truth which he is setting forth before them he said

[30:45] I came to you he said and I preached the gospel of Christ I made known unto you these glorious truths and he heard them and he received them and he professed them but oh he said even in that wherein there was the ingathering there was the ingathering likewise unawares of those who were only out as it were to spy out and to seek out your liberty in Christ that wherein you had you are rejoicing in him and him alone and they tried to almost as it were declare unto you a different gospel he said they perverted the gospel people and why because these

[31:53] Jewish people who had come amongst them would so have this people so to revert unto that which was relative unto the Lord to those things which had been so involved in all the temple worship and ritual they wanted them to come back to circumcision oh yes they wanted to mix the gospel with that which was relative to their own works and he said all foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ have been evidently set forth crucified among you this only would

[32:54] I learn of you receive ye the spirit by the works of the Lord or by the hearing of faith are ye so foolish having begun in the spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh and such was his indignation against them that troubled them that he declared I would that they were even cut off that troubled you you say what extravagant language it was needful in the circumstances here were they who were seeking to draw many of these people away from that blessed of liberty which they possessed in Christ crucified so he comes down to his own personal testimony he declared that through the

[34:02] Lord he was dead to the Lord that he might live unto God he said I am crucified with Christ you know there are three things in our text there is set before us crucifixion with Christ and I attest unto it that every one of us if we are indeed saved according to the will of God in Christ Jesus will be brought to know that we were that we are crucified with Christ and if we are crucified with Christ then there is Christ living in the believer he says nevertheless

[35:03] I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and as the result of Christ living in the believer there is the experience and the fruit that cometh forth from such a union listen for a moment unto that which relates unto the testimony of Paul in this matter what is he declaring he says I am in union with him I am crucified with Christ ah when it pleased God to reveal his son in him on that way which he was taking to Damascus it changed the whole of the individual not in that wherein in his own flesh and in his own nature there was change but it was in that wherein there was in that revelation which was given unto him an entirely new conception and realization of the one against whom he had been fighting the one whom he had been persecuting and of that wherein he had thought that he had been magnifying

[36:38] God in the keeping of the law and so forth he had been directly doing the very opposite so he says when that glorious Jesus so shone forth into my soul in the radiance of that light which blinded my eyes for the time to all upward things shut me up unto the inward glory that radiance which fueled my soul that brought in me such prayer such desires such longings such confessions and then to know that glorious fact that the God who had appeared unto me on the way to Damascus was that

[37:39] God yes that God who had come to give him his sight that God who had come to give him a realization of the truth of that wherein true religion did consist and he said I owed it everything to him everything that I was brought then to see concerning my former blindness everything that I was brought to see concerning my own working trying to obtain righteousness in and of myself ah when he came and he showed me these things Paul went out of the light altogether Paul went out of the picture there was only one that remained and that was Christ and he became all things unto me and

[38:43] I possessed everything in him and why because in that blessed atoning work which he had effected and obviously Paul was a witness because he declares henceforth we know no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh he had known him persecuted him crucified him yes and yet in all that where he had been so engaged that is brought home to his soul the necessity of that which Christ had done for him and what had he done for him he had opened his eyes and stopped his ears given him a right understanding of the word of God even as he went into

[39:43] Arabia and there studied the word of God before he returned to Damascus to preach the glorious gospel in all its fullness O sinner if thou art crucified with Christ thou shalt likewise have a testimony to give it shall be a testimony of that wherein you have been brought into union with him you will say what have made me to differ why this difference in me I can't boast in myself of anything that I have done so that I am now the recipient of this is the result of what the will of God in Christ Jesus has done for me he's done it all and so he says I was in Christ otherwise

[40:44] I should never have known these things the very revelation of Christ done to him the hope of glory as he declares why it is in that revelation that he saw everything in Christ and he saw that wherein he had been crucified with Christ and he declares that in my life I am crucified with Christ yes he saw that blessed substitute it wasn't what he had done it was what that glorious substitute had done for him oh as all that which is relative to the mountains of sin may rise up before him he looks at the blessed lamb of God he looks at that one who died for sinners and his eyes are opened unto the love that so freely gave of this blessed gift for him this substitute this one who represented him for he had for that is

[42:06] Jesus had no need to die for himself it was only in that where Paul was involved and blessed be God if you can say and I too was involved well if we know that there is going to be a blessed effect and Paul is telling them that this is the effect he said I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I cross it out take it away not I but Christ live it in me oh go away now and ponder over this blessed and wonderful revelation of love of God in Christ Jesus ponder it meditate upon it that herein

[43:09] God is satisfied herein the poor sinner who by faith looks unto Jesus as his only hope of salvation is justified never to suffer condemnation but justified freely by his grace one with Jesus I am crucified with Christ amen shall we now sing in 770 words to know my Jesus crucified by time excels all things decided all earthly good

[44:11] I count her love triumph in my savior strong 770 words sing in whether they could puede share them say The church consults and exorcical, thrilling joy,

[45:13] Thank you.

[45:43] Thank you.

[46:13] Thank you.

[46:43] Thank you. Thank you.

[47:43] Thank you. Thank you.

[48:15] Thank you. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[48:46] The love of God the Father and the communion of God the Holy Ghost be with us each evermore. Amen.

[49:07] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[49:21] Amen. Amen. Amen.