Galatians 2:20

I'd invite you to open your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Galatians in chapter 2. Appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight in the gospel with our brother Brandon, and we thank you each one again for remaining for the gospel meeting tonight. Now, Galatians chapter 2, and we'll read the words of the apostle Paul in verse number 20. Verse 20, I am crucified with Christ.

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, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate or make void the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Now, the Lord will bless to us the reading from his word tonight with what we've been privileged to listen to already.

I've often wondered what it would be like to be able to sit down and have a little talk with the apostle Paul, likely one of the greatest Christians that have ever lived, a man whom God used in a mighty way to write much of our New Testament, and a man who suffered much for our Lord Jesus Christ. He details that for us in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, where he says that five times over, he was whipped by the Jews with 39 stripes, five times over. Then three times, he was beaten by rods.

Then three times in his travels, he endured shipwreck. You have an account of one of them in Acts chapter 27. And for a whole night and for a whole day, he spent floating around in the ocean.

So he was a man who endured much for the gospel and for our Lord Jesus Christ. I would like to ask Paul a few questions. I would like to ask Paul a few questions.

How come you're going through all of this? What does it mean? What is it that defines you, Paul? Did you have a defining moment in life when all of this changed, and instead of being a religious Jew, you became a man that was devoted to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? And you know what he would say? He would tell you that, yes, indeed, there is a defining moment in my life, and it happened a way back then, when I was on the road to Damascus. I was on a mission. I was going to persecute those Christians up there in Damascus, but God looked upon me, and the Lord Jesus, he dealt with me, and I was stopped in my religious way.

And on that fateful day in my experience, I was saved by the grace of God. I was converted. I was born again.

And so in the verse that we've read here tonight, verse 20, Paul is speaking personally about the meaning of his life, what defines him, and how he came to be a Christian serving the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to simply take a look at this tonight. Verse 20, I am crucified with Christ, he said.

Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ, he liveth in me. 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. You'll notice the first statement in the verse, I am crucified with Christ.

Paul figures that he's a dead man living. A dead man living. So far as Paul is concerned, as he looks back upon his life, he reckons that in God's view, he was violently put to death in the eye of God when Christ died, when Christ was crucified, when Christ suffered that violent death of crucifixion.

He reckons that at that point, he died. And God was giving the verdict on all of his religious zeal before his salvation, and all that he had accomplished in the Jews' religion, God put his verdict upon it that day when Christ died. Paul said, I am crucified with Christ.

And so far as God is concerned, all that I had in my past, all of my religious activity, it was all for nothing, all for nothing. Now, he says it's not as though I'm a dead man still. He says, nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

And when Christ rose again from the dead, God has reckoned that I rose again with him. And so now he is living before God since Christ lives. And now he's living a life by faith in the crucified Savior who has risen from the dead.

And he says, nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And Paul had real meaning put into his life. Now, there's a lot of truth in that early part of the verse, but I want to come to the last part of the verse and spend our time remaining in this part of the well-known verse.

He says, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And we'll consider those statements for just a moment before we turn our attention again to the life of the believer after saving faith in Christ. Now, the first expression here is the Son of God.

What a person he is. Think of the majesty of his person. We've been reflecting upon him today already in the ministry.

The Bible teaches that there is one true God who has revealed himself in three persons. Now, I can't explain that, but we grasp that by faith. God the Father, 100% God.

The Son of God, 100% God. The Holy Spirit of God, 100% God. Not three gods, one God in three persons.

Marvelous, isn't it? And the Son of God, being God himself, had no beginning and he has no end. That's the way he's presented to us when we come to the Gospel of John, the very opening verse. In the beginning was the Word, his eternal existence.

And the Word was with God, his distinct personality. And the Word was God, his absolute deity. Before the mountains were brought forth, wherever thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

That's who we're talking about here, the Son of God. The Son of God. Without him was not anything made that was made.

When God said, let there be light, it was his voice that was heard. And he spake and it was done. And he commanded and it stood fast.

And with a voice, with his own word, he brought into existence this world and then he built it for habitation for man. He made our sun a dwarf star, placed it 93 million miles away from earth, just far enough so that we don't get burnt up, so that life can be sustained on earth. Made that on day four of creation.

Placed it in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy. Sent it spinning and going at a tremendous velocity through space, through the universe. And that galaxy is so large that if you could go at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, and keep that speed up on your speedometer for a hundred thousand years, you get from one side of that galaxy to the other.

And that's only one galaxy that he brought into being with the very word of his power, the Son of God. When God turns his attention to planet earth, he's looking upon a little speck of dust in the vastness of that universe that he created for his own glory. And he has put on display his infinite power and might, so that even Solomon, as he thought of it all, he said, even heaven and the heaven of heavens, it cannot contain thee.

And then he made man. And when God made Adam, he built into Adam all the DNA that was required to bring you into existence. God had you in mind, and he made you, because you and I come from the very hand of God.

We are accountable to God who made us, and God knows all about us, knows all about our sin. If we're found in our sins here in the meeting tonight, never having been born again, saved, converted, we are defined in God's eyes by our sins, as we have been hearing. And yet we read, the Son of God, he loved me.

Oh, think of that. Not only the majesty of his person, think of the magnificence of his love. Isn't it marvelous to think that God in all his majesty, he even humbles himself to look upon earth, that little speck that we've been talking about in his universe, especially when this earth has been marked by rebellion against him, man's sin before God.

Every act, a hostile act toward God in all his holiness, he's offended by every one of them. 7.5 billion people scurrying around on planet earth tonight, messing up, messing up everything that they touch with sin, and the holiness of God finds that deeply offensive. Are you in your sins tonight? How do you stand before God? What is amazing to me is this, that God who is so outraged because a man's sin, yet he loved me, and God has put his love on display, for God so loved this world, he had to do something about it.

What did he do? That he gave his only begotten son, sent him into this world, allowed man to crucify him and put him to death, raised him from the dead in glorious triumph and power. What for? That whosoever believeth in him trusts their whole soul and their whole eternity in him should not perish, will never be in hell, but have everlasting life. And God has put his holiness on display, and God has put his infinite love on display in the giving of his own son.

God has loved the world of sinners lost and ruined by the fall, and salvation full at highest cost he offers free to all. We love to preach about it. We love to think about it.

But I love to come to this little phrase that we have in our verse. Listen to this. The son of God, he loved me.

He did. And he gave himself for me. He loved me in all of my need.

I, a rebel at heart. I, a sinner by practice. A sinner by nature.

I who would go on sinning and sinning and sinning and sinning before God. Yet he looked my direction, and he loved me. He loved me.

I can't explain why other than it is his very nature, if that's the right word, for God is love and God is loved. The son of God, he loved me. I tell you, that's not the Hollywood style of love that is out there in the world, is it? Here today, gone tomorrow.

That's not love at all. But God tells me in his word, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee.

And I'm simple enough to think that when he was on the cross, I was on his mind. And the son of God, he loved me. He proved his love, and then he drew me to him.

And I wonder tonight in the meeting, is there even one? And you've been feeling the tug on your heart. You've been drawn strangely to think about the Lord Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. And you would just love to know that it was for me.

I want to tell you that's the spirit of God working with you. And while he strives, you yield to him. Don't let anything put you off.

Don't let anything come into the way and keep you from Christ. You come to him tonight because God loves you and Christ has died to save you. And just like that dying thief who trusted his whole eternity into the hands of the crucified man right beside him, God invites you to trust Christ tonight as your Savior and to come into the great blessing that his salvation brings.

The son of God, the magnificence of his love. But I see another thing here that he gave himself for me. I want you to think of the meaning of his sacrifice.

The meaning of his sacrifice. He gave himself for me. Now, did you notice that he does all the giving? He gave himself for me.

It's not that I give anything. I have nothing to give. I have nothing that I can bring to Christ.

But the cross is the great crossover point in my history. Here's the defining moment of every Christian. My sins were being punished by God in his son who did no sin, but he was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

And on that cross the Lord Jesus took the punishment that my sins deserve and he has satisfied God with that payment. The son of God loved me and gave himself for me. I was reading recently here about the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.

It's an organization apparently that seeks to financially assist those who are true heroes. And in their assessment of who is a true hero, they have three guiding principles. Three guiding principles as to who is a true hero.

So here's their definition. Number one, a person who's under no obligation to act. No obligation to act.

Number two, this person leaves a place of safety. And number three, this person will put themselves at serious risk of death or injury in order to save the life of another human being. Now those are admirable qualities defined in anyone.

And there are many heroes, I suppose in every nation has had heroes of that sort of a character. We like to think all the heroes live here in the U.S., but there's likely some in other countries as well. But I was thinking along this line that every life that has been saved by an earthly hero in that way, they must face eternity without them.

All right? You go out alone. You go out alone. But then I thought about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen to this. Under no obligation to act, but the Lord Jesus took on flesh and blood and became truly human. Hebrews 2. He leaves a place of safety.

I came forth from the Father and I'm coming to the world. Number three, and he put himself at serious risk of death or major injury to save the life of another human being. And we read Christ died for us.

Christ died for the ungodly. The Savior voluntarily enters into death itself, willingly taking the judgment that we deserve for our sins. Tonight he is able to save to completion to the uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

And he is alive from the dead. And there's no one like our hero, our Lord Jesus Christ, because as Savior, he has unlimited saving power to save every soul that trusts him and bring them home to God's heaven. I deserve the death penalty for my sins, eternal death, and I deserve it forever.

But on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ took my place and the source of life himself, given in death for me. But he rose again from the dead. Here is the meaning of his sacrifice.

The Son of God loved me, and he gave himself just for me. Could you take it in tonight? It was for me. Yes, all for me.

The love of God, so great, so free. O wondrous love, I'll shout and sing. He died for me, my Lord, the King.

The meaning of his sacrifice. But then again, we have another little expression here. Paul says, the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me, but he says, Christ lives in me.

Christ lives in me. It is a sad fact that many tonight in the world have no real purpose in life, they wander aimlessly through earth, hoping to get a little bit of this or a little bit of that to somehow satisfy the longing of their hearts, and this world they find is just too small, and there's no satisfaction really to be found. We testify to you tonight in this meeting as we bring the meeting to a close.

When you know Christ as your Savior, he gives to you the very meaning of life. A life that may be lived that is full of joy and real peace. The joy from knowing that my sins, though there are mountains of them, they've all been taken away, they've all been forgiven.

That's a wonderful thing to know. And then as a result of that, I'm right with God, and God says so. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and he brings us into peace.

He is the Prince of Peace himself, and before he left his disciples, he promised to give to them his joy, and he would give to them his peace, and tonight we tell you that when Christ is living in you, and you're enjoying communion and fellowship with him, there's a joy that's unspeakable and full of glory, and it's worth living, and it's worth living for, and it's worth enjoying right here in this life. And then when life is no more on earth, we look forward to heaven, we look forward to home, and in those ages to come, he will show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus, and on the journey, he'll make you to lie down in green pastures, and he'll lead you beside the still waters, and he'll restore your soul, and allow you to move in fellowship and communion with him, and taste a little bit of heaven on the way home to heaven, and then to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I tell you, the Son of God loved me, and he gave himself for me.

Would you not trust him tonight as your Savior? You've heard about him throughout the day, you've heard about him likely your whole life. Think with me again of the majesty of his person, the Son of God. Think of the magnificence of his love, reaching down to little old me, in all my sin and need and shame, and then to think of the meaning of his sacrifice.

He gave himself for me, and he'll give you real meaning in life, a life to live for his glory, for your enjoyment, and for eternally we'll enjoy his presence in that coming day in heaven. So may the Lord bless his word to our hearts. Let's pray.