Reminders:
Are you “Pressing On” for Jesus in your life?
Are you hungry for (or thankful for) a life delivered from the ravages of slavery to sin because of the power of a risen Savior?
Are you hungry for more of Jesus; knowing Him better, walking with Him more closely, feeling His very presence if your life?
Are you longing for the day when you will finally see Him face to face?
Are you pressing on to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant?”
Let’s stand together and read our memory Scriptures in unison as part of our worship for the Lord.
Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17
“All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Aren’t you glad that the Word of the Lord is active in our lives; teaching us, rebuking us, correcting us and training us in righteousness?
When that happens by the power of the Holy Spirit we can answer John Wesley’s question of, “Did the Bible live in me today?” with a resounding, “YES!!!” PTL!!!
In the book of Galatians, Paul is writing to defend the truth of salvation through faith in Christ alone. Some false teachers had come into with the false doctrine that salvation was through the keeping of the Jewish law AND faith in Jesus.
The Holy Spirit inspires Paul to write in Galatians 2:15-3:1a
“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
“So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
“But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin?
“Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! O, foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?”
Wow! That is powerful! Can you sense the frustration and passion in Paul’s writing?
No one tolerates someone messing with their children! And the Galatians were spiritual children of Paul!
We do not tolerate someone messing with our children spiritually!
This is the same dilemma Paul was facing.
Memory verse - Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
This, my friends, is a pivotal holiness Scripture. We already have in our memory arsenal some awesome holiness Scriptures.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (recite)
God will never give us a command without enabling us to obey the command and His desire is for us to be entirely sanctified.
And, Matthew 22:37-40 (recite) shows us the path to a holy life.
Galatians 2:20 gives us a graphic example of what enables such a transformation.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
Holy living is living in conformity to the known will of God by the enabling grace of God setting us free from slavery to sin and making us a slave to righteousness through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Many of our Christian brethren say that this is not possible. That we sin in word, thought and deed every day.
We do not believe that the definition of sin is falling short of the mark. That is a far too ambiguous definition.
We believe sin is intentional disobedience of the known will of God by a morally responsible person.
You know what God wants you to do or not do and you choose to disobey.
Now, let’s just process this thought. A body by itself cannot sin or be holy, it must be controlled by a Spirit in order to initiate any action. So, if I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me, then I sin, who is sinning? Christ???? NEVER!!!!
God cannot be tempted nor does He tempt anyone with sin.
So, if we are continuing in a life of sin are we really crucified with Christ?
In much of Christianity a form of dualism has unknowingly slidden into our thought processes.
In the spiritual realm dualism contends that there is a good force and an evil force vying for dominance in the universe and in every person.
Example: yin and yang - in Taoism / the dark side and the light side of the force in Star Wars
Old Imperials song - Old Man’ Rubble
Deep within' you there's a spiritual battle
There's a voice of the darkness and a voice of the light
And just by listening you've made a decision
'Cause the voice you hear is gonna' win the fight
In a sense and from our perspective there seems to be some validity to this concept.
We were created in the image of God, that is humanity was created in the image of God. Then Adam and Eve sinned and the image of God became distorted.
Because of that original sin our fallen nature draws us to disobey God. That is sin.
God sent His Son to earth to be born of a virgin, to live a perfect, sinless life, to be beaten on our behalf, to die on the cross as a sacrifice for our sin and three days later to be raised from the dead.
Fifty days later He sent the Holy Spirit to draw us to the Father by Grace and then to dwell within us in order to help us become like Christ.
Even after we come to Christ there are influences that call us back to sin. The evil one who knows what sins we have fallen into in the past, the world around us and the affects of our upbringing.
Our lives seem to be like Peter in the last days of Christ.
First Peter is on a spiritual high …
Matthew 16:16
“Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’”
A few verses later he taking the Messiah aside to rebuke and correct Him. A spiritual low …
Matthew 16:21-23
“From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.
“Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.’”
“But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.’”
Then Peter’s on another spiritual high …
Matthew 26:35
“But Peter declared, ‘Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.’ And all the other disciples said the same.”
Then he hits the rocks again …
Matthew 26:73-74a
“A little later the bystanders came up and said to Peter, ‘Surely you too are one of them; for even the way you talk gives you away.’ Then he began to curse and swear, ‘I do not know the man!’”
Does your life ever feel like that?
But, here’s the thing. Once the Holy Spirit was sent at Pentecost and Peter was filled with the presence of God, he never had those kinds of problems again. Sure there were a couple of theological issues that he had to be corrected on but he never even came close to denying Christ again. He even considered it an honor to suffer for the name of Christ.
There was a huge change between when Peter followed Christ and when Christ filled Peter with His Holy Spirit.
That was when Peter became crucified with Christ and he no longer lived but Christ became resident within him.
You see, when we are born again many of us have the tendency to hold on to some of the old sinful activities of the past. During this part of life you will be miserable and will sooner or later come to a spiritual crisis.
Am I going to die to self and live for Christ or am I going to abandon Christ and live for self?
You see, Jesus loved you so much that He gave Himself for you.
So you don’t have to go through that struggle, day after day after day.
Are you tired of the struggle?
Are you ready to be crucified with Christ so that you no longer live but Christ lives in you?
Conclusion
