Well, good morning, everyone. As has been expressed multiple times, happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. Because I get the mic, I thought I'd just save my part for this part. I'm thankful for to the Lord for my dad. He's home with the Lord. He passed away in 2019. My I got to see my dad come to faith in Christ when I was young and then watch him grow and and and be sanctified. And it was a really neat thing to observe. With every passing year, my dad growing closer to the Lord, wanting to be more in the word of God, wanting to ask questions about the faith.
It was really an encouragement. On top of all that, he taught me good work ethic. I'm thankful for that. He taught me the value of a good practical joke, which Pastor Bryson and Pastor Joe are the recipients of to this day. And many other things. And I'm thankful for those who call me dad. I'm thankful for them and for the plus blessing that they are to my life and for the privilege of our Father's Day tradition of going to Five Guys Burgers and Fries every Father's Day.
So, look forward to that right afterwards. So, with that in mind though, let's let's take turn our attention now to the word of God as we continue to look at our series Faith, Hope, and Love. And we're continuing in in looking at what faith is. Last week, we looked at what salvation by faith is. And today, we're going to examine what living by faith looks like. Imagine with me, if you will, a man who had an addiction to black licorice. Dreadful, right? Can I get an amen?
Just awful. What are you thinking? If you are here and you're among those who have a an addiction to black licorice, you need serious help. But imagine a man who is severely addicted to black licorice. But then he's freed from that bondage. And he charts a new path, and for some time he is no longer addicted to black licorice. And then imagine a man comes to him with a jar filled with black licorice.
It's been some time since he's had some. And he and he brings this black licorice, he puts it in front of the man and he says, "So long as you do not eat any of this black licorice, I promise you that I will buy you a steak from the world's best steakhouse every day for the rest of your life. Just don't touch the black licorice." And now imagine the man saying knowing that offer is on the table, knowing that this could be his reality, and just hammering away at the black licorice, going back to the bondage he was once under.
That's what Paul's talking about in Galatians. You don't see the word black licorice here, but the principle exists. Where people are going back to what they were freed from. And honestly, Galatians is one cogent argument. The whole of Galatians is really on one theme. And what we're going to examine, we're going to do an overview of that our main verse this morning is Galatians 2:11 verse 20, which says this, "I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Very famous verse. He's You may have it on a coffee cup at home or on a plaque somewhere in your house. And then a reason for it. It's a great verse. What I want us to do though, now I grew up as you know, in a farming community. My dad was a farmer.
Rarely does a farmer ever re-plow ground that's already been plowed. But we're going to plow today some ground that Pastor Bryce already plowed last week. But we I want to give us some context again, so we understand why he's making this statement here in chapter 2 verse 20. We know that as Pastor Bryce drew out last week well, this is written not to one church, but to plural, to to multiple churches. That's what it says in chapter 1, the churches of Galatia. And we know where those churches are. The scriptures tell us.
Acts 13 and 14 tell us what churches these are. This is Iconium, Lystra, Derby, and most notably, Antioch in Pisidia. There's two Antiochs in the New Testament. This is Antioch in Pisidia. And that Antioch is in the Galatian region. And that's important for us to understand because Paul in Galatians confronts Peter when he came to Antioch. That's the Antioch in question. Now, what I want to do for you is I want to read for you Galatians 1 verses 6 through 10 and then without breaking read 3 verse 1.
And I want you to see how these verses go together. Chapter 1 starting in verse 6, going to verse 10, and then 3 verse 1 right away. Here's what it says. I am astonished that you were so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. And 3:1 says, "Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified." So, it seems that 1:6-10 flow straight to 3:1.
So, what's going on in the middle? Well, in the middle between those two passages, you have Paul taking the reader on a journey into his own testimony, walking through how it is the Lord saved him, and not only how he saved him, how he discipled him, how Paul began to live by faith, and then that leads into what happens at Antioch in Pisidia. As Paul now sees Peter committing atrocious hypocrisy.
I'm going to bounce here between Galatians 2:12-14. I'm going to go back and forth. Starting in verse 14, listen to what we read here in Galatians 2:14. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas, that's Peter, before them all. So, here is Paul publicly confronting Peter. Why? Why is he publicly confronting Peter? Go back to verse 12 of chapter 2. For before certain men came from James.
Now, that's an important statement. James was the pastor of the church in Jerusalem. So, that is to say, there was this group of Jewish believers who came from James' church in Jerusalem. So, before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. So, here he is. Peter is having fellowship with these Gentile believers, and then this group comes from Jerusalem, these Jewish folks, and he fears them cuz he's eating with uncircumcised people.
And so, he pulls back, and the hypocrisy has a ripple effect. Look at verse 13 of chapter 2. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with them, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. So, there's a trickle effect. Peter is a key leader of the church. And here's Peter in it acting in this hypocritical way. And of all people to do this, Peter. So, Dave just moments ago read to us from the end of Acts chapter 10. And if you remember your Bible, and if you're if you're not familiar with it, let me tell you the story.
It was Peter that God gave this vision to in Acts 10 to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. And in this vision, Peter said, you know, there's there's this back and forth, and essentially Peter's wrestling with God saying, "No, I I can't do that. I have It's for the Jews." And God says, "No, no, the gospel is for everyone, Jew and Gentile." And so, now Peter understands that he brings the gospel to the to the Gentiles such that as as we saw read to us by Dave at the end there at verse 45 of Acts 10, it says, "The believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles."
And so, Peter is the one that God uses as his mouthpiece to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. And then if you go to chapter 11 of the book of Acts, listen to what we read here starting in verse 1. Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him saying, "You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them." But Peter began and explained it to them in order.
"I was in the city of Joppa praying and and in a trance I saw a vision something like a great sheet descending being let down from heaven by its four corners and it came down to me. Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air and I heard a voice saying to me, 'Rise, Peter. Kill and eat.' But I said, 'No, by no means, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' But the voice answered a second time from heaven, 'What God has made clean, do not call common.' Flip over to verse 15 now.
As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way? When they heard these things, they fell silent and they glorified God saying, "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life."
So here you have Peter being the one who brings the gospel from the Jews to the Gentiles. And Peter's defending it. And now, just years later, is Peter this one pulling back when the Jews come and acting like a complete hypocrite. And so Paul publicly confronts him. Why? Because Peter's hypocrisy was public. So Paul confronts him publicly to articulate this is wrong.
And what's happening here is clearly this has been a trend in these churches in Galatia that they have heard the word of the Lord, they received the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, and like Peter and these Jews they've been falling back to their old ways, the bondage that they were once under. And we know this because of what Paul says in Galatians 4 8 through 11. Paul said this to them there. Formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
But now that you have come to know God or rather be known by God how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. That's a bold statement. Paul is concerned for their salvation. The truth of it.
I'm concerned you might not be in Christ regardless of the prayer you prayed back then. Because you're the evidence of your life is looking like something contrary. I'm concerned about this. And so he's concerned that their adherence to the law as a means to salvation has gripped them again. As Pastor Bryce pointed out last week, well the law is not a bad thing. The law in fact is meant for our good to to day. In fact, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount to both Jews and Gentiles alike as he was giving it that day.
He said to them this in verses 17 and 18 of Matthew chapter 5. He says, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished." Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the law is our guardian. It shows us that we need Jesus. It It reveals sin to us. James, the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, he said in James 2:10, "If a person keeps the whole law but breaks it at one point, he is guilty of all of it."
So, the law helps us understand we need Jesus. The only way to be saved by the law would be to perfectly keep it for the entirety of your life without ever breaking it once, not even for a moment. That renders everyone guilty. That renders everyone in need of a savior cuz no one can live that way. We're all sinners. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. So, what they needed to realize is that they needed salvation not from the law but through faith. And Pastor Bryce brought that out.
That's what he That's what Paul talked about here in chapter 2 as he was hammering away at Peter in front of them all. He's telling them this that they need to have salvation by faith, not by works, not by adherence to the law by by which no man can be saved. In fact, he circles back to that at the end of the letter. Chapter 6 of Galatians, he says this starting in verse 12. It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.
For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law. But they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God.
So, there is a life to be lived by faith because you're saved by faith. So, what does that look like? Well, that brings us to our text. Verse 20. There's two things here. I'm going to give you If you're a fill in the blank person, I'm going to give both blanks right now. Remember Christ in me and reflect Christ in me. First thing we should do is to remember that Christ is in us. Look at what he says here in verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. Now, he wasn't talking about his physical crucifixion. Paul's writing this. He's clearly not dead. It's not a physical crucifixion, but he's been crucified spiritually with Christ. When Christ died, it's as if I, the believer, die with him. He died in my place. I am now dead. Dead to my sin. That's what he meant when he was talking to the Roman believers. Romans 6, we often use it when when we talk about baptism. And what it says this in verses 1 through 4 of Romans 6.
Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Dead to sin, crucified with Christ, alive in Christ. That's the believer. I am crucified with Christ.
That's what Paul is saying here. Isn't this interesting? He says here, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Who's living your Christian life? According to the text. Christ lives in me. Christ is living my Christian life. Now, notice it says Christ in me. You might be sitting here going, wait, hold on. He means the spirit, right? The Holy Spirit lives in me.
That's what he means, right? It's not what he says. He said Christ in me. We do we we obviously know there's many texts, John 14, John 16, Romans 8:9, many texts that tell us that the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer. Acts chapter 2, at Pentecost we see that obviously. There's many texts that say that, but here and actually multiple places, Christ says that he dwells in the believer. Go with me if you want now to 1 John chapter 4.
1 John 4, I'm going to pick it up for you in verse 13. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he's given us of his spirit. And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent his Son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God, that is to say God the Father here, God abides in him and he in God.
Notice that the spirit is listed in verse 13 and here in in this verse in verse 15 we read that God, that is God the Father, abides in the believer. So, verse 16, we have come to know and to believe that the the love that God has for us. God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. So, who is it that indwells the believer? The triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here in Galatians 2:20, we read that the Son dwells in the believer. He lives in me.
That's what it says. This is important for us to remember that Christ lives in me. If you read through the high priestly prayer of Jesus, people often refer to the Lord's Prayer as Matthew 6. The the the prayer that Jesus taught the disciples to pray. I would say the Lord's Prayer is John 17. Where Jesus is praying there. And in John 17 we read about God dwelling in the believer. Verses 20 to 23, you can look look that up. Now, imagine with me the folly of thinking that if I have been saved by faith and now this triune God dwells in me, I can continue to live however I want.
Carnally. Fallen. No visible change in my life. That's okay. Christ living in me is content with that. Do you see the folly of such a statement? Why? Cuz there's a new sheriff in town. In 1994, March 5th, 1994, Deputy Sheriff Lloyd Prescott was teaching a class for police officers in the Salt Lake City Library. He stepped into the hallway for a moment and while he was there he noticed that a gunman was in the hallway hurting 18 hostages into a room.
He was teaching that day in plain street clothes and so he just pretended to be one of the hostages and joined them. He got into the room and in a few more he he apparently the gunman began to systematically say who was he was going to kill first. And Mr. Prescott identified himself as a sheriff, a scuffle ensued and he was able to shoot the assailant and free all of the hostages. The sheriff changed them. He saved their life.
There's a new sheriff in your heart who has saved you. He's freed you. You were once in bondage, you are no longer in bondage, you are free in Christ. He's saved us and he reigns in our hearts. He is Lord. Notice all the scriptures that speak about that. Everyone who calls on the name of the savior will be saved. Is that what it says? Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now, built within his Lordship is his saving work. That's built right within that, but he must be Lord. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, master, ruler of my heart.
And so here we read in Galatians 2:20, I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And he's reminding Peter and all of these believers who've enacted this hypocrisy with Peter, you are relying on dead works to save you. You can't be saved by works. Remember, Christ is in you. Remember you've been crucified with Christ. Remember that. I'm sure no one here ever struggles with a works-based mentality. We all do.
There's not a person in this room that does not struggle with that because it's built into the heart of man because of sin. From Genesis 3 on, it's intrinsic in us. We try to earn our way to God, to earn God's favor. That's a foolish way to think. And he's reminding them of this here. Remember, Christ is in you. But then he goes on and tied to this, attached to it, part of it, reflect Christ in you. Notice what he says here in the second half of the verse, "And the life I now live in the flesh."
So now he's talking about not some theory, not some philosophy. This is in the flesh. Boots on the ground, my daily living. The life I now live. The life he once lived was a life of a Pharisee, reliant on the works of the law to curry favor with God, which he couldn't do. But the life I now live, based on the crucified Christ and all that he's done, the life I now live is altogether different. This is how we are to live our lives day by day.
Luke As Jesus said in Luke 9, "Pick up your cross daily and follow me." This is a daily thing he's talking about here. "The life I now live in the flesh." Previously, for Paul, it was Pharisaicalism, it was legalism. Now it was different because he had repented. What is repentance? The scriptures are replete with examples of and teaching on repentance.
It's everywhere. It's inescapable and how it's intrinsically tied to salvation. No repentance, no salvation. We must repent in order to be saved. What is repentance? Well, sometimes we can get real clinical about it and miss the main point of it. Yes, clinically repentance is to change one's mind. How do you know someone has changed their mind? By the corresponding life. Imagine with me a murderer, a serial killer.
He is captured, he's apprehended, he's placed in a prison. While he's in prison, his mind changes, or so he says. Yeah, I now know I know that murder is wrong. I my mind has been changed about that. Then upon his parole, he goes out and he begins to murder again. And he's utterly dumbfounded and shocked when they arrest him. Because he says, "Well, wait, hold on. I told the parole parole officer my mind changed. I understand murder's wrong."
They would say, "No, you don't. Your mind hasn't changed a lick. You know how we know that? Cuz you're still murdering. Your life hasn't had a corresponding change. So, Paul says here "I have been crucified with Christ. So, the life that I now live is totally different. The life I now live in the flesh, not just theory, but practically, my daily living, the way I interact with people, the way I go about living in this world, my integrity, everything has changed.
Because Christ has changed me. This is how we know someone has been saved. Previously, Paul had a wicked lord. That is himself. And now he's got a new and far better lord. Go with me to Romans 6. Go back to Romans 6 if you will. Romans 6, we read this starting in verse 17. But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed and having been set free from sin have become slaves of righteousness.
I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. And look at verse 22. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit that you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. So there is an important distinction being made here.
We were once All of us in the room are slaves. Not a person in here who's not a slave. You're the slave to sin and self or you're a slave to the Lord Jesus Christ and to righteousness. There is no middle ground. It's one or the other. Everyone here is a slave. Whose slave are you? And here Paul says, "Listen, we've been crucified with Christ. And so the life we now live should look like Christ more and more and more. So what does this life then look like?" What does this life lived in the flesh look like?
Paul actually gives an answer. Go with me to chapter 5 of Galatians. He carries the argument on. Starting in verse 1. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Christ has set us free. So sometimes people take this verse out of context. And they will say, "See, it says for freedom Christ has set me free, so I can live however I want to live in all my carnal lusts."
Cuz that's what it says. You've been set free from your bondage to sin. You've been set free from all those ways you once lived, all those things that held you in its grip. The wickedness and the evil of the enemy's lies. The the bondage to the to the adherence to the law as a means to salvation. You've been freed from that. Why would you submit again to the yoke of slavery, as he says here? Go down to verse 13 of chapter 5. For you were called to freedom, brothers.
Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. But through love serve one another. So this free Now he hits it. The freedom is not an opportunity for you to do whatever you want in your flesh. No, in my flesh, as he says in 2:20, I serve God now. I serve Christ now. Christ lives in me. So my flesh and how I live daily changes. Go down to verses 16 to 25 of chapter 5. But I say, "Walk by the Spirit."
What is the life of faith? It is walking by the Spirit. And you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. And the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For those who are opposed to each For For pardon me, are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But, if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
I warn you. Now, hear this. He's speaking to the churches of Galatia. I warn you, he says here, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So, those who There may be In fact, there almost certainly was false converts among the Gentiles there, among the Galatians, among the Jewish believers there. There was false converts. He says, "I'm concerned if this is the characteristic of your life, you're evidencing that you're not in the kingdom." But, verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
How many of you were whispering that with me? Yeah, a few of you. I heard I heard the whispers. That's good. These are good things to memorize. Against such things there is no law, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. This is how we live by faith, that we walk in step with the Spirit of God, and it's not something that can be manufactured. Some might say, "Okay, I'm going to pull myself up by the bootstraps and walk by the Spirit."
This can only happen for the one who's truly been saved by faith, as Pastor Bryce articulated last Sunday. Someone who's been saved by faith, the spirit of God in them is is has changed their heart. They have a new affection. They don't have a heart of stone anymore. They have a heart of flesh and now they long to serve God. Those who don't long to serve God but are trying to manufacture it, eventually their lack of faith will show itself. No, living by faith is someone who's genuinely in Christ and will correspondingly look correspondingly correspondingly look more like Christ.
First John reminds us of this. First John 2:5 and 6 it says this. But whoever keeps his word in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way that he walked. We look more and more like Jesus and we throw ourselves fully upon the Lord. Living by faith is to say Lord, I trust you.
I trust what your word says and I'm going to put the full weight of my life on the promises of God. I'm not going to live in accordance with what the world tells me I should live. I'm not going to get my value from the way the world tells me to get my value. I'm not going to live carnally for my flesh as the world says to eat, drink and be merry, do everything I want. No, no, I'm going to put the full weight of my life by faith on the revealed word of God. We saw a graphic example of this just a week ago in the opposite.
Some of you may have seen it. If you haven't, don't watch it. I by saying that you're probably going to watch it. But there's a graphic video in Brazil. There was a 21-year-old girl who went to a famous bungee jumping spot. Well-known for its unique characteristics. There's a bit of a a bridge that walks out into nothing. And people will come from all over the world to jump do a bungee jump at this location.
There are six people involved here to make sure everything goes well. And when you're jumping, what they do is they get two men to put you over top of themselves. They walk out to the end of this basically walk the plank kind of thing and they toss you off. And this girl, 21 years old, she had such faith in them. She was laughing and joking and she was so excited about this and she put the full weight of her life in their hands. And so they walked her to the end. The whole time she's yammering on.
She didn't have a care in the world because she so trusted them. And they threw her off. And there's a cameraman on her. And they throw her off and you see the cameraman pan down all of a sudden and there's the rope. Unattached. She plummeted to her death. She put the full weight of her life by faith in the hands of these people who failed her.
Living by faith for you and me as followers of Christ means we put the full weight of our total life, our desires, our affections, our longings, our hopes, our obedience most importantly, we put all of it on Christ and he never fails. We will not perish when we put our faith in Christ and live by faith in Christ. It will never steer us wrong. The world says to the believers, "Well, you guys are a bunch of you know, you have no fun.
You're the you can't let loose and do the things we do. That's fleeting. That stuff's going to be gone. The life of faith is the life of joy. The life of hope. The life of eternity. The life that leads to that which lasts. So friends, I would just urge you remember Christ in you and then reflect Christ in you as you rely upon him depending on the spirits work in your life, depending on Christ in you, reflect him.
Let those affections that have changed let it let it let them be dependent on the word of God and then live by faith. Next week we're going to flesh this out more as we talk about the fruit of faith. The fruit that comes from faith. And so we look forward to that together. Let me pray. Father, I thank you that we can put the full weight of our life in your hands knowing that you never fail. Thank you for all those here who have been saved by the grace of God through faith.
Thank you for your saving work that it's not dependent on our works to save us, but rather that our works which we are called to are the expression of Thanksgiving for a life that's been redeemed. Thank you for that, Lord. And we pray that we would be those who live by faith and that we would never turn away, that we would never go back to those worthless elements from which you have redeemed us. But rather that we would continue forward making progress in our walk with God living by the spirit, walking by the spirit so as to please you.
So minister to our hearts in that way, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Transcribed automatically from YouTube captions, so names and words may be misheard.
