Christ Who Lives

You.

Good evening and welcome back to Church of the Bible. Well, I saw the preview showing me when the announcements are still up on my screen showing the preview and didn't realize the announcements were still going. But good evening and welcome to Church of the Bible. It is so good to be here again today. Some announcements before we begin.

Last week I announced that our servers were restored and we were in the process of restoring all of our videos and sermons from the past years. And I just wanted to let everybody know we have got that process finished. The website is back online. I'm looking at our on air status and it shows that we're streaming and we're back online. At the streaming services.

We did lose, however, a dozen or so messages from the previous years that we were unable to recover. So when you're going through some sermon series and whatnot if there's stuff you're used to seeing that you just don't see anymore, it's because we lost it forever. With that said, our sermons are also out of order. They're no longer like in our series and whatnot? They're no longer in the order they were done.

So you kind of have to look around a little bit when you're trying to find stuff in there. I did find out today that while our streaming and broadcasting does work and this message is going out to all of our normal broadcast stations like Facebook, YouTube, the mobile app, the website, and whatnot, the system that actually saves it to the server is still malfunctioning. So this video, I'll have to manually upload it and we'll try and fix that before next week. Also, the worship leader and I have started going through our worship songs on our media server and we've noticed a lot of our worship music is not worship. It's all Christian, but some of it's just talking about yourself and to yourself, telling yourself to feel or do certain things.

And we have decided that in church, we want our worship service to be entirely directed toward God. So we are pulling from our rotation every song that is not directed toward God so that we can have our focus on Him. With that said, we are losing a lot of our songs that we just I don't know why we never picked up on it before. So if you have a worship song that you like, that you would like to see introduced into service, please let me know so that we can look at it and see if it'll fit into our service rotation. We need to replace a lot of the media that we are getting rid of.

And then on Wednesday, we'll be back into our normal Bible study at 630 here in Zoom. And for those in Milford here in my house, I think I believe that's all of our announcements. So we're going to pray and go into a time of worship and I'll see you guys in about ten minutes. Father, we thank you that we can be here today. We thank you Lord, for Your goodness and all that you have done and provided for us your provision, lord, with the moisture whispering with everything that you have done and even in restoring the services that we had lost, we thank you, Father.

I also pray now as we go into this time that we will be free from the distractions of the world, that our minds will turn toward you, that we will worship you and that we will hear Your word and be doers of it, that you will be glorified. And these things we pray in Jesus name, amen.

The battle rages on as storm and tempest roar?

We cannot win this fight?

Inside our rebel heart we're laying down our weapons now we raise our wide light? We raise our wide no? All the love has come you love it once you holy ground you made a way for peace laying your body down you took our rightful place the Freedom song is marching over to we raise our wife, Lord that's what you lift the cross lift it high lift it high we lift the cross lift it high lift it high we live the cross lift it high lift it high we live the cross it high we live the cross it high we we raise our wife we surrender to you we raise our wife the world your love is one we raise our wife we surrender we raise our wide light the cross it sit high when we live the cross behind the cross lift it high lift it high when we live the cross, it high did high heard a thousand stories of what they think you're like but I heard the tender whisper of love and you tell me that you're pleasing that I never alone you're a good, good father. It's who you are it's who you are it's who you are and I'm loved by you it's who I am it's who I am it's who I am oh, when I see many searching for answer far and why would I know? We're all searching for answers only you provide us you know just what we need before we say you're a good father it's who you are it's who you are it's who you are it's who I am it's who I am it's who I am because you are faith and all of your way you are cursing it all your way to you are you so undeniable can hardly speak peace so unexplainable I can hardly think as you call me deeper still as you call me deeper still as you call me deeper still in the love you're good I love you it's who I am.

It's who I am. It's who am your good Father it's who you are.

It's who I am it's who I am it's who I am. You're good it's who you are it's who you are it's who you are. And I'm loved by you it's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am. You are perfect in all ways who you are perfect in all the ways he's our rescuer, he's our rescue we are free from forever, oh how sweet it's now, oh how great about raise the Lord I'll rescue. There is good news for the captive good news for the shame there is good news for the world who walked away there is good news for the doubter the one religion fail for the good Lord has come see can say he's our he's our rescue.

We are free from forever. Oh, how sweet it sounds oh, how great. We will praise the ground rescue world. He is. Beauty for the blind man.

Riches for the poor he is friendship for the word the world ignores he is pasture for the weary rest for those who strive oh, the good Lord is the way the truth alive yet the good Lord is the way the truth alive. He's our rescue he's our rescue we are free from sin forever.

Oh, how great we will raise the Lord I'll come and be chain left. Come and be fearless. Come to the foot of Calvary.

There is redemption for every affliction here at the foot. Oh, count the reason we are free about we will bring the Lord.

We will bring the Lord. I read you.

It helps if I unmute myself.

Last week we read in Galatians two we did a whole chapter, and I want to start today by reading from verse 15 to the end. Our primary verse today, though, is going to be verse 20. But beginning in verse 15, Paul writes that we are Jews. He's writing to a group of people here we are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles, but knowing that a person is not justified by the works of the law, if not by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so 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 human being will be justified. But if while seeking to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also have been found to be sinners, then is Christ an agent of sin? May it never be. For if I build up again these things which I destroyed, I show myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law in order that I might live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live. But Christ lives in me, and that life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith on the Son of God, who loved me and gave Him so for me. I do not declare invalid the grace of God, for if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died to no purpose. Brief Tech note we don't have scriptures up.

Last week when we read through this, we looked at the merits of salvation that through the works of the law, so no flesh be justified, but through the law is the knowledge of sin and death. The Law reveals to us what is right and wrong in the eyes of God and how we ought to live. But it can by no means save us, because once we know the law, we become guilty of it because we are violators of the law. But Paul says here's something interesting through the law I died to the law through the life of Jesus Christ, who came to fulfill the law and then died in our place. We have become dead to the law.

And we're going to look at being dead to the law here in a few minutes. But to the end, if we have died to the law through Jesus Christ, if he has died in our place, then it is he who shall live through us and not ourselves. So verse 20. Last week I asked everyone to circle this verse, to ponder it for the week to come until today. What does it mean to live, to have Christ live in you and for you to be dead?

So today I want to focus in depth on Galatians 220. Gamul says and I no longer live, but Christ 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. This is critical. Recently, for the past six months, there's a scripture you guys are probably getting tired of hearing found in Two Corinthians five.

Paul writes in two Corinthians five that every Christian, every person born again in Christ Jesus is a new creation. We are all brand new. The old has passed away and the new has come. And this is from God. And I have stressed this verse for six months.

I think there's very few weeks where I have not read that verse in the past six months. And I'm pushing it so heavily because it's so important for us to realize that when we profess Christ Jesus as our King, as our God, when we say that we are removing our crown and bowing to his, that should be evident in our life. And for so many professed Christians out there, that profession of Christ and going to church is all of the evidence in their life. But they still live the life they want to live. They still follow the desires of their flesh, they still want to do what they want to do and don't want to be told what to do by Christ.

And this attitude of I don't want to be told what to do is contrary to the Gospel message. The Gospel message asks us to remove our crown and bow to Jesus. And when we do that when we die to ourselves, it must be Christ who lives through us. It must not be Matt Davis or the will of Matt Davis that survives, but the will of Christ Jesus. So we have two personalities here in verse 20, right?

I and Christ. Two personalities. And in these two personalities, there are two very distinct deities. Not deities. Spiritualities is a better word that are present.

And this personage of I represents and demonstrates the spirituality of Satan and his dominion, his will, his works. Right. The person whose mindset is still on I, on me and what I want, how I want to live. They live in a worldly way. They are controlled by Jesus.

By Christ. Wow. They are controlled by Satan. I want to say Christ because he's who the message is about, and I can't get Satan to come out of my mouth. They are controlled by Satan.

And he is manifested heavily in the way that they live their life through sex, through alcohol, through drugs, through theft, through homosexuality, through all sorts of various lust of the flesh.

And then the personage of Christ manifests the heart and spirit of the Father of God, his love, his mercy and compassion and forgiveness. It manifests in their servitude, in their will, in their desires.

In Christ, he has a unselfish devotion to the will of God. And in his devotion to the will of God, it is perfectly fitted for the accomplishment of his purposes. Christ lived to serve the Father, to complete his will. And his will was that he would die for us so that we can be saved. Let's look briefly real quick.

I've got a scripture to perfectly demonstrate how Christ allowed God to live through Him. In Matthew 26 verse 39, christ, he's in the garden of Gethsemane before he dies. He's in anguish. He's about to do the most difficult thing that he could do.

And as he is doing the most difficult thing that he can do, he is praying to God, and he's asking God to remove this burden from Him. Matthew 26 verse 39.

Let's read the words of Jesus here. He says it says and going forward a little, he being Christ, fell down on his face praying and saying, my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass for me nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

There's a moment there where Jesus, he is begging the Father, if there's any other way, I do not want to be nailed to that cross. I do not want to be whipped and scorned and had thorns plated in my head. I do not want to die in that anguish, but not what I want. What you want. Jesus was wholly surrendered to the will of God to the point of suffering the abuse and the injustice and the indignity that he suffered on the cross, to die in pain and anguish and suffering for something he never did.

He never deserved, because you and I couldn't do it. That is full devotion to the will of God. And yet, when we declare that we have surrendered our lives to Jesus, we are declaring that we are willing to do the same thing, to wholly surrender our will to God. Our wants, our desires, our needs, our likes, our wants, whatever it is, we are willing to surrender it all, to throw it away, to follow the will of God and what he wants us to do, regardless of how we feel about it. Jesus did not feel great about that cross he was to bear, but through full devotion to the Father, he did it anyways.

Now, think of this relationship one to the other. What is the relationship between I and Christ, between the servant of Satan and the servant of God?

The two cannot be. They cannot coexist. Look at John three, verses five and six with me. This is loosely related, and I put it in here to demonstrate that there is a biblical distinction between the flesh and the spirit. Jesus answered Nicodemus in verse five.

He had a question how can a man be born again? Jesus says, Truly, truly I say to you that unless someone is born of water and spirit, he is not able to enter into the kingdom of God. For that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. There is a distinction that which is flesh is not Spirit, and that which is spirit is not flesh. They are not the same thing.

So is there a relationship between I and Christ, that servant of Satan and the servant of God? And the answer is no. For to be the servant to one, you have to be dead to the other. We cannot have a part with both. Paul writes paul writes when talking about this relationship and teaching us to avoid it in the world as we live here in two corinthians 614 through 16, Paul says, do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers.

For what participation is there between righteousness and lawlessness? What fellowship does light have with darkness? And what agreement does Christ have with a belier? What share does a believer have with an unbeliever? And what agreement does the temple of God have with idols?

For we are the temple of the living God. Just as God said, I will live in them and walk about among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. There is no relationship between us, Paul tells us, not to become. It unevenly yoked, not to yoke ourself, to people who are not of the Spirit of God, because we are two different beings. Those who are who are unregenerate, those who are unregenerate, those who do not have Christ living in them are of an entirely different nature.

Look at me. Look with me at Romans eight, verses six through 13, as we further demonstrate this relationship or not relationship really, but the lack of compatibility between them. Romans eight, verses six through eight, paul writes for the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace because the mindset of the flesh is enmity toward God, for it is not subjected to the law of God, for it is not able to do so. And those who are in the flesh are not able to please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

If indeed the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Jesus from the dead will also make alive your mortal bodies through his spirit who lives in you. So then, brothers, we are obligated not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your body, you will live for all those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

He said there, right, the mindset of the flesh is death.

If we do not die to our flesh, to our will, to our mortal desires, then we will die. And we must put to death those things. He says that the mindset of the flesh is enmity towards God. If we cannot profess that it is Christ who lives in us and not us who live, then we are on a dying path. We are still enemies of God.

It must be so. Then, as Paul wrote in verse 19 here in Galatians two, he says, I have been crucified with Christ. It must be so that we crucify our flesh with Christ, that we bury our sin. We bury our sin suits and our desires so that Christ can live in us and we can live by faith in Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us.

There's also meaning here in this relationship, a new relationship, not I, but Christ, right? This implies that we take off our old man and we put on Christ. Paul instructs us in Hebrews to do just that, to take to throw off the old man and put on Jesus Christ.

When we have the personage of I dwelling within us, we are sinful and self seeking, and we usurp the authority of God. But when I, the personage of I or you use I for yourself has surrendered. When we have removed our crown and we have bowed to the crown of Jesus Christ, we have given place to life, to the rule of the Holy Spirit and we become more like God. We become conformed to his image as we walk with Him. In this relationship.

There's also various different ways in which Jesus Christ lives through us. In the matter of salvation, it is not I, but Christ. In the matter of salvation, we have that worship song that occasionally makes its way into our rotation. Yet. Not I, but Christ and me.

In the matter of salvation, it's not your works, it's not your good deeds. It's not anything that you have done, but it is Jesus Christ. It is the work that he did, the work he completed, the death he died on the cross, his holiness that transfers to us and allows us the salvation, the freedom and the grace of God unto eternal life. When the personage of I is operating within us, we are on a sandy foundation. We are walking on sand.

That when the waters beat against it, we tumble and fall. But when the personage of Christ is alive and well within our vessels, we move from that sandy foundation. We exchange it with a infallible rock, a sturdy foundation that no matter what waves crash against us, no matter what winds try to beat us down, we are secure.

In the matter of salvation, it is not I, but Christ. In the matter of sanctification, paul says Christ lives in me. We cannot be sanctified if the ruling and governing personage is I, we can only be sanctified. We can only be worked toward perfection, toward being molded to the image of Christ when it is indeed Christ who is the governing personage in our vessels, we must be dethroned.

When our personage is alive and well within us, we wear the crown, we call the shots, we do what we want to do. And we need to be kicked off our throne and have the Lord of life, the King of Glory, have Jesus crowned right, holiness, sanctification. It does not come through our deeds, through our practices, through it doesn't come through a rigorous Bible study, although we renew our minds through the word of God. But it doesn't come through our action of reading or our action of praying or our action of going and serving people or trying to not steal or kill or commit adultery. But it comes through Jesus Christ living in us by admitting the Holy One into our heart, giving him a place there and removing the old self and crucifying it with Christ as Christ takes over in our vessel.

That is when we become sanctified. When that process begins, we must understand, though again, it is not through anything that we do. Christ will speak to us through His Word as we read. He will fill our minds with it. But it is not us that is doing it.

It is him. How about in service?

Paul wrote in Philippians, he says to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Why are we still here? If we weren't here to live for Christ, we would be raptured the moment we were saved. We would ask Jesus into our hearts, confess him as Lord and Savior, make him our king, repent of our sins, and that would be that. We're gone. We're in heaven, but yet we're here.

Why? Why did Jesus leave us in this world? Leave us to finish living out our lives? Was it so that we can continue to party, to have fun, to live the way that we used to be living? To have friends and jobs and all these other nuances?

Nuances of the world? No, we're not of the world. We're not citizens here anymore. Look at First Peter 211 we're not citizens of this world. First Peter 211 peter writes to your friends I urge you as foreigners, as temporary residents, to abstain from fleshly desires which wage war against your soul.

He says that we're foreigners here. If Christ indeed lives in you, you are not a citizen of this world. You're not a citizen of the United States or whichever country or state you reside in, but you are a citizen of the Kingdom of God, and you are a foreigner. You are a temporary resident where you live. So he did not leave us here to continue life as normal.

He left us here to serve him. In two Corinthians five, he writes paul writes and tells us therefore we are ambassadors of Christ Jesus. We are here to represent Him. We're here to do his work. We are here so that Christ can live through us, not so that we can live in reign as Christ in the garden of Gethsettamy, bowed to the will of the Father as he sought not his own will, but of the will of the one who sent him.

We too must be willing to submit to the will of Jesus Christ, submit fully to the will of Jesus Christ and allow Him to reign in us.

Two more scriptures here before we wrap up, or a couple more. Romans seven, verses one through six. We need to understand something. We are in bondage to a personage. Don't ever think that you are your own person, that you make your own way, that you are yours.

We are in bondage to one person or another. Look at Romans seven. We're going to read verses one through six here. Paul says do you not know, brothers, for that I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is master of a person for as long a time as he lives. For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives.

But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband. Therefore, as a result, if she belongs to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulterous. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law so that she is not an adulterous as she belongs to another man. So then, my brothers, you also were brought to death with respect to the law, through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to the one who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. For when we were in the flesh, sinful desires were working through the law in our members to bear fruit for death.

But now we have been released from the law because we have died to that by which we were bound, so that we may serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter of the law. What does Paul say? Well, Paul says that you are in bondage. You are bound to one personage or another. You are either bound to Satan through the law of sin and death, or you are bound to Jesus Christ unto righteousness.

It is one or the other. There are no alternatives. Every person born is born under the law of God, and the law of God demands death for every sinner. And we know that the word says all have sin and fall short of the glory of God. So every person born is in bondage to the law of sin and death and belongs, as Christ put it, to their Father, the devil.

They are not their own person. They belong to the devil. Or you can die to the law, you can die to sin and death, and you can be bound to Jesus Christ, in which case you live to Jesus Christ. And so the option here is not whether or not we want to be bound to someone, but whether or not we want to be bound to Christ or bound to the devil. Do we want to have the temporary pleasures and gains of this world, the satisfaction of fulfilling the lust of our flesh to perish into eternity?

Or do we want to have everlasting life in the kingdom of God?

And if so, we must be able to say that I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

Paul, in one last scripture for the day, in Romans 13, verses twelve through 14, paul encourages us then to live in light. Paul says the night is far gone and the day has drawn near. Therefore, let us throw off the deeds of darkness and put on the weapons of light. Let us live decently as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immortality, in the sentiousness to make that a more modern English word or two words self abandonment. Not in strife and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and do not make provision for the desires of the flesh.

As we come to an end tonight, want to encourage everyone who is a professed Christian to put to cast away the old self. Let the personage of. Me, myself, and I die so that Jesus Christ can live and reign in your heart, that we can live by faith in the Son of God, and that we can become members of the kingdom of Heaven. Let us not walk in darkness any longer, but let us walk in light, in the light of God Jesus Christ. As we continue through our series in the book of Galatians, especially when we get to Galatians Five in about three weeks, we are going to see exactly what is evident in the life of a person in whom Christ lives.

We'll be able to look at that and be able to examine are these the qualities and the traits that I possess that are evident in my life that shows Jesus Christ lives inside of me? And if not, we will want to fix that. We will want to ask God to help us with those things. And we need a willingness to die to the flesh. And for those who are just hearing about this for the first time, I want you to know that the life you now live is a life leading unto eternal death, but that Jesus Christ has already done the work.

He has already defeated death. He has already granted us the victory so that we don't have to do anything but bow to his crown and allow Him to live inside of us. And he says that whosoever would confess me before his fellow brethren? Him. Will I confess before the Father?

If you are ready to change from being enemies of God to being friends of God, to living for yourself, to dying to yourself and having Christ living you, it begins with admitting that you are a sinner, that you cannot save yourself with believing that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh who lived and died. He lived perfectly, but he died the death of a sinner for you, that you could be righteous and confess Him as your Lord God and King. And in confessing Him, you are going to remove your crown and be dethroned and bow to the throne of Christ. And he tells us that if we do that, we will be saved. We will have eternal life and salvation through Him.

If you're ready to do that, we're going to our closing prayer right now. I'm going to lead you guys through inviting Jesus into your heart, through admitting those things, believe in those things, and confess in them. And if you do that, please let us know so we can celebrate with you right after service. We will have communion here, so please stick around for communion or jump into zoom with us. And also next week the missionaries will be here again and we will have a baptism next week.

So if there is anyone local hearing this, next week we will be having a baptism. And if you have not yet given your life to Christ, or if you just did, we'd love for you to join us in that baptism and even be baptized yourself. Let's pray and then we will have communion. Father, I admit that I am a sinner. I admit that my deeds, my desires, my wants and the personage of I are at enmity with your desires and wants and everything.

And Father, I know that because I am bound under the law, that I am bound to sin and to death. But I just heard today from Your word that I can die to that, and that you can make me alive again in Christ Jesus and that I can have eternal life. And so right now I believe and I know that Christ Jesus is God in the flesh, that he came down here, that he lived perfectly, and that he died for me. And I believe that he resurrected from the grave, that he secured that victory. And Lord Jesus, I confess you as my God and king right now, I bow to Your throne at Your feet and I remove my crown if you would come into my heart and make me a new person.

And then it would no longer be I that live, but you that live through me. And I thank you for this gift. And Father, I pray now that you would help each one of us, all of us who are believers, who have professed you, who claim to follow you, that you would help us to put aside the flesh, to leave it behind and allow you to fully live through us. I pray, Lord, that you would be glorified as we are reflectors of you and as the world looks at us and they see and praise You, Lord, would you be glorified? In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.