Now you're free to roll. I have trouble staying behind the pulpit anyway. Can't get my stirrup on here. Before we look into God's Word this evening, let's look to Him again in prayer. Lord, I thank You that although You are a holy God, that You are approachable through what You've done through Jesus Christ. Thank You that we can get to know You through Your Word, that You've revealed Yourself through Your Son, and that you've revealed your will to us through your word. Thank you, Lord, that it's possible that we can live our lives in a way that pleases you. And I pray that you would do a work in our hearts, even in this short time this evening, that we might live our lives consequentially for you, for your glory, to accomplish your will, to build up one another, and to see others come to know your salvation. In Jesus' name, Amen. I don't want to hold you very long this evening, and it's not that I'm not capable of doing that, but I'd like to focus our attention for a little while this evening on Galatians chapter 2, verse 20. in Galatians 6, verse 14. I'd like to briefly share with you some of the marks of a crucified life. In our Western world today, we've been deceived into the thinking that a cross is something that hangs on a wall. It's something that hangs around our neck. It's a piece of jewelry. But that was never the intention of a cross. In a book written by Pierre Barbet, A Doctor Looks at Calvary, he studied as a doctor what happened at the cross and all the circumstances around crucifixions during Roman times. As he was studying the topic, he came across what the death sentence was during those times for a person who was to be crucified. And he writes, the death order was, place the cross on the slave and not place the slave on the cross. I don't know if you catch the difference in those two statements. If the death order was, place the slave on the cross, the cross would be in place already and the slave would just be attached. If the death order was, as it was, place the cross on the slave, that meant the moment that the cross hit the back of the slave, his death was certain. The death sentence had already been passed when the cross was on the back. Scriptures are full with metaphors that tell us we do not belong to ourselves. We're told we are bought with a price. We're told We are to live as unto a faithful creator. We are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Those all come out of Peter's epistles. Romans 12, verses 1 and 2, I'm sure you're familiar with the verse, but they tell us we are a living sacrifice. But perhaps none of the statements of scriptures concerning our lives not belonging to ourselves are more starkly contrasted than Galatians 2.20 and 6.14. I'd like to read those two verses, then we'll look at them briefly this evening. Galatians 2, verse 20 says, 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. In chapter 6, verse 14, says similarly, but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. If you can make this leap with me this evening, I'd like to focus on our crucifixion as a means to reach the needs of the world. As long as Christians remain huddled together, whether selfishly or not, is hard to judge. But as long as Christians remain huddled together, how is the world going to hear the Gospel? as long as we think, I need to make decisions for my life so that I get out of my life what I need. Do you understand what that means for the world of people who don't know Christ? How can we ever fulfill the Great Commission? Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. if we're living for ourselves. The only way that we can reach the world with the gospel is if we die to ourselves. We have to see the needs of other people without the Lord as greater than our own. If we are ever going to win the world, or make a dent in the world with the gospel of Christ, we have to live a crucified life. You must crucify yourself. What is the meaning of a crucified life? What did Paul mean when he said, with Christ. Well, if you read through the book of Galatians, I don't intend to do an exposition of the book of Galatians tonight, Paul was contrasting his life with the life of people who were trying to justify themselves by what they did in their flesh. And they were trying to show how good they were, and Paul said, I'm crucified. That's a really stark contrast with people who try to justify themselves. Paul puts himself in the place of a convict who's already on the cross. He wasn't trying to justify anything. For the Apostle Paul, life in Christ was not a continual effort of doing things in order to find favor with God. The book of Galatians is written to remind believers you can't make yourself acceptable to God. Your works, your efforts, the best that you can offer to God isn't going to make you more acceptable. That's because we are only made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And then, only because Jesus Christ took our place to pay for our sins, and we've been justified through Him. For the Galatians, circumcision was a worthless keeping of the law. It didn't help their morality. It didn't help their spiritual standing before God. They didn't gain anything because they had been circumcised. Jesus Christ bore, by His death on the cross, the curse that I deserved to bear. Because He did that, I have the ability to stand directly before God. The Bible says we can stand boldly before the throne of grace. I don't have to cower in front of God because Jesus Christ has made the way free for me to stand before Him. In context, Paul meant that his life was identified by the crucifixion of Christ. My life is not identified by Shane mentioned this morning, he and I both graduated from Pillsbury Baptist Bible College and Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary. You know what? That's not an identifier for me. Pillsbury Baptist Bible College is defunct. Calvary Seminary will be by the end of the next year. You know what? That's disappointing to me. But at the same time, you know what else? It's only a school. And whether the school stays or not has nothing to do with my standing before God. I stand before God because of what Jesus Christ did for me. Christ is our identity. And without Christ we are nothing. Andrew Murray wrote a lengthy devotional book called Abide in Christ. And in that book he identifies five marks that identify the crucified life. I'd just like to share them with you this evening. Think with me what it must have meant to hear the words Place the cross on the slave. That would be equal in our day to put the convict on the electric chair. One thing that means is the entire surrender of all self-will. Once that slave had the main beam of the cross put on his back, it didn't matter anymore what he wanted. His will was no longer significant. His will would no longer be carried out. And Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. Paul understood Jesus Christ died for me. That means that the place that Jesus took on the cross was mine. And if the place that he took on the cross was mine, that means I should have been there. And that identity is repeated again and again and again in the New Testament. Romans chapter 6. Don't you know that when you were baptized with Christ, you were baptized into His death? Therefore, being baptized into death, we are buried with Him through baptism. We rise again with Him. And we're supposed to walk in a new life. Our identity is all tied up in Jesus Christ. A crucified life means my will is gone. I'm not living for myself. You know what a struggle that is for me every day? It's very difficult for me to get up in the morning and think, What Joel Sandow wants is not important. Any of you have an easy time with that? Maybe you would have an easy time with that. Yeah, I don't have any problem with what Joel Sandow does. What about you? If we are crucified with Christ, that means I'm dead. And my will is not longer important. What is important is the one who died for me. Secondly, the second mark of a crucified life is the complete denial to the flesh of its every desire and pleasure. Just think it through. If the cross has already been tied to you, Do you have any pleasures in your near future? Pleasures are all past. Because I'm going to the place of crucifixion. A crucified person has no means left to fulfill his fleshly desires. Pastor Belding and I were talking before people started streaming in today, one of the largest problems in our society and among Christians today is the pursuit of pleasure. Pleasure in and of itself isn't necessarily wrong, but when our life becomes identified by the next pleasure that we have, Whether the pleasure in and of itself is good or not. When our life is identified by pleasure, it's no longer identified by our Savior. How important is it to you that what you want gets done? that you are the one who is pleased. If you have to rank that really high, at least in that area of your life, guess what? There's no cross there. Thirdly, the third mark of a crucified life is the complete separation from the world in all its ways of thinking and acting. Once you're nailed to the cross, what difference does it make anymore? What the world thinks. What difference does it make anymore? How other people would act. This is your last stand. The way a person who was crucified used to think doesn't help him anymore. He has no use for his former thoughts and deeds, whether good or bad. Fourthly, a crucified person must realize the losing and the hating of his own life. I saw recently, just last year, a Christian of what sort I don't know from the Middle East who was literally crucified by Muslims. I didn't see the entire thing, I just saw the picture of the result. How horrific. There must have come a point in that believer's life where that's enough. I don't want this life anymore. Do you remember the story of the crucifixion? Where Christ on the cross said, My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me? But he was willing to do that for us. And he gave up his life. He asks us to give up our life for him. Fifthly, the fifth mark of a crucified life is the giving up of self and its interests for the sake of others. Let me explain. One of the last things that Jesus did when he was on the cross was, he looked down at John and said, Son, behold thy mother. Behold thy son. Even on the cross, Christ's concerns weren't so much for Himself, He was looking out for others. He looked out at the soldiers and said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Christ's focus on the cross wasn't, look at me, look at this injustice! He was focused on others and their needs. A crucified person can do nothing else for himself but still may do things for others. And that's what Paul realized in his life. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. But I'm not living any more for myself. Paul started living his life for the one who died for him. Paul's life was no longer his own. His own, it was entirely Christ's. Paul also realized, not only was he crucified himself, Christ was crucified for him, but he also realized, the world is crucified unto me. I know, it's Sunday evening, you don't usually respond to things, The world is crucified unto me. What does that mean? Not desirable anymore? Not important? Christ was important. If the world was crucified unto Him, He's dead. What does the world have to offer us? I'll be honest with you. The world can offer us pleasure. True? How long does the pleasure last? For a season. That's kind of undefined. A little while. Are any of the pleasures that the world offers us Sweet at the beginning, sweet in the middle, and still sweet when it's all over. The pleasures that the world offers us, I can't think of any that don't have a bitter aftertaste. But the Lord would like us to give up our lives like he gave his life for us, he would like us to live a crucified life. If that's going to happen, then we're going to need to realize I'm not that important. Not that I don't have any significance whatsoever, it's just I'm not important because I need to compare myself to the one who died for me. He died for me. That means he owns me. I don't know if you sing the song here, Now I Belong to Jesus. But that sums up what these verses say. There's a saying, I'm not real up on sayings here back in the States, but isn't there a saying, he belongs to you or something like that? Is there a saying like that? He owns you or something like that? Trying to check the young people out, but... Okay. I'm 20 years behind, but that's alright. The Lord owns me because He bought me. With His own blood. And He bought me because He has a purpose for my life. His purpose for my life is not all tied up in what I want to do. His purpose for my life is what He needs accomplished here during my life. You could accomplish much more for God by doing what He wants you to do than you could ever accomplish for yourself by trying to get done what you want to do. You know why that's true? Because when we pursue our own pleasures, invariably, our pleasures lead us away from what God wants. And as soon as we're away from what God wants, you know what that means for our life? God has to fight against us to get us back to where we need to be. You don't want God fighting against you. You won't win. And a lot of the misery that Christians feel today is because they're living for themselves instead of for the one who bought them. Paul lived a crucified life, and by doing that, he was able to reach many, many, many people across a very broad stretch of the world. He didn't set small goals. He said that he wanted to preach the gospel to the regions beyond, and his real goal was what was then thought to be the end of the world. Spain! His life wasn't long enough to reach that goal, but he was pressing toward the mark his whole life. The world keeps on growing at a rate that's way beyond my ability to comprehend. seven billion people in the world today. When I was about 10 years old, there were three, three and a half billion people on the world. And in that short time, the population of the world has doubled. And they say that the next time doubling won't take nearly as long. That means more and more and more people need to know about the Lord who loved them and died for them, too. And somebody has to go tell them. It's not going to happen unless Christians die to themselves and live for the one who died for them. Let's look to Lord in prayer. Lord, thank you that you came to this earth when the time was right, that you fulfilled your purpose for being on this earth, that you did the Father's will including the cross in our place. You've made us aware, Lord, that the cross is also something that should take place in our lives. You died in our place and you own us. Help, Lord, that we would die to ourselves, to our pleasures, to what the world thinks and does, that we would live for you and to accomplish your pleasure, part of which is to reach others who have not yet heard of your love and your death in their place and the salvation that you offer them. Help that we would do our part to fulfill your will by dying to ourselves and living for others for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.