Sermon given at the Arouca, SDA church in Arouca, Trinidad on December 4, 2010.

<p>Sermon given at the Arouca, SDA church in Arouca, Trinidad on December 4, 2010.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

AudioVerse

Norman McNulty

Crucified With Christ

And it's so good to be back here in this church.

I really enjoy being here, both the last time I was here and also today.

I've received a very special blessing by being with you.

So thank you for allowing us to be here today.

And before I get into the message for this morning, I would like to have a word of prayer and we will get into the message.

Blessed by our Heavenly Father in heaven, we thank you for this Sabbath day and I pray for a special blessing as we open up your word.

May you fill our hearts with the Holy Spirit and please speak through me.

And as we come to the season of Christmas, our hearts and minds should be drawn to Christ again.

We think about Jesus coming as a tiny baby to this earth.

That Jesus, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the creator of this earth, would come to this 1 fallen planet to save each 1 of us.

And when we think of who Jesus is, we can truly say, as Isaiah says, that Jesus truly is wonderful.

Where would we be if Jesus wasn't wonderful to us?

He's the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

And I am thankful today that I can present to you Jesus Christ.

And you know, Ellen White has a very succinct statement where she says, hanging on the cross, Christ was the gospel.

When Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross for each 1 of us, He was a living demonstration of the Gospel.

His life and His death demonstrates the Gospel to each 1 of us.

And today I want to talk about Christ and Him crucified and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because did you realize that this gospel was not only demonstrated by Christ, but God wants us as His church to be a demonstration of the gospel.

We should be living demonstrations of the gospel.

And I'm so glad to see the outreach program that you've had today going out into the community to take Christ to those who don't know him.

That's wonderful and keep up the good work.

Because we know in Matthew chapter 24 it says, For this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for what?

You see, the gospel going to the world is not just a declaration of what the gospel is.

It is a witness or a demonstration the way Christ was a demonstration on the cross.

And God has called us as His church to be His witnesses to the world.

And that means that here in Trinidad, we are to be Christ's witnesses to our country here.

This is found from Manuscript Releases, Volume 21, page 404.

And this gets into the heart of what we are talking about today.

The church needs men today who like Enoch, walk with God, revealing Christ to the world.

Church members need to reach a higher standard.

Heavenly messengers are waiting to communicate with men who have sunk self out of sight, whose lives are a fulfilling of the words, 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.

Of such men and women must the church be composed before her light can shine forth to the world in clear, distinct rays." So in order for this Gospel to go to the world as a witness.

We need men and women who have self that has been moved out of sight.

Men and women with whom heavenly messengers can communicate because self is not standing in the way.

When the Holy Spirit comes to speak to our minds to say this is the way, walk ye in it, our self will not be rising up to block the words of the Holy Spirit to our minds.

And when we have men and women who live this way, the church can shine her light forth to the world in clear, distinct rays.

It is the condition of the passage found in Galatians 2.20.

And I invite you to turn with me again to this passage.

Galatians 2.20 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." We are to be crucified with Christ.

Did you realize that Christ was crucified for us?

If you look the word up in the Greek, it means to impale on the cross.

And this was the most humiliating way for someone to die.

And Jesus, who was King of kings and Lord of lords, Creator of this earth, came down to this earth to save us, And we, His creation, rejected Him.

And we put Him on the cross to humiliate Him in the worst way possible that He could have died.

Yet Jesus loved us so much that He was crucified for us.

And when Galatians 2.20 says, I am crucified with Christ, the Greek also says that this means to have self or your passions extinguished in the same manner that Christ was impaled or crucified on the cross.

In order for Christ to be revealed to the world through us, we need to learn how to allow our selfish nature to be crucified in the same way Christ unselfishly was crucified on the cross for us.

We all have a tendency to selfishness, and you know it.

We all have a tendency to be very selfish.

We all look out for ourselves first by nature.

That way of thinking needs to be crucified with Christ.

And when we have such men and women that are composed in such a manner, the light of the church can shine forth to the world in clear, distinct rays.

And you know what Ellen White's talking about there?

That is the loud cry message when the angel of Revelation 18 comes down from heaven and the earth is lightened with its glory because the church has been crucified with Christ and we are reflecting the light of Christ's life in clear, distinct rays to the world around us.

And that is the group of people that God is looking for in this church today.

What will it take for us to be crucified with Christ?

You know, this is the hardest thing in the Christian experience.

It's so easy to mentally assent to the truth and say, I believe Jesus died for me.

But do you experience it so that when you see Christ on the cross, Christ comes into your heart so that you allow yourself to be crucified with Him?

You know, when Paul wrote this epistle to the church in Galatia, he was writing to a group of believers to whom he had already visited and to whom he had already preached the gospel.

A group of Judaizers, or Christians who were telling Gentile Christian converts that you needed to observe Jewish custom in order to be saved They had come to the Church of Galatia and they were confusing the new believers about what the gospel really is And so Paul was countering the work of these Judaizers.

These Judaizers were saying, you know, in order to be saved, the way of salvation is through circumcision.

And if you think about it, this is really an easy way out for salvation.

Instead of surrender to Christ 100%, All you have to do is an outward action without any heart change.

And that's what the Jewish Christians were teaching the new believers.

And If you look at the book of Galatians in chapter 1, starting in verse 6, he says, I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." There are many today, even now, who are trying to pervert the pure gospel of Christ.

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Crucified With Christ

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