If you wish to follow along,
turn to Galatians chapter two. Now it's been about, this'll
make three weeks. We've missed a couple Sundays
because of the weather. And I'm not going to go back
and try to go over what I've already went through. But what
I want to do is read Galatians chapter two, verses 15 to the
end of the chapter. make a few comments just to bring
us back up to speed, but then I will deal with the truth that's
in verse 15 and 16. So Galatians chapter two started
verse 15. We who are Jews by nature and
not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Now, Paul's
saying that even us Jews, us believing Jews, we know this.
The law doesn't help us. He goes on, but if, while we
seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners,
is therefore Christ the minister of sin? Absolutely not, God forbid. For if I build again the things
which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through
the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. I am crucified
with Christ. Here's that death that took place.
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In 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. And then this is, we might say
his conclusion. This is actually what he evidently
told Peter and Barnabas and all of those people at Antioch. I
do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come
by law, then Christ is dead in vain. Now, my title for this
morning is Justified by Christ's Faith. justified by Christ's
faith. The Apostle Paul uses this phrase,
that is to be justified by Christ's faith, or an equivalent to it,
at least five times. He uses it once in Romans 3 verse
22, in his letter to the church at Rome. He used it here in our
text, Galatians 2 and verse 16, he uses the phrase twice. And
then he uses it in chapter two and verse 20, he uses the phrase
or something just like it again. And then Paul uses this phrase
in Philippians chapter three and verse nine, that is the faith
of Christ. Now in four of the five that
I just mentioned, in four of the five, Paul is speaking of
righteousness or justification. Now let me stop just a moment.
I may talk about this later in some of these other messages
I will bring in these passages I read this morning. Righteousness,
the word righteousness and justification, usually, not always, but usually
is the same word. When you see, when you read in
English version, you read righteousness and justification, the word in
the Greek is the exact same word. but just as our language in the
English, so is the Greek. The word often doesn't have different
meanings, but has different facets to the word. The word often,
when they translate the word righteousness, is talking about
that actual thing that is a perfection, that is this quality of being
right. Justification is that quality
of being right, but it is judicially recognized as right. Now the point of most of these
places is not that it is right from us, it's not talking about
our righteous acts, nor is it something that we justify amongst
one another, but it's that which God sees as right. And it's that
which God judicially declares. That is right. An illustration. Our Lord one time in scripture,
excuse me, one time in scripture speaks of someone who did something. And he said of a woman, she hath
performed a good work on me. Now in the other, Paul speaks
of a life lived, and I wanna read that just a moment. We'll
deal with it later. I am crucified with Christ. So
when Christ died, I died with him. Nevertheless, I live. But there is a qualifier. He
didn't, as Paul has already said, he didn't just wind us up, give
us life, and then turn us loose. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I. but Christ liveth in me, and
the life which I now live. So we're not talking about just
that initial salvation, that initial conversion, that initial
thing of going from lost to saved. We're talking about our life
lived. Our life lived, the life that
I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son
of God. Now, it is not, as some so-called
versions say, it's not faith in the Son of God. That, in verse
16, would be total, absolute, ridiculous redundancy, because
we're not talking about our faith in Him, we're talking about His
own personal faith. 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. I do not frustrate the grace
of God for righteousness, and I'm gonna put it in here, from
beginning to end, from first to last, from the time God moves
me from being lost to saved until God actually conforms me to the
very image of his Son and I drop this flesh. For if righteousness
come by the law, Christ died for nothing, nothing. That should be enough for us
to reject the works of our flesh. And did we not read these words?
Now for the love, I bear his name. What was my gain, I count
my loss. My former pride, I call my shame
and nail my glory to his cross. The scripture is absolutely clear. but our flesh is so adverse to
the truth of God that it will read the very words of truth
themselves and twist it to turn it back to us so that we might
look at ourselves for some sense of peace and hope with God. And that's even the believer's
flesh. Our flesh has not been improved,
not one iota. And the thing about being saved
for many years, When you're first saved, you kind of don't think
about the flesh. I mean, that excitement of being
converted, having, even though you know of the corruption of
your flesh and of your heart and of your mind and of your
deeds, and God, see, gives you a sight for Christ, and you kind
of just kind of forget about the flesh. Everything seems so
great, but the older you get, the more the flesh is revealed
for what it really is. The more you find out there are
things that are flesh that you might have thought was spiritual,
or I might have thought was spiritual. And sometimes we cannot tell
the difference because the flesh is so deceitful, but be that
as it may. And what Paul is talking about
in the four is righteousness and justification before God,
of course, but in chapter two in verse 20, he's talking about
what some men and women call sanctification. And God willing,
we will deal with that in more detail later. But all five times,
it is in the possessive case, the faith of Christ. Now, these translators can do
it, and I know how they do it. whether they conscientiously
do it or not. They do it because they're led
by the spirit of rebellion in this world, and they still, even
when they talk about that grand and glorious gift God gives called
faith, they still have to some way give credit to themselves. I believed in God. I made my
decision. I went forward. I prayed the
prayer. I asked God to forgive me of
my sins. I believe Jesus Christ was born,
lived, died, was buried, rose again, and even went back to
heaven. And they think that gives them some credit before God.
It does not. It does not. We believe for what
reason? That we might be justified by
the faith of Christ. You see it? We believe in Christ
that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. So all five times it is in the
possessive faith. Now, just a little English lesson,
and it also would apply, of course, to the Greek. As a noun, it would
be translated this way, Christ's faith. That's the way it would
be translated if it were a noun. As a pronoun, it would be translated
his faith. And the same would be translated
if it's a, in the English language, if it's a determiner, it would
be translated his faith. I am justified by his faith,
do you see that? I believe, yes, believe we must,
but we believe not so that act of believing justifies us, but
we believe that we might be justified by his righteousness, by his
faith. by his perfection, that righteousness,
and by, was he not, it says, justified in the spirit. He was
justified, Ellen, even down in the year. I cannot be justified
down in here, because when I look down in here, Jack, I see far
more than some so-called righteousness. So again, as a noun, Christ's
faith. Pronoun, his faith. As a determiner, his faith. And
as we have it in the KJV here, it is the word of, it can be
used as it is used in the scripture, the faith of the Son of God. That's what he says, doesn't
he? Read it again. For I through the law am dead
to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I. Do you see it? God didn't just, Paul, wind me
up and set me loose. Yet not I. But Christ liveth
in me. So when I fail, that's me. When I do right, That's him. Do you hear me? Now even though
I may not know the difference, there still is that great difference. You understand? There are times
when I think I've done right, and I may even say that was Christ
in me. Then I find out as Tim James
says, it was shot full of hail. shot full of self, shot full
of pride, and then there are times when I think I may have
miserably fallen flat on my face, and then God causes things to
work out, and somebody comes along and says, I appreciate
what you said, or I appreciate what you did, that really encouraged
me. That's always His honor and glory. The question is not knowing the
difference, though knowing the difference is good. The question
is, there is a difference. The life that I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved, see
it's all, if you try to translate that faith in the Son of God,
it just does not fit the context. Because he's saying yet, not,
I. Do you see it? So it's not our
believing that's the great thing. It's him who is the great thing. Now I want you to take vital
care here. And I want you to hear the truth. As our Lord once
said, there's no way I can bestow that upon you. I can hope for
it, I can wish for it, I can pray for it. But as Christ once
said, he that hath ears to hear. Well, I got ears to hear, I ain't
worried about it. I just sit here. No, he that hath ears to
hear, let him hear. Pay attention, listen, listen. So again, I say take vital care
here and hear, care here in this message, and hear H-E-A-R, the
truth. This thing of justified by the
faith of Christ is not a mere technical phrase for use in deep
spiritual thought. It is a fundamental fact. It is a fundamental truth of
everyday belief and a life lived. It's not just how you start and
then you go somewhere else. It's the same thing from start
to finish. The life that we now live, we
live in this, even in this flesh by the faith of the Son of God
who loved us and gave himself for us. Now, I am not suggesting
that a person must hear this phrase, to be saved. I'm not even suggesting that
a person must understand this phrase to be saved, because we
are not saved by a phrase. We are not saved by understanding
a phrase. We are saved by knowing him of
whom this phrase speaks. Do you remember what the Ethiopian
eunuch, and what was it? Philip, Philip wasn't it? And
the eunuch said, here's water, what does hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said, if you believe with all your heart. You ever thought about that phrase?
Now what's that mean? It's scriptural, but if you believe
with all your heart, he's not saying everything about you must
believe, because it will not. You have your old heart, your
old flesh, and it will not believe. But what do you believe with
all your heart? Christ is it. And even the eunuch
understood this passage is not about a phrase, a doctrine per
se, it's about a person. Because he asked Philip, of whom
does the prophet speak? Himself? or another, God had
given that man some light. He knew of the Christ of whom
this faith speaks of, even if he didn't even know the phrase,
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. You see it? You see, it's believing
Christ alone. What does it say? Yes. and I
must, and will esteem. It's not just, thousands of people
believe in Jesus, do they not? They believe that he was born,
virgin born, lived a perfect life, died as a substitute. Okay, that he was buried, rose
again, ascended back to glory. They believe, well, they must
be saved. No, sir, because when you believe with all your heart,
you also believe this. Yes, and I must and will esteem
all things but loss for Jesus' sake. Oh, may my soul be found
in him and of his righteousness partake. Thus the apostle Paul
says. We who are Jews by nature are
not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law. So you can't have both of these
together. I believe in Jesus, but I still
believe my works will help out. It can't be both. It can't be
both. Believing Christ alone, believing
with all your heart, rests in him and then calls everything
else from you D-U-N-G. Dumb. It acknowledges that even
my righteousnesses are as menses cloths in God's sight. That's how serious this matter
is. If that's not true, then this
book is not true. This is exactly what Paul's talking
about. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we Jews, but that's what
he's talking about. Even we Jews have believed in
Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ
and not by the works of the law. Those things are not just like
this, one truth and another truth. They're one truth. They go together. So anyone who believes in Christ,
in Jesus, in the Son of God, even believes in the faith of
the Son of God, yet clings to their own legal deeds, has not
believed with all their heart. Now I hope that's making, I hope
God has made some sense of that to us. So again, this is not
some mere technical phrase to use in some deep theological
thing. And I'm not saying you gotta know that phrase to be,
you gotta know Him. And you know Him in such a way
that knowing yourself, I cannot trust in anything but Him. But Him, even the life that I
now live in the flesh, I gotta trust who? Him. Him. Now, this is a fundamental fact. as a fundamental fact of everyday
belief and of everyday life lived as a Christian. It's the same
thing. Now I will give you, it's not
a paraphrase, and I would encourage you, if you have a Strong's Concordance,
you get back home, you read, you look up these words. The
word is translated in verse 15 and 16, or verse, I'm sorry,
verses 14 and 15, there's this word Jew. And I actually respect the translators
of just putting Jew, Jew, Jew. But if you look it up, it's actually,
that's the same base word, but it's actually three different
words. Now we'll give you a paraphrase
of that phrase, if thou Judean being, okay? If thou Judean being,
nation-like livest, and not Judaically. Now, go get your Strongs. You'll
see these words right there. If thou Judean being, nation-like
livest, and not Judaically, why the nations dost thou compel
to Judaize? Now, does that make a, it's not
just be a Jew. It's not you need to be born
of another Jew. It's your way of life. It's who
you are, the way you've been raised, the way you conduct yourself. You see it? That's what he's
talking about. And when he says, when I saw that they walked not
uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter
before them all, if thou being a Jew, now not just you're born
of Jewish blood. He's talking about a way of life,
a way of thinking, a way of believing, a way of acting, a way of conducting
yourself. If thou, being a Jew, livest
after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compelst
thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? Why do you want
to Judaize them? Why do you want to make them think like you used
to think? Because we had to repent even
of our thinking. Repentance is not just quit doing
outward evil deeds, it's the change of mind about how you
even think about yourself and about God. We who are Jews by
nature and not sinners of the Gentiles. And then I will put,
even we know, we know this, that a man is not justified by the
works of the law. We know that now. Peter, he said
to Peter, Paul saying to Peter, right in front of everybody,
you know this. You've held to this. You've had this change
of mind. You're not trying to be Judean
anymore. You're believing Christ alone. You're resting in him alone. And while Paul, we have no reason
to believe Paul mentioned this to Peter, remember, Peter was
given a vision. Remember that vision? God let
down a sheet in front of him in a vision, and it was full
of catfish and all kinds of unclean animals, and what did God Listen,
what did God tell him to do? Slay and eat. Now if God tells
you to do something, what should you do? Do it. Right? But that's the law. Lord,
nothing unclean's ever come on these lips. Isn't that what he
answered? He's being Judean. Do you see it? He's walking,
he's thinking, he's acting after the manner of the law. And God
said, don't you call common or unclean that which I have cleansed. So God wasn't commanding him
to eat something unclean. He's commanding him to eat something
that Peter thought was unclean, but that God had cleansed. Do you see it? So when God says, believe in
Christ and count everything else about yourself as dumb, do it. Do it, right? Oh, but I pray. We ought to pray, but it has
no merit before God. I repent. We ought to repent. We're in need of repentance.
Even our repentance often needs to be repented of because it's
so shot full of self. So shot full of self. But my
repentance doesn't give me merit before God. So again, Again, let me just
read it again. Verse 16, knowing the man is
not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of
Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. And if I go back to that, I make
myself a transgressor. Christ ain't the problem. Somebody
says, well, you people, this doctrine makes people antinomian.
Mm-hmm. Legalism makes men sinners, not
antinomianism. Now, did you hear what I just
said? Now, I'm not saying antinomianism is right. I'm telling you it's
legalism that makes men sinners. And I know I've made a statement
there that somebody will say, you saying a man's not a sinner
unless he's a legalist? No, I'm not saying, but I'm saying
legalism makes you a sinner because Paul said so under the inspiration
of the Spirit of God. We were sinners before God gave
the law. Death reigned from Adam to Moses,
right? But the law didn't make us righteous.
The law didn't even show us how to be righteous. It showed us
how unrighteous we really are. So anyway, I don't want to get
off on that next message. Oh, how many in this day are
at best at And I'm being very generous here, and I'm not real
generous when it comes to my preaching and that kind of thing.
Oh, how many are at best not properly taught. They're taught
that your act of faith, God looks on that as some kind of really
righteous, great thing, and he justifies you or imputes unto
you his righteousness because of that act of faith. That's
not so. It is a device of the devil to
get people to trust and believe in their own believing. I was
steeped. born and raised in it. And all
the while, Mac, I called it grace. Grace. Grace. You see, just using
the phrase don't mean you're right, does it? Again, I say
how many people are not properly taught, but we must beware how
many people have been heretically taught by leaving out this fact,
this truth of the gospel that we're justified by the faith
of Christ. they actually think that by that
act of, you have a, this is practiced not by everybody, but by a lot
of people. We start having a prayer, or a song, I'm sorry, a song
after the end of the message, and then invite people to come
to Christ. And they actually think by getting up out of their
pew, and walking down the aisle, getting on their knees, and praying
a prayer, Lord, I believe in Jesus, and I'm sorry for my sins,
and I'm a sinner and I need forgiveness, and I repent now of all my sins,
and I believe and trust in your son only, And they think by that
act, they're saved. Because ask them if they're saved.
They won't say, is Christ still on the throne? Is he still reigning
and ruling heaven? They said, no, I walked the aisle,
I prayed the prayer. Dangerous. Dangerous, heretical,
heretical ground. All these people know is their
faith. My faith. My action. My doing. Now again, I say, our
believing Christ is vital. It's vital, but it's not that
which justifies us. It's Christ who justifies us. Let me go on. Those who do believe,
those who do believe, and I mean believe with, remember what I
said? All your heart. You actually trust Christ enough that you
know everything else is dumb. You trust Christ enough to know
everything else is as a menses cloth, even though your flesh
still grabs a hold of it. Even though you'll find a certain
part of you still clinging to it. but there's that other part
that knows it is absolutely nothing. I don't want to be found in my
own righteousness, whether it's legal righteousness, law righteousness,
church righteousness, no matter, moral righteousness, no matter
what it is, I need to be found in that righteousness which is
through the faith of Jesus Christ. The righteousness which is of
God by faith. We who do believe. and have believed
and still do. I'm telling you, if you ever
quit, you're in trouble. And I don't have to say, well,
you didn't really have blah, blah, blah. That's just convoluted. If you ever quit, you're in trouble. If you ever find yourself saying,
well, I know I need Christ, but you're in trouble. Now if you find yourself ever
saying, I need Christ's butt, and you can say, that butt is
dumb. It's of no value. It has no standing
before God, then you got some hope. then you got some hope. But again I say those who believe
and have believed and still do for that matter in Jesus Christ
that we may be justified by Christ's own personal faith. And we do
so believe because we know that we are not and cannot be justified
by law deeds. And that's in particular what
Paul's talking about is law deeds. That's what these people, these
Judaizers, as some people call them, had come in and said, but
listen, yes, you must have Christ. Christ is essential, but you
got to have something added to that. No. No. But yeah, you're saved by him
totally in the beginning, but you got to have some kind of
progression. No. No. I'm justified by the faith
of Christ, and even the life that I now live in the flesh,
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. Paul, you even quoted, he's working
in me. We're not justified by anything
we do. We're not justified by anything
we believe. were justified when we believe,
doesn't it? Because of Christ's faith. Now
you hear what I said? Now we're not justified in that
experience, in that going from lost to saved. You're not justified
until you believe. Because it's when you believe
God imputes righteousness to you. But it ain't your act of
believing that he imputes to you as righteousness. It's the
righteousness of Christ himself that he imputes into you. Somebody
says you're just mincing words. You bet your bottom dollar I
am. You betcha, Bob. This is all the fundamental faith
that is the body of truth believed by all who are converted by the
gospel. Just four things. Now, these
are not my four points. These are just four things. I'm
not saying I'm about over, but it's not four points. I've given
you the body of my message, but I'm gonna sum this up by four
things. Christ's faith wrought His faith. Now, God willing,
next time we're here, we're gonna look at his faith. We're gonna
look at his faith. His faith manifested, you might
say. We're gonna look at it. But for
now, the book says we believe in Jesus Christ so we might be
justified by his faith, right? That's what Paul, and he says
it five different times in the Bible. Even the law of God doesn't
say all you gotta have is what? Two witnesses. We've got five. We've got five. And others teach
this same truth, Paul, they just don't use the exact same words.
You remember, Philip said, if you believe with all your heart.
I mean, you gotta give up, even your Bible, you don't give up
Bible reading, but you don't read the Bible to get favor before
God. And as a believer, if you quit
reading your Bible, you don't start reading your Bible to make
everything okay. You look to Christ. You cry out
to him for forgiveness. You understand? If you do something
wrong, just quitting it and starting doing something right doesn't
make you okay. But this is what so-called Christians
are taught all the time, right? You believe in Christ initially.
Now yeah, you believe, but then it's how you conduct yourself,
that's how you get favor from God. It ain't so. Might not be
proper English, but it's serious gospel truth. Here it is. Christ's
faith wrought. It secured. It established justification. It's already been done. You understand? The righteous acts have all acts,
more than one. The righteous acts have already
been done. They've been done by Jesus Christ
when he lived in this world. Now, the faith, Christ's faith
wrought its security, established justification, and our believing
on him imputes or reckons or lays to our charge or puts to
our inventory the very justification which Jesus Christ wrought. Look at Romans three. That's
where Paul actually says it. Look at Romans three. Verse 19 again. Now we know what
things whoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
may become guilty before God. The law is to show me my guilt,
not my potential. Now you hear me? The law shows
me my guilt, not my potential even as a saved person, Jack. Right today, the law still will
show me my guilt. If I don't love God with all
my heart, mind, soul, and strength, that's a sin. Okay? And I said, well, I'm gonna start
doing that. No, you're not. If you've already screwed up,
you're done in the negative. You understand? I mean, thou
shalt not steal. Well, I'll quit stealing. If
you've already stolen, you're done in the negative. You've
done broke the law. You're already a transgressor.
the whole world and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be
justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
This is not a New Testament doctrine, it is the doctrine of God from
beginning to end. What did God tell Adam and Eve
to do? Nothing. What did he tell them to do?
That's what that preacher was saying. What did he say? He said,
where are you? They were hiding from him, trying
to stay away from him. God did everything. Did he not? God did it all. But look, therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now
the righteousness of God, that's the kind we need. Now, if anyone
here this morning or anyone hears this later, you don't understand
that you need a righteousness that God accepts, I can't help
you. Everything I've said will be of no value to you whatsoever.
But if God's taught you, I got to be accepted by God. I got
to have a righteousness that is a God righteousness because
God can only accept perfection. He's not asking for our best
shot, he demands righteousness. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ. But now look, unto all and upon
all them that believe. Do you see it? So you say, well,
if he did it for me, then I'll just wait to the end. No, you'll
believe on him. Do you see that? You'll believe
on him. Unto all and upon all them that
believe, for there's no difference. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Look, being, Look at it, being,
and some say it, I did look it up, it's the present passive
participle, it is continuous or repeated action, but it's
not action by us, because look, being justified freely by His
grace because you believed. Is that what this says? Because
you repented. because she gave the heart to
the Lord. No, all of those things maybe have some validity, okay? There's nothing wrong with giving
your heart to the Lord, if it's the new one you're giving to
him. If it's the new one he gave you, you're saying, oh God, here's
my heart, Lord, take and seal it, right? I don't need him to
seal my old, evil, fleshly heart, he condemns it. But look, even
the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto
all, and upon all of them that believe, for there is no difference,
we've all sinned, none of us has the upper hand. And we all
must believe if we're to have this justification, this righteous. Look, for all sin comes short
of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Do you see that? Whom God has set forth a propitiation
through faith in his blood. There's God's faith. That's his
fate. God, the Father, trusted the
Son to do what needed to be done. And the Son did. You see it? And the son did, whom God has
set forth a perpetuation through faith in his blood to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God, to declare, I say it this time, whose righteousness? His righteousness. His justification,
if you will. His righteousness that he that
he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus,
period. You know where the period is?
Period, that's number one. Number two, do not fret. Do not fret, my brothers and
sisters here this morning, anyone who hears this later. Do not
fret if this seems kind of difficult. or perplexing to wrap your mind
around. And I'll tell you one reason.
Because your flesh says, but I must do something. Or at least I must give up something. Huh? There's got to be some kind of
little part I play in this matter, no matter how minuscule it is. Do not fret if this seems difficult
or perplexing to wrap your mind around. If you do actually believe,
Christ, what do you do? You're believing the record God
gave of his son. Isn't that the way John puts
it? That true believing is what? Believing the record God gave
of his son. Not how we ought to believe,
we ought to repent. All those things are true. But
they're not the righteousness. They're not the justification.
God is the justifier. God the Father is the justifier.
Christ the Son is the reason for the justification. Here's
number three. Rest assured, rest assured that
God the Spirit will in time so lead your mind to grasp this
truth more and more. Though we, I don't think we will
ever really grasp it till we're finally free of all doing. I don't think we ever, not until
we awaken his likeness. It's not until we drop this old
flesh, this old man. Because that old man still say,
but look what I did. You see, most people think of
the old man, the Adamic nature, as just getting drunk, taking
drugs, fornicating, robbing banks, molesting babies, right? Now
that is flesh. Don't you get me wrong. But so
it so can be praying, Bible reading, believing, the devils believe
it and tremble. Somebody says, but that's so
confusing. And that's why you just give up and say, God, if
you don't do it, if it's not Christ, it'd never be done. But
how could I approach such a holy God, a Christ who would do that?
He invites sinners. Paul, he ate and drank and talked
to, preached to, witnessed to, who? Publicans and sinners. You don't have to be good for
God to accept you. If you're good, God won't because
he won't accept your kind of goodness or my kind of goodness. He only accepts sinners because
his son died for who? Sinners. So again, don't fret
this morning that this is difficult and perplexing, and rest assured,
God'll teach you this. And I'm gonna give you this.
If you begin to forget it, and he's really, you know, Linda,
Mary Linda, you begin to forget some of this, rest assured, he
remembers you, even when you don't remember him. If we've been, why did John,
was it John or Peter? If we believe, maybe, whichever
one it was, if we believe not, What's it say? Yet he abideth
faithful. Do you think Peter out there
cussing and swearing he didn't know the Lord was an act of faith?
No, it was pure outranked unbelief, but Christ still remembered him.
If he really knows you, he's always known you and will always
know you, even if your mind and body give out on you. And I'm
not suggesting that you're free to do whatever you want once
your body does. You know that. I'm just saying there are things
beyond our control in this sin-curse world. And one of these days
you may be sitting somewhere with a slobber running down your
chin and you don't know the name Jesus Christ from the devil himself. Right? But if he knew you in
eternity, he knows you right then. And he'll know you forever. Here's the last thing. Do you
ever find concern about your believing? Does it seem weak? Does it seem faulty? Do sometimes
you think, I wonder if it's even real? Ever been there? I understand that, I understand
that. Remember, remember, it's Christ's
faith that determines. Not yours. It's Christ's faith
that determined this whole thing, not yours. Yours is faulty. Not
that the faith or the believing itself is faulty, but we must
cry out. I know we keep saying it over,
Lord, I believe. Help thou. My unbelief. That man didn't even cry out,
Lord, help me to deal with my unbelief. You can't. It'll swallow
you up. If you try to face that enemy,
it'll eat you alive. But confess the truth, Lord,
I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. So believing with all your heart
can still have what? Unbelief, right there around. So again, ever concerned about
that? Is it weak? Fault? Is it even real? Remember,
it's even the life that you now live, how do you live it? By
the faith of the Son of God, who loved you and gave himself
for you. The reason you're not back out there in the world,
whether it's in the dregs of immorality, or back out there
in the dregs of false religion, is because Christ is still living
in you. He's still living in you, and He won't quit if He's
really there. If He's really there. You see,
it's Christ's faithfulness that determines. What are we taught?
Just receive Him. Believe Him. Rest in Him. Trust Him. If you receive Him,
His faith is all to you. I want to read the last verse
now think about this and I'll close of the prayer. Well, I'll
just close the message We'll cut this off Paul. We'll have
the table now. Listen this this this I know
sometimes and I'm not I'm not trying to accuse anyone here
this morning But I just know this truth it
Sometimes we read these, we sing these songs, we read these words,
and we're so familiar with them, Ellen, we just kind of sing them
or say them. You know what I mean? We just, that's how faulty we
really are. But listen to these words that
Bradbury wrote. The best obedience, obedience,
not disobedience, the best obedience of my hands, dares not appear
before thy throne, but faith can answer thy demands. How? By pleading what my Lord has
done. I think that's a pretty good
summary of faith, of us, our believing in him, it's just pleading
what he's done. It's not, oh Lord, I believe,
therefore bless me. No, we gotta say, Lord, I believe,
help thou my what? Unbelief. But he has no unbelief. He has no fault. He has no failure. So why wouldn't I plead, read
his obedience? His obedience, all right.