Okay, open your Bibles to Galatians
chapter 3. Today's message is called, The
Just Shall Live By Faith. Last week, we looked at verse
10 of Galatians chapter 3, which says, For as many as are of the
works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. So we saw there that anyone
who teaches a false gospel which includes something that a man,
woman, or child must do to be saved, in addition to or minus
the perfect synatonic work of the Lord Jesus Christ, this verse
proclaims that they're under a curse. They're under a curse. Now these verses we've looked
at in chapter 3 are not that difficult to understand. They're
written very plainly. Actually, the whole scripture
is written very plainly, isn't it, really? But yet, we will
never understand it. unless the Holy Spirit illuminates
the Scripture for us. If He doesn't illuminate the
Scriptures for us, we'll have no understanding of what the
Scriptures say. But praise be to God that we're
born again by the Holy Spirit of God and He's given us an understanding.
And we believe what the Scriptures say, right? Now we believe. By God-given faith, we believe
what the Scriptures say. And He is the revealer of it,
of the Scriptures to us. Now the controversy between law
and grace has been raging for ages. It's been raging for ages. Absolutely. It's just been going
on for so long. And we see here, since the times
of the apostles, self-righteous religionists have sought to yoke
God's people with works to be saved. Actually, what they're
doing is they're yoking them into bondage. That's why Paul
says, Look at chapter 5 here. This is why Paul writes these
words. In verse 1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty.
That's freedom in the Greek. The freedom. Wherewith Christ
hath made us free. And be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage. So these works-based religionists,
by saying you must be circumcised to be saved, these Judaizers,
are actually yoking the people of God. Putting bags of rocks
on them. A runner in a race, he doesn't
want nothing on him. Right? When you're running a
race, you watch a runner, a professional runner, they're just in their
shorts, their shoes, they have a little wee thing on, a shirt
on, and a number on. That's it. As light as they can
be. That's how we are. We don't want bags of rocks placed
upon us by religionists, do we? My oh my. So here, Paul's actually,
Paul's actually, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, hitting
this error head on, isn't he? And isn't it amazing that, I
always marvel at how the Holy Spirit has these men pen about
things that we're still dealing with today. God in his providence
knew that these would be things that his church would deal with.
Right? Nothing new under the sun, exactly. Absolutely nothing new under
the sun. Man wants to try to work their way to heaven, and
God says no. There's only one way of salvation
for any sinner, and that's Jesus Christ our Lord, through his
shed blood, his redemptive perfect work on Calvary's cross in our
room and place. So these self-righteous religions,
they'll defend their false religious beliefs and they'll gnash their
teeth against God's people, actually showing their hatred for Christ.
That's really what they're doing. What they're doing is they're
showing what Paul wrote when he said that before the Lord
saved us, we had enmity with God. Now we might not have come out
and said we hated God, but by our works we did. And that's
what these self-righteous religionists are doing. They're actually saying
they hate God. They hate his gospel. They hate
Christ. Because he's not good enough, right? Oh my. And why do they do this? Why do they show their hatred
for Christ right in the face of God's Holy Word? Well, because
the Holy Scriptures mean absolutely nothing to them. And I can attest
that the Scriptures meant nothing to me before the Lord saved me. Now they're everything. Now they're
everything. Because Christ is my all now,
just as He is yours, right? And now the Scriptures are everything.
Because they tell us about the King. They tell us. So they,
men, natural men, and we were there, we who came out of religion,
we who were born dead in our sins, Natural man would rather
believe the lies of man than believe what God says. Because
we have no spiritual understanding, the scriptures say, right? So
when we get spiritual understanding is when we're born again. Again,
God himself must do the work. He gets all the glory. He gets
all the honor. He gets all the praise, right? We look away from
ourselves and we look up to Christ, our great God and King. Now we've entered into the heart
of the epistle here, which is justification in and through
Christ alone, by God-given faith alone, according to the scriptures
alone. We believe on Christ, by the
grace of God. And today's verse will bring
forth how the just, that is those made just by Christ, see, when
the scriptures call us just, we have to remember that's only
in Christ. Because outside of Christ, we're
not just at all, are we? Because Scripture says there's
none righteous, no, not one. But in Christ, we're made righteous. You see, the missing note in
today's preaching is the righteousness of Christ. And it's so imperative,
beloved. It's so imperative. We must have
a righteousness that's perfect, right? But yet here we are imperfect. We're sinners. And into this world comes the
perfect one. To live and to die as our substitute, fulfilling
the law perfectly, completely in our room and place. And now
we're clothed in his righteousness. Our sins are imputed to him and
his righteousness is imputed to us, beloved. Old timers used
to call that the great transaction. I like that. The great transaction. And Christ bore away our sins
so much that God the Father says, I won't remember your sins anymore.
I'll never remember them again. They're gone from my sight. We say hallelujah, right? Oh,
what a Savior. In today's verse we'll bring
forth how the just, those made just by Christ, live by faith,
which is God-given faith. What do we do? We trust and rest
in the Savior, don't we? We trust and rest in Him. So
let's read verses 10 to 14 to see the context. I'm actually
going to try to lump verse 11 and 12 together today because
12 brings forth similar things that we've already read about
so for as many as are the works the law are under the curse for
it is written cursed is everyone that continue it not in all things
which are written in the book of law to do them but that no
man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident
look at that if we would only believe what the scriptures say
if man would only believe what the scriptures say but again
We can't believe them unless you're born again, right? But
when you're born again, we look at this and go, yeah, I can't
be justified by the law. That's so clear. As Paul writes
here, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And remember who the
true author of these words is. It's God, the Holy Spirit. He
is telling us here that a man or a woman or a child cannot
be justified in the sight of God by the works of the law.
Why? Because it's just to live by
faith. And notice what it calls us? The just. Isn't that wonderful? I'm a sinner, saved by the grace
of God, but this verse calls us just, beloved. That's remarkable. That's absolutely amazing. The
just shall live by faith. And the law is not a faith, but
the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ, look at
this. Remember how It said there's
a curse for the law. If you don't do the whole law,
there's a curse. Look at this. Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Why? Why did he do that? That the
blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus
Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. Now salvation in and through
Christ alone is plainly set forth here, isn't it? Very plainly
set forth here. A natural man, by adding some
kind of work that they do to obtain salvation, are simply
manifesting their hatred for God. That's what they're doing.
They're saying it's not good enough what God did. There must be something I have
to do. My daughter, even when I was talking to her about Christ
in the last few weeks, and I've been talking to her, and she
goes, it's that simple? I just have to believe? By God-given
faith, yes. You just believe. And I said,
my prayer is that God give you faith to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. My, oh my. So natural man is
manifesting their hatred for God and their hatred for Christ
because he said it's finished, right? It's done. There's nothing
to be added to that work. It's absolutely finished. And if one continues in that
hatred, they'll die in their sins and they spend eternity
in hell and eternal torment. And to say hell is a terrible
place isn't actually an understatement, beloved. Most people think that hell is
the furthest point from God. That they're left alone. I remember when I was young,
we used to say, oh, we're all going to party in hell. Dave,
you and I talked about that. My friends and I used to say,
oh, see you in hell. I'll party with you. It was awful. We were just so
flippant about it. And I look back at that now and
I just tremble. At how flippant. And some people think that hell
is a place where Satan and his minions go about taunting people
for all eternity, but as bad as that seems, that does not
compare even to what hell really is. Hell is the wrath of God. And God's presence right there
in his wrath. And hell is a place where there's
no mediator. See, we have a mediator. He took
our wrath that was deserving us. He took God's wrath that
was deserving you and I, beloved. But hell is a place where that
wrath is just unleashed. My oh my. In hell, no one has anyone who
has paid their sin debt. See, we have someone... Now,
I want us to rejoice about this. We have someone who has saved
us from our sins. Who saved us from the wrath of
God. Who saved us from the law of
God. Who saved us from ourselves. And we have someone who paid
our debt. Paid a debt. Now, how nice does
it feel when we pay a debt off, right? It feels really good,
doesn't it? But this is a debt we could never
pay. This was a debt that we couldn't even pay for one sin,
let alone billions that we commit in a lifetime in Christ paid
it all. So much so that God looks at
us again. I'm going to say it again. He
looks at us again and says, your sin and your iniquity will I
remember no more. It's gone from them. It's so
purged that it's gone from the presence of God, beloved. How? By the shed blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. See, there had to be blood shed,
right? Without the shed and the blood, there's no remission of
sins. See, that's why when Cain bought all them vegetables and
the fruits of his hands, there's no blood, is there? And Abel, what's he do? He brings
the proper sacrifice. He brings the blood of the lamb,
which pictures Christ. which pictures Christ, beloved.
And we, by the grace of God, have
escaped eternal wrath, the eternal wrath of God through Christ Jesus,
our Lord. He is not a way. He's the way. See, people say, well, He's a
way to God. He's the way. He's not a way. He's the way.
He's the truth. He's not a truth. He's the truth.
He's truth incarnate. And He's alive. No man cometh
unto the Father but by Him. And He's revealed Himself to
us, beloved. He saved our souls. So advocates of any doctrine
that promotes man's work, they deny the work of Christ. And
advocates of the law of Moses are in the same camp. If they
say there's something in the Law of Moses you have to do to
be saved, they are denying the finished work of Christ. They're
denying the very One who fulfilled the Law, honored God's Law, magnified
it. That's what He did in our room
and place. Isn't that wonderful? What a Savior. What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. And as plain as the Word of God
is, religious folks are just blind spiritually. Barnabas was
physically, physically blind until our Lord opened his eyes,
right? That's a picture of you and I, beloved, in our natural
state. Remember, he couldn't keep his
mouth shut. They're saying, oh, be quiet. Jesus, thou Son of God,
have mercy on me. That's what we cry, isn't it? And the scripture says he just
cried even louder. They told him, Barnabas. And then the scripture
says, Christ stood still. He heard the crying wail of one
of his lost sheep that was given to him by the Father from eternity. And oh my beloved, when he hears
the cry of one of his blood-bought saints, he always comes, doesn't
he? Right on time. And then he says,
rejoicing his brothers and sisters, then he says, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. Zan and I were talking about
how he takes care of us from conception to gray hairs. And then he takes care of us,
takes us home, doesn't he? Off we go. Oh, it's wonderful,
isn't it? It's wonderful. So these truths
concerning law and grace are just as important today as ever
they were when Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians. Let's
read verses 9 and 10 of Galatians chapter 3. They which be of faith
are blessed with faith in Abraham, for as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. So we see here before us
a difference between law and grace set right before us in
this text. Abraham was not under the law of Moses as the Ten Commandments
had not even been written in Abraham's day. They were given
to Moses on Mount Sinai. Abraham was under the same law
that all the Old Testament saints were under before God had given
his written law to Moses. The same law that every born-again,
blood-washed believer, child of God is. The law of faith,
which works by love. Why do we do things for the Lord? Because we love him. Because
we found out that he loved us even when I was a dead maggot
in my sins. My! What a Savior! And then we found out, turn if
you would to John 17. Oh my, we're going to go over
this verse again. We looked at this on Wednesday
night. Look at this. This is, I'll tell
you what. You talk about light your lamp
up. Oh my gosh. Did you know, beloved of God,
that Christ, that God loves us as He loves Christ? Now think
of that. He loves Christ with an everlasting,
unchanging love, right? From eternity. That love has
never changed. And because it doesn't change,
we're not consumed, right? Look at this. Look at this little
verse right here. John 17. We're going to start
in verse 20. But the verse I want us to key
on is 23. So he says here, He's speaking about the apostles
in verse 19. And then he says, neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.
That's you and I, beloved. That's you and I. That's all
the elect of all the ages. For they all may be one as thou
father art in me. Now that's just talking about
the unity that we have in Christ. And I in thee, that they also
may be one in us and that the world may believe. Thou hast
sent me. In the glory which Thou gavest
me, I have given them, we have an inheritance now, incorruptible,
undefiled, that fate is not away, that they may be one, even as
we are one. Now here we go, buckle in. I in them, and Thou in me,
that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may
know that Thou hast sent me, and has loved them, as thou hast
loved me." That verse is absolutely incredible. God loves us as he loves Christ. Do you know why? Because we're
in Christ. Outside of Christ, that love is not there, right?
But in Christ, that love is there. How long have we been in Christ
for? Oh, let's just back it up, eh?
For maternity. Now think of this. When we were
dead in sins, Brother Charlie, when we were doing all our stuff,
God's love was set upon us and we had no idea. We had no idea. Absolutely no idea. Sister, we
talked about that too. God's love was set upon us then.
It doesn't matter what we were doing. His love was set upon
us. We had no idea. In our minds, we were enemies
with God in our minds, right? And we're going to find out in
chapter 4 when we get here that we were heirs and we didn't even
know it. And there's a time when you can't tell an heir, you can't
tell a sheep from a goat. And that's before we're born
again. But because we're sons, we talk about this first day,
God has sent forth his spirit into our hearts crying, Abba
Father, because we are sons, because God chose us in Christ,
because God's love has ever been set upon us. So if we're having
a bad day, let us think of this. God loves me. And this is just,
I can't fathom it all, but as I said on Wednesday, this is
a fact. That's a fact what we just read.
That's a fact that God loves us as he loves Christ. And even
though I can't understand it, I believe it by God's grace.
And oh my, it's a wonderful place to go to find comfort, to find
joy, to find peace, to find rest. My oh my. Now Abraham, again,
was under the same law that all the saints are, the law of faith,
which works by love. Turn, if you would, to the book
of Romans, chapter 3. If we're saved by grace, which
we are, Romans, chapter 3, verses 27 to 31, if we're saved by faith,
where's boasting then? There's no room for boasting. The only one we can boast in
is Christ. That's why the just will live
by faith. We live by resting and trusting in Christ and Him
alone. We don't live by the works of the law, beloved. We live
by resting and trusting in Christ alone as the only Savior of our
eternal souls. He is the one. He is the one. Look at this. Where's boasting
then? It's excluded. We can't boast of what we've
done. We can't say, well, God, I've done this because I ain't
done nothing except sin, which will lead to my condemnation.
But praise be to God. God had mercy on me. And there's
therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. By what law? Of works? Nay, but
by the law of faith. See, we're under a new law. The
law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith, look at this, without the deeds of
the law. Is that not, that's so clear?
You ever had a lawmonger come in your life? I had a lawmonger
one time try to take over my pulpit in Oregon. I didn't know he was a longmonger
until I went away and I had him preach once. Never had him preach
again. Never. The guy just yoked the
folks there. Tried to yoke them, and every
one of them said, Wayne, if you have him preach again, I'm not
going to never. I just won't come when he's talking.
And that's all they said. He was just talking. And I never
made that mistake again. Very careful to guard the pulpit.
You know, we preachers, we got to guard the pulpit. We have
to guard the pulpit. You know. It's an honor for me
to stand here and preach the gospel. And it's an honor for
whoever I have come in here to preach the gospel. Whether it
be from within the body or without. It's an honor. And we, the last
thing we want is people trying to yoke us with the law, right?
We, just tell me about Christ. Tell me about my king. Is he
the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Look at this. Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seeing
it is God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and
not the uncircumcision through faith. See? It's all about Christ. And it's so clearly put here.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yay,
we established the law because Christ fulfilled the law in a
room and place. So by looking to Christ and trusting
Christ, we see that he is the fulfiller of the law for us. Now God's law is still holy,
isn't it? But all it does, it can't save anyone. The law of
God can't save, it just brings death, it slays. It slays us. But there's life in Christ, isn't
there? The fulfiller of the law. There's life in Him. Oh, and
scriptures here, right there, right? Look at, therefore we
conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of
the law. That's so clear, isn't it? Yet what does natural man
do? They take the scriptures and
they twist it. Zane, you were saying the other day, man can
take the scriptures and twist it into whatever they want. And
that's so true. There's whole religions out there made from
man twisting one scripture. There's a church of Christ. That
whole movement is based upon them twisting scripture in the
book of Acts. My, oh, my. The way of salvation is so plainly,
so clearly set forth in the scriptures that salvation is in and through
Christ alone, by His perfect, sin-eternal work alone in salvation. And that's why we say Christ
is our all in all. He's everything. He's the alpha
of my salvation, and He's the omega of my salvation, and He's
every single letter in between. Right? That's who He is. In that passage in Romans 3 we
just read, oh my, we see the total inability of either Jew
or Gentile to justify themselves before God by anything they do. Because again, I'm going to read
it again, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law. That's Jew or Gentile. Without
the deeds of the law. And that's written by Paul by
inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. He's the true author
of these words. And I believe he sets forth all
these scriptures for us for our learning, to comfort us, to guide
us through this world, to know truth over error as he reveals
it to us, and to be on guard, too, against that stuff. Against
that stuff. So Paul has shown here again
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God there in Romans, the weakness
of man's arguments that there is absolutely no way that man,
woman, or child can ever be justified by the law, period. We conclude,
when you come to a conclusion, that's the end, right? That no
flesh will be justified by the deeds of the law. My, oh my. In every point of our salvation,
Christ is exalted. He's lifted up. In every single
point of our salvation. And man is abased. Man's bought
low. We have no merit in us. Think
of this. We have no merit in us at all, right? But we trust
in the one who has infinite merit. Because of his great work. He
has infinite merit, beloved. Infinite. Think that the number
of the elect are a number that no man can number. And they're
all saved by his grace and mercy because of his infinite merit. It's wonderful. My, and God is
a covenant God in Christ is the God of both the Jews and the
Gentile, right? In Christ. In the great covenant, the everlasting
covenant, he's both the God of the Jews and the Gentiles. Because
he saves both, right? By his grace through Christ Jesus
our Lord. In every individual instance
of his church given by God to Christ and chosen by God in Christ
before the foundation of the world, he is first and last and
everything in between. Salvation. So we conclude with
Jonah that salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. It's not by man's doing. Not
by man's doing. I didn't even get halfway through
my notes, and it's already time to stop. My goodness. Oh. Well, I just have to pick up
where we left off. I'll close it with this. Therefore,
as the church of Christ had been in Christ from everlasting, the
recovery of the church from our fallen Adam by sin, in this time
state, right? Christ came into this time state,
as Robert Hawker said. He came into time. He was outside
of time and space. He came into time to redeem us.
And when did he come in? At the perfect time, right? That
God had chosen. Not a second late. Not a second
earlier. He's born of a virgin in Bethlehem. The very place, the house of
bread. The house of bread. And who's come? He who is the
bread of life. He who is the bread of life is
here. Oh, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. And we were chosen
in Christ before the world was. Before there was ever a world.
And the just live by faith, don't we? And again, beloved, I'm looking at some
just people here. Just as if you never sinned.
I'm looking at some people who are made righteous by God. Isn't
that amazing? That's mercy, isn't it? That's
grace. And how do we live now? By faith. By God-given faith. Trusting
and resting in the Crucified One who's risen and is now seated
at the right hand of the Father and is right now interceding
for us. Glory to His name. Praise his mighty, mighty name.
Brother Charlie, can you close us in prayer?