Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2. The name of the message is not
justified by the law. Not justified by the law. In this portion of scripture
we'll be starting to read this week, And it'll take us a few
lessons to get through this portion of scripture that we're going
to look at here in Galatians. I really believe that justification
in Christ is the keystone of New Testament teaching because
we can't justify ourselves, and yet we're justified in Christ
by His work and by His merit. all because of his great eternal
love for us. And this is a very important
portion of the scriptures. It's a very important doctrine
in scripture. And doctrine is just all about
Christ. It just talks about Christ. People
get afraid of the word doctrine. Don't be afraid of the word doctrine.
It just speaks of Christ. That's all it is. It's the doctrine
of Christ and of what he's done and who he is and why he came
here. And as I mentioned last week,
this blessed doctrine of justification by Christ alone and through Christ
alone is a keystone of the New Testament. Salvation's only in
and through Christ, there's no other way. No other way to be
saved except in and through Christ Jesus our Lord. He is the only
savior of sinners. Man cannot save himself, we cannot
save ourselves by any works, which we're going to see clearly
brought forth in the scripture today. We wonder how people can not
see what we see, but remember, we were once in darkness too.
We, at one time, didn't see what we now see. It's only by the
grace of God that we see these things. It's only by the Holy
Spirit illuminating the Scriptures and teaching us the things of
Christ. So, we don't look down on anyone,
but we hope and pray that they come out of that bondage that
they're in, right? Because it's bondage. Trying
to work your way to heaven is nothing but bondage. And the
Scriptures clearly declare That the law brings all of us to a
point where we're guilty before God. The law killeth, right? It can never make you alive.
Only the Holy Spirit can regenerate us. We can't be saved by the
law, it can only condemn us. And the scripture says if you
offend in one point of the law, you've offended in all the points
of the law. So we're all in trouble, aren't
we? Every one of us. We're just a bunch of sinners.
And the law shows us that. Shows us that we're a bunch of
sinners. And who are we as sinners against? The holy God. The righteous God of the universe.
It's him who we've sinned against. Now we may sin against one another,
but ultimately we sin against God. Remember Joseph? I've mentioned it many times
before with Potiphar. The first thing he said is, I'm
going to sin against God if I do this, and then Potiphar. See,
he had the right order, didn't he? God has went nowhere. He's still
there. His holy law is there, right? We need to be reconciled to him
because we've left, haven't we? That fellowship. We fell in at
him. dead in trespasses and sins.
So the law kills. It can only show our sin and
it can never justify a sinner. Never. It can only condemn us,
the law. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
the justifier of sinners, isn't he? He's the justifier of sinners. This is wonderful news. Those
who cannot justify themselves, those who are sinners by birth,
nature, and choice, He justifies us so that we can stand before God,
justified, and to be allowed to be in His presence of the
holy, righteous God of the universe. My, it's amazing. With that in
our minds, let's look here at Galatians chapter 2. And what
can we say about that? All we can say is praise be to
God, right? That's all we can say, is give Him all the glory
and give Him all the honor, give Him all the praise. He justifies
poor, needy, helpless, hopeless sinners like me. My, and like
you. It's wonderful. Look at this
in Galatians chapter 2, verses 14 to 21. We're going to read the whole
context. Our verse today will be verse 16. But we'll read the
context. And like I say, we're going to
go slowly through this portion because it's so very important.
But 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, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as
do the Jews, why compelst thou the Gentiles to live as do the
Jews? We who are Jesus by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles,
knowing here, look at this, look how clear this is, beloved. Knowing. Now he's going to tell them something
they already know. You know how they know it? Because God saved
them. They didn't know this before.
When they were walking in deadness and darkness of their sin, they
were trying to live by the law. Now these fellows, and he's speaking,
don't forget, he's speaking to Peter and the Jews who disassembled. And Barnabas too, disassembled
from the Gentiles. They were, Peter's sitting there
eating together with them, and these prominent Jews come down,
who are believers too, and he gets carried away. The fear of
man, right? Oh, fear of man gets a hold of
him. Look at this, look how, this is so beautiful, look how
clear this is. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works
of the law. You can't get any clearer than that, can you? It's
worded in language that we can understand. Knowing that a man's not justified
by the works of the law. What does that mean? That means
we're not justified by the works of the law. That's what that
means. That's exactly what that means. It's wonderful. But look
at this, 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. What a verse. He doesn't just
say it once. And remember who the true author
of this is. Paul's just a penman. The true author is the Holy Spirit
of God, remember that. So the Holy Spirit of God is
telling you and I today as believers that we can never be justified
by the law. He's not just telling us, but the scriptures are there
for everyone to read, right? But men, they read the Bible
and they don't believe it. Why do people try to justify
themselves by the works of the law? Because they don't believe
what the word says. They don't believe it. They may be sincere.
They may say, oh yeah, I believe all this and I believe all that.
But ultimately, the reason men don't do what that verse says,
and the fact of cease from your labors, is because man still
thinks that there's something they can do to gain merit and
favor with God. And I was there. But praise God,
by the grace of God, I'm not there no more. Now I know a little
bit. Now I know a little bit, beloved.
And look at this. But if, while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners, is therefore Christ
the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again
the things which I have destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I may live unto
God. Look at this wonderful verse
here. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, Nevertheless, I
live, yet not I, but Christ lives where? In me. He lives in us,
beloved. 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. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. How does one frustrate the grace
of God? By trying to be saved by your works. Paul says, I don't frustrate,
I've given all, I count all that but dung. Remember? I count it
all but dung. And all that stuff. I don't frustrate
the grace of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And we know, we know
Christ did not die in vain. We know that. He came here to
save his people from their sins, and he did it, beloved. Hallelujah. And praise God that we're included
in that number, we who are believers. Oh, it's wonderful, isn't it?
It's absolutely wonderful. He gave him, look, and look,
it says that, look what Paul wrote, and every believer can
say this in verse 20, and gave himself for me. Just let that
sit. You get down this week, beloved,
something comes up in the world, you get down, just remember this.
He gave himself for me, this old sinner. And if you're a believer,
He gave Himself for you. That's the best news we ever
hear, isn't it? Isn't that wonderful? That's just amazing. So when
Paul and Barnabas and Titus met with the apostles in Jerusalem,
Peter was there, and Titus was there. He's a Greek, and he wasn't
compelled to be circumcised. We saw that earlier in this chapter.
He wasn't compelled to be circumcised, as the Judaizers wanted him to
do. And Peter agreed with them that, oh, no, you don't have
to be circumcised. Not at all. Not at all. Because the circumcision
that the Holy Spirit does is the circumcision of the heart,
which means we're born again. It's an operation of God, Paul
tells us in Colossians. It's an operation of God. He
is the author of it. He is the one who does it. Gives
us a new heart, right? That hungers and thirsts for
righteousness, which is Christ. He's our righteousness. Oh, it's
wonderful. And when the apostle, when James
and Peter and John gave the right hand of fellowship to Paul and
Barnabas, remember, they give them the right hand of fellowship,
and they blessings to Paul and Barnabas, and they said, you
guys go to the Gentiles, we're gonna go to the Jews. Right? Paul agreed to that. Paul agreed
to that. But Paul doesn't agree with separations
in the church normally, does he? No, because we're what? We're one in Christ, aren't we?
But he agreed that he was called to the Gentiles. Peter was called
to the circumcision. Same gospel. Same gospel sent
by the same master. Right? Think of me sent here
and David sent down to Ecuador. Same master, same one sending
us, right? Off we go, wherever God sends
us, same thing, same thing. My, oh my. And we looked at last week, Peter
comes to Antioch. Here he comes to Antioch and
they're all sitting, after, After Paul and Barnabas were given
the right hand of fellowship, they came back to Antioch, and
now Jews and Gentiles, they're sitting there eating together.
They're having a wonderful time. They're having fellowship, sweet
fellowship. Because why? Because as Paul wrote, there's
neither barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but we're one
in Christ. We're one in Christ. We have brothers and sisters
all over the world, beloved. We're one in Christ with them.
It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. And he
was, as far as we know, he was eaten with them without reservation.
He's probably having a wonderful time, meeting all these new brothers
and sisters in Christ, Gentiles, people he never would have ate
with before, right? Having a wonderful time with
them. And then here comes these prominent Jews, the zealous of
the law. They're believers, but they still
got grave clothes. Remember we looked at that too?
They still got grave clothes on, don't they? Oh my, we're
still got grave clothes on, beloved. They're falling away here and
there, but we still got them. We still got them. We're all
recovering Pharisees. That's what we are. We all are.
And then what happened? Peter withdrew from them, causing
a division among the brethren. To the point of influence, the
other Jews that were there and Barnabas, they were all carried
away with the dissimulation. And Paul's remarks were directed
at Peter here. These remarks are directed at
Peter. Paul's going to bring forth in his rebuke to Peter
the wonderful doctrine of justification in Christ and through Christ
alone by faith, by God-given faith, right? And who's the object
of our faith? It's Christ. It's Christ. So that God-given faith has one
object, the one who is our justification, the Lord Jesus Christ, you see?
It all comes back to Christ. It all comes back to him. And
so he's speaking to Paul, he's speaking quite sternly. And God-given faith causes us
to look away from our works and look to Christ. That's what it
does. I remember when I was in religion. I was always talking
about what I was doing. And I was a religious, I was
a Boy, I'll tell you why, I'd go out door knocking. It was
after I'd left the Catholic Church, I went from the fire to the bonfire
of religion. My, always had to do this and
always had to do that. How many doors we knocked on?
Thinking, the lesser Christians don't go door knocking. Awful
stuff, just so full of pride, beloved. Self-righteousness. God delivered me from that, and
I praise His name. You know, it's not about how
much we read the Bible, although I would never say don't read
your Bible. Read your Bible. But don't think that reading
your Bible so much is getting you merit and favor with God,
because it's not. Pray to God. Pray as much as you can to God.
But don't think praying to God 15 hours a day is going to get
you more merit than your brother or sister over here who prays
an hour or half an hour or 10 minutes a day. Our merit and favor with God
does not come from anything we do. It comes from Christ and
Him alone. Now, why do we do those things?
Why do we want to pray? Because we get to. It's a privilege,
isn't it? Why do we read our Bible? It's a privilege. I want
to learn about my King. Why do we sit and listen to gospel
messages? Because they're edifying and they just tell us about the
Lord Jesus Christ, don't they? We get to do these things now.
It's not a duty, it's a blessing. You see the difference? There's
a huge difference. There's a huge difference. Oh
my, I'll never forget, I used to try, when I was religious,
I used to try to read 10 chapters a day, but you know how much
I remembered? Donut. But I was sure proud of reading
them 10 chapters a day, and then I heard Henry Mahan in a message
one time. And he says, better to read one chapter with understanding
than 10 chapters. And I'll tell you what, got a
boing right between the eyes. Is that not true? Better to not
prayerfully just go through some verses and get an understanding
from the Holy Spirit illuminating that than bragging that I read
all this scripture? You know how I get most of my
messages, the ones that I just preached, that aren't in series?
If I'm doing cross-references and stuff, when I'm in my other
studies with the book of John 17 right now and with Galatians,
I'm like, oh, oh, oh! Or one of you will say, hey,
check this verse out over here. I'm like, oh my gosh, I get to preach
on that. You see? Isn't it wonderful? It's wonderful,
beloved. Oh, it's wonderful. So, you know,
None of these things can justify us before God. The only way we
can be justified before God is in Christ and Him alone. In Him
alone. So, and think of this. I was
thinking about this this week. Isn't it wondrous that God in
His providence, right? Because we know all things work
for good, right? For those who love Christ Jesus,
for those who are the called according to His purpose. They
always leave that line out. Right? But think of this. Here
we are 2,000 plus years later. We're studying this book of Galatians.
It's been a wonderful study. And here, God allowed this to
occur with Peter. He allowed it to happen for our
learning. Isn't that amazing? And it's
the Holy Spirit that's bringing these things to remembrance to
Paul as he's penning these things down. So obviously the Holy Spirit
wanted us to learn from this or it would never be in Scripture,
right? So even the error that Peter did, and I was thinking
about this, how all things work for good for those who are the
called according to God. That worked for good for Peter,
didn't it? I bet you he never did that again. I bet you he never did that again.
I bet you he thought, oh, I'm so ashamed, Lord. Because that's
how we'd feel, wouldn't we? I'm so ashamed. See, this is
why it's key for all of us, preachers too, all of us, to have a teachable
spirit. Because this was Peter, and Paul
just withstood him and said, this is wrong. This is wrong,
my dear brother. What you're doing is wrong. We
can never be justified by anything we do. Nothing at all. Oh my. And so He allowed this
to happen, that the keystone, right, justification in Christ
and through Christ might be bought forth in the scriptures. I'm
just amazed more and more at God's providence, how He allows
these things to happen. Even things in our lives too.
Look back in your own life. There's things He's allowed to
happen for our learning. We look back at it and go, oh Lord, you
know, thank you for carrying me through that. You know? And we usually come out stronger
on the other side, don't we? In our faith in Christ. Always
looking to Him. Not looking to ourselves because
I'm weak. Are you? I'm weak. And I'm being
taught every day I'm weak. But He's strong. He's strong. Let's read this verse again.
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. So clear. So clear, beloved. That's why Paul says in chapter
5, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you
free and be not again entangled in the yoke of bondage. What
freedom? We're free, beloved. We're set
free in Christ. Now the law is still there, right?
We love the law of God. It's holy like He is. It's incredible. But we can never fulfill it.
It shows us our desperate need for Christ, doesn't it? That
was what the law is for. To show us that we're a bunch
of sinners. And if we're honest, we broke
every one of them. If not by deed, by thought. Remember when the Lord spiritualized
the law and he said to those men, if you look on a woman with
lust, you've already committed adultery. He had every one of them right
there, didn't he? And you could apply that to both
men and women, couldn't you? And then he says, if you're angry
with your brother, you already killed him. How many times have we been angry
with folks? You see, praise God for salvation
in Christ. Praise his mighty name, that
all our sins are forgiven. All those sins, all those law-breaking
sins are completely forgiven in Christ Jesus our Lord. gone
as far as the east is from the west. Wash clean the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice the words, the word
knowing as I said earlier in in verse 16. Paul's talking to
Peter about something he knows. He's been taken out of the Jewish
religion, right? He's talking to Peter now, he's
saying you guys know this. You've been taught this. See,
this is why it's good for us to be reminded, isn't it? And
you know what? Gospel preaching just reminds
us of what Christ did for us, doesn't it? Every week we come
and hear about Christ, come and hear what He did for us, and
we're just amazed and marvel at what He's done for us. It's
incredible. So, He says, you already know
this. You already know this. You know that a man or woman
cannot be justified by the law. And isn't it incredible how clearly
this verse brings that forth? It's so clear, isn't it? It's
so clear that justification is by Christ Jesus and him alone. And Peter and Paul and Barnabas
and other believing Jews, they knew that the law itself, which
requires, what does the law require? Perfect obedience. Perfect. Well, we're a bunch
of imperfect beans, aren't we? Well, we're done right there,
right? Perfect obedience. And it accuses and hold guilty
and pronounces condemnation and death upon anyone who would break
any of the law of God. Turn if you would to Romans chapter
3. Romans chapter 3. Look at this. This is so clear
here. This is so clear here. And this, I'll tell you what,
I thank God for that verse in Galatians where it says we're
justified by Christ, because look at what this verse says
about the law, these verses say about the law. And this includes
all of us, too, in our natural state. Look at this, Romans 3,
verses 19 and 20. Now we know, again, look, same
verbiage, right? We know. This is something we
know. This is something that God the Holy Spirit has taught
His people. See, this is used oftentimes
by the apostles, because he's saying, you know these things.
But just because we know them doesn't mean we shouldn't listen
to them again, right? Because you know what? I forget
a lot. Do you forget a lot? Yeah, sister. Yeah, we forget a lot. Yeah,
we go out the door, like you said, and poof, gone. Right? Look at this. This is amazing.
Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law. So who's under the law? Every
human being born into this earth in our natural state under the
law. Look what the law says. It saith to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and that all the world
may become what? What's that word there? Guilty. Guilty. That's the state of all
mankind in our natural state. Guilty before God. See, we're
no longer guilty, are we? We who are the people of God,
we're no longer guilty. We're no longer under the law.
Christ died for us. He satisfied the law. He's the
end of the law for righteousness for we who are his people. That's
good news, isn't it? Because otherwise, we're what?
We're guilty. And people are guilty whether
they believe it or not. I always tell people that when
I'm out and about, and they say, well, I'm not guilty before God. I say, well, the scriptures declare
that you're guilty before God. You are guilty. There's none
righteous, no, not one. None. That includes everybody. Includes everybody. Look at there.
Look at the next verse. Again, considering the verse
we're studying right now. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall what? No flesh be justified in his
sight. No flesh can be justified in
God's sight by the works of the law. It's so clear, isn't it?
And yet you have people out there trying to work their way to heaven,
trying to gain merit and favor with God, and they're just making
themselves twofold the child of hell. My oh my. Now look, it says,
by the law is what? The knowledge of sin. See, we
didn't understand sin. You know I've talked about that.
I didn't understand sin when I was dead in trespasses and
sins. I didn't understand sin when I was a religious dead in
trespasses and sins. Only by the grace of God when
he saved me when I was born again. Now I know what sin is. And now
I don't even still don't even think we see how how awful it
is. We don't have a full understanding
of the dreadfulness of sin. It's so awful that Christ had
to go to the cross and redeem us with his precious blood beloved.
It's such a crime against our great God that he sent his only
begotten son into this world to save us from our sins. My. Deuteronomy says this, listen
to this. Cursed be he that conformeth not all the words of this law
to do them, and all the people shall say amen. So cursed be
anyone who can't do all the law. Oh my. We just read in Romans
that all the world is guilty before God, according to the
law, and that we can't justify ourselves by the works of the
law. My. So anyone who seeks justification
by their works, by the deeds of the law, and trust in their
own works and righteousness for acceptance with God, they're
under the curse of the law. They're under the curse of the
law. Turn, if you would, to Galatians, chapter 3. Galatians, chapter
3. Now look at this. Remember, this
faith that's given to us is God-given faith, right? It has one object,
right? And that's Christ and Him alone. He's the object of
our faith, isn't He? He's the object of our faith.
Look what this verse says here. Galatians, chapter 3, verse 11.
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God.
Look at that. No one. So if we have friends
that are trying to work their way to heaven, we say, you can
never be justified by anything you do. That's so clear, isn't it? It
is evident for the just shall live by what? Faith. God-given
faith. Again, who's the object of that
faith? The one who justified us. The Lord Jesus Christ. We live by faith. We live looking
to Him, don't we? We used to look to ourselves.
I used to look to myself. I used to look to myself and
think, oh yeah, I gotta do this, I gotta do all that. When I was
Catholic, I used to think God would put me in the scales of
justice and my good would outweigh my bad. Oh, that's so horrible,
isn't it? That's so horrible. Because it's
never true, is it? Guilty, guilty, guilty, Wayne
Boyd. But now, When I see the blood,
the Father says, I'll pass over you. Isn't that wonderful? Not guilty. Oh, it's wonderful, isn't it?
Not guilty, yeah? Holy and blameless in His sight,
even though we're still sinners. Clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. So it's
so clear here. It's so clear here that we cannot
be justified by the works of the law. Now, there were many
justified before the law was given. Do you know that? Before
the law was given, there was many justified. There was Abel,
and Noah, and Job, and Abraham, and all the believers. And there
were many justified even during the dispensation of the law.
But none of them were justified by his or her obedience to the
law. They were looking to Christ,
beloved. They were justified by faith, looking to Christ.
You see, it always comes back to our king. There was never
any way to be justified in the Old Testament by works of the
law, and there's never any way to be justified in the New Testament
by the works of the law. The only way we can be justified
is looking to Christ by God-given faith. It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful, isn't
it? Oh, my. The law was not given to save.
The law was given to reveal sin. It was given to reveal sin. It
was given to lead us to Christ. To reveal Christ to us. And no
man can ever perfectly keep the law except the Lord Jesus Christ.
He did it, didn't he? The sinless, spotless Lamb of
God. He did it. He's the only one. And he's the
God-man. But no son or daughter of Adam
has ever kept the law perfectly. We're just guilty. I remember
those things we used to get. Remember, we talked about that
before when we were younger. You go to the store, and I always
like to get the paper after my dad got it and keep looking at
it, it's the stamp. And I even ask the guy, can I
stamp it? Can I stamp it? The guy goes, yeah, take the
stamp. Stamp that paid. See? It was guilty for us, and
now it's pardoned. Pardoned by the blood of Christ. By the blood of Christ. That
black word guilty has been covered by the red word pardoned. Pardoned
by the blood of Christ. That's wonderful. Absolutely
wonderful. The just shall live by faith,
God given faith. One object it has, and that's
Christ who justified us. In any requirement or obedience
of the law or rule to merit salvation that anyone makes up, And that principle's not limited
just to the Mosaic Law, but any system of belief, which makes
salvation dependent upon what we do, what we do for God, you see? People say, well, I'm doing it
for God. No, you're trying to gain merit and favor with God
is what you're trying to do, by your doing. Any system that does that, Instead of God, and you know
what those systems do? They replace what God's done
for us in Christ. That's all that matters, isn't
it? Not what we do for God, but what God's done for us. And see,
that's all preachers and missionaries, we just go around telling people
about what God's done for us. That's what we do. Look at the
great things God's done! It's wonderful! He saved my soul. I'm justified in Him, I'm gonna
be in God's presence because of what Christ did for me. He
bled and died for me at Calvary's cross. And there's nothing I
can do, nothing I did that deserves this wonderful grace and mercy,
nothing at all. My, there's no salvation if a
man or woman's dependent on something they do. even along with the
work of Christ. That's what the Judaizers were
doing. They were saying, well, yeah, salvation's in Christ,
but you also have to be circumcised. Nope. Salvation's in Christ alone. and see what's being brought
forth here. Think of this, God and His providence had this happen,
this would totally combat what the Judaizers are bringing forth,
wouldn't it? See how wise God is? He's so much wiser than we
are. He allows this circumstance to
happen, for Paul to be able to write about it to those Galatians
and say, look at this, we're justified by faith alone in Christ
alone. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful.
I'm going to close with this. I'm running out of time again.
But I'm going to close with this. Look at Galatians chapter 5 here. This is truly amazing. Here we
are 2,000 years ago. And we're 2,000 years later reading
this and getting a blessing out of it. Look at this. Galatians chapter 5. Verses 1
to 6. Stand fast. Stand firm. In the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made you free. Don't be entangled again. Right?
It says that. In the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free. And be not again entangled with the yoke
of bondage. Don't be entangled again by someone telling you
you've got to do something to be saved along with what Christ
has done. Salvation is in Christ, in Christ
alone, plus absolutely nothing. And then look at it. Behold,
I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing. Now remember, that's what the
Judaizers are saying. You have to be circumcised to be saved. So he's
telling them right out. He says, you go get circumcised,
Christ profits you absolutely nothing, because you're doing
that to try to be saved. So put anything else in there.
Baptism. Sabbatarians that say you have
to worship on Saturday. Put anything else in there. You
just keep putting it in there. You do those things to gain merit
and favor with God, Christ is nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole
law. You want to live by one point of the law? You've got
to live by it all. Well, come on. It can't be that
stern. Yeah, that's what the scripture
said when we read there in Deuteronomy. Cursed is anyone who doesn't
do everything in the law. Oh my. Christ has become, look
at this. He is firm, man. He's speaking
in firm language here. Christ has become of no effect
to you. Whosoever you are justified by the law, you've fallen from
grace. You don't know what grace is
about. For we through the Spirit wait
for what? The hope of righteousness by faith. That's Christ. We're
waiting for Him right now, aren't we? We're waiting for Him to
either come at our death or we're waiting for Him to come again.
We're waiting, aren't we? He's the hope. He's the hope
of our righteousness. He is the Lord of righteousness.
He's everything to us. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Oh, it's wonderful. Isn't it
wonderful? God's so merciful to us. He's so wonderful. He's
so merciful.