back in Galatians. Good to be back with everybody
here this week. We were gone to Delaware last
week to preach for them. Their church continues to look
for a pastor and continue to pray for them. The Lord might
lead a man to them, then to a man. Keep doing your prayers. But it's
good to be back here. Galatians chapter two. Today,
we're going to be looking at verses 15 and 16. But I want to go ahead and I
want to back up and read where we were last time we were together
so that you can kind of get the context of where we're at. But
we're going to be looking at verses 15 and 16. But let's go back up to verse
11. It says, but when Peter was come
to Antioch, I withstood him to the face because he was to be
blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with
the Gentiles, but when they were come, he withdrew and separated
himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the
other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas
also was carried away with their dissimulation. But whenever I
saw They walked not uprightly according to the truth of the
gospel. I said unto Peter before them
all, if thou being a Jew liveth 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 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. Heavenly Father, we thank you
today for your mercy and for your grace and for your kindness
to us. Lord, we thank you for the promises
that are in Christ Jesus. We thank you, Father, for the
salvation that we have in and through him. We thank you for
the forgiveness of sins. We thank you for the justification
that comes by Jesus Christ. Lord, we just pray this morning
that you would, as we just sang, that you would be in our midst
as you have promised by your Holy Spirit. We ask, Lord, that
you would govern our worship today, that you would aid us
in availing ourselves to you in our heart and in our mind,
Lord, that without that we could not worship in spirit and truth.
And so we need the Spirit's help this morning. I need the Spirit's
help in preaching, Father. Without the Spirit speaking and
ministering through me, I'm just preaching the flesh with the
wisdom of men. So I ask, Lord, that you might
help in my preaching, that it might be of the truth and that
you might keep me from error. Lord, I pray that you might bring
forth the things that you would have your sheep to hear this
morning here. And Lord, we just are so grateful. As our sovereign
God, you have control over all things and that by your providence,
you're bringing all things according to your purpose to be as you
have intended it to be. for your glory. And so, Lord,
we just are so grateful today that we live in a country that
we can worship you freely still. Lord, we are thankful that we
have the opportunity to be able to minister the gospel freely. And so, Father, we know that
even though we are celebrating today this Independence Day for
our country, We know that nothing comes except by your hand, that
everything that we have was given by you. It was given to us and
it is only kept by you, Lord. We know that man cannot keep
anything unless you give him the ability to keep those things. So Father Lord, we are so grateful
today that we still have a country where we can do these things
and meet together. But Father, we know that in the days to come,
the Bible says that men will wax worse and worse, and Lord,
we are looking for your soon return. But whether or not men
wax worse and worse, Father, our trust and our hope is in
you, and we know that you will do all things for your glory,
and it's in Christ's name that we pray, amen. Is that an amen
from you there? All right, verses 15 and 16 this
morning. Now, if you remember the last
time we were together, we looked at the passages from 11 down
to 14, and we seen, especially there in 14, whenever I saw they
walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. We
learned last week, or the last time we were together, we learned
that whenever you try to keep the law either for salvation
or to make yourself and keep yourself right before God, what
some people would call your sanctification. If it's either to get salvation
or to stay saved or to stay right before God, anything that you
do for acceptance to God, that is by the law, is not walking
according to the truth of the gospel. Now, of course, we've
been through chapter one and we've seen that there is only
one gospel, there's not another gospel, that anyone who preaches
another gospel, the Bible says, let them be accursed. We've seen
in verse 10 that if any man is preaching another gospel, he
is not persuading God, but he's persuading me. Or in other words,
he's being a man pleaser and not a God pleaser. And if they
are a man pleaser, what does it say there? They are not a
servant of Christ. They're not a servant of Christ.
Okay, so anybody who preaches a gospel mixed with the law,
anyone who preaches the law as your way of acceptance or your
way of staying accepted before God, you know, and we hear this
a lot in today's preaching. You know, they give you the list
of everything that we need to do. You know, don't drink, don't
chew, don't go with the girls that do, you know. You can blame my grandpa for
that. He's the one who taught me that. The people that preach that we
have to stay right before God, get right before God, all this
stuff is basically saying there is a part of us that needs to
adhere to the law of God to stay right before God. And if we're
not keeping the law of God, then we're not right before God. Well,
brethren, we've learned here that no man can, and we went
back into Acts chapter 15, and we've seen that no man can keep
the law. No man can do that. Matter of fact, quickly turn
with me back to Acts chapter 15, because I want you to see
a couple of things. Acts chapter 15. You remember Paul in the
first part of Galatians here was telling about the account
whenever they went to Jerusalem and they spoke to the apostles
there. And in chapter 15, we see that
there were certain men who said, except you be circumcised, verse
1, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you
cannot be saved. And then we see that there in
verse 5, said but there rose up certain of the sect of the
Pharisees which believed saying that it was needful to circumcise
them and command them to keep the law of Moses. Over in verse
24 we've seen for as much as we have heard that certain which
went out from us had troubled you with words subverting your
soul saying you must be circumcised and keep the law. And if you
look there it says to whom we gave no such command. So we saw
in this that the law was not being preached as the gospel.
So these Judaizers that was coming into the Galatian churches and
was preaching behind Paul saying, yes, Paul's right, we are saved
by grace and Jesus is the one who saved us and it's by his
blood that we are saved, but yet you still have to keep the
law of Moses. Now, some people say it was just
about circumcision, but as you've seen there in two of these passages,
it didn't just say circumcision, it said you must be circumcised
and keep the law of Moses. So, So Paul here is saying, you
know, whenever Peter was come to Antioch and all these Jews
came down, that Peter changed his course of action. Here he
says back in Acts chapter 15, hey, we didn't give anybody such
a command that they had to continue to keep the law of Moses or to
be circumcised. And any Judaizer that has came
down and has told you that, is completely wrong. We didn't give
that command. We, the apostles, have not preached
a gospel that mixes law and grace. We only preach grace. And so
here, now, Peter was at Antioch, and while at Antioch, he was
living according to that very rule. He was walking by faith.
He was trusting Christ alone for his righteousness. He wasn't
walking by the law. He wasn't living by the law.
He was not walking in the religion of the Jews. And he didn't have
a problem with that. He was eating with the Gentiles,
drinking with the Gentiles. He was having no problem with
that. But all of a sudden, whenever
the religious Jews came down, if you see there, verse 12, back
in Galatians, for before that certain came from James, He did
eat with the Gentiles, but when they were come, he withdrew and
separated himself, sparing them, which were at the circumcision.
So now whenever those men came, he all of a sudden said, well,
I'm gonna stand away from the Gentiles because, you know, Jews
don't mix with Gentiles. And so now he became hypocritical.
Even though he believed that salvation and the keeping of
salvation was all by grace, that everything was by grace, yet
whenever they came, He kind of sunk back into, well, okay, well,
I'm gonna live by the law now, and everything, because he was
afraid that they might say something to him. And we see that in today's
society, and people in churches, and preachers especially, I would
say preachers especially. They may hold to certain things,
and they may be pretty staunch about it, and they'll preach
in their pulpits about it, but if they're ever asked to go to
a church, then they kind of get a little wishy-washy about it.
If they disagree, It'd be like me if a church that believed
that we were still under the law, that believed that we still
are to keep the Sabbath and all that kind of stuff would ask
me to come preach at their church. I mean, you've heard what I preach
here, that we're not under law, but we're under grace, that we're
no longer bound by the law, that we're dead to the law, and that
we, and the command that we walk in is the command of faith. We
walk in faith, trusting Christ alone for our salvation, and
our righteousness, and our law keeping, and we trust him. It'd
be like me going to one of those churches that hold just the opposite,
and whenever I get there, say, oh yeah, and start talking up
the law, and about how they need to do everything according to
the law, stay right with God by keeping all these little duties,
and all the things that needs to be done. It'd be like me slinking
back into that, and start preaching again the law. Well, that's what
Peter was, in a sense, was doing here whenever these Jews came
down. Now he started acting like the
Jews who were not under grace but under law. And Paul, whenever
he saw this hypocrisy, and especially whenever he's seeing how it was
affecting the others there, look at verse 13, and the other Jews,
dissembled likewise with him in so much that Barnabas also
was carried away with their dissimulation. Okay, so whenever he's seen that,
hey, Peter, you know, there's a lot of men that are looking
at you as an example. You are kind of, you know, the
lead apostle, so to speak. You know, you were one of the
first ones that the Lord called The Lord made you, Peter, James,
and John. You three were kind of the pillars
within the apostles. And you in particular, Peter,
Jesus kind of chummed up to and give you the place of leading
this thing. And he said, now here you are,
just going back on everything that you preached back whenever
we were meeting up in Jerusalem in front of all the Jews. You
were strong there, but now you're not. And so Paul calls him out,
but we've seen what Paul called this whenever we walk and go
back, try to put ourselves back under the law for righteousness,
whether it's, again, for initial salvation or a continual acceptance
before the Lord as our walk, Paul says that is not walking
according to the truth of the gospel. So anybody that preaches
that to you is preaching for you to not walk according to
the gospel but walk a different way. And if you walk a different
way, you're not walking under the gospel, you're walking under
a false gospel and you're not being a servant of Christ, okay?
So that gets us to where we are today. It says, we who are Jews
by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles. Now, what is he
talking about here? We who are Jews by nature. Well, Paul is making it known
here that, and actually back in Acts, if you look in Acts
chapter 13, I believe. Acts chapter 13 and verse 38, put your finger right there in
Acts chapter 13 and verse 48. I'm gonna come to that in just
a minute. But notice here, he says, we who were Jews by nature
and not sinners of the Gentiles. So he's saying that we who were
Jews, always Jews, descended from Jews, who were raised up
under Jewish teaching, who it was drilled in us, the law, the
law, the law, the law, the law. not the Gentiles who never was
under the law. And again, this goes back to
the council in Jerusalem, wherever they sit, you know. Why do you
want to put a yoke around the neck of these Gentiles who never
was under the law, when we who have always been under the law,
we've never been able to keep the law? Not one of us has been
able to keep the law, and now you're wanting to put these Gentiles
who never was under the law, under the law? Well, why do that? Why do that? So he's talking
about the Jews who were by nature and not the sinners of the Gentiles.
Now, that doesn't mean that the Jews were not sinners, okay guys,
if you're young kids. It doesn't mean that the Jews
were not sinners also, that they were sinners. But to the Jew,
if you remember, to the Jew, they were elite. They were Abraham's
children. They were the heirs of the promise.
And they were saved just because of their lineage, because of
their heritage, who they were. That's what their thoughts were.
That, you know, hey, we don't have any need. Matter of fact,
you remember whenever Jesus was preaching to the people and the
religious leaders said, hey, we don't need, you know, we don't
need to be saved. We don't need repentance. We don't need to, you know, we're
Abraham's children. We don't have to worry about
that. And so their idea or their thought was that because of them
being God's chosen people, that they didn't have anything to
worry about. They didn't have to have remissions of sin. They
didn't have to have repentance. They didn't have to have justification. They were justified in the fact
that they were keeping the law. They believed that they were
justified by keeping the law. And so by doing that, They didn't
see any need of that. And then they looked upon the
Gentiles, who didn't have the law, who never had the law, as
second-rate, third-rate, fourth-rate citizens. They called them dogs. They called them sinners. And
so their understanding of the Gentiles was that they were lower
and we were up here because we are the people of God, because
we are the Jews, that we don't have anything to worry about.
We're justified by the law, by keeping Moses. And the Gentiles
were just filthy sinners. And so see, that's why Jesus,
every time he talked to the religious leaders, he was always bringing
this out. That's why he said, unless your
righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you're not ever
gonna get to heaven. And what was he meaning by that?
Pharisees thought that it was by their righteousness, their
law-keeping, that they were gonna get to heaven. And Jesus said,
hey, if your righteousness doesn't exceed that, you'll never get
to heaven, because just like these Pharisees, you're not gonna
keep the law. They thought they were keeping
the law, but they weren't. They weren't keeping the law. And
Jesus would say things like, you know, the sick doesn't need
a physician. I mean, excuse me, those who
are sick need the physician. Those who are well doesn't. What
was Jesus saying? Well, the Jews, the religious
Jews didn't think that they were sick. They didn't have a sin
problem. They didn't think that there was any problem with their
sin, with them sinning. They thought that they were righteous
before God because of their law keeping. And so Jesus was saying,
it's only those who have been given to know that they are truly
sinners that need a physician and him coming as the great physician
to save sinners. And so the religious, they think
that they were good in and of themselves by what they were
doing by keeping the law in the flesh. And nobody can do that.
So that's what verse 15 is about. So he says, we who are Jews by
nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, we who should know
that the law and its demands have never been able to be kept.
We've been under it for centuries and we've not been able to keep
the law. So we who are under that, know,
verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works
of the law. And so here we see, brethren,
that we are given testimony by God himself, the Holy Spirit
has given us right here. And we really shouldn't have
to go to a lot of other places in the scripture, but we're going
to just to show you that this is the overall teaching of scripture
is that justification does not come by works. We are never justified
by works, by works of the law, by works of any kind. Justification
is not a conditional thing. Salvation doesn't come to us
because of anything that we do in and of ourselves. Knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by
the faith of Jesus Christ. Now, I'm gonna stop right there,
because I want us to read a few passage of scriptures to see
the Bible says that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, a
thing is established and turn with me at that place where I
told you to hold your finger. Acts chapter 13 and verse 38. Acts chapter 13 and verse 38. Now pay close attention to hear
what the word of God is saying, brother. It says, be it known
unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin. And by him, all that
believe are justified from all things. By him, all that believe. Now, there's no commas there. In the Greek, there was no punctuation
anyway. but a lot of people want to put
the stress here that by him, all that believe are justified
from all things. But the stress should be by him,
by him, all that believe are justified. You see the difference
between that? Do you understand the inflection
and how it's different? It's not saying that because
we believe we are justified, it's saying the ones who are
believing are the ones who are justified. There's a difference
in that. We do not believe to get justified. We are justified and our believing
is evidence of that. Now, hold your finger right there
because we are gonna come back to that verse in just a second,
but turn with me to Hebrews chapter one because I want to verify
what I'm saying. I don't wanna speak on my own
account. I want you to see God's word and what it says. I'm sorry, Hebrews chapter 11
and verse one. And what did I just say? I said
that justification by faith is, and I'm kinda getting ahead of
myself, that we are not justified by the deeds of the law, and
that here, that we are justified from all things by Christ and
that believing or faith is evidence that we have been justified,
not to get justified, okay? Hebrew 11 verse one, now faith
is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things
not seen. See, faith is the evidence of
that work of God of justifying his people on the account of
Christ alone, and what happens is, is that those who have been
justified will believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, that there
will be faith, that there will be faith in them. Now, back to
Acts. So, all that believe, all that
is, is a category of people, just like in John 3, 16. For
God so loved the world that whosoever believeth upon him. In the Greek,
it's actually the believing ones, that the believing ones should
not perish, but have everlasting life. There's nothing in John
3, 16 that says, if you believe you'll get everlasting life.
It's saying that they believe it's a category of people. It's
just like if the Lord would say the elect or the sheep or the
beloved, okay? It's a category of people, the
believing ones. We are known as the believing.
They were called the people of the way. They were called the
children of the way. So we see that there is a category
of people here. And so in verse 39, it says,
by him, Jesus Christ, all that believe, that group of people
are justified from all things. Now, if you're justified from
all things, That means that every sin that you have ever committed,
that you are committing, and that you ever will commit, have
all been erased. They've been justified. But it's
not because of you and your law keeping. It's not because of
you and your faith. It's because of Christ. By him,
by Jesus, we are justified. Now, why am I stressing that? because the Reformed teaching,
the Protestant teaching, the Calvinist teaching says that
we are justified by faith alone and that that faith alone is
our exercising faith and believing on Christ alone for our salvation
and it is at that point that God applies the justification. that he declares us to be just. Brethren, all that is is Arminianism
wrapped in a thin sheet of sovereign grace. It's still Arminianism. It's still saying that God will
not declare us just until we believe. And that's not the case. Look at our scripture here. I'm sorry, back in Galatians.
It says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of
the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. So whose faith
are we talking about here? If we're talking about justification
by faith alone, I don't have a problem with that phrase as
long as you're speaking of Christ's faith, not your faith. You don't have faith. The natural
man doesn't have faith. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. And that which is of the flesh,
it cannot please God. So anything that you could ever
do with your own faith would never please God. So your faith
cannot justify you. Your faith, your natural faith,
cannot justify you. Faith, as we've talked about
before, is a spiritual gift of God. It is something that comes
from God. Now, with that being said, we're
not even justified by the spiritual faith that is given to us in
the new birth. That's where the reformers get it. No, faith is
a gift of God, and so whenever we believe upon Christ, it's
not our faith, but it's the faith of Jesus that we believe on him. It's not even talking about that,
brethren. When it talks about justification
by the faith of Christ, It's talking about Christ actually
living a life of faith in trusting what God had given him to do. And he came and did it. He fulfilled
it. He accomplished all that was
he was sent for and the saving of his people. At the very end,
he said it is finished. And because of his perfect life,
because of his perfect death and substitution and God raised
him from the dead, justifying Christ that he was the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of man. He was the Lamb who took
away the sin for his people, and God looked upon that, he
saw the travail of his soul, and was satisfied. And so God
raised him from the dead, and so that Christ's faithfulness
in coming and being the mediator for his people is what God justifies
us based upon that. God justifies the child of grace,
the elect of God, upon the works of Christ alone and his faithfulness
to the Father. Now, Back in Acts 13 it says,
and by him all that believe are justified from all things. Now
here it is, from which ye could not be justified by the law of
Moses. So here we have proof that we
can never be justified by keeping the law. Keeping the law of Moses
is not gonna make you justified. Look with me if you would at
Romans chapter 8. Look at verse 3. For what the law could not do
in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit for
they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh
but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit Now
here again, we see that by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall
be justified. Here we see that no one's gonna
be justified by the law of Moses. And here we see that the law
was weak through the flesh. Why is that? Well, what I just
said a while ago, that which is of the flesh is flesh and
it cannot please God. The flesh cannot please God.
Your flesh is not able to keep The law of God is holy and righteous,
but we're not. We're not holy and righteous.
We cannot keep the law. That's why we needed Christ to
come and live the law on our behalf, in our stead, as our
mediator, as our substitute. He came and he lived that life
for us so that his law keeping would be laid to our account.
That's why it says right there, Verse four, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us. How do we fulfill the
law? It's not by you doing your best to do what the Bible says.
That's not you fulfilling the law. You can't fulfill the law. We'll see that here in some other
verses in a minute, but you cannot fulfill the law. How is the law
fulfilled in you? It's fulfilled in you by Christ
fulfilling it for you. And as God accounts righteousness,
and as God accounts sin, your sin has been wiped away, and
Christ's righteousness has been laid to your account, and your
sin has been imputed to you. It'd be just like, you know,
Kaylin, and she had her checkbook here, okay? And in her ledger
there, it had, You know, all these bills that she's got due,
and maybe she's got, let's just say $15,000 in debt. She doesn't,
but she's got $15,000 in debt that she owes of stuff. Okay,
well she is, on her accounts, owes $15,000. But it would be
as if someone come in there and erased everything out of that
ledger and put $15,000 right into her bank account as if it
was already that she didn't owe him anything. That's what Christ
and justification is all about. Justification is about your account,
even though you have sinned and all your sins are in your ledger
there. You have actually done those.
But God, because of our eternal, vital union with Christ before
the foundation of the world, being given all the promises,
being given all the spiritual blessings. Because we were in
Christ Jesus, God did not impute those sins to your account. Your
account is white clean even though there are accounts there that
you have actually done. God has erased that alleger,
has made that alleger where it says not guilty and that it has
completely fulfilled the law of God. That's what 3 and 4 is
saying. The law could not do it in that
it was weak through the flesh. We could never keep the law because
our flesh cannot keep God's commands. That started in the Garden of
Eden. When Adam was created of the earth, He was created a natural man,
not a spiritual man. He was created a natural man.
Adam was created void of the Spirit of God, unable to keep
the things of God. And that became manifest whenever
the law came in, the sin came alive in Adam. The law came in and his lust
warred against that. The law which is good and holy
and spiritual, the flesh lusted against the spirit and the spirit
against the flesh. There's this war that is always
gonna be from Adam until the last day. A war between the flesh
and the spirit. And so we see that Adam, who
was made natural, and in that natural nature, the flesh could
not keep the law of God, and God giving him a law so that
it might manifest the lust that was in Adam's heart and the sin
that would come from it brought sin and death into the world
so that through sin and death, all of Adam's race would be sinners,
just like we all are. We are truly sinners. However,
God, to show the greatness of his mercy and his love and his
justice and his righteousness and the glory of who God is,
had purposed before the foundation of the world a lamb slain, who
would take away the sins of his people, who would redeem them
out of that sin by no work of their own, by sheer grace alone. And so God, because of the work
that Christ would do on their behalf, declared them just before
the foundation of the world, did not impute their sins unto
them, did not appoint them unto wrath, but did appoint them to
fall in Adam. They fell just whenever Adam
sinned, His whole posterity was just like him. Why? Because they
are created after the first seed, Adam. They're created natural.
And so until we are born from above, until spiritual life is
given to us, all we are is flesh. And that flesh cannot please
God. That's why you could never be
justified by the deeds of the law. Because the deeds of the
law, the work of the law, is never intended to justify you. It's never intended to make you
righteous. It's never intended to make you
holy. The law was given to draw out your sin and show your sinfulness. That's what the law was given
to do. Look, if you would with me, turn
back just a couple pages, keep your hand there in Romans 8,
but look at Romans chapter 5. We've read this before. Romans chapter five, verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. Now, it says here, as by one
man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Who's he talking
about? Who's that talking about? Come on, man. Come on. Who's
the one man that's sending death into the world? Adam. Good, son. Adam. Now, let me ask you, do
you think that was by chance? God has declared that by one
man sent into the world and death by sin. Do you think that Adam
bringing sin and death into the world by his transgression Do
you think that that was an oopsie? And so God had to go to plan
B and have Jesus become the Savior? Well, no. Adam did exactly what
God created him to do. See, it was God's purpose before
the foundation of the world to subject, and that's also in Romans,
to subject the world or subject the creature to vanity. not willingly. See, Adam wasn't willing. God subjected him to vanity by
his sovereignty, by creating him the way that he created him,
a natural man without the spirit of God, with a nature that cannot
keep the law. Now, did God sin? No. Did God
force Adam to sin? No, Adam sinned because of lust
that was in his heart because of his natural nature. And that
lust lusted after what it couldn't have when the law came in. It
lusted after that. And the Bible says that we sin
whenever lust has conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin
brings forth death. That's exactly what happened
to Adam, right? So the law was given for that. And you say,
no, I don't believe that, preacher. I think you're, you know, drawing
that out a little bit too far. Well, look with me. Wherefore,
as by one man, sin entered the world, and death by sin, and
so death passed upon all men for all their sin. For until
the law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed when there
is no law. Now, brethren, that's talking
about the child of grace. See, we're not under the law
because we're in Christ Jesus. And so that sin is not imputed
to us because the law was never given to us for righteousness.
Christ has always been our righteousness. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgressions. So see, this is just proof that
there was sin in the world, even though the law hadn't been given
in Moses yet. There was sin in the world, and
if there was, or excuse me, there was death in the world, and if
there was death, then that means people had been sinning. So they
were sinning, even though there wasn't a law. You say, well,
how's that? because they cannot keep a righteousness
that equals Jesus. That's the goal. The standard
is Jesus. If you can't keep that righteousness,
then you're sinning. You're missing the mark. And
so the wages of sin is death. Sin brings forth death. And so
there was death between Adam and Moses. Therefore, if there
was people dying between Adam and Moses, therefore they were
sinners. Every one of them were. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgressions, who is the figure of him that
was to come, but not as the offense. Now, pay close attention to all
these offenses. We went through this before, and hopefully you
marked your Bibles when we did that, because I asked you to,
if you don't mind marking in your Bibles. But notice all these
offenses, and in relation to who it's talking about. It's
talking about Adam, right? He's the man in context here, Adam. But not as the offense, so is
the free gift. For through the offense of one,
many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace,
which is by one man, Jesus Christ has abounded to many. And not
as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment
was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses
unto justification. So by Adam and us being in Adam,
all have been consigned to sin and death in the flesh, in the
natural man, but those who are of Christ's seed, every one of
us is justified because of him. See, we are sinners because of
Adam, but because of Christ, we are justified. In Adam, there
is condemnation. So the flesh brings forth condemnation,
but the spirit brings forth justification. See, in the flesh, there's nothing
but condemnation, but in the spirit, we walk in justification. We walk by faith in what Christ
has done, being justified by his grace. We walk looking to
that alone. That's our justification. That's
our righteousness. where in Adam we look to ourselves.
Remember Adam and Eve, what did they try to do? They tried to
cover themselves with fig leaves. They tried to cover themselves
and their nakedness. They thought that by their own
works that that would please God, that that would cover them
up and God would be all right with that. He didn't accept that.
But let's keep on going because I want you to see this. For if
by one man's offense, death reigned by one, much more they which
receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the
offense, see all these words of offense here? Therefore, as
by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift, justification,
came upon all men unto justification of life. See, so just like Adam
being in Adam caused all of us to be sinners, being in Christ
Jesus made all of us to be righteous. See, you're righteous as Jesus
is because of your eternal Bible union in him if you're his child.
Verse 19, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made
sinners, so by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. There you go. By the obedience
of one, that's Christ faithfulness. Christ was obedient to the Father,
right? He was obedient to the Father,
therefore, he was faithful. That's the faith that justifies
it. So we see here, by the obedience or by the faithfulness of one,
shall many be made righteous or declared righteous or justified. It's by Christ's faithfulness
that we are justified. Not our faith, not our God-given
faith in Christ Jesus, but Christ's actual obedience and his death. And by that, the resurrection
shows that God justified all his people. He was happy at that,
satisfied with that. It fulfilled all of God's justice. and therefore we are justified.
Moreover, the law, here it is, the law entered. Remember what
I said a while ago, why was the law given? Moreover, the law
entered that the offense, now whose offense have we been talking
about this whole time? Adam's, right? We're talking
about Adam's offense. That one offense that brought
sin and death into the world. Moreover, the law entered, why? Look at it there with me, verse
20. I want you guys to see. It's not Mike's word. It's not
a sovereign gracer's word. It's not a Baptist word. It's
God's word that says this. This is the teaching of God's
word. The law entered that the offense might abound. God gave the law to Adam to not
eat of that tree so that Adam would manifest the sin and transgression
of eating of that tree. So that sin and death would enter
in the world by that one man. But see this principle is laid
down for all of us and we'll see later in scripture that the
law is given to us for this purpose. The law and the purpose of the
law is not to make us righteous, but to make us guilty before
God. And in making us guilty before
God, it makes us completely and totally dependent upon God for
salvation. Therefore, no man will receive
glory for their salvation for doing anything, any condition,
any work, it will only be by grace that you're saved, not
by works. And so back there in Romans chapter
eight, verse three, we see for what the law could not do in
that it was weep through the flesh, God sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh. What is minding the things of
the flesh? What is that talking about? When
we walk in the flesh, are we minding the things of the flesh?
Well, what that is, is we are walking in self-righteousness.
We are walking thinking that we are able to accomplish some
kind of a righteous work for God but there is no righteous work
that your flesh could ever meet out. Your flesh cannot produce
anything acceptable to God. Every work that we do is by the
Spirit of God working inward in us, and it's a spiritual work,
not a fleshly work. It's a spiritual work of God.
And there's a lot that I can say about that as well. But there
is nothing that we can do in the flesh that is going to please
God. And so walking in the Spirit is walking in faith on what Christ
has already done. Do you walk believing that Christ's
righteousness is your righteousness and that's all that's needed?
Or do you have to tack something on? Do you have to tack on your
Christian walk to be pleasing to God? Do you believe, as it says right
here, that His righteousness has been fulfilled? Or have you
fulfilled all the law? Or are you trying to continue
to keep the law? Now, again, I'm not saying that
we're to go out and live sinless and lawless. That's not what
I'm saying. Because in the new birth, the Bible tells us that
the Holy Spirit comes in and it convicts us of sin, it gives
us a mind that loves righteousness and holiness, and it loves obedience,
and it wants to be obedient to God. And as Paul in chapter seven
says, he said, you know, we want to do that which is good. We
want to do those things. And that in our mind, in our
heart, we want to serve the law of God. But brethren, the way
that we serve the law of God is by resting in Christ Jesus,
trusting Him as our Savior, as our righteousness. That's how
we walk. It isn't us trying to walk like
a Christian ought to walk, you know. It isn't us trying to walk
in holiness. That's the Spirit's business.
If the Spirit gives us that to walk and to obey and to things
like that, that's the Spirit's business. We are unprofitable
servants in the flesh. We can't do anything to please
God. Look if you would at Romans chapter
three and verse 20. Romans chapter three and verse
20 says, 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. See, that's why I was saying,
the law, the purpose of the law is not to make us righteous,
but to make us sinners, to show our sinfulness, to give us the
knowledge of the sin that is in us, that's inherent in this
nature of flesh, the corrupt flesh that we have. Now, if we're
a child of grace, we have the spirit of God in us. The Bible
talks about that. that we have in these earthen
vessels, we have this beautiful treasure, which is the Spirit
of God, Christ in you, okay? But here it says that by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in His
sight. Why? Because the law wasn't intended
to bring righteousness. It wasn't intended to justify
you. It was intended to manifest the
sin that is in you. Look at verse 21. But now the
righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being
witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness
of God, here it is, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. See, there again, it's by the
faith of Jesus that we're justified. That's what God is looking at,
is the faith of Jesus Christ for our justification. Even the
righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto
all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. So how are we justified? By you exercising your faith
in Christ Jesus? No. What does it say here? It's
by the faith of Christ Jesus. But it's given unto them that
are believers, the believers, the believing ones. Again, that's
that group of people. We are the believers, the ones
who would believe on him. What did Jesus say about that?
He said, you believe not because ye are not my sheep. right? So, there's a category
of people. There are believers and there
are non-believers. The non-believers are not his
sheep. The believers are his sheep. So, just like he uses the term
sheep to talk about the collective people of god, the believers
are the collective people of god. They are the only ones who
are going to be given to believe the elect of god are the only
ones who god is and give faith to, they're the
only ones that's gonna believe. And so it's that group of people.
So he's not saying that if you will believe, he didn't say by
faith upon Jesus Christ unto all if they will believe. No,
it says unto all and upon all them that believe. Those are
the only people that have been given this is the believing ones,
the sheep, the elect of God. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. That's what the word sin means,
is falling short or missing the mark. For all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God. So that means that none of us
can or ever have attained or will attain the righteousness
of God. None of us. You have no hope of ever reaching
the righteousness of God. And unless Christ be your righteousness,
you will always miss the mark. But if Christ is your righteousness,
you're always on the mark because his righteousness is your righteousness.
For all have sinned and fall short of God, being justified
freely by his grace. So we're justified by grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. See, it's based upon,
it's given by grace. It's laid to our account by grace.
but it's based upon Christ and his work of faithfulness. Look
at Romans chapter five and verse one. Romans chapter five, verse one.
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, So here's where the Reformed
or the Calvinist would say, there you go. We're justified by grace
alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for his glory alone,
according to the scriptures alone. There's five of them there or
something like that. But what's the context? Remember, what's
the context of the by faith? By whose faith? By your faith
or by Christ's faith? We are justified by Christ. Therefore,
being justified by faith, what did we just read in chapters
three and four? We just read about Christ's faith,
about him. In chapter four, we read about
Abraham and we see that Abraham looked to the seed and what the
seed would do. And he accounted the seed as
his righteousness. The seed was his right. He looked
at Christ and viewed Christ as his righteousness. And God didn't
justify Abraham because he believed that. No, Abraham accounted Christ
for his righteousness. God didn't account Abraham righteous
because of his belief. That's backwards. But it says
here that it is by faith we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Look at verse 9. It says much
more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through him. See, we have been justified by
his blood. Again, it goes back to the faithfulness in the work
of Christ in redemption. The work of Christ in the covenant
of grace. That's what is the basis of your
justification. Not anything that you do here
in time. Back to Galatians, if you would.
And let's go forward in Galatians to chapter three.
Look at chapter three. And eventually we'll get to these
passages in a few weeks, I'm sure. Galatians chapter three. Look
at verse 11. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God is evident. What's Paul saying here? Listen,
guys, I don't care what these Jews are saying to you when they
come down and they try to subvert you. There is no flesh, no man is
justified by the law in the sight of God. And that is evident. Why is it
evident? Well, remember back in Acts chapter
15, they said, we've had the law all these years and none
of us has ever kept it. Even our elders, the leaders,
the religious ones, we've never been able to keep it. Paul, who
was a Pharisee of Pharisees, he said, hey, everything that
I did that I thought was I was keeping the law, now I count
it as done. It was worthless. It was dead
works. but that no man is justified
by the law on the side of God is evident for the just shall
live by law keeping. Is that what it says? For the
just shall live by walking upright. Is that what it says? For the just shall live by obeying
the commands of the scriptures, the moral law. Is that what it
says? No, it says the just shall live
by faith. The just shall live by faith. Paul said that I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ who liveth in me. And the life that I now live,
I live, how? By the faith of Christ. I live by the faith of Christ.
We live by the faith of Christ. How do we walk by the faith of
Christ? And that faith that is imparted
to us in the new birth, that faith that is given to us by
the spirit of God, that gift of faith, that spiritual faith,
not natural faith, that spiritual faith that is a divine faith
that is given to us because of eternal life in us, because of
Christ in us, the Holy Spirit of God in us, that that faith
looks to Christ alone. So we walk not according to the
flesh by law keeping. We walk according to the Spirit
by trusting and resting in Christ. Now you know what they call people
that preach this kind of stuff? They call us antinomians. You're
without the law then. You just think that you don't
have to do the law? You're without the law. I don't
mind being called an antinomian. Because brethren, I don't know
how much simpler the Bible can be in what it says about the
law. The law is not there to justify
us. And as we've seen here in Galatians
also, now, Most people look at Galatians, and maybe I'm just
off, but most people say that Galatians is about justification. It's about justification. But the Judaizers, what they
were doing when they came to the Galatians, was saying, yes,
we agree that salvation is by Jesus, but you still have to
keep the law. And they said, not only to be
saved, but to continue in walking rightly before God. And so it's
about what some would call sanctification. And the reason I say that is
in verse three, or chapter three, look at chapter three. Oh foolish
Galatians, who have bewitched you that you should not obey
the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set
forth crucified among you? obeying the truth. That's not
talking about obeying the law. It's talking about obeying, as
we've seen back here in verse 14, obeying the truth of the
gospel. See, Peter was not obeying the truth of the gospel. He was
not walking according to the truth of the gospel. He was walking
by trying to keep the law for acceptance. He was being hypocritical,
saying that we are saved by grace, but we have to keep up the law
keeping to be right before God. Paul was being, or Peter was
being embarrassed when those Jews came because the Jews that
were coming obviously believed that you still had to keep Moses,
or at least be circumcised. And so Paul was saying to walk
in the truth of the gospel is to walk by faith alone, in Christ
alone. And so here in chapter three,
he says, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the
truth or that you should not walk in faith? that your righteousness
that you think you're having before God comes by something
that you're doing. That's not walking, obeying the
truth. It says, verse two, this only
what I learned of you received Jesus spirit by the works of
the law. He's saying, did the, did the
spirit come into you because you work the works of the law?
So that would tell me that we're not quickened by keeping the
law. We're not ever quickened by keeping the law. He said, received ye the Spirit
by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? That's
talking about your daily walk. Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? He's saying, are you made perfect
by law keeping? Are you made perfect by trying
to obey the laws of Moses, the moral law, the civil law, the
ceremonial law? You think by all that that Moses
has written that ye are not only saved but made perfect? No. You
weren't saved by that and you're not kept by that. You're not
saved by that and you don't walk by that. You walk by faith in
Christ alone. trusting his righteousness. So
see, it's about what people call sanctification, our growth in
Christ, our Christian walk. It's about not the law, but trusting
Christ Jesus. Look at verse 24. It says, wherefore
the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that
we might be justified by faith. Now that sounds like that whenever
we come to Christ that then we're justified by our faith. That's
not what that's meaning there. Look at verse 23, or actually
verse 22. It says, but the scripture hath
concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus
Christ might be given to them that believe again given to that
group of people, the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
them, but before faith came, we were kept under the law. Shut
up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. That
doctrine of faith. But before faith came, and I
would say this is talking about Christ, before Christ came. See,
in the Old Testament, we were taught, or they were taught,
and they trusted in Christ, but it was a veiled gospel. It wasn't
a full gospel. Now we know that it is by the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ, it's by his life, death, burial,
resurrection, that whole work of the covenant there that Jesus
justified his people. And so that was shut up unto
the faith which should afterwards be revealed. says wherefore the
law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ so that we might
in our experience or in our mind know that we are justified by
faith. Not that we exercise faith to
be justified. That we were shut up. The law
is there to pound us down that we might know that we have no
hope and the gospel brings forth the truth that we were justified
by his faith, by the faithfulness of Christ. And so the law was
our schoolmaster to bring us into Christ so that we might
see our justification by his works of righteousness. But after that faith has come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster. So what that tells me is that
whenever we become a child of grace and we've been quickened
of God and converted of the gospel and been given repentance, granted
repentance, been given faith, that when we are experiencing
that, then our look is to Christ. And we no longer look back to
the law for our righteousness or our keeping in righteousness. The child of grace doesn't look
back to the law. It doesn't go back. For ye are
all children of God by faith We are children of God by the
faith of Jesus Christ, and it's because we are in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. For there is neither
Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither
male nor female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus, and if you
be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise. Now, we'll get to those passages
in days to come. But brethren, as we see here
in our passage, 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, not by the works of the law, for by the
works of the law shall no flesh be justified. We have been justified
by God. And we see there, and we'll see
Lord Willa next week, that this is the case, that justification
was given to every child of grace because of what Christ has done. And we'll talk a little bit more
about that then. Does anybody have any questions? That's definitely
a part one. We'll have a part two next time.
Anybody got any questions or comments? It's bad. Heavenly Father, we
come again thanking you today for Christ Jesus and for the
righteousness that we have in him. Father, we thank you that
we have been given this life, the spirit of God in us. We are
thankful for faith that you've given that we might look away
from ourselves and look to Christ, that we might not look to the
law, but look to Christ alone for our righteousness, for our
justification. And Father, we know that this
trusting in Christ alone is the evidence that we have been one
of the justified. We know that that is the evidence
whenever we look to the things that are unseen and trusting
in that work alone for our righteousness, that faith is not from ourselves
but from above. We thank you, Father, that you
have given us that. Our hope is in Christ, not in
ourselves. So we pray, Lord, that you would
put within each one of these brethren and sisters here, Lord,
that hope. We ask, Lord, that you might
save each one that's here, that they might be converted to the
gospel, Lord, that they might be found believing upon you alone,
that they might come and that they might show forth that faith
in Christ Jesus alone for their salvation by their being baptized,
being a member of the local church. Lord, we just pray for our church. We ask, Lord, that you might
continue to minister in and through it to this town that we might
be a light preaching forth the gospel. Lord, we pray that you
as the head of the church would build your church as you see
fit. Lord, we know that we aren't the ones who make that happen,
that it's all by your grace and mercy and work alone that this
church is built. And so Lord, we pray that you
would build it as you see fit. But Lord, we also pray that you
might sustain us as your people, that you might continue to keep
us in the faith, to keep us faithful to the word of God, And Lord,
we pray that each one of us might be edified through the preaching
and the teaching of the word and the fellowship together.
We're thankful for these brethren that are here. And Lord, we just
ask that you might be with us now as we leave this place today,
that you might keep us until we meet again, that you might
help us to bear testimony of Christ to all that we might come
in contact with as you lead us And Father, again, we thank you
for Jesus and the wonderful work of salvation that you have done
in and through him. And Lord, we are so grateful.
Our praise and glory is to our King, Jesus Christ, who is God
over all things, manifested in the flesh, the one who is upon
the throne, the very one who has all power and authority over
all flesh, over all creatures, to give eternal life to as many
as have been given to him. And so, Father, we just glorify
him today. We lift up our praises to him
today. And our hope continues to lie
in him. And we pray, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus, that
we might be where you are. And it's in Jesus' name that
we pray these things. Amen.