Galatians chapter two. We're
going to finish out Galatians chapter two today, Lord willing.
We've been kind of bouncing around a little bit there towards the
end because there's so many thoughts and it's hard to, they're all
this, they're all similar thoughts that just give further cement
to each of the thoughts before or after. So we didn't go out,
we didn't go the wrong way. We just went the way the Lord
led us to go. So First thing I want to mention
to you is that we're born creatures of flesh. We're born creatures
of sin. That's we're born creatures of
the flesh and we're born creatures of sin. And the scripture says
we have God's law written on our heart, written on our heart.
That's Romans chapter two, verse 14 and 16. We have God's law
written on our heart from birth. He also gives us a conscience
to discern right and wrong, and our conscience operates in the
realm of sin and the law. That's the realm that our conscience
operates in. From a young age, you do something
that you know is bad, your conscience will convict you. Your conscience
will say that's not okay, and you'll feel that conscience make
you feel guilty. I would say this, first and foremost,
that a conscience cannot bring anyone to Christ. Only the Lord
can do that. But a conscience can allow you,
by God's grace, to discern between good and bad. That's what it's
for. But it operates in the realm
of the law and sin. Now why am I saying all this?
Because it's hard for us As believers, it's difficult for us to believe
that we have nothing more to do with the law and nothing to
do more with keeping of the law when we still have a conscience,
when we still have a conscience. We still feel guilty because
we don't do this. We still feel guilty because
we don't do that. And what that means is, is we're
not looking to Christ. We're looking to ourself. We're
looking to ourself. One of the hardest things for
a believer to do is believe that we have no relationship with
the law anymore. It doesn't make sense to our
flesh. But in our text right here, this is what Paul is talking
about. Paul is delivering a message
to these Galatians by way of letter, by inspiration of the
Holy Spirit that is addressing that very issue. that you're
dead to the law. You're dead to the law. It takes
God-given faith for the new man to reckon himself truly dead
to the law. Otherwise, we won't see ourself
as dead to the law. If God doesn't give us the faith
to believe the Lord Jesus Christ, we're going to continue of the
things in the law. But oh, when we're made to see
Jesus Christ, we shut up, don't we? We shut up. The Lord shuts
us up when we see the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't look to the
law anymore. We don't look to ourself anymore. We look to him alone.
Let's read this, Galatians chapter two, verse 19, and we'll read
through the end of the chapter. For I, through the law, am dead
to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain." Paul is stating, He has literally been made by
grace to die to the law. Now how is that possible? Because
he was crucified with Christ. He was crucified with Christ. To die to the law in Christ is
to die to the law for justification. You don't go to the law anymore
for justification. Christ has now become your justification.
We don't go to the law anymore for righteousness. To be dead
to the law means that Christ is your righteousness, your justification. And that means he also had to
die to the law as a rule of life. Some people say, yes, Christ
is my justification, but I live the law as a rule of life now,
but that's still living in bondage to the law. That's still trying
to do something as part of your salvation, as evidence of your
salvation by law keeping. This is something that's very
commonly preached, very commonly preached. Remember this brethren,
death is final. To be dead to the law, that's
final. There is no sort of dead. There is no kind of dead. It's
only dead or not dead. That's just the truth of it.
That's just the truth of it, is it completely, totally, and
entirely dead. And that's how we're born, dead
in trespasses and in sin. When we're made alive in Jesus
Christ by the by God's grace alone, by Him speaking the word,
live, by giving us repentance and faith, repentance towards
God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe on Him.
When we are born again, then we die to the law. We die to the law so that the
death that we were is swallowed up in victory. That's what the
Lord did on the cross of Calvary for His people. He swallowed
up death in victory. We say, well, that doesn't make
a lot of sense. Well, It's a little complicated, but that's exactly
what happened. That's exactly what happened. His death brought
us life. And when we are made to be alive,
we are, we are no longer alive unto sin and alive under the
law, but we're dead unto the law because we died in Christ. as our substitute surety, bearing
our sin on in his body on the tree. As he died, us being in
him putting away our sin, we died with him. We died with him. And therefore, we fulfilled in
Christ, the consequence for our sin, the consequence that the
law had us charged with. What is the consequence? The
wages of sin is death. That's the consequence. My only
hope is that I died in his room instead, or he died in my room
instead because he's a perfect sacrifice. If we died, it would
do no good because we're utterly sinful. But because he was a
perfect sacrifice, he put away those sins by the sacrifice of
himself. Christ is now the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. For what the law could not do.
What couldn't the law do? couldn't do anything. I mean
as far as righteousness goes, as far as redemption goes, as
far as salvation goes, Law could not justify. No flesh shall be
justified by the deeds of the Law. That's very clear isn't
it? But here's the good news for what the law could not do
and that it was weak to the flesh. God, that's the good news. God sent forth his son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the
flesh. Why did he do that? That we might
be made the sons of God, the righteousness of God right now. He also said another place what
the law could not do and that it was weak to the flesh. God
sent forth his son born of a woman made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law for one purpose, just to redeem
his people that were under the law. All God's people, all God's chosen
people have met the requirements of the law in Christ. We can't
meet the requirements of the law in ourself. We can't meet
the requirements of the law in what we do. The law was not given
for us to fulfill. The law was given to reveal just
as I said last Sunday, a mirror. The mirror is not going to make
you any prettier whenever you can do all kinds of stuff in
front of a mirror. But that mirror is only going to show you what's
there. And this is false religion at its best is men and women
take. And they put makeup on, they think that it's covering
up their blemishes, and that's just a bunch of self-righteousness.
It's not going to amount to anything. No, the Lord looks at the heart
all the way down. Going to the law just reveals the blemishes,
just reveals the problem, and it can't give you a solution.
That mirror can't help you, can it? It can't help us. Like going
to a doctor, the doctor gives you something to help you, but
until you go to the doctor, you don't exactly, well, I'm sick,
I know that, but I don't know how bad I'm sick. Well, when you
come to the great physician, he tells you exactly what's wrong
with you, and he fixes the problem. That's the difference between
going to the law and going to Christ. We're not going to a
mirror now, we're going to the great physician. He gives you
the blood. He says, now, be made whole,
be made whole. You're utterly sinful from the
top of your head to the bottom of your feet. but be thou made whole. How? By the sacrifice of myself,
by the sacrifice, by the blood, by the death, by the burial,
resurrection of Jesus Christ. There's your righteousness. There's
your justification. The law was given that every
mouth may be stopped and be guilty, be made guilty before God. Christ
put away the thing that made the law cry for justice. We no
longer have sin upon us. So the law looks at us and it
declares us justified. The Lord's people declares us
justified, no longer condemned. We've been robed in his righteousness,
redeemed in his blood. The law doesn't just declare
God's elect dead because we died in Christ. It declares us justified
also. When he said, I've died to the
law, that I might live unto God, the law doesn't just say, okay,
you're dead now. It actually declares you're justified now
also. You fulfilled the requirements of God's justice. When did I
do that? Christ in you, the hope of glory. When he died, we were in him. We were in him, dying. It's what
the scripture talks about when he was reckoning the world by
himself together. His people were in him. Something important to mention
about our Lord's finished work. Because we died in Christ, it
declares us justified. It declares us righteous. He declares, it's not me that
declares this, this is what God said about his people that's
in Christ. He declares his people sanctified.
This is not happening now. This has already happened. This
is all past tense. This is finished. This is done.
We're not going to be righteous. We're not going to be justified. We're not going to be sanctified.
It's already happened. It's already happened. And how
the Lord sees it is how it really is. He sees the inward man. He
sees his son, the reflection of his son, because that's who
it is. Remember John chapter three says, we shall be made
like him, for we shall see him as he is. Oh, what other image
would you rather bear than the image of the precious lamb of
God? The Lord's satisfied with him. Don't look at me, look at
him, look at our surety. Lord, don't look at me and my
sin, don't look at me and my works, don't look at me and my
law keeping, look to the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished
work as my only hope of salvation. This is what Christ accomplished. We aren't slowly becoming these
things. The new man created in the image
of God, born from above, is these things right now, right now,
because it's his spirit in us, births us, our new man. That's
such good news. It's not something that you have
to wait to happen. Somebody said, well, I can't
see it. Well, you're not going to. The flesh can't see the things
of God. It's a faith. It's a faith, all of faith. That's what he's talking about
when he says, Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's it.
That's what that is, Christ in you. We sang the song last Sunday,
Christ liveth in me. Right now, right now, here it
is. Right now. Now, because, and this is a mystery,
brethren, because of this mysterious work of God and his people, whatever
the law entails, everyone of God's elect are free from it.
We are completely, totally free from it. Free from it. Totally
finished with it. We look to Christ alone as our
justification. We look to Christ alone as our
sanctification. Everything God requires. Everything God requires. We look to Christ to provide
it because he's the only one that can and did provide it.
There's nothing else that could have provided righteousness.
There's nothing else that could have provided salvation but him
alone. We don't look to ourself and
say, well, I think I'm getting a little bit better. How do you
know? And you have to go back to the law in order to establish
that. You have to go back to what you're not doing that you
did yesterday. You have to see yourself as getting better. That's
called progressive sanctification. It doesn't exist. It doesn't
exist. Sanctification was one and done.
Christ did everything perfectly, everything, everything perfectly. That's the greatest news to a
sinner when you hear the words, it is finished, and you know
who God is and what you are, to be able to rest and know that
it is truly finished. Well, what's finished? All of
it. All salvation pertaining to God, pertaining to righteousness,
true holiness, it is finished right now. He's not waiting on
me to do something. He's not asking me to do something.
He provided it all. I love that that, the work of
God in the heart, we don't understand this, but being born from above,
something born has a nature, and that nature is one that constantly
is glorifying God, is praising God, is looking to Him, You say,
well, I don't feel like I'm glorifying God and praising God all the
time, but that's on the inside. That's the new man. It's not
your outward flesh that does it. It's the heart, the new heart
that he gives it beats after righteousness. This is our hope. This is our hope. Everything
God requires he provided. Now the. Issue here in Galatians,
as you know, we've said this already many times, Barnabas
and Peter were eating with the uncircumcised Gentiles. They
were having a meal. It was a church ordeal. I'm not sure how it all collectively
worked, but then the Jews came in. When they came in, Peter
and Barnabas got up and they went to the Jews' table. signifying
that they believed what the Jews believed, that salvation was
all of grace, but you had to be circumcised. This was such
a big, major deal because, well, the evidence of that is we have
literally scripture, books of the Bible that were written because
of one incident. The Lord's saying, no, not one,
well, one thing. You cannot do one thing. as part
of your righteousness, not what you wear, not what you eat, not
where you go. Nothing can be part of your righteousness,
or Christ, he says it here at the very end, I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteous come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. That's the whole point, that'll be the second
message. Christ did not die in vain, that's the second hour's
message. That's what the legalists do.
They exercise their so-called, have you ever heard someone say
exercise your faith? Anybody ever heard that? There is no
gems for faith. I'm not being facetious or sarcastic,
I'm serious. There's no gems for faith. They
say, well, no, it's when you go to church. That's by, if you're
listening to the gospel, we listen by faith. That's not exercising,
that's looking to Christ. They're not, what they're saying
is, They're using the law in some way, in some way as justifying
themselves. That's exercising faith, but
I would remind us faith. The law is not just the 10 commandments.
You have the civil law, which is how you treat men. You have
the moral law, which is what you do and don't do before God.
And you have the ceremonial law, how you worship God, how you
treat God, how you reverence God. These three make up the
entire law. These practices, these laws as
part of salvation, or evidence of their salvation, if they're
doing that, they don't know who God is. They don't know who God
is if they're preaching this. Because our Lord said, it's finished.
I'm the fulfillment. Christ is the end of the law. We've died. We're dead to the
law that we might live unto God. That's so important. You want
to live unto God, you have to be dead to the law for justification. That means you don't go to the
law to see if you're justified. We don't go to the law to see
if we're righteous. We don't go to the law to see if we're sanctified.
We go to Christ, who is our justification, who is our righteousness, who
is our holiness. How do we know that they're laws?
Well, they're using the law to justify themselves when in fact
they're only condemning their self by committing iniquity and
trespass. Isn't that what he says? Look back at verse 17. But if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourself also found sinners is therefore Christ,
the minister of sin. God forbid that was not the verse
I was looking for. Hang on just a second. Now it's the next one, for if
I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a
transgressor. That's it. If I build again the things which
I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. If I go back to the law, as any
part of my justification, any part of my righteousness, I'm
building again the things which were destroyed by the gospel.
Meaning I don't believe the gospel anymore. I'm not preaching the
gospel anymore. So how is it that God's elect
are made dead to the law? Let's read 19 and 20 again. For I, through the law, am dead
to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. There is nothing in us There
is nothing in us that is in our flesh that has anything to do
with this. You're dead to the law, it's because God did it,
not because you did it. You can't just choose to die
to the law. That's not possible. To do so, to die to the law means
that you're living by faith, the faith of Christ, the faith
of the Son of God. And that's your hope, is Christ
alone. Your hope is not in faith, because then you'd be looking
at what you're doing by faith. No, your hope is in Christ alone. Now that being said, how do we
know that we are made dead to the law? Because we believe our
only hope is these words, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. How do
I live if I've been crucified? How do I live if I'm dead to
the law? Yet not I, Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. Nothing in us that is in our
flesh has anything to do with this. We have been crucified
with Christ, therefore God's chosen people are alive in Him,
free from the law, free from the law. Turn with me to Romans
6. I'll show you that over there as well. Romans 6, look at verse 1. What
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so
many of us were baptized unto Jesus Christ, were baptized unto
his death? Therefore, we are buried with
him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. This is the reason that we outwardly
confess Christ in baptism. We're showing forth that we believe
that his death is our only hope. Our only hope is that we died
with him, that we were raised with him. For if we have been
planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also in
the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead
is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no dominion
over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise
reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed to your sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ, Our Lord dying in Christ
means that you're not only free from the law that you died to
the law. You died to sin. Also, it's gone. It's gone. He put it away by the sacrifice
of himself by his precious blood. This is the good news of the
gospel. See, by the time the law was given, man was already
depraved. Man was completely unable to
fix their situation. They were already in alterably
dead. The law was given to show us
our sin, like a mirror. As I said before, That's why
the scripture says Moses, the law came by Moses, but grace
and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what saved you,
grace and truth, not the law, not the law. The sole purpose of the law,
if anybody ever goes to the law for anything, they're missing
the sole point of the law. It is to declare loudly, you
need a substitute. You cannot please God in your
flesh. You must have the substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are to be saved. He obeyed the
laws of man. And you and I and all the elect
of God that were in him did the exact same thing because he was
our substitute surety. This is why it says Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness. This is what he's saying in verse
19. Whereas by one man's, oh, that's
the wrong verse. I think we had to turn back to
our text. No, verse 19 of chapter five,
verse 19 of chapter five. For as by one man disobedience,
many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. That is sin that reigned unto
death. Even so might grace reign through righteousness into eternal
life by who? The Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. Christ's obedience of the law
was death, not life. The obedience, if he was going
to obey the law, being made guilty on the cross of Calvary for his
people, then the consequence was death. The consequence was
death, not life. Therefore, through the law, I
am dead to the law. That's what Paul's saying. Back
in verse 19, go back to our text. For I through the law am dead
to the law. This is what he's talking about
here, that when Christ's obedience to the law
equaled death and his people were in him, Therefore, I, through
the law, because the law's demanded justice, because the law demanded
death, because the man demanded consequence, I now have kept
the law through Christ Jesus and am therefore dead to the
law. Do you know why? Because justice
cannot be enacted twice. It cannot be brought up twice.
If justice has been satisfied, it would be unjust. This is in
any court of law and our courts are not righteous courts, but
I can use a very simple example. If I go in to serve for a sentence
and then somebody else comes in and serves the same sentence
for the same crime, that's unjust. That crime was already paid for.
If I serve that sentence and I get out and somebody said,
oh, well, now you got to go serve that time. Well, that's unjust. No, the sentence had been paid. Christ's obedience to law is
death, not life. Therefore, through the law, I
am dead to the law. God's people are dead to the law in Christ
Jesus. We are not saved by our life
lived or our works done. We're saved by his life lived.
And because we were in him by his death, we are dead to the
law that we may live unto God. Now we don't go to the law anymore
for righteousness or for justification. We come to Christ alone, who
is our righteousness and justification. We are saved by the death accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ for us in us and by him all in Christ. Let's read this one more time
in closing. For I through the law am dead to the law, that
I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the
grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. The only way to live unto God. is to not live unto the law at
all, is to literally be dead to the law. Not a little bit
dead, completely, utterly, totally dead. We don't look at it, we
don't go near it as any part of our justification or as any
part of our righteousness. That is the only way to be alive
unto God. To be dead to the law means you
don't return to the law. Think about this, okay, if you
return to the law, now that you have been crucified with Christ,
And that means you're dead to the law, that you may live under
God. Going back to the law is literally resurrecting a dead
man. And there's no such thing as
zombies. You understand what I'm saying? That's exactly what
it means. No, there's no such thing as zombies. There's not
going to be a dead corpse walking. No, we don't go back to the law.
That man is dead. He's gone. That we may live unto
God. You literally, literally, if
you go back to the law, you're living to self, not to God. But
thank God, he has made us dead to the law. He did that. We didn't do that. He's made
us dead unto the law that we may live unto God. Let's pray. Father, cause this
message to be for our good, your glory. May you bless it to our
understanding in Christ's name. Amen. Let's take a break.