I'm gonna be in the book of Galatians
again if you'd like to turn there. Galatians chapter two. Galatians chapter two, we're
only gonna look at one verse, verse 21. In just a moment we'll
read that, but we've established the whole purpose of Galatians,
the reason it was written, about each time that we've been in
Galatians. I mentioned that the issue that
was so devastating to Paul and discrediting to our Lord's finished
work was that Peter and Barnabas got up from the table of the
Gentiles, the uncircumcised Gentiles. And they, when their friends
came in, the Jews, the circumcised Jews. And we know that under
the law, you had to be circumcised the eighth day. That was something
that was the Jewish covenant given to Abraham back in Genesis. And so Barnabas and Peter get
up and they go over to the table of the ones that were circumcised,
the Jews. And Paul told Barnabas and Peter
that they were wrong right then and there in front of everybody.
And I love that because when there is something that needs
to be declared, we declare it by preaching the gospel. We don't
have the authority of apostleship. We don't walk up to each other
and say, hey, I noticed you're doing this. Don't do that anymore.
That wouldn't be very good. That's foolish. The scripture
tells us how to deal with our brethren. If we have ought against
our brother, go to him in secret, you and him alone, and explain
to your brother. If your brother will hear you, thou hast gained
your brother. Do it in love. Don't do it in, and I'm not saying
that Paul didn't do this in love, but this was a detrimental, It
could have been catastrophic, but the Lord used Paul in this
way to rebuke those two and show them the error of their ways,
not to seek justification by the law, which is what they did.
They made a statement. And sometimes we make statements,
don't we? We don't mean to. Sometimes we make statements.
Whenever, why do you think Paul said, Oh, wretched man that I
am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? What
do you think? He said that which I would do, I do not. But that
which I would not, that's what I do. It's because we're constantly
in a warfare with an old man that's on this back right now
that you see in a new man that you can't see. It's constant
warfare. It's a constant struggle. It's
a constant battle. Thankfully, the older shall serve
the younger. Our mind may think that their
actions are not that big of a deal, when in all actuality, to look
to the law as any part of your justification, to look to the
law as any part of your righteousness, is literally for Christ to be
of none effect to you. That's how serious it was. That's
how serious it was. It's to say Christ isn't enough,
that he died in vain, that God is looking to you. to complete
salvation. That's just not true, is it?
So let's read this, Galatians 2 verse 21. I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then grace is
dead. Then Christ, I'm sorry, then
Christ is dead in vain. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. We have strong communication
from Paul here, don't we? A statement to settle the issue
once for all. Now I'll tell you that that word
frustrate doesn't mean frustrate. I want to mention this later
on also. I want to mention this later on also, but the word translates
disregard, cast aside, deny, and despise. I do not despise
the grace of God. I do not cast aside the grace
of God. I do not disregard the grace
of God." That's what he's saying. I don't discredit it. Because if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And that word vain means
uselessly. I don't cast aside, I don't discredit,
I don't devalue the grace of God because if If I'm saying
that justification and righteousness comes by the law, then Christ
died uselessly. I could have been my own savior
in keeping the law. That's what he's saying right
here. I could have saved myself. And everyone sitting here, no,
that's an impossibility, isn't it? Can't save myself. Can't
save myself. Do we see how horrendously blasphemous
it was for Barnabas and Peter? The message that they were sending
by getting up and moving? They were some of the pillars
in the church. Peter was an apostle. Peter was
one of the apostles of the Lord. He's a disciple of the Lord that
became the apostle. He was the one that preached on Pentecost. 5,000 souls were saved the day
on Pentecost. And yet, because of peer pressure, I remind you
that he denied the Lord three times because of a little girl.
One of them, a 12-year-old little girl, they say. I got a 12-year-old
little girl, too. And I'm not up here saying, well,
I would never do that. You know why? But for the grace of God,
there go I and you too. That's just how it is, isn't
it? But this is Peter, found himself in a moment of weakness,
found himself caught up with peer pressure and says, okay,
I'm just going to go over here with these guys because, you know, we, we blend
in better. We we're whatever, really what
he's saying is, yeah, you have to be circumcised too. If you
want to be part of the club. No, no, no. No, there is no club when it
comes to the Lord. There is his people saved by
his grace. There's no cliques. They're his
people saved by his grace. There's brothers and sisters
in Christ Jesus. There are one flesh, his flesh,
one mind, one accord. This is the mind of Christ. This
is what the scripture is talking about. It said, let this mind
be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who thought it not robbery
to be after God, but You understand he didn't take upon himself the
form of angels, but of a servant, the nature of a servant. That's
what we do. That's what we do. The most eye
opening part brethren is that the moral law, the civil law
and the ceremonial law. are not only believed by most
religious organizations, but they're preached in almost every
church in some way, shape or form as part or evidence of salvation
in every single church around here, every single church around
the world. Everything is all about what you do or what you
do not do. You can look at different religions and you can see they
wear certain clothing all the time. They have to wear that
clothing and it's part of their righteousness. If they don't
wear that clothing, they're not considered righteous. You can see certain
people, what they eat, what they don't eat, what they drink, what
they don't drink, what they say, what they don't say. This is
the moral law and this will not bring about salvation. It will
not bring about salvation. Do I believe men and women should
dress modestly? I don't even have to answer that,
of course. I mean, that's common sense, isn't it? But we don't
do it for righteousness, do we? Not as any part of our righteousness,
not as any part of our justification. To say that Jesus loves everybody,
he died for everybody, is to say he's a failure. Because if
somebody goes to hell that he loved and he died for, He failed
to redeem him. His love has nothing to do with
salvation, but his love accomplished the salvation of his people.
Here in his love, not that we love him, but that God loved
us and sent forth his son to be, not to try to do something,
but to be the propitiation for our sin and for the sin of all
the Lord's people. Likewise, to say that you have
to choose God to make salvation work, That voids the effect of
the cross. That voids the words, it is finished.
If you have to choose God, that means you're doing a work, a
choice. A choice is a work. The Lord
told the disciples, I chose you, you didn't choose me. That's
the same in salvation as well. The Lord, for the purpose, read
Romans chapter nine, for the purpose of election might stand,
the children, neither being good or evil, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. Why? He elected one into eternal
life and he left the other one to himself. It's that simple.
You not chosen me, I've chosen you. And only a sinner can rejoice
in the fact that we don't have any righteousness in ourself
and in what we do and in what we say, where we go or any of
that. Our righteousness is not what we can see with these eyes.
Our righteousness is what we see with the eyes of faith. We
see the Lord Jesus Christ, we see him seated. As the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords, we see him high and lifted up as the
sovereign creator and sustainer of life, the one that truly redeemed
his people. We rejoice that he is our righteousness. He is our sanctification. He
is our wisdom. He's all to us. For those who void the effect
of the cross for their soul, this is no small thing. This
is damaging to the soul. This is damning to the soul.
This is why there's a whole book written about it in Galatians.
This is the one issue that they had, and that's all that it takes
is one issue. You heard me last week talk about
this. Satan used one word to change, didn't he? One word.
It doesn't take much to change the truth into the lie. and only
the Lord can keep us from believing it. That's the truth. Lord, keep
me. Lord, don't leave me to myself. Brethren, if we go to the law,
and I want to be as clear as I can be here, clear as I can
be, if we go to the law for justification, if we go to the law for righteousness,
at its very core, it is saying that God that God put his son
to death in vain. How serious of an accusation
is that on God? How serious of an accusation
is that on God? It's charging God with folly in the death of
his son. It's removing the work of Christ, saying he wasn't necessary. No, I can be saved by works. I can be saved by what I do,
not by what he did. I'm good enough for God. I have
made a choice. I have made a vow. I have done
this. I don't do that. I can see I'm getting better.
This is most men and women that you come into contact with. I
was talking to someone yesterday, and they found out I was a pastor. And I don't hide that fact. I'm not like, oh, you know, I'm
the chief executive officer of the Human Resources Agency for
a nonprofit organization. Yeah, that's what a pastor is.
I don't say that. Yeah, pastor church. Yeah, well,
as soon as that happens, or it's like, well, let me tell you about
my righteousness. Here it is. Here's my righteousness. I have
a doctorate degree from this place in Bible theology, different
things like that. Okay, well, yeah, he's like,
he said, Listen, I know a lot of things. I know a lot of things. And I thought, You know, Paul
said, I have strived, I have purposed to know nothing among
you, say Jesus Christ and am crucified. Now, I'm not making
fun of this, man. I'm just simply telling you that people you're
gonna meet in life, that's how it's gonna go. If there's any
slightest bit of religion at all is brought up, they're going
to give you all their religion. What did the Lord do with the,
look in the scripture for the same responses. You see the Lord
going to the Samaritan woman? She said, go call your husband.
She was asking for the water. And he said, go call your husband.
She says, I have no husband. He says, thou hast spoken, you've
had five, and the one that you have now is not your own. Sir,
I perceive you're a prophet. Well, you say to worship in Jerusalem,
but we worship in this mountain. Immediately giving him her righteousness
right there. The Lord said, the time is coming
and now is, you'll do the worship in this mountain or in Jerusalem.
God is a spirit and they that worship must worship in spirit.
and in truth. And he keeps talking to her and
eventually she says these words, well, when Messiah comes, and
that's exactly who she was talking to, wasn't it? When Messiah comes,
he'll straighten you out. That's what she was thinking.
You know, it's true. She'll straighten you out. He'll straighten you
out rather. And Lord said, I am. And with those words, the Lord
called her out of darkness and into his light. And she left
her water pot and said, come see a man that showed me all
things ever. I did. Is this not the Christ? It was no longer
about what she believed. It was about who she believed.
It was about who she leaves. See, Christ didn't die in vain.
He died for that woman. He died for his people. And in
doing so, he's gonna come to them and call them. But those
who are left to the lie, they're gonna continually talk about
the good deeds that they do. They're gonna continually point
to their self, point to their life, rather than point to the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is all of our righteousness, all of
our wisdom, all of our sanctification, and all of our redemption. me and act like that God's a
frustrated God. I've read where he's angry with
the wicked, but I've never read where he got frustrated. Have
you? You know why? It's not in there. He's never
been frustrated one time because nothing takes him off guard.
He knows the beginning from the end. Why? He purposed it to be
that way. He purposed it to be that way. Let's read this again. I do not
frustrate, I don't discredit, disregard, cast away the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Christ died for no reason whatsoever. The word frustrate means in a
sense of discouraging or preventing the grace of God from being effectual.
Not talking about, and I want to make that point, it's not
talking about that now I have frustrated the grace of God.
No, the focal point is I have cast it aside. I've cast it away. That's the expression here. God's
grace is sovereign because of its source. You can't make God's
grace frustrated. Can't make God frustrated, that's
the point here. Do you believe that God's grace will always
be see through to the end of its purpose? Yes, absolutely. Then it can't be frustrated.
That's the point. That's the point. That's why I wanted to
look up the definition. Sometimes the translators say
certain words, and you go back and look, and there's other definitions
of the exact same word, and that's the one they thought was fitting
at the time. But you go back 500 years, that word frustrating
might not have even meant what it means now in common language.
I mean, that's just facts. But we see that the word frustrating,
I do not frustrate the word of God. I don't cast it aside. I
don't discredit it. I don't say it's useless. No,
I believe in the grace of God, because I know that righteousness
cannot come by the law, and that Christ did not die in vain. I
know that, I know that. He's saying if, but then, but
at the same time, it's cause and effect. God's grace is sovereign
because of its source. It always see-throughs to the
end, to its intended purpose. His grace cannot be frustrated. This is why this is such an important
topic. All those, this is as simple as I can make it. All
those, or as simple as I can say it. Somebody else might be
able to say it more simple than me. All those that seek righteousness
by the law discredit, devalue, disown, have no use for the grace
of God. It's that simple. It's that simple. It's to despise it, it's to discard
it, it's to cast it aside, it's denial. This is why it's such
an important topic. The saving grace of God, the
precious blood of Christ, that you're discrediting all of that
by going to the law. And I have family that do that.
They love their righteousness, what they do, what they don't
do. But for the grace of God, there go I. But for the grace
of God, you and I'd be right there still yet. The sad part, brethren, is some,
I'd say most, if they hear this message, they say, that's not
what I'm doing. You're saying I'm keeping the law by what I
do and what I don't do, and you're saying I discredit the blood
of Christ. That's not what I'm doing. That's exactly what they're doing. That's
exactly what they're doing, but men can't see that. They believe
that what they're doing is actually glorifying God, when in turn
it really glorifies the flesh. Why? Well, they're still lost. They're still in darkness. They
still don't have the Lord's faith bestowed. They can't believe
the things of God. Most of the things I'm saying
here, Ben would disagree with, but it's right here in black
and white. If you return to the lull, As any part of your salvation,
or as any part of evidence of your salvation, you're discrediting
the blood of Christ. You're discrediting the grace
of God, the effectual finished work of the cross. That's how
simple it is, and that's how scary it is, too. Oh, brethren,
we preach Christ's gospel. We preach Christ's gospel. We
preach the Lord Jesus Christ, the successful redeemer of his
people. We preach that Christ did not die in vain. He did not
die uselessly. He died with an intended purpose.
And that intended purpose was accomplished one time on the
cross of Calvary. And when he had by himself purged
our sin, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty of God, the
throne of God. Oh, he successfully redeemed
everyone he died for. So we look to our righteousness
to only be found in him. We look to him as our righteousness.
We look to him as our justification. We no longer use the mirror of
the law because that's all it can do is show us our tarnishes,
our blemishes that can't be fixed by us. We look to Christ and
oh, we see that he is righteous, he is holy. To believe and preach anything
but Christ and him crucified makes void the cross for your
soul. Did you know that? It's serious. First Corinthians
117, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel,
not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be
made of none effect. We preach Christ. We preach the
gospel of Christ. Otherwise, the cross is made
of none effect to us. We preach the gospel. This is
why you cannot be saved under a false gospel. Whenever we say,
whenever people say, I have a cousin or friend, I think they believe.
Well, where did they hear the gospel? Somebody says, well, they never
really have heard the gospel. Then they're not a believer. That's evidence.
You have to hear what does scripture say in Romans chapter one, verse
16. And somebody might even already be thinking, well, you're being
judgmental. No, I'm telling you what the scripture says for. I am
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the, the only
one power of God into salvation to everyone that believeth. to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. If someone doesn't hear
this gospel, they are not saved. It's that simple. And the only
way they can believe it is by the free gift of God, given of
grace, given of grace. If men and women can continue
to eat the husks like the The son, the prodigal son, they can
continue to eat the husks of the hogs and not be offended
by the self-righteous prophets, false prophets that are preaching
the anti-Christ doctrine. They're not one of the Lord's.
The Lord will not leave one of his sheep. They won't be able to
eat those husks. You can't anymore. You can't
anymore. We don't go to those, well, I've heard them called
goat barns. I guess that's what they are,
but we don't go to those places. Does light have fellowship with
darkness? No, no it doesn't. What do we do? We preach Christ,
the successful redeemer of his people and our self-servants
for his sake towards you. Now here's a question I'll be
asked. I thought of questions because I knew this would be
something that would prompt somebody somewhere to send me an email
and sometimes they're not nice and it is what it is. So you're saying that we are
the only ones saved. Is that what I'm saying? We're
the only ones saved? Those that are here right now? I'm saying
that the only ones that are saved are saved by this gospel. That's what I'm saying. That's
the truth of the scripture. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all. I
mean, over all, in you all. I mean, it's not, this isn't
complicated. If this gospel is not the gospel that someone believes,
there is no other gospel. There is no other gospel that
saves man. There's no other good news. You're giving man good
news, and then you're saying, here's something else you have
to do on top of that. It's no longer good news. You've erased
the good news of it. You've erased the offense of
the cross. Paul said that. I mentioned this last Sunday
or maybe Wednesday. He said, but if I preach circumcision
unto you, why would I be persecuted? He said, because the offense
of the cross is void. It's gone. The offense of the
cross is no more. He said, no, we preach Christ.
And in preaching Christ, it's going to be offensive. You tell
somebody that Jesus doesn't love everybody, they're gonna hate
you. They're gonna hate you, but we see it so clearly in scripture.
It doesn't amaze me that God hated Esau. It amazes me that
God loved Jacob. It amazes me that he would love
you and I. That's the amazing part of salvation, not the fact
that he hates, the fact that he loved, he chose to love, he
didn't have to do that. He did it only according to his
own goodwill and pleasure. I'm saying that God only calls
his sheep by a preacher sent by God to do one thing, to declare
his gospel. If the gospel is not declared
at a church, at a pulpit, or some, you can have, gospel can
be declared anywhere for that matter. But otherwise, there's
just self-righteousness that gets to be believed, not the
Lord. Not the Lord, it's a false righteousness outside of Christ.
The cross has none effect to them. To discredit the very blood
of Christ, you add one thing to the finished work of Christ,
it's to discredit the entire work of God in salvation. That's
the seriousness of it. I will say that's sad because a
lot of times men and women don't realize they're doing this. You think those men and women
knew that they were really killing the King of Glory when they crucified
the Lord Jesus Christ? How sad. The Lord knew that.
What do you say? Lord, forgive them. Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. At no way should our
gospel be preached in a manner that causes us to puff up, to
cause us to think we're better than others, to cause us to think
anything but. But for the grace of God, there
go I. We don't look down upon men. We don't think that we're
high and more because we know what we know. No, we just rejoice
that the Lord has not left us to ourself. This should not ever
bring us to a place of pride, but it should be the most humbling
truth, that God would choose to save a wretch like me, that
God would choose to save a wretch like you, all for his own glory,
all by his own power, and not leave us to ourself. It is sad, those that try to
keep the law for justification or righteousness or for way of
life, they're just discrediting the grace of God, literally,
whether they mean to or not. To say or believe that righteousness
comes by the law is to despise the grace of God. This is what
Paul's telling us right here. He's pretty harsh language, isn't
it? I mean, it is, but it's necessary to understand how serious God
is about His Gospel. See, the Gospel doesn't declare
you and I in any way. It doesn't promote flesh. It
doesn't lift us up. It completely exalts the Son,
which is what the Father did while the Lord was upon the earth.
And even throughout all the Old Testament pictures, Christ was
the focal point of it all. He was the Redeemer, the Messiah,
the one that was going to redeem. So to add anything to that is
to literally say He's not good enough. That's why it's so offensive
to the Lord and to the Lord's people. If we can, salvation can be accomplished
by the deeds of the law and the flesh, then why would we even
need a cross? Why would we even have needed a savior? Why would
we need him to suffer and shed his blood if we could have accomplished
salvation by the works? Couldn't, could we? It makes
it foolishness then. God would execute his son for
nothing. That's what they're saying. That's why this is so
insulting. Perish the thought, brethren. Here's the good news.
Here's the truth. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. It has been accomplished in one
person at one time on the cross of Calvary. Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Who
believes? They that have a preacher, the preacher being sent. The
scripture said, how can you believe except you have a preacher and
how can you preach except you be sent? It's only the Lord, some miraculous
way. We see how it's written out in
scripture, but by his mercy and grace alone, he calls a sinner
out of darkness into light. And we see Christ, our hope of
eternal life and him alone as our hope of eternal life, not
what we do and not what we don't do. We look to the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Why? Because Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. As we heard the first hour, we
have died to the law that we might live unto God. For those
that go back to the law is to not live unto God. But here he
says very clearly, I do not discredit the grace of God. For if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. He's saying,
I don't discredit the grace of God. I don't cast it out or aside.
It's not possible because Christ is not dead in vain. He didn't
die for nothing. Christ did not fail. He's a successful,
the successful Savior of his people, the successful Redeemer,
who satisfied the law entirely, who satisfied God's demands,
who satisfied justice once and for all. How do you know it's
done? Well, he's seated. He's seated on the cross of Calvary.
He successfully redeemed his chosen people alone. He by himself
purged the sin of his people, and he sat down, and God was
well pleased with him, insomuch, the evidence of that is the Lord
was resurrected. Now here's the good news of all
of that pertaining to us. Christ was made sin for us who
knew no sin. God hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. When's that gonna take effect?
It already has. It already has. And to go back
to the law in any way is to discredit that righteousness. It's to discredit
that work. This was all by his doing, that
righteousness, all by his grace. To preach anything else is to
despise the cross of Christ, to discredit the blood. Call
God a liar, really. He didn't say what he said he
did, it's finished. This is why this is so offensive. And on
the flip side to that, why this gospel's so offensive to those
that are holding to the law as their righteousness, is we're
saying, no, you don't have any part in salvation. It strips
them of their glory, it strips them of their own righteousness,
it strips them of their pride, just like the Pharisees. One
that prayed, he said, Lord, I thank Thee that I'm not like others.
And he talked how it taught, he said he prayed within himself. He was praying to himself how
good he is. Lord, I thank Thee I'm not like this person, I'm
not like this person. I fast, I tithe, I pray. I'm thinking
I'm not like this publican back here. I'm something, I'm somebody,
everything that I do. The publican went and lifted
up his eyes, but beat upon his breast, the scripture says, saying,
have mercy on me, the sinner. Have mercy on me, the sinner.
Lord said, I tell you, one of these went home justified. Justified,
it wasn't the one looking to what he was doing based upon
the law, it was the one needing a savior. And you never find
a place where the Lord turned down a mercy beggar. You won't
find one where they told blind Bartimaeus to be quiet. The Lord
didn't say Bartimaeus be quiet, did he? No, the Lord said, bring
him to me. Fetch him, bring him to me. And
he healed him, and he healed him. But not before Bartimaeus
left his robe there, signifying his previous righteousness, just
as the woman left her water pot. See, once the Lord calls you
out of darkness into his light, once he reveals his son unto
you, all of your righteousness is stripped away, and all his
righteousness is given to you. And you see his righteousness
is so much better than the righteousness you once had, and you realize
that those were just filthy rags. Those are just filthy rags compared
to what he's given now. Brethren, here's the truth. Christ
did not die in vain. It is finished. He is the end
of the law for righteousness. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take this and bless it to our understanding for your
glory. In Christ's name, amen.