Relations chapter two. We're
gonna read verse 15 through 21, which is the end of the chapter.
First, I wanna say this, the one thing that separates the
Lord's people from everyone else is whom they are made to look
to, not what. The one thing that separates
the Lord's people from everyone else is whom they are made to
look to and not what. Not what they're made to look
to, whom. We're made to look to Christ. Paul said, 2 Timothy
1 verse 12, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. There's a song I was going to
have on the back of the bulletin, but I put the wrong song on the
back of the bulletin. I was really on my A game with
the bulletin this week, apparently. But you'll recognize the song
it says free from the law. Oh happy condition Jesus hath
bled and there is remission cursed by the law and bruised by the
fall Christ hath redeemed us once for all Here in our text,
Paul is talking about building on the law. He's talking about
being a builder of the law and how that Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness, how Christ fulfilled the law. And
he uses very straightforward wording. He's not beating around
the bush to deal with this issue. The issue was, as you remember,
Barnabas and Peter were eating among Gentiles and
then the Jews walk in and they get up from their table and go
to eat with the Jews. That was a clear, very significant because
they were clearly stating, oh, you have to be circumcised in
order to be a believer, even though they didn't say that or
preach that. They were giving approval because some men had
crept in and spread the lie that circumcision was a requirement
for salvation. So Paul's not beating around the bush. He is
straightforward saying, no, no, that's, that's not true. Christ
is the end of the law because righteousness is accomplished
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture tells us clearly
that Paul used to be a builder on the law, but until God, once
God showed him the truth and what is the truth? No flesh.
shall be justified by the deeds of the law. By the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified. Let's read this together, verse
16. 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. So he says it, and then he just
repeats it right there, didn't he? It's the same exact thing,
just saying it different. 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. But if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again,
and I want you to pay close attention to this verse, this is where
our text, this is where our title comes from. For if I build again,
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
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. Verse 18, Paul says, read that
again. For if I build again the things
which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. I titled this
message, Things Destroyed. Things Destroyed. There are those
that tell you to look what you see. Look at what you see as
evidence of your salvation or as part of your salvation. Look to what you do. or what
you do not do as evidence of your salvation or as part of
your salvation, as part of your righteousness, as part of your
justification. And Paul says, if you do that,
you're building on that which was destroyed and therefore you
make yourself a transgressor. You make yourself a transgressor.
This is what he's talking about in the previous verse whenever
he says, but if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we
ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister
of sin, God forbid. He's saying it can't happen. It can't happen. What is he saying
there? He's saying that if you go back to the law after having
justification in Christ alone, if you return back to the law,
you're coming under sin again. You're a transgressor, you're
a debtor to the whole law again. If you are seeking justification
by Christ and you go to the law, then you're not actually seeking
justification by Christ alone. That's what he's saying. You
can't have both. You can't do that. Paul's saying that that's
building again upon things that are destroyed. And here's why. The flesh cannot see spiritual
things. The flesh and the spirit are
complete and total opposites. They're nothing alike whatsoever.
They don't think the same thoughts. They don't do the same things.
The flesh can't mind anything of the spirit. The flesh is enmity
against God. The flesh is, The things of God
are foolishness to the flesh. The flesh can't mind the things
of God. That word enmity, I don't know
if I've ever told you this, told us this, but the scripture says
the flesh is enmity against God. That word enmity means the state
or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone
or something. Our flesh is hostile, actively
hostile towards God. Hostile. Much like if two countries
are at war, they're hostile towards, our flesh hates God right now. In the book of Genesis, we have
the first offering ever recorded where a man brought something
to God to offer to him. Now there was an offering made
in the garden on behalf of Adam and Eve, that's whenever the
Lord clothed them with the skin of the animal. But we don't have
another offering mentioned until Cain and Abel. Now Cain was a
keeper of the ground. He was a tiller. He was a farmer.
He was a tiller. He tilled up the ground. He helped
the planted vegetables, planted fruit. And it came time to make
an offering unto the Lord. His brother Abel was the keeper
of the herd. He was a shepherd, a shepherd.
Now, I can imagine, and you can imagine, that Adam, being called
a man of faith over in the book of Hebrews, meaning he was a
brother, he was elect of God, Knowing that, we know that Adam
would have taught his sons the importance of a proper offering,
the importance of a proper sacrifice, that you can't please God. We
tried, and it doesn't work. We sowed fig leaves together
whenever we sinned. God didn't have that. God said,
no, you've got to have a lamb. You've got to have a covering.
It's got to be the blood. The Lord would have taught them
that. The Lord would have taught Adam that. So Adam would have taught his
sons that as well. Would you not think so? So we
have in the fullness of time, it came time to offer something
and Cain brought forth the fruit of his hands. Now it wasn't ugly
fruit, it wasn't rotten fruit. You know, sometimes you go to
the grocery store and you have discounted fruit on the shelf
because it's going bad or it's looking soft. You ever seen bananas
that are brown? You understand what I'm saying?
He didn't bring that. He brought good fruit. Good, nice, look,
best tomatoes you've ever seen. I mean, everything that he brought
unto the Lord was the very best. He was proud of it. In so much,
he thought that that was going to earn him favor with God. This
is a picture of every man and every woman going to the law
and trying to keep the law for righteousness. That's what this
is a picture of. All we can produce is dead works. It doesn't accomplish
anything. As a matter of fact, what it
does, anything good, I should say. It doesn't accomplish anything
good. It accomplished damnation. The end result's hell itself.
That's what it accomplishes. It's wood, hay, and stubble,
and the Lord's gonna try it with fire, and it's going to burn
up with the fervent heat. So what happened when Cain brought
this fruit to God? Well, the Lord said, unto Cain
and unto his offering, he had no respect. He had no respect. Now God is not a respecter of
persons. If he saw sin upon his son and
spared not his own son, do we think we're gonna be justified
before God if we have any sin upon us? No, no. Cain did not receive the respect
of God because he did not bring to God what God provided, the
blood of the lamb. He didn't look to Christ. That's
what this is a picture of here. That's what Abel brought was
a lamb and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to Abel's sacrifice. Why? Because he brought what
the Lord provided, what the Lord instructed, what the Lord demanded.
Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin. No remission. What can Cain do then? Did he
repent? Did he say, okay, I was wrong. I made a mistake. I think
I'll do what God's right and I'm wrong. No, he justified himself. In so much, he became angry.
What does his flesh do? It's enmity against God. It's
hostile. What did it do? He wanted to kill God, didn't
he? He wanted to kill God, but he couldn't. So he killed the
thing that God was pleased with. He killed the thing God had respect
unto, his own flesh and blood, his brother. He killed his brother.
And his brother's blood, scripture says, cried from the earth. And
what do you think it cried? It cried for vengeance, didn't
it? It cried for justice. It cried
for judgment. We read in another place, another
one's blood cried. It speaks better things than
that of Abel. And it was the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you know what his blood cries? Justified. Sanctified. Made righteous. you have a clean
and clear title because of the blood of Christ, if you're his. If I build my own righteousness,
I must look at others to justify myself. Cain was looking at his
works to justify himself, and he says, well, I'm going to offer,
there were other people, Cause they ended up getting married
and having, I don't know how all that works. Don't ask me. Spirits silent on it. Some will
be silent on it. There's no rest. We don't, we
don't need to worry about things like that. We look, we preach
the Lord Jesus Christ, their salvation, Lord Jesus Christ.
These things, their mysteries are going to remain mysteries.
That's why the scripture says the half hasn't been told of
what the Lord did. Our little pea brains couldn't comprehend
it anyways. If he told us everything he did, you know what I mean?
He's given us plenty in his word. You never exhaust it. But here
we see Cain comparing himself to others, and the only one he
compared himself to and he failed was his brother. He said, okay,
well, if I kill my brother, then I will be accepted. Then he won't,
God, I'm gonna obligate God. Does this sound familiar? I'm
gonna obligate God based on what I do. By killing my brother,
that means I'll have to be accepted. My works will be good enough
then. Don't you know that's exactly what they did to the Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross of Calvary? Away with this man, let his blood
be upon us and on our children. Why? Because they said, we're
good enough without you. And he was God. Think about that. If I build on my own righteousness,
I must look at others in order to justify myself. Men call it
progressive sanctification. Progressively getting more and
more sanctified. That's not true. It's not true. Progressive sanctification is
false evidence. It's self-righteousness is what it is. That's all that
it is. It's progressive self-righteousness. I see myself as getting better
and better. That's self-righteousness. That's Cain. That's the way of
Cain. And what does scripture say? Woe unto them, they've gone
the way of Cain. Now this is evident for anyone
who builds. This is evident for anyone who
builds upon the law. The scripture says this, unless
the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. That's pretty simple, isn't it?
The Lord must do the work and that's what he accomplished in
his salvation for his people. That's what he brought to the
father was his blood and his body that the Lord was pleased
with. This is the work he did all by himself to save his people
from their sins. They that labor, labor in vain,
accomplishing nothing but condemnation, nothing but condemnation. But
what about those that are in Christ? Well, I quote this often,
there is now therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Lord gives us a parable of building. He said there was two men, one
was a foolish man and one was a wise man. This foolish man
built his house upon the sand and the rains came down and the
floods came up and the house on the sand fell. It was destroyed. Why? Because sand is shifting. Sand is not constant. I used
to live in Florida, and they built a lot of stuff on sand
down there. I'm amazed at that. But when a hurricane comes, there's
a lot of problems that happen. I'll tell you that. Foolish man
built his house upon the sand and the house didn't stand. Why? Well, because it was on sand.
It was shaky ground. It wasn't firm. But the wise
man built his house upon the rock, the scripture says, and
the rains came down and the floods came up and the house on the
rock stood firm. Why? Christ is the rock. that we build upon, not the shifting
sands of the law, not the sifting sands of self-righteousness,
not the shifting sands of what the gospel has destroyed. And
that's what Paul's talking about here when he said he's destroyed
it. It's because the gospel is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the gospel. His finished work, how he died
according to scripture. He's the gospel. We preach him,
he's the end of the law for righteousness. He's the end of the law. So we
no longer go back and build upon the law and build upon righteous
living and build upon what we do or do not do as any part of
our salvation. Whether to see it as a evidence,
I can see myself getting better. I literally had someone in this
building one time look at me and said, don't you see yourself
getting better? I said, no, I see myself getting worse. She said,
well, I see myself as getting better. And I said, well, you
sound like you're seeing yourself getting more righteous. And she
said, yeah, I do. And I thought, my goodness. You
don't know what to say to that. I said, well, we don't preach
that here. I said, that's progressive sanctification. We don't preach
that here. We're progressively getting worse. Progressively
getting worse. Somebody said, why would you
tell people that? Because it's the truth. The older you get, you remember
when you were younger, some of you are much older than I am,
but the older you get, the more your flesh lusts after things,
the more evil it becomes, the more you see your sin, it becomes
ever present. It don't get better. It doesn't
get better. I'm thankful that the Lord constrains
us by his love. I'm thankful the Lord keeps his
people according to his own purpose. So how does one build upon the
rock that we just talked about? The chief cornerstone, as he's
mentioned in scripture, how does one build upon the rock? Look
to the Lord Jesus Christ alone as all your acceptance before
God. That's building upon a rock. That's building upon the rock.
He must be the doer of it. Look to his finished work alone
as all your wisdom, all your righteousness, all your sanctification,
all your redemption. This is the only hope for the
believer. Christ destroyed the works of
Satan. He put an end, he put away the
sin of his people. He's the end of the law for righteousness.
He alone pleases God. Never think for a moment that
you can please God in and of yourself because of what you
do. If you want to please the Lord, look to Christ. And in
looking to Christ, you fulfill the law. You fulfill the law
by looking to Christ. It's so simple. It's so simple. Then the Lord's pleased with
you because you're looking to his son as your righteousness.
See what I'm trying to say here? Paul asserts an interesting statement
I've already mentioned, but look at verse 17 with me. But if while
we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners,
is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. If I return to the law, if I
return to law keeping as any part of evidence, or as any part
of my salvation, then I am becoming a transgressor. I'm becoming
a transgressor. I'm found a sinner. Now does
that make Christ the minister of sin? No. No, God forbid, that's
what he's saying. No, we're not saying that. We're
saying you don't go back to the law for justification. You look
to Christ as all your justification. If we go back to the law, we're
just building upon what Christ has already accomplished and
therefore we have no righteousness at all. We have no righteousness
at all. These vain works were destroyed.
I got a place I want you to turn. Over in Romans chapter seven, I'm only going to read three
verses, but it's a lot just to quote. Romans chapter seven, verse seven. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law
had said, thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For
without the law, sin was dead. For I was alive without the law
once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. To return to the law revives
sin. Do we see that? There is no one
that can be justified by the deeds of the law. The law was
given for one purpose, that everyone would become guilty before God.
That you know now, because of the law, you're guilty before
God. God has you charged, and the
wages of sin is death. This is what the law shows us.
that the whole world's mouth may be stopped and everyone's
mouth may be stopped. It wasn't given for justification.
It wasn't given for righteousness. It wasn't given for sanctification.
It was given to stop every mouth. We don't have any hope in the
law for righteousness. It's made us see our need of
a substitute, our need of a savior, and that's who the Lord Jesus
Christ is. That's what he came to do. That's why he was born,
why he lived, why he died, was to save his people from their
sin, to become our righteousness, to become our justification,
to become our sanctification. Once sin revives, If we're a doer of the law, then
we're guilty of the entire law, and once sin revives, the wages
of sin is death. It's a death sentence to go back
to the law. Do we see that? It's a death sentence. If you
believe Christ alone for your justification and return to the
law, sin revives, and that sin will equal death, meaning you
do not believe Christ is all for your justification. It's
that simple. It's that simple. I go back to our text in Galatians
2. I want to notice verse 18 again.
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself
a transgressor. Why does he say destroyed? He
didn't destroy the law. Scripture says Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness, but Paul didn't destroy the law.
As a matter of fact, he says in this same book, Galatians,
that the law is our schoolmaster. You know what a schoolmaster
was? He was one before buses ever existed. He was the one
that chauffeured the children back and forth to school. He
was the chauffeur. I don't know if they did carriages. I don't know if they walked.
I have no idea. But that was his purpose. He was a schoolmaster.
He brought them to school. So the purpose of the law was
to show our need for a substitute, our need for a savior. It was
to show us how bad we are, how wretched and vile, what kind
of creatures we are in God's eyes. He's preaching the gospel, which
is Christ alone. And because of that, it's the
end of the law, because his righteousness, because his death satisfied all
the judgment, all the wrath, and satisfied the law's demands
for his people. Righteousness has been accomplished.
Paul's given us clear language here because Paul and Barnabas
were giving a clear message when they sat down with the Jews.
He's given us clear language. He's like, no, we don't return
to the law. If you do, is Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
If I start building again on the things which I've already
destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. That's clear, isn't it? No, we
don't go to the law for righteousness. We go to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therein alone is righteousness. We don't examine ourself. I heard
people say, look, examine your heart, examine your heart. Scripture
says you got to examine yourself and see if you be in the faith.
And what they mean by that is, is look at your works. That's
not what that means. When he says, examine yourself.
It's the same as the same thing David was praying over in Psalm.
And he said, search me and know me, O Lord, and see if there'd
be any unclean thing within me. That's examining yourself. That's
examining. It's not looking at your works
or your lifestyle or what you do or do not do. It's looking
to see, is Christ all my wisdom, all my righteousness, all my
sanctification, all my redemption? Has God made him unto me that?
Because if he's not, I have no hope of eternal life. If he's
not, I'm going to the law in one way, shape, or form. Sin
will revive and that'll equal death. It's so important, brethren,
this is so important. Because so many are still preaching
a works religion, a works gospel. And it's those they'll speak
of grace, they'll speak of righteousness, they'll speak of sin, they'll
speak of love, they'll speak of Jesus Christ, but they've
missed him. They've missed him because they're preaching law
somewhere in their doctrine or their message. There's a little
bit of leaven, and that leaven ruins the whole lump. That's
what the scripture says. A little leaven, leaveneth the
whole lump. Leaven is the same thing as yeast. Use a little
bit of yeast in bread and it gets big, doesn't it? You know
what the scripture says? Knowledge puffeth up. That's
similar, isn't it? It's interesting. Well, that's
what men do is they just get puffed up in their own arrogance
of what they believed and they examine themselves and look at
someone else and well, I'm not like so and so I'm not as bad
as so and so God must be really proud of me. And they see themselves
as beautiful before God, but they don't realize that they're
naked, they're vile, they're wretched, they're undone, they
need a savior, a substitute. They need the Lord Jesus Christ.
And only God can make him their wisdom, their righteousness,
their sanctification and redemption. Only the Lord can justify a man.
Only the Lord can justify a woman. This isn't what men do that achieve
justification. No, we're justified freely by
his grace. Freely by his grace. Whose choice
is that? It's not mine and it's not yours,
it's his. It's his. And it was done before
time ever began. To believe Christ alone for justification
is to destroy any hope of the law for justification. This is
so important. To believe Christ alone for justification
is to destroy any hope in the law for justification. Meaning
you no longer hope in the law as your justification. You hope
in Christ alone. And in doing so, you know what
the Lord says? Justified. Justified. That's how that works. If we're looking to Christ alone,
it's by the faith given, for by grace are you saved through
faith, in that not of yourself, it's the free gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. If he's given us the free
gift of faith, we're looking to Christ, and in looking to
Christ, God says, justified, perfectly righteous, as holy
as God is right now on the inside. Ain't that glorious? Someone who seeks justification
based on what they do, and this is something important too, they
will not consider you a brother. They will not. No matter a woman
that goes to the law for justification, they will not look at you and
believe that you're a brother because you don't go to the law
for justification. You have a justification outside
of theirs. No, they have to have their justification as to what
they see. So you're not living the way they're living. You're
not my brother. That's how it's viewed. You remember being in
false religion. And I get embarrassed talking about this because it's
well, it's embarrassing. We'd stick our nose up at people.
If anybody in here has been religious before, you know what I'm talking
about. You stuck your nose up at people thinking you're better
than somebody because maybe you knew something or you don't do
something. They offended you because their life is this and
that, but you don't do that. That's shameful, isn't it? Who
are we looking to? Ourself. Ourself, the law. We're saying the law justified
us. We're beautiful. No, we're not. We're lepers from
the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. We're with putrefying
sores. What did the scriptures say? We were naked. No one swaddled
you. No one covered you. No one saw
you, had mercy on you. But I saw you. I saw you in the
day of your nativity. And what did he say? I spread
my skirt over you. I covered you. I chose to do that, I cleaned
you, I washed you, I made you the righteousness of God in Jesus
Christ. That's what he's talking about there. This is what our
great God and Savior did for his people on the cross of Calvary. Had someone tell me one time,
we were in a circle group talking, and the young lady said, somebody
made a statement, and the young lady looked at them in public,
and she said, that's not a very Christian thing to say. And the
other person said, well, why not? And she said, well, Christians
don't say things like that. Now, it didn't offend me, but
I guess she thought it, I'm making a point here, stay with me. I
guess she thought that she was accomplishing something by rebuking
this person in front of everybody. But what she was doing to me,
she just revealed her self-righteousness is all she did. Her righteousness
was that she doesn't say that. And it's not even as bad as you're
thinking. I mean, it wasn't bad, really. But that's examining
self to seek righteousness. That's examining self to seek
justification. That's why I wanted to use that example. It's to
see what we're doing to say, God's pleased with me because
I'm doing this or I'm doing that. No, it's all by faith, brethren.
We live by faith. The life I now live in the flesh,
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. That's the life of the believer. We live by faith.
We walk by faith, not sight. We're looking to Christ in all
things. This is our hope. This is our
rest. The moment I take my eyes off
of him, and you know this is true, the moment I take my eyes
off of him or you take your eyes off of him, is it not true, we
start sinking just like Peter. We're dissolved to say, save
me, Lord, again. I'm sinking, I'm drowning again.
I shouldn't have thought, I'm gonna put my hands over my mouth
like Job, I'm not gonna talk anymore. Save me, Lord. Save me by your grace. Did you
know that's the only way a man and woman can be saved is by
grace alone? I love grace, don't you? I love that it's sovereign. I love that it's accomplishes
its purpose. And it's Lord saved every single
one of his people. He is not going to lose one.
He promised all by his grace. Examining self to seek justification
outside of Christ by the works of the law. is to make yourself
a sinner, that's what it is. It's just to add to the mountain
of sin that we already have stacked up against us. It's not to be
justified, it's to be condemned farther. Nothing more, nothing
less, no matter the work, no matter how sincere the work is.
To seek acceptance with God outside of Christ is to offer yourself
to God. It is literally to discredit the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's to say the blood is not enough. That's what it is. That's how
serious it is. I'm being as clear and as plain as I can be this
morning. This is a very serious matter. It's life and death.
It's eternal. My hope is that the Lord will
allow us, enable us to seek Christ alone for our justification and
never go back to build upon the things which are destroyed by
the God's gospel. Never go back to build upon that.
Turn over with me to Galatians 5. Galatians five, verse one. Stand
fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Now
what do you think he's talking about there? He's talking about
the law, isn't he? That's bondage. Behold, I Paul
say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. If you're being circumcised as
your righteousness or as your justification, and you can put
any work you want to right there. It doesn't have to be circumcision. You can put anything. I go to
church every Sunday. That's part of your righteousness.
Yes, that's self-righteousness. I mean, the flesh desires self-righteousness. It desires self-praise, just
like Cain from the beginning. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to the whole law.
Christ is become, now this is how serious this is. Christ is
become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you are fallen from grace. Can't be both. You can't
have justification of the law and justification of Christ.
It's one or the other. And if you're justified by the law,
you're only condemned. You've been made a sinner. For
we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by
what? Works? No, faith. The faith of
Christ, for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything
or uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. You did
run well. Who did hinder you that you should
not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of
him that calleth you, and here's that verse I quoted earlier,
a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. I have confidence
in you through the Lord that ye will be none otherwise minded,
but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever
he be. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I
yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. He's saying, if I'm preaching
works, the offense of the cross has ceased. I'm not preaching
Christ anymore. I'm not preaching that Christ
is all anymore. Why am I? I wouldn't be persecuted anymore.
I'm being persecuted because I'm saying that salvation is
by God's right and by God's choice, and he alone finished the work
by himself. Our inclusion into that is free
by grace. It's not anything that we do.
We didn't add to it. We can't take away from it. We
didn't build upon it. The Lord finished the work completely. He's saying if I don't preach
it that way, if I say, okay, yes, Christ is all, The blood
really saved God's people from their sin. The Lord was really
satisfied with Jesus Christ to redeem his people, but you have
to do this. Christ has become no effect to
me then. I've become a debtor to the whole law. That's what
he's saying. That's how serious this is. I
would that they were even cut off, which troubled you. I would that they were even cut
off, which trouble you. That's how serious, that's how
serious this matter is, brethren. For brethren, you have been called
into liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,
but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Aren't you glad the Lord gives
his people that love for each other? Everything he requires,
he provides. He's saying here to apply our
works as any part of our righteousness is to be a sinner outside of
Christ before the throne of God. It's to have no justification.
To apply our works to our righteousness in any way, shape, or form is
to be found a sinner before the throne of God. It's to deny the
blood is enough. It's to deny Christ was enough.
It's to deny his work was enough. It's literally a complete denial
of the finished work of Christ. To apply anything you do or do
not is literally to say Christ is not enough. You know what
that is? I wrote this down. That's spiritual suicide. That's
what that is. That's what that is. God forbid, I glory save the
cross and the finished work of Christ. Aren't you glad he put
away the sin of everyone he died for? Aren't you glad he finished
the work? Aren't you glad he didn't leave anything undone?
But he was successful. He accomplished salvation. Now
go back to our text in closing. Verse 18 says, for if, well,
let's read 16 through 18. 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. But if
while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourself also are
found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
For if I build again the thing which I destroyed, I make myself
a transgressor. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
breaks us free of the bondage of the law. Believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ is the gift given freely by grace, the gift
of faith freely by grace. And looking to him, you are one. We're gonna hear this the next
hour, but you're one with him. When he sees you, he sees the
blood. The father sees his son. The
father is well-pleased. The father is not gonna be well-pleased
with my works. Now he said, I'm going to disannul
your covenant. You might've made a covenant with hail and death.
He said, I'm going to disannul your covenant. And whenever the
overwhelming scourge comes, no one's going to be there to help
you. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ destroys the bondage of
the law in two ways. Number one, it rejects the covenant
of works. And I'm saying this in closing,
I'm going to close. Number one, it rejects the covenant
of works for righteousness. That's how it destroys the bondage
of the law. It rejects It rejects the covenant of works for righteousness.
And number two, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as all
your wisdom, all your righteousness, all your sanctification, and
all your redemption is the entire fulfillment of the law. That's
how it destroys the bondage of the law. Those who seek anything
from the law seek their own. They don't seek Christ. They're
looking to themselves and they're in bondage. If you and I are
looking to ourself, We haven't been called out of darkness into
light yet. If we are looking to ourself as our righteousness
or our justification, any part of our salvation, we haven't
been called out of darkness yet. Righteousness by the law, justification
by the flesh, sanctification by works, these are things God's
gospel destroys. God's gospel destroys these things.
They don't exist. They don't exist. The only way
to have favor with God is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. These have been fulfilled. All
the things that I mentioned, righteousness, sanctification,
justification, all of these have been fulfilled in the Lord's
people because of the finished work of our substitute surety, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is all. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take these words and bless it to our understanding
for your glory in Christ's name. Amen. Let's take a break.