Ah, what great reason we have
for rejoicing. I want us to read from Romans
chapter 7 tonight. Romans chapter 7. Our Lord is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. The law's been silenced. There's
no accusation, no condemnation, no judgment. He has satisfied
its every demand. The evidence of our salvation
is not our good works. The evidence of our salvation
is faith. That's the only evidence. Faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Trusting Him for all our righteousness. Romans chapter 7, Paul says,
Know ye not, brethren, how prone we are to lose sight of this? For I speak to them that know
the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as
he liveth. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband as long as he liveth. But if
the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband."
I'm so thankful to be loosed from that abusive husband. Every
day, never able to satisfy him, never able to measure up to his
demands, always accusing and threatening one day to kill you. And now we've been We've been
divorced from that husband. Well, that husband's been put
to death. We're dead to the law. The law's
dead to us. So then if while her husband
liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress.
But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that
she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man."
He's not talking about marriage. He's talking about the law. He's
talking about the gospel here. We're separated. We're dead to
that old husband. Wherefore, my brethren, here's
the point, you also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ that you should be married to another, even to him who is
raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto
God. Fruit of our lips, the rejoicing and thanksgiving of our heart
for his accomplished work. for when we were in the flesh
the motions of sin which were by the law the law is the strength
of sin did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death
but now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein
we were held that we should serve in newness of spirit not in the
oldness of the letter we walk by faith now not by sight. 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." I didn't know I was a sinner. And the law came, sin revived,
and I died. For I was alive without the law
once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
And the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be
unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the
law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made
death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it
might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good,
that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin. Still that way. But that which I do, I allow
not. And that which I would, that
do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If
then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that
it is good. Now then, it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Sin dwells in our flesh. Our new nature, the new man,
is perfect in Christ. The old man, still nothing but
sin. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. I would
be perfectly sinless if I could. For the good that I would I do
not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that
which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members, O wretched man that
I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord, so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God,
with the new man, but with the flesh, My flesh is, every time
I look at my flesh, I don't see it getting any better. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. Who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. What is it to walk after the
Spirit? What is it to walk after the Spirit? Is it to not have
any fleshly desires? That's it. I don't walk by the
Spirit. To walk by the Spirit is to trust the Lord Jesus Christ
for all your righteousness. That's what it is. It's to look
to Christ. Some of you know Mary Bell. They
called the family in yesterday and didn't expect her to to be
with us much more than a couple hours, and she's still here.
And she's only breathing once every couple of minutes, and
just very, very difficult for Donnie and the family. So I thought
maybe I'd hear something before service tonight, but I didn't.
So Michael, thank you for Sunday. And Robert just brought a marvelous
message, and I'm just so grateful. So grateful. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're so very thankful that we have
Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, who is seated at the right hand
of the Majesty on High. who is our righteousness we thank
you that because of his death the law has no more claim on
your people we pray lord that you would cause us now in this
hour to walk by the spirit to find our hope our life all our
salvation and all our satisfaction in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
pray for Donnie and for our brethren in Crossville, and we ask, Lord,
that you would comfort their hearts as they wait and watch. Lord, we pray that you would
be merciful to them, and we ask that you would take Mary home
to be with you quickly. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Mike Walker wanted you to know
that he's looking forward to being here with us in February. It was a real joy to have some
time with him and Sandy and Brethren of Crossville, I mean Cottageville,
and they send their love to you. We had a good meeting this weekend. Thank you for your prayers. Will you open your Bibles with
me to the second chapter of Galatians, Galatians chapter 2, and I want
to begin with the last verse in that chapter. I've titled this message, Do
Not Frustrate the Grace of God. Do not frustrate the grace of
God. Paul said, I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. The mystery of the gospel, the
offense of the cross, the truth that sets believers free has
everything to do with law and grace the more we understand the gospel
The more the Lord is pleased to increase our faith, the more
we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
clearer the contrast is in our hearts and minds between law
and grace. The more we struggle with sin, the more we vacillate in our
experience between faith and fear. The more we become engaged
with our enemy in spiritual warfare, the more we see that the problem
lies in the distinction between law and grace. The more I try to preach the
gospel, The more we try to declare and
define the truth of the gospel, the more we find ourselves sharing
the gospel with our friends and family members, the more we see
how hard it is for men to see the difference between law and
grace. We know that we're not under
the law. And yet, there's something in
us that's addicted to the law, like a drug that we can never
get completely free of. It intoxicates the flesh, and
it puts our souls in a spiritual stupor when we're drawn to the
law. like an abused woman attracted
to an unreasonably harsh abusive husband we find ourselves somehow
like a moth to the flame drawn back to the law we are recovering
Pharisees and it is the reason why we need to keep hearing the
gospel to deliver us from the bondage of the law The very next
verse in our text, Galatians chapter 3 verse 1, O foolish
Galatians, who hath bewitched you? How easily bewitched we
are. How easy it is for us to evaluate ourselves by our performance
and by our behavior and try to get works-based assurance of
salvation. We're just drawn to it, aren't
we? The only liberty, the only freedom,
the only power over sin that there is, is found in the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's found in the fact that God
has satisfied the demands of the law in the perfect obedience
of our substitute, that we have a Savior. who intercedes on our
behalf, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. We can never, ever make
grace free enough. And there's something in us that
resists the freedom of grace, isn't there? There's something
in our flesh that hangs on to this world. We were talking about
this before the service and I was saying, I've seen it happen many,
many times over the years. It's just hard for the body to
turn loose from this world. And you contrast that to what
the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross when he gave
his spirit permission to depart from his body. He was in complete
control over everything. We can't even die right. He did. He lived right, he died
right, and he's the only hope of life that we have before God. And Paul says here, I do not
frustrate the grace of God. Now we use that word frustrate
to express frustration when things aren't going the way we want
them to go. But in fact, it's the same word translated void
in the scriptures. It means to be empty. We don't
empty the grace of God by going back to the law. In other words,
it's not a matter of, this matter of law and grace is not a point
of degrees where we frustrate grace with a little bit of law.
No, what he's saying here is that it's either all of grace
or all of law. If it is of grace, it can no
longer be of works, otherwise grace is not grace. You cannot mix the two. We're
either saved by grace or we're saved by the law. When Paul said,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, what he's saying is,
I do not empty out the power of God's grace by going back
to the law. Look in chapter 3 at verse 15. Brethren, I speak after the manner
of men. He's going to use an example
of natural things to illustrate the gospel. And you know, the
more I study this book, the more I realize that on every page,
yes, is the Lord Jesus Christ, but He's there to show the distinction
between law and grace. Those are the two messages of
salvation. It's the two ways of life. It
describes the only two avenues that there are. And look what
Paul says in verse 15, Brethren, I speak after the manner of men,
though it be but a man's covenant. He's talking about a will, a
last will and testament, a testament. And so he says in human testaments,
in human covenants, in human wills, He says, Yet if it be
confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. You see the
word disannulleth? It's the same word for frustrate
in our text in verse 31, 21 of chapter 2, and it's the same
word translated void. I was talking to a brother this
past weekend, and I asked him about his his family and his
children, and I asked him about some property that he had showed
me some years ago, and he said, yeah, he said, I drew up my will,
and I divided up the property among the kids, and I put in
the will that if any of my children contest this will and my decision
that I've made as to who gets what, then they are cut out of
all inheritance. He said, when I die, I don't
want my kids fighting over my property. And I just put it in
there. If any of them contest it, they
forfeit all their inheritance. It can't be contested. And that's
what he's saying here. He said, when a person makes
a last will and testament, it can't be disannulled. When at
the death of the testator, the property has to be divided up
exactly like the testator said it would be. And there's no disannulling
of it. There's no making it void. There's
no changing it. There's no frustrating it. And
so it is with law and grace. Paul said, I do not frustrate
the grace of God. You can't mix law and grace.
One is made void by the other. Either you are under the law
or you are under grace. And it's the message of God's
free grace in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
that delivers us from the law. How is it that men frustrate
the grace of God? Well, he says right here, for
if righteousness come by the law, then Christ has died in
vain. If we're going to achieve any
righteousness, if the hope of our salvation or the proof of
our salvation, we're talking about justification and sanctification. Had a man tell me recently, this
weekend, he said he heard someone that you would recognize if I
gave you his name, and he said he was teaching that, well, I'll
just tell you who it was. It was R.C. Sproul. He knew that
I knew him, and he said he was teaching recently that Romans
chapter seven was Paul's experience before his conversion. He said,
where does he get that from? He said, well, he's never had
the experience that Paul had and that every other believer
has with the two natures. And if you believe in progressive
sanctification, then you would conclude that Romans chapter
7 was Paul's experience before he was converted. Certainly it
wasn't. Looking to the law for their
righteousness, Making vain or empty the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, for Paul to make the statement
that he made in verse 21, let's go back to verse 12 and see what
brought this conclusion about. He says in verse 12, for before
that certain came from James, speaking of Peter, well let's
just go back to verse 11. But when Peter was come to Antioch,
I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Now here's Peter. This is the one that denied the
Lord. This is the one that the Lord
told, Satan has asked to have you that he might sift you like
wheat. But I've prayed for you that
your faith fail not. And when you are converted, what
did he say? Strengthen the brethren. And
Peter did. Peter, but like you and like
me, there's just something in our flesh that's going to be
drawn back to the law. And that's exactly what Peter
did here. He did exactly the same thing here in Antioch that
he did the night before our Lord was crucified. He denied Christ. For before that certain came
from James, he did eat with the Gentiles. So Peter was hanging
out in Antioch with the Gentiles. You know, I'm sure he was eating
Gentile food and enjoying the fellowship of these
Gentile brethren. And there were some Jews that
came up from Jerusalem, James being one of them, who still
had some grave clothes in their closet. They still had some prejudice
in their hearts toward the Gentiles. And when James shows up, Peter
becomes intimidated by the Jews that came up from Jerusalem,
and he gets up from the table of the Gentiles and goes over
and sits with the Jews. And in doing so, he denied the
gospel. 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 that were
of the circumcision. Oh, isn't that always the case?
We're going to fear God or we're going to fear men, aren't we?
It's one way or the other. It's like long grace. It's just
going to be one way or the other. And the other Jews dissembled
likewise with him. Peter was a leader. This was
a grievous sin that Peter committed. Not only did it compromise the
gospel, but it led astray other believers, thinking, well, if
Peter's taking this position, then it must be the right thing
to do. And so this word, dissembled, means hypocrite. It's the same
word translated hypocrisy in the scriptures. And the other Jews dissembled
likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away
with their dissimilation. Barnabas was carried away with
their hypocrisy. And that's all it is. When you
act as if, well, I'm better, or I'm keeping this law or that
law, or I'm separated from that person, it's just hypocrisy. and it's going back to the law
and it's denying Christ his glory and salvation but when I saw
that they walk not uprightly according to the truth of the
gospel Peter you're you're putting some
leaven in and a little leaven leavens the whole lump this is
a serious matter it's a very serious matter you say well he
just felt more at home with the Jews than with the Gentiles no
No, when he separated himself from the Gentiles, he turned
his back on them. I don't have anything to do with
them, those unclean Gentiles. I'm better than that. I said unto Peter before them
all, if thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles,
and not as do the Jews, why compelst thou the Gentiles to live as
do the Jews? Peter, before we got here, you
were fellowshipping with the Gentiles, had no problem with
it. Now that the Jews have showed up, what you're saying is that
the Gentiles have to become like the Jews in order to be acceptable
before God. They've got to somehow, they've
got to be circumcised, they've got to follow the Jewish rites
and rituals and customs. Putting the Gentiles under the
law. We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles
It wasn't suggesting that the Jews weren't sinners, that was
just a term that was used to describe the Gentiles. Knowing that a man is not justified,
he's not justified before God by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ. Here's the gospel. I've just
got to hear this. I've got to hear it. I can't
tell you how many times I take a look at my life and I think,
well, I've got to do something. I've got to fix something. I've
got to make something better. I've got to stop something. I've
got to start something. I've got to improve this. And as soon as we do that, The law is the strength of sin. As soon as we go back to the
law to try to monitor or motivate our faith by what we do or don't
do, all it does is just strengthen sin. It strengthens sin. Makes us more self-righteous.
Makes us more prone to sin. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. The purpose of the law is to
make sin utterly sinful. And the scripture says that the
strength of sin is the law. You got that? Hear that? The
strength of sin is the law. As soon as we go back to the
law, all we've done is reinforced and encouraged our sinful behavior. The law doesn't curb sin. It doesn't restrain it. It feeds it. It feeds it. Grace is the only thing, the
only thing that has any power at all over our flesh and over
our old man. It's the finished work. It's
what the Lord Jesus Christ did when He redeemed us on Calvary's
cross by His shed blood. When He presented Himself before
God as our righteousness. It's the only reason for joy.
The only reason for hope. It's the only thing that motivates
us at all. The law just inspires sin and
aggravates sin. I'll just try harder. Paul said in Romans, sin shall
not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law. In other words, the only thing
that breaks the dominion of sin, this sin nature is what causes
us to try to put our hands to our salvation. You don't understand,
that's the real sin. We're not talking about just
the passions of the flesh and all the weaknesses that we experience. I'm talking about the greatest
sin of all, the mother of all sins. The one sin that causes
every other problem in our life. You know what it is. The sin
that does so easily beset us. It's the sin of unbelief. It's
the sin of not trusting Christ alone for all our salvation. It's the sin of trying to put
our hand to the work of salvation. That's it. And the only thing
that'll break that is the grace of God. The preaching of the
gospel. the revelation of the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. A man is not justified, verse
16, 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. Now, justification has to do
with our salvation, it has to do with our sanctification, it
has to do with everything. To be justified before God. To
be able to stand in the presence of God completely without sin. That's the only way we can do
it. It's only going to be by the
faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Not by your faith. Not by my
faith. 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? We're seeking to have our justification
before God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and in doing so, we find sin in our own lives. Is he the author
of that sin? God forbid. No. For if I build
again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
If I'm going back to the law, this is the sin. If I'm going
back to the law, then I'm making myself, I'm building back up
what's already been tore down. And I make myself a transgressor.
For I, through the law, am dead to the law that I might live
unto God. We just read that in Romans chapter
7. Before the law came, I was alive. I thought everything was
fine. But the law came and I died. Through the law, the law killed
me. But it also made me dead to the
law. My new man, he's not under the
law. My old man, he's dead to the
law. Verse 20, For I am crucified with Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ hung
as my substitute on Calvary's cross, I was in Him. All His people were in Him. And
they were all put to death in Him. Paul said, here's my hope. Here's my hope that I'm crucified
with Christ. That God has punished my flesh. He's satisfied all that old man. He's put him to death. The only
life that I have now, I have in the new man. In the person
of Christ. He's my life. And that's what
he says. He says, nevertheless I live. I am alive. I was crucified,
but I'm alive. Here's the mystery of the gospel,
isn't it? Here's the glorious contrast between law and grace. We don't live by the law, yet
not I. But Christ liveth in me. Christ
is my life. The life which I now live in
the flesh, I live in this body, in this world, I live by the
faith of the Son of God, by His faithfulness, what He's done, who loved me and gave Himself
for me. Paul said in Romans chapter 6
verse 6, knowing this that our old man was crucified with him
that the body of sin might be destroyed. Now what is the body
of sin? Is it the sinful thoughts and
attitudes and actions that we're so prone to in this body? Is that the body? No. No, what
was destroyed is our salvation by works. The body of sin is
the body of Moses. That's the body of the law. That's
what was destroyed when Christ died. That henceforth we should not
serve sin. We're not to serve the law. Not
to be under the law. Not to be intimidated by the
law. We ought not to go back to the law to try to find our
motivation and for our assurance. We don't preach the law. You've seen this thing going
on in Texas, you know, where these preachers in churches are
all standing up because they're being persecuted for taking a
stand against this sin or that sin. You know, we're not to preach
against sins. We don't do that. As soon as you preach against
a sin, all you do is you promote yourself as not being guilty
of that sin, and you encourage people who are not engaged in
that particular lifestyle to be self-righteous, and you just
anger those people who are. That's not the problem. It's not our place to stand in
judgment of the world. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 5. Verse 8, Therefore let us keep
the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth. The unleavened bread. What is
unleavened bread? What did Peter do? He leavened
the bread, didn't he? He compromised the gospel. And
he was brought to to see that and to repent of it but nevertheless
he did it and by bringing the works of the law back in to the
equation and so he said, well the Lord told us, he said beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees and the disciples thought that
he was talking about the fact that they didn't have enough
bread with them and he told them, he said no that's not what I'm
talking about The leaven of the Pharisees is their lawmongering. It's their attempt to find justification
before God through their keeping of the law. Beware of that leaven. And now Paul's telling us here,
keep the feast, not with the old leaven of the law, but with
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. When I'm sincere,
then I confess before men and before God that in me that is
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing and I'm sincere before
God that the Lord Jesus Christ is my only hope of truth and
my only hope of life my only hope of righteousness I wrote unto you in the epistle
not to company with fornicators this goes back to what's going
on in Texas right now yet not all together with the fornicators
of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters,
for then you must go out of the world. If you're going to break
off fellowship or any kind of interaction with worldly people
because they're acting worldly, then you're just going to have
to build yourself a commune and put a wall around it and separate
yourself. There are people that do that.
We'll just insulate ourselves from the evils of the world.
And the Lord said here, that's not what I was talking about.
You'd have to separate yourself completely from the world to
do that. But now I have written unto you
not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a
fornicator, a covetous, or idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or
an extortioner, or with any such one do not eat. In other words,
if there's If there's that sort of thing being practiced in the
life of a person who confesses to be a believer, then we've
got a problem. We've got something that needs to be dealt with.
But what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do
not you judge them that are within? But them that are without, God
judgeth. Therefore, put away from among you yourselves that
wicked person. I love what The Lord told us
in Galatians chapter 6 verse 1 when He said, Brethren, if
any man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, you
which don't happen to be caught up in that fault at that time,
restore such a one. Restore him with meekness. Restore him gently, considering
thyself Lest you also be tempted, knowing
that these things are delicate subjects. Why? Because we know the proneness
of our own flesh. We know what we're capable of. Let's go back to our text in
Galatians. Now in light of everything that
Paul said from verse 12 down through verse 20, he concludes
by saying, I do not frustrate the grace of God. I do not make
void the grace of God. I do not empty of it its power,
for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ has died
in vain." The Lord Jesus Christ offered
himself up to the Father on behalf of his people in order to establish
a righteousness. that we couldn't have, we couldn't
earn, we couldn't achieve. Turn with me to Romans chapter
4 and I'll conclude. Romans chapter 4. Verse 1, What shall we say then
that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found? For
if Abraham were justified by works, then he hath whereof to
glory, but not before God. Men glory in their works, but
not before God. No, the believer always knows
What the psalmist wrote in Psalm 115, not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto thy name be glory for thy mercy and for thy
truth's sake. Lord, it's not about us. Our
salvation is not about us. We don't get any of the glory.
We didn't do anything. We didn't satisfy God's righteousness
and we still don't. Paul said, I live, yet it's not
I, but it's Christ that liveth in me. If there's any restraining
of sin in my life, it's because of the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's not because of my commitment
or my determination or my will. He gets all the glory. He gets all the glory for having
saved me. He gets all the glory for sanctifying
me and keeping me. For what saith the Scriptures,
Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for
righteousness." Faith is the only evidence of
salvation. Oh brethren, stand fast. Stand fast in the liberty with
which Christ has made you free and be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage. Don't frustrate the grace of
God. Don't empty it of its power.
It's the only hope we have. The grace of God in the finished
work of Christ is the only hope we have. It's the only hope we
have for the eternal salvation of our soul. It's the only hope
we have for any hope and happiness and joy and contentment. It's
the only hope we have for any power over sin. It's the gospel
of God's free grace in the accomplished, finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is our... This gospel, it's just everything
to us. It's everything. Christ the Lord can never be
exalted high enough. And you and I can never ever
be made low enough. And grace can never be preached
free enough. It just can't be. It's all of grace. It's all of
grace. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that
You would work grace in our hearts, causing us to cry on the Father, causing us to find our hope and
our trust and our righteousness and our sanctification, our holiness,
all in Christ. Lord, we pray that you would
continue to assure us by the work of Christ that our sin,
the sin of unbelief, the sin of being attracted to the law
and being drawn away from Christ,
has been put to death. Lord, that we have the hope of
eternal life only in Christ. We ask it in His name, Amen. Number 42 in the Psalm, let's
stand together.