Brethren, be sure to remember Sister Devika. She has a surgery coming up. Is it the 4th, Ravi? The 5th? 5th of November. She has a surgery coming up. They're going to try to remove the cancer. And be in prayer for Brother Cyril. He's having some complications with his shoulder after he had that surgery. Remember them before the Lord.

All right, Galatians 2, Galatians chapter 2. I'm gonna just read a little here and make a few comments. Galatians 2, 11. When Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, certain brethren came down with James, Before that, he did eat with the Gentiles, but when they would come, he withdrew and separated himself."

Now, this is the issue. This was an example of self-sanctification, separating oneself. Sanctification is to be separated by God, to be made holy by God. But here, Peter separated himself. fearing them which were of the circumcision, fearing man. He didn't want to lose the praise of James. He didn't want to lose favor with his Jewish brethren by eating with his Gentile brethren. He feared man rather than fearing God. And it says, and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. The simulation means hypocrisy. This was Peter acting as though he kept the law. That's always an act. If we act like we've kept God's law. God requires perfection. This was an act, this was hypocrisy.

Now this happened at Antioch and we see in Peter why we pray that the Lord never take his hand off us. We see an example right here. Because before this, at Jerusalem, they had this same issue, and that's when, you know, we've seen in Acts 15, that's when Peter stood up and he said, brethren, God put no difference between us Jews and these Gentiles. He sanctified their heart. He purified their heart. by faith. He said, why tempt ye God, trying to compel men to go back to the law, to make themselves holy or righteous by the law? That's tempting God, because God's pleased with his son. He will have all to glorify his son. And Peter said, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? He said, well, none of us ever kept this law. But we believe, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, us Jews shall be saved, just like these Gentiles, without our works under the law. Without the law, Christ will save us by his grace. He had said that before.

Now, at Antioch, when James walks up and these other Jewish brethren Peter just quietly gets up from the table with his Gentile brethren, probably was eating pork, both of them forbidden in the law. He gets up and leaves that table and goes and sits down at the table with his Jewish brethren. What was the big deal about that? What was such a issue about that? Look at verse 14. When I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. That was the issue. This was not walking uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. He said, I said unto Peter before them all, if thou being a Jew livest after the manner of Gentiles and not as do the Jews, why compelst thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? Why are you doing this?

Now, we see several things here that was sin, and Paul later is gonna speak here about a believer sinning, and this is the sin he's speaking about here in this context. First of all, Peter feared man and sought man's praise rather than fearing God and seeking to please the Lord. That was the first thing. The second thing was he walked not according to the truth of the gospel. By this act, Peter, in his heart, he left Christ and looked to himself. He went from being under grace and put himself under law. And another offense here is Peter compelled other believers to do the same thing. This was sin. He compelled others to do the same thing. He compelled them to turn from Christ to self. He compelled them to leave grace for the law.

Now, the third or fourth thing this was sinful is it was hypocrisy, dissimulation. It was hypocrisy because Peter had not kept the law and nor have you or I. We've only kept the law in Christ. So when we act as though we have, that we're righteous by our works, that's hypocrisy. Now that's the sin Paul's gonna talk about here a little later. I want you to keep that in mind.

Now here's the point of the message. Our Lord Jesus Christ is both our justification and he is our sanctification. And we're gonna see here, very plainly in this scripture, that that is true. That is true. He justified us at Calvary. He sanctified us at Calvary by one offering, and then he creates a new heart, and Christ is the holiness of that new heart, and that's sanctification. That keeps you looking away from you to him. And we're led the rest of our days by our Lord, keeping us sanctified unto him.

I want to divide this into three things. We'll see first the justification by Christ. Then we're gonna see the sin that's in this passage. Then we're gonna see sanctification by Christ. All right? Justified and sanctified by Christ.

Now first of all, we're justified by the Lord Jesus. I love how Paul begins this in verse 15. He says, we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles. Now, we know in Romans 7, Paul said when he was lost, he was religious, and he said, I thought I had life by the law. He thought he was righteous by keeping the law. And that's the point he's making here. He's saying, Peter, me and you were raised under the law. And we tried to live according to the law. We weren't like these Gentiles. These Gentiles didn't have the law, and they were just heathen, rebellious sinners. We weren't like them. But that didn't make us righteous. We weren't made righteous by anything we did. The Lord came and revealed Christ in our heart. The Lord had to teach us the truth.

And he said, knowing, verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. This is what the Lord teaches us in the gospel, that the Lord Jesus Christ has justified. We're not justified by the works of the law. Now, I tell you this, and I'm adamant about this, King James Translation is the best because it keeps this of and in in the passage, and that's very, very vital. The faith of Christ, he says here, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. That is Christ's faithful obedience to God. That's how all God's elect were justified. by Christ's faithful obedience to God. And when he speaks here of faith in Christ, that's the faith he gives us so that we believe in Christ and trust him for our righteousness.

Look, 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. See why that distinction's so important? We were justified by Christ on the cross when he laid down his life. When he said it is finished, he accomplished justifying his people. And he gives you faith to believe in him and trust him. Let's read it again. 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. and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."

What is justification? Justification is God declaring that his child has no record of sin, past, present, or future. No record. Why? How could that be? Because the Lord Jesus Christ blotted out our sins by His blood. He put our sins away by His blood. To be made righteous is by the obedience of one, by the obedience of the Lord Jesus alone. It's not by the works of the law. Not by the works of the law. In Christ, the Lord's people are righteous. They've been righteous all their life in the past, they've been righteous right now, and they're gonna be righteous all in the future because it's by the faithfulness of Christ. It's by his faithfulness.

Well, what does the law say? Paul said, we know what things the law saith. It saith to them who are under the law. This is what's so insane about a man who claims to believe Christ, wanting to say he's yet under the law, because the law only speaks to them that are under it. And what does it say to them under it? That every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. The law is not given to justify us. If there had been a law given that could have given life, righteousness would have been by the law, but it can't because we're sinners. By the law is the knowledge of sin. That's what it's for. It's like the thermometer. It tells you you have a fever, but the thermometer cannot do anything about your fever. The law tells you you're sick, but it can't make you well. Justification is by the faithful obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, I'm trying to be as simple as I can be. I want to be as clear as I can be. Make anybody understand this in their heart, but I want you to at least be clear about it in your head. I pray the Lord make us all see how important this is.

Here's the second thing. This is so important right here, this second part especially. Verse 17, he said, but if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we profess we're justified by Christ, confess, we follow the Lord in baptism, we're saying we're justified by Christ alone. If while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners. I just showed you what he's talking about. Peter feared man rather than the Lord. He walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. He compelled others to leave Christ for self and the law. and it was all hypocrisy. This he did by leaving that one table and going to the table with his Jewish brethren. It's self-sanctification. If we ourselves are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? Did he minister that? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Go with me to Ephesians 2, just a few, three or four pages to your right. Ephesians 2. What's he talking about if I build again the things which I destroyed? He's talking about if I bring the law back in and my works back in.

Here you go. Hebrews, I mean Ephesians 2. We know the end of Ephesians 1 says, Christ is the head of the church. All things are under his feet. He fills all in all, in his body, in his people. And you hath he quickened. And then we see down in verse 8, by grace are you saved through faith. That's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. He gave you the faith.

Now here's this middle wall he's talking about, verse 14. Christ is our peace, who hath made both Jewish elect and Gentile elect, he's made us both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. That was the law. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. For to make in himself of two one new man, so making peace. and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, he came and he preached peace to you which were far off and to them that were nigh, Jew and Gentile, that he redeemed. He came and preached peace to us, for through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father.

Christ is our peace. He took down the wall. He fulfilled the law for his people. He did it. He did it. He made his elect one in him. And then he came and preached this gospel to us and revealed to us that he's our peace. He's our peace with one another. He's our peace with God because he fulfilled the law. He's our righteousness before the law. That means he justified us and he sanctified us.

Hebrews 10, he said, I come to do thy will, O God. He took away the first covenant that condemned us and he established a new covenant of grace, and it's by his will, by him fulfilling the will of God, that we are sanctified through the one offering of our Lord Jesus Christ. And all those he sanctified by that one offering, he also perfected forever. He justified us before the law forever. Sanctification and justification are all of Christ.

Do we need this message in our day? When Brother Henry Mahan and Brother Scott Richardson were preaching, the big falsehood of the day was Armenian freewill works religion. It was everywhere. And they preached against it. Today, there's something that is more subtle than that and more dangerous than that. It's pretty obvious when a man's preaching freewill works religion. But our Lord spoke of something that would be so subtle that if it were possible, they would deceive the very least. And what that is is, at least one thing that is, is this message that sounds like it is free and sovereign grace, it sounds like it's the gospel of Christ, but when they get to sanctification, they put it in the sinner's hand, they take you back to the law, and they say that holiness, sanctification, is partly of the Lord and partly by you keeping the law.

Now, brethren, that is a lie. That is a damning lie. That is not the gospel. That is not the gospel. Thankfully, they will not deceive God's elect. They will not deceive God's elect.

See, that day, Peter built that wall back up. And he brought the law back in. And he was saying that by him separating himself, he sanctified himself. And he contributed. And by changing that table, by going from the table of the Gentiles to the table of Jews, he sinned, he transgressed. And Christ did not work that in Peter. That was of Peter. That was his sinful flesh that did that.

Look here now, verse 17. 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 the things which I destroyed, I claimed that I'm saved by Christ, justified, sanctified by Christ, that he took down that wall, if I build it back up again, I made myself a transgressor. You get that? You get what he's saying there? That tells you that this message of a sinner contributing to his holiness by the works of the law is not worked by Christ. It is not been ministered by Christ. That is a sinner making himself a transgressor.

Oh, thank God. I found a man preaching this one time, not far from here. I've been searching, searching, searching for somebody or preacher around here that preached the gospel that I could have fellowship with. I found one man and I knew the churches he was in association with. And I thought, they're not going to let him preach this. And I called him up, met him, had lunch with him on a Monday morning, on a Monday, middle of the day. He said, I'm so thankful you called me. He said, I needed some encouragement. He said, the church voted me out yesterday. I knew when I heard it. I thought, this is as clear as I've ever heard it. but they not gonna let him continue, and they didn't. See, that's what the issue was with the Galatians. I know Paul speaks of justification not being of our works, righteousness not being of our works, all through Galatians.

But you can see here, look at Galatians chapter 30. Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth crucified among you? This only would I learn of you. Received you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you now made perfect by the flesh?

See, this whole letter is about the Pharisees' lie that once you believe Christ, now if you're gonna be holy, and grow and be perfected, it's going to be by the works of the law, by you keeping the law. That's the issue here. And that's the issue in our day, brethren.

The Apostle Paul was accused of being lawless. He was accused of being antinomian. Stephen was accused of it. That's why they stoned him to death. Our Lord was accused of it. But you know when Paul was accused, when he was not accused of being antinomian when he preached law when he when he said it men the law contributes they didn't accuse him then they accused him when he declared it's all of Christ and that's what they say of us they call us antinomian anti-law they say we preach licentious doctrine that'll lead men to sin you know what that's saying What Paul says, that's saying Christ is the minister of sin.

To say that the doctrine that glorifies Christ as being righteousness and sanctification for his people, to say that that preaching will make a man live in sin, that grace may abound and be lost since. That's saying Christ ministered a doctrine to us that is sin. That's accusing him of doing that, to say that. And it's sin to turn from Christ back to the law to try to sanctify ourselves. That's the sin.

How many times have you heard that? Oh, you can't preach that. Folks will live like they want to. Well, God forbid somebody live like they want to. Don't you want to live like you want to? We want to live under Christ. We want to be perfect before Christ. I want to live like I want to. I want to come here and worship him. I want for him to have the glory. I want to be found only in Christ. Why? Because he did all this work in me, sanctifying me, making me have a new heart to see he's all and quit trusting myself.

We do live like we want to. Well, we'd love to live without sin, but we can't right now. We'd like to not have this sinful flesh. One day we won't. but right now we do. But no, this message does not make us want to sin. I love that. I found this statement from an old, old bulletin that Paul Mahan put out, and it's something he said years ago, and I can't remember if I put it in this bulletin or last week, but he said, let's see if I can get this right. When the Lord saves you, the gospel no more makes you want to live in sin. than a man who's been made well from his sickness wants to get sick again. I'm paraphrasing, but something like that.

The gospel doesn't make you want to live in sin, it makes you want to live without sin. So how do we live? How are we sanctified? We're justified by Christ, how are we sanctified? Go with me now to Galatians 2.19. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God, I am crucified with Christ. This is the only way a sinner can live unto God. The Lord has to teach us this, but if you're trying, if you call it living unto God by trying to live unto the law and keep the law, you're not living unto God.

That statement's going on. They'll probably use that one. No, you're not living unto God if you're still trying to live unto the law. You can't live unto God until you're made to know that you are dead in Christ, crucified in Christ, that the law has nothing else to say to you. You have no sin, past, present, or future, only perfect righteousness in Christ. When the Lord makes you know that, that's when you'll start living to God. That's the only way we can.

Because you see, when I'm trying to keep the law, I'm not keeping it. You gotta be perfect. It's not a halfway attempt. It's gotta be perfect. And that's not, as long as you're looking partly to yourself, partly to your law keeping, you're not living unto God. The Lord has to make us see you're dead to the law. It's never gonna condemn you again. When he does that, that's what the Hebrew letter's all about. When he does that, he makes you know there's no more offering for sin. Where remission of sin is, there's no more offering.

Now you have boldness. to come to God, holy God, because you have Christ as your high priest, you have the blood of Christ that birthed you, you have him as the new and living way, your body's been washed with pure water, you have a new heart, a new spirit and faith, and you come to him in the full assurance of faith. Now you can live to God, because you were justified by Christ. How did that happen, though? How were we given a new holy heart and sanctified, and how are we kept sanctified and kept living unto the Lord? Right here. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And 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.

Brethren, it's not as if we were in Christ. We were in Christ. It's not as if I was crucified with Christ, I was crucified with Christ. Just like Levi was in the loins of Abraham, and when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek. We were in Christ by divine election, and when he was crucified, we were crucified.

Impute, reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but allow them to God. And the only way you know this is because Christ came, and entered in, and by His Spirit created a new holy heart in you. And when you have been sanctified by Christ, He turns you from you, He turns you from your works, He turns you to look only to Him, to believe Him, to trust Him.

The same one who laid down His life for us, who gave Himself for us and justified us, He is our sanctifier and our sanctification. When he enters into the sinner, you begin to live by Christ. And from that day forward, you're kept separated from yourself, from your sin nature, from your vain works, from this world. You're kept separated unto Christ by Christ. And he does it through this gospel.

Let me illustrate that. If you came in here today and you had In your thoughts, you were thinking, and we're apt to do this as believers, start thinking, well, I'm gonna have to contribute. I need to do something. I need to be keeping the law better, or this or that. And you start wavering like Peter did here. The Lord sent this message. I trust he sent this message today. And through the gospel, He's correcting that notion, if that's what you have, and he corrects that in you, and makes you to know in your heart, no, I'm justified in Christ, and I'm sanctified in Christ. He makes you know that, so that you leave that notion alone, for a while anyway, maybe I have to teach you again. But that's an example, and he does this for anything we need to be instructed in, for any way that we need to be taught.

I don't know what it is. No other preacher knows what the brethren he ministered to, he doesn't know what they need. He's just going verse by verse what the Lord's given him to preach, and we come and we preach what the Lord's given us. And through that, and this is the amazing thing of our Lord, there may be four, five, six different things that the people need, and from the same message of Christ named crucified, the Lord's able to meet that need in each one of his people. And the answer is always the same, he turns you back to him. And this is how he makes us live to him and keep being separated unto him, is through this gospel, he keeps ministering into your heart and keeping you looking only to him.

That's true sanctification, true sanctification. is not you start looking at yourself and how far you've come and how far you've got to go. That's just more of the same old sin we came out of, even worse than what we were in before we even were religious. No, true sanctification is the Lord making you cease looking to yourself for anything. It's making you look to him and live to him. And he does that. That's what he says there. I live. But when he does this, you don't even take credit for anything, not even the fact that you believe, not even the fact you have spiritual life. I live, yet not I. I can't glory in the fact I have spiritual life or that I believe or that I've done anything. I live, yet not I. Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in this old sinful body of death, I live. He doesn't say by faith in Christ. I live by Christ's faithfulness to me. His faithfulness in keeping me looking only to Him. That's how we walk by faith. Christ keeps you walking by faith. He keeps you walking by faith.

All right, now, I'm gonna end with this. Why is it such an offense to God if while we claim that we're justified by Christ, we try to sanctify ourselves by our works. Why is that such an offense to God? Look at verse 21. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. That's what every self-sanctifier is saying. Christ is not enough. His death is in vain. I don't want to be found charged with that. Do you, brethren? I want to be in Christ. I want to rest in Him for my justification and my sanctification. If it's depending on you, if that's the heart that a man has, he's saying, Christ died in vain. That's why it's offense to God. That's why it's an offense to God. That's why it's an offense to the Lord's people. You're saying our Savior, you're speaking bad against our Savior. No, it's all Christ. I pray the Lord bless that, brethren. All right, Brother Adam.