Now there was a lie that was being
taught to the Galatians. And this lie was that sanctification,
holiness, is by the works of the law. And once you're justified,
believing on Christ, you trust Christ for your justification,
that then you're made holy, pure, sanctified by the works of the
law. That's what Paul's dealing with
throughout the book. If you look down at the end of
Galatians 2, he talks there in verse 16, He says, knowing that
a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ, even we've believed in Jesus Christ. This was not the thing that the
Judaizers were objecting to, justification by faith. He said,
we know that. But, he said, verse 17, if while
we seek to be justified by Christ, We ourselves are also found sinners,
turning back to the law, compelling by force and living by law. He said, did Christ minister
that? Verse 18, for if I build again the things which I destroyed,
I make myself a transgressor. Here's grace. I, through the
law, am dead to the law. In every way, dead to the law. completely dead to the law, that
I might live unto God. I think the best way that's put
in the Scriptures is when Paul said to the Colossians, if you're
risen with Christ, set your affection on things above. That's where
your life is. It's in Christ. When He returns,
you'll appear with Him in glory. So treat this body like what
it is, dead. Mortify it. It has been crucified. It is crucified by Christ on
the cross and by Christ in you. Treat it like it's dead. It's
not contributing anything. It's not taking away from anything.
Our life is Christ. Our life is Christ. Then look again, you see in Galatians
3, he talks about it again. This only would have learned
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? You're now going to turn back to the law. Look down at
verse 23, Galatians 3.23. Before faith came, we were kept
under the law. Shut up unto the faith which
should afterwards be revealed. Before faith came, we were under
the law, shut up until the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that
we might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come,
after that we are justified by Christ through faith, we're no
longer under the schoolmaster. See, he's dealing with what happens
after you've been brought to faith in Christ. He says, for
you're all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Children
as opposed to servants. Slaves in bondage. Free children. He talks in Galatians 4 there,
he gives that illustration about the heir as long as he's a child,
he's like a servant. He's under tutors and governors
and he's like a servant. Not a free child, he's like a
servant in bondage. But then when he grows up, and
he becomes the son and the heir of everything. And he says, that's
what happened to us. He said, the Lord sent the spirit
because you were sons. And he says in verse seven, wherefore
you're no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an
heir of God through Christ. Now watch this, how be it then
when you knew not God, You did service, you were slaves unto
them which are by nature no gods. You were living unto something
else besides God. But now, after that you've known
God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak
and beggarly elements? You see, he's talking about sanctification
here. He's talking about going back
to the law for holiness and living by law. You desire again to be
in bondage. You deserve days and months and
times and years. I'm afraid of you, lest I bestowed
upon you labor in vain. Why then does he speak of not
being justified by the law if he's warning us about the impossibility
of being sanctified by law? Why does he speak so much in
this epistle about not being justified by law if what he's
talking about is being sanctified, not being sanctified by law?
It's because if we try to be sanctified by law, Christ is
not going to profit us in justification either. It's got to be all Christ
or nothing. Look here in Galatians 5.1. He says, Stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. You're talking
about a believer brought to faith, freed from the law, redeemed
from the law. He says, Now if that's really
so with you, Don't go back to the bondage of the law. Don't
be entangled again with it. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that
if you be circumcised, and this is what they were saying for
purification. They were saying this to make
you pure, to make you holy. You gotta live under the law.
He said if you do that, Christ will profit you nothing. He won't
profit you in justification or sanctification. Verse six, for
in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision. It's not the law. Being under
it or not under it, that's not what avails. But faith which
worketh by love. So now back in our text in Galatians
two, and these, he gives two accounts here in chapter two. Something that happened at, at,
at, Jerusalem and then something that happened at Antioch. And I think, you know, people
talk about, well, it's an unfortunate division, but I believe the translators
did a good job dividing it here because this whole chapter two
goes together. It goes together. He'd given
these accounts of something that took place at Jerusalem and something
that took place at Antioch, and in the process of that, he's
contrasting what it is to walk under the rule of Christ to walk
by faith, which works by love, contrasting that with what it
is to walk by law. And he sums it all up at the
end of the chapter with the message that he has about that. Now let's
just look at this a little bit. Grace is led of the Spirit. Grace is to be led of the Spirit.
not to be led by the flesh, not to be led by anything, led of
the Spirit. He begins there in verse one,
he says, then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem
with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me, and I went up by revelation. Went by revelation. We saw Thursday,
last Thursday, when Paul, he was so wrapped up in religion,
and what was it that turned him to Christ and made him start
obeying and following Christ. It was a revelation of Christ.
He made obedient by revelation. Well, he didn't stop being obedient
by revelation. Now he says, and I went to Jerusalem
by revelation. led of the Spirit of God. He
said later in this epistle, if you're led of the Spirit, you're
not under the law. We can't be live unto God and
be led of the Spirit and live unto the law and be led of our
flesh or led of Moses. It can't be both. It's got to
be one or the other. The Pharisees came down from Jerusalem. They
came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, but they came by the flesh. They
came by the flesh. Paul said, I went up to Jerusalem
by revelation. They came down led of the flesh.
I went up to Jerusalem led of the Spirit. Christ moved the
church at Antioch to say to Paul, now go to Jerusalem. But Paul
said, I didn't go being compelled by men. I didn't go just doing
this of my own flesh and my own will. I was led up by revelation. I was being led by Christ. That's what it is to be under
grace rather than laws, to be led of the spirit of Christ. What had happened? What had happened? You know those work mongers came
down to Antioch and they came down by the flesh, they came
down to promote the law, they came down to say to believers
that now it's alright that you believe don't Christ and you
claim you justified by Christ but now to be purified you have
to be circumcised. And Paul said Paul said, that's
not how I came to Jerusalem, I came of the Spirit. This is
what he's saying, look at Galatians 2.19. I'm gonna repeat this a
lot because I want you to see this. This is the point he's
making. I threw the law, I'm dead to the law. That's not what
moved me. I live unto God. That's how I
was led to Jerusalem. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. That's how come I do what I do.
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
went to Jerusalem because Christ was working in me both the will
and do of his good pleasure. That's to be under the law, I
mean to be under grace. And then look at this now, grace
has just one weapon. Grace doesn't resort to force
and coercion and different methods. Grace uses the gospel of Christ. The same message by which we
were called is the message grace is going to use. Look here, he
said verse 2, I went up by revelation and I communicated unto them
that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. but privately to
them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run
or had run in vain. Grace makes us walk by faith
and work by love. And that's what Paul's doing
here. He knew that the Judaizers came from Jerusalem. You think
of the grace here. He knew those Judaizers came
down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And he knew that there were still
some at Jerusalem. And so he wants to know, he wants
to know, he knows the gospel. He's not, he's been, Christ revealed
himself to him. He knows the gospel. He's going
up a revelation. He wants to know if these apostles
and elders at Jerusalem have been led astray. He wants to
know are they, has this lie, has it taken hold with them?
He wants to know that. And so, He gave honor where honor
was due. He wasn't trying to compel by
force. He wasn't trying to go up and
just create a division or anything like that. He went by grace and
he went to these elders and had a meeting with them and preached
to them the gospel he preached at Jerusalem, I mean, to the
Gentiles. He wanted to see if they were
preaching the truth or if they were, if the legalist lie had
got a hold with them. And so he went to, them first. That was gracious to do. That
was a loving thing. He wasn't counting them his enemy.
He counted them believers and he didn't want to cause trouble.
He wanted to know if they were preaching the truth or not. And
so he went and the only way to tell that is to preach the gospel. That's going to discern the thoughts
and intents of the heart. So he went up there and he preached
to them. That was gracious. That was loving. That was long-suffering.
That was patient. And the one thing that will discern
it is the gospel. He said, I preach that same gospel
that I preach to the Gentiles. We only have one gospel. We don't
have a gospel for Gentiles and a gospel for Jews. We have one
gospel. And he went and preached that
one gospel to Jew and Gentile. All sinners who God saves are
saved by the same gospel. The message that gives God all
the glory in Christ Jesus. The message that says God first
trusted his elect, his son, his servant, Christ Jesus in eternity.
He chose him and trusted him with the whole work of glorifying
his name in the salvation of a chosen people. That's our message. And he set Christ forth to be
the righteousness of God, by which his people are made righteous.
He set him forth to be the sanctifier and the sanctification of his
people, by which were made holy and made to walk in that state
of holiness. He set him forth as being the
salvation of his people, A to Z. And that's the message he
preached. Like when he told them back in
Acts, he said, He said, by Christ Jesus, we're justified from all
things from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses.
He did it. He did it. And so he preached
that message. And the same message he preached
to those apostles in private, that's the message he preached
to the whole church in public when he went up there. What was
the message? I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might
live unto God. I'm not living to anybody but
God. I'm crucified with Christ. I am dead. The sinner that I
am, the sinner you see right now, this imperfect sinner, he's
not just put away my sins, he has destroyed the very serpent,
the seed. He has destroyed the body of
this death. the whole body of this death.
I am crucified with Christ, and now I live, but it's not I that
live. That's not even of me. Christ
lives in me, and the life I now live, I live by the faith of
Christ working in me. The same one who loved me and
gave himself for me is the one working in me now. He's my gospel. He's my righteousness. He's my
holiness. First of all, grace is led by the Spirit. Grace has
one weapon, has one gospel, and grace does all constrain by Christ,
not by man. Look here in verse three. But
neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled
to be circumcised, and that because of false brethren, unawares brought
in, who came in privileged, despised our liberty, which we have in
Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. Now, the
same sect that went down to Antioch, they now had come to Jerusalem,
back to Jerusalem, and they're at Jerusalem. Go to Acts 15. Let's just see this real quick.
They had come down. This is why Paul went up to Jerusalem
in the first place. Acts 15, verse 1. Certain men which came down from
Judea, They came down to Antioch. They talked to brethren and said,
except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot
be saved. Now these were brethren they
told us to. They said, except you do. This is a necessity.
Before you can be saved, you've got to come under the law. Now
we know you've believed on Christ. You claim you justify. But now
if you're going to be saved, you've got to be circumcised
and keep the law. And when therefore Paul and Barnabas
had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that
Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to
Jerusalem and to the apostles and elders about this question.
So that's what we said there at the first of Galatians 2.
Paul goes up there by revelation, not just because of the church,
but by revelation. And he met with the apostles
and the elders, and he talked about this. But while they're
having this meeting, whether it was in public or in private,
I don't know when it was, but this is what happened. It says
in verse four, when they were come to Jerusalem, they were
received of the church and of the apostles and elders, and
they declared all things that God had done with them. That's
what Paul's messed with, what God has done. Not what I've done,
what God has done. But there rose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was
needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law
of Moses. Now you hold your place there
in Acts 15. We've seen this before, but they profess to be justified
by Christ alone through faith alone. That's what these folks,
these brethren were saying. Just like all believers do, they've
been born of God. They were justified by faith
alone, by Christ alone. And when we say justified by
faith, we don't mean that your faith has some merit in it that
makes you to be justified. Faith just receives the justification
Christ has already accomplished for us. completely purged us
of all sin, completely blotted out all our sins and made us
eternally righteous by his blood, by his obedience. And he says,
but they're saying to them, now after that faith has come, now
they began to compel them. They began to compel them and
say, you need to keep the law of Moses. They said there, it's
needful to circumcise them. And circumcision's important
there because it has to do with defilement. It has to do with
purification. And it's that way that the old
covenant way that they were brought into under the old covenant of
works. It was a child eight days old.
You picture the picture. He's helpless. He can't do anything.
Somebody else circumcises the child. And by that, by something
he didn't do, by something somebody else did, he's brought into a
covenant that he didn't know anything about. He just was brought
into that covenant. Well, that circumcision pictures
the putting away of the sin of our flesh by what Christ did
on the cross in purging us of our sin. And then when he enters
in and circumcises us in the heart, we're helpless. We didn't
do it. He did it. and he purifies us in the heart.
He makes us clean. He creates a new man, Paul said,
in true holiness, as opposed to this fake, phony stuff that
religion talks about as holiness. It's true, there's a new man
created. Now look at what Peter does.
Peter says in verse 9, Acts 15, 9, Peter says, look at verse
eight, he said, God which knows the heart, bear them witness,
giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us, he put no
difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. He could have just said, he circumcised
their heart. That's what circumcision, he
purified them, he made them holy, he sanctified them. And he says,
now therefore, why tempt God? to put a yoke upon the neck of
the disciples? They're under the rule of Christ
now. Christ is their master. He's
living in them now. He's taken up residence in the
heart, in the spirit. He's moving, ruling, directing,
leading, guiding these believers. And you're going to come along
and put a yoke on them? and turn them from Christ to
the law of Moses and turn them from Christ to their flesh and
to their works and to something they do, that's tempting God,
Peter said. Watch this. He said, and at yoke
you're talking about, neither our fathers nor we were able
to bear it. Not then and not now. He said
we couldn't keep the law. Nobody has ever kept the law
but Christ. He's the only one that's ever
kept the law in righteousness. And there's no other way to keep
it. It's not keeping it if it's not kept. He did it. And he said,
you want to put that yoke back on us? You want to tell us now
that we're going to be made pure by living under the law and doing
works under the law? He said, that's tempting God.
But we believe, verse 11, that through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The grace, Him giving everything
freely. Him giving us everything freely
and ruling us graciously. We shall be saved even as they. Us will be saved without law
like the Gentiles who don't have the law and we're never under
it. Us Jew, we're gonna be saved like them. And the multitude
kept silence and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul declaring
what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles
by them. Now go back to Galatians 2 and
we pick up here, but here they are now. They've come up now
to Jerusalem. And they're at Jerusalem when
Peter gets up and he said this to them and said, no, we're purified
by God. He made us holy. We're under
the Christ's rule and dominion. And it says in verse three, Paul
says, neither Titus, who was with me being a Greek, was compelled
to be circumcised. That word compelled is so important.
That's the opposite of grace. Compelled, means by force. They
were trying to force these men to do what they wanted them to
do. And that because these were false brethren, they came in
unaware, they came in privately to spy out our liberty, which
we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage.
To whom we gave place by subjection, not for an hour, that the truth
of the gospel might continue. When Christ makes a believer
holy, Christ makes the believer walk in holiness. He's not motivated
by the compelling of men. It really doesn't matter what
it is you're doing. If you're doing it because you're
compelled by men to do it, it's not faith. If I believe on Christ,
if I confess Christ and profess Christ publicly in believer's
baptism because somebody compelled me to do it, forced me to do
it, you know, did all this finagling to make me feel guilty or whatever
to compel me to do it, I haven't really confessed Christ, if that's
the case. The believer's only motive, his
only constraint is Christ's love and Christ's grace and Christ's
power. That's why his heart's been purified. He's got a new heart. His conscience
has been purged with the blood of Christ. His body's been washed
with pure water. He's been made holy and now he's
under the rule of Christ. Everything else is bondage. I've been talking to some brethren
lately that were in some of these churches and they're telling
me about all of the how they make you become vested to enter
the church. You know, with all these classes
you go through and all these contracts you have to sign and
all the different things you have to do so that you won't
want to leave that church because you spent so much time and did
so much and walked after so many of their rules and regulations
to be a member of that church. It's as bad as hazing in a fraternity
or sorority, really. It's the same principle. And then if you start to leave,
they're going to shame you if you try to leave. And somebody
told me the other day that he was going to leave and the preacher
asked him, well, you're going to have to get up and tell these
brethren why you're leaving. And this is all meant as bondage
to make you not want to leave. And he said, here's what I'm
going to get up and say. I'm going to show where Christ is
a Sabbath. I'm going to show where Christ
is the end of the law of righteousness. I'm going to show where Christ
is our righteousness and our sanctification, that he's our
redemption. And I'm going to say that that's
not what you're preaching. And he said, no, you can't tell
him that. He said, let me write for you what you'll say. I read
what they had drafted they wanted me to say. It basically said
what a great and wonderful and holy bunch of people they were
and what a moron I was for them to leave them. He said, no, I'm
not going to read that. He said, I'll get up and tell
them but I'm going to tell them the truth. That's bondage to try to keep
you there. In between joining it and leaving
it, It's all sorts of works they lay on you and traditions of
the church and the denomination and whatever it is and shaming
you and watching you and just, it's bondage. It's bondage. Those truly sanctified submit
to Christ. They submit to Christ. They're
in subjection to Christ. But those that are in subjection
to Christ, Now we can stumble, we're going to see this here
in just a minute, but Christ is not going to let you fall
away. He's going to keep you in subjection to him. And look,
Paul said, we gave place by subjection. We didn't submit to these men
for an hour that the truth of the gospel might continue with
you. That's why We serve Christ by
Christ living in us, and a believer will lay aside our liberty. We
will lay aside our liberty if it means helping somebody hear
the gospel and not making it so they can't hear it, just like
Paul and Timothy did when they circumcised Timothy. But when
it's compelling men, when you're being compelled by men, when
you're being forced by men, no. Our motive's not man's compelling. Works are not a necessity for
salvation. If that's what's being said,
they're compelling you. It's bondage, the gospel is ceased.
Christ can't be all our righteousness and all our sanctification if
it's a necessity that we add some part to it. It can't be
both, it's gotta be all grace or all works. All Christ or all
us, it can't be a mixture. And that's real, that's so, that's
how it is. Paul said there in verse 18,
if I build again the things which I destroyed, I claim the middle
wall has been taken down. I claim that I'm not under the
law, I'm under grace. I claim that I'm saved entirely
by Christ. I'm justified by Christ. But
if I build that wall back up, if I start compelling or I'm
compelled by men, I'm making myself a transgressor. Because
I, through the law, I'm dead to the law. I'm dead to it. I'm living unto God now. Now,
grace doesn't act by fear of man, only by fear of God. Now
look at this, and I have to go close quickly here. But Paul
says there in verse 6, of these who seem to be somewhat, that
is in reputation, esteem by men, he said, whatsoever they were,
it made no matter to me. God accepteth no man's persons.
For they who seem to be somewhat incompetent, they added nothing
to me. Now look. Think about it. It wasn't that
Paul was being disrespectful, but think of this. At this point,
Paul's known more for persecuting the church than he is for preaching
the gospel. He's been, he hasn't even been
around these folks for the past 17 years since God called him.
He's only seen Peter one time, and it's been 14 years since
he saw him. This is the Apostle Peter. who walked with Christ. This is the Apostle James who
is Christ's half-brother, according to the flesh. This is John, the
beloved Apostle. This is Jude and Silas. These are men who walked with
Christ. They were the popular, famous, well-known preachers
of the day. And here's Paul, unknown. being
run down by the Judaizers and said he's not a real Apostle,
he didn't even live during the day of Christ. And here he comes
up to Jerusalem and to all these saints that
were saints before him and he comes there and what he's saying
is, is though these men were who they were. He's saying, I
didn't do what I did out of a fear of men. I respected their office,
I reverenced Christ who put them there and gave honor to whom
honor was due, but they didn't affect my preaching. And they
didn't add anything to my preaching. They didn't say there was something
I was missing. In fact, what they did is they perceived the
grace of God in Paul. They saw Paul was set on Christ,
and they saw Paul was preaching Christ, and they saw Paul was
not turning sinners back to Moses and to the old covenant, he was
turning them to Christ. He was showing them that the
law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope
did. And this is the covenant, this is the Savior, this is the
master by whom we draw near unto God. And that's what he's teaching
them. And they ended up and they gave
him the right hand of fellowship. They were in full agreement.
You see, but Paul wasn't moved by the fear of man, but then
he shows us another contrast. After they got through with that,
I won't go to Acts 15, but if you read it, after they left
Jerusalem and they got this thing settled, then Jerusalem sent
Jude and Silas down to Antioch. And Paul and Barbas go back to
Antioch. And they all go down there and the church sent a letter
to tell the Gentile believers at Antioch that they weren't
required to be circumcised, they weren't required to come under
the law. They said, there's some Jews that are hearing Moses read
in the Sabbath every week, so if they see you eating meat offered
to idols, or things strangled, or blood, they're gonna be turned
aside, and they won't be able to hear the gospel, so just abstain
from that stuff, just out of being gracious, but they said
that's it. And so they had this big meeting, and they're down
there now at Antioch. And here's Peter. Brethren, I'm
telling you something. We can't look to ourselves to
depend upon ourselves to sanctify ourselves at all. We can't look
to ourselves to make ourselves righteous or holy by what we
do. Because here's Peter who just
stood up and just said, we're going to be saved, us Jews are
going to be saved just like these Gentiles that don't have the
law. I mean, just said this. And now here they are in verse
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,
he did eat with the Gentile. He was enjoying the liberty we
have in Christ. They were washed in the blood
of Christ. They were holy just like he was and he sat there
and ate with them and ate pork or whatever. But when they were
come, when those came from James, he withdrew and he separated
himself. That's bondage. Why did he do
that? It wasn't by revelation. It wasn't
by the Spirit of Christ. It was by the lust of his flesh. It was his old sinful nature.
He feared them which were of the circumcision. He was motivated
by the fear of man, not the fear of God. That's what Paul just
was saying. I was walking by grace and I
wasn't motivated by a fear of man. I didn't do what I did out
of respect to those apostles, as famous as they were, as well-known
as they were. Now here's Peter, one of those
well-known apostles, and he's moving by a fear of man, by peer
pressure. You ever have somebody that's
very influential and has some authority and they make you feel
like if you don't do what they tell you to do, It's going to
be bad, and you just feel uncomfortable, and you go ahead and do what
they... That's what Peter did. And he says, and the other Jews
dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas was carried
away with their dissimilation. They separated themselves in
hypocrisy. That's what it is. And when I
saw that they walk not uprightly according to the truth. When
you think of not being under the law, please don't think that
I'm saying, I'm talking about the letter of the Ten Commandments.
Please don't think that's all I'm talking about. This was law
right here. To do something because another
man made you afraid rather than God. You were more afraid of
what a man would think than what God thinks. That's law. That's
bondage. And that's not walking uprightly
according to the truth of the gospel. And so he said to Peter
before them all, if you're a Jew and you live after the manner
of the Gentiles, every time you're down here at Antioch, you're
living just like the Gentiles are. You're not living by law.
Not as a Jew. Why are you compelling the Gentiles
to live as you do? Just by getting up and walking
over there. He compelled them as real as those Judaizers that
came down and were compelling and saying, you gotta be circumcised
or you can't be saved. Just simply because what he was
doing was from a motive of the fear of man, and what he was
doing was he was building that wall up again and saying the
law really does make us different from them. And he was saying,
really, y'all really aren't believers. We're holier than you are. That
was flesh, that was the lust of the flesh. That wasn't grace.
Peter separated himself, it wasn't sanctification of the spirit.
The motive was fear of man, not reverence for God, not love for
Christ. Peter was compelled by brethren
to bondage, to law, not to liberty, not to grace. He didn't compel
his brethren to go to Christ, he compelled them to go away
from Christ. He didn't compel them to liberty,
he compelled them to bondage. He didn't compel them to unity,
he compelled them to division. And that was the result. It was
a lie, not the truth. Now listen to the argument Paul
gives. It's the very argument Peter just gave the Pharisees.
He says, we who are Jews by nature, you and I who had the law and
had all this advantage, and we were not sinners like those Gentiles.
I bet Peter is hearing what he just got through saying. just
got through saying, we Jews are gonna be saved like those Gentiles.
And that's exactly what Paul says here. We know a man's not
justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ,
by the faithfulness of Christ. So we've believed in Christ that
we might be saved by the faithfulness of Christ, not by the works of
the law, because by the works of the law shall no flesh be
justified before God. He knows that. He said, but if
while we're seeking to be justified by Christ, while we claim to
be justified by Christ, We turn to start compelling men and making
men do what they do because they fear us? And telling men what
they can and can't do? That ain't grace. That's law. We're found sinners, self-sanctified. And he said, Christ didn't minister
that sin. If I build again those things,
I'm the transgressor. You know, self-righteousness
and self-sanctification is more sinful to God than the most profligate,
immoral sinner. Christ said the harlots and the
publicans would go in sooner before the Pharisees. Because
why? Because it's saying to God, your
son's not enough. It's saying to Christ, I don't
believe you're really alive. I don't believe you're really
ruling the hearts of your people. I don't believe you only do it
by the gospel. I don't believe the record, is
what it's saying. And that's worse than somebody
that's never heard the gospel. Here's the confidence. I, through
the law, am dead to the law. I'm not worried about what men
think. I'm living unto God. Not to men, not to law, not to
Moses, not to flesh, not attempting to keep the law, not compelling
others to live to the lust of their flesh under law. Grace lives unto God by Christ
living in me. I'm crucified with Christ. I'm
living, I'm living by the faith of Christ who loved me and gave
himself for me. Let me just finish this up. Look at verse 21. I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead
in vain. You get what liberty is. Liberty
is knowing before God I can't be charged with sin. There's
no such thing as a halfway saint. There's no such thing as being
partly a saint. You're either a saint or you
ain't. That's all there is to it. And if he's purified your
heart, you're holy. You don't need to strive for
something else. You're holy. Christ is the holiness formed
in you by what you're now living. And he's ruling you. And he may
let you fall like Peter did. so that he can use your fall
to teach you who fell plus your brethren that you led astray.
Or your brethren that compelled because he's that wise in what
he's doing. But I'm not going to frustrate
this grace. I'm not going to start exalting myself by pointing
out every fault I can find in somebody else because that's
all that is. That's living by law. That is
going back into bondage. I'm not going to frustrate that
because it's to say Christ is dead and vain. You get you a
penny and you shine that penny up. You get it nice and shiny
and as bright and shiny as you can get that penny to where it
looks like it's a brand new penny. And you go over here to one of
these million dollar houses somewhere and you walk up, you see, find
you one for sale and you go to the homeowner and you walk up
to them and you plop that new shiny penny down and say, I want
this out. And they're going to look at
you like you are a blooming idiot. I don't care how shiny your penny
is, it's not going to buy this million dollar house. Martin
Luther said, if my salvation was so difficult to accomplish
that it necessitated the death of Christ, then all my works,
all my righteousness of the law is good for nothing. How can I buy for a penny what
cost a million dollars? Paul said, he said, God forbid
I should glory save in the cross of Christ by whom the world's
crucified to me and I am to the world. That means me and this
world have no relationship. I'm dead to it, it's dead to
me. In the life I now live, he said, I'm living as a new creature,
not looking to circumcision or uncircumcision, not looking to
my body to do or not to do, It's a new creation that matters.
And as many as walk according to this rule, this is the rule
we're under. Look to Christ, follow Christ. Don't live in the immorality
and sin of your flesh, but don't live in the self-righteousness
of it either. And Christ won't let you. He's not gonna let you if you're
His. You're gonna follow Him. Did
Peter go on in that and fall away in that? No, he didn't.
The Lord turned him. And so he will, all his people.
You're a life to God, live to God. All right, amen.