May it please God to bless us
together as we conclude our meditation in the second chapter of Paul's
epistle to the Galatians. And it's the last verse, verse
21. The epistle to the Galatians, chapter 2, and just reading the
last verse, verse 21. And it reads, I do not frustrate
the grace of God. For if righteousness came by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. The apostle really is summarising
that which has gone before in this epistle. And of course he did not despise
the law. and the law was necessary and
needful, but the great thrust was that man could not be saved
by keeping the law. However good they were, however
righteous in themselves they were, it would not satisfy Almighty
God, because God demands holiness. God demands complete obedience
to all of his law and how impossible that is for fallen sinners to
do. We all come short of that and
therefore the apostle desires that the Jews and also the Gentiles
might really understand this great truth and therefore he
says As he comes to the final verse in this chapter, I do not
frustrate the grace of God. That means he doesn't disappoint
or he doesn't thwart the grace of God. No, the grace of God,
of course, will not be. And we know, and I hope we know,
that the grace of God is really the free unmerited favor to sinners. and how good the Lord is to grant
his favour to unworthy sinners and how wonderful it is if you
and I have received that grace and we all need to receive that
grace. It is essential and we all need
faith to receive the grace that it comes from Almighty God and
it's not of our flesh and it's not of works. Because if it was,
as we know, the Ephesians tell us, we should boast in that which
we've done. Well, the Lord, of course, will
not allow that. So he says, I do not frustrate
the grace of God. For if righteousness came by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And this, of course,
really brings home the point, doesn't it? That if you and I
could keep the law, the holy law of God, there would be no
need for a saviour. Because we would not have any
sin. And therefore there would have been no need for the Lord
Jesus Christ to come into this world and to have suffered and
have bled and have died and to have risen again. There would
have been no requirement. So he tells us so clearly, if
righteousness came by the law, but it does not. It does not
come by the law. We might ask, how does it come?
It comes through that which the Lord Jesus Christ has done. Because
what he's done, he's justified his people, his church. And how has he done that? He's
done it, of course, by standing in our place and dying upon that
cross at Calvary to atone for our sins. So therefore, righteousness
cannot come by the law. And of course, the Jews in the
Old Testament times, that's what they strive for. And even The
Christian, the Gentiles now, needed to be reminded and pointed
to the truth that they could not justify themselves. They couldn't make themselves
righteous. And how blessing it is when we realize that our righteousness
comes indeed from Almighty God. What a blessing it is. And we
can read, just as a clarification for this, we might ask the question,
well, what is justification? Well, we're thankful the Westminster
Shorter Confession gives us a very clear definition of that. Justification
is an act of God's free grace wherein he pardoneth all our
sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness
of Christ's imputed to us and received by faith alone." That's
a very concise and a very direct confirmation of the great truth
of that question, what is Justification. Let me read it again, especially
for you who are younger, so that we might take it in. It's an
act of God's free grace. It's God's free unmerited favor,
which he gives to us, which we don't deserve, but he gives it. Free grace. Free grace is a wonderful
sound. Wherein he pardoneth all our
sins. And we need every sin to be pardoned. Every single sin. and accepteth
us as righteous in his sight. Why and how? Only for the righteousness
of Christ's imputing to us and received by faith alone. And so God gives us faith. He gives us faith to believe
the gospel. He gives us faith to receive
the word of God. And he gives us faith to believe
the Lord Jesus Christ did come and did live that perfect life
in order that we might be made just and that we might be, therefore,
among those who are righteous. And what did the Lord Jesus Christ
do? He took our sins, every sin,
every sin that you and I have committed, the sins of the day,
the sins even tonight while we've been here in chapel. He takes
our sins upon himself and he gives us a glorious exchange
and that exchange is his righteousness. His spotless righteousness, His
pure righteousness. It is a robe of righteousness
which is so wonderfully glorious to cover our nakedness. So tonight, let us thank God
for such a truth as this. For if righteousness came by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. But tonight, may we
know that righteousness does not come by the law, but it comes
through the Lord Jesus Christ and through what he has done.
And we read those few verses in the little epistle to Titus. which again is very concise in
the way that the apostle writes to Titus. And in the third chapter,
we read for verse four, but after that the kindness and love of
God, oh, don't forget that, the love of God our Savior, toward
man appeared. Here was a wonderful manifestation
of it. For not by works, righteousness
which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior that being
justified by his grace we should be made Heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. And the apostle just says, this
is a faithful saying. And how true it is. And may we bless God for it tonight. Because if it was not true, if
this was not the way of salvation, there would be no hope for you
and me. Because without any doubt we're sinners. And there would
be no salvation. and we will be eternally lost.
So tonight, what reason there is to praise God for the love
of God the Father, the love of God the Son, and the love of
God the Holy Spirit. How wonderful it is to believe
that we are the recipients of this righteousness and how necessary
it is to know that we are recipients of it. Because the Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world, as the Apostle says, to save
sinners of whom I am chief. And he did come to save sinners. And the only way that you and
I could be saved is to have our sins taken away. And He died
to atone for our sins, to take our sins away. And those sins
were taken away through His death, through His shed blood. That's
why, you see, we often think of the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ as being precious, as the Apostle Peter says, the precious
blood of Christ, and it is. Because you see, without the
shed blood, the evidence of the life of Jesus, giving us a satisfactory
sacrifice for sin, before God the Father, you and I would have
no hope of eternal life. So how important It is that God
gives us faith to believe this great and wonderful truth, this
great and wonderful doctrine, which is justification by faith. You may remember, of course,
this was the great doctrine that Martin Luther left the Church
of Rome on. It was burnt into his heart.
and he was able to declare it, and to preach it, and what an
awakening it was, and what an awakening it is in our life,
when the Holy Spirit confirms to us that we are justified by
faith, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which the Lord Jesus
Christ gives to us. And therefore we must recognise
that we owe an enormous debt which you and I will never be
able to pay. Never be able to pay the debt
we owe. But you know what a blessing
it is when the Holy Spirit moves us to such an extent as we recognise
what has been done, that we are winning. to follow a despised
and crucified man, and daily to take up our cross and to follow
Him, not counting the cost. My friends, the Lord Jesus Christ
didn't count the cost, did He? He set His face to Jerusalem.
He knew what was ahead of Him, but He endured the cross, despising
the shame. And it was His great love toward
us that we can, by his grace, rejoice in such a truth as we
have set before us here in this epistle to the Galatians. So
may we tonight thank God for the Lord Jesus Christ, thank
God for that wonderful sin-atoning death, and thank God for that
imputed righteousness which he gives to all of his people. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Amen.