Alright brethren, we're going
to get started. Take your Bibles and let's turn
to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians 2 verse 21 is our text. Now Paul has been faithfully
declaring the gospel of God's grace toward his people in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That God is pleased with the
son and that he's given all power and authority into his hand and
he saves his people from their sins. And he's declaring the
gospel as opposed to what the legalists are saying. that righteousness
comes by the law and their adherence and observance to the law. That's what the legalist looks
to. And Paul is saying, no, not at
all. Not at all. That's not the gospel. That's not the truth. That's
a lie. And it brings him to summarize
what he's been saying here in verse 21. He says, I do not frustrate
the grace of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Christ is dead in vain. That's a sour note. That's awful. To think that our
Lord died in vain, that God's wisdom failed, that he came up
short in his understanding, that he would put forth his son to
die in the place of his people when there's another way that
we can be saved? When there's another righteousness?
Yet that's what the legalists are saying. And so they lead
the people back to Mount Sinai. They lead the people back to
the law, as though we now have another opportunity to keep the
law, to do better. We couldn't keep it before, but
now somehow we can keep that law and make a righteousness
for ourselves. And so the Judaizers, those that
were trying to bring the Gentiles back under the Jewish religion
through an observance and an adherence to the law of Moses,
they've come into the churches of Galatia And they're preaching
a false gospel. They're preaching another Jesus. And really, when you get down
to it, what they're saying is Christ is insufficient to save
his people. Christ alone is not enough. That's
what they're saying. God requires something more than
the blood of his son, so that their teaching would lead you
to conclude that God isn't looking to the son, that he's not satisfied
with the work of Christ and the blood of Christ, but that he's
still looking to the sinner to do something for their own righteousness. That's what the legalist is teaching,
the insufficiency of Christ. And so they weren't preaching
Christ, Believing that it's by the law that a man is justified
with God, they don't preach Christ. Or maybe he's just a token Jesus
for them. But they're preaching man's obedience
to the law for righteousness. And so it comes down to this. God either justifies by grace
through the Son, through the obedience and the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ. God either justifies his people
by grace through Jesus Christ, or he justifies by the works
of the law. That's really the two options
that are there. One is the truth. The other is
a lie. The other is a lie, which man
has spoken of and boasted of all history, all his history,
thinking that he can do something to earn God's favor. And yet
that's not the truth. And so in the scriptures, grace
and works, they're not mixed. Man mixes grace and works. He
thinks he can justify it and make it fit, but God doesn't
mix grace and works. In fact, the Spirit had Paul
write in Romans 11, verse 6, that if it's by grace, if salvation
is by grace, then it's no more of works. Otherwise, grace is
no more grace. If there's a blending of works,
then it's not grace. It's works. But if it be of works,
then it's no more of grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. And so legalists deny the sufficiency
of the Lord Jesus Christ to save his people. And they think either
it's the law alone. That's what the Pharisees believed.
It was just the law. It was only the law. Whereas
these Judaizers were trying to mix the two. They were saying,
all right. This Jesus came and he reset things, but now we go
back to the law and we try it again. We try it again. We've
got a new heart or something. They say that makes them think
that they can please God now by the works of the law, even
though they never could before. And so they deny the sufficiency
of Christ, and they blend the two. But if you read the epistles,
when you're reading Paul, he never tries to clarify what the
law is used for except for one thing, to say that it gives us
a knowledge of our sin. You'll notice Paul never says,
now, we're not justified by the law, but you have to still look
to the law for sanctification. You still go to the law to prove
yourselves worthy before God. Or you go to the law to try and
dust yourself up and do better. So now you could take that to
the Lord and say, Lord, I'm trying. Now, can you please do better
for me? Can you please give me a little
something more? Because I'm trying. I'm putting
forth my effort. And so they blend it to make
it this mutual work between God and man for their salvation. But Paul, besides showing that
the law points out that we are sinners, What he does declare
most plainly to us is that the believer is dead to the law. The believer is dead to the law. In Galatians 2 verse 19, look
there, he had just gotten done saying, for I through the law
am dead to the law that I might live unto God. And we see that
it's through the law of Christ, through the doctrine of Christ,
through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he's done
for us that we're delivered from the law. We're dead to it in
order that we might live unto God. So if I'm living to the
law, if I'm still looking to the law, Paul's saying, I can't
live to God. because I'm constantly laboring
under this fear and worry and doubt, this yoke of the law that
weighs me down, burdens me down, keeps me looking to the law to
make sure I'm justified and sanctified and right before God so that
I can't even live to God. Because I'm so busy worrying
about the flesh. I'm so busy just looking at the
law and what I need to do better. And so we don't look to the law
for a righteousness, and we can't live to God living under the
law. Now, another way that he said it was over in Romans 7,
verse 4. Romans 7, verse 4, we're close,
so just flip there. And Paul says, wherefore my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. Christ obtained our life. We're dead to the law by the
body of Christ. Why? That we should be married to
another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God, or that we should live unto God,
just like he said in Galatians 2.19. We're delivered from that
law. We're dead to it. We're dead
to it. And what part of dead is it that we just don't understand?
He says, we're dead to the law. And yet, man keeps trying to
find some way to fit that law back in there and to inject his
flesh into the grace of God, who saves his people in mercy,
in love, and forbearing with them for the sake of Christ,
who loves them, who put away our sin, who put away our death,
and gave us life by the Son so that we would live unto God,
believing Him, trusting Him, trusting the Son. And so Paul
never says, now just don't mix this up with justification. But
you still are under the law for sanctification. You've got to
fix yourselves up with this law now. He never says that. He says
you're dead to the law. You're dead to the law. It doesn't
help you. The law doesn't help you. And before the Lord. All right, now, so Paul begins
his summary. He says in verse 21, I do not
frustrate the grace of God. He's saying that in response
to the flesh cutters, to the circumcision, to the legalist
who is looking to the law. And in other words, what he's
saying is they are frustrating the grace of God. I don't frustrate
the grace of God, he says, but these Judaizers, they do frustrate
the grace of God. And that word frustrate means
to cast away. to reject it. Isn't that actually
a good picture of circumcision? Circumcision cuts out. It cuts the flesh and says this
thing here is filthy and they chuck it away. They reject it.
They throw that part away. And those cutters of the flesh
are cutting out that which is most precious, the grace of God
and the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're saying, this thing
here? Nuh-uh. This is filthy. And they chuck
it away. They reject it. They cast out
the grace of God as though it is an unclean thing. And no surprise
as to why Paul had said, you guys are saying that this Christ
whom we preach, this Christ of the scriptures, the Christ of
God's grace, the Christ of the gospel, that he's a minister
of sin? You're accusing, he's saying
this to the Judaizers, you're accusing this Christ whom we
preach, that God saves his people by grace. You're saying that
he's ministering sin? because we preach the grace of
God that somehow this makes us sinners before God? And so our Lord, the reason why
they say that is because our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ
said in Matthew 11, 28 and 29, because he said, come unto me,
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke, my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and
lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. That yoke of Christ is a different
yoke than the yoke of the law. Peter spoke of that yoke of the
law, saying in Acts 15.10 that the Judaizers were trying to
put a yoke on the neck of the believers, of those Gentiles,
which, he said, neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.
We couldn't bear that yoke, but because Christ says, I have a
yoke for you, which is light and easy. Look to me. I'll lift
your burden. We are dead to the law in the
Lord Jesus Christ, that we are free and able now with that heavy
yoke of the law cast off of us that we might live unto God,
rejoicing in Him, being thankful in Him, walking by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because it is a walk of faith.
It is a walk of faith because it's Christ keeping us and we're
looking to Christ and we're seeing the weakness of this flesh and
yet by his grace and the gifts which he's given to us according
to the measure of faith, we walk in him and we trust him and we
believe him even when we stumble, even when we sin and the Lord
shows us our sin, he's the one that turns us back. He's the
one that brings us to cry out to him, Lord, forgive me. Lord,
I'm wrong. Lord, I'm the sinner. I've done
that which is not right in your sight. Have mercy on me, Lord,
and keep me. And we thank him for turning
our hearts because he's the one that gives us the heart so that
we don't just go off into wickedness and a hardness of heart, or turning
back to the law to try and fix things and make them right. So
our Lord, the Christ that we preach according to this word,
the scriptures here, the gospel of Jesus Christ, He teaches us,
I am all thy righteousness. Christ is all and in all. He's everything for the believer
and he's all our acceptance and all our hope with the Father.
He's everything to us and so our God confirms who our righteousness
is. He said in Isaiah 42 verse 1,
Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth,
I have put my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. Not the law. He doesn't bring
the law to the Gentiles in the sense that he teaches them, all
right, now this is how you get yourselves right. No, he brings
forth a right understanding. That in this flesh, I'm nothing. In this flesh, I come short of
the glory of God. In this flesh, I am cut off. I'm going to be rejected by the
Lord. But in Christ Jesus, we have
newness of life. We're born of his spirit, of
his seed of grace, and so that we understand the righteousness
of our God, how wholly imperfect He is and how imperfect I am,
and yet how He's given me a refuge in His Son to flee to Him. And He's given me strength to
my legs and sent me running to Him and to be received by Him,
because He won't cast away any who come to Him seeking mercy
and forgiveness. He receives all that come to
Him, because all that come to Him the Father has given to him. And our Lord, confirming what
the Father said in Isaiah 42, 1, he said, this is the will
of God that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth
on him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the
last day. It takes faith to see the Son.
It takes faith to see the Son. And you that see Him, the sufficiency
of Christ and believe Him, that's the gift of God. The gift of
God which has given you that faith and that sight. of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so, to you that believe Him,
He's all your righteousness, all your righteousness. And so,
Paul is saying, God forbid that I should frustrate the grace
of God by rejecting Christ, by casting aside all that the Lord
has declared to us in His Word concerning His Son, concerning
salvation, concerning my deliverance from eternal death into the kingdom
of light and to have life with him, I'm not going to cast aside
his grace as some filthy rag. That's the most precious part,
is the grace of our God in the Lord Jesus Christ. The reality
is that if there's any filthy rag here, it's man's righteousness,
man's righteousness is the filthy rag. And that's what Isaiah 64
6 says, but we all are as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. And we all do fade as a leaf
and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. So the filthy
rag is our righteousnesses, our good works that we thought recommended
us to God and gained us an audience and acceptance with God. The
only acceptance we have before God, holy, righteous, almighty
God, is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's by him and
his life. And so the carnal man, he's busy
just glorying himself, glorying in his works. He doesn't care
that he's just trampling underfoot the righteousness of God and
Christ. Romans 10.3 says, for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. And by not submitting to it,
they're just casting it aside. That's, let's just carve that
out. Let's get rid of that because
that's not helping people obey the law. And so let's just cut
that grace of God out and cast it aside. Just reject that part. And let's get back to the work
of the flesh here and doing what's right. That's what the Judaizers
saying. And that's what all are saying
who keep going back to the law for righteousness. And so it's
that kind of arrogance that this flesh has, that the legalist
has in their flesh. That's the arrogance that looks
at the Gentile, at the poor sinner, at the one who has no righteousness. and confesses, Christ is my all. All I know is that I was blind,
and now I see. All I know is that I was a sinner,
and yet Christ has washed me and forgiven me of my sins, and
told me I'm accepted and received of him, and that he's merciful
to me, and he receives me unto himself in mercy and in grace. And they say, ah, you're just
a sinner of the Gentile. You're just an idolater, you're
a fool. You don't know what you're talking
about. You're dirty, you're filthy, get out of here. And that's how
the legalist treats the sinner saved. The sinner saved who has
no hope of Christ. And in doing that, they destroy,
they seek to anyway, destroy the comfort that the child of
God has, who's heard the good news and believed Christ. And
they seek to destroy that and to carve that part out and throw
it away. But the Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto
the day of judgment to be punished. Those who think they're something
when they're nothing, trusting their own works of righteousness
to save them. So to be clear, what Paul is
saying here is that the one who trusts the law for righteousness,
that one, contrary to what the natural man thinks, that one's
going to lay down in sorrow because they lay down in their sin, having
no covering for their sin. Isaiah 50 verse 11, The prophet
wrote, behold, all ye that kindle a fire. And that's what the legalist
is doing. They're kindling a fire. They're
kicking up a light for themselves by which they think they see
and know and have understanding. He said, all ye that kindle a
fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the
light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled,
this shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow. And so that one who's making
light and they've got some heat going, and they look like they're
some dynamite powerhouse because they're so disciplined and obedient
to the law and put on a good show, that man says, oh, that's
the shining example of a Christian there. The Lord says, that one,
he's going to lie down in sorrow. He's going to lie down in his
sins. Just as the Lord said, you shall die in your sins if
you do not believe that I am he, the salvation of God, the
Christ who saves his people to the uttermost, 100%. Every bit
of it is the Lord Jesus Christ. If you do not believe, you shall
lie down in sorrow. Look over at Luke chapter 18. As opposed to what the legalist
says, the one who trusts Christ, that one shall lie down and awake
in joy and gladness when they go to sleep. So Luke 18, verse
10 through 14. Our Lord says, two men went up
into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee and the other
a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself. He thought he was praying to
God. God didn't hear him. He said, God, I thank thee that
I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. That was his righteousness, which
God didn't even hear, didn't receive it. And the publican,
the sinner, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as
his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God,
be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified, righteous, rather than the other. For everyone
that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted." And so the Lord shows that the one
who's justified is the one who believes and trusts the grace
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. who has no righteousness of his
own. And so Paul wasn't moved by the persuasion and the numbers
and the people lined up with these Judaizers. He wasn't persuaded
with that at all. He said back in Galatians 2 verse
5, he said, we gave place to these guys by subjection, no,
not for an hour. we didn't submit to what they
were saying, that the truth of the gospel might continue with
you. He stood there on the side of
Christ according to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in order
that the grace of God should continue with us to this day,
that we Now have it written here in the word and the spirit testifying
to our hearts that God saves his people by grace in the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. What a mercy that God should
show us that good news and make us to hear it. and make us partakers
with the saints of light in the beloved. Trust in Christ. That's a mercy. That ain't your
flesh. That's the grace of God given
to you freely for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how much God loves you. Not because you or I have done
anything to deserve it or to merit it. In fact, we're like
Jacobs, connivers and evil and looking for ways to get ahead
and not caring what others think or how others are affected. We're
like Jacobs, yet God has chosen you and been gracious and merciful
to you for Christ's sake because he loved you and chose you and
gave you into the hands of Christ who accomplished your redemption
perfectly. perfectly, so that there's nothing
left undone. It's according, Ephesians 1,
4 through 6, it's according as God hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."
Nowhere in there does it talk about your works or my works
or sanctifying ourselves by the law. The only one glorified here
is Christ. and the Father for choosing Christ,
and the Father for orchestrating this whole thing, and the Son
obediently coming and fulfilling all the will of the Father, and
the Spirit coming and giving us this light and life in the
Son. God is the one who's glorified
in this, not us, not us. And so, no, we don't frustrate
the grace of God. We don't cast aside this grace
of our God. Because if righteousness come
by the law, which is the second phrase in Galatians 221, if righteousness
come by the law, well, then there's something wrong with what we're
preaching. And then there's something wrong with the gospel, as has
been delivered to us here in the word of God, because that's
what God declares. that were saved by grace. And so Paul is saying that those
legalists, they're leading you away from Christ. They're leading
you away from grace. They're mixing it, and by mixing
it with subtlety, they're just pushing aside Christ. And they're
just canceling it out, rendering it useless and ineffectual. Because If Adam's race can hear,
and Adam's race can get to work and turn things around, and Adam's
race, you and Adam's race, can improve one area of your life
by the law, well then what's stopping you from improving a
second area of your life? And then a third area. And you
start raising up these pillars by the law. And then you start
filling in between the pillars with bricks of your law keeping
to make a wall for yourself. And all you've done is walled
yourself out of the kingdom. You've just put up a wall against
the light of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so man thinks
that I can just tweak it here, I can do a little over here,
and I can improve this area, and eventually he thinks he's
going to make himself a perfect, acceptable righteousness with
God. And all you have to do is be perfect in everything. You
just have to be absolutely 100% obedient to the law in all things,
and then you'll be righteous. And we can't do it. hence the
grace of God in sending his son to accomplish our redemption
because we need him. We must have Christ and there
is no other way. There's no other name, there's
no other means under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved. It's by the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. The scriptures teach that without
the shedding of blood is no remission. Scriptures teach that all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Our Lord teaches
us that Christ was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. The Lord tells us that in due
time, when we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.
And so Paul says, I don't frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And that is
a foolish argument that the legalist stands on. They're rendering
Christ's work to be useless, to be not necessary, to be a
thing that could have been avoided, and the same outcome could have
been worked another way by keeping the law. It all just comes right
on back to the flesh. And so one other thing to see
before I close is that if a righteousness comes by the law, Paul says,
then Christ is dead in vain. What Paul is saying there is
that if it comes back to me having to work a righteousness now by
the law, even after Christ has come, if it comes back down to
me having to work a righteousness, we see that Christ died in vain
because you nor I are ever going to keep the law perfectly. And that would just undo everything
that Christ has accomplished so wonderfully for us. And we know that's just not true. We believe our God. We trust
him. We trust his word. We trust what
Christ has done for us. And that, brethren, is great
comfort. And so I'm going to close with
2 Corinthians 3 in verse 3 through 5. It's one of those passages that
is typically so easy for us to just read right on through and
not really absorb and rejoice in what the Lord says to us here.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 3, Forasmuch as ye are
manifestly, or evidently declared to be the epistle of Christ,
ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit
of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables
of the heart. He is saying that's right. We
preach faith. We preach Christ and faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're talking about the Spirit
of God putting his law, his word, in fleshly tables of the heart,
the weakness of what we are, how weak we are. And then Paul
says this, and such trust have we through Christ to Godward. We're so confident. in what God
has done and established here in his son. Yes, we see this
flesh, we see the weakness of this flesh, we see the inability
in ourselves, but we're so confident in Christ, to God, that we preach
Christ. We're so confident in him that
we don't turn back to the law, we don't turn to another gospel,
we don't try to do it some other way and perfect something that
we think God didn't do a good job about. The strength of God
and the wisdom of God is stronger than the strength of men, or
the weakness of God is stronger than the strength of men. And
the wisdom of God is much wiser than all our brains put together
and everything we could think of. It's not that we are sufficient
of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God. And so God has said, you trust
my son. I'm well pleased with him. My
grace is sufficient. You trust him and you walk by
faith in him and he teaches you and he keeps you. The law isn't
going to do that for you. The law is going to take you
away. You keep looking to Christ and he keeps you because he's
established you in his kingdom by his blood. So rejoice in your
savior. Trust him. Believe him. Amen. All right, brethren, let's close
in prayer, and then we'll be dismissed for 15 minutes, so
we'll come back at 5 after the hour. Our gracious Lord, we thank
you, Father, for your mercy and grace toward us and your Son,
Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, for giving
us a confidence, a hope, a more sure word of prophecy in the
Lord Jesus Christ, a more sure word of hope in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord, we see the weakness of
this flesh. We see the tables, the fleshly
tables of the heart. and how easily shaken we are
and how weak we are in ourselves, but we're so confident in your
Son, Jesus Christ, whom you've provided and whom you've upheld
and declared to look to Him, to trust Him, to believe that
you forgive all who come to the Father through Jesus Christ,
the Son. Lord, thank you for this mercy
and grace. Lord, keep us ever looking to
Christ and continue to give us understanding and knowledge of
these things, not to be puffed up, but to rejoice in what our
Savior has done for us. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. All right.