All right. All right, brethren,
take your Bibles and turn to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians
2. We're going to be looking at
verse 18 this morning. Now, last week our focus was
on verse 17. Paul wrote, but if while we seek
to be justified by Christ, Now this is a good thing, looking
only to Christ for our righteousness. This is what believers do. We
look to the Lord Jesus Christ and we're satisfied with Him
even as the Father is satisfied with Him. He says, if while we
seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners,
we're charged by you legalists that we're sinners, that we're
committing some sin because we trust Christ alone. And he asks,
is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid, absolutely
not. That's nonsense that you would
suggest such a thing. So Paul, in this portion here,
he's continuing to defend the truth of the gospel. And he's
standing with those who are justified by God, looking to the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ alone and to no other righteousness.
They have no other hope. They need no other hope because
they have everything in the Lord Jesus Christ. We look away from
the law for righteousness and look alone to the Lord Jesus
Christ for all our acceptance with God. We are righteous in
Him. Now the Judaizers Those who wanted
to bring the Gentile believers under the yoke of the law, the
Judaizers or the legalists, they spoke and taught contrary to
the truth of the gospel. They didn't walk in the light
of Christ and the light of the gospel. They argue that such
who trust Christ alone for righteousness, they're sinners. They called
them sinners of the Gentiles. You that live like the Gentiles
without law, you're just like the sinners of the Gentiles who
have no knowledge of the law, just completely ignorant of the
law. And they counted them as sinners
because they turned their back to the law. They turned their
back away from the law for righteousness. That is, they looked to the Lord
Jesus Christ alone for righteousness. Now that one who looks away from
the law for righteousness and by faith looks to Christ alone
for all their righteousness and standing before God, they are
justified by God. God justifies that one who trusts
Christ alone. That is because the believer
in Christ establishes the law by faith in Christ. The believer
establishes the law by faith in Christ. And the believer in
Christ, they see the law for what it is, and they honor the
law for what the law is, the purpose of the law. The purpose
of the law is to show us the breadth and the depth of sin. It shows us just how evil our
works are, how corrupt and defiled we are naturally in Adam. It shows us for what we are.
It shows us that we cannot save ourselves because we cannot make
ourselves righteous before God by the works of the law. If we
see the law rightly, and we understand the law rightly, we see that
we are not keeping the law perfectly, and we understand that the law
requires and demands perfect obedience, and we can't give
it. We can't give it. Let's be clear
on the purpose of the law. Let's turn to Romans 3. Romans 3, and let's first look
at verses 19 and 20. We're just gonna see several
passages in Romans. So Romans 3, 19 and 20. Paul writes, now we know that
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. The law is declaring a truth
which is true of every man throughout the world. We're all guilty,
we're all lawbreakers, we've all come short of the glory of
God according to the law. Therefore, verse 20, by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin. And so, when you rightly
understand the law, you look at it and you know that God is
showing us that we cannot be saved by the works of the law.
We're not gonna be saved by the works of this flesh. Turn over
to Romans 5. Romans 5, and just look at the
beginning of verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. So when you look to the law,
you begin to see and understand how offensive my works are to
God, how offensive my thoughts are to God, how evil and dark
are my ways before God. The law shows us that. Turn over
to Romans 7. Romans 7, and we'll begin in
verse 7 and work our way down to verse 14. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? God forbid. Don't say such a
thing. Absolutely not. The law isn't
sin. Nay, I had not known sin, but
by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, thou shalt not covet. But sin, that is the
law of sin and death working in my members. But sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. Now, concupiscence is a strong,
lustful desire, typically involving sexual sins. It's a strong, lustful
desire, which rose up in Paul. For without the law, sin was
dead. It didn't prick me. In my heart,
it didn't prick me until I knew what the law said. And we've
seen that with either ourselves or with others, who as soon as
you say, you can't do that, they immediately set their mind to
figuring out, oh, I'm going to show you. I will do it. Don't
tell me I can't do something. Well, that's what the law does
to us. It says, don't do that. And we
say, what do you mean? Now I want to do that. I didn't
want to do that. But now that you said don't do that, that's
exactly what I want to do. That's exactly what I want to
do now. Verse 9, for I was alive. I was alive without the law once,
but when the commandment came, or once I started to build a
righteousness by the works of the law, thinking that I was
doing good, sin revived and I died. All my works, at best, were dead
letter religion. I was just making up a cake of
dung for God and saying, look, Lord, what I've done for you.
Look at my works, aren't they good? And we're pushing dung
before the Lord, thinking that we're doing good. Verse 10, and
the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death,
because I was deceived. I thought I was pleasing God,
but because of the weakness of this flesh, I'm unable. to fulfill the righteousness
of the law. I'm unable to be, to give the
law perfect obedience, perfect righteousness. And so the law
to me has become a ministration of death upon the soul that sinneth,
because it demands perfect obedience. So I'm a sinner, it's hold under
sin. I'm sold under sin, for sin taking
occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me. Therefore
the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made
death unto me? God forbid. Don't say it. Let
it not be, but sin that it might appear sin, working death in
me by that which is good. that sin by the commandment might
become exceeding sinful. So the Lord brought good out
of this for his people. The Lord shows us that that's
not our righteousness, that's not how we're going to be justified
by God, looking to the law. The Lord showed us that, don't
look to the law, look to my son whom I've sent. He's your righteousness. You trust Him. For we know that
the law is spiritual, but I am carnal. I am weak in this flesh,
sold under sin. My weak flesh, that's the problem. The law is not the problem. I'm
the problem. I'm the sinner. I'm the rebel.
I'm the one who's warring against God and trying to do my own thing.
And so the believer should never look to the law. The believer
shouldn't turn their back against Christ and look to the law for
righteousness. That's bringing ourselves under
the yoke of the law and bringing ourselves under condemnation.
That's not what the law's purpose is. The law's purpose isn't to
make us and to help us to build a righteousness. The law's purpose
is to show us that we're sinners in need of salvation. by the
grace of God whom he has declared. So let me further begin our study
before we get into our text. Let's just declare the gospel
here. The truth of the gospel declares
that we are sinners. When Adam sinned, we sinned.
Adam became corrupt and defiled in his rebellion against God,
just breaking that one commandment not to eat of the fruit of the
tree of knowledge and good and evil. We being in Adam became
corrupt just as he was corrupted. We were defiled just as he was
defiled. We sinned in Adam and so we all
come forth of that corrupt seed of Adam. Christ, therefore, was
sent to the Father, and He came as our surety, the one who is
able to pay the debt that we built up by the sins we've committed,
and He faithfully came and fulfilled the righteousness of the law
which we could not keep. He kept it perfectly and so declared
and made it known that He is the fit sacrifice, the Lamb of
God without spot or blemish. And he faithfully went to the
cross in the room instead of his people as our substitute,
bearing the wrath and punishment of God, which was against our
sins. But he took it upon himself. In himself, he took that wrath
and put it away, satisfying the justice of God, satisfying the
law of God against us by removing us from that law, having anything
to say to us. He fulfilled all righteousness
perfectly and paid our penalty. And because he justified us and
put away our sin, the Holy Ghost is sent of the Father and the
Son to seek out the lost sheep and to give us life and to shine
the light of Christ in our dark hearts. and to make us to see
and to know what God has done for us, so that by faith, which
is born in the new man, given to us by the gift of God, we
now behold and know and understand and learn increasingly what God
has done for us abundantly through His Son, Jesus Christ. And He
looks to Him, and He receives us in Christ, and He's not looking
to us to build a righteousness for ourselves by the works of
the law. but he's pleased with all those who look to his son
and trust that the blood of Christ is sufficient even for a vile,
filthy sinner like me. That's where Our God, our Holy
God, meets His people in peace, in joy, in fellowship in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Why then would a believer ever
turn his back from that salvation? from the grace of God revealed
in Christ. Why would we ever turn away from
Christ to look to the law and our own weak flesh by the law
to try and build a righteousness for ourselves? Doing so, that
makes me a transgressor. Now I'm a transgressor against
the Lord because I've turned away from his salvation and I'm
trusting my own flesh is better than his. that I can do something
better than Christ. And so this is what Paul, by
the Spirit, is addressing to us. He's talking about these
things to us as he's addressing this epistle to the Galatians. He's teaching us, don't look
away from Christ. Don't look away from Christ.
Don't be turned back to the law. God's provided all your salvation
in the Lord. Rest in Him. Believe Him. Trust
Him. I've titled this message, A Righteousness
Built by Christ. Paul continues to address what
he's been saying in verse 17, that the one who believes in
Christ, they're not looking to the law for righteousness. but
God justifies the one who looks to Christ for all his righteousness. God does this because the faith
that trusts Christ's blood is sufficient. God counts that their
righteousness. He imputes to them what they
are. Righteous. You're righteous.
You who believe Christ, you are righteous. And God imputes righteousness
to you because Christ has made you righteousness by the gift
of His Spirit, by the gift of His life, by the new man, the
new creature which He's created in you, which believes the salvation
of God. And the law is no part in that
salvation whatsoever. Now the legalists, looking at
you that believe Christ alone, they look upon you and condemn
you as a transgressor of the law. And they argue, you that
believe Christ and trust him for all his grace, you're making
Christ out to be a minister of sin. Paul responds to that, absolutely
not. No way. A big emphatic no, that's
absurd. So now Paul answers the question,
well what am I doing if as a believer I turn back to the law for righteousness? And he says in verse 18, for
if I build again the things which I destroyed, or what if I turn
back to the law? What if I tried to make a righteousness
for myself by the law, now that I profess to believe on Christ? The answer to that question is,
I make myself a transgressor. Now I'm a transgressor of the
law. Now I've taken my part with you
legalists who are trusting in your own righteousness. If I
profess Christ, to believe on Christ and to rest in him, but
I'm turning back to the law, for my righteousness to add some
part to this work, I make myself a transgressor because I'm not
keeping the law perfectly. And once you start to pick up
the law in one part, you're responsible for the whole of it, the whole
of it. And so Paul describes laboring
under the law as a believer in Christ as building again the
things which I destroyed. because I had forsaken the law.
When I saw Christ by faith and looked to Him alone for all my
righteousness, I forsook the law. I looked to Christ alone
and was satisfied with His righteousness. And so by looking back to the
law, I make myself a transgressor. So the legalist says, you're
a transgressor for turning your back against the law. And the
believer says, I'm a transgressor if I turn
back to the law. I'm righteous in Christ. God
is satisfied with me in Christ. And so we don't turn our back
to Christ to look to the law. You can't have both. It's not
law and grace. You can't have Christ and the
law. It's Christ and Christ alone.
It's Christ alone. And so the Apostle Paul is affirming
to the church that to believe on Christ for our righteousness
is to turn away from all other hopes of righteousness. We're
satisfied with Christ. We rest in him. To turn to any
other way, even the law of Moses, is a transgression against the
law. And someone would argue, but
it's in the Bible. God put the law there in the Bible. Yeah, it is there in the Bible.
And the purpose of the law is to show us our sin, is to show
us that we come short of the glory of God, that we cannot
build a righteousness for ourselves and be pleasing to God by the
works of the law. That's why he sent Christ, because
this flesh is weak, and I cannot keep that law perfectly. And so, our Lord's purpose in
showing us the law is to drive us from Mount Sinai, to show
us, don't run to Mount Sinai, run to Christ. Flee to Christ. Flee to the refuge whom I have
sent, my Son, Jesus Christ. It says in Hebrews 12 verses
22-24, For ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company
of angels. to the General Assembly and Church
of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." You see
that? We don't make our righteousness. We're made perfect by the blood
of Christ. He's the builder. He's the one
who forms his church. He's the one who brings his people
in under the blood of Christ, washed in his righteousness,
robed in his righteousness. And to Jesus, the mediator of
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh
better things than that of Abel. Christ's blood doesn't cry out
for vengeance. Abel's blood cried out for vengeance
when Cain slew him. But Christ's blood, which was
spilt for his people, cries out for grace, grace and mercy for
my people. I've borne it all, set them free. I've borne that which I restored,
that which I took not. Let them go free, I've paid it
all. His blood cries grace and mercy to you, brethren. And so
hope, trust, believe that the blood of Christ is sufficient
even for sinners like me and you. Our Lord has not called
us to build for ourselves a better righteousness. He calls us to
His Son. He calls us to Christ. He calls
us to fellowship with Him in the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust
Him. He says that those who follow
Him shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. don't hear that as a command.
When he said, he that believeth on me shall not walk in darkness,
that's not a command to your flesh, that's a promise to you
who have no other hope but Christ alone. You shall not walk in
darkness, but you shall have the light of life. In John 7.38,
our Lord said, He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath
said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. The believer in Christ thirsts
for no other righteousness. We're not looking to add to what
Christ has done. Our hands cannot add anything
to what Christ has done. We can do no better than our
great master builder, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He's provided
everything that we need to stand faultless before the throne of
God. That one who believes on Christ
will not seek another Savior. We have the Savior. We know Him
because He's called us by His grace and revealed His love,
His power, His glory in us, His light in us so that we see our
God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so who rests in the righteousness
of Christ? Is it people that want to live
in sin and rebellion, as the legalist says? They charge us. They say, well, if you don't
put the law on people, they're going to go and do what they
want to do. They're going to live like the devil. Oh. So Christ
is not able. Christ who fills the heart and
minds of his people, who's given them his spirit, he doesn't teach
us and keep us and lead us and correct us and give us love and
hope and joy in him. We need the flesh now. We need
to turn back to the flesh under the law to yoke us and to keep
us. The natural man, all men do what
they want to do. And those who are of the flesh
do what they want to do in the flesh. And those who are of the
Spirit do as the Lord leads them, because they have a new nature
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So who rests in the righteousness
of Christ alone? Redeemed sinners. redeem sinners,
rest in Christ, love Christ, thank God for Christ, because
He is all their righteousness and all their hope, and they
are blessed of God to rest in Him, even as the Father is pleased
with the Son. The legalists, on the other hand,
they cannot rest, because they're wicked. They must labor and work
and strive and spend and toil away trying to work a righteousness
for themselves because they can never satisfy the righteousness
of the law. They can never satisfy what's
required and demanded of them. So they've got to work. They've
got to spend. They've got to keep on toiling
and digging up and doing everything they can to find a satisfaction. But they never, never will. In Isaiah 57, verses 20 and 21,
it says, but the wicked, that legalist who will not submit
to Christ, who will not believe Christ, they are like the troubled
sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. They think they're working a
righteousness for God, and they're just flinging dung. They're just
casting up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God,
to the wicked, but that one whom the legalist calls a sinner.
And sinners of the Gentiles, those sinners whom they count
sinners, they're resting. They have peace and joy with
their God, fellowship with their God, are in the beloved family
of God, have the Spirit of God, whereby they cry, Abba, Father. thankful, thankful to the Lord
for his grace and mercy. They rest from all their labors
in the blood redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the legalists,
they build, they build by the law. It says in Romans 10, three
and four, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted,
have no faith or confidence. in the righteousness of God.
They don't believe Christ. Because if they did, they would
know that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
all them that believe. They would have peace, peace
in their hearts, even as you that trust Christ have peace
in your hearts with God. Rather than submit, that is believe
Christ, he looks to the law for righteousness. He looks to the
law for some evidence, for some hope, for some rest, but the
law will never give the sinner rest. The law will never give
us peace before God because we just don't keep it. Our flesh
is weak and unable to keep the righteousness of the law. But
he finds no peace because he sins against God and continues
in his wicked practices, despising that righteousness which is of
God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet that one
whom the legalist mocks and calls a sinner, he and she are resting,
having peace with God, knowing, Lord, it's all in your son. Thank you. Thank you for sending
your son. So the believer has peace because
he's dead to the law for righteousness. We're dead to the law in Christ
for righteousness, because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth in him. So the righteousness that's
in the law, it's been fulfilled by the believer through Jesus
Christ whom God has sent. Turn over to Romans 8. Romans
8. We're going to close in this
passage. Let's look at the first four verses with some commentary. All right, Romans 8, verse 1.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. That one
who tries to build a righteousness for himself by the works of the
law, that's walking by the flesh. That's walking by the flesh.
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made
me free from the law of sin and death. That's the law which subjected
us to bondage through fear and worry, afraid to die. being driven
about with fear and worry and doubts and confusion and trying
to build a righteousness for ourselves. It kept us laboring
and toiling because we could never satisfy the righteousness
of the law, the perfection of the law. For what the law could
not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. He fulfilled all the law for
the believer, so that we're no longer subject to the law of
sin and death. That law of sin and death says,
the soul that sinneth, it shall die. And so we were always made
afraid. We worried. We feared. We toiled
and we labored. But now being dead to the law,
the law is silenced against us. It's silenced against us because
we stand perfect in Christ. Because Christ put the law away
for us and brought us under the covenant of his grace. He brought
us out from the house of Moses and brought us into his house
of grace and peace and acceptance with our God. that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, who don't try to build a righteousness by our own works
under the law, but after the spirit, so that we cease looking
to the law and we look to Christ alone, having his spirit, walking
by faith, trusting and believing our Lord. And He does lead us,
and teach us, and keep us, and He instructs our hearts, and
He corrects us, and chastens us as we have need of it. But
He's the one who's keeping us. He's the one that provides everything
for His people, because we're His bride, and He loves us, and
He's died for us, and He saves us, and He cannot fail. to bring
us home to himself, to bring us to that promised land by his
grace. I pray our God bless your hearts
in the Lord Jesus Christ and give you peace to rest in the
blood of Christ alone. Trust in brethren. Amen. All
right, let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for the righteousness which you have built by your
son, Jesus Christ, that you don't look to us to continue to toil
and labor under the law to try and build a righteousness, but
you've provided everything. And so you bring forth from us
fruits of righteousness, which you teach us and instruct us
and bring forth to the praise, honor, and glory of your holy
name. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray this. Amen. All right, brethren.