Alright, if you will, take your
Bibles and turn with me to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter
2. This morning we'll be looking
at verse 21. Galatians chapter 2 and verse
21. The title of the message this
morning is, Either or, but not both. Either or, but not both. Paul says in Galatians chapter
2 and verse 21, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Now last week, we looked at the
believer's relationship to the law, and we saw that in verse
19. Paul says, for I through the law am dead to the law, that
I might live unto God. We who are believers in Christ,
we are dead to the law in all its parts and relationship to
it. We are dead not by chance or
by some unjust act of God, but we are dead to the law through
the law. We are dead to the law through
the law. We who are believers, like Paul in Romans chapter 7,
he said, when the commandment came to me, sin revived and I
died. He experimentally died. He died within himself. In other words, he recognized
his dead state when the law came in power. It convicted him that
he had not obeyed the law unto life. And so he realized he was
dead, and so do we. When the Holy Spirit comes into
our hearts, we realize that we are dead in trespasses and sin. We realize and understand our
need and inability to obtain righteousness by works. That's
what the law does when it comes by power of the Spirit. It reveals
the inability of man to obey the law. Man cannot obey the
law, and when the Spirit causes our hearts to see this, we see
our dead nature. Yet, He has also revealed to
us that Christ has provided a righteousness by His obtainment, by His merit,
by His obedience to the law. We are dead to the law, not by
an unjust act, but because of Christ's obedience through the
Law. He obeyed the Law. He obeyed
the Law. God didn't discard the Law. Christ
said, I came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill the Law.
There was nothing wrong with the Law. We were wrong. We were the part that was evil
and wicked and unjust. The Law wasn't. But Christ, through
the law, obtained our righteousness, and by His death, satisfied the
law's demands of justice. So then, we who were dead in
trespasses and sins, now are alive unto God. How? Through the law. Through Christ's
obedience and satisfaction of the law that has been revealed
to us who believe. And we answered this question
also last week. How can justice be satisfied
unless the guilty truly suffer? If a man goes to the death penalty
and he is about to be executed and someone stands there in his
place and dies for him, that does not alleviate the fact that
that man was guilty, does it? You see, only God can take guilt
and impute guilt. And that's what He has done.
He has taken our guilt and has imputed it to Christ, our Savior,
so that He became guilty for our sins. You see, there's no
injustice here. God was not unjust to do these
things. Matter of fact, He did them in
justice, in righteousness. Our justification is not a pretend
justification. It is a real justification. It is real because Christ was
made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. So when He died, Paul said, when
He died through the law, according to the law, as He deserved to
because He was imputed our trespasses, When He died, Paul said, I was
crucified with Him. I was so in union with Christ
that when He lived, I lived. When He died, I died. When He
arose, we arose. And when He sat on the throne,
we sat on the throne, and He now resides in us. That's the
union we have with Christ. Jesus said in John 14, 23, If
any man love Me and keep My sayings, the Father will love him, and
we will come and make our abode with Him." You see, Christ is
so in union with me just as much as I am in union with Him. Therefore, the law has no bearing
on me. I am dead to the law. We are in union as a head and
a body. And it doesn't matter about our
feelings concerning this matter. Well, I can't feel in union.
Well, that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. We see this
by faith. Faith in Christ. Now, before we go on to our text,
I just had to stop here in verse 20 because I didn't get a chance
to do this last week to show you this. But I want you to see
two things in verse 20 before we move on. I want us to see
particular love and particular redemption in this verse. Paul
says, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Now notice
this. Who loved me? Paul's saying, look, I don't
know if He loved you. I don't know. I know this. I'm crucified with Him. It is a particular love. It is a singular love. In other
words, Christ's love is to particular individuals. Truly, we can say that God is
good to all men. If you have anything that happens
to you in this life, such as breathing, that's good, isn't
it? We think breathing is good. Well, God did that for you. God
does that for you without you even thinking about that. God
sustains us. He gives us our food. He gives
us our clothing. And you know this? He gives it
to whomever He will. Now, not each one of us have
the same creature comforts, do we? Some people have a lot of
the worldly comforts, and then there are some people in the
world who just barely have food enough to exist. You see, God
gives it as He wills. It's His goodness. He gives it
as He wills. But yet the Scripture proves
over and over that God does not love every man without exception.
He does not love every man without exception. He has mercy on every
man without exception, because He gives them the things that
they need to sustain their life. But God does not set His particular
love on everyone without exception. God has set His love only on
His chosen elect people, and He's done this for His own glory. for His own glory. Make sure you go to Ephesians
chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4. According as He hath chosen us
in Christ 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, and here's
the reason, 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." Friends, the decrees of God are
absolutely immutable. They do not change. When God
decrees something, when God sets Himself to do something, it will
always be. God does not change, and therefore
His love being an attribute of Himself, which Scripture says
God Himself is love, there is no love apart from God. Our love
is weak and carnal, isn't it? Our love and affection changes
moment to moment. But His love is forever constant,
forever perfect. It doesn't change. It can't get
any higher and it won't go any lower. God's love is always the
same. Jeremiah 31 verse 3 says, "...the
Lord hath appeared to me of old saying..." And so what God says?
Yes. "...I have loved you with an
everlasting love." When does an everlasting love
begin? And when does an everlasting
love end? You see, God cannot, He cannot
start to love anyone. Because that means He didn't
love before. That means He would have to change in order to love
someone or to start loving someone. Or if He stopped loving someone,
He would change. He would change His love. You
see, God doesn't start to love anybody and He doesn't stop loving
anybody. He's always loved them and He
always will love them. That He set His love on. Go to Romans chapter 9. particular love. Romans chapter
9, verse 9, For this is the word of promise,
At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son, and not
only this, but when Rebecca also concede by one, even our father
Isaac. For the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated." What shall we say then? What
are you going to say to that? What will we say to this? God
says, before the children were born, I loved Jacob and I hated
Esau. What are you going to say about
that? What do we have anything to say about that? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God unrighteous to love one and hate the other? Is God
unjust to love one and despise the other? No. God forbid. God forbid. Paul says, verse
15, For he saith unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, see it's not by man's
will that God loves him, it's not of him that runneth, it's
not about our righteousness or our religion, but of God that showeth mercy. If we are believers in Christ,
if we are crucified with Him, it is because God loved us before
the world began. Because God loved us from all
eternity and put us in Christ, in time we were crucified with
Christ and in time we come to believe in Christ. By what? Our will? No. By our running?
No. By the mercy of God. That's the
only reason. The only reason you're here and they're not is
the mercy of God. Not because you're better. God
didn't choose us because... He didn't love us because we
were better. No. He loved us because He would
love us. And that's the only reason we
have. There's no merit for this love in me. There's no merit
of this love in you. This is a particular love that
God sovereignly gave to His people from eternity. And there will
never be a time that God does not love you. Never. How many times we feel that?
When we sin, we feel God's love is less. We feel though that
the providence of God is hard against us and we think that
God has turned on us to do us harm. No. God is doing us good
always, even when it hurts. Even when it hurts. Scriptures
say especially when it hurts. He chastens whom He loveth, doesn't
He? And scourgeth every son. God's
love is particular love. And number two, look at that
in our text, "...who gave Himself for me." As God's love for His elect is
from all eternity and purposed from all eternity, so is the
redemption that is by the blood of Jesus Christ purposed from
all eternity toward His elect. just as His love is not to all
men without exception, so that the blood of Christ is also not
to all men without exception." Christ did not die for every
man without exception. He died only for God's elect
people. He died only for those whom He
set His love on in eternity. Who are they? I don't know. I
know me. I don't know anybody else. But
I'm sure they're out there. I'm sure. Some of you, I'm confident
that you're one of them. In Isaiah 53, the prophecy of
Christ says this, He shall see the travail of His soul. God,
in justice, shall see the travail, the agony of His soul, Christ's
soul, being offered for sin, and he shall be satisfied. And I'll tell you what, if Jesus
Christ died for every man without exception, then God is satisfied
with every man without exception. But we know that's not true.
We know there is a hell, and we know that men are there. And
those men Christ did not die for. He did not die for them. If He died for a man in hell,
then Jesus Christ is a failure and we have no reason to be here.
You have no hope. If He died for them and they
went to hell, what's your assurance? That He died for you and you
won't go to hell. Why do you think men are working so hard?
Because they're trying to earn something that Christ didn't
earn. That's what they're saying. They're saying Christ didn't
merit God's redemption. That's not what the Scripture
says, and that's not the Christ I worship. You see, Jesus Christ
was a successful Savior. He accomplished our redemption. And He was not a failure. But
He was victorious. Victorious. Isaiah 42 says that He shall
not fail. nor be discouraged." That's pretty
clear. If Christ failed, or He was discouraged,
then He is not Christ. Why? Because that prophecy would
have failed. But see, Christ didn't fail.
He accomplished the work the Father gave Him to do. He said,
I finished the work, give me the glory. That's what He said. He's the only man that ever could
say that to God. Give me my glory! That's great. He saved whom He would. He died for His people. Hebrews
10, 14, 4 by 1, Offering, He hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified, them that were chosen. He perfected them forever. Forever. I'm sorry to say that the Jesus
of our day, the Jesus of this world, is a weak effeminate Savior
who died for everybody and saved nobody. I don't want that Savior.
I don't want anything to do with Him. I want the Savior that died
according to the Scriptures, that rose again according to
the Scriptures. that rose triumphantly over sin,
death, and hell. I need a victorious Savior. Victorious
Savior. And that's exactly what Christ
did. He saved His people from their sins. And every soul that
Christ loved, Christ redeemed, the Spirit shall call. For He
says in John 6, I shall lose nothing. Nothing. Praise God
He won't lose me. I'm so thankful that He won't
lose me, and you know what? I can't lose myself. That's another
wonderful thing. I can't lose myself. I didn't
put myself in His love, and I'm not going to be able
to take myself out. That's great. If a man can put himself in the
love of God, he can sure take himself out. But praise God,
I didn't do either. I won't do either. He did it
to me by grace." This is particular redemption. Now let's look at
the text very quickly. Verse 21, Paul says, "...I do
not frustrate the grace of God." What does Paul mean by frustrating
the grace of God? Well, first of all, let me tell
you what he doesn't mean. He doesn't mean that God can be
frustrated. That's not what he's saying.
God cannot be frustrated in the sense that he is hindered, that
he is stopped by the works of man. God cannot be hindered. God says, I do all my pleasure. There's nothing that will ever
stop God from doing what He wants to do. He will not be frustrated. This word frustrated is better
translated, set aside. Set aside. And so it is not talking
about the person of God, but rather the gospel that Paul is
preaching. The gospel of God's grace. Men,
they set aside the gospel of grace so that they might have
works religion. Now friends, Paul is saying,
look, you can either set aside the gospel of grace for works,
or you can set aside works for grace, but you can't have them
both. That's what he's saying. He said, I do not set aside the
gospel. I will not set aside the gospel. Why? It's the only gospel. There's only one. There's only
one gospel. I will not set it aside. Paul says, I do not cast off
or make void the gospel of God's grace. The gospel of God's grace is
both sure and steadfast, unmovable and unchangeable as God himself.
But to mix works and grace works in law is to set aside the gospel. For men teach that the law has
some part in our acceptance or righteousness before God, and
to teach that is to destroy the gospel. If any man teach that you must
do something, and I don't care what it is, if they put something
with Christ for righteousness, they've set aside grace and they've
embraced the law. Anything. Anything. Whether it's baptism. Is baptism
bad? No. But if you add baptism to
Christ, you've set aside the gospel. Church membership. Is that bad? No. That's good.
But if you add that to Christ, you've set aside the gospel. Faith. Faith is good, isn't it? Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. You must have faith. But if you
make faith a work and add it to Christ, you've set aside the
Gospel. Paul is making a very important
point. He said, I will not, I do not
frustrate the grace of God. I'm not going to set that aside.
He didn't set it aside for Peter, and he's not going to set it
aside for anyone else, and neither should we. Neither should we. And then he says this in conclusion,
he says, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ
is dead and vain. Either righteousness comes by
works or law, or it comes by grace. It will
not come by both, ever. Salvation never comes by works
plus grace or grace plus works. They do not mix. They will not
mix. If righteousness comes by the
law, and man has some part in his righteousness, then what's
the result of this? Christ is dead in vain. In other words, if righteousness
comes by any work that we do, then Christ's death was meaningless. If salvation comes by what we
do, then God is a monster for not hearing the prayer of His
own Son. Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
Thy will be done. And what did the Father say?
It's not possible. This is the only way! It's the
only way. But if righteousness comes by
law, then Christ is dead and vain, If any man can earn one
mark toward his own goodness, then Christ is dead in vain. Or, salvation is by the grace
of God alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. This is the
only way that Christ's death is not in vain, if it is by grace. It is by the unmerited favor
of God. And friends, let me say this.
We live in a time of great, great error in the church. And this
term, progressive sanctification, is a great error. It is a great error and borderline
heresy. To think that we first begin
by grace and end by works. That we start by grace and God
just gets us up and pushes us along and then we finish by something
we do. That is to set aside the gospel
of God's grace. No, we start by grace and we
finish by grace. If I'm ever going to see the
gates of heaven, if I'm ever going to see God Himself and
stand holy before God, it is by His grace, by His mercy alone
that I do it. Either a man is saved by grace
or by works, but not of both. Not of both. Either or. What are you saved by? I know this. I am saved by the
absolute sovereign grace of God and have no merit in myself.
Christ is all my hope. Christ is all my salvation. And
His death was not in vain. It was victorious. And He now
sits on the throne of heaven ruling all things after the counsel
of His own will so that He might bring all His children to Himself. And He'll do it. He'll do it.
I pray God bless this to you.