Galatians 2, this chapter right
here closes, the last verse of this chapter is I believe one
of the clearest verses in all of God's Word on what an offense,
an absolute offense our efforts are to God. and absolute offense
that our efforts are in trying to earn our own salvation. Our works are not just insufficient. We know they're insufficient,
don't we? But our works are not just insufficient, they're offensive. They're offensive. To try to
work in order to earn God's favor is absolutely offensive. Look
with me at the last verse, verse 21, Galatians 2 verse 21. He said, I do not frustrate the
grace of God. Frustrate means to set aside. To dis-esteem. You know how you can esteem something?
It means to dis-esteem. To despise. To bring to not. To reject. And he said, I do
not set aside the grace of God. I do not reject the grace of
God. Verse 21, he said, for if righteousness
come by the law, obedience to the law, obeying what God said
to do, that's the only thing that makes sense to the world.
You obey what God said to do and then He's happy with you.
If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. If my good deeds are what pleases
God, if my good deeds are what earns my favor with Him, if He
accepts me into His kingdom and into His presence because of
the good that He sees in me, if that's why, if that is the
reason why, if He looks to me If he's looking to me, you're
gonna get in, you're gonna get out, let's see. Let's look to
each one. If it all hinges on what I've
done, then I have totally taken Christ out of the equation. Isn't that right? If it all hinges
on what I do, then I have totally taken Christ out of the equation. And he suffered and he bled and
he died for no reason. That's what that verse is saying.
For no reason. Now let's go to verse 11 and
we're going to work our way back to verse 21. And the reason that
Paul is being so clear on this is because Peter muddied it up.
No man is perfect. No man is perfect. We love these
apostles. I thank God for the apostles.
But we don't look to Peter. We're looking to Peter's God.
And Peter's God cleared it all up for us right here because
verse 11 says, 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, James was in Jerusalem and there were
disciples with him and you could think of it as congregations.
You know, here I am in Kingsport and there's disciples here and
then in Pikeville there's disciples there. And some of the disciples from
James, the Jews from Jerusalem, they came down to Antioch where
Paul was with these Gentiles in Galatia. And verse 12 says,
For before that certain came from James, Peter did eat with
the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew
and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled
likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away
with their dissimulation. The Jews were steeped in religion. I mean, they were just, they'd
grown up in it. It's all they knew. It was baggage
they carried with them. They could not hardly get rid
of it. The Lord had opened their eyes, but they still, they started
their life in the law. And that is hard to get rid of.
It truly is. It takes God, over time, to take
all those, what we call grave clothes, off of people. Let them
fall off, you know. They were steeped in religion
and they'd been told all their life about this law and that
law, and that's what religion is. You grow up learning about
this law and that law, right? And the Jews were told that they
couldn't eat certain meats, you know, they weren't allowed. Go
with me over to Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10 beginning in
verse 9. It says, On the morrow, as they
went on their journey and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went
up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. And he
became very hungry and would have eaten, but while they made
ready, he fell into a trance. and saw heaven opened, and a
certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet,
knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth, wherein
were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild
beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there
came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. But Peter said,
Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common
or unclean. And the voice spake unto him
again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not
thou common. This was done thrice, and the
vessel was received up again into heaven. God told Peter,
all of those things that the law says you are not allowed
to eat. I'm telling you, eat them. That's
what he said. I'm saying, I know what the law
says, but I'm telling you, he said, you kill and you eat. And that right there has nothing
to do with meat. Nothing at all to do with meat.
It has everything to do with God telling sinners that they
are not justified in His sight by obeying the law. It's a wonderful idea to obey
God's law. We are commanded to obey His
law. Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Do we disregard this
law? God forbid. But He's telling
him that You obeying that law right there has nothing to do
with you being justified in my sight. Nothing at all. This has
everything to do with God justifying whom he will. Everything. And he said, don't call common
what I have made clean. Peter, you know, that was unclean,
unclean. And the Lord said, not anymore. I made it, I cleansed it, I made
it clean. So go with me back to Galatians 2. The Gentiles were, they were
all eating. Peter was sitting there eating
with them. That's what verse 12 says. And they were probably
eating meat that the law said the Jews were not allowed to
eat. More than likely that's what they were doing. The Gentiles
though themselves were probably an unclean sight to all those
Jews who came in. They were unclean in the eyes
of all those Jews. They were outcasts, they were
heathen, sinners. That's who they were, sinners.
And the grace of God in Peter caused him to be the friend of
publicans and sinners. Caused Paul to be that, caused
Barnabas to be that. But when some of these Jews came
from James and they walked in, Peter withdrew himself from the
Gentiles. And he caused all the Jews that
were with him to withdraw themselves. And even Barnabas, who is the
one who traveled with Paul in the first place and established
the gospel in these places, even Barnabas walked away. He left
too. And they all went back over here
to their law. They all sat down and they all had a congregation
of law again. Verse 14 says, Paul writes, But
when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth
of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou being
a Jew livest after the manner of Gentiles, And not as do the
Jews, why compelest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? He said, if you have been set
free from the bondage of the law, I mean set free, why are
you trying to put the Gentiles under it? And that's the position we're
in. We've been set free. We have been set free. He told
him, if you know that salvation has nothing to do with obeying
the law. That's a shocking statement. That's a shocking revelation
to somebody who's never heard that. What? It has nothing to
do with our obeying the law. And he told Peter, you know that.
You know it has nothing to do with our obeying the law. So
why are you by your actions telling them that it does? Verse 15,
he said, we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles. He said, all of us apostles are
Jews. We were all born Jews. We were
brought up under the commandments of the law. We know these. We're not strangers to it. We're
not strangers to the danger of the law, we're not strangers
to the bondage of the law. Verse 16, now read this carefully
with me. Verse 16 says, knowing that a
man is not justified by the faith of Jesus Christ, but by the works
of the law. Even we have believed in the
law, that we might be justified by the deeds of the law and not
by the faith of Jesus Christ. For by the works of the law shall
all flesh be justified." Isn't that what the world believes? That's not what this verse, that's
not what the whole book says. It's not what the verse says,
not what the chapter says, not what the book says, not what
the book says. And I pray God would open men and women's eyes
to that. I really do. It is so crystal clear after
God opens a sinner's eyes. That's when it becomes crystal
clear. After God opens a sinner's eyes. Verse 16 says, Knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law. The reason a sinner could never
be justified by the works of the law, by obeying God, is because
no sinner could ever obey Him perfectly. That's the reason.
No sinner could ever obey Him perfectly, not only in deed,
but in thought and in motive of the heart. It's impossible.
And that's what He demands. That's what he demands. God is
holy. He's holy. What that means is
he must do right. It does not mean he would prefer
to do right or it is in his nature to do right. It means he has
to do right. He's holy. He's perfect. And
that's what he demands. And the truth of the matter is,
sin is mixed with all that we do. It's literally mixed with
all that we do. I love that old man, that old
writer, wrote that poem, I can't pray but I sin. I can't preach
but I sin. I can't do anything without painting
it by the sin of this flesh. Sin is mixed with all that we
do. Look with me at Romans 7. Romans 7 verse 18 says, and this
is the Apostle Paul, he said, For I know that in me that is
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present
with me. But how to perform that which
is good I find not. It is not possible. I wish I
did. I wish I did. But he said it's just not possible.
Not in this flesh. Not in this flesh alone. So our
trying to obey God's law can and will never justify us. Never. Go with me over to Acts
chapter 13. Acts 13 verse 38 says, Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified
from all things. from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. It's just not possible. It is just not possible. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, He is
made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. I need wisdom. I don't have any. But if I have Him, I have all
wisdom. I need righteousness. I don't have any. But if I have
Him, I have all righteousness. I need to be set apart from this
wicked world, this wicked lump of sin. I need to be set apart
for holy use. And that's not possible with
me. But He is my sanctification. I'm set apart in Him. And I need
to be redeemed. I need to be paid for in full. He paid the price. He paid every
bit of it. Colossians 2 says you are complete in Him. You are absolutely complete in
Him. So go with me back to Galatians
2. Galatians 2 verse 16 says, Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. That means it's his faith. That's what it means. It means
it belongs to him. It means it comes to us from
him. And it is performed in us by
Him. The faith of Jesus Christ. What that means is we can't take
any of the credit for believing. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you'll be saved. That's the truth. I'm telling
you that's the truth. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. With man it's impossible. Can't
take any of the credit for it. It's the faith of Christ. Our
belief is just the result of His work. It's the result of
Him giving what belongs to Him and working in us what He wants
us to do. That's all it is. Hebrews 12
says He's the author of it, He's the finisher of it. So verse
16 says, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of
the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed
in Jesus Christ. And this is what we have believed.
Verse 16 says that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. We believe in the faith of. Does that make sense? We believe
in the faith of. The faith of Christ. I believe
in faith. I believe without faith it's
impossible to please God. And all my stock is in his faith. It's not mine, it's his. It's
the faith. So verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by
the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even
we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by
the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by
the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Now just in case this is not
clear, just in case this is still a little muddy, let me illustrate
this. There are two people. One has
lived a life of absolute sin. I mean sin in every way, shape,
and form. He's a murderer. He's stolen. I can't stand thieves. I just
can't stand it. He's a liar. I can't stand liars. He's an addict. He's everything
that a man ought not to be. The other one has gone to church
since the day he was born. He has truly tried to give his
life to helping others. Do you know people like that?
I mean, they're the real deal. They're the real deal. That man
tries to take the low road, and he constantly is giving away
the high road. Honesty. Policy number one is honesty
with that man. He's always paid his bills on
time. He's never cheated on his taxes.
He's just an honest, non-confrontational, kind man. Which one of those
two men are going to be allowed to enter into glory into the
presence of God Almighty? Which one of those two men? Without the blood of Jesus Christ,
neither one of them. I mean neither one of them. This guy may be better than that
guy, but he's not good enough. He's just not good enough. How good does a person have to
be to be in the presence of God? The flesh thinks that there's,
you know when you play golf, you get a mulligan or two? That's
what the flesh thinks. Well, we get a couple of do-overs.
No. In order to be in the presence
of God, we have to be as good as God. I mean, the record has
to be spotless, perfect. So without the blood of Christ,
which one of those two men are going to get to enter into His
glory? Neither one of them. Now, if the blood of Christ has
been poured on both of them, Which one of those two men will
be rejected from the presence of God? Neither one of them. Neither one of them. Verse 16
says, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, Even we have believed
in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of
the law shall no flesh be justified. But if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor."
What he's saying is, if I acknowledge that salvation is in the blood
of Christ alone, but I still try to add my works to it. That's what he's saying. Will
God still accept me on those grounds? If I say it's by the
blood of Christ alone but I still have to add my own works to it.
He said in verse 17 at the end of it, God forbid. God forbid. Verse 18, for if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. If I start looking to myself
instead of looking to Christ, I'm in the wrong. That's what
he's saying, I'm in the wrong. In Christ alone, there is no
sin. There's none. Outside of Christ
alone, I'm a transgressor against God. It's that simple. Verse
19 says, For I through the law, according to the law, in agreement
with the law. I through the law am dead to
the law that I might live unto God. How is that possible? What
he's saying is the law agrees that I'm dead to the law. The
law is fine with it. I'm dead to the law that I might
live unto God. How is that possible? When all are born under the curse
of the law and sinners stay under that curse till the day they
die. How can I be dead to the law? Verse 20 says, I am crucified
with Christ. I am crucified with Christ. He
satisfied the law that was against me when he hung on that tree. That's the law said. He's dead. The law put Gabe Stoniker
on that tree in Christ. And God's holy law smoked Gabe
Stoniker. God's law said he had to die. God's law killed him. And God's
law said he's dead. He's dead. He's dead. He put away all my
transgression to that law on that tree. When he did that, the law said,
I died. God said, I live. When he did
that, that's what the law said. The law said, Gabe Stoniker is
dead. God said, Gabe Stoniker is alive. Verse 20 says, I am
crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. Now in Romans 7, he said, I know
in me. That is, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. But he said, I'm not talking
about my flesh here. I said, that my flesh died with Christ. And he said, now Christ liveth
in me. And 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. He said, there is a new creation.
right here. There's a brand new creation. There's a new man. Let me show
you quickly here in 2 Corinthians 5. It's just back a few pages. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17 says, If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. Yes, this flesh is wicked, yes.
This flesh is sinful, but there's a new creation in there. Christ lives in a sinner. Christ lives in His child. And it says, if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new, brand new. So back over in Galatians
2 verse 20 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 who loved me
and gave himself for me. I'm alive only, only because
of His love and His sacrifice for me. That's the only reason. That is the only reason. So verse
21, He said, I do not frustrate the grace of God. I do not disesteem. I do not despise. I don't bring
to naught. I don't make nothing out of the
grace of God. I said it first. That's what
he said. I said it first. I highly esteem it. I love it. It's my all. I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. And Christ is not dead in Bain.
He's not. Christ did not die in Bain. Thank God he did not die in Bain. Did he accomplish what he set
out to accomplish? Did he die? Yes. Did he accomplish
what he set out to accomplish? Yes. I'll close with this. Go with me over to Romans 8. Romans 8 verse 1 says, There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death. 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. Verse 33 says, Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Verse 38 says, For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor death, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." You
know what that tells us? He did not die in vain. He did not die in vain. He redeemed. I love how Paul said, where sin
did abound. And I say, you know, our sin,
it just, oh, it abounds, it grows, and it grows. But he said, where
sin did abound, grace did much more abound. Grace just overtook
it, laid hold of it, covered it all in blood, and said, justify. Done. But don't I have to do? No, no, no. Done. It's done. Thank the Lord for that. Let's
stand together.