The second chapter of Galatians, and I would like to begin reading
at verse 11. Now, if you're familiar, you'd
say, well, that's an odd place to start. Well, I need an illustration
out of that verse, and the one or two that follow it. And so I want you to be familiar
with it when I make reference to it. Galatians chapter 2, and we're
going to begin at verse 11. Let us pray. Lord God of heaven and earth, we bow as much as we know how and as
much as your grace will enable. We bow our proud, stubborn heart
before your throne. We own who you tell us in your
word that you are, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You are God,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Lord, we gather in this house
of worship that is dedicated to the honor and glory of your
precious Son and our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. We're not here to worship man,
but the God-man, Christ Jesus. We're not here to read the newspaper. Lord, we're here to read your
holy word. But if you do not put your blessing
upon it, it will not help us in the least,
but may indeed harm us. We beg that you would anoint
your word as it is read and preached, not only in this place, but the
world over this day, wherever this gospel is proclaimed. May your power be joined with
it. And we pray it especially for
ourselves. Many things interrupt our thoughts
as we gather to worship at any time we wish to name. It is minds
that are occupied with other things, and we beg you for aid
and help to put those things aside and to give us the want
to and the ability to truly listen to your precious word as it is
read and preached and taught this day. We beg these things
in the merit and blood of our Savior Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen. Now in verse 11 of Ephesians
chapter 2, Paul and Barnabas and Titus are in Antioch of Pisidia And
Peter, the apostle Peter, whose normal territory is in Jerusalem,
has come for a visit. So we read at verse 11, But when
Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, that is, publicly,
because he was to be blamed. For before certain came from
James, James considered the chief elder in the church in Jerusalem,
seemingly. He did eat with the Gentiles. And when they were come, he withdrew
and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. There were many Jews. Jerusalem
was a Jewish city. And these people, almost all
of them were Jews except some proselytes that had joined the
Jews' religion and became worshipers of the Jewish God. But these
people, some of whom God saved, no question about it. The apostles
were Jews until God saved them. And now they are believers. But
these persons from Jerusalem who came for purposes other than
to honor God are here being described by Paul. And when they come to
Antioch, and Peter is there, and Paul is there, and Barnabas
and Titus, And Peter changes his behavior. Let's read it on.
Alright, verse 13. And the other Jews dissembled
likewise with him, with Peter, insomuch that even Barnabas was
carried away with their dissimulation. And when I saw that they walked
not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto
Peter before them all, if you, being a Jew, live after the manner
of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles
to live as do the Jews?" Until these people came from Jerusalem,
Peter was content to sit with anybody, eat with anybody, eat
anything. But all of a sudden, he's afraid. Verse 12 at the very end says,
"...fearing them which were of the circumcision." All right,
now let's read and see why Paul puts that in this letter to the
Galatians, and why God purposed that it be there. Verse 15. We who are Jews by nature and
not sinners of the Gentiles, 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. Now listen to me. If you have
faith in Christ, it is a holy gift from heaven. It's God's
gift. It does not entitle you to merit
anything. It's God's doing and not ours. So here we are told in verse 16, it is by the faith
of Jesus Christ, of or by, but not in. Our faith in Christ. is God's work in us before we
even know that we have it. 1 John 5.1 says it about as clearly
as words can put it, whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ
is born of God. And that birth, the new birth,
also called regeneration, that birth gives us in its act upon
us, gives us both repentance and faith. And you can't have
one of those without the other. And if you ever have it, you
cannot lose it. It's good forever. Forever. So it's called the faith of Jesus
Christ. Those of you that have Hawker
Commentary on the New Testament, you can look this up and he'll
explain it a lot better than I can. Then we read, following
in verse 16, Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not
by 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. For I through the law am dead
to the law that I might live unto God. Now verse 20, I am
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
lives in me. That's my title this morning,
Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, we would call that the Christian life. How do we
live that? I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Then verse 21,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
comes by the law, if any person can be acceptable to God by law
keeping or law obedience, then the death of Christ is the most
ridiculous thing in the world. If one human being can do that,
why can't all the race do it? You see what I mean? It makes
the death of Christ for nothing. And if God did that to his Son,
that would ruin his character. Therefore, it cannot possibly
be. Moses couldn't keep the Ten Commandments,
and God put them in his hands, written by our Savior on tablets. He went down the mountain and
found the Israelites naked and worshiping a golden calf. He
threw them down and broke them, and had to go back up Mount Sinai
to have another two of those tables made again. I through the law am dead to
the law that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me, and
the life which I now live in the flesh, listen carefully,
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me." All right, let's look at this section of Galatians chapter
2. The first thing I wish to try
to do, if I could, and the older I get, the harder it
is to find where you're supposed to be and
what text and how to describe what you are trying to get across. It doesn't get any easier. It
gets harder and harder. First thing I'm trying to do
this morning, you might relate this more to verse 21 than to
verse 20, but they're very much connected. Why must we continue
Week after week, day after day, why must we continually insist
that salvation is by grace alone and not by works? It looks like
if you could say it plainly one time, it would be enough. But
it isn't. You have to do it over and over
and over again. And one reason for that is that salvation
by works is so persistent. It never goes away. There's a
new crop to take the crop that's just passed. It's universal. It's everywhere on this globe.
It's not just in America. It's in every country of this
world. in both hemispheres, in all places,
and all the time, and among all people, no matter who they are,
or where they've come from, or where they live. Look back, just
if you've got your Bible open, look back to the verses that
we read about Peter coming to Antioch, And the strong temptation
by these Jews who were still pretty much Pharisees, they had
fooled the pastor James at Jerusalem, and he sent them up here. But
they're up here to do more harm than good were it not for the
Apostle Paul, were it not for God using Paul to address the
issue in this situation. My soul, he was dear to our Lord. He was one of the most frequently
referred to apostles in the four Gospels. And yet here he is,
caving in to fear and taking back publicly what
an Orthodox Jew would do anywhere he went. He wouldn't eat Gentile
food. He wouldn't touch a Gentile. He wouldn't eat without ceremonially
washing his hands and all these kinds of things. Peter had already
seen, when this took place, Peter had already seen in this very
same book of Scripture, I'm sorry, in the book of Acts, to which
this refers as well, Peter has already, he was staying at in
Joppa at Simon the Tanner's house when the Roman centurion, in
a vision, God said for him to send to that man's house and
bring back a certain fellow. So he sent servants to Simon
the Tanner's house. And in the meantime, Peter is
up on the rooftop, which was like an outdoor sitting area
and so forth, and he's mulling some things over. Now, God's
fixing to send him to a Gentile's house to preach the gospel. Now, how's he going to convince
Peter that he's the one that's going to go do it? He showed him in a vision, in
a sheet, all manner of animals that could be eaten, many of
which were not to be eaten by Jews. And God said to Peter,
rise, kill, and eat. Peter said, there's never been
any unclean food that's passed these lips. Well, there's plenty of sin that
got in somewhere else then. And it happened twice. And at the
end of the second time, somebody's knocking on the door. And it's
the servants of this Roman centurion. And Peter goes with them and
preaches the gospel to this Roman centurion. And he's got a great
number of people gathered at his house. And Peter preaches
to them. And God comes down in the power
of the Holy Ghost and saves those people, including the Roman centurion. Because before, you can't believe
until you hear the gospel. This man was a Jewish proselyte,
and therefore was still worshiping on an Old Testament basis. When
Christ died and the veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom,
the Jewish religion is a dead religion. And it still is to
this day, and there are many others just like it, some of
which call themselves Christians. If it ain't the Christ of the
Bible you're preaching, you're out of business. You are not
legitimate. I don't care if your name is
Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian or Catholic, anything, it don't
make no difference. It just doesn't matter. If Christ is not here, you shouldn't
be here, nor should I. Salvation by works seems so helpful. Now, underline the word seems.
So helpful and so practical. It causes people to give more
money. It causes them to volunteer and
do things. You've got plenty of friends
that are motivated by this. You ought to know exactly what
it is. And yet, they do not know Christ. And Christ does not know
them. Those people in Matthew chapter
7 that did so many things in his name, cast out devils, did
many wonderful works and so forth. Our Lord said, depart from me,
you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. You claimed, you professed
to know me, but I never knew you. Now listen, all of God's
elect, not only have belonged to Christ since old eternity,
but he's known them by name. John 10 is so explicit on that
particular aspect of things, it ought to be just second nature. He calls his own sheep by name. He's not trying to figure out
who's his. He came here to die for and to redeem and save all
that the Father gave Him in that precious covenant of grace. Some people say that if you preach
free grace and no works, it will encourage people to be careless.
It might even cause them to sin. Well, if you're not a believer,
you can't even drink water without sinning. You understand what I'm saying?
Breathing God's air is a sin. Well, what about preaching rewards?
That's a high note in today's religion. Some people say it
causes people to be zealous and work harder. Well, I know one
thing, this is a sure and certain way to increase what we find
plenty of in our Bibles, the tribe called the Pharisees. And they ain't all men. Men and
women. You tell people that there's
a mansion waiting for them in glory if they serve God. Some of them will work, you know,
unbelievably long and hard and laboriously. But you just remember,
if that's your method, if that's where you're headed, the day
you leave this world, you're still going to be asking yourself,
have I done enough? Have I done enough? I'll tell
you who's done enough. Our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. He's not only done enough, He's
done everything. There just ain't nothing left
for you to do except praise Him and worship Him and try to honor
Him and stand up for Him when your friends begin to rave about
their Jesus who is no Jesus at all. Salvation by works. is natural
to fallen men and women. When you talk about the fall
of man, I bet you a good high percentage of people in today's
religion think you're talking about the time of year called
the fall. Because they know nothing about
another fall that took place in the Garden of Eden. At the
very beginning of the history of this world. And we must understand this or
we can't understand grace. This is the key to the gospel.
How can God save us by substitution if we're not made guilty by substitution? And in our Bibles, in Romans
chapter 5, starting at verse 12 through verse 19, we have
three things in front of us in that passage, and that is we
have representation, we have substitution, and what's the
third one? You've got to help me, I've lost
it. Oh my goodness, let me see if
I've got it in my notes. Well, I didn't put it that way,
but since we're close by, I'm going to do you better than Doug
did us this morning in the Bible class. I hope just one reference. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Let me read you just a short
section of verses beginning at verse 45 in 1 Corinthians 15. And here the terminology that
is used in Romans 5 beginning at verse 12 through 19 is taken
up here by the same apostle that is the human author of the book
of Romans. Alright, verse 45, 1 Corinthians 15. And so it is written, the first
man, Adam. Adam is the first man and the
first Adam. He represents the whole human
race. When he sinned against God, we
sinned in him. In the book of Hebrews, I believe
it is, I don't remember the chapter, but it's talking about Abraham
offering tithes to Melchizedek. That Melchizedek is Christ, and
we are told that Levi was in the loins of Abraham when he
paid that tithe to Melchizedek. And the very same thing is true
when it comes to the Old Testament and to Adam. And when you have
a passage like this in 1 Corinthians 15, it makes it all the more
important. How be it that was not first,
which is spiritual, but that which is natural. Adam's fall
was a fall of spiritual death. He died spiritually. And every human birth that's
ever been recorded From, oh my goodness, my brain is really
working this morning. From Cain to the present hour
and beyond us to the end of time, every human being, man, woman,
boy, girl, we're all spiritually dead until we're raised to life
in Christ. Adam is called the first Adam,
Christ is called the last Adam. Adam in the Old Testament is
called the first man, and Christ is called the second man, and
we have that terminology now right in front of us. Let me
read it. Howbeit that was not first, verse 46, which is spiritual,
but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthy. That's Adam in the Garden
of Eden. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. As is the earthy, such are they
also that are earthy, and as is the heavenly, such are they
also that are heavenly. As we have borne the image of
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Therefore, to be an Adam, to
be the offspring of Adam, is to be in a fallen state, spiritually
dead. But to be in Christ, the second
man and the last Adam, is to be free. It's to be holy. It's to be righteous. It's to
be converted, regenerated, born again. But it is more widespread than
you can possibly imagine that people have Bibles that they
never read. And we ought not be surprised
because that's the way we were, and to some measure we still
are. Our Lord said, and we'll not
turn to this, in Matthew 22, 29, in regard to salvation by works grows out of ignorance. You do err not knowing the scripture
nor the power of God. You don't know what this book
says, nor do we know. It is God who must work in us
both in the willing and in the doing of His good pleasure. If
we are to have good works, it must be God's work in us, and
He must give us what He requires of us, or we will never see it. Here are several things that,
generally speaking, people do not know. The first one was that
having to do with the fall of man. The second one has to do
with What the Scriptures say concerning the holiness of God's
law. People talk about keeping the
Ten Commandments, for example. Well, don't worry about that.
If you can keep one of them, you've got it made. But you can't. We cannot keep them. And this
book explicitly states that. In John 7, 19, our Lord told
a bunch of Pharisees, that prided themselves, you can't imagine
how many ways they flaunted in people's faces the fact that
they claimed to keep the law. And our Lord said to them in
the plainest of words, you do not keep the law. You say you do, you tell people
you do, but you don't. You don't. The third thing about this ignorance is how God can be just and still justify the ungodly. How God can remain holy and justify
ungodly sinners. Sinners that don't deserve it,
who have no merit before God. How can He do this? Because Christ
lives in us in the grace, the gospel, and the mercy of God. That's the only way we can live.
We don't live on what we do and what we deserve and merit. My
soul, if we did, we'd already be in hell. Fourth thing in regard to this
ignorance that people do not know, we do not know what the new birth
is. We think it's something we do.
And it's something that Christ does. It doesn't say born of man. That's
how we got in this world, being born of man. But the new birth
is being born of God. And it's a spiritual resurrection. And it cannot ever be lost. A
divine nature is given us. If that wasn't the case, if the
new birth did not put within us a desire to honor and glorify
God and worship Him, then there'd be no such thing as a battle
going on inside of us between the old man and the new man.
But it is a battle. Let's see, it's 2 Corinthians
5. I told you he wasn't going to turn, so I'm not even going
to tell you the verse. I'm just going to read it to you. I shouldn't
have told you the 2 Corinthians part. Therefore, if any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away and
all things are become new. Now, if that ain't the new birth,
I don't know what it is. Now, some people say, well, this
passage is not talking about regeneration or the new birth.
I don't care what it's talking about. The statement still stands.
It's as true as if it were in the middle of a hundred other
statements of similar kind. Why it's put where it is? I just say God put it there. So that's not a hang-up for me. I don't know if it is for you.
One more point on this explaining why we have to continually try
to kill salvation by works is that it feeds on pride. It feeds on it. And wherever
religion is that tries to use the desire for pride,
and therefore they encourage it in their hearers, you ought
to be proud of what you do for God. I don't think that's right. People simply, ourselves included
now, if it weren't for God's grace, none of us could have
the first right thought about God, let alone deeds. People cannot plead guilty when
it comes to their soul, and throw themselves on the mercy
of the court, and in this case, on the mercy of God. But we can't
do it. Why? Because we're so proud. Let the fellow down there that
can't hire a lawyer, let him throw himself on the mercy of
the judge. And if we've got enough good
works, we'll take our chance, you know, just standing on our
own. We don't want mercy. The problem is that we cannot
come to God on the same basis as paupers and publicans and
harlots. Yet the Lord Jesus said in Matthew
21, 31 I believe it is, He said, publicans, talking to Pharisees
now, publicans and harlots will enter the kingdom of God before
you. And what it truly means is, That
in their present state, these Pharisees won't see anything
concerning the kingdom of God because they ain't going. They're
going to be on those high-speed rail trains headed in the opposite
direction. I'm telling you, Newton said it for us. He said there's
three surprises he expects to see when he gets to heaven. He
says one of them is, there's some people that won't be there
that will surprise me. He said the second thing is,
there are some people that will be there that will surprise me. But he said the greatest surprise
of all is that a wicked captain of a slave ship is in glory. His biggest amazement is that
John Newton would be there. Now that's the right attitude.
That's the attitude that is produced by the grace of God in Christ. It's not natural to our human
nature. You remember in Luke chapter
15, we have Well, we have one parable, but
it's in three parts. It's three different stories.
And one of those is the prodigal son. Well, the older brother,
who denies that he's ever done anything wrong, and all of his
life he's tried to please his father, And he is incensed and
upset to no end when this prodigal comes home and the father kills
the fatted calf and the party's own, and he refuses to come. You see the difference? People God saves are prodigal
sons, one way or another. Or take chapter 18 in the Gospel
of Luke. There are two powerful stories
in that chapter alone that tell us this very thing. The first
one is the Pharisee and the publican in the temple. Pharisee just
tells God what all he's done for him and how happy he ought
to be that he's such a wonderful fellow. And that other guy won't
even so much as turn his eyes to heaven Oh, the Pharisee went
all the way down to the front, you know. He had to get close
to the altar, so to speak. But that publican wouldn't so
much as lift up his head. He's way back in the back, beating
himself on his chest, God be merciful to me, the sinner of
all sinners. Now, if that ain't what that
says, I don't know what it is. I think it is. I do think it
is. Well, that's the introduction. I want you to look at verse 20
in Galatians. The general rule of thumb for
those seeking God to bless them to honor them because of what
they do for Him. They basically say, if I am good
and serve God, He'll reward me with a mansion in heaven. And I tell you, that ain't how
it is. It's simply not how it is. Alright, we're going to Galatians
chapter 2, verse 20. I'm simply going to take it phrase
by phrase. I am crucified with Christ. As far as we can tell from the
New Testament, Saul of Tarsus was not there when Christ was
put to death. But that's neither here nor there.
The fact is, when he says, nevertheless, I am crucified with Christ, He
is speaking of it in a spiritual sense, not in a literal, physical
sense. Okay? You've got to make that
distinction now. Then he adds, yet not I, but
Christ lives in me. It's God living in us in His
Son. And this is the secret of the
Christian faith, that the Holy Son of God has taken an innumerable
number of people that make up His bride and His church, and
He's taking us into Himself. Christ lives in me. Well, preacher, I saw you do
so-and-so and it didn't look like he was there. Well, he's
still there. Christ lives in me. And then, after that, we can
say, and I live in him. You can find that in the Song
of Solomon. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, my earthly life, until it's done. The life that I now live in the
flesh. I live upon my own faith in the
Son of God." That won't get it. You'd think we got trouble now,
but you'd have some trouble then you couldn't handle. It is by the faith of the Son
of God. Hebrews 12.2 and Philippians
1.29 both make statements concerning Christ and these statements in
this verse of Scripture. Both of them tell us that faith
in Christ are gifts of God in Christ. Christ is said to be,
in Hebrews 12, the author and finisher. Not just the beginner,
but the ender of our faith. He keeps faith alive. Else it
would have long ago burned itself out. And then in Philippians,
let me see, I'll look it up for you. I'm fixing to read to you Philippians
1.29. For unto you, Paul is writing
to the Philippian believers, for unto you it is given in the
behalf of Christ. It's what? Given in the behalf
of Christ. Not only to believe on him, but
to suffer for his sake. How about that? If you believe,
you might also suffer. The martyrs sure did, but our
Savior's suffering was far more than all theirs put together.
Theirs was merely physical and His was spiritual. Christ's suffering was the suffering
of His soul. The martyrs suffered in their
bodies, in their minds. Well, let's see if I finished
that. 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 do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain, for nothing, nothing, nothing. All right, that's a plenty.