I appreciate so much my dear
friend, your pastor, inviting me to come. I encourage you to
pray for your pastor. Pray for him. As pastors, believe
me, we need it. I thank God for this place. Thank
the Lord that he's raised up an assembly. Let's take our Bibles. I want
you to turn with me back to the passage that Brother Sammy read
there in Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2. The Lord has commanded, given
instruction to his preachers, comfort ye. Comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord." And this morning, I want us to deal with the great
subject and truth, really continuing where we just were, this great
subject of justification. I cannot imagine, I just don't
know how there could be anything this side of glory. It would be more needful to be
understood by the child of God than to know the sure ground
of acceptance before God Almighty in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Tell me, as I said just a few
minutes ago, you tell me one more time. Tell me again. I know you just talked about
it in this message before, how that the righteous are not going
to be removed. But you tell me again. Tell me
again, because in that day, that's all I want to know. Tell me again
how. should man be just with God. Now, for my comfort, and for
your comfort, and for your confidence by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
for eternal salvation, and let me ask you this, what more does
a believer want to know? Tell me how God has saved me
by His grace. Tell me. I know something about
myself. Tell me again about being justified
before God. The Apostle Paul said in Galatians
2.20, He made this statement in that
verse, he said, but the life which I now live in the flesh. Now here we are this morning.
Now we're physically alive. Here we are. We've gotten up
and hopefully had a good night's rest. We're sitting here this
morning. And here we are, alive, physically
alive, living. And we're listening. We're listening
to the gospel of Christ, the gospel of God. And here we are. And we're thinking and we're
listening and we're wanting to hear. The life that I now live
in the flesh, that life of being justified right now before God
while we're living. I want to hear again about that
life. Justification. Now, there's a
word we've heard. You've heard it. You've heard
it preached on. You've used it. If somebody were
to say to you now, Justification. Tell me what that means. And
a believer would sit there, and I remember Brother Henry said
one time, he said, folks in the world, religious people, they'll
ask God's people, what do you believe? What do you believe?
And he said, God's people, sincerely, They're trying to think. They're
thinking, now I know the answer to this question. I should know
it. And they're struggling, trying
to go, now where do I start? Where do I begin? And they're
trying to explain something. And they have a hard time explaining
it. But when somebody stands up for
30, 45 minutes and they're prepared and they've They've got God's
message, they've got God's Word, and they're speaking from God's
Word. And a believer listens as they set forth what God's
Word has to say, and a believer says, that's what I believe I
can have. Justification. What does that
mean? Well, I can tell you this, justification
is something that is done for me, and not by me. Justification is something that
Almighty God must do for me because I cannot justify myself. But you say, what is it? What
is justification? It is the declaration by God Almighty of innocence. Before God's law, before God,
the non-imputation of sin, before God justified No charge. Never been a charge. Never been
a charge. Never. Never a charge? Never. Justify. Based totally upon the merit
of Christ's blood. for them, for God's elect, without
any work of self-righteousness on the recipient's part. God
Almighty justifies His people totally, completely by the grace
of Almighty God. We looked at a moment ago, by
grace by blood, by faith, by works, by words, and man has
nothing to glory in save Christ and Him crucified, justified. I've used this illustration before.
It's the best that I can remember for me. I've told you this. I'm going to tell you again because
I like to be reminded of it because it meant so much to me. I was living in Franklin, Tennessee.
A bunch of guys was going to rob
a bank. And they did. Robbed a bank. And the cops got them surrounded
right there in Brentwood, Tennessee. And just had a big gun battle
going on. And I mean, buddy, the bullets
were flying and chaos. And a police officer, a woman
police officer, drove up onto the scene to give assistance,
didn't realize that she pulled up right there close to one of
the bank robbers. And the bank robber saw her,
knew that she didn't see him, and he came out from behind his
hiding place and was running and was going to execute her
right there in her car. And buddy, when he came out from
behind his hiding place, he was cut down. in a hail of bullets. They shot him and killed him
on the spot. And I was listening to the account
a few days after that, a week or so after that, and said that
a judge had looked at all of the evidence and had ruled the shooting justified. No charge. They were not guilty. They had never been guilty. had no charge against them, justified. I thought, I like that. No charge. No charge. Now, I want us to consider what
God Almighty has to say about justification, about being justified
before God. And that's the whole issue right
here. Justified before who? Justified
before Him. I'm going to have to stand before
God. I know that. I don't understand it all, but
I know that every man, every woman, we shall all stand before
God, before the judgment seat of Christ. I know that. And I
know that whatever He rules, His judgment, It's right. I want to know right now. The
Lord's given me a heart. I want to know what does God
have to say about justification. Well, here's the first thing
I know concerning that life that Paul says that I now live in
the flesh. First of all, I know that it
is a life lived right now in the flesh justified without the
deeds of the law. Verse 16 starts off, and this
is what it says, ìKnowing that a man is not justified by the
works of the law.î We heard this past week in one
of the messages, I think Brother Thomas wanted to set it. He said,
ìWhen we start talking about the works of the law, how much
does that include? But the works of the law is anything
that you think that you did to justify yourself before God. That's the works of the law.
Obedience on your behalf by the works of the law. You said, well,
I know this, that I'm right before God because I walked down an
aisle. Anybody can walk down an aisle. I did this or I did that knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law. The law of God demands absolute
obedience, perfect obedience, and any deviation, any deviation,
I tell people, well, if you feel that what you did is what made
you accepted before God, you better make sure that before,
during, and after, since, you've never deviated one iota in obedience
before God. You better make sure if you're
resting in something that you did, you better make sure that
Almighty God can say concerning you, I'm well pleased with your
work. And it ain't going to happen.
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law because
we in ourselves are sinners. The soul that sinneth is going
to die. Therefore, knowing according
to God's word that all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God, it's absolutely clear, according to God's word, by the works of
the law shall no flesh be justified." You can't do anything to justify
yourself. Justification, remember, is something
done for you, not by you. The gospel. declares that we're
complete in Him. And by experience, we know something
about our frailty. A believer is absolutely convinced
by the works of the law, I'm not justified before God. I know
something about myself. I know that. I know that. For
God Almighty to say concerning me, no charge, no guilt, innocent,
perfect, holy, justified. No charge at all. It wasn't because
of something I did. Secondly, I know concerning the
life, that we now live in the flesh. It is a life being justified
by Christ, by His work, by His character, by His faith, by His
obedience alone. being the basis, being the cause,
the merit of our justification. Now, listen. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Tell me about a faith. Tell me about a faith that God
is absolutely pleased with. Tell me about a faith that God
Almighty accepts on the basis of its own merit. Verse 16 says, ìKnowing that
a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ.î The Apostle Paul
reiterates this truth in verse 20. He says, 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. The life that we now
live in the flesh, We live knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ is
our head. He is our surety. He is our representative. He is our life. Before Almighty
God, and He, by His merit and His obedience, established righteousness
wherein we stand. is the basis. He is the reason of our justification. It is by the faith of the Son
of God, by His loyalty, He came into this world made of a woman,
made under the law, the God-man. I know, I know. The Lord Jesus Christ is God
Almighty. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. The fullness. Father, Son, and
Spirit. There is the fullness of the
Godhead. United with humanity. And the man Christ Jesus, filled with the Spirit of God,
given the Spirit, given Him without measure, and He walked in perfect faith. Now, I'm going to tell you something. He, being God, knew the will
of God. And as man perfectly walked according
to his father's will, his father's purpose, his father's demands,
he's the servant, he's God's servant, and he walked this earth
as the representative, the federal head of all of his elect, and
by his perfect faith, the one that the Father says, we saw
it said a moment ago, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. He said, I do. Only, always,
those things that please My Father. He prayed, Father, if it be Your
will, that this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not My will,
but Thy will be done. He walked in obedience. before His Father, and He satisfied
every demand for obedience, justice. It is by His faith, His faith,
that we are justified before God. Now, listen to me. We fell
in Adam and lost our fellowship with Almighty God because of
sin. And what we need, we need righteousness,
obedience before God, and by virtue of our union with Him,
being one with Him, in electing grace, what He did, we did. Who He obeyed, being in union
with Him, We obeyed. What He suffered, we suffered
in Him. Christ and His people, in the
eyes of God Almighty, God's holy law, are one. Being one with Him, let me ask
you this, can there be any greater hope? comfort before God Almighty. Can there be any greater comfort
than to know that according to God's Word, that what the head
does, the body does. His faith, His obedience, His fidelity,
His righteousness, imputed to us. We know that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ. 1 John 4, 7, Herein is our love
made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment,
because as He is, So are we in this world. He is the Lord, our righteousness. And based solely upon Christ's
accomplished mediatorial work, His faith, His faithfulness,
God declares the sinner in Christ, he who trusts Him, just. Justified. Eternally justified. In time, we find out about it. In time, He reveals it to us. But to realize that Almighty
God, before we were ever created, before there was ever a world,
in the mind and purpose and will of Almighty God, God knew His
people. Knew them in mercy. Do them in
Christ. Chose them in Christ. Put them
in Christ. Brother Scott used to say, where
God puts a man, that's where God keeps him. That's where God
keeps him. We're not justified by the works
of the law. But we're justified by the faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Thirdly, the life that we now
live in the flesh, we live by faith in Christ. The Scripture talks of the faith
of Christ, that's perfect faith. And our faith in Christ. Now
we just considered just a moment ago, the man is justified by
the faith of Jesus Christ. But the way that we know it,
how can I know that? Tell me how God Almighty reveals
that blessed truth to me. The way that we enjoy and know
and believe this blessed truth is by faith given us from above. Now just listen to what the scripture
says, because we know by faith. We know that it is the faith
of the Lord Jesus Christ We know it's His obedience, we know it's
His righteousness that robes us, that righteousness by which
we stand before God in Him. We know it's not our faith in
Christ that justifies us, it's the faith of Christ, the Son
of Man that justifies us. Faith in Him receives it, believes
it, that we've been justified by his faithfulness, imputed
to us, but listen to the scriptures. 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, that
we might know, that we might perceive and understand, 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. This is what we know. We know
that we're justified by His faith. On our behalf, He came into this
world. to seek and to save that which
is law. They need righteousness. He came
and established righteousness for them. And the way we know
it is we believe Him. We believe in Him. Lord, You are the Lord our righteousness. Here's the fourth thing I know.
The life that we now live, right now, in the flesh, is life that
gives Christ all the honor. Verse 17 and 18. 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. Now what did he just say? This
is what he said. If we say that we seek to be
justified by Christ and are found trying to add our own works of
self-righteousness, Paul asks this question, is Christ, therefore
Christ the minister of sin? Are we not saying, the apostle
says, that his righteousness is not enough? Now let me tell
you what this world says. They say that salvation is by
grace, by the gracious offer of God. And all you've got to
do to make that gracious offer, they say it's by grace. It's
by grace God offers you. But you have to accept it, to
make it perpetual, make it real. If we add our work, our choice,
if we make our doings, then we've polluted it. God forbid, if we
say that God freely saves us by grace in all we have to do,
To make it effectual for us is to add our free will position. Then we're found sinners, transgressors,
unconverted. God's people don't believe that. For I, verse 19, through the
law, through the satisfied, the law of Christ, for I, through
the law, satisfied by our Lord and Savior, For I, through His
obedience, satisfaction, that satisfaction that's revealed
in the gospel of God's grace, that gospel that reveals that
I'm justified freely by His grace, by the faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ. For I, through the law of Christ,
His obedience, His honor, His grace, I'm dead to the law that
demands my work to satisfy that law. I'm dead to the law's demand
for works, for my justification. Christ is my life. Believers in Christ are dead
to the law's demand or obedience, they are dead to its penalty.
What do you mean, Paul? He says in verse 20, I am crucified
with Christ. I, through the law of Christ,
am dead to the law that I might live under God. I am crucified
with Christ. Spiritually, when He died, I
died. There He, hanging on that cross,
made sin for His own, for His people. He said, I laid down
my life for the sheep. He was dying for somebody. And as my representative and
substitute, mediator, surety, me in Him, I'm crucified with
Him. What He did was for His people. He obeyed the law and suffered
its penalty at Calvary. When He was buried in that tomb,
when He was raised from the dead, when He ascended into heaven,
when He was seated in the heavenlies, we were and are in Him. You say, I don't understand all
that. I don't either. But if the Scripture sets forth
that we're seated with Him in the heavenlies, you know where
His people are? They're seated with Him in the
heavenlies. And right now we live in this
life, in this flesh, right now, believing God. When He died, the totality, of
the debt of our sin was born in His body. The totality of
God's wrath because of that sin was spewed out upon Him, and
He made an end to it. Sin is cast as far as the east
is from the west behind God's back. And our sins, the debt,
are never going to be remembered against us. again. I am crucified with Christ. I'm
dead to the law, to the law's demand for me to obey it for
justification. Paul said, I'm dead to that.
I'm crucified with Christ. God Almighty has already dealt
with me. He dealt with me in a substitute. He dealt with me in my surety. He dealt with me in His Lamb. God Himself provided Himself
a Lamb. And He put me in that Lamb. And
God dealt with me in Him. And God Almighty is not going
to demand payment again. God's just. I'm dead to the law. Crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
He said, I live. There's a new me there. I live
an alive me, a spiritually alive me in regeneration. A new man, a new spirit, a new
will, a new love, a new heart was given and right now experiences
and believes What God Almighty said He's done without any works
on my part. He did this for me and told me
about it. He told me about it and I heard
His voice. And I believe Him. He's given
me a heart to follow Him. And to follow Him, believe in
Him, hear in Him. Dead to the law, yet alive in
Christ. Paul said, yet not I. Not that
old I. Now, there's an old man that's
still with me. I know that. I know that. That old man struggles against
that new man. I just... Times that I try, I try. I try. I try. And I know, I know I want to. I want to talk. I want to talk
to the Lord. I want to talk to Him. I want
to bare my heart to Him. I want to talk to Him. I want
to tell Him things that are on my heart. I want to talk to Him
about things. I do. And there's an old man
there that struggles to get that new man. And that old man, I'm
just sharing my heart with you, okay? That's just the way it
is with me. That old man wants to talk about anything else,
things that I hadn't thought about in years. Yeah, but what
about this? I heard Brother Bruce Gresham
say to me one time, he said when he was in school, he said one
of his professors says, have you ever noticed how many times
you think of polar bears when you try to pray? He said, polar
bears? He said, yeah. Things that you
hadn't thought about in years. Just, there it is right there.
Let's talk about that. Well, yeah, but what about this?
You remember what you've got to do tomorrow. That old man
I know is there. And that old man is not changed.
And that old man is not reformed. What flesh is flesh. And that's
all it's ever going to be. It's not cleaned up. It's not
made better. Paul says, nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, not that old man. But Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, live right here on this earth, I live by the
faith of the Son of God, knowing that that life that I now live
in the flesh is grounded, established totally by His merit, by His
obedience, by His death. who loved me, eternally loved
me, who loved me in particular, and all that He's chosen to love,
that immutable love, according to His purpose and grace, who
loved me and gave Himself for me, again, in particular, particular
redemption, That's what we believe. We believe that when the Lord
Jesus Christ died, He died in particular for a people. I'm dead to the law. I've been
crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. New man.
Not that old man reformed. But the life that I live now
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loves me.
gave Himself for me, I do not frustrate the grace
of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, by my works, then Christ is dead in vain. I don't frustrate,
I don't cast away, I don't deny the blessed truth that salvation
is by the grace of God. I don't frustrate the grace of
God. If righteousness comes by man's obedience to the law, there's no reason then for Christ
to come to be made sin, for the Father to justly deal with Him
as the Redeemer. If righteousness comes by the
law, the law is here. If righteousness comes by the
law, then obey it. Do and live if righteousness
come by the law. But if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain because no one is going
to be saved. What do you mean? By the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified. If righteousness come
by the law, Christ has died in vain. If righteousness comes
by the law and if that's the establishment, then there's going
to be people in hell that Christ shed blood for. They died. He paid their debt,
but he couldn't save them because they had to obey the law to make
that effectual. Salvation. is by the grace of God. Justification is God Almighty's
declaration of innocence. No charge. No charge. Never been
a charge. No charge. Justify. Justification, according to God's
Word, is based on one thing. Justified by the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ. His life and His death. His life,
His blood. Faith in Christ believes that. Justified by His faith. Lord, teach this to our hearts
again. We might rest in You for Christ's
sake. Christ's honor. Amen.