justified by Christ alone. Let's
read the 14th through the 17th verses here of Galatians chapter
2. So 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, live after the manner of Gentiles, and don't live like
the Jews, with their rituals and ceremonies and their dietary
laws, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? 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 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. God forbid. The argument that Paul, and the
confrontation that Paul had with Simon Peter over his dissimulation,
him and Barnas and other Jews, when they, through fear of the
Jews, came down, they went over and left the Gentiles. Went back
to acting like Jews again, like the Gentiles had something wrong
with them. But now I want you, and it takes a turn here in verse
15, talking about Jews by nature. Now I want you to remember that
Peter had not said a word against Christ. Not said a word against
Christ. Hadn't said a word against grace.
Hadn't said a word against justification by Christ alone. But it says
they walked not brightly according to the truth of the gospel. You
see, the truth of the gospel is there's no difference between
Jew or Gentile. That's the truth of the gospel.
We've proved before, both Jew and Gentile, all are under sin.
All are under sin. And Peter had already told all
the council at Jerusalem that the Gentiles were saved by the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. So here, by his actions, he's
denying the very gospel that he preached. And not only that,
the truth of the gospel is there is no difference between Jew
or Gentile in sin. You cannot turn your head for
the difference in any member of this human race, no matter
what color he is, no matter where he lives or what he does and
what he thinks. If God does not save a man and
do something for a man, you can't turn your heads for the difference
in what man by nature. If you ever understand what you
happen to do in the garden in the fall, then you'll see your
desperate need of Christ. All men are sinners without God,
without Christ. I don't care if they're propagated
sinners or they're what they call moral sinners. They're all
sinners. And then secondly, the truth
of the gospel is there's no difference in how they're justified before
God. None whatsoever in the way that God justifies the Jew. Or
the way he justifies the Gentiles, the way he's going to justify
a Jew. The way he justifies a Jew, the way he's going to justify
a Gentile. And that's why when Peter left the fellowship of
the Gentiles, when the Jews came, he by his action was saying that
there is a difference between Jew and Gentile. There is a difference. Now, two things I want you to
notice here that I didn't even notice myself until I began to
study for this. There's two things that change
here. First of all, Paul shows the purpose of the law. shows
us, begins to show us the purpose of the law. He begins to examine
it in light of a man seeking to be justified by it. And the
second thing is that justification by Christ alone through faith
alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I didn't notice it until
this time, but up to this point, the word law or faith has not
been mentioned in this epistle. Though I've talked about law
and I've talked about faith, but up to this point, neither
the word law or the law or faith hadn't been mentioned except
over here in verse 23 in chapter 1 when it says, they had heard
only that he would persecute us in times past, now preach
the faith which he was destroyed. The faith there is the message,
it's the gospel, it's the analogy of our faith, it's what we all
believe. But here, beloved, when he starts
talking about the faith, man is justified by the faith of
Christ, not by the works of the law. Here he talks about our
personal faith, the faith by which we believe. And he hadn't
mentioned the law up here, so this time the man is not justified
by the law, by the works of the law. And so these are two things
that the words hadn't even been mentioned. And what the apostle
does here, and I hope I can make it understandable, he brings
faith and he brings law. And he brings them face to face.
brings them right face-to-face. Here's faith and here's the law.
Here's faith and here's the law. Now, in doing this, as he brings
faith and the law face-to-face, we're brought to the issue of
justification. Now, what is justification? And
how is it obtained? Is it obtained by law or is it
obtained by faith? And that's why he starts dealing
with the law here and brings out faith. Which way are you
going to be justified? They both can't go together. Great law,
faith and law can't reign in the same heart. Because they're
opposites. They're opposed to one another.
So what is this thing of justification? How's it changed? Then, well,
let's go here now and he says, you know, verse 15. He says, We who are Jews by nature
and my sinners are the Gentiles. When he says we were introduced
by nature, that means Jewish born and Jewish bred. That's
why even today, Jews don't want you to marry a goy. You know
what a goy is? That's a gentile like me or you,
that's what they call it. And a Jewish, they're Jewish
born and Jewish bred. They're brought up under the
law. When they're eight days old, if they're boys, they're
circumcised. When they're 40 days old, they're taken to the
law and they're redeemed by blood, by blood offering, by blood sacrifice. Our Lord Jesus Christ done that.
Remember when they took him up to have him circumcised and took
him up to dedicate him? And because they was poor, they
could only afford turtle death to offer them as sacrifices?
And so they were brought up to observe and revere the law of
Moses. It was second nature to them.
This is their heritage. This is their culture. This is
their custom, their habit from childhood. And the Jew based
his whole salvation, his whole hope before God Almighty, on
the law of Moses. Not only just the Ten Commandments,
but on the priesthood, on the sacrifices, on the tabernacle. How many times did they say,
we have Moses, we believe Moses. Moses said this, Moses said that. They confronted Christ with Moses
over and over and over again. And so they, Paul said, I was
born a Pharisee of Pharisees. My mama was a Jew, my daddy was
a Jew. I'm full-blooded, full-bred,
from the top of my head, I was born and raised in the Lord.
I know what it says, and according to it, I'm blameless. And also, weren't there Jews
by nature? Peter was a Jew by nature. Remember
what God did to him, letting that sheep down to say, get us
rice and eat it? Oh no, I'm a Jew. Jews don't
eat that unclean stuff. They had dietary laws. They had
civil laws. They had laws that covered their
whole life. Coming and going, getting up
and getting down, going in, going out, sleeping, waking up. They
had a law to cover every aspect of their life. Every aspect of
their lives. About having babies, and what
women are supposed to do, and what men are supposed to do,
and what they can't do, and what they can do. Oh, on and on and
on. You just read through Deuteronomy.
You just read through Numbers. You just read of all the laws
in Exodus that they was laid down for the Jews. And they was
born and bred in this. Jews by nature. We are Gentiles
by nature. That means when we was born,
we was born without a knowledge of God. Doesn't know anything about Christ.
The Gentile was born to the Jews that had the Law, and the Prophets,
and the Oracles of God, and the Glory of God, and the Covenants
of God, and the Promises of God. And he says, not sinners like
the Gentiles. What in the world did he mean
like that? That we knew the One True and Living God. That's what
they're saying. Them Gentiles, they didn't know
anything about Moses' Law. They didn't know anything about
what it was to transgress the law. These Gentiles by nature,
they worshipped idol gods, they worshipped false gods, and that
was another thing God said, when you go into a country, destroy
every false idol, false altar, false god, and don't you dare
marry anybody besides you, because if you do, you'll go and go under
their god. Don't you go under a strange
god. Well, we worship strange gods. We worship strange gods. But now look what it says over
here in Ephesians 2, not sinless as the Gentiles. He says here in Ephesians 2 in
verse 11, Wherefore remember, remember
this, you remember that you being in time past Gentiles in the
flesh, Gentiles by nature. who are called the uncircumcision,
unclean, filthy, by that which is called the circumcision, the
clean, the Jews, in the flesh made by hands." Now watch this,
that at that time you were without Christ, being alias from the
commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope, and without God in the world. Now that's what
a Gentile was. But watch what else he goes on
to say, in Christ Jesus, you that sometimes
were afar from me, by the blood of Christ. By the blood of Christ. And so back over here in our
text, not sinners, that's why you know when our Lord Jesus
Christ When that woman came and began to wash his feet, and the
Syro-Phoenician woman, that Gentile woman came to him, he ignored
her. But when that woman began to wash his feet with her tears
and dry with the hairs of her head and anoint him, Simon the
Pharisee said, if this man were a prophet, he'd know what manner
of woman this is. She's a sinner. She's a sinner. And, oh, beloved, the Jews despised
The Gentiles and the law of Moses meant nothing to the Gentiles.
Their dietary laws didn't mean nothing to the Gentiles. The
Gentiles wasn't even supposed to go into the room in the house
of a Gentile. God just almost had to kill Simon
Peter to make him go. Yeah. And Paul was a law keeper. He was a natural born Jew until
Christ was made known to him. Now he says, I want to win Christ,
I want to know Christ, I want to be found in Christ, not with
my righteousness, but the righteousness of God which is by faith in Him.
Now watch what else he goes on to say, we who are Jews by nature,
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now watch this, even we have
believed in Jesus. Who is even we? The Jews. Us Jews. Even we Jews have believed
in Jesus Christ. By the faith of 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 we know, it says you're knowing this. We know
that a man is not justified by the law. Now here's the first
mention of law. Let me define law for us here.
There's several ways that the law is referred to in the scriptures.
Let's look at this first. We use the word law. We refer
to the law of gravity. We refer to the law of physics.
A lot of laws that we refer to. We refer to law when it's enacted
by Congress. They just passed a new law, or
they're just going to pass a new law. We call them laws. And then
there's rules. And again, we say them are the
laws that you've got to go by, the rules you've got to go by.
Well, the law in the Scriptures, here when Paul talks about the
law, the law means several things. The first thing I think it means
is this. Not in this particular case,
but it also means this, the Old Testament Scriptures means the
Law. All the Old Testament Scriptures,
especially the Law of Moses, where the first five books of
Moses. He says it is written in the Law and in the Prophets.
He says in Isaiah 8 and 20, he says, if they speak not according
to the Law and the Testimony, it is because there is no law,
no light in them. And you know it is written in
the Law, so you know when you go to this talking about the
Old Testament Scriptures. And secondly, the law, the law
of Moses. It means the law of Moses is
given on Sinai. When Moses went up to Sinai,
he went up there three different times to get the law. The first
time he went up there to get the commandments, God wrote on
them with his finger, brought them back down. He was mad at
the Jews as they were dancing naked around that golden camp
and having a party, and he threw them down and broke them. God says, you hear out two stones
now, and you come right back up here. And God wrote again,
He says, you take these two tablets of stone, and you put them in
an ark. An ark of covenant. Because they've already been
broken, so we're going to put them in an ark. Christ is that
ark. They've got to be kept somewhere, because they'll be broken again,
just as sure as you go down there with the mignons. So put them
in an ark. Put him in an ark. Come back down and he had to
go up a third time to get all the things that went with the
law. The pattern of the tabernacle and everything and all the laws
that went with just the Ten Commandments. And then he came back with the
civil law. It told who could marry who. The laws of marriage. The law of crime, the law that
you couldn't be charged with a crime without the mouth of
two or three witnesses, the law of the city of refuges, the moral
principles, all the things that you could go on and on and on
about. Civil law. And then there's the law of the
conscience. You know, Romans 2.14 says this, that the Gentiles,
having not the law, have the law written on their conscience.
The moral law was written on our conscience. Even God didn't
even know anything about the Ten Commandments. But I knew
that stealing, and lying, and drunkenness, and custody, and
adultery, and all those things were wrong in my conscience.
I knew it was wrong to tell a lie, but I'd tell one anyway. And
my conscience would either accuse me or excuse me. When I'd done
something right, it would accuse me. When I'd done something wrong,
it'd accuse me. If I'd done something right,
it would excuse me. Or else it would try to justify me in doing
my wrong. That's why you can't trust your conscience. But still
yet, it's a moral principle that we all have within us. And you
override it enough, and after a while, it'll get so seared
and so hardened that nothing will ever touch it. And that's
a frightening thing to me. That's reprobation. Whenever
your conscience is never touched. And then there's the law of sin
and death. There's the law, you've heard it, you know, in the scriptures
it calls it the law of sin and death. By the law of sin and
death. And that's a principle that's
within us, a power that's within us. Sin is a power within us.
It's a principle within us. What is sin? It's me. Somebody asked, Kyle was telling
me that other day, he said a fellow asked him up there in Alaska,
says, you know, they want to know. No, no, it was, it was,
as Annie's telling me, in one of her classes, somebody asked
her in his talking, she said, well, what are sin? What is sin? She said, that's me. I'm sin. Everything about me's sin. That's
why I need Christ. And He wanted to have sins defined. But sin is a principle that's
within us, born within us, and will control us if God don't
kill that principle. And where there's the law of
sin, there's the law of death. They go sin and death, go hand
in hand. And then there's the law of faith. I read it to you
a minute ago. God justifies us. He justifies a man that believes
in Christ. He said Christ ought to be a
propitiation. That through faith in His blood,
God declares that He's righteous in justifying that man who believes
on Christ. And they said, well, we're in
the world boasting then. We ain't done no works. We ain't done no works. We ain't
kept no laws. All we've done is sin. And here
you're saying God's going to justify us by faith? He gave
Christ freely for us? And justifies us freely? Where's
our boasting in? What are we going to brag about?
He said it's excluded. By what law? By what principle?
Works? No, no, no. If you had works,
you'd boast. But by the law of faith. And then there's the law of Christ.
Look over here in Galatians 6. Then there's the law of Christ.
We've got all these mentions of the law. All these mentions
of the law. God wrote this law on our hearts
and on our minds when He saved us by His grace. That's why we're
not afraid of Him. That's why we establish Him,
because we say God's just, holy, and good. He says there in verse
2, "...bear ye one another's burdens," and what's this, "...and
so fulfill the law of Christ." Huh? Oh, the law of Christ? That means bearing one another's
burdens, loving one another, forgiving one another. And over
in James, it's called the law of liberty. It's called the law
of liberty over there. It's the law that sets you free.
It don't bring you into bondage. It sets you free. You can worship
God. You can call on God. You can understand the Scriptures.
You're free to come to God freely, confidently, boldly, and you
don't bring nothing but Christ. You don't have to bring any works,
you don't have to bring any obedience, you don't have to bring any merit,
you don't have to bring anything at all. You just come. Christ
has set us free to come to God. And then it's called a royal
law. Now back here in verse 16 of
chapter 2. So therefore we know that a man
is not justified by the works of the law. We've seen law. Then
it says here, knowing that a man is not justified by the works
of the law. Now we know that a man is not justified by the
law, no justification by law. And we know this from the law
itself. The law itself, for what the law could not do, in that
it was weak through the flesh. Nothing wrong with the law, but
the problem is with us. Ain't that right? And what did
I read to you there in Romans 3? Now we know that whatsoever
things the law saith, the saith them that are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world become guilty
before God by the law, is what? The knowledge of sin. How can
a man be justified by something that just makes him know he's
a sinner? That condemns him. And here in Galatians 3.10, look
what it says, we know that man is not justified by the law from
the law itself. The law requires protection,
obedience from the heart, continually and constantly. Galatians 3.10
says, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the
curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that what? Don't
do it just every once in a while. Don't try to keep it for a few
months and then decide I can't live right, and then go back
to the world and decide, well, I want to start trying all over
again. No, no. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law that do them. The book of the law is the first
five books of the scriptures. That's what the book of the law
is. The first five in Moses' work. And look over in Galatians
4.21. Tell me. Tell me ye that desire to be
under the law, don't you hear the law? Don't you hear it? Don't
you hear it thundering from Sinai? Don't you hear it thundering
by the knowledge of sin? Don't you hear it thundering
death? Don't you hear it thundering guilt? Don't you hear it thundering
condemnation? Don't you hear it, you can't
come near me? Huh? So we know that we're not
justified by the law by the law itself, and we know that we're
not justified by the law from the gospel, which clearly states
that we're complete in Christ. Ain't that right? We're complete
and we're accepted in the beloved. We are complete in Christ who's
the head of all principalities and power. Christ is our wisdom. Christ is our sanctification.
Christ is our redemption. Christ is everything to us. God
made him so to us. And we know we're not justified
by the law because Christ, we're completing it. So why would we
need law if you're completing Christ? And we also know that
we're not justified by the works of the law from experience itself,
from our own experience. We have been fully convinced,
every believer in Christ, every believer's been justified by
God himself. We know from our experience,
fully convinced of the insufficiency of human righteousness. We have
no righteousness of our own. We've been convinced of that.
We've been convinced that we have nothing to offer. We've
been convinced that we're sinners from the top of our... Paul said,
I know that in me, in my flesh, there ain't a good thing nowhere.
All of our righteousnesses are as a filthy rag. We've been convinced
of that. We know from experience we can't
be justified by the law. And then it says, You know about
a man who is not justified by the works of the law, but by
the faith of Jesus Christ. We know that we're justified
in which? Yes, we know that we're justified by the faithfulness
of Christ. It was Christ who was faithful.
Moses was faithful in his house, but the house was Christ's. And oh beloved, we know that
Christ was faithful to God. Faithful to God. He obeyed God,
he loved God, he loved his Father and he was faithful to his God.
He was faithful to the Word. I mean, how many times could
he quote scripture to say a man lives by the Word of God and
that alone? And he was faithful to the law. He met every law.
He said, which of you convinces me of sin? He was faithful to
the law. Every dietary law, every ceremonial
law, every ritual, everything that there was. Even when he
healed a man, a leper, he said, go and offer a sacrifice according
to the law. Lest they'll come and say, I'm
bypassing Moses. And oh beloved, and he is faithful. He was faithful even unto death. And oh beloved, faithful, oh
my, I trust more in His faithfulness than I do mine, my faith. And then secondly, we also know
that we're not justified by the works of the law because we're
justified by the faithfulness of Christ. And also we know we're
justified by the faith of 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. We know we're justified by that
faith which has Christ as its author. Would we give our faith?
Christ gave it to us. He bought it and gave it to us.
He's the finisher of our faith. What He started, He'll finish.
And we know we're justified by faith in Christ because not only
He's the author and finisher of it, but He's the object of
our faith. He's the object of it. My faith, Christ is the object
of my faith. How do I know I have real faith?
Christ is the object of it. All you've got to do is find
out what's the object of your faith. And you can talk to somebody
real quick and find out what the object of their faith is.
You know, you let somebody talk, you don't have to ask them questions,
just let them talk a while and you'll find out what the object of their
faith is. You'll find out sometimes the object of their faith is
their goodness, their morality. Sometimes it'll be their church
attendance. Sometimes it'll be their soul winning. Sometimes
it'll be their preaching. Sometimes it'll be their repentance.
Sometimes it'll be their faithfulness. Sometimes it'll be I've been
a good husband or a good wife. But there'll be something that'll
be the object of their faith. And you know what we count all
that? Done. What's the object of our faith?
Christ. Oh, bless His holy name. I heard old Myles McKee preaching. And boy, he started there in
John chapter 1. He says, you know, the thing
we've got to look at this is right here. He declared Him.
That's the word that's deep. He said, if you want to know
God, you've got to know Him in Christ. He came and told out
God fully. He said the fullness of the God
had dwelled in Him. And He upholds this world by
the word of His power. And He went on, He said, when
you see His beauty and you see His glory, He said, you can't
help but look to Him. And boy, that's right. That's
right. And then, beloved, not only are we justified by the
faith of Christ, but we're justified by God. You remember where it
says, you know, that who is He that condemneth? It's God that
justifies. When God justifies you, who in
the world is going to lay charge to you? Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died, it's God
that justifies. And so we're justified by God,
by His will, through the merits of Christ, through the blood
of Christ. And that's how we're justified. And then it says there
in verse 16 again, even we. Even we. have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, not by
the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no
flesh, no Jewish flesh, no Gentile flesh, be justified by the law. Even we, even us Jews, we have
believed on Jesus Christ. Peter preached Christ on the
day of Pentecost. And those men said, men and brethren,
what must we do? Repent and believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, there ain't but one
name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved.
Paul said, dear, known unto you therefore, men and brethren,
that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
And you can be justified from all things from which you could
not be justified by the law of Moses. He said, even we Even
us Jews, we've been justified by the faith of Christ, not by
the works of the law. No. Not at all. And oh my, I just cannot grasp,
I just cannot grasp, like I told you about that fellow Sunday
night, walking that tightrope with the righteousness of Christ
on this side and your own on that side. Oh, it's just horrible. Horrible. That's law work. That's law. That's worse. I'm not walking a tightrope.
I'm resting in Christ. I'm reposing in Christ. I'm going
to go home and get in my chair. I'm going to crank it out and
lay down. That's what I've done in Christ. I'm laying in Christ.
When I get in the chair of mercy, can I bring anything? I'm resting
in Christ because He's finished the work and He's the one that
just keeps on bringing and keeps on giving and keeps on He not
only finished the work, but he's going to keep me reposed and
keep me reposed to the taste of the glory. Oh my. Well, now look what it
says in verse 17. And I hope I can say something.
I should have quit that there, but maybe I can give us a little
understanding of what this means. But if, if while we, us Jews,
seek to be justified by Christ, We ourselves are also found sinners.
Is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. Is Christ
the minister of sin? What the Jews would say was,
is if you leave the law, you leave Moses, you're a transgressor
of the law. And they're saying, you're all
sinners. And Paul's saying, well how in the world then, if we're
justified by Christ, And we take our place as sinners. And Christ
died for sinners to save sinners, to redeem sinners. Is therefore
He a minister of sin because He saved sinners? That's what
they're saying. If we want to be justified by
Christ, not by the law. Now see, if you're trying to
be justified by Christ and the law, then you're a sinner. Because
you're not justified by neither one of them. Do you get what
I'm saying? By the strength of the law is
sin. The strength of sin is the law.
And if a man wants to be justified by law and Christ, then he's
a sinner. But Paul is saying here, while
we're seeking to be justified by Christ and we're found to
be sinners. We admit our transgressions, we admit our sin, we admit that
we've broken the law, we admit we can't be justified by the
law, and we want to be justified by Christ, and since Christ died
for sinners, to justify sinners, to redeem sinners. Are you saying
that makes Christ the minister of sin, because he saved sinners?
God forbid. God forbid. Now let me show you
exactly what I mean by that. Look in Luke 15, and I'm done.
Luke 15, and I'm done. That's what people say about
us. They say, you folks, you know, you're antinomians. This
is what it amounts to. You're antinomians. That means
you're without law. You say Christ is all that you
have. Your works don't enter into it.
Your merit don't enter into it. You're antinomians. You all don't
believe in the law at all. Then you're making Christ to
be a minister of sin. No. No, no. I'm making Him to be
the justifier of sinners. If righteousness comes by the
law, what does it say? Christ's dead in vain. Look what
it says here in Luke 15, verses 1 and 2. This is exactly what
it's saying. Then drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners, for to hear him. And the Pharisees and
scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and he
that is with him. He's the minister of sin. He's
having something to do with sinners. What kind of person is He? Oh, this man receives the sinners
and eats with them. Does that make Him the minister
of sin? Or the Savior of sinners? Oh,
Moose come here, or Daniel come here a few weeks ago and preached
from there. Brought an outstanding message from there, didn't he?
Alright. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, thank you that you are our justifier, that
you redeemed us, cleared us of all guilt, that we stand in your
righteousness and yours alone. Thank you that you justify sinners
and only sinners, and we bless you for that. Thank you for it.
Bless these dear saints as they go home, go to their jobs, go
to their work, go to their homes. Go to their troubles and the
things that they deal with daily. God bless them, strengthen them,
and encourage them. For Christ's sake. Amen.