Let's go right back to that passage
that Brother Randy just read in Galatians chapter 2. I'm actually going to deal with
the last three verses of that chapter. Verse 19, 20, and 21. On this subject, living unto
God. Living unto God. Paul wrote there,
by inspiration of the Spirit, he said, for I through the law,
am dead to the law that I might live unto God. And I want to
give you basically three things that it means to live unto God. Now the term live unto God, you
know people say well I want to live my life for the Lord. Well what does that mean? What
does that involve? Living unto God. It means to
live unto God. It means to live for the glory
of God. That's what true believers are
supposed to do. That's what we're here on this
earth for. You know, in most of the statements
of faith or catechisms, the first question that is asked is, what
is the chief end of man, the chief purpose of man? And it's
always to live under the glory of God, to the glory of God. But in order to understand what
Paul's telling them here and what this living under God means,
you've got to see the context here. And the context, as Brother
Randy read in that whole chapter, has to do with mainly how sinners,
which we are all sinners, you know, we quote Romans 3.23 all
the time, whether we know what it means or not, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. You see, we're talking about
living under the glory of God. Well, we say all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. What does that mean? Well,
we're all sinners, and so the grand subject here in the book
of Galatians and what Paul's dealing with here is how sinners
are justified or made right with God. How does that happen? What is it to be justified? The
word justified. In the New Testament, the word
just and the word righteous are basically the same Greek word.
So justified means to be righteous. It really involves two things.
If you're justified before God, it means this. Number one, God
declares you not guilty. Now you need to understand something
about guilt. All right? Guilt doesn't necessarily
mean in this context that you're not the perpetrator or I'm not
the perpetrator. I am the sinner. Even Paul admitted
that, didn't he? He said, this is a faithful sign
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief, Paul said. I've said this before, there's
only two types of people on this earth, really. There are sinners
lost in their sins and there are sinners saved by the grace
of God in Christ. That's it. So we're all sinners. So when we say that God looks
at a person, looks at someone like me, and says, that person's
not guilty, he's not ignoring the fact that I am the sinner,
that I am the perpetrator, that I fell in Adam, which the scripture
teaches, I'm ruined in Adam, and that I'm a sinner, and that
if I'm saved, I'm still a sinner saved by grace, you know. I still
commit sin. And I'm not going to get into
that subject today because that's a whole other thing. But what
it is, when the Bible talks about guilt, it talks about condemnation. A guilty sinner before God is
a condemned sinner. And the Bible teaches us in Romans
8 and verse 1 that there is therefore now what? No condemnation. To who? To everybody? No. To
who? To them which are in Christ Jesus. Now, how can God be a just judge,
which he has to be, and look at a sinner like me, even in
Christ, and say, no condemnation? That's what it means, no guilt.
Not guilty. It's like a judge. You're accused
of a crime and you come up before the judge and he says, not guilty.
Well, God can't do that and be fake about it. He can't do that
and be false about it. If you're not guilty, in God's
eyes, the all-knowing God, the just God, if you're not guilty,
I'm telling you, you're not guilty. How can He do that, though, looking
at a sinner like me, who, based upon my best efforts to keep
the law, deserves nothing but condemnation? Well, there's only
one way. I must stand in a substitute. People aren't preaching substitution
today, folks. You know what they're preaching?
Psychology and morality. Self-help. We preach substitution. And you know where that substitution
took place? At the cross. At the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ when he died for the sins of his people
imputed, charged, accounted to him. And what did he do on that
cross? He didn't make a stab at it now.
He didn't just try to save people. He saved his people from their
sins. He satisfied the justice of God. He took the penalty. And in doing so, as evidence,
not only by his death and his burial, but also by his resurrection
from the dead, he brought forth righteousness. And it's on the
basis of that righteousness, the merit, the value, the worth
of his obedience unto death, God justifies sinners like me
and you. As my sin was charged to Him,
accounted to Him, imputed to Him, His righteousness is charged
to me, accounted to me, imputed to me. So I stand before God,
as the old hymn writer said, not in righteousness of my own,
but that which was given me freely in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
washed in His blood. That's the metaphor. But it's
truth, that doesn't mean it's fake now. His blood has washed
away my sins. Remember back in the 70s when
there was a big movement among so-called Christians to take
the blood out of the hymn books because it was distasteful to
people? You take the blood out, you take forgiveness out. Without
the shedding of blood, no forgiveness. And so that's what we're talking
about here. How sinners are justified before God. How can I have a
right relationship with God? Upon what footing can I come
before a holy God and hear him say, Bill Parker, not guilty. Bill Parker, actually righteous. Let me tell you something. It's
not based upon who I am. It's not based upon where I was
born. It's not based upon decisions
I've made. I've made some good ones, I've
made some bad ones, but it's not based on that. It's not based
upon works that I do. It's not based upon ceremonies
or days. It's not based upon church membership. It's not based upon water baptism.
It's based upon the blood, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Now that's how he gets all the
glory. That's how he gets all the preeminence.
The moment I interject self into it, at that point, I don't deny
self and take up my cross and follow him. You say, well, I
made the difference. Well, you're the captain of your
own fate, as the old poet said. You're the determiner of your
own destiny. Read the Bible. That's what you
need to do. Somebody asked me about sovereign
grace. Well, do you know there's no
other kind? You know why? Because God is sovereign. And how does a person come from
being a self-determiner to being submitted to the God of sovereign
grace? I'll tell you how they do it. They read and study the
Bible. That's what happens, isn't it? And God reveals himself. Well, the occasion here in the
book of Galatians was false professors who were Jews. They claimed to be Christian,
but they were trying to bring Gentile believers. You know,
the gospel began to go out into the Gentile world. And these
false Jewish professors who claimed to believe in Christ, but they
had not fully seen the glory of Christ and committed themselves
to Christ, they were trying to bring Gentile believers under
the law of circumcision and ceremony. And it would go something like
this. It would be like, well, yes, we believe in Jesus and
we're saved by grace, but You've got to be circumcised to really
be safe, to really be holy, to really be right. You've got to
keep this day or that day. You've got to do this. You've
got to do that. You've got to go back under the law in order
to really be righteous. Now, don't we have a lot of that
going on today in different forms? Oh, yes, it's all of grace, but...
My old pastor used to say, goats but, sheep follow. Oh yes, it's all Christ, but
if you're not doing this, doing that, you know. And then when
you challenge them, here's the comeback. Oh, you're just saying
people can go out and live like the devil. And it doesn't say
that at all. Now, if you want to go out and
live like the devil, that's up to you, go. But see, God not
only justifies people, He changes the heart. And you know something? God's the only one who can do
that. That's right. He's the only one
who can change the heart. Christ said it to Nicodemus,
you must be born again or you cannot see, you cannot enter
the kingdom of God. So here these Jewish professors
come along and they say, well, it's all of grace, it's all of
Christ, but you've got to do this and you've got to do that.
And that's why Paul related this whole story. He said, when I
went to Jerusalem, me and Barnabas and Titus, who was a Greek, a
Gentile, they were trying to get Titus circumcised in order
to attain or maintain salvation. And Paul says here, he says,
they were trying to bring us into bondage. Now the gospel
is the gospel of liberty, not bondage. The law brings bondage.
You see, the law imposes upon people things that they think
they either have to do or try to do in order to be saved. That's
bondage. Yeah. And they cannot. You that desire to be under the
law, do you not hear the law? Paul wrote in Galatians 4.21.
He said, here's what the law says to everyone who's under
the law, under that bondage. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in what? Anybody know the next word? All
things that are written in the law to do. In other words, if
you're trying to be saved, if you're trying to be cleansed,
if you're trying to be righteous based on your law keeping, here's
your task. You've got to keep it all perfectly. Or you're cursed. And here's the problem. Sin's
got a head start on you. You could say, well, tomorrow's
Monday and I'm going to wake up and I'm going to keep the
law perfectly. Well, you're going to fail, now I'll tell you that.
But what are you going to do about today's sins and yesterday's
sins? What's going to cleanse them?
You know, people say, well, I'll do enough to make up for it.
Well, don't ever sing one of our favorite hymns again. What
can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Don't sing that, because you're doing other things. Well, these
Jews, they thought, well, if we can get the men circumcised,
and if we can get them under the law of Moses, they'll be
OK. But Paul said, that's contrary
to the gospel. In fact, over in Galatians 1, he called it
another gospel, which in the Greek means another of a different
kind, a false gospel. And he said, anybody who preaches
that false message, let them be anathema. You know what that
means? That means cursed. Be damned. Now Paul wasn't being
mean or hateful there, he was just simply making this point
that there's no other way of salvation, there's no other way
of cleansing, there's no other way of righteousness but by the
sovereign free grace, incidentally there's no other kind of grace
but free, and sovereign free grace of God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, it's not salvation conditioned
on sinners. It's salvation conditioned on
Christ who met those conditions. And look over here at verse 15
of Galatians 2. He says, we who are Jews by nature
and not sinners of the Gentiles. In other words, there's Jewish
sinners and there's Gentile sinners. He says, verse 16, now listen
to this. This is an important truth. He
says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law. He's not washed clean, he's not pardoned, he's not forgiven,
he's not justified, he's not made righteous before God by
works of the law. But now listen to this phrase
here, because this is a good translation from the original
manuscripts. Now listen to what he says. A
man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Now we talk a lot about faith
in Jesus Christ, and that's a gift from God, isn't it? Every believer,
every sinner saved by grace, has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, we believe that
Christ is our salvation. Now you know there's a lot of
people today that have faith in their faith. There's a difference
there. I believe I'm saved because I
did this, I did that, I believe this, I believe... No, I believe
I'm saved because Jesus Christ is my salvation. I'm not just
splitting hairs there now. We need to focus in on that.
Christ is the object of faith. We believe in Him, whom to know
is life eternal. Alright? But this says, by the
faith of Jesus Christ. That's a good translation. In
other words, I'm justified Not because I believe in Him. I'm
justified because He was faithful to do the work that the Father
sent Him to do. You know how I know that's what
it means? Well, picture Christ on the cross dying for the sins
of God's sheep. And you know the seven sayings
on the cross. We won't go through them all. I've preached messages
on all of them. But you remember one of the sayings
in John 19.30? He said what? He said, it is
finished. What was finished? The full wrath
of God upon him for the sins of his people was finished. He
drank the cup of wrath. He drank damnation dry. He did
the work. John 13.1 said he loved his own
unto the end." Same word, unto the finishing of the world. Christ
came into the world to do a work. And it was a work for His people
because their sins, the debt of their sins was placed on His
account and He had to pay that debt. So that's how we're justified.
It's not by anything we do or any decision we make, it's by
what Christ did on the cross exclusively. And if He did it
for me, I'll believe in Him. I'll come to Him. That's why
the Bible says in Romans 5, it talks about justification unto
life. You see, where sin is charged,
the result is death. The wages of sin is death. But
where righteousness is charged, the result is life. The gift
of God. You notice that? It says the
wages of sin. What is a wage? It's something you earn. If we're
damned forever, that's because we earned it. But if we're saved
forever, it's not because we've earned it. The gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So now look at verse
16 again. 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. There's faith in him
because of his faithfulness to do what he accomplished. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. And
not by the works of law, for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. I don't care if it's Jewish flesh.
I don't care if it's Gentile flesh. I don't care if it's southern
flesh, northern flesh, whatever, no flesh shall be justified by
works of the law. Verse 17, he says, but if while
we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves 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 that's a little difficult,
the language, to understand, but what he's talking about is
this. Those who are truly born again by the Spirit, they know
that sinners are not justified by works of the law, but by what
Christ did. That faith is the gift of God
and the object of that faith is Christ. But think about this. If we who are in Christ, having
sought and found justification in Him, if now we're trying to
keep the law in order to be righteous, in order to be justified, what
does that say? We're just as condemned as anybody
else. We're sinners. We cannot keep,
listen, even as a justified person, even as a born again person,
even as a saved person, I cannot produce perfection. And you know what that means?
Now listen, does that mean, well, then just give up and just do,
commit every sin? No. It means this, it means that
when I was brought into the kingdom, you know what it was by? It was
by the grace of God. and continuing in the kingdom,
you know what? It's by the grace of God. And
when I enter into glory, you know what it'll be? By the grace
of God. Grace, grace, grace. And if at any second, the Lord
would look down and say, now Bill, this moment depends on
you. Failure, failure, failure. Now
that's the context that shows us what it is to live under the
Lord. Look at it. Here's number one. Living under
God means to be dead to the law. Look at it, verse 19. He says,
for I through the law am dead to the law that I might live
under God. Turn to Romans chapter 6 with
me. You see, in order to save and
justify his people, God does not break his law, God does not
forget his law, God does not deny his law. God honors his
law when he saves a sinner. How does he do that? Look at
this, look at Romans 6 and verse 3. He says, know you not that
so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
into His death. Now when you see that word baptized,
sometimes it means the ordinance of water baptism. But that's
not what it means here. The word baptized literally means
placed into. That's what it means. It can
mean immersion, but it means placed into. And what he's talking
about here is a believer's union with Christ. I was placed into
Jesus Christ. Now what does that mean? That
means Christ is my surety. He took responsibility for my
debt. Christ is my representative. Christ is my substitute. When
he died, he died for me. That's what it means. I was baptized
into his death. Do you understand that? When
he died, he died not for himself, but for his people. He said,
the good shepherd giveth his life for who? The sheep. John 10. That's what it means. We were placed into his death.
All right? Verse four, therefore we are
buried with him by baptism. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. Into death, that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead for the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life. When he died, I died.
When he was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I arose
again. And what's the result of that?
The resurrection life of Christ is imparted to God's people by
the Holy Spirit in the new birth that we should walk in newness
of life. Now, newness of life as opposed
to the oldness of the letter. Before I was saved by the grace
of God, I was trying to work my way into God's favor by my
works. That's the oldness of the letter.
That's bondage. But now that I'm saved and secure
in Jesus Christ by His blood and righteousness alone, I'm
free. I'm at liberty, not to sin, but
to serve him. Not as a legalist, because I'm
afraid if I don't do right, he's going to kick me out of the family
or put me in jail or sink me to hell. That's legalism. And not as a mercenary. You know
what a mercenary does, don't you? They hire out. It'd be like
the government hiring people to fight wars for us. They do
it for the pay. I had a preacher tell me one
time, said the reason that he preached because he wanted to
earn more rewards in heaven. And I told him, I said, well,
you're a mercenary. We're not mercenaries. We're,
the Bible calls us willing, loving, what? Bond servants. You know what a bondservant was
back in Exodus 25? That's one who served his master after the
debt was already paid in full, but he served his master because
he loved him. So what is the motive? And this
is what's happening here. Living unto the Lord. I'm dead
to the law. That means the law cannot condemn
me. Because I have a righteousness
that answers its demands. And I didn't have anything to
do with working that righteousness out. It was all Christ. The law
cannot condemn me any more than it could condemn my Savior, the
Lord of glory. He's my advocate. He's called
Jesus Christ, our righteousness. The law cannot demand any obedience
from me in order to attain or maintain salvation. The law,
listen, the law is fulfilled and satisfied in Christ. I don't
owe a legal debt to the law, I'm dead to the law. Through,
look here, he says in verse five, for if we've been planted together
in the likeness of his death, this is Romans six, we shall
also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with him, when he died, I died, that
the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. Justify, that
word means. So what we have, living under
God means to be dead to the law. Look back at Galatians 2. Secondly,
living under God means living by the power and grace of God
in Christ. Look at verse 20 of Galatians
2. He said, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.
I died with him, but now I live, yet not I. Well, what's Paul
doing there? Is he talking out of both sides
of his mouth? Is he trying to confuse us there? No. Here's
what he's saying. He's saying, I died with Christ. He's my substitute. He's my surety. He paid my debt.
He made me righteous. And I live, yet not I, I'm not
the source of that life, but Christ liveth in me. Christ is
the source and the power of this life that I now live. In other
words, If it weren't for the grace of God in Christ, you'd
be looking at a walking dead man. That's what he's saying. Spiritually dead. Christ is the
source of it. Not me. And he says in verse
20 there, he says, and the life which I now live in the flesh,
that is in this human body, I live by the faith of the Son of God. You see that there? Now, I have
faith in Him, but that's still not the source of this thing.
It's His faithfulness to save me, to keep me, and to bring
me to glory. You know, people say, once saved,
always saved, and everybody says, well, that'll just give you an
excuse. Listen, let me tell you something. You know why it's once saved, always
saved? Because He saved me. And not that I could go out and
sin this and do that. No, that I could live by the
faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So
living under God means being dead to the law. Living under
God means living by the power and grace of God in Christ. And
then thirdly, living under God means living in the grace of
God. Now look at verse 21. I do not
frustrate or make void the grace of God." Now think about those
Jewish professors that Paul's dealing with here. They said,
oh yeah, we're Christians. Oh yeah, we believe in Christ.
But then they said, oh, now you've got to be circumcised. You've
got to keep this day or that day. You've got to do this. They
were making void the grace that they professed. They were denying
the grace of God. And here's what he says, for
if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. You see, living under God means
living in the grace of God upon the foundation of the righteousness
of God in Christ. And sinners who claim to be Christian,
like these Jewish professors who seek righteousness before
God by their works or their wills or whatever, They're in unbelief,
and they're not living unto God or for the glory of God. In fact,
their lives is a living testimony that they believe Christ died
in vain for nothing. You see that? Died in vain. Well, Christ didn't
die in vain for anybody. No, sir. His death is the sure
salvation of his people. And here's what that establishes.
The foundation and motivation for living unto God is the security
of salvation that a believer finds in the merits of the obedience
unto death, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
motivation for living unto God is not legalism or mercenary. It is love, grace, and mark this
word down in your mind, gratitude. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and so free. And then the goal
of living under the Lord is the glory of God. You see, we're
not out here trying to draw attention to ourselves. We're trying to
point centers to Christ. I love that passage. I preached
on this last Wednesday night up in Kentucky on the John the
Baptist School of Theology, School for Preachers. Remember what
John said? I'm not the Christ. Behold the
Lamb of God. Here's the Christ that taketh
away the sin of the world, that bears away the sins of his people
all over the world, Jew and Gentile. And he said, I'm not even worthy
enough to sit, stoop down and untie his shoes. And it says there, he pointed
him to Christ, and he said, he said, or it says of him, it says,
they heard John preach, and they followed Jesus. That's what I
want for people. I don't want you to follow me,
I want you to hear me preach, but follow Christ. And the last
thing it said there, John made this statement, he said, Christ
must increase, I must decrease. That's the way it is, isn't it?
living under the Lord. All right.