Now what I'm going to do, I've
got a few messages that I want to preach to you. And somebody
said, well, are you teaching or are you preaching? I never
have been able to figure out the difference myself. But either
way, I'm going to communicate it to you, hopefully. And I hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit, he'll communicate it to our hearts
and our minds, our affections, and our wills. But I've got several
messages. I don't know how many. Anytime
I go verse by verse through a book, I get thoughts that I believe
the Lord lays on my heart and sometimes I just run into a point
that I want to make and I know I can't do it in one message.
So there may be two, may be three here. But the title of these
messages that are based on what's being taught here in the last
part of Galatians chapter 2 beginning at verse 15. The title is this,
justified by faith of Jesus Christ. And I emphasize the word of.
Now we all talk about faith in Jesus Christ and that certainly
is an important subject and we'll be talking about that too. No
sinner is going to be saved without faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. But what I want to emphasize
here is the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what's that
speaking of is his faithfulness to do what he promised to do
in the everlasting covenant of grace, to establish the ground
of salvation for his people. And I'll show
you why I got to that here. Now, what I want to do this morning
is I'm just going to read through these verses and make a few comments,
and then I'm going to come back. I won't come back next week because,
as you know, Brother Casey and I are going to be on our way
to Australia to preach at the Ride Congregational Church. And
we'll be there for, be in Australia ten days, and we'll preach five
messages over there. And I was going to talk about
that in the main service today. But anyway, when I come back,
then I'll continue on with this subject, justified by faith of
Jesus Christ. Now you recall in Galatians chapter
2, the Apostle Paul is talking about, he's defending his own
apostleship. He's defending the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace in Christ. He's showing how that
we cannot compromise on this issue of how God justifies a
sinner. How God justifies the ungodly. Now remember what justification
is. To be justified before God means
to be not guilty. The sinner who stands before
God not guilty. That's justified. But it also
means to stand before God righteous. A sinner declared righteous before
God. Now, how does that happen? How
does God do that? That's the heart of the gospel.
That's the central issue of salvation. That's the missing note in religion
today that calls itself Christianity, because today it's all about
the sinner and his felt needs and all of that. It's not about
the character and the nature and the glory of God. But this
issue here is what Paul is defending. Now, as you know, there were
certain Jews who claimed to be Christian, but who also wanted
to bring their own traditions and their own ideas into the
gospel paradigm. They wanted to say, yes, we're
saved by Jesus Christ. Yes, we're saved by the grace
of God, but you have to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses in
order to be really saved, to be really righteous. And Paul
says, absolutely not. He says, that's another gospel.
That's a false gospel. He said, I went to Jerusalem
to seek fellowship with the other apostles and these Judaizers
that we call them. In other words, they want to
take Christians and make them legal Jews in that sense. And
he says, I wouldn't give place to them even for an hour. Well,
then he talks about an episode in Antioch where Peter, the apostle
Peter, acted. Contrary to the gospel, he says
in verse 14, look, he says, when I saw that they walked not uprightly
according to the truth of the gospel. Peter, the apostle, because
of fear of men, and we all have to fight this now. This is part
of the flesh, the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. Part
of the flesh that we have to fight is our fear of men. In other words, we don't want
to make anybody angry. We don't want to bring their wrath upon us. And
Peter, because of his fear of men, here he was in Antioch having
fellowship with Gentile brethren, eating with them, eating their
foods. Remember Peter learned that in
Acts chapter 10 when God said, don't you call unclean what I've
cleansed. And so Peter, these Jews came down from Jerusalem
and Peter got up and switched tables because he feared men. And Paul said, I withstood him
to the face because what he did in that action was give some
credit, some credence to what these Jewish legalists were saying.
And Paul withstood him publicly. And so Paul, what he does, look
at verse 14, he says, but when I saw that they, and he's talking
about Peter and those who followed him, Barnabas was one who followed
him. When they walk not uprightly according to the truth of the
gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, if thou being a Jew,
if you being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles and not
as do the Jews, why compelst thou the Gentiles to live as
do the Jews? In other words, if it's your
custom now, Peter, to have fellowship with these Gentile brethren,
And that was Peter's custom. That's what the tense of the
verb here doesn't mean that Peter just did this one time. In other
words, his lifestyle had changed. Peter's being brought to the
grace of God in Christ and salvation based on the righteousness of
Christ freely imputed and received by faith, it changed his whole
lifestyle. So he left those Jewish traditions
And now he was fellowshipping with these Gentile believers,
and he's saying here, he said, now, if here you are a Jew, but
you're living after the manner of the Gentiles in that sense,
well, why are you compelling these Gentiles to live like the
Jews? Verse 15 now, he says, we who are Jews by nature, that
means by birth, we were born Jews, that's talking about ethnic
Jew, being an ethnic Jew, by blood, a natural descendant of
Abraham, and not sinners of the Gentiles. Now, Peter is not saying
that we who are Jews by nature are not sinners, or Paul's not
saying that the Jews were not sinners. In fact, the Apostle
Paul, I mean, he made it clear that both Jew and Gentile by
nature were sinners and deserve the wrath of God. Read the book
of Romans chapter one and two and three. You know how he works
there in Romans 1.18, he said, the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all sin and all unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. And he begins to bring the whole
world guilty before God because of what we fell in Adam. And he brings the whole world,
the Gentile world. And then in chapter two, he goes
to the Jews who had the law. And he said, we had the law,
but we didn't live according to the law. We didn't gain righteousness
by the law. And he comes to this conclusion
in Romans three and verse nine, talking about Jew and Gentile.
And he says, are we Jews better than they? And his conclusion
is no and no wise, for the scripture hath concluded all wonder sin.
So when Paul deals with this subject, that this problem concerning,
and this problem concerning the salvation of sinners and how
God justifies the ungodly, he's speaking in terms of those who
are Jews by nature, by birth, as opposed to the Gentiles. And he always makes a distinction
between Jews by nature and spiritual Jews, spiritual Israel, by spiritual
birth, you must be born again. So he says in verse 15, we who
are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, verse 16, now
look at it. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law. We're Jews by nature. Listen,
the Jews had three things that they boasted of that they would
bring up that to them said, now this means we're saved, we're
children of God. Number one was their physical
connection with Abraham, we be Abraham's seed. Number two was
their circumcision, we're the circumcised. Number three was
their keeping the law of Moses. And what Paul's saying here is
this, we who are Jews by nature, who had all those things, our
physical connection with Abraham, our circumcision, the law of
Moses. We who are Jews by nature and
not sinners like the Gentiles who didn't have all these things,
we know that a man, a sinful man, is not justified, not washed
clean from all his sins, not declared righteous by the works
of the law. We know that, Paul says. You
know that, Peter. You've stated that. When the
Lord brought you out of that legal bondage into the freedom
of his grace, he brought that knowledge to your mind and your
affections and your will. And he says, we're not justified
by the law. We know better. Peter knew better. Even though we're natural descendants.
What did Paul say in Romans chapter nine about the Jews? Why they
sought after righteousness by works of the law and they didn't
find it. because a sinner cannot be justified
by works of law. There's no way that our works
can ever qualify us for salvation, even the best. That's why the
scripture says man in his best state is altogether vanity. We'll
always come short of the righteousness that God requires. Now, what
Paul's point is here is that Peter, you know better than this,
you know that that the Gentiles in their sin, they could not
establish righteousness by their words. Well, neither could we,
even though we were natural descendants of Abraham, even though we were
circumcised, even though we had the law of Moses. Remember Christ
in John chapter five told the Pharisees, he said, you bring
up Moses as your ground of salvation. Not talking about Moses as a
person, but the law. We keep the law, they'd say.
And he said, Moses will judge you and condemn you. You're gonna
be condemned by the very law that you claim is your salvation.
And the reason is, is because you do not meet the qualification,
the standard of the law, which is perfect righteousness. You
don't meet it, you fall short. That's what the Bible means when
it says in Romans 3.23, we've all come short of the glory of
God. We've missed the mark. Well, who does that apply to?
Just the Gentiles? No, it applies to Jew and Gentile.
Who does it apply to? Just the immoral, perverted?
No, it applies to the most religious people. Look at the Pharisee
who stood outside the temple and said, I thank God I'm not
like other men. I do this, I don't do that. We
can do our best. Should we try to do our best?
Yes, but not in order to be justified. Not in order to be saved. That's
legalism. That's a denial of Christ. So
what he says here is, we know better. The Gentiles are sinners
who fall short of the righteousness of God. But so are the Jews. And Peter, you know that. You
know that their circumcision, you know that their law keeping
cannot save them or make them righteous. So look at verse 16.
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, look
here, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now, a lot of commentators
and translators, when they go to that phrase, they'll say it
like this, knowing that a man is not justified by the works
of law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. That's not what that
verse says. There's a definite article before
faith, the faith, all right? And that word of is translated
correctly here in the King James Version. It's the faith of Jesus
Christ. Well, does that mean that we
don't believe in him? No. Now look on, he says, we're not
justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus
Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ. So Paul's not
canceling out our believing in Christ or our faith in Christ,
but he's making a distinction here. of what is the ground of
our justification, the ground of our salvation before God,
and what is the fruit of our justification, the fruit of our
salvation. The ground of our justification
is the faith of Jesus Christ. What does that mean? That's his
faithfulness to do what God requires, required to save his people.
That's the ground. The ground of justification,
the ground, the cause, you might say, the merit of, the meritorious
cause, is what Christ did and he was faithful to do it. He
made a promise before the foundation of the world, the scripture says,
to do for his people what God required, what his father required. And in doing that, he was faithful.
And we're gonna talk about it. Next time I'll show you a lot
of scripture about the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. So salvation
is not conditioned on our faithfulness to him. Now should we be faithful? Will we be faithful? The answer
is yes, by the grace of God. But that's the fruit. Salvation
is conditioned on his faithfulness to do what was required. The
ground of justification, is the faith of Jesus Christ. And so,
Paul is saying here, though we are Jews by natural descent and
not Gentiles whom we look down upon and regarded as worse sinners
than we were, yet our Judaism, with all its boasted superiority,
with all of its religiosity, could not bring us to justification
in eternal life, could not make us righteous before God. Born
and bred in Judaism, Paul say, when we heard the gospel of salvation
by the grace of God, conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ and
based on his righteousness imputed, charged, accounted, and came
to faith in Christ, we were obliged to renounce any hope of salvation
in our Judaism. It was powerless to justify us. It was powerless to keep us or
to bring us to glory. It was open idolatry and dead
works. Remember, Paul said that in Romans
chapter seven. Why then go back to it, he's
saying to Peter. Why would you go back to that?
And so he says, even we have believed in Jesus Christ. God
brought these believing Jews to see and know and believe that
their salvation Their justification before him was not by their works.
It had nothing to do with their physical connection to Abraham.
It had nothing to do with their circumcision. It had nothing
to do with their law keeping. But it had everything to do with
the faithfulness of Jesus Christ as the representative and substitute
and surety of his people. God in human flesh. coming to
this, made of a woman, made under the law to do what? To redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the Spirit
of God. His faithfulness to do all things
required and necessary to attain salvation and righteousness.
Now, like I said, in coming messages, I'm gonna capitalize on that
and I'm gonna show you a lot of scripture that'll go along
with that. But look down, he says in verse 16, now let's read
it 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, 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. No flesh. Not even Jewish flesh. Not Gentile
flesh. not American flesh, not Australian
flesh, no flesh, will be declared righteous before God, be declared
not guilty, washed clean of all our sins by the law, by works
of the law. Now look at verse 17. He says,
but if while we seek to be justified by Christ, that's what a believer
does, we seek justification before God, how? Not in our works, not
in ourselves, but in Christ. Jesus Christ and Him crucified
and risen. The risen Lord Jesus Christ as
our surety before God. He paid my debt and for we sing
it, Jesus paid it all. That's what it is to seek to
be justified by Christ. We sing it, my hope is built
on nothing less than what? My works, my circumcision, my
connection with Abraham. No. My hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, his work, his faithfulness. And
he says here, but while we seek to be justified by Christ, we
ourselves also are found sinners. Is therefore Christ the minister
of sin? And he says, God forbid. Now
that's a little difficult to understand what Paul's saying,
but you've got to keep it in its context. What's his subject? His subject is how a sinner is
justified before holy God. Who's he talking to? He's talking
to people who profess to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but
who have been confused or led astray by false preachers, challenging
the ground of salvation. And here's what he's saying.
If we, from having been justified by Christ, go back to the law,
We make Christ the minister of sin. Now, why is that? How is
going back to, if we say we're Christian now, he's setting up
this idea, he's showing how serious this is. Now, if I'm a Christian,
if I claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and I tell you
that Christ is guiding me or directing me or commanding me
to go back to the law, then what I'm actually doing is making
Christ the minister of sin. Now how's that? Well, look at
it this way. Why was the law given? There's
two verses that tell us why the law was given, but there's all
kinds of verses that just state it out. Romans chapter three
and verse 20 where it says, moreover the law entered that what? Sin
might abound. Why did God give? the Jewish
nation, the law, to expose their sinfulness and the impossibility
of salvation and justification before God by their works. Cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. If you believe you can
be saved by your works of the law, you're a debtor to do the
whole law. You've got to keep it perfectly. Why was the law
given to them? To show them the impossibility
of salvation by their works. In other words, he's saying if
you think you're saved by your works, you're still in your sins. You're still in your sins. Over
in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, you don't have to turn there,
but you remember where Paul says the sting of death is sin. When he talks about how Christ
has removed the sting of death, well the sting of death is sin.
And then he says the strength of sin is the law. That's 1 Corinthians 15, 56.
How in the world can you say the strength of sin is the law? What that's saying is this, the
power of sin to condemn a sinner is in the law of God which requires
righteousness. In other words, if you don't
measure up, you're condemned. If you don't have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice, you're condemned.
So if I have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice, sin has no strength to condemn me. How do you know? Well, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's love? Who's going to impute, charge
sin to me? I'm a sinner, but I'm one to whom God does not
charge sin. David said in Psalm 32, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. What he's saying
there is that I'm blessed because God doesn't charge me with sin.
What happened to that sin? He charged it to Christ. Christ
took my debt. It was imputed to him. That's
what it means when it says he was made sin. He took my debt,
he took the punishment, he took the penalty, he died under the
wrath of God, under my guilt. And therefore, my sin is taken
away in the law books of God's justice. Doesn't mean I'm still
not weak and sinful, pitiful, I am. But God doesn't hold it
to my account. One day, I'll be totally free
from even the presence, the contamination, and the power of sin to keep
me from being perfect. But that's when I'm glorified,
when I leave this life. Paul said, who shall deliver
me from this body of death? But you see, if we preach that
Christ is our Savior, but we must go back to the law in order
to be righteous, we're making Christ the minister of sin. You
see, Christ died to take away our sins. Christ died to establish
the only righteousness. that a sinner can have before
God. And so Paul says in verse 18, look at it, for if I build
again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Paul had renounced all of his legal Judaism when he came to
a saving knowledge of Christ. You can read about that in Philippians
chapter three. He said, I count it all but done
that I may win Christ and be found in him. Not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Jesus Christ. And that phrase is again, we'll
look at that one later on. But Paul says, I've renounced
it all. Now, if I go back and build it up again, as if it meant
something, as if it were some merit to it, then I make myself
a transgressor. Here's what people by nature
cannot accept until the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. And
that's this. A sinner trying his best to keep
the law in order to be saved is an abomination, a sinful act
before God. That's why the Holy Spirit must
convict us of sin. A person who's trying to do their
best to please God in order to be saved, in order to be righteous
before God, in order to earn their salvation, that is an abomination
to God. Luke 16, 15, that which is highly
esteemed among men is what? An abomination before God. Men
admire that. Now, does that mean that everybody
should be immoral and pervert? No. I pray that God will turn this
nation into a more moral nation, all of that. But that's not the
way of salvation. That's not the way of being justified
before God, you see. And Paul says, if I preach that,
if I preach salvation, conditioned on the works of a sinner at any
stage, to any degree, at any time, I make myself a transgressor. Look at verse 19. He says, for
I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto
God. Now how am I, through the law,
dead to the law? Through Jesus Christ keeping
the law. Satisfying the law. When he died,
as my substitute in surety, I died with him. He died in my place. When he was buried as my substitute
and surety, I was buried with him. He did it for me. When he arose, I rose with him. You see that? I'm dead to the
law. The law cannot condemn me. The
law cannot hold me accountable. I have a righteousness that answers
its demands. It's the righteousness of God
in Christ imputed, counted to me. And so he explains it in
verse 20. I'm crucified with Christ. Christ
is the representative. He's the substitute. He's the
surety of his people. But he says, nevertheless, I
live. I'm living. He says, yet not I. Now what's
Paul doing there? Is he talking out of both sides
of his mouth? No. He's saying, I'm not the source of this life.
It didn't come from me. You know, preachers today, they
preach to people as if there's some spark of goodness that all
we have to do is fan it, you know? And that turns religion
into nothing more than psychology, but it's not grace. Paul said,
I'm not the source of it, Christ is. He said, but Christ liveth
in me. How does Christ live in his people?
By the Holy Spirit and by his word. The Holy Spirit gives us
life from Christ, spiritual life. We're born again. And the life
which I now live in the flesh, the flesh there just means this
physical body, I live, look here, here's that phrase again, I live
by the faith of the Son of God. Now I believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, but my belief is not perfect. It's not the ground
of my life. But let me tell you what is perfect,
the faith of the Son of God. He's perfect. And he said, how
do you know he's talking about the faith of Christ instead of
faith in Christ? Well, look at it. I live by the
faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. You see, it's the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. And so verse 21, he says, I do
not frustrate the grace of God. I do not make it void. That's
what these false preachers were doing, these Judaizers, these
legalists. Claiming to believe in grace,
claiming that Christ was their savior, but then adding their
works in order to make a sinner say, what they were doing is
they were canceling out grace. He says, I don't frustrate the
grace of God. Well, what do you mean, Paul? Well, look, here's
the explanation. For if righteousness come by
the law, If a sinner is declared not guilty, made righteous before
God by the law, by works of law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Do you understand the implication here? Do you understand how serious
this is? To say that salvation, that a
sinner's justification before God in any way is based on what
that sinner does or doesn't do, is a declaration, whether the
sinner knows it or not, whether we know it or not, is a declaration
that Christ died in vain. Well, my friend, he didn't die
in vain, did he? He died for his people, and he
secured the salvation of his people. All right.