Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Galatians chapter 2. We'll be actually looking at
the last verse today. The last verse, which will be
verse 21. But I'm going to have us read
verses 15 to 21. And then I'm going to have us
read verses 1 to 3 in Galatians chapter 3. The name of the message
is Frustrating the Grace of God. Frustrating the Grace of God. And today we'll again be looking
at the last verse of chapter two. And we'll see in our reading,
as we read the whole portion, that Paul is continuing to talk
about justification in Christ alone. It's the heart of the
gospel. It really is. Justification in
Christ alone is the heart of the gospel. And we must always
remember who is the true author of these scriptures before us.
And when these scriptures were written, they didn't have chapter
and verse. They actually, it was a letter
written to the Galatians. And sometimes the chapters and
the verses, the chapters, especially the breaks, can actually hinder
the thought process that's going through because right away when
we see a chapter break, we stop. But the nice thing with scripture
is we can read it continuously like it was written. And remember
who the true author of these words are. It's God the Holy
Spirit. He moved upon holy men of God. They were inspired, and
the only way they're holy is in Christ. They were inspired
to write these scriptures. So the true author of these words
before us is God the Holy Spirit. He's the true author of these
letters. And he is the very one who regenerates us. And he's
the very one who gives us an understanding of the scriptures
too. Without him illuminating the scriptures, we wouldn't have
any clue about what the scriptures say. We'd just be reading paper
and ink. That's all they'd be to us. And
I know that because before the Lord saved me, that's all it
was to me was paper and ink. So let us pray that the Holy
Spirit will give us teachable spirits and teach us truths about
Christ and give us an understanding of his precious, precious word.
So let's read verses 15 to 21. Paul's writing to the Galatians who have been
seduced by the Judaizers, bewitched, he tells us in chapter 3, I believe. And let's
read this, verses 15 to 21. We who are Jews by nature are
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." So we
clearly see there, clearly see, and we're going to look at that
a little bit later, that a man or woman cannot be justified
by the works of the law. But if all we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners. Is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God forbid, or in the Greek,
let it never be. Let it never be. For if I build
again the things which I destroy, I make myself a transgressor.
For I, through the law, am dead to the law that I might live
unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. In 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. Look at this, here's our verse, I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. So we're going to continue our
reading here though, into Galatians chapter 3, because Paul segues
on the chapter here about justification. He just continues this vein of
thought that he's preaching on. in chapter 2, or that he's talking
to them about in chapter 2, and it goes right into chapter 3
and it continues. And it's still talking about
justification in and through Christ and not by the works of
our flesh. And he says, O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth,
crucified among you? So he that set Christ forth before
them, And so the teachers at Galatians, at Galatia who were
called by God, they had set the truth before them. And here these
Judaizers would come in and they bewitched them. Like they put
a spell on them. And they're not believing the
true gospel. They're starting to think, well maybe these guys
are right. Maybe these guys are right. They're
starting to listen to them. They haven't given themselves
over to it. Paul doesn't say, oh, you're outcast of the Lord. He doesn't say that, does he?
He actually has concern for this group of people, because he established
these churches, too. Remember that. So he's got a
love for them. And he says, oh, oh, foolish
Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye now obey the truth,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth,
crucified among you? This only would I learn of you.
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing
of faith? How do you receive the spirit?
By what you did? No. Or by the hearing of the
law. Faith cometh by what? Hearing.
And hearing by the word of God, right? It's amazing. It's wonderful.
Are you so foolish, having begun in the spirit, that you are now
made perfect in the flesh? Oh my. So our verse for today
will be in Galatians chapter 2 verse 21. Paul writes here,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Now Paul was clearly here bringing
forth what he did in verse 16. Let's read verse 16 again of
Galatians chapter 2. 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 may 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. My oh
my, he is setting before the Galatians and he's setting before
us by the Holy Spirit preserving the Word of God, right, 2,000
plus years ago. He's setting before us today
that if one seeks to be justified by the works of the law, by something
you do, then you frustrated the grace of God. You frustrated
the grace of God. Any work that one tries to do
to save themselves, any work that one tries to do
to save themselves or add to the finished work of Christ,
which the law commands you to do, you are frustrating the grace
of God. And we're going to look at what
that word means. It doesn't mean frustrated like
we think. My, oh my, the Holy Spirit of
God had Paul bring forth in verse 16 the fact That one cannot be
justified outside of Christ. That one cannot be justified
by any works which we do. It's impossible. And you know, Spurgeon said this,
he said, salvation by works is a criminal doctrine. It's a criminal
doctrine. It flies in the face of our great
God, beloved. It's like spitting in God's eye. Spitting in his face. That's
what it's like. Oh, it's awful. It's insulting
to the grace of God. And this is all works-based salvation. And do you know what works-based
salvation produces? Self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. You know why? Because they start
to measure themselves up. by the things that they do. They
start to earn rewards by the things that they do. Christ is
our reward, isn't he? If Christ is our reward, do we
need anything else? He's our everything. I don't
need anything else if Christ is my reward, and he is. Therefore,
I don't need anything else. Oh, amen. I've got Christ. I've
got everything. And all self-righteous religious
works-based salvation and works-based religion does is it produces
people who glory in themselves. They want to tell you everything
they've done. They're not talking about Christ
when they're doing that, are they? See, we tell others what Christ's
done for us. I did enough bragging on myself
in religion and I was just full of self-righteous. I know what
Paul's talking about here. Trying to justify yourself by
your own works. Even though I would have said,
I would have said, I would have said, well, oh no, I believe
in salvation by grace alone. But then I, back then I told
my cousins, God's cast a vote for you, the devil's cast a vote
for you, now it's up to you. Oh my goodness gracious. Lord,
give me an opportunity to preach to them the grace of God. See, that's adding to the finished
work of Christ. That's putting salvation in man's
hands rather than in the sovereign king's hands, beloved. My, oh my. And self-righteousness is the
heart of works-based religion. It really is. These Judaizers,
they were so full of self-righteousness, beloved. Here they are trying to bewitch
God's people, trying to pull them away, saying, Paul's not
preaching the gospel. No. And what does Paul do? He just
preaches Christ and Him crucified. He just says, I'm just going
to put before you our great King, and I'm going to tell you that
justification is in Christ alone, and by no works of law can you
ever be justified. And that's what every preacher
does, right? That's what we do. We stand up and we proclaim that week
after week after week, because it's the truth. It's the heart
of the gospel, beloved. Substitution and satisfaction. Justified in Christ alone. No
hope outside of him. As you said, Dave, Christ is
my all. He's my all. There was a fella,
they called him poor Jack, or happy Jack, happy Jack. And happy
Jack didn't know a whole lot. But the Lord saved happy Jack.
And folks said, well, you gotta know this and you gotta know
that. And he says, I'll tell you what I know. I'll tell you what I
know. Jesus Christ is my all in all.
And he said, well, but Jack, you got to know all this to become
a member of the church and all this. And he goes, I'll tell
you what. I know that Jesus Christ is my all in all, and that's
all I need. That's all I need. That's all I need. Is that not
true for us? I don't know a lot, but I'll
tell you what. What I know, I'm going to tell you. Jesus Christ
is my all in all. Is he yours? Oh, he is. He's my all in all. Oh, it's
wonderful. My. So this soul-damning error
of works-based religion, it arises from an ignorance of who God
really is. And I know because I was there,
and those of us who were in religion were there. It arises from an
ignorance of who God really is. See, we manufacture in our minds
who we think God is, but that's not the God of the Bible. It's
not the God of the Bible. It's the God of our imagination,
beloved. Our hearts, one of our preachers quoted Calvin one time,
and he said, our hearts are idol factories. They just pump out
idols. Who do we think God is? Oh, he's like this. Oh, he's
like that. Oh, he's like this. No, he ain't like us. He says,
my thoughts aren't your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways.
Praise God. Praise God. Because we can be
hand-in-hand with someone, and they do us wrong, and we're like,
oh. Right? And we might even say,
I'll forgive you. But then we bring it up six years
later. Well, you really didn't forgive
someone then, did you? And we're all guilty of it. But God don't
do that. He says, your sins and iniquities, I will remember.
No more. No more. They're gone. Because
we're justified in Christ, beloved. and through Christ and by Christ.
And also this soul-damning error arises from an ignorance of ourselves,
who we really are. We're sinners to the core, from
the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. And self-righteous
religious, they don't think they're sinners. Just ask them, I'm telling
you, just ask them. My oh my. And also, this workspace
religion arises from an ignorance of what holiness really is. God's holiness. We're only holy
in Christ, but God's holiness. He's a holy and righteous God. He won't accept anything we do
because He's so holy. And everything we do is tainted
with sin. He's so holy. And it makes light a sin, too. And there's no comfort in works-based
religion. There's no comfort. And remember,
that's what Paul's battling here. And if you read Paul's letters,
he's continuously battling that. And all he does, how he battles
it, is just sets Christ forth, right? That's all we do, set
Christ forth. Set him forth. But there's no comfort. in something
we do for the salvation of our souls. But I'll tell you what,
there's comfort when Christ is your all in all. Because that
means it's all based on Him. I'll tell you what, that means
the saving is based upon Him. That means the keeping is based
upon Him. That means the glorification is based on Him. That means the
redemption is based on Him. That means the sanctification
is based on Him. That means the justification is based upon Him.
Hallelujah. What a Savior is Jesus Christ,
my Lord. What a Savior. He's wonderful.
He's absolutely wonderful. Let's read verse 21 again. He
says, I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Now, see the
first three words there? I do not. They're all one word
in the Greek. Three words in the English, but
one word in the Greek. And I found this fascinating
as I looked at this. They're in the absolute negative.
I absolutely do not, no not at all, frustrate the grace of God. They're in the absolute, and
it's a double negative. Not at all, never. My. Frustrate the grace of God. Now
see the word frustrate there in the Greek? You know what it
means in the Greek? It means to set aside. See, we
look at frustrate and we think, oh, we got frustrated about that.
No, this means to set it totally aside. To make it void. To make it void, beloved. To
set it aside. It's not important. To disesteem
or to neutralize, like it doesn't mean nothing. Different meaning, right, than
our word frustrating. My oh my. It also means to do
away with something laid down or presented or established.
So the scripture establishes that Christ is all, right? Christ
is all. Any time with the Judaizers or
any other, you can put any other works-based religion in it, it
does away with the grace of God. It makes it void. Because man's
works, our works, taint anything, don't they? Because we're full
of sin. So it makes a void the grace
of God. It sets it aside. It disannuls
it. It disesteems it. It makes it
negative. See, it's important when someone
comes preaching another gospel to say, you're wrong. You're wrong. And they've been
saying Paul wasn't preaching the gospel. So it's wrong to
say that preacher's not preaching the gospel, isn't it? That's
wrong to do. That's man's opinion, beloved. Paul was a sent man
of God, and all he did was preach Christ. He could have gone toe-to-toe
with the philosophers. He didn't bother. He just preached
Christ, beloved. That's all he was centered on.
He said, I was sent to preach Christ and then crucify. That's
why I said here, our church here is here for the furtherance of
the gospel, beloved. Now we are blessed by it. And
when I say the furtherance of the gospel, I'm talking about
us. I get up in the Sunday pulpit and preach Christ to you. And
then the gospel goes out in the world. But first and foremost,
I'm called to feed the sheep here, right? And I can't do that
but by the Holy Spirit giving me messages to feed you. And
he's the one who takes it and makes it effectual. Otherwise,
my words would just fall on the ground. All right? It's him. This also means, again, to annul. This frustrate means to annul,
to thwart the efficacy of anything. And then to nullify or to make
void. So this is serious business,
beloved. It makes void the sacrifice of Christ. Anybody adding any
kind of work to salvation with Christ, or just saying, not even
having Christ involved, just saying, well I can be saved by
this way. You are literally nullifying the grace of God. Now in this
place it's talking about adding a work of man to the finished
work of Christ. Because the Judaizers were saying
you have to be circumcised to be saved according to the law
of Moses. And Paul here again, now this is important because
it's by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, right? So he's
teaching us, right? The Holy Spirit of God is teaching
us this truth. Setting Christ before us. As
Paul said, set evidently before you. The Holy Spirit just puts Christ
right before us through the preaching of the Gospel. The true author
of the Scriptures, again, is the Holy Spirit of God. And He's
setting forth, if you trust in Christ alone, if He's your all
in all, then you're saved. But if you add anything, just
a pinch even, well, I have to read my Bible to be saved. Well,
you're going to want to read your Bible if you're born again.
Right? I have to perform this or I have
to perform that to be saved along with trusting Christ. You're
just frustrated with the grace of God. Isn't it, isn't it, I ask you
beloved, isn't it liberating? Isn't it freeing to know that
all our hope is in Christ and Him alone? Now, I love what Paul
wrote and what we've been talking about the last few weeks now.
We don't just sit around and know. Now we live our life for
God, don't we? Now we get together with our brothers and sisters
in Christ and we rejoice over the wonderful salvation that
we have in Christ. We talk about it with our spouses who are saved
or with our brothers and sisters in Christ or our family who have
an interest in it. We talk about it and we love
it. We love it. Now we live our life unto God.
It's wonderful. What a change. What a change. Let's read verse 21 again. I
do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Now, now we see why
Paul called the Judaizers that they were teaching another gospel.
Because again, as we see here, if you add anything to the finished
work of Christ and you frustrate the grace of God, you make it
void. It's no longer the gospel. See, that's why Paul said they're
preaching another gospel in chapter one. That's not another gospel,
because there's no good news in works-based salvation. It'll just damn us all to hell.
That's serious. That's what it'll do. Oh, my. So when someone says you must
be, here's some examples. Someone says, well, you must
be baptized to be saved. That's another gospel. Someone
says, you have to speak in tongues to be saved, along with believing
on Christ. That's another gospel, beloved.
You have to go to this church in order to be saved. That's
another gospel, beloved. You've got to do this to be saved
or that to be saved. They didn't put anything in there.
Men will do all kinds of things. You see these folks, they're
walking on coals and they're beating themselves, trying to
gain merit and favor with God. You know what they're? They're
just heaping condemnation upon themselves. Do you know that?
No matter how sincere they are, they're just heaping condemnation
upon themselves. My, oh my. My oh my. Man, I've heard people say you've
got to speak in tongues to be saved. That's a lie. That's another
gospel. That's another gospel. And I
don't care how sincere someone is. I don't care how sincere
someone is. If they're saying there's something
you have to do along with Christ to be saved, that's another gospel,
beloved. You can put anything in there.
That's another gospel. That's another gospel. I'm telling you.
You say, well, that's pretty narrow-minded. That's harsh way.
No, I'm just talking about what Paul did. Yeah? Satan uses the same things. He just dresses it up in another
costume. That's all. We got Mormonism,
we got Jehovah Witnesses, we got Church of Christ who believe
you have to be baptized to be saved. We got Seventh-day Adventists
who are Sabbatarians, believe that if you don't go to church
on Saturdays, you're not saved. We got, and I'll tell you why,
it goes on and on and on and on and on. You know, I used to study all
that stuff, but then someone told me, you know how you find
the counterfeit? You study the real. I don't have to study what they
believe. I just do a little overview of it, but I study the real,
and then when I find out what they believe, I can just say,
that's a lie from the pit of hell. You ask a bank teller. You ask
them. Ask them. They say, what do you study to
find out what's counterfeit? They go, real money. What do we study to find out
a counterfeit gospel? the Holy Bible, the Holy Word
of God, when Paul, especially when Paul says, I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ
is dead and vain. My oh my. You know, one may even preach
Christ. All those, all those, all those Religions I just named there,
except for Mormons, they don't even believe in Jehovah's Witnesses,
they don't even believe the way we do, but like Church of Christ
says they believe in Christ, Seventh-day Adventists say they
believe in Christ, Catholicism says they believe in Christ,
right? All these religions say they all believe in Christ. But I'll tell you what. One may preach that Christ died
for our sins, but if he adds works to faith, which all those
religions do. If he adds works to faith as
a means of acceptance of salvation, then they've just preached a
criminal doctrine. A false gospel. And if people believe that gospel
and they die in their sins, they're going to go straight to hell,
beloved. There is absolutely no salvation
for a sinner in anything we do. In anything we do. This is serious
business. This is serious business what
we see here before us. There is salvation. The scripture
declares there is salvation in no other, doesn't it? And we
believe that. No other than Christ. There is
no salvation anywhere else. Now see the word righteousness
in our text there? See the word righteousness there?
I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. That word righteousness,
do you know what it means in the Greek? Justification. Isn't that wonderful? It means justification. I'll tell you what, the scriptures
are absolutely, absolutely wonderful. Look at, again, knowing that
that word means justification. 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,
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. It's not the same Greek word
though. Righteousness here is not the
same Greek word as justified there, but it means the same. It means the same, beloved. If
justification come by the law, then Christ is dead and vain.
That really brings it home, doesn't it? Because Paul's just been
telling us that in verse 16 there, that we can only be justified
in Christ. You see how the Holy Spirit keeps the vain, the thought
vain, going through the Scriptures here? And he even continued it
in Chapter 3, didn't he? Where the break is, there's no
break in the letter, It might be another paragraph in the letter,
but there's no break in the thought process of the real original
letter. Who had bewitched you then? See,
he says if righteousness comes by the law, then he says to the
Galatians, well then who's bewitched you if you believe in righteousness
come by the law? Someone put a spell on you. See how the thought process is
still the same? Because he's dealing with justification
in Christ throughout this letter. It's absolutely wonderful, beloved.
Because again, this is our hope. That we already know, we've been
shown that we cannot be justified by the law. So our hope is only
in Christ, right? So the Holy Spirit is building
this up more and more for strengthening us. Giving us strength, filling
our hearts with joy is the fact that Christ is my all. I don't
know much, but I can say with happy jack, I don't know much,
but Jesus Christ is my all in all. He's my all in all. And I'll
keep telling other people that he's my all in all. Oh, my. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. It's His shed blood, beloved.
It's His shed blood that saves us from our sins. It's the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He redeemed us on Calvary's cross.
He saved us from our sins. We can't save ourselves from
one sin, can we? But he saved us from all our
sins, beloved, by the shedding of his blood in Calvary's groves.
And then the very one who authored the Holy Scriptures regenerates
us. We're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. It's absolutely
amazing. And he gives us an understanding
of this word, this love letter that he sent to his people. It's
absolutely amazing. So works-based salvation makes
void the grace of God. Because Paul says, if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. It makes void
the grace of God. That's serious business, isn't
it? That's serious stuff. To make void the grace of God? To set it aside? The sacrifice
of Christ? Do you see why Paul was concerned
about the Galatians? because they were starting to
have their ears tickled by these teachers who were literally making
void the grace of God, literally setting aside the sacrifice of
Christ and saying that there's something that sinful men can
do to be saved, which is a lie. There's nothing we can do to
be saved. Christ is their only savior of
sinners, the only one. So adding anything we must do
to be saved by us is a rejection of the grace of God. You literally,
these folks, these Judaizers were literally rejecting and
making void the word of God. In a sense, they're calling God
a liar, aren't they? Because they're saying our sacrifice
isn't good enough. But God said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. They're basically saying, well,
God's not totally well pleased with him, because we got to do
a little bit of stuff still. Basically, when you get down
to it, that's what they're doing. They're putting their own self-righteousness
before the sacrifice of Christ. And I didn't know I was doing
that when I was in religion, but I sure was. But praise God,
by the grace of God, he saved me from that. My. That's why I have such passion
when it comes to these portions like this, because I know what
it's like to be entangled in the yoke of bondage. You're enslaved. But now we're
free, beloved. We are free. We are the freest
people in the world, beloved. It's amazing. So man, by setting
alongside their own merits and worthiness and self-righteousness
before God, is making the death of Christ as nothing. As nothing. The scripture here proclaims,
then Christ is dead and vain, if man can be saved by something
they do. So frustrating the grace of God
is when man applies any act of law works, anything that they
can do, as the grounds of a sinner's justification before God, or
gain merit and favor with God. There is no salvation for the
sinner who depends in the least upon good works as a means of
acceptance before God. There's absolutely no salvation. There's only salvation in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Only in Him, beloved. Only in
Him. My, oh my. And the fact is, the fact is, God is made unto
his people, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
In other words, he's my all in all. He's my all in all. He's both our justification and
our sanctification. He's the whole of our acceptance
before God the Father. And the sinner's only hope before
God is God's free and sovereign grace. and marvel at this, beloved,
that's bestowed upon us based upon absolutely nothing in us, because it pleased God to do
so. We're never going to get over
that, are we? We're never going to move from
that ground, are we? Because that just leaves us in
awe, doesn't it? that God would accept me based upon absolutely
nothing in me and only because of what Christ did for me? Oh
my, let me shout it from the rooftops, Lord. Let me just shout it out. And I'll tell you what, Christ
was never our all in all before we were saved. But now, after
we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God, He is our all
in all. He's everything, isn't He? Scripture says He's a nail in
a sure place. You ever had a nail where you can hang anything on
it? When we used to do construction, sometimes there was nails and
you could just hang anything on those nails. They were holding
the cross beams and all that. You hang something up there,
it ain't moving. It don't matter how heavy it is, it ain't moving.
It's not moving. He's a nail in a sure place,
beloved. And you can hang your eternal soul upon Him. Just like
all we have, right? We who are His people, we've
hung our eternal soul upon Him, haven't we? We just, we're just
hanging on to Him, aren't we? We're just hanging on to Him.
He's everything to us. And it's Christ who's opened
the gate of heaven to us and shut the gates of hell against
us. Isn't that wonderful? He's opened
the gates of heaven for us and He's shut the gates of hell against
us. That's incredible, beloved. And He's obtained eternal redemption
for us by the shedding of His precious, precious blood. Again,
He's all our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
He's our all in all. And you know, let us pray that
we will never frustrate the grace of God. God, give us grace to
never frustrate your grace. My. And let's just keep trusting
in you, Lord. Man's wired for works, right?
It's in all of us. But when God saves a man or a
woman, I'll tell you what. They no longer hope in themselves.
They have one hope, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the King
of Glory, the only Savior of sinners. Hallelujah, beloved.
What a Savior our Lord is. What a Savior. We're justified
in Him. We're saved from all our sins
in Him. May we never get past that, that
wondrous, wondrous fact. that Christ has saved us, and
He's now our all in all. Brother Travis, can you close
us in prayer?