Lord willing, one through four,
let's bow and go to the Lord in prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we're once again excited to be in your house with your people.
We're also privileged, Lord, and we know that we don't deserve
it, but we are thankful and privileged to be called the children of
God and to be able to worship with the people of God. very
blessed to have the Word of God given to us so that we might
know you, that the Spirit might be with us to teach us of you. We pray, Lord, this morning that
our worship is pleasing to you, that you might aid us by the
Spirit to lift up not only our heart but our mind as well to
think upon these things upon Christ. We pray, Lord, that you
would give us understanding of these. I pray that you would
help me to preach this morning, Lord, that I would put forth
the truth of God, and that these verses that are before us, Lord,
that we might see Christ in all the things that we will read
and hear this morning, Lord. I thank you for the time of singing
that we've just had, and the words of those beautiful hymns
that you give those hymn writers to write, and the truths that
are found, the doctrinal richness that they have. Father, we're
grateful for these things that you have given to us. to be able
to extol you in praise and glory. And we just ask, Lord, that you
would be with our members that are not here. For whatever reason
it is, Lord, we pray that whatever it is, Lord, that you would be
with them. We are thankful today that you've given us another
day to meet. We're thankful that still in
this country, we're able to freely meet and to preach Christ Jesus.
We see the days are getting worse. Our country is becoming worse,
Lord. and the people are becoming more
intolerant of Christianity. Lord, we pray that you would
keep us safe, but more than that, we pray, Lord, that you would
keep us in the faith, that you would keep us from falling away,
that you would keep us from error, keep us from compromise. Lord,
that we might stand faithfully in Joplin and wherever else you
would have us to be, that you might make us voices of the gospel. And so, Father, again, we just
ask you to be with us in this time. May your son be glorified. May he be exalted. May he be
preached today. May he be received today. And
I pray, Lord, if anybody be here this morning that has yet been
converted by the gospel, I pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would
come, that you would call them to yourself, Lord, and that you
would bring them to you. And we ask all these things in
Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we ended last week with
the last two verses of the second chapter, or the last three verses
of the chapter, I guess. And Paul, in verse 21, he said,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. That really
is a verse that we really need to grasp as we move into chapter
three. Paul here is saying, now whenever,
and again, I'm gonna reiterate this, I'm gonna recapitulate
from last week a little bit. Whenever Paul says, I do not
frustrate the grace of God, that doesn't mean, he's not saying,
he's not saying that we can't stop God's grace from working.
No man can stop God's grace. We all know that the grace of
God is irresistible. The grace of God is strong. The arm of the Lord is strong. The word of God is strong. It's
like a hammer. It can crush. It's like a sword. It can divide. It can cut. God
is not stopped by men and what they do. We know that. The Bible
tells us that God is in the heavens and he does as he pleases. That he is sovereign over all
things and nothing can stop him or his purpose of what he has
declared or decreed from all eternity. So whenever Paul says,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, that does not mean that
we can do something that would cause the grace of God to be
messed up, okay? Let me give you an example. There
are some people that believe that God, whenever he made Adam
and Eve, he intended them to live in that garden, perfect,
and never sin, and that they would live forever there, enjoying
the good things that God had given them, with all the animals
that he had made, and all the creation that he had made, and
everything was just gonna be this utopia, but uh-oh, Adam
messed up. Adam and Eve messed up, And so
God had to go out and change his plan, and now he has to send
Jesus to save because now men are sinful. That would be frustrating the
grace of God. God had blessed Adam in grace,
and Adam messed it up, and now God has to do plan B. Well, there
is never a plan B with God. The Bible says, that known unto
God are all His words, the end, from the beginning. He knows
everything that is gonna happen, the end, from at the very end,
all the way back through time to the very beginning, before
the foundation of the world. And the reason He knows that
isn't because He's got these good binoculars, that He's looking
down through the corridor of time to see what will happen. He isn't a soothsayer who can
see and tell people's fortunes. you know, and know what's going
to happen in the future. The reason that God knows all
things, we use a big word, omniscient, it means all-knowing. The reason
that God knows everything is because everything that's happening
was declared by God. God predestinated everything,
therefore He knows exactly what's going to happen because God has
predestinated it, He has declared it, And by His Spirit, by His
Son, He is bringing all those things forth. We call it providence. Providence is working all the
things of God out according to His purpose, exactly the way. And so it cannot be thwarted.
So we know that Paul, when he says, I do not frustrate the
grace of God, is not saying that somehow I can mess up God's plan
or I can cause God grief. OK, and he's got to maneuver
around me. That's not what he's saying.
Whenever he says, I do not frustrate the grace of God, he means I
don't confuse it. I don't confuse you guys in here. These Judaizers are confusing
the grace of God with the law. You're preaching the law and
grace, and therefore you are confusing the gospel. The gospel is a clear gospel.
The gospel is a plain gospel. It's a simple gospel. It's a
gospel of free grace. That salvation is given to us
freely. It is not earned. It is not by
works. It's not by conditions that we
got to keep. Salvation is given to us freely. And so whenever we try to add
anything to the grace of God, we are frustrating or confusing
the message of the gospel. And this is exactly what the
Judaizers were doing. They were coming behind Paul
and telling the Galatians, oh yes, we are saved by the grace
and the work of Jesus Christ, but yes, we still have to keep
the law of Moses. And we found that that was true.
That's what they were saying when we went back to Acts chapter
15. We saw that there were Judaizers
within that congregation at Jerusalem who were saying, yes, we have
to still be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. But Paul and
Peter and the rest of the apostles made it very clear that is not
the gospel. That is not the gospel. But yet
Peter, whenever he came to the churches in Galatia and was fellowshipping
with them, we see that Peter, whenever the Judaizers did come
and visit, that he went back on that very thought and began
to act like the Judaizers himself, not associating with the Gentiles, And so that puts us exactly where
Paul is at in his correction to Paul, or to Peter. He is rebuking
Peter for him being hypocritical about the law and grace. And
he's reminding Peter that we know that salvation has nothing
to do with keeping the law. That the law is the ministration
of death. The gospel is the ministration
of life. That if we go to keep the law,
no one will ever be saved because nobody can keep the law. That
is not why Jesus came and died, is to put you back under the
law. He came to fulfill the law on behalf of all those that he
substituted for. So every law of God was kept
by Jesus for us. And that is laid to our account. So from now until the end of
time, all of God's people, although they do commit sins, and they
are sinners and their flesh cannot do any good, their account says
justified. God says no sin, forgiven. It's blank. There's nothing on
their record. Now, I've never been arrested.
So if you look at my record with the authorities, you'll see there's
no record there. I don't have any record. That's how it is with us, as
far as God is concerned, with righteousness. Whenever he looks
at our account, whenever he looks at our rap sheet, so to speak,
he sees that there is nothing there. Now, we really have sin,
though, right? Every one of us, for all of sin
and fallen short of the glory or the righteousness that is
in Christ, right? We've all fallen short of that. And so to try to keep the law,
no man's going to attain that. So our rap sheet will just keep
getting larger and larger and larger and larger if we put ourselves
back under the law. That's why Paul said in verse
17, remember, he said, but while we seek to be justified by Christ,
we ourselves are found sinners. It is therefore Christ the minister
of sin. God forbid. For if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
See, Paul said that if I try to go back under the law for
righteousness, all I'm gonna do is make myself a transgressor.
But if I stand here in the free grace of Jesus Christ, I'm not
a transgressor. I am righteous as God is righteous.
Matter of fact, in Isaiah, the Bible says that he is called
the Lord our righteousness. He's our righteousness. The Bible
says that we are the righteousness of God in Christ. Why would you
want to go back under the law that says that you're a transgressor?
Why do you want to put yourself back under the law that only
points to you and says you're guilty? You're guilty. You're
guilty. You missed it. Have you ever
worked with somebody or do you know somebody that every time
that you're around them, all they do is they pick out your
faults? They just find something wrong with everything that you
do. Every time you do something, they find something wrong with
it and everything. You know how wearisome that gets
to the point where, hey, I don't even want to be around this person
because all they do is talk bad about what I'm doing or whatever.
That's what the law does. The law is constantly accusing,
accusing, accusing, accusing, accusing, accusing to the point
where there is no hope left for anybody. They say there is no
hope then. And Paul says, why do I want
to go back under the law for righteousness where there is
no righteousness found? Righteousness cannot be found
by the law. And so he says, I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
died in vain. If I can gain a righteousness
by law keeping, if you remember, I was one of the best law keepers
that there was. Remember whenever in chapter
one where he's talking about how good he was? He said, I profited
in the Jews religion, verse 14, chapter one. I profited in the
Jews religion above many my equals in my own nation, being more
exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. Paul said that
he, hey, he's a Pharisee of Pharisees. But he said, all those things
that I count as gain, I now count as done. I count that as hoop,
is what he said. He says, all that law keeping,
all it did was show that I cannot keep the law. And so now, he sees the Galatians
looking back to the law, listening to these Judaizers speak, and
preach, and I'm sure whenever they come, they come with a silver
tongue, they come with great oratory ability. And we see that
even today in our country. We see these preachers on TV
and on the radio that they talk real smooth, don't they? They
have all these fancy ways of preaching, you know, they have,
you know, they're good speakers, they may even have a great voice
that sounds like a radio voice. We're welcome here today. Like
Adrian Rogers, you know, he's got a great voice, you know.
But yet there's not truth there. They're speaking these things
and they sound good and they are pleasing to the ear. They're
pleasing to the flesh. See, the flesh always wants to
do something and be patted on the back for doing it. See, we
want to go and stand before the Lord and the Lord say, well done,
you good and faithful servant. You did it. You kept the law
enough that I accepted you so that we can just pump our chest
up and look around at all the other elect of God and say, yeah,
I did. See, that's how the flesh is.
But you know what? When you get before the Lord,
the flesh won't be there because that day this flesh will be done. So we're not gonna be standing
up there saying how great we are. And we ain't gonna make
it anyway because the Bible says that anything that we do in this
flesh is unprofitable. It's not any good, right? So
Paul said, I do not frustrate the grace of God, but that's
what's exactly happening with the Galatians. The grace of God
has been frustrated because, or confused, because of the Judaizers. And so in chapter three, verse
one, we read, oh foolish Galatians, who have bewitched you that you
should not obey the truth. before whose eyes Jesus Christ
has been evidently set forth, crucified among you. This only
would I learn of you, receive you the spirit by the works of
the law or by the hearing of faith. Are you so foolish, having
begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things
in vain, if it be yet in vain?" Paul starts out this and he says,
oh foolish Galatians. One thing that I get out of that
is when you look back to the law for righteousness, whether
to get saved or whether to stay saved, to continue in your Christian
walk, if you look to the law, that's foolish. The Galatians
was looking to the law for a righteousness before God, either to be accepted
as a person with God or to stay right before God. They thought
that they had to do that by obeying the law. And Paul here said,
not only is that a frustration of the gospel of grace, but that's
a foolish thing to do. It's foolish to try to have a
righteousness before God by law keeping. And so he says, oh, foolish relations.
Now, there are some times that the word fool or foolish in the
scriptures is referring to reprobates. It's referring to people who
are the non-elect and how they live foolishly or how they live
and there are fools. But yet, we know through scripture,
Jesus even called his disciples, some of the disciples who were
not believing at the time, he called them fools. Okay, don't
be foolish. Okay, so this is really not a
harsh thing that Paul is saying at them, calling them fools. But it is really more of a thing
of, you know, he has a desire for them to be right. It's more
kind of like a pity. You know, he's kind of having
pity upon them because they've been deceived. He's like disappointed. Man, I'm disappointed that you're
even thinking about this. after Christ was so clearly preached
to you, that the gospel was so clearly given to you, that you
believed the gospel, but now are even considering this. So
this talk of foolishness is not a hateful thing or a condemning
thing, but yet it is one of astonishment. I can't believe, you know, it'd
be like maybe a preacher that you knew that you've looked up
to as far as being faithful to preach, all of a sudden starting
to believe something dumb. How can he believe that? How can he think that way? Well,
that's kind of what we see with Paul. It's like a foolish Galatians.
It's foolish to think that way. Don't think that way. Don't be
like that. He says foolish Galatians. Who
hath bewitched you? That word bewitched. You know
what that word means? Anybody know what that word means?
To bewitch. It's not the TV show. Bewitched. Bewitched means to
fascinate with words. And actually, the word itself
means witchcraft. It means to perform witchcraft. But the word here, as it's used
in scripture, it means to fascinate by words or to enchant, enchanting
speech. You know, that's why at Santa
Bella Go, these men, they talk really smooth. Remember, the
Bible says that the people, they don't want to hear the truth,
that they gather around them, preachers, to preach what their
itching ears want to hear. That means that they want to
hear them speak smooth things. They want to hear them speak
things that tell them how good they are. You know, that's why,
you know, the free will gospel and the gospel of the law, it
always pumps up the flesh. It's what you can do. And that
makes people feel good. They want to know, what can I
do? Matter of fact, remember those people that came to Jesus
and they said, you know, what must we do to do the works of
God? They want to know, hey, you give
me, you give me, you give me what it is. You tell me what
you want done and I'll do it. You know, that's the flesh, that's
pride. That's the flesh being pumped up thinking that it can
do something to merit anything before God. But the flesh can't
do anything. And that's what we are, is flesh,
right? Flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of heaven. We cannot inherit the kingdom
of heaven by what we do in flesh and blood. It's only what Christ
does in us through the Spirit. He does it inwardly. It's invisible.
We can't see it. The works of God are works in
us. He brings us to repentance. He gives us an understanding
of the Word of God. He gives us a love for God. He gives us a desire for fellowship
and for His Word. He does all these things inwardly.
And so, whenever people begin to speak things to you that make
you feel like, hey, I can do that. I can do that. Let's get
out there and do that. Hey, let's pull ourselves up
by our own bootstraps. You know, get out there and charge
the world like, you know, onward Christian soldiers. You know,
getting out there and we're going to attack Satan with our puny
little spear here that we have in the flesh. We wrestle not
with flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. And
the only way that we can do anything with that is by God. We can't
do anything. You think that you're anything
against Satan and any of his demons or anything? No, the only
one that can conquer those is Christ. The strong man has to
come in and take control. The strong man comes in and takes
control of things. Christ is the only one who can
do that. Now this word bewitched again, it means to be charmed,
to be the light. People will come in and they'll
tell you, well surely, yeah, we believe that we're saved by
grace alone, But surely the Christian ought
to be out there keeping the law, right? I mean, you should be
out there getting there and obeying the law. See, those are silver-tongued
words. Those are charming words. Saying,
go back to the law. Go back to the law. God's going
to be mad at you if you're not keeping all these laws. Let me ask you, what's the difference
You break the law before you're converted, and you break the
law after you're converted. Was God displeased with you when
you tried to keep the law and broke it before? Is he displeased
with you when you try to keep the law and break it afterwards?
Well, here's the deal. For the child of grace, for the
elect of God, he's never seen those sins before or after your
conversion. Even though they're there, even
though we committed them, our mediator has stood before God
as the mediator for us, his people, from all eternity. God has never
seen the sin of his people. The scripture says in the Old
Testament, it says that he hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob,
nor hath he seen perversion in Israel. Now whenever we look
at that on the spiritual aspects, we see that Jacob, Israel, is
talking about the people of God. It's talking about God's elect.
He says, he hath not seen iniquity in Jacob. God has not seen iniquity
in us, although we are full of iniquity. In iniquity have we
been shapen from our mother's womb, the Bible says. We are
full of iniquity. Gabriel Gonzalez is probably
watching. He's probably saying, we drink iniquity like water.
That's one of his favorite ones. Anyway, we are full of iniquity,
but however, God has not beheld that in us because Christ has
stood before us. Let me show you. Keep your hand
there in Galatians, but turn to Ephesians chapter one. Now, these are some doctrinal
things that we've got to get in our mind and think upon these
things because there's a lot of Reformed teaching that's out
there that gets this wrong. They believe that there's a point
in time before our conversion that God hates us, that God's
wrath is upon us, and that that God is angry at us, but whenever
we're converted, then all that is taken away from us. Let me ask you this. The Bible
says that God doesn't change, right? He cannot change. Okay. How can God love, hate someone
and then turn around and love somebody? Especially when the
Bible says, as it pertains to the elect of God, that he has
loved us with an everlasting love. He has loved the elect
with an everlasting love. So how can he hate that elect
until their conversion and then begin to love them? That's not
an everlasting love. And that's God changing. He has
changed from being wrathful towards this person to not wrathful towards
this person. The Bible says that we, the elect
of God, have not been appointed under wrath. Now, when did God
do all the appointments? if you'll allow me that word.
When did God do all the appointing? Does he do it as he goes? No. When did God do all of his appointing? Before the foundation of the
world. He appointed all things before the foundation of the
world. So if he appointed us not to wrath, then that means
that there has never been wrath towards us. So that's why he
says, he has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, nor has he seen perverseness
in Israel. For the shout of a king is among
them." That's why. The reason that he does not see
perversion and iniquity in his people is because there is a
shout of the king. Who's the king? Jesus, right? He's the king of kings. He's
the Lord of lords. The shout of the king is among
them. What is he doing among them?
He's shouting, my blood has atoned. My blood has forgiven. My sacrifice
has saved these people. There is no iniquity. There is
no perversion in these people. My righteousness is laid to their
account. He is our mediator. He is our
surety. That's what a mediator is. Y'all
watch, you guys have seen courtroom shows. We watch courtroom shows
all the time on here. You know, you see them attorneys
getting up there and what do they do? They plead their case.
They do everything they can. to make their people look not
guilty, right? They will twist their words,
they'll do everything. But listen, Jesus doesn't have
to twist His words. All He has to do is get up and
He is the Word, right? He gets up there and He just
tells the truth. I died for them and God's satisfied. He shall
see the travail of His soul and be satisfied. God was satisfied
with His atoning work. So therefore, before the foundation
of the world. God looked upon his people, even
though they were sinners, even though they were full of iniquity,
he looked at those people and he said, listen, they're justified. Before me, they are justified
before me on the grounds of my faithful servant who will go
and be their substitute. God doesn't have to wait until
time to say that. He doesn't have to wait until
you believe He doesn't even have to wait until the cross. Now,
everything that happened at the cross is the grounds and the
basis of our justification. But God doesn't have to wait
until then to declare it. If that's the case, then all
the Old Testament saints wasn't justified. Okay? We are justified before God.
The Bible says that, it says about, I think it's in Psalms,
He says that, the thought just went out of my head. He does
not beheld iniquity in Jacob. Oh, he says that blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord shall not impute iniquity, shall not
impute sin. Now let me ask you, has there
ever been a time in the elect's life that sin has been imputed
to you? Well we're definitely sinners,
we're sinners by nature because we come from Adam. We are sinners. But if there ever was a time
that sin was imputed to somebody, then the words, blessed are they
unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. That doesn't exist.
No one exists if everybody, see everybody says that Adam's sin
was imputed to every one of us, elect and non-elect. But if that's
the case, then that verse of Scripture, the Holy Spirit put
that in there and it has absolutely no meaning. And we know the Bible
isn't full of things of no meaning. We know that the Holy Spirit
doesn't say things just for no reason. The Holy Spirit give
that writer the inspiration to write, blessed are they Unto
whom, or blessed is the man, unto whom the Lord imputeth not. There is no imputation of sin.
That means there's no sin laid to your account. If ever sin
was laid to your account, then that doesn't mean anything. That
is nothing. But it is something. It means
that the Lord has not imputed that sin. We're guilty of sin
because we're from Adam. We're flesh, and that's all we
do is sin, because we're from Adam. But Adam's sin is not imputed
to the elect of God. It is the experience of the elect
of God. It is the action of the elect
of God, but it never was laid to our account, because if Christ
has stood for us for all of eternity, and we have stood justified before
God for all of eternity, then there has been no imputation
of sin and this is what it says in Ephesians, read with me if
you would. Verse three, blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us. Now, the Bible says that those
who are not imputed sin are blessed, right? To not be imputed sin
is a spiritual blessing of God upon his left and he says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us. Who's us? The ones in verse one. The saint and the faithful in
Christ Jesus. That's the elect. Who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He blessed us before the foundation
of the world. You say, well, don't say that. It just says
in heavenly places. Well, look at verse four. according as He
has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. You
see that? All spiritual blessings are given
to us in heavenly places. That means it has nothing to
do with what we did on earth. Nothing that we do in time. But
it has everything to do with what God freely gave us in Christ
Jesus before the foundation of the world. according as He has
chosen us in Him. What does that mean, to be chosen
in Him? Well, that means to be elect, right? That's election. People don't believe that the
Bible teaches election. Well, right there it is. He has
chosen us in Him. People believe that election,
that the Bible only teaches election in regards to the nation Israel. Well, this isn't talking to Israelites
right here. This is talking to Gentiles in
Ephesus. He says that they were chosen
before the foundation of the world. So it wasn't according
to anything that they did either, right? Because if they were chosen
before they did anything, then they weren't chosen based on
anything they did. Scripture always interprets scripture,
right? Romans chapter 9. Before the boys, the twins, had
done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, he said the older will serve the younger.
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Before the world began,
before they were born, before they had ever done anything,
God has chosen whom he would set his everlasting love upon
and whom he would not set his everlasting love upon. whom he
would love and whom he would hate, whom he would have a relationship
with and whom he would not, who he would foreknow and those he
would not know. And so he says, He has blessed
us with all heavenly, in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
Why? Why did God do that before the foundation of the world?
Why did He do it like that where it had nothing to do with anything
that we did? That we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. How long has God loved the elect?
I just said it five times already, right? Everlasting. Okay, if
He's loved us everlasting, according to this, It was because that
we are without blame, that we are holy and without blame before
Him in love. He determined before the foundation
of the world, He chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world so that we would be holy and without blame before
Him in love. See, God chose you to be holy
and blameless in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the
world. That's why there is no imputation of sin. That's why
he sees no iniquity and no perversion in his people. Because Christ
has stood in their place. And that has nothing to do with
the law. It has nothing to do with your
law keeping. And so if you want to say, that's
why Paul says, I don't want to go back to the law lest I become
a transgressor. As I stand right now in the sight
of God, I am nothing There is no perversion. There is no iniquity. There is no imputation of sin. There is nothing that God sees
in me that is a sinful thing. So why do I want to go back to
something that keeps showing me to be that sinner? I'm not
going to frustrate the grace of God or confuse the grace of
God. I want to stand in the grace of God. Preach the grace of God. Live the grace of God. Believe
the grace of God. Shout from the rooftops, the
grace of God. Not the law. Not the law. Whenever we preach and teach
that the law can do something for us, we become enchanted by
the sounds that our flesh does. Our flesh becomes enchanted.
It becomes fascinated. It becomes... taken over and bewildered by
it. Oh yeah, we can do that and oh,
God's working in me and I'm gonna, in my flesh, I'm gonna do all
these good works and all this stuff. Listen, that's not what
it means. We are keeping the law whenever
we trust in Christ. That is what the law is for us. That is the commandment for us.
That is what the gospel is. And he goes on, he says, that
you should not, he says, oh foolish relations, who hath bewitched
you? By preaching the law, they've been bewitched, they've been
maligned, they've been, what was the word, enchanted. But
he said that they have been enchanted to do what? That you should not
obey the truth. Now there's that phrase again.
He's already used that phrase once, right? Look back if you
would in verse 14. Chapter 2, verse 14. Remember whenever Peter came
and they were going back to the law and separating themselves
from the Gentiles, what did he say that they were doing? He
said, but when I saw they walked not uprightly according to the
truth of the gospel, they were not walking according to the
gospel. They were not walking according
to the truth. They were not obeying the truth. So what, let's see,
well look, if he says it again, the Bible says in the mouth of
two or three witnesses a thing is established, right? And I
always try whenever I'm looking at something, especially when
I'm looking at some major doctrinal issue or something like that,
and especially if it doesn't line up with all these big theologians
and confessions and creeds and all this stuff, I like to go
to God's word and if I can find that the word of God teaches
that, two, three times, hey, there's something there. But
if I see it just once and then I take that out of context or
whatever, then, you know, hey, I'm probably wrong on that. You
know, and I'm usually wrong a lot, but, you know, hey, you gotta
check yourself, right? Look at God's Word. Well, there's
three times that Paul uses this just in this letter. He also
uses it, I believe, in Romans, or for instance, can't remember
off the top of my head, But look in chapter 5 and look at verse
7. He says, ye did run well, who
did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? So whoever
it is, these Judaizers coming in, it is hindering them from
obeying the truth. Here in chapter 3, he says, who
hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth? And back
with Peter, he says, They were not walking according to the
gospel or according to the truth. So what does that mean, to obey
the truth? That ye should obey the truth
or to obey the gospel. What does it mean to obey the
gospel? What does the gospel tell us?
Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved. It says,
believe. It says, look to me, all ye who
are weary and are heavy laden And I shall give you rest. Come
unto me, you who are thirsty. What does the gospel say? It
says, look to him. It says, look to Christ. It says,
believe upon him. It doesn't say, get out and do
something. It says, believe on Christ for
your righteousness. And we're going to see that in
some of the verses that come in a week or two as it pertains
to Abraham. But what is obeying the truth
or obeying the gospel? It is believing on Christ alone
for your righteousness. We look or trust Christ alone
for our righteousness. To obey the truth isn't to keep
the law, it's to look to Christ and trust his righteousness alone
for our salvation, for our keeping our righteousness before God.
So whenever you're trying to keep a righteousness before God
by law keeping, That is disobeying the gospel, disobeying the truth. Matter of fact, what's righteous
is looking to Christ alone for our righteousness. What's unrighteous
is us thinking that we can do something in our flesh for righteousness. That's actually unrighteous.
That's why God says, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. See, because we don't have any
righteousness. And any activity that we do to try to make a righteousness
by our flesh is unrighteous. It's unrighteous. No, there's
none righteous. No, not one. The flesh is flesh
and it cannot please God. Anything you do in your flesh
is not gonna please God. Where does the obeying lie? In the outward appearance or
the inward? It's on the inward. It's in our
mind. It's in our heart. It's where
the Holy Spirit, where the Bible says, I'm going to take out the
heart of stone. I want to put it in the heart of flesh, and
I'm going to cause you to walk in my statues. That is talking
about what we're seeing here. In Ephesians, all those blessings,
all those things that God did for us predestinate us to adoption. He's given us an inheritance
where He's made us accepted in the Beloved. We have received
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. We've
received the riches of His grace. He has abounded to us in all
wisdom and prudence. He has made known unto us the
mystery of His will according to the good pleasure which He
had purposed in Himself. That we are brought together,
Jew and Gentile, to make up one glorious body before Him. All these things that chapter
one of Ephesians tells us is the blessings that he gives
us. And all these things we love and adore because of what God
has done inside of us, not because of what we do on the outside.
So obeying the truth, and remember, and let's go there shortly, quickly. Let's go there, Romans 7. I've mentioned this before, and
we've looked at these passages a lot, but this is not Paul before he was
converted on the road to Damascus. A lot of people think that Romans
7, that when Paul wrote Romans 7, he was talking about himself
before he was converted. This is Paul talking about himself
as a converted man, okay? As one who has been converted.
But Paul says in verse 7, what shall I say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but
by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said
thou shalt not covet. Okay, so that's something I do
want to get across here. Whenever we're preaching, we're
not saying that the law is unholy. or that the law is sin. We're
not saying that. What we're saying is that the
law, what Paul says, the law makes sin known. The purpose
for the law was to reveal the sin in us. The purpose of the
law was to make sin manifest and to show us the sinfulness
of who we are. It was to show us our sin, not
to relieve us of our sin by trying to keep it. That's not what it
was for. He said, yeah, that sin, I would
not have even known sin. But by the law, I would have
went on ignorant in this life of how sinful I was if it wasn't
for God showing me this is holiness and you're not keeping it. This
is righteousness and you're not attaining it. I would have not
even known that. So he's given us the law so that
we might know that about ourselves. And it never was given. for you
to try to age yourself in being righteous before God. But sin,
taking the occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of,
I always can't say this word, concupiscence. For without the law, see, I can't
even say English words right. For without the law, sin was
dead. See, sin was dead in me. I didn't
know it was there. I had no clue. Just like Adam. Adam didn't know that he had
lust in his heart. until God said, don't eat of
the apple, or eat of the tree, it's not an apple, we never was
told that. We all assume it was an apple, right? It could have
been a peach or a pear, we don't know. It could have been something
we've never seen before. Anyway, he said, don't eat of
the fruit, right? Well, whenever God, whenever
the law came in, what happened? Sin was manifested in Adam. The
nature of Adam was manifested, a man who was unrighteous and
cannot keep the law of God. That's why Romans 5 tells us
that the law came in so that sin might abound. The law is
there so that it might show your sinfulness abounding in leaps
and bounds. It shows us exactly how enabled
we are to be righteous before God. And so Paul says, for I
was alive without the law once. Now, he doesn't mean spiritually
alive. He means in himself, hey, I thought I was doing good. Life
was great. Before the law came in, I was
just, I was good. But all of a sudden, when the
commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment
which was ordained to life I found to be death. For sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it slew me. What does that mean for sin?
Taking occasion by the commandment deceived me. He thought that
he could keep the law. But all he was doing was sinning
every time he tried to keep the law. He was sinning. He was sinning. You say, well, how can keeping
the law be sinning? Anytime we try to do a righteousness
within the flesh, it's sin. The flesh profits nothing. I want to say that probably a
hundred times or more in this message and messages to come.
And I pray that the Lord gets that and gives us an understanding
of that and teaches us all that. Your flesh profits nothing. He says, wherefore the law is
holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Was then that
which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that
it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is
good. The sin by the commandment might
become exceeding sinful. Again, that's the purpose of
the law, is to work sin in us so that we might show us our
missing the mark. That's what sin means, to miss
the mark, right? You ever shot a bow and arrow
at a bullseye or went to a shooting range and shot bullets at a ballistic
thing? Well, what are you doing? You're
trying to hit the mark. You're trying to hit the bullseye.
Okay? Well, the bullseye is the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. In all of us, the word sin means
not only to miss the mark. It doesn't mean that here's Jesus
and you just shot right outside of it. It means you missed the
whole entire target. The word sin means you didn't
even hit the target, much less the bullseye. That's what Paul's saying. The
purpose of the law is to show us how much we are missing the
righteousness. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin. There again, that's what he's
saying. The law is a spiritual thing, and I can't keep the spiritual
thing in my flesh because the flesh is just flesh. That which is of the spirit is
spirit, but that which is of the flesh is flesh. So in our
spirit we keep the law, but in the flesh we never can. For we
know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, so let us sin.
For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that I
do not. But what I hate, that I do."
What's he saying there? The things that I want to do,
I don't do. But the things that I don't want
to do, that's what I'm doing. I don't want to do those things.
My inside, that inner man that God has made, a new creation
that is in me, that spirit that has come from above, that divine
nature that has been put within this clay vessel. It wants the
good. It wants the righteousness. It
wants the holiness. It wants to do what the Lord
says to do. But he says, I can't find any
way to do it because I'm in the flesh. I'm carnal. If then I
do that which I would not, if I sin, I consent unto the law
that it is good. So if I sin, I gotta say, the
law's right, I'm a sinner. But see, that's what the law's
telling me. If it says, do not steal, and I come over and I
steal, what does the law tell me? You're a thief. It just told
me that I was a thief. So that's what it's there for.
It's to tell me that I'm a thief. So he says, for that which I
do, or excuse me, then that I do that which I would not, I consent
unto the law that it is good. It was good that the law told
me that I was a thief, because if I would have took that without
the law being there, I wouldn't have known I was a thief. I just
thought, hey, I'm stronger than Granny there. I'll just take
that away. It's fine now. But the law says, hey, don't
do that. Oh, that's bad? I guess I'm a thief. See, so
the law was good in that regard. Now then, it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. See, sin dwells in us. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth how many good things? Just a little? Do
we have a little bit of good things in us? It says no good
things. You see the futility of trying
to keep the law? Even if you really, really, really,
really, really wanted to, you can't. Because there's no good
thing in you. For to will is present with me,
now we want to. We desire to. We hope to. But how to perform that which
is good, I find not. So Paul, the Apostle Paul, even
at this point in his life, when he wrote the book of Romans,
hey, listen, he was further down the road than he was at the very
beginning. And here, he's writing this, and he is himself saying,
that in me dwells no good thing. And he's not just exaggerating.
He's not saying that for effect. A lot of times we like to use
words, we take things to the extreme. We exaggerate things
to make it sound like, you know, like I might fall down and stub
your toe and you think, man, I just lost my toe. Well, you
didn't lose your toe, you stubbed your toe. We say things for effect. Paul is not saying this for effect
because we know that the Bible says that all scripture is given
by inspiration of God. It's breathed out by God, that
God is the one who told him to write these words. And he said,
in me dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good, I cannot find any way
of doing it. I find it not. Now, if I do that, I would not. It is no more that I, that do
it, but sin that dwelleth in me. See, there's something different
about the child of grace. See, we have that new man in
us who don't want to do it. And he's not doing it. Matter
of fact, the Bible says that man cannot sin. He doesn't sin. He's perfect before God. Our
spirits that came from Christ, that was hid in God, in Christ
Jesus, before the foundation of the world, that life that
we received from there, those spirits that come from God is
not of this world. This flesh, though, is of this
world. It's surely of this world. We are of the earth, earthly,
just like Adam is. But that which is from above,
that spirit that comes from above, that is given to us that in the
new birth, that is a new creation. That's of the heavenlies. That's
not of the earth. That's of the heavenlies. And
it cannot sin. It's perfect before God, justified
before God, sanctified to God. But this flesh, all it is, is
sin. All it can do is sin. For the
good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that I would not,
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. So it's
not that inner me that's doing it, it's the sin in my flesh
that's doing it. I find in a law that when I would
do good, evil is present with me. What does he mean by that? Does that mean, hey, I'm doing
something good, but evil's in the back saying, don't do that,
don't do that. No, that's not what he's talking
about. He says, whenever I, who I just said, and no good thing. Who I, sin dwells in. Who I, Paul, whenever I do good,
evil is present with me. My good things are evil. That's what he's saying. He's
not saying I'm gonna go do good and then evil is back there saying,
come back. You know, the little devil on
your shoulder here and the angel on your shoulder here. One's
saying, don't do it. The other's saying, do it. That's
not what he's saying. He says, whenever I would do
good, evil is present with me. Every good work that I go to
do, it's sinful because in me dwells no good thing. For I delight
in the law of God after the inward man. But I see a law in my members,
my flesh, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me
into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. When does that happen? When did
he say that happens? When I try to do good. When does
that warfare begin and come alive in us? When we try to do good. When we try to do the law, there
is a war within us that says we want to do good, but we can't
do good. And if I start to think that
I can make a righteousness before God by the law, then I'm doing
good. And God says, no, the flesh profits
nothing. He says, I delight in the law
of the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring
against the law of my mind. The law of my mind is the one
that can keep the law. The law of my flesh or sin cannot. He says, and bringing me into
captivity to the law sandwiched in my memory. And so he says,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body
of death? See, he's saying there's no hope
in this body. There's no hope in the flesh. As long as we are
in these tents, we have no hope of performing good. But in verse five, he says, I
thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, so that with the mind
I myself serve the law of God." Now, this time Paul is not speaking
in hyperbole. Remember whenever he said that
he kept the law and he was doing all these good things and he
was a Pharisee among Pharisees? He was using exaggeration. He
was making a point that in my mind I thought I was doing all
these things before God, but whenever I found out that that
doesn't gain any righteousness, well, it's all worthless then.
If it doesn't gain righteousness, it's all worthless. Well, here
he's actually saying, so then with the mind, I myself serve
the law of God. That's that inward man. But with
the flesh, who does he serve? He serves the law of sin. So
what has happened here? Paul has resigned within himself. He's come to this conclusion.
God has taught him finally, Paul, listen to me. There is no good
in you. So quit trying to be right before
me by doing good. Now, again, let me reiterate. This is not saying that we shouldn't
be good people. We should be nice to each other.
We should be kind to each other. We should do all these things.
I'm talking about as it pertains to thinking that we are gaining
a righteousness or being right. We always use that phrase, right?
We got to stay right with God, you know. That means that you
think that you can do something that makes you look righteous
to God. No. The admonitions of scripture
are still there for us to walk in and to strive to be, but not
to stay right with God. Mainly because, hey, I'd rather
be around somebody who likes me and is nice to me than someone
who's always punching me in the nose. I mean, if somebody, every
time they come in, you know, if, If Daniel, whenever I go
to pick him up every morning, on Sunday, he gets in the car
and says, hey Mike, and just pops me right in the side of
the head, I'm gonna stop going and getting Daniel. I'm not gonna
go get him anymore, okay? Yes, there are some things that
we wanna do, but listen, if it's for righteousness, we have been
bewitched. We have been charmed into thinking
that we can do righteousness. And Paul said, listen, I've,
now understand that as long as I'm in this flesh, that with
my mind I will serve the law of God, but with my sin, or with
my flesh, the body of death, I'll serve the law of sin with
this flesh. And then verse one of chapter
eight, and I wish they didn't have these chapter verses and
breaks, because chapter, or verse one of chapter eight is the rejoicing
of gospel message. to the child of grace. How many
of you here has felt and experienced that warfare? I want to do right,
but I'm always not doing right. I want to obey and be more holy
and righteous before God. I'd like to be that, but I know
that I can't. I'm not doing it. I always am
messing up. I'm always sinning. My thoughts
are always going away from God. And we have this struggle within,
right? And we can get discouraged. We
can get disheartened. We can become doubtful. But look,
he says, there is therefore now. Christian who struggles with
your sin and not being able to keep the law of God, there is
now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. There's no
condemnation to those who, he said, Oh, wretched man that I
am who shall save me from this body of death. I want to serve
the law of God with my heart and with my mind, but with my
body, with my flesh, all I'm going to serve is the law of
sin. And this constant warfare is going on and on and on. But
praise God that even though I can't do that, there's no condemnation
for those in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit. What does it mean to walk in
the Spirit? Exactly what we see here in Galatians, by obeying the truth. How do
you walk in the Spirit? By walking in the truth, by walking
in the Gospel, by believing on Christ alone, by looking to Christ
alone for your righteousness. So whenever we walk that way,
whenever we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and quit listening
to those bewitching words of the law, then we are walking by the Spirit.
We are walking in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit isn't walking
upright before God. Hey, I've kept the law. No, it's not that. It's not that
at all. Walking in the Spirit is walking
in complete and total trust in the Lord for everything that
you need, everything that you need. Well, I'll tell you what, we'll
stop right there. I was going to go down through the other few
verses, but Lord took us a little bit deeper into some of that
than we anticipated I'd go. But anyway, we'll stop right
there. Next Lord's day, we'll look at the rest of that verse
and verses two, three and four. So we'll make this part one. Does anybody have any questions
or comments, corrections, rebukes, admonishments,
praises? Anybody have any prayer requests? All right. Let's bow before the Lord. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your word. We thank you for justification. We thank you for Christ. Father,
how different our life would be without him. We know we deserve
help. We deserve your wrath. We do
not deserve your kindness and your love. We know that by nature
we are children of wrath, just as the others are. The Father,
only by your grace, you have called us into this life. You've
called us into this inheritance. You called us into this fellowship
with Christ Jesus, our Lord. And so we are truly grateful
for that, Lord. We are truly humbled by the election
of God. We surely don't want to puff
ourselves up and think we're something good because we are
elected and some of the others are not. We know that we are
just as guilty as they are in deserving of your wrath, but
Father, by grace, you've extended your hand to us and blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, that you
have made us righteous in Christ Jesus, and that you have given
to us eternal life. That life cannot be lost. It
cannot be changed. Father, it's his life. It's your
son, Jesus. It's his life in him, his life.
And if we are to have life and life more abundant than we were
to have Christ, And we only get Christ by sovereign grace. So
we thank you for the grace and the mercy that you have given
us through the Lord Jesus. I pray, Father, that these words
today has been edifying to your people, that they have been encouraged
by them, that they've been fed by them. Father, I pray that
you might strengthen us in the faith, not only doctrinally,
Lord, but inwardly as we look to you, keeping us looking to
you, the author and the finisher of our faith. And Lord, I just
pray that you'd be with us as we leave this place today, that
you might keep us safe. Lord, we continue to pray Psalm
91 as we hear about this Delta variant and this coronavirus.
Lord, we truly don't know how much of this is strung up by
the media and our government and how much of it is truly real. We do know that people are dying,
but you've promised in your word in Psalm 91, that you would keep
us from the pestilence, that you would be our buckler, that
you'd be our shield, that you would guide us, that you would
protect us. And so, Father, we trust you in that, that you would
be with your people through all of this. And we trust in you.
We don't trust in a government or CDC or any of these other
agencies. We trust in you alone, Father. And so we just look to you in
all those things as well. And Lord, I just pray that you
just might bless the time of fellowship now that we're about
to have, bless the food that we're about to eat to the nourishment
of our bodies, for it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.