Our lesson this morning has to do with being justified
in Christ alone, without any additives, without adding any
kind of work in any way, shape, or form. Christ is enough. from this chapter two weeks ago
in the Bible lesson, and we're going to look at the rest of
this chapter, but the message, the lesson is this. I mean, it's
this in a nutshell. We are justified in the Lord
Jesus Christ through His blood, through His righteousness, through
His person alone. That's how sinners are justified.
Now to a person who does not know what sin is by Holy Spirit
conviction, the guilt of sin, the filth of sin, justified really
doesn't mean much to that person. But to those whom God has done
a work of grace in, and you have some understanding of what sin
is and who God is, God is a holy God. He said, I will, God said
this, I will by no means clear the guilty. He said he's a just
God and a Savior. And it's in that order, a just
God first. He is a just God first. He will
not break the law in order to save anyone. The law has to be
honored. The law has to be satisfied,
justice has to be satisfied, or God will not have one thing
to do with you. He can't do it. He's just God. And so what Paul is going to
set forth here to the Galatians is this. We are justified in
Christ apart from any work whatsoever. You see, I read to you a couple
of weeks ago over in the book of Acts where some Judaizers
came down. They disturbed the brethren.
They told them they had to be circumcised and keep the law
of Moses along with believing on Christ in order to be saved. They tried to pull the two together.
They tried to mix them or try to join them, and that's not
even possible. It is no more possible to join
grace and works as it is to join night and day. There's that much
difference in it, that much difference. Circumcision and the keeping
of the law was an issue in that day. And I thought about this
looking over this lesson. Circumcision and the keeping
of the law is not an issue here. It's not an issue in our day.
No one's standing in the pulpit saying you have to be circumcised
and you have to keep the law of Moses. That's not what's being
said. But here's what is being said.
And this is the circumcision of our day. God's done all he
can do, and now the rest is up to you.
But that's the same thing. It's just that you put a different
face on it. Christ died for everybody, but you have to accept him. They
actually make faith a human work. You have to do this. That's the
circumcision of our day. of what was in their day. You
see, back then, these Jews were just now coming out from under
the law, the gospel being preached to them, and they were trying
to hang on to this. But Satan is subtle. Satan is
so subtle, he just puts a different face on it. It's so subtle. He just puts a different face
on it. God's done all he can do, now the rest is up to you.
Your faith is a missing ingredient. You're accepting Jesus Christ
as your personal Savior? That's the missing ingredient.
There are no missing ingredients in salvation. There are none. Christ is a complete Savior.
Nothing needs to be added to Him. And surely nothing is taken
away. But I tell you what, if you do
add something, you take away. You take away the Gospels, that's
what you do. You take away salvation. As one writer said, and I've
remembered this, he said, you unchrist him. He's not a savior
to you anymore. If you start to add or you feel
like you've got to do something, then you've missed it. You've
missed it. So let's look at this lesson.
As you know, when we looked at this a couple of weeks ago, Paul,
Barnabas, and Titus met with the apostles in Jerusalem over
this issue of of circumcision and keeping of the law along
with believing on Christ. When they went up there, Titus
being a Greek, the apostles there did not compel him to be circumcised.
They accepted him as a believer, as a brother in Christ, even
though he was a Gentile. They accepted him, and Peter
agreed with them. He agreed with the others that
circumcision was of the heart and not of the flesh. He was
in full agreement here. When the apostles gave their
right hand of fellowship and blessings to Paul Barnabas, you
see that in verse 9, and when James, Cephas, that's Peter,
and John, who seemed to be pillars, the leaders, received the grace
that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right
hands of fellowship that we should go to the heathen and they unto
the circumcision. They recognized God's hand in
this. They made no issue out of Titus
being a Greek and not being circumcised. They said it's not necessary.
Peter recognized, the other apostles recognized, that the true circumcision
is that of the heart and not of the flesh. And they recognized
that. And Peter gave his blessing.
And then when Peter came to Antioch to visit, he sat down and he
ate and he fellowshiped with those other Gentiles. I'm sure
he sat down and had a meal. You remember when, over in the
book of Acts, There was a sheet let down and had all different
animals on it, unclean beasts and all that stuff. And the Lord
said, kill and eat. Rise, Peter. Kill and eat. He
said, not so, Lord. He said, I've never eaten anything
unclean. Well, when he came down and sat
down with the believers there at Antioch, they were Gentiles,
and you know they didn't cook up a Jewish dish. They just cooked
up what they had. They may have had ham. Who knows?
But Peter sat down there and ate with them. He had no problem. He had no problem. But when some
of the Jewish brethren, who were prominent Jews, they came down, Peter let peer
pressure. He let peer pressure get the
best of him. That's what happened. He let peer pressure get the
best of him. And he didn't want to upset them,
he didn't want their criticism or their disfavor. So he got
up and he moved away from the table. He got over and he separated
himself away from the Gentile brethren. And then it says here, let me
read in verse 10, or verse 9, verse 11. But when Peter was
come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face. because he was
to be blamed. And the reason Paul withstood
him to the face publicly is because what he did was public and very
dangerous. And this had to be dealt with
publicly because it was an offense to the gospel by one of those
who was considered to be a pillar of the church, a leader. And
Paul said, I withstood him to the face because he's to be blamed. For before that certain came
from James, he did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were
come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were
of the circumcision." Fearing them. I told you this a couple
of times, the fear of man, the scripture says this, the fear
of man bringeth a snare. And he feared them, he feared
their criticism. He feared they were not going
to have anything to do with him, and they would shun him. Well,
they'll just have to shun him, because the gospel can't be compromised.
We cannot compromise the gospel. And so Paul was turning to the
faith because of what he did here. And the other Jews disassembled
likewise with him. We never sin alone. When Peter
got up and left that table, Barnabas watched him. And Barnabas knew
what he was doing. And so Barnabas felt uncomfortable.
Now he feels uncomfortable. And then those who were probably
looking at Peter and Barnabas, they started feeling uncomfortable.
So the whole group of brethren that came down there and sat
down to eat with these Gentile brothers, That whole group got
up and left. Paul said, boy, that's deadly.
That's deadly. You're a hypocrite. You're saying
one thing, but you're actually doing another. And I tell you,
what you're doing is what you really believe. What you're doing
is what you really believe. Peter, you've got a problem.
This is an apostle. This is an apostle. So he says here, and the other
Jews likewise with him got up and left in so much that Barnabas
also was carried away with their dissimulation, with their hypocrisy,
their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they walked
not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said to
Peter, their walk was not in integrity, their walk was not
in insincerity, their walk was not in truth. It was in hypocrisy. And he said, I said before them
all, if thou being a Jew, you were brought up as a Jew, you
were born a Jew, you observed the Levitical law of the Jew,
and now you're free from it. Peter, you know. You know that
in Christ you are free from the law. You're free from the ceremonies. You're free from its obligations.
You are free in Christ. We are free in Christ. Now, why? Why would you go down
to Antioch? Why would you sit down there
with those Gentile brethren? Why would you compel them to
keep the law, first of all, that you can't keep, and second of
all, that you've been set free from? Why would you do that? I say, if thou being a Jew livest
after the man of the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, then
why do you compel the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? Why do
you try to bring them under the bondage of the law when you yourself
can't keep it, and in Christ you've been made free from it?
Why would you do that, Peter? We who are Jews by nature, We were born under the law of
Moses. We were born under these obligations. We were born under the ceremonies.
But we have now relinquished this law. We're not obligated
to it no more. So don't obligate anyone else
to it. Don't try to obligate them to
it. We who are Jews by nature are not sinners of the Gentiles.
Knowing, this is something you know, Peter, this is something
every believer knows. You know that God teaches every
one of his children this when he saves them, that a man is
not justified by the works of the law. You know, the law doesn't
justify us. You either did it or you didn't
do it. That's what the law is concerned with. You're either
guilty or not guilty. And he's saying here that no
man, knowing that no man, that a man is not justified by the
works of the law, by the doing and keeping of the law. He's
not justified by that because first of all, no man's ever been
able to keep it. No one has ever been able to
keep God's law except one, that there is one man, there's one
man who kept the law of God perfectly, the Lord Jesus Christ, the man
Christ Jesus, but no one else. We know this from the law itself.
It requires perfect obedience, and none of us can give that.
Therefore, it can't justify us. The law does not justify a guilty
man. He said, well then, God said,
I will by no means clear the guilty, and I'm guilty. How's
that so? I'll tell you how it's so. He killed you in Christ.
You were put to death. If you're a child of God, you
were put to death in Christ. That's how real His death for
His people is. That's how real His substitutionary
work is. When He died on the cross, Before God, I died in Him. I was put to death. And then when God saves, when
He saves, what happens? There's a new man. There's a
new man born of God that has no sin. There's a new man born
of God that has never sinned and never will sin. He's a new
man in Christ, born of the Spirit. That's why Paul said, we know
that a man is not justified by the law. We know this from the
gospel, which clearly states that ye are complete. What? What's the rest of that? In him. If you were not complete in Christ,
it would say so. If there was something lacking,
If there was something that you and I had to do, something we
had to keep, something we had to bring, the Word of God would
say so. But the Word of God says, ye
are complete, you are full, you are perfect. I looked that word
up. You're full, you are perfect. In Him. You don't need anything else.
The gospel clearly states we are complete in Him. And then
we know from our own experience, we know from our own experience
that we cannot, we cannot produce a righteousness that God will
accept. We cannot do anything, and this
is so. We cannot do anything in such
a way, in such a perfect way, that God can accept. God said there's none good, this
is God said this, there's none good, no, not one. So if I'm
not any good, if God says I'm not any good, then that means
I can't produce anything that's good. on God's standard now,
on God's standard, on God's level, not on our human level with each
other. We can do enough good for each
other to accept and get along, but God doesn't live on this
level. God does not live on this level. God is holy. He's perfect. That's hard to comprehend because
we've never known that in this life. In this life, we've never
experienced and known anything that's absolutely perfect. God's perfect, and he can accept
nothing less than perfection. Nothing less than perfection.
So we know by our own experience. The believer knows this. Now,
the world doesn't know this. The world doesn't know this.
The world actually thinks that false religion believes it can
come up with enough goodness that God be pleased with it. You can't get that out of
the Word of God. You're not going to get that out of the Word of
God. And we know through the Word of God, through the preaching
of the Gospel, that we are justified by that faith which Christ is
the author of and the finisher of. We know that. Knowing that a
man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Christ, who's the author of that faith that you have, and
I have, in believing Him. We read that in Hebrews, looking
unto Jesus, the author, the beginner, the originator, and the finisher,
the one who brings it to maturity. of our faith. He's it. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, by the keeping of ceremonies and do's
and don'ts, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have
believed. Even us Jews, we Jews, have believed
in Jesus Christ the same as the Gentiles. that we might be justified by
the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, not by
doing anything. See, this covers a wide thing
here. As I said, we're not faced with
this issue of circumcision and the keeping of the law of Moses
and these ceremonies and types and pictures. We're not faced
with that. But this covers doing anything
to be accepted with God, to find acceptance. For by the works
of the law shall no flesh be justified, because no flesh is
perfect. As far as human nature goes,
there's no perfect man or woman or child in this building, in
this world. That's why the law says, Guilty. Guilty. If the only thing you
had, if the only thing you ever had was just one little thought
of sin, just one time in your life, you're guilty. You're guilty. But if, he says here, while we
seek to be justified by Christ, if we seek to be justified by
the Lord Jesus Christ, and we do not rest in him alone, in
his righteousness, in his blood, in his intercession, but we seek
to add Christ to our works. Christ, he says, has become the
minister, not of righteousness, but of the law, which is a minister
of condemnation. And that's not him. He said,
I came not into this world to condemn the world, but that the
world through me might be saved. Might be saved. If I build again, if I restore
again the ceremonies of the law, circumcision and holy days and
food and drinks and these things, then I make myself an unjustified
sinner because I can't keep the law. The law's not going to justify
me. If I build again the things which I destroy, I make myself
a transgressor, an unjustified sinner. That's all I do. For
I through the law am dead to the law. Now what's he saying? I through the law am dead to
the law? Here's what he's saying. I through the law of Christ,
the law of liberty, That's why he's saying the gospel. I through the gospel of grace,
righteousness, his righteousness, his blood, his person, I through
him am dead to the law of the ceremonies and all those things
that was required under that law. I'm dead to it. I'm dead
to it. That I might live. unto God,
that I might serve Him. I'm not serving the law. I'm not going through the book
every morning and saying, what commandments do I need to keep?
What was that young man who came to the Lord and said, Lord, what
must I do to inherit eternal life? And he said, you know,
and he gave some commandments there. And he said, well, I've
done all these things. I've kept all these from my youth
up. Tell me something else. Tell me what I haven't done.
What am I missing? I'll tell you what you're missing.
Son, you're missing Christ. You're missing Christ. But I,
through the law of Christ, the law of the gospel, the law of
liberty, I'm dead to that law of do's and don'ts. It has no
power over me. I might live unto God. I might
serve Him. In one place Paul says that I
might serve Him in newness of life. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. I'm crucified with Him. He bore my sins in His body on
the tree. He destroyed and made an end
of my sins. I feel them, I know them. You
know your sins. But I also know this, I know
this, through the witness of God's Word, the Gospel, they're
gone. They are gone. The Lord put them
away. Every one of God's children stand
perfect before Him in Christ. I mean absolutely perfect. No
sin. That's how we stand before God
in Christ. I'm crucified with Christ. He bore my sins in His
body on the tree. They have no power over me. The
world is crucified to me. Now into the world. My desire, my passion, is to walk with Him in newness of life. Is that your
desire? Is that my desire? Is that our
desire? Is that really there? I'm crucified with Christ. My
sins are put away. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, not the old I, not the old I. There's a new creation, there's
a new man that's born of God that desires to walk with God, desires to walk pleasing unto
Him. Now, the old I didn't want to
walk that way. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. He is my life. He's not a part
of it. He is it. He's it. He lives in me and the life which
I now live in this flesh. I live by the faith. I live by
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't live by doing and not
doing. That's not how I live. I live
by looking to him. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not, now here's the key
to it, I do not frustrate the grace of God. If righteousness
come by the law, if that's the way righteousness comes, this
righteousness that we need to stand before God, and you've
got to have righteousness to stand before God. Without holiness,
no man shall see the Lord. And if it comes by the law, then
Christ then Jesus Christ died in vain. Useless. Useless. If I can obtain righteousness
that God demands, the righteousness that God demands, if I can obtain
it by doing some things or not doing some things, then there
was no need for Jesus Christ to come into this world. He died
in vain. He was useless. His death was
not needed. Paul said, I do not frustrate
the grace of God. Works and grace cannot be mixed.
It's either all of grace or it's all of works. It's one or the other. Well,
we know which one it is. It's all of grace. It's all of
grace. And I tell you, we can shout
hallelujah to that. Because if works in any way,
shape, or form, if it enters into it, we're goners. We are goners. Because we can't
do anything perfectly. And that's just so. That's just
so. I thank God. I thank God that in Christ, We are justified, cleared of
all charges, not guilty. Justified in Him alone. We don't
have to produce anything. Not one thing.