I want to speak to you this morning
on a subject that is vital to every single true believer. Absolutely vital to every true
believer. Turn with me, if you would, to
Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2. This chapter
closes with one of the clearest verses in all of the Scripture. on what an offense our efforts
are in trying to earn our own salvation. What an offense our
efforts are to God in trying to earn our own salvation. They are not just insufficient. Our works are not just insufficient. Our works are insufficient. But they are not just insufficient.
They are an offense. They are an absolute offense. Galatians 2, verse 21. The Apostle Paul said, I do not frustrate the grace of
God. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. I do not frustrate grace. Like so many people do today,
without even knowing that they're doing it. They don't know they're doing
it. They even claim grace and they sing amazing grace. How sweet the sound, don't they? You love grace. Oh, yes, it's
on our side. And they have no idea that they
are frustrating God's grace. The word frustrate means to set
aside, you look the word up, it means to set aside. To dis esteem. To despise. to bring to naught,
to reject. He said, I do not set aside the
grace of God. I do not reject the grace of
God. He went on in verse 21 to say,
for if righteousness, what is needful, what is commanded,
what is demanded of God to be in His presence. Right. No wrong. If righteousness come
by this law, obedience to this law, obeying what God has said
to do. God said it, didn't He? If righteousness
comes by obeying what God said to do, verse 21 says, then Christ
is dead in vain. That's a powerful verse of Scripture,
isn't it? If my good deeds are what pleases
God, and if that's what earns my favor
with Him, if He accepts me into His kingdom and into His presence
because of the good that He sees in me. You know, He's really
grown. He started out bad, but things are changing. If He looks
to me, if His eyes are on me, if He's looking at me, if it
all hinges on what He sees in me, then I have totally taken
Christ out of the equation. Completely. And He suffered. I mean He suffered. And He bled
and He died for no reason. No reason. And that's what that
verse of Scripture is saying. Now, let's go to verse 11, and
we're going to work our way back up to verse 21. Galatians 2,
verse 11 says, But when Peter was come to Antioch, here this
is God's apostle, Peter, he came to Antioch, Paul said, I withstood
him to the face, Because he was to be blamed, you know, Peter's
just a man. Just like the rest of us, Sydney. And he erred. And Paul said,
I had to withstand him to the face because he was to be blamed.
Verse 12, for before that certain came from James. Another apostle
who was in Jerusalem. Before that certain came from
James, Peter did eat with the Gentiles." He sat down at the
same table with the Gentiles. The Gentiles who were not under
God's law. They were strangers to it, right?
But when they were come, these other disciples from James, Peter
withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the
circumcision. As soon as they walked in, he
thought, You can't be sitting here. And the other Jews dissembled
likewise with Peter in so much that Barnabas also was carried
away with their dissimulation. The Jews were steeped in religion. Steeped in religion. They grew
up under laws. They were told by their parents,
God says we have to do this and God says we cannot do that. They'd
been told about this law, that law. They knew them. They were
steeped in them. There were certain meats they
were not allowed to eat. Look with me at Acts chapter
10. Acts 10, verse 9 says, On the
morrow, as they went on their journey and drew nigh unto the
city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth
hour. And he became very hungry and
would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance
and saw heaven opened. and a certain vessel descending
unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners
and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed
beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things,
and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him,
Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord. God said, Rise, kill, and eat. And Peter said, I'm not going
to do it. For I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him
again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not
thou common. This was done thrice, and the
vessel was received up again into heaven." God told Peter,
all those things that the law says you are not allowed to eat,
The law. God's law. All those things that the law
says you're not allowed to eat, God said, I'm telling you to
eat them. And this has nothing to do with
me. It has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with
God telling sinners that they are not justified in His sight
by obeying the law. This has everything to do with
God justifying whom He will. Justifying whom He will. He said,
don't you call common what I have made clean. Now go with me back
to Galatians 2. The Gentiles were possibly eating
meat that the law said the Jews were not allowed to eat. They
probably, you know, you get somebody walks in and you're caught with
what's on the table. They could have been eating meat
that the Jews, by law, were not allowed to eat. The Gentiles
were considered heathen. They were considered outcasts.
They were unclean. They were sinners. They were
sinners. The grace of God in Peter. caused
him to be the friend of publicans and sinners. That's what God's
grace in a person does. But when some of these Jews came
from James, Peter withdrew himself from the Gentiles and he caused
the other Jews to go with him. They all withdrew themselves
and even Barnabas. Now, Barnabas was the one who
traveled with Paul to the Gentiles and preached and came back and
said, they believe the gospel. They believe the gospel. Barnabas
was the one who originally went to a lot of these Gentile places. Even he withdrew himself and
they all went back to their law. They came out of it. But then
all of a sudden, they all went right back to their law. Barnabas
traveled with Paul. You know, you see this inscription
right here to the unknown God? Let me tell you who that is.
He sets men free, free, free grace. And now all of a sudden,
they've all gone back to their law. Verse 14 in Galatians 2, But when I saw that they walked
not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto
Peter before them all, If thou being a Jew livest after the
manner of the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compelst
thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? He said, if you've
been set free from the bondage of the law, you were brought
out. If you've been set free, why
are you trying to put the Gentiles under it? You were brought out.
Why are you trying to put them under it? If you know that salvation
has nothing to do with obeying the law, why are you, by your
actions, saying that it does? Why? Verse 15. We who are Jews by nature and
not sinners of the Gentiles, he's saying all of us apostles
are Jews. We were brought up under the
commandments of the law. We knew him. We know the bondage
of it. We're not strangers to it. We
know the danger of it. And he said in verse 16, now
read this carefully with me. All right, let's see if the Lord
will let us enter into this verse. Verse 16, knowing that a man
is not justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. But by the works
of the law. Even we have believed in the
law. that we might be justified by
the deeds of the law. And not by the faith of Jesus
Christ, for by the works of the law shall all flesh be justified. Is that what that verse says? Not at all. Not at all. He said, we know that a man is
not justified by the deeds of the law. The reason that a sinner
could never be justified by obeying this holy, perfect, good, right,
loving law, this precious, blessed law, the reason is because no
sinner could ever obey it perfectly. And that's what God demands.
perfectly. Indeed, in thought, in motive,
that's what he demands. God is holy. That means he must
do right. He must. He only accepts what
is perfect. Only. Sin is mixed with every single
thing that I do. I love that poem or whatever
it is, that writing that old writer wrote. He said, I cannot
pray, but I sin. I cannot preach, but I sin. Sin is mixed with everything
that I do. Every single thing that I do. Look with me at Romans 7. Romans 7 verse 18, the Apostle
Paul said, For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. He did not say very little. No
good thing. For to will is present with me. I wish I could. But how to perform
that which is good, I find not. It is not possible. It is not possible. So our trying
to obey God's law can and will never justify us. I mean never. Does that mean we don't have
a heart to try? Absolutely not. God forbid. But it cannot justify us. Turn
with me to Acts chapter 13. Acts 13 verse 38 says, Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. I want to read that again. Be
it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man, through this man, through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Couldn't be. It is just not possible. 1 Corinthians 1 says, He is made
unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He is my wisdom. Without Him, I don't have any. He is my righteousness. Without Him, I don't have any.
I love the illustration of the golf club. I'm with Him. What
right do you have to be here? Without Him, I don't have any.
He is my sanctification. Without Him, I don't have any.
He's my redemption. If I'm going to be redeemed back
to God, without Him, I don't have any. I just don't have any. If Christ is my sanctification,
it can't grow. To grow means I'm going to become
better than Christ if Christ is my salvation, if He's my sanctification. That's not possible. He's the
end of all those things. He's the end. Colossians 2 verse
10 says, You are complete in Him. Now Christ died and He shed
His blood and He saved you. Alright, now what? You're complete
in Him. You are complete in Him. Verse
16, back in our text, back in Galatians 2. Verse 16 says, Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. That means it's his faith. That's
what it means. It belongs to him. It comes to
us from him. It is performed in us by him. And what that means is we can't
take any credit for believing. I'm going to tell you what, if
you want to be saved, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved. Well, I can't. I don't have any faith other
than the faith he gives me. It's his faith. He gives it to
whoever he will. Hebrews 12 says he's the author
of it. He's the finisher of it. He's
the doer of it. Verse 16 says, 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. And this is what we believed.
We believe in Jesus Christ, don't we? And this is what we believe. Verse 16 says that we might be
justified by the faith of Christ. We believe in the faith of. Isn't that true? We believe in
the faith of. I don't believe in my faith. If I look to my faith, I'm a
goner. Because it can be here one minute and as soon as this
is over, I'm going to get in my car and we're going to drive
down the road and maybe turn the radio on and my faith is
gone. I don't trust in my faith. We believe in the faith of. Verse 16 says, 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. Now just in case this is not
clear, let me illustrate this. There are two people. One person has lived a life of
absolute sin. I mean, absolute sin. He's murdered. He's stolen. He's a liar. He's an addict. The other one has gone to church
since the day he was born, started in the nursery, worked his way
up. He has truly tried to give his
life to helping his neighbor. You know people like that? I
mean, it's like, man, I'm not a good neighbor. That guy puts
me to shame. He tries to take the low road
and he gives others the high road. Honesty has been policy
number one. He's always paid his bills on
time. He's never tried to cheat on
his taxes. He's an honest, non-confrontational,
kind man. Which one of those two men are
going to be allowed to enter into glory and live eternally
in the presence of God? Which one of those two men? Without the blood of Christ,
neither one of them. Neither one of them. This guy
might be a little bit better than this guy, but he's not good
enough. He is not good enough. How good does a person have to
be to stand in the presence of God? As good as God. As good as God. We don't know what we shall be,
but we know when we see Him, we're going to be just like Him. As good as God. So without the
blood of Christ, which one of those two men is going to stand
in His presence? Neither one. If both of those two men, this
man and this man, if both of them have been covered from head
to toe in the blood of the Lamb of God, which one of those two
men are going to be rejected from the presence of God? Neither
one of them. Neither one of them. Verse 16
says, 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. But if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners. Is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. What does he mean
by that if we're found sinners? Verse 18 says, For if I build
again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. What he's saying is, if I acknowledge
that salvation is in the blood of Jesus Christ alone, alone,
But I still try to add my works to it. If I say that works are still
somehow, yes, it's the blood of Christ alone, but works still
somehow have something to do with it. Will God accept me on
those grounds? He said, God forbid. Verse 18. For if I build again the things
which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor." In Christ alone,
there is no sin. Outside of Christ alone, outside
of Christ alone, I'm a transgressor against God. Verse 19 says, For
I through the law, according to the law, in agreement with
the law, am dead to the law that I might live unto God." How is
that possible? When all are born under the curse
of the law, aren't all born under the curse of the law? How is that possible? Sinners
stay under that curse until the day they die, don't they? I'm
going to be a sinner in this flesh until the day I die. How
can I be dead to the law? Verse 20 says, I am crucified
with Christ. I am crucified with Christ. He
satisfied the law against me when He hung on that tree. He put away all of my transgressions
against the law. Every single one of them. He
covered me in His blood and He made me acceptable to God. As
far as the law is concerned, as far as the law is concerned,
I died. Man is bound to his wife under
God's law until he dies. And she's bound to him under
God's law until he dies. She can go marry another after
that. As far as the law is concerned, I died. And as far as God is
concerned, I live. Verse 20 says, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. There is a new creation. There
is a new man. 2 Corinthians 5.17, the Lord
said, Behold, I make all things new. Brand spanking new. Verse 20 says, I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And 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." I am only alive because Christ loved
me and gave Himself for me. That's the only reason. I mean,
that's the only reason. It's not because I used to wear
a headband around my head and run around like a lunatic, and
now I wear a suit. It has nothing to do with it. It's only because God loved me
and Christ died for me. That's it. That's it. And the fact that God put me
in Christ, and I'm in His hand, and He's in the Father's hand,
and no man can pluck me out of His hand. The fact that I am
absolutely secure, no matter what, ordered and sure, that
does not produce one ounce of rebellion. I can do whatever
I want to now. No, sir. Thank God, I bow. I bow. The only plea I have,
the only hope I have The only thing that will get me into the
presence of God Almighty is the fact that He loved me and died
for me. That's it. So verse 21 says,
I do not disesteem. You know, you highly esteem something.
I do not disesteem. I do not despise. I do not bring
to naught I do not make nothing out of the grace of God. I said it first. I said it highest. I highly esteem it. I love it. I love God's grace. I love God's
grace. It's my all. Verse 21, for if
righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
And Christ is not dead in vain, is He? He did not die in vain. Thank God. Romans 8. I'll close with this. Go with
me to Romans 8. Romans 8 verse 1 says, There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh..." And God's perfect law
was not weak. I'm the one who was weak. I couldn't
do it. "...What the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh. Verse 33 says, Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is He that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again.
Who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. Is that not precious? Can you
see God at the right hand of God? As I go through this, life, everything
I still have to live out, He says, I paid for that. I paid
for that too. I paid for that one. That one's
covered. That one's done. That's over.
My blood, my blood, my blood, my blood. Daily, all day long,
He makes intercession for me. Blood, blood, blood, blood, blood. Verse 38 says, For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.