Turning, if you will, to Galatians,
the third chapter. Galatians chapter three. I want so much to be an encouragement
to God's servants, men who labor in the gospel and faithfully
preach the gospel of Christ, where God's put you, and to God's
people, this congregation. I realize we are living in a
generation of utter apostasy. This religious world is an apostate
religious world. And I urge you in this assembly,
if that's not how you view the churches of Kingsport, Tennessee,
don't start another one. Don't start another one. No point
in it if there's someplace where you can go worship God. No point
in it. We live in an apostate religious
generation. I'm talking about folks who don't
know God from a gourd. And I'm talking about fundamental
Baptists. Can I get more clear? I'm telling you, this generation
doesn't have a clue who God is. But right in the midst of this
apostate generation, I am thoroughly convinced God Almighty is working
the great wonders of his grace as he has never worked them in
the earth before. I believe it with all my heart.
I really do. The gospel of God's grace is
being preached more clearly and around the world to more people
than has ever been the case in history, to this date. Isn't
that amazing? Brother Paul, if I had any day
in history I could choose to live in, this is it. This is
it. Folks talk about the good old
days. This is the best day possible
for being you. This is the day God has made for us. Let us rejoice
and be glad in it. I have never been more excited,
more hopeful, more full of anticipation and expectation in preaching
the gospel than I am right now. And I pray for you as you labor
in this place for the glory of God to establish his witness
in this place. May God be pleased to give you
steadfast faithfulness right straight on the days of your
life together and give you a pastor according to his heart to feed
you with knowledge and understanding. Let us go everywhere preaching
the faith of Jesus Christ. Calling sinners to faith in Jesus
Christ. Now that's my message this morning.
The faith of Christ and our faith in Christ. The scriptures speak
very distinctly of the faith of Christ and very distinctly
of the faith of God's elect in Christ. Here in Galatians chapter
3 verse 19, the Spirit of God tells us that the law of God
given in Mount Sinai was given for a very specific designated
period of time. It was given for a specific designated
period of time. It was added because of transgressions
till the seed, that's Christ, should come to whom the promise,
the promise of God's blessing, grace, and salvation was made.
Verse 21 assures us that the law of God given at Sinai is
not in any way against or contrary to God's covenant promise of
salvation by Christ. It never was intended to produce
righteousness. The law is, as Paul puts it in
1 Corinthians, or 2 Corinthians, the ministration of death. That's
all it's good for. It has nothing to do with life.
It produces no righteousness in anyone. Paul said in Galatians
2 21. I do not frustrate the grace
of God For if righteousness come by the law if it was possible
if there was any possibility The sinners could be made righteous
by something they do God killed his son for nothing If righteousness
come by the law Christ is dead in vain now, let's look at verse
22 of Galatians 3 Let's look at verses 22 through 26 carefully But the scripture hath concluded,
all understand. That's the testimony of Holy
Scripture. Specifically, the testimony of
God's holy law. The language is all inclusive,
relating to all men, and all things about all men, and all
circumstances of life. All are sinners. And every faculty
of your being, every faculty of my being, every faculty of
the being of every man, woman, boy, and girl of Adam's fallen
race is nothing but sin. The physical members of our bodies
do but carry out that which is the corrupt principle within
us in every faculty of our being and that's sin. Now watch this,
that the promise The reason the scripture conclude us under sin,
shut us up as prisoners, is that the promise by faith of Jesus
Christ might be given to them that believe. The promise of
life, the promise of eternal life and salvation, the promise
of everlasting righteousness, of the never-ending smile of
God's approval. is given by the faith of Jesus
Christ to us. All are included in this promise,
and it belongs to all who believe. But it is not our believing that
fulfilled the promise. God's covenant promise is not
brought to pass by the righteousness we perform, but that righteousness
wherein we stand Brought to pass and given to those who believe
by the faith of Jesus Christ It is Christ to whom the promise
was made as our surety in the everlasting covenant of grace
That promise was made upon condition of our Lord's obedience as our
covenant surety brother Paul just referred to John 17 our
Lord Jesus said father I Restore unto me the glory that I had
with thee before the world was. Is he talking about his glory
as God? Can't be. He never laid that
aside, never lost it, was never diminished. The glory he has
with the Father as God is that which he possesses as God because
he's God. It's not the glory the God, the
triune God gives him or restores to him in any way. What's he
talking about? In the beginning was the Word. And then things got started. There was a beginning before
the beginning. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and then all things were made by
Him. Obviously, those words, in the beginning, refers to something
that took place in eternity before the world was, before time began
as we know it. You know, Brother Don, that's
kind of redundant. It sure is. I can't begin to
explain it. But we're talking about something that began in
eternity called the beginning. When God, as it were, Now some
of you folks who were around back in 1889 when Brother Paul
went down to Rocky Mount will remember the days when we had
clocks that you actually wound up. Any of y'all still got one? You wind them up. You didn't
plug them in. You didn't put batteries in them.
You actually wound them up. Some of you children don't have
a clue what I'm talking about. You wound them up. And you know
what that clock was doing when you were winding it up? Nothing,
the second hand didn't click, the minute hand didn't click,
the hour hand didn't click, nothing happened. You wind that thing
up and you let go and set it down and the second hand start
going around. That's about the best illustration I can think
of of what happened in the beginning. And that purpose you just read
to us about expanded to us. God Almighty wound everything
up and set every second and ordained every single thing that comes
to pass in time. And here we go. Things started ticking. Well,
in the beginning, before ever the world was, the Lord Jesus
Christ stood before God, our Father, indeed stood before the
triune God as our covenant surety and mediator, and pledged himself
to redeem and save his people. He pledged himself to be our
covenant surety. He pledged himself to satisfy
all the demands of God's law and justice for us. To put away
our sin by the sacrifice of himself. To reconcile us to God in perfect
righteousness. And when he did, when he did,
he is declared in the book of God to be the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. That's what the book said, isn't
it? Know what I said? Well, that doesn't fit my theology.
Well, you got two choices. You can either throw God's Word
away or throw your theology away. I'll throw the theology away.
And because God Almighty declares Him to be the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, the Lord God looking on us in
His Son as the surety who has paid the price, who satisfied
the debt in all details, declares they're justified, they're sanctified,
they're glorified. Past tense. In the beginning. In the beginning. Well, what does that mean? Just exactly what you think it
means. The works were finished from the foundation of the world.
That's exactly what it means. And God Almighty gave his son
everything. He put everything in the hands
of the covenant surety and the mediator as the God man in whose
image he would make the first man Adam. Trusted him with everything. In whom you also trusted. After
that you heard the word of truth. Donny Bell, God trusted his son
for you a long time and you trusted him for yourself. He trusted
to his son the salvation of his people. He trusted to his son
the glory of his name. He trusted to his son the accomplishment
of his purpose in every detail. Put everything in his hands so
that as you go through all the Old Testament scriptures, when
you hear about the Lord speaking to a man, the Lord calling a
man, the Lord making himself known to a man, the Lord appearing
to a man, the angel of the Lord coming, the Lord manifesting
himself, it is always the God-man, our Savior. Always the mediator
the book of John is chapter 5 verse 37. Our Lord said no man ever
heard God speak You never saw the father it's all in him and
then in the fullness of time Christ came into the world And
when he finished the work the Father put in his hands to do,
when he had accomplished everything by his loyalty, his faithfulness,
his fidelity to the Godhead as our covenant surety, he said,
Father, glorify me with thine own self. Restore to me the glory
that I had with thee before the world was. And God set him down
on his own right hand and said, look here, this is what I give
eternity. This is my son. And he has all
things in his hands, everything's his. And that's the result of
the faith of Jesus Christ. The word faith means confidence,
trust. And Jesus Christ, as the God-man,
our covenant surety, trusted the Father like no man ever trusted
him. And he was loyal to him. As no man was ever loyal to him.
Faithful as no man was ever faithful. That one who is fidelity. That's what the word means. All
those things. Verse 23. But before faith came,
we were kept under the law, shut up. Now watch this. Unto the
faith, which should afterwards be revealed. What faith is he
talking about? Whose faith is that? Is it yours? Mine? No, sir. That faith came
by which we were delivered from the curse of God's holy law is
the faith of Jesus Christ he just spoke about in verse 22.
It is this faith of Jesus Christ that is revealed by the gospel. When God the Holy Spirit comes,
to chosen, redeemed sinners in Holy Spirit conviction, He convinces
them of the faith of Jesus Christ. He convinces us that Jesus Christ,
by His obedience to the Father, to everything He swore to do
as our covenant shall dictate, has put away our sin, brought
in everlasting righteousness, and satisfied the justice of
God for us. Verse 24. Wherefore, the law
was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might
be justified by faith. Now be sure you note that our
translators in our authorized version put the words to bring
us in italicized letters. We need to be reminded of this
constantly as we read the scriptures. The King James translators were
honest men. They weren't doing this in order
to make a profit and get a copyright on a book they could sell to
you at a profit. And when they came to passages
where they had difficulty translating something from Greek or Hebrew
to English, because of the variations in construction in those languages
and in ours, and they'd come to passages where the words aren't
really there. But to make this read smoothly,
we add these words. They always italicize them. Or to put them in there so as
to, this is what the implication clearly is to us, but it's just
the implication, so they italicize them. To make us understand,
these things in italics, we put in there. And we're showing you
that for your benefit, so you can look at it very carefully.
These words, to bring us, are italicized. Quite literally,
verse 24 should read like this. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
unto or until Christ. What did Paul say in Romans 10
and 4? Christ is the... That's what
it said right here. Right here. The law was our schoolmaster
until Christ came. The law was our schoolmaster
unto Jesus Christ. It was given to direct God's
elect to Christ. It was given to make sure that
we get to Christ. It was our schoolmaster until
Christ came and fulfilled it. But once Christ has come, the
law has no other purpose. Now, now that the righteousness of
the law has been fulfilled by Christ's obedience as our representative,
our surety, our substitute, we can be justified. Because justification
has been accomplished by Christ in the court of heaven, now we
can receive that justification in the court of conscience. Faith
looks away from self to Christ, looks to Christ and Christ alone
beholding justification fully accomplished in him. Trusting
Christ, we receive Complete acquittal. Look away to Him. Then you find yourself justified. Justified. I have a letter I've
got to answer. I've been sitting on it for a
couple of days. A young man who's probably preached
a good bit. He's very concerned. How can
I know whether or not I believe? And I intend to tell him something
like this. I wouldn't do one thing on this earth to convince
you that you believe. I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't do it. I care more for
you than that. I won't do it. But when you find
yourself believing, you'll know you believe. had that load on his back, the
guilt of sin. And finally, being directed by
the faithful witness, he went up to Mount Calvary. And when
he looked to the crucified Lamb of God, the burden, he said,
fell off my back. And you don't need a preacher
to tell you it's gone. But what happened? Oh, looking
to him, I justified myself. No. Looking to him, I found myself
justified. There's a huge difference. There's
a huge difference. When we speak of our being justified
in the experience of grace, we are not talking about the accomplishment
of justification. We're talking about the experience
of it. It is justification in the court
of conscience, where God speaks by His Spirit, through His Word,
through the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, and declares,
sin, go! We're justified. And believing
on the Son of God, we walk in the joy of it. Let me show you
this. Turn to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Back up to verse 25 of chapter
4. Christ was delivered for our
sins, for our offenses. The word for, of course, means
because of. Sandy Thornberry sat back there
as a school teacher. Once in every great little while she
gives a student an A. For that child's works. Now,
would you presume that when you see that, well, Sally got an
A for her work, that means that Sally got this A so that she
would do good work. Why, no preacher, nobody thinks
like that. Nobody till they start reading the Bible backwards.
Religious folks do it all the time. Christ was delivered because
of our offenses. And he was raised again because
of our justification. He went into the grave, a condemned
criminal, as one bearing our sin before God's holy law. And
he came out of the grave, what does the book say? Justified
in the Spirit. Sin gone. Our sin that was made
his, he put it away. It's gone. He was delivered because
of our sins. He was raised again because of
our justification. Now get your pen or pencil handy.
I want you to make one slight little mark. It will help you
a lot. Therefore, being justified, comma, right there. I firmly believe that single
misplaced comma to be the greatest error in the translation of our
English Bible from the original text. Therefore, because justification
is done, comma, by faith we have peace with God. Read it the other
way, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God. It declares justification to be something you accomplish
by faith. And that just ain't so. That just ain't so. Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into
this grace, watch it, wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. Verse 9, much more than being
now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled, not put in
a reconcilable state, but reconciled, reconciled to God by the death
of his son. And that can't be done except
justification be accomplished. We were reconciled to God by
the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now,
what'd you do? Received the atonement. Received
it. Looked away to Him. I tried, and tried, and tried,
and tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, and tried
to look away to Him, and I couldn't! And they said, well, if you would,
you could. I tried, and I couldn't. And
then one day I did. And when I saw Him, Brother Gary,
I received The atonement. I didn't add anything to it.
I just received it. He said, well, that's reconciliation.
That word ought to be translated reconciliation. Atonement's pretty
good. What is reconciliation? It's
atonement. It's atonement. Read on. Wherefore,
as by one man's sin entered into the world, and death passed upon
all men, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned. Now you notice there's a parenthetical
mark right there. Goes all the way to the end of
verse 17. That's because beginning of verse 13, the Apostle Paul
is giving us an inspired parenthetical explanation of what he's talking
about. But the sentence picks up at verse 18. Therefore, as
by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift upon all
men unto justification of life." All right, back in Galatians
3, verse 25. But after that faith has come,
we're no longer under a schoolmaster. Since faith has come, that is
to say, since Christ has come, We're no longer under the law.
Verse 26. For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Jesus Christ. Now obviously, our faith in Christ does not
get God to adopt us as his sons. It just doesn't. The Lord God
Almighty chose me And adopted me as his own in the beginning. Before ever the world was. That's
what Ephesians 1 says. And predestined me to the glorious
liberty of the sons of God in eternity to come. The adoption
was done then. I don't contribute anything to
it. I didn't do anything to incline
God toward me to accept me as his son. I didn't get myself
all prettied up and fixed up so that God would pretty please
make me his son. He made me his son, in his son, when he chose
me in his son, as one with his son from eternity. And now, because
you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So that faith in Christ is that
which is the fruit and the evidence of the adoption from eternity.
And faith in Christ is that which is the fruit and evidence of
the justification of our souls by the faith of Jesus Christ. Our faith in Christ then is the
assurance of our adoption. Believing on the Son of God,
we stand before God with the confident assurance that we are
justified, accepted in Christ, children of God, heirs of God,
and joint heirs of Jesus Christ, by faith. So that now, when God
the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of adoption comes to the chosen,
redeemed sinner, bearing witness with our spirit that we are the
sons of God, This is what he does. Abba, Father. Abba, Father. You find yourself
able to do what you could not do otherwise, except as a show
of vain hypocrisy. You can lift your heart to God
Almighty, the God of glory, in all His glory, Justice and truth
in all his holy character in being in all he is God who terrified
you all your life long My father My father That's it He sends
me Confidence In the teeth of all my sins That God, in all
His glorious being, who to all the rest of the world is a consuming
fire, is my Father. How come? Because I am justified
by the faith of Jesus Christ. And that which He did for me
wrought now in me faith in Him. trusting him. I find myself believing
him. Brother Rupert, I just can't
help it. I just can't help it. It is an effort that I can never
muster to believe him. But, Donny, when your heart's
rung out with trouble, not trouble that you actually
experience, but the kind you think you're going to, that's the worst
kind. If you're rung out and you cry,
you're so... Why can't I believe God? It's because you can find something
else to believe. And God graciously fixes it.
So you can't find anything else to trust. And when he does that,
you find yourself believing him. It's so easy. When God fixes it, so there's
nothing in you to trust, believing him won't be an effort. It'll
be breathing. Life. And until God fixes it, so there's
nothing in you to trust, You will never trust Him. You won't
trust Him. Faith is simply the response
of the believer's heart to the work of God in you. And it is
the response of the believer's heart to the work of Christ for
you in his faithful obedience. Now I'll give you a challenge.
We won't look at them all this morning. Read the epistles, particularly
the epistles of Paul, where he deals with these things, Romans,
Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians. As he writes through his epistles,
he distinctly, clearly makes this distinction. The faith of
Christ and our faith in Christ. The faith of Christ referring
to his obedience to God as our substitute in utter fidelity. fulfilling all the will and purpose
of God, until he at last sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high, having accomplished eternal redemption for us, having
put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself. And then the apostle
speaks of our faith in Christ. What's that? Well, that's trusting
him. That's trusting him. And nothing
is ever one time attributed to you trusting him except the reception
of what he accomplished. That's all. It's just, it's willing
and at the same time passive. It's active and at the same time
that which is acted upon. I'm going to receive some water
right here. I'm going to receive it. You
know how come? Because I wanted. You know how come I wanted it?
Because something created a thirst in me for it. And I just reach
out and get it. Just like that. Well, how could
you reach out and get that? Because something gave me some
muscles and strength and some kind of sense up here in my noggin
that says my arm can stretch out and get that thing. And I
got it. Can you explain that? No, but I can drink the water. And faith in Christ is but God
working in you according to His good pleasure, according to His
will, as a result of Christ's faith for you, His accomplishments
for you. This work of our Redeemer is
beautifully pictured in the book of Ruth. In the story of Christ,
our Kingsman Redeemer, Ruth had to have a Redeemer to restore
everything she had lost by the folly of her father-in-law leaving
Bethlehem, Judah, going down that pagan land where she lived.
Lost by the folly of her father-in-law, but if it hadn't been for his
folly, she would have never been up here in Bethlehem, Judah. And she had this kingdom and
Redeemer and they always told her about. And she went out one day and
gleaned in his fields and she came back and had just Her whole
apron full of corn. And Naomi said, what did you
glean today? And she said, I just kind of
happened to be in the field of a fellow named Boaz. Oh, honey,
you found him. That man's near kin to us. He's
the richest man in the land. He owns everything. If he wants
to, he can fix everything up. If he wants to. He's got to have
the ability. It's got to be a near kinsman,
but it's got to be something else. He's got to be willing. That's our Redeemer. He's the man who owns everything.
All powers he is. And if he wants to, he can fix
everything up. If he wants to. He's willing. Behold Him take
on Himself human flesh in the room instead of us, His people. Naomi said, now Ruth, I'll tell
you what you do. You go tonight while they're on the threshing
floor, you mark the place where that man's going to lay down. And lay down at his feet. Cecil Thornberry, she only had
one thing left that was worth anything to her. Just her good
name. That's all she had. You're going to have to get rid of that. What do folks want to say if
they find me laying down at his feet? Let them say what they want to.
I've got to have him. I've got to have him. And she
went and laid down at his feet. She said, I'm your handmaid.
Take me. He said, I will. She got home
and told Naomi how things went. Naomi said, the man will not
rest. He will not rest until he's done
everything you require. And the Son of God, our kinsman,
Redeemer, able and willing, came into this world to accomplish
the salvation of our souls and he would not rest until all was
done. See him yonder. He has entered into his rest by his faith. Oh may he now give you faith.
to enter into that same rest. What do you mean? He quit working. That's what rest is. Quit working. Just quit working. When you can
quit working and rest by faith in Him. He's done it all for you. Amen.