I feel my heart to be with you.
And I can't imagine, I've tried to imagine this to be honest
with you, that I've got such friends, such quality of friends
as you folks are. And it thrills me when I come
here and you treat me like I'm your friend. I just can't, I
can't get over that. It's just amazing. This may be
a familiar passage to you in Galatians chapter 2. And begin reading around verse
11, Galatians chapter 2 and verse 11. This is the incident that
took place here at Antioch in Syria. A large church there. And the Apostle Paul in Barnabas
was members of that church. And a lot of Gentiles were members
there as well as Jews. Peter had come up here probably
to visit. Maybe he was going to preach
for him or something. I don't know what he was doing
here. But this is an incident that took place there at Antioch,
several miles north of Jerusalem. And Peter was eating with the
Gentiles. I'm sure eating food that the
ceremonial law of Moses forbid him to eat. And he was keeping
company with the Gentiles. And this is what took place. When these men from Jerusalem
came up here, he separated himself. And that's what I want to look
at tonight. But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood
him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that
certain, certain men came from James, there at Jerusalem, Peter
did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew
and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled,
that word means played the hypocrite, they dissembled themselves with
him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. And 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? We who are Jews
by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a
man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified
by Christ, We ourselves are found sinners. Is therefore Christ
the minister of sin? God forbid. If I build again
those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead
to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. I want to look at this passage
tonight as it concerns justification. We often talk about justification. It's a beautiful truth, the essential
truth of the gospel. how we're justified before God. And that's a mystery. If you
want to do an interesting survey sometime, where you work or with
your neighbors, begin to ask people. And do it this way. Approach them this way. Is God
holy? And everybody that's got any
understanding at all about the whole concept of God will agree
with that. God is holy. He is holy, holy,
holy. He represents Himself to us as
light, pure light in whom is no darkness at all. If God is
that way and we are sinners, the very core of our being is
unrighteousness. There is none righteous, no,
not one. How then can God, who is who
He is and what He is, and man being who and what he is, how
can man be justified with God? Boy, that's a question, isn't
it? And that's a question all of us must know. We must believe
and understand. Thousands of years ago, Job had
a friend by the name of Bildad, and he asked that very question.
How then? Can man be justified with God? How can He be clean that's born
of a woman? Well, we answer that, we look
at that from the doctrinal aspect. We go in the book of Romans chapter
3 and other places and we see who God is and see who man is
and then we see in a doctrinal way that through the Lord Jesus
Christ, through His marriage, through His blood, Through faith
in Him, we're justified before God. And we can go into the Bible
and we can see that in a doctrinal way. What I like about this passage
here that I read to you, I love to call it justification illustrated. It's just the only place in the
Bible that I know where an incident that happened teach us It teaches
us the doctrine of justification, but it teaches it as an illustration
here for us. And that's what I want to look
at this afternoon with you just for a few minutes. Justification
illustrated here in this incident that took place here at Antioch
with Peter and Paul rebuking him. And I want to dwell on that
just for a few minutes. And of course, we'll see in verse
16. And I can't go into all these
verses. I don't have time for that. We're going to look at
the high place. But in verse 16, Paul said, We have believed
in Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. And that's
what he's going to prove here in this illustration. And then
in the light of that, I want to dwell just a few minutes on
how then do we live? How do we live? How does a man
who is justified before God, how does he live his life in
this world? And that's what we'll see here.
First thing then, let's look at this incident and see justification. Peter had been eating here with
these Gentiles and these Jews. I imagine they were legalistic
Jews. They were having a terrible time coming out and under the
law of Moses, the ceremonial law. They came down up here to
Antioch, and Peter saw them coming, and there he was eating chicken
with his webbed feet, or eating a big chunk of pork. And he was
fellowshipping with the Gentile brothers, and boy, he got gripped
with this awful fear. He said, man, what are they going
to say to me? They're going to skin me alive. So he just, without
thinking, he jumps up, And he runs over to the trash can, and
he scraps off his chicken into the trash can, and he runs and
gets him some beef, and he goes and sits down with the Jews. And the Jewish brethren said,
Man, if he's going to do this, we've got to too. So they jump
up, and even Barnabas jumps up and runs over there with them.
Why did he do that? Well, he was afraid. Peter had
this disposition about him that sometimes a little maid looked
like a big lion roaring at him. And he got so afraid. And that's
why he did it. He was scared of these Jews. But what was he teaching them?
What was he teaching by his example? Well, he was teaching this. He
says, Listen, my Gentile brother, I know what we've told you. that
you must be justified by faith in Christ alone. We've done settled
that up at Jerusalem a while back. But what I'm going to teach
you by my example is this, that faith in Christ is not enough. That you must accept this law
of Moses and regulate your life by it. You must live like those
Jewish men, though, up at Jerusalem. This Jewish lifestyle was a strict
lifestyle, boy. It started at birth, being circumcised,
then you had to observe these days, and you had to eat certain
foods, and you had to watch what kind of company you kept. These
poor Jews know nothing about the law of Moses. They was going to have to be
taught. And Peter was teaching them. And here's what he was
teaching them. Christ is not enough. You must
regulate your daily life by this ceremonial law. You must be converted
to this law and live this strict, burdensome lifestyle, just like
those Jews up at Jerusalem, just like I do. Now Peter never said
a word, did he? He never said a word. You know
sometimes we teach better by our example than we do by what
we say. Paul uses very strong language
here. He said, Why compelest thou the
Gentiles to live as do the Jews? That word compels means to drive
or urge by force, to constrain, to necessitate either physically
or morally. And he did all of this without
saying a word, by just getting up and leaving there and going
and sitting with the Jews. He did all of this by example. You know why some parents' kids
don't obey what they say. They can't get past what their
parents are doing. How many parents have made this silly statement?
Don't do as I do, do as I say. Isn't that silly? Very seldom
they do what we tell them, but they'll watch us. They'll use
us as an example. When the Lord Jesus wanted us
to teach us to be patient when we're in trials and suffering,
you know He did more than just tell us. He showed us. He said, you follow my example. What did he do when he suffered?
He threatened not. When they falsely accused him,
when they beat him, he never struck out, did he? He committed
himself to God who judgeth righteously. Boy, example is a good teacher,
isn't it? Example is a good teacher. Paul
said he compelled these Jews to leave Christ for the law by
the very example that he set. When you and I talk about justification,
there's one vital question that we must ask, and it's this. What
does our personal obedience to the law of Moses have to do with
our being justified before God? Now, that's one of the most serious
questions. It's a question that needs to be asked in our day.
What does our personal obedience to the law of Moses have to do
with our being justified before God? Now take your Bibles. I want you to hold to Galatians
chapter 2. And turn over to Romans chapter 3. Look in Romans chapter 3. Paul had been proven through
these chapters and these verses that God was the judge of all
the earth, and that His wrath was revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. He had proved the Gentiles
were all understand. They, without excuse, they had
the light of nature to teach them. Their conscience taught
them that they were sinners against God. The Jews had the law of
Moses to teach them what sinners they were. And Paul concludes
by saying this, By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. The whole world is guilty before
God. That's the conclusion he reached
in this third chapter in verse 19. The world is guilty before
God. How then can a man be justified
before God? Then he sets forth Jesus Christ.
And I want you to look at it. Look in verse 20. Therefore by
the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight,
for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness
of God, look at this, without the law, without our personal
obedience to the law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ It's unto all, no matter who you are, no matter
where you live at, off in the jungles of New Guinea, on the
mountains, running half naked, the instant a person believes
in Christ, this righteousness which justifies him comes to
that person, all the way to him. And not only to him, but look
at this, upon him, upon him. them that believe. For there
is no difference. All have sinned and come short of the glory of
God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say at this time, His righteousness.
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. And look in verse 28. Therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of
the law. Without our obedience to the
law of Moses, we are justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. or righteousness. But what Peter
was teaching these Gentiles here by his example was contrary to
this, wasn't it? That wasn't faith alone. Now
you had to go back and keep the law of Moses. It was a vital
part of justification, the moral law, the ceremonial law, or the
civil law. And this is why Paul rebuked
him to his face before everybody. Brothers and sisters, I can't
stress unto you tonight what a dangerous, damnable error this
great apostle had fallen into. Paul said, I saw that he walked
not uprightly according to the gospel. What did Peter do? He
left the gospel. He did the very same thing that
the Galatian church had did, and he was teaching the very
same thing these false, self-righteous, legalist teachers did when they
came to the Gentile believers and said faith in Christ is not
enough. It's not enough. Your lifestyle
must be one regulated by this law. It must be strict. It must
be burdensome. And Paul said, You are to be
blamed, Peter. Don't we leave the gospel so
quickly? The greatest of men have left the gospel so quickly
and so easily. Some people say, Bruce, we've
got nothing to worry about. We've got something to be concerned
about, have we not? The church will never leave the
gospel. Tell that to those seven churches
of Asia. Where are they? This church at Antioch, this
large church, where is it now? You've been watching the news
the last year or so? You've seen what's going on around
Antioch now? Who controls that place? People
who will cut your head off. There's no church there. These
people that used to believe in the grace of Jesus Christ being
justified by faith in Him, it's gone. What happened? Somewhere between here and later
on, they left the gospel. I tell you, it's my heart's prayer.
And it seems like the older I get, I should be more established.
But the older I get, I keep praying, Oh God, don't let me leave the
gospel. Sometimes I have to go back to
Luther and his book on Galatians or some of these old Puritans
and you have to hear it again in its purity and plainness because
it's so foreign to us, is it not? It's so gracious, it's so
wonderful, it's so contrary to us that we seemingly leave it
so easy. And if I had one charge to lay
against the professing church today, it's this, and it's a
damnable charge. You've left the gospel. You've got mixed up with a family.
You've got mixed up with all these how Christians should live.
And you think it's all good, in and of itself it may be, but
you've left the gospel. I was talking with a preacher
just the other day. I was talking with him about
this very thing. What does the law of Moses have
to do with our being just with God? And he couldn't even answer
me. How does it fit in there, he
said. I don't know. Luther said the church stands
or falls on this. Can you imagine what would have
happened if the Apostle Paul had not been there to correct
this? Well, can't you see a few years
later he wasn't there? And some man set the example,
Christ is not enough. We've got to add this, this. We've got to add that. We've
got to do this or that. And what happened? The downgrade
started. And when that downgrade starts,
if God don't check it, where do we wind up? Well, look over
there now. They'll cut your head off if
you don't worship Allah. This country's fought against
Christ. They fought against the knowledge of God. Well, they
may get what they're wanting. They may get what they're wanting.
This is the gospel, brothers and sisters. And if this man
can leave it, oh, how much more can we leave it? Now, I'm not
saying the poor Apostle Peter left it and didn't come back.
No, he came back with tears, I'm sure, and a broken heart,
and you will too if you're his. But you've got to see what I'm
saying. This gospel can be left. It can be erred from so easily
for some motives, who knows why. Two vital things we need to learn
in Galatians chapter 2 concerning justification. One is this. Initially, we are justified by
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ without our own obedience to
the law. I don't think you'd get many Christians, professing
Christians, to argue with that. Paul speaks of that plainly.
We have believed in Christ in verse 16. Paul traces his Christian
life back to the time he first believed in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and here's what he said. Then, right there, is where I
was justified. As soon as I believed in the
Lord Jesus Christ, I was justified. Now that's the blessing, that's
the blessing of the gospel. You may be the sorriest thing,
you may be fit for hell and in a perishing state, but as soon
as you believe in Christ, you're cleared of all your charges by
the court of heaven. Oh, there's no other gospel that
can do that for you. That's why that thief could leave
this world hanging on a cross and go to heaven. God justifies
a man immediately. It makes no difference who the man
is, where he lives, who he is, what he is, as soon as he believes
in Christ. Paul said, We have believed in
Jesus Christ that we might be justified. Until a man believes
in Christ, he is not justified, is he? Until he believes in Christ,
he is condemned. He is condemned in his own conscience. I don't care who he is, how moral
he is, what he is, and how the world loves him or hates him,
until a man believes in Christ, he's condemned in his conscience.
He's a poor lost man. I heard a man talking the other
day. He said he was looking forward to seeing Abraham Lincoln in
heaven. He was such a good man, he said, and such a good president.
Till to Jesus' work you cling. By a living faith, doing is a
deadly thing. Doing ends in death. And if Abe
Lincoln pursued his self-righteousness, if he pursued his self-salvation,
his position, and trusted Jesus Christ, believed in Christ alone
for his salvation, he's in heaven. But if he didn't, he's not. No man goes to heaven except
through Christ. And no man is justified apart
from faith in the Lord Jesus. Here is this great apostle. And
what does he say? I believed in Christ that I might
be justified by the faith of Christ. Have you been enabled,
dear soul, could I ask you this question? Have you been enabled
yourself to stop trying to save yourself To abhor such a thing
as self-salvation and cast yourself upon the Lord Jesus to be saved
by Him. Have you been enabled through
grace to give up yourself? To give yourself away as dear
old Watts used to say. Here I give myself away. Has
God enabled you to give yourself to His Son to be saved by Him? Oh, what a miracle of grace.
That's what Paul said. We have believed in Christ. We've
trusted Him. We've put all our confidence
in Him to be justified by Christ and not by the deeds of the law. Now, most of us understand that,
don't we? But here's something else our text teaches us. It's
this. The way we begin is the way we must continue. And the way we continue is the
way we must die. We begin by faith in Christ to
be justified. And we continue that way. We don't come to Christ to be
justified and turn from Him to something else. The Bible says, when talking
about those dear old saints of old that pleased God, the Bible
says these all died in the faith. What does that mean? That means
they began by faith, they continued by faith, and they died in the
faith, in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter how long a man may
live as a believer in this life, how much he grows in grace and
knowledge, how profitable he is to the church of God, he may
even be a Peter, but when it comes to being justified at any
point in his Christian life, he throws everything away. He
counts it all done. He paws it up at his feet and
says, I'm justified by Christ alone. anywhere in his Christian
life. That's what he said. What does
men say when they hear this? What do they say? Antinomians. That's what you are, is antinomians.
You hate the law. You'd do away with it entirely.
You'd live after the flesh. You bunch of devils. If people
never said that about us, we're probably not preaching the pure
gospel of the grace of God. Paul says here in verse 17, this
is a wonderful verse, don't have time to go into it deeply, but
he clears the Lord Jesus Christ here of the charges that some
of the Jews, note how they brought against the Lord Jesus Himself. And Paul says this, if while
we seek to be justified by Christ without the law, we ourselves
are found to be sinners against the law, I mean, if you're not
keeping the law, that makes you a sinner, doesn't it? If you're eating pork, then you're
sinning against the law. And Paul said, Is therefore Christ
the minister of sin? Who was it that taught us to
forsake the law? It was Christ. It was the Lord
Jesus that came to you and taught. He taught Paul that. You can't
keep the law and be saved. You're going to have to look
to me. You're going to have to be saved by me. You're going
to have to let go of that law. So Paul let go of the law. He
just let it go. I ain't trying to keep it anymore. Christ is my Savior. Is Christ
therefore a sinner? Is he telling me to sin? Is it
a sin to forsake Moses for Christ? No, it ain't, brothers and sisters. Ain't no other way to be saved
but forsaken Moses for Christ. I asked my dad one time, and
he's a Free Will Baptist preacher. I said, Dad, you keep the law
of Moses? You keep the Ten Commandments?
He said, I try. I said, I didn't ask you that,
Dad. I said, do you keep the law of Moses? The law never said
the man that doesn't try is condemned and cursed. Does it? Those men,
these Jews that were trying to keep the law, they did great
dishonor to the law. And the law cursed them more
than it did the open and profane sinners. You'll receive the greater
damnation. Ain't that what Christ told them?
You know who honors the law? Those who look to Christ. Because
He fulfilled the law. He honored the law. He kept it. And now, when we look away from
the law to Christ, the law is satisfied. When we look away
from Christ to the law, the law says, ìI curse you.î Thatís why
Paul went on here in the 18th verse and said this. He said,
ìNo, itís not a sin for me to turn from the law to Christ.î
But he said, ìHereís the sin. If I build again those things
which I destroyed, I really make myself a transgressor then. What
did he destroy? Circumcised the eighth day. A
Hebrew of the Hebrews. He destroyed his self-salvation
by the law. And he said, now, after looking
to Christ, after believing in Christ, if I turn from him to
any degree back to the law, Then he says, I've really made myself
a transgressor then, because now I've not only transgressed
against the law, I've transgressed against Christ. These things
won't mix, will they? It's the law, it's self-salvation,
or it's Christ's salvation. It's Christ's salvation. Then
he goes on here in verse 19. Look at this. In verse 19, he has a negative. Look at his
negative. Look what he says. I through the law, I through the
knowledge of the law, knowledge of what it requires, Knowledge
of its condemning power. I am dead to the law. Now this is the way I understand
this. You look at what Paul said so often about the law. He made
such statements as this. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. I was alive without the law once,
but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. He said the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. What does the law have to do
with bring us to Christ? It kills us to self. It kills
us to self-salvation. It shows us our utter inability
to keep it. It shuts us up. It condemns us
and leaves us no place to go but to Jesus Christ to be saved.
So Paul said, I'm dead to that law. I can't keep it. I've stopped
trying to keep it. I don't even look to it. I'm
dead to it. If you're dead to something,
that means you don't participate in it anymore. You see any dead
men mowing the yards in the summertime? No dead mothers sweeping the
floor, washing the dishes? No dead children out playing
in the yard? Why? They're dead. A dead person don't
participate in this world anymore. Paul said, I am dead to the law. I just don't participate in it
anymore. Why? That I might live to God. A man will never enjoy God until
he dies to himself in self-salvation. He'll never love the law of God.
He'll never delight in the law of God until he sees he's absolutely
free from it. You turn from Christ back to
the law and start trying to keep it, you talk about a burden. You talk about a grievous way
and you'll start being resentful and self-righteous and legalistic
and judging other people. Only as you're dead to the law
can you enjoy God and delight in the law of God. That's what
Paul said. He has another negative. Look
at this one in verse 20. I am crucified with Christ. I am crucified with Christ. And
He simply said, ìI died when Christ died.î And not only did
I die when Christ died, I died just like He died. Christ died
under the curse. I died under the curse. I am dead with Him. Christ died
unto sin. I died unto sin. This wicked
world hated Christ and crucified Him. They hate me. They crucify
me. I am dead with Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ don't participate in this world anymore and I don't
participate in this world anymore either. I have a union with Christ. I am crucified with Christ. You know what Paul tells us in
chapter 6 of Romans? He tells us that every believer
is hanging on the cross with Christ. Every believer is buried
in the grave with Christ. And every believer is raised
again from the dead with Christ. And every believer said it in
heaven with Christ. And if somebody didn't want to
believe that or misunderstood that, here's what he commands
them to do. Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead to sin. You're dead to it. It has no
more dominion over you. It don't condemn you anymore.
You're dead. You're buried. You're risen.
You're in heaven with Christ. Here's the positive thing he
said. Nevertheless, I live. I'm dead, but I live. Well, of course you live, Paul.
We know you. I've known you most of your life. I know your dad
and your mother. You was born there in Asia. When you were young, your parents
sent you up to Jerusalem to be educated under Gamaliel. You
hated the Lord Jesus Christ. You killed His people. You sought
to do many things. I know you, Paul. No, no, no. Not that Paul. That Paul's dead. That's the old Paul. He's crucified
with Christ. He was put to death under the
curse of the law. He's hanging on the cross. He
don't live anymore. He's dead. I'm talking about
the new Paul. There's an old Paul and there's
a new Paul. This new Paul has a new life. I have a spiritual life and an
eternal life. In my bosom, in my soul, I have
this life, not only given to me of Jesus Christ, but this
life is Christ Himself. And He lives in me. Yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me. Or in another place, He said,
set your affections on things above. For your dead in your
life is hid with Christ in God, when Christ who is your life. Now, ain't that a mystery? You
explain that. I give unto them eternal life,
and yet he is the life that he gives. Oh, what a life. Paul said, that's the life that
I now live. This old cursed man, the old
sinful man, he's dead. He's crucified with Christ. And
every day that he hangs there, he's disperishing. He's hopeless. He's useless. Oh, but this inner
man, every day he's renewed. He's hopeful. He's happy. And
he can't wait until he's home in heaven with his Savior. What a mystery this is. Don't
you love to just meditate on it and think about it and try
to enter into it? I am crucified with Christ. I
am dead to everything but 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 faith in the Son of
God. I live by faith in the Son of God. Some people might think, Bruce,
there's no sense in telling us about this man. We can't relate
to him and how he lived. This was the greatest apostle
that ever was. He saw Christ in the flesh. He
was caught up into the third heaven. How can we relate to
this man? He wrote all of these inspired
epistles. He established more churches
than any of the other apostles. Why tell us about this man? Because
this man was just like you, and he was just like me. He lived
in his flesh. And when there were sticks to
be gathered to build a fire on a cold night, this man gathered
them. When there was tent to be made
to support Himself and others, He made tents. Can you imagine
going through some little village in Asia? And you're walking down
the street on a hot day and everybody's sweating and you look inside
the little tent shop and there sitting in the back is a man
and he's all sweaty and you notice on his fingers he has blisters
and he's pricked his hand and he's bleeding and he's wrapped
it up with an old rag and you say, isn't that the apostle Paul? Isn't that Paul? Yes, that's
Paul. What's he doing? He's living by faith. He's making
tents. He's laboring. His life and our life, brothers
and sisters, there's no difference in the way we live. He said,
yes, I'm a great apostle. I'm the cheapest of the apostles.
But I can come down and make tents and gather wood and change
a baby's diaper and sweep the floor and clean commodes. And
I can do it for the glory of God because I live by faith in
the Son of God. This is the way you brothers
and sisters can work, no matter what you do. You know what I
used to do for a living before I started preaching full-time?
I was a trash hauler. I bet most of you didn't know
that, did you? I was a trash hauler. Of course, I never told
anybody I was a trash hauler. I was a waste technician. We never took our garbage to
the trash dump. We took it to the sanitary landfill. But you know something? I was
one of the best trash haulers our company had. I sought to
be the best trash hauler they had. You know why? I was living
by faith in the Son of God. We live our life in this world
and we face this life. We face the heartaches and the
trials and the struggles. Just like everybody else does.
But we face it with a degree of cheerfulness and happiness
and hope. And with better motives than
the lost do. Because everything we do, we
do it for God's glory. And He's pleased with it. Every
bag of trash I picked up and threw it in a harper. My Father
in Heaven said, Well done. Well done, my son. Why? I obtained a good report through
faith. I live by faith upon the Son
of God. I always love to go back over
in the 6th chapter of Genesis and think about Enoch. Enoch
walked with God and begate sons and daughters. I'm often amazed
how the Holy Spirit put those things so closely together. How
do you begate sons and daughters? No young children in here. We
could talk about that, couldn't we? But listen, he walked with
God and loved his wife intimately because he walked by faith. You
see him out, well you see him in the pulpit. He was a prophet,
wasn't he? We've got some of his writings
prophesied of the Lord coming. He got in the pulpit and man,
he preached with fire. The words went out of his mouth
with the power of God behind it. And then you see him in his
backyard, and he's down on his hands and knees, playing like
he's an old horse, and kids on his back, laughing and screaming,
Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. What's he doing? Walking by faith
in the Son of God. I don't care what you do. I don't
care what occupation you have. Maybe one that you like to brag
a little bit about, or one maybe you don't like to brag so much
about. But I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, live by faith in
the Son of God, and everything you do is accepted of God, and
it's pleasing to Him. The life I now live in this flesh,
I live every day looking and resting and trusting in the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And He makes this statement to
end it all, and gave himself for me. Ain't
that amazing? He never got over this, did he?
This man who tried to stomp out his name, this man who hated
the Son of God, never even realized that he was loved for all eternity,
and the Son of God had given himself for him. And when he
found out about it, he never got over it. Oh, he couldn't
do enough for him who loved him and gave Himself for him. I can't
believe, brothers and sisters, for a minute that you'll believe
what the Apostle is teaching here and go out and live a life
that dishonors the Son of God. There's something about when
you find out He loved you. And He loved you. Oh, He loves
me. Died He for me who caused His
pain? Me who Him to death pursued,
amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, should die for
me? And when we find that out, we'll
never get over it. And we go out and live our lives
in that light. Look into the Son of God who
left heaven, left the glory of the Father and the worship of
angels and took to Himself our humanity never to be separated
from us again. To submit to our infirmities,
to hunger and thirst and be tempted of the devil. Be forsaken of
his friends and betrayed of others. To hang on a rugged cross of
Calvary Not for our goodness, but for our badness. Not for
any potential, but for our sins. He took our sins and made them
His own and rendered to the justice of God everything we owed. And when Paul found out about
it, he said, this isn't up. Put my ear to the post and bore
it in. I love my master. Oh, He loves me. And I'll tell
you something about this love. It's reciprocal. If He loves
you with this love, there'll come a time in your life that
you'll love Him back. We love Him because He first
loved us. He put us in such a place and
such a position in our poor conscience and mind where we're surrounded
by hell and death, and we cry unto Him, and He delivers our
feet from falling, our eyes from tears, and we say, Lord, I love
You. I love You, because You first loved me. We can't get
enough of this. Somebody said you can't dwell
too much on that. That's our problem now. We're
not dwelling enough on it. If you dwell too much on that,
people will get slothful and sinful. Oh, no, brother. Think
about this every day. Get this in your heart. And it's
then that you'll live for Him and die for Him if He requires
it. Lord bless you. Lord bless you,
dear pastor.