In Galatians chapter 2, I have
preached so many times on the second chapter of Galatians.
I had a place there I had some notes last night in. I got some
notes out looking at them. I counted nine times and I quit
counting. But I have preached on this passage
since the year 2000. I love this passage of Scripture.
The whole second chapter of Galatians chapter 2, the whole second chapter,
It's been such a blessing to me. I've learned so much from
it. I want to look at verse 20. I want to read it tonight, this
afternoon, to you. Galatians chapter 2 and verse
20. Just one phrase here in it contains
so much. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. That's
unity, isn't it? That's unity. I'm crucified with
Christ. What would it mean for us if
we were accused of a crime and it called for our death? How
would you feel about that? I'd think that would be a burdensome
thing, wouldn't it? Well, the law of God calls for
our death. It calls for our sentence of death
to be carried out. curses us, it judges us, and
says, the soul that sinneth it shall die. Then what a blessing
it is to know that when Jesus Christ died upon the cross, my
sentence of death was carried out. If you're here and you're
in Jesus Christ, and Christ is in you by your birth, you died
with him upon the cross. Your sentence is over with. You've
done served it. The penalty of the law has done
been executed. Now only the gospel has this
doctrine. Unity with Christ. I was with
him upon the cross. I am dead to the law. I am dead to this world. Dead
to the judgment of God. Just as dead as he is. Can the
law ever go back and accuse him again? No. He fulfilled his penalty. Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. Christ is in heaven and Christ
is in me. He reigns in heaven and he reigns
in me. Don't you love to have it that
way? No, we're not robots. We're not robots, are we? But
don't you love it when He sits upon the throne of your heart
and He rules your actions? He rules your understanding.
He rules your will. And He subdues you. Don't you
just love that? I will walk in them. I will dwell
in them. I will be their God. And they
shall be my people. Christ liveth in me. Did you ever think about as you
prayed, that's Christ praying in you. As you believe, that's
Christ believing in you. As you walk and seek to please
your Father, that's Christ living in you. I'm alive, no more me,
but Christ lives in me. What a wonderful, blessed truth
that is. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, loved me and
gave himself for me." This is one of the most amazing statements.
The life that I now live, in this flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. This
is an amazing statement because he's not saying, he's not saying,
I was saved by faith in Christ. Of course he was. By grace are
you saved through faith. That not of yourselves, it's
a gift of God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall
be saved. But that's not what he said,
is it? He didn't even say, I am justified by faith in Christ. Of course he was. He preached
that. All who believe are justified
from all things. But what's he saying? He's not
talking about initial salvation. He's not talking about justification.
He's talking about the life he lives in this body. How do you
live your life, Paul? You're a great apostle. What's
the rule of your life? He says, I live by faith in the
Son of God. When I go out and make my tents,
when I go to work, I work by faith in the Son of God. When
I go on vacation and I've got some spare time, I go on vacation
by faith in the Son of God. When I visit and as I raise my
family and teach my children, as I worship, as I serve God,
my daily life, I live by faith in the Son of God. That's His
rule of life, by faith in the Son of God. What a wonderful
statement that is. He lives here, he said, by faith
of the Son of God. By His faith. Do you ever think
the faith that you had belongs to Jesus Christ? It belongs to
Him. It's the faith of Christ. This great man had no faith of
his own when he came into this world any more than you and I
have faith of our own. It was given to him. This is
the faith that resides with Jesus Christ. It's a gift that the
Father put in him, and it's given to us. I was sitting in Brother
Donnie Bell's living room years ago. Brother Scott Richardson
was there. And Scott was the type of guy, you get him going,
he'd preach to you. He preached in the pulpit, and he preached
at the house. And then Donnie sat and listened to him. We'd
step late at night and get him going. And he got off on faith. It's saved by faith, living by
faith. And he went in to get him a cup
of coffee or something out of the kitchen, and he got about
halfway between the kitchen and living room, and he turned around
and he looked and said, I'll tell you this about faith. There
was a time you didn't have it. Would you get it? The Lord gave
it to you, didn't He? It's given to you to believe
on the name of the Son of God. This is where Paul got his faith.
It's the faith of Christ. But he means something else there
too, doesn't he? Faith in Christ. He's the object
of my faith. I live by believing in the Son
of God. I confide in Him. I trust Him. I look to Him. I follow Him. I've committed myself and all
I am to Him. I live by faith. in the Son of
God. Paul always gives scriptural
proof for what he believed and what he professed. And he does
the same thing here. Look here at chapter 3 and verse
11. When Paul professed something,
he so often turned around and said, it's written. He said,
I live by faith in the Son of God. And he said, that's a scriptural
faith. That's a scriptural statement.
I can back it up with a scripture. And he said here in chapter 3
in verse 11, but that no man is justified by the law in the
sight of God. It is evident, for the just shall
live by faith. Different times that's written
in the Bible. And Paul went over in the Old Testament and quoted
this from the Old Testament scripture. The just shall live his life. By faith. You ever wonder about Abel when
he brought his sacrifice to the Lord? That blood offering? And he laid it between his own
self and the living God. Between his guilt and between
God. And he was accepted. You remember
how he did that? By faith. By faith, Abel offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Remember when Noah
built an ark and the scripture says he not only saved himself
but all of his house? You remember how he built that
ark? By faith. That's the only way he knew how
to build that ark was by faith. Remember Abraham leaving his
father's house and his land and his relatives to go off into
country that he had never seen. You know why he did that? You
know what compelled him to do that? By faith. Abraham, when
he was called, went out. You know what compelled Moses
to deny Pharaoh's daughter was his mother? Faith. You know what kept him from fearing
the wrath of the king? Faith. You know what made him
keep the Passover and the sprinkling of blood? Faith. He believed
the Lord. You know what made him go out
into the wilderness and suffer reproach for Christ's name's
sake and be identified with God's little children and let go of
the sinful pleasures of Egypt? You know how he did that? By
faith. By faith. The just shall live
by And that's what the Apostle Paul said here, that I live my
life by faith. Look here in chapter 5 of this
book, in verse 6. Look here at what he says about
faith. Look in verse 6, chapter 5. For
in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love." It don't matter if you're circumcised
or not, he says. And couldn't we just put about
everything in there? Without faith, nothing availeth. What
does reading our Bible avail us if it's not mixed with faith? What does praying, what does
coming here to worship have to do with anything? Apart from
faith. Faith goes before everything
else. Baptism means nothing if I don't
have faith in Christ. Faith in Christ. That's the thing
the Apostle said. And here's something else he
said. Whatever is not of faith is sin. Living by faith makes everything
you do acceptable to God. When you do what you do and you
live your life by faith in the Son of God, everything is acceptable
to God by faith in the Son of God. And know this, when a man
begins by faith in the Son of God to live his life, he'll not
only live his life in that faith, but you know something, he'll
die in that faith. And this is what the Bible teaches
about faith. This is the way we begin our
life. By faith in the Son of God is the way we live our life.
And by faith is the way we die. Look at a couple of places with
me. Look at 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy. Look at this. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Look at 2
Timothy chapter 1. Look in verse 11, 2 Timothy chapter 1, whereunto
I am appointed a preacher, a preacher of the gospel, an apostle of
Christ, a teacher of the Gentiles. For which cause I also suffer
these things, persecutions, trials, tribulations. Nevertheless, I
am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed
to him against that day." I know whom I have believed. I know
him. I know whom I believe. He knew
what he believed, but I tell you there's something more important
than that is to know whom. I live by faith in a person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. In the light of that, look in
the second chapter in verse four. Second Timothy, rather, chapter
four. Look in verse six. I tell you, this is the only
way to die. The only way to die is by faith in the Son of God.
I wouldn't want to die without faith in Him. This is what Paul is talking
about in verse four. I am ready to be offered. The
time of my leaving this world, leaving this life, the time of
my departure is at hand. I have thought a good fight,
I've finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but to all
them that love is pure. I know whom I believed when I
started. I know whom I believe now. And I know he's faithful. I believe in him. I trust him.
I know in him. I believe in him. And that's
when we die. One of the most amazing statements,
most confident statements and destructive statements about
those saints of old, Abraham and all those old saints. It
was said about them, these all died in faith. They were saved by faith just
like we are. Look into Him that was to come.
And they lived their lives in faith. They served by faith. They worshipped by faith. They
committed their lives and all they had to God by faith in His
Son. And they died in faith. And you
know something? Every one of them is with the
Lord Jesus Christ today. All of them. I live by faith
on the Son of God. Back here in Galatians again.
Look at this again. It's an amazing statement, just
consider it in itself. But it's an amazing statement
when you consider it in its context. I live by faith in the Son of
God. Because this is what the context is about. How do we live
our daily lives? We're justified by faith. We've
believed in Christ. We've been justified from all
our sins. The curse of the law by faith
in Christ. How now do we live our lives. And it's right in
the midst of this context that the Apostle Paul says, I live
by faith on the Son of God. What's so amazing about this
statement? Well, you and I study law and grace. We study these
doctrines, don't we? Boy, we know something about
the doctrine of the law, we know something about the doctrine
of grace, and we can rightly divide these doctrines I tell
you, these men face the dilemma every day in their lives. How
do I live? How do I live my life? Do I live
it under the law? Do I live it under the rigid
and strict rule of the Jewish law? Or do I live my life by
faith in Christ? That's the context of this verse
here. Can you imagine this dilemma
of these early Christians, Jews and Gentiles? Here a Gentile
or here a Jew just had a little baby boy born in their home. Do I circumcise him or not? Can you imagine that? We don't
think anything about that. Boy, they did. Can you imagine
a Jew having a little baby boy? Or this young Gentiles that just
come to the faith in Christ? How am I going to live my life?
Do I circumcise my little baby boy? That was a dilemma for these
fellows. Not for us. We're way beyond
that now. But it was for them. Today's the beginning of the
Passover week. Am I going to keep it or not? Boy, that's a question, wouldn't
it? Am I going to keep it? Some friends, some friends have
invited me over for dinner. And they're going to eat things
which are forbidden, the law, for me to eat. Am I going or
not? A dilemma, wasn't it? Oh, what a dilemma that was.
Today is the Jewish Sabbath. Today is Saturday. Am I going
to observe it or am I going to work? What are you going to do? How am I going to live my life? I'm a Christian. I'm a child
of God. I've been born again. I believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now how am I going to live my
life? Well, that's the context this
statement was made in. I live by faith in the sight
of God. Verse 11 of chapter 2, Galatians. Galatians chapter 2 and verse
11. See, Peter got himself in trouble about this then. He was
in a dilemma and he got himself in trouble. And it was about
this thing. How am I going to live my life?
And he says here in verse 11, look at this. Boy, this shows
what a poor mess Peter got himself into. They was after him on every
side. He said here in verse 11 that
when Peter, Paul says when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood
him, I opposed him to his face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came
down from James, from Jerusalem, Peter did eat with the Gentiles.
But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing
them which were of the circumcision." You know why he did that? It
wasn't long before this that Peter had gone down to Carnelius'
house. Carnelius was a Gentile. He went
in with them and ate with them. Went back up to Jerusalem and
some of the brethren got together and said, Peter, you went in
to men uncircumcised and ate with them? And they blamed him for that.
Well, here the apostle Paul is blaming him for not eating with
him, for separating himself from him. Peter was bragging to the
Lord in that trance, Lord, no unclean thing or no common thing
has ever entered my house. And you know what the Lord did?
The Lord rebuked him for calling anything that he had created
common or unclean. Peter got himself in a fix then.
And it was this problem. How am I going to live my daily
life? Am I going to live after the
strict and rigid rule and traditions and commandments of the Jews?
According to their ceremonial law, am I going to live my daily
life and observe all of those things? Am I going to live as
the Gentiles live? Well, Peter got all tangled up
in when he was with the Gentiles, he wanted to live like the Gentiles.
When he worked with the Jews, he lived like the Jews. And sometimes
he could almost handle it. He didn't know where he was at
or where he was going. And everybody from the apostle to the Lord
repudiated for him. Verse 14 and verse 15,
here's the controversy. Look what he said in verse 14.
And when I saw that Peter and Barnabas and some of the other
brethren Walk not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. I
said unto Peter before them all, if you, being a Jew, live after
the manner of the Gentiles, and that's what he was doing, and
not as do the Jews, why are you compelling the Gentiles to live
as do the Jews? And that's what he was doing.
When he saw those self-righteous brethren, those legalists come
down from Jerusalem, There he sat with the Gentiles eating,
and he said, man, I've got to get out of here. And he left
the Gentiles and went over and sat with a Jewish brother. And
Paul said, Peter, do you see what you just did? You're telling
the Gentile brethren that they cannot be saved living like they're
living. That they must come from the
Gentile manner of living and live as do the Jews. Well, how did the Jews live?
kept the ceremony law then. Paul said right here in verse
15, we who are Jews by nature and not sinners are the Gentiles. It was just second nature for
Jews to want to keep the law. When they had a child born, naturally
they took him up to the temple and they circumcised him. On
the feast days they went to Jerusalem. certain days they offered certain
sacrifices. There's certain company they
wouldn't keep and certain company they would keep. They ate certain
foods and refrained from eating certain foods. It was second
nature for the Jews to obey the ceremonial law. And Paul told
Peter, he said, Peter, is that what you're teaching the Gentiles?
That they can't be saved and eat whatever they want to eat?
They can't be saved except they observe certain holy days and
feast days and new moons. Is that what you're telling them?
That's what you've been teaching them. When you got up from them
and said, I can't eat with you, I've got to go over here and
eat with the Jews because you're eating some of this stuff I ain't
allowed to eat. Paul said, that's exactly what you're teaching
them. Fellas, you're justified by faith
in Christ. We're not denying that. But here's
the way you've got to live. You've got to live just like
the Jews. That was the controversy that
was taking place. You've got to live just like the Jews. You've
got to obey this law. This is why Paul raped Peter.
Now look here in verse 17. Boy, if these believing Jews
could have got a hold of this, it would have helped them so
much. He would have got him from under
this galling yoke of the law. It would have brought him out
of this, it would have brought him into this liberty where with
Christ it made him free. Look at what he says in verse
17. But while we seek to be justified by Christ, we also are found
sinners. Is therefore Christ the minister
of sin? God forbid. We're found sinners. We're seeking to be justified
by Christ, and we are, aren't we? You're not justified by your
works, are you? Are you seeking to be justified
by your works? Before God, I mean. How are you
seeking acceptance with God and His faith? Is it not through
Christ? Well, sure it is. Then Paul says
here, while we seek to be justified by Christ, We are sailing, me
and you, Peter, who are sitting here with the Gentiles eating,
me and you are found to be sinners. Sinners against what? In what
manner we're sinners? Against the law of Moses. I tell you what, if you didn't
eat what the law of Moses told you to eat, you sinned against
the law of Moses. If you didn't observe the Sabbath day, Saturday,
to keep it holy, you were sinning against the law of Moses. If
you didn't take your child up to get him circumcised in the
temple, you were sinning against the Lord Moses. Paul makes this statement here.
He said, this is exactly what Christ is teaching us. He's teaching us to forsake this
ceremonial law and be saved by faith in Him alone. He said, is that sin in Christ?
Is He ministering unto us to make us sinners by teaching us
to forsake these ceremonies and be saved by faith alone? No,
God forbid. The law had its purpose, brothers
and sisters, and the law accomplished its purpose. It was for a time,
but its time had come and gone. And now this ceremonial wall
was to be abolished. It had fulfilled its purpose.
It had pictured Christ and redemption by Him. The temple and the tabernacle
and all the furniture in it, typified Him. But now it had
served its use. And now Christ was teaching them,
this is coming to an end. This is ready to be abolished.
You must now forsake this and look to me. Paul said, is that
sin in Christ when he teaches us to do that? Why, no, brothers
and sisters, it's not. But these poor Jews and all the
Gentiles couldn't get a hold of that. They just couldn't get
a hold of that. Oh, you believe in Christ, but
now you've got to be circumcised to keep the law of Moses. I'll show you a couple of scriptures.
You hold Galatians there for just a minute and look in Hebrews
chapter 8. This is what confused and confounded
the Jewish nation as a whole. They could not understand that
God had given Moses the law. And since he had given Moses
the law, and he'd even kill people for not obeying that law. They
stole the man who refused to keep the Sabbath day. And now,
here this apostle Paul is, and here Peter is, and now they're
leaving this law. They're seeking not to obey it
anymore, and they're blaming Christ for it. That's what they
said. You're blaming Christ for it. You're telling us He's teaching
you to forsake Moses and trusting Him alone? Here's what's going to happen
just a short time after this. The temple was going to be ransacked.
It's going to be burned. The priesthood was gone. The
sacrifices was gone. The holy days and the keeping
of Sabbath, it was all gone. He's done away with it. What
was these four fellows going to do then? And that's where they were. When
all of this is gone, how are you going to live your life then?
That's what the writing to the Hebrews is telling you in Hebrews
chapter 8. Look at this. Verse 6. Now hath Christ obtained
a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator
of a better covenant which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had
been false, then should no place have been sought for the second.
For finding fault with them, he said, Behold, the day is come,
saith the Lord, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by
the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, What kind
of was that? It had a moral aspect to it,
didn't it? We call it the Ten Commandments. It had a ceremonial
aspect to it. That was the priesthood and the
sacrifices and the holy days. It had a civil aspect to it,
how one neighbor was to treat another neighbor. And he said,
this is the covenant that I made with their father. Because they continued not in
my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. But this
is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind,
and write them in their hearts. I will be to them a God, and
they shall be to me a people. They shall not teach every man
his neighbor, And every man his brother said, Know the Lord,
for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest. For
I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant,
look at this, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth
and waxes old is ready to vanish away. And where is it now? It's gone. And you and I study
it. We study it. We studied it on
Wednesday night already. But how are we looking at it?
Not to be saved by it. Not to obey it. But as beautiful
pictures of Christ and that redemption that is by Him. Look at another passage in 2
Corinthians. Look at chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. It's understandable how these Jews would hate this
apostle and go about to kill him. Because he made some statements
concerning their law. that was very offensive to them. And I can understand why it was
offensive. Look at what he said about the law here in 2 Corinthians
chapter 3, in verse 6. God has made us able ministers
of the new covenant, the new testament, not of the letter,
but of the spirit. For the letter killeth. But the
Spirit giveth life. For if the ministration of death,
written and graven in stone, was glorious, so that the children
of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for
the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be what? Done
away? Done away? Man, that's rough, ain't it? That's
right when your hope is built upon you keeping it. And now he says there's something
else so glorious and so much more glorious that the first
one that you put your confidence in is done away. How shall not
the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the
ministration of condemnation, he called it the ministration
of death in verse 7, Now he calls it, in verse 9, a ministration
of guilt and condemnation. But if it was glorious, much
more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made
glorious hath no glory in disrespect by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away
was glorious, much more that which remaineth is Seeing then
that we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, and
not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children
of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which
is abolished." That's strong language, ain't it? That's fighting
words, boy, if you're a self-righteous Jew, if you've established your
righteousness by this law. But their minds were blinded,
for even until this day remains the same veil untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even until this day, when
Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts." Why did Christ
teach these men to forsake this ceremonial law as a covenant
of works? He says it can't save you. It
can't save you. Circumcision won't save you.
You need your heart circumcised. Bring the blood of bulls and
goats won't put away sin. It's my blood that does that.
Forsake this for all Moses. Don't look to it as a work to
be saved by. Look through it to me and be
saved. If they could have saw this,
Boy, I tell you, it would have been a blessing to them. But
they couldn't see it. They couldn't see it. Even Peter
had times when he had a tough time seeing it. Look back over here one more
time in Galatians chapter 2 and look at verse 18. This is an amazing verse here. It's amazing to what Paul didn't
say in this verse. He said, here, Christ is teaching us to leave
these ceremonies. He's teaching us, basically,
not to trust in those things, to believe in Him, to be saved
by Him, by faith in Him. And wouldn't it have been a good
time for Paul to say, but let's don't carry this too far. I'm telling you this, but don't
get out there on the limb and cut yourself off. It's still
good to keep the law a little bit. He didn't say that, did he? I
mean, when he forsook it, he forsook it. When he said it's
abolished, it's abolished. Look what he says now in verse
18. If I build again, Those things
which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. What did Paul
destroy? Circumcised the eighth day of
the stock of Israel. My lineage I traced all the way
back to the tribe of Benjamin. Concerning the law, I was a Pharisee. Touching the righteousness which
was in the law, keeping these ceremonies, observing these Sabbath
days, offering these sacrifices, I was blameless. That's the house
he was building. It was a house built for this
self-righteous Pharisee to live in. And what did he say he did? I destroyed it. I took it with my hands of faith
that God give me, and I pull the timbers out of it, and all
of it come down, and now I count it nothing but done, that I may
win Christ. No, my works in the law, my works
of left righteousness, keeping that law, that's gone. I destroyed it. And he said,
now, after I have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, After
I've been enabled to put my trust in Him and be justified by Him,
if now I turn back to that law and begin to build it again?"
He said, I sure am a transgressor then. I transgressed not only
against the law, but I transgressed against Christ who fulfilled
the law in my skin. I'm telling you, brothers and
sisters, Lord and grace will not mix. That's what Paul said. It will not mix. They are a separate
covenant. The moral law, the ceremonial
law, the civil law of the Jews, those things were given and they
condemn us. How do they condemn us? By the
law is the knowledge of sin. The law gendereth the bondage. The law is not made for a righteous
man. But who's it made for? The rebels. The ungodly. For sinners, grace is altogether a different
covenant. We can't mix the two, just like
water and oil. You mix them together, you shake
them up and it seems like they're going to mix, but you just let
them along. One goes to the top and the other stays at the bottom.
That's the difference in these two covenants. One is a covenant
that shows us our sins, that condemns us. Another is a covenant
that puts away our sins, that saves us. This covenant of works,
it's for the strong, it's for the self-righteous, it's for
the determined. But the covenant of grace is
for the weak, and for the sinners, and for the needy, and the crippled,
and the blind, and the deaf, who need an undertaker to come
and get them and uphold them. All the life I now live, I live
by faith in the Son of God. It's still a controversy today,
isn't it? Still a controversy today. How are we going to live
our lives? Well, I've got the law for my
rule. Have you now? We've got a lot
of your brethren that profess that. A lot of your brethren
in the past that profess that. I've never ran into one yet that
told me how he took the law as a rule to live by. Do you keep
it? Anybody keep it? I've asked myself
that question. Do I keep it? I just want to
be honest, brothers and sisters. Do I keep it? No, but I try. I try. What does that do to the
law? Does that not diminish its authority
to say, I'm under the law as a rule, but I don't keep it?
That's like saying, well, I submit to the laws of Indiana, but I
run 110 miles an hour at three. We may keep the laws of man. God help us to be careful to.
But I tell you, there's one law that shows us our sin and our
guilt. And its purpose is not to lead
us in self-righteousness and bragging about how it rules our
life and we live by it. Its purpose is to shut our mouths
and to send us to Jesus Christ to be saved by all together,
different means. And you've got a lot of people
today that never heard of it. They never heard of two covenants.
They've not so much as heard there's a covenant of works that
men are barred under and men live cursed under and most men
die under and go to hell because they're under it. These are the two covenants.
There's two. One condemns us. Because it's
holy, and it's just, and it's spiritual, and reaches the heart,
and the other one comes to us and has mercy upon us, and watches
us, and justifies us, and shows us that we've entered in to the
favor of God in Christ our Lord. But there are two distinct kinds
of us. One is of faith. The other's of works. The law
is not of faith. Here's what the law says. The
man that doeth these things shall live in them. Here's what grace
says, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me. And I tell you, this is amazing.
You look at dear men like Spurgeon and Gill and those fellas, they
live their life just like we do. Some of them, some of your
brethren, There are many dear brethren that believe the law
is the root of our life, but they live no different than we
who said we live strictly by faith in the Son of God. There's
no difference in their lives. At least you can see and tell.
But yet they look upon us who say we live by faith in the Son
of God, and they say, why, you antinomians. You antinomians. Was Paul the
Apostle an antinomian? Because he lived by faith in
the Son of God. Show us a man that labored more
for the cause of Christ than this man. Show us the man that
gave up everything for the cause of the Son of God and His people.
Show us a man more holy and more pure than this man. And he lived
by faith in the Son of God. Oh, try it sometime. Don't knock
it until you've tried it. Go home this afternoon and live
by faith in the Son of God. And see if it don't work. Commit
your soul tonight by faith in the Son of God. Get up in the
morning and go about your day by faith in Him. And see if you've
ever lived a day in your life in which you live more pure and
more to God than when you're living by faith in the blessed
Son of God. Peter knew this in Acts chapter
15 when they were having that conference. You remember what
he said? God put no difference between
the Jew and the Gentile, purifying their hearts by faith. I don't understand how that works,
I'll be honest with you, but I know it works. You want a pure
heart? Then live by faith in the Son
of God. You want to obey Christ? You want to live according to
the laws of His kingdom, His laws? Then live by faith in Him.
And that's when you will live that way. Paul always mentions
these three things. He mentions them here in chapter
2. He mentions them in chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5. Faith,
and love, and hope. I live by faith in the Son of
God who loves me. Who loves me. You know what the
love of Christ does? It constrains us. It constrains
us. Your knowledge of His love for
you will constrain you. The next time you're real cold
and backslidden, remember this. Christ loves you.
Right where you are in your miserable, backslidden state, Christ loves
you. And you know what that'll do
for you? Oh, that'll warm your heart. That'll bring you back.
That'll constrain you from going off any further. The next time
you have no love in your heart for your dear brother, that's
how cold you are. Think of how Christ loves you
and loves you. And you know what that'll do?
That'll fire your heart with love for Him and the brother.
And hope? We wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. Now we're just poor sinners.
We're living by faith in Christ, but we have a hope. We're waiting
for this hope that we have to be realized. What is that? Well, the Jews said, you'll be
circumcised. That'll help your body to be holy. You'll keep
the new moons? You'll be holy. Oh, you can reach
the point. You can reach the point that
Mr. Wesley said. You can reach human perfection.
Yeah, human perfection. All the time they were thinking
that they would bind and devour one another so hateful they quit
giving. Paul said, we wait. We wait for
the hope of righteousness by faith. Oh, we're going to have
human perfection all right. When Christ comes and he changes
this vile body and he makes it likened to his glorious body.
What if you had a hope like that? What if you could live your daily
life with a hope like that? Oh, couldn't you let go of these
temporal pleasures and temporal advantages and look and glory
in such a hope? And what did John say about such
a hope? He says it purifies the heart. Faith purifies the heart. Love constrains us. And hope
purifies the heart. And wouldn't you rather live
as those graces as a rule of life? and to look to the law
that judged you and condemned you. I've seen these reformed
Baptists. Bless their poor hearts. They're
meaner than snakes, a lot of them. Yeah, they're meaner than
snakes. Every time one of them calls
me, you know, one of the first things he asks me, what do you
folks do about this? I'm like, don't worry. Next time they call me, I'm going
to say, we got a fella. His name is Steve. He's six foot
eight. We got some problems with people
and he takes them out back. What do you do about this? What
does the Lord do about it? He loves you and He chastens
you, don't He? Oh, the life I now live.
The life I now live. I live every day, brother and
sister, looking to Jesus. You are the finisher of our faith
that loves you, that loves you. He'll never suffer you to be
tempted above your able to bear. He'll never forsake you in your
trial. You'll never be separated in His love. Live by faith in
Him who loves you. God bless you.