Our text is found in Galatians
chapter two, if you would like to turn there. Galatians chapter two. Galatians chapter two. Paul is
continuing to communicate his calling of the Lord. And he's
also communicating what God has done in that calling, how churches
were raised, how him being an apostle, going from place to
place with certain people and what they've kind of done throughout
that time. But he's also pointing out to
Galatia that there is some wolves in sheep clothing, if you can
put it that way. I think that's a great way to put it. There's
some, he actually calls them in that has crept in unawares.
He says that they've came with a gospel that's not a gospel.
He says there's no other gospel. That was the message that he's
getting across to them. So many people. And what he's
telling us here, and what we can read, is that so many people
look to the outward things that they do or do not do as evidence
of their salvation, as evidence of their justification. They
say, well, I don't do this, but I do this, and therefore I'm
justified. Paul's addressing this in this chapter, chapter
two. And with a false brother, it's not about having the same
father or believing the same gospel, whereby they'll call
you brother. Having a false brother is one
that you must conform to their traditions, their opinions, their
whatever it may be, their laws. And if you don't, you're not
a brother. This is false religion at its best. I was going to say
finest, but it's at its worst. I mean, there's nothing good
about false religion. That said, it's worse. Men have
their opinions. Men have their traditions. Men
have their, the things that they say, well, you have to do this
and not this. Well, I know I've been justified.
I know I've been saved because I used to do this. Have you ever
heard that before? I used to do this. I used to go here. I
used to be that, and I'm not that anymore. The Lord doesn't
save our old nature. He gives us a new one. The Lord
doesn't fix our desperately wicked heart, he gives us a new one.
The Lord doesn't give us the ability to understand, he gives
us faith that understands, which is the ability, I suppose, but
he doesn't just give us the opportunity, he causes us to believe. With a false brother, it's about
having the same activities and works. It's what it all is, is
works. Somebody says, well, you have
to do this work, or you have to do this work, or you are not
a believer. Well, that's bondage. That's
bondage. I've titled this message, Am
I Under Bondage? Well, what's a good definition
of that? A good definition of being under bondage is believing
that you have justification outside of Christ. That's bondage. That's
bondage. Very simply put, it's just putting
yourself under bondage. Men say, let's compare our deeds.
And that's what these Galatians were doing. They literally had
segregated themselves to those who were circumcised and those
who were not circumcised, the Jew and the Gentile. And they
said, okay, it is Christ is all. It is Christ is the only way.
Christ is the only truth. Christ is the only life. It is
God's gospel, but, and there's the problem. And there's the
problem. And the butts of false religion
can be so subtle, so subtle. In this particular time, it was
circumcision. It was cutting away of the flesh.
That's all that it was. And these men said, if you don't
have that, you're not a believer. You're not saved. You're not
justified. Because having, being circumcised
as evidence that you're saved, that you're justified. But in
reality, the circumcision became their justification. Their circumcision
became their salvation. Their circumcision became what
they looked to and what they could see with the natural eye
that they valued as their righteousness. And we know that the Lord looks
upon the heart. He doesn't look upon the flesh.
He doesn't look upon the outward, does he? They say, let's compare
our deeds and see who's more holy. And they don't even realize
that's what they're doing. But there's only one that's good,
and that's God. That must be clear. There's only
one good, and that's God. Now let's read this text, Galatians
2, verse 3 through 10. But neither Titus, who was with
me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And that because
of false brethren, unawares, brought in who came in privately,
to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that
they might bring us unto bondage. That's where the title, Am I
Under Bondage, came from. That's what these men are trying
to do, and that's what the flesh desires, and that's what our
adversary desires, and that's what the world desires, is to
put us under the law. That's what it desires to do.
That's where bondage is, is under the law. Verse five, to whom we gave place
by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel
might continue with you, but of these who seemed to be somewhat,
whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me, God accepteth
no man's person. And there's the truth of it. That's the hard reality of the
truth, is God accepts no man's person. He doesn't accept my
person, and he doesn't accept your person. He only accepts
that which pleases him, and the only one that pleases him is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse six, but of these who seem
to be somewhat, whosoever they were, it maketh no matter to
me, God accepteth no man's person. For they who seem to be somewhat,
in conference added nothing to me, but contrary wise, when they
saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the
gospel of circumcision was to Peter, for he that wrought effectually
in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was
mighty in me towards the Gentiles." What he's saying there is he's
comparing circumcision and uncircumcision. He's saying Jew and Gentile is
what he's saying. Very specific, Jew and Gentile.
He's saying the gospel that was preached unto the Jew and the
gospel that was preached unto the Gentile, it's the same gospel.
But it was just Peter that went to the ones that were circumcised
because they were the Jews. And that was part of their traditions.
But I went into the Gentiles and the Lord blessed that. And
they're the uncircumcised. He's saying there's no different.
That's what he said. And he says that other places too. Verse number nine. And when James,
Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the
grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas
the right hand of fellowship that we should go into the heathen
and they into the circumcision. Only they would that we should
remember the poor, the same which I also was forward to do. Am I under bondage? That's the
title. Am I under bondage? That's the
question I want us to answer this morning, because it's not
a complicated question, and it's not hard, if you're honest with
yourself, to find out. It's not hard for me to find
out if I'm under bondage. It's simple. Is Christ all in
my salvation? That's the first question we
can ask. Am I under bondage? Well, is Christ all in my salvation?
Because if he is, I'm not under bondage. But if I'm looking to
anything else as part of my salvation or as evidence of my salvation,
Christ is not all of my salvation. And therefore, I'm still under
the bondage of the law. And being under the bondage of
the law means that we are under the condemnation of that law.
That means we're under the condemnation. Well, what's the wages of sin
then? The law says death. By if you sin, soul that sinneth
must die, what is the wages of sin? It's death. That's what
it means to be under the bondage of the law. Now our flesh, our
adversary in the world, You can call those the anti-Christ spirit
if you want to, because that's what they are. They hate God.
They're anti-Christ. They're anti-God. The flesh is
anti-God. The world's anti-God. And our
adversary, Satan, he's anti-God. Hates everything to do with him.
They have but one objective, to discredit the salvation accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. To devalue it. To devalue means
to take the value of it and make it less than what it is. Well,
how do they do that? By simply what these men were
doing that were coming in, by saying, yes, Christ is all, yes,
salvation is by God alone, yes, we believe that the Lord elected
a people and that Christ redeemed those people and that Jesus Christ
was resurrected because of their justification, but, and there's
the problem. Sometimes men don't say but,
they just say, Yeah, no, we agree with you 100%. Have you been
circumcised? Just asking. And that's an example
because that's what men do. That would be, this is what they're
doing here. And somebody said, well, this seems kind of silly,
but men do it all the time in different ways. This is the root
of every single false religion. Think about this. Every single
false religion starts just like this started. It's not circumcision
that's the issue now, but what is the issue? Why is there a
Southern Baptist and a Central Baptist and a Primitive Baptist
and a Presbyterian and a Reformed Presbyterian and a Pentecostal
and a Pentecostal holiness and an apostolic? Why is all that
there? because everybody has that one thing, that one thing
that they cling to as their righteousness, as their justification that others
do not cling to. No, we know that we believe the
truth because we cling to this, or we cling to that as our righteousness. You can see it in the Catholic
church. What do they cling to? They cling to the, we're gonna
take the Lord's table, but they call it a mass. They cling to
that as part of their righteousness. Confession, they cling to that
as part of their righteousness. So what's the issue? Looking
to what you do or me looking to what I do as any part of my
salvation, that's the issue. That makes me under bondage and
that makes you under the bondage of the law. Am I under bondage? That's the question this morning.
Or is Christ what we look to? Is Christ what we preach? Is
Christ who we believe in and on as every part of our salvation? It can't be both. Either way,
everybody that's sitting here, as a matter of fact, everybody
all over the world without exception is either under bondage or they're
in Christ Jesus. And you and I cannot get out
from underneath the bondage of the law unless we're in Christ
Jesus. That's the only remedy. That's
the only solution. He must do that. And that's what
he did for his people on the cross of Calvary. Now the flesh,
It's the Satan world. They want to destroy justification
by the blood of Christ alone. Why? Because that offends the
flesh. That makes the flesh mad. Men are full of pride and ego.
Every one of us are. Still yet, the flesh hasn't changed.
It gets worse and worse. It gets worse and worse. I will
not have this man reign over me. I will have this man reign
over me. I am my own person. I want to
make my own choices. I want to make my own decisions.
But you're dead. We're dead in trespasses and
sin. And that mentality is literally saying I'm under bondage. I'm
under bondage. These desire righteousness outside
the only singular source of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
only one that's righteous. The desires of this Antichrist
spirit is to look to anything else that takes away from the
finished work of Christ. It's that simple. How much of
the truth can you preach? And how much of the lie can you
preach at the same time and it still be the truth? None. You just made it a lie. It's
either the truth or it's, yeah, but it's a little lie. It's a
lie. It's false. It's not true. And men lie on God with little
subtle lies. Why? Because that's what the
adversary did from the beginning. Don't forget the fall of Adam
and Eve was not something that was a vast temptation that changed
everything God said. It changed one word. You shall
not surely die. Here's the reason we know, because
you'll be as gods, knowing good from evil. Well, they knew good
from evil, but sin entered, didn't it? Because of the disobedience.
It's what the scripture says, in death by sin. But the good
news of the gospel is, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. The desires of these individuals,
the same as the ones that came to Galatia, is it targets those
who actually trust in Christ as all of their righteousness.
And it tries to persuade us to turn our eyes off of the Lord.
That's what these do. This is what the flesh desires.
This is what our adversary desires. This is what the world all around
us. Are we not constantly tempted day to day to just look around
our circumstances, look around our issues that we're facing
and not look to the Lord instead? Why? Because we're in the flesh.
We're in the flesh, that's what it is. Well, what's our hope?
Oh Lord, turn us and we shall be turned. Cause me to cry out,
cause me to think on you, cause me to look to you in all things.
Cause me to pray, cause me to seek your face, cause me not
to look at this flesh, this have no confidence in the flesh. This
is the prayer of the believers. Men desire to put us under bondage. Do you remember the children
of Israel whenever they left the land of Egypt? And they got
fed up with Moses and fed up with manna, fed up with water.
They're like, oh, we loathe this light bread. You know, their
shoes never gave out, their clothes never got holes in them. The
40 years they were out there, God took care of his people.
And yet they didn't notice that, did they? Why? Because they,
not all of them was the Lord's elect. They were, There's a nation
God's chosen people, but we see that very clearly the Lord opened
up the earth and swallowed up. What was it 400 of them at one
time? I mean that he's not gonna do that to his To those that
are in Christ. That was his wrath. We see that
so they were they weren't all all of Israel There were an elect
the point I'm making is They didn't notice the blessings of
the Lord. They wanted to go back to Egypt's bondage. And that's
a picture of returning to the law. They say we had it so much
better under our taskmasters who were hard on us, getting
whipped, getting beat, working all the time. We had it so much
better then than we have it now. Think about that. Why? Because
nothing about the desert that we're in right now appeals to
the flesh. Nothing about the manna that
we heard about back in the men's study appeals to the flesh. Nothing about the bread of life
appeals to the flesh. Matter of fact, it abases, completely
abases the flesh, making us needy of him alone, showing us that
we're, it's not that we have a little bit of power, but we
have no power at all. We have no power at all, he must.
Give us the ability to cry out. He must give us the ability to
believe. He must give us this manna or we will surely die. Oh, these Jews, they were wanting
to go back to the law. And that's the picture. It's
the same temptation today to return to the law for righteousness.
What the scripture says, no flesh shall be justified by the deeds
of the law. No means none, zero. No flesh
shall be justified by the deeds of the law. Somebody might say,
well, I don't try to keep the law. There's many different kinds
of laws, and a lot of them came through tradition, vain tradition
of men. But still we look at them as if they were a law given
of God. And we say, okay, I have to base
my life upon what this is being told to me. And if I don't conform
to this, then I'm not going to be accepted in this congregation. And that's what the pressure
was right here in Galatia. Some of them were saying, no, you
have to be circumcised. Some of them said, well, we're
not. And they were saying, literally,
those men were saying, well, then you're not, you're not one
of Christ's, you're not. And so the emphasis of salvation
became the cutting away of the skin. That's what it became. There is appeal, brethren, to
the pride of the flesh of self-righteousness, but believing in it is bondage.
It's bondage, not liberty. It's condemnation, not justification.
So all that we can do in the flesh in trying to keep any law,
whether it be moral, civil, whether it be social, whatever it may
be, Whatever tradition we may keep as part of our salvation,
all it's going to do is make us more in bondage, more of in
debt. What's what Paul said, that you
that desire to be under the law, do you not hear what the law
is saying? We can't keep the law, not for
righteousness, no. All we can do in the flesh is
condemn ourself. But here's the good news. There
is now therefore no condemnation. If you try your best. Is that
what he says? No. If you try to keep the law, no.
To them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. Some people say, oh, I need to
walk after the spirit more, and there won't be any condemnation. No,
if you find yourself walking after the spirit, it's because
God gave you his spirit that keeps you from walking in the
flesh. That means minding the things
of the flesh. Righteousness by the law, that's what that's all
talking about. Either I'm looking to Christ alone, or I'm looking
to self as part of my salvation. And that by definition is being
in bondage, being under bondage. So ask yourself, am I under bondage? Be honest with yourself. Am I
under bondage? You and I won't fool God. We
can fool each other. We can fool our spouse. We can
fool our friends. We can fool our family. You can fool me. You won't have a hard time fooling
me. I love you. But we can't fool God. We can't fool God. He sees all the way down. We're
either saved or lost, and He knows it. And the only way we
can be saved is if He's the cause of it. We're either justified
or condemned, and He knows it. And the only way we can be justified
is by His free grace, by the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the, I'll say saddest
things, Somebody says, well, you preach a lot against false
religion. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ did too, and so do the
apostles. The reason we do that is because it's the poison. How
much poison are you going to allow in your diet? I mean, none,
right? I'm not going to take any poison.
I don't know what the consequences would be for that. Exactly. We
don't take any poison. That would be lethal, possibly. The thing about false religion
that's sad, and you and I were thus, I'll say that. There's
no pride in this for the sinner. There's no pride in us brethren
saying, yes, we're not like these Galatians. The Lord's brought
us out of that. Then thank God, because you and I would do the
exact same thing if left to ourself, even right now. And you know,
it's true. If the Lord's made you a sinner,
you know, it's true. We'd run to the law. We'd run to self. But those in false religion,
it's sad, they can't even see the deadly mistake they're making.
They can't see it. Why? Because they're dead in
trespasses and in sin. They have one hope. You and I
have one hope. And it's not our choice. It's not our lifestyle. It's not what we think or what
we don't think. It's what thus saith the Lord. That's our hope
of eternal life. It's what he accomplished. It's
not what we accomplish, what we do or we don't do. It's not
our sacrifice. It's his sacrifice on the cross
of Calvary. This is the hope of the believer. Now, these others, they serve
personal convictions. I know, you think about of the
religions, the way that they dress. I'm not going to use specifics
because I'm not making fun of anybody. I'm simply telling you
the truth of the matter. The truth of the matter is this.
Some people dress a certain way as part of their righteousness.
And it could be in the American system, some of the religions
that's here, but all over the world, they dress a certain way
in recognition of their religion. That's their righteousness. Do
we see that? But they're only going to the
law for that righteousness. Oh, what a sad state it is if
we ever, if it hadn't been for God's grace and we would have
been thus. I'm gonna wear this and I'm not gonna wear this anymore
because I, it's part of, well, it's tradition. It's man's tradition.
And as part of my righteousness, no, it's not. It's your condemnation. It's your condemnation. If you don't conform to their
convictions, to them, you're not a believer because the believer
doesn't do that or the believer doesn't do this. A false brother will only accept
you, and I want you to hear this, this is something the Lord gave
me that I want you to think about because I believe it'll, you'll
be able to understand from a personal standpoint, people that you deal
with in everyday life. A false brother will only accept
you if his conditions are met, if his conditions are met. The
moment that you don't agree with that false brother, the conditions
are broken. He won't accept you as a brother
anymore. I remember being in false religion and you would
try to find common ground with other religions. But with this
gospel, there is no compromise. Somebody said, well, we can agree
to disagree. I can't agree with anything you say. No. Why? Because God said this is the
only way to salvation. And if I agree, I'm putting my
seal of approval with you. We can't do that. We can't compromise.
That's what we're gonna find out here in a little bit is Paul
ends up rebuking Peter and Barnabas. We'll hear that next hour. There
is no compromise. No, it's, for by grace are you
saved through faith, and that's not of yourself. It is the gift
of God, not of works, not a work that you can do, not a work that
I can do, because we would boast, lest any man should boast. We
would glory in our own righteousness, a work that we do. No, a false
brother will only accept you as a brother if his conditions
are met, but men are not the standard for righteousness, are
they? And yet they think they are. Christ is the standard for
righteousness. Can I live up to him before God? You would have to be exactly
like him, perfect in every way, never committed one sin. That's
the only way God will accept you. That's why we need the substitutionary
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross for his people.
He by himself put away the sin of the elect once and for all.
He justified his people freely by his grace. How else would
you be able to describe, so we're talking about men who live moral
lives as part of their righteousness, and that's what these were trying
to do, is do the cutting away of the flesh as part of their
righteousness, but how would you describe the Old Testament
men? as being, they're called righteous, they're called holy
men of old, they're called upright, they're called good. This is
what the scripture says in Hebrews, when you have the, they call
it the hall of faith, and it's the Lord's faith in them that
the Lord saw, but Abraham, somebody said, well, oh, we gotta have
faith like Abraham. If you do, God's gotta be the
one to give it to you, because I'd remind you, he told his wife
to play the harlot because he was afraid that he was gonna
kill him. Think about that. They took matters into their
own hand when God gave the promise of a son said, Abraham, you're
going to have a son in your old age. Sarah laughed in her heart. And they said, we got to take
matters into her own hand. We can't, we, we, there's no way God can
do this on his own. Is that not false religion? Is that not bondage? Think about the, the bondage
that that caused not only, uh, but physically, I mean, it calls
so much, even they're still fighting over there in the middle East
over whose land that is. No, Abraham, wait on the Lord, wait
on the Lord. And yet he's called a righteous
man. Abraham believed God and it was accounted. That word accounted
means reckoned to him for righteousness. What does that mean? God gave
him faith because he was righteous. God didn't give him righteousness
because he had faith. See, faith is the result of righteousness.
Faith is the result of salvation. Faith is the result of justification.
It's not the cause of it. Christ is our justification.
Christ is our righteous. Now I'm preaching the second
hour message to you. Christ is all in this. And that's the point.
If you're seen as righteous, that means you're in Christ.
You're in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way. That's just one example. What
about Lot? You know, he was called just. Just, just lot. I mean, that means justified. Do you understand that? How could
he be justified? He chose Sodom and Gomorrah.
He could have chose anywhere he wanted to. Abraham said, pick
where you wanna go. He said, I wanna go to the sin-filthy
place of Sodom and Gomorrah. Raised his kids there. I mean,
think about that. All the ugly that was going on there. You
know about it. I don't have to tell you that. And what happened? Well, his daughters and him left
and they got into a mountain and then they had incest children. But he's called just Lot. How
is that? Because God made Christ his righteousness. God gave faith
to Lot to believe God. At what point did that happen?
Well, I don't know exactly. But I know this, the man after
God's own heart named David, He was a murderer and he was
an adulterer. So somebody might say, okay, so what you're saying
is, is if you're in Christ, you can do whatever you want to know.
I'm saying, if you're in Christ, he is your only righteousness. And if you did what you wanted
to do, being in Christ, you would serve him perfectly. That's the
heart that he gives his people. That's the desire he gives. Jonah
was called a preacher of righteousness, even though he ran away from
God. He got on a boat. He said, no, I'm not doing that. I hate
Nineveh. I'm going down to Joppa. I'm
going to get on a ship, going to Tarshish. I'm out. And that's
what he did. The Lord said, no, you're not.
Prepare to whale, prepare to fish, a great fish. What'd the
Lord do? Well, he brought a storm. Brought
a storm, made him go to Nineveh. Boy, aren't you glad God makes
us. He keeps his people. Keeps his people. He could have
killed Jonah for his rebellion if he, I mean, he really, think
about the mercy in that. Not just the whale saving him
and bringing him up, but what was Jonah's confession once he
was in the belly of hell? Salvations of the Lord. Salvations
of the Lord. And I find it funny that he was
still a bit cantankerous. You can see that throughout the
rest of the book, because he goes down to Nineveh. He only
says eight words. Yet 40 days in Nineveh shall be overthrown.
And God gave him all repentance. The whole city repented. Eight
words, that's all it took. And he's called a preacher of
righteousness. Think about the grace and the mercy in the Lord's
people. We cannot look at ourself in
any way to see righteousness, to see holiness, to see goodness,
to see faithfulness. It's all the Lord Jesus Christ
holiness and righteousness and faithfulness. It's Christ in
you, the hope of glory. Otherwise we have none and we're
under bondage. We're under bondage. Jonah got up on a, he preached
the message and he got up on the hill, sat underneath a gourd
and said, I'm gonna watch this city burn. I'm gonna watch this
city perish. He wanted them to be destroyed,
didn't he? Think about the arrogance and the pride that's in us as
well. I may say that in us as well.
We are no different. We ain't no different. And then
the Lord sent a worm, and I love this. The Lord sent a worm and
ate that gourd. So the next day he sent a behemoth
east wind, the scripture says, and it blew on his head. And
so Jonah's now sunburnt, that's the picture, because he has no
shade. And he began to curse the gourd and he began to be
frustrated. And he's starting to murmur just like we do. Jonah was mad about a gourd.
I want you to think about that. Is that not us? You ever get
mad about your gourd? Do you ever get mad about it?
Is it not the Lord that is the one that sent the worm? For what
purpose? To teach Jonah a lesson. He said,
the Lord made him stop and shut up. And that's what he makes
us do. And I love that about our Lord. He says, no, I'm going
to talk now. That's what he did to Job. Job
had to confess that. I'm going to put my hands over
my mouth. I'm not going to talk anymore. He told Jonah, he said, should
I not have mercy upon Nineveh, all the souls that are there?
You had compassion upon a gourd. You desired the gourd. The life
of the Lord, more than the people of Nineveh shall not have compassion
upon them. And that's the end of the book. He doesn't give
Jonah a chance to answer him. That's the end of the book, it's
over. God has the final word, doesn't he? Jonah was full of
unbelief, but he's called a preacher of righteousness. What grace
and mercy is found in the Lord's people? What salvation we have? What hope we have? And we don't look for outward
evidence. They all had the same report.
They were righteous before God. Now we don't look for outward
evidence because the righteousness that these men have, the same
as we have in Christ, and that's where it lies, in Christ. Can't
get it nowhere else. Doesn't matter what you do or
do not do. Doesn't matter where you go or you do not go. It matters
in a sense of consequence, but you understand what I'm saying.
As far as salvation is concerned, you can't mess it up, and you
don't need to fix it, because it ain't broke. It's perfect.
God's salvation's perfect. We can't constrain God or restrain
God. It's His salvation. That's good news to a sinner.
It's good news. We're no longer under bondage.
Don't go to the law. We're no longer under bondage. So what do we do? Well, we don't
live by the moral law as part of our righteousness. We live
in love to our Savior. It's called the law of love.
What does that mean? Well, God's give us everything required.
Now, if the Lord's gonna require us to live in love towards him,
now hear me very clearly here, he's got to be the one to give
the love, because it's not gonna be my love that he's gonna look
for. It's gotta be his perfect love, his holy love. And being
in Christ, that's what he gives his people. Therefore, it's his
love that constrains us. It's his love that motivates
us. It was love. It was the reason you came today
to hear about the manna from heaven. It was love today that
made you get out of bed. Your flesh didn't want to get
out of bed. Your flesh might want to sleep. Your flesh might have wanted
to do something else. And that's what the flesh does, but love.
And if we don't have that love, maybe the Lord hasn't revealed
himself yet. Maybe the Lord hasn't revealed
himself yet. But that being said, we don't look to the love that
we have either, do we? Who do we look to? We look to Christ.
He's our motivation. He's our focal point. And that's
the focal point of the love that he gives as well. Since we're free from the law,
That's what the scripture tells us clearly. Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness because of righteousness. Christ
is the end of the law. You're no longer under the law
of, and I think I have us turning to that next hour. It's the same chapter, so a lot
of it's gonna go hand in hand, but he says that you're not under
the law any longer, but you're under the law of faith. the belief
of the Lord in Romans, that's what he's talking about, looking
to Christ alone. What's the law of the believer?
Look to Christ. That's what? Everything. Everything God requires
from me, look to Christ. That's the law of faith. But
somebody might take it the other direction and say, okay, well,
I heard about these men of old, all they did, so I can just live
lascivously or frivolously or I'm a sinner after all right
well the Lord addresses that because he knew people would
have that mentality he tells us this What then shall we sin
because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid
God says no No, and everything he requires. He's already provided
in his precious son He's given us love bestowed to looks to
him that desires to serve him and each other He gave it He
gave it And it's what constrains us. He gives a new heart that
desires to obey Him and serve Him, not for our righteousness,
but because we've been made the righteousness of God in Him.
I can't stress that enough. Everything God requires, He provides.
Somebody said, well, you're preaching that we have to do this and we
have to do that. I'm telling you that if you find yourself
doing something, God is the doer of that because He gave you the
ability, the desire, gave you the heart to do so. So I'm not
telling you to do anything. I'm just telling you, the Lord's
made it clear. You pass from death unto life because you love
the brethren. That's what the scripture says.
Now we don't look at that love and say, okay, well, I love,
I love you all. So now I know I've passed from
death unto life. Now loves became my justification. Loves became
my salvation. It doesn't work that way. No,
no, we look to Christ. He's the motivation. He's the
focal point. He's the focal point of that
love. He's the focal point of faith. Faith looks to Christ.
There are those that do the same thing with faith, that they make
faith a work. Did you know that? By definition,
faith is not a work. Faith rests in Christ. But they
say, well, it's our faith. that is our justification. Actually,
we're gonna go over that, I guess it's next hour. It says you're
justified by faith, but it doesn't say by faith, it says by the
faith of Jesus Christ. So because you've been justified,
you have the faith of Jesus Christ. That's, Christ is our justification. Faith is the fruit of justification. Love is the fruit of justification. Where does the fruit come from?
Do we produce it? Only in Christ, only in Christ. Oh, he alone made peace with
God for his chosen people. If that doesn't make me wanna
love and serve him, maybe he hasn't given me that love yet.
Maybe I'm under bondage still. But I know those that are in
Christ that are not under this bondage love one another. And
the scripture says this, he that loveth one another fulfills the
law. Isn't that something? Why? Because
you're looking to Christ. Because you're looking to Christ.
These individuals were so worried about circumcision that they
didn't realize that they were literally bringing all themselves
under the law again by not showing forth love to each other. They
were saying, I'm better than you. And love doesn't do that.
It's not, it's not jealous. It's not jealous. Now to make sure I'm completely
clear, and I've got to come to a close here shortly, what the true elect of God do
has nothing to do with our justification. What you do and what I do has
nothing to do with our justification, meaning not a choice that we
pray, a prayer that we pray, a choice that we make or don't
make, not a life that we live, anything that you want to fill
in the blank with, that's as clear as I can be, that your
hands do, your mouth does, your heart thinks, anything, where
your feet go, none of that has to do with our justification,
has to do with our sanctification, has to do with our redemption,
has to do with our salvation. Every bit of that is found in
the singular source that accomplished it on the cross of Calvary by
his own blood, the Lord Jesus Christ. If I am to be justified,
if I am to be sanctified, if I am to be redeemed, if I am
to be saved from myself, from my sin, from Satan, from the
world, he must be the doer of it. That's why the gospel is
good news, because that's what he promised to do, that's what
he's done for his people, for his people. If you can find one thing within
you, within yourself, whereby you see God should save you,
if you can find one thing, you say, well, this, because I've
done this, or I'm a good person, or I don't do this anymore, if
you can find one thing in yourself, you're not saved. God has not
made you a sinner. God has not made you a sinner.
That is your righteousness. Whatever that one thing was,
that's as clear as I can be. That was the problem here in
Galatia. They had one thing. That's all it takes. One thing
that they held to. And it was cutting away the flesh.
And they said, now we know that we're saved because we've done
this. The Lord says, I'll disannul your covenant. No, you've added
one thing to it. You know, you can't have it.
It's not for you then. It's not for you then. Our righteousness
hinges upon the finished work of Christ alone. Alone. You know what he said about that
righteousness? You know what he said about sanctification,
justification, and redemption? It is finished. That's what he said. This is
evident in verse six, look at verse six, what he says. But
of those who seem to be somewhat whatsoever they were, it maketh
no matter to me. God accepteth no man's person.
We cannot get any clearer than that. God accepteth no man's
person. He's not looking to you. He's
not looking to me. He's looking to his son, his
beloved son with whom he is well pleased, with whom he is well
pleased. God does not accept our work
as any part of our righteousness. He only accepts the finished
work of Christ. He doesn't accept my heart. Somebody said, give
Jesus your heart. He doesn't want your heart. It's deceitful
of all things and desperately wicked. He has to give you a
new one, a heart of flesh and take out the heart of stone.
He's not looking at your sacrifice. He's looking at the sacrifice
of the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our sacrifices
are tainted because we're sinful. Oh, he's not looking at your
work. He's looking at the work, the finished work of Christ on
the cross. God accepts no man's person, no man's person, but
he accepts Christ and all those who were in Christ when he died.
Every person that he died for, God accepts them. And God has
declared them to be the righteousness of God in Christ. God's holy,
he's God. He demands perfection. Only Lord
Jesus Christ merits that perfection. Only Lord Jesus Christ does that
perfection. Only Lord Jesus Christ is that
perfection which he requires. He's holy, he's undefiled, he's
separate from sinners. That's what the scripture tells
us. Looking to anything else or anyone else is to just be
put under bondage. Looking to any one thing else
or anyone else, men like to compare themselves to each other for
their justification. It's not just what you do, it's what others
do. Like, well, I'm better than so and so, so I know God's gonna
approve of me. That's finding something in yourself.
That's finding something in yourself whereby God is obligated to save
you. No, don't do that. God is only pleased with Christ.
He's only pleased with Christ. I'll ask again. Am I under bondage? This is all the law can produce. This is all man can accomplish. All of his work, all of his merit,
all of his, you spend your entire life working, but that's all
you're gonna accomplish is more bondage and more bondage. Men may give their approval,
and I do that a lot. In closing, I'll say this. Men
give their approval a lot to each other. They say, yeah, you're
brother so-and-so. You're good, I can tell, because
of the life you live and the things you do and what doesn't
come out of your mouth anymore. You're good now. The Lord said
there's none good, no not one. We are utterly born in sin and
shaped in iniquity, and if the Lord does not cause us to see
our sinful condition, we'll never need the substitute savior of
his people. We'll never need him. We'll look to ourself, and
in looking to ourself, we'll be bringing ourself into bondage. If I'm not looking to Christ
as all in all, then I'm under bondage. There can be no other
option. Am I under bondage or am I free in Jesus Christ alone? Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take this and bless it for your glory and for our
understanding. Cause us to be found in Christ,
we pray in his name, amen. Let's take a break.