We're gonna be looking in Galatians
chapter two, if you'd like to be turning there. Galatians chapter two, we will
read from Galatians one first, but our text is gonna be found
in Galatians two. I've titled the message Justified,
Justified. Paul is writing to the Galatians
and he is angry. He is confrontational. He is straight to the point.
He's even sarcastic in parts of this letter. And the reason
why is because they were so soon turned away from the truth of
the gospel. They were following after false
teachers. Now, the lie that these false teachers were telling them
is a very subtle lie. It wasn't in-your-face obviousness
that would be easily found out or easily noticed. It was subtle,
very subtle, that salvation was by grace through faith, but it
expressed itself by keeping the law. That's what the message
was. The new teachers were teaching
the men of Galatians. And Paul was like, I told you
that even if an angel comes down from heaven and speaks to you,
if you hear another gospel, he said, turn away from it. No,
this is the gospel. And he's sarcastic with him.
He said, do I aim to, do I, Do I look to please men or do
I look to please God? He said, that's obviously sarcasm,
duh, he's looking to please the Lord. These false preachers are
the same as today's false preachers. They discredit the work of Christ
as being enough in salvation. They say it's all of grace, but
you have to do something. That's the subtle lie, isn't
it? That's the subtle lie. Either before you are saved,
so to speak, or after you are saved. Men will say, there's
something that you must do. There must be evidence in your
life. They preach righteous living. They preach taste not, touch
not, handle not. They preach that faith must express
itself by keeping the law. That's not faith. By definition,
that's not faith. Faith does not express itself. That's not what faith does. Faith
looks to Christ. That's what faith does. Faith
looks to Christ. So here in chapter one, Paul
sets forth this very clearly to them. Chapter
one, look at verse six with me. I marvel. that you are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
and to another gospel, which is not another, but there be
some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed. That word accursed
is the word damned. Let him be damned. Let him be
accursed. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that
he have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade
men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
Paul is amazed. He says, I'm amazed. Amazed that
you're so soon removed from the truth so easily. And he tells
them, But the authority that he is preaching unto them is
the authority of the Lord. He didn't call himself to be
an apostle. He goes on to tell them this
throughout this letter here, even in the first chapter, he
says, I didn't call myself to be an apostle. The Lord did that.
The Lord did that. Tells them what authority. He
declares his message. You know, our only authority is God's word.
That's it. That's our only authority. That's
all that we can declare and have authority in. Now, as dad, I
can have authority over my children, yes, but in regards to preaching,
we have a duty and a responsibility just to declare the truth of
the word. That's our authority. We don't
change the wording. We try to preach the truth very
simply and preach it in love. That's all the authority that
we have. Paul had apostolic authority. He was an apostle. He had gifts
that we don't have. The apostolic age is over. It
ended with Paul. He was the last one. No one else
has that authority that Paul had. And so he's speaking to
them with that authority that God gave him. He says, do I persuade
men or do I persuade God? How are you going to persuade
God? He's being sarcastic, isn't he? Essentially, he's saying
that I call myself to be an apostle, or did God call me? Answer the
question. That's what he's telling them. And then he tells them
of his journeys to the rest of this chapter, and gives them
different validations to convince them of their error. He says,
I'm the apostle that God set forth. He's not propping himself
up, but he's letting them know, I'm telling you what the Lord
said, and you're so soon turned away from it to follow after
this subtlety. And so in chapter two, he gives
us a good example of this. And I'm going to, we're going
to read the end of the chapter, but I want to kind of preface
everything that we're going to speak on tonight by telling you
exactly what's happening here in Galatians. Now, Paul deals
with an issue of Peter's error, Peter's error. And what happened
was is Peter was with the Gentiles and they were together eating
a pulled pork barbecue lunch. And the moment the Jews come,
how do I know it's pulled pork or pork? Well, because that was
something that was unlawful for them to eat. That's how we know.
I just used the term pulled pork so we could really understand.
But what happened? Well, Peter saw the Jews come
in and what'd he do? He got up and he went over to
the Jews. No, I'm not eating that. No,
that's unclean. We're not gonna eat that. It
was a message of confusion, wasn't it? Think about the Gentiles
that were there. Well, wait a minute. Are we under
the law then? And they begin, and Peter and
Barnabas was just as deceived with this lie that the others
were. Peter and Barnabas were deceived.
And Paul, it says that he, it says, let's see. that Paul resisted him. Paul
withstood him face to face. We're going to read it just a
moment. Paul withstood him. What's that mean? He openly rebuked
Peter. He said, Peter, you're wrong.
No, it's all by grace. It's not law mixed, not grace
with just a little bit of law. No, no, that that taints the
whole thing, doesn't it? It's all of grace. That was the
confusion that was being, the message, that was the message
of confusion, that it was law mixed with grace. Now let's read
our text here in Galatians chapter two, and we're gonna read verse
16 down through the remainder of the chapter. Paul says, knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by
the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, not by
the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Boy, that's clear, isn't it?
That's very clear. No flesh shall be justified by
the works of the law. But if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again
the 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 dead to the law that I might
live unto God. How is that possible? He's going
to tell us I am crucified with Christ. He died in Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Peter and Barnabas and
these others, they were mixing just a little bit of law with
grace and it changed the entire message. It made it not to be
true anymore. It made the cross of Christ of
none effect. And I think we understand what
I mean by that. We can't constrain or restrain the Lord in any way.
The cross of Christ accomplished exactly what it was purposed
to do. Christ was successful. But as he just says here, There's
a frustration. That's the word he uses. He said,
I do not frustrate the grace. Well, you know, the grace of
God can't be frustrated. We know that because God is God.
So what is his point here? We're looking to Christ. We're
looking to the grace of the Lord alone. And anything but that
is not salvation. It's anything other than looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Adding one thing to what must
be done to his finished work, that's not salvation. That's
what Paul's telling us here. These men were making the law
what it could never be, a governing factor of life on any level. A governing factor, law cannot
be a governing factor of life on any level, on any level. Paul's saying, I've died to the
law. When Christ died, I died in him. When Christ lived, I lived in
him. When Christ was resurrected,
we were resurrected in him. That's what Paul is telling them. When the Lord died under the
penalty of the law, the wages of sin is death, our Lord became
sin who knew no sin. He took his people's sin into
himself and therefore the law demanded death. God would not
have killed his son. He would not have executed his
darling son if his son was not guilty of our sin. It was placed
upon him. He was bearing the iniquity of
us all. And when he died, because in
our stead, as our surety, when he died in our stead, we literally,
literally died in him. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Therefore, the law has nothing
else to say against the elect of God. The law has nothing else
to say unless we start keeping the law again as our righteousness,
and that's not looking to Christ. Do we see? We don't do that,
do we? We look to Christ. The law's
demands were satisfied in Christ's death. Now we live because our
life is hid with Christ in God. That's why we live. Our life
is hid with Christ in God. With God in Christ. Now do we
know what the evidence of that is? Faith. Faith is the evidence
of things hoped for. You mean I need to see evidence
in my life? That's not what it says. Faith
is the evidence of things unseen. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. No, that's
the whole point. Faith doesn't see physically,
does it? It sees Christ. It looks to Christ. That's what faith is. That's
what faith does, is it's the, it makes us look to him. All gods elect believe. believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, not to be made alive, but because they've been made
alive by him. Do we see that? We don't believe
and then become alive. We don't look and then become
alive. No, we look because we've been
made alive. See, that's the work of the Lord.
He's the one that births us into the family of God. He's the one
that did that. He's the one that gives life-giving faith. Let me explain faith this way,
the easiest way I can. I was trying to make sure I was
as simple as I could be about this. If you want to think of
faith, think of taking a breath. That's what faith is, is taking
a breath. But Christ is the oxygen. Christ is the oxygen. That's
what faith is. It's just taking its evidence
of life. It's the same as a baby being
born. And I've used this example before. Doctor puts the baby
up on its leg. If it's not crying, it gets smacked
on the butt and it starts crying. It takes that first breath. But
it was alive prior to that breath. We see that. In time, the Lord
gives his people faith that breathes Christ. I've got to breathe him.
I've got to see him. I've got to have him. That's
what faith does. That's what faith does. We don't believe to be made alive. We believe because we are alive
in Christ Jesus. It's very simple. Faith is the
result Faith is the result of the union we have with Christ.
Faith is the result of righteousness being wrought by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Faith is the result of our justification
before God. It's all about Christ, isn't
it? Faith is the result, not the cause of our righteousness.
Without faith, the scripture says it is impossible to please
God. Why? Because without faith, we
would never look to Christ. We would look to self. Without
faith, we would never look to Christ. We would look to self.
We would run to the law like Peter did here. We would frustrate
the grace of God. That's the example he gives.
That's what looking to self, that's not grace. It's not looking
unto Christ at that point. That's looking unto self. Now
this word frustrate, I meant to say this earlier and I should
have, but we'll just have to backtrack a second. But the word
frustrated is to despise. It's the same word as disregard.
So we don't frustrate the grace of God. The English translators
tried to give the best word that they could, but it's the exact
same word as disregard. What does that mean? It means
you're despising the grace of God. If we run to the law for
righteousness, we're despising the grace of God. We don't need
it. We're disregarding it. We're discrediting the cross
and the work that Christ wrought. He said, then Christ is dead
in vain. That's the whole point. If you're righteous by the law,
Christ is dead in vain. What was the point of the cross
then? And see, that's the message that's being preached is that
there's something we must do. Something that we have to add
something to it some way that some all religions based upon
that in pleasing God. Paul said, no, no, we can't be
justified by what we do. We can't be justified by the
law. It's all by grace. It's all by grace. Christ's death
wasn't in vain. He accomplished salvation for
his people. This is what Paul's declaring
to them. The moment we look to the law,
we are saying we must do something to make Christ's work successful
or effectual. It's just not true, is it? Aren't
you glad it's finished? It is finished. We have the authority
of God in his word that said on the cross of Calvary, it is
finished. Nothing left to be done. Nothing
left to be done. Christ accomplished it all. Otherwise he died in vain. Otherwise
we can disregard the cross and say that I have a righteousness
before God because of what I do. And it's not true, is it? We
can't have a righteousness before God. This is so clear. Look in
verse 20 again. I am crucified with Christ. There's
our hope, that we were crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I
live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. I picked that song intentionally.
Christ liveth in me. That's our hope. Christ in you,
the hope of glory. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Faith makes void the
law. Faith is the end of the law for
righteousness. Are you telling me, are you telling
me that we are lawless? Yes. Faith makes void the law. Faith is the end of the law for
righteousness. You, anybody that hears this,
that's got this pulled up on the internet, is gonna hear it
later, is gonna say something about antinomianism, I promise you that. That's always
what happens, but that's not the law of the Lord's written
on our heart. The love of God is what constrains us. We heard
about that Sunday, didn't we? No, it's not antinomianism that
we're preaching. We're preaching Christ is all
in salvation, that it's all by grace, it's all through his faith.
It's not in us to do anything. And so we don't discredit or
disregard the grace of God. We cling to it as all our hope
in Christ, the grace of the Lord being all of our hope, because
it's all by grace. Looking to Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. Now, faith does not give life. Faith does not give life. It
is the evidence of our life being in Christ. It is the evidence
that our life is in Christ. Faith doesn't give life. The
Lord gives life and we breathe. And it is the evidence that our
life is in Christ. It's because of his work that
we're alive. Well in no way does the law bring
life either. Preaching the law is the poisoning
of all false religion. All religion that preaches salvation,
redemption, regeneration by the law, they're preaching a false
poisonous doctrine that's not true. The law couldn't bring
life even if we could keep it. The law was not given in order
to bring life. It was, we can't keep it. That's
the point. If we could keep one law, it's
not gonna bring life. It brought death, didn't it? It showed that
we were sinners. It showed us that we have no
hope of being found, having a righteousness before God, which is by it. It
doesn't bring life, brings death. The law demands work. It reveals
we can't do the work. Faith is in no way a work. It's
the opposite of that. Do we see that? We're talking
about two opposite things here. We're talking about faith and
we're talking about the law, keeping of the law. And men want
to make faith some kind of a work. They need a new definition of
faith. Faith is not a work. Faith believes God because it
came from Christ. He's the one that gives it. Faith
looks to Christ as all our hope before God, as all our righteousness
before God. It's only God that can justify
a sinner. And he did that by his own blood
on the cross of Calvary. To believe Christ alone, to believe
Christ alone for justification is to destroy any hope of justification
before the law. I want to say that again, to
believe Christ alone for justification. that is to destroy any hope whatsoever
of being justified by the law. We believe Christ, don't we?
Christ is our justification. Christ is our hope. We don't
preach traditions of men as our justification. We don't preach
righteous living as our justification. We don't even preach something
that we're looking to as our justification. We're not saying,
okay, I'm justified because I'm looking. See, that's a work.
Do we see that? Faith looks to Christ and it
doesn't, Our justification is Christ alone. It's his blood
alone. I'm trying to be as clear as
I can tonight. We're not justified by our looking or our doing something. There's nothing to be done. It's
finished. Now we are justified before the Lord and he gives
faith to believe him. We are made the righteousness
of God and the Lord Jesus Christ and he gives faith to believe
that. You can't enjoy justification
if we don't have faith. That's how we enjoy our justification
is the faith of the Lord. Always reveals Christ, always
points to him. Christ Jesus is the justification
of his people. To imply that our justification
is something we do or experience, or experience, is to deny the
gospel. It's to deny the gospel altogether.
It's something we enjoy by faith, but righteousness, sanctification,
redemption, all these words, salvation, justification, that's
all by Christ alone. That's all by Christ. It's his
doing. It's his doing. It's not what we do. It's not
what we do. It's not our faith. It's not
our faith in him. No, it's his faith. We live by the faith of the Son
of God. It's his faith. See, men want
to make faith a work, and faith is the opposite of a work. Faith
just believes Christ. We've got to have it. We've got
to have it. But faith just believes Christ. If righteousness before God is
by something we do, Christ died in vain, is what Paul just says
here. And Paul is dealing with those that are mixing law and
grace for justification and for righteousness before God. Now,
to be clear, you can't separate justification and righteousness.
For if you're righteous before the Lord, you've been justified.
And if we've been justified before the Lord, then we're righteous.
They go hand in hand. And what does the scripture tell
us clearly? For by grace are you saved through faith. Salvation
is all by grace alone. It's in Christ alone, and it's
received by faith alone. It's received by faith alone.
We don't, did you know that the gospel of your salvation until
the Lord gave us the faith to breathe, to see it, give us,
he gave us life in Christ Jesus. We didn't know that, but we already
had it from the time before we were ever born, didn't we? We
were already in him before we were ever born. He just lets
us know about it. That's what, that's what faith
does is it's the, it's what looks to Christ. It, he gives us repentance
and faith that looks to him Faith is the optic lens. I wrote
down that, optic lens. I thought that was very clear. It's the optic lens whereby Christ
is revealed. See, we were blind, weren't we?
We were deaf, weren't we? We were dead. And he said, live. And he said, breathe. And we
see Christ. It's that simple. It's that simple. It's the conduit that brings
sight and hearing. We are not made righteous when
faith is given. Our righteousness is in Christ
who is eternal. We're not made the righteousness
of God when we're given faith. We were made the righteousness
of God on the cross of Calvary. We were made the righteousness
of God at the finished work and he just gives us the faith to
believe it, to know it. Our righteousness before God
is an eternal righteousness. Completely based on our surety. Completely based upon what he
did. Whenever he became surety for his people, his people were
justified by his word, his oath. We were seen in Christ before
time ever began. The only way God can love us
is if we are in Christ. And if he has an everlasting
love for us, we have always had to be found in Christ. Is that
not, that's simple. That's have to be. In time, his
people were justified by his blood on the cross of Calvary,
the death of the cross. He was made sin that he promised
he would be for us. God imputed righteousness and
declares his people justified. Both were given to his people
before time ever began and in time, And it's being revealed
now, but we'll never be able to enjoy justification and redemption
until we're made like him, not the fullness of it. We enjoy
some of it now. We rest in Christ's finished
work, sure, but when we're made like him, oh, that's when we'll
enjoy it to the fullest extent possible. Revelation, it says, God's people
were written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Ephesians 1 tells us, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. Second Timothy 1.9 says, God
who hath saved us and called us, not by works of righteousness
we have done, not according to our works at all, but according
to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. We were given to Christ before
the world began. We were given the holy calling,
we were given Grace, and now it's manifest by the appearing
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death
and hath brought light and immortality to light. You know how? Through
the gospel, through the gospel, not the preaching of the law,
not the preaching of what we have to do, but by grace, preaching
of what Christ truly accomplished. He has always been and always
will be the justification of his people. before the world
began, in time, and for all eternity. He is the justification of his
people. Now in closing, I wanna look at Romans chapter four. Romans chapter four, look at
verse one. What shall we say then that Abraham, our father,
as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified
by works, well, he just said, what has Abraham found? Well,
that's the whole point. It's not what he found. That
wasn't his justification because if it was by works, he hath whereof
to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture,
Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now that word for, you've heard
me give this analogy several times, but it's very necessary
tonight for me to tell you this. The word for has two different
meanings specifically. One of them would be if you're
going to get, if you're going to rob a bank and you're going
to get Jesse James, the outlaw, you're going to get his help.
You would be at a poster and say, Jesse James wanted for robbery.
Me and him is going to rob. Or you can have a wanted poster
that says for robbery, meaning because he's already done it
because of a robbery that's been committed. That's the two meanings
of four. And I think we know exactly what he's saying here.
Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him because of righteousness,
because of what Christ had done. He was looking to the finished
work of Christ alone. That's what he's saying here.
It's the same thing. Look in verse 25 of this. Christ
who was delivered for our offenses and he was raised again for,
because of our justification. We were justified by his blood.
Therefore he was resurrected. The father was pleased with him.
Now go back to verse four. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. It's not of grace
if we're working, it's of debt. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness." That word counted is reckoned. It's the
same thing as reckoned. You remember the example of reckoned
I gave us? If you were to say there's $25
in your bank account, It's because you've counted every single penny
and made certain that there's $25 in your bank account. That's
what he's saying here. He was given faith because he
was of the righteousness of God. He was given the ability to believe
God because it was reckoned unto him. Righteousness was reckoned
unto him. Now unto him, let's see, we're
in verse five, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness,
even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works. That's as clear,
I wanna make sure this is as clear as it can be. It is not
of works. If it is of works, then we're
in trouble. We are in trouble. God imputeth
righteousness without works, saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Who did the
covering? Christ Jesus purged his people's
sin by his own blood, didn't he? Blessed is the man to whom
the Lord will not impute sin. Cometh this blessedness then
upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also,
for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. That's that word because again,
isn't it? Faith was reckoned unto Abraham. It was counted unto Abraham.
It was bestowed upon, God made certain he had faith. Why? Righteousness. Because what Christ did. Because
what Christ did. When was Abraham seen this way?
I was, I've been dealing with this particular subject. I'm
talking to you tonight. I think I've determined that
the Lord brings me through things in order for me to have to study
it in order to declare it unto you. I've determined that's how
the life of a pastor is going to be. And some of it's easier
than others. I'll just tell you some of it's
harder than others, but the Lord gets all the glory and he keeps us
humble. He knows how to do that. There's
no doubt about that, but When was Abraham seen this way? When was this righteousness reckoned
to Abraham? When? Because you can't separate
justification and righteousness, right? We've already established
that. Well, he said Abraham believed God. That's three or four thousand
years before the cross, isn't it? How can that be? Because
the Lord's righteousness and the Lord's justification is an
eternal righteousness. It's an everlasting righteousness. It never had a beginning or end.
He wrought it in time. Yes, it was necessary for our
Lord to go to the cross, but he's never seen his people outside
of Christ. No, he's loved them with an everlasting
love. He doesn't impute sin upon them
because Christ Jesus put away that sin on the cross. When we
get to Actually, I'm gonna have us turn there, turn over to Romans
chapter eight. When was Abraham justified? When
was he made righteous? In eternity and in time, both. Then he gives us faith that enjoys
that justification, doesn't he? Did you know that even the glorification
of his people has already been accomplished. That's how, if
I said that's how good of a job he did, I don't want to discredit
it or water it down. Maybe it was a perfect work he
accomplished. That's a better way of saying
it, a perfect work he wrought. In so much that his people's
already been glorified. Look at Romans 8, 29, for whom
he did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom He did predestinate, then He called. Whom He called,
He justified. Whom He justified, He also glorified."
That's all past tense. That's all past tense, every
bit of it. Christ finished the work He was ordained to do in
eternity. Hebrews chapter four tells us
clearly His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
The Father rested in the Lord Jesus Christ as our surety. He
guaranteed it with His oath. He guaranteed our justification.
He guaranteed our righteousness by saying, I will redeem them.
And they, think about this. Somebody said, yeah, but sin
really hadn't been put away at that point. Well, I wanna explain
it to you this way, the best way I could think of. Whenever
I bought a house from the lady that we bought it from, I immediately
became the possessor of that house. I am the surety of that
house to my bank. Her debt was now transferred
to me. Now I have not put away all that debt. I owe money on
my house still. and I'm making payments on it. The Lord Jesus
Christ in time paid that debt in full. That's the best way
I can describe it. That's what he did for his people
in time. The Lord had, I'm not implying that the Lord imputed
sin unto Christ. Don't think that. I'm not saying
that at all. I'm simply saying that the Lord became surety for
his people and his people were seen as perfectly right at that
moment. And it wasn't a moment because it's in eternity. We're
just talking about things that we just can't explain, but we
believe them. But we believe them. Christ finished
the work, he glorified his people. Now faith reveals that he has
been made into us our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification,
and our redemption. He's our priest forever, forever. He has loved his people with
an everlasting love. And God declares them, his people,
as perfectly righteous from the foundation of the world, all
by his doing alone. They are justified. That's my
hope. If he didn't do it, if it's something
I've got to do, some law that I'm supposed to be keeping, something
I'm supposed to be performing, I got no hope. But if Christ
Jesus finished the work and I am one of his, I have hope. hope
beyond measure because he finished the work himself. And scripture
says, when he hath by himself purged our sins, he sat down. That's another way we know we've
already been glorified as well. There's no more work to be done. He's
already did it. Aren't you thankful?