But let me read my text again,
Galatians 2, 21, I do not confuse and frustrate the grace of God.
That's one thing I'm not going to do. For I know if acceptance
with God, righteousness, I'm talking about holiness, acceptance
with God on the part of any creature comes by law. and the Son of
God ought to stay in heaven, because he wasted his time when
he came down here and died on the cross. He died in vain. That's
just the sum of it. That's what Paul said. Our Lord
Jesus Christ was ordained. Let me make it clear. He was
ordained by the Heavenly Father and anointed from all eternity,
from all eternity before the foundation of the world, to be
a perfect surety and savior of a people out of Adam's race. He took not on him the nature
of angels, but took on him the seed of Abraham. The Heavenly
Father gave him a people in an eternal covenant of grace, and
I could spend the rest of my allotted time reading scripture
just on that time. Our Lord said, I'm the good shepherd,
I lay down my life for the sheep, and other sheep I have which
are not of this particular fold, them also I must bring, and they
shall hear my voice, and they shall be one folk. My Father
which gave them me is greater than all. He gave them to me. And I'm going to redeem them,
and nobody can pluck them out of my Father's hand. I have a
people. All that my Father giveth me
shall come to me. I pray not for the world, I pray
for them which thou hast given me. That's a fact. That's a fact. That took place before the world
began in a covenant of mercy, an everlasting covenant of grace
in which Christ was made the shepherd of the sheep, the shepherd
of the sheep. Now, all of these Old Testament
scriptures, the writings of Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel,
All of these Old Testament scriptures, all of these prophecies and promises,
all that you read in the Old Testament concerning the tabernacle
and the priesthood and the Levitical law and the sacrifices and the
special days, all of these scriptures point to Christ. They point to
the coming of that Servant. They point to the coming of that
Savior. To Him give all the prophets
witness. That's what the Old Testament's
all about. It's all about the coming of
the Lord, our righteousness. It's all about the coming of
the Savior, Messiah. It's all about the coming of
that surety. All of these scriptures point
to his person and his work on behalf of those people. That's
what the Old Testament's all about. Christ is our Passover. Christ is that rock. Christ,
all these things are concerning Himself. He died for our sins
according to the Scriptures. He was buried and rose again
according to the Scriptures. And you see, all of these prophecies
and promises about Christ, our surety, who will come into the
world and perform a work, now watch it, on behalf of these
people, but toward the Father. That's what it's all about, you
see. That's what it's all about, toward the Father, in order to
enable God to have communion with us, in order to enable God
to even look with favor upon us. This surety, this Savior,
this Redeemer, this Messiah had to come and do what He did in
the way that He did it, in agreement with the attributes of God. the requirements of God. See
what I'm saying? The two questions everybody needs
to study until they get the answer. Don't study anything else until
you get the answer. Just leave off everything else.
Forget the Antichrist. Forget the beast. Forget the
false prophet. Forget the millennial. Forget
church truth. Learn the answer to two questions.
How can man be just with God? That's the first How can man
be just with God? How can I be clean, born of a
woman? Behold the moon, it shineth not.
The stars are not clean in God's sight. How much more abominable
am I to drink iniquity like water? How can I be just with God? And
the second question is this, how can He be just and justify
me? Now, you've got to find the answer
to those two questions. If you don't know the answer
to those questions, you don't know nothing about the book. That's fine. That's just a hard
fact. How can I be just with God? I've
got to be just. I read it in the very first scripture
this morning. Who shall stand in His holy place? Well, I hope to, don't you? I
hope to. Who shall stand in His presence?
I hope to. But here are the requirements,
he that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who has never lifted
up his soul to vanity, a purely righteous, purely holy, purely
sanctified, purely justified creature will stand in his presence
and nobody else. How can I be that creature? Only in Christ. And how can that? That God's not going to violate
His holiness. He's not going to compromise
His law. He's not going to compromise His justice. That's why Christ
came into the world. He said, Abide thou hast prepared
me. Abide. Lo, He said, in sacrifices,
in the tabernacle, in the holy place, in the holy of holies,
in the mercy seat, in the sprinkling of the blood, thou hast had no
pleasure. See, these sacrifices of bulls
and goats and heifers, the sprinkling of the unclean, that can give
a holy God no pleasure. That can give Him no delight. That cannot satisfy His holiness
and righteousness and purity and truth. But in the volume
of the book that's written of me, I share with you, it said,
Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. And you take away the first.
You take away the tabernacle. I'm the tabernacle. He tabernacled among us. He was
made flesh and dwelt among us. You take away the priesthood.
I'm the priest. You take away the blood of animals.
I sacrifice my own blood. You take away the holy place,
and I come in the holy place not made with hands, in the heaven
itself. You take away the mercy seat,
and I'm the mercy seat. You take away all the first,
all of these types and pictures and shadows, and establish the
second, for in these things you've never had any pleasure. But you
said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. He's
my pleasure. He's my pleasure. The body Thou hast prepared me,
I come to do Thy will. I come to do Your will. I come
to perfectly do Your will." He was circumcised. He was baptized. He was catechized. He was confirmed. He kept the feast days. He kept
the holy days. He kept the Passover days. It's
not a law or a commandment or a statute or a requirement or
a suggestion that he did not perfectly keep. I do, always do. My Father's
will. Boy, don't you wish you could
say that. Well, you can in Him, but nowhere
else. I always do those things that
please my Father. Abraham never pleased the Father.
He pleased the Father only in that which he did with pictured
Christ. And at the appointed time, the
Jews and Romans and Gentiles and Herod and Pontius Pilate
and the whole group took our Lord, took our Lord who bore
our sin in His body. They took Him to the hall of
judgment, to the prison of the damned. The righteousness of
God took Him to the gallows for the guilty. And He died the just
for the unjust that He might bring us to God. He by Himself purged our sins. His obedience and His death were
on behalf of those people toward the Father. Every law, every
requirement He fulfilled in life, and all that justice demanded,
He paid in death. And Paul writes in Hebrews 10,
I want you to look at it, Hebrews chapter 10, I want you to look
at it full face. Just look at it real good. In Hebrews chapter 10, verse
10, he said, And you know the Lord Jesus said, A body thou
hast prepared me, if the volume of the book is written of me,
I come, I come, I come to do thy will, O God. Verse 10, By
the which will we are sanctified. We are sanctified. No, it's not
something you get down to the front of the church while the
deacons pray for you. No, sanctification is not something
you get by seeking the baptism of the Holy Ghost. No, sanctification is not something
you arrive at when you have an eradication of the old nature.
No, sanctification is not a life you live and you get too old
to do anything else. We are sanctified through the
offspring of the Body of Jesus Christ. once for all. That's how I sanctify, and that's
when I sanctify. That's what it says. Read verse
fourteen. By one offering, and that offering
don't underestimate it, is the offering of Himself. By one offering,
He has perfected. He did what? Perfected! Absolutely perfect. Forever. Them that are sanctified. Who
did it? Thought the Holy Ghost did it. Christ did it. Christ
did it. How about verse 17? And their
sins and their iniquities. Well, I remember, no more. No
more. For where remission, forgiveness
of these sins, there's no more offering for sins. By the obedience
of one, the many were made righteous. He was made sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made righteousness of God in Him."
Christ was set forth as a propitiation to declare the righteousness
of God, that God may be just and justify ungodly people. Christ is the end of the law,
the goal of the law, the consummation of the law, for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. What are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying that in Jesus Christ the Lord, by His perfect obedience,
by His sacrificial death, by His divine resurrection upon
which we see the Father's approval, placed upon him, by which we
see the Father's approval placed on him, by his exaltation, his
entrance within the veil, his seating at the right hand of
God. God is declaring that everyone whom he represented, for whom
he lived and died, and for whom he interceded, is as holy as
his Son, perfectly justified, perfectly sanctified, and perfectly
righteous. That's what I'm saying. And if
you don't say that, you're suggesting that the purpose of God in Christ
was really in vain, or that the obedience of Christ
in the body, I come in the body, thou hast prepared me to do thy
will. Did he do his will? You're suggesting that the death
of Christ on the cross was in vain. Did he pay my debt? Did he fulfill God's law? Then
it's fulfilled. What about his resurrection?
What about his intercession? If I said, Christ died in vain,
people would start back in horror at such a suggestion. But in
the most subtle way, they're making that very declaration. Now listen to me. I will willingly confess my Lord
in baptism because I want to be identified with Him. I want
to be identified with Christ in His death, in His burial,
in His resurrection. But please don't present baptism
to me as a work in order For me to
be righteous before God. Don't you do that. Because I
don't have to be baptized to be righteous before God. Christ
is my righteousness. You see what I'm saying? Don't
come at me with this. Well, you've got to obey these
ordinances. I ain't got to obey nothing to
be righteous before God. I'm righteous in Christ. I do
it because I want to. See that? I will give to the
kingdom of God. I love to give. My wife and I
delight to give. We delight to give. We give to
share what we have with others, to preach the gospel, to support
the weak. We give as God has blessed us.
We give as we've purposed in our hearts because we love Christ. We love His people. We love His
church. I realize the opportunity we
have to preach on tape and television and through these books and other
ways, but don't, don't, please don't require me to tithe in
order to be righteous before God. Don't, don't tell me that.
Don't tell me if I don't give, I'm not as holy as you. And if
I do give, I acquire a certain plane of righteousness. That's
not so. Charlie, I'm righteous in Christ.
Do you understand what I'm saying? It's a subtle thing. I will, the Lord willing, enjoy
coming to this place on Sunday. Last Sunday, I preached last
Sunday morning down near Tampa, Florida. That's 345 miles from
Albany, Georgia. I finished preaching at 1210.
And Darcy and I went out and got in the car. And we drove
hard as we could drive to Albany, Georgia, 345 miles away. And at 2 minutes to 7, I walked
in Bill Parker's church. Why? Sabbath day, I had to go
to church. Bully on you. I went there because
I wanted to. Wanted to. I didn't go to stop
at Atlanta Stadium to see the Braves because I didn't want
to. And if I had, I'd still be righteous. Christ is my righteous. Do you understand what I'm saying?
If you don't, you better find out. Because if you be circumcised,
Christ profits you nothing. If you're keeping this day because
you have to, and it's your responsibility and duty, you're going to hell.
Did you know that? That's hard, isn't it? But you
sure ain't going to glory, because everybody in glory says, Christ
is my righteousness. I hate to be sublime, but I told
you, didn't I? Don't require me to keep a Sabbath.
Don't bring me under the law of the Sabbath in order to be
righteous. Don't tell me, Don't tell me if I turn on my television
this afternoon I'm not as holy as you are. We don't take a Sunday paper
because we're a little more holy than you are. Well, I take a
Monday paper. You do too. And that's God's
day too. In fact, every day is God's day. But don't set up all these rules
for me to acquire a holiness which Christ performed and perfected
for me. I don't confuse the grace of
God if righteousness comes by law. Christ died in vain. Is
that clear? Christ died in vain. Now, I'm
going to read the Word of God. I love this Word. I love. God knows. Like Peter said, Lord,
you know all things. You know I love this Book. You
love this Book. Mike, you love this Book. And
you're going to read it. I know faith comes by hearing
the Word. I know comfort comes through this book. Ronnie, in
your mother's death, your comfort will come from what God said,
not from what I say or anybody else said, but what God said.
And you know the fleet of the book. Spiritual growth comes
by the Word of God. I want to grow. I want to grow
in grace. I want to grow in the knowledge
of Christ. I want to be a better preacher. I want to be a better
daddy. I want to be a better husband. I want to be a better
neighbor. I want to grow in the fruit of the Spirit. I want to
love and rejoice and have faith and meekness and temperance.
I want temperance in my life. I want humility. But don't give
me required reading to be holy. And don't bring your 13, 14,
15 page constitution to me and tell me I've got to fulfill the
writings thereof to be righteous. I am righteous. I'm righteous
in Christ. And I don't need your catechism
to make me righteous. All I need is Christ, and I need
His Spirit in this world to enable me to grow in grace and the knowledge
of my Lord. That's exactly right. I'm telling
you the truth. And I'll order my home and my
wife and my children in the obedience to the Lord God. I'm the husband
and the father. And we'll pray in our home. And
we'll thank God for the food, and we'll discuss the scriptures,
and we'll conduct our social life, and our prayer life, and
our church attendance, and our giving, and where we go on vacation. And that'll be determined by
the spirit of the living God and the Word of God. Don't send
an elder to my house now. Don't you do it. Don't you send
an elder to describe for me the way to walk before God and become
righteous and accepted by the church. Christ is my righteousness. Is that clear? Christ is my righteousness. And I'm his child. It may be
that I could teach the elder some things. Who made him the official determiner
of the conduct of God's people? Because Christ has given to his
believer, his child, now listen to me, a new heart and a new
nature, that child loves, he can say with David, I love thy
law. I love thy law. What law are
you talking about? Well, sometimes the word law
means the whole Word of God. The whole Word of God. I love
the Word of God, don't you? And I'll tell you this. Hold
on to your seat a minute. I love the Levitical law of God
because it pictures my Lord. That's right. I've got a replica
in here of the tabernacle. I just love it. I love to take
that tabernacle down and look there at the badger skin and
the goat skin and the ram skin dyed red and the white linen. I love to look there at the labor
and all these things and the showbread and the candlestick
and that little art of the covenant and think about Christ. I love
those things. And I love the Ten Commandments,
which are fulfilled in two. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. Our God says,
Thou shalt have no other god before me. I am not interested
in an idol god, one real or unreal. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image. I shall not take the name of
the Lord thy God in vain. I want to take His name in praise. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. That's to the Jewish nation.
Christ is our Sabbath. Christ is our Sabbath. Thou shalt
not steal. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Honor your father and mother. Thou shalt not covet. There's
the basic law of all of them, thou shalt not covet. Be content
with what you have and don't covet anything else. But brethren, don't bring me
all those laws and say, now here's your righteousness. Walk in them,
fulfill them. Christ is my righteousness. Besides
that, I can't handle all of them. I have a little difficulty with
one of them. You say, which one? Just pick it out. Doesn't matter, pick it out.
Whichever one you pick out, that's it. In spirit. Not in the flesh. Even Paul said, I blame this
concerning the law. What's he talking about? In outward
flesh. But in here, he said, I found
out there's a problem in my heart with this thing. See, the law
which says thou shalt not steal doesn't only mean you're not
to take, but you're to give. Isn't that right? Thou shalt
not kill doesn't mean you're just not supposed to take a man's
life. You're supposed to love him. Pick out your worst enemy.
I mean the worst enemy on this earth, the person who's done
you the most harm. You're supposed to love him.
Take him a rose and tell him you love him. He says, I can't
do that. Then you've violated God's commandment.
You've got two coats. Your brother doesn't have one.
Take it to him. I can't. I've got to have one
to wear on Sunday. You see, turn back to Galatians
2. This is the very thing that Paul is saying here to the apostle
Peter. These Gentiles were welcomed
into the family of God. They didn't have the Sabbath
day and the circumcision and the laws and all these things.
And they were sitting there, and Peter was sitting with them.
There's Eden, and boy, he's fellowshipping with them in Christ. Christ was
their righteousness, Christ was their sanctification, Christ
was their holiness, Christ was their justification, Christ was
their... Everything was rosy. Here comes
these legalists in from Jerusalem. These fellas that hold their
head just right, and they carry the Bible just right, and they
have the beard just right, you know. And they keep the Sabbath
day, and they... the tithe and to do all these
things. And they came walking and looking over that bunch of
gin piles down their nose at the bus. And Peter saw them.
He kind of got up and went over here and sat with these gins.
You know, the fellas that were like those fellas. And Paul saw
that. And not only Peter got up, but
Barnabas got up and went over there too and sat down. And some
of the rest of them moved. And boy, the apostle Paul. It was a day of reckoning. Turn
to Galatians 2 and let me show you. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy,
he got angry. He said, Peter, look at verse
50. We who are Jews by nature, not
pagans, not born of gender, we know a man is not justified by
the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now,
brethren, you say, I know that. Well, act like it. Well, I'm not talking about myself.
I'm not worried about myself. I'm not making these rules for
myself. I'm worried about other people. Don't lay a bondage on
them. You came back. You don't worry about other people.
God can take care of His children. Yeah, but if you preach grace
and grace alone, think what people will do. What will you do? Well,
I won't do anything. I'm thinking about what people...
Oh, you're holy. You're a little holier than they
are. If you're not worried about you, you're worried about them.
And you're in worse shape than they are. Look down here at verse 17. If
while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves, also
have found sinners. What does that mean? Listen,
look up here and listen to me. If we seek to be justified, sanctified,
righteous by Christ, Christ alone, and we do not rest in Him, in
Him alone, His righteousness, His obedience, and His blood,
but we seek by our thoughts, or by our preaching, or by our
writings, or by our efforts to add to Christ anything for acceptance,
Then Christ becomes a minister of the law. Isn't that right? A minister of the law. Because
that's what we're ministering. We're ministering rules. Rules
of laws. Laws of statutes. Statutes of commandments. God
forbid. Christ is not the minister of
death. He's the minister of life. Free grace. Sufficient grace. Effectual grace. Look at verse
18. If I build again the things which
I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. If I restore days and ceremonies
and diets and doings, I make myself an unjustified transgressor. For the law demands perfection. It still demands perfection.
You say you've got to do this in order to be righteous. Then
you've got to do it perfectly. And while you're doing it, you've
got to do all the rest of it. So I become a transgressor. In
making an attempt to do this, which I can't do perfectly, I've
made myself a transgressor. I sin willfully. There remaineth
no more sacrifice for sin. That's what Paul's talking about.
I'm returning to the Jewish bondage, which I left. So in leaving it,
and now leaving Christ, I'm in no man's land. That's what Paul's
talking about. If I'm not perfected in Christ,
I'm not perfect. If I'm not perfected in Christ,
I'm not perfect. And if I'm not perfect, God can't
have anything to do with me. Verse 19, for I through the law,
listen to this, I through the law fulfilled in Christ, I through
the law completely honored in Christ, am dead to the law which
says do this and live. Do this and live. That I might
live. Now watch this. That I might
live. That I might live not in sin,
not in unbelief, but that I might live to God. That's why Christ
delivered me from this law of death, that I might live to God.
That's the reason Christ delivered me from this law of sacrifice
and ceremony, that I might live to God. Believers who are not under the
law but under grace, they do not desire to live in sin. They consider themselves to be
under a greater law, His law. A greater motivation, His law. Now look at verse 20. I am crucified
with Christ. I died to this world and this
world died to me. I am crucified. Not interested
in the things of this world. Only as it can be used to make
a living. to survive. Nevertheless, I live. And yet
it's not I. It's a new creature. It's a divine
nature. It's Christ who lives in me.
And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live not in the
strength of the flesh. I live not in motivation by laws
and rules to make myself holy before God, to climb to higher
ground. I live by the faith of the Son
of God. He loved me. He loved me. You know what that means? He
loved me. Well, you just sit there and
think a minute. Just think a minute how much Clarence, you love that
boy sitting there by you. Now, you think about that. He
doesn't know how much you love him. You'd give your life for
him, right? If somebody walked in this room
and said, I'm going to take that boy's life or yours, I know that. You'd take everything out of
your pocket. He got in trouble, you'd take everything out of
your pocket, wallet, bank. You'd borrow money to help him.
Isn't that right? You'd love him. But you being
evil, and you are, and I am, know how to give good gifts based
on your love for him. How much more shall your Father
in heaven give good things? What good things? Righteousness
just to give to them who love Him. He loved me! He loved me and gave Himself
for me! And I don't add one thing to
that. Not for righteousness, not for
acceptance. And I'll tell you this about Clarence. He loved
that boy. If he's in prison, wouldn't you? Sure. wouldn't change either.
And my Lord loves me. He always has and He always will.
With an indescribable, infinite, everlasting, incomprehensible,
undefinable love. You can't even begin to fathom
His love for me and you. So, I'm not going to frustrate
the grace of God. I'm not going to confuse it.
I'm not going to confuse it. I'm saying this, if righteousness,
holiness, I mean holiness, perfect holiness, it ain't no other kind. It comes by law, and all that
was in vain. All he did, all his love, purpose,
righteousness, death, burial, resurrection, and his ascension.
If I got to add something to this. It's all in vain. He ought
to have stayed up there. But he didn't. Thank God he didn't.
And if somebody, somewhere, who by the Spirit of God has got
a hold of this thing, and will not compromise it, will not change
tables, I ain't changing tables. You let them come all they want
to, say all they want to, I'm not changing tables. I sat down
at this table by God's grace a long time ago, and will stay
there. And you know who I welcome to
that table? any sinner who will look to Christ, any sinner. That gospel works. It saves. Our Father, in the name, oh,
in that name, in that lovely, wonderful name of Christ our
Lord, Lord God, without any pretense, hypocrisy, sham or veneer of
religion. We cry to Thee out of an open,
open heart, because, God, You see all things and know all things.
And we cry to Thee out of the depths, out of the depths have
I cried unto Thee. Lord, hear my prayer. Accept
me for Christ's sake. My beloved friends and brothers
and sisters and hearers, Lord, love for Christ's sake. Cleanse them for Christ's sake.
Wash us in the blood. Accept us for Jesus' sake, in
Him. Fill us with Thy blessed Spirit
and knowledge of Thyself. Give us a song in our hearts
and praise on our limbs to the living God who loved us and gave
Himself for us. And Lord, make us dare to, for
Your glory, preach that gospel of grace. In His blessed name
we pray, Amen.