The Apostle Paul had clearly
declared, for by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, it's not
of works, lest any man should boast. His message was salvation
is in Christ and Christ alone. that of God are ye in Christ
Jesus who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And he wrote the Hebrews, for
by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And Christ's sacrifice and Christ's
sacrifice alone puts away our transgressions. We add nothing
to it. And this was the message that
he preached at Antioch, wherever he preached, to whomever he preached.
And there arose a dissension, a problem in the church at Antioch
between the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers. The
Jewish believers were people who had come out of the Levitical
law, the Mosaic economy. There were people who had come
through the types and the sacrifices and the ceremonies and the rituals.
It was required of every Jewish male that he be circumcised on
the eighth day of his life. It was required of the Jewish
males that they be dedicated certain times in the temple.
It was required of the Jewish people that they keep the Sabbath
day. It was required of them that they do certain things.
in order to be accepted before God, fulfilling these types and
examples and so forth. Christ is our Sabbath. Circumcision
is of the heart and not of the flesh. Christ is our Pentecost,
our feast days, our sacrifice. He has fulfilled all these things. They are all done away in Christ.
Not that they are done away without being fulfilled, but he has fulfilled
them. He has completely satisfied them. They were pictures of Him, and
symbols of Him, and types of Him. And He has come and fulfilled
all these things, and now He taketh away the first, that He
may establish the second. And this is what Paul preached.
But some of these Gentiles, some of these Jewish leaders and Jewish
believers, they talk, well, now, yes, Christ died, and Christ
was buried and rose again, and He intercedes, and He's our Savior,
but In order to be a Christian, a Gentile has got to be circumcised,
a Gentile maiden. In order to be a Christian, we've
got to have a Sabbath day, so we'll switch it from the seventh
day to Sunday. We'll make that the Sabbath day,
and we'll have the same rituals on Sunday that we had on the
Sabbath. In order to be saved, a person has to eat certain things. He can't eat the pork and the
different kind of animals that are forbidden in the Old Testament.
He must eat herbs and not meat. He can't make meat sacrifice
to idols. In order to be saved, a person
has got to take the tenth of his income and put it aside and
make sure that he gives that in order to be saved. You see,
what these men were doing, and I think some of them were doing
it in sincerity, I don't know, But they weren't trusting Christ
alone, they were adding to Christ. And they were saying that, all
right, Christ is all right, but now this other, we just can't
do away with this, this is our religion, this is our heritage,
this is our tradition. This is what looks religious,
it just doesn't. On the Sabbath, the seventh day,
it doesn't look religious for me to be fishing. It doesn't
look religious for me not to be keeping this day. And if I'm
not circumcised, like everybody in the Old Testament who was
of the people of God was circumcised. Every man. And so not to be so,
I look like a pagan. So I'm going to do this in order
to look like a Christian. And Paul, this upset him. He says, we're complete in Christ. I'll say unto you, I'll say unto
every man who is circumcised, that Christ profiteth him nothing."
Now what he is saying is this, I'll say to any man who does
anything in order to be saved, that Christ profits him nothing.
Now, if he does it for other purposes, that's different. If
he does it to keep from offending a weak brother, if he does it
for purposes medically, if he does it for purposes recommended,
that's different, but if he does it to look religious, if he does
it to make himself right with God, if he does it in order to
be saved, then he's lost. Same thing is true of baptism. I say unto any man who is baptized
that Christ profits him nothing. Now, wait a minute, now keep
it in the context. I say unto any man who goes in
that water in order to make himself right with God, in order to make
himself acceptable to God, that Christ profits him nothing. I
say to any man who tithes, Christ profits him nothing. Not if he
does it to be accepted of God. If he does it for any religious
purpose, if he does it for any sanctifying purpose, if he does
it in any way to make God look with favor upon him, Christ is
of no consequence or avail to that man. I say unto you who
come here to church this morning, in order to make God look with
favor upon you or to bless your business or bless your home,
If you've come here to the house of God in order to win favor
with God, you've made a mockery of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Not so. But now if you do it because
you love God, if you do it because it's a good influence to others,
If you do it because it sets a good example, if you do it
because you need to hear the Word of God, you need to be fed,
you need to communicate with God, you need to give thanks,
you need to offer praise, you need to worship God, wonderful,
but not to be saved. Christ is the Savior. He's the
unaided Savior. He's the Savior who requires
no one else and nothing else. He is the Savior, the author
and finisher of our faith. But to satisfy and help this
church at Antioch where this dissension arose, Paul took Barnabas
and Titus and went to Jerusalem and had a summit meeting. He
got Peter and James and John and all of those men of great
repute and reputation, and they sat down and talked it over.
Titus was not a Jew, he was a Gentile. He was a Gentile believer, a
Gentile preacher, and Paul took him with him on purpose. He took
him right into that group, right into all those Jews, the apostles,
and sat him down. And he said, all right, what
are you going to do about this man? He's a Gentile, he hasn't been circumcised,
he knows Christ, Christ has saved him, Christ's blood makes him
whole, and they said he's all right. Peter said that, James
said that, and John said that. They didn't require him to be
circumcised. They didn't require anything. They said, Christ is
all. Paul, you go preach that gospel to the Gentiles and Peter,
you go preach it to the Jews. But it's the same gospel for
Jew or Gentile. Christ is all and in all. And they all sure can. And hug
one another and praise the Lord. That's right. That's the gospel. It's Christ. He's able to save
to the uttermost them that come to God by Him. He needs no assistance. He needs no help. Salvation by
the blood. Salvation by the intercession
of Christ. And so Paul went home. Went to
Antioch. Peter came down to visit him.
And everything was fine. He was sitting there eating with
the Gentiles, fellowshipping with the Gentiles, having a wonderful
time. Some of these brethren came down from Jerusalem. The
hierarchy, you know. Some of these Judaizers, some
of these fellows that were still, still couldn't get that tradition
out of their minds, they still couldn't get those works, that
Levitical law, they couldn't turn loose of it. And they came
down, and they kind of looked down their noses at Peter. And
they wanted to know what he was doing, you know, those are Gentile
dogs, those are uncircumcised men you're associating with there,
Peter. So he got up and kind of slipped away from them. and
came over here and sat with these Jews and turned his back on those
Gentiles. And when he did that, other Jews
that were associated with him did the same thing. Finally,
old Barnabas, who was one who went with Paul, who was at the
spiritual summit meeting, even Barnabas was led away. And that's
when Paul, in Galatians 2, He said, I had to deal with Peter
to the face because he was wrong. He was wrong. He was wrong in
his spirit and wrong in his attitude and wrong in what he was setting
forth. That there's any difference in
the people of God made so by any act of the flesh. We're all
one in Christ. We're all accepted in the beloved.
We're all cleansed by the blood. There's nothing added to Christ. Now, let me say this. That's
what led to what he said in chapter 3. But we need to deal tenderly
with the sins of the saints. People will say, well, I've heard
preachers and I've heard people speak in harsh, condemning ways
about David's failure. Be careful. Be careful. I've heard preachers condemn
Abraham's weakness. or Peter's dissimulation and
Peter's compromise, they call it. Well, I couldn't carry their
water buckets. So I'm going to be real tender
and real compassionate and real kind with the sins of these men. Because the Scripture tells me
that if a brother be overtaken in a fault, restore him, how?
With humility. All the time considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted and be led away. I'm not saying we're
to compromise. I'm not saying we're to approve
of any man's failure. I'm not saying we're to excuse
any person's sin. I'm saying we're to understand
it. I'm saying that we're to forgive.
I'm saying that we're to pity. And I'm saying that we're to
learn some things from it. And I learned four things from
Peter's compromise, as they call it, from Peter's dissimulation
or Peter's division that he caused in the church. I learned, first
of all, this. I learned how easy it is for
any of us to hold to tradition. I realized how easy it is, how
custom and tradition and religious rituals get such a grip on us
and cause us to miss the true glory of God. How easy it is
to fall into form. How easy it is to fall into religious
ritual. How easy it is to be married
to a building, or to a denomination, or to a particular catechism
or creed. how easy it is to follow a certain
custom. This was the way Peter was brought
up. Peter had never associated with
Gentiles in forty-some-odd years. It was forbidden. He had never
worshipped with them for forty-some-odd years. It was forbidden. There
was the court of the Gentiles and the court of the Jews. Every man was circumcised who
claimed to know God all his life. He was brought up that way, and
therefore I'm saying this, that let's be careful about pointing
too strong a finger at the Apostle Peter. We may find ourselves
wrapped up in some tradition, wrapped up in some custom, wrapped
up in the way we were brought up. I read the other day about this
gangster that was shot. up in wherever it was, I don't
remember, some New York, I guess, some mafia hoodlum, and they
don't know how many men he killed, they don't know how wicked his
business enterprises are, prostitution and dope, and yet
he would never divorce his wife as against his religious principles.
That ought to hold something, you know. There ought to be something
he holds to. But that's what it said. He had
a stable of women, but he would never divorce his wife against
his religious convictions. He was a Catholic. My friend,
it's so easy, the human nature, it's so easy for human nature,
I mean, I mean even sane people. Peter was one of them. He couldn't
turn loose. of that self-righteousness, that
human works, those human deeds to make God look with favor. And then secondly, I learned
this from Peter's problem. I learned the best of men are
still men, nothing more. I don't guess there was a man
that outranked Peter in the church. I don't guess there was a man
who outranked him. in being used of God. He was
used of God. He was a man God had his hand
on. He was a leader. But man at his
best state is still a what? A man, not a God. Altogether
vanity. I don't care who he is or where
he is in the pulpit or the pew of the Vatican or wherever he
is, he's still just a man, flesh and blood, who's nothing. In
my flesh dwelleth no good thing." Paul was careful to tell people,
you follow me only as I follow Christ. Only. And then the third thing I learned
from this is this. Satan hates the gospel. He hates
the gospel. He hates the gospel of grace.
He doesn't hate the gospel of works. That's his gospel. He
doesn't hate the gospel of human righteousness. That's his gospel.
He doesn't hate the gospel of do it yourself, save yourself
with God's help. That's his gospel. But he hates
the gospel of grace. And he'll use any person he can
to take you from the simplicity of Christ. He'll even use an
apostle. That's right. Christ turned to
Peter and said, Satan hath desired thee that he might sift thee
as wheat. And God permitted it. And that
brings me to the fourth thing that I see from this illustration. The full responsibility for my
failure is upon me. I'm not questioning that. The
full responsibility for my unbelief is mine. It's my unbelief. It's not God's unbelief, it's
my unbelief. If I don't believe everything
God says, it's not God's responsibility, it's my responsibility. I should
believe everything God says. My sins, my conflicts, my temptations,
they come from in here. A man is drawn away when he's
enticed by his own lust, not God's, his own. His own. My Heavenly Father, my Sovereign
Almighty Heavenly Father, has a purpose, has a purpose in everything
that happens in my life. Whether it be success or failure,
whether it be a mountaintop experience or a valley experience, he has
a purpose. And when Peter, for some reason,
it's Peter's own responsibility, It was his own weakness. But when he turned his back on
those Gentiles and moved over here to the Jews, intimating
that there was a difference because of some ceremony, he did it because
he wanted to do it, but he also did it because Almighty God,
my Heavenly Father, my Sovereign Heavenly Father, had something
to say, an illustration to reveal, an object lesson to teach. Now,
God lets some of us fall to teach us what? To have no confidence
in the flesh. Sometimes, you know, sometimes
we'll believe God without being shown. Some of us have to be
shown. Paul had to be shown. God took
him to the third heaven, and when he came back, Paul evidently
had an inclination to think he was somebody. He evidently had
the, evidently, there was some reason that, so God, God Almighty
permitted Satan to bring Paul a thorn in the flesh. He was
a messenger of Satan. That's what Scripture said. There
was given to me a messenger of Satan to bluffet me. Well, God
tells us. Paul said, Lord, take this thorn
away. I don't know what it was. You
don't know what it was. I've heard preachers spend all day arguing about that.
It was poor eyesight. It was this, that, and the other,
you know. But no, he never says what it is, except it was a messenger
of Satan. It was given to Paul, and there
was a reason for it, lest he be exalted. That's why God gave
it to him, to keep him humble, to keep him down. So I'm saying
this. God, Almighty God, things don't
happen without either His directive or permissive will. Nothing.
And when this dissimulation and division occurred here in the
church, and Peter, of all people, was the one who led it, God wasn't
away visiting. He was there. God's hand was
not off that church, nor off Peter. He was there. But He's
going to teach us something. He's going to teach Peter something.
He's going to teach us something. He's going to teach that church
something. They needed a lesson. And this sermon would have never
been preached, Charlie, if Peter hadn't done that. It wouldn't
have been preached. I'm saying the wrath of man will
praise the Lord. I'm saying we never catch God
unawares. That's not a good statement,
is it? But it's subtle. You're not going to catch God
by not looking. He has a purpose for everything
that he does. Job may lose his home and his
riches and his family and everything, but God was there, and it was
all for a purpose. And I'm saying that, that God
teaches us not to trust the flesh, to have no confidence in the
flesh, not to rest in our own strength or ability or knowledge
or wisdom. If God—all of us have got to
be brought down, and God will use different methods to do it.
We've got to be brought to look to Christ and to rest in Christ
and to hope in Christ alone, and God will take a different
route to do it for every person. Children have to be disciplined,
but you don't discipline them all the same way. Some you can speak to, and some
you have to speak to a little more forcefully, and some you
have to speak a little more forcefully. But they must be taught. They
must learn. And we must learn. So these are
the things that in great hymns and great poems and great books
and great sermons are born of great experience. Don't complain
about loneliness as if God had deserted you. He said, I'll never
leave you. I'll never forsake you. God has you in that room of darkness
for his glory and your good. Don't complain of when God visits
you with a heavy hand. And as Naomi said, God has dealt
bitterly with me. No, God's dealt kindly. It seemed
bitterly to you. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. The result, you may have to take
bitter medicine, but it's for your good. It's for your good. So in this, even in this right
here, God was accomplishing his purpose. His purpose. And we must wait to find out
what it is. But born out of all this, there
are four statements in Galatians 3, verse 11 and 12. I want you
to look at it. And I'll try to be brief with
it. But these four powerful statements were born out of this conflict
with Peter. Paul loved him. Paul respected
him. But Paul had to be frank with
him. He had to be honest with him. And he says here in verse
11 that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God.
Now here's the key phrase in that statement. No man is justified
by the law. But the key phrase here is in
the sight of God. That's the key phrase. That's
what it's all about. We may justify ourselves to ourselves. I'm bad about justifying myself. Are you? I'm bad about having
a good reason for what I do and what I say. I've got a good,
I usually got a good reason. To me it's good. And didn't Adam
say, well Lord, the woman you gave me, she started this mess. It wasn't me, it was her. And
the woman said, but Lord, it wasn't me at all. It was the
serpent you made. They were perfectly satisfied
with that explanation. I'm sure Adam was, and I'm sure
the woman was. They really felt that way. It
really wasn't. I wouldn't have done this if
these certain circumstances hadn't been present. I justify myself. I'm the best one in the world
at alibying and blaming others, and for my own comfort, I justify
myself. Now, they may be wrong, they
may be wrong, but I feel like I'm right in all of this. I'm
right. I'm usually right, you know. That's the way we feel.
We justify ourselves. But not in the sight of God.
You may look with approval on what you say and do and are,
but not in the sight of God. And then we justify ourselves
before others. We shave and clean up and comb
our hair and dress up and get our Bibles and run down to church
and look as pious as we can, and folks think we are. And we
give our gifts and we pray, you know, so beautifully, and we
sing and we preach, and folks think, my, he's a good man. And we've done it. We've justified
ourselves. Turn to Luke 16, 15. I read this
the other day in the motel, I read this verse to Brother Kent Clark,
and he said, I'm going right now and get me a sermon on that.
It's such a powerful scripture, Luke 16, 15, look at it. And
he said to them, you are they, Luke 16, 15, you are they, which
justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. And that which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God. So we justify ourselves to ourselves,
we justify ourselves before others, and we justify ourselves before
the standards and rules and laws of our Church. About every church
has a different standard. I read these articles, the church
with a standard. I know what they mean. You know
what they mean. And so we get that standard according
to our social life and we join that church. It lets us do what
we want to do or what we don't want to do and so forth. It meets
the requirements that we are most happy with and we justify
ourselves by that standard, but not in the sight of God. Look
at verse 11, Galatians 3. No man is justified by religion,
by experience, by law, by deeds, by merit, in the sight of God. That's my need. It really doesn't
matter what I think of myself. Job said, I abhor myself. Isaiah said, I'm a man of unclean
lips. Peter said, I'm a sinful man.
So it doesn't matter what my opinion is. If my opinion rules,
I'll go to hell, because that's where I ought to go. So to justify
myself to myself, in the eyes of myself, that's not what counts.
You see what I'm saying? And what you think doesn't count. And what others think, it just
doesn't count. It doesn't help me any at all.
You may look at Ananias and Sapphira. Everybody thought they were doing
great works, and God killed them. So we may justify ourselves in
the eyes of people, but that still won't help me. And I may
get the standard of the Church of Christ or the Church of God
or the Baptist Church or whatever church and fulfill that standard,
like this Mafia man. He couldn't divorce his wife
because Catholicism says you can't divorce. And he met the
standard. He went to Mass, he gave his
money, and he didn't get divorced, and he didn't practice abortion
and these things. He met the standard of his church.
Not in the sight of God. Now, this is the need. Turn to
Romans 4. This is where I need justifying. This is where I need
acceptance. This is with whom I need acceptance.
Romans 4, verse 7. Romans 4, 7, read this. Saying,
Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not charge
sin. I may charge myself with sin. I'm a man of unclean lips. You
may charge me with sin, but what I'm interested in is God not
charging me with sin. See that? That's whose side I
want to be justified. All right, back to Galatians
2, verse 11. No man is justified by the law
in the sight of God. And that's the key statement,
in the sight of God. For the just, for it is evident. Now watch this. It is evident
the just shall live by faith. Here's the key phrase there.
What is the key phrase? You say the just shall live by
faith. Well, yes and no. But what Paul is saying is this.
It is evident the just shall live by faith. It is evident. Evident from what? Well, first
of all, it is evident from the Word of God. It is evident that
the just shall live by faith from the Word of God. The Word
of God says that four times, the just shall live by faith.
The Word of God says, he that believeth on the Son of God hath
life. The Word of God says this, he
that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. These things are written that
you might believe on the Son of God and believing you might
have life. It's evident the just shall live by faith from the
Word of God. That's what this book teaches.
Salvation by faith, not by works. Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him for righteousness. Secondly, it is evident that
the just shall live by faith from the nature of man. It's
evident from my nature that I can't live any other way. I can't live
by feelings, they come and go. I can't live by my obedience,
it comes and goes. I can't live by my righteousness,
it's always going. It's evident from my nature.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin? No. Can the leper change
his spots? No. Can I do good? That I'm born
with an evil nature? No. Even my goodness is oriented
or motivated by self. So it's evident that just shall
live by faith from the Word. It's evident from my nature.
I've got to live by faith. I can't live any other way. And
then thirdly, it's evident from the examples of Scripture. Abraham,
Moses, David, Daniel, all of them lived by faith. And fourthly,
it's evident from the death of Christ. If there's another way
for God to save sinners, why did Christ die? Paul said, look back there at
chapter 2, verse 21, right across the page. from where you're looking
at Galatians 3.11, Galatians 2.21, "...I do not distort, or
confuse, or frustrate, or pervert the grace of God. If righteousness
comes by the law, Jesus Christ died in vain." That's what Paul
said. You see that? So it's evident. It's a clear case that just shall
live by faith. It's evident from the Scripture.
It's evident from my nature. Fredman demand perfection, but
I can't produce it, nor can you. And God requires it. And thirdly,
it's evident from the example of others. You want to be a son
of Abraham? Abraham lived by faith. And it's evident from
that cross. If there's some other way for
God to cleanse and save and perfect and sanctify a lost sinner, that
cross, was the biggest joke that this world's ever looked at.
But it's not. It's the greatest blessing the
world's ever looked at. It's life for sinners. Then look
quickly at the next line, verse 12. And the law's not of faith.
The law doesn't say anything about faith. The law doesn't
provide, makes no provisions for faith. It makes no provisions
for faith. The law doesn't even recognize
faith. The law does not require faith. What does the law require?
Do. That's what it says. The man
that doeth the law shall live by the law. Turn over one page to Galatians
4.21. Just turn to page Galatians 4.21. Paul says, tell me, just tell
me, you that desire to be under the law, you that desire somebody
to tell you what to do to be saved, don't you hear the law?
Don't you hear? You want to know what to do in
order to be accepted of God? I'll tell you what to do. Do everything inwardly, outwardly,
from birth to death, perfectly, just like God's Son did when
he was down here. Pray for men as they kill you.
Clothe men who hate you. Feed men who curse you. Love
God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Enable yourself,
do it perfectly. Work out a righteousness with
which God Almighty can say, This is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased. God has never seen thirty seconds
in my life that he could say that about you either. Look at the fourth statement,
and I quit, verse 13. Here's the good news, but Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. We need to realize,
my friend, that the law of God doesn't change. The justice of
God doesn't change. The justice and the law of God
has a claim on me because I'm a criminal. I violated the law.
There's an old drunk on Skid Row in Chicago sitting on a doorstep. And you could buy him for a quarter.
He'd do about anything you want him to do for a quarter. You
could take him home with you and cut your grass. You could
take him home with you and clean out your basement. You could
take him home with you, just about a dollar. He's for sale. He's cheap. But now you let that
old drunk, that old beggar, that old no-good varmint, let him
kill somebody. Let him take out his pocket knife
and stab somebody. And the police come and lay hands
on him, put handcuffs on him and take him down to jail. You
go down and try to buy him now. All the money in the United States
won't buy him. He is in the hands of the law.
He is in the hands of the law. He is in bondage to the law.
Justice has a claim on him. And there's no way you can buy
him. No way. And this is the way it is. I
may be nothing. I am nothing. I may be just a
speck of dust in God's universe. that got blown off the moon or
something, as they say. I'm whatever I am. But I'll tell
you this, I'm a valuable piece of property because I broke God's
law. I sinned against God, and therefore
the law of God laid hold on me, and the justice of God has arrested
me. And I've got to satisfy that
law. I've got to stay in prison until that law is honored, and
I've got to die under the wrath of God until that justice is
satisfied. But Christ wants me. So what does he do? He comes
to the law and to justice, and he does all that's required of
me. He paid my fine. He paid my debt. He paid all
that the law required of me. He met it fully and obeyed it
and justified me. He satisfied God's justice by
his stripes and by his wounds and by his blood. He died on
that cross. Justice! What crucified Christ? The justice
of God crucified Christ. Because I was him and he was
me. He was identified, numbered with the transgressors. And because
he obeyed it, the law is satisfied. And because he died on the cross,
justice is satisfied. Now you talk about circumcising
a male child and making God accept him. Why don't we go down to
that old bum in prison and circumcise him, then they let him out of
jail. Maybe we go down there and baptize him. Lookie here,
we're going to baptize him, Mr. Judge, so we baptize him. Now
let him go. Nothing doing, the judge says.
That won't touch my law. We go say, Mr. Electric Chair,
Mr. Electrician, Mr. Executioner,
now you let him go, he's gonna eat a cracker and drink a little
wine here and call it a religious ceremony and that'll clean him
up, won't it? Justice looks at him and says, no, he owes too
much. That won't do it. That won't
make it. Got to have more than that. Got
to have death. Got to have blood. His blood! His death! And then I'll let him go. Oh,
don't end my hands, no price I bring. Simply the cross of
Christ I claim. I'm lost, but Christ died for
me. I'm a prisoner of God's justice, and only one can set me free,
and he did it by dying for me. You see that? That ought to finish
the whole thing. That ought to give to every sinner
some hope. And to ever believe a little
assurance, it's done. It's done. Our Father, thank
you for your word, for every promise that's in Christ. Yes
and amen. So it is. Nothing needs to be
added. We're redeemed. Thank you, Lord. We praise thy name. Through Christ
our Lord we pray. Amen.