Righteousness By Faith - Believer's Hope

I invite your attention this
morning to the book of Galatians, chapter 5. I'm going to be reading
verses 4 and 5. Galatians 5, verses 4 and 5. Now, my message is on this subject. Righteousness by faith, the believers
hope. Righteousness by faith, the believers
hope. Now, let's read the word of God
together. If you will, follow with me in your Bibles. As I
read Galatians 5 verse 4, Christ is become of no effect, that
is, of no value, to you whosoever of you who seek to be justified
by the law. You have fallen from grace. You
have departed from the hope of mercy in Christ. That's what
he's saying. You've fallen from grace. You've
departed from the hope of grace, from the gospel of grace, from
the message of grace. for we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith." Now, I'm going to
make two or three statements before I get into the main body
of this message, and I want you to listen carefully to these
statements, and I want you to think about them. Now, the first
one is this. Salvation by grace through faith
is the very heart of the gospel. Salvation by grace through faith. is the very heart of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. In fact, this is the gospel.
Paul said in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And as long as
this message is proclaimed, the truth of the gospel of God's
mercy is maintained, just as long as this truth is preached. Salvation is by grace, by the
grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ. That's the heart
of the gospel. Now what we're saying is this,
that God's mercy alone purposed salvation. God's mercy alone
planned salvation. God's mercy alone provided salvation. Moses says, Lord, show me your
glory. And the Lord said, all right, I'll cause my goodness,
my glories, my goodness, my grace to pass before you. I will be
merciful to whom I will be merciful, I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious." That's in Exodus 33, 18 and 19. God's mercy alone, God's grace
alone provided purpose and planned salvation. And Jesus Christ alone
is the complete and sufficient Redeemer, having secured for
us through his righteousness and through his sacrifice acceptance
with God. He was made sin for us, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
That's what we're saying. When we're saying that salvation
is by grace through faith, and that is the heart of the gospel,
we're saying that God planned salvation, that Christ secured
salvation, and that the Holy Spirit alone quickens the dead
sinner, convicts the guilty sinner, and applies the blessings of
Christ to the believing sinner. The scripture says, you who were
dead hath been quickened or made alive. You who were dead in trespasses
and sins, the Holy Spirit hath quickened and made alive. Salvation
by grace, that's the heart of the gospel. And without that
message, you don't have any gospel, you don't have any good news,
you don't have any glad tidings, which brings me to the second
statement. Now listen to it. Salvation by grace through faith
is the only real hope. for a guilty sinner. The only
real hope that a guilty sinner has. Now, you are holding your
Bible open there at Galatians 5, verses 4 and 5. Look right
across the page on the left. Look at Galatians 4, verse 21,
and listen to Paul. Here is what he says over there
in Galatians 4, verse 21. He says, you that desire to be
under the law, you that desire to be redeemed by the law, you
that desire to be judged by the law, you that desire to be under
the law as a way of life and under works as a way of life,
tell me," he says, do you hear the law? Do you hear what the
law says? Now, my friends, if you wish
to stand before God someday and be judged according to your religious
works, according to your good works, according to what the
law says. If you wish to do that, if you wish to stand before God,
as the law of God, with the law of God as your good, and as your
measurement for righteousness, you're welcome. But first I want
to ask you this, the same thing Paul asks you, tell me, do you
hear the law? Do you hear what the law requires?
Do you hear what the law commands? Do you hear what the law demands
of you? And we're not talking about a
church standard, we're talking about God's standard. God's standard. That's what we're talking about.
Not what your preacher requires, or your church requires, or your
denomination requires, but here's what Paul is saying. You, who
would be justified by the law, you who want the law to be your
standard of righteousness, you who want to be judged by your
good work, tell me, he said, do you know what the law of God
requires? This holiness we're talking about
here, this is not man's holiness, this is God's holiness. This
is not human goodness, this is God's goodness. This is not religious
piety, this is God's righteousness. This is not man's praise, this
is God's glory we're talking about. Tell me, he says, do you
know what's required by the law of God? Do you know what's required
by the holiness of God, the righteousness of God? If you would be weighed
in the balances of God's law, of God's righteousness, do you
know what would be required of you? This is what Paul is saying
in Romans 3.23, when he said, All is sin, and come short of
the glory of God. Now, some of you haven't come
short of what you demand of yourself, or what someone else expects
of you, or what maybe your church expects of you, or your pastor
expects of you, but you've come short of what God expects of
you. All is sin, and come short of the glory of God. This is
the glory that Israel saw at Sinai, the glory which made them
back off away from that mountain with its lightning and thunder
and its clouds of glory. They saw the holy law of God. They saw what it required when
God himself gave it to them, and they backed off. This is
the glory that Isaiah saw when he cried, Woe is me, I am a man
of unclean lips. This is the glory which Job saw. in Job 40 and 41, which made
him say, I hate myself, I repent in sackcloth and ashes. This
is the glory which Daniel saw that made him see his corruption.
This is the glory which John saw in the Isle of Patmos that
made him fall at the feet of the Lord as a dead man. Salvation
by grace through faith, that's the only real hope that a sinner
has, that a guilty sinner has. The law offers us no hope. The
ceremonies of religion offer us no hope. The requirements
of God's glory offer us no hope. The only hope we have is that
God will be merciful in Christ and show us grace through the
merits of his Son. That's the only real hope that
a sinner has. Now, there are two statements
that I want you to think about. First, salvation by grace, unmerited
favor, undeserved favor, through faith. in Christ's merit and
in Christ's righteousness, in Christ's sacrifice, that is the
gospel. That's the gospel of the word
of God. And that's the only real hope that a sinner has. Now,
here's the third statement, and I know this is true. Salvation
by grace and grace alone, by the grace and mercy of God through
faith, is contrary to human nature. It is now, it always has been,
and it always will be. And I'm talking about human nature
in the world and human nature in the spirit. Actually, the
worst enemies of salvation by grace, now listen to me, the
greatest enemies of salvation by grace through faith are not
found in the world. They're not found among the drunkards
and the harlots and the prostitutes and the gamblers and the full-famed
swears. You know where the greatest enemies of salvation by pure
grace through the merits of Christ by faith alone You know where
they're found? They're found in religion. That's
right, it was the religious community that cried, crucify him. It was
the religious, it wasn't the publicans and sinners in Harlot
that cried for the blood of the Son of God. He was their friend.
It was the religious community that cried, crucify him, crucify
him. It was a religious fall of Tarsus
that hated Christ and persecuted the church. It was the religious
fall. who called himself blameless before the law, who called himself
a Hebrew of Hebrews, who called himself a Pharisee. That's the
man that hated the gospel. It was the religious leaders
who killed the apostles. Every one of them were martyred
except John, who was exiled to the Isle of Patmos. It was religious
organizations and the religious establishment calling on the
name of God who sent the martyrs to the stake and to the prison
and to the dungeon and to the fire. Salvation by grace alone,
by the pure unmerited favor of God alone, through the merits
of Jesus Christ, by faith alone, is hated by human nature. Whether
that human nature is clothed in the robes of religion, or
whether it's in the world. And my friend, if you, if you
embrace salvation by grace alone, through the merits of Jesus Christ,
your enemy, And this will be shocking to some of you, but
you'll find it to be true. Your greatest enemies will not
be the rebels of the world, because all of them know if they ever
save God, they'll have to save them. If they ever receive mercy,
it'll be undeserved, or take grace, it'll be undeserved and
unmerited. But the super-religious, the
super-pious Pharisees who are going about to establish their
own righteousness and will not submit themselves to the righteousness
of God, they will be your enemies. They were the enemies of Paul,
the apostle, who wept over them, who cried, breaking my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be
saved. I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge, for they, being ignorant of God's righteousness,
are going about with much ado trying to establish a righteousness
of their own and will not submit to the righteousness of God.
Sovereign mercy is offensive to men who are not guilty, but
sovereign mercy to a guilty man is good news. Sovereign mercy
is offensive to so-called good people, but sovereign mercy is
a blessed, good tiding to the man who knows
he's a sinner. Sovereign mercy is offensive
to the deserving, but to the undeserving it's the gift of
God. Matthew 9, verse 9-13. You turn there and read that. Our Lord was eating with some
publicans and sinners one day, and the religious fellows came
around and they looked over there and saw him sitting with the
sinners and eating, and they said to the disciples, why does
your master eat with publicans and sinners? Why is he friendly
with these people? And the Lord heard them. He knew
what they were saying. And he turned to these religious
leaders, these pious, moral, holier-than-thou religious leaders,
and he said, the well do not need a doctor, but they who are
sick. I am come, not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. You go learn what that means.
I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Have you learned what that means?
The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost. This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief."
Are these just words? We know these verses. What do
they mean? Have we ever experienced these verses? Christ died for
the ungodly. When we were enemies, Christ
died for us. When we were sinners, God committed
his love, poured out. Read the text again. Let's look
at it in Galatians 5, verse 4 and 5. Listen to it. You have no
part in Christ. This is what he's saying. You
have no part. Christ is of no value to you
at all. You have no part in Christ or his righteousness if you seek
to be justified by the works of the law. You have no part
in his righteousness. He means nothing to you. You've turned
your back on the grace of God. you can draw back on the mercy
of God. For we, now watch this, verse
5, for we, fallen sons of Adam, unworthy creatures, guilty creatures,
we, that's what he's talking about, we Gentiles, we aliens,
we strangers, we guilty men, we wait, we wait, we've experienced
his grace, we know something about his grace, we've been brought
to look to Christ, We pass from death unto life, but we're not
yet like our Lord, we're waiting. We see now through a glass dimly,
we know in part, we prophesy in part, but we wait through
the Spirit, through the Spirit. Now listen to this. The Holy
Spirit of God is spoken of here, for it's the Holy Spirit of God
who revealed our guilty nature, who revealed our sins, who brought
us to see Christ as our substitute. We wait. We're not yet like our
Lord. We're not perfectly conformed
to his image yet. But through the Holy Spirit,
we're waiting. Waiting for what? We're waiting for the hope of
righteousness, that absolute, perfect holiness, which we have
in Christ. which some day will bring us
into the full glory of his presence, and we shall be just like our
Lord." That's what we're waiting on. We're not there yet. You
know, John wrote in 1 John 3, Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. Now, right now. It's the gift
of God, eternal life, right now we're the sons of God. But it
does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know this, when he
shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as
he is." And that's what we're waiting on. That's what our text
is saying. It's saying this, you have no part in Christ or
his righteousness or his blood. The fountain of blood is offensive
to those who are clean, but it's good news to the unclean. The
righteousness of Christ is offensive to those who have a righteousness
of their own, but to those who are clothed in rags, it's good
news. So to you who are trying to be
justified by your work and your religious righteousness, Christ
is of no value to you. Christ is of no help to you.
You've fallen from the system of grace. You've departed from
the gospel of grace. You've departed from the righteousness
of Christ. For we wait through the Spirit
for the hope of righteousness, and how? Through faith. That's
the sole and only condition. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life, not he that worketh, or he that
fitheth, or he that earneth, or he that seeketh, but he that
believeth. That's what our Lord said. You
go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,
and he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and
he that believeth not shall be damned. When the Philippian jailer
came to Paul and Silas in the jail at Philippi, He said, Faith,
what must I do to be saved? And Paul said this to it, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
That's the sole condition. We, through the Spirit, wait
for the hope of righteousness through faith. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath life, and he that believeth not the
Son of God shall never see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him. Listen to this hymn. My faith
has found a resting place. Not in device nor creed, I trust
the ever-living one. His wounds for me shall flee. Enough for me that Jesus saves.
This ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I cling to him. He'll never cast me out. I need
no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough
for me that Jesus dies. and that he died for me. I want
you to write down five things that I'm going to give you now
as I close this message. Salvation by grace through faith. Righteousness by faith, the believer's
hope. I want you to write down five
things that clearly define the believer's hope. And here they
are. First of all, our hope is in Christ and Christ alone. Now,
the old Pharisees had a hope in their heritage. They said,
we have Abraham for our father. We know that Abraham is in our
background, he is our father, and we get our religion from
Abraham and we're resting in our heritage. Now, friends, we
know this. Our heritage brings us nothing
but misery. In Adam we died. That's what
our heritage gave us. Our heritage gave us death and
condemnation and judgment, for in Adam all die, and by Adam's
judgment and condemnation passed upon all sin. But here's the
good news. In Adam we die. In Christ we're
made alive. So we have no hope in our heritage.
And then others built their hope on outward ceremonies, circumcision,
Sabbath-keeping, all of these rituals and ceremonies of religion
they practiced. But we know this, that no infant
sprinkling No circumcision, no immersion, no sacrament, no place
of worship, no religious rite, only Christ. In Christ there's
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. And then others find their hope
in moral virtue. But we know the Scripture says
there's none good, no, not one. There's none that understand
it. There's none that seek it after God. None are really good.
Even our most solemn duties are full of self and sin. But we
wait for righteousness in Christ. Christ is our righteousness.
That's the hope of the Christian. That's the hope of the believer.
His hope is in Christ. Not in a profession, in a person. Not in a proposition, in a person. Not in a plan, in a person. Not
in a ceremony, in a person. Not in a law, in a person. That's
where our hope is. Second, our hope is in his grace. Pure grace. God chose us, not because we
love him, but because he loved us. We know that. We love him
because he first loved us. And herein is love, not that
we love God, but that he loved us and gave his Son to be a propitiation
for our sins. God blessed us, not because we
are gracious, but because he is gracious. And God Almighty
saved us, not because we are good, but because he is good.
And our hope is in his grace. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and his righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame I wholly lean on Jesus' name. His oath, his covenant,
his blood support me in this whelming flood. When all around
my soul gives way, he, then, is my hope and my faith. Thirdly,
our hope is in the honored law. Our hope is in Christ I hope
in his grace that he will be gracious to us. We don't deserve
it. We don't earn his mercy and grace. If I go to hell, that
will be my fault. But if I'm saved and I wake up
in glory, God will get the glory for it. God will get the praise
and the credit for it. It's by his grace. I don't deserve
it. Any time that we feel God is
obligated to us, we don't know anything about our sins or about
God's sovereignty. But our hope, thirdly, is in
the honored law. Now listen to this. Any man listening
to me, and we need to examine ourselves. We need to examine
our experiences and our hope and our foundation. The Scripture
says examine yourself whether you be in the faith. Let a man
examine himself and so let him eat at the Lord's table. Let's
see where we stand and in what we're trusting, in whom we're
trusting. But if any of you have any hope for righteousness or
any hope of acceptance by God which diminishes or destroys
his holy law, your hope is in vain. Christ said, I didn't come
to destroy the law. I didn't come to destroy the
law. I came to fulfill it. God's law still stands. God's
law has not been repealed. God's law must be honored. God's
law must be obeyed. And if the hope you have for
acceptance with God or salvation, if it destroys or diminishes
or takes the edge off or dishonors God's perfect law, then it's
no hope at all. Your hope is in vain. You say,
well, what's this hope in Christ? Christ honored the law. That's
right. He honored God's law. He was
gifted in all points as we are, yet without sin. The Father said,
this is my Son in whom I'm well pleased. He said, I always do
those things that please my Father. So Christ, when he came to redeem
us, he didn't destroy the law. He obeyed it. He honored it.
He fulfilled it. He met every demand. We didn't
keep it. He did. We didn't honor it, he
did. We didn't obey it, he did. So
God Almighty redeems us by an act of mercy, but also by an
act of honoring his law. Now fourthly, our hope is in
an act of justice. Now this is important. Our hope
is Christ, our hope is God's grace, our hope is in the honored
law, and our hope is in an act of justice. We're saved right
by an act of mercy. but also by an act of justice.
The guilty must be punished. You read the word of God. Listen
to it. The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. That's never
been taken off of God's book. He said, I will in no wise clear
the guilty. Sin bringeth forth death. The
wages of sin is death. So God Almighty, in redeeming
his people by the death of his Son on the cross, performed an
act of mercy and at the same time an act of justice. Christ
took our sins into his body and paid for them. He paid all the
debt we owe. God can be just and justifier
through the sacrifice of his son, honored the law by his perfect
life, and satisfied justice by his death. Now, here's the fifth
thing. I hope it's sure. It's sure. Let me ask you some
questions. Suppose you were perfectly holy and righteous. What would
you expect from God? I'd expect God to receive you.
Well, in Christ we are holy and righteous. We have a perfect
righteousness. If not ours, it's his. So I expect
God to receive us. Suppose that you were innocent
and without guilt. That's what justification means,
just as if I had never sinned. That's to be holy without guilt.
So what do I expect from God if I'm holy and without guilt?
I expect to be received, accepted. Well, we will be, if we're justified
in Christ. Suppose all your debt was fully
paid. What would you expect from God?
Why, I'd expect God to let me into his kingdom. If I owed no
debt, if the debt of sin was all paid, Christ paid it all,
all the debt I owed. Sin left the crimson stain, he
washed it white as snow. That's what Paul is saying in
Romans 8, 30-34. He said, if God be for us, who
can be against us? Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? Who is he that can do it? Christ
died, was buried, rose again, and is now at the right hand
of God interceding for us. That's the believer's hope, leading
through the Spirit. Wait. It'll be revealed someday
when he comes for the righteousness, for the hope of righteousness
by faith. And our hope is Christ. Our hope
is in his grace. Our hope is in his mercy. Our hope is in the honored law
and acts of justice, and our hope is sure.

Righteousness By Faith - Believer's Hope

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Righteousness By Faith - Believer's Hope

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