In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of receiving the provision of salvation through Jesus Christ in order to have a relationship with God and enter His kingdom. He highlights that trying to establish our own righteousness will not lead to being a part of God's kingdom. The preacher urges listeners to give their lives to Jesus Christ and draw closer to their Creator. He also discusses the role of the law in driving us to Jesus and the concept of identification and substitution in the Old Testament sacrificial system.

We are in the book of Galatians We are in the second chapter. The Apostle Paul is teaching us and the Galatians about Justification by grace through faith and this doctrine of justification we introduced last Sunday morning and it is the key. It is the theme of the book of Galatians Justification we are going to this morning begin to dive into some deeper theological waters And so I would encourage you exhort you to have your thinking cap on to be prepared to do some serious theological study in Scripture Don't be intimidated or afraid of understanding these doctrines I'll do my very best to translate them into ideas with which you are somewhat familiar Nevertheless, these theological truths are communicated to us in Scripture It is essential that we understand them and apply them so that we can walk with as much Faithfulness and fruitfulness in our relationship to God through Jesus Christ as he would have us to and so when we talk about these words Please don't let them Intimidate you they're important words and and significant and again We'll translate them hopefully and we will use the scriptures to do so Let's pause for a moment and pray and ask God to be with us and to teach us and then we'll jump into the text of Galatians chapter 2 Lord we do in fact ask your spirit to minister to us to teach us from the word Take these truth these doctrines Lord and may they come alive for us may they leap off of the pages of Scripture and May we understand them in such a way as to walk in obedience to them and that they would bear fruit in our lives I pray this Lord because of what Jesus has done on the cross in order to justify us Amen Okay a context again the Apostle Peter who had of course spent most of his time in the Jerusalem Church a Jew Of course Jewish believer had gone to the Antioch Church Which was north of Jerusalem the Antioch Church being characterized by mostly Gentile believers The Apostle Peter had gone to the Antioch Church to fellowship with them and because of his his faith in Christ He believed rightly that he could fellowship with Gentile believers with no restrictions with no barriers And so when he was in the Antioch Church, he fellowship with them. They went to McDonald's together they went to roundtable pizza. They even went to the famous salad bar at sizzler there in Antioch which by the way sizzler has a great salad bar and they and They went and they fellowship together and there was no problem However when a group of legalistic Jewish Christians called Judaizers Or the circumcision parties were called in Galatians 2 came to Antioch from Jerusalem. They put incredible pressure on The Apostle Peter to withdraw from the Gentile believers in Antioch Saying that Jews and Gentiles are not supposed to associate with each other Peter actually acquiesced to these pressures and he withdrew from table fellowship he withdrew from the intimate fellowship that he had with the Gentile believers in Antioch and Barnabas and other Jews in Antioch also Withdrew with him and the word that Galatians 2 uses to describe Peter's attitude or describe Peter's behavior is the Greek word Hypocrisis from which we get our word hypocrisy Literally, he was a play actor a double-minded man. He was inconsistent between his belief and his behavior and so the Apostle Paul privately and publicly addressed this problem in Peter's life and said you are Wrong you have erected an artificial Barrier between Jew and Gentile and that is wrong. Jesus Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hostility You have built it back up again Do not acquiesce do not submit do not listen to these legalistic Judaizers from Jerusalem the basis of our of our relationship with Jesus Christ is Grace through faith the basis of our fellowship with Christians whether Jew or Gentile is the same grace through faith the only barrier between me and God is Jesus and the only barrier between me and anybody else ought to be Jesus Christ as well and If Christ does not establish a barrier then we ought not to either and so both privately and publicly the Apostle Paul Confronted and rebuked and corrected the Apostle Peter and the fight was on At verse 15, then we pick up this argument. We pick up this conflict. We pick up this confrontation and Now Paul begins to argue his case Not only to the Galatians or rather not only to Peter but also to the Galatians and to us And so he's addressing it in the context of what he said to the Jews what he said to Peter But knowing full well that we are listening also He's trying to persuade us not to do what Peter did He's persuading us not to establish artificial barriers to fellowship with God or artificial barriers to fellowship with other people and If I might say one word of introduction notice then that there are two important applications then and two important issues as far as Paul is concerned of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith one is theological and One is practical or to put it another way one is vertical and one is horizontal One has to do with your relationship with God. The other has to do with your relationship with other people The basis of justification between God and the Christian is Jesus Christ death on Calvary's cross not law not ritual Not church not synagogue, but Jesus Christ death on Calvary's cross. That's the basis of justification between God and the person That's the vertical dimension the horizontal dimension the practical application of that. What should be the basis of your fellowship with another Christian? Synagogue church Ritual traditions and law no, but what fellowship through the cross of Jesus Christ? The same basis for fellowship with God is the basis of fellowship with others. So horizontal Which is a vertical and horizontal Theological practical if you are a Christian and you have received Christ the basis of your fellowship with God is Jesus if You are a Christian you have received Christ the basis of your fellowship with other believers is also Jesus Christ We are not to establish any artificial barriers to fellowship with God we are not to establish any artificial barriers to fellowship with other Christians and That we'll get into in a moment verse 15. Paul says this we ourselves Who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners? Yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and Not by works of the law because by works of the law shall no one be justified Now back up to verse 15 we ourselves who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners in other words It is not that Jews are not sinful and Gentiles are that's not the point. The point is this We who are Jews have been brought up on the law From the moment we were born we were introduced to trained by The law of Moses in the Old Testament. We went to Saturday school literally synagogue school and they taught us continually by rote repetition The law the law the law the law act obedient act obedient act obedient act obedient Don't disobey don't disobey don't disobey be committed to the precepts and principles of the law Gentiles on the other hand were not brought up that way Gentiles were brought up to do basically with whatever they thought they wanted to do pagan religion whether it be atheistic agnostic or or Some kind of polytheism the belief in many different gods was not concerned with the righteousness of God It was merely concerned with whatever the the motif of that particular religion was and so he is making a contrast between the Jew Who was brought up under the teaching of the law and the Gentile who was not brought up under the teaching of the law? And he says even though we were brought up under the law. We do not believe that justification comes by that law Even we who have been weaned on the law if you will don't believe that the law will provide Justification for us now quickly. What does justification mean? That's a word It's a word that means literally in Greek to make or to declare righteous Get this and we mentioned it last Sunday and get this and get it Well, because if you don't understand justification the whole argument will fall apart To be justified needs to be made or declared righteous And if you understand that you will recognize why it is that the law cannot justify Because the law cannot make you righteous All the law can do is describe what righteousness is But it can't make you righteous The law is a cookbook not an oven In other words it can tell you the ingredients that need to go into the cake, but it can't bake the cake for you The law is an owner's manual not the driver It's an owner's manual not the engine it's the owner's manual not the car and the mistake of the Jews was thinking that the law was the oven or the car or the Driver and to think that you could be made righteous by acting righteous No, in fact go back to Romans chapter 3 and you'll notice if you read Romans and Galatians That he argues the very same doctrines and principles in Romans that he does in Galatians Romans chapter 3 verse 9 Romans chapter 3 verse 9 what then are we Jews any better off? No, he says not at all. This is Romans 3 9 For I have already charged that all men both Jews and Greeks are under the power of sin here Greeks simply means Gentiles non Jew Everybody Jew and Gentile are under the power of sin means this sin literally to miss the mark to fall short of God's glory and it means this that we have failed to do that which pleases God and We have actually done things which displeased God We have sinned by omission. We haven't done right things and we've sinned by commission. We have done wrong things So we've failed on both accounts in addition to that it's not simply activity, but it's also verbalization thought patterns and actions and So we failed by omission by commission by thought by word and by deed other than that. We're okay and So he says here that we are all under the power of sin now just for a second lest you think this too severe And I've mentioned this to you before and possibly you will recall we are not even consistent with our own moral code let alone God's We fall short of our own glory let alone short of God If the moment you were born someone were to attach around your neck a very special tape recorder that recorded all of your moral thoughts and decisions things that you think are right or wrong and Then that tape recorder were to be played back at the end of your life Would you have been consistent with every moral principle that you thought or uttered? I? Wouldn't and I doubt that you would either and so we have missed the mark of our own Ethical standards let alone God and so when the scripture says we've fallen short of God's glory That's definitely true because we've fallen short of our own glory and our own glory is much lower than God so we are in fact guilty before God and This concept of justification is no Insignificant doctrine it may be a technical theological term but it's the most important term in the scriptures for this reason and That is that when you stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ the issue as to whether you get into heaven or not is whether you have been justified or not and So don't treat this word as if it is a just a trivial theological doctrine It's not trivial your eternal destiny is contingent upon whether or not you are justified Because what is justification mean again to make or to declare righteous What does God require for entrance into heaven? absolute perfect righteousness nothing less than absolute perfect righteousness Illustration that I've used and many of used before and I'll take it from last night You go to a football game or in this instance We went down to Jack Murphy Stadium with 40,000 other people to watch the races and Everybody went into that stadium had what to get in a ticket. How'd they get the ticket? They are somebody else Brought it for them. Now if you stood at the gate and turned to one of those people and you've seen those people there They have the other his says event staff You seen the big giant people usually big guys, you know football players They've got these big yellow windbreakers on it says event staff very intimidating and they stand there with scowls in their face taking tickets Can you imagine walking up with no ticket and saying gee mister event staff person? I'm a really nice guy and I Was wondering if maybe I could come in and see Ricky Johnson Jeff Ward race tonight I don't have a ticket and but I'm a nice person And I had my Wheaties this morning for breakfast and I love my mom and my dad and I watched Mr. Rogers and everything. Can I come inside to the stadium, please? What were the event staffs got? We'll step on you and squash you and say next please And a lot of people have that view of getting to heaven What do you got to have to get into heaven a ticket? Now I want to this morning. I said and what's the ticket and somebody said Jesus Christ. No Jesus isn't the ticket Righteousness is the ticket Jesus Christ is the payment for the ticket Understand that if you understand that you understand the doctrine of justification by grace through faith The ticket is righteousness and That ticket costs something The law says the law gives the principle of how much the ticket costs How much does the ticket of righteousness cost that gives you entrance into God's kingdom? It costs life There is a life penalty or the reverse of the negative side of that is what a death penalty Attached to the ticket to go to heaven Because the law says if you sin you must die the law says that it's inflexible it's fixed It's a law and God never changes his law So, how are you and I we could never go to heaven because we can't pay that ticket The price is far too high if you paid the ticket you wouldn't be around to enjoy it Unless God somehow in his grace and his love paid the ticket for you Paid the price for you, which is exactly what he did in Jesus Christ And so we're gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ and God will stand there in a huge yellow windbreaker that says millennium staff and We're you know, some people will stand there wringing their hands saying but I was such a nice person God. I Had weeds every day hardly ever watched TV. I was such a nice person and God will say what yeah, I thought you were kind of nice too. I liked you. I still like you In fact, I like you so much I sent my son Jesus why didn't you believe any I Didn't think he was really real. Well, he was he is and always will be you're kidding and Instead of the myth of justification the stark eternal reality of what God had offered them will become known at that moment and every moment thereafter for eternity Which is impossible for me to understand but the scripture teaches that So the doctrine of justification is pretty important is it not and that's what Paul is after he is not only declaring it He's defending it Because he wants people to understand that salvation is through the grace of God in Christ's crucifixion on Calvary's cross And I you know, this room is full of people this morning some of whom I've never met I don't know where you stand with justification before God, but may I encourage you may I exhort you? May I go so far as to beg you that if you have not been justified by Christ if you have not received Jesus Christ as your Savior to justify you that you would do that this morning and if the reason why you don't want to or that you have not is because you're not sure he in fact is the Savior do your Homework to find out that he is because let me he is the Savior and If you haven't done your homework, it's not his fault And so you need to ascertain to discern to determine whether or not Christ is who the scripture says he is if Paul is right or wrong And he's right. Paul is correct and He and I and God we all want you to be justified To give your life to Christ and to receive from him the righteousness that you need to go to heaven. I Gave you a verse last week 2nd Corinthians 521 And I asked this first service. Let me ask at this service. Has anybody memorized that verse? Just out of interest sake 2nd Corinthians 521 and and if you say yes, you know what I'm gonna say I'm gonna ask you to quote it. So don't say yes, unless you have or you'll be very embarrassed when I call upon you 2nd Corinthians 521 Anybody memorized that verse somebody had actually memorized at first service. They were able to quote it with a pessimist verbi The exact words of the text anybody Okay, next Sunday. I'll ask again 2nd Corinthians 521 and and that's a very very important verse to memorize because it is the key to Justification recall I said last Sunday. It is a one-verse explanation of Justification by grace through faith in Christ and it says this for our sake He made him to be sin who knew no sin that in him we might become the righteousness of God For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin that in him we might become the righteousness of God The he is God the hymn is Christ to us is us and The righteousness is the very righteousness of which we are speaking this morning. That is God's requisite for going into heaven for us You will not make it into the kingdom of God if you don't have the perfect righteousness of God and friends You can't achieve it. You must receive it as a gift and Pardon me for beating this drum, but I must do that if you are holding out thinking that somehow you're going to be good enough to get to heaven by simply The good things that you've done in life that is mythological That is simply not true and you are gambling your eternal destiny on a false doctrine you must have God's righteousness to get into God's kingdom and that righteousness comes through Christ and through Jesus Christ alone and Therefore you must rightly respond to him if you want to be a part of his kingdom. So Romans chapter 3 verse 9 What then are we Jews any better off no not at all for I have already charged that all men both Jews and Greeks are under the power of sin as It is written None is righteous not even one No one understands. No one seeks for God All have turned aside together. They've gone wrong. No one does good not even one Their throat is an open grave They use their tongues to deceive the venom of asps Those are poisonous snakes is under their lips Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood and their paths are ruin and misery and the way of Peace, they do not know there is no fear of God before their eyes you read that text carefully You will see he addresses the way people think The way people speak and the way people act and walk the three ways a person can sin attitude word action And he addresses that our sinfulness finds its way into those three dimensions of human behavior thought pattern Way of speaking an activity we participate in verse 19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law So that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law since through the law comes knowledge of sin Now let's stop there for a moment because this also is a very important doctrine and I want you to get this and this is again Where the Jews had failed to understand what God's plan and purpose and kingdom program were all about the law was never intended to save It was never God's intent that the law should save notice The text says by works of the law shall no flesh be justified Now don't raise your hand, but if I were to ask you this question And say and now don't raise your hand But if I were to say everybody who believed in the Old Testament, you were saved by works of the law Raise your hand normally speaking. We get a fair number of people who would raise their hand in Christian churches People who believe that in the Old Testament people were saved by works of the law But what does the text say by works of the law shall only New Testament Saints Or only Old Testament say what does it say in the text by works of the law shall no flesh be justified friends Salvation in the Old Testament was by grace through faith in God's provision which was Jesus Christ yet to be and the New Testament salvation is by grace Through faith in Jesus Christ who was on the cross So, what does the law say if you sin you shall Die and yet in the Old Testament people still sin thus what provision was there for the Old Testament believer? Animal sacrifice which was the death of a Externally perfect life as a symbol of the future death of Christ who would pay the eternal price for sin Again, let me say that in the Old Testament Salvation is by grace through faith in God's provision because even Old Testament Saints sinned And you know that if you read the Old Testament, that's one of their famous legacies is sin We are walking in their legacy. Unfortunately today in the new covenant But what happened when an Old Testament believer sinned was their provision? Yes an animal sacrifice whose life was given as a substitution for the believer and A symbol of the future death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who would pay the eternal price for sin Okay, so the law was never intended to save it was only intended to demonstrate what righteousness is now mark this and market well the role of law still today of Moral law of God's principles and precepts is not to provide righteousness within you It is simply to give you a reference point by which you know, what righteousness is The law can't make you righteous It can only give you a reference point so that you can know good from bad right from wrong truth from error Again it is merely the cookbook. It is the descriptive role Notice if you are obedient, this is really interesting theologically if you are obedient at any point to a law new or old covenant law That doesn't make you righteous. That's just a righteous act. That's all that it is a Righteous act in and of itself by itself means nothing Except that it's obedience to God's moral code at that point, but it doesn't mean that you yourself are righteous Righteousness must come from within not from without Justification is internal not external it expresses itself externally. That's why the Bible says faith without works is Dead because if you're justified by grace through faith, it will express itself But you cannot make yourself righteous by being obedient out here and hope that it seeps and finds its way inside That was the mistake of the Judaizers and it's the mistake of legalists today Who think that I'm going to become righteous if I act righteous enough? Never absolutely never because the law is simply a statement of truth. That's all that it is This was so demonstrated to me last week. How many of you had an opportunity to see the Stanley Siegel show last week? I Called me up in the morning asked me to be on TV On Wednesday morning. They said would you be on TV tonight? They said, you know, I somewhat apologized for this. I Wasn't the topic I've normally discussed but they they asked me if I would be willing to come on television and talk about Condom advertisements on TV. That's what I don't own any condominiums. I don't know I Ain't a study about those things. I don't know. They said no. No, no, mr. Kite. We're talking about prophylactic contraception I said, oh you want me to talk about that? I said, yeah. Okay. All right. Well, okay I'll think about it And so they wanted me to be on there and to debate a fellow from the San Diego County AIDS project Well when they said that is that I'll be there Tell me what the topic is Anybody on that I'll debate them and so they had me on it was really interesting was as I prepared for this all during the day I read and read and read and Did a quick eight-hour crash course on condominiums and Called my real estate people and so then we Went on TV and and I gave my case argue my case my case was that Putting condom ads on TV to somehow give the impression that it will defend us against AIDS Protect us against AIDS is like saying that to protect oneself against radioactivity when you play around with radioactivity You should wear a lead-lined protective suit Well case in point if you play around radioactivity sooner or later. Somebody's going to what? Get burned and and die if you play around with radioactivity sooner or later. Somebody's going to die I don't care if you wear a protective lead-lined suit or not Somebody's gonna die same thing with AIDS you play around with homosexual or perverted sex sooner or later Somebody's going to what to die So to put condoms on TV as if somehow that's gonna stop the spread of AIDS is ridiculous That was my point. Then I said the only scientifically provable way to not contract a sexually transmitted disease is Abstinence before marriage and faithfulness in marriage Stay a virgin marry a virgin and commit yourself to a monogamous faithful marital relationship for a lifetime One man one woman one lifetime one marriage. Amen Well, guess what the people said this is interesting and I said that's God's law But millions and millions of dollars have been used to study and to research to find out all kinds of truths about Sexually transmitted diseases and all of it and you know what for five bucks you can buy a Bible and the whole thing can be said True You know and cost as much as 80 if you get a rivalry study Bible leatherback edition But it's still less expensive than the millions of dollars. We've already studied what was fascinating Was that the people who were there and even the people calling in and the articles and time of Newsweek? All we're saying the best thing for all of us is abstinence People agree with that now But you know what's really interesting is students in San Diego State as well as the articles and time and as we've said although abstinence is Bulletproof People won't do it. I Thought that is an example of a difference between law and Jesus Christ Law simply says that's right and that's wrong And if you do the right here the positive consequences if you do the wrong there are the negative consequences But just saying that means nothing in terms of getting it done Turn to a four-year-old and say would you please park my car? I don't say that because she'll try the second thought Let's back up on that Give a child a task you cannot perform and you're frustrated and you know something the law was intended to frustrate us and drive us What does the law say be perfect doesn't say that does the law say oh, it's okay If you mess up every now and then the law does not say that the law says be perfect Now, what are you gonna do about that? I am gonna run to the arms of the Messiah who gave his life for me To provide the righteousness of God in my heart, then I might stand fully cleansed before the judgment seat of the Holy God of the universe These poor students from San Diego State these poor authors in time and news me could say with all sincerity and scientific data Abstinence chastity are the best but alas and alack people won't do it. In other words people are dying to have sex Well, I'm afraid sometimes theologically we do the same thing in the church We act as if law is alive But it's not alive Law is simply a truth that the Living God gives and so your salvation Your righteousness Your spirituality your joy your fulfillment is not through relationship with law But through relationship with the Lord who's the lawgiver and you will find yourself acting far more righteous In relationship to the law give your in relationship to the law You are not being called into relationship with rules and regulations and restrictions and responsibilities You're being called into relationship to the Living God of the universe who gave his life for you on Calvary's cross and dog of the nearly 2,000 years ago And if you try to embrace the law as a way of salvation, you won't be saved Because the law simply cannot save you. It can only tell you what is right and what is wrong And if you've ever tried to embrace the legalistic Christianity, you know, the frustration and anxiety and utter defeat that it brings And so what he says here in Romans chapter 3 Again, is that the law cannot justify but rather the law points to sin or gives us knowledge of it Turn to Romans 10 east of Romans 3 about seven chapters Isn't Galatians fun? Romans chapter 10 verses 1 and following brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God for them as if they may be saved Well that just expresses how I feel about the whole wide world My heart's desire and prayer to God for them as if they might be saved My heart went out to those people on the Sydney see our Stanley Siegel show How many heard on the line yesterday our radio program John rules general's said Tim was on Sydney live the other day I said John it wasn't Sydney's name is Stanley. It was all whatever. He didn't get your name, right? So don't The guy can't talk He had marbles in his mouth and and there's a good reason to for changing the name of our church Mission Evangelical free church is a mouthful. I don't mean change our affiliation I just mean change your name to something simple like the church, you know It's Stanley was he was stumbling and bumbling and mumbling over that word that name. He could not get that out and So he's a square cake But my heart went out to those people I they're just lost Completely and utterly lost and they need some lights to shine in their darkness And so what Paul says in Romans 10 1 is certainly the attitude I think that we all share verse 2. I've there been witness that they have a zeal for God, but it's not enlightened It's not according to knowledge full knowledge Of the truth of who God is that full knowledge God desires each one of us to have in relationship to salvation They don't have that There's nothing worse than zeal without knowledge that ignorant zeal is is It's a it's a one of the greatest tragedies in the world is you see people religiously motivated in ignorance And I saw that again that evening as people stood up and said well, I'm going to speak definitively here about This AIDS issue and they speak with zeal and enthusiasm When once when they asked the students of Stanley asked the students you believe that these advertisements encourage young people to be promiscuous Absolutely, not they said with great flair and alacrity Absolutely, not Well, they're wrong They're zealous. They mean well, and they're wrong in this case Lethally wrong in many instances. Unfortunately, I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it's not enlightened The same thing theologically many people have great theological zeal for God but it's not enlightened for it says being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God and Seeking to establish their own they didn't submit to God's righteousness Well, that's a great verse for our study on Justification, isn't it Romans 10 3 underline it mark it circle it do whatever you do to mark in your Bible for for being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God and Seeking to establish their own righteousness. They didn't submit to God's righteousness. There it is Again, the whole issue is do you have his righteousness not your own but his Don't be caught with your righteousness now. You've got to have his righteousness Now what's particularly? Seductive about legalism is That it's it appeals to pride because people like to think that somehow they've merited Yeah, I've earned it belongs to me I've done it I I just happen to be better than the average person I'm gonna go to heaven Quite frankly, I deserve it Now we laugh but there are entire theological persuasion and millions of people today who are going to go to hell because they think they ought to go to heaven and some of them some of them are in evangelical churches and So when it says here that they're ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God that's what you should beware of watch out of ignorance of God's righteousness and Therein it gives you a key to true spirituality true spirituality is a right understanding of God's righteousness How you get it what it is and how you walk in it how you express it how you share with others how you nurture It and other people that's true spirituality Understanding God's righteousness not man but God and Not just knowing God's righteousness But understanding where it comes from how to get it how to live in it how to express it how to teach it how to All of that that's what true spirituality is a right understanding literally an epinosis of God's righteousness true knowledge full knowledge of what the righteousness is that comes from God and Don't seek to establish your own verse 4 for Christ is the end of the law that everyone who has faith may be There's our word. Maybe what Chicago justified made or declared righteous everyone who has what? obedience No Everyone who has what hey Now back to Romans 2 because that then thrusts us upon the horns of an apparent dilemma If I'm saved by faith and not by obedience Then isn't that a motivation not to be obedient if I'm saved by grace through faith. I'm off the hook I don't have to obey I can sit up a storm. God gets glory. I get saved and I can sin and enjoy myself, right? Wrong except that's the argument that people brought against the Apostle Paul and you've probably heard that same argument from your friends when you share that Salvation is by grace. They say great. Where do I sign up? And you say well, hold on a second Do you want to receive Christ because you're convicted of sin and want to get rid of sin? But you want to receive Christ because you're committed to sin and you'd like to be forgiven for it while you can still do it and if it's the former you're saved if it's the latter you're not and And unfortunately a lot of people see in grace a license to sin and they go to these soft gospel cheap grace churches The easy believism that has characterized our generation God loves you just the way you are and you never have to change just go to our church as often as possible where Southern, California Pastel colored clothing and Everything will be okay well, no, that's not what the scripture teaches and Paul gives the argument here in Roman or in Galatians chapter 2 Notice, he says this is the verse 17 This is the argument people use against grace, but if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ This is Galatians 2 17 and he's giving the opponent's argument But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners Is Christ then an agent of sin Now what he's saying is just what I earlier a moment ago said that is if I receive Christ By grace, and I'm justified by grace. It's Christ not then stripping me of my motivation to be obedient and Paul answers with his famous No way Jose There's some people from Spain. They're in Antioch and he was just relating to them. Listen Never absolutely not. Certainly not. It says in the RSV But if I build up again those things which I tore down that I proved myself a transgressor in other words if I embraced law as a Jew and Then I embraced Christ as a Christian and then go back to the law What do I do to myself? We just saw what's the function of the law to indict and to find guilty. That's the role of the law So if I go back to the law I'm only what putting myself in a place whereby I am not saved but indicted and found guilty the law can't say that can only condemn and so if I tear down the law through Christ and Then go back to the law to construct it again as a system for salvation. What do I do? I lock myself into condemnation That's what he's saying don't go back to the law and notice who is he arguing against Jewish Christians who attempted to add to Christ Circumcision and the law of Moses he's saying don't do that because if you do that, what are you gonna do? You're gonna condemn yourself because you can't keep the law and so don't go back to it if you do you indict and condemn yourself and That's not according to knowledge you would say then verse 19 beautiful beautiful piece of theological Argumentation verse 19 for I through the law died to the law that I might live to God I have been crucified with Christ and pause there for a moment. I have been crucified with Christ I through the law have died to the law. I've been crucified with Christ. Notice what God does. This is beautiful We'll see it again in Romans chapter 7 If the law Finds you which it does and indicts you which it does and convicts you and condemns you sentences you and then Actually executes you you are free of any Jurisdiction or power of the law anymore Because the law has done what's supposed to do problem is once you have been executed. You're not around to enjoy in the law anymore But what if? Hypothetically, what if somehow the law were to find you? indict you Condemn you sentence you and then execute you But then you resurrected and you lived again after you were executed imagine you go before the law court It says guilty electric chair off you go. They put you in electric chair. They strap you in It puts a little cap on your head. They throw the switch And you die and They all too bad for him or her and then they take the cap off and you wake up and you say thanks Appreciate that. I'm free now and they go And you walk out Does the law have any jurisdiction over you anymore at that point? No, why not? Because it is discharged. It's justice. I Didn't mean that really that shocked me when I said it Sorry, I was my current joke, but never met never let go to Roman seven I'll be saved by Romans You all are saying justification. It better be by grace because title never make it if it's by works He's hopeless So if somehow somehow in God's Kingdom economy We could be killed by the law and still be around to live to enjoy being free from the law Then everything is settled. The law is justified. It's killed us We are Saved because we're alive. So how are you going to get us killed but alive? That's the big problem Well, he said in Galatians 2 I have been crucified with Christ He from any condemnation under the law legally. I Can pull your file and it can say yep on such-and-such a day So-and-so was crucified in Christ and is now free from any condemnation because they've died In Christ you were nailed to the cross and you died and when Christ resurrected you resurrected with him by faith by spiritual unity and Thus the law no longer has any condemning jurisdiction over your life. And when Satan comes to you and says all you sinned You've sinned you're condemned and you say well, that's right It was condemned and Christ took the condemnation for me on the cross and the sin that I just said I hate more than you do And I'm going to seek to bring the power of the Spirit and the principles of Scripture and the fellowship of the church to bear In that scene and get rid of it, but I'm forgiven already through Christ and you have no more condemning power Romans 8 1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death for God verse 3 says has done what the law Weakened by the flesh could not do I love that God has done what the law could not do Sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the just requirement of the law. What's the just requirement of the law? perfect righteousness and death for any infraction of that He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit That's a wonderful piece of theological expression of God's kingdom ministry now look at Romans 7 verses 1 through 6 Which is a commentary on Galatians 2 19 Literally by the way Romans 7 1 through 6 is a commentary on Galatians 2 19 That also teaches you the principle that scripture interprets scripture The best interpreter of the Bible is the Bible Remember that it is a Absolutely necessary doctrine for right interpretation of the Word of God verse 1 chapter 7 book of Romans Do you not know brethren for I am speaking to those who know the law that the law is binding upon a person only during His life thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives But if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is yet alive But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and if she marries another man, she is not an adulterous In other words, what's the point same thing as long as there is someone left alive in this case in the marriage The law is still binding the law is still binding but should the spouse die no longer is the Law binding on that person and they are free For verse 4 likewise my brethren you have died to the law through the body of Christ This is so important. Don't miss this So it says my brethren you have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another To him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God While we were living in the flesh our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death But now we are discharged from the law dead to that which held us captive So we serve not under the old written code, but in the new life of the Spirit So in the Old Testament people were wedded to the law They were wedded to sin they were wedded to their own weakness But through Christ, they not only died to the law, but they've also been resurrected in life to remarry Jesus Christ In other words in the Old Testament Israel was wedded to the law into their sins and to the sin nature Through Christ that marriage has been dissolved the marriage of the of the believer to sin of the believer It's a law that condemns of the believer to unrighteousness That wedding that marriage has been dissolved Who has died? to dissolve the marriage the believer has through Christ and The believer has been resurrected and thus the believer is free to remarry and who does the believer remarry? Jesus Christ and the righteousness of God Now, like I said, this is somewhat complex But it is so clear what Paul is teaching in Galatians when you unpack it with the rest of what scripture teaches God in Christ has made provision for us and That we identify with him because he is our substitute now the Jew should understand this The Jew should understand this turn way back to the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament Leviticus, that's the book where all the pages are stuck together in your Bible Leviticus chapter 1 now again, we've mentioned the principles the doctrines of Substitution Christ died for me paid the price for me and the doctrine of identification I died with Christ and thus I died to the law The law had its jurisdiction and had its condemning power and authority over my life through Christ And now I've resurrected again with Jesus and I'm alive to enjoy my relationship with God verse 1 Leviticus chapter 1 The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting That's the tabernacle and he said speak to the people of Israel and say to them when any Man of you brings an offering to the Lord. You shall bring your offering of cattle from the herd or from the flock If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish He shall offer it at the door of the tent of meeting that he may be accepted before the Lord that Old Testament language of justification That you may be accepted at the tent of meeting before the Lord that's the same issue the same doctrine the same principle in an Old Testament motif and the Old Testament picture of an earthly picture to demonstrate and illustrate a heavenly truth Because we're not going to stand at the door of an earthly tabernacle to seek entrance to the kingdom But at the door of the heavenly one verse 4 he shall lay his hand. That's the worshiper the sacrificer the sinner shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt offering and It shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him Now in verse 4 are both the doctrines of identification and substitution so in two verses you've got justification substitution identification Leviticus chapter 1 book of grace through faith you see it What does it say what says this you lay your hand upon the head of the animal sacrifice now? Why would the believer lay his hand upon the head of the animal sacrifice for one reason to identify? To say that this animal is going to be the substitute for me and Through this animal's death. I'm going to die to the just condemnation of the law What does the law require if you sin you what you die? if you sin you die, that's what the law says except when there's provision that someone else can stand in your place to die for you and Here we don't have people dying for us. We have an animal now this also taught how very very Seriously God takes sin and we're not don't have time to go through all the text but all kinds of things had to be done for the animal sacrifice among them was the animal had to be killed and dismembered and gutted and properly cut up Who did the cutting up of the animal the priest everybody says the priest usually it's not the priest If you read the text carefully who cuts up the animal the sinner cuts up the animal and hands the pieces to the priest Now why would God have the sinner cut up the animal because God wants you to know that as that Animal is being if you will dismembered and dies this gruesome death that if it wasn't for his grace, that would be your spiritual condemnation Sin is that serious and if you've ever butchered an animal from Alive and standing to dead and cut up. It's no pleasant experience. And so here we've got justification Substitution the animal for the person and in identification Where the person lays the hands upon the heads of the animal and says I'm identifying my sins with this animal who's going to die in my place Notice that says to make atonement in the text verse 4 To make atonement for him the word atonement if I know what the word atonement is in Hebrew What is it? Yom is the word for day words were atonement is Kapoor Yom Kapoor is the day of atonement and that means to cover not to cleanse or eradicate but to cover and so the Hebrews had to sacrifice animal after animal after animal because Because the blood of bulls and goats can't take sin away They can only cover it Now how many times did Christ have to shed his blood to take sin away and ever since Christ was crucified No more animal sacrifice and to make sure that God destroyed the temple in a decent Going on quickly in the text Leviticus chapter 1 then he shall kill the bull before the Lord and that works both ways Think about that it'll sink in later and then and Aaron's sons the priest shall present the blood and throw the blood round about against the altar that is at the door of the tent Of meeting and he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces Notice that he here is the what is the sinner is the offerer is the Sacrifice and the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and lay wood in order upon the fire and Aaron's sons the priests shall lay the pieces the head the fat in order upon the wood that is on the fire upon the altar and it's But it's entrails and its legs he shall wash with water and the priest shall burn the hole on the Altar as a burnt offering and offering by fire a pleasing odor to the Lord Now had it not been for God's grace who would be dismembered and burned on the altar by fire We were Sinner was but God and his grace has made provision for us And so Jesus Christ was nailed to that cross on whose behalf Ours and if we put our faith in him, we are unified with him Spiritually, we die with him. We resurrect with him. We're dead to the law. We're alive to God in Christ Let's finish in Galatians 2. Are you with me on the theology here now justification? Have we? Explicated that to some degree Okay, now we're not going to be done with it because Paul doesn't done with it as you might well know Paul doesn't let anything alone. He just keeps after it like a I was gonna say like a Krishna on a traveler in a airport, but that's The guy said last night him this guy on the announcer in the motocross He has all these these kind of strange things and he's talking real fast and the guys are racing around there goes Yeah, Johnson's on machine machines on Johnson like a Krishna on a traveler in the airport. Everybody's going. Where's the Christian? Galatians 2 let's finish For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Is that verse read differently than it did before you were here this morning I Hope so. I do not nullify the grace of God for a justification where through the law then Christ died to no purpose And so I'll leave you with this thought And it's just a repetition of what we've said If you seek to have a relationship with the Living God and if you seek to be in his kingdom forever you must receive the provision he's given you through the Lamb of God Jesus Christ and Should you choose to establish your righteousness on your own? You will not be a part of God in his kingdom And I invite you I exhort you this morning to give your life to Jesus Christ While listening to this tape, perhaps God's Spirit has been talking to your heart If you felt the need to draw closer to your creator, why not start today? God has provided a way for man to enter into relationship with him forever through his son Jesus Christ Jesus said I'm the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father, but by me The Bible says that as many as receive him to them give he power to become the children of God You too can receive him right now by asking him to forgive you of your sins And asking him to come into your life and to be Lord and Savior of your life If you'd like to receive Jesus Christ in your life today you can do so through a simple little prayer just open up your heart and Repeat this prayer with me. Lord Jesus. I admit to you that I am a sinner. I Believe that you died on a cross for my sins Please forgive me all of my sins Please come into my heart and into my life Please make my life acceptable unto you Thank you Lord for your gift of eternal life And I receive you this day In Jesus name I pray Amen Now if you pray that prayer with me right now you are a new person All your past sins and faults have been forgiven by God and in his eyes you are a brand new creature The Bible says that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature old things have passed away and behold all things become new Now as a newborn spiritual infant, you should seek the sincere milk of God's Word so that you may grow by it So read your Bible and pray to the Lord often and seek out other Christians and enter into fellowship with them We'd love to hear of your decision for Christ I'd love to give you a free study of the book of John on cassette by Pastor Chuck Smith Jesus never turned a spiritual or hungry or thirsty soul away, but filled everyone who asked So we'd like to do the same for you in his name So, please write to us At the address on this tape and tell us of your needs and what the Lord has done for you today May the Lord bless you now and keep you in everything you do and everything you say welcome to the family Oh