Untitled Sermon (16)

Call to worship

Stand, read

After Church if everyone who currently goes to the prisons and the leadership team could meet.

Talk about the nursery and how it will be instituted. Stressing that it is 100% optional.

Update on Ms. Anna?

Appreciation for workday even though we really didn’t play any games.

Ladies to meet at Barbara’s. Teens, children, men here at the Church in their normal groups.

Reminder that next week we will meet on Sunday evening.

Introduction

I don’t normally begin my sermon with a joke but I think today I’m going to change that up a little bit.

A young boy named Johnny had been misbehaving and was sent to his room.

After a while he emerged and informed his mother that he had thought over his actions and then he said a prayer.

The mother was pleased with Johnny’s response and told him that if he would ask God to help him to not misbehave, the Lord would help him.

Johnny looked at his mother with astonishment and said, “Oh I didn’t ask Him to help me to not misbehave, I asked Him to help you to put up with me.”

Always nice to hear a good joke that reminds you of one of your children...

Well as we come together today to worship God both through the singing of music designed to draw our hearts towards Him and also the preaching of the Word.

I want to take a moment this morning and thank you for how blessed my family is by getting to be involved with this whole Church.

These last several months have been a joy and I have been able to truly see the heart of many of you.

Hearts set upon serving one another through serving Christ together.

With that being said I really just wanted to tell you that I am still overjoyed to be here with you all.

But that doesn’t make a very good sermon so I’ll move on to our text for the day.

We’re going to continue on in our journey through Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians so with that in mind, please turn with me to .

Read and Pray

Two weeks ago we began this process of looking at Paul’s rebuke of Peter.

And although we’re examining this text in parts, we really need to think of this as a continuous journey following the Apostle Paul through his logic and argument.

Paul here in this passage is still addressing Peter and his fellow jews.

Yet when you come to these two verses what you see is that Paul in a sense changes gears and begins to expand his argument into new areas.

And this new phase of Paul’s epistle could be summed up like this.

Paul here begins to scrutinize the Law and then he moves on to the most blessed doctrine that we as fallen sinners could ever know.

And that is the concept of justification by faith.

That man could be justified by something outside of himself.

That someone else’s righteousness is applied upon that person simply through faith.

That they are now viewed in a different light and because of this, the beautiful Gospel is applied onto them.

If I could introduce to you what Paul is really trying to show in this portion of his epistle it would be this, the Law and Faith are the two greatest of antagonists.

You might be saying well Cory, Paul has yet to mention the law so

Our human hearts always have a desire to point back to the Law.

Yet Paul’s intention is to bring us face to face with the ultimate issue of Justification.

But before we can examine this issue of justification, we have to understand what Paul means when he uses the phrase, the Law.

I would like to issue you a question.

What does Paul mean when he says, “We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles?”

This is Paul’s way of introducing the Law.

You see, a Jew by nature signifies a person who has been born and bred as a Jew.

Sorry if that terminology brings to your mind the idea of breeding dogs or animals but it best suits the situation.

As funny as it may sound it is very true lol.

They were not only born into Jewish families but their entire upbringing was Jewish as well.

For a Jew to observe and revere the Laws of Moses was nothing.

It was their heritage.

It was their culture, their custom and their habitat from birth.

For the Jew that was brought up in this style of life, these things were second nature for them.

And because of that, there was a deep friction with the idea that they might be wrong in their practice concerning the law.

And to show that Paul wasn’t merely singling them out, he presents to them this argument from the plural standpoint.

In the Greek you can see a direct emphasis on Paul using the word we.

Paul went from using words that were accusative of the individual.

To including himself in the grouping of those he was talking about.

Now a lot could be said about Paul and his Jewish upbringing here.

Yet that’s not where I want to shift the focus.

Instead I want to shift the focus for just a moment over to the heart of the Apostle.

See Paul knew exactly how these Jews were feeling about this idea of the Law being gone.

He was a Jew and was brought in the very same school as many of his fellow jews.

Yet he did not carry an attitude about himself which said that he was better than these other Jews because he now had Christ.

Instead you see a man who took a minute and thought out what he would say to someone in this situation.

And instead of being accusative, he joined them in this and by his grouping himself with the other Jews, he showed a deep sense of compassion for them.

Now I know this isn’t the point of this message but I don’t want to miss this chance to discuss this.

Anyone can come to you and rebuke you and single you out.

Anyone can stand at the pulpit and condemn the individual.

But it takes someone with a heart for their brothers to approach them on the same level and include themselves in their struggle.

That doesn’t mean that you physically join them in their sin when you’re talking to them.

But it does mean that you take a minute and try to understand them.

Take the time that is required for you to actually understand what their struggle is.

And then group your own sinfulness in with theirs because it’s all the same.

And point them to the very place that you would want to be pointed, back to the Person of Jesus Christ.

If we could instill that into our own lives and into our own conversations with one another, could you imagine for a moment the unity that we would see?

It would be absolutely beautiful.

So the next time you want to approach someone in conversation, make that happen.

It doesn’t mean that you change your mind about the issue, it doesn’t mean the you forego addressing the issue.

But it does mean that you approach them as a human being, created in the image of God and deserving of compassion.

For that is exactly what we find Paul doing here.

He knew that he was addressing a people who would very well preserve the law at all costs.

Even if it cost them their lives.

These would be a people willing to go to that level.

They would be willing to give up everything because it was the very Law of God given to them as a national people.

And many of them were zealous to please their God.

They had wrong heart motivations but they wanted to please God through obedience to the Law.

And I bet that if we were honest with one another, we all struggle with this very same issue pretty often.

I know for me I can say this.

There was a point in time when I was a legalistic pharisee.

If you don’t believe me, ask my family when they come to visit.

Ask my wife or even some of my older children.

And I know I’m not alone in that.

My thinking just like many of those who struggle with issue is that this Law is from God and therefore we must follow it.

We must follow it right down to the T.

The problem is this:

Too often when we look at the Law in this way, we develop this mindset that tells us that Law can save us.

We develop this mindset of looking at ourselves and thinking, “oh the Lord would be pleased with me here.”

And in time that turns into us thinking that in someway or another, this strict obedience must somehow be redemptive.

It must bring salvation.

Yet in our hearts need to see and accept that the Law cannot save us.

The only hope that anyone has is to flee to Christ Jesus for Justification before the Father.

And Paul’s point here on the matter is clear.

Against all their cultural instincts, Peter, Paul, You and I have to be compelled to abandon all hope of pleasing God by the works of Law.

It doesn’t matter if it’s the Moral, Civil or Ceremonial.

Being a Moral person doesn’t save them.

In associative learning, the example of jumping for thunder is the same. The difference is that it is a learned behavior from punishment or reward. For example, if someone jumps less each time they hear thunder and they are rewarded with a cookie, they would consciously be striving toward that goal of receiving merit. However if they jump more each time they hear the thunder, and they are disciplined in some way because of this, it would cause them to have a nervousness about not only the thunder but also of the punishment which would probably transfer into them being more alert and responsive when the thunder happens. 

Being citizens of a theocratic nation doesn’t save them.

The outward rituals of priesthood and sacrifices could not save them.

It didn’t save Israel and it can’t save anyone else, including us.

The only hope that they had was to look unto Christ.

In the same way, that is the only hope that we have.

They had to turn from self effort and trust in Christ alone for forgiveness and justification.

We likewise must do the same.

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

That’s what says doesn’t it?

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.

Everyone who would look upon the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved has to come to this understanding.

The law can’t save them.

It couldn’t save the Jews.

It can’t save us and it can’t save the people of Star City.

They, just like us and the Jews need the Gospel.

For it is the power of God unto Salvation for everyone that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

That is only hope that anyone has.

It is the hope found within Christ.

But in order for us to really understand this, we need to go deeper into what Paul is saying here.

Paul uses the words “sinners of the gentiles.”

In this format Paul is using the term sinners to mean transgressors of the Law of Moses.

Now we know that all men are sinners in the primary sense of the word.

It doesn’t matter if they’re Jew or Gentile, they are by nature sinners.

So lets ask a question of this text.

Is Paul saying that the Jews are not sinners but that the Gentiles are?

No that’s not at all what he is saying.

Paul was illustrating that these people had been without the Law of Moses.

They have looked at this passage and for some reason disregarded what the rest of Scripture teaches.

The Law was given only to the Jews and not to the Gentiles.

And they would claim that only the gentile people were the ones who were sinners.

And since this was the case, the common slang for them in the first century was that they were sinners.

They were the law-breakers and the transgressors.

Are you seeing a pattern here?

The Jews were notoriously self-righteous because of who they were.

They believed themselves to be something special and those not in their “class” were nothing but unworthy sinners.

Man if we could only talk about that for a moment.

How often is it that we as Christians want to reprimand the unbelieving world for not acting godly?

Think about this for a second.

We hear about legislation being passed that allows a homosexuals to marry and the first thing we want to do is criticize the people.

Listen, I’m not saying we shouldn’t stand up for Biblical truth and proclaim the Gospel all across the land and in every venue.

But I am saying that we cannot expect the world to live like Christians.

And we shouldn’t mock them for it either.

In the same way that gentiles of the Paul’s day didn’t have the Law.

The unredeemed of our day don’t have the Gospel.

How are they supposed to know how to act?

They live in a world where because of their sin they have suppressed the truth of God.

And by their rejection of Him, He has gave them over to their debased and evil hearts.

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard someone be critical of the actions of those who are unredeemed because they expect them to act like Christians.

Listen, if they don’t know who Jesus is and they haven’t been redeemed by Him, how else are they supposed to act?

They follow the law that they’re given by the civil authority.

They follow this subjective law left up to the individual.

They follow every other form of a law but the Law of God.

They can’t follow the Law of God like a Jew for they’ve hardened their hearts towards it.

They can’t follow Christian principles because they don’t have them!

They can’t follow Christ without a supernatural work being done in their hearts.

So we shouldn’t mock them.

We should be praying for them.

We should be reaching out to them.

If we want the people in Star City to act like Christians, we take the Gospel to them.

If we want the liberal minded people to come to know the very Jesus that we know, we need to reach them like Paul is reaching his own people in this letter.

We need to bring the Gospel to them so that it would break down the barriers of their hearts.

And we can’t break that barrier through Law.

But if I could express to you how important it is for us to treat the outside world as t

It has to be broken with the Gospel.

All throughout the New Testament, Law seems to mean many things.

And that’s exactly what Paul is doing.

Often times it finds it’s roots right back the Law of Moses.

He’s telling the Jews that no person, irregardless of their genealogy will be justified by the Law.

This is something that they should have known.

But many other times it isn’t talking about that at all.

Look at .

And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no living man be justified.

That’s precisely where Paul is getting this idea from.

David in the Old Testament could see this.

Yet the Jew of Paul’s time just couldn’t wrap their mind around this.

They presumed that by their obedience to those things commanded in the law that they would have a standing before the Lord.

But Paul is saying that we can never be declared righteous through the Law.

And it’s not that the Law was faulty.

The Law is actually perfect.

The Law is Holy and just and good.

Just look at what Paul says about the Law in .

So the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

The problem lies not within the Law but within man’s inability to keep it.

Obedience in the Law doesn’t justify a person before God not because the Law can’t do it.

But because we can’t do it!

Because the Law is weakened by our human frailty.

That’s how Paul describes it in .

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did through sending Jesus Christ.

Man has an innate ability within the depths of his person to keep all of the law.

And James tells us that if we keep all of the law but yet stumble at one point we’re accountable for all of it.

So we see that the Law of the Lord is perfect and true.

But man carries within himself the inability to follow it, what should this mean for us?

What does that mean the Law was?

In it’s first aspect it reveals to man something of what God requires of human kind.

Whether it’s in our relation to Him or our relation with one another, the Law reveals to us the perfect and righteous way to walk.

Yet since man is unable walk in this way, the law is then weakened because of us.

Because of our flesh.

One Commentary I read pointed to Augustus Toplady’s hymn and quotes these words:

Not the Labour of my hands, can fulfill thy laws demands; Could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow, all for sin could not atone; Thou must save and thou alone.

What the law could not do because of the sinfulness of human nature, God has done for man.

And He did so in sending His Son to make an atonement for sin.

And this atonement should have been seen by everyone from the fall of Adam all the way through to the time of the coming of Christ.

For right after Adam sinned, God shed the blood of an innocent animal as a covering for Adam and Eve.

And that same portion of the foreshadowing was laid out in the Law in the form of the tabernacle and the sacrificial system.

The author of Hebrews writes it like this:

Authorized Version Chapter 10

For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

Christ is the absolute fulfillment of the law.

For by one offering Christ Jesus has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

And we enter into this through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Sinners are made right through this idea of reconciliation on the basis of someone else’s work.

In any other setting we would call that plagiarism.

In the Christian setting, we’re blessed that God would choose to bestow upon us this wonderful redeeming work of Christ Jesus.

But this still leaves one question unanswered.

How can we be justified on the basis of someone else?

In order for us to answer this, we must first define the term Justification.

In it’s most basic meaning, Justification is declaration that somebody is in the right.

This word in the Greek is dikaioo.

And it denotes God’s powerful, cosmic and universal action in effecting change in the situation between sinful humanity and Himself.

By which God is able to acquit and vindicate believers, setting them in a right and faithful relationship to Himself.

Too often we look at this term Justification and we say that it means forgiveness.

But that’s a confusion of the term.

Our forgiveness is the fruit of the Justification process.

It’s also not our atonement which is the basis of our justification.

Rather it is where God looked upon a fallen world and gave helpless sinners a favorable verdict.

The Righteous judge of all the universe looks upon the one who was to be condemned and grants them a new status in the bar of divine justice.

Instead of judging us upon one level, He places us into a new level where we are judged on the basis of Jesus Christ the righteous!

And because of this, the fruit of our justification is that we are forgiven through Christ Jesus.

The Heidelberg Catechism put out many years ago puts it this way concerning justification in question 60:

How are you righteous before God?

The New American Commentary: Galatians (2) The Incident at Antioch (2:11–21)

Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. In spite of the fact that my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have not kept any one of them, and that I am still ever prone to all that is evil, nevertheless, God, without any merit of my own, out of pure grace, grants me the benefits of the perfect expiation of Christ, imputing to me his righteousness and holiness as if I had never committed a single sin or had ever been sinful, having fulfilled myself all the obedience which Christ has carried out for me, if only I accept such favor with a trusting heart.

This means that justification comes to us by imputation.

That is that the righteousness of Christ is counted to the sinners behalf.

So that they stand before the Father as if they possessed the kind of standing that would make the Father to say to them as He had Christ,

“This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

This, this is radical news to us.

We, you and I have the ability to stand before the maker of heaven and earth.

The one who created out of nothing and spoke the world into existence and be given this great honor of hearing the same words said to us as to Christ.

Do you realize what this means?

This means that we are truly the only religion in the world where no matter how bad of a person we have been, we can have a right standing before God.

The person sitting on death row for the most vilest of offenses can be saved if they would look upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

That means that anyone who would call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ can be given a new standing before the Father.

That means that you today if you’ve never looked unto the Lord Jesus Christ can be saved!

That is truly amazing!

Yet in my amazement, it makes me ask another question.

But this also begs the question.

Why would we ever want to add anything to this?

Why would anyone who has been given a right standing before the Father through Christ Jesus, knowing of His perfection ever want to try and add their own filthy rags?

Beloved, the greatest joy that we can know here on this earth is that Jesus Christ the Righteous has given us His perfect and right standing before the Father.

But knowing this in our hearts and living this out isn’t always that easy.

So how do we live that out?

We don’t observe the law to add anything to yourself when you stand before the Father.

We walk straight according to the Gospel.

We have to apply this to our everyday life so that we will always walk in light of knowing this.

As Luther stated, we must take head to the Gospel which teaches us not what we ought to do, for that is the proper office of the Law, but what Jesus Christ the Son of God has done for us.

This means that as we live our lives we don’t become hung up on the issues with ourselves and lose hope.

For our hope is found in the perfect person of Jesus Christ.

To the saint that looks upon their life and they see all of their faults and wonder how it could be that God would ever show them favor.

Understand that you are not judged on the basis of your own merit.

Christ is the righteousness for everyone who believes.

We are freed from performance and only justified through Christ.

Christ frees us from a place where our yoke is burdened and gives us the ability to walk joyfully by the precepts of the moral Law.

When you sin, you don’t dwell on it.

You repent of it and thank the Lord that you’ve been given mercy through Jesus Christ.

You live your life upon the premise of the Gospel of Grace and not upon the demands of the Law.

Let’s Pray