My text is going to be Galatians chapter 3 verse 1, but I am going to cover a few things back in chapter 2 verse 21, the last verse there. Let me just say by way of introduction that the church is called to defend the gospel, and that means we're to give an answer. for the gospel if we are asked. Peter says it this way in 1 Peter 3, verse 15, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. If we're answering a question, we're really answering it to God first before we speak to others. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Paul, the prisoner of the Lord, said, I am set for the defense of the gospel. Those are the same words. Give an answer and give a defense. Give a defense for the gospel. Why? What is at stake with regards to the gospel? That it requires a defense by the Lord's people who believe that gospel. Why does it require a defense? What's at stake? Well, in Galatians 2, verse 21, Paul tells us that the grace of God is at stake. The grace of God. This is what Paul was defending. Paul was adamant. He was very much engaged to ensure that the grace of God was not defiled by men and the religion of man. And so this is an understanding by the people of God that we are saved by the grace of God. That's what saves us. It's God's grace that saves us. We are saved by grace through faith. And he says, I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And that's very powerful. He's laying down a very strong argument of why we are to defend the gospel, because he's saying Christ, the Son of God, gave his life for the salvation of his people. And anything else that we add to that is an affront to what Christ did. It renders it worthless. He says, I do not frustrate the grace of God with the confusion of the law. I don't bring down the grace of God. I don't make it fuzzy or cloudy or use the law to bind, to negate the grace of God in Christ. And what was going on? Well, there was a group of people called the Judaizers, meaning they were trying to to take the Greeks and the Gentile converts and bring them into the religion of the Jews, to bring them under the law. They were trying to Judaize them, make them into proselytes of the Jewish religion. And they persecuted Paul. Many of them confessed, well, the Judaizers confessed to believe Christ, But they believed that they also needed the law for a righteousness. And so they persecuted Paul everywhere he went. They persecuted him and argued against him for the offense of the cross. And Paul said in Galatians 5.11, if I yet preach circumcision, if I just preach circumcision, he said, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offense of the cross cease. If I would just preach the law, if I would just give them something for their flesh to glory in, then they wouldn't persecute me anymore. If I would just give lip service to the law of Moses, then they wouldn't persecute me anymore because the offense of the cross would cease. They'd love it if I preached the law because the offense would be removed. There's no more offense. Once we add man's works, to salvation, the offense of the cross goes away because now it's just another religion of the world. Oh, do you like it how the Muslims use the law? Great, well then go be a Muslim. Oh, do you like it how the Jews use the law? Then go be a Jew. Oh, do you like it how the Christians use the law? Then go be a Presbyterian. Oh, do you like it how the Catholics do it? Then go be a Catholic, right? Because it's all flesh. That's all it is, it's just different forms of different sets of rules and laws whereby your life is governed by these rules because otherwise you wouldn't know what to do, they say. And so there'd be no more offense. No more offense, because the flesh would be told, good job. You're working for a reward. You're contributing to your salvation. You're doing what you're supposed to do. And so the offense of the cross would be gone. And what the offense of the cross means is we're saying there's nothing, nothing you or I can do. We're that bankrupt. We are that destitute. We are that ruined in sin. in our own sin, in our hearts, in our thoughts, in our words, in our deeds, were that ruined that it took the Son of God to take upon Him the flesh, the flesh like unto us, and to come and lay down His life to put away our sins and to obtain life for us. That's how serious it was, that it took Christ to come and lay down His life. And so the Judaizers wanted to bring the Gentile believers under the yoke of the law. They would teach them the law. They would instruct them in the law. They would bring them through the law through various works or little means. But they would make use of the law so as to establish the Gentiles in righteousness. to make them more righteous, to make them more holy and more accepted unto God. And Paul counters their attack on the cross of Christ saying, if righteousness, if you can use the law for righteousness, if it can improve your righteousness with God, if it can improve your standing with God, then what did Christ die for? That was a waste. He didn't need to come. You could have just used the law. He didn't have to lay down his life for that. He could have just told you, hey, do better. He could have just put down a better example for us and then left. But he gave his life to pay for the sins of his people. And so there were Judaizers who professed Christ, but they didn't want to leave the law because then they would be persecuted. But think of it this way. If preaching of the law can make you righteous, it can make righteous that which is unrighteous, then what did Christ die for? if all we need is the law to improve and fix ourselves. So when Paul said, I do not frustrate the grace of God, that word frustrate means to despise it, to reject it. Frustrate means to bring it to nothing, to disannul it, to basically empty it of all its meaning and value. You can say you believe the grace of God, but if you trust the law for your righteousness, you've just emptied grace of all meaning. You've just disannulled it. You've just said, I really don't believe the grace of God. And as soon as we use the law in an effort to bring forth righteousness in our hearts, thinking that is going to help me to produce fruit, righteous fruit to God by the law, we make the grace of God meaningless. We've just emptied it of its actual meaning. that without merit, God forgave us our sins for Christ's sake. We've just emptied it of all meaning. To quote Hebrews 719, it says, the law made nothing perfect. Nothing perfect. The law made nothing perfect. What did make something perfect? the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God." And religious men today, work mongers today, law mongers today, to this day say, we draw near to God by the law. That's how we come closer to God. We just practice the law and we get nearer and nearer to God, but not according to the scriptures. According to man, sure, that's what he says, but according to the scriptures, the law made nothing perfect. Christ did. Christ did. That's how we draw near to God. And so we hear the scriptures. We have the results of thousands of years of the use and implementation of the law. Thousands of years of it now. When the law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai, we have all that time. And then we saw it in the church's use, the church so-called, its use of the law for 2,000 years now. We've seen it used and it made nothing perfect. This world has waxed worse and worse and worse and worse and worse, all with the use of the law. It just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. And the scriptures say it this way, the scriptures have concluded all under sin. When you look at this book, From a nation that was surrounded by a bunch of people all committed to the law, the scriptures say that it's concluded all under sin. Every one of us is a sinner. That's how bad it is. The law doesn't make us perfect. It doesn't. It doesn't heal us. It doesn't cleanse us. It doesn't turn our hearts in any way. If you go over to Acts 15, let's look there. Acts 15. beginning in verse 1 and 2. This kicked up here early in the church. It said, certain men, which came down from Judea, taught the brethren, and said, except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. And that just seems like a little thing, just a tiny little thing. What's the big deal about that? Just be circumcised. That's all you need. And Paul contended against that. He fought against that. He said, no, absolutely not. You're entering in. As soon as you open that door, you've now yoked yourself with the whole law. You've now put yourself under the law. Just that whiff of the law, Barnabas and Paul stood up, and it says they had no small dissension and disputation with them. They determine that Paul and Barnabas and certain of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. So because of that disputation and dissension, he said, why don't you go down there and talk to the apostles about this? Well, drop down to verse seven. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, men and brethren, Ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us. They didn't enter into the law. They weren't part of the law. And yet God poured out the Holy Spirit upon them. and put no difference between us and them purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why tempt ye God? To go to the law is to tempt God. It's tempting God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we, we Jews, shall be saved, even as those Gentiles. And that's what he's saying. We're not saved by the law. Even us, we're not saved by the law. We're saved the same way that the Gentiles are saved, apart from the law, by the grace of God. So we're not to use the law as a means to make men righteous. We are to preach Christ. Righteousness comes by Jesus Christ, which he communicates, which he gives to you, which he reveals to you by faith, by faith which he gives, brought in us by the giving of the spirit under the preaching of the gospel. which he makes effectual to our hearts. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So we're talking tonight about a righteousness, a true righteousness, which God accepts. Not what man has been teaching us, but what the scriptures teach, the truth. Because we can say things and we can fool others. We can put on a good show. I mean, that's why Christ gave us the parable of the wheat and the tares. There's people that are better than me, by far, and can put on a good show. But that doesn't mean that they have a heart for Christ. And so the Lord sees the heart and that's who examines us. That's who knows us is the Lord. He sees the heart. He knows that we are but dust. So taking verse one, let's just read Galatians 3.1 because this is my text. Oh foolish Galatians! who hath bewitched you, who hath charmed you, who hath put a spell on you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you. I want to give you three things, three things in this verse about a righteousness by faith as opposed to a righteousness by the law. I think it's just good to lay the foundation down. The first thing about a righteousness by faith as opposed to a righteousness by the law is that they're two different houses. They're two different houses with two different foundations. They're not of the same. They are two different houses. Christ's house is built by faith. It's built upon faith. It's by faith. But that no man, this is Galatians 3.11 in that same chapter, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall live by faith. Those that are just with God, they're living by faith. They're walking by faith. That's how they live, trusting the word of God, trusting the Christ of God, trusting his people, trusting that the Lord saves his people. Moses, on the other hand, built a house by the works of the flesh. That's what he was sent to do. He built it by the works of the flesh. Romans 11, five and six, even so, Even so, then, at this present time also, there's a remnant according to the election of grace. Among the Jews, there's a remnant according to the election of grace, just like us, us Gentiles. And if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. And so what Paul is saying here, what the Lord's saying here in the scriptures is, it's not both hammers building the house. You take a swing, and then I'll take a swing, and you take a swing, and I'll take a swing. It's not two different hammers building a house. It's either Christ or it's Moses. It's one or the other. They're two different houses. They are not the same. You're either trusting Christ for his righteousness according to his promise, or we're trusting our flesh to do what Moses said and to make a righteousness by the law. Now, the purpose of Moses and the law was never to make men righteous by the keeping of the law. He was faithful. He's a mediator, it says. He was given the law for a purpose, and he came and he built that house, what the Lord gave him to build there, as a servant, but as a testimony of things to come. as a testimony of things to come which are now established for us in Christ. Let me read Hebrews chapter three, verse five and six. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house. He was faithful as a servant, as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after, but Christ as a son. He's a son over his own house, whose house we are. We're his house if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. That's what he puts in our hearts, the hope of righteousness by the Lord Jesus Christ. Not by my doing, but by Christ. He's the one who builds the house. He's the one who gives us his word of promise that he is our salvation and all our righteousness. And if we're his, we will hold fast. That will be our confession. We will hope in him unto the end. We won't be moved off of that because he'll keep us. So the church is the house of Christ. He's the builder of it. Just as we saw on Sunday, we are the epistles of Christ. the epistles of Christ. He's the author and finisher of our faith. Now the purpose of Moses wasn't given because it could make anyone righteous. It does not have any power to do it. It has no power to make you righteous. The law was given to show the weakness of men. It exposes just how corrupt, how vile, how weak we are, how imperfect we are, that we have no ability to make ourselves righteous. It's very good at that. It's very good at showing just how far I fall flat before the holiness and the righteousness of God. It's very good at doing that. And so it shows the inability of man that by his works he will not come to God and be justified by God by what he does in the law. Now the law is perfect. That doesn't mean the law is imperfect. The law is perfect. The weakness is this flesh right here. It's me. I'm the weakness. I can't keep the law. And this old man of flesh remains. You see it right here. You see this old man of flesh. And it's imperfect. And it hasn't improved. It doesn't get any better. It's still weak and corrupt and vile. And it's still sin. It's still sin. And so this flesh cannot now keep the law for righteousness. Paul said in Romans 3.20, therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. That's what we just said. It was given to show us that we're sinners. It was given to show us our need of salvation and the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Why? That's what we see in Galatians 3.22, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. It's to open the ear of the children of God to see, I need a salvation. I can't do this. I'm not doing this. I'm coming up short. I need a Savior. I need the grace of God. Lord, save me. Don't bind me with anything to do because I can't do it. I need Christ. I need Christ. So it opens the ear of faith when the Lord lays it to the heart. It opens that ear. The carnal man, he's happy in his law-keeping, or the carnal man is happy in his unabashed sin, just doing sin in the world. Either way, the carnal man's happy, but the child of God is only happy in Christ. The child of God is made to flee to Christ, and there we find our peace and our rest. Because under the law, we're not at peace. And we're not at peace just fulfilling the lust of the flesh. The Lord has made it so. He's made it so that we are at peace and at rest in Christ. That's where we are safe. That's where we are at rest. And so God's people are going to know that they're sinners. but not by the preaching of the law as a means of righteousness. Not to say, you can do this. Now, you've got to go do this. And if you're doing good, then good for you. You're getting better. We don't preach the law in that way. We preach the law in the sense of exposing our sin, of showing our folly in trying to keep the law for a righteousness. So we're not to preach, you better do this or else. because that's of no profit. There's no man that can keep that perfectly. We can't do that perfectly. We preach Christ crucified because that opens up, well, why did the Son of God come? If Christ died, and you're telling me this is the Son of God, why did he come? Why did he come in the flesh? And what did he accomplish? Why do you have to do that? And that opens up what God did to save his people from their sins, what he had to do and what he accomplished for us. And so this is the message that the Spirit blesses. He takes the things of Christ and shows them unto you, making them effectual in your hearts. So we don't use the law of Moses, preaching the law so as to give man a false hope. Because if you say, if you do this, you'll be perfect, there are some that will go off thinking they can do it. And they won't see that their hearts are black and dark. They won't see that. And they'll think that they're doing pretty good until the Lord opposes it and stands in their way and delivers them from that. So true righteousness is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts, in the darkness of these hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. earthen vessels, vessels that are still weak that the excellency of the power of God, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us, so that any fruit I bear, one thing I know, it ain't me, it ain't this flesh, It isn't because I've got myself together and I'm doing good now. It's by the power and grace of God. And I give him all the glory, all the honor, all the praise, because this vessel is an earthen vessel, a clay pot, easily broken, A weak, poor vessel. That's all that I am. Unable to bring forth any fruit, any lasting fruit, any eternal fruit, any fruit of the Spirit. It's the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of Eric. It's the fruit of the Spirit. It's not the fruit of Moses, it's the fruit of the Spirit. It's of Christ who bears that fruit in us. And that fruit comes not by threatening, not by works, not by reward or the threat of punishment. That's not the fruit of the Spirit. That's the works of the flesh. It's brought by the Spirit in love, thankful, right? Because if I'm loving my brethren, if I'm serving my brethren, if I'm rejoicing in the Lord, it's not because of threats, it's because the Lord has put that in my heart and brought that forth of His Spirit in His child, and so He does that. So faith rests in Christ or the faith that rests in Christ is a manifestation that we are His, that we are living stones taken by Christ, made alive, and what He puts in the house where He dwells by faith. He's building the house with living stones that is His people in whom He dwells. And so again, Paul said, I don't frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead and vain. The moment we bring in the law as a tool to make men righteous before God, to up their righteousness level, we're frustrating, we're disannoying, we're emptying the grace of all its meaning. And Paul says in verse one, that's foolish. That's foolish. And second, the second thing about a righteousness by faith as opposed to a righteousness by the law It reveals what it means, what the obedience of faith or obedience to the truth is. It reveals what obedience to the truth is. Paul asks, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth? What is the truth that we are to obey according to righteousness? Is it to give obedience to the law of Moses for righteousness? Well, if we do, if we're giving obedience to the law of Moses for righteousness, then we are being disobedient to the faith of Christ. They're mutually exclusive. They're both not true at the same time. If we're giving obedience to Moses' law for righteousness, we are being disobedient to Christ. We're not obeying the truth of Christ, because the truth of Christ declares, I'm carnal, sold under sin. I can't work a righteousness. can. And so Paul is speaking of the Galatians' disobedience to Christ by turning away to Moses for circumcision, by turning to Moses to be circumcised, which is a work of the law. To obey the truth is to trust Christ alone for all my righteousness and acceptance with God. Listen to how Paul closes his letter to the Romans. Romans 16, verse 25 through 27, he says, now to him that is of power to establish you. We're talking about God's power. He's able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began. And he's saying salvation is a spiritual work. It's not a work that we can muster and get the strength up to do for ourselves. It's a work of grace for us by the power of God, who reveals the mystery which was hidden, right? Because anybody can open this book and see I'm a sinner. under the wrath of God, but I don't know how God saves me. I don't know how he saves me. Well, through the preaching of Christ, that's how we hear, his people hear, that's righteousness, that's my salvation, that's what I need. He makes that known through the preaching of the gospel, by the giving of his spirit. The carnal man is left to think that's foolish, but the child of God rejoices in him. is glad in that what Christ has done. So faith that rests in Christ is a manifestation that we are his, that we're his. So preaching of the gospel, yeah, okay. So it's God's power, it's God's power. And the spirit of God makes known the truth to us by revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began. And he blesses that preaching of Christ crucified to his people who by nature are in darkness and are brought out of darkness into the light. He makes you to hear what the carnal man cannot hear. He makes a child of God to hear what carnal men cannot hear. All that the carnal man can hear is the letter of the law, and he rejects Christ. He thinks that Christ eventually becomes light bread, like the Jews. They got tired of the manna and the light bread, and they refused that light bread. They were tired of it. And yet, that was the very picture of the bread of heaven, whom the Father would send, Jesus Christ, who by the simplicity of Christ, saves his people, and feeds his people, and nourishes his people, and strengthens his people, and teaches his people. It's not like bread to the child of God, who's feeding upon that and is satisfied and thankful to God. The carnal man, rejoices in the harshness of the law and the whippings and the beatings, what Paul calls a ministration of death and condemnation until the Spirit visits him in power, just as he does for every one of his children. He visits them in his power and he turns the heart and he opens the ear and then they hear what Christ is saying. They hear the voice of Christ speaking to them and calling them out of that darkness into the light of Christ. And that's the grace of God to do that for us. Not because we deserve it, not because we've turned things around, but because God will be gracious to us for Christ's sake. And he goes on, but now, verse 26, is made manifest but is now made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. And so the obedience obedience to the truth is the obedience of faith. Faith in Christ. Faith in Christ. God commands his people to faith in Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. This brings us to the third and final point about a righteousness by faith as opposed to a righteousness by the law. It's seen in whom we preach for righteousness. Who do we preach for righteousness, given that Christ builds the house, and faith in Him is obedience to the faith We preach the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who we preach. Paul says, O foolish Galatians 3 1 O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you. This is the message that Paul preached. He's talking about what he preached. He didn't put on a play to set forth Christ crucified among them. No, he declared Christ was crucified. Christ was crucified. to put away the sins of his people. It's his preaching. When he said to the Corinthians, I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's his message. That is the gospel message, is Christ crucified. That's how he instructed and taught the people. Everywhere Paul and Barnabas went, it says in Acts, it says there they preached the gospel. They preached the gospel. They preached the gospel everywhere they went. Coming back to what we considered earlier about the use of the law, it's used to show us, to give us an understanding of our sin condition, that we cannot keep the law. for righteousness. We cannot do it because God is holy, He's perfect, He does not accept anything less than perfection. So for us to think that we can do it by serving the law is foolishness. Christ was born under the law in the fullness of time. He fulfilled all the law perfectly. He went to the cross as the perfect sacrifice to put away the sins of His people. He is our righteousness. He fulfilled every job and every tittle of the law perfectly. And so the use of the law is given to turn men from trusting that, warning every man, teaching every man, be turned from trusting your works under the law, be turned from trusting your idolatry, be turned from trusting whatever it is that they were coming from, be turned from that, repent of that, and be turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Father sent. Because he is salvation. He is righteousness. That's what they were preaching everywhere they went. And we're very careful on that, and we'll see that. I hope after we get through Luke, that we'll go right on into Acts. We'll go right into Acts, and we'll study that and see what the apostles preached and taught the people there. But the law came for that purpose, and so a godly fear. What is it to give a godly fear? What is a godly fear? What is godly fear? It's to, no, I dare not step out from under the blood of Christ. That's godly fear, is I don't dare come to the Father outside of the blood of Christ. Because it's very arrogant, it's proud, it's boastful to think that I can come to God in my own works of righteousness under the law. So a godly fear is I don't dare. Step out from under the blood of Christ. The Passover, what was that about? The Passover was don't go outside of the house where the blood is over the doorpost. Don't dare go outside the house. As soon as you go outside of that house, the avenger, the destroyer, will take your life. Don't go outside of the house. The destroyer never came in the house and terrorized. threatened the people and shook them. It never entered the house. It was, don't you go out of the house or the destroyer will destroy you. It'll take your life. So it is with Christ. To use the law for righteousness is to go out from under the blood. But godly fear is I don't dare go out from under the blood. I stay under the blood because that's where the Lord receives me for Christ's sake, for His sake. And so that's the picture there. That's godly fear. Hug up to Christ. Stay in Christ. Don't depart from Christ. Don't leave Christ. He's your salvation. He's your righteousness. He's your all. Everything you need, every instruction, every nourishment, every supplement, everything you need is given in Christ. It's in Christ. He will not fail you. He is the promise of God. He will not fail you. He will not fail to come to the throne of God and be accepted of him, trusting Christ for all your righteousness. Believe him. Believe him. So we must not preach the law so as to give man any vain confidences. We don't want to build a hiding place which is nothing more than a whitewashed sepulcher full of dead men's bones. We must be careful against that. We must preach Christ, the only Savior. Peter said, neither is there any other. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. It's not Christ plus Moses. It's not Moses plus Christ. It's Christ and Christ alone. That is our Savior. He builds the house. We'll speak more on this. I'll just read verse 2 of Galatians 3, 2, but we'll come back another time and look at these verses. But he said, This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Two different things, two different households, one is obedience to the truth, the other is not hearing the truth. It's not hearing what the law saith. And then three, it's going to be revealed by the spirit of God in the preaching of Christ. That's where we're going to learn godly fear. And that's where we're going to learn all that we need to stand before the Lord and be accepted of Him and bear fruits of righteousness. And in Him, it's gonna be through Christ. His word of promise, it's given to us. He's not lying. He gives everything in Christ. Believe Him. He is the fullness of God. He is the blessing of God. In Him, all spiritual blessings are given. So I pray the Lord bless that, amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank you for your grace. Lord, help us not to confuse grace. Lord, I fear my words are many and maybe confusing. I pray that you would just simplify and show your people Christ, that he is all, that your word confirms that you promise to save your people, to bless your people, to keep your people in Christ. And for that purpose, you gave him. And we will not come short of that hope, that inheritance that we seek, coming in Christ alone. Lord, you teach, you instruct, you give everything we need. Lord, we trust you, we believe you. Help our unbelief, help our misgivings and our lack of trust. Lord, be gracious to us. You know we are but dust. Give us your Spirit, and grow us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.