so today we're continuing our sermon series and the title of today's sermon is 1517 all over again now one of the greatest things a mere man has ever said said history repeats itself so in 1517 we had the beginning of something called the Protestant Reformation. Interestingly enough, it started on October 31, 1517. A young Dominican monk or friar named Martin Luther would nail his 95 theses, which is what you did to start a debate. It was nothing dramatic like some of the movies portray. He just had challenges and questions that he wanted answered. And as you would do, as it was the custom in that day, if you wanted a debate, you would pin it to the door of whoever you wanted to debate. And what that did, from that one action, it lit the fire of faith, and it started a movement where finally, after hundreds of years of not really having the Word, people would eventually get the Word of God back into their hands, which was always God's plan. for you to have the word to read for yourself. Today, we take that for granted. I was watching a video during the week. People receiving a certain package in China. And here were these Chinese people gathered in a large hall. And they laid down these boxes in the middle of the room. And the people were running and crying and falling over each other. And when they finally got to this box and opened it up, they pulled out a book and they were crying and kissing this book and praising God. Do you know what that book was? Bibles. When's the last time you saw a reaction like that by someone when you handed them a Bible? Because these are people that have been starved for the Word of God for so long. they hear about the Bible, they hear the Bible preached to them, but they didn't have their own Bibles. And really knowing the value of the Bible were broken. So what we had in 1517, a church that was asleep, thought they had control of all things spiritual, hiding the word of God from the people, through ceremony, through a priesthood. They had special powers. They were the only ones that could really understand it. It was in Latin anyway. Most of the people couldn't read any language, let alone read or understand Latin. But you had people within that priesthood, like a Martin Luther, that were convicted by God. They were given the Holy Spirit, and they started a fire. It wasn't a forest fire. It wasn't a building fire. It was Holy Spirit fire that burned in Europe. And people didn't care anymore. Even if it meant their lives, we are going to get our hands on God's Word and read it and understand it for ourselves. And what happened when they opened up that Bible is the devil's worst nightmare. They started to learn what true faith was. It wasn't found in a building, a monastery, a cathedral. It wasn't found in a person. No man has a monopoly on God's knowledge. You don't need to go through any door but Jesus Christ. He is the door. Not a priest, not a cardinal, not a bishop. Fast forward 500 years, roughly. 1517, I'm speaking to you in the year 2014. Lo and behold, once again, we're in the same situation. We've come full circle. Once again, we went from a Europe that eventually grasped the Bible, sent out missionaries, helped set the world on fire. People had the Bible in their hands. Superstitions went away. Witchcraft went away. All these different types of customs went away. Now they're making a comeback. I don't think any of the reformers would ever have believed that in Protestant nations, the seat of Antichrist, the Vatican that they were fighting against, the pope would now travel to once Protestant lands, and where they refused to kiss his feet at one time, They once again kiss his feet. And who's leading this apostasy? It's not the Roman Catholics. We love them. We want to give witness to them. God have mercy on them. Many of them do believe there are good people trapped in bad churches. But the Vatican, this is who we reach out to, to make friends with. And we forget history. And when you forget history, you are doomed to repeat it. We forget the Inquisitions. We forget you needed a license to own a Bible. You needed permission to preach from that Bible. For many years, it was forbidden for someone to preach the Word of God in public. The priesthood had a monopoly on that. Does this sound familiar? Try to read a Bible passage now in this country that condemns homosexuality, same-sex marriage, bestiality. Try and do that. See what happens. We've come full circle. The Word of God is being oppressed again. And you know who's the main culprit in Europe, in America? It's not the Vatican. It's a whore Protestant church that once again they're giving you customs and things that you need to do before you can really understand the Bible. So if I go to, let's say, certain Pentecostal churches, I read the word. We try and discuss the word. Oh, no. No, no, no. You weren't reading that in the spirit. When I see you speak in tongues, and then you get the deeper meaning of that verse through revelation, then I'll listen to you. What do you mean, the deeper meaning of the verse? All churches do this now. You've got to jump through their hoops. You can't just come to the church and say, there's this filter that you have to go through. We're back. We're back in this mess once again. And the shame is, we did it ourselves this time. We just gave back all the ground that we had gained. Now why does this happen? Because you walk into most churches, there is no church history explained. It's never explained where the Bible actually came from. that we are God's people, a holy nation, it's just you and Jesus every week. Did Jesus pay your bills this week? Did Jesus fix your car this week? Did the Lord Jesus fix your foot? Is that all the faith is about? If you have faith, God will help you. There will be a way that that car may get fixed. Your foot might feel better. But that's not the central tenet of the faith. What we ought to be focused on is our God, his son and spreading his kingdom. It's not just about you or just about me. And we've gone from getting away to a priesthood. We have a new priesthood, a Protestant one, just like the priesthood of the Middle Ages. Their housing is paid for, their clothes are paid for, their car is paid for, they got an entertainment stipend, a library stipend, all these things. that it's become a new profession instead of a calling. And once again, because they're afraid to preach the truth, they'd rather lie and take the word out of your hands to secure their job. We need the Martin Luthers again. We need a John Knox, what he did in Scotland. Or what Calvin did in Geneva. And those Baptist pastors that were always faithful outside of the Reformation. We need that spirit again. We need to love each other enough to grab this word and tell the truth. And if people are teaching a false gospel, to have the courage to take them on. And I'll tell you why people are hypocrites. Why many Christians are hypocrites. I'll have people tell me, Pastor, you're too confrontational. You're too, it's just, you're too divisive. Someone has a different gospel. You get crazy right away. Why? And then ask them. Let me ask you something. If you're a man, you're buying your wife a wedding ring. You go to a jeweler. You saved up two years to buy that wedding ring. You take the ring to get it independently appraised. It's fake. You pay thousands of dollars for a fake ring. Are you going to be nice when you go back to that jeweler? If you would fight like that over fake jewelry, why won't you fight like that over a fake gospel? Where is your heart? Same thing for the ladies. You go out, you buy some clothes, some expensive book bags. Just an example, not saying we all do that here. The bag says Louis Vuitton. You bring the bag to someone who knows bags, And the expert says, this wasn't made by Louis Vuitton. This was made by Joey Bag of Donuts down on Canal Street. And he put the Louis Vuitton name on the bag. Are you going to be angry if you paid hundreds, thousands of dollars for that bag? I guarantee you fight about that bag in the store, but you won't fight about the gospel. You see, it's what our motivation is. We have a Jesus Christ that died for you, died for your sins. He took your place, my place, while we were still sinners. That's the gospel. He loved us enough. You won't fight for him? We'll fight for jewelry. We'll fight for clothing. We'll fight over cars and jobs and whatever. Who has the best weave? Guys who has the biggest muscles? But you won't fight over the gospel? Is this really what it's about? So don't tell me I'm confrontational. because I go by the word of God, I'm not here to please men, I'm not here to please women, I'm here to please God, and to love you enough to tell you the truth. This is exactly what Paul went through when he wrote the book of Galatians. He not only had the people turning against him, he had supposed apostles falling away that were succumbing to peer pressure. So it's 1517 all over again, And if we don't want to wind up back in chains and in a country that is destroyed, we better wake up, read our Bible, and start applying it to our lives again. So let's read the second chapter in Galatians. We're going to be reading verses 11 through 21 without comment. And then we'll start to break it down. Remember, I'm not here to preach eloquent sermons that no one can understand. We're going to break it down verse by verse. That's why we're studying Galatians week after week. And this is Paul speaking in the second chapter. Then 14 years, I'm sorry, we're starting at verse 11. But when Peter, now notice the niceness that Paul uses, the seeker-friendly approach. But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles. But then, when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimilation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why combellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, We ourselves also are found sinners, and therefore Christ the minister of sin. God forbid! For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." This was the issue. Are you justified before God for the blood that Jesus Christ shed on that cross and now it's paying? And you owe no man anything. You owe Jesus service. You owe no man anything. There's no hoops to jump through. There's no secret ritual to perform. You are justified before God. Now, point number one in our sermon, Paul, without hesitation, strongly confronts Peter and gets in his face. This is not how we say mano-a-mano, man-on-man. This wasn't friendly stuff. Neither needed to be confronted. Paul, who's so gentle and so seeker-friendly, just like most of the church today, got in his face in front of everyone and said, you're wrong. Christians are called to correct anyone who perverts the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. Those who hold to a fake gospel have a fake Jesus. The church has been infected by the culture's idea of tolerance and we are dying. You want to tolerate things? Tolerate people sinning against you? Tolerate your enemies picking on you? Pray for them? Fast for them? God asks you to tolerate these things. He does not ask you to tolerate a doctrine of devils. When people say, well, Christ dying on the cross, shedding his blood, it kind of paid for it, but you need to do this, and this, and this also. Stand up to anyone that does that type of stuff. Are you going to make nice with Jehovah's Witnesses? that say Jesus was just a great man and an example, but he wasn't God? Is this who we make friends with? Or the Mormons, who turn our religion into something more like Islam? That when you die you'll have celestial virgins in heaven for you? That used to promote polygamy and these other things that God had forbidden? You're going to make friends with them? Does that sound like the gospel of freedom? The liberty that Christ gave us? He gave us liberty to be savages as men? And women? So tolerate the wrong that's done to you. Don't tolerate a fake gospel. And many times we do the opposite. We don't tolerate anything anyone does to us in the neighborhood, but we'll walk into a church with a watered-down gospel, with a fake gospel, and, oh yeah, we're all brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank God Paul didn't behave this way. Well, that's offensive. The entire Gospel of Jesus Christ is offensive to evil men and women. I was offended when I heard the Gospel. What do you mean I'm not good enough myself? What do you mean I'm not smart enough to figure it out on my own, or my works aren't good enough? Now, a perfect illustration, because we don't go by little bits and pieces of Scripture. Let's look at a story in the life of David, and you tell me Was David justified before God by grace through the eventual work of the Messiah, or was he justified by some works he did? Did he get into right standing again with God because of something he did? Turn to 2 Samuel, chapter 12. This was the question in 1517. This is the question in 2014. Can you save yourself? Are you saved by Jesus plus some types of works? Or are you saved by the work of Christ alone, by your faith in that work? 2 Samuel chapter 12. A dirty part of the Bible. People don't like to read. See, we're told by the church, get that money. Get that bigger house. Get that car. That's what God wants for you. You get power. You get dominion that way. Let's see what happened to David when he had it all. I'm telling you, the Bible teaches, when you're successful, be careful. When your pockets get fatter, be careful. When there's food on the table, be careful. That's when you'll fall away. When you're begging God for things, and you're stuck in the desert in your life, you'll call out to Him. Human nature is, once we get what we want, okay, leave me alone now. Am I lying? That's why I repeat scripture. David was at the height of his power. Let's listen to this story in chapter 12. And the Lord said, sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto him and said unto him, there were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb. baby lamb, which he had bought and nourished up and had grew up together with him and with his children. It did eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler unto the rich man, and he spared the take of his own flock and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him, but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die. And he shall restore the Lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. So what did Nathan do? Did he back down? Did he make nice because David was God's anointed? Did he make nice for him because he was a king? And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul, and I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight, thou hast killed the Hittite, Uriah the Hittite, with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from thine house, because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this Son. For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Son. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. How in the world could this happen? David, the king of Israel, blaspheming God's name. Imagine if an American president did this. Right? Everybody's angry with Obama now. I was more angry with Bush. But everybody's angry with Obama now. Right? Imagine what would happen if an American president stole the wife of one of his trusted generals that was in the field during wartime. He not only took her in secret, got her pregnant, and then because he didn't want to get caught, he takes the general back from the war, tries to get him to be with his wife, biblically speaking. But the general had so much honor, he said, we're fighting in Iraq right now. I can't lay with my wife and have that type of joy. Look at my men suffering in the field. I'm going back to Iraq. So he makes a phone call to the CIA. Hey, listen. We're going to send the general into a hot area. Once fire commences, pull back the detail that's protecting him. Pull back all the units. He's killed. He's massacred. All of this comes out in the news. What do you think would happen to this guy? Would he be the most infamous president, probably, in the history of the country? Honestly, it's OK. We're Baptists. You give me a verbal answer. Yes? Yes. Right. This is the type of thing, even worse, Because this wasn't a leader betraying a country. This was the leader of God's kingdom betraying God. And God said, you blaspheme my name. What an embarrassment to me. How could you do this? You had so many wives. You had to pick this guy's one wife. I gave you everything. Even in your craziness, I allowed you to live in your abundance. And if you were to ask for more, because I know what a tough position I put you in, I would have gave you even more. You steal this wife? David is guilty of murder and adultery. You tell me, what work did he do before God to be justified? To be forgiven, right? So we don't need to pick just little verses out of the Bible. We know we're saved by faith, not by works, by the whole story of the Bible. No matter how great we think we are, we all hold sin in our lives. I don't know what the future holds for me. I might have a terrible calamity waiting for me. I mean, God forbid, hopefully not. But if it did happen, can the devil snatch me from God's hand if he wants me to be saved? No. Because whose work am I relying on? Jesus Christ, and that can never be overturned. So that's my question to people. It doesn't matter what church. We've got Baptist churches doing it. Presbyterian churches. All of them. Many churches are getting into it now. Oh, you need Jesus plus this. Oh, your life is fine. You're doing all right. Just add a little bit of Jesus. There's nothing without Jesus. There's nothing without his atonement, without his work. That's the point we're making. What did David do? When someone can answer me the work, or the works that David did, to get into a right relationship with God again, then I'll back down on this doctrine. And that's what Luther was saying, and that's what all the Reformers were saying. You're keeping us trapped. Set us free. We're saved through the work of Jesus Christ. We don't need all your ritual. Stop burning us because we want to read the Bible. Stop putting us in these torture devices because we say that the Pope isn't Christ on Earth. Stop doing it. The Bible's against you, God's Word. Now let's turn to Psalm 32. Now we understand Psalm 32 after reading a little bit about David's life and his fall when David tells us this in Psalm 32. Now how do I know this is the Psalm of David? Because I'm a brilliant scholar? No, it says right there, Psalm of David. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roarings all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moistures turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledge my sin unto thee. and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sins, Selah. For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance, Selah. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with fit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be for the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. be glad in the Lord and rejoice ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart." Sounds pretty Christian to me. Write it in the Old Testament. If you sin with your heart, honestly, truly confess your sin to the Lord while he may be found. Or as other places in the Bible say, don't let the sun go down on your sin. We confess to God Do I need to light incense in a church? Do I need to confess to a Baptist minister what I did and his whole elder board? Who do I have to confess to first? That's how they make you a slave. They keep you trapped in guilt, and that's why we have these deacon boards in Baptist churches terrorizing people, micromanaging people, visiting homes. Your hair is too long. Your hair is too short. Your suit is green. How could you wear a green suit to worship? It should be brown. And we get into these situations where the pastor, a prophecy that the pope did speak that was true. He told Luther, he said, you don't want me, no problem. Now you have a million little popes. And it came true. Now how does a pastor, how does a Christian, a regular member of the church, how do you keep yourself from becoming a little tyrant? Stay in the word. Keep remembering. It's by grace, not by race. It's by grace, not by intelligence. By grace, not by your study, not by your works. Stay in the Word and you will stay humble. When you get out of this Word and you stop believing all the wonderful things that people say about you, oh, it's so spiritual. You're done. You're going to think you got it. You're going to think, hey, I've read everything already. I'm in right position with God. I can just click my heels on my shoes and just run around and do whatever I want. I don't need a relationship with him. And that's when the devil has you. Even today, you've fallen. You've gotten into a rut. Go home in your prayer closet. Your prayer closet might be your car. Your prayer closet might be somewhere at work. We have two minutes apiece. Repent. Talk to the Lord. He loves you. You really belong to him. Back to Galatians verses 15 and 16. So this is why Peter stood up to Paul to his face. Peter separated, wasn't eating with them anymore, and he started to retreat. Because when the Jews came, he got nervous. Because Jews, at that time, even though they weren't strictly forbidden in their teachings to ever eat with Gentiles, because of the different eating habits, they generally didn't. And it was looked down upon for you to eat with Gentiles. This is why we see the problem. Now, why was this such a big deal to Paul? I'm going to show you where this leads, where legalism leads. Paul saw Peter separating from the Gentiles at mealtime. So you start with the, they're not circumcised, right? So he had Judaizers teaching. Okay, great. We start with being circumcised. So, to be a Christian, you not only had to believe the gospel, but you had to copy the Jewish custom that was just for them of circumcision. They were teaching in a way, to be a true Christian, you also had to become a Jew. Now, what's the problem when you're dealing with circumcision? The whole law of God goes together. especially when it comes to the ceremonial law. So if you're saved through the gospel and circumcision, guess what? After circumcision, there's the dietary law. So now, you're saved, or you're right with God, you're justified before God because you get circumcised if you're a male, and you stay away from shrimp. But now you can't stop there. And after the dietary laws, what happens? You get into the feasts and the holy days. And then to really celebrate some of the feasts and the holy days, what are you going to do? You get back to temple worship. Now, this had become an idol to the Jews, so much so that God allowed the temple to be destroyed in 70 AD. Because God no longer wanted this temple worship He wanted true worship in spirit and in truth. And we no longer do this ritual. So who is any church, whether it's Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, Independent Baptist, to start getting you back into legalism and lead you to temple worship? And you know what the mark on one of those churches is? They always say, well, we're really the best church. We're the only church. You really want to be saved? You really want to learn the word? The other 9,562 churches, they're wrong. We got it. This is what they do. They bring you back into temple worship, centralized worship. Now, you don't think this still exists today? People make, if you're Muslim, you make a hajj. You make this pilgrimage all around the world. Millions of people circling the Dome of the Rock. Like, that's a special place where God is at. You have to do that as a Muslim at least one time in your life. You're applying to make the hajj. What do the Catholics do? The Pope comes out on his little podium. The streets are all filled, millions of them. Big papa on the staircase and then on the balcony. Won't teach him the word, but he'll teach him how to worship him and follow Catholic ritual. And even for those who proclaim, that they don't believe in God, they don't believe in Jesus Christ. What is the new Holy Land, the United States of America? What's the one place, especially if you have children, everybody tells you, oh, you gotta go there at least once in your life? Disney World! Or Disneyland! People spend hundreds of millions of dollars. I have met more people that have gone into debt by going to that stupid Disneyland. than have taken pilgrimages to Jerusalem or to any other place. That's the new pilgrimage for Americans. We're stupid for wanting to go to Israel and visit the biblical lands, but they're very smart for wanting to take a pilgrimage to meet a talking mouse. Do you understand? Everybody worships something. It's an inescapable concept. So people put themselves in debt and max out their credit cards to go see Goofy and Donald Duck and to go on rides. Am I lying? Am I making this up? Oh, if you do anything with the kids, at least once in your life, get to Disneyland. And I want to tell people like that, if there's one thing you ever do in your life for your children, get your brain out of Disneyland. Get it in the Bible and teach them what's going to save their souls from hell. I'm worried about talking mice. So we work our way through. We get up to verses 15 and 16. Now this is the key. And the greatest enemy now is no longer the Roman Catholic Church. It's former Protestant churches. Reformed churches, those that claim to be Baptists, they're teaching salvation by works now. Or by a mixture of faith and works. So verse 15 and 16. We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ. that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Why do we use the King James Bible? Why did I switch, did I really want to switch along with the elders to the King James Bible over the NIV Bible that we used to use? You're going to give me the answer. Would someone please read of verse 15 and 16, what we just read. Please read the NIV version. Will anyone volunteer to read that? He's so cute. You want to read that for us, Elder? The NIV version, right? NIV version. It's on your paper. It's on the handout. I put it side by side so you could see. We who are Jews by birth, and not simple Gentiles, know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law, no one will be justified. Now would someone read the King James Version? that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." See, I came to engage you today. Now you tell me which translation sounds right. What is going to justify us before God? Is it our faith in Jesus? Or is it the faith of Jesus? You see how a translation can make some problems for you? When you're trying to see the Word? We are justified before God not by our work, not by a faith that we worked out in Jesus, by the faith of Jesus. When God looks at you, he doesn't see you, he sees his son's work and his son's faith that Jesus, who never sinned, went to the cross as sin for us. A sinless God-man paid our debt. He doesn't look at me. Robert Rubino, my faith, he looks at Jesus' faith. Do you see it now? Do you think that might be a problem? And in many other instances, in the NIV, which is one of its weaknesses, now we're not saying that. Please, don't put me in that King James group. I'm not saying that the English of the 1611 version is inspired and it can even correct the original Greek and Hebrew. That's insanity. But we are saying there is a difference in translations. Because I love you, and I want to follow God's commands, and I want you to really know your Bible, we switch to this version, for this reason. Now when someone updates the English in a translation, and keeps the original intent of scripture, the way the King James did, then we'll use that. But until now, because some of the interpretations are so bad, this is why we do it. This is faith in our faith in Jesus is more of a, it's what Luther fought against. It's more like a Roman Catholic doctrine. It's a faith plus words type of doctrine. When we talk about the faith of Jesus, that's the King's faith. That's not mine. Do we get it now? Do you see something wrong with that? The Bible teaches me I'm justified before God by my faith? It's not my faith, the Lord Jesus justified me. He did it all because God looks at me and sees his son. He is my covering. Now we can look at James. So Christians are justified before God because of the work of Jesus Christ, not our own. There are no works we can perform to justify ourselves in God's court for our sin. We are justified by God in order to do righteous work. But a living faith comes before works of righteousness. James mentioned our father Abraham and his living faith, which was self-evident after he offered Isaac as a sacrifice. Let's turn to the book of James. OK, this is where a lot of this controversy comes from. You're going to put one verse in James against the entire Bible, the rest of the books in the Bible. And there's no reason to do it. Because James and Paul are in agreement just like Peter and Paul were in agreement. James is setting up an argument for what we have today. The book of James is the book that you have to read again and again if you want to understand your situation in America in the church right now. James is describing those people that had a cheap faith. It was just an acknowledgement of God. It wasn't a belief in him. So we have people that you talk to, you know, you should really put your faith in God, come to Jesus. Yeah, I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I believe that he went to the cross. And that's it. They have nothing else. But they think they're going to be justified like that. And church seats are filled with people like that. So James was written for the wise guy. James was written for the American Christian, the European Christian, that swear that they have it, but they're really backsliding. This is who he's writing it to. But he's never saying that you're justified by works. Let's look at the text itself. Let's read it in context. So James 18 through 26. Yea, a man say, thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou have faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect. And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Raab the hollock justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." Is James disagreeing with Paul? Paul's telling us that you can't be justified by works. You're justified by faith. James seems to be saying that you're justified by your works. What's going on here? Well, we're going to show you. It's very simple. You don't need to get angry at the book of James. Luther actually struggled with this book. But when you read it in context, the scripture comes alive. You have your faith. This is how we're justified. Our standing before God is faith in what Jesus did for us, his faith, his service, his work for Christ. So we're justified, we have our faith. But what James is saying, faith, once you're given that faith and justified before God, it brings about a response, which are godly works. Godly works. Now James was living in a time where people in his church, in his congregation, in his group, they could understand this. Because when James was writing this, in Israel at that time where he was, when you became a Christian, it was over for you. You lost mother, father, brother, sister, whoever. You were extremely poor. You couldn't get employment. You were like an anathema. So people in this church suffering, for them it was easy to understand, yeah, we can have a faith, but it's a faith that has to be alive. And because it cost them so much to be a Christian at that time, They had a living faith. It's not like today. People go to church to justify themselves week after week. They don't study the word at home. They don't live the word. They give witness to no one. They do nothing. At that time, people were active. So they were able to understand this. Now, if we look at this chapter, when it speaks about Abraham being justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac on the altar, that's verse 21 James 2 21 so in verse 21 we have it mentioned how Isaac is on the altar okay Isaac is off it up but then as we go forward in the chapter we see that it says in the scripture was fulfilled would say if Abraham believed God it was a punitive righteousness and he was called the friend of God that verse 23 We have to look at the way James is speaking. This is about Isaac, and this is about Abraham believing God. This is Abraham's belief. But what's happening here, it's actually out of order. In verse 21, when God is speaking of Isaac, in the book of Genesis, this is in chapter 22. And in verse 23, when it talks about Abraham's belief justifying him and being called a friend of God, this is in chapter 15. So it was years before that Abraham was justified by his faith and believed in God. And then he showed the fruit of that faith by offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Do we understand that? See, people read through this quickly, and it's like, oh, well, Abraham was justified by offering Isaac, and then later God called him a friend. That's not how it works. That's why we study scripture closely. Abraham, for his belief, was already a friend of God and justified in chapter 15. And then later on, seven chapters later, is when we have the offering of Isaac, which was 40, 50 years later. So we got that now? If you read it quick, there's confusion. But that's why this is called expositional preaching. We're breaking it down verse by verse. Now if someone tells me that I'm doing eloquent sermons and no one can understand it for this sermon series, I'm going to throw something at you. Because we want everyone to see it. We're breaking it down piece by piece. That's why I give you the outline. I want you to catch all these things. That's why on the outline, don't throw it away. Keep it at least for a week. We wrote down the NIV version and the KJV version. That's how critical it is to know the Word. It's not faith in Jesus your work, it's the faith of Jesus. The Son of God did it all. Like that old hymn, Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. But it's true. He did it. Now, last point in the sermon. When we try to add to God's grace we have for its effectiveness. If men were able to justify themselves through a religious system of works, the world did not need a messiah. Every other religion besides biblical Christianity was born, and I left it out, but I was trying to say born in the Garden of Eden. It was born after our first parents sinned. That's how you know you have the true faith. What Jesus taught is the only teaching of its type. No other religion says that God loved you, came down, and saved you. None. Every other religion, there are works involved. This was the argument in 1517. And remember, it's meant to be deceptive. There is truth in Roman Catholicism. There is truth in Mormonism. There's a lot of truth in Islam. But it's got to be perfect. It's got to be 100% truth, and it's not. All you need to do is have 90% of the gospel right, have 10% of it wrong, and you have another gospel. Just like talking about the jewelry. A little extra metal besides gold in that gold ring makes it a different character and a different value. We have the pure gospel. Don't let anyone pervert it. And that's what they've been doing. Now, in Galatians, we're going to see again, verses 17 through 21, this is Paul's argument. What if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, and therefore the Christ minister of sin doth prevent? For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. But I approve of the law and beg for the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I. but Christ liveth in me. Amen. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself to me. I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness come by the law then Christ died in vain. And this is the exact sentiment of Paul and this is the same sentiment of James. People are lazy They want to be justified without a living faith, but were never justified by works. Turn to Genesis chapter 3. This works religion, this salvation by works, or salvation by faith plus works, was devised by our parents. It is nothing new. Evolution is nothing new. It was in the garden. Why did they take the fruit? Because the devil told them once they ate that fruit, they would evolve into gods. The same thing Hitler taught. The same thing the Greeks taught. The same thing we're being taught today through machinery and computers and gene splicing and all this technology. You don't need the gospel to get back into immortality. We'll do it for you. Nothing new under the sun. So here we have, and we'll read it back to back quickly so you can see it. This is after their fall. What did Adam and Eve do? Verse 7. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They knew that they were sinners. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And many groups today, to show that they're going to work themselves into heaven, or build something like that, they still wear aprons today. Well, let's turn to verses 21 through 24. Was that OK? Did God say, great, you sinned. You screwed up my whole creation. I'll let you cover yourself the way you want. Was that OK? Verses 21 through 24. And the Lord God, unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us to know good and evil, and now lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground for whence he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. And the only way for us to gain immortality again, to reverse the curse, is through Jesus Christ. Not through Google, not through works religions, not through anything you come up with. It's through Jesus Christ. You cannot make your own way to salvation. You don't like God's simple way of salvation? Too bad. Don't change it. Paul knows. He was justified freely. When Paul talks about being dead to the law, he means that I learned from the law. It can't save me. Now I live in Christ. I no longer live through the law, because it doesn't have the power to justify me. Only the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did can justify it before God. That's why it's so evil. to push a gospel mixed with works. If you're able to do something, you eliminate the Son of God. And that's what they're all trying to do. Isn't it amazing how many similarities there are through these great religions? They all have temples. They all have priests that run things. They all have different levels that you have to get through, different degrees that you have to work through. It's never just through Jesus to God. They always lay some burden on you. And the Pharisees were great at it. And the Roman Catholic leadership was great at it. And now Protestant leadership is great at it. Anything for the gospel. They're going to give you a litmus test to get in. You know what the new legalism is going to be? You know what the new litmus test is going to be for Christians? In this country, if the church doesn't stand up, you want to be a Christian who's allowed to worship in your church? Do you affirm? same-sex marriage. Do you affirm abortion or child murder? Do you affirm that in certain cases incest is okay? Do you affirm bestiality? It's coming. It's coming. And if you don't wake up, you will once again be thrown into prison for reading the Bible in public, especially something like Romans chapter 1. you will be beaten or thrown into prison for professing that there's only one gospel. And even though we're justified by faith, we are given that faith to perform good works, and we are not to promote evil, you'll be thrown in jail for that. It's coming back. We're not there yet, and we have a shot. And that's why we proclaim Jesus so loudly. That God willing, the church will wake up from this deep sleep that it's in. This is what we're begging God for. But that's what these verses, this is what it's about. This was the battle 500 years ago. Fast forward 500 years from 1517 and in 2017, it's going to be the same battle. The same battle. You're justified by the works of Christ. Do not let people pervert the gospel. Stand up for Jesus. He stood up and died for you. Amen. Almighty God, we pray, Lord, that we were able to expound your word today in a way that glorified you and that pleased you. We ask, Lord, that you protect us, our little church, and our faith, the faith that we have, that you keep it pure. We know, Lord, that no man can snatch us from your hands. So we leave today in confidence. We go out. We will challenge people who do not have the gospel. We will especially challenge people who have a fake or perverted gospel. We pray, dear God, that your spirit would guide people once again in the churches. We thank you for the battle that finally, 500 years later, is starting to foment again. It's about time that we stood up for you and for the teachings of your son and for the work that he did for us, knowing that he died for us A righteous Messiah died for us and loved us enough. He died for us while we were still sinful. We thank you for that, Lord. And we thank you in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.