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It’s O.K. if Barney is on your underwear as long as Jesus
is in your heart
Galatians 2:15-21
G. K. Chesterton said:
"Whatever else is or is not true, this one thing is certain—man
is not what he was meant to be."
If you have any question about the condition of the human race, I
bid you to simply go anywhere in the world, pick up any newspaper you
want. Simply read the front page
and you will be convinced.
We live in a universe
where fanatics in the Middle
East tape bombs to
their chests – walk into malls or restaurants and blow themselves
up. It’s not that much
different in America…lest we forget Oklahoma or school shooting.
The details change, the faces come and go, but the story is always the
same. Something evil lurks inside
the heart of every person. No
one is immune, no one is exempt, and no one is truly innocent. Call it what you will—a twist, a
taint, a bent to do wrong. That’s
why, even when we know the right thing to do, we go ahead and choose to
do wrong. Deliberately. Repeatedly. Defiantly.
This is our human
predicament. Something is wrong between us and God, and deep in our
hearts we know this is true. We can
call the problem by a lot of different names but the bible calls our
problem sin. What is sin? It is the lack of conformity to
God’s righteous and holy character. It is anything we say or do
or think or imagine or plan that does not meet God’s standard of
holiness.
We trick ourselves into
thinking that we’re not “that bad.” …after all
there are a lot of people who are far worse sinner than us. So we delude ourselves into thinking I
am not “that bad.” But
the bible makes clear our comparison is not each other but Him…and
he is holy, pure and always good, righteous and just. And when compared to His standard of
holiness there is a great gulf between us and God.
What is to be done about the great gulf that stands between us and God?
On our own there are many things we can try to do. We try to bridge the
gap by religion or by self-effort or by good works …or we ignore
...or run from God.
Several
years ago a woman was driving home when she noticed a huge truck behind
her that was driving uncomfortably close. She stepped on the gas to gain
some distance from the truck, but when she sped up, the truck did too.
The faster she drove, the faster the truck did. Now scared, she exited
the freeway. But the truck stayed with her. The woman then turned up a
main street, hoping to lose her pursuer in traffic. But the truck ran a
red light and continued the chase. Reaching the point of panic, the woman
whipped her car into a service station and bolted out of her car
screaming for help. The truck driver sprang from his truck and ran toward
her car. Yanking open the back door, the driver pulled out a man hidden
in the back seat. The woman was
running from the wrong person. From his high vantage point, the truck
driver had spotted a would-be rapist in the woman's car. The chase was
not his effort to hurt her but to save her even at the cost of his own
safety. Likewise, many people run from God, fearing what He might do to
them. But His plans are for good, not evil – to rescue us from all
our sins.
The Good News of the
gospel is this: God has taken it upon himself to do something about the
“gap” that stands between himself
and all humanity. What we could not do, he did in the person of his Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. The story of how he did this is wrapped up in a
biblical term called justification. That’s what our text is all
about. It tells how God took the initiative to save guilty sinners like
me and you.
I.
Justification Defined 15-16
“We
who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’,
nevertheless, know that a man is not justified by observing 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 observing the law,
because by observing the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:15-16).
Galatians 2:16 is one of the most important verses in the New
Testament. If you read it slowly and carefully, you will discover that
several words are repeated. Paul mentions “faith” three
times, “justified” three times, and “law”
three times. Paul repeats
himself so we won’t miss the basic truth. He wants to make one
point and one point only: We are made right -justified with God only
through faith in Jesus Christ and that apart from good works (law) of any
kind.
The word “justify” means to “declare righteous.”
It refers to a verdict from the judge that allows a defendant to go free.
It means that the defendant is declared not guilty, innocent of all
charges, and there is no record against him in the eyes of the law. If
you are justified, your record is clean and clear and you are free to go.
If you apply that truth
in the spiritual realm, it looks like this: Justification is that act of
God whereby he acquits guilty sinners (that is, he declares them
innocent), on the basis of the death of Christ. Justified sinners are
thus pardoned, acquitted, set free, accepted by God, and treated as
righteous.
When God justifies a sinner, he doesn’t simply delay his
punishment. And he doesn’t reduce his punishment. When God
justifies a sinner, he removes the punishment altogether. That is why
Romans 8:1 says there is “no condemnation” for those who are
in Christ Jesus. Justification means the sinner is declared “not
guilty” in the eyes of God because God credits (accounts or
imputes) to him the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Verse 16 says three times that we are not justified by the works
of the law. That means there is nothing we can do to save ourselves or
help save ourselves.
In the last few weeks
at the Academy students, particularly seniors have been rushing to make
sure they finished all their work by the end of the semester. There were
quizzes to take, homework assignments to make up, papers to write, and
books to read, not to mention cramming for the final exam. And they know
they have to do it if they want to pass the course and graduate on time.
But some mistakenly say to themselves, “The teacher doesn’t
mean it. She’ll let me slide by even if I turn in my homework late,
skip one of my papers, miss class on days we have quizzes, write half a
lab report, and only answer half the questions on the final exam.”
Lots of people approach God with the same attitude. They think to
themselves, “He doesn’t really mean it.” They hope that
when they die, God will look at them and say, “You were a quite a
little rascal. But you can come in anyway.” They hope they can do
just enough to convince God to take them to heaven. Generally, that
strategy doesn’t work with your English Lit or Chemistry teacher.
And it never works with God. He really means what he says.
God demands holiness…perfectly holy. That’s a shocking thought.
Because we live in an imperfect world, the very idea of perfection is
hard to grasp. If you ask people,
“Do you have to be perfect to go to heaven?” most will answer
no. But the answer is yes. God is perfectly holy and by His very
nature…perfectly holy…he can not let unholy people to join
him in heaven. That means we are
left with only two options if we want to go to heaven:
1) We’ve got to be perfect holy ourselves from the time of birth to
the time of death.
2) We’ve got to find someone who can be perfectly holy in our
place.
B. But by Faith in Christ
Jesus was perfectly holy in our place. He obeyed where we disobeyed. He
completely kept God’s law and fulfilled all its demands. Therefore,
he is able to die as a perfect substitute, in our place, taking our
punishment, bearing our sins, dying the death we should have died. When
we trust him as Savior, God declares us righteous, justified, pardoned,
and forgiven.
Salvation, eternal life our relationship with God is a free gift of God
received by simple faith. This is a humbling biblical truth because it
declares that there is nothing I can do to save myself. As long as I
cling to the idea that I must contribute to my own salvation, there is no
hope for me at all. Verse 16 repeats this three times so we won’t
miss it. Salvation comes to those who stop trying and start trusting in
Jesus Christ. Paul says, “We, too, have put our faith in Christ
Jesus.” Can you say that?
II.
Justification Applied 20-21
A. We live by Faith 20
“I
have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in
me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
This is one of the most
famous and most loved verses in the Bible. Galatians 2:20 has been set to music in a popular contemporary
chorus.
I must admit there is a
mystical side to this that is hard to put in words. Those who know Christ
personally understand what it means to say that “Christ lives in
me” even if we can’t fully explain it to anyone else.
It is not enough to say, “I
attend First Baptist” or “I love to sing the old hymns”
or even “Pastor Jay baptized me.” It’s not enough to
say, “I believe that there was a person named Jesus who lived and
died 2000 years ago.” But is he dwelling in you? Does he live in you?
In the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (1/17/98) Judy Zmerold wrote:
Three-year-old Katie was taken to her pediatrician during a recent bout
with the flu. As the doctor examined her ears, he asked, “Will I
find Big Bird in here?”
Apprehensively, Katie replied, “No.”
Then, before examining her throat, he asked, “Will I find the
Cookie Monster in here?”
Again, “No.”
Finally, listening to her heart, he asked, “Will I find Barney in
here?”
With innocent conviction, she looked him directly in the eye and said,
“No, Jesus is in my heart. Barney is on my underwear.”
Let me put the matter this way: It doesn’t matter who is on your
underwear so long as Jesus is in your heart. A Christian is a person in
whom Christ now lives. If we opened your heart today, would we find Jesus
Christ there?
We are restored in our relationship with God by what Christ has done for
us
We are saved by grace
through faith:
Apart from works
Apart from all human "goodness"
That salvation is
freely given and is received by faith alone.
How do you find God’s
grace? Just ask for it.
That’s all. It’s really that simple. The more you feel your
need for grace, the better candidate you are to receive it. Hold out your
empty hands and ask God for his grace. You will not be turned away.
It’s never too
late. Though your sins be as scarlet, God says
they will be white as snow.
This is the miracle, the wonder, the scandal,
the shock of God’s grace.
Here is good news for
sinners. Free Grace! Free Grace! Free Grace! Shout it, sing it, tell it, share it. And above all else, believe it, for in
believing, you will be saved.
Amazing
grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost
but now am found, was blind but now I see." Amen.
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Baptist Sermon page.
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