Live by Faith

Every week I come up and preach about things we can improve on. Sometimes it’s hard even for me to hear the words that I say. As you know, I record the sermons so I can send them to those who didn’t attend, couldn’t attend or live far away. I also take time during the week to listen to the sermon for myself. Not only so I can improve my preaching, but because I need to hear every word I’m preaching too. But aside from the fact that we need to become better people, better in our devotion to God, obedience to his word and more loving to his children, sometimes we need to go back and hear a message of encouragement. Today’s sermon is just one of those messages. I pray as we explore this passage, your faith is renewed, the reason you came to Christ in the first place is reignited and the fire blazes once again. Today we are going to talk about faith. Open your Bibles to Galatians 2:11-21 and follow along with me! 11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. 12 For he used to eat with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party. 13 Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, "If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?" 15 We are Jews by birth and not "Gentile sinners"; 16 yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified. 17 But if, while seeking to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are also found to be sinners, is Christ then a promoter of sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker. 19 For through the law I have died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; 20 and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. Conflict. Boy Christians can’t even get away from conflict in the 1st century church! The first line here talks about Paul opposing Peter to his face. Apparently, Paul and Peter were disagreeing about something big. Peter has been known in the past to act on fear. This is evidenced when Christ was arrested. Peter denied Christ three times because he was afraid of being crucified right alongside Christ. This time, Peter is acting in fear of the Jewish Christians. Peter was sharing a meal with Gentiles…and Peter is of Jewish descent. Yes, he was following Christ and now one of the leaders of the early Christian church, but there are a couple factors here that we need to consider. First, these men were having to discern the whole Law in light of Christ. They were trying to figure out if the dietary laws still held effect or not. Also, we have to keep in mind that sharing in a meal with someone is one of the most intimate acts we can participate in. Peter being Jewish, was being influenced other Jewish Christian leaders that sharing a meal with Gentiles was wrong. Paul came along and said, NO! In fact, all Christians, whether Gentile or Jew should be fellowshipping together! He basically called Peter a hypocrite because he was living like a Gentile, but claiming the Gentiles needed to be living like the Jews…when in fact, Peter wasn’t even living like a Jew! In effect, it was creating two different ‘types’ of Christianity. Wrong! Paul says that Christ came and died for all. It isn’t the works and the law that saves a man, it’s through Jesus Christ that we are justified. Justification in a nutshell means that we’ve been declared righteous in the eyes of God. Only through Christ is that accomplished. Naturally, Paul received some criticism for this type of thinking. People claimed that in Paul’s line of thinking, this frees people up to do whatever it is they see as ok….freely sinning and pleasing the flesh because Christ is always there to justify us. I love Paul’s response to this. Verse 17-18 says, “17 But if we ourselves are also found to be “sinners” while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild the system I tore down, I s how myself to be a lawbreaker.” Absolutely not! Paul says. I love it. But Paul is absolutely right…if we continue to sin, we are only lawbreakers. It our sin that put Christ on the cross as it is…to continue to openly sin and not pursue the path of righteousness only further puts Christ there! Paul finished off here by saying that it is in faith alone in Christ that he loved us enough to give Himself as a sacrifice for us. Upon confessing Christ as our savior, being baptized and repenting of our sins, we die with him in his crucifixion and rise with him to a new life, justified by his blood. Christ lives in us…and does the good work in us…because if we believe that the law is what justifies, then, Paul says, “Christ died for nothing.” How many people do you know that are “good people”? Maybe you’re one of them. I cannot tell you how many times that I’ve heard people say that if they believe in God and are good, then they’ll go to Heaven. For quite a while, I subscribed to that sort of thinking. I thought, hey I believe in God, and for the most part, I’m a good person…that’s good enough. In fact, all through my ‘lost’ years, I truly thought I was ‘saved’. It wasn’t until after that period in my life and I had the dream to influence me to become a minister that I really woke up to the reality of where I was actually headed during that period of my life. It isn’t enough to be a good person and believe in God. There is no good act that we can do on our own that can save us…only by believing in Christ can that be done. Confess, repent, baptize. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. In January of 1985, there was a large suitcase that was unmarked and unclaimed that was discovered at the customs office of Los Angeles International Airport. When U.S. Customs agents opened the suitcase, they found the curled-up body of an unidentified young woman. She had been dead for a few days, according to the county coroner. As the investigation continued, it was learned that the woman was the wife if a young Iranian living in the U.S. Unable to obtain a visa to enter the U.S. and join her husband, she took matters into her own hands and attempted to smuggle herself into America via an airplane’s cargo bay. While her plan seemed to her simple, though risky, officials were hard-pressed to understand how such an attempt could ever succeed. Even if she survived, the journey in the cargo bay, she would remain an illegal alien, having entered through improper channels. Like this woman, some people truly believe they’ll enter heaven and the Kingdom of God on their own since they’ve been reasonably good citizens or church attendees. But the entry plans of our own design prove not only foolish, but fatal; dying not only a physical death, but spiritual as well. February 1, 2003 was our wedding day. It also happened to be the day the Columbia space shuttle returned to Earth. On January 16th, the take-off was picture perfect…or so they thought. The mission was a good one. From all appearances, it seemed successful. However, one detail was overlooked. Upon take-off, a piece of foam insulation broke loose and hit the heat shield on the belly of the aircraft. This small detail that was overlooked proved to be the one piece of information that would have proved to be a completely successful mission. My friends, don’t go through your life being a good person and believing in God only to miss the most important piece of information that will lead to your destruction…don’t miss the fact that Jesus is the only way. The encouragement today that I pray you get is in the freedom from the law. For those who have made the good confession, repented and been baptized, we are free from the law. The good works we do will not save us…we are already saved by the blood of a Savior who was willing to die for us. Nothing we do will ever change that…short of completely walking away from him. So, my friends, if you’ve made the good confession, repented of your sins, and been baptized, you can rest assured that you are covered in justification by the only thing in this world that can; Jesus. If you haven’t ever done this, I urge you this morning do not walk out of this sanctuary without doing so. We must not continue to think that being good and believing in God will get it done. We must confess Christ as Savior, repent of our sins and be baptized.