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sermon from Dr. James Merritt. - Well, good morning to you, good morning out our
campus at Mill Creek, to those who are
watching online, those who are watching by TV, thanks for being a
part of us today. In the mid 20th century, one of the most famous
comedians in the world was a man named Groucho Marx. And one of the reasons
he was so funny is he was so self-deprecating. He loved to poke fun at himself, kinda knew who he was
and knew who he wasn't. And one of his most famous
quotes was this quote. He said, "I wouldn't join a club "that would have
me as a member." And what he meant was if
the standards of a club are that low they would
take me as a member, then it's not worth joining. And when I read that quote, I thought about
a particular club that I have joined
more than once. To my shame. And I'm not proud of it. It has perhaps the
lowest standards of any club that you'll find. The only requirement
to join the club is pretending to be
something that you're not. The chairman of the
club is peer pressure. The one benefit of the
club is acceptance. The chairman of the club, or the name of the
club is hypocrisy. And if you're honest I
bet most of you would say you've applied for
membership in that club one time or another. We're in a series on character that we're calling
"Mirror Image," and what we've been
saying is this. Imagine you had a mirror that would show you
what you look like not on the outside
but on the inside. Not what you look
like physically but what you would
look like morally, what you would look
like ethically, what you would look
like spiritually. Which character traits
would be absent. And so in this series
we've been sharing the bricks of virtue
that we believe go into building the
house of character. Today we're going to look at one that I think is sorely missing, one that is desperately needed, one that people
desire everywhere, and that is authenticity. Now you say, okay, what do
you mean by authenticity? Let me make it very simple. When you're authentic,
you're the real deal. You're not one thing in public
and another thing in private. You're not one thing when
you're with this group but you're another thing
when you're with that group. When you're authentic, you're always the real
you in real situations. As the playwright
Oscar Wilde said, "Be yourself, everyone
else is already taken." And that's true. Be yourself. So here's what we're
gonna do today. I've never really preached
from this passage before, and the more I got into it the
more it really spoke to me. Today we're going to look
at a passage of scripture, it's a story of two spiritual
and theological giants of the early Church, and they clashed,
they went toe to toe because one of them sold
his authenticity out to the counterfeit
currency of hypocrisy. If you brought a
copy of God's Word, we're in a book
called Galatians. It's a letter that
a man named Paul wrote to a church in Galatia,
which is over in Asia Minor. It's in your New Testament. It's just a few books over
from the Gospel of Matthew. We're in Galatians chapter two. Now if you like drama,
you're gonna love this story. If you like confrontation, some people shy away from it, some people gravitate toward it. I'm gonna be honest,
I'm one of those people that kinda gravitate
toward it at times. You're gonna like this story. If you like just a good
old-fashioned throw down, you're gonna love this story. It's one of those
in-your-face, nose-to-nose, dirt-flying battle between two of the biggest
names in the early Church. Let me kind of set up this story and why it's such a big deal. If you had lived 2,000 years ago and you were a
brand new Christian, you wouldn't have
been around very long, you would have realized
that there was what I call the Fantastic Four. There were four big names
in the early Church. They were recognized as the
big leaders in the early Church by all accounts, by
common consensus. They were the big guns. Four of them wrote books
in the New Testament. One was James. He was the
half-brother of Jesus. So you can imagine he'd
get a lot of respect. One was John, who Jesus
called the beloved disciple. He was one of the closest
friends Jesus had. One was Peter, who was the
leader of the 12 disciples. And then one was
the apostle Paul who became the
greatest missionary, the most prolific writer, the greatest theologian
of the early Church. So you've got these
four big guns. Well, Peter and Paul are
in a city called Antioch which was the chief
city of Syria. It's where the
Christian mission began, it's where Gentiles
began to be reached, it's where the disciples
were first called Christians. That's where the name came from. In Antioch they were
first called Christians. So Peter was the primary
gospel preacher to the Jews. Paul was the primary gospel
preacher to the Gentiles. Now before I get into the
story I want you to understand, they both loved Jesus. They both loved the Church. They both loved each other. But that doesn't mean
they always got along, it doesn't mean they
always saw eye to eye on every theological point. Some of my dearest friends
are in this church. We don't always see eye to eye. I'm a Georgia Bulldog and
some of my best friends are Florida Gators, and some of my other
best friends are
Tennessee Volunteers, some of my other best
friends are Auburn Tigers. They're all on my
one list, by the way. I'm trying to win all
of them to Christ. But we just don't always see
eye to eye on these things, but we love each other. Well, that was Peter and Paul. They loved each other, but they
had this huge disagreement. So Paul opposes
Peter to his face, calls him out in public,
rebukes him, condemns him, not because of
what he was saying but because of
what he was doing. You say, what was the problem? Very simple. Peter had quit practicing
what he preached. He would say one thing but
he would live another thing. His talk differed from his walk. And the person he was
being was not lined up with the person that God
had called him to be. And Paul reminds Peter, "If you're gonna be a disciple, "if you're gonna be
a follower of Jesus, "if you're gonna be a
preacher of the gospel, "if you're going to be
a leader of the church, "Peter, you have got to
be a man of authenticity. "It is a big part of character. "Peter, you need to be
the same person in private "that you are in public. "You need to be you regardless
of where you might be "or who you might be with." And then Paul shows us
what authenticity is, what it looks like, how it acts, and why it is important. So I just wanna ask you to ask
yourself an honest question. Am I authentic? Am I the real deal all the time? Or is there hypocrisy in my
life that I need to deal with? And so in this little
passage we'll look at today here's what we're gonna
learn about authenticity. And by the way, you may say,
well, I wanna be authentic, and I believe you mean
it if you say that, but be careful what you wish for because I wanna tell you in the day and age that
we're living in today it's very difficult
to be authentic. Very easy to cave in when
you're with a certain crowd at a certain time
in a certain place. So here's what will be true. If I am authentic, I will confront hypocrisy. If I'm authentic, I
will confront hypocrisy. Now here's what's going on. Paul's in Antioch and Paul's
heard some things about Peter, and when Peter comes to Antioch,
Paul does the right thing. Paul confronts Peter. He displaces with the niceties, he didn't have any chitchat,
he gets right to the point. He cuts to the heart
of the problem. We're in Galatians 2,
we'll pick up in verse 11. "When Cephas," that's just
another name for Peter. "When Cephas came to
Antioch, I," that is Paul, "I opposed him to his face, "because he stood condemned." Now right upfront
Paul's letting us know because he's authentic, "I'm not gonna talk about
Peter behind his back. "I'm not gonna believe
every rumor that I hear. "I'm not just gonna get
one side of the story." He did what we all ought to do when we hear something
about someone else. He went to them directly. By the way, in the
Greek language, it literally says they
were face to face. It wasn't an email,
it wasn't a text, it wasn't a phone call. It was face to face. Now if that's possible, and it isn't always
possible, but if it is, that's what authentic people do. So let me just be
honest, you're ready? Authentic people don't gossip. Now you may say,
well, I'm authentic. Oh, it's worse. Authentic people don't
listen to gossip. If you're authentic,
you don't gossip, you don't listen to gossip. They don't talk about
people, they talk to people. If you're authentic and you've
got a problem with somebody, you man up, you woman up, you go to the person
you've got a problem with, and you talk it out. And the reason why Paul
opposed him to his face was, he said, he
stood condemned. Now notice it wasn't Paul
that was condemning him. He said, "You stand condemned,
you've condemned yourself." And as you're gonna see, he was condemned
by three things. He was condemned by the
God that he represented. He was condemned by the
gospel he was preaching. He was condemned by the
grace that saves all of us, both Jews and Gentiles. You say, wow, what in
the world did Peter do? What in the world did he
do that left him condemned? Here's what happened. "For before certain
men came from James," Peter, that is, he, "he used to eat
with the Gentiles. "But when they arrived," you'll see who they
are in a moment, "he began to draw back "and separate himself
from the Gentiles "because he was afraid
of those who belonged "to the circumcision group. "The other Jews joined
him in his hypocrisy, "so that by their hypocrisy
even Barnabas was led astray." So evidently here's
what happened. Peter goes to Antioch, and Peter begins to
preach the gospel, and these Gentiles
begin to get saved, because it was primarily a
city made up of Gentiles. So Peter begins to hang out
with his new Gentile friends, he begins to hang out with
these Gentile Christians. He begins to go to their home
and he begins to eat with them and hang out with them
and fellowship with them. As a matter of fact,
the tense of the verb is a tense that lets you know this had become
a habit with him. He regularly did it. He didn't worry about the fact
that they were uncircumcised or about the food that they eat, but they ate food that
Jews normally didn't eat. And the reason why Peter
did that was he understood we're all equal before God,
we're all equal before Jesus. I'm a Jew, you're a Gentile,
that doesn't matter. We're both Christians, we're
both followers of Jesus. We've all been saved
by the grace of God, everything that comes
from God is good. So he would go and
eat at their house and they would come
and eat at his house. Now it wasn't just who
he was eating with, it was what he was eating
that if you were a Jew would be really
kind of shocking. Because if you had gone to
one of their potluck dinners, here's what Peter was eating. Baby back ribs, shrimp on the barbie, crab cakes, raw oysters. They probably topped it off with sausage and
biscuit from Bojangles. I mean, he's eating
all of these things. And everything I listed to
you in the Old Testament was forbidden by the Jewish law. If you were a good Jew, you
couldn't eat those things. And yet Peter is just eating up. Because all of those foods that had been
previously forbidden God had shown Peter,
"They're clean. "You can have anything you want. "You're under grace. "I've given you richly
all things to enjoy." So things are going great. Peter's acting the way
Peter ought to act. He's fellowshipping with people he ought to be
fellowshipping with. He's accepting and
affirming people he ought to be accepting and
he ought to be affirming. And then this little
three-letter word enters into the narrative. "But when they arrived, "who belonged to the
circumcision group." And you say, okay, fill me in. There was a group of people, they kind of had
deputized themselves as Jewish theological policemen. They were spiritual busybodies. They professed to be Christians. But they come to Antioch
and they see Peter eating with these Gentiles, and they came and they
said, "Wow, wow, time out." And they began to tell
all these Gentiles, "You may follow Jesus
and you may love Jesus, "and that's all well,
that's all good. "But you've gotta
be circumcised. "You can't just be a Christian. "You've got to be
a Jewish Christian. "You still have to
follow the law of Moses "to be totally accepted by God. "It doesn't matter that
you believe in Jesus, "it doesn't matter that
you've been baptized, "it doesn't matter that
you're part of a church. "It is improper for
a circumcised Jew "to have fellowship with
an uncircumcised Gentile. "It is wrong, Peter, for you
to eat all of these foods "that you know a
Jew should not eat." And then, to kinda make sure
that they had the authority that they were saying this, they even claimed that
they came from James. Now biblical scholars believe
and I do that they were lying, that James didn't have
anything to do with it. It doesn't matter. Regardless of that, they
basically make their point. So they're shaming
Peter, they're putting
the Gentiles down. What does Peter do? "He began to draw back "and separate himself
from the Gentiles "because he was afraid." It was a crushing blow
to his Gentile buddies. It was a crushing
blow to the families he used to hang out with and
eat with and fellowship with. The little kids didn't see
Uncle Peter come around anymore. The little boys and
girls didn't get to play with Uncle Peter anymore. Because Peter had decided,
"I've got to please this group. "I've got to stay in
their good graces." Because back in that,
even, by the way, this is true even today, in the Middle East, the
highest form of acceptance, the way you show somebody
you approved of them was to eat with them. Either go to their house
or come to their house. Still to this day
in the Middle East hospitality is a big deal. And even though Peter
knew it was wrong, he rejected the crowd,
listen to what happened now, he rejected the crowd
he should've accepted so he would be accepted by the
crowd he should've rejected. He told the right group,
he told the wrong group, the group that was, he told the group he
shouldn't have told to take a hike and fly a kite. When he should've actually
been telling the other group exactly the same thing. You say, why did he do that? We're told in the
text he was afraid. Because fear is the
enemy of authenticity. When you get afraid, but
what will they think? What will they say? What will they do? Authenticity goes out the window because fear will cause
you to bow to pressure rather than surrender
to principle. So here's people who
had previously enjoyed unrestricted social and
personal and spiritual and relational
fellowship with Gentiles who were just as good as he was. They were just as
saved as he was. They were just as
right as he was. He was speaking their language,
he was eating their food, he was drinking their wine, he was playing with
their children, he was sitting in their homes, and all of a sudden, overnight, starts treating them
like they've got leprosy. Doesn't speak to them when
they're walking down the street. He's always too busy to
go over to their house. And the word that is used
to describe what he's doing, is used twice in the passage,
is the word hypocrisy. And it's something that is
alive and well in the Church 2,000 years later. You say, why do you say that? Because hypocrisy
is what has kept and is still keeping
many churches segregated because of skin color. It's what's caused the Church to treat certain
sins as felonies and other sins as misdemeanors. It's what's caused the Church
to slap certain sinners with the hand of judgment while turning a blind
eye to other sinners that we deem acceptable. Hypocrisy is why we fail to
extend grace in a gracious way to everyone who needs it
just as badly as we do. It's why the term hypocritical
has become the primary way that young people
see Christianity. 85% of young outsiders,
85% of young people that do not come to
church today said the number one thing
they think about when they think about everyday
Christianity is hypocritical. That's where we are. And if we're gonna be
authentic as Christians and as a church, we must confront hypocrisy
wherever we find it. That's what authentic people do. But not only are we going
to confront hypocrisy if we're authentic. If we're authentic, I
will confess hypocrisy. I won't just confront
it, I will confess it. So here's what Paul
is saying to Peter. "Peter, come on man,
let your life be real. "Come on bro, let your
life be authentic. "Quit being a phony. "Say what you mean,
mean what you say. "Say the same thing
with one group "that you'll say
with another group. "Stick by what you believe. "When your life doesn't match
your lips, own up to it. "When your behavior doesn't
match your belief, admit it. "Just come out and say so." But listen, there's something
even greater at stake here that I don't want you to miss 'cause this is such a big deal. 'Cause I know some of
you might be thinking, why is this even in scripture? So two guys had a disagreement, why is this even in the Bible? Now you're gonna see why
Paul was so worked up. This is the most
important thing Paul says. "When I saw that they
were not acting in line "with the truth of the gospel, "I said to Cephas in
front of them all, "'You are a Jew, "'yet you live like a
Gentile and not like a Jew. "'How is it, then,
that you force Gentiles "'to follow Jewish customs?'" You see, here was
Paul's biggest problem. It wasn't just the hypocrisy
that they were displaying. It was the truth
they were denying. The very truth of the
gospel was at stake. That little phrase,
acting in line, in the Greek
language is the word, by the way, it gives
us the word orthopedic. We've got some orthopedic
doctors here today. He gives us the word orthopedic. It literally means to walk
uprightly or to walk straight. That's what it means. What Paul said was, "You're
not walking straight in line "with the truth of the gospel. "You have veered off
the road of gospel truth "and you've landed in
the ditch of hypocrisy "because it's so easy to do." Now I'm gonna answer a question. How do you get out of line
with the truth of the gospel? How do you know you're
not walking in line with the truth of the gospel? Well, you see right
here in this passage, there are three things
that will knock you totally off line
with the gospel. First of all, racism. Racism will knock you off line
of the truth of the gospel. And you know what racism is. It's when you refuse
to see other people as equal as you are, and the reason why you don't
see them as equal as you are is because they don't
have your skin color. They don't have your ethnicity. And any time you're thinking
racially in that way, you are not walking in line
with the truth of the gospel. The second thing, believe
it or not, is religion. Religion will
knock you off line. When we refuse to have
fellowship with other people just because they don't
dot the same religious Is and they don't cross
the same religious T, particularly those
that are not important, they're not essential
to biblical principles, we're not walking in line
with the truth of the gospel. Listen, I have my beliefs,
and you know this, we have our beliefs
about baptism. We believe people
should be baptized after they're saved, not before. We believe baptism
should be by immersion. It pictures the
death and the burial and the resurrection of Christ. And we don't make
any bones about it, we don't apologize for it. We say to anyone, if
you've never been baptized after you believed by immersion, we do not believe you've
been biblically baptized. But there are some great
godly wonderful pastors and churches and people that absolutely don't agree
with what I've just said. It doesn't affect my
fellowship with them. It doesn't mean we
can't be friends. It doesn't mean we don't
love the same Lord. If doesn't mean we don't
preach the same gospel. There's all kinds
of things out there that we may not agree on and
we may not see eye to eye on, but there's too much division
in the body of Christ over things that
just don't matter. So racism will
knock you off line. Religion will
knock you off line. Righteousness will
knock you off line. You say, what do you mean? When you start thinking that
you're superior to other people because they don't do
things that you do, or they do things
that you don't do. We fail to realize we're
all continuously sinners in need of the grace of God. When we do that, we're
not walking in line with the truth of the gospel. Some of you don't believe
it's right to drink, some of you think
it's okay to drink. Some of you don't think
it's okay to go to movies, some of you do. We could list all
kinds of things that we don't always
agree on, that's okay. What we cannot do
is ever say, well, he must not be as good as I am because he does
that but I don't. She must not be as good as I am because she does
that and I don't. Righteousness will
knock you off line with the truth of the gospel. So, since Peter's not
gonna confess what he did, Paul says, "Okay Peter,
I'll do it for you." "I said to Cephas in
front of them all, "'You are a Jew, yet you live
like a Gentile and not a Jew. "'How is then that
you force Gentiles "'to follow Jewish customs?'" Now here in effect is
what Paul said to Peter. He said, "Peter,
you've been pretending "to be something that you're not "when you're with the Gentiles. "Now you want the Gentiles "to pretend to be
something they're not "when they are with you. "And Peter, you're
making a difference "when there is no difference. "And you are not only just
denying the truth of the gospel, "you are destroying the
unity of the church." Now I don't want you to
miss what a big deal this is because I want you to
imagine, now listen to this. If Paul had not
confronted Peter, and if Paul had not
confessed for Peter, if Paul had not confronted
him and looked him in the face and said, "Peter,
you are filling the
church with hypocrisy. "You are a hypocrite." One of two things
would have happened. The church would
have even gone back to the ways of
Judaism and legalism, or there would have been
a permanent division between Jewish
Christians on one side and Gentile Christians
on the other side. That would have been a
disaster for the church. And so Paul did not confront
Peter out of jealousy. It wasn't out of one-upmanship. He wasn't trying to
prove who the real boss of the church was. He wasn't showboating. He did it for one reason. The truth of the
gospel was at stake. He said, "Peter,
your biggest problem "and something I
will not stand for "is when you don't walk in line
with the truth of the gospel "and you try to
lead other people "not to walk in line with
the truth of the gospel." 'Cause hear this. Nothing will ever
be more important in the life of a church, in the life of a Christian, in the life of any denomination, than to make sure that we
preach the truth of the gospel and we practice the
truth of the gospel. And that may mean
confessing hypocrisy in your own life. So if I'm authentic,
I'll confront hypocrisy. If I'm authentic, I'll
confess hypocrisy. And if I'm authentic, I
will correct hypocrisy. Now the whole problem
with Peter was, Peter, you're not
being authentic. You're not walking in line
with the truth of the gospel. So what does Paul do? He does what I'm glad he did. He says, "Peter,
can I remind you "of the truth of the gospel? "'Cause I think
you've forgotten it. "So can I just remind you of
what the gospel is all about?" So what Paul is about to do, he's about to give the most
simple, the most succinct, but the most upended
definition of the gospel, and he's gonna tell us this
is what separates Christianity from every other religious faith you will ever find anywhere, including the Bible. If you wanna know what
makes Christianity different from Judaism, what makes it different
from Hinduism, what makes it different
from Buddhism, what makes it
different from Islam, he says, "Okay, I will be
more than happy to tell you." That's why we should
walk on one street. It's called truth. And it's why we oughta
always walk in one direction, toward the gospel. So he reminds Peter and
he reminds us, look, we're all in the same boat. Whether we're Jews or
whether we're Gentiles, we're all in the same boat. Okay, so watch this
now, listen to this. He says, "We who are Jews by
birth and not sinful Gentiles "we know that a person
is not justified "by the works of the law." I will say that one more time because church people
need to hear that, unchurch people
need to hear that. Believers need to hear that,
unbelievers need to hear that. People who believe in
God need to hear this, people who don't believe
in God need to hear this. "A person is not justified
by the works of the law." Let's repeat that
together, you're ready? One, two, three. "A person is not justified
by the works of the law." Turn to your neighbor right now and tell them that right now. Just go and turn
to your neighbor and tell them that right now. Now you say, okay,
why do you that? Because I'm still amazed
at how many people still deep down
believe that's true. Deep, deep down so many people,
even church-going people, even people who
claim to know Christ, somehow they still have
this idea that, yeah, I know you've gotta
have faith, I get that. But somehow there's
gotta be something here about what I do and
about my obedience. He says no, "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." So here's what Paul is saying. "Peter, it doesn't
matter if you are a Jew "that was born into the
covenant family of God by birth, "or you are a Gentile born
outside of that covenant family. "Peter, neither your
birth nor your behavior "will ever make you right
with God or before God." Because the first
part of gospel truth, he says you've
gotta walk in line with the truth of the gospel. What is the truth of the gospel? Well, the first part
of the gospel truth is everybody is born a
sinner, everybody. Jews are born sinful,
Gentiles are born sinful. You don't have to
teach a Jew to sin, you don't have to
teach a Gentile to sin. That is the bad news. The worst news he then says is there's nothing we can do to
take care of our sin problem because no one will
ever be justified by the works of the law. And to press that point, Paul uses that phrase three
times in this passage. Not by the works of the law, not by works of the law,
not by works of the law. Three times in this verse. Because let me
tell you one thing, and you're welcome to try. Make this a year-long project. If you've never read
the Bible through, this may be a good reason
for you to start doing it. Start in Genesis, go all the way to the end
of the Book of Revelation. You will never find
one time, not once, where anybody ever
got right with God, ever got justified by God, ever got accepted by God
because they kept the law. No one ever got right with God, no one ever came to know God, no one was ever justified by God because they were
good enough for God. As a matter of fact, this is the thing
people don't understand. People think, "I know why God
gave me the 10 Commandments. "God gave me the 10 Commandments "because that is how
I get right with God." That's not why he gave
the 10 Commandments. He did not give
the 10 Commandments to show how good we can be. He gave the 10 Commandments
to show how bad we are. Listen, God's law is a
mirror that condemns us, it's not a medicine
that cures us. Law has nothing to do with it. You know, the law
is like a CAT scan. How many of you have ever
had a CAT scan or MRI? How many of you
have ever had one? Okay, I have. You know what a CAT
scan or MRI does? Listen. It will show you
what's wrong with you, it will not cure you. It will show you
what's wrong with you, it will not cure you. That's the law. The law says, you know what? Look at all the 10 Commandments. Let me tell you something. How many 10 Commandments
do you think you've broken in your life? That's an easy answer. You've broken all of them. Oh yeah, oh yeah, you've
broken all of them, okay? Somebody's, well, wait a minute. I've never stolen
anything from anybody. Really? Did you ever cheat in an exam? You stole somebody's answer. Did you ever say
something about someone to later find out
it wasn't true? You just stole from
their reputation. Now we can go down the line. Here's the good news, listen, this is good news
for all of us, okay? We're all equally bad. We've all flunked the test. We've all made a big fat zero when it comes to
keeping the law, because that's not
why the law was given. It was given to show us how
bad we are, not good we can be. So that's why we all need a word that Paul uses three
times in this verse. It's one of the greatest
words in the Bible. It is the word justified. Sir, can I ask you a question? Do you wanna be right with God? I really do, pastor. You better be justified. You wanna know God? I do really wanna
know God, pastor. Then you've got to be justified. When you die, you wanna
spend eternity with God? Yes, I do. Then you'd better be justified. That's what we all need. Now what does that mean? Big term, big word. Justification is a legal term. Sounds like it, right? It is borrowed from
the court of law. It is the exact opposite
of condemnation. So you've got justification
or condemnation. In fact, let me just
make this real easy. Every one of you
right now are living under one of two roofs. Either you're living under
the roof of condemnation, or you're living under
the roof of justification. That's where we all live. Justification is the
opposite of condemnation. It's real simple. Condemned is when you
are declared guilty. You're declared guilty,
you're condemned. Justification is when
you're declared not guilty. So we all need to be justified. Now watch this. That word tells us two things that we absolutely
know for certain. If you need to be
justified, and you do, and I need to be
justified, and I do, and we all then to be
justified, and we do, if that is true, then there's two things we
know for certain, you ready? Here's what I know, number one. There is nothing wrong with God. If I need him to justify me, there is nothing wrong with God. Here's the second thing
we know for certain. There is something
wrong with us. If there's nothing
wrong with him but there's something
wrong with me, I need him to do
something for me so that I can be right with him. Because, listen to this, if those two things are true and there's something
wrong between us and God, and it's not him but it's me, then only God can make it right. Well, how does he do that? By justifying us. And the way God does this, this is what's so
beautiful, you're ready? My son's an attorney, so
he'll appreciate this. The way that God does this is
not the way it usually happens in the court of law. And this is what a lot of
people don't understand, they don't get it. When we stand before God, we're guilty. Every one of us. When we stand before
God, we're guilty. We know we're guilty. He knows we're guilty. We know he knows we're guilty. So we have to confess
that we're guilty. So watch this. You stand up at a court of law and the judge says,
"How do you plead?" You say, "Your
honor, I'm guilty." What happens next? You're condemned. He's gonna send you to jail or whatever the penalty
for your crime is. You are condemned. We must confess
we're guilty, right? Here's the difference. We stand before God, and we confess we're guilty. Buckle your seatbelt. But the moment we confess
to God we're guilty, he declares us not guilty. That gives me chill bumps. I'll just be honest, it
just gives me chill bumps. You say, what? Yeah. When you plead guilty,
he says, "Not guilty." By justifying us, that's
the way it happens. You say, how does he do that? He declares us not guilty because Jesus has
taken our sins, and Jesus has taken
our punishment for us. And by the way, great news, there's no double
jeopardy even with God. So the moment God
looks at you and says, "James, not guilty." You can never be
declared guilty again. No double jeopardy. Justification, and
now this is important. People say, okay, what you're
saying is God forgives me. Well, he does, but justification
is not simply forgiveness. Because you can be forgiven
and then you can go out again and do something else bad and you become guilty
all over again. That's why it's so different
from just a pardon. Justification is
not just a pardon. You say, what do you mean? If I'm a criminal and the
governor or the president decides to pardon me, the good news is I do go free. The bad news is I
still have a record. But when we're justified, the slate's clean. The file is empty. The record is erased. So I'm justified. And when you look at my past, you know what you see,
according to scripture? Nothing except white
beautiful snow. No blemish, no blot, no stain. Record totally expunged. Oh, wait a minute. But you are sentenced. You say, what? Yeah. No no, you are sentenced. So here's what it
works, you're ready? You're gonna love this. This may make you a Pentecostal. So you come before God as a drug addict, alcoholic,
pornographer, pimp, prostitute, or just an ordinary
run-of-the-mill
dime-a-dozen hypocrite, and you come to God
and he says, "James, "I have all of this against you. "How do you plead?" Lord, I plead guilty. "Well, James, I declare
you not guilty." Thank you, Lord. "Well, no. "But you do have
to be sentenced." I knew it, Father,
go ahead, okay. "I hereby sentence
you to eternal life. "I hereby sentence you
to complete forgiveness. "I hereby sentence you
to total redemption. "I hereby sentence you to the
love and the joy and the peace "that only I can give. "I hereby sentence you
to a home in heaven. "I hereby sentence you
to a resurrection body." And since every person who
comes to Jesus is justified, no Christian's more justified
than any other Christian, which simply means this. If God accepts everyone
on the same basis, then once God accepts us,
we should accept others. That was the whole point
that Paul totally missed. And the way we
should accept others is the way God accepts us. And you know how God accepts us? It has nothing to do with
the color of our skin. It has nothing to do with
how good we try to live. It has nothing to do
with how many times we've attended church. It has nothing to do
with our social standing. It has nothing to do with
our financial status. It has nothing to
do with our gifts, has nothing to do
with our abilities, has nothing to do
with our talents, and thank God it has nothing
to do with our politics. We accept others because
by the grace of God he has accepted us. And that's why, listen, that's
why we don't have to pretend to be something we're not. Because in Jesus every
one of us is exactly who we need to be. And that's what authentic
Christianity is all about. - We are so glad
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Lives" digital channel, and we hope you've
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with Dr. James Merritt. - [Announcer] "Touching Lives"
teaching people everywhere who Jesus is and
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