Living by Faith: Entering the Invisible Realities of Christ (Part 2)

Now, I’m going to ask you, a body of people, does that sound like I am trying to get on the good side of men? Or am I trying to get on the good side of God? Am I trying to please men? Does it sound like I am? You all understand that Paul…an accusation that Blastinius laid against him was that he was trying to please men by leaving out part of the gospel, and he’s a man pleaser and cowardly, and Paul is saying not particularly. If I were still trying to please men, would I not be a bondservant of Christ, for I would have a body of people to know, brothers…I’m going to read that again, and when I get to the word brothers, I want you guys to all say, “Amen.” Alright.

For I would have you know, brothers…now, that’s corporate. I want the brothers in the fellowship to all know. I don’t want you as an individual to know, sitting in a room reading a Bible by yourself. I want the brothers in the church, all of you, to know that the gospel which was preached by me is not from men. For I didn’t receive it from men, nor was I taught it by men, but I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. You, a body of believers, have heard of my former manner of life in the Jewish religion. How at one time I persecuted the church of God beyond measure, and I tried to destroy the church. Persecuted beyond measure, the corporate body of Christ. And I was advancing in the Jewish religion beyond many of my contemporaries, my countrymen, because I was more zealous for the traditions.

Now, that’s all very personal that I’ve just read, and now we come… “But when my Lord, who set me apart even before my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me.” I want to come back to this, and I want you to look at this, which says, “He who set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me…” And I’m circling the word “called through His grace”. This is why I want to pause in verse 15. Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ chose me from the foundation of the world. I’d never even been born. But when I finally did make an entrance into creation, even before I got out of my mother’s womb, I, who had been chosen and marked off in Him before the creation, was now set apart while still in my mother’s womb…and so were you. That’s when visibles touch invisibles.

Look at when it was that God, in His good mercies, took you whom He chose and began to deal with you as a believer. He began dealing with you before the foundation of the world, and He began dealing with you while you were in your mother’s womb. Now, that’s just as far…that’s two places as far back as you can go. One in the spirituals and one in the physicals. When you’re conceived…and before He created. Don’t just sit there, say, “Amen.” That is a really good verse, a really good sentence to sit and camp with.  Lord Jesus, You revealed Yourself in me. You revealed Yourself in me before I knew that You revealed Yourself in me. Lord, You have, and I am, one who has seen You revealed.

Verse 17; this is more Paul speaking of himself historically. I went to Jerusalem, then to Arabia, and I returned to Damascus. Three years later, I went to Jerusalem. I stayed with Peter. 15 days in his house while he, I, and probably James were all in hiding. I’m not lying to you. Okay? Is that to one person or to all of us? He’s not lying to an entire church. Then I went into my home, and I was unknown by sight…and even this, brothers, sisters, look at this very carefully. He could have said that to the apostles. He could have said “to save people,” or he could have said “individuals.” Verse 22, he puts an entire body of people inside of Jesus Christ. Look at the verse. A church that is in Jesus Christ. Not an individual, not a people, but one entire person with a personality is inside Christ. He chose to make a church a person and put that person inside Christ. And then he made several “persons”. Verse 22 is an amazing verse. They kept saying, “Well, he who persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy, and they were glorifying God because of me.” Now, saints, who are they? Audience: The churches.

Amen. And who was being persecuted? The churches. Then, after an interview of 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas. I took Titus with me. And it was because of revelation that I went up, and I submitted my gospel, which I preach to the Gentiles. But I did so in private so just in case I was running amiss, nobody would hear my terrible gospel. They didn’t even ask Titus, a Greek, to be circumcised, but it was because of the false brothers who had sneaked in despite our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us, and that “us” is just Paul, Barnabas, Titus, and actually the church in Antioch…I’m trying to tell you that’s individual. It’s not corporate. We didn’t yield to them for a moment. So that the truth of the gospel might remain with whom? With you. Plural. You all. A man refused to give up his gospel so that grace and Christ would reign in the church.

But from those who were of high reputation, whether or not they are, I don’t know. God knows. Well, those who were of reputation didn’t tell me one thing I didn’t already know, but on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to you millions of uncircumcised, just as Peter had been sent to about a million uncircumcised, for the Lord, who effectively works for Peter in his being sent, effectively works in me among the heathen. And recognizing the grace that had been given me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars of the church (I threw that in), gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They only ask us to remember the poor, which we were glad to do. Paul left out the ‘eat no blood’ part.

But when Peter came up here to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. And again, that’s a verse, one of those verses to invert. Before the arrival of certain men from James, he sat with the Gentiles in the church, but when those Judaizers came, he withdrew and sat aloof, fearing the party of the circumcised, and the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy. Even Barnabas was carried away by it. When I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Simon Peter, “You being a Jew, live like a Gentile and not the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews who can’t live like Jews? We’re Jews by nature. We’re not like those sinful heathens, but even though we’re not like the sinful heathen, you and I figured out that a man, one lone single man, and salvation boils down to that in many ways, is not made just by obeying the law, but a man is made just through faith in Christ Jesus. We, Jews, have become just through Christ Jesus by faith. We didn’t do anything that had to do with the law that gave us that which is just in the eyes of God.

Now, I want to dig something out of that and say to you, you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, and therefore, you are just. Is that not true? Now, Bernice, is Simon Peter just? Is he found just exactly right in the sight of God? Bernice, do you think that Peter’s going to go to heaven? We’ll see, I kind of doubt it personally. I really do. (laughter) I don’t know where he’s going, but Peter is just by faith in Christ. Paul is just by faith in Christ. They both knew that. Eventually, neither one of them backed down from it, and it wasn’t by any other means than being just in Christ.

Now, let me talk about justify because it’s a great big word. It can just so easily be said, you have been found “right” in the sight of God. Never wrong, always right. In the printing world, there is a term called justification. Did you know that? In type setting. You know, have you ever noticed that in a book, all the words somehow amazingly come out exactly even on both sides? But when you go to sit down at your typewriter, they’re exactly even on the left side, and they’re never even on the right side. You notice that? But a typesetter has a way of typesetting a page so that it is exactly the same, very even on this side and just as straight on that side, which is really amazing because words are so different in shape and size.

Well, that’s what God did with you. He made you correct on this side, and then you messed up this side, and then He straightened it all out in His eyes. So that every time He ever did anything, He did it just right. Praise the Lord. And it comes out exactly even. It’s exactly perfect. Everything you did was just the way God wanted it to be. Everything He did pleased Him. Well, Gene, I did some things that didn’t please Him. Well, that’s true. So, Jesus Christ came along and washed all that away. You believed in him, and suddenly, the right side margin just got perfectly evened because all the other things were gone, and God saw you as having done everything just right. Brothers and sisters, that’s invisible, and I don’t wear that word out. I don’t want you to wear it out. That is reality. It can’t be seen, but it is nonetheless reality. Everything you ever did was exactly right, and everything you’ve ever done was right with God. God said, “That’s just exactly what I wanted.” And we’re talking about conduct here. But Gene, that’s not true. Oh, yes, it is. But what about…that’s gone, but what about…that doesn’t exist anymore? Now in the heavens, and we’re bringing heaven to earth, everything you ever did was just right. And He looks at you; He can’t find a time when you ever did anything that wasn’t just right.  So, He says, “You’re just right in My eyes.”

So, here’s a good verse, brothers and sisters, to bring to earth. I’m in verse 16, am I not? Chapter 2. Okay. There’s not one thing you can do in the way of rules and regulations that’ll make that right-side margin get straight. We are found to be just right in Christ, but not by the works of the law. I’m in verse 17. But while seeking to be just right in Christ…Please look at this. If, while seeking… that is the first part of your problem. Do you understand that? Have you ever, you know, you felt like God wasn’t going to like you and you just started looking around for some way, and then somebody told you, “Don’t smoke, don’t cuss, don’t chew, and don’t run around with those who do.” And you said, “Great. I got it. This is it. That’s going to make the Lord see me as having been just right in Christ.” If you seek to be justified in Christ, we have been found, sinners. Is Christ a minister of sin? May it never be. It is not that by sinning He gives you more grace; it is simply that He gives you more grace.