Why We Believe - Justification By Faith Alone, Pt. 2

If you would, open your Bibles again to Galatians. Chapter 1, probably one of the earliest letters written in the

New Testament record that we have, the ancient record of the church, by the Apostle Paul.

Very short and very serious. Again, if you weren't here last week, I encourage you to go and watch last week's message.

This is part 2 on why we believe in justification by faith alone. And so we turn, as we open here, to the words of God in Galatians 1, written by the

Apostle Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. These are the words of God.

Paul, an Apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the

Father who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God our

Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our

God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am

I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a slave of Messiah.

As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together. Father, we come before your throne with bold and confident access only because of what you've accomplished in Jesus.

And Lord Jesus, we come to you and we worship you, eternal

God who became man, lived the life of perfection that we have all failed, died for sinners a death that we deserve, and rose again from the dead.

You are ascended and seated on your throne. You are the ruling and the reigning king.

Salvation is only through you, through faith in you. It is only a gift that you have accomplished and provided,

Lord. We are the recipients of grace and only recipients. We have nothing to offer our righteousnesses or as filthy rags before your throne.

We cling as your people only to your work, Lord Jesus, and what you've accomplished. Lord, we cast aside all of our self -righteousnesses.

We cast aside all of our boasting. We come to you naked and empty -handed.

We come to you, Lord, as beggars and as broken people. And Lord, we rejoice that we have confidence to stand before your throne in your very presence because you're the holy

God. We rejoice that we have that confidence because of a righteousness that is not our own.

We're hiding in you, Lord Jesus. It is to you and your righteousness that we cling, and we cling only through faith in you.

We thank you for the presence of your spirit, God. We pray that you'd bless today,

Lord, as the pastor brings the word. We pray that you'd change our hearts and our minds.

We pray that you'd convict us, challenge us. If there's anyone in this room that doesn't know you, that's been clinging to an idol, a

God that has no real existence, or clinging to their own righteousnesses to any degree, we pray that today be the day,

God, by your spirit, you open their eyes to their condition and their need for grace. Please speak today through your word to your church and raise us up boldly with this gospel of grace.

In Jesus' name, amen. So Galatians, again, as we said last week, it's interesting.

I mean, these letters would have been passed along in the early church by inspired apostles.

Peter talks about Paul and his writings and how, you know, he says some things that are actually hard to understand that unstable people distort as they do the rest of the

Scriptures, comparing the apostle Paul's letters, his writings, to the other

Scriptures. That's a big deal, considering the fact that Scripture teaches us that all

Scripture is theanousos. It is breathed out by God. These are the words of God.

Here you have an apostle who was a disciple of the Lord Jesus, walked with God incarnate, saying about the apostle

Paul's writings that some stuff's hard to understand and unstable people distort to their own destruction as they do the rest of the

Scriptures. So what you're reading right now from the apostle Paul, these are the words of Paul, an inspired apostle, delivering to you the words of the living

God. And in this letter, it starts encouraging, exciting, grace and peace, and it's wonderful, and it's

Paul. We have a letter, and it had been read before the church, and then the confrontation is instant. It's instant.

And here's the thing I want us to consider today as we talk about the gospel of God's grace and justification through faith alone in Christ alone.

This, again, is probably one of the earliest letters written in the ancient record of the church, the

New Testament, so it's something that was an immediate problem, something that had to be addressed right away in the early history of the bride of Christ throughout history, and what is it?

It's a false gospel. It's a distortion of the gospel. That's what Paul says here, that it is a distortion.

People are turning away to a different gospel, not that there is another one, and he says, but there's some who are troubling you and want to distort the good news of Jesus Christ.

Here's what we need to get on level grounds here. In the first century of the church, it didn't take long for people to take the message of salvation through Jesus Christ alone, the gospel of God's grace.

It didn't take long to distort the good news of Jesus, to just give it a little twist, and it was this little twist that turns it into a different gospel.

What's that mean? A gospel that is not good news. It is not something that can save, that will save.

A distortion of the gospel we'll see later today that can be seen as, well, that's a minor difference.

What's the big deal? If it's just circumcision, if these guys want to just bring over that one part of that Mosaic law, look, let's just keep the circumcision.

Let's keep what we had in the past. Let's keep that together. What's the big deal?

It's just circumcision. Paul says distorted the gospel. If you take that, you're binding yourself the entire law because that's where you're going, the route of justification in some degree through law, and he says

Christ has become chapter 5 of no benefit to you. You've fallen from grace. Choose, grace or law.

The way you're approaching this is as though somebody could adopt this thing from the law, and because they have this thing accomplished and Jesus, they're now right with God.

Paul says if an angel came from heaven, down and appears in the room, and he presents to you a different gospel than what

I have presented to you, he says let that angel be anathema, eternally separated.

Let God condemn and damn that angel to hell forever. And he says if I come back to you, the apostle

Paul, and I preach to you a gospel contrary than I preached to you, let me be accursed.

Let me be damned, if that were even possible. So this is a serious issue, and I just want to say when we talk about the essentials of the

Christian faith, Christians can have freedom to disagree on non -essential issues, and you must.

I've always said it, and I know I get in trouble with the kids because we tell our kids, don't tell someone to shut up. But this is,

I mean, in the most holy way, shut up. Sometimes as Christians, you just have to say that's not an important issue.

It should not divide us. Just shut up. Stop talking about it. Stop being in conflict.

Be in unity around the essentials of the faith. We can disagree on non -essential things, but when you talk about the core issues of which

God are we talking about and what gospel saves, these are things that you let goods and kindred go, your mortal life also.

You lose everything for the clarity of the message of who Jesus is and what the gospel is.

Paul says this is it, Galatia. This is it. You lose the gospel.

You lose grace. Go to hell, angel. Let me go to hell. Is that serious enough?

And this is the opener. Welcome to church, everybody. Go to hell. That's how serious.

And Paul knows how serious, so what does he say? He has to add this on. He says, am

I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Don't you understand how important this is?

I'm not trying to seek your pleasure but God's. That's the ultimate.

And that, by the way, brothers and sisters, is going to be the ultimate over and over and over again in our lives.

Not just over this issue but many issues. Are you seeking to please men or God? When you stand before crowds of people who are all chanting for you to be hung and for you to be canceled and all the rest, will you seek the approval of God or of man?

This is not just an issue over the gospel. You see this in the early record of the church, the ancient record of the church, which is the

Scriptures themselves, the inspired record of the church. What does it say? Go with me now to 2

John, and you see another example. I just wanted to show you these two things that play early on in Christian history.

You see one, a distortion of the gospel creeps in. The apostle Paul uses a very heavy hand to the degree that in chapter 5 of Galatians, he actually says, these guys that love circumcision so much,

I hope they go all the way. I hope they cut themselves off. Get it?

They like to play with knives. I hope they slip, Paul says. That's the

Jeff Durbin inspired 21st century translation or something. Yeah, sorry.

Don't do that with this guy sitting next to you. Is that in the Greek? I don't think that's in the Greek, okay. 2

John, here's an example early on of not just addressing in the early church a distortion of the gospel, but in the early church, there are people that are co -opting

Christian language. They're speaking like us. They're talking just like us. They're using terminology like Messiah and God and Lord Jesus and apostles and salvation and grace.

They're using our language, popular thing to borrow or co -opt Christian language and then distort the meaning altogether.

And then this letter of 2 John, very short, goodness, short, right?

It's one page. In 2 John, you don't even say chapter.

2 John, what chapter? 2 John, verse, that's how short it is.

So you can get to know this. Look what he has to deal with early on. He says in verse four,

I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the Father. And now

I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning that we love one another.

And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment just as you have heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.

Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Anyone who denies that God became man, that God took on flesh, is antichrist.

Everyone's like, who's the antichrist? He the antichrist? Where's the antichrist? Who's the antichrist? Every 10 years, there's like a new antichrist figure.

John says, if you deny that God became man, took on flesh, you're antichrist. You're antichrist.

What is that about? Well, early on in the history of the church, you had to deal with people who were infiltrating the Christian church, using our language, trying to look

Christian, were saying things like Jesus, saying things like salvation. All of that stuff was a part of their lingo.

But they said, no, God would never do that. You got the early beginnings of Gnosticism.

Gnosticism has tried to wreck the church from the very early stages to this very day.

Gnosticism is an enemy to the church. But here's John, an inspired apostle. I think he knows.

He says this. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the

Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him partakes in his wicked deeds.

Short letter, but what John is saying, early on, house -church situation. Be cautious with this.

It shows the example. You got to know, you got to understand, read the Bible correctly, read it in context, read it in historical context.

I can't tell you how many people I've met that said, I can't have anybody who doesn't trust in Jesus in my home for dinner.

Why? Because 2 John says, don't give him a greeting or receive him into your house. What? What? Walter Martin said once that, imagine it's two in the morning and your pipes burst.

Right? Your house is flooding. It's two feet deep in water, and all of a sudden, you call for the person to come and save you from drowning, and he shows up at your door, and you're like, wait!

Do you bring the doctrine of Christ or not? Dr. Martin says, what's with the doctrine of Christ?

My name is Bloomberg. I'm a plumber. It doesn't work that way.

They met in house churches, and so here's the point. Protect the body of Christ and the house while people gather for worship from these false teachers who are bringing in a different Christ.

But wait a minute. They use our language. They talk about Jesus. Yeah, and they deny that God took on flesh, that God became a man.

You lose the faith. Do not even let one of these false teachers cross the threshold of the body of Christ.

Don't let them in. Don't greet them. Don't participate in their wicked deeds. Here's the point. First century of the church, you've got a distortion of the gospel on just a small thing.

It's just small. It's just circumcision. What's the big deal? Paul says go to hell if you believe that.

Let you be damned. And John says don't even let this person who uses this Christian terminology, who is promoting this, trying to teach this, don't let them into your house.

Don't let them into your worship to disrupt the service. Don't let them influence and infiltrate the body of Christ.

They don't have God. They don't know Jesus. But wait, John. They're saying they're followers of Jesus, and John says anybody who denies that God became man in Jesus doesn't know

Him. They don't know God. You see, this is really important because this is something that is definitional to sinful human experience.

People will often co -opt Christian language or truth, and they will pour entirely new definitions into it.

We see it in our day all the time. You saw what David Koresh. David Koresh, you know.

David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, that whole cult, you understand that David Koresh used the

Bible. He held onto the Bible, taught from the Bible, he spent most of his time in Revelation because he can confuse people with it, said that he was

Jesus Christ incarnate. You understand that he used our language, and he was a liar and a deceiver.

People today do it in many, a variety of ways. I'll give you an example, a popular one happening in our day.

People will say things about Jesus like, you know, if you loved Jesus, you would just wear the mask, right?

Just submit. Just submit all the way. Well, wait a minute. This is, it's destroying society.

We're locking things down. We're destroying our neighbor's livelihoods. We're not being consistent over a virus that has 99 .9

% survival rate. We're not being consistent. We can't do this over and over and over again.

And we're being told, you know, if you really love your neighbor, you'll shut everything down, destroy your businesses, and you'll hide in your houses and wear a face diaper 24 hours a day.

All for what? Well, because Jesus. Love your neighbor. Co -opting

Christian language, co -opting Jesus for their own intents and purposes.

And we ask the question, love my neighbor? What about everybody who's being destroyed? What about their financial security and all their savings and their businesses being destroyed?

I am trying to love my neighbor by rejecting your tyranny. Do you see people do it all the time too.

They'll say things like, well, you know, I believe in reproductive rights and reproductive health care.

It's a very twisted and sinister thing to do when talking about murdering babies in the womb.

Reproductive health. What does this really mean? I want to have the right to sever the head off my child and disconnect their arms and legs from their bodies and disembowel them.

What's that called again? That's called reproductive health care. Reproductive rights.

Co -opting emotionally laden language and then changing the definition.

It's done in scripture. It's done in culture and society all the time. And we need to recognize how to spot it.

And when we talk about Christian truth, how do we know how to spot it? Well, we know how to spot it not based upon emotions or we're praying over it.

We know because we have an objective word from the living God, God who spoke in history. He's told us things and that's our certainty.

So how can I tell the difference between a true gospel and a false gospel? Not by praying about it.

Not by my feelings. Not by my emotions, my experiences.

How do I know the true gospel from the false one? Because I know what the revelation of God says.

God has spoken. Again, do this. Put 10 people on this stage right now and you can have them all from different religious backgrounds.

All of them, different religious backgrounds. You can put the Muslim up here, the Rosicrucian up here, the

Christian scientist up here. You can put them all and line them up down the row. And what are they all going to say?

I've had an amazing experience. You really got to join my club. It feels really good.

You don't know what's happened to my life. It feels so good. I've prayed about it. And they all have a different God and a different gospel.

All of them. And all of them had experiences. That's not how you find truth based upon personal experience or feelings.

The Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things. Sick beyond cure.

Desperately wicked. We can't trust our own hearts. And I'm sure these people and these experiences here, both in Galatia and in the second letter of John here, these people would have looked like people who were passionate about what they believed.

They would have looked like they really believed it. Maybe some of them seem so sincere. But truth has to be supreme over your emotions and your feelings and your experiences.

And so what I said last week is when we talk about why we believe in the doctrine of justification by faith, it is because it is what the

Bible teaches from the beginning to the end. And the Bible gives severe warnings about tampering with this doctrine.

Paul can speak to the church in Corinth and he can say, look, this issue about, you know, eating food, meat, sacrifice to idols, you know, there's only one

God. There's only one God. There are so -called gods, many gods and many lords. There's only one

God. And this whole issue of like Christian liberty over meat, you know, if you've got somebody over here that's a believer and just can't eat the meat sacrificed to idols, you know, glorify

God with your not eating. But those of you who can eat it, you know, eat it to the glory of God. But basically, the summary is, shut up.

Shut up. Don't fight over something like that. Right? We've got issues. I'm gonna throw it out there. We've got issues that you can maintain a solid, healthy unity as a body and you need to be able to work those things together and serve

Jesus together regardless of those differences. You can have the head covering movement versus those who don't believe in that.

You've got the natural birthers versus those who are like, I'm going to the hospital and I'm getting drugs, baby. Okay? All those things, ready?

They exist in this church. Right? Some of you got clenched for a moment there. Okay? Relax. It's okay.

It's okay. Those are things that we stay unified in Jesus and we don't divide over. We have

Presbyterians, members of a Reformed Baptist church. Glory to God. All glory to God.

The people that I'm closest to when I serve with a ministry are Presbyterian preachers and pastors. All glory to God because we are all firmly fixed on the essentials of the faith.

These other issues, let's disagree vigorously. Let's love each other and then let's die in battle together.

But this issue of justification through faith alone is definitional. In church history,

I showed last week, you can see church fathers saying glorious things and then doing face plants. Glorious things and doing face plants.

Praise God that our hope isn't infallible men and women through history. It's in an infallible scripture and the revelation of the true and living

God. You have Christians in history talking about faith alone, justification through faith alone.

But that's not where our hope is. And what do the church fathers say? Because they contradict themselves in their own writings and other church fathers.

What is the objective standard? The word of the living God. I talked last week about the fact that the consistent message throughout the

Bible is a message of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

There are so many examples. We're not gonna do it again today. But how about this one? Ephesians 2, 8 through 9.

For by grace are you saved. Well, that was weak sauce. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not according to works, not according to works, not according to works lest any man should boast.

That's a summary of what Paul says right after Ephesians 2 when he says you're dead in your sins and trespasses.

You were dead in your sins and trespasses by nature children of wrath like everybody else.

But God who is rich in mercy and he says he raised us up together with Christ.

You were dead. He made you alive. By grace you've been saved. That, by the way, is a definition of God's grace there according to Paul in Ephesians 2 about that kind of grace.

You were dead. God made you alive. By grace you've been saved. What can a dead man do?

Nada, nothing. Very good. Stay dead, right? What does the grace of God do? It brings dead people to life.

It saves them. By grace you've been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It's the gift of God not according to works lest any man should boast.

A consistent message of Scripture John 3 .15 So that whoever believes will in him have eternal life.

John 3 .36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life. That's past tense.

Something that happened with the present reality. Whoever he who believes in the Son has eternal life.

But he who does not obey the Son will not see life for the wrath of God abides in him. And my favorite verse in the entire

Bible John 5 .24 Truly, truly, I say to you he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but is passed out of death into life.

You want a summary of the message of Jesus on salvation and our condition? John 5 .24 We could go on and on.

I won't reiterate it again. But the consistent message of Scripture I've argued is a message of faith in Christ for salvation.

Faith in Christ for salvation. And Paul says, distort it and go to hell.

That's what he says. Two, last week I explained

Paul's explanation of the gospel. And here's where we're at today. You ready? Here's where we're at. Number one, you've got

Paul's writing. An inspired apostle who in Romans systematically explains the gospel from soup to nuts, from beginning to end.

What does that mean anyway? Soup to nuts? Who knows? Where'd that come from? I don't even know why I said that. I just sounded like an old person, didn't

I? Every day I sound older and older, okay? So I'm going to find out.

Someone Google that. Not now, okay? So what's that? It's a

European menu? I'm not ever saying that again. Okay. I don't even know what that means.

Okay, all right, here we go. See, we can all be influenced by others. All right, here we go. So in systematic teaching, didactic teaching, the apostle

Paul in Romans is explaining from the bottom, build, build, build, build, build, to the top, all the way through.

What's our condition? How does God save? What's accomplished in salvation? What's our new status in Jesus?

And he explains the whole history of redemptive revelation in a glorious way. It is didactic teaching literature.

Romans is the kind of systematic, step -by -step teaching that you need to go to if you're to understand what is the gospel, what is it?

Because I know there can be false gospels with people who even use Christian language and Paul says, let them go to hell for that kind of false gospel.

So what is the gospel? Where do you go? Well, you go to an inspired apostle that explains it from beginning to end.

How are we justified before God? And in Romans, we saw, everyone go there, Romans chapter 3.

I'm not going to reiterate the whole message, but I want to key in on an important point for comparison today.

In chapters 1 through 3, what is that? It's the summary of our condition. Get this, and you'll get the gospel.

Get this, you'll understand your need for Jesus. You want to really whittle the Christian faith down to a few essential things.

Here it is, Romans 1 through 3. Here's your condition. There is none righteous, no, not one, none who seeks for God, none who does good.

Now, that is Paul's explanation of the entire human race, Jew and Gentile.

Everybody, all of us, in one sinful lump of humanity. He explains in Romans chapter 5, you're either in Adam or you're in Jesus.

Everybody who is in Adam, that is born of Adam, and that's all of us, baby, every one of us, we're all dead in our sins and trespasses.

By the way, you want to do away with this stupid, silly, woke gospel? Spend some time in Romans 1 through 5.

Spend some time in Romans. I hate the woke gospel intersectionality and all that it's doing to disrupt

Christian fellowship and communion. I hate the emphasis on color. You know why? Because I don't see it in Romans.

I don't see it in Paul's explanation of the gospel. Oh, by the way, please highlight the differences in your skin color.

I hate it. Paul's simplification is this. Here's humanity. You're in Jesus or you're in Adam. You're dead, you're lost, you're sinful, you're not righteous, you're non -God -seeking, you're not good, you're in Adam.

And that's if you're black, white, brown, red, yellow, purple, what?

Anything. We're all the same. You're dead in Adam, child of wrath. That's it.

Or you're in Jesus. How are you getting in Jesus? Through faith alone. But Paul's explanation is this is it.

Sum and substance of all of humanity is this. You're not good. You're not righteous. You are hostile to God.

You are enemy to God. Our condition is so broken, no other religion can get to this degree of depravity in their explanation of their system because they need a system where they can actually fix themselves, polish themselves up.

Even if you add a little Jesus in there, I got to still do enough, accomplish enough, perform enough, obey enough.

If I could just make myself look better to God and have enough righteousness in myself,

God will accept me. Here's the story. He can never accept you and yourself because you are a violator of his law and he's a just and holy

God. He has provided one path of peace and reconciliation. There is one human being, the

God man, whoever lived that has a righteousness that is acceptable to the Father. Only one, it's

Jesus and you better be hiding in him through faith. So Paul says in Romans 1 through 3, everybody's here.

You're all dead. You are non -God seeking. You are not righteous. Which should drive us all to our knees.

So where is my hope? And Paul explains in Romans 3 about the law, 19.

We know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

Here's the point. Get back. Are you ready? We're going fast through this because I have more to talk about today. This is it.

Paul's clear context about justification is clearly legal, forensic, and this matters.

If our condition is rebel, if our condition is criminal in God's court, if our condition is hostile towards God, we need the judge of all the earth to have a verdict on our behalf of righteous.

How's it going to happen? And in Romans 8 it's clear, it's forensic, it's legal because he says who will bring any charge against God's elect?

God is the one who justifies. God is the one who justifies.

God is the one who declares righteous. Here's the deal. Paul's context is legal.

It is forensic. It is a context of I declare you righteous. You're guilty.

You need a righteous verdict. So how will you get there? And Paul says it's not going to be through the law because what's the law do?

It shuts your mouth. It shows your sin. It shows the knowledge of sin. I talked last week about just take the 10 commandments.

Don't lie. Don't steal. Don't commit adultery. Don't murder. Don't covet. And everyone in here is a bunch of lying, thieving, murdering, adulterous, coveters.

So what do you do if you're a holy God with people who are just on those points, lying, thieving, adulterous, murderous, coveters?

What do you do? You condemn them if you're a holy and just God. So what's the law do?

Bring you closer to Jesus? Never meant for that. Nobody was ever saved through law and that's Paul's point in Romans chapter 4.

If the law wasn't given to justify you but to close your mouth and expose your sin, how is a person justified?

Paul's whole argument is only through Christ. It's always been.

Even back with Father Abraham by faith. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him or accounted to him for righteousness.

Because what? Did he do something? It was before circumcision. It was before the law was given with Moses.

Hundreds of years before. So how was Father Abraham saved? How was he justified?

Abraham believed God and it was credited to him his righteousness. Now how is this possible?

Paul explains. We're backtracking here. Romans 3. Now stay with me now because you're going to have to remember this timeline to understand a very important point later.

So stay with me in the timeline. Paul says in verse 21 of chapter 3 that God's righteousness has been manifested apart from the law.

Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For all who what? For all who believe. For there's no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift.

I've mentioned over and over and over. That's like stuttering. Justified as a...

Okay, here we go. Justified by his grace as a gift. That's the same thing. So you're justified as a gift gift.

What kind of a gift is it? It's a gift gift. Like a real gift. A gift gift. It is free, gracious, by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom

God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show

God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. That's talking about the saints before.

It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

There's the summary. There's the wrap up. What's that mean? God is a just and holy God. He does not simply let people go.

He actually wields his justice perfectly but he has given to us Jesus, the

God man, eternal God who has been in fellowship with the Father from all eternity.

There was never a time where Jesus wasn't in perfect fellowship and intimacy with the Father. From eternity into eternity you are

God. John 1, 1 says in the beginning was the word in Archeinhologos as far back as you want to go forever ago without ever stopping

Jesus was already there and he was toward the Father in intimate face -to -face relationship with the

Father from all eternity and he was God. He was in the beginning with God.

He created all things and without him nothing's come into being that came into being. We're talking about this

God. Jesus submits himself to the will of the

Father where the Father exercises his righteousness and justice by having

Jesus take on flesh to represent his sinful people to live the life they failed so that the

Father actually gives to Jesus the wrath due in full to his people.

I mentioned last week think of propitiation in its death. The Father diverted his wrath away from his people.

It was due to you and it swerves and it is absorbed and exhausted in Jesus so that the

Father remains a just God because he's not just letting people go and turning blind eye.

He is saying I will exercise justice but I will give it to the sacrifice. And Jesus receives it all so that God is just and the justifier the one who has faith in Jesus and of course when people hear this message don't you love it?

Paul can give this message you know he's preached it over and over and over again and he knows he anticipates the objector in the background consistently through Romans.

He does. He's preached this so much he knows what people are going to say about it. Also you're saying

I can just live however I want. Paul says of course in verse 31 do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

By no means. On the contrary we uphold the law. So you're justified by faith in Christ so you just throw away the law?

He says no. On the contrary we actually establish it.

Because we're saved we establish it. He explains in Romans chapter 5 I'm not going to go on to all the details today but go read it later.

He talks about all the humanity in Adam or Jesus and he says if you're in Adam there's death and condemnation but if you're in Jesus there is the gift there is again of eternal life.

The gift of eternal life. If you're in Jesus the gift of eternal life. And then it moves into Romans chapter 6 which is a glorious thing.

It talks about if you're in Christ now what shall we say then?

He says in verse 1 are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death.

In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in newness of life for if we have been united with Him in a death like His we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.

We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin for one who has died has been set free from sin.

So Paul's argument is this you're justified freely you're justified as a gift you're justified by grace if it's in Jesus through faith and if it's true that means you establish

God's law. If it's true it's because you now have gone from death to life.

You've been joined to Jesus you were in Adam now you're in Jesus and now you're alive.

You were dead now you're alive. Some people say oh so you're saying if you just if it's salvation through faith you can live however you want.

What kind of perverse gospel is that? If someone says that they can trust in Jesus Christ and live as a law unto themselves they don't know the gospel.

They don't know it. Justification through faith alone breeds a life of sanctification and righteousness.

According to Paul read Romans 3 through 6 but here's the key the anchor, the timeline. In Romans chapter 4

Paul hooks everybody reading the message that wants to boast in the fact that they're

Jewish and they're descendants of Abraham. And he says if you want to be a child of Abraham you've got to have the faith of father

Abraham. And what was that like? Romans chapter 4 he says this What then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh?

For if Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about but not before God.

For what does the scripture say? And he quotes Genesis 15 6 Abraham believed

God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.

If you're working for it it's not a gift it's a wage. That's not the gospel that Paul's talking about.

He says this and to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness just as David also speaks to the blessing of the one to whom

God counts righteousness apart from works blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is the man against whom the

Lord will not count his sin. Double imputation what do you get in Christ? God counting you righteous.

Whose righteousness? Jesus. He counts you righteous even though in yourself you're not.

It's a foreign righteousness. And he does not count your sins against you. He counts you righteous and he will not count your sins against you all through faith.

That is the hope of the believing Christian. That's it. And I said last week you've got to let you you've got to brothers and sisters you've got to let it impact you on a daily basis.

Do you approach your father every day with the confidence that you have peace with him and you are not condemned?

That he does not hold your sins against you? There is daily confession daily rejoicing daily walking with God but understand the difference between being a child in the father's house who may be being disciplined by his father the father's using his loving fatherly hands to shape you and mold you the difference between a child in a father's house and some illegitimate child outside the house or the neighbor's kid.

Do you get the difference? You are a justified freed at peace with God believing child in your father's house and you are not condemned.

You've been adopted you are called a son you're called a daughter. The benefits of being in Christ is you are counted righteous and your sins are not counted against you.

Does that cause you to rejoice? It should. I don't know why there aren't like flags and dancing going on right now.

I'm just kidding do not do that right now. Don't. Did you get the point?

That should cause you to rejoice on a daily basis and here's the point. Are you ready? Timeline again. Anchor. Think about timeline.

Paul's systematic teaching. How are you justified? How is this accomplished? What's the problem?

What does God do to resolve it? His argument is Father Abraham you think you're truly

Jewish? You think you're an inheritor of these promises and blessings? Then do you have his faith?

What did he do? He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. And here it is.

This is where it says it. In verse 9. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised?

For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was, here it is.

Remember anchor, anchor. Think about the timeline. Was it before or after he had been circumcised?

He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised so that the righteousness would be counted to them as well and to make him the father of the circumcised who were not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father

Abraham had before he was circumcised. So here it is. Get this. Nail it down.

Remember it. When was Abraham justified? When he believed.

And when was that in the timeline of redemptive history? Was it before circumcision or after circumcision?

It was before. And when else was, or what else was it before? It was long before he offered his son

Isaac on the altar. Put a pin in that. He believed

God, credited him as righteousness. It's before circumcision. It's before he offers Isaac on the altar.

And it's before the law is given through Moses. Got it?

Good. Now, Paul's defense. This won't take long because it's rather quick in terms of its devastating critique.

In Galatians, I read you chapter one where Paul talks about the essential nature of understanding the gospel right, or rightly.

And in Galatians chapter one, the apostle Paul says the distortion of the gospel is no gospel at all.

And what's the problem? If you read chapter two, you'll see there's a conflict in Galatia where Peter is simply doing things that give the appearance of a distortion of the gospel when it comes to Jewish believers who are circumcised and Gentile believers and table fellowship.

We're like creating two churches here. And when Paul sees it, it says in verse 11,

I opposed him to his face, Peter's face. This would have been epic and uncomfortable. I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.

For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.

And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

But when I saw that their conduct, Peter wasn't preaching a different gospel, he was giving the appearance of it.

When I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas, Cephas, however you want to say it, how do we say that properly?

No one knows. It's the mystery of the church, okay? If you though, a

Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?

And here it is. We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we also have believed in Christ, in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.

Because by works of the law, no one will be justified.

Consistent teaching from his didactic teaching in Romans, and now we have him defending the true gospel with people who would just give it a little twist.

Come on, Paul. Let's just keep the circumcision. Let's just keep the sign.

Let's bring that part over. Let's make these Gentile believers at least keep that sign of the circumcision.

And Paul's whole argument, you can't take a piece. If you're going to put yourself under that for justification and righteousness, then you've got to do the entire thing.

It's only through faith and always has only been through faith, and you cannot bring that over into the new covenant and say, just this one.

Just this one. And he says in chapter three, read it with me, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?

It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this.

Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? That's it.

There's the distinction. How did you receive the Spirit of God? What happens in your experience knowing

Jesus? Was it because of works of the law or hearing with faith?

Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Did you suffer so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain, does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Here it is again. Here's the substance of Paul's argument. Just as Abraham believed

God and it was counted to him as righteousness, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying,

In you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Here it is, the devastating thing. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.

For it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.

But the law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

For it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the

Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. That's it.

Goes back to Abraham. How is Abraham justified? So that is, by the way, a devastating argument.

When you talk to cultists or you talk to religions who co -opt Christian language, that's the substance of it.

Abraham, how was he justified? How was he counted righteous?

That's the centerpiece of Paul's argument right there. You want to be a child of Abraham? You want to be an heir of this promise?

Do you believe with the faith of Abraham? Are you trusting like Abraham? Does this happen in your experience like Abraham?

Or are you going some other way? Are you trying to get to this place of justification and righteousness through this step and this step and this step and this work and this step of obedience to get to this place?

He says, well, you're not a child of Abraham because that's not how Abraham was justified. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

How important is this for Paul? Galatians 5. For freedom Christ set us free.

That's the issue. See? Two ways, by the way. I'm going to just address this in terms of saying it.

You're enslaved to sin. Jesus says whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. He sets people free from their sin.

But when we talk about the liberty that Christ has brought to us, Paul says this, stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

What's he mean by that? He says, look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

You are severed from Christ. You who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace.

The stakes are high. There's a path people are choosing here of works of the law, even to the degree of let's just keep the circumcision and bring that over.

Paul says you're under the curse then if that's the path you're taking because you've got a path of law and you've got a path of grace.

And you're on one or the other. You cannot straddle both. Grace or law.

And it has always been by grace. There's a weird, unbiblical teaching that goes around even amongst professing

Christians. Well, that's how God saved people in the Old Testament through that really difficult law. But now in Jesus, boy, we have grace.

Really? It's not what the Bible says. Nobody was ever saved by law. The law, of course, exposes our sin.

It has a curse to it amongst fallen people. But it also is good. The law is also good and righteous and just.

But the law was never given to justify anybody. So here's the deal. Ready? Remember the timeline of redemptive history?

Abraham believed God. It was credited to him as righteousness. That was before circumcision, before Isaac on the altar, and before what?

The law was given long before. So how was Abraham justified? Abraham believed

God and it was credited to him as righteousness, credited him for righteousness.

Okay, so that's Paul's explanation. That's Paul's defense. That's his explanation of justification through faith in Christ alone,

God's grace and salvation, God counting us righteous, God not counting our sins against us, faith, faith, faith, trust in Christ.

Now, we have to answer a popular objection.

And this is always so interesting to me. Because you could be on the street loving people, engaging with people at ASU, wherever you're at all over the town, in family dinners with, you know, people who aren't believers and trying to share their gospel.

And you'll often share the gospel of God's grace through faith alone in Christ alone.

It's all through faith. It's all a gift of God. You could talk about Paul in Philippians 3, bragging on his resume and saying,

I don't want it. I don't want it. He says that he wants the righteousness that comes from God through faith, the righteousness that's not his own.

You could talk about all that and then they'll say, but wait a minute. Doesn't James say something different?

And what do they go to? Let's go to it together. James 2. James 2.

They'll pit Paul against James in James 2 and they'll quote one of two proof texts from James 2 and they'll say this.

Well, James says, so also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Faith apart from works is dead, verse 26.

And then they'll, of course, say, verse 20, do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

And then, of course, the kicker, verse 24. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

What? And people have actually argued it happened. I saw it last week.

I saw people that are so ignorant of this text, don't even know what it actually says, say the problem was

Paul went too far. And James and Paul, this is an early first century sort of conflict between messages, and Paul went too far.

Or, I've seen people say James doesn't belong in the Bible because he clearly contradicts

Paul here. And this is where we have to, as Christians, have a commitment to faithfully handling the word of God.

Proof texting can be necessary at times in terms of saying, no, the Bible says this, here's my text of proof.

Here's where it says it. But it has to be in context. It has to be the author's intention.

We have to actually handle the scriptures faithfully. And so, we think about the Bible in terms of 66 different books and letters written by many, many authors over a long period of time.

And different styles of writing and genres. As an example, you cannot interpret the

Song of Solomon like you do the Gospel According to Luke.

You will get in trouble. Okay? Some of you guys are like,

I never read the Song of Solomon. Married couples, you should do that. But, you also can't read the

Book of Proverbs, which is a book of wisdom literature like you read Romans.

Because wisdom literature is how do I live?

It's skill in living. Wisdom. How do I live? And it's very different than, say,

Romans, which is systematic, didactic literature. It's teaching literature.

It's different than historical narrative, like you might get in Matthew or Luke or Mark. There's different kinds of styles in writing.

And you better not handle the Book of Revelation like you handle, say, Jude. Or, no, sorry, 2

John. Revelation is a book full of imagery and symbolism.

It's rich. Over 400 verses in the Book of Revelation, and over half of them are direct quotations or allusions from Old Testament texts.

You've got whores drinking blood, wearing purple and scarlet, riding seven -headed ten -horned beasts.

You've got manhoppers in the Book of Revelation, like grasshoppers with men's faces.

It's like, you know, you can't say, oh, that's literal. You have to interpret it according to its style, interpret it according to the author's intention.

And in the Book of James, Letter of James, we have wisdom literature. Wisdom. How do

I live this out? You can see it in chapter 1. In chapter 1, in verse 22.

But deceives his heart. This person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God.

The Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

This is how do I live. It's wisdom -style literature. But when you get to chapter 2, very important not to just rip a

Bible verse out, out of its context. And look what it says.

I'm gonna read through this so you get the context. Chapter 2, verse 1. My brothers, show no partialities you hold the faith in our

Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man comes, if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, you sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there, or sit down at my feet, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which

He has promised to those who love Him, but you have dishonored the poor man? Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court?

Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

You are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

And here is an interesting little verse. When someone goes to James 2 and they say, faith without works is dead.

See, you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. It's interesting, isn't it? Because right before James says that, he says, verse 10, whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

Isn't that interesting? Faith without works is dead, justified by works and not by faith alone.

From the person who says whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles in one point is guilty of all of it.

Isn't that interesting? That's like a window. Here's this entire window.

James is saying, if you keep the whole law and fail in one point, you're guilty of all of it.

Imagine, I love this illustration, you're living next to a golf course, you're sitting there watching television one day, reading a book, just minding your own, and all of a sudden, a man with a face mask knocks a golf ball through your window, and it goes right through the corner of the window.

It's only a golf ball -sized hole, but it's right through the corner of this big glass window.

You run outside, and you notice him and all of his friends are wearing their face masks outside under the sun.

That's weird. And you say, excuse me, who knocked the golf ball through the window?

And he says, oh, I did. Have a nice day. And starts to walk along, you're like, pardon me, excuse me, you in the face diaper,

I need you to fix the window. And he says, whatever do you mean? It's just a small piece.

Relax. It's just a piece of the window. It's just small.

You would say, excuse me, this entire piece here now has to be replaced because you broke a corner out of this whole unit.

And James says, whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles in one point is guilty of all of it.

Try placing that upon human beings that sin every single day and say, the way to peace with God is through works and not by faith alone.

Now put the burden of any breaking of God's law make you guilty of all of it. You will be a spiritual schizophrenic.

He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not.

I'm at peace with God. I'm out of peace with God. I'm at peace with God. I'm out of peace with God. A thousand times a day because if you keep the whole law and you break one point, you're guilty of all of it.

So where's your only hope? It's in the one who kept it all perfectly. It's his righteousness.

My point in showing you that is this. Isn't it interesting that somebody could take a proof text from the latter part of James 2 to say that, no, this is teaching somehow that there's a blend of works and faith for justification and righteousness.

They take it from the man who just put a block before you that says if you kept it all and broken one point, you're guilty of the whole thing.

Congratulations. Isn't it interesting what context will do? But what is the context of James?

Well, here's the context. He says this. He says in verse 11, for he who said do not commit adultery also said do not murder.

If you do not commit adultery, but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.

For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. And here it is.

Are you ready? Think about the timeline I told you about Paul. Abraham believed God, credited him as righteousness.

When did that take place? Before circumcision. Before what? Isaac on the altar and before the law was given.

Okay, we know that from Paul. And let's see what James is talking about. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?

Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warm and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works.

Here's the context. James is clearly in a discussion about the difference between a said faith and dead faith and faith that is alive.

Now are we saying that Paul was teaching that dead faith or merely a said faith justifies anybody?

No. Faith, true faith, living faith, real faith saves, justifies.

James' discussion here is between someone who says they have faith but is really a dead faith.

The question for James here is what kind of faith saves, dead faith or living faith, real faith?

And living faith necessarily shows itself through its works.

And here it is. Verse 19. You believe that God is one, you do well, even the demons believe and shudder.

Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not

Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? Wait a minute.

That's interesting, isn't it? Here's James asking a question about living faith, dead faith and he says this.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

But wait a minute. What does Genesis 15 say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness when?

Before circumcision. Before Isaac on the altar. Before the law. But here

James says was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son

Isaac on the altar? But here's the important thing. We need to read this in context and understand the difference between the word justified in terms of declared righteous in Paul's context who will bring any charge against God's elect.

God is the one who justifies and a use of the word justified say by the

Lord Jesus in Luke chapter 16 where he says wisdom is justified by her children.

Wait. Wisdom is justified by her children. Wisdom is justified by her children.

So there's this person wisdom that's declared righteous before God and is thrown by her children.

No. Wisdom is vindicated by what is produced by it. Follow me on this.

This is huge. How do you know if something is truly wise? By what it produces. It's vindicated by what its children are.

What it produces. And here's the point for James. James is bringing us to the life of Abraham and he's saying this.

Was not Abraham our father vindicated, justified by works when he offered up his son

Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works and the scripture was fulfilled that says

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of God. So you see that a person is justified, vindicated by works and not by faith alone.

In other words, how do you and I know that someone has a living faith?

That someone truly believes? How do you know? By what they do. By their works.

By what you see. By what comes out of their life. Abraham believed

God and it was credited to him for righteousness. How do you and I know that Abraham's faith was alive and real and not dead and not merely a said faith?

Because he offered his son Isaac on the altar. Now you see that was fulfilled.

Why? Because he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness and many years later when

God said offer your son he said yes Lord. Here I am. And he went.

So the context here in James 2 is not how a person is justified before God.

This is the context of how do you and I know somebody's faith is alive or dead and the answer is it's not by faith by itself.

It's by what they do. By their works. Not by mere profession. Do you know people can

I ask you this? This is where it gets intensely personal. Maybe yourself. I don't know. Do you know people that have professed faith in Jesus Christ and there is absolutely nothing in their life that demonstrates that that faith is alive?

It's nothing more than a said faith? It's a big problem by the way in some portions of the south.

It's a huge problem in the Bible belt in some parts of the south. So many people that were like I prayed that magic prayer.

I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus. I'm saved. And there is no longing for Jesus.

No love for God's word. No desire to live a life that is pleasing to God. Nothing takes place in their life.

No hunger for the fellowship and worship that is with God's people. They just say one time when I was four my grandpappy put me on his knee.

He told me there was a place called hell. Did I want to go there? No thank you. So I prayed this magic prayer.

I believe in Jesus and there's nothing Is it a dead faith, a said faith or a real faith?

James' context is about living faith and dead faith. What kind of faith saves us? Living faith.

Real faith. True faith. Not a mere said faith. Not a dead faith. So where do we go with this?

Brothers and sisters we can go for weeks on this particular study but I wanted to end with this. Preach this truth.

In two ways. One, preach it to yourself every single day.

You see it doesn't do us any good to talk to other people about the freedom we have in Jesus and the peace we have with God if we live daily like we don't even really believe it.

And I've said often it makes no sense, literally no sense for a child of God who's declared righteous who is not condemned who has the gift of eternal life gone from death to life it makes no sense for that person to sulk in God's presence or to act like he's not a father who will never leave them.

It makes... Listen, you want to have a bold proclamation of the faith? First you have to preach it to yourself.

You have to rejoice in it. You have to believe in it. Christians are not supposed to be people... Listen, there's a time to grieve.

There's a time to weep. All that is true. But we're supposed to be people who are rejoicing in the Lord always.

We're supposed to have a joyful life in Jesus because of what God has done to save us.

I can't be bold out there with the gospel if I haven't tasted and seen myself.

So number one, preach these truths about the grace of God and salvation in Jesus alone to yourself every single day, brothers and sisters.

Rejoice in these in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening. When you find your mind slipping back into I need to perform for him to be satisfied.

I need to perform for him to accept me. When you find your mind and heart slipping back into that lie, you get on your face and cling to Jesus.

I have no boast but Jesus and my only hope is in your righteousness. I am forgiven and I have peace because if you alone,

Jesus, you alone, that will rescue you from those moments of failure when the

Spirit of God convicts you of sin and you feel that failure because God's showing you and that'll rescue you from the days of spiritual depression where you think somehow the way

I'll get back with God again after this failure as a mom or a dad or a husband or as a child, the way

I'll get back is through a couple of days of obedience and then the Father will love me again. No! There's no hope in that.

Your only hope and my only hope is in the finished work of Jesus and his righteousness. When you find your mind and heart slipping back into looking down to yourself to present stuff to the

Father for approval, repent of that. Find your hope only in Jesus. Live that life of joy and peace that is accomplished only through Jesus and only then, brothers and sisters, when

I can rejoice in this hope I have in Jesus, can I go out there boldly and proclaim that message of hope to the world.

We are surrounded by people who have professions of faith in Jesus and there are so many different kinds of Jesuses, false

Jesuses and false gospels and we have the hope of the world. And we have the hope of the world.

So first the gospel is proclaimed to me and when I can rejoice in that,

I'm prepared better to be a bold proclaimer of the gospel out there and tell it because it is the only message of life.

It is the only message of life. Let's pray. Father, I just pray that you would allow us as a church to have the strength to hold on to this truth of salvation, justification through faith in Christ alone, to hold on to it with joy in ourselves and to hold on to it with a defensiveness because it is the truth.

Help us to proclaim it. Give us the strength to lay down our lives to protect it and proclaim it.

Bless us as a church with the ability to proclaim this truth with boldness and with humility.