Justified by God through Faith (Galatians 2:15-16)

Right, good morning, everyone. You can make your way in. We'll get started with Sunday school this morning.

Good morning, everyone. Like our monsoon weather this morning.

Walked in like 50 yards and got soaked. We're gonna be in the book of 1

John. Before we get started, let's go to the Lord with a word of prayer. Father, we just praise your name.

We just are so privileged to be able to come into a place and worship you and to open up the scriptures and just really get the pure truth of who you are.

And it's nice to be able to have a guiding light to be able to lead us in all of truth and how to live our lives for the glory of you and be able to encourage other people to do the same thing.

It's just a blessing, Lord. We thank you for the cross and the ability to come to you in faith and repentance.

And by doing that, to be able to have eternal life in you. And that this world definitely is not our home, but that one day we're going to be with you in paradise.

And what a blessing that will be. Father, I just pray that you'll give us wisdom today as we look into the scriptures and that the word would be rightly divided.

And that everything that we say and do would glorify your name in Jesus name. Amen. So we're going to read, start in 1

John 1. We'll just read down to chapter 2 verse 6. So if you've got your copy of God's word, just open it up to 1

John chapter 1, and we'll get going. John says this, what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life, and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the

Father and was manifested to us. What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us.

And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

These things we write so that our joy may be made complete. This is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his

Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

And he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. The one who says

I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

But whoever keeps his word in him, the love of God has truly been perfected.

By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked.

That's our passage for today. We're going to be looking specifically at verse 5 of chapter 2.

Because when we left off last week, we were dealing with a variety of select verses to kind of show more of what the church was facing in Asia Minor.

And we talked a little bit about the savage wolves and Gnosticism and those kinds of things that John was addressing in the book.

And Paul said that all who were in Asia Minor, if you remember, faded away from Paul and his teaching of Christ.

And so it's kind of the flavor of it all. But I love how John starts the book.

You know, he starts with Christ, doesn't he? And I think that's a great place to start.

Because if you were going to address the saints that were facing opposition in the church, opposition throughout from within and without, you want to start with the reality of who

Christ is. He said that Christ is the one I have heard, I've seen, he said, in touch with my own hands, and that I proclaim.

That's what he does. If you and I were ever going to address the church or anyone that, you know, is wayward in their faith, we might want to start with the basics, right?

Let's start with Christ. Because it begins and ends with him, doesn't it? It really does. There's no other wisdom,

I think, that's greater than his. No words that could come greater than his.

And so we start there. John says that we walk in the light as he himself is in the light.

And that's kind of where we need to start. If we're truly saved, we're believers in Christ, we're in that light.

It's the total revealed knowledge of the

Word of God. We should stay in that, John says. Can you imagine how those words fell on the saints, as this letter was read among them?

Because that's what it was meant to do. Think about that. It's like reading this letter to our church today. I think about how impacting those words would be.

He gave direction. He gave clarity. And they were to focus on these things for their own personal walk.

You know, it's a knowledge, it's a guarding of our faith. It's an identifying of who is and who isn't a believer.

But it's focused on stay close to the Lord himself. If we stay close to him, we have less chance of falling, don't we?

If I think about my own life, the times that I have drifted away is the times when

I've struggled the most. I come back, all of a sudden, you know, I see a little more clear.

And I'm motivated more to follow Christ. That was his message was stay close.

But this letter isn't written to Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor. I was thinking about this this week, it was written for us, as well.

There's so many things for us that we can learn, reminded of how to live our lives in Christ.

You know, that's what the Scriptures do, it galvanizes us. And when I think of Asia Minor, I think of, you know, just a few short years after 1

John, I mean, John was written in like 90 AD. And just like five or six years after that, he wrote the book of Revelation.

And we've already talked about kind of the surroundings of Asia Minor. But think about these churches in in Ephesus, for example, we talked about this, the temple of Artemis was there.

And John says in Revelation that the church had left their first love, right, they'd left their first love.

And then he says in about the church in Smyrna, which is just 35 miles north of Ephesus, he says that there were some who were saying that they are

Jews and are not. And John says that they are the synagogue of Satan. And that's pretty powerful.

I mean, I wouldn't want any church right to have that label, that you are the synagogue of Satan.

That's terrible. Pergamum, John says that this is where Satan's throne is.

Can you imagine that? Doesn't get any worse than that, does it? And we also know that there was a giant size altar of Zeus in Pergamum.

You might want to know who the true and false believers are in that church, because you might not have many allies.

Thyatira, John says that in the midst of their church, they are tolerating the presence of the false prophetess

Jezebel. False prophet Jezebel and her disciples.

In Sardis, they were mixing true believers with false believers.

And it says their reputation because they projected to the people that they were alive, outward profession of faith, look at how great we are.

But then John says, no, wait a minute, you're dead. On the inside, you're really dead.

You're projecting out, hey, we're alive and well, but no, on the inside that you're dead. And remember at Laodicea, the lukewarm church.

So there was a lot of difficulties. The only church that seemed to really be following was the church in Philadelphia, the faithful church.

That's the identification for us, right? We want to be the faithful church. Asia Minor, temples of pagan worship, synagogue of Satan, Satan's throne, spirit of Jezebel.

Look around the religious landscape in our world, right? Today, and what do you see?

Sometimes I think we look at it and go, well, it can't be as bad as, you know, back then.

It's not possible, is it? I mean, we're way more modern now or more sophisticated, that can't happen, right?

Do we have any temples of pagan gods in our cities across America today? What are they?

What are they? The Mormon temple. Funny you should mention that because I have some notes on that.

Go figure. Check this out. Mormon temple in Salt Lake City. It's 35 acre campus, 35 acres.

And it took 40 years to build, 40 years to build that temple. The temple alone is 250 ,000 square feet, and it's on 10 acres.

Yeah, I think we have some pagan temples in America. That's definitely one of them. In Idaho Falls, there's a temple down there,

Mormon temple. It's 116 ,250 square feet, and that also is on 10 acres.

It's massive. And they're all over America. You see these Mormon temples all over the place.

What other ones do we see in America? Joel Osteen groups.

Yeah, we see that in Texas. Yeah. The Word of Faith, false teaching temples there, right?

New Apostolic Reformation. Absolutely. You see that a lot. What other kinds of temples are we seeing?

Yes. Masonic temples all over the place. I mean, you see them.

I mean, they say that the Masons are a dwindling group, but yet they're, you know, vibrant, and they have a lot of influence in society.

But they're all over the place. Yeah, you see them everywhere. What else? Say that again?

Stadiums? Yeah, sports are temples of worship, right? Any church that doesn't preach the gospel, she says, is a pagan temple.

Abortion clinics. That's terrible. I just, yeah. That's tough to even talk about.

What about mosques? See those all over the place, right? Largest in North America is 92 ,000 square feet.

It's 14 million to build, and it's located in Dearborn, Michigan. Did you know if you were to go to Dearborn, Michigan today, it's a city unto itself.

The police rarely, if ever, enter into it because it's just locked down by the

Islamic culture. They're all over the place. What about maybe

Catholic, Jewish temples? There's so many that we could name.

I think of the evangelical churches, though. What is happening inside of our evangelical churches today?

Entertainment, as you were saying? What do you see for worship in evangelical churches today?

You see, you're starting to see labyrinths in these evangelical churches where you walk this labyrinth.

If you know the history of labyrinths, you know that's evil and mystical. What about yoga?

There's Christian yoga. We're bringing in all these kinds of false religious paganism into the church.

Our days are not that much different than John's at all. There's much opposition to the faith.

John essentially says that there has to be evidence of our faith in the midst of what's going on all over the place.

It has to be evidence. Because we talked a little bit last week, a false convert just doesn't have the same passion and zeal for Christ that we do.

Because if you look at verse 6, it says, if we say that we have fellowship with him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

Verse 4 of chapter 2, the one who does not keep his commandments is a liar. There is a different zeal inside of a believer than an unbeliever.

An unbeliever has no passion to serve Christ. Yes, that's what you're saying.

Yeah, the lies, that's the biggest thing is that the lies in the body of the evangelical world is really the struggle, is getting to the pure truth of it all and being able to understand what the truth is.

That's what I think this church does so well, is it brings clarity to the word of God so we can grasp onto it and go, okay,

I can live that out now. But if it's mixed with truth and error, it's so much more different.

It's difficult to be able to say, okay, I understand with clarity how to live my life. So the evidence of a true convert, which is our focus today, what is the evidence of a true convert?

We looked a little bit at this, chapter 1 verse 7, but if we walk in the light, we stay in the revealed truth of God's word as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

We stay in that. What happens when we leave that? What happens when we leave that true revealed word of God and the truth?

It can result in church discipline, which you see one in a million churches doing it nowadays.

You know, it can lead to disfellowship, it can lead to a lot of different things. And sin in and of itself is destructive.

Chapter 2 verse 3 says, but this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.

Not, oh, hey, I keep his commandments, and then we walk a different direction. No, it's if we actually do it, is what he's saying.

And then verse 5, our verse for today, says, but whoever keeps his word in him, the love of God has truly been perfected.

By this, we know that we are in him. That little word, but, but whoever, right, but whoever, that opens it up to anyone.

Whoever opens it up to anyone. Remember the Gnostics? It's not like the

Gnostics where they had that secret knowledge, right, which was just for the select few.

John's saying, but whoever, right, opens it up to a broader spectrum, any believer could experience the knowledge of the

Lord Jesus Christ. But he says this, right, but whoever keeps his word, this is speaking about a present situation, and it's whoever continually, continually embraces and focuses on his word that's what he's talking about.

It's a habitual keeping of his word. It's not just, yeah, I kept it one day, and then three days later,

I walked down and just did whatever I wanted, and I just disregarded everything of the word of God. No, it's a continual, habitual keeping of his word.

We keep on keeping on. That's the saying, right? We've heard that? It's not like the apostates, though, because the apostates, you know, they fail to continually keep

God's word. They hear it, and maybe they do its, you know, outward experiences of it all.

But in the end, really, they have to go out from us so we can know who they are.

The apostates do not keep God's word. Another idea that keep brings is to attend very carefully.

This is what the concept of it, to attend, to guard God's word, to watch it, to keep an eye on it, to observe it.

It's like this in Song of Solomon. I'll read this verse,

Song of Solomon, chapter 8, verses 11 and 12. Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Haman.

He trusted the vineyard to caretakers. Each one was to bring 1 ,000 shekels of silver for its fruit.

My very own vineyard is at my disposal. The 1 ,000 shekels are for you, Solomon, and 200 are for those who take care of its fruit.

It's keeping God's word is like a caretaker. What does a caretaker do?

What does a caretaker do? Anybody, farmers out here? Anybody, you know, any apple farmers?

You know, what do they do? What does a caretaker do? They tend the orchards?

Weed it, water it, yeah. Prune it.

Yeah, they prune it, right? Why do they prune the trees? And what do they prune off?

They prune off the dead branches, don't they? And so that tree or that vine grows much deeper and better and produces better fruit.

I mean, John 15, verse 1 says that they remove the bad branches and prune the good ones so that they bear much fruit.

And then what happens? Those bad branches are thrown into the fire. They're burned up, is what

John says to us. So they guard against animals, but that's the idea.

You get the flavor that if you keep God's word, you're really protecting it. You're guarding it with everything that you have.

You're focused on it. You're attentive to it. You observe it. You watch it.

All those things. Anyone who claims Christ as Savior, that's our mission, is to keep

God's word. That's what we're supposed to do, to guard it. So but how do we keep

God's word? How do we defend it against wolves? Any thoughts on that?

How do we keep God's word? What are we supposed to do? Just come to church?

Yes. We have to know

God's word. That is definitely one of the biggest things of keeping God's word is we have to know

God's word. What else? Yes.

We have to walk in God's word. How do we walk in God's word though? By obeying his commandments.

Okay. What else? Because there's something here specific. Study it.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. We keep his doctrines.

We keep his commandments. We live it out in our daily lives. Yes. Sharing God's word.

That's huge. You know, we can't keep it to ourselves, can we? I mean,

I'm an introvert by nature. And so to get out is, you know, terrifying in and of itself.

But sometimes I do shrink back because of that, you know, but I think we do need to share it.

Careful study though of the word is where we need to be. What does careful study of the

Bible involve? You know, we come here on an hour or two every Sunday, but when we leave, we spend way more time, you know, away from here.

What kind of study do we do? You know, I like to, you know, have a couple commentaries maybe that you have by your bedside.

You know, you can look at a verse and, you know, maybe get into a little bit of word study and understand what the

Greek and Hebrew meanings of words mean. And that, you know, it just opens up a whole different view of what scripture is for you.

You know, you learn the book themes and the purposes and, you know, just like this word study on keep, right?

You know, just see how it fleshes out a bigger concept. It's not just, oh, I just keep

God's word. Well, what is that? No, you observe it, you pay attention to it. You know, so in studying God's word, that's what you're after, is to dig deeper.

And my pet peeve, honestly, one of the biggest ones I have, probably, is to keep it in context.

You know, social media is terrible for this. I mean, you got people quoting verses all over the place that have no idea what the context of that verse actually is talking about.

And it's out of context. And so I would say just, you know, read read verses, you know, the rule of thumb is five or 10 verses, you know, before and after the verse that you want to quote and make sure that you really do understand it, you know, because that's a way of keeping

God's word pure and true to anyone that would listen. We have an obligation to rightly divide his word to everyone that we quote a scripture to.

Text without context is pretext. That's what Cornell said a week or so ago, wasn't it? Exactly. That's what we have to do.

We have to keep it in in that context. So it is the true intent of what

God meant and wanted us to have it to be, right? Not what we think it should be, but what it really means according to what

God intended. So that's important. When we keep God's word, it means that we're not relying on our own

Gnostic knowledge. Because that's what John's addressing here is the hidden knowledge that is only known to a select few.

But if we keep God's word, our faith is based on his wisdom and knowledge and not some kind of a

Gnostic knowledge. You know, many people rely on education or science.

You see that a lot. They rely on their own educational or science knowledge to save them.

And it only leads to destruction in the end. That's what happens. Love is sovereign over knowledge.

And we must understand that we should strive to attain that deeper understanding of it for our own edification, for the edification of everyone else that we can talk to it about.

Any other thoughts on keeping God's word? I love that.

I love keeping God's word. Don't always do it, but I try hard. Anything else?

Yeah. Yeah, the true power of God is in knowing it and keeping it.

And it's not in other knowledge. That's where the true power comes from, isn't it? I mean, the power to live our life is that.

I love that. Anybody else have any other thoughts on keeping God's word? Yeah. Yeah. Peter's comment was just taking, obviously,

God's word and taking Jim's advice on reading through the scriptures, through the whole book of the

Bible in one year, taking through that. And there's value and strength in that. And I applaud that 100%.

That's the way to do it. So just on a verse, moving this along a little bit.

Verse five of chapter two, but whoever keeps his word in him, the love of God has truly been perfected.

By this we know that we are in him. What kind of love is this?

What kind of love is this? But whoever keeps his word in him, the love of God has truly been perfected.

What was that? Agape love. Okay. Yeah, that's what the word there, love, means.

It is agape love, which we'll talk about in just a second. This is our love for God, rather than necessarily a love of God.

So our love for God, I mean, it can be both, but in this context, it can really be said a love for God.

In him, the love for God has truly been perfected. Why? Why is it perfected in the person that does that?

And how is it even possible for us to do that? Because of a saving grace in our own lives.

Yeah. Yeah, Hebrews, Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.

Yes, absolutely. That's our motivation, right? When you're saved, it propels us out to love, to carry out

God's commandments, especially in the face of adversity, especially in there.

What motivates us to love is just that. What motivates a wolf to love? Nothing.

Nothing because they're bent on destruction. They don't have that in themselves to love.

A love has one purpose in mind, and it's to tear down the flock. It's like the old man in Scripture, right?

It's like that. It represents our former way of life that is enslaved in sin, doing only what our fleshly desires dictate.

That's the old man. And that nature is separated from God and bound for destruction. But what about the new man?

What about the new man? We're not a slave to sin anymore, are we? Not that we don't sin, but we're not a slave to it.

You think back to when you're saved. You know, I don't know about you, but sin just wasn't fun anymore.

I mean, yeah, right.

When we accept God, yes. He gives us a new heart, a new desire, new passions.

And so we're definitely not focused on those things. The new man keeps God's Word.

I mean, think about before I was saved, I didn't even know what God's Word was, so how could I keep it? But now that I do know it, the light bulb comes on.

And my motivation, our motivation should be to really pride ourselves on knowing it and keeping it pure and true.

The new man's obligation is now to demonstrate the love of God. And how do we do that?

How do we demonstrate the love of God? I think it's to share the gospel.

And we do it in loving our friends that don't know Christ. We share our faith with them to a lost and dying world.

Look at 1 John 4, verse 7. If you'll flip over maybe a page or two.

1 John 4, verse 7. Just a couple of pages over.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows

God. The new man is now motivated and characterized by their love of one another.

Why? Because the love of God resides in them. And then look at the next verse down there.

1 John 4, verse 8. What does he say? The one who does not love does not know

God, for God is love. That's pretty powerful. I mean, that's significant.

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

We're to exhibit this love. In verse 5, read that again. In him, the love of God has truly been perfected.

And then I think the lady over here said, yes, it's agape love.

So I wanted to just touch on that briefly. The kind of love that John's talking about is agape love. This is brotherly love.

So if we're loving, as Christ said in this, or John said in this passage, we have a love for God.

It's a love for the brothers. It's a love for people. Okay? It's a brotherly love. It's an affectionate, it's a goodwill kind of a love for one another that we should have.

It's benevolence towards others. I think it's serving people.

Because that's not an easy thing to do. It carries the idea of the love feast mentioned in Scripture.

And Jude says it in, you know, verse 12, he said, these are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts.

Well, these love feasts were just a precursor to communion, essentially. You know, it's an intimate time of fellowship that they had.

That's, that's, that's what a love feast is all about. It was an intimate fellowship. But you get the idea, you get the sense of agape love, right?

It's really an evidence for our faith. It is a close bond for love for brothers and sisters in Christ, is a deep affection for them, to be giving towards them and to have goodwill towards them.

Right? That's a good point.

If you look at the whole compendium of Scripture, he was saying is that, you know, we get a bad rap sometimes, where people think we're not loving because we don't accept sin.

We don't expect accept certain kinds of sin. Yeah, it is.

Yeah, exactly. There's no love. It's a false truth. If you're not really giving them the truth, the true truth of the

Word of God, it's harmful. Yeah, it's harmful if we don't share the truth with God.

Because if we share the truth with people, it gives them an opportunity to make changes.

Then they recognize. I mean, that's what happens. That's the beauty of it all.

Paul had some things to say about love. He said this in 1 Corinthians 13.

He said, but now faith, hope, love, abide these three. But the greatest, he said of these is love.

Why is love the greatest gift? Why not all the other ones? Shows a caring heart.

Love covers a multitude of sins. Absolutely. I'm thankful for that. I think, you know, go ahead.

It would just be works. It would just be, you know, things that we do wouldn't necessarily be true. You know, that brotherly agape love.

That's true. I think, you know, love could be the greatest gift. You know, I don't know all the answers to it.

But because love is the very nature of God. It's the very nature of God.

God is love. 1 John 4 .8. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

You know, that's our baseline. We reflect back God's love to others because of his love for us.

That's what we do. We kick it back out because he has loved us.

If you look at 1 John 4 .19, we love because he first loved us. That's why we do it.

That's our motivation. And we should be focused on it at all times. I know it's challenging.

It can be to do that. The evidence of our faith is love, as I mentioned.

Anything short of that is death. If you look at 1 John 3 .14, I wanted to touch on this first, just briefly.

1 John 3 .14. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren.

He who does not love abides in death. Are you the one that has passed out of death into life?

What example? What example are you? Think about this. You got two examples.

The one that, you know, has embraced the scriptures, passed out of death into life.

Or are you the other one? If you're the example of the other one, then you have no love for the saints.

You don't have a love for the things that God loves, coming in and singing and hearing sermons.

You know, I don't know about you, but when I have conversations with people, I can talk about sports. I can talk about politics for a while.

But man, after a while, I got to start talking about the Lord. Like, what does this mean?

What is, you know, what did he read here? And, you know, I got to be talking about things of the scriptures. So, that's just me.

But the result of that is death, if you don't have that love for the saints.

And that's what he's talking about, you know. He says, our love needs to be truly perfected.

Look at verse 5. But whoever keeps his word in him, the love of God has truly been perfected.

It means really. It means that word truly is really put their love to God in action.

You've truly done that. And it reaches true and real perfection.

The idea here is that not just in words, but in actions. Because those other unconverted people we looked at in verses,

I can't remember now, but, you know, if we say, and then don't do it, you can say a lot of things.

And, you know, I've always told my own kids, you know, talk is cheap. Talk is cheap.

You got to actually do something. If you're going to talk the talk, you better.

Yeah, if you talk the talk, you better walk the walk. And that's, but that's one way we can tell and, you know, evidence for our faith.

If someone says it, and then doesn't do it, you wonder. Right? Like, are they really saved?

And the scriptures say, hey, you have to have evidence for your faith. There's got to be something that you're doing for the

Lord, not as a requirement for salvation, but honestly, as a, you know, as a desire.

You know, I don't know about you, but I desire to do these things. I don't, I don't do it because someone's forcing me to do it.

I'm motivated to follow Christ because man, look at what he saved me from. Wow.

Shouldn't I be motivated to, you know, spend every waking moment focused on him?

I think so. And that's where we try to keep I know we got all these other, you know, struggles coming in with life in general, but, you know,

John says that in him, we're truly perfected. This word perfected brings the idea of wholeness and completeness or accomplished is the idea of a mature, full grown individual.

Your love for the saints has truly been completed. It's a process, right, that you're getting to.

I try to perfect this message, but yeah, I'm not there yet. But it's not whole or complete in my mind.

It won't be until I go home. That is true. But a perfect love that casts out fear is complete.

A perfect love that casts out fear is complete. And that's in verse 18. God's power is made perfect in weakness.

Second Corinthians 12 .9 says, God's power is made perfect in weakness.

How does that happen? How does God's power, how is God's power made perfect in our weakness?

It's when we give up our own selves. We give up our own control and we let

God work through our lives into our situations. That's how.

The Old Testament idea is associated with a person. Job was considered blameless.

And that word just means complete, perfect, morally innocent is what it means. It describes also in the

Old Testament as a completeness and a perfection in the hearts of men. First Chronicles 29 .19,

Give to my son Solomon a perfect heart to keep your commandments, your testimonies and your statutes and to do them all and to build the temple for which

I have made. And what he's saying there is, I want Solomon to have a perfect heart fully and completely devoted to the commandments of God to build this temple.

Follow these commands to do what he needs to do. And in our verse here, perfected in First John is really a quality of love.

That word, it's a quality of love that we have for the saints. It's to love perfectly as Christ has loved us.

And we push that out. True converts or false converts, I think of this, and I'll close with this because we only got a couple minutes.

Have you ever noticed that when your life has no turmoil in it, that sometimes the motivation to live out our life is,

I call it an easy love. It's not really any pressure on us to do anything.

You have a decent job, bills are paid, you know, life seems like it's going along really good. But that isn't the times when

I grow the most. I want to tell you, when

I was in the Navy, I was on a submarine. And I remember my first patrol were out there.

And, you know, I mean, it's all new to me. And it's kind of daunting when you're thinking, well, okay,

I'm watching them close the hatch, as we're, you know, cruising along the surface, and they close the hatch.

And I'm thinking, well, this is it, I'm never coming back up again. And, you know, you hear the sound like you hear on TV, you know, three times, and, you know, then it's the words, dive, dive, dive, you know, and you're like,

Oh, man, this is real. And it's a little frightening, because, you know, young kid, you know, you're going to sea for the first time, but the way that they, you know, a submarine goes down, is that you actually bring water into the boat to sink it.

That seems crazy to me, right? Like, you usually want to keep all the water out of a boat, but no, submarine, you keep, you get the water in the boat to sink it.

Well, we were doing a emergency testing one time, we were at 400 feet.

And this test is basically, if everything else fails, this is your last option.

It's called an emergency blow. And so they just they say, yeah, this is this is it, your life's over, whatever, press these, they call them chicken switches, you know, do these chicken switches, because if you get really nervous and scared and chicken, then you flip these switches, right.

And so we were sitting there 400 feet. And when they did this test, they flip those switches.

And what happens is 4500 pounds of air is just into the, you know, forward and aft tanks.

And it just blows that water out of there in just no time. Well, I don't know if you know this or not. But what happens is you go to the surface in about 25 seconds and just it came up like crazy.

And it just, you know, and I think about that, you know, that air pressure, you know, that testing for that, that pressure puts makes the water go out, it pushes the boat up.

And I think about that for life to pressure in our lives demonstrates what comes out of our life.

Galatians says, you know, you can have these things, the deeds of the false convert are evident immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, for which

I forewarn you, just as I forewarned you that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

See that pressure comes down on your life, it proves your responses.

It proves it. Which one are you? I'd rather be on the other side. The deeds of the true convert are this the spirit of the fruit of the

Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control against such things is no law.

When pressure comes in the forms of either suffering, persecution, you know, health, you know, anything that might come into our lives, what comes out?

That's what we're trying to focus on in our own lives and to keep the core focus of God's Word to anybody that will listen.

And if we can exhibit that, I think people will listen, because it's uncommon for people to see that kind of faith.

I think about this from Corrie ten Boom. She said this love so amazing, so divine demands my life, my soul, my all.

Let's pray. Father, you alone are worthy to be praised. And I just thank you for your word.

And I thank you for the saints and the fellowship that we can have now, and that we can talk about you and your word and be encouraged.

Because we're not here every day. When we leave and live our own lives during the week, we need we need fellowship, we need encouragement, we need strength.

And I pray that you'll be in this meeting, you'll help us to love you. And just praise your name.

Amen. Well, good morning, and welcome to Kootenai Church.

Please stand if you would as we sing this morning, O for 1000 tongues. O for 1000 tongues to sing my great

Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His praise.

Jesus is the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease.

His music in the sinner's ears, His life and health and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin. He sets the prisoners free.

His blood can make the foulest sleep. His blood availed for me.

Near Him He doth His praise He doth your lucent tongues employ.

With mine behold your Savior come, and lead me, lame, for joy.

My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of Thy name.

How do we know we've been forgiven? How do we know that we have been made clean?

How do we know we'll go to heaven? How do we know we've been redeemed?

You've been raised, the tomb has been opened, nothing can take away our hope in You.

You have been raised. You've been raised, the work is completed, hell and its powers have been defeated.

You have been raised. Now we are free from condemnation.

There is no judgment left for us to leave. We don't have to wonder if we're welcome.

You are the one who's got us here. You've been raised, the tomb has been opened, nothing can take away our hope in You.

You have been raised. You've been raised, the work is completed, hell and its powers have been defeated.

You have been raised. The price you paid for us has fully been accepted.

Because of your shed blood, we cannot be rejected. The price you paid for us has fully been accepted.

Because of your shed blood, we cannot be rejected. You have been raised, the tomb has been opened, nothing can take away our hope in You.

You have been raised. You have been raised, the work is completed, hell and its powers have been defeated.

You have been raised. You have been raised.

I confess and strain towards such mystery and magnificence.

My Savior's love. My Savior's love.

What could compare? What tongue could tell? My Savior's love.

What tune could carry on its beat? The beauty of that final breath.

The words there paint the awesome scene. When God stood in the stead of man.

When Jesus Christ, the radiant light, took on the shadows of our hate.

And rose again just as the sun, with might and power and full of space.

My Savior's love. My Savior's love.

What could compare? What tongue could tell? My Savior's love.

When in death this tongue is stilled, my song of life has reached the end.

Through paths of flower I may wilt. This everlasting truth will stand.

No death or life could separate me from the love of Christ my

Lord. This hope is sure from age to age. My song will be forevermore.

My Savior's love. My Savior's love.

What could compare? What tongue could tell? My Savior's love.

My Savior's love. My Savior's love.

What could compare? What tongue could tell? My Savior's love.

My Savior's love. Remain standing and open your

Bibles to Romans 3 for the reading. Romans chapter 3 and while you're turning there

I just have one announcement and that is that next weekend on Saturday is our first of two membership classes. The other one is the following Saturday and today you have a chance to sign up for that if you still want to attend next week or the following week.

Romans chapter 3 we're going to begin reading at verse 21. Romans chapter 3 verse 21.

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. For there is no distinction.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom

God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed.

For in the demonstration I say of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Let's pray together.

Our father we thank you that you have by your grace chosen and drawn and justified a people for your own name.

We thank you for your eternal and unmerited grace from eternity past you have bestowed grace upon those who are yours and we thank you for that mercy.

We thank you for the work of Jesus Christ who has merited all righteousness and it is sufficient for all who will believe.

We thank you for that. We thank you that we are forgiven in your son because of what he has done and we thank you that we are justified on the basis of faith and faith alone and not the works of the law.

We pray that you would encourage our hearts together today as we understand and reflect upon this truth that we may rejoice in our salvation and in our savior and give glory to you our great triune

God, father, son, and holy spirit in the name of Christ our Lord. We pray. Amen. We please be seated.

Would you please stand. rescue the souls of men

Oh you rescue the souls of men

Oh you you you you you you you you you

In the face of what's always hunger, for in all our hearts always hunger, for the infinite

Father, faithfully loving your all.

Here in our weakness you find us, falling before your throne.

Oh, we're falling before your throne.

You are the one that we praise.

You are the one we adore. You give the healing and grace our hearts always hunger for.

Oh, our hearts always hunger for. You are the one that we praise.

You are the one we adore. You give the healing and grace our hearts always hunger for.

Oh, our hearts always hunger for.

In Romans 8, 31 -34, it says, What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who is against us? He who indeed did not spare his own

Son, but delivered him over for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns?

Christ Jesus is he who died. Yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea.

A great high priest whose name is love, who never lives and pleads for me.

My name is written on his hands. My name is written on his heart.

I know that while in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me this depart.

Satan tempts me to despair, and jails me of the guilt within.

The Lord I look and see him there, who made an end to all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted three.

For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me.

To look on him and pardon me. Hallelujah, hallelujah, praise the one risen

Son of God. Behold him there, the risen

Lamb. My perfect, spotless righteousness. The great unchangeable

I am. The King of glory and of grace.

One with himself I cannot die. My soul is purchased with his blood.

My life is in with Christ on high. With Christ my Savior and my

God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, praise the one risen

Son of God. And now before the cross of Christ, and marvel at this love divine.

God's perfect Son was sacrificed to make me righteous in God's eyes.

This river's depth I cannot know, but I can glory in its flood.

The Lord most high has bowed down low, and poured on me his glorious love.

And poured on me his glorious love.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, praise the one risen

Son of God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, praise the one risen

Son of God.

This is an awesome, awesome privilege to be able to share with you from God's Word. Some of the things that we just now sang about is what we're going to be talking about this morning.

And it seems to me that it's already been said. But for some reason the

Lord wants us to look at it again. And that is what we're talking about, being justified by faith in Christ Jesus.

So let's start this morning, let's read Galatians 2, starting with verse 14, and down to verse 21.

Galatians 2, 14, and just let me say this before we read. A lot of what we're going to hear this morning is things that we heard a couple weeks ago when

Jim was preaching. But you know, like I said, for some reason the Lord wants us to review this. And in my own heart, that's what

I've been doing, is reviewing it over and over. So let's look here at Galatians 2, verse 14, starting with 14 and down through 21.

He says, But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, who

Paul is talking about is Peter and Barnabas and some of the others. When I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel,

I said to Cephas, or Peter, in the presence of all, if you being a Jew live like the Gentiles and not like the

Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews? We are

Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not the works of the law.

Since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified. But if while seeking to be justified in Christ, we also ourselves have been found sinners, is

Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be. For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed,

I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, that I might live unto

Christ. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly.

Let's just have a word of prayer before we go any further. Lord, we just thank you this morning for your texts. We thank you for what we've heard from Romans and also now from Galatians.

And Lord, from the song we were singing that you are the justifier of the sinner.

Thank you so much, Lord, for this text now. We pray that you'll hear not my words, but your words coming out, and that we will glorify you in whatever we say this morning and think about.

Thank you so much, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, like I said, it's been a long time since I've been up here.

And we were looking at the book of Galatians. We've gone through some of it already. But instead of giving us a review immediately, what

I'd like to do is give us like an overview of the whole book, the whole letter that Paul wrote to the

Galatians this morning. And this overview is going to touch on some highlights of each section of the book this morning.

And it's going to help put it in perspective what Paul is teaching in some of the verses we just read together, both in Romans earlier and just now.

And what's important to note is that now we're coming to a central theme in the book of Galatians.

And that is justification, the doctrine of justification.

And this doctrine we're going to be looking at is important in understanding the whole gospel, isn't it? And this is why it's central to Paul's letter.

So in a sense, it's going to be like an overview and a review as well, because we're going to touch on some of the things that I talked about last time to kind of bring you up to memory.

So what does Paul's book cover? What is it? I broke it down into four sections.

And let's just, in brief, I want to give you the sections and just give you a summary before we get into actually

Galatians 2 .15 here. Galatians 1, 1 through 10 is called the introduction.

The introduction and Paul's purpose statement. And in this section, Paul has been telling the churches who he is and why he's writing them.

And he very boldly comes out here and he talks a lot differently in this letter than he does in the

Philippians or Romans or some of the others, because he just gets right to the point here. And he tells them that they, the teachers who have been coming from Jerusalem, the

Jewish teachers, they're false teachers. And they've been distorting the gospel. And he tells them that it was twisted into a false gospel.

And then we get an indication of Paul's agitation, because we read in Galatians 1, 7 and 8 where he says this to the

Galatian believers. He says, I am amazed, he says, that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

So Paul's letter here was, in this section, was very personal, wasn't it?

It was very personal, telling them right to their faces. And it was to wake them up, to get them to look and to see what was going on.

And you know what, this is for us too, because we also need to remember at all times that we also are prone to seek

God's approval sometimes by things that we do ourselves, whether it's by praying or by going to church or by singing.

We often try to think we're getting God's approval, and that's what Paul was talking about. We cannot do anything to gain

God's approval. And so that was section 1, verses 1 through 10. Then section 2 starts in verse 11, and it goes to 2 .14.

And this is what I labeled as Paul's authority and his defense of his apostleship.

And then in my last two messages, we covered this last section, and in summarizing it, I would like to say that Paul was very effective in proving that he was appointed by Jesus Christ and he was given

Jesus Christ's message. It came from Jesus. We saw also in this section how

Paul used an experience for an illustration for the

Galatian Christians, and his experience was when he confronted Peter in Antioch for his hypocrisy.

Peter had been afraid of what his Jewish friends were thinking about him, and so he had pulled back from the assembling with the

Gentiles. In other words, he was saying that he was better than the Gentiles, but he was also trying to teach the unity of Christ at the same time, so it was hypocrisy.

So he was basically communicating the same message that the false teachers were giving, that a man had to conform to Mosaic laws as well as believe.

So we got conforming or works and faith together, works and believing. So Paul was dabbling in what we would call a false religion, because all religions are basically the same thing.

They make us think we can work our way to heaven or work ourselves into God's approval. So this is where we came to at the end of this section last time, and that was from 1 .11

to 2 .14. The next section, Galatians 2 .15 all the way to the end of the chapter 4, 4 .31,

and this is Paul's defense of the doctrine of justification through faith.

This is the heart of his letter that he wrote, the most important section, and this is almost all doctrine, but it has some illustrations.

Paul illustrates this doctrine by telling us how the

Mosaic law was a tutor for a time, to put people under it for a time, and he also gives the story of Abraham's faith and the comparison of Abraham's two wives,

Sarah and Hagar, and the differences that they represented between slavery and freedom, which also is the law and grace.

Each of these illustrations show how a believer can only be justified through faith.

Here in this section he defines what justification means and logically gives proof, and he uses a number of questions in it, and I'd like to go through that whole section, but it's way too long, so we're only going to do just a tiny bit of it this morning.

This is where we're going to come back to in a minute. The next section is Paul's practical applications, and it goes from Galatians 5 .1

all the way through to 6 .10, and just a summary, he outlines what it means for a believer to be sanctified by the

Holy Spirit, and he makes a call to stand fast in the liberty that we have in Christ.

He also contrasts the difference between someone who's living in the flesh, which would be an unbeliever, and who's living by the

Spirit, which would be a believer. It's also about applying practically what he taught from these previous sections, from the doctrinal section, and I like applications, so that's why

I'd like to get through this whole thing, but like I say, we're only going to do a couple of verses. Galatians 5 .1

to 6 .10 is Paul's, excuse me, that was his application.

Galatians 6 .11 through 18 is his autographed conclusion. Here, he wanted the believers to understand that he had written this letter with his own hand, and we don't see that very often.

In fact, we don't see it. It's usually somebody else, like Timothy, has written the letter for him, and so this is

Paul saying, I wrote this with my own hand. He also makes the point that he could only glory in the cross.

Well, those who wanted to add circumcision and following the laws were glorying in their flesh, in their own accomplishments.

So it was pride. So even this conclusion of Paul's letter is still about maintaining a pure gospel.

All right, so that's just a brief overview of the whole book. So now we're going to come back to Galatians 2 .15

that starts this section, and all we're going to look at this morning is an introduction. Paul's defense of the doctrine of the justification through faith.

We're going to look at some other related scriptures, quite a few, in fact. So let's just go as quickly as we can here. I have to keep my eye on the clock because I think this is way more than we'll ever cover today.

Okay, so hang in there. All right, 2 .15, it says, We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the

Gentiles. So, okay, who was he saying when he says we, we? He obviously would be including himself, and he would be including

Peter because he's still talking to Peter here, and he's including Barnabas and those other

Jews who had been separating themselves, being hypocritical in their actions.

They're in Antioch. So that's the we. And he says, we are

Jews by nature. What did he mean by this? What he was saying was that these men that he's talking about, himself and Peter and Barnabas and the others, they hadn't become

Jews later. They weren't proselytes. They were Jews by birth, and they were also Jews by the fact that they had followed all their lives, all the regulations, all the ceremonies, before they had become believers.

They had followed the traditions. They had been taught to observe everything. So this is what I believe he said by we are

Jews by nature. But then he adds this very interesting next phrase here, and I had to puzzle over this one for a while.

He says, and not sinners from among the Gentiles.

It's such an interesting phrase. It's almost, in our modern times, it could sound a little bit prejudiced, wouldn't it?

He's calling himself a Jew and those guys sinners. So what was he saying here?

Why was he saying this? Well, I don't believe it was being prejudiced or anything. I think he was reminding

Peter again that even though they were a part of God's original choice as the

Jewish nation to be God's representatives of himself and the rest of the world, that was a little bit, that's a tiny bit of the distinction.

He was calling them sinners to convey that the Gentiles had some real disadvantages.

Okay, they were sinners, but we're all sinners, aren't we? But they were not, they didn't have the advantages of going through the law and going through the promises of what the

Jews had been through. They hadn't known what it was like to keep the law. They hadn't realized that a man can never be saved by his own efforts.

They hadn't heard any of this. Whereas the Jew had heard that. The laws were pointing them to what?

They were pointing them to the Messiah. It was actually saying, you can't do this. But the

Gentile had never heard this before. They'd come out of this darkened life without the restraint of the laws.

They'd been notorious sinners and pagans and idolaters. And I think that's why Paul was contrasting the

Jew with the Gentile. So by going through this description, he was just leading them up then to the next verse.

Verse 16, so we're gonna look at this. Look with me at Galatians 2 .16.

He says, nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in him so that we may be justified by faith.

And he's referring to we, again, the Jews. We may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law.

Since by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. Another version says it this way.

Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law.

And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be made right with God because of our faith in Christ.

Not because we have obeyed the law, for no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.

Now, you'll notice that Paul has started this with nevertheless. Now, I was a little bit surprised to find that there's no

Greek word here. It just, it could be yet, or nevertheless, or just and, because it's not really, it's just leading in to the next section.

A simplified paraphrase of both 15 and 16, I kinda worked this out, and this is what

I would say. And we as Jews, because of our rich heritage, should know that, or we should understand that a man is not justified by the works of the law.

That's all he's saying. We should know that. Or since we who are Jews know that no one is justified by any works of the law.

Now remember, we gotta remember the context here. Peter's made an error, and Paul is using this as an illustration for the

Galatian believers to realize that this error that Peter made was that they were still trying to say there was a basis for legalism.

By their action, they were showing, they were separating themselves from the Gentiles. They were being hypocritical.

They were teaching grace and teaching unity among the believers there in Antioch. But they were implying by their actions that the

Jews were still more blessed by God, and more importantly, they were implying that a man is justified in part by keeping the law.

And that's where Paul is hitting on it. They had promoted a gospel, a false gospel of works plus grace.

And so this is why I think that Paul's statement here when he says, yet we know, we know, was almost a bit sarcastic.

Because he was saying, we already know this, guys. Come on here, we know it. And Peter should have known it, because if God had revealed it to him, even there in Acts 10 with his encounter with Cornelius.

So Peter should have known it, and that's why Paul is saying, and yet we know. All right, now, as we move down the verse, we come to the part that's really,

I think is most important, and it's that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, he says here in the second part of verse 15.

So I have four questions that I'd like to ask. Four questions. What does

Paul mean by the word justified? And we sang about it. Do we really understand it?

And I had to go back and think, okay, what does it mean to be justified? Now turn to where Jim read earlier this morning,

Romans 3, and verses 21 and 22, where he says, but now,

Romans 3, 21 and 22, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction.

So the passage here in Romans is a little bit similar, isn't it?

But there's some differences. There are some differences. Paul wrote in Galatians that a man is justified through faith in Christ.

But here in Romans, he wrote the righteousness of God is through faith in Christ. So we got two different sections here.

Are they different? Not really, not really. Because in Galatians, Paul is saying that God justifies the sinner.

And the word justified here in Galatians comes from, I'm not gonna pronounce this right, but the

Greek word here, this word justified is dikaio, okay?

Dikaio. The Greek verb means rendered or declared righteous. So in other words, when we say that a man is justified, we're also saying that he's been declared righteous.

But then when we look at Romans 3 here, if it's still open there, it says that we're talking about the righteousness of God.

The word righteousness comes from the Greek noun. Okay, not the verb, but the noun.

And the word is dikaiosune. So in Galatians, it's dikaio.

In Romans, it's dikaiosune. What's the difference? One's a verb, the other's a noun.

Okay, I like grammar. I guess you'll probably figure that out. The word in Galatians is a verb, and the word in Romans is a noun.

But we're both talking about the same root word. The same root word. And so when it says in either one of them, being declared righteous, it also means, in Romans, it says declared righteous.

In Galatians, it says justified. And if we drop down in verse 24 here, in the same passage here in Romans, look at verse 24, it says, being justified, whoops, it wasn't, it's actually the same idea.

It's the same word. Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.

So Paul uses the same Greek word that he used in Galatians here. So righteousness of God and being justified by God are the same thing.

So, like I said, where have we heard some of this message before? Thank you, Jim. And he's probably gonna get more into it.

But it's just amazing how God is bringing us back to this point again. For me, to study through this, it's just incredible as I read through it.

In a sense, I said, it's kind of a review of Jim's message. In Hebrews 10, 38, the author says the just man lives by faith, doesn't it?

Which is what we covered. And he showed us, Jim showed us, that this just person is one who has been justified or declared righteous.

What he demands, he also provides and closes with. It's not just that we're pretending to be good. A while back,

I also listened to a message that Jim preached way back, I don't know when it was, 100 years ago, in Philippians.

I think it was in 2008. And I really enjoyed going through Philippians because it's one of my favorite books. But when

Jim got to Philippians 3, 9. All right, let me read that one to you before I say anything.

Philippians 3, 9. You don't have to turn over there, but just listen. He says, and may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ.

Sounds pretty similar, doesn't it? We've got three verses here that almost say exactly the same thing.

It must have been important. Right? I think it was. This righteousness is only from God.

So now, the second question is, because it's from God, how do we obtain it?

This justification, how do we get it? In Galatians 2, 16.

Back to Galatians, okay, for just a second here. Galatians 2, 16. I want to see first how we can't obtain it because that was part of Paul's point.

He says there in verse 16, nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law.

And then in Romans 3, 20, it says, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified.

And then in Philippians 3, 9, it says, not having a righteousness of my own.

So in each of these, we see clearly that it cannot come from a man's conduct. It can't come from keeping the laws.

As Jim mentioned a few weeks ago, we can't be justified through attending, or maybe we can.

Can we be justified by attending 10 seminar meetings on holistic living?

No, we can't. What about through prayer? If we pray every day, can we be justified? No, it doesn't come from that.

What about if we follow a daily Bible reading program? Well, I do that, so am I justified because I've done that?

No, it doesn't come through that. Doesn't come from any of those things, does it?

But being righteousness in God's sight is not because of anything we can do to earn it. And that was Paul's first point to Peter and his first point to the

Galatians. It cannot come, a righteousness cannot come through ourselves. Paul was telling the

Philippian believers too that he counted all his own good, the things that he did good, as what?

I don't know if you remember the passage in Philippians 9, as dung, as rubbish, as trash, as a loss in contrast to gaining

Christ. So we can conclude that it is impossible for us to do anything about it in order to be made right with God in God's sight.

Okay, but how can we do it now? We looked at how we can't, so how can we do it? The first part of this verse, 16, here in Galatians, says, nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but, and I love the but, here in this verse, but through faith.

And also we read in Romans 22, 322, it is righteousness of God through faith.

And in Philippians 3, 9, and he founded him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith.

We got a channel here, that's what that means. This word through, the English word in all three verses is translated from the

Greek word dia. And according to the definition in Strong's Dictionary, dia means a primary, it is a primary preposition, preposition,

I like grammar, there you go, primary preposition denoting what? The channel of an act.

And it's usually translated into English as through, or on account of, or because of.

So the idea in all of them that faith is the, is just a channel, it's just a channel, okay?

Faith is the channel. So faith is the manner that we get the righteousness of God through.

It can't come by any good work, it can't come by anything we've done, or by keeping the law, as it says in each of those passages.

So the focus is really on, in a sense, this channel of faith, that being declared righteous before God through faith.

So, that comes to question number three. What is this faith?

What is faith? Now, I know, and you know, that probably next week we're gonna get into faith a lot, okay?

Because that's what Hebrews 11 is. And I don't want to take away any of Jim's ideas, I probably won't.

But, I just wanted to think of this. I found some really interesting things online about what faith is.

Would you like to hear them? Okay. Apparently the whole world seems to think faith is something else.

Something that, some whimsical feeling or thing that we can work up within ourselves.

This is one of them. Well, to get through my problem, all I need is to have some faith.

Okay? Alright, that's one of them. Number two. Faith is what helps me to get through illuminating the pathway in times of darkness.

Helping to give me strength in times of weakness. So, faith is a light?

I don't know about that, okay? Here's another one. Sounds pretty good though, doesn't it?

Okay? Another one is, faith is the pathway, okay?

To finding solutions in life. So, faith is a pathway. Well, that's pretty good, isn't it? Alright.

They all sound kind of like the same, don't they? Some kind of mysterious, abstract thing that we need to find somehow, okay?

Well, I'm sure that you're convinced as much as I am that this is not what Paul was talking about, was he? And like I said,

Jim's going to cover more on that. So, I'll leave most of the definition to him, but I do want to mention a particular problem that we had while we were translating.

In fact, I wish I was there translating some more with the

Montague people. Maybe I'll take a second here just to mention something. I've gotten back into translation.

My son is actually doing the work, but he just sent me the book of Jonah to go through and do a content check on.

And so he says, Dad, you're working again. You're back in translation and I need you so bad. So, I've been able to do that and we're going to work all the way through the

Old Testament now doing the same way. So, I get to do it here while he's doing hard work down there. I just get to look at it and tell him what

I think about it. So, it's been fun. Like I said, we just finished the book of Jonah. And I'll do one more part.

I get to back translate it into English for the consultant checker. So, it's been fun. Anyway, when we were in Paraguay working and doing it ourselves, we had a problem.

The problem was that these people speak a language that has very few abstract nouns.

Now, for yous that don't care a thing about, a lick about grammar, you can just ignore all this.

But faith is an abstract noun. And what

I mean by that is it's one of those nouns, one of those object things, like those people are thinking about faith being a light or a pathway.

They're kind of thinking like that because they think that it's a noun. But the

Manuhi people can't say these words in their language. All they see in nouns are concrete things, like wood or floor or ceiling or sky or tree or bird.

That's what their nouns cover. Everything else has to be a verb. And most of their language, they're called a verbal language, is what it is.

So they can't say, I have faith because you can't touch it. They can't say,

God credited his righteousness to me because you can't touch righteousness. And they can't say,

God's grace is good. These are all nouns, see? And so they can't say that. So we had to translate.

We had to do a flip -flop. We had to turn all of these nouns, so to speak, into verbs, into action words.

So, for example, back in Romans 3 .22 and both in Galatians 3 .22 and 2 .16, where it says that a person can have

God's righteousness through faith and where a man is justified through faith. Because both of them are talking about God's imputed righteousness to us.

We translated both pretty much the same. This is what we said. We said, and I'll say it first in Manuhi, just to give you an idea that I really do speak

Manuhi. She not yeaten to sayce, but po -e -no -l -tah -la -pay -tee -yoo -ee -sha -ha -ba -tee -ka -man -ee -shen bak -ba -hee -soo -kree -sto.

Okay? So that's Manuhi. Here's what it says in English. God states, or declares, that a person is good because he believes in the

Savior, Jesus Christ. So we took faith and turned it into a verb, is what we did. We do have another problem.

Because with the word believe, you cannot just say believe.

Guess what you've got to have? An object. Okay? So you've got a transitive verb, there again is the grammar, that has to have an object.

And, as I said in my example, it has to be believe in Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus.

So it's pretty obvious then that this answers my fourth question. In whom do we believe?

Okay? There in that verse. We can't have just lots of faith, lots of lights, lots of paths illuminating us, can we?

It has to be faith in someone, and that is Jesus Christ. God justifies us through faith in Jesus Christ.

So it's instead of being declared righteous, rendered righteous by one's works, it's because of Jesus Christ.

So this is the message that Paul is speaking to Peter and to the Galatians. That God can only come, the justification of righteousness of God can only come through believing in the person of Jesus Christ and what

He's done on the cross. It's both rejecting the idea that I can do it on my own, and it's accepting the idea that Jesus Christ has done it for me.

That's through faith. We can do nothing about it. And again,

I'll say it, we're justified, we're declared righteous only because of what Christ has done, and there's nothing we can do.

We have Christ's righteousness because God credited it to our account whom we believe.

And that's what the word imputed means. In Romans 4 .3, Paul spoke about it again. Another verse that also says basically the same thing.

It says, What did the scriptures say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

From Genesis 15 .6. Guess what? There's six passages in the

Bible that say the very same thing. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Must be important, huh? What do you think? So just like Abraham, God imputed or credited

Christ's righteousness to every believer's account. To mine, to yours if you're a believer. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is not ours.

There's nothing we can do to get it. We've been declared or credited with his righteousness.

And Romans 3 .24 says, Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.

So it's a gift, isn't it? We can't do anything to earn it. We can't do anything to work for it. It's a gift.

Another thing on this idea of faith, and Jim, you're going to have to back me up on this. But I just thought about this.

This other thing about faith. This act of believing in Jesus Christ.

It's never considered in the scriptures as a meritorious work, or a good work that we can do.

It isn't. It's always, because faith is always contrasted with works. You have faith, or you have works.

It's not, it's not faith is a work so that you can be saved. Faith is always contrasted.

So again, Paul is not saying that, when Paul is saying that justification comes through faith, another way that I was thinking about saying this would be it is knowing for sure, and that's part of Hebrews 11, knowing for sure that we can't make ourselves acceptable before God by good works.

And it's accepting the fact that everything has already been done because of Jesus Christ.

So that's just why it can't be considered a meritorious act when we believe because we aren't working or doing anything.

We're simply convinced that God has done it already and that Jesus Christ, what

God says about Christ is absolutely true. So in a sense we're letting go of our own idea of works because it's already been done.

It's already been done. So this makes much more sense to see faith in this way. Now, I want to close with another passage.

Turn over to Matthew. Matthew 19, 16 through 26.

I want to go through it really quickly because we're running out of time here. But I believe that there's a possibility that Jesus went through this passage with Paul in Arabia, okay?

Not necessarily. We can only speculate that because of Jesus' own teaching. Listen to this.

I'm gonna just read the verse and give you my thought, okay? So you don't really have to read it.

Just listen. This good man came up to Jesus in verse 16 of Matthew 19.

He came up to Jesus. He was a ruler. He was a rich man. And he said, Teacher, what good thing may

I obtain, may I do, should I do that I may obtain eternal life? What good thing should I do? He was assuming there was something that he still had to do, wasn't he?

Some righteous act for God to accept him. He was thinking there was some law, some elusive religious thing he had missed.

And so Jesus answers him actually down in verse 26, finally. And he says,

Man, this is impossible, but we're not gonna get there until a couple minutes from now. Look at verse 17 first.

What does Jesus say? He wants to just hint about it first. He says, Why are you asking me what is good?

There is only one who is good. And you know what? This should have stopped the man right in his tracks there, that rich young ruler, to ponder on the fact that he couldn't do anything really in the eyes of the only one who was truly good.

But Jesus knew that he wouldn't get it yet. So he went on. He says, But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.

Whoops. I thought we couldn't do that. So why is Jesus saying this?

Well, what he was really saying was, if you wish to enter into heaven, you must not break a single commandment.

You must be perfect. And this lines up with what he had said in Matthew 5, 48, in his Sermon on the

Mount, where he said, You are to be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. And the problem is, nobody can do that, can they?

None of us can do it. In Galatians 3 .11,

Paul made this statement. He says, Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident.

That word actually means obvious. So it's obvious that we can't make it on our own.

But this young man hadn't gotten the point. He hadn't realized that it was obvious.

It was about his doing good things. So look at verse 18 and 19. So he says, He says, Jesus, which one should

I do? And Jesus then gives him these four negative ones and then two good ones.

Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and finally, love your father, or honor your father and love your neighbors yourself.

So what does the man say there in verse 20? He says, All these things I've kept.

What am I still lacking? In other words, he was saying, Man, I've already done all those things. I've got to be lacking some other thing to do.

You know what? It was sad, because he's hearing these laws right out of the mouth of the lawgiver himself. And he should have fallen on his knees, shouldn't he?

And worshiped Jesus and said, I don't have a chance. I can't do it. But instead, he was thinking that the laws that he had been keeping were like applauding him for doing so well.

So what does Jesus do in verse 21? He puts his finger right on something, right on his idols. He says, If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me.

So what he was saying here that this man needed to let go, let go of his idols, of possessions, and let go of his meritorious works of trying to keep the laws, trying to think he was good.

And then finally, Jesus gives him one final command. Come and follow me.

And I believe this was Jesus' call to salvation. Come and follow me. Just like God had done with Abraham back in Genesis 12, when

Abraham was told to go and to follow God. What did

Abraham do? He did. He obeyed. And he believed. And he acted on his faith.

And this believing was what? It was credited to him as righteousness, as it states in Romans 4 and five other places.

So it says here in verse 22 then, But the young man, when he heard this statement, he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.

He went away grieving. Why? I believe he hadn't realized yet that he had failed in his own.

He probably was more willing to walk a hundred miles if Jesus had told him that.

Or say a hundred prayers if Jesus had told him that, wasn't he? He was looking for something that he could do.

He should have said, Master, you're the only one who has done all these things. I need to believe in you alone.

But he didn't. Now drop down to 26 in closing. Jesus' disciples, in the verses in between, were a bit puzzled because they had also been thinking that they could somehow work their way to heaven or at least the rich man had a chance because the rich man had lots of money.

He could give to the poor. He could put lots of money in the offerings. So that helped, didn't it? What does

Jesus say? He says, and this is my paraphrase again, It's impossible for human beings to inherit the kingdom, but it's only possible with God for no keeping of the laws will help you.

It cannot be by works, but only by the grace of God through believing in me.

Friends, that's what it means to be justified by faith or through faith. And I was just thinking, if there's someone here listening today who's something maybe like this young man that's still looking for something to do, forget about it because it's not going to work.

It's not going to get you there. God will not accept you on the basis of what you've done.

He only accepts us and he only credits us with his righteousness when we believe in Jesus Christ.

We have to believe that it's been done already. Jesus paid the price, didn't he? Believe him if you haven't already and God will gift you his righteousness.

All right, let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word. We pray that this will cement itself into our thinking and if there is someone here that has not yet made that decision to believe, we just pray that you'll just stir their hearts this morning and to believe in you as having finished the work that you set out to do by dying on the cross and saving us.

Thank you so much, Lord, for your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you please stand?

I once was lost In darkest night Yet thought

I knew The way The sin that promised

Joy and life Had led me to The grave

I had no hope That you would own A rebel to Your will

And if you had Not loved me first I would refuse

You still But as I ran

My help outraced Indifferent to The cross

You looked upon My helpless state And led me to The cross

And I beheld God's love displayed You suffered in My place

You bore the wrath Reserved for me Now all

I know Is grace

Hallelujah All I have

Is Christ Hallelujah Jesus is

My life Hallelujah All I have

Is Christ Hallelujah Jesus is

My life Now, Lord, I would

Be yours alone And live so almighty

The strength to follow Your commands Could never come

From me Oh, Father, use My ransom life

In any way You choose And let my song

Forever be My only boast Is you

Hallelujah All I have

Is Christ Hallelujah Jesus is

My life Hallelujah All I have

Is Christ Hallelujah Hallelujah Jesus is

My life Hallelujah All I have

Is Christ Hallelujah Jesus is

My life Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our

Father who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word