A Proper Use of Freedom

Turn your Bibles this morning to Galatians 5. Galatians 5 beginning in verse.

1 When you get to Galatians 5 if you would please stand as we reverence the reading of God's Holy Word. Alex you may have to turn me up just a little bit. Galatians 5 beginning in verse 1 For freedom Christ has set us free Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

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

For through the spirit by faith we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision Counts for anything but only faith. Working through love.

You are running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you a little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view and The one who is troubling you will bear the penalty whoever he is.

But if I brothers still preach circumcision, why am I being persecuted in that case? The offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves. For you were called to freedom brothers only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

But through love serve one another for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You should love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Let us pray.

Father I.

Thank you this morning for the opportunity to preach your word. Pray father God that you would help me to preach it rightly Father that you would strengthen my voice Lord that you would direct my mind my thoughts my words.

Lord that you would.

Help me to preach your word boldly that I may be gripped by it as I preach your word father that Lord it would not return void. Pray father God that you would prepare hearts to receive it Lord that we would take it Lord and by your grace apply it Lord we are in great need of your grace this morning.

I am in great need of your grace this morning. So I thank you Lord for your grace Lord. I thank you father that it is not My righteousness that I stand upon For salvation father for I have nothing to stand upon it is only through the shed blood of Christ.

I Thank you for that and it is in his name. We pray this morning. Amen. Quit background of this letter to the Galatian Church. This church came to fruition by God working through the preaching of the teaching of Paul and The Holy Spirit brought about salvations and led to the forming of a church and Paul he moves on.

And a short time later Some false teachers came into the church and convinced these believers of a false gospel. If you remember at the tent meeting, we briefly talked about how the same thing happened at the Church of Corinth and.

So I do want to start this morning by let this serve in a as an example for us as a warning that just because The true gospel was preached at a church sometime in the past Doesn't mean that the enemy won't rise up some with a false gospel that try to stir up trouble.

So, what do we do? How do we guard against this? We guard against this by continually Going to Christ by continually going to the word by preaching the true gospel to ourselves over and over and over reminding ourselves even as believers of the true gospel.

That we may know it. We may sing about it. That we may teach about it. That we may preach about it. That we may talk about the gospel. That We may spread the true gospel. Here in the Galatian Church a false gospel was being proclaimed a false gospel that sought to add to the gospel and require Christians to be circumcised to be a true believer.

A group of the Galatian believers had become convinced of this false doctrine. There was a division in the church and Paul sternly corrects the Galatian Church if you read the whole letter He calls them foolish.

He's more stern and critical here than almost that you can make an argument than any other letter that he writes he takes this error as An assault upon the gospel and therefore an assault on the finished work of Christ.

This was done against a holy God. Ephesians 2 8 for by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not of your own doing is a gift of God. We are saved through the blood of Christ alone. Not our works.

And Paul reminds the Galatians believers of this and he rebukes them heavily. However, he does not believe That they cannot repent and return to the truth. And so he provides Multitude of reasons that leads us to chapter 5.

And chapter 5 begins with for freedom Christ has set us free. The first question that we need to answer from our text Is what does Paul mean here? What is he talking about? What has Christ? Freed us from.

We find the answer in the latter part of verse 1. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of Slavery. Christ has freed us from a yoke of slavery. You may ask two questions.

Okay. What is a yoke and What slavery?

Well a yoke.

If you had a team of oxen or bulls a Yoke was attached to the necks of both of these oxen and bulls and allowed them to carry the load. If they were whatever it was that they were pulling whatever it was carrying it attached to their necks.

The weight was upon them and they were able to Carry the load. That's a very brief description of it. If you're confused google it after service, but it carried the weight. It allowed them to each support the weight that they were trying to move and pull forward.

It is used here in other places to signify a burden. And we so we could read this do not submit to a burden of slavery. Okay, that's a yoke. What slavery are we freed from? What burden of slavery has Christ freed us from?

We need to answer this before we focus on the rest of our text and there's a couple of ways. This is used. There's a couple of ways that if you ask somebody Okay, what burden has Christ freed you from?

Somebody say well, he's freed us from sin. Christians we are indeed free from being a slave to sin. No doubt about it. Our text will speak to this if you go back to a chapter 4 verse 7 You are no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an heir through God verse 9 Says you are a slave to the weak and worthless principles of the world.

We Go, you know, even in other places we see where we are in our natural state Slaves to sin. So once again, we are no longer in slavery to sin. We have freedom. Some may say well, this is saying a freedom from the punishment of sin.

We are Praise God. Absolutely. We are free from the punishment of sin. Christ took upon the wrath of God that we deserved. He took our punishment. And while I completely agree that as Christians we are freed from being a slave to sin and the punishment of sin I think we can be more specific and accurate to our text by looking at verses 2 through 6.

Look at those with me. Look, I Paul Say to you that if you accept circumcision Christ will be of no advantage to you. I Testify again to everyone 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 for the through the Spirit by faith. We ourselves eagerly eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love. Some may read that and say. Well, he's talking about freedom from the law. We're freed from the law.

Depends on what you mean. Are we free from the likes of the ceremonial law and the keeping of the judicial law? Sure. Are we is it reliant upon us to keep the law and our righteousness? No. Many may hear that and say They hear freedom from the law and they think well, it's freedom to do whatever we want.

We're freedom from that. We're free from the law. We can live how we want. No. But rather freedom from the curse of the law. So from the covenant theology class on Wednesday nights the pastor crop quattro has been Teaching and we read about it some this morning.

Most of you understand that the law Promises blessing in life. For those who keep it in a curse. For those who break it and I think we all know the problem with that. The problem with that and I'm referring here to the moral law which is summed up in the Ten Commandments.

The problem with that is we can't keep it. Not only do we fail to keep it. We fail completely and Miserably to keep it and by agreeing with the circumcision crowd. They were again submitting themselves to the law.

To be at mercy to the law and to submit yourself to the law verse 3 is Obligating yourself to keep the entirety of it to keep the whole law. We cannot break it into different pieces. We must keep it all to be justified by and keep it perfectly to require circumcision for salvation and to be justified.

They were enslaving themselves To keeping the whole law for justification. Nowhere, do you find in Scripture where your obedience? causes your salvation rather your failure of Obedience proves your need for salvation.

Salvation is a gift that is only through the shed blood of Christ. By the regeneration of the Holy Spirit sinners are enabled to put their faith in Christ. Salvation is by faith alone to add man-made stipulations.

To faith is legalism. Legalism what is legalism? Legalism is an attempt to add anything to the finished work of Christ the Judaizers. That's what they were doing. They were legalists. They were guilty of this.

This type of thinking has not died. You could rightly look at Rome and say well, this is this is not died within Roman Catholicism and you would be right. But closer to home is to look at modern Evangelicalism their view of circumcision.

Wasn't in addition listen to this. Their view of circumcision wasn't in addition to faith in Christ. There is nothing to add to Christ's work on the cross rather. It was actually an alternative to faith in Christ.

We may not see circumcision this this way in our day and age. It isn't a big deal. The meaning has changed pretty much everybody is Circumcised but circumcision itself don't miss the point. Circumcision itself wasn't the problem.

Being justified by circumcision was the problem. In our day, it could be our own morality in our day. It could be our self-made rules and Requirements. I don't want to say telling Christians that they must go to church is not legalism.

Telling Christians that they must partake in the Lord's Supper or baptism to truly be saved. That's legalism. Believing your morality grants you saving faith in Christ. Believing your works in the church provides some kind of salvific favor towards you.

Believing you're walking of an aisle or you're forming of a prayer is what saves you. That's legalism. Many of these things are good things that Christians should do. Christians should go to church. Christians should be moral.

Christians should be baptized. Christians should take partake of the Lord's Supper. Christians should work in the church. Christians should pray. Christians should read their Bible, but you are not made righteous by these things.

Romans 10 3 through 4 for being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own. They did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes we ignorantly Seek to establish our own righteousness based upon what we do.

There are some churches we're having baptism today. There are some churches that wrongly view baptism as a type of salvific action. That you are not saved unless you're baptized again all Christians should be baptized, but that's not what saves you.

A view that you are justified by the blood of Christ. Plus something is Legalism if faith is based on any work of us. We are enslaved by our works. Then the entirety relies on us being good enough. For our actions must then be perfect.

According to the law of the God and Paul he's warning the Galatians of this. That they had been freed From the bondage of the curse of the law and if they were trying to be made right with God by their actions Then Christ was no of no advantage to them.

You can't have it both ways. You can't be justified by your works and faith in Christ. You're either justified or rather condemned. By your works are justified by the work of Christ. One commentator sums up verses 1 through 12 as freedom versus legalism.

Now look, let me quickly explain. I'm gonna add to already said telling a Christian they should go to church that's not legalism. Those who love God's law and seek to carefully walk in accordance with it are not legalists.

Those who strive to obey the Word of God and strive to avoid battle and kill sin are not legalists. Those who practice the regulative principle of worship are not legalists. These are things that the Bible teaches the Christians to do.

I don't care what nominal Christianity said. Legalism is what the Galatian Church had fell into and it was an attack on the gospel. If you turn back to Galatians 2 16 yet We know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not works of the law. Because by works of the law, no one will be justified. Verse 21 I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law then Christ died for no purpose.

We often we don't view legalism in this way. We view licentiousness as an attack of the gospel in the new heart given but too often we see legalism as relatively harmless and There's also another form of legalism.

I want to briefly mention that is also dangerous. That should be guarded against and that is to call things sin. That the Bible doesn't call sin. To force your conscience on others on issues that the Bible doesn't state as sin.

The Pharisees they were guilty of this and the teaching of human traditions as if they were the Word of God using our own preferences and our own thoughts on issues to bind the consciences of Brothers and sisters is more dangerous than we realize.

We are trying to put ourself in the place of God when we do this and one example that we use. Often because I think it adequately portrays the point. To say that a believer in obedience to be in obedience to God you must completely sustain abstain from alcohol.

It's legalism. For me as a teatote like I don't drink my family doesn't drink for me to force that upon you as a requirement of your faith. That's legalism. I Can say however for you to get drunk is a sin.

That's the difference. That's not legalism. That's the Bible to call sin. Sin is not legalism to call Homosexuality sin is not legalism to call Transgenderism. Sin is not legalism to call drunkenness.

Sin is not legalism to call abortion murder and therefore sin is not legalism. To call these things sin is not legalism because it's just speaking the truth of what the Bible calls sin. And if we see a brother or sister in sin It's not legalism to go help them.

If we if they're headed down a path that leads to sin and destruction. It's not legalism to lovingly warn them. But to add requirements to the faith and to call sin things. The Bible doesn't call sin that's legalism and legalism in all forms is serious.

They hey that crowd may be legalistic, but at least they're moral. They don't drink. They don't cuss. They don't party. Legalism is serious and the legalism mentioned here is especially serious the adding to the faith adding a Requirement to faith in Christ other than the shed blood of Christ.

It's pure heresy. Look at the seriousness of this error. Look at verse 10 of chapter 5. I Have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view and that the one who is Troubling you will bear the penalty.

Whoever he is. Look at verse 12. I Wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves. I'll not chase that one too much. But you get the point. It was serious. This dangerous error produces dangerous fruit in verse 8.

Look. This error is not from God. It is not from him who calls you if it's not from God. Then who is it from? There's no neutrality on this issue. Either faith is through grace alone by the shed blood of Christ or it's not.

There's no neutrality and legalism produces three things self-righteousness. Legalists think that they have achieved something by their power quick to point to their perceived morality as their Justification.

I don't drink. I Don't party. I Go to church. I Don't do this or I do this. I don't do that. They're justified there by their actions. Maybe even they're forming of a prayer. I Formed a prayer. That's what saved me.

They're not driven by the glory of God. This might be you. True faith is not based on your righteousness and ability to keep the law. But based on the finished work of Christ. He kept the law perfectly on our behalf where we failed he succeeded and Self-righteousness is sinking sand.

Self-righteousness sinking sand. There is no righteousness there to stand upon. You have none. You have no righteousness in of of yourself. That's not me being mean that's Romans 3. That's the Bible.

You have no righteousness in your of in and of yourself. There is none righteous none seek God none do good. You're included in that none. I'm included in that none Christians stand upon not our own Righteousness or ability to keep the law, but we stand upon the righteousness of Christ.

In.

Self-righteousness of a legalist produces false assurance. Faithlessness is a lack of Trust in the sanctifying hand of God. Maybe doing some things right, but with the wrong motivations. The legalist Separates the words of the law from the spirit of the law.

The Pharisees they were guilty of this. They loved the law But not the God who created it. Whose character the law reveals and in their heart they did not desire to please God. The legalist Desires to please themself or to please man or to please their preacher to please grandma or to please somebody other than God.

We see this on multiple occasions throughout Scripture with the Pharisees and others. Legalists believe God's approval is in their right actions. If you are trusting in Something other than Christ for your salvation, then you have no assurance of salvation.

You have more assurance that you will spend eternity in hell than you do in truly being saved. Those who trust in Christ They have true assurance. They are resting in his work. They have been made alive in Christ.

Their religion is rich. Compared to the religion of the legalist. Legalism produces self-righteousness false assurance and cold man-made religion. It lacks many of the fruit of the Spirit. We're going to talk about later tonight.

It lacks true love joy peace and so on. They have replaced these things With their own morality with the rules of man. The Word of God is no longer sufficient. Man-made laws and rules are added to God's law and treated as equal to it.

Their religion and perception of Christianity is simply Don't do this and do that and I'm okay. The fruit of the Spirit are traded for this. RC Sproul once wrote the legalist isolates the law of God from the God who gave the law.

He is not so much seeking to obey God or honor Christ as he is to obey rules that are devoid of any personal relationship. There's no loving fellowship with God in this kind of life that is based upon your morality.

True Christianity though is fellowship with the Living God. Made possible by the work the finished work of Christ. And within this cold man-made religion The offense of the cross is taken away. The offense of the cross is removed.

Look at verse 11, but if I brothers still preach circumcision Why am I still being persecuted. In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. Listen. Legalism removes the offense of the cross.

This world is okay with a works-based salvation. That's virtually every religion out there that they don't have a problem with is works-based. They hate a Sovereign God in a gospel that tells them that their works are not good enough.

Your righteousness is not good enough. The world hates this. It's offensive. To tell the world that no work of them can make them righteous. They find that very offensive. Go go tell somebody. You'll see my point.

Legalism doesn't offend because it's powerless. It's powerless in church. We can be free from legalism. But being free from legalism does not Give us an opportunity to flaunt our Christian Liberty. He says you were in verse 13 for you were called to freedom.

Brothers only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. But through love serve one another. Being free from legalism is Not to ignore the conscience of a brother or sister. You're not bound by the conscience nor are they yours?

And we must show each other grace in these areas. But after speaking about legalism Paul takes a brief moment to address another error to avoid. So verses 1 through 12 freedom versus legalism versus 13 through 15 freedom versus license.

Both legalism. Adding which is adding of law or works to faith for salvation and licentiousness. The other ditch to avoid. Are not only unbiblical, but they're anti gospel. We see the warning in verse 13 against licentiousness, which means sin of willful disobedience disregard for moral rules and lack of moral restraint.

Many define it simply as Viewing grace as a license to sin. We took a look at the products of legalism. Let's quickly do the same with licentiousness. Licentiousness produces a belief in a license to sin.

Some look upon God's grace and kindness as an excuse for sin saying in effect His kindness does away with the law. We're free to do as we please Jude 1 through 4 for certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation.

Ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 6 1 what should we say then are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.

Hey in the same chapter He goes down and says verse 11. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to obey its passions.

Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will have no dominion over you since you're under the law not under the law, but under grace. Licentiousness it produces a belief in a license to sin. It produces easy believism of No mind to holiness.

This is rampant in churches and it was then and still is today. They take the doctrine of eternal security and they run with it to Wicked and Evil and unbiblical ends. And if it's this is you he's warning against this in Romans.

He warns against the same things. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness evil covetous malice and they were full of envy murder strife deceit maliciousness gossip slanderers haters of God insolent haughty boastful inventors of evil disobedient to parents.

Foolish faithless heartless ruthless though. They know God's righteousness decree. That those who practice such things deserve to die. They not only do them but give approval to those who practice them in chapter 2 therefore you have no excuse.

Oh Man, every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself because you the judge practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

Do not suppose. Oh man you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them their self. Yourself that you will escape the judgment of God. Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

But because of your hard and impotent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on The day on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Those who view Grace as a license to sin.

These are sobering words. These are sobering words and this is a rejection of God's Word and his law. That leads to and produces compromise. That's why we see this in churches. They've compromised. This is where love is love comes from.

Hey, love is love. It's not my business churches bending over backwards and accepting all kinds of debauchery and sin and wickedness. Where churches are pro-life. Until somebody challenges on them. Well, you know.

Except for rape then it's okay to murder. That's what this produces. When we don't take the holiness Of being of God serious when we don't take scripture such be you holy. For I am holy. We ought to be holy.

We ought to strive for holiness. Explaining away sin churches and even men and women who once took a hard Stance against sin have compromised. Let this be a warning here. We cannot compromise on sin. We battle legalism and we battle licentiousness.

Licentiousness also removes the offense of the gospel. Look at verse 11. Again what does he say? He says I preach the circumcision if I still preach circumcision. Why am I being persecuted. And that the case of the offense of the cross had been removed if he was a legalist and? preaching the law.

Nobody would be offended. The same is true if we preach a gospel. That is viewed as great that views grace as a license to sin. It removes the offense of the gospel. The world is okay with salvation by your works.

The world is also okay With a salvation that doesn't change you. Pray a prayer go live your life. No problem. The world hates the gospel. The world hates the gospel that calls for repentance and for holiness.

They want total freedom to live and do how they please Christian. If you have fallen into this you have been sinfully Deceived and you have simply abused the freedom that we have in Christ. So we have two ditches.

We have one that You know views freedom. They've went back into bondage through their legalism and one that views freedom as a license to sin. But I want to close with a proper use of freedom. The fears of licentiousness are real.

From the beginning people have taken the grace of the gospel and used it to sin and Justify sin and they do this to their own destruction. The answer to solve this though is not to demand T totalism forever from everyone.

But rather to understand freedom in Christ rightly. We are never to indulge our flesh in the sake or in the name of freedom. But we don't put commands in the Bible that aren't there. We are not the binder of our brother and sister's conscience rather We point them to Christ.

We point them to his word. We run to Christ and his word and through Christ true freedom is found. It is found in slavery to God in Christ. You say what? Freedom. How can freedom be found in slavery. Those who indulge in sin are not free.

They are in slavery to a cruel taskmaster one that desires to steal kill and destroy. Those who build up their own laws and regulations they are not free. For they are bound to their imperfect rules. But those who are slaves to Christ They are free.

They are free to not have to rely on their failure to keep the failure to keep the law for justification. By the working of the Holy Spirit. They are free to resist temptation and sin. Verse 14 they are free to love their neighbor as themselves.

They are free to serve one another. They are free to bear one another's burdens. They are free to battle sin together and as we walk as we talk more as we'll talk more tonight. They are free to produce the fruit of the Spirit.

They're free to walk by the Spirit. Leviticus 19 you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people. But you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord without Christ.

That's impossible. Because we're enslaved to sin through Christ. You won't be perfect in this life, but by the freeing work of Christ you can obey God. You can be sanctified you will be sanctified. One author writes grace frees us from bondage to sin so that we will enjoy the fruit of sanctification and finally glorification.

Saw this quote last week from Pastor Randall Easter. Whatever ways Christian Liberty may be defined in these days. It can never negate The clarity of God's Word for Christians to be set apart from the world.

Christians are to be holy set apart unique different and making no provision for this flesh. The Christian speech dress and desires are to distinguish him from the word. The question is not what can I get away with but rather how can I bring the most glory to God?

Be of greatest service to his church, and how can I best demonstrate the gospel to the world? It is as if Christians is. If is as if all the Christian has to do is to find out what the world approves of promotes and enjoys.

And do the opposite. The abiding Christian position is eternal satisfaction in Christ. Both legalism and Licentiousness are threats to the Liberty we have in Christ. For one is a slave to the curse of the law and the other is a slave to sin.

But in Christ we can have freedom from both. I'm not saying that Christians. We still don't see in and experience the effects of the curse. Towards mankind due to sin, but rather we are not a slave to keeping the law for justification and in Christ we are free from the punishment of sin and In Christ we are able to resist sin.

We won't always but at times by the working of the Spirit. We are able to resist. Before we were in Christ We were not able to resist sin. Because it was our nature no longer. And when we find ourselves if you find yourself in either ditch.

The opposite ditch is not the answer. The legalist does not need to sin more and the licentious person does not need to be more legalistic. These things are not the answer. The truth is that we're all prone to both ditches.

We seek some sense of security in our own morality. That our following of rules somehow makes us righteous before God. Or we seek to justify our fulfillment of the desires of the flesh by claiming grace.

That our rebellious attitude in life are covered by grace. We wrongly put this under the guise of Christian Liberty. There may be both present in your life there may be one the other or both. How can we avoid both ditches?

How can we stay out of these ditches? By going to the word. By knowing the word by knowing the gospel by knowing why we are we obey and we are to obey God. That destroys licentiousness. We are to obey God and we strive for holiness.

Hearts truly changed by the Spirit will be sanctified. But the why matters and the why is what destroys legalism. We obey because he is worthy of our obedience. We obey because our hearts have been changed to love God.

That is why we obey. These are so dangerous. And Paul. He's warning against both. But with this warning He provides the remedy. What's the path? We see the two ditches. What's the path? Paul writes we are free from the curse of the law not free to live and do as we please.

Not free to sin, but what does he say in verse 16? We're free to walk by the Spirit. He says but I say walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. That but is linking those first 15 were verses.

Believers are free to walk by the Spirit. This is meaning to walk by the will of the Holy Spirit of God. Under the guidance and leadership of the Holy Spirit made able to yield control of our lives to the Holy Spirit.

This is the answer. This is the evidence that you're in Christ that you walk by the Spirit this. This is the fruit that the fruit of the Spirit are evident in your life. This is the answer. This morning we have a baptism.

Where two people that we believe to be have been born again are following Christ and being baptized. This baptism is Publicly displaying that a work of Christ has been done in the heart and soul of Virginia and Caleb.

That they are walking by faith and walking by the Spirit. That they are not trusting in their own righteousness. But rather the finished work of Christ His perfect life death and resurrection. They are not viewing grace as a license to sin But as a gift of God to be free from its punishment as a gift given a New heart to be free to choose to not sin and to follow Christ not be perfect But to follow Christ.

Unbeliever if you're here, and you're an unbeliever you've never Repented of your sins and trusted in Christ. You don't have a new heart and you are not free from the punishment of your sin. Your works of righteousness have failed and you will be judged by God for that failure.

You'll be cast into hell for all of eternity Unless you repent and put your faith in Christ. Flee from the wrath to come run to Christ. May we this morning in this baptism and every day Celebrate this gospel That Paul preached so fervently and may we remember the life death and resurrection of Christ this morning as we watch this beautiful ordinance of baptism and may we be thankful for the gift of regeneration a dead man a dead woman a dead young man made alive in Christ a heart of stone made into a heart of flesh.

Praise be to God let us pray father. We're thankful this morning for your word. We're thankful for Christ. We're thankful that our Righteousness is not what you view father is being worthy for we are not righteous Father all of our good deeds.

You could put them all together father, and they would only condemn us all the more. We're thankful for Christ. We are thankful for the free gift of faith. That you have given Lord to your people and that we are not resting in our Ability to keep the law, but we are trusting and resting in Christ as he perfectly kept the law.

Father and may we not view this grace as a freedom to sin. May we view this grace Lord as a reason to live for you as A reason to strive for holiness as a reason. Lord To take the things of your word seriously.