WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.759 Before we go to God's Word, I did also want to mention that Erika Vedek has been elected 00:00:06.759 --> 00:00:13.480 ! to be our clerk for the upcoming season as well. So thank you, Erika, for your serving in that role. 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:23.879 Tim Keller wrote in his book Center Church, 00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:32.119 One of Martin Luther's fundamental insights is that religion is the default mode of the human 00:00:32.119 --> 00:00:40.439 heart. Even irreligious people earn their acceptability and sense of worth by living up 00:00:40.439 --> 00:00:52.079 to their set of values. By religion, he means those who seek to obey God or to do good in order 00:00:52.079 --> 00:01:01.320 to be right with God. And by irreligious, he means those who reject God or the place of God in their 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:11.000 lives and seek to live apart from Him. What he says is that the heart of all human beings 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:21.379 have this inerring bent towards finding the works or the rules that we must do in order to be right 00:01:21.379 --> 00:01:30.899 and acceptable in the world. This is not only true for people far from church, but it's true, 00:01:30.899 --> 00:01:38.179 according to Keller, for people in church. So he goes on to say, the effects of, quote, 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:45.259 works religion persist so stubbornly in the heart of Christians who believe the gospel at one level 00:01:45.260 --> 00:01:56.740 that they will continually revert to religion, operating at deeper levels as if they were saved by their works. 00:02:01.420 --> 00:02:03.719 What do we think about this thesis? 00:02:06.939 --> 00:02:08.840 How do we respond to it? 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:15.700 Well, this is what the Apostle Paul wants to talk to us about this morning. 00:02:15.960 --> 00:02:21.340 We are in our series in the book of Galatians. We're going to be looking at Galatians 3. You can 00:02:21.340 --> 00:02:29.199 turn there page 914 in the few Bibles if you want. Paul is addressing this very question. If you 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:34.840 haven't been here just to catch you up, Paul has written this letter out of a great pastoral concern 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:39.640 that the church in Galatians 3. He's been reading this letter out of the Bible. He's been reading this 00:02:39.640 --> 00:02:47.480 gospel that he preached to them, the one and true gospel of justification that is being made right with 00:02:47.480 --> 00:02:57.879 God by faith in Christ alone, apart from any works that we might do. And he's argued that through…for a 00:02:57.879 --> 00:03:03.159 number…from a number of different angles over the first two chapters. And then in chapter 3, 00:03:03.159 --> 00:03:11.159 he begins a new section by returning to his tone of pastoral warning and concern for the church. 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:18.859 So with that introduction, let's read chapter 3, verses 1 through 5, and ask for God's help 00:03:18.859 --> 00:03:22.139 as we look at God's Word together this morning. 00:03:22.139 --> 00:03:31.439 O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:39.500 portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law 00:03:39.500 --> 00:03:48.659 or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected 00:03:48.659 --> 00:03:59.379 by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the 00:03:59.379 --> 00:04:08.180 Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 00:04:08.180 --> 00:04:16.740 Let's pray and ask for God's help to understand his Word. Lord, we come to you this morning and we 00:04:16.740 --> 00:04:27.379 acknowledge, Lord, our need for you. Lord, we know that our hearts deceive us. We know, Lord, that we 00:04:27.379 --> 00:04:38.860 will often turn from you to other things. And so, Lord, we need you and your Word continually in our 00:04:38.860 --> 00:04:47.699 lives to instruct us, to lead us, to move our hearts to love the things that you love and hate the things 00:04:47.699 --> 00:04:57.259 that you hate, to move our hands to do the things that are good and right. Lord, to move our minds so 00:04:57.259 --> 00:05:05.300 we might think rightly about you. Lord, I pray for your help this morning. In my weakness, Lord, will you 00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:13.360 help me to proclaim your Word truthfully and faithfully. And Lord, may we together, by the power of your Spirit, 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:21.759 receive your Word and let it do its work in our hearts. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:31.699 Amen. Amen. How do we address this default mode of religion or works-based acceptance with God in our 00:05:31.699 --> 00:05:38.039 hearts? We're going to look at this passage. We're going to walk through it with three steps. So, 00:05:38.300 --> 00:05:44.000 here's your outline if you're an outline person. First, we're going to look at the two ways to live 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:51.019 that Paul presents for us. The second thing we're going to explore is the pull or the draw to works-based 00:05:51.019 --> 00:05:58.240 living. And then the third point is the glory of our gospel alternative. So, that's what we're going to 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:04.799 do this morning. So, we're going to start by recognizing that when Paul is arguing in this 00:06:04.799 --> 00:06:13.019 passage, he's presenting two ways to live, right? You see in even these short verses, these contrasts, 00:06:13.019 --> 00:06:19.359 right? Verse 2, there's, did you receive Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:32.740 Did you receive by the Spirit or was it by the flesh that you began? In verse 3, verse 5 returns to this 00:06:32.740 --> 00:06:40.420 again. By the works of the law, did God do miracles among you or was it by hearing with faith? So, we see 00:06:40.420 --> 00:06:48.060 these two contrasting paths that he lays out. And this one path is characterized by the phrase, 00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:52.100 the works of works of the law. And we've seen this before, we've talked about it, but just to remind 00:06:52.100 --> 00:07:01.519 you, works of the law refers to the way that we are justified, as we've seen in the first two chapters, 00:07:01.620 --> 00:07:08.939 the way we're justified being made right with God. And the primary and first application of this is 00:07:08.939 --> 00:07:15.300 the question of the Mosaic law, because many of the early Christians were Jewish in background. 00:07:15.300 --> 00:07:21.420 And so, they had held and grown up with the Mosaic law, and they were trying to figure out where does 00:07:21.420 --> 00:07:30.360 the Mosaic law fit into this? And there were some, as we read earlier in Acts 11, there were some who 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:37.800 wanted to continue to say the works of the law, doing the law was necessary. We need to be circumcised. 00:07:37.900 --> 00:07:43.220 We need to keep the Sabbath. We need to keep the dietary laws. In fact, we have to keep the whole law of 00:07:43.220 --> 00:07:53.200 Moses in order to be a good member of the people of God, a good Christian. And so, this was the primary 00:07:53.200 --> 00:08:00.940 application in the first century to this concept of the works of the law. But as you've heard from Tim 00:08:00.940 --> 00:08:06.460 Keller, and as you've heard from us over, we've expanded this. And some of you have asked, well, 00:08:06.660 --> 00:08:12.200 isn't that, is that right? Can't, shouldn't we just limit this to being about the law? And most of us 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:16.920 are not tempted to keep the Jewish dietary laws today, I don't think. Maybe there are a few of you. 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:21.240 You can come talk to me afterwards if you want to talk about that. But most of us, this is not true. 00:08:21.639 --> 00:08:28.319 The reason why we've expanded our understanding of it is because I think the Bible does it as well. 00:08:28.980 --> 00:08:33.279 The clearest example of this would be Romans 3, and I can't preach through the whole book now, 00:08:33.700 --> 00:08:40.100 but in, or Romans 1 through 3. Because in the beginning of Romans, what Paul argues is that 00:08:40.100 --> 00:08:47.220 those who have the law of God, that is, Jews, can't be righteous before God because they can't keep the 00:08:47.220 --> 00:08:52.519 law because of their sin. And the Gentiles who don't have the law of God and don't know, 00:08:53.040 --> 00:08:58.820 you know what they can't do? They can't be righteous before God either. They can't even keep their own 00:08:58.820 --> 00:09:04.360 law, let alone the law that they're not familiar of. And so, his conclusion in chapter 3 is, 00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:11.259 there is no one righteous. No one can stand before a holy God and say, I have righteousness 00:09:11.259 --> 00:09:13.779 that gives me standing before you. 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:26.759 And so, given this understanding of Paul's use of works, then when we read something like in 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:31.720 Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, right, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith, 00:09:31.720 --> 00:09:40.879 not of works so that no one may boast. It is the gift of God. We think that the idea of this works 00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:49.139 of the law can be expanded to be all the human ways in which we want to make ourselves right with God 00:09:49.139 --> 00:09:59.600 by the things that we do. Okay? So, this is what we mean when we talk about the works of the law, 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:04.040 and I believe it's what Paul is referring to. Now, in verse 3, he uses a different word, right? 00:10:04.340 --> 00:10:10.259 He uses flesh rather than the works of the law. Well, flesh is used throughout, particularly the 00:10:10.259 --> 00:10:18.680 rest of the book of Galatians, to refer to our human sinful impulses, right? Some people think it's 00:10:18.680 --> 00:10:23.860 referring very narrowly to the act of circumcision. I don't think that's the right read, particularly 00:10:23.860 --> 00:10:36.399 when you look on and you look at chapter 5, the works of the flesh are envy and fighting and gossip 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:42.860 and unrighteousness and sexual immorality and all sorts of things, right? It's basically a word that 00:10:42.860 --> 00:10:50.680 Paul uses to summarize the human impulse to live outside of God's intended ways for us, 00:10:50.679 --> 00:10:58.919 to pursue life that's destructive because it's contrary to His commands. 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:05.859 And ultimately, at the root of sin, we see that it's a self-dependent, self-referential, 00:11:06.099 --> 00:11:15.979 and self-pleasing impulse. So, Paul says, this is one way, the works of the law are the works of faith, 00:11:17.139 --> 00:11:20.439 or there's an alternative, right? But, 00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:47.399 it says this, let me ask you this, did you receive the Spirit? I'm sorry, it says this, 00:11:47.399 --> 00:11:52.799 let me ask you this, did you receive the Spirit? I'm sorry, that's verse 2. Verse 3 says, 00:11:53.639 --> 00:11:59.459 are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:05.759 Now, Paul's going to have a lot more to say about the Holy Spirit as we keep going in Galatians, 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:11.159 so I'm going to put a pin in all that that means. But here, specifically, he's referring to the passage 00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:19.679 that was read earlier, that the sign of a new believer in the first century was that they had 00:12:19.679 --> 00:12:24.860 received the Holy Spirit. And the Jews thought God was giving them the Holy Spirit, poured out on them 00:12:24.860 --> 00:12:31.299 on Pentecost as the new people of God, and thought, well, yeah, this is for the Jews. And then, 00:12:31.299 --> 00:12:37.679 the question is, well, can the Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit too? And Peter testified powerfully, 00:12:37.819 --> 00:12:45.579 yes, of course. Those who believe the message of Jesus received the Spirit of God in the moment of 00:12:45.579 --> 00:12:52.879 their salvation as they believed in Christ. This is what we saw. And so, hearing by faith comes with 00:12:52.879 --> 00:13:00.679 the gift of the Spirit, and so Paul pulls these ideas together and says, this is the new way. This is 00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:08.399 the alternative to the ways of the works of the law. And in this passage in verse 3, I want to draw out 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:18.580 this is where the key of this whole argument is. He says, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 00:13:18.580 --> 00:13:25.000 This perfection is talking about not the entrance into the being the people of God, but how do we 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:31.700 continue? How do we get to the end for which God created us? He saved us so that we would be His people. 00:13:31.940 --> 00:13:40.480 How do we pursue that? How do we do that? Paul says, having begun by faith, do we continue by our works? 00:13:42.060 --> 00:13:47.160 And you may have noticed this, but this whole section is a series of rhetorical questions. And the 00:13:47.159 --> 00:13:51.939 rhetorical questions mean that there's a very obvious answer. And the obvious answer for Paul is no. 00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:58.379 Of course, if you begun by faith, why would you continue on some other path? 00:14:02.100 --> 00:14:10.179 But before we get to the goodness of that path, I want to spend some time exploring the first way. 00:14:10.179 --> 00:14:22.879 Why is it that we are so prone to want to live a works-based religion kind of life? Why are we prone 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:30.739 to legalism? We see it so often. We've seen it in Galatians. Peter says, well, you know, I think I 00:14:30.739 --> 00:14:36.179 got to eat with the Jews and separate from the Gentiles. And I'm doing this maybe out of good motives, 00:14:36.179 --> 00:14:43.479 maybe out of selfish motives. But however he did it, he gave in to this, to importing a legalistic 00:14:43.479 --> 00:14:55.099 requirement into the people of God again. The motivation here may be a misguided attempt to 00:14:55.099 --> 00:15:03.639 honor God, but it denies the fact that when Jesus came, He continually challenged those who sought to 00:15:03.639 --> 00:15:10.600 justify themselves by the works of the law. In fact, He said, I am the fulfillment of the law. 00:15:10.860 --> 00:15:16.819 I'm not here to extend it, but I'm here to complete it in all sorts of ways that I can't get into this 00:15:16.819 --> 00:15:22.199 morning because that's a whole other sermon on how Jesus is the fulfillment of the law. But Jesus said, 00:15:22.200 --> 00:15:31.680 the law was given to point to me, and what happens now flows from me and what I have done for you. 00:15:33.520 --> 00:15:37.740 And again, there's a whole theology of the use of the law in the life of a Christian. It's another 00:15:37.740 --> 00:15:43.620 sermon, not this one. So just if you're worried about that, yes, there are places where the law 00:15:43.620 --> 00:15:49.440 teaches us about God's righteousness and teaches us about His character in all sorts of ways. 00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:56.720 But we need to be careful to filter it through Jesus and through the New Testament. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:10.380 We have this inerring bent, Martin Luther tells us through Tim Keller, to love this kind of works-based 00:16:10.380 --> 00:16:18.760 religion. It started in the first century, and I think it continues today. So Richard Loveless, 00:16:18.759 --> 00:16:24.620 a theologian in the 20th century, describes this. He says, many Christians today have a theoretical 00:16:24.620 --> 00:16:32.899 commitment to the doctrine of grace, but in their day-to-day existence, they rely on their 00:16:32.899 --> 00:16:40.860 sanctification for their justification. Sanctification being the how do we keep going for justification, 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:47.240 how do we get in? Drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, 00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:55.940 their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance, or the relative infrequence 00:16:55.940 --> 00:16:59.740 of their conscious, willful disobedience. 00:16:59.740 --> 00:17:21.099 sincerity, past experience, recent religious performance, relative infrequence of sin. How many of us are prone to think, 00:17:21.099 --> 00:17:26.459 that's what makes me acceptable to God? 00:17:29.799 --> 00:17:38.279 These things I can do. I can control. I can monitor. I can gauge. 00:17:38.279 --> 00:17:47.379 And we love it because it gives us a good standing before God. And we are so tempted to do this. We're so 00:17:47.379 --> 00:17:53.639 tempted to think along the lines of work-based religion. Let me try out some things. This is, 00:17:53.799 --> 00:17:59.980 I'm stealing from Keller a lot in the sermon. I'm just going to say that out front. Here's some 00:17:59.980 --> 00:18:08.180 thought process that maybe you think, right? We obey God, and therefore we're accepted by God. 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:17.539 We do good things because we have a fear or insecurity that God won't give us good things without them. 00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:27.279 When circumstances go wrong, we get angry at God or ourselves because we believe that anyone who's 00:18:27.279 --> 00:18:31.180 lived a pretty good life deserves a comfortable life. 00:18:33.940 --> 00:18:42.740 When we are criticized, we get angry or we are devastated because it's so important for us to 00:18:42.740 --> 00:18:47.980 think about ourselves as a good person so that God can accept us. 00:18:50.519 --> 00:18:55.819 If and when we live up to our standards or what we think are God's standards, we feel confident. 00:18:57.279 --> 00:19:03.639 But then are prone to be proud and unsympathetic to those who fail. 00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:13.119 And if and when we are not living up to our standards or God's, we feel insecure and inadequate, 00:19:14.119 --> 00:19:17.579 and we feel like a failure before God and others. 00:19:17.579 --> 00:19:28.000 Let me delve into a semi-hypothetical example. And I say semi because I'm not thinking of a particular 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:35.000 example, but this is reality in my own home, in my own life. My wife mentions to me that there's 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:40.359 something that I have not done that I said I would do. This happens. This is true. 00:19:40.359 --> 00:19:51.799 If I have made good works the basis of my life and my relationships, then this loving correction 00:19:51.799 --> 00:20:02.399 provokes works-based thinking in me. I often respond defensively, maybe angrily, 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:13.519 maybe lashing out. I certainly summon my inner lawyer and think of all the good things that I do do, 00:20:13.860 --> 00:20:23.140 and I justify myself, and I excuse my failure. I might unleash my inner lawyer as the district attorney 00:20:23.140 --> 00:20:30.040 to accuse her instead, to make myself look better by saying, well, there are all the things you aren't doing. 00:20:32.200 --> 00:20:38.740 I might alternatively take her words as a global condemnation of my good husband worth, 00:20:40.200 --> 00:20:48.060 and internalizing that, I might blame myself, withdraw from her, and tend towards depression. 00:20:48.059 --> 00:21:01.379 This is what good works thinking does in my life and in my relationship. I wonder if that's true for you. 00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:12.119 In your work as a student, how do you navigate success and failure? In your career path, 00:21:12.119 --> 00:21:20.119 what happens when you are overlooked or when you are praised? In your friendships and your family 00:21:20.119 --> 00:21:29.379 relationships, what happens when you fail and what happens when you succeed? In your serving in the world 00:21:29.379 --> 00:21:41.500 and doing good things for the sake of others, how do you navigate this justifying heart tendency? 00:21:42.119 --> 00:21:52.299 We all have this pull, I believe. And at the root of it, there may be a number of different things, 00:21:52.759 --> 00:21:59.619 but one of the things I think it is, is that we love legalism, we love work-based religion, 00:21:59.619 --> 00:22:06.739 because it allows us to be in control. Because if we can create a checklist and say, I've done this, 00:22:06.859 --> 00:22:11.319 I've done this, I've done this, I've done this, and then take it and present it to God and say, 00:22:11.319 --> 00:22:19.799 see, it's good enough, right? We love that because there's an end to that list. 00:22:19.799 --> 00:22:36.879 And when we succeed, then we can be proud, then we can be confident, feel like we have standing with God, 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:45.319 but then we fail, and our fears and our anger and our self-condemnation raise up. 00:22:45.319 --> 00:22:51.139 So we love this, even though there's a love-hate relationship with it. 00:22:52.460 --> 00:22:59.259 And this is the pull, I believe. This is why we love. It goes all the way back to the garden. Adam 00:22:59.259 --> 00:23:05.039 and Eve said, thanks God for the rule, but we'd like to make our own rules. We'd like to be able to say, 00:23:05.339 --> 00:23:06.799 we can do this on our own. 00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:13.799 This, my friends, is what Paul would save the Galatians from. 00:23:15.940 --> 00:23:22.960 This is why his tone, he calls them foolish twice in this. This is going back to his beginning 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:28.460 argument about them departing from the gospel. He's saying, there's a better way, there's another 00:23:28.460 --> 00:23:34.779 way. It's a way that you've already known because I've publicly told you about it. You remember what 00:23:34.779 --> 00:23:43.200 you heard? The alternative is justification by grace through faith as the basis of our ongoing 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:51.000 relationship with God. And our practice of sanctification continues in grace by faith in 00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:58.539 Jesus as well. And this is the good news. And friends, this is what the rest of the book of 00:23:58.539 --> 00:24:05.099 Galatians is going to tell us about, that when we walk by faith in Jesus Christ, when we have a new 00:24:05.099 --> 00:24:10.740 life with Him, we have a new identity being a member of Christ's family, freely welcomed. We have a new 00:24:10.740 --> 00:24:17.240 confidence because we know that God's promises have been fulfilled. We have a new freedom from our 00:24:17.240 --> 00:24:25.000 self-justifying patterns to a self-giving life of love towards others. We have a new power moving 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:31.960 from self-dependence and our own weakness to depending on God and His Spirit to do in us what we can't do 00:24:31.960 --> 00:24:38.640 so that we could actually please God and do good in the world. We have a new way of life. We live by 00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:44.779 faith. And if you were here last week, you remember Pastor Nick talked about this when he talked about 00:24:44.779 --> 00:24:51.579 verse 20 of chapter 2. I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in 00:24:51.579 --> 00:24:57.960 me and the life I now live in the flesh, this is a different use of flesh. This just means in my human 00:24:57.960 --> 00:25:05.379 body, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave 00:25:05.379 --> 00:25:17.119 Himself for me. We know we've died to our… when we know that we've died to our desire to control and to 00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:23.579 rely on our works, when we've repented of all those things and turned to Jesus knowing we have nothing 00:25:23.579 --> 00:25:33.679 to bring, then there is a whole new life that we find as we live by faith. Instead of obeying God in 00:25:33.679 --> 00:25:39.739 order to be accepted, we obey God because we've been accepted and because we love Him and want to please 00:25:39.740 --> 00:25:48.880 Him. Instead of doing good out of fear and insecurity, we do it from the confidence that God 00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:55.480 has given us all things, and so we are able to do good because He has done all the good to us that we 00:25:55.480 --> 00:26:03.440 will ever need for life. When the circumstances of our life go wrong, we can trust in God rather than 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:12.700 being angry or self-condemning. We can find fellowship with Christ in our sufferings because He has suffered 00:26:12.700 --> 00:26:23.779 for us. When we are criticized, rather than being angry or defensive, we can confess our sins and our 00:26:23.779 --> 00:26:32.120 failings because we've been forgiven in Christ. When we are able to live according to God's standards, 00:26:32.119 --> 00:26:39.500 we can humbly give thanks for His work of grace in us and be patient and gracious with others. 00:26:40.339 --> 00:26:47.459 And when we fail to meet those standards, we return to the grace of God that we are not accepted because 00:26:47.459 --> 00:26:57.699 we are perfect, but only because Christ is perfect for us, and we can confess our sins and be forgiven of 00:26:57.700 --> 00:27:09.000 them and be cleansed from their power, and then we can walk with Him. This is the new life that God has for 00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:17.440 us by faith. Let me go back to my example. My wife comes to me with a reminder of something that I haven't 00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:25.559 done, and I feel all those self-justifying dynamics hard, but then I remember Jesus, and I turn to Him, 00:27:25.559 --> 00:27:39.700 right? And I say, God help me. God help me to know. Instead of being angry and defensive or pulling up my 00:27:39.700 --> 00:27:49.240 inner lawyer to justify myself, I can say, thank you for reminding me of this. I don't need to be 00:27:49.240 --> 00:27:59.359 justified. I'm sorry that I haven't done this yet. It was wrong. Will you forgive me? Rather than attacking 00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:06.680 her or pulling away, I can move towards her. You're right. We need to get this done. How can we do that? 00:28:10.599 --> 00:28:17.099 I'm sorry I hadn't done it yet. And the power that I have to do that is because I'm reminded that 00:28:17.099 --> 00:28:27.379 Jesus accepts me, and this moment of failure doesn't define me. This moment of sin is not the last word, 00:28:27.599 --> 00:28:34.379 but it's Christ's righteousness that is the last word. And instead of trying to control how my wife 00:28:34.379 --> 00:28:41.099 sees me or how I think I see myself before her or before God, I can let go of my reputation 00:28:41.099 --> 00:28:51.519 because I already have it in Christ, because Christ has died for me to make me a child of God. 00:28:56.879 --> 00:29:04.279 I'm able to look at Jesus on the cross. I'm a sinner saved by grace, that only Jesus lived the perfect 00:29:04.279 --> 00:29:13.460 life, that He died to set me free from sin, but that when I sin, I can confess my sin 00:29:13.460 --> 00:29:22.359 and repent of it and find that He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us 00:29:22.359 --> 00:29:30.079 from all unrighteousness. Do you see what a life of faith… Because I haven't done anything different 00:29:30.079 --> 00:29:37.599 except remember what I've already said I believe, that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, and because 00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:45.879 of that I am justified and made right before Christ. And that's not just in the past. That helps me today 00:29:45.879 --> 00:29:54.939 to live a gospel-centered life that God wants us to know and to live, not this sliding back into 00:29:54.940 --> 00:30:02.100 works-based religion, but finding this new and better way. And friends, some of you have asked me, 00:30:02.279 --> 00:30:09.840 but aren't we supposed to do good works as Christians? Yes, here's the good news. We will do good works, 00:30:10.140 --> 00:30:17.240 but it will produce in us an obedience that comes from faith because we love God and we want to do 00:30:17.240 --> 00:30:23.860 what He calls us to do. Even when we don't humanly feel like it when we're tired or when we're grumpy 00:30:23.859 --> 00:30:30.879 and when we don't want to. The power of the gospel that Jesus has died for us will motivate us to 00:30:30.879 --> 00:30:37.079 persevere in doing good works. We will have a passionate desire to develop a deeper relationship 00:30:37.079 --> 00:30:45.240 with God. We will pour out our lives in service to others. All of this will flow because we know 00:30:45.240 --> 00:30:52.339 who we are in Christ, because of all that is done for us and the riches that we have knowing that in 00:30:52.339 --> 00:30:58.500 Christ we have a standing that is unassailable and unchanging. And this then becomes the fountain that 00:30:58.500 --> 00:31:05.939 overflows in our lives so that Christians ought to live good lives. And we should live good lives, 00:31:05.980 --> 00:31:13.000 and we will live good lives as we keep this gospel truth central in our lives. 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:23.140 This is what He says in verse 5. Do you remember? The miracle of the gospel? God worked in your life. Why? 00:31:23.420 --> 00:31:28.079 Because you did the works of the law? No, of course not. Because you heard the word by faith. 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:35.380 And let's continue to hear the word by faith and let it do its work in our hearts. 00:31:35.380 --> 00:31:41.900 And friends, let us learn the practical application of the gospel in the middle of 00:31:41.900 --> 00:31:45.560 the disappointments at work and the conflicts at home, 00:31:46.160 --> 00:31:55.460 the rejections that strike deep, the struggles that feel overwhelming. The gospel of justification 00:31:55.460 --> 00:32:06.840 by faith gives us what we need to be able to respond and walk in faith in Christ and allow that to change 00:32:06.840 --> 00:32:16.360 us. We don't have to live on the hamster wheel of works-based religion where we just have to keep 00:32:16.360 --> 00:32:23.079 performing and wonder if it's good enough. We no longer have to live on the thin ice of uncertain 00:32:23.079 --> 00:32:37.199 acceptance with God. But because of Christ, we can stand firm, whole, confident. 00:32:39.199 --> 00:32:44.960 Friends, maybe for some of you, this is the life that you have longed for but never tasted. 00:32:44.960 --> 00:32:54.279 I call you this morning. Today may be the day. Pray to God. Confess your sin and your utter inability 00:32:54.279 --> 00:33:02.279 to justify yourself. Repent of all these things that you do to try to make God accept you on your 00:33:02.279 --> 00:33:10.680 own terms and put your trust in Jesus that He has died on the cross for your sins and been raised for 00:33:10.680 --> 00:33:21.140 your justification. Maybe some of you thinking, I'm one of those people who started well, but man, 00:33:21.200 --> 00:33:27.120 I've fallen into this works-based thinking that this is what the Christian life is meant to be. 00:33:27.940 --> 00:33:36.400 Friends, this is why we come here every Sunday and why we preach Jesus Christ crucified every Sunday 00:33:36.400 --> 00:33:45.820 because we, not just you, but me, we need to be reminded every day of the gospel that we first 00:33:45.820 --> 00:33:52.780 heard. We need to be reminded of this gospel over and over again and apply it to different parts of 00:33:52.780 --> 00:34:00.759 our life every week, but we need to be constantly reminded of these things. And my prayer is that we 00:34:00.759 --> 00:34:07.299 would truly be a gospel-centered church, and that means we remind ourselves not only as we gather 00:34:07.299 --> 00:34:15.280 here on Sunday mornings, but as we go away in your devotional times, reading the Word of God, in your 00:34:15.280 --> 00:34:24.039 fellowship, in your family devotions, in your coffee dates, in your workout jams, whatever it is, 00:34:24.380 --> 00:34:30.679 as you live your life, as you serve one another, as you live in the world that God has called you to, 00:34:30.760 --> 00:34:38.540 take this gospel with you and remind yourself and preach the gospel to yourself every day. 00:34:39.800 --> 00:34:48.820 I am a sinner saved by grace. I am justified by faith in Jesus Christ. May this be the fuel and the 00:34:48.820 --> 00:34:56.280 treasure and the good news that captures your heart as you pursue a life of faith with Him. Let's pray 00:34:56.280 --> 00:35:03.060 together. Lord, thank You for this Word. Oh, Lord, how we need it. 00:35:07.620 --> 00:35:16.580 Lord, I pray that by Your Holy Spirit, You would show us, Lord, show us today where we need to apply 00:35:16.579 --> 00:35:25.239 this gospel, how we can continue, not by trying to overcome failure or trial or hardship on our own, 00:35:25.779 --> 00:35:33.739 but how we can by faith turn to You and find in You a new way to live in the midst of these things. 00:35:36.440 --> 00:35:39.559 We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:35:39.559 --> 00:35:39.699 Amen. 00:35:39.699 --> 00:35:39.699 00:35:39.699 --> 00:35:39.699 00:35:39.699 --> 00:35:39.699 00:35:39.699 --> 00:35:39.699 00:35:39.699 --> 00:35:39.699 00:35:39.699 --> 00:35:39.699 00:35:39.699 --> 00:35:39.699 00:35:39.699 --> 00:35:39.699