Please take your Bible and turn to Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter five, verses 13 through 26. It's found on page 975 in the church Bibles. Galatians chapter five, verses 13 through 26. And now please give your full attention to this reading of God's inspired, infallible, and inerrant word. 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 shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. May God bless unto us the reading and the preaching of his holy word. Now please either take your outline or your forms and prayers book and turn to page 186. Tonight we will cover Article 29 of the Belgic Confession on the marks of the true church. Again, it's on page 186 in the Forms and Prayers book. We will confess part of this article together. If you're using your outline, we will read everything that is printed there. If you're in the forms book, we'll begin in the third paragraph on page 186. It starts with the words, as for those who are of the church. We'll read just these two paragraphs here, ending with the words, through faith in him. So starting with the words, as for those who are of the church. Congregation, what do we believe concerning the marks of true Christians? As for those who are of the Church, we can recognize them by the distinguishing marks of Christians, namely by faith and by their fleeing from sin and pursuing righteousness once they have received the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ. They love the true God and their neighbors without turning to the right or left, and they crucify the flesh and its works. Though great weakness remains in them, they fight against it by the Spirit all the days of their lives, appealing constantly to the blood, suffering, death, and obedience of the Lord Jesus, in whom they have forgiveness of their sins through faith in Him. Amen. Our beloved congregation and our Lord Jesus Christ, this is our third sermon on Belgic Article 29. Our last couple of sermons covered the three marks of a true church. The pure preaching of the gospel, the pure administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of church discipline. Friend, it is very, very important for you to be a member of a true church. After all, the church is the place where the Lord has promised to work. Here we receive the means of grace, word, and sacrament. Here we have elders committed to care for our souls, guarding us from false doctrines and from an unchristian way of life. Your membership in a local church is a vitally important part of being a Christian. However, merely having your name recorded on the membership roll does not prove that you are a true Christian. Merely being baptized or even making a profession of faith does not prove that you are a true Christian. What does? How can we know that someone is a genuine believer? Well, the truth is, people are very good at pretending. Some people even convince themselves that they are true believers when they really are not. Many people are very good at making an outward show of religion, yet their hearts remain cold and dead. In John 15, Jesus gives the example of a vine and its branches to represent the church. Our Lord explains, I am the vine, you are the branches. Now all these branches appear to be connected to the vine, just as members of the visible church appear to be connected to Christ. However, not everyone in the church is truly of the church. Not everyone who appears to belong to Christ actually does belong to him. Fake Christians can be found even in true churches. Last week we saw that Judas was numbered among Jesus' 12 apostles. Therefore, in John 15, our Lord insists on the importance that you not only appear to be connected to him, but that you actually are connected to him. In John 15, four, Jesus says, abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. The branches that shall bear fruit are not those who merely appear to be connected to the vine. Only those branches that actually are connected to the vine will bear fruit. Friend, are you truly connected to the Lord Jesus Christ through faith? This is a vitally important question to answer. Because in John 15, Jesus also says, my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. Those who claim to be Christians but who bear no fruit, they are not truly connected to Jesus Christ. They are destined for destruction. Every true believer bears good fruit. Jesus says, by this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. True disciples are marked by the fruit that God the Holy Spirit brings forth in their lives. Real Christians are set apart by actually living the new life that Jesus has created in them. Now, in our day and age, it is very much frowned upon to doubt whether someone is whatever they say that they are. For example, today, if someone claims to be a woman, you are supposed to believe that they are a woman and refer to them with female pronouns, even if that person is very obviously a man. The same sentiment is often present among professing Christians. People expect you to accept their profession of faith as genuine, even if their way of life shows something completely different. But in the Gospels, Jesus is very clear. You can tell what kind of tree it is by the fruit that it bears. In the same way, you can tell a lot about a person's faith by the way they live their life. Now let's be clear. We know that we are justified in God's heavenly law court not by our good works, but only through believing in the perfect work of Jesus Christ. However, this does not mean that your works don't matter. It is true that you are not justified before God by your works, but your profession of faith before men is justified by your works. James says it this way, for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. The things you do and the way you live your life either confirms you are a real Christian, a true believer, or it exposes you as a pretender with a false, dead faith. So in other words, this is really, really important to know. You need to know what marks the true Christian life. And you need to know this for several reasons. First, for self-examination. 2 Corinthians 13 five says examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test. Friend, you need to subject yourself to this test. Do I have the marks of a true Christian? Because if you don't, then you are in great danger and you urgently need to repent of your sins and believe the gospel. Second, for marriage. 2 Corinthians 6.14 says, Young men, young ladies, you need to know as much as humanly possible that the person you intend to marry is a real Christian and not just a pretender. Why? Well, because whom you choose to marry will affect your life more than almost any other decision that you make. If he or she is not a genuine believer, do not get romantically involved with that person in any way, shape, or form. This will save you from all sorts of misery down the road. I don't care how handsome he is or how pretty she is. Friend, please don't even think about it. And third, we need to know the marks of a true Christian for the sake of discipline. The elders especially are called to shepherd the flock of God, exercising oversight, not domineering over those in their charge, but being examples to the flock. It is our duty to be watchmen and to sound the alarm if anyone is walking in an unchristian manner. It is also our duty to examine those who want to publicly profess their faith. That elder interview is an absolutely critical shepherding moment and opportunity in that person's life, which we must take very seriously. And so there's good reason for all of us to be aware of what marks a true Christian. And what are these marks? Well, our confession identifies three. Faith, love, and repentance. The first mark of a true Christian is faith. And this is the foundational mark of a true believer. You'll notice that our confession mentions it twice in this section, both at the beginning and at the end. Faith defines the Christian life. I mean, what do we call ourselves? Believers. Most fundamentally, this is who we are. We are believers, and what do we do? We believe. In fact, without faith, a person cannot truly have any of the other marks of a true Christian. Where there is no faith, there's also no genuine repentance, nor is there a genuine love for God or for neighbor. How do we know this? Well, it's because it's only by God's grace through faith that we can become Christians. It is through the instrument of faith that we are united to the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is true faith? Well, part of faith is knowing and agreeing with what the Bible says. But it's more than that. As our Heidelberg Catechism explains, it is also a wholehearted trust, which the Holy Spirit works in me by the gospel, that God has freely granted, not only to others, but to me also, forgiveness of sins, eternal righteousness, and salvation. In other words, true faith is more than just believing that God graciously saves some people out there. True faith is believing that God has graciously saved me. We see the necessity of faith in our scripture passage. Look at Galatians 5, 13. Before Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit and calls us to walk by the Spirit, he declares the good news. For you were called to freedom, brothers. He says something very similar in verse one of this chapter. For freedom, Christ has set us free. Now notice this is not something to do, it is something to believe. This is where the Christian life begins with a declaration of the good news. Here's what Jesus has done for you. He has set you free. You are no longer condemned under the guilt of sin. You are no longer enslaved by the power of sin, you are actually free in Jesus Christ. Do you believe this? By faith, God has brought us into a new relationship with himself through his son. We are no longer afraid of God as an exacting judge and instead we embrace him as our perfect savior, as our only comfort in life and in death. As Paul writes in Philippians chapter three, verse three, we glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Our confidence is not from a righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. In other words, we take no credit for our salvation. We simply believe that God saves us, and that is what faith means. Some Christians wrongly think of faith as God giving us an easier law to follow. All right, I guess you cannot keep the Ten Commandments, so let's make a deal. I'll make this really easy for you. All you have to do is believe, and then I'll save you. No, that's a completely wrong understanding of faith. Faith is not a work that saves you. Faith is only an instrument of salvation. Faith is you recognizing, I can never do anything at all to save myself. I have no hope of salvation unless God has mercy on me, a wretched sinner, and saves me to the uttermost. Is this how you believe? Do you believe in yourself? Or do you believe in Jesus? And here's the thing, once you start believing in Jesus, you cannot stop believing in him. Once you start believing in Jesus, you actually want to grow in your faith. When you see just how beautiful Jesus is, you wanna see more of him, which means that you want to open your Bible again and again. When you really believe in him, you also want to open your mouth and talk about him. I mean, this is just something we do, isn't it? We talk about what we believe in. We talk about the things that are real to us, the things that matter to us. We often hear people speak very passionately about politics, or their favorite sport, or their significant other. Look, if we really believe that Jesus Christ is as awesome as he says he is, if we really believe that Jesus has saved us from all our sins, then we will talk about him. You can tell when someone really cares. about something. You can tell when someone really believes in something. Friend, does the way that you live show that Jesus is real to you? Do you truly believe in him? The second mark of a true Christian is love. Article 29 says they love the true God and their neighbors without turning to the right or left. The Christian not only has a new relationship to Jesus, he or she also has a new relationship to the law Jesus changes what once was an impossible burden into a great joy. Because his yoke is easy and his burden is light, the Christian is able to say, oh, how I love your law. More than that, the Christian is able to say, I love you, oh Lord, my strength. Indeed, he himself is our strength. He is the one who gives us the ability to love. Galatians 5.22 says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Believer, this is the sort of life the Holy Spirit is creating in you. This is the sort of life that demonstrates a genuine love for the Lord and a genuine trust in Him. This way of living ascribes glory to His name. And when you truly love someone, the things that are important to that person become important to you. Those who love God, they care about what He thinks. As Scripture says in 1 John 3.22, we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him. Of course, we don't do this perfectly, but we sure want to. This is what we strive for. This is the sort of life we actively pursue. That's what our confession means when it says we do this without turning to the right or the left. It doesn't mean we never end up in the ditch on the side of the road. At times we certainly do and we need him to lift us up. But as Christians our hearts are pointed in the right direction. We want to do the right thing even though we are weak and we often fail. Paul explains this too in Philippians chapter three verses 12 through 14, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. In other words, I look ahead to the life of perfection that I will enjoy in heaven and that is how I strive to live even now here on earth. Because I love the Lord, I do everything I can to show Him and to show everyone else that He is everything to me. Friend, does this describe your heart? Do you truly love God? Do you care about what he thinks more than you care about what anyone else thinks? Do you want to direct your whole life to his glory? But the true Christian does not only love God, but also their neighbor. First John 4, 20 and 21 say, if anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. And John 13, 35, by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And finally, listen to 1 John 3, verses 16 through 18. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and truth. We must care for each other. A true Christian cannot be indifferent to the needs of his brothers and sisters in the Lord. A true Christian is marked by love, and not a cheap love either, but a love that costs something, a love that demands sacrifice. Christ gave us an example that we should follow in his footsteps. Do you love others as Christ loves? We all have different personalities, we have different gifts, different ways of showing love to each other, but if you are a true Christian, you will love your neighbor. The third mark of a true Christian is repentance. Every Christian is also marked by a new relationship to sin. As Article 29 says, they flee from sin and pursue righteousness. They crucify the flesh and its works. Though great weakness remains in them, they fight against it by the spirit all the days of their lives, appealing constantly to the blood, suffering, death, and obedience of the Lord Jesus. in whom they have the forgiveness of their sins through faith in Him. Before we were Christians, we were perfectly content to live in sin, giving ourselves over to the desires of our sinful flesh. Paul lists those off in Galatians 5, verses 19 through 21. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. He warns us that those who do or those who make a practice of such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Friend, if this sort of behavior defines your life, if you willingly give yourself over to such practices as these, then you are not a true Christian. See, congregation, by making us his own people, God has brought us into a war, into a battle between our sinful flesh and the Holy Spirit who has made us into his temple. Therefore, in verses 16 and 17, Paul commands us to walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. The Christian life is constant warfare, constant battling against our sinful flesh, striving to put off our old way of life. And every true believer will see progress in the Christian life. No, not perfection, not until heaven, but you will see progress. You will be growing in holiness. Friend, you must be growing in holiness. Again, the question is not, are you perfect? The question is, what is the direction of your life? Look at Galatians 5.24. It says, those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Believer, you are truly united to the Lord Jesus Christ. You are truly connected to the life-giving vine. Together with him, you have died to sin. In Romans 6-2, Paul asks, how can we who died to sin still live in it? How can sin still be the defining characteristic of a Christian? It cannot. Believer, your life is not characterized by giving into sin. Your life is characterized by fighting against sin, by struggling against sin, by striving to put your sin to death, by racing after holiness. You yearn to live by the Spirit. and your new way of life, this wholehearted war against sin, this proves that you belong to God's people. Romans chapter eight, verses 13 and 14 say, if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. And so as Paul says in 2 Timothy 2.22, flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Give up those things that cause you to stumble. You don't need them. Make no provision for the flesh to gratify its sinful desires. If there are things disrupting your walk with God, certain TV shows or video games or certain friends, cut yourselves off. from them. If you are addicted to certain sins, confess them. Lay them before the Lord. Admit that you are wrong. Repent of those sins. Seek help that you might put those practices to death. Because this is not who you are anymore. And come on, those sins are just making you miserable anyway. Why would you want to keep on walking in them? Get rid of them by the Spirit of God. For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. And when you stumble and fall, as we all sometimes do, what then? Well, then you remember the gospel. I love how realistic Article 29 is. Though great weakness remains in them, they fight against it by the Spirit all the days of their life, appealing constantly to the blood, suffering, death, and obedience of the Lord Jesus. in whom they have forgiveness of their sins through faith in him. We fight with all our heart by the Holy Spirit's power. And yet all the while, we constantly remember how desperately we need Jesus. Even as we make war on sin, we keep going back to the gospel again and again and again. Because although we do begin to live according to all, not only some of God's commandments, Nevertheless, even the holiest in this life have only a small beginning of obedience. And so we keep coming back to this confession, the confession of Paul, wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Praise God that he has given a definitive answer. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Salvation is through His blood, His suffering, His death, His obedience. In Him we have forgiveness of all our sins through faith alone in our perfect Savior. In closing, friend, I urge you to examine yourself for these marks of a true Christian. Do you really trust in Christ alone to save you? Do you truly love God and your neighbor? Are you genuinely sorry for your sins, and do you strive by the power of God to put those sins to death? Honestly ask these questions of yourself, because if you are a true Christian, these things will mark your life. But what should you do if you do not see these marks in yourself? Well friend, do not despair. And don't just try harder either. What you need to do is believe on Christ and trust Him to save you. It's God and God alone who saves sinners. God and God alone who regenerates, who makes people born again. He is your only hope. There's nothing in yourself that can save you, so look to Him. Beg him for mercy and grace. Beg him to change your heart and your life, to regenerate you, to make you born again. And believe that he will. For our Lord Jesus has declared, whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. Congregation, what we all need to know this evening is that our God is a perfect savior. So trust in him. And if you do trust in him, then don't let your ongoing weakness discourage you. Instead, be encouraged in knowing who your God is. For I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Amen, let's pray. Our glorious Father in heaven, we thank you for your goodness to us in changing our lives and grafting us into Jesus Christ, the true and living vine. We thank you that those who are in him cannot fail to bear good fruit and we pray that you would bring forth this fruit in our lives. Cause each of us to exhibit a true and living faith in Jesus that we might trust in him alone to save us to the uttermost and believe his word and believe in him. Give us such a firm confidence in him that we cannot help but talk about him, sharing about him with the people in our lives because we love him. Fill each of us with a desire to know him better because he is so glorious and beautiful. Work in us by your Holy Spirit to grant us the gift of faith. Please also create in our hearts a love for you and a love for our neighbors. We pray that the world would know that we are Christians by our love. And please also cause us to repent. Give us a true sorrow over our sins that we might confess them to you. And also give us a hatred of sin that we might seek to put it to death, to crucify the flesh and its desires. Because sin is disgusting and worthless compared to the surpassing value of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Lord, we know that we will only display the marks of a true Christian if you have made us into true believers. So we pray for anyone here who is not one, that you would graciously graft them into Jesus Christ, that they may have life in him. Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us all. May we be faithful and true because you are faithful and true. And when we do struggle with weakness, point us back to Jesus, our Savior. Make us to see that our righteousness is in Him, and although we are far from perfect in ourselves, you see us as perfect in Him. Lord, we long for the day when we will be made perfectly holy in glory. Preserve us all safely until that day. And now bless us as we depart. Strengthen us to honor you this week, to love you and to live for you, and return us all here safely next Lord's Day, that we might worship you again in spirit and in truth. Please also bless our conference this coming Saturday and all the other events this week. We ask all these things in our Savior Jesus' most precious name. Amen.