Risen now to reign Behold the God Seated on His throne Come, let us adorn Him Behold the King Nothing can compare You may be seated. What a blessing it is to worship the Lord, amen? Amen. All right. We have any children for Children's Church? I think we have a few. Also, I'll mention, we have nursery today. So if we have any babies and you'd like to leave them in the nursery, we'll have folks for that as well. All right, we've got a good crew here today. It's good to see all of you. All right. All right. Wonderful. All right, what a blessing. Well, before we open up our Bibles together, let us go before the Lord in prayer once again. Lord, we are so thankful for the opportunity to be able to open up your word and hear what you have for us this morning. Lord, and as we go over this specific text, an important text that you have given us that deals with the issue of legalism. Lord, I pray that the truths of this text would cut deeply into our hearts. And I pray that the words I speak would not be my own, but rather they would be yours. And I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I invite you to open up your Bibles to Colossians chapter 2. We are going to be reading verses 16 through 23, although time is only going to allow us to really go over through verse 19. So this is going to be another one of those part one of a two-part series as we deal with this important topic of legalism. But I'm going to read through verse 23 once we get there so that we keep this in its context. So again, that's Colossians chapter 2, verses 16 through 23. And as you're turning your Bible to that text by way of introduction, given that it has been a couple of weeks since we have been in the book of Colossians, I think a brief review is in order so that we consider this current text within the context of the rest of the book. And so with that said, the Book of Colossians is all about the sufficiency of Jesus Christ in all things. That's really the theme of this letter. Christ alone is sufficient to save us. Christ alone is sufficient for us to experience spiritual growth. Christ alone is sufficient for us to have a relationship with God the Father. You see, God wants you to have a relationship with him where he forgives, where he takes away sin, where he takes away the dysfunction, and he transforms you into something new. And God says, I want a relationship with you where you can come to me, and I will listen to you at any time, and you will be my son or my daughter, and I will be your heavenly father. In John chapter 10 verse 10, Jesus refers to that kind of relationship as the abundant life. And Christ alone is sufficient for us to have that kind of relationship. with God. And then what Paul does, starting in chapter 2, verse 8, is he begins to warn us about those things that can keep us from that kind of relationship, those things that keep us from abundant life. And Paul says, don't let anyone cheat you out of that kind of relationship through empty deceit or false philosophies. And then Paul argues that it is only in Christ that we're made complete. It's only in Christ that we're transformed. That is only in Christ that we are made alive for only Christ is able to wipe away the handwriting requirements of the law. And then that brings us to our current text in verses 16 through 23. And in these verses, Paul defines that empty deceit and that false philosophy that he spoke of earlier in chapter two, verse eight. And that definition can be described with one word, legalism. Now, to be clear, the word legalism does not appear anywhere in scriptures, but it is certainly described in scriptures. Similarly, we don't see the word trinity appearing in scriptures, but clearly the trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is referenced in scriptures. The word legalism is a word that is coined by Christians to describe the false philosophy and empty deceit that Christ isn't enough. And it's a false philosophy that kills faith, destroys hope, and robs people of joy. And so let's read this text in its entirety. And again, we're gonna have time to unpack through verse 19. And as the Lord wills, next week we'll be taking a look at verses 20 through 23 in more detail. But starting in verse 16, Paul says, so let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come. But the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you out of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in this world, do you subject yourselves to regulations? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using according to the commandments and the doctrines of men. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and inerrant word. Let me just say, if there's one takeaway that I want you to take away with this morning, it's that As Paul had already taught us in this morning's scripture reading in the book of Galatians, legalism is a sin that perverts the gospel. Let me repeat that. Legalism is a sin that perverts the gospel. But that raises the question, how does legalism pervert the gospel? Well, as we take a look at this text through verse 19, we find five ways that legalism perverts the gospel. The first three ways are found in verses 16 through 17. And we learn, number one, it judges based on human performance. Number two, it focuses on the externals. By the way, I just noticed, and this is not Jan's fault, this is my fault, but in the bulletin under your notes, instead of saying it focuses on the externals, it says it focuses on the eternals. That was my typo, which she copied because it was the correct word, so she had no way of correcting that. But the reality is, legalism results in nothing good eternally. But what it does do is it focuses on the externals. So if you've written it, just put a little X there between the E and the T there, and you'll get that right. Number three, it picks and chooses what laws to obey. And number four, according to verse 18, it stems from pride. And number five, according to verse 19, legalism draws us away from Christ. But the first way that legalism perverts the gospel is it judges based on human performance. Paul writes in verse 16 and 17, he says, so let no one judge you in food or drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is Christ. Now, before we really unpack this text, it might be helpful to define what we mean by legalism. As I mentioned earlier, although the word is not found in scripture, it is certainly described in scriptures. And because there has been so much confusion about what legalism is, it might be helpful to first define what legalism is not. Legalism is not having or obeying rules. That's not the issue. In fact, in the New Testament, we're given a number of commands. So that, it's not the issue. I've sometimes actually been accused myself of being legalistic because as we go through the expositional preaching of God's Word, I preach Christ's commands. Though it's true that the Mosaic Law has been fulfilled by Christ, that the New Testament is still full of commands that we are to follow. I once heard Pastor Chip Ingram explaining the reason for this by comparing life in this fallen world to a twisty highway on a mountain road. There are thousand foot drops. And when you go off the highway and you drive off the cliff, it's painful down there. And God says, I want to help you because I love you. And so he puts on guardrails in this winding highway in order to protect us. You see, this isn't about a God who says, look, here are the rules, and you need to keep the rules and memorize this stuff or else. But rather, it's about a God who says, my will for you is to have a better, deeper, and richer life than you could ever imagine. And God says, I have these commandments for you. I have these guardrails for you in order to protect you. He says, I don't want you involved in pornography and I don't want you to be involved in adultery because I want you to enjoy a healthy, fulfilling relationship with your spouse or if you're not married. with your future spouse. And God gives us commands like put off anger and put off bitterness and put off gossip and put off jealousy because he says, I don't want those things to tear you apart. Rather, I want you to experience the joy and fulfillment because that is my will for you. And here are some guardrails. Here are some commandments so that you can experience my will for you. There's nothing at all legalistic. about that. And so with that said, what is legalism? John MacArthur, I think, provides a pretty complete definition, and it was included in your bulletin. And the definition is, legalism is the religion of human achievement. It argues that spirituality is based on Christ plus human works. It makes conformity to man-made rules the measure of spirituality. Another way of putting this is that legalism is when the following of rules and regulations is used as a fleshly attempt to either gain favor with God or to impress man. Now, with that definition in mind, frankly, the external acts of one who is a legalist and one who just simply loves Jesus, they may seem very similar. Both, for example, they may make a decision that I'm going to dedicate a half hour of my day to reading scripture and to praying to the Lord. Both may attend the same number of church activities. Both may be a part of the same ministry. Both may even choose to do extra biblical things, like for various reasons, they may choose to abstain from alcohol. So then with that said, what's the difference? Well, the legalists is doing those things because they are trying to either impress man or earn or enhance their relationship with God. They view those things as a measure of spirituality. And by the way, they will tend to measure you and your spirituality with those things as well. But the one who simply loves Jesus recognized that because of Christ's work on the cross, they can never have a better relationship with God than they do right now. And it's because of that relationship that they already have, that they have a genuine desire to follow God's commands because they know that God knows what's best for them, that God's trying to protect them. So the difference really here is a difference in mentality. It's a difference in attitude. And while the legalist is reliant on himself, the one who simply loves Jesus is reliant on the work of Jesus Christ and the continual work of the Holy Spirit, because he recognizes the truth that Jesus gave us in John chapter 15, verse five, when he says, without me, you can do nothing. Now getting back to verses 16 and 17, Paul here begins with the important conjunction so, which connects us to what Paul had previously said before. I've mentioned this before, but these little tiny words, we sometimes skip over them, but they're extremely important. These words like for, and nor, and but, and yet, and so, they are links in the chain of Paul's argument. Therefore, we need to be reminded that in verse 11 through 15, Paul taught us that Christ has made us alive, having forgiven us of our sins, having wiped away the handwriting requirements of the Old Testament law, and having disarmed Satan and his cohorts who are our great accusers. Satan is our great accuser. You want to know who the number one legalist is? It's Satan. He just loves legalism. And so what Paul is saying here is that since Christ has done that for you, don't let anyone judge you out of human performance. Don't let anyone judge you based on what you eat or drink or what religious festivals you celebrate or what church activities you participate in. Don't let anyone judge you out of human performance. Now, As I've said before, the false teachers in Colossae had really mixed together a strange concoction of some truths of Christianity with Gnosticism, which was basically a form of mysticism, and also Judaism. And out of Judaism, they got this notion that by eating certain foods and abstaining from others and by celebrating certain festivals and participating in certain religious activities, in this case, it references here the festival of the new moon, which is referred to as Rosh Kodesh. It's the festival introducing the new month. That by doing these things, you could earn a better standing with God. It was all about your works. And that's what the false teachers took from Judaism. You see, there are two strands of legalism. The first strand of legalism uses human performance to judge one's salvation. And the second strand of legalism uses human performance to judge one's spiritual growth. The first strand attacks the free gifts of salvation and damns the soul of the unbeliever by adding false requirements. It says that you not only need to receive Christ, but you also need to participate in these religious activities, plus follow these rules, plus, plus, plus, plus. It's a false gospel that tacks on human effort to what Christ has already done for us. And Paul forcefully denounces this when he said in our scripture reading this morning, Galatians chapter one, verse six and seven, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which he says, which isn't another. In other words, he's saying, you know, the gospel is supposed to be good news. This isn't good news. Legalism doesn't lead to good news. The Bible makes it very clear that we are justified, meaning we are made right in the eyes of God by grace through faith alone. It's a free gift. And adding any kind of human effort or self-reliance places a knife at the very heart of the gospel. And it's a total departure from the saving grace of God. And Paul is so adamant about this that in Galatians chapter one, verse eight, in fact, he repeats the exact same thing in verse nine, just in case we didn't get it the first time. He says, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you received, then let him be accursed. Do you know what that phrase means? Let him be accursed. Paul is literally saying, let anyone who preaches the false gospel of legalism, Go to hell into the fiery flames right now so that they don't deceive others with their heresy. That's what he's saying. That's how serious the sin of a false teaching of legalism is. Now, the second strand of legalism uses human performance as a way to achieve a better or more special relationship with God. This strand of legalism will sometimes recognize salvation by grace alone, through faith alone. But then it says that sanctification, or what we would refer to as spiritual growth, is based on human performance. It moves us backwards from the grace that we received when we were saved. And those who advocate this strand of legalism will often give you a list of do's and don'ts in order to measure your spiritual growth. And by the way, they'll measure other people's spiritual growth by that same list. And that's what the false teachers in Colossae were doing. They were saying, eat these certain things and drink these certain things, but don't eat these things and don't drink these things. And make sure you take part in these particular religious activities and you'll be more spiritual. You'll have a better standing before God. And the difficulty with this view, besides the fact that it is completely unbiblical, is that it always leads to failure. And the reason is just like salvation is not possible without a work of God, neither is your spiritual growth. Paul addressed this in a text that we actually looked at a couple of weeks ago in Galatians chapter three, verse three, when he said, and I love this, but Paul never holds back, particularly when it comes to the issue of perverting the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you now being made perfect in the flesh? In other words, you were saved through a work of God, Why would you think that through your own flesh you can just follow this list of do's and don'ts and be made perfect, be made complete, be made mature? You can't. In your own flesh, you will always fail. Spiritual growth, a Christ like this, will never be achieved through a fleshly regimen of try hard, try hard, try hard, fail, try hard, try hard, try hard, fail, try hard, try hard, try hard, fail. It requires a work of the Holy Spirit. And so true Christianity says you'll experience spiritual growth when you stop trying to put on a performance of the flesh and when you start allowing the Holy Spirit to perform in you and through you. And that only happens when you seek and serve him not out of pride, not out of legalism, not even out of obligation, but out of love. And a love that is only possible because of the immense love and the immense grace that God has already shown to us. At the root of legalism is an attempt to offer God the produce of our own hands. And what happens when we do that is we become just like Cain. Remember Cain in the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter four? He offered an offering to God that was based on the work that he did as he tilled the ground. And out of his own work, he bore fruit from the ground. But God said, your offering is unacceptable. Why was it unacceptable? Because it was the fruit of Cain's own hands, his own works. And so God rejected it. And so many times we find ourselves just like Cain. We imagine that God is somehow pleased with the harvest of human righteousness. But Isaiah chapter 64 verse 6 warns us that all our righteousness is like what? Filthy rags. Paul says don't let the false teachers judge you by their lists of do's and don'ts because they pervert the gospel of salvation and they prevent you. from spiritual growth. Five reasons why legalism perverts the gospel. Number two, it focuses on the externals. So we take another look at verses 16 and 17. You'll note that the false teachers in Colossae, they only seem to be focused on the external aspects of the Old Testament mosaic law. What you eat or drink and what religious activities you take part in. If you look the part by eating the right things and attending the right religious activities, then it must be that you are spiritual. But Paul counters this false philosophy by referring to those things as well as the rest of the Mosaic Law as simply a shadow of things to come. Paul says that the Mosaic Law was meant to be a shadow of the one who fulfills the law. But just like a shadow is not anything of substance, neither was the law. It says the substance is Christ. And Christ fulfilled the law. And so true spirituality comes from a relationship with Christ, not a relationship with the law. Speaking of focusing on the externals, several years ago when I was on staff at a larger church, Merrimack Valley Baptist Church, Our staff attended a prayer conference at Northland University in Wisconsin. Now, if you haven't heard of Northland University, Northland University was once a great Bible school, but unfortunately, like so many other good Bible schools, has had to close its doors. But this is when a time when the school was flourishing and there were a number of churches that had attended that. And I remember during a break, I was sitting at a table along with three other assistant pastors from Merrimack Valley Baptist Church, as well as someone from a different church who we just met. And the person we just met made the comment about the lack of spirituality in our churches today. And I was about to agree with him until I heard his underlying reason for making that remark. And he pointed to my other three colleagues, all who either had well-trimmed beards or goatees, and he said, you know, a few years ago, it would have been unacceptable for somebody to go to a conference like that with facial hair. Now, I was pretty shocked at that, but, you know, I was kind of feeling sort of two things at the same time, because, you know what, I was cleanly shaven. I started feeling pretty good myself because according to this person, it must be that I have reached the pinnacle of spirituality. But then he pointed to me and he said, and you, you're wearing wired rimmed glasses. Still am, by the way. I need to provide a little context with that because you have to understand that there was actually a time when in certain circles, wearing wired rimmed glasses was associated with intellectual liberalism. And so if you wore wired glasses, then it must be that you were going down that slippery slope of being a liberal. Now, these might seem Like pretty silly examples, but unfortunately they're real. But that's exactly what the false teachers in Colossae were doing. They were measuring and judging others based on the externals and not based on the heart. And there are churches all over America and all over the world that are doing the same thing. We measure true spirituality by the way one dresses or doesn't dress, or by what Bible version they read, or what kind of Christian music they listen to, or how many services, how many Bible studies, how many prayer meetings in one week that they attend, or just fill in the blank. Now, don't get me wrong. You know, we have some Bible studies and we have some prayer meetings, and I encourage you to go to those. And I believe they offer some help. But attending those alone is not how you measure spirituality. And so, as soon as we use external markers to define true spirituality for ourselves and for others, we set ourselves and others to just start faking it. Because who cares that I'm struggling with bitterness? Who cares what I'm struggling with in my thought life? I'm just gonna keep that to myself. And I'll come to church with my Bible in hand and with my best clothes on, and everybody will think I've got it all together. And we become no different than the Pharisees, whom Jesus said in Matthew chapter 23, verse 25, hypocrites. For you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. And instead of experiencing true spirituality, we will experience a pseudo-spirituality. And we will never walk in the good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to walk in. And we'll never grow to be the kind of men and women that God desires for us to be. You see, Legalism focuses on the external things to indicate true righteousness. But the good news is Christ has already made us righteous when he died on the cross for our sins. And he did that so that he could have a relationship with us that is not based on works, that is not based on performance, that is not based on guilt, but based on grace. And ultimately, true spirituality is not about self-effort or external experiences or religious activities. Rather, it's about a relationship with Christ and a surrendered life to the Holy Spirit. Five ways legalism perverts the gospel. Number three, it picks and chooses what laws to obey. So we take another look at verses 16 and 17. It's rather curious that the false teachers seem to only be concerned with two aspects of the Mosaic law. What a person ate and drank and what religious activities they participated in. Yet as we've discussed before, Jews even all over the world today recognize there are 613 commandments of the Mosaic law. I wonder why they ignored the others. This is something that Jesus also addressed with the Pharisees in Matthew 23, verse 23, when he said, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you paid the tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. In other words, what was happening here is these Pharisees, they were priding themselves in keeping the law of tithing, even tithing their spices. Can you imagine if you came to church and you made sure that you had your spices tithed and you put that in there? That's what they were doing. And they were doing this so that everybody could see that they tithed. Because it was all about the image. It was all about the external. But they neglected the weightier parts of the law. like faith and mercy. Galatians 5, verse 3, Paul tells us, if you insist on keeping one part of the law, you are a debtor to the entire law. James writes in James 2, verse 10, for whoever shall keep the whole law yet stumble at one point, he is guilty of all. And so why do legalists tend to pick and choose what laws to obey? The answer is because it's far easier to judge someone from what they wear, how long their hair is, whether they have a tattoo, what church activities they attend, which ones they miss, than it is to deal with our own sins of pride, of gossip, of bitterness and prejudice. And it is far easier to focus on the minors than it is to do the hard spirit-filled work of loving one another, of forgiving one another, of showing grace towards one another, of being at peace towards one another, of being of the same mind towards one another. All of which, by the way, are New Testament commandments. Five ways legalism perverts the gospel. Number four, verse 18 tells us it stems from pride. Verse 18 says, let no one cheat you out of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, yet vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. Verse 18 begins by reminding us that legalism cheats us out of having a vibrant, spirit-filled life, life-transforming relationship with God. And then Paul goes on to say why. He says it's because legalism doesn't stem from God, it stems from pride. Paul says these false teachers, these legalists, they took delight in their own humility. They were happy to be humble. Their own humility thrilled them. They were people who went around and say, look how humble I am. They had pride in their humility. Doesn't sound very humble, does it? That's why it is referred to as a false humility. Former president of Dallas Theological Seminary, Chuck Swindoll writes, legalism is an attitude or mentality based on pride. It is an obsessive conformity to an artificial standard for the purpose of exalting one's self. And then Paul says here that these false teachers, they worship angels. Now what does that have to do with pride? Well, to give a little background, in fact, historians actually tell us that there is evidence that at this particular time, angel worship was actually very prevalent in the city of Colossae. They believe that angels were mediators between God and man. Now, the Bible says in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, there is only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. But these legalists, they somehow miss that truth. And so they prided themselves in having a special relationship with the angels where they worshiped them, which afforded them, oh, so they thought, a special relationship with God. And that's why it says that they were intruding into those things which he has not seen. They were going into details about visions they had about these unseen angels, and they were worshiping them. Now, the problem, of course, is that angels are not to be worshiped. In the book of Revelations, you may recall, the angel appeared to John, and John began to get down on his knees, and the angel says, what in the world are you doing, John? Get up. Do not worship me. I'm just a creature. Worship God. But somehow, that salient point got missed on the legalists in Colossae. Why? vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds. You see, often the self-absorption of legalism can often blind us to things that matter. Pride says that we are more spiritual or more holy than others because of who we are or because of what we have done. But pursuing holiness and spiritual growth, it requires the opposite of pride. It requires that we repent on all reliance on ourselves and even our human wisdom. And it requires that we fully surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit so that we can bear the fruit that only comes from the Spirit. Five ways legalism perverts the gospel. The fifth way is it actually draws us from Christ. Many assume that legalism, following a list of do's and don'ts, brings them closer to Christ, but Paul says no. Verse 19, he says, and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments grows with the increase that is from God. Now here in verse 19, we see one of those important conjunctions again, the word and. And so verse 19 is clearly connected here in a very real way to verse 18, the previous verse. So these false teachers, they were puffed up. And in addition to that, They were not holding fast to Christ. They were drawn away from him. Christ here is referred to as the head, not only because he is supreme and he is sovereign over the church, but also because he's the source of real spiritual life and real spiritual growth that flows to the body of the church. And so Paul uses this metaphor as the Christ as a head and the church as a body to explain that when the church is a community in which each member wholly affirms to Christ as the head and ministers to one another according to their spiritual gifts, They will grow and they will thrive and they will become more and more and more like Christ. And they'll experience spiritual growth and an increase that is only from God. But that only happens when you get your nourishment from an abiding relationship with the head who is Christ. It doesn't happen when you get your nourishment from an abiding relationship with a list of do's and don'ts. Or you get your nourishment from the law. And what these false teachers has done is they made an idol out of their own works of keeping certain commandments. And instead of Christ becoming their head, their own lists of do's and don'ts became their head. Essentially, what they had done is they made their own rules and regulations, the ends, instead of the means as they worship not Christ, but rather the shadow of Christ, that which has no substance. And what happened is they drew away from Christ as their sufficiency in all things, because they found their sufficiency in themselves and in their own man-made rules. Brothers and sisters, God's desire for you is to be alive in Him. He desires for you to live a life in which you fully thrive in His grace and His love so that you can do, as Ephesians 2, verse 10 tells us, so that you can do the good works that He has prepared beforehand for you to do. See, this is not an issue of not doing good works. God has specifically prepared for you good works, for you specifically to do. But those kind of works are only possible when you recognize that you have no sufficiency in yourself and you need to surrender to the all-sufficiency of Christ. A self-regiment of try hard, try hard, try hard, fail, try hard, try hard, try hard, fail, try hard, try hard, try hard, fail, will never bring you to the kind of life that God desires for you. Because you know what? There'll always be failure. You will only experience the kind of life that God desires for you when you recognize the complete sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Because legalism actually draws us away from that sufficiency. Maybe you're here today and you say, you know, you've talked a lot about a relationship with Jesus Christ and the sufficiency of Christ, but I don't really know what that means. Maybe you're here today and you actually come from a background where you told, you know, if you just do these things and you don't do those things, then it means that maybe you have a possibility of going to heaven. Let me be very clear. It's not about the works that you do. It's about being given a gift and you receiving that gift so that you might experience eternal life and that you might experience the kind of life in which you thrive in God's grace and God's love. I don't know where all of you are in your spiritual walk, and there may be some here today that have not yet placed their trust in the old sufficient Christ. And if that's you, I wanted to share with you two verses that really, in many ways, summarizes what we've talked about this morning. Paul says in Ephesians 2, verse 8, 9, for by grace, that word grace, it simply means gift. It means a free gift that has been offered to each one of us. For by grace, a free gift, you have been saved through faith. And notice this is not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. Just to be clear, this is not of works. This is not of human performance. Lest anyone should boast, lest anyone should be prideful. Now, some people might ask, well, what is it that I really need to be saved from? Why do I need a savior? Bible makes it very clear that all of us, each and every one of us, have sinned, meaning we've missed the mark of who God is. All of us, in our thoughts, our words, our deeds, our pride, our jealousy, have missed the mark of who God is. And because God is a perfectly holy, righteous, and just God, and we're not, that means we are separated from him. In Romans chapter 6, verse 23, it says that the result of our sin is death. Now, it's not talking about a physical death. Some of us will be going to a memorial service this afternoon because of the death of Bob Radford. It's not the kind of death that he's talking about here. Rather, it's talking about a spiritual death, a spiritual separation from God for eternity in a place called hell. But that's not God's desire for you, and that's not God's desire for me, and that's why, as I said before, that verse doesn't end there. There's another one of those important conjunctions. It's the word but. But the gift of God, the gift that God has given us, is eternal life through Christ Jesus. God loved you and he loved me so much that he gave his only son to die on the cross. He took the punishment that we deserved. He died that we might live, that we might have eternal life. That's what that word saved means. Here's the thing with a gift though. For a gift to be yours, you have to actually receive the gift. Somebody can offer you a gift and you can refuse it. You have to receive the gift. You say, well, how do I receive this gift of eternal life, this gift that Jesus Christ has given me? Well, this text tells us that we receive it through faith. Oftentimes the word belief is used here. By faith or by belief, it's not talking about an intellectual belief merely, but rather it's talking about a trust. It's a trust in who Jesus Christ is and what he did on the cross. It's a trust, a recognition that he is the God who rose from the dead and his work on the cross was all sufficient to save us. We need to add nothing to that. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. If you haven't placed your trust, your faith in Jesus Christ, I encourage you, don't wait. You know, as we were planning our flight. We fly standby. Many of you know that I just got back from vacation. We came back from Hawaii. And because my wife works for American Airlines, we fly for free. But we have to fly standby. And so as we were planning our standby flights, we had learned about the incident that happened in Canada where the airplane had rolled over. And interestingly, you know, aviation experts say that that fuselage should have never stayed intact. It should have broken up in pieces and many people should have died. When we see something like that happen, we recognize how short life is. No one knows when our time in this world is over and the opportunity for decision has passed. The opportunity for decision is now. We're going to pray in a moment.