Okay. Well, good morning, everybody. And excited for our summer series again this summer. So as we begin, I want to take some time for prayer requests and things going on in our church family we should be praying for. One big thing this week is VBS. So it's going to be incredible. So we're going to pray for our volunteers, for patients, but for joy in presenting the gospel and speaking about Jesus's life. And for more kids in a register right now. I think we have like something close to 20 to 25 kids registered. And so last year it went from like 30 to like 60 by the end of the second day. So praying that the Lord would bless our church to be able to preach the gospel to many children this week. Any other prayer requests from the church family this week? Okay. Okay. So Stephen, Stephen Bryant's got some doctor's appointments coming up and potential surgery. Yeah, praying for you, Malvin. Yeah. Any other prayer requests this morning? Your friend Joanne. That's right, Ms. Lurie. Thank you. Last surgery. Wow. I didn't know they were going to give her a last. Can be her last. OK. Is this to remove? OK. Wow. That's wonderful. Yeah, so if you didn't hear that, so Ms. Joni's been going through a series of surgeries on her abdomen, and so this should be the one that finalizes everything and puts everything back in place. So, Ms. Joni Bowen. So, we can pray for Ms. Joni this week for her final surgery. Any other prayer requests, Mr. Allen? Your sister. Is she out of the hospital, or is she still in the hospital today? She's out? OK. Well, praise God she's out and praying for recovery and for gospel hope in the midst of that. Any other prayer requests this morning? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you for that update, Miss Betty. Wow, that's so wonderful. As she should. That's a big deal. That's a very big deal. Well, friends, I'm going to pray for us and pray for these requests, and then we're going to jump into our study this morning. Heavenly Father, we come to you as a church family. that are in need of you. We are in need of you every hour as we are upheld by your power, as we are strengthened by your Holy Spirit, as we are guided with your wisdom and your grace. And so, God, we pray for these requests, for the health of our friends, for Wayne and Adam Lambdon that have been sick, for Malvin and Trudy, for you to sustain their health, for LaRae's friend Joanne, for Alan's sister Lana, And Father, for upcoming potential surgeries for Becky Green and for Stephen Bryant, all these things we know in your hands. Father, we lift up Joni. We thank you that you've sustained her through these many surgeries and these long months. We pray that this would be the final surgery. We pray that you would bring skill and effective care from her doctors this week. We pray that Joni is resting in you more than anything else. trusting that this season of incredible trial, Father, would give way to more and more fruitfulness, more and more joy with her family, more and more opportunity to praise your name and to proclaim the truth of your name in her church family, in her new neighborhood in Texas. Father, be with her. God, we ask for the time that we have this week at VBS for our children to hear the gospel, for us to be able to proclaim the gospel to other children and other families that would come and be with us this week. I pray for charity and shadow and the other leaders and volunteers that you would sustain them and give them a joy, an expectation that as trials or difficulties come, as Discipline needs to happen, or as snacks run out, Father, we pray that all these things are planned by you for us to walk in them, to walk in them righteously, to walk in them through the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Father, may we demonstrate the fruit of the gospel as we proclaim the good news that you've sent your Son, Jesus. So God, as we study together our church statement of faith, what binds us together in our faith and trust and hope in you, God, I pray that you would strengthen our minds to better understand your will and your ways and your word. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. So in the bulletins that you may or may not have grabbed already, you'll see the article on justifications we're going to talk about this morning. So you can get that out and you can start looking at that. But what I want to do really quick is kind of just give an overview of why we're doing this. I know it's disruptive. We have incredible Sunday school teachers and classes that happen. Reason number one is because there's very little opportunity that we have as a church to look at our statement of faith. I think last year I talked to you, every time I do a new members class, I get to walk through the statement of faith with our new members and look at it and say, Lord, this is what we teach, or I'm teaching them and thanking the Lord is what we teach. And so getting to do that as a whole church family is really important because it's what binds us together, that we profess these truths. The second thing is our Sunday school teachers, I think, deserve a good break. So I'm grateful to get to do this and give them an opportunity to be taught, not just to be teaching. But thirdly, we have to understand that what we profess is critically important. And I outlined last summer, the very first week, and we talked about creeds and confessions, why do we have them? And I gave three primary reasons why we have them. One is they clarify what we believe. Secondly, they give our church accountability to the truth. And thirdly, they help us sort through issues today, because what we know in the timeless truths of the scriptures, then we have to apply and are able to apply it to the difficulties of our life. And so last year I asked the question of, what do you believe about the Bible? And if you remember, I had you ask your neighbor, if you just summarized in three minutes what you believe about God, you realize that there's a lot to say about God. And so that's ultimately why we need this confession, is because we need summaries, we need scaled down understandings and ways to be able to understand what we profess, what we believe. And so, since we must teach the Bible, we summarize and systematize all of God's Word down to these intelligible, consumable statements, and that's what we call a confession. So, the confession that we hold as a church is called the abstract of principles. Last year, I talked to you about how there's been multiple creeds and confessions throughout church history, and in the Baptist strain world in the 1850s, they took older confessions, like the London Baptist Confession, and then synthesize it down to the essentials of what Southern Baptists were professing in the 1850s. And so what we are ultimately going to do is look at the second half of the Confession this summer, and we're going to look at justification. So justification, I'm going to read it for us, and then we're going to kind of break it down. But what we need to understand is that justification is a critical doctrine. All of them are critical, that's why they're the principles that we hold, but justification might separate us from, definitely separates us from Roman Catholics, but it also separates us from all other religions on the earth, that we believe that we stand justified and righteous before God because of what Jesus has done. So let's read this really quick, it says, Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal of sinners who believe in Christ from all sin, through the satisfaction that Christ has made, not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but on account of the obedience and satisfaction of Christ, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith. So one of the critical issues of the Protestant Reformation was this doctrine of justification. Catholics from the Council of Trent, which if you know anything about church history or the Protestant Reformation, as the Reformation was going on, Martin Luther and John Calvin and Zwingli and others were professing that the scriptures would be the guide and ultimately we are saved by our faith alone. They were articulating justification that we stand just before God, not because of the works we do, but because of the faith that we have. And what Catholics did in response was they held the Council of Trent. It happened over several years, but out of that is kind of considered what's called the counter-reformation. So as the church was attempting to be reformed by the reformers, it was being counter-reformed by the Catholics, where they were essentially doubling down on false teaching. So, the Council of Trent, and for Roman Catholics onwards, they taught that justification is ultimately, how do we stand righteous before God? It's by faith, but it's also adding works. You shouldn't do this, but if you tried to take the justification that's taught by Paul, that we'll look at here in a minute, and then when James talks about justification in his book, What we're gonna look at in Paul is that Paul declares that justification happens by faith alone. And James is saying, well, if you have faith, you should have works. And so, oftentimes, there's this duality, thinking, oh, well, I'm with James, and that's what Catholics are gonna basically go to. They're gonna say, we're the people that hold what James holds, and Protestants somewhat say, we're gonna hold what Paul holds. Ultimately, I'll explain later, that they're not contradictory, because they're talking about different ways in which we see our justification worked out. But ultimately, we have to understand, that this statement goes through, our church statement of faith goes through the doctrines that we hold in orderly fashion and we affirm because we stand righteous before God by faith alone. So the first phrase of the statement, I'm gonna unpack it for us and we're gonna look at the scriptures. Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal of sinners who believe in Christ from all sin to the satisfaction that Christ has made. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 32, Psalm 32. This is a Psalm of David, and what David starts out by saying is that blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. It's a blessing that we would have our sins forgiven, but more explicitly in verse 2, he says, Ultimately, there is a blessing when God looks at us through the person in the work of Christ and declares that there is no more sin. There is no more iniquity. You can imagine our legal system in America. Our legal system, when someone commits a crime or they think someone has committed a crime, they'll charge you with a crime. They'll bring you to court. And ultimately, when the judge, looking at all the evidence, stands in judgment, They can either pardon you, which means that you are guilty, you were guilty, but you are set free of the penalty. That's why, you know, governors, presidents can say, well, we know you were charged, we know that you're guilty of this crime, but I'm going to pardon you from the consequences, right? So that's a pardon, is this idea that you are guilty, but you are pardoned. But more relevant here is that what the judge can do is the judge could acquit you and declare you not guilty, not guilty at all. Now, the imperfect humans in our system, we can't really know if someone's guilty or not. If we're looking back into the past and trying our best to look at the evidence, well, maybe it's not clear whether they were guilty or not. That is not a problem for God. God knows that all of us as sinners, as we've discussed in previous discussions last summer and as our understanding of Scripture, that we all stand guilty before God. So God is not in the practice of just looking at us guilty and then saying, pardoned. What he's ultimately doing is he is saying, Jesus has satisfied the wrath of God. He has paid the penalty on our behalf. So therefore, because his justice is satisfied, he acquits us from the penalty of our sin. And he actually can say that we stand righteous and just before him because of what Jesus did. So ultimately, justification that is a gracious and full acquittal of sinners, for those who believe in Christ, are acquitted from all their sin, through the satisfaction Christ has made, should change everything about the way we live. Because if we are simply, and this is the reality, we can know today that we are justified before God because of the work of Jesus. in Roman Catholic world or in other religions, they might say, well, I'm a pretty good person. I've done a lot of good things, and I'm hoping that when I stand before God in judgment, whatever their system outlines, that God will see that I've done more good things than bad things. Or they're just hoping that maybe the judge will have leniency. I've done a lot of bad things, but maybe the judge won't throw a book at me this time. But the reality is is that what Christians are offered through the blood of Jesus, through the sacrifice of Jesus, is that we can actually know that when we stand before God, we will be acquitted because of what the satisfaction that Christ has made. So what justification does is it allows us to live today knowing that we are righteous before God. Not because of something we've done, and we'll look at that in a minute. But ultimately, it allows us to know that not only are we acquitted by the judge, but the judge has taken us on as his children. There's this incredible connection between justification and adoption, that we've been justified before God, and now, God doesn't just send us away, saying, look, I've acquitted you, you're not sinful, I'm just gonna get you out of the courtroom. He actually says, because of my son's work, I'm gonna now adopt you alongside my son, and you're righteous with him. You are righteous and a part of the family. So now we are at peace with God. We are loved by God. And that love forms our new identity. So I wanted to ask you guys a question. What are some of the ways daily that we see our sinfulness? What are some of the ways daily that we see our sinfulness? Yes, Mr. Leon. Attempting to parent children, yes. We see our own sinfulness in our anger that bubbles up or our inability to seemingly give clear instructions, yeah. What other ways do we see our sinfulness daily? Not always loving others, absolutely. Any other examples? Our thoughts. Yeah, absolutely. They slip into thinking about things that, like, we know. That's terrible. Why would I have thought that? Why would I have thought that about that person? Why have I desired that desire? That's really good. Yes, Mr. Melvin. Well, you know, the one that was on the cross beside Jesus, he did what was wrong. He said, remember me, and the Lord has accepted him. Absolutely, what a great gift. So what we could do in response to our sinfulness that we experience every single day, our thoughts, our actions, the things we see in others, one thing we could do is think, I'm just such a terrible person. Just kind of fold in on ourself and think, well, there's no way God could love me, care for me, declare me as righteous. But because of the work that Jesus did, because we know that we are justified before God, how can we now think about ourselves? Knowing our sinfulness, knowing how deep and dark and disastrous that is, how can we now think about ourselves because we are justified? Forgiven and redeemed. So Malvin, I'm asking, because we know we're justified, because we know Christ died for us, how can we think about our sinfulness, how can we think about ourselves each and every day? Yes. And then we can now understand who we are. So what I'm getting you to hopefully think about yourself, your own sinfulness, the justification and righteousness of Jesus that's given to us, now we can live confident that we are saved and are being saved and one day we'll stand before God acquitted. We don't have to worry. We don't have to fold in on ourselves. We don't have to have this constant concern that maybe the justification and the righteousness of Jesus won't be enough. That's to deny the doctrine in and of itself. If we live constantly worried, I don't know if I'm good enough, I don't know if I'm good enough, you haven't understand that you are not good enough, but Jesus' death and satisfaction on the cross was good enough, and now you are justified. the wrath of God has been satisfied. I hope you see how freeing and joyful this doctrine should lead you to be. But the application of justification is only for those who believe. So the next section helps us understand, well, is it because believers do certain things or are certain things? It clarifies that. It says, not for anything wrought in them or done by them. Now, it's intending to say two things, and we're gonna break that down, not wrought in them. So what it doesn't mean is that God has somehow made us justifiable. He has somehow changed us into something that we're not. and made us either sin-free, where we could never sin again, or some kind of special status of human being that's beyond assailing. It's really what we profess in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. It says, for our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. It's this idea that, ultimately, it's not a righteousness that comes from ourselves. It's not that God justifies us. and then we all of a sudden have this righteousness in us. God justifies us because Christ's righteousness comes into us. He made him who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God as the righteousness of Jesus is imputed to us. It's this idea that there's a righteousness outside of us that comes to us. So it's not a bubbling out that justification does. It is a bubbling in. It is a coming into us. God now looks at us justified because of what Christ has done. So, what we have to understand is that God justifies us ultimately because God loves sinners. Romans 5.8 teaches us that God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He doesn't love sinners because he's changed us into something lovable. I don't know if you're familiar with the teacher down in Texas. He's a false teacher. His name is Todd White. Todd White will often talk about how what God has done through Jesus is he's actually made us lovable, as if something, there's a way in which we're now righteous in our own standing. God's made us that way, so now when we stand before God, we're righteous on our own standing. That's not what justification is. we have to articulate that righteousness has come from outside of us to us, and it's because of Christ we now are righteous. So it's not wrought in us, but it's also not done by us. So it says, nor for anything wrought in them, nor done by them. So what God doesn't do is he doesn't somehow make us able to work and earn our salvation. It's not as if we get a stamp or a right to work visa card so that we can enter the United States and work. enter into his salvation and then work to earn our salvation. And so I want you to turn with me to Galatians chapter two, Galatians chapter two. Galatians, the whole book as we've been studying on Sunday morning is unpacking the doctrine of justification. So Galatians chapter two. verses 15 and 16. So if you remember the book as we've been studying it, Paul says that he, he says there's no other gospel by which we may be saved, not a gospel of works. And so ultimately Paul defends his apostleship and then he says to Peter and to us, we ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, but because by works of the law no one will be justified." So, if we cannot be righteous apart from Christ, and we cannot obey the law apart from Christ, Therefore, we need the justification that God offers us in Christ as His righteousness is given to us, and it's not something that's wrought in us and changing us. It is not something done by us. It is ultimately something that God declares over us because of the work of His Son. So both of these ideas should remove any pride we have in our own salvation. That should be the result of this phrase. that it's not something wrought in us, we're not somehow lovable or good in our own standing, in our own righteousness, and it's not something that we can earn or do ourselves, it's ultimately we cannot boast to God or to anyone else because of what Christ has done and what God has applied to us on our account in his justifying statement. So, can anyone give me an example, you've heard it, it might be a little hard to think about, of a humble brag. You've heard these before. Does anyone have an example of a humble brag? Yes. I've heard it most often about people making sure they know, making sure people around them know what they're going without. As if it's like, OK, well, by some act of piety or whatever else it might be, you know, I'm not getting these things or I'm not buying these things, you know, objects of anything like that. Yeah. So like an example would be like, I'm so glad I don't need the notes for the test that's coming up. I won't have to use my notes. I've got it all up here. It's all done. Or I'm just so glad that God's blessed me to not have to study for this. So there's a way in which you're trying to say like, God, Thank you for the way you've made me, but yet at the same time you're talking about yourself. You're talking about something good about you. You maybe have heard it this way, I just can't believe I have to choose between these three job offers. Why is it so hard to choose sometimes? Like it sounds ridiculous, right? Or maybe I'm just so exhausted from my trip to Florida, I just want a break from all this traveling, right? Like, oh, I'm so sorry for you that it's so bad that you had a great vacation. What I'm trying to say is that we are so prone to pride that we will let it sneak out in these ways. Even when we make attempts to be humble, oftentimes pride shows up. And so justification is not about us having God and Christ Jesus make us something wonderful. It is about how he humbles us to show us you were so dead in your trespasses and sins, you were so totally depraved, but yet, because of the graciousness and righteousness of Jesus, dying for you, giving you faith and making you alive in regeneration, now God declares you righteous and the penalty for sin, you're acquitted from it. I hope you're beginning to see how incredible this doctrine truly is. But the last phrase, is that the statement says, but on account of the obedience and satisfaction of Christ, they, meaning us, those who profess faith, receiving and resting on him in his righteousness of faith. So I said we're gonna talk about Paul's justification. Look at Romans chapter three. Galatians and Romans have a lot of overlap as they talk about justification. So Romans chapter three, we're gonna start in verse 23 that a lot of us know. Because Paul is talking about ultimately that our righteousness is not because of who we are. It's not because we're a Jew. It's not because of the righteousness worked and how we work it out. And so there's no distinction in Christ Jesus for those who are saved. Verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's that humility. The justification helps us understand. And are justified by his grace as a gift to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation, as a sacrifice by His blood, to be received by faith." Notice that our faith is the way that we receive the gift of salvation. It is by grace, it's something God gives us freely, it's a gift, but it's through faith. God's applying the satisfactory sacrifice of His Son as He gives us faith to believe it, and applies it to our account. And so faith is not, and this is something that's a little bit technical but hopefully helpful, faith is not the substance or the reason for our righteousness. This is something that should be helpful for us. It's not as if my amount of faith is something that ultimately makes God give us his righteousness. Faith is not something that can be had in a certain amount of quantity, and therefore that's why we are justified. And so that answers one of the questions, if you were able to read ahead in Galatians 2, is it the amount of faith or the object of faith that justifies us? Is it the amount of faith or the object of faith? Anybody? Object. It's the object of our faith. It's not the amount of faith we have, how much we believe in Jesus. It's that we believe in Jesus, who is all that we need. He is everything. And so therefore, it's not an amount of faith, because we know, Jesus taught us, that even a mustard seed of faith could move mountains. It's not the amount, it is the object of our faith that justifies. And so Luther put it this way, he said, we are married to Christ, and thus all that Christ is belongs to us, including his perfect holiness. That is the basis upon which we stand justified before God. Because justification is a gift of our union with Christ. Because we have died with Christ, because we've been raised with Christ, because of what He did on our behalf, and we are given the gift of faith to believe it and apply it, therefore, we are justified. So practically, justification allows us to stop striving and earning our salvation. It allows us to stop saying, I wish I was all the more faithful, I wish I did X, Y, and Z more, as if that would make us more saved. We either receive the gift of justification, the gift applied to us through justification, or we deny it. We say, I do not want the gift. I deny the truthfulness of Jesus. I deny that I need a sacrifice on my behalf. And so, without justification, we have to understand that Christianity is just like every other world-based religion. But because we are saved in Christ, we do good works. And this is what solves the Paul-James dilemma of Paul saying, we are saved by grace through faith. It is not of works. And James saying, show me your faith without works, and I'll show a faith that is not real. Well, the reality is they're speaking to two different audiences. Paul is speaking to a group of people that wanted to do works to earn their salvation, to Jews that were coming out of Judaism that wanted to say, I'm righteous because of Abraham. I'm righteous because I'm a Jew. And so Paul is saying, no, no, no. It is not about whose family you're in. It's not about the things you've done. You are either righteous because you are in Christ and justified or you are not. So he is trying to cure them of their desire to earn salvation. Does that make sense? Hoping, maybe a few nods. James is addressing a different issue. These are people that are under persecution. They're likely former Gentiles. What they are doing is they are saying, I have faith, but I'm not showing it. There's no evidence of their salvation. they are ultimately living a formerly pagan life and saying, I have faith. And so what James is addressing is the people that want to say they are Christians, want to say that they are following Jesus without any fruit of salvation, without any works that then are evidence of salvation. So ultimately, we can understand that they're addressing two different issues and talking about justification in different ways. Because the justification is by faith, but because you're justified, because you're saved, you will perform good works. So I just want you to think about What is maybe the smallest or most humble act of faith that you've seen? The smallest or most humble act of faith that you've seen in a brother or sister in Christ? Or maybe you can think about the Bible, about an example in the Bible of just small, humble faith. Not presuming, not boastful, just small, humble faith. Any examples come to mind? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so if you couldn't hear that, he was talking about the story of the centurion that comes to Jesus and said, my servant is ill, all you must say is that he is healed. And Jesus praised him for his faith because it wasn't more than just saying, Jesus, I trust that what you say will happen. Yeah, simple obedience, simple, humble faith. Any other examples that you think of? Humble, simple faith, yes sir. Yeah, what could that possibly do for these thousands? Yeah, but just simple providing it to Jesus. You can think of the widow that gave her just two cents to the Lord, greater than anyone else in their great extravagant gifts, because Jesus knew that was all she had. Yes, Sir Malvin? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, my point is to say that ultimately, by receiving and resting on Him, and that's what it says in the conclusion here, receiving and resting on Him and is righteous by faith, The receiving is to believe and to trust, and resting is how we are confident in our salvation. And I think out of both of those things, our works will then flow. Small, humble, very consistent acts of every single morning, I'm gonna get up and pray. Every single morning, I'm gonna know that this day is not my own. That's a simple act of faith. It's every time that the offering plate is passed, you may not have anything to give that day, but you pray, Lord, although I have nothing to give, Father, please multiply the gospel. And I'm just hoping you understand that you stand justified before God no matter how much you give, no matter how much you do, no matter how much you strive. And so therefore, no matter how little you feel like your faith is accomplishing or working out, Or maybe you're just spurned and you're saying, I'm on fire, I must do these things. You don't do them because you think you're gonna earn. You do them because you know you're justified, you knew. And so I think that both humble and grand acts of faith should come out of our understanding that we are justified before God. And so we can do bold and outrageous things because we're justified. We can do humble and simple things because we have no standing to gain or lose. It's not as if we could do wonderful and bold things. We can go stand on street corners. We can go to other nations. We can proclaim the gospel. And what if it never takes fruit? What if there's never a church that gets planted out of your efforts? Well, you have nothing to lose. You're already justified before God. You already stand justified and righteous because of what Christ did. So no matter what fruit God brings of your faithful acts, the Lord is satisfied with you. And that is what is so incredibly praiseworthy about the doctrine of justification. That we do not have to stand, we don't have to worry, we don't have to strive, we can just receive and rest on Him. His righteousness is enough. And so that's why it's incredibly praiseworthy. And so what we see is that God was just to punish sin, and for those that He has put His regenerating, saving faith in, He punished His Son on behalf of us. He is both the just and the justifier of the unrighteous. And there is no one who is righteous on their own accord, but because of the righteousness of His Son, we now are justified. There is no reason for a court of appeals because God has declared the right judgment already. So, friends, I think that we should see the final outflow of the doctrine of justification is that we worship God We worship Him and praise Him because we are justified. We are righteous. We are satisfied in Him. And so, that's really all we need to know. So, I want to pray for us and then we'll close out our Sunday School hour and have a little bit of time to maybe spend time with the Inmans as we're getting to see them. Heavenly Father, I just thank You for the blessing of Your Word, the blessing of how your word has been taught through the centuries as we are standing in light of the church has been teaching justification by faith alone for centuries, Father. From the apostles, recovered in the Reformation in many ways, and now we stand on their shoulders to declare, Father, that we are not righteous in our own, we are righteous because of Jesus, and we stand justified before you in your courts because of Jesus. And so Father, I pray that this would spurn us to small acts of faith. I pray that, Father, we would see our sinfulness, but also see how beautiful we are because of the righteousness of Jesus. Father, I pray that we would not be boasting, but we would be resting and trusting in Jesus because we are justified. And so, Father, I pray that this wouldn't be a dry lesson about some heavy or heady or intellectual doctrine, but, Father, would be something that motivates our worship this morning. The price has been paid. We are justified because of Jesus. Father, let us live out the truth of that righteousness that's living in us in acts of faith, acts of worship. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.