The scripture reading is Romans chapter four, if you would like to follow along as I read. Romans chapter four, this is another portion of scripture which relates, of course, to some degree or another, all scripture does so, but this one, really emphasizes, the Apostle Paul emphasizing justification by faith alone. Romans chapter four, beginning in verse one. What then, shall we say, was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he'd been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised so that righteousness would be counted to them as well. And to make him the father of the circumcised, who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. And there you have the word of God, which is to be received then as such. Behind that, of course, is Paul, assuming that we've read Genesis and we know that Abraham believed God and it was counted him as righteousness in Genesis 15. But he wasn't circumcised until Genesis 17. In other words, when Abraham was justified by faith alone, when he was justified, and this is earth-shaking and irrefutable, to the Jews that Paul had come out from among, he was telling them, Abraham, our father, was a Gentile when he was justified by faith. There were no Jews then at all, and therefore the gospel is not by works of the law, but it is by faith in Jesus Christ then. alone. Well, let's ask the Lord's blessing then as we continue to look into this matter of justification by faith alone in the scriptures. Father, we ask your blessing be upon us now as we come to your word. We pray that we would see the gospel more clearly than we ever have before. and that we would be increasingly thankful to you for this great salvation you've given us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that you would help all of us to see to whatever degree there might be in our flesh still this temptation to trust in works or to think that our standing before you has anything to do with how I perform today or yesterday or how I will perform tomorrow, but that the foundation of our salvation, our justification in standing before you is by faith alone in the works of Christ alone. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, yes, as we've already seen, today's Reformation Sunday, and we need, as we've already heard R.C. Sproul remind us this morning in the first session, that we need to be reminded very, very often of what the Protestant Reformation was all about, because it was all about justification by faith alone, And we can easily stray from that doctrine if we're not careful. And there's always false teachers around and Satan's emissaries that are trying to draw us away from Christ. The Lord raised up reformers like Calvin and Luther in the 16th century, in the 1500s. Some of them as earlier on Let's see, was it Wycliffe? One of them was way back, almost like in some of the 1300s, I mean, some of the earliest. But the Lord was raising up people to rediscover, you might say, in the scriptures, the gospel, because it had been lost. I can never remember the Latin, You know, R.C. has got all kinds of Latin there, and he must have studied it, but, you know, there's that, it ends in lux for light, but it means after darkness, light. And that's what kind of was involved here in the Reformation, this great darkness, because of the wickedness of Rome and its false doctrines, and swept over the world, you might say. and this spiritual darkness. And after that darkness came light because the Lord raised up his gospel then once again. And they discovered and preached the solas, the five solas. We've got them. I can never quite read those on the window, but I guess I can see some of them. Sola gratia, by Grace Alone. Sola fidei, by faith alone, sola scriptura, the scriptures alone, sola, I might get these wrong, but solus Christus, by Christ alone, and then what have I missed? I've got them written down here. Solideo gloria, I thought we even added, what's the one clear on the back window there, Bev? Oh, the just shall live by faith. OK, all right. So sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola Christus, sola fide, all for sola dea gloria, all for to God alone be then the glory. Now, the Reformers didn't coin those Latin phrases, but those Latin phrases at some point came to be used to summarize the gospel, what the Reformers found in scripture, scripture alone. instead of Rome's traditions. that not not scripture and rome's tradition rome's traditions always they trump sola sola scriptura you see them make void the word of god but we look to the scripture alone we look to grace alone salvation is undeserved un unmerited favor of god we look to christ alone and his righteousness not some righteousness that is in us by our works, but by the atoning work of Christ alone. Faith alone, of course, sola fide, not faith plus works. And this faith, it turns out, as scripture says, is a gift from God itself. And then glory to God alone. Where the gospel is preached without compromise, there's no room for man's boasting. all the glory goes to God then alone. Well, this doctrine of the gospel, justification by faith alone, was at the heart of the Reformation, which is really to say what was at stake was the gospel, the gospel itself. And just how weighty was that conflict? That's, what was the phrase that R.C. used? He said, some trying to say that, ah, the Reformation was a tempest in a teapot. I was thinking about that, you know. It's like some little thing. You're making a tempest out of what's really just a teapot. You know, this whole Reformation thing, you know, and you'll get. I had one time a liberal Lutheran pastor who, He wanted to deny, he didn't believe in the inspiration and authority of scripture. And he, as I said, a liberal Lutheran, not a conservative Lutheran. But I remember him kind of having that same attitude when I talked to him. I asked him if he believed in the inerrancy and inspiration of scripture. You guys, you're always bringing this. And essentially what he was saying is, there's a tempest in a teapot here. That's what you're saying. But the gospel itself was at stake. Paul tells us how important this issue of the gospel is. Galatians 1, I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one. But there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we've said before, so now I say again, if anyone's preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant. of Christ. So if a person is preaching or sharing or however they're communicating it, a message that's pleasing to the sinner, you can be assured that it's a false gospel because the gospel is not pleasing then to man, you see. If the result is that oh, I have great approval by man because of the message I'm preaching. It's not the gospel of Christ because there's no room for boasting in it. And the sinner wants some religion in which he can at least get a cut in the action here for himself, some glory then for himself. So it has to include room for his works, his merits, And that's the kind of message that the sinner wants to hear. That's the kind of message that gains the approval then of man. But Paul would have nothing of this. He said, I'm not trying to be a man pleaser. I'm trying to be a God pleaser. I'm trying to be faithful to the calling that he's called me by. He says, for I determined to know nothing among you, save except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I'm not going to add this and that to it. I've determined to focus on the gospel. Now, what I want to share with you here is a portion of Martin Luther's preface to his commentary on Galatians. It's an excellent preface. Some years pass. We may have read this together before, but it certainly is something that can be repeated for our profit. So here's what Luther wrote as he's getting ready to introduce his commentary on Galatians. I consider the infinite and horrible profanation and abomination that has always raged in the church of God and still today continues to rage against this one sure foundation, our justification. That is to say, that it is not by ourselves nor by our works, which are less than ourselves, but by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that we are redeemed from sin, death, the devil, and are made to share eternal life. I am compelled to throw away all shame and to be bold above measure." What he's saying is he got through writing this commentary and it was a lot longer than he had planned. He's kind of apologizing, you know. I didn't intend to say this much, and I'm not trying to pat myself on the back, but he says, as I consider the importance of this subject, the gospel, I'm compelled to throw away all shame, and I'm going to be bold as I present this to you. That's what he's saying. In paradise, Satan shook this rock of faith, the gospel, when he persuaded our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, that they could be like God by their own wisdom and power. abandoning true faith in God who had given them life and promised to continue it, then after a while this liar and murderer, true to form, stirred up brother Cain to murder brother for no other reason than his godly brother had offered by faith a more excellent sacrifice, while Cain offered up his own works without faith. They're followed in biblical history, a most intolerable persecution by Satan against this faith, by or through Cain's descendants, until God had to purge the world by means of the flood, defending Noah, the preacher of righteousness. Here is that look, bottom line, Cain killing Abel, explains the history of the world and humanity. That Cain, why did Cain kill Abel? Because Abel offered his sacrifice by faith alone, always been. The spiritual descendants of Cain hate the descendants of Abel, you see, they hate the gospel. Well, Luther continues, after this, the whole world grew mad against this faith. inventing an infinite number of idols and strange religions by which people went their own way, trusting in works to please gods and goddesses without Christ's help and seeking by their own works to redeem themselves from evils and sins. But these things are nothing compared with Israel, the people of God. This is something that's very pertinent for us today, it always has been. Israel's in the news today like every day and ever before. But as Luther is saying here, and you know, anybody that says this stuff, and Luther would be accused of anti-Semitism and so forth, but the nation Israel, was the most privileged nation of all the nations. God chose Abraham and from his descendants made a covenant with them and sent them the prophets and all these things. And yet, Israel was worse than the nations because Israel always was, except for a very small remnant, always was and continues to be today an idolatrous nation. an idolatrous nation. You know, some kind of a sideline here to help us. We need to be careful. The Austins back in Tennessee showed me an example of this from MLJ, from Lloyd-Jones, some of Lloyd-Jones' writings on the providence of God. And they showed this to me recently. It said, Lloyd-Jones said, because he was in London during the Second World War and experienced all the horrors of war there. And he gave some examples, some quotes. He said, there were in World War II and just before World War II, there were Christians, evangelical Christians in Germany who were, and he quoted them, he quoted their prayers, who were praying and giving thanks to God for raising up this savior of our nation, Adolf Hitler. Because, you know, he looked like he came on the scene, this is how it's going to be with Antichrist. He came on the scene, they were having all these economic crashes and so on. So here he comes. Surely this is the providence of God. Surely God's raising this up to, you know, God bless Germany. And he's doing all, and here they were praying for about one of the most satanic men that then ever lived. And what Lloyd-Jones' point there was, we need to be careful. We need to be careful about about just saying, reading into events, oh, this is the hand of God, this is what God's, this is how he's working here, and he certainly is working, but to specifically say, oh, all right, God's blessing America here, or God's blessing Israel here, and so forth, well, you can end up, you can end up misinterpreting and going very, very wrong. And so we need to be wise. And not, as is so often the case among so many evangelical Christians, Israel, Israel, Israel. Israel, right or wrong, right or wrong, you see. And I'm not saying one way or another. They were horribly attacked by Hamas. But just take care. We need to take care. And we'll see what God is doing then in time. Anyway, he goes on. These are nothing compared with Israel, the people of God, who not only had the sure promise of the patriarchs and afterwards the law given to them by God himself through his angels, but also had the constant witness of the prophets' words, miracles, and examples. Even so, Satan so dominated them and their outrageous opinion they had of their own righteousness that they later killed all the prophets and even Christ himself, the son of God, their promised Messiah. And the reason was that these prophets had taught that people are accepted into God's favor by grace alone and not by their own righteousness. The devil and the world have always taught that we do not want to appear to do evil, but that whatever we do, you know, Take care that you understand this. The devil and the world have always taught, that is, sinners have always taught and wanted to believe. We do not want to appear as evil, all right? But that whatever we do, whatever the sinner does, God must allow it. And all his prophets must consent to it or die. Right, and that's the same thing then today. Tell me that whatever I do, God is gonna excuse it, God's gonna approve of it, and that's the message we wanna hear preached in our churches, and if we don't hear it, out with the guy, right? That's how the sinner operates. Abel shall die, and Cain shall flourish, you see. I am content, Luther says, to allow this too lengthy commentary to be published in order to stir up all the brothers in Christ against the slights and malice of Satan, which these days are turned into such madness against the wholesome knowledge of Christ revealed and risen. Particularly, he's talking about Rome. Satan doesn't rage against the lives and opinions of whoremongers, thieves, murderers, perjurers, rebels against God, and unbelievers. Rather, he gives them peace and quietness. He gives them everything they want. In the same way, in the early days of the church, he permitted all the idolatries and false religions of the whole world to be quiet and untouched, and he maintained and defended and nourished them. It was only the church and religion of Christ that he attacked on every side. Paul, here in Galatians, sets about establishing the doctrine of faith, grace, forgiveness of sins, or Christian righteousness. His purpose is that we may understand exactly the nature of Christian righteousness, and by that he means true righteousness, the righteousness of God which is imputed to us, all right? His purpose? Paul's purpose is that we may understand exactly the nature of Christian righteousness and its difference from all other kinds of righteousness for there are various sorts of righteousnesses. And he's gonna give three of them. He says there is a political or civil righteousness. And what he's talking about there is our nation, our community, our state has certain laws. And we are to obey those laws and thereby have a right standing before the law of the state of Oregon or whatever it might be. There's that kind of civil righteousness. There's also a ceremonial righteousness. And what he means by that is a cultural righteousness by which we are taught, hopefully, when we're young, manners and politeness and to act rightly then in society, right? There's not much of that righteousness nowadays. And then he says, besides this, there's a third kind of righteousness called the righteousness of the law. the Old Covenant, keeping the Ten Commandments, that kind of righteousness you see. And yet, none of those, we can not be saved by any of those, but there is another righteousness which is above all these, namely the righteousness of faith, or Christian righteousness, which we must carefully distinguish from the other sorts, for they are quite contrary to this righteousness. because they flow out of the laws of rulers or from the traditions of the church, and also because they consist in our works and are to be performed by us in our natural strength. But this most excellent righteousness, that of faith, I mean, which God imputes, credits to us through Christ without works, is neither political nor ceremonial, nor is it the righteousness of God's law, nor does it consist in work. It is quite the opposite. That is to say, now look at these terms here. That is to say, this Christian righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, by which we're justified before God, is a passive righteousness, whereas the other righteousnesses are active. In this Christian righteousness, which is passive, we do nothing in this matter. We give nothing to God. We simply receive, he does the giving, and allow someone else, Christ, to work in us. That is Christ, or God. This is a righteousness hidden in a mystery that the world does not know. Even Christians themselves, and he's talking about us here now, even we ourselves don't thoroughly understand it. We can hardly grasp it, especially in the times of temptation. And he's gonna talk more about that in a moment. But pay attention to this. When Satan attacks, and in times of temptation, or times of when he's accusing us, our flesh will more easily than we might realize drive us back to this active righteousness, this works, this focusing upon what we have done, the sins that we have done and that therefore I'm right on the line of trusting in of thinking that my approval before God depends upon how righteous of a life I've been living my whole life. You see, that kind of a thing. He'll explain it more in a moment. Therefore, this must be diligently taught and continually practiced in the churches. It's not surprising that Paul was astonished at it, that Satan's emissaries followed on the heels of Paul. After he preached the gospel in the churches of Galatia, these wicked ones come in to trouble the new believers by trying to knock them off of the foundation of sola fide, by grace alone. And this is a fact that we have to firmly, firmly grasp. Here it is. Satan, from the very first day, Genesis, has never ceased a war against the gospel of Christ to confuse and clutter this true righteousness, which is by faith alone. We must not be so foolish as to be blind to this and assume that everything and everyone that claims to be Christian surely, surely is. You know, this guy, this guy's a preacher, so surely he must be preaching the truth, you see. We must not plug up our ears when we hear someone pointing out that most of that which presents itself as the church of Christ is a counterfeit. God's word warns us of this attack on the gospel from Genesis chapter one right through Revelation chapter 22. Now let's hear from Luther one more time as he shows us that even we who are in Christ will be robbed of the peace that God gives us in Christ If we relapse into performance, if we relapse into trusting in our works for God's approval, it doesn't mean, this is not libertinism, this isn't teaching that, oh, well, I don't have to worry at all then about trying to please God. We're talking about works in relation to justification, right? Luther goes on, human weakness and misery is so great that in the terrors of conscience and the danger of death, we see nothing but our works. In other words, he's saying our tendency, now this is true, what he's saying here is true of unbelievers, certainly, but let's talk about ourselves as Christians. and how Satan works in all of this. You'll see what he means here. Human weakness and misery. My weakness and misery in this flesh, in this world, is so great sometimes that in the terrors of conscience and danger of death, we see nothing but our works, our unworthiness, and the law. And when we are shown usually by Satan, accused, reminded of our sin. In that time, our tendency is to remember the evils of our past life. And then what happens? The poor sinner groans with great anguish of spirit and thinks, alas, what a dreadful life I've lived. Would to God I might live longer than I would amend my life. Now, if you're a Christian, you can identify with that kind of a temptation as you begin. You know, Satan comes, he can accuse us, something can kind of trigger you and you start thinking about your life years ago and how you've performed. And I don't know about you, but I didn't perform very well. And your sins start coming home at you And then you so easily warp into this thinking that how could God be, God's still aware of that stuff that I did. He's still aware of it and he frowns. I'm displeasing. When I'm thinking that way, I've reverted into that works righteousness thing. depending on my works and my performance for the basis of my standing then, before God. Would to God that I might live longer than I would amend my life. No, you wouldn't. And neither would I. One thing to realize at that point, look, this is vital. If you're a Christian, that guy or that gal that you're thinking of years back, okay, years back, that person is dead. You aren't that person anymore. You're a new creation in Christ. That person that I used to be was pathetic, but he's dead. He died with Christ and and a new creation has been raised up. But we still need to be on guard against this business of lapsing into Satan's accusations. He goes on, thus human reason cannot restrain itself from the side of this active or working righteousness that is by works. our own righteousness, nor can it look up to see the passive or Christian righteousness, but it relies altogether on works righteousness, so deeply is this evil rooted in our flesh. Now, as I said, these statements apply to the sinner, for sure, he's depending upon his own work for righteousness, but we can lapse into that kind of thinking ourselves. And if we do that, we get into all kinds of trouble. And then on the other hand, Luther continues, Satan abuses this natural weakness in us, and he increases and aggravates these thoughts of ours, that is, he accuses us. And then our poor conscience becomes more troubled, terrified, and confounded and ashamed, for it's impossible for the human mind, in and of itself, to conceive of any comfort or to look only to grace in the feeling and horror of sin, or to constantly reject all argument and reasoning about words. This is far above human strength and ability, and indeed above the law of God as well. The law is excellent, but it is not able to quiet a troubled conscience, but makes our terrors worse and drives us to desperation." This means this, for the Christian, all right? For the Christian. When my mind, be it from Satan's accusations, from my own memory, whatever the source, whatever the source, maybe you're laying in bed at night or something, or you're just sitting in a chair somewhere and thinking, your mind's going, and something brings to your remembrance your past life. before you knew Christ, or maybe even just yesterday, right? And it's sin, and you remember your sin, so you remember it. Now, what is the remedy? And obviously, since you're troubled by it, you've confessed those sins before, and yet, here they come again, and they're on your mind, and you're just shaking your head, How could I have done that? How could I have thought that? How could I have said that? What is the remedy? Our flesh will have us run for a remedy to the law. And what's going to happen to a troubled conscience? The law will make your terrors worse, you see. The remedy is We flee to Christ. Look, look, the law, Satan, is not my remedy here. I know I did all those evil things, but number one, that guy is dead. That's not who I am anymore. Here's who I am now, then, in Christ. And here's the key, here's the essence of the gospel. My standing before God, my justification, my being right with God doesn't depend on my performance. It doesn't depend on that. What it depends on is Christ's performance for me. That is my righteousness. That's why, you know, when Luther finally understood that, How did he put it? Something like, the gates of paradise opened up to me and I walked through. Because he finally recognizes, it's not my performance, it's Christ's righteousness. Therefore the troubled conscience, Luther says, has no remedy against the desperation and eternal death unless it takes hold of the forgiveness of sins by grace freely offered in Christ Jesus. That is to say, this Christian righteousness. If the conscience can take hold of this, then it may be at rest and boldly say, I do not seek this active or works righteousness, although I know I ought to have it. and also fulfill it, but even if I had it and could actually fulfill it, I still couldn't place my trust in it. Thus, I must abandon all active righteousness, both of my own and of God's law, and embrace only that passive righteousness that is the righteousness of Christ in grace, mercy, and forgiveness of sin. I rest only on the righteousness that is the righteousness of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. You can grow up, and many of you have, you can grow up in a home that claims to be a Christian home. But in a home that says it's a Christian home, and I suppose in ways especially in a home like that, you, your parents, maybe the church you go to, can fail in this regard and you end up being taught that your ultimate approval by God is based upon your performance. Now I'm probably not going to be able to, some of you can explain this better than me, but We oftentimes, people oftentimes carry into their adulthood, I mean, to some degree, this is true of all of us, but we carry into our adulthood a false theology, this idea of this active righteousness. Now, for instance, our children need the law, and to an extent, so do we. We need it to show us what is right and wrong, and our children You know, we expect them to obey the law, to obey mom and dad, and that there are sanctions if they don't obey mom and dad. And that kind of righteousness is one of those righteousnesses that Luther was talking about. But somehow or other, if we fail to communicate to our children that that's how it is with God. You know, if we, I said that wrong, if we wrongly communicate to our children that your standing with God is based upon how good you do, how well you perform. If we communicate that to our children, our children are gonna grow up being in trouble. They're gonna be in trouble. Why is that? Because when it comes to our standing before God, in and of ourselves as active righteous, we can never be good enough. By the works of the law, there's only a curse. If you fail at one point, one little point to keep God's law, you've broken the whole thing, right? That's how it is. So when we present Christ to our children or to anyone, we have to be careful to emphasize to them, look, Johnny, You want to live, you want to obey. Here's God's law. You want to obey it. I hope that you do. We should want to obey God and please him. But if you want to be saved, if you want to really know God, if you want to be born again, you're never going to get there by being good. The only way that you're gonna get there is by Jesus Christ, you see. So that, think about all the baggage that goes out the window when you finally get a hold of, you know, my father never did approve of me. He never will approve of me. He was always down on my case. But when I realize that's not how God is, God justifies me as a gift simply by receiving by faith the righteousness which he's provided for me in Jesus Christ. And when I'm born again, when I know him as my heavenly father, he loves me and he's delighted in me. We dare not fail to communicate that, then, you see, to our children. In Romans 4, as we just read earlier, Paul goes at lengths to show us that this justification is by faith alone, and that it always has been, even from the earliest days. I won't take the time that's in your hand out there to read it again, but we've already seen this. Abraham was justified by believing God. And he was counted righteous before God as a result of it. In the New Testament, we repeatedly come across this term, the promise. The promise. The promise in the New Testament is essentially synonymous with the gospel. Now think about it this way. We'll read about it here in Galatians in a moment, but God provided salvation, this justification to Abraham and to David by means of how? The promise, that's how scripture puts it, the promise. And here's how it works. Our salvation, well, let's back up. In the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, under the law, under the law, as it is today. If a person not in Christ, they're under the law. and they're condemned. Why? Because under the law, the way it works is God says, I covenant with you to do this and this and this and bless you if, if you obey my law. Okay? That's how it works. That's how it works. Abraham was not justified by works of the law. He was justified by faith in what's called the promise. What's a promise? The way scripture presents the promises, God makes a promise. The gospel is God making a promise. Now, I guess we could illustrate it like this. If I enter into a contract, with Mac, say, we enter into a contract together. And then that contract is gonna have terms in it. And the way, you know, to keep this contract, I have a part to play and Mac has a part to play, all right? That's how the law works. Here's the covenant, here's the terms, Israel, you do this, and God says, I'll do that, and so on. and that has sanctions, a covenant or a contract has sanctions. If you don't do it, you're gonna have your property repossessed or something like that. But Paul is very anxious to emphasize to us that Abraham was justified by faith in the word of God, in the promise of God. A promise works like this. If I, again, I say, let's say, I'll use Mac as an illustration, let's say Mac, I promise to do this for you. And there's no if. It's entirely dependent upon me to fulfill that promise. Now, Mac may never realize the promise because I might sin and not fulfill the promise, not keep my word. But God can't do that. When God makes a promise, it's inevitable that it's going to be fulfilled. And that's what the gospel is like. Promise depends upon God and God alone. That's what the new covenant is. Let's look at it here in Galatians 3. This is what I mean, starting in verse 17. The law, which came 430 years afterward, that's like in Moses' time, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void. God had made a promise to Abraham, which is essentially the gospel, the promise of his seed, great nation, and the Lord Jesus, and so on, all right? So then God gives the law. Now the law doesn't annul that promise. The promise still stands. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. Why the law then? How come God gave the law then 430 years later? It was added because of the transgressions until Christ, the offspring, the seed should come to whom the promise had been made. And yet the law was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary, and it's like, gets a little complicated, but I think the intermediary here is Moses. An intermediary implies more than one. That is in the Mosaic law, implied more than one. God will do this, Israel you do that, and Moses is the mediator, okay? That's how it worked. But, God is one. And what he's saying here, in the promise, God is the only one upon whom fulfillment of the promise is dependent. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not. If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin, under the law so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law in praying the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian, our tutor until Christ came in order that we might be justified. The law was always pointing, pointing to Christ. You need a savior. You're gonna perish under the law. There's no salvation here, only condemnation. But now that faith has come, the new covenant, we are no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free. There's no male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. And there it is, you see. Our salvation, our justification before God, is dependent upon him. He's done it all. Jesus paid it all. It's all done. I receive it by faith. Luther reminded us, and we've already heard him remind us, that Satan has always been working, he's always at work to lead us away from the righteousness of Christ. Look it, to some degree or another, you do this every day, and so do I. We quickly revert into thinking God's approval or disapproval of me at this moment is dependent upon how good I'm doing. See? Now, but when it comes to justification, being born again, being counted righteous before God, that thinking has to go out the window. Of course, Every single day, as long as I'm in this fallen flesh, my performance is going to be lacking. I'm going to sin. I think we'll find out, I don't know, maybe God will just, in his mercy, not even tell us. How much sin do we commit that we're not even aware of? But my standing before God, and Him as my Heavenly Father, doesn't depend on my performance. It depends upon the performance of Jesus Christ, that He has perfectly then fulfilled the law. Satan's intent in Eden was to motivate Cain to kill It's why Noah and his family were persecuted by the world and that battle still rages today because the world hates the gospel. Satan is incredibly deceitful in his attacks on us. For example, Galatians 2. Paul says, but when Peter, Cephas, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. The rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. Now, apply that this way. If the Apostle Peter and even Barnabas, who was the immediate associate of Paul, and if millions and perhaps billions of professing Christians down through the centuries have been deceived and led astray by Satan's false gospel, do we think that we could never be in danger of that? Are the Reformers' harsh words for the Pope and Rome offensive to us? You know, don't be so hard on Rome. Why wouldn't we be hard on Rome? Rome is Satan's masterpiece. Rome is the product of the spirit of Antichrist, you see. Paul himself pronounces these minions of the devil among the Galatians to be anathema, damned by God. Let them be damned by God. Are the reformers' harsh words improper? When in fact the Lord Jesus told the Pharisees, you are of your father the devil. You're murderers, you're liars, just like him. And do we understand then, Are we so overconfident in ourselves? Oh, we don't need to be on guard against a false gospel, you know, against works, righteousness, and so on. That could never happen to me. And yet, we know that the day now is and is moving rapidly to the time when Antichrist That little horn, that boastful little horn of Daniel 7 is gonna come to worldwide power. And get this, the entire world is going to be deceived by him. That's how strong the deception is, except for those whose name is in the Lamb's Book of Life, that little remnant. Children, it's the last hour. And as you've heard that Antichrist is coming, So now many antichrists have come. Therefore, we know it's the last hour. And again, every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming, and get this, now is in the world already. And I included Revelation 13, verses one through eight in your handout. You can read that later, but it talks about how the whole world is gonna be deceived. and run after them, the Antichrist. And at the core of this satanic religion, as it always has been, is this hatred and denial of justification by faith alone in Christ alone. This is why Satan has done all he can. He's still doing it today. He certainly was doing it in the time of the reformers, he's doing all he can to destroy the Bible off the face of the earth. He's always been doing that. Anybody start translating the Bible into English and they're going to get burned at the stake. Why? Because it's the gospel. The gospel is there. And when the gospel gets into the hands of people, Antichrist's kingdom then is threatened, you see. I've met the Antichrist, or at least his minions, and I bet you have, too. Maybe you didn't realize it at the time, or maybe you did. The representatives of the Antichrist, most commonly the ones I've met, have been so-called ministers in local churches. And how do I know that they're the Antichrist? Because they deny that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant word of God. And what they're doing is mimicking Satan's words, the serpent's words. Indeed, has God said, you fool, you don't believe that stuff then, do you? You see, and so on and on it goes, and we have to be wise in this regard. on the day when Christ comes and he receives his people into his presence, which I hope that will be true of all of us here and all of you listening. But there will be myriads of people, and not just people, but people who claimed to be Christians. And here's what they're gonna hear. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Why? Because they would not have the gospel. They refused to believe that sola fide, Solus Christus is the only way then of salvation. They were depending upon their works. We prophesied in your name. We cast out demons in your name. We did all these mighty works in your name. Depart from me. I never knew you. We have to be on guard. Satan really is prowling every bit as much as he then always, always has. But at the same time, we give thanks to God. for the great salvation he's given to us in his son. Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for the good news of the gospel. Thank you that you have done what we could never do, sent your son to perfectly obey your law in our place, in taking the curse which belonged upon us taking it then upon himself. Father, we thank you. We thank you that you always keep the light of the gospel shining, even in the darkest of times, and that one day the darkness will be dispelled, once and for all, for good. May that time come quickly, and we pray this in Christ's name, amen.