It's been a joy to be here with you. It is always a particular joy of anyone who loves the word of God and loves the Reformed confession of the word of God to worship in a covenant or congregation where worship is conducted rightly according to the word of God and according to the Reformed confession. And I take particular joy in that one of the things that I I tried to do in the In the recent book, I'm sure it won't meet with the satisfaction of everyone in the RPCNA, but I tried to say not so subtly that while it may be thought in some circles that the RPs are the odd ducks out, in fact, from the point of view of the word of God and the point of view of the Reformed confession and the Reformed tradition and Reformed history, that you people are right, at least when it comes to to the regular principle. As to how we ought to approach and approach our God and respond to him. So stick to your guns. I know it's not popular, but it's right nonetheless. So I'm pleased to be with you this morning. It's been a joy to be here with you and to share these these hours and days with you and now to be with you on the Sabbath and to rest in the Lord and to hear his word. The scripture this morning comes from Galatians chapter three. Galatians chapter three, one through fourteen, is the preaching passage. Galatians chapter three, one through fourteen, God's holy, inspired, inerrant, infallible and unchangeable word. Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying in you shall all the nations be blessed so then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse for it is written Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Now, it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law for the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not a faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. As far the reading of God's word, may he write this word on our hearts and may he give us a true understanding. Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're in the epistle of St. Paul or the Apostle Paul to the Galatian congregation, which I understand to have been a congregation located in what is today modern Turkey. Now, for those who are keeping track, if you think about these things, not that it's terribly important, I hold what's called the South Galatian theory, and I think that fits best with the chronology as we have it in the book of Acts. He wrote this epistle about 49 AD, so it's a very early epistle, and he's deeply concerned in this epistle to confront a very serious error, and you can see it in the beginning of Galatians chapter 1 verse 6. He says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. So this, he's facing a problem, confronting a problem boldly. That is of the greatest import to the Christian church and the Christian life. Indeed, as I've been reminding you over the last few days and according to our theologians, the the the doctrine of justification, the doctrine of acceptance with God, the doctrine of being right with God is of the standing or falling of the church. In other words, the church can make mistakes on any number of other things. Not that we would want that, but the church can make mistakes on other things. The one thing the church cannot get wrong, and the thing that if it gets it wrong, it is no longer a church, is the gospel. It's the gospel. It's the thing Or at least one of the three things that most of us say that makes a church a church. The pure preaching of the gospel, the pure administration of the sacraments and the administration of church discipline. So it's on the very short list of anything that any any congregation that would be a congregate would be a Christian congregation. must get right. And he writes then to confront the Galatian congregation about their departure from the gospel, which is the message. The declaration that God, the son has become incarnate, has actively. Obeyed the law of God, has passively obeyed the law of God, and by passively, we don't mean not doing anything, we mean that while he was actively obeying the law, he suffered all his life, and especially at the end, was arrested, crucified, buried, and raised dead and raised on the third day for our justification. That's the gospel. That's the gospel as summarized by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 in the first three verses. So let us not be confused about what the gospel is. And so he writes to confront and correct the congregation and particularly to challenge those within the congregation who are saying something like this. And it's a very seductive message. And I want you to listen very carefully as I explain what it is they were saying. They were saying, you know, it's great to believe in Jesus. Nobody would ever want you not to believe in Jesus. Of course, you should believe in Jesus. But There's always the but. But if you would really have all that God would have you to have, you would really possess all the benefits that are in Christ. If you would, if and here comes the stinger, you would really you would be right with God. You must begin by believing in Jesus, but you must complete that believing in Jesus by obeying the law. That God accepts those, they were arguing, who trust in Jesus and who keep the law. Now, on the surface, that is a very seductive message because, in fact, all Christians at all times and all places have said both things, that you must believe in Jesus and you must obey his law. Who can deny that you have to believe in Jesus to be a Christian? After all, we're called Christians. Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, God the Son, incarnate, that is, having taken on human flesh, entered into history. He is the Anointed One. He is the one upon whom the Holy Spirit was poured out. He is the prophet, priest, and king. He's the fulfillment of all the prophecies. He's the center of redemptive history. Luke 24 says that all of the scriptures to that point, all of the law and all of the prophets, the Torah, the Neviim, and the writings, the Kethuvim, they all point to Yeshua, HaMashiach, Jesus, the Messiah. Jesus made that plain himself. You call yourself Abraham's children. You're not Abraham's children because you don't have Abraham's faith. If you were Abraham's children, you would believe in me because Father Abraham believed in me. John 8, 56. The Apostle Paul said that Jesus is the yes and amen of all the promises of God. And so, we've all agreed about that. And we've all always agreed in all times as Christians that God has a revealed moral will. And historically, we've distinguished between three aspects to the law of God. We've distinguished between the civil aspect of the law, which the Westminster Confession says expired with the fulfillment of the law by Jesus Christ. because they were attached to the National Covenant with Israel that was fulfilled and so those civil laws don't apply any longer, except insofar as the general equity thereof may continue to have something to say to us. We distinguish between the ceremonial aspect of the law. If you came here this morning expecting someone to take a lamb forward and to take out a sharp knife and to slit that lamb's throat, you'll be disappointed. We don't do that anymore. And it's for that reason, for that very reason that the reformed churches in the 16th and 17th centuries quit playing instruments. In fact, most of the Christian church didn't use instruments in divine services because they understood that it was part of the Mosaic covenant, the old covenant, strictly speaking, the Mosaic theocracy. And it was all fulfilled. We don't play instruments and we don't kill lambs. That's what I tell my instrument playing friends. If you'll have your piano, I'll just bring a lamb to service. You play your piano, I'll kill lambs. How's that for a deal? Can we do that? Well, I don't know. They're not so sure about that. Well, what's the matter? They say to me, Psalm 150 says, play these musical instruments. And I said, have you read what the rest of the Psalms say? You know, we have to kill lambs, and we have to declare war on the Canadians, or the Mexicans, or somebody. Figure out who are the Canaanites. Maybe in Colorado it's the Texans, I don't know. You've got to have a holy war. If you're going to be consistent with that way of reading the Psalms, then you've got to have a holy war. But our people understood that. So, we distinguish between the civil aspect of the moral law and the ceremonial, or the civil aspect of the law, the Torah, and the ceremonial aspect of the line we said there is embedded in all that and summarized in the Ten Commandments, the moral law of God. And so, that distinction is found throughout the medieval ages and implicitly in the early church and repeatedly in the Reformation. So, we all believe in Jesus and we all believe in the law of God. To deny that God has a law and that it still binds Christians is called antinomianism. And so it's very seductive when someone comes to the Galatian congregation and says, by the way, you know, we're all one people of God, which is true. Paul teaches that we're going to look at that tonight in 1 Corinthians 10. There's a profound way in which we're all one people of God. And we all believe in Jesus and we all believe in the law. So listen, the way to be right with God. Did you see that little thing that I did? We all believe in Jesus, we all believe in the law, so in order to be right with God, no, wait a minute, that's where you want to pull the emergency cord on the train and say, hold on. That's where you want to blow the air brakes and say, no, hold on here. Yes, we believe in Jesus, and yes, we believe in the law, but you can't add those two things together and say, these are the two things that go together by which we are right with God. Because if you believe in Jesus properly, you understand that while certainly the law, the moral law of God, built into creation, repeated at Sinai, is embedded in special revelation, it's embedded in general revelation. It's written on our consciences. I like to talk about the abiding validity of the moral law in exhaustive detail. All of that's certainly true. But if you really believe in Jesus, you'll understand if you understand who Jesus is and what he came to do, you'll understand that he came to relieve us from the burden of obeying the law in order to be right with God. And that's the thing about which the Apostle Paul wants to confront the Galatian congregation generally and the Judaizers specifically because they're selling a very seductive message. Why is it seductive? Because as my colleague Mike Horton likes to say, we are created in the image of God. We are created. We are wired by virtue of our creation to be law keepers. Pastor and I were discussing a truth that we both have experienced as ministers of the word, and this isn't just picking on you. This is true of every congregation in which I've ever preached, and that's a lot of places over a long time. When I started in the ministry, my beard was brown and my hair existed. And that was a long time ago. But in all of my ministry, one of the things that I've noticed about congregations is they love it when I preach the law. They love it. I can preach Jesus till I'm blue in the face, and people will look at me and they'll say, oh, that's nice. But if I lay into you about how terrible you are and how you ought to keep the law and how you're terrible people and God wants you to keep the law, you will tell me after the service, that was a great sermon, Pastor. Oh, we love that sermon. Partly because Reformed people like to feel bad. The Jews and the Catholics have nothing on us when it comes to guilt. We like feeling guilty because we know that we're wretched, wretched people. And you are wretched people. I'm not kidding you. I mean, you're bad people. Jesus didn't die for nice people. I'm not telling you you're good people and that God loves you because you're good. That'd be a lie. But why do we respond so positively when the minister stands up and yells at us and tells us how terrible it was? And they like it best when we don't give them the gospel. Because what that does is it puts us on a law footing, and we like that. That's intuitive to us. That's natural to us. Because that's how we were created, to obey the law. God created Adam so that he could keep the law. He made a covenant of works that Adam had the power to keep. And so that's very much a part of who we are. We're wired that way. And we like it. And there's nothing wrong with the law. The problem is sin. When we implicitly tell you, as sometimes preachers are wont to do, when we implicitly tell you, and sometimes explicitly, that, you know, you can keep the law, and by keeping the law, God will be pleased with you, we like that because implicitly we're saying that you're not so sinful. I'm not here to tell you that at all this morning. I'm here to tell you that Jesus died for horrible people. People just like you. Miserable, miserable, horrible, wretched, filthy, disgusting people. People like me. Now when I say that, that makes you a little uncomfortable, and you're supposed to. I'm not that bad. I took a shower. I have nice clothes. I mow my lawn. My neighbors think I'm a nice guy. My boss thinks I'm terrific. That's great. What does God think? What does God think? Let me ask you a question. Have you loved the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength? Have you done that perfectly even since this service began? Or have you just for a half second thought, boy, I wish he'd wrapped it up. Do we have to sing all those songs? Will those people ever stop doing that? If you thought that for just a second. If you grumbled in your heart against your spouse. If you children thought, you know, my parents just drive me crazy. Right? All that stuff. If you haven't loved the Lord your God, if you haven't loved your neighbor as yourself perfectly, you need Jesus. And that's what the Apostle Paul wants to say to these Galatians. Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? I came, he says, when I came I preached Jesus crucified. Let me ask you this. You people, you people say you have the Holy Spirit and you do and you have demonstrations of the Spirit in your congregation. But did you did you receive the Holy Spirit because you were keeping the law? Or did you receive the Holy Spirit through faith, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? What Paul is saying here is that When he came, he preached Christ, and having preached Christ, he preached the gospel. And having preached the gospel, God the Holy Spirit softened their hearts and opened their eyes and drew them to Christ and made them alive with Christ, united them to himself by grace alone, through faith alone, through the preaching of the gospel, by the work, the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. And that's what he means by having begun by the Spirit. And now the Judaizers come in and say, if you would, if you would really be right with God, yes, you need to start with Jesus, but you need to add to that law keeping. And that's what he means when he says, are you going to now complete that by the flesh? And by the way, let me warn you, there is a movement afoot that is in the reformed churches that some people are touting as a genuine brand of reformed theology. It's called, in the academic version of it, it's called the New Perspective on Paul or the New Perspectives on Paul. And they're saying that what Paul is teaching in his epistles is that you get into the covenant by grace and you stay in by works. And I have just one verse for my friends in the New Perspective. Having begun by the Spirit, are you now, and this verb here, being perfected, could possibly be translated, are you now perfecting yourselves by the flesh, which he equates here with law-keeping. I don't need any other verse to refute the new perspective than this one right here. The new perspective directly and flatly contradicts the Word of God in Galatians chapter 3. And by the way, there's a subsidiary movement, and that movement has spawned God-children, if you will. And those spawn are called the federal vision. And they are teaching the same thing and they're calling it reformed. It's not reformed. It's not what we confess. We confess exactly the opposite. And the Word of God contradicts it. You don't get in by grace and stay in by works or even stay in through faith and works. Does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do do so by works of the law and the new perspective follows a well works of the law is simply a technical phrase that means obeying the six hundred and thirteen commandments and setting up a boundary and defining markers for the community doesn't really have anything to do with being right with God. Are you kidding me? I am I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ that you're turning to a different gospel. But if even we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be eternally condemned. This isn't about boundary markers. This is about heaven and hell. I'm not saying that doesn't have anything to do with boundary markers, but fundamentally, what Paul is concerned about is how sinners are right with God. And that was and it wasn't just boundary markers that caused him to say to the Galatians, Oh, foolish Galatians, who bewitched you? How could you be so confused about boundary markers? Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? that it was publicly, it was publicly portrayed that Jesus Christ was crucified. Jesus wasn't crucified as a boundary marker. He was crucified as the Lamb of God. It's not about who's in and who's out. That's about who's right and who's not. Who's right with God and who's not right with God. And if Jesus isn't your lamb, if he isn't your sacrificial lamb, if he isn't your righteousness, if you haven't trusted in his obedience for you, his death for you, his resurrection for you, then you're not right with God. And God is not pleased with you. But the gospel is that if you trusted in Jesus, And in His finished work, it is as if, and when God looks at you relative to justification, He only sees the righteous obedience of Jesus. You say, Pastor, is God pleased with me? I say, have you trusted in Jesus? You say, yes, I've trusted in Jesus. Then God is pleased with you. He loves you. He accepts you. And He sees you as perfectly, positively righteous. Jesus didn't just wipe the slate clean so then you could do your part. That was the Judaizing message. Jesus didn't come to make salvation possible for those who do what is within them. Because what's in you is sin, death, and condemnation. And that's why the Reformation said the gospel is outside you. And the righteousness of Christ is outside of you and it's credited to you. And yes, we pray and hope and believe that it's being wrought within us as a consequence of believing in Jesus, as a consequence of having been united to Christ by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. But that's not why we're right with God. And that's not how we plan to present ourselves to God at the last day. We stand before God on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus received through faith alone. And that faith is nothing more or less than resting and receiving in the finished work of Jesus. Yes, it is always accompanied with other graces. Westminster Confession Chapter 11 is clear about that. But those graces have nothing to do with your standing before God. And they have everything to do with being evidence of your righteousness with God. It's the difference between Galatians 3 and James 2. You say you have faith, James 2 says. Show me your faith by your works. That's about vindication. That's about proof. That's about evidence. It's not about being right with God. It's not that complicated. And anybody who comes to you and presents to you a complicated gospel is not a gospel preacher. And you put him out. Jesus obeyed and died for sinners. And anyone who trusts in Him is right with God. That's the gospel. And if I, or an angel, or an apostle, or David, or anyone else should come to you with any other message, let him be eternally condemned. And I don't say that lightly. I know exactly what I'm saying, and I mean it. I say it as a minister of the Word of God, upon whom hands have been laid, having been installed into an office. I am not my own. I belong to my Savior. I've been commissioned. I know it makes people unhappy when I say this stuff, but it's what is required of us. We are men under authority. We don't work for ourselves. We're ministers. We work for our Savior Jesus, who laid down His life for His sheep, for you. Seeing then, it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. Why? Because Abraham was justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Not by works. In you shall all the nations be blessed. Why? Because Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Because his faith looked away from himself, it apprehended Jesus and his finished work. And so all those who believe are blessed with Abraham, the man of faith. And this was all predicted for us. It was all it was all laid out for us in the Word of God. This is the faith of all of God's people in all times and in all places. This is what we have always believed. We haven't always confessed it clearly. We haven't always understood it clearly, and thank God for the Reformation, where it was finally made clear again unequivocally. It was the faith, this is the faith of the apostles of the faith of the early church implicitly. It was the faith of all those who believed. Prior to the Reformation. Even if they didn't confess it clearly or correctly. And it's certainly the explicit faith of the Reformation unequivocally. It's the faith of Luther. It's the faith of Calvin. It's the faith of Bootser. It's the faith of our reformed forefathers. Why do you think those covenanters went through the killing times? Was it ultimately for politics? Was it ultimately for Scotland? It was for Christ. It was for Christ. It was because He laid His life down for us. At the end of the day, kingdoms come and go. Nations perish. God raises them up and He dashes them down. But the kingdom of God is forever. And it never changes. It is what it is. And Jesus is the sovereign king of the kingdom. And He laid down His life. He said, if my kingdom were of this world, I could call down legions of angels. But He didn't do it. He didn't do it because there had to be a righteous sacrifice. There had to be righteous obedience. And He did it for us. He did it for you. And so the scriptures foresaw all of that and looked forward. What is it that makes faith powerful? It's the righteousness of Jesus. It's not the strength of your belief. You say, Pastor, I don't always believe as well as I should. Sometimes I doubt. I say, welcome to the Christian faith. The Westminster Confession recognizes that sometimes we will struggle and sometimes we'll even experience a sense that God isn't with us the way he sometimes is. That's the Christian life. But faith says the gospel is true, whatever my current experience. I'm not justified by the sense of my experience of the presence of God, I'm justified by grace alone through faith alone. And faith trusts and rests and looks to Jesus and in his finished work, and there isn't anything else in faith relative to justification. It's not faithfulness, it's not faith and works. It's not anything but resting and receiving in Jesus Christ and in his finished work. The whole point of using words like resting and receiving is to say it's not my doing. It's not my trying. It's not even my trusting. It's Jesus and his righteousness in which I rest. And in which I receive, that's it. And for those who would corrupt the gospel and take away the good news and take away assurance and take away hope and take away confidence, take away certainty, take away comfort. I have a word for you. For all who rely on the works of the law, however it is, however it is expressed. However pious it may sound. Now, listen to me. This is the word of God. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written. Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. There were 613 commandments. 613, that's both. And you were obligated to do every one of them. You were obligated to love God with all your faculties, without ever deviating, for the smallest fraction of a nanosecond. And Jesus never did. Do you understand that, children? That whatever sins you have, and you have many, when Jesus was your age, He never sinned. He never said to His mom and dad when they weren't looking, Boy, you make me so angry. Clean up my room. You clean up my room. Jesus never said that. Do you know why He never said that? Because He came for you. He came to be good in your place. And He was good in your place. But if you would try to approach God on your own, apart from Jesus, God has only one word for you. Do this and live. Go ahead. Go ahead. Do this and live. Give it a shot. Go for it. I love God with all your heart. You can't even love your neighbor. If my neighbor does that one more time, If he doesn't turn on his stereo, I think I'm going to kill him. Bang! If you've broken one law, you've broken them all. You cut somebody off in traffic. You cut someone off in traffic because you didn't want to go to the next exit. Because after all, you're important. And time is valuable. You cut that guy off behind you on the 25, we say in California about 25, I-25. You murdered that guy. And you're under condemnation. Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything which is written in the book of the law. How do I know how much, how do I know so well what you think? Because I do the same stuff. That's why Martin Luther said, be a sinner. He's not telling you to go break the law. He's saying, don't try to pretend that you're righteous. I used to tell my students at Wheaton College, they just had a revival when I got there. I know I'll stop here in a minute, but they just had a revival when I got there in 95. In 94, they'd had a revival. They have one about every 30 years. The spirit breaks out about every 30 years at Wheaton College. He's regular that way. They'd had protracted meetings, and the boys brought out all their dirty magazines and they burned them. And they confessed their sins, and it was a glorious time of an outbreaking of the Spirit. And I told a dead Orthodox guy that I am dead confessionalist, I said, you know, listen, or you could just be a Lutheran and just be a sinner every day. Instead of pretending that you have it all together, why wait 30 years? Be a sinner now. Recognize your sin now. I'm not saying rejoice in it, but be a sinner. Recognize what you are and don't hide what you are. And turn to Jesus. Now, it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law. For the righteous shall live by faith. Why? Because Adam fell. And when Adam fell, we fell. And our ability to do what God commands was destroyed. It's not the law that is the problem. It's our sin that is the problem. But the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. That's the two basic principles in the word of God are do this and live. or trust in Jesus who did it for you. That's your choice. Cursed and Jesus did it for us, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree so that in Christ Jesus, Messiah Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. If you believe, if you are right with God, it is because you were given the Spirit and it was received, the righteousness of Jesus was received through faith. Give thanks today. Get on your knees today on the Sabbath and give thanks to God who gave you faith by which you received Christ and His benefits. It's a gift. It's a gift. You were just dead in sins and trespasses by nature. And God gave you a gift. And He made you alive. And it's through that gift, through that grace that you live and that God accepts you on the basis of the righteous righteousness of Jesus. Let's give thanks now. Almighty God and merciful father, we give you great thanks this morning that while we by nature were enemies of God. Trusting our fist in your face, nevertheless, Christ died for the ungodly and justified the ungodly. And we accept that again this morning. Thankfully, gratefully, heartily, we repent of our self-reliance and we embrace Jesus with all of our heart this morning and we give you thanks. Hear our prayer. Grant us rest this Sabbath. in the obedience and righteousness of Jesus, and in the abiding presence of the Spirit, and in our union with Christ. For we ask it in the name of Him who came for us, who lived for us, died for us, and was raised for our justification. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. We'll respond now to God's word with his own word. We'll sing Psalm 118 C. We'll stand to sing and verses 10 through 13. 118 C. Thus Jehovah's proud to say, The Lord has for me chastened me, But spare me from the grave. O let me open anew the gates of righteousness, and will I enter into heaven, and I the Lord will bless. This is Jehovah's case I hear, the judge shall enter in. I'll praise ye who have heard my prayer, and have my safety made. That's how it's made, that's what it's known, with pillars in each line. This is the viewing of the Lord, and wonder has been mine. This is the day the Lord has made Let us see glad and glee Oh, let the Lord, oh, give justice Oh, Lord, salvation bring Congregation of the Lord, the grace of Christ, the love of God, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and always. Amen.