in his wonderful book. It's actually a compilation of letters that he wrote to young ministers. He's in the 1700s. And he is explaining lots of ways you can get the gospel wrong. And he says this. It is not the gospel of Christ or glad tidings of salvation, the sinful man as such. Though the preacher should all his life discourse of the person, natures, and offices of Christ, or of his birth, life, obedience, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, sitting at the right hand of God, intercession, and coming to judgment, or of his merits and purchase, unless, and he has a bunch of unlesses here, you are not preaching the gospel unless that the preacher truly state the nature of his surety undertaking for us, the substitution of himself in our room and stead as the second Adam, So he's saying you're not preaching the gospel. You're not preaching the gospel unless you preach Christ as the surety. That means the legal guarantor, the one who enters into a broken covenant of works to achieve its righteousness and to satisfy its penalty. The substitution of himself in our room instead, in our place instead, as the second Adam. You're not preaching the gospel unless You truly state Christ's relation to the new covenant of grace as mediator, surety, and administrator of it. His relation to sinful men as their appointed savior, offered and given to them in the gracious declarations, promises, and invitations of God, his relation to his people as their spiritual head and husband, as their only righteousness before God their judge, as the source of their sanctification by his blood sprinkled on their conscience to free them from the law, or broken covenant of works as the strength of sin, and purge their conscience from dead works to serve the living God, and by himself and his spirit dwelling in them as a vital principle of holiness, enabling them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." He also says, you can talk about Jesus as much as you want, and you are not preaching the gospel unless you truly represent the perfect freedom of God's sovereign grace and the offers of the gospel, and show that therein Christ, as the Savior, Husband, and Portion, and eternal life of holiness and happiness, as completely purchased by and lodged in Him, are freely, without any regard to their good resolutions, sincerity, repentance, or good works, as the cause, presented, offered, and urged on men as sinners, even the chief of sinners." So what's he saying there? You're not preaching Christ unless you preach that it is absolutely free, independently of good resolutions, sincerity, repentance, or good works. Now, don't Christians do good works? Yes. Don't they repent? Yes. But is that what saves them? No. Nope. Not even partially. Not even a little bit. It also says you can discourse about Jesus all you want, but you're not preaching the gospel. unless you truly represent the state of sinners' justification before God only through the imputed righteousness of Christ, offered in the gospel and received by faith, uniting their persons to Him as their surety and husband, who has completely paid their debt to the law as a broken covenant of works, and show that no works of theirs, no, not those which some call evangelical, have any influence as any part or ingredient of the condition and ground of it. You hear that? He says, if you don't make this clear, if you don't say, if you don't say your works are not even an ingredient, aren't a condition, and are not grounds for your justification in any way, shape, or form, you're not preaching the gospel. You are not preaching the gospel. He also says, or, if he does not represent faith in its true nature, as a persuasion of the infallible truth of God's record, that there is eternal life in his Son for us lost sinners, as a receiving and resting upon Christ alone for salvation, as he is freely offered to us in the gospel. Notice, faith, what is faith in Jesus Christ? It is receiving and resting on Christ alone. And that's all it is. Faith does not include our love for God. Love for God or affection for God is not part of what saving faith is. Obedience to God is not part of what saving faith is. It is simply receiving and resting upon Christ. Love for God is a fruit, just as Galatians 5, 22 says. The fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian is love. Love is not the cause, not the cause of our salvation. It's not even an ingredient of a cause or a condition. It's a fruit, the fruit that grows. He also says, John Brown of Huntington says, you are not preaching the gospel. If you do not urge our receiving of Christ as the means of renewing our heart and our living on him by the daily exercise of faith, according to our new covenant state as the means of producing good works and serving God in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives. And he goes on from there and lists a few more things. And he closes the letter in short, the least neglect to hold forth Christ as God's free gift and our all-in-all in any privilege or duty, or the least recommendation of sincerity, repentance, good purposes, or works as the ground of our warrant and welcome to receive Jesus Christ as the Savior, or as a cause or condition of our title to salvation, or a ground of our full possession of it, tends to pervert the glorious gospel." End quote. Amen, brother, amen. Wow, have we lost so much of that in the fear of being antinomian or easy-believism? Unfortunately, a lot of people think that legalism is the answer. Yeah, if you're an antinomian, the response to that, let's just be legalists and that'll solve the problem. No, it doesn't. All it does is it turns people either into neurotic and depressed Whoops. I told myself not to do that. Can you all hear me better now? Okay. Hopefully that's better. I keep forgetting to swing this microphone over here. It's still a new piece of equipment to me, but this thing is pointed at it. Okay. That's it. I need to put a sticky tab on my foreheads. That way when I start recording, I can actually see it. Turn the mic over to your face. Okay. So hopefully that came through well enough. All right, let's see. There's Rich. Brother Rich, good to see you, man. There's Susan. Howdy, Susan. Out there in sunny California, it's gray and raining all day here. There's Julia Falling. Howdy there. There's Robert Vogler. Paul Garvey. Oh, good. It came through. At least you could hear it, even though there's a little reverb. Okay, that's good. So that quotation was from Council to Gospel Ministers by John Brown of Haddington. Now, why did I want to talk to you today about Biblical grace and boasting. I've been thinking a lot about the ways that the gospel has been perverted in my lifetime, and I was thinking about stuff like that. And one of the things that I've always done in my ministerial life as a ruling elder, I was an elder for six years before I was a pastor, and I've been a pastor for, let's see, the last 16 or 18 years? I can't remember. It's been a while. It's all a blur now. But I've always met with people, met with guys, just guys, and have read scripture together. And right now I'm meeting with two separate guys and we're reading Romans. I've read through the book of Romans many, many, many times with brothers in Christ, and I've just enjoyed doing that so much. But I was noticing that term boast, boasting, and also just in my other Bible reading, noticing the word boasting and that boasting is excluded. Why is boasting excluded? And I've also been reading through the canons of Dort again, which is very devotional. I highly recommend it. Those guys at the Synod of Dort in 1618, 1619, they wrote that document for lay people. They intentionally did not make it for other academics, and it's wonderful. I love it. It's just very devotional. It gets you into the scriptures and helps you understand the biblical doctrine of grace and the atonement, and it's just wonderful. I've used the Reformed Confessions as my devotions. for a long time now, and I plan to do that indefinitely. Chad Van Dixhorn, the red hardback one. I was using the green Reform Confessions, but I actually like the format of the red one, probably because the words are bigger, and I'm having to use reading glasses, but I don't need my reading glasses with Van Dixhorn's Reform Confessions, so I've been using that one. But reading Romans and Just learning, you know, every time I read that book, I'm thankful to God for it. It's such a blessing, such a wonderful blessing. And I want to read some of it here to you, Romans and the New American Standard here. Romans 3, 27 asks the rhetorical question, where then is boasting it is excluded? It is excluded. I just think, how can people still be getting the gospel wrong? If you include the sinner's love for God in inside your definition of saving faith, you don't have a gracious gospel then because then the gospel, the righteousness by which we enter heaven is in the law. And Paul says in Romans 3 21, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, meaning the old Testament taught this all along. Um, and boasting is not part of it because. The righteousness by which we enter heaven is not ours. It's Christ's. And so if righteousness by which I get into heaven is Christ's, and faith is the passive receiving instrument of that righteousness, where's the whole thing then? When I know that saving faith is the blood-purchased gift of Christ for His elect people, guaranteed by His decree of election, all that the Father gives me will come to me. That means believe in me. Where's boasting? It's excluded. Can a true Christian who really gets this ever look down their nose at anyone for any reason at all? Look down their nose at another sinner? Think that they're better than anyone, really, at the end of the day? No, we can't. If we really understand grace, if we really understand why we're saved and why we're going to heaven, there is no boasting whatsoever. And on a Wednesday night study here at church, we've been studying apologetics, and it's still apologetics, but I wanted to go through a bunch of passages on evangelism, like classic key evangelistic passages that would be great. um, to be able to recite from memory or to just walk people through. If you know someone who's got questions or their objections, just see, see if they'll, you know, read a couple of verses of the Bible and see what, see what you think, you know, cause that's ultimately what you want people to do is interact directly with the text of scripture because that's their only hope. That's how God regenerates people. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10 is absolutely unassailable. If you understand this passage, you're not going to get the gospel wrong. You're not going to include works anywhere in the equation. And I shared this passage, Ephesians 2, 8 through 10 is a great passage. Many people know it from memory, and rightly so. But I witnessed to a lady years ago, or actually this is before I even had children, so this is right after Amy and I got married, and we We're doing a Bible study at this lady's house. She showed up at our church and, um, had some questions about the Christian faith. She was not a believer. And, um, I said, why don't we do a Bible study? And she volunteered to host it at her house and she would make soup or something like that. And it was great. We would get there and there were a bunch of people there. She invited her friends and everything. And it was, it was great. There were a lot of unbelievers there. And we just read through books of the Bible and we studied, um, the gospel. And the thing is. It took a lot of work, and I walked her through many passages, but the one that I saw the lights finally come on was this one, Ephesians 2, 8-10. And there's a very specific phrase here that really showed her, really showed her the gospel. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." And I remember her stopping at the end of verse 9, not as a result of works, not by works, lest anyone should boast. And she was thinking about that. I could see the wheels turning. Yeah, I guess if I thought my church membership or baptism or my faithfulness to God or anything I did, if I thought that that contributed to my salvation, then I would be able to boast. I would most certainly boast, and rightly so. If the decisive factor is within us—in fact, I was reading in the Canons of Dort, and they condemn as Pelagianism anyone who thinks that saving faith comes from us, that it originates in us, that grace only makes it possible, but we're the decisive factor. They said that smacks of Pelagianism. That is a false gospel. That's wrong. Faith does not grow. in our hearts. It is not something that we drum up within ourselves. It is the result of the effectual, irresistible call of God. It is the result of being given a new heart. And so we are saved by grace through faith, not works, and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not as a result of works, not anything we do, so that no one may boast. The Roman Catholic Church is correct in the Gospel, which it is not, but if they were, by your cooperation and ascending and doing good works with the help of grace, you end up being your own savior, you could boast. You could say, I'm in heaven because I did this and those blokes down there in hell didn't. You would have every right to boast, because although grace made it possible and couldn't have done it without it, it's not effectual. It doesn't actually save, it only makes salvation possible, and then whether it's going to work is left in your hands. So if you end up saved, who's going to receive part of the glory? Who's going to be able to boast? We are. We are. So the exclusion, the exclusion of boasting is absolutely vital to understanding the biblical gospel and all of these false versions of the gospel that are out there, you know, the John Piper version, the federal vision version. where, well, no, works aren't a necessary ground, but they are a necessary condition, coming right out of the theology of Norman Shepard, word for word, same exact identical stuff. Or, you know, initial justifications by faith alone and future justifications are by obedience, and then the final judgment accords with our works. No, uh-uh. Wrong. That's an error. That's fatal. At the end of Galatians, Paul says in Galatians 6, 14, God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What's my only boast? Christ. Yeah, but don't you have to do good works? Don't you have to have to add something? No. Nope, I don't. Oh, you're an antinomian. No, I'm not. God changes our hearts. God sanctifies us. God makes us better. God makes us more holy. God forbid, he says, Galatians 6 14, that I should boast except in the cross. of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Second Corinthians chapter 10, verse 17 and 18, but he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord for not he who commends himself as approved, but whom the Lord commands. Okay. Um, first Corinthians one 31 slides that same passage from the old Testament that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory. in the Lord. And so there is no room for boasting. There is no room for boasting. And if people just got that, what a blessing that would be. So any understanding, any understanding of the gospel that messes that up, I would encourage you to run for your life. Run for your life. Because there is no room for boasting when it comes to being saved. God's grace is not an aid. God does not put a system in place that we then work to save ourselves or anything like that. And then we give praise to God for making it all possible. No, God is the one who does everything. Romans chapter four, I just was reading this yesterday with a young guy here at church. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, was found? For if Abraham was justified by works, and there are a lot of people, including federal visionists, who interpret James chapter two to be saying that Abraham was justified before God by works. Paul says, if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. Why? Well, because Abraham believed. He didn't work. He didn't do anything. He believed and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness." I want you to reflect on that. Who does God justify? The wicked. The wicked, as I recall, that's asebe. Yeah, asebe in Greek. The wicked, the ungodly. Rome says God only justifies those who are righteous. Paul says God justifies the wicked. while they're still wicked. Well, how can he do that and be true to his nature? Imputation. His faith is credited, imputed as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Not with the help of works, not partially by works, but apart from, apart from works. Chorus ergon, apart from works. Our works play no role in saving us, that's why boasting is off the table. And every neonomian, and that just refers to new legalistic forms of false gospels, they all make that error. They all, in the final analysis, have the sinner with some measure, some grounds, upon which he can boast. And the biblical gospel does not allow for this. Over and over again, it says that. I was just talking to a young fellow here about Romans 4, verse 9 and 10. Is this blessing then on the circumcised or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. There's a citation of Genesis 15, 6 again. How then was it credited? Now listen carefully to this. How then was it credited? How was righteousness imputed to him? Was it while Abraham was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. When was Abraham justified? When was righteousness imputed to him such that he was declared righteous once for all and given a legal title to eternal life? Was that before or after he was circumcised? Not after, before. Question. When was the offering of Isaac in relationship to Abraham's circumcision? James chapter 2. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac upon the altar? That was years after he was circumcised. James 2 is not, indeed, cannot be talking about justification in the same way that Paul is, because Paul said it was not after, but before. And the justification spoken of in James 2 was after his circumcision. Can't be about the same thing. What is James 2 talking about? What is that referring to? The justification of Abraham's profession of faith, not Abraham as a person. Because that's what the whole chapter's about. That's what the whole passage, James 2, 14 to 26, is about the justification of professions of faith before men. Not the justification of a person before God, which is what Paul's talking about. It's actually not that hard to see if you look at it. Show me, and I will show you. Okay? Very, very simple, very easy to understand. And then Romans 4, 13 through 16, this is a phenomenal, wonderful block of text. For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Can you hear that? The promise. that he would be heir of the world, that he would be saved and that he would be justified and go to heaven was not through the law. It was through the justification of faith that comes by faith. The righteousness that is imputed to us by faith not works. And then verse 14, if those who are of the law are heirs, what does that mean? Those who are of the law, people who are obeying the law, trying to obey the commandments of God to become heirs of eternal life. He says, if people that are of the law that are trying to keep the commandments of God to become heirs of eternal life, if they're actually going to be heirs of eternal life, if they're actually going to heaven, faith is made void and the promise is nullified. If you could go to heaven, if people seeking to earn their salvation or merit it in some way, or be finally saved by keeping the law, if they're actually going to heaven, faith is void, and the promise is of no effect, nullified." Why? Verse 15, because the law brings about wrath. That's what everybody needs to understand. Everyone who's finding new, weird ways to insert our works as conditions, our works as eschatological vindication of the reality of our faith, which alone justifies—everyone that's doing that, you need to know something. When it comes to justification, the law brings about wrath. Anyone who seeks justification by any degree, by their works, you're under God's wrath and you don't really believe in Jesus. You don't really know Jesus. John 3, 36, he who has the son has life. He who does not have the son shall not see life because the wrath of God abides upon him. Now there are many people who say, oh, I have the son and I'm working for my final salvation. No, you don't have the Son, and the wrath of God abides on you. Why? Because if you seek justification by law, Christ is out of the equation. The law brings about wrath. When it comes to justification, any reliance on law-keeping brings about God's wrath. But where there is no law, there also is no violation, it says in verse 15. So think about this. The promise, it's a promise God made, so God is the one who fulfills all of its conditions for us vicariously. We simply receive it through faith alone. And he says the promise was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. It's not through the law that anyone is an heir of Abraham or an heir of the world, but through justification that comes by faith alone, apart from works. Because if those who are of the law, those who are doing works, thinking that's going to help them get to heaven, if they're going to go to heaven, faith is void and the promise is nullified. You see how it works in his mind? It's one or the other. You can't mix these two concepts. You can't have, well, it's faith and works. No, can't be. It's one or the other. It's either you trust in Christ alone or you keep the law alone by yourself. And what's that going to get you? The wrath of God. Why? Because Scripture says, the Holy Spirit says in verse 15, the law brings about wrath. All who rely on the law are under the curse, Galatians 3.10 says. Everyone that is of the works of the law, everyone that trusts in their own obedience, is going to hell. Only those who rely upon the finished work of Christ alone and understand that their sanctification and their good works are the fruit of that, not the cause, they're the ones going to heaven. And Paul summarizes, great verse, verse 16, for this reason, it justification is by faith in order that it may be in accordance with grace. You see, if justification before God, if that verdict at the last judgment were in accord with our works to any degree by our works, as John Brown of Haddington said, works were even one single ingredient of it. It's not grace then. Justification by faith alone accords only with grace. Justification by faith plus anything, it's not grace then. It's not grace anymore. Romans 11.6, and if it is by grace, it is not by works. Otherwise, grace is not grace. You add one tiny little work to faith in Christ, you don't have a gracious salvation. You're under God's wrath. debtor to keep the whole law, you're severed from grace, fallen from grace, and Christ will be of no benefit to you. Folks, there's no boasting in salvation. Not by works. Not by works, I'll say anyone should boast. And if someone tries to deceive you by saying, oh yeah, yeah, our initial salvation, yeah, not by works, I'll say anyone should boast. Our initial justification, oh, it's totally fine. Our initial clothing and white is by faith alone. I've said again and again and again from the pulpit over there in our church here, if you hear temporal qualifiers in front of the word justification, run for your life. There is no initial justification. There is no final justification, future justifications. There's just justification. Once a person believes in Christ and has true faith in Him, meaning they're not trusting in their works at all anymore, their legal status is changed from condemned to justified. Their family status has changed from being an orphan and enemy of God to being an adopted, beloved child of God, a joint heir with Christ. Once that heart of stone has changed to a heart of flesh, it can never become a heart of stone again. Eternal life is eternal. God declares us righteous. It's not, okay, I've gotten you in here by grace, and now you've got to complete the process and look to your fruit. Nope. You don't. Will you bear fruit? Yes. Will God chase in you? Yes. Will He chip away at the old Adam? Yes. Will He put you through trials to renew your faith and to strengthen your faith and at times cause your very assurance that you're a child of God to wax and wane because of sin in your life? Yes. But there is no initial justification. Justification is the final verdict. When a person believes in Christ and is united to Christ by faith alone because they're not trusting in their works anymore, they have officially, permanently retired from the Savior business and are trusting in Jesus to save them, so that their lives now overflow with gratitude to God for their salvation, that person has eternal life. That person has eternal life, and they can never perish. And no one can snatch them out of Jesus's hand. No one can snatch them out of his father's hand. Colossians 2, 6-8. I came across this passage the other day, and wow, it's just glorious. Colossians 2, 6-7. Listen to these two verses. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude." You know what that term translated gratitude by the new American standard is the term Eucharistia. Eucharistia, thanksgiving, guilt, grace, gratitude. You were once an enemy of God. You were once an orphan. You were once in your sins under God's just condemnation. But when the kindness and mercy of God came, He made that dead sinner alive. You heard the gospel. God changed your heart. God drew you irresistibly to Christ so that you put your faith in Him. And so now that you've received Him as your Lord, walk in Him. being firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith. You know what that means? That means you're not taken aside by goofy doctrines like final salvation by fruit. You're firmly rooted and being built up and established in your faith in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. You don't listen to the other squawking voices trying to lead you astray from that. Just as you were instructed and overflowing with thanksgiving, gratitude, eucharistia, Overflowing with Eucharistia. Parasuantes and Eucharistia. Overflowing with gratitude. Guilt, grace, gratitude. I love the way the Heidelberg Catechism organizes all those questions and answers. It's beautiful stuff. In fact, we started doing the backyard bonfires again in my backyard, and I said, this time, now that the season has cooled off sufficiently, is warmed up sufficiently. We're going to start meeting in the backyard. I had a nice group this past Friday and read the first 14 or 15 questions of the Heidelberg Catechism and discussed them. Wonderful, great, encouraging stuff. And I pointed out to the folks that came, the way that catechism is organized is brilliant. It's genius theology. Guilt, grace, gratitude. You see, all forms of legalism, all distortions of the gospel, they don't say guilt, grace, and then what drives the Christian life is gratitude. It's guilt, grace, guilt. If you think, well, hopefully I've borne enough fruit, and as my works are spread out before me on the day of judgment, hopefully there's enough evidence to convict me of having saving faith. That's guilt, grace, guilt. Guilt, grace, guilt. That's not it. That's wrong. And then there's guilt, grace, license. which is the easy believism, the no repentance, no discipleship, you don't have to have any desire to follow Christ, you don't even look for any fruit in your life whatsoever, not as that which saves you, but as evidence that you are a true believer, guilt, grace, license. That's wrong, too. That's wrong, too. Jude addresses that, those who turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, into licentiousness. So we don't want guilt, grace, guilt, and we don't want guilt, grace, license. The biblical teaching is guilt, grace, eucharistia, gratitude. What drives a Christian life? Gratitude. How am I to thank God for the incredible deliverance, for the full, perfect, and complete salvation that Christ's righteousness and crosswork got me, which I received by faith alone and rest upon every day of my life by faith alone, never trusting one iota, even in my works, even as an ingredient of what's going to get me into heaven. How do I live my life in response to that? Thanksgiving. Gratitude. There is no boasting in salvation. How many times does scripture say it? Not by works, lest anyone should boast. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. Now, why does Paul say that? Why does he ask that question rhetorically in Romans 3, 27? Well, listen to the verses before it. After he says, by the works of the law, no flaw should be justified in his sight, rather through the law we become conscious of sin. If you ever hear anyone say, he's just talking about Jewish ethnic identity markers, he's just talking about ceremonial works. Run for your life. Run for your eternal life away from that false teacher. When he says, by the deeds of the law, he means the whole law. What was he just talking about in Romans 2? You who say that a man should not steal, do you steal? Question, is stealing a ceremonial law? You who preach against adultery, do you commit adultery? Is adultery a ceremonial law? No. It's the Ten Commandments. He's saying any laws, any kind of works, they can't justify you before God. And that's why now, verse 21, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested. What's that? What is the Dikaiosune Theou? That's Jesus Christ's personal righteousness. It's been revealed, manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. The Old Testament tells this. That's why Paul cites from Genesis 15 constantly, Abraham believed and it was accounted to him, imputed to him as righteousness. Even the righteousness of God through faith, not works, not through the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. For all those who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, the daksa of God. The dakse stuthayu. We all fall short of it. No one can meet that standard. And the only righteousness that can is Jesus Christ's. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified freely as a gift. Think about that. That's such a simple thing to understand. How do people mess this up something that easy? You know, I've told my kids and as I've taught children, I said, you know, kids, you guys get gifts. for your birthday, for Christmas, for things like that. Do you get gifts? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And how many of you talking to, you know, three, four, five, six year old kids, how many of you asked your parents? Okay, mom. Okay, dad. How much money do I owe you for my gifts? And they all laugh. And I said, okay, well, what if you had the money? What if you had the money and your parents said, okay, well, this was, this was 40 bucks and they let you pay them for the gift. Is it a gift then? No. It's not something other than a gift. You bought it. You earned it. It's not grace. It's what is due. You bought it. You purchased it yourself with your own money. Justification is a gift. Being justified freely. Do-re-on. Do-re-on. Have you ever met anyone named Dorian? It means gift. Gift. Being justified as a gift by his grace. You see, the gift nature of the righteousness of God, that it's a gift to us, that comes up in Romans 5.17 too. That's another passage that two years ago, I just, reading through Romans, I just jumped off the page and thought, man, we need to present it that way. Listen, for if by the transgression of the one death reign through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. And I love to ask that question. Do you have the gift of righteousness? Do you have that free, unearnable, unmeritable gift? And there it is again, do-re-as. Do-re-as teis tecai sunes. Gift of righteousness. Do you have the gift of righteousness? You need it. You need it. You desperately need it and could never earn it and can't contribute anything to it. Well, how? How do you get that righteousness? Faith in Jesus. Stop believing in your works and believe in Jesus and only in Jesus. And in the life that you live for Christ is a life of gratitude, not fear, not guilt, not license, gratitude. Why do we want to keep the commandments of God? We're thankful to Him. Overflowing with gratitude, with Eucharistia. Do you have the gift of righteousness? Back to Romans 3 again, Romans 3, 23 and following verse 24 there again, being justified as a gift by His grace through not our works, but through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, that term apalutroseos, apalutrosos is the lexical form, but apalutroseos, through the redemption in Christ Jesus, not through our works, but through what Christ did. Okay, you see how he's setting up verse 27? Where's boasting then? Where does this all come from? Well, it's righteousness that's apart from law. It's apart from law. It's righteousness that's given to all and on all who believe, not those who work, and everyone has sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all who are justified are justified as a gift, freely, by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Verse 25, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation, that term hilasterion, means a sacrifice which removes both of the cause of the wrath, the guilt, and the wrath itself, in his blood through faith. to demonstrate his righteousness. How does the cross demonstrate his righteousness? God has to punish sin. He can't just wink at it or overlook it. It has to be judicially dealt with. Christ alone did that. You see why to add your works to this only destroys it. It's like saying, well, I only, I only put one pile of dog poo from my backyard into the brownies. I'm not going to want to eat the brownies then. Okay. You can't add anything to this without destroying it. How are we justified? By His grace, as a gift by His grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, not by our works. God displayed Jesus as a propitiation in His blood. When the people of Israel slaughtered that lamb and put His blood on the doorpost, they didn't all prick their fingers and put a drop of their own blood in there with it. And if they had, it wouldn't work anyway. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance, God had passed over the sins previously committed. What's the implication there? But now He's actually dealt with them for real. In real history, Jesus was nailed to the cross and died there. That propitiates the wrath of God. Nothing I do can do that. You see what a fool's errand it is to add your works to this? Verse 26, for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness. That's right. The cross of Jesus demonstrates that God is just and righteous. He must deal with our sins. And there ain't nothing you and I can contribute to that. That's why justification's free. It can only be free. And if you're trusting in your works, your obedience, even as the smallest ingredient of this, then you can boast and you've destroyed the gospel. You're a debtor to keep the whole law. Christ will be of no benefit to you. for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in, not his works, but in Jesus. God is just, the requirement of the law has been met, the righteousness has been achieved by Christ entering into that broken covenant, achieving it for us, and it's given to us as a gift, and only as a gift, a gift of righteousness, justified as a gift by his grace. If you do anything at all that you think is helping give that gift, it's not a gift then. It's not a gift. You see what grace is? Therefore it is by faith, so it would be by grace. Because if it's by anything in addition to faith in Christ or alongside of faith in Christ, it's not a gift. It's not grace. If it's by grace, it's not by works. Otherwise, grace isn't grace. And everybody's saying, oh, no, grace makes it possible. It's grace and works. No, if it's grace, it's not works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. Well, we have to do this. If it's grace, it's not works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. Not by works, lest anyone should boast. Yeah, that's for our initial salvation. There is no initial salvation. There is no initial justification. The person who's justified, Paul says, who will bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? What does he mean, who will bring a charge? He's talking about at the last judgment, at the last day. If you're justified, no one can bring charges of sin against you because God has changed your verdict once for all, forever. He is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus, not the one who's working, but only the one who has faith in Jesus. It is only those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. Those who are of the law or who are of faith in Christ plus something else, they're not the children of Abraham, they're the children of Ishmael. Galatians 4, 21 to 31 says they're the spiritual descendants of Ishmael, not Isaac. So after going through all that, where's boasting then? It is excluded. Any understanding of the Christian faith. I don't care if you say, well, we're just, we're just concerned about easy believism. The answer to easy-believism is not new, nuanced versions of legalism. That destroys the gospel. The answer to antinomianism and easy-believism is regeneration. God changes us. It is impossible for us to continue in sin that grace may abound. Verse 28, For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. And that last phrase of the Chapter verse 31, do we then nullify, do we then make void the law through faith? On the contrary, may it never be. On the contrary, we uphold the law, we establish the law, we love the law, but we don't trust in our obedience to that to play even the smallest part of saving us because that would destroy the whole concept that salvation and justification are gifts. The righteousness by which we enter heaven, Romans 5.17, is a gift of righteousness, not attached to our works, apart from works. Romans 4.6, just as David speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. All right, let me see who else is here. Three forms of unity are all great. Amen, Guido. Susan says, I grow tired of the boasting within reform circles it wears on me. Yeah, I wouldn't jump denominations for it, but it's a stereotype we ought to shake. Yeah, we shouldn't look down on people for not fully understanding God's sovereignty, but we need to correct people if they get the gospel wrong. We've got to make sure that people believe the true gospel. I take my 15-year-old—excuse me, she'll be 16 in June—take her down to Johnson City. I have to drive down there. And she takes Spanish there, and it's an hour-and-a-half class, and so I go to a local coffee shop. So I'm there every Tuesday and Thursday reading, drinking coffee. And one of the guys said, you know, you bring your Bible here a lot. Are you in ministry or something? I said, yeah, I'm a pastor. And really, where are you the pastor of Brittle Heights Presbyterian Church? And the other guy goes, Oh, watch out. He's a reformer. So we, we had, we had some fun just kind of joking around and, um, and the, the guys, the one guy's last name is yeah. And God's, you know, just the way it kind of worked out. Um, my last name is cross. The guy's last name is cross that served me coffee. And I said, God sovereignly decreed that that will be your last name. And they were like, Ooh, So it was kind of funny. So I'm hoping I'll get to chat with those guys. They both seem really like really nice fellows. Um, really, really kind. He was a one fellow was involved with young life. So he does evangelism and stuff, but he says, yeah, I've got a little bit of that in my thinking a little bit of that reform stuff in my thinking. So we'll see. We'll see if we can have some more conversations, but anyway, all right. Stuart MC says nothing gets me going more than hearing people who trust the gospel, adding baptism or that salvation could be lost. Me too. That drives me nuts. And I wish. I wish it drove more people nuts because a lot of people hear denials of the gospel and they just don't say anything. They don't do anything or they'll make excuses for it. Well, what do you think? Is there a doctrine test to get into heaven? You know, people say things like, and it's like, whatever. Blue collar man, Susan. Yes, it is difficult. I have noticed a sense of arrogance within reformed circles, which is the opposite result that should take place with our theology. I pray God makes me humble myself. Amen. There is nothing meritorious about understanding. God's sovereignty better. In fact, it really is a cause for fear that God has given us so much light. We ought to be the godliest, the most humble people there are. Shouldn't look down on people. Yes, we should be passionate about defending the gospel of God's saving grace and defending grace from all distortions of it, but at the same time, Apart from God's enlightening our minds, we wouldn't understand this stuff. Why do I understand the Gospel and understand God's sovereignty? It's not because I'm better. It's because God, by His mercy, subdued my heart and made it teachable. That's why. I was very resistant to Reformed theology. I didn't like the idea that God was sovereign and that I was totally depraved, had nothing to do with coming to Christ. But I'll tell you, those doctrines that used to be somewhat revolting to me are now the very lifeblood of my soul, I assure you of that. Okay. Uh, Susan says same. Yes. I fall into that trap as well. And how opposite that should be for us, especially. Yep. Yep. That's one thing. One of the things that reading the reformed confessions as my devotions has really helped me like, well, these are such glorious treasures, these great biblical doctrines. They really are wonderful. So, okay. Thanks for the information. Pastor, I appreciate you taking the time to share. It's my pleasure, Brian Norman. And, uh, uh, okay. Let's see. All right. There's Mark Rademacher. If I'm saying that right. Anyway, I'm going to sign off now. I got to finish my sermon. We've got a meeting this evening at church and then I'm doing a rehearsal dinner and a wedding this weekend. So Friday evening and then Saturday doing the continuing the love tour. I've been, I've done so many weddings. I've lost track of how many I've done. So anyway, I love you all. Thanks for being here. Thanks for listening to me. I hope these passages have helped you and that you'll stand firm. and your faith in Christ, and don't let anyone take that away from you by adding anything to faith as the sole means of our justification and of receiving that gift of righteousness. It's not guilt-grace-guilt. It's not guilt-grace-fear. It's not guilt-grace-license. It's guilt-grace-gratitude, as Colossians 2 says. Overflowing. Established in Christ, overflowing with gratitude. Not overflowing with guilt. Not overflowing with license. Overflowing with gratitude. That's what drives the Christian life. That's what drives our obedience. Thankfulness. Thank you all for watching or for listening.