bother people there. So we want to be praying for folks in California as they deal with fires. And we also want to remember to praise the Lord for his goodness to Cowboys rest this past week. That was a very close call. And the Lord was good, and He protected Cowboys Rest. And what a testimony. I was talking with Brianna that part of what burned is a, I believe just by looking at the pictures, is a ridgeline that you normally take a hike. And so on one day of camp, you take the kids and you go and you do the hike, unless it's raining terribly or something like that. But you do this hike, And it's a good experience, it's a good opportunity to get alone with your campers, to be able to talk with them, and you're in nature, and they don't have the other pressures, and plus they begin to get tired and hungry, and then that opens up more conversations too, surprisingly. But a good portion of that walk from now on, or for the time being, will be through charred remains. through the path of the fire. And so what a great opportunity to testify to God's faithfulness that yes, it's burned here, but the end, the conclusion, the goal of that hike is what's called the outdoor chapel. And it's just a place with trees and they have a worship service and things like that, but it's all outdoor. There's no structure or anything like that. It's just trees and some seats on the ground and things like that, and the chapel remains. And so, though much has been burned down to it, when they arrive where they're going, there's the chapel. And so what a great testimony to lift your eyes up above the trees and see a burnt hillside, and God stopped that fire right there. So, we praise the Lord for that, and we want to pray for the fires going on in California and other places. So why don't we do that now, and then we will turn to the Bible. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning and we rejoice that we get to know you. Father, we are humbled that we can talk to you, the creator of all things, the God of the universe, the one who made us, who made all things, and we take comfort in that. We have been created to know you, and we get to do so. And so we rejoice and we praise you. We worship you this morning. We worship you in song. We've worshipped you in giving and in prayer and in fellowship, and we will turn now to worship you in the study of your Word. Father, we declare that you are worthy. You are worthy of our time and our lives, every moment, every breath, every concern, every effort. You are worthy. And so we give you honor and we bow down to you. And we praise you for what you've done for us in creating us, and even more so in redeeming us in Christ. So we praise you. May we be a joyful and grateful people, giving you praise and giving you thanks for what you've done for us. Father, we do pray and praise you even now for your goodness to Cowboys Rest, to that ministry, to the people who will be ministered to in that place in the future. Father, thank you that you stopped that wildfire, that you put the border to it. and that you spared destruction to Cowboys Rest, to the buildings, to so much damage could have been done and was not. So we praise you and we thank you and we recognize that that's you. The changing of the wind is you. The bringing of rain is you. The sending of a storm at the right time to do the right thing, that's you. So we give you thanks. And Father, that causes us to think about the fires that are burning in California even now and maybe elsewhere. Father, we do pray that you would put them out as well. We pray that you would spare loss of life, destruction of property and livestock and the beauty of nature. Father, we pray that you would put those out. Father, we come now to your word. And we have this time dedicated in our week and we rejoice that we get to. Thank you that we get to be here this morning. It's not possible every Sunday morning. Sometimes things come up. And even now we have people who are sick and not able to be with us because their body is failing them. So we rejoice that we get to be here. We get to hear your word proclaimed. Father, I do pray that you would be honored in the proclamation of your word. May we together rightly divide your word. May we understand what you have to say here in Romans chapter four. And may we proclaim you and exhort one another and encourage one another and direct our eyes, fix our eyes to you. So Father, we ask that you would work even now by your spirit in our hearts through the proclamation of your word. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Open your Bibles, if you would, to Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4, and we will begin in verse 13 today. And just by way of review, Paul has been talking for some time, this whole chapter really, about faith and salvation, justification, an idea that he really developed in the end of chapter 3. He talked about what it means to be declared righteous before God and how that can be and that that is how we have righteousness before God and it's by faith. And then he begins in chapter 4 to talk about more specifically what he means. He's weeding out some possible competition for faith as a means of being declared righteous before God. And in verses 3 through 8, he said he described faith apart from works. He said mixing works in with your faith as the concoction that's going to have you be declared righteous before God, that's not the way. It is faith apart from works. And then he continues in 9 through 12 and talks more specifically about circumcision. He said, if you're relying upon the combination of faith and circumcision as the means by which you will please God and finally be declared righteous before Him, you need to know that it is faith apart from circumcision. And so we come to our passage today in 13 and following, and he begins to talk about faith apart from law. If you're mixing faith and law-keeping in any combination as the means by which you will be declared righteous before God, you need to understand justification is by faith apart from law. And so we turn to what Paul is saying here in Romans 4, and we begin in verse 13. The promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath. But where there is no law, there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. In the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence, the things that do not exist. And so, that's the Word of God we're going to cover today. Lord willing, we will cover those verses today, but I want to start by asking a question. Why is Paul hammering so hard? Why is he hammering so hard on this issue of salvation, justification by faith, apart from works, apart from circumcision, and now apart from law? Why is he doing that? It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend of mine several years ago. And he asked me, he had been to Parkside in years past, and he asked me whether Parkside was still attacking Mormonism and Mormons. And I was kind of taken aback by that, attacking, you know, the pretty strong language. And he said, yeah, there was quite a bit of vitriolic language in years past by Parkside towards the LDS community. And I thought about that, and I kind of wondered. I wasn't real sure how to respond to him, but you can imagine that I was taken aback. And I thought initially, well, I'm sure there have been probably more than one Park Sider over the years who has spoken very strongly about Mormonism, and maybe even the Mormon community, maybe even spoken rudely. Of course, that's a possibility. And it may be even a good likelihood, given the fact that we also are sinners, but I really don't think that's what he had in mind. I think he had in mind a question about why Parkside and Christians in general would insist upon, so strongly insist upon justification by faith alone that it would cause us even to enter into dialogue and even argument in the right use of the term and even in the wrong use of the term with other faith communities around us. We live in a largely LDS community. And so that puts us in conversation with the LDS community on that topic. And so I think that's kind of what he had in mind. Why does Parkside, why do Christians hammer so hard on justification by faith? Why do they insist so strongly on separating when it comes to the topic of justification, when it comes to the topic of being declared righteous before God, why do we insist so strongly upon separating faith, justification by faith, versus some mixture of justification by faith plus Why do we insist on that? Is it just that we like to argue? Well, many of us do just like to argue. I don't think that's the reason. Maybe it's just that we're arrogant and we really want to be right all the time. Well, there are many of us who are arrogant and want to be right all the time, so that's a possibility too. But I think, generally speaking, it comes from a heart that is similar to Paul's. Paul's going to argue today about justification by faith not mixed with something else because as soon as you mix it with something else, you lose it. And a doctrine that teaches that you can be declared righteous before God because of some mixture of faith and something else is not a saving doctrine. It's not actually a gospel. And so Paul's going to insist on it. He's going to insist on it very strongly, and he's not done in our paragraph today. He's going to continue on. Throughout this chapter, Paul really seems to be driving a wedge between the law and anyone who would trust in law-keeping as a means of being justified before God. And so we want to do the same thing. Of course, we want to do it with right attitudes, with right motives, and yet we certainly want to do that. We want to be clear. He does that because trusting in and keeping the law will not bring salvation. The only thing that can bring salvation is faith in the promise-keeping God. And so that promise keeping God and the promise that rests upon, the promise that's given is a large topic of what we're talking about today because the basis of Christianity is a foundational promise. It's a foundational promise. Look how he starts in verse 13. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world didn't come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. He's talking about a promise and a promise that's been made to Abraham. And of course, if you remember your Bible history, you'll know that some key chapters in the Bible are Genesis 12 and 15 and 17. Those are, that's the record of three different conversations, as it were, where God appears to Abram, or Abraham, and he talks to him, he makes promises to him, and the fullest expression of that, he kind of builds as he's going, but a full expression of that we find in Genesis chapter 17, and I'm gonna read to us from Genesis chapter 17, starting in verse one, so we know what promise is being discussed here. Genesis 17, when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly. Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God." This is the third passage, this is the third conversation, as it were, that there's been between Abraham and God on this topic in 12. He gives the kernel of it, then he develops it and develops it more fully in 15 and then 17. God is making a covenant with Abraham. He's making a promise, and that's basically what a covenant is, is a promise with certain things attached to it, certain legalities that come from it, but he's making a promise. He promises to bless Abraham. Abraham's 99, and his wife's about 10 years younger. He doesn't have any offspring, and he's going to have offspring. God promises that. He says it's going to happen. He's going to have a child of promise who will not be this Eleazar of Damascus that has come up in discussion. It's not going to be this other son, Ishmael, who was born of a different situation. It's going to be a child of promise who's going to come. He's going to become, actually, not just one who has multiple offspring, but a father of many nations. and God is going to give him offspring, and they're going to be numerous, and he's going to have kings come from them, etc. He's going to be a blessing far and wide. This is a promise that God is making to Abraham. And remember, he's 99, and his wife is about 90. The chances of that, humanly speaking, are nil. And of course, there's the promise that his offspring were going to have the land, the land of his sojournings, the land of Canaan. It was going to be their everlasting possession. And this promise and the things that are attached to it, they're really at the kernel, they're at the heart of what the New Testament develops and explains to us as the gospel. It all comes from this. It flows from that, because Abraham is to be the father of a multitude of nations, and he's to be a blessing to all nations. Not just because he's going to have a lot of physical descendants, though that is certainly going to be true, but because also he is the father of faith. And all those who have faith, all of those who know God by faith are His offspring. And so we can see that even looking around the room right now, we can see that He is the Father of a multitude of nations. And so you have the basis of gospel promises going back to promises that God made to Abraham. And of course, that naturally raises the question, secondly, how was the promise administered? How was the promise administered? And you see early on when in Genesis chapter 12 when God appeared to Abram, he just made the promise. It wasn't contingent upon Abraham's obedience to this thing or that thing or anything else. God was saying, here's my promise, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to bless you, I'm going to multiply you, and I'm going to make you a blessing to all the nations of the earth. And so, how was that promise administered? Well, Paul is basically, in chapter 4 here, doing a Bible study. If you've been paying attention to the passages he's referenced, he's referring to Abraham again and again. He's talked about chapter 15. He's talking about chapter 17. He's doing a Bible study here about what we call the Abrahamic covenant, meaning the covenant that God made with Abraham. So when was that covenant given? Was it before or after the law? Well, it's clear, even just by looking at your Bible, Genesis comes before the Mosaic law. When does Moses come on the scene? In Exodus. The law comes onto the scene later on. Chapter 20, we have the giving of the Ten Commandments of Exodus. And here we are all the way in Genesis. And so the law that's being discussed here is not going to come for many hundreds and hundreds of years. This promise was not given through the law. through the righteousness of faith, he says in Romans 4 and verse 13. The promise couldn't have come from the law. In fact, it wasn't administered by law. It was a promise given by God. Well, and Paul continues, he wants to make clear from his Bible study that that's the case, but then he makes a strong point here about the trouble that we have with the law. What's the trouble with the law? He continues in verse 14, for if it is the adherence of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void, for the law brings wrath. But where there is no law, there is no transgression. So how are the heirs determined? For whom was the promise intended? How do you know who gets the promise? Is it by law or is it by faith? How is it passed down? How is it communicated? When we lived overseas, we had friends who, I may have told this story before, forgive me if I have, but it always entertains me. We had friends who had a son, and he was an adopted son, and at one point they had to get blood tests done, as we did regularly when we lived overseas. And this particular test they required was a test for AIDS, to see if anyone in the family had AIDS. HIV and so they were testing and they got to the son and I don't remember if they couldn't draw blood from the son. He was nine or ten years old. I don't remember if they couldn't get blood drawn or if he was freaking out. I don't remember which. But either way the nurses had a dilemma because they couldn't get blood from this son and they had to do these tests in order that our friends could get their visas to continue to live in the country. So here's the solution they came up with. They decided that they could take blood from the mother. They could test that and see then if the son had HIV or AIDS. They decided they were going to take blood from his adopted mother to determine if the son had the disease. Now, I'm no doctor and I don't play one on TV. But that doesn't seem to make sense. How is that logic supposed to work out? Well, part of it may be, frankly, the kindheartedness of the nurses, that they just didn't want to stick that poor kid anymore, and they were going to find a workaround, and maybe that's what they did. But the question is, how is it passed? I'm sure it's not by adoption. that that disease is passed, not being a medical doctor myself. But the question here is how is it passed? Paul wants to be very clear about how this inheritance, how this truth of being Abraham's child is passed down. How do we become heirs? He wants to be clear that it is by promise. It's passed down by faith. It's to those who believe. It's not to the adherents of the law. It's rather to those who have faith. Well, and secondly, he raises the question, what if the promise were for law keepers? What if this was a promise that God had made to a certain group of people who would keep the law, who did the right things, who walked in the footsteps of the law? Well, what does Paul say? He says, if it is the adherence of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null. It's made nothing. And the promise is void. What he's saying there is that if salvation is based upon obedience to the law, then we have a problem with this inheritance from God. If salvation is based upon faith plus obedience to the law, faith plus obedience, not just obedience itself, but even faith plus obedience, we've got an issue. We have a problem with this inheritance. It's not actually going to be passed down. If your obedience to the law plays any factor in your understanding of what it means to be justified before God, we have a problem. And the problem is this. The law brings wrath. Paul has already argued in most of chapter 3 that we do not keep the law. We don't keep the law. And so if your equation for gaining the inheritance, if your equation of being declared righteous before God includes obedience to the law as part of the equation, even a small part, The equation will not work. You will fail. Because the standard of obedience to the law is not just, I sometimes try to do things, you know, well, or I sometimes try to obey, or I even give it my all to obey God's law. Jesus said, be perfect. Because your heavenly Father is perfect. So what does obedience to the law look like? Perfection. So that's something we can't do. That's something we cannot do. James says in James chapter 2, whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point becomes guilty of the whole thing. So I don't know how righteous you think you are. I don't know how righteous anyone thinks they might be. I don't know how much they think they can actually obey God's law. but it is not to the least point. There is disobedience. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so, if in our equation of how to be declared righteous before God we have obedience to the law in there anywhere, we have just sunk the equation. Whatever faith you might add to it, however great the promise might be, You have just made it null and void and there is no inheritance. There would be no salvation for any of us if that were the case. Because what does the law produce? The law brings wrath. The law brings wrath. The problem is we disobey the law and thus, instead of receiving an inheritance for obedience to the law in our thinking, instead, by actual, real disobedience to the law, we inherit wrath, the wrath of God directed toward us. And so if we enter into our equation of what must be done to be saved, if we enter obedience to the law in there at any point, we've just nullified the whole thing. Instead, we've inherited for ourselves wrath. And so a point of application here. If you're trying to make it into God's good graces based upon obedience to the Ten Commandments or some other standard of law-keeping, you need to know that your plan is doomed to failure. That is not a saving gospel. The part, whatever percentage of that equation that remains to you to accomplish, you will fail at. Because to fail at any point of the law is to fail and be guilty of the whole thing. So we need to know that and we need to understand that very clearly. And that's one of the reasons we hammer on that so hard is because we want to teach that to our children. We want to teach them the true gospel. We want them to know about salvation by grace through faith. We want them to know a gospel that is a saving gospel and not one that's going to condemn them. And that was Paul's concern, and that needs to be our concern. And so, sometimes that leads to conversations with our LDS friends or people who have mixed, for one reason or another, works into the gospel message. The law brings wrath. But he continues and he says, But where there is no law, there is no transgression. Meaning, if you remove that piece of the equation, that says you must do this or that in order to be saved, in order to be declared righteous before God. If you remove that piece that relies upon you, all that's left is promise and faith. The inheritance communicated to you, promised by God, communicated to you by faith. It's not something you do. And so where there is no law, by removing law from that equation, there's no place for transgression. That means you can't be barred from being declared righteous before God by your disobedience to the law. If we could be barred from being declared righteous before God, if we could keep from being justified by our disobedience to the law, no one would be justified. But where there is no law, there is no transgression. That is why he says in verse 16 and 17, that is why it depends on faith. We continue reading. Verse 16, that is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. and the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist." So that raises the question, why did God base His promise on faith? Why did God base His promise on faith? Couldn't He have done it some other way? Well, the fact is that He based it on faith, and Paul gives two reasons right here why that's the case. Two reasons why God designed salvation this way and this way only. The first is so the promise would rest on grace. It has to rest on grace because if it rested on our doing our part, there would be no salvation. God had to do it all and thus his promise rests on grace. It's the goodness and the mercy and the grace of God that provides salvation in light of who we are. in light of what we are like. And the second reason, that's the first reason, so it rests on grace. The second reason why God designed salvation to rest on grace and faith is so the promise could be, quote, guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, not only to the adherent of the law, that is the Jews, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. From the beginning, God's express plan was to bring salvation by grace through faith to all the peoples of the earth. Not just to a people group, but to all the peoples of the earth. If you've read Revelation, you've read about the rejoicing in heaven of people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And folks, here we are at the corner of the world. We're in Fallen America. And He's included us. He's included us. And so we can give God thanks, we can praise Him for the fact that it depends upon grace so that it's guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, all those who have faith. And that's us. And so we have this salvation by grace from Him. So what's the nature of this faith? What is this faith like? He's going to introduce the idea at the end of 17 and he's really going to develop it next week as he continues to talk about Abraham. But what's the nature of this faith? Look at the end of 17, he says, in the presence of the God in whom he believed, He's talking about Abraham's faith in God, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Who gives life to the dead? Who gives life to the dead? Science, I'm sure, works on that, and Mary Shelley wrote a book about it. But only God can give life to the dead, and Abraham believed him. Abraham believed him. Abraham's body was as good as dead. We're going to read about it next week. He's 99 years old. He's not fathering children. His wife's 90. That's not going to happen. But God gives life to the dead, and so Abraham believed the promise, even though it was outlandish, it was outrageous, and it was medically impossible. And he believed it anyway. Well, who calls into existence things that are not? We get to deal with reality. We could talk about, we could philosophize and imagine and fantasize or whatever about things that don't actually exist, but God deals with those things that don't actually exist yet as though they really did. And he calls forward witnesses from the future, nations and kings and people who are going to be the offspring of Abraham. He calls them forward as witnesses and says, Abraham, you're going to have all of these. They don't exist yet. They don't exist, your son doesn't even exist yet, but they will. And he calls them forward to testify also. Those are impossible things. They're not gonna happen in the normal course of the world. And what did Abraham do? He believed. He believed. In the face of apparent impossibility, in the face of all the medical journals, In the face of everyone who would say that's not even possible, in the face of all human experience that says this thing is not possible, he believed. That was the nature of his faith. And so I think there's a point of application here before we move on. Ask yourself this, what biblical promises has God made to you that you think are impossible for him to keep? I'm not talking about the promises that you think God promised that you're going to be married or that you think God promised you're gonna have this many children or you're going to have some other situation. I'm talking about ones you read in scripture, promises you read in the Bible and you're like, eh, that either must mean something different because that's not gonna happen. Or, I don't think it could ever happen for me. What are those promises made? For example, I read in scripture, no temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. And he'll give you the way out of it. Do you believe that? Probably all sitting together right now, well yeah, of course you believe that. But when you're going through that temptation, You're on your own, you might even remember that thought. You might even remember that verse and think, wow, years ago I learned this verse and it's not true right now though. No, temptation is overtaking you. What about other promises? God says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. That's a promise. Have you ever thought God has left you, forsaken you? I've had many conversations with people who think that is the case, and they know this is true, but yeah, but really, I mean, it really seems like God has left me, right? He has not left you. He has not forsaken you. He's promised otherwise. Or how about this one? In 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24, the God of peace will surely sanctify you completely. The God of peace will surely sanctify you completely. Do you believe that? That's a promise right there. I encourage you to go there. 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24. Do you believe that? That God is at work and he will do that or you think, you know what? I'm never going to be sanctified in this area. I'm never going to get over this issue. He has promised he will do so. Finally, what is the nature of this God? He gives life to the dead and He calls into existence the things that do not exist. And actually, I prefer the King James translation of this second portion here over the others. It says in King James, He calls those things which be not as though they were. Because Paul's not talking here about creation. There was nothing and God said, I'm gonna make something. That's not what he's talking about in this passage. He's talking about discussing these people, these future generations, these realities, which aren't yet realities at the time he's talking, but they will be. He's talking about them as though they are. Not because he's making things up, but because he is the master of reality and he's the master of the future and of all of history, and he's going to bring those things to pass. And so, here we have a God who gives life to the dead. Mankind is really good at taking life. From the second generation of people, we've been taking life. We're really good at it. But giving life? I mean, we could spare life, and we have medicine. Praise the Lord, we have medicine that helps spare life in so many cases that would otherwise be impossible, but we cannot give life where there was death. We can't do that. But God does that. God does that. That's an amazing thing. I think about that in terms of the Christian life and aspects that it's important for us to know that these things are true. For example, in the Christian life, we will die one day. You're going to die one day, and your hope of resurrection comes from the fact that God is able to give life where there is death. And so our very hope of resurrection depends on God being able to give life. There's another reason why it's important for us as Christians to know that God gives life where there was death. We Christians still live in this body of death. Paul's going to say later on in Romans. We still have our fleshly sinful nature, our fleshly appetites. We carry them around with us and they spoil the things we do. They spoil the things we want to do. They spoil relationships. It makes a sinful mess out of what might otherwise have been good. It ruins our motivations. It corrupts our deeds. But because God gives life to the dead, Paul's gonna say in Romans 8-11, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, God who gives life where there was death, if the spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Christian, His Spirit works within you to give life to your otherwise dead flesh, your otherwise dead body. He gives life where there was death. That has to do with this sanctification thing that we talked about from 1 Thessalonians 5. He gives life to your mortal body. And that doesn't mean your fingers and toes. It's talking about your life. Your very nature, your flesh, He gives you life to obey Him, to walk with Him. And then finally, we need new life even to enter into the Christian life. Colossians chapter two says, God made us alive together with Him, having forgiven us of our trespasses. He starts earlier on, he says, he talks about the fact that we must be born again to see the kingdom. We were dead in our trespasses and the uncircumcision of our flesh. And God made us alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. You need life even to believe. And God gives life where there was death. And so there's a point of application here for us. When we think about God, How much do we limit what He can do? How much do we limit His capacity to fulfill His promises about your future, about temptations in your life, about dealing with sin in your life, about sanctification, about the fact that He will never leave you nor forsake you? A biblical view of God must be that high. That God can deal with things that don't yet exist as if they already existed. And that He can give life where there was nothing but death. And by the way, some of you have been praying for loved ones who don't know the Lord. He can give life where there is death. So keep praying. Keep praying for that loved one. Don't give up. The reason Christians need to be so concerned about the nature of the gospel promise is because it is so precious and it's so easily spoiled. By mixing in just other ingredients, how are we declared righteous before God? By faith alone. Faith apart from works, faith apart from circumcision, faith apart from law, faith apart from sight. And so we need to, with Paul, wrestle with this idea of what is the gospel so that we understand it clearly ourselves, and we can communicate it clearly ourselves. We have children, and we have grandchildren, and we have neighbors, and we have unbelievers around us who need to hear about this true gospel. Many, or most of them, have some concept of the gospel that has to do with, yeah, believing, that's nice, but really, you've got to do the stuff. and you can be declared righteous before God. That is not a saving gospel. They need to hear the truth that justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Paul is hammering that home and we're gonna continue hammering that home. It's something for us to think about. It's something for us to realize and believe and teach other people. And folks, we need to rejoice in this salvation that we have because if you were given a part of the equation, if your task, if you just had a minor little task to complete the equation in order to be declared righteous before God, if you just had that little task, however small, you would fail at it. But God is gracious, and God is merciful, and He gives life where there was death. And He gives justification by His promise, and it's ours by faith. So do you believe that? Do you teach that? Do you fight for that? Do you fight for that in your own mind? Because it is so easy for that concept, for the truth of the gospel, to be spoiled in our minds and mixed with other things, so that it's no longer a saving gospel. That doesn't mean that you have lost your salvation, but it means that if you communicate that to others, you are not communicating a saving gospel. We need to insist on this, and we need to understand this. And Paul's going to continue to drive it home, and so we're going to follow him as he does that, but this is something we need to think about, rejoice in, praise God for, and communicate to other people. Folks, we get to stand before God. If we are in Christ, we get to stand before God, being declared righteous before Him, totally by grace, entirely because of what He's done. So we praise the Lord for that. I praise the Lord for that. And let's do that in prayer right now. Father, I thank You for this salvation that we have in Christ. I thank You for the fact that By grace, by your grace, which is ours by faith, we get to stand before you righteous. Righteous in your sight. We have access to you. We've been forgiven of our sins. And where our own disobedience to the law only incurs wrath for us, Jesus took that wrath. And thus we have forgiveness of sins and where we have disobeyed your law and we've not kept it perfectly, far, far from it, yet Jesus always and perfectly and every moment with his whole being obeyed your law. And he credits that to us. So Father, I'm humbled. stand before you to come into your presence, to be declared to be your child by your grace. Father, I pray that that message, that truth would be used even today to draw some to yourself. I pray that you would Save those this morning who don't have that faith. Father, we know that you can give life where there was death. And we pray that you would do that even now. Father, we rejoice in this. We rejoice in this gospel and may we go forth humbled and rejoicing and celebrating and pondering these things and happy to tell others, relying on you, trusting in you, rejoicing that we get to be your children by faith. Father, we thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good, that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen and amen. God bless you all. If you want to pray with someone, there will be a family up here to pray