Take the Word of God with me. If you do not have a copy of the Scripture, if you look in the pew right in front of you, grab one of those black books. If you don't have a copy of the Scripture in the ESV format, you are welcome to take that Bible with you. And you can take it home with you. We'll replenish it. I love to hear the fact that we have to, from time to time, replenish those books. It's a wonderful thing. So glad to see you here today. If you're visiting, please stop by and let us know who you are. Now, let me just tell you too that there is no evening service tonight, nothing going on. It's what we would call a Sabbath rest. The elders were encouraged to put that, as if we created that idea. Some of you are just catching on to that. No. We realize that our calendar is pretty full here, and it keeps going a lot, and we have Sunday night stuff on purpose. So what we do in the evening service, the evening service time is very, very important. We don't feel like it's a secondary thing. We feel like it's very, very important. But from time to time, we realize that we are all running on empty. And as we look forward to fall and as we have just finishing up summer and we're jumping into fall, I looked at that fall calendar and I'm like, ah, we've got so many things going on and so many things that are going on only this year, but already planning for next year. And God has been very good to us. So, so today we want you to spend time as a family, just rest. All right? Rest in Christ. Spend some time meditating in the Word of God this morning. Let your heart rejoice in God's Word this morning. Galatians chapter 5, that's page 974 of that copy of Scripture, 974. Let's read together the first six verses and let our hearts be warmed with the truths that are given in this Word. This is the Word of God. This isn't just a storybook. This is God speaking to us. And this is very, very important. Notice what Paul says here. For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore. Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ. You who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. but only faith working through love. Now this is, I kind of laugh, I say this every week. This is important, okay? And it is. The gospel of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, for the glory of God alone is, as Paul puts it in Romans 1, 16, it is the power of God unto salvation for all that would believe. Now you think about that for a minute. God, who is the power behind all creation, from before the beginning of time, and is the God of all eternity, is the same power that takes a sinner in all of his sin, all of his shame, and all of his guilt, and transforms that sinner into a living, God-glorifying human being through the gift of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. And that, my friend, is absolutely stunning this morning. Isn't it? Do you sense that amazement in your hearts this morning? Do you sense that this is something that is absolutely out of this world? That sin and death has lost its grip on you, and you now live with no fear in life or fear in death, and from life's first cry until life's final breath, Jesus commands your destiny. My friend, let me ask you this morning, is that something you deserve? Doesn't that just take your breath away? That he would love you like that. You see, Christ's perfect life and substitutionary death gives us two wonders this morning. More than two, but two big wonders, okay? Number one, he gives us the gift of imputed righteousness. That word imputed simply means it's put to your account. It's an accounting term. This is our justification. It is on this basis that we are declared righteous and this is the basis of our access to God both in eternity and even now in this world. We have all the righteousness we need to be holy as His divine righteousness has been put to our account. If you're born again today, you have everything that you need already. Jesus has paid it all, all to him I owe. But it doesn't stop there. That's just the beginning of magnificent news of the gospel. We not only have the gift of imputed righteousness, we have the gift of imparted righteousness as well. This is our sanctification. When we're born again, we are immediately sanctified. That means we are set apart from sin and we're set unto God. But there's this process that goes on. This is essentially a gift that is given by God as we are placed in His righteousness positionally. We now get to live out that righteousness in absolutely everyday life experiences. There's no part of life where the righteousness of God doesn't touch. None. No part. And every day, as you breathe, as you communicate with people around you, you get to, by His grace, live out that wonderful gift of righteousness. And in all of life's craziness, By God's ever-flowing grace, we get to die to self, and we get to walk away from our feelings, our emotions, our lusts, our own self-glorifying desires, and we, by God's grace, get to not trust our own hearts and our own understanding, but we get to live by faith, in Christ, alone, for all of life. All of life. Did I mention all of life? This results in Christ actually living through us. My friend, Jesus lives through us. Do you understand that? Does that not just blow you away? That the Godhead, Jesus Christ, lives His life through us with this righteousness, and as we will see coming up very soon, through the work of the Holy Spirit in us. This is why Paul says, I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me. This is our hope. My friend, there's nothing greater than this. Nothing. There's no thrill at Cedar Point more thrilling than this. Some of you are looking at me like, no, no, come on now. No, I'm telling you. I'm telling you. So the question is, the question that stands before us today, how can any of us hope to demonstrate Christ in absolutely every single area of life? How can we do this? Well, hang on, because we're going to look at two doors this morning. Here's door number one. How do we do this? Faith alone in Christ alone. This is door number one. We're coming to you. Do you choose door number one or you choose door number two? This is door number one. It's faith alone in Christ alone. Trusting Christ and his word more than our own feelings, more than our own emotions, more than our own understanding for life. And for some of us, this brings glorious freedom. However, for some, it scares us half to death. Because we all know in life what we know in life really are really just our feelings. You see, you live in the realm of your feelings. You live in the realm of your emotions every day. And we live daily by our own understanding. And when we face life's most daunting trials in relationships, and in workplaces, and most importantly, in our very homes, we are so tempted to manipulate life and circumstances in order to best satisfy our emotions, our thoughts, and our desires, that we don't even begin to know how to die to self and seek to live out Christ. What does it mean to die to self when your child spills milk at the dinner table? How does that work? What does it mean to die to self when your spouse is ugly towards you? You see, this is a fearful thing for many, and one that is completely impossible unless God divinely enables us. Unless God steps in. But here's the good news. In Christ and through Christ, by faith, that is exactly what God does. His divine enablement is called grace. We don't deserve it. We can't work for it. But God works His glory in us. And this grace makes it possible to stop in our tracks when faced with life and to conclude that I must have Christ working in this out because I can't do it. And God delights in this. And it's a life that's called faith. He works His glory through us in this supernatural way that demonstrates His wisdom, mercy, and love. And all of a sudden, our actions, our attitudes, our whole demeanor is completely changed, and it more accurately resembles the image of Christ, and people see it, and they give God glory. This is called the life of grace. Now, there's another way of living, and this is called door number two. It's illustrated by what the false teachers were teaching these poor people in the region of Galatia. It is the doctrine of human achievement. And frankly, this one is very popular. Here, you take the Old Testament law that God gave for the purposes of reminding us daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly through the laws of literally physical cuttings rules to do or not to do, ceremonies to maintain, festivals and holy days, that we need a once and for all solution to the truth that we cannot even begin to be holy like God's demand for us. We can't do it. And all of those ceremonies, all of those festival days, all of those things that we see and read about in the New Testament were arrows pointing to Jesus, pointing to Jesus. You see, we are in desperate need of someone else, other than ourselves. But instead of concluding that thought, humanity continued to insist blindly that they could actually do the law. And in doing so, they could merit, by their own works, God's holiness. Now you think about that. That's what they were doing. That's what the Galatians, that's what these Galatians were told to do. Now, enter Jesus Christ. He lived the perfect life. He lived the law out perfectly. Then humanity, out of sheer anger, crucified Him. But it was all according to the Scriptures. He was buried and rose again, and now He is our advocate. He is our lawyer, and He stands at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us. And because of His righteousness, He points to you and me, and He goes, that person is mine. And we're made righteous. We're declared righteous. He took upon Himself our sin and He grants to those who believe in Him imputed righteousness for our justification and He gives to us imparted righteousness for our sanctification. Now, understand something. For each of us here today, it is one way or the other. We are either justified and sanctified by Christ alone or we are seeking our own justification and sanctification on our own terms. One works, the other one doesn't. That's the gist of our passage today. There are only two ways to live. So in our text today, Paul states clearly and loudly that both our sanctification and our sanctification is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And then he says this, look at me. Stand firm. Don't move. Don't walk away from that. That is your key to understanding life. So notice this. Notice in verse one, our freedom is in Christ alone. He says, for freedom, Christ has made us free. And we've talked about this two weeks ago a little bit, but I want to expand on it, and then I want to show you how the rest of the context fills it out, okay? In one sentence, Paul both clarifies the purposes of Christ's person and work, and then he clarifies the intent of the law. Now listen to me, it's going to get a little bit deep, probably, or a little bit muddy, maybe. I hope not. I hope it will be clear. But you've got to stay with me this morning, all right? So set everything aside and let your heart look at the Word of God this morning. He says, for freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. So let's look first of all at the purposes of Christ. For freedom. That word, those two words, for freedom, gives us a purpose clause. Why did Christ die, you would ask? For freedom. Here Paul addresses the purpose of his writing the book of Galatians. He writes to clarify the gospel. Jesus came to earth. He took on flesh in John 1.14 for one purpose. That is to set you free from yourself. And this is a freedom unlike anything that is equaled in our American mindset. This is where it gets convoluted. If I see one more time people crying out and using the passage in Chronicles that talks about, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face. Okay, you understand that that is not talking about America. Do you understand that? Okay, that's not talking about freedom like this. This freedom is unlike anything else in life. It doesn't matter if you're American, Chinese, South African, doesn't matter where you're from. This is ultimate freedom. This is a freedom from sin. It's penalty of death. Freedom from shame and guilt by giving us a righteousness that is outside of ourselves. It's freedom from the shackles of self-glory and self-satisfaction. That self-satisfaction is an endless search that is never satisfying and cannot bring what it seems to advertise. This is a freedom from manufacturing a false righteousness that is never good enough, with all of its futility. This is a freedom from policing each other's self-righteousness, and a freedom then to love each other without prejudice or judgmentalism. It's a freedom to care for a sinner knowing that your sin is greater than theirs. It's a freedom to lay your life down for another and serve them with joy for their greater good, just like Jesus did for you. And I could go on and on and on. This, my friend, is a freedom that only comes in and through Jesus Christ alone. And this is the purpose of the gospel It gives life to our souls and this life is in Christ and it's for Christ and Most accurately demonstrates the glory of the Father This is breathtaking So when he says the purpose of Jesus is to grant you freedom. We ought to be sitting there going I Yes! But then notice the second thing. Because now he gives the intent of the law. And he says this in the last part of verse 5. And do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. Don't submit to the law. It's the yoke of slavery. Now brace yourself. Because here he begins to unfold the entire Old Testament. The intent of the law was several things. First of all, it was simply to reveal our slavery to sin. When you read the Ten Commandments and then you see what they mean as they unfold and they find themselves demonstrated in the book of Numbers and Deuteronomy, you begin to look at that and you begin to conclude, oh my goodness, I am bound to that. Because here's the standard of righteousness that God plays and gives out to every human being. And we look at that and we go, I can't do that. Precisely. That's exactly right. You can't. So stop trying. It reveals our slavery to sin. And you know it worked. Because in doing so, it brings us to the second thing. It condemns us. It condemns us. It puts you to shame. It puts guilt on you. Thirdly, it pushes us out of ourselves and into Christ. In other words, as we look at the law, we have to come to the conclusion, okay, God, if I can't do this, who can? And it's as if God would sit there and go, you're right. That's it. Now you're thinking. Now you're getting to where you ought to be. Because the ceremonies could never save. It was constantly ineffective to bring anyone to righteousness. Every time you would go to the temple, you'd have to slay another lamb. Every time. Over and over. I can't imagine being a priest back then. I have a hard enough time when I step on an ant. I'm sorry. Sometimes I don't feel that way though. But a pure little sheep? Like really? Yeah. Every time. Every ceremony. Every ceremony. Every time. Every time. Every time. Every time. People are like, oh my goodness, I've got another sheep. What in the world? Yep, every time. Totally ineffective at giving me salvation. Couldn't do it. That's the purpose of the law. Reveals our slavery to sin. It also gives directives. It points to a perfection that says this is how life with God looks like. This is what it should look like. You should be able to love your wife. You should be able to not covet your neighbor's wife. How many of you can look in this world and not covet? Can you do that? I struggle with that. I can't do that. I walk into an Apple store and I'm in trouble. I walk into a car dealer and I'm like, I'm in trouble. I want one. I have to go, you know, like, don't, please. Why? That's the way I really am. That's the way I really am. Gives directives. This is what holy living looks like. And then finally, listen, the law doesn't make us look better. It makes us look deader. debtor. The sign of circumcision was only a sign of Christ's death, and literally the cutting away of sin from our lives, which is why God promised He would circumcise their hearts as early as Deuteronomy 10, because they were a stiff-necked people. Over and over and over again, the law set the standard that absolutely could not be attained and constantly pointed to one who would come and attain it for us. Jesus would. And so Paul says, Christ gives freedom. You stand firm in the good news of Jesus. Don't waver from Him. Don't equivocate. Don't vacillate from Him. You stay right there when tempted to manipulate life and seek God's approval through your own works. Trust and don't jump back into what Christ has given your freedom from You've been saved from that stop going back and trying to manipulate life. We want so bad to be in control And it's not true We're not in control of anything and let me just tell you again. We don't want to be in control of anything you think about it you want to be in charge of your destination in life and I don't, I can't, I don't make good decisions that way. I don't make good eternal decisions. I don't want to be in charge. God is in charge. So for freedom, okay, that's point one. We're halfway through. Nah, not quite. All right, here we go. This is the second part. And this, my friend, roll up your sleeves and say, all right, because this is when the steak gets really juicy. The doctrine of human achievement is dangerous. We see this in verses 2 through 6. When my kids were growing up, they were very very little, there were a number of times that I needed to communicate something very very clearly to them. And so in my communication with them, and to me it was a matter of serious consequence, I would pull them into my space. And typically what I would do is I would bend down on the knee and I would get into their space and I would pull them into me and I would cut my hands around their eyes and I would say, look at me. And I would get in this very low voice, not, you don't have to yell at them, very low voice. And I'd say, don't ever do that again. You know, it was like that. I wanted to communicate with them. This is kind of what Paul does here. Notice what he says here. He says, look. Look at me and listen to me. That's exactly what I was saying to my kids and Paul's saying the same thing. Look at me and listen to me. In fact, the NIV uses the words, you mark my words. You know, moms, you've said this, you've done this, I've seen you, some of you guys. Look at me! Why? Because Paul is very serious about this. Remember in chapter one he says this is damnable theology. So he's not playing any games here. It's a matter of severe consequences, and if you miss what I'm about to say, you will miss something very, very consequential in your life. This is a stern warning from Paul. Human achievement is a dangerous way of living, and it's even a more dangerous way of doing church. So if I can say to you like Paul, you listen carefully to this. Four things, first of all. Human achievement makes Christ null and void. Look at verse 2. Christ will be of no advantage to you. If you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. Here's the bottom line. If we can by our own merit and somehow muster up a righteousness on our own that God would be satisfied with, then Christ will do nothing for you. Let that set in. The Judaizers were putting the pressure on them to jump back into circumcision. If you remember, clear back in chapter 2, verse 3. Paul brings Titus with him. Titus is a Gentile. And when the Judaizers see it, they came in secretly amongst those people, those new Gentile believers. And with great divisiveness, they urged the Galatian believers to demand that Titus be circumcised. Paul and Titus were both taken back at the thought of this, and Paul hits it straight on, including a very important confrontation with Peter himself. And Paul spoke to the bottom line issue in chapter 2, verse 16, and he says this, that justification comes not by works of the law, but by faith in Christ alone. So here, Paul kind of just turns it up a notch. And he takes them and he makes them look into his eyes and he says, if you demand circumcision, then Christ has no advantage to you. Meaning, if you believe anything plus Jesus, you get nothing. If you take Jesus plus nothing, you get everything. This is powerful. If you take Jesus and you add baptism, or if you take Jesus and you add church membership, or if you take Jesus plus the mass, or if you take Jesus plus the Eucharist, or if you take Jesus plus the last rites, or even Jesus plus your own holy code of living, You have nothing. And Jesus cannot do one thing for you. That takes the breath away from me. Because there will be people who will come to church, and come to church, and come to church, and come to church, and come to church, and by that they don't hear the real gospel message that faith in Christ alone What they hear is, my good works have to mean something. I mean, I want to feel good about myself. If you want to live that way, you want to feel good about yourself, you want to feel like you have contributed to your getting into heaven, then my friend, I'm here to tell you, forget Jesus. Because he'll do you no good. Don't come in and pretend that you're somehow a follower of Jesus. You're not. You're not a follower of Jesus. Now I have to admit, not very many people, and certainly these folks in Galatia didn't, they were confused about this because they were like, but these are Jews and they're telling us. So Paul says, let me make it very clear. You come in, and if it's Jesus and, Jesus will do nothing for you. You see, you don't understand Christ's work if you don't understand that you can't ever give yourself perfect righteousness. And what you need is perfect righteousness. That's what you need. Not just an outward symbol. You need somehow to be completely holy to get access to God. You can't do it in religion. Fine, go to church on Sunday and then grumble on your way out and it's gone. Because you need perfect righteousness that only comes in Jesus. So if perfect righteousness is needed and you choose door number two, your own achievement, then the cross was God's biggest blunder in all of life. God made a fatal mistake by sending Jesus to die. What good is Christ's death? If you can muster up your own righteousness, Christ's death doesn't mean a thing. It just kind of maybe puts icing on your cake a little bit, makes it look nice. No, my friend, you don't have a cake. You have nothing. Human achievement makes Christ null and void. Secondly, Human achievement makes you a debtor to the whole law. Look at verse three. I testify again." It's just like he goes, if you didn't hear it the first time, let me just say it to you one more time. To every man who accepts circumcision, that he's obliged, he's obligated to keep the entire law. Human achievement makes you a debtor to all the law. Here's the other side of the coin. If you need perfect holiness and you seek it behind door number two, the door of human achievement, then you have to go all the way. You better not come up short. You gotta do it all. And if you mess up in one, you're dead. That's it. Without hope. You see, that's how hopeless it is without Jesus. Do you understand that? That's how hopeless religion is without Jesus and His righteousness. because we have people forever going to church, doing these things, seeking that they want some way of God to recognize them. You see, this is quite a gamble. Remember with me this morning that circumcision was given in particular in this particular passage to Gentile believers as something required if they were gonna come to Christ. In other words, just like the Old Testament Jews had to. So to the Jew, it was to be more than a physical cutting to the male organ. It was supposed to be a sign that the whole Mosaic law was law and must be lived out perfectly. Which is why every Jew, born and raised a Jew, would make their children memorize the Pentateuch. You couldn't pick and choose which laws you were going to do. To the Jew, you had to do it all. So a Gentile now could receive Christ for sure, but there was this added burden of receiving the sign as well. The sign of circumcision. And so it brought so much confusion that the Jerusalem Council in Acts chapter 15 thoroughly vetted it, And it said without hesitation, no Gentile believer should have this burden placed on them. Because it was a sign. That's all it was. It was a sign. It didn't save them. It really didn't even demonstrate that you were genuinely born again. And then they took it a step further. If you read Acts chapter 15, it's an amazing thing. Because these guys take it a step further because they understood it. And what they say is, they say this, it was a burden that neither us or our fathers was able to bear. It didn't do anything for us either. They were Jews. Circumcision did nothing for us. It was simply a sign. So now Paul says to them, okay, if you choose circumcision, go ahead. If you're choosing door number two, you go ahead. You have to be absolutely perfect in the law though. If you could read between the lines between verses three and four, then you might be able to hear Paul say under his breath, and good luck with that. This is why some of you come and you say, man, I'm trying church, I'm trying, you know, but it's just, I don't know, I just, I'm not feeling it. And so this is why so many churches go on with this idea that we're going to whip up some sort of emotional thing so that you feel good about yourself and so that you walk out. And so all of their worship is a show. It's designed to make you feel good. It's designed to prop you up because you have nothing of substance to keep you up. Because it's not Jesus and contemporary worship. It's not Jesus and feel good about yourself. No, my friend. It's in Christ alone. Human achievement makes you debtor to the whole law. Thirdly, human achievement is not Salvation. Now please, please, please don't sleep here. Understand what's going on here. Look at verse four. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. So very dangerous then is this doctrine of human achievement that if you start looking to yourself for your salvation or to maintain some sort of man-made religion for your position in Christ, you may in fact not truly be born again. Self-righteousness is no righteousness at all. And this is Paul's point in verse 4. Paul has consistently used very strong language to get his point across. And here is yet another very strong word. It reflects the seriousness, once again, of either adding to the gospel or subtracting to the gospel. If it is Jesus and, rather than Jesus alone, or if you seek to come to Christ without either faith or repentance, then it is not genuine salvation. And if you seek justification by your own effort, you are not born again. And it's pretty simple. But Paul goes on to clarify it, and he says two remarkable phrases. First of all, he says you are severed from Christ. It simply means you're not attached to him in any shape, form, or way. And you never have been. You're severed. This is what sin does. It brings forth severance. It brings forth death. He's not saying that you once were attached and at some point you will be unattached. No. You may think you are attached, but you're not. And this is what's scary. You see, human achievement and grace are two separate things. They never connect humanity. Human achievement never connects humanity with God. It doesn't. Human achievement connects humanity with self-will. Humanity, self-manipulation. That's what it does. It doesn't connect you with God. So you're severed from Christ. Secondly, he says you have fallen from grace. And this too is not speaking of someone who once was in grace and now they no longer have it. It is the word that is used in Hebrews from which we get the term apostate from. And this is someone to whom the gospel was spoken to and they in their rebellion listened kind of nodded their head, maybe even prayed, but they walked away from it genuinely rejecting it. You see, during the time of the early church, many people, both Jews and Gentiles, not only heard the gospel message, but witnessed the miraculous confirming signs performed by the apostles. And so many of them were attracted to Jesus and often made professions of faith in Him. And some became involved in a local church and vicariously experienced the blessings of the Christian love and fellowship. And they were exposed firsthand to every truth and the blessing of the gospel of grace. But then they turned away. And in Hebrews 6, verses 4 through 6, it says that they had been enlightened, they tasted of the heavenly gift, and even been made partakers of the Holy Spirit by witnessing His divine ministry in the lives of believers, but they refused to stand fully with Christ by placing their trust in Him. And they fell away, losing all prospect of repentance and therefore salvation. And as a shepherd, as a pastor, I see this frequently. People who will come to church in a very situation like this, hear the word of God, and there's something that's like, oh yeah, I need that, I need that. That's cool, I like it. Throngs of people come today and they'll be in a church where their God will be sort of mentioned, and they'll all nod their head and go, yes, amen, that's right. But genuine repentance and faith will not take place in their hearts. They will walk out apostate. Never, never being attached to Jesus. Human achievement won't save. Finally this morning, human achievement keeps you from righteousness. This is verses 5 and 6. Notice what he says here. He says, For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love. Human achievement keeps you from righteousness. You see, since righteousness is man's biggest need, in order that they would have a right relationship to God, then it only stands to reason that this perfection can only come from God Himself. If you try to find God in any other way without His gift of salvation, then you will not find Jesus. And it will also keep you from the righteousness that you do need. You see, false teachers were adding on imperfections in order to get perfections. All right, let me say that again. False teachers were adding on imperfections. Circumcision, you'll never get it. Dietary laws, you won't get it. They were adding it on in order to get perfections. Weird, isn't that weird? I just think that's weird. Why, if you're not gonna give yourself totally to Jesus, why are we even doing church? What on earth are you doing going to church, playing games, wasting your time, listening to things that are not true, nodding your head, feeling good about yourself. You can feel good about yourself by going to the Dublin Irish Festival. Cindy and I went yesterday and we came home feeling pretty good. We liked it. It was fun. It was good. We listened to this group called The Kells, and they were wonderful musicians playing Irish music. You can't listen to Irish music without going, woo-hoo. And there were some young ladies. They were just sitting there. All of a sudden, they got up, and they started doing this little thing like this. And so I said to Cindy, do you think I should? She goes, no. Why would you go to church if you're not getting what is true? Now notice this. Notice the hope of righteousness is given, is Holy Spirit given through faith. In other words, this is not as a hope as I'd love to, I would like to, oh, I hope I get righteousness. No, no, no, no, no. This is an assured truth. It is from God, the Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit, comes and grants us this, genuine righteousness, and it's only received as we place our trust in Him, which is also from God. So everything's about God. True believers already have this perfect righteousness, but Paul is pointing to the fact that what we have in place on us is not yet complete. It is what we call in theology already, but not yet. And it points to the day that we will enter eternity and we shall see Him and we will be like Him in 1 John 3 verse 2. But this is all God's doing. And let us breathe this. Let us celebrate God's work and realize that God hasn't left it up to us. That our conversion is through faith alone, by the work of the Holy Spirit alone, in giving us the grace of God for His glory. And it's why we sing, no guilt in life. No fear in death. This is the power of Christ in me. From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand. Till he returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I stand. This, my friend, is what gives us hope. It's the work of God. But notice, notice this. Paul gives us a quick glance of what a true Christian life should be like. And it's a vivid contrast. Notice this, it's lived through the spirit and not the flesh. Do you see that? Spirit given, not the flesh. And in the rest of this book, he's gonna talk about these contrasts. Lived by faith, not by works. And finally, he says that it's confident waiting in Christ's provision of righteousness, not in the fear and the anxious living of the law. Some of you've come, and you've come from a different background than what we're talking about here, and your life is filled with anxiety. It's filled with the stress that, I'm doing all of this, and I may not have eternal life. Well, I hope I can get there. No, my friend, you can't stand and sing in Christ alone with those powerful words if the gospel isn't true in your life. But if it is true in your life, oh my friend, stand and be courageous and bold about the gospel. But notice second, notice this, and this is crucial, the outward is worthless if the inward is not changed. See verse six, do you see it? Circumcision or uncircumcision, doesn't matter. It's worthless. If the n-word isn't changed, it's worthless. It doesn't mean a thing. The spirit-led, faith-oriented, hope-filled person is not interested in the outward showing of his life. Since circumcision was simply a sign of something that has happened inwardly, and the sign is no longer necessary because of Jesus' actual death and resurrection, then the outward sign means nothing. Instead, Paul gives what does matter. Notice what it says, verse 6. What does matter? Faith that works through love. This is the inward going out. We look at it as the outward going in. Don't we? We look at everybody's life and we go, oh, they're good. And we're looking at what's outward. And then we're assigning good inwardly to them. Here, what Paul says is, no, no, no, no, no. It happens by a God, work, change in your life, and it's demonstrated by your outward love. That's always God's work. Always, always, always. You look at the Old Testament, and you see where Samuel was going through and looking for a king, and he goes, oh, this guy is great. He's big and big. And God says, don't look at the outward. Look at the inward. That's this picture of Christ. Christ changes the inward, doesn't deal with the outward. We always look at the outward, and we don't deal with the inward. Notice what he does here, very, very carefully. Paul is clear. The key to understanding Paul's point is this. Believers are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared for him from beforehand that we should walk in them. But listen carefully, that's Ephesians 2.10. But their working is the product of their faith, not a substitute for it. They do not work for righteousness, but they work out of righteousness. Through the motivating power of love is what Paul is getting at here. Paul is clear. The motivation for outward holiness is not with a hope to gain God's approval, but it is because of God's approval given to us in Christ. So then, our love for Christ motivates us, it moves us, and it causes us inwardly right living. And in doing so, Colossians 1.10 says this, We walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might. You see, when we are constantly looking to our own works, We're constantly looking to our own standards of righteousness in order to shore up a good feeling of acceptance or work to form some sort of self-created identity. We end up giving ourselves to ultimately to ourselves. And it cannot and will not save us for it cannot and will not make our lives holy. This then makes us bitter people. I find so much bitterness within the realm of God's people because they have done nothing but give themselves to their own holiness. They've worked constantly for their own holiness. They lived by standards and well, well-intended people have gotten up and said, if you're a Christian, here's what it looks like. And they try and they try and they try and they try and they try and never make it. And they go, phooey on that. Rightly so. They're exactly right for saying phooey on that. Because it doesn't grant salvation. It's only Christ's righteousness. And it makes bitter people, it makes unfulfilled people, it makes joyless people, and unthankful people. So faith, believing in God's promises which are all in Christ, then works in us a genuine love, And the love for God and the love for His people. And we with joy serve people. We with love give to people. We react graciously and mercifully and compassionately by moving toward people. And this kind of faith then is not a cold, barren and sterile creed. It is a life lived with a genuine fruitful love that demonstrates an accurate view of Jesus. You see, sin is not just a violation of a moral code. It is personal. It violates a personal God. Righteousness, then, is not merely the ability to be right. It is a relationally right with God and with each other, and a living relationship with people that gives life, that spreads God's grace and mercy, and it permeates the church with the compassion of Jesus. That, my friend, is a healthy church. Two things, and we really will close. Stand firm in that gospel. Don't move away from it. Speak it to yourself hourly that Jesus has already secured your holiness for you. Stop being motivated to somehow show the pastor and the elders and the deacons and your Sunday school teacher that somehow you're good enough, because you're not. And neither are we. Stand firm in the gospel of Jesus Christ and His righteousness. Secondly, put your deadly doing down. Stop looking within yourselves. Stop pointing to what you do and live in faith in what Christ has already done. You are complete in Christ. I was reminded of a hymn that perhaps we need to learn. It was written by a fellow by the name of James Proctor. The author prefaced his hymn with these lines. He said this, since I first discovered Jesus to be the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes, I have more than once met with a poor sinner seeking peace at the foot of Sinai instead of Calvary. bowing down to the Mosaic Law instead of bowing down to Jesus. And I've heard him say again in bitter disappointment and fear groaning out, what must I do? I said to him, do? Do? What can you do? What do you need to do? So he writes this hymn. Listen. Nothing, either great or small, nothing, sinner, no. Jesus died and paid it all long, long ago. When He from His lofty throne stooped to do and die, everything was fully done, hearken to His cry. weary, working, burdened one, wherefore toil you so. Cease your doing. All was done long, long ago. Till to Jesus' work you cling by a simple faith. Doing is a deadly thing. Doing ends in death. Cast your deadly doing down, down at Jesus' feet. Stand in Him, in Him alone, glorious, complete. And here's the refrain. Here's what you'd say every time that verse comes. It is finished. Yes, indeed. Finished every jot. Sinner, this is all you need. Tell me, is it not? Jesus saves. Only Jesus saves. Jesus sanctifies. Only Jesus sanctifies. Pray with me this morning.