But yet within their own thinking, they somehow think that they're okay. And in that thinking, they also have a tendency of judging others. That you're not like me, or you should be more like me. Yet the gavel of God fell and said guilty. The next group was the religionists. Those that hold to outward displays of religion without the transformation of the heart. And though they had a part of a big purpose, the Jewish people, even God's calling itself, God says, because you have not been regenerated, the gavel falls. The fourth group we looked at is basically everybody. And that's the whole world. And how that he showed us in Romans chapter three, that each one of us are really in a state of what we call depravity. The Bible says our throat is like an open sepulcher. It leads down to a grave of the heart. And what comes out of there really is not good for anybody. Now you say, well, I haven't been so bad. I've had people say, well, you think nobody's good? Well, we need to understand, I'll read this scripture to you in John one before we get to our text. It says, this is John the Baptist. He was talking about John the Baptist and how his message was Christ. But it says, that was the true light, talking about Jesus, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, God of blood, it doesn't matter what your family line is. You don't go to heaven by who your mom and dad are. Nor the will of the flesh. It's not something you're gonna do in your own self. You can't get saved that way or born again. Nor the will of man. That means I can't do something for you to make you a born again Christian. Nor can anybody else or any church as a matter of fact. Being born it says, it says but of God. but of God. He has to renew you. He has to regenerate your soul for the new birth. But that first verse where it says, that was the true light which lighted every man that cometh into the world. So think about this for a second. We can't even be proud about the fact that we understood the gospel and that we received it. Because if we were to be born In the natural state of our depravity, we would be born as bad as we are. There'd be not one person in this room that would be saved. Because the Bible says there's none that seeketh after God. There's not one of us that would have said, hey, I want something better. There's not one of us that would have said, hey, I want to know who God is. If it wouldn't have been for him to light every man, We would have been born as bad as we are. So what does he do? He brings us into existence with an elevation of understanding so we can choose. You see, so even the fact that you chose to get saved, you have to just say, but thanks be to God. There's not one thing you can take credit for. You can say, well, I wasn't so bad before I got saved. Well, if you didn't make bad decisions like a lot of people do, and if you didn't live a decrepit and sinful lifestyle, you can be grateful for that. But the fact of the matter is, you are still depraved without Christ. And so we're all on equal playing ground before God. The ground is equal at the cross. Amen. And so the gavel comes down to the whole world and says, Guilty. And we can't look at each other and say, well, I've been better than you. By God's grace, he gave you the light to understand, the light of conscience, and maybe even some influence in your life that said, hey, this is right and this is wrong. But you know, even that you gotta give God credit for. So these four groups, God put the gavel down and says, guilty. So that's pretty dark. I can't even take credit for the life that I was born with, my conscience, that God gave me. So there's really nothing I can say to God, this is why you should take me. This is why I should be saved. But within that darkness, where we're going to see is we're going to see some light break through. And sometimes the light we get is a little unlikely. We say, well, how can that be light? But it is. And the first point I want to bring across is in Romans 3.19. It says, now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and the whole, all the world may become guilty before God. This passage here, this verse is light. Why is this light? I mean, it just, it's telling me I'm guilty. It's showing me how bad I am. Yeah. See, you needed to stop. God stopped you. And he's going to stop every man. In fact, the word that he uses here, every mouth may be stopped, means to fence or to enclose or to block up. You know, it's a part of God's light that he actually shut you up. That he brought something into your life that says, you know what, you're guilty and you need to just stop talking now. See, otherwise you would just be what you always were, justifying yourself. You'd say, I'm not so bad. I'm a moralist. I'm a religionist. I hate. I believe everybody can choose their own thing, you know, but God came along with his law and said, guess what? I'm here to shut you up. See, that's a part of the light because before you can be saved, you've got to shut up. You've got to stop talking. You've got to stop thinking that somehow there is something that you have that is going to make a difference as far as your eternity is concerned. The law comes and says there is no hope in you. And you become convinced. Now if you weren't convinced you'd be like a lot of the people in this world today. They just keep talking. There's even religions out there who have the Bible. and they're walking around like somehow they're following everything that God said. And yet they've never received Christ as their savior. And you talk to them, I've gone to many doors where I've knocked on a door and I asked them what church they went to and I do that because then I know what doctrine they believe. And then I ask them what it is that they're trusting in for eternal salvation. And usually it ends up with something, Well, I am not so bad. Well, I do some good things. I recently had an opportunity to witness with somebody that was a part of a big denominational church. And as soon as I asked him that, he started mentioning all the good things he's done. And so I began telling him. Now, the first thing I do is I don't want to take away what good things people have done. glad that you that you are not drinking and partying and doing drugs and all those things. I'm happy for you. Don't do those things, you know. But the thing is, you're measuring on a very wrong scale. And that's what I began to do is talk to him about how holy God is and the just demands of the law. Now, by the time we were done, he understood that his goodness was not gonna get him there. So at the end, before I left the hospital, I talked to him and I said, I says, if you were to die today, where would you go? He said, well, I'd go to heaven. And I said, well, how do you know you'd go there? Well, because Jesus died for my sins. I says, that's a good answer. Do you believe him? Now, I don't know the soul of man. I don't know if a person's saved. I don't know if you're saved in this room, you know. Some of you give good evidence of that. But you know something, believing in Christ, it just comes down to believing. You can't even take credit for that, you know. God gave you that ability to believe Him. But that law comes and it shuts you up. How can the power of the law be good if it makes us guilty before God? while you're mistaken. The power of the law does not make you guilty. It only reveals how guilty you already are. See, that's light. See, you can't blame God's law for making you bad. It tells you thou shall not commit adultery. And while I didn't know that I'm committing adultery. It didn't make you guilty. You were already guilty. It just revealed to you where you're at. See that is the light of the power of the law of God. It shuts your mouth. The second thing is the purpose of the law. This is the second glimmer of light that we have. Verse 20 it says, therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. So it tells us there's no deeds you can do, no acts, No toil, no labor, no work that you could possibly do that is going to justify you. That means declare your righteousness before God. Now, a lot of people justify themselves. You ever have that with kids in the home? They justify themselves. In fact, they justify themselves before they even know what you're saying. You ever see that about kids? Because they're predisposed to justify it. You know? Who wrote that? And we've got five people saying that they weren't there, and they didn't do this, and they wouldn't do that. I'm just asking who broke it, not your justifications. Do you understand in Scripture, the Bible says, for it is God that justifies it. You think about this, in the ultimate end of things, there's nothing that you say that makes a difference. Whatever excuse you got, whatever idea you're holding onto, has no weight with God. The only thing that will truly make a difference is what God has said. For it is God that justify it. See, we're used to growing up in a home where mom and dad ask us something and we know how to lie our way out of it. And within that lying usually has some justifications in there. And we think it works because we usually get away with stuff with dad. They're so confused about the situation that they don't know what happened. They just kind of walk away. Can I tell you something? With God it is not so. He is the one that will justify. And there's nothing you're going to do by your works, by your toil, that somehow is going to make God declare you righteous. Is obeying the law bad? No. It's good. But we need to understand that the law cannot make you righteous. Though the law itself is righteous. It tells you exactly where God is at. And it exposes exactly where you are at. We'll say, well, if it's good, then I must keep it. Well, the problem is this is where we've missed it. We don't understand that last chapter, how depraved we are. We're trying to, in our depraved state, try to keep the law so that God will accept us when there's no way we're even keeping it. I've heard someone say that, well, you know, I know we can't keep the law, but let's just try and keep trying. And folks, do you understand? In the relationship to justification, there's no such thing as practicing keeping the law. If you've broken it once, You've broken all the laws and they continue to be broken on your record. By you keeping a couple more afterwards isn't gonna fix or somehow put together the broken laws. Once the law is broken, it's broken. All that's left is the sentence. Amen? So we gotta be careful. The law is good. The law is righteous. It reveals the righteousness of God, but you gotta understand in relation to you, There is no way that you can somehow keep that law without breaking it. And the fact of the matter is that once you break it, it's broken. And most of you did that within your first two or three years of life. Nevermind the corrupt nature you inherited through Adam. You understand? There's no one here that can say, I'm going to keep the law. You can't. Should I adhere to the law? Sure. But I'm going to tell you something. You can't become a religionist, that all you're going to do is follow the outward religious acts without the heart renewal. See, Jesus said, if you look after a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery already in your heart. So here you look at the law and you say, I'm not going to commit adultery. but you've committed it how many times this week? You see, that's why it's a failure. It's a failure. The law is good, but it doesn't change you. You can say, I'll modify my behavior towards the law. Great. I mean, the less people you kill, less adultery you commit, the better. But I'm going to tell you this, it doesn't, it's not going to change you. There's something else that has to happen. Something else. The purpose of the law was given to show us what sin is, so we can see we're guilty of it. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. In Romans 5, 20, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And so the law came to make that thing that you look at that's not so bad, to make it look worse. See, that's light to you. That's God's light to you. See, we don't like that. We don't like someone coming along and trying to make our behavior look worse than it is. Or that our heart issues are worse than they are. But that's what the Bible does. The law does. See, that's why many times when you backslide, you backslide away from the Bible. because you don't want to see more of your failure. Well, you say, isn't that a good thing? I don't want to think of myself as a failure. But the problem is until you get to the point where your mouth is stopped, there's no salvation. So you have to take it. Amen. And you're not alone. There's billions that are beside you. Billions of people that are beside you. in the exact same position that you're in, guilty before God. So that's light. So the law, you know, we may look at it as a bad thing, but it's really a good thing. It's a good thing that exposes your sinfulness and the sin that you know you have, the Bible will make it worse to you. Now you don't like that because you don't like people pointing out your sin. But that's light to you. Because when you see it for what it is, that's when God can do something about it. But if you don't, you're gonna keep flapping your jaws. See, he wants to fence you in. He wants to close you in. He wants to get you to that place where, you know what, God? There's no good in me. He says, now you're seeing your natural state. Now you're ready to move forward by faith in Christ. So, number three, the prospects of hope. So we see this light growing here as we're looking through this passage. It says in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ upon all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. So we need to get to this point where we start asking the questions that some of these biblical characters have asked. Remember Job in Job 9 verse 2, it says, I know it is so of a truth, but how should a man be just with God? That's a good question. See, once you're getting closed in and once your mouth has been stopped, and once you see that your sin that you used to justify has now become so bad, You can no longer justify it. Now the questions are coming up. How can I be just? See, it wouldn't have been there before because I was still somewhat justifying myself. But when you stop justifying yourself, that's when you start asking some really good questions, like Job. Then how can I be just with God? Even Bildad said in Job 25.4, How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? This is many millennia ago here. These guys knew the questions to ask. We got a world full of people today that aren't asking these questions. We got people that go to what they call Christian churches that don't ask this question. So these people were wise. I don't build that got himself in trouble. He was a miserable comforter. Amen. But he still had some good questions. How can man be justified with God? How about the rich young ruler? And Matthew 19, 16, it says, and behold, one came and said to him, good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? So that's not a bad question. Coming from our perspective, what good thing can I do that I can have eternal life? I grew up in a religion that you couldn't even ask that question because there is no one good thing. In fact, they wouldn't even be able to give you a list of any really good things. They could tell you a lot of things that they thought weren't good. But there was no recipe, there was no answer. How could I be justified with God? Then you got the good question by the Philippian jailer in Act 1630. And he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? See, that needs to be the question of mankind. There ought to be eight billion people today looking up at the heaven saying, what must I do to be saved? It would make soul winning a lot easier But people don't ask that. I've gone to doors and I've said, you know, we're here, we'd like to tell you about the gospel. The gospel tells you the good news about how that you can have eternal life. But I ask them something, I say, do you, have you ever thought about what happens after you die? You know how many people I've had to ask? They said, no. I've had people, 70 years old, no. 70 years gone by and you never thought about it? I don't believe you. I don't. But that's where pride brings you. That's where pride brings you. I met young people. I met this young man. He had a young wife. And he was kind enough. He was nice. He listened to everything we had to say. And I said, have you ever thought of what it takes for you to make sure you go to heaven? No. He says, you have a wife in there. Do you care where she goes? He kind of just looks at me blankly. Children. You know how many children I've looked at across from a parent standing in front of me? Their eyes are wide open. And if I could get five minutes with them, they would gladly receive what I said to them. But they've got this unbelieving, prideful protector that is condemning their souls. just because they don't ask the question. How can I be just before God? We live in such a day, such false doctrine out there. Even in the religious world, I'm finding even sometimes people that say they're fundamental in their belief, they're kind of justifying people that talk about losing salvation. I'm just like, how could you say that? You understand what would have to happen if you could lose your salvation? It's about Jesus, it's not about you. You were never good enough to be saved, you're not good enough to keep it. The only reason you are saved is because of what Jesus did. So when they start talking losing your salvation, you know who they're attacking? You can attack me all I want, all you want, I deserve it. They're attacking Him. Oh, well, it's just a little variant doctrine. No, it's not. It's a complete heresy. It's an abomination to God. Think about that. Him sending his son, and then we in our sinfulness look back at him and say, you're not enough. Let me finish what you started. Let me complete in the flesh what you began in the spirit. God help us. It's wicked. These are the justifications we have today. The righteousness of God comes through believing in Christ alone. Believing in God is not enough, by the way. You guys ever watch like a Hallmark or a Christian movie? You know what drives me up the wall with these things? Oh, you gotta believe in God. God, God, God. You know what Jesus said? Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, Believe also in me. There is no believing in God without Christ. You know that, right? The Jews thought they believed in God. Yet Jesus said, you'll die in your sins. They said, if you believe my father, then you would believe me. If you love my father, then you would love me. But because you don't love me, you don't love my father. It drives me up the walls. They can't mention the name of Jesus today. Can't mention it in politics. and a young man that I was able to help in my second ministry. And he was much involved. He liked politics. He helped politicians. And actually, since I moved here, he became an MLA in that area there in Manitoba. And one of the first things he did is he's a Christian. And so he prays at this one event, and he does it in Jesus' name. But the leader of the party walked out on him. Supposedly this conservative party, because you don't understand that doesn't fit politics today. You can't talk about Jesus, talk about God, because then we can talk about the Muslim God, we can talk about the Hindu gods, we can talk about all these gods, but as soon as you say Jesus, you exclude the rest. That's what you need to do. There's no glory to anybody but Christ. And to him be glory in the church, the Bible says. Only him. Amen. James 2.19 says, Thou believest that there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe in trouble. You're not doing anything more than the demons do if you just believe in God. They believe in him. How many times even with Jesus Christ when he came on the scene and he started dealing with a demoniac, how the demons answered and said, What have we to do with you? Are you here to torment us before the time? They even knew their demise by the hand of the Son of God. They got more faith in them than a lot of people do. And we're thinking somehow that our belief in God is going to save us. No, my friend. It's belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God. Because what he does is he excludes all others. It has to be. Christ alone is enough. Second Corinthians 5.21, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteouses of God in him. And he said in John 6.37, all the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. You want to be saved? You come to Jesus. So here we come to another passage in verse 22, the prevalence of sinfulness. We're receiving a pardon here for our guilt. We're receiving a pardon for our sin. We know that the law has put us in the corner. We're standing in the corner and saying, yes, I'm guilty. I'm no longer justifying myself. Yes, it's in your son. But you have to understand your own guilt. Notice this passage here in verse 22. It says, verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now, if you do any soul winning, you know this verse, you know, it's pretty powerful. This means all of us have sinned. Sin, this word sin, means to miss the mark. That means if you go to the amusement park and you're going to go to the roller coaster and it says you have to be this tall and you got like five or six kids and they're all about this tall. Now the tallest one who goes, I'm the tallest, but it's still going to miss the mark. Yeah. And he may look down at the next kid who's shorter, but it really doesn't matter. We're all not going on the ride. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've all missed the mark. whether it's a millimeter or a mile, it doesn't matter. Whether you've had a good Christian upbringing, whether you had somebody that molded your conscience around some good moral principles and you follow those throughout your whole life, it really doesn't matter because you still missed your mark. Gnosis has come short. This means to be the last. It means to have the last place So if you're in a race, running a race, you're in last place. You've come short. You're not going to hit the finish line. You're not going to make it. You've come short. And what have you come short of? The glory of God. We've looked at this before, how the glory of God is simply everything that God is, his weight, his essence, His greatness, that's his glory. Everything that he is. That's why the Bible says you need to give glory to God. Because when you take glory, you say, well, this is because I did it. What you're doing is you're comparing yourself to his glory. He's saying you can't do that. So a Christian must always give glory to God. And how do you do that? Well, you give glory to God as a Christian, but not just by saying it. That's the easy way. Oh yeah, glory be to God. You give glory to God by becoming Christ-like. That is the essence of giving glory to God. Because in Hebrews 1.3 it says this, who being the brightness of his glory and the expressed image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Jesus Christ is the brightness of the glory of God. What that means is, is he's the physical expression of God's glory to mankind. So when I have come short of the glory of God, what have I come short of? Jesus Christ. See, the only way I could go to heaven without salvation through Christ is to be exactly like Christ. See, that's why when he saves you, the Bible says you will ultimately be conformed to the image of his son. See, you will hit the mark through faith in Christ. You'll cross the finish line. That's why here down here on this earth if you truly want to live your life for God's glory you have to live it as Christ lived. You have to allow him to change you. That means you have to forgive people like Jesus forgave people. So if you're bitter you're not giving glory to God in your life. If you're unthankful you're not giving glory to God in your life. Look at what Jesus was. He is the manifestation of God's glory. He is the pinnacle of what God's glory is all about. And you have come short of it in the essence of your own depravity. And he says, now through faith in Christ, I will ultimately positionally make you exactly like my son in my sight, which will make you not come short, but you will finish that race. But I'm here right now. I'm in a sinful mind and a sinful body and a broken heart and all these things in this wicked world that we live in. He says, you want to give glory to God? You let Jesus change you. Yes. If you don't let Jesus change you into his image, you will never bring glory to God in this lifetime. Because only in Christ is his glory. Amen. Then we have the propitiation for sin, verse 24. Being justified, we've looked at that word, what does that mean? That means to be declared righteous. Freely, by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Justification is a legal act of God. It's a declaration, it's a pronouncement, It's saying that you now are just. It's not a process. You need to understand that. When you stand before God and He declares you righteous, this isn't a multi-generational process here. This is a legal act in a moment of time. When you receive His Son, when you put faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father automatically looks at you and says, justified. Let me ask you this. How can you that are justified ever be unjustified? It's a legal act of God. Because all of the things involved have been met. The penalty has been met. The perfection has been met in Christ. And the willingness of the Savior to put himself between man and hell. has been met. Pardon. Pardon. Justification is done freely. The word freely simply means undeservedly, without a cause. There's nothing that you gave God to make him declare you righteous. There's nothing you had that made him choose that from you. It's simply that you believe his son justified freely. Yes. He's ever wondered whether salvation is free. There you go. Simple justification is by grace. If by grace, that is no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise work is no more work. So what we're seeing there is this. You can either try to get to God by allowing your deeds to be justified before God and thinking somehow he's going to do that. Or you can access salvation by grace. Freely. But you can't do both. And there's many movements out there. The Pentecostal church believes in both. They believe that first you get saved, but then you have to do, or you lose it. Folks, there's no mixture. Either salvation is by grace, or salvation is by works. And if salvation is by works, we lost before we ever began. There can be one saved in this room. Justification is through the redemption of Christ, freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This word redemption means the recalling of captives from captivity through the payment of a ransom for them. We were sold under sin. We were captive slaves to sin. Jesus Christ paid a ransom for us to release the captives. See, that's how we got, that's how we got justified. It's through redemption. Thank you for hanging with me today. I know it's, I'm not quite where I'm usually at. I hope you're still getting something out of this. Jesus Christ appeased God's wrath completely. This is something you gotta understand. whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. Propitiation means appeasing, placating. It means how that on Jesus Christ, all of the wrath of God was appeased. Every bit of wrath he has towards sin because of wickedness was appeased when he judged his son that day. He became the propitiation. The word propitiation also is the same word for mercy seat in the book of Hebrews. The mercy seat. That's where God would meet a mercy seat. In that box, Ark of the Covenant was the law. the Ten Commandments, but above it was the mercy seat. See, you can take the lid off if you want and try to get to God through the law, but I'm going to go through the mercy seat. I'm going to go through the blood applied, the redemption. It's all him, nothing with me. Let's just move on here quickly. My last point is this. the pondering question verse 27 where is boasting that it is excluded by what law of works they put by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. How much more straight can you get. Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the Gentiles? Yes, are the Gentiles also? See, it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith. So do the Jews get saved differently than we do? Always by faith. There are those that believe today that the dispensation of the law was a time where the Jews got saved through works. And then when the dispensation of the church came, now we're saved by grace. And they also believe that after we're done with saved by grace, in the tribulation time, we're going back to works, because the church will be gone. Folks, one God, one salvation, One Savior, one way. It's always been by faith. And we'll see that in Romans chapter 4 with Abraham. Abraham was before the Jews, yet he was counted righteous based on his faith. Amen? There's no pride in the law of faith because you've done nothing to deserve it. You know, sometimes there's people they take pride in the fact that they believe Jesus. I said, okay, I rejoice that I found Christ or he found me. But folks, do you understand it was a gift? The only reason I received Jesus is what he has done in me. I can't even take one lick of credit for it, even though I made the choice. But he designed it in such a way that not one person will stand before God and say one time that I did this, nothing. You won't be able to brag on yourself at all. That's the way God wants it. It said, it is excluded. No pride, it is excluded. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You guys ever get a Christmas present? Were you ever proud of your Christmas present? Your mom and dad came to you Christmas morning and given this to you. All you did, nobody had to twist your arm about it, you grabbed that box, had your name on it, So I'm ripping that thing open. He gave it to me because he loved you. Yeah. Every gift I give my kids is because I love them. You think they deserve it? That's another question. But I give the gift because I love them. You see, nobody ever brags about how the way that I took that gift that morning. You know what they talk about? The gift. You go to school that next Monday and all your friends are like, what did you get? What did you get? You know what you're going to tell them? You're going to explain the gift. Not the way you received it. That's already out of your mind. It was so easy. It had nothing to do with you. It just simply, who would not take a free gift? exactly if there's people that do not take a free gift. So the Lord excluded pride from his process, where he offered it as a free gift to you, and all you do is receive it. And when people ask you, what did you get? You say, let me tell you about Jesus. All about him, all about him. So if you were to die today, Where would you go? Well preacher, I'd go to heaven and ask you, how do you know? This is where you brag on the gift. Not on the receiver. See, he made it where you could never brag on yourself. It's always bragging on his son. Just like he did, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. That's all you're supposed to do with your life. Amen? Turn to Christ. Let's bow our heads. You know, I, sometimes I get concerned with people. They seem religious. They talk about religious things. It's always about them. Jesus mentioned this group of people where he said, not everyone that say that to be Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils. And in thy name done many wonderful works. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Iniquity is self-will. So you gotta get past yourself. God has given you light in your depravity, to shut your mouth, to show you where you've come short, to let you know where your answer is. Faith in Christ alone. If you have somehow been holding on to something else, whether it be baptism, confirmation, whether it be church, whether it be even your good character, can I tell you, you have not trusted yet. See, the righteousness has now come through Christ. This righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, from Christ to you, if you'll receive him by faith. If you're here this morning, you don't know Christ as your savior, or you've never truly trusted the fact that it's only about Jesus, And you're just simply someone that has been shut in, fenced in by God. I'm guilty, God. And you've never just simply received the gift. You're so concerned about how to receive it that you don't receive it. You have to receive it by faith.