Amen. Now take your Bibles and
turn back with me to Galatians. Galatians, chapter three, entitled
this message, The Value of Righteousness. I want you to think about that.
What is righteousness worth? What is righteousness worth?
What is the value that we place upon righteousness. And we saw
in this that the Galatian church was being foolish, they were
being thoughtless. In this that they believed salvation
was a combination of the grace of God and their obedience to
the law. And Paul said that they were
so thoughtless that they were moved from the truth. They obeyed not the truth of
the gospel. And he asked that question, how
did you receive the Spirit? How did you receive the Spirit?
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the
hearing of faith? How did you receive the Spirit
of God? We saw this last time that we received the Spirit.
Everyone that is a believer in Christ, you have received the
Spirit. Without the Spirit of God, you are none of His. And
what is the manifestation of this Spirit that we have received
it? It is this, faith in Jesus Christ, that we trust all our
salvation, lean our whole souls upon Jesus Christ. This is the
work of the Holy Spirit. And how did we receive Him? Paul
asks this question. You that have the Spirit, tell
me. How did you receive Him? By the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith. We know this, that through the
preaching of the gospel, the Spirit of God uses the message
of the gospel and applies this to our hearts, the righteousness
of God. And so we see this in verse 6.
How did we receive the Spirit? Even as Abraham. Even as Abraham
believed God, and it was counted to him, righteousness. We heard the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, and just as Abraham believed God, he received the blessing
of God. And what was the blessing that
Abraham received? The blessing was righteousness.
As he believed God, it was counted to him for what? Righteousness. Righteousness. Righteousness
which is of faith and not of the law. Now people are very
busy about obtaining things of value in this world. We are all
busy about obtaining things of great, what we think are great
values. We call them blessings. You're
healthy, you say, thank you for the blessing of my health. We
have a family. We say, thank you for the blessing
of my family. Thank you for the blessing of
my job, the blessing of the money that I have. These are carnal
blessings. And this is what men naturally
call blessings, and we do perceive that they are. We don't think
that they're not. And we that are believers receive
these blessings, and we're thankful for them. But how many people
consider righteousness to be valuable? How many people consider their
need of righteousness as the most valuable blessing that they
can receive? What makes something valuable?
When something is considered valuable, what makes it valuable?
Two things, rarity and usefulness. If something is valuable, it
is rare and useful. Think of gold. Now, if gold were
just anything you could pick up off the street, it would not
be valuable, would it? It'd be common. But you have
to dig for it. You have to mine it. It's very
difficult to get, very rare to find. Therefore, it's valuable. And not only is it valuable,
rare, it's useful, isn't it? You can take gold and melt it
down and make it into beautiful objects. You can use it to trade
other things. People see it as beautiful and
they see it as valuable. They can trade for it. Our money
used to be based on it, right? So gold is rare and useful. But what is more rare than righteousness? And what is more useful than
righteousness? I tell you there's nothing more
rare and nothing more useful than righteousness. The natural man does not desire
righteousness. Why? Because he sees it as something
common. Men view righteousness as something
they can obtain. If they just apply themselves
to it, if they just work hard at it, they by their morality
or their good works or their obedience to the law, they believe
they can attain some measure of real righteousness. That's
why they don't see it as valuable because I can have it if I want
it. I just put myself to it, I can
get it. But what is righteousness according to the word of God?
What does God say about righteousness? How rare is righteousness? First of all, I want you to see
this, that there is only one who is righteous. That's how
rare it is. There's only one who is essentially
righteous. Who is that? God. God alone is essentially righteous. And what I mean by righteous
is perfect. Absolute perfection in morality, perfect in justice,
perfect in judgment, perfect in character, perfect in wisdom,
perfect in thought, perfect in action, in motive, intent, perfect. That's what righteousness is. And the only being that righteousness
can be attributed to is God. Why? Because He alone is righteous. Listen to what Daniel said in
Daniel 9-7. Listen to what he said. He said, Oh Lord, righteousness
belongeth unto thee. You see, it belongs to Him because
it is His essentially. There's only one righteousness. I know men like to see righteousness
as levels of righteousness. That they have somebody's right
here, righteous. Okay, you're somewhat righteous.
And then there's even more righteous than that. Then there's a really
pious righteousness. And then there's God's righteousness,
right? No, there are no levels of righteousness. Either you are righteous or you
are not righteous. That's how rare it is. Righteousness is rare because
it belongs only to God. There is none among us who are
righteous. Go to Psalm chapter 14. Psalm
chapter 14 and verse 2. I like the way the Lord speaks
in this. He calls us in so we can understand some things. It
says the Lord looked down. As though God, He took a moment
and He just, He wanted to ponder something, just for a minute.
He looked down. From heaven, upon the children
of men, what did He see? He wanted to see if there was
any that did understand or seek God. What did He find? They are all
gone aside, they are all together become filthy. There is none
that doeth good, no, not one. This is what Paul, exactly what
Paul quoted in Romans 3 when he says, as it is written, there
is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. They don't know what righteousness
is. They don't know how to obtain it. There is none that seeketh
after God. They are all together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. So how rare is righteousness? Righteousness is rare in this.
There is none righteous here. To all who would profess to attain
righteousness by their works, there's no need. I don't... I loved, when I was younger,
I loved to debate people because of pride. It was just pride.
That's all it was. I don't debate people about this
anymore. It is written. I don't care. That's all I need. It is written. There's none righteous,
no, not one. Well, I'm righteous! Whatever. I have no sense to
debate with fools. There's no reason to. God said,
there's none righteous, no, not one. There's no need to appeal
against this decision. There's none righteous, no, not
one. What does he say in conclusion
in Romans 3? He said, all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. The glory of God is His righteousness. We've all come short. Not one of Adam's race without
exception, escapes this decree. Therefore,
the only righteousness is the righteousness of God, and anything
less than that is not righteousness at all. Secondly, how useful is the righteousness
of God? It's one thing if it's valuable,
if it's rare. But if it's not useful, it's
It's really not valuable. It has to be both. If I had a piece of trash and
it was a one of a kind piece of garbage, I went and found
this piece of garbage and there's no garbage like the one I got. You see, it really wouldn't profit
me anything because it is garbage. It has no usefulness to it. Nobody
wants it. Nobody's going to pay me for
it. It's useless. So is the righteousness of man.
What man calls righteousness. I want you to see, though man
may appear righteous, and that, the acts of goodness are rare
in this world. Acts of kindness are rare in
this world. And so the righteousness of men
is no value even though it may be a rare display. Most people in this world do
value people who are devoted their life to doing good to others.
People honor those kind of people. I mean, when I say the name Mother
Teresa, everybody knows what this woman did. She did great
acts of kindness. She actually gave all of her
life to devoting herself to giving to the hungry and the poor and
Gandhi and there's other people like this. These are rare acts of kindness.
These people exhibit rare acts of goodness, feeding the hungry,
abstaining from acts of immorality, very religious and pious. But
let me ask you this, though that is rare, is it useful to their souls?
The answer is no. The answer is no. This kind of
righteousness is useless to the preservation of the soul. Let
me ask you about the soul then. Is the soul valuable? It's rare,
isn't it? You only have one of it. What
did Christ say? He said this, what is a man profited
if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? Or let
me ask you this, what will you give in exchange for your soul? The soul is valuable. But what
is useful then to the soul? If the soul is valuable to you,
the only thing that is useful for you is this, the righteousness
of God. Because without that, your soul
will perish. Your righteousness is useless
to your soul because your righteousness is garbage. It may be a rare
piece of garbage, but it's just garbage. It's just garbage. So what does God say about your
righteousness? Look at Isaiah 64. Isaiah 64 and verse 6. Scripture says, We are all as
an unclean thing, a leprous thing, and all our righteousnesses,
I like the use of that plural, all your righteousnesses, You
take them all, every bit of them, whatever you consider to be rare,
which is righteousness, goodness, take it all. Put it together. And God says all your righteousnesses
are as menstrual clothes. That's it. Bloody, filthy rags. That's what God says about all
our goodness. I remember what Scott Richard
used to say about our righteousness. Another vivid picture. He said,
your righteousness is worthless as a warm bucket of spit. That's
it. That's what your righteousnesses
are worth. They may be rare acts of kindness among us, but before
God they were useless. They're useless. A man If a man could live his
whole life in righteousness, I want you to understand this,
if a man could, if it were possible for you to live all your life
in perfect righteousness and yet sin once, God says all your
righteousness will not be remembered. You can read later in Ezekiel
33 verse 12 and 13, He said this, The day that a righteous man
sinneth, all his righteousness is counted to nothing. Therefore, we all must admit
that there is no hope then in any measure for us to obtain
righteousness. There's no hope for it. There's no hope for us to obtain
righteousness by our works or our obedience to the law. Paul said that in verse 11 of
our text. He said no man is justified by
the law and the sight of God, and that's just evident. That's
clear. Therefore, we cannot obtain righteousness
by our works, Man is ignorant of God's righteousness, and what's
the evidence? How do you know somebody's really
ignorant of the righteousness of God? There's a way you can
tell. They go about to establish their
own righteousness. Now, you take a man, he believes
in Jesus Christ. He believes that Christ, well
Christ is my righteousness, Christ is my justification, Christ is
my sanctification, Christ is my redemption, Christ is all
my salvation, but I have to blank in order to make it effectual,
to fill it up, to cause me to grow, whatever. I've got to do
my part. That man is ignorant of the righteousness
of God. He really doesn't believe Christ is all his righteousness
because he's going about to establish his own. He's seeking to add
his righteousness to Christ. Now if you add something, it
means it's not enough. If you're adding your righteousness
to Christ, you are saying this. His righteousness is not full.
His is not enough. So they go about to establish
their own righteousness, which is truly of no value. Because
it's impossible and hopeless to be accepted of God by any
righteousness other than the only righteousness there is.
I told you there's only one righteousness and the only way to be accepted
is to have that righteousness. You have to have the righteousness
of God. Righteousness of God is the only
one there is. The only one of worth and value.
And because we need to have it, or we die. We who believe on
Christ, we see the righteousness of God as valuable. This blessing of Abraham is righteousness. And we see it as of great value.
And so then the question thirdly must be asked, if righteousness
is rare, if there's no righteousness in the world to be found in me
or my works, then how can I as a real sinner
obtain the righteousness of God? As our text says, even as Abraham. That's how you receive the righteousness
of God. Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. How can sinners be made righteous? according to the word of God,
not by the works of the law in any measure. Look at verse 10.
Can't be made righteous. And again, I'm treading over
this same ground. I'm plowing up the same thing.
Kind of sound like I'm going in a circle. I am. I am on purpose. I'm going in a circle so you
understand this. So may the Spirit bring it home
to us that this is true. You cannot in any measure attain
to righteousness. You cannot by your works ever
attain to holiness. You cannot by your works ever
merit being justified before God. Why? For, verse 10, as many
as are of the works of the law are under the curse. Not the
blessing, but the curse. Why? Because that's all the law
can do to a sinner. Man, that's all it can do. It
has no other purpose for you but to condemn you. That's why
Paul says, if I restore what I destroyed, I myself become
a transgressor. If I go back under the law, I'm
only a transgressor. That's why we don't take the
law back, because it would only curse us. And so you want to
be under the law, you're under its curse. And listen, here's
these words again, as it is written. That's it. End of debate. I don't
care what you think, don't care what you say, don't care how
you feel about it. I love the law and I want to try to obey
the law. Go ahead. You're under its curse. Why? It's written. Now listen to what's written. Cursed
is everyone. I don't care who you are. Doesn't
matter. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things that are written in the book of the law, not to
honor them, but to do them. I stress this constantly. If
you want to take the Ten Commandments and you want to make that the
rule of your life, you need to go get a high priest, you need
to get a lamb, knock down that mosque, build a temple, and you
need to start sacrificing. Why? He that continueth not in
all things written in the book of the law to do them is cursed. Don't just stop eating pork,
worshiping on Saturday or Sunday, and call it the Sabbath. Don't
give 10% of your money and call it tithing. No, you are under
the whole law. I know we've been tainted so
long being Baptists for so long, we were tainted with that word
tithing as though... That's the law, friends. If you tithe, you need to go
back under the whole law, and what are you going to be? Cursed.
We don't tithe. We don't tithe. You want to give,
give. We don't tie. And we should stop
using that language. I know you may mean give. Stop
using the language. Because that's a law. Curses everyone that continue
it not in all things written in the book of the law to do
them. This is the end of debate concerning this. To take one
part of the law as proof of righteousness is vanity. Because if you take
one, You have to take all of the law. James says this, if
you are guilty of one... I've read James the other day
again, and you know, James mentions a law, he calls a law of liberty.
That's what you're under, you're under a law of liberty. He distinguishes
that law from the law of Moses. And then he says this, if you
sin in one part, you are guilty of what? The whole law. All right, now who wants to be
under the law? Just reading that, would you have any hope? No. If a man is to be blessed of
the law, he cannot obey some of the law all of the time or
all of the law some of the time. I'll say it again. He cannot
obey some of the law all of the time, nor can he obey all of
Some of the law all the time, or all of the law some of the
time, he must continually obey the law for eternity. And in the moment he sins, what?
All his righteousness is nothing. What does the scripture declare
concerning us? We're born in sin. You got that? You're already,
it's already settled from your birth, from your conception.
When you are conceived, listen, David said in Psalm 51 5, Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. You had no hope from conception. None. The wicked are estranged from
the womb, speaking lies. And so Paul in Romans verse 11,
but no man is righteous. No man is justified by the works
of law is evident, plain and clear. The law's righteousness
reflects the character of God, who only is righteous, but we
are sold under sin, and the law can only condemn us. And I'll
tell you this, the law only excites me to sin. The law doesn't help me when
you said thou shalt not lie. You know, it convicts me of every
time I've already lied. And I know this. You can put
that law on my door. You can put that law on your
sleeves. You can put that law you buy
by sweatpants. It said thou shalt not lie and
wear it all day long. Is that going to stop you from
lying? No. No, it only excites it. It only
tells me that I'm a liar. That's what it tells me. So the
question is, how may a man be made righteous who is a sinner,
even as Abraham? Abraham was a sinner. Spent 75
years bowing down to wood idols, golden idols, for 75 years of
his life. He was a pagan. He was a vile man just like every
other man of Ur of the Chaldees. How was Abraham made righteous? I told you there's only one righteousness,
the righteousness of God. How would Abraham receive the
righteousness of God? Only by faith in Jesus Christ. Paul said the just, the righteous,
shall live by faith. Christ, who is the eternal Son
of God, was righteous, being one with the Father. We speak
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He, as the Father and Spirit,
were essentially righteous. Righteousness belonged to Jesus
Christ, as much as it belonged to the Father and the Spirit. But God cannot and will not have
a righteousness that is not merited or earned. You can't have righteousness
without it being merited. It does have to be merited. So Christ, being our federal
head, was made in the likeness of sinful man, Yet being made
of a woman, made under the law, he was himself without sin, the
only righteous man. He was made flesh so as to do
this, to represent us. How were you made a sinner? You
that are sinners, how were you made sinners? Listen, I told you, you were
a sinner from conception, so it didn't have anything to do
with you sinning. You did nothing in your mother's
womb that make you a sinner. What made you a sinner? Your father made you a sinner,
Adam. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and what happened? That
death, passed upon all men, for all have sinned." Where did they
sin? They sinned in Adam. This is
just, this is so. He was a representative man.
Well how then is one made righteous? By a representative man. Someone had to come and merit
the righteousness of God for you. That man is Jesus Christ. He is He is of great value. He is of great value. Even as Adam represented and
his race fell into sin, even so Jesus Christ, by His obedience,
accomplished the righteousness of God for us. For me. He alone did this. He alone did
this. He honored and magnified the
law of God as a man. Can you imagine why they were so
angry at him all the time? What if you lived in a house
with your siblings? What if you lived in a house
with a perfect person? Wouldn't that be upsetting all
the time? Just showing you how horrible
you are. Just not by telling you or saying
anything to you. He just was perfect. He did everything
right. And you screwed up everything. He was a perfect man. He was
a perfect man. But he was doing this not for
his righteousness. He was already righteous. He
was suffering in the flesh. to merit a righteousness for
you, to earn God's favor for you, to earn something so valuable, so rare, and so useful to my
soul, the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus
Christ. This great feat was not for Himself
but for His people, for His elect, those whom God purposed to be
blameless, those whom He gave to Christ to be a representative
for, to be all their righteousness, all their sanctification, all
their redemption, all their wisdom. Isn't that what it says in 1
Corinthians 1 and verse 30? That God made Him to be those
things for us? And when He came into this world,
that's exactly what He did. He did those things for us. He made us righteous. He made us holy. He made us wise. And He accomplished our redemption
by His death. He did those things. That's why in Jeremiah His name
is the Lord our righteousness. I like that. That's his name.
The Lord Our Righteousness. That's his name. So how does this righteousness
of God, merited by Christ, become ours? Now listen, I don't want
to talk about pretend. I don't want to talk about make-believe.
I need to know if I have his righteousness. I don't want to wink at it. I
need to know that I have the, since there's only one, the righteousness
of God, I need to know if I have it. How can I have it? If I can't earn it, if I can't
merit it, if Christ already accomplished it, how can I have it literally
as my own now? I must have it. Listen, even
as. Abraham. God told Abraham of Christ. Jesus said Abraham rejoiced to
see my day and saw it. How in the world did he see his
day? He saw it by faith. He trusted
the gospel that God preached it in. And what? Abraham believed
God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. It was accounted
to him for righteousness. Righteousness comes to the sinner
only by faith in Christ. Go to Romans chapter 4. Romans
chapter 4 is the parallel passage of this one in Galatians concerning
Abraham. Look at Romans chapter 4 and
verse 3. But what saith the Scripture?
Here it is, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him
for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace but of what? Debt. But to him that worketh not but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. His faith is counted for righteousness. Now man must see that the work
and merit, the reward, man must see that
work is to merit the reward. We've seen this, that a man cannot
merit the righteousness of God by his work, therefore it must
come how? By grace. By grace. Righteousness is given to those
who don't work for it. Why? You couldn't earn it anyway. But to those who want to work
for it, they'll never have it. Only those who know they can't
desire to have it by one way, grace. Grace. Therefore, if it is given, it
must be by grace to the underserving sinner. Are we by nature ungodly? Do we see our need and the value
of righteousness? Do you see the need of your soul
is to be righteous? Then cease from your works. Stop trying. I can't tell you
how many times I've heard someone say that they're trying to be
a good Christian. You need to stop that. Why? Because there's no value
in it. There's no righteousness in it. You must receive this by grace.
Stop trying to mix your works and your righteousness with Christ.
These two cannot coexist. Either you are righteous in Christ
or you're righteous by yourself. But listen, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ who is the righteousness of God. And all who believe on
Him, listen, you have the righteousness of God. All right, let me know if you
feel it. Do you feel righteous? You know Christ, you know you
don't ever feel that way. Do you act righteous? God, I want to. But in my flesh I find no good
thing. Yet it does not negate the truth
that I am made the righteousness of God. in Christ. I have his righteousness. This is what God makes in the
new nature is he gives us a righteous nature, a holy nature that cannot
sin. And yet he does not take away
the old nature that cannot do righteous. And so all who believe on Him
have the righteousness of Christ imparted to us. This word for
in verse 3. Look at that. Back in Romans. Let me see this. Romans 4.3 says, For what saith
the scripture, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him
for righteousness. The word for has a sense of receiving. It has a sense of receiving the
righteousness of Christ that was imputed to him before the
world began, which was accomplished by Christ later. Christ didn't
even yet accomplish that righteousness, and yet he received it. How did
he receive it? He received it by faith, by faith. Now Robert Harker says this,
If Jesus be the only righteousness of His people, either this is
all my righteousness or I have none of it. Wholly sinful in myself, wholly
righteous in Him I must be, or I have no part or lot in this
matter. If there be not in me a total
renunciation of everything, that is called righteousness by men. Yea, more than this, if I be
not full of unreserved confession of universal sin and unworthiness
in me, I cannot be wholly looking to Him for my righteousness. We by faith we by faith see that
we have no part in this righteousness but i lean all my soul upon his righteousness all my righteousness has to be
from him and i would dare not add anything to that Look at verse 16 of chapter 4
in Romans real quick. Verse 16. Paul comes to the conclusion,
therefore righteousness is of faith. How is righteousness perceived? By the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith? How is it? Therefore, I conclude this,
it is of faith. That by grace. The words, it might be, scratch
them out. Why? Because faith is by grace. That's what he's telling you.
Righteousness, therefore the righteousness of God is received
by faith, which is of grace. You didn't even earn the faith. The faith was a gift by grace. Why? Why is it like this? To the end, the promise might
be sure to all the seed. See, that's the only thing that
makes this thing sure. It's all of God. This is why
it's like this. Because if anything were left
up to you and me, we would ruin it. God didn't leave anything to
you. He didn't leave anything to you to add to it. That it might be sure to all
the elect God by grace gave you faith and through faith you received
this righteousness that Christ earned in your stead. What about my sin? How can I
claim to be righteous and still have sin? How can God truly make
me righteous seeing I have truly sinned? I'm not skimming over
the fact that you sin. Yes, you do. How did he do this? Go back to your text in Galatians.
Look at this. Verse 13. This is how. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. There's those words again. It's
written. I don't care what you think about this. It's just so. It's written. Curses everyone
hangeth on a tree. You hang upon a tree? was He cursed. How was the sinless
Son of God cursed by the law? Because He bore our sin in His
own body on the tree. Christ bore our sin and the reproach
of the law by being made a curse, and behold now the love and grace
of God, for God was not willing to impute our sins to us, but
rather bless us. Rather bless us. God was not willing to impute
our sins to us, but according to the covenant of grace, he
imputed our sins to Christ and he suffered the justice of the
law without mercy. He was cursed. And by His blood
He has blotted out our transgression as a thick cloud. What you can't
forget, God will never remember. I can't forget my sins. They
are constantly before me. But they are nowhere to be found
before the eyes of God. They're removed. They are so
far removed that God Himself cannot ever find them. Why? Not because He swept them under
the rug, but because Christ actually paid for them. Justice is completely
satisfied for His people. My sins are completely punished
in Christ. They were done. And as our sins
that He suffered without mercy All who believe on him now have
his righteousness given to them without merit, without works,
totally and absolutely by the free sovereign grace of God. Let me ask you then, seeing that
righteousness is rare, only God has it, seeing you have none
of it, you can never merit it. saying that only the righteousness
of God can give you eternal life and peace with God, acceptance
with God, how valuable is righteousness to you? To the sinner, valuable. It is the most valuable thing
and the only place I find it is in the most valuable person,
Jesus Christ. To me, Christ is all. He's all my acceptance. All my righteousness. Therefore, those who are made
righteous only continually look to him for righteousness. I don't
start out looking to him for righteousness and then go to
the Lord to fulfill it. No, the just shall live by faith. And faith is a gift of God's
grace by which we receive the righteousness. Listen, even as
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness,
so it is with you. Just like that. Just like that. That's how I made the righteousness
of God in Christ. Through faith in His blood. Through
faith in His righteousness. And how do I live? Oh man, what's
the rule of my life? When I leave here, what rule
do I follow? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what that does? If you
believe on Him, then that stirs up love, doesn't it? Faith worketh
by love. How do you know a person really
has faith? Man, he loves Christ. And by extension, he loves his
brother. That's what God does for a righteous
man. This is our law, faith and love. Anything you do, whatsoever you
find your hands to do, do that with all your might as unto the
Lord. How? In faith and love. Believe in
Christ, not trusting what you're doing to add anything to Christ.
Do it. When you're done with it, you
don't add anything. Not a thing. I'm glad to do it.
Thankful God gave it to me to do. Doesn't add a thing. Christ
is all my righteousness. And when you fail, how precious
is this? When you're given something to
do and you fail, how precious is this? That does not deduct
from his righteousness either. That doesn't take away my righteousness.
Why? Because what I do or what I don't
do doesn't have anything to do with his righteousness. Man, if that don't cause a big
boulder to roll off your back, nothing else will. Christ is all I pray God help us to understand
this, believe this, and hold fast constantly. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer. Our gracious Father, dismiss
us with your mercies and kindness. Pour out your spirit as you please
upon your people. Forgive us our sins. cleanse
us of our unrighteousness, give us grace to hold fast to Christ
and His righteousness and His blood, and lean not on anything
we've done, wholly trusting in Him. Stir up love in our hearts
for one another and for this gospel. I ask you to do this
in Christ's name.