First Timothy 1. I want to speak
about and you can imagine. How worthy I feel to speak on
this, but the subject this morning is the glorious gospel. Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ. By the commandment of God, our
Savior. And Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope. Unto Timothy,
my own son in the faith, grace and mercy and peace from God
our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord. Most of Paul's epistles
were written to churches, to groups, to be read generally. In fact, he charged, I believe
it was the letter to the Galatians wherein he charged that that
letter be read to all in the church. And those are very profitable,
of course, to the church. But this is written to an individual,
and so it has a different tenor about it. It's more personal, more heartfelt. You can imagine
you, yourself, writing a letter to a group, and how that might
be different than writing to someone that you know personally
and love, to an individual. There's a directness of language,
perhaps. an unreserved manner of expression. And just this in itself is a
reminder to us that though the Bible is written for the church
throughout the ages, the church in general, all of God's people,
it's also personal to each of us. We must understand that God's
word is written to us, to me. It's written to me. Paul may
have written the book of Romans, for example, to a group of believers,
but God wrote it to you. And Genesis to Revelation, this
is God's message to you, his sheep, his child. Paul was never Reverend Paul
or Dr. Paul. or the venerable Paul,
his eminence, or any foolishness like that. It's so common in
religion. But he did declare himself the
Apostle of Jesus Christ, simply to show what his authority was
to speak for God. There are many who speak for
God with no authority whatsoever to do so. He said of many false
prophets in the Old Testament, he said, you say you speak for
me, but I didn't send you. Paul is saying in effect here,
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, he's saying this is why you should
listen to me. This is why you should hear what I have to write
and what I have to say when I preach. This letter carries the very
authority of God. And that's important, isn't it?
This is different from the titles of men in that those titles are
given because of some degree of learning, some scholastic
achievement on the part of man. But Paul said here, I'm an apostle
of Jesus Christ. Did you notice why? Because God
wanted me to be one. By the will of God. Not because
I attained some kind of earthly achievement in knowledge or wisdom
or understanding. God wanted me to be. Paul was
the last person anyone in this world would have thought to be
a candidate for being a preacher of the gospel. And God said,
I've chosen you. Paul was educated, yes, but he
knew all the wrong things. Anyone who's trying to train
anyone or teach anybody anything will tell you they'd rather start
with somebody that doesn't know anything rather than somebody
that knows everything wrong. But God started here with somebody
that knew everything wrong. He had to forget it all. He had
to put it all behind him in order to learn the first thing about
Jesus Christ and his gospel. But Paul just simply says here,
God wanted me to be an apostle, and so I'm an apostle. That's instructive already, isn't
it? It was the Lord Jesus Christ himself, God the Son, who personally
commanded Paul to do his will in the ministry. And Paul describes
him simply in verse one here as our hope. That's a pretty
good description of him. Our hope. Not the one who gives
us hope. Not the provider of hope. He
himself is our hope. That's different now from what
most people teach. If Christ is righteous before
God, then I'm righteous before God. That's what I mean when
I say he's my hope. He's my hope of righteousness
and I've got to be righteous. What's your hope of righteousness
before God? Christ is righteous. Christ is holy. That's my hope. He's my hope in that. If his precious blood atones
for sin, if he is able to redeem sinners, vow wretched the worst
of sinners with his precious blood, then I'm redeemed. My
sins are gone. What's your hope of standing
before God sinless? Christ. Not a doctrine. Not something
that I believe. Not, well here's what I know.
It's a person. He is our hope. Our hope is a
person. Unto Timothy, my own son, in
the faith, grace, mercy, and peace. That's a good prayer,
isn't it? Paul was, by this letter, not
only at the very outset establishing his own authority as being from
God himself, he said, my authority's from God. It's by God's will
that I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ. But he was endorsing
Timothy. He was saying, you're my son
in the faith. And he sent Timothy and trusted
Timothy. The laying on of hands by the
Apostles in the New Testament and the Scriptures, the laying
on of hands, it was to convey gifts of the Spirit. We see that
in the Scripture. And the Apostles clearly were
the only ones that were able to do that, which shows plainly
that those who claim to have those gifts of the Spirit now
are impostors. Only the Apostles could convey
those gifts. When the Apostles died, whoever
had those gifts at that point were the last ones that had them.
It's just so clear in the scripture. But the laying on of hands was
more than that. It was to show confidence in
that person, to vouch for them as being blessed of God, to be
in the ministry. And the Lord didn't appear to
Timothy the way he did to Paul. God, the son of God didn't come
down where Timothy was and stop him and shine his light upon
him like he did Paul and say to him verbally, I've chosen
you and I'm gonna send you to preach to the Gentile. But Paul,
whom the Lord did personally call, endorsed Timothy, laid
hands on Timothy. I don't know if he actually laid
hands on him, but in the sense, the spirit of that, he endorsed
him here by this, by this letter. Timothy was ordained, if you
will, to use the language that we use now, an ordained minister. This is still done. Those who
preach the gospel lay their hands, so to speak, upon those who are
to preach the gospel. And this is a weighty thing.
And I mention this now because Paul, in this very same epistle,
gives the qualifications of a minister of the gospel, of an overseer
of God's church, And he says in chapter 5 verse 22 lay hands
on no man suddenly. Don't be flippant about it. Don't
just do it because it's somebody you like. Don't be careful and
circumspect about this thing because it's violent. Here's
the lesson. The means that God uses are not what might be considered
the obvious choice in God's choice of Paul. And in the way that
Timothy is chosen and the way that he chooses men now, he specifically
declares that he chooses the weak and the base and the foolish
and the despised and the things that are not. But it is vital
to know that God has called them to the ministry. It's by the
authority of God. And if it's not, then there is
no authority and it's a waste of time and an error. And I won't spend a lot of time
on that now, because as I said, this is dealt with later on in
this epistle, but I wanted to see that right away. This verse
here is a very special blessing to me because I had a father
in the faith myself. I too, like Timothy, was a son in the faith. And I
only say that because my pastor Jack Schenck said so himself.
Mickey was there. If you don't believe me, ask
her. It was such a blessing to me. He considered me his son
in the faith and I was. And a very, very vital part of
how God prepared me for the ministry was by giving me a father in
the faith. And I hear many of you in your
prayers thanking God for your pastor. And I appreciate that. Before you even knew me, I was
thanking God for mine. Not nearly enough. But this is God's arrangement.
This is God's authority, his means of calling out and blessing
his church, and I like it. And this may seem like very simple,
plain, obvious teaching this morning, but I'll tell you this,
this is important. It's important. We're hearing
from God, not from Chris this morning. As I besought thee to abide still
at Ephesus, verse 3, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest
charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Now, remember
what's happening here. This is Paul the Apostle, chosen
of God, taught of God, called directly by Christ himself. and
taught and sent to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Can you
imagine the burden that that was? The job that that was, to
preach the gospel to those who had no interest in the gospel
until they heard it. Some of them heard it and were
glad. But this is the older, wiser apostle speaking, writing
a letter to the young, inexperienced preacher, Timothy. And he begins
right away to assert the importance, the vital nature of sound doctrine. And what we're talking about
here, Paul was called by God, and then Paul endorses Timothy,
and then Timothy, I'm sure, laid hands on some people where he
preached. And this is the most important consideration. Paul
vouched for Timothy and others. Timothy vouched for some as they
did. My pastor ordained me. And there were a whole lot in
between that, you can imagine. But you know, part of that, you
know why he vouched for me? Why I was ordained the way I
was by him? Well, in great part, because
I preached what he did. You see what Paul is saying here?
Remember the doctrines that I taught you and tell others who are preaching
don't preach anything else Paul is saying make sure that whoever
preaches in the church is Preaching what we preach because what we
preach is what Christ preached There is that unbroken So-called laying on of hands
now we call it ordination, but there is that unbroken confidence
It's the authority that come originally from God now and is
passed down to his preachers. Through his preachers. Verse 4 listen to this now neither
give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions
rather than godly edifying which is in faith so do. All right,
listen. What he's saying here now, he
just said make sure they don't teach any other doctrine. And
now he's saying there are two ways to do that. There are two
ways to teach other doctrine. Let's look at it in this verse.
First of all is to give heed to fables. There's some very
important teaching here because this is still the danger. This
is still the danger. And there are churches who claim
to preach the truth, and some are maybe closer than others,
but a miss is as good as a mile when it comes to preaching the
Gospel. You either preach in Christ or you're not. You may
be saying a little bit better things over here than they're
saying over there, but Christ crucified is the Gospel now,
and there's just one. And this is important. These
are the ways that it's missed right here, the two ways. There
is sound doctrine, the doctrine of Christ, and then there are
fables, number one, and there are endless genealogies. This
is two different issues that exist in the church today, just
as it did then. Fables, that's kind of obvious.
That's just a fabrication of man. That's a made up story.
In other words, they're preaching things that aren't even in the
scriptures at all. You're not going to find them in here. You
could probably think of some examples of that. In the so-called
church today. Now stop thinking about that,
because you won't hear me if you're thinking about that. But
you can think of examples of that, can't you? Fable, just
made up. Where'd they find that? I can't
tell you. It's a fable. All right, genealogies,
on the other hand, may be real. They're true, they're real, but
they're not important. You see the two things here?
They're beside the point. The point is Christ, and there
isn't any other point. You're just arguing about genealogies.
It's just as useless and just as Christless to say true things
as it is to make up things, if the true things you are saying
are not the truth. The Bible has one message. One
thing is needful to preach God's gospel is to preach Christ and
Him crucified. Let me say this again as clearly
as I can say it. If I tell you that my first car
was a Plymouth Duster, you feel sorry for me, don't you? No,
it was a beauty. It was great, it was awesome.
I paid 400 bucks for it and I was proud of it. And I tell you that
I grew up in Deer Park, Texas. Southeast of Houston. I went
to Deer Park High School. What am I telling you? I'm not
talking to you about automobiles or towns or learning establishment.
I'm telling you all about me and That's what the scripture
the scriptures deal with many subjects But everything the Bible
says is said to us as it relates to Jesus Christ and what he did
for sinners all of it It's about him. Romans 1.1, he said, Paul,
I'm a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated
unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his
prophets in the holy scriptures. This has always been the gospel.
I'm telling you the same gospel they did. And it's concerning
his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David, according to the flesh. Paul is charging Timothy to be
sure that those who preach and those who listen to them don't
say or hear anything man-made. There's much of this in preaching
now, and there always has been. There was then, and there is
now. And I'm telling you this, God's preachers are susceptible
to this. If I tell you something, I don't
care how good of an opinion it might be, and it's not in this
Word of God, you can take it or leave it. Take it for what
it's worth. If you're interested in my opinion on something, I'll
probably tell you. I'm pretty opinionated about
some things. But that's not what we're here
for this morning. If it's not in this book, it's
beside the point. Or it's a fable. And either way,
either way, it's not the gospel. And boy, we hear a lot of that,
don't we? Be sure now. Just things that
just simply you will not find in the Word of God. And then
there are those who quote Scripture and use the Word of God, but
they're taking it with vain questions and issues that are unprofitable.
The genealogies referred to in this verse are not the genealogies
in Scripture that we have. It's likely talking about lineages
Jewish lineages. They were always wanting to trace
back their heritage. You remember Paul in Philippians
2 I believe it was was very proud of his earthly heritage and lineage
and they all were and they were always trying to trace it back
and say I'm of this tribe. And so you know I have this this
to my credit and things like that. But what this represents
is things that may be true but are just beside the point. They're
meaningless. It's a waste of time to argue
about it. As Paul already said, our hope is a person. And so
what's our message going to be? It better be that person. Verse
five, now the end of the commandment. Now think about this. This is
Paul writing to Timothy. I imagine he's going to want
to tell him some very important things. He's an apostle of Jesus
Christ and he's talking to a young preacher that needs to know something.
And here's one of the things you need to know, Timothy. The
goal of the commandment is love out of a pure heart and of a
good conscience and of faith unfeigned from which some, having
swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling." You see, he's
giving examples here of what he just said. The fables and
the genealogies, the things that are just flat and made up, and
then the things that just aren't important. They seem important. They're not worth arguing about.
He's giving examples of that, and you know what it all has
to do with? The right use of the law. It's all either grace
or law. Love or labor. That's what it
all boils down to now. You know why they were interested
in their genealogies? Because what Paul said, I've
got no use for anymore, they did have a lot of use for. All
their heritage and their works and their credits, you know,
to their name and things like that, that's just nothing but
works religion is all that is. God's gonna save me because of
who I am and what I've done. Oh, you're trampling underfoot the
precious blood of God's Son. And so he's talking about that
here. It has to do with the right use of the law. The commandment,
the end of the commandment is not you measuring up to God's
standard. Desiring to be teachers of the
law, verse seven, he said, they don't understand what they say,
nor whereof they affirm. He said in another place, you
that would be under the law, don't you hear what the law's
saying? You that would stand before God justified by the law,
don't you realize that everything the law says necessitates that
you go to hell? The law is not our hope. The
law is not our message. And it's vain jangling to say
otherwise. The issue in the church then
as now is the lawful use of the law. This is related to what
he said in the previous verse, even in this sense that even
the word of God can be used unlawfully. The commandment is right there
in the book of Exodus and you can use it wrong. He said, don't
pervert the scriptures to your own destruction. That's what
they were doing. Even the scripture can be misused. The Jews saw the law as a rule
of life, as a standard that should be measured up to for acceptance
with God. And Paul preached that the law
was not that at all, that by that means, by the deeds of the
law, no flesh can be justified in God's sight. So to use the
law that way is to use it unlawfully. He preached that the law was
our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that Christ is the
goal of the law. Romans chapter 9 and 10, Christ
is the end of the law. Here he says that love is the
goal of it, is the end of the law, the goal of the law, the
purpose of the law, because he is talking about the law with
regard to our behavior and not with regard to our righteousness.
Well, isn't that the same thing? Oh, no, not at all. Our behavior
has nothing to do with our righteousness. Christ is our righteousness and
our behavior is not. But even our behavior is not
motivated by law, Paul said. But love. The goal of the commandment,
the end of the commandment in saying thou shalt not and thou
shalt is not to make you righteous before God. or to make you try
to be righteous before God. It's love. Even in our behavior, much less
our righteousness before God now. The goal of the law, let
me try to be clear, The goal of the law with regard to us
being righteous before God is to bring us to Christ who is
our righteousness. That's what God gave the law
to do. Not so you would measure up or not measure up. You already
hadn't measured up before God gave the law. Before you ever
hear the law as a human being, you've already broken it. You've
already failed. And if when you hear it, you
kept it from there on out, that wouldn't make you righteous before
God. God requires perfection now.
So the law, God's not that naive. He's not giving the law to you
to make you better than you are. The law was our schoolmaster,
Paul said, to bring us to Christ. He said, Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness. The goal of the law for righteousness,
to everyone that believeth. He speaks of faith in our text,
didn't he? To everyone that believeth. The goal of the law with regard
to our righteousness before God is to bring us to Christ, who
is our righteousness. He himself is our righteousness.
The goal of the law with regard to our daily walk, our behavior,
is love. Which really amounts to the same
thing, although our behavior, as I said, has nothing to do
with righteousness. But really both, the goal of
the law in both is Christ, We are righteous because we are
in Christ. And by grace through faith, we
have Christ as our righteousness. We do what we do because we love
Christ. In both cases, the end is Christ. The goal is Christ. You see what
I'm saying? That's why he says love. Here we do what we do because
we love him. The love of Christ constraineth us. Because we love
him, we're constrained to live, not henceforth unto ourselves,
but unto him which died for us, 2 Corinthians 5, 14 and 15. So Paul is still talking about
sound doctrine here, and he's saying, let no one preach the
law as a means of righteousness before God, nor as a motivation
for living. The lawful use of the law is
Christ, in righteousness before God and in motivation and behavior.
Now concerning this, concerning all of that, we know two things.
This would be a crazy outline, wouldn't it? A, B, one, two,
three. But all of that, you remember
all of that now, and we know two things about this. About
the law and teaching sound doctrine, the truth, rather than vain jangling
about what you need to do and what you need to quit doing.
Here's what we know about that. Number one, we know that the
law is good. saying the law is a bad thing. We're not condemning
God's law we're condemning ourselves under the law. Our mouths are
stopped and we become guilty. The law is good if a man use
it lawfully. The proper use of the law is
important now. And we know this too. We know
this secondly verse 9, we know that the law is not made for
a righteous man. You remember we just talked about
this recently? The law is for the lawless and the disobedient, for the
ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers
of fathers and murderers of mothers. You know why God said thou shalt
not kill? Because we're murderers. That's
why. If nobody ever murdered anybody,
then what would be the use of God saying thou shalt not kill?
The law is made for the lawless. It's not for a righteous man
at all. for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with
mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine."
You see how he puts those that are under the law as equivalent
to those who are unsound in their doctrine? We know that the problem is not
that there's a problem with the law. The law is good if a man
use it lawfully. The problem with the law not
being a legitimate way for us to attain unto righteousness
before God is that we are inherently and incurably unrighteous by
nature. And the law can never change
that. All it can do is show us how unrighteous we are. As an unregenerate sinner, And
this is the second consideration, that the law is not for a righteous
man. You think about this. As an unregenerate,
as a lost person before God, unregenerate, Christless, lost,
the law is not the answer for you. Because you can't ever measure
up to it. If the understanding of the law, if you use it unlawfully, And you don't understand that
the law was given to show you your need of Christ and to drive
you to Christ. Then you're then you're hopeless.
That's that's your hope. The hope is that the law will
do that. Listen to Romans 8 3 what the
law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending
his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned
sin in the flesh. The law could not do what. make
us righteous before God. So God sent his son to do that. God sent his son to make me righteous
before him. In consideration of us as lost
and dead in trespasses and sins, and how the law pertains to us
in that state, the law gives us no hope. All it can do is show us our
need. Drive us to the one hope for
sinners the Lord Jesus Christ who kept the law and paid for
you not keeping the law All right now verse 9 tells us how the
law pertains to us as believers as Believers as a regenerate
sinner as a saint of God in Christ. The law is not in effect. We're
not under the law. I The law, as Paul describes
in Romans chapter 7, has as much claim upon us as a man's law
has upon a dead person. Let's jot it down and read it
later. Romans 7, 1 through 6. We're not under the law. We're
not responsible. We're not accountable to the
law of God. And thank God we're not. Of what use, let me ask you this,
of what use is the law to us, to believers, to the children
of God, to his sheep, of what use is the law to us as a means
of righteousness if we are perfectly righteous in Christ? And we are. What use is it? The reason there
is a law against speeding is because people drive too fast. If nobody did that, there would
be no law against it. Listen to what Galatians 5.22
says, the fruit of the spirit. This is the believer, this is
the child of God, who has the spirit of life dwelling within
him, a new nature from God. The fruit of the spirit is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law. That's all God sees in you right
there. Because he sees you in Christ. If God ever sees anything
in you besides love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, then you're a goner. You're going to hell. As believers,
there's no law against us. The handwriting of ordinance
against us is blotted out by the blood of Christ, Paul said. So here's the point, whether
dead or alive, spiritually speaking, whether dead or alive, the law
is not our hope. That's why Paul said, don't be
jangling vainly about the law and don't let anybody else do
it, Timothy. The law can't give us life when
we're dead. And once we're alive, the law
has served its purpose. Under God, it has served its
purpose. Galatians 3, 24, wherefore the
law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might
be justified by faith in him. But after that faith has come,
we're no longer under a schoolmaster. It's served its purpose. And all of that is according
to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which God committed to my trust. And that's why Paul was saying,
now don't you let it happen. You shut up about the law and
you shut up everybody else about the law. Because the gospel's committed
to my trust, Timothy, and I'm trusting you. And it's committed
to your trust. It's committed to our trust.
And I'll tell you this, it is good news, the glorious good
news. You know it's good news that I'm no longer under the
law? It's not just good news, it's
glorious good news that I'm not under the law, that I'm not accountable
to God's law. I'm not responsible before God
to keep his law. Does that make us lawless? Paul
said no. In my experience, no. But my hope is not the law. And my rule of life is not the
law. Thank God for the glorious gospel
of righteousness without the law. You know where I'm going,
don't you? We go there quite a bit, and
we're gonna go there quite a bit more. Because this is just clear
now. If I'm unclear, God's word is
not. Romans 3.21, look at it with
me one more time. Because this is all that we've
been saying this morning now. This is all of it. In one brief
and just wonderfully clear passage of scripture. Romans 3 21. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested. Where? In the glorious gospel. It's manifest, how'd you find
out about it? How did you find out that you can be righteous
before God without keeping God's law? You had to hear the glorious
gospel of the blessed God for that to be manifested to you.
And now I know by God's grace, I can stand before God without
spot, without blemish or any such thing, without me keeping God's law. How in the world can that be?
Well, the prophets have been talking about it. It's been the
same message from the beginning. How was Abel righteous before
God? Blood, a sacrifice, atonement, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness of God
now, there's just one. There can't be, well, I'm doing
my best and that's my righteousness. That's not righteousness. The
righteousness of God is the only righteousness there is because
he's the only righteous person. We're talking about the righteousness
of God now, which is, and we're talking about how it pertains
to us, how I can be righteous. And it's
by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Look that word up. The
faithfulness of Jesus Christ. It's by his performance. It's
by his measuring up to the law. And it's unto all and upon all
them that believe. That's how we experience it.
By grace through faith. God-given faith. For there's
not any difference. If it doesn't come to you by
God-given faith, it's not coming to you because you're just like
everybody else. You're not gonna distinguish
yourself from other men before God because there's no difference
in you. And so it's got to come unto
you by the gift of faith because of God's grace and love for you.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely. This refers back to that verse,
to the, upon all them that believe. Those who he's talking about,
those are the ones who were justified freely, made not, rendered not
guilty. freely without a cause in them.
That's what righteousness without the law means. It doesn't mean
that God did away with his law. It just means this righteousness
has nothing to do with you keeping the law. And that's what this
says here. Justify freely. There's no cause
in you. You didn't do anything to deserve
it or earn it. Justify freely by his grace. There's just one kind of grace
and it's free. Grace. How can God, though, how can
he declare me not guilty without any reason in me to do it? Surely that's going to compromise
his justice. To declare a guilty person justified,
that doesn't seem right, does it? Until you know something
about the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, it may not seem
right. But he paid for he paid. Redemption is the price of freedom.
I am free from God's law because he paid for it. He paid the penalty
for all my sin. The Lord laid on him the iniquity
of us all. And with my sin on him, he suffered
the wrath of God against my sin. And he redeemed me from the curse
of the law being made a curse for me. Through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God in his glorious gospel has
set forth to be a propitiation, a sin offering through faith
in his blood. Isn't that an odd phrase? I would
probably never say that if it wasn't in the scripture. Faith
in his blood. Do you believe in his blood?
I believe by God's grace that by that precious blood I am redeemed. Not that he made redemption available
by that blood and then I did something, you know, to make
that effectual. He redeemed me with that blood.
He saved me. Freely. By his grace, through
the redemption, through the precious blood of my Savior. And he did
it to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins. The past sins to the preparance
of God and at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the
justifier of all who believe In the Lord Jesus Christ And
if you've heard that glorious gospel and believe it your bragging
days are done That's what he said next there. They're just
done. This is that gospel of of the
blessed God, that glorious gospel that is committed to our trust.
And may we never preach anything or anyone else. That's what Paul's
saying to Timothy here. Never, never. Seeing that we have such a hope. Seeing that God has been gracious
to sinners in his precious son and in his precious blood. How
can we say anything else? Paul said, seeing that that's
true, seeing that we have such a glorious gospel that the blessed
God has given to us, let's be real clear about it. Let's not
mix anything into it about me doing something or not doing
something. This is salvation is of the Lord. This is him justifying
me freely. This is I'm not guilty because
it is Christ that died. Who is he that condemns? It's
Christ that died. It is God that justified me because
his precious son died in my place. That's the glorious gospel. Let's be plain about it. Seeing
that we have such a glorious hope May God give us grace to be clear
and bold and faithful in the preaching
of it. Let's pray.