That passage goes well with what
I want to show you tonight. You notice there Paul said in
Titus 2.8, this is a faithful saying, and these things I will
that thou affirm constantly. The things he's talking about
there is how he said remember what we were, remember what sinners
we were, and he said remember the kindness and love of God
our Savior toward man appeared. Remember how it was not by works
of righteousness we've done, but according to his mercy he
saved us, washing of regeneration, renewing of the Holy Ghost. And
he shed that on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Having been justified by his
grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life. That's why He came and revealed it. He said, and this
is a faithful saying, this gospel is a faithful saying, and I will
you affirm this constantly. Why? Because this is how God
is going to make those that have believed in God careful to maintain
good works. It's this gospel, preaching this
gospel is going to make his people careful to maintain good works.
Now Paul, in Galatians chapter 4, He has a problem with these
fairly new Gentile believers in all these various churches
at Galatia. Now he had just told them they
were heirs of God, but they're being turned back now to the
law by the Judaizers, and they were falling for this. And so
what's Paul gonna use to turn them back to Christ. The power
of God by which our Lord roots us and grounds us in love is
the gospel of God's love and grace in Christ Jesus towards
sinners like us. That's the power of God unto
salvation. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. It's the power by which he's
gonna root us and ground us in love. He's gonna increase us
and grow us in grace. It's the message that declares
his love and his grace freely shed upon us that made us his
children and heirs of God. That's the message. And so Paul
had said there in Galatians 3 that they were heirs according to
promise. So first off, he's going to remind
these believers what they were. He's reminding them what they
were. And he's going to use an illustration. He says in verse
1, now I say, Galatians 4.1, now I say the heir, as long as
he's a child, differs nothing from a servant, from a slave,
though he be Lord of all. But he's under tutors and governors
until the time appointed of the father. Even so, when we were
children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world.
So first he reminded them what they were. He reminded them what
they now are by the love and grace of God. He said in verse
4, but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant. You're not a slave anymore, but a son. And if a son, then
an heir of God through Christ Jesus. And then in light of the
gospel, in light of what they were, and in light of what God
had done for them by his free grace and his sovereign love,
now he's gonna show them how they were airing. how they were
being bewitched. And he says in verse eight, how
be it then? When you knew not God, you did
service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that
you have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye
again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire
again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and
times and years, I'm afraid of you or I'm afraid for you, lest
I bestowed upon you labor in vain, lest I preach the gospel
to you in vain. Now you see here the power of
God by which he's going to root his child and ground us in love
and keep us looking only to Christ. is the message that declares
to us God's free grace, God's sovereign love by which he made
us his children and made us heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. It doesn't matter if we're here
preaching, this is the message. If we're dealing with one another
one-on-one, and we're just talking on the phone and we're trying
to comfort our brethren, this is the message that's going to
strengthen and comfort. If there's an issue and you have
to talk to a brother, this is the way to do it right here.
Brother Ben came up to me after the message Sunday when I preached
about the brazen serpent and he said, He said, just imagine
how, when they're being bitten by those serpents all around
them, and they heard just, this man Moses, that's all they heard
was a man. And he said, God has said, look
at this serpent. And don't you know that their
thought was, these are real snakes. We're really getting bit here.
We've got to do more than just look at this serpent. Surely
we've got to do more than that. You really think that's going
to save us from these snakes? But the point was, doing that
is believing God. God said do thee, and you look
to Him, you look to Christ. In every trial that God sends,
every situation He sends, it's real to us. And it's real waves,
it's real storms, it's real trials, they're real things happening.
But the answer in every situation is the same as that day in that
wilderness. Look to Christ. Don't put your
hand to it, look to Christ, He's the one. Now He may use you to
put your hand to it, but you're gonna look to Him and wait on
Him. Because He's saving us, brethren. So this is the message
in every situation. Now, first of all, He reminded
them what they were. He gives an illustration, reminding
them what they were. He said, now, you take a father. He's chosen that his son, this
son of his, He's chosen this son to be the heir. And He's
written out His will and testament. It's all written out. And this
son's going to be his heir. He signed it. It's sealed. It's confirmed. It's done. It
can't be changed. This child's going to be his
heir. But while he's a child, even though he's Lord of everything,
even though he's going to inherit everything, while he's a child,
the Father has put him under tutors. He's taken one of his
faithful servants in his house and he's put him under a tutor
and he's put him under these governors. And they're going
to train this boy and they're going to treat this child just
like he's any other servant. And so they're going to rule
over every aspect of this child's life. I mean every aspect. Remember when you were a little
child and you couldn't do anything without your parents telling
you what to do. This was worse than that. This was men who they
kept these children in bondage. Their whole deal was to command
them and to use strict discipline. And as soon as that child was
finished one chore, they'd come on, there's something else we
gotta do. You're not finished yet, there's something else to
do. They put him on something else. And there was no rest.
They were constantly watching him, they were constantly judging
him, they were constantly correcting him. He was treated no differently
than any other servant. He's Lord, he's gonna inherit
everything. But while he's a child, he's
just treated like another servant in the household. It's that way
until the time appointed by the father. So this child gets to
a certain age that the father's appointed, it's going to be that
way. And now he says, verse 3, even so we, when we were children,
were in bondage under the elements of the world. Remember he said
in Colossians, we were under the rudiments of the world. Now
in eternity, God the Father chose His people by His sovereign love,
by His grace. He chose His people in Christ
in sovereign, unchangeable love according to His grace. Nothing
could change it. Christ entered surety ship for
us. And because He did that, this
whole will and testament of God was settled. It was confirmed. It couldn't be changed. But until
that time that God appointed, till the time that God appointed.
We were heirs, but God made us servants under bondage to the
elements of the world. Now, for God's elect in Israel,
if you was born an elect child in Israel, that old covenant
law were the elements of the world. That old covenant law
were the elements of the world, the rudiments of the world. You
think about it, the old covenant was temporal. It was written
in the letter and it was written on tablets of stone. It said
do and live, don't do and die. It gave you no mercy, it gave
you no grace, it gave you no strength. All it did was command
you what to do and what not to do. The promises that it had in it
were worldly. They were concerning temporal
inheritance, a temporal promise of a temporal carnal land called
Canaan. It typified God's spiritual promise
of his eternal inheritance in glory. But it was elementary,
rudimentary, and they couldn't see that. The old covenant had
a worldly sanctuary. It typified Christ, our sanctuary,
the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. But
it was the rudiments of the world, the elements of the world, and
the old covenant had a high priest. They were men and they were subject
to death, so they had to be replaced every so often. They typified
Christ, our high priest, who's our high priest forever, just
like the Order of Melchizedek, never changes. The old law had
carnal sacrifices that could never take away sin. constantly
offering sacrifices. In fact, they just reminded them
of their sins over and over and over. But they typified the Lamb
of God, Christ Jesus, who came and by His blood put away the
sins of His people forever by one offering. But see, while
they were under that, they were under the elements of the world.
This was the rudimentary instruction. This was the ABCs. And it was
a school of hard knocks because it was hard bondage for them. Now brethren, you and I are Gentiles,
but we were under the elements of the world too. Whether we were religious or
whether we were irreligious, we all worshipped idols. All of us did. We worshipped
the idol called self. If we were irreligious, we never
were in religion at all, like the majority of people in the
world today. We did not know the true God, but we knew there
was a God or gods or something. We knew something. We knew there
was a God. Romans 1 says we could see it
in God's creation. We knew it. We were without excuse
for not bowing to God. We knew it. We tried to deny
it, but we knew it. We were conscious that some God
existed. And we worshipped and served
the creature, his creation, rather than the creator. We worshipped
ourselves, we worshipped things in creation, we worshipped philosophy,
we had all these different maxims we lived by. We lived by the
sword is what we did. And if we were religious, Before
God came and did this work, if we were religious, we were all
trying to come to God by something we had done, every one of us.
All natural religion is that way. It's either man-made, some
man-made commandments, or we were going to God's old covenant
law, or we were using gospel precepts and religious service
and trying to come to God by that. We made love a legal requirement,
And we made faith, which is resting in Christ, we made that into
a work. It was all bondage. We thought mortification of the
flesh, when we heard that, we thought it just meant the body.
And so we would neglect our body and we'd try to touch not and
taste not and handle not, but all we were doing, Paul said
in Colossians 2, was we were puffing up our flesh. We were
putting on a good show and thinking we were doing something, but
it was just feeding our flesh. That's all it was doing. Romans
2 said we had the law of God written on our hearts. The Gentiles
had the law of God written on their hearts. All men do by nature.
Our conscience told us this is wrong, that's right. We all had
that. We all had that. A little child
knows when he's done something wrong. So in our thoughts we
either accused or we excused one another. That's what our
religion was made up of, accusing and excusing. We only had a sin
nature and whether we was in religion or whether we was not,
the only thing our sin nature could produce is envy and deceit
and whispering, and backbiting, and pride, and we were boasters,
and we were inventors of evil things, and all those other sins
that Paul lists in Romans 1. That's all we ever produced,
even in our religion, that's what we produced, and out of
our religion. We used everything under the
sun to try to convince ourselves that we were better than somebody
else. we ate better food, we drove better cars, and we lived
in a better house, and we had more money, and all these different
things that we used, and all of it was pride of race, pride
of face, pride of place, and pride of grace. That's all it
was, was pride. And all the while that we're
doing this, brethren, We were in bondage. We had this nagging,
irritating, aggravating consciousness of the judgment of God. We were
trying to silence it, we were trying to put it out of our mind,
but we had this nagging consciousness of the judgment of God that those
that commit these wicked religious sins and these wicked irreligious
sins are worthy of death. But we not only did those things,
we rejoiced in all our friends and companions that did the same
wicked sin. And while we did that, though,
if it was somebody that we didn't know or somebody that wasn't
our friend, we would judge them for the same sins. And all we
were doing was condemning ourselves because we were guilty of the
same thing. And all of it was bondage. But here's the thing. We didn't know You and I who
believe, now we didn't know why we were in that, we were heirs
of God our Father. He had chosen his people, he
had put us in Christ, Christ was our surety, and he had made
us heirs. And you know what else we didn't
know? It was appointed, God our Father appointed that we would
be in that bondage till a set time. He appointed it, just like
the father in Paul's illustration. It was to give us this rudimentary
elementary lesson that we have to learn first, and that's this.
All we are is sin, all we produce are sins, and only God can save
us from it, from us. That's the elementary rudimentary
thing he was teaching us by putting us in this bondage. Now, after
Paul reminded them what they were, then Paul reminds them
of God's grace and God's love, what they now were, what he had
done for them. And he says here in verse four,
he said, but when the fullness of time was come, this is the
time appointed by the father, when the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. Now you think about this. Imagine
you wanted to adopt some children. You wanted to adopt several children. And you had looked around, and
you went and visited with some children and talked to some children,
and you chose some children. You had your heart set on them,
and you chose those you wanted to adopt. Now, you didn't do
any wrong by passing by the ones you didn't choose. You just set
your heart on these you wanted, and you chose them. You're going
to adopt them. They came to you and they said,
here's the problem. All these children that you set
your heart on, they've all committed some very serious crimes. And
they're in jail. And they're guilty. And they're
wicked. They're wicked. They're guilty.
And not only that, they come from wicked parents. Their parents
are just as rotten as these kids are. And the problem is, every
child these parents have ever produced has been just as rotten
as these you set your affection on. In their heart, they're just
rotten. That's why they keep committing
these crimes and keep getting thrown in prison. You don't want
to adopt these kids. They're going to break your heart.
They're lawbreakers, they're guilty sinners, and their hearts
corrupt. You don't want these kids. Well,
brethren, that was us. That was you and I who God had
looked upon and chosen. He loved us in Christ, and we
were guilty criminals. We fell in at him, and we had
his wicked sin nature. But that was all by God the Father's
design. That was all by his design. Just
like that father who put his heir under tutors and governors,
God our father put us under tutors and governors. He let us come
into this world under bondage and left us in bondage in our
vain religion or our vain irreligion or whatever, wherever he put
us. He put us under the elements of the world and the bondage
of the world till an appointed time on purpose to teach us that
rudimentary elementary lesson that all we are is sin. And he
has to do the saving. So when the appointed time came,
first thing he's going to have to do is he's going to have to
redeem his kid. He's going to have to come and pay for all
our crimes and satisfy the law And then He's going to have to
come to us and open the prison and let us out of prison and
make us know we're legally now His sons and His daughters. So
we read here verse 4, when the fullness of time was come, that's
the time God the Father appointed, He predestinated us to the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ Himself. And when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth His Son. made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law, so that we could
receive the adoption of sons. So he could come in and tell
us we were his children. He had to take care of this law
issue first. Now you think about the unparalleled
love of God. God our Father, he sent his son,
God the Father sent his Son, and the Son came and willingly,
whose Spirit, like God, who is God, one with the Father, one
with the Son, one with the Spirit, the Son comes down and was willingly
made of a woman. He was not of Adam. He's not
of sinful flesh. God's his Father. He's that holy
thing in His humanity. He's that holy thing, the Son
of God, the Son of Man, the last Adam. And in amazing love, brethren,
He made Himself to be under the law. Now you think about this.
The law was not made for a righteous man. And Lord Jesus Christ was
righteous. And the law had no claims on
Him. The law could not say anything
to Him. He, but Paul said here, if a
man is circumcised, he's a debtor to keep the whole law. When you
were circumcised, you came under the law and now you're a debtor
to keep the whole law. And our Lord Jesus, when he was
eight days old, was circumcised and he came under the law. He
made himself be under the law. and proven faithful, proven righteous,
a fit man when the time came, he presented himself and he was
made sin for his guilty brethren. The father took all the sin of
his people and put them on his son. So that God would be just
to make him the curse. And think of this love, brethren.
He knew this. He knew this baptism he was going
to have to be baptized with. He knew the only way he was going
to put away the sin of these guilty children, the only way
he was going to put away their sin, the only way he was going
to make us righteous, and so that the law has nothing to say
to us ever again, so that our record's perfect and we're righteous,
the only way is he had to perfectly fully, completely take our place. He had to be made of a woman
like us, he had to be made under the law like us, he had to be
made sin that we were, and he had to be made to curse. He bore
that darkness of God separating himself from him so that justice
would be satisfied and God's law honored. And he willingly
suffered that. You think about that. You talk
about us loving. And he tells you and me, love
as I've loved you. He stepped in when the judge
was pointing the finger and saying, that brother's guilty, that brother's
guilty, that sister's guilty, that sister's guilty. You know
what he did? He stepped between us and the
judge and said, put it all on me. Well, they're going to death
row. They're going to have to be executed.
The law says they must die. He said, I'll do it. That's how
he loved. He poured out his life's blood
for us, brethren. Well, how's he going to make us know
it? He took care of the law. He satisfied the law. Well, then
he came and he said here, you're going to take care of our sin
nature. He said, verse 6, and because your sons We never were
orphans. We didn't know we had a faithful
father, but we did the whole time. Because you are sons, God
has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Wherefore, there are no more
servant but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
The spirit of his son is life. He's life, and the spirit of
his son is the life that's within us, brethren. He entered in,
that's the life that is within us because of his righteousness.
And he sent the spirit of his son to the seat of our affection,
to our heart. Not to our heads, but to our
heart, where you're controlled. where you moved, that's where
he sent the Spirit. And he shed abroad the love of
God in our hearts. He made us know the Father's
love in making us his children. He made us know that before we
ever knew it, while we hated God, while we were in that bondage,
way back there in eternity, God the Father set his love on us,
because he would. And he graciously chose us in
Christ. He made us know that love. He
made us know how the Son came forth and paid what we owed and
redeemed us. He made us know how that I've
come to you now. And He said to us, prisoners,
go forth. He opened the cell door and He
said, come forth. And He brought us out. And he
took all our filthy prison garments off of us, all our filthy rags
off of us, and he robed us now in the garments that he had purchased
with his own blood, his righteousness, his holiness. He robed us within
and without, and he said, you'll never ever be seen by my father
ever again in those filthy rags ever again. And he said, now,
you follow me. Follow me, look to me, abide
in me. Love as I've loved you, and trust
that I'm gonna provide everything you need out of my fullness. You don't have to worry about
any need you have, I'm gonna provide it all. Just look to
me, follow me, and love one another like I've loved you. And when
he made you know this love, You began to love the Father. You
began to love the Father. His love and His grace changed
us from being slaves into children. His love and His grace made us
turn from this slavish duty and this fear of God. You remember
when you used to, quote, go to church and you just didn't want
to go? You remember that? You had to,
or somebody made you, or you did it for somebody else, or
just you felt guilty, you had to do it. Just a slavish fear
and a duty. He turned us from that into making
everything a love and a delight to please the Father. They had this new love, these
Gentiles did. And most of these brethren in
these churches at Galatia were Gentiles. There were some Jews
there, but they had this new love. So, you know, they were
on fire. Whatever they could do to honor
God, that's what they wanted to do. Whatever they saw in the
scriptures that His word said do, that's what they wanted to
do. And the Judaizers took advantage of that. The devil is going,
this can happen to an older believer the same as it can happen to
a new believer. The devil is looking for anything he can use
to turn us from Christ to ourselves and something we've done. And
that's what happened. So now in light of what they
were and in light of the gospel and in light of what God had
done for them and his love and his mercy, now he warns them.
and instructs them in this error that they were in, how they'd
been bewitched, how they'd been tricked. You see how Paul's doing
this? This is how we need to always
deal with one another. This is how I've tried to preach
the gospel to you from the first day. And when I talk to you on
the phone and we're talking to one another and I hear you repeating
this back to me and and reminding me of this and comforting me
with this, that thrills me. That just thrills, not only does
it comfort me and strengthens me by God's grace, it thrills
me. But see, these Judaizers came
and they didn't do it that way. They came down there and verse
eight, look at what Paul said, how be it then? When you knew
not God, you did service to them which by nature are no God. When
you were that child, a slave, and you were in that bondage,
you did service to them which by nature are no gods. But now,
after that you have known God, or rather are known of God, how
turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto you
desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and
times and years. I'm afraid for you, Paul said,
lest I bestow upon you labor in vain. These Gentiles were
never under that old covenant law. They weren't. But these
Judaizers bewitched them. They came down there and they
bewitched them into thinking that they would show more love
to Christ if they go back under that law. This will show more
love. Now, people then and people in
our day, Judaizers, Legalists, they won't say that you need
to observe the law for justification. They won't say that. But they
will say it's for sanctification. They will say it's to better
worship. They will say it's for your life.
They'll do it in that way. Here's what they were saying.
You think, have you ever heard somebody say something like that?
They said, now Paul says the Sabbaths are a shadow of Christ. He says these Sabbaths all were
a picture of Christ, our rest. If that's so, then just think
how much more you could see Christ and really worship Him if you
started observing Sabbath days. Now Paul, he came and he told
you Christ is our Passover sacrifice for us. Now if that's so, and it is,
we believe that's so too. But just think how much better
you could worship Christ and how much more love you could
show if you'd actually start sacrificing a lamb and observing
that Passover day in addition to believing on Christ. Don't
stop believing on Christ, just do this in addition. And Paul
said, he said, you remember when you didn't know God? You remember
when you were in bondage serving idols that were not gods at all?
He said, you're turning back from Christ to the exact same
bondage, to the exact same idolatry, that's what he told them. Turning
from Christ and liberty back to Moses in bondage. Now brethren,
they were doing this with the law, but let me say this, the
same is true when we turn from Christ back to our former sins. It's all sin. It's all idolatry. Whether we're doing it in religion
and turning to the law or whether we're just turning to sin. It's all sin and it's all idolatry
and it's the same bondage God saved us out of. It's turning
from Christ. Brethren, we were in prison,
we were in a cell, we were in shackles, we were on death row
and God sent his son who took our place and shed his blood
for us and came to that prison and opened it and let us out
and set us free and gave us a new heart to know him and to know
that he knows us. How foolish would we be to leave
him and go back to that jail cell and put ourselves back in
that jail cell on death row? So what are we to do, brethren?
What are we to do? How are we going to know what
to do and how to walk and how to grow and all the things we
ought to do? God our Father says this, hear
my son. Rest in my son. Believe on my
son. And Christ said, and abide in
me. And follow me. And here it is,
listen. He said, you love one another
by laying down your lives for one another as I have loved you. That's what he means when he
says we walk by faith which worketh by love. It's seeing Christ's
love, it's seeing what he did for us in whatever the situation,
whatever the principle, whatever, wherever it is. Paul here, for
example, you know what Paul's doing? Paul laid down his life. Do you know how offended Paul
was? They were speaking bad against Paul. They were even questioning
whether Paul was even a true apostle. You know how offended
and hurt he was? But did he take the law and whip
them? Did he try to force them to do anything? No. He laid down
his life and he loved them. He loved them to Christ. How?
By reminding them of what they were, reminding them of the love
and grace of God in Christ and what Christ had done for them
and the spirit of Christ in their heart. And then he, in light
of the gospel, he said, here's what I'm fearful of. I'm fearful. This is error. This is error. You know, when you preach the
gospel, when you declare, when you remind a brother what Christ
did for them, or what they were, and what Christ has done for
them, you usually don't even have to give the other instruction
on the error. The Spirit of God will bless
it, and it'll rebuke them in their heart, and it'll break
their heart, and it'll bring them down, and they'll realize
this is wrong. Brethren, we know God and we're
known of God. We've been known of God from
the beginning and he's given us a heart now. If you have a
need, he said, cry Abba Father. Come to the high priest to his
throne of grace and ask for grace to help in time of need. There's
where you go. He sent the Spirit to be our
comforter, to guide us into all truth, to turn us and lead us
and direct us. And so He tells us now, brethren,
that's who's going to comfort you. You're children of God.
You're heirs of God. Do you think he's going to let
you go? Do you think that there's ever been one moment in the history
of this world that he had been working everything together for
your good on purpose because he loved you and he's going to
call you and he's going to glorify his son in you? Do you think
there's ever been a time? Not a time. This gospel, brethren,
of God's love and of His grace and of His forgiveness, the Spirit
blesses that to root us and ground us in love, and that's the power
of holiness, this gospel. The Pharisees were using law,
they were using judgment, they were binding, but they never
understood this. The law's the strength of sin. The law aggravates, the law irritates,
the law... It's the strength of sin. God
our Father roots us in love. He roots us in love. So the Pharisees
were dumbfounded when Christ would say things like this. He
gave an illustration. He said, when they had nothing
to pay, He frankly forgave them everything. Forgave them all.
Forgave them both. And He just scratched their head.
He said, her sins which are many are forgiven. That's too loose for a carnal
man. That's too free for a self-righteous
religious man. We've got to hedge it. We've
got to trim it. We've got to put some boundaries
on it. If we don't, men are going to
run into sin. How about we just preach the
gospel Paul preached? The Lord of that servant was
moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt.
Those are the kind of illustrations Christ gave to show what he was
doing. He said, I'll heal their backsliding. I will heal their
backsliding. I will love them freely for my
anger is turned away from him. This gospel of God's sovereign,
electing, predestinating, adopting, redeeming, forgiving, preserving,
glorifying, love, and grace is the power of God unto salvation.
Under the law and the curse, a man lives for self and Satan.
When he's under the law and the curse, he lives for self and
Satan. Under God's grace and love, God sets us free to live
to God. That's just so. And the love
of God our Father is in Christ alone. So he says, believe in
him, abide in him, follow him, speak to one another of him,
remind each other of him, point each other to him. And he said,
and out of my fullness, my full provision, I'll provide you grace
for grace, just like a vine is constantly providing for the
branch. He said, that's what I'll do
for you. And it's this word he's gonna use. Paul loved his brethren. He loved them. So you know what
he did? He denied himself. He denied himself. He crucified
his flesh. That's what he did. He mortified
his flesh. He said, I'm not breaking out
the whip of the law. I'm not gonna judge him. I'm
not gonna condemn him. That'd be that malice and that
wicked bondage he'd come out. Instead, he loved them. He laid down His life for them
and loved them to Christ. That's what He did. That's how
we're going to be rooted and grounded in the love of God.
That's what God will bless. Our Father, we thank You for
this Word. We pray You bless it. Pray You make us hear it.
Pray You truly strengthen love in our hearts. Lord, make us
want to please you. Make us want to do whatever we
do for your honor and glory. Make us want to adorn your gospel.
Lord, make us judge ourselves. Make us judge ourselves so we'd
be not judged by you. Don't let us judge our brethren.
Make us judge ourselves. And for one another, Lord, make
us lay down our lives, make us crucify our pharisaical flesh,
and make us help each other, make us love each other. Lord,
we all need this. We just, in our flesh, we're
just Pharisees. And Lord, we need you to keep
that new man renewed and keep us looking to Christ, abiding
in Him, and increased by Him. Lord, this is what we ask of
you. Forgive us, Lord, because we failed you. We've turned to
the law. We've turned to our flesh. We've
turned to our sins. Lord, we have. We just have. But Lord, make us start today. Make us start today and love
you better, love you more. Lord, do it by your grace and
your love. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.