My text is going to be Galatians
chapter 3 verse 1, but I am going to cover a few things back in
chapter 2 verse 21, the last verse there. Let me just say
by way of introduction that the church is called to defend the
gospel, and that means we're to give an answer. for the gospel
if we are asked. Peter says it this way in 1 Peter
3, verse 15, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. If we're answering a question,
we're really answering it to God first before we speak to
others. Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness
and fear. Paul, the prisoner of the Lord,
said, I am set for the defense of the gospel. Those are the
same words. Give an answer and give a defense. Give a defense for the gospel.
Why? What is at stake with regards
to the gospel? That it requires a defense by
the Lord's people who believe that gospel. Why does it require
a defense? What's at stake? Well, in Galatians
2, verse 21, Paul tells us that the grace of God is at stake. The grace of God. This is what
Paul was defending. Paul was adamant. He was very much engaged to ensure
that the grace of God was not defiled by men and the religion
of man. And so this is an understanding
by the people of God that we are saved by the grace of God. That's what saves us. It's God's
grace that saves us. We are saved by grace through
faith. And he says, I do not frustrate
the grace of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And that's very powerful. He's laying down a very strong
argument of why we are to defend the gospel, because he's saying
Christ, the Son of God, gave his life for the salvation of
his people. And anything else that we add
to that is an affront to what Christ did. It renders it worthless. He says, I do not frustrate the
grace of God with the confusion of the law. I don't bring down
the grace of God. I don't make it fuzzy or cloudy
or use the law to bind, to negate the grace of God in Christ. And what was going on? Well,
there was a group of people called the Judaizers, meaning they were
trying to to take the Greeks and the Gentile converts and
bring them into the religion of the Jews, to bring them under
the law. They were trying to Judaize them,
make them into proselytes of the Jewish religion. And they
persecuted Paul. Many of them confessed, well,
the Judaizers confessed to believe Christ, But they believed that
they also needed the law for a righteousness. And so they
persecuted Paul everywhere he went. They persecuted him and
argued against him for the offense of the cross. And Paul said in
Galatians 5.11, if I yet preach circumcision, if I just preach
circumcision, he said, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offense of the cross
cease. If I would just preach the law, if I would just give
them something for their flesh to glory in, then they wouldn't
persecute me anymore. If I would just give lip service
to the law of Moses, then they wouldn't persecute me anymore
because the offense of the cross would cease. They'd love it if
I preached the law because the offense would be removed. There's
no more offense. Once we add man's works, to salvation,
the offense of the cross goes away because now it's just another
religion of the world. Oh, do you like it how the Muslims
use the law? Great, well then go be a Muslim.
Oh, do you like it how the Jews use the law? Then go be a Jew.
Oh, do you like it how the Christians use the law? Then go be a Presbyterian. Oh, do you like it how the Catholics
do it? Then go be a Catholic, right? Because it's all flesh.
That's all it is, it's just different forms of different sets of rules
and laws whereby your life is governed by these rules because
otherwise you wouldn't know what to do, they say. And so there'd
be no more offense. No more offense, because the
flesh would be told, good job. You're working for a reward. You're contributing to your salvation. You're doing what you're supposed
to do. And so the offense of the cross would be gone. And
what the offense of the cross means is we're saying there's
nothing, nothing you or I can do. We're that bankrupt. We are that destitute. We are
that ruined in sin. in our own sin, in our hearts,
in our thoughts, in our words, in our deeds, were that ruined
that it took the Son of God to take upon Him the flesh, the
flesh like unto us, and to come and lay down His life to put
away our sins and to obtain life for us. That's how serious it
was, that it took Christ to come and lay down His life. And so
the Judaizers wanted to bring the Gentile believers under the
yoke of the law. They would teach them the law.
They would instruct them in the law. They would bring them through
the law through various works or little means. But they would
make use of the law so as to establish the Gentiles in righteousness. to make them more righteous,
to make them more holy and more accepted unto God. And Paul counters
their attack on the cross of Christ saying, if righteousness,
if you can use the law for righteousness, if it can improve your righteousness
with God, if it can improve your standing with God, then what
did Christ die for? That was a waste. He didn't need
to come. You could have just used the
law. He didn't have to lay down his life for that. He could have
just told you, hey, do better. He could have just put down a
better example for us and then left. But he gave his life to
pay for the sins of his people. And so there were Judaizers who
professed Christ, but they didn't want to leave the law because
then they would be persecuted. But think of it this way. If
preaching of the law can make you righteous, it can make righteous
that which is unrighteous, then what did Christ die for? if all
we need is the law to improve and fix ourselves. So when Paul
said, I do not frustrate the grace of God, that word frustrate
means to despise it, to reject it. Frustrate means to bring
it to nothing, to disannul it, to basically empty it of all
its meaning and value. You can say you believe the grace
of God, but if you trust the law for your righteousness, you've
just emptied grace of all meaning. You've just disannulled it. You've
just said, I really don't believe the grace of God. And as soon
as we use the law in an effort to bring forth righteousness
in our hearts, thinking that is going to help me to produce
fruit, righteous fruit to God by the law, we make the grace
of God meaningless. We've just emptied it of its
actual meaning. that without merit, God forgave
us our sins for Christ's sake. We've just emptied it of all
meaning. To quote Hebrews 719, it says, the law made nothing
perfect. Nothing perfect. The law made
nothing perfect. What did make something perfect?
the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh
unto God." And religious men today, work mongers today, law
mongers today, to this day say, we draw near to God by the law.
That's how we come closer to God. We just practice the law
and we get nearer and nearer to God, but not according to
the scriptures. According to man, sure, that's
what he says, but according to the scriptures, the law made
nothing perfect. Christ did. Christ did. That's
how we draw near to God. And so we hear the scriptures. We have the results of thousands
of years of the use and implementation of the law. Thousands of years
of it now. When the law was given to Moses
on Mount Sinai, we have all that time. And then we saw it in the
church's use, the church so-called, its use of the law for 2,000
years now. We've seen it used and it made
nothing perfect. This world has waxed worse and
worse and worse and worse and worse, all with the use of the
law. It just keeps getting worse and
worse and worse. And the scriptures say it this
way, the scriptures have concluded all under sin. When you look
at this book, From a nation that was surrounded by a bunch of
people all committed to the law, the scriptures say that it's
concluded all under sin. Every one of us is a sinner.
That's how bad it is. The law doesn't make us perfect. It doesn't. It doesn't heal us.
It doesn't cleanse us. It doesn't turn our hearts in
any way. If you go over to Acts 15, let's
look there. Acts 15. beginning in verse 1 and 2. This kicked up here early in
the church. It said, certain men, which came
down from Judea, taught the brethren, and said, except ye be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. And that just
seems like a little thing, just a tiny little thing. What's the
big deal about that? Just be circumcised. That's all
you need. And Paul contended against that. He fought against that. He said,
no, absolutely not. You're entering in. As soon as
you open that door, you've now yoked yourself with the whole
law. You've now put yourself under
the law. Just that whiff of the law, Barnabas and Paul stood
up, and it says they had no small dissension and disputation with
them. They determine that Paul and
Barnabas and certain of them should go up to Jerusalem unto
the apostles and elders about this question. So because of
that disputation and dissension, he said, why don't you go down
there and talk to the apostles about this? Well, drop down to
verse seven. And when there had been much
disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, men and brethren,
Ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us
that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
unto us. They didn't enter into the law.
They weren't part of the law. And yet God poured out the Holy
Spirit upon them. and put no difference between
us and them purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why
tempt ye God? To go to the law is to tempt
God. It's tempting God to put a yoke
upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor
we were able to bear. But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we, we Jews, shall be saved,
even as those Gentiles. And that's what he's saying.
We're not saved by the law. Even us, we're not saved by the
law. We're saved the same way that
the Gentiles are saved, apart from the law, by the grace of
God. So we're not to use the law as
a means to make men righteous. We are to preach Christ. Righteousness comes by Jesus
Christ, which he communicates, which he gives to you, which
he reveals to you by faith, by faith which he gives, brought
in us by the giving of the spirit under the preaching of the gospel.
which he makes effectual to our hearts. For the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So we're talking tonight about
a righteousness, a true righteousness, which God accepts. Not what man
has been teaching us, but what the scriptures teach, the truth.
Because we can say things and we can fool others. We can put
on a good show. I mean, that's why Christ gave
us the parable of the wheat and the tares. There's people that
are better than me, by far, and can put on a good show. But that
doesn't mean that they have a heart for Christ. And so the Lord sees
the heart and that's who examines us. That's who knows us is the
Lord. He sees the heart. He knows that
we are but dust. So taking verse one, let's just
read Galatians 3.1 because this is my text. Oh foolish Galatians! who hath bewitched you, who hath
charmed you, who hath put a spell on you, that ye should not obey
the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth, crucified among you. I want to give you three things,
three things in this verse about a righteousness by faith as opposed
to a righteousness by the law. I think it's just good to lay
the foundation down. The first thing about a righteousness
by faith as opposed to a righteousness by the law is that they're two
different houses. They're two different houses
with two different foundations. They're not of the same. They
are two different houses. Christ's house is built by faith. It's built upon faith. It's by
faith. But that no man, this is Galatians
3.11 in that same chapter, but that no man is justified by the
law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall live
by faith. Those that are just with God,
they're living by faith. They're walking by faith. That's
how they live, trusting the word of God, trusting the Christ of
God, trusting his people, trusting that the Lord saves his people.
Moses, on the other hand, built a house by the works of the flesh. That's what he was sent to do.
He built it by the works of the flesh. Romans 11, five and six,
even so, Even so, then, at this present time also, there's a
remnant according to the election of grace. Among the Jews, there's
a remnant according to the election of grace, just like us, us Gentiles. And if by grace, then it is no
more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be
of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more
work. And so what Paul is saying here,
what the Lord's saying here in the scriptures is, it's not both
hammers building the house. You take a swing, and then I'll
take a swing, and you take a swing, and I'll take a swing. It's not
two different hammers building a house. It's either Christ or
it's Moses. It's one or the other. They're
two different houses. They are not the same. You're
either trusting Christ for his righteousness according to his
promise, or we're trusting our flesh to do what Moses said and
to make a righteousness by the law. Now, the purpose of Moses
and the law was never to make men righteous by the keeping
of the law. He was faithful. He's a mediator,
it says. He was given the law for a purpose,
and he came and he built that house, what the Lord gave him
to build there, as a servant, but as a testimony of things
to come. as a testimony of things to come
which are now established for us in Christ. Let me read Hebrews
chapter three, verse five and six. And Moses verily was faithful
in all his house. He was faithful as a servant,
as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to
be spoken after, but Christ as a son. He's a son over his own
house, whose house we are. We're his house if we hold fast
the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. That's what he puts in our hearts,
the hope of righteousness by the Lord Jesus Christ. Not by
my doing, but by Christ. He's the one who builds the house.
He's the one who gives us his word of promise that he is our
salvation and all our righteousness. And if we're his, we will hold
fast. That will be our confession.
We will hope in him unto the end. We won't be moved off of
that because he'll keep us. So the church is the house of
Christ. He's the builder of it. Just
as we saw on Sunday, we are the epistles of Christ. the epistles
of Christ. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. Now the purpose of Moses wasn't
given because it could make anyone righteous. It does not have any
power to do it. It has no power to make you righteous. The law was given to show the
weakness of men. It exposes just how corrupt,
how vile, how weak we are, how imperfect we are, that we have
no ability to make ourselves righteous. It's very good at
that. It's very good at showing just how far I fall flat before
the holiness and the righteousness of God. It's very good at doing
that. And so it shows the inability
of man that by his works he will not come to God and be justified
by God by what he does in the law. Now the law is perfect. That doesn't mean the law is
imperfect. The law is perfect. The weakness is this flesh right
here. It's me. I'm the weakness. I
can't keep the law. And this old man of flesh remains. You see it right here. You see
this old man of flesh. And it's imperfect. And it hasn't
improved. It doesn't get any better. It's
still weak and corrupt and vile. And it's still sin. It's still sin. And so this flesh
cannot now keep the law for righteousness. Paul said in Romans 3.20, therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. That's
what we just said. It was given to show us that
we're sinners. It was given to show us our need
of salvation and the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Why? That's what we see in Galatians
3.22, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given
to them that believe. It's to open the ear of the children
of God to see, I need a salvation. I can't do this. I'm not doing
this. I'm coming up short. I need a
Savior. I need the grace of God. Lord,
save me. Don't bind me with anything to
do because I can't do it. I need Christ. I need Christ.
So it opens the ear of faith when the Lord lays it to the
heart. It opens that ear. The carnal man, he's happy in
his law-keeping, or the carnal man is happy in his unabashed
sin, just doing sin in the world. Either way, the carnal man's
happy, but the child of God is only happy in Christ. The child
of God is made to flee to Christ, and there we find our peace and
our rest. Because under the law, we're
not at peace. And we're not at peace just fulfilling the lust
of the flesh. The Lord has made it so. He's
made it so that we are at peace and at rest in Christ. That's
where we are safe. That's where we are at rest. And so God's people are going
to know that they're sinners. but not by the preaching of the
law as a means of righteousness. Not to say, you can do this.
Now, you've got to go do this. And if you're doing good, then
good for you. You're getting better. We don't
preach the law in that way. We preach the law in the sense
of exposing our sin, of showing our folly in trying to keep the
law for a righteousness. So we're not to preach, you better
do this or else. because that's of no profit. There's no man that can keep
that perfectly. We can't do that perfectly. We preach Christ crucified
because that opens up, well, why did the Son of God come?
If Christ died, and you're telling me this is the Son of God, why
did he come? Why did he come in the flesh? And what did he
accomplish? Why do you have to do that? And
that opens up what God did to save his people from their sins,
what he had to do and what he accomplished for us. And so this
is the message that the Spirit blesses. He takes the things
of Christ and shows them unto you, making them effectual in
your hearts. So we don't use the law of Moses,
preaching the law so as to give man a false hope. Because if
you say, if you do this, you'll be perfect, there are some that
will go off thinking they can do it. And they won't see that
their hearts are black and dark. They won't see that. And they'll
think that they're doing pretty good until the Lord opposes it
and stands in their way and delivers them from that. So true righteousness
is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. For God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts, in
the darkness of these hearts, to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have
this treasure in earthen vessels. earthen vessels, vessels that
are still weak that the excellency of the power of God, that the
excellency of the power may be of God and not of us, so that
any fruit I bear, one thing I know, it ain't me, it ain't this flesh,
It isn't because I've got myself together and I'm doing good now.
It's by the power and grace of God. And I give him all the glory,
all the honor, all the praise, because this vessel is an earthen
vessel, a clay pot, easily broken, A weak, poor vessel. That's all that I am. Unable to bring forth any fruit,
any lasting fruit, any eternal fruit, any fruit of the Spirit.
It's the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of Eric. It's the
fruit of the Spirit. It's not the fruit of Moses,
it's the fruit of the Spirit. It's of Christ who bears that
fruit in us. And that fruit comes not by threatening,
not by works, not by reward or the threat of punishment. That's not the fruit of the Spirit.
That's the works of the flesh. It's brought by the Spirit in
love, thankful, right? Because if I'm loving my brethren,
if I'm serving my brethren, if I'm rejoicing in the Lord, it's
not because of threats, it's because the Lord has put that
in my heart and brought that forth of His Spirit in His child,
and so He does that. So faith rests in Christ or the
faith that rests in Christ is a manifestation that we are His,
that we are living stones taken by Christ, made alive, and what
He puts in the house where He dwells by faith. He's building
the house with living stones that is His people in whom He
dwells. And so again, Paul said, I don't
frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the
law, then Christ is dead and vain. The moment we bring in
the law as a tool to make men righteous before God, to up their
righteousness level, we're frustrating, we're disannoying, we're emptying
the grace of all its meaning. And Paul says in verse one, that's
foolish. That's foolish. And second, the second thing
about a righteousness by faith as opposed to a righteousness
by the law It reveals what it means, what the obedience of
faith or obedience to the truth is. It reveals what obedience
to the truth is. Paul asks, who hath bewitched
you that ye should not obey the truth? What is the truth that
we are to obey according to righteousness? Is it to give obedience to the
law of Moses for righteousness? Well, if we do, if we're giving
obedience to the law of Moses for righteousness, then we are
being disobedient to the faith of Christ. They're mutually exclusive. They're both not true at the
same time. If we're giving obedience to Moses' law for righteousness,
we are being disobedient to Christ. We're not obeying the truth of
Christ, because the truth of Christ declares, I'm carnal,
sold under sin. I can't work a righteousness.
can. And so Paul is speaking of the
Galatians' disobedience to Christ by turning away to Moses for
circumcision, by turning to Moses to be circumcised, which is a
work of the law. To obey the truth is to trust
Christ alone for all my righteousness and acceptance with God. Listen
to how Paul closes his letter to the Romans. Romans 16, verse
25 through 27, he says, now to him that is of power to establish
you. We're talking about God's power.
He's able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching
of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery
which was kept secret since the world began. And he's saying
salvation is a spiritual work. It's not a work that we can muster
and get the strength up to do for ourselves. It's a work of
grace for us by the power of God, who reveals the mystery
which was hidden, right? Because anybody can open this
book and see I'm a sinner. under the wrath of God, but I
don't know how God saves me. I don't know how he saves me. Well, through the preaching of
Christ, that's how we hear, his people hear, that's righteousness,
that's my salvation, that's what I need. He makes that known through
the preaching of the gospel, by the giving of his spirit.
The carnal man is left to think that's foolish, but the child
of God rejoices in him. is glad in that what Christ has
done. So faith that rests in Christ
is a manifestation that we are his, that we're his. So preaching
of the gospel, yeah, okay. So it's God's power, it's God's
power. And the spirit of God makes known
the truth to us by revelation of the mystery which was kept
secret since the world began. And he blesses that preaching
of Christ crucified to his people who by nature are in darkness
and are brought out of darkness into the light. He makes you
to hear what the carnal man cannot hear. He makes a child of God
to hear what carnal men cannot hear. All that the carnal man
can hear is the letter of the law, and he rejects Christ. He
thinks that Christ eventually becomes light bread, like the
Jews. They got tired of the manna and
the light bread, and they refused that light bread. They were tired
of it. And yet, that was the very picture of the bread of
heaven, whom the Father would send, Jesus Christ, who by the
simplicity of Christ, saves his people, and feeds his people,
and nourishes his people, and strengthens his people, and teaches
his people. It's not like bread to the child
of God, who's feeding upon that and is satisfied and thankful
to God. The carnal man, rejoices in the
harshness of the law and the whippings and the beatings, what
Paul calls a ministration of death and condemnation until
the Spirit visits him in power, just as he does for every one
of his children. He visits them in his power and
he turns the heart and he opens the ear and then they hear what
Christ is saying. They hear the voice of Christ
speaking to them and calling them out of that darkness into
the light of Christ. And that's the grace of God to
do that for us. Not because we deserve it, not
because we've turned things around, but because God will be gracious
to us for Christ's sake. And he goes on, but now, verse
26, is made manifest but is now made manifest and by the scriptures
of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting
God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. And so the obedience obedience
to the truth is the obedience of faith. Faith in Christ. Faith in Christ. God commands
his people to faith in Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. This brings us to the third and
final point about a righteousness by faith as opposed to a righteousness
by the law. It's seen in whom we preach for
righteousness. Who do we preach for righteousness,
given that Christ builds the house, and faith in Him is obedience
to the faith We preach the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who we preach. Paul says, O foolish Galatians
3 1 O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that ye should
not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth crucified among you. This is the message that Paul
preached. He's talking about what he preached.
He didn't put on a play to set forth Christ crucified among
them. No, he declared Christ was crucified. Christ was crucified. to put away the sins of his people.
It's his preaching. When he said to the Corinthians,
I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. That's his message. That is the
gospel message, is Christ crucified. That's how he instructed and
taught the people. Everywhere Paul and Barnabas
went, it says in Acts, it says there they preached the gospel. They preached the gospel. They
preached the gospel everywhere they went. Coming back to what
we considered earlier about the use of the law, it's used to
show us, to give us an understanding of our sin condition, that we
cannot keep the law. for righteousness. We cannot
do it because God is holy, He's perfect, He does not accept anything
less than perfection. So for us to think that we can
do it by serving the law is foolishness. Christ was born under the law
in the fullness of time. He fulfilled all the law perfectly. He went to the cross as the perfect
sacrifice to put away the sins of His people. He is our righteousness. He fulfilled every job and every
tittle of the law perfectly. And so the use of the law is
given to turn men from trusting that, warning every man, teaching
every man, be turned from trusting your works under the law, be
turned from trusting your idolatry, be turned from trusting whatever
it is that they were coming from, be turned from that, repent of
that, and be turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Father
sent. Because he is salvation. He is righteousness. That's what
they were preaching everywhere they went. And we're very careful
on that, and we'll see that. I hope after we get through Luke,
that we'll go right on into Acts. We'll go right into Acts, and
we'll study that and see what the apostles preached and taught
the people there. But the law came for that purpose,
and so a godly fear. What is it to give a godly fear? What is a godly fear? What is
godly fear? It's to, no, I dare not step
out from under the blood of Christ. That's godly fear, is I don't
dare come to the Father outside of the blood of Christ. Because
it's very arrogant, it's proud, it's boastful to think that I
can come to God in my own works of righteousness under the law.
So a godly fear is I don't dare. Step out from under the blood
of Christ. The Passover, what was that about?
The Passover was don't go outside of the house where the blood
is over the doorpost. Don't dare go outside the house.
As soon as you go outside of that house, the avenger, the
destroyer, will take your life. Don't go outside of the house.
The destroyer never came in the house and terrorized. threatened
the people and shook them. It never entered the house. It
was, don't you go out of the house or the destroyer will destroy
you. It'll take your life. So it is
with Christ. To use the law for righteousness
is to go out from under the blood. But godly fear is I don't dare
go out from under the blood. I stay under the blood because
that's where the Lord receives me for Christ's sake, for His
sake. And so that's the picture there. That's godly fear. Hug up to
Christ. Stay in Christ. Don't depart
from Christ. Don't leave Christ. He's your
salvation. He's your righteousness. He's
your all. Everything you need, every instruction,
every nourishment, every supplement, everything you need is given
in Christ. It's in Christ. He will not fail
you. He is the promise of God. He
will not fail you. He will not fail to come to the
throne of God and be accepted of him, trusting Christ for all
your righteousness. Believe him. Believe him. So
we must not preach the law so as to give man any vain confidences. We don't want to build a hiding
place which is nothing more than a whitewashed sepulcher full
of dead men's bones. We must be careful against that. We must preach Christ, the only
Savior. Peter said, neither is there
any other. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved. It's not Christ plus Moses. It's not Moses plus Christ. It's
Christ and Christ alone. That is our Savior. He builds
the house. We'll speak more on this. I'll just read verse 2 of Galatians
3, 2, but we'll come back another time and look at these verses. But he said, This only would
I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law
or by the hearing of faith. Two different things, two different
households, one is obedience to the truth, the other is not
hearing the truth. It's not hearing what the law
saith. And then three, it's going to be revealed by the spirit
of God in the preaching of Christ. That's where we're going to learn
godly fear. And that's where we're going
to learn all that we need to stand before the Lord and be
accepted of Him and bear fruits of righteousness. And in Him,
it's gonna be through Christ. His word of promise, it's given
to us. He's not lying. He gives everything
in Christ. Believe Him. He is the fullness
of God. He is the blessing of God. In
Him, all spiritual blessings are given. So I pray the Lord
bless that, amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your grace. Lord, help us not to confuse
grace. Lord, I fear my words are many
and maybe confusing. I pray that you would just simplify
and show your people Christ, that he is all, that your word
confirms that you promise to save your people, to bless your
people, to keep your people in Christ. And for that purpose,
you gave him. And we will not come short of
that hope, that inheritance that we seek, coming in Christ alone. Lord, you teach, you instruct,
you give everything we need. Lord, we trust you, we believe
you. Help our unbelief, help our misgivings
and our lack of trust. Lord, be gracious to us. You
know we are but dust. Give us your Spirit, and grow
us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Amen.