All right, turn back with me
to Galatians chapter three. Galatians chapter three. Our text will be found in verse
11. I entitled this message, The Believer's
Rule of Life. the believers rule of life, Galatians
3 and verse 11, but that no man is justified by the law in the
sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Now, I kind of want you to go
and look at these places, but I'll just read them to you. In
Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 4, The Scripture says, Behold,
his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him. He's talking
about those who would reject the Lord Jesus Christ, reject
Him in His coming, those who would lift up their soul by their
own righteousness and their obedience to the law as did the Pharisees.
He says, These people are not upright. They're not upright,
but those who have faith, he says, to us who believe, he said,
the just, those that are justified by the Lord Jesus Christ, how
shall they live? They shall live by faith. If you go to Romans chapter one,
Paul says this in verse 17, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. So I'm at the word of
God. The Gospel concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. For as it is written, the just
shall live by faith. And then in Hebrews chapter 10
and verse 38, Paul writes this, Now the just shall live by faith.
But if any man shall draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure
in him. The point of these verses is
this. When the Lord writes something once, we should believe it. But when the Holy Spirit takes
His time to write it four different times, we should really take
heed. This is vitally important. I remember when I would write
papers in school, I'd try to fill up space. Y'all do that?
Little kids write papers, they try to, and very, very, very,
very, very, very, you know, and we try to fill it. These words
are not fillers. When God writes something four
times, we should be extremely cautious to take heed to it.
Spurgeon said this, when the spirit frequently repeats himself,
he thereby appeals for special attention. A doctrine so often
declared must be of first importance, should be constantly preached,
and should be unhesitatingly received. Now, I'm going to base
my text in Galatians 3, but over the course of the message I'm
going to refer to all four of these passages, all four of these passages. And so truly we are to take this
very seriously, the just shall live by faith. Now Paul in this
third chapter of Galatians speaks concerning the law and faith. that some in this church of Galatia
were spouting a false gospel. Paul mentions this in chapter
1. He says, there's only one gospel. And some men have come
in preaching to you another gospel which is not another. And what
was that gospel? It was a gospel that mixed faith and works, grace
and law. It cannot be mixed. They were
preaching that Jesus Christ accomplished their salvation, but they by
their obedience to the law must finish it in some measure. Now their measure was circumcision. In today's measure it's the Ten
Commandments or it's the law of the church or it's some kind
of moral actions that this somehow adds to the work of Jesus Christ. Or it finishes the work of Christ. And Paul said, this is just another
gospel. And I've often told you this because it's so. There's
only two religions. Works and grace. You can trace
that even in the false gods of the Greeks and the Romans. And
they all tried to merit the favor of their gods. And so it is in
so-called Christianity. Many a people are trying to obtain
righteousness by their obedience to the law in some measure. This
is works. If you are saved by Jesus Christ
plus something you do, that's works. The only true religion is salvation
by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, through the merits of
Jesus Christ. And why do you come to this place? There's a lot of places that
you pass by. I'm sure there are a lot of places that you pass
by coming here. I hope you don't come here just
for family or friends or social things, but I know this, you
that believe, you come here because you know the gospel, you've heard
the gospel, and you can't take anything else. You believe the truth that salvation
is by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. And anything else is another
gospel. It's another gospel. And so then the mixture of law
and faith works in grace in any measure for salvation. For your
righteousness, your justification, your sanctification, your redemption. is another gospel. And those
who, these believers were given a false message and they were
being told that they must do something in order to be just
before God. But the Holy Spirit through Paul
claims this, the just, the just shall live by faith. And what
he's saying is this throughout this chapter, that faith is the
means by which we receive the righteousness already merited. My faith does not merit the righteousness. My faith does not add to the
righteousness of Christ. My faith, which is a gift of
God, only receives what Christ has already accomplished. He's accomplished my wisdom.
He's accomplished my righteousness. He accomplished my sanctification.
He accomplished my redemption. In other words, He accomplished
my salvation. He did it. He did it all. And the gift of
faith is, I believe Him. And I don't dare add anything
I've done to Him. Faith simply receives Him as
He is. And therefore, those who have
faith, if the law is not a faith, as Paul said, if the law is not
to be our rule of life, we do not begin this by the spirit
and finish this by our obedience in the flesh. Then by what rule
of life do we live by? Are we lawless? No. We have a rule. We have a law. And it's not grievous. To believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ has done everything is not grievous. That's not grievous
to me. The law of Moses is very grievous
because I've never obeyed anything it says. I've not done anything
it said to do. But this is not grievous. Jesus
said it is finished. Is that grievous to you? You
said, I don't want your works, I don't need your works to finish
this. I did it. Well, that's good. I do not grieve
by that. And our law is this, the just
shall live by faith. And I want to break this down
for you. First of all, who are the just? What does he mean by
the just? He means simply that those that
are justified. What is to be justified? To be
justified is to be innocent of all guilt. That's what it means. When a judge sits before a defendant
and he says this, you are innocent. I watch some legal shows and
man, it gets complicated. They're partially guilty but
you know you feel sorry for them and you hope they get off. No,
that's not justified. They get off, that's not justice. Now if they are completely innocent
and they get off, why? Because it's just, it's right
for them to get off, to not be condemned. So to be justified
is, you know we always heard this, just as if I never sinned.
That's what I when I was a kid that some preacher would tell
me that that's what justified me. Just as if I never sinned. That's not truly justified, is
it? God's not pretending when he justifies you. It means this,
I never sinned. That's what it means. To be justified
means I never sinned. It means to be righteous. It
means to be holy. It's what the word sanctified
means. The word sanctified simply means this, holy. It is to those who are redeemed,
they are justified. Now is there any of us who dare
say within themselves that we are righteous? Who can say in
themselves, I have really not sinned? None of us. None of us. And the
Bible is not dishonest in this, is it? All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. So Paul says, look, are we Jews
better than the Gentiles? No. Why? We've all sinned. Those with the law of Moses and
those without the law of Moses are all sinners. There is none
righteous, no, not one. And so all men are sinners, they're
non-righteous. None of us by nature are just. And so what is it to be just?
It's to be free from guilt. And why is this required? You ask that question, why does
God require this to me to be just? I'm going to give you an
answer, because God is just. Because God is just. There is
none righteous but God, and God cannot by nature, and will not
by nature, allow any into His presence unless they are absolutely
as holy as Himself. He cannot do it and be just. And so if you come before God
in your righteousness, God will not accept you. I don't care
how sincere you are. A lot of sincere religious people. I don't doubt their sincerity.
God doesn't want your sincerity. He demands your obedience. There's
a difference, isn't it? God demands your obedience. And
consider this. What if God were to allow sin
to exist in his presence. What if
God just says, well, you know what? I'm just going to let this
one slide. We do it all the time. We do it all the time. You and I do it because we are
sinners ourselves. So we understand each other.
You offend me or you break a law. Again, like I was telling you
that show, I'm kind of wanting the guy to get off. You know why?
Because I can identify with it. God can't and God won't. If we come in our own righteousness,
hell will be our portion. I don't care who you are. Just
don't don't matter who you are. God is no respecter of persons.
His justice. Listen what Isaiah said. I quote
this often Isaiah 64 6 6. But I want you to notice that
Isaiah includes himself. He's not saying listen. But we
are all as an unclean thing. He didn't say you are an unclean
thing. He said, we all are as an unclean
thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. What does
that mean? That means your best stuff. The best thing that you
think you have ever done is as filthy rags in the sight of God. Why? Because God is holy, cannot
excuse sin. Matter of fact, in Exodus chapter
34, God tells us this. He tells Moses, I will, he says,
keeping mercy for thousands. Oh, that sounds good. I'm glad
for that. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin. But there's another side of this.
And at the same time, will by no means clear the guilty. How
can these two things coexist? This is the crux of the matter.
How can God be just and justify the ungodly and still remain
just? You're guilty, yet God says,
I'm going to have mercy on you. How can he do that? This is the question of every
religion. And what false religion can't answer, because false religion
says you need to finish it. You need to bridge that gap. God knowing this, how can God
be just and justify the ungodly? God knowing that all men are
sinners can by no means merit his salvation by law. He in mercy
and sovereign grace purposed to save some. He says keeping
mercy. He purposed to do it, purposed
to save some by mercy. Scripture tells us by one man
sin entered in the world and death by sin So death passed
upon all men, but God in his holy wisdom Chose us to save
a people even before there was sin Consider that before there
was sin God purposed to save a people and listen He also ordained
the means by which He could be just and justify the ungodly. I'll tell you how. One word,
substitution. That's how. Substitution. God determined that by a federal
head and representative He would save His people. Now how did
you become a sinner? How did you become a sinner?
You became a sinner through a representative. When Adam sinned, you became
a sinner in him. By one man's sin entered into
the world, and the result, death by sin. And then what? Death
passed upon all men. Why? For all have sinned. God
cannot pass the sentence of death to an innocent person. We look
at a baby and we say, Oh, how innocent. No, he's guilty. He was born spiritually dead
because he was a sinner from birth. Well, then how would God make
us righteous? the same way, through a representative man. Go to Romans chapter 5. I just read that again, Romans
5, 12, Wherefore is it by one man? Sin entered in the world,
and death by sin. So death passed upon all men,
that all have sinned. Now look at verse 19. He says, For by one man's disobedience
many were made, what? Sinners! Even so. So by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. This is how the wisdom of God
determined that you should be made just, holy, and righteous
by the works of another. Just as you were made sinners
by the sin of another, you are going to be made just by the
obedience of another. Therefore, God has never determined
that anyone be justified by the law. Never. Never. Never by the law. That's what
he says in our text in the very first part of this. No man is
justified by the law on the side of God is what? What is it? It's
evident. Not just so. It's just evident. No flesh is
going to be justified by the law no matter how hard they try.
No matter how sincere they are, no man is going to be saved by
the law that was given by God, much less
a law that they make up on their own. This is so. When people say that they're
trying to obey the law, they're really not. Because they made
up certain provisions that help them to do it. They don't really,
not really the law, it's kind of like a made up thing. That's what the Pharisees did.
I said, honor your father and mother. And they said, well,
if you write them a letter and say, Corbin, and you know, hocus
pocus. That's what it was. It was just,
they made a tradition. Because they couldn't do it.
They couldn't honor their father and mother. They knew it. So
they had to make up a bylaw. I'd be justified by the law.
You're definitely not going to be justified by a law you made up
by yourself. So Paul shows in this chapter that Abraham was
not saved by works. He was not saved by the law.
He was saved through faith. Through the means of faith this
man was justified. Not just in the sight of men,
but in the sight of God he was justified. He was saved by the faith in
the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if it was saved by
faith, it could not be by the law of Moses. Matter of fact,
look at verse 17 in chapter 3. We'll get to this in another
time, but I thought this very interesting. Look at verse 17. This I say, that the covenant,
which was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which
was 430 years after, cannot disannul. that it should make the promise
of none effect. You realize that from the time
of Abraham believing God to the time of the law was not 430 years,
600 years. Why is he talking about 430 years? Because he's saying this, Abraham
lived by faith, trusting Christ, the promise.
Isaac lived by faith, trusting the promise. And Jacob lived
by faith, trusting the promise. And after Jacob died, it was
430 years from that point that the law was given. From the death
of Jacob. So what's the point is? All of
those patriarchs that lived before the law and all of those who
lived in Egypt, how did they live before that law came about? They all lived by faith, looking
to Christ. Now, when the law came, did that
disannul the promise that God made to Abraham? Did he change
it? Did he alter it? He said, okay,
Abraham believed God. He was counted in for righteous.
From this point on, we're going to do it by law. He said, no. The law was added for a very
specific reason. To testify of sin. to make sin, to show sin, exceeding
sinful. That's all it did. It just magnified
my sin. It didn't do anything. I was
just as sinful if I didn't know the law as if I did. But when
I heard the law, it magnified my sin. The law had a purpose. It was never to save. So then,
therefore, those who are justified, you are justified by the obedience
and the faith of another. and your obedience and your faith
have nothing to do with that righteousness. Wasn't this righteous
merited before you believed? Wasn't it earned and accepted
by God before you believed? Now what does your faith have
to do to add to that? Nothing. Your faith, which is a gift of
God, just simply believes it. It receives it. That's it. It's
a channel by which we receive these things. And so then the
just, those who are just, are justified how? By faith. Notice
this, secondly, the just shall live by faith. We being dead
in sins must live in order to believe. If I go out to a cemetery and
say I had a special potion by which the dead could be made
alive or be healed, and I go out to the cemetery and I start
telling all the dead people, If you just drink this, you'll
be made alive. That's kind of foolish because
they can't. Well, it's the same way it is
with preaching. It's the same way it is with preaching. I preach
to dead people. You don't believe on Christ because you're dead.
There's nothing I can do to make you, I can tell you all about
the wonderful life that is in Christ Jesus. All the righteousness
you need, all the sanctification you need, justification. I could
tell you all of the wonderful things, the forgiveness of sins,
pardon, peace with God, heaven, being an heir of God, a joint
heir with Jesus Christ, all of these wonderful things and yet
it does not interest you. Why? You are dead. What do you
need? Life. Well, who can give life? Not the preacher. Only God can
give life. I can't give it to you. And when God gives you life,
there is something that always comes with life. What comes with
life? Breath. Isn't that a natural
byproduct of life? Breath. And the same thing is
true of faith. When God quickens the dead sinner
to life, the first breath he breathes is faith. He believes
God. He trusts God concerning himself. I am the sinner and I have no
hope of saving myself. I believe God when he said that
to me. But at the same time, he gives me hope in this. I believe
God concerning Jesus Christ. I believe in him with all my
heart and all my soul. This is the evidence of spiritual
life. So the just shall live by faith.
How in the world did you come to life? It is always through
faith. That's the evidence that I'm
living. Now, God chose the people for the foundation of the world.
How do you know you're one of them? Christ died specifically
for those people. Rose again for their justification,
sits on heaven, intercedes for them and forgives them of all
their sin. Now, how do you know you're one
of them? of just shall live by faith. Faith is the evidence of my election,
of my redemption, of my righteousness. And so those that believe have
this, we are alive. John Flavel said this, the soul
is the life of the body. Faith is the life of the soul
and Christ is the life of faith. All the reason I have faith because
Christ gave it to me. The only reason I continue to believe
is because Christ gives me that living faith. And because I have
this living faith, I am what? I'm alive. And as long as I have
this living faith, I'm alive. It's like as long as you have
breath, you're alive. As long as I have faith, I'm alive. Who
sustains this faith? The one that gave it. And so faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ then is the life of the soul. I know that God has chosen
me because of this. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is faith in the person and
work of Christ that saves. I believe that this is the one
message that saves the lost, the dead sinner, is the only
message of God, it is the message of grace, a message of mercy. So then I ask you, who are sinners,
do you need mercy? Who? Who needs mercy? Is there any dead sinner that
needs mercy? Paul said this, I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. You know why? It is the power
of God and the salvation to everyone that believe it. It is the gospel. This is the message the Spirit
uses to give faith and life. Paul said in Romans 1, For I
am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to
the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. From the faith of our Lord Jesus
Christ. How did you receive this faith?
From His faith to your faith. The just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith.
So faith comes from God. It is the evidence of life is
faith in Jesus Christ and faith comes by life and both are given
of God. Therefore, through faith, we
are made just. We experience it. Listen, before
you were believed, you could not claim to be justified. Could you claim that? No. Now, truly, You that have faith
know this, you were justified before you believed. You were
justified in the sight of God by the obedience of Christ. But
now, listen, the just shall live by faith through the experience
of it. You now believe. You now experience
this. You are justified. You are justified. Jesus Christ came into the world
to work out our righteousness of God for us? He was righteous
in Himself and needed no righteousness, but in human flesh, He actually
obtained our righteousness. Paul says in Romans 3, even the
righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe, there is no difference.
We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Listen how
you're going to be justified. Being justified freely. Isn't that amazing? I am justified
without any reason or cause in myself. Stop looking for one. Do you not often find yourself
looking for some reason why you were justified? You won't find
one. Why? You were justified freely. Justified freely. by His grace, here's the means
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has
set forth to be the propitiation through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at
this time, His righteousness, that, listen, He might be just
and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus. Isn't that
the question we asked at the beginning? How is it that God could be just
and justify the ungodly? How? Through the offering and
righteousness of another. You that are justified. Look at Jeremiah chapter 50.
You that are justified, I want to give you a sense of what this
means. You that live by faith, you that are now given life by
faith, you are just. Jeremiah chapter 50, look at verse 20. In those days and in that time, in the days of our Lord Jesus
Christ when He should come and accomplish in them our salvation,
and at that time that the Spirit of God comes and gives you life
and faith, at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for. Now who's seeking it? Who's looking? God is. God looks for iniquity. What does He find? And there
shall be none. The sins of Judah! And what does
God say when He looks for them? They shall not be found. Why? For I will pardon them whom
I reserve. Where is your sin? Where is your iniquity gone?
Confess you've committed it. Notice he said the sins of Judah.
He said they were actually sins of Judah. They were their iniquity.
Where'd it go? You can look in the mirror and
you can find it every single day. You can look inside of your
heart and you can see it. You can smell it. You can taste
it. It's horrid in your sight. You
see it all the time. You desire to be rid of it. And
yet God is telling you this, you that are just, Listen, in
the eyes of God it is already gone because Christ actually
paid for it. And justice demands your freedom. Justice demands your pardon. Why? You are justified. How? Through the offering of
the Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul says in Hebrews 10, once for
all. once for all. You are justified
by the free grace of God through Christ. This is the message that
God uses to save sinners. And I'll tell you, this is the
message God uses to comfort his saved people. I do not feel justified. ever since I believed. I have
never once felt justified. But faith does not look to how
I feel. Faith doesn't look to the circumstances
I find myself in. I find myself in horrible circumstances
most of the time because of my own sin. Yet I am never to base my justification
on my circumstance. We do it all the time. This is
why Paul said, put off the old man and his deeds. Do you have
to still do that? Or you got to a point where you
don't have to do that anymore? Put on the new man. That new
man which is created after God in true holiness. Put him on.
How do you do that? It's not a physical thing, is
it? Religion sees it as a physical thing. Put off the old man by
stop doing this and start doing this. They see it as a physical
thing. It's a spiritual thing. You put
it off by faith. You constantly put him away.
When you do something good, what do you have to do? You have to
put that away. Why? Because you'll start looking
at it. You'll start trusting in it. Oh, see what I did here? I've
got to be a believer. Look at that. You throw that
away. You're just doing what you should
have done anyway. What praise should you get for
doing what you're supposed to? The just shall live by faith.
Those who are just are justified. They're justified by the faith
of Christ. We do not look at what we've
done. And this message then is a comfort to us who believe.
We as believers, listen, the just shall live. This is another
thing, listen. The just, those who are justified
by Christ, are justified by the experience of grace through faith.
And we live by that. We are made alive. But notice
this, the just shall live by faith. What does that mean? Those who believe shall continually
live believing. That's our rule of life. That's
our rule of life. You know why people don't like
it? It's too simple. Surely there's got to be more. No. The just shall live continually,
perpetually, by faith. We never stop living by faith. This is what the problem in Galatia
was, is that they believed they started living by faith, but
then they had to continue by obedience to the law. Why? So they can look at their
obedience and have some sort of measurement concerning their
acceptance with God. This is what religion is. It's
attractive to us. Do not, you that believe this
and understand this, do not suppose you're above it. That's when
you'll fall. Why? Because that religion is
just as seducing to them as it is to us. It's seducing. I want a measurement. Let's take spiritual growth.
Every believer that has faith grows. Isn't that right? The Apostle said that we should
grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You
that believe, do you think your faith is enough? Do you think
you have enough faith? No! We want more faith! Isn't that what the Apostle said?
Give us more faith! I don't think we know what we're
asking when we ask that question. We all desire to grow. But as we grow in grace, who
does the growing? Who causes you to grow? You guys,
kids, you're not going to be that height forever. Why? You're going to grow. Well, who
does that? You look in the mirror and say, I think I'm going to
grow another inch today. No. God controls how high you
grow or how tall you grow. I like to look at it like this.
When a baby is born, he has all of five fingers, five toes. He
has everything he needs, all of the organs he needs. But as
they're going to grow, they're going to get bigger. But who
does that? Can you give yourself any praise
for your growth? No! It's what religion wants
to do. They want to say, I want to grow,
therefore I'm going to do this, this, and this so I might grow. Now listen, God has stated several
means by which a believer grows. Study and worship. This is a
means by which every believer grows in faith. But I want you to know your amount
of study and worship is not always proportionate to the growth in
faith. You could study all day. Have
you ever done that? You take a large passage of Scripture
and you say, man, I want this. And you start reading and reading
and reading. You read whole books and whole chapters and by the
time you get done, You don't feel any different, you feel
worse, you're like, what the heck did I just read? And sometimes you look down at
a glance for no reason, you look down at your Bible, read a text
and go, wow. So it's not proportional to the
amount of study, but God does use that means. So study, worship,
this is the means God uses for our growth in faith. But I want
you to know this, it's God that gives us the measure of faith,
isn't it? The measure of joy that we have, the measure of
peace we have, all the fruit of the Spirit, all of those are
measured out by God, not by your amount of whatever you're doing.
Prayer is another means by which we grow. God uses prayer. How
often do you pray? We should pray. What Paul said,
pray without ceasing. You do that, well, I should,
there's no doubt about it. So pray, but does that, because
I pray 24 hours a day, seven days a week, does that mean that
I'm growing in faith and love? No. Who controls the measure
of faith and love through prayer that I receive? God, how many
times have you prayed and you just feel like a big stone? Like
the ceiling is made of iron and you never, your prayer doesn't
even get past the ceiling. And other times, you pray a little
prayer and man, your heart is lifted. Who does all that? God does. Another means is trials. That's how God causes us to grow
in faith. Trials. Tribulation worketh patience. You want patience? You want patience. Well, guess what does that? Tribulation. Tribulation worketh. That word
patience, don't think it means like a quiet meditation where
you just sit like a Buddhist monk and, you know, oh, I'm so
patient. That's not what it means. It
means endurance. Anybody ever tried to lift weights
and you get to a certain point where you've got to scream? You
gotta dig deep because there's nothing left in you. And what
does that cause? It causes growth in your muscles,
and yes. When Job was being tried, was
he quiet? That man whined throughout that whole book. And look, when you get in tribulation,
you're gonna cry. You're gonna hurt. My tribulation
work is patience, endurance. And that, it works experience.
Experience. What do you experience? I experience
this, that I have to totally lean upon Jesus Christ for all
my standing and hope. That's what the experience leads
to. It leads to me having no strength in myself. That's my
experience. in tribulation. And then I have
what? Hope. I have confidence. Confidence not in my flesh, but
confidence in Christ. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Therefore,
listen, the just shall live by faith. Just, those who are without
sin, those who are justified before God. How are you justified?
You're justified through the work of another. How do you receive
that? The just shall live by faith.
You receive it by faith. You live by faith in Jesus Christ. You're spiritually alive. You're
spiritually justified before God now. Now how do you continue
to live? You continually live by faith. You continually live looking
to Jesus Christ. And God uses all sorts of things
to cause us to grow in this faith. Worship, prayer, study. But God
uses these things. These are means. And we should
never look at these things as a measurement of our growth.
Well, I studied all day today. Well, I must be growing. Don't
look at that measurement. That's not a true measurement.
I'm going to give you a measurement of a man that grew in faith.
When a man grows in faith, I promise you, he sees himself as the least. The least. The Apostle Paul in
his early ministry wrote this, I am the least of all the apostles. Later on he wrote this, I am
least of all the saints. And before his death, he wrote
this, I am the chief of sinners. That's spiritual growth, friends. Christ becomes more. And as we
live by faith, Christ becomes more and we become what? Less. Less. How do you see yourself? How do you see Christ? That's a measure of faith. I see myself as the chief. Really. May God help me to understand
that's true. Believe it. And Christ is all
my justification. that just shall continually live
this way, daily live this way, constantly live this way. This
is our law. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. But he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life. The wrath of God abides on him.
Pray God will bless us. This stand be dismissed in prayer. Our gracious Father, dismiss
us with your mercy and blessing. Thank you for your word. Make
it effectual to your people. Help us to daily, constantly
live upon the Lord Jesus Christ and none upon ourselves. We ask this in his name. Amen.