Yeah. Yeah. you. you You so Good morning and welcome. Welcome to all. It is good to be in God's house. God who is worthy of all praise, of all honor, of all worship. God is not some idol made of wood or stone. He is the living God. Let us all then keep silent before him and do so beginning our worship with a moment of silent reverent prayer before him. Amen. People of God, if you would stand now, our call to worship coming from the Psalms, from Psalm 138. I give thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart. Before the gods I sing your praise. I bow down towards your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness. For you have exalted above all things your name and your word. On the day I called, you answered me. My strength of soul, you increased." Indeed. Directing your attention to the bulletin, I now ask, congregation, where does your help come from? Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Let us receive, then, God's greeting this morning. To those who are called, be loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Amen. Let us then open in song from that 138th Psalm, 138B. Let's sing all the stanzas together, 138B. for truth and grace in your are your ways You reign above in heavenly height. The proud in vain your favor seek, but you have mercy for the weak. Through trouble, though wide, path leading, you will revive and strengthen me. You will revive. will stretch forth your mighty arm to save me when my foes alarm. The work you have for me begun shall, by your grace, O Lord, my Maker, think on me. O Lord, my Maker, think on me. It is to that word, that divine word full of truth, that we turn for the reading of God's will for our lives. The Ten Commandments, the moral standard for all people, which God himself God Himself defines and has spoken clearly to us. And so we read from Exodus chapter 20, And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers of the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's. In summarizing the law, the Lord Jesus said that the first and greatest commandment is this, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That is the first and greatest commandment, a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And it is the fact that God has said these things that tells us what is right, what is wrong. Now, we can ask the follow-up questions, so to speak. Well, why is murder wrong? Someone might say that. Why is murder wrong? Well, they might say it's wrong because it harms another person. Well, that's part of the answer, but why is harming another person wrong? And they might say, because I'm a person too. And you can keep going down and down and down, but If you don't have the foundation to know that people are valuable in a way that even animals are not, you can hunt animals, because people are made in the image of God. And if you don't have at the foundation a reason to say, no, there's an actual law giver who gives a universal law. In other words, it's not just wrong because our government says it. No, no, no. Our government says it because God says it first and we're made in his image and we know that it's wrong. You see, you go back and back and back. There's really no foundation without God to say that even murder is wrong. But God does say that murder is wrong. and all of the other commandments which he has given to us. These are laws from God and these things really are wrong. Not just some people agree to say that it's wrong, they really are wrong. And so we break God's commandments, we sin against him. Even as David said, against you, you only have I sinned. People of God, it is before the Lord God, the giver of the law itself that we come in a prayer of confession this morning. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, make us to know, make us to know that you have given your word and your law. And so whenever we break any of your commandments, whenever we break not only the external realities, but also when we would lust, when we would have anger in our hearts, in other words, when we would break these commandments in any way that we are breaking your laws, that we become unholy in your holy sight. And Lord God, we are unholy. We are sinful. We are in thought, word and deed in need of your forgiveness. And this Lord is what we pray for. We pray that you would cleanse us from our sins, forgive us, we sinners. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us turn to 31B, the Psalms giving us words of confession before God. 31B, stanzas one through six. If you know I would, I just might walk on my way. ♪ The power, the strength of gorgeous to defend ♪ ♪ Since thou my rock and fortress art ♪ ♪ My leader be and guide of all temptation ♪ ♪ My spirit I commend, redemption is within me. ♪ ♪ Hold out your hope, our God loves you. ♪ I will be As we are sinners, where then is salvation found? Listen, even our youngest here, listen for a name of Jesus in Jeremiah 23, which is not a name for Jesus that we usually use. There are Names for our Savior that we use often. Jesus, our Savior. Christ, the Anointed One. There are others that are less common. Prince of Peace, used only once in all of Scripture by the prophet Isaiah. Listen for a name for Jesus at the end of this passage in Jeremiah, which is not the most common of names. Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, declares the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people, you have scattered my flock and have driven them away and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. And those two verses are aligned with the first 22 chapters of Jeremiah. But then we read this beginning in Jeremiah 23 verse three. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them. and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them and will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. That's a word about faithful shepherds. What about one faithful shepherd? two more verses beginning at verse five behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he one shepherd that is one leader one king of David and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land And in his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called. The Lord is our righteousness. The Lord is our righteousness. Our salvation is in that one. That is even one of his many names. The Lord is our righteousness. It is before this God, our God, before whom we come. And one note for our congregation before our prayer, and that is Bernie Voskell did pass away yesterday afternoon, 96, almost 97. And he knew who Jesus was. He knew the truth of what Jesus had done. And what a blessing it was to speak to one who knew that joy, even after losing his wife. I only knew him after his wife passed, just before I came. And yet he still had a love to hear God's word. He was always, Such a joy to speak with, he really was. It can be difficult to live that many years. There can be a certain difficulty in living that long. And he was ready to go, but even in the midst of that, he loved God, he loved God's people. He always asked about the church whenever we would go to see him. And now he knows heaven now. and that real place, which is the heaven on high. But his family, his many family members, his friends, his many friends, including some close friends within our own congregation here, are left behind. And so we pray, we pray not for Bernie anymore. We pray for them. We pray for his family. We pray for his friends. Let us come, people of God, before our God now in prayer. Lord God almighty, you are our father in heaven. You are the law giver of all the earth. But you have not only given the law in your son, your righteous son, you have shown what living the law perfectly is. And Jesus has not only done this, he has also done this for all of your people such that we not only say he is righteous, we say also he is our righteousness. We rejoice in this truth. We rejoice in this truth as we think, as we think of a dear elderly saint who has now been taken home. Lord, even the most pleasant person is still full of sin. And you have wiped away all those sins now of Bernie. He trusted in you. He died in the Lord. And so, Lord, for Bernie, we give thanks that he is done battling the last enemy. that all his pain is now removed, that all his sin is now gone. He waits only for the consummation and for his body and soul to be together, to be reunited together on the final day of your coming. But Lord, he is already in the real heaven and he already rejoices to be with you. Lord, it is not then for Bernie we pray. We pray for his family, for his friends. Lord, we pray for those who knew him well. That includes many in our congregation and certainly includes Melvin and Janice. It certainly includes Cal. Lord, be with them in a special way. Be also, we think of the funeral arrangements, this strange year making such things very difficult. Be with his family, give them wisdom and may all things be done well. And may there be room for grieving, for grieving the one who is no longer with us. Lord, we do mourn, but we do not mourn as those who have no hope. We pray, Lord God, that you would be with your people near and far. We give thanks that we have some who have returned home with us for the Thanksgiving season. We pray for others who are still away such as Francois and also Andre. We pray that you would provide an opportunity for Andre to come here, to come back home for a time. We pray, Lord, for families as we think of those who have been able to come back and have Thanksgiving with families. And as we think of a Thanksgiving celebration, Lord, we pray that you would strengthen our families, that you would strengthen marriages in the Lord, that children would be obedient to their parents in the Lord, that the elderly would be honored as you have commanded us so clearly. Lord, that across the generations we would see the blessings of families and indeed even we are blessed to see covenant families from one generation to another. And we pray that you would strengthen families in every way, Lord God, in you, making homes that would serve you, that would honor you, that would desire you, that would, in coming closer to you, be truly able to come closer and to love one another as they ought. Lord, we pray now then for our family of faith, and we give thanks for our family of faith here. We give thanks for the love that is shown. We give thanks for the presence that we have together to be able to come together and worship you as a local body of believers. We give thanks for for the great privilege of hearing your word together, of hearing your word preached, of opening those truths, and of being instructed by you. May indeed, by your spirit, our hearts be moved by the truth of your word. even this very morning. And Lord, on only our family of faith, we think of other flocks and fledgling flocks, young churches, church plants. We think even in a special way of Reverend Kukin and the new, well now more than a year old church plant in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. We give thanks with them for a new worship facility they are able to lease. We give thanks that their average worship attendance has nearly doubled over the summer. We give thanks for the various Bible studies and Sunday school classes they have ongoing. Lord, may you use these as ways to draw many in, and may many spiritual seeds that have been planted be watered with you giving the increase. As Lord, indeed, all increase, every good gift is from you. And so we pray, bringing all things before your throne of mercy and grace, in Jesus' name, amen. Let us, people of God, stand to sing number 170. Let us prepare to hear God's word, singing 170 together. in the gospel of his son, makes his eternal counsel known. Where love in all its glory shines and truth is drawn, The wisdom, power, and grace of God. is the way reveals Here shines the light which guides our way from earth to heaven. Lord, to read and mark your holy word, its truth with meekness you receive, and by its holy precepts live. Amen let us turn now to our reading of God's word our text for this morning Galatians chapter 2 we'll read verses 11 to 21 we'll be looking at verses 14 through 21 as our focus we We did work a couple weeks ago through verse 14. We really spoke about why Paul opposed Peter and what that meant, but we didn't really get into the meaning of his words of rebuke at the end of verse 14. And so we'll look a little bit at that to spring us into the more general argument of 15 through 21. So we'll read from 11 for the context, but we'll be focusing on 14 to the end. Galatians chapter two, page 1,236, most of the few Bibles beginning at verse 11. Let us hear the word of God. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned For certain men came from James. He was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the gospel of truth, I said to Cephas before them all, If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not. For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. So far the reading, the grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of Jesus Christ, sometimes it is helpful to think about the opposites of words to understand them better. So we see, even one of the first things we learn, the opposite of yes is no. Later we learn that the opposite of truth is a lie, that the opposite of life is death. Now what about this highly important word in the Christian faith, one which we find repeatedly in our text, that word justify, justification. What's the opposite of justification? Well, justification is a legal condition. It's the legal condition of one who has been declared innocent. The opposite of justification is condemnation. The opposite of the declaration which goes with justification that would be not guilty, the opposite of that is to be declared guilty. And this is indeed a highly important doctrine, the doctrine of justification, what it is, what it means, how it happens, highly important to the Christian faith, highly important to know and understand, to continue to look at. Martin Luther spoke about justification often. John Stott kind of summarized, found different words that Luther used to talk about justification in all different places. And so in different places Luther once said justification is the chief doctrine of the Christian faith. In another place he said it is the chiefest doctrine. In another place he said this, justification is, quote, the principal article of all Christian doctrine. Most necessary it is therefore that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into our own heads continually. And one more. He said, justification is the most principle and special article of the Christian faith. Justification, what it is, how it occurs, these are important things to think upon. And as we think upon these things, it's also right to certainly focus upon Jesus Christ. We can even say this, The simple but profound, good for young and for very old song, Jesus Loves Me, helps us to understand justification. We are justified by faith in our loving Savior. That's our theme this morning. And the three points considering it are justification and the law, justification and our sin, justification and his love. So first, just justification and the law. And looking back at verse 14, we see the argument that Paul is using to correct Peter and he reminds Peter that he has at times lived like a Gentile. He was, looking just back at verse 12, he was eating with the Gentiles before this circumcision party, before these Judaizers came onto the scene. We can look also back at Acts chapter 6, where after the conversion of Cornelius, Peter remained with Cornelius for some days. And Paul is reminding Peter, look, you have lived with the Gentiles and now you're going to go back and say that the Gentiles actually have to be forced to be like Jews? No, you cannot do this, Peter. And that springboards the apostle Paul then to expand his argument and speak now in more general terms, and that begins in verse 15. Now, verse 15, notice that it is not a complete sentence by itself. To understand verse 15, we have to look at it together with verse 16. We might be tempted to get carried away with this difference between Jews and Gentile sinners unless we look at verse 16 first. So let us do that. And we see a couple of things repeated multiple times in verse 16. We see the word justification in its various forms repeated three times. we see different forms of being in Christ repeated three times and we see the works of the law a key phrase, also repeated three times all in this verse. So let's unpack that now, looking first at the way that word justification is used. The first time the word justification is used, it's used in the general sense. A person is not justified by works of the law. This is the general vanilla word. A person, a man, a woman, a person, This is not how anyone is justifying Jew or Gentile. So you see already verse 15 is beginning to be explained and the Apostle Paul. says again, he makes appeal to, if we remember going back, he had this one moment of opposition to Peter's hypocrisy, but it's Peter's hypocrisy, verse 13, because it's not what he really believed. He was just being influenced by other people. And so he says again, we know there in verse 16. What is he emphasizing there? He's emphasizing again that it's something that all of the apostles agree with. Even Peter knows this. He didn't live like it for a time. He was influenced by that circumcision party. But we know this. We all know this. All the apostles, all true teachers teach this. We know. And then that general language. And then he moves on to speak about it personally. We also have believed. It's not only something to know, it's not only something to have head knowledge about, it's something to have personal faith and trust regarding. And indeed that word faith is worked through this verse and through our passage, is it not? We must believe, we must have faith in Christ. And then it moves, so we've gone from the general to the personal, and now, lest there be any doubt that that general language was referring to everyone, now universal language is used. The last time we see the word justified, there now at the end of the verse, at the end of verse 16, because by works of the law, no one, No one will be justified. You see, now as we go back to verse 15, even though there is a distinction between those who are born inside and outside of the covenant community, when we read verse 15 and 16 together, it is very obvious that the Apostle Paul is not saying those Gentiles are sinners, but we're not. No, he's saying, look at those Gentile sinners. Remember that we are all sinners. No one is justified by works of the law. And that's that key phrase, works of the law, which is worked in with these words. And that refers to trying to work by the law for your salvation. No one is justified by their own keeping of the law, by their own works of the law. On the contrary, we are all sinners. Those outside the covenant community, those inside the covenant community, we are all sinners. We all stand in need of repentance, salvation. Salvation where? Well, that brings us to that repeated emphasis on being in Jesus. And it's said three different ways in our verse, isn't it? In Jesus Christ, In Christ Jesus, in Christ. Do you see it? Three different ways stated for emphasis. This is what makes justification possible. This is how all who are sinners can be made clean, only in Jesus. only by believing in Him, only by being united to Him. We're gonna return to that in the third point, but we see it already here. We can speak about that key doctrine of justification. There's that key doctrine linked to, closely related to justification, which is called our unity with Christ. And that's what's going on here. These two things are intimately linked in verse 16. Our justification is not by our works. We are sinners who must repent. It is in Christ, the only one without sin, the only savior. Let us come then to our second point, justification and our sin, or we could restate it this way, the sin of those who have been justified. And so now the apostle in verses 17 and following is answering an objection. It's not clear if he's anticipating the objection or if they've actually stated it. Probably they have actually stated it. And he's answering their objection. If you would turn with me to Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six. And we'll come back here once more. I'm going to read the first two verses of Romans 6 at this time. Here in Romans there are more words given to this same basic idea and the Apostle Paul actually states the objection. So things are made more clear here in Romans chapter 6. beginning at verse one. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means? Okay, so what's going on? When we preach justification, not by our works of the law, but in Christ, then, well, we're justified in Christ, so we can just go forth and sin, right? That's the idea. Now, there is a difference. Romans and Galatians is both answering that objection. But in Romans, Paul is responding to people who say that. In Galatians, Paul is being accused of saying that. In Romans, Paul says, no, never say that we can sense that grace may abound, never say this. In Galatians, the Judaizers are saying, well, look, you preach grace and life in Christ and not by works of the law. And see, this makes you sinners because then you go forth and you eat with the Gentiles and you live in sin. You see the difference? The responding to it ends up emphasizing on some of the same things. But in Romans, Paul's saying, don't say it. In Galatians, they're saying, Paul, you say this. Well, how could that ever happen? How could somebody who at one point clearly teaches against something be accused in another place of saying that very thing? Well, you know what? It's actually not that unheard of. I'm not an older minister, but I can even remember two of the earliest strong criticisms of my preaching, and they came just a few days apart, and one of them was, you just preach way too much grace. And then two days later, you just preach way too much sin. You see, it's actually very Very common for preachers and teachers to hear this kind of thing. That's what's going on for the Apostle Paul. One who would stand up and say, should we sin that grace may abound? Certainly not, never, perish the thought in Romans. And in Galatians, he's responding to people who say that he says that and does that. No, no, no, he says. We can never associate Christ with sin. May it never be, certainly not, the end of verse 17. We can never make Christ the servant of sin. At this point let's step back and think about the the two parts of the one error of the Judaizers. Now the Judaizers, they're the circumcision party. That's the language of verses 12 and 13. So part of the error that they make is they say you have to continue to keep the ceremonial law. That's the narrower error. But it's part of a bigger, broader problem which isn't only tied to the ceremonial law, but is summarized in that phrase that we looked at, the works of the law, in that they're saying you're saved not only by keeping the ceremonial law, but by keeping all of the law, including the ceremonial and the moral. There's two different parts to the one big error that the Judaizers make. And it's helpful to keep that in mind now as we look at verse 18 and then into our next point also in verse 19. In verse 18, the apostle is especially answering that broader error. The broader error of saying, I'm saved by my works of the law. But he's also answering the narrower error of, therefore, everyone must be circumcised. All Gentiles must become Jews. He's answering both of these things in verse 18. Because what can he not tear down? He cannot tear down the work that he has already done amongst the Gentiles for many years. He cannot tear down the preaching of the real gospel which has been brought forth for many years. He cannot tear down the preaching of life in Christ by going back to works righteousness. He cannot tear this down. To do this, to go along with what the Judaizers and the false teachers are saying would be to tear down what he has already started, and to himself become a transgressor, because that's how bad these false teachings are. To go along with them is to join in transgression, to join in sin. Apostle says, I cannot do this. This attitude of works of the law, of we have to go back to salvation by obedience to the law, kind of all these big ideas, but I think we can kind of take it down and see it by looking at two different gravestones. I think this helps us to see what's going on, to see what the problem of works by the law teaching is contrasted with grace in Christ teaching. So I'm gonna read two funeral epitaphs. The first one is from the first century tomb of a Jewish woman. In other words, these were ideas basically at the time of the Apostle Paul. It's a very old tomb. And it says this, here lies Regina. She will live again, return to the light again, for she can hope that she will rise to the life promised. This, your piety, your good works, has assured you, your chaste life. this your love for your people, this your observance of the law, your devotion to your wedlock, the glory of which was dear to you. For all these deeds, your hope for the future is assured." And that was the last sentence of Regina's gravestone. Now, compare that to The Tombstone of John Newton. John Newton, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves, which is a way of saying a slave trader, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy. Now, not every Christian goes through the radical conversion that John Newton did in the sense that we're not all committing those gross external sins, but we are all lost in sin. We are all sinful by nature. We all must sing amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. These are two very, very different tombstones, aren't they? Two very different ideas of what salvation, justification, being declared not guilty is based upon. Now, All of this does not mean that the law is a bad thing. We'll see that very clearly in Galatians 5. And the apostle summarizes the law and works through the fruits of the spirit, but we see it also already here in the last verses of Galatians 2. And that brings us to our third point. Justification and his love. Justification, the moment when we are declared not guilty. Well, what does that mean for the rest of our lives? We might imagine in a human courtroom, a criminal going, really being guilty, but someone steps up in his place, he's declared not guilty, and then he goes forth and says, I'm scot-free now. I was guilty, but they set me free, and so now I can go forth and sin. It's that, it comes back to that may I sin now, that grace may abound idea. Certainly, certainly not. For through the law, I died to the law, so that I might live to God. John Stott said it this way, quote, justification is not a legal fiction in which a man's status is changed while his character is left untouched. Now, our character is also touched. Our very life is touched. We live a new life. What does that mean about through the law dying to the law? Well, it means two things. And the Apostle is saying that he knows that through the law itself, there's no way to life. One commentator summarized it this way, the law itself persuaded Paul to abandon the law. He looks at the law and he says, I can't, I can't fulfill this. I must die to this. I cannot do this. It also can be a way of speaking, and we see this especially moving out of verse 19 and into verse 20, when we read that we have been crucified with Christ. Also, to speak about dying to the law in the New Testament is to speak about being dead to the penalty of the law. I said we'd turn once more to Romans 6. Let us do that. Romans chapter 6. Listen to this language of The penalty of the law no longer has a hold over God's people. Romans 6 beginning at verse 6, we know that our old self was crucified with him, that is Christ, in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe we will also live with Him. You see there that same movement is made. We move from speaking about how we are now dead to the law. The penalty no longer is over us, no longer binding on us. No, we move out of that. We move out of that death and we move into life. Life that we live in Christ. Life that Christ lives in us. Life that Christ lives in us. Christ, middle of verse 20, who lives in me. Union with Christ goes that far? Union with Christ brings a believer to the point where we not only live in Christ, And the apostle uses that language here. But Christ also lives in us. Wait, how did we get there? Such is the profound nature of the transformation of true believers. Such is the extent of union by true faith with Christ. So you see, when believers would do good deeds, would do acts of service, would fulfill the law, would now go and live in righteousness, though we still struggle against sin, as other portions of scripture make so abundantly clear. This is what we mean when we say that the people are the hands and feet of Jesus. You ever heard that expression? Is that a biblical expression? Yes, it is. For those who have been justified by Christ, we are so united to Christ that it is even right to say that Christ lives in us. So when we would go forth and we would speak of the good news, when we would love our neighbors in many manifest ways, some of that we'll look at again tonight in Isaiah 58. It's the hands and feet of Jesus. It's not your own hands working. It's not your own righteousness. It's the righteousness of Christ who now lives in you. It's the Holy Spirit's influence upon you which now makes you to go forth and do these things as His servant, as His saved people. This is a strange thing in our individualized world. and our world revolves around me, I define what I want to do world. It is strange to think that we are not our own to the extent that Christ lives in me. It's something which has a certain mystery to it, but may we not be influenced by those individualistic trends of our age to think that this is something strange or something bad. No, this speaks to the profound nature of the change which we have when we are justified. and united to Christ. It's not only a moment of being declared not guilty, it's a life lived from that moment, which is a changed life, a life united to Christ. Christ who gave himself up for me, who died on that cruel cross for me. Jesus who loves me. And to go against any of these teachings, to return in any way to a form of works righteousness, to go in any way to a form of self-trust would be to trample on that blood of Jesus. And it would be as if saying that Christ died for no purpose. Why did Christ have to suffer that most cruel death, bearing the very wrath of God against sin? Not only human punishment, but divine punishment on the cross. Why did he have to do that? He had to do that because it was the only way we could be saved. If we look to work's righteousness for salvation in any way, then the death of Christ becomes unnecessary, in vain, superfluous. At best, which is still very bad, We're making the death of Christ insufficient because we're saying I had to add my works on top of it. No, no, no. The cross, though, is not in vain. No one can be justified by the law. Only can we be justified in Christ. And this brings us back to verse 16, that phrase, that universal phrase at the end, no one will be justified by the works of the law. And that's not something new. The apostle is taking that from Psalm 143, written even so much longer ago. No one living is righteous before you, Psalm 143, verse two. And then as that Psalm comes to an end, the last, the words of Psalm 143, verse 11, are our conclusion this morning. For your name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life. In your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, as we stand as guilty sinners by Christ, by our looking to Christ, by our trusting in Christ, by our having faith in Him alone, remove all that guilt. Lord, have us then go forth. living the new life, you would have us to live in Christ, even with Christ in us. This we pray in Jesus name, amen. Let us, people of God, stand to sing number 457. Let's stand to sing all the stanzas. My beauty. world. my heart shall all through these I am from sin and fear from guilt and shame. And from the dust of death I rise to claim my mansion in the skies. This shall be all. I believe Jesus hath lived, hath died for me. Jesus, we endless praise to Thee, whose boundless mercy hath ♪ For me a full autumn breeze ♪ O let the dead now hear thy voice, now bid thy banished ones rejoice. Their beauty, this their glorious dress, gives us thy fun and righteousness. It's time now, our morning gifts and offerings this morning for the General Fund. Following this, our parting blessing and the Doxology 571. Yeah. If you would stand now to receive the parting blessing of our God. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. Repeat to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Amen. Okay. watch. Yeah.