Our call to worship this morning is Psalm 98. O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for us. The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord on the earth. Break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre and the sound of melody, with trumpets and the sound of the horn. Make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. Let the sea roar in all that fills it. The world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Oh Lord our God, we praise you that you are God and there is no other. Lord, that you are the one who created the universe. this earth, the seas, everything in this world, including us, Lord, you are the creator of all things and sustainer of all things and you are our redeemer. And so we come today to worship you because of who you are and because of what you've done. And so Lord, please help us. We don't have the right to approach you in and of ourselves because we are So we come to you in the name of Jesus. And we ask you to cover our worship with his blood. And that you would be in our midst now. Help us to worship you in spirit and in truth. Meet with us, we pray, for Jesus' sake and in his name, amen. Turn with me, if you would, to Psalm 195. So, joy to the world. and he is our prophet, priest, and king. That doesn't need to just be sung around the celebration of his first advent, right? So let's sing together. ♪ Joy to the world, the Lord is come ♪ Every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven, and heaven, and nature sing. Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns, No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest our way. ♪ And comes to make his blessings flow ♪ ♪ For as the curse is found ♪ ♪ For as the curse is found ♪ ♪ For as, for as the curse is found ♪ ♪ He rules the world with truth and grace and wisdom ♪ Again, I love the phrase He comes to make his blessings flow as far as the curse is found. Our Lord Jesus is reversing the effects of the fall throughout history. He's doing it in us if we're all trusting in him. And so praise be to his holy name for his glorious gospel, the good news. Please remain standing with me and turn in the back of your head to page 877 and continue looking at the Shorter Catechism, the Westminster Shorter Catechism for questions on prayer. And so we'll do questions 104 and 105. And I encourage you, if you haven't already, to look at the Shorter Catechism whenever you go home and look at the scripture references that are applied by the Westminster Assembly to this. It's very encouraging and an amazing guide for us to learn how to pray. Question one oh four. What we pray for is a fourth petition. In the fourth petition, which is, give us this day our daily bread, we pray that on our last free gift, we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life and enjoy this blessed Question one of five, what do we pray for in the fifth petition? In the fifth petition, which is, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, we pray that God, for Christ's sake, would freely pardon all our sins, which we are not encouraged to ask, because of His grace we are enabled from the heart Father in heaven, we do come before you humbly and and yet joyously because you are good and gracious and merciful. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. We praise you lord that we can come to you and confess our sins, confess that we have sinned committed sins of co-mission and co-mission, Lord, and so we acknowledge that we, for example, have lived selfishly instead of selflessly. We're thinking that we are the most important thing in creation. Lord, we have that tendency because we are sons of Adam, and yet you have great mercy on those who call upon you and you change hearts. You remove hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. Renew our spirits that we would rather want to serve you first and foremost instead of ourselves. And so please help us to repent of that idolatry and to turn to you, to run to you. loving you and then loving each other as a as a way to love you and to show our love to you. Lord, thank you for your amazing mercies. Thank you for forgiveness of our sins because our sins were paid for completely on the cross by the lord Jesus Christ and shedding his blood for us to pay the debt completely and then to us in your righteousness Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debts. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. The assurance of forgiveness this morning is from Psalm 32, verses 1 and 2. How blessed is he whose wrongdoing is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the person whose guilt the Lord does not take into account, and in whose spirit there is no sin. Brothers and sisters, we can hear this and be encouraged to be at peace, at peace in our hearts. If you would turn with me to hymn 551 in your hymnals, we will sing. His King who trespassed as free we will forgive. Whose sin is holy comfort made for the sight of heav'n. Blessed be to Jehovah, we'll not impute his sin. ♪ Who has a goodness spirit, whose heart is true within. ♪ ♪ While I am guilty, silent, my strength, my strength remains. ♪ I found the step beyond me, my soul found the way. I trespass, my sin did not found me. When I confess transgression, then Thou forgivest me. I'll say. Amen. Please be seated. Father in heaven. Thank You that we can come to You as Your little children. And thank You for Your great mercy through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Thank You that You have called us out of darkness into Your marvelous light. Lord, You have brought us into the Kingdom of Your beloved Son. And so help us, Lord, to act like it. Lord, help us to to love you, to love your word, to love your people, to love truth and righteousness, to hate wickedness. And so help us, Holy Spirit, to die more and more unto sin and to live more and more unto righteousness. And Lord, help us to believe what you tell us in your word about what righteousness is, what truth is. and to not be conformed to this world, but rather, by your amazing grace, to be conformed to the image of your Son. And so, Lord, we ask your help, because we cannot do this alone. In truth, we need you, Holy Spirit, to indwell our hearts, to help us to remember your Word in the right times, and to apply your Word to the situations. Lord, Life is complicated because of sin. Because of our own sin. And we have to deal with the consequences of our own sin and the sin of others. And yet we can have joy and peace in believing because of your amazing grace. And because of your kind mercies and your kind providence to lead us and guide us through this life. Lord, help us to remember that the trials and difficulties that come into our path are tailor-made for each one of us so that we might grow in the exact way that you want us to grow to be more like Jesus every day. So help us to thank you for trials, Lord. As James tells us, to count it all joy. Lord, this is hard, I confess. and so we need your help. Lord, we praise you that there is help in the cross of Jesus. Lord, how we praise you for all of these gathered here this morning. Please bless us as we continue to worship you. We ask your abundant blessings on Pastor Thornton as he prepares to preach your word to us, Lord. Come and preach through this, dear brother, and may your word not fall on deaf ears, but would you accomplish that which you send your word to accomplish. And each one of us, Lord, draw us near as we seek to draw near to you. Lord, we pray for those who aren't able to be with us. We think of Luke and ask your blessings upon them. Lord, we praise you for all who are here. Lord, we all have whatever kinds of issues going on whether it's health or work related or projects or challenges. Lord we also have friends and loved ones who do not know you. There may be someone in this room this morning who does not know you so we ask that you would pour out your spirit and that you would draw people to yourself and that you would heart and not lean on our own understanding. Lord, we pray for the other faithful churches in this area and all across this country and this globe that everywhere where your word is faithfully proclaimed, I pray for blessings on your people this day. Please feed your sheep. We are the sheep of your pasture. Lord, feed us here this morning and bless us for Jesus' sake and it's in his name we pray. Turn with me, if you would, for our Old Testament reading to Jeremiah chapter 23. I'll read verses 1 through 8. Please follow along and pay careful attention to God's very Word. 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. 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 who will care for them, and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch. And he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called, the Lord is our righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, as the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but as the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them, then they shall dwell in their own land. Thus ends the reading of God's very word. This passage struck me just yesterday that it's very similar to the book of Galatians in that the Apostle Paul in Galatians is addressing shepherds who misled the sheep. And this is, brothers and sisters, the same God today. The same God of Apostle Paul. The same God of Jeremiah. And He is going to take care of His people. He is going to give us shepherds that will lead us in the right way. And this prophecy in Jeremiah is obviously talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the branch, capital V, the righteous branch from David. And notice in Psalm 98 that we read. He is the king and the judge in both of the passages. He is the king and the judge. So he's the one who rules and executes justice, his justice, not this justice that is proclaimed in the world, which is not really justice. And he's the one who we are here to worship today. And so if you would, turn with me to hymn 455 in your hymnal. And can it be that I should stand with you, if you're able, and we will sing the verses 1, 3, 4, and 5. that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood. Thine be for me who calls His name, for me who into death pursue. Amazing love, how can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? He left His Father's throne of love so free, so infinite his grace. Humbled himself, so brave his love, and bled for all his chosen race. His mercy, Amazing love, how can it be That thou, my God, shouldst die for me? I long thy imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin and nature's might I'm follow me. Amazing love, how can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? No condemnation now I dread, Jesus and God Alive in Him, my living Head, Enclothed in righteousness divine, Oh, I approach the eternal throne And thank the Heaven-born Christ my own Amazing love, how can it be That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amen. This reading is very, very long text. It's tippy. So if it makes you cringe, guys, listen very closely to what Dr. Patrick has to say about it. Flat your feet firmly, therefore, within the freedom that Christ has won for us, and do not let yourselves shackles of slavery. Listen, I, Paul, say this to you. If you consent to be circumcised now, then Christ will be of no use to you at all. I say this psalm again to every one of you. Everyone who consents to be circumcised, is bound to obey all the rest of the law. If you try to be justified by the law, you automatically cut yourself off from the power of Christ. You put yourself outside the reason of His grace, for it is by faith that we await His Spirit in Christ Jesus, there is no validity. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. So good to see everybody. I noticed at the beginning of the service, we were talking about a lyre. And I wondered how many children understood it. I wish I could remember the exact context, but it was something I'm using, I think. I hope you children understand that a lyre is a musical instrument. It's not just somebody who's playing a lyre, okay? That's one thing. Okay, so that will be on the quiz later. So if you want to come up to me during lunch and say, I don't know what a liar is, please do. Okay, now, having said that, we are preaching through the book of Galatians. And we are starting chapter five today. And I thought it might be helpful just to say a few things about the structure of what's remaining. If I had to sum up the first four chapters, I would say this is about the utter importance and urgency of justification by faith alone. In other words, we are saved by putting our faith in the work of the Lord Jesus only. not by working. Well, why do we work then? Because He's changed our hearts. And we want to work, but not to be saved. But you know what happens? And this even happened to me within the last 10 years. My focus got divergent to works. And here's how the devil may have tricked me. Yes, I knew salvation was by grace alone, but I also knew that works are the evidence of salvation. And believe it or not, all the places I was, I was in Washington, D.C. actually preaching at the Atheist Conference. I think the former husband of Amber Heard, I forget his name, famous movie star, he was supposed to speak there. but she had sort of laid smack on him and he wasn't gonna be there. I think Richard Dawkins had been there in the past, Lawrence Krauss, I mean, he's a famous atheist. And so I was there speaking with them, uninvited, of course. But I was one of the few gospel preachers, in fact, I was the only gospel preacher that wasn't asked to leave by the police. And the way that worked was, I didn't try to over-talk the atheists. When they showed up, I took over. And when they started again, I showed up. And that worked real well, even though some of them held signs in front of my face, and all of them bragged to me that they were PhDs, and that there were questions they couldn't answer. Because atheism is not really an intellectual belief. It's pseudo-intellectual, false intellectual. But anyway, I was getting to, so this guy walks up to me as I'm walking away from the Lincoln Memorial there with my son, my oldest son, who I had the pleasure of being with. We rode a train online to get there. Our plan was to spend the day in Washington, ride the train back that night, and we'd retire. But I tell you, it was so good to have him with me. And it was the first time he participated in a man's wisdom. But anyway, this guy walks up to me and he says, do you have assurance of salvation? And at that time, I was struggling. And I struggled for a while, because I was focused on my works. Are they enough? And yes, I believed in salvation by grace alone. But at the same time, my focus was on my works, just as evidence of my salvation. And so we came back, and we were taking a new members class at a church. And the emphasis was on grace and whether or not we had insurance to sell it. Well, anyway, I got focusing back on the promises, you know, of grace and free forgiveness, and I recovered from my stumbling. I wonder where you are this morning with this. Are you confident? that you're saved. Are you, are you experiencing the freedom that comes in the gospel? Or are you kind of like I was thinking? I don't know. I just don't know. Well, anyway, this passage of scripture that we're in today is to help with that. So let's pray. Gracious God, Heavenly Father, thank you that you want us believers to have assurance of salvation. and to trust in you alone. and not half of Christ, not a twenty-five percent Christ or a seventy-five or a ninety-five percent Christ but a one hundred percent of the Christ of the Bible who paid it off. Oh Lord, we thank you for this. Our savior. Mighty to save. said, it is finished on the cross. Oh lord, help us today. All of us. Help me to preach and help us all to hear and apply it by your holy spirit to our lives. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Now, I was talking about the structure. And so, in this chapter, the question is, I have been set free By Christ, I'm no longer under bondage of law, so that's my question for you, is that, can you affirm that? Number two, the rest of chapter five, but I need something, someone, to control my life from within. And that's the Holy Spirit, and that's where we read about the fruit of the Spirit. And then in chapter six, through the Spirit's love, I have a desire to live for others, not for self. Although we do live in part for ourselves. That's expected. That's okay. But we're to live for others too. And then lastly in chapter 6, this life of liberty is so wonderful, I want to live it to the glory of God, for He is the one making it possible. And you know, Melissa and I wear each other out and tell ourselves instead of telling each other this, that I would have done that if it weren't for the grace of God. Things we do for each other. And others. So, when we're talking about freedom here, in chapter 5, verse 1, If we're gonna talk about freedom, we need to talk about slavery a little bit. And if we're made free, what was the slavery all about? And that's the first thing I want to address. He says, and this is the New American Standard, it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm. And do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Keep standing firm. You see, there's something we need to do. You know, it's not just over. Okay, like I said, I pray. No, we need to keep standing firm. We need to maintain this freedom. You need to be careful not to stumble like I did into losing the assurance of my salvation temporarily. So, are you maintaining your freedom in Christ? Are you? Well, first I said we'd talk about the slavery. And Paul says in Romans 7, 14, for we know that the law, the mosaic covenant, the Ten Commandments, is spiritual, but I am a flesh sold into bondage to sin. Have you ever realized that about yourself, that in your natural state, when you came into this world, a child of Adam, a child of wrath, that you were sold into bondage to sin. You were not yet free. And you only become free when you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who sets us free. So there's a bondage to sin. It begins with original sin that we're born with because of our representative, Adam, which I've talked about weeks leading up to this. You remember that he was our representative in the garden? And the choices he made affected us, just like in Washington, D.C., they declare war, we're at war. They raise the taxes, we pay the taxes. Just like in football, one player steps outside, the entire team is penalized, okay. Now, we were born in sin, and this has infected our entire nature. This has infected everything about us. And I think one of our problems is, and I know it is, is that we fail to see the magnitude of that impact. And you know, having been an evangelist for 10 years now, I can tell you that thousands of people that I've talked to have told me they're a good person. Well, none of us are good by God's standard. Not unless we have the very righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to us. Now, that's good. That's perfect. But that's a foreign righteousness. That's given to us by His Lord. That's the only way we're good. So, this sin has infected the whole person. So that in James 1.14, we read this, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Each one is tempted. When they get carried away, but we get carried away by our own desires. So we better be on guard against these desires. The second thing, is that we are enslaved by subjection to all the punishment, both temporal and eternal, that sin brings until we're in Christ. And there's somebody else involved in this that may surprise you. We don't like to think about this one right here, but I'm going to hit on it three times. Get ready. talking about unbelievers in 2 Timothy 2, 26 and praying, and they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. The snare of the devil, held captive by him. How many of us have ever acknowledged this about ourselves before we were in Christ? See, he's so subtle. He's so deceitful, he's so tricky that he can do this and hardly be noticed. That's the first hint. The second hint is from 2 Corinthians 4, which says this, speaking of unbelievers, in whose case the God of this world, that's small g, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. This Satan, this little God of this world, why is he called God with a small g? Because he's so powerful. He's so influential. And he's blinding people. Now, have you and I acknowledged that in our past we were blinded? I mean, after all, what did you think about Jesus before you were a Christian? Now there's some of you who are being raised in a Christian home, and you have godly parents who are telling you the truth. But those of us who became Christians later in life, I mean, when we used to hear about Jesus, we were like, I want no part of this, you know. We were blind. This is the only hope of mankind. This is the only hope of our happiness. And yet, we didn't do anything good with it. And the third hit is from Hebrews 2.14. Listen to this. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, speaking of Jesus taking on human flesh, he partook of the same, that through death, he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil. The devil has the power of death. What does that mean? Well, he's scaring people to death with it. Because, you know, you might get the flu or COVID and get over it, but you won't get over death, right? We don't have people walking around here, well, I died during COVID, but I got over it. No. I had a massive heart attack and a stroke, and now here I am. Well, no, that's possible, but what's not possible is overcoming death, this kind of death, spiritual death, this physical death, apart from the grace of God. So there's some bondage for you. And do you think about that? And then, here's another one. John 8, 34, he who commits sin is a servant or a slave of sin. And I remember being in bondage to sin. I liked it. I liked it. I was a slave. I didn't get saved until I was a quarter of a century old. So, do you understand being a slave of sin? And it says in Ephesians 2, talking about us in which you formerly walked, that's tense, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, there is a spirit working in the unbeliever. Now, I think it's kind of shocking, but it's true. There is a spirit that was at work in you before you were a believer. It's the same thing I was talking about earlier, but this is a different context now, talking about the course of this world. You know, we have courses. You take a course at school. You have an obstacle course in the military. They have a race course down here in Nashville, and they have a NASCAR that comes and races through town. But there's a course that the unbeliever follows. And that, of course, is sin. And we, Christians, were slaves to it at one time. Now, if you became a Christian at a very early age, you can't get inside that as much as somebody like me, but it's nevertheless true. And then, 1 John 2, 16, says, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. Now this describes a lot of people's lives around here. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. Pride is a terrible thing, because it's completely unjustified. But now some people might say, you know, this gospel you're talking about, and you're talking about this free grace, and you're talking about being completely saved by grace. Well, won't people just go wild? Won't people just go wild if they know they're forgiven and it's a done deal? No. Why? Because with this justification by faith comes regeneration. Those whom are saved are regenerated. Changed. All by grace. Now somebody said, no man can become a rebel who depends on God's grace, yields to God's Spirit, lives for others, and seeks to glorify God. The legalist, though, is the one who eventually rebels. And I've seen this so many times. I've seen the legalist rebel. The legalist is the one, and this is the one who's saying, you know, yeah, Jesus saved to a certain extent, but I've got to be circumcised or something like that. Now, what do we mean? Circumcision in itself is not bad. But trusting circumcision in order to be saved is a deadly error. That's legalism. You see, the legalist is living in bondage, depending on the flesh, living for self, and seeking the praise of men and not the glory of God. Seeking the praise of men. Living for self. There's no power in that. There's no power. But there's power in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and having God's love. God the Father knowing that He loves us. There's power there. And one of the Reformers even says, you can't even be justified without realizing that God loves you. Whoa, I mean, faith in Christ, you've got to realize that. He loved us so much, He gave Christ on the cross to die for us. But, you know, I don't know if the justification is by faith in it, but I believe realizing His love is a point of faith. But I don't want to add anything, so don't misunderstand. The first one here says, it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm, and do not be subjected to a yoke of slavery. Stand firm. Maintain. And I was talking to Dave Winters about flying airplanes, you know. flying with instruments. And he was telling me that one of your biggest enemies when you're trying to fly with instruments is what he calls the seat of the pants. In other words, trying to fly with your inner ear, trying to sense, you know, you're flying through a cloud, you can't see up or down, you know, but you try and figure it out without the instruments. And that's deadly. Now, the Christian life, you know, if we just try to figure all this out by the secret means, by our inner ear, by our understanding without taking God at His word, we go astray. And so, one of the ways you're going to maintain your freedom in Christ is by refreshing your mind of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I want to say daily, but, you know, as needed. Let's just say as needed. When I start thinking, man, I start putting myself back under the wall. I need to get back to the gospel. I need to get back to grace. You know, I've studied a lot about the emotions of the past week. You know, we're emotional people, all of us, and we have emotions. And those emotions sometimes are not easy to control. You know, you get angry, it's hard to get over sometimes. You get scared. Different emotions, sometimes hard to deal with. And I think this has to deal with our communion with God, not our union with Christ, which is rock solid when we've put our faith and trust in Him and been justified by faith. Our union with Christ is there, intact, and nothing can separate us from God's love, from the faith. But when it comes to our communion with God, our fellowship, sometimes our emotions can be a warning. You know, if I come home and kick the dog and fuss with my wife unjustly and I don't feel bad about that, that's not wrong. You know, it's good to have a negative emotion about bad behavior, right? And at the same time, you know, we know that some things will lead to bad feelings, right? Now, I'm not saying be controlled by your feelings, but I am saying they can be a warning sign. They should be paid attention to under the word of God. But I was just thinking. I was thinking about, Lord willing, our trip back to Johnson City this afternoon. If I start commanding Melissa around and being harsh with her, what can I expect? Maybe a little backlash, you know what I'm saying? And a little conflict and a little negative feelings, it's gonna happen. So, you know, we need to maintain our freedom in Christ. Maintain the freedom to be kind, to be respectful. Yes, no? Yes. You know, one thing, in our relationship with God, in maintaining this freedom, We need to be as a child with His good loving Father, not harsh. And realizing that God the Father is not going to be harsh with us as His children. Now there's works and there's works. There's works where somebody's trying to get saved, and that's very bad. And then there's works that the Christian does. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand, and we should walk in them. He wants us to do good works. But our works are imperfect, and we are weak, and we need his strength, and we need his power, and we need to realize that when we bring these imperfect works to the Lord, And he accepts us. And you've probably heard me tell the story before of Robertson McWilliams, president of the Columbia Bible College, where I went. And he was a missionary in Japan, and he told the story, and I love it, never forgot it. You know, he came back from a missions trip, and there were his little children, you know, and just so happy to see him jumping up and down. One of them grabs a glass of water and puts the Kool-Aid in and starts stirring it with his dirty finger. Poor hygiene, but love, right? And by the way, it didn't kill him. He was telling this story maybe 40, 50 years after it happened. They say we eat a pound of dirt, but let's avoid it if possible, all right? But Psalm 51, 12. Restore me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. And I'm glad we sang that song about joy, because we need to be reminded. And somebody helped me years ago saying, this is a command. Rejoice in the Lord. We're commanded to do that. So, you know, I'm sitting around like, I don't feel like rejoicing. How can I rejoice? You know, one way, we were singing one of these hymns this morning, and I just thought, I'm gonna sing out loud. And all of a sudden, I started feeling these good emotions, you know? And I've noticed throughout my Christian life, if I'll start singing to the best of my ability and as loud as I can without, you know, being too much, I start having these emotions. Emotions can be good, right? So that's one way to maintain. But notice the psalmist there in that great psalm of confession about his terrible sin. He's asking the Lord, I'm not gonna crank this joy up, Lord, it's you, restore to me the joy. You know, we need to go to him for the joy and look, when we're wrestling with our salvation and our weakness and our unworthiness, how about looking to Christ? Our great high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. Oh, that's so comforting. And it gives us strength and power. And see, this is what is not in legalism. There's no joy. There's no strength. There's no power in legalism. There's just pride and me doing it and feeling better about it. Hopefully. I mean, I've been trying to think of all the different scenarios. And I think somebody who's misled and happy about it, I mean, that's really delusional. That's really pitiful. And so I have a question for you. Do you see the Old Covenant as it is? Do you accept the biblical descriptions of the Old Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant? You know what it says? It's a ministry of death. Now think about that when you're trying to live under the Ten Commandments for salvation. This is a ministry of death. Somebody put a delicious food in front of you and said it's okay. You know, we joke about chocolate by death, right? Or death by chocolate, or whatever it is, but what if it's really poisonous milk? Hell, it looks so good. But we want nothing to do with it. Well, the Old Covenant is described as a ministry of death. Listen to 2 Corinthians 3, 7. But it's the ministry of death. In letters engraved on stone came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory on his face fading as it was. It's a ministry of death. Now, are you really going to take a ministry of death and try to be saved by it? No. Not if you're thinking straight. Unless you're blind now, and Satan's blinding you, you know, you're gonna, oh, ministry of death, oh, you're not even gonna think of this ministry of death, you're all, I like these things, man. I believe I can keep these. Except when I'm fed. And then what? No, that's perfect. True. But, this ministry of death cannot save. Now, listen to the previous verse. Second Corinthians three six. Paul's speaking of him being in the ministry of God who made us adequate as servants of a new covenant. Not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. You see, here's the old covenant being described as something that kills. It'll kill you. You like poison snakes? Venomous snakes? Spiders? What do you do if one of those starts crawling around you? How about a rat? A rat comes in the room, you know, carrying a bubonic plague or something. People jump up and tear it apart. We have here a covenant that kills! But the Spirit, the covenant of the Spirit gives life. Now I want life, and I know you do too, right? There's only one covenant that's gonna break it to you, and that's the covenant of grace. The covenant that has the Spirit of God that comes with the covenant. That makes us wanna do good works. That sets us free to do good works, but not to be saved by them. It's an insult to Christ. An insult to Christ. To think, well, you know, he died for 95%, I'm going to make up the next 5%. That's an insult. We don't chop Christ up. We don't chop up His work. We are to trust Him, He said, and He's finished. He said He came to give His life as a ransom for sin. We need to trust Him. It's a ministry that kills. It's a ministry of death. So, look, don't fall back on that. Don't fall back. Don't let Satan blind you and fool you and make you think that you can get right with God now or stay right with God by the covenant that kills, the covenant of death. Now, you look to Christ. Now, what about when I failed? As a Christian, I failed. Look to Christ. He's our high priest. He's able to sympathize with our weakness. He is interceding for us. Look at Romans 8. The end of that chapter of Romans 8. You know, I love this and Justin Huck was talking about this the other night in our Bible study that it says, He also glorified us. Now look here at the context. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of the Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those whom He predestined, He also called. And those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified. Past tense, the glorification is taken care of. It's a done deal. It's not wait and see. The Christian is said to have been glorified. Now listen, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he also live him freely and give us all things? Now listen to this, verse 33. And review this constantly when you're struggling. Who will bring a charge, or who will bring charges against God's elect? Well, here's the answer. God's the one who justifies. That's the opposite of bringing charges. Justifying and bringing charges are polar opposites. So, in other words, who will bring a charge against you? Well, not God. He's the one that justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Well, here's the answer. Christ Jesus is he who died, who was raised was at the right hand of God. He's not some interceding for us. In other words, it's not Christ. Because look what he's doing. He died for us. He rose for us. He intercedes for us. And then he goes on in verse 35. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Do you feel love today? Do you acknowledge his love today? We need to. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or trouble? Or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Just as it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long. We were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Oh, I used to be bothered so much by that verse being right there. But listen to this. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. For I am persuaded convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Wow. That is so wonderful. So wonderful. If you think of God as harsh with you as a laborer, you're gonna have a hard time praying. And do you know how important prayer is? He said, my house shall be called a house of prayer. Wow. Isn't it wonderful that we can pray about the things that burden us? And we can pray about our needs. It's wonderful. and trust God and seek God, answer prayer. And sometimes the answer's no, and that's for our good too. You know, Paul prayed that he'd be healed three times, and he wasn't healed, but you know what? The Lord communicated to him, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Here's a question for you. Do you look to Christ? Is your focus on Christ? Because this is part of maintaining your freedom in Christ. Is your focus on Him? Listen to 2 Corinthians 3.18, because right here you'll see, if your focus is on Christ, there's something happening. There's something happening. Here it is. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed. into the same image from glory to glory just as from the Lord the Spirit. You see, if we will fix our eyes on Jesus, what does the Bible say about Jesus? I need to go back and review what does the Bible say about him? I'm struggling, I need to see what it says. I'm being transformed into the same image. Transformation. Legalism will never bring that. Legalism doesn't transform anybody for the good. It may transform them for the worse. It does. Sinners go from bad to worse. The Bible says that. Preacher asked me one time about somebody, and I said, they're going from bad to worse. He laughed. It wasn't funny. They really were. Thankfully, they got saved. They're running down with a spiral for a long time before they got saved. Are you being transformed, my friend? Well, if you're not, look to Christ. Confess your sin. Realize He's the only way to happiness and to eternal life. It's only Him. Focus on Him. Open your Bible. If you're struggling with salvation, what does the Bible say about salvation? Read Romans 3, Romans 4, Romans 5, Galatians. Read it slowly, prayerfully. Romans 8, slowly, prayerfully. Ask Him to help you to understand. Do you understand how this covenant of grace is entered into? Do you understand the real meaning of circumcision? Romans 4, 11. Speaking of Abraham, he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness by faith. What? They turned this circumcision around, making it a requirement to be saved when it was nothing but a sign of being saved without it? Yeah. Romans 411, if you think you gotta do good things to be saved, start looking at this. Here was this church, these churches of Galatia. And these Judaizers, these false shepherds, They were like, you know, Christ did a lot. That's really good. But you gotta be circumcised to be saved. And fill in the blanks. There's a lot of blanks to be filled in here. What are you gonna do to be saved now? Well, I knew one guy, I saw him at one college, not Bible college, but the other college, and he said, he said, I quit this certain behavior because I didn't want to go to hell. I said, well, what church are you going to? He said, I don't need church. I don't need it. I was shocked. But he thinks because he turned away from this one sin that he's going to heaven. No. That's not how you get to heaven. Now, repentance is important. But that wasn't repentance. Repentance is godly sorrow. Lord, I'm sorry. Look what I've done. And I'm turning away from that, and I'm turning to you. And being saved, regenerated, born again, changed. See, this guy, he's banking on the fact that he gave up this one sin, which he was deeply involved in, by the way, and I don't know how that's going. I haven't talked to him in two years. Oh, I just give up this and I'm saved. No. You see, what that one's for, like it says, he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith by which he had model uncircumcised. It was just a sign. So that he might be the father of all who believed without being circumcised. that righteousness might be credited to them, and imputed to them, given to them. Righteousness, the gift of righteousness. Why? Well, it's repeated in the New Testament. Deuteronomy 27, 26 says, Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of the law by doing them. In other words, if you want to be under the law, to be saved, which is impossible because we've all sinned. You would have to keep every law perfectly throughout your entire existence. It's already over. Because you've sinned. And you came in without sin. And so did I. And I've sinned. Do you understand? There is no way You can be saved by the Mosaic covenant. And yet, flying by the seat of our pants, trusting the inner ear instead of the instrument panel, oh yeah, I just need to be good. I'll be okay. And the devil's going, yeah, you'll be okay. Just keep putting it off. By the way, there's a little game coming up. And you need to eat something. And Satan hits your mind off what you need to be thinking about. And he's an expert at that. But when we truly realize the freedom that we have in Christ as believers, it's like a big sail on a ship, and suddenly filled with wind, carrying the vessel along. We realize it's a free gift only, and we trust God's promises God has promised, if you believe, you're saved. You put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you're saved. Now, of course, you need to, you need to show that you were serious, but you do that by God's grace still. You know, we'll try and do anything to inject us, us saving ourselves in there if we're not careful. And then I ran across this hymn, and I want to close this sermon with, I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, trusting only Thee, trusting Thee for full salvation, great and free, I am trusting Thee for pardon. At Thy feet I bow for Thy grace and tender mercy. Trusting now, I am trusting Thee for cleansing and impurities of blood. Trusting Thee to make me holy by Thy blood, I am trusting Thee to guide me. Thou alone shall lead, every day and every hour supplying all I need. I am trusting Thee for power. Thine can never fail. Words which Thou Thyself shalt give me must prevail. I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, never let me fail. I am trusting Thee forever. and for all. What a friend we have in Jesus. What a Savior we have in Him. Trust Him. Enjoy salvation. Trust Him. You know, it says in chapter 5, I believe it's 1 Corinthians, that if this earthly tent is torn down, We have a building of God. Go from a tent to a building. You know, this is a lot of the outwardly we are became. Inwardly, we're being renewed day by day. Scripture says, now that's, of course, hard for you very young people to comprehend, but us older people, we know it. And some of you middle-aged, you're starting to experience it too, but inwardly, and we've got a building, not a tent. We've got a tent, we're living in a tent. Melissa was telling the story the other day. The first time we camped in the Smokies was the worst electrical storm in 40 years, and we slept on an electric blanket in our tent. And I kept waiting for the shock of my life. The lightning hit the wires in the electric blanket. It sizzled. The Lord preserved us. But living in a tent, you know, we were just small friends. Melissa helped me at the wedding. the other day, and we used to all go camping together. We're done with this camping stuff. We're into glamping now. You know, glamorous camping in the hotels? We'll do that. Forget these tents. But that's the way we should feel about these bodies. These bodies are decaying, even now. But we have not just a glorified tent. We have a building from God, it says. Eternal in the heavens, and I close with that. Heavenly Father, thank you for this so great salvation. Lord, help us to enjoy you and enjoy this salvation and to maintain our freedom in the gospel. Freedom from mistrusting you, above all. Freedom in prayer, for your house has been a house of prayer. Freedom in obedience and not thinking that you're gonna lay smack on us for obeying you. As weak as we are, as imperfect as our works are, thank You that You accept them in Christ. In whose name we pray, Amen. And so to remember what Christ has done for us, we have the Lord's Supper here. And let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that You will set these ordinary elements aside and use them for Your special purposes, Lord, as a sign and a seal to those who are truly in Christ. And we pray in His name. Amen. And so all the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord took bread and broke it. He said, this is my body broken to you. Do this in remembrance of me. And so we ask you to examine yourselves before you partake of this. And if there's any known sin in your life, repent right now. And God forgive you. Repent and believe the gospel. Partake of it. Okay. He became sin to the believer. And he said to do this in remembrance of him, let's partake of it together. In the same way he took the cup, and today he said, this cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it. Let's play with this together also. He said, this cup is a new covenant in my blood. Drink this and remember to make us partake of it together. And let's pray for y'all. Give back to you some of what you've given to us, Lord, for the feathers of your gospel, out of gratitude for what you've done and how you work. And as you said, I will build my church from the gates of hell, will not prevail against it. Lord, keep building your church around the world, we pray. Pray for worldwide revival, that the glory of the Lord will fill the earth in the gospel. Use this offering, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.