A Call to Look

You. Well, let me have you guys turn in your Bibles to Galatians 5. Turn quickly. Galatians 5.

we are continuing in our study of the book of Galatians, and as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to Galatians 5:2. My goal this morning is to cover verses 2 through 6, or at least to do the best that we can, and the title of the message is a call to look, a call to look. I was thinking this week about something that happened when I was a student at the Masters seminary. It was in 1989 and my wife was about 8 months pregnant with our first child, and we were both in the car.

I was driving our car down a major city street at about 35 to 40 miles an hour. Traffic was moving fine. And the traffic in front of us was moving very smoothly. I was an appropriate distance behind the car that was in front of me, being safe, but there was a point where I realized we're going to need to make a left turn here in about 1/8 of a mile, so I need to start thinking about that now and planning ahead.

So I looked in my rearview mirrors and observed the traffic situation behind me. And I especially focused on my driver's side external rearview mirror and looked in there to observe the traffic situation to see if the coast was clear. Well, I made that observation through the mirror and then I think like I'm supposed to, I didn't trust the mirror, so I actually turned my head and I'm looking over here to the left and behind me studying the traffic situation to observe whether the path was clear or not for me to get over.

However, while I was looking back and to my left, studying the situation over here, I hear a bloodcurdling scream coming from my pregnant wife, who was in the car with me.

And hearing that noise, it grabbed my attention. I immediately was seized with fear, and I instantly turned my head and looked straight ahead to see what it was. I could see out of the corner of my eye, my wife with her body fully extended pressing this imaginary brake pedal on the passenger side of the car. And but looking straight ahead, I observed that the traffic in front of us had come to a complete stop.

The car that was in front of us a safe distance just a few seconds earlier now was rapidly approaching us as we were approaching it, and And my heart jumped into my throat. My thought is we're dead. We're going to slam into this car because of how close we were. But I instinctively slammed my foot on the brakes and the wheels locked up, and we squealed and screeched to a miserable halt.

About 1 ft shy of the rear end of that car. I could smell burning rubber when we stopped, and then at that point, my pride kicked in. I noticed people are looking around like, who, who slammed on their brakes? Who wasn't paying attention?

So I looked around too, just, But that's one of those incidences is that sometime when I'm sitting by myself and I'm reflecting on my life, reliving my past, that's one of those incidences that come up, and I ask myself, what if. What if we would have slammed into that car going at the speed that we were? If I had not turned around, what would have happened? We probably wouldn't have died but could have been injured.

Our car would no doubt have been totaled by that. And the thing that gives me a weird feeling more than anything else is I think about the way that Seatbelt. I still remember seeing the way that seatbelt and the shoulder harness was riding over my wife's belly, being 8 months pregnant, and my thought was, had we slammed into that car, just the force of her being thrown forward against that seatbelt could have killed or permanently injured the child in the womb. And how would my life be different even today had Islammed into that car at full speed.

I am grateful that my wife was looking. When I was not. I'm grateful that she was not reading a book in that moment or enjoying the scenery, but that she was looking ahead when I was not looking ahead. I am also grateful that my wife chose to bring what she saw to my attention.

I'm also grateful that she chose to alert me the way that she did. Normally, just to share something about myself, I don't normally like bloodcurdling screams. I just, from someone 2 ft away from me in a small enclosed area, I don't like that. I've never asked someone to do that for me.

But I normally don't prefer that. It was an unpleasant experience, but it saved us a far more unpleasant experience, and I'm glad she didn't just calmly bring that to my attention like, honey, I notice you're looking to the left. I just, I have a thought that I want to share with you something I See, when you've got a moment and you get around to it, I'd like to share that with you. It might be somewhat corrective in nature.

I'm glad she didn't just calmly bring that to my attention, but that with an exclamation, the exclamation got my attention and caused me to look at the danger ahead and hence to avoid it. So I'm grateful for that. I thought of that incident this week in connection with this passage because that's almost exactly what Paul does in verse 2 and following. The Galatians are driving a car right towards a cliff.

They're not looking ahead. They're staring at something else. They're oblivious. They are not aware of and looking at the danger that they are driving towards.

And the apostle Paul in the passenger seat, as it were. lets out an exclamation essentially, and commands them to look. In fact, you'll see this at the beginning of verse two, in the New American Standard, Paul says, behold, the English Standard Version has the translation look. The new international version says Mark my words, which in my opinion is an unfortunate translation because the Greek word that begins verse 2 is actually the command form of the verb that means to see.

He is commanding them to see, to look, to behold. The New King James translates it. Indeed again, they missed the idea of seeing the message says translates Paul as saying, I am emphatic. About this, my suggested translation for the beginning of verse two is look or behold with an exclamation point.

When you see this word at the beginning of a sentence, it is always an exclamation. It is designed to arrest the attention of the reader, and at its core, this word means to look, to behold something. And Paul, in speaking to the Galatians is wanting them to do some looking. He's trying to capture their attention, and Paul essentially in verses 2 through 6 communicates three things.

That he is wanting the Galatians to look at, that he's convinced if they look at these three things, if they behold these three things, they will be thereby motivated to stay inside the gospel and to not move outside of the true gospel for the false gospel that they were being seduced by. And these are 3 things that I think we do well in the church to keep looking at, to not lose sight of, to behold. And to help our brothers and sisters and even our children and those that we disciple to behold as well.

Now keep in mind, guys, just by way of real quick review, the Galatians had believed in Jesus.

They were walking with the Lord. They were running well. Things were going great, trusting in Christ alone for their salvation. However, some Judaizers came along and told them that Jesus is not the way of salvation, or at least he's not the complete way of salvation.

You must do something in order to be saved. And in this case, what they told the Galatians they needed to do was they needed to undergo a procedure called circumcision. and they were telling the Galatians that you are not yet saved. You are not yet a child of God.

You are not yet justified. You will never be righteous before God, righteous enough to get into heaven until and unless you undergo circumcision. And so the Galatians were like, really? We didn't know that.

Paul never told us that. And they're like, No, you need to. That's what the law requires. And And so they made their case and the Galatians were like, wow, maybe that's true, and they're moving away from the center of the true gospel and they're right now on the edge of the true gospel and they're contemplating stepping out and embracing.

This different gospel. And undergoing circumcision in order to be saved, Paul lets out an exclamation and gets their attention, commands them to look, and here's what he wants them to look at. The first thing he wants them to look at we find in verses 23, and 4, and that is the awful consequences of depending on anything other than Christ for salvation. Guys, if you don't think the gospel is a big deal, then you really need to listen to Paul.

It is a huge deal. If you don't think it's a big deal for someone to, to look to something other than Christ for salvation, then you're not reading your Bible. It is a huge deal. Even for someone to say, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but in addition to believing in Jesus, I believe I need to do this extra thing to contribute.

Even that is a huge deal. That's basically what the Galatians are contemplating doing. And Paul says, I want you guys to look, to behold the awful consequences of depending upon anything other than Christ for salvation. What are the consequences?

Well, look at verse 2. He says, Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Now again, Paul is not, this is not a diatribe against the procedure of circumcision. He's going to say later.

It doesn't mean anything. That's the point. And so he's not saying that you can't be saved if you're circumcised. What he's saying is if you guys get circumcised in order to be saved, here's what will happen.

Christ will be of no benefit to you. Underline that word no. Mark it somehow. Christ will be of no benefit.

To you. That is scary. Standing before God at the judgment, being judged for the life you live, there's going to be a point where a person is going to look over at Jesus and his perfect righteousness, and they're going to be thinking, I could use a little bit of that right now. I could use some help from him.

But on Judgment Day, those that embrace a different gospel, Jesus will be of no saving benefit to them. Not only that, look at verse 3, and I testify again, I told you guys this when I was with you a few years ago, because I warned you about this very false gospel. You didn't listen. And I testify again to every man who does undergo this procedure in order to contribute to their salvation that he is therefore under obligation to keep the entire law.

Now Paul is being very logical here and he's basically saying these Judaizers, they're not telling you everything. They're saying all you need to do is just do this one act, and that'll be sufficient. But once they get their foot in the door and get you to do that, there's no stopping them. And no stopping you.

And the logic is this you think you need to be circumcised to be saved. Why do you think that? Because, Paul, the law commands it. OK, so the law commands it.

Therefore, you think you need to be circumcised in order to be saved. Don't you realize there's hundreds of other things that the law requires? And if you're going to do this one act because the law requires that you are now under obligation to keep the entire law in order to be justified. And he's already made clear in the letter, you can't keep all of the law all of the time and therefore you cannot be justified by the works of the law.

But basically, if you get this procedure done in order to be saved, Christ therefore is of no saving benefit to you, and you are also now underneath the law, and you've got to keep the whole law. You are a slave to the law. And then look at verse 4, you have been severed from Christ. With the cutting that goes on in that procedure, there is another cutting that will occur, that is far more significant.

And getting this procedure done in order to make yourself righteous before God, you thereby cut yourself off from Christ. You sever yourself. from Christ. You who are seeking through this act to be made righteous, or to be justified by obeying a command that is in the law.

And then the last consequence is you have fallen from grace. You've fallen from grace if you do this. Now guys, let's not defang. And emasculate the intensity of this threat from Paul.

If someone were up here today and I introduced him to you and I said Christ is of no benefit to this person, This person is under obligation and enslaved to the law to keep the whole law. This person is trying to justify themselves through the law. This person has been severed from Christ and fallen from grace. Is that a saved person or not?

No, that is not a saved person. Paul says to these Galatians, you take this step and embrace this different gospel. You are not saved. You say, Whoa, what does that mean?

Does that mean that a Christian Who believes in Jesus can do something like this and lose their salvation? Well, that's a very good question. My plan is next week to, Lord willing, this may change, so don't hold me to this, but my plan right now is to devote the whole sermon to that question, can a believer lose his salvation? So come back next Sunday, and we might address this.

But if we don't, don't be mad at me. But that's my plan for right now. But I will say this. True believers who are contemplating something like this, the true believers in the Galatian church would listen to a threatening warning like this and say, OK, I won't do that then.

I'll come back to the true gospel. And those who say, Well, Paul, you're getting all worried about something that's no big deal. I'm going to go forward and embrace this other gospel and get this procedure done in order to be justified. Such a person is indicating by their choice that they were never saved in the first place.

All right, so I'll at least tell you guys that much. We'll hopefully talk more about that next week, but this This is very serious. Paul lets out an exclamation. Guys, look, behold, look at the danger that you are heading towards.

This is serious. It's not like we agree 99%, but on this one issue, we disagree. No, you take this step, and Christ is thereby of no benefit to you. You're under the law completely.

You're severed from Christ. You've fallen from grace. Be aware of this danger, and avoid it, slam on the brakes and stop moving in this direction. Now, having said this, guys, I know that this is a version of the gospel that the Galatians were being confronted with, right?

There's not a lot of people here. In the Cornerstone family that are right now really battling with this particular false gospel, like, man, I wonder if I should get circumcised in order to be justified. in my counseling and the counseling that the pastoral staff do and the elders do, we've not dealt with that situation here at all since I've been here. And, and likely never will.

So you may say, well, that's an interesting thing to know from a historical perspective, but we don't really have those dilemmas today. Well, we actually do. You guys know very well that there are many other gurus that are out there and gospels that are out there that are pointing people to sources of salvation outside of Jesus Christ. And they're saying look to this person and look to this person and you can be saved.

And a lot of times what these other gospels do is they point back at you and say, look at yourself, look to yourself, look within to the light within, and you can be saved. In fact, how many of you have heard of a course in miracles? Raise your hand. OK, a small handful of you have.

let me ask it this way. How many of you have heard of Oprah Winfrey? OK. everybody, The book, A Course in Miracles was written by, it was scribed by two people, one primary person who said that an inner voice began speaking to her and telling her to take notes on what it was saying.

And this woman believed that that inner voice was the voice of Jesus Christ himself speaking to her. And so back in the 70s, she just wrote down, she, I think, filled up 30 notebooks of notes that she took that were supposedly dictated to her by Jesus. And it's a step by step program to enlightenment and ultimately to salvation. This book is, there's over 1.5 million copies that have been sold, and it's been translated into 16 different languages.

The reason I mention Oprah is because this particular book has been popularized recently by Marianne Williamson, who is a frequent featured guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show. In fact, if you go to oprah.com, right now, Marianne Williamson is featured on our website, and the daily lessons from A Course in Miracles are on there. You can have an audio read to you or a written version of it. All this is online, but Oprah is a really big fan of this material and of Marianne Williamson, who has written books recently that really have popularized this approach to life and ultimately to salvation.

Let me just share one example with you. Lesson number 70 from a course in miracles. The title of it is Salvation Comes from Me. And it says begin these practice periods by repeating the idea for today, adding a statement signifying your recognition that salvation comes from nothing outside of you.

You might put it this way my salvation comes from me. It cannot come from anywhere else. Then devote a few minutes with your eyes closed to reviewing some of the external places where you have looked for salvation in the past, in other people, in possessions, in various situations and events, and in self-concepts that you sought to make real. Recognize that it, salvation is not there and tell yourself, my salvation cannot come from any of these things.

My salvation comes from me and only from me. How close is that to the true gospel? It's like opposite direction. In fact, guys, but Christians are being duped by this.

Professing Christians are being duped by this. There's a church in Texas that is going through this material and has advertised it to the community. Come and go through this course with us and please come with an open heart and an open mind. And there are people who claim to know the Lord, claim to believe in Jesus, that are buying into this.

And repeating these mantras to themselves in a course in miracles in another place, it says, and this is again Jesus dictating this to the author, the journey to the cross should be the last useless journey you take. Do not dwell upon it, but dismiss it. Do not make the pathetic error of clinging to the old rugged cross. See, this book is alleged by some to be the sacred scriptures of the New Age movement, but what's unique about it is that it uses a lot of Christian terminology.

And people that have written about this material, even from a non-Christian perspective, said that the people, the largest group of people that are really buying into this are disillusioned Christians. people who claim to be Christians, who are now embracing this other gospel that they find a salvation that comes from themselves, rather than Jesus. You don't think we have the same problem the Galatians dealt with? The Judaizers were basically saying, hey, if you really want to be saved, you have to do something.

Stop looking at Jesus and trusting in what he did. You must do something. And it's basically the same lie at the bottom of it all, this extremely popular lie. That is now out there today and being advocated by the likes of Oprah Winfrey.

But what, we don't get our gospel from Oprah, right? Amen. We get our gospel from the scripture and the Galatians were being duped by some false teachers and Paul, sitting in the passenger seat seat, let's An exclamation and says, Stop! Look, behold, look at the danger that you are heading towards.

It is a big deal that you would leave the true gospel of salvation by faith in Christ alone for another gospel in which you must look to yourself or you must do something. You must contribute something to your salvation. what guys, Christ will not share his glory with another person. He just won't, not even with you.

Jesus said, Listen, I am the one who donated my infinite self towards your salvation. And so that is an infinite donation, an infinite contribution. Don't you dare look at me and what I've contributed to your salvation and say, I think I need to add something to that. That is an insult to the glory of God.

And in doing that, you're not only insulting Christ's infinite contribution, but you also now give yourself something to boast about. And God will not share His glory with another. That's why it's a big deal. God is offended at any thought that you can contribute something or anyone else can contribute something to your justification when Christ has already done it all.

Look, At the danger you're heading towards. The second thing Paul wants them to look at is look at the manner in which true Christians expect to receive this salvation. Look at the manner in which true Christians expect to receive this salvation. what, guys, this might sound universalistic to you guys at first, but just track with me.

One of the things that I think most religions have in common, even Christianity, is that we are all after the same goal, and that is righteousness. Everyone wants to be righteous enough to get into heaven, right? So that's the goal. The, those in Judaism say, yeah, we want to be righteous enough to get into heaven, but here's our way of doing that, just obey the law, and by your performance, you can, you can be righteous enough to be allowed by God in heaven.

All right. the Christian way is you cannot ever perform well enough to be righteous enough before God to earn your way into heaven. But there's this one Jesus who was perfectly righteous. And if you look to Him and believe in Him, you will receive His righteousness.

And therefore You will be worthy of heaven because of him and his righteousness. The goal is the same. Everyone wants the righteousness. That gets them into heaven.

But some look to themselves for that righteousness, whereas the Christian way is look to Jesus. You get this righteousness by faith. Look what he says in verse 5, for we through the Spirit, by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness. Now, the expression that is translated waiting for.

I'm going to suggest a different translation for that word. The Greek word that is translated waiting for, the root word is actually, it means to receive. That's the root idea of this term. It means to receive with two prepositions attached to the front of it to intensify the meaning.

It means to fully receive, thoroughly receive, but there is a sense of anticipation that is embodied in that word. And so I'm going to suggest this translation. Paul says in verse 5, for it is through the Spirit, and by faith that we true Christians, that's who he's speaking of now, that we true Christians expect to receive this hope of righteousness, or in other words, this hope. for righteousness, this righteousness that everyone hopes for and wants to obtain, and some try to attain it by the works of the flesh.

We true Christians would say no, it is through the Spirit, through the work of God, through the Spirit of God, and it is by faith that we true Christians expect to receive for ourselves this hoped for righteousness. That's the difference. That's a huge difference. It is through the spirit This is an introduction to the fact that in Galatians 5 spirit is going to be all over the place.

He's going to explain how it is through the spirit in the verses and in the weeks to come, but he says it's by faith that we receive this hoped for righteousness. Guys, and, and who is this faith in? Who is this faith in? In Christ.

I asked that question in the first service and someone blurted out, in myself, there are new attenders here. but, But who is our faith in? Look at, look at chapter 2, verse 20. Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ.

See, see guys, people use the word faith, you got to have faith. But it means nothing to most people. and often they do mean faith in yourself. You just got to believe faith in whatever you want to be true.

but no, the faith is very definite. It's locked on to a person. Paul says in verse 20 of Galatians 2, I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in.

The Son of God. The Son of God. And so to have faith, saving faith means that you look at yourself and say, I don't want to have faith in me anymore, because I'm bankrupt. I cannot make myself righteous enough to be acceptable to God and to get into heaven.

But I see Jesus is perfectly righteous in every way. He died on the cross, took the curse of the condemnation I deserve for my sins, and so I will withdraw my faith from myself and from anything else, and I will deposit my faith in Him. To have faith in him is an extreme act of humility. It's an act which the bankrupt engage in.

I, I won't trust in me anymore. I will trust in Him. And Paul says, this is how true Christians get saved. For we true Christians through the Spirit and by faith, expect to receive this hoped for righteousness.

It is a gift. Now we all want to contribute something, don't we? it's just the reason gospels like this, and, and of course in miracles, the reason they resonate with people is because there's something inside of us, this arrogance that wants to contribute something to our salvation. We would love it if God said, Listen, I'll do half.

And you do half. And then we would be in heaven. God knew if he set it up that way, we would be intolerable bores in heaven boasting about ourselves for all of eternity. We'd spend more time talking about what we did, even if He let us do 1% and he did 99%.

Guess what we would spend eternity bragging about? Well, let me tell you what I did. We wouldn't be. That's where the focus would be because our core problem is arrogance and pride.

And so, It is by faith God has set it up that by grace you're saved through faith that's not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. It's not something you earn or deserve. It is a gift of God and it's not of works, lest any man should boast.

God knows us. And so he set it up this way to eliminate any grounds for boasting in ourselves, to our boast is only in Him. How do true Christians expect to be saved? Paul says to the Galatians, essentially, I want you to look at this, look at the danger ahead.

Look at the consequences of the direction you're going. But secondly, I want you to look at the way true Christians expect to receive this righteousness. And there's a third and final thing Paul wants the Galatians to look at, and that is the unique power of faith to bring about this salvation. He wants to linger on.

Faith for a moment and to hold it up in contrast to anything else, he says in verse 6, for in Christ Jesus, those that are truly in Christ, living and operating in the sphere of Christ, here's the way it works. In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. That expression that is translated means anything. In the Greek, literally, it's the word for power, circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither of those have power to accomplish or contribute anything towards your righteousness.

So that's a real bummer for those that have gone through the procedure to find out afterwards it accomplishes nothing towards your salvation other than separating you from Christ as long as you're depending on that. But he says circumcision accomplishes nothing. It has no power to save you or to contribute one iota to your salvation. And then Paul says, and by the way, even non-circumcision has no power.

Don't go, Well then, I'm not going to undergo that procedure, and that makes me a wise, righteous person that I would not go the way that others are going. And so I deserve some favor and some righteousness from God. No, he would say, listen, circumcision nor uncircumcision. Whichever way you go, none of that has any power to contribute anything towards your salvation.

And what, you can add anything. Just fill in the blank, remove the word circumcision, uncircumcision. And put a blank there and put anything you would ever want to do, any process, any procedure, any steps, any act of obedience, any works you do, you can put those in the blank. There is nothing that we can contribute to our salvation in the way of any works in any way, shape or form that will have the least tad bit of power to contribute to our justification.

Look what he says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has power, but But Here's what does. Faith Faith has power. That's the amazing thing, guys. All these people are working so hard all their life and going through all these rituals to try to be righteous enough for salvation, and God looks at all of that combined and says that means nothing.

That contributes nothing to their salvation. But we, on the other hand, can just stand Or sit Hear the gospel. And say To ourselves, even in our minds, I believe. I believe And God in heaven says, whoa.

That's powerful. That's powerful. That accomplishes much. Abraham, God makes a promise to Abraham in Genesis 15.

And the text says basically Abraham stood there. And believed. And it was credited to him as righteousness. God saw Abraham's faith and said, that is powerful.

Wow, I will credit that to you as righteousness. Has power to save. Now again. Faith in whom?

Faith in the Son of God, faith in Christ. The Philippian jailer says, what must I do to be saved? In Acts 16, and Paul says in Acts 16:31, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Faith has power.

But Paul doesn't stop there. And we're running real short on time. Let's try to at least just look at this real quick. What faith in Christ saves, he says, faith working through love.

Now the verb or the participle working, there's two different ways we can understand this. We can understand it as a passive voice verb or a middle voice verb. It can go either way in the Greek text. And so there's two possible translations of this.

If it's passive, Paul is saying. Thing, but faith, which is wrought or which is produced and energized by love, speaking of God's love. So Paul would say, here's the faith that is powerful enough to save, and that is a faith which is produced and energized. By God's love.

It is, it is the response of a person to the love of God in the person of Christ. In fact, go back to Galatians 2:20 and you see this connection, and this would be an argument for why we, maybe we should take it this way. Paul says in Galatians 2:20, I've been crucified with Christ, it's no I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Paul, and looking at Christ and what Christ has done, Paul said, that is love.

That is a love like I've never seen before. And that love generated in Paul, a faith in that one, the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So Paul could be speaking of faith which is wrought and energized by God's love. Another option, if we take the participle works as a middle voice, then Paul is speaking of faith which works.

Through love, or in other words, faith, which works being directed by love, God's love for us or our love for God and for other people that is produced in us, in response to the love of God for us in Christ. And you say, Mel, well, which way should we go on this? I don't have a clue, to be honest with you. And I got a feeling that if we approach Paul and said, Paul, is it passive?

Is it middle? how, which, which of these two ways, Paul would, I think he might encourage us to not obsess on making distinctions between these two. Paul would say all of it is true. All of it's true, and it's all interconnected as one entity.

What we in our mindset might tend to separate, and it's either this or that. It's it's all really true. Paul would say the only faith that has power to save is a faith that is wrought in the heart of a person by God and by the love of God. It is a faith that is, preserved and cultivated and energized by an ongoing awareness of the love of God.

And any true faith that God puts in the heart of a person is a faith that will manifest itself in works. If you imagine faith as an egg, you crack that egg, what comes spilling out of true saving faith are works that demonstrate the reality that one has put their faith in Christ. That's why James says faith that doesn't work is dead. It doesn't save.

If you think it's just faith by itself that saves, well, then the demons are saved because even the demons believe, he says, and they shudder, but they're not saved. The faith that saves is the faith that is wrought in the heart by God. It's energized by God. It's cultivated, preserved by God.

It is also a faith which will manifest itself in works through love which are directed by love, by the love of God for us. What does His love dictate that I do today? and manifesting and expressing my faith, what does my love for God in response to his love for me and my love for other people that I have now, because of his love for me, an undeserving sinner, what does that love dictate that I do by way of expressing my faith today? And I think Paul puts this at the very end to counter the charge of the Judaizers who would say, well, Paul's just preaching, all you got to do is believe and you believe and you're saved, you're justified, and you can just go live however you want.

Paul's like, no, not so fast. We're not saved by works, but we are saved by faith. That works. But we don't do those works in order to be saved, and to earn our salvation, and to earn our righteousness.

Those works come out of our faith, which believes that we already are saved. And we're so blown away and amazed and gripped by this love that would save us. That, that faith ultimately expresses itself in works that are motivated by love, not works that are motivated by fear, like I got to do this, or I might not be saved. No, it's, it's directed and motivated and energized by the love of God for us.

One writer says, if there is genuine faith, there will be love. Saving faith inevitably issues in love and in works that are done being directed by and motivated by this love. Guys, what do we need to do to be saved? Let me just wrap it up with this.

We need to look to Jesus. That's, that's, that's all. Just, just look, look. But what sometimes people do is they look to Jesus, they're saved, and then they start looking at other stuff.

I think the message of this passage is That look that converted you on day one. is the look that preserves you every day. Never turn away from Jesus. Keep looking at him.

We need to be lookers that are always gazing at Jesus, beholding him. If you want to experience God's power in your life, God's grace in your life, if you want to experience His transforming work in your life, Behold Look, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, as we are beholding, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. We're being transformed. Into the same image Paul would say, listen, I'm not trying to transform myself.

I'm just staring. And I'm transformed by what I see. I catch myself changing. And experiencing God's glory and power.

As I gaze upon the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, actual deposits of God's very glory attach themselves to my person and transform me from one level of glory to another. So let us behold, let us behold. Let us behold ultimately Jesus. Let me ask you to bow your heads.

Guys, the gospel is serious. Paul says in chapter one, Anyone preaching any other gospel other than the one I preach, let him be damned. All other gospels are gospels that damn. That's just the teaching of the Bible.

And here he's telling the Galatians, you, you. Take this step outside of Christ to add this, to contribute to your salvation. And adding this other thing, you subtract Jesus totally from the equation. But look, he says that the way true Christians receive this righteousness.

And look at the power of just faith in God's economy. To save If you're here today, and you've never believed in Jesus, you've never understood these things, man, this is, this is God's destiny that you're here today. Even right where you're seated. You can just turn your trust from yourself and anything else you've been banking on and just put your trust in Jesus.

Just say, God, I I'm going to look to you, Jesus. To be my Lord and my Savior. Let's do that. For those of us that are Christians, let us keep that gaze.

And to look ever and always. That Christ Lord, we Just come to you right now and we're just in awe. Over the way you've structured this thing called the gospel, this, this salvation. That you've made available to us, our number one problem is pride and arrogance, and you have so structured the gospel in such a way as to strip us of pride.

Because pride is at the root of all of our sin. And so the gospel is engineered to further this deliverance, Lord, and Keep us in the truth of the gospel, looking to Jesus and in Him alone. If there's any in our midst that are looking elsewhere that they would see the danger ahead, that they would see. The way true Christians expect to receive this righteousness, that they would see the power of just faith.

Trusting in you, and you alone. And that they would remain content and to thrive in the gospel. Bless us, Lord, as we process these things in our care groups tonight. And continue to meditate on these things as we continue in our series through Galatians.

In Christ's name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen.