Our Identity in Christ

We are very happy to have with us in our service this morning Troy Lambert. and I can very enthusiastically commend him to you as a congregation. He's a, a faithful member at the Reformed Baptist Church right across the street, from us, a wonderful sister church that is, doing great work, for the Lord. Troy is married.

He's been married for 7 years and has 3 children, ages 5 down to 1. And Troy teaches and does preaching at the Reformed Baptist Church and he's also an adjunct professor at Cal Baptist and Providence College, and he is also the executive producer for Haven today working alongside of Charles Morris in the ministry there. We had Troy here at Cornerstone. A few years ago for one of our December seminars and I don't know how many of you were here for that, but What I remember is he took what, would have looked like on paper might have been a dry topic, and he made it come alive and it was compelling and, and extremely helpful to me and to us as a body.

So I remember his ministry to us then. I do want you to know before he comes that he is on vacation, so I'm all the more blessed to have him with us. He leaves today to go up to Salt Lake City with his family and by tonight he'll be at a hotel with his family in St. George.

And yet he's agreed to be here with us. And to share God's word with us this morning. So, Troy, thank you for being with us, this morning, and we look forward to hearing what God has laid on your heart. Why don't you come and let's give our brother a warm cornerstone welcome.

Thanks, brother. Well, good morning. It's wonderful to, to be here. Thanks for having us out.

I was telling Pastor Milton, I think this is my first time preaching two messages in a row. I've taught two classes in a row, but they were speech and English, but, so, I would appreciate your prayers as I attempt to go through this twice now. You feel, especially your worship, worship is so vibrant and lively. I wanted to sing full, full voice there, amazing love for the second time.

But I held back, I, I mouthed it, I'll be honest, but my heart was singing cause I was like, I gotta save my voice. yeah, as Pastor Milton said, I am a member of the Reformed Baptist Church, of Riverside, right across the street. Some of you might not know it's there. That's what we've found many times.

When we have been ministering in the neighborhood, they're like, where is it at? Well, we always go, we're right next to Starbucks. Oh yeah, you guys still meet there? Thankfully, when I first started there 11 years ago, the, the grounds were almost dilapidated, but the elders and deacons have done a great job making it look like somebody's there.

but as, as I said, the first service, it's wonderful to be in the same neighborhood that you guys are, knowing that there are two lights here on the east side of Riverside sharing the gospel to not only some of the poorest in the Inland Empire, but also to some of the poorest in Seoul, the, the atheistic secular charged UCR students could come in and have the gospel wash over them. It's A great, I know the Lord has both of us here for a reason. And so it's a a privilege to be here this morning.

You can turn your Bibles to Galatians chapter 2.

That's where we'll spend a good chunk of our time this morning. Galatians 2:20. If we had time, I would read through the entire epistle. it is a rich epistle rooted in grace.

It's just dripping of grace. In fact, Martin Luther said this was his favorite epistle of all, because it was so focused on grace and a little later on, I'll talk about Martin Lutheran, and how this epistle and how grace changed his life. But we're gonna be looking at Galatians chapter 2, verse 20. And there Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ.

It's 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. That's the word of the Lord. Let's pray.

Father God, we come to you this morning, grateful to be amongst your house, amongst your people. Lord, we're grateful that we have the freedom in this country, to not only proclaim your name boldly, but Lord, to even have Sunday off. What a blessing. We know that.

There have been decades and centuries of old where your people had to meet in the evening on a Sunday because they had to work. But Lord, many of us are blessed with the privilege of having this day off. Lord, may we not neglect it, may we not forsake it, may we treasure the opportunity to worship you, Lord, and to hear from your word. We ask you, Holy Spirit to come and to speak through your word, for we know in and of ourselves in and of my flesh, Lord, There's nothing, but by your Spirit, there is power.

And so we pray that you would breathe life into these words, Lord, that you would be glorified, that Jesus would be preeminent in all things this morning. And it's in Christ name we pray. Amen. A few months ago, I was listening to NPR in my car.

Some of you might not like it. That's understandable. Sometimes they have some fairly liberal stories on there, but I enjoy hearing stories from around the world. They usually do them in a fairly interesting manner.

And this story struck me. It was an artist, a musician. Her name is Lonnie Sue Johnson, 62 years old. and was very, a very accomplished artist.

In fact, her artwork often was on the cover of The New Yorker magazine, if you're familiar with that, it's a very prominent magazine, comes out of New York. sometimes you can understand the cartoons, sometimes you can't. but nonetheless, she was accomplished. She lived in the Princeton area with her husband on a farm.

she had a good life, you could say. Well, she got sick, a virus. And unlike her body normally fighting off the virus, a few days later, feeling better, this virus decided to travel up her nasal cavity and attacked her brain. I didn't know that could happen.

And her family rushed her to the hospital because she went comatose. And the doctors were struggling to keep her alive. Thankfully, they were able to keep her alive. And when she came to, she was no longer Lonnie Sue Johnson.

She was nobody. She had no idea who she was. She had complete amnesia. In fact, her amnesia was so severe, they call it global amnesia.

And the reality is not only does she not remember who she was, not only does she not remember her husband, how sad. She cannot remember but a few moments ago. So if you're in a room with her, chatting with her, you introduced yourself, you walked out to go get a glass of water, you came back in the room, she'd be like, Hi, I'm Lonnie, what's your name? And it's that severe.

That is the worst case of amnesia I could think of. Well, unfortunately, we as Christians sometimes suffer from amnesia. We get the spiritual virus sin. And it begins to attack our memory.

And we forget who we are in Christ. No matter how much the gospel has changed our lives. We get caught up in our day to day lives, get caught up with life. We take our eyes off Christ and sin begins to distract us.

Why is this? Why does this happen? Why is it that we forget who we are? we start to then not only forget who we are, then we start to act like we used to be, whether it was certain sins that we enjoyed or the worst, we start to think we can actually save ourselves.

We start to live self righteously. Well, OK, I've messed up here, but I, I forgot Christ. Well, I'm gonna do better. I'm going to be a good person.

Elise Fitzpatrick in her book, Because He Loves Me. She calls it identity amnesia. She wrote, the epidemic is seen in serious Christian books that focus on improving outer behavior such as communication skills or self-discipline, or even overcoming sin without much reference to God's love for us, or his ongoing work in us. It, it's seen in the hymns and choruses we sing, in which we declare our determination to follow Christ, without a mention of his determination to cause us to do so.

We have forgotten who we are. And this affects our daily lives. This is the same problem that Paul is addressing to the church in Galatia. It is a, a very real church.

This is a very real letter written to this church. A church that was composed of both Jews and Gentiles who were saved by Christ. Men had come in amongst them. Not only were they probably amongst them, but they, Paul says they were teaching.

A gospel that was not his. In fact, Paul says it was a false gospel. It was a gospel with a little different flavor. These Judaizers, as Paul calls them, they were saying, It's not just Christ, it's Christ plus something.

Sure, Jesus is good. Jesus did a good work. But don't forget to follow the rules. Don't forget to do the ritual.

Don't forget to obey the holy days. Oh, you Gentiles, don't forget to get circumcised. In fact, Paul was just so distraught with this. He tells them in Galatians chapter 3, verses 2 and 3, let me ask you this, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? It was the beginning, if you will, of legalism. Even moralism.

Yes, ultimately, it was self-righteousness. It was thinking, hey, Christ's righteousness is not enough. I need to also be good enough. Now for the Jews and Gentiles in this church, this was a burden.

think about it. You've been raised in a Jewish family, the holidays, the holy days, the rituals, all of this, Christ comes, he's fulfilled it, you see, oh, I see that that was the shadow. And here's Christ and how, how he fulfills these things. Oh my goodness, it's beautiful.

And then all of a sudden you're being told, You've got to do this in order to earn God's favor. Oh, the burden. That's not what Jesus said. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

No, this was a heavy burden. You've got to start working, buddy. Imagine that the poor Gentiles, they had either been in some form of pure idolatry, worshiping, an idol in really horrific ways. Go and look at the history.

we're not just talking about blood sacrifices. We're talking about bizarre sexual sacrifices, just weird sorcery and drug use. They're freed from this. This this dead idol that you once worshiped, Christ is here and he's alive and you can trust in him for your salvation.

You're free from the duty of this fake God. Oh, but yeah, you need to be circumcised. Oh, but yeah, you need to do this and do that and do this, and then maybe God might think you're good enough. The burden It probably led some Gentiles to even just think.

I'm just gonna flaunt my liberty, go back to my hedonism. At least I could have a moment of pleasure as opposed to this burden. It was a mess. In fact, I believe that it divided the church.

You had probably Jews on one side and Gentiles on the other, Jews in the front and Gentiles in the back because the Jews can't mix with the Gentiles because they're unclean. It just started to destroy the unity that they once had in Christ. And so Paul is so concerned. He's writing to the Galatians as he says even in chapter 1 verse 6, I am astonished.

That you are so quickly deserting Him, Jesus, who called you in the grace of Christ. and are turning to a different gospel. In other words, you have forgotten the gospel, you've forgotten grace, you have spiritual amnesia, wake up. Paul was writing to correct these Galatians in his day.

And by the power of the Holy Spirit, he's, he's writing to correct us, lest we forget. We are so quick to walk away from resting in Christ and picking up our burden, like good old Christian on Pilgrim's Progress. When he tried to put that burden back on. Oh, it's heavy.

It was horrible. So Galatians 2:20, it is a call to remember our identity in Christ, to remember the gospel, to proclaim grace in our hearts. Now, I'm not one to believe that a sermon has to be broken down into 33 points. but unfortunately, I think this does break down into 3 points.

Not perfectly, but let's look at this. Paul talks about first his old identity. Then he talks about his new identity in Christ. And then he looks at how do we live in this new identity day to day.

You could say Paul looks at what he was saved from. What he was justified into. And then finally, how we are sanctified, how we are progressively being sanctified through faith. So that's a little roadmap for you to, to, to see as we follow along here.

Now, first and foremost here in Galatians 2:20, Paul reminds us about what the gospel has done for him and for us, the followers of Christ. I have been crucified with Christ. Now, Is this literal? I, I don't think so.

Obviously, Paul's writing this epistle, so he's not dead. I have been crucified in Christ. Now, a lot of us have heard this verse before. In fact, we just glance over it, which I've been crucified in Christ and I live with Christ lives with me, and we mumble like some a ritual.

I've been crucified in Christ. Let's put it in modern terms. I have been gas chambered with Christ. I have been hung by the neck with Christ.

I've been put before the firing squad of Christ. I have given my old life. The penalty of death, of execution. I've been crucified.

I've been executed with Christ. My old life is dead. It's a pretty harsh statement, huh, now that you think about it, firing squad. What are you talking about?

Well, back in the day they used to do, I think some countries unfortunately still probably do execute people in the firing squad. The cross was not this beautiful ornate thing hanging above us that most Christian churches have. And we all go, the cross. The cross was a horrible symbol of death.

It showed the death penalty, the worst penalty you could face in the Roman Empire. It also showed the tyranny of Rome. Do not violate the laws of Rome, or you will be executed. And this might sound weird, but it's not as gracious as a firing squad.

The firing squad, you might not even hear the bullet, the trigger flash, the bullet, and that's it. No memory gone. This Maybe hours, maybe days, some scholars write, hanging there, suffering, suffocating. Violent, horrible, not something you want to hang around your neck on a daily basis.

The harsh, violent statement that Paul is saying here, I have died to my old self. I have been crucified with Christ in my old self. This is a big statement for Paul to say, because do you realize who he was? His old self, he thought was pretty good.

In fact, Paul tells the Galatians back in chapter one here, that he was advancing in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries. He was on the fast track. Maybe one day, I'll be the youngest high priest in all of Israel. he was zealous to do good things.

He was pious before people. Oh, God. Oh, you are so good, God. He, he, he manifested on an outward way.

He did everything he could to look holy. He was advancing beyond his contemporaries. He knew the law in and out. He probably had scrolls of scripture memorized.

He was, if you will, the Jew among Jews. And he says, however, in fact, if you want to keep your finger here in Galatians and flip over to Philippians chapter 3, to see what he told the church in Philippi. Philippians chapter 3, verse 8. After explaining how confident he was in his old flesh by keeping the law, he writes in verse 8 there, Philippians chapter 3, indeed, I count everything as loss, because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord.

For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, we'll end it right there. I count my old life what to many of you on the outside looks like a holy man. An accomplished man.

I count it not just loss but rubbish. I count it trash. I count it in the dumpster, to put it in modern terms. It's junk.

It did nothing for me. It was self righteousness. Because what I have in Christ is so much more. That Paul told the Romans in Romans 6:6, we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Dear Galatians, who are trying to earn your salvation again. Dear Galatians who are trying to add to the work of Christ, let me tell you something. I've been there. I've done that.

And I have died to that way. I have been crucified. I've been executed with Christ. My old life is dead in Christ.

I like how John Piper puts it, the crucifixion of Jesus is the open display of my hellish nature. When I see this and believe that he really died for me, then my old proud self, which loves to display its power by climbing ladders of morality, and intellect and beauty and daring, dies. Self-reliance, and self-confidence cannot live at the foot of the cross. Therefore, when Christ died, I died, my old identity is dead.

I'm not trying to be a moral man. I'm not trying to climb the ladder to God. I, I talked to Somebody in the Orthodox Church many years ago and street witnessing, and he was explaining his view of heaven, of how, how to reach heaven. And he said, it's it's as if we're all on this ladder, and we're climbing and the devil's they're trying to just flick us off and we just got to cling to that ladder and keep climbing.

It's like, brother, I don't know if I can call him my brother. It's like dear man, that is not Christianity. Paul died to that way of living. We can't earn it.

We cannot earn it, as Piper said on the cross, our hellish nature is on display. My old life is dead. The life where I tried to manufacture my own righteousness by keeping the law, by keeping up appearances, by promoting myself. I crucified that legalism.

I crucified that self-righteousness. I died to it in Christ. So Paul looks at his old identity. And he tells us it's dead to him.

Christ saved me from myself. And secondly, he says, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Wow.

Christ lives in his people. Now, if we're not careful, this can sound almost mystical, right? What does that mean? Christ lives in me.

Is that, am I possessed by the spirit of Christ and all of a sudden I wake up two hours later, I don't know what just happened. Well, 10 people are saved, which, oh my goodness. Is it, I'm a marionette and I can't control myself, like Steve Martin in some old eighties movie. I can't remember the name of it.

Lily Tyler was in it. Anyways, he was possessed by her spirit and it controlled him. Anyways, no, it's not as if we have this out of control spirit, we have no control over it. If I died to myself in Christ's crucifixion, Then how is it that we're alive?

How is it that we're alive in Christ? It is the very power of the resurrection. that we are alive. You see, Paul, make no mistake, Paul is comparing his life in Christ now to Christ's life.

Christ came and lived a perfect life. He fulfilled the law. He did everything right. He died And he rose again.

The power of the resurrection, the power of God rose Christ out of that tomb, out of Hades, that very power that rolled the tomb, the, the, the stone in front of the tomb where the Roman soldiers fell over. The power that raised Christ from the dead is the very power that raises your soul from the dead. Isn't that wonderful? That's amazing.

Do you realize that that power, if you were a follower of Christ today, resides in you right now? So we can see where Paul's getting excited here going, Oh ho ho, you think you're going to add something to this? That Paul explains a little bit further to the Philippians back in chapter 3 there, Philippians. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him, and the power of His resurrection.

You see, the power of Christ's resurrection was not just to raise Christ from the dead. It was to raise his people from the the dead sins. Isn't that amazing? We were dead.

We didn't care. If there was an inkling of caring, it was just our own self righteousness, trying to earn favor and merit with God. We couldn't do it. Isaiah says it was filthy rags before God.

The power of the resurrection is residing in his followers, all believers in Christ are living with this power. We did not have the ability to do it on our own. And Paul is reminding the Galatians of this fact. How is it that you are so quickly deserting?

The gospel, the grace. In fact, back in Galatians chapter 2, verses 18 and 19, Paul says, for if I rebuild what I tore down, I proved myself to be a transgressor, to be a sinner. For through the law, I died to the law, so that I might live to God. It is the power and righteousness of Christ that lives in the Christian life.

It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. This is our new identity in Christ. John Piper writes, brothers and sisters, this is conversion. A Christian is not a person who believes in his head the teachings of the Bible.

Satan believes in his head, the teachings of the Bible. A Christian is a person who has died with Christ, whose stiff neck has been broken, whose brazen forehead has been shattered, whose stony heart has been crushed, whose pride has been slain. Whose life is now mastered by Jesus Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, Piper.

The way only he can put it. Paul tells the Galatians in chapter 4. He explains this new identity. A little further, we're not slaves to sin anymore.

You see Galatians, when you go back to trying to earn favor with God, you are enslaving yourself to sin. Thinking you're being extra holy, extra pious, you are enslaving yourself to sin, because it is a sin to think that you can do something when only God can. He also tells the Galatians there in, in, in chapter 4. That no, we're no longer slaves of sin, but sons and heirs.

Paul develops this idea. Really richly in Romans chapter 8. If you ever read through Romans 8 recently, I encourage you to do so. It is such a blessing.

It is such great teaching to remind us of our standing in Christ. It begins with, therefore, we are under no condemnation for those who are in Christ, no more condemnation. You see, when we go and enslave ourselves to legalism, to following the law by following a list of rules and regulations, We enslave ourselves. Because we can't do it right.

Anybody here? I know I have actually said, I'm gonna be better. Lord, help me be better. Help me be good.

And you start, OK, I'm reading my Bible every day and do my Bible study, and it's all just so filtered through me being better, not through me relying on Christ. And very quickly, I start to condemn myself, because in a week or two, I don't read my Bible, and then I don't read it for 2 days in a row, and then 3 days in a row, and then I go, oh. I condemn you, Troy. You horrible person.

You say you love God, but there you are, you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. Condemnation, condemnation, condemnation. Now I know where that lie is coming from. We are under no condemnation, those who are in Christ Jesus.

In fact, Paul goes on in Romans 8 and says in verse 14, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, for you did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, the sons and daughters. By whom we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and his children and heirs, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, is that not beautiful? Is that not amazing?

We just sang a moment ago. How can it be that my God would die for me, a sinner? A horrible sinner. if grace was only this.

OK, Troy, I no longer hold you accountable for your sins. And you can be my stable boy for eternity. You can clean up after the horses. Oh, that would, that would be amazing.

I wouldn't have to go through and suffer his wrath. It's so much more than that, so much richer than that. He's like, I'm not only going to not condemn you, I am adopting you. What?

I am calling you my son. In fact, it's not just just follow. OK, what do you want me to do today? It's call me daddy.

That is the term of endearment there. Abba, come close to me, boldly come to me. And if that's not enough, You're gonna be one of My kingdom's heirs. You will inherit my kingdom.

It's beyond anything I can imagine. I'd be happy just eating the crumbs off his table. Jesus shares the same story in the tale of the prodigal son, doesn't he? That prodigal is like, what, it'd be just good enough to eat the scraps off my dad's table and work in his fields.

Oh, but the father is so gracious. He runs to him, he embraces him. My son's come home. He was once dead and now he's alive.

That's the power of grace. He doesn't say, go out and work in the field for 7 years, and then I'll consider allowing you in. No, I've forgiven you. I let it all go.

There is no more condemnation. Come to me. And this, if we can identify with what Paul's struggling with here, he's saying, don't go back to your old ways. Don't enslave yourself, guys, don't forget your heirs.

You were sons and daughters of God, and you are enslaving yourself to sin and self righteousness. This is not the gospel. So we died with Christ. And now we're resurrected in Christ.

Our souls are alive because of Jesus's continual working in our lives. It's no longer I who live, but it's Christ who lives in me. These indicatives They indicate who we are. They show us who we are.

They remind us who we are in Christ. We live in this. We are heirs to the kingdom. We stand before our Father in Christ's righteousness, not in our own.

This is who we are in Christ. And we can't go any further in our Christian life, until we're rooted in this. And this is why Paul is saying, So how How is it that you're going back to your old life? Well, if we left it there.

Yeah, OK, but We're just such a people of what do I do, especially as Westerners, right? OK, well, give me a plan of action, Paul. How do I execute this now? How do I make this happen?

The day to day when the rubber hits the road. So how do I, how do I live this then? Paul says there in Galatians 2:20, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but it's Christ who's living in me.

And the life that I'm now living this day to day, moment to moment life. How do I do it? Well, I try really, really hard. I have this checklist.

And I check it off daily. No, thank the Lord, thank the Lord. I live my daily life by faith. By faith in Jesus Christ.

it's, it is one thing to say it, right? I even heard a, a little slight amen there in the back there, amen, faith, yes. And thank you. I like to say amen when I'm in the service too.

But, the reality is we live in a real world, right? a really fallen world. Even as Christians, we are faced with the reality we're still not perfected. We still have this flesh.

And the flesh at times lies to us, the devil lies to us, and we just get entangled and we think that Jesus, yeah, good, that's great. But oh, this is so much better. We're like the bug on a patio. Oh, look at this light.

Not even realizing that's not real light, you're going to die. Don't get attracted to it. Mm. How do we live in the face of reality, day to day, where we make mistakes, where we're prone to accidents, where we have relationships that all of a sudden like, did I just say that to her?

Oh man, I gotta tell her I'm sorry. No, I'm not gonna tell her I'm sorry, you said that first, the, the, the relationships at work and our marriages and our families. Car accidents? come on.

How do we execute living by faith? Really? Is that it? The life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God.

Paul flushes this out a little bit for us if we back up to verse 16 here in chapter 2. He says, 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 Jesus Christ, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, not by works of the law, because the works of the law, no one will be justified. Paul actually mentions the word faith, the Greek word which is pistis, 19 times in this epistle.

This epistle is only 6 chapters long, and he talks about faith 19 times. The word is to have a firm persuasion. It is to to have a conviction of truth. In fact, the root of this word even talks about to be persuaded to believe and to trust.

So how is it that faith in Jesus is so important? Let me just highlight a few other verses here in Galatians that Paul talks about, and 3 of these are from Galatians chapter 3. In fact, in Galatians chapter 3, verses 7 through 9, it says, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. It's not those of, it's not those who work really hard and trust in Jesus, it's those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham.

In Galatians chapter 3, verses 11 and 12. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. Verse 26 there, chapter 3, for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith, not through some of your effort. And in Galatians 5:6, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither those who are following the law or those who don't follow the law, neither those who are really good in the flesh or really bad in the flesh, it doesn't count for anything.

But only faith working through love. You see, We are justified by faith in Christ, we are made right before our Holy God. By the righteousness of Christ. The righteous shall live by faith alone.

This is the cry of Paul. The early church just resonated with this. And then unfortunately Many didn't heed the warning of Galatians and the warning of Ephesians and the warning of Hebrews. And we start to start to see this more synergistic faith start to grow, and then all of a sudden that dominant wing of the church in Rome starts to add and add and add all the way to the point that you could actually pull out your wallet and take out some money and say, that should do me for a few scents.

What? Have you read Galatians? Really? You could, you could get a sense for Martin Luther's excitement here, right?

Here's a man who was bound by duty. he wanted to please God like nobody. He had a good career ahead of him to be a lawyer. And but no, he sensed his unrighteousness so much.

he shunned that he, he went to the monastery. this guy did everything he could to try to earn God's favor. And he says in his testimony, That didn't drive him towards loving God. It made him hate him all the more.

I really, you're trying to earn favor from the one that now you're starting to hate more? Because then I started to realize it was unaccomplishable. Did I just make up a word? I, I can't do it.

I can't achieve it. No matter how hard I try, I keep finding more sin. Oh. And then one day, in God's providence, he's reading through the Bible in Romans, And these few simple words, you could almost just picture, just rise from the scriptures, the just shall live by faith.

A small rumble probably began in the soul there. This heart of stone starts to crack. This light starts to shining out of it just as Charles Wesley wrote in the hymn we sang there a moment ago. He, he was in the dungeon, the dark dungeon, a ray of light that just shut it might be.

What? No, no, I, I need to work. I need to try. I need to do that just shall live by faith.

And then the light shone and he saw. Jesus! You did it. You did it all.

I don't have anything. In fact, Luther writes at night and day, he pondered these things until he read the just shall live by faith. And then I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.

The whole Scripture took on a new meaning. And whereas before the righteousness of God had filled me with hate, harsh, harsh, harsh. Now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. Hm.

Many of us have experienced those moments, right? Oh, duty, duty, duty, and then grace. I can rest. I can see.

Is that what you meant, Jesus, your burden is easy and your yoke is light, take it upon me. Oh, my burden is lifted. This Christian and Pilgrim's Progress there. Oh, that burden he carried so hard, so heavy, it's lifted from him.

Oh, Jesus, thank you. You did it. Our faith, our trust, our hope is in Christ alone. By faith alone.

Ha. Every single one of Paul's epistles resonates with this truth. Because he was just like Martin Luther. He was trying to earn God's favor, and no matter how hard he tried.

He had to keep trying harder because it wasn't good enough. So dear brothers and sisters, this morning, we rest our lives on this good news, on this gospel. Christ has done it all, and Christ is doing it now. Christ has saved you, and he is changing you.

We don't have to change ourselves. I know, the religious section down at Barnes and Noble says, yes, there are many ways you can change yourself. And there's a lot of good checklists at the back of those books. But we can't do it.

All the gospel says is look upon Jesus. One of the Early pictures of Christ in the Old Testament, the children of Israel in the wilderness, snakes. Oh, why they have to be snakes. That's an Indiana Jones reference for you.

Snakes everywhere, biting, terrorizing, killing. What was the remedy? Kill them all? Drive them out?

Run away. Just look upon the staff. And you'll be saved. They won't hurt you.

Just look upon Christ. That's it. Faith in Christ. The reality is that when we get consumed with the daily life, and we forget Christ, When we find ourselves in the grossest of sins, or perhaps the smallest of white lies, but yet we don't, we're not bothered by it.

When we find ourselves caught up in self-righteousness, The reality is that we're not looking upon Christ. We have forgotten who we are in Christ. We are not living by faith in Christ. We are not resting in this grace.

I know that sounds oversimplified. But I encourage you, read through Galatians and see that this is what Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is teaching. Paul is saying that the life he now lives is a life that is secure in the understanding that Jesus loved him, and died for him, and that Jesus is now living in him. He no longer trusts his flesh, or the works that he can manufacture.

He trusts completely in the work of Jesus. He trusts completely in the complete work of Jesus. In fact, Paul wraps up Galatians, Galatians there in chapter 6, and he says, he will not boast in the flesh, but will boast in the cross by which the world has been crucified to him, and I to the world. So, this is the indicative.

This is the reality of where you are. And when Paul goes on in Galatians and gives us some imperatives, some big seminary words for you, when he goes on and gives us some commands, some, some helpful suggestions, he's not saying write those down and create that checklist and bam, bam, bam, you're doing good. No. It has to be rooted upon the reality of who we are in Christ.

As I said a moment ago in Galatians 5:6, it is faith working through love. that's what he tells the Philippians too, right? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. A lot just stop there.

But the reality is it goes on, for it is Christ who is at work in you. It's always rooted in Christ. And when we see ourselves getting distracted and falling away or or just caught up in self righteousness, I'm doing so good, Lord, thank you. Oh.

that's, that's the Christian life. That is the tension of the Christian life. We will always struggle with that. The Lord does at times give us great liberty where we don't get caught up in sinful thinking, sinful consideration that I'm doing well.

But we always turn to Christ, faith, working through love. And when the Holy Spirit reminds us that you're caught up in the sin, you're caught up in this. It's not, thanks for tipping me off to that, God, and I'll start working on it. It's, we fall down in repentance before Him.

Father, Oh, forgive me. How foolish. I'm being like those Galatians again, so quickly leaving the gospel. Thank you for being faithful.

Thank you for giving us your Holy Spirit to, to show us and to point us in the way we should go. And the way we should go is back to Jesus, faith in Jesus. I'll wrap it up with this. I quoted at the beginning, Elise Fitzpatrick from her book, because He loves me.

A book I read a few years ago in a very helpful time in my life. I couldn't quite understand. It's just so hard sometimes, especially being the head of your household, providing for your family. And then sometimes you, I try hard to do a good job at my, at my work, but sometimes I don't.

Sometimes my lectures fall flat. Sometimes my students actually don't like what I say or maybe I actually mess it all up and they go, Well, wait a second, I thought you said this was due here, and you said, and you feel this condemnation at times. You're like, I'm trying to do a good job, but even as hard as I try, it's still not even good in my own work. I'm not the overachieving really good person.

I'm the average person that makes mistakes. So how is it that I live this life daily? Her book, which I believe is a gospel-centered book. Reminds you the whole first half of it.

literally, the first half is just preaching the gospel, and reminding people of who they are in Christ, because you have to be rooted in that. And then she goes on and, and this is a quote from the latter part of the book where she says, notice that our faith is to work, but it isn't to work through fear of abandonment, or of the desire to prove ourselves, which is where I have to try to find myself. No, our faith works because we love, and we love because he first loved us. Our faith has been emboldened by this response of love.

We've been loved. We've been assured of our justification. Our Father speaks of our sanctification as if it has already occurred. By faith, then we courageously pursue growth into our true identity.

It always has to be through Jesus. It always has to be looking to him. And coming to him and asking him for help. Jesus called us out of our old life, and he gave us new life.

We are His people for his own possession. Zealous do good, do good works. Titus says there isn't that wonderful? But those good works are not rooted in what I'm doing, it's rooted in what God, what Jesus is doing through me.

So it's no longer me, it's Christ who lives in me. This is good news. This is the gospel. We need to hear it every day.

We need to preach it to ourselves. I don't know if you've gotten in the habit of doing it, but I'm not putting it as a checklist for you to check off. Oh good, I preached myself today. But I encourage you, memorize this verse.

So many times I have to go back to it. OK, I've been crucified to Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live, the life that I go out and get in my car and drive down the street and go home and cook breakfast or dinner and, and the life that I lived before my family or with my kids or my co-workers, that life that I now live is not me.

No, I live it by faith. In Jesus Christ And what confidence do I have? How is it that I can trust Jesus? How is it that I know that this faith isn't just some convoluted story to make me feel better about myself?

That's rooted in the crucifixion and come back again. He loved me and he died for me. What? Why?

How can it be that my God would love me in that way? I don't need to earn anything. It's his reputation, not my own. The gospel reminds me of who I am.

And it reminds me that my identity is in Christ. And that is the most precious place any believer can ever find themselves. And that's the word. To the believer here today, who trusts in Jesus Christ.

But I know there's a good chance that there might be a few of you here. Who have not trusted in Christ, who have not ceased from trying to earn their own favor before God. Some of those might be the young people here. I've got young kids.

I pray for them every day. And when they make mistakes, I try to point them to Christ. But I realized it takes the Holy Spirit to do this conviction. No matter how great of a sermon could be presented, no matter how many times you read the Bible, unless the Holy Spirit does the work, it doesn't matter.

Just words So we're praying for you today. Sitting out there Maybe you're filming that condemnation. Maybe you're feeling that burden that Christian felt in Pilgrim's Progress. If you haven't read Pilgrim's Progress, I encourage you to.

It's a great allegory of Christian faith. Even if you're not a Christian. But that burden, you will never lift on your own. You will never get rid of it.

In fact, as we sang in a hymn a moment ago, it will take you to the bottom of the sea and kill you for all of eternity. But God's grace is deeper than the sea. God's grace is wider than the east and the west. And he is so willing, he is so able.

Any of you today. Just look upon the cross. Just call out for mercy. I can't do it anymore.

That will be the greatest day of your life, the greatest moment when your burden, the sin is lifted, that Jesus took it upon the cross. He bore the weight of your sin. He bore the wrath that you were due. On that cross And he did it so well.

He completely absorbed God's wrath, where it would have taken you in an eternity to deal with it. And his power was so strong. The very power that created the universe was the same power that absorbed the wrath of God. Took it down into hell.

And rose again on the 3rd day. That power can be your power today. Look upon Jesus with faith that he is able to save. Let's pray.

Our Father, our God, How can it be? That our God would die for us. A holy, righteous God. Content To exist within the triune person that you are.

That you would send your son. To live what we couldn't live, to die the death, we should have died, and to rise again. Lord, that those of us who put our faith in this Savior, in this Christ, and this anointed one, That that's it. We trust in what he's done.

And you give us His righteousness. How can it be? That even an hour from now, we'll get caught up in our lives. Even tomorrow, we'll get caught up in our jobs.

Lord, may it not be so. Oh Savior, come. Shine your light on our lives once again. Make us see you in all of your glory.

Help us to see you alive in our lives. Forgive us of our unfaithfulness, forgive us of our doubts. Even as you followers once said, Lord, we believe, help our unbelief, increase our faith. Father, I pray for those here who do not know you, who have not come to Christ, who have not rested in what he's done on the cross.

Do the work only you can do. Holy Spirit, do the conviction only you can bring. And Lord, may the moment of filling the condemnation and the conviction be eclipsed by the light that will break through from Christ. The light that sets prisoners free.

From the bondage of their sin. And into the glorious light of your Son's kingdom. We pray for these great things to happen for the glory of your name. And it's in Jesus' precious name we pray this.

Father, we also pray quickly for the Offering There's a week of Thanksgiving that we're heading into. Well, we're grateful, we're thankful for the great things you've done in our lives, most importantly, for the salvation that you've given us. May we give back, not out of duty, not out of, oh, what was the 10% off the $20. Lord, may we give with thankfulness, with an abundant heart, because you have truly blessed us.

Lord, may we bless you in our giving, not earning, not buying. But worshiping. And it's in Christ name we pray this. Amen.