SPEAKER_01: Well good morning again.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but I uh could use God's word this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Go ahead and turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Galatians.
SPEAKER_01: Galatians chapter five.
SPEAKER_01: I had uh one of those weeks where I could sing it as well for the next hour, and it probably wouldn't be enough.
SPEAKER_01: I come before you today as a broken man, and that's a good place to be, because God uses broken vessels.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Galatians, the entire message of Galatians can be summarized in Galatians chapter five, verse one.
SPEAKER_01: And I need this sermon today probably more than you do.
SPEAKER_01: The title of our sermon today is Christ Alone or Christ No More.
SPEAKER_01: Those are intense words.
SPEAKER_01: They don't immediately speak comfort.
SPEAKER_01: So you may wonder why the blubbering idiot up here is excited to preach to you about Christ alone or Christ no more.
SPEAKER_01: But I promise if you hold on, that God's word will do the work today.
SPEAKER_01: And I trust him in that.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we ended this uh very historical sermon of chapter 4, verses 21 through 31 with the word freedom.
SPEAKER_01: That you and I are born of the free woman.
SPEAKER_01: We are the children of promise.
SPEAKER_01: And today, Paul speaks directly to that freedom.
SPEAKER_01: Please read with me God's holy word.
SPEAKER_01: For freedom, Christ has set us free.
SPEAKER_01: Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: Look, I, Paul, say to you, that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
SPEAKER_01: I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
SPEAKER_01: You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law.
SPEAKER_01: You have fallen away from grace.
SPEAKER_01: For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
SPEAKER_01: Our text will break down into the following outline.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 1 will be freedom is a gift to defend.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 2 through 4 will be legalism is a burden that enslaves.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5 will be righteousness is a hope we wait for.
SPEAKER_01: And verse 6 will be love is what faith produces.
SPEAKER_01: We begin with freedom as a gift to defend.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, For freedom Christ has set us free.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is a purpose clause.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is explaining why Christ has set you free.
SPEAKER_01: What was the purpose?
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus die?
SPEAKER_01: Why did he rise again?
SPEAKER_01: What is the purpose of the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, for freedom Christ has set us free.
SPEAKER_01: In the Greek, that word actually is a definite article.
SPEAKER_01: It means the freedom.
SPEAKER_01: So he's referring to the freedom we just talked about, the freedom of the promise.
SPEAKER_01: The freedom that you and I do not have to believe hard enough in the promise in order for the promise to become true.
SPEAKER_01: But rather that the promise simply happens to those who believe.
SPEAKER_01: That Isaac wasn't working really hard before he was conceived to be conceived.
SPEAKER_01: But rather that God and God alone is the one who saves mankind.
SPEAKER_01: That human beings are fallible.
SPEAKER_01: We are fickle.
SPEAKER_01: We are finite creatures who fail daily.
SPEAKER_01: And so we need a salvation that does not depend on us.
SPEAKER_01: Because if any portion of my salvation depends on me, I am hopeless.
SPEAKER_01: Because on a Monday I might feel okay about my life.
SPEAKER_01: And then on Wednesday, I might wake up depressed and anxious.
SPEAKER_01: On Thursday, people might say nice things to me.
SPEAKER_01: And on Friday, I might be stuck in a dark room with my thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: If I allow myself to believe I have any chance of saving myself, I am lost.
SPEAKER_01: For freedom, Christ has set us free.
SPEAKER_01: That is a declarative statement has set us free.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a freedom that you and I are very bad at walking in and living in.
SPEAKER_01: For freedom, so that you and I would have the freedom of the gospel, so that we would have the Spirit living within us, so we would not have to pay the penalty for our sin, so that we could walk in grace and in mercy and in freedom.
SPEAKER_01: That is why Jesus came.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's a command.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is very good about telling you what Jesus has done for you before he tells you what you must do.
SPEAKER_01: He says, stand firm.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is a unique term to be used.
SPEAKER_01: You and I don't think of uh believing in Jesus on Tuesday and think, you know what, I need to stand really strong today.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, something will happen.
SPEAKER_01: But what will follow through in all of this is uh this military analogy.
SPEAKER_01: This idea that standing firm is a lot like what they would call the shield wall back then, where you'd have a phalanx and you'd have these shields that were buckled together man to man side by side, and if one man fell, everything was ruined.
SPEAKER_01: The shield wall, if it had one weak link, was useless.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way, if you and I do not stand firm in the faith, if we do not protect the truth of the gospel and live from that, we have nothing.
SPEAKER_01: But not only that, it affects our brother and sister next to us.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember Peter in Galatians 2?
SPEAKER_01: What was he doing?
SPEAKER_01: Eating with the Gentiles, walking in freedom, knowing that there wasn't a lesser or a greater in the kingdom, there is only the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: There's Jesus, and then there's his children.
SPEAKER_01: But Peter did not stand firm.
SPEAKER_01: He gave in to the fear of man.
SPEAKER_01: He was afraid of what the people around him might think or say, how they may act, what they may do.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the craziest realizations of this life is when you grow up and realize that the strongest person you've ever seen in your entire life is still scared of someone.
SPEAKER_01: That they will change in a specific room.
SPEAKER_01: You might need to get the president of the United States in the room, but somebody causes fear, causes someone to change.
SPEAKER_01: Thus, you and I must stand firm.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the action there is not to improve the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: It's not to work really hard to make it better.
SPEAKER_01: The command is to stand in the freedom and to not move.
SPEAKER_01: And when the world looks at you and says, you're foolish, you have nothing, you say, I will still stand here.
SPEAKER_01: When people leave, when they betray you, when they hurt you, when they lie, when they walk away from the faith, you have to be able to stand firm, not because you are strong, but because you're desperately holding on to the God who saves.
SPEAKER_01: Stand firm.
SPEAKER_01: And then the negative aspect, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: You and I, we are in 2026, so we need a yoke explained to us to properly remember what it actually is.
SPEAKER_01: It's a giant wooden instrument that was put on the back of an animal that weighed the animal down and controlled the animal and where it went.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, whenever you give in to this legalism, whenever you give in to this idea of there has to be something more than Jesus, whenever you give in to the concept that if I don't do something, I'm not okay, in that moment, you've put the burden back on and you've allowed it to steer the boat of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things we need to understand from the text is that Paul is speaking to Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: And so we say yoke of slavery, and the first thing, if we've been paying attention throughout this, you think of is the law, right?
SPEAKER_01: Moses, Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: How could he be saying that to pagan Gentiles?
SPEAKER_01: And it's the same connection he made earlier in the book, which is that pagan idolatry is the exact same slavery as legalism.
SPEAKER_01: That trying to keep up all the rules to look pretty and proper in church is just as bad as the guy that's gluttonous and living in the world.
SPEAKER_01: It is the same because you are serving the same master.
SPEAKER_01: It's the idea that in some counseling earlier this week, I explained that both the person that over-exaggerates and the person that minimizes serves the same master.
SPEAKER_01: You and I have a hard time understanding these concepts.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, it's true.
SPEAKER_01: Sin is a wicked task, Master, and it will drive you to your end.
SPEAKER_01: Christ did not break your chains just so you could crawl right back into the cell.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus on the cross took the weight of the yoke off your shoulders by paying the penalty for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: And the coercion, the control that sin and the slavery to sin has on you is taken away by the Spirit, who then lives inside of you and guides and leads you in this life towards things that are good and true and lovely and pure.
SPEAKER_01: He changes what our hearts actually want.
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
SPEAKER_01: In my reading this week, John Piper said, true freedom is doing exactly what you want to do and having no regrets a thousand years from now.
SPEAKER_01: That was fascinating to me.
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't know about you, but I grew up in the 90s, and Disney movies were like all about some freedom, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It was, I'll go the distance, I'll be set free, I will do it.
SPEAKER_01: And it was all this kind of self-finding.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, that is not actual freedom, but rather just a different kind of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: My favorite moment of realizing that in my own life was the moment you move out of your parents' house, and you're like, every! And you're like, oh my gosh, there's bills and people and things and work and all this is awful.
SPEAKER_01: No one taught me about taxes.
SPEAKER_01: Like, like it's just this terrible moment where you're just like, okay, that's real life, and that's not as fun as I thought.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: As a kid, you're like looking at your parents and you're like, can we get some ice cream today?
SPEAKER_01: They're like, no.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, you guys are wicked and evil people.
SPEAKER_01: And when I am older, I will eat ice cream every day.
SPEAKER_01: And your parents are gonna be like, Yeah, we're sure you will.
SPEAKER_01: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's great.
SPEAKER_01: And then you know what you do when you get older?
SPEAKER_01: You don't eat ice cream every day.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you're like really feeling it.
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, five days, seven days in, you're like, I will die if I see ice cream.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to ever see you again.
SPEAKER_01: You have betrayed me, my once dear love.
SPEAKER_01: We don't understand what freedom actually is.
SPEAKER_01: Freedom is not getting everything you've ever wanted in this life.
SPEAKER_01: Having no controls in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Because we can look at that the same way.
SPEAKER_01: We're like, oh, a yoke.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so so sin and slavery is this yoke that weighs me down and controls me.
SPEAKER_01: We're like, actually, there is another yoke.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, My yoke is easy, my burden is light, but it's still a yoke, right?
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit's still controlling my life.
SPEAKER_01: He's still leading me and guiding me through this life.
SPEAKER_01: There is still something on my shoulders, it's just not crushing me anymore because I don't perform to survive.
SPEAKER_01: This world is hysterically broken, my friends.
SPEAKER_01: They have no answers.
SPEAKER_01: They have only these desperate desires to find something, to find enough, to finally get it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has all the answers.
SPEAKER_01: And he is the desire of the heart.
SPEAKER_01: And that's really hard to convince yourself of when you're starving for that second cheeseburger.
SPEAKER_01: It's really hard to convince yourself of when you feel like you have no friends and no family and no one around you to be like, what's really aching inside me is I need Jesus right now.
SPEAKER_01: That's like like the angel on your shoulder doesn't even say that.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, that sounds like that sounds like kale.
SPEAKER_01: I don't like that.
SPEAKER_01: And yet it is true, my friends.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason that you and I don't believe that is because we are weak.
SPEAKER_01: And we are the ones that Jesus looks at and says, Oh, ye of little faith.
SPEAKER_01: Freedom doesn't mean having zero rules, it means having a different master.
SPEAKER_01: So when you look at your life, do you enjoy the yoke of the checklist?
SPEAKER_01: Getting enough things done, feeling the right way, feeling like you've performed appropriately.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't sin today, I don't think.
SPEAKER_01: Or do you feel safer simply knowing that the freedom you walk in was already purchased for you?
SPEAKER_01: We have to be a church that guards gospel freedom.
SPEAKER_01: In our hearts and in this culture, we have to reject the lie that Jesus starts your Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: You need to accept, believe, confess, and then need to look a certain way, or act a certain way, or be a certain way.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what keeps you in, that's what keeps you in good standing.
SPEAKER_01: And that leads us into our second heading, verses two through four.
SPEAKER_01: Legalism is a burden that enslaves.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, You can choose to rely on the things of this world to be in good standing with God.
SPEAKER_01: You can choose to feel safe because you've done enough.
SPEAKER_01: But if you do that, there is no advantage for you in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: What are the advantages?
SPEAKER_01: We already went over them.
SPEAKER_01: It's the spirit living inside of you, it's the payment of the penalty that's already been given to you.
SPEAKER_01: It is the need that no longer constantly aches at you to perform.
SPEAKER_01: I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, you can't pick and choose what parts of this you want.
SPEAKER_01: You either pick Christ and Him crucified and trusting in Him alone and nothing else, or you choose to keep every single word God's ever spoken and to never fail.
SPEAKER_01: And if you do, to accept the punishment.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the only two options.
SPEAKER_01: And when you interact with people in the world, you will fall into an issue here because people do want to have their cake and eat it too.
SPEAKER_01: I am a good person.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, if you ever lied, yes, I've lied.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you ever taken something that's not yours?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I have.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, have you ever taken the Lord's name in vain?
SPEAKER_01: I said, OMG?
SPEAKER_01: I have, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: It's called blasphemy.
SPEAKER_01: It's real bad.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, have you ever looked at a woman with lust?
SPEAKER_01: I have, yes, I have done that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, that's adultery of the heart.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And then again, this is the Ray Comfort line, right?
SPEAKER_01: From living waters.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, okay, so you just told me that you're a lying, thieving, blaspheming, adulterer of heart.
SPEAKER_01: Why would God let you into heaven?
SPEAKER_01: How does that define a good person?
SPEAKER_01: By what standard are we measuring?
SPEAKER_01: But the world doesn't want to hear that.
SPEAKER_01: They want to hear how they're naturally good.
SPEAKER_01: They want to hear how they're not as bad as that other person over there.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, what we realize is the Bible's telling the truth when it says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: That we've all turned aside, that we've all gone our own way.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4, Paul says, You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law.
SPEAKER_01: You have fallen away from grace.
SPEAKER_01: This is where we get our title.
SPEAKER_01: You can have Christ alone, or you can have Christ no more, but you can't have both.
SPEAKER_01: If you desire to earn your way to heaven, you are cut off from Christ.
SPEAKER_01: His gospel, his freedom, his love, his grace, and his mercy means nothing to you.
SPEAKER_01: You are severed from Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You have fallen away from grace.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the only reason God accepts us.
SPEAKER_01: And faith is the only hand that receives that.
SPEAKER_01: The false teachers, it's very important for us to understand, the false teachers didn't come in and say, Jesus doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure the gospel's true.
SPEAKER_01: Because you and I, we we desperately desire for it to be that clear cut.
SPEAKER_01: We're like, okay, I've this whole discernment thing, it's exhausting.
SPEAKER_01: Can we just like have people that don't believe in Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Just be like, we hate Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Don't give me church folk that serve and give money and attend every Sunday and look like they are put together.
SPEAKER_01: And don't give me those people.
SPEAKER_01: That's harder to see.
SPEAKER_01: Give me the people outside the church that hate Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's easy.
SPEAKER_01: And we go back to our Spurgeon line yet again.
SPEAKER_01: The discernment is not the understanding the difference between right and wrong, but right and almost right.
SPEAKER_01: And that is the gospel in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me.
SPEAKER_01: There is no other way.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't give a peripheral view here of like a little bit over here though.
SPEAKER_01: Like there's some grace in this area, right?
SPEAKER_01: If you're into Buddha, maybe a little bit over there.
SPEAKER_01: There's one way into heaven, and it's through believing in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that is it.
SPEAKER_01: There is no hope for anyone else anywhere at any time in any circumstance.
SPEAKER_01: It is Jesus alone or Jesus no more.
SPEAKER_01: And that is the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is a call to all people to come to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Because the cross is where exclusivity reigns.
SPEAKER_01: You are either in Christ or you are outside.
SPEAKER_01: If you change the formula at all, you add anything to Jesus, if you take away anything from Jesus, you lose everything.
SPEAKER_01: Paul shows us what is at stake in these verses.
SPEAKER_01: If you try to earn your way to God, you lose the spirit, you lose your adoption as God's children, and you lose your right standing before Him.
SPEAKER_01: You forfeit every blessing by trying to add your own effort.
SPEAKER_01: And when you say that line, it logically lines up.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, yeah, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: And yet the question is, do we live like that?
SPEAKER_01: Because there's a polite version that doesn't count.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We'll say, uh, it's all by grace, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like they're like, how'd you do that?
SPEAKER_01: It's all by grace.
SPEAKER_01: And we can still quietly fall into this same trap.
SPEAKER_01: How do we do it?
SPEAKER_01: We do it when churches start to measure people's worth by their performance or by how well they fit in.
SPEAKER_01: How well behaved their children are, how clean-cut they are when they came in.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the beginnings of a legalistic church that has chosen to cut itself off from Christ.
SPEAKER_01: My dear friends, you don't have to look far or wide to see that this is rampant.
SPEAKER_01: It is everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: These expectations that Christ never put on people, we put on just like the Pharisees, and we put these giant burdens on people.
SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna come to church, look this way.
SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna come to church, act this way.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is for all people.
SPEAKER_01: But also, dear friends, people shouldn't have to come to church to hear the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: We should be willing and able to share it with them ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And the greatest excuses that any of us can ever come up with is I don't know it well enough to share it.
SPEAKER_01: And we have got the answer for you.
SPEAKER_01: There's this little track in the back.
SPEAKER_01: You grab one of those and you just read it out loud with the person.
SPEAKER_01: We have to become a people that care more about the soul that's next to us than the discomfort of the conversation.
SPEAKER_01: We have to become that people.
SPEAKER_01: Because people die.
SPEAKER_01: People leave.
SPEAKER_01: And we might only have one opportunity to share the truth.
SPEAKER_01: You never want to be able to look at someone who's on their deathbed and say, I wish I could share the gospel with you, but I don't know it well enough.
SPEAKER_01: Keep the little booklet with you and read it out loud.
SPEAKER_01: Be humble enough to open it up and say, I believe this, I just don't know it that well, so we're gonna go through this together.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we can't do that, we've missed the point.
SPEAKER_01: The point is not flashy performance.
SPEAKER_01: The point is not being able to be as articulate as Dan Ashton or Dan Flanagan.
SPEAKER_01: The point is to be a people who actually believe the power is in the word and not the person.
SPEAKER_01: And you and I prove which one we believe every time we have an opportunity to share.
SPEAKER_01: When we hesitate, when we don't share, we are trusting in our performance and not in the God who saves.
SPEAKER_01: Let's move on to our third heading.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5: Righteousness is a hope we wait for.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, For through the spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: For through the spirit, by faith.
SPEAKER_01: So you and I do all of this by faith, not by working hard, not by putting more effort in, but by faith.
SPEAKER_01: And it's through the spirit, not through hours invested, not through how many hard conversations you've had, not through how much you've overcome in life, but through the spirit by faith.
SPEAKER_01: We ourselves wait eagerly.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know the last time you eagerly waited for anything.
SPEAKER_01: The only thing I can think of is when Brie makes homemade cookies and you like have the smell coming in, and you're like, oh, like that moment, you're like, I'm eagerly waiting.
SPEAKER_01: That's I think the only time in my life I've ever eagerly waited for anything.
SPEAKER_01: Every other time I'm annoyingly waiting.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says that you and I, this is our life.
SPEAKER_01: We eagerly wait.
SPEAKER_01: What do we wait for?
SPEAKER_01: For the hope of righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's actually uh for the mental part here.
SPEAKER_01: This is backwards in a sense.
SPEAKER_01: He's speaking of the righteousness in Christ, right?
SPEAKER_01: The righteousness that you and I are to experience fully in heaven one day, that perfect righteousness that covers us today, that righteousness we have hope in.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's the problem.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you and I, we've gotten a lot of our theology from Hallmark.
SPEAKER_01: All right, and we see the word hope.
SPEAKER_01: And what what does hope mean in the 21st century?
SPEAKER_01: I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: I'm desirous that this thing happens.
SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's like dreaming.
SPEAKER_01: That is not how the Bible defines hope.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible defines hope as an absolute certainty about a promise that we haven't seen yet.
SPEAKER_01: It is absolute certainty.
SPEAKER_01: So that's why when Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you, we can say, I have hope in that.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not me desiring that one day maybe Jesus actually did do that, but rather a settled realization and security in the fact that God has said, thus He will, and I will rest in that.
SPEAKER_01: True hope is not anxious, true hope is settled.
SPEAKER_01: Legalism stresses out trying to earn what faith patiently waits to receive.
SPEAKER_01: And the scary part is that even the waiting is a gift.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't feel like it.
SPEAKER_01: And yet it is.
SPEAKER_01: God has done more work in my life through suffering and waiting than through any discipline I've had in this life.
SPEAKER_01: No one would ever look at the story of my life over the last decade and say, that guy became who he was because he just worked really hard.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like the guy at the end, you know, the uh, I don't even know what it's called, water skiing or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: You know, when you fall off and you're still skipping on the water?
SPEAKER_01: That's me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm off the skis, just skipping on the water, holding on.
SPEAKER_01: And when I let go, I realize I'm actually duct taped to it.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm stuck just skipping through it.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's holding me on the ride, not me.
SPEAKER_01: And as I have the pain, as I have the discomfort, the humiliation, God, degree by degree, breaks this proud man into a useful vessel.
SPEAKER_01: I am not a product of hard work and discipline.
SPEAKER_01: I am a product of God's amazing grace and mercy to a very weak man who is very desperately in need of a savior.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why it's important that you understand that as a Christian, you will never see your righteousness as well as you see your sin.
SPEAKER_01: I'll say it again because I need it.
SPEAKER_01: You will never see your righteousness the way you are able to see your sin.
SPEAKER_01: And you will rarely feel as righteous as you want to feel.
SPEAKER_01: Because you are still in the presence of sin, and you still have sin living inside you.
SPEAKER_01: And the more holy you become, the more aware you are of the contaminant that's within.
SPEAKER_01: There's a moment in my life where I got a piece of glass stuck in my foot.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I have real rough feet, you can imagine.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so the piece of glass I didn't realize was in my foot.
SPEAKER_01: And somewhere deep buried underneath a lot of hard skin was this bubble.
SPEAKER_01: And it was an annoying little bubble.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I'll have you know that it was annoying, but I walked on it for a while.
SPEAKER_01: It was it was fine.
SPEAKER_01: It was annoying, but it was fine.
SPEAKER_01: And uh eventually my mom pulled me aside and said, Uh, what why are you limping?
SPEAKER_01: I said, There's something like wrong with my foot.
SPEAKER_01: And she was a nurse, so she pulls my foot over and looks at it and says, You have something stuck in your foot.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, it's fine, don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_01: And she was worried about it.
SPEAKER_01: And so we got this thing called a foot shaver.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't see it again until I got married.
SPEAKER_01: It's a thing, gentlemen, you can use to shave the hard parts of your foot off.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: It's like a foot cheese grater.
SPEAKER_01: So my mom grabs one of those and just starts going to town on my heel.
SPEAKER_01: And at first it just kind of like feels funny.
SPEAKER_01: And the closer she gets to the bubble, all of a sudden the more pain I'm in.
SPEAKER_01: And it's hurting more and more and more.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, you need to stop.
SPEAKER_01: You've made things worse.
SPEAKER_01: I think I was 12 at the time, so like I'm a little bit dramatic at that time and not very manly at all.
SPEAKER_01: I remember the pain getting worse and worse and worse to the point that like they're having to hold me down because I don't want you touching my foot anymore.
SPEAKER_01: This is awful.
SPEAKER_01: And then they had to do the part where they cut the foot open to get the glass out.
SPEAKER_01: And as that's happening, I'm screaming.
SPEAKER_01: And the kid who had no problem walking on glass for weeks is all of a sudden screaming in hysterical panic because I could actually feel the pain.
SPEAKER_01: It's similar in the Christian life, my friends.
SPEAKER_01: As God wears down that rough exterior, the raw interior is exposed.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why sin can feel so bad 10 years after you're saved, and you're like, how am I a worse person today than I was before?
SPEAKER_01: Like, that doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not that you're actually a worse person, it's that you can finally feel a little bit more what's actually wrong with you.
SPEAKER_01: You will never in this life be able to see your righteousness in the way you can see your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Which is why your feelings are a terrible diagnostic.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, you know what we normally do?
SPEAKER_01: We put, there's a throne in our head and in our heart, and feelings is almost always there.
SPEAKER_01: You wake up one day and you're tired.
SPEAKER_01: The day's bad, things didn't go well.
SPEAKER_01: What do we do?
SPEAKER_01: Do we discipline ourselves and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna think about things that are true and good.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna trust that God's in control.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna walk in grace, and if I fail this morning, it's gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_01: God's got this.
SPEAKER_01: And I walk out the door.
SPEAKER_01: And the whole congregation said, no, that's not what we do.
SPEAKER_01: You wake up on the dreary day and you just, you mean you want to sit there.
SPEAKER_01: You want a potato.
SPEAKER_01: You just want to like, I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: I have nothing for today.
SPEAKER_01: I have nothing for no one.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to see anybody.
SPEAKER_01: I've got nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Your feelings will lie to you.
SPEAKER_01: So do not judge your standing with God by your emotions.
SPEAKER_01: Your security has never been in how you feel, but in the judge who made the promise.
SPEAKER_01: So today, are you living with the quiet rest of faith or with the anxious pressure of trying to prove that you're a good enough Christian?
SPEAKER_01: I want you to learn to wait by faith.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian life is not fueled by panic or by shame.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in churches where those are the primary mechanisms.
SPEAKER_01: Freak out to do something good or be shamed in doing something good.
SPEAKER_01: The final verdict on your life has already been handed down at the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And you and I are just waiting for the day it's read aloud.
SPEAKER_01: I've already given you an illustration.
SPEAKER_01: We have to live this life in a way where we're like a man in a courtroom who already knows everything is settled, but the press is all there and they're all looking at you and they're asking questions.
SPEAKER_01: And you and I, we live our lives trying to prove to the press that we are actually guilt-free, that we actually aren't in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: We're good to go.
SPEAKER_01: We're trying to convince the press of it, as opposed to just patiently waiting for the verdict to come out from the courtroom that says what you already know to be true.
SPEAKER_01: We often have trouble resting in the verdict.
SPEAKER_01: We want to convince people today how true it is.
SPEAKER_01: That leads us to our last heading.
SPEAKER_01: Love is what produces, or love is what faith produces.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything.
SPEAKER_01: In Christ, your performance or your lack thereof means nothing.
SPEAKER_01: And that is a strange place for any of us to be, because I don't care how competitive you are or are not, you've probably had a job at some point.
SPEAKER_01: So the idea of being able to just like be completely hired and you're gonna get a paycheck, whether you show up or not, doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_01: The idea that your sports team is going to win the national championship, no matter what you do, doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_01: We've always had to work.
SPEAKER_01: But in Christ Jesus, your work means nothing for your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is important because I have heard a sermon on this text that ends with legalism, which is a hilarious thing to happen in Galatians, but it's very easy to do.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what the legalism would sound like it says, but only faith working through love.
SPEAKER_01: So, dear church, walk in that freedom and go and love each other more.
SPEAKER_01: Go work hard to be loving to each other.
SPEAKER_01: And that misses the point of the source of the love.
SPEAKER_01: And it puts the weight on you to do more, to be enough.
SPEAKER_01: Only faith working through love.
SPEAKER_01: Faith alone saves us, and faith alone sanctifies us, makes us more Christ-like.
SPEAKER_01: But saving faith never stays alone.
SPEAKER_01: Love is the fruit that comes out of faith, and faith is the root.
SPEAKER_01: In a similar way, of uh Ted Tripp's analogy of the tree with fruit.
SPEAKER_01: If you went and grabbed a bag of apples and duct taped them to a tree, it might look like the tree has fruit.
SPEAKER_01: But you've done nothing.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what love with no faith looks like.
SPEAKER_01: It looks like apples duct taped to a tree.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is a healthy tree that grows apples on its own.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you and I are failing at love, if you're today showing up and you're saying, my love for Christ is low, my desire to love the person next to me is I feel a little dead inside today.
SPEAKER_01: The answer is not, okay, well, let's get some grit.
SPEAKER_01: Discipline yourself, determination, and just shut up and love them.
SPEAKER_01: That's what legalism looks like.
SPEAKER_01: So how do we fix it then?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: How do I how do I get more of the love?
SPEAKER_01: What do I do?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to look at the cross and to keep looking until your heart changes.
SPEAKER_01: The answer to a lack of love in your life is not trying to love more.
SPEAKER_01: It is turning your eyes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Be fascinated with his story.
SPEAKER_01: Be in awe of his love.
SPEAKER_01: As you see your sin and how much you fail, be amazed at his grace and his mercy.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to wonder at his majesty.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to walk out on an evening when the stars are out and to try to count them, and to realize that there's more people on this earth than there are stars in that sky that you can see.
SPEAKER_01: And he knows every single one of their names, knows every hair that's on their head, and has loved them with an unending love.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to worship.
SPEAKER_01: But being like Psalm 121, when David says, I turn my eyes up to the hills.
SPEAKER_01: From where else will my help come from?
SPEAKER_01: My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_01: That is the answer.
SPEAKER_01: Of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: You're having a hard time being patient with your children.
SPEAKER_01: Look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You're having a hard time getting through the anxiety and the depression.
SPEAKER_01: Look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You're having a hard time being patient and waiting.
SPEAKER_01: Look to the Savior who died for you.
SPEAKER_01: One of the practical ways that we work on this is as a rule of thumb, I want you to work on after every time you do a successful Christian thing, right?
SPEAKER_01: You read your Bible, you sacrificially loved somebody, you served, you gave, you did it.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to almost immediately coach yourself and say, that didn't make Jesus love me more.
SPEAKER_01: And on the other side, maybe more important, every time you fail, every time you give in to that sinful anger, every time you give in to the thoughts you know you shouldn't give into, the immediate reaction is to coach yourself and say, Jesus doesn't love me less.
SPEAKER_01: But true love, again, with our hallmark theology, is not just a warm and fuzzy feeling.
SPEAKER_01: Later in Galatians, Paul will say that through love we are to serve one another.
SPEAKER_01: Love today looks like the actual person sitting behind you, in front of you, or to the side of you and serving them.
SPEAKER_01: When is the last time you looked at someone in this building and said, I need to take them out for coffee?
SPEAKER_01: When's the last time you saw someone that was struggling and said, I need to help them?
SPEAKER_01: I need to die to myself.
SPEAKER_01: I need to give my time and my energy, right?
SPEAKER_01: I think that's maybe a bigger idol of our hearts usually than money nowadays.
SPEAKER_01: I know money's up there, but you asked for someone's Tuesday night and like they're like, I'll give you a hundred bucks, just leave me alone.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, like love is a determined action for the benefit of another with no payment back.
SPEAKER_01: Do we do that in this family?
SPEAKER_01: Do we sacrifice?
SPEAKER_01: Do we give?
SPEAKER_01: Do we talk to other people's children and listen to their stories?
SPEAKER_01: Do we help each other with the physical needs that we have?
SPEAKER_01: Do we pray for each other as we suffer?
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of suffering in this church.
SPEAKER_01: Do we make meals?
SPEAKER_01: Do we help the poor?
SPEAKER_01: Do we love the sick?
SPEAKER_01: Do we care about the orphan or the widow?
SPEAKER_01: Or are we so focused on us that we've missed the point?
SPEAKER_01: There was a moment when I was doing counseling once upon a time with someone who had very bad depression.
SPEAKER_01: And it turned out that one of the greatest things that ever was given to them was somebody to pour into.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because when we get in that depression and anxiety loop, you know what we're focused on?
SPEAKER_01: Me! How bad is my life?
SPEAKER_01: I'm sad, I'm depressed, I don't like this.
SPEAKER_01: And you have like some sobbing, sniveling person here, and you gotta help them, all of a sudden you have no time or energy to focus on you.
SPEAKER_01: And you end up forgetting yourself.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible knows what it's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: And when it says that you and I are to love each other sacrificially, then it's not only for the good of that person.
SPEAKER_01: Because you and I can think that, right?
SPEAKER_01: I remember the first time when I was a teenager, we're like really serving people.
SPEAKER_01: We're out there helping homeless folk and doing stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, yeah, we're doing it.
SPEAKER_01: And you rarely realize that what really is the greatest blessing is that you got to do it.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't feel like it in that moment, right?
SPEAKER_01: You're grumbling, you're complaining, you're sweating, you're tired, you hate everything in life.
SPEAKER_01: But you get done.
SPEAKER_01: And you see the person who can't pay you back, the person who can give you nothing.
SPEAKER_01: And they're just thankful.
SPEAKER_01: And you realize that's it.
SPEAKER_01: A life of sacrifice given to people who can never pay me back.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to let your freedom show up in love.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to work hard to love.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to identify the barren aspects of your life and your heart, your affections.
SPEAKER_01: What do you love more than Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to look to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you and I can do that, it fixes everything else downstream.
SPEAKER_01: That is the goal.
SPEAKER_01: That is the mission.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things we have to be very careful of is in a church that has expository preaching, that teaches theological words, and goes through all of these rigor amore to get to the end of having mature disciples, we have to always ask: has our understanding of grace made us more loving?
SPEAKER_01: Or has it just made us critical of others who don't get it?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Has the grace made me realize what was bad in my past or those legalistic people over there and then made me compassionate towards them?
SPEAKER_01: Made me willing to sacrificially love them?
SPEAKER_01: Or has it made me this judgmental, critical person who is now rightly vindicated in their bitterness and anger and resentment towards them?
SPEAKER_01: Both are very easy to go into.
SPEAKER_01: As you mature, as God's word does its work in your heart and your mind, and you change how you think and what you say, we have to make sure how we feel follows.
SPEAKER_01: If your love for others has grown cold, the solution is not to try harder.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to look at the cross until your heart melts.
SPEAKER_01: And again, go back to Peter in chapter two.
SPEAKER_01: Every single one of us has been sitting at that table before.
SPEAKER_01: Every single one of us has had the pressure of others around us.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, if you try to live by half grace and half performance, you lose the whole Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't meet you halfway, dear friend.
SPEAKER_01: He carried the whole cross by himself.
SPEAKER_01: He kept the whole law perfectly without you.
SPEAKER_01: He put his spirit inside of his children.
SPEAKER_01: And he made you a child of God, not because you earned it or because you were good enough on your own, but because of the great love with which he loved us.
SPEAKER_01: He made us alive together with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: By grace you have been saved.
SPEAKER_01: And it's through faith, it's not your own doing, so that no one can boast.
SPEAKER_01: There is no proud person in the church.
SPEAKER_01: There is only a reigning Savior.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing left for you to add.
SPEAKER_01: And when your little voice inside of you tells you that you need to do one more thing to be secure, you need to do one more thing to feel okay, there's only one sentence to say that matters.
SPEAKER_01: And it's Christ is enough.
SPEAKER_01: And he is enough for me.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we ask that you would help us in our faith to trust you more, to let go of the things of this life that we so easily hold on to, and to realize that we cannot hold on to them and you at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help us to be people that are so awestruck by you that we cannot help but live this life for you.
SPEAKER_01: Please save us and keep us and make us whole.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to see this life for what it really is.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That you're in control, that you are a good God, and that you reign.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.