Galatians (Galatians 1: 1-5)

[00:00:01] Speaker A: This is the year of good news [00:00:04] Speaker B: for the Haskins family. You laugh. Some of you are experiencing this with us. Lord willing, by God's grace, in 13 months we will have experienced three weddings and two grandkids. And I stay confused daily [00:00:31] Speaker A: about where [00:00:32] Speaker B: we are on this timeline. [00:00:34] Speaker A: I'm constantly asking what announcement is for this week? What party is this? What shower is this? Is this a baby shower or a wedding shower? Am I supposed to be there? What bill is this for? [00:00:54] Speaker B: Just pay it and move on. [00:00:58] Speaker A: And I don't know what good news [00:01:00] Speaker B: or announcement y' all have heard or haven't heard. [00:01:04] Speaker A: And I don't know what I'm supposed to be able or allowed to tell you or I'm not supposed to tell you. [00:01:12] Speaker B: I've been told. [00:01:13] Speaker A: It seems like for a year now. You can't tell anyone. They haven't announced it yet. No one else knows the date. No one else knows the name. [00:01:23] Speaker B: No one else knows the gender. [00:01:25] Speaker A: You have to let them tell everyone. And so when you walk up to [00:01:31] Speaker B: me and you say to me, congrats, [00:01:35] Speaker A: you're probably wondering why I don't look [00:01:36] Speaker B: excited [00:01:40] Speaker A: because I don't know what your congrats means. I don't know what announcement you are referring to. [00:01:50] Speaker B: I heard your family is growing. How are we growing? [00:01:56] Speaker A: I heard you're going to be a granddad. Koris told you she's pregnant. [00:02:03] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:02:04] Speaker A: Karas is pregnant. You're not supposed to know that, right? I was talking about Anna. Yes, Anna is pregnant. And then that gets really confusing because we have two Annas. One is getting married and one is having a baby. [00:02:25] Speaker B: Our daughter in law. [00:02:28] Speaker A: And I've had to clarify and go back and say, you know which Anna. [00:02:32] Speaker B: I was talking about the nature and [00:02:35] Speaker A: timing of that announcement. It's important that you know which Anna [00:02:39] Speaker B: we are talking about. [00:02:43] Speaker A: But when we come to the book [00:02:44] Speaker B: of Galatians, Paul wants to be clear about what gospel we are talking about, [00:02:52] Speaker A: what gospel we are announcing. And that's what the word gospel means. It means to herald. [00:02:59] Speaker B: It means to announce. [00:03:01] Speaker A: It means to announce the arrival or, or the presence of a king. That's where the word comes from. And in the book of Galatians, we're going to talk about the gospel. What is the gospel? And on the BFG notes for tonight, Ashlyn Church Blog, I've kind of summarized [00:03:24] Speaker B: the gospel in Galatians. [00:03:26] Speaker A: What Paul is getting at in the book of Galatians when he talks about the gospel. And the first definition is going to be very detailed. There's a lot there. But just hold on. [00:03:39] Speaker B: We're going to summarize it. The gospel in Galatians is this. You don't have to write it down. Just go to our website. The gospel is the announcement, the good [00:03:50] Speaker A: news, that Jesus has sufficiently fulfilled all [00:03:54] Speaker B: of God's demands through his perfect life and his sacrificial death under God's just wrath for our sin, so that through faith in him we might be united [00:04:08] Speaker A: to him by the Spirit, declared righteous, freed from condemnation, and accepted by his Father to inherit his eternal kingdom. [00:04:20] Speaker B: That's the gospel in Galatians. That's what we're going to unpack. But let me summarize it in this way. The good news is Jesus has done everything so that by faith in him alone you might be accepted by God. That's a summary of the gospel. That's what I want you to hear today. [00:04:39] Speaker A: That's what I want you to believe. The good news that Jesus has done [00:04:44] Speaker B: everything so that by faith in him you might be accepted by God. God and ultimately inherit Jesus's eternal kingdom. See, this is important when we get to the book of Galatians, because the churches in Galatia were being tempted to believe another gospel. [00:05:04] Speaker A: In Acts, chapter 13 and 14, we see the Apostle Paul and Barnabas. They go into this region and they're preaching the gospel. And many Gentiles believe [00:05:16] Speaker B: and there's churches established. But after they leave, there are false teachers that enter these churches, mainly Jewish false teachers, the Judaizers, who will be [00:05:30] Speaker A: called the agitators in the book of Galatians. And they go into these churches and they begin to say, yeah, we know Paul was preaching Christ alone, that you enter heaven, that you are saved, that you are justified through believing in Jesus alone. But he's really naive and he's just a little too excited. He left some things out, mainly circumcision and then Jewish ceremonies and festivals and the diet. He left out that, yeah, you believe in Jesus, but you've also got to become a Jew. You've also got to become one who adheres to the law of God. It's not enough just to say you believe in Jesus, you must also become Jewish. [00:06:24] Speaker B: And Paul writes Galatians to combat such false teaching. [00:06:30] Speaker A: And if you want to summarize his [00:06:32] Speaker B: point, it's [00:06:35] Speaker A: Jesus plus nothing equals everything, [00:06:40] Speaker B: can add anything to Jesus to be saved. [00:06:43] Speaker A: Jesus plus anything equals nothing. The gospel is Jesus alone. And a faith that thinks that you have to add something to Jesus is no saving faith at all. Because in essence you are saying Jesus is not enough. Jesus hasn't done enough. I have to do something. In Galatians, Paul is extremely irritated. He is mad. And we're going to see how mad [00:07:16] Speaker B: he is in chapters ahead. [00:07:19] Speaker A: He's furious because he realizes anyone who believes this false gospel is condemned is damned. It is Jesus alone that saves from ours sins. [00:07:33] Speaker B: And he begins in verse one by declaring, there is no other gospel that has God's authority. Notice how he describes himself. Paul, an apostle. Even his name and office reflect the gospel. [00:07:51] Speaker A: Paul, who used to be Saul, who in Acts chapter nine is headed out to kill Christians. Paul was honored at the stoning of Stephen. Men were throwing their coats at his feet and saying, we're doing this for you, Saul. [00:08:13] Speaker B: But in Acts chapter nine, as he's headed out to kill more Christians, the Lord Jesus Christ blinds him and commissions [00:08:23] Speaker A: him to preach his Gospel. And notice, he is an apostle. That means to be sent out with authority. And he says here, not from men nor man. And so he is an apostle. But he wants to be clear. It's not as though these other men, John, Peter, James, who you call apostles, they aren't the ones who sent me out. [00:08:48] Speaker B: No, Jesus sent me out. [00:08:51] Speaker A: And it was required to be an apostle to see Jesus and be sent by Jesus personally. That's what we see happening in Acts, chapter nine. And so Paul says, the gospel I preach is directly from Jesus, notice, but through Jesus Christ. And what we see here is Paul wants to emphasize Jesus's deity here. Going to see later in Galatians that he was born of a woman. He was 100% man. But here he is emphasizing he is God and he is united, notice, with God the Father who raised him from the dead. So he is God in flesh, and he is one with the Father. But notice, he is also raised from the dead, and it is the Father who raised him from the dead. He. He wants to be certain. The gospel I preach is the gospel of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other authority that is higher than him. He is back from the dead. He rules and reigns the one the [00:10:00] Speaker B: Father has raised from the dead. And there are two reasons why we're going to see. In Galatians, he points to the resurrection. [00:10:09] Speaker A: First of all, Jesus was raised from [00:10:11] Speaker B: the dead by God the Father to declare that he is king, that he is Lord. Ultimately, he is the Christ who has defeated sin and death. He is God's king, but also he [00:10:23] Speaker A: is a sufficient payment for sin. And so Paul wants to be clear. The one who has commissioned me is back from the Dead. And the gospel that I preach is tied to him in such a way that it is the authority of God. [00:10:41] Speaker B: He is God's king who defeated death as a sufficient payment for sin. This is who he is. And notice verse two. And all the brothers who are with me, this is the gospel we preach, the one directly from Jesus, back from the dead as a sufficient payment for sin. And so, first of all, we see that the gospel is a divine announcement. [00:11:05] Speaker A: Very clearly, the gospel is this divine [00:11:08] Speaker B: announcement that God's king defeated death as a sufficient payment for sin. Paul is saying, that's the gospel that I preach. [00:11:17] Speaker A: And when you hear me preach that gospel, you hear the authority of God. You are hearing the authority of the risen Christ. This isn't just another tip. [00:11:28] Speaker B: It's not good advice. [00:11:31] Speaker A: It's not an opinion. This is the announcement that God himself is telling the world. And it is the announcement that addresses our worst problems, which are sin and death. You are a sinner and you deserve death, eternal death for your sin. And yet the good news is the announcement that no, God's king defeated death and he is a sufficient payment for your sin. [00:12:00] Speaker B: This is the good news. It's not advice. It's an announcement. Now, what does that mean? It means it demands a response from you. [00:12:09] Speaker A: It's not as though God's saying, you know what, I'm going to give you some advice about how to make your [00:12:13] Speaker B: life easier and better. Here's the gospel. No, he's telling you. He's telling you the only one who [00:12:23] Speaker A: has a right over your life is the risen Christ. And that's good news because this risen Christ has defeated your worst enemies. And this authoritative message is to echo and reverberate and sound through all of our life. There is no other gospel that is meant to permeate our whole life. [00:12:49] Speaker B: You see, we live our lives longing for good news. [00:12:52] Speaker A: You will probably wake up tomorrow morning [00:12:54] Speaker B: and you will begin to scroll. I need to see something good. I need to see something that's going [00:13:00] Speaker A: to give me some hope. [00:13:02] Speaker B: Looking into the news, by the way. The news is never till Jesus comes going to give you good news. It is designed to tell you the worst of the worst and you clamor for it day in and day out. Is there good news today? [00:13:20] Speaker A: We are looking for someone to give us some advice that's going to give us hope. My body is failing. I am getting old. I need someone to biohack and tell me how to control all this and make me feel better. Maybe I will scroll through Instagram today and find the most ingenious, ingenious life coach that's going to give me some hope. [00:13:46] Speaker B: It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. The greatest good news that you could give your life over to tomorrow is this news. The announcement that God's king has defeated death as a sufficient payment for your sin. [00:14:04] Speaker A: And that's where you have to live. That's where you have to immerse yourself in that good news. It's not something where we come to the gospel and we say, okay, this is an opinion. It didn't work today because I still feel bad, I still feel miserable, I still lack joy. Let me scroll on to something else. No, you stay with the gospel and you immerse your life thoroughly into the gospel. That's why we're in the word of God. That's why we're memorizing Scripture. That's why we're in prayer, reminding ourselves, encourage Christ who we are, sons and daughters of God. That's why we gather for worship. That's why our friendships must be saturated in the Gospel. Because we can't leave the gospel. Because every time we do, we're going [00:14:53] Speaker B: to drift toward bad news, hopelessness. No, we stay in the gospel, God's authoritative message to us. No other gospel comes with his authority. Next we see there is no other gospel that comes with grace and peace or has grace and peace for us. Notice who he's writing to, Second part of verse two. To the churches of Galatia. Now, at first glance, this just seems very common, but he's very terse. And this is very stale from Paul. Remember, he's irritated with what's going on there. He wants to get to the point. Most of Paul's letters, you'll see him say he'll refer to the churches as brothers, beloved saints. Here he's like, no, just churches in Galatia. I got to get this out there. And these are local churches throughout this region where this false teacher teaching was spreading. And notice this greeting. He says, grace and peace to you. Now that's very, very common. [00:15:59] Speaker A: That's just a normal greeting. But we see in the context of [00:16:03] Speaker B: Paul's writing, specifically Galatians, this grace and peace have depth. [00:16:10] Speaker A: Grace is God's unmerited favor despite what we deserve. That's the grace Paul is talking about. This isn't just a common well wish grace to you. What does he mean by that? That you would experience God's undeserved favor [00:16:27] Speaker B: on your life, meaning you deserve judgment, [00:16:31] Speaker A: you are guilty and you Deserve God's just wrath forever. But I want you to know grace. I want you to experience undeserved favor on your life notice. [00:16:45] Speaker B: Grace to you and peace. This means rest. Or the Old Testament idea of shalom [00:16:54] Speaker A: means that you are at peace with God. The war is over. You and your sin have said to God, no, I know you created me, but I'm still going to do whatever I want. I'm going to make the rules up. You're not going to be able to tell me what to do. You have made yourself a little God who wages war with the God and you are at war with Him. But Paul says, I want you to know peace with God. I want you to be at peace with God. How can you be at peace with God? The war is over in Christ. He has made peace with you. And I want you to experience that. I want you to experience these real things. And how do we make them real? How do they go? From abstract well wishes, notice the text continues. [00:17:39] Speaker B: From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:17:43] Speaker A: The source of grace and peace is God himself, the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit who presses these realities upon us. God is the source of grace and peace. [00:17:59] Speaker B: Not you, no other person. [00:18:03] Speaker A: It's not mystical, abstract grace and peace he's talking about. It is grace and peace that comes only from God. How does it come from God? [00:18:11] Speaker B: Notice verse four. Who gave himself? He's referring to Christ here and in this phrase right here. We have to zero in on it. Let's take this slowly. Who gave himself? That refers to his sacrifice. His willingly giving Himself over for us on the cross. He's talking about Jesus. But notice why he gave Himself for us. [00:18:41] Speaker A: It's not just generically. [00:18:42] Speaker B: Jesus died on the cross. Notice the words here. [00:18:46] Speaker A: For our sins. He's talking about substitutionary. It's a big theological word. [00:18:52] Speaker B: Atonement. [00:18:54] Speaker A: It means he died in our place. He died in our stead on our behalf. We deserve the wrath. But Jesus died in our place. And without that, without those words, there is no gospel. That is the heart of the gospel. That he is the substitute for your sin. Apart from that, there is no other gospel. It's not just generic information that's out there. It's not just generic redemption. No, he died for our sins. He willingly gave Himself up over to [00:19:34] Speaker B: the cross for our sins, for justice. And notice why continues to deliver us. [00:19:42] Speaker A: The only way we can be delivered is if he would sacrifice himself for our sins. And notice from the present evil age, [00:19:53] Speaker B: he's rescued us from this age by Dying for our sins. You see, the Bible divides time into two different stages, two different ages. This age, the present age, and the new age to come. [00:20:10] Speaker A: The age we live in now. [00:20:11] Speaker B: Notice he says here, the present evil age. It is evil because of sin. [00:20:18] Speaker A: The age we live in, the time we live in now, it's evil. It's anti God. We live however we want to. It is an evil time. And because it's evil, it has been [00:20:32] Speaker B: condemned to be judged by God. [00:20:35] Speaker A: This time has to be purged of all unrighteousness. This age. The kingdoms of this world, humans who have rebelled against God must face the judgment of God. Those of this presentation age, God, will usher in a new age. [00:20:55] Speaker B: But there will be judgment that comes first. And here's the thing. The evil of this age is not just out there. It begins in our hearts. And you feel it on a daily basis. And you do it on a daily basis. You rebel against God, so you deserve judgment as a citizen of this present age. But here's the gospel. [00:21:22] Speaker A: The gospel is the announcement that Jesus [00:21:24] Speaker B: entered this present age. And he was punished and he was condemned. [00:21:28] Speaker A: And through faith in him, we are rescued from this age and we inherit the age to come. We are already citizens of what's coming. This age that's passing away. We've been delivered into the eternal kingdom that never ends, where we will be with God forever. It is as though we have been trapped in a condemned house in a neighborhood that is about to be wiped out. [00:21:55] Speaker B: The code enforcement law of God says y' all broken all the rules. Fines are too high. You've destroyed this place. You've destroyed this present age. [00:22:07] Speaker A: You can't rebuild it. [00:22:08] Speaker B: It needs to be bulldozed. [00:22:10] Speaker A: It needs to be wiped out before [00:22:13] Speaker B: anything new can be built. And the grace and peace is this. As God's justice bears down on this age. You've already been delivered. [00:22:26] Speaker A: You've been delivered from the wrath that is coming. In John, chapter 3, verse 36, Jesus talks about the wrath of God abiding on us right now. In Ephesians, chapter two. We are called children of wrath. You know why? We are at odds with God and his wrath is bearing down on us. But Jesus has entered this age and he endured that wrath for us. And he's delivered us from the destruction that is coming to this present evil age. The bulldozers, the dynamite, the wrecking balls are lined up. We are about to be destroyed in this house in which we are trapped in this kingdom in which has been condemned by God. And. And yet Jesus has Come in. And he has rescued us from it. And that is the grace we are to live with. Daily you look around at this evil age and you are reminded this place is condemned. This place is the pits. This place is the worst. And God's going to make it all new. And he's already given me a deed [00:23:31] Speaker B: to the new kingdom. [00:23:33] Speaker A: I live as a citizen of the kingdom that is coming. And that is the peace that you live with. [00:23:40] Speaker B: That your worst day has already happened in Christ and your best days are ahead. Notice why this happened. According to the will of our God and Father. Everybody zero in on that word will. It means desire, decree, pleasure or plan. [00:24:05] Speaker A: And I want you to focus on [00:24:06] Speaker B: it for this reason. [00:24:08] Speaker A: A lot of times we think about [00:24:09] Speaker B: the gospel as mean God. [00:24:12] Speaker A: God is so mean and he doesn't like us and he's just had it with us. [00:24:18] Speaker B: And Jesus is so nice and sweet and kind and he steps in the way of mean God and He defends us and he dies for us. That's not the Gospel. Notice. [00:24:33] Speaker A: According to the will of our God and Father. And notice he says here, our God and Father. In the gospel, God becomes our Father. Why? Because it was his good pleasure to send the Son to die for us. He wasn't mad about it. He hates sin, but he loves us. And so he gave His Son for us. The Father loves you and sent the Son. We see the Father and Son working together to save us from our sins. [00:25:10] Speaker B: But in these verses we see how Paul just infuses this normal greeting with the gospel. And this is what we must do in our life. Just the ordinary must be infused with the Gospel. Our conversations must get to the Gospel. [00:25:28] Speaker A: There's no hope apart from the Gospel. But I want you to know this. [00:25:32] Speaker B: It's not abstract, it's not generic. It's very specific. Notice the way he zeros in. God did this and it's accomplished through the giving of the Son on the cross as a substitute. Very specific about the Gospel here. And we see first of all the grace and peace that we need. [00:25:53] Speaker A: It's from God. [00:25:54] Speaker B: It's not from ourselves or others. Now why is that important to know? The grace and peace that you're to live with every day is not generic. It's from God. It doesn't come from you or others. Not the grace and peace that's meant to sustain you. And here's why. There is a therapeutic gospel that's going to say this to you. Be kind to yourself, don't be so hard on yourself, or something like this. Make peace with your past. [00:26:27] Speaker A: Just sort of generic [00:26:30] Speaker B: nothingness. What does that mean? [00:26:33] Speaker A: What does it mean for me to [00:26:34] Speaker B: not be so hard on myself? Now I know what it's getting at. It's getting at the need. You do need grace and you do need peace. But it doesn't come from you. You're not God. You're not God. Only God can give you grace and peace. Unmerited favor. Only God can absorb the hostility of his wrath. [00:27:00] Speaker A: You need grace and peace from God. [00:27:02] Speaker B: Everybody in because you sinned against God. That's where grace and peace begins. [00:27:09] Speaker A: And all the other grace and peace that you enjoy in life comes from that reality. That Jesus died for my sins, that the Father loves me in Christ and has been gracious to me, and the war is over. That's where grace and peace flow from. You can't experience grace and peace until you receive it from God. But also notice what Paul does here. He establishes it in something real. The cross. Grace and peace isn't. It's not. They're not abstract. They're not. They're not just these feel good isms [00:27:41] Speaker B: that are out there. [00:27:42] Speaker A: Inspiration. No, they are real things rooted in reality. The reality of the cross. It's real. A lot of times we think about the gospel this way. It's just sort of these bullet points that I have to check off. [00:27:57] Speaker B: Admit you're a sinner. [00:27:58] Speaker A: Check. Jesus died on a cross. Check. And it's sort of like this mini theological exam, just prop. They are true. They're true because God's words say they're true. But they're true because it really happened. Jesus really did die for your sin. As real, as real as your sin [00:28:19] Speaker B: is, the cross is just as real. [00:28:23] Speaker A: You got to get that. [00:28:24] Speaker B: Why? [00:28:25] Speaker A: Because sometimes the desires I have are overwhelming. And the feelings I have, those things are real. The guilt that I live with, that's real. And now you're wanting me to sort of just affirm this fairy tale, these words in my head. Cross, righteousness, resurrection, Jesus, faith. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll believe those things. No. You are being called to by the word of God. Believe in a real thing that happened to you. [00:29:00] Speaker B: You know your sin's real. [00:29:02] Speaker A: You did it. You feel it. You understand the condemnation for it. But the cross is just as real, if not more real. Jesus died for you. Grace and peace are not abstract. They are real as flesh and blood. [00:29:19] Speaker B: Heaven. [00:29:20] Speaker A: Hanging from a cross, suffocating on his own blood, screaming out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why am I enduring your wrath right now. [00:29:33] Speaker B: And the answer is so you would never have to be forsaken. That's real. [00:29:37] Speaker A: And that's where you have to live. You have to live in that gospel. [00:29:43] Speaker B: And this should be our prayer for one another. [00:29:46] Speaker A: I don't want to be a church [00:29:47] Speaker B: where we just walk around and it's just kind of pleasantriestries all the time, and we generically love one another and speak kind words to one another. [00:29:57] Speaker A: Paul roots everything he says in the [00:30:00] Speaker B: gospel in the cross, and we got [00:30:03] Speaker A: to learn to do that as a church. Think about the people in your life right now who, you know they're feeling unworthy. You know, they feel like they're not enough. They're trying to be the best. [00:30:20] Speaker B: Mom, dad, friend, employee, student. And you know, they are stricken with their insufficiencies. [00:30:34] Speaker A: Don't just text them, I'm praying for you. [00:30:37] Speaker B: Do that, do that. But let's go a little bit further. I'm praying for you, brother. I'm praying for you, sister, that you would know the grace and peace of the reality that the Father sent the Son to die for you. This week. Ground all of your hope and all of your confidence in the cross. Let's begin to talk about the cross that way. [00:31:06] Speaker A: When you think about people who are haunted by their past, they just can't get over the guilt. Remind them that Jesus died for them all of their sin, past, present and future. Jesus endured the wrath. Let's speak the gospel. Let's pray the gospel. Let's talk about the Gospel. [00:31:27] Speaker B: Two and four one another. But notice, finally, no other gospel gives God the glory. Notice verse 5 at the end of this greeting that is just smashed with gospel truth. He says to him, whom be the glory forever and ever? [00:31:49] Speaker A: And this is the question in the [00:31:50] Speaker B: book of Galatians, who gets the glory? [00:31:56] Speaker A: In what gospel does God get the glory? [00:32:01] Speaker B: What's the glory? It's the gospel that Paul is preaching here. And he ends this greeting, to whom be the glory? We could say credit boast worth worship. [00:32:14] Speaker A: God is the one. God the Father. It was his plan. He is the one who gets the glory for the gospel. And he will forever this is what he has done. If you are saved, it is because God saved you and forever you will give him the credit beginning to end that he saved you. He gets all the glory in the gospel. And if you're here today and you're coming to Jesus and you're saying, I just want to tack Jesus on to my life and I want to make it better, but at the end of the day, I need some credit for it. I need someone to pat me on the back and say, you came to church today, great job, buddy. I need someone to give me credit for all the things that I do for Jesus. [00:33:00] Speaker B: It doesn't work that way with God. He gets all the glory and that's for our good. [00:33:07] Speaker A: Because if we get any of the [00:33:09] Speaker B: glory, if it works that way, it's not good news because we got to save ourselves. You can't save yourself. [00:33:18] Speaker A: The price is too great, the justice is too severe. But what we do, our tendency, there's two people here today, we try to steal God's glory in one of two ways. [00:33:30] Speaker B: Meaning this. [00:33:30] Speaker A: We try to get into heaven in [00:33:32] Speaker B: one of two ways with pride. [00:33:35] Speaker A: Selfish. [00:33:36] Speaker B: Right. Self righteous pride, where we emphasize all the good I do. [00:33:43] Speaker A: Let me talk about all the good that I do. [00:33:46] Speaker B: You know, the way I was raised, you know how I vote. You know, I went to church. You know, I got the Royal Ambassador Award when I was 6 in Southern Baptist Life. And then I was awana and I got the Timothy Award. And I've gone to every campus ministry, [00:34:02] Speaker A: every night of the week and I've [00:34:04] Speaker B: gone to every Bible study. [00:34:05] Speaker A: I, I'm involved in it all. I do it all. And you think you're going to stand before God and you're going to read him your resume and you're going to [00:34:14] Speaker B: get into heaven and you're not because that doesn't bring glory to God. We do all those things out of gratitude. We don't get into heaven because of those things. That's your pride. That's sinful pride in your attempt to [00:34:30] Speaker A: make much of Jesus. You're making less of him because it's all about you. And so we steal his glory and our pride. We also steal his glory in our pity. Because there's some of you here today and say, no, I didn't do any [00:34:45] Speaker B: of those things while y' all were [00:34:48] Speaker A: at church camp during the summer. You don't want to know what I was doing. I was really bad. You don't emphasize all the good you do. You emphasize all the bad you do. You don't know how bad I am. I'm dark and I'm twisted and I have these horrible feelings and I have these horrible thoughts and I've done these horrible things. And you emphasize pity and you say, God, you just can't save me. I am too bad. [00:35:18] Speaker B: Neither of those make much of Jesus. Why? Here's the reason why. They both say Jesus is not enough. I Have to add to what he's done, or he's not enough to save me from what I've done. Pride and pity. Which one of those do you live in today? Because your pride doesn't make much of Jesus, and neither does your pity. Wallowing in pity over your sin does not make much of Jesus. You're not that good. You're not. And you really are that bad. And here's the good news. Jesus gets the glory for saving us from our pride and our pity. The things that we can't do ourself and the things that we have done to ourself and others out of sin. And he saves us from both. Here's the thing. Genuine faith does not look to yourself, whether good or bad, but Christ, who is enough. That's what faith is. [00:36:27] Speaker A: Not looking to yourself at all. [00:36:30] Speaker B: Your works, your feelings, your sin. [00:36:33] Speaker A: You don't look to those things. You look to Christ, who is enough to save you from those things. It is Christ and Him who alone that saves you from your sin. And genuine faith leans on him alone, looks to him alone, relies on him alone. He is enough. His cross, his righteousness, his resurrection is all you need to be saved. [00:36:59] Speaker B: Look to Him. Here's the question we ask when people come to join our church. When you stand before God, and if he were to ask you, why should he allow you into heaven? What would you say? What would you say today, you standing before God right now, and he says, why should I allow you in? What are you going to say? If there is a smidgen in your soul that says, I was good, I went to church, I did all these things, then you won't go to heaven. You won't. That's not genuine faith. I say that because I love you. And I say that because there's an easier way. It's Christ. It's Christ alone. Or what if you stood before him today and [00:37:53] Speaker A: he said, why should I allow you in? [00:37:55] Speaker B: And you said, well, you shouldn't. That's a good start. But don't say you can't. Don't say to God you can't. I'm too bad. [00:38:07] Speaker A: That's a wrong answer, too. That's a prideful answer, too. [00:38:13] Speaker B: No, the only answer is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ that the Father sent, who took on flesh, lived a perfect righteous life, a life you could never live. Jesus Christ, who suffered on the cross, not just agonizing pain, but the just punishment for your sin, God's wrath. Jesus Christ, who God raised from the dead and said, this is my King who has defeated death as a sufficient payment for sin. That's the only thing that's going to save you. That's the only thing that you can look to Christ. He has done what you could never do, and he has saved you from all the bad that you've ever done. And so when you stand before God, the question might be, what good news are we talking about? And the answer is, there's no other gospel.