Please turn in your Vibles to the Galatians chapter 5, verse 5, say something about that 9-11 service and that it was so well attended, and it was very worshipful, and that will be our pattern for those first Wednesdays. The day of prayer and fasting will meet here in the sanctuary at noon, 12-10-12-45, and be a lot of the same kind of thing with the same seeing of hymns and prayers and silent prayers. It was a wonderful, wonderful time. I encourage you now to make those plans. First Wednesdays at noon, here in the sanctuary, 5-5. Galatians chapter 5, verse 5, is the last full statement of this principle of justification by faith alone, and it's a pencil to the Galatians. That doesn't mean we won't hear about justification by faith alone again. Certainly we will, we'll keep pounding it as Paul does, but this is the last full statement of this principle of justification by faith. And this morning we consider only one verse. We pull back on the reins so to speak in our series in Galatians. We're following Terry Johnson's exposition here where he slowed down himself and took just this one verse, which has been called a convenient summary of the gospel. In one verse, and this one verse Paul reminds us of three vital articles of our faith, three very important articles of salvation that for starters it's a work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Secondly, it is faith, and then thirdly, it requires of us a patient hope as we wait eagerly for our future righteousness. Last Lord's Day, we ended our time together with a series of questions, some hard-hitting questions that had as their premise a very simple question. And that question is, was and is, in what are you trusting? That's simple enough. And then in what are you trusting? That's the question this morning. It's the question from 5-5, in what are you trusting? To the one who has never truly put their faith in Christ, to the one who has never really, really surrendered at all. To the one who has never lifted up to God empty hands, and again surrendered his whole life to God in what are you trusting? To the self-righteous, the one who attempts to commend themselves to God on the basis of their morality, to the self-righteousness, committing themselves to God on the basis of having integrity, or being a nice person, or being a good guy, or being nice, giving community service.
To the one who is, we might say the most docturally sound individual in our church, the one who affirms justification by faith along with the best of them, in what are you trusting? In other words, to all who are present, this verse demands of us that we ask boldly to everyone who's here this morning who's listening by radio, that'll be in 11. In what are you trusting? Because there may be one who professes with their mouth, they may even know the Latin, they may even say, so the feet are faith alone, but in their hearts, they're still judy eyes, because in their hearts they still want to have something to do with their salvation. In their hearts, they still want to say, I want to be justified in the presence of God, because it's something I've done, something that I have offered him. So again, to the self-righteous individual, you've got to dig deep to admit yourself righteous, to the one who's guilt-written, and joyless, and anxious, and this person who is assur... You might say it's assurance-lacking, because they're trying to earn God's favor. To the hyper-defensive, who has so much pride, you can't teach him anything, to the critical, hyper-critical individual who's dominated by this works mentality, to the one who would really have to admit that their relationship with God is wrapped up in performance, to you and to me. PCA reformed Protestant Presbyterians in what are you trusting? And if, by the grace of God, you're trusting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, then does your life prove that? Does your life prove that position? Is your experience, is your behavior, is your life a testimony to that end? That's what Galatians 5.5 is about, as we stand together for the reading of God's Word, which will begin in verse 1 of Galatians 5. The verses we considered last week, verses 1 to 4, God's inherent and infallible Word, stand fast therefore, and the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing, and I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become a strains from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. In our Texas morning, for we, through the spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. All men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. Amen. It was Christian at the conclusion of Pilgrim's progress who said, then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven. To be so close, and yet to be so far, to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and believe that he is the second person of the Godhead, to believe that Jesus is God Himself, to believe that Jesus came to die for sinners and to know all the facts. That he died on the cross, to take away our sin, to believe all the basic tenets of salvation, to even send to their validity, to believe all of that, and then to believe that it's Jesus plus my being good enough. Or to say, I believe all these things about Jesus, and I believe that he died on the cross, to take away sin. And I just know I got to keep the law to be saved. Jesus plus, Jesus plus the law, Jesus plus my own righteousness, Jesus plus anything is to find the way to hell from the gates of heaven. And Jesus plus is always Jesus minus, to add anything, to add the slightest personal merit to faith in Jesus is to be severed from Christ, to fall from grace, and to really understand it because we don't have time to go back and look at it lastly, get the tape on that. The verses that precede this verse, but to add the slightest personal merit is to fall from grace, is to make the cross of no benefit to the very place that grace and merit intersect. Talking about trying to make myself right in God's sight at the very place that Christ and the law intersect, or the place that faith and works intersect at that very point, the gospel is overthrown. It's no longer the gospel, it's no longer the gospel of grace. And that's why it is, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that Paul gives yet another summary of the only way to heaven. He reminds us that it's a work of the Spirit and it's by faith and it requires hope. You'll notice first the first section of that verse 5, which says, for we through the Spirit. You may notice there's a pronoun shift there. Thus far Paul has been addressing his readers and warning them of the dangers of falling away. Now he shifts from you to we. He includes himself when Paul includes himself, he's including all genuine believers, all evangelical believers, those who are truly Christians, we, we, all of us through the Spirit talking about being saved, talking about salvation, justification before God. Could it be more clear than that? We, through the Spirit, it's a biblical statement to say salvation is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit, not a result of the work of man, not to commend someone, not to pat him on the back and say, you made the right choice, you made the right decision, I'm so proud of you. The biblical understanding is that it's a work of the Holy Spirit. Why does it have to be a work of Holy Spirit? Because again, using biblical language, man is blind, man is weak and man is a lover of darkness, not only does man not have interest in the light, he hates the light. John 319-20, no one seeks God, Paul tells the Romans in chapter 3 verse 11. No one in the history of the world, not one soul has ever of their own initiative removed themselves from the darkness and placed themselves or put themselves in the light. Because you can't, it's impossible. You don't have it as hard as you don't have the ability to do it. If you're calling me and saying, I'm going to send you on a trip, we're going to trip together and I'm going to take you to Mount Everest. We're going to spend about 10 days up there and we're going to climb it, we're going to reach the summit. I can't do that, I can't climb Everest, I don't have the ability, I'm not in the shape, there's no way I would even begin to be able to do anything. Any kind of mountain climbing like that? I don't have it as hard to do it, as I was writing this illustration, I was with Judge Dubena somewhere and he said, yeah, I just got back from Mount Rainier, I climbed it, went to the summit and said, we just ruined my illustration in a couple of weeks. I have no desire, there's no ability, but natural man has no inclination toward God, no desire for him, there's no good in man that would even allow him to have the slightest desire to seek after God. Even if I say, it's biblical speaking again, man is dead, man is dead in his sin, dead men don't climb mountains, that would be a good question for Judge Dubena, did you see any dead men climbing Mount Rainier? Of course not, dead men don't do that. I can't seek after things, dead men don't desire, the natural man, the unbeliever has no more ability or desire to seek after God than a dead man would walk through these doors and have the ability and desire to ask for a glass of water. It's impossible, it has to be, the Holy Spirit supernaturally working, moving into the heart and the life and the soul of an individual, it's the Holy Spirit that changes the heart and renews the will and quickens the dead heart and takes out the heart of stone and puts it a heart of flesh. It's the Holy Spirit that moves that individual to Christ, but they would never ever take that first step toward God. In the 4th century, a British monk, with the name of Plagius, taught that man had the ability to take that first step toward God, apart from the grace of God, apart from any work of the Holy Spirit that he was not only man's responsibility, but he was man's duty to make this first step toward God and Augustine vehemently opposed Plagius in 431 AD in the Council of Ephesus. Plagianism, this belief that somehow a man could take the first step toward God was condemned by the church as heresy, heretical teaching to think that the man could take a step toward God without first the work of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the church has historically always taught the salvation as a miracle of grace and the life of an individual. Turn with me to a number of passages, look back first at the Gospel of John, about four or five books back, John chapter three, where we learn you must be born again. If you have any hope or salvation, you must yourself to be born again. The spirit causes you to be born again. In John chapter three, at verse three, Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Turn back to chapters to John chapter one, where we learn again that to be born again is not the will of man. At verse 12, but as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Now come back to our Galatians again to 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, 1 Corinthians 12, verse 3. Where we learn nothing of myself that makes me right with God no moral effort, no religious effort, trying real hard is not going to get me there, 1 Corinthians 12, verse 3. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus a curse, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. And then back again to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and as you're turning there, and if you're writing notes down, then write down 1 John 4-19. First John 4-19 says, we love him because he first loved us. The first Corinthians 1, verses 30 and 31 say, but of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. So how many of our testimonies tend to glory in ourselves, how many testimonies do you hear, and all they talk about is the decision that they may. It's not a matter of making a decision to follow Jesus, it's not like someone sits down and weighs the evidence, it's not like you sit down and weigh the evidence and evaluate the benefits and then make some rational decision to give your life to Jesus. That's not why you're a Christian. In the same manner it's not because you walked an aisle or because you prayed a prayer or raised a hand or signed a card, and you may have done any or all of the above. When you were converted, but that didn't save you, that act didn't save you, unless the Holy Spirit supernaturally intervenes in your life, you would choose darkness every single time. And so Paul is saying to them, you tell those Judaizers and you tell those legalists, they didn't choose Jesus, Jesus chose them. John 15, verse 16, and when Jesus said that to disciples in John 15, when Jesus said to disciples, look, you didn't choose me, I chose you. He knew they had made a decision, I mean obviously they made some kind of decision because they had left their trade, they left their businesses, they were following him, they made that decision to do it, but they had made the decision because of his decision that they would make the decision. His decision made their decision possible. So don't imagine that you're saved because of your own effort, your own ingenuity, your own energy, your own decision, even when someone asks you, how are you saved? Don't say because I decided to follow Jesus. I said because the Holy Spirit awakened me. He brought me to life, showed me my sin, it was through the Spirit, through the Spirit, that's your answer, through the Spirit, by faith. You'll notice he says, for we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness, by faith. Johnson's definition of faith here is that it's the empty handed response, an empty handed response of a person who, who buy the grace of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit has caused him to be raised from death to life spiritually. They realize for the first time in their lives they can't earn salvation and so they turn to Jesus and they realize that only in Jesus are they saved. They fall in their face before him, they plead for mercy since chapter 2, verse 16, Paul has been hammering away at this theme over and over and over again, positively spated it was justified in the sight of God by faith. Negatively framed, he says, it's not by works, it's not by keeping the law. It's by faith and from chapter 2, verse 16 until the end of chapter 3, he uses the word faith or belief 19 times. Just look and remember a few of those turn back to chapter 2, verse 16. This was the verse that really kicked it off. Galatians 2, verse 16 says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. Chapter 2, verse 21, I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. Chapter 3, verse 7, therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. Chapter 3, verse 11, but that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, but the just shall live by faith. Chapter 3, verse 13, Christ has redeemed us and in verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Chapter 3, verse 22, but the scripture has confined all understand that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Chapter 3, verse 24, therefore the law is our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. I had an appointment with one of our elders and this is about three weeks ago and he said before we get started with our meeting, let me ask him a little bit confused or we say by works or by faith, he was kidding. We've been very repetitive, for 22 weeks we've been repetitive. Paul's been repetitive, but God help us if we tire of hearing this same truth that our moral and our religious accomplishments do not play any part whatsoever in our salvation.
No part, they contribute nothing where we are saved by faith and this faith we're talking about is faith in Jesus. Faith is not our Savior, Jesus is. Sincereity is not my hope. Faith has no saving power in it, except we don't confuse the means with the in as some people do when they say all you've got to have is faith. It doesn't matter what you have faith in, it doesn't matter. All religions are really the same. As long as you're sincere as long as you have faith, you have faith in Buddha, you have faith in Jesus, you have faith in the force, it doesn't matter as long as you have faith. Faith is our Savior, sincerity is our Savior, is that what we're seeing as we're going to sing at the end of this service. There he says he's said he's saved no. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. You know that bridge over Vaughan Road, Montgomery Academy's bridge. I've only walked across that bridge two times. I don't like crossing that bridge, I don' like heights at all. once Claude Mack and I walked across to go to a basketball game the next time we're riding down a straight man, nearly. I've been across the bridge and New Claude Mack had been across the bridge. He's dying to cross the bridge and so I saw the football team over here practicing. I thought maybe it's open. I'm stressed against the rules but went across the bridge and I just I stay right in the middle. I don't like looking at the cracks and the pavement. I don't like thinking about the person who built it. I don't like thinking anything man jumps up and down on it and she runs the fence part you know and looks over at the cars but our faith whether our whether our faith is strong like man's in a bridge or whether it's weak my mind is of no consequence. If the bridge falls our faith didn't gonna keep us from falling on the road and getting hit by car. The reason faith in Christ saves you is because Christ can deliver because Christ died for you because Christ has accomplished your redemption at the cross and faith in something else faith in a false religion or faith in in myself or faith in morality is worthless. It's not gonna do anything. It's like putting faith in a broken chair that's certain to fall if you sit in he's not gonna hold you up. There may be someone here this morning is not in a right relationship with God and you need to be in a right relationship with God. I'm not talking about some vague notion about belief in God. Talking about coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and knowing that he's a real person. He was here in real space and time in real history that he died on a real cross with a real purpose to say real souls. You have to turn to what does it mean to turn to Jesus it means you believe that what he says about himself is true. It means that you're trusting to what he accomplished on the cross was real and you humble yourself before and you confess your sins and you surrender everything to him. Being a Christian or becoming a Christian is not simply accepting a creed or adopting Christian ethics or or adopting some Christian philosophy of life and then say well I must be a Christian now. Christianity dealing with a real person to be a Christian you have to know the facts. You got to know what really happened but not only do you have to know something about the history and knowing that Jesus died on the cross you got to believe that really happened. You got to ascend to those facts. You got to believe they're true but even if you believe that much you've only elevated yourself to that of a demon. Demons know that much and they tremble in fear. You have to trust. You have to take that knowledge. You got to take it beyond that and trust that he did it for me. That's what faith and Christ is. We all said to creed this morning together. That's wonderful but have you dealt with the Christ of the creed? Do you pray to the Christ of the creed? Do you confess your sins to him and recognize that the Christ of the creed is your Lord and your Savior. No amount of morality is going to save you. No amount of religion is going to save you but only coming to him and trusting him and him alone will save and it's only then that you have hope. That's what he says in the middle section of the verse. For waiting for the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Eagerly wait is hope of righteousness as a reference to a future righteousness. So there he is. If you didn't notice a future dimension to our salvation. We've not realized that yet it hadn't happened to us yet but it will. You can even say it's a reference to eternal glory. It's a it's a reference to heaven. We're waiting for it. We eagerly wait for it in the same way that we don't earn justification. We don't work for that. We don't keep the law to get it in the same way. We don't earn eternal salvation. We don't earn that righteousness that's waiting on us. We don't have to anxiously work for security. My own security that I'm going to heaven someday. It's a gift. We're eagerly waiting for it because we're not there yet. We're not arrived yet. You say, well, I thought that you said that we are righteous in God's sight. We are. But there's still a future dimension to that righteousness when we're made perfect and we'll never sin again in heaven one day. In the interim we deal with sin. We're selfish. We're bitter and we're jealous people. We're envious. We're covetous. We're lustful. We're fault-finding people. We have doubt. We're very critical. We're very defensive and we hate it and we want to turn away from it and we struggle with it day in and day out and that's why we're eagerly waiting because one day it'll not be this way. One day we'll never sin again. Notice the meditation upon entering the sanctuary by Moris says the whole of the Christian life is the present possession of blessings which will be realized in fuller measure in the life to come. But we're always going to wrestle with sin here on this side. We're always going to note tribulation and struggle and sorrows and suffering and that comes as a surprise to many people. Unbelievers who look at our lives, they see a sin they point the finger and they laugh at us or they shake their heads or roll their eyes. They say, look at those hypocrites and when you say them, you're right. I know I'm a hypocrite. I didn't mean that I'm I don't I'm excusing my sin and it's somehow I'm growing complacent in my sin. It's just to say I'm enough of a realist to say yes I do sin and I sin every day but I'm not always going to sin. I have hope that one day I'll receive a future dimension of my salvation. So this verse provides for us not only these summary articles of our faith but at the same time they they give us these three characteristics of a godly life. The godly life, for example, is lived through the spirit, not through the flesh. A godly life is lived by faith and not by works. A godly life is a life of patient waiting and hope and not anxious uncertainty. And if you don't have those three, you can have them. You can have them today. You can have them this morning. You can you can have walked in here and not had not had hope and not had the spirit and not had faith and you walk out these doors and you have the spirit of God living in you. It's just a matter of having faith in Christ, trusting him to take away your sin. You'll walk out of here and you will henceforth live for him. If you want to talk about that, I'd love to talk to you. I'll be at the door but then I'm free after that. Elder or Deacon, I might ask our elders and Deacons to sort of least hang around just for a few minutes in case somebody you may turn to the person sitting next to you. Any of our members could point you to the direction of a minister or an elder or Deacon, somebody to talk to you about your relationship with Christ. We're going to end our time together by saying it.