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through the Bible reading and you see the reference on the screen so if you're

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able turn up your Bibles or your devices and follow along.

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We're at the end of chapter 2 of Galatians from verse 17 to 21 if you're

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using one of the Bibles provided on the seats you'll find it right at the bottom

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of page 943. Galatians 2 from verse 17, but if in seeking to be justified in

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Christ we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners doesn't that mean that

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Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not. If I rebuild what I destroyed then I really

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would be a law breaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might

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live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ

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lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God

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who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God for if

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righteousness could be gained through the law Christ died for nothing.

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Good morning again church. Be handy to have your Bibles open with you this

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morning as we will be in our text quite a lot but before we get into the

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scriptures let's ask our Father to help us in understanding them. Would you please

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pray with me? Father we do thank you for these words that have been breathed by

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you and given to us. We ask that your word would be sharper than any double

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edged sword in our midst this morning and that it wouldn't come back void. We

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ask that your Holy Spirit would work among us and bring us to a better

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understanding of what has been achieved by our Lord and Savior and we ask for

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this in his name. Amen. Now I don't claim to be a doctor in any which way but even

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I know that an infection is usually a presenting symptom of an underlining

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sickness that shouldn't be ignored. Wisdom cries in the streets with this one

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church. Ignoring an infection can be the worst possible thing to do for the body

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because if the underlining sickness isn't dealt with the infection will

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only get worse. Now I'm starting our time off with this

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grotesque picture because it serves as a pretty good illustration as to the part

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of Galatians that we find ourselves in this morning. There was a sickness that

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had entered the body there in Antioch that threatened to infect the entire

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congregation. That sickness was fear and the presenting infection was legalism.

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You might remember it the Apostle Peter came from Jerusalem the church there to

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the church in Antioch to fellowship with his brothers and sisters in Christ and

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this was huge because historically Jews and Gentiles didn't meet in the same

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place but Peter was happy to come to this church and fellowship with them

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because in Christ the wall of Jew and Gentile had been torn down. Peter knew

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this and he was happy to not just meet but eat with his brothers and sisters in

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Christ because the gospel encouraged it. But then as we saw there in verse 12 a

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group of guys came from a Jewish sect in Jerusalem and because of fear of what

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they would think of him eating with the Gentiles and how fear gripped Peter's

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heart he separated himself as well as all the others that had a Jewish

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background. You might say a sickness had taken root and the infection was

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spreading but as we saw last week the Apostle Paul he saw it for what it was.

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The gospel wasn't leading the decisions being made. Fear was which was causing

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his brothers to be infected with the stench of hypocrisy reverting back to

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an old rule of segregation which they thought made them clean and righteous

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before God. That's the context of what's going on here. A pillar of the faith has

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not walked in line with the gospel. Fear drove him to act like a hypocrite and he

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dragged others along with him in his hypocrisy. So instead of leaving this

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infection to spread through the whole body Paul treats the cause, the illness if

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you will, by bringing everyone's attention back to the gospel saying

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people are justified before God by faith in Jesus not by works of the law. We see

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that there in verse 16. That in a nutshell is the gospel Paul preached.

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People are justified before God by faith in Jesus not by works of the law. Now you

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might be here this morning and never heard that word justified. Well I think

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it would be a good idea to see what it means as it's really going to help us to

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understand the rest of the passage that we're going to be looking at this

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morning. You see the word justified is a term that was used in the Greco-Roman

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world which declared in the eyes of the law that you weren't just innocent but

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in total right standing with the law. That's what the word justification means.

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It doesn't mean just innocent it means totally righteous in the eyes of the

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law. How does it come about? Well Paul's gospel that he received from Jesus as

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he said in the first chapter of this book taught that God had made it possible

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that we could be justified in his sight because he sent his only begotten son who

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acted as a substitute a person in our place in that he took on the cross the

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punishment for our sin. That preached Paul is the only way in which we can be

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justified. It is that Jesus gave himself so that whosoever puts their faith in

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him and not in their own efforts to keep the law might not just be declared

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innocent but stand before the judge of the world totally righteous. Totally

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righteous because we're clothed in the perfect work of the one who gave himself

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for sinners. To put that as simply as I can by undeserved love Jesus traded

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places with us. He gave us his wonderful riches and was crucified for our filthy

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rags. That's a basic explanation of what's being said there in verse 16.

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People are justified before God by faith in Jesus not by works of the law. This

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morning we're in this same conversation however as you'll see Paul starts to

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answer the arguments of the false teachers that had infiltrated the

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congregations there in Galatia. The legalists who said yes Jesus is

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important but you also must keep the law to be justified and these next few

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verses are going to show us a couple of things about all of this. First in verses

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17 to 18 we're going to see that we mustn't rebuild what's been torn down

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and second in verses 19 to 21 that we must die to our own efforts in order to

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truly live for God. Right so if you have your Bibles with you this morning let's

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look at verses 17 and 18. We must not rebuild what's been torn down. We read

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but if in seeking to be justified there's that word in Christ we Jews find

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ourselves among the sinners doesn't that mean that Christ promotes sin?

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Absolutely not. If I rebuild what I destroy then I really would be a law

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breaker. Okay so going back to the context of this whole conversation this

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whole thing is over the place of the law and the Christian life its relation to

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it and I think a bit of context a bit of background is going to help us

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understand the depth of what's really being said here because I must warn it's

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pretty complicated. You see the Jewish people they had a special relationship

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with God in that out of all the people of the world God chose and gave them his

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law he revealed it to them that they were to follow which was designed to

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make them different from the world because they had revelation they had

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the law of the living God. This means that they wouldn't be like the Gentiles

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because they followed their own imaginations made up idols or evil

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spirits. The problem was however that as the Jews went to obey the law they

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quickly found that they weren't able to. Now like the Gentiles they were found

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to be sinners. Now this came as no surprise to God that's why he gave his

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people a priesthood and a sacrificial system to engage in and for those who

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loved God they knew that the sacrificial system was so very gracious but only a

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preview of something much greater that would really deal with their sin

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eternally. Looking back on the old covenant the preacher to the Hebrews he

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says it like this the old system under the law of Moses was only but a shadow

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a dim preview of the good things to come and not the good things themselves. The

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sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again but they were

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never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. Instead

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those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sin year after year for it's

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not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. We find that in

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Hebrews 10. Do you see what's being said there? God's people under the old

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covenant were to see two things simultaneously. They were to see that

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they couldn't keep the law perfectly and that the sacrificial system wasn't the

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final solution for their sin. That's what the law was given for to show them that

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justification couldn't come by their own law keeping but by God's mercy and

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grace which he would provide for them in a perfect sacrifice someday. That's the

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gospel Paul preached. People aren't justified by God through the works of

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the law. No we're justified by faith in Jesus Christ. That's always been the way

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but this was the problem. There were Jewish teachers that were coming into

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the churches and essentially saying that if Paul's right that if people are

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justified by faith in Jesus alone and not by their own law keeping then they'll

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all be like Gentiles. They'll all be sinners. That's what Paul alludes to

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there in verse 17. Essentially they said with this kind of doctrine Paul's Christ

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promotes sin in that he's making law-abiding Jews like lawless Gentiles. To

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put it simply these legalists were afraid. If people were justified not on

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the basis of their own law keeping but on the basis of faith in Jesus then they

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accused that everyone in the church would be like sinful Gentiles. No they

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said Jesus is important but you need to keep the law yourself to be justified. So

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we might ask the question. I think the question has been asked many times

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through the years. Did Paul's doctrine of justification by faith alone make Jesus

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the promoter of sin? Absolutely not says Paul. God forbid that King James renders

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it. Embracing Christ alone by faith doesn't make me a lawbreaker. If I

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rebuild what I destroyed that would make me a lawbreaker as he says here. That's

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really interesting what he's saying. What would make Paul a lawbreaker? What would

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make him unrighteous? Well he says here it would be going back to rebuild what I

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once held on to. That's what would really make me a lawbreaker. So let's ask. What

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did he hold on to? What did he tear down? Well as you read through the book of

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Galatians we see that Paul torn down a whole mentality, a whole mindset that the

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law was a means for self justification. That's what he torn down. So his point is

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in light of the gospel I've got rid of that way of thinking. If I go back to

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work for my righteousness by the law I'd be restoring a distorted view of why the

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law was given. That's what Paul is essentially saying here. If I return to

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using the law as a way to establish my own righteousness that that would really

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make me a lawbreaker. Admittedly this is complicated but but I think this

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illustration I heard the other day captures how the Jews got it so wrong in

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this context. You see they viewed the law something like a ladder rather than a

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train track. As I said before originally God gave the law to reveal to God's

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people that they were to be different in this world but as we also saw as they

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went about going to obey the law they quickly saw that they needed mercy and

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grace to be driving the whole thing. Grace was what they needed to be pushing

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the so-called train along the track not their own works. That was how the law was

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meant to be received. It was never meant to be a ladder that they were to view as

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a way to get to heaven. A way to get to heaven in their own strength. However

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that's what the legalists push. That's what Paul had believed when he was a

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rabbi. They understood and taught the law to be like a ladder that you had to

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climb in your own efforts. They define those efforts with traditions their own

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traditions. They said follow these and in the end God will justify you. Paul's

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point is this. I once saw the law like that. I once saw it like a ladder to

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climb up in my own strength. So if I try and grab that ladder and put it back up

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and start walking up that thing in my own strength that that is going to make

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me a law breaker. Church let's pause here for a moment and ask a question in

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light of everything that Paul's saying here. Have you fallen into that mindset?

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Are you relying on your own good works to justify you before God? Are you looking

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to the good things that you do like a ladder that will eventually get you to

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heaven? Do you strive to climb day by day your way up to God hoping that with each

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good deed he'll owe you something in the end? If you're here this morning and you

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think like that you've totally missed the point of why Jesus had to come and

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give himself for your sin in the first place. Paul has news for all of us this

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morning. We are justified by faith in Christ alone not by our own works. It

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doesn't matter how good you think you are, how moral you believe yourself to be,

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how devout you feel. If you think that your own good works are going to be the

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thing that justifies you before the God of the universe then you have totally

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missed the point of the cross. It's the first thing we see here. It's the first truth that Paul

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brings to light. We're not to go back to what has been torn down. We're not to go

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back and pick that ladder up and try to start climbing that thing in our own

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strength to find justification. No, it's by the grace, the undeserved, the

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unmerited love of God that we are justified and by his grace that we keep

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on track. And that's the second thing I want us to look at. We must die to our

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efforts in order to truly live for God. We read here in verses 19 to 21, through

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the law I died to the law that I might live for God. I have been crucified with

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Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the

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body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I

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don't set aside the grace of God for if righteousness could be gained through

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the law, Christ died for nothing. Now you may have noticed as I just read that out

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that we're still on this same theme, right? How the law relates to the

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Christian life and I think what's going on here, I think what's going on is that

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Paul pulls back the curtain on his own experience with the law when he lived

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under it. To say that simply, way back when when Paul was an observant Jew under the

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law, as he started to view himself in the light of it all, he realized that he fell

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short. He tried to keep the law but in the doing he found that there was no way

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to climb the ladder, no way to climb the ladder to earn justification by the

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works of the law. So there had to be another way to be made right with God, a

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way in which his works weren't the answer. So he had to die to trying to

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keep the law because it kept condemning him. But what was he to do? If his works

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can't save him, if his traditions were never going to justify him, what was he

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to do? Well he tells us the answer to those questions in verse 20. He had to

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embrace the work of another. He had to somehow receive the work of one who did

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keep the law perfectly. He had to somehow be united to Christ's substitutionary

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death so that the law would no longer condemn him. And that's exactly what the

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gospel held out. That's exactly what we receive by faith in Jesus. We receive

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Christ's perfect work on our behalf. Paul says there in verse 20, I've been

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crucified with Christ, I no longer live but Christ lives in me. Hear that. Paul

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discovered something about the way of justification that was revealed to him

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by Jesus and it had nothing to do with Paul and his works but everything to do

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with the Son of God who loved him and gave himself for him. Isn't that what the

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law was given for? That's what Paul was meant to see in the first place. God's

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perfect righteousness and our own utter inability to live up to God's perfect

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standards so that we might embrace by faith the one who was always promised,

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Jesus Christ. Church, I'd argue that's still the place of the law and what it

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does. The law is still meant to show us our own utter depravity and our own

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utter inability to keep its requirements so that we might behold Christ, the one

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who kept it perfectly and call upon his name. Paul will say elsewhere it's through

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the law that comes the knowledge of sin. Until you become totally frustrated with

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your inability to live a righteous life in the face of God and like Paul died

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trying to keep it in your own strength, the law, until you come to that point all

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you will ever do is try and fail and try and fail and try and fail to climb that

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ladder. The law was given to point beyond itself. It was given to point to our Lord

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and Savior Jesus Christ. So important that we get what Paul is putting down

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for us here. The only way to be justified before the judge of the universe isn't

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by trying harder but by being united to God's Son by faith. That's what Paul's

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holding out here. There's simply no other options. God has a law. Both Jews and

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Gentiles have broken that law and we need to be saved from the penalty of

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law breaking which is eternal death and damnation. This is the good news. This is

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the great news. This is the wonderful news. Jesus sent his beloved Son who gave

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his sinless life for the sin of his people. When we give up on trying to make

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ourselves acceptable and all shiny and and nice by our own efforts and

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embrace Christ by faith it's then and only then that we're united to Christ

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and stand before the judge of the universe totally and utterly justified.

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Like it's been said before Jesus gave us his riches and he was crucified for our

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dirty rags and it's because of his riches given because of his life received

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because of our eternal punishment being met the penalty of law breaking can

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never be met on God's children ever again. I no longer live but Christ lives

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in me. That's true of you this morning.

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Do you see the wonderful truth of the gospel? Paul was a man who lived under

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the law doing all he could to obey something but as he went to obey he saw

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he simply couldn't. He saw that trying to live to the righteous requirements was

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impossible and so when the cross of Christ was revealed to him it made all

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the difference in the world because it was no longer his faulty works that he

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was looking to but the perfect works of Jesus who he'd embraced by faith and

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because Paul was united to Christ and his life and death by the Holy Spirit

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given he was no longer able to be condemned by the law because he was

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joined to the one who perfectly kept the law and paid the penalty for all his

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sin and law breaking. Now as an aside knowing all of that that answers the

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question of the legalists doesn't it? They accused Paul that faith alone in

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Christ alone naturally leads to sin alone but in light of everything that

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Paul has said this morning he answers that question. How could a person be

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embraced by Christ be united to his perfect work by the Holy Spirit and then

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live a life that's contrary to God's leading and guiding? God doesn't lead his

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people into sin. God leads his people into holiness. That's what Paul said now

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animated his life. What drove the train down the so-called track? He no longer

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looked to the Lord to see how good he was doing like a ladder to climb. Now

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what drove him was a life of faith in Christ who loved him and gave himself

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for him. By grace Paul was a transformed man that lived by faith in what Christ

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had done and not what he thought he needed to now do in his own strength.

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Paul came to realize that we are saved by grace. It's always always been by

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grace because there's nothing in and of ourselves that we can do for ourselves

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or as Paul puts it there in verse 21 I don't set aside the grace of God for if

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righteousness could be gained through the law Christ died for nothing. We're

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reading about a transformed man here. He went from striving to gain righteousness

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to realizing that he had to be rescued and God revealed to him in his infinite

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mercy and grace Christ was sent to die in the place of sinners. It's little

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wonder that we hold on to the doctrine so tightly that we are justified by

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faith in Jesus and not by works of the law. Where do you put your faith this

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morning? Would you say that you put your faith in your own works to try and twist

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God's arm into owing you a place in heaven? Would you say but Michael I read

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the Bible I come to church I serve the poor I love people around me that's

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really why God accepts me. Or if you come to realize that Jesus did everything

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that was necessary to justify you before the creator of the universe.

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If our works could save us, if our own efforts could justify us, then Christ

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truly did die for nothing. Think about this even our faith is a gift from God.

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Make no mistakes dear ones each and every single one of us in this room will

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meet God one day. You'll either stand before him totally condemned or totally

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justified. You'll either die to trying to earn God's favor now and put your

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faith in Jesus or you'll reject Jesus and you'll do all that you can to try to

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earn God's favor and die forever. The choice is yours. So as we end our time in

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this short but powerful passage this morning you can see why Paul bought the

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gospel to bear on his dear brothers who were sin-sick there in Antioch. They were

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guilty of going back looking for that ladder putting it up and trying to

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climb it. So Paul reminds them of something so powerful something that we

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all need to be reminded of over and over and over and over again. If you have put

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your faith in Jesus then you died to the condemnation of the law when Jesus was

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nailed to the cross. You died when you believed and put your trust in his

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perfect work. His death somehow became your death so that his life might truly

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be yours. That's something that we all need to be reminded of time and time

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again. Because of the grace of God because of the work of the Holy Spirit

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who has united God's children to God's Son, his perfect Son and his perfect

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righteousness, God Almighty looks at you and me and sees the perfect obedience

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of his Son and has justified us for all eternity. We have been freed from the

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condemnation of the law so that we might live and breathe and have our being in

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the beloved. Have you come to the end of looking to your own works for self

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righteousness or are you totally trusting in Christ? There's only two ways

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to stand before God one day with dirty rags or clothes in the perfect work, the

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wonderful riches of the Lord Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for

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us. Would you please pray with me?

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Father God we thank you so much for the gospel. We thank you that you are the one

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who is at work in us, that our life is before the throne even at this

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very moment as Christ's. It's so hard for us to comprehend. Father this is a good

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news, this is the good news that you have entrusted to your church. We ask that we

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wouldn't sit here and bask in it but we would be a people used of you to go out

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into this world, to go out into the byways, the highways, into the city of

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Armidale and share what you have achieved in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father you know

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every single heart and mind in this place this morning. I ask in Jesus name

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that by your spirit you would work and lift all of our eyes no matter where we

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are, where we fall, what sickness has come into our lives, what infection that

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we're not looking at, that we would look to the Lord Jesus and that we would be

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cured by the gospel. We ask for this in Jesus name. Amen.