Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc.: Welcome. The following message is a ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is known for ministries such as the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, as well as nationally syndicated radio programs like The Bible Study Hour, Every Last Word, and Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. Our purpose is to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Thank you for listening.

Guest (Male): Good morning. Please open your Bibles to the book of Galatians chapter two. Bob didn't tell you about the scorpion I found in my room in Belize, but that was a first. It's been a wonderful conference and really thankful to be a part of this, especially as a street preaching ministry to come to a reformed preaching conference among pastors who are bringing us such rich teaching.

I want to shift gears a little bit though because while we've been hearing a lot of orthodoxy, I want to move over into the realm of orthopraxy and where this sound doctrine meets the pavement of street evangelism. This is where I want to move towards today.

So if you've turned with me to the book of Galatians in chapter two, we'll begin reading at verse 17. Hear the word of the Lord. "But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not. For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."

Let's pray. Our God and heavenly Father, I thank you for your mercy this morning. I thank you that you never change and that your mercies are new every morning, Lord, because we stand in need every morning of your mercy. Outside of Christ we can do nothing. Apart from Him, Lord, we have no hope. So Lord, I pray that you'd open my mouth to speak in such a way that we would see Him high and lifted up, that He would be exalted and that we'd be made more into His likeness. It's in His worthy name I ask, Amen.

Bob had asked me if I'd be willing to share a word on the subject of sinless perfection. And so this morning, I would like to advocate that you start preaching sinless perfection. And yes, you heard me right. But I don't want to advocate that you start preaching a watered-down view of sinless perfection that we see out in the world. As street preachers, whenever you hear about another street preacher, you think that we'd be a little bit happy to hear about that but usually we're very apprehensive. We have a few questions to ask because there's so much nonsense that goes on out there.

So what do we ask or what are we worried about? Well first, let me just say I'm not advocating the view that says, the false view that says that we're completely and universally free from sin upon conversion and if we commit any act of sin, we're no longer saved. And what's really interesting is that the very texts that they would use to promote that tell them that they can't sin, not able, cannot. But anyways, we're not going to be getting into it from that angle. If you want to safely refute that and get it out of your thinking, just go to First John and look in the original languages paying attention to the tenses.

I'm also not going to be advocating for the view that one can advance so far in their sanctification in this life that they no longer commit any acts of sin. But I do believe, and I want to stress this right from the front, that God does require sinless perfection. He can't require anything less. Because of who He is, His perfect holy nature, He can't require anything less than this. He doesn't have a standard beneath perfection. If He were to accept anything which is imperfect, He would cease to be perfect and He wouldn't be God. And God doesn't change.

In the book of Matthew chapter 5:48 we read this command from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ: "You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." Did you know that? He didn't say you should be perfect, it would be preferable. He said it is necessary: "You must be perfect." The message of the gospel is not a divine loophole to get us around the need for being perfect. That's not what it is. It's not a loophole.

So I want to start here with sin. Because it's impossible to understand this issue of sinless perfection without having a clear understanding of sin. A wrong view about sin and the corruption of the human heart will lead to a wrong view of salvation. Whereas a right understanding of sin leads to a clearer knowledge of salvation and grace. It's not surprising then to discover that a wrong view of sin lies at the root of the false ideas of sinless perfection. Sinless perfection's our language. Don't be afraid of it, correct them. J.C. Ryle said if a man does not realize the dangerous nature of his soul's disease, he can't wonder if he is content with false or imperfect remedies. And my concern today and the reason why I'm coming at it from this angle is because even though I don't think we're doing it consciously, subconsciously we might be giving people a false remedy.

So what is sin? Scripture has a lot to say about it. First John 3:4 states that sin is transgression of the law, and that's usually what you hear it is when you break the law. But he also says in First John 5:17 that all wrongdoing is sin. According to James 4:17, sin is knowing the right thing to do and failing to do it. It's not just doing something wrong, it's not just breaking God's laws, it's knowing something good to do and not doing it. To doing nothing when you know you should do something.

According to Romans 14:23, Paul declares that anything, anything, not some things, not just the bad things, the professed good things if they don't proceed from faith are sin. So sin is not simply an outward act of breaking God's law such as murder or theft or adultery. It's also an inward act of violating the character and the nature of God in your thoughts, such as hatred towards others, indifference, greediness, materialism, and lusting over pornography.

It doesn't stop there. Psalm 97:10: "O you who love the Lord, hate evil." You're not only commanded to obey God's laws through your actions and your thoughts, you're also commanded to be conformed to the law of God in your attitudes. He doesn't say simply avoid sinning, he says hate it. Hate it. That's different than avoiding something. You can avoid something you love. That's not what he's talking about. God commands you to loathe and despise sin.

But it doesn't stop there either. Sin is a failure to conform to the law and the mind of God in your nature. In Ephesians chapter two, Paul declares that you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, living in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. So what does that mean? Even if you were to ignore the sins of your actions, even if you were to ignore the sins of your thoughts, even if you were to ignore the attitudes of your heart towards those things that you love that God hates, laying on your bed conscious of nothing, you have a nature. Apart from Christ you have a nature that offends God. You cannot go to sleep without offending God with a nature that is opposed to Him.

So I want you to think of it. That one little word, three letters: sin. It describes the entire kingdom of Satan, it defines everything that is evil, and that one little word describes everything that you are apart from Christ. It defines why Hell is forever and why you deserve to go there. Sin. Sin. Not that thing you did. Not that thing you did.

So I want you to see here, when we're dealing with sinless perfection and the law of God, the law doesn't just tell you what not to do, it doesn't just tell you what you are to do, it utterly exposes your inability to perform it at any level. If you don't believe me, James says whoever keeps the whole law and fails at one point is accountable for all of it. And Joshua said in 24:19, "You are not able to serve the Lord for He is a holy God." He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.

So what am I advocating today? Well first let me try to illustrate it with a story I'm sure you're all familiar with. On August 5, 2010, there was a significant cave-in in an old copper and gold mine in one of the driest and harshest regions on Earth. The accident, which became known as the Chilean mining accident, buried 33 men an astounding 2,300 feet under the ground. And because of the history of the mine's safety record, all the miners were thought to be dead. So they set out in a scramble to find out the state of the miners.

And 17 days after the accident, a little drill bit was taped to one of the boreholes. They dug eight of them. And it said, "We're all here safe in the shelter, the 33 of us." After 69 days of being trapped underground, with the help of three international drilling teams, the expertise of NASA and more than a dozen corporations from around the world, about 20 million U.S. dollars, all 33 men were brought safely to the surface. The whole world watched in amazement.

Can you imagine what it would have been like to be trapped down there? You're going to die. You don't know anyone's looking for you. You know the history of the mine. You know where you are. You're dying. You're in your last days. You're surviving on two spoonfuls of tuna, half a biscuit, half a glass of milk every 48 hours. And you've gone 69 days without seeing the light of day. 90% humidity, 91 degrees, and every day faced with the fact that you're going to die there.

Can you picture how you would feel as you surface and hug your family? Can you imagine that? I've been away from my family for about a week now and I carry this in my pocket, my little girl made it for me. She always asks me when I leave if I have it. I'm looking forward to seeing her tomorrow. But I expect to see her tomorrow. This is different. What would you think of a miner though, after being rescued and having reached the surface to the celebration of a watching world, hugged his family, smiled and waved? As he looked around and expressed his thanks, he proceeded to find another hole to go down into to get trapped and lost and die there. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that? Who would dare do such a thing? Well, after reading Galatians, you know who I think would do such a thing? You would. I would.

I don't say that to be shocking. This isn't shock and awe. This is reality because what's being described in Galatians by Paul is a tendency that we all have and he's trying to deal with. He says in chapter three verse three, "Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, you're now going to be perfected by the flesh?" Yet how many of us try to do the exact same thing? You see, Paul wrote to correct false doctrine that had infiltrated the church where people were teaching that in addition to believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, one must also observe the law in order to truly be a Christian. And they bought into this. And in his astonishment, Paul says you've deserted Him. You're deserting God and he called it another gospel. But you know this, I'm sure, would have come as a shock to them. How were they deserting Him? They didn't deny their need for Christ. They were very serious about holiness. Look at us keeping the law. They didn't say you don't need Christ. They weren't as other groups that were written in the New Testament to correct as they were abandoning Christ to go back to Judaism without Him, they were going back with Him.

Paul tells us what we rely on has eternal consequences. In chapter three verse 10, all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. And these were from people who professed to know Christ. Why is it wrong? Why is it wrong? Because you'll make the law more important than the person of Jesus Christ when you say that He could only start it and the law will finish it. It's a big difference.

Okay, covered a few things. What in the world does this have to do with evangelism and sinless perfection? Everything. It has everything to do with evangelism and sinless perfectionism because when you're evangelizing, you are inviting sinners who are trapped in that condition that we just talked about by their nature, to their attitudes, to their thoughts, and then to their actions. That's them. And God, in whose eyes the heavens are not even clean, He finds fault with the angels, and no sin shall stand in His presence. And you're saying come be made right with this God who is angry with the wicked every day, people just like you. Come, you who are dead in sins, the wrath of God abides on you, Hell is your home. Come be made right with this God in whose eyes the heavens are not clean.

So unless you can answer the question on how they can be made sinlessly perfect, how then can they or we ever hope of Heaven or the reward of the righteous? This is important because when you're out evangelizing, you are trying to communicate to people how they can be made sinlessly perfect. Are you not? Can God accept anything less than perfection? Is God going to tolerate sin?

In Psalm 24, the Psalmist asks and answers a question: "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in His holy presence? He who has clean hands and a pure heart." That rules out everyone except for one. And praise God, those gates opened. They opened for one. They opened for God himself who became flesh to destroy the works of the devil and by one single offering has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Did you hear it? He has perfected by one offering. The gates opened for Him.

Scripture tells us He's our door. It doesn't just tell us He's the gate, it tells us He's the way. Do you know what we often think of? We think He's the gate and the way is the law. We do. We do. And that's exactly what Paul was addressing when he said you would perfect by the works of the flesh what was begun by the Spirit. Scripture doesn't tell us Christ gets you started and if you work hard, you'll make the end. He says, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, that He who began a good work will also bring it to completion." He will. He will. It's a promise. We have great hope in this. This isn't meant to destroy us. Because if you hear this kind of stuff, if you hear what the law has to say to you and then you say, okay I need Jesus and now I need to work really, really hard so that I can store up enough works for myself so that He doesn't cast me out, then you're not seeing Jesus clearly and you're not seeing your sin clearly.

This is just it, it's a message of perfection, the gospel is a message of perfection, it's a message of promise, it's a message about Christ. And please understand I'm not telling you not to preach the law. I'm telling you you must preach the law, but you must preach all of it because the law is not don't lie, don't steal. It's be perfect. Because when Jesus had a rich young ruler approach Him and he said "all these have I kept since my youth," He shows him another one and then he walks away. He says, "If you would be perfect." What did He imply? You're not. You're not.

Without the law, we wouldn't understand what the gospel is, and without the gospel, the law would be of no benefit to us. The law can't save you. It prepares the heart for the gospel through which we find the perfection that the law demands. The law doesn't have anything to say about forgiveness and grace. It only commands that you fulfill it perfectly and revealing what works God demands of you. The law relates to your works to God and that prepares you, it crushes you, it calls you dead, the object of God's wrath so you might be pointed to the gospel, which is not your works but the works of another which were perfect. It's a contrast between us and God and we want to take confidence in our performance today. Do you know what your problem today is when it comes to holiness? It's not that you're not trying hard enough, it's that you're looking over here instead of looking over here. Who is the finisher of your faith? Then when you're looking at your performance shaking your head and God must not like me today, it's because you're not looking at Him, you're looking in the mirror and you're looking to finish what He started by the works of the flesh.

If you want the greatest evidence that sin is evil, it's not the nature of man, it's not the attitude of man, it's not the thoughts of man and it's not actions. It's not even Hitler's Holocaust. Do you know what it is? Take a guess. The cross of Christ. How black is sin? How heavy is sin? That only the blood of the Son of God could atone for you. That's not condemning, that's our victory. Though I should stand condemned today in the eyes of God, though He should crush me, though He should slay me, He slayed His Son and He loves me. Did you hear what Paul said? "I now live my life by faith in Him who loved me." And I so love how our brother closed his last message. I know he said I don't really want to open up another can here and he threw that out there. You know what? I think he's right. Do we see that God loves us? Do we communicate that to others or are we so worried about rescuing grace that we're not preaching the law right?

The law is good. Real good. It's perfect. It reflects the nature of God. But it can't make you right with God. And any attempt to be made right with God through the law or as a Christian, as a Christian, to finish and be made perfect through the law, Paul says is to tear down with one hand what you're trying to build up with the other. To do so, he says, has eternal consequences. He tells them "I'm afraid of labored over you in vain."

So what does the story I used serve to illustrate? It serves to illustrate this, that just like those men were lost in a helpless condition apart from Christ, death was certain and there was no hope of rescue. And it was just like the new birth. They got into a narrow door and they were pulled, not of their own effort through a narrow way. And they found themselves in the land of the living. It would have served as the greatest insult for one of those men to go back and get lost in one of those caves again. It would have been insane.

But I want you to understand that if you don't do all the things that the law demands, you're under a curse. And this isn't just true of the unbeliever. The Christian is not kept by works of the law. I want you to know that. I'm not Antinomian here, but this distinction has to be clear in our minds. Because a friend of mine, Anthony Zerlo, he gave this example. He said imagine a man who leaves his wife for a week. And after seven days he comes home, he's got a little bit of a smile on his face, he's happy. He says, "Honey, I got great news for you. I only cheated on you four days this week, not seven." What would you think of that? What would you think of that? You'd think he's insane.

But how are we being any different than this when we look to the law and are happy based on our partial performance of it? Going before God saying, "Look at how I've kept this. Look at how I've kept this." Do you realize that God finds more fault and flaw in the motives and the principles behind your actions than you see in any of your sins? He sees it all. He sees it all. And yet guys, this is us. We look for comfort in our performance. How many days is your comfort and your joy because of the finished work of Christ? Or how many days do you come home kicking things around in your mind feeling discouraged because of how poorly you did today? Where's your hope? I'm not saying there's no victory in the Christian life but you're looking in the wrong place. I'm not saying there's no standard of righteous for the Christian life either. Nor am I saying that you can go do whatever you want without a consequence. God forbid. God forbid.

Whenever you hear that the grace of God, the gospel of God is radically free, what do we worry about? We worry about people taking it as a license to sin, don't we? And for any of you guys who have been out witnessing on the streets, you've had this happen. You see this guy come up to you, he's heard you preaching about Jesus Christ and or this girl and they're hanging on the arm of their boyfriend or girlfriend that they're being immoral with and they're drunk or high, and usually accompanied by much profanity they say, "Yeah, that's right, Jesus died so we can do whatever we want." Is that what I'm saying? No, it's not what I'm saying. And while you should be afraid of that kind of cheap grace, I want to tell you something. True grace is not cheap.

And I want to make something very clear to you. We are not to nullify the grace of God, because if righteousness were through the law then Christ died for no purpose. Grace does not need you to rescue it by your performance. Grace does the rescuing and it rescues the moral from their self-righteousness and it rescues the immoral from their lawlessness. You need rescued whether you're morally deficient, morally excellent. We're always worried about rescuing grace.

You know people accused Paul of preaching a gospel of license and he could still say over and over and over again that we're not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And you know what? He could write to the Corinthians as he's getting ready to deal with a problem of gross sexual immorality, thanks God for them and His grace at work in them. When he comes to the Galatians, he says I'm astonished at you. You've deserted God. Calls it another gospel, says they've fallen from grace. We don't get mad about the same things Paul does. Paul is getting to the heart of the gospel of grace, which is the person of Jesus Christ.

Repentance for the lawless person is not becoming a law-keeper. Repentance for the law-keeper is not becoming lawless either. We're always looking for the balance between the ditches. It's like we've got eyes on the side of our head, we can't see straight. Well, is it this or is it this? Which ditch is it? How about the road? How does this affect our proclamation? Well, if you're out and you're witnessing to some drunk people and you call them to repentance: no drunk shall inherit the kingdom of God. What's he hearing? I need stop getting drunk. Yeah, he's right, I need to work at this. Well what would you say to the non-drunk? You wouldn't tell them to go get drunk.

The gospel and the call to repentance is the same for all. The gospel for the lawless is faith in Christ and the gospel for the lawful is faith in Christ. It's faith in Christ. And His grace is not cheap and it will transform the human life. As you abide in Christ and grow in Christ, do you know what Paul goes on to tell you? That those who live in that cheap grace won't inherit the kingdom of God. It's not because it's just they didn't add something to the grace to make it better, to make it saving. That's the problem he's dealing with. He says it's not grace. He says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Think of that first one, love. Paul tells you in Romans 13 that love is the fulfillment of the law. That law which you could never fulfill in your own strength that only condemned you at every turn and chased you to Christ as your only place of refuge, as the only good news, is fulfilled by the love that is produced in you by the work of the Holy Spirit in your life as you focus on Christ and not on the law. What a paradox! What a paradox that one can't keep the law by focusing on the law. But when one turns their focus away from the law and focuses on Christ, the law is fulfilled in them. You focus on the law, does it make demands of you? Of course it does. Do those demands conform to the mind of God? Of course they do. Does it give you any power to keep them? Absolutely not. Does it give you any hope, any forgiveness, any mercy, any grace? Absolutely not. What demands does Christ in the gospel make to you? Some say none, some say one: faith. But even when he demands faith of you, do you know what that's like? It's like demanding that a hungry person come eat at your table. And you know what it does? It produces all those things the law couldn't do. All true obedience. All true obedience that's not rooted in love for God or love for your neighbor is a failure to keep the law that you're striving to attain.

Friends, I want you to understand grace is free. You don't earn it and you can't pay it back. And you live in the light of it every single day. The law is like a flashlight that you're taking down into a sewer. Just shows you all the disgusting filth in there, right? But has no power to clean it. And I was thinking about this morning, if I, eating lunch today, I stain my clothes. And I know the light exposes things. So I set it under a lamp. I want to deal with that stain so I set it under a lamp. And I come back after a day and it's still dirty. And I say I don't get it. It's been sitting under this lamp. This lamp shows me that it's dirty. Why didn't it clean it? I need a bigger lamp. I need more light bulbs. And so I've got this thing lit up from all different directions, and you know what? It's just as dirty. If anything I might notice a new stain with more light. Do you know what I should have done? Threw it in the wash. Right?

What does this have to do with preaching the gospel? That when you see a drunkard on the streets or you stand outside of an abortion clinic and say "babies are murdered here," which I think you should do those kind of things, "no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God, no fornicator, no idolater shall inherit the kingdom of God." And oh, by the way, even if you can muster up the strength to stop doing those things on the outside, you're guilty on the inside. And God didn't ask you to not be a drunk, He asked you to be perfect. You must bring them to understand that God's demands is not a failure a lack of drunkenness or a lack of outward acts of sin. This is what I mean. This is what I'm trying to get at. When we're preaching the gospel, we might have this all clear up in our heads, that we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But what are our hearers hearing?

I asked myself this the other day because someone put a video up of me back in March preaching in California. And I got a few minutes into the video and I shut it off. Couldn't stand listening to myself. The way I was communicating. Maybe the things I was saying were true. But I could hear my attitude in saying it. I had to shut it off. I had to ask myself a few questions. And it's okay to ask yourself those questions. Because we can get together and we can talk theology all day long but how does it work in being practiced? And when you're telling someone to be made right with God, are they hearing, "you know he's right, I need to work on a few things"? The gospel's not you need to work on a few things. It's rest in Christ. "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. I will bear the load that you couldn't bear and God will do what the law couldn't do, weakened by flesh."

It's a call to rest. Is your gospel proclamation a call to rest? Or do they walk away saying "you know I really need to work on that"? Or outside of the abortion clinics, where we try to make it clear that your problem today is not that you're having an abortion. You're not going to Hell because you're having an abortion. You're not. Because the idea behind that is if you weren't having the abortion you'd be okay, and that's not true. Your problem today is by nature you are an object of the wrath of God. And even if you were in a coma with no thoughts of hostility against God, your nature's hostile to God and He's angry with you every day. You need perfection. Come rest in Christ.

Does that matter? Does that matter? What you rely on has eternal consequences. And He's not writing this to the Mormons. He's not writing this to those guys over there. He's writing this to a church He planted. How many times do we come to books like this and we read them and we're like "yeah we're thinking of church such and such that isn't even really Christian." He's talking about us. And so that's why I wasn't interested in coming in here this morning and saying, well here's why we don't believe in such and such and the things they do, pat ourselves on the back. How are we failing to do this? How do you feel when you hear someone say "I'm going to preach sinless perfection"? We should get excited. Then we should listen, "God, no you're not preaching it right. You think you have it. You claim to be holy." It's a small view of sin. It's a small view of sin that would lead a man to think he's perfect. They would think themselves better than the apostle Paul. Said, "not that I've already attained or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Jesus Christ had made me His own." And you know what he says? I love the way the King James puts it, three verses later says, "let those who are perfect think this way." Let those who are perfect think this way, that we're not, but we press on to make it our own. You know you should be excited about sinless perfection, you should want nothing less. You should want it every single day of your life. And you should rest in Christ's perfection.

What purpose did the law serve to Paul? He says that through it, he died to it, that he might live to God. That's why moralism's so lethal, because people actually think they're good when they're not. They need a healthy dose of the law of God. All of it. To crush them. To crush them. So they might see Christ high and lifted up, the Lamb of God slain for sinners.

George Whitefield said, "If one evil thought, if one evil word, if one evil action deserves eternal damnation then how many hells, my friend, do every one of us deserve whose lives have been one continued rebellion against God? Before ever therefore you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be brought to see, brought to believe what a dreadful thing it is to depart from the living God." And you know what else he said? "Even your repentance needs repented of." We preach in such a way where "how do you know I'm saved? Because you've repented. How do you know I'm saved? Because I have faith." What is the object of faith in that message? Faith is the object of faith and repentance is the object of faith. Christ! "I esteemed to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." And you know how he begins to argue his case in chapter three? "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified." That's his argument. That's his argument. What happened to you? Jesus was crucified. What are you doing? It's his argument.

So I want to tell you today: do not tell yourself that you're a Christian because you're in church, because you're at a conference, because you're nicer than you used to be, because you do better things than you used to do. Don't tell yourself that you're a Christian because you've preached in the open air, because you evangelize. Because there's a group of people that will stand before Jesus on judgment day and proceed to tell him their credentials, labors and works and toils, and the reply that they get is "Depart from me, I never knew you." What we rely on has consequences and when we're evangelizing, we're communicating the object that all men need to rely on for salvation.

The gospel is God's promise, it's not your performance. It's a call to rest in Christ. And my challenge to you today is this: when you're calling to sinners, are they walking away hearing a call to rest or a call to work? I love the way Horatius Bonar put it and I'll begin closing with this. "Were you this moment to cease from sin and do nothing but good all the rest of your life, it would not do. Were you to begin praying now and do nothing else but pray all your days, it would not do. No amount of praying or working or feeling can satisfy the righteous law or pacify a guilty conscience or quench the flaming sword that guards the access into the presence of the infinitely Holy One. No, that will not do. But Christ will do. It's in our sickness, not our health, that we're fit for the physician and cast ourselves upon his skill. In all false religion, the worshiper rests his hope of divine favor upon something in his own character, something in his life or religious duties to get peace by doing, feeling, and praying more than others. And I might add following the law better than others. And who refuse to take the peace of the free gospel till they have amassed such an amount of this doing and feeling as will ease their consciences and make them conclude that it would not be fair for God to reject the application of men so earnest and devout as they. They will not take confidence from Christ's character or Christ's work, but from their own character and work. The sinner must go to God as he is or not at all. To try to pray oneself into something better than a condemned sinner in order to win God's favor is to make prayer the object of self-righteousness."

The law has to do with your works. The gospel has to do with God's works. So even as a Christian, our confidence is not in the law of God, though we agree with it fully, don't we? Absolutely. But our confidence is in Christ's work. The work He started and the work He'll finish.

I love the way that James Stewart put it. He said this: "When our sins cry out to God for punishment and vengeance, something else also happens. The blood of Christ cries even louder and it overbears and silences the very crying of our sins and God for Christ's sake forgives us." Preach in such a way as to magnify the promise. Preach in such a way that you preach the law so that people don't dare think that they could work their way into the favor of God. Preach the law, preach it more! But preach it full. Because the law is not "stop sinning." And neither is the gospel by the way. The law is "be perfect, never sinning." The gospel is the answer.

I appreciate being here. I appreciate what I've heard at this conference. But so often we can hear theological truths and just stack it up in our libraries and organize the bookshelves in our brain and not look inside and see if we're guilty of the things we're talking about. Look inside. See how you're doing this, see how you're not holding onto Christ as you ought to because I believe that the holier a man becomes, in the words of Charles Spurgeon, the more sin he sees that remains.

So what's going to happen if you know that the law's not your hope but you see it more clearly and that even as a Christian today you see your sin? What's going to happen? You're going to hold tighter to Christ. You're going to depend on Him more and you're going to live a holier life not because you're focused on the works that make you appear holy, but because you focus on the One who indeed does make sinners holy. Is that your hope today? I need to ask myself the same thing so that I don't go back into that tunnel. It's not just a narrow door, it's a narrow way and that narrow way isn't the law. It's Christ the whole way, the author and the finisher of our faith. Amen? Let's pray.

Our Father and our God, we thank you for grace. we thank you for the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ and oh God that you would open our eyes to see that more clearly. Yes, your law is perfect, yes, it's righteous, but it was never given to make us righteous. Oh God that we would forever have this issue settled in our minds that we would cling with all our might to Christ and that the louder the law screams against us, and though we could say it's true, it's true, we would cling to Christ and hope in Him that He would be our rest and that when we proclaim this wondrous grace to sinners that they would be hearing a law that crushes and a gospel that saves to the uttermost. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

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