A Final Illustration from the Past
Dear Church: A Study of Galatians • Sermon • Submitted
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Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
B: Galatians 4:21-31
Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:
Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:
Welcome guests to the family gathering, introduce yourself. Thank the band. Invite guests to parlor after service.
We’ve received a special prayer request from T & J, our missionary friends who shared here in service earlier this year. There are some problems with visas for J and the kids, and they have been separated from T for the past two weeks as they try to resolve it. They have asked us to pray specifically for them this morning, that the visa issue would be resolved quickly this week. Let’s take a moment right now to lift them up.
Tonight in our evening service, I’ll be continuing the topical series I’ve been teaching called “Renovate.” But on the 27th and November 3rd, we will be holding the ordination services for Chuck Crisler and Wayne Whitlock, respectively. Please plan to be a part of these times of setting aside these godly men for the task of deacon. Our evening services begin at 5:30 pm. If you are an ordained man and would like to be a part of the ordaining councils for these men, they will begin at 4:30 both of those Sundays.
Marilyn Roe passed away this past Monday, and her memorial service will be tomorrow at 2pm here. Keith Buchanan’s memorial service will be held on Saturday, at 10 am here.
Mission New Mexico State Mission Offering thru September and October. Goal is $8,000. Received so far: $9,531. That’s great! I’m not going to tell you to stop… and if God has prompted you to give and you haven’t had the chance yet, we are still focusing on this offering for today and next Sunday. Thanks, church!
Opening
Opening
This morning, in continuing with our series, Dear Church, we’re going to be looking at Paul’s final summary of the theological argument that he’s been making since at least the beginning of chapter 3 of Galatians. You could say that the theological argument actually even started in chapter 2, in what he said to Peter when Peter was acting like a hypocrite.
The argument that Paul brings out here at the end of chapter 4 in some ways reinforced points that we have already looked at in past messages. But here, he brings another perspective, a final illustration from the past showing the difference between trying to earn God’s favor and simply receiving it by grace through His promise.
Let’s stand in honor of the Word of God as we read our focal passage today, :
21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, don’t you hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. 23 But the one by the slave was born as a result of the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born through promise. 24 These things are being taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery—this is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, Rejoice, childless woman, unable to give birth. Burst into song and shout, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate woman will be many, more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband. 28 Now you too, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as then the child born as a result of the flesh persecuted the one born as a result of the Spirit, so also now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never be a coheir with the son of the free woman.” 31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of a slave but of the free woman.
Pray
OK. This passage can get a little confusing. We’re just going to go back and start with verse 21, because this verse asks the question that he answers for the rest of the passage.
21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, don’t you hear the law?
Paul’s opening question is meant for those in the Galatian churches who are considering, and maybe even beginning to practice (as Paul had mentioned back in verse 10… “special days, months, seasons, and years…”), legalistic works thinking that those works either saved them, or made them “more saved.” This is who Paul is directing this question to when he says, “you who want to be under the law.” To be “under” something in this sense was to be under its control or power: so in this context, he’s speaking about those who are trusting in the law, the Hebrew rules and regulations, to save them.
Some people called the Judaizers (the Hebrew faith is called Judaism, so to “Judaize” Christianity was to say that one need Christ AND to basically become a Jew in order to be saved) had come in after Paul had preached the Gospel in Galatia, founding these churches there, and had begun to spread the lie that someone who wanted to be saved needed Jesus PLUS Jewish rules, such as circumcision. His question may also have even been for those who were spreading this false religion.
His question may have even also been for those who were spreading this false religion.
When Paul identifies the target of his question, “you who want to be under the law…,” he’s speaking to those
So he asks, “Don’t you hear the law?” He’s asking if they really understand all that they claim they are planning on following. There is an implication in how he asks this question that, if they really knew what they were getting themselves into in wanting to be under the control of the law, they wouldn’t want to be under it any more. Then he launches into this illustration that we might not be familiar with if we haven’t read the book of Genesis. This illustration is from a fairly sordid part of the Abraham narrative, and what Paul does is that he takes what actually happened in history and repurposes it as an allegory. It’s a way of teaching us a lesson using the past.
We see allegories all around us in stories, art, and in movies. In literature at least, an allegory takes a story and gives it an extended symbolic meaning. For example, the classic fable from Aesop, The Tortoise & The Hare: The hare is so sure of his natural speed that he doesn’t consider his race against the tortoise worth worrying about, and thus doesn’t apply himself to winning it. The tortoise, on the other hand, maintains his slow and steady pace, ultimately beating the hare. It’s an allegory of life: some people have natural talents, but waste them in laziness or idleness (the hare), and others may lack particular talents, but can ultimately be victorious or successful through perseverance, hard work, and focus (the tortoise).
Paul sets up his allegory in verses 22 and 23:
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. 23 But the one by the slave was born as a result of the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born through promise.
Abraham had two sons before his wife Sarah died. Those two sons were Ishmael and Isaac. One, Ishmael, was the son of Hagar, a “slave,” and Isaac was the son of Sarah, a “free woman.” records how Ishmael’s birth came about:
1 Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar. 2 Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps through her I can build a family.” And Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian slave, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife for him. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan ten years. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she saw that she was pregnant, her mistress became contemptible to her. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for my suffering! I put my slave in your arms, and when she saw that she was pregnant, I became contemptible to her. May the Lord judge between me and you.”
Abram (later God changed his name to Abraham), as we studied back on September 15, had been promised by God to be made into a great nation, and that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. But it wasn’t happening according to his wife Sarai’s (later Sarah) timetable. So she suggests that Abram take her slave Hagar as a “wife,” so that maybe she will get pregnant and have a child. Abraham does exactly what Sarah suggests, and it goes exactly as Sarah had planned.
But who had been missing from this plan of attack on the problem of Abraham not having any heirs yet? The Lord was missing. He’s mentioned by Sarah as the party guilty of her childlessness, and as the judge between her and Abraham because it’s Abraham’s fault that Hagar isn’t happy with Sarah. Hagar’s son, Ishmael, is ultimately born, and he is the one born “as a result of the flesh” in Paul’s allegory.
Abraham’s son Isaac was born in , when Abraham was 100, and Sarah was 90.
Genesis 21:1-
1 The Lord came to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him. 3 Abraham named his son who was born to him—the one Sarah bore to him—Isaac. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7 She also said, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son for him in his old age.”
Sarah was well beyond child-bearing years, but God had promised that she would bear a son. And He keeps His promises. So Isaac is the child “born through promise,” in Paul’s allegory in Galatians.
Maybe make a comparison chart?
Now that we’ve set up the allegory and seen where in Scripture Paul is getting this, let’s see how Paul applies it. Before we do that, however, we need to keep one thing in mind: Paul here is still making his argument regarding justification, or having a right standing before God. Our definition of justification from our study in was as follows:
Justification is the gracious act of God by which God declares a sinner righteous solely through faith in Jesus Christ.
Each of my points today relates to this concept of justification. Remember from a couple of weeks ago: we’re turning this diamond of what God has done for us in the Gospel of Christ and seeing a different facet each time.
Explain
1) Trusting in our own way leads to slavery
1) Trusting in our own way leads to slavery
What’s critical about this allegory that Paul is using in this passage is that he is taking the situation in the past with Hagar and Sarah figuratively. The first part of verse 24 bears this out:
Explain.
What’s critical about this allegory that Paul is using in this passage is that he is taking the situation in the past with Hagar and Sarah figuratively. The first part of verse 24 bears this out:
gal 4:
24 These things are being taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery—this is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
The word translated “figuratively” here is literally the word from which we get our word allegory. Paul is going to use these two women and their sons to give us another way of considering justification: specifically, the issue of the comparison between trusting in human works and faith in the promise of God. I think a chart will be helpful here today.
CHART PAGE 1: if you don’t get it all down (and you want to), don’t worry… I’ll put it back up in a bit with the other side filled in.
So Paul begins his allegory by defining Hagar. Hagar, the slave girl, represents trust in human works. How? We’ve already seen that the will of the Lord was not at all considered in Sarah’s plan, nor in Abraham’s tryst with Hagar. God’s promise wasn’t coming fast enough for Sarah, so she trusted in her own ideas, her own plans to make sure that what God promised would happen would actually happen: that Abraham would have a son.
Explain
But it turns out that this plan was a complete disaster. Hagar was still Sarah’s slave, even though she was “married” to Abraham. And Sarah and Abraham are quickly trapped inside the choice that they had made to trust in the flesh for the fulfillment of God’s promise.
Paul compares Hagar and Sarah to two covenants: for Hagar, she represents the Old Covenant, which was given to the people of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai. She is also compared to Jerusalem at that time, the place where the Hebrew people saw as their home, since it was where the Temple was, the centerpiece of their worship.
Since Hagar was a slave, her son Ishmael was also a slave. As Hagar represents the Old Covenant, Mount Sinai, and Jerusalem, so Ishmael represents everyone who is a “child” of those things—a child of human effort for justification.
Hagar was a slave, and so her son was a slave. Jerusalem is in slavery.
How much good would a person have to do in order to be justified by God? How much? More than that guy over there? More than this woman over here? Where’s the line? The line is God’s own sinless, holy perfection! If the standard is God’s own holiness, then how much work would I have to do to meet that standard? All of it! I’d have to do all of it.
If we trust in ourselves and in our ability to keep the law in order to be saved, then we become enslaved to the law that we are trying so hard to keep. It turns out that the harder I try to be perfect, the more I discover that I’m not, which drives me to try even harder, which just again proves my imperfection all the more.
If we trust in ourselves and in our ability to keep the law in order to be saved, then we become enslaved to the law that we are trying so hard to keep.
romans 7:21-2
21 So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me. 22 For in my inner self I delight in God’s law, 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.
21 So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me.
If we trust in ourselves and in our ability to keep the law in order to be saved, then we become enslaved to the law that we are trying so hard to keep.
If we trust in ourselves and in our ability to keep the law in order to be saved, then we become enslaved to the law that we are trying so hard to keep.
Trusting in human effort for salvation is an exercise in despair. Our fundamental problem is this: being separated from God because of our brokenness and sin. And thinking that mankind is the answer to mankind’s fundamental problem is flawed thinking, because mankind is the problem. It’s like trying to use a broken tool to fix that same broken tool. It doesn’t work. It’s futile. We’ll never make it.
Trusting in human effort for salvation is an exercise in despair. Our fundamental problem is this: being separated from God because of our brokenness and sin. And thinking that mankind is the answer to mankind’s fundamental problem is flawed thinking, because mankind is the problem. It’s like trying to use a broken tool to fix that same broken tool. It doesn’t work. It’s futile.
Trusting in human effort for salvation is an exercise in despair. Our fundamental problem is this: being separated from God because of our brokenness and sin. And thinking that mankind is the answer to mankind’s fundamental problem is flawed thinking, because mankind is the problem. It’s like trying to use a broken tool to fix that same broken tool. It doesn’t work. It’s futile.
Fortunately, God has graciously decided to make the way that we could never make, and that way leads us out of bondage.
2) Trusting in God’s way leads to freedom
2) Trusting in God’s way leads to freedom
In the next few verses of our focal passage, Paul continues his allegory of Hagar and Sarah by contrasting Sarah to the picture he has just painted of Hagar:
Explain.
26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, Rejoice, childless woman, unable to give birth. Burst into song and shout, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate woman will be many, more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband.
26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, Rejoice, childless woman, unable to give birth. Burst into song and shout, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate woman will be many, more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband.
To finish up our chart:
gal 4:
To finish up our chart:
CHART PAGE 2.
Where Hagar was the slave woman, Sarah was free. Where Hagar represents trying to earn our justification, Sarah represents receiving God’s promise through faith. Where Hagar represents the Old Covenant of the Law, Mount Sinai where it was given, and the human city of Jerusalem, Sarah represents the New Covenant of faith in Jesus Christ, Mount Zion (which isn’t named, but is the holy mountain of God in Scripture), and the new Jerusalem, which will come down from heaven:
2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. 3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God.
Where Hagar was the slave woman, Sarah was free. Where Hagar represents earning our justification, Sarah represents receiving God’s promise through faith.
This quote is from . (right after messianic promise, incidentally)
This is what we have to look forward to if we are in Christ! Notice that here in Revelation, we see the reference to this new covenant that was prophesied by Jeremiah:
This quote is from . (right after messianic promise, incidentally)
31 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
God has made the way through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, for us to be participants in this New Covenant: the Gospel. At the Last Supper, Jesus said:
20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
The Old Covenant showed us our brokenness, and proves to us that we cannot be holy in our own strength. We needed a sacrifice, a Savior. This is part of what Paul was referring to when he quoted next in our focal passage:
The Old Covenant showed us our brokenness, and proves to us that we cannot be holy in our own strength. We needed a sacrifice, a Savior.
This quote is from . (right after messianic promise, incidentally)
27 For it is written, Rejoice, childless woman, unable to give birth. Burst into song and shout, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate woman will be many, more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband.
He’s still referring to the Sarah part of the allegory here. Sarah was childless, barren, unable to conceive. In Isaiah, this verse comes right after a promise of the Messiah in chapter 53, with things like the fact that He would bear our sicknesses and carry our pains, would be crushed for our iniquities, but that he would ultimately be victorious. is the way that God’s people should respond to the coming of the Messiah: By rejoicing because the nation will be delivered, because he comes for those who cannot save themselves. In short, the Gospel is for the spiritually barren, like Sarah.
The only way Sarah was going to bear a child was through the promise of God. All she could do was believe it. And now, the children that she has through faith cannot be counted, and continue to be spiritually born every day, all over the world.
This quote is from . (right after messianic promise, incidentally)
If you are in Christ, then you are one of those children:
2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. 3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God.
rev 21:
31 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
28 Now you too, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.
31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of a slave but of the free woman.
gal 4:28,
We are not born into bondage, but into freedom in Christ. We don’t have to work in order to BE justified. In the Gospel, it has been declared that we ARE justified. This is our identity, and it is something that can only come through the promise of the Gospel, not through our efforts, no matter how good they might be.
21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
romans 3:21-
Jesus
God made the way so that we could be free from the curse of our sin, the curse of the law, and the wrath of God. A way that we could not earn. That way is through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins so we could be forgiven, who rose from the dead so we could live forever with Him, who ascended into heaven where He is our advocate with the Father, and who is coming back to set the world right again.
But this
It is only in Christ that we can be spiritually born again.
3)
3)
3) We must stand firm in our freedom in Christ.
3) We must stand firm in our freedom in Christ.
I really struggled even making this last point a point. It’s something that Paul saw in the Galatian churches, and that we still see today. The final couple of verses in our focal passage today reveal an uncomfortable truth: those who think that we must be justified by works tend to cause problems for those who have been set free through Christ. Paul finishes his allegory with a look at Ishmael and Isaac:
3) The two cannot both be true.
3) The two cannot both be true.
A final couple of verses in our focal passage today reveal an uncomfortable truth: those who think that we must be justified by works tend to cause problems for those who have been set free through Christ. Paul finishes his allegory with a look at Ishmael and Isaac:
29 But just as then the child born as a result of the flesh persecuted the one born as a result of the Spirit, so also now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never be a coheir with the son of the free woman.”
This occurred in . At the feast that Abraham held on the day Isaac was weaned, the Scripture says that Ishmael was “mocking.” This quote that Paul uses is actually from Sarah.
What Paul is pointing out to the Galatians is actually that they were being persecuted by those who wanted them to follow Jewish law…they weren’t being shown a better way, but a worse one.
These two ways of being justified: by works or by promise, are mutually exclusive. If it is by works, it is not by a promise:
These two ways of being justified: by works or by promise, are mutually exclusive. If it is by works, it is not by a promise:
There two ways of being justified: by works or by promise, are mutually exclusive. If it is by works, it is not by a promise:
romans 4:1-
1 What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness. 4 Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed.
If it is by promise, then we cannot earn it by working.
If it is by promise, then we cannot work to earn it.
27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith. 28 For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
The incredible thing to me is that when our focus is on justification by works, we tend to look down on those who have freedom in Christ. This explains why the Judaizers could say that they didn’t believe that Paul was telling the Galatians the whole story: they probably truly believed that Paul was wrong, and thought that they were superior to him because of their pious living. The Galatians needed to stop listening to this man telling them that they were saved simply because they believed in Christ.
But these two ways of being justified: by works or by promise, are mutually exclusive. If it is by works, it is not by a promise. If it is by promise, then we cannot work to earn it.These Stop trusting in yourself to save you. The fascinating thing is that the self-righteous religious zealot and the non-believing atheist both believe the same thing: that they don’t need a savior. One thinks it is because he’s good enough. The other thinks there’s nothing to be saved from. Both are wrong.
Stop trusting in yourself to save you. The fascinating thing is that the self-righteous religious zealot and the non-believing atheist both believe the same thing: that they don’t need a savior. One thinks it is because he’s good enough. The other thinks there’s nothing to be saved from. Both are wrong.
So stop trusting in yourself to save you. The religious zealot and the non-believer both believe the same thing: they don’t need a savior. They’ve got it covered.
Clarify that you’re talking about salvation.
Clarify that you’re talking about salvation.
But Paul turns it around on them and says that it is instead those Judaizers who have it wrong. Like the Pharisees, they are the ones who will not be justified because they have trusted in the wrong way.
Paul had experienced this persecution from legalism himself and had personally faced some Judaizers in Syrian Antioch before writing this letter, and he told the Galatians about it in the biographical section of the letter (chapters 1 and 2):
29 But just as then the child born as a result of the flesh persecuted the one born as a result of the Spirit, so also now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never be a coheir with the son of the free woman.”
gal 4:28-30
28 Now you too, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as then the child born as a result of the flesh persecuted the one born as a result of the Spirit, so also now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never be a coheir with the son of the free woman.”
4 This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us. 5 But we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you.
galatians 2:
When we look then at Paul’s use of the allegory with Ishmael and Isaac here in chapter 4, what we see here is essentially a command: “Stop listening to the Judaizers, because in reality, they are persecuting you by making you think you have to earn God’s love. Neither they nor you will be saved that way.”
They were commanded to get rid of the Judaizers.
They were commanded to get rid of the Judaizers.
Paul’s example and instruction to the Galatians was to drive out those who were attempting to turn them away from the grace of God given through Jesus Christ.
5 One person judges one day to be more important than another day. Someone else judges every day to be the same. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord. Whoever eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; and whoever does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat it, and he gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for himself, and no one dies for himself. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
:5-
We have to decide whether we are going to stand on our own abilities, or on the grace of God found in the Gospel. What places in our lives do we tend toward legalism?
27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith. 28 For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
Closing
Closing
mutually excusive
Closing
Closing
We have spent several weeks on the doctrine of justification. After this week, Paul shifts from laying this theological foundation of justification by grace through faith, and starts to instruct the Galatians on the practical application of this critical doctrine.
But for today, we need to ask the question again, as we have in several of the past weeks: how are we saved? Is it through how good we are, or how hard we work, or how much better we are than the next guy? Or is it only because of what God has done for us in Christ: paying the penalty for our sins and promising those who belong to Him eternal life in Him and Him alone? If we think that we can save ourselves, then we are deceived, and headed for despair and destruction.
Where is your trust?
Trust in Christ alone.
Decision to trust Christ.
Decision to join the church family.
Other decision needed.
Call band down and pray.
Invite to parlor.