 And tonight our subject is formal religion, formal religion, what J.C. Ryle calls formal religion. And we're in Romans chapter 2 and I want to read verses 17 through 29, Romans chapter 2 verses 17 through 29. And here Paul says to the Romans in verse 17, indeed you were called a Jew and rest on the law and make your boast in God and know his will and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? So the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, as it is written. For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law, but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this time this evening to study your word together. Thank you for this text of scripture, this subject. Thank you, Lord, for the clarity with which your word addresses this subject. I pray it be clear in our hearts and minds as we consider these things together. I pray, Lord, that it would embolden us to live for you, Lord, from the heart. And avoiding altogether that pretense of formal religion that is heartless and godless and worthless, Lord. And then also, it would inform our evangelism, so we talk to those who are entrapped in this error and deception, and pray that we could be clear in breaking down the walls that have been erected with formality and ritual and ceremony, all those things that in our unbelief, Lord, in the flesh, we are prone to do in order to placate a guilty conscience or to presume upon the grace of God and help us, Lord, as we study these things together. And for your glory, God, may we live according to them. May we be changed by them in order to help us to repent where we need repentance, correct us, Lord, and convict us over sin, encourage the faint hearted, comfort the weak, Lord, in comfort your saints, Lord, as we live for you by your spirit for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so formal religion. And like I said, on Sunday nights, we have an opportunity to sort of summarize these subjects to help us get a better understanding of each of these as we've walked through. We've covered several subjects so far from J.C. Raul's book, Practical Religion. And tonight, we're covering this issue of formal religion. Now, this text in Romans chapter two, especially this paragraph from verses 17 to 29, we could spend a good year in this section of scripture unpacking this. There's just so many glorious truths in this one section of scripture. A lot to learn here, but the way that J.C. Raul uses this and the way that we're going to address it tonight is to look at what is taught in the text as it relates to what is called formal religion. We'll talk about what that means in a moment. But as we looked at John chapter eight verses 48 through 59 this morning, and as we have looked through John chapter eight through the entire chapter, but specifically with respect to the Lord's promise, the Lord's glorious promise this morning to those who keep his word. We know that those who keep the Lord's word will never see death. It's a promise from God. It's a glorious promise. I'm so encouraged by that text of scripture. Just to sit and ponder that is just a wondrous encouragement from the Lord. If you keep his word, you'll never see death and the implications of that are just staggering. This is the one promise of life eternal that you can fully and completely trust. It's the one promise of life internal of life eternal that you can trust because it comes from the Lord himself. There are many who promise make empty promises of life eternal. They're completely untrustworthy because this comes from the Lord Jesus Christ because of who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what he's done on behalf of sinners. This is a promise that you can trust. It comes from the one in whom we have placed our trust. He's our creator. He's our savior, our redeemer, the one who paid our penalty. The one who is paid our ransom. And because of that, because of who he is and what he's done, he is the one who is worthy of our faith, worthy of our worship. He is our hope. He's our refuge and he is our security. If you want to be free from death, free from the fear of death, free from the penalty of death, free from the penalty and power of sin, put your faith in the Lord, our great God and savior, Jesus Christ. All other promises of life, everything that is offered in false religion, all of the empty promises of this world are just that. They are empty. They are shallow. They're fleeting. They're temporary. They're cotton candy, right? They're not anything good for you. The hopes and promises of this life end with our own. Those hopes and promises of this life end with our own life. When we are faced with then, faced with reality. The hopes and promises of this world's religions are a lie. They're not based in truth. They're not based in evidence. They're not based in the Lord's word. The things that we attempt to do in this life to shield ourselves from death or judgment or accountability or shield ourselves from the penalty of our sin outside of Christ, outside of Christ. All of those things are a complete and hopeless fantasy. They're a pipe dream. Only one life will soon be past. It's only what's done for Christ will last. Everything else is a lie. Have you heard the word before? Have you heard of the word placebo? I don't know what a placebo is. Maybe you've looked at that before. A placebo, the word placebo is the word used to describe a harmless and for that matter, a not helpful pill or medicine or prescription that is sometimes given for a psychological benefit but has absolutely no physiological benefit whatsoever. It may be given for some psychoanalytical reason or psychological benefit, but it's got no physiological effect whatsoever. It has no therapeutic effect, no therapeutic benefit. And for that reason, they often use a placebo as a control when they're studying or researching the effects of new drugs coming out on the market. The placebo is used as a control group. The purpose of the placebo is often simply to calm someone or to please someone with the idea that they're taking something that will help them get better, but it's fake. It's superficial. It's a counterfeit. It's good for nothing other than to just sue the someone psychologically and not help them physiologically. Well, we consider the terminal disease of human depravity, right? Consider the terminal disease of human depravity and it's burdensome symptoms, symptoms like guilt, shame, symptoms like ultimate death and judgment and our sense of punishment, our sense of wrath. God has placed eternity in the heart of man and God has given man a conscience. And so as Paul says to the Romans in Romans chapter one, even the Gentiles, even the pagans know that there is a righteous judgment of God that is coming. So people under those burdensome symptoms give themselves placebos all the time, placebos to help them deal with the effects of guilt or shame, ultimately the effects of knowing that death is encroaching and then will come judgment and punishment and wrath. And why do they do that? Why do they give themselves placebos? Well, they do it to make themselves feel better. They do it to make themselves feel better, to alleviate themselves of the responsibility to turn from their sin, to alleviate themselves of the responsibility to be accountable to their Creator, to appease their guilt or to placate a guilty conscience, to placate an accusing conscience. They do it. They give themselves placebos to comfort themselves with the notion that they are doing what they're doing protects them from judgment. They give themselves the placebo, so to speak, in order to comfort themselves that their rituals and their ceremonies and their motions, their notions of religion are going to end up for their good. People want to feel secure. They want to have assurance. They want to have confidence that when the end comes, they're going to be okay and that everything is going to work out. When accountability before God comes and it will, we want to be able to breathe a little bit easier, right? We want to know that we're not in any real danger. We've got nothing to worry about. Everything is going to work out okay and we can have our cake and eat it too. And so people give themselves placebos all the time. Now, what exactly is the placebo then that people often take? What's any number of things? Any number of things? People choose to be atheists so they can avoid the truth. They can avoid their accusing conscience. They can rationalize it away. People choose to be evolutionists. They choose to be agnostics. Others choose false religion. They choose to be Hindus or Buddhists or Muslims, Scientologists. For purposes of our discussion tonight, many choose what JC Ryle has described as formality. Many choose formal religion. The formality, just like those other things, and virtually in exactly the same way, formality is a counterfeit of the truth. It's a placebo. Formal religion, formality is a placebo. It's a placebo taken to appease the conscience, to appease the conscience, but has absolutely no real and lasting benefit for the soul. In other words, it has a psychologizing effect on your conscience, maybe a psychologizing effect on your sense of well-being, but it does absolutely no eternal good for your eternal soul. It's Christianity in name only. That's what formality is. It may look Christian outwardly, but inwardly it smells like death. Jesus warned the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23 verse 27. He says, you hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside you're full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. That describes formality, formal religion, Christian formality. He describes them in Matthew chapter 15 verse 8, as those who draw near to me with their mouths, and they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Think about that for a moment, how that applies to the quote unquote professing Christian who is nothing more than a formal Christian or a moral Christian. As we can see here, formality is fake. Formality is superficial. It's external, but it's not inward. It's outward, but has no root or depth in the heart of man. As JC Riles said, the man who is appeasing himself with mere formality is he who possesses indeed the form or husk or skin of religion, but he does not possess its substance or its power. Paul said to Timothy, these very words, he says they have a form of godliness, but they deny its power. So they perform their rituals, right? They perform their ceremonies. They keep their ordinances. They come to church every Sunday. They may read their Bible every morning. They go through the motions, right? They go through the external motions of religion, the external motions of Christianity. They do and say often the right things. And yet there is no heart. There is no life. There's no reality. There's no truth. There's no power to their quote unquote Christian life. They have a form of godliness, but in works they deny him. There is no power. They deny its power. They have a form. They have a form, but it's a placebo in the end. It's a placebo that they are feeding themselves that will have no impact whatsoever on their eternal destiny. Worse yet, worse than simply a placebo that they take for themselves that will have no ultimate effect on their eternal destiny. It will merely comfort them while the disease of sin and death rot away their heart and finally kills them in the end and sends them to hell. So people will go to great lengths in formality, great lengths in what J.C. Raul calls formal religion in order to keep themselves from having to live under the threat of judgment and the fear of death. We talked about this morning, every person outside of Christ is enslaved to a fear of death and people will go to a great length. They'll go to great lengths to comfort themselves to placate that fear, to soothe that fear, to ease their concerns and to give them confidence that when the end comes it's going to work out for them. Paul in his letter to the Romans explains like we said in chapter one, he explains there that he's a debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to wise and unwise to preach the gospel. Why is that now? Why is he a debtor to Greeks and Barbarians? Why is it unwise to preach the gospel? Because in the gospel, the gospel is the power of God to strip away the placebo. It's the power of God to live the Christian life. It's the power of God unto salvation. In the gospel, there is the power of God to live for Christ from the heart, to be transformed by the gospel, to be sanctified by his word, to be empowered by his spirit. The truth of the gospel is the only true hope. It's the only true hope. It's the real medicine, so to speak, right? It's the real deal. It's the only true hope for those who are mindlessly and heartlessly addicted to the placebo. People keep feeding themselves the fake, keep feeding themselves the superficial. They walk around in that formality, that fake Christianity, that fake religion soothing themselves for all the while. The gospel is their true hope. The gospel is their true hope. So then in Romans, Paul then armed with the gospel, the only power, the only power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. Paul sets his heart and mind and pen in Romans chapter two, verses 17 through 29. He sets himself to the task of stripping away the placebo, right? Revealing the placebo for what it is. He strips away any notion that formality will actually save and he strips away their false security. So when we witness, when we put ourselves in the shoes, so to speak, of that one who is relying on his formality, relying on his religiosity and we examine ourselves before the Lord, or when we're witnessing to someone who's entrapped by that, and so many are, right? So many giving themselves a placebo. We have good instruction here from Paul in Romans chapter two to help us as we consider these things. So he begins this stripping away of the placebo in verse 17, Romans chapter two, verse 17. Now take note here, this section of Romans written specifically to the Jews. If you consider the context as we sort of summarize this passage of scripture, this was written to those who thought themselves, those who were obsessively religious. Now think about how that compares to people today. They're those that will say, I'm a Christian, listen, I go to church every Sunday. I read my Bible every day. I pray all the time. And in some cases they may be doing exactly what these Jews here are doing themselves. They were obsessively religious. Is it those rituals and ceremonies and the things that we do that engender right standing with God? No, it's a changed heart before God. It's him in dwelling us with his spirit, causing us to be born again, granting us repentance and faith that so from the heart, we believe him and obey him and keep his word. Here written specifically specifically to those who thought themselves secure in their rituals and in their ceremonies. They were often obsessively religious. And so many did they think they're safe, they're secure because of their religious observance just doesn't get there. Now, as we look at this passage together, what placebos were they taking? Where do they get their assurance? Where do they get their confidence from? Well, specifically in Romans chapter two, beginning in verse 17, they got their confidence from three places. They were taking three specific placebos, if you will. One, they took the fake pill that they were Jewish. They were Jewish. Secondly, as we'll see here, they were boasting in God that they were given the law of God. They were Jewish. They were given the law of God. And thirdly, they were given the sign of circumcision. Three placebos that they were taking to comfort themselves, to assure themselves that they were right with God. And then with death and judgment came, they were going to be secure. Now you can take those three placebos and you can replace them with anything that you find today. Any number of placebos that you're going to encounter today, they were Jewish. Many today will say, well, I'm a Christian. Listen, I know I'm a Christian. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I've been going to church since I was like two years old. I'm there all the time. Every time the doors are open, I go to church. I am a Christian. I know I'm a Christian. Listen, I said that prayer when I was one and a half. Before I could speak, I thought that prayer, I would say, right, you know, whatever they're assuring themselves with. They were Jewish, but there's any number of placebos that people take today that basically represent the exact same thing. The second, they were given the law of God. They were given the law of God. To them, their boast was in the law. Paul says that it was a good thing that God gave them the law. So to boast in God would have been good. They didn't boast in God in that sense. They're boast. They boasted themselves that they being keepers of the law were right with God. So like today, you could replace that placebo with the placebo that you'll hear from many today. I'm a good person. I live for the Lord. Listen, I don't sin like other people sin. We're witnessing to, well, not just one person. I've witnessed to several people as you take them through the law. Nope, I've never done that sin. And no, no, I haven't done that one either. Nope, haven't done that one either. Nope, not guilty of that. Don't see themselves at all as sinners. And they would profess to you that they are a good person. It's the same error. Do you see? It's the same error. Thirdly, they were given the sign of circumcision. That was the placebo that the Jews were taking because of this sign that God has given us. There was a teaching on the part of the rabbis that no circumcised Jew would ever see hell. And so they, they rested in that thought because I'm circumcised because I'm a Jew. I have my heritage. I've been given the law of God and I've completed this ritualistic thing over here. And because of that ritual, because of that sign, I'll never see hell. And they taught themselves that. So replace that today with any number of placebos that represent the same error. Well, I've been baptized. Many would say that I've been baptized. I go to confession. You know, I attend Mass every week or I go to church every week or whatever the case may be. Maybe use the same placebo again. I've grown up in church. So I have church attendance as the sign that I'm right with God. I go to church every Sunday. Do you see the connections? Right. They're taking the same placebos that people today are taking. There's nothing new under the sun. These things are connected. They're the same basic errors. So now we take those placebos similar to what we've talked about this morning. Often, if you think about this, as Paul walks through this argument beginning in verse 17, often the only way that someone will be prepared to acknowledge the truth, often the only way that someone will be ready and willing to receive the truth that you're sharing with them is when you or after you expose the lie that they've been believing. It's that old adage. Sometimes you have to get someone lost before they're ready to get saved, right? A lot of times that's the only way that they're going to hear you. You have to expose the error so that then they are from the heart in a position, prayerfully by the grace of God, in a position to accept the truth of God. It's when you expose their lie. It's when you reveal their false hope as hopeless and they go searching for a true hope. That's what you pray happens. So Paul here then, that's the purpose of his conversation in Romans chapter two, beginning in verse 17. He sets about the task of unmasking the placebo, right? Exposing the lie, exposing the lie of their formality, exposing the lie of their false security so that he can give them the truth of the gospel. So let's take a verse, a look at verse 17. And again, we're going to run through this very quickly just as a summary to make the point. Placebo number one, they were Jewish. Look at verse 17. Indeed, Paul says, you are called a Jew and you rest on the law and you make your boast in God. And you know his will and approve the things that are excellent being instructed out of the law. Now placebo number two was they had been given the law of God. So here we see it at work. And you are confident, verse 19, that you yourself are a guide to the blind. Besides, we've been given the law of God, your light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. Paul saying in verse 17, that's what you think of yourselves. That's what you think of yourselves. You even boast in God because of your ethnic privilege, your national heritage, your national privilege, right? Now, put your placebo there in its place. I'm a Christian. Indeed, you're called a Christian, verse 17. You rest on the fact that you're Christian, you rest on the fact that you pray to prayer. You rest on the fact that you perform some little ritual, that you got baptized, you've been going to church all your life, and you make your boast that you're a Christian. And you know the will of God. You see how that works. You think to yourself, I'm doing the right thing. I'm doing the right thing. I gave my heart and life to Christ. And those other poor people out there who I just feel pity on them, they're not doing the right thing. Look at all the sin they're involved in. Look at what they're doing. Those that haven't given their life to Christ, that one that hasn't said the prayer, I've said the prayer, I've done the right thing. You see? It causes a case for boasting. You make your boast in God. You think you know your will. And here, specifically, they believe themselves to be superior because of it all. So when they boast in God, it's a boast of superiority. And in all of that, they think they're secure. Many today, because of their Christianity, think that they're secure. Now, as we get into verse 21, as we continue through the passage, they, because of their boast in God as a result of the law, or because of their boast in God as a result of their heritage, their national privilege, so to speak, they believe that they can live however they want to live. Ultimately, that was the error. We can live how we want to live. And yet, we'll never see hell because I'm a Jew. I'll never see hell because we're God's chosen people. We'll never see hell because we keep the law. And yet, they can lie and cheat and steal, as we'll see here. So look at verse 21 then. Many today think the same thing. Because of their Christianity, their Christian, because of their Christian heritage, quote unquote, or their Christian privilege, quote unquote, they think they can live however they want to. And that somehow God is obligated to save them because they said some prayer sincerely or made some commitment, or because they claim to believe to be a Christian. But look verse 21. Paul unmasks the placebo verse 21. You therefore, who teach another? Do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal? Do you steal? You who say do not commit adultery? Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols? Do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law? Do you dishonor God through breaking the law? In other words, here Paul in verse 21 goes straight for the heart, goes straight for the fruit of a changed heart that is demonstrated in the life of the person who claims to know God. You get it? You can fake religiosity. You can go through the rituals. You can go through the ceremonies. Can't fake a changed life. Can't fake a changed heart for very long. Can't be superficial for very long before you're revealed as a whitewashed tomb. Basically, he's saying, how can you boast that you have the law? How can you boast that you're a Christian? How can you boast that you're a good person when you don't live by the law? When you don't live according to that? Those that you witness to that will say, hey, I'm a good person. Well, I'm a Christian. When you take them through the law, strips away their reason for boasting, right? Because the law exposes the depravity of their heart. The law exposes the depravity of man. That's exactly what Paul is doing here in 21 through 23. Strips away their claim to be a Christian by exposing the placebo. Look at verse 24. Verse 24 says, for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. How many of you talk to that have blasphemed the name of God because of quote unquote hypocrites in the church? Remember witnessing, witnessing to someone that I care about deeply, and basically the way that she described her rejection of God or a rejection of the Christian faith at that time was because of hypocrites, as she called them, hypocrites in the church. Those that claimed Christ and yet lived like the devil. As it is written, he says in verse 25, listen, for circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law. But if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Now for them, this was placebo number three, their ceremony, their ritual, this idea of circumcision. Basically what he's saying here, circumcision is profitable if you keep all of the law along with it. But if you break the law, the Bible says cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to do them. So if you break the law of God, then whether you are circumcised or uncircumcised means nothing. Do you see? Circumcision is a non-issue because you are a breaker of God's law. You need grace. You need mercy. You need the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You need righteousness to stand before him. So for circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law. But if you are a breaker of the law, verse 25, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Verse 26, therefore, if an uncircumcised man, it's a Gentile, right? Speaking of Gentiles, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision then be counted as circumcision. In other words, that Gentile, that uncircumcised Gentile is in because he keeps the righteous requirements of the law. In other words, the circumcision, to that one who keeps the righteous requirements of the law, circumcision isn't necessary. He keeps the law and he's in, so to speak, because he keeps the law. Now we know that the only way that anyone keeps the righteous requirement of the law is by saving, repentant faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way that we can obey the Lord from the heart. Here he's making a point. If that person keeps the law, the righteous requirements of the law, then his circumcision isn't necessary. Everything here depends upon keeping the law. Everything here depends upon obedience to God. In other words, some hold here, hold a circumcision the way many today hold to baptism or hold to some other Christian ritual, church attendance, prayer, Bible reading, whatever heartless ritual they're performing. You do those things from the heart, they're pleasing to God, you're keeping the righteous requirements of the law. You do them in a heartless and a godless and a ritualistic way, in a moralistic kind of way with your lips professing God, but your heart far from him, that's an abomination to God. That's false religion. It's the same thing they've entered into here with their circumcision. Some hold to baptism in the same way. Some hold to church attendance in the same way, some other ritual. Look at verse 27 as he continues, and will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you, who even with your written code and circumcision, circumcision are a transgressor of the law. But here it is, verse 28, to sum up all of the Lord's teaching with this passage that Paul gives us here in chapter two, verses 17 through 29, the thrust of the context comes in verse 28. Listen, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. That describes formal religion. It describes the placebo. It describes formality. It describes heartless, ritualistic, godless, professors of faith, but not possessors of faith, so to speak. It describes godless religion. He is not a Jew who is one outwardly. White standing with God is not something that is external. Justification isn't acquired through ritual or through ceremony. White standing with God does not come through the things that you or I do to earn favor with God. Nor is circumcision verse 28 that which is outward in the flesh. Listen to verse 29. But he is a Jew, we could say that he is a descendant of Abraham. He is a child of God. He is a member of the covenant. He is a Jew who is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart, a circumcised heart, a contrite heart, a heart that's been broken over sin, a heart that's been changed by God. Through the gospel, through the work, the person in work of the Lord Jesus Christ. A Jew is one who is one inwardly in circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter. They boast it in their knowledge. They have the law of God and they boast it in their knowledge of the law of God. But that knowledge, mere knowledge, does not make you right with God. Mere intellectual essence to the facts around the gospel do not reconcile you to a holy God. Not in the, or in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God. Their motivation in all of their ritual and all of their ceremony and all of their boasting, their, their motivation was praise from men. It certainly wasn't praise from God. All this external formality, basically Paul is saying, all of this external formality is worthless because you haven't been changed on the inside. Do you see? That passage, if you look at that, the placebo just explodes. It's just gone. He unmasks the fake. He unmasks the superficial. He opens the whitewashed tomb, so to speak, and exposes the inside. Not all Israel is Israel. Not all Jews are Jews. Not all Christians are Christians. Not all saved people are saved people. Not all children of God are children of God. It's that one that is changed in their heart, changed by God. It's not the externals. It's the spiritual internals that matter. It's your heart. Christian formality, formal religion is that whitewashed sepulchre of fake, counterfeit, superficial, heartless, ritualistic, ceremonial notions of following the Lord. The notion of being a child of God is just not real. The Christian label, the label of Christian, is often used as a useless, worthless placebo. Being a good person, having knowledge of the Bible, so to speak, all those things, having knowledge of the Bible is a good thing. We're to learn the Word of God. But that comes from the heart. And that learning, that illumination, comes from his spirit. If you're a genuine Christian, just having a knowledge of theology, a knowledge of the Bible, being a good person is a useless placebo apart from a heart-holy worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ceremonies and rituals, useless placebos. You must be born again that we studied in John chapter 3 with Nicodemus. You must be born again. You must have a new heart, all that that old heart can produce, all that the old man can produce. Your flesh, all that your flesh can produce is a useless, worthless placebo. You must have God's spirit within you. It can't be done in your own flesh and your own exertions. It can't be done according to your own strength, your own knowledge. You must have his spirit within you. Then, with his spirit within you, a changed heart having the Lord taken out that heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh, then you'll experience the truth of the gospel and not just hear about it, not just walk through the motions of some external conformity to it. And it's that truth that you both know and experience. It's that truth that the Lord says in John chapter 8, will set you free. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this passage. Thank you, Lord, for exposing all the ways that in our flesh we're so prone to deception, all the ways that we're so ready and prone in the flesh to chase off after artificial sweeteners, so to speak. Thank you for exposing those lies so that we can see clearly from your word the truth. I pray, God, that we ourselves would persevere in the faith that you, God, by your spirit would preserve us in the faith. And we would not be or undiscerning or quick to fall for the superficial lie. God, that we would trust in your word and keep your word. And God, I pray with the truth that you teach us through your word, that truth that has been delivered to us, that truth that we've been delivered to. And God, we would be faithful to preach that truth in a world where placebos are a dime a dozen, where there are so many, so many that are lying under the false, assured confidence of some wicked placebo and on their way to hell. God, I pray that we'd be faithful with the message in this wicked and perverse generation that lies. God, that we'd be faithful with the gospel message to unmask their deceptions, to expose the whited sepulchre that the hypocrite is, that that heartless, moral person represents. God, in that you, by your grace and mercy, would flood in with the gospel, with the person and work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, with grace and mercy to save them truly, to save them in earnest. They might be free forever from death. For your glory, for your eternal praise and worship, we pray these things. In Jesus' name, amen.