WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.520 So this morning for a little while we're going to turn back to, or we're going to turn to, 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:10.320 Romans chapter 3. We're coming to the end of this chapter. As I said last week, we've kind of slowed 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:14.640 down the studies a little bit in the last couple of weeks, taking smaller sections, 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:21.199 because it's such an important part of this letter that Paul has written. So I'm going to read the 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:27.359 last few verses of Romans chapter 3, and then remind ourselves of where we are, particularly for those 00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:35.840 who are here and haven't been part of this series. Romans chapter 3 from verse 27. This is God's Word. 00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:45.840 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded by what kind of law? By a law of works? No, 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:53.120 but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 00:00:53.119 --> 00:01:01.839 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:08.719 since God is one. Who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith? 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:17.920 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:25.840 Okay, so we've come to this point where the first number of chapters, at least the first 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:32.000 two and a half chapters of Romans have been quite bleak. They've not painted a good picture of 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:40.799 the human race, and it's been stripping back our self-reliance and maybe our tendency to have 00:01:40.799 --> 00:01:50.640 God as a hobby in our lives. And Paul is hugely keen through the Holy Spirit to remind us that we 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:58.479 are lost, that we need rescued and redeemed. And in the context of the book, he is reminding 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:05.120 both the Jewish believers who have a great heritage and also new believers who have come in who 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:10.879 don't have that heritage, the Gentiles, that they are without Christ, they are absolutely equal. And 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:16.960 everyone needs a redeemer, everyone needs Jesus Christ. And last week, we kind of, the load or 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:22.879 the light was, the weight was lightened a little bit because we came to the great gospel message 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:31.040 of the righteousness that we are given, we are offered, that we receive through Jesus Christ 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:39.439 and what He has done on the cross. And it is a remarkable revelation of God coming down to us 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:46.719 rather than us trying to reach up to Him. And so Paul then concludes what he's saying about Jesus 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:52.079 and about the gift of grace and the hope of the gospel and the work that Jesus has done 00:02:52.080 --> 00:03:01.439 and by dealing with a couple of things that are practical implications of the truth of Jesus 00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:05.200 Christ as our Lord and Savior. And we're going to look at them for a few minutes this morning 00:03:05.200 --> 00:03:12.400 and remind ourselves of the centrality of the gospel and how it changes our lives. So this is a 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:17.680 baptismal service as well. We have Brody being baptized towards the end of the service. And 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:25.040 that baptismal sacrament is all about the gospel as well. It's all about the promise of the gospel. 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:31.840 And it's a reminder to us of how we are to bring up our children and how we are to live as believers, 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:37.200 as parents, as mothers and fathers, with respect to our children as well. The gospel, 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:44.480 what Paul is saying, what God is saying through Romans is the centrality of the gospel in every 00:03:44.479 --> 00:03:52.239 part of our lives, in every part of who we are and what we do and how we live. And this great 00:03:52.239 --> 00:04:00.319 covenant of grace and the sign of the covenant in baptism is one that is central to our understanding 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:07.599 of the importance of Jesus. So the context here, as we recall, is this letter to the Romans, 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:17.680 which is to a young church, and Paul is clearly expounding, is laying out the central pillars 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:27.759 of the gospel. So probably if we can quantify or qualify the value of the letters of Paul, 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:33.680 I think we can say this is preeminent. It wasn't the first letter he wrote, but it's put first 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:40.000 after the Acts of the Apostles of the early church. It's preeminent in its importance. 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:46.800 And he's setting out for all of church, right through time, the significance of the gospel. 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:52.639 There are Jewish believers, as we say, and Gentile believers. And what's happening is they're struggling, 00:04:54.480 --> 00:05:00.800 they're struggling with the radical nature of this new gospel community. You know, we've got 2,000 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:08.000 years of gospel community, greater or lesser degree, better or worse manifestations of that. 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:14.720 But this is a new church, and it's the new gospel really that they are seeking to understand. 00:05:15.280 --> 00:05:20.400 And what they're trying to come to terms with it is that it transcends race. It transcends 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:26.240 background, your religious or pagan background. It transcends your privileges. 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:34.560 And it transcends all things so that in Christ, the gospel community of the church in Rome was to be 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:40.400 one. It was to be a people who were fused together, and that identity was in Jesus Christ, and that's 00:05:40.400 --> 00:05:46.319 no different for all of the church, and all of the manifestations of the church, whether it's in 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:54.079 America or in Scotland or wherever it is. He is setting out here the significance and the importance 00:05:54.079 --> 00:06:00.000 of the gospel. And if you remember the key verse in chapter 1, verse 16 and 17, I'm not ashamed of 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:07.199 the gospel. Jewish believer in Rome, Gentile believer in Rome, believer in St. Columbus, believer 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:13.519 whatever we are, we are not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:18.879 who believes, to the Jew first and then to the Greek for it in that a righteousness of God is 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:25.279 revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. So we've seen 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:33.759 the recognition and we understand why it's so important that our condition is far more serious 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:44.879 than we can ever, ever imagine. No one is exempt. And no one today is exempt from the analysis and 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:51.759 from the diagnosis of God about our condition because he's God, isn't he? And he sees and he 00:06:51.759 --> 00:06:59.600 knows. No one is exempt. No one today is exempt from the challenge of God's diagnosis of the human 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:07.920 condition. So putting it simply today, if you can introduce me today to somebody who will not die, 00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:16.319 who doesn't age, who isn't subject to any of the struggles of life, internal or external, 00:07:17.759 --> 00:07:22.960 then we'll just close just now. We'll just finish up. I'll just say amen and even then it'll be a 00:07:22.960 --> 00:07:28.240 bit of a waste of time. We'll just finish the service, we'll stop and we'll never again meet in 00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:36.560 Christian worship because if there is someone who is in that condition in the world in which we live, 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:42.720 who will never die, who doesn't age and who has no struggles and battles, illness or any other 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:51.600 condition, then God's diagnosis is wrong. But the spiritual, God is saying, and God's 00:07:51.600 --> 00:08:00.160 reminder, the root of the condition of broken human humanity is spiritual. And God's solution, 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:06.960 as it's revealed in Romans, is much more amazing and mind-blowing than I can ever explain. 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:12.400 And that's a constant frustration for a preacher. And I'm sure the preachers who are here will know 00:08:12.400 --> 00:08:17.200 and experience that same frustration that we simply can't put into words. We don't have 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:26.800 the dynamic ability to put into words how mind-blowing the gospel is that is offered to us 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:33.680 as a gift of grace and a gift of love, something that we can't do anything whatsoever to earn. 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:41.360 And so Romans, with all its difficulties and depth and yet beauty, it challenges every conception we 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:48.720 have about God, I believe, about ourselves and about the new society of the church. 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:54.080 And I want to focus a little bit on that today for a few minutes about the church because so often I 00:08:54.080 --> 00:09:02.000 think it's easy for us as ministers and people in the church to reflect selfish attitudes to Jesus 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:08.320 and to others. So what I'm saying today is that every church, as we go through the centuries, 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:16.720 every Christian within the church, then, as it was needed in Rome, so is now that we all need 00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:28.160 radicalized. Now, that's become a very politically weighty word or weighted word. I don't want to 00:09:28.160 --> 00:09:39.920 give any kind of political or ideological emphasis, but I do feel we need radicalized by the gospel 00:09:39.919 --> 00:09:49.679 of His love. We continually need to be challenged by the radical nature of what grace will do to a 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:53.599 community, what grace will do to you as an individual and how it will change your life. 00:09:55.120 --> 00:10:00.000 When we look at Romans, when we look at this section, we're challenged about the kind of people, 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:07.120 the kind of Christians we are, the kind of church community we are. Do we grasp, do we recognize the 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:16.080 constant need of change and the power that comes from a grace transformed individual family and 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:22.799 community of believers? What is the difference that great, the radical nature of grace in our 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:28.560 Christian life? What difference is it making as parents for Craig and Jenny? What difference is 00:10:28.560 --> 00:10:32.480 it making? What difference will it make for Fer and Siobhan who will get married? What difference 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:39.680 will it make in your workplace as an individual, as we parent, as we work, as we witness, as we live, 00:10:39.680 --> 00:10:45.920 as we finish our studies, as we look for careers? I'm going to briefly talk about two negatives and 00:10:45.920 --> 00:10:50.159 one positive in the light of what Christ has done for us that come from this section here. 00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:57.360 The first is we cannot boast, okay? That's what Paul is, that's one of the conclusions he's coming 00:10:57.360 --> 00:11:03.360 to when he's spoken about the gift of salvation being given to us. Therefore, he says, what becomes 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:12.159 of our boasting? There was obviously boasting going on in the church in Rome. I'm a Jew, I've got lots 00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:17.440 of privileges, I'm better than you, you're just coming late, you're a Johnny Come Lately to the 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:22.320 gospel and to the church, you're a Gentile. There may have been some kind of boasting going on. 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:30.800 What becomes of boasting? It is excluded. I think boasting is one of the deepest issues 00:11:30.800 --> 00:11:36.720 that we face in our Christian lives. You may disagree with that. It's a powerful influence 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:42.000 for destruction because it's the same as pride. Boasting is really the same as pride, because 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:46.480 if we're boasting, then we're proud. We're proud about ourselves and we're proud about our achievements. 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:55.120 And it will often be the very core of division in a family or in a church and in a grace community. 00:11:55.120 --> 00:12:01.120 It will cause division and disunity, for there's boasting in the Christian church and in our lives. 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:12.320 So how does disunity happen? Because I do believe there's a... Paul is speaking into a real church 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:16.960 and into some of the real issues that they were facing and the disunity that is caused. And that's 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:21.680 throughout the New Testament. How does disunity happen in relationships? How does it happen in church? 00:12:23.520 --> 00:12:31.920 It's boasting, isn't it? It's pride. I think I'm better than you. I know better than you. 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:38.960 I feel free to judge your motives. And I want to make unfavorable comparisons between you and 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:46.320 somebody else. I'm the standard. I'm the gold standard that I'm judging everyone else by. 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:55.040 And I can choose to be harsh on other people so that more sympathy is directed towards me. 00:12:55.840 --> 00:13:05.440 So pride and boasting is divisive and it displays an ignorance of the very core of the gospel that 00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:11.760 is being spoken of and laid out here by Paul, that it is by grace that we have been saved. 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:21.520 It's the single biggest battle that each of us face is to understand what the Bible, what God, 00:13:22.400 --> 00:13:30.720 God's diagnosis of us is. The first response to the gospel is humility, isn't it? That we fall 00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:38.080 in our knees and we say, I need you, God. I need you as my Savior. The first three chapters has 00:13:38.080 --> 00:13:44.960 made that clear that there is no one righteous, no there is not one person for all of sin and 00:13:44.960 --> 00:13:50.399 fall short of the glory of God. Therefore, the gospel is a humbling power in our lives. 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:57.519 Before God, we are all equally lost, equally failed, equally guilty, and as Christians, 00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:04.879 equally rescued by His grace because of what He has done. We haven't earned a grain of sand 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:09.600 when it comes to our relationship and our standing before God. I'm going to come back to that 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:17.039 briefly. So we recognize that there is a practical implication of understanding the gospel. And the 00:14:17.039 --> 00:14:24.159 first is that we cannot boast. We cannot be proud. Now, boasting comes naturally to us. It is just, 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:34.000 we are born with the ability to boast, maybe not proudly in the sense of trumpeting boasting in a 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:43.919 very outward boastful way, but pride is, and it can be very hidden in our lives. The way we talk to, 00:14:43.919 --> 00:14:49.439 the way we talk about each other, our put downs, our cynicism, our criticisms, it's all about boasting. 00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:57.520 But it's thoughtless because it ignores what we profess to believe. And what we seek to do, 00:14:57.520 --> 00:15:02.720 and our doctrine studies in a Wednesday evening are to remind ourselves that we can't be thoughtless 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:08.320 Christians. We can't be Christians who are not willing to apply our minds and our intellects 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:13.920 to the truth of the gospel so that it changes who we are and who, how we think. 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:23.039 You know, we don't believe in marshmallow kind of Christianity, soft and pliable and pink. 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:29.919 Sorry, that doesn't really mean anything. But, you know what I mean, we want something meaty and 00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:36.399 strong and something that molds and moves us into our very hearts and souls because it's true. 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:46.639 And Christ boasting is excluded. And that means for us that we need to be genuinely rooted in Jesus 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:54.799 Christ as believers. We need truth and relationship. We need prayer. Ultimately, it can't be taught, 00:15:54.799 --> 00:16:04.000 it needs to be lived. Only then do we begin to see people, other people, as Christ sees them and us, 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:11.759 as Jesus. So that we live without boasting, loving, respecting, honoring others above ourselves 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:19.919 and living to serve others rather than to be served because that is the core of the humility 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:25.840 that is implied here. And that also means understanding the gospel community where there is no, 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:30.080 this is written to a gospel community where there is no boasting. And I just want to speak 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:36.639 very briefly in one area. When you and I, when I'm tempted to be critical of someone else in the 00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:40.800 church, another Christian, it doesn't need to be in the church, it may be in another church, 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:47.920 may it be another denomination, another tradition of the faith, you maybe know them and you're 00:16:47.920 --> 00:16:54.800 tempted to be very critical about them to another person. I'm going to talk to others about it. 00:16:54.799 --> 00:17:02.719 If there is no boasting, that shouldn't be how we act. Because when we talk to other people 00:17:02.719 --> 00:17:06.559 about the life and the witness of another Christian, we're saying, I'm better than them, 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:11.519 I'm judging them, and I'm more important than them, and I want to be liked better than them. 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:20.399 What we must do in the radical nature of grace is to first talk to that person who we know 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:26.240 about whatever it is that we are grieved about. If we're unwilling to do that, 00:17:28.320 --> 00:17:36.720 then either deep down we want to boast about ourselves and look good, or we come to the 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:44.320 point of recognizing that our complaint is simply not serious enough, and we forget it, 00:17:44.320 --> 00:17:50.080 because love covers a multitude of sins. That's an outworking of not boasting, is that love 00:17:50.079 --> 00:17:55.519 covers a multitude of sins and the kind of things that we pick up on and sometimes pass on to others 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:02.559 is based on lovelessness, not loving them. And we want others to treat us similarly. 00:18:02.559 --> 00:18:09.839 So the first thing is we cannot boast. The second thing is our identity is not in our best efforts. 00:18:10.879 --> 00:18:16.399 That's one of the implications of understanding the gospel of grace and justification of by faith, 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:24.800 which we looked at last week. 28 says we recognize that it's not our best efforts, 00:18:24.800 --> 00:18:32.640 that we hold that no one is justified by faith from works of the law. In other words, we don't 00:18:32.640 --> 00:18:39.840 justify ourselves before God, before obeying the law of God. There's no self-justification. 00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:45.839 Now I think sometimes even as long-standing Christians, we have this deep-seated battle and 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:54.480 struggle to take some credit for being a Christian. That we must have done something, surely we must 00:18:54.480 --> 00:19:01.119 have done something for God to accept us, that we feel that we have something that God has seen in us 00:19:01.679 --> 00:19:05.919 that has made us righteous before Him, and Jesus can add to that. 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:16.160 So I think if we battle with pride and boasting, I think we struggle to accept that salvation is a 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:22.560 free and full gift, that we are made right with God because of what Jesus Christ achieved 2000 years 00:19:22.560 --> 00:19:29.519 ago on the cross and the death and resurrection. There's no works that we can do to earn God's 00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:34.480 favor. This goes back to boasting, I guess, doesn't it? So our background, good or bad, 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:41.839 our knowledge, our charity, our church life, our generosity, none of it can enable us to reach 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:48.319 up to God. Now I know we know these things. We know it in our heads, but it's hugely difficult to 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:55.440 live in the light of that knowledge, to know that only Jesus Christ has bridged the gap between 00:19:55.440 --> 00:20:04.160 ourselves and God and has taken the death penalty so that we can escape the just judgment and wrath 00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:09.680 of God. Christ has taken that. We read it in Ephesians, for by grace you have been saved through 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:17.680 faith and this not from yourselves. It's the gift of God, not by works. Not by works, therefore why? 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:25.600 So that no one can boast. So it's related, the two are related. Christ alone makes us right 00:20:25.600 --> 00:20:33.519 with God. It's the kind of fundamental tenet of our confession, of our belief that His righteousness 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:40.400 His law keeping where He perfectly loved God and perfectly loved His neighbor and His 00:20:41.279 --> 00:20:50.400 everyone that He came into contact with is lived out in our place and yet He dies on the cross 00:20:51.599 --> 00:21:01.200 taking God's wrath as the sinner, representing us. The only way we are reconciled to God, 00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:08.559 the only way we can call Him Father, standing before Him now and on that last great day when 00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:14.160 all humanity will be judged before Him. The only way we can do that is by accepting Him as Lord and 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:21.440 Savior and what He has done. He lived a life we couldn't live, died the death we deserve. It's that 00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:28.400 sacrifice, it's that substitution that we've looked at and spoken about so often. So the challenge 00:21:28.400 --> 00:21:36.240 for us today, and I challenge you today, if you're not a Christian, I challenge you to believe 00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:43.120 in what is revealed in God's Word and Scripture to do the most ludicrous thing you've ever done, 00:21:44.240 --> 00:21:52.160 to put your faith in a first century Jew who claimed to be God was crucified by Roman authorities 00:21:52.160 --> 00:22:00.560 and who was raised on the third day, ascended to heaven. That's the gospel that we believe in 00:22:00.560 --> 00:22:08.240 the 21st century. Now some people may say I'm insane, but many of the people here who believe 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:15.519 are not insane, they're normal, ordinary people who believe and who have accepted and have been 00:22:15.519 --> 00:22:24.079 transformed by the love of Christ and who has redeemed them. Accept that gift and as Christians 00:22:24.079 --> 00:22:31.759 we need to accept that we are forgiven and declared righteous with God and entrust your life to Him 00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:44.400 and let that reality change you. No one can ever love you more than God loves you in Christ. No one 00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:52.800 can ever do more for you in your life than Christ has already done for you if you come to Him by 00:22:52.800 --> 00:23:03.759 faith. A child who has had no parents and has been moved from foster home to foster home 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:14.160 when they are welcomed by an adoptive father and mother who love them and the papers are signed 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:21.440 and the work is done. Their life is transformed by that security and by that love. Maybe in the 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:28.720 workplace at a different level today where everything is zero hour contracts and semi or 00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:34.880 you know six month contracts or day to day contracts where your boss, your company that you work for 00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:41.279 gives you a long term permanent contract and it's signed and sealed. It changes the way you think, 00:23:41.279 --> 00:23:46.960 it changes the way you work in your employment and the person that you love, 00:23:51.200 --> 00:24:00.079 your partner finally says yes and then next week we'll sign on the dotted line 00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:09.279 and once they've signed there's no turning back. That marriage document that will be there, 00:24:09.279 --> 00:24:14.799 that's your signing your life, I mean it's a wonderful tremendous fantastic time that is so 00:24:14.799 --> 00:24:20.799 exciting and it will change you because the whole thing about that public declaration and the vowing 00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:30.319 and the signing is publicly committing and knowing that love changes and the truth must be 00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:38.319 multiplied infinitely with Jesus Christ then shouldn't it? That when He has already sealed 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:44.639 His love for us in His blood He can't do anymore and He said look it's a gift I'm giving it to you, 00:24:44.639 --> 00:24:52.399 you don't have to do anything but simply accept that gift. There's no boasting, there's no works 00:24:52.399 --> 00:24:59.759 of the law that you can't add to it, it's absolutely there and as you accept that and know His love 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:07.359 then it transforms who we are and so I close with this, does it matter then how we live? If this is 00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:14.079 a gift to us and we're forgiven and we're accepted and we're declared righteous then hey we can live 00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:20.159 any way we want because God's accepted us, isn't that the argument? Well He finishes by saying 00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:25.439 do we then overthrow the law by this faith by no means on the contrary we uphold the law. 00:25:27.439 --> 00:25:32.719 Of course it matters how we live, of course it's going to change us, the adopted child, 00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:42.240 the secure employee, the married couple, genuine love and gratitude always leads to a desire to 00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:52.240 please and in the case of our love for God we are awoken, we are made alive with a desire to obey 00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:58.480 God's laws of love because they're laws of love because love is what makes this world go round 00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:05.120 and because God's love is at the core of all so by loving Him through grace and therefore then 00:26:05.120 --> 00:26:12.640 seeking to love one another we become obedient to His commands, we don't see them as burdensome, 00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:17.440 the law is established in our heart. It's not only there as we saw in the last few weeks to 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:22.960 expose our failure because we can't reach the standards of God's perfect law, not only there's 00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:29.120 a moral code which will restrain evil in the world in which we live but it's there as to follow 00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:35.039 as we're given a new heart. Some theologians have said they were justified by faith but that 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:42.319 faith is never justified by faith alone but that faith is never alone. So there's always works of 00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:46.400 gratitude, the fruit of faith that we've been looking in the evening worship, the fruit of the 00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:53.600 spirit in our lives. If we're saying, wow, God's forgiven me anyway and I'll just live anyway, 00:26:53.600 --> 00:26:59.840 what was that? Isn't that twisted? Isn't that tainted love? Perverse, abusive, manipulative, 00:26:59.840 --> 00:27:06.640 selfish and dangerous. Jesus says, if you love me you will obey my commands. 00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:15.360 So today I implore and encourage myself, Craig and Jenny as parents and all of us here 00:27:15.359 --> 00:27:23.519 to be as Christians lawkeepers. The commands of love in your relationships, in your workplace, 00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:28.959 in your family, in your home, it'll be the greatest example to your children and can I say 00:27:29.519 --> 00:27:33.599 it's the greatest apologetic for the gospel in the world in which we live today 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:39.199 is grace being worked out on the ground by a community of people. 00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:47.920 So what can I ask if you know what is your reputation in the workplace? What's your 00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:55.759 reputation in the classroom? What's your reputation at home? What's your reputation in 00:27:55.759 --> 00:28:01.120 your neighborhood? Because I think if you know that then you have some kind of understanding 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:07.200 of whether you understand the transform, whether I understand the transforming power of grace. 00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:16.319 It's radically different from living without grace in terms of boasting and in terms of 00:28:16.319 --> 00:28:25.279 understanding his great love. So prize grace and prize the gospel and as a congregation I encourage 00:28:25.279 --> 00:28:32.080 you to prize unity. It's an impossible dream I know that without the aid of the Holy Spirit 00:28:32.079 --> 00:28:41.839 but unity will mark this community of God's people out as those who know and understand 00:28:41.839 --> 00:28:48.559 His gift and the grace that He's given to us. Let's pray about these things. 00:28:51.359 --> 00:28:55.199 Father God, we thank you for the gospel. We thank you for its power. 00:28:55.200 --> 00:29:06.720 We pray that you would forgive us for when we stifle its remarkable energy and its life 00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:17.840 transforming grace. When we choose to be boastful and when we choose to feel that we have to earn 00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:26.720 something before God and be comparative with others and hope that our being better than others 00:29:28.159 --> 00:29:34.559 will earn us favor in God's sight. But remind us that your gift of salvation is that and we are 00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:41.439 simply asked to believe, to accept and to allow the transforming power of grace to make us new people 00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:51.519 with a new perspective and a new priority and a new hope and one that reflects how we were created 00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:58.240 to be. Help us be praying that. Help Craig and Jenny and that as the parent their children and 00:29:58.240 --> 00:30:05.519 as all as we parent not only our own children but as we in Covenantal family care for all the 00:30:05.519 --> 00:30:13.599 children in the church and as we live together and as we interact with one another in all that we do 00:30:13.599 --> 00:30:20.639 and all that we are help us to live by grace in all the humility of grace and the glory and beauty 00:30:20.639 --> 00:30:26.400 of grace. So bless us and bless us now as we come to the baptism. We ask and pray that all that we 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:36.400 do would be done in your name and for your glory. Amen.