Father, we know that if you have hard things to say to us,
you do not speak to us because you desire to belittle us,
shame us, insult us, diminish us, or denigrate us,
but that you do it, Father, because your love is unfailing,
that you, Father, are the unfailing God of love.
And so, Father, we know that even your hard words are spoken with love.
So we ask, Father, that you help us to trust you as we hear these words.
We ask, Father, that you help us to dive deep into these words,
knowing that it is you who speaks,
you who sent your Son to die upon the cross to redeem us,
so that we, by faith in Jesus, can become your child by adoption and grace.
Father, help us to plunge deep into your word and have your word plunge deep into us
so that our lives will bear fruit for your glory.
And this we ask in Jesus' name, your Son and the only Savior, our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
Amen.
So, you know, sometimes I have to come up with a story to try to get your attention right off the beginning,
but how can you beat, no one understands, no one does anything good, no one seeks God.
So, just imagine trying to explain that to your co-workers.
Imagine trying to explain that if it came over the loudspeaker at your work.
George believes that no one does good, no one understands, no one seeks God.
Ask George to explain it to you.
And probably we would go like this, wondering how on earth it got put on the loudspeaker.
And some of you are saying,
George, I'm not even thinking about how I'd explain it to my co-workers.
I don't know how I'd explain it to another Christian.
It seems pretty hardcore, a hardcore text.
It's one of the advantages, by the way, of preaching through books of the Bible,
because I confess to you that in my flesh, I would probably never pick this text,
because I'm a Canadian male.
And I'm a Canadian male, and, you know, I like to be liked,
and, you know, I naturally try to think of what could encourage,
or something like that.
I've never picked this text.
And so, it's one of the reasons why I preach through books of the Bible,
because it's good for us to hear the Bible,
and to hear those parts and bits that we wouldn't normally turn to,
or that we would quickly skip over.
So, what on earth is going on?
Andrew, could you put up Romans 1, 16 to 17 for me, please?
Now, remember, I said that everything in the book of Romans is all,
these two verses basically summarize everything in the book.
So, every time you come, if you go back, and if you're in a Bible study,
and you're trying to study the book of Romans,
and you're trying to figure out what's going on in the text,
it's always going to be helpful if you go back and you look at this text,
because it's going to help you to maybe at least try to say,
okay, this text somehow is fitting into this.
So, could you say this text with me out loud, please?
For I am not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
So, the problem we have with this text, Romans 3, 1 and 20,
keep in mind that, you'd say, well, George, that's a big jump.
From what that's saying, it seems like it's a very big jump to this.
In fact, George, how is it that we can even understand that?
Doesn't Romans 3 sort of contradict Romans 1, 16 to 17?
It says no one understands,
but it sort of implies that we can understand Romans 1, 16 to 17.
And so, it seems like a bit of a contradiction.
And here's the thing that if you sort of think about it for a second,
that the problem isn't that we think that everybody only tells the truth all the time,
or that people only speak, they only speak what's good,
they only do good things.
Like, none of us believe that that happens all of the time.
But the problem is that when it seems as if, you know,
if the text had said, you know,
some of you do good things sometimes and bad things other times,
we'd probably be pretty fine with it.
And some of you understand things sometimes,
and some of you don't understand things other times.
I mean, that's what my wife says to me all the time,
and she's correct, you know.
Sometimes I just don't understand, don't get it.
And so, that's part of the problem with the text.
But as we start to look at, we're going to look at the text,
Romans 3, 1 to 20, turn to it in your Bibles.
But before we do that, I want to suggest to you
something that's important to keep in mind as we go through.
It's very common in educational theory.
My guess is that if you go to get a teaching degree
at the University of Ottawa,
that if you study psychology, if you study sociology,
that even many political philosophies,
if you listen to many spiritualities,
if you go and you were to go to chapters
and get books on spirituality,
that many, many people in our culture
tell us that we essentially are good.
That who we are is fundamentally good.
Why is it that we don't get as upset with that
as we do with Romans 3?
Like, why is it that we only get bothered
with a text that seems to be extreme in one direction?
Like, shouldn't we be bothered with people
who seem to talk in extreme ways in both directions?
Like, why is it that that type of extreme
that we're all fundamentally good
doesn't bother us as much as Romans 3 bothers us?
Like, what does that say about me?
What does it say about you?
Well, let's read the text.
Romans 3, 1 to 20, and we'll begin at the first verse.
Then what advantage has the Jew,
or what is the value of circumcision?
Just pause here before we go any further.
Those of you who were here last week,
you might remember that I talked about how
to get the full oomph of the text,
you need to do something to make the text contemporary.
It's a completely valid move.
And so take out the word Jew and put Anglican.
And maybe some of you said,
yeah, yeah, that's a good thing,
because Anglicans, they don't know anything.
They never do good things, and they don't understand.
So if that's the case,
if you come from a Pentecostal background,
put in Pentecostal.
If you come from a Baptist background,
put in Baptist.
If you come from an Associated Gospel background,
put in Associated Gospel.
If you're even saying,
no, no, I know there's some Baptists.
No, no, then put Fellowship of Evangelical Baptists
in everywhere you say this text.
Or put in Reformed Presbyterian.
Like, put in the denomination
that you think is the best.
Okay?
And put that in.
And every time you see the word circumcision,
put in the word baptism.
And if you do that,
you're going to start to get a little bit
of the shock of the text.
So if I was at the Met,
I would say,
then what advantage has the person
who comes to the Met?
Whoa.
Okay?
So I'm going to use Anglican,
because it'd be rude for me
to pick another denomination.
Then what advantage has the Anglican?
Or what is the value of baptism?
Much in every way.
To begin with,
the Anglicans were entrusted
with the oracles of God.
Now, we actually always thought that,
but that's a separate story.
That's where it breaks down.
Much in every way,
to begin with,
the Anglicans were entrusted
with the oracles of God.
I just want to pause here for a second.
There's something that you,
I could have mentioned this every week.
And I could mention it every week
in the following weeks,
and I will mention it several other times,
because it's a really important lesson.
But it's easy for us not to notice it.
Andrew, if you could put up the first point.
The Bible is the oracles of God.
Some of your translations
say the very words of God,
and that's a good equivalent,
because oracles is a bit,
isn't it like a high-tech company
or something like that?
And, you know,
but if you put down
the very words of God,
because in the ancient world,
you would go to an oracle,
because the oracle,
in a sense,
would, you know,
whenever you did
the proper sacrifices
and paid the proper money
and do whatever you had to do,
I don't know,
a thousand push-ups upside down
or something like that.
And then you would,
the oracle would speak,
and it was as if
the oracle disappeared,
and God,
the gods,
would use the oracle's mouth
to speak.
And so when the oracle was speaking,
every word you heard
wasn't hers,
it was God speaking.
And that's what the Bible
has always taught about itself.
That's what Jesus teaches as well.
So I,
what the text is claiming
is that right now in my hands,
I am holding the very words of God.
That's what I'm holding.
That's what the Bible teaches us
about itself.
It's not a fundamentalist idea.
It's not something that,
you know,
those who are sort of
very emergent saying,
you know,
that words are a problem
and don't we know
that there's, you know,
issues around words
and it's a modernist idea
to say things like that.
It's not a modernist idea.
It's completely and utterly
not a modernist idea.
And all the way through
the book of Romans,
Paul is always saying,
it is written,
it is written.
In other words,
he's saying,
I'm quoting something
that comes from God
that's authoritative
that you've got to understand.
Every word is important.
The Bible is the oracles of God.
Now, some of you,
before we get back to reading,
some of you say,
George,
you've actually just made
the problem worse.
I know,
I'm going to do that.
I'm going to make it
as hard as I can, okay?
But you're actually,
George,
you're making the problem
way, way, way, way worse.
Because you see,
George,
if you just were more nuanced
and more enlightened,
you could say,
well, the Bible
isn't the word of God,
it contains the word of God.
And that means
that some parts of the Bible
are just culturally relative.
And it just reflects
a lack of proper
intellectual development
and intellectual formation.
It just,
and it means you can
just sort of say,
well, you know,
you know,
back in those days,
they just really talked
really, really hard.
And really what Paul is saying,
really what the Bible
is saying is that
sometimes you don't
do good things.
You know,
and so George,
by saying what you just said,
now you're making it sound
as if God,
God,
is just another one
of the long line
of people
who puts me down.
Now you're saying
that God is just as bad
as my dad
who told me
that I was always
going to be stupid
and that I would never
amount to anything.
Now you're making God
sound like
he's just like
my elementary teacher
or my coach in school
or my boss
or, you know,
that just always
putting me down.
And George,
you've actually made
the matter worse.
I don't think I have.
But, well,
is God just like that?
Is that what God is like?
Is God just like
another one
of a long line
of people
who tell us
that we are a failure
that will never
amount to anything,
that everything about us
is deeply flawed,
and that eventually
people will see
through our veneer
in our front
to realize
just how big
a failure
we really are.
Is that what God,
is that actually
God speaking to us?
Well,
let's continue
at verse 2
and we'll keep reading.
Go back to verse 2.
Much in every way.
That's,
remember,
what vanishes
have to be an Anglican?
Much in every way.
To begin with,
the Anglicans
were entrusted
with the oracles of God,
the very words of God.
What if some
were unfaithful?
That's Anglicans.
Hard to believe.
I'm just joking.
Does their faithlessness
nullify the faithfulness
of God?
By no means.
Let God be true,
though everyone
were a liar,
as it is written,
that you may be justified
in your words
and prevail
when you are judged.
That's referring to God.
But if our unrighteousness
serves to show
the righteousness
of God,
what shall we say?
That God is unrighteous
to inflict wrath on us?
I speak in a human way.
By no means.
For then,
how could God
judge the world?
But if,
through my lie,
God's truth
abounds to his glory,
why am I still
being condemned,
in other words,
found guilty,
as a sinner?
And why not do evil
that good may come,
as some people
slanderously charge us
with saying,
their condemnation,
in other words,
the verdict,
is just.
Now just sort of
pause here.
I'm going to,
I want to put up a point
and then I'll try to go
and see how this is actually
a very powerful text
that's telling us
the opposite of what
we emotionally feel
when we hear it.
If you could put up
the second point,
Andrew,
that would be a great help.
The real and living God
is unhindered,
faithful,
righteous,
and true,
so he speaks
and judges truly.
The real and living God,
not that God's
my imaginary friend,
okay,
the real God,
the God who really
does exist,
who really lives,
the real and living God
is unhindered.
I couldn't figure out
a way to put prevail
in there,
and then I got this idea
of using unhindered.
Nothing's going to
hinder him,
he's going to prevail.
He's unhindered,
he's faithful,
he's righteous,
he's true,
and so he speaks,
he speaks and judges
truly.
You know,
it's very interesting.
Parts of the book of Romans,
like a lot of the Bible,
so one of the things
about the word oracles,
by the way,
is that often the sayings
of the oracles were,
some of the sayings
of the oracles
would be very clear,
very obvious,
very easy for us
to understand,
and other parts
would be dark.
Not dark in terms
of being something evil,
but dark in the sense
of it's a little bit unclear,
you have to really
think about it
and meditate upon it.
And it's the same
with the book of Romans.
All of a sudden,
it's wham!
It's like,
you know,
in next week,
for all of sin
and fall short
of the glory of God,
it's like wham!
Very, very clear,
but still very, very deep.
But other parts
of the text,
it comes at you
sort of obliquely
and sideways.
And in fact,
these first eight verses
of the book of Romans
of chapter three
are coming at us sideways
because he does
a very, very interesting thing.
Later on in the book of Romans,
he's actually going to return
to this Q&A format.
He's going to actually
give a bit of a longer answer
to each of the types
of questions
that people have.
But he uses this Q&A format
to remind us
that we're dealing with God
and to teach us about God.
So go back.
So in verse two,
it's telling us
that God speaks,
that the God who exists speaks.
And look back at verse three.
What if some were unfaithful?
Does their faithlessness,
what?
Nullify the faithfulness of God.
In other words,
okay, who's God?
God is faithful.
We deal all the time
with people,
we deal all the time
with people
who don't keep their word,
who don't keep their promises,
who, you know,
break contracts,
break the law,
break marriages.
You know,
we all,
all of us maybe
have to deal with,
I don't know,
dads who abandon the family
or moms that abandon the family.
Like all of the time,
we're completely surrounded
by people who are faithless.
But God is never faithless.
We cannot project
our experience
of faithlessness
outside of ourselves
and even the fact
that we are often faithless.
We can't project that on God.
God is never faithless.
God is always faithful.
He keeps faith
with the human race.
Even when the human race
turned their back on him
and rebelled against him
and were faithless,
he always was faithful.
He was faithful
to human beings.
Nothing can stop him
from being faithful.
And then you keep on reading
and well,
it goes,
well, for by no,
you know,
so that's what he focuses on
is who is God?
God is faithful.
And then,
you know,
you go on
and you read verse 4
and it says,
by no means let God be true,
though everyone were a liar,
as it is written,
that you may be justified
in your words
and prevail when you are judged.
And some of your translations
might have different words there
and say prevail in judgment.
And that's because
in the original language,
it can either mean prevail
when people are judging you, God,
or that your judgments will prevail.
And in Greek,
it can mean both things
at the same time.
And so,
but in English,
you have to put one or the other.
But in both cases,
what's it telling us about God?
It's telling us
that God will prevail,
that God is true,
that God is in and of himself
the true,
and he only speaks the truth,
and that his,
he will prevail.
He is unhindered,
as I put it,
because I couldn't figure out
how to put prevail
in the sentence.
And make it be
remotely good grammar.
He is unhindered.
Nothing will hinder him
from prevailing.
That's who we're talking about
with your objection.
And then you keep on reading
and you look at verse 5.
But if our unrighteousness
serves to show
the righteousness of God,
who's God?
He's always right.
He's right in terms
of how he deals,
the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.
There's a rightness,
a meekness,
a fitness about that
that's always right,
and they do the right thing.
And his relationship
to the creation,
we're always going to see
that it's right.
It's the right relationship,
and he does the right thing,
that God is right.
And he's always right.
And nothing can hinder him
from being right.
Nothing can hinder him.
And that's who we're talking about.
Nothing can hinder him
from being right.
And then you sort of go down
to verse 6,
by no means.
For then how could God
judge the world?
And the God who does exist,
he makes moral judgments
because he in and of himself
is good.
And he judges.
He's completely and utterly,
forever,
unhinderedly opposed to evil.
Unhinderedly opposed to evil.
We might give up
and give in
to somebody who's evil.
I mean,
the West is having
a horrible time
dealing with Putin
from Russia.
We're hindered.
We give up.
We say,
well, it's just,
you know,
okay,
it's just Syria.
Like,
let's just,
you know,
forget about it.
It's one of the next things.
But God is never like that.
He's never hindered.
He never stops.
Nothing can stop him.
He's always opposed.
And so this text,
it says that the real
and living God
is unhindered,
faithful,
righteous,
and true.
So he speaks
and judges truly.
And why is this
so significant
with all of these objections?
Even though Paul
later on will give,
you know,
in chapter 6
and chapter 8
and chapter 9
and 10 and 11,
he'll talk about
some of these objections
a little bit more.
But why is this
so significant for us?
Here's an example.
Some of you know
that we,
you know,
we were part,
at one time,
we were part of
the Anglican Church of Canada
and because we believed
that to be faithful
to Jesus,
to be faithful to the Bible,
to be faithful to the gospel,
we had to separate.
And so we did.
And I had a,
I was on the committee
that was to write
the bylaws
for our new denomination.
I know God has
a sense of humor,
but I was part of that
to help write the bylaws
for this new denomination.
And one of the things
that people were always saying,
every time we had
some type of public meeting
to, you know,
where the bylaws were,
people would always get up
and say,
we got to write
the bylaws
in such a way
that what happened
to the Anglican Church of Canada
will never happen again.
And I felt like
such a loser
because I would always say
that what you're asking for
is completely
and utterly impossible.
I mean,
the Anglican Church of Canada
had good bylaws.
It wasn't that
if you could have gone back
and tweaked the bylaws,
you would have fixed the problem.
You know,
the problem is
that there's human beings
in organizations.
Like, go figure.
In fact,
if you have a perfect organization
and they let you in,
it's no longer
a perfect organization.
If they let me in,
it's no longer
a perfect organization.
You're seeking
for the perfect church?
Don't go to it
because when you go,
you'll make it imperfect.
Okay?
So just get over it
and look for an imperfect church.
You'll be far happier.
Not radically imperfect,
but, you know,
within limits, you know.
And so I would tell people
over and over,
we're going to try to get
as wise as bylaws
as we possibly can,
but if you're expecting us
to get a bylaw
that will get around
the people that you experience
who can always find a loophole,
who can always
sweet talk their way
out of a problem
so that the bylaws
don't apply to them.
And not only do we all know
some of those people,
but we are some of those people.
Right?
You know,
we, you know,
sweet talk, you know.
But here's the thing.
So all of these objections,
they're all connected to this.
Well, what if this person does this?
How's God going to answer this?
Or what if we do this?
Or what do we do that?
Or how's that going to work?
That can't possibly work.
And all the way through,
Paul just goes to say,
one second here.
We're not just dealing with,
like, we're not dealing
with bank machines.
We're not dealing
with computer software,
which is supposed
to be rational,
but that's a separate story.
We're not dealing
with just a whole process.
We're dealing with God.
God is the difference maker
in this.
And the God
that really does exist,
he's only good.
And he's unhindered.
He will prevail.
And he's only true.
And he does speak
and he does judge.
And at the end of the day,
at the end of the day,
all the sweet talking,
all the loop,
they don't work
because you're dealing
with God.
Our confidence
is in God.
Not our institution,
not our bylaws,
not our denomination,
not our church,
not any human thing.
Our confidence,
ultimately,
how this is going to work,
how can it possibly work out?
Because God exists.
That's the bottom line.
You know,
later on I'm going to give you
a few other little things
to help make it clear,
but the bottom line
is it's God.
Answered, God.
If it was,
if it was,
the answer is
the Anglican Church
or the Associated Gospel
or the Pentecost Assemblies
of Canada,
then you have a problem.
But if the answer is God,
there's hope.
And that's what Paul's setting up.
Now some of you might say,
okay, that's,
that's,
you just dealt with the easy part
of the text.
And you haven't dealt
with the hard part of the text.
And the hard part of the text,
George,
is no one,
no one is righteous.
No, not one.
No one understands.
No one sees.
That's the hard part
of the text, George.
And you actually still have almost,
you've made it a little bit now.
Maybe,
maybe you've sort of shown me
that God isn't like the,
like my father
who basically always treated me
like I was stupid
and basically treated me
as if I wouldn't amount
to anything
and basically thought that
I,
I was just going to be a failure.
So maybe you've convinced me
that that's not what God is like,
but it still doesn't,
is that what you've just painted
about God?
Amen to that,
this text?
I don't know,
George.
Pretty,
pretty,
pretty hard.
And in fact,
some of you might say,
George,
not only that,
but I can easily prove
that the Bible is wrong.
Because two plus two equals four.
I understand that.
Must be wrong.
Well,
let's look.
Verse nine.
What then?
Are we Anglicans
any better off?
Remember,
the same question earlier,
what advantage?
A very similar question.
He said they have all the advantages
in the world.
I mean,
you know,
even the worst Anglican church
in the world,
they read the Bible.
Sunday in,
Sunday out.
Might not be all the Bible,
might leave some of the tricky parts up,
but they can't get rid of all the tricky parts.
They read the Bible.
What then?
Are we Anglicans
any better off?
No,
not at all.
For we have already charged
that all,
both Anglicans
and the rest of the world
are under sin.
As it is written,
notice that phrase again,
as it is written,
it is written.
None is righteous,
no,
not one.
No one understands,
no one seeks for God.
And by the way,
as we're going through this,
you know how sometimes I say
this is a perfectly good translation,
but you know,
in the English,
there's this,
the original language
is other nuance.
There are no other nuances here.
This is a really,
really,
really good translation
of the original language.
I'm not going to give you
some little loophole.
I'm not going to give myself
a loophole.
All have turned aside.
Together they have become worthless.
No one does good,
not even one.
Their throat is an open grave.
Just pause here.
In my,
the church I was at before this,
I think it was the first funeral
that I did.
I was going to go to this little tiny,
I did a funeral,
and then we had to do the burial
about 20 kilometers,
25 kilometers away,
and so I didn't want to drive
as part of the funeral procession,
so I drove ahead of the funeral procession
to get there,
and I was there like,
you know,
10 or 15 minutes,
you know,
before the rest of the procession,
and I walked up
to have a look at the grave,
and I discovered
that the reason they put
that artificial grass over it
is that sometimes
the hole is bigger than it looks,
and to my horror,
I fell into the grave.
I fell right into the grave,
and there was no casket
at the bottom either,
which in that case
would have been a bit gross,
but at least it would have helped me
get out of the grave,
because I discovered
that the soil was sandy,
so it couldn't go down
straight like this.
It sort of was angled
with sandy soil like this,
and they had a big long part
of green grass to cover it.
Now I understood
why the funeral,
if you've ever been a pallbearer,
they say,
make sure you walk on the planks,
because you don't actually know
where the edge of the grave is,
and I was horrified
that they would come
and find me in the grave.
So I crawled out,
full of brown dust
all over my black clericals.
I went off into the bush
and was able to get most of it off.
Whether I got all of it off,
they were far too polite
to say anything.
I pulled the green grass over it
and tugged it a little bit further,
because I'd made it even farther.
The point of all this
is when it says here,
your throat is an open grave,
it means that you've thrown
a dead body in there,
lots of dead bodies,
and not covered it up.
In other words,
it's a really harsh saying.
It's not an empty hole
to put a body in,
it's a hole that have dead bodies in,
that are now doing
what happens to dead bodies naturally.
Continue reading.
They use their tongues,
their throat is an open grave,
they use their tongues
to deceive.
The venom of asps,
it's a poisonous snake,
is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of curses
and bitterness.
Their feet are swift
to shed blood.
In their paths
are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace
they have not known.
There is no fear of God
before their eyes.
Then he stops quoting the Bible,
and he says,
now we know that
whatever the law,
the Bible says,
it speaks to those
who are under the Bible,
so that every mouth
may be stopped,
and the whole world
may be held accountable
to God.
For by doing,
for by the works
of the Bible,
no human being
will be justified
in his sight,
since through the Bible
comes knowledge of sin.
So,
it's a hard text.
And you know one of the things
that makes the text
even harder?
this isn't a text
written
to all those
really,
really bad people
who,
over the last week,
all they've done
is tried to figure out
how to,
how to maybe
engage in human trafficking
and sell drugs
and sell guns,
and when they're not
figuring out
how to make a lot of money
from this,
they're just drinking
and cheating on their wives
and doing drugs
and,
and that's all
they're doing.
The Bible text
isn't speaking to them
because they don't give a hoot
what the Bible says.
Speaking to people
who come to an
associated gospel church
or a Pentecostal church
or an Anglican church.
Speaking to good people.
Speaking to the sort of people
that you hope
move in next door
as your neighbor
because they won't be
playing loud,
heavy metal music
at three in the morning.
But they'll water your plants.
You'll feel safe
giving them your key.
That's who this text
is primarily talking to.
And on one hand,
it addresses those other people
that I first described,
you know,
the gun running
and the human trafficking.
It's addressing them as well,
but it's,
in a sense,
it's the spotlight
is on you and me,
people who we hope
were pretty good neighbors.
And the gun runners
and the human traffickers,
we're hearing it
as we look on,
as God speaks
to people
who go to the Anglican church.
As a way to get
into the story,
I'll tell you,
I'm going to adapt
the story that I heard.
It's a famous story
that Charles Spurgeon,
a famous 19th century
preacher told.
Sort of a different context,
but it works
in this context.
You know,
there used to be
a king
and he was a very,
very wise and just king
and about once a week
he would go down this road
and sometimes
when he went along the road
he would go with his sons
and daughters,
sometimes with his wife
and sons and daughters,
often with his nobles.
And there was this old couple
that were farmers.
They had a tiny little plot
of land
right along where
the road would go.
And this old farm woman
who worked there,
when she'd see the king
going by about once a week,
she'd start to look forward
to it because she thought,
you know,
he is such a good king.
He is such a great king.
She just so admired
the way that he dealt
with his sons
and dealt with his daughters
and the way he talked
to his wife
and the way he was dressed
and just the way he wrote
and the way he was polite
to her
and the way he was
with his nobles
and what she heard
about how he was running
the country.
And she was just really,
really,
her heart went out to him.
She just was so glad
that he was the king.
And one day,
off in the distance,
she could hear
the thump of the horses
that he was coming
and she was harvesting
her carrots.
And she got this really,
this bunch of carrots
and they were really
spectacular carrots,
really good.
And she thought,
you know what,
I'm going to give them
to the king.
I bet he's the sort of king
that would accept
the gift of carrots
from somebody like me.
So she totters out
into the center of the road
and sure enough,
as the king is coming along,
he doesn't get all angry
and mad and say,
what on earth are you doing
getting in my way?
Don't you know I have
important business to do?
Don't you know I have
important people to see
and you're none of those things?
No,
he stops
and she just says,
you know,
I just so admire you.
I just so,
I just,
I know it's not much,
but these carrots
are really nice.
Would you take them
from me as a gift?
And the king
is touched
and he sends his son down
to get the carrots
and bring them back
and he's touched
and he said,
you know,
that's your little plot
land right there.
I've noticed you that,
you know.
I'd like to help you.
I'm going to give you
a hundred acres.
I happen to own
the land behind that.
I'm giving it to you.
You and your husband,
an extra hundred acres.
It's yours.
Thank you so much
for these carrots.
One of the nobles
is riding behind.
He thinks,
a hundred acres
for a bunch
of dirty carrots?
What will the king
give me
if I give him
a really good horse?
The king loves horses.
He knows horses
really well
and I have
this spectacular horse.
What will the king
give me
if I give him a horse?
So the next day
the king is out
amongst his stables
and the nobleman comes,
the knight comes,
bringing this spectacular horse
and the noble says,
you know,
I've always just admired
you as my king.
I'm so glad
I can be your knight
and I would just love
to give you this horse
as a gift.
And the king
takes the horse
and walks away
and he doesn't offer
the noble anything,
nothing at all.
And the king
pauses before he leaves
just like Columbo
used to do
and he pauses
before he leaves
and he says,
the woman
gave me the carrot
so I gave her
a reward
but you were
giving yourself
the horse.
You were giving
yourself
the horse.
In other words,
you gave that horse
not because you
wanted to give
anything to me
but you hoped
that I would give you
a lot more
than a hundred acres.
You were giving
yourself the gift.
So let's be honest
for a moment
when we look
at this text.
The fact of the matter
is that there's
nothing that we do
that does not involve
some tinge,
some smallest hint
of self-interest,
self-validation,
self-justification,
self-righteousness,
or self-glorification.
There is nothing
that we do
that doesn't have
even just the
teensiest,
weensiest,
tiniest bit
of self-interest
connected to it.
Nothing.
And we
don't really notice
that most of the time.
I mean,
some people
it's just really,
really obvious,
you know,
that they're just,
that's all about
self-justification,
self-glorification,
and it's all about
them getting that
promotion and
turns us off.
But the fact of the
matter is,
is that every single
thing that we do,
there's always the
tiniest hint of
something about
self-glorification,
self-justification,
self-righteousness.
And that tiny little bit
doesn't sort of matter
that much in most of
our human interactions,
but the fact of the
matter is,
is that God's playing
the long game
and God's a far way off
and tiny,
tiny,
tiny little differences,
when the distance
gets a bit long,
it does make a difference.
If you were to
program a plane,
and you're going to
fly a plane from
Los Angeles to
San Francisco,
it's not that far,
but if you were to
get your calculation
just one-tenth of
one percent off
to the left,
the plane would land
in the Pacific Ocean.
It wouldn't even
hit San Francisco.
That's just one-tenth
of one percent.
And if you were even
one-thousandth of
one percent off,
you still wouldn't
hit the runway,
but you'd land
outside of the runway
and you'd die.
One-thousandth of
one percent.
And from that
distance,
you're not
hitting God.
Because you see,
the whole thing here
in this text,
it's all connected
to our relationship
with God.
That's the fundamental
context within which
Paul is writing.
And that's what,
but it's actually
saying something
even harder for us
to hear and understand.
That compared to the
whole trajectory
of our life,
that's why the text
is saying what it says.
If you go back
to verse 9 and 10,
there's something
really significant
in 9 and 10
that we skip over
and we don't really,
and I have to confess,
when I first read this text,
it didn't jump out at me.
Look at 9 and 10.
What then?
Are we Anglicans
any better off?
No, not at all.
For we have already
charged that all,
both Jews and Greeks,
are under sin.
As it is written,
none is righteous,
no, not one.
And this idea
that no one is righteous
and under sin
is the same type of idea.
And under sin
is a perfectly good way
to translate it,
but it has a political
connotation.
It has a jurisdictional
understanding.
That in a sense
that we're under something,
just like in a sense
we're in Canada,
we're under Canadian
jurisdiction,
that this is sort of how,
you know,
we learn the customs
of Canada,
we're in Canada
under Canadian government
jurisdiction authority,
and in the same way
it's saying that
we're under sin,
that we're in sin
in the same type of way.
And this not being righteous,
righteous is a place word.
It means in terms of
in the right relationship,
in the right place,
in the right connection.
And it means that
we're not in the right
connection with God,
the right place with God.
And that's what
the text means.
And so here's the analogy.
Andrew, if you could
put up the third point.
It does not,
I'm adapting something
that Dietrich Bonhoeffer
said in a completely
different context,
but it's relevant here.
It does not matter
if I am walking
in the right direction,
if the train I am on
is heading
in the wrong direction.
That's what it means
by under something.
I'm on a train.
And it does not matter
if I'm walking
in the right direction,
if the train I am on
is heading
in the wrong direction.
So if I'm on,
you know,
in Europe they have
these trains that go
hundreds and hundreds
of kilometers an hour
and if the train's going
hundreds and hundreds
of kilometers an hour
this way,
there's a long train.
It doesn't matter
if I'm walking
in the right way
on a train
and I'm walking
maybe like this
with my goodness
in the right direction
but the train
is taking me
away from the cross
and away from God
at hundreds of kilometers
now.
That's what this text,
that's how the text
begins.
George,
you shouldn't be
thinking about this
as if,
you know,
you're a really good
swimmer,
you're a really good
walker,
you're really good
at getting places
because what you
don't understand,
George,
is you're on a train
going in the wrong,
you're born,
every human being
is born on a train
going the wrong direction
at hundreds of kilometers
an hour.
Everybody's born
on that train.
It doesn't matter
if you're a soccer mom
in Canada,
it doesn't matter
if you're a bishop
in the Anglican Church
of Canada,
it doesn't matter
if you're the Pope,
it doesn't matter
if you are the guy
or the gal
who's involved
in human trafficking
and gun running
and meth production.
Every human being
is born on a train
going the wrong direction.
No one's born
on any other train.
And one of the,
that's one of the things
actually you see
that's humanly
in fact the case
is that it's often
the case
that people
who are really involved
in bad things,
messed up things,
like it's often people
who become
really severe alcoholics
that they come
to a point in time
when they realize
their life is completely
and utterly unmanageable
and they've got to call out
for a higher power.
And it's often
our goodness
that keeps us
from God.
Because if we're focusing
on how good
we can jog
along that train
in the right direction,
we don't notice
that the train's going
hundreds of kilometers
an hour
in the wrong direction.
Can you put up
the fourth point,
Andrew,
the final,
well,
almost the final point.
The last idol
in my heart
is self-righteousness.
No good thing
that I have
or do
has a hold
on God.
None.
You know that,
if you were here
early enough
to hear Joey's
second hymn,
you know that,
all that old
evangelical hymnody
about our righteous acts
are like filthy rags.
That's where this is
coming from.
That's what they understand.
That's what some
of those old,
and not all old hymns,
because lots of old hymns
are crap.
He did not walk
in England's
verdant lands,
that favorite
Anglican hymn.
No,
that wasn't him
in 18th century England.
He's Jewish,
okay?
But some of those
old hymns,
they got it.
They got it
that our goodness
is the final barrier
that keeps us
from God,
because the fact
of the matter is
I know watching
pornography is wrong.
I know cheating
on my taxes is wrong.
I know driving
50 kilometers an hour
over the speed limit
is wrong.
I know that all
these things are wrong.
And the irony is
that even as I start
to get rid of those
bad things in my life,
inwardly I think,
boy, I'm doing a good job
at getting rid of those things,
you know?
And this whole idea
that not a single
good thing
that I has
matters
is profoundly
unsettling to me.
It makes me feel
profoundly
naked
and exposed.
Surely, God,
you'll let me hold on
to these couple
of good things
as I come to you.
Surely,
these things matter
to you, God.
Surely,
these things are
what's making
my life manageable.
The last idol,
the last idol
in my heart
isn't pornography
or alcohol
or lying
or the last idol,
the one that will
never give up
but for grace
is self-righteousness.
No good thing
that I have
or do
has a hold
on God none.
Good works,
good doctrine
can keep us
from God.
And that's,
by the way,
remember I said earlier
why is it
that when we hear
extreme talk
that we're all
basically good,
you may roll
our eyes,
but it doesn't
have that visceral
upsetness with it
as it does
when we read
Romans 3
and there's
this visceral upset
because the last idol
that we will let go of
is self-righteousness.
Andrew,
could you put up
the true final point
which is Romans 1,
16 to 17?
Could you put that up
and friends,
could you say this
with me out loud?
For I am not
ashamed of the gospel
for it is
the power of God
for salvation
to everyone
who believes,
to the Jew first
and also to the Greek.
For in the gospel
the righteousness
of God
is revealed
from faith
to faith
as it is written
the righteous
shall live
by faith.
My problem
isn't that I do
too many bad things
and not enough
good things,
my problem is
I'm on the wrong train
and I can't get off
that wrong train.
And the Bible
wants us to say
stop walking
the right direction
on the train
going the wrong direction
and you have to come
to that point
where you say
God,
only you can get me
off this train.
Only you can put me
on your train.
Only you can do it.
And if you don't do it,
I'm only going to end up
in the wrong direction.
I'm only going to end up
in the wrong place.
Only you.
What is it?
I need God,
the power of God.
I need God
to act
with power
to take me
off the wrong train
and put me
on the right train.
And when I'm
on the right train,
I'm right with God.
And how do I
get that?
All I can do
is it's from faith
to faith.
It means that
everything,
it all is about
me coming to that moment.
When I was thinking
about this,
my little grandson,
Ruben,
when he was only
about two or three,
when he wanted
his Nana to pick him up,
he'd put his arms
way up like this
and his face way up
and he'd arch
his little back
and his whole being
was just calling
for his Nana
to pick him up.
And that's the image
I have when I think
of this text.
That's the beginning
and ending of faith,
faith to faith to faith
as you just arch your back
and you call out to God,
only God,
only you can save me
from my good things.
Only you can save me
from my bad things.
Only you can take me
from the wrong train
to the right train.
And as Paul's going to show
in Romans 12,
how you even live
a good life
completely and utterly changes.
Right?
Because, you know,
when you get on
the right train
and all of a sudden
you realize that
as you realize
you're in this right
relationship with God
that these bad things
you do,
they just don't fit.
And that you realize
that you just,
out of this gratitude
that God is taking you
from the wrong train
and putting you
on the right train,
that as the gospel
grips you,
there's a whole different
context to understand
why it is that you do
things that fit
with the train you're on
and the direction
you're going.
The whole psychology
of doing good
doesn't change right away
and it's never
a perfect change,
but it starts to change
as the gospel grips us.
But first,
you've got to get
God's effective power
in your life.
Please stand.
If there are some
of you here
and there's this
pressure in you
that your good works
in fact have been
what you've been
relying upon
and you've never
realized that you've
been on the wrong
train and that only
God can get you
to the right train,
there's no better
time than right now
to call out to him
in prayer.
And I'm not going
to tell you the
sinner's prayer
because I don't
want you to think
there's some magic
formula.
I just want you
to look.
Andrew, if you could
put Romans 1,
16 to 17
back up on the
screen, please.
I just want,
just call out to God
and say,
God, that to me.
Wrong train
to right train,
please, Jesus,
only you.
Only you.
Take me from the
wrong train
to the right train.
That text,
the mystery
and the depth
of that text,
Father, I want that.
I don't understand,
I want that.
Only you can have
that come into me
and me into you.
Whatever your words
are, there's no
better time than today
to call out to God.
And for those of us
who somehow think
that if I just
preach a better
sermon that God
will love me more,
that's not true.
God will not love me
more if I preach
a good sermon.
He won't love me
more if, he won't
love Joey more if
Joey does a spectacular
job on the next song.
Yeah, hallelujah.
And me preaching
a good sermon
or Joey doing a good
job, it's to emerge
out of being gripped
by the gospel.
Let's just bow
our heads in prayer.
Father, thank you
that you are
the faithful God,
that you are
true,
that you are
right,
that you are
unhindered
and will prevail,
that not only
do you speak
truly
and judge
truly,
but you speak
truly
to reveal
how you
will redeem
us,
how only
you can
redeem
us.
Father, bring
us to that
point that we
know that we
need to call
out to you
and say,
only God,
only you,
only you
can take us
from the wrong
train to the
right train.
Only you.
Father, for those
who may be making
that prayer for the
first time,
pour out your
Holy Spirit
with deep power
upon them.
For all of us,
Father, you know
how powerful the
idol of self-righteousness,
self-glorification,
self-justification
is, Father,
in your mercy,
humble us by what
you have done for us
on the cross
and make us to live
as disciples of Jesus
gripped by the gospel
who are learning to
live for your glory.
And this we ask
in Jesus' name.
Amen.