WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.759 Okay, this morning, just for a short time, this morning we're going to turn to Romans 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:11.880 chapter 3, and we're going to read from verse 9 to verse 20. 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:15.320 For those who are visiting with us today, either from Haddington or maybe elsewhere, 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:18.320 if you're on holiday, it's great to have you. 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:23.080 We are doing a short study in... well, it's not really that short, it's probably going 00:00:23.080 --> 00:00:27.280 to be pretty long, but we're only doing at the moment the first five chapters up to the 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:31.840 summer, so we've been doing it in a fair amount of detail. 00:00:31.840 --> 00:00:37.200 And thus far, it's great to see so many people here because up till now it's been really 00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:40.000 bad news the whole time. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:45.799 We've been hammering everyone with the message from the early passage. 00:00:45.799 --> 00:00:51.920 And I think it's important to remember that this would have been read as a winner originally. 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:55.960 Probably wouldn't have been broken up into the kind of minute sections that we were looking 00:00:55.960 --> 00:00:56.960 at. 00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:02.960 It's slightly false, it's slightly inaccurate at one level. 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:10.040 Not inaccurate, it's not the word, but it wouldn't have been... 00:01:10.040 --> 00:01:11.560 It's good to take it all in one as well. 00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:16.319 So read it all in one as well, because then you get the right balance of everything. 00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:22.359 But I hope what we've tried to do is we've tried to draw in the themes, even when we're 00:01:22.359 --> 00:01:24.180 just looking at one little section. 00:01:24.180 --> 00:01:27.160 So we're really coming to it, and I'm gutted the way it's worked out. 00:01:27.160 --> 00:01:30.760 I don't know why it happened this way, but Cori's getting the really good stuff next 00:01:30.760 --> 00:01:31.760 week. 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:35.800 I've got a really tough stuff again today, and that's happened so often. 00:01:35.800 --> 00:01:42.640 And of course, last week, poor Thomas had a nightmare passage to preach from as well. 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:47.760 But this is Romans chapter 3, and we're going to read from verse 9 to 20. 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:49.440 Please bear in mind that it's the... 00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:55.239 What we come to now is actually the climax of Paul's argument before he explodes into 00:01:55.239 --> 00:01:59.200 the great good news of Jesus Christ in the gospel, as Thomas was saying last night. 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:06.479 It's kind of the bad news of the first three and a half chapters leads to the great message, 00:02:06.479 --> 00:02:08.919 draws us to the great message of Jesus. 00:02:08.919 --> 00:02:15.079 So Romans chapter 3 from verse 9, what then are we Jews better off? 00:02:15.080 --> 00:02:22.480 No, not at all, for we have already charged that all both Jews and Greeks are under sin 00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:24.880 as it is written. 00:02:24.880 --> 00:02:27.400 No one is righteous, no, not one. 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:29.960 We've taken that from the psalm that we were singing. 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:33.640 No one understands, no one seeks for God. 00:02:33.640 --> 00:02:37.000 All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:40.560 No one does good, not even one. 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:42.640 Their throat is an open grave. 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:48.479 They use their tongues to deceive, the venom of asps is under their lips. 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:53.599 Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, and their 00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:58.599 paths are ruin and misery, and the ways, the way of peace they have not known. 00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:02.159 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:07.279 Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:13.759 every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God, for by works 00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:20.120 of the law no human being will be justified in this sight, since through the law comes 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:24.800 knowledge or conviction of sin. 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:31.159 So the title of the sermon this morning is Why All Matters? 00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:35.680 Why all that we have done already today leading to this point? 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:38.640 Why the work that we're engaged in in planting churches? 00:03:38.640 --> 00:03:42.319 Why what we seek to do is a congregation here in prayer? 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:47.640 Why we long for and are moved when we hear about people who have moved and come from 00:03:47.640 --> 00:03:48.800 darkness into light? 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:51.680 Why does it all matter? 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:59.319 It's hugely important and actually this passage summarizes and brings us to the point to remind 00:03:59.319 --> 00:04:05.240 us exactly why it all matters, why it's also significant. 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:11.760 And in my estimation, this coming week matters more in the life of the church than any other 00:04:11.760 --> 00:04:13.760 time of the year. 00:04:13.760 --> 00:04:20.160 This coming week is the most significant thing we do because of what it's saying and because 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:25.960 of what it's pointing to and because of the activity we're engaged in during this week 00:04:25.960 --> 00:04:30.280 as believers. 00:04:30.279 --> 00:04:37.879 And I think the answer for that and the reason behind it being so important is in this section 00:04:37.879 --> 00:04:41.399 of Romans which we're going to glimpse at for a few moments this morning. 00:04:41.399 --> 00:04:49.319 As I said, in this passage, God through Paul is concluding his argument. 00:04:49.319 --> 00:04:54.079 His argument that is bringing everyone to the point of saying that they need a Savior, 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:55.759 that they need Jesus Christ. 00:04:55.759 --> 00:05:02.639 He's bringing that to us, it's a climax and it's strong, uncompromising, kind of brutal 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:05.800 language in many ways that he comes to this point. 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:10.360 It's hugely blunt and it's meant to be shocking. 00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:15.680 You're not meant to fall asleep reading this and I hope you're not going to fall asleep 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:18.120 listening about this passage as well. 00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:24.360 And I hope you'll not daydream as we look at this passage because it's hugely significant 00:05:24.360 --> 00:05:28.400 in the light of who God is and why he's trying to tell us. 00:05:28.400 --> 00:05:30.400 It is meant to be shocking. 00:05:30.400 --> 00:05:33.680 He is setting the scene for the good news. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:41.680 He's setting the scene for action and for understanding that we hope and pray will transform our lives. 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:46.199 And if you've been a Christian for 50 years, it shouldn't be any different than if you're 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:50.840 someone who's just looking and thinking and considering Christianity. 00:05:50.839 --> 00:05:56.560 Now, for example, I'm going to bring a very shocking illustration. 00:05:56.560 --> 00:06:00.879 If I were to say today, if I were to get in touch with the Scotsman or the Daily Record 00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:12.079 or the radio or the television and complain bitterly that abortion is the destruction 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:19.839 of life in the womb, a holocaust of death, to many that would be a shocking statement 00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:25.199 in the world in which we live, it would be hugely uncomfortable for people to consider 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:26.199 and to deal with. 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:32.919 I would undoubtedly be vilified and hated because the whole of that activity has been 00:06:32.919 --> 00:06:36.039 sanitized and justified. 00:06:36.039 --> 00:06:45.199 But if I were to cry out for the life of the child, what would it take to move society 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:50.719 towards life rather than death as a solution? 00:06:50.719 --> 00:06:51.719 What would it take? 00:06:51.719 --> 00:06:54.159 I'm not sure. 00:06:54.159 --> 00:06:56.000 But it would be a jolt, wouldn't it? 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:01.399 It would be a hugely blunt instrument to use. 00:07:01.399 --> 00:07:04.759 And yet with the right motives, we hope that it would be effective. 00:07:04.759 --> 00:07:08.159 Well, in many ways, this is God's jolt here. 00:07:08.159 --> 00:07:13.659 It's what He's saying because He wants people to recognize things as He sees them. 00:07:13.660 --> 00:07:20.080 He wants us to look at ourselves in the light of His revelation of Himself, not just by 00:07:20.080 --> 00:07:25.640 comparing us to one another and not just by seeing things as they are in our own lives. 00:07:25.640 --> 00:07:30.800 As our Creator, He wants us to see His laws. 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:37.120 But He wants us to see them as laws of love, as relational laws. 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:39.160 He wants us to see our own hearts. 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:45.480 He wants us to consider the chaos of human life on this planet. 00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:48.520 He wants us to take note of the reign of death that there is. 00:07:48.520 --> 00:07:49.520 It's uncomfortable. 00:07:49.520 --> 00:07:50.520 I know. 00:07:50.520 --> 00:07:53.840 I know I'd much rather speak about daffodils today. 00:07:53.840 --> 00:08:01.120 But He wants us to understand and know and be conscious of the brokenness, the pain, the 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:07.800 tears, the sorrow, the sin, the rebellion, the separation that is in the world in which 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:10.560 we live. 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:16.280 And He wants us to understand who He is so that we will come to that point of looking 00:08:16.280 --> 00:08:20.840 at and seeing the good news of great joy, which is Jesus Christ. 00:08:20.840 --> 00:08:23.759 Otherwise we just put Him in the bin, don't we? 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:30.040 Otherwise we just relegate Him to the edges of our existence and occasionally pat Him 00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:34.879 on the head when it suits for us. 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:38.879 It's interesting, a long time ago there was a famous correspondence in the Times under 00:08:38.879 --> 00:08:44.919 the subject, I'm sorry, I never have any original illustrations, I'm useless at that. 00:08:44.919 --> 00:08:46.840 But anyway, you'll have heard this a hundred times. 00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:51.960 What is wrong with the world today was the question that was the subject under correspondence 00:08:51.960 --> 00:09:00.120 and the best letter of all was the shortest and it read, Dear Sir, I am, yours faithfully, 00:09:00.120 --> 00:09:01.120 G.K. 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:07.720 And in a sense, that is really what God is wanting us to come to the point of recognizing 00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:13.960 and seeing in His Word that actually the problem isn't out there, it isn't with everybody 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:22.840 else, it isn't in some kind of cosmic aspirin that can be brought to bear, but it's first 00:09:22.840 --> 00:09:23.840 relational. 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:29.879 Yes, there are other issues and there are huge cosmic issues, but primarily God wants 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:32.559 us to see the relational issues, doesn't He? 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:39.320 The laws of love that we have broken between Me and Him and between Me and the person who 00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:41.279 is My neighbour. 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:48.919 And so this passage in all its bluntness and starkness is saying, what God is and Paul 00:09:48.919 --> 00:09:54.519 through, God through Paul is, is every single person needs redemption. 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:57.559 That's what He's saying. 00:09:57.559 --> 00:10:03.439 That is the premise of this section that everything has been leading up to. 00:10:03.439 --> 00:10:06.919 It's disputed, it's cast aside. 00:10:06.919 --> 00:10:14.639 We reconstitute it in our own consideration, but He's saying, by, on His laws of love, 00:10:14.639 --> 00:10:19.879 on His relational laws, remember these Ten Commandments, are relational laws, laws of 00:10:19.879 --> 00:10:20.879 love. 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:25.599 It's saying, love the Lord your God and love your neighbour as yourself. 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:28.399 It says, these have been cast aside. 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:34.320 They've been broken, they've been dissipated and they've been destroyed. 00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:40.480 As we examine ourselves in the light of who God is and what God says, so what He says 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:45.040 and what He keeps saying and what He keeps repeating ad nauseam in this section is there 00:10:45.040 --> 00:10:47.440 is no one righteous. 00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:49.120 There's no one. 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:51.639 There's no one who's perfect. 00:10:51.639 --> 00:10:53.320 There's no one who meets God's standard. 00:10:53.320 --> 00:10:58.840 There's no one who is in clean and open and pure relationship with Him. 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:04.560 We've been banished from His presence and we choose not to love Him in the way that 00:11:04.560 --> 00:11:08.160 He demands of us as His creation. 00:11:08.160 --> 00:11:12.400 We're tearing at God and we're tearing at one another. 00:11:12.400 --> 00:11:14.680 That's the world we live in. 00:11:14.680 --> 00:11:17.640 Our standards might be pretty good compared with other people. 00:11:17.640 --> 00:11:23.200 There might be a lot of goodness that we engage in, but we know what wells up within us and 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:27.800 we know that from us the shadow of life is draining. 00:11:27.800 --> 00:11:31.040 The dark reality of death is around us. 00:11:31.040 --> 00:11:39.240 What Paul and Stark brutal terms is exposing here is our dysfunctional born condition before 00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:45.600 the living God because he wants to take us on a journey to Jesus. 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:49.720 So there's a couple of things, very briefly, and I can't go into this in great detail today, 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:51.840 but there's two areas, isn't there? 00:11:51.840 --> 00:12:00.040 In this section there's antipathy towards God in the human race and there's inexplicable 00:12:00.040 --> 00:12:03.519 behavior towards one another. 00:12:03.519 --> 00:12:10.200 There's this antipathy towards God, 11 and 12 speaks about it, and then 17 and 18, with 00:12:10.200 --> 00:12:18.519 Paul and his religious and phariseic background bringing lots of quotes from the Psalms, some 00:12:18.519 --> 00:12:24.279 of which we sung because that was the way that he was used to reasoning, taking Scripture 00:12:24.279 --> 00:12:32.960 and reconstituting it as part of the argument, taking the Old Testament and using it to expose 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:35.720 the argument that he's bringing. 00:12:35.720 --> 00:12:43.120 And he's basically saying no one, no one, naturally, no one in and of their own strength, 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:47.759 in and of their own steam ever reaches for God. 00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:55.319 No one, no one ever, ever, ever, no one ever does that. 00:12:55.319 --> 00:12:57.159 No one chooses to reach out for God. 00:12:57.159 --> 00:13:00.000 No one loves God in and of their own steam. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.000 No one understands God in their own intelligence. 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:07.519 No one, he says, is good by God's perfect standard. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:10.240 No one, he keeps saying it, he keeps repeating it. 00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:13.200 It's a repetitive argument he's using it. 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:15.919 And do we get that? 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:24.199 What do we get that in the sense of being judgmental and damning people? 00:13:24.199 --> 00:13:26.439 I mean, do we get it? 00:13:26.439 --> 00:13:30.199 That it's a level playing field. 00:13:30.199 --> 00:13:31.199 No one. 00:13:31.199 --> 00:13:33.879 You know, no one is righteous. 00:13:33.879 --> 00:13:38.559 We don't sit here righteous, and we don't sit here in judgment in any way. 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:44.439 We are in this condition together by nature, without Christ, without the gospel. 00:13:44.439 --> 00:13:45.439 It's a level playing field. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:53.240 There is no place in our lives for pride and a careless or unprayerful attitude towards 00:13:53.240 --> 00:13:54.800 others, is there? 00:13:54.800 --> 00:13:59.600 This is part of what he's saying that naturally, and you know it, well, I certainly know it 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:07.040 in my own heart, in my own sinful nature, there's an antipathy towards God. 00:14:07.040 --> 00:14:14.480 It's not natural for me to worship Him, to awe and reverentially fear and respect and 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:15.480 obey Him. 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:18.440 It doesn't come naturally. 00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:25.639 There's that sinful rebellion against Him, and God is just reminding us that no one will 00:14:25.639 --> 00:14:26.639 naturally choose. 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:34.639 He says it's not just that we have a condition which, you know, just if we take three steps 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:36.840 in a certain direction, we'll be fine again. 00:14:36.840 --> 00:14:43.120 He's not saying it's just a little fine tuning or a little bit of medicine. 00:14:43.120 --> 00:14:46.560 He's saying we're dead spiritually by nature. 00:14:46.560 --> 00:14:50.720 We're born in that condition, and we live and choose that condition. 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:54.240 We simply don't choose God naturally on our own. 00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:57.759 No one is naturally righteous. 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:01.039 No one is naturally perfect before God. 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:04.320 And He makes that argument strongly from Scripture from the Old Testament. 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:07.159 And then He goes on to speak about the way we behave with one another. 00:15:07.159 --> 00:15:11.279 It's interesting, He talks about God, and then He talks about people, the attitude to 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:12.279 people. 00:15:12.279 --> 00:15:17.039 And it matches the two tables of the Law as it were, loving God, which we fail to do 00:15:17.039 --> 00:15:23.039 properly, and loving one another, which is in many ways easier for us to understand about 00:15:23.039 --> 00:15:24.199 each other. 00:15:24.199 --> 00:15:31.559 And He uses our language, our tongues, and He uses our behavior, our feet, where we walk, 00:15:31.559 --> 00:15:35.079 the violence of what we choose to do. 00:15:35.079 --> 00:15:39.879 And it's blunt and strong language. 00:15:39.879 --> 00:15:42.679 When you look at it, you say, well, I'm not like that. 00:15:42.679 --> 00:15:44.480 And I'm sure that's true. 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:45.720 We don't feel like that. 00:15:45.720 --> 00:15:47.080 That's our... 00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:52.559 We are yet, we do know that our language separates us from one another, don't we? 00:15:52.559 --> 00:16:00.200 We know how sharp our tongues can be, how quickly we can condemn and vilify and oppose 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:03.000 and praise ourselves in our own condition. 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:04.159 We know that, don't we? 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:09.759 We know we have that capacity within us to tear down one another by what we say, particularly 00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:16.159 what we say about them, rather than maybe what we will say to them, we're suspicious. 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:22.519 And there can be, may not be physical violence, but there can be a great anger and injustice 00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:30.120 and misery in the humanity that we are part of, where there is and can be such selfishness, 00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:33.519 such little regard for one another. 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:36.759 We miss out. 00:16:36.759 --> 00:16:42.639 There is no peace with God or with one another, and there is no worship ultimately for God 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:49.519 and a love for our neighbors that is free from imperfection and selfishness and pride. 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:53.360 And I know that there's great love within society, and I know there's great sophistication 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:57.039 as we become more and more advanced. 00:16:57.039 --> 00:17:03.319 But we do recognize these things, even by our own admission, we recognize them in our 00:17:03.319 --> 00:17:04.839 lives. 00:17:04.839 --> 00:17:09.799 And Paul wants us, God wants us to come to that place where we say, what's the problem 00:17:09.799 --> 00:17:11.799 with the world? 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:15.519 I am. 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:17.959 That's very much the theme of what he's saying. 00:17:17.959 --> 00:17:21.039 And that brings us to his devastating climax. 00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:25.000 And I'm so glad that I am doing a bit of ice to Jesus here. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:27.000 I'm working into this passage. 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:29.079 What is still to come? 00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:31.359 I'm stealing Chody's thunder from next week. 00:17:31.359 --> 00:17:35.919 I don't see why he should have all the good part of Romans to deal with here, which is 00:17:35.919 --> 00:17:41.559 coming up and which is so exciting and which is so good and which is so helpful for us 00:17:41.559 --> 00:17:48.500 in our lives, especially when we understand who we are and especially when we've come 00:17:48.500 --> 00:18:04.160 today heavily burdened, weeping, broken, struggling, doubting, questioning, hurt, and failed. 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:09.519 So I don't want anyone to think that the Jesus part of the message is kind of some soft 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:20.539 sopping or some unrealistic spiritualizing of our needs. 00:18:20.539 --> 00:18:24.900 Everything, Paul is, God is taking this argument so seriously. 00:18:24.900 --> 00:18:32.379 He wants us to subsume everything, draw everything into the reality of who we are and the mess 00:18:32.379 --> 00:18:38.460 that we're often in and the struggles we have to understand the climax of what he's coming 00:18:38.460 --> 00:18:39.460 to. 00:18:39.460 --> 00:18:46.940 The law, the law of God, you greatly misunderstand the law of God if you think the law of God 00:18:46.940 --> 00:18:54.019 is there so that we can obey it and earn God's favor. 00:18:54.019 --> 00:18:55.860 That is not the purpose of God's law. 00:18:55.860 --> 00:19:00.019 If you're sitting comfortably today and saying, I do my very best to fulfill the law of God 00:19:00.019 --> 00:19:04.660 and I know that when I die, I'll go with him and I'll say, I did my best and you can't 00:19:04.660 --> 00:19:09.259 possibly throw me out for doing my best and trying to love you and love my neighbor. 00:19:09.259 --> 00:19:11.460 It's not there to do that. 00:19:11.460 --> 00:19:16.539 It's not there for us to look and compare our ability to fulfill it and see how others 00:19:16.539 --> 00:19:18.299 are failing it. 00:19:18.299 --> 00:19:20.579 What is it there to do? 00:19:20.579 --> 00:19:24.299 It's there to expose that we can't meet His standard. 00:19:24.299 --> 00:19:26.220 That's the whole point. 00:19:26.220 --> 00:19:32.299 He says, for the works of the law in verse 20, no human being will be justified in His 00:19:32.299 --> 00:19:36.900 sight since through the law comes knowledge or conscience of sin. 00:19:36.900 --> 00:19:38.140 That's the whole point of it. 00:19:38.140 --> 00:19:42.740 It is there to expose that we don't love God like we should. 00:19:42.740 --> 00:19:48.380 And it's there to expose that we certainly don't love our wives, our husbands, our children, 00:19:48.380 --> 00:19:54.180 our neighbors, our friends, our enemies perfectly. 00:19:54.180 --> 00:19:58.540 And therefore you throw up your hands and you say, is there any hope? 00:19:58.540 --> 00:20:00.700 Is there any hope in this council of despair? 00:20:00.700 --> 00:20:03.500 Is there any peace? 00:20:03.500 --> 00:20:05.220 Can anyone do right? 00:20:05.220 --> 00:20:09.980 Are you just beating us up with a stick here? 00:20:09.980 --> 00:20:20.660 Well, actually, and I'm very careful in saying this, Paul of course was wrong. 00:20:20.660 --> 00:20:27.620 He was right as he reflects on humanity as fallen. 00:20:27.620 --> 00:20:29.019 But there is one, isn't there? 00:20:29.019 --> 00:20:30.019 And that's what he's coming to. 00:20:30.019 --> 00:20:31.019 He's not really wrong. 00:20:31.019 --> 00:20:34.220 He's bringing us towards that argument. 00:20:34.220 --> 00:20:36.180 There is one. 00:20:36.180 --> 00:20:39.299 There is one who is righteous. 00:20:39.299 --> 00:20:43.380 There was one who is righteous. 00:20:43.380 --> 00:20:46.140 There is one who understands. 00:20:46.140 --> 00:20:52.860 There is one who sought out God and who loved God with his whole heart and soul and being 00:20:52.860 --> 00:20:55.220 who never turned aside. 00:20:55.220 --> 00:21:03.019 There is one who is worthy and who absolutely did good, perfectly good in his life, who never 00:21:03.019 --> 00:21:10.539 spoke deceptively, who never spoke with hateful venom or curses and bitterness towards his 00:21:10.539 --> 00:21:18.740 fellow human being, who never chose and ran towards uncontrolled violence, who never brought 00:21:18.740 --> 00:21:22.940 sinful misery or ruin into anyone's experience. 00:21:22.940 --> 00:21:24.420 Never. 00:21:24.420 --> 00:21:31.900 But he loved everyone that he came into contact with, fully and wholly, who was the perfect 00:21:31.900 --> 00:21:38.420 example of the kind of person that God wants in relationship with him as a human being, 00:21:38.420 --> 00:21:41.300 Jesus Christ. 00:21:41.300 --> 00:21:42.300 He's the one, isn't he? 00:21:42.300 --> 00:21:44.300 He's the righteous one. 00:21:44.300 --> 00:21:49.980 He stood at the end of his life and God, the Father, could say, yep, you're righteous. 00:21:49.980 --> 00:21:51.380 I love you. 00:21:51.380 --> 00:21:53.259 I love being in relationship with you. 00:21:53.259 --> 00:21:55.580 I love the way you treat your neighbors. 00:21:55.580 --> 00:21:56.740 It's absolutely perfect. 00:21:56.740 --> 00:21:59.620 It's exactly what I intended to be. 00:21:59.619 --> 00:22:04.539 Yet I damn you. 00:22:04.539 --> 00:22:10.019 I damn you to death on a cross and I damn you to face the powers of hell and I damn you 00:22:10.019 --> 00:22:14.139 to face my wrath. 00:22:14.139 --> 00:22:22.219 I damn you to drink that cup that all humanity should be drinking. 00:22:22.219 --> 00:22:25.259 And I can't explain that love. 00:22:25.259 --> 00:22:28.339 I have no words for it. 00:22:28.339 --> 00:22:30.779 I just can't make it clear. 00:22:30.779 --> 00:22:36.299 I don't even understand it for myself that God, the Father and His triune being would 00:22:36.299 --> 00:22:41.740 agree with God, the Son and the Holy Spirit to go to such lengths for a people that just 00:22:41.740 --> 00:22:45.699 stick their fingers up at him and have no interest in him. 00:22:45.699 --> 00:22:49.179 Who can understand such love? 00:22:49.179 --> 00:22:53.459 And when we believe and trust in Jesus Christ, even when we don't understand the one who 00:22:53.460 --> 00:22:59.700 died in our place, the one who's taken our death and taken our rebellion and our sin, 00:22:59.700 --> 00:23:03.340 our death is defeated. 00:23:03.340 --> 00:23:07.180 And we move from death to life. 00:23:07.180 --> 00:23:10.860 That's the message of the gospel and the resurrection power of all that that means. 00:23:10.860 --> 00:23:15.460 It doesn't mean that we skip along in the daffodils and that life is easy. 00:23:15.460 --> 00:23:19.980 It doesn't mean that we're free from the battles and struggles and the curse of this 00:23:19.980 --> 00:23:22.220 world in which we live. 00:23:22.220 --> 00:23:30.779 But it does mean that He promises to give us life and He promises never to leave us 00:23:30.779 --> 00:23:34.940 and He promises to take us through and He promises there's something far better for 00:23:34.940 --> 00:23:36.460 us in our lives. 00:23:36.460 --> 00:23:43.819 Of course, there's a battle, but we do it not in our own strength. 00:23:43.819 --> 00:23:46.740 So I conclude with what I started with. 00:23:46.740 --> 00:23:50.460 That's why it all matters, you know? 00:23:50.460 --> 00:23:54.340 That's why this week of prayer matters. 00:23:54.340 --> 00:23:59.860 That's why you should clear your diaries this week and put the first thing on your diary 00:23:59.860 --> 00:24:03.660 as prayer if it's not already there. 00:24:03.660 --> 00:24:06.100 Why? 00:24:06.100 --> 00:24:12.579 Because it doesn't matter as religious people and maybe not Christians. 00:24:12.579 --> 00:24:16.620 It doesn't matter how good we feel about ourselves. 00:24:16.619 --> 00:24:24.059 God says, there's no one righteous and I am the only righteous one and I cover you. 00:24:24.059 --> 00:24:25.939 And Corey will go into that next week. 00:24:25.939 --> 00:24:29.259 I will cover you in my righteousness. 00:24:29.259 --> 00:24:34.179 The law is not there for us to try and keep to please God. 00:24:34.179 --> 00:24:40.059 It's there to say we can't keep it so that we will come to Christ and in Christ seek 00:24:40.059 --> 00:24:41.899 to live that way. 00:24:41.899 --> 00:24:44.339 There's no one righteous, you know? 00:24:44.339 --> 00:24:46.339 That's why prayer is so important for us. 00:24:46.339 --> 00:24:52.539 That's why these three friends lists, I ask and plead with you to persevere in. 00:24:52.539 --> 00:24:56.099 Four years is maybe quite quick for someone to come to faith. 00:24:56.099 --> 00:24:57.339 Don't give up. 00:24:57.339 --> 00:24:58.500 Keep praying for them. 00:24:58.500 --> 00:24:59.779 Keep sharing with them. 00:24:59.779 --> 00:25:01.819 Keep telling them about Jesus. 00:25:01.819 --> 00:25:07.539 Keep on doing these things in as gentle and as loving and as gracious and as true and 00:25:07.539 --> 00:25:10.099 honest way you can. 00:25:10.099 --> 00:25:12.059 Why does this week matter? 00:25:12.059 --> 00:25:17.379 Because only Jesus Christ can make our dry bones live. 00:25:17.379 --> 00:25:25.299 Only Jesus Christ can breathe, through prayer, can breathe life into anyone who by nature 00:25:25.299 --> 00:25:28.980 and all of us were there would never seek out God. 00:25:28.980 --> 00:25:34.819 You never, I never sought out God in my own strength. 00:25:34.819 --> 00:25:40.299 It was because God was working in me and because people were praying for me. 00:25:40.299 --> 00:25:46.579 That's why prayer is the bedrock of Haddington work, of Esk Valley, of Cornerstone, of St. 00:25:46.579 --> 00:25:53.539 Columbus, of our own personal lives, and it's the place we go to with all our questions 00:25:53.539 --> 00:26:01.579 and our cries and our lack of knowledge and our confusion and our difficulty. 00:26:01.579 --> 00:26:03.019 That's the key, isn't it? 00:26:03.019 --> 00:26:04.220 That's where we turn. 00:26:04.220 --> 00:26:08.940 It's not saying we go because we've got the answers or we go because life is easy. 00:26:08.940 --> 00:26:12.340 We go there because we have nowhere else to turn. 00:26:12.340 --> 00:26:21.220 We can't rely on our intellect and on our bank balance and on our relative goodness. 00:26:21.220 --> 00:26:27.420 And I simply ask that you make this week a real week of prayer. 00:26:27.420 --> 00:26:29.820 And pray like never before. 00:26:29.820 --> 00:26:34.820 If you can come together all the better, there have been wonderfully encouraging times that 00:26:34.820 --> 00:26:37.100 we've spent together. 00:26:37.099 --> 00:26:44.339 What do if you can make room and time for prayer and find that... I said this many years ago 00:26:44.339 --> 00:26:47.819 and I don't know if there's any truth in this whatsoever, but I'm going to say it 00:26:47.819 --> 00:26:48.819 again anyway. 00:26:48.819 --> 00:26:53.859 I think it's something like if you do something for 17 days in a row, it becomes a habit. 00:26:53.859 --> 00:26:54.859 Is that right? 00:26:54.859 --> 00:26:56.579 I think it was 17. 00:26:56.579 --> 00:26:58.099 Might be less than that. 00:26:58.099 --> 00:27:05.419 So if you pray like passionately, either with people or on your own, 17 days in a row, 00:27:05.420 --> 00:27:08.660 essentially it will just come into your consciousness. 00:27:08.660 --> 00:27:11.019 It will be something you do every day. 00:27:11.019 --> 00:27:13.019 Just think of the habits that you have. 00:27:13.019 --> 00:27:17.580 They reflect the priorities very often of our lives, don't they? 00:27:17.580 --> 00:27:25.140 So please just make this a special, festival time of prayer in the hope that it will inspire 00:27:25.140 --> 00:27:28.300 and encourage you to make prayer the bedrock of your life. 00:27:28.300 --> 00:27:29.820 Because what is prayer? 00:27:29.819 --> 00:27:36.819 It is where the curtain has been ripped in two and where we have access to our Father 00:27:36.819 --> 00:27:41.059 who loves us more than we can ever grasp or know. 00:27:41.059 --> 00:27:46.019 John 15 verse 5 says, apart from Christ we can do nothing. 00:27:46.019 --> 00:27:50.019 As a leader in the church and Ali will feel this and I know he said that and Martha mentioned 00:27:50.019 --> 00:27:55.139 it and it's the same for Neil and for Tom. 00:27:55.140 --> 00:28:00.780 We just feel we can't do anything and we can't do anything apart from Christ. 00:28:00.780 --> 00:28:05.900 And we are holding on to his coattails at best. 00:28:05.900 --> 00:28:11.259 But then he goes on to say in Matthew 19, 26, with God, all things are possible. 00:28:11.259 --> 00:28:16.220 So we believe in the impossible and we hope to take risks because we believe God will 00:28:16.220 --> 00:28:22.140 take us and enable us to grow more and see many, many people in this city coming to faith 00:28:22.140 --> 00:28:25.300 in Christ and in its environs. 00:28:25.300 --> 00:28:26.300 Amen. 00:28:26.300 --> 00:28:27.580 Let's bow our heads and pray. 00:28:27.580 --> 00:28:33.940 Father God, we ask and pray that we would understand that the glory is yours and that 00:28:33.940 --> 00:28:39.340 we need you and that you love us and that we are your children. 00:28:39.340 --> 00:28:45.220 And we pray that many folk, many people, especially those that each of us are burdened 00:28:45.220 --> 00:28:51.940 for that we will not stop praying for them and pleading with you to bring them to a saving 00:28:51.940 --> 00:28:57.220 knowledge of Jesus and all that that means, the moving from death to life, the seeing 00:28:57.220 --> 00:29:03.180 things that we have never seen before, the trusting in the darkest times and the knowledge 00:29:03.180 --> 00:29:04.539 that Jesus has us. 00:29:04.539 --> 00:29:05.539 He's got our back. 00:29:05.539 --> 00:29:06.539 He'll hold us. 00:29:06.539 --> 00:29:07.539 He'll keep us. 00:29:07.539 --> 00:29:13.860 He'll show us one day the battles we've faced and He'll see and take us through to a hugely 00:29:13.859 --> 00:29:22.299 glorious life of loving relationship with Him and with one another that is beyond our 00:29:22.299 --> 00:29:23.299 imagination. 00:29:23.299 --> 00:29:35.339 So help us to hang in there and help us to be strong and help us to worship you and keep 00:29:35.339 --> 00:29:37.979 mainly in the main things. 00:29:37.979 --> 00:29:42.779 Help us to focus on who you are and we thank you for who you are. 00:29:42.779 --> 00:29:45.819 Bless us as we sing together in response to your word. 00:29:45.819 --> 00:29:52.980 May it just fill our souls and may it just fill us with joy to be able to praise in 00:29:52.980 --> 00:29:58.099 this way, even when we feel that we are struggling and battling. 00:29:58.099 --> 00:30:03.299 May it be refreshing and renewing and may we know that we do something that links us 00:30:03.299 --> 00:30:12.740 with heaven itself, with the angelic choirs who praise you and who adore you. 00:30:12.740 --> 00:30:14.220 So help us to be praying in Jesus' name. 00:30:14.220 --> 00:30:42.299 Amen.