WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.159 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.359 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.759 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:20.479 Let's just bow our heads in prayer. Father, you know that on one hand, every single one of us, 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:26.240 in fact, everybody we meet, would like to know themselves better. And on the other hand, Father, 00:01:26.240 --> 00:01:33.760 you know how we often, in fact, turn away from that and act contrary to that. So we ask, Father, that 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:41.760 you would do a kind and gracious work in our midst this morning, and that your Holy Spirit will so 00:01:42.880 --> 00:01:52.480 bring your word to us, that through your word we might see and know ourselves better. And that at the 00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:58.560 same time, Father, you will help us to see ourselves better in a way that does not cause us to despair, 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:06.400 but gives us hope, as we also, Father, know you better, your heart, and what you have done for us 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:12.560 in the person of your Son. So we ask, Father, that you would do this gentle but powerful and important 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:18.480 work in each of our lives. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. 00:02:19.119 --> 00:02:27.679 Please be seated. So many years ago, when I was young, and in my early 20s, I worked at a natural 00:02:27.679 --> 00:02:33.519 food store here in Ottawa. And at the time, I think there were about three of these natural food, 00:02:33.519 --> 00:02:38.959 I mean, the same guy owned about, I think it was three different natural food stores. And I worked on 00:02:38.959 --> 00:02:45.679 one on Elgin Street. And there was a time, about the six months or eight months or whatever, before I 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:52.719 ended up leaving the store. I left the store, you know, not because of this issue, just more to take 00:02:52.719 --> 00:03:00.080 a different type of job. But it was actually quite frustrating and problematic, because what would 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:05.120 happen is the manager of the store was there most of the time, and he was a, these are, they're both 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:09.439 nice guys, by the way. And he would tell me, you know, this is how you set up the produce section, 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:14.159 this is how you set up the display, this is how you do this, this is how you do that. 00:03:14.159 --> 00:03:20.400 And then the hot, the, the manager would maybe go away for a day or two or a whole week, and the 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:25.759 owner would come. And as soon as the owner came in, and he saw me, he'd say, look at this produce 00:03:25.759 --> 00:03:30.000 section, that's not the way you set up a produce section, you have to do it this way. And don't 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:33.919 set this, that area up, like they have to do it this way. And I'd say, well, the manager told me to set 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:39.280 it up this way. And he said, the manager doesn't know what he's doing. And I'm the owner, do it the 00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:45.519 way I said. So I would do it the way he said. The manager would come back from his days off, 00:03:45.519 --> 00:03:51.439 or holiday, and say, George, look at how that produce section is set up. That's not the way you 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:56.639 set up a produce section, you got to do it this way. And I'd say, well, the owner told me to do it 00:03:56.639 --> 00:04:00.799 this way. He said, the owner's an idiot, he doesn't know anything, you do it the way I said. 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:07.600 And back and forth would go for about six months or nine months until I eventually left. But not 00:04:07.600 --> 00:04:13.200 because of that reason, but because I moved on to a different job. Now, I mention this because I 00:04:13.200 --> 00:04:20.080 think it's a good illustration of how a lot of people outside of the Christian faith view the 00:04:20.080 --> 00:04:29.280 whole idea of God judging you, or just even religious rules and spiritual rules. It seems to them a little 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:35.359 bit like, okay, George, I don't know, they might say, I don't know, you know, Muslims have rules, 00:04:35.359 --> 00:04:41.039 and you know, you know, Anglicans have rules, or Protestants and Catholics have rules, and you know, 00:04:41.039 --> 00:04:45.039 the Sufi have rules, and I don't know, how on earth do you pick between them? And they all seem to 00:04:45.039 --> 00:04:48.319 contradict each other, and everybody seems to say that the other people don't know what they're 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:54.000 talking about. And it's just way too complicated, and it just doesn't seem to make any sense, and it 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:59.519 just seems to make more sense to be no religion. And even Christians are a little bit confused by it, 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:04.160 because you know, Canada has certain types of rules, and the Bible has rules, and it can just 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:09.759 be complicated trying to figure out how you fit the rules in, and whether they're as blunt as, 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:14.240 you know, the manager was that the owner was an idiot, and don't listen to what he said. 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:20.240 That is, it's just very confusing, and all it does, and this is, I think, one of the reasons why 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:25.360 many people are become either apatheists, they're apathetic about the whole question, or they would 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:30.240 say that they're no religion, because they'd see that all you have seem to have are these rules, 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:37.199 and the rules don't seem to be consistently applied, and there seems to be contradiction amongst the 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:44.480 rules, and all they do is make you feel guilty and anxious. And then most people come to a point and 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:50.079 say, the one thing I do not need more of in my life is guilt and anxiety. Like, I have enough 00:05:50.079 --> 00:05:56.399 guilt and anxiety just because of life. I don't need religion or spirituality to add to it. And so 00:05:56.399 --> 00:06:03.360 a lot of people move away from any type of Christian, or for that matter, other types of spiritual or 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:09.120 religious commitment. Well, the text that we're going to look at today is actually very, very good 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:17.120 answer to that type of dilemma or problem, and in fact, it's going to...it actually solves that issue 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:23.840 in quite a beautiful way, and at the same time opens the door to how you can live the life that, 00:06:23.840 --> 00:06:29.840 in fact, most Canadians, I think, long to desire to live. And it does both of them in the same time as 00:06:29.840 --> 00:06:35.360 it goes through the text. So if it'd be very helpful to me, if you, and for yourselves, if you open your 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:41.360 Bibles, or find a Bible on your phone or whatever, and try not to check your Instagram updates or TikTok 00:06:41.360 --> 00:06:47.680 updates or whatever, but just stick with the Bible. And we're looking at Romans 2, verses 1 to 16. 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:53.199 Romans 2, verses 1 to 16. If you're using these little journal Bibles, it's page 10. 00:06:54.080 --> 00:07:02.080 And this...and here's how this goes. And just before we get into what it actually says...so 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:08.720 it's written as a letter, a book, obviously. And the way the book begins is some greetings, some, 00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:13.520 you know, historical, you know, in terms of his plans. And then it gives this big thesis about 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:19.760 what the book is going to be all about. And then from verse...chapter 1, verse 18 to the chapter 3, 00:07:19.760 --> 00:07:27.680 verse 20, Paul is selling the problem. What...what is it...about why is it that human beings actually need 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:34.320 to...verse 1, 16, 17 says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel...okay, well, good for you, Paul, but here's...here's 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:40.240 why. For it, the gospel, is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, that is, receives 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:46.639 it. To the Jewish person first and also to the pagan. For in it, that's the gospel, this good news from 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:52.240 God about God, the righteousness of God is revealed, that God is always righteous and he is the one who 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:56.319 makes you right with him. And it's revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous 00:07:56.319 --> 00:08:01.519 shall live by faith. So in a sense, what Paul is trying to do is saying, why is it that human beings 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:07.519 need to hear this good news from God about what God has done? And he had...why do you need to have 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:12.799 power that comes from him to receive it? So why is it? That's the section that we're in, what I call 00:08:12.799 --> 00:08:18.959 selling the problem. And here's how it goes. Chapter 2, verse 1, in the part we're looking at today. 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:27.519 Therefore, you have no excuse, O man or O woman, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:35.759 another, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:43.840 that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man, 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:49.600 do you suppose, O woman, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourselves, 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:58.159 that you will escape the judgment of God? And we'll just pause there. Now, just a couple of things 00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:06.720 about this. First of all, just a couple of things about this. Actually, if you could put up the first 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:12.480 point, this would be very handy. Here's the big thing about this text, and it's going to be repeated 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:22.560 later on towards the end of it. God is shockingly just and fair, good and kind. That's what's being 00:09:22.560 --> 00:09:28.560 revealed here, that the true and living God, the actual God who's created all things, sustains all 00:09:28.560 --> 00:09:33.279 things, is over all things, is sovereign over all things, who will one day bring all things to 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:42.159 completion. The true and living God is shockingly just and fair, good and kind. So here's how we see 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:47.439 this in the text. It's a very, very important insight. What he is saying is this, okay, okay, 00:09:47.439 --> 00:09:53.279 okay, that sounds fair enough. It sounds fair enough. You know, why is it fair? It's not fair, 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:59.759 maybe. I can see your point. It's not fair if I judge every single human being by their knowledge 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:04.240 of the Bible. That doesn't seem very fair. So here's the standard. Here's the criteria I'm going 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:09.919 to use, because surely this is fair. Here's the thing about every single human being. Every single human 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:17.120 being judges other people. Every single human being judges other people. And when I say this, 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:20.240 if you're listening and you're thinking, you know, you're outside the Christian faith, 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:25.679 or your faith is being deconstructed, you can't figure out whether you want to stay as a Christian. 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:31.519 When I say every person, I mean me, and I mean all the people right here. I mean Christians and 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:34.959 those outside the Christian faith. Every single human being judges other human beings. 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:45.200 And what we do is we find people lacking or wanting, bad, disgusting, horrible. And we also 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:50.560 find certain types of things admirable. And so God says, that's a characteristic of human beings. 00:10:50.560 --> 00:10:54.800 That, George, by the way, that's a characteristic of you. It's a characteristic of Ross and Shirley. 00:10:54.800 --> 00:10:59.519 It's a characteristic of Louise. That's how you function. So I'm going to be completely fair. 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:04.879 What I'm going to do is I'm just going to listen in to your thoughts about every time you make a 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:09.679 judgment about another person, I'm going to write it down. And I'm going to make a judgment about, 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:13.519 you know, every time you say, you know, this person, like, they suck, or this person's bad, 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:17.439 or look at that person, they despise them, they should be ashamed, or this person's really good. 00:11:17.439 --> 00:11:21.439 I'm just going to write it down. And then all I'm going to do is at the end of the day, 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:24.319 I'm going to reveal, we'll get a group of people like this, 00:11:25.040 --> 00:11:29.840 and they're going to have a show, not a show, like a, but it'd be a very sad time. 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:34.480 And I'm going to do two things. I'm going to show on one side of the screen how you judge other people, 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:39.440 and then I'm going to show what you actually think in your inner life, and what you actually say, 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:46.800 and what you actually do. And no human being lives up to their own judgments. 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:56.879 None. And let me tell you, if you think yourself, I think I do. And you said that to your neighbor, 00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:01.039 they'd smirk. Because they know you're fooling yourself. 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:08.079 They'd say, oh boy, is that person ever clueless? What's that? That's a judgment, eh? Whoa, 00:12:08.079 --> 00:12:13.759 a moment, I just did a judgment. And so that's what God is saying here in this text. 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:16.959 You want fair? I'm going to be shockingly just and fair. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:21.360 You'll see in a moment why he's also good and kind, but it's very kind as well. He said, 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:24.480 I'm not going to judge you by my really high standards, I'll just judge you by your standards. 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:31.360 And if I do that, you won't actually be able to live up to them. Now, some of you might say, 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:35.279 George, okay, well, maybe, oh, okay, George, I hadn't been seeing that coming. But, you know, 00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:39.360 it goes on to say in verse two, look at verse two, we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:44.480 those who practice such things. I don't think that's true, George, or maybe it's, I just don't 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:50.000 think that's true. But, well, actually, you do. It's an argument. Paul is using an argument from 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:57.440 the lower to the greater. And he says, basically, one moment, if you think it's all right for you to 00:12:57.440 --> 00:13:09.360 judge, why is it not all right for God to judge? What can you say? Well, a lot of us actually feel 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:16.720 offended when that comes to their attention and don't like that idea. Now there's a whole other problem. 00:13:16.720 --> 00:13:24.000 Okay, you actually think that it's all right for you to judge and you to judge God, but it's not 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:31.519 all right for God to judge you. Who made you God? That all of a sudden, the profound truth of Genesis 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:38.080 chapter two and Genesis chapter three, that it's a fundamental part of human nature, that we want to 00:13:38.080 --> 00:13:45.840 be like God, which actually means be more God-ish than God and over God. And all of a sudden, you see 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:51.200 that that's actually psychologically, existentially, ontologically, I went to college, I have to use 00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:58.639 big words occasionally, true. We do get offended by these ideas. Why? Because we have a God complex. 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:05.519 Every single human being has a God complex, unless by grace it gets removed. So, 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:09.439 what do we do? 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:24.480 Well, we do judge others, and we do judge ourselves. And one of the problems with how... 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:30.960 Well, so here's one of the problems for people when they think of moral rules. And... 00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:37.920 Sorry, I've lost my note. Sometimes I lose my notes because I talk and I don't have a written 00:14:37.920 --> 00:14:44.159 text, I just do an outline. Here's the next thing about this text, which is actually pretty shocking, 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:50.000 but profoundly true. Let's just read verses four to five. I had a good analogy, which I can't read in 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:55.600 my notes about how to make it. Remember I said my first point is that God is shockingly just 00:14:55.600 --> 00:15:00.320 and fair, but also shockingly just and kind. Look what he says next in verse four. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:10.240 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:17.200 kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? Just read that again. Do you not... Or do you presume... 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:24.720 That is that, you know, the idea... You're unhappy with God's judgment and anything to do with that. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:31.200 And by the way, just... I'm not going to... Later on in Romans, I'm going to talk more about God's wrath 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:37.680 and everything like that. Oh, sorry, I didn't read that. So, four and five. Or do you presume on the 00:15:37.680 --> 00:15:42.240 riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:48.960 to repentance, but because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:55.680 yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Now, later on in the book, 00:15:55.680 --> 00:16:00.320 we're going to talk more about the wrath of God, the anger of God. All I want to say about it here is this, 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:12.160 that most of the time my anger is sort of based on my own judgments and I don't live up to them myself. 00:16:13.040 --> 00:16:21.600 But God is always an only good. He never does one... judges other people one way and gives himself a pass. 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:31.040 He's always good. He's always just. And unlike me, he never is addicted to anger. He never holds on to anger. 00:16:31.040 --> 00:16:40.399 He's never overwhelmed by anger. His anger is always appropriate, an appropriate response to human evil. 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:49.279 To give you a bit of an example, this is a bit of an historical example, but some of you might or might 00:16:49.279 --> 00:16:56.159 not know that the Soviet Union, the communist government in the 30s, by their... sent troops 00:16:56.159 --> 00:17:04.879 in to starve Ukrainians to death. And there's a number anywhere from five to 20 million Ukrainians 00:17:04.879 --> 00:17:10.879 actually starved to death because the soldiers, the communist soldiers actually came in and hunted 00:17:10.879 --> 00:17:15.279 and found all of the food because they wanted it for their own reasons and they wanted to quell 00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:23.039 those troublesome Ukrainians. And millions and millions of people died. And I mean, we have to 00:17:23.039 --> 00:17:28.960 be a little bit careful. Stalin, who was the person responsible for it, he has a very famous line, 00:17:29.519 --> 00:17:33.759 the death of one person is a tragedy, the death of a million people is a statistic. 00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:43.039 Very cynical, but very psychologically astute. But if we were to be around at that time and hear 00:17:43.039 --> 00:17:48.480 that that that was happening and we did not have anger at it, it would not be a sign of our moral 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:58.399 superiority, but a sign of our evil and moral incoherence. Now, you could get overwhelmed with 00:17:58.399 --> 00:18:04.799 it, but God never get overwhelmed. There's a proper response of anger to real evil. And that's really just 00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:11.279 what this text is trying to say. But here's the bigger... here's the bigger point. If you could put up the 00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:18.000 second point, Claire, that would be very helpful. In God's mercy, in his mercy, justice is delayed, 00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:29.839 not forgotten or denied. Excuse me. In his mercy, justice is delayed, not forgotten or denied. And 00:18:29.839 --> 00:18:35.200 that's what it means here in verse 4. Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance 00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:43.279 and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? See, God's 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:48.880 kindness is seen in common grace, where he restrains the full effect of our evil. 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:56.400 And this text is revealing that deep truth that's three times spoken of in the book of Ezekiel. And if 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:02.319 you follow the ancient Anglican practice of morning and evening prayer, you would hear it said on a regular 00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:07.359 basis that God takes no delight in the death of a sinner, but rather that they will turn from their 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:12.720 wickedness and live. That expresses the heart of God. The heart of God is for every single person 00:19:13.599 --> 00:19:21.039 that we will come to realize that God's justice is never delayed. I mean, it's delayed, but it's delayed, 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:27.439 not forgotten, not denied. His justice will eventually come. And this period of time, 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:35.440 when you're not under God's judgment, is meant for you to turn to him, turn to him in repentance, 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:45.680 to recognize your great need for his mercy and his kindness and his grace. And it's also a great 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:50.799 warning. This great text is a great warning. We see this in other people, and it's very hard to see it in 00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:58.639 ourselves. We can see people's hearts becoming hardened. It might be in a marriage, and you see how one 00:19:58.639 --> 00:20:04.319 person, or maybe both people, their hearts are hardened towards each other. You can see it in the 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:09.919 workplace, where people start to get corrected by the things that they're not doing as they should in 00:20:09.919 --> 00:20:14.799 their job. And you can see some people taking it to heart and trying to change. And you can see other people 00:20:14.799 --> 00:20:22.799 people getting hardened in it and not listening to it. And you can see it in the world when people have 00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:25.200 things pointed out to them. And rather than saying, 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:30.559 gosh, that's right, I need to do something about it, their hearts get hardened. And so even this very, very 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:38.319 seemingly hard text about God's judgment, on one hand, it's a great promise. When we see that Stalin died 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:44.720 without ever facing any type of human justice, we know that he did not evade justice. Because all that 00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:53.519 happened is God delayed justice for Stalin. It was not, is not, denied or forgotten, and he will be judged, 00:20:53.519 --> 00:21:01.679 has been judged, for his profound evil of killing tens of millions of his own citizens. That justice will 00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:09.200 come. And it will come to us just as to him. But there is this season where we have a time to understand 00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:16.880 that God's deepest heart for every human being is not that their hearts will become hard and impenitent 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:24.320 and their ears closed, but that we will recognize our great need for his mercy and grace. 00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:36.639 In his mercy, justice is delayed, not forgotten or denied. Now, some people might say, George, 00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:43.359 I'm not quite sure where to go with this. Here's the thing about me, George. You need to understand a 00:21:43.359 --> 00:21:54.079 couple of things about me. I'm a good person. I'm a good person. And I want to do good. Like, 00:21:54.079 --> 00:22:01.039 that's me, George. I want to do good. And I don't know, George, like, you know the Bible better than 00:22:01.039 --> 00:22:05.119 me. And I don't know, one of the things that just seems to get me, like, I'm not a type of person 00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:10.799 who thinks about philosophical ideas or reads complicated books. Like, I'll be honest, like, 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:15.759 I, you know, I like listening to some simple music or, you know, maybe looking at a couple of TikTok 00:22:15.759 --> 00:22:21.439 videos. And I don't, I don't have all these complicated ideas. And sometimes I just think, George, 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:25.360 you know, that, I don't know, like, how does this fit in with me being a good person? How does it fit 00:22:25.360 --> 00:22:29.600 in with the fact that there just seems to be people who are, you know, like, I work with people and they 00:22:29.600 --> 00:22:33.519 always have opinions on everything. And they're always very convinced they're right. And they always 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:38.880 have read books and articles. And I just, I can't match them. And I don't, George, does the Bible have 00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:44.080 anything to say to somebody like me? Well, it does, actually. Now, we're going to skip ahead. We're going to 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:51.279 come back to verses 6 to 11. But let's just skip ahead to verse 12. And here, God is, in a sense, 00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:56.799 understanding that dilemma that a lot of us have. And listen to what it says in verse 12 and following. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:05.119 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. And all who have sinned under 00:23:05.119 --> 00:23:14.000 the law will be judged by the law. Now, there's a couple of things. First of all, the word sin 00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:21.519 is a word that generally will be used by comics, comedians, to make fun of, right? But it's actually 00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:27.599 a word that every person should long for. It's the first time in the Book of Romans that the word is 00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:31.519 introduced. It will become an important word. But it's actually a really, really precious word. 00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:38.480 It's actually a word that every single person should desire is true. Because what it's telling us is 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:46.160 that at the end of the day, good and evil, justice and injustice, aren't just abstract or universal, 00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:51.680 impersonal laws. But because there really is a God that does exist who's a personal being, 00:23:52.639 --> 00:23:56.000 right and wrong, justice and injustice is personal. 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:05.039 And if it's personal, there's hope. Simple illustration. The law of gravity is impersonal. 00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:13.359 You climb up to a 10-story building and you step off the edge, you fall. It's impersonal. Karma 00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:21.920 is impersonal. Most moral systems are impersonal. You just betray them, they're completely impersonal, 00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:29.759 you suffer the consequences. Sin introduces the idea that there is a God. And that when I do something 00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:35.680 wrong, I'm not just doing something to hurt you. I'm not just transgressing some abstract law. I'm 00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:40.000 actually doing something against a person. And if I'm doing something against a person, 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:44.640 there can be the hope that a person will show me mercy. 00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:50.800 So it's actually a really important word that you, that Christians should not be embarrassed about, 00:24:50.800 --> 00:24:58.320 but actually say, actually everybody wish, should wish that sin is true, ironically. Because if it's 00:24:58.320 --> 00:25:04.720 personal, there's hope. If it's personal, there's hope. So just read this again, verse 12. For all who 00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:10.560 have sinned without the law, here he's referring to the Old Testament, will also perish without the law. 00:25:10.559 --> 00:25:18.000 And all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. Verse 13. For it is not the 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:25.440 hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be made right with 00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:30.399 God. We'll just pause there. This is a really important idea. This is getting at my person saying, 00:25:30.399 --> 00:25:35.119 you know, I watch TikTok videos. I'm not a philosophical person. I don't read lots of books. I 00:25:35.119 --> 00:25:39.119 don't know the Bible like you do. And I have a feeling that people who know all these things, 00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:43.119 they look down on me. And what God is saying here is this. You need to understand that from my 00:25:43.119 --> 00:25:50.719 perspective, this is not a contradiction. George could say that person, these two people, Bob and Sue, 00:25:51.519 --> 00:25:58.959 they know the Bible better than any human being on the planet. And they are both deeply evil. 00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:01.680 And that is not a contradiction. 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:12.720 You can be the best Bible scholar, theology scholar, philosopher in the world, and be a person 00:26:13.360 --> 00:26:19.440 who is very wrong and evil. It's not a matter of knowing it. It's not a matter of being able to hear it. 00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:27.519 It's what you do. And then it goes on, verse 14. And this explains why the fact is, you know, 00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:31.279 that some people will say, George, I mean, one of the, you see, one of the things about that 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:36.000 opening example is that God, in a sense, uses whatever stage of life you're in, the judgments 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:40.000 you make. And so even if he was just to say, well, I'm only going to look at those times when you were 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.319 between the ages of four and 10, before you learned other things, or I'm only going to look at those 00:26:44.319 --> 00:26:49.200 things, you know, between, I'm not going to count your teenage years, good grief, I'll give everybody 00:26:49.200 --> 00:26:54.240 a pass on that, because whoa, we all know we'd fail if we're looking at 14 to 18 or 19. 00:26:54.960 --> 00:26:59.440 We'll go after that. And whatever stage of life you're in, you're still going to fail, right? 00:26:59.839 --> 00:27:03.599 But we also have a sense of moral growth and improvement, and that's one of the reasons we 00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:07.200 think we're good people, that we know more about right and wrong than we did before. 00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:11.120 But we don't understand why that is. And the Bible here explains it. Look at verse 14. 00:27:11.839 --> 00:27:18.319 For when the pagans, who do not have the law, that is the Old Testament law, by nature do what the law 00:27:18.319 --> 00:27:23.200 requires. And here he's doing a little bit of play on words. He's talking about moral law, 00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:31.600 not the written Bible, but the moral law. When pagans do what the moral law requires, 00:27:31.600 --> 00:27:35.840 they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. What that means is there's 00:27:35.840 --> 00:27:42.000 something inside of themselves that is bearing testimony to what's right and wrong. Why? Verse 15, 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:50.000 they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bear 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:55.599 witness in their conflicting thoughts, accuse or even excuse them. So what the Bible is saying is this. 00:27:55.599 --> 00:28:03.039 You live in a moral universe. This is exactly why some people say, you know, I used to think that slavery 00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:08.559 was all right. Now I see that it's wrong. And it's not just because you actually realize that there's 00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:14.879 something, you know, I used to think that it was all right if my party did this. And now I realize I 00:28:14.879 --> 00:28:19.359 can't say it's all right if my party does this. And it's not right if the other party does the same thing. 00:28:19.359 --> 00:28:23.839 I need to realize that my party is wrong. And when we have that type of moral development, 00:28:23.839 --> 00:28:26.719 moral development only works if there really are morals. 00:28:29.919 --> 00:28:35.199 You can't have moral development if there's no type of standard. It's impossible. 00:28:36.959 --> 00:28:42.000 And the Bible here is saying that the way God, in fact, designed human beings, part of the human 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:47.519 condition is that on every single human being, in a sense, every human being is made in the image 00:28:47.519 --> 00:28:52.720 of God, the likeness of God. And what that means is that at some level, even though because of our 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:58.960 hardness and penitent heart, that there are parts of that moral right and wrong inside of us that we've 00:28:58.960 --> 00:29:04.799 tried to scrub out, and they've gotten bent, and they've gotten twisted, and all those other types 00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:10.799 of things, there's still this, there's a moral universe, and the creation is made in the context 00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:16.400 of a moral universe. And there is some sense of a real morality which is transcendent 00:29:16.400 --> 00:29:21.840 over time and place that's actually written in our heart. And that's why we can say, 00:29:23.120 --> 00:29:29.600 I don't care if for most of human history slavery was thought to be all right, it's wrong. 00:29:31.759 --> 00:29:36.800 Perfect example. One of the things that we're now doing is light from the past or wisdom from the past. 00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:41.680 The thing that we have for this month that's right there beside the books and everything like that 00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:47.360 is by Gregory of Nyssa, the first thing, I think the Bible deconstructs slavery, both the Old Testament 00:29:47.360 --> 00:29:51.840 and New Testament. It's the first thing ever written by a human being outside the Bible that condemns 00:29:51.840 --> 00:29:56.080 slavery by Gregory of Nyssa. That's, if you want, if you're curious to read it, you can read it. 00:29:57.200 --> 00:30:02.400 Unbelievable, this insight that it's wrong. And you can go on and on and on about things. I 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:08.880 I don't care if it was the elite in Rome, it was understood that it was completely fine, that they 00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:13.280 could take young boys or young girls and sexually do whatever they wanted with them, that any Roman 00:30:13.280 --> 00:30:20.400 senator could be another Jeffrey Epstein or Snoop Dogg. I don't care about that. They, it is wrong. 00:30:22.800 --> 00:30:28.720 There's a standard. It's wrong. And what the Bible is saying, we say that because there really is a 00:30:28.720 --> 00:30:33.039 moral standard and God's actually written this in our heart, is confused and, and broken and, 00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:35.839 and covered up and clouded as it seems to be. 00:30:41.039 --> 00:30:48.319 And then it continues. I'll read verse, we'll read verse 15 again. They show that that work 00:30:48.319 --> 00:30:53.039 of the law, the writing is written on their hearts. And then verse 16, on that day when according to my 00:30:53.039 --> 00:30:58.960 gospel, God judges the secret of men, the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. And once again, you see, 00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:03.920 here's now where this wonderful word sin opens the door to hope and mercy. 00:31:07.119 --> 00:31:13.759 If I step off a building, I'll fall. If I transgress a moral law that ultimately it's not just an 00:31:13.759 --> 00:31:19.039 impersonal law, but reflects who God is and how he designed me in the entire world. 00:31:19.039 --> 00:31:24.480 And if I transgress his law, maybe he can have mercy. 00:31:28.559 --> 00:31:37.359 Let's look back at verses 6 and 6 to 10. And this is going to talk now a little bit about why it is 00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:41.920 that every human being, I think, wants to think that they've lived a good life and they want to live a 00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:49.600 good life. And just look at what it says, verse 6 and following. It's, this part here, it's sort of a, 00:31:49.600 --> 00:31:55.519 it's really like, almost like a koan or a puzzle. It operates on three different levels. And we'll 00:31:55.519 --> 00:32:01.840 look at the first level first. It's a very deep and profound and insightful section about not only what 00:32:01.840 --> 00:32:07.279 human beings are like, but what God is like. And it sets up what I'm going to describe in a moment as 00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:11.839 the George dilemma. I'll explain to you what I mean by that in a second. Look at verse 6. 00:32:13.359 --> 00:32:18.160 He will render to each one according to his works. In other words, according to what they do. 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:23.839 A lot of Christians read this and say, one moment, this all sounds like you're not saved by God's 00:32:23.839 --> 00:32:29.279 mercy, but there's maybe just by what you do. We'll continue on. Verse 6 again, he will render to each 00:32:29.279 --> 00:32:35.519 one according to his works to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality. 00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:42.879 He will give eternal life. Yes, that's me. That's what I want. But for those who are self-seeking and 00:32:42.879 --> 00:32:48.879 do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. That, once again, 00:32:48.879 --> 00:32:53.359 George, I want to obey the truth. I try to never obey unrighteousness, not when I know about it. 00:32:53.920 --> 00:32:57.759 And then, and then it goes on in verse 9. There will be tribulation and distress for every human 00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:03.200 being who does evil, the Jew first and also the pagan. But glory and honor and peace for everyone 00:33:03.200 --> 00:33:08.319 who does good, the Jew first and also the pagan, for God shows no partiality. And we say, George, 00:33:08.319 --> 00:33:14.559 this is completely and utterly fantastic. Here's, listen, think about this for a second. If you could 00:33:14.559 --> 00:33:22.720 put up the point A, you long for a life of well-doing that leads to honor and glory and immortality. 00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:32.480 And that's what human beings long for. We long for a life of well-doing, patient well-doing that leads to 00:33:32.480 --> 00:33:39.279 honor and glory and immortality. And that's, would say, George, that's exactly the type of life I want 00:33:39.279 --> 00:33:43.920 to live. And to the best of my ability, that's what I'm trying to do. I try to be patient in well-doing 00:33:43.920 --> 00:33:54.960 and I'm patient in well-doing and I reject, I always want to obey the truth and I want to reject 00:33:54.960 --> 00:34:02.160 anything which is unrighteous. And I try to reject evil and I'm glad that God's impartial and I'm glad 00:34:02.160 --> 00:34:06.240 that if he just looks at my life, I think that's going to be how he'll see that this is how he should 00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:13.119 understand and relate to me because this describes the longings of my heart, that I long for a life 00:34:13.119 --> 00:34:20.719 of patient well-doing that leads to honor and glory and immortality. But the problem is it sets up the 00:34:20.719 --> 00:34:30.559 George dilemma. And here's the George dilemma. In grade eight, not just in grade eight, I was a lazy 00:34:30.559 --> 00:34:39.360 student. The motto of my life was, why work today when I can play today and work tomorrow? 00:34:40.400 --> 00:34:46.480 And that's what I'd say in the next tomorrow. Why on earth should I work today when I can play today 00:34:46.480 --> 00:34:54.719 and work tomorrow? Procrastination was my middle name. George Procrastinator Sinclair, that was George. 00:34:55.279 --> 00:34:59.599 And so in grade eight, I think it was grade eight, doesn't matter if it was grade eight or grade seven, 00:35:00.559 --> 00:35:04.480 we had towards the end of the year, the end of May, beginning of June, we had a very major French 00:35:04.480 --> 00:35:09.199 project that we had to do in one of my classes. And that French project was that we had to each give 00:35:09.199 --> 00:35:13.920 a three-minute speech in French. I can't remember what the topic was about. And we were told well in 00:35:13.920 --> 00:35:18.880 advance when it was going to be. We were given lots of notice, completely fair. And I think there were 25 00:35:18.880 --> 00:35:24.239 students in the class and she, the teacher said that we'd do five students a day from Monday to Friday. 00:35:24.239 --> 00:35:28.000 And that's how it was going to work. And we knew the week it was going to start. 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:38.000 And I did absolutely zero amount of work to prepare for this. Now, I wasn't realizing unconsciously why 00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:44.480 I did absolutely no work, but I did no work. And then on Monday, it came time in the afternoon, 00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:49.519 and the teacher with that chirpy young teacher smile and enthusiasm said, 00:35:49.519 --> 00:35:54.960 I've been thinking over the weekend that often the way I do these types of things isn't fair. 00:35:56.480 --> 00:36:02.159 We should all be fair. Everybody in the class says, we should be fair. And I said, what I realized about 00:36:02.159 --> 00:36:09.119 us not being fair is this. Usually when we do class presentations, we do it in alphabetical order, 00:36:09.119 --> 00:36:15.119 either from the beginning to the end. And I don't know if that's fair. And all the people whose last 00:36:15.119 --> 00:36:22.480 names were Adams and Abramovich and Billings, they all said, yes, that's not fair. And I said, 00:36:22.480 --> 00:36:28.000 sometimes I do the opposite. We begin at the end and then go backwards. And I don't know if that's fair. 00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:32.159 And especially the Yakubolskis and the Williams, they all said, yes, absolutely, that's not fair. 00:36:32.159 --> 00:36:35.519 But everybody in the room said, yeah, that's not fair that you always either begin at the A and go to 00:36:35.519 --> 00:36:41.280 the W, the Z, or begin at Z and go to the A. That's not fair. And she said, so I've had a real insight 00:36:41.280 --> 00:36:46.400 this weekend. I think I know how to make it really fair. And we all want it to be fair. Yes, we all want 00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:51.519 it to be fair. Here's what we're going to do. I have 25 pieces of paper, all identical, and I've written 00:36:51.519 --> 00:36:56.960 on them one to 25. And I folded them and I put them in a bag. And we're going to go around the room. 00:36:56.960 --> 00:37:01.760 We're going to take them randomly. And whatever number you get, that's the order you do it. Isn't 00:37:01.760 --> 00:37:07.840 that fair? Yes, that's fair. The tickets go around. I open mine up. One. 00:37:10.880 --> 00:37:19.280 One. I was feeling really relaxed up until this point in time. Because why? She always started at A, 00:37:19.280 --> 00:37:23.360 or started at Z. And even when she said this was going to happen, I'm thinking to myself, 00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:31.120 the odds are four to one that I'm not going to be in the first group. No worry. Now, 00:37:33.120 --> 00:37:40.720 my legs are going like this under the table. Rivers are coming from my armpits. I have become immensely 00:37:40.720 --> 00:37:46.559 hot and immensely red. And she, with her chirpy smile, says, who's number one? 00:37:46.559 --> 00:37:55.840 I'm number one. I'm number one. And I said, I can't do it. Oh, George, she's very chirpy and 00:37:55.840 --> 00:38:00.960 courager and all that. You know, Shirley, just come up and do a little bit. And I can't. I start to cry. 00:38:02.239 --> 00:38:09.920 13-year-old boy crying in grade eight. Not a good look. And she says, George, we've all agreed it's fair. 00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:16.000 It would be unfair for me to let you skip it today. 00:38:18.480 --> 00:38:21.840 Silence in the room. And she said, what? 00:38:21.840 --> 00:38:29.840 The only thing that might be fair, well, I'll tell you what might be fair in a moment. But here's the 00:38:29.840 --> 00:38:37.440 dilemma. So here, you know, the dilemma is this. We've all agreed that what we actually describes 00:38:37.440 --> 00:38:43.600 ourselves is that we're patient and well-doing. And if we're patient and well-doing and always doing 00:38:43.600 --> 00:38:47.120 what's right, never doing what's evil and always obeying the truth, surely there should be some type 00:38:47.119 --> 00:38:52.559 of glory and honor and recognition that's given to me. And we've all agreed on that. But here's the 00:38:52.559 --> 00:39:03.440 problem. Here's the problem. If you could put up B, Claire, you do not and cannot live that life. 00:39:03.440 --> 00:39:09.440 How do you know? I tell you that all of your 15 co-workers, when they hear this sermon, 00:39:09.440 --> 00:39:16.000 they all think that they're doing it. And what would your first reaction be? That person's not. 00:39:18.720 --> 00:39:24.720 I am not a liar. Pick any random group of 20 people, maybe your 20 best friends, 00:39:24.720 --> 00:39:30.639 and all 20 of them think they're doing this. And you will say, that person isn't. That person definitely 00:39:30.639 --> 00:39:37.519 isn't. And you know what else? Some of those other 19 are saying it about you. 00:39:40.159 --> 00:39:44.079 And if you say, no, no, no, no, it's different for me than the other 19, it really is. They'll all 00:39:44.879 --> 00:39:49.920 smirk and think, whoa, is that person really clueless about themselves. 00:39:51.440 --> 00:39:57.359 We all agree. We can't do it. It's the George dilemma. So what hope do we have? Well, 00:39:57.360 --> 00:40:04.000 there was actually a human solution to the George dilemma. And it came like this. The teacher says, 00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:09.440 well, George, it wouldn't be fair if I was to just give you a pass. There's a long pregnant silent. 00:40:09.440 --> 00:40:13.360 And then she said, but maybe if someone traded places with you, 00:40:16.160 --> 00:40:23.519 that would be fair. Is there anybody in the room who would trade places with George? 00:40:23.519 --> 00:40:34.159 George. This is a true story. Ricky of blessed memory, possessing sacred number 13. 00:40:36.719 --> 00:40:43.119 And by the way, he stuttered. It really is a bit of a Christ figure. You know, you don't look on him 00:40:43.119 --> 00:40:48.320 and think that he would be the guy. He wasn't the best French student. He was just a guy who wanted to 00:40:48.320 --> 00:40:54.800 see mercy. And he put up his hand and said, I will trade places with George. And he literally 00:40:55.360 --> 00:41:02.320 walked from the back of the class, put his number 13 on my desk, took number one in his hand, and went 00:41:02.320 --> 00:41:13.600 up and did the speech. Now, if you could put up the C point, that would be good. 00:41:13.599 --> 00:41:19.279 For your good and for God's glory, Jesus lived that life. 00:41:21.679 --> 00:41:27.039 You see, that story of solving the George dilemma, there is a true and greater Ricky. 00:41:28.799 --> 00:41:34.239 All Ricky did is he took my place, but he still did his own speech, and I still had to do my speech. 00:41:35.039 --> 00:41:40.400 The fact of the matter is, is that the proper way to read these verses about being patient and well-doing, 00:41:40.400 --> 00:41:45.840 and seeking honor and glory and immortality, and always for just rejecting evil and always 00:41:45.840 --> 00:41:51.200 rejecting unrighteousness and always obeying the truth. There is only one person who has ever lived 00:41:51.200 --> 00:41:57.360 that life. And it's not me, and it's not you. Only one person has lived that life, and that is Jesus. 00:42:01.760 --> 00:42:08.000 When Jesus trades places with you, and it's not just the matter that you now go have to do this 00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:14.480 yourself, the wonder of the gospel is, you know, in the Old Testament law to our Jewish friends, 00:42:14.480 --> 00:42:20.719 there's this regular aspect of all sacrifices, is that the person, it puts their hands on an 00:42:20.719 --> 00:42:26.320 innocent animal, and that the idea behind it, which is being illustrated, is that the things in me that 00:42:26.320 --> 00:42:31.360 deserve punishment, and the things that I'm ashamed on, I put them on the innocent animal, and the innocence 00:42:31.360 --> 00:42:37.120 of the animal comes to me, and then that animal suffers the consequences that I should suffer. 00:42:37.599 --> 00:42:42.320 But really, there has to be, everybody knows that, on one hand, it doesn't make sense, unless it's a 00:42:42.320 --> 00:42:46.079 pointer to a true and greater sacrifice. 00:42:46.079 --> 00:42:56.000 And that's the good news of the gospel, that God has provided a true and greater sacrifice. 00:42:57.440 --> 00:43:04.159 Who, when you put your hands in his, will not just trade places with you, but you enter into union with 00:43:04.159 --> 00:43:11.599 him, and the penalty that you could not pay, he paid, and the right standing with God that you could not 00:43:11.599 --> 00:43:18.159 accomplish, the life that you could not accomplish, is bestowed upon you as a gift. 00:43:23.519 --> 00:43:31.039 Only Jesus can be that sacrifice. For your good and for God's glory, Jesus lived that life. 00:43:32.960 --> 00:43:35.360 If you could put up the final point, that would be very helpful. 00:43:35.360 --> 00:43:43.920 Jesus saves you, and saves you, and saves you. Amen. Alleluia. Jesus saves you, and saves you, and 00:43:43.920 --> 00:43:49.680 saves you. Amen. Alleluia. You see, this is what, see, the, what is the power of God from salvation? 00:43:49.680 --> 00:43:54.480 The gospel is this profound news of what God has done for us in the person of Jesus. It's this 00:43:54.480 --> 00:43:59.599 announcement of victory, and it comes to you with power, and that power is that when you put your 00:43:59.599 --> 00:44:05.200 hands in the hands of Christ, you enter into union with him, and he dies the death you deserve, 00:44:05.599 --> 00:44:10.719 you get the, in a sense, credited with the life that he lived that you didn't accomplish and don't 00:44:10.719 --> 00:44:16.079 deserve, and you get all of that in union with him, and that is how you were made right with God, 00:44:16.079 --> 00:44:22.239 and it doesn't just end there, because you are now in union with Christ. This is now the story by which 00:44:22.239 --> 00:44:27.679 you can understand how the world makes sense, and the truth about you, and the hope you have for the 00:44:27.679 --> 00:44:32.960 future, and now when you put your hands in him, he saves you in this second sense, that all of a sudden 00:44:32.960 --> 00:44:37.679 now you realize this is the story by which you should live your life, and this is the ground 00:44:37.679 --> 00:44:42.800 you can stand on. You can stand on what he's done for you on the cross, and when you stand on that 00:44:42.800 --> 00:44:46.880 and realize that he's done it for you, and you receive everything as a gift, then you have an 00:44:46.880 --> 00:44:52.000 emotionally and intellectually secure place that as it becomes more real to your heart, you realize you 00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:57.360 can look at the crap in your life and acknowledge your judgmentalism and all those things because you 00:44:57.360 --> 00:45:03.120 have a place that you can stand a solid rock, and you can look at your life, and you can start to 00:45:03.120 --> 00:45:10.000 realize that when he works in you and walks with you, he will start to move you to live a life of 00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:18.400 patient well-doing, obeying the truth and forsaking unrighteousness, and you've had a crappy week. You 00:45:18.400 --> 00:45:22.559 haven't done all of that, and we come here and we confess our sins and thank Jesus once again for what 00:45:22.559 --> 00:45:28.079 he's done for us, and we can pick ourselves up and pray for each other, but knowing that he pushes us 00:45:28.079 --> 00:45:32.960 in this direction, he draws us in this direction, we stand on what he's done in an emotionally secure 00:45:32.960 --> 00:45:39.679 way, and that's how he saves you. And a day will come, a glorious day, when we die and sleep in Jesus, 00:45:39.679 --> 00:45:46.320 and we wake on the last day, and we will live this life for all eternity. What is eternity going to be 00:45:46.320 --> 00:45:52.480 like in the new heaven and the new earth? Patient well-doing and flourishing, 00:45:54.480 --> 00:45:56.960 and not self-seeking but seeking others. 00:45:59.360 --> 00:46:07.200 And that glory that we desire, this is what's so precious. We discover that we desire for glory 00:46:07.200 --> 00:46:12.000 for ourselves, which is ultimately self-seeking, because the fact of the matter is, is if I do a 00:46:12.000 --> 00:46:16.239 good thing for another person to expect to get a gift, I haven't actually done a good thing for 00:46:16.239 --> 00:46:20.000 that other person. All I've done is tried to figure out a way to give myself a gift. 00:46:23.119 --> 00:46:27.840 But if I am like a mirror with no light or glory that comes from me, 00:46:29.599 --> 00:46:35.280 and by the gospel God is cleaning that mirror and helping me to point that mirror at his glory, 00:46:35.280 --> 00:46:41.840 that's the light. And it's like light. If you have a mirror pointed towards a light surface, the light, 00:46:41.840 --> 00:46:49.920 the mirror is filled with light. And as through the gospel our whole lives and beings are turned towards 00:46:49.920 --> 00:47:02.960 God's glory, we are filled with his glory for our good, our deep pleasure and joy, and the good of the world. 00:47:02.960 --> 00:47:12.559 And that is why we need Jesus and the power that comes from him. I invite you to stand. 00:47:20.960 --> 00:47:26.960 Just bow our heads in prayer. Father, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you he lived the life that we 00:47:26.960 --> 00:47:34.240 long to live. We yearn to live. And we thank you, Father, that that yearning and longing has been met by 00:47:34.240 --> 00:47:38.480 your answer, that our yearnings and longings took flesh. 00:47:40.639 --> 00:47:44.240 That those yearnings and longings were for something that is real, 00:47:45.519 --> 00:47:48.720 that only we can we can only receive as a gift from you. 00:47:48.719 --> 00:47:54.959 And so, Father, we ask that you would help the story of Jesus and what he has done for us, 00:47:54.959 --> 00:48:01.759 how he solved the George dilemma, that that would become more real to our hearts and would form us 00:48:03.119 --> 00:48:08.879 in company with him and in the power of the Holy Spirit, to have that emotionally and intellectually 00:48:08.880 --> 00:48:16.960 secure place to deal with the crap in our lives, and to try and begin to live with patient well-doing, 00:48:19.119 --> 00:48:24.240 truth-loving, evil-rejecting, justice-practicing. 00:48:26.000 --> 00:48:32.960 Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Father, thank you that you call us to such deep moral and just beauty. 00:48:32.960 --> 00:48:48.880 And we ask and thank all these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. And all God's people said, Amen. 00:48:48.880 --> 00:48:52.880 . 00:48:52.880 --> 00:48:54.880 . 00:48:54.880 --> 00:48:56.880 . 00:48:56.880 --> 00:48:58.880 . 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880 00:48:58.880 --> 00:48:58.880