Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.
! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,
either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us
that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?
The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,
we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the
Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do
what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian,
checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us
questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things
that you're really struggling with. So God bless.
Let's just bow our heads in prayer.
Father, Father, you know how we can live our lives, our entire lives with ourselves, and yet often we
don't understand ourselves at all. And you know, Father, how this comes out when your Word describes
to us how we really are. And we don't like the description. We don't recognize ourselves. We think we
see other people, but not ourselves. So Father, we ask that you would, in your kindness and mercy and
goodness towards us, that your Holy Spirit would gently bring the words of your words into our hearts,
into the center of who we are, into our imaginations, our memories, our minds, our wills, our desires,
and our hearts, and our hearts. So that we might not only recognize ourselves, but more and more recognize
our profound and deep need for Jesus, for who He is and all that He accomplished for us on the cross.
And so we ask that your Holy Spirit would do that gentle but important work in each of our lives.
And we ask this in Jesus's name. Amen. Please be seated.
So, very few knew this at the time. And since then, I don't know how many people know about this,
but I had a cancer scare at the end of January. I was sick off and on, like sort of getting better,
and then a little bit worse, and off and on. I had a cold, obviously, you know, all the way through
January, it seemed. And then towards the end of January, I can't remember the dates, it doesn't really
matter. You know, my wife said, George, you should go see a doctor. It might be something more than just,
you know, having a cold that just doesn't go away, or that grandkids keep giving back to you.
You know, grandkids are perfectly designed germ disposal units, actually. But I went to a doctor
on a Monday in the afternoon, and he looked at me, listened to my chest, said, you got pneumonia.
But he said to make sure you should go have an x-ray. So, I went on Tuesday around five-ish to get an
x-ray. And I discovered the next day, that's Thursday, but I discovered on Wednesday, as soon
as my doctor saw the x-rays, he called up the Queensway-Carleton Hospital for me to have a CT scan.
Because, yeah, I definitely had pneumonia, but I might also have had some type of
thing in there that could be sinister. And I didn't discover this until Thursday, because I missed an
email from him. But I got a call from the Queensway-Carleton Hospital saying that the doctor had
requested that I get a CT scan, and the earliest they could give me one was a week after that.
So, obviously, I was in shock. I've been around people for a long time. I've been a minister for 40
years. And I know many, many stories of people going in for an x-ray, and then getting immediately,
the doctor wanting something, calling them into the hospital or something really quick. Generally,
when you go really quick from an x-ray to something like a CT scan really quick,
the news isn't good as a general rule. And so, I confess, I was shocked. I said I wanted to call
out my doctor's office. And I'm not going to tell you that I'm just a perfectly always balanced stoic
type of guy. It was a blow, like getting a punch in the stomach. And I was in shock a bit about it.
Called my doctor's office. They had my doctor text me. I accepted the appointment. And then after that,
I think I was pretty calm about it, at least on the surface. Probably at a deeper level,
I was more worried about it. But they wanted to have a CT scan. And just to cut to the end of it,
by the way, I'm telling you all of this because it's, this story is going to actually really help
us to understand this very difficult text that we're going to look at in a moment. But just so you
know, it turned out that with the CT scan, I didn't have a lump. I didn't have cancer. And my kids knew,
and my wife knew obviously, I didn't tell people in the congregation, by and large. I didn't want
people to call me up every day and ask me whether I had it. My attitude during it was a little bit,
although I'm sure at one level, I was worried that I, if, first of all, I prayed that the cancer go
away. So who knows, maybe in heaven, we'll find out that there was cancer there. And I prayed that it
would go away. And it did, where my kids did, that went away. And we'll find that out in heaven,
just when they did the CT scan, there was no, no, nothing there. No, no bat, no foreign thing
that shouldn't be there was there. I also would have just taken it as part of God's providence that
he used the pneumonia to find something early that could then be, be more likely to be healed.
But I'm going to return to this as we go into the sermon. But this whole thing of a diagnosis and a
CT scan and seen accurately is really important for us to understand what is on the surface,
quite a difficult text. So it'd be very helpful to me if you would take your Bibles out and we're
going to look at Romans chapter three, verses one to 20. Romans chapter three, verses one to 20.
And, um, uh, where it is, right, uh, is, uh, there's some opening remarks, then the summary statement,
uh, the summary statement is the, the gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes
and then, uh, about how to be made right with God and God showing to be just. And then immediately
from verse 18 to the end of this chapter three, verse 20, Paul sells the problem. Why is it that
human beings, what is it about human beings? What is it about the human condition that means that we
really need God to have done something for us and that that can come with his power to change us?
Why is it that we need this? And so what Paul has been doing has been selling the problem.
And this is sort of the conclusion of him selling the problem. And interestingly enough,
even at, well, let's just look how he begins. It begins in a way that we don't realize that even this,
everything that Paul does is an attempt to help us to understand the human condition.
And when I say the human condition, I mean, I don't mean your condition. I mean, I do mean your
condition. I also mean my condition. Like, what am I really like? And so look how it begins. Chapter
three, verse one, then what advantage has the Jew, the Jewish person, or what is the value of
circumcision? Uh, the way that you become a Jew and the mark that you're Jewish, uh, at least for men,
it's a mark of the Jewish community. Uh, then what advantage has the Jew? Well, here's the thing.
It's a really interesting thing, the way he, he words this right towards the end, because what he's done,
if you follow through and you try to listen to the sermons and you read it, he's really, he said,
listen, here's the thing about it. Everybody has a basic sense that there has to be a God that does
exist. Every human being denies this. Every human being represses it. Every human being exchanges the
truth about God for a lie and for idols. And we're all idol worshipers. And that even if God used your
own standards to judge you, you can't even live up to your own standards. And even good people,
their hypocrisy isn't just an accidental thing about a human, that those particular human beings,
that hypocrisy is a sign of the human condition. And, and he's really been just showing time and
time again, how, uh, you know, we're not nearly as good as we think we are. And we really are very,
very far from God. He's given a moral list of 21 different, uh, vices and no human being could look
at those vices and think that they haven't broken many of them many, many, many, many times.
And so now he comes and he's even now showing that good people need the gospel, very moral people and
religious and spiritual people need the gospel. And so the next thing that he's sort of just
imagining what the average human being would say is, okay, well, okay, Jewish people, like,
do they have an advantage? Well, why do they say that? If you could put up the first point clear,
that would be helpful. Humans seek advantage and benefit and complain about advantage and benefit.
Uh, uh, uh, advantage and benefit. Now you might think, I don't know, George,
I don't even know what you're talking about. Well, I'll illustrate what I mean by this.
Let's say one of you, uh, you develop a really, really, really seriously bad knee condition or hip
condition, and you need to get a heat, a knee replacement or a hip replacement. And then the
doctors saying, I don't know, this being Canada, well, I don't know, uh, given that your pain level
and giving the waiting list, uh, the good news is in two and a half years, you can have surgery.
That's the good news. Two and a half years surgery. I mean, the really good news is it's going to be
free, but you're gonna have to wait two and a half years. Well, meanwhile, day by day, you're going
through the pain of your knee or the pain of your hip. And then one day you discover that my daughter
has moved back to, by the way, I'm just, my daughter, my daughter is not a surgeon, but I'm just using this
as an illustration. One day you discover that my daughter has moved back to Ottawa and my daughter
is the best orthopedic surgeon in Canada. The best orthopedic surgeon in Canada. And you discover that.
And you know me, I'm your pastor, and you think I can get an advantage.
Pastor, could you introduce me to your daughter, the orthopedic surgeon, to see if she would maybe
move me from two and a half years to two and a half weeks? Now, of course, none of us would do this,
of course. Like, none of us would even have that enter our mind. In fact, all of us would say to the
doctors, hey, listen, other people probably need the knee surgery more than us. I'll wait five years,
right? That's what we'd all think. No. We'd want advantage. And what always goes with advantage
is benefit, which Paul's going to mention again in a few verses. It's implied. Now, here's the other
thing. We all, if the rubber hits the road, we all want advantage and to benefit from it. But here's
the other thing about it. What do we think about a system where certain people have advantage and
benefits? Systems corrupt. It's not fair. Why on earth is there a system where, you know,
I'm going to get in really trouble. This isn't a political comment. Years ago, a doctor friend of
mine said, of course, Canada has two-tier medical. And I said, no, it doesn't. He said, yeah, yeah,
yeah. Why did he ever notice that hockey players don't have to wait as long for an MRI as you do?
We're politicians. We have an unofficial two-tier health system in Canada. Anyway, that's the end
of it. I've now gotten in trouble. You've all gone off on a whole. I should probably have not said that.
But here's the thing. That's exactly what we would think, right? That on one hand, if we can get that
advantage and benefit, we get it. But on the other hand, if we hear that our neighbor got it, because
in fact, George doesn't have a daughter who's a surgeon, the top orthopedic surgeon in Canada,
we think there's something wrong with the system. And so this is very interesting. He's once again
revealing something about the human condition. We hear all of these things. Our situation is dismal.
Okay, but maybe there's an advantage I can get. Like I heard about these Jewish people,
and maybe if I just become Jewish, I get that advantage and benefit. So how does Paul handle that?
And that whole back and forth, it all comes up in the next few verses. Look how he does it. Both the idea
of maybe I can get it. And also that if I don't get it, it's a problem with God, right? Because he gives
it to other people. And Paul really handles this very beautifully. Look at, read again from verse one.
Then what advantage has the Jew, the person who's Jewish? Or what is the value of circumcision?
Much in every way. Oh, our hopes go up. But he then surprises us to begin with,
the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. And that literally means the very words of God.
It's once again why historically Christians believe that when you read the Bible, you're reading the
actual words that God wanted to have spoken. And of all of the words in all of the world that have
ever been spoken, only the words in the Bible are the words that God actually wanted to speak.
And that's what we're hearing. And he said, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.
And then verse three, what if some were unfaithful? So some people might say, okay, one moment,
how is this an advantage? Like, okay, that's their advantage? But if that's an advantage, well,
look what they're thinking. What if some were unfaithful? And then Paul says, or they, Paul says back,
does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means. Let God be true, though everyone
were a liar. As it is written, and he quotes the Bible, that you may be justified in your words and
prevail when you are judged. Now, what Paul is doing here is he's setting up, in a sense, the God's logic
of redemption, and God's logic towards freedom and wholeness and hope. And he's starting to introduce
this, how God's logic works, not how human logic works, but how God's logic works. Human logic,
well, you know, if you put up the second point, that would be very helpful. What he's just said,
he's acknowledged that, I mean, you read the Old Testament, the Old Testament regularly says to
the Jewish people, by the way, just so you know, God didn't choose you because you're the smartest,
the best, the wisest, or anything like that. That's not why I chose you, you know? In fact,
it's an early advantage of how God chooses the weak and the small to shame the strong and the powerful.
It's a very part of God's logic. But here's the thing. What he's just said is that despite human
beings being sinful, disinterested, and hostile to God, and hostile, God caused his word written to be a
public revelation. I'll say that again. Despite humans being sinful, disinterested, and hostile to God,
God caused his word written to be a public revelation. That's what he's saying here.
That, and by the way, a bit of an aside, this is part of the reason why Roman Catholics and Eastern
Orthodox are confused about thinking you have to have a sort of a, sometimes almost like a perfect
church to receive God's word, is that God makes it clear here that it's sinful, fallen human beings
that recognize public revelation, because it's God who does it. It's not because he needs us to be
perfect in any type of way whatsoever. Despite our sinfulness, despite our hostility to God,
despite at other times when we're completely, utterly disinterested, God was able to make sure
that his word was spoken, recognized, and preserved. And his word is a public revelation.
That's, I don't talk about this enough, but it's spectacular news. It's not some type of private
meditation thing that just comes to the enlightened and the anointed, some secret thing that he just
touches some people and they have a mystical experience and then they hear from God. No, no, no.
You know, if you get the Bible app, I think the Bible app now makes the Bible available in like
almost 1900 translations. Like it's completely public and open. Kids can read it. Intellectuals can read it.
Concrete finishers can read it. It's not secret and hidden and protected by some institution. It's a
public revelation. And that's what's so beautiful here. Now, the next thing though, in terms of how
they respond, it's really interesting. It's a very, very clever way of responding, but it also opens the
door to a profoundly Canadian problem. Because the way Canadians think about morality, the way most
Canadians think about right and wrong, they have a Jeffrey Epstein problem on steroids. You know,
Jeffrey Epstein, the one who's convicted of luring and trafficking of underage girls and others to the
rich and the powerful. Look at verse 5. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of
God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human way.
By no means, for then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God's truth abounds
to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come?
As some people slanderously charges with saying their condemnation is just.
Shortly before he went into jail,
Jeffrey Epstein did an interview, and in that interview,
he basically said he's a good man.
And why is he a good man? Well, how is it that the average Canadian
thinks about right and wrong?
The average Canadian thinks about right and wrong is you can take my acts,
and even those things that I do that are wrong. And you need to look at the good consequences,
and you balance the good consequences and the bad consequences.
Another way is you can't really think of right and wrong as really being any type of absolute.
You've got to look in terms of the overall good or the overall bad that flows from it.
And that's how you determine what is right and wrong. And that's how most Canadians think.
They get very uncomfortable when people like Christians, like us, say,
well, actually, no, some things are right and some things are wrong.
It doesn't matter if you do a wrong thing.
And I mean, it matters on one level, but not in terms of the wrongness of it,
if good things follow.
And Jeffrey Epstein, believe it or not, said,
now, he probably was lying about this, by the way,
but he said, I funded,
I've done major funding to try to eradicate childhood polio in Pakistan and India.
And if you balance all of the good that comes from that with the evil I've done,
you will have to conclude that I'm a good man.
Canadians' understanding of right and wrong has a Jeffrey Epstein problem.
Because our gut would say,
no, no, no, no, no, no, what he did was wrong.
What he did was absolutely, horrifically, terribly wrong.
It is wrong, wrong, wrong.
If you don't say that, you're wrong.
And I don't even know if you really believe it.
And in a sense, as soon as somebody says,
in the face of a Jeffrey Epstein,
and maybe claiming that the amount of good he brings
by trying to eradicate childhood polio in Pakistan and India
outweighs the horrible things he did and furthered,
and you want to say that it's wrong,
you're on the Christian side of the playing field.
You're understanding that ultimately,
it's because there is a God who's good at all things,
who is good,
and that goodness determines what is good and what is bad.
And it's just bad.
And if you start to actually really think
that it's always a matter of benefits and all,
and you can see increasingly in our press,
there's things wrong in our justice system
with discounting things
because of certain types of racial things
or, you know, making a hard,
like, there's things which are just increasingly out of whack.
I mean, I guess things are always out of whack
and have to be reformed.
But Paul just says very correctly,
listen, if you actually really think
that it's just a matter of weighing good and bad,
how can you ever judge anybody?
And you all want to judge people,
at least at some point in time,
and maybe not for a whole pile of things
that should be judged,
but at least at some point in time,
you want to really just say,
you know, listen,
you sexually abuse a little kid,
that is wrong.
And you should go to jail for it and more.
And it's just wrong.
It's just wrong.
Murdering innocent is just wrong.
Russians targeting innocent citizens in Ukraine.
It's just wrong.
You're speaking like a Christian.
Or a biblical person.
Orthodox Jews as well.
So what Paul is saying here is,
and then in the end,
he says, listen,
you guys even think,
if you know anything at all about me,
and the book of Romans is going to show it,
the book of Romans is going to show
how we're really far worse
than we really think we are,
and the gospel is really unbelievably better
than we think we are,
and when we give our lives to Christ,
it's something that only God,
only God can make us right with him,
but when he makes us right with him,
he makes us right with him
to live a moral life.
Read the whole book of Romans.
So it's not at all,
it's all,
it's not about,
that's what,
that's what God desires.
I mean,
the fact is that,
that you and I
were originally designed by God
for goodness and beauty
and truth.
Goodness is the food we need to thrive.
Beauty is the food we need to thrive.
Truth,
our mind needs truth to thrive.
Our affections need beauty
for us to thrive.
Our wills need goodness to thrive.
And salvation is restoring us
to what would cause us to truly thrive.
Now,
the Bible
goes on to say something
which is a bit shocking.
It's maybe the part that you noticed
that Josiah read about
nobody being righteous,
no one understanding.
And
Paul is going to be bringing things
to conclusion.
He's just tried to reveal
and show that God
could have his word written,
revealed to human beings,
despite whatever we might do
to disregard it,
to have it lost,
to have it be quenched,
to have it be banned.
We can do all those things,
but God still calls his word
to be spoken,
to be recognized,
and to be preserved.
And now he deals with this
particular beginning thing.
He closes the loop
about us seeking advantage,
and we seek advantage
because we want to get something,
a benefit from it.
And that's what he begins to say
in verse 9
with this shocking stuff
as he's bringing things
to a conclusion.
What then are we Jews?
Any better off?
Because Paul,
writing this,
is Jewish.
No,
not at all.
The advantage of hearing
God's word,
it doesn't give us a benefit
in the type of benefit
we think we do
about escaping
the human condition.
And then it says here,
read verse 9 again,
what then are we Jews
better off?
No,
not at all,
for we have already charged
that all,
both Jews and Greeks,
are under sin.
And in some ways,
this is almost the end
of this whole section
about trying to describe
the human condition
and why we need the gospel.
That human beings
are under sin.
It's as if we dwell in sin.
It's not because I do wrong things
that I'm a sinner,
it's because I'm sin
and I dwell under it,
I live in it,
that I sin.
If you could put up
the third point,
that would be helpful,
Claire.
You are under sin.
Another way I could have put it
is humans are under sin,
but once again,
if I just said humans
are under sin,
that's completely true.
But it's a more pointed thing.
You are under sin.
Now this sounds a little bit
too depressing
and a little bit too extreme.
But he's going to pack it out
a little bit.
Let's look at how he unpacks it
and look at it
in its full extremity
and then I'll go back
and try to say how
it actually describes us
more than we want to acknowledge.
So he's going to quote
13 scripture passages
in the next few verses,
mainly from Psalms,
but also from Ecclesiastes,
I can't remember what the other,
Proverbs,
and I can't remember
what the other one is.
Wrote down my notes.
I didn't have it on my thing
right in front of me.
But listen to this list.
And it's, by the way,
a lot of times for people
who hear this list,
I think it's just too extreme.
But I'm going to show you
why it's not
and its context.
As it is written,
none is righteous,
no, not one.
No one understands.
No one seeks God.
All have turned aside.
Together they have become worthless.
No one does good,
not even one.
Their throat is an open grave.
They use their tongues to deceive.
The venom of asps
is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of curses
and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood.
In their paths are ruin and misery.
In the way of peace
they have not known.
There is no fear of God
before their eyes.
Now it's a sobering list
but I think
and it's really hard
because
I don't know about what books
you parents are reading
about your children
but one of the problems
with most child-rearing books
that are written today
is they all work on the assumption
that children are basically good.
Not.
You know,
how do you know
when a child
has reached the age
of moral discernment?
Might be two, three.
You know,
there's a certain point in time.
I, you know,
my oldest son,
if he was here
he would just laugh at
and make it,
make tell funny stories
about himself.
If there was a basket of laundry
he could crawl there
amazingly fast
and immediately throw
the entire basket of laundry
all over the floor.
We had bookshelves.
You could not have
any books
on a bookshelf
that was beyond his reach
because he delighted
in taking all of the books off
and throwing them on the floor.
He's just being a kid.
He wasn't bad.
He was just being a kid.
But there comes a point in time
when the kid,
when you say something like
don't touch that
and they look at you
and they look at that
and you say to them again
don't touch that
they look at you
and they touch that.
Now if you think
you have a kid
that hasn't done that
you need therapy
because
your kids do that too.
Okay?
Or did it.
And so
on one hand
we think that
human beings
are basically good
and I think
partially what that's dealing
I won't go into
why that's dealing with it
but here's the thing.
a simple illustration.
One of the reasons
I've used this before
but I'll use it again.
One of the reasons
people like zombie movies
or aliens invading
and about to take over
the entire world
is that on one hand
they see how
you see how people
are revealed
and there's looting
and there's destruction
and one of the things
about zombie movies
is that not only
you have to fear
the zombies
you almost have to fear
human beings more
because they just
want to steal
and they hurt people
and they enslave people
and that's what
human beings do
and then there's
the moral person
in it who's not like that
and one of the reasons
people like those movies
is because
they imagine themselves
as the moral person
not the bad people
and in fact
I'm sure
I'd be willing to bet money
that if you were to ask them
about let's say
all their co-workers
or their neighbours
if they know their neighbours
well enough
to know their neighbours
on ten sides
ten houses
either way
or on the
you know
in the whole building
and if you were to say to them
how many of your neighbours
do you think
would be moral like you
and how many would be
like the hordes out there
you know
doing the stealing
and the theft
and all of that
and you'd say
well
I mean I'd be one
of the moral people
actually I don't know
how many of my
I don't know
how many of my other
co-workers
would actually be moral like me
like I actually think
they'd be out there
lying and stealing
and not knowing
the way of peace
I actually think
that's what would happen
if everything broke down
and there were zombies
and it just came down
to them
them or the other
right
now here's the
here's the problem
with the thought experiment
if you asked
each one of the co-workers
the same question
all of them
would probably say
well I'd be one
of the moral people
but I'm not sure
about all my other co-workers
and they would include
you in that
by the way
your co-workers
would not be sure
whether you would be
one of the moral people
in the zombie apocalypse
or whether you'd be
one of the people
not knowing
the way of peace
and lying
and stealing
and do whatever
you had to live
see as the psalmist
says
very truly
we flatter ourselves
too much
to detect
our hate
our own sin
and
and you know
in fact
here's the other thing
about it
a couple of weeks ago
I used the example
about how
many of us
labor under the problem
of thinking
that the more
other people
get to know me
the less they'll like me
it's a very
and I talked about
how that's why
we have to preach
the gospel to ourselves
but here's the other
aspect of it
nobody thinks
I'll rephrase this
if somebody said to me
or you
after the service
you know George
used that example
that the more people
got to know me
the less they'd like me
and I don't know
I didn't know
that that was the problem
I mean the fact of the matter
is is the more
if the more people
get to know me
the more they'd think
I'm perfect
another person
needing therapy
right
like
if people might
actually believe that
you know they're
completely deluded
I mean the fact is
I mean that's
that's one of the hard
parts about long-term
relationships
it's one of the hard
parts about marriage
is that
you get married
and you discover
you married a sinner
and they discover
they married a sinner
as well as one person's
perfect and the other
person's a sinner
both are sinners
right
and so
the fact is
that there's something
which is very
very very
profound
about this
and in it
Paul has been
very clever
he's touched
seven areas
he said
at the level
of our standing
before God
sin has touched us
at the level
of our minds
sin has touched us
at the level
of our motives
sin has touched us
at the level
of our wills
sin has touched us
at the level
of words
sin has touched us
at the level
of relationships
sin has touched us
and the level
of our relationship
to God
sin has touched us
it's not saying
by the way
that every single
thing you do
as a human being
is bad
and terrible
it's not
a despairing
type of thing
it just means
that every part
of who you are
has been touched
by rebellion
against God
and your own
God project
and self-centeredness
there's no part
of who you are
that has not
been touched
by it
and
well
the text
has already
shown
this is part
of the logic
of redemption
that God
is over
everything
and if he wants
to have his word
spoken
it will be
and even
to people
under sin
God
who is
over sin
can still
have his word
to be spoken
and it's part
of the hint
that there might
be hope
and it's because
God is over
all things
that even though
human beings
have had sin
touch every area
of their lives
God
in his common
grace
has made it
that it does not
completely overwhelm
them
we do not
become Mordor
we do not
become orcs
God
restrains this
in the hope
that we would
turn to him
and repent
and this
by the way
helps us
to see something
so what
he's really
beginning to
communicate here
by this long
list
is that
you are actually
every human being
is actually
far worse
than they ever
realized
and if that's
all that
Paul was going
to say
it would just
be very depressing
but remember
he begins
by saying
there's this
profound
announcement
by God
of a great
victory
that he has
won
and has
accomplished
and it comes
with power
from him
to make you
right with God
and so Paul
is trying to
set the stage
to realize
that no matter
how depressed
or how guilty
you ever feel
or down on yourself
that you ever feel
you actually
haven't plumbed
the depths
of how bad
you are
which is
unbelievably
depressing
unless it goes
with the message
of the gospel
that even
the world's
most spectacular
narcissist
cannot possibly
imagine
how profoundly
loved they are
by God
how profoundly
loved they
are by God
so he goes on
we're going to
come back to this
in a moment
I have to start
wrapping things up
you turn down
to verse 19
now we know
that whatever
the law says
that's the moral
law
it speaks
to those
who are under
the law
so that every
mouth may be
stopped
and the whole
world may be
held accountable
to God
and if you
could put up
the point
this is just
saying that
in the face
of God's
perfect justice
point four
in the face
of God's
perfect justice
and his
perfect sentence
against you
there will be
nothing you
can say
in the face
of God's
perfect justice
and in the face
of his
perfect sentence
against you
there will be
nothing you
can say
the case
is airtight
you can't
complain that
maybe you
know you
should give
me a pass
because me
speaking lies
meant that
your truth
shines brighter
or me doing
wrong things
meant that
you looking
makes you
look good
or you know
or there's
this or that
or there's
some type
of excuse
there's nothing
like that
that's going
to work
you see
one of the
things which
is mainly
different
that this
is all
showing
coming up
to this
like about
the law
and being
under the
law
and doing
good things
going to
come up
in a
moment
is that
one of the
big differences
between a
Christian who's
been instructed
by the Bible
and the gospel
and those
outside the
Christian faith
is how we
view our
good works
and how we
view our
good works
is not that
we shouldn't
be doing
them but
that they're
never enough
to make
us right
with God
that's
what he
goes right
here and
says in
verse 20
and this
is the
end of
the bad
news
for by
the works
of the
law
no human
being
will be
justified
in his
sight
justified
here means
made right
in his
sight
since through
the law
comes
knowledge
of sin
if you
could put up
the fifth
point that
would be
helpful
God's
revelation
of what is
right and
wrong reveals
your sin
and your
need
but it
cannot make
you right
with him
God's
revelation of
what is
right and
wrong reveals
your sin
and your
need but
it cannot
make you
right with
him
think back
now to
my CT
scan
there was a
development
of revelation
and first
there was my
own perception
that I was
sick
then there's
Louise's
perception
that it
might be
something more
than just a
cold and
then there's
the doctor
looking at
me and
listening to
my chest
and saying
I have
pneumonia
and then
there's the
x-ray
which brings
more clarity
both that there
is pneumonia
but there might
also be
something else
and now you
go to a more
powerful level
of revelation
so to speak
the CT scan
and the CT scan
is able to show
that I do have
pneumonia
but in fact
I don't have
anything that
looks like a
tumor
and so it's
a bit of a
model about
how the more
moral you become
the more moral
clarity you have
you'll be able
to perceive
things better
and the right
and wrong
in your life
you'll be able
to perceive
it better
and better
but here's
the thing
if the doctor
had found
cancer
a tumorous
cancer
or a cancer
that he thought
might be
tumorous
I can't say
okay well
that's really
hard news
put me back
in the CT
scanner
because that
will make
me better
you go
no no
you don't
understand
CT scanners
don't make
you better
they just
show you
what's there
no no
no
put me back
in the CT
scanner
maybe
do I have
to go in
ten times
I'll go in
ten times
I don't
mind getting
things stuck
in my arm
and iodine
like just
keep putting
me in that
and in that
no no
CT scanners
don't make
you better
they don't
make you
better
and it's
so the law
what Paul
is saying
here is
the more
moral clarity
you have
the moral
clarity
is really
important
to be able
to understand
yourself
and more
importantly
it's really
important
because it
makes you
understand
your need
for God
but it
doesn't
actually
ever
heal
and it
doesn't
actually
ever
heal
it just
reveals
and
God
Paul
doesn't
bring us
to this
point in
time
just to
give us
a depressing
diagnosis
I don't
know if
I'm
pronouncing
this
correctly
but there
have been
people
in our
congregation
whose
loved ones
have had
Crutzfeld-Jakob
disease
and if
you get
a diagnosis
of Crutzfeld-Jakob
disease
the doctor
has to
say to
you
I have
really
hard
news
all of
the tests
have revealed
that you
have
Jacob
Crutzfeld
disease
and there's
absolutely
no cure
whatsoever
and you
will be
dead
probably
within
a year
maybe
two
and they
can describe
what will
happen to
you
but what
Paul is
doing here
is not
giving you
a diagnosis
like this
and his
profound
diagnosis
of the
human
condition
is making
you aware
of the
fact
that you
shouldn't
have
false
hope
that you
shouldn't
say
well if
I just
follow this
religion
and their
rules
or if
I just
learn how
to do
this
type of
meditation
and do
these
types
of
things
or if
I
go
and get
a second
opinion
about
this
or if
I
just
ignore
all of
these
things
and just
spend
my
time
living
a
completely
secular
self
centered
life
and all
of these
types
of things
and the
purpose
of the
diagnosis
is that
you have
something
which is
unbelievably
serious
that you
cannot
heal
for yourself
so you
should not
have
false
hope
and it's
not a
case
that there's
no hope
but it's
just that
you should
have no
false
hope
but there
is hope
and what
is the
hope
the hope
is already
pointed
at in
several
ways
it's
hope
if you
put up
the sixth
point
that would
be really
helpful
despite
human beings
being sinful
disinterested
and hostile
despite human
beings being
sinful
disinterested
and hostile
towards God
God accomplished
real eternal
salvation
in the person
and the work
of the Lord
Jesus Christ
he did it
with his
word
which reveals
and he does it
with salvation
which heals
and you put
your faith
in Christ
there's this
wonderful text
that Paul writes
around the same
time in 2nd
Corinthians 5
verse 21
God made
him who
knew no
sin
to be
sin
for us
so that
in him
we might
become
the righteousness
of God
there's a
whole book
of theology
there
but the
very very
basic
lesson
is this
that when
we put
what Jesus
accomplished
for us
on the
cross
he is
the sinless
perfect
human being
and he
comes
fully human
to die
upon the
cross
that the
things
which
the life
I should
have lived
and I
couldn't
he lived
and the
punishment
that I
deserved
he takes
and when
I put
my hands
in the
hands
of Christ
he takes
me into
himself
I enter
into union
with him
and
well here's
what it's
like
here's this
example I think
a year or two
ago I'll use
it again
imagine there
was a childhood
version of
Jacob
of Critzfeld
Jacob
disease
but at the
same time
that they
discovered
that there
was this
terrible
version of
this disease
they also
discovered
one and
only one
cure
and so
they come
to my
family
and they
tell one
of my
kids
that their
eight-year-old
daughter
has this
thing which
will kill
them within
a year or
two
and then
they'll say
there is a
cure
it's rare
and it depends
upon there
being a
perfect match
but it might
be that
there's
I mean
what that
would really
involve
is that
we would
hook
somebody up
to your
child
and there
would be
tubes
having the
blood going
back and
forward
and if
that person
who's the
match
and can
identify
if
we'll take
their blood
and everything
and their
health will
go out of
them
into the
eight-year-old
girl
and the
eight-year-old
girl's deadly
disease will
go in
to the
donor
and they do
a research
and they find
out that my
wife is a
perfect match
for her
eight-year-old
granddaughter
she would
not hesitate
to say
yes
she would
not hesitate
she would
say I
will be
connected
to you
so you
can live
I will
take your
illness
and I
will die
in your
place
my wife
is a
wonderful
person
but we
have an
even more
wonderful
savior
who has
done that
sacrifice
for you
and if
you go
in union
with him
all of
this human
condition
goes into
him
all of
your
under
sinness
goes to
him
and what
you get
is under
grace
you get
his health
and he
takes
your
sickness
and that
is why
you need
to hear
that God
has done
something
that human
beings
cannot
do
and it
comes to
you as
a message
that you
are included
and it
comes with
his power
and when
you put
your hands
in the
hands of
Jesus
that power
comes to
you
that's
what you
get
that's
why you
need
the
gospel
that's
why I
need
it
so
you know
here's
the thing
if you put
up the
seventh
point
this is
really
important
for you
to
also
understand
the
gospel
shapes
the
Christian
to be
more
deeply
penitent
and
more
deeply
hopeful
you see
as
the
truth
of
the
gospel
becomes
more
and
more
real
to
your
heart
that
that's
what
Christ
has
done
Jesus
has
done
this
for
you
that
when
you
put
your
hands
in him
and
trust
in
him
and
believe
into
him
he
enters
into
you
and
you
!
enter
into
him
and
there
is
this
wonderful
transfusion
and
because
he
rose
from
the
dead
in
this
example
I
gave
my
wife
at
the
end
of
it
would
be
dead
but
at
the
end
of
it
with
Jesus
he
is
resurrected
after
his
sacrifice
and
you
now
share
in
his
life
and
you
have
this
profound
hope
of
heaven
and
you
now
live
in
the
already
not
yet
God
chose
!
chose
to
be
in
such
a
way
that
the
second
let's
say
Laurier
puts
his
faith
in
Christ
or
William
does
or
something
like
that
it
doesn't
mean
immediately
just
taken
out
to
heaven
they
continue
to
live
and
we
live
in
the
already
not
yet
we
live
on
one
hand
that
this
is
our
destiny
and
this
is
the
truth
about
us
and
the
other
hand
we
still
have
to
struggle
with
our
sin
which
is
for
you
to
be
completely
cut
to
the
heart
by
the
injustice
in
your
life
the
hard
words
that
you've
said
in
your
life
the
things
that
you've
done
the
things
that
you
fail
to
do
and
you
can
look
at
those
things
and
you
can
begin
to
have
moral
clarity
about
them
and
not
evade
God
and
choose
lies
and
choose
idols
the
gospel
begins
to
form
you
to
be
able
to
that
Christ
has
done
it
all
and
when
he
says
on
the
cross
it
is
finished
it
is
finished
far
more
penitent
and far
more
hopeful
and
then
a
Christian
can
look
at
Romans
chapter
3
verses
10
to
18
and
we
can
approach
it
like
you
do
an
alcoholic
in
an
AA
meeting
how
does
an
alcoholic
introduce
himself
at
an
AA
meeting
I'm
George
I'm
an
alcoholic
and
how
can
we
as
Christians
begin
in
the
security
of
the
gospel
I
can
say
I'm
George
in
my
flesh
I
am
not
righteous
I
don't
understand
I
don't
seek
God
I
have
turned
aside
I
don't
do
good
my
throat
is
an
open
grave
my
tongue
deceive
my
lips
deceive
I'm
filled
with
curses
and
bitterness
and
my
feet
are
shift
to
spread
blood
and
I
am
redeemed
that
is
me
and
my
savior
is
great
and
I
hope
you
know
the
savior
the
gospel
forms
you
not
to
be
self
righteous
and
insecure
but
as
the
gospel
comes
to
your
heart
and
you
look
at
the
moral
law
it
makes
you
more
deeply
penitent
secure
in
what
Christ
has
done
and
more
deeply
hopeful
I
am
going
to
heaven
if
that
cancer
diagnosis
had
been
true
there
are
three
ways
that
God
would
heal
me
he
could
heal
me
instantly
by
a
miracle
he
could
heal
me
slowly
by
medicine
or
he
will
heal
me
finally
in
heaven
eternally
I
will
be
healed
invite
you to
stand
so
can
you
bow
our
heads
in
prayer
father
we
give
you
thanks
and
praise
for
your
word
we
give
you
thanks
and
praise
that
you
do
not
reveal
to
us
the
real
our
real
condition
the
human
condition
the
condition
not
only
of
ourselves
but
of
our
of
our
friends
our
children
our
family
our
parents
our
neighbors
our
co-workers
that
you
reveal
the
human
condition
to
us
not
to
depress
us
not
to
cause
us
to
despair
but
that
we
might
turn
to
Jesus
and
be
saved
and
be
born
again
to
come
into
union
with
him
we
give
you
thanks
and
praise
for
what
he
accomplished
for
us
on
the
cross
and
we
give
you
thanks
and
praise
that
his
finished
work
comes
to
us
with
your
saving
power
to
make
us
right
with
you
we
ask
father
that
you
would
help
the
gospel
to
become
more
and
more
real
to
our
hearts
more
and
more
real
to
our
hearts
that
we
can
deal
with
the
things
in
our
lives
that
are
bad
and
seek
to
repent
and
amend
our
lives
and
that
we
will
more
and
more
be
filled
with
a
humble
hope
of
the
final
word
how
your
word
at
the
goodness
but
because
of
the
greatness
of
our
savior
and
we
ask
these
things
in
the
name
of
Jesus
your
son
and
our
savior
and
all
God's
people
said
amen