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This is a reading from the letter of Paul to the Romans.
Chapter 1, verses 16 to 18, and chapter 2, verses 1 to 16, as printed in your liturgy.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes,
first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed,
a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,
just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith.
The wrath of God is being revealed,
from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people,
who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else.
For at whatever point you judge another,
you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.
So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them, and yet do the same things,
do you think you will escape God's judgment?
Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and patience,
not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart,
you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath,
when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
God will repay each person according to what they have done.
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality,
he will give eternal life.
But for those who are self-seeking, and who reject the truth and follow evil,
there will be wrath and anger.
There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil,
first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
But glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good,
first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
For God does not show favoritism.
All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law,
and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight,
but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law,
do by nature things required by the law,
they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law.
They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts.
Their conscience is also bearing witness,
and their thoughts sometimes accusing them,
and at other times even defending them.
This will take place on the day when God judges people's secrets
through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Good morning, Christ Church.
I do want to, like Andrew, just take a brief moment
to honor Reverend Tim Keller,
who departed this life on Friday
and is now with his Savior at home in heaven.
Tim planted Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City in 1989,
and by the time I graduated from Reform Theological Seminary in 2005
and accepted this call to come and plant a church in Berkeley,
an Urban University church with my brother-in-law,
the whole reason we did that was because
we had accepted Tim Keller into our hearts.
And we are here.
I'm grateful for his model, his voice.
I'm grateful for the money that Redeemer invested into Christ Church,
the training Tim gave to us in those early days,
the wisdom and resources that he's left behind.
Tim loved Lord of the Rings,
and in many ways he was like Gandalf in the Shire.
You know, on the surface of things,
you just thought he was there to set off fireworks at the birthday party,
but really he was out in the world slaying dragons and fighting evil wizards.
You know, and when you read the things that he wrote,
especially in these last few years,
you can see that he's doing very, very deep work.
So we're super grateful for that,
and I think Tim would be pleased that we are studying today
the epistle to the Romans.
So that's what we're going to keep doing.
We're trying to get through the end of Romans chapter 8,
by the end of the summer, Lord willing.
And we've done a slow burn here in Romans 1,
and now we're going to go at a bit of a faster clip.
So buckle up, because the Apostle Paul is taking us through these great doctrines,
these great truths of the Christian faith,
God's creation, the fall and depravity of human beings,
the wrath and the righteousness of God,
the atonement, justification, and all these wonderful truths.
But so far, the Apostle Paul has told us that there are two ages,
two realms that are being revealed.
In verse 17 it says,
in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.
And in verse 17 it says that the wrath of God is being revealed.
And so there's this old age, this old realm of God's wrath,
and there's this new age, this new realm of God's righteousness
in the gospel of his Son.
And Romans chapters 1 through 3 is showing us
what it means to be under God's wrath,
so that we will see the necessity of and the power of the gospel
to bring us out from under his wrath
and to bring us up under the righteousness of God.
Now, I know some of you weren't here last week,
so let me repeat a few things that we said.
We don't like to talk about wrath and condemnation and judgment,
because it's super uncomfortable.
But Jesus talked about it all the time,
in fact, more than anybody else in the Bible.
This is one of the greatest known texts in the Scriptures,
John 3, 16.
It says,
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.
Why?
That whoever believes in him should not perish,
should not perish spiritually and eternally
under the condemnation and judgment of God.
That text goes on and it says,
whoever rejects the Son will not see life,
for God's wrath remains on them.
That's from John, the apostle of love.
Right?
Jesus goes on in John 5.
He says,
The Father judges no one,
but has entrusted all judgment to the Son.
Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me
has eternal life and will not be judged,
but is crossed over from death to life.
And Jesus' assumption and implication there
is that until we've crossed over,
we're still in death and we're still in judgment.
So what is this wrath of God that Jesus insists upon over and over?
We defined it last week as God's holy hatred of evil,
his settled righteous opposition to the darkness,
his uncompromising hostility against sin.
And if we see love in God,
we also need to see hatred in God
because God hates whatever opposes that
which is true and good and beautiful.
God hates whatever defaces and damages
and destroys his creation and his creatures.
And if he didn't hate these things,
he wouldn't be a God of love.
He wouldn't necessarily be even God at all,
a God worthy to be worshipped.
And so Paul is laying out this argument for us
that on the one hand,
God's wrath, even now in human history,
is being revealed as we give God up
so God gives us up to our own self-centeredness.
But he says there's coming a day
when God's wrath will be revealed finally and fully
on the final day of judgment.
And this judgment of God is not peripheral
to the story of Scripture.
It's absolutely central to the Bible.
And in this chapter, more than anywhere else,
Paul outlines his picture of the final day of judgment.
The word judge or judgment comes up nine times
and he's saying that everybody is going to be judged
by God separately, individually, and distinctly.
And again, that's super uncomfortable for us,
but the secular alternative of just getting rid of God
and therefore getting rid of the wrath of God
and substituting in the place of this doctrine
a doctrine of materialism and nihilism,
that actually creates way more problems than it solves.
And so I'd like for you to just at least consider
what Paul is saying here in Romans chapter two.
And the gist is this,
that God's judgment is universal,
works righteousness is inconceivable,
and gospel repentance is essential.
God's judgment is universal,
works righteousness is inconceivable,
and gospel repentance is essential.
First of all, God's judgment is universal.
Verse one says,
you therefore have no excuse,
you who pass judgment on someone else,
for at whatever point you judge another,
you are condemning yourself,
because you who pass judgment do the very same things.
Paul turns his attention from these pagan Gentiles
in Romans one to now talk about these Jews
and moralists in Romans two.
All these people who are ready to agree
that yes, Paul,
all these people in Romans one you just described
who are vile and violent and vicious,
all of those people deserve the wrath of God.
They deserve to be judged.
But their objection is that not everybody's like that.
And some people have wonderful ideas about morality,
and God has been very kind and good
to give us these insights,
and so surely we are not going to be judged
and condemned by God.
Because after all, we go to church,
and we're good people,
and we believe the Bible,
and we offer prayers,
and we have this religious and moral life,
and surely we are living up to the God's standards
of godliness and righteousness.
Yes, the rest of humanity should be judged by God,
but we over here ought to be protected and delivered.
And Paul's dealing with people
who have a false sense of assurance
and a false sense of confidence before God.
People who are smug,
have a smug self-satisfaction and self-contentment,
thinking that we're over here in this special category,
and because we're special,
we're therefore superior to other people.
And how does Paul respond to this group?
He says to them in verse one,
he says,
you have no excuse.
Paul's setting out to prove in these three chapters
that there's not one righteous person,
not even one.
There's no exception to that rule.
And he wants to convince and convict
these religious moralists of their own sinfulness,
and that they too are going to be judged
by the wrath of God,
unless God acts,
unless God intervenes.
And so he says in verse three,
so when you, a mere human,
pass judgment on them,
and yet do the same things,
do you think you will escape God's judgment?
Two times Paul's been talking about,
you do the same things.
You do the very same things.
What is that?
Well, the thesis of this entire section of this letter
says that God is revealing his wrath
against all godlessness and wickedness,
all ungodliness and all unrighteousness.
And we saw last week how that unfolds
into deceitful idols
and degraded bodies and depraved minds
and decaying societies.
And Paul's saying,
you Jews,
you religious and moral people,
you do the very same things.
If you just read the Old Testament,
you'll see that the people of God
sank down into these very same things.
Prophet after prophet
had to come to the people of God
and list off their deplorable sins
to these people who were claiming
to have a special relationship with God,
these people who were claiming
to be utterly different
than all the Gentile nations.
God says,
you're no different,
you're doing the same things.
And people would object to Paul
and say,
but Paul,
that was then
and that was their exceptions to that rule.
And we are,
we're not guilty of all those things.
And Paul is at pains
to say in this text
that it's possible
to be highly respectable people morally
and yet to be ungodly.
It's possible to be highly respectable people morally
and yet to be ungodly.
For as we saw last week,
ungodliness is a failure
to make God supreme in our lives
and in the lives of other people.
And there's no greater instance
of ungodliness
than the failure to see
your need for a righteousness
that comes not from you
but from outside of yourself
from God.
The height of ungodliness
is to think that you
and your religious practices
and you and your morality
are enough to satisfy
the demands of God.
And so Paul says
be very, very careful
that you don't rely
on your external
and visible expressions
of godliness and righteousness
when internally
and invisibly
you church people,
you Bible believing,
praying people,
you're doing the same things.
And what are those same things?
If you open your Bible
and you turn back
to Romans 1.29,
Paul says
they have become filled
with every kind of wickedness,
evil, greed, and depravity.
They are full of envy,
murder, strife, deceit, and malice.
They are gossips, slanderers,
God-haters,
insolent, arrogant, and boastful.
They invent ways of doing evil.
They disobey their parents.
They have no understanding,
no fidelity,
no love, no mercy.
Paul is saying
look inside of your own heart.
You may not actually
murder your neighbor,
but look at the things
in your heart
that diminish other people
and kill relationships
with other people.
Do you see inside
of your own heart
the things that Paul lists
where he talks about greed,
envy, deceit, and malice?
Do you ever argue
or gossip or slander?
Do you ever feel
a prideful sense
of superiority
to other people?
You know,
Paul is doing
the exact same thing
that Jesus does
in the Sermon on the Mount
when he talks about murder.
Right?
Jesus says
in Matthew chapter 5,
he says,
if you say
to your brother
or your sister,
rakah,
or you fool,
you are in danger
of the fire of hell,
Jesus says.
To say to another person,
rakah,
means you're a nobody.
You're a nothing.
And if you look
at other people
and you say
you're not important
and you look down
your nose at them
and you hold them
in contempt
and you're indifferent
toward them,
Jesus is saying
you have the seed
of murder in your heart.
You have the spirit
and the attitude
of murder in your heart
and that contempt,
that disdain
that calls other people
nothings and nobodies,
that little acorn
can very easily
grow into an oak tree
of murder.
And so he's calling us
to look inside our hearts.
I was reminded this week
of C.S. Lewis.
He wrote a great book
called Mere Christianity
and if you've not read it,
I encourage you to read it.
He's an Oxford professor
and he said this.
He said,
though I've had to speak
at some length
about sex,
I want to make it
as clear as I possibly can
that the center
of Christian morality
is not here.
The sins of the flesh
are bad
but they are the least bad
of all sins.
All the worst pleasures
are purely spiritual.
The pleasure of putting
other people in the wrong,
of bossing
and patronizing
and spoiling sport
and backbiting,
the pleasures of power,
of hatred.
For there are two things
inside me
competing with the human self
which I must try to become.
They are the animal self
and the diabolical self.
And the diabolical self
is the worst of the two.
That is why a cold,
self-righteous prig
who regularly goes to church
may be far nearer to hell
than a prostitute.
But of course,
it is better to be neither.
A cold, self-righteous prig
who regularly goes to church
may be far nearer to hell
than a prostitute.
This is what Jesus is saying
in Luke chapter 15
when he tells that great story
about the father
and his two sons.
Right?
And there's that elder brother
who's kind of the religious
and the moral one
and he condemns
his younger brother
who's the irreligious
and the immoral one.
And yet Jesus says
both of these sons
are equally alienated
from their father.
The father needs to go out
to both of these sons
and invite them
into his feast.
And what happens?
Jesus says
the bad, irreligious,
immoral son
enters in
and the good,
religious,
or the good,
religious,
immoral son
does not.
The son of moral rectitude
stays outside
and the rebel
goes inside.
And that's what Paul
is talking to here.
He's talking to elder brothers
who condemn
their younger brothers.
And he says in verse 1
you therefore have no excuse
you who pass judgment
on someone else
for at whatever point
you judge another
you are condemning yourself.
I was thinking this week too
about Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
He was a Russian novelist
and historian
and he wrote
The Gulag Archipelago
and he said this.
You may have heard this.
He says the line
separating good and evil
passes not through states
nor between classes
nor between political parties either
but right through
every human heart
and through all human hearts.
If only there were
evil people
somewhere insidiously
committing evil deeds
and it were necessary
only to separate them
from the rest of us
and destroy them.
But the line
dividing good and evil
cuts through the heart
of every human being
and who is willing
to destroy a piece
of his own heart.
See Solzhenitsyn
and Lewis
and the Apostle Paul
and the Lord Jesus Christ
they're all saying
the same thing
that the religious people
and the irreligious people
the moral people
and the immoral people
were all in the same boat.
And God's judgment
is universal
for all of us.
And some people
would object to that
and say well wait a minute
if God's good
and if God is a God of love
how can he judge us?
How can he judge me?
And that's what Paul
is getting at in verse 4
where he says
do you show contempt
for the riches
of his kindness
forbearance and patience
not realizing
that God's kindness
is intended to lead you
to repentance.
You know some people
will do that
will appeal to
the riches
of the kindness of God.
this great treasury
of the endless
inexhaustible wealth
of God's tolerance
and his long suffering
all of his goodness
and say God is love
and therefore
he cannot judge me.
And Paul would say
yes it's true
that the kindness
and the forbearance
and the patience of God
are the reason
that the world
even still exists today.
But to use
the kindness of God
as an appeal
to excuse my sin
or to escape
his judgment
Paul says
that's to hold
the kindness of God
in contempt.
That's to despise
the goodness of God
to regard all the attributes
of God
as quite cheap.
And he says
yes God is kind
but his kindness
will not cancel out
his judgment
because he's also
a God
of righteousness
and justice.
So God's judgment
is universal.
You tracking with me?
This is a hard passage.
Okay?
I'm trying my hardest
up here.
God's judgment
is universal.
Works righteousness
is inconceivable.
And I gotta
work even harder now
because Romans 2
particularly verses 7
through 10
seems to say
that it's possible
to be righteous
by the works
that we do.
And it's possible
to be saved
by the righteous actions
that we produce
and achieve.
If you just look
at verse 7
it says
seek glory
do good
and you'll be rewarded
with eternal life.
And verse 8 says
seek yourself
do evil
you'll be rewarded
with eternal wrath.
Verse 9 says
do evil
and the result
will be unending
trouble and distress.
Verse 10 says
do good
and the result
will be glory
honor and peace
forever.
And then verse 13
says if you obey
the law
God will declare
you righteous.
And it's so easy
to misinterpret this
if you're not careful.
To say okay
I get you
in verses 1 to 4
that I do
the very same things
that other
quote unquote
evil people are doing
but
this seems to say
if I just try
a little harder
and if I just
work a little bit
I can maybe
balance the scales
I can tip
the scales
and if I just
seek God
a little bit more
than I seek myself
and if I just do
a little bit more good
so that my good
outweighs my bad
and if I just try
to obey the law
of God
maybe then I can
cancel out
this judgment of God.
And that
I understand
how you might get there
but that would
completely contradict
Paul's entire letter.
So let me
explain.
Paul says
on judgment day
there's going to be
two groups of people
the righteous
and the unrighteous.
And he says
in verse 6
that God is going
to repay
every person
according to
what they have done.
And so you're
going to be able
to tell the righteous
and the unrighteous
apart
by their general
attitude toward God
their tenor of life
their actual conduct
and behavior
and this is what
Paul describes
in verse 7
he says
the righteous
to those who
by persistence
in doing good
seek glory
honor
and immortality
he will give
eternal life.
Right?
The righteous person
seeks God.
the righteous person
desires to be
with God
the righteous person
wants to behold
these glorious
attributes
of God
to spend eternity
in the presence
of God
adoring
the majesty
of God.
The righteous person
seeks
from God
honor
he seeks God
to confer
honor and blessing
and dignity
upon him
the righteous person
seeks immortality
the state of
incorruptibility
glory
they want
to be pure
and holy
and to be above
and beyond sin
and eternally perfect
in the presence
of God
that's the righteous
person's attitude
toward God
and what then
is the righteous
person's tenor
of life?
Paul says
they persist
in doing good
they patiently
persevere
in reading their
Bible
and praying
and wanting to know
the will of God
and walk with God
and fight the good
fight of the faith
that's their attitude
toward God
that's their tenor
of life
and what about
their actual conduct
and behavior?
Paul says
they persist
in doing good
they work good
they keep
all the commandments
of God
they love God
with all their heart
soul
mind and strength
and they love
their neighbor
as they love
themselves
that's the righteous
and Paul then
goes on
in verse 8
and he describes
the unrighteous
as the exact
opposite of this
an unrighteous person
does not seek God
and his glory
but they rather
seek themselves
the unrighteous person
does not seek
the honor
that comes from God
they in fact
turn away
from the truth
of God
and he says
the unrighteous person
doesn't seek
immortality
and purity
in God
they rather
follow evil
instead
and so Paul
is putting this
question before us
he says
which group
or which camp
are you going to be
in on judgment day?
if you think
you're going to be
in the righteous group
that means
that you trust
that your life
and everything
that you've done
and do
and will do
is able to meet
God's very very
high standards
but Paul's argument
from
Romans 1 18
and onward
says that
all of us
are godless
and wicked
all of us
are ungodly
and unrighteous
there is
no one
righteous
it doesn't
matter how
much you
go to church
it doesn't
matter how
much
you pray
yes
if
the gospel
of God
enters in
and the grace
of God
comes and
justifies you
and declares
you righteous
and new life
comes into you
through Jesus
Christ
and the power
of the Holy
Spirit
comes over you
you will begin
to experience
the Christian life
which is being
described in
verse 7
and this attitude
toward God
and your tenor
of life
and your actual
conduct
will begin
to look like
verse 7
but unless
and until
God gives us
his own
righteousness
all of us
Paul says
are going to
enter into
judgment day
in a state
of unrighteousness
now why is that
why is that
it's because
the control
center of our
lives
are completely
jacked up
he says
in verse 5
but because
of your
stubbornness
and your
unrepentant
heart
literally the
word there
for stubbornness
in the Greek
is because
of your
sclerosis
because you
have a
sclerotic
and a
hard
heart
modern people
say that
we're really
alright in
our heart
it's just
that we
go wrong
from time
to time
here and
there on
the surface
of things
but Paul
is saying
the exact
opposite
he says
we're wrong
in our
heart
and our
lives only
go right
in patches
on the
surface
and what
he's saying
is that
the kindness
of God
our experience
of the
forbearance
of God
and the
patience
of God
these
experiences
in our
lives
are meant
to soften
our hearts
and melt
our hearts
and cause
us to have
repentant
hearts
but what
actually happens
in our
lives
is that
we hold
the kindness
and the
goodness
of God
and contempt
with hard
and impenitent
hearts
and so he
says
because of
your stubbornness
and your
unrepentant
heart
you are
storing up
wrath
against yourself
for the
day of
God's
wrath
when his
righteous
judgment
will be
revealed
we're meant
to store up
as treasure
the kindness
of God
the riches
of God
the forbearance
of God
the patience
of God
but what
do we do
instead
we store up
wrath
against
ourselves
and this
is truly
alarming
to me
because it
says that
it's not
God
storing up
wrath
against us
it's we
ourselves
who are
storing up
wrath
against
ourselves
and he
says this
day is
going to
come when
all of
this wrath
that we've
been storing
up against
ourselves
is going
to be
produced
in evidence
against
us
and what
in the
world does
that mean
well
imagine
an invisible
recorder
and imagine
from the time
you're a baby
this invisible
recorder has
been hung
around your
neck
and you
get to
judgment day
and you
appear before
God
and you
don't even
know this
recorder
ever even
existed
and you're
tempted to
say to
God
hey God
you can't
hold me
responsible
for all
the stuff
I didn't
know
and you
can't judge
me
for something
that I
never really
believed
in
and God
will say
okay well
let's play
back this
recorder
and he'll
play it
back for
you
as the
fairest
judge
you could
possibly
imagine
right
verse 2
says that
we know
that God's
judgment
is based
on truth
he's not
going to
judge people
according to
the Bible
they didn't
know
he's not
going to
judge people
according to
the Christ
they didn't
know
he's just
going to
judge us
by our
own words
and he's
going to
play back
this recording
of whenever
you bound
other people
by
your own
moral judgments
whenever
you said
to someone
else
you should
do this
or you
ought to
do
that
or
whenever
those
thoughts
ran
through
your
mind
and
God's
just
going to
play
that
back
for us
isn't
that
going to
be
fun
for some
of us
that recorder
is going
to be
playing
back
for years
and years
on end
thousands
and thousands
of moral
judgments
that we
made
against
other
people
and God's
going
to say
okay
your standards
for other
people
are going
to be
the standard
by which
you're
you are
storing up
wrath
against
yourselves
for the
day
of God's
wrath
if God
judges
us
by our
own
standards
no one's
going to
think that's
unfair
and he
says that
when God
judges us
on judgment
day
none of us
are going
to stand
all of us
are going
to be judged
and found
wanting
even according
to our
own words
and our
own standards
much less
God's words
and God's
standards
all of us
are going
to stand
there
just
hopeless
and helpless
and utterly
condemned
even the
works
righteousness
that we
thought
we could
achieve
on that
day
is going
to all
the best
stuff
that we
produced
all of
our
goodness
all of
our
righteousness
even
according
to our
own
standards
is going
to appear
as
filthy
rags
isn't
this
great
God's
judgment
is universal
works
righteousness
is inconceivable
but here
comes the
good news
gospel
repentance
is possible
and gospel
repentance
is essential
right
verse 16
says that
this is all
going to take
place on the
day when God
judges everyone's
secrets through
Jesus Christ
as my gospel
declares
all of
our secrets
all the
hidden areas
of our
lives
all of
my
motives
all my
thoughts
all the
facts are
going to be
known
everything I
thought
everything I
said
everything I
did
everything I
ought to
have done
but yet
left undone
do you see
why Paul
is so
anxious for
us to
realize
right now
that we're
under the
wrath of
God
because he
wants us to
hide ourselves
right now
under the
righteousness
that God
has provided
and that's
the thesis
of this
whole letter
that I'm
not ashamed
of the
gospel
because it
is the
power of
God that
brings
salvation
to everyone
who believes
it
first for the
Jew then
for the
Gentile
for in
the gospel
the righteousness
of God
has been
revealed
the righteousness
that comes
by faith
and is
by faith
from first
to last
as it is
written the
righteous will
live
by faith
brothers and
sisters
the bad
news is
that
God's
judgment
is universal
and works
righteousness
is inconceivable
and impossible
but the
good news
is that
God has
provided a
righteousness
for us
in the
life and
death
of his
son
Jesus
Christ
it's not
a righteousness
that we
need to
go and
work out
it's a
righteousness
that has
already been
worked out
for us
by God
God
the gospel
says that
yes
this
resurrected
Jesus
who conquered
death
is going
to be
your judge
on the
last day
but it's
possible
to get
there
and to
look into
your judge's
face
and to
see
your savior
there
to appear
before him
and say
I'm already
in the
right
God has
already
declared
me to
be
righteous
he's
already
given
to me
and imputed
upon me
the righteousness
of Christ
himself
isn't that
good news
but what
must we do
to respond
to this
good news
Paul says
it's the
kindness
of God
that's meant
to lead us
to repentance
God's
kindness
is intended
to lead us
to
repentance
and repentance
is that
key word
it's that
crucial
word
what does
it mean
to repent
well I'll
end with
a story
from
Jesus
in Luke
chapter 18
he talks
about a
Pharisee
and a
tax collector
somebody
who's very
religious
and moral
and somebody
who's very
irreligious
and immoral
and he says
that the
Pharisee
goes
and he
prays
to God
and he
says
God
I thank
you
that I'm
not like
all these
other people
because
they do
evil
but I
pray
I fast
I give
all my
money
and he
thinks
he's
completely
satisfied
the demands
of God
full
of self
satisfaction
and self
confidence
he doesn't
even ask
God
for any
help
he doesn't
ask God
for anything
he just
is there
telling God
how he is
everything
he needs
to be
and he's
done
everything
he needs
to do
and that
really isn't
even praying
Jesus says
it's just
kind of
talking to
yourself
he says
that kind
of prayer
doesn't get
through
but what
kind of
prayer
does get
through
this tax
collector
comes
and he
knows
all about
the kindness
of God
and the
forbearance
of God
and the
patience
of God
and yet
even still
he knows
he's not
worthy of
God
he knows
his whole
life has
been utterly
corrupted by
sin
and so
he stands
far off
and he
doesn't even
look up to
heaven
he just
beats
his breast
he beats
his heart
and how
does he
pray
he says
God
have mercy
on me
a sinner
can we
say that
together
God
have mercy
on me
a sinner
in the
Greek
he says
God
have mercy
on me
the sinner
which means
he's blocked
everybody else
in the world
out
he's not
focused on
them and
their sin
he just
says
God
have mercy
on me
the
sinner
and that's
the prayer
that gets
through
because that's
the prayer
of repentance
God's
kindness
is meant
to lead
us
into
repentance
and having
repented
having
rejected
all of
our own
self-righteousness
and embraced
this righteousness
of God
that he's
provided for
us in
Jesus
Christ
now we
can begin
to live
this new
life
now we
can start
to lean
in to
what
verse 7
is all
about
to those
who by
persistence
in doing
good
seek glory
honor
and immortality
he will
give
eternal
life
those are
not the
works that
save you
but they
are the
necessary
outcome
and evidence
of a
saving
faith
so friends
God's
kindness
is meant
to lead
us to
repentance
and we
have
every
opportunity
today
to
repent
and to
believe
this
glorious
gospel
of the
righteousness
of God
in the name
of the
Father
Son
and Holy
Spirit
Amen
.
Amen