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 --> 00:00:31.439
 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.280
 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,

00:00:37.280 --> 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.

00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:18.560
 Let's just bow our heads in prayer, please. Father, we ask that you would gently but powerfully pour out

00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:28.240
 the Holy Spirit upon us and open our hearts to know Jesus more and more and more, to trust Him more and

00:01:28.240 --> 00:01:40.159
 more and more, to worship Him more and more and more. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our

00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:42.799
 Savior. Amen. Please be seated.

00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:53.679
 So, you might not all have heard of Scott Adams, but you've probably all heard of the Dilbert cartoons.

00:01:54.399 --> 00:02:00.560
 And Scott Adams was the guy who wrote them. And you probably have heard that he died, I think,

00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:06.959
 within the last week or so. But what you might not know is that in Christian internet circles,

00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:17.199
 he's caused a lot of conversation. Because about a week, I think, before he died, he did a video.

00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:24.639
 And in the video, he said, I know I'm going to die, like within the next week. And for many years,

00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:30.000
 I've had Christian friends who've tried to tell me that I need to give my life to Jesus. I need to

00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:35.519
 trust Him as my Lord and Savior. Now, he was an agnostic. And he said, you know, just by the way,

00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:43.040
 I was never bothered by my Christian friends trying to get me to convert. He said, it just showed to me

00:02:43.040 --> 00:02:50.480
 that they believed it was true. And I can respect that. However, he said, now I'm probably a week away

00:02:50.480 --> 00:02:55.520
 from death. And I've done some calculations. I don't know if he said the word calculations,

00:02:55.520 --> 00:03:01.360
 but it was something like that. He said, you know, I've come to realize, if I give my life to Jesus,

00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:07.920
 or I don't know if, no, if I convert, and Christianity is not true, then I'll just die.

00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:18.640
 On the other hand, if I convert and die, I spend eternity with Him. He didn't mention hell,

00:03:18.640 --> 00:03:22.320
 but he just mentioned that other thing about eternity with Him. So he said, I've just come to

00:03:22.320 --> 00:03:28.240
 realize this is a good bet. And so I want to tell people that not, I haven't done it yet,

00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:33.120
 but within the next couple of days, while I still am of sound mind, I am going to convert to

00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:41.920
 Christianity. And then a little bit after his death, his first ex-wife, she read a statement

00:03:41.920 --> 00:03:48.719
 that he written. And I don't have the words precisely correct. But he said, I want everybody

00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:55.200
 to know that I am of sound mind, not of sound body, but of sound mind. And I believe that Jesus Christ

00:03:55.199 --> 00:04:03.199
 is my Savior and Lord, and I look forward to spending eternity with him. She read that after

00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:09.919
 he had died. So as you can well imagine, this has caused a lot of conversation in Christian circles

00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:16.560
 as to what exactly had happened. Did he become a Christian? It touches on a whole pile of things,

00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:23.680
 well, misperceptions and doubts and worries and all that Christians have themselves and that the outside

00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:29.519
 world looks in. Because on one hand, you know, so, you know, obviously, obviously, I have no idea what

00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:36.060
 happened exactly. I mean, I know what he said he did and whether, you know, the rest of that's all in

00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:41.759
 God's hands, and that's completely fine. That's the way it should be, because I'm not God. But, you know,

00:04:41.819 --> 00:04:47.600
 is it just that God wants you to say a certain phrase the right way? And if you say the certain phrase

00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:52.980
 the right way, you get a little tick mark, and now automatically you're guaranteed to heaven. And if

00:04:52.980 --> 00:04:58.240
 you don't say the right things, you get a tick mark on a different part of the form, and it means you're

00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:03.320
 not going to go to heaven. Is that what faith is? A lot of Christians struggle with this, by the way,

00:05:03.340 --> 00:05:06.620
 without necessarily knowing it. Throughout the years, as those of you who come to the church know,

00:05:06.680 --> 00:05:11.800
 at different times, I'll suggest that for those of you who are adults and have either never been a

00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:16.560
 Christian or wandered far from the Christian faith, that now is a good time for you to give your life

00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:20.639
 to Christ. And sometimes I give a bit of a model prayer, and it's been a case over the years where

00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:26.439
 after that, some Christian has come to me and said, George, that wasn't the right prayer because you

00:05:26.439 --> 00:05:32.480
 missed this word. I'm not making this up. Very sincere. They're really trying to be very helpful,

00:05:32.819 --> 00:05:37.160
 you know, whatever that word happens to be. I can't remember. I just thank them very much and then,

00:05:37.220 --> 00:05:44.840
 you know, move on. But is it just trying to get the right phrase? Is Christianity completely

00:05:44.839 --> 00:05:50.899
 dependent upon, like, what is faith? Like, most people will hear, at least if you become familiar

00:05:50.899 --> 00:05:56.500
 with Protestant Christianity, of which I am a Protestant, is that you have to, you know,

00:05:56.560 --> 00:06:02.819
 believe in Jesus. And is believing the same as having faith in him? Is it like passing a theology

00:06:02.819 --> 00:06:10.159
 test? Is it having a particular emotion? Like, what on earth is it? And the text that we're going to

00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:15.740
 look at today begins to get us into what it is and what it isn't in a way which is going to be very

00:06:15.740 --> 00:06:19.920
 helpful for Christians and those outside the Christian faith at the same time to see what's

00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:25.920
 being asked and what's not being asked, what's involved with this faith in Jesus or believing

00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:32.100
 in Jesus. So if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and

00:06:32.100 --> 00:06:37.400
 17. We're just looking at two verses. They're very packed verses, but we're just looking at two

00:06:37.399 --> 00:06:44.179
 verses. Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17. If you're using this, it's on page 8. And I'll read

00:06:44.179 --> 00:06:49.439
 the whole text very, very brief. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God

00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:55.159
 for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Pagan is a better word

00:06:55.159 --> 00:07:01.799
 there, really. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. Some translations

00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:07.920
 say from faith to faith. Some say from faith to first to last. There's different ways to try to

00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:12.759
 translate the original language, all basically getting at the same idea. For in it, the righteousness

00:07:12.759 --> 00:07:18.460
 of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written. And now he quotes Habakkuk chapter 2,

00:07:18.519 --> 00:07:26.220
 verse 4. The righteous shall live by faith. And so the way the book of Romans is structured is

00:07:26.220 --> 00:07:32.840
 the first 15 verses is sort of the opening to the letter. So there's a very long extended greeting

00:07:32.840 --> 00:07:38.400
 to the people in Rome whom he's never met. And then he gives them a few of his travel plans.

00:07:39.180 --> 00:07:45.900
 And now if this was an academic article, this is the praesi. This is the abstract at the beginning

00:07:45.900 --> 00:07:51.820
 of the article that explains basically what's going to go on in the rest of the book. These two verses,

00:07:51.820 --> 00:07:53.800
 that's why we're just looking at two verses today.

00:07:53.800 --> 00:07:59.439
 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,

00:07:59.879 --> 00:08:05.400
 to the Jew first and also to the Greek or the pagan. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed

00:08:05.400 --> 00:08:13.960
 from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. So first point,

00:08:14.019 --> 00:08:19.160
 if you could put it up, Claire, that would be helpful. The gospel is a message from God about Jesus

00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:25.960
 that comes in his power to save. That's sort of the first idea which is being communicated here.

00:08:26.960 --> 00:08:31.920
 Earlier on in the letter, we're told that the gospel is a message from God, a declaration of some

00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:38.160
 victory that God has won. It's a message of victory centered on the person and work of Jesus.

00:08:39.019 --> 00:08:43.340
 And earlier on, he did imply that the right response to this would be faith as well.

00:08:43.340 --> 00:08:48.940
 And so this is a message from God about Jesus that comes in his power to save.

00:08:49.740 --> 00:08:57.360
 And salvation is the big idea. And underneath that big idea, the book of Romans is going to

00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:04.340
 break it into different moments and aspects and everything. Just sort of remember the image of

00:09:04.340 --> 00:09:09.720
 the Harry Potter tents. The tent seems small on the outside. You get into the tent,

00:09:09.720 --> 00:09:14.200
 and you realize that inside the tent is bigger than outside the tent. And then just imagine that

00:09:14.200 --> 00:09:17.759
 you go into rooms in there, and inside of the room is bigger than the outside of the room.

00:09:18.420 --> 00:09:22.259
 And that's what it's going to be. Salvation looks like a very small idea, but once you get into it,

00:09:22.279 --> 00:09:27.960
 it's way bigger than you realize. And in the ancient world, and even in our days, but in the

00:09:27.960 --> 00:09:33.460
 ancient world, it had two fundamental ideas involved with salvation. And once you hear them,

00:09:33.540 --> 00:09:38.180
 you realize how a lot of the things that go on in the gospels, the records of what Jesus did,

00:09:38.179 --> 00:09:46.039
 illustrate these two ideas. And the first idea is that it's deliverance from a certain,

00:09:46.719 --> 00:09:54.859
 deliverance from deadly peril into secure safety. Deliverance from deadly peril into secure safety.

00:09:55.639 --> 00:10:03.259
 So the image there would be that you're out on a boat, and all of a sudden a storm comes in,

00:10:03.259 --> 00:10:11.200
 and you're no sea person or boat person, and the waves are coming up, and the water, it's the Atlantic,

00:10:11.620 --> 00:10:16.639
 northern Atlantic, and the water's really cold. And even with life jackets, you know, the water will

00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:22.799
 kill you within a minute or two of hypothermia. And the water's coming into the boat, water's coming

00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:27.139
 into the boat, you absolutely are going to die. And all of a sudden you hear a helicopter,

00:10:27.139 --> 00:10:33.720
 helicopter, and you see a search and rescue helicopter, and some guy or gal dropping down

00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:40.879
 from the helicopter and grabbing you, and he has, or she has saved you, delivered you from certain

00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:48.639
 peril, of the certain peril of death. The other image is deliverance from certain death by illness

00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:56.299
 into secure health. It would be as if, let's say you could, somebody from the future comes back in

00:10:56.299 --> 00:11:03.659
 time, and in the future, they've completely and utterly cured cancer, and you are, you're with your

00:11:03.659 --> 00:11:09.720
 loved one, and, or like Scott Adams, and he's dying of cancer, and he only has a day or two to live,

00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:15.080
 and that person who's come back from the future has the pill or the injection, the injected in him a day

00:11:15.080 --> 00:11:20.220
 before he dies, and he's not just, not dying of cancer, he's restored to full health. That's the idea

00:11:20.220 --> 00:11:26.020
 behind this ancient word. So if you think about it, you can see how many times Jesus is healing,

00:11:26.280 --> 00:11:33.280
 it's an image of salvation, and the times he's in water with a boat with a storm, that's another image,

00:11:33.280 --> 00:11:45.060
 set of images in the Gospels of salvation. And, and so, oh, and sorry, so here's a practical,

00:11:45.080 --> 00:11:50.720
 point before we go any further. This is a really important point for Christians to get their minds

00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:56.580
 around. So I, I said that the, what is it, the Gospel is a message from God about Jesus that comes

00:11:56.580 --> 00:12:02.680
 in his power to save. So we might say, well, okay, if somebody was to tell others about Jesus, who's most

00:12:02.680 --> 00:12:10.060
 likely to be successful? And so maybe, first of all, we do a bit of a poll of each other, and we pick the

00:12:10.059 --> 00:12:15.139
 persons who's the most confident, and we pick the person who's the least confident. And then we might

00:12:15.139 --> 00:12:20.379
 say, well, obviously the person who's most confident is going to be more successful at sharing the

00:12:20.379 --> 00:12:24.899
 Gospel than the person who's least confident. And then we might say, okay, what about persuasiveness?

00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.739
 Who's the most persuasive and who's the least? And, and, and we might, after thinking about, okay,

00:12:29.779 --> 00:12:33.439
 we pick the person, well, that person's obviously going to be better at sharing the Gospel than the

00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:38.820
 least persuasive one, because that's just how it works. But that's completely wrong.

00:12:41.300 --> 00:12:50.580
 The Gospel isn't a message about, from God, about Jesus that comes in your power, but in his power.

00:12:54.900 --> 00:13:02.800
 The actual message comes with a power from God. It's completely and utterly independent of however

00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:11.120
 persuasive you or I might be, however confident you or I might be. It might be very much the faltering

00:13:12.079 --> 00:13:18.799
 eyes looking at the ground, few words of quoting something in the Bible and how God loves you and

00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:24.159
 you should give your life to Jesus because he died to save you, that touches that person's heart and

00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:30.479
 to give their lives to Christ. It's the message that has the power, not the send, not the deliverer

00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:37.320
 who has the power. So never feel that you can't tell another person about Jesus because you lack

00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:46.200
 confidence, persuasiveness, and theological acumen. It's his power, not mine.

00:13:47.700 --> 00:13:54.560
 Now, this leads to a bit of a question, though. Okay, well, okay, George, I'm still not, okay,

00:13:54.680 --> 00:13:57.700
 George, look at those texts again, verse 16, 17,

00:13:57.700 --> 00:14:01.560
 for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation. Okay, you've sort of,

00:14:02.160 --> 00:14:07.120
 I have questions about that, but that's the idea. And it's for everyone who believes,

00:14:07.420 --> 00:14:12.700
 to the Jew first, then also to the pagan, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith

00:14:12.700 --> 00:14:16.920
 for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Now, I'm a little bit confused. So,

00:14:17.520 --> 00:14:20.140
 George, are you saying that first you believe and then you have faith?

00:14:20.139 --> 00:14:25.699
 faith? Or do you have faith and then you believe? Or is belief, you can have belief without faith? Or do

00:14:25.699 --> 00:14:32.460
 you have faith without belief? Or, and what are those things, George? And like, you know, is it like

00:14:32.460 --> 00:14:39.799
 an idea? Is it being able to say the right sentence like Scott Adams did? Is it a theological test? Is it

00:14:39.799 --> 00:14:46.080
 emotions? Is it willpower? You know, all of those things I don't think I'm very good at. I'm not good at

00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:51.720
 keeping ideas very straight in my mind. And you know what the heck, George? Like, if it's all God's

00:14:51.720 --> 00:14:59.000
 power, then why doesn't he just do it? Like, why do I have to do something? Like, why doesn't his power

00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:08.280
 just come? Like, I don't understand, George. It doesn't make any sense. Well, those are good questions.

00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:15.520
 And you might or might not realize this, but many Christians struggle with what exactly faith is

00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:22.980
 and belief is. We often connect it to the people who seem to be most emotional. And if we're like me,

00:15:23.100 --> 00:15:29.819
 I'm not like that. I mean, I am actually, I'm sort of like a, one of the things I say at weddings,

00:15:29.960 --> 00:15:36.919
 it's often at weddings, the guy who cries, not the woman. And that's because I think women and emotions

00:15:36.919 --> 00:15:42.480
 are like on dimmer switches. They can get a bit, you know, brighter and then a bit softer. And men are

00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:47.180
 often like on-off switches. They either keep all their emotions contained or they lose it. Anyway,

00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:50.920
 that's a whole, I'm more that they keep them contained or lose it type of guy. That's just

00:15:50.920 --> 00:15:58.840
 the way I am. Some of you would say miswired as opposed to wired. So like what on earth is going

00:15:58.840 --> 00:16:05.039
 on there about all of this? Like what exactly is faith? And by the way, so the rest of the book of

00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:13.079
 Romans is going to be developing this, it's actually a really important idea. The word for faith is used,

00:16:13.219 --> 00:16:23.099
 Paul uses it in the New Testament 140 times. And he uses it as a verb 54 times in all of his writings.

00:16:23.100 --> 00:16:33.980
 And in the book of Romans alone, the word faith or belief is used 40 times as a noun and 21 times as a verb.

00:16:35.460 --> 00:16:41.840
 So the first thing is there is no difference between the word, it's the same word in Greek, pistis.

00:16:43.259 --> 00:16:49.300
 And so what that means is even in this four little, these two verses, it appears four times. Like look at

00:16:49.299 --> 00:16:54.539
 it again. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who

00:16:54.539 --> 00:17:00.500
 pistis, to the Jew first and also to the pagan. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from

00:17:00.500 --> 00:17:07.440
 pistis for pistis. As it is written, the righteous shall live by pistis. So why do they use different

00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:13.779
 words? Well, they use different words because on one hand it's a very, very simple idea, but it does

00:17:13.779 --> 00:17:18.240
 have different aspects. If you could put up the second point, that would be very helpful, Claire.

00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:28.000
 In the Bible, faith is about receiving a person into yourself, into your life. It involves acknowledging,

00:17:28.940 --> 00:17:38.059
 consenting, receiving, and giving permission. In the Bible, faith is about receiving a person

00:17:38.059 --> 00:17:47.039
 into yourself. It involves acknowledging, consenting, receiving, and giving permission.

00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:56.480
 So it's a person-to-person word. It's not a person-to-idea word. It's not a person-to-a-thing

00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:05.079
 word in the Bible. It's a person-to-person word. And in terms of the basic idea of receiving,

00:18:05.940 --> 00:18:11.680
 if you go back later on and read the classic text for Christmas, which is John 1, 1 to 14,

00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:17.519
 you'll see that it says about how you have to believe in him. And it says, for all who believed

00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:25.680
 in him, who received him. You see in John's gospel, Jesus connects believing, or pistis,

00:18:25.740 --> 00:18:32.980
 because it's the same word, with receiving. Receiving a person into your life. And this,

00:18:33.120 --> 00:18:36.140
 by the way, is something that any human being can do.

00:18:36.140 --> 00:18:41.080
 I mean, it's, there's really, it's a funny thing. I don't know how many of you are familiar

00:18:41.080 --> 00:18:46.880
 with David Woods. And he's a source of a lot of controversy amongst Christians because of his

00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:55.720
 very, I don't know what you want to, when you call it, he's very outspoken. He's probably the major

00:18:55.720 --> 00:19:02.660
 English-speaking apologist against Islam. And people either love him or hate him. But he is,

00:19:02.660 --> 00:19:08.800
 I'm not making this up. He is literally a diagnosed sociopath who spent time in jail

00:19:08.800 --> 00:19:14.600
 because he decided on a whim to try to bludgeon his father to death with a hammer.

00:19:16.220 --> 00:19:24.360
 And while he was in jail, he became a Christian. And he is married, and he is the dad. He eventually,

00:19:24.519 --> 00:19:29.640
 after he became a Christian, he got out of jail, he married and had four kids. The question is,

00:19:29.640 --> 00:19:37.720
 how can a sociopath get married? Well, even a sociopath can open up their lives to another

00:19:37.720 --> 00:19:46.880
 person. Two-year-olds can do it. Down syndrome can do it. Open yourself up to the other.

00:19:48.320 --> 00:19:53.320
 And if you think about it, when you open yourself up to the other, there's also a bit of an expectation

00:19:53.319 --> 00:20:01.919
 that they will open themselves up to you. That it's mutual. And so part of the gospel message is,

00:20:02.019 --> 00:20:06.819
 God has said, in the person of Jesus, I have demonstrated beyond all shadow of a doubt

00:20:06.819 --> 00:20:14.480
 to anybody who wants to listen, that I am completely and utterly willing to open myself up to you.

00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:17.579
 The question is, will you open yourself up to me?

00:20:20.700 --> 00:20:24.960
 There's a type of mutual indwelling that goes on with receiving.

00:20:27.960 --> 00:20:34.160
 And so, you know, within this, what was the thing I said in the Bible? Faith is about receiving a

00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:41.660
 person into yourself. It involves acknowledging, consenting, receiving, and giving permission.

00:20:41.660 --> 00:20:49.259
 It would be a little bit as if, you know, I don't know. There could be a YouTube, you know,

00:20:49.259 --> 00:20:54.220
 an Instagram influencer, social media influencer that, you know, influences like 20 million people,

00:20:54.220 --> 00:20:58.360
 and I wouldn't have the vaguest idea who they are. So, you know, one day, I don't know, I'm at a

00:20:58.360 --> 00:21:03.120
 coffee shop, and I'm reading a book, and they're reading a book, and I sort of look over at their

00:21:03.120 --> 00:21:07.380
 book, and they look over at my book, and then they see that I'm writing on paper, and, you know,

00:21:07.400 --> 00:21:11.320
 they're writing on paper, and, you know, before you know it, we have, I say a couple of things,

00:21:11.319 --> 00:21:16.119
 and the other person doesn't grunt, and, you know, if they just grunt and ignore you, then

00:21:16.119 --> 00:21:19.819
 it goes nowhere, right? But they say something back, and before you know it, you have a conversation,

00:21:19.919 --> 00:21:24.559
 before you know it, you're friends. And then later on, I find out, good grief, that person has, like,

00:21:24.619 --> 00:21:29.299
 20 million followers, right? There's a bit of an acknowledgement now as to who exactly it is

00:21:29.299 --> 00:21:34.599
 who's decided to become your friend. And so that's part of the receiving, is an acknowledgement of who the

00:21:34.599 --> 00:21:39.339
 other is. It's acknowledging that this is Jesus. He is the Savior, the Lord, God, the Son of God. A two-year-old

00:21:39.339 --> 00:21:44.099
 might not know all of what that means. That's part of growing up, that you acknowledge more and more

00:21:44.099 --> 00:21:52.240
 who they are. And it's all about consenting. Here, the great image of is of when the angel Gabriel

00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:58.740
 comes to Mary, and it isn't as if God says, sends Gabriel to Mary and says,

00:21:59.299 --> 00:22:06.779
 Mary, I have a message from God. Sucks to be you. He's going to make the zygote in your womb right now,

00:22:06.779 --> 00:22:09.539
 and once again, sucks to be you. No, that's not the message.

00:22:11.579 --> 00:22:18.819
 He says, God has chosen you for this. This is what he'll do. Will you say yes?

00:22:20.399 --> 00:22:26.519
 She has to consent. And that's why it is that God's power to save just can't come upon you

00:22:26.519 --> 00:22:32.740
 against your will. You need to consent. Just like if a person's trying to talk to me,

00:22:32.740 --> 00:22:36.579
 and I just don't want to talk to them for whatever reason, maybe just because I'm in a really,

00:22:36.740 --> 00:22:41.120
 really bad mood, and I'm being a very, very bad person, and I have to repent of it later. But if

00:22:41.120 --> 00:22:46.299
 I don't, you know, I have to consent to getting into that relationship. So in the Bible, faith is

00:22:46.299 --> 00:22:52.299
 about receiving a person into yourself. It's a person-to-person word. It involves acknowledging,

00:22:52.579 --> 00:22:58.539
 consenting, receiving, and giving permission. Giving permission to go a bit deeper into it. I remember my

00:22:58.539 --> 00:23:05.339
 neighbor just after they'd moved in, and, you know, we're making a little chit-chat, and I asked him a

00:23:05.339 --> 00:23:14.279
 question. He said, whoa, that's a bit personal. We just met. And I apologized. So sorry, I wasn't, I didn't

00:23:14.279 --> 00:23:19.139
 mean anything. Now, two years later, I asked a similar type of question. He answered it quite fine,

00:23:19.500 --> 00:23:25.039
 right? But the point is that there's always this type of permission involved in it, and that's what

00:23:25.039 --> 00:23:32.799
 faith is. It's not an emotion. It's being open to the other. It's entering into this type of a

00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:41.180
 relationship. So you say, George, okay, that's, okay, that's, I say, so that's why, George, that

00:23:41.180 --> 00:23:46.940
 Christians aren't exactly sure what's happening with Scott Adams. I'd say, yeah, we're not sure.

00:23:48.159 --> 00:23:52.960
 Like, was he opening himself up to receive Jesus, or did he think that if he just said these six

00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:59.960
 words or eight words in the right order, bing, you go to heaven? Like, you know, I don't know. I have

00:23:59.960 --> 00:24:05.160
 no idea. I couldn't talk to him. We'll find out in heaven. I'll find out in heaven. But, okay, then,

00:24:05.299 --> 00:24:10.180
 George, why is it that it says ashamed? Like, that's a bit of a puzzling type of thing. Like, I'll just be

00:24:10.180 --> 00:24:15.720
 really honest with you. I don't want to do anything that's going to increase my shame. And so notice what

00:24:15.720 --> 00:24:20.700
 it says here, Romans 1, 16 to 17, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for

00:24:20.700 --> 00:24:27.000
 salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the pagan, for in it the righteousness

00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:31.400
 of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

00:24:32.620 --> 00:24:44.019
 Like, why on earth is this word shame there? Well, that's a really good question. And there's sort of

00:24:44.019 --> 00:24:48.740
 several aspects to it, and Romans will make it clear, because, I mean, this is just a praise for the book,

00:24:48.740 --> 00:24:53.900
 so the rest of the book is going to keep opening these ideas up in the different nuances of them.

00:24:54.720 --> 00:25:05.059
 So this week, I was really very thankful with Amy. She had her, I don't know, second or third year graduate

00:25:05.059 --> 00:25:10.680
 architect students, I got interviewed by them, because they're going to do a project on the Bible House.

00:25:10.680 --> 00:25:19.680
 And so I was answering some of their questions, and they were a great, great, great, great group of young men and women.

00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:27.340
 It was really fun to do. And at one time, I don't know if I'm going to get the word right, I should have,

00:25:27.460 --> 00:25:33.160
 I meant to email Amy to see if I got the word right. But they mentioned something about how,

00:25:33.160 --> 00:25:39.299
 is the way the Bible House is, does it sort of fit the ethos or the, something like that of its heritage?

00:25:40.680 --> 00:25:46.480
 And it's past, and as you move into the future, does it sort of fit in some way? And I said,

00:25:46.519 --> 00:25:51.980
 that's a really good question. And I said, actually, it is. Because for us at our church,

00:25:52.080 --> 00:25:59.180
 the Bible is really important for us, because we want to live, we want to follow Jesus in light of

00:25:59.180 --> 00:26:07.840
 the Bible as a counterculture in the dominant culture. That's what we want to do. We want to be,

00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:14.599
 listen to the Bible, follow Jesus, and be a counterculture in the dominant culture.

00:26:15.939 --> 00:26:21.619
 And I think one of the reasons, if you do that, you're always going to have to be dealing with

00:26:21.619 --> 00:26:29.139
 potentially attempts by the dominant culture to shame you, because you're trying to live as a

00:26:29.140 --> 00:26:33.860
 counterculture. And that will be talked about more in the rest of Romans. But there's,

00:26:33.940 --> 00:26:40.580
 there's something else, which I think, why is this word shame here? And I think it comes with

00:26:40.580 --> 00:26:46.440
 thinking about what most Canadians say about themselves. And what most Canadians say about

00:26:46.440 --> 00:26:58.500
 themselves is this, I am a good person. I am a good person. And now there's a bit of an exception to

00:26:58.500 --> 00:27:06.220
 this, obviously, because there's a huge political divide. And if you're on the left, you can call

00:27:06.220 --> 00:27:12.019
 people Nazis and not think you're being a bad person by doing that. And you obviously don't think

00:27:12.019 --> 00:27:18.079
 they're good persons. And there's the equivalence on the right towards the left. Given that most of

00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:24.680
 Canada is left, and the media is all left, that doesn't get seen as much. But it's a human problem

00:27:24.680 --> 00:27:33.480
 right now, that political and cultural divides blind you to evil that you do. But within the tribe,

00:27:33.539 --> 00:27:38.980
 or with people that you don't know, within your own stream, it's very common for people to say that

00:27:38.980 --> 00:27:43.960
 I'm a good person. And it would be a massive social faux pas for me to say, no, you're not.

00:27:45.120 --> 00:27:49.960
 Let go. I am a good person. And then I said, well, no, like, just think about it for a second,

00:27:50.059 --> 00:27:54.160
 you know, and, and this and this and this and this. And then later on, if they told their friends,

00:27:54.160 --> 00:28:01.120
 the best I could hope for is if they said, maybe he's on the spectrum and doesn't pick up social cues.

00:28:01.740 --> 00:28:07.000
 That would be them showing grace to me. But fundamentally, they would all agree that I was a terrible,

00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:13.519
 terrible person for implying that they weren't a good person. It's a very important value.

00:28:14.599 --> 00:28:21.319
 Now, it's very, very interesting if you play around with what it means. Because in fact,

00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:28.259
 see, one of the things that Canadians also are sort of united around is they hate people who are

00:28:28.259 --> 00:28:36.680
 self-righteous. But they never think to themselves, isn't saying that I'm a good person saying that I'm

00:28:36.680 --> 00:28:50.759
 self-righteous? Like, isn't that the case? And by the way, if the average Canadian hates people who are

00:28:50.759 --> 00:28:59.480
 self-righteous, why is it that we think that God is fine with you being self-righteous?

00:29:02.119 --> 00:29:05.319
 Like, that doesn't make any sense, if you think about it.

00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:11.579
 Just pause with some other things. If you could wrap the third point, that would be very helpful.

00:29:11.579 --> 00:29:17.960
 You see, what the text scripture is saying here is that only God can make you right with him.

00:29:18.899 --> 00:29:27.419
 And he does this with perfect justice and perfect mercy and grace. Only God can make you right with

00:29:27.419 --> 00:29:33.799
 him. And he does this with perfect justice and perfect mercy and grace. You see, if you think that

00:29:33.799 --> 00:29:38.939
 you can be good enough to get into heaven, what you are saying is that my self-righteousness will work.

00:29:38.940 --> 00:29:46.900
 But if we don't like people who are self-righteous, why do we think that God would like us being

00:29:46.900 --> 00:29:55.039
 self-righteous? Like, maybe we need the gospel. Maybe we need the power of God for salvation that

00:29:55.039 --> 00:30:00.180
 comes for those who believe. But you see, there's this other thing that comes up with this whole idea

00:30:00.180 --> 00:30:08.620
 of I am a good person. I've been around the sun quite a few times, so to speak, as I'm getting quite

00:30:08.619 --> 00:30:16.479
 old. And I've been a minister for 40 years plus. And I've often had to talk to people and had people

00:30:16.479 --> 00:30:22.599
 in my church. I can remember one particular person. She was very insistent that she was a really good

00:30:22.599 --> 00:30:29.879
 person. She was a real terror in this church. And part of the reason that she was a terror is that

00:30:29.879 --> 00:30:34.479
 people were terrified of actually ever confronting her about the bad things that she did because they

00:30:34.480 --> 00:30:40.720
 knew the bad things that she would do to them if they said that. And I used to think it was maybe

00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:45.279
 just her with us. And then I was at a party and I met a whole pile of her co-workers and discovered

00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:52.299
 she was just like that. And here's this thing about her. She really believed she was a good person,

00:30:52.299 --> 00:30:56.119
 but absolutely no one who worked with her thought she was a good person.

00:30:59.559 --> 00:31:00.980
 Like zero.

00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:04.379
 Like why is that?

00:31:06.279 --> 00:31:07.539
 Why do we have this

00:31:07.539 --> 00:31:14.019
 fixation about saying that we're a good person? It partially shows how fragile we are.

00:31:14.899 --> 00:31:19.500
 But I think it also shows, and you know, there's cracks in that, the whole issue of self-forgiveness

00:31:19.500 --> 00:31:25.839
 and the 4 a.m. moments when we can't live with ourselves and all. But I think this idea of

00:31:25.839 --> 00:31:30.339
 self-righteousness, you see, if we're completely and utterly committed to self-righteousness

00:31:30.339 --> 00:31:36.319
 and the Bible is telling us that we can be made right with God and it has to, only God can do it,

00:31:36.380 --> 00:31:44.759
 it's striking at something very, very deeply hardwired in us. But it's also actually answering a longing

00:31:44.759 --> 00:31:50.200
 that this desire to be a good person reveals. Another thing that happened with the architecture

00:31:50.200 --> 00:31:54.200
 students, and I thank you for praying because I'm not naturally clever in the moment,

00:31:55.019 --> 00:31:58.099
 so I don't know who was praying for me on Thursday afternoon.

00:31:59.140 --> 00:32:03.460
 But we got talking a little bit about the building and I just, all of a sudden, it popped into my head

00:32:03.460 --> 00:32:07.140
 that one of the issues for churches with new buildings is the issue of beauty.

00:32:07.140 --> 00:32:15.040
 That some churches value beauty and others don't want beauty. They want the building to be as plain

00:32:15.040 --> 00:32:19.080
 as possible. But ironically, often even those churches that want it to be very plain

00:32:19.080 --> 00:32:25.180
 end up being beautiful in a plain type of way. They get dimensions right and everything like that.

00:32:25.600 --> 00:32:30.300
 And I just threw out to the students, and this is the thing that comes from somebody was praying for me,

00:32:30.299 --> 00:32:34.700
 I said, you know, I think that beauty is hardwired into human beings.

00:32:36.539 --> 00:32:41.579
 Jonathan Camere, a presbyter who trained with us, asked him, he's going to be doing the communion bit

00:32:41.579 --> 00:32:47.139
 later, asked him a little bit about how music and harmony is hardwired into individuals.

00:32:48.359 --> 00:32:53.960
 He's a French horn player as well. But there is something about beauty hardwired into us.

00:32:53.960 --> 00:33:02.380
 And here's what I think our addiction and fixation on being a good person reveals. It reveals two truths

00:33:02.380 --> 00:33:13.940
 that only the gospel makes clear and satisfies. You are hardwired to be a good person, which means

00:33:13.940 --> 00:33:23.160
 being right with God. That is hardwired into you. And at the same time that you say you are a good

00:33:23.160 --> 00:33:30.259
 person apart from Christ, you are revealing that you know you're not a good person and can't fix it.

00:33:30.980 --> 00:33:38.340
 So you declare this instead. And the Bible has this wonderful news to me. George, you're vastly worse

00:33:38.340 --> 00:33:44.860
 than you realize. That's what the next part we're going to go to, how every human being is vastly worse

00:33:44.860 --> 00:33:52.420
 than they realize. But you are vastly more loved by God than all of your sin, than all of the things in

00:33:52.420 --> 00:34:01.420
 you that are bad. And so I think this idea is showing in us that we are hardwired to actually

00:34:01.420 --> 00:34:11.000
 be right with God and to truly be right with him. Only God can make you right with him. And he does this

00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:20.659
 with perfect justice. He does it with perfect justice and perfect mercy and perfect grace.

00:34:20.659 --> 00:34:32.379
 I've lost my... And that leads us to the... Oh yes, that's what I was going to say. This... I've lost my

00:34:32.379 --> 00:34:38.940
 place in my notes. That's what happens sometimes. Put up the fourth point. I'll read the text and listen

00:34:38.940 --> 00:34:42.839
 to the fourth point. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power... Just very briefly in

00:34:42.840 --> 00:34:48.300
 closing. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also

00:34:48.300 --> 00:34:53.680
 to the pagan. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written,

00:34:54.160 --> 00:35:00.500
 the righteous shall live by faith. And here's the fourth point. First, God makes you right with him,

00:35:00.500 --> 00:35:11.659
 and then in him you begin to truly live. First, God makes you right with him, and then in him you begin

00:35:11.820 --> 00:35:17.860
 to truly live. Now, the righteousness of God in the original language, the people who heard it in the

00:35:17.860 --> 00:35:22.320
 original language, they would have heard two things being said at the same time, and you can't communicate

00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:28.239
 that in English. On one hand, they would have said that when it says the righteousness of God is

00:35:28.239 --> 00:35:34.119
 revealed, it's saying that what's being revealed is that God is perfectly just. He's perfectly righteous.

00:35:34.359 --> 00:35:40.799
 He's perfectly good. He's unfailing. He never wavers. You don't have to worry about him having

00:35:40.799 --> 00:35:47.899
 favorites or anything like that. He is always just. Always. He's perfectly just. On the other hand,

00:35:47.959 --> 00:35:53.500
 what they'd hear is that there's a being made right with God that comes from God, that they would have

00:35:53.500 --> 00:36:02.159
 heard the two things at the same time. And so that means that he's going to be able to be just and make

00:36:02.159 --> 00:36:06.820
 you right with him, and this is going to end up being a challenge. I'm going to talk about this more in the

00:36:06.820 --> 00:36:12.199
 weeks to come, because it's a challenge to all of the religions of the world, none of whom can pass that

00:36:12.199 --> 00:36:19.920
 test. It doesn't matter if it's Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, different secular things. No religion can pass the

00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:27.099
 test of having a God who stays just without descending into injustice and favoritism to save some people

00:36:27.099 --> 00:36:32.980
 who don't deserve it and deserve punishment. None of them can solve it, and that will become clear in

00:36:32.980 --> 00:36:40.260
 subsequent weeks. But what this idea is going to contain, it's very important, and the book of Romans

00:36:40.260 --> 00:36:46.240
 is going to develop it, is to be made right with God. God has to do two things in the person of his Son,

00:36:46.239 --> 00:36:52.419
 and this is really important for you to hear. On the first hand, there has to be, in a sense, a pain of a

00:36:52.419 --> 00:37:04.519
 debt, or a just punishment, or a proper cleansing, a proper removal. There's different images, and it

00:37:04.519 --> 00:37:09.679
 would be as if, you know, for all of the wrong things that I did, and if you were to see, unvarnished,

00:37:09.779 --> 00:37:14.319
 the wrong things that I've done throughout my life, you would say, George, these are the certain types of

00:37:14.320 --> 00:37:19.960
 punishments that you need to have, and all of those, they have to be completely and utterly

00:37:19.960 --> 00:37:24.580
 dealt with, and even then you're going to realize that the way you've hurt some people can never

00:37:24.580 --> 00:37:29.380
 really be fixed, but that really has to be dealt with. The bad things have to be dealt with in a

00:37:29.380 --> 00:37:36.640
 just manner. But if being made right with God was just having all those bad things dealt with,

00:37:36.740 --> 00:37:42.500
 and just leaving you naked, you still wouldn't be right with God. There has to be something positive

00:37:42.500 --> 00:37:51.440
 that comes to you as well, which is new life, a new standing with God. A way to understand it a

00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:57.739
 little bit would be, like, in the miracle that we just saw, that after Jesus has dealt with everything

00:37:57.739 --> 00:38:04.440
 that you've done wrong that deserves to be dealt with, and you're there, just plain, simple water,

00:38:04.440 --> 00:38:14.780
 he turns you into wine. And so being made right with God is a positional word. It's a relational word.

00:38:14.780 --> 00:38:25.680
 At our last synod, so one of the things I do is, you know, our whole synod's all gathering, and I'm the

00:38:25.680 --> 00:38:29.640
 guy who says, by the way, everybody wants to do something, and I eventually get up and say, by the

00:38:29.640 --> 00:38:34.400
 way, you do realize there's a huge elephant pooping in the room, and nobody's talking about it, which

00:38:34.400 --> 00:38:41.840
 really makes you popular, by the way. And I'm joking. And so I got up and said a whole pile of, you know,

00:38:41.840 --> 00:38:47.019
 several things about it that were wrong, and then a couple of other people did, and then there was a

00:38:47.019 --> 00:38:53.480
 break. And after the break, I spoke to the people behind the motion, and then after the break was

00:38:53.480 --> 00:39:01.960
 completely over, they announced that they were removing the motion. And one of the main movers

00:39:01.960 --> 00:39:10.360
 of the motion, he came up to me and said, George, are we good? Are we good? Are we right with each other?

00:39:11.840 --> 00:39:18.539
 And I said to him, Howard, I was going to come up to you and shake your hand and give you a hug.

00:39:19.600 --> 00:39:25.240
 Too many times over the decades, I've had people want to move unbelievably bad motions, and when

00:39:25.240 --> 00:39:31.320
 people pronate problems to them, they just dig in. You listened, and were willing to change your mind.

00:39:31.360 --> 00:39:37.300
 I want to give you a hug. Yes, we're good. We're right. That's what being right with God is,

00:39:37.300 --> 00:39:43.560
 that you can be made right with God. That power that comes from God. It's not a self-righteousness.

00:39:43.660 --> 00:39:50.080
 God does something in the person of his Son that when you open your life to him and receive him into

00:39:50.080 --> 00:39:58.019
 your life, he makes you right with him. He makes you right with him. And that's why the fourth point is,

00:39:58.160 --> 00:40:04.480
 first God makes you right with him, and then you begin to truly live. That's the order. He makes you

00:40:04.480 --> 00:40:12.920
 right. And then out of that place of intellectual, emotional security, you learn more and more about

00:40:12.920 --> 00:40:18.380
 Jesus, and you have that place to deal with the bad things in your life that you still have to deal

00:40:18.380 --> 00:40:23.800
 with. Because being completely and utterly in God's presence is only going to happen when you die,

00:40:24.559 --> 00:40:28.940
 or when he comes again. And in all cases, it's new heaven and the new earth. And until then,

00:40:28.940 --> 00:40:35.139
 you can be right with God by putting your faith and trust in Jesus, which means opening your life

00:40:35.139 --> 00:40:43.900
 to him. If you haven't done it, there's no better time than now. And you know what? Don't worry about

00:40:43.900 --> 00:40:51.500
 wording. Just say, dear God, all that stuff in Romans 1, 16 to 17,

00:40:51.500 --> 00:40:59.940
 that's me. I want it. He'll start out the wording. He doesn't care about the wording. He desires the

00:40:59.940 --> 00:41:02.139
 intent. I invite you to stand.

00:41:11.139 --> 00:41:16.699
 Just before we pray, there's a famous, a well-known Canadian bishop who ended up leaving the Anglican

00:41:16.699 --> 00:41:22.679
 Church of Canada and joining our movement. And he likes to tell the story, this is relevant to faith,

00:41:23.379 --> 00:41:27.679
 that when he graduated from seminary, one of the biggest seminaries in Canada at the time,

00:41:27.739 --> 00:41:33.859
 he won the theology award. And he said, I was a priest for quite a few years before I realized I

00:41:33.859 --> 00:41:40.319
 was really good about theology, but I didn't know Jesus. And I had to open my life to him.

00:41:40.320 --> 00:41:45.220
 And then I became a Christian. Let's bow our heads in prayer.

00:41:47.539 --> 00:41:54.200
 Father, thank you that you have made a way for us to be right with you because you love us.

00:41:55.080 --> 00:41:59.600
 And Father, we've just heard this promise that as we learn more in Romans, that you've done it in a

00:41:59.600 --> 00:42:06.080
 way that never stops you from being just. You're always good all the time, always just all the time.

00:42:06.079 --> 00:42:13.059
 And yet mercy and grace doesn't erase justice, but is even greater than justice. And Father,

00:42:13.779 --> 00:42:18.759
 we thank you that you have done this. We thank you that there is a power in this message. And we

00:42:18.759 --> 00:42:26.059
 thank you, Father, that it's not just for the elite in emotions, elite in willpower, elite in imagination,

00:42:26.440 --> 00:42:34.199
 elite in communication that a two-year-old can receive, that those mentally impaired can receive,

00:42:34.199 --> 00:42:40.099
 Father, that it's a simple human thing. And we give you thanks and praise that you have made us right

00:42:40.099 --> 00:42:45.679
 with yourself when we put our faith in Jesus. And we ask, Father, that this truth of who he is and what

00:42:45.679 --> 00:42:52.639
 he's done for us, as it becomes more real to our hearts, that we will increasingly live lives of truth

00:42:52.639 --> 00:43:01.920
 and justice, of mercy, of kindness, of beauty, of patience in our day-to-day lives and in our places

00:43:01.920 --> 00:43:08.799
 of work and influence. And so we ask and thank all these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

00:43:22.639 --> 00:43:23.639
 Amen.

00:43:23.639 --> 00:43:23.639