Shut Your Mouth (Romans 3:1-21)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.080 --> 00:00:07.549 If you're able, please remain standing and let's give our attention to Romans chapter 2 00:00:07.830 --> 00:00:23.019 three. This is Romans three, verses one through twenty one. First, 3 00:00:23.140 --> 00:00:33.100 Paul asks some rhetorical questions, some excuses and accusations that people often make towards 4 00:00:33.179 --> 00:00:37.250 God, and then he sums up much of what he's been saying since chapter 5 00:00:37.369 --> 00:00:42.250 one, verse eighteen, in the last few verses of this that I'll read 6 00:00:42.289 --> 00:00:47.090 this morning. So here's God's word from Romans Three, verses one through twenty 7 00:00:47.130 --> 00:00:53.799 one. Then, what advantage has the Jew or what is the value of 8 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:59.560 circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted 9 00:00:59.679 --> 00:01:04.030 with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness 10 00:01:04.230 --> 00:01:10.790 nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means. Let God be true, 11 00:01:10.870 --> 00:01:15.269 though everyone were a liar, as it is written that you may be justified 12 00:01:15.390 --> 00:01:21.700 in your words and prevail when you are judged. But if our unrighteousness serves 13 00:01:21.780 --> 00:01:26.099 to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say that God is unrighteous 14 00:01:26.260 --> 00:01:30.700 to Inflict Wrath on us? I speak in a human way. By no 15 00:01:30.859 --> 00:01:36.769 means, for then how could God judge the world? But if, through 16 00:01:36.890 --> 00:01:41.810 my lie, God's truth abounds to his glory. Why am I still being 17 00:01:41.969 --> 00:01:46.170 condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come, 18 00:01:47.010 --> 00:01:53.480 as some people slanderously charge us with saying, their condemnation is just. And 19 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:57.560 what, then, are we Jews any better off? No, not at 20 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:02.829 all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, 21 00:02:04.349 --> 00:02:08.030 are under sin. As it is written, no one is righteous, no, 22 00:02:08.550 --> 00:02:14.069 not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All 23 00:02:14.189 --> 00:02:17.740 have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, 24 00:02:19.060 --> 00:02:24.139 not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues 25 00:02:24.300 --> 00:02:30.009 to deceive. The Venom of ASPS is under their lips. Their mouth is 26 00:02:30.129 --> 00:02:37.409 full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In 27 00:02:37.530 --> 00:02:42.689 their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not 28 00:02:42.930 --> 00:02:49.319 known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know 29 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:53.039 that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, 30 00:02:53.919 --> 00:03:00.509 so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held 31 00:03:00.509 --> 00:03:06.830 accountable to God, for by the works of the law, no human being 32 00:03:07.030 --> 00:03:13.060 will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of Sin, 33 00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:19.620 but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, 34 00:03:19.659 --> 00:03:24.979 although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. May God bless his 35 00:03:25.099 --> 00:03:40.169 word. Please be seated. So, as Paul points out, he's been 36 00:03:40.330 --> 00:03:46.719 addressing both Jews and Greeks in these opening chapters, and to address these two 37 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:52.840 groups in the audience that he's addressing them to, it's a way of saying 38 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:57.789 he is addressing everyone in the world, Jews and Non Jews. Every one 39 00:03:57.870 --> 00:04:02.990 is included here, those who have received God's special revelation, his special law, 40 00:04:04.110 --> 00:04:10.379 and those who have not, those who have received God's word and revelations 41 00:04:10.659 --> 00:04:15.740 in the scriptures, in those who have received God's word and revelations in nature. 42 00:04:16.620 --> 00:04:24.139 These two various ways that God has spoken in the in the scriptures and 43 00:04:24.449 --> 00:04:30.250 in nature are different, but there is one thing that is very much the 44 00:04:30.290 --> 00:04:35.649 same about them. Both they proclaim the law and because of that, there's 45 00:04:35.730 --> 00:04:42.000 not a single person in the entire world that's not accountable to God. As 46 00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:46.839 he says, they're in verse nineteen. It speaks to everyone that the whole 47 00:04:46.879 --> 00:04:53.990 world may be accountable to God. Having said this, he begins. This 48 00:04:54.069 --> 00:04:57.709 is what he's been saying in Chapter One and chapter two. When he gets 49 00:04:57.750 --> 00:05:01.589 to chapter three, he now addresses this particular objection, I mentioned it briefly 50 00:05:01.670 --> 00:05:08.379 last time, which is then what advantage has the Jew in other words, 51 00:05:08.420 --> 00:05:11.660 if the Jews are in the same boat as the Greeks, as both being 52 00:05:11.699 --> 00:05:16.620 under the law, then what's the point? What's the advantage? He then 53 00:05:16.660 --> 00:05:21.009 addresses in a second objection, which will speak about later, where he says 54 00:05:21.290 --> 00:05:28.250 well, if, if, if, God is being shown to be righteous 55 00:05:28.850 --> 00:05:34.050 through our unrighteousness. Well, is that really fair? Is God being unjust 56 00:05:34.290 --> 00:05:39.480 then and judging me for a bad thing which ultimately turns out to be good? 57 00:05:40.439 --> 00:05:43.879 These are the kinds of accusations that we throw a god, these are 58 00:05:43.959 --> 00:05:46.680 the kind of excuses that we make. He's been dealing with many of them 59 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:53.430 and we want to think a little bit more in depth about those. But 60 00:05:53.629 --> 00:05:58.029 we want to start, but I want to start by just summing up what 61 00:05:58.430 --> 00:06:02.790 Paul has been addressing here, what Paul sums up here, and that's that 62 00:06:03.110 --> 00:06:10.420 our situation, apart from the righteousness of Christ, is very desperate. We 63 00:06:10.540 --> 00:06:15.540 are under the law, as he says, under sin. Now this might 64 00:06:15.579 --> 00:06:20.810 not be exactly a very lighthearted way to start your week, to start a 65 00:06:20.889 --> 00:06:27.290 sermon. But it's the truth. It's just the reality, the way things 66 00:06:27.329 --> 00:06:34.040 are, and sometimes it's good to remember this, that we too often approach 67 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:39.399 these subjects so lightly when the fat, when the truth of the matter, 68 00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:45.879 is staring us in our face. Paul is been describing to us what it 69 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:49.389 means to be under the law, and it means that God has spoken to 70 00:06:49.470 --> 00:06:57.310 you. It means that God commands your obedience. But being under the law 71 00:06:57.550 --> 00:07:00.660 is more than that. It's more than just having a list of rules, 72 00:07:00.699 --> 00:07:04.819 a posted on the wall that you need to obey. Well, Paul has 73 00:07:04.860 --> 00:07:10.060 been describing is that being under the law has to do with having a end 74 00:07:10.100 --> 00:07:15.850 of condition. It's not just knowing about some rules or having some things to 75 00:07:15.889 --> 00:07:21.290 do, but it's having a particular nature. Even you might think about the 76 00:07:21.329 --> 00:07:27.569 phrase parents use with their children sometimes when they say you're under my roof, 77 00:07:29.329 --> 00:07:31.720 you're under my roof if what do they mean by that? They don't just 78 00:07:31.839 --> 00:07:35.800 mean that you're not going to get wet by being in their house. They 79 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:39.800 mean that you are, if you are, if you are the child, 80 00:07:40.360 --> 00:07:45.990 that you're under their protection, you're under their authority and you are therefore treated 81 00:07:46.029 --> 00:07:51.470 accordingly. You have a relationship by being under the roof of your parent, 82 00:07:53.470 --> 00:07:57.790 and it's like that with the law. Being under the law means we have 83 00:07:58.029 --> 00:08:05.019 this relationship, we have even a condition, a state, as we relate 84 00:08:05.100 --> 00:08:09.779 to God. When God speaks, we are put under the law, under 85 00:08:09.899 --> 00:08:16.490 his law. A relationship is formed between us and him, a relationship that 86 00:08:16.649 --> 00:08:26.360 requires obedience. But that relationship, as Paul has shown us, is complicated. 87 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:35.240 It's complicated and messed up and broken by sin. You may remember that 88 00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:39.679 in Chapter One, Paul reminds us that all people, although people know God 89 00:08:41.110 --> 00:08:46.470 through the things that have been made, although they know the requirements of God, 90 00:08:46.309 --> 00:08:54.230 they're thinking gets all warped. Their priorities get all out of whack and 91 00:08:54.389 --> 00:09:00.980 they start worshiping the created things instead of the Creator, which in itself then 92 00:09:00.980 --> 00:09:05.899 leads to all kinds of wickedness. You know what Paul calls that kind of 93 00:09:05.059 --> 00:09:11.009 thinking? Do you remember? He calls it feudal, he calls it foolish. 94 00:09:13.690 --> 00:09:16.289 In terms of the heart, he says that the heart has been darkened. 95 00:09:16.769 --> 00:09:20.409 In terms of the will, he says these people do all kinds of 96 00:09:20.529 --> 00:09:26.360 evil and even give approval to those who do the same so given this, 97 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:31.799 well, we might say that, hypothetically, to be under the law is 98 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:37.000 not to be under sin. Christ is an example of this, who is 99 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:41.190 under the law and yet not under the power of sin. For the rest 100 00:09:41.230 --> 00:09:46.190 of us, for all of us who are an atom, these things always 101 00:09:46.309 --> 00:09:52.740 go together, because we're fallen. We're fallen in Adam Sin. When sin 102 00:09:52.860 --> 00:09:58.620 enter to the world, if forever broke that relationship, and that means we 103 00:09:58.740 --> 00:10:03.940 don't just stand in a room with the laws on the wall. The laws 104 00:10:03.539 --> 00:10:09.889 bear down on us, they beat us, through us, knowledge of Sin 105 00:10:09.090 --> 00:10:16.370 comes out. It's why Paul calls being under the law a Ministry of Death, 106 00:10:16.809 --> 00:10:22.919 not because the law and itself is bad, that God has spoken unfairly 107 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:28.200 or unrighteously, but because of the way our sin, our nature, reacts 108 00:10:28.279 --> 00:10:33.000 with that law, it all breaks apart. It only leads to our death. 109 00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:39.590 Paul addresses this point in later in Romans and in more depth, but 110 00:10:39.750 --> 00:10:43.909 for now just note what he's been saying here at the beginning, and saying 111 00:10:43.990 --> 00:10:48.950 very pointedly and memorably, that when sin enter the world, it breaks this 112 00:10:50.179 --> 00:10:58.899 relationship and it destroys all hope for true and perfect obedience in our sin and 113 00:10:58.740 --> 00:11:03.220 under the law. We turn aside from the law, we turn aside from 114 00:11:03.220 --> 00:11:11.090 walking with God and love, and that's why Paul says what he says here 115 00:11:11.169 --> 00:11:16.970 in Romans three, and that's why he says it's so strongly. None is 116 00:11:16.090 --> 00:11:24.039 righteous, not even one. No one understands, no one seeks after God. 117 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:31.399 Our speech, our thoughts, our actions, Our paths, our feet, 118 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:41.710 even he mentions everything. It's all ruined. And because it's our fault, 119 00:11:41.909 --> 00:11:48.100 our sins, our foolishness, what can we say? Our experience of 120 00:11:48.220 --> 00:11:54.899 coming face to face with the holiness of God is then, as therefore described 121 00:11:54.139 --> 00:12:01.769 perfectly in verse nineteen. When the law speaks, our mouths are shut, 122 00:12:03.289 --> 00:12:07.690 he says in Verse Nineteen. Now we know that whatever the law says, 123 00:12:07.490 --> 00:12:13.049 it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may 124 00:12:13.090 --> 00:12:20.679 be stopped. That's the experience that you have when you've been caught. You 125 00:12:20.840 --> 00:12:26.799 think you're getting away with it, you think you have covered it, but 126 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:31.110 when you're with when the law of God comes clearly and speaks clearly to your 127 00:12:31.230 --> 00:12:39.710 heart, you've been exposed. And what can you say? Nothing. Even 128 00:12:39.830 --> 00:12:46.259 Isaiah, the Great Prophet of God, experienced this. In Isaiah six, 129 00:12:46.419 --> 00:12:52.620 he describes a vision he had of God sitting upon His throne, high and 130 00:12:52.820 --> 00:12:58.529 lifted up, surrounded by awesome and Jelic creatures, both powerful and frightening. 131 00:13:00.490 --> 00:13:05.129 They're singing is in his ears. They're praising the glory of God. And 132 00:13:05.289 --> 00:13:09.769 you know what he says? He doesn't say holy, Holy, Holy, 133 00:13:09.970 --> 00:13:16.240 is the Lord of hosts with the angels. He says woe is me, 134 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:22.879 for I am lost. I'm a man of unclean lips living in a people 135 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:31.350 of Unclean Lips. When Isaiah saw the weighty glory of God, He felt 136 00:13:31.429 --> 00:13:37.789 the weight of his sin crushing down upon him and considered himself a dead man. 137 00:13:39.429 --> 00:13:45.820 It was only after God cleansed him and promised that his sins were atoned 138 00:13:45.899 --> 00:13:50.700 for. That then Isaiah was ready to hear and obey what the Lord had 139 00:13:50.820 --> 00:13:58.690 for him to do. Now we haven't had this experience of being caught up 140 00:13:58.769 --> 00:14:05.570 into the heavenly places. Isaiah's particular commission and calling is very special and unique, 141 00:14:07.889 --> 00:14:11.519 but you don't have to have this experience to have the weight of the 142 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:20.639 law come barreling down on your heart, because God's glory in is holiness, 143 00:14:20.679 --> 00:14:28.149 is made plain in every sunset you see and every kindness you experience in every 144 00:14:28.190 --> 00:14:33.549 plate of food that he sets before you. And as long as you are 145 00:14:33.629 --> 00:14:39.139 under the law and not under grace, then the glory of God can never 146 00:14:39.340 --> 00:14:46.539 fully be enjoyed, the commandments of God can never fully be obeyed. You 147 00:14:46.820 --> 00:14:52.409 are not righteous. You only know your sin and the terrors of the coming 148 00:14:52.490 --> 00:15:01.730 wrath of God. Now, what I've just said about sin and the law 149 00:15:03.649 --> 00:15:07.720 is, for some people, the easiest thing in the world to believe. 150 00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:16.720 They live their lives with their eyes wide open to the depths of their sin 151 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:24.909 and they keep their mouths closed in shame of it. Their knowledge of their 152 00:15:24.990 --> 00:15:31.029 sins and the judgment of God clause at their hearts. Day and night. 153 00:15:31.389 --> 00:15:39.259 Feelings of despair are frequent and often the hopelessness and vanity of life is overwhelming. 154 00:15:39.419 --> 00:15:45.580 They see it all over the place, in themselves and in others. 155 00:15:46.940 --> 00:15:50.690 Have you ever looked sin in the face? Have you ever looked sin in 156 00:15:50.730 --> 00:15:56.370 the face? Have you ever finally seen it for what it is? Maybe 157 00:15:56.450 --> 00:16:00.570 it takes a terrorist strapping a bomb to his chest and blowing up innocent people. 158 00:16:02.769 --> 00:16:06.879 Maybe it takes getting exposed. You getting exposed for a sin that you've 159 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:12.320 already committed and being an exposed for maybe it's just a moments of consider a 160 00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:19.230 moment's consideration of the pointlessness of so much of life. And then you saw 161 00:16:19.309 --> 00:16:25.909 it. You saw sin for what it was, evil for what it is, 162 00:16:26.389 --> 00:16:33.259 and you hated it. And this is a good thing in a sense, 163 00:16:33.580 --> 00:16:37.379 because the Bible itself never shies away from naming things what they are, 164 00:16:38.299 --> 00:16:44.779 the good and the bad, the noble and the cowardly, the greatest hopes 165 00:16:44.860 --> 00:16:48.330 and the worst dead ends, all of them are. They are named properly 166 00:16:48.649 --> 00:16:52.330 by God in his word. And if you are to have any hope at 167 00:16:52.370 --> 00:16:53.850 all, then you have to begin by seeing the world as it is. 168 00:16:56.889 --> 00:17:03.279 But I tell you, often people don't look sin in the face, and 169 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:08.920 I seen it done. I've done it. When you come face to face 170 00:17:10.039 --> 00:17:14.200 with evil and wickedness and in instead of seeing it for what it is, 171 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:19.190 you blink, you rub your eyes, you try to believe that it's nothing 172 00:17:19.230 --> 00:17:26.029 more than a nightmare, you try to explain away these inner monsters. One 173 00:17:26.109 --> 00:17:32.099 way of doing this is bite to by pretending that the problems don't exist. 174 00:17:33.099 --> 00:17:37.819 You bury the feeling. Another way is by acting as though the problems have 175 00:17:37.900 --> 00:17:41.900 been taken care of by some other thing, like a good deed you once 176 00:17:41.019 --> 00:17:45.369 dead, or a good motivation you think you had, or belonging to a 177 00:17:45.650 --> 00:17:52.049 religion or any number of things. But when all that fails, often people 178 00:17:52.089 --> 00:17:57.960 turn and accuse God. If we can show God as being unfair, or 179 00:17:59.119 --> 00:18:03.480 God is being unreasonable, then perhaps the judge will turn away from his judgment, 180 00:18:03.319 --> 00:18:08.359 we foolishly think, and Paul gives two examples of this. See if 181 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:15.430 you recognize them. First is the excuse of religion. It's a hypothetical question 182 00:18:15.509 --> 00:18:21.630 and it goes like this. If both Jews and Greeks are accountable to the 183 00:18:21.710 --> 00:18:26.980 law and both have sinned, what's the point of being a Jew? If 184 00:18:27.059 --> 00:18:30.180 the law of God, as it comes to us in the scriptures, doesn't 185 00:18:30.180 --> 00:18:36.819 have any special power to save, then God, why did you even give 186 00:18:36.859 --> 00:18:40.940 it in the first place? It's a question pose to God, is a 187 00:18:41.019 --> 00:18:45.289 way to accuse him of being ridiculous and unreasonable. Well then, what's the 188 00:18:45.410 --> 00:18:52.569 point of being a Jew if we're all under the law anyway? It's hard 189 00:18:52.609 --> 00:18:56.880 to say what the hoped outcome, hoped for outcome, of this kind of 190 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:03.160 accusation might be. Does a person accusing God of giving the law to the 191 00:19:03.240 --> 00:19:08.480 Jews expect that God will back down. They he'll say, you know what, 192 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:15.190 I never thought about it that way. I guess I was confused about 193 00:19:15.230 --> 00:19:18.230 what I did when I gave them my law. Or maybe he'll say, 194 00:19:18.670 --> 00:19:22.029 you know what, I see your point. I guess all, ease off 195 00:19:22.069 --> 00:19:26.980 a little bit. Let You keep on sinning. I'm sorry for not being 196 00:19:26.180 --> 00:19:33.380 softer on wickedness. Here's another foolish excuse. You might call it the excuse 197 00:19:33.500 --> 00:19:38.210 of God's goodness. This one goes like this, as Paul puts it. 198 00:19:40.210 --> 00:19:45.569 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what should we 199 00:19:45.650 --> 00:19:55.440 say that God is unrighteous to inflict wrath upon us again? A similar idiotic 200 00:19:55.480 --> 00:20:00.640 question comes later in Roman six and also here. Should we knew eat? 201 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:07.269 Should we do evil that good may come right? Makes sense perfectly, doesn't 202 00:20:07.269 --> 00:20:11.430 it? No wonder God is justified in condemning us and preparing us for wrath, 203 00:20:12.670 --> 00:20:21.069 because just because a good outcome is achieved by his powerful grace doesn't mean 204 00:20:21.349 --> 00:20:26.299 that God is then evil in condemning our sin in the first place. This 205 00:20:26.420 --> 00:20:30.259 would be like saying if I'm dying and a paramedic saves my life, which 206 00:20:30.299 --> 00:20:34.500 is a good thing, then my dying must have also been good and therefore 207 00:20:34.539 --> 00:20:40.049 the paramedic is wrong to judge me as one in need of saving. What 208 00:20:41.650 --> 00:20:45.849 these are the kinds of ridiculous things that we say. These are the ways 209 00:20:45.970 --> 00:20:52.079 that we come attacking God, accusing him. Why does that happen? Well, 210 00:20:52.119 --> 00:20:57.079 it's again all because of our sin. The law impresses its weight on 211 00:20:57.160 --> 00:21:02.559 us, the good law, the righteous law, God's Holy Law. But 212 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:04.190 because of our sin, we don't just say, Oh, there are some 213 00:21:04.230 --> 00:21:08.829 rules on the wall, I think I'll try to obey those, try to 214 00:21:08.869 --> 00:21:14.269 be a good person. No, we don't obey them. We make excuses 215 00:21:14.630 --> 00:21:22.180 and we accuse the god of holiness and of grace. You can see what's 216 00:21:22.180 --> 00:21:26.339 going on here. These are not the well reasoned questions of a seeker. 217 00:21:27.380 --> 00:21:32.140 They are the worming it excuses of a sinner who wants to get out by 218 00:21:32.220 --> 00:21:37.930 any means necessary, to wriggle out from under the law and wrath of God. 219 00:21:41.849 --> 00:21:51.160 But let me ask you, why make excuses that will never excuse or, 220 00:21:51.880 --> 00:21:56.519 if you can see sin for what it is, why remain in a 221 00:21:56.640 --> 00:22:03.710 state of hopelessness and death if God himself has provided a way out? Because 222 00:22:03.710 --> 00:22:11.029 this is Paul's larger point here and throughout this whole passage. Notice what he 223 00:22:11.150 --> 00:22:17.619 says Verse Twenty. For by the works of the law no human being will 224 00:22:17.660 --> 00:22:22.299 be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of Sin. 225 00:22:22.940 --> 00:22:32.130 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although 226 00:22:32.250 --> 00:22:37.369 the law and prophets bear witness to it. This last phrase is a way 227 00:22:37.410 --> 00:22:41.849 of saying that the law of God from which we have in the scripture is 228 00:22:41.930 --> 00:22:47.960 also accompanied by the Gospel of God, that the law and the prophets, 229 00:22:48.079 --> 00:22:52.799 this way of summing up the old testaments, bears witness not only to the 230 00:22:52.240 --> 00:22:57.559 to the righteous requirements of the law and therefore the knowledge of sin that comes 231 00:22:57.630 --> 00:23:04.829 from that, but these things also tell us about another word, a gospel 232 00:23:04.869 --> 00:23:14.460 word, a good news word, a word that speaks grace and promises forgiveness, 233 00:23:15.740 --> 00:23:21.420 one that says there's a way out, not by working harder, not 234 00:23:21.660 --> 00:23:29.769 by accusing God, not by excuses, but by the death and resurrection of 235 00:23:29.890 --> 00:23:37.049 Jesus Christ. This is the way out, this is the righteousness of God 236 00:23:37.369 --> 00:23:45.160 that has been manifested apart from the law. All that Paul has been saying 237 00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:48.839 here about sin and unrighteousness has been get been to get to this bigger point. 238 00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:57.710 Jesus is the son of God. He came into the world in all 239 00:23:57.829 --> 00:24:07.789 its futility, foolishness and evil, for the specific reason of saving people from 240 00:24:07.829 --> 00:24:14.460 all of those things. He came to mend the rip in our relationship with 241 00:24:14.660 --> 00:24:21.700 God. He came to make us whole again so that then, by a 242 00:24:21.819 --> 00:24:26.210 spirit, we could do the works of the law as those who are no 243 00:24:26.369 --> 00:24:33.450 longer under it but who love it nevertheless. We know this. We know 244 00:24:33.690 --> 00:24:40.759 this good word because God has announced it from the very beginning in genesis to 245 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:47.359 the very end in revelation. We know in Jesus's ministry throughout his life on 246 00:24:47.559 --> 00:24:52.559 Earth. He guaranteed as much when he rose from the dead and ascended into 247 00:24:52.599 --> 00:24:57.990 glory. He demonstrates his victory over sin and death in these things and in 248 00:24:59.309 --> 00:25:03.910 his sending out of the disciples to preach this gospel message throughout the world. 249 00:25:06.109 --> 00:25:11.180 I stand here as one also sent by the authority of Jesus, to declare 250 00:25:11.339 --> 00:25:17.500 to you that you don't have to live by your excuses, that you can't, 251 00:25:18.740 --> 00:25:22.769 but by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God offers to you 252 00:25:22.569 --> 00:25:30.490 the forgiveness of your sins complete, perfect and everlasting. He offers to you 253 00:25:30.809 --> 00:25:38.119 power over the curse, victory over evil. Jesus died a horrific death on 254 00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:44.920 the cursed cross, not so that you can make excuses for yourself, but 255 00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:49.109 so that you can be forgiven of your sins. How much better is that 256 00:25:51.670 --> 00:25:56.269 to not just wipe at them and smear them all over the place, but 257 00:25:56.430 --> 00:26:07.819 to have them cleansed, washed away, forgiven? The monsters of sin, 258 00:26:08.619 --> 00:26:18.849 guilt and shame are real. Your lack of righteousness is real and it lives 259 00:26:18.490 --> 00:26:26.130 and it thrives under the law. You can't pretend that away or accuse God 260 00:26:26.250 --> 00:26:30.450 and make it disappear. But Jesus, in the life he lived and in 261 00:26:30.690 --> 00:26:37.400 the death he lived, gave a perfect righteousness and gives a perfect righteousness to 262 00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:42.759 all who believe, because righteousness is like a vine, twists through the gardens 263 00:26:42.799 --> 00:26:48.390 of our souls and chokes out every sin that condemns us. And we receive 264 00:26:48.589 --> 00:26:53.309 that forgiveness, apart from the law and by grace, simply by trusting in 265 00:26:53.430 --> 00:27:03.140 him. So to some all this up because of our sins, our relationship 266 00:27:03.180 --> 00:27:07.740 with God is broken and our life under the law is marked by sin. 267 00:27:08.099 --> 00:27:14.779 It's therefore one hundred percent impossible to be justified by turning to the works of 268 00:27:14.859 --> 00:27:18.289 the law. You can try harder, you can make excuses, you can 269 00:27:18.329 --> 00:27:23.890 blame God, but you'll never escape. But in Jesus Christ, God has 270 00:27:23.930 --> 00:27:29.890 spoken another word, a word of grace, and through his sacrifice your sins 271 00:27:29.930 --> 00:27:34.279 are pardoned, your guilt is removed, your shame is a raced and an 272 00:27:34.279 --> 00:27:44.160 everlasting hope of eternal life is secured. This, in conclusion, this sweet 273 00:27:44.279 --> 00:27:51.109 word of the Gospel does something very different with our mouths then the law does. 274 00:27:52.430 --> 00:27:56.589 The law shuts them, it stops them up, it holds US accountable. 275 00:27:57.390 --> 00:28:03.660 But when God speaks the Gospel to us and when we believe and we 276 00:28:03.819 --> 00:28:07.859 know ourselves as people who have been forgiven, our mouths aren't stopped up, 277 00:28:08.859 --> 00:28:15.049 they're opened to share that message with others, to praise the glorious God of 278 00:28:15.170 --> 00:28:22.089 Grace and to speak with confession and thankfulness and repentance all the days of our 279 00:28:22.170 --> 00:28:29.799 lives. This is the word for you today. Come out from the law, 280 00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:34.960 come under grace, for the salvation of God is here and in him. 281 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:37.960 Let us pray