verses 21, we start to see the
contrast of what we learned last week, of how the righteousness of God
was displayed in the law and the fact that every human being
is subject to the law. And we learned that through the
context of what Paul has taught us through chapters 1 and 2 thus
far, that when he mentions the law in this letter, he's speaking
not of the Mosaic law, but of the entirety of the Scripture,
that the Word of God in itself has authority over all men. We see that there is no righteousness
in man. There is no righteous acts done
by men. Men are not able to seek after
God. Men are not able to do what is
good for in all of their paths as the way of ruin, misery, murder,
and destruction, and that there is no fear of God before their
eyes. It talks about the fact that
there is no excuse. And that Paul, as he closes out
these arguments, he reminds us that we have no words to speak
to God. About twenty-five plus years
ago, I was debating a man who began to talk about how if he
were to go to heaven, he would not want to be in heaven with
this person or that person or these types of people. And after
several minutes of pitching this back and forth, I said, well,
those same people will also be with you in hell. The only thing he could say after
hours of debate was, Friends, we will not have those
words to say. We will not have a groan, a moan,
a whisper. If we stood before God in His
righteousness and the Word of God is spoken, our mouths are
shut. There's a lesson in that. As
I had a very heated conversation with a gentleman yesterday, it
should not have been heated, but it was very heated, in just
asking this man, this brother in Christ, to explain the details
of what he meant by something that he said publicly. And instead
of answering that directly, he began to defend himself. Isn't
it interesting that we defend ourselves? All of us defend ourselves
when we get caught in sin. All of us want to defend ourselves
when we get caught doing something that is not loving or lovely. We defend our actions. We defend
our feelings. We defend our thoughts. We defend
our affections. Every turn. And ultimately because
the Spirit of God is with us, ultimately we come to the end
of knowing that we have nothing really to say in our defense.
We are guilty. We are not able to stand before
God and give a reason of why we are the way we are, except
that we are guilty before Him, and in His justice He should
condemn us, but in His mercy and in His love He does not.
For He has brought condemnation upon the Son, Jesus. So all of
this is to bring us to the idea of what verse 20 in chapter 3
tells us, which says, For by works of the law no human being
will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the
knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law
and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God
through faith in Christ Jesus for all who believe. For there
is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, and they are justified by His grace as a gift through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as
a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. This was
to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance He
had passed over former sins. It was to show God's righteousness
at the present time so that He might be the just and the justifier
of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what comes of our boasting?
It is excluded. By what kind of law? By the law
of works? No. By the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified
by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of
the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the
Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since God is one, who will
justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through
faith? Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold it. There's too much here. We'll
be here several more weeks. End chapter 3. But what Paul
is doing is If you ever want to know where to go to teach
the fullness of the gospel in a very concise place other than
2 Thessalonians, with it very contextual, you can go here to
Romans 3. Believe it or not, this is a
more powerfully packed punch of the gospel than is John 3. It's more articulated. It is
doctrinal. It is a systematic theology that
teaches us about what God has done, and who God is, and why
God has done what He's done, because of who God is. So when
we think of theology, I want you to think of theology in that
manner. Theology is the study of God, but it is the study of
God through Scripture, so that through Scripture we see who
God is, and by seeing who God is, we see what God has done.
And by seeing what God has done and who God is, we know who God
is. And by the knowledge of who God is, we know Him intimately
and particularly through Jesus Christ, the living Word of God.
So that now we have eternal life through Jesus Christ. But this contrast that's seen
here in verse 21 says, but now. It means that there's something
that should be contrasted. The contrast is that the righteousness
of God is manifested, that means it is revealed and shown, in
the guilt of humanity and in the judgment of humanity. So
that everything that Paul has taught thus far, that God will
bring what? Wrath upon all the unrighteousness
of men, that it is what? By faith, it is the work of God,
for I'm not ashamed of the gospel. All these things boil down to
man's guilt. So if we were to outline the
first two chapters by point, the point one would be that all
men are guilty, the Jew and the Greek, before God. And point
two would be that God is just and displays His righteousness
in the wrath that He pours out upon guilty men. A third point
would be, if we could go that far, that the righteousness of
God has been forbeared through the gospel of Jesus Christ, which
is the power of God, in that God Himself is the effectual
agent and the author of salvation for those who deserve it not.
So, there's a summary. missing a few key points, but
in reality that's a good summary of what we learned thus far,
so that we see the righteousness of God being upheld. Think of
God from this point backward as the righteous judge who brings
recompense to those who deserve it. The righteousness of God
is upheld. The righteousness of God is upheld.
So the law of God, the Word of God, the teaching of Scripture,
the prophets, the Old Testament, the poets, the narrative, the
history, all of it, displays God's righteousness because it
shows and reveals His edict that all men must be holy. It shows
and reveals the reality that all men are not holy. And it
shows and reveals the reality that God is righteous in the
overwhelming wrath that He brings upon that disobedience and that
sin. Of course, we know it is particular
wrath. It is poured out upon people,
not ambiguity. But now. So see why I had to
say all that? But now. But now, the righteousness
of God has been manifested apart from the law. So where do we
come from when we say, but now? Because Paul was saying, this
is the truth. All men are subject to the Word of God. The law is
written to those who are under it. Who are they? All of us.
Everyone. The righteousness of God is displayed
in us being under His Word and the authority of all that He's
decreed. But now, see, in the hearing of his readers, in the
mind of his readers, they are now thinking, wow, this present
time, where is the hope? Well, we know the hope in 1 16
and beyond teach us that the righteousness of God or that
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew and
the Greek. But here, The reader all of a sudden goes, okay, now
we're in a different place. Where are we? We're guilty. Where
is the gospel in that? Is God still righteous? Because
does it not beg the question? It does beg the question. It
begs the question. If God forgives and I'm guilty,
then God is no longer righteous. How is this possible? If it doesn't
cause you to think that way, you're missing the steps of the
understanding of God's justice. being equal to His righteousness. But now, how can God be righteous
if I am guilty and forgiven? But now, if I am a sinner and
have sinned against God, but He's let me get away with my
sin, how is God righteous? And that's what Paul is closing
out this section explaining. And he says it this way, the
righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets
bear witness to it, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart
from the law. How is that possible? He tells
us. Through faith in Jesus Christ
for all who believe. Now let's talk about it for a
minute, and we might not contextually see all of this. But the very
idea that Jesus must be propitiation means that He satisfied the wrath
of God. He became the object of wrath,
and in being so, He became the object that satisfied God's wrath. Understand that what God has
done on the cross of Calvary, listen very carefully, has satisfied
His anger. has satisfied His justice, has
satisfied His wrath, has satisfied His vengeance, has satisfied
His great name that we have defamed amongst all the nations. If I
could steal away from Ezekiel. So that the righteousness of
God is manifested apart from the law, in a separate manner,
in a different direction, from a different point of view that
God's wrath and His righteousness and judgment equally is manifested
in His forgiveness of the sinner because Jesus has satisfied His
justice. Now this should cause us to think
about this for a second. Because we see a little word
there in our English, it's a three-letter word, it's all. for the righteousness
of God in faith in Jesus Christ, for all who believe, for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are
justified by His grace as a gift." If we're not careful, we can
misunderstand what the text is teaching, and we can create a
pretext here that will actually give us something that it does
not say. We can say then, Remember when
I say men in the plural, it is a pronoun for humanity, for mankind. All men are justified because
of Christ. No, they're not. Jesus satisfied
the righteousness of God and only all who believe, only all who believe in the work
of Jesus are justified in this. Only. So this is not a text that
someone can come to and say, this is universalism, as Pope
Francis has recently said. All people, he says. All people. Catholics, atheists, homosexuals,
Buddhists, and the list goes on. Jesus has paid for their
sins. They are all justified before
God. Now, I'm putting words in his mouth, but this is what he
said. I don't have the exact quote in front of me. Friends,
when this, which is our confession, talks about the Antichrist being
in Rome, brothers and sisters, this is why they say that. Because
to say that all men are justified before God through Christ is
blasphemous. Some of them would argue, well,
you know, it's an offer of justification. It's a possibility that Jesus'
blood is effectual for every person, but they have to believe
in order for it to apply. That's dumb. Everybody owes a
mortgage, and God pays off all the mortgages, but the bank still
collects on the debt? Is that dumb? Or devilish? It's
devilish. It's wicked. It's greedy. It's
a law. It's unethical. God cannot bring
wrath upon those for whom Christ died. Someone said to me recently,
made the statement that we teach from the New Testament writings
to the church. And there are portions that we
see the gospel truths, things like this that we can take into
the streets and take to the lost and go and proclaim the gospel
of Jesus, the power of God unto salvation. But we cannot go out
and instruct a blind man to walk in a manner worthy of Christ.
We cannot go out and tell a dead man he's a child of God. So my
statement was that we teach differently in evangelism than we do in instructions
to church. This man did not agree with that. Well, how is there a gospel message
to a lost person if I come to them and say, God loves you, and Jesus died
for you, and you're okay. Is that good
news? No, it's not good news. The gospel
by statement creates a dichotomy in the human mind. That through
the Holy Spirit of God, when we hear the words as the Spirit
wishes, He opens up this troublesome fork in the road. And the sinner
knows they're guilty before God because the Word of God instructs
them that they are, so their mouths are shut. And then by
the grace of God, they recognize that they are guilty and that
they deserve judgment. But then when they hear that
the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the
Law, that if you believe by faith alone in Jesus Christ, that He
satisfied the judgment of God on your behalf, if you believe
in Christ, it's because you've been born again. It's because
that you have been, what? Made alive. And yes, your faith
is effectual. Your faith causes you to have
eternal life. But where does the faith come
from? I can't teach this to a lost world. Why? Because it puts the
cart before the horse. Evangelism is not telling people,
if God so chooses, He will save you. Good luck. That's not evangelism. That's terrible. So we proclaim
the gospel of righteousness and the judgment of righteousness
to all people. Out of all people who hear the
gospel message, God in His sovereignty and God in His purposes saves
some. Who are they? We do not know.
I dare to quote people from a teaching platform because it always gets
me in trouble, but I don't care. I shall quote the great Charles
Haddon Spurgeon, who says, roughly, if the elect had big X's on their
backs, I would preach to those who had no X. That should be
the heart of the church, beloved. That should be the passion and
the zeal we have to see the world reach for the gospel. How many
of the elect lived in first century Jerusalem? A bunch. How many
of God's people live amongst us today? A lot. A lot more than
sit in these chairs. a lot more than darken the doors
of the churches. As a matter of fact, I say the
proportions are a little bit opposite in our culture, that
more of the unbeliever go to church than the believer because
the believer has been orphaned. The believer has not been fed
his food. The believer cannot find the
voice of his shepherd. But by the will of God and by
His grace, we will see many come to faith. There is something
else to understand here. I don't have a whole lot of time,
so I'm not going to try to dig it all out. But we'll go through
it, and then we'll dig it all out more in detail in the next
few weeks. Faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, so that
in their believing... Get this now. Here's the other
side of this. In their believing, the righteousness of God is manifest.
You hear that? How is that? Because when we
believe, it's this judicial thing that's
taken place, it's this supernatural thing that's taken place, propitiation
has taken place, expiation has taken place, atonement has taken
place, all by the decrees of God. God, His righteousness is
displayed in our believing in several ways. One, His righteousness
is displayed Because we have come to a place of forgiveness
because the debt has been paid. That's a righteous thing. Do
you understand that? Because we believe it is a righteous
thing. It is the righteousness of God
displayed because it says that our guilt has been put on Christ.
So now the effectual work of God in the gospel comes to fruition. It's a good work. It's a holy
thing. It is righteousness. It is the goodness of God and
His holiness being displayed because our sins have been atoned
for. Our sins have also been on the
opposite side of that. Our sins have been placed on
Jesus, so therefore the righteousness of God by default is displayed
because He has satisfied His judgment. So it's a both-and
circumstance. And I might be splitting hairs
in that, but oftentimes we think, well, we understand God's righteousness
is displayed in the killing of the Son and Him being propitiation
and all, but the righteousness is also displayed when we believe
by faith. Because it is the effectual work
of God in His good decree to save a people. So let's read
that again with that understanding. But now the righteousness of
God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law
and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God
through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. So that
means that it is through faith, which... I've got to get the
verbs correct. It is by faith and through faith
where we find the righteousness of God that was manifested on
the cross of Christ to our credit. It is good that God forgave us. But it could not be good if God
had not condemned Jesus. It is good that God condemned
Jesus, but it would not be good if God did not forgive us. For
a man who owes not a debt and pays it, it is not good. And
a man who owes a debt and pays one that is not there, it is
not good. And then Paul says these words,
for there is no distinction. What in the world? Well, remember,
we've already been talking about the differences between the audience.
He's talking to Roman Christians, of which there were Gentile and
Jew. Paul himself was a Roman Christian
who was also a Jew. He was a Roman citizen. So here,
Paul is explaining the details of the guilt of both the Jew
and the Greek. You are all guilty in God's eyes.
And also, it is by faith in Jesus Christ. So Paul puts down anchors. He puts down tent stakes. He
puts down his foundation. And he says, for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God. All, so that there's no
distinction. I'm reminding you all, I'm not
talking about these Gentiles here. I'm reminding you all,
your justification, remember, is not by the work of the law,
for no one is justified by the work of the law. Because since
through the law comes the knowledge of sin, it is because God in
His mercy has displayed His righteousness on the cross of Jesus Christ
that when you believe, when you trust, when you accept, when
you receive, when you understand, when you see, when you behold,
when you take hold of, whatever phrase you think you want to
use, when we by faith believe, we need to understand it is not
a specific people that He's speaking of here. He's not talking about
Jews. He's not talking about Gentiles.
He's not talking about Americans. He's not talking about whites
or blacks or browns or yellows or greens or purples. He's not
talking about rich or poor. He is not talking about young
or old or miserable. Pretty, ugly, or somewhere in
between, sort of black. He's talking about all people. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God, just in the same manner where he quotes
the Old Testament poetry. And he quotes the Old Testament
Psalms, and he quotes the Old Testament prophets, when he says
in this culmination, there is no one righteous, no not one,
no one understands, no one seeks after God, all have turned aside,
all, all, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God. Now why am I emphasizing this that seems so obvious? Because
somewhere in the mind of the academic world, this text, with
our traditionalist peers, sort of to say friends, with our traditionalist
peers, they want to argue that Paul is not talking about all
people in Romans 3. But, oh pray tell, he's talking
about all people when you hear the word cosmos, or cosmon, or
cosmopolitan, or whatever they want to translate it as, in John,
or in John's epistle. It's ridiculous. all of sin and
fall short of the glory of God. And in verse 24, it shows us
exactly the outcome of faith. They are justified. But does it say that they're
justified by their faith? Paul doesn't say that. Paul doesn't
argue that. Paul says they're justified how? By His grace. as a gift. Paul would say to the Ephesians,
he'd say to the Ephesian church, he'd say, for by grace you have
been saved. Notice he didn't say by faith
you have been saved. So by grace you have been saved, by grace
you have been justified, by grace you have eternal life, by grace
you have been brought out of death, by grace you have been
purchased, by grace through faith. In who? Jesus Christ, who is
the grace of God, who is the mercy seat of God, who is the
object of God's wrath, who is the greatest man who ever lived,
who is the most holy human being who ever will walk the face of
the earth, in all of His obedience, in all of His perfection, in
all of His misery, and He never failed, and He never sinned,
and He loved the Lord His God with all of His heart, and with
all of His mind, and with all of His strength, every breath
of His life, from the day He was born until the day He hanged
on the tree. And we have done none of it.
And then God took this perfect man, and He hanged him on the
cross, and He subjected him to death which was not His, to suffer. When Paul talks in chapter 8
of this text, and he says that all of creation groans like a
laborer in childbirth. Like a laborer in childbirth.
Like a woman in childbirth. A woman in labor. Because the
creation was subjected, what? To the futility of the fall.
Not willingly, but unwillingly. What's that mean? There's no
such thing as a sinful dog, or a sinful tree, or a sinful rock,
or a sinful snake. Wait a minute! No, that was Satan.
It wasn't the snake's fault. Even though he was cursed. Even
though the trees are cursed. Even though the weather is cursed.
Even though the world is cursed, it is not the world's fault.
It is not the world in the context of creation. It is not plants
and animals and fish and birds and reptiles and bugs and amoebas.
It's not their fault that they have been subjected to the fall. It is Adam's fault. It is your
fault. It is my fault. In the same way
Jesus was subjected to the penalty of the fall, and that's our fault.
That's our fault. And glory be to God that we don't
come to that conclusion or to that reminder and wring our hands
and beat our chest and dare not look to the sky. But we stand
upright, we walk into the throne room of God, and we approach
the throne of the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Creator
of the cosmos, and we say to Him, Daddy. We call God the Father, our Father. our papa, our daddy. Paul says
it this way, that we come bold before the throne of grace. Yes,
Paul said that. We come bold. We do not hide. We do not cower. We do not fear
for love. Cast out all fear. Perfect love.
What is perfect love? God is love. And He has loved
us. Therefore, we love Him. God loved us first. This is love. that God would love us in this
way, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,
that we might be the righteousness of God. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God, and yes, that is a reason to moan and
to weep, but beloved, we are justified by His grace as a gift
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This redemption
is found in Christ. This redemption is not found
in us. Friends, this is good news. This is where people get
all frustrated. And they hate who I am because
I preach this message. People get frustrated because
they try to say, well, I don't really understand this, or this
isn't the way my mama taught me, or this isn't what my old
pastor used to say, or this sort of is polarizing. But let me
ask you this question. When has the gospel not been
polarizing? Polarizing, if you have two magnets
and you have them both pointed to the north ends of each other,
they repel each other. They do not stick together, they
repel. Being polarized means it repels people. The gospel
repels the heart of man. It repels the natural man. Why? Because the natural man hates
it, cannot comprehend it, cannot seek after it. And unless God
does a mighty divine work through the hearing of His Word by His
Spirit, the natural man cannot receive it, and it repels him.
Friends, there are many people that the devil puts in our lives
to try to talk us out of being in fellowship in the church.
There are many circumstances that come with somebody that
we may think that love us, but people that love us would never
deter us from being in the fellowship of the saints because of some
idealistic or fleshly thing that might be better than learning
the glorious truth of Jesus Christ. And those people, though they
may be our friends in life, they are not our friends in eternity.
And if we love them, we will contradict what they say when
they try to appeal to us and appeal to our flesh and tell
us just how much better it would be if we would just go find us
a church that we could get along and have fun. Friends, you cannot
have fun when you put a mask on and pretend that everything
is right, and think that everybody else who has their mask on has
a perfect life, when everybody in this room, under the sound
of my voice right now, has a miserable existence outside of the gospel
of Jesus. All of us are hurting, all of
us are miserable, all of us are sad, or tired, or addicted, or
angry, or hateful, or murderous, or depressed, or suicidal, all
of us have something in our lives this very moment that if God
did not keep His hand of mercy upon us, we would burst into
flames and do everything that was indestructible because in
our natural state, all that we have before us is misery. One
of the greatest soothsayers that ever lived One of my grandmothers
would always remind me of that old adage, misery loves company. Friends, thank God that is not
our unity. Thank God the state of our lives
and the state of our minds and the state of our bodies and the
state of our relationships is not what we come together for.
You know what it's like to drink and to cover up your thoughts?
You know what it's like to go on a vacation and pretend like
the world is not real? You know what it's like to go
and buy something really nice because you get that new car
smell on the way home? You know what it's like to spend
some time with somebody you hardly ever see because it's so pleasant?
And then you get through and all the crud and the garbage
is still in the house, it's still in the yard, it's still in the
car, it's still at the job. And sometimes we come together,
and in my history I've been part of fellowships, that I felt like
I was the only one with garbage. Because everybody else had their
little plastic hats on. And their fake masks on. You
know what you can't do? When God, by His absolute mercy,
gives you the Word, And we come together under the Word of God
and its authority. That means we have come together
under the authority of our Father, the One who created us. And more
than that, He created us as objects of mercy to be His beloved. And the devil hates it. Satan
cannot take your salvation from you, but he can put you in the
mire and he can treat you in a way that you would listen and
be tempted to listen to the wisdom of the world. And it comes in
some of the most dearest friends. And they are the devil's tongue
and they speak the devil's words. And for a fleeting moment, we
go, wow, they're making some sense. You know what makes some
sense? By the grace and mercy of God, we are justified by His
grace And there is no hell upon this
earth through which I may trod that can take that away from
me. But there are many times when I pluck the eyes of my own
soul out and I forget to look upon the cross of Christ. And
it is only by His mercy when we come together, we stop pretending,
and we say, hey, I plucked out my eyes, help me see. I've bowed
down to my neck, help me breathe. We've all sinned and we are justified
by His grace as a gift. True worship only takes place
when we worship in spirit and the truth of the gospel. True
worship only takes place if it ascribes the glory to God that
is His because of His grace toward us. True worship has nothing
to do with how we feel because if I were to count how I feel
most days, I would be so far from Christ that they would have
to write a footnote in this passage of verse 23 so that they could
show the exemplary way in which I was distant from God. All have sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God, but James oh so much further is he. We don't pretend. Friends, I've
been in the ministry for 21 years. 21 years. And we've seen congregations
of thousands Budgets of millions. Baptisms into hundreds. But for the first time in my
life, God has given me an overwhelming joy to be in the trenches with
you at all costs. And I would die. God would have
to kill me before I would desire anything different. And I pray that your heart will
be the same. When it's all said and done,
it is not the board game of life that takes us to the end. It
is the One who gives us life. Who's gone before us and waits
for us right there. And who graciously looks to the
day when we will be with Him. That our Savior will be complete
with His bride. We hope in that. It gives us
reason to fight. It gives us reason to pray. When
I say fight, I'm not talking about with each other. It gives
us reason to fight the good fight of faith. It is a labor. It is a burden. But it does not
kill us. It does not cause us to despair.
Let's turn in our closing moments to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And
let's hear those very words by the same author as Paul would
cry out to these people about what he has experienced. and
the dangers that Paul experienced, he knew that the grace of God
on his behalf, the chief of sinners, was the greatest thing that he
could ever focus his mind on. And he says that there are many
who have been blinded by the devil and cannot see the light
of the glory of God. For God has allowed the God of
this world to blind their eyes that they might not believe.
5 of chapter 4 of 2 Corinthians,
he says, for what we proclaim is not of ourselves, but Jesus Christ
as Lord, with ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus.
For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shone in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And he talks about this as a
treasure. And he says now in contrast, but we have this treasure,
though it is immeasurable, though it is glorious, though it is
powerful, though it is absolutely the greatest thing that you will
ever have, we hold it, not in the bonds of steel, not as structures
that are indestructible, but we hold this treasure in jars
of clay in order to show that the surpassing power belongs
to God and not to us. Then he goes on and gives his
suffering resume. We are afflicted in every way,
but we are not crushed. Listen to this, church. We are
driven We are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven
to despair. We are persecuted, but we are
not forsaken. It means we are not alone. We
are struck down, but we are not destroyed. Always carrying in
our bodies the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may
be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being
given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus
also may be manifested in our mortal bodies. So death is at
work in us, but life at work in you. Since we have the same
spirit of faith according to what has been written, I believe,
so I spoke, we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing
that He who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us up
with Christ and bring us into His presence. For it is all for
your sake, Listen, so that as grace extends to more and more
people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God, so we do
not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting
away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this
light, momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight
of glory beyond all comparison as we are looking to the things
that are unseen, not to the things that are seen. I changed the
order on purpose. For the things that are seen are transient,
but the things that are unseen are eternal. And we are able
to peer into these things in the midst of what seems like
hopelessness because the grace of God has been given to us and
we are redeemed by the work of Christ. What shall befall us
that would take our joy? Nothing. So that when we say
that what we look for in this life is what's necessary for
our joy, we are saying that the ineffable power of the majestic
God is not enough. We are saying that the gospel
is not enough power. Friends, when we find ourselves
there, it is only through the intimacy of the church of Jesus
Christ that we will find our brothers and our sisters there
to carry us when we cannot walk, to stand us up when we've fallen
on our face, and to walk us through when we don't even have legs
underneath us. I pray that that is a praise in your heart this
day. And I pray that each of you would
pray for the one to your left and to your right, and to the
one in front of you, and to the one behind you, and to those
who normally would sit in these empty seats, and to the nations
that we see every single day. That the Lord would give us the
courage to have hope in the midst of pain. so that He might be
glorified and that thanksgiving would come to Him, not only as
He keeps us and preserves us, but also as He saves others who
are His. Let's pray. We praise You, Father. We love You, Father. We worship
You, Father. We give You glory and honor and
praise. You are worthy of all these things
and more. Lord, You made us that You might
love us, and You loved us through the giving of Your Son, through
whom we have redemption, for You have purchased us with the
blood of Jesus. You have declared us righteous,
though we are not, because Jesus suffered this life, suffered
this world, in all temptation, and yet He did not sin. so that
all that He is and all that He's done can be given to us and credited
to our account, that we may have eternal life. To the praise of
Your glorious grace, to the benefit of our soul, to the blessing
of each other as we live this life by faith in Jesus, who loved
us and gave Himself for us. For it is He who lives in us,
not us who live. And it's in His name we pray.
Amen.