SPEAKER_00: If you have a copy of God's word, turn with me, Romans chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: Let me be looking at Romans 9 and 10 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You'll see a Pew Bible.
SPEAKER_00: If you need one in front of you, you can turn.
SPEAKER_00: If you need the Pew Bible, it's on page 962.
SPEAKER_00: We have been studying as a church the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: We've been in chapter 9 for a couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And chapter 9 answered a who question.
SPEAKER_00: Who receives mercy and why?
SPEAKER_00: And if you've been tuning into the study, you'll know it was all sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: God's free election, the potter and the clay.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, you're going to pick this up as we read.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to sound very familiar.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is returning to a familiar argument that he's already been making over and over and over again in some ways in Romans chapter 3 through 5, where he says, righteousness isn't achieved by our own effort.
SPEAKER_00: It is something that we receive by faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so in this passage before us this morning, he transitions from who receives mercy to how a person receives mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And he also shows us in this passage how it is often missed.
SPEAKER_00: So with that in mind, follow along with me as I read, this is God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: What shall we say then?
SPEAKER_00: That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith, but that Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.
SPEAKER_00: They have stumbled over the stumbling stone.
SPEAKER_00: As it is written, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in me will not be put to shame.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
SPEAKER_00: For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
SPEAKER_00: For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandment shall live by them.
SPEAKER_00: But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: But what does it say?
SPEAKER_00: The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we proclaim.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
SPEAKER_00: For the Scripture says, Every one who believes in him will not be put to shame.
SPEAKER_00: For there is no longer, or for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.
SPEAKER_00: For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray again and ask for the Spirit's help this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, we do pray that you'd fall on this place.
SPEAKER_00: That you would make this word clear, that you would put it inside every heart here.
SPEAKER_00: You've brought us here.
SPEAKER_00: It's no accident that we're here on October August the 30th receiving this word.
SPEAKER_00: And so make it real.
SPEAKER_00: Show us Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Speak, O Lord, speak.
SPEAKER_00: Your servants are listening.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Marina Abramovich, she is a performance artist, and she several years ago in the Museum of Modern Art had this art exhibit.
SPEAKER_00: And the title of the exhibit was The Artist Is Present.
SPEAKER_00: She actually sat at a table in a chair.
SPEAKER_00: On the other side of the table was an empty chair across from her.
SPEAKER_00: And she sat in this chair for two and a half months.
SPEAKER_00: And she invited strangers who would come by the exhibit to sit across from her.
SPEAKER_00: No talking.
SPEAKER_00: No cell phones, nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And person after person after person would start weeping.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why would something like that undo a person?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because for those few minutes, there was nothing to hide behind.
SPEAKER_00: Just being fully seen.
SPEAKER_00: And we were made for that.
SPEAKER_00: We were made to be fully known and to be fully loved, but sin brought into the world shame.
SPEAKER_00: And if you remember anything about those early chapters in Genesis, when sin came into the world, shame taught us to run and hide as fast as we possibly can.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Adam and Eve hiding in the garden?
SPEAKER_00: So shame teaches us to hide.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us hide by pretending.
SPEAKER_00: We just fake it till we make it.
SPEAKER_00: We fake what we are not, or we pretend to be better than we actually are.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us maybe the hiding comes through performing.
SPEAKER_00: We hide behind our performing.
SPEAKER_00: And we work really hard to earn approval because we're afraid that we won't get it otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: And most of us, if we're honest, if you're anything like me, well, we do both, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: We pretend and we perform, depending on the situation.
SPEAKER_00: And it's exhausting because the very thing that we were built for is the thing that you and I spend our lives avoiding.
SPEAKER_00: And that, friends, is a picture of Israel in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: They are hiding behind their performance.
SPEAKER_00: They're zealous, they're sincere, they're working really hard, terrified that they will not be good enough and won't be accepted.
SPEAKER_00: And so they just manage what God sees instead of simply being received by Him.
SPEAKER_00: And in our passage this morning, we're going to see something really good.
SPEAKER_00: Some really good news, something way better than someone sitting across the table from us and sitting across from a stranger.
SPEAKER_00: In this passage, we're going to see that there is a way for us to be fully known and fully received.
SPEAKER_00: With no pretending and with no performing necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Just Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we get here.
SPEAKER_00: Just a Christ who is not far off and who is very near.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the outline this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a note taker.
SPEAKER_00: The diagnosis, the solution.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: The diagnosis, the solution, the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at those in turn this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The diagnosis.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's easy in Romans to, because it is so dense and weighty, and there's lots happening and lots of deep theology.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy for us to miss actually the context of Roman and who the book is actually written to and why it's being written.
SPEAKER_00: So the context, remember, years earlier, the Jewish believers were expelled from Rome, but when they left, the church kept going.
SPEAKER_00: And the church was full of Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And so the church is Gentile-led and Gentile-shaped.
SPEAKER_00: And how do you think that went over when the Gentile believers or the Jewish believers returned to the church?
SPEAKER_00: When they returned to Rome, they walked back into a church that felt nothing like them and like the church that they had left.
SPEAKER_00: And I say that just to say that Romans, as we often kind of can lean towards, is not the Apostle Paul writing an essay on reformed theology.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's writing to a real church in real conflict, where Jews and Gentiles were looking at each other with suspicion.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul writes Romans, and when he writes Romans, he steps right into the middle of this conflict and this church.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what makes, if you look at verses 32 through 33, so shocking and stunning.
SPEAKER_00: What shall we say then?
SPEAKER_00: Look at these verses.
SPEAKER_00: The Gentiles who were not chasing righteousness at all and really didn't care, they got it.
SPEAKER_00: And the Israelites who chased it with everything they possibly had didn't.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the Jews had every reason to expect standing with God.
SPEAKER_00: They had the law, they had the sacrifices, they had the temple, they had centuries of being told that righteousness would and the need for righteousness in order to approach the throne of God.
SPEAKER_00: And the Gentiles, on the other hand, they had none of that framework.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't seeking righteousness at all.
SPEAKER_00: They were pagans and they were living like it.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it's the Gentiles who obtain it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the zealous insiders who were very sincere, but they miss it.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, look at verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: It tells us exactly why.
SPEAKER_00: They miss it because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.
SPEAKER_00: There are two ways for you to be righteous.
SPEAKER_00: You can be righteous through offering a righteousness to God, which is something that you build and something that you achieve, evidence that you come and perform and say, God, accept me.
SPEAKER_00: I deserve it based on how good I've been and what I've done.
SPEAKER_00: That's a righteousness to God.
SPEAKER_00: Or you can receive a righteousness from God as a gift that comes to you by faith.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Israel wasn't lazy.
SPEAKER_00: They were zealous.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that they were zealous and working in the wrong direction.
SPEAKER_00: They were working to build their own resumes instead of receiving Jesus' resume that he had won for them and gives them by faith.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what trips them up.
SPEAKER_00: Keep reading.
SPEAKER_00: They stumbled over the stumbling stone.
SPEAKER_00: And he's quoting here Isaiah 28, the stone that God had laid in Zion, Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_00: And this stone would either be a plot, solid place for you to stand, or it would be the thing that trips you up, the thing that you trip over, depending on whether you trust it or whether you walk past it.
SPEAKER_00: And building your own record instead of receiving his is what it means to walk past it.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a hard word.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, zealous and sincere people missing the thing that was right in front of them that could have saved them.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a picture.
SPEAKER_00: Think about, and we've all had this happen at some point.
SPEAKER_00: You put an address in the GPS or put your trip in your GPS, you follow every turn with total confidence.
SPEAKER_00: And then 45 minutes later down the road, you realize something is not quite right.
SPEAKER_00: That you are not where you thought you were going.
SPEAKER_00: But the voice sounded very sure.
SPEAKER_00: Turn here and you turned there.
SPEAKER_00: Continue straight and you continued straight.
SPEAKER_00: You drove every mile in good faith, sincerely following, but sincerely wrong.
SPEAKER_00: You were confident the whole time that you were still headed in the right direction.
SPEAKER_00: That is exactly what happened with Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Sincerely convinced that they were on the right road, totally confident, completely lost.
SPEAKER_00: Question for you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you driving right past Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus is not the center of your life, the rock that you are standing on, and instead you are standing on your own effort and doing and performance and track record.
SPEAKER_00: Stop the car.
SPEAKER_00: Stop the car because you're lost.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're offering a righteousness to him rather than receiving as a gift by faith a righteousness that he offers to you.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe this morning you're not the one who's lost like that, but you know someone around you that is.
SPEAKER_00: Who do you know around you?
SPEAKER_00: People who are very sincere and very zealous, but they're lost.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the Apostle Paul in chapter 10, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the part that I had to sit with all week, and the part that really struck me and convicted me this week in my preparation.
SPEAKER_00: Notice here, Paul opens, not with an indictment, but he's on his knees in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Notice, please notice, chapter 9, he spent the whole chapter talking about God's sovereign election.
SPEAKER_00: And notice what that does not do to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: It does not lead him to be fatalistic.
SPEAKER_00: Oh well, God's in control of everything, so I don't have to pray anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't lead him to silence.
SPEAKER_00: You know what election leads Paul to do?
SPEAKER_00: Pray harder.
SPEAKER_00: It drives him to his knees.
SPEAKER_00: Sovereignty was never an excuse for Paul to stop asking.
SPEAKER_00: It was actually the very foundation of his hope to keep praying.
SPEAKER_00: And what's striking about the prayer, look at verses two and three.
SPEAKER_00: Notice who he's praying for.
SPEAKER_00: People who have a zeal for God, who have established their own righteousness instead of submitting to God's.
SPEAKER_00: And this stopped me this week.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is weeping and praying.
SPEAKER_00: You get this earlier in chapter nine.
SPEAKER_00: Put these together over self-righteous people.
SPEAKER_00: Do you do that?
SPEAKER_00: I don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I do with self-righteous people?
SPEAKER_00: I get mad.
SPEAKER_00: They irritate me.
SPEAKER_00: I roll my eyes.
SPEAKER_00: And that reaction in me, friends, it says way more about me than it does about them.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what it says about me?
SPEAKER_00: That I've got a lot of self-righteousness that I need to deal with on my own.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's something in me that I still think that I'm better than them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not what Paul does.
SPEAKER_00: He's already declared here that he would be cursed and he would be cut off from Christ if it meant his own self-righteous people could be saved.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to defeat them, he wants to win them.
SPEAKER_00: And that ought to shape the way we feel and think and pray for the self-righteous people in our own lives.
SPEAKER_00: Who is the one self-righteous person around you?
SPEAKER_00: It could be at your work, it could be at your school, it could be a family member.
SPEAKER_00: Who is the one self-righteous person around you that you have written off that makes you angry?
SPEAKER_00: That instead of getting angry, you could actually stop and pray.
SPEAKER_00: Paul doesn't have contempt.
SPEAKER_00: That drives him to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the solution.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: We'll walk through this.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
SPEAKER_00: Now, a couple of things.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean that the law was bad and that the law is somehow irrelevant now.
SPEAKER_00: No, it means Christ brings a close to the jobs, uh to the law's job of being a way of righteousness to God.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that with Moses.
SPEAKER_00: He states it plainly.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: The person who does the commandment shall live by them.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, do this and live.
SPEAKER_00: That's great advice, except there's one problem.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: We can't obey the law perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: No one has ever obeyed the law perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: The law, except Jesus, the law is holy and righteous and good.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is never the law.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is us.
SPEAKER_00: It is sinners who can't keep it well enough to live by it.
SPEAKER_00: And so the law was never meant to be a ladder that we climb to earn God's favor.
SPEAKER_00: It was meant to show you that you can't climb it and to point you to somewhere else and to the person who did.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where he goes next.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verses six through eight.
SPEAKER_00: He shows us that somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00: Where law righteousness says climb the ladder.
SPEAKER_00: Faith righteousness says that the ladder has already been climbed.
SPEAKER_00: And you see it in these verses.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it.
SPEAKER_00: Do not say who will go up to heaven and bring Christ down.
SPEAKER_00: Don't say who will go down to the depths to bring Christ back from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Christ has already come down.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has already rose up.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing left to climb because Jesus has done it all.
SPEAKER_00: That's what is being said there.
SPEAKER_00: And so the whole passage we could summarize really with two words do or done.
SPEAKER_00: Every religion in the world says do.
SPEAKER_00: That the path to God is through doing.
SPEAKER_00: Do enough, be enough, prove enough.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel says done.
SPEAKER_00: Already finished.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing left to add.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not just a slogan, that's exactly what we see verse four saying.
SPEAKER_00: When you trust in Jesus, it's his obedience, his death, his resurrection, his finished work that is actually credited to you, not built.
SPEAKER_00: Built by you.
SPEAKER_00: He has done it all.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the best news of all.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have to go on a spiritual scavenger hunt in order to find this finished work.
SPEAKER_00: It's already near.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: What does it say?
SPEAKER_00: That the word, okay, the gospel message, the word of faith proclaimed to you, is near, it is in your mouth and is in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had this happen?
SPEAKER_00: I've had this happen probably multiple times in my life, where you've spent 20 minutes or so tearing the house apart and you're looking for your sunglasses.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're looking for your keys and you're checking the cushions are coming out of the couch.
SPEAKER_00: You go to your car three times, you've looking, retracing your steps, and then you walk in and you see a mirror and you look, or maybe you see a reflection, or maybe you feel them and you realize that your glasses are actually on your head.
SPEAKER_00: Or you realize that the keys were actually in your pocket.
SPEAKER_00: The search was unnecessary, not because finding them didn't matter, but because they were there, they were never far off.
SPEAKER_00: They were already near.
SPEAKER_00: That's verse eight.
SPEAKER_00: We're not on a spiritual scavenger hunt.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to climb up or dig down to find God.
SPEAKER_00: He's already come.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus made the journey that you and I exhaust ourselves oftentimes trying to make.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you this morning feel distant from God.
SPEAKER_00: And you feel like, I need one more breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe in your heart, you're like, I need one more spiritual high so that I can really feel that he's near.
SPEAKER_00: I need one more mountaintop experience or an emotional experience, or I need one more season of being really disciplined so that I know that he's close.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe we say, I need to be rebaptized.
SPEAKER_00: Then I'll feel like he's close.
SPEAKER_00: Hear this passage.
SPEAKER_00: He's here.
SPEAKER_00: He's near.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not far off.
SPEAKER_00: He's not hiding.
SPEAKER_00: He's not waiting for you to earn your way to him.
SPEAKER_00: He is right in front of you, the same stone Israel walked past without seeing.
SPEAKER_00: And in a few minutes, that nearness is going to stop just being a word that is preached to you.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to come to this table.
SPEAKER_00: And you're going to have something that you can hold and taste and eat.
SPEAKER_00: And this table is not just a memorial.
SPEAKER_00: Memorials are for dead people.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus is spiritually present at this table.
SPEAKER_00: And he feeds us spiritually every single week.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a symbol of a distant God that we're reaching for.
SPEAKER_00: This table is proof that God is already near and that he has reached for us.
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Verses nine and ten.
SPEAKER_00: Notice a couple things.
SPEAKER_00: Notice heart and mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Believe on the inside, so heart, say out loud, mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Real faith doesn't stay silent forever.
SPEAKER_00: So if you actually believe it, at some point you will say it.
SPEAKER_00: And what is it that we say?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't have time.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I did, but let me just say this.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what you're actually saying.
SPEAKER_00: Not Jesus is my busboy.
SPEAKER_00: Not Jesus is my helper to get me out of a jam.
SPEAKER_00: Not Jesus is my fire insurance and my ticket out.
SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 11 and 12 tell us exactly who that offer is open to.
SPEAKER_00: And get this.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've been tuning in, hear this.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.
SPEAKER_00: There is no distinction.
SPEAKER_00: For the same Lord is Lord, not just of some people, of all, bestowing his riches on all who call upon him.
SPEAKER_00: Wait just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, have you been here through Romans chapter 9?
SPEAKER_00: We're now saying everyone who believes.
SPEAKER_00: No distinction.
SPEAKER_00: All who call up on him.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't Paul just finish saying for an entire chapter that God's sovereignty chooses those who will receive mercy?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do with that?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the answer.
SPEAKER_00: Both are 100% true.
SPEAKER_00: Get your mind around that.
SPEAKER_00: God is 100% sovereign, and you are 100% responsible.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 9 explains why anyone would want to call on the name of the Lord in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: No one calls unless God has not first drawn them.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 2, faith is a gift.
SPEAKER_00: That's God's side.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what about us?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do?
SPEAKER_00: We call on him.
SPEAKER_00: The call itself, once it happens, has no qualifiers.
SPEAKER_00: Paul does not say with an asterisk, notice, he does not say, everyone who calls as long as they're on the elect list.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, everyone.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who calls will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: You are a hundred percent responsible to call on him and a hundred percent dependent on God to draw you there.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a contradiction to resolve.
SPEAKER_00: That is a paradox that the Bible holds side by side.
SPEAKER_00: And that is exactly what verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think Paul is driving this home, this idea of everyone.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: He comes stronger.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone, one more time, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Comprehensive, no exceptions, no fine prints, everyone.
SPEAKER_00: Jeffrey Dahmer.
SPEAKER_00: That name might sound familiar to some of you, but he was convicted of the most horrific and gruesome crimes in American history.
SPEAKER_00: If you know his story, he became a Christian while he was in prison.
SPEAKER_00: And after he became a Christian, he was killed by an inmate, but before then he had given his life to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He had been going to chapel, praying, reading his Bible, reading all sorts of Christian books.
SPEAKER_00: He said how sorry he was for what he had done.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I realize maybe not everyone will forgive me, but I know the one person in the world that will forgive me, and his name is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we hear a story like that, and what disturbs most people isn't the crime itself.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's disturbing, but everyone already knew he was a monster.
SPEAKER_00: You know what's disturbing is the conversion.
SPEAKER_00: A man like that, cleansed, forgiven, and welcomed, on the same terms as everyone else, friends, that is grace.
SPEAKER_00: It's the shocking reality of the grace that Paul is bringing to this church and bringing to us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And if our gut reaction to that is resistance, if our gut reaction is surely not him, God can't save people like that.
SPEAKER_00: If that is our reaction, please pay attention to that.
SPEAKER_00: Because that is a sign that you're focused on the wrong debt.
SPEAKER_00: Because I do this.
SPEAKER_00: The math in our head goes, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: This guy's a serial killer.
SPEAKER_00: Of course he needs a savior.
SPEAKER_00: But me?
SPEAKER_00: I've never done anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: I need a little small savior.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, it misses the math.
SPEAKER_00: That math misses the actual debt.
SPEAKER_00: Because every sin, yours included, is what put Jesus on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther is famous for saying, we carry his very nails around in our pockets.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning that we didn't need less saving than Jeffrey Dahmer.
SPEAKER_00: We needed just as much.
SPEAKER_00: And if that makes you mad, if that makes you angry, that is not something to shrug off.
SPEAKER_00: That is actually a warning light on the dashboard of your soul.
SPEAKER_00: If it makes you mad, slow down.
SPEAKER_00: Check what's under the hood.
SPEAKER_00: Get curious about your own heart because it's telling you something that some part of you still thinks that you're better than him.
SPEAKER_00: That some part of you thinks that your case is stronger.
SPEAKER_00: That is not righteousness, friends.
SPEAKER_00: That is self-righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Grace is radical.
SPEAKER_00: Grace is scandalous.
SPEAKER_00: And we better be very thankful because if it were not, then we would be in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: All of us.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this morning you're in the middle of a mess that you have made because of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: And you hear this and you say, Yes, but the everyone who calls, I'm the exception, that time has passed me by.
SPEAKER_00: It does not say everyone except you.
SPEAKER_00: Grace is deeper still.
SPEAKER_00: There is grace for you.
SPEAKER_00: Because that grace that Jesus offers you is a well that never runs dry.
SPEAKER_00: Come home.
SPEAKER_00: You're invited this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know Jesus, this is an invitation for you to come to Him.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to ask, you're not asked to prove anything.
SPEAKER_00: You're not being asked to get your life in order first and then come or to be sorry enough or to understand all these theological things before you come.
SPEAKER_00: No, you're being invited to call.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: Call on the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus help me.
SPEAKER_00: And you will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: He invites you, and he is near.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe this morning you're already a believer.
SPEAKER_00: And if that's you this morning, please know that we never get past this passage.
SPEAKER_00: We don't graduate from this.
SPEAKER_00: We don't move on.
SPEAKER_00: And the instinct, and I know the instinct because it's in my heart, the instinct is to build and to take credit and to be self-righteous and to manage our own case before God.
SPEAKER_00: And we struggle with that.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, that doesn't just go away the day that you are saved and give your life to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It just becomes more subtle in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And that is why the gospel is something that we don't just learn once and put on a shelf and move past it.
SPEAKER_00: We never get past it.
SPEAKER_00: It's the path that we walk every single day.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that we go back to over and over and over again for the rest of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Believe it again this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Get up tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what you do?
SPEAKER_00: Believe it again tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: You get up on Tuesday, you believe it again on Tuesday morning, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you that you are not far off.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us for the ways that we keep trying to earn what is already finished on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And Holy Spirit, if there's someone here that feels too far gone, would you move in them and convince them that your grace is deeper still?
SPEAKER_00: There's someone here that doesn't know you, give them faith.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you would give them faith to open their mouth and call on the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We ask these things in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.