When Bad News Is Good News.

Nate Schlomann

[0:00] Amen. We’ll go ahead and have a seat. My name is Nate. I’m one of the pastors here [0:05] at Village Church and once again we are really glad to see you here this morning. [0:09] But no, I’ve been in this passage in Romans 3 for several weeks now and so [0:12] I’m pretty excited to talk to you guys about what God would say to us here in [0:18] Romans. Paul has spent the last two chapters really since Romans 1-18 and [0:23] it’s been our last ten weeks actually as a church studying through Romans. Paul’s

[0:28] confronting us every which way with our guilt before God and our need for Jesus. [0:32] That’s pretty much been in one way or another that’s been the theme each and [0:35] every week. And now here in Romans 3 in these these 12 verses from verses 9 to [0:40] 20, this is basically Paul’s final closing argument for how badly we need [0:45] Jesus and how hopelessly we find ourselves in sin. And what I want to do [0:50] this morning is what I believe Paul’s doing in these verses and that’s making

[0:54] sure that we understand that this very bad news is actually in the end very [0:58] good news for us because we could just read these verses Romans 9 through 20 and [1:02] and just read those verses alone and just be left with kind of a very [1:05] depressed feeling. Jeez Paul, how are you gonna leave us alone about how bad our [1:09] sin is? We get it already. But the thing is that’s not the end of the story and [1:14] that’s not Paul’s reason for spending all this time laying out how sinful we

[1:19] really are. The reason that Paul’s doing that is not to depress us. He’s doing [1:23] that because he wants to get to the good news and he wants us to really kind [1:27] of understand why the good news is so good. And so when we get into this we’re [1:32] gonna talk a little bit about that idea. How is understanding how this bad [1:36] news is actually what we need to hear in order to understand that very good news [1:41] that’s about to come for us in verse 21. So we’re not gonna quite get there today.

[1:45] One more week of bad news. Sorry I gotta tell you that. But next week it’s gonna [1:49] be a whole lot of good news week after week after week after week. So looking [1:54] forward to that. But let’s start here in verse 9 in Romans chapter 3. Paul says [2:00] what then? Are we Jews any better off? No not at all for we have already charged [2:06] that all both Jews and Greeks are under sin as it is written. None is righteous. [2:11] No not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. So right there at the

[2:17] beginning Paul asked a really quick question that I want to kind of hone in [2:21] on a little bit. He says are we any better off? And he’s talking about the [2:25] Jews, him and the Jewish people. And if you’ll recall just two weeks ago at the [2:29] beginning of Romans chapter 3 we talked about this idea of what advantage is it [2:33] to to be among the people of God. And for Paul what advantage was it to be a Jew? [2:37] And he would say it was much advantage. He had the revelation of God. He had the

[2:42] law. He grew up knowing and hearing about the true God. And so Paul said that was [2:47] very much a real advantage. It’s far better to know truth about God than to [2:52] not know truth. But those advantages don’t put us in any better place or [2:56] standing before God. And that’s the point that Paul’s trying to make here. [3:00] Did the Jews as the people of God had a real advantage in knowing the truth of [3:04] God and then from a young age hearing about God? Of course they did. Do kids

[3:09] growing up in the church and you know Bible believing church have an advantage [3:13] in hearing about Jesus from birth and hearing about the truth of God? Of course [3:16] they do. We’re counting on the fact that our kids have a real advantage in that. [3:20] But the key is is that without faith that advantage is worth nothing. [3:26] The truth of the matter is that the church kid with no faith in Jesus may [3:30] have all kinds of advantages growing up but he’s no better off than the farthest

[3:34] person from God at the end of the day if he does not have faith in Jesus. And so [3:39] our advantage doesn’t make us any better than anyone else. And that’s really what [3:43] Paul is keying in on here. We need to be saved the same way everyone else does. [3:47] And you’re gonna find in these verses that idea that we’re no better than [3:50] everyone else. Everyone is in the same boat. That is really the point that Paul [3:55] is trying to make. He’s trying to put us all on the same level playing field in

[3:59] terms of our need for Jesus. So don’t miss the significance of Paul just [4:04] leveling everyone here and he’s gonna keep doing that through all 12 of these [4:07] verses. My first point this morning is we need to fully see that it’s bad news [4:12] that we’re all under sin and it’s equally bad news for everyone. Think back [4:17] to every person and issue that we’ve discussed so far in Romans. From people [4:22] who don’t know or acknowledge God at all. Then in chapter 1 he talks about all

[4:26] kinds of sexual sins towards the end of chapter 1 he’s just got a laundry list [4:30] of things that we do to offend God including murder and inventing even new [4:34] kinds of evil he says. And then in chapter 2 Paul starts to talk about the [4:39] who knows what he should do but still doesn’t do it anyway like we all do. He [4:44] talks about the religious person who’s got revelation from God knows what God [4:47] would want but still doesn’t do that just like we all do. And so Paul is just

[4:51] going through all these different kinds of people and showing how [4:55] they fall short of what God would want for them. And realize in verse 9 here [5:00] Paul is taking everyone that he’s talked about thus far and he’s lumping us all [5:03] together. We’re all in the same boat. We’re under sin. That phrase there. We’re all [5:07] under sin. And Paul’s gonna say several times in Romans and elsewhere none of us [5:12] have any room for boasting. We’re all together under sin. And when Christians

[5:18] talk about sin if they know what they’re talking about if they talk about sin in [5:21] the way that the Bible does we’re not talking about some category of lesser [5:26] people. Paul says all people are under sin. Everyone. And I think way too [5:30] often when people outside the church hear Christians talk about sin they hear [5:35] Christians say that we need to talk about sin and not ignore it. Oftentimes [5:38] you get the idea that we’re talking about kind of a lesser class of icky

[5:42] people who do bad things and kind of people who sin or people that do bad [5:46] things and good people don’t really sin that much and they kind of get this idea [5:50] that sin is just a lesser class of people and we need to really work [5:54] hard to make sure that people understand that when Christians talk about sin we’re [5:58] not talking about a class of people at all. We’re talking about a very real [6:02] condition of all people because really what’s behind this for Paul is that sin

[6:08] is the great equalizer. Yes sin is very bad news but it’s very bad news for [6:13] absolutely everyone. So there’s actually some democratization going on here and [6:18] that everyone no matter what they think of themselves Paul says is equally under [6:22] sin. It’s getting equal bad news. We’re all in the same boat. No one’s better off [6:27] than any other person at the end of the day even though we’re coming from very [6:30] different backgrounds and situations and Paul needs to level us all just to the

[6:35] same position here and the reason that he needs to do that is because he’s got [6:39] to get us all to the point where we understand that we have the same exact [6:42] need for a Savior and that’s really been his goal from Romans 1 18 right [6:47] till now. Get us all in the same position of realizing we need Jesus in the same [6:51] way. One more thing I want to look at from this section of verses here is just [6:58] something that Paul said there in verse 10 he says none is righteous no not one

[7:03] no one understands no one seeks for God. None of us are righteous enough to be [7:09] reconciled to God. I think on on on its face we kind of get that we get the idea [7:14] yeah I’m not righteous enough to be reconciled to God if we had any [7:17] experience in church at all but then Paul goes further and he says that no one [7:21] understands God no one seeks for God. So how can that be true I mean certainly [7:26] seems like we understand some things about God. It certainly feel like some of

[7:31] us seek for God I mean almost everyone in here I think why are you here if you [7:34] have never seeked God so it doesn’t even Matthew say if you seek God you’re gonna [7:38] find him. What Paul’s talking about here in verse 11 is that no one naturally [7:44] seeks after God no one seeks or understands God without the work of the [7:48] Holy Spirit in their life showing him to them and the issue is is even in all our [7:53] seeking all our attempts at understanding without the gift of faith from God our

[7:57] understanding is too limited for us to ever be reconciled to God and that’s the [8:02] only thing that actually matters our seeking is in the end of the day [8:05] self-centered because the truth is people seek ultimately what they can get from [8:10] God people seek comfort they seek peace they seek hope all good things but what [8:15] people need to be seeking is God himself and without the Holy Spirit in our lives [8:20] without faith we’re not seeking God himself on his own terms which is what

[8:24] we really need that’s what we have to remember here Paul’s point is to show us [8:29] that apart from God intervening in the situation through Jesus apart from the [8:33] Holy Spirit opening our darkened eyes to see we really do together everyone have [8:38] no hope being under sin is very bad news and it’s bad news for absolutely everyone [8:44] we’re all in the same boat that’s what Paul wants us to see here all right let’s [8:49] move on and look at this next session the verses here we’re gonna fly through

[8:52] these pretty quickly so that we can get to the last few verses where we’ll spend [8:56] a little bit more time but actually starting back in in verse 10 but we’re [9:00] gonna go through 18 but Paul’s been quoting from the Old Testament here and [9:03] so picking up I’m gonna start in verse 12 and these are actually just almost [9:07] all one line quotes from the Old Testament all have turned aside together [9:12] they have become worthless no one does good not even one their throat is an

[9:17] open grave they use their tongue to deceive the venom of asps is under [9:20] their lips their mouth is full of curses and bitterness their feet are swift to [9:25] shed blood in their paths are ruined in misery and the way of peace they have [9:29] not known there is no fear of God before their eyes like I said these these are [9:34] all sections from the Old Testament I want to kind of take a detour here for [9:38] just one quick second and kind of point something out because what Paul’s doing

[9:42] actually here is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he’s actually cutting [9:46] and pasting lots of different passages mostly from Psalms and Isaiah and Paul’s [9:51] doing that to just kind of really put before us this is who you are people [9:56] this this is your sin this is what it looks like and so he’s taking all these [10:00] passages from the Old Testament and for most of Romans Paul has been making the [10:06] case that everyone is a sinner separated from God we saw this at the beginning of

[10:11] Romans we don’t recognize God in nature then after that we saw we don’t [10:14] recognize our consciences which tell us God is there we’re self-righteous and we [10:19] have the example of the law in Israel so Paul is giving all these very well [10:24] seasoned argued cases for why everyone’s under sin but when he gets to his final [10:28] this is it his final argument for while why all people understand where does he [10:33] turn to he quotes scripture I mean to Paul the final best argument to tell you

[10:38] that all people are under sin is the Bible says so it really is and so I just [10:42] to point that out the importance of that because even just a couple weeks ago we [10:46] talked in here about how important it is that the word of God is our final [10:50] authority and if we go to any other kind of reason or logic that would mean more [10:54] to us than in God’s Word if this is the Word of God as we say it is if we go to [10:59] any other source to prove a point we’re saying that that is in the end our

[11:02] authority and so I really think there’s something we should notice here that for [11:06] Paul after all his arguments and he had some good ones and he pretty much had [11:11] already gotten everyone you know under sin you weren’t really gonna get your [11:15] way out of that and everything he’s already said up till now but his best [11:17] final argument is the Bible says we’re all under sin and so the authority of [11:23] scripture is ultimately how we know that this is true and that this is necessary

[11:28] for us to pay attention to and to think about so that’s a little detour there but [11:32] I thought it was important looking back at this section of verses though 12 [11:36] through 18 it’s really not getting any better for us is it sin not only [11:42] separates us from God but sin also makes our life worse and worse and worse as it [11:47] progresses and so the next point I want to focus in on this morning is that sin [11:51] progressively ruins your life nice nice feel-good idea there but Paul wants to

[11:58] hit us hard and he wants to do it so that we’re ready to see Jesus again don’t [12:03] forget this is Paul’s final argument of how bad sin is and why we need to be [12:07] looking for rescue notice the progression of sin here that Paul briefly [12:12] lays out sin goes from a rebellion against God to a corruption of what’s on [12:17] the inside and then which leads to what we say and ultimately leads to actions [12:21] that we take so sin gets you further and further away from a repentant heart and

[12:26] I’m not gonna spend a ton of time going through each one of these verses we’re [12:29] gonna carefully dissect each one but I just want to briefly walk through that [12:33] progression with you in verse 11 we start to see a rebellion against the [12:38] Creator who we were made for that’s where no one understands no one seeks God [12:41] we’ve already talked about that we turn away from God we do no good and then [12:46] verse 12 says that that turning away from God makes us worthless and the truth

[12:50] is when we don’t have God in our life the one we were created to serve and [12:54] worship and follow any other pursuit that we’re gonna go after is in the end [12:58] anything that we are about is meaningless sin affects us on the inside [13:03] and turning us away from God and then what’s on the inside it starts to come [13:08] out we see in in verses 13 and 14 it starts to come out and what we say how [13:13] we speak life and not we speak death and not life and that’s not always an

[13:18] intentional thing of course we we say good things we try to be nice but it [13:23] goes back to that root issue you know if our life is not about God we don’t have [13:27] life in us to give you know if our life if we don’t understand the purposes of [13:31] God and what he has for the world nothing that we say is gonna be life [13:36] giving at all we’re not moving anyone any closer to God and then eventually we [13:40] see there at the end of 14 it always results in bitterness when we’re not

[13:45] living like we’re supposed to with God verses 15 and 17 we kind of see the [13:50] final result of actually this coming out in our actions and God apart from God [13:56] whether intentionally or unintentionally truth is to sum all this up we leave a [14:01] path of destruction in our wake no one’s getting any closer to God through our [14:05] life because we don’t know him and so that’s the path that sin takes through [14:10] our life and he says there the end of verse 17 there’s there’s no peace to be

[14:14] found and look how Paul wraps it up in verse 18 because he just brings it kind [14:19] of full circle all the way back to God he says we have no fear of God we’ve got [14:22] no recognition that our whole reason for being that what we were created to [14:27] do was to love and serve God and what we really need to see from this section of [14:31] verses is that scripture says the reason that all people are sinful is that [14:36] they’re in rebellion against God like that’s the root issue and all the other

[14:39] things that we do or don’t do or ultimately just a result of that issue [14:43] when you don’t acknowledge God your life one way or another is headed for ruin I [14:49] want to focus in before we leave this section of verses though on just one key [14:53] part that it’s pretty critical for the point the overall point that Paul is [14:57] trying to make here look back in verse 12 and Paul says this he says no one [15:03] does good not even one so let’s talk about that for a minute because you know

[15:09] you kind of read past that and it’s yeah he’s he’s really trying to beat us up on [15:13] our sin here but really no one does good is that is that true because it sure [15:18] feels like we do good sometimes right I mean certainly we do good things from [15:23] time to time some people do a lot of good things you might even go far so far [15:27] to say everybody has at some point or another done something good so how can [15:31] Paul say that no one does good well tell you he’s not speaking in hyper bowl he’s

[15:36] not just saying no one does good just for dramatics even though he knows that [15:40] yeah some people do some good that’s not what he’s getting at he’s actually [15:43] talking about a different kind of good here all together he’s talking about a [15:47] deep-rooted kind of good that will earn us favor with God and on that account we [15:52] do fall short even our very best good deeds in and of themselves bring us no [15:57] closer to God because they’re coming from an ultimately sinful heart with

[16:01] ultimately sinful motivations and so that’s the kind of good Paul’s talking [16:05] about his concern is are we gonna live for our Creator and in terms of that we [16:09] don’t do any good like we don’t do any anything that could earn us any favor [16:13] with God whatsoever theologians actually call this idea total depravity [16:19] and that’s a very dramatic term for what’s just a basic biblical idea it’s [16:24] this idea that we have nothing in ourself that is good to offer God and

[16:27] that doesn’t mean that we do all the bad that we can possibly do it doesn’t mean [16:33] that but it total depravity means that every part of our being is corrupted by [16:37] sin and so that even our seemingly good acts are unable to please God apart from [16:43] the work of the Holy Spirit in us and so why does this matter like why is it [16:48] important that Paul is bringing this point out that really we’re capable of [16:52] no good in terms of getting to God why does a doctrine like total depravity

[16:57] matter and it’s an issue of how we view the world and our place in it because [17:01] it would be popular to view the world as saying that most people are basically [17:05] good people who sometimes happen to do bad things and Paul in the testimony of [17:10] all scripture would actually say quite the opposite he’d say people have a [17:15] core problem we have sin we are at our core sinful and bad even though [17:20] sometimes we do by the grace of God do good things and some people can even do

[17:25] a lot of good things things that really help people but apart from God all our

[17:31] and this idea matters for two reasons the first reason we’ve already talked [17:36] about some and that’s that this idea of having no good that we can do that will [17:41] bring us closer to God levels all of humanity on the same playing field it [17:46] gives us no reason to boast amongst each other we don’t have any reason to think [17:51] that we’re better than anyone else because whatever you may have done or I [17:54] may have done none of us are good enough to get to God and that is really a

[17:58] important part of what Paul is trying to get across in almost all of Romans up [18:03] until now none of us are on any special footing compared to the other but the [18:09] second reason that this matters and we’ve got to understand that we can do [18:12] no good on our own is because it forces us to stop trying to clean ourselves up [18:17] and to look to God for our rescue and this is really going to be the focus of [18:21] the last two verses here that we’re going to look at Paul is trying to get

[18:25] to the point where we stop trying to clean ourselves up and we look to God [18:29] and that’s that’s been his intention since Romans 1 18 you can’t fix it [18:34] yourself you need Jesus and so understanding that no good deed that we [18:39] can do is just driving that point home for Paul I go ahead and look now in [18:45] verses 19 and 20 and this is where we’ll kind of camp out for the rest of our [18:50] time this morning Paul says here now we know that whatever the law says it

[18:57] speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the [19:02] whole world may be held accountable to God for by works of the law no human [19:06] being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of [19:12] sin so he says the whole world is accountable to God and why is that well [19:17] first of all for everything he’s just said in the last two chapters of Romans [19:21] the last ten weeks of our study together but specifically here Paul’s bringing up

[19:25] the point that if Israel the people of God could not be saved by the law they [19:31] were given direct revelation from God and they still couldn’t be saved by the [19:34] law if they couldn’t be then no one can be and we’re all accountable to God Paul [19:41] wants us to see finally and he’s kind of closing argument here in case anyone had [19:45] any doubt that the law can’t save us the law can only expose us when Paul says [19:51] there that through the law comes the knowledge of sin keep in mind that he’s

[19:55] not saying that the law tells us what is and isn’t sin all right the law is not [20:00] that specific it’s quite long but it’s not that specific that’s not what Paul [20:04] saying what Paul saying is that the law exposes the sin in our own hearts he’s [20:09] saying the presence of the law reveals our deep-rooted sinfulness then you’ll [20:15] never get right with God following the rules is the point that Paul’s trying to [20:19] get us to understand here and that’s not how change works because all of us are

[20:23] looking we know that we need to change we know that we need to be closer to God [20:28] we need to be following him more and Paul says that’s not how change works [20:32] because the law only reveals our sinfulness and in the end it kills us [20:35] because we could never live up to it so God has to make us right first and then [20:40] we change because of the work he’s done in us change always has to come out of [20:45] worship of God because he’s what he’s done it change never comes out of guilt

[20:49] or shame or insecurity about who we are because we can’t fix who we are and the [20:54] law is supposed to make us see clearly and finally that we can’t fix who we are [21:00] law is supposed to make us understand that our only option is faith faith that [21:05] in Jesus God’s made us right that God’s fixed our problem that the best news in [21:09] the world is that it wasn’t us up to us to figure it out or fix it because we [21:13] never could have and we’ve seen a lot of bad news in Romans to get to this point

[21:18] you know Paul again go back through the last 10 weeks of sermons he’s been [21:22] hitting us every which way with seeing that we can never live up to what we [21:28] need to to get right with God but Paul’s brought us to this point because he [21:33] wants to see we all have the same problem and God has the same solution for [21:38] everyone all of this bad news because of that ultimately becomes good news that’s [21:43] the last thing I want to talk about this morning it’s good news that we can’t

[21:46] save ourselves that is the best news in the world that we cannot save ourselves [21:51] it’s good news that everyone has the same fatal sickness of sin because [21:55] everyone also has the same perfect cure in Jesus and the reason that that bad [22:01] news can be such good news is because of grace because that is available to [22:05] everyone for free that’s why Paul was so concerned to level everyone in the same [22:09] position you don’t want anyone to think that they were going to miss out on this

[22:12] he didn’t want anyone to think that they didn’t need it he spent all this time in [22:17] all these ways saying you are in the same position before God because he [22:20] wanted us to see that we all need the exact same cure in Jesus I want to read [22:26] a few verses that really succinctly kind of bring this this idea together we all [22:30] have the same sickness of sin we all need the same cure in Jesus first [22:34] Corinthians 1522 and it will be up on the screen really quickly succinctly Paul

[22:40] says this for as an atom all die so also in Christ shall all be made alive [22:46] so he’s showing there we have one problem we have one cure for that [22:50] problem and he expands on that a little bit more in Romans chapter 5 later on [22:55] and and we’ll get to this oh good four or five months he says therefore as one [23:02] trespass led to condemnation for all men so one act of righteousness leads to [23:07] justification in life for all men for as by one man’s disobedience the many

[23:12] were made sinners so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous [23:17] you see what Paul’s been doing he’s got to get us to see that we all have the [23:21] same problem and we all need the same Savior we had a lot of bad news in the [23:25] last few chapters of Romans but it does no good to be hung up on being sick when [23:31] everyone can equally be well the reason that Paul spent so much time telling us [23:35] the bad news is so that we’ll understand how much we need the remedy

[23:39] and we’ll take it but more than that understand that this is God working [23:43] through the Apostle Paul in his word and God wants us to take this cure in Jesus [23:48] hear the heart of God in this God wants us to accept Jesus and be saved because [23:55] want to leave any room for anyone to think that things aren’t really that bad [23:59] and that they don’t need Jesus because he knows that they do it’s good news that [24:03] we can’t save ourselves I look back at Romans 3 again Paul says in verse 19 this

[24:10] phrase that I really want us to spend some time thinking about because I think [24:14] it’s so important he says every mouth will be stopped before God see this whole [24:20] business that we’ve been on these last 10 weeks spending all this time pointing [24:24] out how sinful we are all right I know it’s it’s not been fun all the way [24:28] through but all that is to show us that God sees us fully for who we really are [24:33] and we have nothing more to say back to him in our defense every mouth is

[24:37] stopped before God and that would be a terrifying idea if it wasn’t before the [24:43] guy that gave his own son to save us so there’s nothing more freeing than being [24:48] completely known and completely seen and completely understood and then in the [24:53] face of that being completely loved and completely accepted and only Jesus can [24:58] offer that and that’s what God does offer him Jesus and we have to go through [25:03] things like total depravity and all these few chapters in Romans and seeing

[25:07] our sin for what it really truly is and all its ugliness to get to that point of [25:12] being stopped before God this is God seeing us for who we really are hopeless [25:17] we understand and if we’re honest we do know that that’s true I mean it’s written [25:23] on our hearts that it’s true we know we don’t really seek God for his own sake [25:26] we don’t fear God left to ourselves we end up leaving paths of destruction in [25:32] our wake and so Paul says there that every mouth may be stopped to have faith

[25:38] you have to come to a point where you’re silenced before God with no more [25:43] excuses left to be made no more promises to do better next time no more second [25:49] chances do you know that our God is not a god of second chances that gives the [25:54] idea that all we need is just one more opportunity to try again it’s one more [25:58] give me another chance God and I’ll do better this time and you won’t you won’t [26:02] ever do better our God’s not in the chance business though our God makes

[26:06] dead people alive once and for all no more chances are needed that is the [26:12] gospel that’s what makes us Christian that idea there’s not enough second [26:16] chances to save you so you’re gonna blow it each and every time but my fear in [26:21] going through some of this is some of you are still trying and failing to do [26:24] better you’re trying and failing you’re trying and failing and at the end of the [26:28] day what you need to do is you need to see these words in Romans 3 you need to

[26:32] give up you’re never gonna make yourself better you don’t have the ability on [26:36] your own to do good and to understand God and to seek God you need to let that [26:41] sink in that every mouth may be stopped we got to stop running our mouths to [26:47] God we got to stop holding on to things stop trying to prove ourselves stop [26:52] trying to defend ourselves we just have to stop because God sees us for exactly [26:56] who we are and we’re accountable to him and no one else and it’s at that very

[27:00] moment when we’re silenced before God we have nothing left to say back to him [27:04] because we have understood the weight of our sin and we say but what about this [27:09] guy and we don’t have anything we say what what about that God and we’ve got [27:13] nothing left to say and we say but God but wait and we’re silenced before him [27:18] we have nothing left it’s at that very moment when God intervenes and there in [27:22] verse 21 God says but wait now the righteousness of God is available in

[27:27] Jesus and when we were completely out of options God brings us the only option [27:33] that really matters he says you can have my righteousness and I will accept you [27:39] because of the sacrifice of my son that says he sees us completely for who we [27:43] are and he offers us unmatched love in the face of that so we’ve got to get to [27:48] this point here where Paul is at the middle of chapter 3 here right before [27:54] verse 21 it’s just gonna get so much better he just tells us what Jesus has

[27:59] done but we’ve got to get to that point right there where we’re silenced before [28:02] God in order to have faith and that’s just where Paul’s brought us that’s the [28:07] journey that we’ve been on these past ten weeks and faith is believing that what [28:11] God says is true faith is believing that we’ve got nothing left to say to God [28:16] we’re under sin we’re unable to be reconciled to him on our own and faith [28:20] is believing that God’s made a way in Jesus and that there’s nothing more we

[28:24] need to do other than believe and follow so it’s only after it’s only after we’ve [28:30] been brought to that point of being silenced and quieted before God that we [28:35] can have faith and that his and we can have his righteousness through Jesus and [28:39] it’s only after that we can actually start to change because I know that’s [28:42] what we’re looking for change happens after faith not before change doesn’t [28:47] happen from trying to do better change happens from living in the reality of

[28:50] what God has done for us change happens when we start to live a life of worship [28:55] in response to what God did when we were out of options when our whole life [29:00] becomes about God’s mission not because we’re earning anything or finding any [29:04] favor with God but because God saved us and now we know he wants to save more [29:09] that’s when change starts to happen we all have the same problem and we all [29:13] need the same cure in Jesus and when we meet him that’s when change happens our

[29:19] hearts never change by trying harder our hearts only change by worshiping the God [29:25] they were made to worship and at the end of the day that is the point where Paul [29:29] is really taking us here in Romans 3 for some of you the reason that you’re not [29:35] changing your life like you want to see maybe that you’ve just never been [29:40] silenced before God you still think you’ve got something to work at you still [29:45] think you have something maybe if you just try a little bit harder you can

[29:48] bring to him and it may be that you’re seeking what you can get from God and [29:52] you’re not seeking God himself all those things would say that you don’t really [29:56] have faith and these verses here in Romans 3 are Paul’s final plea to you [30:01] that you cannot do this on your own you need to be silenced before God you’re [30:07] not good and there’s nothing you can do to get good you can’t do anything to get [30:12] to God you just got to have faith and then the change can come you have to

[30:16] have faith that Jesus has already been good for us that’s what we’re about to [30:20] see in verse 21 I can’t really go there yet I got to say that for Steve next [30:24] week it’s been now 11 weeks of bad news but it’s gonna be a whole lot of weeks [30:30] of really really good news going forward and that’s the gospel and I [30:35] can’t wait as the band comes up we’re gonna move now into a time of communion [30:41] and if you’ve experienced being silenced before God like we’re talking about it

[30:46] if you’ve had faith in him these tables are open to you I mean this means [30:50] something to you this is the time when you come and reflect on that price Jesus [30:54] paid so that you could be saved when you were out of options but if you’ve not [30:59] experienced that the one thing that I would want to say to you is you don’t [31:02] have to wait till next week you can read ahead just read verse 21 right there you [31:06] can know him you can be silenced and and if you would like to this morning take

[31:11] communion for the first time when it could mean something just pray just talk [31:15] to him come talk to me I’ll be over there there will be people in the foyer [31:19] we would love to talk to you right now let me pray for us real quick father we [31:24] thank you for how clearly you see us God and then right at that moment when we [31:31] have no other option God that’s when you give us Jesus thank you for that