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I started off the morning by dropping a pick inside of my guitar, but I have an extra one. Good story. Hey. Why don't we stand up? I wanna share a verse with you.
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It's from Psalm 51, and it says, restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. It's a it's it's a prayer asking God, hey. Would you restore to me the joy? You know, do you ever remember getting saved and and really be feeling... Just feeling, like, very filled up with joy?
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And then sometimes along the way, it sort of fades. And this is a prayer or plea to say, God, would you restore that again?
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Alright, God. I'm running for your heart. God, I'm running for your heart, running for your heart till I am a soul on fire. Lord, I'm long for your ways waiting for the day when I am a soul on fire. When I am a soul on fire.
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Good.
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Let's sing that chorus again,
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shall we? Waited for the day when I am a soul on fire. Hell, I am a soul on side. Lord, restore the joy I am. When I wonder, bring me back in this darkness, lead me through.
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Hell, I am a soul on fire. Lord, let me burn. Lord, let me burn for you again. Let me return to you again. Let me return to you again.
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Let's sing that again. Okay? Lord, let me burn for you again. Lord, let me for you again. Let me return to you.
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Let me return to you again. God, I'm running for your heart. God, I'm running for your heart, running for your heart till I am a soul on Amen. Are you awake yet? Alright.
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Good. Good. Now, you can have a seat.
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Amen. Good morning. How is everybody?
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Good. Good.
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Is this thing working? Yeah. Good. So, I've got a few announcements, not a whole lot of em but Awana happens every Monday night right here in this room because kids matter to God. It's really really good time.
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Pour in scripture into the hearts and minds of kids. Happens at 06:00 which is the same time as Monday nights at first B happens down the hall in the fellowship hall. We get together, have meal, music, and a message. Tomorrow is potluck night. So, bring something with you and we'll get together and have a a good meal, good music, and then Carl is starting.
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Message this week is going be on Nehemiah. So, we're going OT, Old Testament. The baby bottle campaign from Turning Point. If y'all are wondering why there are bunches of empty baby bottles in the back back there, turning point is again, doing this baby bottle campaign and they have a goal of $25.00 bucks this year which is a lot more than last year and last year was a lot more than the year before and God has supplied through his obedient children. So, the connect hour happens every Sunday between services.
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So, that's happening down in the fellowship hall. There's coffee and donuts and probably fruit and granola too for all of y'all who think better of your selves than I do. The young adults and that's loosely defined as 20 twenties to thirties. Young adult trip to the Pinedale Rec Center is happening. That is next Sunday.
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It's not a misprint. March 13 is a Sunday. That's a week from today and if you want to go on that, meet in the church parking lot at eleven when we're cranking up for the second traditional service in here. Y'all will be heading off carpool. I'm not sure if that was intended to be a pun, but it is.
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And you are going down to the pool at the Pinedale Rec Center. So that is... And if you wanna see anybody about that, Chris Darren is the guy. Chris in here?
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A lot like me.
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Hey, there you go. Perfect. Alright.
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Right
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on cue. Never mind. Twin brothers and improv comedians. My goodness. This is happening a week from Tuesday, March 15 down at River Crossing.
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Their band and our band are going to get together and we're going to play several songs, a part in several songs together on a worship night exclusively just hanging out and praising Jesus together. So, if you want to be a part of that, it starts at seven, seven to eight thirtyish is a worship night and we're prepping for it and looking forward to it and that's all announcements I have. If you would, stand up, greet one another warmly, hugs, high fives, handshakes. We'll bring you back together with a song.
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Come now found. Now found. Whoop. Whoop. Whoop.
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Whoop. I pulled a Renzi,
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and you didn't notice. That's good.
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Alright. Come now found. Love. And and supposed his precious blood. Oh, to grace and, oh, to grace how great a but still you love me.
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Forever my heart will sing of how great Beautiful and free, beautiful and free, song of galaxies
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Lord, we are here just to to to say you are great. You are strong. You are mighty. You are holy. You are our God, our creator, and our sustainer.
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And we are here to worship you and adore you and give you praise and honor. And, Lord, would you, right now, would you would you cleanse our hearts? Would you kinda clean clean us, make us clean here? You have through your sacrificial death, through your... And through your resurrection.
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But, God, along the way, we just... We get dirty hands, and I'm I'm praying that you would cleanse us. You set our sights back on you again because you truly are our good, good father. And we just wanna spend time with you. We wanna sing to you and proclaim that.
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Amen.
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I heard a thousand stories of what they think you're light but I heard the tender whisper of love in a good, good father. It's who you are.
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It's who you are. It's who you are.
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I'm loved by you.
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It's who I am. Are. It's who I am. It's who I am.
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I'm certain many searching for answers. Far and wide, but I know we're all searching for answers. Only you, Brodie, because you know just what we need before we say words. A good, good father. You're a good, good father.
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It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who you are. And I'm loved by you. It's who I am.
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It's who I
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am. You're perfect. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways
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sing that bridge again, can God, it's it's true. We sing it, but we really truly believe it too. You are a good, good father. And I think of the verse from Matthew. Your parents, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, you give them a stone.
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I know I'm a parent, and I'm not gonna do that. And how much better, how much greater are you as a father than I am, that you would give good gifts to your children. And here is a... Is an opportunity for us just to say thank thank you, and and we give back to you. And we just acknowledge, God, that you are the giver of of all good gifts.
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And as we enjoy them, help us to live life with an open hand, would you? We pray in Christ's name. Amen.
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Now's the time. Kiddos, heading out to Peak Children's Church. Gracious. If y'all are sitting in the back and you want to sit closer upfront, you're welcome to. They just felt took a whole lot of folks just left out.
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There are plenty of poor space upfront now. We are up to Romans two one and we're gonna linger on two one for a few minutes but we're up to this place and I've I've told you, I think it was three weeks ago, we did a context sermon where I covered two chapters and two verses. So, a long, long sermon. Covered that as far as context so we could see what Paul was doing. Hopefully, and then we're coming back systematically and going through that.
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Now, we're still walking in the deep mud and this is still the bad news. A lot of this sermon is gonna be about the condition of humanity, all humanity. So, we're going through that together and if you wonder who it's about, Paul is very specific and he gets to it. Oh, man. Okay?
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I'm going to use the King James version to start off this morning because it it says this, oh man, okay? Therefore, thou art inexcusable, oh man, and this includes women too, alright? Who are... Whosoever thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest, doest the same things.
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Now, last week, we dealt with sin. My goodness, sin, sin, sin. There were some biggies that we see today and then there were some biggies that hopefully after the sermon, we saw them today too but there are 21 in a row not to mention the beginning passage up there about homosexuality. So, 22 sins in a row straight that hit us all pretty hard. After the sermon last week, Florine said, you put us all in the same bucket.
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We are all in the same bucket, okay? And if you thought that, well, I grew up in church. I've never done any that stuff myself. I am not that. Then, Paul wants to hit you too again, okay?
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And he starts off in two one with, oh man. So, he's directed it. He already said, thou and then, oh man, and thou means you, for those of you who don't speak that kind of language. Who is this man? So, to start off with, I'm gonna say it is men and women but who is it that he's speaking to in particular?
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In our in our history lesson at the beginning of this and talking about Paul at the beginning of this series on Romans, We went through the history of the church in Rome. He had never been there before and it was comprised of both Jewish Christians, Jewish flavored Christians, and Gentile Christians. The Jews had been kicked out of Rome by one of the emperors, Claudius had kind of pushed them out, the Jewish Christian leaders and so, they left and then when Claudius was out, they came back, trickled back in, and they found the church that they didn't really recognize. It didn't have the same Jewish character that it had before but it taken on a Gentile feel and so, Paul in anticipation of this, many believe was writing back to the church at Rome. I think that it could be irreligious and religious or pagan and religious people or really pagan pagans, hiddens, and legalistic religious folk.
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That's who he's writing back to or he's writing to. He's never been there before. So, who is this man? There's in this different schools of thought say that he is writing particularly in chapter two to the Jews. Flat out, it's to the Jews and in verse 17, he says, Jews, he names them.
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There's no doubt about it. He names who they are but in this first section, some people would argue that he's not writing just to use Jews but also he is writing it to the good pagan, to the morally upright, upstanding pagan. I don't think it matters. Flatly, I don't think it matters who's writing to because we're reading it today, right? And so, he is definitely writing to those who take comfort in their own religiosity and that includes some of us.
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If if you were brought up in church, you're probably more likely to be this way but not, it's not exclusive. Sometimes, people come out of one ditch of legalism and license. They're brought up that way and then when they veer back up onto the good old gospel road, they overshoot and go off in the other ditch of legalism. So, if you're trusting in anything besides Jesus, Paul's talking to you, okay? Either way.
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Now, the last one was all about sin and this one is all about legalism. So, who is this man? I'm gonna say, look at this, read it for yourself. Last week, I asked for an honest self evaluation. I highlighted the different words that you might wanna consider.
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Therefore, well, in the therefore, where, how far does that go back? Therefore, goes back to 01/16. All the way up to 132, all through all that sin. So, it includes the gospel, the goodness of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of it.
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It's the power unto salvation for all who believe but it also goes forward through all that list of 22 sins in a row that we covered last week. That's what the therefore. He's saying, the gospel is good but all of us are bad and I think last week, he was including all of us. It wasn't just the Gentiles. It wasn't just the Heathens.
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Wasn't just the pagans. Heathen actually just means nation. Y'all know that, right? It just means the nations. Other than Jewish.
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So, if you are other than Jewish, you're Gentiles. Last week pretty much covered us all. Therefore, thou, you. So, honest self evaluation, I had to sit with this all week in my study myself. You are inexcusable.
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Ain't no excuse for you. That was an old old one my brother liked a lot too. Somebody would say, excuse me, he'd say, no excuse for you. They are inexcusable, oh man. Whosoever thou art that judgest.
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Do we all judge other people? Yes. Whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou, again, it's you, judgest another. Thou condemnest thyself. You yourself.
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It's very specific and heavy, I think, because you can't say, but I trusted in Jesus when I was a little bitty. Yeah. Paul is making the groundwork. He's building building a building here and this is the foundation of it. Thou art inexcusable, oh man.
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Whosoever thou art that judges for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest, doest the same things. So he's just given us the list of those things. So who is this man? I heard from a buddy of mine who is...
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Has been sober for many, many years now, but he went through Alcoholics Anonymous. He sponsors people still and he goes through it and one of his favorite refrains is this, it ain't them. Okay, when they when somebody starts complaining and said, but my wife did so and so and this happened and that happened, he goes, it ain't them. It's you. It ain't them.
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Oh, man.
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It ain't them. It's me. So, we've been using the New American Standard Version of the Bible. So, if you don't like the these and thous, it looks pretty much the same. Therefore, you have no excuse.
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Everyone of you who passes judgement for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. So, Romans one eighteen talks about the wrath of God and we've been sitting on that one for couple weeks now. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men. That's all men, all women, all ungodliness.
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We haven't gotten to Romans three twenty three yet. You know, that all have sinned. The wages of sin is death. We haven't gotten to that yet but we're getting there. All ungodliness, all unrighteousness of men no matter what form it takes.
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So, we get up to two and three and we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. Now, this looks a lot like what we did last week. Here's that list. Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, strife, deceit, malice, their gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of new ways to do evil. Disobedient to parents without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful, and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death.
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They not only do the same but they also give hearty approval to those who practice them. So, and we know. When he says we, who's he talking about? For sure, he's talking about the Jews himself being a Jew and religiosity is the focus of this chapter but I think he's already said we're without excuse a couple of different times. He's already said that we all have a conscience.
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We all have creation that is screaming out God and ignoring it, we do at our peril. So, he says, we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. Oh, man. That let that sit for a minute. We know that the judgment of God, almighty God, his righteous anger falls on those who practice such things.
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But do you suppose this, oh man, that when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and you do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? So he's speaking to religious folk right here. Because it's pretty easy to sit in a huddle and decry everybody outside of that huddle for whatever it is that they're practicing. But the subtle sins, He says, you do the same yourself. I mean, we considered murder last week the way that murder is defined for us is you kill somebody generally, intentionally, not just unintentionally.
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But Jesus said, if you're angry with your brother without cause If you call someone a fool the teaching on adultery to have actually committed the actual physical sin of adultery or to lust in your heart. It's on all of us and you do the same things yourself. It says right here, how do you think that you will escape the judgment of God? Now, the Christians in the room go, oh, I'm pleading the blood of Jesus. I'm pleading the blood of Jesus but we haven't gotten to that point yet in Paul's architectural argument, have we?
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So, it's a hard place to sit. So, a personal question for all of you, thou for you. Do you want justice for others and mercy for yourself? Do you want justice for others and mercy for yourself? Oh, man.
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Verse four continues, or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and the tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance. That's the New American Standard Version of the Bible. I actually... I dwelt on that one for a long time this week. I had a couple people text me and say, number four, hit me hard this week, reading ahead.
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Do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience? I I actually did an R McD. This is a Ray McDaniel version of the Bible right here on this one. And it's singular. The you is singular right here in both instances where it's highlighted.
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So it's not to a group. It's to you individually, each individual person hearing this. Or are you despising the wealth of his kindness and his forbearance and his patience. Not knowing that God's kindness is leading even you to repentance. We don't ever outgrow the gospel.
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We don't ever outgrow the goodness of God. The kindness of God, his forbearance, the fact that we deserve to be smitten, smited, whatever we deserve. Nothing but death. But he is patient with us. Amen.
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And he has forbearance and he's kind. And it's his kindness that is leading even you to repentance. If you grasp this, it makes you a much more merciful person to others, much, much more iful because you don't think that you've got it. You think that you are receiving it by God's mercy and by his grace, not by your deserving it. Okay.
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On to verse five, but because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, religious folk, you're storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. He keeps pointing out that it's the righteous judgment of God. Actually, he also says that it is I'll get to that in a minute. Excuse me. Stubbornness and an unrepentant heart.
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He quotes here, the righteous judgment of God who will render to each person according to his deeds. Oh man, I didn't put the slide in there about that one but to to think about that one, he will render to each person according to his deeds. Now, he's referencing Psalm sixty two thirteen there which says, that God will render to each person according to his deeds. To those who by perseverance and doing good, seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth and they said, everybody knows the truth. He's already told us that several times.
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Everybody has an inkling of the truth within their conscience and within creation. Those who do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation. God's judgment is based on truth. Now, he's a righteous judge and he's good but his judgment is based on truth. You might be able to hide it from yourself, deceiving yourself.
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You might be able to hide it from your spouse or your friends, but you cannot hide it from God. His judgment is based on truth. Wow. Oh, man. He outlines two different destinations here and I'm just going to put em up there just like they appear exactly like they appear verses seven and eight.
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Verse seven says, to those who by perseverance and doing good, seek for glory and honor, immortality, eternal life. That's destination number one. Destination two is to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation. This one's kinda heavy because it's based on what you do. It's about doing.
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There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil. And this is the part. This is... I I wanna put this before you. The numbers that we have in our Bible are to help us keep up with things.
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They didn't show up in the original, right? And so sometimes they help. Most of the time they help because they help us remember where things are, but they don't always help. And sometimes they confuse the issue. And so the there will be right there is in italics.
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If you ever see italics in a modern version, modern translation of the Bible, those are added words to make it make sense in English. I actually would prefer it without. So, read this this way. But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation, tribulation, and distress. For every soul of man who does evil.
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Again, includes women. Y'all won't get a pass today. Of the Jew first and also of the Greek. Now, the Jews might have been sitting there all along going, Now, in chapter one, they would have been given some hearty amens. Get em Paul.
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Those pagan hiddens, they deserve nothing. Dogs, nothing but death, hell, and the grave. Nothing. Nothing. Can't believe God's let him live this long in the first place.
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But when he gets to this point and he says of the Jew first, because you know better. You have the law. You've been given an opportunity not afforded to all at that point. Of the Jew first and also of the Greek. When he said that, that would have definitely been like, ugh.
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But glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Now, they deserve nothing, God. What in the world? We're your chosen people. Why in the world would you spread it
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to
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them? Well, God could've very well if if they had asked him the questions that I've been telling you all that throughout the whole Old Testament. You're supposed to be a light to the nations. You're supposed to draw people to God and you've been hoarding the blessing for so long and turning inward and not outward and having mercy on yourselves but justice for everybody else. They would have been offended by this too that the Greek might possibly have a chance at salvation.
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So, I'm gonna add to those two lines. To those who by perseverance and doing good, seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life, glory, and honor, and peace to everyone who does good. He says it again, to the Jew first and also the Greek. There's a parallelism here. When I put the two things side by side, I want you to see it but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation, tribulation, and distress for every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek.
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For there is no partiality with God. If you feel like you've been earning brownie points for a long, long time and you've got a stack of em in your favor. There is no partiality with God. I didn't plan to do this and I don't have
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the music for this but there's a song that goes something like this. When the harvest has been gathered and all my work is done, when the last mile is traveled, and I've sung my final song, When I'm called to give an answer at heaven's judgment seat, just let the blood of Calvary speak for me. May it ride me down as righteous where no righteousness has been. Shielding me from wrath and judgment as it covers all my sins. There's no work that I've accomplished nor my goodness would I plead.
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Just let the blood of Calvary speak for me. There may be some friends who'd witness and speak a word so kind, but their voices would seem so feeble at such an awesome time. But there's a voice that calls for mercy ringing through eternity. Just let the blood of Calvary speak for me Amen. Amen.
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There is no partiality with God. None of us deserve his goodness or his grace. There is no partiality with God. When we truly understand that it does not matter what other people say about us how good we are. There's no partiality with God.
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He knows better. But Jesus was that. Now, I can't stand to just preach bad news. I wanted to. My hope was to do that but with the communion and the new covenant sitting up here, you know, I mean, I couldn't do it.
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Oh, man. I wanna go forward. I'm gonna skip forward. We are still in the section of bad news here and the acceptance of which that bad news must necessarily precede any sincere acceptance and faithful devotion to the good news. Do you all agree with that?
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You gotta accept the bad news before you can accept the good news. If you reject the bad news, you don't even get to the good news. So, I'm gonna look ahead to Romans seven and eight. It's one of the turning points in Romans. It's about almost halfway through the book and Paul expands it from old man to old wretched man.
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Oh, wretched man and actually, I love this because it's not just Paul saying, oh wretched man, you, like he said to the Galatians, you foolish Galatians. Oh wretched man that I am. He turns it back on himself. Oh wretched man that I am. And here it is, seven twenty four, 25, eight, one, and two and then we'll go into a time of communion.
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So, if the elders wanna gather up, it's gonna be a few minutes but come on. When we get through this. Oh, oh wretched man that I am, Paul says, who will deliver me from this body of death? He's feeling the weight of his own sin and he's seeing the the weight of other people's sin too. Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?
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I thank God through Jesus Christ our lord. So then, with the mind, I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh, the law of sin and that point, he starts talking a lot about spirit and flesh actually in the two chapters preceding this. There is therefore, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That is where our relief comes from. It's the only place where relief is found.
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It's in Christ Jesus. Therefore, there is no condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. That in itself should allow for some honest self evaluation. There's no condemnation for those who in Christ but he immediately hooks that belief to your practice. Who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.
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For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Elders, if y'all would come on up. Would you pray with me too? God, thank you for thank you for such a precise treaties Thank you for Paul's intellect, for his ability, but Lord also for his willingness to be used by you. I thank you that his words still carry weight today, Lord, because they're your words.
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God, as we consider your broken body and your shed blood, we're considering your life, lord, and your death and in life, you were, lord, perfect. You did not sin. Which afforded you the opportunity to be able to pay the price for sin. So thank you Jesus that you are willing to do that though you did not deserve it. Thank you for that walk, Lord.
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Though tempted, you did not fall. You were numbered with the transgressors, Lord, and that is all of us. I thank you that you put your life down so that we might pick it up. So, in Jesus name, God almighty, would you bless each one here whether they receive this bread and cup or not. For those who have received, lord, would you put us in our proper spiritual place?
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And for those who haven't, Lord, would you call us into that proper and right relationship with you? God, I pray that you'd bless this cracker, this bread as we distribute it. In Jesus name, amen. On the very same night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread after supper and after you had given thanks, he said, take this and eat. This is my body that's given for you.
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Jesus, we thank you for your righteousness, for your goodness, for your grace, for your mercy. We thank you for living that life, for being a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. God, we thank you for your precious blood. We know without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. And Hebrews teaches us that yours is the final and only one that actually removes sin.
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So God, for your blood, we thank you. We ask that you'd bless as we distribute this cup. In Jesus name, Lord, for his sake, for the sake of his church and all generations, amen. And the same way that he'd taken the bread, he took the cup after supper and he said that this is the new covenant in my blood. Amen.
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Take this and drink it out as often as you will in remembrance of me. Amen. Would you stand with us in the band is gonna come up? You wanna sing Soul on Fire again?
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I do.
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Let's do it. Would y'all stand with us and sing that one with us again?
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Fire. Alright. Let's repeat that chorus. God, I'm running for your heart. I'm running for your heart.
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Hell, I am a soul on fire. Oh. I'm longing for your ways waiting for the day. Hell, I am a soul on me return to you again. Let's sing that out.
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Do we mean that? Lord, let me burn for you again. Let me return
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May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and give you peace and may you pass it along. Amen.
