Flipside Christian Church

The gospel literally means good news

and it is good news.

But if you've been with us
in the study of Romans,

we've been through the first two chapters.

And it, it doesn't sound like good news.

If you read the first two chapters
of Romans.

It's.

It feels like it's nothing but bad news.

Though the gospel is good news.

And what Paul does in the first two
chapters of Romans

is he paints a very clear picture

of the bad news.

I was reminded
of what he does in this way.

If any of you gone to a jeweler
and looked at diamonds, just diamonds.

Any of you.

None of you.

Some of you need to get some new people
in your life to take your advice.

Sometimes.

If you go to a jeweler
and they show you diamonds

that they don't show you a diamond

on a white or pale background

because it looks like this,

it's still a diamond.

Really, really valuable.

But this isn't how they show you diamond.

How do they show you a diamond?

A black belt.

Why does it change the diamond?

It just makes the value.

And the beauty of the diamond. Pop.

And that's what Paul does in chapters
one and two.

And in verses three, one through 20,

he's showing us the grace of God.

But he has to show us the grace of God

in front of a black background,

so that not because it changes
God's grace,

but also but because it makes God's grace

visible and it pops.

And the black background

on which he presents the grace of God.

The gospel

is our sin.

And that's why chapters
one and two are so dark,

so that we will realize the darkness
of our lives.

Apart
from God's grace exhibited in the Son,

so that when we see God's grace
exhibited in His Son,

it pops.

See, part of our problem

religious people

is we try to convince ourselves and others

that our background is as white
and pure as possible.

Rather than acknowledging

how darkened it has become.

And when we do that, all we're doing

is we're discrediting the beauty

and the magnificence of God's grace.

And so Paul presents the gospel,
the good news, the grace of God

against a black background of our sin.

In chapters one and two,
in the first part of chapter three.

And it though
it is good news, doesn't look good.

In chapter two, Paul finishes with this,

this, this teaching about the

the the act of circumcision for the Jew.

It was really, really important.

That was the sign that God had given them
that they were a set apart people.

And religiously, the Jews believed that
because they had this

sign,
that this sign made them right with God.

So, in other words, for us,
because we obey the law,

because we try to behave appropriately,

our behavior makes us right with God.

And Paul goes through a lot of chapter two
at the end of that and says, look, that

that has nothing to do with you
being right with God.

Your behavior and your religiosity
and how good you are

doesn't make you right with God
by any stretch of the imagination.

And so in chapter three, what Paul does is
he starts asking questions,

and he uses a Socratic method of teaching

where the teacher will ask a question
that really counters

his own teaching
and then provide the answer for it

so that the hearers, the learners,
will kind of learn along with him.

Let me I'm going to pull something.

Now, I'm going to ask your question
and I'm going to answer your question.

That's a Socratic method of teaching.

So Paul does it.

And in chapter three
he asks a few questions.

And one of them,
the one he starts with having just talked

about the religious behavior of Jews,
then them thinking that by their

religiosity they're right with God.

He says,

what advantage,
then, is there in being a Jew?

Or what value is there in circumcision?

So naturally, the Jews
he was writing to what?

Ask the question, Paul,
if you're saying that all of our religious

behavior doesn't make us right with God,
then what advantage is there in doing it?

What advantages are in us being Jews?

Good question.

He's going to answer it in verse two
and in verse 234.

This is what he says.

Well, there's advantage much in every way.

First of all, the Jews have been entrusted
with the very words of God.

Now what if some were unfaithful
where their unfaithfulness

nullified God's faithfulness? Not at all.

What he's saying is the great advantage is
they've been given the Word of God.

What if they don't believe?
It don't matter.

It's still the truth.

Does their lack of acknowledgment
of belief in following God

make God out to be a liar and everything
he said? No, not at all.

Let God be true in every human being,
a liar

as it is written,
so that you may be proved right

when you speak, and prevail
when you judge.

Now let me tell you what's going on here.

The natural question that they would ask
Paul is what advantage is there

if you say all this religious behavior
and all my goodness doesn't make me

right with God.

What advantage is there in being

religiously right?

He says, well, there's
this great advantage honestly, in it.

And if we look at ourselves,
I would say the same.

There's a great advantage

why Paul will tell the Jews because
you've been given the words of God.

Well, guess what we've been given.

The Word of God.

It would be like us saying, well,
what advantage is there in us?

You know, doing a church
thing much in every way.

We have the advantage of

having a place to come and study
the words of God,

to have it explained to us,

to go verse by verse through God's Word.

So it's clear and it's known
and the truth is proclaimed.

We have the advantage of being a part
of a huddle and a small group of people

who are doing life together and learning
God's Word, and we have the advantage.

Parents of your children being in church
and learning the rhythms of worship,

you have the advantage of it.

We have the advantage

of a youth ministry that is incredible
junior high and high school as well.

Well, they can learn relationships
with God and with each other.

We have the advantage.

We have the advantage of taking
the advantage of going on mission trips.

So we get out of our own culture,
so we expand the kingdom.

We have the advantage.
Do you understand what I'm saying?

And what Paul says is just because

some people don't believe what God says,
does that nullify what God says?

Not at all.

That God be true and every man a liar.

Basically what he says is if if God says a

and Colter says, be.

A is right.

What he says.

So here's the thing saying
we have to assess cultures consensus

and their opinions about issues
don't matter

to the disciple of Jesus.

God is true.

And I think counter to that is a lie.

That God be true and every person a liar.

God's right.

So Paul has just got done talking
about how God will judge unrighteousness,

unrepentant sin, and Paul
saying God is right in his judgment

just because you don't believe how black

our souls

are without him, just because you don't
believe it does mean it's not true.

God is true.

Everyone's
a liar and his judgment is true.

And then Paul quotes

from Psalm 51 verse four,

so that you may be proved right
when you speak, and prevail when you judge

that David wrote that King David

in Psalm 51, if you're not hit pause.

Hearers would understand this.

They would their minds go
right back to what they wrote.

Psalm 51 hours. Maybe not so much.

Let me tell you in Psalm 51,
David as King,

committed adultery with this lady
named Bathsheba, got her pregnant

and then contracted
to have her husband killed

so he wouldn't look guilty
and then took her as his own.

And he had convinced himself
that it wasn't that bad.

And the

prophet Nathan came to him
and said, David, we need to talk.

Here's the truth.

Your heart is blackened right now.

And David repents of that sin.

And he writes this psalm, Psalm 51
and he says,

you are proved right when you speak,

and you prevail when you judge against me,

because I have sinned,

I am far from the glory of God,

and my heart is black.

God, you're right.

Do you understand?

And that whole Psalm is David agreeing

with God about his sin and God's judgment.

And so,
so that's what Paul said and said, look,

whether you believe all this stuff
doesn't change the truth of it.

And for the Christian,

a matter of culture says.

That God be true and every man a liar.

Even about the blackness of our own soul.

And then he goes on in verses
five and six,

and he's still he's asking questions
and he's providing answers.

But if our righteousness brings out God's,
if our unrighteousness

brings out God's righteousness
more clearly, what shall we say?

What shall we say?

That God is unjust in
bringing his wrath on us?

He's like,
look, I'm just talking as a human.

Like I'm using human logic here.

Certainly not.

If that were so,
how could God just the world?

Here's what he's saying.

He's saying the brilliance of the diamond
is just not in the diamond.

The brilliance of the diamond is seen

because it's contrasted
against the dark background.

We all understand that.

And so Paul's argument is, if my sin,

my dark background
makes God's goodness look really good,

then he can't judge me for being bad

because he looks good by my badness.

So honestly,
if all I'm doing is making him look good,

he has no right to judge me

because of to his benefit.

You understand?

Yes, and that's the argument.

And Paul's like, that's ridiculous.

That he's going to judge the world.

And he says, honestly,
just because God's grace

looks good against your sin,
your sin is still your sin.

You can't get away from that.

And then he takes it
a step further in verses seven and eight.

Someone might argue,
if my falsehood enhances God's

truthfulness and so increases his glory,

why am I still condemned as a sinner?

Why not say as some slander should claim?

We say, let us do evil.

That good may
result. And then he just sits

there, condemnation.

Just.

Here's what

he said.

Some people take it this far.

If God's grace abounds
where my sin is, I'ma

be really sinful
so I can get a bunch of grace.

If my sinful makes God look really good,
like a really dark background.

So the diamond really pops,
then I'm going to make sure

I got a really dark background.

You get it?

And his response is,

you're an idiot.

Now, he says that in a very Pauline

biblical way, but spiritually,

he says that doesn't even merit
a response.

That's just stupid.

And then Paul goes on in verses
nine through eight,

and I'm not going to read it
all. You can read on your own.

And he asked this question
because he's writing to Jews,

and we'll translate it to our time.
But he's asking this question,

how about us religious Jews?

Are we no better
because of our religious behavior?

We could ask the same thing.

We're in church.

We're studying the Bible
like we're good people.

Are we know better.

As far as our relationship to God
because of our goodness.

And Paul says,

yeah, they're not in the least.

We're not even slightly better

because of our good deeds.

And he will say in verses nine

through 18, we are all under sin.

And when Paul says we're under sin,
he means two things

one, without Christ and his work on
it was death on the cross.

We are slaves to sin,

and sin is a tyrant ruler.

What he's saying is we will never get free
from sin by ourself.

It's too big. It's too powerful.

It will always rule over us as a tyrant.

Never relenting, never letting go.

And sin only increases.

It never decreases. Left to itself.

And he quotes in those verses

nine through 18, he quotes from Psalm
five, Psalm ten, Psalm 14.

Psalm 36.

Psalm 53.

Psalm 140,
Ecclesiastes seven, and Isaiah 59.

And basically what he says
is your entire body.

And he goes right down the list
your mind, your throat, your,

your lips, your tongue,
your mouth, your feet, your eyes.

The whole thing is corrupt and sinful.

What he does is he takes an X-ray,

a cat scan of our soul, of our heart,
an internal look.

He says the whole thing inside
you is corrupt and darkened by sin.

You might look good on the outside
because of all your religious stuff.

And honestly, some of us look really good
on the outside,

right?

Just maybe you need to know
some better people.

I don't know, but like like some of us,
some of you look really good

on the outside.

And that's what Paul saying
you might look great on.

But inside

the darkest night.

And then in verse 18

he says,
there is no fear of God before their eyes.

What he means is this

wherever there is sin,
there's no fear of God.

He's just got done for two
and a half chapters talking about God's

wrath of sin and his judgment on sin.

And he says, if.

If, if,

if you're not fearful of his wrath,

sin is going to abound.

And when we let sin rule in our lives,

there is no fear of the wrath of God.

You follow.

And so the end of 19 and verse 20,

he goes on, he says,
so that every mouth may be silenced.

The whole world held accountable to God.

He's saying, look, just say with me,
keep your mouth shut for a minute.

Let me just unpack.

This is what he's saying
so that you have no response to God.

He's going to hold the whole world
accountable for our sin.

Therefore,

no one will be declared
righteous in God's sight

by the works of the law, by what they do,
by their religious behavior.

Rather, through the law
we become conscious of our sin.

And so he's saying religion
does not make anybody right with God.

The only thing religion does is prove how.

How far away from God we are.

The only thing religion does is prove

that we fall far short of God.

It's wrong to think that religion
makes someone a righteous person.

It might make someone a moral person.

But here, man,
this moral people don't get into heaven.

People who have been declared
righteous by God get into heaven.

Jesus didn't come to make us moral.

He came to make us righteous.

It's wrong to think our religious behavior
makes us righteous.

It doesn't.

The bad

news is the darkness of our background.

The only thing that religion does that

that God's laws do is prove
we've broken them.

There's nobody
I haven't come across to anybody yet

who obeys every theme in the Bible

24 seven every day of their life.

Do you know anybody?

There's nobody.

So all this does is prove

how darkened our soul is because of sin.

It doesn't make us right with God.

He says, but now the good news.

That was all the dark background.

Now the diamond.

You ready?

But now this is the transition part here.

This is where this is where he says

the newness of God
is coming through the work of Christ.

But now, apart from the law,
the righteousness of God has been made

known, to which the law and the prophets
testify this righteousness.

Pay attention to this.

This righteousness is given through faith
in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

There's no different judge.

It doesn't matter, for all of us have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

This is a really, really,
really important passage of Scripture.

Paul has established our legal guilt
before God

in the first two and a half chapters,
and now he does.

He establishes a legal
turning of the tables in our favor.

So legally, he says, you're guilty.

And now he's going to turn the legal tables not to our guilt, but to our freedom.

Now things have changed.

And what he says is righteous
righteousness of God.

Righteousness

is the judicial verdict of approval.

It's a legal word.

The judicial verdict of approval,
not guilt.

In essence, it's when I can say

I am declared right
by God after God has examined me.

So the first two and a half chapters,
God has examined us and found us guilty.

And now, because of righteousness,

he examines us again
and finds us right with him.

Not guilty. You follow. You follow.

So this is what the Bible tells us
about the righteousness of God

being examined by God.

Because of Jesus, been examined by God
and now declared right with him.

Now Paul says,
where does this righteousness come from?

From obeying the law and being obedient?

No, not at all. You can't be good enough.

You can't be religious enough to deserve
to be considered righteous by God.

Salvation.

Being righteous with God is apart
from anything you do.

It has nothing to do with us.

This is so important. We got to get this.

When Paul says righteousness comes through
Jesus, I want you to shout.

It comes from God through faith in Jesus.

This is how we're made right with God,
from God through faith in Jesus.

Paul has just said how righteousness

doesn't come by obedience and behavior.

It does come through faith in Jesus.

Now there's a difference, and Paul
makes this very clear.

There's a difference between through faith

and by faith.

Please don't be confused.

Right with God.

Righteousness
comes from God through faith in Jesus,

not by faith in Jesus.

Paul is very clear about that.

It comes through faith in Jesus.

Here's the difference.

If I say that I am

right with God by faith,
by my faith in Jesus, who's in control,

I am.

It's by my faith.

Has it has everything to do with me

and my choice to believe.

That's not what Paul says.

Paul says it comes through faith in Jesus.

And there's a difference.

Faith.

Is not trusting or expecting God
to do something.

Like, by my faith,
I expect him to make me right.

Faith is relying on
what God has already done.

And so it's because of the father's
testimony

regarding his son
and his son's work on the cross.

Through faith of what God

has already declared, through faith of
what God has already determined,

not by my faith, but through faith in
what God has already declared.

I rely on what he's already done

through faith.

To trust.

Always looks forward to what God will do.

And we trust in God.

Those who know God.

Trusting God. God,
I trust that you're going to. Right?

You understand that.

But faith sees what God says has been done
and believes God's Word.

So when God says that you are righteous
through

the death of Christ,
it's already been done.

So it's not by my faith
that I mean righteous.

It's through faith

and what God has already declared,

the power and the proficiency
of the blood of His Son

has nothing to do with me.

It has everything to do
with what God has declared

about the life and death
and blood of His Son.

Do you understand?

It. It takes every opportunity to be proud

of ourselves, every opportunity
to be spiritually arrogant.

It takes all of that off the table.

Says, you have nothing to do with this.

I have chosen,
God says, to make you righteous.

Because what I've declared
through the blood of my son.

So through faith in him,
not by your faith.

I get this.

The Bible says even the ability to have

faith is a gift from God.

We can't have faith apart from being God's
gift.

It all comes from him
so that we cannot boast at any level.

For all have sinned

and fall short of the glory of God.

Let me give you a mental picture of what
this verse mean.

There are some, let's say,

while murderers, adulterers, addicts,

maybe as low

as the bottom of the lowest coal mine,

and while good religious people

might be at the top of Mount Everest
when the goal is reaching

the star, all are far short.

Do you understand? All.

It doesn't matter.

All your little things you've done

to get from the bottom of the coal mine
to the top of Mount Everest.

None of them are enough
to get you to the stars.

Do you get it?

He said,
so wherever you are on that, we're all.

And so you people on Everest, you ought
to be arrogant and proud about yourself.

You're stupid

because you can't reach the stars.

So there's no sense

in being prideful and arrogant

about standing on the.

You understand?

That's what he's saying.

And so he says,
let me tell you how to get there.

Verse 23, all of us fall far short.

Every one of us.

I don't care
how good we look on the outside,

far short of the glory of God. But.

And that's where it gets good.

But I'm telling you, put your seatbelt on.

Because I got a lot to unpack.

You're going to want to take some notes.

Just follow along.

Being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption

that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God set forth as a propitiation

by his blood through faith
to demonstrate his righteousness.

Because of his forbearance,
God had passed over

the sins that were previously committed.

You got it. Got.

Paul introduces

three words that are crucial to understand

what salvation is, what God has done,

and what it means to be righteous
in his sight.

Declared righteous.

Three words
and those words are justification,

redemption, and propitiation.

Everybody share that with you.
Say justification,

say redemption, say propitiation.

Okay. Good job.

Because of grace,

not our behavior.

These three things come into play

because of God's grace.

That's greater than anything.

You want a feeling behind it.

Grace is greater because of that grace.

These three things come into play
and profound measure

in the life of the one
who comes to faith through Jesus.

The first one is justification.

Justification is a legal term. Paul

uses it 30 times in the New Testament,
15 times in the book of Romans alone.

It's a it's a it's a,

a word that is presented in the present
continual form, which means this

every time I believe in faith,
I am declared justified.

Every time. It's present. Continual.

It's not one and done.

Every time I act and believe in faith,
I am again declared justified.

It literally means to consider the guilty
as though they had never,

ever, ever
even been guilty in the first place.

Not just wiping their record clean.

Not just expunging it to to be considered.

Never, ever, ever, ever,
ever having been guilty.

And if God, through faith in Jesus,
now looks

as though we have never been guilty,
it also means that he treats us.

As if we've never been guilty.

Can you imagine

God not only seeing,
but treating you as though

you have never been guilty

of sin?

That's what it means to be justified

before God.

AC Dickson from yesteryear.

This is a quote from him

through the death of Christ on the cross
making atonement for sin.

We get a perfect standing before God.

That is justification
and it puts us in God's sight.

Back in Eden, before sin entered.

God looks upon us

and treats us as if we never.

Can you imagine?

He doesn't look at us with.

It's like,
you know what? You used to be really bad.

I liked you, I, I so I cleaned you up.

Even though you're you and I'm me,
I still accept you.

That's not how he views us.

Through Christ and the blood of Jesus.

Justification means that he now

looks at me as if he and I are walking
through the Garden of Eden

before sin.

And did you know that about yourself?

If you follow Jesus,

that that's how.

Here's why so many of us follow Jesus.

And and we've accepted our Savior,
and we think that God kind of treats us

as the dirty little stepchild,
that okay, you know, you get in

because you believe me, but I'm really
going to treat other people a lot better.

As if there's never been a record.

Do you know why God treats us as if

we've never sinned?

Because he treated Jesus as if he did.

He leveled against him.

And then Paul uses this word redemption.

And it literally means
a substitute sacrifice.

It was a word that was used oftentimes
in the slave market,

where a benevolent person
would purchase a slave

not to enslave them,
but to free them and liberate them.

It was paying their
price, paying their debt

inherent in the

word redemption is this idea of value,

that there's something valuable about that
which I am redeeming.

It means the purchaser pays
the price for a thing because they see

something of value in what's purchased.

So when God looks at us,
he says, I have made you in my image and

where you are is so dark and so sinful.

But I see in you
something that I don't want to buy back.

I want to purchase you

not to enslave you,
but to liberate you, to free you.

I want to redeem you.

You follow.

Such freedom

in salvation.

Such freedom in Jesus

that now so free that God looks at us

as if we have never,
ever, ever been guilty in the first place.

That freedom.

And then Paul uses this word propitiation.

It's a really difficult word to understand
and to translate.

The best way we can understand
is, is substitute sacrifice.

It's a Greek word called hell.

Austrian,

and it literally means substitute
sacrifice.

There's been something sacrifice

that was substituted for something else
that wasn't sacrificed.

This word propitiation

is a Greek word,
but it's used in the Old Testament.

Now, the Old Testament
was written in Hebrew, but this word is

used in the Old Testament.

Let me tell you how,

in reference to the Ark of the covenant,

and when before the,

the temple was built,
also God would meet with people

at the tabernacle, the traveling tent
at the Ark of the covenant,

the Ark of the covenant was a big box,
and in the box were three items.

One was a jar of manna

so that the people would remember
God's provision for them

when they got lost in the desert,
wouldn't ask directions, and so they

okay.

That's right.

Anyway, when God would give them manna.

And then.

So they kept a jar
to remind their kids of the story

of the Exodus and God's provision
for them in the wilderness.

The second thing
was in the Ark of the covenant.

This box was the rod of Aaron.

It was a stick
that God brought life into in it, buddy.

And so they kept that there to remember.

God creates life out of dead things.

A third thing that was in
the Ark of the covenant was the tablets.

The tablets of the Ten Commandments,

God's law
that they broke over and over and over.

And those three things
in the Ark of the covenant were reminders,

both of their sin
and of God's goodness and provision.

And over the ark of this box was a lid,

and that lid was called the mercy seat.

And it was at the mercy seat
that the high priest would walk into

the tabernacle of the Holy of Holies,
where the ark was, and sprinkled blood

on the mercy seat.

And when that happened,
God would visit man

at the mercy seat because of the
sprinkled blood of the lamb.

When the

Old Testament was translated into Greek,
the language of the New Testament,

the word for mercy, seat is propitiation.

Jesus is our propitiation.

The Jews would understand that to mean
Jesus is the mercy seat

where blood is shed and God meets man.

He's the sacrifice

so God can meet man.

Every other religion in the world
is about man meeting God.

Christiana is the only one that says,
no, no, no.

God will come down to man
because of the blood of Jesus,

who is our propitiation, our mercy seat.

You understand?

You get it.

Please understand this.

His sacrificial substitution for us,

Jesus is the mercy seat
whose blood was shed

so God can meet you.

Because Jesus is the substitute,

the mercy seat whose blood was
shed so God could meet you.

God chose

to pay that price of his son for you.

Because he wanted to buy you back

from the blackness of your own soul,

from a life being a slave to sin.

He was for something so valuable in you

that he said, whatever the price,

even of my son, I will buy you back

so that you can be seen by me

as if you have never sinned in your life.

Isn't that amazing?

That should clap for that, Sarah.

That's all right. Thank you.

It's amazing to me.

That we don't have to walk around

with our heads in shame.

God. Thank you.

I don't deserve it.

You're right. You don't.

But because of redemption

and justification and propitiation.

Complete liberation.

So that God has
put his righteousness on you.

The very righteousness of himself.

Paul wraps it up with this.

He did all this

to demonstrate his righteousness.

At the present time.

So as to be just.

And the one who justifies
those who have faith in Christ.

So then where's your boasting?

You don't get to brag about it.

He said, God did all of this
to show himself in two ways.

One, that he is a just God
and his wrath will be poured

on unrepentant sin.

But he also did this to show himself
as the one who justifies,

to make those who deserve his wrath

as if they never have sinned
in the first place.

Because he poured his justice
and his wrath against one who had never

sinned in the first place.

So God sits as the just and the justifier.

Both of them come to full expression

in the person of Jesus and his shed blood.

Nothing to do

with our goodness and our religiosity.

Everything to do

with Jesus, a sacrifice.

And this, my friends, is a salvation

that he invites us into.

This is

the invitation.

To be freed

from the pressure of your own performance,
to be right with God.

To realize what you have been saved from,

and to live with inexpressible joy.

That you that I

would be seen by him as something
so valuable

that he would buy us back

and treat us as if

we have never transgressed.

Can you believe?

Can you imagine

that he loves you

that much?

What about you?

What about me? Is that lovely?

Not. And

so I will gladly admit

the blackness of my background.

Because I understand the brilliance

of God's grace.

And endeavor

to live with this incredible
joy and freedom,

and give every ounce of my being
that others

may know this as well.

This is good news.

And I want to invite you into

what Jesus has invited us into.

I don't care
how many times you've done this before.

I invite you to do it again
with a new realization

of what this means and who God sees you
to be, invites you into.

Would you pray with me?

God, your word tells us you have loved us

with an everlasting love.

Thank you.

Thank you that you don't love us
in spite of all these things.

That you simply love us

and have seen in us.

People that you want for yourself.

And that you have paid the price.

And that in paying that price,

you don't hold our past against us.

I thank you that we don't have to grovel

and beg before you, as if.

We're so unworthy.

We realize our unworthiness,

and we realize your grace.

And we thank you for it.

Father, I believe that
there's some in this place right now

that realize their need for a savior.

And there are some in this place right now

who are realizing,
maybe again, maybe in a new way

of everything
that you've done for us to your son.

It's amazing.

And there are some in us in this place
that are realizing

incredible freedom and joy that we have

through your son.

And so, father, we repent

and we accept you, Jesus,

as the leader of the of our life
and the lover of our souls.

Friends,
I want to invite you in this moment

to agree with God about what he says
and what he's done.

I don't care how many times

you've done this before,
it's always a good redo, especially

for the first time to say, father,
thank you that you love me.

So much

that you paid my sin price

with the life of your son.

Jesus, I accept you

as the leader of my life.

I agree with you

about the darkness of my soul

and I invite you in.

To shine the brilliance of your grace

in my justification.

In my redemption.

Because you are my sacrifice.

Father, people have prayed that prayer,

and you've done that work.

And I pray, father,
that we would live as people

who understand and exhibit
what it is to be justified before you.

Righteous in your sight,
redeemed by your blood

because of your sacrifice.

Make us new.

I love you, Jesus.

Thank you.

In the name I pray.

Amen.

Listen, I love you guys.

You're doing a great job
hanging with us through Romans.

It's a big book, isn't it?

There's a lot there.

I'm proud of you.

Here's what I have.

Take this week and read through Romans
three again and let stuff come alive.

Let it pop, let it let it live.

And then read chapter four,
because that's where we're headed.

Every week, a new chapter.

This is good for us to do.

And my other encouragement.

You got people in your

huddle that aren't in church.

Don't they need to know this?

Let me ask that again,

because I feel like you're not listening
much.

You got people in your world
who aren't in church who don't know this.

Don't they need to?

You're in their world for one reason

I love you. Let's listening.