[0:00] Good morning and a warm welcome to the service this morning.
[0:25] It's good to have those listening in on the telephone. It's good to have those who are watching online. We come together in this way to worship God. Intimations, just a couple to say.
[0:36] First of all, the evening service will come online just before 6 o'clock tonight. And the YF and the prayer meeting will meet at the usual times on Zoom.
[0:47] Half past 7 for the YF tonight. And the prayer meeting on Wednesday at half past 7. Service next Sunday. Just a reminder that the evening service, the morning service will be English as usual.
[1:01] The evening service being the last one in the month will be a Gaelic service. And that will be taken by Farraker MacLeod. So these are all the intimations.
[1:12] Let's now worship God and let's sing to his praise from the hymn. My heart is filled with thankfulness to him who bore my pain. Who plumbed the depths of my disgrace and gave me life again.
[1:25] Who crushed my curse of sin. And clothed me with his life.
[1:35] My heart is filled with thankfulness to him who bore my pain. Who blumbed the depths of my disgrace and gave me life again.
[1:51] Who crushed my curse of sin. And clothed me with his life. And wrote his law of righteousness with power upon my heart.
[2:09] My heart is filled with thankfulness to him who walks beside.
[2:22] Who floods my weaknesses with strength and causes fears to fly. Whose every promise is enough for every step I take.
[2:40] Sustaining me with arms of love and crowning me with grace. My heart is filled with thankfulness to him who reigns above.
[3:02] Whose wisdom is my perfect peace. Whose every thought is love. For every day I have on earth.
[3:15] Is given by the King. So I will give my life my all. To love and follow him.
[3:27] For every day I have on earth. Is given by the King. So I will give my life my all.
[3:40] To love and follow him. To love and follow him. To love and follow him.
[3:51] To love and follow him. To love and follow him. To love and follow him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we thank you for. We thank you for the gospel which we've been reminded of as we come.
[4:04] To sing together that hymn that was before us. We thank you Lord that we are able to come before you this morning with hearts which are thankful. For all that has been done for us in Christ.
[4:18] We thank you that he is the one who bore our pain. Who plumbed the depths of our disgrace. He's the one who crushed our curse of sinfulness.
[4:29] And we thank you that he has given us the light and the life of the gospel. We thank you that the offer of the gospel is a call to turn from sin.
[4:40] The sin that we readily confess. But not only is it a call to turn from sin. The sin that kills us. But it's a call to turn to Jesus.
[4:53] Who is the resurrection. Who is the life. Who is the one who is able to give us life in abundance. We have an enemy the devil who comes to steal and to kill and to destroy.
[5:05] But we thank you that Jesus came. So that we could have life in all fullness. And life that is eternal. And when we meditate upon these things. How thankful we are.
[5:16] And how much we should be encouraged and inspired. To live lives which express our thankfulness. Through holy living.
[5:26] So help us Lord we pray. Help us if we are not Christians. To take hold of the life that's offered to us in Christ. And help us if we are Christians.
[5:38] To day by day be thankful for all that you have done for us. Lord Jesus in the gospel. And help us we pray to express that.
[5:49] In trusting you. And in obeying you. Jesus said. If you love me you will obey my commandments. The apostle Peter has reminded us that we have been given everything.
[6:02] That we need. To live lives which are godly. And we pray that you would help us. To live lives which bear witness to your goodness. And your grace. We thank you Lord for the hope of the gospel.
[6:15] And even as we think about this week past. Even as we as a community mourn for the passing of one who was much loved here.
[6:26] Sammy McLeod Ardazic. We thank you Lord that you are the God who comforts those who mourn. And we thank you Lord that you are the God who gives us hope in the gospel.
[6:39] We thank you that those who look to Jesus are promised salvation. And we ask Lord that at this time where we are so conscious of how fragile and transient life is.
[6:51] Enable us we pray to look to Jesus. Who is able to give us hope for this life. For time. And for eternity.
[7:02] We pray especially for Sammy's family and his close friends. That you would comfort them Lord. That you would uphold them. That you would draw near to them.
[7:13] That they would know your presence. That they would know your peace. And we ask that you would go ahead of them and be with them in the days to come.
[7:25] We pray on for those Lord who are in their homes and who are lonely. We pray on for those who are in hospital. Who are struggling with illness. We pray for those who are struggling with this virus.
[7:39] We continue to pray for those in nursing homes. And we think of Portree especially. And ask for your hand to be upon the residents in that place. And those who are sick Lord.
[7:51] We pray that you would bring them back to health. And each one we ask that they would know your peace. And that they would know that you are with them. That they would take hold of Christ who is our peace.
[8:02] And we pray for the nursing homes here. For Harris House and for Leverborough. We ask that you would continue to protect them. We pray for those in Lewis as well.
[8:13] And we think especially of Glarbuya. And John Norman from the congregation who is in there. Be near to him. And be near to Nanny as well. At home on her own. May she know your presence with her at all times.
[8:26] We pray for those who battle with addictions. We pray for those who struggle with their mental health. And who at a time like this when we are isolated can feel down.
[8:39] We thank you Lord that you are the God that we can come to at all times. And you are the one who lifts our spirit as we look in faith to Christ. So be with all those who are in particular need we pray.
[8:53] We bring them to you in prayer. And ask that you would minister to them in the power of the Holy Spirit. So we ask now that you would guide us and lead us in this service.
[9:04] We ask that all that we do would be in accordance with your will. And would bring glory to your name. Hear us and help us we pray. Cleanse us from sin. And help us to fix our eyes upon Jesus.
[9:18] For we pray these things in Jesus name. And for Jesus sake. Amen. Boys and girls. I hope you are well.
[9:29] It is good to know that you are behind that screen again today. And this morning we have a special surprise for you. A good surprise. And I am going to just let you see the surprise.
[9:43] So I am going to stop talking. And Ian is going to play a special message that has come all the way from Australia. From somebody that you know well. And it is just for you.
[9:53] Hello. I am Colin. Colin Buchanan. And a big hello to my friends in North Harris.
[10:09] Yes. Yes. At the North Harris Free Church. And the North Harris Kids. And someone got in touch with me and said that you have been singing some of my songs.
[10:21] Which is very exciting. And I am here at home in Australia. And you are in Scotland. And if it is a bit like us. You have had to be at home a lot. Because of the virus.
[10:32] Yeah. And the lockdown. So it has been a time to really think about how we can trust God. Hasn't it? And God is big. And God is good. And God knows what he is doing.
[10:44] He is the boss. Yes. So I wanted to sing a song. About the great God. Now. In the Bible. There was a man who had a big job to do.
[10:56] Lead God's people. All of them. That was a big job. And he might have thought. I can't do this. Especially since. The person who led God's people before him.
[11:10] Was Moses. Well Moses. Like the Moses. Yes. One of God's greatest leaders ever. And Joshua had the job.
[11:21] He got the job after Moses died. And Joshua must have thought. I can't do this job. It is too big. It is too hard. And we look around us at the world. And we might think. What is going on?
[11:34] Where is God in all this? But God said something very precious to Joshua. And they are great words for us too. God said. Have I not commanded you?
[11:45] Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. Downhearted. Worried. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
[12:01] God didn't just say. Be strong and courageous. He said. I will be with you. And that's our precious precious truth. Isn't it? That God is with us.
[12:12] And most wonderfully in his son. Jesus. And especially. When things are hard. And sad. And difficult. So. I'm going to sing this song for you.
[12:22] And maybe you can sing along. My choir in Scotland. At North Harris. And here's me leading it. In Sydney, Australia. This will be nice.
[12:33] Be strong and courageous.
[12:47] The Lord of the ages. Holds all his little ones. Safe by his side. Be strong and courageous.
[12:59] The Lord of the ages. Holds all his little ones. Safe. There's an echo. Ready? Do not fear the fire.
[13:10] Do not fear the fire. Do not fear the waters. Do not fear the waters. Do not fear the thunder.
[13:21] Do not fear the thunder. Jesus has conquered them all. Do not fear the darkness.
[13:36] Do not fear the heavens. Do not fear the water. Do not fear the darkness.
[13:47] Do not fear the darkness. Via assholes. futureream. As you are. The darkness Do not fear the darkness Do not fear the sadness Do not fear the sadness Do not fear the sickness Do not fear the sickness Jesus has conquered them all Be strong and courageous The Lord of the ages Holds all his little ones safe by his side Be strong and courageous The Lord of the ages Holds all his little ones safe Do not fear the enemy Do not fear the enemy Do not fear the poverty Do not fear the poverty
[14:49] Do not fear eternity Do not fear eternity Jesus has conquered them all Come on Be strong and courageous The Lord of the ages Holds all his little ones safe by his side Be strong and courageous Be strong and courageous The Lord of the ages Holds all his little ones safe He holds all his little ones safe And he holds all the children of North Harris safe So trust him He's our good, strong, saving God All right Farewell my friends I hope I can visit you one day I love Scotland
[15:50] I've been to Scotland, you know Have you been to Australia? Hmm? All right Bye! I'm going to walk up this way Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye That was exciting boys and girls Wasn't it?
[16:07] That was encouraging to hear that message Which really is from God through calling And it's the message that we're to be bold And strong and courageous Because God is with us So boys and girls Let's be encouraged to take hold of that message And let's be thankful for the fact That we don't have anything to fear When we're trusting in Jesus We can be strong We can be courageous Knowing that he is with us So let's pray now Lord God we thank you for that message That you've given us through calling And we ask that you would help us to believe And that you would help us to be strong and courageous Not because we think we're strong Not because we've got courage in our own hearts But Lord we can be strong and courageous When we think about you and we look to you And we thank you that you give us that courage You put your Holy Spirit in us when we believe And we thank you that there is no one and nothing
[17:10] That is stronger than you So bless the boys and girls And help them Lord To be trusting in you Not to be fearful Not to be upset But to be strong and courageous Knowing that you are their God And that you are with them We thank you Lord for calling And for him taking the time To send that message To the boys and girls here We thank you for the encouragement That it is to them and to us We ask that you would bless him As he sends messages to people all over the world As he travels about And preaches your word And sings your word We ask Lord that you would bless him As he's a blessing to so many Around this world That he would bring glory to your name And that he would know Your presence and your peace So hear our prayers And go before us we ask Be with the boys and girls now As they do their Sunday school lessons Help them to hear And to understand
[18:11] And to trust you As they open the Bible And we ask all these things In Jesus name Amen We're going to turn now to God's word And we'll read from Romans chapter 3 We'll read the whole of this chapter This is God's word What advantage then Is there in being a Jew Or what value is there in circumcision Paul is picking up on what the Jews were saying And then Paul answers Much in every way First of all They have been entrusted with the The very words of God What if some did not have faith Will their lack of faith Nullify God's faithfulness Not at all Let God be true And every man a liar As it is written So that You may be proved right When you speak And prevail when you judge But if our unrighteousness Brings out God's righteousness More clearly What shall we say
[19:12] That God is unjust In bringing his wrath upon us I'm using a human argument Certainly not If that were so How could God judge the world 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 we are being slanderously Reported as saying And some claim that we say Let us do evil That good may result Their condemnation Is deserved What shall we conclude then Are we any better Not at all We have already We have already made the charge That Jews and Gentiles Are all And alike Are all under sin As it's written There is no one righteous Not even one There is no one who understands No one who seeks God All have turned away They have together become worthless There is no one who does good Not even one Their throats are open graves Their tongues practice deceit
[20:13] The poison of vipers Is on their lips Their mouths are full of cursing And bitterness Their feet Are swift to shed blood Ruin and misery Mark their ways In the way of peace They do not know There is no fear of God Before their eyes Now we know that Whatever the law says It says to those Who are under the law So that every mouth May be silenced And the whole world Held accountable to God Therefore no one Will be declared righteous In his sight By observing the law Rather through the law We become conscious Of sin But now A righteousness from God Apart from law Has been made known To which the law And prophets testify This righteousness from God Comes through faith In Jesus Christ To all who believe There is no difference For all have sinned And fall short Of the glory of God And are justified freely By his grace Through the redemption That came by Christ Jesus God presented him
[21:15] As a sacrifice of atonement Through faith in his blood He did this to demonstrate His justice Because in his forbearance He had left the sins Committed beforehand Unpunished Unpunished He did it to demonstrate His justice At the present time So that So as to be just And the one who justifies Those who have faith In Jesus Where then is boasting?
[21:42] It is excluded On what principle? On that observing the law? No, but on that of faith For we maintain That a man is justified By faith Apart from observing the law Is God the God of Jews only?
[21:58] Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too Since there is only one God Who will justify The circumcised by faith And the uncircumcised Through that same faith Do we then nullify the law By this faith?
[22:14] Not at all Rather, we uphold the law Amen And may God bless that We then Of his word to us Heavenly Father We pray now That as we turn back To your word That you would guide us And lead us Open our minds Open our eyes Stir our hearts Help us Lord We pray To know that you are with us And help us to hear Your voice And not to harden our hearts But to To be given the faith To believe And we ask this In Jesus name Amen I wonder What it is That you are Most looking forward To doing Once lockdown Is over Maybe visiting friends Likely For many of us It is It could be That you are longing For a game of golf That might not be Too far away You might be Looking forward
[23:15] To going out For dinner With various people You might just be Looking forward To a hug Or a handshake Now If we think back Even just a few months These These were just Normal things There is nothing special About them We took them for granted But now I think we are Halfway through Month three of lockdown These are things Which we have Actually come to To appreciate And realise As special In some ways You could say We have Needed lockdown To help us Appreciate some Of the The blessings That we might have Overlooked Previously Now if you have The book of Romans In chapter 3 Open before you That would be Helpful And as we turn Back to this This book We can see If we glance back The previous two Chapters That From Romans Chapter 1 And verse Verse 18 Through to
[24:16] Romans chapter 3 And verse 20 Halfway through The chapter we read Paul has taken us Down a track That In all likely He would Rather not have gone He spent Two full chapters As God has Inspired him He has spent Two full chapters Thinking about About sin Paul has taken us Into the dark In these chapters He's helped us To understand That whether we're Pagans Who knew Nothing Of God And his word That's chapter 1 Or whether we're The most religious People On the planet Who know a whole lot About God And his word That's Romans chapter 2 Doesn't matter Who we are But he's He's pressing in Upon us here That we are sinners We are locked Down in Our sin Our hearts Are dark But then from Verse 21 Of chapter 3 We see the light
[25:17] Of the gospel Shining There's been a lot Of dark In the previous Two chapters And then Halfway through Chapter 3 Verse 21 And following The light Of the gospel Shines in We go from This dark Narrow tunnel Where we feel The oppression Of being Under sin As Paul puts it In verse 9 And now we're Taken into the Wide open spaces Of gospel freedom And gospel light And if we're Christians That should make That should make Our hearts sing If we're Christians That should Make us Thankful For all That Jesus Has done And all That Jesus Has saved us From And all That Jesus Has saved us Into And we Get an expression Of that In the hymn That we sang My heart Is filled With thankfulness To him Who bore My pain Who plumbed The depths Of my disgrace And gave me Life again Who crushed The curse
[26:17] My curse Of sinfulness And clothed me In his light And wrote his law Of righteousness With power Upon my heart There's such Contrast In that hymn Between the darkness Of where we were In our sin To the light Of where we are Taken If we are those Who are in Christ And these Truths That are found In that hymn And these Contrasts That we've sung Of They find their Source In passages Like Romans Chapter 3 So we're going To look at This chapter In the time That we have This morning Three points The first The first point That we come To hear Is we see That God Is righteous God is righteous Now there are Some truths There are Some things That we need To know And we need To hang on To We need
[27:17] To have Them Always Before us And this Is one Of them That God Is righteous We need To see That We need To understand That That God Is righteous That he is Good All of the Time Many of us Just now Are struggling With homeschooling Many of the Parents And maths In particular For a lot Of us Is a struggle And something That's very Clear In maths Is you Need to know Your times Tables If you don't Know your times Tables You can't do Decimals You can't do Fractions You can't do Equations You can't do You can't do Pretty much Anything If you don't Know your times Tables Nothing else Makes sense For us In the Spiritual sense We need to Know We need to Remember We must Never Lose sight Of that Gospel Truth That God Is righteous In his
[28:18] Character Who he is In all of His works In all of His plans In all of His ways God is Right Right Why do We need That reminder Why does Paul need To press That in On us It's because Sometimes we Doubt that Sometimes things Happen to us In our Experience And They make us Question The righteousness Of God Sometimes people Say things To us That rock Our faith And cause Us to Question The character And the Works And the Righteousness Of God And that Was the Situation In Rome Some of Those listening To Paul's Letter Were struggling With this Big question They were Feeling That God Wasn't being Fair with Them And so They're Asking This Fundamental Question Is God Righteous And note
[29:18] That Paul In the Opening Verses Of this Chapter He's Having a Question And answer Session He doesn't Scold These Jews In particular For having These questions He takes These questions About God Seriously And he Directs them To where They'll Find answers To their Questions So where Does he Direct them Where Could they See If they Lost sight Of the Righteousness Of God Where could They see Again The Righteousness Of God And Paul He directs Them To two Places First of All he He directs Them to God's Revelation To Israel And we See that In verses One and Two We hear The doubt And the Angst In verse One The Jews Are saying What advantage Then is there In being a Jew What value Is there In circumcision What's the Point in Going on They say We thought We were God's People We thought The covenant With God
[30:19] Meant something But does God really Care for us Is he Is he Giving up On us Will he Not keep His promises To bless Us Is there Any real Worth In being One of God's People That's The kind Of thing That was Going through Their minds And Paul Answers them And he Says There's Much Worth Much In every Way Verse Two First of All Speaking Of the Jews He says They've Been Entrusted With the Very Words Of God You have Been Entrusted With the Very Words Of God Says Paul The revelation Of God God has spoken To them He has revealed Himself He has revealed His plans He has revealed His word To them See the Jews Although they're Not saved By their Jewishness They were the First ones To hear The word Of God They were Charged With the Guardianship Of the word Of God And through That word And through The word Made flesh Jesus Whom Every chapter Points to
[31:19] They And we See That God Is righteous So they Could see That God Was righteous In God's Revelation To Israel His word The second Place that Paul directs Them Is to God's Relationship With Israel That's Verses Three And four Again The questions And the answers Are Continuing What if Some did Not have Faith They say Will their Lack of Faith Notify God's Faithfulness And Paul Answers Not at All Now if we Take a look Into the Old Testament We see Time and Time again That Israel God's people They were Not faithful They turned Away to Idols So many Times They Rejected God's Prophets And the Word that God brought Through his Prophets They killed God's son The Messiah Now did Their Unfaithfulness Cancel Out God's Faithfulness That's The Question Did Their
[32:19] Unrighteousness Make God Unrighteous And the Answer to That Question Is No It Actually Magnified God's Faithfulness And his Righteousness Because Rather than Blast These People Off The Face Of The Earth And God Has Related To Us As His People And Get Back To The Revealed Word Of God And You Will See Once More That God Is Righteous That
[33:20] He Is Faithful That He Is Good And That Was Good Advice For These Jews In Particular In Rome In AD 57 And It Remains Good Advice For Us In Harris Or Whatever We're Watching From In AD 2020 Where Do We Go When Doubt Crash In Because They Do Crash In From Time To Time Where Do We Find Answers When Our Minds Are Filled With Questions Where Will We See Afresh Afresh The Righteousness Of God When We Lose Sight Of That Well We See It In The Same Places We See In God's Revelation To Us The Bible It Was Entrusted To The Jews But It's Been Preserved For Us We We Have It In A Language We Can Understand We Have It Open Before Us And And That's Where God Speaks To Us In Order To Deal With Our Dights When They Crash In Where Else Will
[34:20] We See The Righteousness Of God Well With His Word Open We Meditate Upon God's Relationship With Us God's People In The Old Testament They Were Unfaithful They Made Idols We Are Still Unfaithful We Still Make Idols Calvin Says The Human Heart Is A Factory Of Idols Every One Of As We Look To All That He Did For Us On The Cross So If This Morning You're Listening In And You Cannot
[35:20] See That God Is Righteous Then This Is Where We're To Look To God's Revelation To Us The Bible And God's Relationship With Us Through Christ And We Look To The Cross You Know If We Look At Ourselves Our Doubts And Our Questions Will Not Find Looking Around Us And Tuning Into Netflix And Instagram And All These Different Things That Take Up Our Time We Won't Get Answers To The Question God Is Righteous In That Place In Fact We'll See Programs And We'll See Posts Which Try To Tell Us That God Is Not Righteous But As We Open The Bible As We Look To Jesus The Scales Fall From Our Eyes The Scales Of Unbelief And We're Given Eyes To See Once More That God Is Righteous You
[36:21] See In Verse Five To Eight I'm Not Going To Take Time To Go Through That But There Were Some In That Communication That Paul Wrote To They Didn't Want To See They Didn't Want To Be Saved They Make A Joke Of It All With This Facetious Argument Sadly The Reality Today Is The Same For Some There Are Some Who Don't Want To See The Righteousness Of God So They Won't Open The Bible They Won't Look To The Cross They Are Happy To Argue About These Things All Day And All Night But They Are Not Willing To Accept What God Says And Unless That Changes They They Will Not Be Saved God's Faithfulness God's Righteousness Is Seen In His Word And In His Relationship To Us In And Through Christ So We See First Of All That God Is
[37:21] Righteous The Second Thing We See Here Is That We Are Not Righteous In Verses Nine To Verse Twelve Paul He Begins To Sum Up In The Kind Of Style Of A Courtroom Lawyer Romans One He Says The Pagans The Godless People They Are Not Righteous Romans Two He Says The Religious People They Are Not Righteous And In Romans Three He Sums Up And He Says No One Is Righteous It All Very Logical What Shall We Conclude Then Verse Nine Are We Any Better Not At All We Have Already Made The Charge That Jews And Gentiles Are Like Are All Under Sin We Can't Miss The Point Can We No Matter Who We Are Jew Or Non Jew Gentile Religious Or Non Religious We Are Not Righteous That's The Fact Mark Twain Once Said
[38:21] I Am Not Troubled By The Things In The Bible Understand But I Am Troubled By Those Things Which I Do Understand And This Truth That Paul Presents It's Not Hard To Understand But It Is Troubling I Was Conducting A Wedding A Year Or Two Back And I Remember After Preaching The Sermon And Having The Marriage Ceremony We Were Waiting For For The Dinner To Come Out And There Was A Girl Who Rushed At Me After The Sermon And I Could Tell From The Way She Was Looking At Me That She Wasn't Rushing To Shake My Hand And Tell Me How Good The Sermon Was She Was Furious Don't Tell Me I'm A Sinner She Said Don't Tell Me That I Am Not Righteous She Was Husely To
[39:25] Save Us And There Were Some In Rome Who May Have Been Similarly Offended By What Paul Says And So Paul He Now Takes Them On A Tour Of The Scriptures The Scriptures That They Would Agreed On And He Shows Them In These Next Few Verses That What He Is Saying About Their Unrighteousness Is Not Made Up Out Of His Own Head He Simply Speaking God's Word And He Makes Two Points He Says First Of All We're Not Righteous Because Of Our Character And That Takes Us From Verse Nine To Verse Twelve He Says In Verse Nine That We're Under Sin We're Under The Management Of Sin We'll Come Back To That Verse 10 As It's Written There's No One Righteous Not Even One There's No One Who Understands No One Who Seeks God All Have We're Not Righteous Because Of Our Character Says Paul Now Where's He Getting All That From
[40:25] He's Getting It From Psalm 14 Verses One To Three He's Getting It From Psalm 53 Verses One To Three You Can Check These In Your Own Time He's Getting It From Ecclesiastes Chapter Seven And Verse Twenty That Says Surely There Is Not A Righteous Man On Earth Who Does Good And Never Sins The Late R.C.
[40:46] Sproul Says We Are Not Sinners Because We Sin We Sin Because We Are Sinners It's Our Character Some May Doubt That But For The Doubters Paul Moves On To Say If You Don't Believe It's In Our Character Don't Believe That We Are Not Righteous That We Are Sinners Because God Has Told Us That's Our Character Then Just Take Five And It's To Take A Look At Our Conduct He Says Secondly Here We're Not Righteous Because Of Our Conduct That's Verses 13 Through To Verse 18 Their Throats Are Open Graves Their Tongues Practice Deceit The Poison Of Vipers Is On Their Lips Their Mouths Are Full Of Cursing And Bitterness Their Feet Are Swift To Shed Blood Ruin And Misery Mark Their Ways And The Way Of Peace They Do Not Know There Is Fear Of God Before Their Eyes We're Not Righteous
[41:47] Says Paul Because Of Our Conduct And God's Word Says That The Things That We Say Verses 13 And 14 The Things That We Do Verses 15 To 18 Show In Our Conduct That We Are Not Righteous Now Where's Paul Getting That Well Again You Can Check These Verses Yourself Psalm 5 9 Psalm 140 Verse 3 Psalm 10 Verse 7 Psalm 36 Verse 1 Isaiah 59 Verses 7 And 8 This Is Not Something That Paul Is Making Up It's Not His Own Thoughts He Is Thinking Through And Speaking Out What Was Agreed To Be God's Word We're Not Righteous Because Of Our Conduct Now One Of The Things Which Has Been Dominant On Television Screens For The Last Probably Ten Years Now Is Reality TV Where The Cameras Go Into Houses Or
[42:47] They Go Into Islands And They're On 24 7 So We See People Warts And All We Have Have Have A Hero Who Goes On To Some Cast Away Island And We See Within Ten Minutes The Cameras Are Rolling All The Time That They Have Their Flaws Like Everyone Else And If We We We We We Think About The Awful Prospect Of Having A Camera And Us Filming All Day Long It's Hard Enough For An Hour Or Two It Wouldn't Take Us Long To Realize That The Way We Speak The Way We Conduct Ourselves It Shows That We Are Sinners We're Not Righteous We May Not Like That It May Offend Us When We First Realize It But That's God's Assessment Of Our Condition I Take A Tablet For Blood Pressure I Have Done For Years Now I'd Rather Not To Be Honest Than A Couple Of Years Back I Got In My Head That I Didn't Need It I Felt Fine
[43:47] I Wanted To Stop Taking This Tablet So A Week Before I Was Due To Go For A Check Up At The Surgery I On The Day That I Was Due For The Check Up I Went In To See Crisalda And She Put The Thing On My Arm And Puffed It Up And Took My Blood Pressure And She Frowned And She Said Your Blood Pressure Seems Quite High Today I Said I Check It Again She Checked It Again And Another Time And Each Time She Checked It It Was High And She I Didn't Think I Needed It And She Looked At Me In The Way That Crisalda Can And She Said The Doctor's Notes Say You Have High Blood Pressure The Monitor Here Says You Have High Blood Pressure
[44:47] Why Don't You Just Accept The Fact That You Have High Blood Pressure And Take The Tablet And What Could I Say In Defense Crisalda Is Frown I Could Say Nothing I Could Only Put My Hands Up I Was Silenced And That's Where Paul Takes Them To The Point Where They And We Realize That We Are Not Righteous That We Are Sinners The Evidence Against Us Is Overwhelming Our Character Shows That We Are Not Righteous And Our Conduct Shows That We Are Not Righteous And As We Face This Evidence As They Did In Rome On That Day Are We Are Silenced And That's Where We Need To Be Verses 19 And 20 Now We Know That Whatever The Law Says It Says To Those Who Are Under The Law So That Every Mouth May Be Silenced And The Whole World Held Accountable To
[45:47] God Therefore No One Will Be Declared Righteous In His Sight By Observing The Law Rather Through The Law See The Law Is Not A Ladder By Which We Climb To Higher States Of Righteousness And Eventually Heaven We Can't Do That The Law Is A Mirror That Shows Us That We Are Sinners And We Need Righteousness Not To Come From In Here But From Somewhere Else The Law Makes Us Conscious Of Sin Are You And I Conscious Of Our Sin If We Are Conscious Of Our Sin Give Thanks To God For That Because That's Where God Wants Us To Be It's Not Until We Feel The Weight Of Our Sin It's Not Until The Excuses Are Pulled Out Of Our Mouths And We Are Silenced Before
[46:48] God That We Look For A Savior One Who Can Save Us From Sin And Give To Us The Righteousness That We Need And Even In The Silence That Paul Talks Of In Verse 19 We Begin To See Jesus The Savior The Silence Reminds Jesus Of Jesus Of Jesus Of Jesus Of Jesus Of Christ Jesus Of Jesus Of Jesus Of Many Things So Again Pilate Asked Him Aren't You Going To Answer See How Many Things They Are Accusing You Of But Jesus Still Made No Reply Pilate Was Amazed One Of The Commentators Cofi Says Jesus Stands As The Silent Defendant Before Pilate The Judge Pilate Is Amazed
[47:48] Because Jesus Choses To Remain Silent We Know That From His Baptism To His Cross Jesus Took The Sinner's Place As Their Substitute Therefore His Silence Before Pilate Is A Picture Of The Silence In Which We Must Stand Before God Our Judge Our Silent Recognition Of Our Personal Accountability As Sinners Is The Best Preparation For The Good News Of The Gospel And That's Where We Come Tonight Point Number One God Is Righteous Point Number Two We Are Not Righteous And Point Number Three Where The Gospel Breaks In With Great Forces We Can Become Righteous Through Faith In Jesus And With Two Words In Verse 21 Everything Changes But Now Says Paul He's Been Making This Argument That Brings Our Condemnation To
[48:48] Such A Point Of Clarity And It Seems Hopeless But With Two Words Everything Changes But Now And With These Two Words We Go From The Darkness Of Our Unrighteousness To The Dazzling Light Of The Righteousness That's Offered To Us In Christ But Now A Righteousness From God A Gift From God It Comes Down We Don't We Don't Have It In Here We Don't Work It Up It Comes Down A Righteousness From God Apart From The Law As We Made Known To Which The Law And The Prophets Testify This Righteousness From God Comes Through Faith In Jesus Christ To All Who Believe And Paul Says To These Jews Who Know The Scripture So Well He Says This Is No New Gimmicky Thing This Is Something That Was Promised All Through The Old Testament But It's Offered To All This
[49:49] Is A Gift Of Grace From God It's It's Not Something That Comes To The Law It's Apart From The Law It's A Gift That Comes Through Faith In Jesus Christ To All Who Believe We Can Become Righteous Through Faith In Jesus Do You Have Faith In Jesus That's The Question Do You Do You Believe You Know If you Don't Believe You Don't Have Faith In Jesus You You're Stuck In Point Two You're Stuck At Verse 20 You Don't Get To Cross Over Into The Place Where There Is Good News But For Those Who Believe There Is Good News If Our Faith Is In Christ The Promise Of The Gospel Is That Our Unrighteousness Has Gone And God's Righteousness Is Now Given To Us
[50:49] And It's Almost Too Huge And Good For Us To Be Able To Take Hold Of We Sang That Hymn Last Week Or The Week Before And Can It Be That I Should Gain An Interest In The Saviour's Blood The Hymn Writer Is Is This For Me Can This Be True Is There Small Print Here That That Would Disqualify Me And Paul Says No For Those Who Have Faith In Christ For Those Who Believe This Is True Let Me Show You How It's True Says Paul Then He Takes Us To Three Places We'll Finish With This You Know Like These TV Shows Where A Celebrity Of Some Kind Is Wanting To Know Who They Are They Don't Know Their Family History Well They Are Taken To Different Places Where They Where They've Come From They're Introduced To People And
[51:49] Told About Situations Which Apply To Their Lives Who Do You Think You Are I Think Is The Name Of The Program And Paul In That Kind Of Style Says Come And Follow Me Till I Show You To Three Places The First Place He Takes Us Is To The Court And He Says You're Justified If You're In Christ We Are Those Verse 24 Who Are Justified Freely By His Grace That's The Verdict Concerning Us That's What We Hear In The In The Courtroom Concerning Us We Are Justified Freely By His By Christ's Grace If We Believe In But The Question For Us Is How Can That Be How Can We Be Justified How Can We Be Made Just As If We Had Never Sinned How Can We Be Justified When We Are So Clearly Guilty As Sinners And
[52:49] The Answer Is Because Of Jesus We'll Sing At The End Bearing Shame And Scoffing Rude In My Place Condemned He Stood And When I Was Thinking About That Him My Mind Went To A Story I Was Told About Ina And Alistair From Ardazig's Father He Lost His Wife Very Young He Became A Widower Very Young And He Was Doing All He Could To Provide For His Family For The Four Children I Think There Was And He Was Selling Tweed That He Was Weaving This Was In The War Years And He Needed Coupons To Be To Sell And For Some Reason He Didn't Have The Coupons But He Sold And This Had Come To The Attention Of The Authorities And He Ended Up With A Court Summons And He Was Distraught Beyond Words Because Who Was Going To Look After His Four Children If He Wasn't There And
[53:50] He Was Sharing This With His Brother Who Lived With Him Now Ina And Alistair's Father Was Known As Taram At Bake And His Brother Was Known As Taram At More They Were Both Called Norman And So On This Day As Ina And Alistair's Father Was Say What Can I Do What Will I Do Who Will Go For The Children The Brother Taram At More Said I'll Tell You What We'll Do On The Day When We Are Summoned To Go To Court I'll Go In Your Place You And I Have The Same Name I Will Go In Your Place And If There Is Punishment If There Is Prison I Will Go In Your Place And You Will Look After The Children I Will Stand In Your Place He Said I Will Take The Condemnation If There Is Condemnation Now Thankfully In That Story The Case Never Came But In The Story Of Our Salvation The Case Did Come And Jesus Did Stand In
[54:50] Our Place And He Did Seal Our Pardon With His Blood I Quote The Verse So Often But It's Such A Powerful Verse 2 Corinthians 5 21 God Made Him Who Had No Sin To Be Sin For Us So That In Him We Might Become The Righteousness Of God We Are Justified We Hear It In The Court Warren Weerspe Says Justification Is God's Righteousness Imputed Into Our Account God's Righteousness Is Taken It Is Put Into Our Account And Our Sin Is Taken Out And It Is Put On Christ On The Cross If Our Faith Is In Jesus We Are Justified We Are Made Righteous In Him We See That In The Court Room And Paul Takes Us From The Court Room To The Slave Market To Show That We Are Redeemed And
[55:51] In The Slave Market Paul Shows Us The Slaves Those Who Are In Chains Those Who Are In Bondage And He Says That's Who You Were In Your Sin We Were All Verse Nine Under Sin The Commentator Kofi Again Says In This Verse Sin Is Described As A Tyrannical Dictator Who Controls All Human Beings Who Are Helpless Slaves Under Sin's Power Our Only Hope Is For Liberation But Now Says Paul We Have That Liberation We Are We Are Free We Have Verse 24 The Redemption That Came By Christ Jesus We Are Redeemed Oliot The Commentator Says Salvation Is Given Freely But We Must Not Think That It Was Bought Cheaply The Word Redemption Refers To Something Which Has Been Bought Back At A Price Who
[56:52] Has Paid The Price As Salvation And He Answers With Great Emphasis Christ He Has Redeemed Us There Is A Redeemer We Often Sing Jesus God's Own Son If Our Faith Is In Jesus We Are Redeemed We Are No Longer Under Sin's Management We Are Free Now You May Ask What Price Did Christ Pay For Me What Was The Cost Of My Freedom How Much Did It Cost For Me To Be Declared Righteous How How Much Did It Cost For Me To Be Justified And To Answer That Question Paul Takes Us Not To A Bank Where Cash Is Exchanged But Takes Us Finally To To The Temple Where We See The Work Of Atonement In
[57:53] The Old Testament Temple Services Were Constant Where Animals Were Sacrificed To Atone For Sin And Now Says Paul Jesus Was The Perfect Sacrifice And In Verse 25 Paul Says God Presented Him As A Sacrifice Of Atonement Propitiation Is The Word Through Faith In His Blood Hebrews 9 22 Says Without The Shedding Of Blood There Is No Remission There Is No Forgiveness There Is No Cancellation Of The Debt Of Our Sin But Because Jesus Blood Was Shed Our Debt Is Cleared Our Sin Is Forgiven And We Who Because Of Our Sin Were At Odds
[58:53] With God Can Be Made At One With God We Can Have At One Atonement Through Faith In His Blood So How Can We Who Are Unrighteous Be Made Righteous It's Through Faith In Jesus And Even That Faith Is A Gift From God So Let Me Encourage You As We Finish To To Receive It You Have Eyes To See If You Can See What Christ Has Done And You Can See Your Need For Christ To Do In Your Life What He Has Done Then The Gospel Is Being Offered To You That Redemption That Atonement That Justification That Forgiveness It's Been Offered To You So
[59:55] Let Us Be Encouraged Each To Receive It And Having Received It There's No Place For Boasting Says Paul There's No Place For Hoarding That Gospel Message About We Are To Live Lives Of Thankfulness Showing That The Grace We Have Received Is A Grace Which We Cherish And Express In Our Thankfulness In The Way That We Live That's Verses 27 To 31 Time Is Gone Let's Pray Heavenly Father We Pray That You Would Take These Truth And That You Would Apply Them To Our Lives That You Would Press Them In Upon Us That You Would Speak Into Our Hearts And You Would Give Us The Faith To See Our Sin And To See Jesus As The Savior Who Has Done Everything For Those Who Are Unrighteous To Be Made Righteous In
[60:56] Him And You Pray This In Jesus Name Amen We're Going To Conclude By Saying For A Change To Two Praises The Short Psalm Psalm 117 Just Two Stanzas The Psalm We're Reminded Of The Fact That God Is Righteous That He Is His Love And Kindness Is Truth Endures Forever And After Singing That Psalm That Psalm Man Man Of Sorrows What A Name For The Son Of God Who Came Ruined Sinners To Acclaim Hallelujah What A Savior And Look At The Second Verse Bearing Shame Scoring Rude In My Place Condemned He Stood Sealed My Pardon With His Blood Hallelujah What A Savior Guilty Violent Helpless Sweep Unrighteous Spotless Lamb Of God Was He Full Atonement Can It Be Hallelujah
[61:56] What A Savior And So On All of This Hymn To God's Praise O Give Ye Praise Unto The Lord All Nations That Be Like Wise Ye People All Accord His Name To Magnify For For Great To Us Whatever Our His Loving Kindness Is His Truth Endures Forever More The Lord O Do Ye Bless
[62:58] Man Of Sorrow What A Name For The Son Of God Who Came Ruined Sinners To Reclaim Hallelujah What A Savior Bearing Shame And Scoffing Rude In My Place Condemned He Stood Sealed My Pardon With His Blood Hallelujah Hallelujah What Savior
[64:00] Guilty Vile And Helpless We Spotless Lamb Of God Was He Full Atonement Can It Be Hallelujah What Savior Lifted Up Was He To Die It Is Finished Was His Cry Now In Heaven Exalted High Hallelujah What Savior
[65:01] When He Comes Our Glorious King All His Ransomed Home To Bring Then An In This Song We Sing Hallelujah What A Savior And Now May The Grace Of Our Lord Jesus Christ And The Love Of God The Father And The Fellowship Of God The Holy Spirit Be With Us All Both Now And Forever More Amen