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The NEED

The Ultimate Leveler

Josh Yates · Sunday, 25 May 2025 · Romans 3:9-20 · 40:20 · 7,006 words

Romans S5 · 3:9-20 Lake Orion

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The sermon uses Romans 3:9‑20 to show that every person, Jew and Gentile, is under sin and cannot save themselves. It emphasizes that sin makes us spiritually dead, deserving God’s wrath, and that we cannot overcome it by our own effort. The pastor calls listeners to stop comparing themselves to others, admit their rebellion, and turn to Jesus as their only rescuer. He urges those who have not yet trusted Christ to accept his rescue and live in gratitude for God’s grace.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

emperor 10 bad 23 tongue 9 venom 6 affect 9 venomous 3 clothing 5 violence 4 prison 6 lutie 3 mouth 11 good 38

Topics

Sin 10 Prayer 3 The Wrath of God 2 The Gospel 2 Salvation 2 Mission & Evangelism 2 Hope 1 Election & Predestination 1 Righteousness 1 The Law 1 Grace 1

Scripture referenced 25

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 1 2:23 Romans 2 2:45 Ephesians 2 6:38 Romans 3 7:44 Romans 2 8:15 Romans 3 8:39 Romans 1 9:35 Romans 3 11:03 Romans 3 11:05 Romans 3 11:40 Romans 3:9-20 11:41 Romans 3:9 11:48 John 15:5 15:06 Romans 1 16:11 John 6:44 16:31 John 1 16:40 Romans 1 16:54 Romans 3 16:58 Romans 3:18 17:28 Isaiah 53 17:36 Romans 3:12 18:25 Matthew 12:34 21:38 Proverbs 18:21 21:51 Romans 3:19 28:39 Revelation 3:18 37:17

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 10 lines, 0:41. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey, everyone. My name is Phil, and thanks for checking out this message today.

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Well, good morning again.

Let's kind of shift over, and off we go.

And my notes don't want to come up, so I get to do this real quick.

Make sure that my notes are here.

That'd be great if my notes just disappeared.

No, here we go. All right.

My name is Josh Yates.

I'm the location pastor here at the River Church Lake Orion,

so just glad to be able to be with you and lead you in worship this morning.

I get to do that about once a month right now

while we're still looking for a gathering director.

And somebody came to me.

Somebody came to me this morning and asked me, you know,

why exactly do we call our church times gatherings?

I think it's a great opportunity to mention it real quick.

You know, we call them, a lot of places call them church services,

and if you think about a church service, what is the kind of the feeling of that?

I'm here to be served.

I'm here to come, sit, maybe like a bump on a log, watch what's on stage,

listen to some guys speak, and then I'm going to leave.

We call it a gathering at the River Church because we believe it's a gathering of the believers.

And that means that we all gather together for a purpose,

right?

Not just to sit on a log and be a non-participant, but to be a participant together.

And so that's why we call it a gathering, all right?

I also fully understand that sometimes when we're talking to people in the community,

we're like, why don't you come to one of our gatherings?

It can feel like we're saying, come and gather with us, right?

I mean, I know I can feel that way.

It's okay to call it a service just to help other people understand, all right?

Because that insider language isn't always helpful when you're talking to people outside.

But I just want to take a moment to say why we call them gatherings.

Here at the River Church, all right?

So, well, we have been in Romans for, I think, three weeks now.

This is week number four or week number five, something like that.

And we have been talking pretty much for the entirety of the first part of Romans about sin.

In Romans chapter one, we saw that God's wrath is justified.

We've seen man's response to God, that we worship things that are made.

We decide not to honor God or to thank God.

And we've seen the consequence of our response.

We trade God's truth for a lie.

Our lusts take over.

We've traded unity with God for our own passions that continually get more sinful and more debased.

In Romans chapter two, in the beginning of three, we talked about the fact that the gospel cries for repentance.

And because repentance is essential, everyone has to repent.

There is no I'm not as bad as you repentance.

Our actions reveal a heart full of sin.

And God's law is written on our hearts inherently.

And we are not good inherently.

God's law is there.

What can't be faked is a heart turned toward God.

We can't fake a heart turned toward God.

And we have to understand that God is loving, forgiving, is gracious.

But he is also jealous and a God that must bring wrath on sin.

He is righteous and he is a consuming fire.

And Elijah did a great job last week continuing this process.

It's not the easiest passages to preach on.

And I appreciate his work last week.

It just allowed us to get away.

Sometimes we're here when somebody comes in and preaches.

Sometimes we go to another church because it's just nice to be able to go to church rather than do church.

You know what I mean?

So we went to a different church this last week.

It was great to do that with our family.

But Elijah did a great job last week.

And I wanted to thank him for that.

And you may remember the old story from Hans Christian Andersen,

The Emperor's New Clothes.

In case you've forgotten it,

there was a certain emperor who was very fond of appearances and clothing.

So when a certain clever philosopher,

a few philosophers got together who were actually con men,

they offered to weave him a rare and costly garment.

He was quite receptive.

He really liked the promise that the garment would be invisible to all,

but the wise and the pure in heart.

This delighted the emperor.

And so he commissioned this new clothing at great cost.

And the con men set up empty looms and pretend and pretended to be weaving.

They were really good actors.

Soon, the emperor's curiosity became such that he sent his chief minister to see how things were going.

He didn't see any cloth on the looms and but he didn't want to be thought out and wise or impure in heart.

So the official returned with a report about the fabulous beauty of the cloth.

Because remember,

only the wise and the pure were able to see.

This clothing after a time,

the weavers asked for more money.

The emperor became impatient,

sending his second chief minister who returned with even more enthusiastic report.

the emperor said he went himself and though he too saw nothing,

he didn't want to appear stupid.

So he proclaimed the clothing excellent and beautiful.

He even gave his weavers metals.

on the last day of the group for the grand parade,

the con men dressed the emperor in his nakedness and he skipped town.

And then those guys skipped town with all the money that they made.

But then the emperor decided to,

parade before his people all natural.

The whole populace joined in praising his beautiful new clothing.

So they weren't thought of as fools and impure.

The absurd parade continued until a moment of quiet moment of quietness.

A child was heard to say,

the emperor has no clothes.

And once everyone knew the truth,

including the emperor,

one innocent but honest remark by a small child who didn't know enough to keep their mouth shut,

stripped away the hypocritical pretense of everything going on.

See,

it's easy to be quiet when others subscribe,

to believe in and live for the lies that are all around us.

It's really easy to stay quiet in order that we're not thought of as fools or weird or outcasts or different.

I want to tell us again,

we cannot understand how good the good news is until we understand how bad the bad news is.

And we,

when we don't fully understand how bad the bad news is,

it's really easy to live as the emperor that has no clothes.

I'd love to tell you that we're moving on in the section of Romans,

but we have one more message on the bad news.

there's a reason why God inspired Paul to speak so much on the issue of sin at the beginning of his letter to Romans and in his other letters.

Just so we understand sin's effect on us,

we have to remember what Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter two,

one to three.

It says this,

and you were dead into trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world,

following the prince of the power of the air,

the spirit that is now at work within the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passion of our flesh,

carrying out the desires of the body.

In the mind and we're by nature,

children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

See,

every person is dead in trespasses and sins.

And let me remind you dead people.

Don't walk dead.

People don't get back up without God.

We were dead in our trespasses and our sins.

Every person is by nature without Jesus,

a child of God's wrath and the enemy of God.

The good news is coming.

Hang on.

The good news is coming,

but we can't know how good the good news is until we know how bad it is.

How bad the bad news is.

And so Paul continues to make his case here.

He anticipates the objections that his readers would have largely as is a Jewish audience.

And I don't want to restate too much of what Elijah said last week,

but I will have to talk a little bit today so we can know the basis of what Paul is saying here in Romans chapter three.

When we get to it,

see the Jews thought there was an advantage to being a Jew.

Like they had gotten the word they,

they were already in that the law was enough for salvation and adding Jesus to their practice.

Not a big deal.

Unless Gentiles converted,

they couldn't be saved.

That's actually what so many Jews believed.

You had to be circumcised.

You had to go through all of what the Jews did in order to be saved.

And Paul wanted to let them know it wasn't okay.

That was chapter two,

but he also wanted to know there is some benefit to being a Jew.

Jesus came as the king of the Jews.

They had the law.

They had all of the foundation of what Jesus came on and their covenant status with God is significant.

And we can know that having the word of God is awesome and doing right things is good even for us,

but even it cannot span the Gulf.

That's.

That sin has created us between us and God.

It's almost as if Paul was going to start a list at the beginning of chapter three,

but he uses what's called a radical faint or using rhetoric to make his point that all people,

every single person are under sin.

Then Paul goes over all the absurd questions that Elijah talked about last week.

And we can be pretty good with coming up with those questions.

if I sin more,

God's grace will be even greater.

Well,

it sounds good,

right?

Even saying that God is unrighteous.

Unrighteous to inflict his wrath on us.

How much do we hear that?

I hear that all the time.

Even in the church,

God's unrighteous to inflict his wrath on us.

It's the age old argument.

If God is good,

then how can he send anyone to hell?

Right?

I've heard that.

You've heard that.

We've already stated that God must judge sin.

And in chapter one,

we discussed what mankind had done and we've agreed that deserves judgment.

when it comes to God judging us,

we don't like that.

We do not like that.

But here's the problem.

It's the idea that many of us may even have is that,

our sin just isn't that bad.

It just isn't that bad.

And we compare to others.

Paul is finalizing his point that God is faithful if he is gracious or if he is wrathful.

Do you hear that?

He's finalizing his point that God is gracious or he's faithful,

even if he is gracious or if he's wrathful.

He's being faithful to the new covenant and the covenants that pointed to Jesus.

Our complacency has no place in the kingdom of God.

Our complacency has no place in the kingdom of God.

And I would also tell you this morning that God doesn't send anyone to hell.

Every person on the earth is already headed there on their own.

God is the rescuer of us.

We have all chosen to go our own way,

and we're going to see that today.

God doesn't send anyone to hell.

He rescues those that choose him.

See,

it's a different perspective.

It sounds like it's just a little change,

but it's a huge difference.

A huge difference.

The Jews and our condemnation by God on our sin and us is just.

So we come to the passage for today.

So let's open our Bibles to Romans chapter three.

Romans chapter three is where we'll be today to where we'll plant again.

I am.

So I've been doing this for like 28 years and not hearing pages is the weirdest thing ever.

I'm not saying I'm not one of those guys going to say,

if you don't have a paper Bible,

you don't got the Bible.

I'm not going to tell you that.

All right.

But it's so weird.

Instead of friends,

instead of hearing this,

it's just silent because everybody's so I'm a gadget guy.

I get it,

but it's still the weirdest thing.

All right,

it'll be on the screen behind me.

I want to read it for us.

Romans chapter three,

we're going to read verses nine to 20 because I want us to,

I want us to hear the entire passage that I'm going to pray for us this morning.

Starting verse nine.

What then are we Jews any better off?

No,

not at all.

For we have already charged that all both Jews and Greeks are under sin as it is written.

None is righteous.

No,

not one.

No one understands.

No one is seeks God.

All have turned aside together.

They've become worthless.

No one does good.

Not even one.

Their throat is an open grave.

They use their tongues to deceive the venom,

the venom of,

the asps is under their lips.

Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood in their paths are ruined and misery.

Then when the way of peace,

they have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes.

Now we know that whatever the law says,

it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God for by far before by works of the law.

No human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly father,

I just thank you for your word.

I thank you for the words of Paul that you inspired him to write.

And I just pray you give us hearts to apply and ears to hear what you have to tell us today specifically about who we are,

how we've acted and the causes of all of that.

But I pray we would come to a good knowledge of who we are so that we can just like in the Beatitudes be poor in spirit,

mourn over our sin and hunger and thirst after righteousness.

God speak to us now in Jesus name we pray.

So while the Jewish people had the word of God,

the Old Testament,

it didn't really make,

make them better off or on the inside just because of that.

They still had to choose God.

Why?

Again,

we go back.

Everyone is under sin.

It's the ultimate leveler.

It really doesn't matter,

you know,

whether you're rich,

where you live,

what you've done all good,

the reality is everyone,

everyone is under sin.

Everybody's understand.

And it levels all of us.

Addison Leach said that if the color of sin were blue,

every aspect of us would be some shade of blue.

It's an interesting thing.

A way to put it.

We are completely and totally depraved.

We have no hope apart from God.

None of us do.

We're rooted in sin from the beginning.

We don't bring anything to the table when it comes to our salvation.

We cannot save ourselves.

And Paul is establishing this point.

The Russian poet Turgenev is quoted saying,

I don't know what the heart of a bad man is like,

but I do know what the heart of a good man is like.

And it's terrible.

Interesting to think about that.

I think he got the point.

So Paul then speaks about who we are,

what we do,

the reason why.

The commentator said that Paul is talking about our character,

and finally the cause in this little section

where he quotes the Old Testament here.

So he starts off,

and I'm going to quote a little bit of Tim Keller in this too.

I love how he put this passage.

Starts off with saying that none is righteous.

No one righteous.

And so Tim Keller would say,

sin has affected our legal standing before God.

not any of us.

So we've been declared guilty before the Lord.

We may think we're righteous.

We may do good things.

There are plenty of good people

that do great things.

But we have to remember what Jesus said in John 15, 5.

I am the vine,

you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him,

it is he that bears much fruit.

For apart from me,

you can do nothing.

I don't care how much good we do.

If it's not through the Holy Spirit,

if it's not because of Jesus,

if it's not empowered by him,

it matters nothing.

It might make us feel good,

but it will not last for eternity.

We're called to love God with all of our heart,

our soul,

our mind,

and our strength.

And guess what?

There isn't one of us

that ever does that all the time.

The only one that ever did that,

He's the only one that ever did live that way.

So no one is righteous.

No, not one.

Then he says,

no one understands.

So sin has now affected our minds.

Sin has affected our minds.

There's a lot of people on the earth

that are super smart.

So many people are smarter than I am.

But apart from God,

you can never understand

because our minds have been darkened.

We learned that back in Romans chapter one.

No one understands.

There's no one who seeks God,

he says next.

Sin has now affected our motives.

Our motives are not for the Lord,

they're for ourselves.

it is really about ourselves.

No one wants God on their own.

Jesus told us that no one comes to the Father

unless they're drawn to them.

That's John 6, 44.

We don't come to God on our own.

He draws us to him.

People don't search for God or truth.

In fact, our default,

remember back in chapter one?

Again,

the thing about these letters,

really quick Bible study 101, right?

When we're looking at letters in the New Testament,

you have to be able to read it

just not a verse,

a verse on its own.

You've got to read it as a letter

because there's things in chapter one

that the reader would remember

reading chapter three,

which by the way,

when it was originally written,

there were no verses,

there were no chapters.

It was just one letter.

All right?

So for us,

they were put in later

so that we can do what we're doing.

So we can look at it,

we can all get in the same page

and know what we're looking at.

But at the beginning of his letter,

what did he say?

He said that the default of humankind

is to suppress the truth.

We don't live for the truth on our own.

We don't want

the truth on our own.

And there is no fear of God,

which is in verse 18,

that's affected our motives.

He says,

all have turned aside.

See,

sin has affected our will.

six says this,

all we like sheep

have gone astray.

We have turned everyone

to his own way

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

We've all wanted our own way.

Reminded me of the old

Frank Sinatra song,

right?

And now the end is near.

And so I face the final curtain,

right?

I'll say it clear.

I'll state my case

of which I'm certain

I've lived a life that's full.

I traveled each and every highway

and much more,

much more than this.

Sing it together.

I did it my way.

Right?

We've all done it our way.

We've all done things our own way

rather than God's,

rather than God's.

And then what does it say next

in verse 12?

It says,

this has made us worthless.

You're saying,

that the greatest good on earth

is worthless apart from God.

Yeah,

that's exactly what I'm saying.

That's,

well,

not what I'm saying.

That's what the Bible is saying.

That's what Paul is saying here,

And what was said in the Old Testament

that he's quoting.

We become worthless

because there's no one

who seeks after God.

We're not loving the Lord

in what we're doing.

Why,

why is most of the good

on the earth done

when you really boil it down?

It's to make ourselves feel good.

The biggest philanthropists

in the world

that have the most money.

I would pose it to you.

The biggest reason people give money

when they're rich

is because they feel guilty

that they have as much as they have.

And they try to assuage guilt

maybe in how they made,

maybe in how they spend the money.

They're trying to justify

how they've spent their money.

So they're doing something good

to offset that cost.

Let's be honest.

Isn't that true of us too, though?

It isn't just people that are rich, right?

We don't do it all the time.

And so much of what we do

becomes worthless

because it's more about us

than it is about the other person

or about God.

Not even one person

does good apart from God.

We can't measure up.

There is no scale on earth

that will take your good works,

weigh them against your bad works,

and you'll be okay

in the eyes of God.

There is no salvation

apart from Jesus Christ.

You cannot earn it on your own.

It's not possible.

So that is who we are.

That's our character.

So now we get to what we do.

It's our conduct.

So Paul speaks with clear language

and he continues to paint this picture

that is so sad.

In fact, it's disgusting.

He goes on and he says,

our throats are open graves.

Our tongues are deceitful.

Venom of asps on our lips.

Mouths full of curses and bitterness.

And so sin has affected our tongues.

Our mouths are full of so much venom

sometimes, aren't they?

We see venom spewed all over the news,

all over social media,

at the workplace,

at the water cooler,

about our bosses,

about our spouses,

about our parents,

about our teachers,

about that person

that stabbed you in the back.

Our tongues are full of venom.

Have you ever been bitten?

Have you ever done the biting?

There's no other way to put it.

Without God, we are venomous.

We're venomous.

We're just like the one

that tempted us to sin

in the first place.

All the way back in the Garden of Eden.

We're open graves.

What comes out of the mouths

of those that don't know God,

those that truly aren't His,

my friends, often smells like death.

It smells like death.

It's always been this way, though.

Jesus told us why.

In speaking to the religious leaders,

He says, Matthew 12, 34,

You brood of vipers,

how can you speak good

when you are evil?

For out of the abundance of the heart,

the mouth speaks.

The abundance of the heart,

the mouth speaks.

And Solomon put it really well,

Proverbs 18, 21,

Death and life are in the power of the tongue,

and those who love it

will eat its fruits.

Man, our tongues can be a wildfire,

James says.

Our tongues destroy marriages.

We exaggerate the truth.

We lie.

We brag about ourselves.

We tear other people down.

We gossip everywhere.

We grumble and show our ungratefulness.

Our tongues are a fire and a poison.

We've got to be careful with what we say.

And apart from Jesus,

there is no controlling the tongue.

It's always so funny, you know.

I mean, some of you have heard me say this before.

When I golf sometimes,

you know,

I'll golf with somebody that I don't know,

and I'm on about the 10th hole.

Well, about 10th to 13th hole,

they finally ask me what I do.

And they've been cursing the whole round.

And I say,

do you really want to know?

Yeah, yeah, I really want to know.

I'm a pastor at the River Church.

Oh, they just get,

they get really crazy.

They're like, I'm so sorry.

And then they play terrible the rest of the route.

And if they were good,

they're not anymore, you know.

Maybe I need to tell them on hole two.

Anyway, but this is another thing though.

And this is going to step on our toes.

Some of you in this room,

we say, well, that's just how I speak.

I'm going to say baloney

because most of you in here

change what you say

when you come and talk to me.

Why?

You don't have to impress me.

It really doesn't bother me at all

if cursing is something you struggle with.

It doesn't offend me.

It just means that's where you are.

What we need to worry about

is what God is saying of us,

that our mouths are venomous.

So we can change it

when it helps us

rather than actually letting God change us,

change how we talk,

change how we live,

change everything,

which is what the Holy Spirit desires to do in us.

Paul moves to our feet

and what we do.

And as Keller says,

sin has affected our relationships

with other people now.

See, we're quick to shed blood and violence.

It's the reason we see so much violence today

and why violence is resorted to so often.

We can't even have a conversation anymore.

You disagree with somebody,

you're evil,

and I'm going to punch you right in the grill.

At least that's what we see on the news.

Granted, we probably see everything that's bad,

never the good, right?

So we're kind of getting conditioned that way,

I think, because of media.

That's a whole different message though.

Will Durant wrote in his Lessons from History,

in the last 3,421 years of recorded history,

only 268 have seen no war.

During World War II,

it was estimated that it took $225,000

to kill one enemy soldier.

I wonder how much it's being spent

by the major nations today.

Mankind loves violence.

See, the path we're on leads to ruin and misery.

And peace is fleeting

because it's sought in every way but toward God.

Murder, destruction, and misery.

We bring harm to others.

Our lives keep spiraling and we don't know why.

No idea how to find peace.

Consistent arguing of people.

Continual drama in our lives.

Always something wrong wherever you go.

That's why we don't have peace.

Finally, there's no fear of God.

So sin has affected our relationship to God.

And this is the cause of our sinfulness.

We've all run away from God.

There's no desire for God.

There's no realization that God's standard has been broken,

which breaks us and we stand guilty before God.

We don't want to say about ourselves

that we stand guilty before God

because we have to accept responsibility

for what we've done.

But when we do that, it leads us to sin and rebellion.

Because that's our only choice.

If we don't agree with God, we have to rebel.

We have to rebel against Him.

The evidence of our brokenness and sinfulness,

as we've talked about this for three weeks,

this evidence of our brokenness and sinfulness,

it can be overwhelming.

You're probably sick and tired of hearing about sin.

Let me tell you, I'm tired of preaching on sin.

But the reality is this.

Our sin should overwhelm us.

What have we done?

We told God to go wherever you tell God to go

when you're mad at Him.

And what did He do?

He had every right to wipe us off the earth.

And what did He do?

He sent His Son to die on my planet.

He sent His Son to die on my planet.

He sent His Son to die on my planet.

Even though I told Him I didn't care and I didn't want it.

And He reached down and He picked me up.

He said, you're going to be my son.

And that happens for us if we would just come to Him.

But we come to God and we go, well, I'm not that bad.

Oh, I don't really want to go to hell.

So I'm going to kind of play the religious game.

No, we should be overwhelmed

and fall on our faces before a holy God.

And say, thank you.

Thank you for all you've done.

I don't deserve it.

I don't know why you'd choose me,

but I'm thankful that you did.

That changes our lives

and points us toward what we were made for.

And that's to worship Him and to live for Him.

Because every single one of us,

He's made us to be known by Him

and to be loved by Him.

He made us exactly for what we long for.

Because all of us long to be fully known.

And when we're fully known,

to be fully loved.

It's one of our biggest fears.

Most of us, if not every single one of us in this room,

worries that if everybody in here knew

every part about me,

they wouldn't love me.

They wouldn't like me.

If you knew what I did,

if you knew my attitude,

if you knew what I've gone through,

if you knew what the state of my life is,

my relationships are,

my finances are,

if you knew,

you would think I'm a moron.

I'm an idiot.

I don't deserve to be loved.

And that's our fear.

And God says,

come to me,

all you who are weary,

I will give you rest for your soul.

You come to the cross

and He accepts you as you are.

He doesn't tell you I told you so.

You can be fully known.

And fully loved.

And that's what we long for in this world.

But when we search everywhere else for it other than Him,

we don't find it.

And then we want to get things our own way.

So now what?

We've got to go back to verse 19

and realize that there's really no argument over this.

Paul says that through the law,

through God's word,

every mouth is stopped.

The case is closed.

Everybody might as well shut their mouths.

This is just the truth.

This is the reality.

I mean, our argument tends to be

other people are worse than we are.

God will understand.

But there's no argument there.

Sin is the only thing that can stop us.

The ultimate leveler.

I already said it doesn't matter how much money you make,

your social status.

We're all sinners.

I don't want to tell you this morning.

This is something you've got to hear.

I don't care how religious you are.

Religion will not save you.

Religion will not save you.

It doesn't.

It just doesn't.

Doing the churchy things.

It don't matter.

It doesn't impress God.

In fact, it impresses God more

when you beat your chest and you're like,

I'm a sinner.

I don't even know how to pray.

But God, I just want to talk to you

I want to be with you.

I don't know what to say,

but I'm just going to sit here

and I'm going to talk to you.

Then somebody over here

that can orate this beautiful prayer.

God is more impressed by the person

who knows they're standing before him

and loves him

than somebody over here

that just wants to look good.

And how often do we just want to look good?

How many of us here this morning

have masks on?

Come to church

and we just keep our masks on

because we're afraid of what people

are going to think of us.

Guys, this ain't no country club.

This is a hospital full of hurting people

that need a savior.

Every single one of us.

And let me remind you of something this morning.

We connect more and more

over our weaknesses

than we do over our strengths.

The only person that did well

at connecting over strengths

because he talked about weaknesses

and he loved people in the middle of them.

We help each other

when we know that we're all broken

and we all need a savior.

Paul says here at the end

that the law simply exposed sin

for what it was.

We have to know this morning

that no one,

no one

comes to God on their own.

We all need a savior.

We all need Jesus.

Every single one of us.

Pastor Eric Lutie runs

Ellerslie Discipleship Ministry

and does a lot of messages

that are dramatically

and creatively done on YouTube

If you ever want to look

just inspirational

put you on your knees

all the things

messages that are on YouTube

they're just amazing.

One of his messages

is all about the gospel

and today and next week

I'm going to share

portions of his

of that message

that are done online.

If you want to search

I'd encourage you

to listen to it.

It's about 10 minutes long.

But this is how he starts.

He says,

you are a rebel.

Whether you want

to acknowledge it or not

I'll tell you straight up.

You are a rebel

living against the living God.

This is your natural disposition.

Why?

Because you were born in sin.

We're in a prison cell

and it takes the awakening

and the grace of God.

We call it

the prevenient grace of God

to awaken us

to the fact that we are lost

and we can't get out.

We're headed toward destruction fast.

because of our rebellion against God

has legal rights

to harm and harass our life.

There you are

behind the prison cell

I need out.

You can't get out.

The prison bars

are stronger than any

There's no way

you can cut them

because they're stronger

It's impenetrable.

You cannot escape.

You're doomed

because when the enemy

comes in at the very end

he's going to finish you off

because he has legal right

to do it

and he's going to relish

every minute of it.

That's what Paul

is saying today.

When we attempt

to overcome sin

in any other way

than running to Jesus

we then realize

that we like the emperor

we think we have

these beautiful

only to have Jesus

finally come to us

and say

you are poor

and naked.

We have nothing on.

Every single one of us

needs a savior.

We're desperate for him

even if we don't know it.

starts next week

but again

we can't know

how the good news is

until we know

how bad the bad news is.

We have to accept that

and we've learned

over the last three weeks

and you can respond

in one of two ways

over the last few weeks

you can be upset

and incredulous

you can sit here

you can listen online

and say no I'm not trapped

I'm a good person

I do good things

the interpretation

of these passages

pastor you're saying

you're wrong

God knows my heart

he'll forgive me

you can continue

to justify your sin

extenuating circumstances

for the reasons

why you fail

or

you can fall on your knees

before a holy God

and realize that he's right

and you are a sinner

you've been a rebel

you realize that you come to him

with no way to save yourself

and you need his forgiveness

and restoration

you can realize

that there's nothing

you can say or do

that will change the fact

that you are trapped under sin

and that you have no hope

apart from Jesus

this is why God

didn't send a politician

a military leader

in the way the Jews wanted

to the world as Messiah

the world has a much bigger problem

than what we see

we are sinners without hope

but God has sent

the king of kings

and the lord of lords

he sent us a redeemer

an atoning sacrifice

an example of how to have

a relationship with God

who became sin for us

in our place

he sent us Jesus

who died

who died

because I had no hope

you have no hope

apart from him

so I don't have to

become hope for me

and he can become hope for you

it's in the words from Tim Keller

quoted him before a little bit

but

when we consider our own path

we need to realize

that we did not seek him out

he drew us to him

we may have decided

to put our faith in him

but it was only because

he had decided to give us faith

what difference does this make?

will you rejoice

to see that God

is not trying to hide from you

that all the things

that you know about him

he has chosen to reveal to you

by the truth

that there is nothing better

or cleverer in you

that made you seek God

that you have nothing

that you weren't already given

you can be comforted

that he who began

a good work in you

will be faithful

until the day of Jesus Christ

you can praise God

with greater gratitude

because you know

that everything about your salvation

comes from him

from first to last

salvation didn't begin with you

deciding to seek God

but it began with him

choosing to seek you

you know that everything you have

and everything you have

and are

is by his sheer grace

chosen you if you know him

maybe he's calling your name this morning

will you respond?

because every single one of us

needs to know that we're blind

poor and naked without Jesus

we have to come to him

as one of the churches

and the revelation was encouraged to

Revelation 3.18

I counsel you to buy from me

gold refined by fire

so that you may be rich

and white garments

so that you may clothe yourself

and the shame of your nakedness

may not be seen

and salve to anoint your eyes

so that you may see

so what's going to be your day?

what's going to be your decision?

if you haven't accepted Christ

what's going to be your decision?

are you going to sit there

and say no I'm not a bad person

and I'm just going to stay where I am

or will you recognize

that God has called us who we are

but he's also given us a savior

that will change us

into who he made us to be

maybe you haven't been walking with him

for a long time

maybe you've been living in sin

and Jesus keeps calling your name

to come home

will you come home?

he's not here to tell you

I told you so

he's saying come home

stop looking like what you used to

don't keep going back

to that prison cell that you're in

don't stay in that prison cell

because it's not just your chains

that have been broken

the door to your prison cell

has been unlocked

step out

it's your decision today

we all need Jesus

come to him to pray

Heavenly Father

I thank you for your love

thank you for your mercy

I pray this morning

that as we've heard more about sin

God I just pray

that you'd help us

to hear your voice

I pray that we'd be convicted

but I also pray God

that we would hear your heart

in the middle of all of this too

that God there's a lot to this

that there is a depth to it

that maybe we didn't understand

but God as we want you more

Lord I pray that we would seek you

and find you

because we've sought you

with all of our heart

not just part of our hearts

not just part of our lives

but all of us Lord

Lord I thank you

that you've told us

how bad the bad news is

because Jesus

it just helps us understand

how life changing

the good news is

God help us to choose you

if there's anybody here this morning

that doesn't yet know you

I pray that they would choose you

if somebody's been walking

afar off from you

God I pray that they run home to you

and we would desire you this morning

thank you for your love

your love, and I thank you for your word. It tells us like it is. It reveals who you are. In Jesus' name we pray.

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