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Righteousness

Faith Alone

Randy Johnson · Sunday, 1 June 2025 · Romans 3:21-31 · 37:20 · 5,751 words

Romans S6 · 3:21-31

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Romans 3:21‑31, described as the center and heart of the whole main section of the letter, shows how God’s righteousness is revealed apart from the law and that all have sinned and fall short of his glory. It explains that justification comes as a free gift through faith in Christ, who bore the penalty and declares the believer righteous. The pastor asks listeners to turn from sin, trust Christ alone for salvation, and then continually seek God in prayer and live a life of love in response.

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.

righteous 34 faith 42 justify 21 free 21 section 10 gift 21 satisfy 6 paid 9 coal 3 forward 8 grade 4 price 6

Topics

Faith 15 Righteousness 9 Sin 6 Justification 6 The Law 6 Grace 5 Salvation 4 Atonement & Sacrifice 2 Prayer 2 The Gospel 1 Freedom 1

Scripture referenced 39

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

Romans 3:21-31 2:54 Romans 3:21-31 3:04 Romans 3:23 3:10 Romans 3:23 3:13 Romans 3:23 3:21 Romans 3 4:00 Romans 3:21 4:05 Romans 3:21-24 4:15 Ephesians 5:8 5:05 1 Peter 2:10 5:18 Genesis 1:1 6:08 Genesis 2 6:39 Romans 3 6:44 Romans 3 6:47 Romans 3:9 9:20 Romans 2:11 9:41 Romans 3:23 10:02 Romans 3:23 10:24 Jeremiah 17:9 10:31 Romans 3:24 12:31 Romans 5:15 12:48 Romans 5:16 13:45 Romans 5:17 17:13 Romans 6:23 17:28 Romans 3 19:26 Romans 3 20:48 Romans 3:25-26 20:49 Romans 3:24 21:42 Philippians 3:8 26:22 2 Corinthians 5:21 27:18 Romans 3:27-31 27:51 Ephesians 2:8 28:46 2 Corinthians 5:7 30:09 Galatians 2:16 30:14 Ephesians 2:8 30:32 Philippians 3:9 30:36 2 Timothy 3:15 30:50 Romans 1:16 31:30 Galatians 5:13 33:28

Transcript

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

Well, good morning, or good morning again, right?

Good response, by the way.

Last week I was at Nathan's church in Romeoville, just southwest Chicago.

Our kids director for a year and a half here is now pastoring down there and got to speak

at his church, and I found out after the message I forgot to turn my mic on.

Forty-five years in ministry, and we still do these kinds of things where we stay connected

or not connected, right?

Fortunately, they had a huge podium that had a microphone, and so as we went to pray,

for him, and I stepped away from the microphone, they have a fluorescent sign that they put

up, turn your mic on.

So I guess I was not the first person to do that, so it all worked out well, but it was

great being with them last week, and they send their love and greetings, and we got

to meet Amber, and little Amber was just adorable, of course, as you can imagine, and Sawyer,

they're feeding him too much or something, he just keeps growing, right?

And so I view Sawyer like...

For a year and a half, he was like our church mascot or something.

Dawn, am I okay saying that?

Is that...

I'm okay.

You take turns holding Sawyer or chasing him, one or the other, but it's good to be back

with you.

Grant Grimes was with you last week, and he's graduating from Pastor's Academy next week,

and so it's beautiful.

I had him come in and just let you know that you're all sinners, as we're preaching through

Romans, right?

It was quite the passage, that section of nine.

Things there of, you know, no one's good, no one's righteous, no, not one, and just

let him know that we're all pathetic losers, right?

And so it's nice that he's got that over with, so now I can go into the next section, but

that was not planned, and we are going through the book of Romans, and we are on week six

of 32, right?

And so we've decided as a church, the River Church is one church with nine locations,

and so you can go to the website.

You can go to the website or the app and pick up messages, nine different messages from

this one passage today if you'd like to.

We also, just so you know, we have a publishing aspect of the church, and so we publish our

own books on every series, and so we do have one on Romans that would have a study guide

for each week, and then six daily devotions, and you can get that free on the app or the

website, the digital copy, and if you want to buy a physical copy, because I'm one of

those ones who likes to hold a book still.

We do have those.

I could get seven services, or you can go on Amazon and get them there also, but so

we are in Romans, and today we're going to be in Romans 3, 21 through 31, and so it's

11 verses long.

It's an interesting section, because when I say Romans 3, 21 through 31, a number of

you are thinking, oh, we're going to go to Romans 3, 23, right?

Because we know Romans 3, 23, and so you're dismissed.

We already know that.

No, we'll go through the passage, right?

But you know the topic that's coming about.

From Romans 3, 23, but Professor Cranfield calls this section the center and heart of

the whole main section of the letter.

Leon Morris says, it's possibly the most important single paragraph ever written, and then Martin

Luther said this section was the chief point, the very central place of the epistle, and

of the whole Bible.

It's interesting that we're going to look at 11 verses, and they're saying, like, if

you read the whole Bible, this, like, summarizes everything.

Just grab this section, if you know this section, and then work your way out, you'll

understand the Bible better.

I do have a three-point outline, and again, I'm in Romans 3.

You have Bibles in the pews in front of you, if you'd like to grab the chairs in front

of you, if you'd like to grab one, but I'm going to start in verse 21, and my first point

is just to be the what.

Kind of like, what's the big deal?

What's it all about?

And so in Romans 3, 21 through 24, read,

You come off of Grant's message from last week, and that passage, and that we've all

sinned, and we need to realize that we are sinners.

And then he comes and he says, but now.

It's almost like a however section, and I love a couple verses that use that phrase,

but now, that would be basically our testimony.

Our statement as believers.

Ephesians 5, 8,

We were darkness, but because of Jesus Christ, we're now light.

1 Peter 2, 10,

Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

And that whole starting thing, the transition there.

He mentions all this, and it points out the darkness,

and then he reminds us of the light that we have in Jesus Christ.

I like how this starts off, but now the righteousness of God

talks about us as sinners in need of a Savior,

but reminds us of the righteousness of God.

As I was going through this, I started thinking back with like four words into the Bible.

Genesis 1, 1, right?

In the beginning, God.

I know we're supposed to read Scripture and how it applies to us,

but we're not the central actor in the Bible.

We're not the key person.

It's not all about us.

It starts with God.

And we start off with God.

We realize his righteousness, and immediately in the opening chapters,

Genesis 2 and 3, we realize we created by him.

In chapter 3, we sin.

And still in chapter 3, God will send a Savior.

And so we have the Messiah who's going to come that we know is Jesus,

and who did come and who rose again.

And so thank you for the reminder on that, both in song and in word and in prayer,

of just he is alive.

He is alive for us to worship.

But the righteousness of God, that phrase, please catch this,

31 times in Romans.

I read Romans, and I realize I'm a sinner.

And I sometimes forget it's about the righteousness of God.

That's why my sin stands out so much, because he's perfect,

and the righteousness of him.

And so the whole Bible, and Romans in specific,

is about how can I be right with God?

I'm not.

How does that come together?

And so Paul reveals a very,

I like how Chuck Swindoll said it in his commentary.

He said,

Paul described the righteousness of God in very poetic terms.

The Greek word rendered, manifested, or made known

was often used in Greek literature to mean shine, light up, or appear,

much like someone would describe the rising of the sun.

In the darkest gloom of human history,

in which people vainly labored to obtain the righteousness of God,

grace dawned with the rising of the sun.

The rising of the gospel.

And I love the picture he's painting there for us is,

if we get up early in the morning and watching the sunrise,

and the darkness, it's so dark.

Just to make it even more simple,

it's, you know, you're getting your kids up for school,

and you just flip the light on.

It was dark in the room, and immediately there's all this light,

and it's true of our life.

And to think through the Old Testament for those who thought

that somehow they could become righteous by keeping the law,

Romans says you can't do it.

No matter how hard you try, you can't, in and of yourself,

become righteous like God.

And that's why Jesus comes in, and the light switch flips on.

The shine, the light up to appear.

He references the law and the prophets,

and I think it's just basically a summary of the whole Old Testament,

of thinking of the whole Old Testament waiting for this point,

for the Messiah to come.

He mentions there's no distinction in these verses.

In Romans 3, 9, we saw,

What then?

Are we Jews?

Are we Jews any better off?

No, not at all.

We have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.

And so no matter how hard you work would be the Jews,

and how smart you are would be the Greeks,

we're all sinners.

In Romans 2, 11,

I appreciate that, not being Jewish,

the reminder that God's offers to all of us,

which we would say to the Jew and to the Gentile,

to the non-Jewish individual,

that the offer of the Messiah was for all of us,

and that takes us to the Romans 3, 23,

for all have sinned.

I remember I was taking an hour-long oral exam

in front of classmates in that,

and it was a pre-ordination exam when I was in seminary,

and, you know,

give us a verse that we've all sinned kind of thing,

and, you know, the Romans 3, 23 is your classic, right?

We've all sinned.

And it's like, well, give us a verse from the Old Testament.

Is it true in the Old Testament?

And I remember going to Jeremiah 17, 9.

The heart is deceitful above all things,

and desperately sick.

Who can understand it?

For a culture that says, follow your heart,

we're in a lot of trouble,

because where my heart may be different than your heart,

we're going to clash.

And so it's not set up our own code,

set up our own what we think is right.

It's understanding that God has set it for us.

Our faith is not,

I think I mentioned this a few weeks ago,

God doesn't grade on a curve.

I think we like this mentality that, you know,

you're hoping that if you're taking a class,

and it's a really difficult class,

and you get a poor test where you're like,

oh, I hope they grade on a curve.

God's standard of righteousness is perfection.

And as we were born, we broke it already.

We're being born with a sin nature.

And so it's not a,

and it's also not a comparative religion.

Christianity is,

if you want to be comparative,

compare yourself with God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit.

Don't compare yourself with a murderer or drug dealer

or the person that you think you're better than.

Compare ourselves with God.

And when we see the righteousness of God,

we realize we need to say,

Hanley Mool, in his commentary, said,

And I love that.

I may compare myself with someone else,

and hopefully not, right,

that I'm better than them because of whatever reason.

But when it comes to reaching God,

we're both falling short of his glory.

And then verse 24,

looking at it again,

and are justified by his grace as a gift

to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

I mean, that word gift jumps out to me,

and justified and redemption.

You know, Romans 5.15 says,

but the free gift is not like the trespass,

which again, whenever I see the phrase free gift in scripture,

I'm reminded how slow I am,

that God has to be redundant.

He's saying, it's a gift.

In case you missed this, it's free.

Yeah, I get it.

If it's free, it's a gift.

If it's a gift, it's free.

Why are you saying free gift?

Because I always want to make it about me.

And so somehow I earn that righteousness, right?

What do I add to it?

What works do I do?

And he's like, no, no, no.

The work's been done on the cross by Jesus Christ.

And he rose again.

So, but the free gift is not like the trespass.

For if many died through one man's trespass,

much more have the grace of God

and the free gift by the grace

of that one man, Jesus Christ, abound for many.

If you go into the,

and the free gift is not the result of one man's sin.

For the judgment following one trespass

brought condemnation,

but the free gift following many trespasses

brought justification.

Just that reminder for us

that we can't earn it.

We can't work for it.

We can't do it on our own.

We just need to receive it from him.

The word justification,

I would encourage you when you see the word justification,

there are some words in scripture that,

I don't know, can be a little intimidating for us.

And we see them,

and we just, when we break them down,

it helps a little bit.

The justification, I've heard it said,

just as if I never sinned.

That's justification.

Just as if I never sinned.

It's to declare one righteous.

They can be justified,

which could be translated here,

the made righteous in God's sight.

As I was reading a couple of commentaries,

it caught my attention.

It's like, I talk about being justified by faith.

It's not fully accurate for me to say it that way.

Let me explain that.

I'm justified by Jesus Christ.

Through faith in him.

It's not just faith in anything, right?

It's who you have your faith in,

and knowing that Jesus is the one.

I saw an illustration,

I thought it really will help with this one,

on the whole idea of being made righteous.

And it happened in June 13th, 2000,

where a deaf couple stood before Judge Donald McDonough

in Fairfax, Virginia.

Situation had happened that their landlord was there.

They had not paid the rent.

They were short $250.

Had no way.

They had no way of paying it

because this deaf couple had gotten married

and they lost their disability.

And I don't know if you've heard of situations like that happening.

And I have counseling situations

where couples will be like,

we want to be married, but we'll lose our benefit.

We'll lose, you know, these things.

And they had lost their disability

so they couldn't pay their rent.

And so they agreed, we owe that money,

but there's no way we can pay it.

The judge said, well, there's really no explanation here.

And you're guilty.

And I believe they weren't going to be able

to leave until it was paid.

So you just have to lock them up.

And he dismissed everybody,

took off his robe,

went over to the prosecuting attorney

and paid the $250.

That's what God has done for us, right?

Hey, let's put Jesus as that judge.

Jesus, we're standing before him,

and it's like, what do you have to offer?

I'm a sinner.

And he's like, yeah.

And the penalty for that sin is death,

the death penalty.

And then Jesus steps aside,

takes off the robe,

thought it out of robbery to be equal with God

because he's,

always was, is, and forever will be God, right?

But steps down in our place

and dies for us.

There's some other verses

that talk about this being a gift.

Romans 5, 17.

For if because of one man's trespass,

death reigned through that one man,

much more will those who receive

the abundance of grace

and the free gift of righteousness

through the one man, Jesus Christ.

That free gift.

Romans 6, 23.

For the wages of sin is death,

but the free gift of God

is eternal life

in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John Stott wrote,

free and utterly undeserved favor.

Grace is God loving,

God coming to the rescue,

God giving himself generously

in and through Jesus Christ.

I love that phrasing

of realizing that this gift

is not even me finding it

or coming to it.

It's God reaching down.

He's stooping down to my level.

He's coming down to me

and literally coming to earth

being Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ to give us

this opportunity for salvation.

G. Campbell Morgan

was trying to explain this

to a coal miner,

this free salvation.

The coal miner was like,

there's no way it can be free.

The mine said that if it's free,

it must not be worth anything.

So they're trying to talk

this back and forth.

The coal miner's saying,

I have to pay for it.

And he's like, it's a gift.

And he said,

how did you get into the mine

And he goes, well, it was easy.

I just got in the elevator

and went down.

Morgan said, wasn't that too easy?

Didn't it cost you something?

And the man laughed.

No, it didn't cost me anything,

but it must have cost the company

plenty to install that elevator.

It was at that moment he realized,

although it's free to me,

it cost God a lot.

It cost him his son.

And so we talk about a free gift.

Oh, there was a price

to be paid for it.

And that's the price

that Jesus paid for us.

And then back in verse 24 again

in Romans 3,

that word redemption,

to redeem means primarily

to pay a ransom,

to purchase back something

that was being held

in captivity or in bondage.

I know there'll be people

who will say that,

the people who will say

that ransom's being paid to Satan.

God doesn't owe Satan anything.

Satan doesn't own us.

The ransom, the price being paid back

is to God's word,

God's consistency

in being righteous.

When he said that the penalty

from being paid to Satan

from eating of that tree,

that sin would be death,

he has to keep his word.

He can't just erase that.

He has to be true to his word.

And so this ransom,

this redemption

is paying back to God.

Here's the price you paid.

You said it would cost death.

Here is that death

in that of Jesus Christ.

And again,

if Jesus ever sinned,

he couldn't die for us.

He'd only be dying

for his own sin.

But because he never sinned,

he could pay the price.

He could sign that bill of death.

So I go from the what

to the how.

And again,

I'm in Romans 3,

verses 25 and 26.

Whom God put forward

as a propitiation.

One of those words, right?

Think of satisfied.

Okay?

But God put forward

as a way of satisfying

by his blood

to be received by faith.

This was to show

God's righteousness

because in his divine forbearance,

he had passed over former sins.

It was to show his righteousness

at the present time

so he might be just

and the justifier of the one

who has faith in Jesus.

Again, that word propitiation,

it's an appeasement.

It's satisfied.

That God is satisfied.

And with our price

as a penalty for our sin

being death

and Jesus fulfilling that,

that's the being satisfied.

God is satisfied

with what was done.

I thought it was interesting

looking at that start.

We finished verse 24

we were just in

talking about Jesus

being the one who comes.

And it says,

Whom God put forward.

And I almost view it

as being the,

like God said,

saying,

okay Jesus,

it's time.

Like a little put forward.

He put him forward.

Here comes my son.

I think of the,

I'm a Three Stooges fan.

Probably no surprise, right?

More like,

I like curly,

obvious reasons.

But the,

it's like the lined up

and whoever will do this,

you know,

and everybody else steps back,

right?

So the one that's left forward.

You guys know

what I'm talking about.

You've probably even done that.

But I think it's,

it's God putting

Jesus forward for us

to be the one

and only one

who could do that for us.

in his commentary,

said,

faith is simply

the hand of the heart.

I like that phrase.

The hand of the heart.

I think the hand of the heart

to me

is the idea that

if I really believe something,

it should change how I live.

The,

the,

what's in my heart

should affect my actions.

And so often we'll say

around here that

when it comes to our lives,

we need to believe and repent.

That,

that's,

that's the summary of the gospel.

Believe that Jesus,

who again,

who always was,

is and forever will be God,

came to earth,

lived a perfect life

to die for sin.

Not his own sin.

He was perfect.

But to die for our sin,

although they buried him,

he rose again.

I believe that he died

for my sins.

I believe that Jesus

is the Christ.

But then I repent.

I turn from following myself

to following him.

It's a 180 turn

where I give him my life.

I don't turn and repent

in order to be saved.

I'm saved by the faith.

But it's a thank you

that God has saved me

and now I want to follow him.

And a step further with that,

it's acknowledging

that he has a better plan

for my life than I do.

And so when I turn

from serving myself

to following him,

not that we're doing it

for selfish reasons,

because his plan's

better than mine.

So as I follow him,

although it may seem

difficult at times,

we do know that all things

work out together for good.

Those who love God

according to his purpose.

to be righteous.

R.C. Sproul wrote,

when Luther defined

the doctrine of justification

in the 16th century,

he used this Latin phrase,

which I'm not even going to try,

which means

at the same time,

just and sinner.

This gets to the heart

of justification

by faith alone.

Though in and of myself

I am a sinner,

once I have received

the benefit of Christ's

I am just

in the sight of God.

Just by virtue

of Christ's righteousness,

sinner by virtue

of my own

And so as I come before God,

I am a sinner,

but he sees

Jesus' work in my life

of what he's done for me.

Timothy Keller wrote,

faith is simply

the attitude of coming to God

with empty hands.

I like that.

There's nothing

I have to bring to God.

There's nothing he needs

from me

that I can negotiate

with him.

It's just by his love

willing to take us.

Martin Lord Jones

sums it up this way,

the man who has faith

is the man

who is no longer

looking at himself

and no longer

looking to himself.

He no longer

looks at anything

he once was.

He does not look

at what he is now.

He does not look

at what he hopes to be.

He looks entirely

to the Lord Jesus Christ

and his finished work

and he rests

on that alone.

I think it's so encouraging

because it's not

who I was

or what I'm now

or what I'm hoping to be.

to take me

as I am here.

And I don't need to,

as we say, right,

we don't need to clean up

before you take a bath.

You don't need to get

your life together

before you give it to the Lord.

to the Lord

and let him help you

put things in order.

In Philippians 3, 8, 9,

Indeed, I count everything

as a loss

because of the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake,

the loss of all things

and count them as rubbish

in order that I may gain Christ

to be found in him,

not having a righteousness

of my own

that comes from the law,

but that which comes

through faith in Christ,

the righteousness from God

that depends on faith.

I love these,

Paul, who's,

he calls himself

the Jew of Jews, right?

He's like in the hierarchy.

He's in, you know,

the kind of like

the hall of fame for Jews.

And here he is,

an educated man,

a very upright man.

And he's like,

yeah, I don't,

I don't stand on any of that.

I come here

because of Jesus Christ.

And it's not by my works.

I don't want to be graded

on my works.

I want to be graded

on the work of Jesus Christ

on the cross.

So 2 Corinthians 5, 21,

For our sake,

he made him to be sin

who knew no sin

so that him we might become

the righteousness of God.

Back to that righteousness

of God again.

About being about God,

his righteousness

that I had that opportunity

to become like him,

but be like him,

so that I can be

for heaven's sake,

And then finally,

the third point.

So the what is like

the righteousness of God.

That's what this is all about.

The how is faith in Jesus.

And so then in Romans 3, 27-31

is, you know,

the now what.

The what becomes

of our boasting

By what kind of faith?

By a law of works?

No, by the law of faith.

For we hold that one

is justified by faith

apart from the works of the law.

Or is God the God of Jews only?

Is he not the God

of the Gentiles also?

Yes, of Gentiles also,

since God is one

who will justify

the circumcised by faith

and by the uncircumcised

through faith.

Do we then overthrow

the law by this faith?

By no means.

On the contrary,

we uphold the law.

I think it's funny,

he's like,

he's going through all this,

he's like,

well, what about boasting?

Well, how can you boast about it

if you did nothing for it?

If you've just received

what God has done for you,

it shouldn't bring

about any kind of boasting.

I think of Ephesians 2, 8, 9,

for by grace you have been

saved through faith.

It's not your own doing.

It's a gift of God.

Not as a result of works,

so that no one may boast.

I think we like the idea of,

I feel like we've

accomplished something.

You know, if we were

keeping track how many times

we went to church,

how many times we sang,

and led worship,

oh, I'm a pastor.

How many years

have you been a pastor?

And these kinds of things,

like, as if that

earns us something.

No, we all enter the same way,

coming to Jesus as sinners

in need of a Savior.

And it's only through Him.

So I have no need for me

to put some certificate saying,

I'm going to heaven

because of me.

There's nothing there.

Michael Van Leningham,

in the Moody Bible Commentary,

which a number of you

are familiar with,

talks about the law of faith.

He said,

depending what he says or does,

one is justified by God

when he or she relies

upon Jesus Christ alone

for the forgiveness of sins.

And so there's so much emphasis

on the justified by faith.

Let me go through

a number of verses real quick,

and they'll be up

on the screen for you.

But 2 Corinthians 5, 7,

for we walk by faith,

not by sight.

Galatians 2, 16,

yet we know that a person

is not justified by works of the law,

but through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we also have believed

in Christ Jesus

in order to be justified,

by faith in Christ,

and not by the works of the law,

because the works of the law

are known to be justified.

Go to Ephesians 2, 8 again.

For by grace you have been saved

through faith,

Philippians 3, 9,

and be found in him

not having a righteousness

of my own that comes from the law,

but that which comes

from faith in Christ,

the righteousness from God

which depends on faith.

2 Timothy 3, 15,

and how from childhood

you have been acquainted

with the sacred writings

which are able to make you wise

through faith in Christ Jesus.

I know you might be saying,

okay, doc, we get it.

You're kind of repeating yourself

maybe a little too much.

No, faith is listed 243 times

in the New Testament.

Hold on, here we go.

No, I'm just joking.

But 243 times!

What do you think the concept is?

It's about Jesus.

I realize since week one,

I don't think I've gone back

to Romans 1, 16, and 17.

I probably should have.

But again, it's like

the thesis statement,

the theme verses,

of the whole book.

It says,

For I am not ashamed of the gospel,

for it's the power of God

for salvation to everyone

To Jew first, also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God

is revealed from faith for faith.

As is written,

the righteous shall live by faith.

And just that reminder again,

it's about having faith in him.

when he was translating Scripture,

he adds a word here.

He goes,

it's justified by faith alone.

And I think that word's implied.

It's the whole concept.

This is, it's alone.

It's by faith alone

is the only way.

And then he closes off the section

by upholding the law.

Justified believers

who live according to the Spirit

fulfill the righteous requirements

of the law.

Again, I'm not doing the law

or keeping the law

in order to get to heaven.

I'm living a life of integrity.

There should be several reasons,

but one is a thank you to God

for what he's done in my life.

Another would be

for others to see that

so they would come to Christ also, right?

And so they would know

the hope that we have.

Timothy Keller said,

he is saying that a gospel believer

who is saved apart from the law

understands and loves the law

more than someone

who is seeking to be saved by it.

I think it's the difference

between obligation versus opportunity.

If I have to do a certain thing

in order to appease God,

my motives may not be as strong

as having the opportunity

to do something knowing

that it puts a smile on God's face.

Galatians 5.13,

for you were called to freedom, brothers.

Will you not use your freedom

as an opportunity for the flesh,

but through love serve one another?

I share that verse

because I think it's all too often

that people will say a prayer

and now I'm saved

and I can live however I want.

And I don't think I have saving faith.

I think of saving faith,

it should change the way we live.

But I give my life to the Lord.

I place my faith in him,

but it should change then

on how I live,

striving to please him.

Let me go with a closing quote

from F.F. Bruce.

And I want a little explanation

on it too though.

He said the Roman poet Horace

was laying down some guidelines

for writers of tragedies in his day,

criticizes those who resort too readily

to the device of dos ex machina

to solve the naughty problems

which have developed

in the course of the plot.

I'm going to catch this part.

He says,

do not bring a God onto the stage

unless the problem is one

that deserves a God to solve it.

I think that's a phrase

I really want to stick in our minds.

First situation is,

I need to realize that I've sinned

and I need to go to God

because he's the only one

who can save me.

There's no other way.

If there's any other way to heaven,

then God is either very dumb

or very unloving

because why would you let your son die

if there's another way to get to heaven?

We know that Jesus is the way,

the truth, the life.

And then no one comes to the Father

except through him.

So my first statement to you is,

have you given your life to the Lord?

Because he is the only one.

And so when the tragedy comes about,

it's him coming on the stage

because we need to know

that we need him.

He's the only one who can save us.

And then for those

who have given their life to the Lord,

I just encourage you to evaluate

your prayer life right now.

Are you daily praying for things

that need God to step in?

Praying for miracles, for his glory.

Lord, I need you.

Every hour I need you, right?

Anybody else with me on that one?

Am I the only one, right?

Anybody else need him?

Does somebody need him daily maybe?

Maybe more often daily, right?

We all do.

Yeah, I need him for salvation,

but once he gets saved,

I still need him.

As soon as we give our life to the Lord, right?

The Holy Spirit,

and will never leave us

nor forsake us.

Let's go ahead and pray.

Father, I thank you for your word.

Thank you that we can read in English

and understand it.

I thank you for your patience with us

in being redundant,

in repeating things to make your point

so that we realize that we need you.

I pray that there's somebody here

who doesn't know you,

that today would be a day of salvation.

Today would be a day

to give the life to you.

For those who profess to be believers,

I pray that we would live like it

and be real to you and for you.

And I pray this in my Savior's name, in Jesus' name.

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