Embracing Grace: Worship, Sin, and Hope in Christ

You, like first service, brave the cold. That's good. That's good. Glad that you're here. Let's stand. I want to read something to you because, you know, we are a bit of a one-trick pony here. We worship the Lord and we study His Word. Like, that's what we do day in and day out. [00:06:22]

In Psalm 111, this is what it says. And maybe this is a good call to worship. Here's what it says. Psalm 111, it says, praise the Lord. Then he says, I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. So they're worshiping the Lord. [00:06:57]

And so they're worshiping the Lord, but then he's saying the works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them. And so that's what we do. We try to study God's Word and learn from it so that we grow in it and then go out, leave these four walls and go out and do whatever it is that God is calling us to do individually. [00:07:19]

And so, Lord, as we approach it, would you be our teacher? Would you give us your Holy Spirit? Would you fill us with your Spirit to teach us, Lord? To be our comforter, to be our instructor, our teacher, Lord? The one who would make things, uh, clear to us. And so, Father, we ask that you would eliminate distractions. [00:46:44]

And Paul told them, remember, consider you consider yourselves guides to the blind. You believe that you're light to those in darkness. He's telling them that they were instructed, and teachers, and yet, are you? Are you really those things? You may be physically doing those things, and yet not doing what was the most important thing. [00:48:55]

We've actually had three pretty difficult, including today's studies, because they've all been like bad news. Like it's who we are. Chapter 1 was ugly. Chapter 2 was bad as well. And Paul is setting up the gospel. And not that the gospel needs a stage, but what the gospel does require are hearts that are broken before the Lord. [00:49:58]

Those that were distracted, they were too busy changing the glory of the incorruptible God or our God as he displayed his power and who he was. They didn't want that. Instead, they traded it for images made like corruptible man. And remember then God gave them over to uncleanness and the lust and the vile passions of their lives. [00:51:00]

And then today, I subtitled our verses for today, the penalty for all people. What's the verdict? There's a penalty for all people. All are guilty before. God. And so that starts here in verse 9. Notice verse 9a, just that first section. He says, And we'll stop there because he's asking a question. [00:53:53]

But here's the thing that Lord knew that. He knows that we often try and stand on that which we do or whoever that we are, but that doesn't hold any water. You will find out if you've been like alive more than a day that our flesh is quick to jump on any advantage or any privilege that we might have to look better than others. [00:54:23]

And so we have two options. You want to say, well, I don't want to do anything with that. Okay, then when the judgment comes, because believe you me, it's coming. I don't want to be like a chicken little, right? The sky is falling, but there will come a day and when the Lord will say, okay, it's time for me to judge the world. [01:20:55]

And so if you decide to just reject him, you're going to, you want to bypass Jesus and you're going to have to stand on your own. But then Paul says here that every mouth should stand on his own. And so you're going to have to stand on your own. And you should be stopped, which means that every argument or disagreement will be silenced, period. [01:21:45]

And so to end our time, I want to leave you with a little teaser clip. Now, it's not an actual video clip, but if you've ever been to the movies, and it happens more now, but it ends, the credits start coming out, but you know not to leave. Why? Because there's a little clip at the very end. In a lot of movies, that happens. [01:29:44]