Cornerstone Church Live Stream (09/19/2021)

morning happy sunday to you all and welcome to those who are uh joining us here for worship this morning those who are tuning in on our live stream come on in grab a seat my name is colby i'm privileged to serve as an elder uh here at cornerstone and just uh i just want to extend a warm welcome to each of you to our sunday gathering this morning we're so thankful that you're here with us to worship god our savior our creator if you are visiting with us with us we are especially thankful that you're here uh if i haven't met you yet uh we're so thankful just to have you with us whether you're passing through whatever the reason may be thank you for taking time to join with us to worship our risen savior this morning you should have received a welcome packet on your way in just in that is just various resources for you information for you about the church various ministry offerings we have in addition there's a little visitor card in there and we would love it if you filled that out and gave that back to us and you can put that in the offering plate as we worship through giving here in about 15 minutes we would love just to know how to better serve you pray for you get to know you a few opening remarks this morning as we ascend to our time of worship together and the first of these is the the five core values of cornerstone church these are derived from scripture these are to really to be the central themes of the christians life as we live here on earth and the first of these to no surprise is the centrality of christ the centrality of jesus jesus christ is not only our only hope he is the only hope he is the only savior and so therefore he is to be central to all of life and worshipped by all and one day we'll be worshipped every knee will bow every tongue will confess that jesus christ is lord our second core value is the bible the scripture god has given us the scripture he is the author he is the author of the word of god the bible and so because of that we as his people and as and as all people must treasure and listen and heed and obey and pay attention to the word of god that's why we take 50 minutes or so on a sunday morning to just centralize this the preaching of god's word because it is his word and not ours our third core value is christ's likeness christ's likeness one of the great benefits of of being a christian is not only that we are saved but that god transforms us he transforms us day by day minute by minute until glory to be more and more like christ thought word and deed our fourth core value is one anothering one another ring there's a bunch of commands in the new testament that that are given to us regarding our relationships with one another um this this reminds us that for every christian for every single christian god's will is that we would prioritize biblical relationships that we would not live life as a lone ranger our fifth and last core value is mission the mission of god's people is a unique mission to god's people it is that of living and speaking for him and about him in his saving work on the cross so that others would come to know him and bow the knee to him and faith those are our core values we're going to transition just to a few quick announcements this morning these can be found on our website we'll put up a qr code that you can use to access those via your phone's camera or you can just listen and check out all these on our website in more detail we'll breeze through these we've got a bunch fall is a busy season for cornerstone first is our wood wood and gospel outreach ministry our firewood ministry this is as we've been as we've been really ramping up to this this is our one of our big evangelistic outreach ministries of the years church our handout day is october 16th as you can see right there as many will come and and and will give wood to those who are in need and more importantly give the gospel give the hope of christ hopefully start a relationship um but this saturday this saturday is our next uh processing day we've got a bunch of logs that need to be processed so that we can hand out that wood on october 16th and we fill informing this morning we need a ton of help this saturday we've gotten a lot done we have a lot left to do um so if you are available this saturday and you can help us just just south of ho back we'll be starting at 8 a.m it'll be coffee like breakfast and then there will be a lunch provided and families can families can show up around 12 30 and we'll have a great time of just fellowship grilling out lunch but if you're available for a couple of hours this saturday morning we would we would love the help we want to be able to have as much wood as possible to have as many opportunities to meet needs and to share the gospel as possible in the community additionally anchored our anchored youth night this is for middle school high school students uh sort of a monthly youth night we we have been doing the past couple of months uh is tonight um it's going to be here uh normally it's in a home this week it's going to be here at the lodge 5 30 to 8. um it was just a great time of just some dialogical teaching and just fun games dinner all that i contact jill for more information with anchored um a couple of ministries fall ministries startups coming up our ladies bible study is starting up not i believe not this thursday but next thursday september 30th we're offering it it's going to be thursdays basically through the fall it's going to be in the morning and in the evening child care offered in the morning details were sent out to your email and you can talk to jill for more information but please it's a great time of just teaching as we're going through first timothy as the ladies are going to be going to first timothy susan heck and great time of fellowship as ladies additionally ladies the women's conference uh is going to be um i can't believe it's we're almost to october it's going to be november 5th and november 6th so mark that on your calendars sign up it's going to be right here at the lodge should be a great time fellowship and teaching edification additionally for our men in trust and trust this uh is um one of the big ways that we seek to obey second timothy 2 2 which says the things that you have heard from me in the presence of many witness witnesses and trust these two faithful men will be able to teach others also a time just to equip our men for men it's a time for us to be equipped as god has called each and every one of us as men to be leaders in the home leaders in the world leaders in the church leaders and friendships leaders in our families so this if you are a man this is designed for you and this is just a wonderful time to equip to grab to provide a hot breakfast and a big breakfast um and just to get together as god's men to grow and to have sort of a brotherhood um it's been a wonderful we've been doing this for i think six or seven years now we're going to be starting probably the first or second thursday in october more details to come on that and then finally we did welcome our newest member christiana sewell christian are you in here this morning good morning is now a member so we praise god for that praise god for you christiana and with that please grab a copy of god's word and would you turn with me to the book of philippians chapter three we do have some black copies extra copies and chairs around you if you need one you can grab those and turn with me to philippians chapter 3. philippians is towards the end of your bibles in the new testament galatians ephesians philippians chapter 3. and as you're turning there would you please stand if you're able and follow along as i read verses 1 through 11 and god's inerrant sufficient word philippians 3 starting in verse 1. finally my brethren rejoice in the lord to write the same things again is no trouble to me and it is a safeguard for you beware of the dogs beware of the evil workers beware of the false circumcision for we are the true circumcision who worship in the spirit of god and glory in christ jesus and put no confidence in the flesh although i myself might have confidence even in the flesh if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh i far more circumcised the eighth day of the nation of israel of the tribe of benjamin a hebrew of hebrews as to the law of pharisee as to zeal a persecutor of the church as to the righteousness which is in the law found blameless but whatever things were gained to me those things i have counted as loss for the sake of christ more than that i count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing christ jesus my lord for whom i have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that i may gain christ they may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law but that which is through faith in christ the righteousness which comes from god on the basis of faith that i may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death in order that i may attain to the resurrection of the dead let's pray together our father who is in heaven who is exalted who is holy holy holy our god our king a creator you are separate and different and holy from all else all creation comes from you all good things come from you all of us everything in this world every creature every planet every galaxy every fish every molecule has been ordained by you is sustained by you and is working towards your desired end which you planned from the beginning of time lord you are outside of time lord you are omnipotent you're all powerful there is nothing within your will that you cannot accomplish there is nothing that you desire to do that you cannot there is no one or nothing or no nation that can stop your plan or thwart your church you are god and you are the only god and it is to you that we direct our gays in our worship and glory this morning not to us o lord not to us but to your name may we give glory this morning because of your loving kindness and because of your truth and lord as your word says rejoice in the lord and we gather as your people in part to rejoice in the lord to rejoice in your goodness to rejoice and your mercies to rejoice in your holiness to rejoice in your sovereignty father we we thank you for your mercies we thank you that you are god and that we are not and we desire this morning to gather for your glory and not our own god we we confess as as lord we confess just our own neediness our own weakness our own sinfulness our own just utter rebellion before you as people who are far from perfect it's people who are stained with sin we confess lord that we do not always put our confidence in christ and in the cross and you alone lord where and if we have placed our confidence in ourselves placed our confidence in our flesh lord where we have placed our confidence in our own supposed righteousness righteous deeds our own works lord where we have placed hope and confidence in our circumstances or in politics or in this world father would you forgive us and have mercy upon us lord we we can only come to you and be heard by you and accepted before you as we are clothed in a righteousness that is not ours not gained by us but that has been earned by christ jesus and so we praise you for jesus we praise you for his life and his death and his resurrection that cleanses us from all sin that brings us as adopted children into your throne room that we might call you father lord we thank you that there is righteousness to be found outside of us because we know that if it was up to us we would be condemned we thank you for the hope of christ we thank you for the hope of the gospel and we pray lo that lord this gospel lord would would rule us that we would not be ashamed of a gospel that rightly and necessarily offends fallen man and culture especially in the day and age that we live that we would be a people who are bold and emboldened by christ and what he has done and by an eternity that is coming that we would be a people who care more for souls than for ourselves lord that we would be a people who count all assets as loss and view of knowing christ that we would be a people who all we want is christ all we want is him all we want is your glory help us lord strengthen us strengthen those we pray who are who are weak as we all are those who are struggling those even in this very moment are struggling with anxiety with despair with depression with physical and spiritual trials lord would you just comfort them and strengthen them and help them and help them to anchor in christ and lord that they would be even encouraged this morning through the preaching of your word but we pray that you would bring salvation into this town and into this church that more and more would be saved that even those this morning sitting here that that are not saved that you would draw them to yourself this morning and help them to see their utter need and your other your utter willingness to forgive their sin is of christ we pray as well for just the situation going on with gabby potito and lord we just we grieve with her family and we grieve with the nation and we pray lord that you would that she would even be found safely even this morning uh lord that you would just comfort your family and just and if they are not saved lord that you would draw them to yourself and help them to have true hope christ pray for our local law enforcement involved that you would just give them wisdom and just skill and and they might even find her safe even here this morning or we just praise you that we get to gather as your people and as your flock and we pray that this morning would give all glory to you and would edify us the saints pray these things in christ's name amen you may be seated we're now going to start our time of of worship through giving the ushers will come forward musicians will come forward um and as a reminder we worship god with every part of our life in light of what he has done for us and his great generosity towards us and giving us his only son we live our entire lives as a sacrifice as an act of worship to him and giving is is not excluded from that um if you are a visitor with us this morning we're glad that you're here if you if you have a visitor card filled out you can put that in the offering plate as it comes around and we'll pray for the offering lord god thank you for your utter generosity towards us not sparing your own son that that we might be freely given all things in christ help us lord to give and to respond to the reality of the gospel with just generous sacrificial giving and all of life please provide for this church please lord we pray you would continue to build this church we would honor you and we would make disciples your glory we pray this in christ's name amen [Music] [Music] [Music] do do good morning would you stand with us all right i'm gonna sing and bless the lord together [Music] let's bless his name for who he is so bless the lord bless the lord o my soul and all that's within me praise him bless the lord o my soul and forget not all he's done he forgives all your iniquities and he heals all your infirmities he redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with mercy as far as east and as far as the east is from the west so far have you taken our sins from us and as high as the heavens are over the earth so great is your steadfast love toward us [Music] it's the lord bless the lord o my soul and all that's within me praise him bless the lord o my soul and forget not who he is as the father shows compassion to his beloved children so the lord shows compassion to us to those who fear him [Music] as far as the east is from the west so far have you taken our sins from us as high as the heavens are over the earth so great is your steadfast love toward us [Music] he has blessed us in so many ways that we probably do not even realize this week [Music] it is our privilege to remember who he is and what he has done bless the lord and all that's within me praise him bless the lord and forget not all he's done [Music] bless the lord and all that's within me praise him bless the lord and forget not who he is as the father shows compassion to his beloved children so the lord shows compassion to us to those who fear him as far and as far as the east is from the west so far have you taken our sins from us and as high as the heavens are over the earth so great is your steadfast good news as far as far as the east is from the west so far have you taken our sins from us and as high as the heavens are over the earth so great is your steadfast love [Music] toward us [Music] amen how did he do that take it our sins from us as far as the east is from the west it's a great sacrifice i died to pay for those sins and rose to break the power of sin and death let's see this see what a morning see what a morning gloriously bright with a dawning of hope in jerusalem folded the grave close to filled with life as the angels announce christ is risen see god's salvation plan born in pain paid in sacrifice fulfilled in christ the man for he lives christ is risen from the dead [Music] see murray weeping see mary weeping where is he laid as in sorrow she turns from the empty two here's a voice speaking calling her name it's the master the lord raised to life again the voice that spends the years speaking life stirring hope christ is risen from the dead [Music] there's one with the father one with the father ancient of days through the spirit who close faith with certainty on and blessing glory and praise to the king crowned with power and authority [Music] and we are raised with him death is dead love has won christ has conquered [Music] and we shall reign with him for he lives christ is risen from the dead we erase and we are raised with him death is dead love has won christ has conquered and we shall reign with him for he lives christ is risen from the dead [Music] lord we thank you praise you you've taken our sins and nailed into the cross thank you for your death i paid thank you that you are raised in power and we as your chosen ones just because you chose to love us will reign with you what helps to be that church with one foundation it sings together the church is one foundation the church is one foundation is jesus christ her lord she is his new creation by water and the [Music] he came and sought her to be his holy bride with his own bloody butter and for her life he died elect elect from every nation yet one or all the earth her charter of salvation one lord one faith one birth one holy name she blesses partakes one holy food and to one hope she presses with every grace and deuce and hallelujah hallelujah the cornerstone against all hell is unshakable almighty god our refuge hallelujah on christ alone the church remains unassailable almighty god our refuge our one foundation [Music] through trials tribulations though with the scornful wander men see her sore oppressed by falsehood rent a sunder by heresy distress god's church shall never perish her dear lord to defend to guide sustain and cherish he's with her to the end hallelujah the cornerstone against all hell is unshakable almighty god a refuge strong hallelujah on christ alone the church remains unassailable almighty god our refuge hallelujah hallelujah the cornerstone against all hell is unshakable almighty god our refuge hallelujah on christ alone the church remains unassailable almighty god our refuge strong our one foundation [Music] [Music] she waits the consummation of peace forevermore till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blessed and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest lord thank you we have that to look forward to in the meantime or bless us with glorious vision from your word lord spirit illuminate the words that are being explained to us that we may know and understand you and worship you and be this church victorious god helps to worship you uh just with listening now we ask in jesus name amen thank you musicians this sunday school youth can be dismissed now follow mr matt and crew to your left the residents go ahead and grab a bible and turn to the book of romans chapter one if you don't have a bible there should be one somewhere on a chair within reach definitely grab one so you can follow along in our studies we ascend in our time of worship romans chapter one romans is in the new testament towards the backish of your bible if you get to matthew mark luke john go a couple more books acts and then you'll come to romans chapter one we're a verse by verse study through the book of romans just started it a couple weeks ago taking each section at a time letting god dictate what comes next from his word and if you're newer with us welcome great to have you if you're a visitor this is your first time it's a blessing to have you join us and uh if you're joining in with us online as well welcome um we we do what's called expository preaching here in case you're not familiar with that what that means is just that we we pick entire books of the bible and we go verse by verse study verse by verse through a book and just kind of let each section each verse speak for itself as we seek to unpack the word of god we studied verse 16 last week and this is a really meaty section of scripture uh one of my dear daughters by the way the title of the message is imputation justification and faith and one of my dear daughters was asking at dinner the other night dad why why don't you just why don't we study romans one chapter at a time uh each sunday that's a good question and i said it's kind of the the reason we don't do that is kind of for the same reason that we don't eat every meal we would eat in a month in one day we eat probably you know three ish meals a day times 30 days that's about 90 meals a month and there's a lot of food there to consume so we spread it out over time and we are in a particular section in romans where there's a lot packed into a little and so we just just as you wouldn't want to eat every meal that you would eat in a month in one day so we wouldn't want to uh gorge ourselves too much in the book of romans as there is a lot of important stuff here verse 17. well it was an evening in july of 1505 and a 21 year old student who was a he was a law student gifted student a german man was visiting his parents for the weekend home from he was attending the university of erfurt i apologize for those germans in here if i'm mispronouncing that and he had been visiting his parents and was returning back to college and as he traveled a a lightning storm came upon him and as he was caught in the storm he was nearly struck by lightning and fell to the ground in terror and he supposed that god was angry at him and was coming after him in this lightning storm and when he fell to the ground he said saint anne help me i will become a monk saint anne of course is was among other things supposedly the saint of minors m-i-n-e-r-s luther's father was a minor and saint anne was thought to be the mother of mary martin luther vowed then from that moment as a young man to become a monk he immediately left the university his father was enraged because he was on his way to a comfortable life of wealth and prosperity luther sold all his books and a few weeks later he enrolled into the strictest sect of monkery as luther would call it of monks called the augustinian order of monks it was the most rigorous the most difficult and thought to be we'll put in major major air quotes the godliest sect of monks augustinians now to enter the augustinian order of monastery the application applicants would come to the door as luther did at erfurt and they would sort of knock on the door and one of the you know admission monks would stand there the senior monks and would ask what do you want and i i want to join your order and the monk would sort of keep him at a distance and say are you ready for this the rigors of this life are you ready for this scant skimpy diet starving yourself are you ready for labors by day and vigils by night and abject poverty and begging and this sort of thing and they would say yes and then they would come in and they'd lie down on the floor and the exist and he became the best augustinian monk there ever were like like the gold medal double gold medal winner of augustinian monkey he was very aware of his inability he was first aware that the bible said if you're gonna get to heaven by your own works you gotta be perfect like perfectly perfect and so luther became aware of his inability to do that to live up to god's holiness so he would then do all sorts of horrendous things to himself to try to wipe away his sin and to cleanse his guilt and to lift the burden off his shoulder so as to climb the ladder into heaven he thought and so luther is a young man he'd he'd take a whip and whip himself for the wrong thoughts that he had he'd sleep in the cold he'd throw off his blankets and sleep on the concrete thinking that well maybe maybe this will do away with my sins and get rid of my guilt and he would starve himself and go around as a beggar and he almost killed himself he would go to confession for like six hours a day into the romanist form of confession and and he would every little thought that he oh no that thought i was sort of thinking about how good i was there that particular thought and my spirituality i noticed how the german people walking down the street admired me and i took a little bit of glory if they would just confess for hours and hours and hours to where his his sort of mentor monks would get frustrated with him why did he do this because according to rome and the vatican doctrine this was the path to forgiveness of sins and to get into heaven as it is to this day luther didn't know what to do about his perfections his sins before god has guilt and you know people would these as these augustinian monks would walk down the street begging and they'd be dressed in burlap people would look at them and say oh wow those guys are those guys are so spiritual they're they're they're close to god and luther would have a thought of pride in that moment sort of showing off his spirituality and then he'd have to go into another hour of confession and whipping himself and all of this nonsense now some people would say well luther was just crazy no we have to pause there as historians and more importantly as theologians and say no actually luther understood an absolute fact that it's critical if you think that you're going to get to heaven by being a good person you you have to be utterly perfect and thought word nature indeed matthew 5 48 matthew 22 37-39 galatians 3 10 11. now in the meantime rome and leo was the pope at the time they were seeking to bolster the the basilica uh in vatican square today the the quote-unquote cathedral there and to really do an elaborate building project on that so the pope issued a what's called a papal bull which is like a decree an official order where indulgences could be collected from the common people and what indulgences at that time were it was basically uh you'd come to the particular cardinal or bishop uh of of rome at that time and you'd pay a certain amount of money and they'd write out a document that said either you or one of your dead relatives would have a certain amount of years subtracted from purgatory purgatory we'll talk more about that later it's basically like the holding tank where after you die you go to kind of be punished a little bit more and hopefully inch your way to heaven and that's how they financed this beautiful basilica that's there to this day it's an abomination that's what it is so luther saw this and he's luther starts studying the bible as a monk and in protest of the practice he writes out these 95 statements like hey what what are you doing and these became known as his 95 theses which he nailed to the church door in wittenberg there october 31st 1517 that's the eve of all saints day and this of course is kind of the traditional launch of really one of the greatest movements of god in history the protestant reformation where the church split from rome that's a story for another time now in the meantime luther is still studying scripture and he's lecturing at this time because he's advanced so much in monkery and historians believe that luther didn't actually become a christian until 1519. luther is not a christian during all this stuff he's wrestling over one verse in the bible and that is romans 1 17. the verse that we're studying this morning look there luther's wrestling over this verse i'm going to read verse 16 just to get a little context romans 1 16 the apostle paul writes i am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of god for salvation to everyone who believes to the jew first and also to the greek verse 17 here's the verse luther was wrestling with for in it the righteousness of god is revealed it is the gospel the righteousness of god is revealed from faith to faith as it is written but the righteous man shall live by faith so luther is struggling with this verse and he was extremely gifted and he writes this about his conversion in romans 1 17. he says in chapter 1 where it says in it the righteousness of god revealed he says that statement stood in my way for i hated that word the righteousness of god which according to the use and custom of all the teachers i had been taught to understand it as the righteousness which god is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner luther writes this though i lived as a monk without reproach i felt i was a sinner before god with an extremely disturbed conscience is why he's whipping himself and going to confession he writes i could not believe that god was placated by my satisfaction in other words i couldn't believe that my sins were atoned were wiped away by all this stuff i was doing as a monk he says i did not love yes i hated the righteous god who punishes sinners thus i raged with a fierce and troubled conscience nevertheless i beat persistently upon paul that at that at that place desiring to know what saint paul wanted or what he says i i was studying to understand this verse at last he says by the mercy of god meditating day and night i gave heed to the context of the words in verse 17 namely in it the righteousness of god is revealed as it is written he who through faith as righteous shall live he says there i begin to understand that the righteousness of god is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of god namely by faith and this is the meaning the righteousness of god is revealed by the gospel namely the righteousness with which merciful god justifies us by faith as it is written he who through faith is righteous shall live and here luther says here i felt that i was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates there a totally other face of the entire scripture showed itself to me i extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which i had before hated the word righteousness of god thus at that place in paul was for me truly the gate to paradise end quote so luther got saved understanding this verse that this verse is not saying that the righteousness of god meaning god is punishing sinners in his righteousness but that god grants sinners who put faith in christ his righteousness is a gift by faith and that's how they get to heaven not by whipping themselves and becoming a monk and hopefully indulgences in all this garbage amen hallelujah so god saved luther probably the greatest monk that ever lived luther wrote that he says i was the greatest monk there ever with was and i almost killed myself being as such luther came to understand it's the most important truth of the christian faith and in all the world that justification is by faith alone in christ alone by the imputation of the righteousness of jesus christ and will unpack what that means the word justification or justify means to declare righteous it's god's judicial act of sort of the gavel of heaven coming down and declaring the sinner righteous by faith the late james boyce pastor of 10th presbyterian back in the day he defines justification this the act of god whereby he declares sinners to be righteous by grace alone through faith alone because of christ alone luther said that the church in christianity rises and falls with justification the late rc sproul said quote the doctrine of justification by faith alone is the article upon which the church stands or falls the article that is so important that luther said if we lose it we lose christianity if you don't have the doctrine of justification by faith alone you don't have the gospel and if you don't have the gospel the church has no reason to exist the church itself ceases to be a church and falls into apostasy because it is the article that answers the question what must i do to be saved and with luther's conversion i mean luther luther gets saved he's been a monk for 15 years and then comes to faith in christ and utterly and necessarily renounces monkery later was sort of comical luther was kind of a wild dude he he gets all the monks together and he goes to the nunnery gets all the nuns out and lines them up and says you need to marry because the bible says that marriage is a good thing and so they all got married and then luther ended up marrying a nun katie was her name raise the family enjoyed enjoyed and they enjoyed the grace of god and god's grace and gift of marriage anyhow through his conversion this greatest movement of god the protestant reformation came since the birth of the church in acts and we'll study this in verse 17. verse 17 is by the way with verse 16 it's the thesis of the book of romans it's kind of like the grand pillars the the arch under which you enter this most greatest most important book in the entire bible romans 16 and 17 and we did we studied verse 16 you can get that online last week big idea then of this verse and in some sense the book of romans but the big idea sort of 30 000 foot view is the gospel is the good news that in justification god imputes his righteousness to sinners by faith alone in christ alone the gospel is the good news that in justification god imputes or credits his righteousness to sinners by faith alone in christ alone you will never hear greater news than that you could search the corners of the universe every book everywhere you'll never hear a better message than that this is the most important doctrine that exists it answers the question how can i an imperfect sinner stand right accepted and in the favor of a perfect and a holy god for our outline we'll kind of have two hooks to hang our thoughts on number one number one is this kind of what we said the good news of the gospel is that the righteousness of that the righteousness god requires and we lack he provides number one the good news of the gospel is that the righteousness god requires and we lack he provides the righteousness god requires and we lack he provides this is in the first half of verse 17. so here we go verse 17 for in it the righteousness of god is revealed this continues verse 16 the thought there in it it refers to the gospel if you look back at verse 16 paul says i'm not ashamed of the gospel and then verse 17 in it so this is the gospel in the gospel is the idea the righteousness of god is revealed now the question is what is meant by the righteousness of god sort of a terminology that's not super popular in our age what does it what does it mean that the righteousness of god is revealed what's this righteousness of god again luther misunderstood this and thought it was the righteousness of god where he brings down the hammer and punishes sinners it's not that's not what he's talking about here because the context is the gospel verse 16 it is the power of god for salvation so the context is salvation so it's top whatever the righteousness of god means it's referring to salvation the gospel good news punishment is bad news to be to be clear god does punish sin right revelation 20 11 to but that's not what he's talking about here in romans generally speaking the righteousness of god refers to this state or condition of perfectly conforming to god's holy law and his holy character the righteousness of god means like like a stated condition of perfectly conforming to god's holiness to his holy law or his character now to flesh that out a little bit what's the nature of his holy law well god gives things like the ten commandments to all humanity to sort of say here's here are ten things that are that reveal kind of my moral standard for the human race number one worship the true god only number two don't bow down to anything whether it's a totem pole or your car or your reputation or another god or money or whatever number three don't carry along the lord the lord's name with you in an unworthy manner which means don't profess his name in an unworthy manner or take his name in vain number four the sabbath number five honor your father and mother number six you may not murder jesus clarified you could even commit murder in the heart don't commit adultery which matthew 5 27 you can also do that in the heart and you may not steal lie and covet right and jesus sums all these up in two different ways in matthew 22 37 he sums this up you have to love god perfectly and thought word nature indeed love people perfectly or just matthew 5 48 you just got to be totally perfect which is what luther understood so point being these laws demonstrate god is righteous and these laws set the standard like the the bar for righteousness what kind of righteousness do i need to be accepted by god well that law which is why luther is just laboring and struggling he knew he couldn't satisfy god's requirements luther is seeing that even my heart is unrighteous it's like the idea of like a polluted spring say you got water from a spring and you're wondering why is the water downstream from that spring well you go up to the spring and you see the spring itself is polluted luther understood that in his actions and his thoughts that wow even my thoughts are falling short of god's standard of righteousness i'm condemned so it is for everybody so this is the greatest dilemma for the human race universally the greatest dilemma we face is humanity is not something related to a virus it's not something related to the environment it's not some socio-political issue though these things are important they pale in comparison to the greatest dilemma which is we don't have in ourselves nor can we earn a righteousness to satisfy god's requirements in his law we need a righteousness outside of ourselves and so this is this is what's happening here in verse 17 for in the gospel the righteousness of god is revealed well first we have to understand what is god's righteous standard okay we saw that but the good news of the gospel is understanding that you're never going to earn your way into heaven but the good news of the gospel is the righteousness that god requires from us he provides for us in imputation and justification we need to know those two words those words are becoming less and less known and they're the most important words in christianity besides jesus imputation and justification now how does this work how does god give us the righteousness that we need and this is the heart of the heart of the gospel of the good news beloved how does that work because many people like myself before i was a christian i thought well can't god just sort of sweep my sin under the rug and the imperfect things i can do can he just kind of like take it out out back to his divine dumpster and just ignore it no just like a human judge who ignored crime and just swept evil you know say someone plows into you and you get paralyzed and the judge says oh i'm just going to ignore that person's crime well that's an evil judge and how much more with god so now he may not just sweep it into the trash can and take it to the divine dumpster doesn't work that way even though we as wicked humanity want that he deals with our unrighteousness in a righteous manner he does so this means one of two things for all of us here's how this works number one everybody will have everybody will fall under one of these two categories god will either exercise his righteousness by upholding justice and punishing for us punishing us for our sin forever in hell revelation 20 verse 11 to 15 says jesus talked extensively about this or god will exercise his righteousness by upholding his justice by granting us a righteousness in a way that doesn't violate justice that isn't turning a blind eye from sin this is every human being will fall under one of those two categories that's how god grants his righteousness to a sinner the gospel talks about how he does this in a way that doesn't violate justice here's what this means the gospel in in god revealing his righteousness there's two things that happen number one the penalty for our failures to live up to god's law for our unrighteousness that penalty must be dealt with justly or fairly or righteously how does that happen in the substitutionary death of jesus christ that the second person of the triune god the only god steps out of heaven becomes a man he lives in accordance to the ten commandments perfectly he's perfect and thoughtword indeed and then he himself first peter 2 says bore all our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for by his wounds were healed so when christ died before he died he lives in perfect conformity to god's law so that when he dies he can be a righteous substitute upon whom our unrighteousness the penalty for it will be placed and served justly in other words jesus died for our sins galatians 3 13 christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us substitute so they're to go to heaven there's two things that happen that have to happen that's the first thing your unrighteousness has to be penalized in a righteous substitute which is what jesus did and he rose from the grave to show that in fact he did live in perfect conformity to the ten commandments and all the other commandments but the second thing because that's great if that happens but that just gets you to moral neutrality moral innocence it gets you out of infinite red morally you still have to present to god a righteousness in the positive in the black that attains to the demands of his law and this is what this fact is what is explained by the imputation of christ's righteousness the doctrine of imputation describes this namely second so we have to possess this righteousness that satisfies god's requirement so the death our penalty for unrighteousness is removed in the death of christ but second christ earns a positive righteousness for all who put faith in him in his life he lived that's one of the reasons he came to live otherwise it's it's been said by some theologians that christ could have just came out of heaven for the weekend he could have came down on friday you know good friday died rose sunday then back up to heavens to quit weekend death but he lived his whole life in subjection to the law meeting the requirements of the law so that he would have a positive righteousness that could be imputed to sinners by faith whereby they would have this positive righteousness in the black and be accepted by god this is the doctrine of imputation amputation means god credits the righteous life of jesus christ to to our lives who put faith in jesus such that his righteousness that he lived and he earned is reckoned to your account imputed to your life credited to your entire being and so justification is the consequence of imputation justification means god then declares you permanently and irreversibly righteous in his sight because on the basis of faith in christ the righteousness of christ has been credited to your life as if you lived christ's life as if you had attained to perfectly living out the ten commandments and every other commandment though jesus christ did it for you so you have his substitutionary death that's called that's called atonement or propitiation where all of our unrighteousness for failing to live up to god's holiness is penalized in the death of christ and then you have imputation of righteousness of christ where the perfect life of christ that he lived under the conditions that he lived i mean he didn't have like microwaves and in a car and air conditioning hot israel and a washing machine and yet he never complained or failed to love god or anybody and then he dies and even on the cross he is still obeying the commands and then his life is credited to you out of the infinite red into the infinite black righteous righteously speaking before god romans 3 21 24 says it this way we'll get there eventually but it says this apart from the law the righteousness of god has been manifested so so in other words there is a righteousness of god that's availed but that's available but not through obedience to the law your obedience christ's obedience but not ours being witnessed by the law and the prophets even the righteousness of god through faith in jesus christ for all those who believe for there's no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god and then those who believe being justified declared righteous as a gift by his grace grace means a gift that you cannot earn you deserve the opposite to the redemption which is in christ jesus so this is fantastic news beloved it it really is the greatest news you'll ever hear and we need to dive into the depths and the glories and the richness of the gospel at this level because this is the gospel this isn't like oh another part of the gospel that's sort of periphery and optional this is the heart of the heart of the gospel where the jewels are atonement and propitiation imputation with a result of justification by faith alone in christ alone this is how god accepts a sinner which is all of us in a way that doesn't violate his justice and his righteousness so that god's not like some evil judge like what are you doing counting these people righteous who have broken your law paul celebrates this in philippians 3 turn there if you would turn a couple books forward ephesians philippians philippians chapter 3. galatians ephesians philippians look there with me philippians chapter 3. we read in our opening reading look at verse 3 philippians 3 3 so the context here paul is talking about how good of a person he he used to think he was and by worldly standards he was a good person verse three he says we're the true circumcision who worship in the spirit of god and glory in christ jesus and put no confidence in the flesh it's talking about a believer then he looks back to when he was not a believer but religious he says verse 4 i myself might have confidence in the flesh in other words i might have confidence that i was a good person if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh i far more in other words you think you're a good person i'm way more of a good person verse five and he lists his moral religious credentials i was circumcised the eighth day of the nation of israel of the tribe of benjamin benjamin was considered like the best tribe to be from other a hebrew of hebrews as to the law of pharisee the pharisees were like the augustinian monks of old testament jewish law no one was more hardcore religious and moral than them these guys are like the moral olympians the religious superstars of the day as to the righteousness which is found in the law which is in the law found blameless but then so he looks back to that but then he realizes something that even the best works are unacceptable to god because they lack perfection philippians 3 look at verse 7. he says in verse 7 but whatever things were gained to me those things i counted as loss for the sake of christ more than that i count all things to be lost verse 8 in view of the surpassing value of knowing christ jesus my lord for whom i've suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that i may gain christ the greek word translated rubbish is the idea of sewage but much stronger so paul says i thought i was such a good person i thought that these fiery religious hoops that i jumped through made me like a hero before god that i was like a demi angel that i was like on god's olympic podium morally speaking but he says compared to god's standard i realized compared to christ it was sewage beloved the most moral outwardly moral person who thinks they're a good person who thinks they tried hard yes that has benefit socially we're not doubting that but as far as the righteousness before god it's sewage it's nothing more than sewage the bible says right here and we have got to get this in our day because a recent poll showed like 50 percent of christians think they can get to heaven by their works sewage paul says this is everything beloved this is eternity at stake right here and i would be a shameful pastor committing spiritual malpractice if we didn't unpack this truth this morning paul says i realize i'm not the one who decides what the standard to get to heaven is god decides what it is and i'm not to compare myself to like the worst people in society i have to compare myself to christ and to god and therefore sewage thus my righteousness was garbage friends the person who approaches god and thinks you know i'm i'm pretty pretty good i mean i i'm a pretty good person i can get to heaven by what i've done it's like a kid who approaches a realtor sending a realtor who's selling a a 50 million dollar oceanside mansion and he brings a he brings his he pulls out of his his his superman pants a wad of monopoly money and hands it to him and says is this enough that's what it's like thinking that we can present to god a righteousness enough to get into heaven the nasa space shuttle the nasa space shuttle to get that thing off the launch pad in cape canaveral it burns 11 000 pounds of fuel a second to generate 4 million horsepower to get that thing launched off the launch pad the person who thinks they can come to god and my my works are are pretty good and good enough to get to heaven the person who thinks that is like a kid who approaches the the nasa rocket engineers with a little camper stove of of propane and says hey guys certainly this will be enough to fly that rocket won't it pretty close huh sewage beloved we have got to get this romans 3 20 by the works of the law by the works of trying to be a good person in other words nobody will be justified in his sight for through the law only comes the knowledge of our sin i mean martin luther got this and people would point like oh wow look look how look how godly those those augustinian monks are dragging themselves along the street and and doing these chance eight hours a day they were dead in sin they were going to hell because in their minds they believed that their own morality was god would applaud and say well you can come right in they were lost they were condemned and this is fact and even luther he would he'd praise himself and people would watch and say oh look how god look how those guys just are abjectly just destroying themselves they're so spiritual luther would get pride out of that he was lost and so paul says philippians 3 9 talking about imputation and justification look at philippians 3 9 he says that i may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law but that which is through faith in christ the righteousness which comes from god on the basis of faith and that's the solution right there the reformers call this an alien righteousness a righteousness that is outside of you that must be given to you that must satisfy the moral requirements of holy god and that is the gospel that is what god does in the gospel the great news beloved is that the righteousness that god demands and we lack god provides not by our works but by faith in jesus christ this is why jesus said come to me matthew 11 28 he just said just come he says come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and i'll give you rest why do you say rest i mean a guy like luther needed rest and and people like me and everybody else your conscience your guilt you know you haven't lived up to god's requirements come to jesus for rest namely having a righteousness that is from god imputed to you such that god declares you justified by faith alone in christ alone rest let's rest this is what it means then that in the gospel beginning of verse 17 in the gospel the righteousness of god is revealed it's revealed that god gives a righteousness in the good news of the gospel unto salvation that you cannot earned earn this is why beloved the gospel is not foremost about scratching an itch of felt needs that's not the good news of christianity the gospel the gospel is not about well i'm going to get some sociological surface tips to to to help my marriage the gospel is not well i'm gonna boost my self-esteem yeah dog got it jesus is gonna come come into my guest room i'll give him my guest room and he's gonna help me feel better about my abominable self that's not the gospel the gospel is not some socio-solution to surface problems that oh i'm not going to feel rotten anymore the gospel isn't a practical social toolbox to sort of win friends and influence people it solves a far greater problem namely we don't have a righteousness in our self that satisfies the requirements of god's law and therefore we stand condemned but the righteousness that god requires and we lack he provides through the imputed righteousness of jesus christ by faith alone number two that's number one number two we've sort of talked about this already second hook to hang your thoughts on number two the good news of the gospel is that god's righteousness is secured to you by faith alone in christ alone the good news of the gospel is that god's righteousness is secured to you by faith alone in christ alone god's righteousness is secured to you by faith alone in christ alone look at the look at verse 17 again for in it in the gospel he says the righteousness of god is revealed and then this phrase from faith to faith as it's written and then he kind of backs that up backs up that faith of faith statement with he quotes the old testament but as it's written but the righteous man shall live by faith interesting what's happening there two things happening there so that what's faith to faith what does that mean two big things happening there we don't have a ton of time to cover it we've already touched on it first thing happening there when words are repeated usually in in in greek and even in hebrew the old testament it usually means some sort of emphasis faith is being emphasized here the righteousness of god is imputed to us by faith in other words and then he backs that up with that old testament statement for the righteous man shall live by faith well the only way you can get righteous of course is god giving you the righteousness of christ and that is by faith so he's saying the way to access you know how do i abandon these exhausting impossible delusions and ideas that i could ever satisfy god's requirements to the law how do i get christ's righteousness i want that guy's righteousness well the way you get it is by faith simple that's what it's emphasizing what's faith though first what faith is we need to say four things first faith is not a work probably five things we need to say first faith is not a work it's not jumping through you know some moral hoop well i did enough and therefore i get it no no second faith is it's faith is never esoteric it's not some nothingness idea idea you know that oh i'm a person of faith what does that mean i have no idea but i just think i am it faith has an object so involves three things it involves knowledge conviction and surrender knowledge conviction and surrender faith involves without which it is not true faith knowledge conviction and surrender so faith has an object meaning the the the knowledge of jesus christ that he's god he lived he died he rose from the grave faith in something faith in christ i understand the the facts of the gospel but that's not enough because as james 2 talks about james 2 19 demons understand you know our rc sproul has said that faith isn't just a matter of passing a theology exam you know satan could get an a plus on a theology exam and he knows the truth so second faith involves conviction which means uh i believe in my being that what jesus has done who he is it's fact knowledge conviction and then the third thing of course is surrender because even the demons believe that what jesus did is fact but surrender is that third component of saving faith surrender commitment that i bow my heart that he is god and i'm not he's not just a savior but my savior as james boyce says and you see this in doubting thomas you don't have to turn there but in john chapter 20 verse 28. remember doubting thomas he's like nah that guy didn't rise from the dead that didn't happen and then jesus comes in and everything goes down and he sees the resurrected christ and he believes he so he knows the facts that jesus is the messiah the son of god who rose from the dead he believes it's fact and then he says that great statement in john 20 28 he says my lord and my god he doesn't say oh i believe you are a lord but my mind personally a declaration of surrender this is mine three the three aspects of faith are there knowledge conviction and surrender and that is what faith is it is not a work ephesians 2 8 9 says it's not a work it's by grace you've been saved through faith and this not of yourself it is a gift of god not by works so that no one may boast it's a one writer has said i think was william hendrickson great presbyterian commentator he said faith is like the bowed head and the and the open hand before god lord put that righteousness in my hand because i can't earn it faith alone now we have to be careful here because rome says oh sure you get to heaven by faith justification is by faith rome will say and luther knew this but they'll say faith and faith and faith and works this confession praying to every saint indulgences purgatory which in a system like that it makes sense that purgatory would be created purgatory is this sort of afterlife punishing where you're purged hence the word purgatory you're purged of any remaining sin and punished for it for who knows how much time because in your life you weren't able to do enough to ladder yourself into a state of justification and so rome says justification is not the imputing of righteousness it is the gradual imparting of righteousness rome says justification is not the instantaneous declaration that you are in right standing before god based on the imputed righteousness of christ rome says it's the incremental earning of righteousness that maybe you'll get to one day and even rome's own scholars have admitted you can't have an assurance of salvation in other words you can't be sure that you're going to heaven and by that system of works that makes sense because you're scratching your head like luther thinking have i done enough works have i done enough have i done enough to get to heaven so you never know you're always in jeopardy this is why the reformation happened because romans 8 1 says there is now no condemnation for all who are in jesus christ there is no purgatory purgatory is a man-made demonic doctrine even chapter nine of the sixth session of rome's council of trent says quote no one can know with the certainty of faith that he has obtained god's grace end quote and then on justification they say this this is canon 9 of council of trent i'm just quoting rome quote if anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification let him be anathema end quote anatha means anathema means damned cursed so their trent was rome's response to the reformation where they rediscovered the doctrine of imputation and justification which is why a necessary split happened what's the difference is this is peripheral it's heaven and hell beloved because paul says in galatians 1 8 9 if any man preaches another gospel let him be cursed the gospel is justification by faith alone in christ alone salvation is being declared righteous it's not being made righteous instantaneously think of a criminal think of a criminal who his charge is paid his sentence is paid in that moment in the courtroom the judge slams the gavel and declares him you're innocent that criminal in that moment hasn't become perfectly righteous in his life he's still going to go out and be an imperfect person he's going to be thankful but it's just his position that's changed namely to innocence his practice has not changed that's the doctrine of justification your nature isn't changed instantaneously because of justification just you're standing before god and then your nature will begin to change consequent of it and sanctification from faith to faith the righteous shall live by faith from faith to faith the other idea here paul isn't saying this isn't a command the righteous shall live by faith he's not saying to keep your righteous standing you better keep living by faith it's not a command it's a statement he's saying in other words this faith that god gives you when you're saved it will never you'll never fall away you will never lose your faith you will always keep your faith in christ because it's a gift of god not by works ephesians 2 8-9 you cannot lose your salvation but what about those who seem to follow christ for a while and don't 1st john 2 19 as we studied a few weeks ago a few months ago they went out from us because they were never among us there was an empty hall of faith for a time it was fake so the faith that god gives you because it's from god and salvation you're never going to lose it it's not yours to begin with so what about all this in conclusion beloved so what let me just say three quick concluding so what's number one receive this gift of righteousness by faith receive this gift of righteousness by faith who wouldn't want this who would rather stand in jeopardy and think well no thank you i don't need to receive christ i'm going to earn my own righteousness and stand before god one day and i'll be just fine my dear friend you'll be crushed you will just be thrown into hell again revelation 20 11-15 receive god's gift of righteousness to be credited to your life and your sin credited to his cross receive it by faith receive it by putting your trust in him the bowed head the bowed head and the empty hand lifted up to god who wouldn't want that second rest in christ's righteousness rest number two in his righteousness not your own look we don't enter into god's favor by our own righteousness but christ's we don't keep ourselves saved daily by our righteousness it is by christ righteousness that we are secure before god godliness is very important but your daily godliness isn't the foundation that keeps you standing before god in favor it's christ's the love of god rests upon us daily not because of our righteousness but christ's we remain beloved children of god daily not because of our righteousness but christ's we continue through discouragements and battles of the christian life in this wicked world not by our godliness but the righteousness of christ's god's favor rests upon you every day regardless of your of our bumpy godliness not because of our righteousness but christ's when we die we'll be eagerly welcomed into heaven not on the basis of our righteousness but christ's and when you stand before god as it were god will not break out the scales and put your righteousness on one side and his on the other and just see how it works no for all who put faith in christ he'll say he'll eagerly usher you in and say get on in here welcome to eternal paradise not on the basis of your righteousness but christ's rest daily and his righteousness you're not going to hear better news than that this is the true and only religion that grants right standing and eternal life before god and i'm glad that it is and you need to be too and third and finally number three is bow low and reverence bow low and reverence and gratitude what what kind of a system is this this is why some people call who who rightly understand the doctrine of imputation and justification some people rightly call it scandalous there's a sense in which they're right what christ's perfect life is just counted to you and your sin is just counted to his cross that just is scandalous maybe so but it's true so let our lives be one of bowing low in reverence and in gratitude father in heaven thank you for such a great grace those of us who have just put our faith in christ understand why luther said it's like i it's like i was thrown through the gates of paradise thank you father that you will save sinners and keep sinners and admit them to heaven not on the basis of our daily godliness but on the alien righteousness of jesus christ for that we praise you let no one here believe unsaved and let us live lives of gratitude to you in jesus name we pray amen would you stand one more time if you can i think we need to sing those with faith in christ no condemnation now i dread in fact jesus and all in him is mine that's good news [Music] can it be and can it be that i should gain an interest in the savior's blood died he for me who caused his pain for me who him to death pursue amazing love how can it be that the my god should die for me amazing love how can it be that thou my god should die for me [Music] he left his father's throne he left his father's throne above so free so [Music] his grace emptied himself but filled with love bled [Music] tis mercy all immense and free god it found our dream amazing love how can it be that thou my god shows die for me [Music] and long my prison spirit long my [Music] thine [Music] my chains fell off my heart was free i rose went forth and fallen amazed love how can it be that thou my god should die for me [Music] so no condemnation no condemnation now i dread jesus and all in him is mine alive in him my living head and clothes with righteousness if i bold i approach the eternal throne and claim the crowd through christ my own amazing love how can it be that thou my god should die for me amazing love how can it be that thou my god should die for me but we don't know how it can be that your righteousness perfectly holy can come to sinners like us we believe it though put our faith in you and we praise you we bow low may our lives be worship to you this week for just this fact the good news of the gospel we praise you in jesus name amen amen well thank you for worshiping with us this morning um as always if you need prayer uh you need to talk about anything please reach out to someone one of our members one of our elders i'll be standing up here for just an extra minute and with that we'll close with the benediction from second corinthians chapter 13. finally brethren rejoice be made complete be comforted be like-minded live in peace and the god of love and peace will be with you the grace of the lord jesus christ and the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with you all you're dismissed you

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Length: 112min 10sec (6730 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021