Romans 3

And we are in Romans chapter 3. Open your Bible there. Romans chapter 3. These first chapters, several chapters of Romans are really a lot about just going to school because when Paul was writing to the church in Rome, he was writing to fill them in on what salvation is all about. This whole book really is all about your salvation - my salvation. What it means to be saved; God did to affect your salvation. If you've ever scratched your head when it comes to being able to convey salvation to other people or even understand it yourself, boy, this is the study for you. When you get done with the Book of Romans, you really should have this thing dialed in. Now you need to stick with it and that's the difficult thing about teaching Romans. I was telling Sue yesterday, that probably the biggest challenge that I have of teaching the Book of Romans is going a chapter at a time, or even less of a chapter at a time. Because Romans is really it's just one letter. I mean, how many times do you read letters from somebody a section a week? You know what I mean? Wouldn't that be weird to read a letter from somebody to go, okay, we're going to read a few paragraphs, then put it down for a week, and then we'll come back and read a few paragraphs next week. That's what we're doing when we read through the Book of Romans the way we do. It's meant to be taken as a collective whole. If I go back and do some review for you, please don't think that I think you're dumb. I'm doing it because there's so much that needs to be brought together to understand this thing. You might remember that we've found a couple of verses that created a theme for the Book of Romans in the first chapter. And it was where Paul said, "…I am not ashamed of the gospel," You remember? "…I'm not ashamed of the gospel," because, why? It's the power of salvation to everyone who believes, first for the Jew then for the Gentile. (Romans 1:16) And that is the theme going forward in this book.

Now we're in chapter 3. We better start with prayer. Father God, open our hearts. We kneel before You, we sit at Your feet to learn today. We want to be like Mary. Martha was busy. Sometimes our minds are like Martha. And they're busy thinking and going places even though we're sitting still. Lord, we want to be like Mary and we want to sit at your feet. We want to choose the better thing and just learn from You. Teach us, Lord. You are the teacher. Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds. We ask these things in Jesus name, amen. Do you remember that Paul spent the first 2 chapters showing that all mankind is under the wrath of God? He divided all of mankind into 3 categories. The godless: Been there, done that. The moralist: The one who has a conscience and understands right and wrong but can't perfectly keep the law of the conscience. And then, the religious. And I mentioned that I've been all 3 of those. He said, all of them are under the wrath of God. All people are under the wrath of God. Now in this chapter, Paul is going to reemphasize this idea that, no one is righteous before God, based on the way they've lived their lives. And then he's going to reveal in this chapter, how you can be righteous before God. If you've ever wondered... If anybody's ever asked you, how can we have a good standing before God? This chapter is going to reveal it. But before Paul, gets into that, we're going to deal with verses 1 through 8 here in chapter 3. And he's going to begin, in fact, this whole chapter is going to be a large series of rhetorical questions. Paul's going to ask a lot of questions. Some of which he's going to answer. Some he's not even going to answer because the answer is so obvious. And that's the idea of a rhetorical question. It really doesn't require an answer. But you remember that since Paul showed earlier that the religious Jews, or religious people, are also under the wrath of God. And that's what tells us that religion won't save you. Right? You can be as religious as you want to be. It's not going to get you into heaven and Paul made that point. And of course he had in mind the Jews but it could apply to any religious people. Okay. Since he talked about the fact that the Jews were just as much under the wrath of God, as anybody else, chapter 3 opens with an obvious question about the Jews. And here, let's take a look at it. Verse 1. He says, well "Then what advantage has the Jew?" (ESV)

And that's another way of saying, is there any advantage in being a Jew? Right? Since the Jews are all under the wrath of God in the same way that godless people are, and moralists are, and stuff like that. He says, "Or what value is there in circumcision?" Which of course is the covenant sign of Israel. In other words, he's asking this question: What benefit is there in being a Jew and having that covenant relationship with God if they're all under His wrath? What good is it? Right? Why should we look at Jews as any more special? Well his answer is in verse 2. He actually says, actually, no, there is a benefit, frankly, in being a Jew. Just from the standpoint that he says "To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God." And what Paul's saying here, is that he's reminding you and I, that the Jews were set apart like no other nation on the face of the earth to receive the Word of God. They received the Law of God. The prophets of God came from the Jews. It was from the nation of Israel that these things came. And that's a pretty huge thing. When you stop and think about the fact that no other nation on earth was revealed the things that Israel had revealed to them by God. That's pretty cool when you stop and think about it. It's not going to get them into heaven. But, boy, to receive the revelation of God. What a wonderful thing. And then that leads to yet another question. Verse 3, he says, "What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?" In other words... We've studied through the Old Testament. We're on our third pass. What is studying through the Old Testament teach you? Israel was unfaithful. Right? I mean, the Old Testament is one long historical account of Israel's unfaithfulness. Sure, they had periods of time where they rose to the occasion - for a while. And then they fell off again. Right? The Old Testament is a record of Israel's backslidden condition. And Paul is now asking another question and saying, since they - Israel - were unfaithful, does that somehow nullify what God did with them and gave to them regarding the Word of God? Right? God...

What did all God give to Israel? He gave them the Law and the prophecies of things to come and so forth. He's asking the question: Does Israel's unfaithfulness, or backslidden condition nullify what God did? His answer, in verse 4, "By no means! (Not at all. He says,) Let God be true though everyone were a liar, as it is written,

He quotes there from Psalm 51. (Psalm 51:4) What Paul's saying here is, just because the Jews acted unfaithfully toward God's revelation and the work that He did in the nation of Israel, that doesn't erase the good things that God did for them. And frankly, for the rest of the world through them. It doesn't negate those things at all. All the wisdom, all the information, all the insights that God communicated through the Jews, none of that's been negated just because they didn't follow the Lord. And yet people do naturally equate the message of God, with the people of God. Don't they? They consider what God has said, to be valid based on how we respond to it. Have you ever noticed that? I don't know if you've ever... Honestly, I think one of the biggest challenges to sharing Christ with a lost world is our history. The challenge isn't the Word of God. That's easy. Sharing the Word of God it’s a cinch but people are essentially shut down. Have you noticed? Because of our history. You start talking about God, you start talking about the Bible and what is it people do? They go, yeah, you Christians. And then they'll start bringing up this litany of offenses and crimes against humanity that have been committed by so called Christians throughout the ages. And they start bringing it up. And you know why they're bringing it up? It's because they're having a difficult time separating the message from the response of God's people. Paul is though, asking the question here, to you and I. Does unfaithfulness among God's people nullify what God has said? And the answer is no it doesn't. And that's... When somebody does that to you - and really it's a defense mechanism. It's a way of someone trying to deflect the conversation by bringing up accusations of past offenses by Christians. I mean, good grief, they'll go way back, way back in history and bring up all kinds of things. And they're just trying to push the thing, the conversation, away because it's uncomfortable. And the worst thing that you and I can do, is try to defend all those things that have happened in the past. I mean, that's about the worst thing we can do is say, well... The best thing that we can do, is ask them, really, the question that Paul is asking here in Romans. Does the unfaithfulness of some... And you can just say, you know what? Granted, some people have been not only unfaithful, they've been cruel, and stupid, and ridiculous, and wrong. Does that nullify God's message? Let's take people out of the equation now for a moment. Let's talk about God. Right? Let's take religious systems out of the equation for a moment. Let's talk about Jesus. Let's talk about what He said. Let's talk about what He taught. Here's the question you and I could ask the same thing. Does the lack of obedience on our part nullify the teachings of Jesus? No, they don't. It doesn't. Yeah, we've done wrong. There's no question about that. But the message of Jesus remains and people still need to deal with the message of Jesus. And that's what we have to do when we're talking to people is get them to see that. Okay. Verse 5, "But if our unrighteousness serves to (just) show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)" Paul says parenthetically. "6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, (well then) why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come? - as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just." These last questions here in verses 5 through 8 here, are of Paul addressing some rather ridiculous accusations that people had leveled against him and his teaching and preaching over the time. And what they were doing is they were twisting his words. And accusing him of essentially saying things that he never intended to say. Something about how, if my sinful life just provides a backdrop to show how glorious God is, then maybe aren't I doing Him a favor? I mean, it's really... Paul never said this. And it's ridiculous to think that he would have. And he even says, "Their condemnation is” deserved. Or as the New Living Translation (NLT) says, "those who say such things deserve to be condemned." God's not going to thank you for making Him look good. That's what's all going on here. He moves on in verse 9. And then he gets back to the question, "What then? Are we Jews any better off?" He already made the point, it's a positive thing to be a Jew from the standpoint that you can say, to our nation, God brought the oracles - the wisdom of God, the revelation of God.

He answers the question, are Jews any better off than those who haven't received the Word of God? Well, see, that's where it gets bad. He says, "No, not at all. For we have already charged that ..., both Jews and Greeks, are under sin," That's what we dealt with through chapters 1 and 2. Right? Paul laid out the charge that Jews are just as much to blame - as sinners - as anybody else. Verse 10, "as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good; not even one." And with these quotations that Paul is including here, he's bringing the Jews right into that same thing. Isn't that interesting? Here's a man who was a Pharisee. In fact, he called himself a Pharisee of Pharisees. And yet he says, you know what? Doesn't matter; no one does right; nobody. We've all turned away from God. We've all turned aside. And just to punctuate all those comments, he goes on quoting various psalms. And there's several psalms that are quoted here in verses 13 and following to just show just how bad humankind really is. Quoting here, "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps (Which is an Egyptian cobra, very nasty thing.) is under their lips." 14 "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Guys, that's mankind he's just described. And that's on a good day. This is nastiness and he says, this is us. This is us. Now Paul is going to... You thought that was bad. He's going to deliver the really bad news. You ready? You got it? Got to go through this in order to get to the good news.

--- Verse 19. "Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.” Okay, here it is; verse 20. "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes (the) knowledge of sin." And that last verse, I want to encourage you to underline it, write it down, memorize it. It is so important that you and I see this. Let's read it again. Verse 20, "For by works of the law no human being..." Now, boy, if that doesn't encompass everybody - Jew and Gentile - I don't know what does. "…no human being will be justified in God's sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." And Paul is saying, keeping the law will justify no one. Or trying to keep the law. Why? Because the law really only serves as a means of giving us a "knowledge of sin." That's what the law does. Some people think the law is something that can be kept. But the law is meant to give you a knowledge of just how bad you are. Paul's going to repeat this in the fifth chapter of Romans. Let me put this on the screen for you. This is where he writes concerning the law. And he says,

Now the law came to increase the trespass... I like looking up some of these verses in different translations. Like the New Living Translation says it this way, Romans 5:20a (NLT) God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. That pretty much says it right there, doesn't it? That's why the law was given to show us how sinful we really are. How many times have I, to you guys, likened the law of God, to your bathroom scale? Many, many times. Dozens of times probably over the years. Can your bathroom scale actually help you to lose weight? No, it does not. It can do nothing to actually decrease your weight. You might say, well, yeah, it motivates me. No, then you have to go do something. And it's other things that you do. Your bathroom scale, all it does is go (Pastor Paul groans as if the scale is taking on weight.) Right? I mean, that's all it does. It just... You look at it and you like, oh, mercy. That's what the law does. You look into the law and you see, I have fallen short. I have fallen short. That's what the law shows you. That is the function of the law. Okay? Reminding us we can't do this and be justified before God. All right. Let me do a little point-by-point review of what Paul's been saying thus far. I'll do this on the screen so that you can see it together.  The wrath of God is coming All right, point number 1: The wrath of God is coming. Okay, that's pretty simple started off in chapter 1 saying, the wrath of God is coming.  The wrath of God is coming  The entire world is condemned as sinful Point number 2: The entire world is condemned as sinful. There is not any people group that is not under condemnation: godless, the educated moralist, the religionist. They're all equally under God's wrath.  The wrath of God is coming  The entire world is condemned as sinful  The Law was given to show us how sinful we are Thirdly: The Law was given just to show us how far short we had fallen of God's standard of righteousness.  The wrath of God is coming  The entire world is condemned as sinful  The Law was given to show us how sinful we are  Good works will not help us avoid God's wrath and judgment. And then fourthly: Good works or trying to be good will not help us avoid God's wrath and judgment. ---

There you go. Let's close in prayer. No, I'm just kidding. Wouldn't that be a bummer if we just dropped it off right there? I mean, what if the rest of Paul's letter had gotten lost? We'd read this part and then we'd say, okay, let's just go kill ourselves, or something. Because there's just no hope. I don't know if reading this or going through these points makes you feel a little hopeless. Or, at least maybe you can feel the sense of hopelessness if someone did not understand the story beyond this point. But if that's the way it makes you feel, then that is exactly... You've understood rightly what Paul wanted you to understand related to this message. He wants you to feel hopeless. He wants you to feel the gravity of the bad news so that you will be prepared in your heart to hear the good news. Do you understand people, that some people are not prepared to hear the good news? We go on and we tell them, we are all full of good news! And we go to them and say, I've got good news for you! Jesus died on the cross to save you from your sin. And they go, my what? Yeah, your sin. He died to save you from it. They go, I'm not a sinner. Well, what's that? I'm actually a good person. Saw a T-shirt on a gal, I'm a good person so, take that. And here we come along with the good news. And they don't understand their hopeless condition. They are like, yeah, I'm good. God's going to accept me. Of course He's going to accept me. But the bad news is laid out thoroughly for us. Now here comes the good news. You ready for it? Remember, we were just told, there's no one righteous, no, not one. There is none who seek after God. There's none who even desire God. There's none who long for God. We're all just...We're just done. We're dead meat. Verse 21, "But now…" I like that wonderful word: But. "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested (or revealed, and it is) apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets (actually) bear witness to it - (or - they actually tell us about it - and the righteousness we're talking about,) 22 the righteousness of God (is) through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For (you know what?) there is no distinction: (He says here,) 23...all have sinned ...all have fallen short of the glory of God, 24 and (yet) are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,..." By the way, this is one of the most powerful passages in the whole of the Bible. And there are three key phrases that really should jump out at you and grab your attention. Let me put them on the screen. Hopefully, these are the ones that maybe did jump out and grab you. Three Key Phrases  …apart from Law… Number 1, apart from Law. Three Key Phrases  …apart from Law…  …justified by his grace… Number 2, justified by his grace. Three Key Phrases  …apart from Law…  …justified by his grace…  …through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe… Number 3, through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Look at those 3 things. First of all, the righteousness from God is apart from law through this righteousness that He offers, we are justified by His grace. And this righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Let me just elaborate on these very briefly, just for a second. Apart from law means, it has nothing to do with keeping the law. Okay, you can't be a good enough person. I'm sorry to bum you out, but you can't. Salvation does not come by being a good person, doing good works, or keeping the law. Secondly, this righteousness that He offers causes us to become justified by His grace. What does the word, justified mean? Well, you can get into a long line of flowery, flowing, definitions. But one of the best ways to remember justified, is to think of the phraseology. It is just as if I never sinned, then you are justified before God. It is just as if I never sinned. This is the craziest thing in the world, you guys. When Jesus Christ comes and the Bible says, there is a time we will all stand before God... But for you and I, who have put our trust in Jesus and what He did on the cross, He will see no sin. It is going to be just as if you never sinned. Ever. He's going to look at you and

He's going to say, that one's Mine. You know what? I see no spot or blemish. I see no wrongdoing. They have been justified in my sight. And then the last part tells you how, Through faith. Through faith for all who believe. Doesn't it just sound like this is too good to be true. It's through faith. In what? Faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. I believe that what He did was real. And it was for me. And because I have put my faith in what He did and I said, it really happened. He died for me. And when He said, it is finished. It really was finished. It's over. It's done. And the wrath of God has been consumed by Jesus Christ. It is done. Wow! By faith, it is just as if I never sinned. That's just the most amazing thing in the world. What did His work on the cross actually involve? Verse 25 gives us a very brief, just little snapshot image. Look at verse 25. We're kind of in the middle of a sentence, "whom God put forward as a propitiation..." If you have an NIV, your Bible says, atonement or atoning sacrifice, I think, or something like that. "…by his blood, to be received by faith." But for those of you that do have the word, propitiation in your Bible, there you go. There's another word for your vocabulary. I doubt you'll probably use it and so forth. But it's good that you understand it anyway. What is propitiation? Jesus is our propitiation. That sounds weird. But the word means to deflect or turn aside wrath. In other words, Jesus has turned away the wrath of God. The wrath was coming to us. Remember Romans chapter 1 stated "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all mankind."

And Paul says nobody has done good to deserve anything other than wrath. The wrath of God is coming! The wrath of God is coming! Don't we sound like some of those street preachers that walk around with those signs, "the wrath of God is..." And we rethink, oh man, am I going to be weird like that? Hey, the fact of the matter is, "the wrath of God is coming." But through Jesus, it has been deflected because what? What did He do? Did He just put up a shield surrounding us saying, here, you guys get behind Me. I'm going to deflect the wrath of God for you. I'm going to put My shield out there and the wrath of God isn't going to reach you. No, that's not what He did. He didn't have a shield or anything. He sat and took the brunt of it. He accepted it. He took it on Himself. He bore it. He bore the wrath of God. He said, Lord, judge Me. Judge Me, not them. Judge Me. I'll take it. I'll take all of Your wrath. That wasn't something He was particularly thrilled to do. I will just be quite honest with you. In fact, you remember that prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. Lord, if there is any other way for this to take place, I'm up for suggestions. Right? But if there is no other way, lest I drink this cup, then let me drink it in full.

You might've noticed that God didn't come up with any other options. There was no other way than for Jesus to drink full strength, the cup of God's wrath. Because the wrath had to go somewhere. Right? The wrath of God had to go somewhere. It had... God can't just say, well, I'm not going to express my wrath against sin. He wouldn't be righteous. He wouldn't be just. Right? And again, for who is it... for whom is it turned aside? Again in verse 25, you look at the very end of that, that it says it is "received by faith." To those who receive it by faith, the wrath of God has been turned aside. The wrath of God. Do you remember, Paul actually said something very similar to this when he wrote to the church in Thessalonica? Let me put this on the screen for you. I love this verse, too. From 1 Thessalonians, it says, 1 Thessalonians 5:9 (ESV) For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. From 1 Thessalonians, it says, "For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our LORD Jesus Christ." You haven't been destined or ordained for wrath. Right? Because He took the wrath. You are now in the place of receiving salvation, not wrath. I love that. It's just a wonderful thing. Middle of verse 25 and following. Look with me there. He says, "This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Stop there. This is another incredible passage. It gives us so much amazing insight. And it says here, and this is interesting. It says that God left all of the sins committed beforehand, meaning before the cross, unpunished. Do you know, it's really funny. People will ask - sometimes they'll say, well, how were people forgiven? How were their sins punished under the Old Covenant? Under the law and stuff like that, how were people, how are people forgiven?

--- Well, they were forgiven the same way you're forgiven. They're forgiven by faith. But were their sins punished? No, they weren't. None of them. The sins of the world were not punished before Christ. He was saving it all up. Well you say, well, wait a minute. Weren't they forgiven? Yeah, they were forgiven by faith. But you see, somebody still had to die Why? Because

Somebody's got to die. Not my rule. Somebody had to die. But they didn't die in the under the Old Covenant. They didn't die And did you think those goats and lambs, think that their death was enough? You think that's what the sacrificial system was all about? It's like, well, sure. He punished all these animals. No, He didn't. An animal can't die for a man. Those sacrificial offerings were meant to point the worshiper to the idea that a sacrifice must take place. And it must be a blood sacrifice. But there's One that's going to come and is going to be a true sacrifice. These are just images. These are just reminders. All these animals that died under the Old Covenant were just reminders. That's all. And what did it remind them of? That this whole forgiveness thing is a bloody mess. It's not an easy thing at all to get taken care of. But did you notice what Paul said here? He said... Look at verse 26 again, with me. He says "It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier..." Now, what he's saying here, is that God found a way to judge man's sin, and save man at the same time. It's like a judge. Think of it this way: as a human judge in a human court, who really, desperately, wanted to save the person that was before him. But he knew they were guilty. And he knew that the law required him to punish that individual. What's he going to do? I have to punish him. But I want to save him. I want to acquit him. I want to justify him, but the law says I have to punish him. What is that judge going to do? He's going to set aside his personal interest and he's going to do what the law says, probably. If he doesn't, he won't be a judge for very long. Here's what Paul is saying, God found a way to punish sin and save the sinner. Because He punished sin in the person of His Son, who came in the image of man, who came as a representative of man, to die bearing the penalty of man's sin. And the rest of us just sit here and breathe a collective, wow, when we hear that kind of information. Okay. Time for Paul's conclusion. Verse 27. He says, "Then what becomes of our boasting?" In other words, "what do you have to boast in? People love to boast. Don't they? But Paul says no. "It is excluded." It's... God has taken it away from you." And he says, "By what kind of law?" Or, by what means has God taken away your boasting? Is it "By a law of works? No, if it were a law of works, then you'd have something to boast in, wouldn't you? You'd say, "I did it. I kept the law." But he says, "No, (it's not by a law, or, by means of works. It's) by… (means) of faith." Because when it's faith, you've got nothing to boast in. Because all you're doing is putting your faith in what somebody else did. Not in what you did. I'm putting my faith, Jesus, in what You did on the cross. And that's not a work. I'm just thinking that I'm looking at everything You did. And I'm saying, "Thank you." So there's nothing to boast in. Verse 28, "For we hold (meaning "we believe." This is like a statement of faith. "We believe) that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law." He says it again. There it is. You cannot earn your way to heaven. We believe that somebody is justified. In other words, it's just as if they never sinned by faith, apart from works of the law. Verse 29. "Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one - who will justify the circumcised by faith (that's Jews,) and the uncircumcised through faith. (or non-Jews.) And then one final question. "31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? (He says, no) By no means! (In fact, he says) On the contrary, we uphold the law." And with that statement, he's going to launch into the next chapter. And he's going to tell us... Don't worry, I'm not going to get into it today. But he's going to begin to talk about how we actually uphold the law. This is a message that every person who has a bent toward legalism needs to hear - in the coming chapters. Because the person who has bent toward legalism has a natural bent to say, I got to do something. And this faith thing, how can this faith thing be enough? I have to do something. ---

What about all these elements of the law? And then they'll point to the Old Testament. What about the Sabbath? What about this? What about that? We have to do these things! Paul says, oh, this is the good part. You're going to love this. By faith, we actually keep the law. Yeah! And he's going to get into it. And he's going to talk about it. He's going to talk about, you know all those people that think they have to go to church on Saturday? Because if there's a law that says on the Sabbath, people are to do that? He says, by faith, we keep the Sabbath. You know all those food laws? You know all those other ceremonies? You know all those other things that the law required of the Jews? He's going to say, by faith, we actually uphold all those things. We don't nullify them. We uphold them. We'll explain how. You're all... Some of you are going, I want to know how. We'll get into it. Paul's going to explain it. This is... I'm telling you, this is going to school here in Romans. This is sit down and get ready to learn. Because this is class. Class is in session. And Paul is teaching the fundamentals of salvation by grace through faith. And it's wonderful. And the more we learn about it, the more we're set free from being the total weird headed, human idiots, that we can often be. By trying to please God by doing good things, or doing works, or whatever. And, oh God... And making promises to God, I promise I won't do that ever again. And we fail over again. Move it all out of the way. Let's put a faith in Jesus Christ. And say, God I can't. But You can. I am not able. But You're able. I cannot be righteous. You are the Holy, righteous God, and You will impute Your righteousness to me by faith. It is not of my works. It is the gift of God so that no one can boast. There's no boasting in heaven. There's just praising God, and saying, thank You. We can start doing that now, by the way. That's what we do. Do you know that musical thing we do at the beginning of the service? That's part of what that's about. And I would hope that you come here on a Sunday morning, at least in part, to just stand before the Lord, and just go, thank You. By the way, sweet and very cool. You saved me. You saved me. You bore the wrath of God for me. And I didn't deserve a bit of it and you did it anyway. It's part of what we're doing here. We're praising. We're worshiping. I hope you understand and take that seriously. This is what we're going to be doing for eternity. We get the privilege of starting it today.