Romans 4 | Grace: Faith Through Doubt and Challenges

Oh, that is what the gospel means.

Good news.

Because that's what the gospel is.

It's good news.

I feel like I need to say this as a pastor,

and especially as an American pastor.

The gospel is good news,

and it's better news

than the news of the inauguration on Monday.

But I want us to understand that

the good news is the gospel of Christ,

not the inauguration of President Trump.

I feel like I need to say that because,

in my church world,

I see things

like pastors preaching in a Maga shirt,

which boggles my mind.

I say that because

I see and hear

church folk who are more aware of

President Trump's policies than they have Scripture memorized.

Something's wrong with their discipleship.

If that's the case.

I see it

because there's more celebrations and the inauguration on the 20th.

Then there is heartache over the fact that there are people under

huddle, are lost without Christ, and going to hell.

Something is profoundly wrong with our discipleship.

If those things are the case.

And so I want to draw us to the main thing and make sure that at least

that this church and those who hear my voice understand

the main thing will always be the main thing

that our hope and our good news

is in Christ him crucified and resurrected,

and that will drive everything we do

and will be more burdened over people in our huddle

who don't know Jesus, who are lost without him eternally.

Then we are excited and beating

the drum of anything that happens on the political scale.

Do you understand? They understand.

And until we

have more scripture hidden in our heart than policy in our head.

Something's faulty with our discipleship.

And we need to make sure that is never the case.

The good news of the gospel of Christ.

Paul outlines it in the book of Romans.

And so in the book of Romans is where we are.

And we'll go chapter through chapter every week through this book.

Spend a couple chapters on chapter two,

a couple weeks on chapter eight, because it is so profound.

The Book of Romans is divided into four sections.

Chapters one through chapter three, verse 20.

That was all about the wrath of God.

And Paul does a profound,

it makes a profound work, an argument

for the fact that our human souls, apart

from Christ and his work on the cross, are profoundly dark and sinful.

And he makes the

case in the first two chapters, whether you're one of those

that it's apparent to good folk how bad they are,

or if you're one of those who think that we're pretty good,

both on equal ground and both profoundly

missed the glory of God, and both profoundly deep

in the darkness of sin and profoundly

need a Savior.

And in chapter three, verse 21 and four,

and all the way through chapter eight, he talks about the grace of God.

So he deals with the wrath of God, and that we're all deserving of it.

Apart from Christ, and then the grace of God,

and then he'll deal with the plan of God, and then the will of God.

And so we're just as the beginning parts

where Paul unpacks what is called the grace of God.

And he's he's

he's the he's helped us understand

our need for a Savior, regardless of how good we think we are.

And in introducing what grace is

and how we are saved through faith by grace.

In chapter four, he introduces to us two models.

And these two models were profoundly important for the Jewish people.

There are two of their heroes.

For us, we would look at these two and think, oh, they're pretty good guys.

But for the Jew, they were,

they're, they're, they're they're top shelf.

And one of them is Abraham, the father of the Jews.

And the other is David.

And the reason why Paul deals with Abraham and David

in supporting his teaching

that were saved through faith by grace, and because Abraham was the father

of the Jewish race, and David was the father of the Jewish royal line.

And so he says, both of these streams are important.

And says,

both of these guys that, that that everything it is to be a Jew,

both of these guys derive our identity from these two.

And they were both right with God.

That's what it means to be justified, to be right with God.

Both of these guys were right with God because of their faith,

through their faith,

because of God's grace, not because of what they did.

And so chapter four talks about these two guys.

And we're going to dive into that.

And so if you have a Bible and brought one with you, you're

looking at your smart device.

I wanted to encourage you to go to Romans four.

Now in this Bible that's on page 100, 1649, if that helps anybody.

This is, so this is, I have three Bibles that I use.

One of them is the one I've had for decades.

And friends of mine, Jim and Patty helped pay to get it

all rebound because it was absolutely just falling apart.

And I have decades, decades of notes

written in it, almost, where I can't see the the printed text.

I have.

So and I love using that Bible because it's just so rich and full for me.

But I'm getting so far I can't use anymore.

And I have this other Bible,

and it's a new King James Version.

I like kind of how it reads, and I've got a lot of and it's it's in better shape.

There's only about 2 or 3 sections that are falling apart, and that one.

And so I'm like, well, which one do I use?

I don't want this stuff on.

And so then I got this Bible, and this Bible is one

that Sean I bought for our son Wyatt when he was about in junior high.

And then as

he got older and, and through college, you wanted a different Bible.

So we got him different Bible.

But I keep this one because it's a good it's it's I like how it's lays out.

It's it's not it's not as marked up and I can write more notes in it.

But what I love about this, this particular one

is that when I first started to open this up and reading it,

I found page after page after page

where my son Wyatt in junior high and high school

underlined and underlined and underlined as he would read his Bible every day.

And it just I just I when I hold off, I think I just think

thank you Lord.

Thank you for your grace.

In spite of what

I've done and didn't do as a father,

and in spite of my son learning

how to walk in obedience, still,

thank you for your grace.

Love the fact that our sons are men of the word.

And they're figuring it out with Jesus.

And it's beautiful

to see some more of that began.

And so from this particular scripture,

the first three verses, what then shall we say that Abraham,

our forefather, according to Flashman, remember he's talking to Jews.

He said, so you want to talk about being right with God by faith?

Well, let's talk about Abraham.

What are we going to say about him as far as our flesh is

concerned, us being Jews, what did he discover in this matter?

In fact, if in fact Abraham was justified, made

right with God by works, he'd have something to boast about.

But number four, God, what does Scripture say?

Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Abraham believed God and it was credited to him.

It was a charge to his account, as if he was righteous and right before

God because of he his belief, he believed God's Word.

Now, Abraham is an interesting scripture in that regard,

because it would make more sense to us if Paul tells us that Abraham was right

with God, because what he did, does that make sense to us?

And consider Abraham for a moment in Genesis 12,

God called Abraham and said, Abraham, I want you to leave

your home, your family, your mother, father,

and I want you to go to a place I'll show you.

So just start walking and I'll I'll tell you when you get there.

But just be obedient.

And Abraham was obedient. Genesis 12.

You can read about it, but the Bible doesn't say

that Abraham was made right with God because he was obedient.

Just hang with me for a minute.

Just. Just stay here.

Later in Genesis 22,

God will say, Abraham, I want you to exhibit how much you love me

and sacrifice your only son to me on Mount Moriah.

And Abraham was obedient in sacrificing his only son.

Now God stopped his answer. You didn't have to do it.

But Abraham was prepared to show God the depth of his love by his sacrifice.

So it would even make sense

if Paul were to say Abraham was made right with God by his sacrifice.

But please understand, Abraham was right with God, not because of his obedience.

Abraham was right with God, not because of sacrifice.

Abraham was right with God because he believed God.

Genesis 15.

It wasn't because of his obedience in Genesis 12.

It wasn't because of his sacrifice in Genesis 22.

It was because of his belief in faith.

And what God said in Genesis 15.

It would make sense to

us because most of us believe at some level

that we are right with God because we're obedient,

right?

It would make sense to us if we said, well, we're we're we're right with God.

If we're if we sacrifice for him and His kingdom, it makes us right with God.

That would make sense to us.

That's what the Bible says.

The Bible says apart from what you do

and apart

from your behavior,

you can be right with God

through faith

because of his grace.

Abraham God said,

Abraham, you're going to be the father of a nation.

That blew Abraham's mind because he hadn't had a kid.

And by the like, he's 100 years old.

It's not going to happen

in his mind.

Do you see what I'm saying?

But he believed God, and that belief in

God is what made him right with God,

not his obedience nor his sacrifice.

See, now, here's what happens when we start

to walk this life of belief in faith.

There will be there is no doubt

that we will have times of doubt.

Okay, so if we say, I'm going to believe you

in faith, God, there will come times of doubt.

And Abraham's no different.

But we have to understand,

a very significant difference.

Abraham may have doubted the method of the promise,

but he never denied the outcome of it.

Abraham doubted the method

because he's 100 years old, his wife 90.

We all realize what happens, right?

Like it's stuff doesn't work.

They're not having a baby.

And so he may have doubted the method. And he did.

That's why

Hagar and Ishmael are in the story.

He figured, I can't do it through Sarah.

I'm going to do this through her maidservant, Hagar and Ishmael was born.

He doubted the method, but he never denied the outcome.

So, friends, let me help you understand.

Though we may believe in faith, there will come times

because of who we are, that we may doubt the method.

The disciples even said, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

So I believe this much. I want to believe this man.

So I got this.

Help me with this right?

But there's a difference between doubt and denial.

You may doubt the method.

God understands that.

But don't you ever deny the outcome.

God will do what he says

he will do, and he has done what he has said.

He has done.

And so

when we look at this whole process, that that we are right with God by faith

and not by works, it begs the question, well, then,

what role does obedience have?

If Abraham was made right with God because of what he did?

Doesn't matter what we do.

Yes, of course it does not for salvation,

but because we're saved.

It looks like this

when we do those acts of righteousness,

those religious things,

when we try to live right with God, that's a word called sanctification.

I'm gonna throw some words at you. You're ready?

Yeah.

If you don't write this down, you want to forget it?

By the time I'm done,

this is going to be like drinking water out of a fire hose for a minute.

But just hang with me.

The the the

work of living rightly before God of obedience

is called the work of sanctification, where God sanctifies us.

Ultimately, that will culminate in glorification

when we're made perfect in heaven.

Okay, but those things don't happen

without the previous three things being in place.

Godly living sanctification culminates in a glorification in heaven

because of God's redemption through

Jesus is propitiation, resulting in our justification.

Let me put it in English.

Last week we talked about these three issues

redemption, justification, propitiation.

Redemption is being bought at a price.

Propitiation is the substitute

that Jesus took on our place to pay that price.

Justification is being right with God.

So I am right with God because God bought me back because of the price

Jesus paid with his life to understand, okay, because that's happened.

Now I begin the process of sanctification.

Now because that's happened, God gives me the desire

and the ability to begin obeying him, being sanctified.

You understand?

Ultimately, I'll never reach the totality of that on this earth

when I get to heaven. Glorification.

Most of us get the cart and the horse backwards.

We think I have to live rightly at this, the work of sanctification.

I got to do stuff right.

I got to be so that God justifies me.

I can be in right standing with him. You understand?

That is so based

backwards that Paul says it doesn't work that way.

First, Jesus is our propitiation.

He paid the price

so that our redemption could

we could be bought back to be in right standing with God.

And we will never experience the work of sanctification,

living rightly apart from what Jesus did on the cross.

So he most of us can

take steps of being

a better person and a moral person on our own.

That's not hard.

A lot of moral people,

but we can only be sanctified

through the indwelling of God

because of the price Jesus paid on the cross for us.

And we enter into that relationship through faith because of God's grace.

Once that happens, he starts

the sanctification process you follow.

So obedience

life, the way we live, it does matter,

as it's a reflection of the work that's already been done,

not so that God will work on our behalf.

You got it.

This flies in the face of religion

because religion says I will do so, that God will move.

Christianity says Jesus has done

period.

Look at verse four and five.

Now to the one who works is better than the King James Version.

Now to him who works the wages

paid him are not counted as grace, but as debt.

But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the what?

The ungodly, his faith

is it counted for righteousness.

Here's what he's saying.

God's word, God's blessing.

God's move is not motivated

because of our fervent prayer and our devotion.

God's blessing

and his move is not motivated

because of our obedience and sacrifice.

If God or

to move on our behalf because we have worked,

that wouldn't be grace.

It would be out of debt.

Do you see what I'm saying?

I get so concerned when good church folk

have the idea that we prayed hard and we were fervent in our devotion,

and God moved.

I'm like, you're skating on real thin ice.

Because if we think that

because of our devotion and fervent

God will, you'll have to.

He'll be indebted to us to move on our behalf.

That.

That makes him in debt.

And can I just tell you that God will be indebted

to nobody?

God moves

not because we've worked hard and he owes us our wages.

He moves because of his grace.

See, every time that we religious folk

assume

that I have been

diligent and I have been devoted, and I have been good,

God will move on my life because of the or.

I have to be good and I have to be

right before.

And I have to

pray, and I have to read my Bible because that's what God is supposed.

I said duty nullifies grace.

And so I want to suggest.

Quit striving to be obedient

so that God will be good.

Quit working to be right

so that God will be gracious.

We have to be very careful about this.

To the one who works, what they're given isn't grace.

It's debt.

And when God moves, it's not because he's dead into us.

It's because of grace.

Biblically, grace, it's a Greek word called is.

And it means literally favored, done

without expectation of return.

And in every sense, this Greek word was used in ancient times.

It was always grace given for a friend, never for an enemy.

So grace is favor

that's given without expectation of anything coming back.

And it was never done for an enemy.

It was always done for a friend until the New Testament and the cross,

the New Testament and the cross.

Grace at the cross was favor

done for enemies.

To understand,

Without any expectation

of anything coming back.

Favored.

And not for a friend, but for enemies.

For while we were sinners, Christ died for you.

Still, while you were enemies with God.

So you got to be very careful.

Have you ever heard the phrase,

well, they fallen from grace?

Yeah.

It's usually in the context of people who were supposed to almost be perfect

and doing something really bad, right?

Right.

Did you know that the phrase fallen from grace is only one time in Scripture

and has nothing to do with someone's bad sin?

Galatians five for

Galatians five four says this.

You who are trying to be right with God,

justified by the law, by your obedience, have been alienated from Christ.

You have what

fallen from grace?

The moment I have the position

that I am right with God,

that he's indebted to me

because of my obedience,

I have fallen from grace.

So to everyone who's

ever been disappointed in those who shouldn't

sin and who do

and have thought of them, they have fallen from grace.

No, my friend,

you are the one.

I am the one.

Those who have made

grave errors and sinned haven't fallen from grace.

They've fallen into grace.

Us religious people.

We've fallen from it.

To see

how profoundly liberating grace is.

And how.

Scripture flies in the face of religion.

That's why one of our taglines

here is a little less religion, a little more relationship

with this God who loves us, who gave His Son to die for us,

who invites us through faith in the grace

so he can work his process

of sanctification,

not have us wear ourselves out with duty.

Is this stuff good or what?

I got so excited this week that I got to preach two messages today.

I was like, oh.

Look at this.

In verse six,

David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one,

of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.

And then, and then and then Paul quotes David from Psalm

32, blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the one who sinned.

The Lord will never count against them.

That this blows my mind, that Paul goes here.

He said, now we would understand

if God credited righteousness to Abraham because of all his good works.

But God also credited righteousness to David.

But in referring to David, Paul does not refer to David's

good works, which were many.

He refers to David's bad works

because that verse, those two verses in Psalm 32, are written in response

to David's conviction and over his sin of adultery with that Sheba

and contracting her husband's death.

And so what Paul is saying here is God

makes us right with him through faith,

apart from our good works, and in spite of our bad

works.

He credits righteousness,

makes us right with the father,

both apart from our good works

and in spite of our bad works.

He gives us the righteousness of Christ and places

it on us, regardless of the good or bad we've done.

Here's what I know.

Some people sit in this place and hear my voice and think I'm

a pretty good person.

And Paul would say, in spite your good works don't matter.

You're right with God through faith.

And there are others who would hear my voice

that would say, you don't know what I've done.

You don't know where I've been.

I got a lot to make up for.

For God.

And likewise, Paul would say,

you're right with God

by faith, not by trying to make stuff up.

So no matter which side of that aisle

you sit.

The thing I love about some of David's writings is if he were to go back

and read some of his early Psalms, he just beats the drum

about his purity.

And then

he grows up.

And his later songs are not about his own purity.

They're about the mercy and grace of God.

Here's what I know.

Some of us been around the block

right?

Some of us have been down those alleys.

And for those of us who have lived enough,

they've been around the block and down the alleys.

We know

we don't measure up.

And Scripture would tell us, you're right.

You don't measure up.

But in spite of your badness,

you are right with God, not because of your newfound goodness.

You are right with God.

Only through faith, because of his grace, has nothing to do with you.

Thank God.

I appreciate that one.

Clap.

You got a jewel in the crown for that one. And.

I wish I had time

to go through this whole thing, man.

Paul develops this idea of verses

nine through 12 or so and

and basically what he says in those, in

those verses is just walk in the footsteps of Abraham.

Choices.

It takes a while to

say it, but it's a let's walk in the footsteps of Abraham.

What are the footsteps of Abraham?

The footsteps of Abraham are those who walk in faith

before they ever do a thing.

He was made right with God before

he had the law or obey the law.

The footsteps of Abraham

are those who walk in faith apart from

the laws of God.

But in other words,

that by the laws of God does not make us

people of faith.

The strict laws of God without faith

in Christ in the cross makes us religious,

not righteous.

Righteous is imputed to us, given to us

through faith,

as it was for Abraham

before he was ever obedient

to the law.

Let me just look at,

At verse 13 1415.

It was it was not enough that the through the law that Abraham

and his offspring receive the promise that he would be the heir of the world,

but through the righteousness that comes by faith,

for of those who depend on the law are heirs faith means nothing,

and the promise is worthless because the law brings wrath.

And where there's no law, there's no transgression.

When he uses that word transgression, he's talking to a certain set of people.

So you see, when the Bible talks about sin, it uses multiple different words.

One is sin, one is transgression.

All these things.

When Paul uses that word transgression, here's what he means.

He means crossing the line.

You know the law and you crossed the line.

That's to transgress, to understand,

okay, so that we are without excuse.

We know the law, know God's rules.

We've crossed it.

We've transgressed.

Okay, but but Paul has already said,

even for those who don't have the law,

they have still sinned because sin and that.

So where do you sin?

Because sin simply means missing the mark.

So here's, here's, here's the biblical truth.

Even without the law of God and transgression, there's still sin,

because we have enough of the law of God

in our hearts to know right and wrong at some level.

And we can't even live up to our own standard,

let alone God's perfect standard.

We've missed the mark.

Do you see what I'm saying?

That's why good people still need a savior.

Because good people missed the mark.

So whatever side you think you're on, I just missed the mark.

Oh, no.

I've transgressed.

Both are right with God through faith.

Not behavior, not works, not law.

Look at this.

Verse 16.

Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace

and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring.

He guaranteed to us.

Being right with God is guaranteed to us through grace.

Because of God's grace.

Verse 17 as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations.

He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed the God.

Watch this the God who gives life to the dead

and calls into being things that were not.

Verse 18 against all hope,

Abraham in hope believed, and so became the father of many nations,

just as it had been said to him by God that he believed.

So shall your offspring be.

Here's what he's saying.

God, said Abraham, this is how I work, and this is what I'm going to do.

And Abraham, against all hope in hope, believed God

that God could do what he said.

He had faith.

In what God said.

And that faith made him righteous with God,

made him right before God.

Now I want to help us understand what faith is.

Faith is not well, you know, I believe God and skeptical of God's going to do

is going to do it.

No, faith doesn't mean doing nothing but doing everything with reliance on God.

That's what faith is.

In other words, just because God told Abraham, you're going to have a baby,

you know?

And, sure,

it doesn't mean Abraham and Sarah didn't do what they had to do to have a baby.

You understand?

We don't just get to sit back, say, okay, you got I got faith going.

Do whatever you want.

It mean it doesn't mean doing nothing means doing everything

with reliance on God.

And so here's what we've got to understand about this whole faith thing.

Some people erroneously in two ways.

One, I got to perform so God will be pleased and do no.

But secondly, because I have faith, I don't have to do anything.

No, here's the truth

all true believers obey.

All true believers obey.

See, faith in action is obedience.

And conversely, faith without action is disobedience.

So because I understand that Jesus is my propitiation, the price

that was paid for my redemption, to buy me back and know I'm right

with God justification and he's working this work of sanctification in me.

That work of sanctification means I will obey,

because that is the sign of my faith.

Do you see what I'm saying?

But if we were to sit here and say, no, no, no, no, I believe that.

Yeah, Jesus paid my the price and I'm right with God.

But I don't have to do anything.

It betrays what we say, that we believe

faith.

That action is dead is way James will say it.

Disobedience.

Look at verse 19.

Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact

that his body was as good as dead.

Since he's about 100 years old, and that Sarah's womb was also dead.

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God.

Maybe the message, but not the outcome. Right?

He knew the outcome was coming,

but was strengthened in his faith and give glory to God.

Being fully persuaded that God had the power to do all that he promised.

This is why it was credited

to him as righteousness.

In hope he had hope

without weakening in the state,

that that God could raise the dead,

that God could call into being things that are not.

What did he call to be

Sarah's womb,

what was dead that he created life

in Sarah's womb?

If we believe, as Scripture teaches,

that God spoke all things into existence.

Calling out of nothing that which is now.

If you believe in that God, it's not hard to have faith

and what God says he will do now.

Without weakening in his faith.

The interesting thing in verse 20, yet he did not waver through unbelief

regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith.

That word in his faith can also mean by his faith.

So Abraham was strengthened in his faith and he was also strengthened by his faith.

Here's what I know. Faith is contagious

and so is fear.

And this is why it's so important, my dear friends, to be involved

in a huddle, in a small group, to share like minded faith with each other.

Because faith is contagious and sometimes we need to be strengthened in our faith.

And oftentimes our strength is in our faith

because we're by people of faith that make sense.

The one feeds the other.

I don't have any notes on this.

I just want to share with you. This is free for you this morning.

This part one I'm gonna tell you right now,

if you want to know how to live in faith and want to know how to live by faith,

verse 19, 20 and 21.

We live by faith.

We live in faith when, like Abraham,

we don't consider the limitations of our situation.

We say, God, all I see are my limitations, but

I'm not going to consider my limitations because I understand who you are.

People of faith and people who live by faith

don't first consider their own limitation.

Without weakening his faith, he face the fact that his body as good as dead.

God, this is what you got to work with.

Good luck.

Not only do they not consider their own limitation

and their own situation, they don't lower the expectation of God.

Yet he did not waver through unbelief.

People of faith. People by faith.

Don't consider my own limitation and don't limit my expectation.

You follow me to what it means to live by faith.

People of faith not only don't consider our own limitation

nor lower our expectation of God, we also, no matter the circumstance,

give God adulation, which is glory, which is what the Bible says.

He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God,

but will strengthen his faith and give glory to God.

For 14 years

without any response.

Continue to give God glory.

So I understand my limitations, but I'm not going to lower my expectation of God.

And through all those ups and downs, I'm going to give glory to God.

Because people of faith at the end.

The fourth thing, we live with Paul, full persuasion

and God's ability.

He was fully persuaded.

The Bible says

that God had the power to do all it promised

that God was able.

Listen, if God can make me right with him through faith,

not my obedience, because of the work of Jesus on the cross,

if God can do that

and start this work of sanctification in me,

there's nothing I'm going to do.

If he cannot do.

But we have to understand when we say that we believe God can.

It's being able to do means that I know God will perform,

not simply that he can perform.

And this

is where so many people, we just kind of get off the horse at this point.

We don't finish a race

like I know God can.

And God I'm going to trust that you will, you know, please, maybe if you choose to.

Abraham was fully persuaded.

I know that I can, and what that means is I know God will.

I might doubt the process.

I get that, but I'm not going to deny the outcome.

He will.

And I'm going to believe him in faith, because I know he will.

Because I know his hand of grace towards me is not motivated by what I do.

Just by my fact of believing.

It's a righteous act.

Let me just finish up here.

Someone told me this last week.

They said, hey, you need to quit apologizing for going long.

If I don't, if I don't want you to go on, I'll leave.

But you just do your thing.

I'm like, all right, so I guess you all got permission.

It's. I'm not going to be.

Well, I might be a little offended.

I'll act like I'm not offended.

I'll pray about it later.

Will be all right. But.

Look at what the Scripture says in verse 23.

The words it was credited to him were written

not for him alone, but also for us to whom God will credit righteousness

for us, who believe in him, who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

He was delivered over to Jesus, was delivered over

to death for our sins, and was raised to life for our justification.

Here's the deal.

The resurrection of Jesus was proof

that his payment was enough, and God accepted it for you and for me.

See, at the end of the day,

Abraham believed that God would raise up

Isaac from a dead womb.

And that was credited to him

as righteousness.

You and me.

We believe that God raised up

Jesus from a dead tomb.

And that is credited to us as righteousness.

And resurrection faith is so much greater.

The reproductive faith.

And that faith makes us right with God.

And it's only through that faith

in Jesus and His work on the cross.

And the faith

in his resurrection that saves anybody.

And without that faith.

We receive God's wrath.

And what makes that message all good?

The good news

is the brilliance of grace on the backdrop of complete

and utter darkness.

That's what we're invited into.

And I want to invite you,

by the invitation of Christ,

to be right with him through faith.

Because of his grace,

and to drop all our religious baggage.

Why don't you pray with me?

Father, I thank you.

That you love us so much that you gave your son.

That whoever would believe in him would have eternal life.

Thinking that you've given us the invitation

to simply believe.

The truth of what you've said

and the truth of what you've done

through Jesus.

Father, I thank you

that you haven't asked nor expected us.

To be good enough

to be made right with you by our own actions and behavior.

You knew we couldn't do it.

I thank you that you paid our sin price

through your son on the cross.

Forgive us

for one thinking we're good enough

for you to be indebted to us, and two, for thinking we're bad enough

that we have to prove ourselves to you.

Father, I ask in this moment over us

that we would lay down our religious duty and behavior.

Come to you by faith.

Through faith, because of your grace.

And so, friends, in this moment, I want to invite you into this.

I want invite you in

whatever words make sense to you, between you and God,

just to say, God, thank you.

That I don't have to strive

to be good enough for you.

Because I admit I am not.

I confess my sin to you.

And I lay my sin before you.

And I believe through faith

that by your grace

your son Jesus is my Savior.

Apart

from what I've done, and in spite of what I've done, I accept

Jesus as the Savior and leader of my life.

Friends, still in this moment of prayer, if you've done that,

I invite you to take this next step and just simply say, God,

I give you permission

through your spirit to begin

the work of my sanctification,

giving me the desire

and the ability to live rightly before you.

And thank you

that one day in heaven.

All things will be completed.

Father, we love you,

Jesus.

We love you.

God help us.

Love you more.

Thank you.

In your name I pray. Amen.

A sin okay

Romans, a big book.

I'm proud of you.

Here's what I'd like you to,

if I may ask, this week, read Romans four

and just soak in it for a little while

and understand the liberation and freedom that's been offered,

salvation that's offered.

And then read Romans five

and get ready for next week.

Paul's just going to keep the throttle down,

especially through chapter eight.

A lot of fun.

I'm looking forward

to going through with us together.

You know, people in your world, in your huddle that don't have a church home

and you know, your assignment,

right?

Right.

Let's see.