2016-02-21 Every Man Silent Before Christ

00:00:00.000 | - Both Jews and Greeks are under sin.

00:00:04.640 | As it is written, none is righteous, no not one.

00:00:07.760 | No one understands, no one seeks for God.

00:00:10.540 | All have turned aside, together they have become worthless.

00:00:12.980 | No one does good, not even one.

00:00:15.480 | Their throat is an open grave,

00:00:16.900 | they use their tongues to deceive.

00:00:18.460 | The venom of asp is under their lips.

00:00:20.560 | Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

00:00:23.280 | Their feet are swift to shed blood.

00:00:24.880 | In their paths are ruin and misery,

00:00:26.840 | and the way of peace they have not known.

00:00:29.480 | There is no fear of God before their eyes.

00:00:32.160 | Now we know that whatever the law says,

00:00:33.960 | it speaks to those who are under the law,

00:00:35.700 | so that every mouth may be stopped

00:00:37.640 | and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

00:00:40.480 | For by works of the law, no human being

00:00:42.800 | will be justified in his sight,

00:00:44.340 | since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

00:00:46.760 | Let's pray.

00:00:47.600 | We pray, Father God, that your word would speak to us,

00:00:56.040 | it would go forth, it would produce fruits that you desire,

00:01:00.040 | and it would not return until it has accomplished

00:01:02.180 | its purpose.

00:01:03.020 | We pray, Father God, that your living word

00:01:04.940 | would be sufficient, that we would not look

00:01:07.920 | to the left or to the right, that we would meditate on it

00:01:11.760 | and not allow it to depart from us, Lord God,

00:01:14.480 | that all the things that we desire to be fruitful in,

00:01:18.440 | that we would cling to your word with all our might.

00:01:21.320 | We pray, Father God, that as Paul has written these words

00:01:24.320 | by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

00:01:27.020 | that your spirit, again, Lord God, would take these words

00:01:30.100 | and convict and guide and lead and feed us.

00:01:33.200 | So we entrust this time to you, in Jesus' name we pray,

00:01:35.680 | amen.

00:01:36.520 | You know, you know what I've been noticing

00:01:42.080 | in the last maybe about a year or two

00:01:43.720 | that the fashion of the 1980s are starting to come back.

00:01:48.000 | So those of you guys who weren't teenagers at that time

00:01:50.080 | may not be familiar, but some of the stuff

00:01:52.360 | that you guys are wearing now, I used to wear it, you know.

00:01:57.180 | In high school.

00:01:59.220 | So I think nothing kills being cool

00:02:03.620 | than having your dad say, "I used to wear that."

00:02:07.380 | You know what I mean?

00:02:08.220 | Like certain pants or certain glasses, and I remember.

00:02:12.060 | So some of these things start to look very familiar.

00:02:15.340 | So every year, obviously, there's a cycle of things,

00:02:18.700 | and I remember back then, too, and I remember

00:02:21.180 | I used to have teachers in junior high school

00:02:23.220 | and high school say that, "Oh, those thin ties

00:02:25.340 | "are coming back, I used to wear that in the 60s,

00:02:27.540 | "you know, or the 50s."

00:02:28.800 | And so, you know, fashion has a tendency

00:02:31.080 | to kind of like circulate, and it changes.

00:02:34.320 | But every single one of us, when it comes to what we wear

00:02:37.320 | and what we don't wear, we have a tendency

00:02:39.200 | to wear things that kind of accentuate our strength.

00:02:41.840 | You know, there are certain parts of our body

00:02:43.060 | that we're not proud to show off,

00:02:44.760 | so I always wear a loose jacket 'cause I don't have

00:02:48.380 | the figure that I wanna wear, a tight shirt

00:02:50.520 | that I used to do back in high school, right?

00:02:52.840 | So some of you guys have certain parts of your body

00:02:54.800 | that you want your legs to look a little longer,

00:02:57.060 | so you wear certain kind of pants,

00:02:58.520 | or you do your hair a certain way

00:03:01.200 | 'cause it looks a certain way.

00:03:02.900 | So whatever it is that we wear, we have a tendency

00:03:04.960 | to wear certain things to accentuate our strength

00:03:08.000 | and hide some of our weaknesses, right?

00:03:10.460 | Well, we do that even when it comes to spiritual things.

00:03:15.520 | We have a tendency to highlight the things

00:03:17.440 | that we're good at, and the things that we're not good at,

00:03:19.800 | we kind of keep it under wraps, and then, you know,

00:03:21.820 | we get offended when somebody pokes at it

00:03:23.800 | 'cause we don't want anybody to see it

00:03:25.360 | because those are things that are meant to be in the secret.

00:03:28.840 | And because we have a tendency to do that, you know,

00:03:32.760 | we, again, every single one of us is guilty of this.

00:03:35.080 | We have a tendency to kind of like,

00:03:36.560 | this is how I wanna be perceived,

00:03:39.200 | but in reality, behind the scene, we know that,

00:03:42.320 | we know our weaknesses, we know our struggles.

00:03:45.280 | You know, I remember years ago,

00:03:47.480 | evangelists would say this to kind of motivate people

00:03:50.320 | to live a righteous life, and he would say,

00:03:52.600 | you know, when you get to heaven,

00:03:53.840 | God's gonna have this videotape

00:03:55.920 | of everything that you've done, and he's gonna play it,

00:03:58.400 | you know, so you better watch out, you know?

00:04:01.440 | Well, I wanna go a step further than that and ask you,

00:04:04.040 | what if you think about the most shameful thing

00:04:07.600 | that you've ever done in life, okay,

00:04:09.360 | and don't say it out loud, okay?

00:04:11.520 | What if the most shameful thing

00:04:13.120 | that you've ever done in life

00:04:14.200 | that you probably may not even have shared with anybody,

00:04:17.760 | maybe not even with your wife or with your husband,

00:04:19.840 | and you just kind of maybe alluded to it,

00:04:21.760 | but you were never really specific?

00:04:24.080 | So there, my guess is, from, again,

00:04:26.800 | years of counseling people and talking to people,

00:04:28.560 | that every single person has something

00:04:31.880 | that they would be ashamed,

00:04:33.040 | if we were to have that videotape,

00:04:35.200 | and it said that event, that thing

00:04:36.560 | that you've been trying so hard to hide,

00:04:38.080 | or maybe you even did confess it

00:04:40.560 | because you're a righteous person,

00:04:41.960 | but it wasn't really focused on,

00:04:44.040 | you just kind of alluded to it,

00:04:45.280 | but you didn't go into the specifics.

00:04:47.600 | But what if we had a videotape of that particular thing

00:04:51.720 | that you did, whether you did that

00:04:53.080 | when you were a little kid,

00:04:54.480 | or whether that was last year, whatever it may be,

00:04:56.400 | and we start playing the video,

00:04:58.040 | like what kind of reaction would we have?

00:05:01.040 | First thing, obviously, you know,

00:05:04.600 | response may be denial, it's like,

00:05:06.280 | no, no, that's not me, you know,

00:05:07.920 | that video is kind of blurry, you know what I mean?

00:05:10.800 | That's not me, and then you look carefully,

00:05:12.440 | and say, how can that not be you?

00:05:14.040 | You know, look at that hairstyle,

00:05:15.080 | look at that little, you know, spot on your head,

00:05:17.200 | that's gotta be you, right?

00:05:18.640 | So you go through a period of denial, you know,

00:05:21.600 | maybe some shame, because now you're embarrassed,

00:05:23.640 | because everybody's watching this,

00:05:25.000 | and oh my gosh, you're mortified.

00:05:27.400 | Maybe some anger, like why do you need to do that,

00:05:30.160 | why do you expose that, right?

00:05:32.360 | I've been trying so hard to keep it under wraps.

00:05:35.480 | You might even take some time to justify it,

00:05:37.640 | you don't know the circumstance behind it,

00:05:39.240 | all you have is that little clip,

00:05:40.840 | you don't know what I went through,

00:05:42.000 | you don't know what those people did,

00:05:44.000 | you don't know why I did this,

00:05:45.560 | you don't know what my upbringing was like,

00:05:47.000 | and maybe you will go through a period of justification.

00:05:50.640 | And at some point after you've realized

00:05:54.240 | that there is just no way for you to deny this,

00:05:56.960 | and you know in your heart that you're guilty of this,

00:06:00.000 | that you will accept it.

00:06:01.280 | And once you accept that you have no other way,

00:06:04.800 | no other way to describe this,

00:06:06.600 | no other way to describe it or get out of it,

00:06:09.560 | eventually it will lead you to silence.

00:06:11.880 | It's true, even in the court of law,

00:06:14.960 | you see people who get arrested,

00:06:16.420 | and their first response is like,

00:06:17.800 | no, that wasn't me, in denial,

00:06:19.200 | and then all of a sudden they go into trial,

00:06:21.440 | and then one by one, you have witness after witness,

00:06:23.920 | videotapes, circumstantial evidence,

00:06:26.360 | direct evidence, and all of this is presented,

00:06:28.640 | and then through the whole trial it's clear,

00:06:31.800 | without a shadow of a doubt,

00:06:33.640 | that this guy is guilty.

00:06:35.800 | So by the time the sentencing comes,

00:06:38.240 | he sits there and he just takes it,

00:06:39.960 | whatever it may be, a life sentence,

00:06:41.720 | 'cause he knows that he's absolutely guilty,

00:06:44.640 | that he went through denial, shame, anger, justification,

00:06:48.720 | and eventually he had to accept it,

00:06:51.480 | because it's clear, and then he sits there silently

00:06:54.800 | as the judgment and the penalty is read out to him.

00:06:58.520 | Everything that I just described to you

00:07:02.280 | is exactly what Paul has been doing for three chapters.

00:07:06.040 | And as I mentioned to you last week,

00:07:08.240 | that's exactly what God has been doing

00:07:10.160 | in human history through the nation of Israel.

00:07:12.760 | He's been cutting through every part

00:07:15.760 | of the things that they have maybe have been justifying,

00:07:19.000 | the shame that they've been hiding,

00:07:21.200 | the things that they've been comparing

00:07:22.520 | with other nations or other people,

00:07:25.000 | and he's just chopping it down.

00:07:27.120 | He's going into every crevice of their life

00:07:29.600 | that they feel like, you know what, these are things,

00:07:31.560 | you know, I'm not as bad as them.

00:07:32.760 | He's just kind of breaking it down.

00:07:35.160 | And the reason for all of this is to bring us to silence.

00:07:39.380 | Because until we are silent,

00:07:41.960 | until we recognize where we stand before God,

00:07:46.120 | the good news of salvation really isn't good news.

00:07:49.060 | You know, he said, the text that we just looked at

00:07:51.760 | this morning, it says, you know,

00:07:53.280 | those who are under the law can never be justified

00:07:56.280 | in his sight, since through the law

00:07:57.660 | comes the knowledge of sin, right?

00:08:00.360 | The reformers, John Calvin, it wasn't started

00:08:03.840 | by John Calvin, it was as early as Augustine.

00:08:06.400 | The church fathers put together a systematic understanding

00:08:11.400 | of how we are to understand the teaching

00:08:13.600 | of the law of the Old Testament.

00:08:15.720 | There's a tendency today that we say,

00:08:17.400 | well, we talk about the law,

00:08:18.360 | immediately get a knee-jerk reaction

00:08:20.080 | that that's not meant to be practiced.

00:08:22.320 | It's just to expose sin.

00:08:25.880 | But they talk about three specific uses of the law.

00:08:28.800 | And I'm gonna go backward.

00:08:31.480 | The third use of the law, the ultimate purpose of the law,

00:08:35.160 | is actually that God intends that his people obey it.

00:08:39.440 | It is what God intended.

00:08:42.080 | And that's why Jesus says in John 14, 15,

00:08:44.280 | if you love me, you will obey my commandments.

00:08:47.520 | Now, I'm not gonna get too deep into that

00:08:49.600 | because that's not the point of this morning's text.

00:08:52.960 | There's also what we call the civil law.

00:08:55.720 | And that's the second use of the law.

00:08:56.920 | And the second purpose of the law is to restrain evil.

00:09:00.000 | Where God created a society, or community,

00:09:03.880 | where God says, if you commit this evil,

00:09:06.240 | these things are gonna happen to you.

00:09:07.600 | And so, even in the New Testament,

00:09:09.000 | God says to submit to authority

00:09:10.440 | because all authority is established by God.

00:09:13.160 | So that's the second use of the law.

00:09:15.400 | But the third use of the law,

00:09:17.520 | in reality, it's actually the first use of the law,

00:09:20.080 | 'cause I read it backwards.

00:09:21.440 | Without the first use of the law,

00:09:24.440 | which functions as a mirror,

00:09:26.920 | it functions as a mirror of God

00:09:29.240 | and ultimately mirror of who we are,

00:09:32.200 | that the other two use of the law,

00:09:34.240 | whether it is a moral law or civil law,

00:09:36.200 | it will become absolutely useless.

00:09:39.560 | Because the foundation upon which we build righteousness

00:09:43.040 | is first and foremost,

00:09:44.680 | is based upon the first use of the law.

00:09:47.240 | And that first use of the law is to reveal God's nature,

00:09:51.240 | and by doing so, to reveal our sins.

00:09:54.520 | Saint Augustine wrote,

00:09:58.320 | "The law's orders that we,

00:10:00.120 | "after attempting to do what is ordered,

00:10:01.760 | "and so feeling our weakness under the law,

00:10:04.200 | "may learn to implore the help of grace.

00:10:07.420 | "The law highlights our weaknesses

00:10:09.000 | "so that we might seek the strength found in Christ.

00:10:11.440 | "Here the law acts as a severe schoolmaster

00:10:14.280 | "who drives us to Christ."

00:10:17.240 | You guys probably heard this phrase quite a bit

00:10:19.760 | from Thomas Watson, where he says,

00:10:22.020 | "Until sin is bitter, Christ will not be sweet."

00:10:26.520 | Until sin is be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.

00:10:30.960 | No matter how much we highlight the love of Christ,

00:10:35.220 | no matter how much we say how awesome his love is

00:10:37.840 | and how gracious he is,

00:10:40.120 | until we come to a point where we recognize

00:10:42.760 | the bitterness of our sin,

00:10:45.240 | grace is just words.

00:10:48.160 | It's just a description of some theology.

00:10:51.280 | It doesn't move us, it doesn't convict us,

00:10:53.240 | and even though we use the same words,

00:10:55.220 | justification, sanctification, glorification,

00:10:58.040 | these are just theological terms.

00:11:00.080 | We don't respond in a way that somebody

00:11:04.560 | who has absolutely had no hope

00:11:07.440 | and can only find salvation in Christ,

00:11:09.680 | in Christ alone.

00:11:10.620 | In Romans chapter seven, seven through eight,

00:11:13.520 | it says, "What then shall we say,

00:11:14.880 | "that the law is sin?

00:11:17.040 | "By no means, yet if it had not been for the law,

00:11:20.320 | "I would not have known sin,

00:11:21.780 | "for I would not have known what it is to covet

00:11:24.220 | "if the law had not said, you shall not covet."

00:11:27.880 | Let me stop right there.

00:11:29.100 | He said, "If the law did not say you shall not covet,

00:11:32.120 | "I would not have known what coveting was."

00:11:36.440 | Are Christians the only people who know what coveting is?

00:11:39.920 | If you don't read the Old Testament,

00:11:42.880 | you say, "I didn't know that was lying."

00:11:44.880 | Adultery, I never read the Old Testament,

00:11:48.240 | so I didn't know, you know what I mean?

00:11:50.760 | Christian or not, whether you read the Old Testament

00:11:53.240 | or not, everybody knows what coveting is.

00:11:55.800 | Everybody knows what adultery is.

00:11:58.000 | Everybody knows what murdering and lying is.

00:11:59.960 | So what does he mean when he says,

00:12:01.480 | "If it wasn't the law, I would not have known

00:12:03.960 | "what coveting was?"

00:12:06.200 | He's not simply talking about intellectually,

00:12:08.080 | because everybody knows intellectually

00:12:10.120 | that coveting, what coveting is.

00:12:12.560 | Everybody knows it.

00:12:13.480 | That's not just a Christian word.

00:12:15.300 | That's just an English word.

00:12:16.720 | It has it in every language.

00:12:19.080 | What he is talking about is that conviction

00:12:22.800 | of that particular sin,

00:12:25.800 | and how God views that sin through His holy eyes.

00:12:29.800 | He said, "I would not have been convicted about this

00:12:31.880 | "if it wasn't for the law."

00:12:34.520 | That's exactly what, again, the author of Hebrews says,

00:12:36.840 | in Hebrews chapter 4, 12,

00:12:37.800 | "For the word of God is living, and it is active,

00:12:40.960 | "it is sharper than any two-edged sword,

00:12:42.760 | "piercing to the division of soul and spirit,

00:12:44.920 | "of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts

00:12:47.260 | "and intentions of the heart."

00:12:49.720 | In NASV, the word for discerning is judging.

00:12:53.320 | That the word of God is sharper than any double-edged sword,

00:12:56.960 | and it judges the thoughts and intentions of our hearts.

00:13:01.040 | It doesn't simply say, "Hey, this is what sin looks like.

00:13:04.720 | "This is what coveting is.

00:13:06.520 | "This is what murdering is."

00:13:07.960 | Because we all already know that.

00:13:10.200 | What Paul is saying in Romans chapter 7 is,

00:13:12.920 | he says the word of God comes and convicts,

00:13:16.400 | and he reveals to us the depth of that sin,

00:13:19.840 | and how hideous that is before his eyes.

00:13:22.900 | Same thing in the book of James, chapter 1, 23, 25,

00:13:26.360 | "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer,

00:13:28.720 | "he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face

00:13:31.640 | "in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away,

00:13:34.500 | "and at once forgets what he was like."

00:13:37.960 | The word of God functions as a mirror.

00:13:39.680 | It reveals his holiness, and it reveals our sinfulness.

00:13:43.760 | Every single one of you, before you came to church

00:13:47.280 | this morning, stood before a mirror.

00:13:49.160 | I'm assuming every one of you.

00:13:52.280 | Some of you may have not, and if you haven't,

00:13:55.480 | it's very evident.

00:13:57.920 | Your hair's not combed, you got eye boogers hanging,

00:14:00.960 | you have no idea what you missed.

00:14:04.720 | So everyone, we wanna avoid that embarrassment.

00:14:07.240 | I mean, all of you guys have lived long enough to know

00:14:09.920 | that the good idea, right, is that you gotta stand

00:14:13.140 | before a mirror before you leave,

00:14:14.280 | and fix the problems before you come to church.

00:14:16.320 | And years ago, when I was a youth pastor,

00:14:19.080 | I remember having youth kids come to church,

00:14:23.240 | and you could tell right away those who just woke up.

00:14:27.440 | And they didn't stand before a mirror

00:14:28.720 | because their hair is all sticking up on one side, right?

00:14:32.080 | And you could tell right away that that's the position

00:14:34.120 | they were in when they were sleeping,

00:14:35.800 | because their hair is all flat that way, right?

00:14:38.520 | And they just, basically, they realized

00:14:40.240 | they were late to church, they got up,

00:14:41.400 | and they just came, right?

00:14:43.160 | They didn't get a chance to look into the mirror.

00:14:47.040 | The Bible describes the law of God as a mirror.

00:14:50.920 | And an individual who stands before the mirror

00:14:53.480 | and doesn't recognize their sin,

00:14:56.400 | and just walks away, is like that individual.

00:15:00.240 | Who just kinda stand before the mirror,

00:15:01.480 | it's like, oh, okay, there you go,

00:15:02.680 | and then you just walk away.

00:15:04.880 | So when Paul says, without the law of God,

00:15:07.360 | we would not have known what sin was,

00:15:09.720 | he's not simply talking about the knowledge.

00:15:13.280 | He's talking about the moral conviction

00:15:15.660 | over our sinful state.

00:15:17.920 | That the word of God comes to convict us of our sins.

00:15:22.560 | And so in 2 Timothy 3, 7, it says,

00:15:25.040 | in the end times, there's gonna be people

00:15:26.800 | who have a form of godliness and yet have no power.

00:15:30.560 | It also describes it as always learning,

00:15:33.340 | but never arriving at the knowledge of the truth.

00:15:37.300 | Always learning, right?

00:15:39.600 | Now we could sit here and think,

00:15:40.640 | you know, I go to a Bible church,

00:15:41.900 | I attend Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

00:15:43.500 | Bible study faithfully.

00:15:45.120 | I know what propitiation is,

00:15:46.960 | I know justification, sanctification, glorification.

00:15:51.080 | I know about dispensationalism versus covenant theology,

00:15:54.200 | about pedo-baptism, believers baptism.

00:15:56.640 | I know all of this.

00:15:57.660 | I've been a Christian for a while,

00:15:59.040 | maybe I even went to school,

00:16:00.160 | took some Sunday school classes.

00:16:02.120 | What do you mean always learning,

00:16:04.080 | but not able to come to the truth?

00:16:06.880 | He's not simply talking about somebody who's at church

00:16:09.040 | and always, you know, like never attending Bible study

00:16:11.880 | and never reading and never having interest.

00:16:15.360 | No, he says he's always learning.

00:16:17.000 | He's always learning.

00:16:19.360 | He's adding knowledge to knowledge.

00:16:21.720 | Information upon information,

00:16:23.600 | but yet never coming to the knowledge of truth.

00:16:25.880 | So what does he mean by knowledge of truth?

00:16:27.640 | 'Cause he's clearly not talking about information.

00:16:30.140 | Knowledge of truth, again, is consistent

00:16:34.120 | with what he's been saying in Hebrews 4,

00:16:36.320 | James chapter one, Romans seven.

00:16:39.080 | Knowledge of truth is the conviction of sin

00:16:42.480 | to recognize who he is, not just intellectually,

00:16:47.880 | but morally, spiritually.

00:16:50.160 | And as a result of that, you are convicted over your own sin.

00:16:54.500 | You know, for Christians, for human beings in general,

00:17:02.260 | I think the hardest thing to do in life

00:17:06.320 | is to humble ourselves.

00:17:07.760 | I know some of you guys are humble by nature,

00:17:12.040 | you know, or at least that's what you think,

00:17:13.320 | or people have told you that.

00:17:15.700 | There's not a single human being who's humble by nature.

00:17:18.560 | By nature.

00:17:20.420 | Now, some of you guys, you know,

00:17:22.420 | are, tend to be more flamboyant,

00:17:24.240 | and you're more expressive, you know,

00:17:25.800 | you talk more, and so, ah, that guy's not humble.

00:17:28.860 | And then some of you guys are in the background,

00:17:30.620 | you know, like, quiet, and you don't talk a lot,

00:17:33.100 | so, oh, that person's very humble.

00:17:34.740 | Nobody is humble by nature.

00:17:37.020 | From the moment that we are born,

00:17:41.620 | we are motivated by self-glorification.

00:17:46.000 | That's why you stood before a mirror today.

00:17:48.340 | Because you want to make sure that

00:17:51.160 | people perceive you a certain way.

00:17:52.880 | Even when you talk, it comes through a filter

00:17:57.200 | of self-glorification, because if I say this,

00:17:59.840 | what are they going to think of me?

00:18:00.980 | So you've learned to adjust your language

00:18:04.280 | because you don't want to be perceived a certain way.

00:18:07.160 | You're working hard at your work

00:18:08.840 | because you want to get better pay,

00:18:10.000 | you want to be recognized, you want to move ahead in life.

00:18:12.920 | You do certain things, or say things, or don't say things,

00:18:16.120 | and a lot of that, if not all of it,

00:18:19.040 | is motivated by self-glorification.

00:18:22.300 | Humbling ourselves is the hardest thing to do.

00:18:26.840 | You know, lying and stealing, stopping that

00:18:31.920 | is a lot easier than humbling ourselves.

00:18:34.680 | Okay, let me tell you a secret.

00:18:36.240 | If you're lying and stealing,

00:18:39.040 | here's what you need to do.

00:18:41.400 | Stop it.

00:18:43.240 | Stop it.

00:18:44.360 | That's a counsel.

00:18:45.960 | We don't need to make an appointment,

00:18:47.000 | I just dealt with that, right?

00:18:48.480 | Stop it.

00:18:50.880 | Some of you have a hard time reading the Bible and praying.

00:18:55.320 | There's an easy solution to that.

00:18:57.520 | Read your Bible and pray.

00:19:00.720 | There's no like this, oh, what's the secret?

00:19:04.760 | What, did you read Facebook today?

00:19:07.200 | Yes, well do that in front of the Bible, right?

00:19:12.520 | Do that in front of the Bible.

00:19:14.320 | It's not a secret, it's not that hard to do, just do it.

00:19:16.760 | It's just our problem is we don't have a priority straight,

00:19:19.160 | and we get distracted, and it's just not important enough,

00:19:21.160 | and all this stuff, but in the end,

00:19:22.880 | if you really wanted to do it, you just do it, right?

00:19:25.960 | It's humbling ourselves, like reading the Bible,

00:19:30.400 | praying, and disciplining, all this stuff

00:19:32.880 | is just a matter of you choosing to do it,

00:19:34.920 | and prioritizing it, and doing it.

00:19:37.760 | But to humble ourselves before God's throne,

00:19:42.020 | it takes everything, because every inclination

00:19:44.660 | of who we are is to glorify ourselves.

00:19:48.560 | Remember Adam and Eve's primary sin

00:19:51.980 | was they wanted to be like God.

00:19:54.300 | The Tower of Babel, they wanted to be like God.

00:19:58.660 | And human history, it's like we want a king

00:20:00.460 | like all the other nations.

00:20:02.620 | We want this because we want to be more glorified.

00:20:05.300 | What about us, is the kingdom now?

00:20:07.060 | Are you gonna restore the kingdom now?

00:20:08.380 | Everything is about self-glorification.

00:20:10.620 | Even in our humility, we want to be recognized.

00:20:13.960 | Nobody knows that I'm humble, right?

00:20:18.220 | I've been sacrificing so much, so selfless,

00:20:21.460 | and nobody recognizes it.

00:20:23.740 | Even in our selflessness, we want to be recognized.

00:20:27.360 | Even in our humility and gentleness,

00:20:29.200 | we want to be recognized.

00:20:31.540 | Every inclination that we have,

00:20:33.780 | innately, is self-glorification,

00:20:36.700 | whether you do it speaking loudly or softly,

00:20:38.940 | whether you do it publicly or privately,

00:20:41.420 | our inclination is about us.

00:20:43.980 | We pursue righteousness for our own glory.

00:20:48.240 | And so to humble ourselves,

00:20:50.820 | and that's why we talked about 1 Corinthians 13,

00:20:53.460 | one through three, we talked about how even,

00:20:57.140 | even if you speak of tongues of men and of angels

00:20:59.380 | and prophesy, even if you give everything

00:21:01.180 | you have to the poor, even when you are martyred

00:21:04.460 | for the name of Jesus Christ,

00:21:08.220 | we can do that all for our glory.

00:21:10.540 | It's like, oh, I'm gonna go out in a blaze

00:21:12.380 | for name of Jesus, I'm gonna be martyred for Jesus.

00:21:15.700 | But even in the context of being martyred,

00:21:18.060 | it could be for our glorification.

00:21:20.680 | See, what Paul is doing, he's cut through all of that.

00:21:27.580 | And the key to understanding our salvation

00:21:34.220 | is what he says in verse 19, and he says,

00:21:37.340 | "We know that whatever the law says,

00:21:38.980 | "it speaks to those who are under the law,

00:21:40.980 | "so that every mouth may be stopped,

00:21:44.540 | "and the whole world may be held accountable to God."

00:21:47.860 | Let me stop right there.

00:21:49.020 | The whole point of what Paul has been doing,

00:21:53.820 | what God has been doing in human history,

00:21:56.060 | is summarized in verse 19, and I wanna apologize

00:22:00.140 | for what I'm about to say, so you don't get offended

00:22:02.540 | it's coming off of this pulpit.

00:22:03.620 | Basically what he's saying is, shut up.

00:22:07.380 | (crickets chirping)

00:22:09.580 | That's what he's saying, in a nice way,

00:22:12.940 | right, at least in the English version, right?

00:22:15.300 | Basically what he's saying is,

00:22:17.900 | after exposing all of our sins,

00:22:20.620 | after cutting through all of the justification,

00:22:23.580 | all of the anger, all of the excuses,

00:22:27.660 | and after cutting through all of that,

00:22:29.140 | he said the reason why he did that

00:22:30.300 | is to basically say, shut up!

00:22:33.860 | Listen, stop making excuses!

00:22:37.580 | See sin as God, see sin, do you recognize

00:22:40.700 | where you are before God?

00:22:42.660 | Keep your mouth shut, be quiet, I'm about to speak.

00:22:47.660 | The greatest hindrance to our relationship with God

00:22:54.220 | is our self-justification.

00:22:56.460 | Yes, we recognize sin, but we always have a stipulation.

00:23:01.180 | Yes, I sin, but what about those people?

00:23:04.580 | Yes, I know I do what I, but isn't that just the way it is?

00:23:08.180 | Where do you draw the line?

00:23:10.140 | You don't know my circumstance,

00:23:11.340 | you don't know what my parents did to me,

00:23:12.860 | you don't know the background,

00:23:14.060 | you don't know the circumstance,

00:23:15.340 | you don't know my children.

00:23:16.700 | The greatest hindrance in meeting Christ

00:23:20.380 | is self-justification.

00:23:23.020 | You ever wonder the book of Job?

00:23:27.380 | Typically when people are suffering,

00:23:30.140 | we take them to the book of Job.

00:23:31.740 | And we think, well, book of Job is about suffering

00:23:35.660 | and how God relieves suffering,

00:23:37.380 | how God has the answer for suffering.

00:23:39.260 | Is that really the point of the book of Job?

00:23:42.700 | I want you to read book of Job,

00:23:46.060 | and on your spare time between break,

00:23:47.740 | just read through the book of Job,

00:23:49.900 | and see if, forget all the sermons that you heard,

00:23:53.660 | forget all the Bible studies, just read the book of Job.

00:23:56.380 | If you come out thinking, wow, in suffering,

00:24:00.180 | God is with us.

00:24:02.740 | Because it begins with God opening the door to suffering.

00:24:08.700 | Satan says, that guy is not,

00:24:11.660 | he's only righteous because you're protecting him,

00:24:13.060 | if you took away the hedge of protection,

00:24:15.260 | see what he does.

00:24:16.140 | So he says, okay, and he takes it away,

00:24:17.660 | and God allows Satan to do all that he's doing.

00:24:21.140 | But if you read the book of Job,

00:24:23.220 | Satan never appears again.

00:24:26.060 | He appears in the beginning, and he begins the process,

00:24:28.580 | and basically the whole book of Job

00:24:30.900 | is three cycles of three friends.

00:24:33.740 | Nine separate times, three of his closest companions

00:24:37.340 | come to Job and saying, you are suffering

00:24:39.780 | because you must have done something wrong.

00:24:42.660 | And each one of them, I mean,

00:24:44.140 | and the harder his life gets,

00:24:46.340 | the more harsher the criticism.

00:24:48.660 | And it's three cycles of this.

00:24:50.740 | First, second, third friend, and then you think it's over,

00:24:52.980 | and then another, the first guy comes back,

00:24:54.700 | and first, second, third friend, and you think it's over.

00:24:57.020 | And all this time, it's getting worse.

00:24:59.300 | He loses his kids, his house, his wealth, his flock,

00:25:02.380 | his wife, he loses everything.

00:25:04.760 | And at the end of it, you think,

00:25:07.180 | oh, his young friend Elihu comes,

00:25:08.980 | and he's gonna make things right,

00:25:10.300 | and he comes spewing, and say,

00:25:11.540 | oh, you guys are all wrong, and you gotta listen.

00:25:13.980 | Basically, the accusation is,

00:25:17.100 | all this is happening because you must have sinned.

00:25:21.660 | You must have been faking it with all of us.

00:25:24.020 | There must be something in your life

00:25:25.420 | that God is judging you for.

00:25:26.820 | So Job responds.

00:25:29.980 | In Job chapter 31, verse six and seven, he says,

00:25:33.780 | let me weigh in in a just balance,

00:25:36.200 | and let God know my integrity.

00:25:37.860 | In other words, you're wrong.

00:25:39.580 | And he's gonna defend himself.

00:25:41.940 | If my step has turned aside from the way,

00:25:44.940 | and my heart has gone after my eyes,

00:25:47.700 | and if any spot has stuck to my hands,

00:25:50.460 | then let me sow, and another eat,

00:25:52.580 | and let what grows for me be rooted out.

00:25:54.740 | In other words, if I really did this,

00:25:57.660 | then I deserve this.

00:25:59.180 | If what you're saying is true,

00:26:01.260 | there's some sin involved,

00:26:02.980 | and it was because of my sin I'm being judged,

00:26:06.000 | then let me be judged.

00:26:07.060 | So in other words, what he's saying is,

00:26:08.740 | but that is not right.

00:26:10.300 | Because this is not true.

00:26:12.620 | I am just before God.

00:26:15.500 | And he's defending himself.

00:26:18.060 | And he goes on and on.

00:26:19.340 | Again, I only read you a small portion,

00:26:21.340 | but for chapters, he's going on and on,

00:26:24.100 | defending himself, and how righteous he is,

00:26:25.980 | and it is unfair for God to be judging him

00:26:28.420 | as he is being judged.

00:26:29.500 | Again, Satan is never mentioned,

00:26:30.780 | because from the beginning, they recognize

00:26:33.020 | that only reason why all this is happening

00:26:34.380 | is because God is allowing it.

00:26:35.940 | After he is done,

00:26:38.580 | God finally shows up in Job chapter 38, two through three.

00:26:43.180 | It says, "Who is this that darkens counsel

00:26:46.380 | "by words without knowledge?"

00:26:47.940 | In other words, everything that Job's been saying,

00:26:50.640 | you have no idea what you're talking about.

00:26:52.780 | "Dress for action like a man."

00:26:54.500 | I don't know why, every time I read that, it gets to me.

00:26:57.540 | Dress for action, be a man,

00:26:58.980 | that's basically what he's saying.

00:27:01.140 | "Pull up your skirts, get ready."

00:27:03.100 | Get ready, that's not what it says,

00:27:04.340 | I just read into that.

00:27:05.620 | "Dress like an act, and act like a man."

00:27:07.940 | I will question you, and you will make it known to me.

00:27:12.420 | You're questioning me, now I'm gonna question you.

00:27:16.420 | Now you answer me.

00:27:19.700 | It says, "The Lord said to Job," in Job 41 through five,

00:27:23.140 | "Shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty God?"

00:27:26.100 | The fault finder basically means,

00:27:29.800 | you've been accusing me now, right?

00:27:32.520 | All your friends have been accusing you,

00:27:34.080 | and then now you're saying that all of them are wrong,

00:27:36.040 | and now you're accusing me.

00:27:38.080 | You, fault finder, now you're gonna contend with God, right?

00:27:41.660 | You're gonna make me justify myself.

00:27:44.000 | He who argues with God, let him answer it.

00:27:46.240 | Now you answer, you've been asking me,

00:27:47.560 | now I'm gonna ask you.

00:27:48.880 | Then Job answered the Lord and said,

00:27:50.120 | "Behold, I am a small account, what shall I answer you?

00:27:54.720 | "I lay my hand on my mouth," in other words, I'm silent,

00:27:57.960 | now that God shows up, I have nothing to say.

00:28:00.080 | How can I possibly contend with God?

00:28:02.660 | "I have spoken once, and I will not answer twice,

00:28:05.140 | "but I will proceed no further."

00:28:06.620 | In other words, okay, I'm gonna shut my mouth, right?

00:28:10.760 | Clearly, you're angry.

00:28:12.920 | Clearly, I did something wrong.

00:28:14.080 | I'm gonna shut my mouth, I'm gonna let you speak.

00:28:17.840 | Then Job answered the Lord and said,

00:28:19.380 | "I know what you can do, all things."

00:28:21.480 | So I want you to pay attention to this,

00:28:22.960 | because after what he says, God shows up

00:28:25.960 | and he basically reveals himself.

00:28:29.120 | He says, "This is who I am, who are you?"

00:28:32.760 | And there's two, three chapters of this.

00:28:35.200 | This is who I am, who are you?

00:28:38.000 | Who are you to question God?

00:28:40.520 | Do you know who I am?

00:28:42.840 | Do you understand how this universe works?

00:28:45.600 | Do you understand the ways of the animals

00:28:47.520 | and the universe and the creation?

00:28:48.880 | And he just piles it on and on and on and on.

00:28:51.840 | And Job, in the presence of the glory of God,

00:28:55.040 | responds to him in this way,

00:28:56.280 | and I believe that this is the key to the book of Job.

00:28:58.980 | Job answered the Lord and said,

00:29:00.840 | "I know that you can do all things,

00:29:02.640 | "and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

00:29:05.880 | "Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?

00:29:09.020 | "Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand.

00:29:12.440 | "Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

00:29:14.920 | "Hear, and I will speak.

00:29:17.160 | "I will question you, and you make it known to me."

00:29:20.160 | Instead of questioning you,

00:29:23.320 | I'm going to ask you questions.

00:29:25.440 | That's what he's saying.

00:29:27.000 | And there's a huge difference between the two.

00:29:29.920 | One is a posture of humility.

00:29:32.040 | I don't know, will you teach me?

00:29:34.000 | Where questioning is, I believe you're wrong,

00:29:37.600 | so now I'm questioning you, and that's what he's saying.

00:29:39.680 | I've been questioning you, but now I have some questions,

00:29:42.600 | and now I will listen to you.

00:29:45.000 | He's humbled.

00:29:46.520 | "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

00:29:48.800 | "but now my eyes see you.

00:29:51.180 | "Therefore, I despise myself,

00:29:53.640 | "and repent in dust and ashes."

00:29:57.260 | This is a man who experienced suffering like no other.

00:30:02.880 | In our eyes, we look at it unjustly.

00:30:06.720 | He was targeted because he was righteous,

00:30:09.100 | more righteous than other people in God's eyes.

00:30:11.780 | But at the end of his life,

00:30:15.000 | now after this, at the end, he said,

00:30:16.600 | "Oh, all these fortunes were restored and all this that."

00:30:18.680 | And we may look at that and say,

00:30:19.920 | "Well, God caused him to suffer

00:30:21.060 | "so that he can give 10 children instead of five.

00:30:24.100 | "Instead of 50 cattle, he got 100 cattle."

00:30:25.960 | Oh, that's what the suffering was about.

00:30:28.000 | You know, that's what the health and wealth gospel

00:30:29.400 | people will tell you,

00:30:30.520 | but would you consider that a blessing?

00:30:33.920 | Right, I lost my wife, but I got two!

00:30:36.560 | (laughing)

00:30:38.800 | Is that the point of the Book of Job?

00:30:44.880 | The final point of the Book of Job.

00:30:46.360 | This is the last thing that he says.

00:30:48.640 | "Therefore, I despise myself and repent."

00:30:52.400 | What is he repenting of?

00:30:54.200 | What is he repenting of?

00:30:56.840 | Because the last thing he said prior to this was,

00:30:59.200 | "God is unjust because I am righteous.

00:31:02.640 | "If I had done anything wrong,

00:31:05.260 | "yes, I would have deserved all of this.

00:31:08.200 | "But he is unjust, and everything you're saying is wrong."

00:31:12.040 | But when God shows up, he realized,

00:31:13.640 | "I had no idea who you were.

00:31:16.500 | "I've only heard of you, now I have seen you.

00:31:19.840 | "I despise myself."

00:31:21.680 | And he repents.

00:31:24.040 | He repents.

00:31:25.320 | At the end of his suffering,

00:31:28.320 | the hideous thing that he went through,

00:31:31.680 | and there's no apology from God, there's no explanation.

00:31:36.240 | Job's the one who repents.

00:31:40.520 | You have to ask, when we study the Old Testament,

00:31:42.720 | you have to ask this big question.

00:31:44.440 | You have to ask this every time you read the Old Testament.

00:31:47.280 | How does this fit into the redemptive history?

00:31:49.600 | It's not like, the Bible is not like

00:31:52.520 | the chicken soup for the soul.

00:31:54.680 | You know what I mean?

00:31:55.520 | Where every chapter has its purpose.

00:31:56.680 | You can go to chapter 20 or chapter three or whatever.

00:31:59.060 | They all each individually have a purpose.

00:32:01.520 | But all 66 books have a theme.

00:32:05.000 | It is redemptive history.

00:32:06.120 | God, in his sovereignty, is pursuing sinners.

00:32:11.120 | So what purpose does Job have in this redemptive history?

00:32:16.360 | Is it just, if you suffer, God will be with you?

00:32:18.840 | Is that the point of the book of Job?

00:32:20.240 | How does that fit into redemptive history?

00:32:22.280 | If you read the book of Job carefully,

00:32:26.840 | I think you will agree with me that in the end,

00:32:30.320 | and if you see the way that it concludes

00:32:32.440 | and what God says and what Job says,

00:32:34.960 | God doesn't show up and say, "Oh, you suffered.

00:32:37.100 | "I'm with you."

00:32:37.940 | No, he doesn't say that.

00:32:39.880 | See, you have no idea what you're talking about.

00:32:42.320 | You don't realize who you are

00:32:45.320 | because you don't realize who I am.

00:32:47.360 | And then he repents.

00:32:50.380 | Even a man who is righteous above other men

00:32:55.520 | in the eyes of God is deserving

00:32:59.680 | of the most hideous punishment.

00:33:03.360 | Everything that Job went through,

00:33:05.600 | as hideous and as difficult as that may be,

00:33:08.260 | without the blood of Christ,

00:33:09.800 | he will deserve that a hundredfold.

00:33:12.680 | And that is only a taste of what all people

00:33:16.000 | will experience in eternity in hell and damnation.

00:33:19.120 | And what he experiences is only a taste

00:33:22.200 | of what a sinner deserves without the grace of God.

00:33:25.440 | And so he repents.

00:33:27.960 | And isn't that the point of everything

00:33:30.040 | that God has been doing in history?

00:33:31.980 | The rich young ruler comes and said,

00:33:33.600 | "How can I earn eternal life?"

00:33:35.880 | Jesus said, "You must obey all the commandments perfectly."

00:33:38.360 | And in his arrogance, he says, "I did it."

00:33:41.520 | No man obeyed the commandments perfectly.

00:33:45.760 | But in his arrogance, he said, "I did it."

00:33:48.660 | Jesus, knowing he's a rich man,

00:33:50.000 | knowing he could not do what he was about to ask him,

00:33:52.300 | he said, knowing he was rich,

00:33:53.680 | "Then sell all your possession and give it to the poor."

00:33:56.680 | He didn't say give a tenth.

00:33:57.960 | He didn't say be generous.

00:33:59.320 | He said, "No, if you want to be completely righteous,

00:34:02.000 | let go of everything," knowing he couldn't do it.

00:34:05.260 | And so what was his response?

00:34:08.560 | Silence.

00:34:10.900 | Silence.

00:34:13.160 | For the first time in his life,

00:34:16.940 | he ran into something he could not boast about.

00:34:21.180 | He could not do.

00:34:22.140 | And that's why the disciples look at that and say,

00:34:24.960 | "Well, if a righteous man like that,

00:34:27.340 | if he can't get into the kingdom,

00:34:29.280 | what about tax collectors like us?

00:34:31.680 | What about fishermen who have foul mouths?

00:34:34.880 | What about us?"

00:34:36.260 | He said, "What man cannot do, God will do."

00:34:39.700 | What was his point?

00:34:42.160 | Is to bring him to silence.

00:34:45.760 | To stop making excuses.

00:34:47.440 | Recognize who you are.

00:34:49.280 | Recognize the sin.

00:34:51.320 | Recognize the sin in our lives

00:34:54.880 | that we may come towards the beginning point of salvation.

00:34:59.520 | A beginning point of sanctification

00:35:02.400 | is being broken over our own sins.

00:35:05.920 | And coming to God in desperation,

00:35:08.280 | I can't make it without you.

00:35:10.280 | Remember John chapter eight, five through nine?

00:35:13.760 | Here's these people who are so angry

00:35:15.560 | because Jesus is exposing their sins.

00:35:18.120 | He said, "You Pharisees, even in your prayer,

00:35:20.840 | you're a hypocrite because you're doing it

00:35:22.620 | for other people to see.

00:35:23.880 | Even when you evangelize,

00:35:25.920 | you make the converts twice as much

00:35:27.880 | sons of the devil as you are."

00:35:30.040 | And he's exposing their sins, so they're angry.

00:35:32.960 | They gotta get rid of this guy

00:35:34.040 | because he keeps pointing sin out.

00:35:37.640 | They come to Jesus and they wanna trap him.

00:35:39.240 | He says, "Law of Moses says to sown

00:35:41.960 | a woman who's caught in adultery."

00:35:44.040 | And obviously the reason why they did that

00:35:46.200 | is because it was a trap.

00:35:47.840 | If he says to sow her,

00:35:49.680 | then he's gonna be guilty in the Roman government

00:35:51.680 | and he's gonna be guilty of murder.

00:35:54.200 | If he says, "Don't stone her,"

00:35:55.760 | then all of the Jews are gonna recognize

00:35:57.320 | this guy's a lawbreaker.

00:35:58.560 | So they thought, "This is it.

00:36:01.400 | We have the perfect thing to put him in jail

00:36:04.400 | and get rid of him."

00:36:05.840 | You know what he says?

00:36:08.640 | He turns around and he says,

00:36:10.020 | "Let him who is without sin among you

00:36:11.760 | be the first to throw a stone."

00:36:13.840 | And at once, they became silent,

00:36:19.960 | they turned away, and they walked away.

00:36:22.200 | When Jesus turned that spotlight,

00:36:26.520 | turned it around, and he says,

00:36:28.720 | "Yes, she may be deserving of it,

00:36:31.200 | but what about you?"

00:36:33.240 | When he exposed their sin, they became silent.

00:36:37.560 | Until we recognize who we are before God.

00:36:42.000 | The gospel is just knowledge.

00:36:44.680 | It's just information.

00:36:45.700 | It's just theory, theology that we throw around.

00:36:48.800 | We repeat, recite to one another.

00:36:51.040 | But until we are broken over our own sins,

00:36:55.760 | our sins, my sins,

00:36:58.800 | the things that we've been working so hard to cover up,

00:37:02.080 | that we've been excusing and saying,

00:37:03.220 | "Well, I'm doing all of this.

00:37:04.680 | Of course, I'm not doing good here,

00:37:05.920 | but what about all of this?"

00:37:07.720 | And we've been silently, quietly, subtly

00:37:10.800 | justifying our sins before God.

00:37:12.840 | And there's nothing that hinders our walk with God

00:37:15.400 | more than self-justification.

00:37:18.920 | The only way that we can come before God

00:37:21.480 | is to recognize our sins

00:37:23.360 | and come before him as a broken sinner.

00:37:25.480 | I need you.

00:37:27.520 | It's me.

00:37:28.340 | Ephesians 2, eight and nine, it says,

00:37:30.920 | "For by grace you have been saved through faith,

00:37:32.920 | and this is not of your own doing.

00:37:34.840 | It is the gift of God, not as a result of works,

00:37:37.600 | so that no one may boast."

00:37:41.120 | Boasting and Christianity are oxymorons.

00:37:47.640 | Pride in our walk with God is an oxymoron.

00:37:52.520 | You and I, every single person here,

00:37:55.160 | are saved because the son of God

00:37:58.040 | chose to walk off his throne and die for us,

00:38:01.640 | because there was no other way.

00:38:04.160 | And to be saved and to boast about our righteousness,

00:38:09.640 | boast about who we are, it is an oxymoron.

00:38:12.720 | First Corinthians 1, 28, it says,

00:38:14.080 | "God chose what is low and what is despised in the world,

00:38:18.320 | even things that are not,

00:38:19.480 | to bring to nothing things that are,

00:38:22.200 | so that no human being might boast in the presence of God."

00:38:25.200 | He deliberately chose the foolish,

00:38:30.880 | the greatest of sinners, as Paul says.

00:38:33.440 | He deliberately did that,

00:38:35.040 | because he knows that our natural inclination

00:38:37.800 | is to glorify ourselves.

00:38:40.440 | Even in the context of building church,

00:38:42.720 | even in the context of missions,

00:38:45.080 | we have a tendency to say, "Look what I am doing.

00:38:49.080 | Look what I have done."

00:38:50.600 | We have a tendency to glorify ourselves,

00:38:53.360 | even in the context of glorifying God.

00:38:55.440 | That's why Paul says,

00:38:56.680 | "God deliberately put a thorn on his side

00:38:58.520 | to keep him humble, for when I am weak, he is strong."

00:39:02.000 | It is when I am weak that he is strong.

00:39:07.280 | That is the beginning of our salvation.

00:39:10.800 | It is the beginning of our sanctification.

00:39:13.000 | You see, when David confessed his sin,

00:39:16.920 | I don't know if he was justifying,

00:39:20.200 | but he suppressed it,

00:39:21.040 | because who could challenge David for what he did?

00:39:23.840 | Finally, it's kind of like what I mentioned in the beginning,

00:39:26.840 | he shows a videotape, and Nathan illustrates,

00:39:31.040 | "Now here's this guy who took his sheep,

00:39:32.680 | and he said, 'How dare he?'"

00:39:33.840 | And then he says, "No, you're that man."

00:39:35.560 | And he's convicted.

00:39:36.680 | But if you look at his confession,

00:39:38.520 | his confession goes far beyond just the act of what he did.

00:39:42.240 | In Psalm 51, three to five, it says,

00:39:45.080 | "For I know my transgressions,

00:39:46.440 | and my sin is ever before me.

00:39:49.840 | Against you and you only have I sinned,

00:39:52.760 | and I've done what is evil in your sight,

00:39:54.480 | so that you may be justified in your words,

00:39:57.360 | and blameless in your judgment."

00:39:58.720 | So in other words, you are the only one who is just.

00:40:02.040 | And then he says, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

00:40:04.320 | and in sin did my mother conceive me."

00:40:08.280 | Why bring your mother into it?

00:40:09.800 | I mean, leave your mom out of it.

00:40:12.960 | You did it, right?

00:40:13.840 | Why, why, why?

00:40:15.280 | My mother's womb, like it was partially my mom's fault too.

00:40:18.360 | You know?

00:40:19.720 | Why does he bring his mother into it?

00:40:21.560 | Because David recognizes that his sin

00:40:25.240 | is more than just that act.

00:40:27.320 | He doesn't sin, he's not a sinner because he sinned.

00:40:31.800 | He sins because he's a sinner.

00:40:33.640 | He recognized the corruption

00:40:36.680 | that is at the core of his heart,

00:40:38.800 | that causes him, and that causes him to desire

00:40:41.360 | to do these things, that he is corrupt to the core.

00:40:44.400 | So his repentance wasn't, "I shouldn't have done that."

00:40:48.040 | That's true.

00:40:49.720 | He needed to repent of that.

00:40:52.080 | But his repentance goes far deeper than that.

00:40:55.000 | This is who I am.

00:40:56.600 | That's the beginning of salvation.

00:41:00.800 | That's the beginning of maturity.

00:41:04.960 | Even in our righteousness, even in our hard work,

00:41:07.920 | and in our discipline, if it doesn't begin

00:41:09.760 | with our brokenness over our own sins,

00:41:13.440 | it tends to be for our own glorification.

00:41:15.840 | That's why Paul's been laying this foundation

00:41:19.040 | for three chapters over and over again.

00:41:20.920 | No, you are guilty, you are guilty with the law.

00:41:23.120 | You are guilty without the law.

00:41:24.520 | You are guilty by creation.

00:41:26.120 | You are guilty by morality.

00:41:27.560 | You are guilty by the law.

00:41:29.200 | You are guilty in your heritage.

00:41:30.920 | You are guilty from birth.

00:41:32.120 | You are guilty, you are guilty, guilty.

00:41:34.400 | So that you may stay quiet.

00:41:36.720 | Because he's about to introduce to us

00:41:40.680 | the answer to all of this sin.

00:41:42.600 | He's about to get to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

00:41:46.400 | But if this is gonna make any sense to you,

00:41:50.520 | you have to first be quiet and listen.

00:41:55.280 | The irony of all of this is that in the previous passage

00:42:02.240 | that we looked at, he mentions,

00:42:04.840 | no, none is righteous, no, not one.

00:42:06.760 | No one understand, no one seeks God.

00:42:08.040 | All have turned this way together.

00:42:09.320 | They have become worthless.

00:42:10.520 | No one does good, not even one.

00:42:13.000 | And then verse 13 and 14, he says,

00:42:14.720 | all of this corruption is expressed by our tongue.

00:42:19.720 | Their throat is an open grave.

00:42:21.200 | They use their tongues to deceive.

00:42:23.360 | The venom of asthma is under their lips.

00:42:25.520 | Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

00:42:30.680 | And so here's these sinners, like justifying,

00:42:32.600 | condemning others, slandering.

00:42:34.200 | The sinners who really should be quiet and just listen.

00:42:38.840 | And yet there's only one person,

00:42:41.820 | one person who's ever walked this earth

00:42:45.240 | who had the right to speak.

00:42:48.000 | There's only one person who could have spoken

00:42:50.520 | and he could have easily justified himself.

00:42:52.360 | One person, you know who I'm talking about.

00:42:55.080 | There's only one man who lived a perfect life.

00:42:57.600 | One man who could stand before the Father

00:42:59.920 | and say, I am innocent.

00:43:02.200 | And yet in Isaiah 53, seven, it says,

00:43:06.280 | he was oppressed and he was afflicted,

00:43:09.280 | yet he opened not his mouth.

00:43:11.300 | Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter

00:43:14.560 | and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

00:43:17.720 | so he opened not his mouth.

00:43:19.880 | Do you not see the irony of sins?

00:43:26.440 | The sinners who's trying so hard to justify, nullify,

00:43:31.440 | to minimize our sins and yet the one who is perfect

00:43:34.760 | and holy chooses to stay silent

00:43:37.320 | so that he may be led to the cross,

00:43:39.300 | so that he may speak on our behalf before the Father.

00:43:43.960 | How can we not worship this God?

00:43:47.560 | How can this not change us?

00:43:51.280 | How can this not break us?

00:43:55.700 | All of this was a foundation

00:43:58.240 | upon which he is going to build

00:44:00.800 | of why we need Jesus.

00:44:03.600 | But first and foremost, to bring us to the point

00:44:06.720 | where every single person in this room,

00:44:08.720 | whether you have been disciplined or undisciplined,

00:44:11.640 | whether you've been distracted or not distracted,

00:44:13.520 | wherever you are, all have sinned

00:44:16.120 | and fall short of the glory of God.

00:44:17.880 | Every single one of us,

00:44:21.160 | that we come before his throne of grace,

00:44:24.140 | seeking mercy because we have a high priest

00:44:27.360 | who sympathizes with our weaknesses.

00:44:29.280 | So we pray that again, as we continue to study,

00:44:32.320 | that our exposure to the word of God

00:44:35.360 | is not just simply adding more knowledge,

00:44:37.740 | that you and I would come to a deep conviction

00:44:41.320 | of who he is and who we are in the light of that.

00:44:46.160 | Let's take a few minutes to pray

00:44:47.520 | as we seek the Lord together.