Okay, if you guys can turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. I'm going to be reading from verse 1 through 8. We're going to be mainly focused on the first few verses, but I want to read the whole section. Chapters 3, chapter 3, 1 through 8.

Okay? Reading out of the ESV, it says, "Then what advantage has a Jew?" "Or what is the value of circumcision, much in every way? To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means.

Let God be true, though everyone were a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us?

I speak in a human way, by no means. For then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God's truth abounds to His glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come, as some people slanderously charge us with saying, 'Their condemnation is just.'" Let's pray.

Father, we pray for your blessing over this morning. We pray, Lord God, that your authority and what you have ordained through the preaching of your Word, that you will bring to fruition this morning. We ask, Lord God, that your Word will go forth and will not return until it has accomplished its purpose.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. What if I told you this morning that everything that you've been doing up to this point is absolutely useless? That you coming to this morning to worship God, in the eyes of God, means absolutely nothing. That all the offering that you've been giving up to this point, in God's eyes, meant absolutely nothing.

Some of you guys have maybe worked hard to sacrifice. Maybe even been out to mission. Maybe even lived out in the mission field for a period. And all the dedications, all the service to the Church, all the years that you've been coming to Church, all the Scriptures that you've memorized, all the times that you labored in prayer, that what if I told you this morning that all of that was for nothing?

That when you stand before God, that you're going to be judged like everybody else. Well, some of you guys may hear that, and obviously I'm speaking hypothetically, but some of you guys may hear that, and maybe if you believed what I was saying, obviously it would disturb you tremendously.

The first thing that may happen is some of you guys may say, "Well, who's this guy?" Maybe he's teaching false doctrine. Where did this guy come from? And maybe you would attack me and nullify me, and if you nullify me, you would nullify what I'm saying. Or maybe some of you guys listen and say, "You know, I go through the Scripture, and I look at passages, and I show you where it says all of these things." And you may sit there thinking, "Hmm, could that possibly be true?" And if it is true, what does that mean for me?

You mean all this time that I've spent, all the years that I've been laboring in the Church, all the money that you've given, all the Sunday football games that you've missed, and you may be thinking about all of these things and saying, "All of that was for nothing?" Well, if you look at Chapter 3, Paul is trying to answer that very question.

Because for two chapters, until he gets to Chapter 3, he was basically telling that to the Jews. And to tell the Jews that all the law-keeping, all the sacrifices that you made, all the things that you did at the Temple, your circumcision, all the Scripture that you memorized, all the time you went to the Temple to pray, that all of that would mean nothing.

That when you die, you're no better off than the Gentiles, that you thought, not only in your life, but your parents' life, but your grandparents' life, for generations to come, you thought that because you were a Jew, that when you died, you were going to have a special place in the Kingdom.

But Jesus says, or Paul is saying in the Book of Romans, is that those who have the law will be condemned by the law. Those who don't have the law will be condemned without the law. But all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's not a single person that dies who's going to stand before God and say, "You know what?

Because I've been circumcised, because I was raised in a Jewish home, and every single year we were really faithful with the Passover meal, and we did all of that for generations to come." Then Paul to come up and all of a sudden saying, "You know, the way of life is Christ, and all of that absolutely means nothing." You can imagine what kind of response you would have gotten.

They wouldn't have just laid over and said, "Oh, okay, that's great. What else you got?" You could imagine the kind of response that they would get. "Who are you?" And so Paul, knowing that this is probably what they're thinking, after he lays the foundation that all have sinned. In fact, the next part that we're going to get to in verse 9, where he clearly spells out, "Whether you are a Jew or Gentile, all have sinned.

There's not one who seeks God, not one righteous, no one understands. Nobody." So he's been laying the foundation of that, so knowing the response that they would get, that they would have. You mean all of this was for nothing? Then what is the advantage of being a Jew? And that's a rightful question because all through the Old Testament, if you were raised a Jew, you were taught that you were God's chosen people.

I could give you a sample verse, but I could repeat this verse from almost every text in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 14.2, "For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." So again, I'm only giving you one verse, but I can find a verse like that, that explains about special position that Israel had, that special heart that Israel, God had for his people.

Out of all the nations, I have chosen you, and I have treasured you as my personal possession. And then for Paul to come out and say, "You know what the Gospel says, that all of that means nothing." You are guilty as a Gentile, and you are guilty as a Jew.

Whether you are circumcised or uncircumcised, that we are all deserving of condemnation. Then again, what advantage is there, Jew? In fact, in verses, chapter 3, verse 1 through 8, he has eight separate questions. I'm not going to go through question by question, because some of these questions overlap. I was trying to deal with two questions this morning, but I didn't get past the first one, this first service, so I'm probably going to end up stopping at one.

Unless I forget a big chunk and then I just skip over it. But the first and the most important question is, like we would have, then all of this, right? All of this, all of the going to church, all the church membership, and all the effort to go do mission work, all the sacrifices that we make in giving offering.

What is all of that? What was the advantage of being a Jew? And so that is the question that he is trying to answer in the beginning. And it is a relevant question. It is not only for the Jew. It is basically, this is the same question that every Christian who has been raised in the church, or maybe been in church for a while, and you've labored hard to build the kingdom of God, every Christian ought to be asking the same question.

What is the benefit of all of this? What is the benefit of church? What is the benefit of fellowship? What is the benefit of having a building to worship God? What is the benefit of being in a covenant community? And communion, baptism? Well, he says this. He doesn't waste any time.

He asks the question, what advantage is there for a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. Much in every way. To begin with, and he is going to go, you have the oracles of God. If you turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 9, 4-5.

In fact, if you've ever studied the book of Romans before, you'll know that Romans chapter 9, 10, and 11, three chapters are dedicated really to answer that question. Because Paul is going to come down hard on the Jewish community. If there is any thought or any inclination that somehow you are going to make it because you were born into the right family, because you've been doing the right rituals, that if there is any misconception that you stand right before God because of your heritage or your circumcision, Paul basically spends eight chapters destroying that.

So the question that obviously they would ask is the same question he asks here, but again he deals with it more extensively. Chapter 9, 10, and 11. Is God done with Israel? Is that it? Well he goes into a little bit more detail in Romans chapter 9, 4-5. He says, here is the advantage of being a Jew.

They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption. In other words, you are not just like everybody else. You are not just a creation of God. God chose you to be His own possession, to be His own children. The glory. There is no other nation that was able to see the glory of God like the nation of Israel.

You know the scripture says that God revealed Himself to the whole world, but to the nation of Israel His glory was evident. It was in the temple, even in the 40 years while they are being judged, the glory of God was with them the whole time. He said to them, you are the glory.

You have the covenants. God may have made a general covenant with the world, but with the nation of Israel. In Genesis chapter 15, God makes a unilateral covenant with the nation of Israel saying, you will be My people and I will be your God. To them, they had the giving of the law, the worship, all the promises.

To them belong the patriarchs. From their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all. Blessed forever, amen. In other words, Christ Himself was a Jew. How can you possibly ask what benefit is there? Well, I mean, we can relate to that, right? If He just came out and just destroyed everything that you've been up to this point, He said all of that was for useless.

I mean, those of you who may have just joined the church and say, oh, okay, I'm glad I didn't spend any time here. You know, I'm glad I found this out early before I put in any more time. But those of you who've been here longer, who's been walking with the Lord longer, it's going to disturb you even more.

But He says much in every way. And He says, He goes on and says, to begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. NIV actually says firstly, right? But the strange thing is, He says to begin with, and then He never goes anywhere else. Right? He says firstly, and then He never gets to the second, third point.

You know, it's the greatest blessing that you have, greatest advantage that you have, is you have the word of God. And then He never goes into the second or third. Well, the reason why He does that is, we need to properly understand, when He says, to begin with, He's not saying, I'm going to begin with this, and then I'm going to lead you to some other stuff.

The word He uses here is proton, or protos, where we get the word priority. And that's the same word that's used in Revelation chapter 2, where Jesus speaks to the Church of Ephesus and says, "You have forsaken your first love." Protos agapem. And the word protos basically doesn't mean first, second, third, fourth, or fifth.

Meaning you've forsaken your first love because now you are in your fourth love, and I need you to work back up to your first love. The word proton basically means above everything it is the most important. It is priority. So again, when that word is used in Revelation it is referring to that your love for Christ has cooled.

That He is not the most important thing in your life. He may be important. He may be something. But He is not most important. That's the same word that is used here to describe the advantage of being a Jew. The primary advantage, think about all the advantages that you can think of as a Jew.

We think of it would have been awesome to be a part of that camp for 40 years. We actually saw the presence of God in the clouds. He gave specific instructions where the glory of God you could visually see. Wouldn't it have been awesome if you escaped from Egypt and you were walking in the middle of the Red Sea.

And you look at it, and I don't know about you, but if I was walking through the split river, the Red Sea, I would have wanted it. I would have splashed myself the whole way through. You know what I mean? Just enjoying this. Look at this. Think about all the advantage of being a Jew.

Right? Think about all the miracles that they saw. The encounter that Elijah had with the Baal priests. Right? The miraculous food that they ate. The manna. I mean I can think of tons of things. Well look at the advantage that you guys had. All of this. But He says above everything that I can mention are the advantages.

Your primary advantage is that you have the oracles of God. You know when we think about the advantage that we have as Americans living in this generation, and we travel the world, physically speaking, humanly speaking, our advantage is absolutely crystal clear. Anybody who feels like, "Oh your life is hard, and you don't make enough money." Travel a little bit.

But don't travel to nice places. Travel to real places. Right? 95% of the world, when you go and travel, you're going to realize how filthy rich you are. You got 20 bucks in your pocket. That's more than what 95% of the world has. Right? And so when you go, you're going to come back and think, "Man, we are privileged." Right?

And it's not just money. The freedom that you have. The fact that you can just turn in your passport and they stamp it and you can just go pretty much anywhere in the world. The majority of the people in the world can't do that. Some of you guys were going to India with us this winter.

There's 35 pastors, and we're going to probably run into maybe about a thousand people. Not one of them, not one of them have ever been on an airplane. Ever. In fact, the pastor that we have contact with, the furthest he's ever been is Bangalore, which is about a five hour distance.

Beyond that, he's never been anywhere else. The majority of the people that we meet there have never been outside their village. They don't know what the rest of the world is like. So the fact that you and I can travel. What we're doing right here. The majority of the people, there's a lot of people in the world that just can't even gather like this.

They can't. Without risking their lives. So you can think of all kinds of advantages that you and I have. But the primary advantage, the primary advantage is what Paul is saying to the Jews, what God is saying to the nation of Israel. The primary benefit of being a chosen people of God was that they had the Word of God.

And that's the primary advantage that you and I have. That we live in a generation where the access to the Word of God is more prevalent than any other time in human history. Ever. Ever. Today we fight for which translation of the Bible we should use. So we have the ESV people, we have the NASB people, we have the NIV people, we have the King James people.

It's like, "Nah, we're fighting for the right to have the right translation." Esther and I, our first home that we ever bought, we bought in La Mirada. And I shared this with you guys before. We bought it because I would spend at least two to three days in the library preparing for Bible studies and sermons.

And this is before internet. So I had to go to the library, find a big table at Biola, and then I had to get all the reference books and lay it out. And I've got to claim it early in the morning so that the other the tablet students don't get the books first.

I've got to go there and be selfish and sit at all the tables and claim it all for me. And I need more than a little space because I've got all these books and spread it out. And so if I'm studying I don't understand this. I've got to go find this reference book, go look up the decimal system, John Dewey decimal system, go look it up and then get that, get all these books.

So it would take half a day to sit there and just go through one passage. And so with that, "Hey, you know, go to La Mirada." Then I could just drive to school and back and it would only be a couple minute drive. And then, you know, soon after that the PC study Bible came out.

And then the internet came out. And then after a while I didn't need to go to the library anymore. Right? But that's the privilege that we have. We can have a question and all of a sudden you just ask a question and it pops up now. Right? I don't have to go anywhere.

I can sit and I can have a question sitting in the middle of the park, nowhere, and I can just say, "Hey, what is this?" And then it'll pop up. Right? No other generation ever has had the kind of access to the Word of God that you and I have today.

Our primary privilege is not money. Our primary privilege is not even our freedom. It's safety, that we have American citizenship. According to what the Word of God is saying, the primary privilege of the nation of Israel and God's people is that they had the oracles of God, first and foremost.

Right? And the reason why this was the tremendous blessing for them is because, remember Paul said in chapter 1 that all the nations, the Gentiles, they were given the imprint of God in nature, in His creation, so that no one is without excuse. Anybody can look at the creation of God and say, "God must be powerful.

There must be a being." And there was enough to lead them to Christ. But to the nation of Israel, the Scripture says that God gave them a lamp that they can clearly see. In fact, Paul says in 2 Timothy 3.14 to Timothy, "To continue what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings." The sacred writings he is talking about is the Old Testament.

"How you have been acquainted with the Old Testament, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." In other words he says, "You've been given the oracles of God so that that would lead you to Christ." He says, "So pay very close attention to it." So, it's kind of to illustrate that all the rest of the world has been given sparklers, basically.

And that sparkler is good enough. If you desired to find God, that sparkler will light the path enough to get you to God. But you, the nation of Israel, you were given a lamp. And that lamp was to be used and it was clear. The path to Christ was clear.

But instead of using it as a lamp to a path to Christ, what they did was they used it as a spotlight. And used that lamp to spotlight themselves. "Look what I did. Look what I have." And instead of pointing them to Christ, which will lead to life, all they did was become self-righteous.

But he says the primary gift was his presence through his word. When Esther, my wife, used to be a school teacher, third grade teacher. She used to have this system where if the kids did great in school, or behaved well, she would pass out rewards. And the reward was that once, I think once every two weeks or once a month, the star student would be able to have lunch with a teacher.

And so there was a Carl's Jr. next door and she would say, "Oh, you did great in school." Or, "You had great behavior." And she said, "Well, then that kid gets to have lunch with a teacher." And you know, it's just to me, I was like, "That's the prize?" You know?

I can't remember a single time in my life where I thought spending time with a teacher was a prize. But the kids would work hard to spend time with them. In fact, if you were really good, if you were really good, and you were beyond good, then you get to spend time with the principal.

The principal. The principal would take you out to lunch. And again, those of you guys who know my testimony, I mean, I never did I ever think spending time with the principal was a good thing. Right? I've never received a notice from the principal and it was good news.

Never. But again, these kids are better kids than I was, obviously. And the reason why it was a reward is because the teacher, who's a significant figure in the classroom, that they are able to have a personal relationship with them. They're sitting down with them and talking to them and the principal of the school, they get to draw near.

So they were special. That they didn't just sit in the classroom. That they were taken out of the classroom and actually sat with a teacher. It was a big deal for them. So in the same way, what Paul is saying, you are the children of God. God particularly chose you to draw near to you.

And so that you can draw near to Him. That was the primary gift that He gave to the Jews. But instead of using that to come to God, they became self-righteous and used it as a spotlight to say, "Hey, look at me." They were privileged, but they completely missed God.

That's the primary tragedy of the nation of Israel. How they could have had so much revelation about who Jesus is. Think about the sacrifices. Think about the temple. All of that to teach them that you cannot draw near to a holy God by your own merit. Think about the cities of refuge.

Think about all the laws. Think about the sacrifice, the Day of Atonement. All of that. The Passover meal. All of that is embedded into their culture. You know, one of the benefits of being a US citizen, we live in a post-Christian culture, but we have Christian things all over in the things that we practice.

We have it in Christmas, we have Easter, Thanksgiving. And it's not hard to share the Gospel, teaching English around the world, because all we have to say is, "We are going to learn American culture, and we are going to teach you what Christmas is about. And then we'll teach them about Christmas, and then we share the Gospel.

Well, next day we are going to talk about Easter. Well, what is Easter about? It's about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we share the Gospel. Talk about Thanksgiving. These are major holidays in our culture. And even though they are trying to minimize it, and kind of take Christ out of all of these things, the benefit is that it's embedded in our culture.

It's in our, the language is in our Constitution. It's in the money that we carry. But think about the Jewish culture. Every part of everything that they did was to prepare for the coming of Christ. Everything. Their festivals, their meals. When they went to the Temple, the sacrifices. And this was from generation to generation to generation to generation.

And then to have the Christ that the Scripture talked about for hundreds and hundreds of years. And then to completely miss Him. Now we would all agree that that's a great tragedy. And we need to be careful that we recognize the same temptation, the same problem that you and I have.

That we have such saturation with the Word of God. And yet so few people who really understand what the Word of God is. You and I live in a generation where any kind of question that we have, any theological question that we have, we can instantaneously look it up on the Internet.

And yet so few people with deep affection for Christ. See in the book of Amos, chapter 8, 11-12, God sends this prophet Amos saying that because you disobeyed and you worshipped idols, God's going to bring judgment. And at the end of the book of Amos, He says the final judgment that's going to come to the nation of Israel is described this way.

Amos 8, 11-12, "Behold the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will send a famine on the land. Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it." He said when the people continue to ignore God over and over again, He says He's going to withdraw Himself.

And the way He's going to withdraw Himself, He's going to bring a famine of the Word of God. Do you see what I see in our generation? Do you see, and I believe most of you, if not all of you, to some extent will agree with me. Today we have millions and millions of people attending church.

But where the Word of God is exalted and taught is hard to find. He said there's going to be a famine of the Word of God. Now famine comes in two ways. One, famine comes because you can't find it. And there was a period in Israel's history where they neglected the Word of God so much that when Josiah comes into power and he becomes a king, he has to go look for it in the Temple.

And a revival breaks out because they found the Bible. They found the Torah. In other words this whole nation that was built upon the foundation of His command that they didn't read it for generations. They didn't know where it was. And they go and they find it and then they read it for the first time in hundreds of years and all of a sudden revival breaks out.

So famine of the Word of God can come in one way where you just don't hear it. You look for it and you can't find it. But there's another kind of famine that comes. And I think the best way to describe it is someone dying of thirst in the middle of an ocean.

Where you can be saturated with the Word of God. But you're so sick you can't eat. You're dying of hunger and there's a buffet everywhere around you but you can't eat because you're so sick. You don't have the appetite. You can smell the food but it's not attractive. You smell and you know that you ought to eat this but you can't because you don't have the appetite.

And there's a famine that comes again I think you and I are part of the second issue problem. No other generation. I mean think about the Word of God. Think about how this came to us. There was a period in church history where the church denied the Word of God to the people.

Said don't worry about what it says just trust what we say. And a few corrupt men refused to give the Word of God to people. So people actually gave their lives translating this into German, into English, into French so that we can have the Word of God. This didn't just come down to us.

There was a period when the Word of God again even in church history was so neglected. You and I are part of the Protestant church. We are Protestants because we protested that the church was not teaching the Word of God. And so therefore people gave their lives so that we can come out and have this Word.

Our primary advantage in our generation what we have is that we have free access to His living Word. And yet Israel with all the sacrifices with all the temple worship completely missed Christ. In Hosea chapter 4 verse 6 God says to the nation of Israel my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

He's not talking about lack of theology. He's not talking about lack of understanding of right understanding of theology. He's talking about knowledge of God. They perish because they do not know Him. Because you have rejected knowledge. I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God I also will forget your children.

The way that we talk about knowing God sometimes it's like we know. Like I know a lot about Barack Obama. He's the President of the United States. I know his name, where he was born, his wife, his children. I know his background. I know about his ancestors. I know his hobby.

I know a lot about him. And that's the way a lot of people talk about Christ. I know about Jesus. I know where he came from. I know who his father is. I know who his disciples are. I know what he did 2,000 years ago. I know he's the object of our worship.

We know him, about him. But do you know him? Do you know this Jesus? Do you have a personal relationship with this Jesus? You and I recognize you can come to church all your life, week after week, month after month, give tithe after tithe, and then come to the same point that the Jews were at in chapter 3.

All of this was for nothing. All of this could be for nothing. All the serving in the church, all the relationships that you built, all the football games that you missed, could easily be for nothing if it doesn't bring you to Christ. And I'm not talking about a superficial adherence, it's like, "Oh, you know, one saved, always saved.

You know, I made a confession. I went down the altar call." I'm not talking about something superficial because you did some external ritual. I'm talking about a regeneration of your heart. A awakening of your eyes to see the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Where Christ becomes so precious.

There's nothing in this life more precious in light of the knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ. The surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ where everything else becomes rubbish. You can come to church all your life and completely miss it. And even though we have this advantage, we have even a greater advantage than the Jews.

Because the Jews had the shadow of the reality. We had the reality in Christ. He was given to us in clarity. He was the exact imprint of God. Everything about Him was the exact imprint of who God was. And we have that picture of Christ. And yet, to come to church week after week, month after month, and do all that we do, and to benefit from all the superficial things that come along in being a part of a Christian community, and then to miss Christ.

It was tragic. You know, George Varna did a survey of the literacy of Biblical literacy in the country. The majority of the people in the United States, over 80% of the people in the United States, say that they own a Bible and they have very high regards of the Bible.

Now there's different degrees of that obviously. There are some people who believe in inerrancy, some people who don't believe in it. But what the world believes, what the superficial, nominal Christians believe is irrelevant. But he has another survey that talks about Evangelical Christians, people who claim to be born again.

And so he did a survey to see how much people knew about the Scripture. He says, this is his finding, he says, "Fewer than half the adults can name the four Gospels in the New Testament." I know some of you guys are already thinking, like, "I can't remember how to name four Gospels.

I can name four Gospels, no problem. I passed that test." "60% of Americans can't name five of the Ten Commandments." Some of you guys are getting nervous already. I can name six, I'm not sure. "60% of Americans can't name five of the Ten Commandments." "81% of these people believe that God helps those who help themselves." Some of you are like, "That's not in the Bible." No, that's not in the Bible.

It said 81%. Don't know that. "12% believe that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife." Okay. So some of you just got educated. Alright? He's not. Okay. I'm pretty sure that most of you know that these answers, you can answer them correctly. "50% of high school seniors believe that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife." Okay.

Everybody's smiling in here. You already know the answer. Those of you guys looking at me like, "What the...?" Alright. You're busted. Lastly, "Large portion thought that the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham." Now, I've given you some basic stuff. You've probably listened to that. If you've been a Christian and attending church, a Bible teaching church for a while, it's just kind of like, "Well, of course we know that.

We're Bible literate." But let me get a little bit more personal. Let me get a little bit more personal. And maybe disturb you guys a little bit. Okay? And don't say anything. I just want you to sit there and think about this. How many of you can defend the doctrine of Trinity with a Jehovah Witness?

Don't raise your hand. Don't say anything. I want you to think about it. How many of you can go through the Scripture? Not bring them to me. Not give them literature. But how many of you can defend the doctrine of Trinity to a Jehovah Witness? Okay? And if you cannot, my next question is, "How long have you been a Christian?

How long have you confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?" Is the doctrine of Trinity important? Absolutely. Absolutely. If you don't know the doctrine of Trinity and you get that wrong, you may not be a Christian. So, to not be able to go to the Scripture and say, "This is why I believe that Jesus Christ is not a God, but the God.

And here is what the Scripture says about it." So, the question is, how can we be so saturated with all the access that we have to the Word of God and have so little interest in the fundamental doctrines of our faith that we confess? Let me disturb you further.

Can you defend the doctrine of justification by faith from the Bible? They say, "Oh, now he's getting theological. That's for pastors. These are theological. These legalists." The doctrine of justification by faith is the Gospel. That's the Gospel. We can just call it the Gospel. We can just say justification by faith, but it means the same thing.

Can you defend the doctrine of justification by faith? Can you sit down with a Roman Catholic and have a discussion with them about why salvation is by faith and by faith alone? Why am I asking you these questions? Because we have the Word of God. We confess that life is from here.

We confess that this is the truth. And to have it and say, "You know, we bought it. We put it here and then we go to the right church." And a lot of us, that's enough. It's enough that we attend the right church. It's enough that we have a church where we have the right doctrine, a seemingly right doctrine.

That's enough. But does this bring you to Christ? Why is it not important enough to search? Is homosexuality clearly declared to be sin in Scripture? We're being challenged and pulled left and right in our generation. And we have more and more people saying that, "No, that's not what the Bible teaches." And so few people in the church can actually open up the Scripture and say, "This is what the Scripture says." And this is why churches, one after another, are falling.

Because we have access to the Word of God, but so few people know what it says. So we say, "Oh, thank God we have a pastor who can defend the faith." And that's we just kind of defer. That's it. As long as they know, it doesn't matter if I know.

Can a Christian lose his salvation? I know you've been at the church long enough. The knee-jerk reaction is, "No." You can't lose your salvation. Why? Where did you get that? What's that based on? What Scripture gives you that confidence? How did we even get this Bible? I mean if you go out and share the Gospel with anybody, that's one of the first things that you run into.

Well that was just written by man. And it was given to us at the church, the Council of Carthage, 386 A.D. So how do you know? This is just written by man. So the doctrines of the Buddhists and the Muslims, they were given by man. So how can you say that this is the Word of God?

My point is not here to defend all of this. I'm asking you, how long have you been a Christian and still don't know these fundamental things about the Word of God? Why do we know more about Kobe's shooting percentage? You know, where they stand and what kind of lottery draft they're going to have, than in the things that we profess gives life.

This is about life and death and we know very little about it, other than we go to church. We happen to go to the right church. So when Hosea says, "My people are judged because they lack knowledge." If we're not careful, you and I can be guilty of the same thing.

Is our confidence, is the confidence that we have, is it coming from the Living Word of God? Is it coming from your personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Or is the confidence that you are at the right church? That you happen to be in a church that has a right doctrinal statement, or you just assume it's the right doctrinal statement?

It's because you've been doing the right things. You've been going to the right church and you've been raised in the right family. Where is your confidence? Is it in God or is it in man? Is Jesus really the only way? Some of you guys who've ever tried to share the Gospel, that's probably something that you've been thrown at your face.

Right? As long as you're in your Christian bubble and you spend all your life reaffirming each other, "Hey, you know, we're saved. God loves you. It's the grace of God. God loves you. He died for you. Grace of God." And all we're doing in this little Christian bubble is reaffirming each other's faith.

"Yeah, it's true. This is right." And that's what fellowship is. Fellowship is a bunch of Christians getting together, reaffirming any kind of insecurities that we may have of life. And so I affirm you, you affirm me, and that's what we look for in a church. A church that affirms one another.

But when you step out of this bubble and you begin to get challenged, how dare you? You are telling me billions of people, not just in this generation, previous generation, and the generations to come, that all of them will be condemned? How arrogant are you to say such a thing?

How are you different than the terrorists? And so in fear, because we're afraid, and because we never thought about it and looked into it deep enough, that's enough to shake us so what we do is we keep our mouths shut. Instead of looking into it, what does the Scripture say?

How do I defend the faith and strengthening our faith? What we do is we kind of get in our little bubble and any kind of insecurities we have, we just kind of, "No, you're okay, don't worry about it, you're okay." And we never grow. We never mature. We're never challenged.

The primary benefit that you and I have is His Word. It's His Word. So let me ask you this morning, let me disturb your peace this morning. Where does this Word stand in your life? And I'm not talking theologically, I'm not talking about on paper. I'm talking about on your daily life with God.

Do you truly believe that this is life? Do you truly believe that? And if you do, what does this life look like in your life? Not today, this morning. I'm not talking about this morning. Because I'm doing all the work. Right? I'm doing all the work. I'm talking about when you go home.

Where does this stand in you? Because of all the benefits that the nation of Israel had, He says, "In much and every way, and first and foremost, above everything that God has given you, you've been entrusted with the oracles of God." Our primary blessing that you and I have is that we have access to the Word of God like no other generation.

You're able to know God, His thoughts, His plan like no other generation. Not only is it in your language, it's in the palm of your hands. Every thought, question that you have, you don't need to ask a pastor. You don't need to go to a seminary. You can just ask.

And it pops up. We should be more equipped, more ready, more challenged to do every good work than any other generation that has ever existed. Right? The Word of God is living and active. Right? It's useful for training, for correcting. Right? That man or God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So you and I should be more equipped than any other generation that have ever existed before us. I want to conclude with this challenge. Because it is serious. Right? It's not just about this morning. This is serious. The thing that I have that disturbs me more than anything else.

And it disturbed me when I was a young Christian. It disturbs me to this day. That at the end, Jesus said, "Many will come to Me and say, 'Lord, Lord.'" He said, "But I never knew you. I never knew you. All that you have done had nothing to do with Me." It was about you.

It wasn't about finding life in Christ. It wasn't about the Gospel. It was about you. It was about peace in your life. It was about living a better life, a better marriage, a better future, a better hope. But it wasn't about Christ. The tragedy of the Jews that Paul was trying to get through.

And why he spent so much time saying the same thing over and over and over and over and over again is until their peace is disturbed, until their life is, it crumbles in the presence of the Gospel, Jesus will not be their life. Until you and I recognize that all that we have built and all that we are building outside of Christ is rubbish.

Christ will not mean anything. So I pray with all of my heart that this tragedy would not be what you and I experience. That every person in this room would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And I'm not just talking about come to church every week, become a member and give and participate.

I'm talking about knowing Christ. That every single person in this room would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. If you can take a minute to pray with me as I ask the praise team to come up. And as they prepare, I'm going to ask you to take a minute to pray.

And I'm not going to assume that in this room that all of you guys are born again Christians. I'm not going to assume that you know what the Word of God says. My question is where is your confidence? Is it something that your pastor said? Is it from the church that you grew up in?

Or just your paradigm of how you determine what is right and wrong? Or did the Word of God convict you? Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? And to look hard and deeply. And if you do, pray for the people around you. The greatest tragedy would be to be in a church where the Word of God is taught and then to completely miss Christ.

So if you have confidence in Christ, then pray for the people around you. That we do not simply look at the church and say, "Hey, thank God we're at a church and we have the right doctrine." Because the people next to you may not be Christians. So pray and labor.

As the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few, that God would raise more laborers for His Kingdom. So let's take a few minutes to pray before God and ask the Lord to convict us, strengthen us, that the church that we are building is a true church that will worship God in spirit and in truth.

So let's take some time...