And then we'll jump into the text this morning. Romans chapter 3 verses 1-8. And we'll continue what we started last week. Romans chapter 3 verses 1-8, reading out of the ESV. "Then what advantage has the 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 life 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. Heavenly Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would lead and guide us. That the words that come out of my mouth, Lord God, would be filtered by your Holy Spirit. That only your words and your thoughts and your intentions, Lord God, would bear fruit.

So I pray, Father, with trembling, with cautiousness, Lord God, that your word may be revealed to your children. That we may hear the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him. And so we pray for your anointing this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. How many of you have heard the ministry called Promise Keepers?

Okay. Also a few of you. Okay, so I know exactly how old you are. All right. So Promise Keepers, yes I see you. Okay. So Promise Keepers was a ministry that started in 1990 by the head football coach at University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado, Bill McCartney. And basically the ministry, again I've never been to their conference, but the conference started mainly geared toward bringing revival among men.

And the reason why they kept making Promise Keepers is to remind the men of the covenant that they made with their wives. Yesterday we had a wedding with Eugene and Susie and every time you get married, obviously when we have marriages we have the same covenant that we make, that the husband is going to represent Christ in this home.

And to love sacrificially to lead her as Christ did to the church. And so it's called the Promise Keepers, again it's to challenge the men to lead in their homes. To keep the promise that they made at the altar. It was a huge movement. I believe it's still going on today.

Again, I've never been to one. I don't know the content of what is taught, but I know the history behind it. And it was a big movement. Especially early on you heard about Promise Keepers everywhere in Los Angeles, Orange County, in every segment of United States and even outside the United States because there was a tremendous need to challenge, especially the men, to act like men.

To keep the promises. I mean think about in our generation, how many people you can think of that say, "That guy makes a promise, he keeps it. His word is basically, you can bank on it." I think today in our generation to find people who are really true to their word, again it's becoming more and more of a difficult reality.

In fact today, when people make promises, and again the older you get, you get jaded with promises of people because you get so disappointed. Typically when people make promises, when you're younger you get excited when people promise certain things, but the older you get you're just kind of like, "Okay, we'll see." You know what I mean?

Like everything, we say, "Yeah, we'll see." Because we get disappointed by people. See, question that comes up in this text in chapter 3 is related to this idea of keeping promise. The reason why is because Paul's been telling the Jews in the first two chapters, "You're no different than the Gentiles." Think about it, for hundreds of years, that's exactly what they thought.

They thought they were completely different than the Gentiles because they were God's chosen people. And God continually reminds them over and over again that you are not like other nations. God tells them, if you go into the Promised Land, do not intermarry with them because you are a chosen generation.

You're a holy nation, right? You're a royal priesthood. But all of a sudden, Paul, in presenting the Gospel, setting the foundation, he's saying, "No, Gentiles are Jews and Jews are no different." So last week, the first question that came up was, "If that's the case, then what is the benefit of being a Jew?" What is the benefit?

So that's the first question that came up. And the answer that he says, "Of course, in every way. How can you possibly even ask that question?" He said, "Of all the benefits that you have, first and foremost, you have the Word of God." God gave His general revelation, left His imprint in creation.

But to you, you have special revelation. God drew near and spoke to you and gave you the specifics of His redemptive plan. So this is a follow-up question from that, that if that's the case, if God is faithful to Himself, right, and we are no different, and we just have the Law of God, and that's the only difference between us and the Gentiles, the follow-up question to that is, what if some were unfaithful?

Meaning that if, because of the unfaithfulness of the Jews, does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? That's basically what they're saying is all these years we've been told that God made a covenant with our forefathers, right, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And for generations to come, to David, to Solomon, God made a covenant that He was going to remain faithful to the nation of Israel.

Now you're telling me that we're no different. If a Jew died in his state, that he would stand before a God and be judged the same way as a Gentile. So if that's the case, because of the faithlessness of the Jews, does that mean that God will become faithless?

That He will nullify His covenant that He made with us? Well, He deals with this question in a more elaborate way in 1st chapter 9, 10, and 11. So He's going to spend three chapters basically expounding this idea, trying to answer this question. So today He's just going to answer it in a couple sentences, and then He's going to leave the bigger dissertation in the next, when we get to chapter 9, 10, and 11.

But let me give you a glimpse of the idea that He gives. In Romans 11, 1 through 2, the same answer is given, same question is given. I asked him, "Has God rejected His people?" Is He done with Israel? "By no means." Next time you read the book of Romans and you see that term "by no means," try to circle it or highlight it because He's using the strongest of a language that He can possibly use to answer this question.

Basically what He's saying is, "Of course not. Are you kidding?" That's the way you really should read in English, right? It seems a lot more gentle, "By no means," right? A lot more civilized. But He's basically saying, "Are you kidding me? By no means, for I myself am an Israelite." So in other words, saying, "Hey, this guy Paul is coming around and saying God is done with the nation of Israel." He's basically saying that everything that we've been standing, we've stood for, for hundreds of years, this guy's nullifying.

And He says, "No, by no means. I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. God has not rejected His people." So the answer is crystal clear. That is not the case. The Gospel does not nullify the nation of Israel.

In Genesis chapter 12, right, verse 2, when God first makes a covenant with Abraham and his descendants, the nation of Israel, He says, "And I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing." So He begins this covenant that He makes with Abraham, what we will say is an unconditional covenant.

Meaning, just like a marriage covenant, we don't have two people stand up and say, "You know what? I'm going to enter this covenant relationship. And if you do the dishes, I will do the laundry. If you clean your master bedroom, I will clean the bathroom." That is not the covenant that a husband and wife enters into.

A covenant a husband and wife enters into is an unconditional covenant. That is a covenant saying, "Just as Christ loved the Church unconditionally, I will love you unconditionally. And just as the Church submits to the Lord unconditionally, I will serve the Lord unconditionally." It is a unilateral, unconditional covenant that a husband and wife enters into.

It is not contingent upon the other person and what they do. That even if they don't do their part, you're saying, "I'm committing to this covenant." Well, that is the covenant that God enters into with the nation of Israel. He says, "I will do this. I will do this." Again, in Genesis chapter 15, 17-18.

When God ratifies this covenant, typically the way that a covenant is ratified is they would take two animals, cut them in half, and it's a very brutal, violent scene. They would take these two animals, put them in a long row, and it would be a bloody scene. And the two people who were entering this covenant would hold hands, and they would walk right in the middle.

And what that symbolized was that if either you or I break this covenant, that what happened to these animals will happen to us. I welcome it. In other words, that I'm going to risk my life going into this covenant. Well, in Genesis 15, 17-18, I want you to listen carefully.

It said, "When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these two, these pieces. On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.'" If you paid attention very closely to what I read, you're going to see that something is missing.

What's missing is right before this passage, it says that Abraham fell asleep. Abraham fell asleep. Abraham basically did not walk through the middle. God shows up as a flaming torch, and he goes through this covenant by himself. What that means is that this covenant that God makes with Abraham and his descendants is completely unconditional.

There is no part that Abraham plays in this particular covenant with the nation of Israel. If you study the book of Genesis and all throughout Israel's history, God clarifies this covenant over and over. So, there are some covenants that God makes that are conditional, and then there are some covenants that are unconditional.

The conditional covenant is He makes with the nation of Israel, if you go there and then if you obey My commandments, God will cause you to live long, you'll be blessed, you'll be healthy, your children are going to live well, peacefully in this land. But if you don't, judgment is coming.

But the unconditional covenant that God makes with the nation of Israel is that He was going to bless them, and that through blessing them, all the other nations will be blessed. And that was unconditional. So, the nation of Israel hearing this, obviously, thought we are special because God made this covenant with us.

He didn't make this covenant with every other nation. He made this covenant specifically with the nation of Israel. And for the purpose, not just the nation of Israel, to for the whole world. He just chose them to work through. So, the question that they're asking is, if we stand guilty like the Gentiles, does that mean that God is going to nullify His covenant?

That if the faithlessness of some of the Gentile or Israelites, is that going to cause God to be unfaithful as well? And the answer is, of course not. By no means. May it never be. Absolutely not. Romans 3, 4, "Let God be true, though everyone were a liar." Even if every human being, even if they are found to be false, God will never, He cannot deny Himself.

God can't deny Himself. God is not man that He should lie, nor the Son of Man that He should repent. God never says anything and have to take it back. God never says that He's going to do something and say, "You know what? Maybe my plan wasn't good." You know, every single one of us, when we make plans, we have plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D, plan F, whatever, right?

We have all these plans because our desire is A. You know, you may work hard. Some of you guys working hard to get an A on your finals. You have every intention. And you're going to make every effort. You're not a slacker. You're going to stay up until 3 in the morning.

Everybody else is going to be outside, you know, like playing around with their friends, but not you. You're going to be here until 2 in the morning, and then you're going to go home, drink some coffee, you're going to study until 4, and you've been diligent all year, right?

And you have every intent. But you're a human being. You don't know what's going to be on the test, right? You may be a worker, you know, and you have some kind of assignment. You have every intent to please your boss and to get this assignment right. But the problem is we're human beings.

We can't control the outcome. So you always have plan A, and then you have plan B, plan C, plan D. What Paul is saying is even if every man falls short of his plan, God will not. God cannot because he cannot deny himself. He cannot deny, he cannot change his mind, and he cannot change his nature.

It is because of the covenant that he had made with the nation of Israel and to mankind that you and I are even here today, right? Think about the symbol of the rainbow. I know today when we think rainbow, we think of the LGBT community. But the original sign of the rainbow in the Old Testament was to remind us of his unconditional covenant with his people.

Genesis 9, 15-16, he says, "I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures, every kind on the earth." The only reason why you and I are here today is because God is faithful to his promises.

Think about how often we work on something and we get frustrated and we just want to just scratch everything, right? I don't know about you, but I'm like that with computers. Like I'm not detail-oriented and I didn't really mess around with computers until probably my 30s. So computer, you know, some of you guys who were, you know, engineers when you were back in college, and I'm sure computer was in at that time, but I was a Bible major.

So, you know, I remember sharing with somebody that I never wrote a paper on the computer until I graduated seminary. Like what? Yeah, computer was just not around in the late 80s, early 90s, you know, it was just starting to come in. So today, if I'm doing something and something goes wrong with the computer, like I usually have to call Brian, you know, or when Pastor Aaron was here, I used to always just, "Hey, can you take a look at this?" And they'll fix it.

But most of the times, you know, I don't have people around and I would try to mess around with it and it'd take me a couple hours and my immediate inclination is, "Buy a new computer." Like that's, so if it was up to me, I would buy a new computer every two, three months.

You know, and I just scratch it. Like, you know, I don't have the patience for this, right? Imagine when God, God was so frustrated with creation that He was so angry and grieved, He wiped out the whole earth and repopulated with eight people. Imagine how often He must have been tempted.

Imagine all the sins of the nation of Israel, right? Periods when they were outright just denying Him, even after feeding them, caring for them, being patient with them. And as soon as He turned around, they said, "Oh, you don't give us water. I wish we were back in Egypt." There were periods in Israel's history where they were actually sacrificing their own children to the God of Malak.

I mean, think about how often God must have been grieved and angered by the sins of His people that He said, "That's enough." Even if as patient as our God is, if you've ever read through the Bible, Old Testament, Israelite's history, just from beginning to the end, by the time you get to about first Kings, you don't even have to get to second Kings, first Kings.

You're not thinking like, "Oh, God is so, you know, wrathful." You know, that's how you normally think of Old Testament when you just hear bits and pieces. But when you read the history of Israel, just systematically, by the time you get to about third or fourth King in Israel, you start thinking like, "Oh my gosh, why does God put up with these people?" Right?

I mean, you would think at some point God would say, "Enough." Think about the last 2,000 years of church history. Think about the chaos and the mess. Think about the Crusades. Think about the Inquisition, the selling of indulgences. Think about just even in modern history, how divided we are.

Right? How chaotic the modern day church is, the church growth. Think about in the last 2,000 years what church history looked like. Think about how tempted our God must be knowing how angry He is towards us. And we say, "Just start over." Right? But the only reason why you and I are here is because God is faithful to His covenant.

It's because He's been faithful that you and I are not consumed. That's exactly what it says in Lamentations 3.22. "Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for His compassion never fails. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness." So He said, "Because of the faithlessness of some, will God nullify the covenant?" He says, "By no means.

Of course not. Let every man found to be a liar, but God will remain true to Himself. He is faithful." The question that comes up with that is, yes, God is faithful. And that's the reason why you and I are here. Right? And that's why having the Word of God is so precious to us.

Because we have these promises. They're not just general revelation. We have special promises of God's covenant with His people. And so that's our source of comfort. That's our hope. That's what gives us strength. That even in the times of trial, we know that God will never change. What He says, He will do.

And we can bank on it. Even if we can't trust anybody else in this world. Even if we can't trust our own wives or children. He said, "You can bank on the things that God has said." But here comes the next question that comes along with that. Well, if God is faithful, you know, typically when we think of the faithfulness of God, we think, well, God is faithful of His mercy.

God is faithful in His grace. God is faithful in His compassion. But when we talk about the faithfulness of God, we're not just talking about His mercy and compassion. We're also talking about His promise of judgment. And that's exactly what Paul quotes. Paul quotes Psalm 51, verse 4, in the next passage, when he says that, "You may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged." He's quoting a text from David's repentance.

David repents and he's crying out to God and he said, "You are just in your judgment." David's life is a perfect example of God's faithfulness to all of His covenants. God made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, an unconditional covenant that He's going to be faithful to His people.

But He also promised them that if you disobey My commandments, judgment will come. As you guys know, David ends up committing a horrendous sin. And he tries to cover it up. God sends a prophet, exposes him. And God says, "As a result of your sin, what happens? There will be bloodshed in your family.

And your children are going to be divided. Your kingdom is going to be divided in two. And bloodshed will remain in your family." It's in that context where David is crying out to God. He said, "No, God, You are just." He doesn't stand before God and say, "Lord, You're not fair.

How come You're not being merciful?" He says, "No, in Your judgment You are fair." See, God remained faithful to His covenant that despite David's sin, God remained faithful to the nation of Israel. And He even despite all the sins of all the kings that followed David, one after another, through all the false prophets that came into the nation of Israel, God remained faithful to His people.

He never squashed the nation of Israel and said, "We're done with you. Look at all your leaders." So He was faithful to His promise of His covenant, but He was also faithful to all the promise of judgment that would come upon that nation if they did not follow Him.

See, that's a perfect example that's expressed in 2 Timothy 2, 11-13, where Paul says, "The saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful." See, typically when we think about faithfulness, we just like to choose the faithfulness of His promise of grace and mercy.

But God's faithfulness means that He is faithful first and foremost to Himself. He is faithful in His righteousness, and He is faithful in His mercy. He is faithful in judgment. He is faithful in grace. But He is faithful to Himself. That's why what God says, He will do. If He said He's going to punish sin, He's going to punish sin.

He's not just going to sweep it under the rug. He's not going to all of a sudden say, "You know what, because I'm merciful, my mercy is going to overpower my justice." He's just going to sweep it under the rug. You know, "I know I said that judgment is going to come upon you, and I know I told you all these curses that's going to come in Deuteronomy chapter 27, 28, but I'm just going to forget that I said that.

And I'm just going to hold on to these promises." No. He said He's going to be faithful. Even if we're not faithful, God will remain faithful because He cannot deny Himself. That everything that He says in Scripture, He will do. Salvation and judgment. As much as we would love to just talk about heaven, the Bible is very clear about the warning of hell.

So He is faithful in the promise of salvation, but He's also faithful in the promise of judgment. And you see that clearly represented at the cross. Clearly represented at the cross. Because, again, when we think about the cross of Christ, our immediate thought is His mercy and compassion. And the reason why we think that is because we're the recipients.

We're the recipients. See that from the perspective of God the Father. See that from the perspective of Jesus. See that in the perspective of the angels. Jesus didn't necessarily die for them because they didn't sin. So see that from the perspective of people where that wasn't for them. We look upon that and say, "Wait a second." Right?

If you weren't the recipients of this atonement, and all you saw was an innocent man, the Son of God, being crucified for our sins, you would look at that and say, "This is horrendous. This is horrendous. How can God do this to His Son for these people?" So as much as we look at the cross on this side and say, "Wow, God is merciful and gracious and loving," if you were to look at it from this side, the cross is also a magnification of His wrath.

That's why in Scripture, John 12, 23, when Jesus is about to go to the cross, His prayer is, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." And then He also states that, "As you glorify the Son, I glorify the Father." He's talking about His crucifixion.

When we talk about glorifying something, right? Like if, let's say you're talking about, you know, I don't know what's going on, you know, Steve Curry, right? Stephen Curry is going nuts and we're, Stephen Curry is going nuts and he's shooting the basketball, whatever. And when we say we glorify Him, we're talking about, we're taking His attributes and who He is, we're putting Him on a pedestal for everyone to see, right?

We're not exaggerating. All we're doing is we're putting it on a pedestal, look what He's doing. So you might have video highlights, you might talk about Him, you might say, "Wow, that was awesome." That's what we mean by glorifying something, right? So when the Son says, "It's time now," like all throughout history, we've been preparing for this, "Now is the time.

Now is the time that everything that God has been doing has been leading up to this point. Now is the time to put me on that pedestal," right? "To be glorified. And when I do that, I'm going to glorify the Father." And so where God and His Son and the Holy Spirit is magnified more than any other time in history is at the cross.

That's why we say that everything from the Old Testament leading up to the cross was kind of like this, it was like a crescendo to Christ and then His crucifixion. And ever since then, everything else is to look back. So all of us is to point to the cross, and everybody in the Old Testament is to point toward the cross.

The cross is the perfect example of God's faithfulness to His holiness and His mercy. Again, you and I have a tendency, because we're recipients of this grace, that we just think about His grace. See, but that cross without God's holy justice and His wrath would not make any sense.

Why not just forgive? Right? If you did me wrong, and you come and ask for forgiveness, I don't sit there and cut my wrist and then let it bleed and say, "Now I forgive you." Right? You're going to think, "What's wrong with this guy? This guy's crazy. Why is he cutting himself?" See, the cross without His justice and wrath would not make any sense.

And the cross, though it is a revelation of His wrath, without His mercy and love would not make any sense. It is the perfect union of God's faithfulness to Himself, where He, by His nature, who is love, desires to save sinful men, without compromising His justice, decided to lay all that burden, all that wrath upon His Son, so that He is faithful to Himself, because He cannot deny Himself.

The backdrop behind the cross is everything that we know of who God is, perfectly displayed. In fact, when Jesus came, He started rebuking the Pharisees, saying, "You know, you guys are obeying all the commandments, and you don't understand the spirit of the Law. You're just going and going through the motion, but that's not what God desires." And so He started rebuking them for their Pharisee tendencies.

So they said, "You know what? Here comes a man who's trying to abolish the Law." Right? Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 5, 17-18? "I have not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it." He said, "Not an iota, not the smallest letter of the Law, will pass away until it is complete." In other words, everything God says will happen.

And the way that it was going to be fulfilled was by His Son crucified on the cross. See, that's the point that Jesus is trying to make, because they're having a hard time understanding, if Jesus was crucified for us, or if the Gospel says that we are in need of His mercy, and we're no different than the Gentiles, then what was the purpose of all of this?

And He says, "No, it's going to be fulfilled in Christ." Right? Not only does God not nullify the covenant, His faithfulness shines even brighter because of their sins. Because of it. You know, I read yesterday that you guys heard about the shooting in San Bernardino, and the more is coming out.

And I read yesterday that one of the men, the husband and wife that went and shot up all these people, that one of the guys, you probably read it, that the people that he shot up were his old co-workers. They were having some sort of a Christmas gathering, and that's where he shot up everybody.

And they found out that they had a small child. They had a small child, and before the child came, the same co-workers that he shot up actually threw him a baby shower. They threw him a baby shower. So, after hearing that, I said, "Oh my gosh." You know? I mean, what he did in and of itself was horrendous.

But considering that his co-worker, and they say, "Oh, we're all very tight-knit group," and it was shocking for all of us that he did all of this, especially to the people that he did it. Considering just a few months ago, they gathered together and got their money together, and during their break, had a baby shower for him.

And those are the people that he shot up. So, when we find the details of the background behind what happened, it makes his horrendous act even that much more horrendous. Scripture tells us that the law came to make sin utterly sinful, to reveal to us just exactly what you and I were deserving of.

You know, when we first become Christians, we say, "Oh, thank God Jesus loved me, and I'm a sinner." But the more we dig, the more we understand the law, the more we understand who God is, the more we come to grips with exactly what he did on the cross.

You may have at one point said, "Thank God for Jesus. Thank God for him on the cross." But the sanctification, part of our spiritual maturity, and why the blessing of having the Word of God, is because the Word of God reveals to us just how sinful we really were.

And it is in that backdrop that God's love is displayed. So, when the Scripture says in Romans 5a, God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners. See, the study of the Scriptures gives us a deeper understanding of what that means, "yet sinners." It's one thing for us to see, it's like, "Oh yeah, you know, we did what we shouldn't have done.

Oh, there's a bunch of things that we should have done that we didn't do." But it's another thing to understand, just like this man, that the people that he killed, not only were they his co-workers, but these are the people who poured love into their life for their child, just a few months ago.

And then you just recognize just the utter depravity of his heart to do something like that. See, when we examine the Gospel, when we examine the nature of our God, when we examine the nature of our sin, and God, like a physician, you know, with an x-ray, and just digging deeply, seeing how deep this problem goes, the more the cross begins to shine.

And here's the response to that, that leads to the third question. Well, if that's the case, if our unrighteousness leads to greater glory to His name, again, serves to show, if our unrighteousness serves to show His righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous, that He inflicts wrath on us?

And then he continues in verse 7, "But 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?" If that's the case, if the law comes to make sin utterly sinful, why am I being condemned?

Because God's using my sin to glorify Himself. Should we sin that God's goodness may abound more, as some people slanderously were charging us with saying? Their condemnation is just. See, these Judaizers couldn't understand what Paul was saying. He's saying, like, if salvation is by grace, if God came to forgive us of our sins, then are you saying that we should continue to sin, that God's glory may be magnified that much more?

And he says, "Of course not. By no means." How can your thought possibly go that direction? Again, in Romans 6, 1-4, he makes this very clear. He asks the same question, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who die to sin still live in it?

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into death? We were buried, therefore, with Him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life." The whole reason why Jesus Christ died and was crucified for us is so that He may make us new creatures and save us from this sin, this empty way of life.

So how can you possibly think that by God saving us by grace, gives us license to sin? "By no means." Again, verse 15 and 16, "What then? Are we to sin because we are under the law, not under the law, but under grace?" Let me stop right there for a second.

I don't know how many conversations I've had with somebody saying almost exactly the same thing. "We're not under the law. Stop preaching about what we should do because we're not under the law. Stop making us feel guilty, you know, because we've been set free. We're not under the law.

We're under grace. So because we're under grace, we shouldn't feel guilty. We have the freedom to live any way that we want." He says his answer to that question, "By no means." If that's your logical conclusion to the grace of God, "By no means." Do you not know that if you present yourself to anyone as disobedient slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or obedience, which leads to righteousness.

In other words, if your understanding of the grace of God leads you to live in sin, you haven't been set free. That is evident that you are still bound to sin. And he's going to exposit that when we get to chapter 6, what it means to be a slave to sin, what it means to be a slave to righteousness.

We'll get to that when we get to chapter 6. I'm not sure when we're going to get there, but we'll get there, right? But he says, "If your thinking leads, because we're saved by grace, that I can kind of live in freedom," again, using the misuse of the term "Christian liberty." So liberty basically means I'm free to enjoy life as I please.

But he says, "By no means." If you live to gratify the flesh, you are a slave to your flesh. You are not set free. Let me make this absolutely crystal clear. Any movement of God, any revival of God that focuses on one aspect of God without the other is not God's movement.

Because God does not contradict himself. Any movement that emphasizes grace and does not emphasize His holiness is not a movement of God. Because God will not contradict Himself. He is faithful to all His promises. He is faithful to who He is. Now let me give you an example of a wrong application of grace, which sometimes, if we're not careful, this is usually how our logic goes.

I hear people say things like, and again as an example, "My mom is so gracious and loving, and no matter what I do, she's always accepting. I'm so thankful that my mom is so gracious. She sacrificed so much for me. She got two jobs, three jobs, so that I can have a good life.

Thank God." And then your friend says, "Hey, shouldn't we go home? Your mom's waiting for you." "No, no, no. Don't worry. My mom's so gracious. You don't know what my mom is. My mom works three jobs so that I can have a good life. She's so gracious." "Well, isn't she waiting for you at home?

Didn't she tell you to come home at 10 o'clock?" "Didn't you hear what I said? My mom is gracious. She's not going to punish me because she loves me so much. She is so gracious." It's like, "Well, yeah, but she told you to come home at 10." "I know, but she's so gracious." That's the wrong application of the grace of God.

Wouldn't you say? Wouldn't you say, with somebody saying like, "Oh, because my God is so gracious, and he saved me because of his grace, and we have Christian liberty, so let's be free." How is that any different? See, the right response to the grace of God is recognizing, considering what my mom has done, I want to please her even more.

She told me to come home at 10. I want to get up there earlier. What can I do to possibly show her how much appreciation I have for what she has done for me? How can I live a holier life so that I can honor God and to show him my appreciation for what he's done?

How can I sacrifice? How can I give? How can I love like he is loved? How can I live holy like he is holy? You see, those two responses are kind of responses that people have. And you have one saying, "No, we're saved by grace." And any talk of any kind of rules or any challenge, you say, "You're nullifying the grace of God." No.

It is because of the grace of God, we strive for holiness that much more. It's because God's been gracious, we pursue holiness. He says, "God is love, so we must love." God is holy, so what? Be holy. His grace doesn't nullify our requirement to be holy. It actually accentuates it that much more.

His love and grace and his mercy, his unconditional sacrifice that he's given us is a grounds to passionately pursue him more, not less. And isn't that what the author of Hebrews is saying? Considering this great mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice where before his sacrifice, you did it to think that you were somehow going to earn his love, but considering what he has given, considering what you and I confess that we have received, now live up to the calling that you have been given.

Live up to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Live up to that grace that you've been given. See, that's what Paul is trying to argue. They're saying like, you're trying to nullify the grace of God by saying that if you keep saying this, that people are going to live licentiously.

No. Yes, some who do not know the grace of God, who are going to pervert the grace of God, and they're going to receive it like a spoiled brat. It's like, "Oh, my mom is lovely. She forgives. Don't worry, we're not going to be punished. She says 10, but it doesn't matter.

God doesn't punish. He doesn't punish us. I can just do whatever I want." Then I can say, "At minimum, that person is a spoiled brat." Okay? If that offended you, it should, okay? Because I meant to offend you, okay? Because if that's the response of the grace of God, we're spoiled brats.

That's exactly what we're doing. God is gracious, so I can do whatever I want, and anybody who tells me otherwise is perverting my mom's love. It's like, "No, you're perverting your mom's love." Possible second is actually even more offensive, that you don't really know the grace of God. You've never really been affected by the grace of God, and that's why you don't have any personal affection for the grace of God.

See, a true response to the gospel of Jesus Christ would lead us to repent. It would melt us. Yesterday, I wasn't kidding when Susie and Eugene was doing a feet washing ceremony. I was like, "Okay, it's going to be a little bit awkward. There's a lot of non-Christians here, and they don't know what it is." Even among Christians, I haven't seen that done before, at least not in a wedding.

It was so beautiful. The whole time that they were doing that, I was thinking, "Jesus did this as a last thing before he went to the cross." Last thing. I mean, he's going to go to the cross. He's going to sacrifice for sins for people that don't deserve it.

And the last thing he did was he humbled himself and became nothing. Serving them, washing their dirty, filthy feet. He didn't glorify himself. He emptied himself, became nothing. And the way he attracted his disciples is by serving us, by giving us more grace, by giving us more love. So that now when we remember Christ, it is not his fist.

It is his love that attracts us. We're compelled by the love of Christ. And that's what real grace is. That's what gospel-centeredness really ought to be, is that we are so compelled by this love that we pursue holiness like we've never done before. We're broken like we've never been before.

We're gracious like we've never been gracious before. And we love his word more than we've ever done before. Because we are drawn to the love of God like a magnet. And that's his faithfulness. His faithfulness is that he calls us to holiness by his grace. And if you get any part of that wrong, that's not a movement of God.

No movement of God highlights his forgiveness without highlighting his holiness. Because God is faithful to himself. Would you take a minute to close your eyes and pray with me? And I know what we're talking about may be theology, may be just simple principles, but the application is absolutely crystal clear.

God is faithful to everything that he has revealed in scripture. So what does that mean to us in application? That we need to be faithful to everything that he has set an example of. As he is faithful to his grace, we need to be faithful to his grace. As he is faithful to his holiness, we need to be faithful to his holiness.

Anything less than that is not the gospel. Let's take a few minutes to come before the Lord in prayer. And honestly pray before God. Search me and know me. See if there's any hurtful ways in me. If there's anything that I have embraced or thought or projected for my selfish gain, instead of really seeking the truth, ask the Lord to reveal that in your heart.

That we may continue to repent, continue to confess, and continue to have a deep and gracious and growing fellowship with our Lord. So let's take some time to pray as we come before the Lord in prayer. (upbeat music)