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The Dark Side - Romans 3:10-26

Taught on | Topic: sin nature | Keywords: fear of God, grace, guilt, judgment, justification, justify, the law, propitiation, redemption, religion, righteousness

God created humans in His own image. But even with God's imprint in humanity, people have a dark side—a sin nature—because of Adam and Eve's rebellion. One consequence of our rebellion against God is guilt, but in today's society, many people try to minimize both sin and guilt by casting them in a deceptively benign light. In this teaching, Nate Heitzig looks at what the book of Romans has to say about our true condition and its only remedy.

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11/1/2020
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The Dark Side
Romans 3:10-26
Nate Heitzig
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Message Summary
God created humans in His own image. But even with God's imprint in humanity, people have a dark side—a sin nature—because of Adam and Eve's rebellion. One consequence of our rebellion against God is guilt, but in today's society, many people try to minimize both sin and guilt by casting them in a deceptively benign light. In this teaching, Nate Heitzig looks at what the book of Romans has to say about our true condition and its only remedy.
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20/20: Seeing Truth Clearly

20/20: Seeing Truth Clearly

Over 175 million people in the United States need some sort of vision correction. From glasses to contacts and corneal reshaping to corrective surgery, there's no question that seeing clearly improves people's quality of life. But what about our spiritual vision? With so many religious, philosophical, and ideological lenses to look through, how do we find the right lens? In this series, Skip Heitzig brings the core doctrines of Christian faith into clear focus. These are the truths that define who God is, who we are, and the choices that every person has to make.

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Study Guide

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Connect Group Recap Notes: November 1, 2020

Speaker: Nate Heitzig
Teaching: “The Dark Side”
Text: Romans 3:10-26

Path

God created humans in His own image. Even with God’s imprint in humanity, people have a dark side, a sin nature, because of the fall. From the fall and sin another consequence arises: guilt. But in today’s society, many people try to brush away sin and guilt, calling the fruit from the fall a syndrome or a disorder. In this teaching, Pastor Nate Heitzig looks at what the Bible has to say about our condition.

  • Charged by Our Conduct
  • Judged by His Word
  • Pardoned by His Compassion

Points

Charged by Our Conduct

  • In Romans 3, the apostle Paul continued an argument he began in Romans 2 about God’s judgment, showing that all have sinned.
  • Paul presented thirteen charges against human nature in three different categories:
    • Character
    • Conversation
    • Conduct

    • Quoting Psalm 51 and 58, Paul argued that people are born with a built-in sinful nature.
    • Paul was declaring that the good in humans can’t satisfy the holiness of God; God is far beyond human righteousness and holiness, making our righteousness like “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).
    • Therefore, Paul wrote, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8).

    • Furthermore, Paul argued that “there is none who seeks after God” (Romans 3:11). He wasn’t saying that humans aren’t religious; we are.
    • However, Christianity is not man’s search for God, but God’s search for and rescue of man.

    • God was never lost; people are. God is seeking to save that which is lost.

    Judged by His Word


    • Paul continued his argument by stating that people generally don’t fear God.
    • Fear—awe, wonder, disquiet, reverence—is an important facet of worshiping God (for example, see Proverbs 16:6).
    • As Solomon stated, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).

    • If we begin by revering God, everything else comes into balance.
    • When we combine reverence with love, we have two of the greatest motives for serving the Lord (see 2 Corinthians 5:9-15).
    • Notice the phrase “that every mouth may be stopped” (Romans 3:19). The law was not given to make a person righteous but to show us that we are sinners (see Galatians 3:24). It stops us in our tracks and makes us take stock.
    • The law is a moral mirror:

      • It condemns but does not convert us.
      • It challenges but does not change us.
      • It points a finger but doesn’t give us mercy.
    • In short, the law is the preparation for the gospel—it leads to love in Christ.
    • The law shows us that our goodness is useless, reminding us that we have all sinned and can’t help ourselves.
    • Our conviction causes us to ask how we can be saved. We must stop looking within ourselves and look to the resources of God.

    Pardoned by His Compassion

    • Here’s where the good news enters: “Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
    • Scripture makes it clear that there is a way to God based not on our merit, but on Christ’s sacrifice.
    • If we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive (see 1 John 1:9).
    • Before we discover the remedy for our sin, we must first accept God's diagnosis: we are sinners in need of a Savior.
    • In Christ, God the holy judge takes off His robes, puts down His gavel, and embraces us in love.

    • Why does God do this? Because of His grace—His unmerited favor and love.
    • We are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). To justify means to declare the rightness of something.
    • Justification is not a symbolic event but an actual pardoning, leading to our redemption.
    • Redemption is a word that carries the idea of delivering by paying a price. It was commonly used in the marketplace to refer to a ransom paid to free a slave.
    • The word propitiation in verse 25 carries the idea of appeasement or satisfaction. In short, God is satisfied with what Jesus accomplished on the cross; the righteous requirement of the law was met in God’s Son.

    Practice

    Connect Up: What does the holiness of God mean? Consider these concepts:

    • God is separate. How is God separate from humans—not when it comes to His presence but when it comes to His character? How is God separate from everything that is sinful and evil?

    • God is sacred. Why should humans fear, revere, and wonder at the Lord?
    • God alone encompasses holiness. How is God’s holiness connected to His might (see Revelation 4:8), exaltation (see Psalm 99:9), and perfect moral purity (see 2 Corinthians 7:1)?

    Connect In: How is the church to strike a balance between God’s love and judgment? Was it God’s love or judgment that drove you to Christ? How should both God’s love and judgment encourage us to walk as Christians? On that note, what do you think Paul meant when he said, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12)? How does both reverence/fear and love lead to worship?

    Connect Out: As Pastor Nate said, falling into sin doesn’t condemn you, but staying in it does. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit—working in love—how would you explain to a nonbeliever that we are all born into sin but don’t need to stay under its influence? What examples would you use to show that sin is real? How can you use the concept of guiltto underscore your point? How can guilt lead a person to Christ? Share a personal story if you have one.

Detailed Notes

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November 1, 2020
Nate Heitzig
"The Dark Side"
Romans 3:10-26
  1. Introduction
    1. Mankind stands apart from the rest of God's creation
      1. We alone are created in His image
      2. God has set eternity in our hearts
    2. Though we desire something greater—to serve Jesus—there is a dark side to us
      1. Our nature is based on the fall
      2. We all have a sin nature
    3. We strive for more, but sometimes we hit an invisible wall
    4. Sin and guilt are real, but no one wants to talk about them these days
      1. Self-esteem is an outgrowth of the avoidance
      2. A Gallup poll showed 90 percent of people say they have a strong sense of self-esteem, yet our society is deteriorating
      3. The crusade to improve self-esteem has invaded every sector of life
        1. Education is a primary target
        2. New study from American Psychological Association says raising self-esteem might be dangerous
        3. Some individuals have an inflated sense of self-worth that doesn't match up with reality
        4. Violence is now more associated with high self-esteem than low
        5. We have a generation that doesn't want to be told they're wrong about anything
        6. "The politics of victimization have taken the place of more traditional expressions of morality and equity" —Charles Sykes
    5. Should we feel guilt? Is it a good thing for society? Let's see what God has to say
  2. Charged by Our Conduct
    1. In Romans 3, Paul addressed the issue of sin
      1. Men feel guilty for one reason: they are
      2. Guilt is a symptom of the real problem: sin
        1. Some Christians need to move past their guilt over their sinful past
        2. We need to live as the new creations in Christ that we are
        3. But unconfessed sin should make us feel guilty
    2. Romans 3 makes it clear that all have sinned
      1. Paul laid out the evidence as a courtroom testimony, using the Old Testament to make his case
      2. Paul also systematically laid out the criteria for getting to heaven
      3. He addressed those who think they are good enough, presenting thirteen charges against human nature in three different categories:
        1. Character: our innermost being (see vv. 10-12)
        2. Conversation: our words (see vv. 13-14)
        3. Conduct: our outward actions (see vv. 15-17)
    3. "There is none righteous, no, not one" (v. 10)
      1. Our righteousness is not under our control
      2. Our sin nature results from Adam's choice
        1. We aren't sinners because we sin; we sin because we're sinners
        2. We have no control over this; it's how it is for everyone
        3. Paul quoted David's acknowledgement of this truth (see Psalm 51:5; 58:3)
      3. People do commendable things, both believers and unbelievers
        1. But our inward character has no good that can satisfy God's requirements
        2. God's standards are high: perfection in both inner and outer character
    4. "There is none who seeks after God" (v. 11)
      1. With all the religions in the world, how can that be?
      2. Because religion is man's search for God, but Christianity is God's search for man
      3. We can't be religious enough to satisfy God
      4. We must humble ourselves and give our lives to God to satisfy Him
    5. Many people refuse Jesus Christ because they refuse to accept they are hopelessly sinful
      1. Many people will go to anything else in the world besides Jesus: self-help books, gurus, Hollywood, the gym, drugs and alcohol, etc.
      2. But no one besides Jesus can tell you the truth about your situation, and no one else can help you out of it
      3. God is seeking to save that which is lost: us
    6. Paul brought the charges against humankind, and now judgment was issued
  3. Judged by His Word
    1. Paul said that people generally don't fear God
    2. This is why we fell into sin in the first place (see Romans 1:28)
    3. There are many misconceptions about what the fear of God is
      1. It's not a horror film type of fear
      2. It's not fear of a bully
      3. It's the fear of displeasing God (see Proverbs 16:6), not fear of His discipline
        1. Because of what He has done for us, we don't want to displease Him (see Proverbs 9:10)
        2. With a healthy fear of and love for God, everything will fall into place (see 2 Corinthians 5:9-15)
    4. In verse 19, Paul said that the law shows us that we are sinners in need of God
      1. The law was not given to make us righteous
      2. It exists to show us beyond a doubt that we are sinners (see Galatians 3:24)
      3. The law is a moral mirror (see v. 20)
        1. It condemns but does not convert us
        2. It challenges but does not change us
        3. It points a finger but doesn't give us mercy
      4. In short, the law is the preparation for the gospel—it leads to love in Christ
        1. The law shows us that our goodness is useless
        2. It reminds us that we have all sinned and can't help ourselves
    5. Our conviction causes us to ask how we can be saved
      1. We must stop looking within ourselves and look to God
      2. It sounds hopeless, but there's good news: "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8)
  4. Pardoned by His Compassion
    1. Scripture makes it clear that there is a way to God: if we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive (see 1 John 1:9)
    2. You won't accept God's remedy for sin if you don't first accept His diagnosis
    3. Spiritually, without Christ, we are in a worst-case scenario
    4. By God's grace, we are declared not guilty
      1. The holy Judge, whose requirements we can never satisfy, puts down His gavel and embraces us in love
      2. It is based not on our merit but on Christ's sacrifice
    5. We are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (v. 24)
      1. To justify means to declare the rightness of something
      2. Justification is not a symbolic event but an actual pardoning
      3. Jesus' sacrifice pardons us, leading to our redemption
      4. Redemption is a word that carries the idea of delivering by paying a price
        1. It was commonly used in the marketplace to refer to a ransom paid to free a slave
        2. God offered Himself to take the wrath we deserved
      5. Propitiation (v. 25) carries the idea of appeasement or satisfaction
        1. God is satisfied with what Jesus accomplished on the cross
        2. The righteous requirement of the law was met in God's Son
Figures referenced: Donald Grey Barnhouse, John MacArthur, Charles Sykes

Cross references: Psalm 51:5; 58:3; Proverbs 9:10; 16:6; Romans 1:28; 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:9-15; Galatians 3:24; 1 John 1:9

Topic: sin nature

Keywords: fear of God, grace, guilt, judgment, justification, justify, the law, propitiation, redemption, religion, righteousness

Transcript

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The Dark Side - Romans 3:10-26 - Nate Heitzig

God isn't really something to worship.

He's just going to destroy all of us.

I guess there's a God out there somewhere.

I hope there is a God.

God isn't really something to worship.

God is everywhere.

Well, good morning and welcome to Calvary Church. Who's excited to be in the house today? Great to be here with you. Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 3, we're going to in verses 10 through 26 as we continue in our series 2020 Seeing Truth Clearly.

And last week pastor Skip gave a great message talking about as we've moved into the doctrine of anthropology. That is the doctrine of man-- of mankind. And we saw last week that in the beginning God created man in his own image, and this as we already pointed out is a truly incredible and wonderful thing. And he created us not only in his image outwardly, but he created us in His image in so many different facets and unique characteristics. And that cannot be said of any of God's other creations besides man.

Man stands apart with some very unique characteristics. And one of those qualities of man, one of my favorites is the recognition that there's something more to life. Have you ever felt that that there's something more? Even at a very young age before you were a Christian, before you heard the gospel you just felt that there had to be something more, there had to be something greater?

And so we strive for this as human beings to reach out to something more than what is here on this earth or, as Scripture says, he has set eternity in man's hearts. He has set eternity in their hearts. Now if you spend too long thinking about eternity, your brain will just like blow up because it's hard to even fathom and understand eternity. But God has said eternity within our hearts, a desire for eternity, a desire for something greater.

Now although we are created in the image of God and that's beautiful and wonderful to think about. When we think about that truth, for me it's a comforting thought to think about that. But there is a dark side to us, isn't there? It's not all gumdrops and lollipops.

I wished that whenever somebody looked at my life or looked at any of our lives, they just saw Jesus. But that's not the case, is it? Why? Because we have a dark side.

And that's the title of this message this weekend, and it is the dark side. And just because it's Halloween weekend, I'm not going to be talking about Star Wars or Darth Vader. This is about the dark side, which really is our very nature which is the fall. And we're going to be talking about the fall of mankind and the sin nature that each and every one of us has.

One way that I like to describe this sin nature or this fall, this dark side that we have is, well, we have eternity in our hearts and we're striving for more and we're striving for greater and we desire this relationship with our eternal creator. Sometimes it feels like we just hit an invisible wall, doesn't it? Have you ever felt that? Like, you so want to be better. You so want to be good. You so want to follow Jesus, but sometimes it feels like you just hit a wall and you can't understand why that is. It repels us.

Well, the problem is with mankind. The problem is with you and I, and it's called sin. Now sin is a word that's gone completely out of fashion. People don't want to talk about sin anymore.

People don't want to be told they're a sinner. They don't want to be told they're wrong. They want to be petted and assuaged and told that they're great and beautiful and unique snowflakes. Nobody wants to be told that they're a sinner in this day and age. And another word that regularly accompanies the word sin is another word that people don't want to think about, and that is the word guilt.

Sin and guilt are two things that our society today wants nothing to do with, and that's because we like to believe that as humans we're basically good, don't we? We like to think that we're OK. That we've got it all together. And that belief is reinforced by psychologists, by counselors, and even by a great many religious leaders.

And an outgrowth of that is self-esteem, self-esteem. Now self-esteem is the operative phrase of the day. People don't want to be talking about sin or guilt. They want to talk about self-esteem. In a survey conducted in 1940, 11% of women and 20% of men agreed with this statement I am an important person. Jumped to the 1990s those figures jumped up to 66% of women and 62% of men believing that they are an important person. Jump to today that number is around 80% of people will agree with the statement, I am an important person.

Another poll done by Gallup 90% of people surveyed said that their sense of self-esteem is robust and healthy, and yet amazingly as we look at society today the fabric of society is deteriorating. Things are getting worse and worse, and yet we're feeling better and better about ourselves. Isn't it interesting how that correlation is happening? Society, the fabric of society the fabric of what you and I hold dear seems to be slowly unraveling and deteriorating, and yet self-esteem is thriving.

But let me ask you a question. Does self-esteem make us better people? Does thinking we're good make us good? Does thinking we're righteous make us righteous? Does thinking that everything's OK make everything OK?

An article by USAA today hit on the other side of this coin, and it did an article called Self Esteem's Dark Side Emerges, and it says this. "as we squander money building students egos, we feed crime. We've heard it so often that none of us question whether it's actually true. You've got to feel good about yourself in order to succeed.

The crusade to improve self-esteem has invaded every sector of life, public and private, but nowhere more pervasively than education. School reformers have spent millions of in the past two decades trying to raise the self-esteem of poor achievers, and now a new study published in the American Psychological Association suggests that raising self-esteem might actually be dangerous, especially among individuals whose inflated sense of self-worth doesn't comport with reality." And we're all like, duh, of course. Participation trophies don't help anybody.

According to three research psychologists who evaluated dozens of studies of violent behavior, high self-esteem is more often associated with violence than low self-esteem. Isn't that interesting? Right now we have a generation of fragility, a generation that doesn't ever want to be told that they're wrong. They never want to be told that they failed. They never want to be told that they can't do something.

And we have a generation that gets participation trophies in sports that they're not good at, a generation that doesn't want to get an F in a class. They just want to be told that if they try hard enough that they're going to succeed. We have a generation that is told if you believe in anything sincerely enough that it can be true, and the second someone tells them that they've lost or that they're wrong or that they don't get their way or they fail they lose their minds.

I challenge you. Try this. You might not want to but it'd be funny. This week in 2020 try telling anybody that they're wrong about anything. Oh my goodness. The vitriol and hatred that you get from them, because they might be wrong about something. Anything, it could be anything. And if you tell them that they're wrong, they just can't handle that that truth or that reality that there's a possibility that they've made a mistake.

And so they blame other people. Somebody else must be to blame. Somebody else must be wrong. I can't be wrong. You must be wrong.

You know the Bible tells us that this is one of the very signs of the end days. In 2 Timothy 3:1-- it's going to be on the screens-- it says this. "There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power." Doesn't that sound like it was ripped from the headlines of 2020? I mean that sounds like a perfect description of society today.

But we say I'm not responsible for my actions. I'm a victim. I have a disorder. I have a disease.

In his book, A Nation of Victims, Charles Sykes writes the. The politics of victimization have taken the place of more traditional expressions of morality and equity. If you lose a job, you can sue for mental distress of being fired. If your bank goes broke, the government will insure your deposit. If you drive drunk and crash, you can sue someone for failing to warn you or cutting you off.

Our problems today are a result of being a victim, which is the result of some syndrome or disorder. There is always someone else to blame. No one is guilty anymore.

And that really leads us to this pesky thing that we talked about before, which is called guilt. Nobody likes feeling guilty for anything. Nobody likes to feel shame for something they've done.

As a matter of fact, Angelina Jolie the actress said, I don't believe in guilt. I believe in living on impulse. I think you should live completely free. Obviously she doesn't think that Brad should live completely free, because he lived on impulse and she didn't want him to but she should.

Why is it that we feel guilt? Let me ask you maybe a better question. Should we feel guilt? Should we experience guilt? Is it good, or like society is telling us is it a bad thing?

What about sin? Is sin real? Is there somebody who's defining and setting a list of things that are right and wrong, or are we all just victims with diseases? And is self-esteem the answer to our problems today. Well, I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of hearing what society in Hollywood has to say about this topic. So let's see what God says let's turn to Romans chapter 3 and read verses 10 through 20.

"There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one.

Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues, they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.

Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth might be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin." Let's stop there. We're going to read the rest of those verses in just a second.

But here Paul addresses the issue, and that is this. Men feel guilty for one reason. They are. You and I feel guilty for one reason. We are.

We are guilty. We should feel guilt. We should feel shame, because we collectively as a society, as mankind have done things that we should feel guilty about. See the guilt feeling is only the symptom of the real problem. The real problem isn't guilt. The real problem is sin.

Now I do believe that there is a problem to a certain extent with self-esteem in this culture. I think it's good to be sure in who God created you to be. It's good to have esteem in God and who God made you to be. And I also think that some Christians really struggle with guilt in an unhealthy way. I've known who come, they give their lives to Christ, they're forgiving of their sins, they've repented of their sins, but they can't get away from the guilt of what they've done in their past. And so they're constantly living in their past rather than in the new creation that Christ has made them to be, and that's unhealthy.

But the opposite is also true. People who have not confessed their sins should feel guilt. Put it this way. If your sin is confessed, then you shouldn't feel guilt because it's been forgiven. But if your sin is unconvinced you should feel guilt because you haven't addressed the real problem. And all the psychological counseling in the world cannot relieve a person of this kind of guilt.

You can pretend it's not there. You can find someone else to blame for your problems, but the only real and effective way to remove guilt is to get to the root of the problem, which plainly is sin. Donald Grey Barnhouse put it this way.

He said, "man stands before God today like a little boy who swears with crying tears that he has not been anywhere near the jam jar and with an air of outraged innocence pleads the justice of his position, in total ignorance of the fact that a good spoonful of the jam has fallen just on his shirt under his chin and is plainly visible to everyone but himself." It's a perfect description of society, of mankind.

We like to plead our innocence, say that we're good, say that we haven't done anything. All the while the jam is sitting on our shirt showing the world and showing God that we indeed are guilty. In this passage, it's says though we are in God's courtroom and Paul is allowing us to give our defense and he patiently wait as each and every person gives every known excuse for why they've done what they've done or why they deserve to go to heaven, well, it was my upbringing and that's why I am the way that I am.

I'm not actually that bad. There's other people who are worse than me. I didn't know that this was the truth. No one told me that there was right and wrong. And then with absolute precision, he systematically destroys every potential argument that we have for why we think we're good, and that's what a good chunk of Romans is about.

And at the end, no one is left standing. The Holy Spirit shows through Paul that every single one of us has sinned, everyone-- the ignorant pagan who doesn't know the difference, the religious person who thinks that they're doing a number of religious things and that's going to make them good, the moralist who thinks that if they're just a good person and are kind to people then that's going to be enough. And beginning with verse 10 and continuing through verse 18, Paul introduces before the current court as it were a testimony, the testimony of God's word as revealed in the Old Testament. Let's look at our first point, and that is that you and I are charged by our conduct.

Let's read versus 10 through 17 again. And as we do we're going to see that Paul breaks this section up into 13 different charges, and they're presented in three different categories. The first category verses 10 through 12 is concerning the character. That is to say the innermost being, not the outward man that the world sees, not the outward actions of good and bad but the inward heart.

Next, Paul transitions to the conversation. In verses 13 through 14, he addresses things that come from our lips, things that come from our mouth. And then finally he addresses our conduct in verses 15 through 17. This is the outworking. This is the outward actions that the world actually sees, and as we go through this is important to understand that he put this in order for a reason.

Because there's some people out there who say I'm a good person, because I do good things. But then the question is, OK, you do good things, but do you always say good things? When you're in a room with certain people, are there things that come out of your mouth? Do you tear people down?

Do you lie? Do you slander? Do you gossip?

And then Paul carries it, and he says, OK, maybe you do good things and you say good things. But what about your heart? Do you think bad things? Do you think evil things? Where is your heart in this situation? So Paul systematically gives us an understanding of if you want to be a good person and go to heaven based on your good works and your law, this is the criteria.

Let's read again versus 10 through 17. "There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God.

They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one."

Now Paul moves from the character, and he addresses the conversation. "Their throat is an open tomb with their tongues. They have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips whose math is full of cursing and bitterness."

And now verse 15 through 17 he shifts to our conduct. "Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes."

In verse 10 Paul starts it off and he says, "there is none righteous, no, not one." Now I don't know about you, but it's easy to read that and say Paul that seems a little extreme. I mean, there is some righteous people in the world, right? I mean, you've got to be righteous Paul. The apostles have to be righteous. There's got to be some good people some righteous people in the world.

But it's essential to know that what Paul is speaking of is he's speaking of something that is not under your control, because again he's not speaking of outward righteousness. He's speaking of inward character. And he's speaking of a built in sin nature that you have absolutely no control over, because somebody named Adam made a choice thousands of years ago that brings that sin nature and is built into you because of the decisions that Adam and Eve made within the garden.

It's essential to understand this, because again he's talking about the innermost being. This is a sinful nature that we inherited through Adam, the dark side. Let's put it this way. My sins don't make me a sinner. My sins are simply evidence of the truth, and that is that I am a sinner.

Or put it this way. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin, because we're sinners. The reason you and I sin is because we have a built in sin nature. You don't teach a baby how to sin. That built in sin nature ultimately gets expressed, because they're sinners.

David recognized this when he wrote in Psalm 51, "behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." a similar description of our sinful nature is found in Psalm 58:3. He says, "the wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking the lies." Paul again affirms this when he says, "we were by nature the children of wrath like the rest of mankind."

You and I are born with a sin nature. Now of course we don't all commit the same sins. You and I each struggle with unique things that are hardwired into us because of that sin nature. There are certain predispositions that you might have because of that sin nature, and I also believe even though all sin is level of the foot of the cross, and it's viewed the same by Jesus, there are some sins that are in many ways worse than others because of the physical consequences that they bring.

And certainly there is an innocence in a child, especially a small one. Who in here has had kids before or has kids now? Do remember holding your baby the first time and looking at your baby the first time? It was so innocent and pure.

You didn't look at your baby for the first time and say you little sinner. No, that thought didn't even come to your mind. That baby could do no wrong. It was perfect but not for long.

Give it a few months and that sin nature becomes manifested in its actions. It begins to do things that you didn't have to teach. You didn't have to teach it to lie. You didn't have to teach it to steal. You didn't have to teach your baby how to throw a tantrum when it doesn't get what it wants.

The sin nature is alive and well in each and every one of us. Verse 10, Paul says again there is none righteous, no, not one. Then he carries it on a little bit further in verse 12. And he says not only is there none righteous, but there is no one who does any good. There is no one who does good, no, not one.

Now again, we can read this and say, Paul, that's a bit melodramatic. There is a lot of people who do good things. There is a lot of people who do kind things.

We have nurses and doctors. They do good things. We have strangers who help little old ladies across the road. That's a good thing to do.

Now what Paul is saying, again, he's not addressing our outward actions. Remember he's addressing our inward character, and he's addressing what the definition of good is and also who gets to define the definition of what good is. See this does not mean that man does not do commendable things, because there are people who are great humanitarians and heroes today. I like you have met many nonbelievers who were good people, honest, caring, considerate-- sometimes by the way, even more so than professed Christians, which is a serious indictment on the church.

But that's not what this message is talking about. That's not the issue being dealt with here. God is not saying that there is no good in man in general. Rather he is saying that there is no good in man that can satisfy God. That's the distinguishing factor here.

There is no good with inside you or me that can satisfy God. Paul said in Romans 8:8, those that are in the flesh cannot please God. The word righteous means one who is such as he ought to be. And when the Bible says there is no one righteous, he is not speaking so much of behavior. But again of inner character.

See God's standards are high to say the least. God's standards if you want to know what God's standards are for you to get into heaven based off of your own works is that you must be absolutely perfect, absolutely perfect not just in your outward conduct verses 15 through 17, you must always do good. You must never do bad.

You must perpetually do good. You must also perpetually speak good you can never say anything bad about anybody, never slander anybody. And also your thoughts, you can never think bad about anybody. You can ever think evil thoughts or impure thoughts or selfish thoughts. You must be 100% absolutely perfect.

Jesus described it in Matthew 5:48 a step further, and He said, "You are to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect." In other words, if you want to know how good you have to be to get into heaven, you have to be as good as God. Anyone want to try to take that challenge on?

Anyone want to stand and say, yeah, I'm as good as God. Whew! It's a dangerous statement to claim. In other words, a person who is not as good as God is not acceptable to God. See, man is not basically good, he's basically sinful.

And before you say, well, that's not fair, Nate. That's not a fair test. No one can accomplish that. Nobody can ace that test. That's the point.

And also, do you realize that we have certain tests in society today that determine how good you are for you to be able to achieve a certain profession or thing that you want to do? Follow me, here. You can really, earnestly desire, sincerely, to be a brain surgeon. You can say, if I was a brain surgeon, I'd help so many people. I'd help-- I'd be a pro bono brain surgeon.

I'd do the best things in the world. I'd be the best brain surgeon. But if you're not good enough to pass the test for medical school, you're not good enough to be a brain surgeon. You might sincerely want to be a lawyer and say, I would be the best lawyer. I want to be a lawyer so bad. But if you're not good enough to pass the bar exam, you're not good enough to be a lawyer.

You can earnestly desire to be a football player or a baseball player professionally. But if you can't throw a ball or run fast, you're not good enough to be a professional sports player. There are certain things in life that there is a test by which we must be tested in order to see if we're good enough to achieve the desired goal.

And the test to see if you're good enough to get to heaven on your own is that you must be absolutely perfect. Now, if that offends you and you say, well, that's just not fair, you might want to stop now because it doesn't get much better. Let's look at verse 11. Paul carries it a step further, and he says, "None seek after God."

So not only is there none righteous, there's none good, there's no one who even seeks after God. Now, you would think that with all the religious belief systems, this simply could not be true. Paul is not saying that man is not religious. Because unfortunately, we are incurably so.

Rather, Paul is saying that religion is man's search for God. Well, Christianity is God's search for man. See, a lot of us want to have this quest by which we find righteousness, by which we find God. We want to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, pull ourselves out of the muck and the mire, and we want to be the ones to find God, and in doing so, believe that that will make us righteous.

But Christianity is based on the fact that it's not until we humble ourselves and give up and say, I can't do this journey on my own, so I'm going to sit here in the muck and the mire until you find me. And then when you find me, I will graciously give my life to you. And in doing so, that is where I'll find righteousness.

See, God was never lost. We are. And God is seeking to save that which was lost. See, the bottom line why many don't want to come to Jesus Christ is simply because they bristle at the thought that they are hopelessly sinful. They just can't take the step to admit that they're wrong, to admit that they are marred by the stain of sin, to admit that they don't have it all togheter, that they don't understand everything.

They can't come to that place and admit that they need Jesus. They're unwilling to accept God's assessment as to the sinful nature of their being. And so they say, I don't like that diagnosis, God, I don't like that test. That seems unfair. So I'm going to get a second opinion.

I'm going to go into the world and see what the world has to say about how good I am. I'm going to go to self-help books, and gurus, and Hollywood, and the gym, and I'm going to do drugs, and alcohol, and find women or men who can please me, and I'm going to find my self-worth and satisfaction there, because I don't like your opinion. But understand this. There was no one else that you can go to who will tell you the truth besides Jesus.

He's the only one who will tell you the truth about who you are. Think of it this way. Let's say that you're going to the doctor for a routine checkup, and in the midst of the checkup and doing all the tests, the doctor says that he found something that's concerning on a scan. And he thinks that it might be cancer.

He tells you that he wants to do a few more tests on you, because potentially, you could die of this cancer if you don't take it seriously. You have two options at that point, you can either trust the doctor and the medical experience and the knowledge that he has, and submit yourself to him and say, all right, I'm all yours. Do what you gotta do, let's take care of this.

Or you can say, I don't like your opinion. I don't like that you told me that I'm sick or that I have cancer. So I'm going to go get a second opinion.

And you go out into the street and you find Joe Schmo and you say, hey, I'll give you $100 if you tell me that I'm OK. Well, that's the easiest money that guy's ever made. It doesn't mean it's true.

There's only one person you can go to who will tell you the truth and help you with your predicament, and that's the doctor. The same is true with our spiritual life. Some of us don't like the opinion that God has given of our character and we don't want to submit to His knowledge, and His guidance, and let Him change us, and transform us, and help us grow.

And so we say, I'm going to go to the world. So I'm going to give this book, or this doctor, or this person my money to tell me that I'm OK. But there's no one else who will tell you the truth except for Jesus. The very fact that men react against this teaching is simply one more proof of it.

They love the lie that they are good more than the truth that they are sinners. So now we've seen up to verse 17 that the charges have been leveled against us. Now, let's move to our second point, and that is the judgment is issued. The charges have been leveled and now the judgment is issued.

Let's look at verse 18 through 20 as we see our next point, judged by His word. "Now, we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before Go", underline that word, guilty, "Therefore, by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin."

In verse 18, just before that, Paul says, that "There is none who fear God." No one has the fear of God. And in the first chapter of Romans, this was mentioned as the reason for humanity falling into sin in the first place. Romans 1:28 says, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things that are not fitting."

The fear of God is so important within a believer's life. I believe it's one of the crucial things that we have to understand, and understand, really, what it is. Because there's a lot of misconceptions about what the fear of God is. The fear of God is not like Bruce Almighty talks about, a giant bully with a magnifying glass burning aunts and worthy ants.

That's not what the fear of God is about. It's not some horror film type of fear, when we see God we shriek and we're terrified of Him. It's not the fear of discipline, it's the fear of displeasing.

Proverbs 16:6 says, "By the fear of the Lord, one keeps away from evil." This is why during the tribulation period, things get so spiritually dark, because the church is raptured and man casts off all restraint. Or as we talked about a few weeks ago when we addressed the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit is removed, and the salt and light-- you and I-- are taken away, the mystery of lawlessness will be revealed because there is no one on Earth that has the fear of the Lord, has the knowledge of God.

And as you read all the passages in the Bible concerning the fear of the Lord, you quickly realize it's not about being frightened by God or what He will do to you, rather, it's a word that speaks of awe and reverence. It is a wholesome dread of displeasing Him because of what He's done for you. This is why the Scripture says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

If you can get to this place within your life, everything else will fall into balance. If you can have a healthy fear of God, and if you can combine that with a love for God, you will get to the place of understanding why we serve God, why we do things for God, why we read our Bible. We don't read our Bible because it's like a test, and if we don't read our Bible, we're going to fail on the principal's going to slap our hands with a ruler.

We don't serve God out of fear that if we fail to do so we're going to get in trouble. We do so because we love God. We do so because we have a holy awe that we don't want to displease Him. 2 Corinthians 5:9 says, "So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it also is plain for your conscience."

And then, in 2 Corinthians 5:14, just five versus later, he says, "The love of Christ constrains me. The love of Christ constrains me." Let's read verse 19 again, Paul says, in Romans chapter 3, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God."

There is an important realization that we come to here in this place, and that is this. The law was not given to make a person righteous. As a matter of fact, it's impossible for the law to make a person righteous. Paul says, "We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God." The law was meant to show us beyond the shadow of a doubt that every single one of us is a sinner.

Galatians tells us it was like a schoolmaster driving us to Christ. When we look at all the righteous requirements of the law, it should drive us to Christ. We like to think that it's there to make us righteous. And many people do believe that the law is there to make you righteous. They're like, man, it's just 10 things. So if I do those 10 things, then I'm good, that's all I've got to do.

But there's so much more than that, because these 10 things grow as we talk about things of the heart, things of the mind, things of the mouth. It's more than just not murdering somebody, it's not hating somebody. It's more than just not having sex with somebody, it's not lusting after them with your eyes.

It's more than just not stealing from somebody, it's having envy and jealousy about what that person has and wanting what that person has. I mean, that's Instagram 101, right? Instagram should just be called Jealousygram. It's like, just, what does that person have? I want that. I want what they have.

It's hardwired into us. It's not meant to make us righteous. It's meant to show us that it's impossible for us to be righteous. It's meant to show us how unrighteous we are. Because apart from Christ, we are hopeless.

Verse 20, Paul continues on. He says, "By the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight." I want to point this out because we're going to come back to this in just a second. It doesn't say that there's no possibility of being justified.

Rather, it says, "By the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified." By the law, by keeping commandments, by trying to be good, there is no possibility of being justified. See, the law is just a moral mirror. It's all the law is.

If you go look in the mirror this afternoon and you don't like what you see, you can't blame the mirror. It's not the mirror's fault. And also, the mirror can't change you. The mirror is not there to change you.

You can't look in the mirror and say, I don't like that, let's try another one, and then it will change you. No, the mirror is simply there to show you, to challenge you, to tell you, hey, if you don't like what you see, do something about it. Go to the gym, start eating better, go to bed earlier.

It's just meant to show you what's there, not to change what's there. It condemns, it doesn't convert. It challenges, it doesn't change. It points the finger, it doesn't show mercy.

That's what the law is. It's a mirror for us to look in and go, ooh, that's me? That's what I look like? Those are the things that I struggle with? Oh, that's bad.

And the mirror's like, yeah, it is bad. You should do something about it. What can you do about it? We're going to find the answer in just a second.

See, the law is a preparation for the gospel. The gospel is the provision. The law is just a preparation for the gospel, the gospel is the provision of the law.

Paul is saying that mankind has no defense and is guilty of all charges, but just in case there's a few exceptionally self-righteous religious people in the room that think that they're perfect, Paul kind of closes out by saying, there is no salvation through keeping the law. Even if you want to try, even if you want to give it you're good college effort, there is no salvation, there's no justification through keeping the law, because we're unable to.

No one, no matter how holy, can obey God perfectly. And under the law, there can be only one sentence. And that sentence is death. So if you want to give it a go, go for it.

If you want to try and get to heaven by being a good person, go ahead. But I want to let you know it's a battle you've already lost before you've even begun. You are already sentenced to death because it's impossible. All are guilty.

The ignorant pagan, the religious person, the moralist, all are guilty. If you were watching Law and Order, this would be the point in the show where everyone gasps. [GASPS] This is the moment in the show when Judge Jesus says, all right, can the accused stand? And everyone stands.

And some people are sitting there thinking, man, this guy's definitely guilty, but I'm OK. I'm pretty good. I go to church twice a week, I read my Bible, I sing those songs. You should hear me sing Oceans. Ooh, it's good.

We're thinking we're OK. We're thinking that the judgment is going to be set free. And then all of a sudden Jesus says, guilty. That guy? No, everyone. You're all guilty. All of humanity are guilty of having a sinful nature.

And all of us go, [GASPS]. Verse 19 says, "Every mouth might be stopped." Absolute silence is the only possible response as we realize the sin that we're guilty of and the punishment of that sin. See, before God, our best defense is useless. Our protests are ceased before they're even said. And here we are without defense because of the one who is leveling the charges.

Now, I know this all sounds pretty hopeless. You're like, man, I came to church to be encouraged today, Nate. It's 2020, this message sucks. Come on, give me something that will help me get through Tuesday. Something. It all sounds hopeless.

And I'll be honest, in one sense, it is. We've all sinned. We can't help ourselves. That's the reality. And it might cause us, like Job, to ask the question, how can a man be right before God?

Well, the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul, has revealed these sins in our character, our conduct, and our conversation, to show us some simple truths. And that is that we must stop looking within ourselves for the resources and answers that we need, and instead, in absolute weakness and helplessness, we need to turn to God.

This all sounds hopeless, this all sounds bleak, but there's some good news. Romans 5:8 says, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness."

So there is no one righteous, there's no one good. We need to understand, there's somebody who will impart His good and His righteousness to you, so that when you stand before Judge Jesus you can be declared set free because of what He did, not because of what you did. And that leads us to our final point as we close, and that is that we are pardoned by His compassion.

We are charged by our conduct, we are judged by His word, but we are pardoned by His compassion. Let's read versus 21 through 26 as we come to a close. "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace", underline that word, justified, "through the redemption", underline that word, "that is in Christ Jesus.

Whom set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God has passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Scripture makes it clear there is, indeed, a way to God.

But that way is not based on anything we can do to achieve it or to merit it. John MacArthur put it this way, "As far as the way of salvation is concerned, there are only two religions that the world has ever or will ever know. The religion of divine accomplishment, which is Biblical Christianity, and the religion of human accomplishment, which includes all other kinds of religion by whatever names they might go under." Paul, up to this point in Romans, has showed us the hopelessness of our situation up to this point, but chapter 3 verse 21, Paul shifts gears.

See, he's been sharing with you the severity of your situation because you won't accept God's remedy for your sin if you don't first accept His diagnosis. Again, it's like being at a doctor and them telling you have cancer. Oftentimes, they're going to let the worst case scenario.

They're going to let you know what that cancer could do to your body and what it could ultimately lead to, which might be death. And they're going to share with you the severity of the diagnosis so that you're ready and willing to accept the remedy for the diagnosis. And that's what God has done here.

He wants you to take the remedy for sin, but He realizes you won't unless you fully understand and accept the diagnosis. The first 20 verses were the diagnosis and here is the cure. Scripture makes it clear there is a way to God.

Mark Twain was asked what the two greatest words in the English language were. Want to know what his response was? Not guilty.

Aren't those great words, especially when you know you're guilty, especially when you know you've done something wrong, hearing those words, not guilty? This is what happens in Romans at this point. That Judge who is holy, whose righteous requirements we can't possibly satisfy, in essence, takes off His robes, puts down His gavel, and comes down to us who are guilty and welcomes us in love. Verse 24 tells us how.

Verse 24, look at it with me. It says it is, "by His grace." And now we come and we're going to close with three often used words in the Christian vocabulary. And that is justification, redemption, and propitiation.

Verse 24 says that we are justified. We are justified. This means to declare the rightness of something. Not symbolically or potentially, but actually, just as if it never happened. We like to say that we are justified. It is just as if I'd never sinned.

When we come to Jesus Christ through His grace and we accept what He has given, it is just as if we had never sinned. And why is it that we are viewed in that way? It's because of the redemption that Jesus Christ has paid upon our behalf.

This is the second word, redemption. It carries the idea of delivering something, especially by the means of paying a price. It was commonly used of paying a ransom to free a prisoner from his captors or paying a price to free a slave from their master. Now, this is something that we should all readily understand because it's a popular theme in movies and TV shows. It's the hostage situation, right?

Hostages are taken by somebody, and somebody else has to pay a price for the hostage captor to release those people into freedom. Imagine how amazed you'd be if, say, in one of those TV shows, the President of the United States offered to trade himself for the hostages being held. It'd be such a great sacrifice, right? Redemption.

But God did far more than that when He offered Himself in our place to take the wrath that we deserved. He took it upon Himself. We were guilty. We weren't free, we weren't innocent.

He paid the price of Himself. He traded Himself so that we guilty sinners could be set free. This is redemption. And it is by that redemption that we are justified.

In verse 25, our last word that I want to point out is the word propitiation. It's a beautiful word. It's a word that carries the idea of total, complete appeasement or satisfaction. 100% paid for.

You need to understand this. Doesn't matter what you've done in this world, doesn't matter how unrighteous or how not good you are, doesn't matter what your past looks like, you need to understand that God is satisfied with what Jesus did at Calvary. He might not be satisfied with what we've done, but He is satisfied with what Jesus has done at Calvary.

The righteous requirements of the law were met through the person of Jesus Christ. It is completely satisfied and we can be redeemed. The price can be paid for us to experience that same justification that Jesus Christ gives, if we freely accept it by the grace in which He gives it. That's what Paul is saying.

There's none righteous, there's no one good. We're all charged by our conduct, we're all judged by His word. But if you'll let Him, He will pardon you based on His compassion. Right now, this morning, you might be trapped in some kind of a sin right now. Your situation might be helpless, it might look hopeless to you.

But remember this, falling into sin doesn't condemn anybody. Staying in it does. Edwin Louis Cole said, "You don't drown by falling in the water, you drown by staying there." Every one of us has fallen into the water. We're all born into sin, born with a sin nature, the dark side.

You don't have a say in that. You can't control that. It's a decision that Adam made. But also, you don't have to face its penalty or its consequences. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us, cleanse us of all unrighteousness. So there is no one righteous, but there is a God who loves you who is righteous, and who will impart that righteousness to you and forgive you and cleanse you if you ask Him to.

Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the knowledge that it brings, the conviction that it brings, the guilt that it brings. Lord, guilt is a good thing because we are guilty, and we need to be shown that we need a Savior. So Lord, we thank you for that knowledge and that revelation to us.

But Lord, we also thank you for the encouragement and strength that brings us Christians, knowing that every one of us in this room who has called upon the name of Jesus, Lord, we are forgiven, not based on what we've done, but because of what you've accomplished. And Lord, that brings us comfort, that brings us joy.

And as we're praying right now, as we have our eyes closed and our heads bowed, if you haven't experienced that comfort and joy, knowing that your sins are forgiven, if you've been trying for a long time to work your way to heaven, you think that coming to church is good enough, you think that sitting here is good enough, reading your Bible is good enough, tithing is good enough, there's a lot of things you can do to look like a Christian, but there's only one thing you can do to actually be a Christian, and that is experience the forgiveness of your sin, which is only found in repenting of your sin and asking Jesus Christ to come into your life. If you want to leave here today knowing that you're forgiven, knowing that you're going to go to heaven, not based on what you've done but based on what Jesus has done, will you just raise your hand up so I can see it?

You're saying, Nate, pray for me, I need to be forgiven. Amen, right here in the middle, over here the left, a couple of you, over here, in the middle left, to my right. Over here in the back. God speaking to you right now, you respond to that call. You respond to that tug on your heart.

If you're sitting there and you know you need to do this-- maybe you've done it before, but you still feel that tug and you realize there are some things that have creeped into your life and you need to leave those things behind, you need to start a fresh walking with God, just raise up your hand. Don't resist it, don't push it away. Respond to God.

Amen, a couple of you. In the family room, to my left, in the balcony, a few of you. Praise the Lord. Well, if you raised your hand up, will you just, right now, after me, say these words? Say them out loud, say them from your heart.

This is simply a prayer asking Jesus to come into your life. Nothing magical is going to happen, you're not going to start floating or speaking in tongues. But what you are going to have is you're going to have Jesus Christ forgive you for all the things you've ever done, wash you white as snow. Not just the things you've done in the past, but the things you will do in the future.

Just say this after me. Say, Lord, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I've done many things that have hurt you. But Lord, I believe that you died for those things and that you rose from the dead.

So I ask you to come into my life, forgive me of my sins. I turn from my old life and I turn to you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Hey, let's give those who pray that prayer a round of applause. [APPLAUSE] There was quite a few of you who raised your hands, and we want to let you know you just took a big step, but it was the first step. We want to help you in this new walk and relationship that you have with Jesus Christ.

After the service, there's going to be a couple of people here at the front. They're going to have an after-service counselor badge, our decision team. We would love to pray with you, and encourage you, give you a Bible, and help you in this journey. Or, you can text the word saved, S-A-V-E-D, to 505-509-5433, and we'll get in contact with you and we'll send you all that stuff digitally and pray for you as well. But God bless you guys. We'll see you next Sunday as we continue in our series, 2020.

We hope you enjoyed this special service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how this message impacted you. Email us at mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can support this ministry with a financial gift at calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for this teaching from Calvary Church.

Additional Messages in this Series

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6/14/2020
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Seeing Truth Clearly
2 Timothy 4:1-8
Skip Heitzig
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Message Summary
Hiram Johnson said, "The first casualty in war is truth." God’s people have been in a cosmic battle since the fall. Satan’s first allegation against truth was in Genesis 3:1: "Has God indeed said...?" Deception regarding truth is Satan's primary occupation. We now live in what might be dubbed a post-truth culture wherein the very idea of absolute truth is considered archaic and even offensive. In this series, we will look to the "Scripture of Truth" (Daniel 10:21) to reinforce our foundation and engender biblical literacy. Here at the end of Paul's life, he could foresee the abandonment of truth, and he gave Timothy this antidote: "Preach the Word!"
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6/21/2020
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Seeing God as Father
Luke 11:2
Skip Heitzig
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God is presented in Scripture by a variety of images. He is called our Rock, our Refuge, our Warrior, our Shepherd, our Shield, our Hiding Place, our Redeemer, our Fountain, our Husband, and our Vinedresser. But no motif is as powerful and personal as seeing God as our Father. With this title, the invisible God becomes the intimate God. Today, on Father’s Day, we consider the singular phrase "Our Father in heaven" as an introduction to the doctrine of God. Let’s turn over each word and mine the depths of the riches contained in this great verse.
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6/28/2020
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How Can I Relate to God?
Exodus 32-34
Skip Heitzig
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The subject of God is the loftiest of all themes and the pinnacle of all pursuits. For some people, the idea of God is absurd because He is not readily perceived by the senses, like a flower or another person. But as we learn who God is and how perceptible He is to us, I think we’ll be both lifted up and humbled all at the same time. Today we trace the journey that every person must take who wants to relate to the God of the universe. Let’s examine five stages of this relationship.
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7/5/2020
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Biblical History: Fact or Fancy?
Dr. Steven Collins
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Dr. Steven Collins serves as the dean of the College of Archaeology at Veritas International University and a consulting research professor at Trinity Southwest University. He is also the director of the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project in Jordan, which is believed to be the location of Sodom.
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7/12/2020
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Hello, I’m God!
Exodus 34:5-9
Skip Heitzig
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People have written and spoken about God for millennia. It’s what I have done for nearly four decades. But today we get to hear from God Himself as He gives to Moses His own autobiography. Here He introduces Himself by stating His name and His occupation as God. He states His primary character traits, thus framing what our relationship with Him is going to be like. This is a primary passage of Scripture, meaning other biblical authors make reference to it later on in their writings. Let’s find out what God says about Himself.
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7/19/2020
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Knowing the God Who Knows You
Psalm 139:1-6, 23-24
Skip Heitzig
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A person with knowledge can be intimidating. They spew facts and figures and can dizzy us with information and understanding. But rightly seen, a study of God’s comprehensive knowledge can be a source of great comfort to us. In this series, 20/20: Seeing Truth Clearly, we come to grips with the fact that God sees everything most clearly. His knowledge is vast, infinite, comprehensive, specific, and personal. But let’s observe how God’s omniscience can become inspiring rather than intimidating.
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7/26/2020
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Here, There, and Everywhere
Psalm 139:7-12
Skip Heitzig
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One of the Beatles’ most melodic hits expressed a couple’s romantic desire to be together at all times and in all places and was simply titled, “Here, There and Everywhere.” This title also expresses a unique attribute of God (what theologians call an incommunicable attribute). He is everywhere present in the totality of His being! This may be one of the hardest-to-understand characteristics of God, but one that brings great comfort to us.
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8/2/2020
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The Unrivaled Power of God
Psalm 139:13-18
Skip Heitzig
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God is called Almighty fifty-seven times in Scripture. It means that the resources of His power are boundless. He is unlimited in His ability and unconstrained in His capacity. God’s attribute of omnipotence is helpful for us to remember when we are feeling overwhelmed with threatening circumstances. Just as we feel confident when our mobile devices have plenty of battery power to spare, we can live confidently knowing that our great God has power for any of our problems.
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8/9/2020
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Holy, Holy, Holy!
Isaiah 6:1-8
Skip Heitzig
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Holiness sounds scary. Thoughts of dusty, cloistered halls of a monastery fill our minds when we hear the word. We might think of chants and long prayers rather than anthems and short prayers. It hardly seems like an appropriate word for the twenty-first century! But according to one theologian, God’s holiness is the one attribute that binds all His other attributes together. This is the characteristic that most uniquely describes God. Let’s consider it today.
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8/16/2020
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One Plus One Plus One Equals One?
John 14:1-18
Skip Heitzig
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One of the most fundamental yet challenging truths in Scripture is the doctrine of the Trinity. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Try to explain it and you might lose your mind, but try to explain it away and you might lose your soul. The Bible openly teaches the plurality within the Godhead—three persons who are distinct from one another yet perfectly One in essence. How are we to think about this? And how should it affect us personally?
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8/23/2020
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Pain: God’s Biggest Problem
John 9:1-7
Skip Heitzig
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Perhaps the biggest impediment to believing in God (as stated by those who don’t) is the presence of pain and suffering in the world. How can there be a God who is benevolent and omnipotent with the sheer volume of grief, misery, travail, and torment at any given moment? Today we explore the theme of a loving God in a universe pockmarked by pain. As Jesus was in Jerusalem with His disciples, they came across a blind man. I’d like to show you four features of this most common and universal of human experiences.
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8/30/2020
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Christ Jesus Our Lord
Philippians 2:5-11
Skip Heitzig
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At the very center of history’s stage stands Jesus Christ. He has no peers. The Father in heaven sent Him on the mission of redemption and He humbly surrendered. When it was accomplished, He conquered death itself by resurrection and returned to glory. In what is considered by many to be the greatest single statement about Jesus Christ in the New Testament, Paul succinctly framed His humiliation, His exaltation, and His example to us.
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9/6/2020
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The Atonement: His Death, Our Life
John 12:20-33
Skip Heitzig
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Wasn’t there any other way for God to save human beings than by sending His Son to die? The very idea of a bloody crucifixion sounds brutal and barbarous to some, yet it is the centerpiece of our faith. What is the big deal about the atonement? Why the cross? Why had it been the plan of God through the ages? Today we examine the death of Christ for us and, in His own words, His own estimation of its necessity and consequence.
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9/13/2020
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He’s Alive! Proofs of the Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:3-8
Skip Heitzig
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Just as your own heart is the pump that brings life-giving blood to your entire body, so is the resurrection of Jesus that gives life to the gospel message. Without it, our faith would be totally useless; our message would be utterly powerless. The resurrection is also what separates Jesus Christ from every other spiritual leader and would-be messiah. It validates His teaching. It authenticates His claims. It substantiates His promises. And it corroborates our confidence in Him as our Savior and Lord.
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9/20/2020
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The Holy Spirit in the World
John 16:5-11
Skip Heitzig
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We are not alone in the universe! That’s the premise of most sci-fi documentaries, but I’m not referring to alien life from another galaxy, rather to the living God Himself. In particular, I am referring to the Holy Spirit. He has a particular role when it comes to working in this world, and that is to awaken people to their great need for Christ. In our series 20/20: Seeing Truth Clearly, we will turn in the next few weeks to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. What is His role in the life of the unbeliever and the life of the believer?
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10/11/2020
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Who Is the Holy Spirit?
John 16
Nate Heitzig
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There can be a lot of mystery and misinformation surrounding the Holy Spirit. When we look to Scripture, however, the third person of the Godhead comes into clear focus. In this teaching, Nate Heitzig describes the person of the Holy Spirit, His work both at scale in the world and individually in the hearts of believers, and how He helps you gain a deeper understanding of God's Word.
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10/18/2020
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Help Has Arrived!
John 14:15-18
Skip Heitzig
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Someone said to me this past week, “Life is hard, but God is good!” We all know it’s true. To live for God in an ungodly world is challenging, sometimes daunting. But God never intended for us to try it alone! He has provided for us a Helper, the Holy Spirit, who is not only at work in the world around us but is very busy working inside of us. Let’s drill down into the promise Jesus gave to His disciples in the upper room about the coming Spirit.
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10/25/2020
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God’s Purpose for People
Genesis 1-3
Skip Heitzig
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After spending several weeks considering God’s nature and character, we now turn to mankind. What is the purpose of the people inhabiting this planet? How can we fulfill the God-given destiny that He originally had in mind when He placed us here? Someone once said that the two most significant days in one’s life are first, the day we were born, and second, the day we discovered what we were born for. Let’s go back to the beginning.
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11/15/2020
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Once Dead, Now Alive!
Ephesians 2:1-7
Skip Heitzig
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Of all the doctrines that adorn the New Testament, salvation is the most personal and the most transformative. Below are the various stages that every saved person goes through in coming to Christ. Today, try to remember what it was like for you when Jesus became real to you and you realized your need for Him to save you, then answer this fundamental question: How has your conversion changed your contentment?
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11/22/2020
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I’m a Christian—Now What?
Romans 8:12-17
Skip Heitzig
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Once you decide to repent from your past, say yes to Jesus Christ, and invite Him into your heart, you begin a lifelong relationship with Him. Nothing stays the same. Paul wrote, “Those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NLT). Conversion is the gateway to transformation. Let’s consider four clear experiences that happen in the life of everyone who believes.
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11/29/2020
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The Angels of God
Hebrews 1
Skip Heitzig
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Angels are largely relegated to the realms of mythology and childhood fantasy. Most people never think about them. But angels are very, very real. Martin Luther commented, "An angel is a spiritual creature created by God without a body, for the service of Christendom and of the church." He was partly correct, but angels serve an even greater role than being strictly for the church. Their ministry objective is principally concerned with the glory and majesty of God. Let’s explore some of the noteworthy traits that angels have.
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12/6/2020
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Satan: His Meaning, Minions, and Methods
Luke 10:17-20
Skip Heitzig
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Most people today don't believe in the Devil. For them, he's merely a symbol of evil, or he's reduced to a mythical figure with horns and a pitchfork. But the Bible is clear: Satan exists. There is no more powerful foe we face as believers. In this message, Skip Heitzig reveals six surprising facts you may not know about our Enemy.
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12/13/2020
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The Essential Church
Matthew 16:13-20
Skip Heitzig
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Many voices today are decrying the church, rejecting its message and doubting its relevance. And yet, according to its founder, Jesus Christ, the church is essential. COVID-19 has only served to accentuate the voices on both sides of the argument about the church’s importance, so we find ourselves on a timely subject. As we consider the nature and purpose of the church in this message from our 20/20 series, let’s be committed to being the people of God as the New Testament presents them to be.
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12/20/2020
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What Every True Church Should Be
John 17
Skip Heitzig
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Not only is the church essential, it is purposeful and practical—it has a reason to exist. Since Jesus said He would build His church, He gets to decide what the distinctive marks of this new community should be. In this most intimate prayer of Jesus recorded in Scripture, we hear what He wants most for His people who He calls His church. Today we will consider the first two characteristics of the church Jesus had in mind.
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12/27/2020
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What Every True Church Should Be - Part 2
John 17
Skip Heitzig
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The prayer of Jesus in John 17 is His longest and most intimate recorded in Scripture. Here our Lord expresses His wishes for the new community of His followers we call the church. Since the church belongs to Jesus, since it is Jesus who builds the church (see Matthew 16:18), and since it’s Jesus who paid for the church (see Acts 20:28), He gets to decide what it should be like. So what are the characteristics He wants to see in His followers? What are the marks of a true church? We noted two last week and today we unpack two more.
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1/3/2021
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Are We Living in the Last Days?
2 Peter 1-3
Skip Heitzig
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When it comes to the last days or the end times or, for that matter, any Bible prophecy, there is no shortage of speculation and sensationalism. Every generation has its doomsday preachers predicting the end of everything, trying to fit current events into the predictive prophecy so prevalent in Scripture. Yet one day the world will end. So what are the last days and what are the characteristics of that time period? Let’s consider five features.
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1/10/2021
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The Rapture—Is It Real?
John 14:1-6
Skip Heitzig
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The word rapture is not found in most English translations of Scripture, but the concept of it most certainly is. Latin translations of the New Testament have the word plainly rendered as rapturo, which simply means a catching away or a snatching away. The Bible presents two stages of Jesus’ second coming: first, He will come suddenly in the air to snatch away believers; then He will return to earth at the end of a seven-year period called the tribulation.
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1/17/2021
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The Second Coming of Christ
Revelation 19:6-16
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Jesus said He was coming back (see John 14:3), and an angel told His disciples He would come back to the earth (see Acts 1:11). The second coming of Christ will be the culmination of redemptive history. After history runs its sinister course, after the final period of man’s rebellion, Satan’s retaliation, and God’s judgment is poured out, Jesus will return to planet earth. Today, we will consider four aspects of His return as found in Revelation 19 and throughout the Scriptures.
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1/24/2021
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What Most People Don’t Know about Heaven
Revelation 21
Skip Heitzig
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What happens when a believer dies? What will heaven be like? I’ve heard the craziest stories and descriptions about the afterlife over the years, often at funerals. I have since discovered that most people’s (even Christians) ideas about what heaven will be like are vastly different than what Scripture reveals. First off, I hope you indeed are going to heaven. Let’s examine a few things that might surprise you about your heavenly home.
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1/31/2021
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The Truth about Hell
Matthew 25:41
Skip Heitzig
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Hell is an eternal and biblical reality, but it’s one that has become relegated to the junk pile of modern myths. Actor Woody Allen once said that hell is the abode of all people who annoy him. People speak of hell in daily conversations usually as an expletive without any thought of the somberness of the place. Certainly, of all the Christian doctrines unfolded in Scripture, hell is the toughest one to handle. Let’s get the scriptural scoop.
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There are 30 additional messages in this series.
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