Romans 4:9–12Scripture
I named this for my own pleasure today. I named this "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," and I did sing that song most of the week, actually. You know, I got some movements for that, but we won't, I do that in private, we won't do that on the stage. But I've just kind of been singing that song, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," and that's what I've titled this message, because that's what faith does. It signs, seals, and delivers us to heaven, and that is the good news.
It's good news that your works don't do that your good deeds don't do that. It's good news that you don't have to be good enough on your own, because none of us are.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 0:33
He does the work. That's the good news. That is really, quite honestly, the blessing that we celebrate today.
Our assignment today is Romans chapter 4, and all of you who are participating in small groups or the reader daily devotion page, you have already been looking and been in this section through the week. In this particular section there are two things that I want to focus on, but I might just go back to last week's section of Scripture and I might mention two things that we can draw from that, and out of that today walk away with four things that are important about this section of Scripture in chapter 4. Let's read it together. Romans 4:9-12 says this: "Is this blessing then only for the circumcised?" Now we've been talking about Abraham as the example of being a father of faith, that he had faith in God, he believed God before he was circumcised, so he was saved before circumcised. That's important. So then he begins to refer to this again: "Is this blessing then only for the circumcised," speaking of those that are blessed, "or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him?
Point 1Circumcision is a sign, not the savior
Was it before or after he had been circumcised?" Notice here, we know that circumcision, according to Paul, is a sign, it's a symbol of something that has already taken place in the heart. When we are baptized, baptism does not save you, God saves you, all right?
And so when we then have faith in God, when we believe in him, as evidence of that faith we are baptized to show that we have entered, the old man is gone and the new man has come. All right. Much is, circumcision is much this way. In other words, circumcision doesn't save you. Amen?
Can we get on the same page with that? It doesn't save you. It is the evidence that what happened in the heart of a man has really happened. "It was not after but before. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had," so he received the sign of circumcision as the seal of the righteousness that he already had. The sign, the circumcision, the seal was the faith he already had.
So he was sealed first, and circumcision is a sign. Now we sing it "Signed, Sealed, Delivered." The Bible would say "sealed, signed, delivered," all right? So we'd have to change the wording on that a little bit. But it is the seal of faith that happens first. Don't miss that's really important here. And he's making a case, all right, particularly to his Jewish audience, not only to his Jewish audience but those who would read the word who, like us, are Gentiles, who might feel uninvited, not accepted, not welcome, all right, because there is a blessing he speaks of, in next week's sermon we're going to talk about, directly attached to being a child of Abraham. "The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised." You can't get any clearer than that. He's the father of who? Or he's father of the Jews? No, that's not what it says. It says he's the father of all who believe without being circumcised, "so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised." So notice, just because you're circumcised doesn't mean you're saved. The sign doesn't save. I believe today, and this breaks my heart, that it is possible for people to enter baptism waters without the knowledge of what really has happened in their life, be moved to an emotional response to a gospel presentation that is not the true gospel, to be dipped in the baptism waters, and to one day stand before the Lord and him say, "Depart from me, I do not know you." That's possible, because the sign doesn't save. Baptism doesn't save, circumcision doesn't save, works do not save, your good deeds won't save you, your philanthropy won't help you, your penance won't protect you. Only faith in God does. Now this is important. Now some of you might be at this point, so I for sure have been in conversations with myself. I don't think I'm crazy because I don't answer myself out loud yet, but I have been conversational with myself, asking myself, why is it that Paul is so insistent upon repeating this, being saved by faith, and then particularly telling us and connecting it to this idea of not to work for justification, that you will not be justified by your works but you are only saved by faith? And then he talks about Abraham, and then he talks about David, and then he gives example after example. And why is it that he keeps talking about this? Ladies and gentlemen, listen to the conversation in your small groups, and not to be critical, but it is hard to not turn to works to justify our lives.
It is not that we should not work, Paul talks about that in just a minute, but let me just take a moment and say to you that it is really easy, and I'm going to go back, and I think this needs to be at the foundation of the way you begin to read through Romans, and don't forget this: at the foundation of it is this, you either have a biblical mindset or you have a secular mindset. A secular mindset, everything begins and starts with you and emanates out from you, and so we read the Bible this way, we communicate this way, we engage in relationships this way, we are selfish this way, we make decisions this way, we pray about God's will this way, we go to church and make decisions about the church we attend this way. It starts with me and everything emanates out from me. But that's a secular way of thinking.
It's a New Age way of thinking, that if you can be enlightened in your inner mind your life will be much better. It starts with you, it's discovering a light within you, your help doesn't come from out there, it comes from in here.
Let me tell you, there's nothing good in here, and if you're looking for help, this is all the wrong place.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:48
Right? So the biblical mindset, and this is important and we need to think about this when we think about faith, everything starts with God. So if we talk about faith, guess what, let me apply this.
Faith doesn't start with you, it starts with God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:13
So if you have it's because he gave it. It starts with him. And so theologically you can go really wrong really quick, but the simplest way for me to help you fact-check yourself to make sure that you're not becoming secular in the way you interpret God's Word is to ask yourself the question, did this theological word that I'm studying, do I believe that it started with God or do I believe it started with man? Let me tell you.
Life doesn't come from you, only death does.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:48
That's why you need to leave death and come to life. You were dead in your trespasses and sin.
So don't be using theological words to say that are living and life-giving and try to apply it to a dead person. Know that all living things come from God, right? And this mindset seems real simple when I say it, but then when we begin to talk theology, we begin to talk about our faith as if I'm going to do something special with it. And let me tell you, God gives it, and God helps you grow in greater measures, not of faith, but you grow more in your faith. All right, God gives each a measure of faith for everything he's prepared for you to do for your life. There is not lack in faith, there is lack in your growth in your faith, and the way you interpret this, listen, goes all the way back to whether you have a secular idea of faith or a biblical idea of faith. Are you with me? Now why are you hammering on this? For the same reason Paul is hammering on this. This is a massive issue that people keep getting wrong, and with good intention, right, with good intention. Why is Paul so riveted on the truth that God's righteousness is credited to people by faith alone apart from works? I've been tempted to say, Paul, we get it. We got it in Romans 3:22, we got it in Romans 3:28, we got it from the story of Abraham in chapter 4:1-5, we got it from the illustration of David's Psalm in chapter 4:6-8. We get it.
Why do you keep pursuing it? Why do you go back to Abraham in Romans 4:9-12, in today's text? Why?
Point 2Faith alone kills our boasting
Here's the four answers that I believe are the reason why. Here they are. Number one, faith alone apart from works kills boasting.
That's important, man, because if the faith starts with you and emanates from you, there's much to boast about.
But if you get faith wrong, the boasting that God hopes to kill in you will live strong, and that will not please him.
First, Paul is riveted on this truth because it undercuts pride and boasting. Look at Romans 3:27-28, it says this: "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law." Listen, that's shouting worthy. Let me break this down for you in a way that maybe you can relate to. For all of you who have set a New Year's resolution and failed, you know, we're not saved by our ability to keep any resolution, but we are saved by the goodness of God in spite of the fact that we continue to break our resolutions. This is good news today.
Oh man, this is really good news, and there is no need to be boasting about it, because you can't do it. You cannot save yourself.
It may seem strange in our self-saturated, self-exalting, self-aggrandizing day that anyone would be attracted to something because it destroys boasting rather than enabling boasting, and I would propose to you today that to many in our society today it is not attractive at all, because it makes little of us and much of God. There are people who will hear this gospel, a gospel that kills boasting, in a day of boasting, who will be turned off by the gospel because it does not make much of them. They will be offended by it because we live in a generation, in a time, where people spend the majority of their day on their phone and on their devices figuring out how to make much of themselves. Come on, listen to me today.
But the point of the gospel is to kill that in you and to bring glory to God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:57
We live, you know, we want to talk today about how the sexual revolution has so inundated, infiltrated our schools, our young people's lives, and changed what we view as acceptable, even in the midst of the evangelical churches of America and around the world, mainly in the West. We talk about the dangers of that, drugs and sex and identity and all of these things, and we say, man, it is hard for kids to live in all this mess today, it was nothing like this when I was a kid, and we have compassion for young people for having to endure that. Listen, ladies and gentlemen, what will rob your kids from eternal life is not those things.
Listen to me, but it is this need to be much and God to be little.
It's this overwhelming desire to make much of ourselves and little of everyone else and God. That is what you should be concerned about with your kids.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:13
That's the problem. There are bumper stickers that I've run into, thinking over the last couple weeks about what I'm coming to, they're in your face, they're kind of boasting. Here's some that I've read: "Pagan and proud of it." "I smoke and I vote."
I'm not sure why, I don't get it. Here's another one: "Get in touch with your inner grown-up for a change." I kind of like that one, actually. I know that was boasting, but it's boasting because you think you're grown up and you think they're, put up whatever descriptive word you want in there, the quick, clever put-downs, the quick, clever put-downs that we either say verbally or, we listen, there are keyboard warriors out there, fierce in every way behind a keyboard, and they will say an insult and put down people to make much of themselves and little of others. The sarcastic one-liner is the communication of choice today.
Public figures, from politicians to preachers, posture with a kind of bravado and swagger. If they don't know the answer to the question, they answer a question that wasn't asked and try to keep up the impression that the king has clothes on. Ours is a self-assertive age, bent on making ourselves look better than we actually are, and that's the problem when we enter and engage the gospel, because the gospel strips us bare and gives all the glory to God. I believe that this even happens in regard to pastors. I have time in regards to pastors and how we lead our churches, and listen, I say this with all humility, I have, I unknowingly believe that I have participated in what, quote, I read this week, I read this quote: "There are pastors out there who are building their own kingdoms on the bones of unconverted church people, and they do not care." I would say that "they do not care" is pretty bold. I would say that, I would probably add in there, they either do not care or they just do not know what they are doing. And our prayer should be, God, help these men of God to not build their kingdom on people who are unconverted and they allow them to stay unconverted because it makes them look good, because the crowds are big and we would rather entertain than do our role. I mean, listen, there's just some things that are not fun about kingdom work.
Right, it's not all fun, it ain't all a party. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes we have to figure out how to do life with people that have offended us. And if you make the party loud enough and you create enough noise, then people don't have to work on relationships with others, they just move to another part of the room where they don't have to see the other person. That's not kingdom work. Our job is to wrestle, to fight, to love people that are unlovable, to forgive people that are impossible to forgive, to be grateful for people.
That's not fun, that's work. But God didn't call us to be lazy. God gave us a measure of faith that we might be able to do these things and fulfill the mission he's called us to. Ladies and gentlemen, if he's called us, he's given us enough faith to be able to do what he's called, because God is not a God that does not provide the resource for what he's called you to do. He just provides.
The universe is all about the greatness of God, not the greatness of man. We were put here to enjoy making much of God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 20:59
We were not put here to be made much of by God or man.
And contrary to a video that I heard this week by somebody that will remain unnamed, because if you go back and listen to some of my sermons that I'm trying to pull down radically, we just say some stuff and we learn some stuff. Amen? How many of you want to be held to whatever things you said when you were 10? We grow, we learn, we make corrections, and we apologize, and when we learn something new we adjust and we own it, we don't pretend like we never said it. So I want to give grace and mercy, but there was a video I watched this week of somebody that's saying, a pastor saying, that God exists to fulfill your will, it pleases him to make you happy.
Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know what Bible he's reading, but God does not exist to fulfill your will.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:14
And I know you want to discover your will, just open this up. Until you can get that right, then you don't need to worry about something you find out in the ether out there through feelings and goosebumps and inclinations. He gave you his will, and some of us want to substitute this for a feeling.
Get in here. You can know his will today. Oh well, I need to know, I've been praying about this. Get in the Word. If you can't do that, let's not even talk about the other. All right, God, the problem is I believe people are seeking out here instead of getting in the Word, substituting the Word for something they find in the ether out there. Is that really, we want God's will to become our will, and so we pray enough and try to get signs enough so we can validate to do what we really want to do anyway, and that's a problem. That's a problem. You know what that problem comes from? That everything begins with us and emits from us, but not God. So when we talk about will, it's about my will, not his will. That's secular. Ladies and gentlemen, it is his will we are shaped and formed by and in. In case you didn't know, his will is greater than your will, and oftentimes his will not be your will, and if it's an arm-wrestling competition like we had at the men's night, he wins, because he's sovereign in the end, no matter how many hands you use, no matter how many people step up to the table. It could be like, you know, the Matrix, where the bad guys are multiplying into a hundred guys and attacking Neo. Like, you can't beat God. You could have all the men of the earth trying to push God's arm down and win a court, it'd be our will, it ain't going to work. He'd laugh at you and put you down like the child you are.
He's God all by himself. He's sovereign. His will reign supreme.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:33
So when we worry and are concerned about who's president, what's going on in our government, it isn't that we shouldn't care and we shouldn't be aware and we shouldn't be concerned about the last days, and we shouldn't, it's not that we shouldn't even be concerned, aware of those things, but listen, God is sovereign, his will reigns supreme, and if you enter into worry and despair and anxiety over what's happening in the world, it's because you trust your will, not his. You trust man's will more than God's. Concern is not anxiety, concern is not worry. God's will, God's will shall reign, right? See, I just grammar-led myself right there on the dime, right there, I corrected myself. God's will. It's like I do anyway, but anyway, moving on. Creation is about God. He must increase, we must decrease, John 3:30. "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." You can boast, not in you. That's 1 Corinthians 1:31. The most basic way to make much of God is to trust his free and undeserved mercy like a little child trusts the father. Listen, notice here that it talks about childlike faith there.
We should trust our God like a child trusts his father. I would say this, we'd have faith in God like a child has faith in the father. A
Point 3Faith preserves the blessing of imputed righteousness
Child doesn't muster up and just has faith in his father. Our joy is not self-exaltation but God exaltation. Number two, faith alone apart from works preserves the blessedness of imputed righteousness. Faith alone apart from works is a preserving force when it comes to imputed righteousness.
Notice I didn't say self-righteousness, that doesn't preserve imputed righteousness, right? Faith apart from works preserves the blessedness of imputed righteousness. The second reason Paul is riveted on the truth that righteousness is credited to us by faith alone apart from works is that this preserves for us the great blessedness of forgiveness, forgiven sins, and imputed righteousness. That is what we saw last week from Romans 4:6. "David also speaks," here's what it says, "David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works." Paul wants to bless you. He wants you to see that the gospel is good news, not hard news, not bad news, good news.
He's for you, he's not against you. He wants you to rejoice and be glad.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:37
The point of taking away your boasting is not to take away your joy, it's not to take away your blessing, it's to preserve your blessing and to preserve your joy. When you boast in you, it doesn't preserve your blessing and preserve your joy. When you boast in God, it preserves your blessing and it preserves your joy. That's what he's saying. That's the good news. And listen, that strikes hard against our culture, doesn't it? If getting right with God, being justified, were based on works or on faith plus works, then our blessing would be taken away immediately.
And for all of you who have been in the church for two decades, can I just say, would you agree with me, if it depends on you even after salvation, if it depends on you, how many of you are just so overjoyed because you know you're guaranteed that you're preserved? I mean, you can say that by yourself, right? No, I'm sorry, let me say that again. If you've been here for 20 years in the church and it depends on you and your self-righteousness, see, I felt bad because some people raised their hand and I don't want to be, you know, I don't want no one to raise their hand anymore, but we know that it depends, we know that we're preserved because it depends on him, not us, even after salvation, right? Because I don't even know we're still going to be, I mean, we're still going to, how many of you have just done everything right?
No, I mean driven, right? You've driven places, right, at Christmas in Lee's Summit around that Circle of Death, like literally, that's purgatory. No, seriously, that's if I were to give a parable about purgatory it would be that Lee's Summit Circle of Death at Christmastime. Actually, they don't do the one-way anymore, so I feel like God has answered my prayer over the last 12 years. It has been a relentless prayer every Christmas, I pray that God would fix that. And how do you know, how do you know what? Do you know he did? All right, the blessing, before we, I want to do this now, we come to the last two points. All right, faith alone apart from works, why it's beneficial. Verses 9 through 12, and we find two more reasons in here why Paul is so riveted on the truth that righteousness is credited to us by faith alone apart from works. Before we do, let me remind you of the purpose Paul speaks about in the preceding verses from last week, Abraham and circumcision. I'm going to summarize it in this real quick because I don't have time, right. The blessing of getting right with God and being accepted by God did not come by means of circumcision. It came before circumcision and independent of circumcision. It came by faith apart from works. That's what Paul wants to establish here with the example of Abraham. Now with that, let's go to the
Point 4Faith comes first, then works in their place
Third point that we see in chapter 4, verses 9-12. Faith alone apart from works, how does it benefit us? It keeps clear the proper place of works and acts of obedience. Notice the word, that works is not deleted, it's put in its right place. Now that's important today, because there is a movement growing rapidly that puts to death works, and Paul incessantly and constantly and compassionately tries to help us understand that works is not put to death nor deleted, but rather it is put in its proper position in the life of those who have faith. And that's important. First, he stays riveted here on Abraham's righteousness by faith alone apart from the work of circumcision, because he wants to show the proper place and value of circumcision. Is circumcision important? Yes. Did God command it? Yes. I would just take all the commandments and throw them in the trash can because of Jesus. Now because we can have faith, let's just take all the commandments, let's just start murdering anybody we want, lying to whoever we want, behaving however we want, sleeping with whoever we want, and doing whatever we want. Faith alone, not by works. Be careful about that. You're not saved by works, you're not justified by works, but listen,
God didn't delete the circumcision. The command remained. He merely said that's not how you're justified. Faith first, work second.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:44
Are you with me? Now this is important. Faith first, work second. Oh man.
So the third reason for Paul's absorption with the truth, this truth of righteousness being credited by faith alone, is to make clear that works or acts of obedience have their proper and essential place in the believer's life, but not as a means of justification. What is that proper place of works and obedience? Verse 11a, here it is: "He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith that he had while he was still uncircumcised." Two words describe the relationship between circumcision and the righteousness of God that comes by faith: sign and seal. This is the third reason Paul cares so much about this issue. He wants us to put obedience and works in their proper place in relationship to faith and justification. Paul is not just interested in throwing works and obedience out the window completely. In fact, he says in Romans 1:5, if we go all the way back there, that the aim of his whole ministry was the obedience of faith. So faith should have obedience, not before it but after it. First faith, obedience second. He said, "We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the gentiles for the sake of his name." So in case you think this just applies to Jews and not to you, it's to all of us. In case you think it's to a specific select group of people, nationality, nation, race, or type, it's to all people. Faith first, obedience second. I take that to mean that true God-exalting obedience comes from faith. It is the fruit of faith. Any other kind of obedience is not true obedience at all.
It doesn't sustain you, it doesn't provide for you, it doesn't strengthen you, it depletes you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 35:16
If you're working not out of faith, you'll be depleted because you're trying to do it on your own strength. Pastor Bruce, in the men's night, said those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, shall mount up on wings like eagles, shall run and not grow weary, shall walk and not faint. He said that word "wait" there, that word "wait" is actually to bind together with God. We grow weary, we don't fly, and when we walk we get tired, and when we run we faint, but God doesn't.
So if in faith and by faith you bind your life together with him, his strength becomes your strength.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:03
I know we've done lots of things, and I will refute it biblically to the end of my days, we talk about burnouts in church and burnouts as a Christian and being burned out. Let me tell you, if you're burned out, you're not bound to him in that area of your life, or you're trusting in your self-righteousness and it is not being birthed out of the faith that he gave. And ladies and gentlemen, that can happen even as a Christian. How do you know that's true, Shawn? How do you know? Because Peter sunk, Peter denied, Abraham doubted and slept with a servant after he was given faith. So easy to trust in yourself or doubt.
Where does your obedience come from? Where does your obedience come from? This means that you do not have to be a physical Jew. This is important, it opens a way for all people to be
Point 5Faith makes people of every nation Abraham's children
Children of Abraham. Well, actually, I jumped ahead, that's number four. Faith alone apart from works opens the way for all people to be children of Abraham, and I'm almost done.
I'm almost done. The fourth reason Paul is so riveted on the truth that righteousness is credited to people by faith alone apart from works is that it opens the way for gentiles to be a part of the covenant people who will one day inherit the world. That's in verse 13. And who have Abraham as their father. In short, in short, justification by faith alone is a missionary doctrine of the first order.
Oh man, this is really important. Even in churches today we've got an us-for-no-more attitude.
It's all about God's heart for the nations. Abraham as their father is sure. Justification by faith alone is a missionary doctrine of the first order. It's about God's heart for the nations, both Jews and all the other ethnic groups, which I cannot name them all, there's a bunch in the world, including Anglo-Saxons, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, et cetera, et cetera. Notice how verse 11 reasons, and I quote: "Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith that he had while he was uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised," Gentile nations or all the other people, "that righteousness might be counted to them as well." Who? The Gentiles. Who are they? All the other people, all the other nations.
That's important. That's important.
God's point in justifying Abraham by faith alone before his being circumcised is to make clear that Abraham is the spiritual father of all who are justified by faith, no matter what people group they are from. This means that you do not have to be a physical Jew or even kosher to be a part of the covenant that God made with Abraham. What makes you a child of Abraham and a fellow heir of the promise is not circumcision or any other Jewish custom. It is faith in the God who justifies the ungodly. That is what united Abraham to God so vitally, and that is what will unite others to God and to him. Paul says it again in Galatians 3:7, if you need some supporting Scripture: "Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham." He clarifies who they are.
Who are they? Jews? That's not what he says. Those who are in faith, those who are of faith.
And this here is the evangelistic and missionary significance. There's great missionary significance in this, in the heart of Paul, because now he is trying to move what many have thought, who many who thought Abraham was the father of their nation, out to all nations of the world, for all who believe and have faith in God. This changes how you evangelize the world. This is important because Paul cared about evangelism, he cared about going to all people, he cared about preaching the good news. It is him at the beginning of this book that says he believes that the gospel alone has the power to save, not the gospel plus anything, the gospel. The gospel preached, even stuff that don't make sense, you don't have to tell a perfect story, just you just read the gospel, it has the power to save. You don't have to have a special visual, you don't have to have that. The gospel is powerful enough to do it. Is that okay, to do a special visual? Absolutely. But the gospel alone can do it without it. And just in case you didn't know, sometimes we ought to be careful about those, because those go wrong real quick. Amen, right? I do them, but I'm always careful to go, this will break down at some point biblically.
Right, we just need to be careful. The gospel has the power to stay there. Were the obstacles of circumcision, the dietary laws, the cumbersome sacrificial furnishings, the central tabernacle, the ceremonial laws for ritual purification, this was mainly a come-see religion, not a stripped-down missionary go-tell religion that fits a lot of different cultures.
Specific, now there are some promises that are for the Jewish nation alone. We're talking about the promise of salvation that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. We're talking about he's a father of all the nations. Who is all the nations? Who is he a father of? Who's Abraham the father of? Who's all the nations? Is this just specifically the Jews, the descendants? Like that, what is this? This is all who have faith as Abraham had faith. He's the father of faith.
So important, because now what it does in our hearts, I think what Paul wants to stir in our hearts, is to go across the aisle, knowing that God wants to save people over there too. There are people who are Democrats, I don't know why I'm pointing over here, are people who are Democrats and there are people who are Republicans. God came for the Republicans and for the Democrats who will have faith.
The gospel is to be preached to the Republicans and to the Democrats, not just to the Republicans because they all need Jesus, or just to the Democrats because they all need Jesus, not just to one side but to both sides of the aisle. Are you with me? I think I speak politically because I see great divide even in our churches regarding this. God wants the gospel to come to people who believe we should abort babies and kill them in the womb and those who don't. Are you with me today? He wants the gospel to come to both sides, not just to the side that seems more godly, but to the Gentiles and the Jews, to all the nations, to all the positions. The gospel has got to, and Paul is calling us to get it into and to preach it and to teach it and to speak it into the lives of every person, regardless of what position they hold.
It is the gospel that saves, not your opinion, because in the day all opinions will die on the altar of God's truth.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 45:13
Some people are going to be really offended when they get to heaven and realize their whole life has been a lie and they've been fighting against the truth of God, and the reason they've done that is not because they're ignorant, it's because they don't pick this up and they don't know his truth. They base their life on their opinions and their emotions and their will and their feelings and their reflections of other men and women rather than the truth of God's word. What will you build your life on? The passing emotions of a day? The opinions of men? The illusions of kindness and love in our society? Or the truth of God?
You cannot build your life on the truth of God if you do not even break its pages open but once a year.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 46:13
It's tragic. Faith makes you hungry for this.
Faith that God gives makes you hungry for this.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 46:31
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46:46Now playing
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