February 9, 2025, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
Romans 2. We’re going through Romans.
Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth.
Do you think any one of you who judges those who do such things and yet do the same, that you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself. In the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed, he will repay each one according to his works.
Eternal life to those who, by persistence in doing good, seek glory, honor, and immortality. But wrath and anger to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth while obeying unrighteousness.
There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew and also to the Greek. But glory and honor and peace to everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew and also the Greek.
1 Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth. 3 Do you think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same—that you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? 5 Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. 6 He will repay each one according to his works : 7 eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality; 8 but wrath and anger to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth while obeying unrighteousness. 9 There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek; 10 but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. (Romans 2:1-10, CSB)
For there is no favoritism with God. For all who sin without the law will also perish without the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.
So when Gentiles who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them.
On the day when God judges what people have kept secret according to my Gospel, through Christ Jesus.
11 For there is no favoritism with God. 12 For all who sin without the law will also perish without the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. 14 So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them 16 on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:11-16, CSB)
God, may the words of my mouth, the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock, our Strength, and our Redeemer. Amen.
So I told you two weeks ago as we’re going through Romans, that the end of Romans 1, all of Romans 2, in the beginning of Romans 3, Paul is preaching not the good news, but the bad news. And he’s telling people about sin. He’s telling them about sin.
And in, at the end of Romans 1, he’s going after the Gentile community in Rome. And he’s saying, all you Jews, you know how these Gentiles live. And he lists out all these terrible vices that this pagan culture exhibits. You know, it’s just like modern day daytime TV.
And you know, you know how those people in San Francisco live, you know how those big city people in LA live in New York. And he uses these examples. You just see, you can just see these self-righteous folks going, yeah, yeah, get them God, get them God. But then the jaws of the trap snap. And that’s what Romans 2 is about.
C.S. Lewis wrote a great essay. I don’t read as much as I used to read. At one point, I was a voracious reader. Somebody this morning, I said voracious reader, and they thought I said racist reader.
No, voracious reader, alright. I read a lot. I used to read a lot. I don’t read as much now because I realize people really don’t have that much to say. But I still like to read good books.
And I will tell you, one of the keys to reading is rereading books that are worth rereading and putting aside books that aren’t worth reading. Usually, you can tell if a book’s worth reading by the first chapter. If the author’s not good enough to say what they’re going to say in the first chapter, I used to have this huge library.
I’ve gotten rid of so many books. I used to have this huge library, and people would come into my office and they say, have you read all these books?
And I would tell them, I said, I’ve read the beginning of most of them and some of them I just put away, but some of them I read several times. And God in the Dock is a book.
And C.S. Lewis, as you know, has been my favorite for years. And God in the Dock is a series of essays by C.S. Lewis. One of the essays is called the Trouble with X. And I love this essay because it’s Romans 2. What C.S.
Lewis does in this essay. He says, listen, all of you have a person in your life, a wife, a husband, a child, a parent, an in-law, an employer, an employee. And they’ve got this fatal flaw, right?
They’re kind of a good person, but they can’t control their temper, or they can’t control their nagging, or they can’t control their alcohol abuse, or they, you know, they’ve just got this thing.
And you know, somebody will ask you sometime, how’s it going? And usually, you’ll use the standard answer, fine.
But every once in a while, it slips out, and it’s like, oh man, I got to tell you about work. You know, I got to tell you about this jerk I’m working for, or I got to tell you about these employees. I got to my husband, oh, my gosh. You know.
You know, we’re a church that believes in healing. And one time, a woman came up, and she said, I have a pain in my neck. And we prayed in the name of the Lord Jesus. Pain in the neck, leave. And three husbands disappeared. It’s just like they, whoa. It’s incredible. The power of God.
I got to tell you about my wife or my husband, you know? And he says, and then the person will give you this advice as you tell them about the problem. You say, well, you should just sit them down and just be honest and tell them. And you think, oh, my God. You don’t think. I have a hundred times.
And either a denial. I do this with my wife. She’ll tell me about something and I’ll say, but you. Right, but you do this. You know, it’s like, first, you know, and I knew you were going to do that. I knew you were going to say that.
So denial, or the other one is anger. It’s unsafe to tell people what they do wrong. It’s unsafe to tell your wife, you’re doing a pretty good job. But my mother did a better job so you could learn from her.
Don’t ever say that. Never tell her how good your mother did. All right? It’s unsafe. you’ll get anger. Or the worst is, oh, I know, I know. I’ll get better, right?
I tell women who get beat up, the guy always says he’s going to stop beating you up, but don’t believe him until he starts really taking steps to deal with his anger. He’s not going to stop just because he said he’s going to stop.
And so, dear ones, people look at that and they go, man, I’ve tried, but this person has this fatal flaw, this brokenness that they always.
And then CS Lewis goes on to say, in a way, you are very much like God in that situation, because God sees that, too.
And just as it breaks your heart and just as it frustrates you, it breaks his heart and it frustrates him. But he says, there’s two ways you’re not like God in that situation.
He says, one, God has infinite patience with that person, and you do not. That person could be your child, your parent, your spouse. You could love them deeply, but you don’t love them as much as God does.
And God will go to whatever degree he can without magically changing that person, because he doesn’t do that, to bring about their repentance and their turning.
But he says, here’s another way. you’re not like God. Not only do you not love that person as much as God is, God sees one other person in that scenario. And here’s Paul in Romans 2:1, you who judge others do the very same things.
And I remember the first time I read this essay he got me. I was reading that essay The Trouble with X and I’m thinking, my alcoholic dad, my codependent mother right there, man, I’ve been trying to fix them all these years, I can’t fix them.
And I’m just going, yeah, he’s got it. He knows exactly. They would be so good if they just deal with these issues. And then he says, you are just like them.
Other people are talking about you saying, you know, Kevin, he’s a good God, but that fatal flaw in me, your ex, and that’s what Paul does here. He says, you ex, you’re that person in C.S. Lewis essay, he says it to the Jews, the self-righteous Jews.
He says, listen, you condemn the pagan gentile world for how they live, not obeying the law that God gave you Jews. And yet you who have the law behave the very same way.
The trouble with X. Now let me say a word on judgment because it is inevitable in our culture. The minute we Christians say that’s wrong and that’s right, they jump on us, right? Oh, Jesus said, don’t judge.
And of course they never catch the hypocrisy of their own behavior when they said, because what are they doing to you when they say that? The exact same thing they’re saying: your behavior is wrong. Let me tell you, that kind of judgment is entirely in play.
We’re supposed to call balls and strikes. We’re supposed to call wrong, wrong, and right, right. We’re supposed to be a light. I don’t mean a mean shame-on-you kind of light, but we’re supposed to both live and hold up a standard.
But we also have to agree with the Bible that we don’t live up to the standard we hold to. And so here’s how we can judge and here’s how we can’t judge. We can say that behavior is wrong.
That is not violating Jesus’ prohibition against judgment. And that’s not what Paul’s talking about here. He’s saying what we can’t do is we can’t say you’re going to hell because you do that and I’m going to heaven because I’m better than you.
We grade on the curve, but God sees the heart. God sees the heart. All right, you’re looking at pornography. you’re sinning as much as the child molester. You say, well, I don’t molest children. I don’t go that far. We always do that, right?
Well, I don’t do that. I don’t murder people. And then Jesus comes along in Matthew 5 and says, what? You hold anger in your heart. you’re a murderer.
Brothers, I’m a murderer. I’ve held anger in my heart at people. All right, you lust in your heart. you’re an adulterer. Strike two. Done that.
You see, we like to grade on the curve, and we like to grade ourselves by our intentions. I didn’t mean to do that. And we judge other people by their actions. A driver cuts you off, and you immediately.
And I immediately go, you jerk. Who do you think you are? We cut somebody off and we’re like, oh, man, I didn’t see him. My bad. We’re like, I didn’t mean to do that.
Think about how many times we’ll judge other people on certain behaviors, and we’ll be soft on ourselves, on our intentions. We grade on the curve. God doesn’t grade on the curve.
My wife, for years, had a group of women that she would go meet with once a month. They’re all about her age, all married, and some of them had pretty rocky marriages.
And my wife would leave, and we’d be on good grounds. You know, she’d leave and go to her meeting and say goodbye, and she’d go.
And these women who really did not have, you know, their husbands weren’t that great, you know, and they’d spend the meeting talking about their marriages and their husbands. And my wife would come home, and she would be so happy with me.
I loved that group. I love that she graded me on the curve. After that group, she’s like, well, he’s not that jerk. And as a pastor, I was a little bit conflicted because, as a pastor, it was really my job to help those husbands become better men.
But there’s part of me, it’s like, hey, they’re helping me out here. you’re a bad husband, and that’s working in my favor. My wife would grade me on the curve, but that didn’t mean that I was the perfect husband, because I wasn’t.
Still not. God doesn’t grade on the curve. The standard is Jesus. And so the trouble is not the fact that we don’t necessarily meet the standard. The trouble is that we don’t own that. We don’t meet the standard. And we’re in the same boat as those folks over there.
And that’s what Paul’s going after. He’s telling self-righteous people, you’re no better than the people who are doing all those deplorable things I talked about in Romans 1.
That’s the hypocrisy that Jesus pointed out on the Pharisees. That’s the hypocrisy Paul is pointing out here. And we do this in church all the time. To lean upon God’s kindness but without repentance is denial.
We do this. We teach cheap grace sometimes: come to the altar, buy your eternal fire insurance, give Jesus your heart, and you’re saved, and you can never lose your salvation. It’s all good, you’re fine, just do it.
And then we don’t teach that there is growth in grace, there is sanctification. If God is really in your heart, he’s not just sitting there doing nothing; he’s going to mess with you.
And listen, if you don’t intend to follow Jesus, don’t ask him into your heart because I’ll tell you what he’ll do. He’ll ruin sin for you.
I had more fun sinning before I was a Christian. I had more fun holding onto grudges, and I had more fun being sarcastic and mean. It was kind of fun picking on people.
Then I became a Christian, and God just ruined that stuff for me. Now I have more fun as a Christian than I had before I was a Christian, but I have more fun sinning as a non-Christian.
Listen, to lean upon God’s kindness and his mercy without a commitment to repentance is denial. you’re not really following Jesus now.
I’m not saying, and Paul’s not going to say, and you might read that into this passage, but we’re going to get to that. Paul’s not saying you give your life to Jesus, you’ve got to quit sinning. You got to be perfect. Day one. No, no. We all know it’s a struggle, but own the struggle. You can’t lose if you don’t quit. Own the struggle. Keep putting the right foot in front of the left.
And realize that that person who does those things that are despicable to you is not really that far away from that person in you. Without Christ.
Sometimes, as we call balls and strikes, which we are required to do, we’re required to do that kind of judgment. It’s not only okay for us to do it, we actually have to do it. The world’s not going to call sin sin. We have to call sin sin and take the abuse that comes from that. We don’t have to do it meanly, but we just listen.
We’ve been backpedaling for 50 years in this culture. We don’t have to backpedal anymore. We don’t have to backpedal anymore. We’ve given up enough ground. But we do it with humility, Knowing I’m talking to me, too. I don’t know if you know when I preach.
My best sermons are preached to Kevin, both on God’s mercy and on God’s conviction. If you get anything out of it, it’s just because you’re like me. We talked about hermeneutics. Preach to yourself, all right? Preach to yourself. God’s judgment is true and righteous.
Romans 2 says God never makes a wrong judgment. We have a justice system, and our justice system tries its best in many cases. Some cases it might be corrupt, but in many cases, it tries its best to approach real justice.
But it fails. It’s not perfect. And there are innocent people who get punished, and there are people who should be punished, who get let off. And that’s just the way it works.
But that is not so with God. God’s vision is perfect. God’s judgments are perfect. I’m reading through the Psalms, and I’m in Psalm 119.
The long one. I’m in Psalm 119. I’m taking it in a few sections, and as I’m reading through it, it just says, your word is perfect. your judgments are true, they’re righteous. They’re right on the mark.
137 You are righteous, Lord, and your judgments are just. 138 The decrees you issue are righteous and altogether trustworthy. (Psalm 119: 137-138, CSB)
There’s nobody who’s going to be judged in the last day, who’s going to be able to say to God, you know, that wasn’t fair. I guarantee you nobody will say, that’s not fair. Everybody will know what God has spoken is true. God’s judgments are righteous and true.
Now, in this passage, is Paul moving away from the doctrine of justification by faith? He says those who do right will be rewarded, and those who do bad will be punished. No, he’s not. He hasn’t gotten to that yet.
He is saying that judgment is based upon our works. Salvation is based upon faith. People will be judged according to their works. We are made righteous by faith. Justification is by faith. Judgment is based on works. And he says, those who persist in doing good.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith. (Romans 1:17, CSB)
Let me tell you, the mark of faith is not perfection; it’s persistence. The mark of faith is not perfection; it’s persistence. One day, perfection will be the mark of faith. God has said he will perfect the work he has begun in you. But I will tell you, the mark of faith now is persistence.
7 eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality; (Romans 2:7, CSB)
And I say this all the time. And, boy, I want you to hear this as encouragement from a person who’s walked with the Lord for 40 years and struggled and the whole bit. I just want to say, you cannot lose if you do not quit.
Oh, Pastor, you don’t know what I’ve done. Jesus has left me. I know what I’ve done. He hasn’t left me. I think you’re good. I think you’re good. Oh, well, I’m worse than you. Want to bet? Maybe you are. But we’re all in the same boat.
Then he says this. He says, those who seek God will receive reward. There it is. Those who are self-seeking will receive judgment.
Where does faith come from? Faith comes from a heart that seeks God. Because Jesus says, seek and you will find. And I am not a determinist. A lot of people who, like Romans, are determinists.
I’m not a determinist. But I do say this: we cannot save ourselves. We have no power to save ourselves. But what we do have the power to do is to turn our hearts one way or the other.
Those who seek God. What happens when we seek God? He actually makes us into people who do good works. Not perfect, but we begin to be shaped in the image of Jesus.
We sang the song tonight. I want to be more like Jesus. That’s my prayer every time I come to one of these gatherings.
When I walk out that door that we almost lock the Millers out of, when I walk out that door, I want to be more like Jesus than when I came in.
I want to be more like Jesus tomorrow than I am today. And the only thing I can do to get me there is to turn my heart that direction.
It’s his power, you know? If it was our power, New Year’s resolutions would work. You know what a New Year’s resolution is? A to-do list for the first week of January. His power, his timing.
But those who seek God, who turn their hearts, we’ll get to the full picture later on in Romans 3, but there it is. It’s not justification by works. It’s not if you’re bad, you go to hell.
If you’re good, you go to heaven. It’s that we all are self-seeking. We’re all X. We’ve all got this fatal flaw. But if we recognize it and turn just a little bit and say, help comes in an instant, help is always answered. And God is the one pursuing us.
God is the one who’s working on our conscience, and God is the one who is telling us, you can come, you can get help. That’s his prevenient grace. It’s there. But will we seek it? Paul goes on to say, God shows no partiality in judgment.
This might not be a big deal for us. We kind of get this being Gentile Christians 2000 years removed, but in this culture, it’s huge. He goes on to argue, are the Jews privileged or not? And then he kind of says, yes and no.
I think the closest parallel we could have today is, are you privileged or not being raised in the church? Right. I raised my kids in church. You know, my kids had a drug problem. I drug them to church. All right? I got drugged to church.
Is that an advantage? Yes. Does that save you? Nope. Is being a Jew an advantage? God says, absolutely. I’ve revealed myself more clearly, more plainly, more abundantly to the Jews.
First century, you’ve had the law, you’ve had Moses, you’ve had the prophets. you’ve had this whole history with me. Does that make you better than the Gentiles? Nope.
You who’ve had the law will be judged by your breaking of the law. And Gentiles who do not have the law, when they obey their consciences and seek God, will be rewarded because the law, though it was given to you purely, was also given to them through their conscience and in their heart. And so there’s no partiality. Later, in Romans 3:23, he’s going to say, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23, CSB)
My kids were raised in church, but they had to get their own relationship with Jesus. They couldn’t get in on my coattails.
My dad used to say that, bless his heart, and he had a relationship with Jesus, but he had a lot of condemnation and shame due to his upbringing. And every once in a while, he’d say, oh, Kevin, I just hope I make it on your coattails.
And I’d say, dad, those coattails aren’t long enough. But Jesus’ coattails are long enough. Those are the coattails you need to trust, not mine. He’s got the.
What did you call it? The. What did you call the tuxes in the 70s with the longer things? And, you know, I just. The new ones are all cut short. What’s that? Yeah, tails.
Jesus got the tails, all right. God shows no partiality. The Jews have the law, but having the law is not the same as obeying the law. You could be raised in church, but being raised in church isn’t the same as repenting and putting your faith in Jesus.
It may give you greater opportunity. It may give you greater teaching, but if you don’t do anything about it, you’ll be held accountable for that. you’ll be held accountable for that. Gentiles don’t have that. The unchurched don’t have that. But they have consciences.
Listen, if you grew up, people say, well, what about those who haven’t heard? Well, I’m not going to get into that question right now. But what about those of you who have? That can’t be the excuse of anybody in America or anybody in the Western world.
They can’t go to God and say, well, you know, I never really heard or understood the gospel. There’s a church on every street corner, even in western Washington, even in New England. Old, beautiful churches. The witness is there.
You can’t walk through downtown Bremerton without walking by a big sign that says the Firehouse Church. You ignore it your whole life. You never ask the big questions because you want to avoid it. You don’t want to be confronted with it. you’ll be held accountable for that. And so there’s no excuse.
All will be judged, either by the written law, either by what you knew and disobeyed, or by the law in your hearts that you disobeyed. And even the intentions of the heart will be revealed.
So even good deeds done with hypocrisy, right? Paul talks about this when he’s put in prison. He says some are preaching the gospel because I’m in prison and they want the gospel to continue to spread. Others are preaching it to spite me.
And I love what Paul says. He says, I don’t care as long as the gospel is preached. But let me tell you, those who are preaching it out of wrong motives will be held accountable for that.
If you’re a preacher and you’re preaching for money, not for the hearts of men and women, it doesn’t mean preachers can’t get paid. But if that’s your motive, you’ll be held accountable for that. And I can’t think of anything more stupid.
There’s so much money to be made in other things. If you’re smart enough to bilk people out of their money preaching, you’re certainly smart enough to be a rotten lawyer. You get paid more doing that.
Just saying so. your motives, your intentions. That’s why Jesus says, you hold on to anger in your heart. Bitterness. What happens, that’s a cancer that begins to grow. Some people got stage four cancer. Some people got stage one cancer, but it’s still a cancer. And if it’s left untreated, it will begin, it will grow, and it’ll get you. It’ll kill you. You know, those rebellious cells.
That’s why sometimes we do this. I don’t have the illustration, but let me. Some people are good people by our cultural standards, but they’re living off a spiritual bankroll.
Their grandma was a saint. Their mom and dad were good Christians, and they raised them in the church. They get all the morality and all this, but in college, they learned to be an atheist. They say they could be a good person being an atheist.
They’re right, because their grandma prayed for them and their parents raised them right. On the ethical scale, they’re way up here. They are good people. You know, they go to Rotary and throw a little money toward good causes.
And they’re nice and they’re kind, and they got a good marriage, and they raise their kids well. But you know what? They got a little greed in their life. They got a little spot of cancer. And you take that thing and leave it unchecked, and you carry that out through eternity. They start here, but they go down.
Then you got another guy who grows up. Mom’s got a different man in the house every night. They’re drunk. They beat you, they abuse. You never knew your dad.
So at the age of 12, you join the only family you think you can trust, the gang. And by the age of 14, you’re doing violent robberies and crimes. By the age of 16, you’re incarcerated, and you go in and out of jail.
By the age of 20, it’s your third trip to jail. you’ve got maybe an illegitimate child or two out there, and the culture would look at you. They’d look at this person and say, wow, that guy’s pretty good. Look at this person. That person’s. But see, God knows all that.
We judge that by what we see. But God knows all that. And let’s say a preacher comes into that prison and preaches the gospel, and this person goes, you know, if my own choices were working out, I wouldn’t be wearing an orange jumpsuit with a number on it right now. My life’s a mess.
And they repent, and they turn their hearts and say, Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Come into my life. I want to follow you. And they get out of prison, and this is the longest time in the last seven years.
You know, they slip and they fall and they go back to prison. But they immediately get back into that Bible study and they’re on a different trajectory. They’re down here, but they’re on a trajectory like this. They’re on a healing trajectory. You take that out into eternity and it’s glory.
That’s why we can’t just look at people and say, oh, they’re bad and they’re good. What’s happening on the inside? God sees all those circumstances and God knows the stage of cancer, spiritual cancer, that’s on our inside. The intentions of the heart will be revealed.
Nothing will be. And some of us are afraid of this. Nothing will be secret. Oh man, I’m going to get up to heaven and I’m just going to get shamed for all my little secrets. No, that’s not what God does with his children.
You’ll go through a life review, I’m pretty sure. But because you’re in Christ, you will find nothing but love and mercy and acceptance there. And actually you’ll find things that you will be rewarded for that you didn’t even know you did. Right?
You’ll think, well, I did this and I really was great at that. And God said, eh, kind of. And then he’ll show you. Remember that time? No, I don’t even remember that time.
Well, there was that person you, there was that little kid you put your arm around after he struck out in the last and said, hey man, you’re good, you’re good.
What did Jesus say? That cup of cold water given in his name gets an eternal reward. God knows your heart. He knows everybody’s heart. Nothing is secret.
Now this is a passage about judgment. The bad news of judgment, Paul says, is part of the gospel of Christ Jesus that he received. How can the bad news be part of the gospel? Because the bad news makes the good news.
I’m going to use a bad word here. Not a bad word, but a word that’s not a real word. The bad news makes the good news gooder. It makes the good news better. Jesus says this, right? The one who’s been forgiven much loves much. The one who’s been forgiven little, loves a little.
47 Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; that’s why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.” (Luke 7:47, CSB)
Alright, you’re out there, and you’re working on your yard, and you jam your finger. You think, oh, my pinky, my poor pinky hurts. Maybe you think you broke it.
Now, most people aren’t going to go to urgent care, but let’s say you’re, you know, you’re a closet hypochondriac or something, or you don’t do pain well. Until you go down to the urgent care, and you wait three hours for them to look and X-ray your pinky, and they say, yep, there’s a little fracture in there. You broke your pinky here.
We’re going to put a splint on it so you don’t bang it and hurt it while it’s healing up. And you go, good, thank you for the splint. Maybe you go home and go, those people at urgent care were so nice.
They put a little thing on my pinky, and there you go. you’re good. you’re on your way. But you got stage four cancer, and you go to the cancer center, and those doctors and nurses work diligently and hard for you and treat you and are with you for the long haul.
When my son Caden had cancer, the medical professionals were wonderful to him. Those nurses came to his recovery party, and my family loved them, and they loved them. They were really good. They were just people dedicated to their craft and served my family well.
And my family was. And you know what? It wasn’t the, oh, you bandaged Caden’s finger. Pinky. Gratitude. It was like you people kept my son and us, our feet. We will never forget your names. They’ll never forget you, who prayed for them faithfully. All right.
You see, the bad news was so bad that the good news shone so much more brightly. And I think if we’ve been raised in church and we’re always what the culture considers basically good people, we can get born again and ask Jesus into our heart. But there’s a part of us that doesn’t realize, oh, no, we were on the precipice.
C.S. Lewis says people think it was terrible that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. You know, the Emperor Nero and Rome burned, and he blamed the Christians, but they said, as Rome burned, he played his fiddle.
He didn’t do anything as a leader to stop it. He said that’s not the tragedy. He says the tragedy is Nero fiddled on the precipice of hell. The reason Paul is bringing the bad news forward is so that we know the true condition, apart from Christ, of us and the rest of the human race.
If you have a doctor, we’re talking about going to doctors. If you have a doctor, I don’t want my doctor to coddle me. I don’t want my doctor to shame me. I mean, my doctor doesn’t have to say, you know, you’re fat. That’s not good for you. I’ve done the research. I get it.
But I wouldn’t want my doctor to say, oh, eat all the chocolate you want. Eat all the donuts you want. you’ll be fine. I wouldn’t want my doctor to say that. I wouldn’t consider that a good doctor. I wouldn’t consider that a helpful doctor. I wouldn’t consider that a loving doctor. I’d get a new doctor. That person either hates me or they’re stupid. I want somebody to tell me the truth.
I don’t want somebody to give me painkillers till I die. I want somebody who will cut me open and make me well. I got cancer cut out of me seven years ago. They took a body part. I’m down three body parts now, people. The older I get. That’s my weight loss plan. Just take another body part. They took out a body part. All right, I’m down three.
That doctor came into my room the day after the surgery, and he said, we examined your prostate, and all the cancer was contained within the prostate that you shouldn’t have. It doesn’t look like any cancer got out because that’s when prostate cancer is not dangerous.
When it’s dangerous is when it gets out of the prostate. He said, it looks like we got it all. It was contained in the prostate. I looked at that doctor straight in the face, and I said, thank you for getting cancer out of my body. You know, I was grateful.
I was in pain, you know, but thank you. Why? Because seven. If that hadn’t happened, I’d be seven years apart from the miraculous intervention of God, which he does on a regular basis.
But apart from that, I’d be in a whole heap of trouble now if that got out of the prostate and started spreading around. Thank you for your work on my behalf to save me from this cancer that could potentially have taken my life prematurely.
Thank you, Jesus, that you came and didn’t give us a pep talk on how to be better people. But you came, and because the condition was so serious, it took nails and a bloody cross, and you did it willingly and full of love.
And it says 2 Corinthians 5:21. God made him who knew no sin, God made him who knew no spiritual cancer to become spiritual cancer, the eternal Son of glory. The eternal Son of God. How far of a fall is that?
21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21, CSB)
How devastating is that to become eternal cancer, Kevin, so that you could become the righteousness of God. Why do we praise God? I say it all the time. Dear ones, you have not inherited a little help from a nice guy who spoke funny parables 2,000 years ago.
You have received a great salvation from a merciful, saving God who has brought us from death to life at great cost to himself. That’s why Paul talks about the bad news, because the good news is awesome. Spoiler alert, we’re going to get to it in Romans. But I just I couldn’t leave you hanging. I couldn’t leave you hanging with just bad news.
Dear ones, your sins are forgiven, and on the cross, the God of the universe said, you, sins are forgiven and I love you. Tonight, we’re going to take communion, which is about that event.
And I just recommend to you, I’m going to do this. You can say it out loud, you can say it to yourself, but I just, you know, and I never tell people what to do. I recommend stuff, but do what you do.
I mean, I’m not going to tell you what to do, but here’s my recommendation. When you take communion tonight and you take that bread, dip it in the wine, dip it in the juice, and before you eat it, I want you to say, Jesus, I love you, too. Because that completes the circle of love, right? I love you is half of it.
I mean, I was really scared when I was dating Jill to use those three words, because those three words can be used prematurely. They can be used manipulatively.
You know, they can be used because I just got warm, fuzzy feelings because she’s really cute and I’m a young boy with hormones. I mean, I love. Based on that, I loved about 200 girls in high school, all right?
But I was very careful. At least I had a level of maturity. I said, I’m not going to say this to her until we get engaged. And then my commitment was, I’m not going to let a day go by for the rest of my life without saying this to her.
Haven’t batted a thousand on that, but I’ve said it a lot more than those other loser husbands who made me look good. That’s for sure.
But the first time I said it was the riskiest time, right? I love you. I didn’t want her to say, yeah, well, cool, good for you. Or like, oh, we’re going too fast. Or worse yet, I really like you, too. Or even worse, the worst one, I love you like a brother.
But it worked out well. She said, I love you, too. Why did it take you so long? She didn’t say it, but she’s probably thinking, why did it take so long to say it?
So tonight, communion is God’s message loud and clear. Daughter, son, I love you. And as you take it, just go ahead and say, God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, I love you too. Come and eat. Lord Jesus, Heavenly Father, beautiful Spirit, I love you too, and I’m so grateful.
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