Here's the question. Who needs Jesus the most? The surprising answer really is I've been in some kind of ministry for 30 years and I didn't know the answer to that question till about four years ago. It's changed my life and it's changed my ministry. Who needs Jesus the most? Jesus told the story once about a man traveling between Jericho and Jerusalem and he was Robert fell upon him beat him and he was left in a pool of blood and First the along came a priest in the priest didn't give assistance and then came a Levite It's sort of like saying an elder went by and then a Deacon went by and neither the elder of the Deacon cared for the wounded man But then came a Samaritan, which is sort of like saying first the elder went by then the Deacon went by But then came a non-Christian then came somebody who spends Saturday nights at the ABC liquor store Saturday nights at Castaway's bar went by and He took care of the wounded man So Jesus was saying Who do you think Needs the gospel the most the answer would be what? The religious The religious folks do Jesus said that two people went up to the temple to pray One was a tax collector, you know, it's sheet a thief a used car salesman a rip her off of people You know somebody who's who's got the worst sort of reputation Imaginable and and with him when a religious man and when the when the corrupt one got down on his face and said God be merciful to me a sinner The religious guy said what gosh, I'm glad. I'm not like him Which one of those two needed the gospel the most? It was the Religious one wasn't it Jesus said there were two brothers and one the younger one took his father's money and went off and chased women and Drink up a storm and party day and night and lost it all and ended up in it in the dump and but his brother was Extremely moral and spiritual and religious and the brother never left dad the brother never disobeyed dad the brother Stayed on the family business and the farm and was loyal and obedient and duty bound He was utterly religious and yet when that whole story is over who's united with dad It's the it's the wild one right and who's alienated from his father. It's the religious moral one Who needs the gospel the most all from the beginning of Jesus ministry the end what do we find? It's the religious who are disgusted with him It's the religious to drive him to the cross. It's the religious that will do everything they can to get rid of Jesus the religious needs a gospel the most Jesus is at a dinner and a prostitute comes in You see I'm more a woman and Everybody there is disgusted that she would Violate the sanctuary of sanctity and she makes a scene and she washes Jesus feet and she rubs her hair all over him She touches him and all the religious people there and the apostles are going gross And this is so unspiritual and unsavory and unholy and Jesus looks at the whole crowd and he says Who in this room get it? Who did that woman did and who needed the gospel the most who needed Jesus the most in that room? It was the religious Post the most religious person who lived in the day of Jesus His name was Saul Saul of Tarsus And on the road to Damascus filled with a zeal for God He met Jesus running away as fast as he could using religion to resist the gospel Jesus apprehends him the most religious person needed the gospel the most he was the chief of sinners Brothers and sisters this revelation changed my life Because of previous to that I had a very simple. I've been religious on my life. I've been duty. I am a Pharisee of Pharisee I've been in the church on my life. I know the law of God. I know how to behave. I know right living and It's very simple this world had two kinds of people in it had religious people and it had our religious people and The job of the religious people was to try to love and tell the truth to the our religious people and get the our religious people over on our side all the religious people could work together and There were there were good people that was us. They're bad people and we try to help the bad people be good people make them religious But that's not what the Bible said the Bible says Everyone is running away from Jesus Yes, some run away from Jesus by being keyed in his stick by lying women's song live however You want to sleep with whoever you want to do with ever want you belong to yourself. Just be wild, right some run from Jesus like that And typically the church says those are the people who need Jesus the most right? But everybody's running away from the gospel and In the most insidious form the most delusion the most The form that would cause you to be the most fooled is the people who are running away from trusting the righteousness of Christ Only for right standing with God and they're running away by being religious and moral Religious folks are running away from Jesus in the gospel by being religious if you are moral You are religious and you're spiritual And you are sitting in this room today And you cannot acknowledge that you are a hopeless center Who has absolutely nothing good in you They could commend you to God and that if you've got what you deserve you would be banished from his presence now And forever if you don't see that and you don't acknowledge that Then you are running away from righteousness in Christ alone And you don't get it put more personally Who needs Jesus the most Seven rivers This is a sermon to seven rivers Put even more personally who needs Jesus the most I do I do Now take your sermon outline and If you would Consider that in Romans chapter one we're told that the wrath of God is poured out against all the unrighteousness of man Romans chapter one is written to the aah religious to the pagans do you understand that? Romans chapter one is written to the people that That the Jews would have listened to Romans one. They would have said yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. You go Paul You get after them Those Gentiles are disgusting in the way they live see Jews were monotheistic They believe that they were spiritually ethically morally philosophically a cut above the Gentile world The Gentile world were heathen and pagan and when you read Romans chapter one The condemnation of the Gentile world is explained, isn't it those people who don't have the Bible Still reject the God because God has revealed himself to them in creation and what he has made and they are all Responsible there without excuse and because they have rejected God their lives have degenerated even to the worst sort of Sexual immorality. That's what Romans chapter one was right and And religious people two thousand years ago reading that from Paul would have been saved had a wave, but he go get them Because we are the holy people we are the spiritual people and those are the folk who aren't all right Then you get the Romans chapter two and Paul drops the hammer he turns his attention to the religious and the moral people and he says But you need the gospel even more than they do Because you are more corrupt than they are I want you to know that still to this day Homosexualities unknown amongst the Jewish people in in Israel in Israel you can look far and wide and there is no acknowledged homosexuality how much homosexuality you think there is an Iran Egypt Iraq in the Arab Islamic world Islamic fundamentalism is the ultimate in religion isn't it in being religious? Who's more devout? They're the most devout people in the earth aren't they? Me praying fasting covering themselves following strict Dietary laws and other laws in fact their culture is so strict that then when they look at America they call America the great What We're the great corruptor when when they hear Romans chapter one they think of what? Us Okay, we're the we're the filthy and moral people of the world to them Okay, Romans chapter two is written to religious people wherever they are on the earth saying buy your religion buy your morality You are running away from what you need You're running away from the gospel and you just don't have a clue. You're missing the whole point Here's what I want us to say you ready And Romans chapter two Paul tells us that the religious are under the judgment of God. We're going to talk about five Five aspects of that judgment. Okay Seven rivers church God's word is directed to us today Okay, not the folks out there is directed to us May God's spirit causes to see The truth Number one is you're under the judgment of God if you're religious Because you don't even keep your own standards You don't even keep your own standards Here's the way it works We are religious experts if you're religious and moral you know there's right and wrong right If you go out into culture and you say to someone hey stop living with your boyfriend what might they say to you Somebody our religious what might they say That's your morality All right, who are you going to tell me how I should live? I don't there's a there's a right and wrong you do what you want Okay, that's our religious people say that but religious people would say there's right and there's wrong, right Okay, so we got that. They were religious. There's right and there's wrong But we don't even keep the rules So we know what the rules are, but we don't keep them that's what Romans chapter two Verse one says right Therefore you are without excuse every man of you who passes judgment for in that you judge another you condemn yourself for you judge For you who judge practice the very things you judge other people for Okay So so we know the difference between right and wrong and we do wrong anyway And then that here's the clincher and we condemn other people For doing wrong as if we didn't do it ourselves That's the clincher This was so funny Sort of in a dimension way Last week we studied Romans chapter one verse 32 And this is what verse 32 says it's speaking about pagans our religious people it's that they in their hearts and in their Consciousness they know the law of God and they know that those who practice of a violations of that law are worthy of death and punishment But they do it anyway and they even give hearty approval to those who practice this kind of lifestyle Right remember reading that last week You wouldn't know how many people came up to me afterwards and said that is exactly right People not only in our world those gays those homosexuals, you know, they not only Do the wrong thing, but they're out there arguing giving approval to other people doing it too and they were just out there in the north You know like this just frothing You you were totally set up Because chapter two verse one says you're worse You're worse It says you know what's right and wrong you violate it and then you Rather than them they violate it and they said well, it's okay for everyone to do We violate it and then we say it's wrong for either willing Which is far worse utterly hypocritical Paul the Paul's a great. I mean David King David's the best example we have in the bible. I think perhaps David sees a naked woman he lost after her he uses all the machinations of the court to gain her and and she's impregnated and then he Uses her chicana Rita have her husband executed. I mean it is the most sorted soap opera. You could possibly Imagine and David has no clue no repentance utterly justifies his behavior and one day You know the preacher of the day comes and sits down with David And he said David I need your help with something he said there's a travesty of justice taking place right under your nose He said there is a family. They're so poor. They only had one little lamb. They didn't raise this lamb for food I mean, it's like a pet. It's like a child for them There's a lamb each at the table with them the lamb sleeps in the children's bed next to them is this big agribusiness this huge farm, you know, this this Has you know thousands of cattle and sheep and every possible livestock and yet when it came to feast day You know what this powerful farmer did he came into this poor little Squatter family and he snatched their lamb and he slaughtered their lamb and he took it for himself And how does David respond when he hears that? I mean he gets worked up into a self-righteous lather and he says in my kingdom We're not going to tolerate that in my kingdom. We will stamp out that kind of injustice in my kingdom We won't have that. Find him string them up and the immortal words of scripture The preacher turns to David and says Thou art that man It's you Brothers and sisters in Romans chapter two write this very moment. God is saying It's you It's you All that condemnation you expressed for all the wicked people of this world and their behavior when you watch the evening news When you shake your head at Bill Clinton's behavior When you judge the welfare mom the welfare cheat when you look at that lady in the grocery store Who's got in patients with her kids and she's swatting them around when you look at that person's using their money They're poor and they were using food stamps, but they're buying cigarettes With their cash when you Get impatient at at the drivers on the highway You know when you come to church and there's no coffee
You know When it's the first Sunday the month and where are the donuts
You see we religious people know that we fall short Of the law and the holiness of God And so that self-condemnation and that guilt instead of running to Jesus and his righteousness for relief and covering and forgiveness We take all that condemnation and self-loathing we feel and we directed at other people And that's why Christians are more critical and mean spirited than non-Christians
That's why religious people are jerks a lot of the time critical hearts and let's confess it folks it's us Try to listen to yourself tomorrow And think of how many times critical thoughts critical comments roll out of you With every single one of them is a nail of self-condemnation Saying you are the man You are the man You are the man Every critical comment is only condemnation of you because you don't obey the law either
Now long ago somebody came to the church they wrote the letter after they came and they made a number comment That's some questions there's some good questions and The one comment was I looked around the room and I got to ask frankly the letter was pretty critical Through but but this one question was I looked around the room and there were a lot of women at your church dressed provocatively And you know the point was that's that's disgusting The point was that's not it. That's not the way the church should be
Lord how I thank you that you have not made me like these people who dress provocatively
May this place be filled with broken messed up people every time we open the doors People who need Jesus and yes, if people dress too provocatively then may the gospel work in such a way That that it changed their behavior of course But may people come who haven't got a clue about things like that because they don't even know Jesus yet The critical spirit that folks have incredible and the church is rife with it And when the gospel starts to do its sweet work then folk who come to church can say it's me It's not women wearing short skirts who need Jesus It's me for judging them It's me. It's me. It's me oh lord Standing in the need of prayer Second Romans chapter two says we're gonna be judged not just because we don't keep our own standards But he says because we fail to respond to the goodness of God We fail to respond. Look at verse four and five Do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness forbearance and patience Not knowing that the kindness of God is to lead you to repentance But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself We will be judged for failing to respond to God's incredible goodness The religious have been generally have had the best lives of anybody. You know that And we'll be held accountable for it Who is the most blessed group of people the most blessed nation that's ever lived on this earth
Israel Israel Israel God said, I'll be your king God said, I'll take care of you. I'll be in the midst of you I'll guide you. He brought them out of Egypt. He rescued them. He destroyed their enemies He took them into the wilderness. He fed them with his own hand, didn't he? He provided them heat at night in the desert He provided them a covering from the sun in the day He provided them water to drink He brought them across the Jordan River. He, uh, the fortified city that defended this new land. He had the walls fall down Right He brought them into this promised land a land of milk and honey in which the farms were already planted the crops We're already planted the houses. We're already built the stables. We're already constructed Everything you need it was already there. God gave it to them all and they responded by what? Moning whining and complaining and what does God say God says, you'll be held accountable for not responding to my goodness towards you with repentance with a heart that says we don't deserve any of this and look at what we've received And who would be a modern-day parallel to Israel of old? It would be It'd be us, wouldn't it? Who lives in the day of peace? Who lives in the day of prosperity? Do you know not very long ago you could work your whole life and never have enough money to buy one of these
How many of you own a Bible raise your hand You are stinking filthy rich You really are Compared to all the people who have ever lived you know what percentage of people ever got to have one of these None None less than one percent And I've got I think I've got 50 of them in my office. I can give away today We've got the word of God. We've got Camps and conferences and books Christian books and radio and tapes and and God has just poured out his lavishness and his word and his teaching and his instruction and the Bible says we will be held accountable If in in this flood of his kindness and his mercy We are not repentant and full of zeal and gratitude for him Not many years ago the wealthiest person ever to come Uh for seven rivers came to church here. There's a billionaire Now that's some serious jack. It's not every day you meet a billionaire I handled it very coolly You know once I got up from kneeling and you know and and doing his shoes I was very cool and Actually services over I went to the back door out he came out the back door Stopped at the door And said once you know there's three things wrong with your church Bing-bing-bing mention of three things and it was gone Sweetheart of a guy a couple years later he took a shotgun and ended his own life It isn't a surprise folks Because when God pours out his blessing on someone If they don't humble themselves and get on their knees and say I deserve your judgment And I have been given this Either it will turn a man ultimately to repentance and humility or it will shrink their heart to nothing Because they think they earned it and they deserved it
Third We're under the judgment of God if we don't respond it is goodness to us because because nobody's experienced it more And because we don't keep the standards and thirdly we'll be judged by our deeds look at verse Five and six. You're storing a brat for yourself in the day of wrath And the revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds Now you might say wait a minute pastor. What happened to grace? I didn't think we were judged by our deeds. I thought we're judged by grace. What what is about grace? Well, what does the Bible say here? He says God will render to every man according to his deeds And I want to tell you that principle is mentioned all over the Bible And here's what it means is this Your relationship with God is not Provided by your deeds But it is proved by your deeds Okay, you don't make yourself right with God by good deed But if you are right with God Through the grace and work of God Then it will bear itself out in good deeds the fact that a tree has apples on it doesn't make the tree healthy It proves that the tree is healthy the apples don't make the tree healthy But they're assigned that it is a healthy tree because it's reproducing and so if the gospel has afflicted you if the gospel is captured You and swayed you and changed you Because you've gotten it and you acknowledge that you need Jesus and you have no hope except for Jesus Then verse seven says the fruit of that in your life is that you will persevere in doing good and verse eight says if that hasn't happened Then this is the fruit that will show up in your life. You'll be self centered and selfishly ambitious You'll know them by their fruits You're not so we're not safe because we profess faith we're not safe because we profess to believe the gospel We're saved because the gospel Truly actually has captured us and transformed us and changed us in such a way that our lives bear testimony to that
Annie Lamotte writes these words One of the newer members of our church is a man named Ken Nelson. He's dying of AIDS He's disintegrating before our very eyes Said shortly after Kenny started coming his partner died of the disease a few weeks later can Told us that after Brandon died Jesus slid into the hole in his heart the Brandon's lost left and had been there ever since Ken is a totally lopsided face ravaged and emaciated, but when he smiles. He's radiant He says he would gladly pay any price for what he has now Which is Jesus and us There's a woman in the choir named Ranola who is large beautiful jovial and black and as devout as can be He's been a little standoffish toward Ken She's always looked at him with confusion when she looks at him at all I think she and a few other women at church are on the most visceral level a little afraid of catching the disease But Kenny has come to church almost every week for the last year and one almost everyone over He finally missed a couple of Sundays when he got too weak and then a month ago He was back weighing almost no pounds his face even more lopsided as if he'd had a stroke So on that Sunday morning The first time we sang Jacob's ladder we are climbing Jacob's ladder every rung goes higher higher, but Kenny couldn't even stand up He sang away sitting down with his hymnol in his lap and when it came time For the next time we sang his eye is on the sparrow The pianist was playing the congregation had risen, but Kenny couldn't stand And we began to sing why should I feel discouraged why did the shadows fall and Ranola watched Ken Rather skeptically for a moment and then her face began to melt and contort like his and she went to his side Left the choir loft went down to where he was and picked him up in her arms lifted up this white rag doll this scarecrow She held him next to her draped over and against her like a child while they sang and it pierced me Both Ken and Ranola began to cry tears were pouring down their faces and their noses were running like rivers But as she held him up she suddenly lay her black weeping face against his feverish white one Put her face right up against his and let all those spooky fluids Mingle with her you might say that's disgusting And I'll tell you that's the gospel
That's Jesus see Jesus touched Lappers Nobody touched Lappers Jesus spit Made mud Preston to the eyes of the blind Jesus let a prostitute come and wipe herself all over him
Jesus Left heaven walked amongst us and mingled his fluids With ours and if you are his And if you get the gospel that kind of behavior We'll very slowly Gradually Begin to flow out of you For We'll be the judge not only by our deeds We will be judged by an impartial God. Listen justice in our country is not impartial as much as it might intend to be It's not impartial If you're rich if you're well connected you can get a break in our world But you know what the Bible says it says if you're rich and well connected in God's courtroom you're gonna have more to answer to You'll be held to a higher standard and last of all We'll be judged according to the law We'll be judged by the law Romans 212 says all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law if the religious and moral folk Think that they're better than anyone else and frankly we do That's our problem we do We think it makes perfect sense that God loves us And we're the best people around He's not an idiot he can you know he can see that
But the Bible says that the law ought to knock you down and slay you
Somebody sent me the story said a burglar broke into a house And he had his flashlight and he spotted you know a CD player and and so as he was stuffing it into his sack suddenly you heard this disembodied voice ring out through the room Jesus is watching you Turned off the light froze The room was still quiet But maybe it was just my conscience Turned his light back on began to work the room Saw some vcr started to take it and put it in the sack and suddenly the voice ring out again Jesus is watching you And began to turn his flashlight Curiously all around the room looking for the source of this voice and suddenly in the corner the room he spotted a parrot in a cage And he said was that your voice? Parents said I'm just trying to warn you pal
And he's what's your name anyway and the parents said Moses Is what kind of crazy people would name their parrot Moses Well the same kind of crazy people who would name their rot wiler Jesus
Is Jesus a rot wiler No, but he has one It's called the law The law is the attack dog of God If you think you can stand in his house The law will get you thou shalt have no other gods before me. Do you think you can pass that test? Honor your father and your mother. Do you think you could pass that test? thou shalt not commit adultery. Oh, I got that one You've never lusted You've never laid your eyes on a woman and thought thoughts you shouldn't think You've always treated your husband as if you were first in your highest priority in your life
thou shalt not covet. You're going to pass that test?
There is a one law of God that we've kept one day of our life
The law utterly slays us And that's why brothers and sisters what's the one thing the religious have to face That we are hopeless sinners And the religious need to gospel the most You know why because the religious are the most reluctant to admit that The our religious out there Living carnally Will admit that in a heartbeat compared to us We are running from admitting that with all our heart That's why we need the gospel the most That's why we need the love of God the most To make us secure enough to tell the truth about ourselves That what we really are is awful and no one's ever looked to worse
Reminds me of a fella who was in Cashmere he was making his way down a waterway shopping with his wife on one of these little punts When they came up to the dock that's both hit another larger boat and splashed a little water in that's all But the um that you know the the driver the pilot to the boat was frantic and upset and and jibbering and couldn't speak english and making all sorts of gestures And they thought you know He probably thinks we're very offended by this you know mistreatment That we got a little wet and And it's you know calm down and he just kept bouncing around the boat and gesturing and and the man said kushra It's okay And the man frustrated he looked at them and he said it no okay And he pushed him off the boat and he took his grandchild and threw his grandchild on the dock and he dove on the dock And the boat got went underneath Sucked underneath and swept away completely gone You see what they didn't realize was that when the boats headed it punctured the hole And they were going down and the religious folk need to realize It is not okay Yes, your life is going fine. Yes, you're capable. It's all because god has blessed you and poured out his blessing on you But you're not okay and when you can face that Then your life will change When you can face the fact that because you are religious you are the most resistant to the gospel of anybody there is That's what Jesus said And if you can face that Then there's something for you to embrace that the gospel is for you The that there is a savior See if you can face the truth about yourself than like never before you'll say What there's a savior But there's a covering for someone like me It was ugly and awful But there is salvation What happened to Adam and Eve when they rebelled against god what happened to them instantly they became aware that they were naked Now they tried to deal with that didn't they That's a perfect picture of religious people religious people try to deal with our nakedness through our religion and our morality Adam and Eve got some Leaves and they tried to cover themselves up how effective do you think that would be
God comes and says let me cover you For god to cover Adam and Eve he had to do what
Animals had to die blood had to be shed for god to cover you what has to happen The Lamb of god the son of god Must die His blood must be shed so that a covering is made for you And for I You'll never You'll never be amazed at grace You'll never be blown away by the gospel Until you realize that you are naked Poor Blind lame and helpless And the only thing you can do is run to Jesus and he'll cover you Nothing in my hand I bring Simply to the cross I claim Naked come to thee for dress Helpless look to thee for grace Style I to the fountain fly Wash me Savior or I die If you're all religious you're not a church person and you've come today Heck I got good news The gospel's for you And you're probably way ahead of most of the people in this room
Because by my best reading of god's word It's up in seven rivers who need the gospel the most
Shannon Baldwin says she was teaching with kindergarteners over in our school She asked this question who lodged you the most she was trying to elicit You know my parents and grandparents and you know And one of the little kids said Jesus loves me the most And Shannon said how you know that And the child said because my teacher Ms. Jean Giles tells me that every day
my friends Who needs to hear that Jesus loves us Every day And who needs to hear that the most Why we do Amen