First is the guilt of the righteous. The righteous, the righteous one is Jesus. Jesus is the one who knew no sin. He knew no sin. There is nothing in Jesus that is selfish. There is nothing in Jesus that is unloving or impatient or rash. Everything about Jesus is pure and holy and spotless and upright. There is in the Biblical portraits of Jesus a captivating beauty about Him. In fact, there is nothing that is so beautiful as Jesus. Everything He did was in complete obedience to His Father’s will. He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law. It was His food. His most basic desire was to obey His Father. He was always about His Father’s work. And He lived in closest fellowship and communion with His Father. He told His disciples that, “I and the Father are one.” He would spend extended and intense times of communion with God, praying to the Father and meditating on His Word. And He received affirmations at multiple times throughout His ministry where God spoke to Him and said, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.”

How would you like to have this nickname, “The Most Hated Man in America!” Want to know how bad it was for this guy? The one thing, I think that then-candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump agreed upon, was they both said this guy was absolutely without a doubt the worst man in America. Was he a serial rapist? A murderer? No. Who was he? He was Martin Shkreli, a disgraced hedge fund manager. He is probably most remembered for raising the price on a vital drug for those with weakened immune systems from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill, lining his pockets along the way. Eventually, he and his business partners were busted for securities fraud, but as it always goes with this kind of thing, he easily posted his $5 million bail, pulled his hoodie up over his face, and walked out of the courtroom. Greedy, super rich people; they’re nothing new. James knows about them. He’s going to tell us about that tonight. But he’s going to do what he’s been doing through this series for all of us. He’s going to make us uncomfortable. He’s going to make us uncomfortable because he’s going to show us that we’re all prone to this kind of greed, this kind of self-indulgence, this temptation to waste our lives.

How would you like to have this nickname, “The Most Hated Man in America!” Want to know how bad it was for this guy? The one thing, I think that then-candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump agreed upon, was they both said this guy was absolutely without a doubt the worst man in America. Was he a serial rapist? A murderer? No. Who was he? He was Martin Shkreli, a disgraced hedge fund manager. He is probably most remembered for raising the price on a vital drug for those with weakened immune systems from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill, lining his pockets along the way. Eventually, he and his business partners were busted for securities fraud, but as it always goes with this kind of thing, he easily posted his $5 million bail, pulled his hoodie up over his face, and walked out of the courtroom. Greedy, super rich people; they’re nothing new. James knows about them. He’s going to tell us about that tonight. But he’s going to do what he’s been doing through this series for all of us. He’s going to make us uncomfortable. He’s going to make us uncomfortable because he’s going to show us that we’re all prone to this kind of greed, this kind of self-indulgence, this temptation to waste our lives.

In the opening verses of this portion of the chapter, Paul is wrestling with the way in which the world receives, or rather rejects, does not receive the wisdom of God but regards it as foolishness. And I was reminded of a story, probably apocryphal, about the way in which our presuppositions often color our conclusions. It’s a story that has resonated deeply with me for reasons that I hope will become immediately apparent as the story develops. It’s the story of a man who was diagnosed with depression. Nothing seemed to help him. He was passed from doctor to doctor, went from treatment to treatment. Nothing made a change in his condition. Everything else having failed, he was eventually sent for a dramatic and dangerous surgical procedure and in a last ditch effort to remedy his condition. There he is, lying on the table with the surgeons and the nurses around him waiting to be anesthetized and he is asked if he is comfortable. And when the nurse recognized his accent she immediately intervened, suddenly understanding the reason that no treatment ever worked. He wasn’t depressed at all; he was simply Scottish!

How would you like to have this nickname, “The Most Hated Man in America!” Want to know how bad it was for this guy? The one thing, I think that then-candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump agreed upon, was they both said this guy was absolutely without a doubt the worst man in America. Was he a serial rapist? A murderer? No. Who was he? He was Martin Shkreli, a disgraced hedge fund manager. He is probably most remembered for raising the price on a vital drug for those with weakened immune systems from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill, lining his pockets along the way. Eventually, he and his business partners were busted for securities fraud, but as it always goes with this kind of thing, he easily posted his $5 million bail, pulled his hoodie up over his face, and walked out of the courtroom. Greedy, super rich people; they’re nothing new. James knows about them. He’s going to tell us about that tonight. But he’s going to do what he’s been doing through this series for all of us. He’s going to make us uncomfortable. He’s going to make us uncomfortable because he’s going to show us that we’re all prone to this kind of greed, this kind of self-indulgence, this temptation to waste our lives.