What Christ has Done for us!
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Introduction
Introduction
This past week, Ray made a comment to me and I realized I was doing something each week in this journey through the book of Romans. He quite enjoyed it, so I will continue.
He had noticed that I had begun each sermon with a question for us,
so as not to disappoint Ray, or others, here is today’s question.
Has there ever been a time in your life that you had a special pass.
Maybe like the monopoly game card “Get out of jail card”
Something that when produced got you into an event, or got you out of trouble?
I have some family members who were in the police force and the rumour have been said that when they would speed, like my illustration a few weeks ago, and if they would be pulled over, they would pull out their police identification and hope that this would be a pass.
Maybe it was something that gave you special privileged. During the Flood and the subsequent road barricades, one couldn’t pass unless you had the special red band around your wrist.
A couple weeks into the recovery of the flood, I was given a special escorted tour to my house I noticed one of my neighbours home and asked how he was able to get through.
Simple. As I drove up to the barricade, I raised my left had as a sign that I had a band and they waved me through.
What about you.
Is there something in your past that you had that gave you a special privilege?
Did you get that privilege because of something you did, you earned, or you were born with?
Once again as we look into the book of Romans, Paul continues to speak to people who took their privileged as a personal advantage and sat proudly upon that.
Let’s open the Word this morning and read the first 20 verses in the 3rd Chapter of Romans.
1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?
2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.
3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?
4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”
5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)
6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world?
7 But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?
8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Let’s Pray
Spiritual Advantage
Spiritual Advantage
As we heard in the last chapter in which we covered last Sunday, Paul points out that man, either Jew or Greek sees their sin equally in the eyes of a righteous God.
Paul in verse one once again draws his attention back to the Jew who would have been listening and poses the question about spiritual advantage.
Are there things in our lives that we feel give us a spiritual advantage.
If Paul were speaking to us today, what would he say to us?
Maybe its that fact that you come to church, are actively involved in a church program.
You know the many things to say to sound and ways to act like a Christian.
You feel in doing these things and being involved that you will have a spiritual advantage.
What about the workplace or in your neighbourhood people have come to know you as a follower of Christ, or identify you with having a religion.
If they are struggling, they often turn to you and sometimes even ask them to pray for you. After all, they see you having a spiritual advantage over them.
Spiritual Advantage,
Paul just spent the last chapter describing to the readers that there is no advantage in the eyes of God regarding the Jews lifestyles and then moves into Chapter three with a question for them.
1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?
What would be the right answer?
It’s like the child in a Sunday School class when a teacher asks a question and they don’t know the answer, they say, Jesus.
What is the answer here. Is there an advantage. Was there an advantage for the contemporary Jew of the time in which Paul is speaking to?
Do we have a spiritual advantage by attending Church, following in obedience and being baptized. Joining the church’s membership.
Is there an advantage?
Was there an advantage for the Jews.
Look at what Paul says in vs 2
2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.
Paul points out that their act of circumcision, the sign of becoming a Jew in obedience, was a valued sign.
Some people struggle with the word or phrase
to begin with.
As there is a list of things that someone can chalk up to their credit and standing before God, but the greek word here translated First, is not a numerical order found in a list, but that it was an important thing in their lives.
Some translations use the word Chiefly, meaning the priority in your life.
Jesus used this idea as well for us found in Matthew
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Paul began to point out that they were entrusted
First, chiefly, with the very word of God.
Even though the Jews counterpoints, their neighbors could know about God, the Jews Had been given the very word of God.
What are you entrusted with today.
What Has Christ done for you today,
He has given you the very words of His Voice.
We hold this in our hands,
hold up bible
for some of us we carry the words on our phones or devices.
We have an advantage.
One author writes this,
I was reared in a liberal church. The minister did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus. He denied the miracles of the New Testament, and his sermons exhibited that skepticism. However, part of the liturgy in the church every Sunday was the reading of the text of the Bible. Everything that went before the reading of the Bible and everything that went after it was distortion and heresy. Still, in spite of the minister, not because of him, I was sitting under the word of God. That was the advantage to me. When I became a Christian, it was through the testimony of the word of God. In preparation for my call to conversion, the word of God was at work in my life.- RC Sproul
Paul says to the Jews listening that they were entrusted with the Word of God to carry to the people.
His promised son, the messiah, the redeemer came through His chosen people.
God’s Words were written down for mankind and yet a greater promise came through Christ.
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Way before the coming of Christ, God placed the words in their lives that there will be a coming day that the Word will become flesh, dwell among them and then dwell within them.
Jesus promised that when
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
The spiritual advantage, if we can call it that, is that once we become a follower of Christ, God’s Spirit will come and dwell in us.
Paul was reminding the Jews that they had the very Word of God.
You too have the Word of God.
If you are sitting here this morning, and you are still wondering what the Believers life is like. You haven’t make the choice to follow God, may I encourage you to continue to read the Word of God.
This is the very reason that we read the passage each Sunday as it is vital for all of us to hear the Word of God.
Hearing the Word of God to you is a great advantage, even if you don’t understand it yet or believe it.
The Word will transform your life.
I have another question for you.
If you are a follower of God, how much time are you spending reading His Word?
How much is too little and how much is too much. There is no quantity stated, but that it is being read.
There are many things in this world today, especially if you have a device, that wants your attention.
Is God’s Word one of those things that has your attention?
Are we even aware of who much the world has our attention and not that of God’s Word?
One successful diet program to help people manage their weight is quite simply to get them to realize how much they eat.
The program begins by getting you to to write out all that you eat.
When you write down what you eat and begin to track the quantities you start to realize that you eat too much and begin to follow the parameters set out to balance the lifestyle you want to achieve.
Have you ever take a spiritual audit of your life.
Take a week, Begin by writing out all the things you do in a day.
Sleeping, food prep, eating, catching up on our emails, the news, the local coffee shop, friends family, Reading God’s Word.
Can I make it any easier for us.
What did you do today already? Think back a few hours,
How much time did you spend reading God’s Word today?
Was this morning sermon passage the first reading today, or the reading during worship?
Don’t think I’m pointing fingers at you, I’m asking myself the same question.
How much am I reading God’s Word, how much more can I read.
Is it my Chief thing to do, or am I easily distracted.
How is your life’s audit. Do we need to have some adjustment in the Reading of God’s Word in our lives.
I always need more, what about you.
Paul moves on,
3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?
Integrity of God
Integrity of God
Paul quickly writes about the integrity of God.
Folks you will often here me say that Christ’s return to this earth is coming soon, and I pray that He will return on Saturday.
Simply put, If Christ’s return happens on a Saturday, I won’t have to preach on Sunday, not that I don’t enjoy preaching, rather that my works, message is small in comparison to His Glorious return.
The integrity of God is huge in comparison to our faithfulness.
Paul states that the lack of people’s response will not in any way diminish the faithfulness of God.
God’s covenant with the people did not change because of the people’s lack of response to it, because it wasn’t conditional upon them.
There was a response needed to show, that was circumcision, but it didn’t nullify God’s commands if some were not unfaithful.
You see if the Jew, or the skeptic in the church, who do not believe in the sign of being a Jew, circumcision, or the Word of God, as Paul states, Oracles, does that bring about the effect of God’s Word,
How does Paul respond?
4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”
RC Sproul writes,
The Bible makes that condemnation - all men are liars. We are all promised Breakers. God is the only perfect promise keeper. That is how we live as Christians: we trust that God is not like us. We break our promises and lie to each other, but God cannot lie because he eternal being and character are truth. It is impossible for God to lie. Just because we lie does not mean that God does. Because we ignore his word does not mean his word becomes worthless. Paul warns against even allowing such thinking into their heads. -RC Sproul
Paul used the words from Scripture to draw out his point.
Words from David, as he repents to God in Ps 51
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
Once again, God’s Integrity is not based upon our lives.
David, a man described as one after God’s heart, was a sinner like you and me.
David realized in that beautiful poem of repentance, that the
“wickedness of sin does violence to the perfection, the majesty, and the holiness of God.” - RC Sproul
But it doesn’t negate God’s faithfulness.
Are you hear this morning to hear God’s Word?
Have you come to a place in your life that you need God’s Grace in your life knowing that all that you do, all your failures, all your shortcomings cannot affect the love of God for you.
later as we end the service in a song of response, this may be a time for you to come to the alter of God’s Grace.
Later as we sing, maybe there is something God is speaking to your heart that you need to bring to him and ask for prayer. There are people willing to pray for you may I encourage you to come.
If we are truly honest with ourselves, like David’s prayer, we should all be at the alter, if God is asking you, prepare yourself to come.
But Paul’s words continue.
5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)
6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world?
Our sin has no bearing on God’s righteousness. In fact, our sin points out the righteousness of God and His standard remains unchanged.
God’s standard is set and anything against that standard is sin.
The world and its ways has a moral standard that is relative. It moves with their understanding and will definitely change when the person is directly affected.
God’s standard as what is sin has not changed.
God’s response to sin has not changed.
Verse seven outlines for us that God’s truth and his righteousness will abound even more because of the removal of sin in our lives.
Paul talked about the Spiritual Advantage of the Jew, the integrity of God, he ends this section of scripture with the Righteousness of Man
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
Righteousness of Man
Righteousness of Man
Paul begins to show us and speak to the universal guilt of sin.
We were all born into sin.
Without the Gospel, the good news of Christ, we are all under the penalty of sin.
Folks we are not any where near ready to hear the Gospel until we first understand where we are in our sin.
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
We are born into our sin, we can attempt to do things for God, but that is not what saves us.
The spiritual advantage that we claim outside of the shed blood of Christ for our forgiveness of sin is God.
There is not advantage in God’s Eyes when we put our spiritual appearances or practices, its worthless religion.
Living a Christ filled life begins when we first seek after God.
We come to him and ask Him to take away our sin.
The Gospel is in the work of Christ on the cross for our sins.
Before we come to God we hid, flee, we live a life of a fugitive.
But God is not satisfied with that for our lives.
Paul’s words and description of us is pretty bleak and dismal.
Before we come to the knowledge of the need for Christ in our lives, we are lost.
One person wrote,
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 29: Romans All Under Sin
The dominating effect of sin can also be seen in the confusion of both individuals and society. “There is none who understands” means that without exception the thought processes of men and women are so affected by sin that there will always be some degree of deficiency in their grasp of the truth as it is to be found only in the knowledge of God. This naturally leads to confusion in everything else because all things have their meaning in Him. The politician who is confused about God will be confused about God’s world, which leads inevitably to a confused world view and inadequate political solutions. The sociologist who does not adequately understand God cannot thoroughly understand God’s masterpiece—man—so he will be in error at some point in his sociology. The same kind of thing must be said about all areas of human endeavor which are based on a warped or withered understanding of God.
Folks this morning you may see that these verses end with a dismal view of man,
Paul wanted the person reading this passage who felt that their reliance upon their working through the law was not the end.
All of the OT is pointing to a coming time, for God to bring about a reconciliation with his people.
Christ, came so that we can be reconciled to God through his work on the cross.
Folks we have no special advantage coming weekly to church, it is not the coming that is the saving part of our faith.
It is in the accepting of God’s grace in our lives.
Accepting the work of the cross for our lives to redeem us from the state described in these verses.
These words from Paul give us a clear message of who we are before we accept Christ.
Paul’s words here,
20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
It’s not a great place to stop, but in next week’s passage, Josh will be taking us through the steps of Faith found in the remaining parts of this chapter.
In Summary
In Summary
As the worship team comes forward to lead us in a response I have a simple question.
Have you given your life to Christ?
Have you thought coming to Church, being a part of this group is the way you will have eternal life, but have not given your life fully over to Him.
Today is the day that you need to come to the throne of Grace. Come receive God’s greatest gift and accept Christ today.
Maybe today, you are realizing that you have given your life to Christ, but are not 100% in, you want to make a stand today to live you life fully for God because you see all that He has done for you, commit your life fully to Him today.
As the team leads us in the last song and you would like to come forward for prayer, feel free to come.
Response to Worship
Response to Worship
Benediction
Benediction
Romans 11:33–36 (ESV)
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.