Romans #4
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Romans #4
Northside Church
Aug 29, 2024
Jamey Mills
Good morning Northside, My name is Jamey Mills I am the lead pastor here at Northside. It is always great to be with you.
Just want to make sure you all know that Northside’s search team has landed on a finalist for our full-time youth pastor… We believe that God is leading us to Blake Peterson… He’s met with them, with me, with the staff and elders… Tomorrow night there is an opportunity for MS and HS parents to meet him… Oct. 6th He will be leading MS and HS youth group and on Oct. 20th we are doing what we call a candidate weekend… he’ll be sharing his testimony during the service and we will all get to know some about He and His wife Kaelyn.
The search team and the elders want to invite you to pray for His wisdom and discernment… this is sorta the last phase in this process.
Between now and one week after the 20th, if you have any feedback about Blake please email it to the office. We plan on making the final decision and job offer on the 27th if all goes as planned.
When I was 16 a group of buddies and I piled into my 1972 F100 rear wheel drive… and headed out to my grandpa’s property in Powell Butte to shoot rabbits… we were really good at it. When we left, it was sunny and warm… but once we got out to my granda’s cabin… the skies changed… it started to downpour… I remember we all sucked up against the cabin… had this tiny overhand… sheets of water were running off it… right in front of us… i could have stuck my tongue out and hit it… it was hitting the ground and covering us with mud… we tried to wait it out, but it was getting worse. The truck was probably 300 yards away… finally I had enough… and I said I’m going to the truck… If you want a ride home you should too… and I took off running in the rain and mud… I looked and they were right behind me… We got about 100 yards from the cabin and lighting hit a tree probably 50 yards from us… it was SO loud…we all yelled things we probably shouldn’t have… but you better believe we kicked it into another gear… and we got to the barbed wire fence I literally jumped it… as we all now soaked… dove into the truck and slammed the doors.
And we just started laughing… nervous for sure… we couldn’t stop. So, I started the truck and was headed down this long gravel road… we were all talking about it and I lost track of the fact I was driving… all of a sudden i looked up and realized we were flying off the road… I jumped the ditch, went up a hill, took out a section of fencing, floored it back down the hill, and tried to pop over the ditch back onto the road… but got high-centered on the far edge of the ditch. Still just pouring, we got out and tried to dig out with a broken motorcycle fender I had in the back, but there was no way. We were hopelessly stuck… before cell phones… miles from anyone…
(Jason took off running to find help, and came back with a guy on a riding lawn mower) Literally, our hope was reduced to a chubby bald guy on an old small riding mower… (yes I realize minus the mower I just described myself)...
And we realize…
And to some degree, I think that's the point Paul is making in our passage today.
We are all hopelessly stuck and… we need rescued
Our hope needs to in something greater than ourselves.
You cannot save yourself.
We are in the 4th week of our sermon series on the letter that God used the Apostle Paul to write to the Church in Rome… Not long after the life, death, resurection of Christ.
Rome was the most powerful, influential, wealthy, and most secular nation in the world… many historians have said no other ancient nation mirrors own own more than Rome.
Its important to remember that Paul was not just a Jew… buty a Pharisee… a religious leader…. They were about…
Strict outward obedience - self-righteous
Imposting that sort of standard on others while avoiding their stuff
And thats what found them in the cross hairs of Christ.
And When Jesus came and began to correct their theology it was a direct threat to all that they stood for… and it was Paul Himself that began to lead the persecution of the early church… Standing over the death of christians… seeking and getting permission to arrest them by the thousands.
Paul encourated the risen Jesus… and what we see is this massive change. From fighting the Church as an enemy of Christ… to literally giving up his will and way and eventually his very life to teach about Jesus and plant Churches…
Becoming an apostle to the Gentiles, which… considering is pharisee roots… is not just unlikely, its crazy…
Like me becoming a missionary to duck fans
The Church in Rome was ethnically diverse… made up of Jews and Gentiles… for about 5 years, the emporer Claudias booted the Jews out of Rome and when they came back they found the Church pretty much lost touch with all that it mean to be a Jewish believer… and the result was disunity…
And so we know
Paul wrote this letter for several reasons…
1. To promote unity…
2. To secure a base for future ministry in Spain
3. To encourage this group in the face of growing secularism and persecution
… they were suffering for their faith… and its as going to get worse. (more on that in a moment)
IN the first few chapters, Paul almost feels like an attorney making his case… He goest back and forth… talking to the Gentiles then the Jews… contronging these two mentalities…
The Gentiles; Were seen as immoral outsiders
The Jews; believed they were genetically and morally superior
… or at the very least… better than those sinners the Gentiles… very
self-righteous…
That self righteous attitude is something Jesus went to war with…
Some of Jesus’ harshest words were reserved for the Pharisees..
Blind guides, snakes, white-washed tombs…
Looks good and clean on the outside… but contain death and the stench of death on the inside.
Paul give a ton of relestate in these first three chapters to painfully drive home an essential truth that is true of every human…
That even though it might look slightly different for each of us…
Every single person, regardless of gender, ethnicity, education, rank, or upbringing is a sinner before a Holy God.
No one has a leg up… No one is better off than the other… the grond at the cross is completely level.
It is dangerous… wreckless… and sinful to see it any other way. The serlfishness and sinfulness you bring to the cross smells just as bad as mine, and that is a truth that Paul himself embraced… He was the one that called himself the worst of all sinners.
You have to get this, you have to go there…
You will never make sense of God, Jesus, the cross, your need for repentance… if you don't.
You are, I am… a sinner in need of God’s grace…
Knowing that on your own, you stand rightfully condemned because of it. If you need me to, lets meet up and I can prove it, it won’t take long.
The depths to which you are willing to embrace that is massive…
It has everything to do with what and how you bring to God… Walking in the depth of your need shapes your praise, gratitude, and thankfulness…
Not walking in it shapes your apathy toward Him.
I told you in week one that if you pay attention, Romans will offend you…
I’m actually more concerned bout those who aren't…
Not paying attention,
Don’t really care, or
Like the Jews have become self righteous… at least I’m not like those sinners… you clap witht heir sin is called out… and completely ignore your own.
To be offended at some level means you’ve been confronted by the truth and it puts you in the best possible position consider what you’ll do with it. Dig into it. Why are you offended? Where does that come from?
Really only two choices…
I’m going to do what sounds good and right to me (This is about me, I am on the throne)
OR… I’m going to surrender this over the leadership and Lordship of Jesus in my life.
Paul’s very point is… ALL of us have stuff like this…
And Romans three sort of deals with ojections we may have…
Romans 3:1–2 (NLT)
Then what’s the advantage of being a Jew? Is there any value in the ceremony of circumcision? Yes, there are great benefits! First of all, the Jews were entrusted with the whole revelation of God.
Then what’s the advantage of being a Jew? Is there any value in the ceremony of circumcision? 2 Yes, there are great benefits! First of all, the Jews were entrusted with the whole revelation of God.
Romans 2:28 talks about how a true “Jew” isn’t genetic… or connected to doing through all the right rituals… but one whose heart is right with God…
Paul address a question he’s likely wrestled with himself…
Then… is there any advantage at all do being a Jew/circumsion… and Paul’s answer is… YES. HUGE!
What is the advantage of being a Jew?
They were entrusted with the oracles of God…
Entrusted… Israel experienced incredible things. No other nation in history can match what they’ve experienced… the highs and lows.
They received God’s Word, His special favor, His protection, the Messiah… AMAZING THINGS!
But it was heavy too. Like most of us they huperfocused on the great things… but not so much on what it would require of them… for His glory and of their own good.
It’s a LOT to live up to, and they couldnt.
Their history is a saga of slavery, hardship, war, persecution, slandar, captivity, and humiliation… and it’s still happening to this very day… why?
If not this, it makes no sense.
You see it in
the 400 years they spend in Epypt as slaves…
Wandering in the wilderness
Cival war
Conqured by Babylon
Conqured by Greece
The slaughter or Jewish babies under herod
Theodosius = legal code calling them inferior race
Hadrian destoryed 985 towns killing more than 600K
Banished from France
Banished from Spain
Banished from portugal
The hollicost in the 1940’s
All the way up to this very day in our own back yard.
Some of it came from God’s discipline toward their unfaithfulness
Some was God forming and preparing them.
Some from the jealousy of other nations.
It wasn’t easy being the tip of the spear so to speak of what God was doing and teaching. Being the example… for the world to see. They were God’s chosen people… prized possession… the pathway of His revelation and pathway that would bring Jesus in the flesh.
Entrusted with Oracles… that word is connected to LOGOS which means word or divine revelation…
They were entrusted with the whole truth of God… it reminds us that Jesus was the pinnacle of the OT.
LOGOS is the word that used of Jesus in Jn 1 where it says in the beginning was the Word; the WORD was with God and the WORD was God…
I think that's at least part of Paul’s point… into the sinfulness, brokenness, disunity and chaos… God speaks the Gospel… the truth about Jesus over you.
The Bible continually shows us that God is active in creation
… that He speaks to humanity… in fact most of what we know about God comes from
Creation
Experience
But also His spoken words to us.
Again… which I believe is Jesus.
Part of Paul’s point is… we are all on level ground and without excuse…
For knowing right from wrong
For knowing God exists
God’s Word… is powerful and should be treasured… its at work within us even when we aren’t aware… surrounding ourselves with a heart that longs to hear it… the right way… and obey it… matters.
Story of two men… (AM NOTES)
Born in church, raised his whole life, sournded by word and beleivers… never a day not in church
Brand new… conversation at lunch led to confrontation of Jesus… and he is in. knows nothing.
Both saved
Both Christian
Does #1 had an advantage… Yea.
Paul is saying… but you abused it. Took it lightly…
#1 heard gospel many times. To be reaffirmed in it. Blessing to Him. Probably one that should be entrusted to teach over the other.
Huge advantage to having the Word….
The advantage of being a Jew didn’t guarantee obedience or salvation.
Thats what Paul meant in Ch. 2 when he talks about how genetics/rituals is not what makes you a hew… but circumcision of the heart… a changed heart.
True, some of them were unfaithful; but just because they were unfaithful, does that mean God will be unfaithful? Of course not! Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true. As the Scriptures say about him,
“You will be proved right in what you say,
and you will win your case in court.”
“But,” some might say, “our sinfulness serves a good purpose, for it helps people see how righteous God is. Isn’t it unfair, then, for him to punish us?” (This is merely a human point of view.) Of course not! If God were not entirely fair, how would he be qualified to judge the world? “But,” someone might still argue, “how can God condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty highlights his truthfulness and brings him more glory?” And some people even slander us by claiming that we say, “The more we sin, the better it is!” Those who say such things deserve to be condemned.
3 True, some of them were unfaithful; but just because they were unfaithful, does that mean God will be unfaithful? 4 Of course not! Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true. As the Scriptures say about him,
“You will be proved right in what you say,
and you will win your case in court.”
5 “But,” some might say, “our sinfulness serves a good purpose, for it helps people see how righteous God is. Isn’t it unfair, then, for him to punish us?” (This is merely a human point of view.) 6 Of course not! If God were not entirely fair, how would he be qualified to judge the world? 7 “But,” someone might still argue, “how can God condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty highlights his truthfulness and brings him more glory?” 8 And some people even slander us by claiming that we say, “The more we sin, the better it is!” Those who say such things deserve to be condemned.
The unfaithfulness of man doesn’t nullify the truth or faithfulness of God.
God’s truth or His faithfulness.
It wasn’t just a few Jews that didnt obey all the time… it was all of them.
Even if everyone else is a liar… God will be found true; you need to hear that warning.
If you think you know better; if you cling to you and your way, God will be found “true”. Proven right.
God is righteous and just…
Humanity’s failures doesn’t disprove it, but proves it.
God’s jugement, discipline and long suffering faithfulness in the face of the Jews unfaithfulness and our own… PROVES it. Proves He is faithful and just and patient and benevolent and kind… and Just.
God will do what He says He’ll do.
And that is argument that I hear…
Most Christians aren’t any better off that I am, so why would I?
My unfaithfulness… only proves my need and your need for Jesus.
God’s character is not for sale… it isn’t dependant on my faithfulness.
God will be faithful to His Word, even when I am not.
God’s character is consistent and right. He alone is qualified to Judge, and He will.
1. Cross (Jesus pays)
2. Hell (you pay)
And Paul heads off another argument…
Well then should I light my life on fire and burn it down in order to highlight God’s goodness… Its the ends justify the means argument.
That is a corruption of the gospel…
And offense to the cross and what Jesus came to do.
He’s saying you don’t get it…
This is not about religion… which is behavior modification…
But heart change.
And this idea of heart change… is really about new life… its holistic.
Jesus turned everything on its hear… in the sermon on the mount when he told them… refraining from lust isn’t just physical… not just keeping your hands off people, but not lusing in your heart or mind…
It’s simply about not murdering people, but not allowing hate to have a foothold in you.
Real change is not behavior modification… but real heart change;
God does the heavy lifting… but there is an act of turning and repenting that He leaves for you.
So many times we fight to make ourselves better when God longs to make us new.
Paul goes on to illustrate this holistic veiw through the OT… quoting 7 OT passages…
Romans 3:9-17
9 [nature] 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 [mind] no one understands; [motive] no one seeks for God. 12 [will] All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; [deed] no one does good, not even one.” 13 [word] “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 [body] “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 [emotion] in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 [soul] and the way of peace they have not known.”
The picture Paul paints is total depravity…
That all of the person is infected and affected by sin.
Like spilling poison into water… it doesn’t just inpact that area…
Nautre: sinful. Not just what we do its part of who we are
Minds: our intelligence is used to make war with God/not gratitude toward Him
Motive: We don’t seek God, all the way back in Gen… God is the seeker (Jesus came to seek the lost)
Will: Our will has become rebellious to God and truth
Deeds: No one does good
Words: reflect the death within
Body: not realizing the value and santiticy of life…
Emotionally: we burry and curry burdens and eventually whats inside comes out
Soul: The know no peace… becasue they don’t know the price of peace.
This inner conflict that Paul talks about in Galatians between God;’s spirit in us and our sinful nature…
If not intentional and unegnaged by us… our sinful nature takes over and peace is lost.
That is the impact that sin has.
And that is what a life hoplessely stuck looks like…
“They have no fear of God at all.”
Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
Romans 3:18-20
18 “They have no fear of God at all.”
19 Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. 20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom (Prov 9:10)
… so start there. (prov 9:10)
Good people tend to think they don’t need God.
People who think they are good are not in touch with reality.
We are all without excuse… so chose well.
You alone are accountable for your choice.
Not parents, not culture, not me, not upbringing, not what you heard in school…
CONCLUSION
Genesis and Galatians say… God will not be mocked… You wont get away with twisting or manipulating or rebelling…
Whatever you invest in… you will reap from…
If that’s sin and selfishness… its what you’ll reap
If its of the Spirit… its what you’ll reap
Not only is it what saves you…
But it impacts what you experience here and now.
Do you believe God… that He is true and right.
Do you believe Him based on creation…
You own experience
The revelation of His word
Of Jesus
And on His own character in the face of your faithlessness.
Paul GOES way out of his way to remind us of this…
We are whats wrong…
We are on our own… hopelessly stuck… in sin
And he points to the answer which is Jesus.
After thoroughly proving you are a sinner… the problem…
In the next couple verses Paul clearly points to the solution…
He reminds us…
The Solution is Jesus. It’s always been Jesus.
I am wrong, but Jesus makes me right
I am unrighteous but Jesus took my place
I am the problem, Jesus is the solution…
I am God’s enemy, but Jesus calls me friend
I was under God’s wrath, in Christ I am an heir
I was dead in sin, but christ makes me alive.