Ignorance is not bliss

10,000 Sermon Illustrations Wrong Ball

Professional golfer Tommy Bolt was playing in Los Angeles and had a caddy with a reputation of constant chatter. Before they teed off, Bolt told him, “Don’t say a word to me. And if I ask you something, just answer yes or no.”

During the round, Bolt found the ball next to a tree, where he had to hit under a branch, over a lake and onto the green. He got down on his knees and looked through the trees and sized up the shot.

“What do you think?” he asked the caddy. “Five-iron?”

“No, Mr. Bolt,” the caddy said.

“What do you mean, not a five-iron?” Bolt snorted.

“Watch this shot.”

The caddy rolled his eyes. “No-o-o, Mr. Bolt.”

But Bolt hit it and the ball stopped about two feet from the hole. He turned to his caddy, handed him the five-iron and said, “Now what do you think about that? You can talk now.”

“Mr. Bolt,” the caddy said, “that wasn’t your ball.”

Romans 2:12-16

Big Idea: Paul is addressing the Gentiles could not claim ignorance, they also will be rightly judged by Christ as the law has been written on their hearts( right and wrong(there is no partiality)

Three truths that detail ignorance is not a defense to righteous living

1. Sin leads to death (VS 12)

Comparison of the Jews and the Gentiles

Ignorance is not bliss- Gentiles do not perish because the lack the law of the Jews they perish because of their sin

No Law can save you! Just as the Jews were unable to hold to the law, the same is here for the Gentiles

For Christians I want to encourage us, we must believe that all are guilty of sin.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

I know we all know this, and yet it must be the very nature of our understanding when it comes to life and eternity

Why? Cause if we believe any other it will change the way we look at Salvation through Christ and the consequence of sin

To grasp the consequence of sin you and I must realize there is no salvation other than the rescuing power of Jesus-

Acts 2:22–24 ““Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”

I believe that is what breaks all of our hearts as Christians - we know the truth but we see so many people seeking salvation or at there very best using excuses to deny the responsibility of sin.

The ultimate foolishness of sin’s distorted thinking is the denial of the existence of God- Paul Tripp

I know this can make us mad and frustrated but may i encourage you with another response

May we be as Paul is compassionate and honest.

Romans 1:16–17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.””

Eager to share the power of the Gospel- God has revealed the Gospel to us and we have all we need in Christ. This is done one on one who has God brought into your life- How do you disciple someone.

May we be like the Romans

Romans 1:8 “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.”

The Gospel changes our lives and God is working beyond our greatest understanding- We respond in faith

To keep someone ignorant to such truth would be unjust, to be unaware that sin leads to death both spiritually and physically would be wrong and unfair-

There are so many things in life that are unfair…

It may be a lopsided victory between sports teams that seem unfair

It may be unfair to see someone achieve something you have worked so hard at and they recieved the achievement over you

We have a pretty good concept of fairness, life can be unfair sometimes and yet

it is not so with God

God is Just

His righteous judgement is just because He has revealed Himself to all

Does He desire that the Jews or Gentiles should perish No.

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

This is the danger of sin it is not intended to be the way of live for anyone

Sin is our greatest attempt to claim there is a better way outside of the will of God. Sin has the power to enslave anyone!

John 8:34 “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”

Knowing the power of Sin the next truth will also remove the notion that ignorance is a legitimate excuse to righteous living

2. The Goodness of God (VS 13-15)

Did you know that God hates sin, this is something we may just brush over. God hates sin. His hatred of sin is how we can have hope. How horrible of a world if sin was not in restraint. We may think that this live is that way now, but rather I would want us to look at the world through God’s mighty work of Salvation

What saves us from our Sin? The Goodness of God

The work of God

God’s revealing of our need for Him man is sinful in need of a savior

Ecclesiastes 7:20 “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.”

Offering His savior- God’s free gift of Salvation

Romans 5:6–8 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Can we celebrate the goodness of God right now! its a great reminder why we are here. Why we live and exist- it is to worship Him! He doesn't leave us in our current state that he loves us enough and hates sin that He alone has done something about it- Yes i know life is tough

your marriage

your parenting

your friends

your finances

let us not doubt our mighty God rejoice that we are here!

- but let us be a church that rejoices

Active Faith

2 Corinthians 5:7 “for we walk by faith, not by sight—”

What God wants to do through Foothills Calvary will be known as we walk in faith

At times I know you and I wish we could have everything written out- but our plans must be saturated in prayer and faith. I pray that you join with me in this. Pray for this church God’s church. We must be people of prayer-

-All works of God. as we learned last week no good works takes place until God has done a work in our lives.

Just as the Jew could not live up to the Law neither is anyone able to be justified just by hearing it is through believe and faith, it is not enough for someone to know right and wrong.

James 1:22–24 “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.”

When in comparison we see the there is no partiality because though the Jews have the law the basic principles of the law are written on the hearts gentiles

Creation- we are all crated in the image of God

Right and wrong

Man is not ignorant of right and wrong

“You find among all cultures a sense of sin, a fear of judgment, and an attempt to atone for sins and appease whatever gods are feared.” Warren Wiersbe

This law is that is written on our hearts is not meant to be our salvation- it is there to show us our need for the Messiah

However much we want to pretend or defend what is wrong as right, we can see that mans definition of right and wrong has been skewed but are aware of what is wrong and right

it would be unjust for God to do so.. to make such a promise of the punishment of Sin make us unaware of our need for Salvation and the goodness of God

Ignorance is not bliss because we are aware of Sin, God’s Goodness and finally

3. God knows our intentions (VS 16)

This might be the greatest declaration that no one is ignorant… out of our secret places of hearts God will understand our motives

1 Corinthians 4:5 “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.”

Before a Holy God nothing is uncovered

“Whatever it means to say that God is holy, you need to know that He is in an entirely different category of holiness; He is much holier than you ever thought holiness could be”- Paul Tripp

This is a point not to flee but to run too- it is freeing to know we are not ignorant or that God is not unaware of our sin. He is holy the more we run from Him the more dangerous our live becomes

We may able to fool man, our church, our family, but not God

If we know we are unable to hide why are we?

I find this to be hysterical personally- God knows my motives, may I encourage you to pray for me and my family, I am aware that far to many pastors create motives apart from God, pray for me, pray that God would direct me and guide me, pray for me to be strengthened by His work, pray for me that I would not try to pastor on my own strength

Devastating corporately- In reflection as I pray for you, that you would trust God, you would remove any motive that isn't of God, none of us have any room to claim ignorance but rather run to the Messiah

Let us then pray for our lost world- knowing they can hide- may we be more aware of the need of the Gospel

May this be where we flee from sin, in the deepest parts of our hearts knowing that it is through faith that we live righteously because God is doing a work in us.

Jesus is the reason we rejoice!

The world will be judged through the righteous act of God through Christ

Acts 17:31 “because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.””

We run to God because of God’s love for us

Romans 8:38–39 “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

It should be freeing knowing that God knows our inner most thoughts and yet still loves us

Application:

Ignorance is not bliss because

1. Apart from God’s goodness we are a slave to sin

2. God has made himself known to all

3. God knows our deepest parts of our hearts… let us run to Him

1 Samuel 2:2 ““There is no one holy like the Lord, Indeed, there is no one besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God.”

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