When Joy Turns to Nightmare

Subject: What am I talking about?

How does God respond to the sin of Adam and Eve?

Complement: What exactly am I saying about what I’m talking about?

God judges, forgives, covers (forgives/covers?), rescues, and redeems Adam and Eve.

The Big Idea:

When we give in to temptation, while our sins will not be hidden from God, we are not beyond God’s mercy and grace to be forgiven, covered, rescued, and redeemed from our sins because of the fulfilment of His promise through Christ Jesus.

When we give into temptation, we are not beyond God’s mercy and grace to be forgiven, covered, rescued and redeemed from our sins .

Exegetical Observation:

Sin does not occur in a vacuum, as its birth is conceived in the flirtatious eyeing of laying down the call to obedience. However, sin is not coy enough to hide from the all-seeing eye of God or powerful enough to dissuade God from abandoning the pentacle of His creation to their just ruins. The mercy (not getting what you deserve) and grace (getting what you don’t deserve) of God extended to Adam and Eve despite their disobedience towards Him covered their nakedness with the death of a life, rescued them from eternal brokenness and disunity with God, and promised redemption through the death of the Life.

What is the homiletical idea of the sermon?

When we give in to temptation, while our sins will not be hidden from God, we are not beyond God’s mercy and grace to be forgiven, covered, rescued, and redeemed from our sins because of the fulfilment of His promise through Christ Jesus.

What is the purpose of preaching this sermon?

My purpose for preaching this sermon is to communicate the grace process of God towards sinners

What is the need for this sermon?

To reveal a need for an identity in Christ over an identity rooted in our affiliations.

Christians must daily be reminded of this process; if God has mercy towards the sinner, O how much more for the saint!

Before we begin, I have one request of you, that you would pray with me and for me as I preach.

Pray

Intro/Illustration 1

Before we read today’s text, I suppose it would be helpful to set up the premise from which our passage is taken.

Arguably, the book of Romans, written by the Apostle Paul, is among the most important letters in our New Testament. One could actually go so far to say that it is because of this letter that we have Protestantism today. Not that that’s relevant to today’s sermon, but still nonetheless interesting.

And if you know your Bible trivia, Paul wrote this letter to a community of believers he had never personally met. These were not Christians whom he or Peter personally discipled.

This all may come across irrelevant, but if you are a Christian sitting here today, aside from being an adopted son or daughter of God, you are a disciple of Christ. If you are His disciple, then you are His student and Christ Himself declares that while the pupil is not above their teacher, when they are fully trained, they will be like their teacher ( ). Therefore as Christians, we are blessed with the task of studying God’s Word, consuming this spiritual food diligently, and, in response to what we have consumed and digested, we are to live out His truth in our everyday lives.

Now if you are not a Christian, or perhaps you’re still trying to figure out how this Christianity thing is really supposed to fit in your life, I encourage you all the more to keep your ears tuned in because what I have to share with you this morning from God’s Word pertains to you as well.

Our Scripture for today will be in . It will be on page ## in the Bible of your pews. If you can open your Bibles to the passage, I will read.

The Lord says through Paul say,

*Read Passage*

Transition to Biblical Context

As we look at our text today in : 17-29 , we find that there are those among the Gentile population advocating that to follow Christ, one must become a Jew. Such people are called Judaizers and it is these people whom Paul is addressing.

It seems that they are having an identity crisis. Having been saved by the very Gospel that delivers all believing sinners from the wages of sin, we find that for whatever reason, they seemed to believe that because they are saved, they should be living as Jews. It makes sense; Jesus was a Jew, therefore we should be Jews. And if you live as a Jew, expect to be a religious Jew who lives in obedience to the Law commanded by God to the Jews.

Such a concept shouldn’t really be strange. Haven’t any of you Christians ever said, “Ok, I’m a Christian. I’m a follower of God. Now which of the commandments am I suppose to follow?”

That really has to make us ask, did God call believers of Christ to submit themselves under the 613 commandments of the Old Testament?

It appears that these Christians have misunderstood their call and purpose, their identity established by God in Christ. But we shouldn’t be too hard on them because as Christians I think we often make the same mistake as well.

In our text, Paul makes three observations about these Christians. He identifies:

· What they think they are.

· What they really are.

· What they really need.

This is important for us to understand, because our:

Big Idea

Christian identity is not defined by our religious culture or by what we do, but through the transformation of our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

What does that mean? Well let’s break this down.

P1.

Our Christian identity is not defined by our religious culture (x2)

It might be helpful to clarify what exactly a religious culture is and what better way to understand it than by observing how Paul describes the kind of people who live in a religious culture.

Verse 19 and 20, he describes them as a people who saw themselves as guides, lights, correctors, and teachers.

Now what would give them that kind of nerve? Well Jews were the ones rooted in God’s Word, from where the embodiment of knowledge and truth come (v. 20)!

What then is the problem? As far as we can tell, these are some good Jews.

Well first and foremost, Paul mentions their reliance on the Law for salvation and proper standing before God.

As we understand the Law, it was handed over to the nation of Israel, dictating how their lives were to be shaped. It covered everything from how they present sacrifices unto God to how they planted their crops. It was to set them apart from the other nations of the world, to consecrate them, to make them holy.

Sounds pretty good, right? Only one problem. The Law can’t save. You can’t rely upon the Law to establish any sort of identity in Christ, in fact you can’t rely on anything apart from Christ to establish an identity in Christ!

Now I suppose there might be one of you in here thinking, “Well that’s good and everything, but you’re not really telling me anything that I don’t know already.”

Let me ask you:

· Have you ever looked down on another believer after finding out they’re from a

· Would you ever doubt the seriousness of another person’s faith if you discovered what their favorite Bible translation was?

· Do you look at people who take their faith too seriously with annoyance?

· Which team are you on? Chapel, cathedral, basement? Old Earth? Young Earth? Theistic Evolution? Protestant? Roman Catholic? Eastern Orthodox?

You get the point.

The reality is that we’re all a part of a religious culture.

Now don’t misunderstand what I am saying here. I do believe our participation in the different facets of the Faith are a beautiful reality of what unity in Christ is comprised of. In fact, Paul himself has nothing against Jewishness.

The problem is when our culture replaces the Substance from which our identity in Christ branches out. x2

When that happens, when we misplace Christ in the midst of our religious cultures inside of the Church, we’ve truly misplaced ourselves in Christ.

Application:

Therefore, it is essential as Christians to know that our cultural expressions of the Faith do not replace Christ.

This is the first step in seeing that Christian identity is not defined by our religious culture or by what we do, but through the transformation of our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Illustration 2

When I was in the Navy, there was one time where I was sent to Fort Sam Houston for my C School. When I was there, I had come across a fantastic ministry that focused on the military. As I look back at that time, what had made them distinct from other ministries that I have been around is their emphasis on self-discipline. You’ve probably seen this mentality in your own church backgrounds.

· Did you memorize your verses for this week?

· Did you read your Bible chapters this week?

· Have you shared the Gospel with anyone this week? How many people have you brought to Christ?

And the questions go on and on. And to clarify, it isn’t as though asking those questions or doing those things are bad. I just found that when I failed, and I often did as we all do in one way or another, I saw myself as a “bad Christian”.

Have you ever felt like a bad Christian? A not-good-enough Christian? The hardest truth about this season of my life was needing to learn that Christianity was more than just a set of routines or performance measurements. You see,

Our Christian identity is not exclusively defined by what we do (x2)

P2.

Continuing on, we see in verses 21-24, Paul says, *Read passage*

Paul brings the focus of his reality check into full force here through these rhetorical questions and note, he isn’t knocking down the importance of doing these things either. He is pointing out that for a people so reliant on the Law, they are so inconsistent living under the Law.

Verse 23, do you not dishonor God with your Law-breaking?

God’s name is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles because of you, verse 24

Such accusations could put a person in hot water.

But it’s not for nothing that many people walk away from the Church feeling burned. Whether we were taught poorly, or we just poorly understood, an identity driven exclusively by what we do is not Christian.

The truth is that there will never be “enough” that we can do as Christians.

We are inefficient to please God by our good works alone.

The reality is that any attempt on our end to live in righteousness apart from Christ results not in holiness, but only in the name of our God being blasphemed among non-believers. When we misplace Christ in the midst of our roles and responsibilities within the Church, within the Navy, we’ve truly misplaced ourselves in Christ.

· Application:

Therefore, it is essential as Christians to understand that our personal practices within the Faith do not replace Christ, but they should reveal Him.

Application:

This is the second step in seeing that Christian identity is not defined by our religious culture or by what we do, but through the transformation of our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Illustration 3

When I was 18, circumstantial pressures pushed me into joining the US Navy and if you want to talk about how culture defines an identity, you need not look any further than Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois. 8 weeks of good ol’ solid identity shaping. There’s a story I have, but it needs some setting up.

· Navy Skivvies Story

o Laundry Pile of Unmarked Skivvies

“I tell that story, to get to this.”

Morning of Rack Inspection, Decide Not to Shave

Inspector Observes My Stubbled Face

“I didn’t have time to shave, Petty Officer.”

Inspector Searches for Three Hits

“No! Petty Officer, wait! Those aren’t even mine!”

Now obviously I got in trouble for not doing what I was supposed to do. But did my identity as a Navy recruit hinge on whether or not I shaved? Of course not! The Navy paid too much of a price for me to be there in the first place to suddenly get rid of me over this act of rebellion. As far as the Navy is concerned, as long as the Navy owns me, my Navy recruit identity will continue to be defined by the United States Navy.

Let me put it to you another way,

When I was in the Navy, I wasn’t a sailor just because I put on a uniform, slapped on some ribbons, and exemplified the Navy Core Values.

We have civilians who try to do that and we just call as it is, stolen valor.

Rather, it is because I was a sailor that I lived as a sailor.

Our identity in Christ precedes our actions for Christ.x2

That is why, as Christians, we have to understand then that:

P3.

Our Christian identity is defined by the Holy Spirit (x2)

The illustration Paul presents here is an interesting one. Why bring up circumcision? If you know your Scripture, circumcision was the physical expression of being in covenant with God. It’s a critical part of Jewish identity as someone in relationship to God. Yet Paul says that if an uncircumcised man, a Gentile, keeps the requirements of the Law, they are more circumcised, more Jewish, than the Judaizers.

It’s a powerful point, if the non-Jews could keep up the Law, but if the REAL JEWS, these chosen people of God can’t do it, what hope is there for anyone else?

Paul’s whole point is that these Judaizers are in the exact same boat as the Joe-Schmoe Gentiles they’re trying to convert over. Paul is saying that the spiritual disposition of these Christians is entirely misplaced if they really think that they can obtain an identity from a religious culture or from keeping the Law.

What then is the answer? Read v. 29

Who confirms our adoption by God ( )? Who did Christ send to His disciples, to be a Helper, to be with them forever ( )? Who performs our spiritual circumcision?

According to Paul, it’s Holy Spirit who ultimately defines us. Without the Holy Spirit, we have no peace with God the Father. Without the Holy Spirit, we have no participation in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of God the Son. Without the Holy Spirit, we’re lost in despair.

And as Christians, my concern is that we miss out on the joy that comes from this truth. Think about it. When the Holy Spirit dwells in you, you don’t bear the weight of maintaining a righteous identity before a holy God. Because this is true, it is

Application:

Essential for Christians to live this truth out through the faith we have bound in our union with Christ, as testified by the Holy Spirit.

This is the third step in seeing that Christian identity is not defined by our religious culture or by what we do, but by the transformation of the heart by the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

Now going forward from here, if you get anything from this, please remember and meditate on these truths.

· Our Christian identity is not defined by our religious culture and therefore we must know that our cultural expressions of the Faith do not replace Christ.

· Our Christian identity is not defined only by what we do, and we must therefore understand that our personal practices within the Faith do not replace Christ, but they should reveal Him as we seek to imitate Christ and serve Him.

· Our Christian identity is defined by the Holy Spirit and therefore we must live this truth out through the faith we have in our union with Christ, as testified by the Holy Spirit Himself.

It is only then, when we know, understand, and live in response to these truths together, that we can truly see:

· Our Christian identity is not defined by our religious culture or by what we do, but through the transformation of the heart by the Holy Spirit.

Never forget brothers and sisters, as Christians we are full partakers of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, and we are therefore empowered by the Holy Spirit to live in holiness.

So put on the new self daily as Paul says in , knowing that our ability to serve God faithfully and obediently is only possible because we are dead to sin when we are alive in Christ.

Complete your training here at TSC well, knowing that your growth as a sailor is not ultimately to satisfy the call of the Navy, but to satisfy the call of your Father in heaven.

And let us live joyfully in the identity that comes from the reality of Christ’s resurrection and ascension through awesome power and works of the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray. *Altar call?*