Romans #3
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Hey guys it is good to see yall tonight we are trying to the best of our ability to dig into one of the hardest theological books in the Bible. The most comprehensive study of doctrine in the entire Bible, some even call it the gospel according to Paul.
“It may be that deity can forgive sins but I do not see how…” Socrates
Now that is a good observation, HOW DOES A RIGHTEOUS GOD FORGIVE SINS WITHOUT COMPROMISING HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS?
Paul is widely recognized as one of the most profound thinkers on the planet. He was trained in the best schools in both the Greek culture and Hebrew cultures. He was taught by a dude named Gamaliel and he was a Hebrew of Hebrews, He also was a Roman citizen, which will come into play later.
This is written to believer, this is written to believers in Jesus Christ. This book was meant to teach the saints, people who were already saved. It was not written to the church in Rome because there was no church in Rome, but instead there were many house churches where believers would gather together to worship.
But it’s interesting that these believers meeting in homes were known throughout the world. These believers were turning the world upside down. Now we said last week the amazing thing about this was that they had no phones no internet, this was simply because these people were beating the street for Jesus.
The first 8 chapters is about doctrine, the first three chapters are about sin, 4-5 deal with salvation, 6-8 SANCTIFICATION what is that really? We know alot about salvation but what is sanctification?
Then there are 3 chapters that deal solely with Israel. Most people today will not teach these chapters in churches because it is a common viewpoint today that Israel forfeited her rights and God is through with Israel.
We need to understand that God is a covenant keeping God and there is a special role for Israel in His redemptive plan. This is where Jesus when He returns to the New Earth, is going to rule from, He is going to rule from Israel.
Then the last three chapters are the personal notes. it is the practical part.
If you wanted to break these sections down by topic they would be
FAITH
HOPE
LOVE
Were in the first three chapters where the main subject is sin, you may remember the key verses to the whole book are 16-18. Where Paul says For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and then to the Greek.
THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH
This was the key Phrase that lead to the reformation, it is a direct quote from . This answers socrates question when he says I do not see how God could forgive sins, this hits it head on.
We have learned that grace if left unchecked can erode into legalism, and the early church knew and understood the work of Christ and the grace of God but overtime it eroded into legalism and that is why you had things like the selling of indulgences, to buy your loved one out of purgatory, and why the Catholic church went into such a works based man centered way of doing things.
But the reformation changed all of that BUT THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH is the verse that sprung that reformation and for the first time in a long time the Bible was translated and the common men and women recieved their first copies of the Word of God.
Last week we dealt with the problem of sinful man.
What does that mean?
HE IGNORES GODS REVELATION
HE PERVERTS GODS GLORY
HE IGNORES GODS INVITATION
We talked about how every person is without excuse because the intelligent design of God’s creation somehow strips away every excuse there is. Because it is very evident there is a creator someone has designed the human body and the solar system, every human being knows this.
Deep down they know
Even in their wisdom they became as fools because they Reject God, they reject His glory and pervert it, they reject His invitation to know Him and as a result they become futile in their thinking and worship themselves or the creation over the creator and are blinded in their minds to the reality of God.
Now there is something that I have missed on many occasions reading this but I noticed it this time, and that is this there is a specific judgment that comes down on people who deny Him as a creator.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Wow I always thought homosexual activity was a personal choice and in an individual sense from mans perspective it is, but it is also a sign of the judgement of God.
Romans 1:26
It is a judgment on a culture
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
Romans 1:28-
God gave them up there is that phrase again
“debased” mind means void of judgment again thats God giving them over to those things, this is the judgement of God.
WOW
Now that was review but tonight our focus is going to be on which is all about the righteousness of God revealed.
WHAT IS THE GREATEST THOUGHT THAT EVER ENTERED THE MIND OF MAN?
Daniel Webster says “The greatest thought that ever has entered into the mind of man is my responsibility to my maker.”
Can you beat that?
God created man in His own image, so since we are persons God must be. That means He is personal, since we have personal feelings so does God.
Do you know you have the capability of grieving God?
We can grieve the Holy Spirit, only because He loves us, you cant grieve someone who does not care about you.
If God is God He has to be the judge of everything right? It seems pretty straightforward
WE HAVE TO MEET GOD ON HIS TERMS NOT ON OUR TERMS
If you are employed by a big company to my knowledge none of us are but one of the odd things is in this big corperations it is not uncommon for one boss to leave and every normal employee to find out later that there is a new boss.
For the next few weeks they buzz whats the new head boss like.. bc they know their lives are gonna be impacted by His characteristics. So they wanna know what the real big boss is like what he likes and what he doesn’t like.
What makes him pleased and what makes him not so pleased, that is normal for people to try and figure out and this is what chapter 2 is all about what is God like?
We have to meet God as He is and not how we might wish Him to be.
So let’s really see and try to see things as He sees things to be. We saw the problem with the pagan man in , this time we are going to look at the MORAL MAN.
Were gonna touch on the religious man a little bit but he is really dealt with in chapter 3.
We talked about paganism last time, tonight were going to talk about moralism. Paganism is easy because its so stupid and illogical its easy.
But moralism is a little harder its harder because the moral man thinks he is ok and he aint.
In this chapter w
Now let’s talk about
Do you know that many pagan cultures view abortion as a capital crime? Worthy of death or life in prison?
That is interesting because that is pagan culture but they view children as their strength, so even in modern day pagan cultures it is a capital crime to abort a baby, now that is pagan countries now compare that with where we are today.
Some pagan cultures are more moral than “civilized” cultures now Jews are examples to others and have prided themselves in that they were eximplery in their moral conduct.
They often condemned the Gentiles and were gonna be talking about them alot. They felt like God’s standards did not apply to them because of their higher standards.
Some of the pagans had higher standards than other civilizations and they would say well were not that bad were pretty good. Thats the way the Jews felt about the Gentiles.
IT DOESN’T APPLY TO US....
You see that’s the first thing that goes wrong when someone becomes corrupt. Think politicians, there comes a time when they begin to believe that the rules don’t apply to them.
That’s where the trouble starts, that’s what happens when Presidents feel the constitution doesn’t apply to them. That goes for most of them.
Paul states that both groups the Gentiles and the Jews were both condemned because they did the same things for which they judged each other.
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
The Greek verb here for judging means to condemn a person.
Every man and woman is naturally blind to his or her own state =, one of the greatest lessons we can learn is that we learn to never underestimate a persons ability to justify whatever it is they are doing.
If God is righteous there are certain principles we should seek to obey.
7 of them that teach us how God will respond and judge certain things. These are rules that He will cling to, these are in His nature.
One of the best things Gods word does for us is puncture our delusions. there are many who are blinded by delusions becuase they think God is supposed to act one way and He acts completely opposite because they are living blinded by their good deeds rather than coming to God on His terms.
What does God desire that we know about Him and here God is going to through the Holy Spirit lay out what its gonna take for us to spend eternity with Him.
We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.
Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?
Thats pretty logical, The way the Greek puts it He says do you think you would escape… you?
This is the death chamber of selfrighteousness, to somehow believe that it doesn’t apply to us.
7 principles of judgment
1. God judges according to Truth
1. God judges according to Truth
There is only one barrier that will keep you from truth. The assumption that you already have it.
Try convincing someone when they think they already have the answer. How often do people try to find a sloution without having all the information.
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
Not only do moral people feel they are innocent but the riches of God should be leading us to repentance. You see the riches of God His goodness and longsuffering, all of those things should be leading us to repenting of who we are not justifying ourselves.
We are ungrateful but God is patient to the extremes.
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
So this is saying when you are not repentant for your sins, and you try to simply good deeds to cover up your unrighteousness the only thing you and I accomplish by doing that is storing up wrath on the day when God judges all things.
Let’s put these two verses together in verse four there are treasures we should be storing up with thanskgiving. God’s kindness patience, goodness.
But when we think were fine and dont need repentance we instead store up WRATH.
The word used for hard heart, is sclerotis it is the same place we get the word sclerosis for the hardening of the arteries.
So God see things for how they really are and judges things according to truth.
2. God Judges When Our Lives are over
2. God Judges When Our Lives are over
God never judges until our entire life is over
Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.
Ezekiel 16:49-50
PRIDE that is the root of all sin
Prosperity always feeds pride.
Billy Graham once made this statement: “If God does not judge America He will have to apologize to Sodom and Ghamorrah.”
He is not just talking about homosexuality, its pride its the whole package.
THE DAY OF GODS JUDGMENT, now this may make you think as I once thought there will be one time of judgment for everyone but this is not so other passages indicate there will be several judgements held for different things.
Israel will be judged
Nations will be judged
The Great White Throne
The focus of Paul’s remarks is that God will judge all people. The focus is not on the who will be judged when.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
HAS ETERNAL LIFE
John 5:
Not will receive it but already has eternal life. Let’s not forget that, if you flee to the cross of Jesus Christ you will not come under judgement that’s what it says here for it has been finished. The thing that is gonna keep us going in the book of Romans is chapter 8.
God Judges According to Our Works
God Judges According to Our Works
He will render to each one according to his works:
Romans 2:
This is a quote from psalm 19 and also
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:11
to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;
Now this is not decribing how we gain salvation, this is Paul describing the character of the saved. The character of the just man.
but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,
but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.
DOING GOOD IS NOT WHAT SAVES THEM, PAUL IS GETTING TO THAT BUT DOING GOOD IS EVIDENCE THAT JESUS HAS CHANGED THEM FROM THE INSIDE OUT
4. God Judges Everyone the Same
4. God Judges Everyone the Same
Well I am the son of the pastor, that may be something that makes it harder for you to get in lol jk
For God shows no partiality.
We will all stand before God as equals, we wont be judged by how much money we made, how many people we helped, how many friends we had, our social class, or political party.
GOD SHOWS NO PARTIALITY
It doesnt matter what your backround is
The only thing
For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
There is no comfort from knowing God’s word, but it is all about what you did with the truth you knew that matters.
ITS NOT THE TRUTH YOU KNOW THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE BUT IT IS THE TRUTH THAT CHANGES YOU THAT MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD.
11 inch problem
Disobedience and unbelief are virtually synonyms, they go hand in hand.
What a person does over and over again reveals their heart. Eternal life is not a reward for good living. If it was it would contradict other scriptures.
Which says salvation is not by works but only through Gods grace. But there are so many who get confused here, are works important yes because they demonstrate when done in God’s will and His time that you have a relationship with Him.
But do works save you no, they are merely the evidence of your salvation.
GRACE
GODS RICHES AT CHRISTS EXPENSE
a person doing good shows a regenerate heart, a person who strives to live at peace with all men, a person who sows disunity and discord shows that there is a sickness and if it is the habitual pattern of that persons life that person may not know the Lord at all.
A person who continually doing evil and rejecting the truth only shows that he is unregenerate, and needs to be saved. This is what Paul is saying here.
For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
Romans
There are Gentile nations that don’t murder each other they know better it is written on their heart.
They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them
Moral people show that they know better but if they reject the gospel they are doomed.
Conscience is not reliable so the movie says let your conscience be your guide, the Bible says no do not let your conscience be your guide because it can be guilty,corrupted, sick or even seared.
(1 Corinthians Timothy)
So a conscience can be a bad indicator, all people must seek wisdom from the Lord Jesus Christ and his word. That the blood of Christ might cleanse their consciences.
So are just explanations of the previous 2 verses.
6. The Lord Judges the secrets of the Heart
6. The Lord Judges the secrets of the Heart
God will judge according to the secrets of the heart
on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
God’s righteous judgment
Jesus is the one who judges,the judgment will bring out even the secret things of men, the things we never say to anyone. Heres what we need to understand we will all be exposed.
You may think you have some people fooled, you may think that you are ok, but the deep dark secrets of the heart will be exposed. That should humble us tremendously.
God punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous
Every man not in Christ is headed for punishment, this is why it is so important to know that we have placed our security in something that cannot be moved because we can fail in every way. One minute we can be walking with the Lord the next minute were doing something brainless and wondering why we did it.
This is why we need the Lord, and we need to remain in a humble state in order to see our need for God. One indicator we are not in a humble state before god, is we want to criticze and judge others without ever realizing the sin we ourselves are participating in.
Paul has not yet presented the way a person can be made right with God.He hints at it, but his goal is for people to see this and think to themselves, oh wow, none of us are getting out of judgement we are all doomed!
We need to understand Paul is making the case that no one on his own can be made righteous before God none of us.
If you dont understand the problem you wont appreciate the solution.
ALL MEN NEED TO COMING SOLUTION!
Jew Gentile MORAL, WICKED, RELIGIOUS EVERY MAN AND WOMAN NEEDS RIGHTEOUSNESS NOT FOUND IN OURSELVES TO BE SAVED. once we grasp that we are sinner and are dealing with a sinless holy God whose standard cannot be compromised, then we can begin to appreciate what God has done through the blood of His son Jesus Christ for us.
God has gone to ridiculous extremes in order to have you and I as His reward.
Now he dives into the problem with the religious person, who loves law and tradition and boasts in their relationship with God but doesnt keep the law or tradition
But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God
and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law;
and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—
The basis of religious pride
he deals with Jews here but we can see this even in our culture today.
Jews prided themselves on being called a Jew,relying on the law,boasting of God, knowing Gods will, sounds pretty good doesnt it?
There are many today that will pride themself in being called a Christian, but they rely on the keeping of mans tradition over walknig daily with a living Christ, they claim to know Gods will, they boast at the amount of time they have been in church work but have never been redeemed by the Lord.
This is the pastor and deacons in the movie left behind sitting with people in their congregation wondering why they were not takken up to be with the God they taught about.
Paul doesnt stop there
DID YOU NOT TEACH YOUR SELF?
you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?
You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.
For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
we also see the same thing in , and of course we talked about Sunday night the valley of dry bones
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them. But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.
“Son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord.
Ezekiel
Ezekiel 36:16-
This si God’s own words to His people how they blew it.
Ezekiel 36:22-
“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
So God says the reason the religious man is judged is because he causes the heathen to stumble because they know he is a religious man but the things he says he believes he does not practice and therfore the Gentiles dont believe in the god the religious man claims to serve and judgement falls upon him as a result.
For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.
So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
Romans
Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.
WOW
For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.
But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
The true Jew is one who is circumcized in his heart, changed from the inside out not from the outside in.
So if we boil all of this down into one statement:
JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE BAPTIZED DOES NOT MEAN YOUR ARE FREE FROM THE WRATH TO COME, JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE MEMBER OF THE CHURCH DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE FREE FROM THE WRATH TO COME, JUST BECAUSE YOU TEACH, OR PREACH DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE FREE FROM THE WRATH TO COME.
BUT ONLY IF YOU ARE CHANGED FROM THE INSIDE OUT
SHOW ME A CHRISTIAN WHO REJECTS THE WORD OF GOD AND LEANS ON THEIR OPINION, SHOW ME A CHRISTIAN WHO BENDS WITH THE CULTURE, SHOW ME A CHRISTIAN WHO RESTS IN HIS OR HER RELIGIOUS ACTS AND I WILL SHOW YOU A PERSON WHO IS NOT A CHRISTIAN AT ALL.
That is what Paul would be saying to our generation.
The problem for the religious man, the one who is morally upright is that they do not realize their goodness is not enough to make them right with a holy God.
WE NEED SOMETHING GREATER, WE NEED SOMETHING PURER, WE NEED PERFECTION, WE NEED JESUS
Let’s Pray