Romans #5
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Good evening, its good to see everyone this evening.
We are marching on in our study of the book of Romans, and we are right smack dab in the middle of learning about the problem with the religious man.
We have seen the issues that come from being a sinner rejecting Gods revelation, we have seen how Paul is also saying that the moral man, the one who has somewhat of a moral compass, has the same issue as the wicked man, because he is resting in his ability to be a good person.
Saying things like well, I hope my good outweighs my bad, these people are normally philanthropist and acts if charity but have no clue who God is and by default have no reason to think they will be allowed into Heaven based on the good deeds they have done.
Paul ends by addressing the religious Jew or religious people in general. Who seek to find peace with God through acts of service and or the traditions of their ancestors.
We live in the Bible belt, by in large in our area, if you were to ask someone if they believed in God their answer would the majority of the time be yes I am a believer.
However as we learned on Sunday simply agreeing with a certain statement of faith doesn’t make you a born a gain child of God.
Just because you have faithful worship attendance that doesnt make you a child of God. Just because you read your Bible that doesn’t make you a born again child of God.
Being a Christian means you placed the entirety of your hope in the finished work of Christ on Calvary and now have begun a daily walk with the Lord.
Everything in your life revolves around Jesus at the very center of it all. Now that you have a relationship with God you love Him and as a result of loving Him you seek to serve Him not because you have to but because you get to.
What a privelage it is to serve the Lord.
Just because you come to church that doesn’t make you a Christian, just because your family took you to church growing up, or even served as a minister somewhere does not make you a Christian.
This is one of the things I pray the most fervently for that my children will not base their standing with the Lord on daddy’s faith, but instead would have a genuine faith relationship of their own with Jesus.
But so often I run into pastors and just members of the community, who based on conversations we have had, have basically described to me how they are following in their parents footsteps and going to church is just what they were raised to do.
BIG IDEA:
RELIGION ROBS WHAT GRACE DELIVERS
What do we mean when we say religion?
RELIGION= Well intentioned acts, based out of wrong theological beliefs, done with the hopes of making God happy with you.
That is what I mean when I say religion, The Jews were well intentioned even when they crucified Jesus.
They were wrong but they honestly believed they were doing God a favor by killing the Messiah.
Jesus even referenced this in John while addressing those who follow Him.
They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.
John 16:2-3
The religious man knows alot about God but does not know God, personally.
These scribes and pharisees did a number on Jesus and they do a number on the followers of the Lord as well.
They still exist today, they seek prestige and power and control. Thinking they are doing the church a favor when really they bring about the destruction of the church.
All of this comes about because the religious man has based all of his hope i his actions rather than the actions of the Lord.
He has no real relationship with the Lord but whether he knows it or not is attempting to keep God’s favor on him by doing acts of self-righteousness.
So the top two problems for the religious man is:
Deceived into believing his families relationship with the Lord is automatically handed to down to him
Acts done out of a faulty theological construct will make him, or her, right with God or keep him or her right with God.
This is why Paul begins this way.
What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?
Paul starts right off the bat using their greatest ancestor against them.
He is debunking this idea that your family lineage has anything to do with your standing before God.
Remember the last chapter Paul says of what advantage is it to be a Jew?
He says the only advantage that they had was that they received the revelation of God first! So Paul is making the case that Jews have no automatic seat at the table of the family of faith.
You Earthly bloodline does not give you access into salvation.
So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
Acts 10:34-
EVERY NATION
DOES WHAT IS RIGHT IS ACCEPTABLE TO HIM
Now this can be confusing but I just want to show you, we do not work for our salvation that is what Paul is preaching against.
However if we actually have a relationship with the Lord then we should desire to serve Him, works are evidence of salvation, not how we gain salvation.
Some Jews thought that by their upbringing and the traditions and religious practices by their ancestors they would be found righteous in God’s sight.
There is nothing more dangerous than this, because these Jews often times were good, they went to the synagogue heck half of them served in high roles in the synagogue, however they missed Jesus.
They missed Jesus because they were blinded, because they rested in their ability to keep the law. They relied soley upon their righteousness.
This is why teaches us:
But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness—how deep is that darkness!
They needed a superceeding righteousness, something not found by works alone.
They needed a superceeding righteousness, something not found by works alone.
For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
No one could be more holy than these people, they wore all the right things, they said all the right words, they looked and acted the part.
But their hearts were far from God.
“ ‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
Paul is telling the religious man, that if you rest in deeds done for the Lord then you can never see salvation as a gift but rather as something expected or owed.
This robs God of His glory and elevates man’s incomplete work over the completed work of Christ on our behalf.
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
It can become confusing when we hear this word believe, but we have to remember this is speaking of someone initially become saved, or justified, we cannot become saved by works, however works are evidence that we have come into relationship with God.
We are given eternal life based upon the faith we place in Christ alone. However once we enter into this relationship with God through Jesus our want to’s desires and behavior should begin to change.
If our actions never change, then one must wonder if there was ever anything internal that changes, because an internal change always results in external evidence.
Then Paul moves on from Abraham one of the Jewish greats, to another Jewish patriarch, David.
Showing that even David understood this concept.
Righteous standing before God comes apart from works.
Salvation only comes through resting everything we are in Christ alone
ONCE WE REALIZE THAT SALVATION IS AN ALREADY PURCHASED GIFT
ONCE WE REALIZE THE CHAINS OF LEGALISM AND RELIGION ARE BROKEN OFF LOOK AT THE RESULT!
How joyful are those whose lawless acts are forgiven
and whose sins are covered!
Romans 4:
JOY!!!
Unspeakable JOY!! FULL OF GLORY!!
Why?
Because every lawless act you have ever done has been covered by the blood of Jesus!
YOUR SINS ARE COVERED AND ATONED FOR!
JOY!!!
WE ARE FREE TO KNOW GOD AND NOW WE HAVE MEANING AND PURPOSE AND WE NOW TRY TO LIVE FOR WHAT OUR CREATOR CREATED US FOR!
How joyful is the man
the Lord will never charge with sin!
Romans 4:
NEVER THE LORD WILL NEVER CHARGE US WITH SIN!!!
PRAISE THE LORD!!!
PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE SIN HAS BEEN PLACED UNDER THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB!!
This can be confusinf since we painted a picture on Sunday morning, between a believer and a follower.
Where we said simply believing is not enough.
So which is it?
Well it is very easy to see that true belief the kind of belief that saves, always leads to action.
You see how we understand believe and what the word actually means is two very different things.
When we say believe it is to say I agree, but it is not enough to simply agree, the demons agree the demons believe and they tremble.
So what sets our belief apart from theirs?
Our allegiance to Christ and our daily submission to Him as Lord.
We must understand that circumcision was the same thing to a Jew that Baptism is to us.
It was an outward sign of an inward truth.
This is why Paul makes the distinction now going back to Abraham...
Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness.
In what way then was it credited—while he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised.
And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also.
Romans 4
Paul is using Jewish heroes of the faith to show that these men understood the dynamic that it is faith and true belief connected with obedience which saves.
(Noahs Ark SEALED IN)
He is saying listen Abraham was saved even before he was circumcised but his obedience to the law only came as a result of the fact that he knew God through a faith based relationship.
But that relationship, knowing god personally lead to obedience, not out of neccesity, but out of genuine desire to obey God.
He obeyed the Law because He knew who god was. He did not obey the law in order to know who God was.
Notice the this idea of following found in 12
And he became the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.
FAITH IS TIED TO FEET
It is not just that Abraham obeyed in being circumzised but rather he had a continual lifestyle of following and obeying the commands of the Lord.
Faith is tied to action
James 2:26
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
If there is no action, no following the Lord in all areas of life, no change in desires, or change of behavior, then there is no Holy Spirit, because there is no true belief, there is only agreement which cannot save.
True belief leads to something.
For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
Notice the wording here, God gave a spiritual promise to Abraham, but it was not gained by Abrham THROUGH the law, but through righteousness that comes by faith.
Righteousness is works but those works come as a result of faith.
This is following!
For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
If those who rest their hopes in their ability to keep the law are the heirs (they have all rights to eternal inheritence) faith is made empty or hallow and the promise is cancelled.
For all the law can do is produce the wrath of God.
What this means is this: if we attempt to do good things to please the Lord all we do is make God angry with us, simply because the law was never meant to be kept by mere human beings.
It is simply a mirror which shows us where we truly are, if we did not have the law to show us what we have done wrong , then God could not be just in punishing us for sin, because we would have no idea what His standard was.
If GOd punished sinners without telling them what His standard was, then that would be unjust punishment, but since we have the law now we know the standard and we should be able to see we can never live up to it.
This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants —not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all in God’s sight. As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations. He believed in God, who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be. He considered his own body to be already dead (since he was about 100 years old) and also considered the deadness of Sarah’s womb, without weakening in the faith. He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, because he was fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
So ultimately what this is teaching is that people who are descendants of Abraham are any who are born into the family of God through faith.
Now God has kept his promise to Abraham because all those found in faith in Jesus Christ are his descendants, part of his family of faith.
They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,
Faith based action
His faith and relationship with God brought about submission to God, which lead to obedience to God.
His belief caused action.
He had full confidence in God that He was able to perform what he had promised.
and as a result
Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness. Now it was credited to him was not written for Abraham alone, but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
This is good news for all who have true saving belief those who are not content with punching a ticket for Heaven but rather want a living vibrant relationship with god on this Earth.
Who put feet to their faith they follow in the footsteps of Abraham.
Faith has feet
But our works do nothing but bear witness of an inward reality.
He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
TRESPASSES- WE tried to toe the line but CROSSED THE LINE
JUSTIFICATION- JESUS TOED THE LINE, BUT PAID FOR OUR MISTAKE
What a sweet Savior, what a beautiful reality this is.
Can you point to a moment in time where you began a relationship with Jesus?
Are you being changed by the Holy Spirit daily?
Or are you resting in something else....
My prayer is that each of us would be filled with the Holy Spirit and understand nothing makes us righteous except for the blood of Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray