Foundations (2)

Ive decided to give this series of messages out of the book of Romans the title Foundations. What we are attempting to do in this series is to lay a solid theological foundation on which you can live your life. You know the culture today can be described with many different words, but I would desribe it as toxic and weak. And the reason it is weak is because there is no foundation in which people are building their lives on. Peoples lives are a mess and there used to be a time when the church believed that if you just get things right with God He would help right a lot of your wrongs, he would begin to restore your life.

Today we are going to be in the second chapter of the book of Romans and I want to tell you that it is not going to be an easy subject because we will be talking about God’s judgement. NOw no one likes to here hell fire and brimstone all the time, but I think it goes past that, it seems like no one likes to hear anything in the church anymore except for jokes and stories that stir the emotions. the problem with stories that simply stir the emotions but never stir the spirit is that it will lead to a superficial Christianity, and may I tell you that a superficial Christianity is worthless, it is like salt that has lost its saltiness. And this is something as many of you know has bothered me for some time. I know that God’s word tells is that there is coming a tie when people will not endure sound doctrine, and I think its safe to say that not only will they not endure sound doctine but they will prefer laser shows and comedians

2 Timothy 4:2–4 ESV

2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

I have started reading a book that was referred by by friend Travis Wright over at Wilderness Church and the book is called “The Coddling of the American Mind”. And I think it has given me some insight into culture at large and why teaching biblical truth is so out of Vogue in the American Church today.

Now the word Coddle means to overprotect...

The premise of the book is that the American mind has been so coddled, so overprotected that it has set a dangerous precedent for our country.

In fact the underlying issues has led to a broad range of issue ranging from peanut allergies to depression. And the underlying thought when raising kids is that kids are fragile and need to be protected from anything that may cause stress or adversity in their life.

You say really peanut allergies, yes… Back in the 90s schools started taking radical stances against any kind of peanut products. It was estimated 4 out of every 1000 kids had some kindg of nut allergy. So they took out peanut products as well as any kind of dried fruit that may be exposed to nuts. What they found is by 2008 that number of kids with peanut allergies had tripled.

In February 2015, an authoritative study5 was published. The LEAP (Learning Early About Peanut Allergy) study was based on the hypothesis that “regular eating of peanut-containing products, when started during infancy, will elicit a protective immune response instead of an allergic immune reaction.”

The immune system is a complex adaptive system, which can be defined as a dynamic system that is able to adapt in and evolve with a changing environment.8 It requires exposure to a range of foods, bacteria, and even parasitic worms in order to develop its ability to mount an immune response to real threats (such as the bacterium that causes strep throat) while ignoring non-threats (such as peanut proteins).

And so this coddling of the American mind has ran its toll on a culture that cant seem to think critically anymore. They also attribute much of the depression that we see in culture to this coddling that takes place at a young age. Many parents believe the lie that their kids are fragile and they will break if they are exposed to anything that will bring any sort of friction and hardship into their life

CODDLING IN THE PULPIT

It has worked its way into the Pulpit, there are far to many shepherds who have gone beyong loving their flocks to coddling their flocks....

Today I want to help you build a healthy foundation in the Lord. I want you and I to take his word seriously and to allow the Holy Spirit to work past our feelings of our sinful souls and allow him to work in the deepest part of you, your Spirit.

Today we are GOING TO BE LOOKING AT a part of sscripture that may offend you, as if Jesus doesn’;t offend. Oswald Chambers the author of the beloved devotionals Our Utmost for His highest said this, that Jesus will offend you until there is nothing left of you to be offended.

Last week we looked at how God deals with the Pagan, with the heathen of the world, those that do not know God, and we asked the question will God send someone to hell even if they have never even heard the name of Jesus… and as we discovered the answer is yes. they wont be judged by what they don’t know they will be judged by what they do know, and as we seen God has revealed himself to every single person, in two different ways, in their conscience and in creation… And as we seen they take what light they are given and they suppress it in unrighteousness. I saw someone post something about why people leave Christianity, and I believe it was somekind of political statement, let me tell you why people leave Christ, because they love darkness, that,s why? they can decorate and dress it up with whatver intellectual argument or how they were hurt by someone in the church, but at the end of the day, the true motives is that they love unrighteousness...

And as we seen there is a progression, a change in their spiritual nature, first they hardene their heart by supressing the truth about God they are given, but then God quites striving with them, and he doesn’t have to judge them, He simply has to release them to their own ways. He turns them over to their lusts… this turning them over manifest titself into worshipping false Gods, they worship the creation rather than the creator, its shows itself in sexual perversions, that even lead to homosexuality, and then in verse 28 God gives them up to a debased mind and they are filled with all manner of unrighteousness

Romans 1:29–31 ESV

29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

You say yeah Preacher get em! Well hold on because Now God is about to deal with religious people. in chapter 1 God deals with the Heathen, in chapter 2 God deals with the hypocrite

You see it is easy to talk about them but its harder to talk about me.... and after God gets finished talking about the heathen in CHapter 1 look how he starts off in chapter 2

Romans 2:1–11 ESV

1 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. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 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? 4 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? 5 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. 6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.

And here God deals with the hypocrite. I have met them you have met them, they are both in the church and outside the church. I can’t tell you how many times I have talked to people and they told me yeah I used to go to church but there were too many .... what? hypocrites.

Now I want to say this you shouldn’t stop going to church because of hypocrites no more than you should stop going to walmart because of hypocrites. Now let me say this,if you are a hypocrite I want to humbly ask you to repent because God deals more harshly with the hypocrite than he does with the pagan.

What is a hypocrite? In Jesus time they were play actors that would out on disguises. If they were supposed to be happy instead of acting happy they would put on a happy face. And according to Paul one day God is going to remove the mask. He is going to remove the disguise and reveal what is really in there.

Now learn this about religious people. these what the Bible calls hyporcrites… They have learned the art of disquise, I mena they have mastered it. They have learned how to make the outside look nice and shiny, but as Jesus toldk the hypocrites in Jesus time you make the outside of the cup clean but it is the inside that he is worried about.

Now religious people can be very hard to spot because you as a man all you can really see is the outside of the cup, and it apears clean and you immedietly think that the inside is as well.

Its like a cup that gets put into the dishwasher but the dishwasher doesn’t get ran. and somebody comes along thinking that its been ran, and sets it in the cupboard. and you get it down put ice in it and drink out of it. The only time you spot it is if you look in it before you put your liquid in it.

The HYPOCRITE AND HIS RELIGION

Thats how hypocrites are… from the outside they have been washed

Now you need to understand something about hypocrites, is that they have their own religion. You see they will start preaching a message of works. well if you are really a Christian you will live like this, you will talk like this, you will dress like this, you wont go watch movies like this, and for the really spiritual ones they will be like we dont watch any kind of TV, really because I watch lots of TV

In Jesus days it was confirmatory to God’s law, and today it is conformity to church traditions

Matthew 23:1–5 ESV

1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,

Do you know how to spot a hypocrite? They usually dont have much grace for other people? No patience, no love, they are quick to speak and slow to respond. They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear, but they themselves are not willing to move them with a finger

And everything they do its to be seen by others. Everything that happens that is good they are ready to take the credit for it. Everything that they do that Jesus said should be done in secret they do out for everyone to see, because for the hypocrity its more importantn to be seen by others than to be seeen by God in the secret place.

Matthew 23:25–28 ESV

25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

What is Jesus saying, hypocrites are like rich peoples graves, they've got a beautiful headstone, but inside truth be told they are dead.

Romans 2:1–2 ESV

1 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. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

Romans 2:3–4 ESV

3 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? 4 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?

Romans 2:5 ESV

5 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.

Romans 2:28–29 ESV

28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 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.