THE VERDICT IS IN

Show the Video “The Law”

Announcments

Childrens meeting right after service

Operation blessing- See who would be willing to take a family on to provide gifts for a family

Donald Quest

Thanksgiving Dinner. We will provide the Turket and drinks so we need people to sign up to bring sides and deserts

This morning I want to start out with a vieo on that introduces the concept of the Law of God. Without the understanding of the Law you will not understand why faith in Jesus is enough.

This morning we are continuing our study from the book of Romans which has been called the Constitution of Christianity

Today we are living in a country that has those that are defying the Constitution of the United States of America, they are now using fear of a virus, which the virus again is very real, but they are using fear of health, fear of lock-downs, and fear of loss of life and livelihood to push their radicalized agendas for the ultimate push to do away with the Constitution of the United States.

Their goal is to make America a cog in the New World order and there are only two things that stand in their way apart from God. The American Spirit and the American Constitution, where all your rights are laid out in that sacred document.

We as born again believers have another Constitution that God himself has given us, it is the Constitution of Christianity. You have things given toi you by God himeself to live a life that honors him. No more excuses, Im an addict, I’ve been looking at pornography since I was a chile, I was abused as a child and

But before you can truly appreciate the true value of the American Consitution you have to understand the context of that time in history. You have to understand what the people were escaping from that cause the birth of a More Perfect union. They were tired of living underneath tyranny of England. They were tired of a government telling them how they could live, what they could or couldn't do in worship of God. They were tired of a fixed system where the wealthy only got wealthier and the poorer got poorer. The beauty of the Birth of the United States is that all men were created equal, and with hard work, creativity, wisdom you could chart your own course in life. Somewhere

Before you understand the beauty of the Consitution of Christinity and understanding your new biorth rights of the citizenship of Heaven, you have to understand your own context.

You don’t have to have a PHD in Theology or even a Bible to understand that something horrible has gone wrong. And can I say something OLD Fashioned at Relevant Church? What has went wrong is Sin! that three letter word is the cause of all our Heartaches, I heard a coach say one time that there is No I in T-e-a-m, but Can I tell you what has an I right in the middle? ITS that three letter word S-I-n

So what is the good News of the Christian?

Well like anything else things can’t be truly good unless there is something really bad. Two people might hear the statement and have different responses. You are debt free

Too the one person that hears that statement. Of Course I am. I work hard, I pay all my bills on time. I have invested wisely…You see to that person it is not hearing good news, Hes hearing a statement of fact

The second person: Hears the statement you are debt free, responds in a completely different way. You see they were in the middle of foreclosure, they had seven credit cards maxed out, and they had been completely foolish with their money. This type of person hearing these types of things it may be a statement of fact now, but listen this news was Great News… and now they have to discover the blessings of living without debt.

You see that was the difference in how the Pharisees responded and how the Prostitute responded. That was the Difference between how a Sadducee would hear the Good news and how a filthy rotten no good tax collector would respond.

You see when what we would call a good person hears the message of a bloody cross, they see it as a stumbling block, because to them being a good ol boy is a lot of hard work. And they don’t see a sinless saviour dying for the sins of man kind good news, they see it as the easy way out

Theres a story in the Bible about a Pharisee named Simon that invites Jesus over to eat dinner at his place. And a woman, who was a sinner, probably a prostitute, no doubt what many would call an easy woman, came into the house and she begins to weep at the feet of Jesus, and then she takes her hair and begins to wipe the feet of jesus trying to remove her tears… And noticed the religious mans thoughts, think he rejoicing over this repentatn sinner, oh no

Luke 7:39–50 ESV

39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” 40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” 41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

See that is always the heart of a religious person, when the leaven of hypocrisy begins to set in. They are always proud of themselves for wise decision till their pride actually forms contempt for the cross and a message of radical grace!!

And do you know what the sad part is: both the good person and the all out and out sinner are both in the same place. CONDEMNED

Everbody loves quotng John 3:16 but you never hear anyone quoting John 3:18

John 3:18 ESV

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Now let me give everyone a Word of warning, you can start out in Grace but somewhere along the way develop into a Pharisee. You can start out and grace thankful for the mercy you have been shown, but walk in Widom and become judgmental forgetting from where you originally fell from and the mercy and kindness that God has shown you

Question, Why did Jesus make such a statement as 3:18- that whoever does not believe is condemned already

Because He was sharing something with us that we didn’t know, He knew something about the Holiness of God, and the rigid standard of that Holy God that

Now let me give everyone a Word of warning, you can start out in Grace but somewhere e Lordalong the way develop into a Pharisee. You can start out and grace thankful for the mercy you have been shown, but walk in Widow and become judgmental forgetting from where you originally fell from and the mercy and kindness that God has shown youh

Now what Paul is doing in the First Part of Romans is he is playing the part of the Prosecuting Attorney

He is making his case for grace, and he is laying out a strong case.

1 To the Heathen, that has never even heard the name of JesusHe is saaying guilty.... For what truth was revealed to them they supressed it down because of their love for sin. They claim freedom but the truth is they are a slave to their sins

2. To the Hypocrite, the one that does have knowledge of His Law and His ways but they sit on their high lofty seats and stare down past their long noses at people and pass judgment, they are also guilty. for They too practice the very same things. Oh sir Im not a drug addict, yes but are you are addicted to food, caffeine and porn. You say oh i have never taken a life, yet do you have hate in your heart for another and a refusal to forgive. Instead of grace you have judgment in your heart, and because you realize you have a hard heart and lack intimacy with God you have substituted Christianity with a long list of things that you deem acceptable and not acceptable.

3. Now Paul is going to deal with the very chosen ones of God, the Hebrews that have the Embodiment of God’s law. And because

THE INDICTMENT:

Romans 3:9–10 ESV

9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

Now Paul is about to deal with the Jews, the ones that have been entrusted with the Oracles of Almighty God. The ones that had God speak to them fro a thousand generations through the Prophets. They recieved the very Law of God and new that the wages of sin was death. New that God’s holy nature demanded absolute perfection. And yet Paul asks them, the Jews “Are we any better off? He answers no not at all

THE WORD CHARGED HERE is Legal talk, the word actually means indictment

What is God doing, God is showing that the whole world, the rich the poor, the uneducated and the intellectuals, royalty and slaves, that they are all under the fierce and dreadful condemnation

That not even the most piouys among them will be saved on that day apart from the gospel

THE EVIDENCE

Mans Corrupted Wisdom

Verses 10 ans 11

Look at verse Romans

Romans 3:10–11 ESV

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.

God chose to show how foolish mans wisdom is. All the muckety mucks that like to sit around and throw their philophy about life around is ignorant of one thing. His wisdom is corrupted. The Bible says that the natural man cannot and will not understand the Things of the Spirit.

When it comes to eternal things, things that is above his education he is a complete idiot.

One Preacher put it this way:

his wisdom is warped, his imaginations are filthy, his deductions are false. The average man thinks he can go to heaven without being born again. He’s absolutely ignorant of two things: he doesn’t know how sinful he is, and he doesn’t know how holy God is. He has a corrupted wisdom.

MANS CORRUPTED WILL

Romans 3:11–13 ESV

11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”

The Apostle Paul is telling us that the second bit of evidence is that mans will has been corrupted. You say naw my wills not corrupted Im free. Well that is silly, most people ant even get free from their emotions, much less from the sin that has so embedded itself in the heart of man.

And listen to what else he says that no one seeks after God. You say well Im here right? Well thats wonderful but if you are here seeking God its not because you decided to seek after him its because He has first been seeking after you

You say yeah but listen CJ something like 90% of the worlds population is religious. There are temples and religions all over the place. Arent they seeking after God? It is true that man is inheritanly religious. That part didn’t go away when Adam and Eve fell from Grace. But truth is they have been running and hiding from God all their life just like Adam and Eve did. They are not having fellowship with Jehovah God, they are having fellowship with demons. Decietful Spirits that are giving them the desires of their sinful flesh,

1 Corinthians 10:20 ESV

20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.

You see people dont run to God on their own, they will run to a God of their own m,aking, a God that looks more sinful like them.

John 6:44 ESV

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

Do you know who is seeking you out this morning? Do you know who is drawing you in because of his passionate, irrestibale love? Its jesus

Luke 19:10 ESV

10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

For we like sheep all like sheep have gone astray? And do you know who gathers up sheep? Not the sheep they are ignorant animals. The Shepherd. The Shepherd is the one that gathers the sheep. the Shepherd is the one that lays down his life for the Sheep and listen my friend it will only be the Shepherd that raises you up on that last day and protects you from

MANS CORRUPTED WORDS

Romans 3:13–14 ESV

13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

Oh my due I need to go any further to talk about our corrupted words. The lies and the deciet, the emotional abuse that we have inflicted onm others, the curses that we have laid on others. And to think some of us kissed our mother with that mouth.

We tend to think that the words that we speak are no big deal

Matthew 12:36 ESV

36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,

And the word for curses here is not just speaking of the occasional curse word. In fact I believe that the word Bitterness and Curse are meant to be closly related. These are bitter curses, those things that we have spoken directly to others or under our voices that have lasting damge.

Those times in our hot wrath that we wished the others would get what is coming to them. The times we secretly hoped that persons life would utterly fall apart and even die.

I remember serval years ago, me and my brother were at odds with one another. He was being a butt head and combative, and I remember while we were in the car with each other, I remember thinking omething along the lines that I really don’t like this guy anymore in fact I think that I may hate him. And I remember the second I thought that the Holy Spirit broke my heart over my hard heartedness, and reminded me that I am to love him even when he is being difficult.

How many times in your life has you uttered bitter curses too! Even the things you have forgotten, God has bnot

Mans Corrupted Ways

Romans 3:15–17 ESV

15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.”

We have seen many enter onto that broad path that has led to destruction. Many people have things constantly falling apart in their lives because they have made their ways crooked, and they are living under need the Law of God. The system of sowing and Reaping

So the Indictment has been made, the evidence is in Man Has Corrupted Wisdom, a corrupted Will, Corrupted Words and Corrupted Ways that have led to Corrupted Worship and

now is the Verdict

God will not need a jury on this day, he himself is the judge the jury an

Getting something to sound like a gavel

GET MALLET

Romans 3:19–20 ESV

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

There will be some that will beg and plead with God. They think that they will make a compel;ling Case. Some will even attempt to argue with God but their words will have about as much force as a hummingbird in a hurricane. No flesh will be justified on that day with their own works...

Now are you ready for some good news?

Heres the pardon, Here is the loophole, you ready

Romans 3:21–26 ESV

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Righteousness- means to fullfill what God requires

What does God require for us to be forgiven and to fullfill his expectation of

Justified- To be pardoned, to acuit, to set free, to remove guilt

You see when God forgives you he doesn't just say hey your not going to have to do time. He will remove the guilt from your conscience

Grace

Propitiation- The means by which our forgivness is made/ Goes back to Mercy Seat of God

Jesus isn’t a good way to get to heaven, Jesus is the Only Way to get to heaven

THERE ARE TWO WAYS YOU CAN LEAVE CHURCH TODAY

Some of you will go home dignified and others will go home justified

Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive III. The Verdict

I remember reading in Luke chapter 18 about a Pharisee who came, and he prayed, and he said, God, I thank you that I’m not as other men are. He was so full of himself. But Jesus said that there was a publican—that means he was a tax collector, and a knave, dishonest. The Bible says he bowed his head; he would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven. He smote himself upon the breast, and he said, God, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Literally the Greek language says he said, be merciful to me, the sinner. I’m the guy—be merciful to me, the sinner. And Jesus said this man, the publican, went home justified, rather than the other, the religious man. There are two ways you can go from church today

There’s a story about a king that visited a slave ship. It was a galley, a slave galley, you know, where they chain men to the oars, and they row, and a man beats the drum, and another man has a lash to make them—there were no diesel engines; that was the engine. And they would take the prisoners of the state, and not just let them languish in prison; they’d put them to use, made them pull on the oars. The king visited one of these slave ships, went below the decks, and began to talk to those who were chained to the oars. And he asked one man, Why are you here? Oh, he said, Sire, I don’t know why I’m here. I was in a crowd when a crime was committed, and when they arrested everybody, they got me, and I’m innocent! They asked another, said, Why are you here? The king asked another. He said, Oh, sire, noble king, I have enemies who have lied about me, and he said, I’m not really guilty, but I’m the victim of false witnesses who have lied about me. And the king went through, and each one of them had some reason why he was innocent, should not be there, till he came to one man, said, Why are you here? He said, Sire, I’m here because I deserve to be here. He said, I’ve sinned. I’m guilty. I’m receiving the just recompense for my sin. I’ve sinned against my God, I’ve sinned against my king, and now I’m paying the penalty for my sin. When the king heard that, he stepped back, and he said, You knave, you rascal, you scum. What are you doing here among so many honest men? Guards, release him and get him out of here.

Not until we admit our sin are we going to know the mercy and the forgiveness of the king. So many times we want to strut to heaven, so here is the verdict of the court: All have sinned. God says, Be quiet. Paul says, Be quiet; every mouth, shut up, plead guilty.

Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive IV. The Mercy that Is Available

An old story about a lady who went to a photographer to have her picture made, and when she got it, she didn’t like it. The reason she didn’t like it is it looked like her, so she took it back to the photographer, and said, You’ll have to do this picture over. And he said, Well, lady, what’s wrong with it? She said, It doesn’t do me justice. He looked at it, and looked at her, and said, Lady, you don’t need justice; what you need is mercy. Friend, God is just, but we need mercy; we need the mercy of the court. But it is not until the indictment is made, and the evidence is given, and the verdict comes down, that then we throw ourselves upon the mercy of the court, and we’re ready for God’s amazing grace, then we’re ready for salvation. And if you’ve never ever come to the place where you’ve seen yourself as a sinner, lost before Almighty God, and cried out to Him for mercy, you’ve never been saved. You may have waltzed down somebody’s church aisle and joined a church and gotten baptized and turned over a new leaf, but have you thrown yourself on the mercy of the court and said, Lord God, be merciful to me, a sinner?

Now, in the few moments that we have left, do you remember what a preposition was in school? I barely do, but I do. I want to give you some prepositions, and I want to show you what God’s mercy is. Now, listen to these prepositions: of, by, unto, through, in, and with. Now, here’s the mercy; here’s what we’re going to get.

Romans 5:8–9 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.