Heresies 3: Sin & Justification

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B: Romans 1: 18-32

N: Laser pointer

Opening

DON’T FORGET THE BUMPER!

Welcome to Family Worship with the gathered church of Eastern Hills this morning! Thank you praise band for leading us in worship today, and every Sunday. And I want to thank all of you who are joining us in person and online for your faithfulness in coming together to lift Him up and consider His Word together. And thanks to Trevor for taking the pulpit last Sunday for our second message in our Heresies series.

It was a blessing for many of us to be together yesterday to celebrate the life of our brother James Collins, who went home to be with the Lord on January 3. Remember that we will be celebrating the life of our sister, Terri Allen, this Friday at 1 pm. Terri passed away on January 1.

Before we dive in this morning, I need to testify to the greatness of God for a moment. Even though we might sometimes feel that the world is out of control and that no one is willing to hear the Gospel, that’s just not the case. God is mighty and He is at work! Many of you might remember a series of messages that I preached in the summer of 2019 called “Who’s Your One?” The point of the series was to encourage each person in the church to commit to praying for one person in their sphere of life that they could share the Gospel with, to engage in doing life with that person, and to look for opportunities to share the Gospel as you do. This week, I had the opportunity to sit down with one of our member’s “ones”, and he surrendered his life to Christ! And many of you might remember that I shared that my “one” was my neighbor, Trey. Well, Trey and I have been meeting regularly for over a year, talking about life and struggles and faith and Jesus, and this week Trey also believed and surrendered his life to Christ! Can we take a second and celebrate the fact that God has saved these two men? I’m going to continue meeting with both of these guys in brotherhood and further discipleship with them, and we will talk about baptism and such down the road, but I just wanted to encourage you, church, to keep praying for your One, keep walking with your One, keep sharing with your One, and keep watching expectantly for God to move in their lives. Don’t give up!

On that note, we’re going to jump right in to our focal passage today for our third message in our Heresies series:

Romans 1:18–32 CSB

18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, 19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. 21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. 24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error. 28 And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. 29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. 32 Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

PRAY, including Monica and family, and TJ and family, and celebrating Terrell and Trey.

Back in 1879, Harley Procter created a bar of soap that was developed to be as pure as he could make it, and was meant to become a staple in every home and so mild that everyone in the family could use it. It’s so “pure” that it floats in water. Can anyone tell me what brand of soap that was? Right, it’s called Ivory, and you can still buy it in the same formula that Harley Procter used almost 150 years ago. So is Ivory soap actually pure?

The Ivory website says it is. It actually says, “Ivory was pure… The same pure floating bar is still available today...” But in between those two statements, it says, “99.44% pure to be exact.” The stuff in the .56% is “foreign and unnecessary substances.” So, wait a second… is it truly pure, or is it .56% impure?

From our perspective, hitting that close to 100% at just about anything is a great feat. So we would likely call the soap “pure.” However, “pure” has a very finite definition when it comes to this sort of thing. “Pure” means “unmixed with any other matter.” If it has “foreign and unnecessary substances,” can we actually say that it’s pure? No. “Pure” is kind of an all-or-nothing deal.

Now, let’s take another term. Sin. Not a popular term, for sure. But is it an “all-or-nothing” term, like “pure?” We have a tendency to kind of mask over the reality of term. There are things that we refer to as “sin,” things like murder and adultery and theft and stuff like that. We might take the focal passage we just read and look almost exclusively at homosexuality, which is most certainly a sin.

But there are some other things that the Bible says are “sin” that we would try to call by some other name: struggles, flaws, issues, problems, weaknesses. I do this as well. Why is this? Maybe it’s because we don’t evaluate sin by what it actually IS, and instead, we evaluate it based on what we perceive to be its impact, its immediate consequences, or its results.

We don’t think that a little lie here or there is a big deal, so we tell them, and we even purify them with a color: white. We think a little gossip never really hurt anyone, especially if we call it a “prayer request.” Kids and students: maybe you disobey your parents because you think that they are just clueless about life. And if you do get caught, you decide that the problem is your parents’ issue, not yours.

Sure, these things might not have the same severity of impact, the same permanence of consequence, or the same power of result in a practical sense, so they are less of a big deal, aren’t they?

In his systematic theology work, A Theology for the Church, Daniel Akin wrote:

“We deceive ourselves if we believe that we can either minimize or eliminate the reality of sin simply by ignoring it or changing its name.”

This is because sin is not first and foremost a violation of the “rules.” No, sin is a violation of and an affront to the very person and character of Almighty God. And every, yes every sin is that, because our standard is God Himself:

Matthew 5:48 CSB

48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

This is why I chose to use Ivory soap as an illustration. As soon as we discover that Ivory is 99.44% pure, you realize that if it’s not 100% pure, it’s not actually “pure” at all. It misses the mark. Granted, it only misses by a tiny bit, but it still misses. So it is with sin. Sin is failing to live up to the standard that we have been given: the standard of God’s own perfect holiness. It doesn’t matter if we miss by a mile (murder) or miss by a millimeter (laziness), we’ve missed the mark. From God’s vantage point, there are only two categories: sin, and not sin. James explains:

James 2:10 CSB

10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.

With that understanding of sin, I think that our first point is going to be a pretty obvious place to start:

1) ALL humanity is sinful.

In his 2018 country single, “Most People Are Good,” Luke Bryan sang about values, virtues, and his belief that most people were “good.” Even though it might be a nice song, we have to answer the question. ARE people basically good? How we answer this question can influence our theology of sin and salvation, because if people are basically good, do they really need to be saved?

In the joint study between Ligonier ministries and Lifeway Research called “The State of Theology,” in 2020, they posed this question to their research sample: “Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.”

28% of respondents disagreed with this statement. 65% agreed. Want to hear something interesting? 46% of evangelicals polled agreed with this statement. But this isn’t what the Bible says. Instead, the Bible paints a picture of humanity that is broken and flawed because of sin:

Romans 3:23 CSB

23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;

If our standard is God’s glorious holiness, we simply do not live up to it. None of us.

Psalm 143:2 CSB

2 Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous in your sight.

This is a prayer for deliverance from judgment, but notice what the psalmist says: “no one alive is righteous in your sight.” No one. But I think that really Paul says it the most clearly:

Romans 3:10–18 CSB

10 as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. 11 There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one. 13 Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips. 14 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and wretchedness are in their paths, 17 and the path of peace they have not known. 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.

This is quite the list. None of us are righteous. None of us get it, none of us is bent toward pursuing God in our natural selves. In our focal passage, Paul begins with the idea that we are without excuse before God, and that even though humanity has some idea of God, we don’t glorify Him or give thanks to Him, and instead we make “gods” for ourselves: worshiping anything or anyone else, including our own selves. We are idol worshipers. So our minds and hearts are corrupted by this sin, and this idolatry, this failure to let God be in His proper place as God, has infected us: warping our thinking, our behavior, and even our sexual practices.

Our sin separates us from Him because it violates His person and character. He’s perfect, and cannot abide sinfulness in any form. Therefore, our sin demands judgment.

2) ALL sin demands judgment.

Since from God’s perspective sin is an all-or-nothing deal, then every sin, all sin, demands judgment. This is how our focal passage today stated it:

Romans 1:18 CSB

18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

God’s wrath must be poured out on our sin. But because we generally define sin incorrectly, then we also struggle with the fact that God’s wrath must be poured out against it. Back to the State of Theology. Statement #12 in the study was: “Even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation.”

Only 25% agreed with this statement. 66% disagreed, nearly all of them “strongly.”

People who claim to be evangelicals didn’t fare much better: 43% disagreed with this statement, and only 51% agreed with it.

Many will take issue with this. How is it that my little white lie garners the same punishment as a murder? Not only is it because of the standard of God Himself, as I said before, but it is also because of God’s character of being completely just. If God doesn’t punish sin, He would not be just. Justice is a big deal in our culture right now. There are a myriad of societal issues that people are calling for “justice” in. Why do we do that? Because we believe that injustice is wrong. We want God to be just, don’t we? Well, then he must judge sin, and only He has the authority to declare what is and is not sin based on the standard of His holy character. And while we might feel somehow that eternal damnation (separation from the presence and blessing of God) is unjust, that’s just because we have the standard wrong. From Daniel Akin again:

“If humans are creatures made in God’s image, then they are made to reflect that image to God, others, and creation. People would be judged not in comparison with other people but by their conformity to God’s divine intentions and the manner in which they reflect His image.”

God doesn’t grade on a curve. We all bear His image, all of us are without excuse, and therefore, we all are judged by the same standard. While our sins most certainly have different levels of impact against our neighbor, any sin is enough to make us imperfect, and therefore, deserves the judgment of God against it. And while our sin does deserve eternal damnation, God’s judgment against sin also has an impact in our lives in the here and now.

According to our focal passage this morning, it is even evidence of the judgment of God when we go further and further into sin, because it shows that God has removed His restricting hand and delivered us over to the desires of our minds which are corrupted by sin:

Romans 1:28 CSB

28 And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right.

So when we resist God, rebel against God, replacing Him with some other idol, we are only going to get further from Him. We simply cannot get ourselves back to a place of perfection and holiness. To believe and teach otherwise is to teach a heresy:

3) It is a heresy to believe that we can save ourselves.

If we think that all sin doesn’t deserve the judgment of God, or if we think that we can somehow earn our way into God’s favor, we believe a lie. These are ultimately the same lie: both perspectives assert that we can be good enough to merit salvation entirely on our own—either we will never be so bad as to deserve His wrath, or we can work our way back to that point by our own will and effort.

This is a heretical view called Pelagianism, named after the monk who first taught it in about the year 400, named Pelagius. It was condemned as heresy at the Synod of Carthage (418), and the Council of Ephesus (431).

This is why us having a proper perspective of sin is so important. In Psalm 51, David doesn’t just see himself as a person who commits sin, he sees himself as a sinful person in need of transformation:

Psalm 51:1–10 CSB

1 Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. 2 Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; you are blameless when you judge. 5 Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me. 6 Surely you desire integrity in the inner self, and you teach me wisdom deep within. 7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Turn your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt. 10 God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Notice that everything David asks here is something that God must do, not something that he can do for himself. He asks for God’s grace, for God to blot out his rebellion, to wash away his guilt and cleanse His sin. He asks for God to work that change in him, because he knows that his sin has brought about his condemnation, and that only God can make it right.

Our sinfulness is not just a character flaw that we need to “work on.” If it were, we could just try really hard, or come up with tricks to keep us from it. Our sinfulness is not just an ignorance that we must overcome. If that were the case, we could simply eradicate sin by education. No, instead, Scripture teaches us that humanity is sinfully corrupt, broken to the core, both unable and unwilling to do what is right. We therefore need a radical, supernatural transformation of our hearts, and only God can do that.

4) Only by God’s grace in Christ can we be saved.

If all of this is correct: that all of humanity is sinful, that all sin demands judgment, and that we cannot save ourselves, then we have no hope but for God to act on our behalf. And because God loves us, that is exactly what He did:

Romans 3:23–24 CSB

23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Paul here uses the legal term “justified” to explain what God has done for us. He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, fully human and fully God as Trevor taught last week, and Jesus lived the life that we can’t. He lived perfectly.

And then through the crucifixion, Christ took the wrath of God on Himself, paying the penalty, the punishment due to fallen humanity. And so now, those who trust in what Jesus has done, surrendering their lives to Him by faith, are “justified.”

Justification is a declarative act: it’s not something that we can do, it’s something that God has to declare over us. It’s a declaration of “not guilty,” and being placed in a right standing and relationship with God, and that declaration come through Christ.

Paul also used the term “redemption.” This was a term that referred to when a person would purchase someone out of bondage. Again, this is something done for and to us, not for ourselves. Jesus’ death purchased us out of bondage to sin and death. And He defeated death by rising again, so that if we have been redeemed by Him through faith, then we also get to live with Him forever.

Jesus is the only way to be saved.

Acts 4:12 CSB

12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”

And it’s an all-or-nothing thing as well. Either you belong to Christ and are saved because of what He has done, or you don’t, and you’re bound for an eternity apart from God. God loves you, and He wants that right relationship with Him forever.

Closing

Have you thought about it in this way? We’ve all sinned, we’ve all fallen short. We’re all broken and flawed. We all need Jesus to justify us and redeem us and restore us. He’s the only way.

Give up your belief that you can save yourself, or that your sin isn’t as bad as the next guy’s, because both of those things are lies. Surrender yourself to Jesus in faith, and trust Him to save you.

Invitation instructions.

Join the church instructions.

If you normally leave during our reflection time, I’m going to ask you to hang out, because there are a couple of very important things to share during our closing.

PRAY

Reflection

Closing Remarks

Recognize Rebecca for five years of service.

Deacon video for the Hills.

Sunday Nights Online for children’s ministry. Check it out, because it will go with our message this morning. It will drop at 5:30 pm, and will be available on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. You can even spread the word: like, subscribe, and share.

Bible reading plan: on to 1 Corinthians. Should be on 1 Cor. 2 today.

Leaving instructions.