A Clear Concience

Welcome

Good Morning and Welcome to Freedom Chapel. My name is Pastor Terry, my wife Michelle and I serve as the lead pastors here at Freedom Chapel. We exist to bring hope to our community we do that by being a Place to Belong, Church for the Whole Family.

If you are new with us this morning would you please take the time fill out that little flap on the side of your bulletin. If you put it in the black boxes by the back door we will make a donation in your name to a local charity and send you cookies. Church can we show our guests some love this morning.

House Keeping

New People Luncheon

Today following the Service we invite everyone who is new to the church since October to stay with us for lunch. We would like to connect with you and get to know each other better.

It is so good to be home. I truly missed you all. For those who don’t know Michelle and I returned from a 10 day Missions Trip to Peru on Tuesday. Over the course of that 10 days we spoke in 5 different churches, and a leadership conference. We were able to council with 3 different couples who were facing difficult struggles. It was an amazing opportunity to encourage the Esmirna Network in Peru.

First Love Video

This trip was made possible by the generosity of this church. Thank you for giving and sending.

We visited Sapasoa the last Sunday we were there. Pastor Sixto and Mayra send their love and appreciation for the support our church has given in helping them continue to make room for their growing church family.

Two years ago we provided matching funds for a restroom and children’s wing update however they felt that they needed to concentrate on extending their sanctuary first. So last year they reached out through First Love Ministries for help purchasing the roofing material for that extension. Our Church supplied $600 to complete that work.

The funds for the children’s wing and bathroom are still sitting in the First Love account and Pastor Sixto told us the plan to begin construction in May. When that begins they will already have the funds to make this happen.

Pictures from Sapasoa

I view this church as a sister church to Freedom Chapel. Sixto is mission minded and has personally visited 95 of the 145 Esmirna Churches. He and Myra have personally help plant several churches in their region and currently are traveling between Sapasoa and JuanJui one hour by Motocar every Sunday and Wednesday as the establish a church in JuanJui.

Last time we visited there they took us to the site where their home was destroyed by a flood. They told us two years ago they planned to start building a new home. At the time they were living in two rooms of the church. I asked Sixto this time if they had started their new home and he told me no. Everything that was coming in was going straight to the churches in order to keep the church going during Covid.

As we sat with them at lunch I asked them when the last time they did something for Just them and their Kids. They just stared at each other. There was no need to interpret the answer. They didn’t know. They have a beautiful family and God put it on our hearts to pay for them to go on a vacation. I am not sure what that looks like but today I want to invite you to join Michelle and I as we take up an offering to Bless this Pastor and his family with a chance to get away and just be a family. You can give in the black boxes, or online just mark it as other.

Mark it as other because this is a above and beyond gift. The Tithe goes to God and the house of Worship you attend. The above and beyond is the only giving you are allowed by scripture to designate.

Now with all that said I should probably Preach a Sermon.

If you have your Bibles Turn with me to Roman’s Chapter 2 we are going to pick up at Verse 11.

I am going to pick up in the middle of Paul’s opening argument in the case he is prosecuting on the utter depravity of Mankind and our absolute need for the Gospel.

Rustan Covered the case against The Gentiles ie Pagans.

Jackie Started the Case Against the Moralists and I am going to finish that Case this morning.

Pastor Rustan and Pastor Jackie did a great job continuing the series while I was Gone. So Thank you to both. It is so refreshing to me that God has placed within our church such an amazing team that there is never an oh man Pastor is Gone. Even I get excited to hear these two preach.

It is also a blessing to have so many volunteers involved in the various ministries that actually cover for Pastor Rustan so he can be available to preach in here on Sunday morning.

While I am at it thank you, Dave Irving for putting on and leading the Sound Engineer Workshop. We have been wanting to add to our sound team for quite sometime but didn’t know how we could get them properly trained. Dave took the project on personally, found a solution, and gathered a team. This church is growing because of it’s people, not because of it’s Pastor.

Thank you Thank you Thank you.

Would you pray with me?

For years the Church in general has earned a reputation. A reputation for being a place of Judgement and Hypocritical Persecution.

At the very least we have all felt at time that the church was not a safe place.

At this church it is our goal to preach the truth, to hold sin and the our very real enemy the devil accountable.....It is also our goal to be a place where anyone and everyone is welcome. Sinner and Saint we want to be a place where people find belonging.

Read this with me:

Romans 2:11–16 ESV

11 For God shows no partiality. 12 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. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 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. 15 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 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

Moralism has ruled our day. More and More we are seeing a shift by my generation to this idea of deconstruction. Taking everything I have been taught by my parents and the church and deconstructing it into something that feels better and more easily fits into the narrative that I want to live. Deconstructionist look at the letters from Paul as too angry and too constrictive. So the have formed a new religion, one that throws out the parts of the Bible that don’t fit their lifestyle and holding onto parts like eternal salvation and God’s favor.

In order for us to evangelize this superficial world we have come up with a superficial form of evangelism. This is where I feel the repeat after me prayers and then go on with your life form of the Gospel has come to be the norm within Christianity.

In order for us to truly understand our need for Justification we must first uncover what a person needs to be justified for. Otherwise we walk around with a watered down version of the Gospel that offers little Hope for Sinners

We can not truly understand the Good News of the Gospel until we understand the Bad News concerning our sin and God’s Judgement. This is the purpose of this letter Paul is sending a Narrative of his transformation to better understand the his history prior to salvation.

He did not want the Gospel to appear pointless in the mind of the hearer and he did not want it to be a quick fix to common problems with little thought about eternity.

The Problem with Sin in such a mindset is not it’s offensiveness to a Holy God but it’s inconvenience in maintaining a happy life.

Our Mindset has shifted to the idea that Judgement is for yesterday.

The God of this modern era must be far to nice to hold humanity accountable for their sins.

What Paul is writing to the Romans is that Judgement is coming and it is coming for all. Let me break this down so no one has an excuse. Let me help you understand that God is not playing around.

Romans 2:11 ESV

11 For God shows no partiality.

GOD DOES NOT SHOW FAVORITISM

Whether Jew or Gentile we will all face judgement for sin.

The Jews believed that do to their religious heritage they were guaranteed Salvation.

If you are a multi generation christian listen up. You are not getting into Heaven on your momma’s or your daddy’s salvation.

God does not grade on a curve.

There is not a scale of goodness and if you are some where above the mid line you get a free pass.

In fact the closer you get to him the more he expects from you.

Luke 17:1–4 ESV

1 And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

Jesus is pretty clear here that there is an expectancy for believers to grow and to walk in a way that doesn’t lead others to sin.

WE DON’T NEED GOD’S FAVORITISM WE NEED GOD’S GRACE.

His grace is superior because it does not count on our ability to be good.

Romans 2:12 ESV

12 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.

Simply said we are going to be judged based upon the knowledge available to us. God is not going to condemn someone base upon not conforming to a code of laws they knew nothing about. They will not perish because they failed to keep the 10 commandments, they will perish because they sinned.

BUT......

Those who sinned under the law will be judged by the law. If you have been raised in it then you will be judged in it. You are without excuse.

There is a crazy shift here....It is almost as if Paul is saying God judgement is more favorable to the person who did not know than the person who did know.

We are condemned not for what we know, but what we do with what we know.

Those who know God’s written Word and his law will be judged by them.

Those who have never seen a Bible still know right from wrong; they will be judged guilty because they did not keep even the standards of their own conscience.

As we talk about Judgement I believe that in eternity there will be levels in the place of eternal judgement and there will be levels in Heaven.

Paul then takes it another step.

Romans 2:13 ESV

13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

If you really stop and think about this Paul just laid out an impossible situation.

It is not the one who hears the law who is declared righteous. It is the one who does the law who is declared righteous.

Paul is not saying try harder........he is saying stop basing your righteousness on your adherence to a system of rules and tradition.

Paul is pointing to Jesus. The only one who was able to be justified by his adherence to the law.

Paul is destroying the idea that we can be justified by church size, number of Bibles we own, how hard we fight for the political figure we believe is most Christian, whether we got the shot or did not get the shot, or how much money we gave the church.

We are judged by our personal accountability to Jesus Christ and his ability to transform our lives through submission to his Lordship.

But......What about those who have never heard......How could a loving God condemn someone who has never heard to an eternity of judgment.

Romans 2:14–15 ESV

14 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. 15 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

Peruvian Documentary

All cultures and nations, no matter how different, have a common recognition of right and wrong.

There is a moral sensitivity to these basic principles.

It is wrong to take something that is not mine.

It is wrong for a significant other to cheat on me.

It is wrong to murder or hurt somebody.

It is wrong to lie.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

THE HUMAN CONSCIENCE BEARS WITNESS!

Romans God’s Judgment of Sin / 2:1-16

First, … human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, … they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.

—C.S.Lewis

This is a point that most atheist’s Struggle to argue.

There is coming a day when we all will stand before God......We will all Stand without excuse

Romans 2:16 ESV

16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

We will be judged with out partiality........

THE SECRETS OF THE HEART, CONSCIENCE, AND THOUGHTS WILL BE JUDGED!

There will be not be a chance to explain, there will not be a chance to argue, there will only be perfect judgement through Jesus Christ.

That means that when the Gospel is our Center.... That is Jesus is Lord....... Jesus is our Righteousness........Jesus becomes our mediator.

At the at moment Though Jesus we can enter God’s Judgement with a clear Conscience.

THOSE UNDER CHRIST’S LORDSHIP WILL NOT FEAR EXPOSURE OR PUNISHMENT.

This is why Paul is able to write in Romans 8

Romans 8:1-3 (ESV)

Romans 8:1–3 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

Stand with me this morning.