Sermons

5:1-2

As we begin to look at chapter 5 of Romans it’s imperative that we have a good understanding of chapter 4 because the first word in the first verse in chapter 5 is the word ‘therefore’ …emphasizing the importance of what has previously been written.

That word is assuming you have some knowledge regarding the importance of how faith works in the life of a Christian.

At the expense of repreaching last week’s sermon again…which dealt with chapter 4… I want to just refresh how Paul is using the term ‘justified by faith.’

The Church today bases the promise of Heaven solely on our profession of faith in Jesus apart from any actual living by faith in God…that’s incorrect.

If you are banking eternity on a belief in Jesus as all you need to get into heaven regardless of your lifestyle…that is wishful thinking.

The idea that I’m going to live in a mansion in Heaven simply on my profession of faith regardless of how I live while on earth…that is dangerous living.

James elaborates on the danger of that thinking in his epistle defining faith as
a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. (James 2:24).

HOLD IT…are you suggesting that how I live my life is also a contributing factor to how righteous God sees me…YES here’s what (James 2:24) is stating …all who are saved through faith by God’s grace will participate in good works.

James is not saying that faith is not the means through which we receive God’s grace…because it is…but he is taking it a bit further in saying that a so-called ‘faith’ which results in no change in your attitude…your thinking…or your lifestyle…is not genuine faith.

It’s not a matter of doing ‘things’ or ‘stuff’ …I’m not suggesting doing anything as the means of salvation…Abraham was counted righteous by God based on:

1) his faith in God as the one and only true God…first of all…and here’s what the church fails to emphasize.

2) his willingness to be obedient to God’s leading in his life whereby his actions proved that he believed in God.

We are in fact saved by the grace of God alone…but out of gratitude to God we should have a willingness to live a life that is good…holy…kind…and after the mind of Christ.

That’s the difference between a professed believer and a true believer… country’s full of ‘professed believers’…yea I believe in God…believing in God does not make you a Christian…the devil believes in God. The only basis for which God can forgive us is the Cross of Christ.

For these professed believers…their idea of being a Christian is not remotely tied to anything suggested in Scripture…they persistently disregard Christ’s teaching about righteous living…Paul gives a summary of what righteous living involves in Romans 12.

These professed believers disregard God’s standards of righteousness by willful disobedience…as a result…they have no claim to salvation.

In Romans chapter 4 Paul uses the example of Abraham…the father of the Jewish nation…in essence Paul is asking…do you understand what led God to count Abraham as righteous?…it was through both faith and obedience.

Beginning in chapter 5 and continuing on through the end of chapter 8 Paul explains the results of being justified by faith…that’s why starting in chapter 5 Paul is assuming you have a good understanding of that principle…which is why the first word in chapter 5 is the word ‘therefore’.

Starting in verse 1 and ending in verse 11 Paul shares 9 blessings associated with being declared righteous.
These two verses…verse 1 and verse 11…form the bookends of the blessings that come with being declared righteous by God.

—We have been declared righteous by faith – Romans 5:1
—We have peace with God – Romans 5:1
—We have obtained access by faith into His grace – Romans 5:2
—We rejoice not only in hope but in affliction – Romans 5:2-3
—We have God’s love poured out in our hearts – Romans 5:5
—While we were still sinners Christ died for us – Romans 5:8
—We have been declared righteous by His blood – Romans 5:9
—We have been saved from God’s wrath – Romans 5:9
—We have been reconciled – Romans 5:10-11

This morning I want us to look at just three of these blessings and what they mean to us as Christians.

1Therefore, having been justified by faith we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ…2 we have obtained access
by faith into His grace.

Paul begins by stating ‘Having been justified’ (Δικαιωθέντες) in the Greek that is one word…it is an aorist passive participle in the nominative case…the aorist participle describes action having occurred prior to the main verb.

The main verb is ‘we have’ …the action occurring before ‘we have’ is ‘Having been justified’…so because we have been…past tense…justified…we now have peace with God.

When we place our faith in Jesus and commit ourselves fully to Him the first thing Paul tells us is that we are justified…then…we have peace with God… peace is the result of justification.

We are no longer at odds with God…we are no longer His enemy…we no longer stand before Him stained by sin…He now sees us as righteous.

Throughout Scripture we find evidence regarding the security of the believer… Paul begins chapter 5 with a validation of that promise in the statement… Having been justified…something that happened in the past and continues on into the future.

As a Christian…if you’re not sure about your standing before God, it’s difficult to have peace with God…this is declaring the security of the believer… conversely …there is no peace between God and sinners until sin is dealt with… We either stand as enemies of God….or as believers in God.

As a result of being justified all barriers between us and God have now been removed …“well, guess I wasn’t aware that there were any barriers”…there are.

You’ve probably felt them but were unaware of them…this goes back to Genesis chapter 3 where these barriers are spelled out by Moses in describing the fall of man and the consequences.

I want you to understand how big the problem was between you and God…how great the devastation of sin is on our lives…what Moses says about Adam and Eve pertains to every person who has ever lived:

Genesis 3:7 – SHAME – They realized they were naked.
Genesis 3:8 – GUILT – They hid themselves from the presence of the Lord.
Genesis 3:10 – FEAR – They were afraid, so they hid themselves.
Genesis 3:11-13 – BLAME – They both had excuses for their disobedience.
Genesis 3:19 – DEATH – To dust you shall return. The great equalizer.
Genesis 3:23 – SEPARATION – God sent them out from the garden.

Realizing the consequence of sin more fully helps us appreciate the power that the grace of God brings.

As you read through these 11 verses one thing that may not be obvious is how Paul identifies himself to the Christians whom he is addressing.

He doesn’t begin by beating his chest and telling them how wonderful a person he is…that he’s something special…unlike them…I saw the risen Christ… unlike you I was personally taught for three years by the Holy Spirit…unlike you I have a special calling as an evangelist…unlike you…I have personally healed people.

It would have been easy for Paul to isolate himself. Instead he puts himself into the same class as those whom he is exhorting…as you read the first 11 verses of chapter 5 Paul uses
—the personal pronoun ‘we’ 16 times
—the collective phrase ‘our’ 4 times…our Lord…our affliction…our hearts.
—‘us’ three times.

The use of ‘we’ … ‘our’ …and ‘us’…indicates he is referring to himself as well as those whom he’s writing to…second…the use of personal pronouns indicates he is talking about saved Christians and not the entire human race …hence…‘let all of us together as Christians enjoy the blessing of being declared righteous by faith.

Paul is describing some of the benefits for those who by faith in Christ have been justified and made right before God because their sins were forgiven.

—We have been declared righteous by faith – Romans 5:1
The difference between being declared righteous versus being made righteous is that to be declared righteous is something that’s pronounced over you, it’s not because of who you are…or what you’ve done…or because of a behavioral modification in your life.

It doesn’t mean I’m living righteously so therefore I’m being made righteous… being declared righteous is the result of a heart transformation that results in righteous living. As a result of being declared righteous:

—We have peace with God – Romans 5:1…Before we can understand what it means to have peace with God, we must recognize that in our natural state there is no peace with God…we were enemies of God (5:10).

That’s because we inherited a sin nature from our first parents Adam and Eve, we are born with a disposition to please ourselves…we resisted God’s rule over our lives and as a result that rebellious nature sets us at odds with God.

In our sinful state we cannot have peace with God no matter how hard we try.

BUT God took the initiative in pursuing peace…Jesus’ crucifixion guaranteed our justification and brough peace between us and God.

Justification…being declared righteous–just as if I never sinned–brings peace.

Along with justification and peace that comes from Jesus’ crucifixion is a warning…it’s not a guarantee for everyone…the danger of easy believism…that you can accept Jesus as your Savior…but you don’t have to accept Him as your Lord.

Here’s the tragedy of not giving your life to God…but rather just acknowledging Jesus as God’s Son with no real desire to live a Christian lifestyle.

On that first Christmas the angels proclaimed; ‘peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.’ Scripture does not say…peace on earth, good will to all men.
Nowhere in Scripture is it taught that peace on earth is for all men.

Peace with God and the favor of God is not directed at all people…only those that trust in the name of the only begotten Son of God and have made the decision to live a life controlled by the Holy Spirit…those are the ones identified as “those on whom his favor rests.” As a result:

—We have obtained access by faith into His grace – Romans 5:2
In several places in the New Testament we read that in Christ the believer has access into the presence of God…through faith in Christ we have gained full access into God’s presence…we are allowed into the Holy of Holies.

Something that once was reserved for only Jewish priests…a curtain separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple…unauthorized entry meant death …but at the Cross that curtain was torn from top to bottom symbolizing our privilege to access God.

The doctrine of the priesthood of the believer states that all believers in Christ share in his priestly status…there is no special class of people who mediate between us and Christ…all believers have the right and authority to read… interpret…apply the teachings of Scripture…and pray to God without going through a priestly class of people.

According to Romans 5:1 and 2 the life of the justified believer is a mix of peace…and hope…but in the following verse Paul further reveals that it also involves more than that.

Paul is identifying what occurs when you are “justified by faith” …that a trust in God and belief in Christ causes you to walk in newness of life…whereby you have peace with God…and access into God’s grace.

What further blessing can there be? …Paul identifies 7 more blessings as the result of being declared righteous by faith…as we continue on, we shall see next week God is providing for us even greater blessing.

Chapter 4

When it comes to reading and studying the Bible…chapter and verse breaks give the Bible a structure that makes things easy to find…breaking down long passages of Scripture into manageable reading…for example in the Greek Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3-14 is one long sentence…it’s hard to imagine a Bible without chapter and verse breaks.

BUT…when reading the Bible at times chapter and verse breaks make it difficult to follow the author’s thought process…the problem with chapter and verse breaks in the Bible is they often times interrupt the story’s plot or the author’s line of thinking.

Starting in chapter 4 Paul is continuing on in his discussion of justification by faith that he actually started in verse 21 of chapter 3.

The chapter break at the end of verse 31 implies that Paul is starting a new thought but in reality the entire fourth chapter of Romans surrounds Abraham and continues to show Abraham as the ultimate example of someone being justified or counted righteous by faith.

The reason Paul dedicates so much time to Abraham is because the majority of Jews in Paul’s day believed that Abraham was made right with God because of his own righteous character…they believed God chose Abraham to be the father of Israel because he was the most righteous man on earth during his time.

This is seen in the often quoted rabbinic saying that says… “Our father Abraham observed the entire Torah before it was given to Israel”.
https://people.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Shokel/871201_Abraham.html

The idea gets presented that Abraham was a worshipper of God…not even close. Abraham lived in Ur of Chaldea [Gen. 11:31; 15:7]…a thoroughly pagan city… he was a sinful heathen who grew up in an unbelieving and idolatrous society.

Truth is…Abraham wasn’t any different than any other heathen who lived during that time…Abraham had no knowledge of the true God.

Why then did God call Abraham? …we don’t know exactly how…when…or why God first made Himself known to Abraham…nowhere in Scripture is the reason given why God selected that particular pagan from the millions of others in the world at that time.

Most Christians’ knowledge about Abraham is that he is the patriarch…the father of the Jewish nation…but he’s also the father of Islam.

Here’s the single KEY event that makes Abraham special even today… Abraham trusted God when many of us wouldn’t have.

That’s what it comes down to in the life of every believer…why some seem to have a more vibrant Christian life…it’s because they trusted God when many others…don’t…won’t…are unable to…refuse to…don’t have time to…or are too rebellious to do what God asks.

As a result, we miss out on the blessing God wants to give us because of our inability to be faithful to His calling…in Abraham’s case there was no specific mention of what God had planned for Abraham in the future…all God said was:

Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house and I will bless you [Gen 12:1]

Jewish thought was that Abraham was righteous because he obeyed God by being circumcised…Paul says no…Abraham lived 600 years before the Law of Moses ever existed…if salvation came from keeping the Law then how could Abraham ever be right with God seeing that the Law did not even exist yet?

Paul shows Abraham was declared to be righteous by faith before he was ever circumcised…Abraham was declared righteous before the Law was ever given.

What does that mean to be righteous by faith…here’s the problem…the Church has twisted Scriptures to the point that we cannot understand how faith and righteous living both are necessary for salvation.

The one trustworthy sign of sincere faith in Christ is godly behavior…you can tell me how much you pray…how often you go to church…you’re taking communion…helping in the church…giving money…BUT…apart from godly behavior there is no salvation because godly behavior is salvation.

By that statement it would seem to imply that somehow works…or doing ‘stuff’ also plays a part in our salvation…it does.

So many times people’s only focus on the Bible is “getting into heaven” …far too often people’s focus is thinking about being carried away into heaven to live forever in a mansion…and about how great heaven is going to be.

We are so focused on the afterlife that we neglect the development of our Christian character…while going to heaven is important and something we all look forward to…our desire should be more centered on our present life with God in Christ here on earth.

The Church today bases the promise of heaven solely on our profession of faith in Jesus apart from any actual living by faith in God…that’s incorrect.

It is a weak and ineffective faith that says, “I’m saved by faith” [Eph 2:8] OR “John 3:16 is all I need to know” …if you are banking eternity on those statements as the promise of going to heaven because you think that’s all that’s needed for Salvation…that is wishful thinking.

The idea that I’m going to live in a mansion in heaven simply based on my profession of faith regardless of how I lived while on earth…that’s dangerous living.

The faithful person is someone whose personality and behavior are acceptable to God…by how they think…speak…act…living as someone who loves…seeks… relies on…hopes in…obeys…and trusts God…that’s all contained in faith.

This is the definition of faith as James saw it…a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. (James 2:24).

HOLD IT…are you suggesting that how I live my life is also a contributing factor to how righteous God sees me…YES…here’s what that’s stating…all who are saved through faith by God’s grace will participate in good works.

The Church has watered down the Bible to the point that at times it’s unrecognizable…I’m not suggesting that faith is not the means through which we receive God’s grace…because it is:
…Faith is the thing that sets people apart for God
…Faith is the thing that shows us to be in a covenant relationship with God
…Faith is the mark that shows that you’re in God’s family.

BUT…both Paul and James are saying that a so-called ‘faith’ which results in no actions is not genuine faith.

Paul mixes works and faith together to show that being in a covenant relationship with God does include both faith and works because faithful living is an extension of faith…Someone can’t claim to have faith without faithful living…the two cannot be separated from one another:

James emphasizes this same point in his letter [1:22-25].

22 But prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers
who deceive themselves. 25 …the one who…becomes… an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

Is a person saved by faith…YES…Bible says so [3:28]
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith.

But that faith also includes a faithfulness to God’s obedience…that’s why Paul emphasized the importance of testing your faith to see if it’s genuine:

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith: test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test. [2 Cor. 13:5]

The Book of James…whole purpose…is for professed Christians to test their faith…do you identify with those things that identify you as being a Christian?

Both James and Paul are saying…you say you’re a Christian…test your faith to see if it’s genuine or false…if a person is truly saved there will be outward evidence of it in their lifestyle.

If they are not saved…there will be no evidence…that doesn’t give me the right to make judgment on someone…but it does give me a right to question their relationship with God.

This brings up the controversial issue in the Church today…something John MacArthur has proposed…Lordship Salvation…if a person claims to be a Christian yet does not show evidence of good works, are they truly a Christian?

Lordship Salvation argues that the Bible teaches faith in Christ will cause a person to live differently.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” [2 Cor. 5:17 / Gal. 5:22 / James 2:14]

The Bible teaches that a person who has been saved will not desire to continue to live in sin (Romans 6:2).

People ask me…do you think I’m saved because I do such and such…that’s not for me to comment on…BUT…A person should want to change…if a person is truly saved there will be outward evidence of it in their lifestyle.

Good works are the biproduct—the result—of salvation, not the reason…good works are evidence of salvation…not in any way a part of salvation.

This whole 4th chapter is awkward to read and at times difficult to understand but is for one purpose…to use Abraham as the scriptural example of justification ….to demolish the rabbinical teaching that a person is made right with God by keeping the law…or…on the basis of his own religious efforts and works.

Abraham was not and could not have been justified by keeping the law because there was no Law at the time Abraham lived.

Abraham was justified both by works and faith…his actions proved that he believed God…he lived a lifestyle that demonstrated his trust in God…NOW… did he always live a lifestyle that demonstrated a trust in God?…NO.

—First…God told Abraham to go forth from your relatives…he took his nephew Lot with him.
—Second…when famine came on the land instead of consulting with God on what he should do he made the decision to go to Egypt.
—third…on two separate occasions Abraham lied about his wife…referring to her as his sister that in both cases almost cost him his life.
—fourth…when Sarah was beyond childbearing age, Abraham took matters into his own hands by committing adultery with Hagar the servant girl that produced a son that has been an aggravation to Israel for thousands of years.

KEY – The story of Abraham and Hagar is an example of listening to so called good advice during a time of darkness rather than waiting for God to send the light…never try to help God fulfill His Word.

Abraham’s faith was not perfect…the thing about the Bible is it never flatters its heroes…it tells the truth about each one of them…God chronicled the history of the Bible as it occurred…not as we’d like for it to have been…or…as those who penned it would like to see their lives portrayed in it.

As a result, when we study the Bible we often find ourselves looking into a mirror.

BUT… despite Abraham’s failures he is still the biblical standard of a righteous man because ultimately it was his faith in God that caused him to be righteous in God’s sight.

Abraham being justified by faith is the entire theme of Romans 4…‘imputed righteousness.” …here’s what this means…God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us at Salvation…and took our sin and imputed it onto Jesus.

Here’s why that’s important…no matter how good we think we are…or try to be…we will never meet God’s standard of perfection on our own…it is only because God imputes or places Jesus’ righteousness on us that makes us righteous in God’s sight.

That by no means is an excuse to continue in sin…Jesus’ righteousness is only credited to us when we by faith get serious about living a lifestyle that is in obedience to God’s Word.

That’s what Abraham did…he believed in God…had faith…but at the same time was obedient to God’s leading in his life…the importance of this chapter is significant…if there is any doctrine that Satan desires to undercut and distort, it is the doctrine of justification—grace—faith—redemption—propitiation—and forbearance…all contained in just three verses. [3:22, 24, 25]

Faith–being certain about realities we believe are true but we cannot see with our physical eyes.

Justification–the act of God where He pronounces a sinner to be righteous.

Grace–God not treating me as I deserve to be treated.

Redemption–sin separated us from God…Jesus’ death paid the price to buy us back.

Propitiation–the turning away of God’s anger…wrath…and condemnation of sin which we rightfully deserve.

Forbearance–God’s patience toward us by passing over our former sins.

If Satan can cause confusion in us in regards to that doctrine…he has succeeded in keeping people in their sin and condemnation.

In these three verses Paul elaborates on what some consider to be the pillar of the gospel…the proper understanding of these words are the core of the Christian faith…these verses are at the heart of the Gospel message.

Misunderstanding /misinterpretation of these key words is part of the reason there are so many different types of religions and why people are confused about salvation.

How God worked in the life of Abraham is the same way He still works in the lives of people…nothing changed in 5000 years.

It’s the same process with believers…the Holy Spirit enlightened Abraham’s mind and heart to recognize the true and only God…it’s because of that “enlightenment” that enabled Abraham to respond in faith…Abraham was immediately receptive to God’s calling in his life.

The writer of Hebrews says:

Abraham by faith being called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. [Heb. 11:8].

Here we see the importance of obeying…I think we all at various times in our life sense the call of God to do something…God doesn’t call us into a relationship with Him so we can just breathe air the rest of our lives.

God has a plan and a purpose for every person in this room…Abraham was the example in how we are to respond.

In the Greek, the wording “being called” is a present participle…the translation could be, “when he was being called” …in other words as soon as he understood what God was saying, he started packing.

It was instant obedience…nothing about “well, God at 75 it’s going to take a while…got to sell off some household effects…get my house sold…get things packed…it’s really a bad time of the year to be traveling…it may take several days, or even weeks or months, to make final preparation for the trip.”

NO…in his mind he was already on the way…KEY — with only the guarantee of God’s word…Abraham left…his homeland…his friends….his security… most of his relatives…probably many of his possessions…to go to a land that he would inherit…at some time in the future.

FAITH…is trusting God when He reveals only what you need to know … then waiting with patience and trusting Him for the rest.

In Abraham we see God’s pattern for every person who is called…God’s calling is the invitation…first of all are you going to accept that calling…NOT…well God…you need to reveal to me a little more information, then I can make an informed decision…NO.

It may take time…even years before God is ready to use you…God wants you ready…not willing to get ready…He needs you now…your job is to continue on in your initial calling until such time as God is ready to use you.

Here’s how the Lord works in the heart of every true believer…Abraham is the example…the disciples are the example…this is especially emphasized in our Sunday night movie.

God demands a total willingness to leave everything behind…that’s the importance of accepting Jesus as Lord of your life…when you do that
in essence you’re saying to God:

…Lord, I am bought with a price…I am Your purchased possession
…Lord, You redeemed me…I am Yours…use me
…Lord, do with me as You want…I am totally and completely Yours
…All I am, and all I have belongs to You
…I am ready to do what You want…to go where You want
…I am nothing of myself.

This is what Jesus says every one of us must do toward self…for us to be successful as Christians…anything less than that is a compromise.

The life of faith begins with the willingness to leave one’s own place of sin and unbelief—to leave the world system.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind [Romans 12:2]

It includes accepting by faith the role God has prepared for you.

It includes being obedient to what God is asking you to do in that role.

It includes living a lifestyle that glorifies God.

A life that is good, acceptable, perfect and pleasing to God…the Christian with a renewed mind will know how to walk through life with an understanding of the will of God and will be able to obey him.

When we accept those four points by faith…and by faith make them a part of our life…that is the faith that is credited to us as righteousness [4:5].

3:22-27

In the first two chapters of the book of Romans Paul has delivered the bad news about the sinful and helpless condition man is living in under God’s condemnation.

Paul has showed that there is no salvation through the keeping of God’s laws…because sinful man is utterly incapable of…or…inclined not to obey God.

In verses 19, 20, and 23 of chapter 3 Paul sums up the first two chapters of Romans:

Verse 19 – “…so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.”
Paul has declared “every man a liar”. The entire world stands silent and guilty before God.

Verse 20 – “For no flesh will be justified in His sight….”
From Romans 1:18 to 3:20 Paul has expressed and exposed man’s condition as a helpless sinner…under wrath…under judgment…unjustified…guilty…and condemned before God.

Verse 23 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
All people…universally…without distinction are equally deserving of God’s wrath.

Paul has demonstrated with reason and proven with Scripture that we’re all a bunch of guilty sinners who deserve God’s wrath…Paul has concluded his description of what humanity is like as God sees us and concludes with the question: …what could possibly give us hope???

Starting in verse 21 Paul begins to give us hope…revealing the good news that the forgiveness of sin is not through the Law…or by man’s good works…but by the one great declaration of the gospel: [21]

But now a righteousness from God, apart from (the) law, has been made known.

Paul says “But now…” [21] there is hope….Paul shows what God does about the whole….sick…pitiful condition of man…having shown that man cannot be right before God by works…nor…by the Law…nor even by what Jesus taught.

In verses 22, 24, and 25 we see that God has given us a reprieve.

22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe…24 being 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 passed over former sins.

In these three verses Paul begins to elaborate on what some consider to be the pillars of the gospel…words that are the core of the Christian faith—justification
—grace—redemption—propitiation—faith—and forbearance…these verses are at the heart of the Gospel message.

These words represent the promises of God…as Christians we have the assurance that every promise God made in Scripture is available to us…a misunderstanding of these key words is part of the reason there are so many different kinds of religions and the reason people are confused about salvation.

Regardless of their name…every religion except Christianity is man-made and is works-centered…for that reason none of them can succeed in leading a person to Christ because they fail to see the importance of Jesus’ substitutionary atonement on the Cross…these words explain how that is possible.

I want us to look at some of these key words from verses 22, 24, and 25 because they define how God works in the life of the believer…we should all have an understanding of what these words mean because they are directly tied into how God deals with us as individuals.

Paul begins in verse 22 by stating it is the righteousness of God.

3 Things to Know about the Righteousness of God
1 – The Righteousness of God is Not Earned, It’s Given Through Exchange
Here is how the exchange works…God is able to declare a person righteous who is clearly not righteous…God does this making an exchange… whereby He exchanges one thing for another.

That is actually the intent of chapter 4…God IMPUTING Christ’s righteousness to us…God takes our sin and imputes it to Jesus…“For our sake He [God] made Him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin” [2 Cor. 5:21].

God takes our sins and puts them on Jesus…the reason that Jesus asks God while on the cross…why have you forsaken me…because God cannot look at sin…on the Cross Christ took on our sin and in exchange for our sin we receive His righteousness…Jesus’ righteousness is imputed to us.

We are given the righteousness of Christ so that when God looks at us, He sees the very righteousness of His Son.

2 – The Righteousness of God is Not Bought, It’s Paid For
Another aspect of God’s righteousness is that it really doesn’t cost you anything, but it did cost Jesus everything…you are bought with a price…you are paid for.

3 – The Righteousness of God is Not Temporary, It’s Eternal
Why is this such a difficult issue within the church? …God’s declaration of righteousness over your life has made you right in God’s sight both now and forever…it’s not just for today and lost tomorrow.

SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER–
who will also sustain you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. [1 Corinthians 1:8]

“who will also sustain you” – (βεβαιώσει) —meaning to secure…to establish…to guarantee—amidst the trials in your life that shake your faith and maybe cause you to doubt God’s promise of eternal life…this verse says…it’s not going to happen.

One of the most important things to know about the righteousness of God is that
your problem of sin has been dealt with and you are His special possession…in
short, you belong to Him both now and forever…you will not fall away and
perish. (Phil. 1:6).

Paul says that the righteousness of God (is only) through faith in Jesus… twice in three verses Paul uses the word ‘faith’…without faith none of what Paul is talking about can become a reality.

This is the difficult part of Christianity…because it is asking you to believe in something you can’t see…feel…or touch…it seems so elusive…but without faith it is impossible to please God [Heb. 11:6] …that’s really the definition of faith…being certain about realities we believe are true but we cannot see with our physical eyes.

Then Paul says…because of our faith in God and His Son…even though we can’t see either one we believe…as a result… we are ‘justified by His grace’.

Justification by faith is what separates biblical Christianity from all other belief systems…Justification is an act of God where He pronounces a sinner to be righteous…only in true biblical Christianity is a person saved as a result of grace through faith because of the sinner’s faith in Christ.

These two verses answer the question: How can God declare us to be righteous when we are in fact unrighteous?

A believer is declared justified—without sin—and righteous—being spiritually equal with Christ–through faith in Jesus because of God’s grace… Paul goes on to say that as a result of being justified and righteous we are now redeemed.

So…What does it mean to be redeemed? …the very definition of redemption is seen in Jesus’ sacrifice of the Cross… it’s “the sinner’s release from bondage by means of a ransom payment.”

People are born in bondage to sin…BUT…on the Cross we see Christ’s work of redemption…He paid the price to buy us back…In order for me to live, something else must die…Jesus’ death was the ransom payment.

There are three basic elements to that definition regarding a sinner’s release from bondage

…First, the state of bondage…what is meant by “bondage.”

The reason sinners are not righteous and can never be righteous is because of the sin in our lives…sin enslaves all people–no exceptions…we are all under the bondage of sin.

Every baby born into this world is enslaved in bondage to sin because of the sin of Adam imputed to them…we all have Adam’s sin nature.

Sin holds people in bondage three ways:
Sin enslaves through its guilt and penalty
Sin enslaves through defilement…the act of disrespect toward God or others
Sin enslaves through its power to dominate and control people’s lives.

To redeem means to buy back or to reclaim something that was previously owned …originally, we belonged to God but that was lost when sin entered the world and separated us.

This is where the second element of redemption comes in…the price paid to get us back…through Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross God bought us back… you were bought with a price [1 Cor. 6:20].

The price is found in [Matthew 20:28]. The price to buy us back was that something or someone had to die… Jesus came to give His life a ransom for many…the ransom payment was paid for us by Jesus when He offered Himself as the ransom payment to appease God’s anger.

Jesus died for us so we could live and not die [II Corinthians 5:14-15]. That removes any satisfaction in thinking that we played some part in our own salvation…we didn’t.

That’s why the Bible talks so much about the old self must die for the new self to live….there is no way to move on to the “next level” of maturity in the Christian life while clinging to the old one.

Just a word about being bought with a price…on the surface it sounds like God had to ‘buy’ us back…No way! No way was the death of Jesus a payment to Satan…no thought in the Bible about God owing/paying the devil a ransom.

Paul says regarding Jesus’ death…that besides being a ransom….it also served as a propitiation.

It’s important that we understand what this means because it is the act of propitiation that keeps God from destroying every one of us.

Propitiation involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person…in this case God…God is offended when we sin.

Sin angers God…in fact…God hates sinners [Psalm 5:4-5 / 11:5] dispels that old saying…God hates the sin but loves the sinner…no He doesn’t…He hates both.

‘God hates the sin but loves the sinner’ is a Christian myth or generally accepted oral tradition that functions the same way fairy tales do…provides comfort while glossing over the truth…accepted as truth but in fact, is not truth at all.

The word propitiation is another word to explain what Jesus accomplished through His death of the cross…goes back to verses 24 / 25:

24 being justified by his grace…through the redemption that is in Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood.

That’s confusing right? …justification…grace…redemption… propitiation…all are important because all explain how God works in the life of a believer.

Justification…God accepting me just as if I had never sinned…it’s God pronouncing a sinner to be righteous.

Grace…God not treating me as I deserve to be treated.

Redemption…sin separated us from God but Jesus’ death paid the price to buy us back.

Propitiation is the turning away of God’s anger…wrath…and condemnation of sin which we rightfully deserve.

An important part of Jesus’ death involves the deliverance from God’s anger against us…propitiation is the turning away of God’s anger…and wrath…which we rightfully deserve…without that there would be no justification …redemption…or forbearance.

Because in His divine forbearance He passed over former sins…here we see the patience of God…forbearance refers to God’s patience toward us by passing over our former sins.

After listing all the God-centered attributes that contribute to our salvation—justification—grace—redemption—propitiation–faith—and forbearance…that all takes place when we trust Jesus as Savior.

Knowing how God treats us…knowing what He does for us should cause us all to fall to our knees in gratitude…all these things God does for us…and we do nothing…this brings up the question [3:27] that Paul concludes this portion of the gospel with by asking a simple rhetorical question… ‘where then is the boasting’ [3:27].

This goes back to Paul’s imaginary Jewish friend who asked Paul…what was the advantage to being a Jew…the Jews thought having the law of Moses… circumcision…and keeping the sabbath gave them a reason to boast in their relationship with God.

It was these things that they believed justified them in the sight of God…Paul says you are wrong… there is no advantage to being a Jew any more than there is with being a Gentile.

We’ve looked at all the reasons why we have nothing to boast about…SO, the immediate answer is: there is none…boasting is excluded [27].

Meritorious works are excluded…kindly deeds…humanitarian actions… financial contribution…and everything else that man may contrive to secure his salvation is excluded.

Salvation is from the Lord so what makes you think you can boast about your salvation or that you somehow played a part in your own salvation…because you can do nothing to make it happen.

The one and only way to God is by faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus…Salvation is in Christ and Christ alone.

In chapter 1, Paul wrote that the Gentiles were without excuse and under the condemnation and judgment of God because: ‘for although they knew God they did not honor Him as God or give thinks to Him’ [1:21].

In chapter 2, Paul wrote that the Jews were also without excuse and under the condemnation and judgment of God because of their judgment against the Gentiles but who were practicing the very same sins themselves [2:2].

Romans 3 begins with a question-and-answer session with an imaginary opponent…Paul is anticipating what questions he thought the Jews might ask him in their opposition to his comments in Romans chapter 2.

This imaginary opponent asks what advantage is there then in being a Jew…this opponent is going to try to argue his way out of God’s judgment by stating that
the Jews should be exempt from God’s judgment based on the fact that:

1) They were entrusted with God’s laws [Ex.19:20 / Deut. 4:8]
2) They were the race through whom the Messiah would come [Isaiah 11:1]
3) They were above all nations privileged to hear the voice of God [Deut.4:5 / Exodus 19:20]
4) They believed the covenant God established with Abraham guaranteed them their entry into Heaven (John 8:39)

The Jews had a flawed view of God’s grace…they thought that because they enjoyed so many temporal blessings from God that it must mean God was actually pleased with them…Paul tells them that’s a serious misunderstanding of God’s grace.

The Jews were saying….if we’re condemned with the rest of the world, then what profit is there in being a Jew? …if having the law and being circumcised… if being a child of Abraham does me no good, then what advantage is there in being a Jew if we are under God’s judgment just like the Gentiles?

SO…why did God choose Israel as His special people (3:1)? …Paul replies that God chose them so that through them He could make Himself known to the whole world…their assessment that God favored them despite their continued sinful lifestyle was wrong….Paul made it clear in chapter 2 that:

1) Having the law doesn’t do a person any good (2:13).
2) Being circumcised doesn’t do a person any good (2:25).
3) Being a child of Abraham doesn’t do you any good (2:28-29).

Nothing new…we find the very same argument today…when people are presented with the gospel and their need for Christ, they often begin raising objections and throwing out arguments to try to get themselves out from under the judgment of God.

Wanting to convince you and themselves that they are really better than you might be giving them credit for.

Most people view themselves as basically good…they have a long list of excuses to distract from their true character…they say:

…“I know I’m not perfect. I’ve got my share of faults but I’m not a murderer.”
…“I’m a decent person….yes, I’m a sinner, but I’m a good sinner.”
…”What about the heathen, I’m surely not that bad?”
…”How can a loving God send anyone to hell?”
…“It’s not fair for God to judge me for disobeying a law I knew nothing about.” …“I’ve lived my life the best that I could, what more does God want?”
…“God’s not fair.”

Paul has already pointed out…that being physical descendants of Abraham did not qualify them as his spiritual descendants…Paul was focusing on a deeper truth contrary to the thinking of most Jews…salvation was never offered by God on the basis of heritage…ceremony…good works…or any basis other than faith.

Here’s the KEY with respect to how God deals with every person…God will impartially judge everyone against what they know to be right.

TWO Important Aspects about God’s Judgment:

FIRST…God’s impartial judgment of people will be according to their response to the light they were given…everybody doesn’t receive the same amount of light… everybody doesn’t have the same knowledge of who God is.

Those without access to God’s special revelation will not be judged by what they don’t know…God’s fair…they will be judged by what they do know…they will be judged by the revelation of God in nature and their conscience.

SECONDLY…not everyone is given a blanket sentence or judged the same…some like to categorize everyone by the statement…“well, all unbelievers go to hell” …that’s not true…I’m opposed to those who make such a generic statement…that is not a scriptural statement.

There are degrees of ‘punishment’ based on the amount of light that a person has rejected.

Those who witnessed Jesus’s miracles and refused to believe will be judged more harshly…again, the importance of knowing the Bible and especially the three Parables Jesus gives pertaining to…salvation…rewards…and judgment.

The Parable of the Landowner [Matt. 10] deals with salvation…a parable that demonstrates exactly how salvation works…that regardless of the time spent in this life as a Christian…whether your whole life or just for one day before you die …you both received the same wage…eternal life.

Then the Parable of the Talents [Mat. 25] refers to the Judgment Seat of Christ where God rewards Christians based on what you have done with the talents and gifts He loaned you during your stay in this life…some a lot…some very little.

NOW…when it comes to judgment…it goes back to the statement ‘God will impartially judge everyone against what they know to be right’ ….Jesus Himself describes how that works [Matt. 11:20].

Jesus mentions three towns in which He had performed miracles [Matt. 11:21]. These people should have responded to Jesus in repentance; instead, they chose rejection… they did not repent…and for one town specifically…Capernaum, He tells the residents of that town…it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you [Matt. 11:24].

Jesus says that if the same miracles that were performed by Him in Capernaum had been done for the people of Sodom, God would never have destroyed it.

The people of Capernaum had received a great light…they had witnessed personally the miracles of Jesus but rejected Him…people will be judged based on the amount of light…the information or knowledge they know regarding who Jesus is…Jesus Himself explains how this works: [Luke 12:47-48]

47The servant who knows the master’s will and does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48a But the one who does not know and does things deserving
punishment will be beaten with few blows.

This saying is not addressed to Christians…it is directed at those who had knowledge about who Christ was and ignored it…the person who receives such a rebuke from the Lord is really not a Christian.

BUT…Look what Jesus says that is directed at us who are Christians:
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

He’s essentially saying the same thing but with a different twist…Jesus says that on that day He will expect more from those believers who knew more.

On the matter of Christian living, I can’t think of any more sobering words.

Jesus makes a point here…those who have more knowledge of what Christ expects…have a greater responsibility to act upon those things…to share those things…there has never been ever in the history of the church a group of Christians with more knowledge of what the Bible teaches than those of us who have been exposed to expository preaching.

Expository preaching involves the comprehensive explanation of Scripture that presents the meaning and intent of a biblical text to make the passage clear and understandable…the expository preacher’s goal is simply to expose the meaning of the Bible, verse by verse.

We meet people all the time who know that they have eternal life through faith alone…but who have never been exposed to sound exegesis on Scripture that deal with those topics…they have never heard about a Judgment Seat of Christ and the rewards involved at that Judgment.

But many of us do have that knowledge…as a result…we are the ones “to whom much has been given.” …Our eternal destiny is not in question…what the Lord will say to us when He returns is something we should seriously pray about… what have I done with the knowledge I have?

If you have a picture in your mind of Jesus as being all-loving and never being judgmental…then you have the wrong picture of Jesus…it has nothing to do with favoritism…or because of a preferred status with God based on heritage.

The common belief is that people go to heaven and hell based on the kind of earthly lives we live…good people go to heaven as a deserved reward for a virtuous life, and bad people go to hell as a just punishment for an immoral life.

That’s not entirely true…it has everything to do with what you did with the knowledge…the amount of light…you had about who Jesus was…it involves your belief and acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior in addition to how you lived your life…not a deserved reward for living a virtuous life.

Paul…in his imaginary conversation asks the question regarding that very thought…how you live your life…the erroneous belief that living an unrighteous life actually shows how righteous God is…the New Living Translation paraphrases the answer in Romans 3:5, 6;

“But” some might say, “our sinfulness serves a good purpose, for it helps people see how righteous God is. Isn’t it unfair, then, for Him to punish us?”

Put another way…‘let us do evil that good may come’ …if our being bad makes God look good, why is God angry with us? …if people’s unrighteousness is an occasion for God to show His righteousness…then isn’t it unfair for God to execute wrath on us because we’re actually doing God a favor?

Said another way [6:1] “Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase?”

If our unrighteousness causes the righteousness of God to shine more
gloriously…then when we sin we are actually revealing how great the grace of God is because when I sin His grace towards me actually increases.

SO…based on this line of thinking…Paul then sums up the hypothetical argument with what he believes would be the Jews’ response:

it’s unjust for God to bring His wrath on us [5]
let us do evil that good may result” [8]

It’s important to remember that the book of Romans represents a Roman court room scene…a scenario Paul commonly uses throughout his writings…it’s something the people could relate to.

In this court room scene…Paul begins by first addressing the universality of sin and God’s wrath against sin…the unbeliever is judged …symbolizing the Great White Throne of Judgment…where he is found guilty and is condemned…by the testimony of two witnesses: …”How can a loving God send anyone to hell?”

1) Creation [Rom. 1:20] –“since the creation of the world…His invisible attributes…eternal power…divine nature have been clearly seen.

2) Conscience [Rom. 2:15]. Those who do not know God’s laws still have an inner sense of right and wrong that condemns them when they violate that law.

In the following verse it’s as if Paul shouts out in the court room ‘Objection’ [6].
…how do you figure doing evil so good may result… some translators wanting to show how emphatic Paul is in rejecting the idea that ‘evil helps people see how righteous God is’…translates Paul’s response as “God forbid” [6] …in the Greek it does not contain the name of “God” …and should not be translated so.

Paul’s response in the Greek reveals how forceful he is in answering the assumption that our sinfulness serves a good purpose…Paul responds with the strongest negative Greek expression possible… “may it never be”. A statement Paul uses frequently in Romans to denote a horrified rejection to an unbiblical concept. (Lk. 1:38; 20:16; Ro 3:4, 6, 31; 6:2 , 15; 7:7, 13; 9:14; 11:1, 11; 1Co 6:15; Gal 2:17; 3:21; 6:14.)

So, to argue that mankind’s sin serves a good purpose? Is ridiculous!

Starting in verse 9 Paul lays out the charge…the indictment…and the verdict:

THE CHARGE (Romans 3:9) — All are under sin.

THE INDICTMENT (Romans 3:10-18) — The whole world is accountable to God…An indictment is a formal written statement framed by a prosecuting authority (in this case, GOD HIMSELF)

THE VERDICT (Romans 3:19) — GUILTY!!!

Watching the Word Network or DayStar you won’t hear a whole lot about sin… a lot about money….not much about sin…what they offer is not what Christ accomplished on the Cross…but some book or DVD deal telling you how good you are…Well, you’re not.

Paul presents the ultimate testimony…the testimony from Scripture… beginning in verse 10….Paul introduces an 11-count indictment against man… using the testimony of God’s own Word as revealed in the Old Testament.

The character of man
Verse 10b –“There is none righteous, not even one” – UNIVERSALLY EVIL
Verse 11a –“There is none who understands – SPIRITUALLY IGNORANT
Verse 11b –“There is none who seeks for God – REBELLIOUS
Verse 12a –“All have turned aside – NATURALLY WAYWARD
Verse 12b –“There is none who does good – SPIRITIUALLY USELESS
Verse 13b –“With their tongues they keep deceiving” – DECEITFUL
Verse 14a –“mouth is full of cursing and bitterness” – EMOTIONAL HOSTILITY
Verse 15a –“Feet are swift to shed blood…” – MURDEROUS
Verse 16a –“Destruction and misery are in their paths” – WANTON DESTRUCTION
Verse 17a –“path of peace they have not known.” – PEACELESS
Verse 18a –“no fear of God before their eyes.” – GODLESSNESS

Then in verses 19, 20, and 23 Paul sums up two and a half chapters:

Verse 19 – “…so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.” …Paul has declared “every man a liar”. The entire world stands silent and guilty before God.

Verse 20 – “For no flesh will be justified in His sight….”
From Romans 1:18 to 3:20 Paul has expressed and exposed man’s condition as a helpless sinner…under wrath…under judgment…unjustified…guilty…and condemned.

Verse 23 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.
All people without distinction are equally deserving of God’s wrath.

For two and a half chapters Paul has delivered the bad news about the sinful and helpless condition man is living in under God’s condemnation…Paul has showed that there is no salvation through the keeping of God’s laws…because sinful man is utterly incapable of…or…inclined to obey God.

If Romans stopped with verse 23 there would be no hope…however there is a verse 24! …Paul now begins to give the good news of forgiveness of sin that is …not through the Law…or by man’s good works.

Verse 21 – “But now…God’s righteousness has been revealed…”

Verse 24 – all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

FINALLY, SOME GOOD NEWS…Paul has demonstrated with reason and proven with Scripture that we’re all a bunch of guilty sinners who deserve only God’s wrath…what could possibly give us hope???

Paul says “But now…” there is hope….Paul shows what God does about the whole….sick…pitiful condition of man…having shown that man cannot be right before God by works…nor…by the Law.

It is true that human sin does provide God the opportunity to show the truth about His character…specifically His great mercy and lovingkindness (Lk 18:13, He 2:17) because in response to man’s sin God does not obliterate mankind but provides the way of salvation.

2:4-15

Last time we met we looked at some rather upsetting…disturbing verses regarding Paul’s assessment of both the Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome who were at odds with each other.

The Jewish Christians believed they had a preferred status with God because of their ancestral relations with God…they thought themselves to be superior to the Gentile believers.

They thought Paul’s harsh verbal lashing in Romans 1 was the right response to the Gentile believers for their lifestyle of practicing sin.  

But…in Chapter 2 Paul is quick to reprimand the Jewish Christians for their judgment against the Gentiles who were practicing the same sorts of sins… therefore to both of them he says…you are without excuse.

For a moment I want to highlight the word ‘practice’…four times in three verses Paul uses the word practice when referring to sins…and makes a very defined statement in declaring that those who practice such things are worthy of death.

Two things…what does it mean to practice sin…what death is he referring to?

The word ‘practice’ in Greek and English means the same thing… something done as a habit…someone who intentionally does the same thing over and over.

In reading this…as a Christian…how do I know Paul’s not writing about me?… when you come across these disturbing verses I’m concerned that I might be that person…because at times I do repeat the same sin over and over.

I read a devotional that stated that once you’re born again you won’t continue to struggle with your sin…either I’m not born again…or I’m not completely understanding that statement…because Scripture clearly states that as long as I’m in this body of corruption I will sin…you will not be free of sin.

We all sin every day…BUT…for the Christian we are no longer ruled by sin… no longer in bondage to sin…that’s where the word ‘practice’ comes in.

As used here it is not referring to the occasional sin we at times commit…even repeated sins we at times commit…Paul is speaking to those who practice a continued…determined…deliberate…repeated…habitual lifestyle of sin…that’s what it means to practice sin.

Then Paul says those who practice such things are worthy of death [1:32] …in the Bible there are 7 different kinds of death mentioned.

The word used here is (thanatos (2288) referring to eternal separation from God…that’s what awaits those who practice sin.  

Up to now Paul—through the Holy Spirit—has been blunt in his assessment of sin and the consequences…those who practice such things are worthy of death…is pretty definite…but in [4] it seems as though Paul is beginning to soften that position by revealing God’s attributes towards sinners.

It should be the task of any preacher to communicate accurately what God has provided to us in Scripture…it doesn’t mean you attach a new meaning to Scripture…preaching means revealing the principles and ideas of Scripture in a manner that is meaningful for people in their everyday life.

But it seems that some pastors are tempted to replace exegesis and expository preaching with stories…slogans…joke telling…or sound bites.

Bible verses are not slogans or sound bites…they are eternal truths…uprooting a verse from its intended meaning can lead to all kinds of confusion.

When verses are removed and preached independent of their proper context based on someone’s opinion or agenda it leads to a misunderstanding…Romans 2:4 is a verse that is regularly misused that way.

On the surface Romans 2:4 seems to be a refreshing break from the depressing condemnation Paul has been speaking about for the past 35 verses, but it’s not:

⁴ Or do you show contempt (despise) for the riches of His kindness, forbearance, (restraint or the delay of punishment) and (His) patience, not realizing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

There is a foundational truth in that verse: God is a God of kindness, tolerance, and patience, and it is His kindness that brings us to repentance.

BUT…we must not forget that God’s mercy…grace…and forgiveness does not mean He ignores or overlooks sin…sadly, liberal theology will tell you God does…bad theology has twisted the understanding of love, kindness, mercy, and tolerance, to deny that God is angry with sin…He’s not.

Romans 2:4 is a truthful statement in regard to God’s attributes:   

Kindness is God’s goodness towards us in regard to our past sin…He has been good to us because He has not judged us even though we deserve it.

Restraint is God delaying His judgment in regard to our present sin …this very day – indeed, this very hour – we have fallen short of His glory, yet He holds back His judgment against us.

Patience is God’s kindness to us in regard to our future sin…He knows that we will sin tomorrow and the next day, yet He holds back His judgment.

But the problem is…when taken out of context this verse fails to show what Paul has been addressing since [v 18] of chapter 1…the undeniable universality of sin and God’s wrath against sin.   

Romans 2:4 seems to be a welcome relief from that harshness…revealing it is the kindness of God that leads men to repentance…it’s easy to use this verse to excuse our behavior by stating that God is not concerned with my behavior because He’s such a kind and patient God.

The mistake is to misinterpret God by observing His kindness…restraint…and patience as proof that He just overlooks sin…so people refuse to repent…not realizing that it is these attributes that are the exact reason that leads them to repentance.

Preachers use Romans 2:4 to excuse themselves from having to discuss the hard reality of sin and the need for repentance…preachers use this verse to defend their feel-good messages to downplay sin and soft pedal God’s wrath against sin.

Because Paul said that it was the kindness of God that leads men to repentance it is therefore inappropriate to make people feel bad by speaking of the judgment or the wrath of God.

That’s the intent the New Living Translation has in its bad interpretation of this verse…not wanting people to feel bad so they are less than accurate in their translation:

Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? If that’s your understanding of verse 4…you have made a mistake…

Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you – is not the intent of this verse…not sure how they came up with that meaning.

This verse is not referring to God’s attributes of kindness…tolerance…and patience that result in conversion…it is referring to the self-righteousness of sinners who were showing contempt for the riches of God…this translation fails to carry that meaning to its readers.

The key word in [4] is the word ‘or’ …it is used after an interrogative sentence to prove the same thing in another way.

Paul initially says…when you pass judgment on someone and do the same thing yourself do you think you will escape the judgment of God?

OR…meaning…let me say it a different way…do you think you can pervert and abuse God’s kindness…patience…and tolerance and still escape the judgment of God without any repercussions?

This is not a reflection on the weakness of God but is to illustrate that these are His chosen methods for dealing with sinners in order to lead them to repentance.  

This verse is far too often plucked from Scripture to show God’s generosity when in reality it’s a reflection on man’s depravity.

The point Paul wants to make in 2:4 is that the Jew who thinks he can sin and escape the judgment of God because he has a particular relationship with God is sadly mistaken.

This ties back to Paul’s use of the wording the ‘wrath of God’ in chapter 1 …and ‘God’s judgment’ in Chapter 2 …two completely different things.

People assume the ‘wrath of God’ and the ‘judgment of God’ to be the same thing…they’re not.  

I want to share something with you regarding the wrath of God and the judgment of God using the illustration of the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus that define God’s wrath and God’s judgment.  

These two thieves represent the entire human race…on the one side…those individuals who believe…on the other side those who choose not to believe.

In verses 5 thru 10 Paul makes a parallel between the two classes of people represented by the two thieves on the cross with Jesus…the only two classes that exist…the saved and the unsaved…Paul reveals the deeds of the unsaved:

2:5 Because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath…8 to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation…9 there will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek.

The deeds of the unsaved can really be summed up in three statements:

1) Self-seeking – A person who is without regard for what is good for others …or the harm they may be doing to others (Rom. 2:8).

 2) Rejecting the truth – (John 14:6) “I Am the way…the truth….” and because they reject the truth “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie” (Rom. 1:15)

 3) Following evil – No person lives in a moral or spiritual vacuum….He is either godly or ungodly….righteous or unrighteous.

Then…in verse [7, 10] Paul reveals the deeds of the saved:

^2:7 To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life…¹⁰ glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good

A person who has a desire within him to persevere in doing good…seeks for glory…honor…and immortality…those are the characteristics of a true believer that results in eternal life.

Both thieves had an equal opportunity…both heard the words of Jesus…both heard the witness of Jesus’ enemies proclaiming He was the Son of God… here’s the difference:

The one thief because of his defiant denial of who Jesus was…experienced the wrath of God…[John 3:18]  he who does not believe has been judged already…as a result…the wrath of God abides on him [36].

This thief ridiculed Jesus even with his dying breath…this person falls under the wrath of God…there’s really no good way to soften “the wrath of God” to mean anything other than a response on God’s part to human sin and disobedience…eternal separation from God.

Everyone who perishes under the wrath of God does so…not because God lost His temper and is mistreating them…God’s wrath against sinners is nothing more than God giving them what they wanted or deserved…because they chose.

The other thief believed on Jesus…as a result…Jesus tells him [Luke 23:43] “today you will be with me in paradise”.

Jesus gives two parables…one regarding salvation [Matt. 10] and one regarding works [Mat. 25:14]…again…the thieves on the cross symbolize these parables.

Parable of the Vineyard Worker…is about salvation…about those who bore the brunt of the work throughout the entire day…as opposed to those who just worked for one hour…obviously representing the length of time as a Christian.

The owner gives them all the same wage…those who worked all day received the same wage as those who only worked for one hour…the owner…GOD…made them all equal with respect to salvation.

Christians who for their whole lives live a godly life receive the same thing as the person who accepts Jesus as Savior but does nothing to fulfill God’s purpose in their lives…eternal life.

Goes back to the impartiality of God [11] …HOLD IT…that doesn’t seem fair, people who were obedient to God their entire lives….missionaries…preachers… full time Christian workers…Sunday school teachers…deacons…elders…then some guy makes a death bed confession and God makes him equal to all those who worked their whole life as Christians…How fair is that?

This is where the Judgment Seat of Christ comes in…here we see the generosity of God…God is aware of those who bore the burden of the day…the Christian who was obedient in their commitment to God… who used the gifts God gave them.

The statement the Judgment Seat of Christ is misleading…it has nothing to do with judgment, it’s for believers only…not to determine who will enter heaven…already been decided.

The Judgment Seat of Christ is the time when believers are rewarded for their faithful service.

At the Judgment Seat of Christ, Christians will give an account of what they have done after trusting Jesus as their Savior…has nothing to do with God’s anger… the Judgment Seat of Christ is for the purpose of giving rewards and the celebration of a Christians’ faithful service.

Jesus’ teachings in [Mat. 25:14] Parable of the Talents is where the benefit of being obedient to God and using your gifts and talents come into play.

God assesses our progress in how we are fulfilling His purpose in our lives…and rewards us.

BUT…here’s the sad part…at the Judgment Seat of Christ not everyone receives the same rewards…because Jesus will ⁶ render to each person according to his deeds.

There will be Christians who suffer loss because rewards are based on service …the whole point in Jesus’ teaching in the Parable of the Talents is a warning for Christians:

1) of using well what God has entrusted to us

2) the tragedy of wasted opportunities.

The professing Christian…who has no “works” …who has contributed nothing to the life of the church…like the one thief…who did nothing except believe in Jesus, he will receive eternal life… that’s God’s promise…but that’s all…he will receive no rewards. [1 Cor. 3:15].

This is the importance of understanding the difference between the ‘wrath of God’ and the ‘Judgment Seat of God’ as used in chapters 1 and 2 of Romans.  

Paul then makes a summary of the last 15 verses:

¹⁶ in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.  

¹⁶ in the day…is the day of God’s judgment…there are two judgments…just talked about one of them…the Judgment Seat of God and the giving of rewards …but there’s a second judgment…the one unbelievers will experience…this verse identifies the criteria by which God judges unbelievers…it is “according to my gospel”.

The words “according to” means the gospel is the criteria…it is the standard God uses to judge people…a judgment that leaves nothing unturned.

The Great White Throne of Judgment – [Rev 20:11 – 15] is the judgment of unbelievers…commonly referred to as the Unpardonable Sin, [Matthew 12:22] the absolute and permanent refusal to believe.

Romans represents a Roman court room scene…Paul uses this scenario throughout his writings…it’s something the people could relate to.

In this court room scene…Paul begins by first addressing the universality of sin and God’s wrath against sin…in this court room scene, the unbeliever is judged …symbolizing the Great White Throne of Judgment…where he is found guilty and iscondemned…by the testimony of two witnesses:

1) Creation [Rom. 1:20] –“since the creation of the world…His invisible attributes…eternal power…divine nature have been clearly seen.”

2) Conscience [Rom. 2:15] their thoughts accusing or else defending them.

At the Great White Throne of Judgment all non-believers will be judged…Paul says… according to my gospel.

When we see our sinfulness and rebellion against God…when we see our hypocrisy in condemning others for committing the same sins we’re committing, then we can marvel at God’s goodness in withholding the wrath that we deserve.

We often times hear the phrase ‘do not mistake my kindness for weakness’ … the same is true with God…as harsh as these verses are…as a preacher…I can’t just overlook them and not preach them…but the silver lining in Romans 2:4 reveals God’s kindness… restraint…patience…and mercy in dealing with mankind.

Not as a sign of indifference to sin or a weakness to act…it is meant to inspire us to thankfulness…to faith…and to repentance.

2:1-3

As we begin Chapter 2 of Romans…Paul was addressing a couple of serious issues that were causing a division within the church in Rome.  

FRIST was the theological conflict between the Jews who believed that this new movement…initially called ‘the way’ (ἡ ὁδός)…was for Jews only[Matt. 10:5] …they were confused with the idea that God was expanding what had primarily began as a movement within the Jewish community…now spreading it to all the world.

The Jewish Christians believed they had a preferred status with God because of their ancestral relations with God…they thought themselves to be superior to the Gentile believers.

This left the Jewish Christians confused as they tried to understand how to handle the influx of Gentile believers into their churches.

Some Jewish Christians claimed Gentile believers needed to follow the Jewish religious rituals in order to receive salvation…Jewish Christians were judging Gen­tile Christians for not conforming to their own expectations…in other words they were adding works to what God had freely given in the death and resurrection of His Son… salvation to all who believe.

SECOND…you need to understand the context in which Romans second chapter is written…it’s thought Romans 2 is kind of a ‘got-ya’ for Jewish believers who thought they were more righteous than the Gentiles.

In Romans 1 Paul was giving what the Jewish believers thought was a tongue-lashing against the Gentiles because of the way they formerly lived.

Here’s what’s remarkable about what Paul is preparing to teach…something that hasn’t changed for over 2000 years.

In Chapter 2 Paul addresses those who may be tempted to look down on others saying; “those people in chapter 1 are awful…who does those sorts of things…that can’t be directed at us…we’re too religious”.

The sins identified in verses 29-32 certainly couldn’t include us…people:

—Filled with—unrighteousness…wickedness…and greed

—Being full of–envy…murder…strife…deceit…and malice.

—Being–gossipers…slanderers…haters of God…arrogant… boastful… inventors of evil…disobedient to parents…without     understanding… untrustworthy…unloving…and unmerciful.

A self-assured religious person might read the description of those sins and convince themselves that was about other people.

It’s easy for us to deny that at one time this was the condition we were in…it’s easy to be tempted to think… ‘this is just about unbelievers, not us’.

BUT… because man has always had lofty ideas of himself….and considers himself to be above those things…the Jews were content in believing Paul was referring to the Gentiles and not to them.

That’s exactly the situation in Romans 2…Christian Jews congratulating themselves that they are not like the Gentiles described in Romans 1.

Paul begins to look at these religious hypocrites and tells them there is no difference between the two.

That’s why the first three chapters of the Book of Romans are some of the most discouraging and depressing chapters in the entire New Testament as Paul begins to elaborate on the hopelessness of human nature and the eternal destiny that awaits every person who has ever lived…because despite what people may think about themselves Paul says:

2 ¹ Therefore you are inexcusable (you have no excuse) you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who judge practice the same things. 

There are a few things that need to be looked at in this verse:

…FIRST…this is the second time Paul has made the statement…you are inexcusable [1:20] to the Gentiles in their lack of acknowledging God in creation…now he uses it against the Jews.

In the Greek…‘inexcusable’ literally meant ‘you are defenseless’…in the spiritual court of laws there is no defense for the actions of a person who commits the same sin of which he accuses another.

…SECOND…interesting word ‘practice’ …what does that mean?

The word ‘practice’ in Greek and English means the same thing… something done as a habit…someone who intentionally does the same thing over and over again.

In reading this…as a Christian…how do I know Paul’s not writing about me… because I’m concerned that I might be that person.

The word ‘practice’ as used here is referring to habitual sin, not to a believer’s occasional sin…but a continued committed lifestyle of sin…Paul is speaking to those who continue in sin on a determined…deliberate… repeatedly …habitual manner…that’s what it means to practice sin.

…THIRD…as a general rule…people seek to uphold moral standards of Scripture …they even profess to be Christians…BUT…polls show that since 1990 there has been a 20% drop in the number of people who identify themselves as being Christian.

A recent poll indicated that only 63% of adults identify themselves as being Christian so what about the other 40%…this aligns with the polls that say over 30% of adults are…atheist…agnostic …or unaffiliated.

“If the unaffiliated—those 30% who see themselves as…atheist…agnostic or unaffiliated—were a religion, they’d be the single largest religious group in the United States.” …Elizabeth Drescher, adjunct professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University.

What a terrible reflection on a nation the prides itself on being Christian…then the problem is further compounded by the fact that the actual percentage of people worshiping each week is only about 18% of that 63% who claim to be Christian.

Why Only 18% of people who claim to be Christians are in church on any given Sunday…although they may identify themselves as being Christian…in most cases they have elected to separate themselves from the church because Church is just not that important anymore.

When that happens…here’s the problem…Satan’s mission is to separate us from the presence of Holy Spirit…separate us from God’s will and plan for our lives …without the guiding of the Holy Spirit we backslide and fall back into our old sinful ways.

That’s the importance of [Hebrews 10:25] that says…do not forsake meeting together…the word ‘forsake’ in the Greek is referring to an abandonment.

It’s easy to drift away from God when you’re not connected to His people… Satan’s mission is to separate us from the presence of Holy Spirit and the assembling of ourselves together with other Christians.

When we are not regularly communing with God and His people, we are vulnerable to Satan’s attempts to disrupt God’s plan and purpose for our lives.  

When someone decides to separate themselves from the church…eventually over time…there is no difference between them and someone who rejects the church…eventually falling back into the lifestyle they lived before conversion.

Unfortunately, this decline is sometimes not recognized by the person who is sliding backwards until it is too late to reverse the consequences…if you are a Christian there are consequences to sin…then we blame God for the consequences we bring upon ourselves.

This is how temptation works…when our hearts are lured away by sinful desires these desires become more important than obeying and pleasing God…as we continue to slide backwards in our faith satisfying our desires it produces more sin… sin produces a downward spiral of disobedience and distortion of truth.

The sin cycle continues until it finally ends with people warping and fashioning God’s Word to meet and satisfy their own ends.

The result is what Charles Stanley defines as the Law of the Harvest (we reap what we sow) because of our painful decisions…then we blame God for the consequences we bring upon ourselves.

When you made the decision to become a Christian you gave up the right to yourself…you now belong to God…God’s kind of selfish in that respect.

Here’s something else that sin produces in a person…Paul addresses this issue and the severity of it is referenced multiple times in Scripture and I want us to focus on it this morning:

Do you suppose—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? [3]

There’s that word ‘practice’ again…speaking to those who continue in sin on a determined…deliberate… repeatedly and …habitual manner.

Sin causes a numbness in us…when we’re outside God’s will for our lives it’s easy for us to judge someone else for something we ourselves are doing… something we just haven’t fully owned up to as of yet.

It’s been said…“When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself.” ~ Earl Nightingale.

We are bothered by the qualities in others that we choose not to see in ourselves …we rail against another people’s habits…appearance…or lifestyle choices because they are the very ones many times…we dislike in ourselves.

That’s what sin does…it blinds us to see our own faults…then…because we have quenched the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives to convict us…we deflect the attention on others by pointing out their actions and behaviors.

Paul recognizes that when Christians are living in sin…in their efforts to remove themselves from God’s judgment they seek to explain that sin is not their fault thinking they can ‘escape the judgment of God.’ [3]  

Why would anyone think they can escape God’s judgment…in Romans 1 Paul reveals that unbelievers think they can escape the wrath of God simply because they don’t believe in the existence of God…therefore…they’re not accountable …but they’re wrong.

In chapter 2 Paul confronts his Jewish readers who make the same mistake of thinking God won’t judge them because they don’t think themselves as being sinful and because they are God’s chosen people…both sides are wrong.

The Jews, on the other hand, became judg­mental…hypocritical…and boastful because they believed they were the people of the Torah.

The crux of the problem is that each side misunderstands the judgment of God …when people elect to remove themselves from church or reduce their attendance they lack the spiritual maturity and the divine morality in their lives to make a decision regarding assessing another person’s lifestyle.

In their efforts to justify themselves they have just enough knowledge of Christianity to be dangerous in making judgments about someone else.

This is the intent of verse [1]

          every (one) man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself: for you who judge practice the same things [1]

There’s that word ‘practice’ again…speaking to those who continue in sin on a determined…deliberate… repeatedly and …habitual manner.

Paul is giving a warning to the moralists and professing Christians who think they are exempt from God’s judgment because they have not sunk into the pagan, immoral practices mentioned in chapter 1.

Paul especially has the Jews in mind….the Jews stood in judgment of the Gentiles for being guilty of the sins mentioned in Romans 1…however…in judging the Gentiles…the Jews condemned themselves because the Jews were

guilty of the same sins as the Gentiles…Therefore you are without excuse.

It is crucial to recognize the danger of judgment…TWO WAYS:

—ONE– judgment causes broken rela­tionships…think about in your personal life…the damage judging others causes…then elevate that to a spiritual level… the cause of our broken relationship with God is judgment…our judgment of God is that He’s not adequate enough…therefore…we can create better gods on our own.

—TWO– When an individual or a group of people develop their own standards of religion and morality…they inevitably judge everyone else by those self-made beliefs and standards…anytime someone elevates himself… everyone else is lowered accordingly.

This is essentially the danger Jesus was preaching against in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:1 – “Do not judge least you be judged”.

A very misunderstood command from Jesus…it’s in the imperative voice… Jesus is saying when making judgments against anyone…‘don’t do that…that’s not really a very good idea.’

When Jesus states;Judge not, that you be not judged, He is suggestingtwo things:

FIRST…He’s defining who is in a position to judge.

Matt 7:1 is not addressed to the common person but more likely was directed at the Pharisees…because of who they were in a legal…ecclesiastical (e-clee-see-ass-ti-cal) (relating to church clergy) position to govern others…if you are not in ecclesiastical authority over others…the verse does not apply to you.

Matt 7:1 is not addressed to the common person…it is not referring to lay people of the church who are not in a position to act in an official manner…they are not in a position to pass judgment…condemn…OR… punish…that is conveyed

in the Greek word we translate as “judge” …briefly…here are the guidelines:

(1) Judge no one unless it is your duty to do so.

(2) Judge the offense, and not the offender.

(3) Confine your judgment to earthly faults and leave their relation to God.

Whenever we condemn people because we believe their motives are wrong…we pass judgment that only God is qualified to make.

However, this verse IS NOT teaching that we should not express an opinion regarding right and wrong…because we should…but…we must be careful to make right judgments instead of judging others by external appearances.

It’s a slippery slope…Scripture does give Christians the responsibility to make judgments about truth and falsehood [Gal. 1:9 / Phil. 3:2 / 1 John 4:1] …

As Christians we do have the obligation to assess someone’s behavior…we have a duty to assess the things happening in our workplace …our church…or our nation that serves…or hinders God’s purposes…Christians do have a responsibility to assess people’s actions to prevent injustice.

…A supervisor may need to discipline or fire an employee who is not doing their job satisfactorily

…a worker may need to report an ethical or policy violation

…a student may need to report cheating by another student

…there are times when we may need to cut off contact with others because of their lifestyle…BUT…

We do not judge them…or set ourselves up as morally superior…we are not to declare one person’s righteousness worthy and another person unworthy based on our assumptions.

That’s exactly what Paul is saying in [2:3] when you pass judgment…and do the same yourself why do you think you will escape God’s judgment?

As Christians we do have the obligation to assess someone’s behavior…BUT:

We should be careful to assess our own lifestyle before condemning the shortcoming of others while possibly doing the very same thing…that’s why it’s best not to judge least you be judged.

SECOND thing Jesus is dictating in Matthew is how NOT to judge:

1) NOT in a hypocritical manner…do not judge someone for the SAME SIN that you are committing…don’t judge your neighbor for stealing office supplies from work when you regularly steal them yourself.

2) In a rash…and unjust manner… [Luke 6:37] –“…do not condemn and you will not be condemned…” don’t form a hasty and harsh judgment without allowing for circumstances.

In two chapters Paul tells the Galatians that it’s the ‘wrath of God’ against all ungodliness…but tells the Jewish Christians it’s the ‘judgment of God’ …is there a difference? …YES there is.

Difference between the ‘wrath of God’ and ‘God’s judgment’ …regarding the wrath of God…there’s really no good way to soften “the wrath of God” to mean anything other than God’s response to human disobedience.

God’s wrath is not a reckless rage or an uncontrollable anger…people confuse God’s wrath with human wrath…the wrath of God is a controlled response to the belittling of His holiness.

Everyone who perishes under the wrath of God does so…not because God lost His temper and is mistreating them…God’s wrath against sinners is nothing more than God giving them what they wanted or deserve…because they chose.

As opposed to God’s judgment…people say what is occurring in the world today is the judgment of God …people assign the COVID epidemic to God judging the world…no it’s not.

What we see in the world today is not the judgment of God…it is the natural consequences of sin in the earth.

God’s judgment is when He reveals the true character of every person who has ever lived…has nothing to do with God’s anger…it’s when He publicly rewards every person who has ever lived based on how you lived.

If I were to title this sermon…I don’t title my sermons…could title it the impartiality of God.

It is God’s response to the Gentiles’ unbelief and the Jews’ self-centeredness that reveals that He is an impartial God…Paul says so in verse 11 ‘for there is no partiality with God’… [Acts 10:34-35 / 1 Peter 1:17 / Deut.10:17].

People are prone to treat others based on external criteria such as looks… possessions…or social status….but God is utterly impartial… He never shows favoritism and always gives you exactly what you deserve without partiality.

God is an impartial God…Jesus’ whole life was a declaration of His impartiality:

…He healed lepers who were social outcasts

…He washed the feet of His disciples, even the disciple who would betray Him

…He ate and drank with sinners and tax collectors as well as the religious elite

…He was crucified a criminal’s death for those who were spiritually dead.

God is judgmental…it’s part of His character…but He’s also impartial…in just two verses God is giving us some helpful tips to consider in our own personal life.

1:18-32

Paul begins his letter to the Romans by telling them how proud he was of them for their faithfulness which had spread all over the world…he wrote about Jesus and how He was sent down from heaven as a descendant of David…and as such makes Him the rightful owner to the throne…how He came to offer people salvation through His death and resurrection.

Paul’s letter to the Romans was to eliminate a number of issues that was keeping the Church from progressing towards God’s intended purpose…in writing to the Romans, Paul wanted to unite two diverse people groups under one unifying message: the gospel of Christ.

The church, comprised of Jews and Gentiles, was experiencing significant theological conflicts…God was expanding what had primarily begun as a movement within the Jewish community but now was spreading to all the world.

This left the Jewish Christians confused as they tried to understand how to handle the influx of Gentile believers into their churches.

The Jewish Christians believed they had a preferred status with God because of their ancestral relations with God…they thought themselves to be superior to the Gentile believers.

Some Jewish Christians claimed Gentile believers needed to follow the Jewish religious rituals in order to receive salvation…in other words, they were adding works to what God had freely given in the death and resurrection of His Son… salvation to all who believe.

The first three chapters of the Book of Romans are some of the most discouraging and depressing chapters in the entire New Testament.  

Starting in verse 18 Paul speaks of the wrath of God…this is the first negative thing written in this letter…but it’s only the beginning…Paul elaborates on the hopelessness of human nature and the eternal destiny that awaits every person who has ever lived.

When I first began this study, I listed some of the reasons…I prefer excuses… why people reject the Bible…reject Church…reject any form of Christianity.

 Statistics show 1/3 of all Americans want nothing to do with the Church… doesn’t mean they don’t believe…because I think many of those who are rejecting the church at one time possibly did make a profession of faith…but for whatever reason…they have elected to exclude themselves from the church.

I’m not referring to unbelievers who reject the Church…I’m talking about Christians who have elected to separate themselves from the church because it’s just not important anymore.

When that happens…when someone decides to separate themselves from the church…eventually there is no difference between them and someone who rejects the church…they will eventually fall back into the lifestyle they lived before conversion.

Here’s the problem…Satan’s mission is to separate us from the presence of the Holy Spirit…to separate us from God’s will and plan for our lives…without the guiding of the Holy Spirit we backslide and fall back into our old sinful ways.

That’s the importance of [Hebrews 10:25] that says…do not forsake meeting together…the word ‘forsake’ in the Greek is referring to an abandonment.

It’s easy to drift away from God when you’re not connected to His people… Satan’s mission is to separate us from the presence of the Holy Spirit and the assembling of ourselves together with other Christians.

When we are not regularly communing with God and His people, we are vulnerable to Satan’s attempts to disrupt God’s plan and purpose for our lives.  

Starting in verse 18 of chapter one Paul begins vividly portraying the sinfulness of all people…he elaborates on the hopelessness of human nature and the eternal destiny that awaits every person who has ever lived.

He states the condition that every person who has ever lived at one time has been in…or is still in…Paul states those conditions.

 —Romans 1:18-23—  

It’s important for us to ‘un-pack’ these verses so we have a clear understanding of what is being written…for example…what do you think of when you hear the phrase, “the wrath of God”?

Most people think of the wrath of God as something that is yet to come… something that follows death…referring to the judgment of God on unbelievers …and it is true that what follows after death for unbelievers can be summed up in the expression…the wrath of God…BUT…that’s not what it means here.

Most people think of the wrath of God as thunder…lightning…fire…and smoke like what was on Mt. Sinai when God spoke to the people…or…the sudden destruction that comes upon sinners…like Sodom and Gomorrah.

There are some within Christianity that seem to emphasize the wrath of God more dramatically…while others are unable to fit a wrathful God into their idea of a loving God…so between those two extremes are those who are not quite sure what to make of a God of wrath.

There’s really no good way to soften “the wrath of God” to mean anything other than an angry response on God’s part to human disobedience.

But…the wrath of God is not something in the future…it’s here now…the phrase revealed in the Greek is in the present tense meaning…because God’s assessment of the human race is— that all are useless…and  there are none that are good and no one is righteous – not even one.

This is confirmed by the wording that which is known about God is evident ‘within them’ for God made it evident ‘to them’.

Said earlier…this is probably the most defining verse in the entire Bible that states the reason an unbeliever excludes himself from heaven…Paul offers up three reasons:

1) FIRST…God can be known through His creation

God has two witnesses that say He exists…creation and our conscience…the inner witness of every person is their conscience. God is evident within them …and the outward witness is God made it evident to them in creation.

That’s why people are without excuse…atheists can reject God…blaspheme God…curse God…deny that God exists…but they can’t do any of those things without God.

It’s like people who hate America…they burn…loot…find fault with…but the freedom they have to express themselves in that manner is because of the freedom given them by the very country they say they hate.

They’re protesting against the very document—the Constitution—that gives them the freedom to act the way they do.

It’s the same with unbelievers…they’re condemning the Church…Christianity… and the very person who gives them the life and breath to reject Him.

God’s common grace of life and breath is the evidence within people that He exists…and it is creation itself that testifies to His existence.

Both witnesses are summed in two verses:

–[Acts 17:24-25]–

2) SECOND…God can be known through our conscience.

TWO THINGS:

…FIRST…Paul reveals a theological truth…the wording “within them” is referring to the grace that God gives to every person who has ever lived that stirs up within us a desire to know Him and empowers us to respond to God’s invitation to be in relationship with Him.

When we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior the Holy Spirit comes and permanently dwells in us…you are God’s temple because God’s Spirit dwells in you.

The function of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is to…teach us all things…testify of Jesus…convict us of sin…be the intercessor between God and us in prayer… be the guiding power in the life of a believer.

SECOND…people have been endowed with an innate knowledge of what is good and evil.

Because man was made in the image and likeness of God they have a God-given conscience by which they instinctively know what is right and what is wrong… what is good and what is evil…what is moral and what is immoral.

As such the Bible says they actually become a law unto themselves, because moral laws are effectively written within a person’s conscience – they are written in their heart.

As a result, some do what is good because they heed the call of their inner conscience while others do what is wrong by ignoring this inner moral witness …and because of this inner conflict…it is people’s conscience that either accuses them or excuses them.

3) THIRD…God is at work in the world restraining evil …as strange as this may sound this is actually a valid argument for the existence of God… because left to ourselves we would all be purely wicked…that’s part of the job of the Holy Spirit.

We all get glimpses of this from time to time when we hear of the horrific acts that people are capable of committing against one another….such as mass killings… brutal tortures …and extreme forms of abuse.

The reason not everyone commits those horrific crimes is that God is at work to keep our depravity in check…what’s going to make hell such a horrible reality is that God will not be there to restrain evil…all of humanity’s worst tendencies will be indulged in with no hint of goodness mixed in.

Hear people say… ‘you Christians mess everything up’ …well…those left behind after the rapture occurs will see in full force just how messed up things will really be…because God’s common grace to restrain evil will be removed from the world and then anything goes.

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. II Thess. 2

Implying things are going to get worse…because there is a restrainer in the world…believe it or not…at times it doesn’t seem like it…but evil would be much worse if not held in check by God…[2 Thess. 2:6]  the Apostle Paul writes “and you know what is restraining (him).     

The man of sin is being restrained or withheld from appearing in the world until a particular time…that he may be revealed in his own time.

Two words in Greek for time…chronos, the normal word used for time…and kairos, which means the “time of opportunity”.

The word kairos, used here, means that he will be revealed in his own time of opportunity.

The restraining force that opposes wickedness is preventing the man of sin from coming into power…He will continue to restrain him…but…once the “restraint” that holds back this iniquity is removed…the man of sin will come forward with all power…the Antichrist will finally have the opportunity to rule unhindered.

Paul then states God’s reaction to man’s rejection…Therefore God gave them over…sounds pretty final…it is…eventually God’s patience will run out.

In His righteous wrath and judgment God gives us up to sin and to our evil heart’s desire…He allows us to experience the self-destructive results of sin.

The phrase God gave them over is so important that Paul repeats it three times in the next three paragraphs.

— God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. [24]

— God gave them over to degrading passions referring to sexual misconduct [26].

— God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper. [28]

We make a mistake when we think that because of God’s mercy or kindness that He allows people to continue in sin…being depraved means having a mind that is corrupt and worthless…it is those whom God has left to their own devices… in His wrath He allows them to go on destroying themselves with sin.

Paul reveals two times in this passage the fundamental, bottom-line, root problem with the human race…has to do with what we make of the glory of God.

In [verse 21] Paul says, “Even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God” …that is the fundamental problem with the human race…we do not acknowledge, value, treasure, or honor the glory of God.

Then in [verse 23], Paul puts it another way: “we exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image” …idols…the other problem concerns what humans are making of the glory of God.

This is the issue of our life…our culture…our country…with all the nations of the world…in this century and with every century.

The issue that Paul describes is the depths of man’s sinful condition…what do we make of the glory of God? …do we magnify it by treasuring it above all things…or do we belittle it by preferring other things and exchanging it for created things?

And because people chose not to acknowledge God their thinking became frivolous and impractical…the result was a foolish, dark, and hard heart that leads to devastating results.

Paul begins verse [29] by listing 21 effects of having a depraved mind.

The wording…these people are ‘being filled’ is a key statement….in the Greek this word is in the perfect tense…implying being filled to the maximum… that  something that has already occurred …these people have already become filled and remain totally under the control of that which dominates and controls their thoughts and actions.

When we ignore God’s truth we suffer the natural consequences of our decisions …Paul gives a list of sins of the unrighteous…even identifying the sins by name I guess so you can pair up the ones that are specific to you.

Left to their own devices this is the result…we are:

—Being filled with unrighteousness…wickedness…and greed.

—Being full of envy…murder…strife…deceit…and malice.

—Being gossipers…slanderers…haters of God…arrogant…boastful… inventors of evil…disobedient to parents…without understanding… untrustworthy…unloving…and unmerciful.

It’s easy for us to deny that at one time this was the condition we were in…it’s easy for us to be tempted to think… ‘this is just about unbelievers, not us’ but in 1^st Corinthians Paul confirms God’s assessment of us [1 Cor. 6:11].

And such were some of you; but you were washed…sanctified… justified in the name of the Lord…and in the Spirit of our God

Then he concludes by saying…not only do they do the same but have pleasure in those that do them.

The Jews have a saying that sums this up: “no man is suspected of a thing but he has done it; and if he has not done the whole of it, he has done part of it, and if he has not done part of it, he has thought in his heart to do it, and if he has not thought in his heart to do it, he has seen others do it, and has rejoiced.”

God has just stuck a dagger in every one of us…He has us pegged us right down to the souls of our feet…God is saying…all people are responsible for the revelation that God gives.

As a result, people cannot claim that they have insufficient information about God and are therefore excluded from their thoughts and actions.

God has revealed Himself to us from the beginning, it forces us to make a choice. We can either glorify Him as God or we can choose to walk away.

Last week we started our study into the book of Romans…I said it was important as we begin that study to establish three things:

…FIRST…the credibility of the people writing the Bible…if we are going to take anything Paul writes as authoritative, we must have confidence that it is truthful and reliable.

That the people who wrote the Bible were inspired by the Holy Spirit and not just giving us their opinion.

In the opening verse Paul discloses three important things about himself regarding his ministry:

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God [1:1]

that validates the confidence that what he has written is truthful and reliable.

(1) His position as a servant of Christ
(2) His authority as an apostle of Christ
(3) His power in being set apart for the Gospel of Christ.

…SECOND…that the Bible is truthful…there are countless arguments regarding the inerrancy of Scripture…that there are…variations…and changes from the original text…and let me be truthful…there are.

Just read that the New Revised Standard Version Bible released digitally this month and will be in print next May…consisting of 20,000 changes.

The editors claim that the changes will bring new meanings to Biblical texts… addressing some cultural needs.

It appears that the changes are minor in nature…probable most are gender neutral changes…meaning not referring to either sex but only to people in general…or to be more politically correct.

Example…Mark 14:69 the person is referred to as the servant-girl…the new version refers to her as the female servant…removing the demeaning idea of calling a woman a girl.

But the over tens of thousands of manuscripts that have been discovered world-wide…including the changes being made in today’s modern translations…none have revealed the slightest doctrinal change from the original texts.

A book that has been around for thousands of years is still creditable and without variations…as opposed to the Book of Mormons that has only been around for less that 200 years but has experienced over 3000 changes.

…THIRD…the dual nature of Christ…that He was both man and God…both divine and human.

Concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David…who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead [Romans 1:2-3]

Without establishing Jesus as God’s Son…Jesus wouldn’t be of any more importance than any other man who ever lived…that’s what separates Christianity from every other religion in the world.

After successfully identifying his authority as Jesus’ representative to proclaim the gospel…after establishing the credibility of the Bible as given by God’s prophets…and providing Jesus’ credentials that qualify Him as the Messiah through the resurrection from the dead, Paul now states how this is all possible:

Verse 5a – “through whom we have received grace”

Either by the Holy Spirit, from whom all grace and gifts come…or by Jesus who is full of grace and truth…but regardless…without the grace of God who provides us with the necessary gifts needed to qualify us for the service that we have been called to perform…we would be powerless.

In Paul’s case…God’s grace had come through Jesus…it’s important as Christians that we understand God’s grace…the test question answer to ‘what is grace’ is…God treating me as I don’t deserve to be treated but as adults and mature Christians there’s far more to understanding God’s grace.

Without grace we are incapable of doing any Christ-exalting good…that idea is fostered by the belief that what enables us to do anything good is because of God’s grace.

There’s a universal truth that says people cannot be good without God…even those who do not believe in God could not be good without God.

Well hold on there…I know lots of people who do good things and they’re not Christians…SO…I’m not saying that you need to be a Christian to be a good person…because we all know people who do good things and they’re not Christians.

I think where the confusion comes in is when people associate ‘being a better person’ with having Christian values.   

A 2011 survey put this myth to the test…Americans were evenly split 50/50 on whether it was necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values…now even more…56% say believing in God is not necessary to having good morals or values. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/12/26/you-good-person/967459001/

So much for the belief that people cannot be good without God…I think here’s the real difference…bad people sometimes do ‘good’ things, but they do so only to satisfy the desires of their own hearts…or to be recognized for their good deeds…it’s call self-centeredness…conceit …vanity…self-recognition.

Our desires fuel our actions…for the unbeliever it’s ‘what’s in it for me’ …for the Christian our actions are motivated by God to pull us towards Himself and His ways.

Here’s something else about grace…God’s grace is occurring in every person’s life…it is God’s grace that initiates the conversion process.

Man’s salvation is a by-product of God’s grace…when God saves us…He gives us grace…we can never come to God through our own faith…or anything we do.

It is the combination of both God’s grace and faith that results in our salvation… but it’s God’s grace that initiates that result.

Prevenient Grace   

 Wesley understood grace as God’s active presence in our lives. This presence is not dependent on human actions or human response…it is a gift — a gift that is always available…it is active in every person’s life…but that can be refused.

God’s grace stirs up within us a desire to know Him and empowers us to respond to God’s invitation to be in relationship with Him…God’s grace enables us to discern between good and evil and makes it possible for us to choose good.

Grace is unmerited, unearned favor, in which the believer himself does not…and  cannot contribute anything of worth…Paul defines how salvation works:

Eph 2:8-9 –“You are saved by grace…not as a result of works that no one should boast”

That is why…as Christians…no believer has cause for self-congratulations because he contributes nothing at all to his salvation. Grace is a gift from God.

Paul makes a startling statement that can easily pass right by us if we’re not careful…it needs to be examined if we’re to be serious about our faith…he refers to the obedience of faith [1:5].

It’s something I’ve said before that as Christians…living a lifestyle of disobedience is an enemy of your destiny…disobedience to God prevents God from being in control of His plan and purpose for your life…to disobey God is to be disconnected from that destiny.

Paul realized the importance of obedience in the Christian life…failure to be obedient to the gospel could damage his ministry…that he might be rejected and disapproved…that he would lose his creditability and become useless as a preacher.

Paul uses the expression ‘the obedience of faith’ twice…once here and again at the end of the book [16:26]. They form bookends for the entire book regarding our Christian experience…what it means in coming to faith in Christ…as well as our commitment and obedience to God’s Word.

The gospel strengthens us in faith both at the start and in the continuation of our Christian life so that we will live obedient lives…this is called “the obedience of faith” …the gospel is the means to obedience because obedience comes from faith.

This epistle was not written to a particular church but was written to all individual believers living in the province of Rome…and throughout the known Christian world at that time…that’s why Paul addresses his letter  

To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints [1:7]

Paul established two things in this statement:

All people are called.
All believers ‘in Christ’ are saints.

FIRST…Paul says we are ‘called’ …that word in the Greek (klétos) is the invitation God gives to all people, so all can receive His salvation…God desires every person to call out to Him and receive His salvation (1 Tim 2:4,5) …again refuting the idea that only a few are called or chosen for salvation.

SECOND…

All who believe in Jesus carry the title of ‘saint’ [Eph 2:19] …we often hear the term ‘sainthood’ as if that title was only for a select few…or for those who are thought to be especially righteous Christians…as a result they achieve Sainthood …every believing Christian is a saint.

In verses 16 and 17 Paul makes a statement that some regard as the most important in the entire letter…these two verses state the theme of the whole epistle.

In fact…it was verse 17 that transformed Martin Luther’s life…this single verse led to Protestant Reformation and the death of 5 million people.

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone (παντὶ) who believes: ¹⁷ For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is revealed from faith to faith: just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”   

What does Paul mean by the ‘righteousness of God’ …when Paul speaks of the “righteousness of God” he’s referring to our right-standing with God… the fact that we are now in a new and right relationship with him…to denote a life that is pleasing to God.

Up to that point the teaching in the church was “infused righteousness” …one of the biggest topics debated among Catholics and Protestants is the question of whether righteousness is ‘infused’ or ‘imputed.’ 

Without going into a theological discussion regarding ‘infused’ versus ‘imputed’ righteousness I’ll just say – with infused righteousness…it is the responsibility of people to cooperate with God…you have to do something.

While imputed righteousness emphasizes salvation as a gift from God not dependent on anything we can or will do.

We as Southern Baptists…protestants…prefer imputed righteousness…it is a gift we receive from God at conversion…we can do nothing to achieve it.  

After years of prayer, meditation, and struggle, Luther discovered the true meaning of these two verses…that humans reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds…he came to the conclusion that what the church had been teaching for centuries…can’t be right.

God’s revelation to Martin Luther changed the church forever…it is what we believe and how we interpret Scripture today…everything centers around faith.

We are justified by faith…sanctified by faith…saved by faith…we are called to live by faith…faith is the gift given by God to people in order that they may believe on Jesus for salvation.

AGAIN…it’s important to know that it is God’s grace that initially stirs up within us a desire to know God and empowers us to respond to God’s invitation to be in relationship with Him…then…when we respond to that invitation we are justified and saved through faith in Christ and not by works.

The strange wording in [17] ‘faith to faith’ means that we are to mature in the faith…moving from one degree of faith to another measure of faith…it’s called sanctification…as we keep on living by faith and maturing in our Christian walk.

Included in this verse is the well-known statement ‘the righteous shall live by faith’ a verse taken out of the Old Testament…Habakkuk 2:4.

This verse is quoted three times in the New Testament: Romans 1:17…Galatians 3:11…and Hebrews 10:38…how do I know if something from the Old Testament is applicable to me today?…if it’s repeated in the New Testament.

‘The righteous shall live by his faith,’ implies TWO THINGS:

FIRST…it’s more than the mere acceptance of Jesus for salvation…it implies a lifestyle that is characterized by faith and righteous living because living a lifestyle of disobedience is an enemy of your destiny…disobedience to God prevents God from being in control of His plan and purpose for your life…to disobey God is to be disconnected from that destiny.

SECOND…he was possibly echoing a timeless truth that’s goes all the way back to Abraham [Gen. 15:6] …the righteous man will not face God’s judgement; rather, in return for his faith in God, he has been given eternal life.

When we fail to understand how we are righteous in Christ, we miss out on the transforming power of the gospel…this goes back to imputed righteousness…in the Greek the words ‘of God’ are in the genitive case…it shows possession…it is righteousness that belongs to God.

It does not find its origin in man…God always deals with man on the basis of His righteousness…God puts (imputes) His righteousness in the believer when the believer trusts in Christ’s work…that is how we are able to approach the throne of grace in prayer…God doesn’t see us as the sinners we are…He sees the righteousness of His Son in us.

Do you see the immensity of those verses? …it was Martin Luther’s understanding of verse 17 that transformed his life and has had an incalculable effect on the lives of countless Christians who see this verse as an instruction to keep on living by faith.

And here’s the reward…I’m going to jump ahead a few chapters…one day when we are glorified…we will see Jesus as He is…that is the time when faith will be rewarded by sight…right now our faith is that one day we will see Jesus…that is the hope we have…the confident expectation that it will happen …on the day when we are glorified…we shall SEE Him as He is.

Until then the words of Paul ‘the righteous shall live by faith’ …should be a guiding light in our Christian walk…to do otherwise…to disobey God is to be disconnected from his destiny for you.

If I had just three books from the New Testament to take with me on a mission trip…the three would be John’s gospel…Romans…and Hebrews.

John’s gospel portrays Jesus as the Son of God…he wrote so that his readers might “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,” so that they may have life in His name (John 20:31).

What’s more important to bring to a lost people than sharing the concept of eternal life?

John used a variety of techniques to communicate this to his readers including the famous “I am” statements, in which Jesus spoke of Himself as the divine Son of God that sets Him apart from any other man who ever lived.

With regards to the book of Hebrews…perhaps nowhere in the New Testament does the Old Testament come into focus more than in the Book of Hebrews… it is a book deeply rooted in the Old Testament…emphasizing:

…the superiority of Jesus and the new covenant over Moses and the old covenant.

…establishing Jesus as the Person who created the world

…as the Person who is the exact representation of God

…as the only Person able to make purification for sin

…and as the only Person qualified to sit at the right hand of God.

People know God because God has chosen to communicate with them…God spoke through two eras…first—He spoke to our fathers the prophets—secondly —He spoke to us by His Son—that is how we separate the Old and New Testaments.

I have already preached an extensive study on John and Hebrews…this morning I’m going to begin a study in the book of Romans.

The Book of Romans is broken into two parts. It is a blueprint for Christians on —what to believe and—how to behave.

For this reason, it is often one of the very first books that new believers read when they start to study the Bible.

The importance of that is what I talk about extensively…you cannot just believe John 3:16 and be confident that you are saved …it also includes how to behave because living a lifestyle of disobedience is an enemy of your destiny.

Disobedience to God prevents God from being in control of His plan and purpose for your life…to disobey God is to be disconnected from that destiny.

The Book of Romans has been called one of the greatest dissertations of fundamental Christian doctrine ever written…that idea is revealed in the opening verses of Romans 1.

Beginning in the first seven verses…which is one long difficult sentence in the Greek…Paul states the gospel was promised beforehand through God’s prophets …to eliminate any suggestion that Paul just make things up.

It wasn’t Paul’s idea…rather…it comes to us right out of the Old Testament which is referred to as the ‘Holy Scriptures.’

Concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David…who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead [Romans 1:3-4]

He begins by showing the dual nature of Christ…He was both man and God… both divine and human.

His genealogy as a son of Abraham is established in Matthew’s gospel where Matthew lists Jesus’ ancestry beginning with Abraham going forward to Jesus to establish that He was from Jewish descendants.

Luke in his gospel lists Jesus’ ancestry beginning with Mary’s blood relatives and going backward all the way to Adam…to establish that Jesus is the Son of God.

Without establishing Jesus as God’s Son…Jesus wouldn’t be of any more importance than any other man who ever lived…that’s what separates Christianity from every other religion in the world.

Every founder of every religion in the world is buried somewhere…you can go see their graves…BUT…Jesus the founder of the Christian faith is God’s Son… there is no grave…all the O. T. prophets’ writings centered on that fact.

That’s why I have always had problems with the idea of atheism…4% of American adults say they are atheists…up from 2% in 2009…with the number being much higher in European countries than in the U.S.

The literal definition of “atheist” is “a person who doesn’t believe in the existence of a god or any gods…the vast majority of U.S. atheists fit this description…81% say they do not believe in God or a higher power or in a  spiritual force of any kind. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/06/10-facts-about-atheists/

Here’s something that is noteworthy…in the U.S., atheists are mostly men (68%) ….who are relatively young…more likely to be white (78%) …and highly educated.

I don’t understand that…Why Don’t People Believe in God or don’t go to church…apparently there are lots of reasons…I refer to them as excuses:

1. Growing up in a Faithless Family

32% of atheists said they grew up in a home with parents who didn’t believe in God…again…do I need to emphasis the importance of AWANA…of having your children…your grandchildren in church?

2. Stopped Believing in Religious Teachings

Now here’s the other side of that coin…32% are atheists because they never went to church…over 60% of atheists were raised in church-going homes but, at some point, lost their faith. Why? I suspect they were never told why we believe, but only told to believe. They weren’t led to make their faith their own.

3. Experiences at College

People who lose their faith often do so in college. Why? It could be from exposure to people who believe other things or a professor who mocks and attacked faith in God…leaving the person who grew up in the church confused and wondering if they were silly for ever believing.

4. Intellectual Challenges

When faced with unanswerable questions:

…is the Bible true

…doubt the authenticity of the Bible

…did the resurrection of Jesus really happen

…can it be proven

…if Godisloving,why is there so much evil in the world?

…if God created the world in six days, what about evolution and dinosaurs?

…why would a good God send people to hell?

…why doesn’t God just reveal Himself…then we could believe.

When a person can’t find answers, they can easily turn away from their faith.

5. Emotional challenges

Emotional challenges can be as big a deterrent to believing as intellectual reasons:

…God didn’t answer an important prayer or rescue them from the consequences of a bad decision.

…They may have been hurt by a church or turned off by hypocritical Christians.

6. Wanting Moral Independence

People wanting to keep doing what they were doing without God interfering…

not wanting to give God the moral authority over their lives.

7. Issues about sex

Surveys tell us that 19% of people who have walked away from the church said sexual abuse acts committed by clergy were a significant reason why they left.

29% (and 39% of those raised Catholic) said they left the church because of negative teachings and treatment of gay and lesbian people…because they want to be loving people, and believe Christians are too mean and judgmental.

8. Politics

People rejecting the church because of a belief that Christians are too into politics…people are staying away from the church because of politics, but they’re also leaving church because of politics…14% of American Christians left their churches as a result of the 2016 elections.

Study: 14% of American Christians Left Their Churches After the Election

I am sure there are many more…I’m not going to waste our time going on listing them…I would suggest that in every one of those cases …reasons…excuses … people use to stay out of church…a large majority of those people have never even read the Bible.

I’m not talking about reading an occasional verse or two…I’m not even talking about studying the Bible…I’m talking about just sitting down and reading the Bible…because as we go through the book of Romans every one of those reasons…or excuses will be addressed…no wonder Paul says they are without excuse.

That is why the first couple things Paul does is ONE…to establish his position as an apostle and SECOND…to validate the authenticity of Scripture:

Verse 1 – “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.”

Paul discloses three important things about himself in regard to his ministry:

(1) His position as a servant of Christ

(2) His authority as an apostle of Christ

(3) His power in being set apart for the Gospel of Christ.

Why does Paul disclose these qualifications about himself?

Paul is pointing out the fact that his position as an apostle was something, he did not volunteer for…he was not elected to…nor was it of his own doing…he was divinely called by Christ Himself.

This goes along with my Christmas Eve sermon…here’s the Readers’ Digest version…throughout the Bible you’ll find people whose lives were altered… were changed forever…and God did it without even asking them.   

Jesus never asked the 12 apostles if they wanted to be His disciples…He told them they were going to be.

God has a plan and purpose for every person… God’s plan for our lives isn’t always an easy one…it’s something He planned before you were ever born… and He never consulted with you on what He wanted you to do.

What makes the apostles special is they were personally chosen by Christ and commissioned to proclaim authoritatively God’s Word through direct revelation.

Paul uses the word “bondservant” to describe himself…in 1^st century Rome there were different kinds of slaves:

…might include prisoners of war

…might include selling your children into slavery

…selling yourself into slavery

…owners could free their slaves…or you could buy yourself out of slavery

Paul defined himself as a bondservant…in 1^st century Rome a bondservant was one who completely belonged to his owner and had no freedom to leave…Paul is saying that is my relationship with Jesus.

Paul is saying as a bondservant I don’t get to do what I want to do…I don’t get to say what I want to say…it’s like what God told Ezekiel when He sent him to preach repentance to Israel…God told Him …‘go to the house of Israel and speak My words to them’ [Ez. 3:4]   

This is why Paul’s writings can be considered inspired…representing the thoughts of God without error.

SECOND…Paul sets out to validate the authenticity of Scripture by stating God’s promise to prophets.

Verse 2 – He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures

Again…goes back to what I previously said about the Bible…just taking a cursory look at the Bible…the Christian Bible was written over a period of about 1,500 years by more than forty different human authors…God doesn’t just confine His revelation to one man but reveals Himself throughout the ages to a multitude of different people.

The Old Testament records hundreds of prophecies about the promised Messiah. There is nothing vague or general about these prophecies, they are exact…unlike Nostradamus whose predictions are extremely vague…that’s why all his predictions don’t refer to exact dates or to specific people because they’re based on astrological movements.

Paul begins his letter with a brief, yet accurate account of who Jesus was by making reference to God’s prophets and the Holy Scriptures regarding the promised coming of the Messiah.

If you were to study the prophecies from the Old Testament it’s easy to see the preciseness of these prophecies regarding the specific details concerning Jesus’ birth…His family…His life…His death…and His resurrection.

A cursory review of these prophecies will confirm the impossibility of all the numerous authors who wrote the Bible during the hundreds of years before Christ’s birth to predict with exact accuracy the entire specific details of His life.

Psalms 16:10 – You will not allow Your Faithful One to see decay.

Exodus 12:46 – you may not break any of its bones.

Zechariah 9:9 – your King is coming to you…riding on a donkey

Isaiah 53  v.5 – He was pierced because of our transgressions…v.12 – He bore the sin of many.”

Micah 5:2 –Bethlehem…you are small…one will come from you to be ruler over Israel for Me …His origin …is from eternity.”

The guys that wrote these prophecies didn’t know each other…they didn’t sit down and compare notes…or make sure everyone was in agreement…unlike what Joseph Smit did when he and some friends wrote the book of Mormon.

Even unbelievers have to admit to some supernatural force that could define a single person’s life with that exactness…for Christians that supernatural force is God and the book that records all those events is God’s inspired Word the Bible.

With respect to the New Testament…there are nearly 5,700 manuscripts of the New Testament dating from the second century to the fifteenth century.

There are over 24,000 bits and pieces of the New Testament in existence today …in all those manuscripts and portions of texts there is not variation in any of the manuscripts that has the slightest doctrinal change from the original writings.

That’s important to establish…because too often theline of thought regarding the corruption of the Bible is that there are changes that have been made…with some cults even believing the Bible has been tampered with.

It’s of paramount importance to establish the preciseness of the Bible…that it is without error when pertaining to everything doctrinal…if we are to trust the Bible as God’s Word, we must have an acceptance regarding the creditability of the Bible.

As Christians we believe the Bible provides something that is not available in any other book in the world.

…it is only in the Bible that I can learn firsthand who God is and what He values.

…it is only in the Bible that I see a God reaching down to sinners out of love and compassion.

…only the Bible reveals a God who is truly concerned about me as an individual.

…it is only in the Bible that God truly reveals Himself.

So, before we begin our study of Romans it’s important that we establish two things:

…FIRST…the credibility of the people writing the Bible…if we are going to take anything Paul writes as authoritative we must have confidence that it is truthful and reliable.

…SECOND that the people who wrote the Bible were inspired by the Holy Spirit and not giving us their own opinions.

It is my hope that as we continue on over the next months in Romans that you realize what I regularly preach about…that salvation is not the endpoint of our lives of faith…John 3:16 is the starting point.

We are being continually refined and made righteous by the Holy Spirit as we follow Jesus…our redemption is made possible by the grace of God… that should spur us on to a life spent in pursuit of Jesus.

We’re here this morning to light the fourth Advent candle…the candle of love.

It seems all cultures, in all places, at all times have tried to define love…there’s poetry written about love…music been sung about love…movies made about love…there’s different ways of talking about and thinking about love.

There are countless attempts in every culture to define love…think about our culture…if you watch…listen…and study what we believe love is you’ll have a slanted interpretation of what love really is.

When studying the Bible, the Apostle Paul makes a point that love is not always what we think it is…our culture operates on a knowledge of what we think love is that is in contrast to God’s love.

God’s love was defined in the person of His Son Jesus…His arrival marked the joyous celebration of a long-held promise…it’s the ‘already but not yet’ part of the fulfillment of God’s love for those who love Him.

When the Old Testament saints waited expectantly for the coming of the Messiah that occurred when God came to earth in the form of a human on that first Christmas day…that is the already part.

The ‘not yet’ part is the time we’re living in now…we stand between the first and second advent…an equally important time when we are waiting expectantly on the second coming of the Lord…that’s the not yet part.

Over the past three weeks we have lit the Advent candles of hope…peace…and joy…but more significantly we have looked at the themes these candles represent not as the world sees hope…peace…and joy…but as part of God’s attributes.  

This morning as we light the fourth candle it represents God’s love for humanity …as with the other three advent candle themes, love is easily misunderstood…we often think of love in purely sentimental terms.

Here’s the problem when talking about God’s love…it’s like worldly hope… peace…and joy…that has been blatantly misunderstood by people…because of our culture we have an understanding of hope…peace…and joy as something that is determined by what we do or how we feel.

With respect to ‘hope’ it’s generally thought of as a way of expressing wishful thinking…having a desire for a certain thing to happen but having no control over whether or not it will actually happen.

That’s not Biblical hope…Biblical hope is the confident expectation that something will happen.

With respect to peace…it’s not just the absence of conflict…Biblical peace is taking action to restore a broken situation…God coming to earth in the form of a human was to restore the broken fellowship between Himself and man.  

Regarding happiness it tends to be externally based on things that are superficial …whereas Biblical joy is an inner sense of well-being despite the circumstances you’re experiencing.

As with the other three…we also have the misdirected idea about God’s love in two ways:  

FIRST…Far too often preachers make God’s love too generous…John addressed this very issue in 1 John when writing to those who were making that mistake… believing “God is love” but not believing what the Bible teaches about the rest of God’s character.

When Christians speak of the love of God, we should not minimize the other characteristics of God…His holiness…mercy…justice and other divine attributes.

The belief that ‘God just loves everybody’ is a deception that is mistakenly believed as Scriptural with no thoughts to the idea that the way to heaven is narrow (Matt.  7:13-14) …so what’s that mean?

God offers salvation to everyone who asks…but it’s on His terms…and is restricted to only those who have a belief in Jesus. (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). 

SECOND…there’s a difference between worldly love and Godly love… worldly love is based on feeling…how we feel about someone…Godly love is all about moral character—how we act and treat other human beings.

This is seen in how Jesus treated people…how He responded to people was not a reflection about how He felt about people because:

…even though Jesus loved people He wasn’t always nice to people.

…even though Jesus loved people He pushed people to reconsider what they believed about love (Mark 10:17-27).

…Sometimes He got people to admit their mistakes so they could see how much they needed God (John 4:1-42)

…Sometimes He was rude to people to reveal their hypocrisy (Matt. 13:13-29).

So how does the Bible define love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8):

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.⁸Love never fails.

Something that is comical about this verse is that people who have never darkened the door of a church for anything other than a wedding or a funeral are familiar with this verse.

Because of its immense popularity this verse is read at weddings without either the preacher or the people getting married obviously realizing that this verse has nothing to do with human love or affection for one another…it is taken out of context.

It has nothing to do with marriage…the idea presented in chapter 13 is a carryover from chapter 12 where Paul is describing the use of spiritual gifts.

He concludes his discussion in chapter 13 by saying without love…referring to Godly love which is how we act and treat others—without that…nothing else matters.

He is describing how useless, even destructive, spiritual gifts are when not applied from the standpoint of love…in fact…Paul goes on to express just how important Godly love is in our everyday Christian walk.   

If I have faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing…if I give all my possessions to feed the poor but do not have love, it profits me nothing [1 Cor. 13:2].

So the idea that this verse is somehow related to a romantic setting is misplaced.

Peter…agreeing with Paul….includes a list of qualities that Christians should possess…traits that we should add to our character…that define us as Christians:

⁵ make every effort to add to your faith goodness…and to  goodness, knowledge…⁶ and to knowledge self-control… and to self-control perseverance…and to perseverance godliness…⁷ and to godliness mutual affection…and to mutual affection, love. [2 Peter 1:5-7]

In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul lists both the positive and negative characteristics of love:

Negative Characteristics of Love

Love is not jealous (v. 4).
Love does not brag (v. 4).
Love is not arrogant (v. 4).
Love does not act unbecomingly (v. 5).
Love is not provoked (v. 5).
Love does not take into account a wrong suffered (v. 5).
Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness (v. 6).

Positive Characteristics of Love

Love is patient (v. 4).
Love is kind (v. 4).
Love rejoices with the truth (v. 6).
Love bears [covers] all things (v. 7).
Love believes all things (v. 7).
Love hopes all things (v. 9).
Love endures all things (v. 7).

Notice…everything that both Peter and Paul list has nothing to do with feeling… because love isn’t a feeling…it’s an action…it’s revealing the characteristics people need to shed from their lives but at the same time revealing what they may be lacking …what they’re not exhibiting…what needs to be added.

Just looking at that list…wonder how many of those we can identify as being in our lives this morning…either good or bad?

If you have those negative characteristics…get rid of them…if you don’t have the positive characteristics…acquire them…that’s why this verse has very little to do with people getting married.  

What is particularly interesting about this verse is it’s not necessarily a description of what God’s love is and is not…it’s more than that.

This whole discourse is focusing on the idea that without Godly love nothing else in your life is relevant…everything in your personal life and in the life of the Church revolves around love…not feeling of love…but in actions…love is about how you behave and treat others.

In Corinthians Paul is addressing the selfish Christians in Corinth…the single greatest problem in the Corinthian church was their lack of Christian love…it was the lack of Christ-like love that was at the center of every one of their problems.

There are those who encourage you to ‘follow you heart’ but the key to finding God is not following your heart…but to follow Him and obey his teachings.

It’s like the people who believe that all you need to know for salvation is to claim John 3:16…everybody…that’s just the start…because love is action…not feelings …therefore Jesus said if you love me keep my commandments…that’s action.

Here’s salvation 101…the difference between those abiding in Christ and those not abiding in Christ is the difference between those who are saved and those who are the unsaved…has nothing to do with how you feel.

For those who have not been born of God…God’s love is illusive because they do not know God, therefore they cannot know the love of God.

Abiding in Christ is not just a superficial acquaintance…it’s the result of the Holy Spirit at work in the life of a Christian…The Holy Spirit provides assurance that the people of God belong to Jesus because love is the primary fruit of the Spirit.

The Bible affirms that God sending Jesus into the world was the act of perfect love (1 John 4:8-12)…then to illustrate the importance of love Jesus reduced the entire Torah down from 613 commands to just two: (Matthew 22:36-40). 

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  …And a second is like it  ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  

Love is the greatest of all the virtues on the Advent wreath and encompasses Jesus’ entire purpose for being on earth (1 Corinthians 13:13).

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).