Romans - Part 8

A Story of Comparisons - Romans 5:12-21

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Paul here is gonna tell us this story of comparisons. And I don't know about you, but there are a lot of comparisons in life. Or maybe, maybe put it this way, that there are a lot of different camps that we like to find ourselves in, different spheres. Maybe it's this place where you're, okay, so I'm gonna do this and I normally don't. As Pastor Tips have been told to me in public speaking, you don't ask people to raise their hands, Okay, I'm gonna ask people to raise some hands this morning. Okay, and when I'm talking about this I'm talking about coke versus Pepsi All right So we're gonna we're gonna have some relationships here put on put on watch But our cake team coke, let me see it. Let me see it. Oh, yeah All right. All right. How about team Pepsi? Oh Okay, okay. I see some relationships. They're looking at each other going, "I thought I knew who you were." All right? That would be the only one I'll make you raise your hands. But we have comparisons. We have Chevy versus Ford. We have Mac versus PC, my fight with all my tech people here. We have Apple, Android, or Google when it comes to our phones. We have, I love going to the beach. We were at Santa Cruz a couple of weeks ago. I love the beach. It fills my soul. But maybe you're a but maybe you're a beach person or you're a mountain person. My wife and I booked an anniversary trip to Lake Tahoe. I'm a both and when it comes to beach or the mountains. How about living in the city versus living in the country? We have David versus Goliath. We're gonna get spiritual here. Get really spiritual, we have Backstreet Boys versus NSYNC. All right? We got Day versus Night. How many night owls do we have? Yes, early risers? Okay. He should be preaching every single Sunday. We have a hot versus cold. Some people love summer. Some people love winter. It's a perfect balance right now. I love it. It's perfect. Absolutely perfect. We have sweet versus sour. And the most important game number four today, kings versus some other team that lives closer to the water. Okay. Yeah. We don't even We don't even want to mention their name in church. All right? But it's kings versus the world. All right? That's what it is right now.

But in all seriousness, Paul here is talking about these contrasting worlds. And we have to answer the question of where do we find ourselves. And Paul here in chapter 5 now, the second half of chapter 5, is bringing this conversation about sin and sickness to this kind of this point, okay? So he's bringing to this point where he has been talking about for the last two chapters, he's been talking about justification, he's been talking about righteousness, he's been talking about faithfulness, he's talking about law versus grace, he's been talking about humanity versus God's perfection. And we've been coming to this point. And so Paul here says, "Therefore," Pastor Andre talked about that last week. And you see "therefore" in the Bible, pause and say, "Hey, what's that there for?" All right? Very theological, deep nuggets I'm giving you this morning. But Paul here basically is saying everything that I've said up to this point applies in this letter. You gotta remember that this is a letter that was written that would have been read in its entirety. We've taken a couple months now and we're through chapter 5. But the listener of the church in Rome would have heard this letter read in its entirety. So they, just a few minutes ago, heard about what Paul had been talking about on this topic. And so he says, "Therefore," so we peek up and we listen.

Start, okay, starting in verse 12. "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all sin." Really light topic this morning for church. Thanks for joining me here. Verse 13, "To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone's account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from this time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is the pattern of one to come." So Paul here in this beginning paragraph is basically saying that he's reminding us of everything he's written. He's reminding us of what he's already stated in this letter and that is that all have sinned. There's nobody perfect in the room. That includes me. Nobody here in this space is perfect. That's just the reality of where we're at. What we are trying to do is we're trying to figure out this calling that God has on our heart and for our life and how do we get in line with his perfect, perfect plan? So Paul here is reminding us that no one is perfect. Everybody has sinned. And he's pointing us to when this specific moment where it all started, and it started with Adam. If you were to flip in your Bibles all the way to basically page one, Genesis 1, God begins and creates the world and creates everything in the world and the animals and all the and all the stuff and all the fish and all the trees and the ocean and the sun and the moon and stars and the universe, all this stuff. And then he creates man, he creates Adam. This all dates back to that dude who messed up for all of humanity. And Paul here is reminding us that Adam, if we were to read the account in Genesis, talks about that Adam technically becomes this representative for all of humanity. So when Adam fell, unfortunately, everybody fell and everybody became struck with this sickness or disease called sin that entered into our lives. And we were stuck with this sickness.

You might say, "Hey, hey, Pastor Chris, that's not fair. That's not fair that some dude all the way back then messed up. I don't even know who this bro is." Like, don't even don't even try to associate him with his no belly button self that I don't even want to deal with this dude. Some of you are getting it. It's slowly creeping through the room. But don't associate me with that person. But what Paul here is articulating that Adam who is all of humanity's representative who himself brought sin to the world brought it to all of us. And all of us are sinned and we're not perfect. I heard a pastor once say this, I thought it was brilliant. It wasn't me, so I can't take credit for it. Adam brought sin in the world, but we have kept it in the world. That's the reality of what we're facing. Paul talks about in Romans 3:10, as it is written, no one is righteous, not even one. Or Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Sin was first brought with Adam, but it has continued with all of us. You see, the results of that sin and the sickness, as hard as it is to talk about, is death. Paul here is saying in Romans 5:12, "Death came to all people because all sinned." The reality is of the sin sickness that we have, we know that we have that. Why? Because we see the results of that and the results of that is death. The results of that is we see conflict in society. The results of that we see is war. The results of that we see is hurt and pain and suffering. The results of that is we see people try to lord over other people. The results of that, of sin in this world, is the way that we can't interact with one another without yelling at each other. That's where we find ourselves. And Paul here is saying that it all started with Adam. That everyone since Adam, minus a few miraculous moments that we can read through the Bible, that all humanity has experienced is death and because of that, we are all affected by this sin. And that even Jesus suffered death as a result of sin. Not his, but ours. But he was still affected by it. Paul points out that this death has reigned from Adam to Moses.

Why is that important? Why is he talking about that there? Well, it's important because there was this time in the world between Adam and Moses that sin existed in the world because of Adam's choices and conflict and pain and suffering in this world. But there was no law yet. the one who Mount Sinai came down, the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt not." You probably heard that before in the church. We have a lot of "thou shalt not"s in the church. But the law came through Moses. So there's this time before then where scholars would try to make an argument to go, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Paul. There was no law then, so therefore there's no sin, death, punishment," because they didn't even know what they were doing. And Paul here goes on to say, "Hold on, time out. He's like, "They might have not had the definition of what they were doing, but they still had instilled in them the way that God created humanity with an understanding of right versus wrong." Let me explain this a little bit. You find yourself driving through a neighborhood. You're going 80, 85. You're flying past people's houses. Kids are outside playing basketball. You're just flying through the neighborhood. There's something deep down inside of you that says, "I "I should not be driving this fast," right? Whether there's a posted speed limit or not, there's an understanding of, "Hmm, maybe this isn't right." That's what Paul here is saying. That even before the speed limit was posted, there's kind of a basic understanding of how to live our lives, and yet people still live the lives in the way that they wanted to based upon their plans and their selfishness, all about me. And Paul here is saying, so you can't even talk about this situation because when God gives us the law, we're able to further understand the specifics of our sin. Paul mentioned that some did not sin in some way like Adam did. Adam's sin was a specific moment, a specific choice against a specific command, If you know the story of the Old Testament, Adam was told specifically not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was basically the one rule that God gave Adam in the garden, said, "Do not do this. "Do anything else, but do not do this." And yet, Adam chose wrong. And there are so many that have lived after Adam, but before Moses, when the law was given, They sinned but didn't break a specific law, but there was still an understanding that they knew what was going on. Because the reality was too, that they were too sick with this sin and rejected God's rule in their life to reign over them. He says in Romans 5:13-14, "Sin is not charged against anyone's account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses." So that means, as a whole here, that death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, that sin was present, even when the specifics of the sin were not yet fully understood or detailed by the law. I got a little lawyer legal jargon speak there, and I started to lose some of you in the room. I'm coming back around, okay?

So here, Paul is ultimately saying, summarizing his, all of his argument, it is in this that we are made aware of our sin and the sickness that has been present in our lives even before we understood what we had broken. Right? Mom says, "Do not take a cookie from the cookie jar." We sneak in, what do we do? Take the cookie. We knew what we were doing. We knew deep down inside whether that was a big warning sign for us or a tiny little, "Hey, maybe." There's something deep down inside that we understand that when we make a choice, we know what we're doing. So Paul here is saying, "This is what I'm talking about." And then he gets real deep, okay? You ready for this? He gets real deep, and we're gonna jump into 15 to 21 here. But he begins to have more of these contrasts. He's gonna highlight two specific contrasts here. It's not gonna be kings versus warriors, say. That's for 1230 today, tip off. Beam team, let's go. But he's talking about these two different contrasts, the first of which being this idea of this trespass and this gift. So verse 15, "But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of one man, how much more did God grace and the gift that came by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, overflowed to the many. Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man's sin. The judgment followed one sin and brought commendation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification." Big word, "just if I had never sinned." That's what that word justification means. For if by the trespass of the one man death reigned through the one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in the life through one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteousness act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man, the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace increased all the more. Remember that. So that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Whoo. Okay.

That was a heavy section. You guys hang in there. That was great. Paul here is talking about these two contrasts. He's talking about this contrast of the trespass versus the gift. See, the trespass is breaking God's law. That's what that word trespass means there. That means sin. That means this selfish act act is allowing the sickness to rule our lives. That's this trespass. But then also this gift. What's this gift? Well, this gift is what Paul is talking about is the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Remember just a few short weeks ago, celebrated Easter. He is risen. He is risen indeed. Like Jesus conquered death. That is the gift, the forgiveness of our sins. And so let's talk about this trespass a little more. This idea of this trespass was brought on by Adam. Adam messed up right there in the garden, right at the beginning. God had this perfect plan and Adam just throws it off the rails. Adam messes up. And in that moment when Adam trespasses, breaking God's law, the one rule, death comes as a result of that trespass. And that him and Eve then are kicked out of the garden because of that. And humanity starts on this downward slope and slide for a really long time. All the way into the moment that Jesus shows up here on earth. So for thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years, humanity is just going down in the garbage, essentially, what's happening. And there's nothing they can do about it. God gives them the law, God gives them instructions, God gives them rituals and moments to pause life, to try to celebrate who God is. He gives them that Jesus, or God in their present, in the moment, in like, in the tabernacle. Like, God tries to do everything that he can to say, "Wake up, I love you, I have a better life for you, "this is how you live it." And yet time and time again, failure after failure after failure, trespass. And that all of humanity is affected because we all come from Adam because of that initial trespass. Let's talk about the second one. Let's talk about this gift. What does this gift mean? This gift is Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. I talked about that moment earlier. Talking about how Jesus went to the cross with our sin, but yet He was perfect. He becomes this moment that is completely different than this trespass. This downward slope of humanity all to this point is finally chopped off and stopped in this moment that Jesus goes to the cross, not for Himself, but for us. To this point where He on the cross takes all of the junk and the garbage and the sickness and the sin and all the stuff in life that just pulls us down. He takes that on and says, "I am going to take care of this." And He gives Himself for us. See, as mankind brought the trespass, the gift is brought from God through Jesus Christ. And Paul here is talking about these two polar opposite camps. Whereas the trespass brings death, the gift brings life. Whereas in the trespass, God gave Adam life initially, but then Adam broke it and brought death. And in the gift where the son of God has to give his life in death, actually through that comes life. And so we find this place in this moment where this one sin of one dude, Adam, breaks the plan for everybody and it leads to sickness of generation after generation of trespass, after trespass, after trespass, comes to this point where the righteousness of one man, Jesus, breaks this cycle and the single act of a sacrifice covers every single one of these trespasses in a moment. Paul here is saying that the world is flipped upside down in this moment, that never before this single place, since the beginning of time before Adam's bad choice, the world has never had the opportunity to live in this new life, like God first set up in the garden. And God here is telling us that death reign through the trespass, but life here reigns through the gift. That's what's going on. See, the trespass is terribly widespread and terribly dangerous. And it's taken humanity and put them in the pit forever.

However, Paul here is reminding the church in Rome that however this gift is wonderfully being made available to all who decide to receive it. And sometimes we have to understand where we came from and where we were in order to truly understand and receive the gift. We don't fully comprehend where we are or what has happened in our life unless we truly begin to understand and define the trespass of where we are. And Paul here is saying, no matter how far gone, no matter how far lost, no matter how far deep or buried or stuck, Cheryl's talking about carrying burdens, no matter how heavy that burden is on your back, Paul here is reminding us that Jesus reigns and that in Jesus reign, there's life. Paul says in 520, "Where sin increased, grace increased all the more." I love this translation here. It says, "Where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more." So wherever you find yourself walking into this space in this moment, in this time, maybe in life, maybe you're going through it right now. God's grace can multiply even more. And we have to look at where we've been to understand how God is moving us to something new. That sin, yes, is powerful, but grace is more powerful. And no matter how ever deep in sin that Israel, God's people, the Jewish nation, had sunk, that God's grace was deeper yet. That's true for us. He is always there waiting for you with open arms. If you want to hear something this morning, I want you to rewind this. He is ready and wants to overwhelm you with His love and kindness. To show up in your life and blow your mind with His love. They're always welcoming you home. The gift is way better than the trespass every single time. The second contrast that Paul talks about here is this idea of the disobedient one and the obedient one. And Paul contrasts this idea of, even back to verse 14 that he sets up before this section, he says this, that Adam, who is the pattern of the one to come. What does that mean? Well, Adam here, in theological terms, is the representative of all of humanity. He was the first, he was the beginning, he was given that responsibility and that role in the garden and has that. So He represents all of us. Well, in this story, there's also somebody else who represents us, right? That's Jesus.

That Jesus on the cross is the one who represents us before God. So that when we get to that point, when we get to heaven and we have to account for what happened in our lives and the choices we made and the way that we treated people, good or bad or ugly or awesome, wherever that is, Jesus comes alongside of us and puts his arm around us and says, "Hey, God, he's with me. I already took care of his stuff." So just as Adam in the garden, representative of all humanity, failed, Christ in his sacrifice on the cross represents us and all of humanity that says, "You have had righteousness put on put on you. You have not failed. You have not sinned. You have not broken the rules. You have lived a perfect life. Jesus puts that covering over us. Romans 5:17 that says, "By the trespass of the one man Adam, death reigned through that one man. But God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. See, the act of the disobedient of Adam, of this one disobedient person, yes, is powerful because it affected all of humanity. However, the act of the one obedient man, Jesus Christ, is more powerful over all the earth. And that in this, in verse 19, it says, "For just as through the disobedient of one man, the many were made sinners. So also through the obedience of the one man, Jesus Christ, the many will be made righteous." The disobedient one brought the reign of death. But Jesus, the obedient one, brings the reign of life. That's what Paul here is saying. Taking all this information, all this stuff, putting it all together, and he basically says that the disobedient one brought this death, but the obedient one brings life.

And this gift of Jesus Christ is so much more powerful. I heard it said that there is dynamite power in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Maybe we should change our subtitle here where it says, "The Power of the Gospel." I just want to say it like, "The Dynamite TNT Power of the Gospel." That is how powerful this gift of life that Jesus brought for us. So the bottom line here, one takeaway this morning, is that yes, sin is powerful, but grace is more powerful. Sin is powerful, but grace is more powerful. Sin is and will always be a reality for us here on earth. But grace can be a greater reality for us for those who trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord. Jesus is lightning years better than Adam and this gift exponentially greater than the trespass. that grace and love is better than sin and sickness. So the question becomes for us today, what camp are we in? Where do we find ourselves today? The reign of sin and death, or the reign of grace through righteousness in Jesus Christ. There's no cost to join this camp. It's already been paid for you. It's already taken care of. Jesus took care of it 2,000 something years ago on that cross that very first Easter and said, "Your sin is defeated. "Life is yours." Or did we find ourselves over in this place, just caught up in what we want to do in our pity party, in our choices, in our control, in our rule, which is sin, which leads to death.

Who's leading my life, death or life? That's a question for us today. If I give you one takeaway or thought, A little application here for you to take away this morning. Then we're gonna move in time of communion together today. This question is, what do I need to change in my life this week to live more in the power of Jesus? Jesus's power isn't the problem. The problem is us limiting Jesus's power in our lives of having wrong priorities, of making wrong choices, of as Pastor Andre was here talking about being too busy in life, too busy to take a moment to talk to God every day or to step into His word. How can you allow the power of Christ, of this life, of this gift, to fill you up even more this week. Jesus is more powerful, life is more powerful, grace is more powerful, love is more powerful, peace is more powerful, forgiveness is more powerful, joy is more powerful, grace is more powerful, this gift of life is more powerful, Jesus is more powerful. That's what we gotta figure out this week. That's perfect. Jesus, we thank you for today. God, we thank you for your servant Paul and his reminder for us of this two polar opposite places that we might find ourselves in, either death or life. And so God, as we prepare to go into communion this morning, Jesus, I thank you for this I thank you for this, the salvation that you provided for us, the forgiveness of sins, there are justification, our initial sanctification into you, God, that you gave that very first Easter. Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week

Romans - Part 7

Edified Through Enduring - Romans 5:1-11

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Question, just totally random. Any marathon runners in here? Anyone run a marathon? in life. No, no, it's gonna be like current. You're gonna be like, that was a former self. No, no. Alright, cool. So I'm just part of the gang here then. I have never run a marathon. Never. Probably will never do that. But I get these targeted ads on my social media for like the at-home marathon. Have you guys heard of those? We're like at your own pace. Like it's like from couch to marathon. You can like run and it's like whatever distance you cover in one day, that's fine. But when you get to that marathon Distance you they will send you a medal to be like you did a marathon your own marathon, but you did one and I think it's kind of cool especially the targeted as I get it's like okay I know I've only been here since September, but you guys learned like I'm a kind of a nerd So I get targeted ads for Lord of the Rings marathons We're like you can journey to Mount Doom as you run so it's like oh the distance you covered you went from the Shire to This mountain and then from this mountain to the file. I know okay, I know and And is it bad that I'm really tempted by that? Like, I love that. And I'm like, I kind of want all the medals. But the whole, like that whole thing intrigues me because I love the idea of getting something that you have to earn that you just can't buy. So if you see, if I saw someone with that medal, I'd be like, I know exactly what they did. They ran that marathon and therefore they have this thing. And I just, I love that part of it 'cause there's a certain reverence that I can give. Like, man, that person worked hard for that thing. Or a pride of like, man, I did something that I did a marathon over a year. Like I just ran just a little bit every day. But I love the idea of gaining something that you have to endure, some kind of challenge or hardship. Similar to why I love the show Survivor. Any Survivor? I know one Survivor fan. I know Survivor was like 20 years ago and everyone's like, I have not watched that show in so long. But my wife and I only got introduced to it like five years ago. So we've binged everything and we love, we're still watching it today. There's a season ongoing. I'm not sponsored, but Jeff Probst, if you want to sponsor Spring Valley. So I love the idea of the premise, basically, is 29, or I don't know how many people, I forget how many people, they're dropped off in an island, they have to endure all the elements, right? They have only the clothes on their back, they get very little food, if any, and they just, whatever storms come, then you have to endure all that. And there's physical obstacle courses. And then on top of that, there's a social aspect where you might get voted off the island, Your peers might not like you, and then you're gone. So the sole survivor at the end of 29 days, I think 29 days, which is a long time, gets a million dollars. Pretty awesome, but you have to endure so much. You have to go through that challenge. And so when someone, if I were to ever meet like, hey, I was a winner of Survivor, I would know like you endured a lot. Like you went through a ton, and yes, you got a million dollars, but like also like that's a pretty cool thing that you were the last survivor of that season.

So, again, this idea of earning something that cannot be gained in any other way, I just think is really cool. And today, in our chapter in Romans, Paul is talking about something like that in the Christian faith. Something that has to be earned, that you have to endure. So just to recap, I know we were taking a break for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. We're diving back into Romans today. And so, so far, we've covered chapters 1 through 4, and Paul has been teaching Christianity 101. We've learned things about sin, God's attitude towards sin, atonement, justification, grace. And right now, just start clapping. Give yourselves a hand. You just graduated Christianity 101, 1 through 4. Yeah, good job, people. Good job. That's no small thing. Those are a lot of things that we covered. And today in chapter 5 we are beginning Christianity 201. So you're still in school, you're still learning, there's more to know. Paul's letter is divided into these sections and they're usually broken up by the word "therefore" and I know every pastor and theologian loves to say, and I will say it now, that whenever you see a "therefore" in Bible you gotta ask, "Why is the 'therefore'... What is the 'therefore' there for?" And so, just a good mental note when you're studying the Bible to maybe look back and say, "Alright, this is hinging upon everything that came before it, and what is happening now is based on that previous section." So we covered one through four, talking about sin, talking about how everyone is sinful, and how God, his attitude towards it, and he can't stand it, but he did something about it. He sent his Son, and we have salvation in Christ. And now Paul is going to build a little bit more on that foundational premise in Romans 5. So let me go ahead, if you could turn in your Bibles, I'm going to read Romans 5. We're going to cover verses 1 through 11. Follow along as I read aloud. Paul writes, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance character, and character hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person. Though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life? Not only is this so but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Let me pray really quick. God thank you for your word. Thank you for the role that it plays in our lives of teaching us, encouraging us, edifying us and I pray that today through your word God that we would experience just that. That we'd be drawn closer to you. That we would be encouraged. That we would realize the hope that we have that is found only in you. Be with us this morning. We pray this in your son's name. Amen.

So, I kind of want to break up this section in two sections, Romans 1 through 5 and then the second half. And so in this first section, Paul talks about the Christian life and what can be gained only by being a believer when enduring hardship. Remember the first two verses, Paul talks about a hope and a peace that we have in Christ. And it's a hope and peace that we can boasting, not a selfish boast of, "Hey, other people, look what I did," but it's a boast in what Jesus has done in our lives. When we share, when we witness, we're not boasting about us, we're boasting about the work that Jesus did in our lives to transform us. So Paul is talking about that, "Hey, we can boast in what Christ has done." And the hope and peace that we have is not just for the good times, right? As Christians, some people think that the Christian life is happy, happy all the time. like happy you have God that means you're happy and I think most of us in this room know that that's not true we are not happy all the time just because we have Jesus doesn't mean that things in our life aren't challenging aren't difficult aren't hard and so to make sure that people don't think that the Christian life is happy happy all the time Paul says next in verse 3 but we also glory in our suffering now what does Paul mean by glory in our suffering is he some kind of masochist who just loves like pain like all the pain, like bring it on, I love it. No, he's not. But like on that show Survivor or the person who runs the marathon, Paul knows that whoever endures suffering has the opportunity to grow in a way that is only experienced in suffering. Paul was speaking to the church in Rome who dealt with persecution. They lived in the city where the Colosseum was, where Christians were put in there pitted against other animals or warriors to the death. So he knows full well when writing about glorying and suffering what his audience is going to think of about suffering. J.D. Greer, a pastor, says, "How well we understand the gospel is demonstrated by the attitude you have in suffering. What you truly believe comes to the surface when put under pressure. It's in those moments that we see what's inside our hearts, or if someone else is suffering, what's inside their hearts. They can say all the right stuff, they can be doing a lot of the right things, and have excitement and happiness and an attitude that is positive in life, but when the going gets tough, what's inside of them? when their wife gets cancer, when the husband loses his job, when their child passes away, when someone close to them or in their life, maybe even a pastor or a mentor, has been accused of some kind of immorality, something that will rock their faith, what happens in that moment? When life gets flipped upside down, what do you believe then? What attitude do you have in the midst of suffering?

And Paul is saying, for Christians, you can still have joy. Again, joy is different than happiness. Happiness is this feeling that is based on expectations and circumstances. I wanted this to happen and it happened in that way. I'm happy. Smile on my face. Or this surpassed my expectations in this circumstance. I am now feeling the emotion of happiness. That's all good and fine. Joy is different than that. is founded in God and it's not just a smile, it means a peace and understanding that God is at work in whatever is going on around us. There's a joy and a peace and contentment that comes in knowing that God is at work in the midst of suffering. This is what Paul is talking about in being able to glory in our suffering. He continues into this process of being formed into godly men and women in this process of developing character. So he goes through these steps. He says, "Suffering, we endure suffering, which leads to perseverance. And perseverance leads to character, and character leads to hope." I love this process. This is so good. Maybe as you're looking at this screen, you're seeing, like, I have experienced that. I know, I recognize that process firsthand. So we've talked about suffering, and when enduring suffering, this builds perseverance. Having to go through something difficult over time, over a season of life or over a period of time, perseverance is talking about enduring something even when we aren't getting anything out of it in the world standards for ourselves. So right now, for instance, I have a bad back right now, a lot of pain, and I'm not getting anything by enduring this suffering. I'm just hoping to get better. There's nothing that I'm going to have in my hands at the end of having a good back. That's the kind of perseverance that we're talking about. Not like the marathon or survivor where you do get something out of it. But the Bible is full of stories of people having to persevere and probably none better than the story of Job. Job is one who had everything taken away from him. His riches, his family, his own health. And people think that the Christian life is all about being happy. And if you're not happy in life, then it means that you're probably doing something wrong. So a lot of Christians, and even the people around him at the time, would say to Job, "Hey, you just gotta pray more. You gotta get right with God. Something's off in your life, because look at your life right now. It's terrible. You just need to be a better believer." But Job was being faithful, and he had to persevere. The trials in our lives are tests in many ways. Can you keep going when nothing is working out? Can you believe that God is good even when you don't feel it?

There's a certain faith that a person can have when you follow God in just the day-to-day life. You follow God's word, you follow what he wants of you, and he blesses you. You just experience... This is the faith that most of us live in most of the time, and it makes sense, right? We do what God wants, and God is pleased and blesses us. Think of Job before everything bad happened. Job was a very blessed man. He had a great family, great wealth, and great health. He just had everything. It was great. He followed God, and God blessed him. There's also a faith that is found in desperation. In times of extremes, when we're at the end of ourselves, there's a faith that develops when we cry out to God, hoping and trusting that God will hear us. Think of Jesus in the garden that night before going to the cross. Or think of Job when losing his children, losing his wife, losing his own health, and the crying out to God, there's a faith that is being developed in that circumstance. Or think of something in your own life. At a time when you were crying out, everything around you was bleak. And you're just praying to God. You can't even put into words, but you know my heart right now. I'm at my end. And then there's a third kind of faith that comes from being fully content with just God. About understanding, sorry, about finding one's sufficiency in God. And this is the faith that Paul is talking about here in Romans. And it only comes having gone through trials and hardships. No matter what is around me, I know that I am okay because of God, and God in me through the Holy Spirit. Everything I have, I'm in an okay place. Everything could be falling down around me, my own life could be falling apart, but my sufficiency is found in God. Corrie ten Boom once said, "I never knew God was all that I needed until God was all that I had." In our suffering and in our trials and our hardships, and I know I look out on you people, I know that you have gone through those things or are still going through something, God is sufficient in every moment of every day in the midst of whatever you're going through. Will you remain faithful to God and find that God is all that you need? And that's a decision that has to be made over and over again, right? You wake up one day and you're like, "God, I'm with you." And the next day could be a whole other struggle, and you have to make that decision all over again. "Today, God, you are everything that I need." So that's perseverance.

And then comes character. One of the reasons why I love a small church community is that it has a multi-generational aspect, right? We have people from all ages. We have the little ones who run around and make noise and are just awesome and great and don't know what's going on. And we have people who are seasoned in life, who have gone through so many stages of life, and we're all here together. I grew up in a smaller church similar to this. Got the chance to work in it. And I remember in high school, when my faith really became my own, starting to realize the importance of a multi-generational church. And I developed this appreciation for, especially the elderly at the church. A group of people that as a high schooler I didn't interact with much, but they were there every Sunday, and they would come up and ask how life was doing. I was like, "Oh great, I don't know you much about your life, but I'm doing good, thank you." Elderly couples, widows, widowers, and I can still name them, but like they're imprinted on my heart now. I think of these couples like John and Faye Williams, George and Carol Dill, widowers like Betty Darflin and Peggy Nolan and Navarre race and all these people who I went to church with I did life with for so many years and I saw in them how they endured life in so many seasons whether it was good or the bad I saw them endure failing health I saw them endure their spouses passed away I saw them endure their own family start to crumble their kid who had grown up in the church no longer walking with God and how they had to wrestle with that I saw them follow God through everything that they went through. They had character. And as a high schooler, until the day that the church closed a couple years ago, or until they passed away to be with God, they taught me the importance of prayer. They taught me how important it is to remain with God in every situation. They taught me how to love someone, no matter what that person is like, or how they show up on a Sunday. They were always the first ones to say hi, to say, "Hey, God loves you." "Hey, you're welcome here." I was surrounded by people of the richest character who had endured and persevered through so much. And that's why I have come to love this church. Because you guys, I look out and I'm like, this is the same feeling that I got at East Parkway. I get here of people who are in all different stages of life and some who are Walked many more stages than I have and have that faith, have that character. That's why it's so important for us to be together, to show up for each other, to participate and belong in this community. Sundays are important, sermons are important, worship is important. But just as important is going to a Bible study, going to the prayer group, because that's where we start to share life. I was talking with Bob this week and he was saying that, you know, at one point in his life sermons were like that was that's what Sunday was all about. But now he's come to a point where it's the fellowship. It's the before and after service that that's what he values most right now. And that's what we should all value is the time together. Because it's when we share with what's going on that I can learn from you. We share with you, you can learn from each other like, man, I haven't gone through that. I haven't gone through that situation yet, but I see how you are following God and I want to do that in life, too. We don't get that if we just show up on a Sunday and say hi to each other and listen to the sermon. This is where younger families, younger adults, even teenagers, think of the teenagers we have here at this church, they're gonna see you walk through your stages of life, not just on a Sunday, but in every part of life, and they're gonna learn. It's gonna soak into them. And they're not going to necessarily, they can't pinpoint it now, but I bet later on in life, they're going to be like, "Man, I did learn the importance of prayer. I did learn from these people how to follow God when life gets hard." There is a character that can only be learned by going through life's hardships. And for some of us in this room, you've gone through some of those hardships you have that character it's important to pass that on to exemplify that for those who haven't yet it's important to be looking at other people and say man they do have character they the way they live their life the way they are faithful to God no matter what I want that this character isn't something that is just gained upon believing in Jesus that moment of salvation you don't automatically get this character it comes through enduring hardship persevering and as you walk through with Jesus through all of it you you build this character.

And this character leads to hope. This hope brings us back to Christ, because it's from Christ, it's sustained by Christ in our lives. In the midst of our suffering, we have hope that comes from Jesus, the one who endured all things, and was raised from the dead, who was crucified on the cross, and is living now. There is no greater hope than is found in Jesus, and He's the one that gives us hope. I mean, it was just Easter, right? And on the church calendar, we're still celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. The hope that Paul is talking about is a hope that is based on the resurrection. So hope that reminds us that God is still at work in this world, and He's working to redeem. He's working to make everything broken new and make it whole again. And part of that work is what happens inside of us. We are broken and we need to be made new and to be made whole. And that is what Jesus is doing. Theologian D.A. Carson said once, "I'm not suffering from anything a good resurrection can't fix." I mean, doesn't that just encapsulate the hope that we have in Christ? Whatever we endure, whatever is going on, we always have a hope. Because we know that we get, for those who believe, we will be in heaven with God in the end. The worst things that we could face were eternal punishment for our sin and a physical death that led to that eternal punishment. And Jesus redeemed both of those things. Our physical death now leads to eternal glory in heaven with God. And through his ascension, we too, That means that we will be ascended into heaven with God. So what does this hope look like? It's a hope that means that no matter what you go through, you can know that Jesus is present and is at work. In whatever situation is going on in your life, when you have that character within you that is only gained through enduring difficulties with God, then you can have a hope that whatever whatever you go through, you will make it through, and you will be with God. It's a hope that has an eternal perspective. You can make it through the current situation you're going through, and you can make it through the next, and the next, and the next, 'cause life is full of difficult situations, as we know, right? They don't stop. We can have hope, and a hope that grows as each one passes, that we are getting closer and closer to God.

All right, our second section is Romans 5, 6 through 11, and Paul is starting to put some pieces together and taking us further into Christianity 201, right? We're building on top of that layer. He says in verse 6, "When we were still powerless," Paul is wanting to make the connection in our minds about our former selves and our new reality, that we are undergoing a transformation in our lives. We were weak, we were powerless, we were helpless. But now our reality is that we have been reconciled to God through Christ. Christ sent his Holy Spirit to dwell in us as our helper, so we are now empowered by God, and Jesus is at work in us. We have a purpose, we have things to do, there's purpose to our lives. Paul continues, "We were God's enemies, "and yet Jesus still died for us." I want to pause here because this is just mind-blowing. We were God's enemies, and yet Jesus still died for us. J.D. Greer says this example, and it's uncomfortable to say, but it's so true. He says, "That would be like me laying down my life "for a terrorist who just murdered my child, "me sacrificing my life so they could go back "to their family and their kid." That does not make any sense. Paul says in verse seven through eight, "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Who would do anything like that? No one on earth, but God did. And not just for the Jews who demanded His crucifixion at that time, all those years ago, but also for us as sinners, because it was our sin that held them there on that cross. Jesus died for His enemies, and we were once His enemies. He didn't wait for us to switch teams, to switch sides, to be like, "All right, now that you're good, now I'll do it for you. Now I'll make this sacrifice." Verse 10 says, "For if, while we were God's enemies, "we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, "how much more, having been reconciled, "shall we be saved through his life?" And saved by his life. If the blood of his death secured our forgiveness, now that we're on his side, how much more will he do in and through us in our lives? Again, J.D. Greer says that the fact that he lives and now stands as our advocate besides God's throne guarantees that he will watch over me and use every trial in my life to produce good in me and use everything the enemy intends for evil for good. What is more hopeful than knowing that no matter what happens in your life, no matter what, man, challenges or even attacks by the enemy, no matter what happens, Jesus is gonna use for good. Later in Romans, Paul will write, 828, he says, "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love them." Like in the life of Job or in Jesus' life and death, through the darkest times, God is at work in our hearts, in our souls, in our minds, working on us, doing good, when we walk faithfully with him through every trial. Paul is telling us, guys, we know how it ends. You don't have to wonder anymore. Going through the trial, will I make it? Is everything going to be okay? The answer is yes. God's given you the answer. I'm going to use everything that happens to you. If you stay faithful to me, I will use it for your good. Oh, work in you, I'll transform you, I will make you more like Christ. I will make you more whole. I will continue to do that sanctifying work in you.

We know that God is working all things for our good. Everything that gets thrown our way from the good and the bad, the painful stuff of life, the hurts and the limitations we face, we know that God is working through all of it. And the plans of the enemy will not prevail. We know the ending. Yes, amen. Praise God. Because of Christ, we can talk about hope today. And that's where I want to end. For those who have not yet put your faith in Jesus, I want to say this. You are going through life. You are going through the same difficulties and challenges and hardship, pain and hurt. But your hope is based on something in this world, something finite. Whether it's your own strength, your own abilities, your own situation. But what happens when that strength fails? When you're outside of your limitations? When you don't have control of the situation? What happens then? Where is your hope then? I want to say to you that you can have hope. You can have a hope that comes from the God of the universe, the King of Kings, the Savior, our Messiah, the one who defeated sin and death. He died for your sins. You can have a hope that comes from His resurrection. is available to you. You can have a hope that isn't dependent on how finite you are, but is based on how infinite God is. And for those who do believe today, live into that hope that you have in Christ. No matter what you're going through, and you may be going through a lot, and you're allowed to feel all the emotions, God doesn't say you have to be happy, The Bible is full of people venting to God. "God, I'm feeling this frustration. God, this is my emotion right now." There's frustration, anger, pain, desperation. You're allowed to cry out to God. But remember, through all that, at the end of that venting, the hope that you have in Him. The hope that you can carry through all of life's toughest circumstances. You have a hope that comes from a living God Who cares enough and has the power and intentionality to use everything that is going on for your good. To shape you, to form you, to develop you into a more Christ-like person. It's part of the redeeming work that Christ is doing in this world now, is in you. So be edified through your enduring of all things. And leave this morning with the hope that comes from Christ alone.

You guys pray with me? God, we give you all the praise. We give you all the glory. There are people in this room right now who are maybe in a good place in life. And we praise you for that. We praise you that they are enjoying life and they are feeling your blessings. And God, we know it's a spectrum because we know there are people in this room who are going through the hardest thing they've ever gone through. and you are still present with them, and you are still working in them, and we praise you for that. God, I pray that you would instill in us that joy, the joy in the midst of suffering, that only comes from you. God, give us that in abundance. And I pray that as we go through these things, as we remain faithful to you, that you would build in us that character, a character that is recognizable to other people, that encourages other people, that is its own form of witnessing. And God, as we have that character, may we recognize the hope. Each day, each moment of that hardship, may we recognize the hope that we have in you. God, continue to form us. Work all things for our good and ultimately for your glory. We love you, Jesus, with everything we have. We give our lives to you. We pray this in your name. Amen. Thank you so much for being here this morning. We have some, in the back of your announcements, we have some of those opportunities to be a church. I just want to say from a personal standpoint, I just want to do church with you. I want to be in community with you for each other and so that we can learn from each other. We can grow closer to God and closer to each other. So Seriously consider those opportunities those midweek things or the Sunday morning. I want to Want to have that feeling here with you guys. So thank you again, and we'll see you guys next week.

Easter Sunday 2023

HE IS RISEN - John 20:15-28

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well happy Easter everybody. Happy Easter. I gotta do it one more time. do it one more time. We got some more people who came in here. So I got to do this again. I get to do it once a year. Okay, so I'm going to say he is risen and I want to hear a shout back. He has risen indeed. Okay, here we go. He has risen. He has risen. He has risen. Oh, yes. That was good. Well, today we're going to talk about Easter or Christmas or Easter. Easter. Christmas. I'm just ready. I'm fired up. Today is awesome and exciting. I hope you guys have been enjoying yourself this morning. It has been an awesome, awesome Sunday. But I want to talk to us today about Easter and kind of have maybe a different perspective on Easter. We come in, we hear about the empty tomb, and we hear about Jesus not being in there, but we want to walk kind of through a couple different people and what their perspective was in Easter. And we know that context is everything. And sometimes that our view is not God's view, right? Our view isn't God's view because if you would have thought about Good Friday and Jesus dying on the cross, what would have been seen from below would have felt like all is lost. See, the view from below is all is lost, but God's view, respected from above, is all is one. And that's what we celebrate today. That's what we want to talk about this morning and to focus in on Easter being all is one. He is written. He conquered death on the grave and came out. And when that we share in his resurrection and because of his resurrection, we can have eternal life with God in heaven. And three people I want to talk about this morning. The first of which is going to be Mary Mary. This incredible, incredible lady here in this story. A person who loved Jesus deeply. And so we open up in the story on Easter Sunday and we're seeing this encounter. And Mary has gotten up early. She's gotten up way early. You think, "Oh, what a go-getter!" She's a first stop, go make it happen. But the thing is, Mary is actually breaking the Jewish ritual of grieving and mourning the death of a family member. They are supposed to, as the Jewish culture says, you're supposed to stay home for a week after death and to mourn and then you go out. So Mary here, we read, "Oh, look at Mary getting up early, getting things done." No, she's actually trying to sneak out early before anybody can see her because she was not able to finish as much as she wanted to bury Jesus in the proper way. She loves Jesus deeply and she's sneaking out here trying to finish the burial process that had to pause at sundown when Jesus died.

So I'm gonna go ahead and read our passage this morning is John 20. If you're in the Bible, the pews in front of you, it's page 1087. And so John 20 11 through 14 says this, "Now Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. And as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus's body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said. "I don't know where they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But she did not realize that it was Jesus.

How could Mary miss that this is Jesus? Having spent so much time with him, wouldn't she have recognized Jesus' face standing right there in front of him? Well, we know that this is a lot to process, right? This is a moment of grief for her. And in moments of grief, there's a lot of weight that people are dealing with. When people grieve, they're busy dealing with what's inside of them, right? What's inside the heart. And they don't have the capacity always to deal with what's going on around them. So while grief was a part of their lives in dealing with Jesus's death, it's not going to be the last emotion that they feel in this story regarding Christ. So the scripture continues on. It says in verse 15, "He asked her, being Jesus, 'Why are you crying? Who is it that you're looking for?'" Jesus is kind of messing with Mary here a little bit. Still got a sense of humor. I love that about Jesus. Thinking he was a gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." And then Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out, "Aramaic, Rabbanai." She knew. She knew in that very moment, the voice of Jesus, that it was him. This wasn't some random gardener dude, hanging out, just doing, trimming some bushes, And cutting some weeds on an early morning like like this was Jesus there and when he says Mary She melts because she knows Jesus that's who it is Have you ever found yourself in a place where you didn't recognize somebody and then you heard their voice? I I've had this situation sometimes where I've been shopping in a grocery store And I've been going down the aisles and all of a sudden I get this feeling somebody's following me. And I'm like, "What's going on?" And I find out later, somebody who knows me and somebody goes, "I know that beard. I've seen that beard somewhere." But I'm out of context. You're like, "They let him out of that church during the week? He doesn't sleep in this back corner room here? Like, they let him out?" Yes, I go and I buy food. I'm a normal person, okay? But you're sitting there and then all of a sudden maybe you hear me say something. something. Maybe I walk into that ice cream aisle and they got my favorite pint there of just the, "Oh, so good," and I said, "Praise the Lord!" And then you go, "I know that guy! I've heard that voice! That's Pastor Chris! I've seen him!" That's what Mary happens here. Mary hears his voice and goes, "This is Jesus! Oh my gosh!" Continue on, verse 18, "Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news. Can you imagine? You just come, I can imagine, like a Kramer entrance on Seinfeld into the house, just pow'n in going, "He's alive!" And they're like, "Mary, pipe down, calm down, calm down." No. And she told them these things that had said to her. And on the evening of the first day of the week when the disciples were together and the doors were all locked for fear Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you," and they had to change their undercloaks. In that moment, the disciples are gathered in fear. They're afraid of death by association. Everybody knew this group of disciples were Jesus' crew, that they had walked with them, they had traveled with them, they had performed miracle wisdom, they had lived with him, they had sat under his teaching, they were they were associated with. And so these disciples, we read this and go like, "Why are they so scared?" Well, they're afraid they're gonna get killed. They just saw their Savior, their Lord, their King get killed before their eyes and they think we're next. But then Jesus shows up and he says, "Write there, 'Peace be with you.'" And after he said this, he showed them his hands and his sides to prove who he was. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. You've found yourself in situation where you were just on an emotional roller coaster. You went from a place to where you felt like all hope was lost, everything was gone, nothing was gonna write and be happening to you, and then all of a sudden, boom, you're overjoyed. This is what the disciples are going, they're on an emotional roller coaster right now these three days. But Jesus shows up them and loves them so much to show up in their lives and to show them His hands and His side, He goes, "I am Jesus.”

It seems that all the disciples are on an emotional rollercoaster except for one. We skip ahead in our story to verse 24 and it says, "Now Thomas, also known as Didymus, one of the 12, "was not with the disciples when Jesus came. "So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord, but he said to them, "unless I see the nail marks in his hands, "put my finger where the nails were, "put my hand into his side, I will not believe. 26 says, "A week later, his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. And though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you.' And then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here, see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it on my side. Stop doubting and believe.' And Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God.'" Comprehending who God is and what he does, it's a lot, right? And we all process at different rates, some of us similar to others, but hearing the news that Jesus is alive again would be a lot to process for anyone. It's a lot for Thomas in this moment.

So why does this matter? Why are we reading about this? Why are we telling this to you? Why are we saying things? What does it matter? Because I think the reality is, as we are honest with ourselves, life is a lot harder than we want to admit. Life goes like this. You're born into this world crying. You're bullied on the playground. Your teen heart is broken. You go to college. The bank account shrinks. Bad reports back from your doctor about your health. You blink and your kids are grown up and then you don't have any more cartilage in your knees. And that's life. Right? Isn't that how life goes? And we are all somewhere on a different progress in that but life is really harder than it seems and God here in this moment is shouting to the entire world, there is hope. There's hope. But even what we face, no matter what we go through, no matter what's happening in our lives, no matter where we are with our level of cartilage in our knees, there is still hope in Jesus. And that first Easter, Jesus proclaimed to the world, "I am the resurrection and the life." I am everything that you need. I am everything. I love this quote from N.T. Wright. It says, Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. Sometimes we get caught up in this Jesus thing of just going, "Okay, when I die, I'm going to heaven. Cool. All that." But Jesus has got work for us to do here and now. Jesus has got people in our lives that need to hear this message of hope that have never heard this hope. So story ever in their lives. They're just racing through life, counting down the days going, "This is the end." And Jesus here is proclaiming, "This is not the end," that He wants more of us. And in the midst of the hardness of our life, Jesus is here. Turn to the person next to you. I hate to admit it, but they're probably the source of the hardness of your life. You love them to death, right? You love them to death. But they add to that hardness. And God wants us to know that heaven is invading now. That even in the midst of that hardness, Jesus is here and now.

Well, he got me with the cartilage in the knee thing. I wasn't expecting that. Wasn't in the notes. I want to take us back. We're going to take some time now to kind of go encounter by encounter, the ones that we just talked about. So I So I want to go back to Mary Magdalene at the grave and talk about the fact that she overcame grief. Grief is something that we experience in the loss of something or someone that we love. And Mary's love for Jesus runs deep because it's wrapped up in her identity of who she is, what she's gone through. Luke 8, 1 through 3 tells of the story of who Mary Magdalene was in her first encounter with Jesus. And she is the prime example of experiencing the transformative work of Jesus in life. She was possessed by demons, and Jesus comes and heals her, casts those demons out. And from that moment on, her life is totally transformed. She goes from a possessed life to a life of freedom in Jesus, and goes to supporting Jesus' ministry and being a part of it. So the death of Jesus meant the death of the one person in her life who was able to and had the power to transform her. So why did Mary grieve? Well, she grieved because she lost her liberator. His power had freed her from darkness. She also lost her teacher. His truth freed her from deception. She lost her purpose. life had given her a direction. Mary grieved because Jesus' death became that identity crisis for her. And this is, we can probably relate to this and to some extent, right? Take an elderly couple or someone who is going through the end-of-life process and that spouse is caring for that person and that's their identity. Is being a part of that marriage through thick and thin, through better or worse? And in that moment, maybe at that end-life stage, you're taking care of that person. So the rest of life shrinks, right? The outings, the social events, friends, all of that may be on the back burner, and your life and your time and your energy and effort are going for caring for that person. When that person passes away, you're left with an identity crisis of who am I now? My life was totally invested in this person. And I've got to rediscover what my purpose is, what I do with my free time. And it can be a lot, it is a lot. And I think that's what Mary's going through here. She's grieving this identity, that person, Jesus, my whole life was formed around him and what he said for me to do. I supported him, I followed him and now that he's gone, I don't know what to do. Mary's grieving that anchor, that person who healed her and gave her a purpose.

Some of us may be in that same kind of grief right now in a grief of darkness. Maybe it's a grief of deception, Lies, you're dealing with lies that are keeping you from experiencing the freedom that is found in Christ. Maybe you're grieving a lack or lost sense of direction in life. You're not sure where you're supposed to be or where you're supposed to go. Or maybe you're grieving the loss of a loved one or in the process of losing a loved one. And Jesus wants to say to you, "Hey, why are you crying? There is more hope than you know of, and that you can feel in this moment. I can not only give you everything, but I can give you more than you've ever had. In this moment, Jesus helped reframe Mary's grief. That she could have hope that Jesus' victory over death meant that she too could experience that victory. John 20, 17 tells us that Mary was holding onto Him, embracing Jesus in this moment. And he says to her, "You can't, you have to let me go. I still have some work to do here, and then I have to go ascend and be with my Father in Heaven." And so, she still has grief, but Jesus reframes her grief. Mary, I think, wanted that life that she had. She wanted to go back to it. She said, "Jesus, you're back? Let's get back into our regular rhythm, our regular schedule. I was hanging out with you every day. Let's go back to that." And Jesus is saying, "It's going to look different now." But the grief that Mary might experience of Jesus leaving to ascend to be with his Father in heaven is different than the grief of seeing the Savior dead on the cross. Right? One situation instills hope. Seeing Jesus alive and ascending to be with the Father, that instills hope. It's still a grief of him not being with us in the day to day, but it's different. Compared to the grief that she experienced where her Savior is on the cross, dead. They say that the grief of losing a loved one never really goes away, but we just get better at coping with it day to day. And Jesus reframed that grief for Mary so that she could have joy and hope in her future as her life went on. And where her identity could still be in the living God, even if he wasn't physically walking with her day by day. Why is death so frustrating for us? It's because we have no power over it. but we can know the one and have relationship with the one who does. This is a story of victory in Jesus over sin and death. The resurrection means hope is possible. So if you are someone who has lost something or someone in life, Jesus wants to say to you, "Hey, why are you crying? I conquered a hopeless grief, but in me there is hope in what lies ahead.”

I don't know about you, but I don't like being scared. I don't like scary movies. I don't like being scared. My daughter is on this kick to try to scare me whenever she can. Dad's tally is above hers right now. But something I do love, which is kinda like on the verge is roller coasters. Anybody love roller coasters? I love roller coasters. There's just something about 'em. Like, I love, give me a, launch me out of somewhere, give me a loop de loop, throw me upside down, whatever. I love it. It's kind of on that verge of like you're doing stuff that you should never do like just with like Just some safety gear that you just trust like okay, but something I do not like whatsoever is ferris wheels I think they are a torture chamber okay, think about this you're sitting in an open cage with just a bar a Bar and you're going up you're like I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die I'm gonna die and then you look down and the guy who put it together just with no teeth smiles up at you and just Waves and says I'm torturing you right now, and he is loving it. I don't like being scared I don't do not put me in a ferris wheel. I'm sorry. I'm out Give me something with a loop-de-loop, but but don't even think about that But then I think about bungee jumping This is just a weird thing. Do you know they have to replace those cords? I Want to know the guy who's counting who's just like one jump okay, two jumps and then who's the last person who takes that bungee then they come back and say and That was a little sketchy there. We need to replace that bunch I'm like, how does this work who's counting this and who's keeping track of this because there is a point where that bungee is going to break and You don't want to be I want to be the guy in the middle like the guy who like has tested it already but it's still got like 500 jumps to go. Like that is where I want to be if I was to ever do bungee jumping. I don't think I will. I don't have a scare of heights or anything like that.

But when I think about what happened with the disciples, the disciples had to overcome fear. We talked about this earlier when we read. They were scared to death. They were afraid that they were going to be killed by association. We read that story sometimes. I think we get pulled out of context of what's really happening. We think, "Oh, "Oh, disciples, don't you know Jesus risen from the grave? Like, why are you such wusses? Like, why don't you just, like, rise up under the power of Jesus and just go and live your life?" But the reality was they didn't understand. They didn't get it. And Jesus shows up in their lives and removes that fear. He removes that fear. And I think Jesus, he wants to do that for us. He wants to do that in our lives to remove the fear of what we might be facing or what we're going through. We went through a season these last few years of just chaos. Of what we thought would never happen, happened. Right? I remember being on the phone just before the NCAA tournament with my brother-in-law. And it was just before the world shut down. And I was thinking, there's no way they're going to shut down the tournament. There's too much money involved in this pooling and the bets and the brackets and all. There's no way you're gonna do that. And when they shut that down, I knew something was real. There was something big that was happening. And here what happened, something big is happening in the lives of the disciples and Jesus shows up. Even in the midst of them in their fear, it wasn't like they had gotten to a place where they were like, okay, well, I'm not so scared anymore and then Jesus just kind of rolls in.

Jesus shows up in the midst of their fear and their anxiety and everything that they're walking through in that moment and he says what? "Peace be with you." Peace be with you. Alexander McLaren has this quote on peace that says, "Peace comes not from the absence of trouble but from the presence of God." Peace comes from the presence of God. There's a key word in there what Jesus says, right? He says, "Peace be with you." Peace be with you. I think there's two factors in this peace. The first factor is power. When we're afraid, we don't feel adequately defended, right? When we're in a place of vulnerability, even the smallest noise or something, creak, crack, Snap, pop, whatever can give us, put us on edge. But if we knew we were locked in a fortress with an army of thousands surrounding us and guarding us and keeping us safe, and even if we had an army coming at us, we would feel peace because why? Because we were safe. There was a power over whatever we were facing in our lives. The second of this with our peace is proximity. Sometimes we're alone. That's just part of life. Sometimes we're alone. Even sometimes when we're surrounded by people around us, we still feel alone. And God here is saying, "I am with you." You're not alone. I have the power to defend you, to be near you, and to put together this power and proximity on a whole new level that the world has never experienced. that nobody else has understood or gone through. Some of you do not have peace because you don't think that God loves you enough to defend you. And I want to tell you again, that first Easter, he showed up and said, "I love you in a whole new way." Acts 4, 13 says this, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John, and they realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished. And they looked and took note that these men had been with Jesus. Ordinary, blue collar, run of the mill guys were the disciples. These weren't some amazing, educated, higher up, political figure, CEO, Fortune 500. These were your everyday guys. But they had been with Jesus. And that changes everything. See, the resurrection means today that courage is available. We can't get rid of our troubles. It's part of life. But what you can get is the power and presence of Jesus that He gives us.

Our last encounter is that person who had missed out on that original presence of Jesus with the disciples. Talking about Thomas. You know, the Bible in both the Old Testament and the New Testament uses a lot of wordplay to convey some important ideas. One of those is nicknames. They give nicknames for something that happened, either good or bad, in that person's life. And sometimes that person is renamed to signify that moment, whatever they had done. I don't know. Survey here, who has had a nickname in life? Raise your hand. How many of you liked your nickname? A couple hands down. Yeah. Yeah. Well, sometimes nicknames were given. Yeah, I don't know. I never liked my nickname. My first name is Andre. That doesn't really flow into anything. Just nothing ever came of that. My last name's Yowakovsky. Just try. Just try to come up with a nickname. It never happened. So I just always wanted one. It never happened. I still crave for that today. So if you feel free on it, yeah on it. Yeah, but I got it. I got a pass, you know, you can't like start it without me approving it. Just nicknames can be cool and in the Bible. They're pretty cool. Use most of the time those nicknames in the Bible are for something good that person did like Peter Peter walks into the room. His name is Simon and the Bible helps us by saying Simon Peter because originally it was Simon and Jesus doesn't even shake his hand or sailors. She says you have the wrong name. You are now the rock. It's like, Dwayne Johnson is not the original rock. Peter is like the, yeah, the original rock. - It wasn't 'cause he sunk in the water in the storm? - Well, even if it was, it's just he's the original rock. Yeah, he renames him. John has some other, John himself, the writer of this gospel also has a nickname. He calls himself the beloved disciple, the one that Jesus loved the most. I just love whatever competitive spirit he had that as he's writing, he's like, I know the other disciples are writing, and I just want to make sure that the whole world knows that I was Jesus' best friend." So every time that he's mentioned, it's always like, "John, the disciple that Jesus loved the most, Jesus' best friend." So he gives himself a nickname, which is like a faux pas. You cannot give yourself a nickname. The other person in this gospel to have a nickname is Thomas. Maybe some of you know, Doubting Thomas. Now, previously what we know of Thomas is we wouldn't have thought of this nickname. in John's Gospel in a situation where Lazarus had died, Jesus' friend, he talks about how he's got to go back. So it happened, he finds out that Lazarus' friend has died, he's like, "Hey, disciples, we need to go back to the village of Bethany, and I got to deal with this situation." And his disciples remind him, "Hey, Jesus, when you left, they wanted to stone you. If you go back, you might get killed." And we find out in John 11:16 that Thomas said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." So, Thomas originally has got this courage, he's got this faith that he's like, "Hey, I run with Jesus, let's go. If we're gonna die, I'm okay with it."

And we fast forward now to this situation where Jesus has resurrected, and there's some tension going on with Thomas. He had belief in courage to follow Jesus, but now he's in a different place, and that courage has faded, and now there's doubt. And sometimes isn't that the way it goes when you're so invested into something or someone, and then in whatever way you lose it, in order to get reinvested and re-engaged in that thing or that person, doesn't it take sometimes even more energy than the first time around? For whatever reason, you have to invest more, and I think that's what Thomas is dealing with here. He's followed Jesus for years, and now that Jesus is back, he's like, "I don't know. I need a little bit more than I did the first time. I've never seen a resurrected body. I don't know if any of you have. But if I were Thomas, I would be very skeptical. Just hearing about someone who was raised from the dead, I would definitely be in the category of like, I got to see that with my own eyes. I just won't take anyone's word for it. I don't know who they are or where you've been. I want to be able to see and experience with my own eyes, my own, yeah. I gotta do it." So this is very relatable coming from Thomas. So we know the situation where the disciples come to him and say, "Hey, by the way, we know Jesus. Of course you know Jesus, Thomas. By the way, he's back. He's alive again. We all saw him." And Thomas is saying, "What? What are you guys talking about?" Just imagine what Thomas is going through in that moment. I think on top of the doubt that he's feeling of, "Okay, this has never happened before." Well, except it has, Lazarus. So he's just like, "Is that what this is going on?" But maybe he's also feeling hurt, the only one left out of this whole group of disciples who were like, "We were all following Jesus for years, and why was I the only one not to see him?" And just kind of like this emotion that he's dealing with in this moment. So Thomas, mentally and in his heart, just can't get there. He can't get to this point of belief on the disciples' words alone. And he says, "Unless I put my fingers in the hands inside of Jesus, I'm not going to believe." And we know what Jesus does, right? Jesus in life meets us where we're at. We could be struggling, we could be having a great time, but we know that Jesus meets us. He does all the work and he meets us with whatever we're dealing with in life. And so he goes and he meets Thomas where he's at.

So the next time the disciples are together, Jesus shows up and he doesn't rebuke Thomas, but he gives Thomas exactly what he's asking for. He's like, "You wanted to put your hands on my hand and my side. Well, go ahead. "Here's my hands, here's my side." He says, "Stop doubting and believe." And what history tells us of Thomas is a further transformation in his life. Thomas not only believes in that moment, but he goes on to be one of the greatest church planters in church history. He goes over to India, and he starts church after church after church, and he dies a martyr. He dies for his faith in Jesus. And the point that I'm saying here is that God is teaching that we all may have doubts to some degree. We all may have a little bit of Thomas inside of our hearts and in our minds. But when Jesus reveals himself to us, we can go from doubt to belief. Thomas overcame doubt and so can all of us here today. With Jesus' influence, Mary overcomes grief, the disciples overcome fear, and Thomas overcomes doubt. And don't you see the beauty of what John is saying in this chapter, is that it speaks to our deepest needs that we experience in life. We are people who walk with grief. We walk in fear at times. And we can walk through life with nagging doubts going on in our minds and in our hearts. We wrestle with our faith. Maybe it's our friends, our co-workers, even our family members who question our commitment to Christ. Some of you here today may not yet be committed to Christ. And if you're walking in doubt, He wants to say to you this Easter, "Hey, I want to reveal myself and who I am to you. I'm not afraid of your questions." God is saying, "Challenge me." Say, "God, I need to touch you. I need to know that you are real." This is what Thomas did. He got real with God. He said, "Hey, this is what it's going to take for me to believe." And Jesus, knowing his doubt, meets him where he's at. Jesus knows our doubt, and he'll meet you where you're at. But Thomas exemplifies this important part of you have to engage with God. You got to let God know, "God, this is what I'm struggling with. This is the hill that I'm trying to get over, but I can't do it on my own." And once you voice that, let God take care of the rest. Let God meet you where you're at. Thomas said, "I have questions, let me ask them." And God shows us in this moment that He will answer.

Jesus then says to them, in John 20:29, He says, "Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." So, in the grief, in the fear, in the doubt, whatever you're at, whatever you're going through in life, the question is, what do you believe? Do you believe in this story of Jesus that you can have anything that you're walking through right now overcome through his resurrection? That's the question for us today. Jesus says that you ask and you will receive search and you will find. There are times I've had doubt in my life and God's shown up, God's a big boy. He can take our biggest doubts and he hands them and takes care of them. It's how amazing he is. So the question for us is what do we believe? Do we believe that Jesus can take care of all of this stuff that we might be going through in life? And the fact that he rose that very first Easter Sunday conquered the greatest thing that nobody up to that point had been able to conquer, death. The most final of final things. Jesus took care of that and took care of that for our lives. So I say it would be safe to say that anything that we might be going through in life is probably a little bit less than death. Jesus is already taking care of that. He can take care of whatever we're going through. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet see.

Our context and our view was one of having to walk in faith, because we didn't get to be like Thomas and to touch Jesus and what He was. But Jesus said we can be just as blessed as those who have seen and believed. And it might be even a place where we are even blessed even more because we have not seen and yet believed. So what do you believe? Do you believe that this Jesus and resurrection stuff is real? Do we believe and hold that in faith? Do we believe that God is still working? something years later after his resurrection that God is still working. And he's working in every single person's life that is in this room. And I want you to walk away with that this morning. So whatever your grief, whatever your fear, whatever those doubts, just give them over to God. What's that saying, "Give it over to God, he'll be up all night anyway"? That's the reality. So the question is, are we willing to give it over to God? And to give our lives over to Him? And then say, "Jesus, you've got it all figured out. I don't. Help me figure this thing called life out.”

Let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much for this day, for this Sunday, to worship you, to praise you, to give you honor, the glory for the resurrection that you walked, that life, that very first Easter. Jesus, we're so grateful for you. And God, there might be some of us in here right now that need to step out into faith and to say, "Jesus, I need to trust you. I need to walk in this faith with you. I need to say, 'Here's my grief. Here's my fear. Here's my doubt. Here's my film of grief.’” So God, maybe this Easter would be that day that those would make that commitment to you to say yes to Jesus say yes to the one who overcame death yes to the one who overcame grief yes to the one who overcame fear yes to the one who overcame doubt Jesus I pray that that those who want to make that commitment God would quietly in their hearts right now. Just pray this prayer with them. Jesus, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for holding on to these things. I'm sorry for not giving these over to you soon. God, here is my life now. I bow to you as Lord and leader of my life. Forgive me of my sins. Forgive me of my selfishness. Forgive me of my pride. forgive me of these decisions I've made that have been all about me number one. God, I place you rightly as number one in my life. Jesus, help me to live for you from this day forward, to love you God with everything I have and to love those around me in my life. Our eyes still closed and heads bowed. If you prayed that prayer today, I I asked that you would just take your ripoff card at the bottom of your program. You can just mark that box that said yes I chose Jesus drop that in the bucket on the way out For some of us We need to get God back into the right place in our lives To put him on the throne not us Give him hand over all the things that we're struggling through.

God, we continue praying and the power that we know comes from you, knowing that your son, his victory is our victory. So on this day, Easter, we give you all the praise that we get to share in that victory, doing nothing on our own. We didn't do any part. We get to put our trust and faith in you. We get to look forward to the hope that is in you now as we live our life and also to the eternal hope. Just as Jesus ascended, we too know that for those who believe, we get to ascend and be with God in heaven. So that joy that comes found in you, I pray that we would feel that joy to the max today. That we would continue to celebrate outside of church service, to go about our lives, celebrate with you and in you, God. So give us everything we need, fill us up with your joy, your grace, your love, and may our lives be a light and example to those in our lives of what you've done, the transformative work that you've done in our hearts. We give you all the praise and glory this morning. We pray this in your Son’s name. Amen.

Palm Sunday 2023

The Triumphal Entry - Luke 19:28-44

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We're excited for today and it's next week. stepping away from our Romans series where we're going through Paul's exposition and explanation of God's plan of salvation. And for a couple of weeks we're going to turn our attention to the story and the life of Jesus, specifically around his death and resurrection. And I think the timing is perfect because what a greater way to have a deeper appreciation for what Jesus has done, what Paul's talking about, than to go back and recount the story all over again. So as has been said, today is Palm Sunday, a day where we recognize the fulfillment of Scripture, that Jesus is sent by God, that the world will resist him, and that the judgment is coming, but that Jesus is King over all. Holy Week starts and it follows the timeline of Jesus, the week before his death on the cross. And so today Palm Sunday marks the day that Jesus entered into Jerusalem for the final time, being hailed as King. And as we'll learn today, what may seem, and mostly is, an extremely joyous occasion is also marked with praises of joy, but also tears of sadness. So today I want to tell the story of Jesus that happened 2,000 something years ago, and walk in His shoes. So if you want to turn in your Bibles with me, we're going to be in Luke. And you have some time, because before we actually read that passage, it's going to be Luke 19. But before that, I just want to kind of catch us up in the story of Jesus and how we got to this point that we'll cover. Again, because we're doing Romans and it's just perfect with the plan of salvation, I thought I'd start at the beginning and just start at Jesus' birth. So, as we know, long ago, Jesus was born, born into a virgin. We celebrate that at Christmas. And at that point, it's recognized by some that he is the Messiah. Some of them. Some people recognize that he is the Messiah. the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, the one who would come to rule over God's kingdom. We think of Isaiah 9, it says, "Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of peace.”

And so Jesus is born. And then we have Jesus as a child. We don't know much about Jesus's life before his ministry, but we do get one story. And I love this story. And I think it's significant, which is why it's shared in one of the gospels. And that is when he's around 12 years old. And it's during this week that we're celebrating Passover week. And so him and his family go to Jerusalem to partake in the festivities and the feasts and the parties. And it's not just like what we do today where it'd be like, "Hey, family, pack up in the car and let's go." It was like the whole section of your neighborhood was like, "We're all going." So it was a huge crowd that would journey to Jerusalem. And they do the whole week, the Passover week, and on the way back, the whole contingent again makes their way together back to their home. and they realize after a day that Jesus isn't with them. 12-year-old Jesus is not with Mary and Joseph, and you're thinking like, "How could they not?" We don't know. But don't judge Mary and Joseph. It's crazy back then. Feasts, parties, and a lot of people, and they're like, "Our whole neighborhood's here. We think Jesus is here." But he's not. So they go back to Jerusalem, and they start looking for him. And they're looking for three days. I mean, can you imagine, like your child, and you're like, "I don't know where in this city our child is." where they find him back at the temple, and he's conversing with religious leaders. And everyone around as they walk up to the scene, they see Jesus and all these religious leaders, and everyone is so impressed with 12-year-old Jesus, as he is answering questions, asking deep questions, and seems to have this deep understanding and grip of the law, the Old Testament, and this holy life that they were all talking about.

And so we get this scene where Mary and Joseph walked up, as any distraught parent would, and they said, "Why did you do this to us? Why would you worry us like this?" And Jesus says, "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I'd be in my father's house?" Now our daughter is not yet a teenager, but I've done youth ministry for a while now, and this seems very much like a youth kid response. Little sassy, just a little sassy Jesus. He didn't sin, Jesus was perfect, but doesn't mean he couldn't be sassy. He seems like a little like, "Guys, parents, didn't you know this is where I'd be?" And so, we have this encounter and it's great. It shows Jesus being with his heavenly Father at the temple, and it's a great moment there. And then, so we have that, and that's all we kind of know of his birth, his childhood, and then he begins his ministry. We fast forward so many years and he's finally getting into his ministry, the purpose of his incarnation. Before he begins his ministry, he performs a miracle, turning the water into wine at a wedding. Side note, by the way, in the Bible, a lot of important things happen at festivities and parties, and so I just think that we should continue that here at Spring Valley. We should have more parties and feasts. Important things will happen. But during Jesus' ministry, we see that he is baptized by John the Baptist. We see that he's tested in the wilderness by Satan. Satan, he's rejected by his hometown of Nazareth. He calls his disciples, specific people, to come and follow him. He goes on to teach crowds about the kingdom of God, about the scriptures, the Old Testament, teaching them how to live for God. He heals many people, performs many miracles, and deeply changes the lives, both physically and spiritually and emotionally and mentally, of so many people that he comes into contact Jesus also solidifies the future of his ministry through his apprentices and teaches close followers, what you would know to be the twelve apostles, how to carry on after he's gone.

During his ministry he also has run-ins with the religious leaders, most notably the Pharisees, pretty much from the beginning. From his baptism until the end he is having encounters in this tension with the religious leaders. So we see that in his encounter with Nicodemus. Randomly throughout his time teaching, they'll come up to him and try to trap him, try to trick him. They do not like the truth that Jesus is sharing. It's different than their understanding of the law and really is calling them out. And so they just do not like Jesus at all. Throughout Jesus' ministry, Jesus taught his disciples how to live for God. So He's taught them how to pray. He's taught them how to love. He's taught them how to serve other people. They really are apprenticing after Jesus, learning how to live a life, learning Jesus' craft and his lifestyle. And again, most importantly, through this time, he shared about God's kingdom, about belonging not to the kingdoms of the world, but to a heavenly kingdom, Yahweh's kingdom. And he's done this mostly through parables. So the understanding of it is a bit tricky for some. but he's alluded to this kingdom into a time when he will no longer be around. He's talked about his death. And the disciples have not yet fully understood what Jesus is talking about. And so all of this took the span of three years. And now leads to the beginning of the end. And this catches us up to where we're at in Luke 19, to where Jesus will enter into Jerusalem one last time.

So now if you're in your Bibles, Luke 19, starting at verse 28, I'll go ahead and read. It says, "After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. And he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, and he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 'Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' say, 'The Lord needs it.' Those who were sent ahead went and found it, just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" They replied, "The Lord needs it." They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt, and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the mountain olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest." Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." "I tell you," He replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, "Even you, or if you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you, and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.

Let me pray. God, thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth. And thank you that we get the opportunity to gather together, to study your word and to understand your kingdom, who you are and what you've done for us. So I just pray through your words, God, that we would be drawn closer to you, have a deeper understanding of today, the significance of it in this week, and as we approach Easter, that we would do so with humility and a deep, deep appreciation for what your Son did on the cross. We pray this in your name. Amen.

So, this story again, Jesus is on the donkey or the colt, and He's entering into Jerusalem, and people are laying down their cloaks, giving him a royal entry. Why? Why is this happening? Well, Israel's ancient prophets promised that one day God himself would arrive and rescue his people and rule the world. And other times the prophets spoke about a coming king who would ride into Jerusalem to bring justice and peace. And so this moment is monumental. In our midweek Bible study covering Daniel, we talked about how God's revelation about future events spoke of dark things and troublesome times. And for Israel, there was hope found in the person of God. In the book of Daniel, it was revealed that God had a plan, that God would be victorious, and for the people, there would be hope to endure such difficult times. And in other prophets like Isaiah, they are referencing specifically the person of Jesus, the Savior, the Messiah, who would rescue the people. And so the anticipation of a Savior has been building, as Pastor Chris said, for so many years. And it could not be higher than this moment, this hundreds of years waiting for the rescuer to come. And this scene triggers in their mind that this is something, we remember this being said. We remember that this is important. They recognize this moment that they've been waiting for. Their King, their Savior is here. So Jesus telling him to go get the donkey so that he could ride into the city. I'm sure he's like, "Oh my goodness, it is happening. Guys, get your clothes. This is happening. He's here. He's riding in our King, our Savior. It's happening." And they're so happy because they think that Jesus is here to implement a Jewish kingdom. I mean, what else would they think, right? They're thinking, "We've been suffering for so long. God told us about a kingdom that we would belong to. The rule that He would have over the world, this is it." They think that He's going to overthrow the Roman Empire. They think that He's going to have a physical throne to sit on. They're thinking of an earthly kingdom. Whereas Jesus has been teaching for years now of a heavenly one. So they're on different pages. Jesus is King, but not going to rule in the way that they expected. And this isn't lost on Jesus as He's riding in. But the people are so excited. They are full of such joy that their king is here. And again, they aren't wrong, they don't realize how they're not exactly right. Jesus is king. He is coming in the name of the Lord. And they should be praising Him. The other gospels say that the crowd is chanting "Hosanna," which means "save us." As their king is riding by, they're joyously praising, like, "Save us! We know what you're going to do. You're going to save us." This is such a joyous occasion for the people. And we see that Jesus not only allows it to happen, but wants it to happen. The Pharisees don't want it to happen. They tell Jesus to tell them to rebuke His disciples, "Hey, don't let this happen." But Jesus says, "Even if they are silent, even if I did rebuke them, the rocks would cry out." That's how much this needs to happen. I am God. The earth knows. The rocks know. I am their Creator. So, the praise of God, of Jesus here, needed to be shouted.

This is a good thing. Everyone seems to be happy except for two parties, the religious leaders and Jesus. The religious leaders, again, are unhappy because they sense that Jesus is this threat to their power. They see Jesus as a threat to their influence and dominion over the people. And this has been an ongoing tension throughout the years of ministry, and it's very present here as he's writing in. Just think of years of these two parties not getting along. And this moment, this monumental moment of Him being praised as King, is pushing them to the edge. And we'll see through the timeline of Holy Week that Jesus and the religious leaders are coming to a point of conflict, to a point of no return. The second party that is unhappy during this triumphal entry is Jesus Himself. We see that in verse 41 as He approaches the city, He weeps. Jesus is distraught. Now why? Why would Jesus, in this glorious moment, be crying, be weeping? I think it's because Jesus knows what is coming. He knows that He won't be accepted as Israel's king when they find out what kind of kingdom He's really talking about. That Israel will keep going down a destructive path, that they will neglect the poor and fail to love others as Jesus has been teaching them. And they're going to cause trouble with their oppressors, and it will lead to death. And Jesus in this moment is referencing what will happen in AD 70, the destruction of the temple. And it breaks him. The temple is a very special place. We know from even as a kid, and he's 12 years old, he's near his father's house. And the destruction of the temple breaks him. And it stirs him up, it riles him. And the next scene in the Bible, which we won't cover this morning, but he'll go to the temple and he'll turn over the tables, he'll get angry because they have turned his father's house into a place of corruption.

Jesus is distraught, because He knows why He has sinned. He knows the sacrifice that He will have to make. He knows that while people now are praising Him, and hailing Him as King, they will also demand His crucifixion. He knows that their cries of hailing Him as King will turn to cries of "Crucify Him!" You know, sometimes as pastors we do this thing where we encourage you to be inside the shoes or look through the perspective of the main character to help you understand, help us understand. And I think this one is just so hard. If I were to say, "Put yourself in Jesus' shoes," I don't, we can't fully grasp what it means to be the creator, the king, God, and to be going down, riding on a donkey, and knowing what is going to happen, and the mix of emotion that he may be feeling of, "This is right, the people should be doing this, but I also know that they're They're going to demand my death. So, there's so much going on within Jesus. Even though it's hard to do that, hopefully that gives us a clearer understanding as to why Jesus may be crying as He's entering the city. So this is the beginning of what we call Holy Week. And again, just a little bit of background information here. Holy Week is also Passover, where the Jews are celebrating how they were liberated from slavery by God and invited into covenant relationship back from Egypt in the book of Exodus. So all the way back in Exodus times, God saved them. And still, every year, they look back and they say, "God, thank you." And this is that time. So Jesus will use Passover language and symbols to help reveal God's plan of salvation. that His coming death and sacrifice are for them, to try and help His disciples understand what must happen. So just as the Israelites celebrate being freed from slavery from their oppressors and invited into covenant relationship with God, today, for those who are saved, we celebrate being freed from the chains and eternal punishment of sin, and also being invited into covenant relationship with God.

So simultaneously we have Passover week, God's miraculous saving of the Israelites, and a reminder of his covenant love and commitment and faithfulness to his people, and we have Holy week. This week that Jesus is being ushered in as king, where he will endure ridicule, rejection, and sacrifice in order to bring salvation to his people. Both are stories of God's covenant faithfulness and redemptive plan at work. So I want to spend the rest of our morning going over some Holy Week reminders to be present in this week and to hopefully help our hearts align with God's heart. So, Holy Week reminders. First Holy Week reminder is do not rush to Easter. I know it's hard. I know Easter candy went on sale a couple months ago after Valentine's Day or before that, and that there's bunnies everywhere and parties, and I know kids in school are having Easter egg hunt, whatever it is. But do not rush to Easter. Each day of this Holy Week holds important reminders for us. The good news of the resurrection is something to rejoice, but we must endure this week just as Jesus did. Today is Palm Sunday where we recognize Christ's triumphal entry, but as we saw Jesus weeping at the end of our passage, we too recognize the pain that Christ must endure before resurrecting. So let me just simply walk through this week in the life of Jesus. Tomorrow, Monday, Holy Monday, is the time where Jesus goes to the temple and expresses His anger towards the religious leaders who have let this holy place where God and humanity meet. The temple is very special, and it became a place of worshiping money and corruption. And expressing this righteous anger, he further upsets the religious leaders. Right? He pushes them. I think we know that Jesus knows what he's doing, so he knows that as he's doing this, he knows their reaction. But that's Monday. Goes to the temple, cleans out the temple, teaches at the temple. Tuesday, he continues to teach at the temple, continues to prepare people for his kingdom, and the tensions continue to rise. And then we get to Wednesday. And this is the day where plans were set in motion to capture and to kill Jesus. And again, just beyond knowing the storyline, we should recognize this week that our lives are a part of this story. This plan of betraying Jesus and going up to the cross, our sins are still at play. Even though it happened 2,000 years ago, what Jesus did on the cross is still relevant to us. So, plans are laid on Wednesday, and Jesus continues to teach. And then we get to Thursday, sometimes called "Mondy Thursday." "Mondy" comes from the Latin "Mondontum," which is English for our word "mandate." And this is the day where Jesus mandated, or told His disciples, to serve and love one another. Now, I know in our custom we usually pay attention to the other things that happen this day, which are also good, like the Last Supper and the washing of feet, and Judas' betrayal and exit from that meal. But the early church came up with this Maundy Thursday, because they wanted to put emphasis on Jesus' command to love and serve one another. And I think they had something right there. I think we should definitely remember and dwell and meditate on Jesus' command to love and serve one another. It's the biggest command that He gives throughout His teaching. And that happens on Thursday. And then Friday, Good Friday, this is the day that we mark the turn in the people. And one of the possible reasons that Jesus was distraught when writing again, when the people's words turn from Hosanna to crucify Him. From standing trial in the early morning to carrying His own cross to the hill that He be crucified on, after being beaten and mocked. to them being crucified, and darkness covering the earth, the earth trembling, the temple curtain being torn in two. This is the darkest day in history. The Son of God, perfect, died on the cross, bearing all of our sin. It's a very solemn day. It's a dark day. And then we come to Holy Saturday. And this is a day where we remember the in-between. We're in between lament and hope. We're in between sorrow and joy, loss and eternal gain, and death and life. We don't want to rush past this day. We want to sit and be present in that in-between. And then of course we come to Sunday, a week from today. We're on that day, we'll get to celebrate that Jesus rose from the grave, where they found the tomb that He was buried to be empty. Holy week and Lent are over, and the resurrection life is now ours to enjoy through Jesus. This is the best and most important day in Christian belief, because it means that Jesus truly is God, and it means for those who believe that we get to be with God for eternity. we too will experience the glorious resurrection and go be with God the Father at the end of our time. And as good as that is, as good as Easter is, don't rush to Easter. Be present each day what happened to Jesus and then consequently what God may be wanting to do with you. So don't rush. The rest of my reminders are really short. That was the longest one. Don't rush to Easter.

Secondly, remember God's covenant, faithfulness and love. The very God that the Israelites were celebrating and worshiping is the same God we worship and celebrate. For Israel, God's covenant faithfulness and love was the reason for their escape from captivity. And for believers today, it's God's covenant faithfulness and love that is the reason why He sent His Son to save us. So from Israel to believers, from escaping captivity to being saved from sin, from redeeming Israel to redeeming us, take joy in remembering God's covenant faithfulness to His people. You are His people and He loves you. Whatever place you're in in life, whether you're at peace and you're just living into God's purpose for you, life is really good right now, or you're in a place where you're just barely hanging on, remember that God covenantally and faithfully loves you. And may it give you hope this week.

Third Holy Week reminder is to ask God to transform you during this Holy Week. As we get closer to the cross, as we get closer to the darkest moment in history, ask God to expose the sins in your life in order to better undergo the transformation that the Spirit is trying to do within you. We see in this week, this Holy Week, that Jesus addresses the corrupt temple system in order that it may be what God intended. We see Jesus continue to teach at the temple, desiring that people would know the truth and would repent and accept Him. And we see Jesus teach and model His disciples to love one another. There's still such deep work going on in this week, in the hearts of people. And so, may we posture our hearts and minds this week to be teachable, to be ready to receive whatever God is wanting to do in us, to go wherever God wants us to go, and to be ready to receive how God wants to change us from within. Ask God to transform you this week.

And then fourth and finally, last reminder, is to recognize Jesus as King. On this Palm Sunday, Jesus was being hailed as King, but knew that the people wouldn't be accepting of Him in a week's time, and He knew that they didn't fully understand what kind of King He was. But we do. So let's recognize Jesus as King of our lives. And this week, pay special attention to your heart and who's operating your heart. Are you giving lip service and saying, "God, yes, you are King. "Yes, you rule in my life." But really, when it comes down to moments, we are calling the shots. Who's in charge of your heart and therefore in charge of everything in your life? Are you with Him? Are you truly following Him? Are you dedicating your life and your time and your energy to be his apprentice and to follow his way of life. Recognize Jesus as your king this week. So those are our four Holy Week reminders, and I hope they are encouraging to you.

Let me wrap this up by saying, this past week I had a conversation with a friend and mentor of mine, and we were just talking about how, as we're getting older in life, we're appreciating tradition more and more. And the tradition of Holy Week is a really rich one. It is so good for us to pause and remember what is happening in this week. It helps us better understand what Jesus went through, what God was doing in His plan to save humanity, and one that instills humility in our hearts. And so our prayer as pastors of SVC is that God would be stirring up in our hearts the desire and motivation to live for Jesus, It's not simply just to hear things on a Sunday and to know truth. It's good to know truth, but better to know the truth and to have your life be changed by it. To have a life of action and obedience, of ongoing transformation that God can use to reach others. So that's our prayer for this Holy Week, that God would take that knowledge of what's happening and put it into our hearts and our lives. The way that we live our life would truly be changed. Be intentional this week in your relationship with God. Let Him transform you. Remember that He is King in your life. Dwell on His covenant faithfulness, and don't rush to Easter too quickly.

Let's pray. God, again, we thank You. We thank You for everything that You have done, that You are doing. You're still at work, God. But this week we pause and look back at one of the biggest weeks in history. And today as we praise Jesus as King, we pray that that would not just be lip service, but that would be an honest reflection of how we feel about Him in our hearts. And throughout this week, God, we pray for your Spirit to continually transform us, to work in us, to bring us closer to you. God, I pray that we would recognize the sin in our life, the areas of our life that need work, and God, that we would willingly bring them and lay them at your feet and say, "God, please change me. Make my heart new. Make it white as snow." And each day as we get closer to the cross, I pray that you would fill us with humility and appreciation and true wonder, and that we would just be overwhelmed and praise you with everything that we have. And this time next week, I pray that we can all gather again with such joy, happiness, and excitement, getting to celebrate that Jesus rose from the grave. Be with us, each and every one of us, wherever we're at this week. We pray this in your son's name, Amen.

Romans - Part 6

Credited Faith - Romans 4:1-25

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

If you guys have been following along, you guys have been here in this, we are focusing on the book of Romans, which is a letter from Paul to the church in Rome, is all about the power of the gospel. This was almost the first letter that Paul wrote. It's not the first, but it is near the beginning of the emergence of the early church. So we come onto the scene. Jesus has been in Jerusalem three years. He's died on the cross, rose again, was around for a bit, and then ascended up into heaven. And then the early church, the disciples gathered, turned into the apostles, And then they started going about their business and being scattered to go start churches. And church after that, after that, after that, granddaughter, granddaughter, great daughter, great daughter, you get Spring Valley Church. This is where we come from. So we can trace all our lineage all the way back to this first early church movement here in the Roman Empire area, but specifically first this early church in the book of Rome or in Rome, the book of Romans. And so as a pastor, I get all sorts of questions. I get all the questions. You can think of the craziest questions and they get crazier after that. But I get all the questions. But one that I always get from time to time is how do I know that I am saved? How do I know for sure without a shadow of a doubt that this gospel, this salvation piece that Paul has been talking about and setting up this very lengthy, deep, iron clad, brick, solid rock proof of a lawyer's argument here for the power of the gospel. How can I know that this is true and specifically applied to me today?

At the end of chapter three, Paul walks through this idea about how Christ's righteousness becomes ours when we receive it by faith. Pastor Andre did a fantastic job last week, walking us through that and talking specifically about this idea of righteousness through faith. And if you missed it, you can go online, you can catch it. We're on our website. We've got the podcast rolling now. You can listen to it and you're cruising in the car. It's great stuff. I love it, it's fantastic. But you can listen on that. But Paul here, he, what? This idea, this idea of righteousness becoming ours when we receive it by faith, what does this exactly mean? I mean, these are some big words. I don't know, I know some of us in here are very highly educated in the room and some of us barely got through high school, praise Jesus, we made it, okay? Hallelujah. But sometimes we can get lost in these big words. But Paul here is like, how do we know that? How do we know that we know that we have it? And Paul here is gonna break down in this chapter, some incredible, a incredible example of faith. But if you asked Christians, and you probably surveyed us here in this room, what is faith? We get the whole range of answers. We'd probably get somewhere as faith is believing than something that you can't see like the wind that blows the trees. You can't see the wind, but you can see the effects of the wind. Maybe faith is just kind of this general sense that God is real. That there's something out there that put this universe together and in such an intricate way that it can't just be by happenstance. Or faith means just I am a proponent, exponentially pushing forward, religion. Or maybe it's something that has to, I'm serious about my faith. Jesus is something very special and meaningful to me in my life. Or maybe just faith is more of a general outlook in life. Or maybe you would say that faith is that time that some place, somewhere, sometime you prayed a prayer and you asked Jesus into your heart. Maybe that is what you would say is faith. But Paul here is gonna give us kind of an analysis of what faith is and how it really saves us and how we can know for sure that we have it. Paul kind of puts this faith on the table and kind of just opens it up for us. Maybe you could say it kind of dissects it for us in this chapter.

And it does it by looking at faith of one of the most important figures in the Bible, a guy by the name of Abraham. And this not only is important for us, but this is absolutely unbelievably the important person if you come from a Jewish background. And he is regarded as the father of faith. Anybody sing the song? ♪ Father Abraham ♪ And then he's, yeah, anybody? No, no, all right. But Paul here is saying that Abraham is the father of our faith. And so I want us today to kind of learn about what this faith is and how it saves and what it looks like in his life, because then Paul applies it to our lives as well. And Paul divides up this section and he has three questions for us, okay? The first question of which is how was Abraham saved? How was Abraham saved? And then he'll go into when was Abraham saved. We got a little timeline piece we're gonna break down. And then what were the components of Abraham's face? So here's where we're headed this morning. If you guys wanna know, here's our roadmap. We're all gonna go on a journey together. And it's all gonna start Romans chapter four, starting in verse one. We're gonna go through verse one to eight for this first section. So you can follow along, maybe bring out your old school Bible like me, or tap, click, wherever you want on your phone, and follow along, and it goes like this.

This is Romans chapter four. "What shall we say then that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, discovered in this manner?" Talking about faith. "If in fact Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. What does scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works wages, you're not credited as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work, but trust God, who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing. When he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from the works. Verse seven, blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed are the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.

So Abraham here is a forefather of our faith, okay? And so this first question that Paul is gonna ask was, how was Abraham saved? How was Abraham saved? It says here that Abraham was saved, he was justified by faith. See this, Paul here is quoting directly from Genesis 15. All the way at the beginning of the Bible, the Old Testament, first book, Genesis 15, six says this, Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness. So Paul here is talking about this idea that Abraham received salvation, was credited to him righteousness by his faith. See these verses here kind of show us this inner logic of faith. And faith is not something that tries to earn salvation, but instead receives it as a gift. The premise of every job that you have had in your life went like this, you do the work and you're paid for it. Right? That's how it works. You show up, you clock in, you put in your time. And at the end of the day, the boss hands you a check or the end of the week or the month or whatever, hands you a check and you go home with your money. I've never had a job. maybe I'm weird here, I've never had a job where a boss paid me money and I said, "Oh my goodness, thank you so much for your generosity. You are so incredibly giving." No, that's not how it works. I'm not talking bonuses or raises, I'm talking about the bare bones basis of your job. Why? Because the reality is your wage in that moment is what you are owed. You put the time in, you did the job, you checked the box, now you get paid. And see, in this, most people approach their relationship with God like this. They approach, they say this, "Hey, I do good things, and then God pays me with heaven." "or my rewards for good works are eternal life." And most religions around the world work off this premise, this idea of earning. I obey, therefore I will be accepted. They believe that God gives us acceptance as a reward or a wage for our obedience. Gospel doesn't work like this. Gospel works off a different premise. Acceptance is given as a gift. given as a gift to those who will receive it.

We see this specifically in verse five, because verse five here is probably one of the most important Bibles or verses in the Bible on salvation. Did you guys catch that? It says this in verse five, "However, to the one who does not work, but trusts," or it can also be understood as, "or believes God who justifies the ungodly, their faith, like Abraham's, is credited as righteousness. So what does Paul mean? Paul means this, he says, "To the one who does not work." What does that mean? Well, it means that you're not trying to earn God's salvation. You're not trying to earn his acceptance through good works. You're not trying to be good enough to get that entrance ticket into heaven. But instead, as verse five says, "You believe on him who declares the ungodly to be righteous." Is that you believe God's understanding and the promise that he has graciously gone through everything necessary to give us such a gift. To give us this gift. And that it was purchased as salvation when Jesus died on the cross for you and me, just like he said. And when you believe that, you will have acceptance as Christ's righteousness as it is credited to you.

This word credited is really interesting term. It's actually a banking term I found out. I was doing some research on this. And the Greek word here, for those who would love to delve into this, is logizomai. It's a fun word, logizomai. (congregation laughing) And it's a banking term. And it means this thing that is something that is put into your account. I love how Paul uses this. I remember as a kid, getting my first bank account or savings account, my parents helped me open it up. And I didn't have hardly no, I had no money. I was a kid, let's be honest. I had no money. And my parents, logizomai, credited me money and put it into my account. Now I wasn't allowed to touch it, but I could look at that shiny little paper statement and go, ha ha, there's my credit. It would be the same if I had for my kids. Like if I find myself in a place where I only have a week to live, and I would go and I would open a bank account for my kids. And I would tell the banker, hey, I need you to transfer all the money that I have. You'd look at my account and laugh, but I would say, I need to take all of this money that I have, and I need you to log in "O my, credit it to my children "so they can have it when I'm gone." This is what's happening right here. Paul here is explaining that this is what happens when Christ's righteousness of when you trust Him, when you call on Him as your sin bearer, your Savior, your Lord, you trust in Him as your substitute, your Savior, all of His righteousness, all of His favor with God, because he was perfect, he was blameless, he had done nothing wrong, he basically logizomai credits into our account salvation. That's what Paul's here saying. He's saying that all of this is logizomai to you. And this is how Abraham was saved, by faith.

Let's continue on, verse nine here in Romans. Is this blessedness only for the circumcised or for the uncircumcised. Okay, Paul here, real quick, a little translation piece. Paul here is using this term, circumcised, uncircumcised as the law. So for those who circumcised are following the law, uncircumcised, those who are not following law. Just a quick shorthand. So don't get caught up in all of this words here, okay? We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised or before? if that was not after, but before. And he received circumcision as a sign or a seal of that righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then he is a father of all who believe, but have not been circumcised. In order that righteousness, well, boom, the accredited, the father of the circumcised, to all who are circumcised, but also in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised." You guys follow along? Okay. Clear as mud. Beautiful. "It was not through the law," here we go, Paul, he fixes it for us so we can understand this. "It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be the heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith." You guys following? "For if those who depend on the law are heirs, Faith means nothing and the promise is worthless because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression. Therefore the promise comes by faith so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, not only to those who are the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all, as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. He is our Father in the sight of God, in whom He believed, the God who gives faith to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

So Paul here, in this super lengthy argument in these verses, I don't know if you guys followed all of it, basically asked the question then, when was Abraham saved? He says in verse 10, under what circumstances was accredited? it after he was circumcised or before? See, remember Paul here is using this term "circumcised" as shorthand for all of the Jewish law. So Paul here is asking basically this. You guys ready? Basically asking this, "Was Abraham declared righteous before or after the Jewish law was given?" That's the premise here. That's the question that's being asked. Because if it was after, then maybe Maybe righteousness can be earned through law, through observing the law. But if it was before, well, that changes everything, right? So here, Paul answers his own question. I love it when he does this. He answers his question. He's like, "I'm gonna answer it in two verses." Verses 10 through 12. "It was not after, but before. And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that had been by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe, but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to him. And he is then also the father of the circumcised, not only are the circumcised, but also those who are the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham, and before he was circumcised." That word is in there way too many times.

So here's the answer to Paul's question. It was not before or not while, not during, but it was still before Abraham received the law that he was credited faith and justification. So that proves here is basically Paul's, this whole big argument, Paul's basically trying to tell us that it proves that obedience to the law is not necessary for salvation. Why? Because we are already saved and because Abraham was declared righteous over 600 years before the law was given to the Israelite people. 600 years. It's crazy. So the logic here goes like this, all right? Here's a breakdown. God declared Abraham righteous in Genesis 15, six. Circumcision or the law wasn't introduced until way, way later. So before any of these religious laws or rituals were given, Abraham was already declared righteous. Already declared righteous. Therefore, you can't say that obeying the law is necessary for salvation. It's still necessary for stuff, but it's not at the core of salvation. The law isn't the means to salvation. and Abe was saved even before any of this stuff was around. The law had been sent for a different purpose to provide us of how to live our lives after we've received salvation. So Abraham was saved by faith and it was before the Jewish law he was saved.

This leads us to our final question. What were the components of Abraham saving faith? Paul is leading us always to this point where he's got something he wants us to take home, something he wants us to kind of put in our pocket and think on and wrestle with this whole week. And he says this, he says, "Two important things that emerge from this final section." Romans 18 through 25, it says this, "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be. Without wrecking, wakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about 100 years old. And that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he said he had promised. This is why it was credited to him as righteousness. The words, it was credited to him, were written not for him alone. Here's where we come into it. But also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness for us who believe in him, who raised Jesus, our Lord from the dead. was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Here's the first part of this. You see this faith's posture. What do I mean by faith's posture? Well, you see Abraham believed in a specific promise that God had given to him. And then Abraham adjusted, refocused, reprioritized everything in his life for that promise, specifically believing on that. What was that? Well, that was that there was going to be a kid that was gonna come from the nation of Abraham that was gonna have the savior that was gonna be the promised Messiah for the entire world. What was the problem with that? Here was the problem. Abraham and Sarah ain't having no kids. Abe's what, almost 90? Sarah's over 70 at this point. Even on the best day, there's only a slim chance that any of this is happening, okay? But Abraham believed, that's the awesome part. And what did Abraham do? Abraham started living his life in this promise. What do I mean by that? Abraham went off, he started buying stuff for a nursery. He started picking out names. Him and Sarah went into Target, got the little clicker guns and going around and registering. Abraham went and got the coffee mug, world's greatest dad. He got the T-shirt. He's out searching for a land for this nation. Like Abraham goes 100% in on this promise of God and nothing has yet to happen. Nothing has yet to happen to this point. A hundred years. Can you believe that? A hundred years and Abraham changes his whole life and shifts into this posture of faith and says, God promised it, I believe it. That's what he says. And it says, verse 21, "Being fully persuaded," or another translation would say, "Convinced that God had power to do what he had promised. And because of all this," verse 22, "this is why it was credited to him, logizomai, to him as righteousness." Just like Abraham believed that God could give him a son in his old age, just like he promised, we believe that Jesus paid for our sin and rose again, just like God had promised. That's where we come into the picture. And it's a little bit different, why? Because Abraham believed in something that was yet to happen. That's Abraham's faith. It's a forward-looking faith. Looking to the future going, "God, you promised it, I believe it. "I know it's gonna happen, I'm all in." Our faith is looking back to what Jesus did on the cross 2000 something years ago, saying, I believe it, I trust it. God said it, it's done, it's over, it's taken care of. I live in that faith. That's our faith. And Paul here is saying that we know we can be justified through that same faith that Abraham had, because it's the same God who was the same yesterday in Abraham's day, in Jesus's day, in yesterday, on Saturday afternoon, February, or March 25th, as he is on the 26th, as he's gonna be tomorrow on the 27th. That's that kind of faith that Abraham is talking about here and Paul is writing in this to say, this is the faith. And it's a kind of faith that you can go all in on, that you can fully lean into, that you can put all your faith into. It's a surrender kind of faith. And it's a posture that we have to take with God in believing this. And we know it is true.

The second piece of this is the faith boast, which is God's faithfulness. Did you guys catch that in verse 21? It said, "Yet we do not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded, fully convinced that God had power to do what he has promised. Because Abraham leaned into fully that God would provide him with the Son that would become the nation of Israel, that from the nation of Israel would come King David, who would come a descendant of David, would be the Messiah who was Christ our Savior that lived here on earth and went to the cross fully perfect for our substitution of death for our sins, conquered that death, rose again, and we're going to celebrate that in two weeks. Amen. That's what we're talking about here. And in this, God gets all the glory. God gets all the glory, right? Because we can't but give God the glory. Does that make sense? That's the only thing we do. 'Cause we can't get to heaven. And if there was any part that we had done, oh, we'd be walking around heaven like a boss, right? We'd be like, "Yeah, that was me. I'm the spiritual mega man. I was the one that did it. Temptation came my way and I said, no. I was the one that had the strength. I was the one that pushed the devil away. And I am here on my salvation. and I'm the one here to boast. Does it work like that? No. None of us are going to get that when we get, get to say that when we get to heaven. The only thing we're gonna get to say when we get to heaven is that we've been there 10,000 years, bright, shining like the sun and no less day to sing God's praise when it first begun. And in heaven, God's grace will be our boast because that is the only way that any of us will get there. I'm sorry to burst your bubble today. If you came in this morning trying to get that gold star, checking that Sunday off, getting to that 500th Sunday streak, I will give you a firm handshake and a bagel on the way out and tell you congratulations, but that's kind of as far as it's going, okay? I'm sorry, that's all you're gonna get from us today. It is only in God's that salvation is the sole object of our faith. He is our hope, He is our love. And He has to have the first place in our hearts. He has to have that first place because He is the one that's gonna get all the glory from our lives. And Abraham's faith was a trust kind of faith, a surrender completely kind of faith, fully go all in kind of faith.

And that is a question for us, do we have that faith? Do we have that same kind of faith that we are an all in kind of faith. A lot of us as Christ followers attempt to have this faith like Abraham, but we kind of end up of what I call a mutual fund kind of a faith. If anybody has invested any money in the stock market or tried to have any future dividends or retirement or anything, you guys know what a mutual fund is. A mutual fund is a stock that you invest with or with a company and they take all your money and they spread it across a ton of different companies. Some have four or five, some have thousands of companies. Why? Because the idea is that you hedge your bets. If this company goes down, hopefully a company over here rises up and you kind of balance out. And hopefully in the end, you still move ahead. We do that in our life. We build our portfolio and we wouldn't want to not have God in our portfolio, but God is just a portion of our portfolio. He's just a kind of piece over here. We got all these other kind of things going on and we think, okay, man, we have, I still kind of keep God over here and kind of put the, it's just gonna work out. Now that's probably a wise investment strategy as I've been told and invested in, but for our faith, it doesn't work like that. That's not kind of faith that God wants in our lives. God wants an all in, all for nothing, fully all in, everything you got, everything, everything, kind of a faith that God wants for us. And that's the kind of faith that Abraham had. And we can have that same faith when we trust in God and go all in on who he is and everything that is there, that's the faith that we can have. It's an all or nothing kind of a thing. That's the only way it works. I mean, you might go, well, you know, pastor, I'm like 90% in with God. That's awesome. Still not 100. I don't know any husband that could say, you know, I'm 90% committed. That's some scary stuff right there. Maybe you're less than 90, I don't know. But even that less than little pit, even if it's a bit, we would still call them an unfaithful husband. See, God loves us so much and he cares for who we are. He wants all of us. He doesn't want 90, he doesn't want 99.9999, he wants an all in everything kind of a faith in him.

And when we look back at who Abraham was and the place that he found himself in without a child, without a future, without a hope, without anything, God shows up in his life and makes a miracle happen and it changes the world. And it's that same God that we serve and we love who cares for us and has everything that he wants for our lives planned out in a way that is absolutely beautiful. We just have to go all in. So that's the question for us today. This is where Paul is leading us. And real quick, when I say fully surrendered, It doesn't mean we're never gonna sin again. I sin, I struggle through it, everybody's gonna struggle. It's not until we get face to face with Jesus and he makes us perfect, is that gonna be taken care of? But what I'm saying an all in kind of a faith is not you are intentionally choosing outside of what God wants for your life. That is this kind of all in. And do you have that type of surrender? We're gonna move into a time of communion this morning. I want us to focus in on that, to have this mindset and this heart of thinking about the all in that Jesus went all in for on the cross and gave that sacrifice for us. And because of that, we get to boast in who Jesus is. We get to boast in God's glory for our lives to then let that flow out of us to as we have our vision and mission here is to see our community saturated with the glory of God. That's that Abraham faith right there. That's that kind of faith that I am talking about this morning.

Romans - Part 5

How We Are Saved - Romans 3:21-31

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Excited to be here in our series in Romans. Our desire is that these Sunday gatherings, say ours in the leadership, Pastor Chris and I, that these Sunday mornings are a good part of your weekly rhythm in life, and that you come here to be a part of your own continuation in being a disciple of Jesus. We have it on our wall here of making disciples in the everyday stuff of life, and that's both for us, and then we wanna be helping others be disciples too, but this Sunday morning is such a good part of us continuing in being disciples of Him. And so we just hope and pray that that is true, that we can grow together and closer to each other, grow closer to God. And I share that just as this church has continued to come out of the fog of COVID, at this heartbeat of this church, Spring Valley, will continue to grow and become louder in our community and that we become more and more alive in our walks with Jesus and bring more people to be a part of what God is doing here at this church. So I know that is your prayer too, and we just wanna acknowledge that everything we do is in light of that. We wanna be a light in this community and be growing closer together into him. So can we just get an amen for that? Amen? Yeah.

Well, we are continuing in our Roman series, part five, chapter three. Don't get confused by that. Just we're in chapter three. I get confused on like part five, this number, then this number. But it's good 'cause we're going verse by verse, just going through the scripture, trying to do our best to understand Paul's argument here, argument for the gospel. I love a good breakdown moment, like be it a book or a movie. I'll take a movie, I'm probably more of a movie person at this point in my life. But whatever it is that you're reading or watching, there's sometimes a scene that epitomizes the whole story, that summarizes the entire reason why you're about to watch you're gonna watch. And it kinda goes back into history to explain how you got to this point, and it's going to help understand everything that you're about to watch. And if it's done really well, it doesn't seem out of place, it just seems like, oh, good, I needed to know this information to understand the story that I'm about to watch. I'm a bit of a Lord of the Rings nerd, so my example would be Lord of the Rings. At the beginning of the movies, this is not a spoiler, And if it is, it's okay. They've been out for like 20 years. (audience laughs) But the beginning of the movies, the very first movie you watch, it doesn't start with the main characters, it goes back in time. And it says like, all this long time ago, this is what happened. The ring was created. And then the bad guy did this, and some of the good people tried to do this. And then over time, and it catches you up to like this point where the story actually begins. So it goes for like 10 minutes of this like history lesson. But because of that, you now know, You're in the story, you know, I get it. I now know why the good guys are going to try to do what they're about to do. And I get why the bad guys are trying to get after them. So it just explains everything. And it's this great breakdown of a story. And as a viewer, like I said, you're caught up on the events, why this situation exists.

And it also brings you to understand what the solution is. These breakdown moments kind of help you understand, in order for good to prevail in the story, this thing needs to happen. And that's what today's passage is in Romans. It's this transition in the story that Paul has been sharing from all the bad, all the evil, all the sin that he's been talking about. And it's this transition to hope. It's this reference that ties all that has happened in the past and it helps make sense of what the future holds for us individually. And in the story that he's telling, what the future is gonna be, what it's gonna be like. So Paul is giving his commentary, playing over history and scripture, and giving an explanation for why things had to happen. And in today's passage, after the previous chapters of Paul stating that everyone will be judged, he's kind of painted a very dark picture, he now brings light to the situation, and because Jesus enters the conversation. Many theologians and scholars consider this paragraph, that we'll cover a couple paragraphs, 21 through 31 as the most important in all of the Bible. Martin Luther thought that this was the center point of Romans and therefore the entire gospel. So it is vital to our understanding of God's word. It's so important because it shows the culmination of God's plan of salvation. And that was in the life of Jesus through his birth life and especially in his death and resurrection. And so this paragraph, these 10 verses, explain how one is saved, and it explains the difference between Christianity and every other religion on earth. It brings hope to our human situation of sin. And whereas other religions say that once you obey or once you do this, once you're good with the law, you're good, you're in, you're gonna be fine. Paul will explain how being a believer, how being a Christian, a true disciple of Jesus, hinges on something totally different than one's own ability to accomplish the law. So let's dive in, and this morning I really just wanna camp on some major ideas and flesh out a bit some of these ideas that Paul brings to the surface and make sure that we're walking away today with some clarity about our salvation and what God has done for us.

So if you turn in your Bibles, Romans 3, you can follow along, I'll read out loud as you guys Read it to yourself, so verse 21 it says this, "But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God "has been made known to which the law "and the prophets testify. "This righteousness is given through faith "in Jesus Christ to all who believe. "There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, "and all are justified freely by his grace "through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. "God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement "through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith. "He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, "because in his forbearance he had left the sins "committed beforehand unpunished. "He did it to demonstrate his righteousness "at the present time so as to be just "and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. "Where then is boasting? "It is excluded. "Because of what law? "The law that requires works? "No, because of the law that requires faith. "For we maintain that a person is justified by faith "apart from the works of the law. "Or is God the God of the Jews only? "Is he not the God of Gentiles too? "Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God "who will justify the circumcised by faith "and the uncircumcised through that same faith. "Do we then nullify the law by this faith? "Not at all. "Rather, we uphold the law.”

Would you guys pray with me? God, we come before you this morning eager to hear your word, to hear your truth. And God, we give you credit for the life that we can live in you because it is all from you. Your salvation is a gift. And we're so thankful for what your son has done. I pray that through this text, God, and through the working of your spirit in our hearts, we would come to deeper understanding and appreciation of who you are and what you've done. Give this time to me, pray this in your name, amen.

I wanna walk through verse by verse to understand Paul's explanation here because it is absolutely essential to our faith. And so I'm just gonna start, and this is covering 21 through 31 is the process of salvation. Paul's laying it out. This is how he kinda went through the first Several chapters, you cannot be saved this way. This is how one is saved. So in verse 21, Paul starts off with, but now, which is one of the biggest transitions in all of scripture, because God's way of righteousness has now been revealed. He's talking about salvation. So God's plan all throughout the Old Testament that was there and it hadn't come to fruition yet is now here. In verse 22, Paul talks about how the law only makes us aware of our sin. He's been kind of hinting at this, he's been saying this. It cannot change our hearts. It cannot make us love something that we cannot love. Paul's words here speak of something we'll talk more about later, but the fact that salvation is given to us. It is a gift. Again, Paul is hammering this home every chapter, every other paragraph it seems. is making sure that people understand you cannot earn your salvation. You cannot do it. God's righteousness does not disparage between Jew or Gentile, but is for all, all who believe in Jesus Christ, given through faith. We'll come back to that in a second. Verse 23, Paul now summarizes the previous chapters in one phrase. He says, "All have sinned and fall short "of the glory of God." Again, pointing to the all-encompassing nature of sin. It touches every single person. There's no one on earth that is not affected by sin. All of humanity, none escape it. We are all plagued by sin. And Paul doesn't want anyone to think, believer or non-believer, religious person or non-religious person, that they are somehow exempt from needing Jesus. Every single person needs Jesus, period. Everyone. And then verses 24 through 25, and now we get to the good part here.

What can we do about our sin? Well, we can't do anything on our own. And Paul introduces some big theological words here, but I wanna unpack them and make sure that we understand what this passage is saying, because as I prayed, it leads to a deeper appreciation of who God is, what he's done for us. And that's the point of every Sunday, is to walk away with a deeper appreciation for God. So the first word that Paul gives us is justified. He says, "And all are justified." That phrase, all are, is referring to those who can be, those who are saved. And then justified, this is this term that means to be declared righteous. It's a legal declaration that you are innocent before God. We were previously sinners, we were guilty in the eyes of God because of our sin, and so how are we made innocent? How are we justified? Well God, instead of seeing our sins, now sees Jesus' righteousness. And when Jesus was on the cross, he took on our sin that made us guilty. and his righteousness is then ours. So when we believe that Jesus is the savior and we entrust our lives to him, he takes on our sin and it is paid for on the cross. And what we receive is perfect righteousness, allowing God to see us as innocent.

Jesus' sacrifice justifies us before God. So we get the term justification. It's our first word. The second word we see is redemption. through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Redemption is about bringing something back from destruction, from death, or to buy something back from destruction. We've been going through this series on RightNow Media with J.D. Greer, and he gives a great example, and so I'm just gonna repeat it to you, to help make sense of this process. He asks, what do you call it when you cash in a coupon? You redeem it, right? And when you're shopping at the supermarket, let's say you received a coupon for some ham from a certain manufacturer. So you go to the store to redeem that coupon. You go to the ham section, you pick up that ham, you go to the clerk at the front, and you check out. And that clerk says it's going to be $23. And you say, well, not for me, because I've got a coupon. And you give them that coupon, and you pay nothing. You just got this ham for absolutely free. And what did the manufacturer pay? The manufacturer paid full price. And the pig is the real hero of the story because the pig paid everything. The coupon availed you to their generosity. Yeah, thank you J.D. Greer for making us think of some delicious ham and bacon during our service. But that example helps us understand what Jesus did on the cross and the redemption that we experienced. This is how it worked. God sent his son Christ Jesus. You present faith in Jesus and you receive eternal life. You receive salvation. His sacrifice is yours. The third word that we see is atonement. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement. And this word means that God's wrath has been satisfied. The debt has been paid. Other translations use the word propitiation, which is the turning away of wrath by an offering. So God's wrath was turned away from us and put onto Christ in order that we may be saved. Jesus took our place on the cross, taking the punishment that we deserve, and in doing so, he atones for our sins. He died in our place, he paid our price. And so the sacrifice of atonement is about Jesus taking our place. Now you may be wondering, why was sacrifice even necessary?

Well it comes from the Old Testament, and what God required before Jesus' ultimate sacrifice to cover all of our sins. In the Old Testament, the process of being made innocent involved regular animal sacrifice, something to atone for people's sins. In the Old Testament, there was no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood. Hebrews tells us that, reminds us of that old custom, that in order for a person to be seen as clean in the eyes of God, they had to sacrifice something. So if you were back in the Old Testament, you would go about your day, your week, and you would recognize that I've sinned. I didn't uphold the 10 commandments and all the other laws that God had given at that time. I messed up. Somewhere along the line, multiple times, I need to do something about my sin. I've sinned against God. And now I have to make it right with God. So you gotta atone for your sins. What would you do? You would go to the temple, you would bring an unblemished animal, perfect, meaning just it had the best looking fur, and there were no like defects with that animal, so perfect animal, and you would have to bring it to the priests and they would sacrifice it. And that sacrifice would be pleasing to God. And in that process, God would recognize that you are now clean again. But the, so the basic system is you sin, you sacrifice, and you substitute yourself with an animal, and temporarily you are seen as clean. For a time, you were right with God. Your relationship was temporarily restored. Now it's still a heart issue, 'cause people back in the time, the Bible tells us that people made sacrifices that didn't have a contrite heart, and God said those sacrifices were not pleasing to me. I don't like those sacrifices. Don't just do this because you have to. You need to have a contrite heart, a repentant heart, acknowledging that you did wrong, that you have offended me, God, and you need to make it right. So going to the temple to sacrifice was a regular part of their lives. It was one of the rhythms of life. And this system in the Old Testament foreshadows what Jesus would do on the cross.

Because that Old Testament system is now nullified by Jesus' actions. So Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. No other sacrifices are needed anymore, thank goodness. This sacrifice covers all the sin. The sin that we have committed, the sin that we will commit, we no longer need an atoning sacrifice because Jesus paid that price. And like we mentioned before, the salvation is free. So our fourth word is grace. It says, "By His grace." This salvation, this being justified, being redeemed, is completely free for us. It is a gift, it's not something that we earn. Someone once explained grace as God's riches at Christ's expense. No other religion in the world revolves around grace like this. a God-given grace, where you don't do anything, and yet God can still give you eternal life. You didn't earn your way, you didn't have to check this off the box, all these laws, obey everything. God's salvation is a gift. So with those four words now, kinda having the definitions fresh in our mind, let me reread part of this verse here. It says, "For all have sinned and fall short "of the glory of God." So that's our status right there. and all are justified, those who believe, are justified freely by his grace. Through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus, God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness. Hopefully that brings a clearer sense of what God has done, who He is, His character, and how He loves us, and what He did out of that love.

Verse 26 continues in saying that on the cross, God did two things. He satisfies the full demand of God's justice. Sin is an offense against God, something has to be done, so Jesus pays that price, and so God's justice is fully, fully met. And at the same time, God saves us. So Jesus on the cross satisfies God's wrath and at the same time gives us salvation. God demonstrates his righteousness, his perfect action towards sin, so he is perfectly just by carrying out his punishment against sin. And at the same time, while he's exercising his justice, he is also saving us. That's amazing. That's incredible. Not only is he being perfectly righteous, but he is sharing his righteousness with us and those who believe. The rest of this chapter 27 through 31, Paul circles back to the law. He's been going on about the law. The law does not save you, and he's offered clarity about what the law does, and so he just wants to capstone that with, again, okay, now that we understand how you are saved, The law is still relevant. The law is still a part of this picture. And its purpose is to offer guidance and direction. It cannot transform anyone's heart, but for the heart that is transformed, it points to God. And even for the heart that isn't transformed, it still points to God. Provides direction, but it cannot make us go in that direction. That's the power of the gospel. That's what Jesus and the Holy Spirit in us does. But without it, we wouldn't know how to be more like God.

So God's law, Pastor Chris said this last week, is like a mirror. It helps, makes us see ourselves with more clarity. It tells us how far away from God we are. So if I know God's word and I'm saved and I look at the law, I look at what I'm supposed to be doing, I can see, man, I'm really far away. Like I'm not living the life that God wants me to live. Or it could be encouraging. You look at the Bible in that mirror and you're saying, man, I am walking with God. I'm doing what God wants me to do. This is great. It tells us how far away or how close we are. It tells us how to be more like him. Again, Paul doesn't want the Jew or the Gentile to forget about his law. He just wants them to have an accurate understanding. And Paul wants the same thing for us today. That's why the Old Testament and the New Testament are so important. It's why it's so vital to be in the word daily. It's why it's helpful to participate in church life, to be a part of this body of believers so that we can be aware of our vicinity to God. How close are we? How far away? How do I, what does God need to work on in my life? The better we understand God's word, the better we understand him. And the better we understand him, the better we understand how we need to grow, those areas of strength, the areas of weakness that we have, the areas of sin that need to be addressed. When we better understand ourselves, we can better partner with the Spirit and the transformative work that he is doing in our life and in the lives of others.

So looking in that mirror, looking at God's word, the law gives us direction, and for those who are saved, because our hearts are transformed through the power of the Spirit, we can start to head in that right direction, closer to Him. So, there is our passage. That's going through all of Paul's words, verse by verse, but I wanna take a moment to kinda take us out of the letter and put it into the story of what Christ did. Paul alludes to it here, but to help us fully understand what we may already know, or to clarify what might be new to you, let me tell you this story, and it's our story. So the story goes, every human that's ever lived, every one of us, is marred with sin. Our hearts are stained with sin. And before we are saved, there's this separation between us and God. Why? Because God hates sin. It's a direct offense against him. To help us kind of understand how real this is, I mean, even in the Old Testament, God used to dwell in the tabernacle or in the temple, and it was the Holy of Holies, which was this inner room inside of a room. And that's where God's presence was. And the only person that can go in there was the high priest. And even then, it was only during a specific time, and you had to go through a process to be made clean, but no one else could go in there. And if they did, they would die automatically because their sin and God's presence, it's like oil and water, it does not mix.

And I share that to help us see just how serious God takes sin. So with that in mind, we are separated from God until God intervenes in our lives, until the Holy Spirit makes us aware of our sinful status, at which point we can put our faith in Him. But in order to save us, in order for us to be able to spend eternity in God's presence, God had to do something about our sin. So God sent his son Jesus to live the life that we could not live, which was a perfect one. Never having needed to make an Old Testament sacrifice, Jesus never needed to do that because he never sinned. And yet despite being perfect, Christ was condemned to die on the cross. a death that sinners deserved, a death that we deserved, because our sin makes us guilty. But Jesus dies on the cross, and as he's hanging on the cross, he doesn't just die a human death, but he fights a spiritual battle, and he takes on all of our sin, all of it. Like, just sit in the weight of that for a second, not just your sin that you've committed so far, but all of your sin, and then multiply that all the sins of this people in this room. And then you think of the entire world and all the sins that happened. Jesus is dying on the cross, bearing the weight of all of our sin. And because of what we know about God and sin, like oil and water, they don't go together, now the picture of what's happening on the cross between God and His Son, Jesus, becomes even clearer. There's no tension there. Christ was the ultimate sacrifice to atone for for our sins and God's wrath against that sin, against those who committed that sin, against us, instead of it being on us, now God's wrath is focused on his own son. And it meant that God had to turn his back on Jesus for that moment because of that sin that Jesus bore. And in that moment, Jesus cries out, Father, why have you forsaken me? I mean, does that hit us? Like, not just in our heads of like, I understand that that relationship was, what was going on, but does that hit us in our hearts? That emotion is palpable. And this really is the darkest moment in history. It's because of our sin. Son of God, perfect, dies on the cross for us. And I say this as our story because He did it for you. He did it for me. through Jesus' death and sacrifice, for you who believe you are saved. Your guilty status now changes in the eyes of God to be innocent. You are justified. You were dead in your sins, believing in Christ. Now your souls have been redeemed. You are brought to life. Your soul and your heart can now be transformed by the Spirit because Jesus has atoned for your sins. And this happens based on nothing that you have done in life. You haven't earned this. This is a complete gift because he loves you. I mean, what a gift. What grace, what sacrifice, and what love from God. And so if this is your story this morning, then I hope you are filled with praise and thankfulness for God. And if this isn't yet your story, It can be.

The most important question that Paul will ask, that we will ask in this series, is have you trusted Christ Jesus with your salvation? Are you looking to anything other than Christ for your salvation? If you're thinking that you're hoping to be good enough in the end, or that you've done enough in your life to get into heaven, the answer is you haven't, you won't, you will never be able to. The only way is through Jesus, through faith in Jesus. And so if you've never received Christ, or even if you have, I wanna take this moment to pray. And I want you guys to pray this prayer with me. So if you could bow your heads, close your eyes, and inside, just silently to yourself, repeat this in your hearts. Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and need to be saved. I turn from my sin right now, and I acknowledge that you are the Lord and the Lord in my life. I receive you right now as my savior. And right now I am putting my sin on you. You are the sin bearer. You took my sin and died the death that I deserved. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. God, we come before you fully recognizing as much as we can that you have done amazing things, that your work on the cross through your son Jesus is everything that we need. It's the only thing that we need. And God, I pray that that would, you would help us to feel the weight of that, to feel the weight of our sin on the cross and the gift that it is that we don't have to die that death but you did it for us. God, I pray that your spirit, whether we've been walking with you for years or we are just starting right now to walk with you, I pray that we would be filled with a joy and an appreciation, a thankfulness, and just praises for what you have done. We give you all the glory, God. Amen.

Romans - Part 4

Faithfulness of God - Romans 3:1-20

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, we are continuing in our book of Romans, our series. We're moving on to part four this morning. And Paul's finally gonna let up. No, I wish I could tell you that is the case. If anything, Paul pushes even deeper and further and goes in even more to the point, I was reading through some commentaries and scholars are saying, this is the hardest section of the entire book of Romans. So congratulations, you're here to receive the hardest part of the book of Romans this morning. No, but it's gonna be great. I'm excited. everybody who's still hanging on with us online. We love you, we miss you, get well and come back soon. So Romans chapter three, if you wanna turn there with me this morning, we're gonna jump in. But first before we do, I wanna kinda tag back a little bit into what Pastor Andre talked about a little bit of last week is that Paul here is setting up this giant argument. One point onto a next building block, onto a next building block, onto a next building block, onto a next building block, onto a next building block. It seems like this argument is just taking forever to get there. So before we jump into his next building block, I want us to back up a couple of verses into chapter two and starting in verse 28, then we can kind of set us up to roll into this first part of chapter three this morning.

So if you would, we're gonna start Romans chapter two, verse 28, and then we're gonna roll right in through the first eight verses of chapter three. But it says this, it says, "A person is not a Jew who is only outwardly, "nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. "No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, "and circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the Spirit, "not by the written code. "Such a person's praise is not from other people, "but from God. "What advantage then is there in being a Jew? "Or what value is there in circumcision? "Much in every way. "First of all, the Jews have been entrusted "with the very words of God. "What if some were unfaithful?" So Paul's gonna start getting into this, like this inner lawyer debate with himself. He's gonna go, "What about this? "What about this? "What about this? "What about this?" I texted Pastor Andre yesterday. I said, "I feel like I'm watching two incredibly brilliant people argue with each other in their own mind. And I'm over here sitting with like an IQ score of like 20. And I'm like, "I don't know what's happening here." This guy is, Paul is just brilliant. So here's his first argument. He says like, "What if someone were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness?" "Not at all," the other one replies. "Let God be true in every human being a liar, as it is written, "so that you may be proved right when you speak "and prevail when you judge. "But," here's a counteract, "but if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness "more clearly, what shall we say? "That God is unjust and bringing wrath on us? "I'm using a human argument." He, Paul's even just talking to himself right here, right before our eyes. "Certainly not," the other Paul responds. "If that were so, how could God judge this world? "Some might argue if my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness "so that increases his glory, "why am I still condemned as a sinner?" If I'm being made an example of, why do I have punishment on top of being made an example of, is basically what they're saying. "Why not say, as some slanderously claim that we say," get a little sassy here, Paul, "Let us do evil that good may result." The other responds, "No, their condemnation is just."

That make any sense to any of you? Okay, cool. We're all on the same page here. All right, so Paul here is having this inner dialogue, back and forth and so we'll say this, we'll then say this and say this and say this. And it's so funny because Paul here, which if you remember, Paul himself is of Jewish descent. He's a Jew himself, okay? So he's making this argument about what it means to be a Jew versus a Gentile and what the advantages and disadvantages are and how people in this today in society are basically using that as their identity or their badge of honor to manipulate the situation for their own personal gain to have control over other people to put them down. Clear as mud? Perfect. So what Paul here is saying is that a person is a Jew on the inside. The Jewish heritage comes from their lineage. It comes from their legacy of what they're born into. It's something physical about them that makes a person a Jew. And so what is here is a DNA level of Judaism on a person. And Paul here is saying that, yeah, that's how you are a Jew. But what's happening here in the early church is that people are coming into the faith in Christ and coming under what they understand this religion of flowing out of Judaism through Jesus. They're finding these people, the Jewish people, are saying, "Hey, you gotta do this. "You gotta do this. "You gotta do this. "You gotta do this." And then when you do that, you essentially will bestow a blessing on you and say, "You are now seen as a Jew." as a Jew. And Paul here is saying, "No, stop it." He says there even in that verse, if you do that, you're basically getting praise from man, you're not getting praise from God. And on the flip side, Paul here is saying, "You don't need to do that. You don't have to come under the laws and the festivals and the circumcision and all these rituals and all these things to be considered someone on the faith following Jesus, because Jesus took care of all that. Jesus is the fulfillment of the entire law itself.

And so Paul here is saying, "Don't listen to those people because what they're trying to do is to control you. They're trying to lord over you to say, well, if you don't do this, then you gotta show me your Jew card on the way into church because if you don't, then I'm sorry, you can't come in here to church." And Paul's like, "This is ridiculous. Jesus came for everybody. Jesus came for the Jew and he came for the Gentile. And Paul, I think in this inner dialogue is kind of jumping back and forth between, hi, I'm Paul the Jew and hi, or excuse me, sorry, I'm Saul the Jew. Remember Saul before he became Paul, he goes, I'm Saul the Jew and now hi, I'm Paul over here, the redeemed follower, disciple of Jesus. And so this is where that inner dialogue back and forth is coming about. And it's like, he's having an argument with himself. Like if we see Paul like trying to like write this letter, you probably look like a crazy person just walking down the street talking to himself. And he's like, "Well, no, this, this over here, this over here, oh, have you forgotten about this part here?" Or he's getting sarcastic because he's losing the argument with himself. So he starts getting sassy. And so in the end, Paul is like, "Just stop it. Just stop it because the reality is it's not about us." This is Paul's entire argument since the beginning of this book. Because remember, this is a letter. We sit here and we chunk up these pieces. This is a whole conscious thought of many run-on sentences, twists and turns, rabbit holes, surprises, rollercoaster loop-de-loops that Paul's writing here.

It was funny. I was talking to Pastor Andre last night about this because I was like, man, I feel like Paul's argument just keeps going deeper and deeper and deeper. He keeps answering all these questions. I'm like, who's asking these questions, bro? Like, it's okay, calm down. And then the more we talk to you, realize like, man, if we didn't have Paul counter all of these questions, we'd be left with a book that has a bunch of holes in it that then could be left up to argument and confusion and so much even to the point where then we start having heresy, which is false teaching, in our churches because Paul is basically locking this thing down behind a gate, behind a fence, behind a steel wall with locks upon locks, all inside of like a bank safe, all surrounded with security and 24/7 patrol and helicopters and all this stuff. He's locking this down so much so that nobody can even attempt to poke a hole in this. And so when we see it in that light, I go, All right, well, this makes more sense. Like, okay, okay, Paul, I'll roll with you. I'll see what you're talking about here. We'll figure this thing out together.

But only Paul gets to this point that being a Jew is awesome. He says that in there. He's like, it's great to be a Jew. Why? Because of the history that you are God's chosen people. You were first entrusted with God's word. You were the one that God said, I'm gonna live among you. I'm gonna be in your space. You are my loved. And that's something worth noting. I want us to think, remember that. Paul's not saying here, it's bad to be a Jew. Paul is saying, celebrate that. That's amazing. You should do that. But don't let that be your identity because there's so much more that God wants for our lives than just to put a name badge on and say, "I'm from Israel, I'm one of those cool people," and go on with your life. God's chosen people is something worth noting. And it's only because of God's chosen people that we have a basic understanding of who God is. His character, His love, His grace, His mercy. We read about in the Old Testament to understand this Yahweh, this God of God, the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, the Alpha and Omega, everything, Heavenly Father, King of their own, Creator, healer, everything that we know of who God is. Why? Through the Jewish people and their relationship with Him. And because of that, we see how God has faithfully cared for, led, rescued, and set apart that nation, His people. And Paul here is also making an argument it doesn't stop there. There's so much more at play here, which leads us into Paul's argument. He says in verses three to four, "What if some are unfaithful?" What if some are unfaithful to God? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness? Not at all. Let God be true in every human being a liar, for it is written, so that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge. Paul here is reminding people that Paul, that God doesn't need people to be faithful for people to recognize that God is faithful. God is apart from us as humans. God is above, God is greater, God is holier. We are not, there's a separation, there's a whole thing going on here that God is faithful. And God's faithfulness isn't dependent upon us saying yes to him. That if some are faithful to God, awesome, praise God. Some are faithful. But Paul is also making an argument here that if nobody is faithful to God, it doesn't change God. God is still faithful. We don't change who God is. And Paul shows you that God's faithfulness might also be recognized when he judges people's sin. That's a hard thing for us sometimes to wrestle with in our society. We don't like that word sin. We don't like that word judgment. We don't like that because it takes away from this loving, caring, gracious, oh, just gonna wrap my arms around you, God, that we like to put in our minds. But I would argue, and so is Paul here, that you can't have that loving, embrace God, authentic love without God calling us out when we gotta be called out. You can't have one without the other. And Paul's saying there's just a special place of Israel God's plan, but it doesn't protect them from God's judgment. They don't get a pass. They don't go, "Oh, who are you? And what's your heritage? Who you come from? Who's your father? Your forefather? Your forefather's forefather? Forefather's forefather? Oh, you're Jewish? Okay, cool. I'll just turn a blind eye to that. You just as you were." No. Paul's not saying that. Paul's saying almost even more so, "You already know, and yet that you're living this life, you know better as parents. How many times have we told our kids? You know better. My poor kid's sitting on the front row this morning right now. But Paul here is saying that just because you come from this Jewish descent doesn't make you immune. There's no preferential treatment for Jewish people. Just because Israel people are God's chosen people, they don't get a pass. There isn't a lesser punishment. See, I think the problem is that the Jewish people wanna kinda look at this from a different perspective. They wanna kinda twist this a little bit so that they can wear this badge of honor, this identity, so that they can manipulate other people for their own gain. Well, if I gotta follow the laws, then I gotta do all this stuff. Everybody should be following all the laws. If I gotta be miserable, but everybody's gonna be miserable in it with me. But that's a flawed logic as well. And Paul is counteracting all of this stuff in himself and he's reminding everybody, every reader of this letter, the church in Rome, that God's faithfulness is not about Israel.

God's faithfulness is not about us. God's faithfulness is not about the church. God's faithfulness is about God. It's about his promise and his person of who God is. And that God is righteous when he does punish, when he does call out his people for their sins, as well as when he rewards them for obedience. So both and. We'd like to pull out that judgment piece and not touch it with a 10-foot pole and we just, "I just wanna talk about the promises of God. I just want God's promises." That's great. God wants those promises for you too, just as a parent would want great things for their children. But in that also comes the reality of when those actions are in line of what God wants for us, our lives, there has to be a correction piece, and that correction piece is filled with nothing but love. That's hard for us, right? We don't wanna get called out, we don't wanna get reprimanded, We don't wanna get like going, "Hey, that's not right." Like we don't want that. We want just God's blessing and promise and love just to flow into our hearts. But that's not really true love, is it? If a parent were to give everything to their child, but not call them out on behavior, I don't see that as true love. I see that as, "Here you go, just go away. Just here, take it, do your stuff. I don't care about you. I just get you out of my hair and I can focus on what's more important to me. And Paul here is saying that all too often, we as Christians have presumed that God's grace to us exempts us from any concern for our own sin. Let me say that again. That we as Christians have presumed that God's grace to us exempts us from any concern about our sin. There's such danger in this thought that God sovereignly somehow maintains, even in our regenerate state, and holds our salvation till the end. And I'm saying too easily, we forget that God's ultimate concern is for His glory, not for our own personal glory. It's all about God's glory. It's all about who He is. And we like to stand on these promises, and this is entirely inappropriate. We must not forget that God's promises, both seen in the Old Testament and the New Testament, all throughout the scripture in this entire book, we see who God is. And we also see who He is and how He rebukes and chastises His people who sin, but then also He blesses them too. Let's not forget that. 'Cause I think sometimes we camp over here in Promised Land, and sometimes we can't over here in the hands of, or what was it? In the hands of an angry God, sinners in the hands of an angry God. You guys have probably heard that before. We camp over here and we're just like, oh, we're horrible people and God hates us and we're going to hell and oh, blah, blah, blah. There's nothing we can do. Woe is me. No, it's just as wrong to camp over here in Promised Land as it is to camp over here in this vengeful, angry God. That's not who he is. And Paul here is saying that even because you're Jew and you're supposed to have this promise doesn't mean there's an excuse to do whatever you want and sin. And Paul is also saying, hey, you don't just go, oh, who cares, whatever, I'm gonna sin, I'm gonna sin, I might as well just live here. Paul says, no, there's a greater life and promise that God wants for you to have. And he wants you to step into this new life that he has for you. And this is the entire argument that Paul is bringing up to this point through the end of chapter three, that he's gonna flip this all in its head next week to be continued, dun, dun, dun, with Pastor Andre. Set you up, buddy, I got you. But right now, Paul continues on a little bit deeper, okay? Paul's been kinda hittin' on, kinda beatin' up the Jewish people a little bit here, of their heritage, but it's gonna come around to everybody here in a moment.

Here we go, verse nine, it says, "What shall we conclude then?" All right? "Have we any advantage? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentile alike are under the power of sin. For it is written," Paul's gonna quote some scripture here, a little Old Testament OG scripture coming at you right now. Here we go. "There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks God. All have turned away and they have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Hey Paul, don't hold back, buddy. Here we go. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways. For the way of peace they do not know. there is no fear of God before their eyes." Whoa. Paul, tell us how you really feel, bro. "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law. rather through the law becomes conscious, we become conscious of our sin. This is the point in the book or the book or the letter, it's always darkest before dawn, right? We've been in the dark, Paul's been pounding, we've been hit and hit, we're sinners, no one's righteous, we all are failing in the law, God is angry and mad at the sin of humanity, Like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And yet in verse 20, there's that light starts to peek through the edge of the horizon. And Paul here is saying, no one is righteous. The greatest Jew, not righteous. The worst Gentile, not righteous. God's chosen people, not righteous. Those outside of God's chosen people, not righteous. We are all sinful. Why? that are under the power of sin. Who wants to focus in on that? There's power. We've talked about this for a couple of weeks now. And I think sometimes we flirt with this idea of, ah, it's just sin, it's not that big of a deal. There's a power and a weight to it that Paul here recognizes and he is serious about because he understands how focused and intent and what ultimately what is at stake. People's eternity here. That's what's at stake here. This power of sin that is holding humanity back from being able to have redemption with Jesus. It is a real strong, scary, dark, wicked, evil thing. And Paul says, we're all in this. We're all in the same boat. We're all sitting in the same pool up to our necks, up over our heads in this power of this sin that has control over us.

And so he quotes some of this collection of Psalms and Isaiah verses 13 through 14 comes from Psalm 14 itself. It says, "Their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." Paul here specifically is calling out sin of speech. Did you guys catch that? Paul mentions every single organ involved with speech. The throat, the tongue, the lips, the mouth, the throat being equated to this open grave, focusing on inner corruption and the deadly effects of sinful speech. Then he continues on talking about the tongue, deceptive flatteries of those who intend evil, eloquent speech meant to deceive and twist and pull us in under and keep us in this power of sin. He moves on to Isaiah 59 verses 15 to 17. Their feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery mark their ways. And the way of peace they do not know. Sin of violence to others is what Paul talk about here. The direct action of one person against another person to control them, to hurt them, to harm them, to Lord over them. This is what Paul is talking about. And he's reiterating here that Israel, in their utter corruption, are on the same level as the wicked. Just because you are Jewish, you come from Judah, you come under the Israel lineage, does not make you exempt to any of this. Everyone is under this rule of power of sin, which makes no one righteous. Paul doesn't stop there. He keeps going on. He talks in Psalm 36 verse 18. "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Paul right here is kind of bookending this section of quoting Old Testament scripture, talking about the root of all of this unrighteousness. Where does that lie? The root of all of this is our thought that we are God. And Paul is continuing to hammer in here that God is God and we are not. That's the reality. And as much as we want to make up in our minds that we're our own God and we put on this crown of royalty ourselves and declare our own lordship and then say, "Well, I know better than God and I know how to do it and I know how to fix things and it's going to be under the law and everybody's getting circumcised and everybody's got to start fasting and having the Sabbath and do all these festivals and go kosher and God's, you gotta do all this stuff. Paul's like, no, you and your righteous pageantry are even unrighteous. You're not because everybody will quote a scripture here further in Romans for all of sin that falls short of the glory of God. And it's the same focus that Paul has had in this beginning of this chapter to set up this entire argument and this one flowing thought to this point, that nothing a person does, either the object of obedience or the motivation behind that said obedience can bring him or her into favor with God. I'm sorry to burst your bubble this morning. If you came in thinking you could earn your right standing with God, unfortunately you can't. 'Cause we're too far gone. And Paul here is saying, it doesn't matter if they're trying really hard. Well, they got a participation trophy. Doesn't do anything. But Paul, their hearts were in the right place. Doesn't matter. But they're almost there. They're so close. It's like right there. I don't know if I can say this in church. I'm gonna say it anyway. Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Almost doesn't count with God. And it's not because he's an angry God or a vengeful God, but because there is a line and he is holy and we are not. And there's nothing that we can do. There's nothing we can earn, there's no good merit, there's no good deeds, there's no any of that stuff that can put us into a place of favor or standing with God. That we like to live in this gray zone, don't we? There's no gray zone with God. That's just who it is. Don't get mad at me, get mad at the Bible, get mad at God. But there's no gray zone. And if it wasn't, but that isn't from God. That's from human motivation, wanting us to make ourselves feel better, this gray zone. Well, I'm not that bad of a person. I mean, have you seen what they did? Have you seen them over there? Oh, well, good thing I'm not even close to who they are. Hey, God, we're tight, right? We're good? We're good? We're all right? I mean, I haven't killed anybody. I mean, it was 20 bucks. I needed it real bad. God, you knew, you knew where my heart was. It's just 20 bucks that I took. And really, they're not even gonna miss it. They don't even, they're so rich. It's not even that big of a deal. God sees that and goes, "No, you stole, you killed, "you lied, you thought about it in your head." This is some hard stuff that Paul's walking through. It's either yes or no. We don't like that. We want this love, this kindness, this goodness of who God is and reminding us that even in God's judgment of saying, "Hey, you did wrong," there's God saying, "I love you. I care for you.”

Paul's been talking about all of what the law is not, right? He's pounding this away. Just this is not this. It's not this. It's not this, it's not all this stuff. It's not our justification, it's not our salvation. It's not making things right. Either possession for the Jews who possess the law themselves. There's no credit just because they had it. Or like, "I remember great-great-grandpa was at the foot of mountain when Moses came down. Like we're tight, like it's okay." Paul's like, "None of that matters. And it doesn't matter if you're a new Gentile being like, "Hey, I'm just new to the scene with this. Sorry, like, is there like a mulligan for like a new guy on scene? Like, is that how this thing works?" And Paul's like, "No, it's not how it works." And so Paul then finally shifts into what the law is. Verse 20, "Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law. Rather, through the law, we become conscious of our sin." So there is purpose to the law. You might think through this that Paul is like, "Well, I'll just throw the law out, baby with the bathwater, just get rid of it all. Forget it, we don't need a law. We're righteous with Jesus and His grace can cover me. And I just, you know, I sin, I just pray, "Hey Jesus, sorry about that. I'll try again next time." And then we move on. And we find ourselves in the same place with sin again, going, "Hey God, yep, I know, me again. Sorry about that. Thanks for your love and your grace and your kindness, your goodness, amen." All right, move on. What Paul here is saying, no, there is purpose to the law. And the purpose of the law is to shine a flashlight into our lives and to our hearts, And to say, God telling us I don't like that, that's not right. This is right. This is truth. But it hurts, right? This isn't easy. It doesn't make us feel good. But that's the purpose of the law. I've met Christians who are like, yeah, I just don't read the Old Testament. Just doesn't matter. It doesn't mean anything to me anymore. 'Cause you know Jesus, he fulfilled all that blah, blah, blah. It's like, so how do you know what's right and wrong? Well, I just like kinda let that feeling inside. I was like, is that God or is that heartburn? Like what do you, how do you know the difference in that? I said, that's why the Old Testament is still the Old Testament. It's old, but it's solid. And it gives us direction and insight and guidance of how we live our lives.

But then Paul here also talks about this idea of experience. Sometimes this knowledge comes through reading God's Word and Scripture, but it also comes through experience. And when we find ourselves in a place of sin, sitting it going, "Whoops, this isn't right," there's forgiveness in that as well. But there's also a learning in that. I mean, we probably weren't the best at something we tried for the first time, whether it was sports, maybe a hobby, maybe shoot painting, a wall. That first wall that you ever painted in your life probably had streaks in it, it was running, it was thick, it was thin, it was patchy, just didn't look good. But as you painted more walls and you had more experience, you got better at it, you grew in that. And that's kind of those situations where even our heritage, where we come from, John Wesley, he was a great, brilliant theologian and preacher and teacher. He talks about this idea of sins of surprise. Sometimes we find ourselves in this place going, "Oh man, I didn't know that this was wrong. "I've never been here before." But there's grace in that and God goes, "Okay, that's all right. "I love you. "Now you know, don't do it again." And that's what Paul is ultimately leading us in here is that this law gives people life as an understanding of sin and how to live our lives. Why? Because the law since the beginning was all about pointing us to God. And Jesus coming on the scene continues to point us to God, continues to drive us to Jesus, continues to say, "This is the way to live your life. And this is the life that I want for you.”

So why, why would Paul write all of this? Well, I think a couple things. One, there was actually, whether we think they're ridiculous or not, a group of people, the religious zealots, the highest of the high of that day, that believed that they could earn salvation through doing stuff. And Paul here is to say, "No, you can't." As much as you believe that, as much as you want to do that, because here's the reality. The Jewish people have been the closest to God on the face of the earth. They walked with God. And it talks about in the Old Testament, a pillar of fire, a cloud by day. They had this Holy of Holies, this place where God would physically dwell in their presence. They saw miracles before their eyes. They saw rescue. They saw Moses come with the tablets, the 10 commandments. These people saw, eyewitness God before their eyes. And yet what? Failed. So how do we, as Paul is making this argument, how do we think we can somehow earn the salvation? If the Israelite people who were the closest to it, of anybody on the face of the earth, failed right there face to face, how do you think you can get there? It's nonsense, Paul is saying. But then Paul is also offering the salvation in this. He's saying that Jesus is salvation. That's why the power of the gospel, the title of our series in this book of Romans is what Paul is setting up here. And Paul continues to fight on multiple fronts in this. Paul is fighting entitlement from Jews who think they're the special God's chosen people. Paul is fighting the ones who says, who cares, we've already failed, it doesn't matter mentality. Paul is fighting the law above all, religious elite. Paul is fighting these extra add-ons that the Israelite people in their heritage are saying, "You new Christians, you Gentiles, you have to start doing this to these converts." Paul is fighting this idea that you can earn salvation by being good. Paul is fighting, "At least I'm not as horrible as that person," camp. And Paul continues to fight all of this time and time again. And all of this sounds so frighteningly similar to our world today in our church, does it not? How many years later removed and there's nothing different?

So can I tell you something? Be encouraged today. I know I took you down the same path that Paul is taking you, but be encouraged today, why? Here, I wanna tell you some truth. There is freedom in the fact that we don't have to earn salvation. Jesus has already taken care of it. Doesn't mean there's no responsibility on our end or accountability that we have to hold up to, but we don't have to earn it. That's a blessing. We're not going to worry about burnt offerings. We don't have to worry about walking so many feet on a Sunday. We don't have to worry about all these laws, dudes, not worrying about circumcision. Amen. Preach. Come on. And Jesus has already taken care of all of it. Be encouraged today. But also let the Word of God and all that it is, its laws and the scriptures, give you life on your journey. Okay? Let that truth dwell in your hearts and to begin to change you, because it's a matter of perspective. Don't get focused on what you do not have. So many times we find ourselves maybe in a power outage in a storm with a flashlight in the dark. We don't sit there and go, "Well, I don't have a light for the rest of the stuff around me." You take that flashlight and you shine it before you and go, "This is my focus. This is where my attention needs to be. This is what needs to matter in my life right now." Where is God shining a light in your heart today? Where is he putting that focus to say, "This is what I need you to change in your life." Don't worry about all this other stuff that's dark. Remove that from your attention. Focus in right here. Focus on what you do have. The salvation in Christ and the Holy Spirit to guide us every single step of the way. Bring your focus back to Christ today. Don't get lost in the weeds of all this stuff over here and all this stuff and all this stuff and what they're saying and what they're saying, what they're saying, what they're saying. Focus on Jesus.

How can you this week keep your eyes more on Jesus? That's my challenge for you this week. It might take some changing of priorities or maybe a weekly routine or something that's out of balance and out of whack, but God should be the number one priority in your life. And that's what Paul is saying here. You're not God, God is God. Put God in the right place. Doesn't matter where you come from, what your background is, what you think your excuses are, or this gray area you wanna live, God should be God. And that's it. Easy peasy, right? That's good, I like that. How can we this week bring God's righteousness to light in our lives? Not for us, but for God's glory. Think about that this week. I'm right there with you guys. I'm wrestling with this just as much as you are. Some tough stuff, but that's what I love about this series. It's so good. Let's pray and we'll get out of here. Heavenly Father Jesus, thank you for this morning. God, thank you for your servant Paul and his heart and his just brilliant IQ, off the charts mind to be able to walk through all of this stuff step by step and come out in the end just pointing back to you. Absolutely love it. Jesus, thank you for coming to earth, dying on the cross, giving of your life so that we could be made right with you. Because there's no other way we could have. There's no other way we could have attained that. Only through you, Jesus. So we say thank you. God, may we live in that light this week. May we live focusing on allowing God's righteousness into our hearts, into our lives, not for the sake of, hey, look at how super Christian I am, but to go, yeah, I don't have it figured out. I was a mess. I was broken. I was gone. It was all messed up. But Jesus showed up and it's him. All praise and glory to God. That's how we should live our lives. So Jesus, help us to remember that this week, help us to shine light on places in our lives that you want to change in us for your glory. We love you, Jesus. Amen.

Romans - Part 3

What Saves Us - Romans 2:1-29

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

So if you are new or visiting we have started a series in Romans We started a couple weeks ago and so we are just going verse by verse through it and each week having a new part of this letter. And so little plug if you want to catch up or if you want to listen again. We now have a podcast you can go back and listen to the sermon again if that would please you so check that out. You can get the links on our website or look us up on whatever podcast platform you use.

But yeah, we are going through and so now we're in chapter 2 and so far in this book of Romans, Paul is laying down a foundation. As we go farther and farther into his letter, we'll see how he's laying brick by brick, kind of this argument. He's laying out this argument of the faith, his reasoning to believe, and why unity in Christ is of utmost importance. We've seen in chapter 1 that Paul is passionate about sharing the gospel, that nothing will come between him and getting the truth of Jesus out to all the nations. It's his top priority. And then last week, finishing chapter one, Pastor Chris talked about God's view of sin and how he can't stand sin and that humanity is bent towards sin. So therein lies a problem. I don't know if you know this, well Pastor Chris and I, we didn't know each other growing up, but you know we started to run into similar circles and so we share a mutual friend, someone that He went to elementary school, junior high, and high school, and someone that was a close friend of mine growing up.

And that friend is now a lawyer in DC, and he's a believer. And so I called him up this week to get his lawyer perspective of Romans. I'm not even close to a lawyer, don't even have that mind. Obviously, I'm a pastor, and Pastor Chris. So we have our pastoral conversations about Romans, but I wanted to get another perspective of a lawyer.

Paul had a judicial mind of being a Pharisee, and so I wanted to see, is there anything that I don't see? And so I asked him, I said, "What are your thoughts on Romans, the first couple chapter of Romans, and how Paul lays out this argument for the Gospel?" And he said that, he commented that Paul's rhetoric was top class, like it was amazing. And the rhetoric being the way that Paul weaves together a story and an argument, and how the story will progress the argument, and how the argument progresses the story. And Paul does that beautifully in this book of Romans, and as lawyers they study how to do that when presenting cases and defenses and trying to prove a point. So Paul is an example of that. He also brought up Paul's history, his own personal life as Saul, you know, Saul then becomes Paul, possibly playing a major role in his communication to the early church, especially to the Jewish Christians.

Saul was a highly regarded Pharisee, one of the best, well versed in the law, in the Jewish customs, and at one point, deeply entrenched in the Jewish mindset. So just everything that happened, he would process as a Jew. And so if anyone were to understand what the Jews were thinking and feeling in the early church, understanding their reactions to things, how they would respond, their initial thoughts or frustrations, it would be Paul.

So just further evidence that Paul was the man for the task. God knew, despite Paul's former life and all the persecution that Saul at that time oversaw over God's church, God knew that his power to redeem Paul's life and purpose was far greater. So I think it's fascinating that thousands of years later, Paul's words still make an impact, whether approaching the text from an analytical mindset or a theological mindset, or just wanting to simply understand what is Paul trying to say, there is something here for everyone. And today, Paul will continue to build upon his argument, another brick being laid down in his defense of the gospel, in his argument for the Church of Rome to remain united, to fight to stay together, to find their commonality in Christ. I want us to remember this morning, all of us here, that this letter was written specifically for the Church of Rome, but this chapter definitely pertains to us today. You've probably heard this tendency that we have as Christians when we read the Bible today to associate with the good side.

So in the Old Testament when God is speaking through the prophets and warning or coming down on the Israelites, we tend to think like, "Yeah, Israelites, come on now, you should know better.” Or when Jesus is addressing the Pharisees, we're like, "Yeah," or his apostles for making whatever mistake. We're like, yeah, come on, we understand. Why don't you understand? But really those same words that convicted them might need to convict us today. So we shouldn't always just assume that we know what's up. Maybe God's words are trying to speak to us. And so let's be open-hearted and open-minded as we grow in Christ and mature in our spirituality. Let's not lose that humility that brought us to Christ in the first place. Being willing to listen and undergo further work and and transformation by the Spirit. So let me pray, then we're gonna jump on in to chapter two. God, thank you again for your word that you have given us. And God, we pray for understanding. We're here to better understand your truth, your word that you have given us to live by. And so I pray that through your Spirit that you would help us to better understand you and then therefore better understand who we are supposed to be. We pray that your spirit would work in our hearts to continue to transform us to be more like Christ. Encourage us, God, through the teaching of your word. We pray this in your name, amen.

Okay, so Romans 2. We're gonna kind of break this in half. We're gonna cover verses one through 16. And in this section, I think God is saying, or Paul is saying, sorry, that God's judgment is for everyone. Now if you're thinking, well, we just covered that last week. We just talked about how God's judgment is for everyone. Didn't Paul finish that? Well, let's read and see what this really means. So you guys can follow along. I'm gonna read out loud.

Chapter two, verse one. "You therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them, and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, forbearance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed. God will repay each person according to what they have done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. But glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, for God does not show favoritism. All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law. And all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. Indeed, when Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them, and at other times even defending them. This will take place on the day when God judges people's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

All right, again, God's judgment is for everyone. Paul shifts now from the guilt of the Gentiles

in chapter one, 18 through 32, what Pastor Chris preached on last week, and now points the spotlight on the guilt of the Jews. I don't know if you've, there's a reoccurring scene that happens in movies and TV shows where there's like a classroom or there's a big family at home and all the kids or the students are acting out. You know, they're being crazy. And the teacher or the parent comes in and is like, starts to hand out punishment and starts to lecture them. And sometimes in the scene in TV shows or movies, there's that one student who kind of starts standing by the teacher or the kid and looking at his fellow siblings or fellow students and like, yeah, you guys, that's right. Yeah, you weren't supposed to be doing that. And they think that they're good. standing next to that authority figure like yeah yeah you let's tell them let’s tell them these people what's up and then there's like maybe a silence in this scene and they realize that that parent or authority figure is like looking down be like you too and they're like what I'm your favorite student or I'm your favorite your favorite kid and then they're realizing that they’re gonna also face whatever punishment was happening for the class and whatever favorite favoritism that they had doesn't equate to a reward in that moment. I don't know if this rings true, if you can think of a scene in a movie or a TV show, or maybe real-life experience.

But this is the sort of scene that is playing out here in the second chapter of Romans. The Jews thought they were standing next to Paul as this letter is being read in the early church, and they're like, "Yeah, Gentiles, yeah, that's right, God's going to judge you." And again, Paul is anticipating, he's not there, but he's anticipating, knowing the Jewish mindset, anticipating what he thinks is gonna happen, what these Jews are gonna do. And he anticipates that they're gonna think that they're in the clear. Yeah, this judgment, God's judgment, all those things that Paul's talking about, that's just for you guys, we're good. And now Paul turns and looks down at the Jews in the early church and is like, I'm also talking to you. They thought that they were God's favorites, and Paul is gonna make it clear that This judgment is for everyone. So let's unpack some of these verses here and see how Paul lays this out. In verses one and two, the word for judgment here is the word to condemn. And so we recently talked about this in our Sermon on the Mount series that Jesus talked about not judging others. And while we can discern, talked about this this morning in our class, we can, judging others in the sense of discerning and figuring out who they are, we can do that, but we cannot condemn other people. That is the role of God and God alone. And that's the word, the condemned word is what Paul is saying here, that these Jews were in a sense condemning the Gentiles around them or other people, something that they should not have been doing. That act of condemning others is in a way acting like God, trying to be like God. And the Bible is very clear that you shouldn't try to be like God. Every example that it gives, Adam and Eve, to Satan, to the people at the Tower of Babel, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, all these people who tried to be like God, it doesn't end well. Don't try to be like God.

So Paul is reinforcing Jesus' words here. The Jews should not be condemning the Gentiles. In verse two, Paul is saying that God's judgment is just and true. Again, Paul is anticipating these thoughts that the Jewish people would have. And they're a thing, he's trying to just squash Every argument, but Paul, and he's like, no, and then this, and then this. So each verse is just another thought of how, geez, you don't have anything to stand on here. You too will also face judgment. And so he's saying that if you have an issue, you gotta go to God's character. God is a just and true God. So in a sense, if you have an issue with this judgment, you have an issue with him. And again, this thought that they were favorites because of all their history of being with God, they would know how just and fair and true God is. So that argument squashed. Verse four, Paul is addressing this Jewish thought that, they thought that God would exclude them from judgment. Again, given all their previous experience of God's goodness and mercy, and that story that I shared of like the favorite child or the favorite student, they thought that they were on that side, that God's judgment didn't necessarily pertain to them. And later he will riff on the memory of God's word of his blessing coming first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles.

And we know that as Jesus being born to the Jews and witnessing to the Jews before spreading out further to the Gentiles. And he uses this in a kind of a sassy remark of, yeah, God's judgment is coming to you first and then to the Gentiles. So he is, as Chris was swinging last week, he's throwing punches and now he's facing the Jews and he's saying, I'm not messing around. This is serious, you too will face judgment. In verse six, Paul shares that God will judge both Jews and Gentiles and he will do so fairly. So we're reminded again that God will judge everyone and in doing so, no one will escape and it's done in complete fairness. And he explains in verses seven through 11 that people will be judged by their hearts and the lives that they have lived. So for the evil person, they will face wrath and anger. For the good person, they will receive honor and glory. For both Jews and Gentiles, this is the same judgment. Now, if you're thinking too about that judgment, that's a little too simplistic. For the evil person, for the good person, well, remember, this is Paul building an argument. So parts that are maybe have gaps right now, he will fill in later. In the coming chapters, we're gonna hear more about good and evil and what that is and who falls under those camps. But for right now, he just says, God will judge fairly based on the lives that they have lived and based on their hearts.

And then in 12 through 16, Paul is describing God's judgment on Jews and on anyone who had the law. We've heard this before, right? It's not those who hear the law, but those who obey. It depends on the response. Pastor Chris preached on this, again in the Sermon on the Mount, when dealing with building your house upon the rock. those who hear Jesus' words, then have a decision. Where will they build their house? And God is saying it's not just those, or Paul is saying it's not those who hear, but what they do after they hear. Verse 14, Paul is telling us that even for people who do not have the law, like Israel, Israel had the law from way back in the Old Testament, and there are many people now in Rome with different backgrounds and nationalities coming to the church. They didn't have the law, but Paul is saying there's something innate, natural inside of them that knows what is good and what isn't. And that comes from being made in the image of God. God has put in all of us something different than the rest of creation, and that is his image. And when I say image, think more likeness, not physical characteristics, but inner character, being made in the likeness, the character of God. So we are made in his image, his character, And therefore simply being human means that on an inner level, deep within us, we know to a certain extent what is good and what is evil. And so Paul is saying that even for those who didn't have the law, the official, the 10 commandments and everything in the Old Testament, they could still know what is good and what is wrong. And if they live by that voice within them that's telling them what is good, they too could possibly receive the honor and glory of God. coming to believe in the faith of Jesus Christ. And so how necessary are Paul's words to the Romans back then? How necessary are they for us today? I think they're incredibly necessary for us to hear because as a group of believers in a church, I'm not saying this church, but just in general, churches can quickly become a place of judgment, of condemnation, where believers just condemn those outside the walls of the church, outside of that church family, we start to look down on people that are not a part of this body of believers.

And we make this divide between us and them even bigger, saying we are over here and you non-believers are over there. Or to reference that movie scene, we tend to stand next to God and say, "Yeah, all of you, not me, but all of you guys." We wanna be a place known for loving like God has loved us, known for compassion, for kindness. We can also be known for knowing the truth and living by the truth, but hopefully we're not known for condemning people. So for us today, there can be a tension. Living as Christians, we wanna present and live this inner transformation that the Spirit is doing inside of us. At the same time, we can't lose our ability to be vulnerable and to relate with those who are struggling, to those who are in the midst of sin. If we give off this attitude that we are better than others or above people, then we're losing our ability to witness. So there's this tension that we must deal with, living a life being transformed by God and yet not being above people, not living a life that says because of God and what he's doing in me, I'm actually better than you. It's not how Jesus taught us to live, it's not how he taught us to minister. And so as we encounter new people that God brings into our lives, or maybe the people that were already there, but as we transform, we kind of sense this, well, now we're kind of going down different paths. May we fight against the urge to have any sort of dominance or superiority over them, whether in interactions or just in our minds even, thinking that we are better than them. Instead, our prayer should be that we see a person made in the image of God, standing before us to recognize our responsibility to be a light to them. Whether they're a believer or not, whether we even know of their relationship with God, may we just have an intentional humility and boldness to present Christ in everything that we say and do.

Let's not sit behind our religion as a guard thinking that we are above the messiness of other people around us. 'Cause as Paul points out, we'll all be judged by God. It's our hearts that matter, not necessarily how clean and pristine our lives look on the outside to other people. So in this first section of chapter two, we see that God's judgment is for everyone. We see that God will judge fairly and with no favoritism. And we are reminded that we are not in a place to condemn. It's never our role. As we move into the second half of this chapter, Paul will further explain how the role, what the rule of the law is.

And so I wanna just present now this little question, does the law save us? Don't answer it, just in your heads, think about that. Does the law save us? Let me go ahead and read our second half of the chapter.

Verse 17 says, "Now if you call yourself a Jew, if you rely on the law and boast in God, if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law, if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth. You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written, God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not yet circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you, who even though you have the written code and circumcision are a law breaker. A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person's praise is not from other people, but from God.

I'll be honest, Paul is really wordy, and it's really hard to read sometimes. He just packs so much in there, there's so much. So Paul is continuing this argument that the Jews are not justified simply by having the law. He references their own hypocrisy as they teach others or inform others of the law, but they don't even uphold it themselves. He uses circumcision as an example of how being Jewish only holds value if that person also obeys and lives a holy life. Ethnicity is not as important as a person's heart. I grew up in a church, going to youth group, And in the past 15 years, I've known many of my fellow youth group friends to walk away from the faith. And many of them referenced, as I had conversations with them, the hypocrisy they saw within the church, from people in their lives calling themselves Christians, not living a Christian life. And I'm not saying that Christian hypocrisy justifies them abandoning their faith, But I think I get some of Paul's frustration here as he's talking to the Jews saying, "You were supposed to be a light, be a representative. "And you talk a certain talk that is what God's truth is, "but the way you live your life "is going against those very words that you teach." And I think the same thing happens today. Non-believers are looking down on God because of the way Christians in their lives have acted, giving a false testimony of who God is, a really bad representation of God's character. And it's humbling to think about some of these friends that I've had, a couple of them who were close friends, and we haven't talked about this, but I wonder, did any of my actions fall in that camp of something that they saw as hypocrisy? They saw me at a younger age, so I've gone through different seasons and maturity levels in my life, but back then, I may have misrepresented Christ. Did any of the sin that I let live in my life, that I let fester within me, that I even lived into, did any of that play a part of them walking away from their faith? I don't know. And maybe some of you have wondered something similar about someone in your life, or maybe you're that person who has struggled with hypocrisy in the church. But Paul's words here remind us to be mindful of how we live our lives. to be mindful that other people are watching us and it matters how we live. Not just what we say, not just when someone asks, what do you believe? And then we have the right answers. But from every moment of every day, the words that we say in conversation, how we are with our kids, how we are with friends, what we live out matters. And it shows what's in our hearts.

Paul's words here remind us to be mindful. His warning and scolding of the Jews who were guilty of this is a warning for us too. So let's take a deeper look at some of these verses. Paul is again putting the spotlight on the attitude of moral superiority. He says that you Jews were relying on the law. And again, this is the thought that they had final exemption from God's judgment. So Paul is making sure, he's like ripping it up to shreds. Anything the Jews thought they could stand on to say, no, we're gonna be okay, no, whatever God's judgment is for the Gentiles not for us. He is making sure there's not a shred of that left in them. He's ripping it up. Paul, in verse 19, is pointing to some old references here. The original reference is that God, found in Isaiah 42 verse 16, that God is a guide to the blind. The blind being Israel, they don't know what they're doing, God is their guide. Jesus, in the New Testament, makes a riff on this, mocking the Pharisees, insulting them, calling them blind guides. They're the guides, but they don't know what they're doing.

And so Paul is mocking now the Jewish Christians in the early church calling them guides to the blind. They're again trying to be like God, but you can't be like God. In verses 21 through 23, Paul is pointing out the hypocrisy again. The Jews are not justified by having the law. They are doing the very thing that the ungodly do. They're dishonoring God. They have the law, they possess the law, but they They fail to faithfully heed its commands, and therefore they undermine the law's purpose. And then in 24 through 29, Paul wraps up his point and shows how misguided the Jewish thought could be at that time. In 24, he reminds them that God elected Israel as bearers of his promise, to bless other nations. Somewhere along the line, Israel kind of got selfish with that blessing and didn't feel like sharing it, and felt like, yeah, we'll share some of the blessing, but we're like the OG people here, so we get special status. And Paul's saying, no, it's not how it is. The Jews' hypocrisy instead is making the Gentiles blaspheme God's name. And again, this should make us pause and reflect on our own lives and actions and words. Are we representing God, helping other people better understand who God is, or are you misrepresenting him? Paul then gets into circumcision as a practice closely connected with the covenant to Israel and the Jewish identity.

Paul is warning them that their disobedience decreases the value of their ritual and covenant that they are so attached to. So Paul, again, is making sure that every possible point of these highly religious Jews in the early Roman church might be able to stand on is knocked over. You think, he's saying to them, you think your association with the law can save you? No, it can't. You think because you're circumcised and that's a sign of the covenant, you think that will save you? No, it doesn't. And in verse 29, he wraps it up, Paul says, he's emphasizing God's desire for genuine loyalty and obedience with heart, mind, and soul. And that's a callback to Deuteronomy when God is talking to his people in the greatest command, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, Jesus would reiterate that to his disciples. So Paul is making it clear what is demanded to be saved. And it is not the law that saves, but it is Christ who saves. He's kind of teasing here, right? We're not gonna get, well, in the coming chapters, we're gonna get a better explanation of how Christ saves in this argument, but he's just laying the foundation here for it. The law is not the answer.

I think of another story in the Bible that makes, I think brings a lot of clarity to those who called themselves believers, but only thought they were believers 'cause of the law. And that's the story of Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, not just any Pharisee, but he was the ruler of the Jews. Jesus even called him the teacher of Israel. Nicodemus was the top dog during Jesus's time. And even though there's a couple different ways to approach the story of Nicodemus, what is true is that Nicodemus was someone who thought they had a tight relationship, sounded Australian right there, that was awesome. They had a tight relationship with God. He thought that he was in. He thought he didn't have anything to worry about. I'm God's special servant. I teach God's people, the nation of Israel. Nicodemus' whole life was devoted to God and his law in a way that honestly would put us all to shame. Like Nicodemus, he had the whole Old Testament memorized. We don't, even as pastors, we do not have the Old Testament memorized. I live closely to this book and I open it often. The one area that Nicodemus was mistaken in is the area that mattered most, And it's what Jesus had to address in John 3-3 when he says, "You must be born again because you're not saved." You think you are. You think that your relationship and how you live your life according to all of God's laws, you think that you are saved, but you are not. And we tend to think of this interaction with Nicodemus as a evangelistic story of Jesus reaching someone who's not saved. And I think I just want to change that tone a little bit to someone who is on a spiritual pilgrimage. He clearly knew of God, he clearly respected God and desired to glorify God through the law. He obeyed the law. And I would better not call Nicodemus a non-believer, I would call him a not yet believer. And I think that mindset would help us today too. Instead of this divide of, well, we're believers and you're not, to have this mindset that Jesus did of I know where you're at and I'm gonna help,

I'm gonna give you a push one step closer to God. And if we view other people not knowing their status, we don't interact with strangers, neighbors, or even if you do, if you don't think that they are a believer yet, think of them as a not yet believer. And what can I do to give them a push in the right direction? What, in my interactions, in my words, in my, the way I live my life around them, how can I push them towards Christ? They're not, the non-believer seems so final. Like, that person's a non-believer. They've made their decision and it's not worth my time. They're a not yet believer. They could be, we don't know. And let's hope and let's push to help them believe. And that's what Jesus does with Nicodemus. Nicodemus had his relationship with God all mixed up, putting all the emphasis on the law, understanding the law, following the law. But he missed that the law points to our inability to keep the law. The law is so perfect and we are not, we will never be able to uphold the law perfectly. And it shows that we need Christ. So Jesus had to tell Nicodemus, you need to be born again. You're not saved from God's judgment. He had to learn that it wasn't his understanding, knowledge that saved him. It was belief in Christ, the need to be born again, to be transformed by the dwelling of the Holy Spirit.

And that lesson that Nicodemus learned, that Paul is also talking about here to the early church in Rome, is one that some people need to hear today, even within the church.

Maybe here in this room, or you know people who call themselves Christians, but maybe they are, they misunderstand what really saves them. Maybe they think that they're ties with the church, or how they were brought up in a Christian home, or how they attend church every Sunday, or they are a moral person, and they're just a law-abiding citizen, maybe they think that's enough. And they're like, "I know I'm good, I'm good with God. I'm not gonna face God's judgment." But they would be incorrect. And we would hate for them to get to the end and find out that they were wrong this whole time. And so if you know someone, if the Spirit's prompting you right now and saying, "That might be me," there's no shame in that. There's no shame at all. Nicodemus was someone who was on a spiritual pilgrimage. And it took, he was in that place for years until Jesus finally interacted with him. It can be years before the truth of God sinks in until we fully understand. And we praise him when it clicks. We just praise him for when it does, finally, we understand what it is that we need to do to be saved. And so if you're here today, I just wanna say this. If you're here and you felt the Spirit prompting you, you'd be like, "I'm not sure if I am saved. I might've been putting my hope in the law. I might've been putting my hope in following what the Bible says without that relationship of Christ, without the work of Christ." Come find me or Pastor Chris Affords. We would love to talk to you and just further understand where you're at and help you in coming closer to Jesus. The law doesn't save us. Christ alone can do that.

And again, now after chapter two, we have this foundational brick being laid down that we are all sinners facing God's judgment. So from the story of Nicodemus to the words of Paul here, we have a better understanding of God's law. And it's clear that the law doesn't save, but only the work of the Spirit. And next week, we're gonna move to God's faithfulness. So one layer of this argument is down. I'm gonna move on to the next layer. Paul has leveled the playing field. Not all of the early Roman church is aware that Jew or Gentile, they are now in the same camp. And he's trying again, if we remember our backstory, there's cause for division in this church, and he's saying, look, you guys are all in the same, you're all in the same room here. There's not one that's better than the other. You're all sinners facing God's judgment in need of Christ. In Spring Valley, as we continue to go through this series, as God continues to work in each of us and refine us and transform our hearts and our minds, let's heed this warning from Paul.

Let's not think that we are superior to anyone. Let's be intentional to remain humble. Let's be proactive in building each other up. Let's be willing to make the sacrifice that is committing to a body of believers. And I say sacrifice because it takes time, it takes energy, it takes vulnerability, patience and understanding. But this is what Paul desired. He desired that the church, that we today at Spring Valley be unified, that we be together in our commonality, in the belief in Christ that we share. So this week, all of us in our lives, from work to home, friends to community group here, let's choose to interact with each other, interact with God and partner with God in what he is doing in our lives and in the lives of others, amen? Let's pray. God, again, thank you for your word that teaches us that we cannot be saved without you. No matter how good we are, no matter how well we understand your law and live by it, it's an incomplete picture and we're still at a loss and we need your son and the salvation that he brings.

And in the coming weeks, as we get into God's faithfulness and how He has saved us and what salvation looks like through this letter to the Romans. I pray for those of us who are saved that we would just have a deeper appreciation and gratitude for the work that you've done. And for those who aren't yet saved, I pray that you would bring them closer to you. God, I pray for the people in our lives that we may think or have a notion that they're not yet a believer. I pray that we would not put them in that box of a non-believer, but we would be intentional to reach out to them and represent you well. Help us to be mindful of our words and actions that everything we say and do is pointing to you. And we want it to be an accurate picture of your character. God, give us the strength, empower us to live for you with everything that we have. We know you will, we know you can, and we give you all the glory. We pray this in your son's name, amen.