The Turning Point - 1 Series

THE TURNING POINT

Romans 3:21-31

• The message of Romans get more fun at this point. I have been spending the last series of Sundays telling you how bad man is, how bad we are. The accumulated bad news that makes the good news worth hearing. This morning we begin to add in the good news. THE GOOD GOD HAS DONE IN RESPONSE TO OUR BAD.

• JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH: That is our topic today and actually the central message of the book of Romans.

READER’S DIGEST STORY: Car pulled over by the Police. ‘Sir could I see your drivers license and registration?’ ‘MAYBE I COULD IF I HAD ACTUALLY HAD TAKEN A TEST AND GOTTEN ONE OF THOSE’.

Then the lady next to him said, ‘DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT HE SAYS, HE ALWAYS ACTS LIKE THAT WHEN HE IS DRUNK’.

Then the guy in the back seat woke up and saw the policeman, ‘OH NO, I KNEW WE SHOULDN’T HAVE STOLEN THIS CAR’.

Then there was a knock from the trunk, ‘ARE WE ACROSS THE BORDER YET?’

Ever feel sins just keep piling up. Feeling you get reading the first 2 ½ chapters of Romans. You may have never felt so LOST.

WICKED WITCH OF THE EAST: Under the house in the WIZARD OF OZ. Only feet with RUBY SLIPPERS was visible. Dorthy asked, ‘IS SHE DEAD?’. No Dorthy she enjoys resting with a 3 bedroom house on her, block the wind’. The munchkins said, ‘She was actually, totally, physically, indisputably, undeniably DEAD!’

That is where Paul has wanted us to see ourselves after this first part of Romans. That we are dead in our trespasses and sin and without hope without Jesus Christ.

Live in a world that does not see themselves that way. The Word of God has been so removed from our society that most think that they will get to heaven someway. Being a good person, doing religious works, because God wouldn’t send somebody to hell.

GOD SENDS NOONE TO HELL. IF YOU WANT TO GET TO HELL YOU HAVE TO CRAWL OVER ALL THAT GOD HAS DONE SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME INCLUDING THE SACRIFICE OF HIS OWN SON!!!

He doesn’t send us to hell we choose it.

• VERSES 19-20: We saw the LAW does THREE THINGS:

1) Stops every mouth. Shuts down any argument.

2) Shows that every person on this earth is accountable to God

3) Gives us the knowledge of Sin. It defines sin. It demonstrates righteousness and shows us the standard we have fallen short of.

SIX STATEMENTS REGARDING JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH: To help us gain an understand of what God has really done for us. When He found us in our sinful condition how did He solve our dilemma.

MARTIN LUTHER: These passages are the Central part of the Book of Romans as well as the CENTRAL PART OF THE BIBLE.

JOHN CALVIN: The very MARROW of the Bible. (Center of life of Scripture.) The rightousness of God is more profoundly presented here than in any other part of the Bible. 24-25

(1) JUSTIFICATION IS APART FROM THE LAW: (21) But now APART FROM THE LAW the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the LAW and the prophets.

a. Paul has spent all this time showing us the purpose of the Law. The Jew’s mistake was thinking the Law was given to make us righteous. Pharisees even added additional things. The LAW was actually given to show us that righteousness is IMPOSSIBLE unless is it given by God. IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS

b. Make same mistake with SERMON ON MOUNT. Ten Commandments, Sermon on the Mount(amplification of the Law), It should become very clear that no one can stand there and say I AM WITHOUT GUILT.

c. Schoolmaster, Tutor:

d. JUSTIFIED: Means that I am ‘right standing to the laws I am responsible to’. Just American Citizen(no outstanding warrants). Paul has shown that all of us are outlaws, have outstanding warrants against us the declare our guilt.

e. MANIFESTED: Comes from two words meaning, ‘strike and hand’. To be struck with the hand does not go unnoticed. How holy God is does not go unnoticed when we truly understand both the LAW and the PROPHETS.

f. LAW/PROPHETS: Two sources that attest to God’s Holiness. From Genesis thru the entirety of the OT demonstrates that man has a sin problem that is offensive to the holiness of God.

(1) Sacrifices from Genesis 3 onward. All those blood sacrifices were meant to remind man of the seriousness of sin and to look forward to the time that God would send His perfect sacrifice. The one that would satisfy His holiness.

JUSTIFIED APART FROM THE LAW

(2) JUSTIFIED THRU FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST: (22) even the righteousness of God THRU FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST for all those who believe; for there is no distinction.