1. Ever read a book and start to sort of dialogue with the author?
a. It happens sometimes in the middle of a good movie too.
b. The author has so captivated us & brought us into the middle of a story that we begin to interact with the characters.
c. Hey why are you doing that? Don’t go there! It’s funny!!!!
WELL AS PAUL writes this letter, he anticipates some of the responses he will get from those that read it.
• The Holy Spirit, inspiring Paul knows exactly what’s on the minds of man and he carefully weaves into the text God’s heart.
Luke 16:15 (NKJV) 15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
REMEMBER, Paul is painting a very black picture on the condition and state of man apart from God.
• Everyone has been touched & tainted by sin. No exceptions.
• The righteousness that God requires is unattainable apart from the offer of God’s righteousness revealed in the gospel. (1:16-17)
AND Paul, being a rabbi himself, knows that there would a rebuttal in the minds of his readers… so in Q & A format, he weaves his case asking hypothetical questions which he then answers.
APP: WE’RE REMINDED THAT GOD uses us as we are.
• We don’t have to become something, or someone else to be used of the Lord. He’ll use you as you are.
SOME THINK: Well, I could never be used of God because I’m just not perfect… OR I’m not like her… OR I’m this or that…
• There is that mindset though, that we have to be perfect in order to serve the Lord and to be used by Him.
• If that were the case the gospel would have never left Palestine and traveled around the world for 2000 years!
NOTE: It’s been said that God is not looking for ABILITY but for AVAILABILITY. He’s looking for a willing and ready heart.
• God looks at the heart and begins His work there…
• If you’re willing… God will use you, shape you, mold you…
• If you’re not willing or resisting the Holy Spirit: God WON’T
App: That opens a huge door for you and me. “God doesn’t ALWAYS call the qualified into His service. But God ALWAYS qualifies those whom He calls!”
• AND ALL OF US are called to serve Jesus on this earth.
• TRULY Spiritual service is for everyone who lives for Jesus!
Ephesians 2.10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
SO PAUL the Rabbi continues… let’s look at v1 again…
I. (3:3-4) What About Their Unbelief?
1. (3-4) Doesn’t being a Jew mean something?
a. I like how the NIV translates this:
Romans 3.3-4 (NIV) What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written:
"So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge."
Some Jews don’t believe… actually, many don’t believe.
• Did this surprise God? Does it mean that God will no longer keep His promises to the nation of Israel?
• Some were thinking that if God can’t break His word then how can any of the Jews be lost?!
• The misunderstanding surrounds how a Jew is saved.
• They were leaning and trusting on their heritage, their upcoming, their ethnicity, their ceremonies to save them.
• But just being born a Jew doesn’t save anyone.
• Jew is saved same way a Gentile is saved, by grace thru faith.
NOTE: Maybe you’ve heard that because the Jews rejected Jesus, they were scattered & forsaken by God.
• Some would say that God is finished with the Jews today.
• They were Christ rejecters. They killed Jesus and now therefore they are on their own…
• But think for a minute… Who crucified Jesus?
• Well, Pilate gave the final say so… He was an Itailian!
• But see it’s not about a race… sin crucified Jesus Christ.
• You and I, our sin, nailed Jesus to that Roman cross.
• Anti-Semitism is totally from the pit of hell guys…
The death of Jesus Christ was the DETERMINED PLAN of God.
• Jews didn’t crucify Jesus… that’s not God’s Word says at all.
• God GAVE His Son out of LOVE for a hopeless creation.
• He was given so that we would believe in Him and be saved.
• YES Israel rejected their Messiah… And God knew it all along.
• Read through Deut 4
Deuteronomy 28:64 (NKJV) 64 “Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone.
So what about their unbelief? God uses it!
• God, who knows all, anticipates their failure & promises to bring them back…
• God didn’t fail, man did. Notice in v4, Paul quotes Psalm 51…
• David writes of repentance after his adultery is exposed…
REMEMBER, David tried to hide his sins, refusing to admit them to God or to anyone else.
• He went on acting as though he were righteous, letting people continue to think he was the godly & righteous king of Israel.
• But God loved David & sent Nathan to him… “You are the man!”
• His sins were exposed, He repented… & took full responsibility.
David says, “I’ve sinned against a lot of people. My sin has caused a lot of grief and pain to many. But to you ONLY have I sinned.:”
• And if you judge me for it, you are right to do it.
• You are justified in judging me God… even though I’ve been unfaithful, your promises remain strong!
II. (3:5-8) Is God Unjust to Judge?
1. (5-7) Unfair!!!!
a. The next objection coming is, “That doesn’t sound like God is fair at all!”
b. “God is just using Israel to make Himself look good”
c. God, you’re raised the bar so high that it’s a set up for them to not believe or trust you so you come out the winner!
d. How would it be right for God to judge someone because of their own failure that He set up! -- THIS IS A HEAVY ONE…
But again, it’s a misunderstanding of character of man & the God.
• GOD: He’s holy, just, right, and good.
• MAN: He’s touched and tainted by sin!
• Sin, in it’s very core is worthy of God’s judgment.
• The truth is that sin NEVER glorifies God. Sin always has evil results and does not produce good.
AND THE TRUTH IS GOD will judge the earth… Paul himself had to deal with his own sin problem.
• And when God does judge the world, he knows all the hidden parts of a man’s heart…
• He’s the only One capable of making a judgment.
2. (8) So Let’s do evil then…
a. This is really a twist on the heart of God.
b. “Let’s just go do more and more evil, let’s go and not believe anything God says…” -- That way God can show good!
c. I mean if it doesn’t matter really how God gets the glory, then let’s just step out of bounds now and then…
d. They were even accusing Paul of doing this.
NOTE: Paul is teaching us, so contrary to our world, that he end DOES NOT justify the means.
• It’s never right to do wrong to do right.
NOTE: There were those accusing Paul of preaching a gospel against the Law of God.
• This free grace stuff you are giving them is really just giving them permission to sin.
• And they need permission to sin because Paul, you want to sin.
APP: If you ever leave this place thinking it’s ok to sin, then you totally misunderstood the doctrine of grace.
• Well Ed, in Jesus I have the freedom to do whatever I want.
• You’re right, you do. But in Jesus Christ what do you want?
• Flip over to James 3:13ff WISDOM FROM ABOVE…
The desires of Jesus, the Wants of Jesus…
• To seek and save the lost… To love the outcast…
• To forgive… To reconcile… To do the Father’s will.
Before long we’re saying things like, I know this isn’t right, but I’m sure God will forgive me…
• I know this isn’t right, it’s for a really good cause.
• I know this isn’t right, but I don’t care what you think.
• THEN IT ENDS with I know this isn’t right, but I don’t care what God thinks!
1 Timothy 4:1-2 (NKJV) 1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,
A little bit of sin begins to desensitize you and me… We become numb to it’s devastation… because it happens a little at a time.
• Yet slowly but surely sin begins to eat away at the very fabric of our human existence!
• A little thing over a long period of time can cause great destruction.
ONE OF THE STRONGEST PICTURES of sin in the Bible is the horrible disease of leprosy.
• Throughout the Old Testament Leprosy was considered to be curse and it represented the way sin works.
• It’s used in the Bible to represent sin because there is no human cure for Leprosy.
• If you had leprosy you had a death sentence & IT was slow…
• It caused great pain, it separated them from others, they were banned from cities, moved to leper colonies while a disease slowly took their life from them by inches.
Leprosy is especially insidious because it numbs a person to death. It does its work silently. - That’s how sin works.
• Leprosy numbs the your hands… your feet. Then U go thru life not noticing pain… U cut your finger & you don’t even realize it.
• You step on rocks, cut your foot and you don’t even know.
You know how often we might think, OH TO LIVE A PAIN FREE LIFE.
• But guys, pain is your friend. It’s the bodies alarm system that things are not all that well and they need attention.
• You lose touch with the way things ought to be.
• Your sensitivity is numb.
NOW LOOK… Isn’t that the way sin works? Sin numbs you and slowly kills you by inches.
• You start out: that was wrong, why did I look at that or say that?
• But pretty soon you begin to lose any sense that it is wrong.
• You go beyond thinking and now you’re doing and you’re now living a lifestyle that you know is immoral.
• But after a while you get so used to it you stop thinking.
• Do you know what you’re doing? You’re dying one piece at a time.
• Lepers start to lose limbs, and lose life, and lose friends.
SIN IS THE SAME Way… you start to lose parts of your life. It separates from people who really care and love you.
• Think about the family, the kids, the marriage.
• You find yourself doing things you never imagined.
I DON’T Care what is right and wrong…
• That’s not a good sign cause you’re telling me you lost your feeling.
• You’re telling me you can put hand in the fire and not get burned.
• It sounds like the enemy that has come to kill, steal, and destroy has come around to steal your life piece by pieced.
• You don’t care, your conscience is gone, what is next?
Proverbs 5:22-23 (NLT) An evil man is held captive by his own sins; they are ropes that catch and hold him. He will die for lack of self-control; he will be lost because of his incredible folly.
Proverbs 29:6 (NKJV) 6 By transgression an evil man is snared, But the righteous sings and rejoices.
IT starts out… I’ve got this liberty, I get to do what I want… it starts out that way.
• But the very sin you step into traps you wraps you and what you think is freedom are little ropes, that are slowing tying you up!
So listen… The Grace of Jesus Christ is not an excuse, it’s a tremendous gift that changes our lives to live for Jesus & not ourselves!
1 Peter 2:15-16 (NKJV) 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— 16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.
Titus 2:11-15 (NKJV) 11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. 15 Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.
