Dakota Community Church
February 1, 2009 pm
Romans – Chapter 1(c)
(Week 4)
Read Romans 1
1. What is this “call of God”?
The call is not so much about special people and special positions as it is a call to slavery, to servant hood, to being dead to self and alive to Christ.
We don’t answer the call based on what we can get out of it.
We surrender to the Lordship of Christ because we recognize the hopelessly lost condition of our souls.
2. What is the “true” gospel?
Promised beforehand {It is of God not the invention of men}
By the prophets in the Holy Scriptures
Concerning the Son of God
Descendant in his human nature from David
Risen from the dead
Lord Jesus Christ
Tonight we will wind up Chapter 1 by looking at:
3. How lost is humanity?
Romans 1: 16-20
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
In the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed.
Because this righteousness from God is being revealed the wrath of God is also being revealed. Why?
So that we may see our need of this righteousness God is offering.
• Paul has said, “I am called and so are you.”
• The call is to respond to the true gospel!
• Now he answers WHY WE NEED A GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
• Answer: WE HAVE NONE OF OUR OWN
Not only that, but men have no claim of ignorance as a defense because even in the natural realm around us we can see at work the eternal power and divine nature of God.
The wrath of God upon sin is visible even in the natural realm.
God does not allow evil to go unpunished!
There is a moral order to this natural world and we violate it to our peril.
If we look at the world we can plainly see that suffering follows sin.
Break the laws of agriculture and your harvest will fail.
Break the laws of architecture and your building will collapse.
Break the laws of health and your body will breakdown.
Romans 1:28-32
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Added to that we have God’s law:
Just for fun keep track of how many you have not broken.
Exodus 20:3-17
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
Wait before you start feeling good about the kill or adultery commands remember what Jesus said about even being angry without cause or looking lustfully. DOH!
We love to pick on the sins we don’t commit don’t we?
That’s why the whole homosexuality issue and the abortion issue are so high profile these days; and don’t misunderstand I’m not saying that these are not sins or not horrible just that we love to get on the soap box about them because most of us wrongly believe we have not violated the law on these matters.
James 2:8-13
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
If you are guilty of one you are guilty of all!
Now look at what Romans 2 begins with:
Romans 2:1-5
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, 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 man, 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, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward 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.
Your knowledge of someone else’s sin shows that you know the difference between good and evil and thus condemns your own sin.
Ezekiel 18:1-4
The word of the LORD came to me: "What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel:
“‘The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
"As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.
The gospel tells us that God owns our souls and that righteousness is His requirement of us. This would be terrible news were it not for the fact that Jesus provides us with it as a free gift if we trust in Him.
What a sorry state we are in; guilty, worthy of death, born lost, born condemned, and then, when no hope remains – the gospel.
Galatians 3:23-25
Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
