The Letter to the Romans Chapter 2:17-29
“How is Your Living Witness?”
November 15, 2009
PRAY
INTRODUCTION
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Romans 2:17-29
Behold, thou art called a Jew, and test in the law, and make your boast in God, And know [his] will, and approve the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou therefore which teach another, teach you not yourself? You that preach a man should not steal, do you steal? You that say a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? you that abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? You that make your boast in the law, through breaking the law do you dishonor God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
Who made free use of Christian vocabulary? He talked about the blessing of the Almighty and the Christian confessions. He handed out pious stories to the press, especially to the church papers. He showed his tattered Bible and declared that he drew the strength for his great work from it as scores of pious people welcomed him as a man sent from God. Indeed, Adolf Hitler was a master of outward religiosity--with no inward reality!
Have you checked the labels on your grocery items lately? You may be getting less than you thought. According to U.S. News & World Report, some manufacturers are selling us the same size packages we are accustomed to, but they are putting less of the product in the box. For example, a box of well-known detergent that once held 61 ounces now contains only 55. Same size box, less soap.
How something is wrapped doesn't always show us what's on the inside. That's true with people as well. We can wrap ourselves up in the same packaging every day -- nice clothes, big smile, friendly demeanor -- yet still be less than what we appear to be.
A certain Irish priest, newly arrived in New York City, was walking through a bad section of town. He suddenly felt a gun against his ribs. Then he heard a voice, "All right mister, gimme your money!" Quickly the priest grabbed for his wallet. As he did, the holdup man noticed his clerical collar and realized he was robbing a priest. The thief was overcome with shame. He said, "Forgive me, Father. I didn't know you were a priest." To which the victim replied, "That's all right, Son. Just repent of your sin. Here, have a cigar." The thief replied, "Oh, no thank you, Father, I don't smoke during Lent."
Our Witness in the Community
Christianity has enough bad witnesses. We do not need to add to the fray. No matter what we do, we are witnesses, either good or bad, to the lost world or fellow Christians.
The incidents in churches in Gunter in the last year have rocked this community. I have had no less than 3 families tell me that the reason they are no longer going to church is because of these incidents. When I meet people and tell them I am pasturing a church here is Gunter, their expression changes in their face, as they wonder, “are you one of the churches that caused so much problem?” We, as a Church family, are the only untarnished church remaining in Gunter. We have a responsibility to ourselves and the community to demonstrate Christ like no other. We need to walk carefully.
Even, with a perfect walk, it may take years to overcome the stigma in this community.
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BODY
This Morning I want to look at three examples of Grace, Jesus Lived, and we need to imitate in being witnesses to the world.
1. Do not condemn the lost sinner for doing what lost sinners do.
John 8:1-11 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. How?
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. (The same finger of God who wrote upon the wall of Nechadnezzars dining hall wall) 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
8:9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
8:11 "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
2. Set aside your own freedoms for the sake of those who are weaker.
1 Corinthians 9:1-13 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But the man who loves God is known by God.
4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know an idol is nothing at all in the world and there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" & many "lords"), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came & through whom we live.
7 But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
3. Worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
John 4:16 - 24 "Jesus (in witnessing to the Samaritan Woman at the well) said unto the woman, Go ask your husband to come here. “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man whom you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is the truth."
19 "Sir," the woman said, "I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
In other words: What church am I to go to? Or Which church is the right church?
21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
Do not point people to a church, saying it is only our church and no other!
Do not point people to a pastor, saying it is only our pastor and no other!
Point People to Jesus!
How do you keep from the errors of being a bad witness?
Worship in him in the Spirit. Worship him in truth.
CLOSING
For circumcision (being Jew) truly profits only if you keep the law: but if you are a lawbreaker (break one law), your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. If therefore the uncircumcision (the gentile) observes the ordinances of the law, is not his uncircumcision reckoned as circumcision?
The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither [is that] circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he [is] a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision [is that] of the heart, in the spirit, [and] not in the letter; whose praise [is] not of men, but of God.
He ends this with the meat of the issue. From whom do we seek praise? The praise of men or the praise of God.
I am sorry, but I cannot promise you life will end up as you like, if you seek God’s praise over that of men. But you will have to spend the rest of your life here wondering what eternity for you will be like.
