It is good to have Christ as our Savior and Lord, and to know that we are part of the family of God. We have this family we meet with every Sunday, and we have an even larger family that has gone on before us; and we will be united with them very soon.
It will a great day when the eastern skies will roll back and the -
…Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
(1Thessalonians 4:16-17)
This day may be a day of pain, sorrow, tragedy and loss, but -
We have confidence in knowing that there is a better day coming.
The cares of this world will vanish in but a twinkling of an eye.
We have Christ to thank for this promise of the eternal hope.
This morning, I want us to consider who we are, and where we would be if it were not for being justified by our faith in Christ.
Text: Romans 3:21 thru 26
Prayer:
We may find ourselves happy with where we are with the Lord. We may even become confident in ourselves. We look around at our friends and relatives and we see how they are not living for the Lord. Sometimes this can cause us to be discouraged, while other times we may think we have made something of ourselves.
Ha! The Word of God is adamant about the condition of our own righteousness. Let me introduce you to some cold hard facts about our righteousness (that is, where we would be without the righteousness of Christ).
I have mentioned before how confrontational the Book of Romans is. Perhaps one of the most challenging scriptures from the Bible is found here in our text.
For the saint of God that will read, understand and accept the Truth of this chapter, he or she will find a greater dependency on Christ being the Master of their lives.
These words are coarse, especially when we read things like what we find in verse 4. “Let God be true. And every man a liar.”
Tough words for many of us, but God’s Word is without error.
The fact of the matter is life is fragile. It is here today and yet it may be gone tomorrow. The things of this life are temporary.
1 Peter 1:24-25
24 …"All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away,
25 But the word of the Lord endures forever."
We are helpless and insignificant without the Lord and His righteousness. Sure we can try hard to make ourselves a better person, but without God we will surely fail.
Only the Word of the Lord will prevail. God has tried to get man to rely only on Him throughout history.
King Solomon was a man that understood God and His wisdom. He spoke these words to us in the Book of Ecclesiastes 7:23,
All this I have proved by wisdom. I said, "I will be wise"; but it was far from me.
Do you think you can make it on your own?
Are you tough enough, or wise enough, or smart enough?
I am a man of God who has studied the Word, and taught the Word, and (for the most part) has lived the Word of God. But this day I know that I am inept and insignificant without Christ.
In and of myself, I cannot achieve wisdom or understanding.
God knows this about you and me, and I am of the thinking we need to look closer at what God is saying to His people.
We need to listen closer to what He has to say about us.
God is kind to us in our text we have read. He comforts His people by letting them know they have been JUSTIFIED FREELY by the GRACE and REDEMPTION of Jesus Christ. Good News, right?
But listen to what He said in verses 10 thru 12.
If you are not careful, you might be offended by all of that. I don’t think God is overstating this. He is serious with what He says. Go ahead and wrinkle up your nose if you want to, but it won’t change how this is written.
Folks, we have to deal with this.
It doesn’t matter who you are, or who you think you are.
We need to settle this issue this morning with ourselves and God.
I have to believe that the church at Rome had some pretty good church folks. There were folks like you and me that showed up at the house of God every time the doors were opened.
Tough words, but actually Paul did not create these words.
They were not from his sermon notes.
He was just reminding these fine church folks in Rome what God had said to His people once before. These were the same words spoken to the upstanding church people living during the time of King David. This was not new material for the Apostle Paul.
God first spoke these harsh words in the Book of Psalms.
Psalms 14:1-3
1 The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.
2 The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3 They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one.
Listen carefully. The Word of God never changes.
What was said to the folks in the Synagogue and the Temple is being said to us here in our church this morning.
You see, without Christ we are a sorry bunch of misfits.
Without Christ, we all are black sheep of the family.
God is so convinced about the way His people really are that He repeats himself in Psalms 53…
Why is God so certain about the condition of man? Because He saw man’s condition get off to a bad start in the Garden of Eden.
You see God had everything taken care of when He created man. Adam and Eve were (at one time) a glorious couple who loved God and loved each other. They went to church all of the time. Seven days a week. But all of that changed.
Genesis 6:5
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of (man’s) heart was only evil continually.
Since that moment, man’s condition has always been in need of cleansing. This is a serious problem and it cannot be overlooked. All of the sheep need help this morning. Good and bad.
Let me give you an illustration of our hopelessness taken from the Bible. Consider the condition of the lepers of the Bible.
A leper is a person who suffers from a slowly progressing and incurable skin disease. There are several types of leprosy. The leprosy recorded in the Bibile - most likely a severe type of psoriasis, a form of the disease rare in our day and time.
Old Testament Law was quite detailed in its instructions regarding recognition and quarantine of leprous persons.
II King 5:7 implies that leprosy could be cured only by a miracle.
Leprosy is a chronic, infectious disease characterized by sores, scabs, and white shining spots beneath the skin.
Modern medicine has all but conquered this disease after learning the proper methods of treatment.
The Mosaic Law was very specific about the proper methods of purification where leprosy was concerned. In the Old Testament and the New Testament, the priest was the only one responsible for the treatment of this disease.
If the symptoms of leprosy showed up in a person, the priest was to decide if this was leprosy or some other disease. Because there was no cure for leprosy and there was such a great need to control the spread of this disease, the law required that a leper be isolated from the rest of society
The leper was required to wear mourning clothes, leave his hair messed up, keep his beard covered and cry "Unclean! Unclean!" so everyone could avoid him. As long as the disease lasted, the leper was to live in isolation away from other people.
Leprosy in a house showed up in a greenish or reddish color on the walls. When the owner of a house noticed these symptoms, he reported them to the priest. The priest purified the person’s house, or he ordered it destroyed
Often times, linen and woolen garments were also said to be leprous when they had patches of mildew, mold, or fungus growth. Leprosy in clothes, fabrics, and leather was also indicated by greenish or reddish spots. These spots were reported to the priest, and ordered the clothing to be purified or burned.
Any contact with a leper defiled the person who touched him. Sometimes leprosy victims were miraculously cured. Moses
King Uzziah was a leper from middle age until death <2 Chr. 26:19-21>.
Unfortunately, many of them slowly died of this detesting disease. The death was often unexpected, because (oddly enough) there was no pain or discomfort. Many of it’s victims never even knew they were a leper. The leper felt as though everything was okay and would often slip into a state of denial.
He/she did not listen to others that were warning them of the threat of the disease. Loss of skin would not be enough to convince them to go the priest for their healing and deliverance.
Slowly the curse would spread itself from the skin where it was first seen to the muscle tissue and eventually the bones of the body. Unless there was a miracle of healing given by the priest, the leper would die a slow death with this curse.
The Bible clearly identifies leprosy as a type of deadly sin. Unless the sinner comes to Jesus Christ, the High Priest, he/she will die in their sins. It is only the healing and deliverance given by Jesus Christ that can save any of us from the leprosy of sin.
The leper was a social outcast and could not be apart of the blessings of God until they were healed and delivered from their curse. There would not be any joy or peace until they did so.
In Luke 17:11-15 Jesus healed ten lepers. He told them to go and show themselves to the priest and on their way to find their healing and deliverance they were all healed. Out of the ten, only one returned to worship Christ as His Lord and Master. The others may have experienced a healing, but this one leper received his deliverance and was made well.
Without Christ, all men and women, every boy and girl is a sinner and will never find healing for the disease of their sins.
The day they must long for is when the High Priest, Jesus Christ, comes to them and says, “Thou art clean.”
It is Christ Who has justified who you are. You have nothing else but Christ and His healing and deliverance.
