Three Things That Won't Save You Series

THREE THINGS THAT WON’T SAVE YOU

ROMANS 2:12-29

· Paul will name names tonight. Beginning in verse 17 he directly confronts the Jews. Three things about them that we can apply to our own lives. The Jews relied on three different things in assuming we might be saved.

1) Paul is going to attack some of these soft answers that people use to convince themselves that they are saved.

· The Law increases your privilege but it also makes you more accountable. More is expected of you. Listen to Paul’s description of the Jew and how they saw themselves.

(17) But if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the Law and boast in God, (18) and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, (19) and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, (20) a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth,….

Imagine having family ere looms which had been considered quite valuable. Treasured for a lifetime. Parents die and you have someone come in to assess the value. ‘They are very beautiful but the problem is they are costume jewelry’. They do not hold the value that you assume they do.

JEWS thought that certain things had a value they didn’t. THE NAME THEY HAD – THE BOOK THEY STUDIED – THE RITUAL THEY OBEDIED.

· Don’t get discouraged with the message or Romans thru the early chapters. They have a purpose of demonstrating lostness. When we get to chapter 5 we will see the wonderful message of ‘while we we yet sinner Christ died for us’. But before we are ready to hear that we must understand that we are without Christ.

On one of our 5th Wednesday Films we will be watching a film called ‘The Ten Cannon of The Law’. It demonstrates how communicating the Law is necessary to receiving salvation.

The Law shows us how we fall short and need Jesus to save us. TUTOR…SCHOOLMASTER to lead of Christ.

WITNESS: Jesus loves you and wants to be your Savior….why do I need a Savior? What is wrong with me…. I am a pretty good person, better than most, better than a lot of people who call themselves Christians….doesn’t make any sense to me. BLIND TO THEIR SINFULNESS.

· Look at verses 12-14 to give a sense of where sinfulness develops from.

(12) For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law;

1. Two different individuals are described by Paul:

a) Those who sinned without knowledge of the Law

b) Those who sinned with knowledge of the law

Those who sin every day of their life and have never heard that the Bible says, Thou shalt not….’ And also others who may not sin as much but have heard.

PERISH: is not the word for annialation but has the meaning of being ‘ruined’. Same word used by Judas when Perfume was poured out, ‘why this waste?’ Means to not fulfill it’s intended purpose. God has a purpose that lost mankind that is never reached with the gospel never fulfills. Attacks Calvinistic ideology….

2. One Single Hope for all people: (13) for it is not the hearers of the Law who

are just before God, but the DOERS of the Law will be justified.

a. HEARERS – idea of those whose business is hearing. Jews come in and hear the law read, for many their Christian experience consists of just hearing: Sunday School, Church Service, Bible Conference….their business is hearing.

b. Man who memorized whole sermon on the mount: CT STUDD

Verse 14-15 demonstrate that just because a person does not have the actual

Word of God in their hands they are still guilty of sinning against God’s Law. God

puts it within all of us.

(14) For when the Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these not having the Law, are a law to themselves, (15) in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, THEIR CONSCIENCE bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SPECIAL with burning knife used to determine lying. African Tribe: when stealing occurred/line men of tribe up/ask if did it/yes or no/stick tongue out/hot knife and placed on tongue/if saliva the knife removed without problem/no salive-stick and burn into tongue.

Instinctively know right and wrong to a certain level

Eccl 3:11 God has set eternity in their hearts.

AGUSTUS MARWEY-Lived in villiage involved in tribal wars, never put stitch on body till 14, resented strangers invited to house, made pig of self, sat and glared until invited to table, put outside house until guest ate, incorrigable, whole village ‘what is the matter with the son of Mawey, loved mom dearly but found self doing terrible things, threw stick at her legs and hit child, villiage meted punishment, held down while bowl of hot pepper soup down my nose, nearly choked and for hours my nose burned(new one, cambells),