Kirkcaldy Free Church

Sermon: Sunday, 13th October, 2024
Speaker: Geoff Murray
Scripture: Romans 3:27-30

1. No room for boasting

Given all that we’ve been studying in previous weeks, we see that we’re all sinful – whether we are overtly immoral, whether we are respectable or whether we are religious – every single one of us is sinful and separated from God. So there’s no room for boasting because everyone is in the same boat.

It’s not as if one group is in pole position, first place; there isn’t one type of person who is more favourable in that sense. We cannot boast that, ‘Okay, we were all saved but there was a part of me which kind of earned it or a part of me that was more lovable or saveable.’ No, there is no room for boasting because everyone in the same predicament and none were more favourable to get out.

As we saw last week, in Romans 3:22, righteousness from God has been given through faith to all who believe. Righteousness that is given. Not earned, given through faith. And we read in verse 24 that we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. In other words, before God’s judgement seat we are declared righteous, just, good, not for any good in us, not because of anything we’ve done, but as a gift, freely given by his grace, in other words given in a lavish display of undeserved kindness.

Undeserved how? Because not only did we do nothing to earn it, we actually did everything to disqualify ourselves from it. It isn’t like we are neutral and pushed our way up but didn’t quite manage and God said, ‘Okay in you come.’ It was that we were in the red, we disqualified and discredited ourselves because of our sin and God forgave us when we trusted in his son Jesus. And now, though we were sinners we are declared righteous in God’s judgement through faith in Jesus Christ.

So back to Paul’s question. Where is boasting? Well, he answers. It is excluded. There’s no room for boasting. Boasting is excluded because we never deserved salvation due to being sinners. No, people are justified, declared righteous in God’s sight, because of faith, not because of works of the law. And then Paul stops to say, ‘… or is God the God of Jews only? No, he is the God of the Gentiles too!’

And it might seem strange to go there, why would he ask that question? Well, because there was a bit of a superiority complex among Jews. They were the chosen people of God, the only chosen people of God, Gentiles, non-Jews, for a time were excluded. It was the Jews who received the 10 commandments, it was the Jews who had God’s presence in their midst for much of their history. In many cases there’s a bit of a chip on the shoulder of Jews. But Paul blows that right out of the water, ‘Is he the God of the Jews only?’ No, Paul says, he is also the God of the Gentiles who justifies both Jew and Gentile, both circumcised and uncircumcised by faith.

The ground is level at the cross. At the cross we are told two things; we are all sinners and, for those who trust in Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross, we are all alike made righteous. Before these realities there is no room for spiritual pride, there is no room for looking down on others in the faith. There is no room for self-righteousness. If there is spiritual pride and arrogance Christ will pop that particular bubble.
He may pop that bubble in one of two ways or in both ways.
a. He will show you your sin
b. The Christian you may be looking down upon will shine brightly and show you God’s work in them.

Friends, God can and will use those we may think less of to show us that our righteousness is not in being as pious as we are, or being as biblically literate as we are or so on, God will use others we may, in our sin, think less of to show us we aren’t as great as we think we are.

Are you tempted to spiritual pride? Friends, let it go, leave it be. In the gospel, we cannot and must not look down on our brothers and sisters in faith. So where then is boasting? Paul answers emphatically. It is excluded.

Leave your pride behind, look to the cross and be humbled, know that you stand today because God saved you, God is at work in you and though we work at it and press on to follow Jesus, what does HE who began the good work, what will he do? HE will continue it through to completion on the day of Christ. It’s all of Him so that even your striving, even your serving, even your doing is empowered by him.

2. No room for the law?

‘Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.’ (Romans 3:31)

Paul continues to discuss the role of God’s law in the life of a Christian. He opens up with this in later in this epistle; ‘What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?’ (Romans 6:1-2)

But this is an age-old question which has haunted the church. Wherever there is this emphasis on justification by faith not by our works, that some ask, ‘Well, why bother obeying if we’re justified anyway.’ They of course won’t put it so crassly as that but nonetheless, that is the attitude. Careless living because Jesus paid for our sin.

Paul anticipates this question in verse 31, ‘Do we nullify the law by this faith?’ I’ll not say too much on this because Paul will bring this out in Romans 6-8 further so we’ll get there.

Yet this question always comes back because as religious, as self-righteous as we can be, we can also be pretty good at the lawless side too. Not maybe rampant lawlessness, but overlooking certain sins, flirting with some sins, justifying your sin because it’s not as bad as someone else’s. Just because we are justified by faith alone, not by our works, does not mean we’ve to throw caution to the wind and just ignore all God has commanded. Actually, one of the clearest places in scripture which speaks of this this dynamic is Ephesians. ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.’ (Ephesians 2:8-10)

And perhaps you need to hear that today. You’re way too casual with sin, way too accepting of it, you can sort of have a relaxed attitude with it because, ‘Well it’s okay, I have been forgiven.’ But that’s not the pattern of it at all. We’re saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ, and we’re saved in order to serve Christ. As Paul begins to answer this question more fully in chapter 6 he says actually we are now slaves to righteousness. That as we are saved by faith in Jesus, there is a new direction of travel in life, a Godward direction. We no longer live for self but for God.

‘But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.’ (Psalm 130:4)

So the call here if you perhaps do use God’s grace as license to live carelessly is to repent, to ask for God’s forgiveness and we will see at the end of our passage, that as we do God is pleased to forgive us our sin, to cover them, to never count those sins against you. So come to him in repentance and faith and trust him.

3. The Example of Abraham

Paul jumps onto the example of Abraham next and we’ll look at that next week but we begin this heading in chapter 4 and verse 1-3.

Paul makes use of one of the most important figures in the Old Testament, Abraham. I suppose in many senses the most important figure. It is he who is the ‘father of many nations’ from his offspring the Lord Jesus came, we who trust in Jesus by faith are called children of Abraham in Galatians 3 because we belong to the same family, the family of faith. We may not be of a national or ethnic lineage like the Jews were but actually, we know that isn’t what is important. The question of whether we’re in the family of Abraham or not has little to do with our ethnicity or religious upbringing, and it has everything to do with faith in Abraham’s offspring, Jesus Christ.

To the Jews, Abraham is revered. The father of the Jewish religion and whilst he did get it wrong, his life is one of trusting God of obedience to him. What about Abraham, what did he discover, Paul asks? ‘… if he was justified because of works he had something to boast about, but not before God, what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.’

So, Paul is saying here, he was not justified by works in fact he had nothing to boast about before God. Rather, Abraham believed God and it was credited as righteousness. Paul quotes the Old Testament Scriptures, Genesis 15, the Torah, to say, even Abraham the Father of the Jewish religion, even Abraham who the Torah spoke of was justified, not by his works but by his faith. If even Abraham in the days of the Fathers, justification was not by works, but by faith. Faith in the promise given to Abraham that he would have offspring through whom the blessing would come to all the nations. It was he who fathered Isaac, who fathered Jacob, who fathered the twelve tribes of Israel and that family tree works all the way down to Jesus the one who would come to save us from our sins and bring the blessing of salvation to all the earth.

4. The Blessing of Following Abraham’s Example

When we follow Abraham’s example and trust in God’s word, his word which we know more about than Abraham did, his word which tells us that when we trust in Jesus’ death in our place to pay for our sins we have our sins, forgiven, covered. We sang in Psalm 32 and have from psalm 32 in our passage these wonderful words. Where is the peak of all human happiness, flourishing and good? It is having our sins forgiven, covered, forgotten by God.

God, the offended party offers forgiveness, offers a pardon, offers never to count your sin against you again.

How do you respond when people wrong you? Give them the cold shoulder? Give them the silent treatment? Keep bringing up their wrongs to them? Friends, God’s offer to you today if you’re not a Christian is to trust that he will count you right in his sight when you trust in Jesus’ death in your place. You may be aware of your wrong and the times you get it wrong, but God’s promise of forgiveness for your sins, of cleansing from the stain of sin, of forgetting all your wrongs to him and welcoming you in, that’s the offer to you today. But God calls you to trust in his promise that he justifies the unrighteous by faith, he calls you to trust that he declares you righteous if you trust in his son’s death in your place on the cross.

Trust in that promise, what a blessed and joyous place to be! What a reality to celebrate! God cancelling your record of wrongs against you promising not to ever bring it up again. Trust in that promise today friends and know the blessedness of Abraham, of David who wrote that psalm, of every Christian alive today. And perhaps you are a Christian but you wonder if, though God says he has forgiven you, he kind of resents it, kind of sees you sin again and sighs and thinks, ‘He’s always doing this.’ or’She’s always going down this path.’

But one of the greatest blessings of being the blessed man of psalm 32 is that God will never count your sin against you. Not now, not in 5 years time, not on your death bed, not even on the day of judgement. If your trust is in Jesus, he will never hold your sin against you, he will never bring up your past, he will never use your past as a weapon to condemn you. Friends, if you’re trusting in Jesus and you have a tender conscience, please know this, God has never, is not, and never will hold your sins against you.

That is surely what we celebrated last Sunday in the Lord’s Supper, Christ crucified for you
That is surely what we sang of last week in the hymn ‘Before the throne’;
Because the sinless Saviour died,
my sinful soul is counted free;
for God the Just is satisfied
to look on Him and pardon me;
to look on Him and pardon me./em>

That is what we rejoice in as believers, that is what we celebrate, that as his people he never holds our sin against us ever again, the price was paid, the punishment endured by our saviour Jesus. And that’s what brings us back full circle to the whole theme of these past few weeks.

Friends, the way of faith is the only way and it does a number of key things:
• It leads to our boasting and pride being squashed.
• It leads us to radically God-centred lives
• It leads us to the path of great blessing, of sins forgiven, of conscience cleansed, of restored fellowship with our God.

Sermon: Sunday, 6th October, 2024
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Romans 3:9-26

In the very first verse of Romans, we hear the phrase ‘the gospel of God’. As we know, gospel means ‘good news’. However, it doesn’t seem like Paul has had much good news to share with us so far. He keeps talking about sin, and humanity’s lack of goodness or righteousness. For three weeks now, we have seen that when it comes to righteousness, the overtly immoral, the respectable and even the deeply religious are all in the same boat – we all fall well short of God’s standards and so we lack a righteousness of our own, and are unable to change this on our own. Why is Paul labouring this point? Does he get a kick out of puncturing the balloon of human pride? Is he just one of those preachers who wants to weigh us down with guilt, and leave us there? Absolutely not!

RC Sproul gives us the reason: ‘…it is impossible to really hear the gospel until one has first heard the gavel crash and the verdict sounded unequivocal – Guilty!’ The truth is, unless we come to terms with our own enormous problem with sinful thoughts and actions, and until we come to understand that a holy and fair God must punish sin, then we will not understand the good news of gospel, that Christ saves sinners. You cannot appreciate the Saviour until you know what you are being saved from.

1. Is God right to judge us?

Verses 9-20 are a summary of all that Paul has been saying since chapter 1:18. Verse 9 states that: ‘Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.’ What does it mean to be under the power of sin? It means more than just to be sinners. It pictures sin as a kind of slave-master, and we are slaves to sin, under its dominion, until Christ sets us free. Sin is no small problem. We suppress the truth of God and exchange it for a lie because we are slaves to sin. We approve of the evil other people do and judge other even when we do the same things because we are slaves to sin. We can make as many resolutions as we want to stop doing certain wrong things but we are unable to keep them, unable to live in a good way, because we are slaves to sin. The human race is a race of helpless prisoners to sin. ‘But now that you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces ? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?’ (Galatians 4:9) It’s hard to hear, but we cannot stop sinning!

Many people who are not Christians will still agree that all humans are addicted to something. It might not be something obvious like drugs or alcohol. But we might be so addicted to our phones, or a relationship with someone, or with work or even with worry. Some are addicted to eating certain things or shopping, or their own image. We do these things or think about these things to a degree that they become harmful to us and even to others. Humans are slaves to many things, many gods. We are trapped under the power of sin.

This is the doctrine of total depravity. It doesn’t mean that we are as bad as we could be. But it does mean that (RC Sproul): ‘…sin affects every aspect of our human existence: our minds, our wills and our bodies are affected by sin. Every dimension of our personality suffers at some point from the weight of sin…’ It’s true that we are not as bad as we could be, but every part of us is not what it should be. Are my emotions, sexuality, personality and feelings affected by sin? Yes. Are yours? Yes. Dr Addison Leitch said that if sin were blue, every aspect of us would be some shade of blue.

Is this really true? What evidence is there that we are slaves to sin? Well, verses 10-12 explain that we have hearts which have turned away from God. We are so keen to be the bosses of our own lives that rather than seeking after God and his way, we run from God and go our own way. Even the good things we try and do are tainted by sin. Is this true? It is still true of Christians- we give money to the church and before long we start to feel proud and look down on others. We get married and that teaches us new things about just how selfish we can be.

Paul illustrates the human condition in verses 13-16 by outlining some of the dark conduct we are capable of, and indeed fall into. Parts of the body, such as the throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet and eyes, which ought to be used for good, are in fact used for evil purposes. Paul quotes 6 different Old Testament verses to back up the truth that our sinfulness and alienation from God is a universal problem, affecting every single one if us. Our tongues, which could be used to praise God and encourage others, are often the instruments of boasting, lying, character assassination, and bitter words. That is, indeed, the human condition. Are verses 15-16 true? Are humans swift to shed blood and do we bring misery to others? In the last 3421 years, only 268 have seen no war. It seems that we can’t stop killing one another.

This takes us back to our heading: is God right to judge humanity? Yes, because we are all guilty. And if anger is the correct response of goodness towards sin and injustice, then God is right to be angry with us all.

Human justice often has great weaknesses. For example, sometimes the rich and powerful can afford better lawyers and get away with things which poorer people do not ordinary get away with. That’s not fair. God’s justice is always fair, however. Imagine the Day of Judgment, standing before God, with none of our thoughts or actions hidden from God. ‘He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart.’ (2 Corinthians 4:5)

What will we say to God on that Day? Verse 19 tells us that we will have nothing to say. The evidence of our guilt will be so obvious and overwhelming that ’…every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.’ This is a picture from the courtroom – a judicial picture. God is the prosecuting attorney. Even those who thought they were good at keeping the law will have nothing to say. Finally, they will see that God’s law (verse 20) reveals just how far we fall short from God’s standards. Even the simple command to honour our parents condemns us, as we cannot even manage to do that. And which of us has not coveted what another has? Who has loved God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength? The situation seems desperate. It seems bleak.

But Paul does not end there. Verse 21: ‘But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known…’ These 2 words ‘but now’ is music to our ears. There is a way for us to be set free from slavery to sin. There is a way to be right with God. But it is not by keeping the law.

2. Is God right to save us?

We will answer this question by looking at 3 wonderful pictures which we are given in verses 24-5. God saves those who stop trusting in themselves and in the law, and instead, place their trust in Jesus and what he has done on the cross. Faith is the key to being transformed. ‘This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.’ (Romans 3:22)

The first picture is from the courtroom – justification. Yes, all human beings are guilty before God. We have not loved him or our neighbours as we ought. However, as soon as we have faith in Jesus, God the Judge pronounces a once-and-for-all verdict on us, and that verdict is ‘not guilty’. This is more than a royal pardon. God actually wipes the slate clean. He treats us as if we had never sinned. It almost sounds too good to be true, but it is true. Is it fair? Is God right to save us? Yes. God is right to justify us, because on the cross, Jesus died to completely take away all of our guilt. This includes the guilt from our past, present, and even our futures. ‘Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!’ (Romans 5:9)

Donald Macleod: ‘What justification changes is our status. We were guilty, condemned, convicted men. Now we are acquitted. We were in the wrong before God. Now we are in the right. We lived in fear, frightened of condign punishment for our sins. Now that fear is gone. We have no reason to be afraid.’

And God is right to save us because justice has been satisfied. Our long record of disobedience has been transferred onto the shoulders of Jesus and he has paid the price. And Jesus’ perfect record is transferred to us. ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’ (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Satan does not want us to enjoy this wonderful truth of justification. He was us to carry our guilt around, even though it has been dealt with. We must be aware of this. Satan is the Accuser. Satan wants to make you feel like rubbish. He wants to paralyse you into inactivity every time you sin and fail, so that you feel you cannot serve God. He wants to rob you of your peace. So, what should we do? The hymn, ‘Before the Throne’ advises:
‘When Satan tempts me to despair, and tells me of the guilt within,
upward I look and see Him there, who made an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless Saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free,
for God the Just is satisfied, to look on Him and pardon me’.

We must believe that we really are justified. Next time you sin, be quick to confess it to Jesus, and then remember that you are clean in God’s sight. Robert Murray McCheyne once said: ‘For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.’ This is the best advice. Remember what he has done for us.

The next picture Paul gives is that of redemption. This is a picture from the slave market. This might be far removed from our context today but is a precious picture. Redemption means to set someone free through the payment of a price. When does this happen for the Christian? As soon as we have faith in Christ. That’s when we become Christians. That’s when we are born again.

We’ve already seen in verse 9 that all are born as slaves to sin. We are under its power. But the wonderful news of the gospel is that Jesus comes and pays his Father an extremely high price in order to set us free. What is that price? ‘For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.’ (1 Peter 1:18-19)

Does this truth make any difference to you at the workplace or in your home? You are no longer a slave to sin. Once there was a slave who was set free from his cruel horrible master by a generous benefactor. This former slave was out in the field one day when his old master rode by on a horse, came up to the man and barked an order at him, commanding him to fetch him a drink. In fear, the man obeyed his former master. But he didn’t need to. His response didn’t make sense; he was a free man. This is how I feel every time I sin, following Satan’s voice. I’ve been set free from his dominion, and it no longer makes sense to obey him. We have been redeemed. We need to remember that when Satan comes to tempt us into following him. He wants us to think true freedom is following him.

The final picture is one from the temple and is that of propitiation. ‘…whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.’ (Romans 3:25) Don’t be scared of the word propitiation – it just means turning away God’s wrath through a sacrifice. We’ll already seen that God is right to be angry with human rebellion. But the focus of the gospel is not on what we have done to mess up our relationship with God, but on what God has done to sort it out. Although God is the one who is rightfully angry and offended, he is also the one to provide the only solution for his wrath, the sacrifice of his only Son on the cross.

Let’s ask the basic question – if we are Christians, how much of God’s wrath can we receive on the Day of Judgement? The answer is none! Jesus has already absorbed all the anger of cross when he experienced Hell in our place. There is no wrath left for us. Hallelujah!

Sermon: Sunday, 29th September, 2024
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Romans 2:1 – 3:8

It can be heart-breaking when people trust in the wrong things or the wrong people. Having a false confidence in something or someone can be so dangerous. For example, those who set sail on the Titanic in 1912, trusted that they would arrive safely in New York City. Around 1500 lost their lives. Their confidence in human engineering and in the skill of the sailors was misplaced. In 1991, following the death of Robert Maxwell, it came to light that he had embezzled 460 million from employees, whose pension funds dropped by 50% as a result. You cannot trust powerful figures, and you cannot trust that you will have financial security in the future, and if you do then you will ultimately be disappointed.

When it comes to thinking about our eternal security – life after death – you need to make sure your confidence is not misplaced. Tragically, there are many people who think they have a guaranteed place in Heaven, but they are trusting in the wrong things. It is a false confidence. They trust in their own goodness, or in their religion or in their Christian heritage, or in their churchgoing, but the bottom line is this: they do not know God or trust in Jesus as their Saviour. We’ve probably all been to funerals where it is assumed that the deceased is now in Heaven, even though during their lives Jesus meant nothing to them. This is the worst form of self-deception we can have, believing that we are at peace with God, when we are not.

Paul has been going to great lengths to underline to us that when it comes to the greatest human need, which is forgiveness with God, we are all in the same boat. We have already seen that it is not just the openly immoral who fall short of God’s righteous standards, but the respectable and moral in society fall short as well. They might not commit obvious sins such as murder and adultery in their actions, but in their hearts, they commit these sins repeatedly.

This week, we complete the dark picture of humanity by looking at a final group, that of the deeply religious within God’s covenant community. Many Jewish people wrongly assumed that all was well between them and God just because they attended the synagogue or because they were circumcised. Paul presents them with the shocking truth; if you rely on your Jewish heritage for your salvation, you will be eternity lost. For us in Kirkcaldy Free Church this morning, the shocking truth is this, if you are relying on your baptism or Christian upbringing, or church membership, or keeping of the Lord’s Day in order to get into Heaven, then you too have a false confidence.

1. Relying on your Christian heritage is a deadly mistake

What were the Jews relying on for their salvation? ‘Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law…’ (Romans 2:17-18) The Jews thought they were okay with God because they were the ones who possessed God’s truth by having the Bible. Of all the nations on the earth, they were the ones who had been given the ten commandments on tablets of stone. They were the chosen ones. In effect, they were saying: ‘we don’t need to worry about God’s wrath or judgement, because we have God’s law’. However, like those on the Titanic, although they thought they were safe, they were not.

This leads us to the question, what impact should the 10 commandments have had on them? If they had really understood God’s law, they would have seen how beautiful the law is, because it teaches us how to love God and love our neighbours. However, God’s law should also unsettle us and make us feel guilty, because externally and internally, we fail to keep it. God’s law is like an MRI scan which shows up all the wrong and twisted things in our hearts. The law shows us our sin. So, rather than thinking: ‘We have the law so we’re okay.’ they should have thought, ‘We’ve totally failed to keep the law God entrusted us with, and we are in desperate need of his mercy.’ The law should lead us to cry out to Jesus on prayer for forgiveness.

So, let me ask each one of us here, are you relying on your knowledge of the Christian faith to get you into Heaven? If so, then you have a false confidence. What Paul is saying is that just possessing God’s truth and laws is not enough. In fact, there is a sense in which it makes us more guilty because we have been given more light by God: ‘You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?’ (Romans 2:21-22) Paul is rightly accusing them of failing to practice what they preach. They might teach others God’s law, or teach their own children, but that does not cover the fact that they too are law-breakers. God sees into our hearts, seeing our lack of love for him and for our neighbours.

It is not only God who sees their hypocrisy – the Gentiles see it too: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’ (Romans 2:24) What does this mean? It means the failure of the religious to love others was a massive stumbling block for Gentiles. ‘If that’s what following the Lord looks like”, they thought, “then I’m having none of it.’

The application for us today us obvious. If you fail to practice what you preach at home and at the workplace and on a work night out, and in your neighbourhood and at church, then you yourself might be a barrier which keeps people from God. If you say ‘Yes, I’m a Christian.’ but are then lazy at work, or join in in gossip, then people will see through you. Of course, we are all far from perfect, but our aim, with God’s help, is to live out the Christian faith in everyday life. The opposite is also true: ‘…let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.’ (Matthew 5:16) I can think of a student who was known as a Christian in his halls of residence, but who slept around. God’s name was blasphemed amongst the students because of him. God’s name was dragged through the mud. May the same not be true of us.

2. Relying on your baptism is also a deadly mistake.

As well as the law, the Jews also relied upon the fact that they were connected with God’s people on account of being circumcised. To be blunt, they thought their place in Heaven was secure because they had been circumcised. It was good that they had been circumcised! This was God’s covenant sign which spoke to them of the righteousness which comes to us by faith. However, outward circumcision is not what makes us believers. For that, we need circumcision of the heart, which is a work of God: ‘A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.’ (Romans 2:28-29)

The Jews had misunderstood the covenant symbol of circumcision. They relied on the sign of circumcision but ignored the key thing, what the sign pointed to, a relationship of trust with the living God. What God cares about most is your heart. Do you love Jesus, trusting in his death on the cross? Imagine a man who wears a wedding ring all the time, as a sign of his marriage vows to his wife. The truth is, he is an adulterer. Then imagine another man who doesn’t wear his ring, but has been faithful all his life and loves his wife. We all know the first man cannot claim to be right with his wife because he wears a wedding ring. That’s just the outward sign, important though it is.

Let’s get more personal. What kind of wrong things can we trust in today? What might our false confidence be? For the Jews it was their possession of the Scriptures, and it was circumcision. For some of us it might be baptism. We might think that because we were baptised as a baby, or even as an adult, that our place in Heaven is secure. But that is nonsense. Our place in Heaven is only secure if we have received Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Our confidence must not be in our baptism but in Jesus. Jesus’ perfect life and death on our behalf must be the only basis of our confidence.

You might be from a country where there are many Muslims, and you might have grown up as a Christian, and attended church regularly. Is that your passport to Heaven. No! That would be relying on our Christian heritage, instead of relying on a person – Jesus Christ. If your confidence is in the fact that you are Free Church, Catholic or that you take communion, that is a false confidence. Again, as we sang together, we must say: ‘In Christ alone my hope is found.’ He is our confidence.

Let’s recap. Paul tells the whole world, the openly immoral, the respectable in society and the deeply religious, that they all fail to live up to God’s standards. This means that we all need Jesus to rescue us from the moral debt we have built up, no matter what our background might be. Make no mistake- the deeply religious would have been shocked by this. They had taken refuge in their religion and in their ethnic identity as Jews, but Paul has torn this shelter down, telling them it is no good and that Jesus is the only one you can shelter under.

Paul knows many of the religious Jews will object. Paul knows this from experience because he used to have this false confidence himself before he met Jesus. And so, Paul begins to deal with some typical objections to the truth that we are justified through faith alone in Christ alone.

3. Phoney objections

The first objection is, if they cannot save you from judgment, what’s the point in circumcision or in having the Scriptures? Wouldn’t Jews be better off as Gentiles? Paul says ‘No!’ We could ask a similar question in 2024, if it doesn’t save you from judgment, is there an advantage in having Christian parents? Indeed, there is. It is a massive privilege to be brought up in a Christian home and to be taught: who God is and what he has done, the value of human life and what our greatest need is, and also the way we can be forgiven and have eternal life. Of course, just knowing such facts is not enough; we must experience a true hatred of sin and turn to God for forgiveness. But to have the Bible, God’s instruction manual for our lives, is a tremendous blessing, revealing to us the unmatched, loving and gracious character of God.

The next 3 objections seem more spurious. Verses 3-4 seem to ask, if God’s people are unfaithful does that mean that he is unfaithful? Well, no it does not mean that. God is the Faithful One. He is always true to his word. If God chose the Jewish people, but some of them fail to trust him, does that mean God’s plans and promises are being frustrated? No, it does not mean this.

In verses 5-6, we have a twisted objection to God’s grace. The objector is arguing that the more we sin, the more glorious God’s grace appears, so surely God should be pleased when we sin, as our sin just underlines his grace more. It’s almost like arguing that we should be so delighted in the black cloth under the diamond, because this background shows off the beauty of the diamond more. So then, how could God judge our sin if our sin helps to highlight God’s grace and forgiveness? Would God not be unjust to bring his wrath on sinners? This is a feeble argument. Paul counters it by saying that God is the Judge of all people, and of course he is competent to judge justly.

The final objection in verses 7-8 is the worst of them all. The crux of this argument is this: if our being bad makes God look good, then we will be bad so that he looks good. These arguments are twisted and irrational. But the arguments remind us just how much human beings object to being told the truth that that they have a problem with sin and cannot be righteous in God’s sight by their own efforts. Rather than humbling ourselves before God, receiving Jesus as Saviour with great joy, many are determined not to believe. They will throw up smokescreens and ask all kind of questions, some of which might be unanswerable. But our God has told us more than enough about what we must do to be saved.

Sometimes people ask good questions and are genuinely seeking answers. At other times, however, questioning God and his ways are just our stubborn way of refusing to humble ourselves before him. We can legitimately ask why there is so much suffering in the world, and where evil came from, and we can ask about other religions and about God and science. But at the end of the day, the fact remains that one day each one of us will have to stand before God and give an account of our lives. We must focus on how to be saved. We must focus on how to receive the righteousness of God that is by faith. Do you want to have a true and right and genuine hope for Heaven? It is only found in Jesus.

Sermon: Sunday, 22nd September, 2024
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Romans 2:1-16

The judgment of God is not an easy thing for us to think about.  It’s an extremely unpopular topic today, especially for those who are not Christians but even for some who are, but who genuinely struggle with the concept of Hell and are more than a little uncomfortable with it.  We cannot think of a more serious topic than God’s judgment.  We need to be careful to stick closely to the contours of the Bible and not go beyond them.  When we think of God’s anger at evil, I think it is helpful to think about our own anger towards evil. 

When I visited Auschwitz, I felt great anger at what happened there in the gas chambers.  We feel anger at injustice and evil because we care about people.  Gavin Ortlund says: ‘Anger is how goodness responds to evil.’  So, when we see women or children exploited, or countries where the politicians syphon off all the money to line their own pockets while their own people starve, righteous anger is the best response.  It’s hard for us to imagine just how angry our perfect God must be, at the sin in the world, including the sin in our hearts.

If God were to ignore sin, there would be no justice in the world.  Even this week, with multiple accusations about the former owner of Harrods, it seems like he abused his power to exploit his employees.  Now he is dead, and we might think he got away with it.  And what about the countless others in positions of power down through the centuries who lived comfortable lives at the expense of others?  Did they get away with it too?  The fact is no one will get away with their evil deeds.  God clearly states in this passage that there is a day of ‘God’s wrath’ (verse 5) when all wrongs shall be put right.  Verse 16 speaks of a day when God will ‘judge people’s secrets through Jesus Christ’.  We can sometimes manage to hide our sins from others, but we cannot hide them from a God who sees and knows all things. One day, or secrets will be brought into the open.

I’m glad that it is Jesus who will judge everyone.  Why?  Because he knows exactly what we have done, including what our motives have been and any mitigating circumstances.  He will judge fairly.  He will not make any mistakes in his judgments.  It might seem from a human point of view that Christ will judge in a way that is too severe, and to our limited minds, sometimes it might seem that way.  Abraham is quite right when he says to the LORD in Genesis: ‘Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?’ (Genesis 18:25)

‘The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’ (2 Peter 3:9)  Here, Peter shows us God’s heart for the people he has created: he wants them all to be saved, but he will not force them all to be saved.

Last week, we considered God’s attitude to pagan people, whose sins are obvious and who worship idols.  We saw how even those who have no Bible of their own have no excuse in the rejection of God, because the creation around us is evidence of both his existence and his goodness.  To take his good gifts throughout our lives whilst failing to praise and thank him for them is a serious business.  People actively suppress the truth about God because they want to be the boss of their own lives, and so they reject God’s rightful authority over us.  We act as if we were God rather than letting God have the first place in our lives, which he alone deserves.  As a result of this rebellion, God removes his hand of restraint, and leaves people to their own wrong desires and behaviours.

This week, we come to consider another group of people, the respectable people in society, who seem good on the outside.  But all is not what it seems.  They might pay their taxes, climb the career ladder, raise their children, give to the foodbank and donate blood four times a year; however, they too fail spectacularly to keep God’s good and holy laws and they too, just like the pagans, are in need of a Saviour, to save them from God’s just judgments.  Morally, they are in the same boat.  They fall short of God’s standards, and even their own standards.

1. The respectable judge others, but God will judge them.

 
I have a friend who likes to talk about the evil in the world and in other people.  He is a respectable man in the community.  He speaks about racists, and corrupt politicians.  However, he will not accept that he himself has a problem with sin.  And I think most people in Scotland are like that.  They live respectable lives, and as they read the newspapers and read of Putin and Fayed and drunk drivers and shoplifters they avoid their own guilt, by putting others down and lifting themselves up.  Most people do this.  But God is having none of it (verse 1).  He calls it hypocrisy, because they too do the same things!

Yes, people can see the overt sins of murder and adultery in others, but we too break those commands through the murderous anger and lustful thoughts in our hearts.  Jesus clearly teaches that adultery can be committed in our thoughts as well as our actions.  We desire to cheat on our spouse.
Such people take the place of God by judging the lives of others (as if we ourselves were God) but at the same time, we break the exact same commands ourselves, but are too blind to see it: ‘…at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.’ (Romans 2:1)

Have you fallen into this trap?  You often tut-tut at the wrongs of others, and disapprove of the ills in society.  But do you see your own faults and failings?  Do you consider how you covet better cars or holidays or houses?  Do you consider how you might give to a good cause once in a while, but the truth is that you have far more than most people in the world, but have very little interest in sharing what you have with others?  Moral, respectable people often think they have nothing to be judged by God for.  God begs to differ: ‘… do you think you will escape God’s judgment?’ (Romans 2:3)

2. When I am not judged immediately, it is because God is giving me time to repent.

Just because your life, your family and career, are going well, does not mean that God is pleased with you.  Many presume they are good people, and that God must be pleased with them because their lives are relatively smooth.  They wrongly assume that God will not judge people like them.  What do we read in verse 4?  Why is God being kind to them?  ‘Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realising that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?’ (Romans 2:4)  God’s patience is not a sign of your goodness, but rather his patience is to give you every chance to confess your sin to God, and put your trust in Christ, rather than in yourself.

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…’ (Exodus 34:6-7)

If you are not yet a believer, God’s patience with you is not a sign that he isn’t bothered by your sin.  It is not a sign that he doesn’t notice what you are doing – he does. He is holding back judgement in order to give you an opportunity to repent.  The question is: are you responding positively to God’s patience with you?  The only right response is to change direction, away from our sin and towards Jesus.

3. God will judge us fairly, based on our actions.

 
If God’s patience with us is designed to bring us to a place of humility and confession of sin, but we fail to do that, and carry on judging others, then we build up more and more moral debt with God.  Verse 5 We are storing up wrath for ourselves. The fairness of God’s judgements is seen in the fact that it is based upon the actions of our lives.

Those who are Christians are justified by faith, and not works.  However, the evidence that we have come to trust in Christ is that we show forth the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.  If we are attached to Christ the vine by faith, then of course, we must bear fruit.  ‘To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life.’ (Romans 2:7)  In other words, the hallmark of a true Christian is one who seeks God’s glory and honour in their actions.  It is to such that eternal life will be given.

Sadly, there is another category of person, one who refuses to seek God’s glory, but rather rejects God and his truth and is self-seeking.  Their eternal destination will be one without the goodness of God.  All of us here must stand before our Maker one day, and our lives will be evaluated based upon our deeds.  Our lives will not be evaluated based on what others think of us, or on if we are church members, or have been baptised, but rather based on the level of our obedience.

Verse 11 states that God does not show favouritism.  You could be highly respected in your community or be a member of the Free Church, PCA, COS, or another church, but God will still judge you with total fairness based on how you have lived.  There are 2 destinies mentioned here: eternal life, and a place of wrath and anger. I would urge you not to live for yourself, ignoring your Maker and the truth he has revealed in the Bible.  Instead, place your trust in Christ alone, and then your life will be lived out for God’s glory, and be marked by good works.

God’s patience does not go on forever.  Remember the days of Noah.  God’s patience with human wickedness came to an end and a flood of judgement eventually came.  God asked Noah to build an ark.  What was so special about the ark?  It was the only place to be safe from the judgement which was deserved.  What is the equivalent of the ark for us?  It is to be safe in the arms of Jesus.  That involves turning from sin and asking God for forgiveness.

4. Even those without Bibles have knowledge of God’s commands in their hearts.

 
The Jews, of course, were privileged to have been given the 10 commandments and other laws in the Bible.  However, some wrongly thought just by possessing these commandments, they were right with God.  Paul says ‘No’, the commands need to be obeyed by those to whom they have been given.

What about non-Jews?  What about those Gentiles who have never read the Bible?  How can they be expected to know God’s rules?  God tells us here that even those without Bibles have an inbuilt sense of right and wrong.  You can go around the world, and there is agreement that murder is wrong.  Most cultures understand that stealing is wrong, and that we must respect the property of others.  These things are self-evident.  Why?  ‘They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts…’ (Romans 2:15)  This is an amazing teaching, reminding us that all human beings have an at least some understanding of right and wrong.  Sometimes this is referred to as ‘natural law’.

This passage also speaks of the human conscience.  Those who are not Christians can still feel guilty about things they have done because their own consciences accuse them.

Many people like to put God ‘in the dock’.  We say his judgement of the people he has made is unfair.  Friends, we are reminded here that God has made himself plain to the world through the creation and by giving them a sense of right and wrong and consciences to make them aware of wrongdoing.  So let us be clear: God will not judge people unfairly but based on the knowledge they have been given and based on their actions.  The truth is that we are all accountable to God for our actions. He will make no mistakes in his judgements, because he knows all about us.  He even knows our secrets.  ‘This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.’ (Romans 2:16)   There will be no miscarriages of justice on that Day.  The Post Office scandal, where 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted for stealing, reminds us that human judgements are imperfect at best. God will make no errors in his dealings with us.  He knows all the information, including the secrets no one else knows.

Why is the gospel such good news?  Why should Romans 1:17 cause us to do cartwheels, and sing for joy?  Because all people need to be saved.  None of us is righteous.  Pagans aren’t righteous and respectable and moral people aren’t righteous.  How much we all need God’s righteousness!  Why then will you not come to Jesus and ask for it?

‘For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ (Romans 1:17)

Sermon: Sunday, 15th September, 2024
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Romans 1:18-32

Last week, Geoff was preaching on the best news we could ever hear – that although no one in the world is good enough to make it to Heaven by their own efforts, because we lack the righteousness or goodness that God requires, we can still get to Heaven because Jesus is able to forgive us and give us the goodness which we lack from his own stores of goodness. Jesus’ goodness is offered to the whole world, but there is a condition to receiving it; we must turn away from our sin and believe that Jesus if the Son of God who died on the cross in order to clean us of sin. In a word, God wants our trust. He wants our faith: For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed — a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ (Romans 1:17)

Martin Luther is arguably the most influential Christian in the last 1000 years. He became a monk, living in a monastery; however, he did not have faith in Jesus. He was not a true Christian. Instead of receiving Jesus’ goodness as a gift, he tried and tried to earn God’s favour through acts of penance and self-sacrifice, and even self-flagellation. In other words, he tried to make himself good enough for God. But no one is good enough for God. If we were good enough, we wouldn’t need Jesus to save us, and Jesus would not have needed to die on the cross. Luther describes his pre-Christian days as a monk: ‘If you had asked me, did I love God, I would say love God? Sometimes I hated him. I saw Christ as a terrifying judge, who had the sword of judgement above my head, and I had no peace.’ Luther came to understand that the righteousness he needed could not come from his own actions. Rather, it is a righteousness that God makes available to us who are not righteous; that righteousness of God that is granted to us as a gift in faith. When Luther understood justification by faith alone, and not by our own efforts, he said it was like ‘the doors of paradise swung open and I walked through’. Do you understand that you cannot make yourself good, but need God to do that for you? Do you understand that this goodness only comes to those who place their trust in Jesus?

As a monk, Luther discovered that no one can find God’s forgiveness through their own efforts. Our good deeds will never outweigh the bad. The early chapters of Romans hammer this point home to us. In chapter 1 we are told that pagans fall well short of God’s standards. In chapter 2, Paul tells us that likewise, moral people fall short of God’s standards. Finally, and for some most shocking of all, we’re told that the deeply religious also fall short of God’s standards and without faith in Jesus, are under God’s wrath. Paul goes to great lengths in these early chapters of Romans to show that all human beings are in the same boat. Romans chapter 3 sums up the problem of all humans: ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ (Romans 3:23)

Why does Paul spend so long trying to convince us of this? Imagine going to your doctor, and he asks you to sit down and tells you he has some bad news for you – even though you might feel ok, you have an extremely serious illness. However, thankfully there is a cure available. Unless you are convinced that there is a problem, you will never agree to surgery needed to cure this disease. It is crucial that you understand the true nature of your problem. The same is true spiritually. Until you understand that you cannot get into a right relationship with God by your own efforts, and that you have a problem with sin in your heart, you will never accept God’s solution, which is Christ’s death on the cross. It was when Luther stopped trying to earn God favour, and rested instead on what Jesus had done for him by dying in his place that peace flooded into his heart. So let me be blunt: like a good doctor, the best of doctors, God wants to break this bad news to you today – you are not a good person.

Let’s try to understand what lies at the heart of the human problem of sin.

1. There is no such thing as an atheist

That might sound like a crazy thing to say. Even last week, I was speaking with a group of young people, a third of whom claimed to be atheists. Are they wrong? Yes! The Bible clearly teaches us that all humans beings know something about God. They might never have heard about Jesus Christ or his death or resurrection. They might never have read God’s book, the Bible. However, they have read another book – the book of nature. That is to say, when they look at the stars in the sky, or a newborn baby, or the beauty of a landscape, they know deep down that there must have been a God to have designed and created these things: ‘… 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 people are without excuse.’ (Romans 1:19-20)

God is telling us something logical. Just as when we see a great painting, we know there must have been an artist who painted it, in the same way, when we see the creation, we know there must have been a Creator behind it. And we know this Creator must be powerful and glorious to have been able to form the created order. This is what it says in Psalm 19: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.’ (Psalm 19:1-4)

In other words, the stars themselves are like an internationally understood language shouting out to all people – there is a God! There is a Creator! Deep down, everyone knows this fact. That’s why even the staunchest atheists often end up praying on their death beds. And that’s why the world is full of religion – we know within ourselves that there is a God. There is no such thing as an atheist.

Many times, I’ve heard people say,’Why does God make it so hard to believe in him?’ The assumption is that God is playing a horrible game of hide and seek with us, making it really hard to find him. The truth is the very opposite. We see the fingerprints of God all around us, and yet we hide from him.

2. Human rebellion

It’s an interesting fact that people do not always respond to truth in the way that we should. For example, a man with a spending problem started off opening his credit card bills when they came through the post, but they really upset him. As time went on, he began to leave them unopened, but continued to rack up even more debt. He chose to suppress the truth of his debts, and carried on spending money he didn’t have, and even managed to convince himself at times that he didn’t really have a problem.

Many people do the same with God. They know he exists, but they: ‘… suppress the truth by their wickedness.’ (Romans 1:18) The squash down the thought of God in their lives. But why? Because they do not want to be answerable to a supreme being. Instead, they want to be the boss of their own lives. God is an inconvenient truth, so rather than face this truth, they squash it down more and more, until they convince themselves that they are atheists.

I’ve been thinking about rainbows a lot recently. They are the sign of God’s covenant with Noah and indeed his covenant with all human beings and with animals too. God promises to sustain and preserve the human race until Jesus comes again. He is good to all he has made. He sends the sun and the rain and causes things to grow. Paul and Barnabas inform those in Lystra that God: ‘… has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.’ (Acts 14:17) We ought to be so thankful to God for his gifts. However, in our rebellion, human beings have the opposite reaction: ‘For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him…’ (Romans 1:21) Being unthankful to God is a serious business.

Verse 18 describes the dark side of the human condition using the words ‘godlessness and wickedness’.

‘John Stott: Scripture is quite clear than the essence of sin is godlessness. It is an attempt to get rid of God and, since that is impossible, the determination to live as though one had succeeded in doing so… It is not just that they do wrong, though they know better. It is that they have made an a priori decision to live for themselves, rather than for God and others, therefore deliberately stifle any truth which challenges their self-centredness.’

A son went off to university in Glasgow. He had been brought up with love and the best his parents could offer. They even supported him at university. However, when he began to taste a life of independence, he began to ignore the texts and calls of his parents. He wanted no accountability and no interference. When his dad turned up at his flat and knocked on the door, he refused to answer, and even said to his flatmates: ‘I don’t know who that guy is banging on our door. Tell him to go away.’ That’s a shocking scene. But that’s how many people treat God. God has been kind to us, giving us our lives, and many of its accompanying gifts. We turn round to God and say: ‘I don’t want you in my life.’ This is human rebellion against God. This is thanklessness. This is wickedness.

When volunteering at the church café, I really appreciate it when people say ‘Thank you’. Some people don’t. Some even complain about the service, take far more than their share, as if that’s their right. Sadly, we can all be guilty of entitlement and thanklessness. Not saying thank you to me is not such a big deal. But when we behave like that towards God, the King of Kings, it is serious.

3. God is a God of both love and wrath

What have we learned so far? We’ve seen that the invisible God is made visible to us by what has been made. However, we have a tendency to ignore God in his world, to pursue our own selfish path. We suppress the truth of his existence, and this sets off a negative chain reaction. Because when we push God out of our lives, our thinking is darkened and this vacuum is replaced by all kinds of ugly idols which take God’s place. ‘For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.’ (Romans 1:21-23)

We’ve already thought of God’s love, sending his own Son to die to pay the price for our sin and to gift us his goodness. Now we come to a more unpopular truth – the wrath of God. God will not be mocked. His wrath is not like human wrath, which can often be out of control or unjust or too severe. God’s wrath is a holy wrath directed at those who mistreat him and other human beings.

John Stott: His wrath is his holy hostility to evil, his refusal to condone it or to come to terms with it, his just judgement upon it.’

I’m glad that God is not neutral towards wickedness. What kind of God would he be then, if the wicked were never brought to justice?

This leads to the question – how is God’s holy anger revealed? We know it will be revealed at the end of time on the Day of Judgement. However, what’s striking about this passage is that God is also revealing his anger in the here and now. What do we mean? Well, we see that for those who reject God, God ‘gives them over’ to the wicked desires of their hearts. We see this phrase 3 times, in verses 24, 26 and 28. The shocking thing is this: in the here and now, God’s judgement comes not by God’s intervention, but by not intervening, by allowing us to go our own way.

John Stott: ‘God abandons stubborn sinners to their wilful self-centredness, and the resulting process of moral and spiritual degeneration is to be understood as a judicial act of God. This is the revelation of God’s wrath from heaven.’

It is as if God is saying: ‘So you want to live without me – ok then do that.’ God removes his hand of restraint, and leaves people to their own wrong desires and behaviours. These wrong behaviours are anything which is outside the will of God. God is the Creator and Designer of the world, and so it goes without saying that he decides what is right and wrong and reveals to us in Scripture how we are to love God and love our neighbours. Part of this design is that the only context for sexual activity is in the lifelong marriage of a man and a woman. Of course, in 2024 our culture has completely moved away from the basic foundational truths of marriage, gender and sex.

Church is a place where homosexuals are welcome and respected and loved, but that does not mean we agree with homosexual practice, if the Bible clearly teaches it is out with his design. But we might object and say, well, why do people have these strong desires? I don’t know about you, but often I have wrong desires, and have to fight against them. Not everything which I desire is necessarily right. Sam Allberry, a pastor who is himself same-sex attracted, writes with great love and sympathy for the gay community. He says: ‘All of us have desires that are warped as a result of our fallen nature. Desires for things God has forbidden are a reflection of how sin has distorted me, not of how God has made me… as we reject God, we find ourselves craving what we are not naturally designed to do. This is as true of a heterosexual person as a homosexual person.’

Here’s the thing. When God is rejected, what happens? Society starts to unravel. Verses 29-32 catalogue 21 other sins which flow out of suppression of God and his truth. Verse 32 even says we approve of those who do evil. When we fail to honour and love and serve God, it results in the disordering of human life. It leads to envy and boasting and disobeying our parents. Let’s take a step back from this passage and think of our own Scottish culture in 2024. It seems to me that we are a culture which has repressed our knowledge of God, and exchanged him for our own idols, resulting in moral chaos.

Sermon: Sunday, 8th September, 2024
Speaker: Geoff Murray
Scripture: Romans 1:8-17

1. The Gospel makes us family

Paul, as he usually does in his letters, gives thanks for the people he’s writing to, he prays for them.

‘First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times…’ (Romans 1:8-10)

His love for them is so evident. Not just that he thanks God with such joy for them but that he’s constantly remembering them in prayer. The love that he has that he is frequently and often bringing them before God. Paul as we know had great suffering, he could have been completely consumed with his own worries and cares, but he isn’t, he is praying for the church in Rome often.

His love on that level is remarkable, but it gets even more remarkable in that he doesn’t know these people. He prays that the way at last may be finally opened to him to see them, having planned to come but not managed yet.

So he prays for them regularly and gives thanks for them regularly even though he’s never met them. But he wants to meet them. Why?

‘I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong – that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.’ (Romans 1:11-12)

So that, as they meet for the first time, as Paul shares the good news of the gospel, as he shares his life, as he hears first-hand what God is doing in Rome that they may be encouraged.

And it is one of the things which makes the gospel powerful is that it turns strangers into family. Paul, as I said, has never met these people before, yet he speaks to them as ‘brothers’ or ‘brothers and sisters’, he prays for them and gives thanks for them often, he longs to be with them. How can this be so seeing as they have never met?

It’s because all of a sudden when we meet Jesus and have lives transformed, we’re united to him and as we’re united to him, we’re also united to brothers and sisters the world over. We’ve all been adopted into God’s family. We all share the most important thing in common: faith in Jesus Christ.

Those we were once separate from; we are now inextricably bound together with. We may be separated by geography, we may be separated by language, we may be separated by culture, we may be separated by church tradition or background but despite that, we are united together, bound together as family through faith in Jesus Christ.

This that Paul is speaking about, of being mutually encouraged by one another’s faith, that is genuinely the opportunity that is before you, that as you go the church should be so glad to meet you and your presence among them will be an encouragement, and you will be encouraged as you see what God is doing in another part of the world.

When you meet Christians from other parts of the world, you’re able to hit it off immediately because you have the most important one in common, Jesus Christ. So, I don’t know if/when you are going to go on holiday next, but if you are going, look ahead to what church you’ll go to. Bless and be blessed.

2. The Gospel makes us debtors

Paul (in chapter verses 5 and 6) tells us his calling as a believer was as an Apostle to the Gentiles among whom are the church in Rome. And even as he has prayed for them and longs to be with them to minister to them and that has to do with his calling.

‘I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.’ (Romans 1:13-15)

I suppose there’s two ways you might be in someone’s debt. The first would be that someone gave you money as a loan and you owed them it back and the second would be if someone gave you money to give to someone else. You’d all of a sudden be a debtor to the person you’re due to give the money to.

It’s the second that is in view here. God has given the Apostle Paul this task of going to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and now all of a sudden, he is a debtor to the Gentiles, he is obligated to the Gentiles to go and share the good news with them.

That’s why he’s so eager to go to the church in Rome. That’s why he’s tried multiple times before to get to Rome to go and share the gospel, to have a harvest among them as he has the other Gentiles.

God has given him this calling to go to the Gentiles and he has. He’s been a fruitful evangelist and church planter among Gentiles but he is yet to make it to Rome.

God has given Paul this calling on his life and he goes after it with great enthusiasm, with great prayerfulness, with great intention. He isn’t indifferent whether this is fulfilled or not, he isn’t passive, he’s eager, he’s keen, he is on the front foot as it were.

This gospel message that is powerful, that brings salvation to all has come to Paul, more than that God has revealed it to him that it brings salvation to all, even Gentiles and that has propelled him forward in a cause greater than himself for God’s glory.

And I get that we’re not Apostles like Paul, I get that we don’t have this very specific call to go to a very specific people. But we all as God’s people have the call to make Christ known.

What leads us to do this? It is having received this all-powerful gospel and receiving this great task of becoming debtors to the world as Paul was a debtor to the Gentiles. To receive this high calling much greater than ourselves to be called to go and share this good news we have received.

What do you spend your time living for? What is your greatest pursuit? Having been shown mercy and grace in Jesus Christ, having been given new life, is it not telling others of this mercy you’ve received? Pointing to one greater than yourself to point others to him?

Friends, let it be so, and especially as we approach our third and final point.

3. The Gospel makes us righteous

The gospel is powerful because it brings salvation for all who believe, why is that powerful? Because in the gospel a righteousness is revealed, but what makes that so powerful is by ourselves we don’t have it, as Paul will go on to explain throughout Romans, we need it, we desperately need it, we are, in our natural selves, before Christ intervenes, separated from God because we don’t have it.

‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ (Romans 1:16-17)

For something to be revealed means that there was a time when it wasn’t revealed to us, in other words there was a time where we did not possess righteousness, we did not know righteousness, yet it was given to us.

We tend to think we’re pretty good people by all accounts. Assuming I work hard, keep my nose clean, don’t steal, kill, or have an affair what’s the problem? I’m a good person. Well, there are miles apart from a ‘good’ person and a righteous person.

In the Bible, righteousness is ultimately bound up with the fact God is righteous. He does no wrong, he commits no evil, he is perfectly good, just and right in all he does. God is perfect without fault, all that he does is good.

And so when we’re thinking about righteousness, we ultimately have to think about God’s righteousness which is perfect, good and right. That’s why, ‘I’m a good person’ doesn’t cut it because next to God as the ultimate standard of righteousness, we all fall short. That’s great that you don’t murder people, but righteousness? You don’t come even close to it.

The great point which Paul brings out time and again in Romans is actually nobody comes close to it. Because we sin and fall short of God’s standard, that declaration of ‘righteous’ is absent.

The level of righteousness that’s required we simply don’t know a thing about by ourselves, it’s alien to us, God’s righteousness, you might as well be speaking a foreign language. None of us have it, none.

Paul will go onto say, the Jews – the people of God of old who God’s great promises through Abraham, who experienced his great rescue from slavery in Egypt in the Passover and the Red Sea Crossing, who received the 10 commandments, who were led to the promised land – they don’t have the righteousness of God. And the Gentiles, the nations, strangers to grace and to God, they don’t have the righteousness of God.

‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’ (Romans 3:10-12 )

Every single person lacks the righteousness of God.

In the gospel, this righteousness is revealed in God, but as that is revealed, it’s revealed we don’t have it and that puts us in somewhat of a sticky situation to put it mildly. It puts us at odds with our creator, the Lord and sustainer of the universe, it puts us under his rightful judgement. He is righteous, we are not, that poses big problems for us entering God’s holy presence. That poses big problems for us in being right before him, accepted and loved. It means we are excluded from him, separated, rejected. God can’t bide with unrighteousness, so holy is he that nobody can go into his presence and live.

Until I am righteous, until you are righteous, that does not look to change any time soon. So how do we become righteous if we aren’t righteous?

‘For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ (Romans 1:17)

And it seems counter to how we tend to work. We tend to think ‘do better’ ‘try harder’ ‘set up a plan in place’ ‘order and structure my life in such a way to make this possible.’

But in God’s kindness, it’s not set up that way. If his righteousness were revealed to us simply in the law, we would be going in circles, chasing our tail in vain, unable to receive the righteousness of God.

Actually, in God’s kindness, he gives us another way, the way of faith. The way of trusting in a righteous one outside of ourselves, the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who came, lived and died, who rose again on this earth and as he did so, he did so as a righteous man. One who lived his life in perfect obedience to God’s law, who did meet the standard we’ve never met.

Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many. That as he lives, he lives as one righteously before God, yet as he dies, he dies as one in the place of sinners. The profound truth is that on the cross, Jesus stands in our place, though righteous, he becomes as if he were a sinner deserving wrath like you and me, yet through faith in his work for us, we stand in his place. We receive his righteousness, we receive his goodness.

It’s the same with us all. Righteousness doesn’t come when we try hard enough or meet our own yardstick measurement of righteousness. It’s a righteousness we do not have, could not attain by ourselves, yet it is a righteousness granted by faith in what Jesus has done for us.

God hasn’t gone soft or left righteousness behind. That righteousness has been fulfilled, it’s just not us that’s fulfilled it. That righteousness has been fulfilled by someone else, by another in our place, by Jesus Christ the Righteous One. The righteous demands are satisfied in him and as our substitute, he is one who takes our sin from us and gives us his righteousness so we can be declared right by God, not by any righteousness in us but by all the righteousness in him.

And notice, the gospel message brings salvation to all, to the Jew, to the Gentile, in short for all peoples. Just as all peoples lack the righteousness of God, so God offers all peoples the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

A word to you here if you’re not a professing believer, first of all I’m so glad you’re here because this is exactly the Bible text that lays all of this out clearly. But second of all, this offer of a righteousness by faith is yours

Whether you would consider yourself ‘religious’ or not, this offer is for you, Whether you would consider yourself a good person or not, this offer is for you
Whatever your nationality, race, gender, or identity, this offer is for you.

Would you take it this morning? The problem is great, all have sinned, none are righteous no not one, but the solution is a righteousness that is by faith in Jesus Christ. Won’t you trust in him and his salvation and receive his righteousness? You don’t have it, nobody on their own has it. Yet, Christ offers it freely when you trust in him. Trust in him this morning and find in him righteousness.

Perhaps you are a Christian and you struggle with assurance that God could possibly still accept you. You trust in Jesus and you try to follow him but keep tripping up the same old ways, “am I really righteous in God’s sight?” the answer is an absolute yes. Absolutely we’re told to press on in our Christian walks and to live godly lives but we are not righteous and never will be righteous in God’s sight because of the things we do, we will only ever have the necesarry righteousness to stand before God with and that is through faith in Jesus Christ alone. You’re not righteous before God today on the basis of what you did because you never were, you are only ever righteous in God’s sight through faith in Jesus Christ. So as you battle your own sin, temptations and experience your own failings, know that your faith in Jesus Christ provides all the righteousness you’ll ever need. Keep pressing on assured of the righteousness that is God’s gift to you by faith in Jesus.

What makes the gospel powerful for all who believe? Well, it drives us to the lowest place as it reveals a righteousness we don’t have and couldn’t ever hope to have in and of ourselves, but then it lifts us to the glorious heights of God providing it for us on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ. Though we deserve, every one of us without exception, to be separated from God forever, cut off, under his judgement, in his Son, he gives us the very best, he gives us the righteousness of God that we lack, the righteousness of Jesus by faith.

Place your faith in him and in him receive the righteousness that is by faith.

Sermon: Sunday, 1st September, 2024
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Romans 1:1-5

Paul’s letter to the church in Rome has been used mightily by God down through the centuries.

Matin Luther: ‘The more thoroughly it is treated, the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes.’

I hope that you will be able to say the same! As we begin this letter, let’s put it in context. Paul is writing to Christians in the church in Rome. He has not yet been able to travel to Rome, so is writing to Christians whom he has never met! We read in Romans chapter 16 of Paul’s desire to visit Rome on route to Spain. Some think he wanted the church in Rome to become partners in this Spanish work, through their prayers and financial support.

Some of the key themes of the letter are that:
• all people are sinners and with exception need to be saved from their sin;
• through the righteousness of God, sin is judged and salvation is provided;
• we can only be accepted in God’s sight through faith in what Jesus has done.

The letter also deals with the future of God’s ancient people the Jews, our future hope of Heaven and how Christians ought to live out the gospel in their everyday lives. One verse which encapsulates the message of Romans is: ‘For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ (Romans 1:17)

When ministers start talking about how we all need to tell others about Jesus, it’s all too easy to switch off. We don’t need another guilt-trip. It’s just not something we are comfortable doing, even if we’re glad when other people do. We just want to be background Christians, blending in at work and with neighbours and not being seen as odd or weird. Plus, the truth is, many are afraid to talk to others about Christianity. We don’t want to look stupid, and we don’t want to be asked questions which we can’t answer. Or perhaps our faith is wobbly and we’re just not as sure about things which we used to be sure about. Then we read Paul’s words which ooze with a heartfelt resolve to speak to others no matter what: ‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.’ (Romans 1:16)

Paul has confidence in the gospel. He believes the message is one people urgently need to hear. Here’s a question for us this morning – how can we come to share more of Paul’s confidence in the message of the Christian faith? How can we get to a place where even though we might feel uncomfortable, we will actually start taking opportunities to talk about Jesus when they arise, rather than shying away from them? I believe Romans chapter 1 is an excellent place to start. Or, perhaps you haven’t yet come to a place where you trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Why should you listen to Paul? Again, this passage provides some helpful reasons.

One of the key words in this passage is the word ‘gospel’. Many of us know that this word means ‘good news’. It means good news which really changes things significantly. This is crucial for us to understand. Christianity is not a mere set of rules to follow, or a way to earn ‘brownie points’ with God. It’s not advice about how to improve our lives. It is good news that all humanity desperately needs to hear, because it deals with our greatest need – how to have a right relationship with God. What does this passage teach us about this good news?

1. Where does this good news come from?

Verse 1 tells us that it is the ‘gospel of God’. In other words, the message of Christianity is not made up or concocted by people trying to deceive us. It does not have its origin in Paul, clever as he was. It is not a human invention, designed to make a world full of suffering more bearable. Rather, it is true because it comes straight from the mouth of God. God revealed the truth of the gospel to the prophets and to the apostles (such as Paul) and God has made sure it was written down, so that we may know how to get into a right relationship with him.

When we preach at this church, we’re not making stuff up as we go along. We are sharing what God has revealed to the world, and this has many important implications. It means that we can never change the message of the gospel. The message is not ours to change; it is the gospel of God. It belongs to him. We must stick to what God tells us in the Bible. Sadly, some so-called churches (which are not true churches) change the message of the Bible saying that as long as we try our best then that’s all God wants. But that’s not the gospel and that’s not what God wants. The good news isn’t about what we can do for God, but about what he can do for us.

The fact that the gospel has its origin in God is an encouraging truth. This alone ought to help us to share it with others. What could be more important to share with others than the message of God? It also means that when people reject the good news, they are not rejecting our good news, but God’s good news. Christians are to be just like postmen and postwomen, delivering God’s letter of love to others in the world.

R C Sproul: ‘It is God’s gospel. God owns it, God originated it, God designed it and now God is simply using the apostle Paul to communicate it to us.’

We listen to many voices today, from celebrities and influencers to friends. There’s a voice you must listen to above all others – God’s.

Is the good news brand new? No, it is not! As well as New Testament writers such as Matthew and John and Paul proclaiming this good news, we also find the good news foretold in the Old Testament. In this way, the trustworthiness of the gospel just seems to increase more and more. It is God’s good news, attested to by both Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles: ‘the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures…’ (Romans 1:2) When we have to carry something which is valuable but also heavy, we sometimes use 2 carrier bags instead of 1 to make it more secure. The truth of this news is carried by God’s servants spanning many hundreds of years. This ought to give us double confidence in the gospel. It is impossible to make this news up, bearing in mind that all the Old Testament gospel prophecies come true.

2. What is the gospel about?

Verse 3: ‘regarding his Son…’ If you want to tell other people the gospel then you must be telling them about Jesus Christ. Telling people about our church is not sharing the gospel. Nor is telling them about our café, good as that might be. Christianity is essentially good news about a person – Jesus Christ. Again, it’s not a mere set of rules, a religion or a philosophy. It is a relationship with the person called Jesus Christ. We talk to him in prayer and he talks to us as we read his Word- the Bible.

John Calvin: ‘..the whole gospel is contained in Christ…to move even a step from Christ means to withdraw oneself from the gospel.’

What does Paul tell us about the person Jesus Christ? He tells us that he is fully human and fully God at the same time. That is absolutely unique. We cannot say that about anyone else. And it is essential, because Jesus had to be fully human to die on the cross in the place of humans, and he had to be God so that his sacrifice was big enough to atone for all of his people. Paul says: ‘… regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.’ (Romans 1:3-4)

Jesus is so glorious because he is both Christ and Lord. He is truly human. He is the long-promised king, descended from David, through whom God was going to save a lost humanity and right all the wrongs in the world. Because he shares our humanity fully, he understands all that we go through. He understands our doubts and fears and anxieties. He is the Christ, God’s anointed king. But he is also the Lord. This means that he is God. How do we know this? Because of the empty tomb! Jesus’ resurrection proves beyond doubt his identity as God the Lord. This qualifies Jesus as the only Saviour of the world. Jesus’ resurrection tells us that the cross was a complete success in that sin has been paid for and death has been destroyed.

There is no one who loves us more than Jesus. No one else has conquered death. No one else has lived the perfect life we could not live. No one is more glorious or just or wise. The gospel contradicts our culture which so often places human beings at the centre of the universe. In reality, Jesus is the centre of all things. He deserves our worship and allegiance. In sport, we speak of the GOAT (the greatest of all time). In tennis, that might be Federer or Nadal or Djokovic. In snooker, it is Hendry or O’Sullivan. However, sport doesn’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things. I hope we only loosely follow teams or sports stars or favourite singers. Jesus is the only one truly worth following and surrendering our lives to. He will never let us down.

3. Who is the gospel for?

‘Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.’ (Romans 1:5)
‘all the Gentiles’ is another way of saying all the nations of the world. Paul was a patriotic Jew, and yet God called him as an apostle to the other nations of the world. He was the first great missionary of the early church. God’s message of salvation extends to every man and woman, boy and girl in the world. No one is excluded. That means it is good news for you today.

J Stott: ‘If we are to be committed to world mission, we have to be liberated from all pride of race, nation, tribe, caste and class, and acknowledge that God’s gospel is for everyone, without exception and without distinction.’

We know in theory that we must not keep the gospel to ourselves. Imagine during the pandemic, we discovered a comprehensive vaccine but kept it to ourselves. That would have been so wrong. We must not do that with the gospel. We have the only vaccine for eternal life – a relationship with Jesus.

4. What does the gospel demand from you?

The gospel demands a response from you. ‘… to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.’ (Romans 1:5) If you are not a Christian yet, you need to understand the urgency of listening to and acting upon the message of the gospel. It’s not the kind of news which you hear and then just shrug your shoulders. You must act upon it. Like if you were on a ship which was going to sink and you heard good news that there are lifeboats you can get into! You wouldn’t just stand on the ship’s deck with total apathy.

I’ve been challenged this week by someothing RC Sproul said. His concern was that too often we present the gospel as a mere invitation, as if people can take it or leave it, like an invitation to attend a party or not. But Sproul points out that the gospel is more of a command than an invitation. ‘In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.’ (Acts 17:30-31)

R C Sproul: ‘God does not invite people to repent, he commands them’.

So, yes, the gospel is good news. It is the best possible news, but we only realise that when we understand are enormous need of God’s forgiveness. And it is certainly not ‘take it or leave it’ news, but rather news about the only person qualified to rescue us from God’s judgment. Will you believe in his death in your place?

One of the most famous Christians of all time is St Augustine. Before placing his trust in Jesus, he lived a life of wine, women and song. He lived a licentious life, with a pagan philosophy of life; however, he was not content. In fact, he was depressed with his life. One day, the young man was walking and heard children chanting in a game ‘tolla lege, tolla lege’ which means ‘Pick up and read, pick up and read’. Just then, he saw and New Testament and began to read a section at random. It was from Romans: ‘Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.’ (Romans 13:13-14)

Augustine was immediately convicted by God the Holy Spirit, and this was his conversion to Christ. For the first time he saw that he needed God’s forgiveness and came to realise the wonderful news that through trusting in the life and death of Jesus, our dirty clothes can be removed and Jesus’ goodness can be wrapped around us, making us righteous. This is really what the letter of Romans is all about. It’s a wonderful letter. Will you pray to God admitting your clothes are filthy and you’ve nothing with which to remove the stains? Will you ask Jesus to clothe you anew with his goodness?