Why Rule Keeping Can’t Save You | Romans 3 Sermon

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I mean you can have a seat.

If you have a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

And last week uh Wade uh talked to us from Romans 2 about asked the question, do rule keepers go to heaven?

And uh not only do they not go to heaven because they keep the rules, uh there's there's three things you're gonna see about the rule keepers in the first section of Romans chapter three, and they're simply this that they're not very original.

Uh secondly, they're pathetic.

That's not a very good church word to use, but I just used it.

They're pathetic.

And and thirdly, uh they're without hope.

They don't stand a chance.

You say, What do you mean?

Because in the Old Testament, uh, when God led his people, the children of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt and was leading them through the wilderness into the promised land, they would just start, they would just cry out to God and be like, Why are you not doing what we want?

Let's go back to Egypt.

And one day God got so angry at them.

You ever get so frustrated with your kids, you're not speaking English, you're like, Well, God was like, he told Moses, get out of the way, I'm gonna kill them, I'm gonna wipe them out and we'll start over.

And Moses said, But God, you I get that, but if you kill all these people, it's gonna make you look bad.

All the nations around here are gonna say you brought them out in the wilderness just to kill them.

And God said, You know what?

That's a great point.

Because, not because they don't deserve it, but because it would misrepresent me.

I'm gonna refrain from what I was gonna do to you.

It's kind of like your mom says in the grocery store, Oh, yeah, you're getting away with it now, but wait till I get you home.

Or what your dad gets home.

You say, What do you mean?

They're not original because that's what the that's what the people in Rome, the Jews in Rome say in Romans 3.

And secondly, they're pathetic.

What do you mean?

Uh, when I grew up on a farmers, I mean, even though I was visiting with my new best friend back here, they say, Yeah, we used to work on a dairy farm, we had chickens, we raised chicken on our chicken farm, and and everybody, like my dad coached the league baseball, and they always want to come out to our farm.

Well, what was for us, slave laborer?

They thought it was like Disney World.

Oh, you get to feed the cows, and you get to gather eggs, and you go milk cows.

This is awesome.

No, not awesome when you do it every day, okay?

Not awesome at all.

So one day the whole baseball team is out there, and my dad said, Don't get in that barn on that hay.

We're gonna need that hay in the winter to feed these cows.

We got in that barn, we tore it up.

I was the main one.

My dad got down there though.

He implicated everybody.

He not only whipped me and my two brothers, whipped the whole baseball team.

He had to stop in the middle of it and smoke a cigarette and he got out of breath.

And then put it out and just went back whipping us.

I mean, he would just grab one, and then and the thing that I noticed was about the first five he whipped were all saying something like, Oh, Mr.

Leon, no, no, it wasn't my idea, it was Steve, it was Mitch, it was Neil.

So when it got to me, all the good excuses were taken.

And I don't know why I said this, but my dad was just wailing on me.

I told you, but not only would he whip you, he would lecture you while he was whipping you.

Like you were listening with your hand back there.

He's going, Move your hand, move your hand.

I blurted out in the midst of getting beat and rightfully deserving it.

I blurted down, I didn't have lunch.

It was so otherworldly.

My dad stopped, what'd you say?

And all these people look like fish.

They've been kind of you're catching fish and throwing on the bank, they're flopping like fish out of the water, they all stopped.

What?

And I don't know why it was true.

I had lunch, had nothing to do with it.

My dad stopped and went, What?

Why tell you?

Here's three more for not eating a well-bounced meal.

It's like, that was bad.

But the people we're gonna read about in just a minute.

They were pathetic, just as pathetic.

They come up with these lame excuses for their sin.

And finally they're brought by God.

Paul says, hey, here's the deal.

You ain't got a chance, dude.

And look at me.

Though that sounds horrible, it's really the best place you and I could be.

The Bible says it this way, Romans chapter 3, verse 1.

Romans 3:1

Then, what advantage has the Jew?

Or what is the value of circumcision?

Much in every way.

To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.

What if some were unfaithful?

Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

By no means.

Let God be true, though everyone were a liar, as it is written, you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged.

But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say?

That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us?

I speak in a human way.

By no means.

For then how could God judge the world?

Verse 7, but if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

Did you hear that?

You have to be pretty religious to say something that stupid.

What they said was, hey, my unrighteousness abounds to God's righteousness.

And if you see, I'm really screwed up and God's merciful and it makes God look really good.

Translation, I didn't have lunch.

It's the best you can come up with.

You can't stop sinning.

So what you do is you try to make your point out the fact that my sin points out how graceful and righteous God is?

Man, are you kidding me?

Verse 8, Paul says, And why not do evil then that good may come?

As some people slanderously charge us with saying, their condemnation is just.

What then?

Are we Jews any better off?

No, not at all.

For we've already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written, none is righteous, no not one.

No one understands, no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside together, they've become worthless.

No one does good, not even one.

Their throat is an open grave.

They use their tongues to deceive.

The venom of asps is under their lips, and their mouth is full of curses and bitterness, and their feet are swift to shed blood, and in their path are ruin and misery.

The way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Now, now, what a big little word.

Now, now, Paul says, Let me bring it all home.

Now, this is the place we find ourselves in.

Now, at the end of the day, as they say, every time you interview an athlete, they're going to use this phrase, or at the end of the day.

At the end of the day, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Here's these rule keepers.

Just think yourself, put yourself in their perspective for just a minute, in their shoes.

For by works of the law, no one will be justified in his sight.

You mean if we keep the rules, the dietary laws, all the rules and regulations they teach down there at the religion factory, we cannot be justified in the sight of God.

And the Bible says, absolutely not.

So the question that lands in our lap this morning is so then how does a person get right with God?

And the Bible says, only by accepting what Christ did on the cross on your behalf and my behalf.

Because at the top of the list of people who are without excuse, it's me and you.

And so we come to communion, the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, referred to in different ways, but we come to remember the body and the blood of Jesus.

Jesus said, This is my body that is offered up for you.

And this is my blood.

He said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

We take new things and make them old.

Ever buy a new car?

Smells great.

Have about a month.

You got kids?

Smells like French fries and Chick-fil-A.

You get a new house, smells new.

Your wife wants to keep it that way.

You ever notice that men stink?

You move men in there, it just starts smelling like Fritos and testosterone or something.

Or your husband breaks out that deer he he shot eight years ago and mounts it on the wall.

You're like, really?

We're doing that?

It's a new house.

Old husband.

Do the math.

We take new things and make them old.

They depreciate.

God takes old things and makes them new.

They appreciate.

That's why when you go to a funeral, the most alive person in the room is the dead guy.

That's because on the cross, the Bible says that God was not counting men's sins against them, but he was reconciling the world unto himself.

And he's committed to you and I the message of reconciliation.

And so we'll come this morning.

And in just a moment, we'll spend some time examining ourselves before we come to the elements because the Bible instructs us how to do this.

It says, hey, don't get lathered up and miss the point that you don't want to receive the elements in an unworthy manner.

It says, first of all, let a man examine himself.

And so we'll just take just a moment just to kind of think about, to search our own heart, because it's the height of religious hypocrisy to come and say to God, thank you for dying for me and forgiving me if in your heart you've not forgiven your fellow man and your fellow woman and your children for disappointing you, for being raised right, and choosing to do wrong.

That's why we examine ourselves.

So we don't come to this in an unworthy manner.

We don't come to this and say, God, I'm glad you did this for me.

But I don't care whether or not it happens for this person.

The Bible makes very plain, 1 John, about verse 1, verse 2, chapter 1, verse 2.

And this we know that he died for not only our sins only, but for the sins of the world.

So no one's beyond the pale.

You may be visiting today thinking, hey man, my friends con me into this.

Relax, there's no pressure.

You may be here as an unbeliever kind of going, I don't believe any of this.

That's okay.

You don't have to come and receive.

Matter of fact, you would be receiving in an unworthy manner.

Just sit in your seat and enjoy, sing, worship, think, reflect, whatever you choose to do.

Make a grocery list, whatever you choose to do.

But somewhere in you, you'll have to ponder why would a God love a people so much that he would sacrifice his son for them.

Somewhere in that you'll hear the voice of God who speaks a language that you understand.

It's not all King James, it's not all official big.

Sometimes it's just something as simple as Red Rover, Red Rover.

Let Adam come over.

Sometimes it's Ali Ollie and free.

Come out, come out wherever you are.

But whatever it is, it's the voice of God.

And today He'll turn up the volume on his voice to the elements of the bread and the cup.

So let's take a moment and just examine ourselves so we don't come to this in an unworthy manner.

Not like we deserve it, but unwilling to give it to everybody else on the basis that we received it, which was free and unconditional.

Let me voice a prayer.

Lord Jesus, thank you.

That uh the Bible warns us, the Bible sobers us up around this and says, don't just check the box.

This is serious business.

This is a father given his son so that he can inherit many sons and daughters.

The Bible says he was the firstborn from among the dead, so that he may have preeminence in all things.

And so when Jesus used that on the cross, it is finished.

Everything necessary for us to have a relationship with God has been accomplished.

We couldn't do it with our rule keeping and our discipline and our behavior.

And you did it.

And so we want to just kind of stand back and breathe that in for a moment before we run and put our fingerprints on it.

We want to breathe it in.

And so, Lord, speak as we examine ourselves.

If there be any ill-fitting or unnecessary thoughts or feelings or beliefs in us, point that out and we'll we'll confess that, God.

We want to repent of that.

We don't want to come and just kind of go through the motions and inwardly we have hatred in our heart towards somebody.

Press upon us the reality of grace and the availability of forgiveness in this moment.

We pray and we think and we listen in Jesus' name.

Hold your hands out if you would.

When your babies were little and you bathed them, you love the way they smell.

You put things on them to make them smell a certain way.

And you just breathed it in.

The Bible says you smell that way to God.

Clean and washed.

Depart now.

You clean, washed people.

And be who your father knows you can be.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you, you're dismissed.