Sermon: Romans Part 11 (Pastor Brian Fuller - Romans 2:12-16)

Hi, and welcome to the Sermon Podcast of First Baptist Church Woodlawn in Woodlawn,

Illinois. I'm Senior Pastor Brian Fuller, and it is our desire to

impact the world with the Gospel of Jesus. We do so through small group

ministry, personal testimony, as well as corporate gatherings. You can find us

on Facebook, YouTube, and our website FBC Woodlawn dot org. Join us

now as we hear from God's Word, we continue through Romans today, and

if you're keeping score, this is part eleven and I want to read.

I want to read just one passage of Scripture, so Joe'll be ready for

that. We're just going to do the very first scripture instead of going through

all all five of them. So let's read Romans, chapter two and verse

twelve. This is the word of God. For all who have sinned with

the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under

the law will be judged by the law. So Lord, I pray again

that this word that you have for me today would be would be spoken clearly,

and it would be received. Dear Lord, So your will be done,

Lord, in Jesus name, angmen, So the big question for us

this morning is this, how does this pertain to us in the twenty first

century. Do we need to know the historic value of the law and how

the Jews and how the gentiles or non Jews will be judged. The non

Jews, Paul says, will be judged apart from the law because they weren't

given the law, and Jews, according to the law, they will be

judged because they were the recipients of the law. And I can answer that

question like this this morning that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to include it in

one of the most influential books in all of Scripture. So yes, it

is there for us to know and to understand. And one of the great

things about Scripture is the longer that you study it and the deeper that you

dig into it, there is there's there's illumination, There's there's revelation from God.

To to enjoy, right, I mean, you experience deeper revelation and

truth from the Lord. But I say, to enjoy it. Want I

can read something again and again and again and receive something fresh from it and

really allowed joy out of that. And on Friday, I was about halfway

through this sermon and Tina called and I said, you know, I just

don't think I'm doing this text any justice, and I think I need to

start all over, which I did, and so so I hope to get

to the essence of what Paul laid out for us in this in this verse

of scripture today. And when you start reading and you start studying the Old

Testament Mosaic law, there's there's obviously the Jewish history to consider, right,

That's that's what it goes back to, really, is the law that that

God gave to Moses for the children of Israel, the Jews. In fact,

the first of five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy, contained

six hundred and thirteen rules and regulations that God established as his law for holy

living. There's not just ten we have the Ten Commandments, but the books

of the Law are filled with these rules and regulations that God established for holy

living, six hundred and thirteen of them give or tape, and it is

absolutely humanly impossible to keep them even if you started fresh today. And I

said, Okay, from here on, I'm going to keep the law.

I'm not going to break any of them anymore. For one thing that would

be impossible. And the second of all, you've already broken at least one

of them in your life, and realistically, you and I we've broken most

of them, probably all of them. As James two ten says, for

whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all

of them. And by nature we are law breakers. We are guilty of

breaking the whole law of God, and we are fully deserving of His wrath

as punishment of our sin against him, fully deserving of wrath? Is that

harsh? That's harsh? Is that the truth? That is the truth?

Is it fair? Well? I ask you what is fair? God set

the standard. We're on his playing field, and we have missed the mark

of His holy standard, a scripture that I've probably read in each one of

the previous ten episodes, if you will, in this sermon series Romans three

twenty three. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

all of us. So when we start unpacking the Old Testament law of

God, we can see very quickly that we don't measure up. Amen,

We see very quickly that we are are desperate for help. Romans three twenty

through the law comes knowledge of sin. The law was given so that we

would know right from wrong. There are speed limit signs on the highway to

show us how fast we should be going and not going over. It's posted

so we would know right from wrong. And I forgot your quote. I

can't remember shouldn't go over seventy is the gist of the quote. But praise

God for the cross. Amen, Praise God for the cross of Jesus Romans

five six. For a while we were still weak at the right time,

Christ died for the ungodly. Thank God for the cross. Jump down to

verses eight to nine of Romans five. But God shows his love for us

us and that while we were still sinners, while we were still lost,

while we were still without hope, while we didn't even know him, while

we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And since therefore we have

now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him

from the wrath of God. That's the gospel we preach. Jesus Christ lived

a perfect and spotless life, crucified, buried, risen from the dead,

ascended to heaven, and is coming again. That's the gospel that we preach.

And the standard by which we live. And in dying on the cross,

paying for our sins and being raised from the dead, Jesus nullified the

Old Testament requirement of sacrifice for sin, and he became the ultimate, one

time sacrifice for sin for all time. It's no longer works of the law

to please God, but a law of faith in Jesus Christ alone to make

us clean before God. I want to look at several more verses in Romans

chapter three this morning, starting with verses twenty one and twenty two. But

now the righteousness of God has been manifested or made obvious. The righteousness of

God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets

bear witness to it. Verse twenty two. The righteousness of God through faith

in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Jump down to verse twenty seven through

thirty one. Then what becomes of our boasting? It's so it's tempting to

boast of works. The Jews Pharisees, they boasted of their works. So

then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded by what kind of law?

By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the

law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the

God of gentiles? Also yes of gentiles. Also, since God is one

who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith, do we

then overthrow the law by this faith by no means? And Paul says,

on the contrary, we uphold the law the law fulfilled in Jesus. Amen,

we uphold the law of God by trusting Jesus to save us. In

Matthew five point seventeen, in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is teaching

his young Jewish disciples, and he says to them, do not think that

I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come

to abolish them, but to fulfill them. All the requirements for holiness that

were set forth in the Old Testament law. They have been fulfilled and satisfied

in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Praise God

for the Jew and the gentile, for the Jew and the non Jew.

The requirement to satisfy God's wrath against sin was satisfied by the violent death of

Jesus on the Cross and now in Christ. According to the law of a

faith, we stand before God not guilty if if we repent of sin and

trust in His righteousness to save us, and not our own apart from Jesus

Christ, standing before God on our own merits, on our own works,

guilty and worthy of His wrath against sin and eternal separation from Him. It's

a hard truth, and it's a harsh truth, but it is truth.

The early Church often needed correction. Uh, churches today often need correction.

The early Church they were still figuring out. They were still working through the

truth of grace and faith in Christ alone. This was new right. We've

had two thousand years of great teaching and revelation and we it's it's I don't

want to say always easy, but we come to an understanding that that to

be in good standing with God comes only through Christ. To on the first

the first century Church, they were still figuring these things out. The Jews

they knew the Law, that's all they knew, with its rituals and requirements.

And the Gentiles or Greeks, Greeks especially they were known for their their

philosophy and their and their wisdom. And as the early Church grew, more

people coming to Christ right coming to faith. Jews were trusting in Jesus as

as the Messiah, and the also the non Jews or the Gentiles coming to

Christ as well. And in the Church of Corinth, you know, they

had some had some issues, they had some things they had to work through

and and to be corrected. Many of the Jews thought that the non Jews

should observe their rituals. You're going to be arrived in God's side, then

you gotta do the you gotta do the stuff. You got to do,

the the rules and the rituals. And the Greeks they were bringing their worldly

wisdom into the Church, and arrogance was dividing the church. Secular culture was

creeping in the moral battle of good and evil in the church. Sounds like

today, doesn't it right? And if you stood on the side of grace

and mercy in Jesus, you were considered a fool by the world. It

just seemed ridiculous. And today we have a professional football player for the Kansas

City Chiefs speaking at a Catholic school commencement, speaking in support of marriage,

speaking about raising kids in a traditional home, setting and just getting raked over

by the NFL and other liberal organizations. And the NFL has actually publicly denounced

his stance, and they have distanced themselves from him, saying that his words

and his beliefs do not align with the NFL. And to the NFL and

other entities like them taking a stand for Jesus taking a stand for godly principles,

it's just silly, it's foolishness to them. I want you to listen

to several verses of scripture in f Us Corinthians Versus Corinthians one. We'll look

at verses twenty through thirty one, but I want you to hear this,

read it. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the

wisdom of the world, For since in the wisdom of God the world did

not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we

preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom.

But we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to gentiles.

But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of

God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than

men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your

calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards.

Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose

what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is

weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and

despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing,

things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of

God. And because of Him you are in Christ, Jesus, who became

to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that,

as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

And in the case of Kansas City Chiefs Kicker Harrison Butker, he is unapologetic

of the content of a speech, and many people have responded in support by

making his team jersey the number one selling jersey in all of football, so

there is support for his stance. God's truth will always be foolishness to the

world. And we just need to realize that. And we preach Christ crucified,

and that is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. It's

a stumbling block to Jews because a crucified Messiah was unthinkable to an unbelieving Jew,

and to the unbelieving Greek, a crucified Messiah. This message to them,

it was just silly, It didn't make any sense. But God chose

the foolish in the world to shame the wise. He chose what is weak

in the world to shame the strong. He chose what is low and despised

in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing, things

that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

Christ crucified is the wisdom of God. Think about it. The wisdom of

God is made manifest in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Christ crucified is the

power of God and the world in which we live today. As in the

first century, they call it foolishness. So our text today in Romans chapter

two and I, originally had like five verses to cover. It covers the

judgment of God on the Jew and the non Jew. According to the law

as it pertains to the law. And I just found myself asking God,

Lord, what does this mean for us today? If you read for yourself

verses twelve through sixteen, and I encourage you to do so, I always

encourage you to read and ask God, what does this mean for us?

So, if you read on your own Romans two, verses twelve through sixteen,

I came across, Lord, I don't know. I don't know how

to convey this. There is the historical context of it, which is very

important, But how do we convey this in a way that means something for

us today? And that's what I found myself asking God, was what does

this mean for us today? Lord? So I looked again at verse twelve.

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law,

and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

And there again I found that little three letter word all. And what

does all mean? All means all? It means without exception for the non

Jew who was not given the written law, and to the Jew who was

given the law without exception, with or without the written law. Apart from

Christ, all are guilty before God. And no one is justified. Justified

means being made right. No one is made right before God by works,

And in Galatians to sixteen, Paul says this Galatians to sixteen. Yet we

know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through

faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order

to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.

Because by works of the law, no one can be justified. And it

pertains to us today because no matter your your background, no matter your profession,

no matter the color of your skin, no matter your religious beliefs,

the truth remains that, according to Romans three twenty three, all have sinned

and fallen short of the glory of God. So without exception, everyone must

repent of their sin and call upon the name of Jesus to be saved.

Salvation doesn't come in observing rules and regulations. Salvation is found only through faith

in Jesus Christ, trusting that what was accomplished on the Cross, through his

shed blood, his death, and his resurrection, that it is sufficient for

right standing before God. Let's pray. Thank you for tuning in to today's

broadcast. We hope you are encouraged and challenged by the preaching of God's word.

You can reach us by phone at six point eight three nine zero,

contact us via Facebook or our website Fbcwoodlawn dot org. It's our prayer that

you answer the call of God on your life to follow him and share your

faith story with others. Goodbye for now, and God bless you.