Ep. 159: We do not earn our reward with God

In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit, forever Amen. Glory be to the everlasting

mercies which sent you to us, O Christ, the Light of the world

and the life of all. Give us wisdom by your law and

enlighten our impulses by Your knowledge.

Sanctify our souls by Your truth, and grant that we may be

obedient to Your words and may fulfil Your commandments at

every hour. O You who enlightens the

rational with the knowledge of Your.

Greatness do. Enlight, O my Lord, our

thoughts, that we may meditate upon your holy and divine

Scriptures at all times, O Lord of all, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit, forever. We're going to be in a new

series listening or studying the the epistle of Saint Paul to the

Romans. Now this may be I think it's the

first time we're doing this on the double edged podcasts

episodes. We've already looked at chapters

123. We've studied those and these

were pre pre podcast, but we're going to pick it up from chapter

4 and those would like the background for chapter chapters

one to three. If you sign into, obviously if

you get on YouTube and you search for syrianchurch.tv,

you'll find all the video programs, sermons and programs

of Bible studies on this channel.

And then you'll find, if you search, you'll find the book of

Romans, the studies on the book of Romans, chapters one to

three. But what I'm going to do, I'm

going to just give an outline of what we studied in chapter 3

last time we were looking at the book of Romans, chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 3. Saint Paul teaches that God's

Romans 3 · chapter mention

faithfulness despite human unfaithfulness is remaining and

forever. God's faithfulness is not

affected altered by man's unfaithfulness.

St. Paul addresses the question of

he begins whether the Jews still had an advantage on the Gentiles

when it came to salvation and he came to the salvific plan of

God. And he explains that yes, they

did because they had an advantage.

They were entrusted with God's revelation.

However, they disobeyed. They didn't accept, they were

not faithful. Their unfaithfulness didn't

cancel God's faithfulness just because the Jews who had the

oracles, who had the law, who had the revelation were

unfaithful and did not believe in God.

This is pre Jesus Christ, praise be his name, but that still

didn't alter God's faithfulness. In verse four he writes let God

be true, but every man a liar. So you know, an example is just

because Christians are not good, obeying God, fearing God, loving

God, obeying people, that doesn't make Christianity a bad

faith, that doesn't make the righteousness of God through his

only begotten Son, Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit unfaithful.

No, no, no. It's those people, individuals

who label themselves Christians, who claim that they are

Christians. They've believed in God, they've

been baptized, they wear their crosses and their tattoos, but

they live contrary to God's oracles and God's commandments.

That doesn't make Christianity a bad thing.

If a, if a Christian goes around and murders people, Christ does

not command that Christ doesn't, does not ask that of his

followers and we see an other face.

It's, it's the opposite that yes, yes, the leader of the

faith, the ruler of the faith, the author of the faith, the

book of the faith is claiming and asking and commanding that

this be done. So just because Christians are

not living a Christian life, it does not make Christ unfaithful

or unholy. So that was the message from

Saint Paul. Then he teaches us that the

heart of the chapter, chapter 3, when you read it, is that

righteousness is through faith in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ

alone. No one else, just Jesus Christ,

praise be to his name. Righteousness is through faith

in Jesus Christ and that God's righteousness is now revealed,

that righteousness of God. And you know what righteousness

means? It's not another person.

It's not an an act of something that that is within you.

No, no, no. God created the heavens and an

earth and the earth, everything he saw that was good, it was

right, it was in order, it was indented correctly, it was

correct, it was right. Man disobeyed God and then chaos

and error and corruption came into the world and man continued

in that era and unrighteousness. God through the history of man,

we call the salvific plant, through His plan and through His

grace and love and mercy began to make things right.

But then he saw that man still couldn't be right because the

laws, the laws that God gave, the written law, the law of the

flesh couldn't do anything, couldn't make man right because

man was weak. It didn't happen.

So what did God do? Praise be to his name to come.

Flesh came down, we say, sent his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,

God the Son and God made it and Jesus made God made it right

through his son. He made everything right.

He corrected everything. He put everything into

perspective. And from that point to now,

things are gone even worse and truly out of whack and chaos

because of the laws and the legislations and all, the, all

the, and the freedom of choice and speech and I do what I want.

I am my own God. It's a mess out there.

The Lord Jesus Christ one more time will come back and he will

make it right again. He will correct it again, but

this time he will not correct and leave another Oracle or

another covenant. No, no, no.

He will then make it right for eternity with him in his

Kingdom. So that righteousness of God,

Paul writes, was revealed through Jesus Christ and was

available to all who would believe in the Lord Jesus

Christ, all who would believe in him.

In verse 23 we read for all have sinned all, not just the Jews,

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

In chapter 5 of the book of Romans verse 12 he will state

that for just as just as by the agency of one man sin entered

the universe, so all sinned. Every person coming into this

world have have the repercussion of that act which is sin.

And yet believers in verse 24 of chapter 3 are justified freely.

Freely. There's liberty, beloved,

liberty, liberty, liberty. And this is not insurance.

This is assurance. It's not insurance.

It is assurance justified freely, not by force, not to pay

anything. You don't have to pay a jizya,

you don't have to say a few words and and otherwise your,

your, your life will be in danger.

No, no, no, God justified and I'll tell you who soon justified

freely by his grace. So there's nothing you need to

pay, nothing you need to do to be justified.

Don't jump the gun. This is not a contradiction, yet

justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is

in Jesus Christ verse 24. In other words, Christ

sacrificed himself to reconcile humanity to God.

And lastly then Paul writes boasting then is excluded since

salvation. Since salvation is a gift of

grace, salvation doesn't necessarily mean eternal life

with Jesus Christ. Since salvation is a gift of

grace received through faith, no one can boast before God is what

the the message Jesus is Saint Paul is giving us.

Both the Jews and the Gentiles are saved in the same way, by

believing you want to be saved. And we talked about salvation in

our last episode, so I'm not going to repeat it.

When I say you want to be saved, it does not mean instant eternal

life in the Kingdom of heaven. Listen to last episode.

Saint Paul concludes that faith does not abolish the law.

No, no, no. The law wasn't abolished.

It was fulfilled and its purpose was fulfilled.

Why was the law not abolished? Because he who gave the law

fulfilled it in his own body. He took on our flesh.

That means He was our representative.

When I, when we say in his own body, that means he did it for

you and I. He fulfilled the law in his body

and made it clear that he didn't come to abolish the law.

Matthew chapter 5, five verse 17.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

If the law is abolished, you can covet your neighbour's wife or

his donkey. You can murder if the law is

abolished. No, no, no.

The laws are still there. The commandments are still

there. You know, the law of the

village, the kosher's that don't walk and not walking three miles

on a Sabbath. And if you walk 3.1, then you

know, I'm just giving you an example.

Those were fulfilled. They could not bring

righteousness because man was weak.

Christ came fulfilled them and now he gave he he added, you

know, it is being said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a

tooth. But I say to you don't that's

abolish that was evil. No, he didn't say that because

he gave the law, but he fulfilled them and gave us a law

of the spirit. So chapter 3 basically calls us

to humility. It reminds us that salvation we

spoke about, salvation is not earned by our merits.

Salvation is not earned by our merits, but through God's mercy,

beloved. And that mercy and that

salvation leads us to a a life of gratitude of faith, a life of

transformation transformed by his grace and the power of the

Holy Spirit. So let's continue chapter 4 and

I'll read verses 1:00 to 5:00 and we'll discuss what then,

shall we say? Now he's going to bring examples

and he's going to bring the forefathers.

Now listen to these very, very carefully.

This just supports last week's episode.

What then shall we say concerning Abraham, the chief of

the forefathers, who lived according to the flesh before

God called him? For if Abraham was justified by

works, had he had he reason to be proud, but not before God?

So he had reason to be, but not before God.

For what's? For what the script?

What said the scriptures? Abraham believed in God, and it

was counted to him for righteousness.

But to him who works, wages are not considered as a favour, but

as that which is due to him, and to him who works not, but only

believes in him who justifies sinners justifies sinners, his

faith is counted for righteousness.

So why does he bring Abraham? What's the Why is the first

example our forefather Abraham? Well, it was because the Jews

kept repeating, reiterating, harping on the feather.

Abraham, Abraham, he is our father.

Abraham is the friend of God. Abraham is the righteous. 1

Abraham was the first to be circumcised.

Abraham, our father is Abraham. Paul wants to show that he was

justified by faith, not because he was circumcised.

No, but he still had to be circumcised, right?

He had to, otherwise he would be put out.

He would be put to death. So but the justification, the

made right listen to made right to now be justified.

He was made righteous to be justified to be made right

again, to be made just so that then he could receive all the,

the, the, the continuing gifts of the, the grace of, of, of the

Holy Spirit. Back then.

Obviously it wasn't of the Holy Spirit, it was of the flesh, but

it was God's commandment, circumcision.

So he wasn't justified by that. He was justified by faith.

He was obedient to God. The Jews were boastful about

Abraham because he was circumcised, because God spoke

to him, because God worked for him.

God gave the promise to him and his children.

The very boastful John chapter 8 verse 39, they said to Jesus,

John 8:39

Abraham is our father. But in Matthew chapter 8 verse

Matthew 8:9

9, John the Baptist rebukes them and says, and do not think and

say in yourselves or to yourselves, Abraham is our

father. For I say to you, God can raise

up from these stones children to Abraham.

So don't boast about Abraham. Abraham was found righteous

because he believed you don't believe.

That's why he says, if you knew who Abraham was, you truly

believed in Abraham, you would believe in me, and you would

know who I am and where I have come from.

Mari Shudad, one of the Church fathers circa 808 fifty, writes

this very nicely. Listen intently.

Righteousness is not a mere legal fiction or fabrication.

It's not. It's by God's favourable

acceptance of Abraham, because why?

Why did God accept Abraham? Why did Abraham find favour in

eyes God? In the eyes of God, just like

Mary, the blessed Mary found favour in the eyes of God.

God's favourable acceptance of Abraham because of his trust,

which is a tentacle, is an extension of faith because if

you don't believe, how can you trust?

So it was because of his trust and obedience and obedience.

So first and foremost it was trust.

But then he obeyed Abraham's faith.

He continues to write Abraham's faith was living faith.

It was a living faith demonstrated.

This is now confirming our last episode of Faith and Deeds.

Abraham's faith was living. It was a living faith

demonstrated through his response to God's promises.

You believe that Jesus died for you.

You believe that Jesus took on our flesh and took on our sin

and took it on the cross and nailed it to the cross, and then

he was buried and then he took out our dead state, our

mortality, and he resurrected and gave us immortality.

Great. But what is your response to

that? Obedience, Of course, obedience

to what he commands. If you love me, fulfill my

commandments. Not just believe that I've done

this, fulfill my commandments. And there are commandments.

He who does not, for example, he who does not eat the body of the

of the flesh or the body of the Son of man and drink his blood

has no life in him. There's a commandment.

Obedience, Adam said. Yes, in the Garden of Eden.

Not audibly, not audibly, but possibly through his silence.

Right. He would have accepted.

We don't read that, Adam said. Why?

I'm going to try and eat. I want to taste it.

No, no, no. We presume that he would have

agreed because he had fear. But when Satan came, he

disobeyed. He disobeyed.

So Adam said yes. And and the reason why I say yes

is I'm going to give you another example.

Adam would have possibly said yes because he, he believed in

God, he loved God. He would walk with God in the,

in the coolness of the afternoon, he would walk with

God. That means he would talk, he

would live with God, right? What a beautiful relationship.

But then he disobeyed just as the first son in Matthew chapter

Matthew 21:30

21 verse 30. He said yes to his father.

I will go, Father, you know that I'm always obedient to.

Oh, of course, my father. Yes, Sir, but he didn't go to

work in the field. You, the listeners and those who

are watching you agree, you command, you acknowledge the

contents of these podcast series.

Maybe you even disagree, which is great.

You know, let's open a dialogue. Let's let's talk to one another.

Let's let's end this tit for tat.

Let's talk to one another. And I, you know, I, I, I, I, I

claim that on myself first, let's talk to one another,

right? We're preaching Jesus Christ,

praise me to his name, but we got to preach it righteously.

We have to preach the truth, the truth.

So you acknowledge the contents of this podcast, but I pray and

hope that you obey them. You obey them.

I pray and hope that you've begun you.

You know there is a, a, a, a, a slight or a, what do they call

it? A, a beginning of a change of

life. When you hear these words, there

is a move, there is a change in your life, in your mind, how you

think, how you perceive how you live.

Because sending me messages and telling me all your podcasts,

they're not my podcasts. And I'll tell you why.

I'll tell you why. Just wait, Linda, wait, wait.

I'll tell you. Right.

Yes. Obeying them, acknowledging them

and commanding them. Oh, awesome, awesome, awesome,

great. But what good is that if it's

not affected in your life? That's not righteousness.

That's not righteousness. You believe, yes, but then you

have you believe. That means you're being made

right. That means your thoughts, your

perception is now being corrected.

Oh, so I can't claim to be a Christian yet live a life of

debauchery and and you know, immorality.

I can't live a Christian life and praise the Lord Jesus Christ

with one mouth and cuss everyone else with another mouth.

You see, you're now being made, right?

But what do you got to do about that?

These are commandments. There is a promise that if you

change, there is eternal life. OK, Do you adhere to that?

But do you believe in that promise?

If so, great. If you do, don't boast.

Don't boast. If not, pray about it.

If not, maybe today. Today is the day of salvation.

Today is the day to be saved from that era, though you're a

Christian to be saved from that era today when you when you

switch off this and and this program concludes to go on, get

on your knees and say, Lord, help me to change, but don't

boast. If you are you're continuing and

you are your life has changed. Don't boast.

Don't boast, but boast in continued prayer, asking the

Lord Jesus Christ continually instead of boasting, boasting

the Lord, and ask the Lord Jesus Christ to have mercy on you, a

Sinner. You see, when we boast in our

works, we boast. We are boasting about ourselves,

what I did, what I do, how I conduct my conduct, my life.

But when we find our honour and pride in having faith in God, we

then have a much better reason for boasting, because we are

then boasting about God and not about our souls.

Now I'm not saying boast that you have more faith than

everyone. No, no, no, boast that you

believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and through that you've been

justified and you've been made right.

When you boast in that, you're automatically boasting in what

God has done for you. So John Chrysostom writes, So

boasting is excluded by faith because God makes righteous,

justifies and saves by faith. It's God.

So don't boast in yourself, boast in the faith that is

because you're saying that is my faith in God, whom God has now

moved me. So at the end of the day, you're

not saying that it's me, you're saying it's God because who's

your faith in in God, praise and glory be to his name and his

Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and he's he's holy and sanctifying

spirit. Faith disallows boasting because

though we contribute faith, yet in what God has done,

disallowing boasting in our souls, when we when we are in

faith, we are boasting again for what God has done for us, and

that is through his grace. Psalm 34 Two, my soul makes its

boast in the Lord God. Jeremiah 924 But whosoever

boasts shall boast in this, whosoever understands and knows

me that I am the Lord God performing grace, it's my grace.

It's not you and judgment I make, righteous judgment I make

righteous in the earth, and in these things I have delighted,

says the Lord God. Second Corinthians 10/17/18 But

he who boasts, let him boast in the Lord God, for it is not he

here, it is, it is not he who praises himself who is approved,

but the he whom the Lord God shall praise.

Luke 17 Our praise should be I am an unworthy servant of God.

It is God working through me. Then he goes on about rewards,

about a you know, someone who is rewarded for something that he's

doing, then it's his reward. Rightly so.

If I'm working for an employer and I receive my wage, it's

because I've worked, I've done something.

But if I don't work, I just show up.

I remember I forgot which I was working for.

The manager of the supposed to say, please don't just turn up,

do some work as well, right? If I not just show up, but I do

work. I mean, if I just show up and do

not work and I'm still rewarded, I can't boast about what I did.

I did nothing. I will then have to give glory

to that person or thank, be thankful to that person who has

rewarded me for something I didn't do out of the kindness of

the heart. And even with a maybe a bonus as

well or a pay rise, I can't boast.

I can't say I got a pay rise. Yeah, but you didn't do

anything. It was the kindness of the

person that gave you that. So the master proclaimed in

verse four that Abraham was just because he leaves behind he he

let go of the weakness of human nature.

He knew that he's nothing with God.

He knew that when God called him and God promised him, promised

what he would give him and his children and all his

generations, he let go of his human nature and he let God do

what he promised to do. He let go of his weak nature and

leaned and stressed so much to go towards the power of God who

called him to the promise. And that's why he was called

righteous. When we, when we let go of our

own thinking and understanding and perception and, and

philosophy and knowledge and understanding, and we totally

rely on the power of God and what he has promised us, and we

then be obedient. There's the word again,

obedient. That's when God sees us as

righteous. That's God making us right.

It's simple, isn't it? As I said, how are wages earned?

How are wages? How do you earn wages?

By working right? But God gives by grace, because

you know why God gave grace? To who?

Just to those who were of his household or His, His chosen

people. To the Jews alone.

No, no, no, the Jews and the Gentiles and the pagans and even

the sinful Jews, right? So He gave His grace to sinners

so that when they believed in Him, they were made right, they

were justified, they were made right and justified to do good

works according to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10.

Ephesians 2:10

So it always begins by faith. You know the, the Sinner who

came to Jesus when Jesus was was invited by a Pharisee and the

Sinner the, the, the sinful, that woman that came to him and

stood behind him by the way, stood behind him and did what

she did. The first thing Jesus, the first

thing Jesus acknowledges what what she did because he knew

that was a projection of a faith that was a reflection of her

faith, her trust and her perseverance and her love and

her obedience to Jesus Christ. She wiped washed his feet with

tears, wiped them with her head and she kissed them, continued

to kiss them and she put oil or incense on them first.

What does he do? He acknowledges that, Simon, she

did this. You didn't do that.

From the time I've come, she's been kissing my feet.

You didn't even give me a kiss. You didn't even greet me with a

kiss. But I tell you, Simon, her sins

are forgiven. That means she was made right.

She was righteous. She was justified.

And then he turns and says, your faith has saved you or given you

life. That means new life, right?

Because without faith, she wouldn't be there.

So it's, it works together, but at the end of the day, it not,

it's not because what she did Christ forgave her and gave her

new life. No, no, no, he turns around and

said it's because of your faith that your sins have been

forgiven and now you have new life.

So the good works that the when, when God gives us grace and

makes us right and makes, justifies us and gives us a new

life in Jesus Christ, a new life in new life and new deeds and

new walk with Jesus Christ. But the good works which we do

now, not to boast about them, see they all go hand in hand.

It's so confirming our last episode.

They all go hand in hand. But the good works which we do

after we have received the grace of God are not attributed to us,

but rather to Jesus Christ, or to God who has justified us by

grace. So when a Sinner believes in the

Lord Jesus Christ and has been made right has been justified

meaning made right. The life has been all put in

order according to what God's plan was for mankind and then

that person, what does he do? What did we read in the book of

Acts after the jailer when he believed they become baptized

being put to death so that you can do away with the law, the

written law do you can pay the repercussion of sin.

You can have a part. These are all biblical.

I'm not just quoting them that you can have a part, you can

have a a participate, a participant in the crucifixion

of the Lord Jesus Christ in baptism, put to death, born in

you, justified, made righteous and saved.

What do you do next? You obey just as Abraham obeyed.

But when you start obeying, when you start doing the works that

God has said before the beginning of time, from the

beginning of time, you still cannot boast.

And I always say when we enter the Kingdom of heaven, when we

enter the Kingdom of heaven, having believed in the Lord

Jesus Christ, having been made righteous, being justified,

having been put to death with him, you know, born a new in a

new life with Jesus Christ. And when continue, strive,

strive with the good deeds that God has given us and we do and

graciously again and graciously have been granted the Kingdom of

heaven. Even then we say not to me, O

Lord, but to you. What does the psalmist says not

to US, not not to us be glory, but to you alone because I am

now entering by your grace. And if someone would say, well,

hang on. Why?

I mean, I strived, I did everything and God will turn and

say, yeah, but I taught you, these are the gifts of my grace.

I had set these boundaries or I had set these deeds that you

need to work on. So even then you cannot boast

because if God had wanted to give mankind everyone the reward

that is due to us, he would have given us the punishment due to

sinners. Beloved, we're all sinners.

We sin, but God graciously, graciously makes us right.

You know, righteousness is, is a, a part of life on a Sunday.

And I'll conclude with this. We come to church all out of

place, all out of whack. Our thoughts, our minds, our

deeds, what we've said, what we've what we've done, the

decisions we've made, the walk that we've walked, all out of

place, unjustified. God clicks the justification and

puts it all and thence it puts it all and makes it right after

we have concluded our worship service, have been forgiven,

cleansed by the body of Christ, and then we leave again and we

one more time mess it all up again.

We come back and we ask God, God make us write one more time.

Forgive us one more time. Help me to repent one more time.

It's a living experience. It's 100.

It's not 100 meter dash. It is a marathon, beloved, but

God's gracious love and mercy are always ready to justify, to

make right, to forgive, and to bring you to that walk of

repentance one more time until He returns.

Praise and glory be to His name now and all the times and

forever. Amen.

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