Sermon: Defending Essential Christian Truths Pt.2

Romans 3 and the Universal Need for Righteousness

If you would, open your Bibles to Romans chapter 3, starting in verse 9.

Romans chapter 3, verse 9. Hear now the word of the living and the true God. What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have 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 have 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. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. 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. But now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction for all who have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By 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.

On the contrary, we uphold the law. Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired Word. Let's pray together as His people. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the salvation that You've freely given to us in Jesus Christ.

We have no boast. All we have is Christ. Lord Jesus, You are our everything. We confess You as Lord and King. You're the Savior. And You're the only one that can give life. And so we trust in You. Thank You for the gift of Your Word.

Thank You for the good news of forgiveness and salvation. Thank You for this gift that is something that You've given God that is unearned. Lord, thank You for what You have done in Your people to bring glory to Yourself.

And Lord, that we would exalt Your grace and Your goodness. We pray, God, that You'd bless the teaching today, that You'd speak by Your Spirit, that You'd guard my mouth and my heart and my mind from error, that You, Lord, would challenge Your church, change us.

Lord, convict us where we need to be convicted. And Lord, give us strength where we need to have strength. Lord, help us to understand Your Word so we can communicate it to a world that needs Christ. In Jesus' name, amen.

Defending Essential Christian Truths and the Problem of Proof-Texting

So here we are, the second message on defending some essential Christian truths. I made the argument over the last couple of weeks of preaching that the Christian faith can be known. It can be known and it can be defended.

Now, I'd say not very long ago, people wouldn't have had a problem with that, saying the Christian faith can be known and it can be defended. But of course, we live in a day that has made truth subjective.

It is what I feel. It is what I perceive. It is based upon my emotions, my story, my experience. And to say that this is right and this is wrong in the modern context brings challenges, it brings conflict.

People want to say that they have the right to determine what is true or what is the true Christian faith. And what I've argued is that we are actually commanded in Scripture. I did last week at the opening, Jude 3, that Christians are called to earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

So we have the Christian faith once for all delivered to the saints. That's 1st century, guys. And we are called, commanded really, to earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Christians are called by God to speak the truth in love, of course, to defend the truth, to sacrifice yourself for another. We have the examples of the apostles and the leadership of the early church just in the book of Acts where you see the leadership of the early church, the apostles, going into the public square with the truth.

And it doesn't come without consequence. It comes, many times, you see it, with dramatic consequences. The kind of dramatic consequences, although let's admit it, most of the 21st century modern evangelical fishes don't want to endure.

We have the same message that they had in the 1st century. We've got the same Spirit of God. We've got the Word of God right in front of us. And so my challenge has been, what's wrong? I would say let's look at our methodology.

The Bible says in Romans 1 that the gospel is the power of God for salvation. It is what God uses to bring about life in people and to bring about salvation. And so God is the sovereign. No human being can thwart his will.

So if we see a world going to hell in a handbasket around us, what's our ultimate hope? It's in the sovereign God and the message of his gospel that brings life and salvation and peace. But we all understand that in our modern context, in what was once a world that was so impacted by the gospel and the Christian worldview, if we go into the public square, it comes with consequences.

You will be slandered. You will be gossiped about. You will be lied about. People will vilify you. And you're in good company if that takes place because they did the same thing to Jesus, the same thing to the apostles, but it comes with consequences.

And Jesus says to his people, woe to you when all people speak well of you. Woe to you when all people speak well of you. Now, here's the problem. A lot of people fall off a cliff when they hear something like that and they go out into the world and they act in such a way as they actually create enemies because of their behavior.

Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't give people an excuse for rejecting your message because your behavior is actually inherently sinful. But you should rejoice like the apostles when they take a beating for proclaiming the truth and disobeying the government of their day, saying we must obey God rather than men.

When they take a beating because they refuse to quit preaching Jesus' name, they say, the text says that they actually went away from the presence of the council in the book of Acts, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

We have to bring the truth into the world to see the world transformed. How were you transformed? Let's end with that point. How were you transformed? You were transformed by the message of the gospel.

You were transformed because God's word penetrated your heart and your mind. It told you that you were a sinner, that you were broken, that God is one, that he's a holy God, and that your only hope was in Jesus Christ, the God-man who lived perfectly, righteously, justly, died on a cross for sinners and rose again physically from the dead.

He has ascended and he has seated and there will be a day of judgment and your only hope is through faith in Christ. That's how you came to Christ. How are they coming to Christ? In the same way. We shouldn't soften the message.

We shouldn't deny what this book teaches us. We need to go into the world boldly, with humility and love proclaiming the truth because the Christian faith can be known and it can be defended. And so that's what I'm going to challenge us with is just that point, to know these essential truths and to defend them.

I talked about the supremacy of the word, the supremacy of the trinity, and the supremacy of faith. And what I argued for is that there are so many things in scripture that count, that matter a lot. They matter a lot.

But there are actually things in scripture that do matter, that do have consequence, but they are not necessarily definitional to the faith. They matter, those consequences, but these are things that we should, as Christians, have graciousness towards one another about.

We should actually be humble towards one another. I actually, and I know you've heard me say this a number of times, brothers and sisters, but I rejoice over the fact that we have, in our body, we're a reformed body of believers.

We have the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. We are hardcore, pipe-hitting, five-point Calvinists. If there were more points to Calvinism to believe, we would adopt that and we would make shirts and we would do cups about it because God is that kind of sovereign who deserves all the glory.

We're there,.

But we have such a diverse body of believers here, such a diverse body of believers. We come from different cultural backgrounds. There are different colors in this room. We even have believers in this room who aren't necessarily fully on board with the reformed Baptist Confession of Faith, but they are members here who are outstanding, gifted members, and the ground is level here.

We're all serving God together, rejoicing, even with some differences, like, say, over particular ways to see a covenant or particular ways to view baptism, baptismal mode, and I rejoice. I rejoice that we have a body so diverse that is unified around the essentials.

We know what the truth is, and we can defend it, and we defend it together. Together. You know, it's funny, when you think about what in my own personal history, going out to first really start reaching out to the Mormon community.

I just had a passion for them, a love for them. I just love that community. One of the things that you instantly hear when you have your first meeting with Latter-day Saint missionaries is you hear about the First Vision account, the First Vision account where you're told, and by the way, there are multiple First Vision accounts.

In early Mormon history, there was no record of a First Vision account. That's something that progressed over time, and even the story changed over time, but you have a general First Vision account you'll get today from Mormon missionaries when they come to your house.

They won't come to my house anymore, but if they came to your house, this is what they would do. They give you the First Vision account where Joseph Smith tells people that he comes into a place, a garden, he's there, and he has Elohim, Heavenly Father, an exalted God.

It used to be a man that sinned and exalted to Godhood and has polygamous relationships with other wives and all of that. Gave rise to Jesus and to Lucifer, and you also have Jesus who is there, and Joseph Smith says he's so confused.

He's so entirely confused because he doesn't know which church to join, and he was told by Elohim, Heavenly Father, according to his revelation, to join none of the churches for they are all wrong. All their creeds are an abomination.

All their professors, that's you, congratulations,.

Are all corrupt.

They draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, and so he says he's so confused because there's all these disputes during his day, and there's one Christian versus another Christian and all the rest.

That's what you'll hear,.

But the actual amazing thing.

Is a story like ours,.

A church like ours. You see your elders at Apologia Church. You see the people we have relationships with that we serve with. We, you know, Pastor James is like best buds with Dr. Michael Brown. He's an Arminian, but you'll never see a better debate on the Trinity and the history of the Christian church, I think, than the debate where they joined together to tag team against some guys who were denying the Trinity, but you've got King Calvinist over here and King Arminian.

It's your new title. Calvinist and Arminian together defending the Trinity together. That's unity.

Where's the difficulty? What's the problem? Joseph lied.

We have essential unity together. You guys all know the people that we serve with and hang out with and work together with. We've got Presbyterians, and we've got all kinds of people in our community that we serve God together with together with unity around the essentials.

We know what the Christian faith is, and we can defend it, and we do defend it together, and so I wanted to argue that as believers you need to be willing and as we move forward into the next year of service towards God together, we need to be willing to say, is this an open-handed issue or is this a closed-handed issue?

Open-handed, meaning loose, saying, hey, to your own master you stand or you fall. Right? If you want to celebrate that day to the glory of God, then celebrate it to the glory of God. If you don't want to, then don't celebrate it to the glory of God.

To your own master, you stand or fall.

Whatever those issues are,.

That's between you and the Lord. Weaker brother, stronger brother stuff. Unity, unity, unity. Love one another. Okay? But there are issues as Christians that we need to be willing, how I said it, to let goods and kindred go, your mortal life also.

These are things that we would say are essentials. The nature of Scripture, the Trinity, and faith. And so I started today talking about, or reading through Romans chapter 3. I wanted to spend most of today as we talk about answering questions or objections, I wanted to focus in upon the text itself to make sure that we know where we are getting this from.

This is divine revelation, and this is why we believe it. What's interesting is that a couple of weeks ago, when I did the message on the supremacy of faith, I was in the text. Do you remember that? You guys were there for that?

Some of you guys, I hope you were there for it. At least you saw it afterwards, okay? Some of the kids checked out, but we're there. We went through the text. I answered objections. I went word for word.

I talked about the important elements of the text, and what's amazing is that after service, I had two or three people come up to me that were with the Church of Christ who denies salvation by faith in Christ alone, and they're ultimately built upon a works-based salvation system.

And what was amazing is they said they wanted to talk, and I said I'd love to talk. I love it when God brings the fish to the boat. That's always a good thing. Same thing with everyone that goes out there on the sidewalk.

It's like, praise God. He's bringing them to us. This is awesome. Don't got to go looking for them, but they came up to me, and they started talking, said they wanted to get together. I said, I'd love to get together with you, and so they told me where they were from, and so I said, yeah.

Well, today was an excellent message to be in because we went through these important texts, and I said, we would say that you're lost, and the gospel that you believe is a false gospel because you say contrary to Paul, and I went through a little bit of Paul, and immediately, the woman who was there said, yes, but James 2 says faith without works is dead.

I said, yeah. It's one of my favorite verses. It's a good one. I said, but what is James talking about? And she goes, huh? I said, well, what is James 2, what is he talking about? What's the context of James chapter 2?

And she said, well, the faith without works is dead. I said, that's a verse in James, but what is James 2 about in context? And she didn't know, and that's how it works. You could read through an entire discourse from Jesus in John chapter 6 or John chapter 10 about election and God's purpose in salvation and the people of God and Jesus never losing them, and what people will say in response to John 6 is not stay with Jesus and his discourse,.

Although say, yeah,.

But this other proof text over there, it says something different. Well, we need to deal with them one by one and in context, and so what I wanted to do today is talk about, when we talk about defending the supremacy of faith or justification by faith, I'm gonna talk about the danger of proof texting because oftentimes you'll lead a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness or a Roman Catholic right through Romans 3 and 4 and 5 and an inspired apostle taking pains to make sure you understand it is by faith apart from works of law.

It's all the way from Abraham. If you're gonna be a child of Abraham, you gotta have the same faith of Abraham. That's before the law. It's just faith. It's apart from works.

It's all God, all God,.

God justifying the ungodly. You'll take them right through it and every time, they'll always go where? James 2 says, faith without works is dead. Now, I actually love James 2.

Love it.

It is truly one of my favorite sections of scripture because it does challenge you as to whether you really have a saving faith or whether you have a mere said faith or a spoken faith, but it's used as a proof text often because people won't deal with the text itself and the inspired apostle's argument.

They'll just say,.

Yes, but this text over here says.

So last week,.

I had to park in the neighborhood all the way down there. Thanks a lot. Just kidding. I showed up a little later than normal, so it's my fault. So I'm walking up and I see.

Here's the Church of Christ.

Now handing out stuff on our sidewalk and I thought, excellent, fish to the boat. Wonderful. So I have about 10 minutes and so, of course, I stopped and as we started talking, immediately, they said, we need to get together.

I said, I'd love to. I said, we'll make time, but my church body is first and foremost, so I'll get you in the schedule and so she said, yes, and James 2 says, faith without works is dead. I said, right, and I already refuted you on James 2.

You didn't know what it was about. I worked through it with you. You didn't have an answer. Let's just go to one place. How about we deal with Paul in Romans chapter 3? So I start walking through Paul's thought in Romans 3 and you know what he did?

Did he deal with Romans 3? He said, well, actually, Psalm, he named some Psalm 37 says, I said, no, no, no. We're in Romans 3. We'll get to Psalm later. We'll do that together later. I said, but how about Romans 3?

Let's deal with Paul and his argument. He's an inspired apostle. Let's do that together and so we start walking through it. He goes, yes, but James 2 says, I said, no, no, no. We'll do James 2 in a moment now.

I've already refuted this woman over here on that, but we'll get back to it. Let's deal with Paul and about two more times as we're working through Romans 3, he says, yes, but this verse over here says, I said, no, that's not how you interpret scripture.

You interpret scripture in context. You let the scripture tell you the story. You don't import your ideas from other proof texts into other texts of scripture and call that interpretation. Now, by the way, really important thing I want to say here is we believe in sola scriptura.

That is that the scripture alone is the sole infallible rule of faith for the church. We believe that we love tradition, but our tradition needs to be tested by the word of God.

Amen?

Yes. We also believe in tota scriptura,.

That all of scripture.

Should be used to interpret scripture. That doesn't mean, however, tota scriptura does not mean, and a lot of evangelicals get this wrong, that if I can find 50 different proof texts across the Bible and pull them together, that that's tota scriptura, right?

Tota scriptura is all of scripture interprets scripture, but those scriptures all need to be in what? Context. You will do damage to the word of God, at least attempt to, and pervert it and twist it, if you simply do interpretation via proof text.

They need to be in context. That's how you bring the story of God's revelation together. And so the danger of proof texting. Now, the question to be asked is this, because we talk about the supremacy of faith and that we are saved by faith, declared righteous by faith, apart from the works of law, people will always run to the proof text in James and they'll say, faith without works is what?

Let's do it together, so we can, you know, let's be like a Pentecostal church today, okay? Faith without works is what?

Dead.

Very good. Make sure you know that verse. It's important that you do. So the question is, when it's brought up, is the person can't deal with Paul, right? I mean, what Paul is saying there is incontrovertible.

I mean, how much more clear could it be? There's none righteous. Well, how about one? Not one. None who does good. No one?

Nobody.

None who does good.

What about all these God-seekers?

No, there is none who seeks for God. There's none righteous.

No, not one.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. How much more clear does it have to be that all of humanity, Jew and Greek, that's everybody, Jew and Gentile,.

The whole world,.

Are all under sin, and they're not righteous, they're not good, they're non-God-seeking, the poison of asps is under their lips, their feet are swift to shed blood, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

That takes about,.

That takes care of about everybody.

And what's the law do, Paul says? He says that it shuts your mouth. The law condemns the world because it shows how much of a sinner you are. So the law can't be used to justify anybody. And so you work through Paul's entire argument where he says that it's faith apart from the works of the law, it's faith where God justifies the ungodly, not the righteous, where God credits to people righteousness apart from works, apart from works, and he doesn't count your sins against you.

And it's all through faith. And he even uses a premier example, Father Abraham, how was he justified? How was he justified? Genesis 15, six, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

You take him through there and they say, but yes, James two says, faith without works is dead. You sound sad, but okay. Faith without works is dead. So the question has to be asked, okay, is there a contradiction in scripture?

Because you can't deal with Paul in his whole argument. It's, it's his teaching. It's his systematic explanation as to how a person is saved and justified and made right with God. So we just go over here to James.

Are we suggesting that James and Paul are on two different teams? Are we suggesting that James and Paul are actually opposed to one another? Are we suggesting something like James and Paul sort of have, you know, a decent relationship, but Paul's over here preaching this justification through faith apart from works of law.

It's all to God's glory, election and all that. And James is going, yeah, but faith without works is dead. Am I right, guys? Is that really what's going on? Or are we perhaps not actually reading the Bible the way that God would call us to?

Because the Christian faith can be defended, and I'll end it with this. On this point, Galatians 1 is one example of proof from the word of God that the gospel can be understood, defined, and defended.

Because Paul indicts people and says, you're preaching that, you should be cut off. You're preaching that, he says, then Christ is of no benefit to you. You're preaching that, go to hell. That's what anathema essentially is saying.

Anathema, go to hell. May you be condemned to hell forever. Anathema, I think the gospel can be defined. So what I wanted to do today is simply just work through three portions of scripture. Let Paul tell the story, and let's ask the question, is this consistent?

Is this the same message? Is this just a repetition of the same discourse unpacked in maybe a different way? So we're gonna look at three parts of scripture, Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians. I want you to hear the argument, and then we're gonna deal, of course, with James chapter two.

So Romans, everyone there? We've got one person today with me. Good. Romans. Now I'm not gonna read through all of this, because we already did this a couple of weeks ago, but I just want to remind you, because if this is the first message that someone has seen or heard, I'll make sure that you understand the text.

Romans chapter one through five. The first chapter does what? It says that everybody knows God. They suppress the truth of God and unrighteousness. They switch God for idols, and in that switching of God for idols, and that not wanting to know the true God, because they are sinners against the same God, because they are sinners, they don't want to know the true God, so they switch God for something else.

That explains all the false religions. That explains the idolatry. That explains atheism, and all the rest is we do not want God, and so we reject him, and we worship the creature instead of the creator, and so God gives people over to their sin.

He gives them over to it. And of course, in Romans two, you know the story. People bragging on the fact that they got the law itself. I'm in possession of the law. Doesn't that mean I'm right with God?

And Paul says, yeah, but you don't do the things in the law. You have it, but you don't do it. You tell people not to steal, but you steal. You say don't commit adultery. You commit adultery. Having the Bible doesn't make you right with God.

Just being in the possession of it. Nope, doesn't work. And so then Romans three is his smackdown, spiritually speaking, where he takes all these verses from the Old Testament. He brings them together.

This is no novelty for Paul. He's a Jew. He's trained as a rabbi in a synagogue. He knows the word of God. He takes all the verses, and he says, here is all of humanity. That's the no righteous part. That's the no God seeker part.

That's the no one good part. That's what he says. And so his point is, is everybody is at the same level before the cross. Everybody's a sinner, Jew or Gentile. You're all the same. Everybody's lost. Nobody's righteous.

Nobody's good. And so if the problem is a dramatic and complete separation between humanity and God, the only God, the creator of all,.

How's that get solved?

And Paul's point in Romans chapter three, it's not gonna be through the law. What's the law do? It shuts you up, right? Because imagine going before the throne of God and saying, God, I've been trying really hard, led a good life, I think.

And so what I'd like you to do, you're a holy God, I'm a sinner, but I've been working really hard. Can you open your perfect law that represents your holy character and judge me by it? Does anybody want to be in that situation?

He's a perfect judge. The Bible says numerous places, if you keep the whole law and stumble in one point, you're guilty of the entire thing, right? So you might say, I think I'm all right in this area.

And the answer is, no, you're not. Probably you failed somewhere in your heart. You're guilty before God, right? God, you know, I think I want you to accept me because I'm not a thief. And how many instances of thievery would actually show up on the record for any of us, right?

Or God, you know, I think we should be good because I'm not an adulterer. And lo and behold, it starts in the heart. How guilty are you of adultery this week? Got real silent there, didn't it? Yeah, that's the day of judgment.

That's what it looks like. You want to take God's perfect law and you want to apply it to your life and say, I think I'm doing OK.

You're guilty.

It's a unit. You can't say, I only broke a corner of the window, Dad. I just broke a piece, a chunk really, but it's still there. It's a unit.

You violated the law. You're a lawbreaker.

Paul's point in Romans chapter 3 is the law is just going to shut your mouth. And I mention it because it is a good strategy in some context. It's actually a really good strategy when you think about our friend with Living Waters, Ray Comfort, when he goes to people on the boardwalk by the beach and he says, have you ever loyed?

Have you ever stolen anything, irrespective of its value? All of that, because what's it show you? You're a lying, thieving, adulterous, murderous, covetous person. So what is your plea before the judge?

Because he's perfect. Perfect. What are you going to plea? So the law shuts your mouth. That's the point of Romans chapter 3, after indicting all of humanity, talking about the law. And then Paul moves in, Romans 3, to his discussion about how God justifies people.

And he says in verse 21 that the righteousness of God has been manifested.

Here it is.

Apart from the law. Apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there's no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

How much more clear does the inspired apostle have to be? How am I saved, Paul? Well, it's by his grace, as a gift, through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. It's all through faith. It's apart from the law.

How much more clear does the apostle have to be? But let's ask this question, because we didn't do this last time. Let's do it now. He uses this word justified here quite a bit. Actually, the word for justified and righteousness is the same.

It comes from the dick word group in the Greek, and it's essentially an expansion on the same thing, righteousness, justice. But he has a word here, justified. Justified, declared, righteous. It's essentially like righteous-fied.

What's he mean by it? Well, I think to get to the bottom of what the apostle means by it, we should ask the apostle in the same letter. Good idea? Same letter. What do you mean by justified? So if you look here in Romans 3, he's having a discussion of how this justification takes place apart from the law, through faith, as a gift, by his grace, through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.

What exactly does it mean? What context is he in? Well, clearly we have the context, you're the sinner. You're the broken one. You're the enemy of God. You're the hater of God, Romans 1. So the problem here for Paul is he's trying to solve the problem of the relationship between the sinners down here and God who is here.

The context is sinner and God. How does it take place? How does God deal with the sins of the sinner? How does he do it? The context, I'm doing this on purpose, you'll figure out why in a minute, is sinner and God.

The context is between God and man, for Paul in Romans 1 -5 especially. It's between God and man. But what's he mean by justified? Let's ask him. Go to Romans 8. So move over and you see just this beautiful moment.

Where Paul, he actually talks about,.

We call it the golden chain of redemption. But I'm going to read that so you can get it together because this is Paul sort of like coming to a climax. Now, he's been like Romans 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, justification in Christ, no condemnation, eternal life.

And then he moves into 6 where we are being sanctified and changed and we are now alive in Christ. We put away the old man. And then of course 7 and 8 glorious truths. But now you get to this culmination of like, it feels like he's shouting.