Apologia Live - Justification and Baptism

You can open your Bibles to Romans, often referred to as the gospel according to Paul, I think appropriately so, Romans chapter 1. This is the Apostle Paul's systematic explanation of the good news. And so, as you guys get there, you can imagine that in this letter of the Apostle Paul to the church in Rome, a church that he did not personally have anything to do with setting up, that he had not personally met yet, he wanted to go, this letter to the church in Rome is filled with content and truths that he had spent his life and ministry preaching and heralding and rehashing and teaching.

And so, this is the nuts and bolts of the story. If you want a summary of what Jesus is all about, who God is and what the gospel is about, you don't need to look any farther, really, than the letter of Paul to the Romans, the church in Rome.

And so, what we're going to do right now is go to the text, I'm going to read the first couple of verses here, and then we're going to pray together. Hear now the words of the true and living God, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about for the sake of His name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. God, I want to thank you so much. Father, thank you for your Word, which is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our.

Path.

Thank you for your Word, which is breathed out by you and is a gift from you. Thank you, God, that you allow us to know you, to hear from you, and God, thank you for the truth that this gospel is your gospel.

Thank you for the truth that, God, that you had promised it beforehand in the Holy Scriptures. Thank you, God, that you are keeping your covenant and that you promised, God, that you would give to Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars.

We thank you, God, that you are keeping your promise, Lord, to bring the nations to obedience. Genesis 49 .10, to him shall be the obedience of the nations, Shiloh, Jesus. Thank you, God, that today we get to witness a moment of salvation in baptism.

And thank you, God, that you would use broken vessels like us, people who are in ourselves sinners, to bring about your purposes. Thank you, God, that you'd use me. I pray that, God, you'd get me out of the way that I would completely fade away, decrease that Christ would increase for your glory.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

The Gospel According to Paul in Romans 1

All right. So Romans chapter 1, did you notice that the first seven verses there are one sentence? That's one of Paul's big opening addresses. So if you compare, say, Romans chapter 1 to, say, Galatians chapter 1, big difference, right?

And so in this stage of history, in this world, you would often address your letter at the beginning. The Apostle Paul wants you to know who he is, wants them to know who he is, and so he addresses them as Paul, a slave of Messiah Jesus, called to be an apostle.

So at the very start, this is all about God and not the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul's theology, his soteriology, his view of God and salvation was entirely God-centered and not man-centered. And so we can't get very far without letting you know that it is all to the glory of God.

Everything's about God. God is the one who saves. It's nothing to do with Paul. It's nothing to do with us. It's everything to do with God. He is the one who saves. Paul's gospel is theocentric and not anthropocentric.

It's not about men and women. It's about God and what God does to save, and so Paul says, I am a slave of Jesus. Some of the modern translations will say bond servant. Some of the modern translations will say servant of Christ Jesus.

The truth is the real nuts and bolts of that word, let's just not deny it, is slave. Paul's a slave of Jesus. He says in Galatians chapter one about being a slave, he says, do I seek to please men or God?

If I still sought to please men, I would not be the slave of Jesus. Paul was very proud of being a slave of Jesus. He loved that. He was honored to have that title applied to himself. But notice what he says here in the first seven verses, all God-centered gospel, which you need to hear about today as we go out there to celebrate what God has done in salvation through baptism.

You need to know that the gospel is all about the glory of God. It's not about us. It's not about anything we've done, are doing, or will ever do. It's about God who saves, God who calls, God who rescues sinners.

This is all God's story. In heaven, when we are in the eternal state with God, nobody is saying that I'm here because of something I did. Nobody is saying I'm here because, well, I had better parents or I had a better upbringing or I was more spiritual in nature or I really thought things through.

Everything is about God calling sinners to Himself to bring glory to Jesus Christ. That's the sum of the gospel, the essence of it. It's about God. The good news is that we get God. That's the good news.

God is ours now and we're His now, and He's called us to Himself. So Paul says, I'm Paul, I'm a slave of Jesus. He says I was set apart. I've been set apart for God's gospel. It's God's good news. And I think the glory in that little statement right there, just the opener of the Apostle Paul in Romans, is that he calls it just that.

It's God's good news. Gospel may be a term that you are jaded to. Maybe you grew up in a cult and you heard that word bantied about and you're just sick.

Of it.

Maybe you grew up in the Christian church and you hear people saying it so much that you're just jaded to it completely, but let's get to the substance of it. Gospel means good news. It's a good message, it's a good report, and this good news comes from God first and foremost.

So here's the story. The God who created the splendor of the universe, the God who actually spoke and it leapt into existence, that God has condescended to call people to Himself to set them apart. He has done it.

He's brought the salvation and it's His message of good news in a world that we have completely.

Screwed up, saved.

He gets the credit. It's all to His glory. Notice He says, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through the Holy Scriptures. See, the glory of having the Old Testament. The Jews, Paul says in Romans chapter 2, were entrusted with the oracles of God, or it's Romans 3 actually.

They were entrusted with the oracles of God. God gave them to the Jews and they were to testify, not about the Jews and their race, their ethnicity, their special privilege and position, but the oracles of God were given to the Jews to do what?

To show that God is who He says that He is and that He keeps His promises. That's really the awesome thing about the Old Testament is that it's about Jesus through and through. Every step, every corner, every verse, every chapter, every book ultimately is about God, His promises, His glory, His Messiah.

Paul says this, I'm a slave of Jesus. I've been set apart for God's good news. He said, this good news was promised ahead of time by God in the Holy Scriptures and what's it about? Us going to heaven one day, us getting our tickets punched for heaven one day.

The gospel is God's good news. It's His message about what He does and it's all about Jesus. It's concerning Jesus. The scripture's all about Jesus. God's story of redemption in history, it's all about Jesus.

Today, when we step outside and we get into that water and we celebrate what God has done to save, it's all about Jesus. It's not about us. Our stories are knit together intimately with His. He calls you into His story, it's about Him, and He calls you into it and you don't deserve it and neither do I.

The Apostle Paul, the one who wrote this, the one who penned this letter, it's interesting, like most of our New Testament, like who wrote the most of it? Well, Paul wrote the most of the New Testament, and the guy who wrote the most of the New Testament is a murderer in himself.

He is one who says in Galatians chapter one that he was so zealous about destroying the church that he says that he tried to destroy it, he persecuted the church. I mean, when he is saved in Acts chapter nine, he's on his way to destroy the church.

That's where he was going, right? And so Jesus knocks him off his high horse, he brings him to life, and then Paul is saved, and now it's actually hard for the Apostle Paul to get into the church. We take it for granted, here's Romans from God, from the Apostle Paul, he's the giant of the faith, right?

He's like my favorite theologian in history. He wrote most of the New Testament, but the guy who wrote the letter had a hard time hooking up with the church because they didn't buy it. They knew his story, they knew his history, and they didn't want to believe him.

They thought that he was just trying to dupe them to destroy them further. And so he had to have someone vouch for him, right? Like it was like, you know, kind of like a first century Christian mafia situation.

It's like, you know, he's one of us, you know, kind of situation. He's a friend of ours, right? Kind of, you know, not all you guys are fans of Donnie Brasco. I understand, okay. But he has to get like someone to vouch for him, like no, he's for real, he's legit.

The Apostle Paul's life is dedicated to the glory of Jesus Christ. Now notice where he's going. I want you to see it with your very eyes because this is what today is about. When he talks about this gospel, which is God's gospel, it's concerning Jesus.

Notice that he says, watch, he says, called to be an apostle. He didn't say because I decided, because I entered into it. This is my ministry and mission. He says, I'm a slave of Jesus called to be an apostle.

But then he says this, watch this. In verse five, through whom we have received grace and apostleship. Slave of Jesus called as an apostle. It's about Jesus. We've received grace and apostleship. We're on the receiving end of this salvation, but look where he goes with it.

He says, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are what?

What?

Called.

Including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To bring God glory. What do we have except that which we've received from God? Everything is from God. The Apostle Paul starts his explanation of the good news.

It's all about God. For him, for the Christians in Rome, and for us today. But I want you to see Genesis 49 .10 is the Apostle Paul's playbook. He was seeped in the scriptures of the Old Testament, the Torah, the Tanakh.

You have the Apostle Paul trained under Gamaliel. He knows his scriptures. And know this, in Genesis 49 .10, there's a promise, one of many about the Messiah. And it says, to him, the Messiah is going to be the obedience of the nations.

And the Apostle Paul opens up his gospel in Romans 1 and 16, he bookends that explanation with the same statement. To bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations for his namesake, he says.

For his namesake, not for yours, not for mine, for his namesake. You see, that's just the glory of what's happening today outside, is that if you look around you right now in this room, you see a lot of very interesting characters, a lot of different people.

You see a lot of different colors, a lot of backgrounds. And the amazing thing about this moment we get to witness is you witness God's covenant faithfulness. You witness God at work today performing miracles, taking spiritually dead people and hostile people and turning them into sons and daughters of God.

You get to witness today baptisms outside that are really testimonies to God's miraculous wonders that are happening today. He's taking people who are hostile towards him, who don't love God, don't know God, are by nature, Paul says in Ephesians 2, children of wrath.

And he says, but God, if it was left to us, if it was our story and it was all about us, it would end in one place, death. But God, who is rich in his kindness and mercy and love, he calls people to come to him as saints to be set apart for God.

Now let's get to the nuts and bolts of the story. The apostle Paul, watch this, says here in Romans 1 .16, after saying that he always prays for them and he longs to see them, to impart some spiritual gift to them, in Romans 1 .16 he says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel.

For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, that's everybody, Jew and Gentile together in one body, all brought to the obedience of faith under Christ.

And here's the sum of it right here. For in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Now pause, because if you want to know what it means to be in Christ, how to get there, how to go from death to life, how to go from hostile to God to child of God, that's the summary right there.

The just shall live by faith. The righteous shall live by faith. What's that mean? He's quoting from the Old Testament. This is big. You've got to capture this. What does every man-made religion ultimately fall into?

An attempt to get right with God through your good deeds, your obedience to some law. And God from the very beginning demonstrated to us that it was something we could not do, it was only God that can rescue us.

We are so far gone, not sick but dead, that only God can do what it takes to provide our covering. So in Genesis, when the fall enters, chapter 3, God enters in and starts having a discussion with His image bearers.

And the first thing He does after He confronts and He pronounces the curse upon what they've done, God has the first innocent die for the guilty. God kills the animal. God kills them in their nakedness and shame in the clothing of the righteous, innocent substitute.

That's where the story begins. And from the beginning it was all God, from the beginning it was all faith, and as you move to Genesis 15, you see the summary of what it means to be part of this covenant promise, to be saved, to know God.

What is it? Genesis 15 .6, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. What did he do? What did Abraham do?

Nothing.

Abraham was born of pagan parents. Abraham had nothing to offer God. As a matter of fact, when God made the promise with Abraham, He made Abraham fall asleep while God walked through the parted animals, which was the custom that time to show a bond, a commitment, and God swore by Himself to keep His promise while Abraham did what?

Slept. Slept. Abraham was justified by faith, he believed God, he had nothing in his hands to offer God, all he did was receive blessing and peace from God. It was before he offered Isaac on the altar, it was hundreds of years before Moses gave.

The law.

Abraham believed God, it was credited to him as righteousness, the righteous shall live by faith. What's that mean? Well, the idea behind it is the righteous will live and not die, they will stand and not die, they will stand up and not fall back, they will live and not be dead by faith.

And that's the promise, the blessing that comes from Abraham, the promise to Abraham.

To the world.

In this room today, if you have faith in Jesus, you've trusted in Him, then you are a part of that promise. God is bringing about the obedience of faith among all the nations, Abraham's descendants as numerous as the stars.

Look at the stars, that's what it is. You might ask the question, what do I have to do with that? What did I do for that? What part do I play in this? What did I do to get such an amazing thing from God?

And the answer is, if you're a child of Abraham, nothing. Says in Ephesians chapter 1 that God predestined us to adoption as sons, He did it before the foundation of the world, it was all to the praise of His glorious grace.

That's it.

And whatever religion tries to do is mess with that. George Whitefield said that trying to get to God through your good deeds and your works in any way, he said, is like a person trying to build a ladder to climb to the moon and the ladder is made out of sand.

It doesn't work.

It falls apart.

The Bible says that all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And I haven't talked about this in a while in terms of the filthy rags, but if you knew, it would be good for you to hear this, to hear some of the language the Bible uses.

When we hear filthy rags, we think of like dirty laundry. And I was listening to a radio show, some of you guys have heard this before, I was listening to a radio show driving home one day a long time ago, and a woman called in and she was grieved over her sins and she was saying, you know, I just want comfort and encouragement and peace, and the radio host did, you know, what she could to try to explain what it meant, that all your good deeds are as filthy rags to God.

And she says, you know what, sweetheart? She says, all the good deeds, all the things that you're trying to do to have God be pleased with you, to make yourself right with God, they're like dirty laundry.

You know how that is, sweetheart? Like when you're doing the laundry for the family and some of the moms are like, I don't know exactly what that's like, and that's filthy, right? Yuck, and that might help you like to get it.

Like I get the filthy rags part. I do the laundry and I know what it's like, okay? Especially if you have teenagers, then it's uber gross, right? You know, like, but it's not that. It's not simple dirty laundry.

The word that Isaiah uses to describe filthy rags is the rags that women would use for.

Their monthly period, filthy rags.

That's the thing. He is so holy that when Isaiah gets a vision, a glimpse of his holiness in Isaiah chapter 6, he doesn't feel kind of bad for himself. He doesn't feel a little sorry for his sins. What he asked God for in Isaiah chapter 6 is that God would kill him.

So he says, woe is me. I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm coming apart at the seams. I'm unraveling before this holy, holy, holy God. He immediately recognizes his own deceitfulness. He covers his mouth, essentially.

I'm a man of unclean lips. And he says what? Woe to me. Woe to me is something that prophets would usually pronounce upon a pagan nation. They would say, woe to you, woe to you, woe to you. Jesus says it in the gospels.

He says, woe to you.

That's God's curse on you. And Isaiah, when he sees God's holiness, he says, woe is me. He's begging God, curse me.

Why?

Because he recognizes how much of a gulf there is between God and his holiness and us in our utter depravity. And the Apostle Paul, as he opens up Romans chapter 1, begins to rehearse it. He goes right into Romans 1, 18, he says, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For that which is known about God is evident within them, for God has made it evident to them. God has shown it to them. It says, since the creation of the world, he begins to describe how the creation itself testifies to God, so it leaves all of us unapologetus, without a defense.

Everybody, Jew and Gentile, are left before God without a defense, nothing to offer God. And it says what? God in his justice and holiness, it says this, therefore God gave them over. One of the worst things that could ever happen to any of us, to any human being ever, is for God to leave you alone, to do what you want.

Some of you guys know what that's like. Maybe some of you guys are there right now. Some of us know what it's like to actually have what our heart desires. For God to leave you to a place where you have your sin, and you love it, and you can.

Have it.

You know the consequences. You feel morally bad a bit about it, but you can't stop. You keep going. Therefore God gave them over. Paul says, God gave them over to do what? What was against nature. He means describing the sins of humanity, the fall.

He's just naming a bunch of stuff like haters of God, disobedience of parents, gossips, all these different things. Homosexuality is there. Perversion is there. It's all there. And it says that they not only do these things, but they give hearty approval.

They applaud those who do them. That's us. If that's not our culture, I don't know what is. We love our sin. We applaud those who do it, and Paul says, that's our plight. And in the background of Romans 1, you can hear the Jew in the first century silently applauding Paul, saying something like, get those Gentiles.

I know all about their idolatry. They exchange God for a lie. They don't want God in their knowledge. They don't want to know Him, Paul says. And the Jew in that century goes, get them, Paul. Get those pagans.

Get them.

The Apostle Paul in Romans 2 now turns to the Jew, who thinks because he has the Bible, he has the law, but somehow he's justified by it. The Apostle Paul says, essentially what? You teach people not to steal, do you steal?

You say this, but do you do it? And he says, essentially, you think because you have the law that you're justified. He says, you have to do the things in the law. Hearing his gospel, and they're saying, okay now, so what's the point?

If Jew and Gentile are all lost, and we all have nothing to offer God, if it's all by faith and it's all about God, then what is the story? And the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 3, something that everybody in this room has to hear if you want to understand what's going to happen outside.

Romans chapter 3, the Apostle Paul says in verse 10, as it is written, none is righteous. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. Now watch this. If it had stopped there, we would be dead, hopeless, and we'd have nothing but fear.

Because you see, that's what religion doesn't understand. You got to capture this. If you want to understand like what Jesus is really all about, and how glorious Jesus really is, and how meaningful these baptisms are, you have to understand that right there.

Paul takes a collage of verses from the Old Testament. He brings them together. He didn't make them up. He pulls them together to show this is where it starts. He says what? There is none righteous, not even one.

Think about it. We all know people that we think are righteous. We all know people in history that we laud and praise as righteous people. We think about it in your mind. You think about it. When you ask the question to like the modern evangelical church, you say, who is righteous in the last century?

You usually get the same responses. I don't know that I agree, but you usually get the same responses.

What do you always get?

You get Billy Graham. You get Martin Luther King. You get Gandhi, Mother Teresa, right?

That's what you always...

Who's righteous? Well, those. I want to say this.

No. No.

Utterly, completely missed the mark. Not righteous. Think of anybody and I'll show you they're not righteous. Pick your heroes in the Bible and I'll show you they're not righteous. The Apostle Paul, murderer, goes after God's church, tries to destroy it.

Is he righteous? He says, I'm the chief of sinners.

Peter.

We'll go for Peter, right? Peter has like a rotten case of stick-your-foot-in-your-mouth-itis. He can't stop. He can't help himself. We all see so much of ourselves in Peter, right? But he is the one who actually denies even knowing Jesus.

He knows he's a sinner, confesses to be a sinner. He needs Jesus. He's not righteous. He couldn't represent you. Name any of the apostles, all sinners.

Moses.

He's such a sinner that God doesn't even let him into the promised land. He goes to be with God, but he doesn't get to go to the promised land. Even he's a sinner. How about King David? Ah, Abraham's, sorry, David's descendant is going to be an heir on the throne of David over the whole world.

David's got to be the guy, right? Well, he's an adulterer and a murderer. Want to try again?

Right?

We're all sinners. None righteous, not even one. And if we understand that, we can understand the gospel. If we can understand that we are haters of God, prideful, children of wrath, not good and non-God-seeking, then we will understand the glory of the gospel.

It has nothing to do with us. And here's the thing. The apostle Paul starts with this plight of sin and brokenness because here's the deal.

Watch.

If you don't understand your absolute broken status before God, you cannot come to Jesus. How come man-made religion tries to please God through their good deeds thinking that somehow He'll accept them?

How come? Because they don't understand their utter depravity before God. How come we could think in any way that we could do anything good to appease God, to be reconciled to God? How come we could ever think that because we don't understand the holiness of God?

And you might ask the question, well, I'm reading Pastor Jeff in Romans 3 right here where you brought us to the text, Pastor Jeff. You showed us the text. It said, there is none who seeks for God. Is Paul being literal there?

My answer is today. We're going outside. People are seeking God. I'm seeking God now, so what's that about? The answer is it wasn't you who sought God. It was God who was seeking you. It was God who was doing what was absolutely necessary to save you, and had God left you where you were, you wouldn't be sitting in this room right now.

Had God left you where you were, you would not believe. None righteous, not even one, none who seeks for God.

Watch this.

All have turned aside. Together they become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. He's saying, your throat, the smell coming out of it, stinks of death. Not just bad breath, but there is nothing but death inside you.

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.

In the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And this is what every one of us got to come to terms with, all of us. We must come to terms with the fact that Romans chapter three is me.

It's me. Sometimes we read the Bible and we see descriptions like that, right? None righteous, none who does good, none who seeks for God. The poison of asps is under their lips. The throat is an open grave.

There's no fear of God before their eyes. And the first thing we do is we start to think about somebody in our life that we know. People just like that, right? You're like, oh, I know that's my neighbor.

I know that guy, right? That's my boss. Trust me. Open grave every day, right? Try to fix the problem with gum, he won't take it, right? You're doing whatever you can to think about somebody else. But here's the thing, Romans chapter three will be entirely meaningful for all of us and can end in salvation when you understand that Romans chapter three is a description of you, you and me before God.

And if Paul had left it there, hopeless, hopeless, nothing but darkness overwhelming us because there's no way to fix it. You can't. You cannot fix it. You can't wash yourself clean. You cannot change your spots.

You cannot lift yourself up. Here's the thing. What can a dead man do? Nothing. What can a dead woman do?

Nothing.

And so the apostle Paul says, here it is in vivid color. This is your position before God, everybody. And so what's the answer? He says, verse 19, 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 the works of the law, no human being will be justified that is declared righteous in his sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. You see, that's the problem, is that unbelievers who don't know God take the law of God, they see it and they go, these are the things that I must do to get right with God.

And the apostle Paul says what? The works of the law will justify nobody because what does the law do? It shuts your mouth, right? It only shows you who you are. Start with the first commandment. You shall have no other gods before me.

Now God's not saying like in position, right? You should have no other gods before me, like don't let them come before me. Let me come first and then let them follow. He says no other gods before me is no other gods in my sight.

No other gods in my sight. But what do we do our entire lives, even as Christians? John says it, little children keep yourselves from idols. If Christians didn't struggle with idolatry, then why is it addressed to the church that.

Way?

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Our default position is idolatry. You did it today. Every one of us fell short today in ourselves. Every one of us in idolatry, we take sides. What is it?

Is it food? Is it a person?

Is it your stuff? Is it material wealth? Is it your money? Is it your car? Is it drugs, alcohol?

Is it sex?

What is it? Television, movies, video games, you name it. What is it? Idolatry. Is it false religion? What is it? Is it the God of Joseph Smith? Is it the God of Charles Taze Russell? Mary Baker Eadie?

Is it the God of Muhammad? Idolatry. We switch God for idols. The law only shows us that we're idolaters. Number one, everyone in this room is guilty of idolatry. Don't even make an image that looks like me, God says.

How about lying? You should not lie. Any liars in here? The Bible says this in James. He says this very clearly, whosoever of you shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he's guilty of all of it.

One sin breaks us from God for all eternity, breaks the whole law. It's a unit. You break a piece of it, you shattered the whole thing. It's like throwing a rock through a plate glass window. Even if it's a small rock with a small hole, you're going to replace the whole thing because it's a unit.

And James says, whosoever of you shall keep the whole law and yet stumble at one point is guilty of all of it. The law does that. It shows us who we are. We're liars. We're idolaters. We're adulterers.