Rev. David Holwick S Romans series #3
First Baptist Church Communion Sunday
Ledgewood, New Jersey
June 5, 2005
Romans 2:1,17-24
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I. Grace for cannibals?
In his book, What's So Amazing About Grace?, Philip Yancey raises
the matter of Jeffrey Dahmer's conversion.
Dahmer, the mass murderer, abused and murdered 17 young men.
He cannibalized them and stored body parts in his refrigerator.
Eleven corpses were found in his apartment.
He was the epitome of the word vile.
During his trial he sat serenely in court, showing no signs of
remorse.
In November of 1994, Dahmer was beaten to death in prison by a
fellow prisoner.
Television news reports included interviews with relatives of
Dahmer's victims.
They said their only regret about his killing was that it had ended
his life too soon.
They wanted him to suffer more.
Yancey writes about how one television network showed a program
taped a few weeks before Dahmer's murder.
The interviewer asked him how he could possibly commit the crimes
he was convicted of.
Dahmer said that these things happened before he believed in God,
when he wasn't accountable to anybody.
He said it all began with petty crimes and small acts of cruelty,
and he just kept going, further and further.
Nothing restrained him.
Dahmer then told of his recent religious conversion.
He was baptized in the prison whirlpool and spent all of his time
now reading his Bible and Christian literature.
The prison chaplain affirmed Dahmer's conversion, saying that his
repentance was sincere and that he was one of his most
faithful worshipers.
Some find reports like this troubling.
Grace for a cannibal?
Our natural response is to fold our arms and say, "No, it's not
that easy.
God isn't going to let you off just like that, not after what
you did.
God is forgiving, but he is no pushover.
Grace is for average sinners like us, not deviants like you."
When we read chapter 1 of Romans, many of us think,
"Go get 'em, Paul.
It's about time someone stood up and spoke the truth.
We decent, law-abiding people are behind you."
This is the attitude that the apostle addresses in the opening
verses of Romans 2, the basis of my sermon today.
Here he speaks to the self-righteous, judgmental moralist who views
God's grace through the lens of his own prejudice.
The moralist is an outwardly decent, clean-living person.
The problem with such people, however, is that they delude
themselves.
They think that because they have maintained a certain respectable
facade that God will overlook their inner sins.
-That there will be no judgment for them because everything appears
fine on the outside.
Paul's purpose in these opening chapters of Romans is to confront
the mistaken faith we may have in the goodness of man.
Somehow we cling to that notion even though we know it doesn't
correlate to the world we live in.
We want to believe that we're doing fine.
But Paul says we are not.
The world is full of corrupt people.
Here he shows us that even religious people are corrupt.
This means YOU - and me.
To convince his readers Paul uses a literary device, common in the
Greek world of his day, called a diatribe.
Today, a diatribe means a harsh and bitter argument, but in Paul's
day, it was a method of scholarly discussion.
An individual would take the place of his opponent and actually
state and respond to the questions that arose in his mind.
That is what Paul is doing here.
He is anticipating the questions that a reader would raise
regarding what he had said in chapter 1.
The "you" in the verses is singular.
Paul is thinking of one person, a man or woman who, after reading
chapter 1, would say, "Wait a minute. I'm not like that.
I'm not perverted.
I'm not violent.
I don't cheat on my spouse."
It is these self-righteous moralists that Paul is addressing.
#29613
II. Where religious people can go wrong.
A. Religious people presume to know God's take on humans.
1) They know God (and them) is against sinful people. 2:1
2) They think God loves and accepts them because good
things are happening in their lives. 2:4
3) What they don't know is that God's kindness to them may
mean he is encouraging them to repent.
B. Religious people often see themselves in a very good light.
1) They are confident of their standing with God. 2:17
2) They are proud of their knowledge of the Bible. 2:18
3) They think they know more spiritually than others. 2:19
4) But God may not be very impressed!
C. Religious people may have a disconnect between words and deeds.
1) We may do the same things as those we condemn. 2:3
2) We may preach against a sin, and yet do that very sin. 2:21
3) Our hearts can be stubborn and unrepentant. 2:5
III. The disease of religious people: hypocrisy. 2:3, 2:21
A. Do we ourselves commit what we condemn in others?
1) Exact correspondence - sometimes.
2) Close relationship - often.
B. Our condemnation of others shows we know God's standards.
1) We will be judged by the same standards.
2) As a matter of fact, Jesus says we will be judged more
severely.
C. Why the world has contempt for Christians.
1) The experience of one young carnival worker:
"On Saturday night, I would see men lusting after half-naked
girls dancing at the carnival.
On Sunday morning I would play the organ for tent-show
evangelists at the other end of the carnival lot,
At the services I would see these same men sitting in the
pews with their wives and children, asking God to forgive
them and purge them of carnal desires.
And the next Saturday they'd be back at the carnival or
some other place of indulgence.
I knew then that the Christian church thrives on hypocrisy,
and that man's carnal nature will survive no matter how
much it is purged or scoured by any white-light
religion."
This young man was Anton Szandor LaVey, the founder of the
Church of Satan. #9419
2) Does anyone have contempt for God because of the way
YOU have acted?
IV. Obedience to God is the necessary ingredient. 2:13
A. "Hearing" alone (sermons, church, Bible reading) doesn't cut it.
1) Genuine faith results in obedience to God.
2) Jesus calls it the tell-tale fruit.
B. Does Paul mean salvation is earned by our actions? 2:7-8
1) No, he means the evidence of our salvation is our actions.
a) (Evidence of condemnation is also by our actions.)
b) Salvation is always God's gift. 2:4
2) There are only two outcomes.
a) Paul makes it black-and-white - you are living for God,
or you are living for yourself. 2:7-8
C.S. Lewis put it this way:
People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain,
in which God says that if you keep a lot of rules I will
reward you, and if you don't I will do the other thing.
I do not think that is the best way of looking at it.
I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you
are turning the central part of you, the part that chooses,
into something different than it was before.
And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable
choices all your life long, you are slowly turning this
central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a
hellish creature;
Either a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other
creatures and with itself, or else into one that is in a
state of war with God and his fellow creatures and with
himself.
Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or
the other.
#29614
V. Heart religion.
A. It's not a sin to be religious.
1) It is possible to love God, and be commended by him.
2) External rituals have their place, as well. 2:25
B. The key is to have a genuine relationship with God.
1) It engages your heart as well as your mind.
2) You are motivated by God's Spirit and not a written code.
3) Your actions mesh with what you believe.
C. How would you rate your commitment to God?
1) Do you really feel Jesus in your heart?
2) Is there any evidence in your lifestyle?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 9419 "Do Carnal Desires Always Win?" Mark Gilbert.
http://www.jmarkgilbert.com/atheists.html
#29613 "Grace For Cannibals," from a sermon by Rev. Gary Vanderet
of Peninsula Bible Church in Cupertino, California.
March 21, 1999. Kerux Sermon #21057
#29614 "Is Christian Morality A Kind Of Bargain?" C.S. Lewis; from a
sermon by Rev. Gary Vanderet of Peninsula Bible Church in
Cupertino, California, March 21, 1999. Kerux Sermon #21057
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