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Let me put the question to you this way tonight.
What is it that you are or have by virtue of your birth, by virtue of your training or education?
That makes you feel a worthwhile person and that entitles you to a certain position or
privilege in the world. Or to turn it around, what is it that you haven't got by virtue
of your birth, by virtue of your training, or by virtue of your education? That makes
you feel sometimes like an also ran. Somebody who isn't really very important and somebody
who really cannot contribute to others as sometimes you can see other people doing.
What is it you boast in? Before you answer too quickly and say that you're not a
boastful person, let me share with you a couple of principles in which the world boasts.
And then let's see if the Holy Spirit could apply that to our lives and see if in fact
in the core of our heart our life and our salvation is based on the boasting of our own
selves. Number one is looks. The world is a very visual place. Ever since Kayon founded
the city of man, there has been a tremendous advantage in the eyes of the world in having
the right kinds of looks and the right kinds of appearance. Somebody has mentioned it's
a neurotic commentary on the split personality nature of North American society that the
two books that continue to be bestsellers are diet books on the one hand and cook books
on the other. We ought to be in the book publishing business and take advantage of mankind's
vanity. In the world, if you have what it takes in areas of looks, you can begin to lean
on that and many, many people cultivate their appearance because appearance helps them
advance in the world. And nobody knows how important that is until you have the kind
of appearance that falls short of the standards that are set in your society. It's easy to
say, well, it doesn't matter very much what I look like until you discover that you look
a whole lot worse than everybody else and you see how you feel. A lot of people boast
in what they are physically and in appearance wise because it helps them have the advantage
in a beautiful world. Talent and ability. Not everybody's got looks, not everybody needs
looks. Some people are just born with a lot of ability. In the world, your worth in society
is determined to a very large degree by what you're able to do. And if you're good at
your job, if you're good in areas of creativity, if you're a hard worker, if you can outdo
the rest of the gang, then that gives you a certain measure of identity and that helps
you to identify who it is that you are and many, many people boast in their ability. Doesn't
mean to go around bragging. Look at me, how great I am, but it does mean that secretly
their life is determined by what they're good in and that becomes the one thing that makes
them feel good about themselves. Position and social standing. The human race has been
created in the image of God and part of the image of God is that we want to climb to the
full potential of our ability. Nobody wants to be down at the bottom, we all want to rise
to the level of our competence. That in itself is not bad, it's part of what God has created.
It's perverted by sin. And the perversion of sin makes the measure of my stature determined
by the position that I have in life. Many people boast in the house they live in. The number
of cars they have in the garage. The amount of property they own, the title that they have,
the position they have attained in the company. And again, none of those things mean anything to
anybody until you discover you haven't got any of these. Because you see you and I, we look around
and say those things are not important to me. Let's see what happens when they're taken away from you.
And you discover how much of your life is tied up with what you accomplish and whether or not you
are successful by the definition of what the world calls successful. And then another area where
people boast is their moral or their religious values. Not everybody's got looks. Not everybody's
got ability. Getting worse now. Not everybody's got social standing. Not everybody can cut the
mustard in terms of the rest of society. My experience has been that not infrequently that kind of
a person will try to excel the one area where he or she can excel and that is in moral or religious
righteousness. They become good people. And you can boast in the fact that you don't do with the
people down the street, and you can boast in the fact that you go to church twice a Sunday. And
you can boast in a whole variety of different things whereby in the flesh and in the natural,
we are proud because of the measure of righteousness that we have attained by our own strength
and by our own ability. Let me ask you again. What are you most in? What is it that defines your life?
What is it that you dream after? What is it that you try to accomplish because you know intuitively
that your worth and your value in life is determined by the fulfillment of those dreams and those
ambitions and those desires. The world is busy from early morning to late at night. Trying to look
pretty enough, trying to look smart enough, trying to get it all together, trying to be good enough
to feel that it's worthy to be loved and it is worthy to be accepted. The message of the book
aromans, the message of the book aromans chapter 3 particularly, is that as far as God is concerned,
none of the things that the world calls important make one ayoda of difference in terms of gaining
God's approval. Listen again to what he says in verse 22 and 23. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. They are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption which
is in Christ Jesus who God put forward as an expiation by his blood to be received by faith.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. My experience has been that one of the hardest
things for God's people even to lay hold up is that God is not impressed by any of the things
the world is impressed by. God's not impressed by your baby blue eyes and your lovely blonde
curl. He's not impressed by your lovely figure and he's not impressed by your bank account.
He's not impressed by your house by a car or by your boat. He's not impressed by your social
position in the world and he's not impressed by your power and what it is that you have attained
in the course of life and conversely. He's not impressed either by the absence of any of these
in your life or in my life. God is not impressed by any of the things the world is impressed by
because you see from God's perspective no matter how beautiful we are, no matter how talented we
are, no matter what position it is that we attain, no matter how much righteousness we can
drum up in our own hearts, the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Even if you are the most beautiful of all the beautiful people or the most talented of all the
talented people or have the highest position in the world or a righteousness that exceeded even
the righteousness of Paul the Pharisee before his conversion. God would look at you and God would say,
"I'm sorry you don't make it because God's standards of righteousness are so high that nothing
that we have and nothing that we are, impresses God, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory
of God. They are justified by grace as a gift. There's only one thing God's impressed by.
There's only one person that ever lived that God has impressed by. His name is Jesus.
And Jesus Christ is the perfect son of God who kept God's law perfectly, has earned back
for us all of the things that we have forfeited and becoming a Christian in Scripture.
It's not simply naively saying, "Lord Jesus come into my heart even though that's very critically
important, becoming a Christian is understanding that in order to gain the righteousness of Jesus,
I have to let go of all the other things that I boasted, all the other things that I trust,
all the other things that I think that are important, I've got to count them as garbage in order
to be found by Jesus the Christ. Paul understood this because it was the story of his life. Listen
to these verses from Philippians chapter 3, you know them well. He's listing his credentials,
he says, "I have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If any other man thinks he has reason
for confidence in the flesh, I have more." Circumcised, he said, "In the eighth day of the people
of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of the Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee,
as to zeal, a persecuted of the church, as to righteousness under the law." Blameless, he says,
recounting his life history and giving his credentials, he says, "In the world where I was living,
and in the circles where I was moving," he said, "I had it all. I was the best of the lot,
and I did my most level best to accomplish all of the things that I thought needed to be accomplished
in order to gain the approval of Christ." And he went around his life boasting in his righteousness
because of the flesh, well always boasting. How do you know if you're living in the flesh?
Because secretly you'll be proud of who you are and what you have accomplished and what you
have done. Paul said, "I had it all," but then he met Jesus and he goes on to say, "Whatever gain I
had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of
the surpassing worth of doing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for his sake I have suffered the loss of
all things and count them as a refuse, and the word in Greek is manure and garbage,
in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own based
on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God that depends on faith.
But I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings becoming like him
in his death, that if possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead."
What Paul is saying there is there was a day when I thought I had it all.
A day when I prided myself in my accomplishments, a day when I prided myself in all of my abilities,
a day when I did so much hard work trying to measure up to the standards that I thought
God had for me and then came the day when I saw Jesus, and I saw that the glory and the righteousness
in the honor of Jesus far outweighed everything else that I had in my life, and he says, "I wanted
to gain the righteousness of Jesus. I gave up all of the things that I had and all of the things
that I boasted in by faith to receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ." That's what it is.
To become a Christian, it is to understand that everything I try to do on my own,
everything that I have in the natural is not good enough to gain God's approval.
The only one that ever gained God's approval is Jesus. And when God opens my eyes and shows me
that reality, there comes a time when I come to Him as a sinner. As a broken man, as a broken
woman who knows that he cannot earn back the favor of God. And I acknowledge that I need the
blood of Jesus and I need the grace of Jesus just as much as everybody else in all of the world.
And you and Gentile are reconciled to God the Father by the same process, the blood of Jesus Christ,
and then of course his spirit comes to live within our hearts and he begins to carve out our
inheritance and he begins to give us the status and the position and all of the things in life
that the world tries so hard to get by its own power. God gives as a gift to his children.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
I have opportunity in the course of my work to speak with many, many people about this.
And I want you to know that though it is the simple gospel message,
it is one of the hardest things for us to lay hold of because there is something in my heart
that wants to hold on to a little bit of my own self-righteousness. Have you ever noticed that?
There is something inside me that wants to say it's not all bad.
There's something inside me that wants to say well I can do something that will please God
by virtue of my own natural ability and by virtue of my own power. I'm a smart person,
I'm intelligent and I'm educated and therefore I can understand spiritual things and I am
somebody in the world and therefore God ought to take into account my position in the body
of Christ. You know what God says? He says a whole lot more than that but that's as simple as
I can put it. God says it doesn't amount to a bill of heat. A hill of ease. I'm glad you're awake.
There's only one that counts and his name is Jesus and once you understand that
once you understand that everybody's got to go the way across then you begin to understand why
Paul goes on now in Romans chapter 3 to say the words of our text then what becomes of our boasting?
It is excluded. On what principle? On the principle of works? Question Mark? No,
but on the principle of faith for we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works
of the law. What becomes of our boasting? He says it is excluded. You see as long as you think
there is something that you can do yourself to gain the approval of God
then the people that have things have an advantage over the people that have not. You understand that
don't you? If God is impressed by my intelligence then a smart person has the edge over a dumb person
when it comes to spiritual things and if God is impressed by human goodness then a person who is
morally righteous and knows how to live a good life has the edge over the person who lives in the
gutter and if God is impressed by any of my accomplishments then a person who owns half the
world has an advantage over the person who owns nothing and there is room for boasting because
we then think there is something in me that God sees that delights him even though it comes out of
the natural. Paul says it doesn't work that way. There's only one God. He is God of the Jews and
of the Gentiles. Everybody comes to him on the same basis. Everybody needs to come to the cross
of Jesus and receive in Jesus Christ the righteousness of God by faith. There is no other way.
What's we understand that? We see from the scriptures that if anybody interestingly enough
has the advantage it's not the person who has but the person who has not. You've noticed that
in scripture, haven't you? All through the scripture there are many instances where there are twins.
There's pain and able, Jacob and Isla and in the New Testament gospels you have the righteous
Pharisees and the publicans and the sinners. And time and time again what the Lord does is he
bypasses the firstborn and he picks somebody way down the line that naturally speaking ought to
have no no basis for God's approval. Why does God do that? Well it's not because he doesn't like
firstborn. Those of you that are first born and are starting to get worried, that's not point.
God's trying to establish a principle in the scripture because in the scriptures the first
born are the ones who naturally are the ones that inherit the Father's property and the Father's
possession. They are the ones who have the right in a worldly sense to worldly blessings.
And God's trying to prove a very important principle throughout the scriptures that the victory
and the battle is not to the strong and the race is not to the swift. Rather it is to those
whose hearts are right before God. The very interesting thing is that throughout the scriptures
the people who are most susceptible for the gospel of grace are the people interestingly enough
who have the least because you see the more you have and the more you pride yourself in your
own righteousness and in your own ability the harder it is to come to that point where at the
foot of the cross you admit that none of the things that you have is worth anything in the kingdom
of God. If all your life you've got a church and you've been a good moral person without coming
to Jesus Christ it is a lot harder to convince you that you're a sinner than if I go out to the
street and find a public and a prostitute whose whole life is full of sin. That's for that reason
that when the gospel of grace is proclaimed it is often those who are most broken and those who
are most wounded and those who have the least are the first to receive it because you see they've
already been reduced to nothing. A lot of other people they first have to be brought to nothing
before they can reach out to Jesus and receive in Jesus Christ the grace and salvation and the
power of God. James put it this way you will recall he says has not God chosen those who are poor
in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love
him. The Lord Jesus and the first of the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 put it this way when he said
blessed are the poor in spirit where theirs is the kingdom of heaven. All have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God they are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption which
is in Christ Jesus who God put forward as an expiation by his blood to be received by
faith. That's his argument here in Romans chapter 3 he says that's the only way that anybody can
come to God and what later on in the course of this passage people begin to rhetorically ask the
question isn't that it odds then with everything that we've been told all our life doesn't this
one contrary to the law he goes on to point out that it doesn't one contrary to the law at all
and he points in chapter 4 to the figure of Abraham it begins to prove that he begins to show to you
and to me but all of the blessings that God gave to Abraham were not given because there was
anything in Abraham that made it worthwhile or that made him deserving of those blessings he
was you will recall a pagan idol worshiper before his conversion most likely but God called him in
his grace chose him justified him sanctified him straightened out his life and brought him into
the righteousness that only God through Jesus Christ my faith could provide and Paul's whole argument
in the whole of the book of Romans is that there is nothing but nothing but nothing that we can do
or need to do in order to gain the approval of God as long as we try and as long as we're
trying to earn it and as long as we're trying to impress God or to impress one another we will
always discover the door to heaven remains closed because God cannot meet us under those conditions
it's only when our eyes are open when it finally dawns on our hearts that we have not God what it
takes to be what it is that God would have us be and we understand however vaguely that it's
all been accomplished in the person of Jesus Christ it is them that we are justified by the grace
of Jesus our sins are washed away our lives are renewed God's face begins to shine upon us
and the things that we have been seeking for in the world position prestige a place that I can
call my own purpose vision dedication it now all flows from the hand of God as a gift that he gives
to the children of God I don't want you to understand what I'm saying tonight
I'm not saying that what we accomplish in life is not important I'm not saying that we ought to
just all pretend that we are nothing and that and go around with long faces and and bemoan our
lock and say us for miserable sinners there's nothing we can do anyway that's where it starts but
that's not where it is because without leads us to Jesus by faith in Jesus we become the children
of God and if we're the children of God we are heirs of God's kingdom and when we are heirs of
God's kingdom God himself and his love will lead us into the things that he has for us and the
things that he has for us are bigger and better and greater and more beautiful than anything that
we could have ever imagined but the glory goes to the Lord and in one Corinthians chapter one
Paul puts it this way when he says he is the source of your life in Christ Jesus
whom God made our wisdom our righteousness and our sanctification and redemption
therefore as it is written let him who boasts
of the Lord let me close tonight with this has it been a time in your life
when your eyes have been opened you've come to understand that no matter what you thought of
yourself no matter what everybody else said about you you began to understand that the things
that God has for you and the things that God wants to give you you can never bring it about by
anything that you do or by anything that you have because all they've seen and fallen short
of the glory of God has there been a time when as a sinner you've knelt to the foot of the cross
and you've said Lord Jesus I believe that you are the only one
who has the right to receive from God the Father everything that I ever need
and by faith in you I receive the righteousness of God
if you have you will have encountered the presence and the power of God in your life
working out the purposes of your salvation his spirit will bear witness with your spirit that
you're a child of God if you haven't you need to do that because you see you can go to church
all your life you can try all your life to be good you can try all your life to be something
you're not and all you will ever do is live under condemnation because you're failing and you're
failing and you're failing or you become a hypocrite and you take the law of God and you just bring
it down to your own level so that you feel good about yourself you can never be righteous
but by faith in Jesus the Christian life and the Christian journey begins
when I begin to understand that there is nothing but nothing but nothing in me that can make
myself what I ought to be and I don't have to wait till I've got me act cleaned up and I don't
have to wait until I've got my life changed and I don't have to get it all together all I have to
do is come just as I am because as I do Jesus Christ who was risen from the dead by his grace and by
his power well the wall of the things that I cannot do and my life will change and he will present
me one day before the throne of God without without blemish and without spot and without any garbage
clean and purified and sanctified unspotted before the world because he who began a good work
in me will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ I want to ask you now take out your
hymn books turn with me to number 424 it's song of invitation you know it well it's written by
Charlotte Elliott who many years ago struggled with this issue angry at God because she was an
invalid angry with God because nothing she was doing seemed to work and a visit in clergyman
told her under the anointing of the spirit of God quit trying so hard come just as you are
out of that she wrote this great hymn just as I am without one plea but that thy blood was
shed for me and that thou bids me come to the O Lamb of God I come I come let's sing the
five stings is together please stand with
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