Romans 2:1, “1 Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.”

• The phrase, “same things” is a literary cue to remind us of what was just went over in Romans 1.
• The Christian Jew in Rome, hearing Romans 1, would have nodded their head in agreement about the Gentile immorality in Romans 1.
• But, then in Romans 2, verse 1 the Apostle Paul is saying, “I am pretty sure Jewish people do the same thing, and it is because Jewish people also have a broken relationship with the God of Scripture.”

Romans 2:2-3, “2 And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. 3 But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?”

• Lets make it practical: We do verses 2-3 all the time. How many times are you watching these politicians in the news get caught in lies, greed, power, selfishness, sexual immorality, and you find yourself thinking, “These people are horrible!”
• We love to say things like, “I hate hateful people.” Or, if you have children, have you noticed how many times you scream at your children, “Stop screaming! It’s disrespectful! You’re supposed to love one another!”
• All of humanity loves to put the offenses of humanity on trial, but we somehow conveniently remove ourselves from humanity.

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In Romans 1:18-32 we see the gospel exposes dark broken layers in our world, and in our soul. Doesn’t that sound fun?

Honestly, haven’t you wondered, “Why is our world so messed up?” Why do we treat each other this way? Why do we say these hurtful things to one another?

Why do we not only see brokenness in our world, but if we are honest, we see brokenness in our lives as well?

We are all layered with arrogance, greed, anger, jealousy, and Scripture is going to help us see the reason we see this brokenness in our world and in our soul is ultimately because we have a broken relationship with the God of Scripture.

Romans 1:18, “18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness”

• Humanity suppresses the knowledge of God.
• The word “suppress” means “humanity holds back the knowledge of God.” It means humanity literally “pushes the knowledge of God out of our lives.”

Romans 1:19-20, “19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

• Humanity suppresses the knowledge of God revealed in creation.
• It is as though humanity sees the complexity of muscle tissue running through the human anatomy, the expanse of stars, planets, and galaxies, the beauty of mountains, land and sea, and concludes, “Oh, obviously those detailed, intelligently designed beautiful things spontaneously sprung into existence.”

Romans 1:21, “21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

• Humanity isn’t ignorant of the knowledge of God. No, deep in our soul we know there is a divine creator, but Scripture teaches us that humanity just isn’t impressed with the knowledge of God.
• There is external evidence for His glory in creation (vs. 19-20) and there is internal evidence for His glory in our conscience (vs. 21), but instead all of humanity simply “suppresses the knowledge of God.”

Romans 1:22-25,  “Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

• In verse 23 we see humanity exchanging the knowledge of God for something else to take His place. Biblically this is called idolatry!
• Idolatry is anything that takes the place that rightfully belongs to the God of Scripture.”
• This means our children can become an idol. Our career can become an idol. It is anything or anyone or any idea in our life that brings out our inner “Gollum, precious!” Religious activity can become an idol. Politics can become an idol. Caring for the environment can be an idol. Working out and eating healthy can become an idol.
• It is because every human being throughout history is created in the image of God (Genesis 1), and created to worship God (Genesis 2), and when we “suppress the knowledge of God (vs.18-21)” we don’t just stay neutral, we exchange (vs. 23, 25).

Romans 1:26-27, “26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”

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Romans 1:8, “8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.”

In Romans 1:8-17 we see characteristics of what it means to walk in biblical community, and it is important to remember that biblical community doesn’t just appear magically over night.  There are steps we can take today, by grace through faith in Jesus, and over time we can and will experience deep biblical community.

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Romans 1:1, “1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God”

• Author:  Romans is a letter written by the Apostle Paul and Paul is someone who grew up hating Christianity, hating the name of Jesus, and would volunteer to hunt down Christians to put them in jail, and kill them if necessary (Acts 8).  In Acts 9 the resurrected Jesus appears to Paul, Paul’s life is radically changed, and Paul spends the rest of his life on earth proclaiming the name of Jesus to Modern Day Turkey and the surrounding regions.
• Audience:  If you look down to verse 7 you see this letter is written to “the beloved of God in Rome.” These are men and women who in believe in Jesus, living in Rome, and at this point in history Rome is a dynamic city. Rome is where new technology was taking place. Rome is where the most educated and elite would live. Rome is the center of affluence. Rome is New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, and Austin all rolled into one.

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We are a family who places Jesus at the center of our lives so that it moves us to chase after every man, woman, and child in Greater Austin to experience the life transforming power of Jesus Christ.

Family:  We are fighting to be a family. We don’t want to just sit next to each other on Sunday morning. We are fighting to know one another. We are fighting to say, “No” to other relationships in our lives so we can say, “Yes” to our relationships with one another.

Center:  We desperately want to keep Jesus at the center. This speaks to the authority of Jesus. This means we submit our lives to Jesus, because it is when Jesus is at the center of our lives we have unexplainable capacity to chase after every man, woman, and child.

Chase:  This last part of our vision is the part of our vision that moves us outward. This is the part of the vision that moves us outside of our comfort zone. This is the part of the vision that guards us from showing partiality, and moving us into relationships that are uncomfortable.

Connecting with Jesus (2018):  Let the Word of Christ Richly Dwell Within You.

Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

We wanted to connect with Jesus by connecting with His Word. Specifically we challenged our church family in three areas:

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Probably the biggest part of the conversation about hell and judgment is, “How can the God of Scripture be loving if there is judgment?”  Especially in our culture right now. Right now the quickest response to any kind of judgment in our culture today is, “Love is love” so if God is loving, then how can a loving God bring judgment?

To help us tackle this question we are going to look at Luke 16:19-31.  Lets start with verses 19-21:

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Galatians 2:3-4, “3 But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. 4 But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage.”

I know this is a lot of first century culture for us to step into, but this passage can help us answer the question, “Can we all find our own truth?”  Specifically, when the Apostle Paul writes the phrase, “spy out our liberty” he is talking about the freedom we have in Christ, and freedom in Christ will lead to a beautiful life.

In contrast, there is a religious community who is coming to “spy out that liberty” and claiming “truth” but it is leading to bondage as Gentile Christians are being told to follow Jewish custom and rituals.

But, these claims by the religious leaders are contrary to the gospel.  All those Jewish customs discussed in Galatians 2 were established so that it would be clear to humanity that nobody could ever make ourselves clean, righteous and presentable to God. This is why we need the good news of Jesus!

Jesus has come to fulfill all the requirements of the Jewish Law, Jewish customs, and Jesus even became unclean so that by grace through faith in Jesus we might be made clean.

In contrast there are religious leaders from Jerusalem who are sneaking into the Gentiles backyards, spying on the Gentile Christians to see if they are following Jewish customs, Jewish rituals, and I guess to see if the men were circumcised, and the Apostle Paul writes, “They are trying to bring us back under bondage.”

Do you see the tension? Can the Gentile Christians ignore the Jewish customs? Should Gentile Christian men be circumcised? How do you decide? Who is going to win?  How can you decide what is true?

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