Romans 3:27–31Scripture
Romans 3:27-31. If you have not been here the last three weeks, I would encourage you to go back, because I'm building on things, and this may seem like you're halfway through the Cliff Notes of a book, all right, but I'll do my best to recap what is necessary. Romans 3:27-31 says this: "Then what becomes of our boasting?"
Point 1Faith takes away boasting instead of giving it
All right, we are not saved by works but we're saved by faith. "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded.
By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith."
In other words, faith should take away your boasting, should not give you cause to boast.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 0:39
So as you have discussions and you begin to talk about things like the measure of your faith versus other people's faith, by the way, that's taking that out of context just a bit, because you started, when you read that, you started with you and your measure, and you're thinking about you, and then you just miss the whole point, and now you're boasting. But see, faith is supposed to take away boasting, not give you cause to boast. See how easy it is to miss it?
So we begin to ask questions based on how we can be better. Listen, you're not good. I said a couple weeks ago, you're a filthy rat, right? And that was a hot topic, kids were calling their parents filthy rats, that was not the goal.
But we need to understand that only God is good.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 1:40
All right, so faith is about him. So faith in this whole section should take away your boasting, it shouldn't give you cause to do it.
All right, 28: "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works." And let me just pause here and say, be careful to not make faith the work, because that happens too. That happens too. We're not justified by faith with works, we're 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." He always asks questions and answers this question, he should just give people an opportunity to try to answer his question, that's what I feel. But "since God is one, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith." Now, don't miss this right here, and I would underline this, I would underline "since God is one," and I would circle "one," because this is saying something specific that, I mean, I've read this over and over in preparation of this over the last several weeks, but I caught something here: since God is one, he justifies all people from all backgrounds, and there is one way which he does it, because there is only one God, and it is that God's way that you get justified. Did you catch it? Now in our culture today, that means
Point 2There is one way because there is one God
Something, and I'm kind of getting to point three before I've even talked about point one, but I'm just so excited about it: there is not many ways to heaven, there is one way, because there is only one God. And we live in a culture today that accepts that there's many ways to God, to heaven.
There's only one way because there's only one God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 3:53
The rest, figment of your imagination, and they will get you to hell.
All right. "Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?" Now, so all that we've discovered, faith doesn't come from us, it doesn't emanate from us, faith comes from God, it is a gift, it is not of works. So then the question arises in much of our minds: so then if faith comes from God and we can't muster it up, and it doesn't emanate from us, and we can't force ourselves to have it, but it is a gift from God, then do we not care about the law then at all? Do we even need to worry about it? Should we just go on and sin, and because God gives faith, should I just live wild? "Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law." By faith. Point one, and I want to talk about this, I'm giving my points so I can keep myself on track, but faith, and I've been saying this for weeks, is not a work. Don't make it so. Faith is not a work.
"Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a 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." Ephesians 2:8-9 says it this way, one of the most popular verses quoted regarding faith, and I think it's a good reminder. I've read it over the last three weeks, and this will be the fourth week, I've started out each message with this, and I think it's a good reminder for us today, how quickly we forget this in our discussions about faith: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." All right, so don't make faith a work.
When you do, you boast, and when you boast, you get the glory and God does not, and nothing makes him more irritated than pride like that.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 6:35
It is amazing how even in our theological discussions about faith we will quickly default to pride.
Pride is the most obnoxious thing to God as a sin.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:02
In his holiness, he hates it.
Oh man, the Bible talks about how much he hates pride. His sovereignty detests it as a rebellion, the whole of his attributes stand leagued to put it down and to death. "God has touched other sins with his finger, but against this vice he has made bare his arm. There have been, I know, terrible judgments against lust, but there have been ten times as many against that swelling lust of the deceitful heart which is pride. Remember, the first transgression had in its essence pride. The ambitious heart of Eve desired to be as God, to know good and evil, and Adam imagined that he should be lifted up to a divine rank if he dared to pluck and eat the fruit.
And the blasting of Paradise, the sterility of the world, the travail of human birth, the sweat of the brow, and the certainty of death may all be traced back to this fruitful mother of mischief, which is pride." That's Spurgeon. There were two plans in the universe.
There are two plans, and there are two systems, and there are two methods, and there are two spirits, and here they are: the plan of works and the plan of grace.
God has for all utterly refused the plan of merit and the plan of works. He's refused it and has chosen to bless men only and entirely through the plan or method of the law of faith. That's it. There's a distinction between the two which must never be forgotten. Never forget that if you decide to be justified by works, that, remember, the law requires sheer perfection. How many of you can say today, that's me, I am perfect?
It says if you break the law in one part, just think of yourself, just think for a moment, the smallest, most insignificant part, you break it in all parts, because you're either holy completely or you're not. So be careful. Listen, so listen to me, be careful to not turn to works to be justified. Oh, listen, and can I just stop for a second and say, some of you going, well, that's not me, I don't want to do that.
Listen, you'd be shocked in the church how quickly we tend to default and trust in our own devices. Oh wow, it happened so quickly, and
I believe at the root of that turning back to our own devices is pride. That's the root problem,
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:41
and God is trying so desperately to kill that in each of us. This is why, ladies and gentlemen, pride goeth before the fall.
This is why it is ultimately, as well, an issue of trust.
We either trust in ourself or we trust in God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:08
There cannot be a middle ground here. You trust in yourself or you trust in God.
I want to pause here for a second. I'm going to talk about something that I think is important that maybe has been coming up in some of our discussion. Certainly I'm sure that all of us could write a list of 30 questions we have regarding faith, at least what we're learning about faith now, because faith is continually and constantly brought up in the Bible. We think of text, in one of our discussions this week we began to think that we're learning that God gives faith, it is a gift, that no one should boast, that we are not justified by works but we're justified by faith through grace, and we have all of these things, and then we begin to hear up in discussions in a small group that God gives a measure of faith, which is awesome. Then we begin to have questions about that. Is everybody's measure the same? Be careful, that's prideful. Are you with me? So it's not that questions are bad, but be careful, because the point of faith is that God might get the glory. Then we begin to ask questions like, so Peter sees Jesus in the storm, he comes walking out on the storm, and Jesus says, "You of little faith," and then we go, well, if God gave the faith and it's little and he falls, did he give a faith that is not good enough? Be careful to question God's goodness. And I know we have all of these things and we want to go off on all of these different rabbit trails about faith, and we begin to think of hundreds of verses where we see faith. Can we just not do that right now? Because as we move through Romans, I'm calling us, I'm calling check on that, and I'm saying, hey, come back to earth, and before we begin to go make sense of faith throughout the Bible, let's first get a good working grounding, foundational idea that the faith we're talking about here is one that justifies, all right, and really get an understanding that faith comes from God. Let's just make sure that we can wrestle, that's Southern, it's a little Southern right there, wrestle with this idea that faith comes from God.
Let's just get that one locked in before we go off on tangents. But one thing I want to explore quickly, all right, and we're going to talk about all that stuff, little faith, measures of faith, we're going to talk about all that, we're going to say how does that line up with Romans, we're going to get there. In Romans, Paul talks about that in Romans. Don't get ahead of yourself, because what's going to happen is you're going to quickly move away from "God gives it, and the Holy Spirit uses it to help us so that God gets the glory" to "what do we need to do?" That's what he's not, he's trying to move us away from doing and he's trying to move us towards trusting. So don't jump away from what we're supposed to be learning here. In time we'll get to where you want to go, all right? We'll get there, all right? But first, let me just talk about two words that the Bible, and I'm going to say it again, is replete with, and oftentimes these two words, I'd say most of the time, almost all of the time,
Point 3Biblical belief and faith are the same
98% of the time, maybe 99% of the time, they are used interchangeably biblically: belief and faith.
Now what we want to do because of the way English is, we want to take, and honestly, in English these two words are separate, they are different, and the space between them is like the Grand Canyon, not only is it wide but it is deep. But in the Bible they are more closely related, and in the Bible they are used the same. Now let's just stop for a moment. I want to say to you, we came out of First John recently. First John, listen, he's talking about the assurance of a believer in First John, and in First John he never says the word "faith,"
Not one time. He only says the word "belief" or "believe." It's the same thing. He's saying the same thing.
So be careful in your Bible reading and study that you do not add a different meaning to belief in certain places, not knowing that, because oftentimes it means the same thing as faith, and just as God gave faith, he gives belief. Makes sense. There's not something you muster up, it's a gift from God. All right, on one hand, there's a difference between faith and belief here in English. The two terms are often used interchangeably. "The Gospel of John was written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." That's John 20:31. The Gospel of John does not use the word "faith," although the concept of faith is thoroughly woven into John throughout Scripture. There is no distinction between faith and belief. On the other hand, in proper, popular English usage, the word "faith" often has deeper meaning.
"Belief" often refers to an intellectual acceptance of so-called facts. If you ask the average person on the street if he believes in Alexander the Great or Abraham Lincoln, he would probably interpret the question to mean, do you believe that such a person existed? Most, no doubt, would answer in the affirmative, and they would in regards to Jesus as well. However, "faith" in the modern usage has the added idea of trust and commitment.
For us English-speaking people, many people believe that Alexander the Great existed. When he was alive, many had faith in him as well, trusting him to protect them, lead them into battle, and expand the Greek empire. However, it would be safe to assume that no one living today is trusting him to do anything for them today.
They believe in his existence, but they do not have faith in him. Most people believe it is important to eat healthy foods and exercise regularly. However, most people do not personally eat healthy foods and exercise regularly. They believe that a certain set of facts is true, but they have not committed themselves to the implications of those facts. They have believed but not faith, in the modern sense, that is not the biblical one. So we separate those, and that separation of how we see belief and faith in the world here, in our particular culture in America, then begins to shape how we interpret the Bible. Be careful, because the Bible is not to be interpreted by your cultural position, but rather, and then honestly, it seems when we say the word "secular" it seems like dirty, sinful, and demonish. We say "secular," but that's a secular mindset which you then begin to shape the Bible unto, all right? But in the Bible, faith and belief is the same. "Likewise, many people today believe a certain set of facts about God, and in some cases their facts may be completely orthodox. However, if they have never committed themselves to God, if they have never trusted him, then they do not have faith or biblical belief in him." First John talks about that the evidence of our faith is fruit and good works. But listen, this is why Paul says, so if we're not saved by works, then should we do good works? That's what Ephesians, they're like, Ephesians 2:8 through 9 says we're not saved by works, we're saved through faith in Jesus Christ by grace, that no man can boast, it is a gift of God, and then we are saved, then it goes on to, in verse 10, for good works. But we're not living according to the law of works, we're living according to the law of faith. Faith first, works flow out. Faith is the gift that all other gifts come out of, all right? So that's why, listen to me, listen to me, that's why some people will get to heaven and they'll say, "I did this thing in your name, I did this thing in your name, I did this thing in your name," and it looked real churchy, and he said, "Get away from me and go to hell, I don't know you." That's why, because works can come from you or it can be birthed out of faith.
And in case you didn't know that, like this is really interesting, we learned this in First John, we learned this, that you can have faith that is a gift from God, truly be saved, have the faith that is a gift from him, be justified and made righteous in his sight, and check this, and you can still do works that are not out of faith but out of your own strength. These works, it says in the Bible, when you stand before the Lord one day will be burned up, and you will be saved, but those things you didn't do out of faith but you did out of your own strength, those will burn up. How cool is that, right? So, Shawn, why are we talking about this?
Because we have a responsibility. Even though God has saved us through faith that he gave, we have a responsibility to not turn to our own devices but to listen, work out our salvation from faith, not our own strength.
Biblical faith is trust and commitment that results in change of behavior.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:59
And belief and faith are used interchangeably all through the Bible.
There's one place that belief is used, the same word is used, but it's not saving faith, it's not saving belief. One place specifically, that's why it's a low percentage, but there's one place it's used that it's not saving faith, it's not the faith that God gives. James 2:19 puts it this way: "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe, and shudder." But most of the time in the Bible, when he uses the word "believe" and "faith," it's the same thing. It's the same thing. I'm afraid today that in our world, unfortunately, in the church, unfortunately, sadly, many people have the same kind of belief that the demons have
Point 4By faith alone all people receive the promise
That will not save them. Number two, point number two: by faith alone do all people receive the promise.
By faith alone. We're moving into this thing where it's going to talk about faith. Now we know that Paul is speaking to Jews. Jews look to Abraham as the father of their faith, a man of great faith. They began to question Jesus and many other people and say, "Are you better than our father Abraham? Are you better than our father Abraham?
Are you better than our," see, listen to the attitude. There is an attitude and a thinking there that things begin with us but not God.
So Jews would then look to a man and place a man at a greater place. That's why they miss the Messiah. That God could be standing in their presence and they miss him because their eyes are so fixed on man. Some of us miss God. He's right in the room and we miss him. We come on Sundays
And we miss him. You know why? Because our eyes are fixed on us, and we miss him, and he's standing right in front of us. People, listen, people miss their healing because they have their eyes fixed on themselves.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:26
They miss their salvation because they have their eyes fixed on themselves. They miss their help, "Where does my help come from?" From the God who is always there, who never leaves you or forsakes you, but you don't even see him because all you see is you.
The first man that entered heaven by faith. By faith, Abel. This is quote, Bible: "By faith Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain," and his brother killed him, and he entered heaven, and guess how? By faith.
"Over the tombs of all the good who were accepted by God you may read the epitaph: they all died in faith." Here's the order, here's the order for me, and it's as simplistic, and there's sub-points under these points, so you're like, well, what about so-and-so? It's a sub-point under these points I want to talk about. So I just want to get the main points. This is how this works: there is always a call. There was always a call. The call comes from God. Call comes from God.
There's a promise that's made. The promise is made by God. Notice where it comes from. Faith to trust in the promise despite what we see is given by the grace of God, and all the glory goes to God. That's it. So in that song we just sang, which I feel was very good theologically, because I nitpick things to pieces, but in that song, and you might have to help me here, all things come from God and all things to God. What song was that? What is the line there? It's, yeah, perfect.
Perfect. It's all from him and it's all to him. I love that.
He's the author and the perfecter. Guess what? You don't author your faith. He does.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:58
He begins it. Another translation, he begins it and he finishes it, author and perfecter, beginner and finisher. Meaning some of you are thinking, so he gives the faith and then I grow the faith. That would give you cause for boasting. That would give you cause for boasting. Gee, how do we do that? Like, oh, so I'm going to strengthen the faith? No. See, that would then have this idea behind it that what he gave wasn't good enough, wasn't complete.
Listen, God doesn't give junk. I'm sorry, he just doesn't give junk.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:47
He begins it and he finishes it, and if anything has to be done, and lots has to be done in you got problems. His faith don't have problems. You got problems. The gift that he gave don't have problems. You have problems. I have problems. Sorry, I have problems at you too, but I had to have problems. How many of you know that you're just thankful that God puts up with you, right?
I mean, I am so grateful for the grace of God over my life. There're just new waves of thankfulness that happen as I go through a week. And I have, you ever made a face and then seen yourself in the mirror? Just,
God loves us, and he has moved heaven and earth to restore us back to him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:47
Listen, there's no other route to getting to God but by faith.
There is no other way. There are no shortcuts. There is no other route.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:59
Listen, I had, I
Point 5We are rebels, so faith must be a gift
It's crazy, because some of you are nuts, some of you are crazy, right? Some of you are a little bit crazy. Okay, most people would try to do a shortcut, but there are some of you crazy people, I'm one of them, I'm in the camp, I'm the leader of the crazy camp, right? But there are some of us, of which I am the leader, that we would go, we would move heaven and earth and go through great, painstaking steps just to not have to do it the way we're said it would be done, it should be done. Matter of fact, I do ten times the work just so I don't have to do it the way you said. There's some crazy, not all, you are crazy, some of you are smart and you're normal and you're yes people. Brook's a yes person. I think God is pleased with her. She just likes rules, I hate them. She loves doing, like, so when we go to the, we'll go to the, let's go, when we go to the doctor, she will read everything it says, and you know those things in the prescription they give you, that long book, like I'm reading a book, just give me a pill, you know, like I'm not reading the whole book. Brook will read all the book. If she's supposed to drink eight ounces of water, she will measure it and weigh it, like she will do everything to the T. I'm just like, it says take a pill, I'm taking a pill. I don't need to read it, I don't need to read the side effects, I don't need to read how much water you drink with, I don't need to read what time of day you do it. I got an iron stomach, just give me a pill, I'll just do it the way I want to do it. But Brook will do everything to the T. When I hurt my ankle, they tell me to wear a boot. I will for two hours and then I'm done. Why? Why? Because I'm crazy, I'm the leader of the crazy camp. You told me to do it, I'm gonna do something different.
That's why I'm thankful that God gives faith, because if he didn't, I'd be in trouble,
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:08
because there's just this thing in me that will rebel. Matter of fact, I will do ten times more work to not have to do the one thing you told me to do. I don't know if there's anybody a part of this crazy camp of which I'm the leader, but I got problems, and if God didn't save me then I'd be doomed.
But he just saw, in his goodness, me, and he reached and he gave me faith, and when it comes to God, when he comes to God, I trust him, and when he says to do something, I do that. I don't rebel against that. Let me tell you, this is not my nature, ladies and gentlemen. It is not my nature in the world. If my teacher will tell me I need one page, double-spaced, not one word more, not one word more, I will. This happened, I did seven pages one time, my professor, this is recently, this is recently, it's a miracle I'm not going to hell, you know what I mean? It's a miracle, because I just don't want to do anything so much so I will do more work, and he gave me an F, and I was like, this work was tremendous, look at the research, look at the citations, look, it was amazing, I spent hours on this. He said, "That's not what I asked." We are stubborn. We want to find any other way, and it's not even that it's a shorter way, an easier way, we just don't want to do it the way that we're told to do it.
That's why his law brings out our rebellion. We have in our nature a thing that does not want to do it his way.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:07
That's why
You can't do it. You can't save yourself. You can't find the way. Your way is the wrong way.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:18
He gives it, he graces it, in spite of the fact that we're idiots and we're part of the stupid camp. He saves us out of the stupid camp.
He justifies us, he cleanses us, he covers us with the acts of a Messiah and a man whose name is Jesus Christ, who did it the right way, and imputed unto us is his righteousness, and our unrighteousness was imputed onto Jesus Christ on the cross, and God punished everything we did that was wrong and poured it out on Christ. That's crazy. God's wrath was met that day in the body of Jesus Christ. That's crazy. So for some of us, it's not just that we're trying to find an easy way, some of us, it's just that we don't want to do it his way. It's all of us to a degree.
That's why we need faith, and that's why it had to be a gift, because if he had to trust in you, no one would be saved.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 35:33
No one would be saved. There's only one way. I talked about this earlier, I stole my third point, so we'll get through this quick. We're justified only one way because there's only one God. The reason today that people believe there's many ways is because they believe there's many gods. But ladies and gentlemen, there's only one God. There's only one. There are not many ways to heaven. Let us consider all the many ways we try to justify ourselves today, even in the church, all the many ways we try to justify ourselves. "Well, I didn't mean to." "Well, I didn't." "Well, I have a good heart." Will they have a good heart? Oh man, if it starts with "well," it ends so well.
Just not. Number four, last: what is gained? To you, Romans 4:1-2: "What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God." It is not about what Abraham did, it's about the faith that was given him. Listen today, let me just put this to you this way, you do what you want with this, I don't have time to work this out, I'm out of time, I'm actually going to be early, it's going to be a miracle, right?
What you are most proud of is indicative of what you boast in, and what you boast in is evidence of where you've placed your trust,
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:27
and if it lands to you, that's a problem.
That's enough. Let me just say it this way: Paul warns us of this kind of behavior. We trust in ourselves. Speaks to what faith does in a man and the change that is wrought in a man that has received the gift of faith. Here's his words as he speaks from prison to the Philippian church, Philippians 3:7: "but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ."
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