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DirtBags 11/12/2010

© 2010. John Creamer. All rights reserved.

Questions:

• How much advance notice do we typically have of the date, boarding and departure times of domestic or international flights?

• Have you ever come close to missing a flight or train?

• Have you ever actually missed a flight before? Do you recall why?

• When [if] you missed a flight, what did you think of the pilot? Did your missing the flight mean the pilot was unreliable?

Scripture: (Underline/italics in Scriptures are mine for emphasis.)

(Romans 3:3-20 NIV) What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness?

• Up to this point in the first 2 chapters of Romans, Paul has made clear that God has reached out and revealed Himself to man in many ways and through many promises. Now, he poses the question to the reader, “What if some do not have faith, in spite of all God’s efforts? Does that mean God fell down on His end of the bargain?”

• Are there some today who, in spite of all God’s efforts to reach them, still do not have faith in Him? If so, whose fault is it?

• How would you answer Paul’s question in verse 3?

{4} Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: "So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge."

• How did Paul answer his own question in verse 3?

• So…if there are some who do not have faith, whose fault is it?

The writer of Hebrews goes back in Scripture to the early history of the Israelites to answer this same question and explain why some do not have faith…

(Hebrews 3:7-19 NIV) So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, {8} do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, {9} where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. {10} That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' {11} So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" {12} See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

• What did he warn the readers in verse 12?

{13} But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

• What is the warning? How are believers admonished to help each other?

{14} We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. {15} As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion." {16} Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? {17} And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? {18} And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed ? {19} So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

• Ultimately, what kept them from God? (Their hearts became hard, they were disobedient and did not believe God.)

(Hebrews 4:1-2 NIV) Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. {2} For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.

• What prevented the message from having any value to them?

• Likewise, if some today have the gospel presented to them yet do not have faith, whose fault is it?

(Back to Romans 3…)

{5} But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) {6} Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world?

• Paul, in essence says in verse 5, “Seriously…you’re saying, ‘Since the darkness of my sin makes God’s righteousness that much brighter, He should reward rather than punish me.’…?” What is his retort to that in verse 6?

{7} Someone might argue, "If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?" {8} Why not say--as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say--" Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved.

• What is Paul’s bottom line assessment of those who try to minimize their unrighteous deeds?

{9} What shall we conclude then? Are we any better ? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. {10} As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; {11} there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. {12} All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

• As if he had not made it clear to his readers, what does Paul reiterate?

Yet, not just Paul; the total depravity of man is throughout Scripture and bears repeating.

(Genesis 6:5-6 NIV) The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. {6} The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

• What was God’s response when He saw how great man’s wickedness had become?

(1 Kings 8:46 NIV) "When they sin against you--for there is no one who does not sin--and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to his own land, far away or near;

• How many sin against God?

(Psalms 14:1-3 NIV) For the director of music. Of David. The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. {2} The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. {3} All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

• According to verse 1, how many men understand, seek God or do good?

• How many have turned aside?

(Psalms 53:1-3 NIV) For the director of music. According to mahalath. A maskil of David. The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good. {2} God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. {3} Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

• How many seek God?

• How many do good?

(Psalms 130:3 NIV) If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?

• How many would be ‘knocked down’ if God recorded their sins?

(Proverbs 20:9 NIV) Who can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin"?

• How many [implied] have kept their heart pure and are without sin?

(Ecclesiastes 7:20 NIV) There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.

How many do what is right and never sin?

(Isaiah 53:6 NIV) We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

• How many of us have gone astray?

(Isaiah 64:6 NIV) All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

• How many of us are swept away by our sins?

(Micah 7:2 NIV) The godly have been swept from the land; not one upright man remains. All men lie in wait to shed blood; each hunts his brother with a net.

• How many upright men remain?

(Romans 3:23 NIV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

• How many fall short of the glory of God?

(1 John 1:8 NIV) If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

• What if we claim to be without sin?

{13} "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips." {14} "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." {15} "Their feet are swift to shed blood; {16} ruin and misery mark their ways, {17} and the way of peace they do not know." {18} "There is no fear of God before their eyes." {19} Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. {20} Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

• Once again, no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by doing what?

But, the next lesson on the next few verses brings us the good news…

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:21-24 NIV)

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