Sermon for June 7, 2020

Are You Sure You’re Right
The counter cultural church

Romans 3: 1-20

  1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

  Much, in every way. For in the first place the Jewswere entrusted with the oracles of God.  

  3 What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 

  4 By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written.“So that you may be justified in your words, and prevail in your judging.”

  5 But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)

  6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world?

  7 But if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

  8 And why not say (as some people slander* us by saying that we say), “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!

None Is Righteous

   9 What then? Are we any better off?   No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin,

 10 as it is written: There is no one who is righteous, not even one;

 · There is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. 

· All have turned aside, together they have become  worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one.

· Their throats are open graves; they use their tongues to deceive.  The venom of vipers is under their lips.

· Their mouths are full or cursing and bitterness

· Their feet are swift to shed blood;

· ruin and misery are in their paths,

· and the way of peace they have not known.”

· “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

  Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 

  For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 

· *blasphemeo —blas-fay-meh`-o—From G989; to vilify; specifically to speak impiously. 

Attack on Job’s Character

Job 1:6-12 (New Revised Standard Version)

    “One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them.  

The Lord said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’

Satan answered the Lord, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’

The Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a  blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.’

Then Satan answered the Lord, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing?  Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side?  You blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.  But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you* to your face. 

The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, all that he has is in your power, only do not stretch out your hand against him!’

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”

·  * barak  — baw-rak`  – to curse (God or the king, as treason), to blaspheme and slander

2 Peter 2:10-12    (New Revised Standard Version)

2 Peter 2:17-20    (New Revised Standard Version)

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