A Counterfeit Faith

hey everybody I hope you had a good Easter at home with your families pretty strange to not have Easter together but I pray that you were blessed by the message and blessed by your time with one another we you know we've been thinking about what should we do moving forward and the reality is is that we are probably going to be in this for quite some time the fact is is that when the government begins to lift the ban on gathering together it's probably going to go in stages and because of that we have to accept that this for right now anyways is the new norm and so we just thought it would be best to just jump back into the book of Romans to begin to dig in to it as a church and trust the Holy Spirit will guide me and in sharing things that connect with what we are experiencing right now we'll continue to do podcasts throughout the week and produce other content music and all of that but we just felt like let's just get back into what we were doing before the coronavirus closed everything down and really just began to try to discover what this new normal is together secondly I want to just encourage you if you are really struggling you of are experiencing the impact of the isolation or loss of work if you are financially being crushed by this we just want you to know that just as it's important that we continually push toward generosity radical generosity as followers of Jesus it's also important that we practice the discipline of reception and that is that God calls us to receive that we have to recognize that we need help and I think that sometimes it's easier to give than it is to receive because we can be shamed of the position we're in but listen this is a unique time and we can't help you if we don't need know that you need help there are people that are already giving toward benevolence who have been blessed with the ability to continue to work and we are kind of setting something up with those funds that come in for that and so we just want you to know that we are here that there are resources that we love you and we can't know that you need help if you don't tell us so both on both sides if you have the ability to give don't live with a scarcity mentality right now and if you need help don't live with the unwillingness to ask we're all going to be in both sides of the coin at some point in our lives and this is why we need to be the church so this is just my encouragement before we jump into the word [Music] well today we're gonna be looking at Romans chapter 2 verses 17 through 29 now I just want to begin by saying that it is possible to be so close to the truth and yet be a million miles away from it you know often the most loss people that I have personally come across are those that think they are found because of their constant contact with religion they are intellectually convinced without experiencing the divine interchange and I have met many because many of those same people are people that came to a real faith when they encountered the Living Christ I think the marks of a counterfeit faith are obedience without real surrender religion without relationship even worship without the Holy Spirit which ultimately leads us to a Christianity that is without Christ you see we cannot live on the fumes of another's faith you're not a Christian because your parents are Christian you're not a Christian because your boyfriend or girlfriend or husband or wife are Christians you're not a Christian because you have the false notion that you might live in a Christian nation no we become Christians by placing our trust in the Living Christ who himself has intervened into our lives and revealed himself and drawn us to himself for he did the saving and we did the sinning the problem with religion is that the religious impulse is the belief and that there is some ladder that we are capable of climbing to get to God but Christianity is not a ladder to climb it's a cross to die on this is why Paul says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 13 verse 5 examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith test yourselves do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you are disqualified and the question that I want to probe through Paul's writing to the Roman Church today is have you done that kind of examination have you asked yourself the question do I really know Jesus because Jesus himself said my sheep hear my voice and they know me and they follow me Paul begins by showing the dangers of a false faith in verses 17 through 20 and here he's going to be specifically addressing those Jewish believers within the Roman Church in the danger of placing their hope in security in the law rather than in the Messiah he begins by laying out several privileges that were real privileges for the Jews he says now you if you call yourself a Jew if you rely on the law and boast in God if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind a light for those who are in the dark an instructor of the foolish a teacher of little children because you have in the law of the embodiment of knowledge and truth notice these privileges that that Paul is proclaiming real privileges of the Jew that sadly became a source of self-righteousness and unveiled the reality of a very false faith they relied on the law they boasted in God they knew his will and approved of what is good what is right what is superior because they were instructed by that law but the problem is this is that the law was their hope but they didn't understand it was actually their accuser because the law was never meant to be the hope of the Jew the law was meant to be the parameters by which the Jewish people could live in right relationship with Yahweh he was to be their hope the law was given to create a distinction between them and the pagan nations that surrounded them it was to be a parameter a safety guard to give them the means by which they could be true worshipers but this is the problem they had knowledge about God but they didn't know him they knew his will but they didn't understand it they knew the difference between right and wrong but unfortunately based their security on their morality rather than their security upon the God who is merciful and patient and quick to forgive they had instruction essentially without worship and I would just stop there and ask us that question are we a people that put our hope and what we know because we know the Bible well are you one of those people that have memorized hundreds of verses but your heart is cold toward Jesus are you a person that pride yourself on your morality maybe you you say well I I've never I don't swear I I've never slept around I I don't I don't do this or that thing you know I'm sensitive to the the film and television that I watch and the music that I listen to you you know I watch how much time I spend on social media all of those things are good things but if you're if your confidence is in those things then sadly you are missing the mark you're doing the right thing with the wrong heart and believe me we all do it all the time which is why we need each other as a community of believers and why I actually believe this is an important message in a time of quarantine because we are we are confronted with this reality that people actually can't see what we're doing and how we're living in this time and we are confronted with the authenticity of our own faith because we have a lot more time alone with our own thoughts and I would just ask you in this time is this season been marked primarily by anxiety and fear is it is it marked by uncertainty and unbelief or is it marked by the sweetness of communion with the Living Christ no matter how difficult the days are nothing reveals the authenticity of our faith like suffering and I think it's a good time God is merciful he loves you he wants to make himself known to you and this is a time to call out to the Living God and say Jesus show yourself to me reveal yourself to me help me to draw close to you lord I believe help my unbelief because unbelief can often be masked by religious activity we can be the very people that Paul warns against in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 7 always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth you see falsehood in us unfortunately can lead others into falsehood everyone has influence whether they want it or not your life teaches the question is is what does it teach because it Paul goes on to say yeah and you have these privileges and now you think you're a guide for the blind a light for those who are in the dark an instructor of the foolish a teacher of little children the embodiment of knowledge and truth and those are all beautiful things things that we should long to be we should long to be guides to the blind because we were once blind and now we see we should long to be a light to those who are in the dark because Jesus is the light of the world and he said you are the light of the world why because he is in us we should be an instructor of the foolish because we have been fools and now we are fools for Christ we should be teachers of little children because we ourselves have exercised faith like little children we should be an embodiment of knowledge and truth because we know that true knowledge is wrapped up in grace for love builds up and knowledge puffs up second Timothy 3:5 it says that it's possible to have a form of godliness but denying spouts and he actually warns the church to turn away from such people what we have to ask ourselves are we blind leading the blind and if so will we not fall into ditch as Jesus said are we not a people that need to examine ourselves to know that the lamp of the body is the eye and if therefore your eye is good your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in you is darkness how great is that darkness let us not be deceived we cannot have pride in our religious form for religion cannot save only Jesus can save only the gospel of God's grace and this is why Paul goes on to show the danger of having a false standing he said you then who teach others do you not teach yourself for you who preach against feeling do you steal and you who say that people should not commit adultery do you commit adultery and you who abhor idols do you rob temples and you who boast in the law do you dishonor God by breaking the law as it is written God's name is blaspheme damned Ungh the Gentiles because of you here he directs his attention to those Jewish listeners that think that they are saved because they are God's chosen people then they have been given the law but Paul here is saying listen if you truly understood the law you would see that you are the ones that violate it just like everyone else the very law that you teach the very law that you have laid down is actually the very law that condemns you and accuses you we must remember all the religion in the world cannot save it can only produce hypocrisy and exhaustion because everything we do is mixture the best things we do in the power of the Spirit is still mixture we are violators of the law and we can't pretend to be perfect and what the world is looking for is not perfection but honesty honesty before the Living Christ nothing brings humility like being confronted with Jesus Christ and him crucified that God had to die for us because our sins were that great III think that this is a warning that Christ must be the source of our confidence he is our solid ground this is why Jesus himself said I am the vine you are the branches he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit for without me you can do nothing we are only the light of the world and as much as he is light in us Paul goes on in closing to address a false confidence he says in verses 25 to 29 circumcision has value if you observe the law but if you break the law you have become as though you had not been circumcised so then if those who are not circumcised keep the laws requirements will they not be regarded as as though they were circumcised the one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who even though you have the written code and circumcision are a law breaker a person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly nor is circumcision merely outward and physical no a person is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the spirit not by the written code such a person's praise is not from other people but from God this is Paul challenging those Jewish listeners to not have a false confidence that circumcision was the sign of the covenant of people that was coming by God to the Israelites but circumcision is meaningless if there is not a real faith if there is merely a counterfeit faith the outward sign means nothing if the heart has not been transformed and that's why it is possible to do the right things and have the wrong heart because the heart of man must meet the heart of God Jeremiah 17 verses 9 through 10 he writes the Prophet says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it I the LORD search the heart I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways according to the fruit of his doings a similar example to that picture of the mark of circumcision would be someone who is a part of a church they were born into a church and infant baptism is a great example of within the Catholic Church and many mainline denominations is that that baptism means that you have been baptized into the church family I and now you're a part of the church and then you go and you you know think of it if you ever watch The Godfather it's like while they're having the baby baptized all of these all of these threats to the Empire of the Godfather are being knocked out violently at the exact same moment one of the powerful scenes in the first Godfather this is a picture of that kind of hypocrisy of a counterfeit they the belief that I am right because I am identified with a particular group of people rather than being identified with the humble King Jesus himself Jesus is not interested in our religion he came to show us a new way and that way is himself he is the cure he is the solution he is the answer and what we are called to do is to put our faith in him a disposition of trust in him that allows him to be himself in and through us to be in us what we cannot be for ourselves and this is why the gospel is such good news because Paul is showing us here that unless someone intervenes into the mess of our lives they you can be the most raging pagan or the most religious Jew it doesn't matter both are equally lost without Jesus so the question that I would have for you today and even for myself is that do we have a hard heart hebrews 3:15 says today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion to harden means to render abstinent to be stubborn and I think about this religion allows us to stubbornly keep our independence to control our environment because we don't like people telling us what to do and I think that this is kind of at the root of why people will choose religion over Jesus is they don't want to surrender their self-control but listen we're not really in control if the coronavirus has taught us anything is has taught us that we are not in control and what we need is a new heart we can't fix a hardened heart we need a new heart and this is why one of the most beautiful promises in scripture comes to us in ezekiel 36:26 is looking forward to the the day of the gospel when God says through the Prophet I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh we have to ask ourselves this as new creation as a people that are in Christ if indeed we are in Christ do we rest in his word do we boast in him do we know his will do we approve of the things that are excellent does his spirit instruct us do we guide the blind to Christ because we remember what it was like to be blind and what it was like to receive sight do we reflect his countenance do we correct and love do we lead the immature toward maturity do we speak in power and in truth these things can only be done not by religion but by the power of the Holy Spirit through our total dependence and Trust upon the Living Christ we aren't saved because of what we do we are saved unto these things because we have found the truth and the truth isn't something to know it's someone to know someone who is with us closer to us than we are to our own thoughts someone who loves us and has given himself for us Jesus said come to me all you are weary and I will give you rest you guys it is exhausting trying to earn something that is already ours so put your trust in Jesus he died for you he rose from the dead he ascended to the right hand of the Father and he continues to speak to us and work through us by the presence of his spirit so we pray Jesus come Holy Spirit come Lord remove every fraudulent way in us that we might be a people that find our lives defined by a very simple childlike trust in you I love you guys so much I pray that you will be confronted by the Living Christ examine yourselves not analyze examine and neither how do we know the voice of God the voice of Satan Satan will create guilt and shame and fear but the voice of God convicts in comforts challenges and cleanses the voice of God speaks these words come to me on your worst day I'm crazy about you trust me it is the love of God the kindness of God that leads us to repentance let us live with a vibrant real faith not a counterfeit faith let us trust in Jesus not in our works amen let me guess [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Door of Hope Southeast

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Length: 23min 52sec (1432 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 19 2020