Romans Chapter 4:9-11

So we're created to have this relationship with God. But if you don't have this relationship with God, there's this void. There's something missing. You are incomplete. It's amazing at that point. We'll run around in the world and try to fill everything, drugs, alcohol, this, sex, violence, whatever, trying to put a square peg in a round hole.

And it never works. Many of us grew so tired trying to make that peg fit. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. When it comes to experiencing life, we're going to be incomplete without God's grace. Today, Pastor David points us to that grace as he continues in the Book of Romans Chapter 4 with his teaching, Faith.

Let's go now to David McGee. Last week we talked about David and we kind of finished up with Romans Chapter 4, Verse 8, where it says, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Not blessed is the man who tries really hard. Blessed is the man who gets everything right. But blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.

Good stuff. So now Paul kind of turns back. Paul wrote this Book of Romans to the church at Rome before he had been there. So it's an incredible book. Great, great book if you're new in the Lord. Great, great book if you've been following the Lord closely for 30 years. Verse 9. Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

So Paul is dealing with this argument that only Jewish people can know this blessing and they have to earn it. Now Abraham was a great man. He did incredible things. He was a man of faith. He tried to rescue Lot. He interceded for Lot.

He did a lot of awesome things. He wouldn't let the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah give him tribute or anything like that. But he also went to Egypt when he shouldn't have. And he also lied about who his wife was and said, well, you know, she's my sister. Of course, if somebody introduces you to their wife and their sister and there's only one person standing there, that's always bad.

It's always bad. So, but he did bad things. So he couldn't really say, well, God, you owe me. Abraham couldn't say, God, you owe me because I've done everything right. It was all about grace. He couldn't look to God and say, well, God, I'm really righteous.

You got to bless me. He couldn't do that. Abraham knew that he was a sinner. The bad things that he had done kept him from saying, well, God, you owe me this. And friends, that's part of the point of the law is to remind us that we don't deserve grace. We don't deserve forgiveness. It leaves us in a place where we understand we need it. So it's not about, are you saying that, that forgiveness is not key to doing right and not doing what's wrong? This is what this passage is saying.

No, it's key to belief and faith. That's why an altar call works. You know, at the end of the Sunday morning service, I talk about what salvation is. I ask people if they want to respond. And when they come up here, I say, okay, now here's your list of dos and don'ts. And if you follow these for the next 30 days, you get in.

Is that what happens? No, no. Simply by coming forward, believing, placing your trust in your belief in Jesus to forgive you of your sins. It's done.

It's done. See, it's not about behaving. It's about believing.

It's not about trying. It's about trusting. That's what Paul is saying here. And we can't brag about it because we can't earn it.

It's a gift. Galatians 6 14 says this, but God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the Lord has been crucified to me and I to the world. So God very wisely set up the system that we couldn't earn it. And because we can't earn it, we can't brag about it in theory.

Doesn't keep us from bragging about it sometimes. Does it? Yeah. I got mine. You got chairs. You don't look like you got yours. You know, we, we start to weigh other people.

We have size people. I wonder if they're a believer, you know, wonder if they've got a Christian bumper sticker and that'll get them in. If they got a fish on their car, hell, that's not going to do it. I don't think maybe the car is going to get in, but that, you know, that that's not going to do it.

See the circumcision is talking about is a, is a sign of faith, much like a Christian bumper sticker, but in and of itself, it's not going to, it's not going to do it. And so we can't brag about it or we shouldn't brag about it because it's a gift from God. So you can't really say, well, I earned mine. I've been good enough for long enough, you know, because people come to the, Hey, what do you got to do to be safe?

Well, you gotta be good enough for long enough. Got to quit doing all that nonsense you're engaged in. No, no, no. According to the Bible, you need to trust in Jesus. And once you trust in Jesus, your life begins to change, but it starts with that simple trust, that simple faith Jeremiah nine 24 says this, let him who glories glories in this glory in this, that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord exercising loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these odd delight says the Lord kind of amazing.

What's it? It mentions loving kindness, Jeremiah. Where's Jeremiah.

Jeremiah is in the Hebrew scriptures. A lot of times we think, well, God was really mad in the old Testament. And then, you know, everything was made okay by the cross. Now God was granting mercy and loving kindness throughout all of the Bible. You find it a lot in the Hebrew scriptures, but glory and the Lord, not glory.

Oh, look what I did. And look what I did this for the Lord. No, no, no praise God. Praise the Lord. First Corinthians one 31 that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. Second Corinthians 10, 17, but he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. Luke 17, 10, in the same way, when you obey me, you should say, we are not worthy of praise. We are servants who have simply done our duty.

Interesting. So even if you serve the Lord wholeheartedly and passionately, you're doing what Romans 12, one and two talks about your reasonable service. So even that you can't say, well, look at me, glory to me. Give all the glory to God. Sometimes people will say, well, I really enjoyed the teaching or the email in or talk to us or call us or whatever. And I always say, well, praise the Lord.

Same goes for anything musical that happens up on this stage. Give God all the glory and all the praise. Give God the glory. There were some sayings that came out of the reformation reformation that the church had kind of lost its way and began believing that you could buy salvation, that you could earn salvation, that you had to do this. You had to do that.

You had to hold your mouth right. And all this stuff. And the reformation took a hold and said, no, no, no, all that is wrong.

And it radically changed not only the church landscape, but the landscape of all humanity. Some of these things that came out of this were solo fidelis. What that means is only by faith. Solo Grazie, only by grace. Solo Scriptura is only the Bible. And solo Deo Gloria, only give God the glory.

It's interesting. A lot of the composers of that age would write that on the pieces that they composed. Solo Deo Gloria, only give God the glory. But there's always something about us that kind of want to take the credit for God doing something good. Something good happens. There's just something in us that wants to, oh, oh, I had something to do.

Oh, I did that. No, no, no, no. That was God. If there's anything good at all, that was God.

If there's anything bad, now go ahead and take the bow. But if it's good, it's the Lord. And we do this, we do this in subtle ways. Sometimes we speak our own language. I call it Christianese. Some might say, oh, did you hear about so and so?

They got saved. Now, our proper response should be what? Praise the Lord.

Do you know what we often say? Oh, good. I've been praying for him.

Now, what did we just say? Oh, it was me. I did that. I prayed for him. I prayed him on in. God wasn't making much ground, but I started praying.

And he got saved. Amen or old me? Thank you for listening to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. We'll return to David's teaching in just a moment. The tragedy in Benghazi, the bombings in Boston, and the current unrest in Egypt are all vivid accounts of terrorism. Each time an event like this occurs, it often causes us to respond with fear. But it doesn't have to, because God knows your future, and you can too. With David McGee's teaching entitled Know Your Future, Be Immune to Terrorism, you'll come to understand the realities of radical Islam while rejoicing in God's promises for your future. Don't allow fear to consume your life. Instead, find hope with this month's special offer, Know Your Future, Be Immune to Terrorism. Know Your Future is available as a CD or DVD and is our gift to you when you call today with a donation to Cross the Bridge Ministries. It's because of your continued faithful support that we're able to broadcast across the nation with the life-changing Word of God.

To help support Cross the Bridge and receive your CD or DVD copy of Know Your Future, call 877-458-5508, or go online to crossthebridge.com. And now let's return to Pastor David's verse-by-verse teaching in the book of Romans. Verse 10, how then was it accounted while he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. So again, the Jewish people are saying, well, no, circumcision has like a monopoly on God.

But Paul here is saying, well, wait a minute, wait a minute. God told Abraham he was righteous in Genesis 15. Well, we might go back to Genesis sometime today, but it was much later that Abraham was circumcised.

It's actually 14 years later. Abraham was circumcised. 14 years before Abraham was circumcised, God said, you're righteous. You're righteous. Paul's presenting an incredible discussion slash argument or whatever, because it just totally wipes out what we're saved by works. No, you're not saved by words. You're saved by faith. If we based our relationship with God on our righteousness, do you understand what that would look like on a day-to-day basis?

There would be some serious ups and downs going on, wouldn't there? But see, grace is steady and steadfast. And God tells us in his Word that his mercies are new every morning. Colossians chapter two, verse nine and 10 says, for in Christ, the fullness of God lives in the human body and you are complete through your union with Christ.

He is the Lord over every rule and authority in the universe. See, there is something in us. We are created to worship God. We're created to have a relationship with God. This part of us that desires to worship God is kind of interesting because, see, if these voids don't get filled, we'll try to fill them with a lot of stuff. You know, this morning I really enjoyed worship and know that some of you did and hope most of you did, but there's a treasure in there because you understand that most people, a lot of people will never experience what we experienced this morning. That the closest spiritual experience to worship they may ever come in their life is in some rock concert or pop concert or rap concert when they hold up a lighter.

How empty is that? Not much spiritual fulfillment in it, that's for sure. So we're created to have this relationship with God. But if you don't have this relationship with God, there's this void, there's something missing. You are incomplete.

It's amazing at that point. We'll run around in the world and try to fill everything, drugs, alcohol, this, sex, violence, whatever, trying to put a square peg in a round hole. And it never works. Many of us grew so tired trying to make that peg fit. And one day we heard about the grace of God and it fit perfectly. Maybe you're here this morning and you're listening and you feel like there's something missing in your life. Friend, if you don't know the Lord, I can tell you what is missing in your life.

It's a relationship with Him. It's the joy of knowing your sins are forgiven. Life lesson here, we are incomplete without God's grace in our life. We are incomplete without God's grace in our life.

So again, the foundation of our relationship is grace. And once we realize that we've been given grace, what happens is we begin to love the Lord for extending His grace to us. And something begins to change in our life and we begin to want to do things for the Lord. That out of compulsion, not because we're reading through a rule book, but because we love the Lord. Paul puts it like this, 2 Corinthians 5.14 says, for the love of Christ compels us because we judge this, that if one died for all, then all died. I'll give that to you in the New Living Translation. It says, for whatever we do, it is because Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for everyone, we also believe that we all have died to the old life we used to live. We spoke about the old life and died to that last week. And certainly as you go in the newness of life, there's certain situations that you get in that the love of God controls you. I've experienced this of getting in a situation and maybe it's tense or whatever, and God just intervenes. And whatever I thought about saying, I didn't say, whatever I thought about doing, I didn't do.

And then I looked back after I went, wow, Lord, that was you. Because I certainly would have handled that very differently in my flesh. See, love is the most powerful motivator in the world.

You understand that? You know, sometimes you hear these news stories of, you know, a car rolling over and a father lifting the car with superhuman strength off of the child, driven by what? Love.

Mothers doing all sorts of things, throwing themselves in front of their children in car accidents, driven by what? Driven by love. Jesus said, you know, no greater love has anybody than this, that somebody would lay down their life for others.

Jesus himself, driven by love. Those nails couldn't hold God to a tree. It wasn't those nails. It wasn't the Romans.

It wasn't the Jewish people. The thing that held him to that cross was his love for you and I. That's what drove him on. Some of you are married. Some of you have been married a while. It's interesting what happens early on in the dating experience.

You start out and it's like, oh, you know, chocolates and flowers and opening doors and all those things. And then, sadly enough, not for me, but for others, sadly enough, over time, that begins to fade, doesn't it? And you're no longer really driven by love. It's more like, well, I got to do this. I got to do that. And then, you know, then it gets so it gets so twisted. I got to go to the grocery store. My goodness. What a hassle.

It's faded. Sadly enough, a lot of times we're acting through compulsion, not love. The Bible says love, be motivated by love because the weaker our love for the Lord, the less we'll do for him. The weaker our love for other people, the less we'll do for him. Paul put it like this in that awesome chapter, 1 Corinthians 13 says, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Man, there's some days I hate that verse.

Well, I don't hate it, but it's very convicting. Feed the poor, give your body to be burned. You can do all those things, but if you're not motivated by love, it's nothing. Doesn't even count is what Paul is saying here.

New living translation, a little different spin. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrifice my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would be of no value, whatever. So this grace causes this love to spark into a flame. And then we want to do things for the Lord. But if you're doing things for the Lord to be declared righteous, it's vain. That's futile.

It's not going to happen. The motivation apparently to God is very important for why we do these things. So when we understand God loves us, God is willing to extend grace to us. We should love others. And we begin to delight in the service of the Lord.

To delight in it. Not, oh my gosh, I'll go to go to church, but man, I get to go to church today. The joy of the Lord in worship. No, I got to worship. This is all when the guitar is too loud again and this and that and that.

No, no, no. I get to worship. I get to worship. I love my Lord.

And I delight in him. So what do you have to do in order to come to this place of grace? This is what Paul is saying. Just come to it.

Just come to it. Romans chapter five, verse eight says this, but God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And maybe you're sitting here and go, well, you know, actually I wasn't alive when Christ died.

I may look that open. I'm not. And, and, and, you know, but, but understand the cross transcends time and space if you will. And while you were in your worst moments doing your most undeserving deed, still in that moment, Jesus said, I'm going to die for that one that he or she could be forgiven.

And so then we come to him. Now the only problem is if we sit and we think we can earn it, or we think we haven't messed up, then that's the one thing that stands between us and the Lord, the self-righteousness. First John chapter one, verse eight says this, but if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And his word is not in us. So it's not on your work. It's on his work. And that work upon the cross has already been completed. Jesus didn't, he wasn't dying and say, okay, what's all up to you now. Now he said, it's finished.

It's done. It's a completed work. And when you place your faith or trust, it activates that grace in your life. Now, sadly enough, this is a very biblical concept, but sadly enough, some churches, they, they actually teach, it's all about your works.

It's all about you earning it. There was one Christian author wrote a book and said, if it's going to be, it's up to me. Oh my goodness. You're in trouble. Cause we're all really dependent upon the grace of God before we come to the Lord. We're like, okay, I messed up. I've done this.

I've done that. And Lord convinces us or convicts us of our sin. And we know that we need grace.

So we come to him that first day. And then the next day we think, well, I'm doing all right today. I'm doing okay.

I used to live like that. And I came to the realization, you know what? I need the grace of God every day. I don't know if you've ever heard this little story, but God wakes up in the morning.

He says, well, Lord, so far today, hadn't fussed at anybody hadn't yelled at anybody hadn't judged anybody hadn't gossiped about anybody. But in a minute, I'm going to get out of bed and I'm going to need your help to get through the rest of the day. See, we're dependent upon the grace of God. Every day I live as a Christian, I'm not less dependent now than I was five years ago, 10 years ago, I'm not less dependent because I'm a pastor now.

Probably more dependent to be honest. So God is willing to declare us righteous. Jude 24. There's only one chapter. It's the 24th verse. It's an amazing verse.

Even if you're not taking notes, you might want to jot this down because this is so encouraging. It says now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present your faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. I love that verse to bring you faultless before his glory with exceeding joy. You not only get presented faultless, you get presented faultless with exceeding joy.

Mm mm mm. Grace of God is a wonderful thing. Verse 11. And he received the sign of a circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also.

So circumcision was a sign of what had already occurred before that. Let's go back to the little bumper sticker analogy. We've got a Christian bumper sticker. That's awesome. That's great. But if you put a Christian bumper sticker on your car before you were born again or before you came to Jesus, it didn't accomplish anything. What happens usually is you come to the Lord and you ask him to forgive you. And then you think, wow, I want a bumper sticker on my car that, you know, proclaims my faith, you know.

But that is a sign. Father Abraham. Remember that little song? We got the lyrics. We're not going to sing it, but I'll remind you of the lyric that Father Abraham had many sons and many sons. Well, I am going to sing it, I guess. And I'm one of them.

And so are you. And let's all praise the Lord. You know, I sang that. I didn't really understand what I was singing.

I just sang because, you know, everybody's singing it. And then as I grew in my understanding of the Bible, grew in my understanding of the roots of Christianity are in fact Jewish that Paul talks about in this book we're studying, that we've been grafted in and that we actually are sons of Father Abraham, if you will. In the sense that the Lord said, hey, you know, there's going to be a lot of people that get blessed through you, Abraham. Now you may think, well, that's all the Jewish people.

No, no, no, no. That's exactly what Paul's dealing with here. He said, no, anybody who has come to faith in God can inherit these blessings, if you will.

You don't work to earn something that's already been given you. Life lesson here, salvation is not keeping the law, but keeping the faith. When you come to the Lord and you ask him to forgive you of your sins, he does it. He doesn't say, well, you've got this issue and you've got that issue. You need to deal with these things. And after you deal with these things, you can come to me.

After you sort out all your problems, then you can come to me. Now, pastor, why do you say that? Because that's the sense that a lot of people get. They think the church is the place you go when you've got it all figured out.

No, no, no. Church is a place you go when you're beat up, lost, and wandering. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned, and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If this was your first time praying that prayer with Pastor David, we would love to hear from you. You can call us toll-free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Also, if you've been blessed by Cross the Bridge Ministries, would you consider supporting us with a financial gift? When you call with your gift, make sure to ask them about this month's special offer entitled, Know Your Future, Be Immune to Terrorism.

This special offer will fill you with hope and also help you understand the truth about Islam. Donate today and we'll send you a CD or DVD copy right away as a way of saying thank you for your support. Our number is 877-458-5508. That's 877-458-5508. Or go online to crossabridge.com. While there, take a moment to sign up for David's free email devotional or browse our large library of teachings. Again, our website is crossthebridge.com. Thank you for listening and we hope you'll join us again next time as we continue to Cross the Bridge.