I’m sure you’ve all noticed the road CONSTRUCTION on Muncaster Mill Road that is literally in our church’s front yard. It’s quite a mess but it will only get worse before they are done a couple years from now, so be patient! In case you haven’t heard, the plan is to widen this heavily traveled thoroughfare from two to four lanes all the way to Norbeck and to add a hiker/biker path on our side of the road.
Now-as most of you know, we are planning to do a little CONSTRUCTION of our own. One of our goals for this year is to present you with a MASTER BUILDING PLAN that will guide all future building construction-and we’re almost done. After talking to several architects, it looks like we’re closing in on a master construction plan that we’ll be able to present for your approval in a month or two. Now, I’ve never been a part of a building program and I must say it’s kind of exciting to look at site plans and blueprints and sketches as architects describe their ideas for future building. I mean it’s fun to DREAM of the kinds of ministry we could do with the right kind of facility on these 14 acres that God has blessed us with.
One of the individuals who makes all this DREAMING so exciting is Bill Wehunt, who of course chairs our futuring committee. If you know Bill, you know that he is a true visionary. He’s always coming up with great ideas-the kind of ideas that motivate you to do great things. And-in my humble opinion-one of his best ideas concerns our linking up with this hiker/biker path that will go along our side of the newly-renovated Muncaster Mill Road. Bill suggest that we build our own hiker/biker path around the circumference of our property. Then, if they so desire, people who walk or bike down the new Muncaster Mill Road path could turn off onto our path as they enter from the West-and then follow it until it rejoins the main path on the Eastern side of our land. Bill’s suggestion is that we label our section of walkway, “The Romans Road.” We’d put a little sign at the entrance inviting them to take a side trip down RBC’s “Romans Road” path and then we’d place four rest stops along the way. At each stop we’d plant trees and flowers as sort of an oasis. We’d put a bench facing a little sign on which is written one of the scripture references from this famous group of verses. This path around our property would give people a good look at our campus helping them to see how big our facilities really are-but it would also serve as sort of an interactive Gospel tract.
I mean, picture it in your mind-a young mother is pushing her child in a stroller for their morning walk. She’s not a Christian. She sees our path as a chance to turn away from all the noisy traffic on Muncaster Mill and a hundred yards in, she decides to sit for a while at our first “oasis” stop. As she sits there she reads the verse on the plaque and wants to know more, so she stops at each rest area, and this exposure to God’s written Word, convicts her of her need for Jesus. At the last rest stop we’d have a little plaque that says, “If you have questions…if you want to know more…call us at 301-977-1000.” She does call-and we lead her to Christ. Now, you may think that is a bit too visionary-a bit too optimistic-but I disagree. I think this little path filled with Scripture could be a very powerful evangelistic tool. Remember, in Isaiah 55:11 God promises that His Word, “will not return empty but will accomplish what He desires and achieve the purpose for which He sent it.” So, I believe God would use this path seeded with His written Word to plant a desire in people’s hearts-a desire that could lead them to put their faith in His Son.
Well, this morning I’d like us to walk down this “Scripture path” together not only to help us see how effective it might be…but also because I think it will help us to achieve the goal for our current campaign. Remember-our goal during these 40 days is to become Contagious Christians-to learn how to share our faith-and in order to do that we need to be very familiar with the basic truths of the Gospel. We need to know-down pat-the MESSAGE OF CONTAGIOUS CHRISTIANITY. Unfortunately, many of us don’t….we’d would have a hard time sharing these basic truths with a lost person. Don’t get me wrong-we understand the GOSPEL. But for one reason or another, we have difficulty COMMUNICATING the MESSAGE of the GOSPEL to others. As Paul Little points out-for many of us, UNDERSTANDING the GOSPEL is like UNDERSTANDING a MATHEMATICAL problem.
We hear the problem explained in class and we clearly understand it as the professor goes over it, but when a friend who cut the class asks us to explain the problem, we are at a loss as to how to do so in terms that are clear enough for him to grasp.
In a similar fashion many of us who have believed and understood the Gospel are unable to articulate it clearly enough to another person so that they, too, might come to know and serve our Lord. Well, that’s where the Romans Road comes in because, not only is it easy to remember-it’s also so simple that even a child can understand it-yet it is so profound that it’s truth will touch any heart.
Okay, let’s go down this “Road” together now so we’ll be able to guide someone else down it when God gives us the opportunity to do so…and I pray that He does. The first stop on the Romans Road is found in Romans 3:23. Let’s read it aloud together. It’s on the screens behind me: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
1. Now…above this text our first sign on this path around our property might say something like this: “We all have a PROBLEM.”
You see, all of us have an inborn NEED to know God-to have a relationship with Him. We were created or designed to walk through life in fellowship with our Creator. In fact, even the secular world recognizes this truth. The cover story for last week’s TIME magazine told about how scientists believe we are hard-wired to worship a higher being. And, they are right-because God created man and woman to have fellowship with Him. We all have an inborn need to KNOW our Creator. So, WITHOUT this relationship our lives leave much to be desired.
We lack purpose or direction and we experience an emptiness and an inner loneliness.
Well, the PROBLEM is-there is a BARRIER between us and God a barrier that makes this relationship with Him impossible. You see God is holy and we are not. As this verse puts it, “all of us have SINNED and FALLEN SHORT of the GLORY of God.”
And, in order for someone to become a Christian and experience this relationship with God that they need so desperately, they have to first of all admit that this verse applies to them-that they are sinners separated from God. C. S. Lewis put it this way, “Christianity has no message for those who do not recognize that they are sinners.”
And, he was right-to become a Christian a person has to acknowledge this fact-that all of us sin both by nature and by choice-all of us bear the marks of disobeying God. Maybe you’ve heard about the lady who walked into a psychiatrist’s office. She had two fried eggs on top of her head, and a strip of bacon tied over each ear. She said, “Doctor, I’ve come to talk to you about my brother. HE has a problem.” Well, we live in a world where everybody has a problem, not just the ones who look like it or act like it, and the first step to solving that problem is to admit this fact that we are just as guilty as everyone else. That’s why this first stop on the Romans Road is so important.
You see-the trouble with our world-our culture-is not immoral TV and movies and music. It is not the AIDS epidemic. It is not abortion or the erosion of the family. It’s not homosexuality or gay marriage. It is not drug and alcohol abuse. It’s not even terrorism. No….these things are just FRUITS of the problem. Think of them as SYMPTOMS of a disease that we all have called SIN-a disease that infects all mankind. The symptoms vary widely with different people but the disease and its results are universal. All of us infected with the “disease” of sin.
Now, SIN is a little word but it is often misunderstood. I mean, it’s a word that does not communicate well in our society today because people tend to think of sin as one specific kind of obvious immorality and if they don’t happen to be guilty of that kind of immorality, they don’t see themselves as sinners. They think, “I don’t rob banks or do drugs. I’ve never killed any one. I’m not a sinner.” But sin is not just BAD things that we do-whether they be big sins or little ones. No, SIN is a STATE of imperfection-a state of DEPRAVITY into which we are all born.
According to Webster the word “depraved” means “marked by corruption or evil, perverted, crooked.” And when we hear that we think, “Well, that doesn’t apply to me. I’m not evil or perverted.” So, we conclude that “depraved” is a word that describes others but not us-we think that in our estimation we are pretty good. But according to the Bible sin and depravity have nothing to do with our estimation of ourselves but rather with God’s estimation. Dwight Pentecost writes, “The doctrine of depravity has nothing to do with man’s estimation of man, but rather with God’s estimation of man. The Scriptures do not measure men by man; they measure men by God Who has created them. The creature is measured by the Creator and is found to be wanting.”
Someone described it best when they suggested, “If depravity were blue, we’d be blue all over.”
Cut us anywhere and we’d bleed blue. Cut into our minds and you’ll find blue thoughts of greed and lust. Cut into our hearts and there are blue emotions of hatred, revenge, and blame. Cut into our wills and you’ll find deep blue decisions and responses. The tragedy is that we don’t LOOK blue. In fact, in comparison to others we look good. But there’s something deep within all of us that is depraved. It’s called our sin nature. This is why we CAN’T clean up our act. This is why we can’t handle our own lust. This is why we have so much trouble saying no to certain temptations. This is why we fight with each other and fight with God-all the time knowing we shouldn’t. This is why we can’t seem to keep our promises. This is why all children begin to disobey and question our authority so early in their lives. This is why we lock our house when we go to bed at night. It’s why bankers check our credit before giving us a loan. This is why, as Jesus prophesied, there will always be war and rumors of war. This universal sin nature is the reason truth and justice and freedom will always be something that we have to fight for-and even die for!
To get a Biblical picture of the depravity-the sin nature of mankind-look at Romans 3:11-17 where it says,
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good; not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways and the way of peace they do not know.”
As this scripture says all of us are depraved. We are ALL marked by the disease of sin. And because we are-we are all cut off from our Holy Creator like a diseased leaf cut off from it’s stem. THAT’S THE PROBLEM. Well, let’s get on down the path because at our next rest stop we would post a sign saying that…
2. …God has provided a SOLUTION to our problem.
Under this second sign we’d put two verses: Romans 6:23 and 5:8. Look up on the screens and read them with me, “For the WAGES of sin is DEATH, but the GIFT of God is ETERNAL LIFE in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
Now to understand Romans 6:23, we need to take a closer look at the word “wage” because we don’t use that word as much as we used to.”Wage” is the translation of the Greek word, “opsonia” which referred to a soldier’s pay-something that he EARNED by serving in the army-something that was due him. And Paul uses this word picture to remind us that not only do we all SIN-our sin also EARNS all of us DEATH. So, this means the deadliest killer of humanity is not heart disease or cancer or AIDS or terrorism or war. No, it is the terminal illness known as SIN. And, as our first stop on the path said, every one of us is infected-so everyone suffers from the consequences of it.
To make matters worse, we pass this “disease” on to each new generation. Referring to the sin of the first human-ADAM-Romans 5:12 says, “…sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”
Now, fortunately the ROMANS ROAD doesn’t stop there-otherwise it would be a literal dead end. I mean, if that’s all we put on our path, no one would want to walk it!
So, what does the rest of the verse say? “The WAGES of sin is DEATH but…” Read it with me. “The GIFT of God is ETERNAL LIFE in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In other words God has provided a CURE for this disease that we all have. We don’t have to die-and better still-this cure is not something we have to EARN. It is a FREE GIFT made possible by Jesus’ death on the cross. As Romans 5:8 says, “Christ died FOR us.” Like we will learn/ learned this morning Jesus’ death on the cross provided a bridge across the gulf that sin put between us and God. When Point of Grace recorded the song, “The Great Divide” they made a typo in the lyrics. One of the lines goes like this, “There’s a bridge to cross the great divide…” and it was supposed to be repeated. But the person who typed the lyrics made an error and on the repeat it was worded, “There’s a CROSS to bridge the great divide.” Point of Grace decided to do the song that way-feeling it might just have been a divinely inspired error because Jesus’ cross DID bridge the great divide between sinful man and holy God.
And Jesus could do this. He could die in our place-because the Bible teaches that unlike us Jesus KNEW no sin; He HAD no sin; He DID no sin. This made Him qualified to be the Lamb of God Who could die in our place. He didn’t have to die for His own sin so He was able to die for ours. As Romans 5:17 says, “For if by the trespass of the one man [ADAM], death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace…and of the gift of righteousness, reign in life through the one Man, Jesus Christ.”
Think of it this way. Two men are serving life-sentences for murder. They both killed another individual in cold blood and have been sentenced to live out their lives behind bars. Well, one of these men couldn’t say to the other, “I tell you what, I’ll pay your penalty. I’ll serve out your life sentence. You can go free!” He couldn’t do this because He had his own sentence to serve. His life was already forfeit. But not so with Jesus. He was sinless-innocent-so He was not under this curse and had no penalty to pay-so He could die in our place-and that’s exactly what He did.
Now, many people can buy into the fact that they are sinners and that they deserve punishment and death-but it is hard for them to accept eternal life as a FREE GIFT.
They think they must have to EARN something that wonderful. And in our witnessing we need to steer people clear of embracing this misconception. Reminds me of the story I read once about a drunk down on all fours late one night under a street light. He was groping around on the ground, feeling the cement, peering intently at the little cracks. A friend came up to him and said, “Sam, what are your doing there?” Sam said, “I lost my wallet.” So the friend got out of his car, walked over, got down on his hands and knees with him and they both started looking. Neither one could find it. Finally the friend said to his drunk buddy, “Are you sure you lost the wallet here?” Sam said, “Of course not! I dropped it a half a block over there.” His friend said, “Then why are you looking here?” Sam said, “Because there’s no street light over there.”
Now to many people it LOOKS like the way to have your sin debt paid is to work it off…to earn eternal life. But…when they think this they are looking in the wrong place for a way to deal with their sin because the Bible says it is beyond our ability to do work off our sin debt. As Ephesians 2:8 says, “It is by grace that you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the GIFT of God-not by works so that no one can boast.”
The salvation we all need is God-given, God-driven, God-empowered, and God-originated.
This gift is not something we earn. It’s God’s gift. As we WILL LEARN/LEARNED in SS this morning. Christianity is spelled “D…O…N…E” not “D…O” because we can never DO enough to earn our salvation. Jesus has DONE it all for us. As 1 John 4:10 says, “It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us in sending His Son to be the way to take away our sins.” And as Romans 5:8 says, this Gift of God was not initiated by our LOVELINESS but by His LOVE.
People who understand this principle describe man’s efforts at earning salvation in repulsive terms.
Isaiah said our good works are, “…like filthy pieces of cloth.” (Is. 64:6) Paul equated our efforts at righteousness with the pile of stink you avoid in the cow pasture. (Philippians 3:8) These men and others have learned that God’s love is activated not by our GOODNESS but by our NEED.
They know how ridiculous it would be for us to even think we could somehow pay for our salvation. Imagine that you are taking a walk down the street and a $500,000 Rolls Royce pulls up to the curb. The man in the back seat jumps out and says, “Young man, I appreciate you so much I’m going to give you this car!” He hands you the keys and the title while the chauffeur gets out and holds the door open for you. You are absolutely astonished! You are so grateful that you thrust your hand into your pocket and begin to fish around for a coin. Finally you find an old beat up penny. You hold it up proudly before the owner of the Rolls and say, “I appreciate this Rolls so much I’d like to give you this penny as a token of my appreciation.” Can you imagine how this man would feel? Well, that’s the same thing as our presuming to somehow earn the Salvation God provides with our feeble, sinful attempts at goodness.
I remember hearing Bill Hybels explain this to a man who was sitting next to him on an airplane.
This man said, he didn’t need to become a Christian because he was a good person. He was active in several charities and always did his best to be a moral individual. In essence, he didn’t think he needed a Savior-because in his opinion he had earned his own way to heaven. Well, Hybels asked him who he thought was the BEST human on the planet-who had done the most good in life. The man suggested Mother Teresa, or Billy Graham and Hybels responded by saying, “I would agree-those are both extremely good, moral people…but I know Billy Graham. I’ve talked to him. And I’ve read the books of Mother Teresa…and both of these people have said repeatedly that they are not good people. Both of these people have said they are sinners deserving Hell. Are you saying you are better than these two?”
Well, the fact is none of us are good enough, pure enough-none of us can earn our way to God. This is why the Gospel is such good news! You see, the only Person Who could-Jesus Christ-PAID our penalty. Hebrews 9:15 says, “Christ died as a RANSOM to set us free from our sins.” And this fact is why we say that we CELEBRATE the ordinance of COMMUNION as we do today. We use this symbol that our Lord gave us to REJOICE over His great grace. As we do so this morning, I invite all Christians present to CELEBRATE with us. Even if you are not a member of this church….If you are a Christian…if you are His, this is Yours.
THE ORDINANCE OF COMMUNION
Okay…we’ve got one more stop on our path and it is found in Romans 10:9-10 and verse 13. Go there with me and let’s again read together: “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
3. Above these verses, the sign at this point on our hiker/biker path would say: We must RESPOND to Jesus’ death on our behalf.
You see it is not enough to BELIEVE all that we have learned so far on our little walk around the property. A person can understand all this-the basic Christian message-and still go to Hell. You see, the Bible says we have to DO something with what we believe. We must act on our understanding. As this text says, we must confess or state our belief that Jesus is Who He says He is-that He has done what the Bible tells us He has done-that He died for our sins and rose on the third day. We must each individually ask Jesus to forgive us of our sin. Then we must give Him our lives, committing to serve Him as Lord. As you travel along I-10 in Louisiana, there is a large billboard which catches your eye. It stands high above the city just as you start up the Mississippi river bridge. On it is a picture of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. He has His head bowed. The caption underneath says in bold letters, “It’s your move.” And it is. Everyone who wants to become a Christian must personally make a move. They must RESPOND to all JESUS has done for us. As John 1:12 says, “To all who RECEIVED Him, to those who BELIEVED in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”
I think it is significant that marriage is one of the illustrations that the New Testament uses for both becoming and being a Christian…because it’s obvious that merely believing in marriage, however intense that belief might be, does not make one married. I mean a bachelor might say, “Sure, I believe in marriage. I’m sold on it. You should see all the books I’ve read; I’m an expert on the subject. Besides I’ve been to plenty of weddings. Funny thing though-can’t quite understand it: marriage doesn’t seem real to me.” This fictional man’s problem is that he hasn’t learned that believing in marriage isn’t enough. He must act on that belief. To BE married, one has to come to a commitment of the will and say, “I do” dedicating himself to the other person and thereby establishing a relationship. The parallel is obvious. Being a Christian requires a devoting of ourselves to a living Lord. This commitment depends on a relationship of love and obedience. We must believe in Jesus, personally receive Him into our lives, and thus become children of God.
In Revelation 3:20, Jesus compares our lives to a house and says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with Him and Him with Me.” The Lord Jesus knocks at the doors of our lives. He will not gatecrash or force His way in but will do so only at our invitation. So, we must respond to His knocking by opening the door in order to become a Christian.
Perhaps you are here this morning and you have never been down this “Romans Road” before, and as we have made this journey you have come to realize how much you need Jesus in your life. If that is true then I invite you right now to RESPOND. Confess your belief that Jesus died in your place and that He rose from the dead. Invite Him into your heart and life and then come and tell me about it! Or if you have questions, come and ask me! Others of you may want to simply commit to learning this road well so you can be ready to guide someone down it. You may just want to come to the altar and pray about someone you know needs to know Jesus. And then, if you are here and feel God leading you to join our church, come…we would love to have you as a vital part of this body of Christ. Won’t you come now…as we stand and sing?