Sermon Notes: 9/12 Roman Road 2 – What’s So Great About Grace?

The Law can be funny sometimes can’t it!  The following is a list of police comments that reportedly were taken from actual police car videos where police arrested various law-breakers:

  1. One officer told a man who was complaining about how tight the handcuffs were by saying: “Relax; the handcuffs are tight because they’re new. They’ll stretch out after you wear them awhile.”
  2. Another criminal looked like he was going to run: “If you run, you’ll only go to jail tired.”
  3. A drunk was pulled over and asked a series of questions ending with this one: “Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?”
  4. “No, sir, we don’t have quotas anymore. We used to have quotas, but now we’re allowed to write as many tickets as we want.”
  5. “I’m glad to hear the Chief of Police is a good personal friend of yours. At least you know someone who can post your bail.”
  6. “You didn’t think we give pretty women tickets? You’re right, we don’t. Sign here.”
  7. “Warning? You want a warning? O.K., I’m warning you not to do that again or I’ll give you another ticket.”

https://www.heartlight.org/articles/200605/20060527_warningtickets.html

WELCOME to CENTRALCHURCH OF CHRIST: Not a place, but a people connected by a common bond of Christ our Savior with a common mission to show HIS love, tell HIS story, and be HIS people!  We’re on week 2 of a new expository sermon series this week that I’m calling the “ROMAN ROAD.”  Expository means we learn from the text, and bring out it’s points, rather than topical, which is where we have a point and use the text to support it.  So here we are digging in for a while in the beautiful letter to the Romans from Paul.   I learned that there is this “Roman Road to Salvation” that has been preached & taught in religious circles today, but it seems more like a cherry picking of verses.  We want to walk through Paul’s words and see what God’s Holy Spirit inspired him to say to believers. Last week we saw  in Romans 1 that God is there and he really cares for us!

Romans 6:23 tells us of that penalty: “…the wages of sin is death…”

Paul wrote: “through the law we become conscious of sin.” Romans 3:20

“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…” Romans 3:23

“So that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.” (Rom3:19)

The Law’s main focus was not to cleanse people… it was to point to our need of to be cleansed

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” – Ephesians 2:8

 

This distinction is starkly demonstrated by comparing a parable taught by Jesus with a similar story found in Buddhist literature. Both stories involve sons who became rebellious and left home, but who then saw the error of their ways and decided to come back and be reconciled with their families.

  In the Buddhist story, the errant son is required to work off the penalty for his past misdeeds by spending years as a slave.

  But you know how the Christian parable of the Prodigal Son ends — with the repentant son being warmly welcomed home by his loving father and being given UNDESERVED GRACE.

https://www.comparativereligion.com/prodigal.html

“… justified freely by his GRACE” (vs. 24)

“… because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions— it is by GRACE you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5

Romans 3:24.  “… are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Heb 2:14-15 – “Since the children have flesh and blood, (Jesus) too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death— that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

  Mordred (who hated his father and wanted to destroy everything Arthur held dear) gleefully declares:

“Arthur! What a magnificent dilemma!

            Let her die, your life is over;

            Let her live, your life’s a fraud.

            Which will it be, Arthur?

            Do you kill the queen or kill the law?”

 

 “Well, you’re human after all, aren’t you Arthur? Human and helpless.”

 https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/6607/tale-of-two-kings-by-sermon-central

 

When nothing else could help, not even the Law, Love Lifted Us.

Love lifted me,
Love lifted me,
When nothing else could help,
Love lifted me;
Love lifted me,
Love lifted me,
When nothing else could help,
Love lifted me.


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