in matthew 13 44 jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure in ephesians 2 8 says for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of god and since this free gift of god salvation is the most precious treasure any human being could receive discovering a document showing the path to salvation well that would be like finding the ultimate treasure map [Music] now many evangelists are familiar with just such a treasure map contained within the bible in the book of romans and there
are even gospel tracts referred to as the roman road that lay out the path all sinners must take to arrive as a believer in christ as an analogy of a treasure map x marks the spot as they say and if we were to find the treasure map to salvation the sequence of marks drawn out on the road we would see would include the following all have sinned romans 3 verse 23 the wages of sin is death romans 6 verse 23 a the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ romans 6 23 be if
you confess jesus as lord you shall be saved romans 10 verse 9 of course the ultimate treasure of our salvation will culminate with our full adoption as sons and daughters of the living god and dwelling with him in new incorruptable bodies in the restored new heavens and new earth this restored world will be very similar to the way god created it in the beginning because revelation 21 4 reveals there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain christians have been commissioned to share the good news about this great treasure with non-believers by
showing them the right path to take and for those who've experienced regeneration a new birth and a renewing of our minds as children of god we of course want this for everyone but why does it seem increasingly harder to share this good news with our unsaved family and friends why is it that so many in our western culture today seem resistant to even examine this road of salvation why are some so resistant to the message of the cross the death and resurrection of christ stands at the epicenter of the christian faith and the fated remnant
of the symbol of the cross can still be found interwoven into the landscape of western culture in our laws literature cinema social holidays fine art etc although its true meaning the salvation for sinners because of christ's sacrificial death and resurrection is mostly lost on the large portion of our populations why is it that most today don't understand the roman road well let's look back on the markers on our map and see what questions the culture often poses in response to them [Music] to all have sinned we might hear but what is sin where did it
come from to the wages of sin is death here are common queries how can the punishment for sin be death isn't death a natural thing doesn't everything live and die two the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ it might be asked well how did jesus death pay the penalty for sin and to if you confess jesus as lord you shall be saved many would say well why do i need to be saved save from what unfortunately today many christians can't answer these questions adequately because they either are unfamiliar with what the old
testament teaches or they don't hold to what it says as plainly written the old testament teachings which are fundamental and foundational to understanding the new testament have been largely ignored by much of the western church like a forgotten route or roadway it's become like an overgrown trail a lost path that needs to be rediscovered cleaned up and re-traveled by many believers so that they may get a fuller understanding of what the complete gospel is and how to convey that to others thankfully this lost path was one that was well traveled by our lord jesus every
time he said it is written or have you not read he was traveling this way by reaching back to his authored source of authority the old testament ultimately all the questions we just discussed directly relate to the events surrounding the resurrection so how could we best answer them well following christ's example would be a good standard for christians to model and interestingly when jesus was teaching about a resurrection he said the following if they do not hear moses and the prophets neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead luke 16 verse
31 jesus explained why people would have a difficult time believing in his words in john 5 46-47 when he says for if you believed moses you'd believe me for he wrote of me but since you do not believe what he wrote how will you believe what i say so as we can see from jesus own words belief in what moses wrote ties directly into a belief in his christ's teachings which begs the question what did moses write the first five books of the bible called the torah consisting of genesis exodus leviticus numbers and deuteronomy are
attributed to moses by jesus himself and they explain the origins and history of mankind jesus has made a link between his teachings and that of the most famous patriarch in the old testament so let's look at some of the following markers in the books of moses which highlight certain major historical events in them and see how they can enable us to answer the questions people have regarding the roman road creation genesis begins the books of moses by explaining that god initially created a perfect world with no sin before sin entered there was no death occurring
even animals ate plants and there was no carnivorous activity in the world god called his creation very good the fall death came into the world as a result of the first man's adam's sin which was a rebellion against god's clear command to not eat of the fruit of a certain tree god had told adam that if he disobeyed he would surely die and this means he would experience immediate spiritual death separation from god and physical death and would start to die by returning to the dust if he did so adam rebelled against god and from
that moment everything in the universe was cursed as a result god punished adam and eve withdrew some of his sustaining power and things began to perish wear out and die and because all of us were in adam that sin nature was passed on to all of his descendants the new testament confirms by one man sin entered the world and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all have sinned romans 5 verse 12. the next mark is judgment god judged adam for his sin and the bible reveals that god will someday judge
the entire world by fire it also reveals there was a former judgment by water in the form of a global flood commonly referred to as noah's flood that destroyed all living things that had the breath of life except for those on board a specially prepared ark two very noticeable cause and effect results of the flood are the billions of rapidly buried fossils encased in waterborne sedimentary layers and the almost universal account of a great flood all over the earth the next marker is law god gave laws to live by which revealed that man can't earn
salvation through good works because mankind is fallen and all people sin the apostle paul expounds on this purpose in romans 7 7 where he says i would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law the fact is there are moral absolutes that emanate from who god is and paul reveals that the knowledge of sin the breaking of god's laws demonstrates you are guilty before god and deserving of punishment desperately in need of something outside of yourself to save you from his wrath and this is why the message of the gospel
that the roman road reveals is such good news so to summarize the answers to the questions that arise from the proclamation of the markers on the roman road answered in the books of moses are as follows what is sin sin is disobedience to god's laws where did sin come from sin came from adam's disobedience if the punishment for sin is death when did death enter into the world death entered the world at the time of the fall there was no death before sin why do i need to be saved saved from what you need to
be saved from the consequences of your sinful actions against god because god is going to judge everyone according to his perfect righteousness as a simple analogy you will either represent yourself acknowledging your sin and guilt in god's courtroom when you die and receive your just punishment or you will be represented by jesus christ who stands in your place so that you can be pardoned how did jesus death pay for sin jesus death on the cross was a substitutionary act he took the punishment that we deserve now you can see why jesus pointed out that the
origins of mankind recorded in the books of moses are so important because without it his message makes little sense without this background information it's much harder for people to connect to the roman road our origins are critical to our understanding of where we came from and where we're going the bad news contained in the old testament is needed to understand the good news found in the new testament unfortunately the typical evangelistic presentation today often doesn't include this link and of course the world is teaching a different completely naturalistic story of origins the story of evolution
this atheistic story of origins is being taught in public schools and media as fact you know in a key 1995 statement the national association of biology teachers in the united states said the diversity of life on earth is the outcome of evolution an unsupervised impersonal unpredictable and natural process of temporal descent with genetic modification that is affected by natural selection chance historical contingencies and changing environments and because that viewpoint is what is in most people's minds regarding the history of the world the history in the bible doesn't make any sense this is a completely different
path that doesn't connect to the roman road in any way if the entire universe arose from natural processes then the need for a creator god is redundant if death was always around and existed for millions of years prior to adam even coming onto the scene then death is not an enemy it's a mechanism for evolving new creatures via survival of the fittest a consistent thinker understands that the genesis account of the bible and an evolutionary timeline do not comport with one another so how did western culture get transformed from a christian-based worldview why do we
see the remnants of christianity throughout the cultural landscape in such a marred mutated form as if some kind of twisted force has misshapen it well atheist daniel dennett described the story of evolution in a very interesting way as a universal acid that affects everything it touches little did i realize that in a few years i would encounter an idea darwin's idea bearing an unmistakable likeness to universal acid it eats through just about every traditional concept and leaves in its wake a revolutionized worldview with most of the old landmarks still recognizable but transformed in fundamental ways
and he was correct a belief in the evolutionary story destroys the ability to answer even the simplest and most common objections to the christian faith such as if you have such a loving god why is there so much death and pain and suffering in the world well if millions of years of earth history and evolution were true and even if there is a god he must be fine with pain death and suffering far from fortifying a christian's faith in the slightest belief in the story of evolution actually disconnects the bible from real history weakening it
immeasurably although the evidence in support of creation can be observed all around us many have bought into the evolutionary interpretation of the facts we see in the world and think that science supports evolution however most people don't understand that the type of science dealing with events that occur in the past which is actually an interpretation of facts based on preconceived worldviews is not the same as operational science which is repeatable and observable in the present since most people only seem to hear about the evolutionary story of how we got here if believers get equipped with
real answers to the questions everyone has about where we came from they can help turn people towards the roman road jesus reminds us that difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it matthew 7 verse 14. many christians seem to want to cling to christ's teachings in the new testament but don't have the same attitude about a plain reading of the old testament but imagine going on a treasure hunt with only having the last half of the map with no recognizable starting point how would you find the treasure without
the proper beginning jesus taught from the old testament and quoted it as his final authority showing that the historical accounts in scripture were the ultimate basis for his teaching shouldn't we christ's followers do the same by giving answers to the questions people have regarding the books of moses by showing people there's no conflict between science and the bible we can more effectively share the message of the roman road to non-believers so that hopefully they can get onto the path of salvation and find god's greatest treasure [Music] you
