Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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If you're able, please remain standing
and let's give our attention to Romans chapter
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three. This is Romans three,
verses one through twenty one. First,
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Paul asks some rhetorical questions, some
excuses and accusations that people often make towards
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God, and then he sums up
much of what he's been saying since chapter
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one, verse eighteen, in the
last few verses of this that I'll read
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this morning. So here's God's word
from Romans Three, verses one through twenty
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one. Then, what advantage has
the Jew or what is the value of
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circumcision? Much in every way.
To begin with, the Jews were entrusted
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with the oracles of God. What
if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness
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nullify the faithfulness of God? By
no means. Let God be true,
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though everyone were a liar, as
it is written that you may be justified
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in your words and prevail when you
are judged. But if our unrighteousness serves
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to show the righteousness of God,
what shall we say that God is unrighteous
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to Inflict Wrath on us? I
speak in a human way. By no
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means, for then how could God
judge the world? But if, through
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my lie, God's truth abounds to
his glory. Why am I still being
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condemned as a sinner? And why
not do evil that good may come,
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as some people slanderously charge us with
saying, their condemnation is just. And
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what, then, are we Jews
any better off? No, not at
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all, for we have already charged
that all, both Jews and Greeks,
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are under sin. As it is
written, no one is righteous, no,
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not one. No one understands,
no one seeks for God. All
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have turned aside. Together they have
become worthless. No one does good,
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not even one. Their throat is
an open grave. They use their tongues
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to deceive. The Venom of ASPS
is under their lips. Their mouth is
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full of curses and bitterness. Their
feet are swift to shed blood. In
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their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not
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known. There is no fear of
God before their eyes. Now we know
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that whatever the law says, it
speaks to those who are under the law,
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so that every mouth may be stopped
and the whole world may be held
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accountable to God, for by the
works of the law, no human being
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will be justified in his sight,
since through the law comes knowledge of Sin,
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but now the righteousness of God has
been manifested apart from the law,
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although the law and the prophets bear
witness to it. May God bless his
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word. Please be seated. So, as Paul points out, he's been
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addressing both Jews and Greeks in these
opening chapters, and to address these two
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groups in the audience that he's addressing
them to, it's a way of saying
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he is addressing everyone in the world, Jews and Non Jews. Every one
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is included here, those who have
received God's special revelation, his special law,
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and those who have not, those
who have received God's word and revelations
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in the scriptures, in those who
have received God's word and revelations in nature.
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These two various ways that God has
spoken in the in the scriptures and
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in nature are different, but there
is one thing that is very much the
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same about them. Both they proclaim
the law and because of that, there's
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not a single person in the entire
world that's not accountable to God. As
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he says, they're in verse nineteen. It speaks to everyone that the whole
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world may be accountable to God.
Having said this, he begins. This
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is what he's been saying in Chapter
One and chapter two. When he gets
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to chapter three, he now addresses
this particular objection, I mentioned it briefly
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last time, which is then what
advantage has the Jew in other words,
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if the Jews are in the same
boat as the Greeks, as both being
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under the law, then what's the
point? What's the advantage? He then
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addresses in a second objection, which
will speak about later, where he says
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well, if, if, if, God is being shown to be righteous
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through our unrighteousness. Well, is
that really fair? Is God being unjust
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then and judging me for a bad
thing which ultimately turns out to be good?
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These are the kinds of accusations that
we throw a god, these are
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the kind of excuses that we make. He's been dealing with many of them
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and we want to think a little
bit more in depth about those. But
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we want to start, but I
want to start by just summing up what
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Paul has been addressing here, what
Paul sums up here, and that's that
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our situation, apart from the righteousness
of Christ, is very desperate. We
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are under the law, as he
says, under sin. Now this might
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not be exactly a very lighthearted way
to start your week, to start a
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sermon. But it's the truth.
It's just the reality, the way things
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are, and sometimes it's good to
remember this, that we too often approach
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these subjects so lightly when the fat, when the truth of the matter,
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is staring us in our face.
Paul is been describing to us what it
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means to be under the law,
and it means that God has spoken to
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you. It means that God commands
your obedience. But being under the law
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is more than that. It's more
than just having a list of rules,
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a posted on the wall that you
need to obey. Well, Paul has
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been describing is that being under the
law has to do with having a end
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of condition. It's not just knowing
about some rules or having some things to
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do, but it's having a particular
nature. Even you might think about the
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phrase parents use with their children sometimes
when they say you're under my roof,
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you're under my roof if what do
they mean by that? They don't just
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mean that you're not going to get
wet by being in their house. They
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mean that you are, if you
are, if you are the child,
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that you're under their protection, you're
under their authority and you are therefore treated
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accordingly. You have a relationship by
being under the roof of your parent,
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and it's like that with the law. Being under the law means we have
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this relationship, we have even a
condition, a state, as we relate
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to God. When God speaks,
we are put under the law, under
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his law. A relationship is formed
between us and him, a relationship that
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requires obedience. But that relationship,
as Paul has shown us, is complicated.
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It's complicated and messed up and broken
by sin. You may remember that
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in Chapter One, Paul reminds us
that all people, although people know God
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through the things that have been made, although they know the requirements of God,
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they're thinking gets all warped. Their
priorities get all out of whack and
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they start worshiping the created things instead
of the Creator, which in itself then
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leads to all kinds of wickedness.
You know what Paul calls that kind of
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thinking? Do you remember? He
calls it feudal, he calls it foolish.
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In terms of the heart, he
says that the heart has been darkened.
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In terms of the will, he
says these people do all kinds of
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evil and even give approval to those
who do the same so given this,
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well, we might say that,
hypothetically, to be under the law is
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not to be under sin. Christ
is an example of this, who is
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under the law and yet not under
the power of sin. For the rest
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of us, for all of us
who are an atom, these things always
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go together, because we're fallen.
We're fallen in Adam Sin. When sin
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enter to the world, if forever
broke that relationship, and that means we
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don't just stand in a room with
the laws on the wall. The laws
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bear down on us, they beat
us, through us, knowledge of Sin
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comes out. It's why Paul calls
being under the law a Ministry of Death,
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not because the law and itself is
bad, that God has spoken unfairly
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or unrighteously, but because of the
way our sin, our nature, reacts
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with that law, it all breaks
apart. It only leads to our death.
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Paul addresses this point in later in
Romans and in more depth, but
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for now just note what he's been
saying here at the beginning, and saying
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very pointedly and memorably, that when
sin enter the world, it breaks this
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relationship and it destroys all hope for
true and perfect obedience in our sin and
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under the law. We turn aside
from the law, we turn aside from
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walking with God and love, and
that's why Paul says what he says here
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in Romans three, and that's why
he says it's so strongly. None is
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righteous, not even one. No
one understands, no one seeks after God.
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Our speech, our thoughts, our
actions, Our paths, our feet,
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even he mentions everything. It's all
ruined. And because it's our fault,
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our sins, our foolishness, what
can we say? Our experience of
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coming face to face with the holiness
of God is then, as therefore described
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perfectly in verse nineteen. When the
law speaks, our mouths are shut,
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he says in Verse Nineteen. Now
we know that whatever the law says,
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it speaks to those who are under
the law, so that every mouth may
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be stopped. That's the experience that
you have when you've been caught. You
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think you're getting away with it,
you think you have covered it, but
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when you're with when the law of
God comes clearly and speaks clearly to your
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heart, you've been exposed. And
what can you say? Nothing. Even
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Isaiah, the Great Prophet of God, experienced this. In Isaiah six,
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he describes a vision he had of
God sitting upon His throne, high and
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lifted up, surrounded by awesome and
Jelic creatures, both powerful and frightening.
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They're singing is in his ears.
They're praising the glory of God. And
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you know what he says? He
doesn't say holy, Holy, Holy,
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is the Lord of hosts with the
angels. He says woe is me,
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for I am lost. I'm a
man of unclean lips living in a people
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of Unclean Lips. When Isaiah saw
the weighty glory of God, He felt
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the weight of his sin crushing down
upon him and considered himself a dead man.
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It was only after God cleansed him
and promised that his sins were atoned
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for. That then Isaiah was ready
to hear and obey what the Lord had
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for him to do. Now we
haven't had this experience of being caught up
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into the heavenly places. Isaiah's particular
commission and calling is very special and unique,
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but you don't have to have this
experience to have the weight of the
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law come barreling down on your heart, because God's glory in is holiness,
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is made plain in every sunset you
see and every kindness you experience in every
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plate of food that he sets before
you. And as long as you are
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under the law and not under grace, then the glory of God can never
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fully be enjoyed, the commandments of
God can never fully be obeyed. You
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are not righteous. You only know
your sin and the terrors of the coming
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wrath of God. Now, what
I've just said about sin and the law
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is, for some people, the
easiest thing in the world to believe.
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They live their lives with their eyes
wide open to the depths of their sin
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and they keep their mouths closed in
shame of it. Their knowledge of their
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sins and the judgment of God clause
at their hearts. Day and night.
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Feelings of despair are frequent and often
the hopelessness and vanity of life is overwhelming.
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They see it all over the place, in themselves and in others.
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Have you ever looked sin in the
face? Have you ever looked sin in
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the face? Have you ever finally
seen it for what it is? Maybe
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it takes a terrorist strapping a bomb
to his chest and blowing up innocent people.
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Maybe it takes getting exposed. You
getting exposed for a sin that you've
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already committed and being an exposed for
maybe it's just a moments of consider a
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moment's consideration of the pointlessness of so
much of life. And then you saw
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it. You saw sin for what
it was, evil for what it is,
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and you hated it. And this
is a good thing in a sense,
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because the Bible itself never shies away
from naming things what they are,
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the good and the bad, the
noble and the cowardly, the greatest hopes
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and the worst dead ends, all
of them are. They are named properly
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by God in his word. And
if you are to have any hope at
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all, then you have to begin
by seeing the world as it is.
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But I tell you, often people
don't look sin in the face, and
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I seen it done. I've done
it. When you come face to face
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with evil and wickedness and in instead
of seeing it for what it is,
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you blink, you rub your eyes, you try to believe that it's nothing
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more than a nightmare, you try
to explain away these inner monsters. One
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way of doing this is bite to
by pretending that the problems don't exist.
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You bury the feeling. Another way
is by acting as though the problems have
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been taken care of by some other
thing, like a good deed you once
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dead, or a good motivation you
think you had, or belonging to a
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religion or any number of things.
But when all that fails, often people
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turn and accuse God. If we
can show God as being unfair, or
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God is being unreasonable, then perhaps
the judge will turn away from his judgment,
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we foolishly think, and Paul gives
two examples of this. See if
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you recognize them. First is the
excuse of religion. It's a hypothetical question
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and it goes like this. If
both Jews and Greeks are accountable to the
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law and both have sinned, what's
the point of being a Jew? If
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the law of God, as it
comes to us in the scriptures, doesn't
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have any special power to save,
then God, why did you even give
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it in the first place? It's
a question pose to God, is a
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way to accuse him of being ridiculous
and unreasonable. Well then, what's the
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point of being a Jew if we're
all under the law anyway? It's hard
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to say what the hoped outcome,
hoped for outcome, of this kind of
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accusation might be. Does a person
accusing God of giving the law to the
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Jews expect that God will back down. They he'll say, you know what,
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I never thought about it that way. I guess I was confused about
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what I did when I gave them
my law. Or maybe he'll say,
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you know what, I see your
point. I guess all, ease off
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a little bit. Let You keep
on sinning. I'm sorry for not being
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softer on wickedness. Here's another foolish
excuse. You might call it the excuse
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of God's goodness. This one goes
like this, as Paul puts it.
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But if our unrighteousness serves to show
the righteousness of God, what should we
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say that God is unrighteous to inflict
wrath upon us again? A similar idiotic
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question comes later in Roman six and
also here. Should we knew eat?
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Should we do evil that good may
come right? Makes sense perfectly, doesn't
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it? No wonder God is justified
in condemning us and preparing us for wrath,
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because just because a good outcome is
achieved by his powerful grace doesn't mean
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that God is then evil in condemning
our sin in the first place. This
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would be like saying if I'm dying
and a paramedic saves my life, which
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is a good thing, then my
dying must have also been good and therefore
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the paramedic is wrong to judge me
as one in need of saving. What
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these are the kinds of ridiculous things
that we say. These are the ways
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that we come attacking God, accusing
him. Why does that happen? Well,
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it's again all because of our sin. The law impresses its weight on
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us, the good law, the
righteous law, God's Holy Law. But
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because of our sin, we don't
just say, Oh, there are some
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rules on the wall, I think
I'll try to obey those, try to
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be a good person. No,
we don't obey them. We make excuses
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and we accuse the god of holiness
and of grace. You can see what's
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going on here. These are not
the well reasoned questions of a seeker.
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They are the worming it excuses of
a sinner who wants to get out by
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any means necessary, to wriggle out
from under the law and wrath of God.
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But let me ask you, why
make excuses that will never excuse or,
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if you can see sin for what
it is, why remain in a
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state of hopelessness and death if God
himself has provided a way out? Because
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this is Paul's larger point here and
throughout this whole passage. Notice what he
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says Verse Twenty. For by the
works of the law no human being will
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be justified in his sight, since
through the law comes knowledge of Sin.
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But now the righteousness of God has
been manifested apart from the law, although
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the law and prophets bear witness to
it. This last phrase is a way
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of saying that the law of God
from which we have in the scripture is
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also accompanied by the Gospel of God, that the law and the prophets,
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this way of summing up the old
testaments, bears witness not only to the
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to the righteous requirements of the law
and therefore the knowledge of sin that comes
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from that, but these things also
tell us about another word, a gospel
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word, a good news word,
a word that speaks grace and promises forgiveness,
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one that says there's a way out, not by working harder, not
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by accusing God, not by excuses, but by the death and resurrection of
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Jesus Christ. This is the way
out, this is the righteousness of God
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that has been manifested apart from the
law. All that Paul has been saying
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here about sin and unrighteousness has been
get been to get to this bigger point.
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Jesus is the son of God.
He came into the world in all
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its futility, foolishness and evil,
for the specific reason of saving people from
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all of those things. He came
to mend the rip in our relationship with
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God. He came to make us
whole again so that then, by a
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spirit, we could do the works
of the law as those who are no
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longer under it but who love it
nevertheless. We know this. We know
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this good word because God has announced
it from the very beginning in genesis to
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the very end in revelation. We
know in Jesus's ministry throughout his life on
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Earth. He guaranteed as much when
he rose from the dead and ascended into
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glory. He demonstrates his victory over
sin and death in these things and in
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his sending out of the disciples to
preach this gospel message throughout the world.
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I stand here as one also sent
by the authority of Jesus, to declare
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to you that you don't have to
live by your excuses, that you can't,
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but by the death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ, God offers to you
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the forgiveness of your sins complete,
perfect and everlasting. He offers to you
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power over the curse, victory over
evil. Jesus died a horrific death on
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the cursed cross, not so that
you can make excuses for yourself, but
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so that you can be forgiven of
your sins. How much better is that
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to not just wipe at them and
smear them all over the place, but
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to have them cleansed, washed away, forgiven? The monsters of sin,
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guilt and shame are real. Your
lack of righteousness is real and it lives
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and it thrives under the law.
You can't pretend that away or accuse God
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and make it disappear. But Jesus, in the life he lived and in
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the death he lived, gave a
perfect righteousness and gives a perfect righteousness to
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all who believe, because righteousness is
like a vine, twists through the gardens
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of our souls and chokes out every
sin that condemns us. And we receive
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that forgiveness, apart from the law
and by grace, simply by trusting in
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him. So to some all this
up because of our sins, our relationship
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with God is broken and our life
under the law is marked by sin.
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It's therefore one hundred percent impossible to
be justified by turning to the works of
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the law. You can try harder, you can make excuses, you can
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blame God, but you'll never escape. But in Jesus Christ, God has
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spoken another word, a word of
grace, and through his sacrifice your sins
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are pardoned, your guilt is removed, your shame is a raced and an
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everlasting hope of eternal life is secured. This, in conclusion, this sweet
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word of the Gospel does something very
different with our mouths then the law does.
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The law shuts them, it stops
them up, it holds US accountable.
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But when God speaks the Gospel to
us and when we believe and we
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know ourselves as people who have been
forgiven, our mouths aren't stopped up,
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they're opened to share that message with
others, to praise the glorious God of
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Grace and to speak with confession and
thankfulness and repentance all the days of our
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lives. This is the word for
you today. Come out from the law,
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come under grace, for the salvation
of God is here and in him.
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Let us pray
