 Romans chapter 3. I'll begin reading here in Romans 3 at verse 1 and I'll read to verse 8. We'll get into our study. Romans chapter 3 beginning at verse 1. Paul asks, what advantage then has the Jew or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way, chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not. Indeed, let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged. But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say is God unjust? Who inflicts wrath? I speak as a man. Certainly not. For then, how will God judge the world? For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? And why not say, let us do evil that good may come as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say their condemnation is just? So as we begin, Paul is written concerning the spiritual condition of the Gentile and the Jew. And we've seen this in chapter one especially. He had pointed to us and I'm just reviewing this for you. He had pointed out that Gentiles have a conscience and they also have the witness of creation. Their conscience is spoken of in chapter one verse 19, when he said, what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them that speaking of their conscience and creation is found in Romans one verse 20. When he says, since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So they have a conscience and they have the witness of creation and this is something that they're held accountable for. You see, they didn't have the kind of experiences that the nation of Israel had. Gentiles are called idolaters and he points that out in chapter one and they didn't have a genuine knowledge of God. What they have is a natural innate awareness that there's something greater than themselves. So conscience and creation combined to provide proof, but they rejected it. Instead, he says they created for themselves other ways to approach God. So rejecting his light, they walked in darkness and they chose spiritual darkness. He says professing to be wise, they foolishly became idol worshipers. He said they fashioned for themselves false gods and worshiped them. Now in the Old Testament, the prophets railed against idolatry, especially when it began to creep into the nation of Israel. Isaiah chapter 44 verse 9. Isaiah wrote, all makers of idols are nothing and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend. So they, he said, are put to shame. One of my favorite portions of scripture in the Psalms is Psalm 115 verses 2 through 8 where he speaks concerning the foolishness of idolatry. And he said it like this. The Psalmist said, why should the Gentiles say so? Where's their God? But our God is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold. The work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they don't speak. Eyes they have, but they don't see. They have ears, but they don't hear. Noses they have, but they don't smell. They have hands, but they don't handle. Feet they have, but they don't walk. Nor do they mutter through their throat. And then he goes on to say this, those who make them are like them. So is everyone who trusts in them. Lifeless, useless without God. So they've rejected the witness of conscience. They've rejected the witness of creation and Paul has said, and they're guilty. That brought us to chapter two. And he's speaking now of Israel. Now Paul said, unbelieving Jews who considered Gentiles unworthy are still inexcusable because they're guilty of the same kind of sins. So they're not going to escape judgment. This is all in the face of what could be considered their advantages. And as we had looked at, at that chapter, verses 17 through 20, had listed what Israel had been given, their physical descendants of Abraham. They have the law of God. They have the right of circumcision and all of that. But instead of giving them security, that made them more accountable. That's because the more you know, the more you owe. The more you know, the greater the information and knowledge, the greater the responsibility. In Luke chapter 12, verse 48, Jesus said, everyone to whom much is given from him, much will be required. And to whom much has been committed of him, they will ask the more. The more you know, the more you owe. And so what happens is because they have this knowledge that came in this way, well, they're going to be held accountable. Later in chapter 14, verse 12, he'll say, so then each of us will give an account of himself to God. And so both Jew and Gentiles stand guilty before God. And Jews have much to be held accountable for. The point he's making here, and we've, we're seeing this as we go through this book, salvation is through faith in Christ, by the grace of God alone. But that's the proclamation that the Jewish people to this day reject. One of our guys was speaking to, one of the guys on our trip to Israel recently was speaking to our Jewish guide. His name is Adrian, our guide. We like him. And the way that I remember his name is very simple. I think of Rocky. He was yelling, Adrian. Well, that's true. That's really what I do. But he was asked, why he have problems with Jesus? He says, well, I don't have a problem with Jesus. It's just, I don't see him as Christians see him. The Jewish nation is not looking for God in the flesh. I've had it explained to me by, by Jewish individuals that that would violate the commandment against making a graven image of anything in heaven. And so they say, God would not violate his own commandments. And that's their argument. So what they believe is found in Deuteronomy 18, where they speak concerning a prophet like unto Moses. And that's what they'll tell you. So they will say to you that they're, they're expecting a Messiah. They're waiting for Messiah, but they're not waiting for God in the flesh. They're expecting a human being who's going to come and bring peace. They're not waiting for Jesus Christ. They're going to be victims of anti Christ. And they don't see that. They don't see that. And Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter three, verses 13 and 14 said it like this. He said, we are not like Moses who, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were closed. For to this day, the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant. It has not been lifted because only in Christ can it be removed. And so they're spiritually blind. Now, when Paul was speaking concerning the advantages that the nation of Israel could have claimed to have, he was not saying that the law of Moses was unimportant. The fact is that the law gave spiritual advantage to those who understood its point. You see, the law had a purpose, but it couldn't save the law was intended to be a schoolmaster to bring people to Christ. Charles Spurgeon, a great preacher of another day, said it like this. He said, I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the law. The law is the needle. You cannot draw the silk and thread of the gospel through a man's heart unless you first send the needle of the law to make way for it. If men do not understand the law, they will not feel that they're sinners. And if they're not consciously sinners, they will never value the sin offering. There's no healing a man of a man till the law has wounded him. No, making him alive till the law has slain him. And so the point he was saying is in order to have an awareness of the grace of God, you need to be aware of what the law was all about. That's the point he's making. He's saying it was direct us to Jesus Christ. Talk to somebody who doesn't believe in God. Talk to somebody who thinks that it's garbage what you believe. Talk to him. Many of you do. And they'll say, you know, if you want to believe that, that's fine. And they don't have a moral code. And so they'll say everything's, you know, doesn't really matter. I mean, you can believe what you want. If you want to believe that, that's okay too. But they don't have a standard. The the the commandments that God gave to us gave to us moral standard. We're aware of things through the the commands that God gave to us, especially the 10 commandments of the laws in the United States, though people want to deny this, the law of the United States is built on the mosaic and Christian Christian gospels, the Old Testament, New Testament, the laws come from that. You're not to steal, you're not to kill. You're not to lie. You can't bear false witness. These are these are moral things. It comes from the word of God. So if somebody doesn't have a moral compass, they don't know what right is and they don't know what wrong is. That's a fact. Ask somebody. If you don't believe in God, then how do you make moral judgments? If somebody will put it like this, say that I, and a teacher said this to his students, he said, if you don't believe in right or wrong moral judgments or whatever, and everything is basically relative, then then convince me, he says, and this was years ago when this could be done. It wouldn't be done now, but I'll use it as an illustration for for the impact of it. He said, convince me that I have a gun. Convince me not to shoot you. And so somebody says, well, you shouldn't kill. Well, who says? And somebody else says, you know, you shouldn't, and they're giving all these arguments. And finally, the one person who got through to the professor said, it'll make a mess. And the professor says, you know, I hate messes. You're right. I won't shoot you. And the whole absurdity of that was to help the kids realize that if there is if there are moral laws, there has to be a law giver. There has to be someone who gave that law. It didn't just originate in nature. We call it natural law, but that's because as a creator created nature. That's how that works. And so when you have this idea that there's no such thing as good or bad, we end up with what we're dealing with here right now in the United States. That's what we're dealing with. So Paul is dealing with this in this passage. And so he begins at verse one, and I'll read verses one and two, and he goes on to say, what advantage then has the Jew or what is the prophet of circumcision? He goes on to say much in every way, chiefly, because to them were committed the oracles of God. He's saying, what advantage do they have? He said, great, great advantage in every respect. Notice he speaks of the oracles of God. The word oracles speaks of the utterances of God. He's referring to the word of God. You see, God established a beautiful relationship with the nation of Israel. He chose them to be what he called his special people in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy chapter 10, verses 14 and 15. Indeed, heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God. Also the earth with all that is in it, the Lord delighted only in your fathers to love them. And he chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. What an advantage. So they had a special advantage. They had been given, as he says, his oracles, his revelation. And in Deuteronomy again, chapter four, verses one and two, here now, oh Israel, the decrees and laws I'm about to teach you, follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you. You see for them to be blessed. Well, it required faithful obedience. Deuteronomy 5.29, oh that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always so that it might go well with them and their children forever. And so it's better to have no knowledge. Is it better to have no knowledge or to have some knowledge of the word of God? Well, his answer is it's better to have some knowledge. Some knowledge of his word is good. It makes it easier to witness to people when they have some knowledge of it. When I got saved back in 1970, I came from a time when people were not mocking Scripture. I came from a time when my generation looked at the Bible by and large, huge segment, a large percentage. We looked at the Bible though we didn't understand it, but we did believe that there is a God and there's a God who's able to give his revelation and we believe it was found in Scripture. We all did. Doesn't mean that we followed it. Doesn't mean that we read it. Doesn't mean that we memorize it. It just meant that we respected it. And so when someone spoke to me about Jesus, I had a foundation. I knew good. I knew evil. I knew those things. I had heard things, but today it's difficult. You have to find common ground because when someone doesn't believe the word of God, they want to argue against it constantly. It becomes more difficult. So having some knowledge of the word is good because it's easier to witness to people when they have some knowledge of it. But it goes on in verse 3 and he says this, what if some didn't believe? Well, their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect. Now this is what we're going to see. It begins to be interesting in what he's doing right here. What he's doing is these formulating responses to objections of what he's been teaching. These are objections, and you'll see how he's doing this in just a moment. Because when he says for what, if some did not believe, he's actually responding or he seems to be responding to people saying that to him. Well, what if some don't believe? And you're going to see this. He's going to do this several times and I'll develop this with you. So he says that again, what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? He says the Old Testament contains enough information for them to turn to Christ. When you read the New Testament, there's a very interesting story. All of us should be or are familiar with it. It's found in Luke chapter 16. It's the story of Lazarus and the rich man. You remember that story? Lazarus was seated at this rich man's gate begging for crumbs. The rich man sat at a table and he had banquets every day. Jesus uses that illustration and he says that Lazarus wanted just to survive off the crumbs from this rich man's table and even described him as being full of sores and the dogs would come and would lick his sores. So he's showing the poverty and the need of one in comparison to the riches of the other. And he says in both of them died. He says that Lazarus was carried to be buried by angels but that the rich man was also, he also died and he was carried by some men to show a comparison between the welcome that Lazarus got compared to the rich man. And so while in Hades, Jesus says the rich man looks across a gulf and he sees Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus said, is in torment and he's dying of thirst. And he says send Lazarus over here that he might dip his finger in some water and drop it on my tongue. He said because I'm burning up and the answer comes no. You had your good things while you were alive and Lazarus had the evil ones. You're only receiving that which you sowed. And so he says well send him back, send someone back to, to tell my five brothers not to come to this place. And that's when Jesus says in Luke 16 29, Jesus simply says they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. So the word of God gives to us enough information to make the decisions to come to faith in him. It has enough information to encourage faith in Christ because the scripture reveals Jesus and salvation in 2nd Timothy 3 verse 15 Paul said to Timothy from infancy you've known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. So why did they not believe seeing that they have the word Hebrews 4 2 listen to this one. We also have had the gospel preached to us just as they did but the message they heard was of no value to them because those who heard did not combine it with faith. You hear the word but you don't place your faith in it. You have information but information isn't enough. Information needs to be taken in. You need to take it in you assimilate it. So information needs to be assimilated and when you assimilate information it is to produce a transformation and so information assimilation transformation. If you just have information but no assimilation there's no transformation and so when you hear the word you put it into practice. They did not combine it with faith. So here's another question verse 4 he says first I'll pick up at verse 3 where there will there unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect certainly not let God be true but every man a liar as it's written that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged and so does unbelief nullify God's faithfulness. No he quotes scripture actually to make this point. Psalm 51 verse 4 says it like this against you you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. He's saying that man's faithlessness will not annul God's faithfulness just because someone doesn't believe doesn't doesn't mean that God's word is untrue ignorance of the law is no excuse right. I didn't know I was supposed to only go 45 here I was going 70 ignorance of the law doesn't give you an excuse. Well he says what about our unrighteousness there in verse 5 if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God what shall we say is God unjust to inflict wrath he goes I speak as a man certainly not for then how will God judge the world now that is an argument by the way against what has been called classically cheap grace here it is we sin because it's natural for us to sin this is the argument since it's natural to sin it must be that we were designed this way have you heard that argument that's going on right now this this male swimmer who won you know the championship he was like ranked 80th as a man and suddenly he's ranked number one as a woman you know well he says I'm a woman trapped in a man's body that's we do what is natural for us that's that's an argument that's in scripture it's been going on for thousands of years so since it's natural for us to sin that must be how we were designed so if that's true how could God judge us for doing what is natural so what he's saying and this is the argument the deeper the sin the deeper the grace and how could God judge us because if deep sin results in great glory how could you say that well first Paul says God is just and he justly judges sin because it is right to judge sin Psalm 7 verse 11 God is a just judge God is angry with the wicked every day Jesus in John 3 36 said this whoever believes in the Son has eternal life but whoever rejects the Son will not see life listen for God's wrath abides or remains on them God is a just judge and he inflicts wrath well verse 5 is he unjust again he created us with the ability to sin so it's his fault right if it's natural doesn't this make God unfair verse 6 certainly not how how will God judge the world if we sin because it's natural and aren't accountable how can there be judgment well we have a disposition to sin and though we have a disposition through our fallen nature we also have a we are we are people who are deserving of judgment and according to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 6 through 9 it's a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who don't know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ these shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power we have a disposition to sin but we are still accountable for it is the point he's making here's another argument verse 7 if the truth of God has increased through my lie to his glory why am I also still judged a sinner well you're saying that I teach the more wicked a person is the more he glorifies God that would mean that if God's glory is enhanced by sin why not continue in sin and sin even more the deeper the sin the deeper the grace the deeper the grace the greater the glory so you're saying if this results in his glory why am I being judged as a sinner this isn't fair it makes no sense I should just keep sinning and if I sin even in a worse way then doesn't God get more glory by my life that sounds ridiculous doesn't it but I've encountered people over the years who think exactly that exactly that I had a guy call me up many years ago now in my office and it just so happened that our church was relatively young at that time and I had more opportunity to to take an appointment that was spontaneous and so he called up and he said I need to see you and I said I'm sorry I'm preparing a bible study he says don't you take lunch and I don't take lunch I said no I don't I work through it he says but he says I take lunch at 12 can I come and see you and I said I said you know can we see can I talk to you on Sunday no I need to see you now pastor I really need to see you now I'm really going through it I need to talk to you so my heart went out to this guy and I said okay I said why don't you come at noon I said and I'll spend some time with you he said I'll be there I'll never forget the conversation he came he sat across from me he introduced himself shook my hand sat down he said I had I just have one question pastor I said what is that he said if if I'm divorced is that a sin that God will not forgive me of and I said divorce isn't the unforgivable unforgivable or unpardonable sin Jesus Christ died on the cross that set us free from guilt and divorce isn't going to keep you from heaven divorce isn't something that that that will block you from entrance he says so if if I was divorced I I could still go to heaven I said if you've repented and I didn't realize what he was doing I found out later he had an affair going with a woman in the office he came to get permission to devote to divorce the woman which he did he divorced his wife so he could marry her man that that killed me I hadn't I'll give you another one um I'm sorry John I have no um without giving a lot of details there was somebody in our fellowship I knew very well and he and his wife were going through marital problems again many years ago they came to see me I knew them very well I knew him when I was an assisting pastor in another Calvary and he had come to our fellowship and he and his wife and knew him very well and they sat in my office and she said to him in front of me I'm going to divorce him he started crying because he had come from a broken home he never wanted that for his family he had a little girl he started to weep and when she did it I could see she looked from the corner of her eye she just gave him a look and I knew she just she did that on purpose she stabbed him on purpose that's what she did and so ultimately what happened was this once again cheap grace she heard someone teach about God's permissive and perfect will so she told her husband God's permissive will was for me to marry you his perfect will is for me to divorce you to marry your best friend which is what she did see so when you play with grace to give you room to continue in sin that's the argument they're giving now wait a minute doesn't that bring more glory to God God forbid God's grace is to free us from the bondage of sin not to give us permission to continue in it in John 8 34 through 36 Jesus said very truly I tell you everyone who sins is a slave to sin now a slave has no permanent place in the family but a son belongs to it forever so if the son sets you free you will be free indeed in in chapter 6 we'll see this in verses 1 and 2 and Paul says that again what shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid certainly not how shall we who died to sin live any longer in it again grace doesn't free us to continue in sin it sets us free from sins power and then finally in verse 8 he says why not why not say let us do evil that good may come as we're slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say their condemnation is just people are saying Paul teaches people should do evil so good may come and that's slanderous the word slanderous by the way when he speaks of that in verse 8 as we are slanderously reported the word slanderous speaks it's actually the word blasphemous it's where you get the word blaspheme and it means to speak impiously or reproachfully it speaks of speaking or writing about something in an abusive and demeaning way in other words people are falsely accusing Paul of teaching this error now his accusers think he's diminishing the law of moses does he think he can break the law instead of keeping it does he think that his disobedience reward it gets reward instead of judgment but they couldn't see grace they didn't see then the love god has for people has been revealed clearly through his son jesus christ and god's grace is demonstrated by his love for us but it's also demonstrated by our love for others in galatians 514 the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command love your neighbor as yourself so he's saying don't misunderstand grace grace set you free to serve god not to continue in sin glory is given to god in proportion to the depth of a person's sin in Romans 5 20 the law entered that the offense might abound but where sin abounded grace abounded much more see the beauty of a testimony is never the events that took place in the testimony i've i've said this recently i'll say it again briefly but i've heard i've heard testimonies and many of them and sometimes the testimony almost almost um it almost the sins sometimes are spoken of so clearly and deeply that you you missed the grace of god in it because you get caught up with all of the bad things that person did anytime somebody gives a testimony if it doesn't give glory to god it's not a testimony it's just it's just boasting of your evil old man you know god god's love for us and his grace for us has caused us to love him with every beat of our heart when i was 23 just five years ago well yeah you're still with me okay i i had i had i've said this recently i'll say it again but because it's fresh in my heart i had been around i got saved in the calvary chapel movement in all and i was fellowshiping with people who had been raised as christians and so the things that i had escaped were things that they began to experiment with and i had a particularly dear friend of mine who had never had a beer in his life who decided that it was time for him to drink he was 22 years old i was 23 i was an alcoholic i'm not somebody that just drinks a beer i drink a pitcher that's how i was you know some of you know what i mean by that i i wasn't a i wasn't a casual drinker i had a mission and i was going to be drunk and that was going to that's a fact that's why i drank right so i got saved and i don't i don't have the taste for alcohol anymore and i'm free i'm free my friend amen amen to that yeah but my friend my friend wasn't addicted and he was kind of sophisticated he was college educated moved on towards his his doctorate i mean this is a very intelligent man very good friend of mine and he had he went to christian college called westmont he had he went to pepperdine he ended up getting his doctorate this was a very brilliant man who'd been a christian i'd only been a christian for a short time and and he wanted to experiment with alcohol even convinced me that it's a good thing and so i drank a beer with him but i've told this story before i'll close with it though because it matters we were at a pizza parlor in huntington beach and an old man when i say old he was probably my age that i am now he was old then and he came walking in an older man came walking in and sat directly in front of me he wasn't more than eight feet no because i had the table i was at then that little isle away and his table he's facing me and they brought the pitcher poured glasses my friend poured glasses the man's looking in my direction when i pick it up and take a drink and put it down and the spirit of the lord said to my heart go tell him about me and i i still remember this i've said this before go tell him about me i said i can't you know how you're praying i'm not speaking out loud i'm thinking i can't go tell him about me i can't why not because he saw me drink and he's going to think i'm a hypocrite if i come up to him and tell him jesus is the answer and i'm here pounding beers and eating pizza he's going to think that i'm a hypocrite because some people still get stumbled by that and as god is my witness as i was saying to god i i can't do that two men young men my age entered into the pizza parlor off to my right one sat on this side of him the other sat on that side they basically sandwiched him one of them took out his bible just like i'm doing right now he took out his bible he opened it up and he started sharing the gospel with him and the spirit of the lord said if i cannot use you somebody else never forget that see i always want to be in the place to be used so people want to argue liberties i don't argue liberty i argue love because i out of love have put aside things that i might feel the freedom to do but to the hurt of somebody else and if my liberty stumbles somebody then that liberty has to go because i want to love them enough to tell them the truth and i'm telling you some of us have lost our witnesses because we play with the world with our friends and then we tell them later on how much god loves them now god's grace was given to me to set me free from my addictions and my sins not to allow me to return as a dog to vomit to them and the church needs to wake up to that now because i believe that there's a generation young people right now who are simply looking for someone who tells them and lives the truth god help us to do that god help us for the young people to be able to look at us and say what you have i want i want what you have live it out and so these people are arguing you know the grace of god you know why not sin the more so the grace abounds god forbid we have been set free from it why would we once again be entangled with it no my liberty is in jesus christ and that comes to the grace of god and so we'll pick this up next time as we roll on through roman's chapter