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If you're turning your Bibles
now to Romans chapter three, as we continue our series through
this epistle, we've finally made it to chapter three. And maybe
not quite so much this week and next, but the following week,
we deal with kind of the climax of this whole section that deals
with our problem. And much of chapter 1 verse 18
through chapter 3 verse 20 is a passage that really does not
make us feel good. It's really not good for our
self-esteem. Some of you know how I feel about
that movement. Romans chapter three, I'm going
to read verses one through 20, though the focus this morning
will just be on verses one through four. This is the word of our God. Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with,
the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some
were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify
the faithfulness of God? By no means. Let God be true,
though every one were a liar, as it is written, that you may
be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. But if our unrighteousness serves
to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That
God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human
way. By no means. For then how could
God judge the world? But if through my lie God's truth
abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a
sinner? And why not do evil that good
may come? As some people slanderously charge
us with saying. Their condemnation is just. What then? Are we Jews any better
off? No, not at all. For we have already
charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. As it
is written, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands,
no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together
they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their
lips. Their mouth is full of curses
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. In their paths are ruin and misery
and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of
God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the
law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that
every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable
to God. For by works of the law, no human
being will be justified in his sight, since through the law
comes knowledge of sin. May the Lord add his blessing
to the reading of his holy word. There is, of course, in today's
culture a lot of talk of privilege. Everybody's got privilege except
me. That's really what the argument
boils down to. Now, the difficulty, of course,
is that there is some element of truth to the idea of privilege,
but it's extended it to so many different directions that it
almost loses any meaning. But for Christians, are there
things that we have privileges that others do not? Well, yes
and no. Paul is arguing on the question
of privilege. We've been here in this portion
of Romans, and as I mentioned before, reading our text before
us, that we're in a section that really doesn't do all that much
to make you feel good about yourself, and that's the whole point. The
whole point of this extended section is to remind us that
we are all sinners, we are under the wrath of God, and there is
no hope apart from his grace. Paul sets all of this up right
after reminding us of the fact that he's not ashamed of the
gospel. Because it's the power of God for the salvation of sinners. In the gospel, we find the power
of God for the salvation of sinners. And we're in this lengthy section
to remind us we're sinners. Now Paul in chapter two in particular
really focused on the benefits that the Jews had. But unfortunately
some of those benefits Paul dealt with ahead of time, if you will.
Because the Jews had this natural tendency to think that simply
because they were descendants of Abraham, simply because they
had the law of God, simply because they had circumcision and they
were God's chosen and special people, that's all they needed.
What Paul had set forth at the argument is not our status as
human beings per se, but rather the standard of judgment that
God judges all men by is simply his word, his law. The mere possession
of the Bible does not grant you eternal life. The mere fact that
a person was a Jew by birth, naturally, and then circumcised
to mark him off as a Jew, in and of itself guaranteed no one
eternal life. And we've seen how we can apply
that principle even into the church. Not that we're Jews,
but the fact that as Christians, we are now a part of a body outwardly. We are God's children. We are
his chosen people, his royal priesthood. As Peter brings out
in 1 Peter 2, he's referring to the church. but simply being
outwardly a part of the church is no guarantee of eternal life.
Just like, as Paul said, being a Jew was a matter of the heart,
being circumcised was a matter of the heart, so being a true
Christian was a matter of the heart, internals, true faith,
a desire to live in obedience to Jesus Christ. None of us,
especially in our reformed circles, ought to assume that simply because
we've read all kinds of great theological works, therefore
we must have eternal life. There are plenty of people in
heaven that have never read Calvin. There are plenty of people in
heaven that have never read the Westminster Standards. So the question then for us is
a question that Paul anticipates, and really he anticipates it
through a good portion of this first portion of chapter three.
Well then what's the point? Why do all these things? If having
the law is of no advantage, then what difference does it make?
If being circumcised as a Jew is no advantage, then what's
the point? Well, Paul anticipates that,
and that's where we come to in chapter 3, really the first eight
verses, but we're going to break this up into two weeks. looking
at verses 1-4 to show that the advantages are real, but nonetheless,
all of it depends upon God. So really what I hope to show
out of verses 1-4 this morning is simply this, that external
blessings which God's people possess find their true value
in God's unwavering faithfulness. External blessing, excuse me,
external blessings which God's people possess find their true
value in God's unwavering faithfulness. We're gonna look at this under
two headings. First of all, real advantages. And then secondly,
divine faithfulness. Real advantages and divine faithfulness. So let's look, first of all,
at real advantages. Look again at verse one. Then
what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Then what? Or what then? In the
Greek, it's what then? That's the actual order. It doesn't
really matter. This is actually an expression
that is used by Paul often in Romans. It really deals with
Paul trying to answer objections before they can even be made.
We see this especially in Romans chapter nine. We see it in other
places as well. What then? The passage before
us anticipates an objection of sorts, or a concern at the very
least, putting it mildly. So Paul asks this question to
further his argument. This is his way of doing things,
especially in this epistle. And so that anticipated concern,
that anticipated objection is simply this. Well, what advantage
has the Jew? In other words, what's the point
of being a Jew? If possessing the law and having
circumcision are not in and of themselves sufficient for us
to have eternal life, then why bother? And see, you may think, well,
this applies to Jews, so I've got nothing here to learn. The
fact of the matter is, we as Christians will often have the
same kind of attitude. And do you know how often we
do this by marking it off with a simple question? Is this essential
to salvation? Or is this a secondary matter? You realize when we say that,
we're making the same kind of argument the Jews anticipated.
Well, what advantage is there? What's the point? Why be circumcised? Why possess the law? Why even
read the law? It's a secondary matter. You
see, Paul just got done, and we can understand this. Paul
just got done speaking of the need for the inward, not merely
the external, not merely that which is outward. You see, we
have this tendency to mishear, and so what he does is get more
focused. We have this tendency to mishear
and think that those things don't matter at all. The question, of course, is for
Christians, for things like, well, does joining a church matter
if our salvation is based in Christ alone? I see all of us
are kind of pausing at that. We have this natural tendency.
Well, let's be careful here. Let's word it this way and be
careful because, you know, which church are we supposed to join?
How soon? And all these other questions
related to it. But the fact that our salvation,
our hope of eternal life, rests upon Christ alone does not mean
the other things are therefore unimportant. They just don't
make the essence of what is required for salvation. After all, what's the second greatest commandment?
Love your neighbor as yourself. Does that get you into heaven? You better say no. But nonetheless, though the act
of loving our neighbor, even if we were to do it perfectly,
is not the basis of our salvation, it is nonetheless important.
We need to do it. And that's the kind of thing
that Paul is going to be bringing out here. What advantage is there
of being a Jew? And he gets more focused. What
advantage, what value, what profit is there in being circumcised? Now by this time, Paul had already
probably written a couple of epistles, most notably Galatians. Galatians was probably his first,
or very early on, one of his epistles. Much of his argument
in Galatians concerns circumcision. That's part of the issue. He
deals with it also in Colossians, so that came later. This was
a big issue. It became a big issue with the
First Jerusalem Council in Acts chapter 15. But the focus is,
what's the place of the law in the life of a Gentile? There's
a sense in which Paul's arguing this here. What advantage is
there? And Paul answers with a simple
statement, much in every way. And if you want to put it wouldn't-ly,
much according to everything. Now, Paul is going to discuss
these advantages further in chapter 9, particularly in verses 4 and
5. We've got some time before we
get there. but he only gives one real tangible thing here. Notice, much in every way to
begin with. Or you might say, to use our
language a bit more, first of all, and then he just gives one
thing. It's kind of a disappointment.
It's like you start going through, you look through the text of
scripture, where's the rest of it? Well, he comes to it, as
I mentioned, chapter 9, verses 4 and 5. But the thing that he
brings out here is of utmost importance. Much in every way,
here is the thing. First and foremost, the Jews
were entrusted with the oracles of God. Now the word here that's
translated as oracles, and it's a fine translation, nothing wrong
with it, but it's related to logos, word. What we see in John 1, in the
beginning was the word. Stephen uses our word here that's
translated as oracles to refer to the whole of the Mosaic law
given at Sinai. The author of Hebrews uses it
in reference to Christianity. So the oracles of God really
deals with the totality of God's word. It's not merely the commandments,
but it also includes prophecy, promises, and in particular,
covenant promises. No other nation was given such
privilege. That is true. No other nation. If you turn, and I've referenced
this before, but if you turn to Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse
8, Moses, in his lengthy sermon,
if you will, to the people of Israel before they enter the
promised land, These are what Moses is saying illustrative
of what the other nations look upon Israel as having. And notice
verse eight. And what great nation is there
that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that
I set before you today? Moses seemed to think there's
some great advantage. Turn also to Psalm 147. Psalm
147 verses 19 and 20. He declares his word to Jacob,
his statutes and rules to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any
other nation. They do not know his rules. And
how does it end? Praise the Lord. Look what God has done. He's
given us His oracles. No other nation. These were entrusted
to the Jews. But we need to understand, though
the oracles, the Word of God was entrusted to the Jews of
old, they were to be accepted and obeyed in faith. You see, privileges and advantages
imply duty. In fact, it strongly implies
it. Did Israel live up to it? Were they faithful? You see,
that's really the question. And of course, we know if we
have even a tiny bit of biblical history and biblical knowledge,
we know they weren't. despite their advantages, because
those advantages did not guarantee eternal life. Those privileges, as I mentioned,
strongly imply duty. You see, we speak of being citizens
of our country, for those of us that are citizens of the United
States. We have certain advantages and
privileges as a result of that, but we also have certain duties. Boys and girls, you have certain
privileges in living in your parents' home, in your family's
home, but that also carries with it responsibilities and duties. Parents, you have the privilege
of living in a place with a roof over your head, but that also
means you have responsibilities and duties. You have the privilege
of having kids. The Lord has blessed you with
children, but you have the duty to raise them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. You see, there's no escaping
the responsibilities that come even with privilege. For the Jew, they had their unique
privileges. But for the church, so do we.
We are a church, we're an assembly of God's people. We are an outward
manifestation of the people of God and that carries great privilege,
but it also carries responsibility and duty. It means that we as
an assembly, we as a body, have the responsibility to worship
God and give him glory and to love one another. It's just the
beginning. Oh, but that's such a burden.
No, you've been set free for these things. So what advantage is there for
the believer compared to the unbeliever? Much in every way,
you have the word of God, you have the church, you have baptism
as a sign and seal of God's covenant faithfulness to his people. And
on and on it goes, numerous privileges. But they also carry responsibility. And was Israel faithful? That was a question I asked just
a moment ago. And we know that the answer was
no. And this brings us to our second
point, divine faithfulness. Look at verse three. What if some were unfaithful?
Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? Paul
anticipates another objection, though it's a logical objection
given what Paul's emphasis has been. What if some were unfaithful? Now it is interesting to note
that the anticipated objection understands things. What if some
were unfaithful? There's any number of ways we
can try to interpret that. I think a lot of times when people
say, well, what if some were unfaithful? If we're going to
be honest here, a lot of us, if we were to ask that question,
what if they were unfaithful? That's some. It's not me. It can't possibly be me. The point here is that Israel
was unfaithful. They were. There's no escaping
it. Being unfaithful is a sad situation given the fact that
they had the oracles of God in which they were entrusted. In
fact, what a contrast. They've been entrusted. They
had as their trust the oracles of God and they were unfaithful
with it. They were unfaithful. Does their faithlessness nullify
the faithfulness of God? The emphasis here is not so much
on a lack of faith, though that's involved, and it's included, especially
since one cannot truly be faithful apart from true faith. That is
true. The emphasis, rather, is that
Paul is demonstrating for us Israel's unfaithfulness toward
the covenant obligations. Does this then nullify God's
faithfulness? And Paul says, no, it doesn't. A quick note about that word,
nullify. Does it nullify? It's actually
a somewhat rare word. In secular Greek writings, it
means to leave or cause to be idle. In the Septuagint, it seems
to mean to destroy. Now, though it's a pretty rare
word throughout much of Greek literature as we have it, Paul
uses it some 25 times. So it's not that rare for him.
And here it may and probably does mean render powerless. Does our or does the Jews' faithlessness
render powerless the faithfulness of God? And his answer is, by
no means. An emphatic rejection. Now the
King James Version, for the sake of forcing, seeing the force
of this rejection, uses God forbid. That's not actually what it says,
but that's kind of the idea behind it. The answer might be in our
terms, of course not. That's absurd. That's what Paul
is getting at. Their faithlessness in no way
nullifies or renders idle God's faithfulness. What do we understand about God's
faithfulness? You see, this is where it's important
to understand these things. The book of Psalms in particular
frequently connects faithfulness to God's steadfast love, that
chesed love. It also shows using language
the sheer volume of God's faithfulness and the eternally enduring quality
of his faithfulness. Much of the Psalms bears this
out. And so you think about how often the Psalms say his steadfast
love endures forever. And also how often faithfulness
is connected to steadfast love. That means his faithfulness endures
to all generations. The sheer volume of it and the
eternally enduring quality of it. And Paul emphasizes it even further. Let God be true, though everyone
were a liar. Now it's easy to look at this
and you see true and liar as something that is factually accurate
versus something that is completely opposite of being factually accurate. We've had our fill of lying this
past couple of months. But true here actually has more
to do with reliability. It has more to do with the idea
of being sure and certain. That's the idea, trustworthy.
Faithfulness in God is not merely the promise of blessing. That's
the thing we need to understand because now we come to it. And
Paul's gonna expand upon this. He's already expanded upon this
aspect earlier in this portion of Romans, and he's gonna expand
upon it again, especially as we get to this extra portion
of Old Testament citations. God's faithfulness does not simply
or only deal with promises of grace. And this is where we begin to
squirm. His faithfulness also deals with threats of judgment
for disobedience. You see, he is faithful to himself
as well. And this is where it gets uncomfortable. Very much so. He is faithful
to his threats of judgment against sin. By way of example, turn
to Nehemiah chapter nine. There in Nehemiah chapter 9,
particularly verses 32 and 33, we hear these words. Now therefore, our God, the great,
the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast
love, let not all the hardships seem little to you that has come
upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets,
our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of
Assyria until this day. Yet you have been righteous in
all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully, and
we have acted wickedly." Notice that what Nehemiah is saying
there, what is being preached to the people, is that even in
judging his people for their wickedness and sin, God is even
faithful in that. But it still does not nullify
his faithfulness. And despite all of that, you
read that passage in Nehemiah and you see how his steadfast
love is brought to the forefront again. But despite ourselves, despite ourselves,
our God remains faithful to himself, he remains just, but he also
provides a means of grace while at the same time staying just
and pure. Paul will talk about this also
later in chapter three. This is the tension in which
the Christian lives. We recognize and realize that
God is faithful in his judgment, but he's also faithful in his
covenant-keeping promises. This is the tension in which
we live. Let God be true, though every
man a liar. That's an accurate understanding
as it's brought out by the ESV. Let God be true and every man
a liar. We should understand that as
though every man a liar. It doesn't matter. Each and every
one of us can lie all the time, every day, every moment. God
will always be true, reliable, sure, and trustworthy. Their unfaithfulness does not
in any way do away with, nullify, set aside God's faithfulness. And Paul then gives us some scriptural
support. And he gets it from a somewhat
odd place. As it is written, that you may
be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged.
Now those of you that have a footnote there, you can see that the reference
comes from Psalm 51. Psalm 51, a Psalm of David, when
Nathan the prophet came and confronted him because of his sin of adultery
with Bathsheba and subsequently murdering her husband, Uriah
the Hittite. And through it all, David comes
to the conclusion that the consequences of his sin are right and sure
and faithful. And this is the beauty of it
all. God showed David grace, despite
you want to talk about a man who had privilege. He was even told by Nathan, all
you had to do was ask. And yet he sinned wickedly. and the chastisement that was
brought upon David, David recognizes as just and true and righteous. There, his unfaithfulness did
not in any way negate God's faithfulness. The fact that David, even facing
the chastisement of God, could continue to utter those words,
was also a demonstration of God's faithfulness. As we look through
the Old Testament, what's the penalty for adultery and murder? It's death. Earlier we sang from
Psalm 32, to paraphrase, blessed is the man whose transgressions
are not imputed to him. This is God's grace, and you
think about this. Despite our unfaithfulness, we're
in a passage that overall talks about our problem, but we keep
getting these glimmers of hope. Even here, Israel's unfaithful,
but God remains faithful. Even as He deals with the effects
of sin, He manages remarkably to maintain His holiness, maintain
His justice, and at the same time save a people to Himself.
You see, this is the marvel of the gospel. And as we get beyond
chapter three, verse 21, we'll see this in full detail. But
in order to understand the beauty of such a thing that God has
done, we have to understand what it is we deserve instead. Because
we have been unfaithful. We have been unfaithful. That's the issue. That's the
problem we all face. despite our external blessing,
despite some of us having been a part of a reformed church and
even the Orthodox Presbyterian Church for decades, having read
Machen, having read all the greats, none of those things, none of
those privileges gives you the right to eternal life. but they are nonetheless advantages. And see, that's the flip side.
And if we are to take something else away from this, it's not
just the fact that God is faithful. It's also the reality that the
privileges we have as Reformed Christians are real privileges. The privileges all Christians
have are real privileges. We should not just say, well,
because we've been faithless, Therefore, those privileges don't
matter. They do matter. They're important. And if I can put it this way,
it's something that we ought to take a right kind of advantage
of. They're privileges that we ought
to enjoy, that we ought to embrace, because they are privileges that
do remind us of God's faithfulness to save sinners like us. All of this, of course, fulfilled
in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It's about to get ugly again
in chapter 3. In the next Lord's Day, Lord
willing, we'll look at verses 5 through 8. But after that,
verses 9 through 20, it's kind of like this whole section began. We get an explanation. The whole
section, beginning at chapter one, verse 18, the wrath of God
has been revealed against all unrighteousness. Why? This latter portion, this portion
of chapter three that we're about to come to explains it. There's
no one who does good, no not one. They've all together become
worthless. But the gospel of Jesus Christ
saves. And that's where we're heading. And so by way of reminder, as
you share the gospel with the lost, don't hide the reality
of what we deserve. Now, of course, you can do it
the wrong way. I get that. Many times, arrogant
Christians will come in and say, you deserve to go to hell. And
while that may be true, that's not a helpful way to say it.
It's better to remind them, I'm a sinner that deserves to go
to hell. But thanks be to God, through
Jesus Christ, I have salvation in spite of what I deserve. Put
it on yourself. You deserve nothing. I know that's
hard to hear, isn't it? I deserve nothing. But he gives us so much. Why? Because he's faithful. And his
faithfulness endures. His faithfulness is sure and
true and reliable and trustworthy. We're about to partake of the
Lord's Supper. This is a reminder that God is
faithful. We partake in part because God
in his grace knows that we struggle remembering that he is faithful. This supper is a reminder to
you that God is faithful, that the promises found in Christ
are yes and amen, and you can rest assured and He will carry
you through to the end. We partake not because we're
strong. but because we're weak. We partake
because God is strong and he is able to save to the uttermost.
You see, as we partake, this is not just a privilege that
we outwardly enjoy. It is a privilege that we inwardly
ought to have as our focus the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Christ crucified, died for sinners like you and me. That's the privilege
to which all these other things point. you have a privilege to
be here this morning. That should point you to Christ. Does it? Do all your privileges
lead you to Christ, recognizing that you deserve none of them
but have them because of Christ? trust in him, rest in him, be
assured that God is faithful to the end. Amen. Let's pray. Our great God and Father in heaven,
we do rejoice in what your word teaches us. We rejoice that Jesus
Christ demonstrates your faithfulness. He is the ultimate fulfillment
of your faithfulness. Despite our faithlessness, Lord,
we do pray that we would have a right attitude toward the privileges
that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord, that we would use them
appropriately, that we would recognize that these privileges
in and of themselves do not grant us eternal life. That comes from
Christ alone. Nevertheless, Lord, help us to
use the privileges we have. May we revel in them. May we
rejoice in them. May we use the means of grace
that you have given us so that we would grow in Christ. We pray all this in his name,
amen.
God's Faithfulness
Series Romans
| Sermon ID | 1110242012587656 |
| Duration | 41:47 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Romans 3:1-4 |
| Language | English |
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