Amen. Take your Bibles, if you would, this morning as we come into the presence of our God, and join me in this Psalm of David, Psalm 103, as we come confessing our sin before Him and acknowledging His goodness and His mercy and His steadfast love and grace. David says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your disease, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses and His acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him. And as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. For He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it and it is gone and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heaven and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, O you His angels, you mighty ones who do His Word, obeying the voice of His Word. Bless the Lord, all His hosts, His ministers who do His will. Bless the Lord, all His works in all the places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let us bless Him today as we come forth in His name before His throne in order to receive His grace and give Him great praise, that He doesn't deal with us according to our sins, that He doesn't chide us, that His anger doesn't continue to burn against us, but that His steadfast love in Jesus Christ is from everlasting to everlasting and will never fail, and has recreated us and given us the ability to stand in His presence, blameless and with great joy. So stand, come before Him, confess your sins to Him, and lay hold of His grace anew this morning. Take a moment with your God. Father, what a great God You are. We confess this and we acknowledge this as we come into Your presence, as we draw near to Your throne of grace, as we ascend from all of the temptations and distractions of this world into the Holy of Holies made without hands, the heavenly tabernacle where You sit enthroned in Christ at Your right hand. Father, we confess that You are an awesome God. We confess that as creatures, we cannot even begin to fathom the greatness and the infinitude of Your majesty. And we confess, Father, that as sinful creatures, Father, how often we trivialize and suppress the truth of Your greatness and Your majesty. Because we're not comfortable with it. Because it makes us feel our own shame, our own fallenness, the contrast between Your holiness and our sinfulness. And we aren't okay with that. We aren't comfortable with that. One of our strategies, Father, of dealing with that discomfort is to try to minimize our concept of Your holiness and Your glory. Father, teach us to repent of that this morning. Be with us by Your Spirit today and fill us with such a knowledge of Your grandeur and Your greatness omniscience and omnipotence and omnipresence and sovereignty, Father, that You would squelch and conquer any temptation and any desire and any propensity and tendency in our hearts to tear You down, to cast You as something that You aren't, as something much smaller than who and what You truly are. Father, overwhelm us this morning with a sense of Your greatness, Your unsearchableness, Your unknowableness, Cause us, Father, to revel in the mystery of the fact that You are holy, holy, holy. That You dwell in an approachable light. That no one and nothing can compare with You. And at the same time, Father, overwhelm us and impress us with this great reality this morning, that as great and transcendent as You are, You are with us. That You sent Your Son to dwell among men. That He took human flesh. lived, and that He bled, and that He died, and that He was raised, and that we are united to Him by faith, and that He is our Emmanuel. Father, we praise You that You are good to us by being near to us. We praise You that on that cross, Father, as His flesh was torn, and as His blood was poured out, and as He breathed His last, that the sky itself was ripped open, The curtain in the temple was torn in two. And Father, we thank You that that means that there is no more separation between us and You. That in Christ Jesus, we have been united to You. We have been reconciled to You. We have been adopted by You. We have been given the right by this great love to be called Your children. And so, Father, dominate our hearts with this truth this morning and the great truth of the Gospel that You have done all of this by Your own work apart from anything that we could do or would do. And in spite of the fact, Father, that all that we do and all that we have done before was sin against You. Father, this grace was free. It was undeserved. It was unmerited. It wasn't something we worked for. It wasn't something we earned. It was something we worked against and fought against, and yet You gave it to us because You loved us, and it glorified You, and it brought Your name great reputation, Father, and great esteem and exaltation, because You put Your mercy on display. And so, Father, let Your people revel in Your mercy this morning, and let that grace and love and mercy reform us and reshape us and strengthen us and grow us. that it might be for Your glory that we live, that our lives might be living sacrifices and spiritual services of worship that are worthy of who You are. Father, let us not leave this place unchanged as we commune with You, as we hear from You, as we worship You, as we pray to You, as we're met by You, as we're fed by You. Lord, we love You and we need You. And we praise You that You are a God that can be reached out to and leaned upon, We praise You that You are a God who is trustworthy and faithful, that we can find our sufficiency in, that every need that we actually have is met in. And so, Father, we pray that You will teach us to draw near and to be satisfied in You. Lord, we pray this morning for those who are sick and those who are traveling. We wish they were with us, but we know that in Your providence You have them where they are. We pray for their health and we pray for their strength. We pray that You would pour out Your goodness and Your presence and Your comfort on them. And so, Father, as we do the same this morning, cause our souls to sing and conform our lives to Your grace and Your mercy. As You show it to us, as You prove it to us, as You lavish it upon us, Father, cause it to come pouring out of us. Cause our tithing, our giving, our living, our words and our deeds, Father, everything that we do and say and think and feel even, to bring You glory. We ask this in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Now hear what the Lord says to us. Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news. Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news. Lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Judah, behold your God. Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him. Behold, his reward is with him. and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms. He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young. And together then I sing creed. I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, the very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again to glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdoms shall have no end. And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. Let's turn to Romans chapter 3 for the reading this morning. I'm going to read verses 1 through 8. So now hear God's word. 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. Grass withers, the flower fades. God's word is everlasting. This passage that we're going to consider this morning, these first eight verses of Romans chapter 3, have been confusing for some people. And so, if you've read through this passage, and if while it was being read through this morning, you were a little bit confused as to what Paul is saying, that's okay, you're not alone. This is a tough passage of Scripture. And we're just going to walk through it and unpack it today and understand Paul's argument and how he answers certain objections that he has been facing and see this great, great truth that is manifested in Paul's teaching here. Now, one of the most important skills for any teacher to master is the ability to anticipate questions and especially the ability to anticipate objections from the people that you're teaching. Especially when what you're teaching is new or novel or unpopular or controversial. And the Apostle Paul was an absolute master at this. Especially here in the book of Romans, because what he's teaching here, especially considering when he first wrote this book and who he was writing it to, what he's teaching was very, very new and unpopular and controversial. Still is, of course. A lot of people have trouble with the teaching. in the book of Romans. But Paul starts off this letter to the Romans sort of like a cannon blast. He comes flying right out of the gate and for three whole chapters teaches and argues and demonstrates and proves that all men are universally sinful before God and deserving of God's divine judgment. That's not popular. That's not what the crowd wants to hear. That's not appealing to people's felt needs. But this is what Paul does. And he does it at length. And he teaches that this judgment of God that we are deserving of is absolutely coming with a certainty that transcends any other event or anything else that is going to happen in this world. And what Paul is saying is that we all need to know this, because unless we know it, We'll never know the great life-creating Gospel truth that Paul also proclaims unless we come to grips with the reality of our sin, unless we stop candy-coating it, unless we stop minimizing it, unless we stop calling it something other than what Paul calls it here, what God reveals it to be here through Paul, then we will never understand the truth of the Gospel and we will never find life in the Gospel. That's what Paul is teaching. This is what he wants us to understand. Ultimately, that we're sinners. Ultimately, that we are sinners saved by grace. That's his ultimate message. That no matter who you are, and that no matter what you've done, No matter how much sin and what kind of sin you're guilty of before God, God has given you His Son, and His Son lived a righteous life, and His Son died on the cross, and His Son was raised to newness of life, so that you can be reconciled to God and found acceptable in the sight of God and forgiven of your sins on the sole basis of what Jesus Christ has done. That's the whole point of the book of Romans. That we all, Jews and Gentiles alike, Americans or otherwise, men or women, whatever race or color we are, no matter what we've done, no matter who we are, no matter how conservative a household or a country or a city we grew up in, we all need the Gospel. We all need Paul's Gospel. We all need God's power unto salvation. Because we're all sinners. And by nature, our hearts are rock hard towards God. We are absolute factories of idols, as Calvin so famously said, and we're hopelessly addicted to worshipping all of those idols instead of God. And the debt that we owe to God is a burden far too heavy for us to bear. We could never even start to repay it. We can never even begin to work our way back into God's favor. We can never muster any sort of righteousness, let alone the kind of righteousness that's required for us to be acceptable in His sight, because He is holy, holy, holy. And so God, here's the Gospel, being merciful and loving and gracious beyond all comprehension, And God in this massive display of His sovereign grace and glory, God freely gives us His own righteousness through living faith in His Son. This is what Paul has taught us so far. That we must be holy like God is holy and that because we are not able to have a righteousness that compares to His righteousness, He gives us His own righteousness as a covering, as a free gift through faith that we might look upon Him and see His Son, and that He might look upon us and see His Son and His righteousness and call us just. That's Paul's Gospel. That's how salvation works. It's all the work of God. It doesn't depend on anything that we can do. It isn't based on anything that we can point to in ourselves. No works of our own. Not any accomplishments that we're capable of. Not our good old-fashioned conservative morals and ideals. Not our heritage, not our pedigree, not our nationality. Nothing that we could point to in ourselves and say, because of this thing in me, I am in a position to avoid hell or apprehend heaven. This is Paul's Gospel. And so now, at this particular point in his argument, Paul takes some time to answer the objections that he knows are lingering in the minds Jewish countrymen and are beginning to form on their lips. Because a big part of Paul's argument for the Gospel here has been, remember, at the end of chapter 2, to define the true people of God in a way that is absolutely contrary to how the Jewish nation had defined the true people of God. For the ethnic Jews, the people of God had always been the ethnic Jews. the physical blood descendants of Abraham, those of the circumcision. But now Paul, himself a Jew of course, himself a former member of the Jewish religious elite, now Paul has said at the end of chapter 2, look up at verse 25, he said that if a Jewish person doesn't follow the law of God, then his circumcision becomes uncircumcision. Remember looking at that verse? And what he means by that is that if a Jewish person, in spite of the fact that he's Jewish, in spite of the fact that he's related to Abraham, in spite of his circumcision, if he doesn't follow the law of God in his heart, then he becomes no different from the unbelieving, unclean Gentiles, Paul says. You're just like them. That's hard medicine for the Jewish people to swallow. Once we're guilty of sin before God, it doesn't matter what's true about us on the outside. What matters is what is true of our hearts, because that's where God looks, past the surface, to what's really going on in our hearts. But the real kicker here was not just that Paul said, that Jews who break God's law are no better than the sinful, unbelieving Gentiles, the real kicker is what he went on to say down in verse 27, when he said that the Gentiles who do keep God's law will stand in condemnation of the hypocritical Jews. He means on the last day, when the judgment comes, when Christ weighs everything in the scales. A Jewish person who has broken the law will be stood over in condemnation by a Gentile who has been faithful to God. Imagine how hard that was for them to swallow in all their nationalistic pride. But Paul wasn't even finished there. He didn't even stop there. He went on in v. 28, remember, to say that true Jewishness, true membership in the covenant community of the people of God has actually nothing at all to do with what they thought it did. True Jewishness has nothing to do, Paul says, with bloodlines or circumcision, with outward things in any way, because v. 28, no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly. Nor is circumcision outward and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly. And circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. And His praise is not from man, but from God." I mean, you see, right? You see how Paul can anticipate that there are going to be objections to all of this. That they're not just going to let this fly without trying to refute it. I mean, Paul is basically saying that some people who are ethnically Jewish are not real Jews at all. They aren't the covenant people of God at all. And some people who are Gentiles are actually the true people of God, are actually truly Jewish. Even though they aren't descended from Abraham, even though they've never even considered being circumcised, in their hearts they have been. In their hearts they've been cleansed and set apart and healed by the Holy Spirit of God and the power of His grace in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so again, you can see pretty easily how this is going to rile the Jews up. And how easily Paul could expect to be challenged on what he's taught here at the end of chapter 2. Because see, the problem that the Jews are going to have with all of this is that Paul seems to be denying that the ethnic Jewish nation occupies any special place at all as the chosen nation of God's people. Paul seems to be denying everything that they've always believed the Old Testament to teach. And if Paul does that, if he takes the whole Old Testament and says, well, forget that, they're not going to listen to anything, and everything that he teaches is going to fall apart, and none of it is ever going to stand. And so he anticipates two major objections in this passage, and he answers them. Look at verse 1 of chapter 3. He asks the question, and in doing this, he's posing the objection that is going to be raised and probably has been raised as he has had conversations with his fellow Jewish countrymen, probably with people that he used to be in leadership with in the Sanhedrin, in the pharisaical order. And the objection that is going to be raised is this, then what advantage has the Jew? or what value is circumcision? You see what's going on? You see what that objection is driving at? Paul had said that Jews can become subject to the condemnation by the Gentiles, and that Gentiles can become true Jews if their hearts are transformed by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ as their Messiah. And so if all that's true, then what advantage is there to being an ethnic Jew? What does it matter? What blessings? That's what this word advantage means. It means abundance. It means great benefits and blessings that God has poured out. You're basically denying that God has done anything for us, Paul. If your teaching ends up in the conclusion that there aren't any benefits and blessings for the Jews, then what do we make of all the promises of the Old Testament towards the Jews? Doesn't it make God unfaithful? This is what they're driving at. He's promised us these things. If we don't have them, doesn't that mean God is unfaithful? So here's Paul's answer. What advantage, what blessings, what benefits are there for the Jewish people? Verse 2, there is much advantage, he says, in every way. And then he says these words, he says, As if he's going to give a running list of ways in which the Jewish people, the ethnic Jewish nation has enjoyed great benefits from God, only he lists one thing here and then he stops. He says to begin with, he's got all these things in mind, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God, and then that's all he's going to mention here in this passage. He'll go on later to elaborate and mention many more things. But here, he sticks with this one thing. The Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. Oracles is the Greek word logion. And everywhere that that word is used, not only in Scripture, but also in Hellenistic Greek secular literature, that word means sacred, divinely spoken words. Not just words you would find in any book. but the words that you would find in a sacred religious document. That's the word Paul specifically uses here. The Jewish people ethnically were entrusted with the very words of God, he's saying. And that one thing that he mentions there really sums up everything that God has done in blessing and benefiting the Jewish people. He's entrusted them with His Word, and from that living, active Word has come everything that they were ever blessed with. He'll go on to elaborate all of the list in Romans 9-11. Three entire chapters essentially devoted to pointing out a list of ways in which God has blessed the Jewish people. That's where he'll say, for example, Romans 9 and verses 4-5, that they are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises, all of those flowing out of the revelation of God's glory and holiness and law and will to His people. To them, he says, belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. He's a descendant literally, physically of Abraham. from their race according to the flesh is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. Many, many advantages. Many, many benefits and blessings, to be sure, have been poured out on the nation of Israel. Paul isn't denying that at all. Paul is absolutely affirming that. His point, though, is that when it comes to salvation, justification, membership in the covenant of God's people and the eternal Kingdom of Heaven, they cannot rely merely on that privileged status. They have to rely on Christ. And unless they do, their judgment will be exactly the same as the judgment of every man, woman, and child who refuses to rely on Christ. That's the key for understanding Paul's answer to this objection. They're saying, well, which is it, Paul? On the one hand, you say that the Jews have these tremendous benefits and blessings from God, but on the other hand, you say that the Jews are perishing in their unbelief. And the assumption is, it's got to be one way or the other. Either the Jews are God's covenant people simply because they're Jewish, or they're perishing. Which means, to the ones making this objection, that God is unfaithful. That whole argument, that entire objection rides on the assumption that Jewish people are and always will be the people of God simply by virtue of their ethnic status. You see that basic assumption in their thinking? They actually want to be able to say that they are God's people and always will be, even if they aren't faithful. Even if they aren't trusting Him, even if they aren't keeping His law in their hearts, they're actually arguing that God can't ever condemn them or judge them no matter what they do or don't do because they're Jews. And He made promises to the Jews so He can't condemn them. And if He does, then He's the unfaithful one. And so Paul's response to that is in verse 3. Well, what if some were unfaithful? Are you really saying that there are no unfaithful Jewish people? What if some of you were unfaithful to God? Would their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? See, he's rejecting this assumption of theirs. That if any unfaithful Jewish people perish under God's judgment, then God will be found to be unfaithful. Because somehow He will have broken the promises that He made to those Jewish people. Paul rejects that reasoning. Verse 4, May it never be. It's unthinkable. And it's not only unthinkable if some people were found to be unfaithful, like verse 3 says, but even verse 4, if all men prove to be false to God, let God be true though everyone were a liar. God wouldn't be unfaithful to His own glory and His own promises, His own covenant, even if He judged everybody. Why? Why? Because part of the covenant of God with His people was not only the blessings of that covenant, but the curses. If you're faithful to Me, you'll enjoy the abundance and the richness of these blessings. And if you're not, you'll suffer the curses of the covenant. And they weren't. And Paul points out the fact that God's condemnation of sinful people is owing to two things. Their sinfulness and the fact that in His nature and character, God is a just and holy God who will punish sin. And so, he expresses this conviction by quoting from the Psalms, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail. when you are judged." You see what Paul is saying? You can't say that if God judges a sinful Jewish person that God is unfaithful. God is justified in His judgments. God will prevail if He is scrutinized and examined for whether or not He is being faithful. Where is he quoting from? What psalm is that? You probably should recognize it. We read it quite a lot here on Sunday mornings, oftentimes for the confession of sin. You'll probably really recognize it if you're looking at the little cross-references in the margins of your Bible. He's quoting from Psalm 51 and verse 4. Psalm 51 is a psalm of King David, right? It's the psalm that David wrote after he had been faithless. After he had broken God's law in some pretty horrendous ways. after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. And then after he found out that she was pregnant by him, tried to get her husband Uriah to come home from battle so that maybe it would look like it was his child, and when that didn't work out because Uriah was too honorable of a man to spend the night with his own wife while his other men were on the battlefield without their wives, David got upset with Uriah and had him marched out to the front of the lines of battle Order that he would be killed. Sin and wickedness was running rampant in David's heart. Until he was confronted in his sin by Nathan the prophet. His heart was broken. He was repentant and in that repentance he wrote Psalm 51. And in verse 4 of Psalm 51, we get a sense of the depth and the genuineness of David's confession when he says to God, it's against You and You only that I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight. Yes, I sinned against Bathsheba. Yes, I sinned against Uriah. And that's important and it's horrendous, but first and foremost, I sinned against You and because my sin was first of all against You, You are justified. in speaking against Me, and you would be blameless in pouring out judgment upon Me." You see David's point? You see why Paul quotes it there in Romans chapter 2? Because David never even thought about doing what the Jewish people are doing. Paul had said that in their unbelief, many of the Jews were perishing, and the response was to say, no way, we can't perish, we're the Jews. If we perished, God would be unfaithful. Is that what David did? Is that how David responded to Nathan? Did he hide behind his Jewishness when he was confronted with his sin and his unfaithfulness? Did he try to hide behind his status as a member of the covenant people of God? Did he try to say, okay, fine, I sinned, but God can't touch me, because I'm one of the people of the promise. I'm the king! that God has selected and anointed. I can't be judged. God promised me an eternal throne and dominion for all generations. So get out of my face, Nathan. Is that what David did? Did he try to deflect the focus away from his sin and put it onto God and say, sure, I sinned, but God won't condemn me. God can't condemn me because if He does, then He would be the unfaithful one. Was any of that in David's heart at all? No. Because David was a man after God's own heart. David knew his sin. David hated his sin. And in his repentance, David recognized and acknowledged the truth that because of his sin, and because of God's holy and righteous and just nature, God would be blameless in judging him. And Paul's point, see, is that so far from what the Jews are saying, that if God condemned Israel, He would be unfaithful to His promises to Israel, it's actually the contrary. It's actually the opposite. Their sin and the hardness of their hearts, their unfaithfulness, is exactly and precisely what renders God just and righteous in judging them. In other words, Paul is saying that the manifestation of divine justice doesn't make God look bad, It actually magnifies His righteousness and holiness and glory. Now that ought to have sealed the deal, right? That ought to have won the fight. But as soon as Paul makes that point, that God will in fact be glorified and shown to be faithful in the judgment of all unbelieving, unfaithful sinners, a second objection springs up. Something that he knows the Jewish people are going to try and say. He knows they will because He knows how they work. He knows how they operate. Because He used to be one of them. He used to think like they think. He used to argue like they argue. And ever since His own conversion, He's been debating with these guys. And disputing with these guys. And He knows how they respond to the true gospel because He's faced their opposition time and time again. And mostly Paul knows their hearts. He knows the lengths to which sinful people will go to try to wiggle out of their guilt and responsibility before God. And so now, knowing all of that, Paul anticipates the second objection here in Romans 3. It's in verse 5. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, you see, that's what he's proven from Psalm 51, If our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath upon us? And then he's kind of embarrassed to have to even voice this ridiculous objection, and so he says parenthetically, I'm speaking in a human way. You see what they're saying? Here's the progression of thought. Paul had confronted the nationalistic pride of the Jews, where they thought that salvation belonged to them simply because they were Jews. He'd said, no, salvation belongs to those who believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, no matter what nationality you are. And in saying that, he'd said that any circumcised Jews who are unfaithful to God become just like the unbelieving Gentiles in God's sight. and that any Gentiles who believe on Christ for salvation will stand in condemnation of the Jews during their day of judgment. And their response, that first objection, was to try to dodge their responsibility before God by saying that if He judged them, He'd be unrighteous, because He'd promised and covenanted that they'd always be His people. So Paul pointed to David. It's against you and you alone I have sinned. You're just and blameless to judge me." When God judges His people, it magnifies His glory. And so instead of nodding their heads and admitting that you're right, Paul, there's nothing we can say about that. God is honored and glorified and magnified when He deals righteously with sin. Instead, they tried to deny Paul's line of reasoning by actually going so far as to say, well, then Paul, if you're right, if our unrighteousness actually shows God's righteousness when He judges us, then when we sin, that actually makes us instruments of God's righteousness. It's a good thing. We're putting God's glory on display, right? We're helping them out. And if that's true, then we'd be doing something good and that would mean that God wouldn't be righteous in judging us. So, there you have it. That's literally what the objection is. That's actually what they're trying to say. And you see how ridiculous this sinful, depraved mind can get in defending itself and trying to protect itself against God's claims of justice. If God is glorified, When we sin, then our sin accomplishes His glory, and so He'd be unjust to judge us. Take that, Paul. Preston. Now watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat. I mean, one preacher said about this passage, if this sounds like a manipulative word game, that's because it is. That's exactly what it is. They're so desperate to prove Paul wrong that they've actually resorted to the most illogical and unreasonable kinds of arguments, but not only illogical and unreasonable, but arguments that are so inconsistent with Scripture and truth and reason that they show their hearts to be absolutely wicked and deceptive. It's not hard for Paul to win this debate and to show that they're wrong in their thinking here. And so in verse 6, again, he says, by no means, no way, this kind of thinking can never stand. And this is the reason, for how then could God judge the world? If it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander arguments that Paul employs here. They've protested too much. Because if they were right, that God would be unjust to judge us because our sin accomplishes His glory, then you have to be able to apply that same argument not only to them, but to all sinners. All men could say the same thing. Well, look, what I actually did magnifies God's glory, and so He shouldn't punish me for doing that. And Paul's point is, if you're going to use that argument, then you've argued away any basis for God to ever deal with any sin at all, Jew or Gentile. And how then will God judge the world? You see, the Jews teach that He will. They believe that judgment is coming and ought to. And therefore, this ridiculous argument of theirs must be false. And it also must be false because as it would apply to all men, it would apply to Paul, right? Look at verse 7. He says, but if through my lie God's truth abounds to His glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? You get it? They think Paul is wrong here. They think Paul is spreading pernicious lies here. They think that Paul is sinning in what he's teaching, and they want to condemn him as a sinner for doing that. But their way of trying to disprove him has caused him to go so far as to say that if sin brings God's glory and judgment, then God would be unjust to judge sin, and therefore, Paul should get off just like they do. You have no basis to judge me. Paul's really good at this. What's good for the goose is good for the whole gander, me included. If you really, really thought what you think, then you would be thanking me for bringing God glory through my false teaching rather than condemning me as a sinner. And, not only that, but if their defense is solid, then it inevitably leads to this kind of thinking, verse 8, and why not do evil that good may come? As some people have slanderously charged us with saying, and their condemnation is just. Trying to weasel out of their responsibility before God by claiming that God shouldn't be condemning them for something that actually causes His righteousness to be put on display, leads to the even more ridiculous notion that we should just go right on sinning so that God would get more and more glory. Paul says, look what you've done. Look where your arguments have taken you. And the irony of it all is that this is the exact thing that they've accused Paul of teaching. They've accused Paul of teaching a kind of doctrine and a kind of gospel that allows sin to go unchecked and even sort of encourages it. They believe that Paul's gospel of free grace, that we're justified by grace alone, through faith alone, apart from any works, that that removes any motivation for righteous living. And so they're condemning him. But you see how masterfully Paul has turned the tables on them and shown that in fact, their own objections and their own arguments and their own teaching is what really ends up in the position that we should just go right on sinning. And it does that, of course, because it is an objection and an argument and a teaching that comes out of an attempt to avoid responsibility for sin. They don't want to admit their guilt before God. They don't want to admit that they deserve His judgment, and so they've hidden behind all sorts of stuff. Their nationality, their heritage, their circumcision, all of the benefits of being Jewish. God won't judge us, they've said. Where is people? But in doing that, they've solidified their condemnation. Because they've shown just how desperately hard and wicked and godless their hearts really are. Now, we look at all of these objections that Paul is answering and we say, oh my goodness, are you kidding me? People would actually make these kinds of arguments? How could anyone actually think that way and say those things? It's kind of exasperating, isn't it? It's ridiculous. It just drives you nuts that people would say such things. But understand again that this is what the sinful, fleshly, foolishness of human hearts will do to try to justify sin and wriggle out of responsibility. We think it's ridiculous, but listen, how often do we allow ourselves to do virtually the same kind of thing in our own hearts and our own minds? Well, I'll tell you how often. as often as there is something that we know is wrong, but we go ahead and do it anyway, knowingly, deliberately. I know this is a violation of God's will. I know this is not what He wants for my life. I know this is not best. I'm doing it anyway. We go ahead, and every time we do that, every time we choose to sin against God, co-mission or omission, whether by active participation or passively not participating in something. Whether it's something we do that is contrary to His will, or something that we refuse to do that we know He wants us to. Every time there is a false justification involved. Every time there is some sense in us that it's okay to do this. that there won't be any eternal consequences because we're saved by grace alone through faith alone. Now, is it true that we're saved by grace alone through faith alone? Say, Amen, if you believe that. And is it true that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? And is it true that because He has died for our sins, past and present and future, that therefore nothing can separate us from the love of God? Yes. Yes. Amen. But the attitude that would presume on that sovereign love, and take advantage of that free grace, and use it as a justification to deliberately choose our way over God's way, even for an instant, that attitude that does linger and fester in our hearts every day, is a wicked, unbelieving remnant of our fallen flesh. And it's got to go. It's the root of so much of what we do. And it must be repented of. It needs to be stripped from us. And how does that happen? How do fleshly inclinations of our hearts and lives become subdued and conquered by the Spirit of God? I'll tell you how that doesn't happen. It doesn't happen in the way that the Jewish people of Paul's day tried to do it. Through their own sanctimonious, self-righteous, legalistic, external religiosity. Doing all of that junk isn't going to exculpate you, isn't going to destroy the sinful impulses of your heart. It's going to inflame them, it's going to magnify them, it's going to cause them to grow and to swell and to fester. What does the opposite though? What squelches those sinful impulses? What douses the fires of our flesh and causes us to grow? grace and obedience and holiness and piety. The Gospel does. The very Gospel that the Jews had told Paul is going to cause unrighteousness and disobedience to multiply. They told him that this Gospel of free grace, justification by grace alone through faith alone apart from works, they told him that breeds apathy and carelessness Disobedience. You don't give people any motivation to obey. You don't give people any motivation to stop sinning. There's a lot of people. in our day and age who still believe that. The entire Roman Catholic Church is built on that foundation. And that same assumption and that same basic idea has seeped into the evangelical church in America in large measure, and people still believe that we are saved by grace plus works. That there's something we've got to do. And they believe that you have to teach that, because if you teach that there's nothing we've got to do, that it's all on the basis of what Christ did, then you don't give people any motivation for doing anything. And that they're just going to keep on sinning. We could compare the religions and see, historically, which one causes people to go on sinning. Whose confession booths are full? Because the quote-unquote motivation towards piety is no motivation at all. This false teaching that says we are justified by God's grace and our works is a false gospel. It's a lie from the pit. But people believe it and people teach it because it seems to them to be the only way to inspire godliness and obedience. Unless you do these things, you can't be saved. And so we do them for that reason. It's the wrong reason. And in fact, it only exacerbates our sinful hearts and compounds our sin and our guilt. And all the while, it's the opposite that's true. It is the Gospel of free grace that produces transformation of heart and life. That produces freedom from the bondage of sin and death. That unleashes true holiness and piety and obedience in our hearts. Why? Because it is God's power. unto salvation. Because it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance, as Paul says. Because God's love is shed abroad in our hearts, and as it is, it forges in us a love for Him who first loved us. And out of that love, and out of that gratitude for the great grace that God has poured out upon us, comes a life that is surrendered to His obedience. What does Jesus say? If you're afraid of Me, you'll keep My commandments. If you're worried that I might condemn you to the eternal depths of hell, then you'll keep My commandments. Right? No? If you love Me, then you will keep My commandments. And so Paul's strategy here is to expose the great sinfulness and wickedness of our hearts, that we might see the actual depth of our depravity. That we might feel the great weight of it. That we might cry out in the midst of it as God cries out against it. And that in that sense of wretchedness and foulness, we might look to the cross and see that even when we could do nothing, Christ did everything. He didn't have to. But He did because He's gracious, because He's merciful, because He's loving, because this brought glory to God. He saved us. He pulled us out of the pit. And if we truly grasp with living faith the reality of the pit from which we've been pulled, and the reality of the greatness of the life which we now live, and the richness of the faith which we now have, and the object of that faith in Jesus Christ, and the true hope not abstract, ethereal hope, but confident, assurance hope. And the great promises of God that are yes in Jesus Christ that we will inherit in all of eternity, if we understand that, if we trust that, if we lean our full weight on that and on Him, then nothing else in this world matters. Nothing else our flesh wants compared. That's what it means to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of your faith, so that you can run the race with endurance. You get the energy. You get the endurance. You get the ability and the strength to run in a way that honors and glorifies God from God. And from fixing your focus on what He has done for you in such an outpouring of love that you could be called His child. And so if you're looking at your life and you're feeling weak, and you're feeling like you're running and about to fall, and you're feeling like your feet are blistering and you can't go on, it's probably because you are not being sufficiently filled with the strength that the Gospel fills you with. And so it's not just the unbeliever who needs the Gospel. It's you. It's me. We need it every day. We don't just need it Sunday. We need it Monday and Tuesday and every day. to be in God's Word, to be reminded and reassured of the great truth of the promises of God that are ours in Christ. Because they fill us with strength and they fill us with life. Amen? Father, we do thank You for revealing to us the depth of our sin. And we give You great thanks for that, Father, because it does magnify Your glory. It does put Your righteousness and holiness on display. It does teach our hearts to say that You would be fully justified in pouring out every ounce of Your anger and wrath and judgment against us because we have fallen so far short of Your glory. And for that reason alone, Father, we praise You for revealing it to us. But Father, what a revelation to us is Your Son, Jesus Christ, who came and lived a life of perfect obedience. and who went in that obedience to the cross where You poured out all of the judgment we deserve upon Him. You exhausted it. You spent it. And as He said those final words, it is finished and the sky was rent and the temple curtain was torn. Father, You drew us unto Yourself through faith. And so, Father, may we look upon You as we stand in Your presence day by day by day. May we feed upon Your grace. May we be strengthened by Your Spirit and Your Word. And Father, may You subdue our flesh and its desires for the things of this world. And may You inflame in us and create in us, Father, a growing urgency and desire to serve You and to honor You, because we love You, because You have first loved us. And so, Father, unleash this morning upon Your people the power of the Gospel. that has been unto our salvation and that is still unto our sanctification. Cause us to grow in grace. For Your glory we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen.