Can you hear all right? Amen. We are in the Book of Romans. So if you will turn to the Book of Romans with me. We are all the way up to chapter 3. So we're making good time. Romans chapter three. And I hope that you will come consistently. The reason is I can tell you on the authority of God's word and from personal experience in preaching, there are things God wants to do in your life in chapter seven, eight, and et cetera, that will not click if you don't come consistently. Because the way that Paul writes is very intentional, and he's writing where he's laying a foundation, laying a foundation, laying a foundation, building on that, laying another, building on, building, building, building, so that he's heading in a direction. The book of Romans has a very clear plan of attack. And you can see already in chapters one and two, chapter one was his all out legal attack on ungodly men, which is what God says all of us are guilty of. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, amen? So in chapter one of Romans, he introduces talking about the gospel and he says in verse 17, 117, for in it, the righteousness in the gospel, the it there, he might circle it and just put gospel above that. In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. God wants to reveal his righteousness, but it is only revealed in the gospel From faith to faith, and that's a phrase meaning from first to last. You are saved, you receive the righteousness of God by faith and faith alone. The salvation story begins with saving faith and it ends with saving faith. The only way to be saved is by saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me clarify because this is very crucial. He's not thoroughly explaining in verse 17. He's gonna get to that in chapter four and five. But he's introducing this concept and it is the righteousness of God. And remember the of there means, and the Greek is a genitive of source, meaning that is the righteousness from God. It is not simply his attribute of righteousness that he displays against sin. God is righteous, amen? and he hates sin, amen? So no question about that. But that's not the point here. The point here is that, let me clarify why that's not the point. If I said, I've got great news for you. God is absolutely holy and righteous. He has never sinned in a thought, word, attitude, or action. Remember, this is good news, I'm telling you. The great news is that he is furious with sin. How is that good news? That's not good news. The good news has to go here. God is absolutely pure, holy, and has never sinned a day in his life. He is absolutely furious with sin and will punish sin with an eternal hell. However, he wants to give you his righteousness as a free gift. So that when you stand in his presence, you stand clothed in his righteousness, not in your own. Now, is that good news? See, but he's gonna unpack all of this as we get into Romans more and more. He's introducing that concept in verse 17. In the gospel, the righteousness from God. So when you put saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you repent of your sins and trust Christ, he will give you his, he will credit you, he will put his righteousness in your rap sheet. Is that a helpful way of thinking of it? So now, instead of standing before Almighty God on Judgment Day, and the angel says, Judge, here's his rap sheet. David, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin. But that was a righteous act. No, it was a sinful, righteous act. It's called good flesh is all it was. It was some good work that you did that was tainted with sin. The motivation was sinful. The heart was sinful. Your thoughts were sinful. Your hope for outcome was sinful. So even your best righteousness, God says, is filthy rags. Amen. So we know that is the case. So he's saying this, this is your dilemma, human being. Your dilemma is your only hope is the righteousness of God. If you rest in your righteousness, he then goes on to say from verse 18 through 32, this is God's diagnosis of your spiritual state. This, when God looks at you under his MRI, he sees this is what you look like. Now externally, you look great. When I look at all of you, you look so fantastic. You're handsome and pretty and dressed nice and smiling. And wow, I'd let you all in heaven. But God sees past the facade, doesn't he? He looks into the heart. And what he sees in verse 18, the wrath of God, this chapter one, verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all of the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And what we do in our ungodliness and unrighteousness is we suppress the truth. We hold it down, we put it in a garbage can, put the lid on, clip it over, make sure it's bear proof, God proof. We don't want the bear to tear open the garbage can and see our sin. And we don't wanna be able to see God, so we hide God, we suppress God. And he goes on all the rest of chapter one showing how that every single human being, whether they are a well-off businessman on Wall Street or a naked Nubian out in the jungles of wherever naked Nubians run around, You're lost, you're a sinner, you're a wild, depraved sinner. And he lists all of those sins. And he goes into verse 19 and just gives a sin list. And in the scriptures, there's numerous sin. Why does God take the time to give you a sin list to show you who you are? Because he wants you to want the gospel. He wants you to where you are like, all right, all right, God, I've been waiting in this sewer with a hard hat and a light, and all I see is my sin. I'm waiting in my sin. I'm waiting in the sewer of my sin. There's no hope for me. There's no hope for me. You're not deep enough now. You're up to your belly button. Yeah, but Lord, I'm waiting in my sin. I'm tired of waiting in my sin. You know, you got me halfway through Romans 1. Isn't it enough? No, no, no. Because every so often God will say, now, how do you think you're gonna get to heaven? Well, you know, I'm a pretty good guy. All right, back in the sewer. Now, let me show you who you really are. And now you're up to your chest. And he's saying, do you understand that you are a lawbreaker? So he gives us a sin list to get us to where we are absolutely desperate for Christ. where we're done with all of this nonsense about, you know, I'm not that bad of a guy. And boy, if I were to judge me on judgment day, I would certainly give me a pass. Now someone else, well, you know, send him to hell, especially that guy I don't like. But send me to heaven, right, because of all my good works. And so he lists in verse 29, here's my diagnosis. You're filled with all kinds of unrighteousness. You are filled all the way up to the brim, pressed down, running over, right? I mean, it's not like you're 75% wicked and there's room for 25% top off of righteousness. You are filled to the brim with sin. And he lists all the different kinds of sins. And you might object, well, hold on a second. If you are still objecting to God's diagnosis of you back in the sewer, Because you still don't get it. If you're saying, I'm not that bad, you still don't get it then. If you're still hoping, when I stand before God, he's going to open my rap sheet and he's gonna see I'm not that bad. You still don't get it. That's why we have all of chapter one, week after week after week in chapter one. You see, this is why secular psychology is hogwash. What is the message of secular psychology? Lay down on the couch and let me tell you how great you are. You're a wonderful person. You're a good person. You know, it was your dad's fault. He was no good bum. But the dad lays on another couch in another city and the psychobabblist is saying, you're a wonderful guy. You're such a nice guy. It was your dad's fault. And then your grandpa's laying on another couch in another city and the psychobabblist is saying, you know, you're such a nice guy. You see, it's hogwash is what it is. It's man's attempt to try and understand our dilemma, who we are and why we mistreat each other and why we have all of this burden. God tells us in Romans 1 why we have that load of burden on our mind, on our back, why we can't get along with people, because we are wicked sinners who have not repented and been changed from the inside yet. We've not been regenerated yet. So we go to this psychobatalyst and that psychobatalyst, and well, that one didn't quite tell me what I wanna hear. And we lay on all these couches, sit in all these rooms, we're spending $250 an hour. I'll charge you a lot less than that. Just come, sit down, you know, $24.99, right? But we'll open the Bible and we'll see what God says about it. And that's the issue, is what does God say about it? The issue is, God says you are a depraved, wicked sinner who needs to repent, and you need your heart regenerated. You don't need to turn over a new leaf, you need a new life, amen? So, he lists all of those sins in chapter one, and he says, this is God's evaluation of you, all humans. This is not, I remember years ago reading that thinking, boy, those guys must be really bad. And I had to really get God to wake me up that this is me. This is what God says about me. Outside of Christ, without being regenerated, without being born again, this is God's diagnosis of humanity. So if you go to a church that tells you how great you are, and the worship song is, how great I art, how great I art. Well, if you're going, they're misleading you. They're teaching you a false gospel, and you'll end up in hell with that false gospel. So the issue is, what is God saying? Now, he then shifts gears in chapter two, and he wants to attack the religious moral person. Because out there what I have discovered is just a plain old vanilla brand heathen. They go to the bar. You know, I'm driving home from church on a Thursday night. It's 4.30 in the afternoon, and I drive by numerous bars. And there's people there. Like, wow, these guys must have just got off early and gone to a bar. And I picture, I'm like, okay, so they belly up to a bar. Fill her up, barkeep, or whatever they call the guy. Bartender, thankfully now we know who all the drugs are. And so he's got his long neck bottle, and he's sitting there, and that's it? You're sitting at a wooden plank, swilling Satan's urine. And you look, are we having fun yet? That's it? That's the extent of what you do? I mean, what insanity is that? And yet that's what people do. So that's the vanilla brand heathen. That's just the plain old, you know, the college student who lives for the weekend where he can fornicate as many coeds as he can and smoke as much dope as he can and do whatever he can do to gratify his senses, his physical senses, and then start it all over again on Monday. Just this dead, empty routine. one brand of guy who qualifies under chapter one. However, here's what we see all the time. We're out evangelizing, and the guy comes to the door, and he says, I'm not interested, I'm already involved in a church. Like, okay, now how is that a kindred spirit? Right, when you come across a real believer, and you're a real believer, you don't say to that person, ah, don't bring up the Bible to me, I'm not interested in that stuff. I already get enough of that on Sunday. That's sad. That is the guy in chapter two. And so this guy in chapter two has three foxholes that he has dug, three defenses, three fortresses that he has built. His first defense is, yeah, Paul, way to go, those no good dirty rotten heathens. I can't believe that we have them. It's kind of like a Republican looking at a Democrat. They both need Christ. But the Republicans, oh, I don't have my hair dyed like a rainbow, and I wouldn't transgenderize my kids, and I wouldn't do this. But you need Christ. Your position on some political issue is not gonna get you into heaven. And so this is what Paul has to deal with, first of all, is comparative morality. He's going to a guy who says, yeah, Paul, go after those heathen. I'm not anywhere like them. I am upright and moral. And Paul says, no, you're not. You're doing, yeah, you sit there looking down your nose and judging them, but you're doing the same thing. It's just the things that you're doing, your lies are a little less crass and gross than their lies. Your sexual immorality is not as in your face and disgusting as their immorality. Your thieving is not smash and grab, run in and grab some sneakers out of a store. You've got a way of stealing in your business. You've got a way of stealing in this other thing. So all of the Ten Commandments, you're doing exactly the same thing you're pointing your finger at them for, and you are just as guilty. And so he says your first refuge of comparative morality is useless. On judgment day, God is going to judge you, yes, by your works. And when he does, he's going to open up and he's going to look at you by your works. If you're unsaved, and he's going to evaluate your life and he's going to say, yes, you're lost. The second foxhole that they have dug is in verse 17 and following, and it's extensive Bible knowledge. Well, not only am I comparatively way better than those dirty rotten heathens over there, but I know the Bible and they don't know where to find Genesis. Give me a break. I know the Bible way better than those guys. In fact, I have been invited to teach the Bible in Sunday school class. And I have a Sunday school class at First Methodist, First Baptist, First whatever church. And when I show up, everyone applauds and they come up to me and they praise me afterwards. And oh, I learned so much. I never knew how to pronounce Mesopotamia. That's fascinating. Wow, did you hear how he pronounced Mesopotamia? That was so cool. I just had chills. It was like, whoa. And so what do you think about that, God? God says, don't make me laugh, buddy. Your knowledge of the Bible simply makes you more guilty. It makes you more guilty. The lawyer who commits the same crime as a criminal gets harder time because he knows better. And that's what Paul's argument here in verse 17 and following. Yes, yes, yes, Paul, okay. You don't like the comparative morality thing, but I like it. And you don't like the extensive Bible knowledge that I have, but I happen to like it. But one thing that you didn't mention is all of the religious rituals that I have. They don't do anything. I go to church every single Sunday and I genuflect. I mean, that's good quad work. I'm doing my genuflecting. Am I doing that right? There's probably a certain way to do it. Maybe put your left. I'm genuflecting. Or is it I'm genuflecting? I don't quite know how to genuflect. But it's a super important ritual. And I go through it every time I go to church. And I go to church without fail. That guy, he hasn't bent his knee to anything. So don't I get credit for that? Paul says, no, you don't. But wait a minute. I mean, I joined the church. He drives by the church. Don't I get credit for that? No, you don't. you're taking away all of my stuffed animals. I'm not feeling safe anymore. I need a comfort dog or something. I'm not feeling comfortable about this because you're making me worry about my eternal destiny. And Paul says, exactly, that's what exactly I want to happen. I want you to be so desperate for the gospel, so out of bullets, so out of, because isn't it better to go through the arguments now and find out your arguments don't hold any water than to wait all the way till judgment day and say in all of your life, 50, 60, 70, 80 years, you've been thinking, yep, when I get there, I'm gonna say this. Yep, when I get there, I'm gonna say that. You know you've done this. In some quiet moment, when somebody has said something or you heard something on TV and your conscience was a little tweaked, you sat and said, oh, but when I get there, I'm gonna say this. And so you calm your heart. Yeah, when I get there, I'm gonna tell God I was baptized. And that's gotta count for something. And there are churches that will tell you it counts for a lot. Problem is the Bible says it counts for nothing. Now, should you get baptized? Absolutely. The Bible commands you to be baptized, but baptism has no saving power in it. Baptism is a symbol like a wedding ring. The wedding ring has no saving magical power on it to keep your marriage together. If you don't do what the wedding ring symbolizes, then you're a complete hypocrite. Amen. So, that's good, someone's listening, right? So he deals with this issue of religious rituals. So he has taken a flamethrower, Remember the movie Saving Private Ryan? And who was Tom Hanks? He goes up to the German pillboxes and other guys, and they're blasting that thing, they're just burning it right through the window, throw a grenade in there. This is what Paul's doing. He's trying to blow to smithereens every argument that you have that is unbiblical. Well, I'm a native out in the middle of nowhere that doesn't know nothing, so I get a pass. God's gonna let, no, you don't get a pass. You know in your heart, every time the sun comes up, it screams at you, there is a God who created this universe, and you will answer to him one day. So you don't get a pass. But I compare my morality with this guy, and I am head and shoulders above him. I mean, you know, He doesn't even get married, he just sleeps around. When I sleep around, I make sure that I'm married to the woman, or at least committed to getting married to the woman one day, maybe. Right? I mean, that's a lot more moral than that guy. And Paul says, no, your comparative morality is nothing. If you were to get to heaven by your good works, here's how good you would have to be, Jesus. you would have to be absolutely, exactly, perfectly like Jesus Christ, and none of us make it. If you think you're gonna make it by being perfectly like Jesus Christ, I've got smelling salts. Yeah, good luck. All right, so that's what he has said in verse 25 through 29. All of the religious symbols, all of the religious rituals. It's like, well, what do you want? I've walked an aisle. I've asked Jesus into my heart. I said to the Lord that I believe in him. I go to church. I've been baptized. I take the Lord's Supper. I wear a suit and I have a really big King James Bible. In fact, I purposely wanted to look good going to church. So I got one. I said to the store owner, I said, I want a desktop. Bible, one that, I want to take that. So I've got that, you know, under my arm and I'm walking and I'm looking good. What more does God want? Well, here's what he says. Look at verse 29. He is a Jew, a Christian, a real Baptist, a real Methodist, a real, a saved person who is one where? inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart in the Holy Spirit and not in the letter. Not simply saying, I've got a certificate on the wall that says I was dunked when I was a baby or I was squirted when I was a teenager or whatever it is, right? That's not gonna get you anywhere. What matters is the heart. In fact, look how Paul puts it back in verse, chapter two, verse five. But in accordance with your hardness and your unrepentant heart, do you see the heart issue? The heart of the issue is the issue of the heart. The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart. The issue is your heart. In other words, for you to go through the outward motions, yeah, but I read my Bible every day. Yeah, but I pray diligently. Three times a day, I pray. Five times a day, I'm keeping up with the Muslims. I get on my knees when I pray. Do you do that? I have a roll-out rug. And I get down on my knees in the middle of the airport. Everyone see me? Abracadabra. Right? I mean, you're doing all the stuff you're supposed to do, you think. The problem is these are all external rituals. Your heart is not passionately sold out for Christ. That's the issue. Your heart is not repentant. You can say you have asked Jesus into your heart, you can say you believe in Jesus, but if it's not demonstrated with heart transformation, then it is nothing but a hard, unrepentant heart. And that's what God is going after. And so he's blowing to smithereens every argument that you've got. Now, in chapter three, here's what happens. Chapter 1 and 2, chapter 1 has been a court case against the irreligious heathen and Paul has won that hands down. Chapter 2 has been a court case against the religiously moral, upright, church attending, baptized, communion eaten, fellowship dinner chewing, not going with rotten girls Baptist. And that's exactly who he is hammering on, right? In chapter two. And Paul says he's the prosecuting attorney. There's the judge. He has won the case against the rotten heathen. He is building a case against the religious, moral, sign-keeping, baptized, religious ritual, comparative morality guy. and he is about to ask for a verdict, but there is an objection. The religious moral upkeeping, outwardly adhering, comparatively religiously better, sign-keeping, ring-wearing, I can go on and on. He says, but I object. His lawyer said, I object, I object, I object. Hold, hold, hold, hold on, hold on. Everything Paul has said to you, your honor, is wrong. And I've got four clear arguments as to why Paul is wrong. And the judge says, all right, let's hear your case. So chapter three, verse one through eight, is built on four arguments, two verses each argument. The objection is in the first verse, the rebuttal is in the second. The objection is in the next verse, the rebuttal is in the next. The objection, the rebuttal, the objection, then the rebuttal. So let's see what the objection is that the church member has. Let's see what the objection is that the baptized church member has. Let's see what the objection is that the baptized, outwardly moral, going along with the program, fine upstanding deacon in the church has. He says this, well then what advantage, Paul, if what you're saying is true, what advantage is there to being a Jew and what profit is there in circumcision? The Bible has made it clear there's all kinds of advantages and you have just pulled the rug out from under us. You're saying that God, in his electing choice to choose Abraham and Moses and the people of Israel, and they are his elect nation, and God is the one who gave them circumcision, Paul. You can see how he's building his argument, right? God gave us circumcision, and you're saying circumcision is useless. God gave us baptism, you're saying that baptism is useless. God gave us the Lord's Supper, and you're saying the Lord's Supper is useless. God gave us church membership, and you're saying church membership is useless. God gave us all these things, so you are actually fighting God and saying that God is untrue to have elected us, chosen us, and given us these incredible signs. Now, if you don't know the rest of the paragraph, you would say, well, that is kind of what Paul's saying. I mean, hasn't he said in verse 25 of chapter two, circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law, but if you're a lawbreaker and all of you are, then your circumcision is null and void. And verse 26 of chapter two, if an uncircumcised man, that no good dirty rotten heathen of chapter one, If he were to keep the law, which he has not and cannot and will not, right, I'm just filling in some clarification there. But if he were to, would not his uncircumcision be credited to him as circumcision? So really the ritual is not anything. You've just said that. And verse 27, will not the physically uncircumcised man, if he fulfills the law, judge you? So you're telling me the Gentiles are gonna judge the Jews, and we're the ones that God has picked? I mean, God went and got Abraham out of idolatry. God's the one who did that, and said, Abraham, you're the man, and from you, I'm going to build a great nation. I'm gonna give you land, seed, and blessing. great, great promises, great covenant in the Abrahamic covenant. And you're saying all of that is nonsense? You're saying, Paul, that as a Jew, I have no advantage over that dirty, rotten heathen. I've got There's no value to me going to church. There's no value to me taking the Lord's Supper. There's no value to me to be baptized. There's no, you're saying all of this is completely useless. So you can obviously see your honor just dismiss what Paul is saying because obviously he doesn't know what he's talking about and he's fighting God. In fact, he is impugning God. Paul, your gospel makes God a liar. It makes him untrue based on all of the wonderful promises that he has given us in the Old Testament. Paul's response is this. Absolutely not. You have completely misunderstood me. You are not understanding my argument. You're not understanding what I'm saying. Notice what he says. Verse one, what advantage is there being a Jew? What advantage is there in profit and circumcision? Paul's answer is much in every way. What? I found chapter two, verse 25 through 29, there's no value in all of this. And now you're saying there is much value in all of this in every way. So what, help me to understand this. You as a, let's take it out of Judaism because, I mean, how many Jews do we, I'm not gonna have you raise your hand, but we really probably don't have any, maybe one or two ethnic Jews. So I don't wanna go off and, you know, Martin Luther said this. A soldier is not being a faithful soldier if he runs down, pulls his sword out, is shooting arrows everywhere, and there's no battle going on. Right? You're only a faithful soldier if you're in the thick of the battle, and you're doing what you need to do. So for me to shoot arrows at some Jewish first century Pharisee, and you to be sitting there saying, yeah, boy, I'm sure glad I'm not a first century Pharisee. This doesn't have anything to do with me. I hope and pray that that's not how you're thinking. What I want you to see is I'm not talking about a first century Pharisee, I'm talking about a 21st century Baptist church attender. That's who I'm talking about. Or whatever your church background is, a 21st century Catholic, a 21st century Methodist, a 21st century, somebody who's right in the, surrounded with Christendom. And he says this. So what you're saying is there's no benefit in being a Jew. And Paul says, no, you don't understand what I'm saying. You're misrepresenting what I'm saying. And you'll see as we get into this paragraph, this is completely what's happened. Misrepresentation is so common. People are not understanding. So look back at your Bible in verse two. He says, you have much value in every way. And he follows that up chiefly. But before we get to chiefly, let me talk for a moment about what advantages does a church member have over a no-good, dirty, rotten heathen? Ah, Paul says you have much advantage in every way. How? Number one, you have an understanding of theology that they don't have. So theologically, you are light years ahead. You understand that God eternally exists in three persons, that the stars are not gods, right? Everyone okay with that? That was awful weak. Are there some star worshipers in here? No, you believe that there's one true and living God, amen? So knowing that there's one true and living God doesn't save you. Every demon in hell believes that. But it is a huge advantage to know that. Theologically, how about psychologically? Psychologically, you know that the makeup of man, anthropology, you know that man is made up of certain ingredients and is created in the image of God and that all of the worldly Greek Gentile philosophy approach to doing psychology is hogwash. It has nothing to do with really changing a person's heart. So psychologically, you are light years ahead of the blind heathen who is in the middle of a jungle in a loincloth with a stick in his hand, and his life is built on trying to keep from getting bit by a snake. You know a million times more as a church. Well, is there any advantage to going to church? Well, you are in the sphere of hearing about the true and living God. Being in a church doesn't save you. That's what Paul is trying to say. These things will not justify you before God, but they put you in an environment to get the right message on how to be justified. That's why if you're unsaved and you say, well, I'm not gonna go to that church because it's full of heathens or full of hypocrites, come anyway. Because coming and putting yourself under the preaching of the word of God week after week after week after week after week, you are gonna have, the spirit of God has something to work with in your brain. The spirit of God has something to work with. He's got some way to open your eyes. He's got a spiritual crowbar to open your eyelids so that you can now hear the gospel. Goodness, what other ways? Socially. Would you rather live in Israel or Iran? Iran gives you no religious freedom, no thinking freedom. I mean, the stories of girls being killed who went to school, I mean, in these other countries. So you have huge advantages there. You have huge advantages medically. Think about how many Nobel Prizes are won by the Jews and how many are won by raving lunatic Muslims. You don't get a Nobel Peace Prize for blowing up a synagogue. You get it for inventing some incredible medicine, some cure for something. And I don't know, I didn't look it up, but there's hugely, hugely, or as our president says, bigly, a massive number of great things that the Jews have accomplished that no one can compare to. See, what I'm trying to share with you is that being a part of Israel or a part of the church has a huge advantage to you, but it doesn't save you. This is what Paul's trying to say. Then he says, here, let me focus in on one primary way that you have an advantage. Chiefly, chiefly, foremost, the number one prime benefit you have of being involved in the church, specifically, let's go back to Israel for a moment, of being in Israel is that to you were entrusted the oracles of God. One theologian said, you have in your hands the crystallized words of God. Now think about that. So what's the advantage of having a Bible in my hands? The advantage is overwhelming. God came to Israel, and think about it this way, the Bible speaks in Genesis 10 of a table of nations. Right, they go to Babylon, and they build the Tower of Babel, and from the Tower of Babel, they start wanting to rebel against God again, so he confounds their language. They go in different places, different directions, and each of those nations are listed. That is the table of nations. God then comes down, and he selects one man, and he says, all of these nations need a pastor. They need a priest. They need a Bible scholar. They need somewhere to go because when they go to each other, they're worshiping animals and snakes and stars. They need somebody to come to them that has the truth of God and that nation is going to be Israel. So Israel had a tremendous role to play as the pastor of the nations, the pastor nation of the nations, the nation to which all of the nations could go and hear the truth. Why? Because it's the oracles of God. What is an oracle? An oracle is two things. One, it's the person who receives the message from God, and two, it's the resultant message of God. So the oracle is the person who has the message and gives the message and is the message. So the oracle is the person and the message, depending on the context, it would be used either way. In Israel, they had both. Who did God give the messages to? His prophets. They were the oracles. And then when they preached and wrote the message, that became the oracle. So to them were entrusted, and it's an interesting word in Greek, it's logia, which means the actual literal words of God. So in this book, you have the actual literal words of God. Instead of blindly groping around, hoping to figure out what God is like, And you know what I need to do is maybe climb a mountain in Tibet and bang this gong, bong, bong, and eat two grains of rice a day and sit in the lotus position and hum, maybe I'll find God that way. No, you won't. You will find blindness, spiritual blindness like you've never seen before. You will find demonic guidance. You see, that's why the reformers were so furious with the Catholic Church when they stole the Bible from the people for a thousand years. They made it a death penalty to have a Bible for a thousand years. When Martin Luther, came on the scene. He said, we have got to teach people how to read, and we gotta put the Bible in their language. Everywhere a Bible-believing missionary has gone, there has been literacy. They will sit there for years and figure out the person's language, and you know, what's the word for this? It's a, and what's the word for this? It's wee. I mean, they got weird language, right? So, you know, okay, how do I write that? How do, you know, they come up with an alphabet, and then they will teach the person their own language, and then how to read their own language. and then they give them the Bible in their language. That's what a good missionary does. You know what the worthless missionaries that I've seen today? They go down to South America somewhere or wherever it is and puff on cigars and have servants that clean their house. and they're getting money from organizations like our church, and they're doing nothing to advance the gospel. They're doing nothing on a daily, regular basis to evangelize lost people, which is why they're supposed to be there. But that's what it says, that they have the articles of God, that God Almighty is not hiding anywhere. He didn't say, all right, I'm gonna take Abraham off in a corner and say, Abraham, now don't say anything to anybody. No, he says, I'm gonna tell you who you are. I'm gonna make a covenant with you. And then he says, I'm gonna give it to you. And then the children start multiplying. And then they take that message on and on and on. And the message becomes known all over the world. Now you can imagine just like in any other country, the one who is proclaiming the message of God gets persecuted. And that's why Israel has been persecuted all of these centuries, because God has assigned to them the ministry and the job, the word is there committed in verse two, is entrusted. He entrusted, he trusted his word in their hands. Now, when the Messiah came, which in their study of the word they should have known obviously, If they had known the book of Daniel and just read it and interpreted it literally, they could have counted the days until the Messiah came. The book of Daniel prophesies the coming of the Messiah 483 years to the day. There is no other holy book in the world that gives any of those kinds of detailed prophecies. If they had fulfilled their trust with having the Word of God, and had studied the Word of God, and memorized the Word of God, and taught the Word of God, and promoted the Word of God, they should have all been living on the tip of their toes waiting. But it's just like today. Churches no longer proclaim the second coming. They're no longer anticipating the imminent return of Christ. They're no longer looking for Jesus. At any moment, Jesus could come. And brothers, sisters, Jesus could come by the end of this sermon. The Bible clearly teaches the judge is standing at the door. He is ready. There's nothing stopping him from coming back. And yet you don't hear that. You don't hear that hammered on and proclaimed and preached on. So the same thing has happened in the church as happened in Israel. It was overrun with wicked false teachers. And those wicked money-grubbing false teachers, all they cared about was their position, their power, their personal pleasure. I mean, even when Jesus was there in their midst and he says, which one of you can convict me of sin? None of them. They couldn't point to anything that he had done wrong. I mean, this is the Messiah, Jesus Christ, telling them who he is, and they still murder him. So we're in the same boat today. In other words, churches like this that are opening the Bible and warning you of the imminent return of Christ, like Noah pounding nails into the wood for the ark. We're just hammering away. Jesus is coming. I don't know when the flood's coming, but it's coming soon. Jesus is on his way. His footsteps are at the door. His shadow's coming around the corner. Are you ready? Are you ready for the imminent return of Christ? So they had the oracles of God entrusted to them. That is one of many. I mean, if you went down the list of all of the advantages you have, the Jews had and you have, Chief among all of them is to have the words, the actual crystallized words of God on a page that you can read every day. You should be reading this book, reading this book, reading this book. You know, I'm sad for the people that are in the cults, but I don't have a whole lot of empathy for them because they can go get a Bible. Now, in the thousand years of Roman Catholicism, I have a lot of sadness for those people because they couldn't just go get a Bible. There was no printing press, there was no Christian bookstores, there was no internet, they could just look at the scripture on the internet. But today, there's no excuse for a Roman Catholic to say, I don't care what the Bible says, I'm gonna do what my priest says. Well, man, you're in trouble. you are in big trouble. And I don't have a whole lot of empathy for someone who just doesn't care what the Bible says when they have complete access to it. So number one on your notes, Paul's gospel undermines God, making him untrue to his old covenant promises, and Paul says no. God is not untrue to his promises, and that's not what I'm saying. You have the word of God, you have the oracles of God, and those oracles proclaim the imminent return of Christ. Now secondly, the second objection is in verse two. But what if some do not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Paul, what you're saying is this. Judaism, by and large, has rejected this Messiah of yours. So if this Jesus guy that you're saying is our Messiah and that we're supposed to believe in, so what if we don't believe in him? Are you saying that God is not going to be good to his word, all of his promises that he has made, all of the things that he has said? No, the Bible is clear. Paul is not teaching that God is unfaithful. God is not going to be unfaithful to his covenant promises. What Paul is trying to communicate to them is this. The God who made promises also made curses. And God will be absolutely faithful to both the promises and to the curses. In fact, look back over in, before you look back, look again at verse three. What if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make God unfaithful? Paul's answer is absolutely not. Let God be true, and every man a liar. It's men that are the liars, it's not God that is the liar. God will be true, but what you have done is the same thing Joel Osteen has done, and that is to tell you only the good parts. Jump back over to Deuteronomy. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Just a few pages from the beginning of your Bible. Deuteronomy chapter 27, I think it is. Yes. In the Mosaic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant was unconditional. So all of the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant will happen no matter what. But the Mosaic Covenant was conditional upon their obedience. God will do this if you do that. If you don't do that, God will do this. There will be, to summarize what it's saying is this, blessings are promised for obedience, cursings are promised for disobedience. Blessings are promised, they are covenantally promised for obedience, and cursings are covenantally promised for disobedience. God will be absolutely true to his covenant. For example, here's what was happening here in chapter 27, 28. There were two mountains, they're still there today in Israel, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. And what they had was the responsibility of filling both sides of the mountain up. There was a valley in between them, obviously. And the law was inscribed on stones. And notice what it says in chapter 27, verse 24. Therefore it shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that on Mount Ebal, you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, and you shall whitewash them with lime. So he's got big, let's say this wall. The stones are all set up nice and flat, then they're covered over with stucco. Make sense so far? Then he says in verse... Five, and there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. You shall not use an iron tool on them. And you shall build with whole stones the altar of the Lord your God and offer burnt offerings upon it to the Lord your God. And you shall offer peace offerings and eat there and shall rejoice before the Lord your God. And you shall write plainly on the stones all the word of this law. So they were to write, the entire law of God, what they had so far, you know, Genesis through Deuteronomy, on those stones. And then he says, verse nine, then Moses and the priests, the Levites, spoke to all Israel, right? So you have God speaking to Moses, Moses to the Levites, and then Moses and the Levites to all of Israel. That's the way God works. And he says, take heed, listen, O Israel, This day you have become the people of the Lord your God. The people of the Lord your God, those people were given and entrusted with these words. And of course these words now, because they were added to with the writings of the prophets. Verse 10, therefore, you shall obey the voice of the Lord your God and observe his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today. And Moses commanded the people on the same day, saying, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless. So Gerizim was the mountain of blessing. Ebal was the mountain of cursing. So he says in verse 12, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people. when you have crossed over the Jordan, right? So they're coming out of the wilderness, across the Jordan into the promised land. says when you get into the Promised Land you get these two mountains and you've got Gerizim to bless. When you have crossed over the Jordan, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin, and these shall stand on Mount Ebal to curse. So there are two mountains, one mountain with certain tribes on it to shout out the blessings, one mountain with the other tribes on it, the remaining tribes, to shout out the cursings. And he says, Verse 14, and the Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all of the men of Israel, cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image. Wow, that's the Catholic Church, isn't it? An abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsmen, and sets it up in secret, and all the people shall answer and say amen. So the Levites were to read the word loudly, the cursings, and all of the tribes were to shout the cursings and to say amen. And he goes on, look in verse 15. Cursed, verse 16. Cursed is one who mistreats his father or mother. Verse 17. Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor's landmark. Verse 18. Cursed is the one, verse 19. Cursed, verse 20. Cursed, verse, right? All the cursings. Cursing, cursing, cursing, cursing, cursing. God's word includes curses for disobedience. Amen? and they were to shout those loudly, so this made a natural amphitheater. Those were shouting the cursings, and then you get up to chapter 28. Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, you see the conditional part there? If you will diligently obey, the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all of his commandments, which I command you today. And had Israel done that when Paul is writing to the Israelites in Romans chapter three, had Israel kept the commands of God? No. But here's what they want. Verse three. Well, look at verse two. All the blessings shall come upon you and overtake you. The blessings shall come upon you and overtake you. That's gotta be Joel Osteen's favorite verse. Oh man, you know what? The blessings of God are gonna chase you down the street, you and your living girlfriend with your bag of weed in your pocket. No, I'm sorry, the blessings of God are not gonna chase you down the street with your living girlfriend and your bag of weed. The curses of God will chase you in that scenario. But this is the antinomian false gospel that is being proclaimed, and it has been proclaimed since the first century. That's exactly what the Jews were believing. God will bless me because I'm Jewish. I believe in him, so I'm gonna be blessed. Hold on. The Mosaic Covenant said, God will bless you if you're Jewish and you obey his commands. God will curse you if you're Jewish and disobey His commands. God is saying the same thing today. All you have is external facade righteousness. You don't have heart holiness. With your hard and unrepentant heart, you're still digging your heels in, saying, nope, when I get to God, I'm gonna tell him I've been a good church member, I attended, and after all, nobody's perfect, and who can expect me to be perfect? I can't be like one of these lunatic Christians that represent you. They're an embarrassment to me. So just judge me on my good works and the fact that I'm better than those heathen and that I've gone through the external rituals and what more could you want? And God's answer will be, here's what more I want. You have spit in the face of my son. My son, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh stepped down from glory and suffered on the cross because of your sin. And you're not willing to repent of your sin and trust in him. So, no, you don't get a pass. Notice what it says in chapter 28, verse three. Blessed shall you be in the city. I'm blessed in the city. I'm blessed in the field. I'm blessed when I come and when I go. Anybody heard those songs? Oh man, yeah, that's the famous theme song of the Easy Believism Prosperity Preacher. Live as you want. You know, I'm saved to sin. And he says, verse five, blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, blessed when you go out. You're gonna be blessed so much, as our one president said, you're gonna win so much, you're gonna be tired of winning. You're gonna be blessed so much, you're gonna be tired of being blessed. If you obey Almighty God. But if you don't obey Almighty God, then when you stand before God on that judgment day, you will be cast into hell. You see, what I'm hoping and praying is that you will say, I am desperate, God. I want to know the true gospel. I wanna know the solution. You see, here's what really scares me. This easy-believe-ism antinomian gospel. In fact, jump over to Romans again, and watch how it's worded here. Paul says, they say to him, verse three, well, what if some don't believe? Big deal. God's faithful, he's gonna bless us anyway, even if we don't believe. And Paul says, certainly not. The old King James says, God forbid, perish the thought. Or the Spanish translation says, no way, Jose. It ain't gonna happen, captain. No way, certainly not. God is the one who's true, and every man is the liar. God is absolutely true to both the cursings and the blessings, and he will be true to the cursings and the blessings, and every man is a liar. In fact, he goes on to quote Psalm 51, where King David went to God after Nathan the prophet came to him. You remember Nathan the prophet came to King David after he slept with Bathsheba, committed adultery, and then had her husband killed. That's shocking. And he wrote the middle book of the Bible, Psalms. So can God use somebody after they really blow it? I think sometimes that's the only way he can use any of us. It's like, all right, that guy's too proud, he's too arrogant, too self-willed, too self-dependent. Satan comes along and says, well, I know how to humble him. All right. And God gives Satan permission. And here he comes into your life and you blow it big time. And you are on your face before God in tears afterwards. And he says, all right, now you're getting close to being usable. Amen. Thank God. You know, that's the glory of God. He says, King David is saying this. Now understand why Paul is quoting King David. The Jews had it in their mind, God would never judge me, I'm a Jew. Even if I don't believe, even if I'm unrighteous, God will not judge me. King David was judged mightily. Well, in the mindset of the first century Jew, for God to judge the Jew would be unjust. For God to judge me after He's selected me and given me all of these benefits, that would be unjust. And yet God judged King David, and watch what King David said. Verse 4, the little quote there. That you, God, may be justified in your words, and you will prevail when you are judged by people. See, we wanna judge God and say, you can't do that. And God says, no, I'm the judge, and I will prevail in my judgments. So what King David was saying is, I am the quintessential, the top of the heap. I'm the king of Israel. So any Israelite is gonna have to follow what my argument is. I'm King David, I sinned against God, and God judged me, and you wanna judge him for judging me? I'm telling you he was right to judge me. I'm telling you first century Israelite, the God of Israel is completely justified in exercising his wrath against my sin. Now what do you got to say for yourself? Right? So verse five, next argument. Well, my unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God. My unrighteousness highlights God's righteousness. Now think about what their argument is here. King David could say, well, me committing adultery actually caused me to be more humble and more usable by God and to praise God with more fervor and more zeal and more joy, so let's do evil so that we can get the good results. That's what's called a sophistry. A sophistry, S-O-P-H, sophistry is an insincere argument used to defend your screwed up thinking. You know, it's this convoluted, you got to go to college at Harvard to learn this kind of nonsense. And so here's what he says, well, well, well, wait a minute, Paul. You're saying that my unrighteousness highlights God's righteousness. So, God would be unjust if he inflicted wrath on me, wouldn't he? God would be a sinner if he judged a sinner. Because really, he should send me a thank you letter. When I commit all these sins, God should sit down and say, oh boy, he's making me look so good because I'm forgiving him right and left and everyone's praising my mercy and forgiveness. Everyone is praising me for, I mean, you know, we read about Peter. He denied the Lord three times and then Jesus came to him and said, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Yes, yes, yes. And so Peter's sin, turned around and got the repeated love of Peter and the forgiveness of God, so let's do evil so the good may come. I speak as a man, Paul says at the end of that verse. To say that God is unjust to inflict wrath, to say God is unjust to inflict, no, let me clarify something. God is never unjust. God is absolutely 100% of the time always righteous. We're the ones who are always unjust. Don't ever get this twisted around but yet don't we get upset with God when things don't go the way that we want them to go. My husband died way too young. He was only 80 years old. How can God do this to me? Oh, wait a second. First of all, you're shaking your fist in the face of God. God says your life will be 70 years, maybe 80, and your husband got plenty of life with you. Well, it was my child. Why would God, right? So we shake our fist in the face of God. No, you're the one who's unrighteous. God is the one who is righteous. And so Paul's response to this, my unrighteousness makes God look good, my unrighteousness highlights or, you know, think of it this way. I'm the black velvet behind the diamond. I make the diamond sparkle. My sin really makes God show up. I mean, if I was just all white and good and put a diamond against just a bland white background, it doesn't shine. Right? You need black velvet for that thing to shine. Think of the twisted mindset of somebody who's thinking like this. They just got out of Sanford, I think, or what other secular university. I mean, to have this perverse, twisted concept, so it would certainly be wrong for God to inflict wrath on me when I'm doing so much in my sin to make him look good. That's obvious, isn't it? Yeah, it's obvious to an idiot, it's obvious to a moron, it's obvious to a theological twisted weirdo, but it's not obvious to someone who loves God and knows the character of God. And so Paul's answer is this, absolutely not. No way, Jose, certainly not. God forbid, in verse six. Because if that were the case, you know that God is gonna judge those Gentiles. Oh yeah, I'm glad about him judging those Gentiles. but he's not gonna judge me as a sinning Jew because he has made a covenant with me, he's given me all of these external things, and on top of that, as a Jew, I make him look good when I sin. But you said you are happy about him judging the Gentiles. They really make him look good according to your twisted theology. According to your warped theology, man, those heathen in the heart of the jungle are really making God look good. He says, no, that's twisted thinking. Then the next objection is, but if the truth of God has increased through my lie. Notice how he's brought up truth and lie. Same as back in verse four. Certainly not let God be true and every man a liar. Okay, you called me a liar. Then my lie makes God's truth really pop out. I mean, wow. In fact, not only does my lie increase the truth of God, but it increases the truth of God to his glory. Do you see how they're thinking? how their twisted mind is. Now, let me apply that. Because if you are still in the mindset, I don't need to really have a repentant heart. I don't really need to be circumcised of the heart. I don't really need to have a real living, real heart relationship with Jesus Christ. God will be happy with my comparative righteousness. He'll compare me against Hitler, and I look really good against Hitler, so he'll say, oh, come on in, you're not as bad as Hitler. Of course, Hitler's gonna point to someone else, like Genghis Khan or something, I don't know, Pol Pot. But there was always some comparative deal. But if you still are thinking, well, he's gonna, and on top of that, not only am I comparatively better than those guys, but I have all of the symbols. I know the Bible, I go to church, I show up at church, I am a deacon at the church, I'm a Sunday school teacher, and I'm actively involved in the church. And so he had better bless me. You see, if you still have that thinking, you're still in the path of salvation by works. Every day that you withhold radical commitment to Christ, heart holiness. Heart holiness. What kind of holiness? It's got to be from the heart. It's got to be circumcision of the heart. It's got to be radical, real, genuine commitment to Christ. If that is not there, you have a rock-hard, unrepentant heart. And God says your rock-hard, unrepentant heart is not gonna give you salvation on the last day because you have put forth your comparative righteousness, you've put forth your baptism, you've put forth your Bible knowledge. So he says this in verse seven, we'll wrap up with seven and eight. But Paul, if God's truth is increasing through my lie, and it's to his glory, why would I be judged as a sinner? I should not be judged as a sinner, I should be judged as a glorifier. Right? And Paul's answer is an answer of disgust. I think of him looking at him sideways like, yeah, and let's do evil that good may come. You understand what you're saying? You're saying, oh, if God's really happy when I sin, let's really sin? Let's live it up? Let's go kill somebody, let's rob somebody, let's do this and that and the next thing. And Paul is like, as we are slanderously poor, and isn't that frustrating? People, whenever you preach grace, someone is gonna come along and say, oh, you're saying to me that a person is saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, then you're giving them license to sin. That's not what we're saying at all. That's not what Paul is saying, but that is what is slanderously reported that's being said. He says in verse eight, let us do evil in order that good might come as we are slanderously reported. Being slanderous is very frustrating. You know, when someone goes out and they tell a lie, it's like you can't, the story is told of a man in a kingdom who told lies. And the king was so furious with him, he took him up on top of one of those pinnacles. And he had a feather pillow. And he told the man, he said, cut the pillow open, it was a windy day, cut the pillow open and throw these feathers into the wind. So the guy did, he cut the pillow open, threw the feathers into the wind, and that wind caught all those little feathers all over the kingdom. He said, now you go and you collect every single one of them or you get beheaded. How do you collect every single feather that's gone out into the wind? But that's when people start slandering and lying about other people and telling half-truths, mistruths, partial truths. That's throwing a feather pillow into the wind. It's like, How do I stop that? How do I, right? Isn't it such a frustrating thing to try and stop people from slandering you? But Paul just boldly says, no, that's a slanderous lie. The Greek word for slander there is blasphemy. And as some affirm that we say these things, he said, now, let me give you my answer to that. Your damnation is just. I'm not even gonna grace your wicked thinking with a well-reasoned argument. Let me just say, your damnation is just. And he ends the whole sentence with the word just. Isn't that interesting? It's all about the justice of God. God would be unjust to judge me, and God is just, and he's not gonna unjustly judge me. No, when God judges you, he will be just. That's what he says at the end of verse eight, amen? All right, so I pray that today, this will be the end of any trust you have had in your baptism, any trust you have had in your church membership, any trust you have had in your good works, any trust you've had in your church attendance, any trust you have had in your comparative righteousness. And you're thinking, well, I prayed the prayer, I walked an aisle, and I got baptized, so I'm not that bad, I'm just not that bad, I'm really not that bad. Now is the time to repent of that thinking. because we're gonna get into chapter three and it's gonna be brutal. But I want you to repent now and enjoy the benefits of trusting Christ, all right? Let's pray. We do come before you, Lord Jesus, and we exalt you, we magnify you, Lord. If it were in one microbe dependent upon my good works, I'd be lost. But it is all, all to Jesus. I surrender all to Jesus. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, but you, not me, you washed it white as snow. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for this incredible gift of grace. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand as we sing amazing grace.