Our Old Testament lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 59. Isaiah 59, hear now the word of our God. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or His ear dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly. No one goes to law honestly. They rely on empty pleas. They speak lies. They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. They hatch adder's eggs. They weave the spider's web. He who eats their eggs dies. And from one that is crushed, a viper is hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing. Men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths. They have made their roads crooked. No one who treads on them knows peace. Therefore, justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us. We hope for light, and behold darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like the blind, we grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. We all growl like bears, we moan and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but there is none. For salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before you and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us and we know our iniquities. Transgressing and denying the Lord and turning back from following our God. Speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. Justice has turned back, and righteousness stands afar off. For truth has stumbled into public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede. Then His own arm brought Him salvation, and His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness as a dressplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself in zeal as in a cloak. According to their deeds, so will He repay wrath to His adversaries, repayment to His enemies. To the coastlands He will render repayment. So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. For He will come like a rushing stream which the wind of the Lord drives, and a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, declares the Lord. And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord. My spirit that is upon you and my words that I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth or out of the mouth of your offspring or out of the mouth of your children's offspring, says the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore. This is the word of our God. Our new Testament lesson comes from Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 starting in verse 9, hear now the word of our God. What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin. As it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift, shed boy, in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. In the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. Behold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one. He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. This is the word of our God. I recently met a man who openly proclaimed, in fact almost seemed to boast, that he had broken 8 out of the 10 commandments, taken strictly literally. And yet, he also proclaimed that he was a good man. How should you respond to somebody who will say openly, yes, I've broken 8 out of the 10 commandments, but I'm a good person. How should you respond? What would Paul say to such a man? Sometimes we tend to think that we need to prove that he's not a good man. And so we point to Romans 3. There is no one who does good. See, you're not good. But remember that in the previous chapter, Paul has said that when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things of the law, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. In chapter 2, verses 14 and 15. In other words, sometimes even unbelieving Gentiles do the things of the law. So I think what Paul would say to this man would be something along the lines of, I don't doubt that in many respects you are a good and honorable man. I don't doubt that you love your wife and your children. But according to your own testimony, you have admitted that you are under the power of sin. After all, your conscience is both accusing and defending you. This man is a perfect example of what Paul has said in Romans 2. Because his conscience sometimes accuses him. You've broken 8 out of 10. Sometimes defends him. But I'm a good person. And the thing is, that's Paul's whole point. Somebody whose conscience is sometimes accusing and sometimes defending is somebody who is under the power of sin. Paul's point is not that humanity does nothing good. Paul's point is that there is no one who does goodness. There is no one who only practices goodness. Your track record is mixed. Sometimes you do good, sometimes you do evil. That's the very point that Paul has made in chapter 2 verse 15. And in chapter 3, at the end of chapter 2, Paul makes it clear that the Jews are the same way. The Jews are no better off. He asks in chapter 3 verse 1, what advantage has the Jew, or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. But then he asks in verse 8, Verse 9 brother, what then, are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. The advantage of the Jews was not that they were better. The advantage of the Jews was that they had received the oracles of God, that God had spoken to them. But Paul also assumes that you understand the history of Israel. How did Israel do? What was Israel's track record? Well, like the Gentiles, it was mixed. Sometimes they did good, sometimes they did evil. Sometimes their consciences accuse them, sometimes their consciences defend them. And Paul uses Psalm 51, the Psalm where even David, Israel's anointed king, laments his sin. Even the greatest Israelite of all time, the man after God's own heart, fell short. And so Paul says that God is just to inflict wrath on Israel, in chapter 3 verse 5, because through that judgment God will judge the world, verse 6. Israel's faithlessness does not nullify the faithfulness of God. Rather, God's purpose has been to focus his judgment, first taking the curse of Adam, narrowing it to the curse on Israel, then to the curse on David's house, so that he might bring his judgment first on Jesus. That is why Paul says that ultimately, Jews are no better off than Greeks. They have the advantage of being entrusted with the oracles of God, but they are no better, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin. If you have a mixed track record, if sometimes you sin, and sometimes you do the things of the law, whether Jew or Gentile, then you are under the power of sin. and then follows an interesting list of passages. as it is written. And then Paul quotes from a variety of Old Testament passages and sort of lumps them all together. He says, none is righteous, no not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God, all have turned aside, together they have become worthless, no one does good, not even one. It's a quotation from Psalm 14. Psalm 53 is virtually identical as well. It starts off, the fool says in his heart there is no God. But what's interesting about Paul's usage of this passage is that Psalm 14 says none is righteous. But what does Psalm 14 say, who is the psalmist talking about when he says none is righteous? The psalm starts, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And in verse 4 he says, have they no knowledge, all the evil doers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the Lord. And even more perplexing is verse 5 of psalm 14. For they, the wicked, the fool who says in his heart there is no God, are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous. Wait a second. Paul is using this psalm to say there is none righteous? A psalm that itself says that God is with the generation of the righteous? Psalm 14 is making a distinction between the fool, the wicked, who do not seek God, and the righteous, who call upon the Lord. How could Paul use this psalm to say there is none righteous? Hold that thought. It gets worse. Paul goes on to quote Psalm 5, which we sang earlier. And you may have heard, as we sang Psalm 5, there's lots of parallels with Romans 3. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. But in Psalm 5, again, it's perplexing. What is Paul doing here? Because the they is not all of humanity. It's the boastful, the evildoers whom the Lord abhors. And Psalm 5 concludes, as we sang, You bless the righteous, O Lord. So once again, Paul's using a psalm that contrasts the wicked and the righteous to say there's no unrighteous. What is Paul doing? We just sang Psalm 140. That's the next one Paul quotes. The venom of asps is under their lips. And again, the they are the arrogant. And David asserts that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and will execute justice for the needy. It concludes, as we just sang, surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name. Once again, Paul is using a psalm that contrasts the wicked and the righteous to say there's none righteous. What on earth is Paul doing? You probably won't be surprised to hear that verse 14 is a quote from Psalm 10, which also makes the same contrast between the wicked and the righteous. And Psalm 36 is the final quote, there is no fear of God before their eyes. Again, same contrast. So all of these passages clearly distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, stating that God's people are the righteous and those that persecute God's people are the wicked. So I've got a question for you. Is Paul an idiot? Does Paul think that nobody's going to check up on him? That nobody's going to go back to these verses he's quoting and say, wait a second Paul, what are you talking about? Or is Paul just proof texting? Is he just saying, ah, I've got a good quote here, I'll wrench it out of context and use it over here and who cares what the psalmist is saying? Well, he used Paul's favorite phrase in this part of Romans. Meganoita! Absolutely not! Rather, Paul understands that all these passages are talking about Israel. Look at verse 19. The way he sums all this up is he says, Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. When you look back at all these passages, all of them are talking about Israel. The righteous are those faithful Israelites who seek after God. The wicked are rebellious Israelites who do not seek after God. So what's Paul doing here? The key to understanding what Paul is doing here is at the end of his list of quotes, he cites Isaiah 59. Isaiah 59 could be said to be the Romans 3 of the Old Testament. Isaiah speaks to Israel and says, your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. No one enters suit justly. No one goes to law honestly. You hear that same, no one does, as Paul will use in Romans 3. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shit innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths. Isaiah speaks on behalf of all Israel and says, justice is turned back and righteousness stands afar off. For truth has stumbled in the public squares and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Notice that Isaiah himself acknowledges that there are some who depart from evil. Some do turn from transgression in chapter 59 verse 20. Isaiah would agree, as would Paul, that there are some who are quote-unquote righteous. Namely, those who have repented of their sins and believed in God's promise. But that's not the point of the law. The law was never a way to earn salvation. No Israelite, at least no Israelite who understood what God had said, thought that he could earn salvation by the law. Rather, the purpose of the law was to establish righteous Israel as a nation, a national righteousness. Or you might say, after the failure of the judges, when God appoints David, a royal righteousness of David's house. At least, that is what Israel was called to be. But quite frankly, Moses had said in Deuteronomy 29 and 30 that Israel was going to fail. Moses knew that Israel was not going to succeed at this righteousness. And so Paul will say in Galatians that the real purpose of the law was to serve as a pedagogue, as a servant that disciplines the children in order to discipline the Son of God and His minority. So you might say that Israel in the wilderness is the son of God in his terrible twos. Israel in the exile is the prodigal son in his teenage rebellion sowing his wild oats. The way Paul says it here in Romans 3 is that the law spoke to Israel. It spoke to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. What does that mean? God's purpose in giving the law was to show the whole world that the law cannot save. The advantage of Israel was that God spoke to them, but even that was not enough. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Literally, it's by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. We'll hear a lot more from Paul in Romans about the flesh. As Paul says in Romans 8, God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. The flesh is weak and powerless and the law does not provide a way for flesh to be justified. The whole history of Israel demonstrates this. So then what is the purpose of the law? Well, I'd like you to listen to verses 9 to 18 again. This time, think about how is Paul weaving these passages together. We've already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written. None is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. The direction. What is the direction of humanity? All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. The trajectory of humanity is heading in the wrong direction. And as examples of this, Paul said, their throat is an open grave that they use their tongues to deceive. How people, whether Jew or Gentile, how we speak is a problem. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. and also their feet. Our walk is a problem. Their feet are swift to shed blood, in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. And then to sum it all up, there is no fear of God before their eyes. So when Paul says that no one does good, He's not saying that no one ever does anything nice or good, rather he's saying no one is able to do the goodness that the law called for. The law called Israel to be the righteous mediator to the nations, but Israel failed. God had called David to succeed where Israel failed, but the house of David has failed. Truly, there is no one righteous, not even one, because if there was a righteous one, What would happen if there was One who was righteous? Then He would be the Deliverer. Then He would bring about the promise of salvation. That's what Isaiah 59 was all about. What Paul is doing here in Romans 3 is no different. He's doing exactly the same thing that Isaiah had done in Isaiah 59. The Lord saw it. When the Lord looked at Israel and saw how all Israel had gone astray, it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no one to intercede. In all of Israel, Israel has failed to be the righteous mediator, the righteous one. And so Isaiah says, Then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. And a redeemer will come to Zion to those in Jacob who took from transgression. Paul's conception of the righteousness of God is rooted in Isaiah 59. Then his own arm brought salvation and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon his head. The Law never produced a Deliverer. The Law could not produce a Savior because through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. And so Paul says, yes, the Jews have the advantage of being entrusted to the oracles of God, but in the long run they are no better off, because that very law brings the knowledge of sin. That very law was designed to stop the mouths of fools and hold the whole world accountable to God. And so by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight. You cannot be declared righteous by what you do. Oh, both Jews and Greeks are under the power of sin. But now. Okay, I've got to stop there for a moment. Because those two little words have far more significance than we often times give them credit for. Do you realize how important those two little words, but now, are? When When Paul says, now, he uses that word dozens of times, and especially when he says, but now, in most cases, he is making a contrast between what was true then, under the law, and what has now happened in Christ. Now, in Christ, God has done what he promised in Isaiah 59. All that God had said was going to happen to Israel at the end of history has now happened to Jesus in the middle of history. Now, not someday, now God has done what He has promised. This is, you might say, an eschatological now. Because, after all, all that God had promised to Israel, that all that He had said He would do at the end of history, He has done now in Jesus. God had promised that God would raise up righteous Israel. Well, who was raised up? Jesus! God had promised that he would bring judgment upon the nations. Who did he pour judgment out on? Jesus! Now, in the middle of history, God has done this. Now, the last days salvation of God has begun. In the resurrection of Jesus, we have the beginning of the end. Because all that God had promised to Israel has been revealed, has been manifested in the Gospel of Jesus. And that's what Paul says in verse 21. But now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. Now, what do we mean by the righteousness of God? Does the righteousness of God simply mean that God is just? Well, if the righteousness of God simply means that God is just, that had been manifested many, many times in the Old Testament. And Paul says that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. So the law revealed that God does what is right. rather clearly. But now, the righteousness of God has been revealed, has been manifested apart from the law. Back in chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, Paul set forth the theme, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, you first and also to the Greek. For in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live in faith. Paul has been speaking of God's wrath against the unrighteousness of men. God's judgment has come against all men. All, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin. By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. In other words, if God is righteous, and He is, then if He judges us according to the standard of the law, we will all be condemned. So the righteousness of God cannot mean simply that He is just. And that is why Paul says that in the gospel, now remember, what is the gospel? The gospel is the good news of what Jesus has done. Back in Romans 1, verses 1-4, Paul laid out the gospel concerning his son. The gospel, the good news, is that Jesus has been raised from the dead. That's the good news. And so in the gospel, in the good news about what Jesus has done, the righteousness of God is revealed. And now, in the gospel, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifest. The law never manifested the righteousness of God. The law and the prophets bore witness to it, but they did not manifest it. Do you get that? What's the difference between manifesting and bearing witness. A very simple explanation is between the resurrection of Jesus and this sermon. This sermon does not manifest the resurrection of Jesus. That should be fairly obvious. Do you see Jesus raised from the dead standing here? No. Okay. I am bearing witness to the resurrection of Jesus but The resurrection of Jesus is what, in the Gospel, the resurrection of Jesus is manifested. That's where the righteousness of God is openly declared, openly seen, not just declared, but openly seen, revealed. And so in the Law and the Prophets, you find many witnesses to the righteousness of God. You find many pictures portraying the coming resurrection. Many voices declaring the Gospel in advance. But the law never manifests the righteousness of God because only in the resurrection of Jesus is the word manifested in the flesh. And so the righteousness of God was revealed once for all in the death and resurrection of Jesus because it is in the cross, as Paul says in verse 26, that God showed His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So the righteousness of God had never been manifested before. It had never been revealed before. Because never before had God put forward appreciation for sin. The death of Christ was to show God's righteousness at the present time. In other words, now. Now we'll talk more next time about Paul's doctrine of justification. How we are declared righteous in Christ. For now we are focused on God's righteousness. How God has demonstrated His righteousness. How God has manifested His righteousness. How God has revealed His righteousness in the gospel now at the present time. Because in the gospel, in the good news of the resurrection of Jesus, the righteousness of God has been revealed. Because in the resurrection of Jesus, God is revealed to be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. You might say the righteousness of God is revealed not just in that He is just. Not merely that He always does what's right. It's that He is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. The righteousness of God includes both that He is just and that He justifies the ungodly. He justifies the one who has faith in Jesus. Now, There really can be only one application of this message. Believe in Jesus. That's it. Believe in Him. Because Paul has just said, everyone is under the power of sin. There's no way to escape that except through faith in Jesus. So therefore believe in Him. Trust in His promises. Because you can never be good enough. And the kindness of God, as Paul has already said, is meant to lead you to repentance. So believe in Him and be thankful for the righteousness of God revealed in the resurrection of Jesus. Let us pray. Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, We do give thanks to you for what you have done for us in Jesus Christ our Lord. We thank you that you have not left us under the power of sin, but rather that you have redeemed us and through the propitiation and through the atoning sacrifice that our Lord Jesus Christ offered in his death, that you have forever set us free from the guilt and the power of sin and death. And so we ask, O Lord, that you would truly be thankful for these things and you would help us to turn away from that righteousness which is of the law, which is no righteousness at all, and turn to that righteousness which is by faith and believe in your promises and trust that you will do as you have promised and bring us to that final day when we will stand before you in Jesus Christ our Lord. And until that day, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.