Their condemnation is just

So really, kind of an interesting section here that we've been going through, and I'll back up a little bit, actually not back up, but just put it in context. In chapter 2, Paul has skillfully demonstrated that the Jew is without excuse under the condemnation and judgment of God.

See, the Jews thought that several things, but they thought that they probably were going to be able to miss the judgment of God against man. And so today, Newell came up with three questions, and we'll try to answer those three questions today. The first one is, what advantage or preeminence has a Jew, what advantage did a Jew have because he was circumcised? Because he thought if he was circumcised, He was going to escape judgment.

The second question will be, if God makes use of human sin to set forth His glory, which He does, would it not be unrighteous to punish that sin with wrath? Does that question resonate with you? Do you ever think that way? And then the third question is, if God's truth as to His warnings and promises was enhanced through my life.

If He got glory through my Jew or Gentile sin, why does He find fault with me as a sinner?" How can you do that? So, what we're really looking at today through these first eight verses The Jew, first of all, is going to try to argue his way out of judgment. But he's going to find that he doesn't do a very good job. So, we find the same thing today when we present the Gospel to others and clearly show about their own sinfulness and their need of Christ, they often begin raising objections. They often throw out arguments to try to get themselves out from under the judgment of God.

They use things like, well, what about those heathens? How can a loving God send anyone to hell? I'm a good person. I had lunch with a guy this week that I've known for 50 years. He's not a believer. And I was able to give him the gospel, And guess what he said to me? Well, I'm a good person. How do you answer that question? Is it a question? If you think you're a good person, that doesn't necessarily make it so.

So in Romans 3.1, we talked about last week, then what advantage has a Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? When you go back to chapter two and we saw that the Jews had rested their ability to escape judgment, either on the law or on the fact that they were circumcised or on the fact that they were Abraham's children, would mean that if any of those were true, they could escape. But Paul made it really clear in chapter two. that having the law doesn't do a person any good at all, unless you keep it.

Well, good luck with that. Being circumcised doesn't do a person any good. It's like today in 2023, if I go to church and they baptize me with water, did that get me out of the judgment that's coming? No. No. And then being a child of Abraham, does that do me any good? Answer, no, it doesn't. No, it doesn't.

So with these things in mind, it's natural that the Jew would then ask the question, well, if you've reduced me, Paul, to just an ordinary person, maybe a Gentile, what advantage is there in being a Jew? If we're under God's judgment like the Gentiles, what advantages of being a Jew? Is there a benefit of being a Jew? If having the law and being circumcised and being a child of Abraham doesn't do me any good, then what advantage is there in being a Jew?

Answer, great in every respect. And then he says, first of all, They were entrusted with the oracles of God. I don't think we realize in our day how important an issue that was for the Jews. No other nation on the face of the earth was entrusted with God's Word. Nobody except the Jewish nation. They had benefits and privileges that none of the other nations had.

Paul listed as many of these advantages if you take a look in Romans chapter 9 verses 4 and 5, which will eventually get there. But I'll quote from, who are the Israelites to whom belong the adoption as sons, the glory and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the temple service, and the promises? Whose are the fathers? From whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all God blessed forever?"

You think they had an advantage? You better believe they did. So, but here he simply lists the chief advantage that the Jews had. And the chief advantage was that they had God's word. God spoke to them, not only written, but by the prophets. And they focused, God focused on the Jewish nation. And this word entrusted means that they were literally given the Word of God into their trust. They were to guard it, and they were also to use it to show the rest of the world who God was and that they could believe too. Literally, they were entrusted with God's Word.

What's interesting is, I think it has an application to us today. I grew up a Catholic. And at our house was this big white Bible. It was about this big and about this thick. And it always went in a prominent display so that everybody knew we had a Bible, right?

Well, until I became a believer, I didn't realize what the responsibility is of having a Bible, if you have a Bible in your home. If a person has a Bible, he's got a great advantage and a great privilege and a great responsibility. Having a Bible is an awesome responsibility for us. If we possess the truth, then we're to respond by faith to the truth that we possess. How many Bibles are there in the homes of Americans which are never opened and never used? The man I had lunch with this week is a Catholic. He doesn't know from the index of the Bible. He has never looked at it. Never. And I never did either. I mean, I went to religion class. That's as much as I knew, but that's not the Bible. That's what a denomination was trying to tell me what the Bible said. You take this nation of Israel, entrusted with God's Word, and with the responsibility to believe and obey the written Word, the revelation that they had is a huge advantage. So Paul says, what then?

In verse 3, if some did not believe, Their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? No, they weren't faithful. It wasn't God that was unfaithful, it was them. So the Jews actually in this verse, if you look at it closely, they were accusing God of being unfaithful. The Lord, they're saying it this way, Lord, you gave us your word, and you've given us many promises as a nation. Why are you being unfaithful to us? That's what they're really saying to him. They were accusing God of being unfaithful. God has chosen us now, and now he's going to condemn us.

Paul shows the reality that really who was unfaithful or faithless? Shall their unbelief nullify the faithfulness of God? Answer, no. Shall faithlessness in man cancel the faithfulness of God? No. The national disobedience to God's oracles went from Sinai onward.

Neglect of these oracles at a time like in Josiah's day when he was a king of Israel. They only found one copy of the law in all of Israel. Imagine that. Imagine somebody coming to the United States and you can only find one Bible in the whole country.

But they have pride over their position as the possessors of the oracles, even to the despising of other nations. that didn't have them instead of ministering them to others. They were arrogant about it. And that arrogance is still there today. Ignorance of the scriptural meaning of the divine oracles and of the voices of their prophets.

So what was the result of all of that? They killed the righteous one. They murdered the Lord Jesus Christ. God gave them his word. And they were the ones who were unfaithful. It wasn't God who failed. The Word of God, our Bible, there's no failure in that. They were the ones who failed.

Maybe you look at it this way. If you throw pearls in front of swine, and they can trample them into the mud. But this doesn't change the fact that they are still pearls. Likewise, the Jews can trample all over God's Word, but that doesn't change God's Word, and it doesn't alter His promises, and doesn't alter His faithfulness.

2 Timothy 2.13 tells us, if we are faithless, He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself. He's faithful because that's what He is.

We should note also, in verse 3, that it says that some did not believe. It's not all who did not believe. There were those who did. Peter, Paul, James, etc. They believed the promises found in the Word of God. But there were many, many others who did not. And the majority of the Jews did not believe in Christ as the Messiah.

So here's Paul's answer, this great phrase, may it never be. We talked last week that in our present day vernacular, we would say, no way, no way. Let God be found true or let God be true. Though every man be found a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. So the question raised in three is answered with a resounding, God forbid, no way. And Paul uses this expression a lot, and we'll see it a lot going forward.

In Romans 3.31, 6.2, 6.2 is really simple. Should I contend to sin that grace may abound? How much sense does that make? If you're a Jew, trying to argue your way out of judgment makes a lot of sense to you. But to God, who's faithful, it makes no sense. I mean, it's like, really? It can't be true. So, it's this really strong phrase of negation. Perish the thought. Let me think about this.

Men may be liars, but this doesn't make God a liar. Men may be unfaithful. This does not make God unfaithful. Even if every man on the face of the earth believed in this theory of evolution, it wouldn't make it true. God in His Word, especially in Genesis 1 and 2, would be true and every man would be a liar.

So when Paul quotes this from Psalm 51.4, what he's really quoting is a confession by David.

I thought this was interesting because he says he's confessing and praying following a sin of adultery and murder that You may be justified in your words, O God, and prevail when you are judged. You may be justified or you may be the victor. Lord, if you're going to paraphrase, Lord, you're always the overcomer and you're always the victor. You are always right and you always win every case. So what's the word confession mean? It means to say the same thing. So when we go to the Lord, what are we really saying to them? I'm wrong and you're right. You're faithful and I'm not. I'm sinning and you're reconciling me because I'm admitting and agreeing with you.

So he's very wise, Paul is, to use David in his example of his prayer. There's hardly anyone that the Jews looked up to is more than David. He was a godly king, and he wrote many of the Psalms. So he was a highly respected man. But it still remained that even David, their hero, was unfaithful. And David was an adulterer and a murderer. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and was the cause of her husband's death on the battlefield, Uriah.

So David's own prayer was saying, Lord, you're right and I'm wrong. I'm saying the same thing that you're saying. I agree with you, God. He knew he was guilty and he needed God's mercy. If David was guilty and he was condemned, then the fact would condemn every Jew. What Jew would dare say that he was better than David? Note that in chapter 4, Paul will tell us all about how David was saved. So in verse 5, Paul says, but if our righteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say?

The God who inflicts wrath is not righteous, is He? I'm speaking in human terms. So this is the second question that we're going to answer today. If God makes use of human sin to set forth His glory, as He will and He does, would it not be unrighteous to punish that sin with wrath? Lord, You're an unfair judge to us. And you know what?

People say that today. Now you look at this word demonstrate, it means to bring to light, to magnify. And you look at the phrase that says inflict wrath, it means to take vengeance against sin. So not only were the Jews accusing God of being unfaithful, but here in verse 5, we see that they were accusing God of being unrighteous, being unjust, being unfair. Here's how the argument goes.

If I have magnified God's righteousness by my unrighteousness, then how can He judge me? If my sins, make God look all the more righteous, then how can God blame me for my sin? None of you have ever thought that way. My sin is God's gain. God gains with my unrighteousness. My sin makes God look good. My unrighteousness makes Him look righteous. My unfaithfulness makes Him look like He's faithful. So really, I'm doing God a favor by enhancing and magnifying His righteous character.

Consequently, if my sin is befitting God so much or benefiting God so much, how can God judge me for my sin? How can He do that? Therefore, if God judges me for doing Him service, He must be unrighteous. He has to be." And then Paul says, I speak as a man. Paul was just stating the arguments that he anticipated others bringing up before they brought them up, because he knew what they were thinking.

If our unrighteousness, if our unrighteous Jewish history, has commended the righteousness of God, what shall we say? God went right on fulfilling what his oracle said and what his prophecy said, despite the unfaithfulness of us of whom he had been committed. And in fact, by means of our sinful Jewish history, God's prophecies concerning our disobedience were fulfilled. before the whole world from Moses on. So if you want to look at that, Deuteronomy 31 and 32, you can spend an hour looking at that.

The answer is impossible. There can't be any unrighteousness with God. Paul emphatically demonstrated the consistency in God's character The unbelieving Jew will be judged to hell, but God's promises to the believing Jew will all be fulfilled. Again, he uses the same phrase, may it never be, no way, can't happen. God forbid. How will God judge the whole world? The Jews knew that God was going to judge the world and that he was righteous in doing so.

But they would say, consider John 3.16, God so loved the world. Wicked men could say, God, the more sinful we are, the more your love is magnified. How then can you judge us? Our wickedness makes your love look really good.

Such distortion and perverted thinking is along the same lines as a blasphemous bumper sticker that says, Jesus died for our sins. Let's not disappoint him. What Paul is attacking here is the false hopes of men who try to evade judgment. Christ has been judged and smitten in our place. He now, but how a man hates to come to the cross as one to whom the blow was due. We were due this, the pain.

So let's say, let's just, for instance, say that you managed to escape conviction of sin. And consequently, you miss personal faith in the crucified one. Guess what? You're going to hell. slander against the gospel of grace is still going on and will continue right up until Christ returns.

So in verse 7 he says, but if through my lie the truth of God abounded to his glory, why am I also being judged as a sinner? Same kind of argument here. This has to do with the third question. A third question stated, Newell states it this way, if God's truth as to warnings and promises was enhanced through my life, if he got glory through my Jewish sin, why does he find fault with me as a sinner?

If my lie or my unfaithfulness magnifies and enhances God's truth, and God has glorified it in my lie, then why is God going to judge me? It's true that God can use sin and the wickedness and wrath of men to bring glory to His name. Psalm 76 10 says, For the wrath of man shall praise you, with the remnant of the wrath you will gird yourself. probably a really good example in the Old Testament, is a wicked, hard-hearted guy named Pharaoh.

And he brought glory to God. Again, in Romans 9, 17, 18, through there, Pharaoh, following the same perverted logic, could say, Lord, what right do you have to judge me? I've done you a service. I've helped bring glory to your name. I have let everyone see how long-suffering you were with me and how your power was made known.

If I had not resisted, you then would not have been able to perform all of those mighty signs and wonders upon the land of Egypt." So what's Paul's answer? Far be the thought. If God should be unrighteous in visiting the Jews with wrath, how is God going to judge the world? You see their logic? If He's unrighteous, how can He judge the world? The judge of all earth will do right, and He will judge the whole world.

Acts 17.31 says, because He has a fixed day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead, which involves the infliction of wrath upon any and all unrepentant, as all scripture shows. In conclusion right here, man can bring glory to God, but it certainly does not exempt a man from judgment. Verse 8 says, and why not say, as we are slanderously reported, as some claim that we say, let us do evil that good may come. Their condemnation is just. So let us do evil that good may come.

Paul was falsely accused of teaching this philosophy or this theology. Why? because Paul taught that salvation was by grace apart from any works. He taught that the wickedest sinner apart from any works could be saved. You could see how Paul's teaching could be easily perverted. Let's live any way we please And let's do evil because salvation is by grace. The more we sin, the brighter is grace. What the problem is, is that Paul didn't teach this. This was a distortion, a wicked distortion of the doctrine of grace. Saving grace is really the very opposite.

If you look at Titus 2, 11 and 12. two of the greatest verses in the Bible, for the grace of God has appeared. And what did it bring? It brought salvation to all men. And it brought instruction, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.

I think a lot of times we have this idea that grace is just God letting you do what you want. It isn't like that. Grace is instructive. It teaches us about our ungodliness and worldliness and our desires in the world. And it teaches us how to live righteously and how to live godly. So let us do evil that good may come. This is the philosophy of the world called the end justifies the means.

And I got this out of a booklet from Middletown Bible Church. I thought it was kind of interesting because it points up some things. It's evident both to the hearer and the questioner of such questions that doing evil that good may come does not change the character of evil, nor take away the guilt from him who commits it. And the first example they quoted was communism.

The whole system of communist morality is based on this philosophy. They do not mind doing evil as long as the good may come from it. The furtherance and advancement of communism is the cause. They think nothing of lying and cheating and even murdering as long as it furthers the cause of communism. Sin is anything that hinders the cause. Telling the truth could be a sin if it hinders communism.

The second example they used was the early believers in Christ. And we talked about this some time ago. And we were talking about this in John. Suppose that they had reasoned this way. You know, in the Roman system, you could worship any God you wanted except for one day a year. And that one day a year, you had to pay homage and burn incense to Caesar, that he was God above all gods. What if a Christian said, well, I'll tell you what, I'm going to do that incense thing with Caesar. I'm going to deny Christ so I will not be put to death by the Romans. And what's my reasoning? Then I'll have more days to live so I can tell others about the Lord. Again, in my mind, I get this one word that says, duh, that doesn't make any sense.

How about in school? I'll cheat on my exam and this will enable me to pass my course and get my degree and eventually become a medical doctor and then I'll be able to save many people's lives. How about stealing? I'm going to steal this bread so I'll be able to feed my starving family and preserve them alive. The Christian approach, Lord, I must do that which is wrong in order, in your sight, I must not break the Ten Commandments I refuse to steal because you said, Thou shalt not steal. Well, I'm going to trust you and in some way take care of my starving family. I'll do my part and use every legitimate means to help them, every lawful means. What's interesting about this kind of thing is that we would sympathize with that. If my family was starving and I had an opportunity to steal a loaf of bread, would I do it? And how about evangelism? I really like this one.

Souls must be one at any cost. I'll cooperate with the enemies of Christ so that they can sponsor my crusades and then I'll be able to preach the gospel to more people. To win the world for Christ, you need to be like the world and compromise your standards. Oh really? Look at a lot of the evangelistic efforts in the world today. That's exactly what they're based on.

I keep referring to this man, I hope he's not listening, that I had lunch with this week. He's a pretty wealthy guy and he's finally realized at 80 years old that he's probably got more money than he can ever spend. So he said to me, well, tell me about your church. And I knew where he was going. I said, we're fine. What I didn't tell him was that it's not, what's the word I'm looking for?

I don't think it's gracious on my part to allow a man who's not a believer to support us. We don't need that. We trust the Lord with what He's going to do and only Him. And I don't care if you have buckets of money. Don't bring it here because we don't want it.

It's got to come from the Lord. So although we should be willing to sacrifice our lives for the salvation of the lost, that's different. We must never pay the price of insubordination to God. Faithfulness to God and submission to his word at any cost should be our motto.

We're reminded of 2 Timothy 2.5, if anyone takes part in athletic contests, he must, he gets no prize unless he obeys the rules. You know what our rules are? Grace. Go back to Titus 2. There are the rules.

We must play the game God's way and follow His rule book. What does that make us? It makes us dependent on Him to accomplish any given end. And everything that's important to God should be important to us. Our attitude should be, Lord, I desire to do your will no matter how hard it is. I'm going to leave the results and the outcome with you. I'm totally dependent on you to work it out. So we've been able to answer all three questions.

The heathen who sins against only one requirement that God gave him, and that's nature. The moral man sinned against two. He sinned against nature and his conscience. The religious man who sins, he sins against a thousand requirements, all from God's oracles and his word. So we've answered all three questions. Does this apply to us?

This should be comforting to us, because God never changes, never changes. And in spite of every circumstance of life, He is found faithful. His promises to us are guaranteed. He will not change. When He says, I love you, He means it. When He says, I will guide your path, I've put My Spirit within you so that you can live unto Me." He means that. Everything He tells us in His Word about His grace towards us and about His faithfulness and His righteousness, He means every word of it. He never, ever compromises. Yet, if you're like me, I'm always trying to work a deal with God. And He always says to me, I never move. It's You who have to move. You have to come to me. So, let's close.

Father, how we thank You for Your Word. How we thank You for Your Son and Your character, and that You are steadfast in everything that You do, and that we can trust You, and we can rely upon You to carry out every and anything that You've called us to. And we thank You, Father. We pray in Your Son's precious name. Amen.