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I want to continue tonight in our study of the scriptures.
The book of Romans chapter 3, and let's read together from verse 9 to the end of
verse 26. Paul summarizes here as we'll see in a few moments the teachings of
Romans 1 and 2, and Romans 3, verse 21, becomes the great transition from
elaborating on man's sin and misery before God to the great deliverance that we
have in the person of Jesus Christ. Let's begin at verse 9, what then he says,
are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For I have already charged that
all men, 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 gone wrong. No one does good, no 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 sweet
feet are swift to shed blood. In their pads are ruined in misery and the way of
peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know
that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law so that every
mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For
no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law since
through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has
been manifested apart from 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. Since all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus. God put forward as an expiation 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 prove at the present time
that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in
Jesus. There is no distinction. Since all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood to be
received by faith. When I ask you to keep your bibles open to that passage, you're
going to be looking at it in some detail tonight. I just really pray that the
Lord will help us to understand a fresh, the incredible grace that he has made
available to you and to me by the work in the person of Jesus Christ. Let's ask
him to bless that word to us tonight, Father. We're glad to be able to call you
Father when we know that we can do that only by the blood of Jesus. As we
gather, Lord, tonight in a warm Sunday evening, for many different walks of
life to celebrate together the sacrament of communion, we pray, O Father, that
the reality of all that Jesus is and all that Jesus has done for us will hit us
afresh by the illumination of your spirit. Help us to understand how in him we
are righteous. In him we have access to all of your blessing. In him we are
children of God most high. And then Lord is in a few moments we share together
in the sacrament. Let it be a strength deep within our spirit. Let it be a
strength within our personality. Let it be a strength within our bodies. Let as
we present our lives to you as a living sacrifice. Our whole being, O Lord, may
reflect your being in your way. Remove from us tonight any distractions that
might hinder us from truly entering into your presence. Help us Lord to
rejoice in the God of our salvation. Through Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.
Amen.
We begin tonight by trying to summarize the teaching of the Apostle Paul in Romans
1 and 2. Paul's argument in Romans 1 and 2 runs like this. God, he says, is
angry with the world. The reason he says God is angry with the world is because
the world instead of honoring God as God deliberately and stubbornly goes
its own way. The Gentiles, he says, unbelievers, they do it by ignoring the law
of God written in their hearts. Intuitively they have a sense of right and wrong.
They ignore the voice of conscience. They do what they want to do plunging
ever into increasing sins. The Jews, he says, people who are brought up knowing
the revealed will of God, ignore the will of God. They apply it selectively and
while they preach to others that they ought to be in obedience to the will of
God, they go ahead and they break not only the letter but certainly the
spirit of the law. The net results as Paul and Romans 1 and 2 is that God is
justified in his anger against the world. All have sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God. That's his argument in Romans 1 and 2. And having developed that
argument now with considerable skill and in considerable detail, when he comes to
Romans chapter 3, so anxious is Paul that we understand the foundation of the
gospel that he once again summarizes everything that he has said previously
quoting largely from Psalm 14. Here is what he says, "I have already charged," he
says in verse 9. "I have already charged that all men, all people, 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 gone wrong. No one does good, no not even one. Their throat is
an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive the venom of aspses under
their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness, their feet are swift to
shed blood in their paths of ruin and misery and the way of peace they do not
know. There is, he says, no fear of God before the rise. None is righteous, no, not
even one." That's a pretty heavy indictment of the human race and it's a
statement of faith in the scriptures that a lot of people have trouble with. You
see most people have no trouble believing there are some bad people in the
world, Hitler, Stalin, maybe the nasty little brat down the street. The occasional
person that we run into, we know intuitively that they are bad just through and
through, but everybody, me, my aunt Susie, my uncle James, my great-grandfather,
all he stood for, no one is righteous, no not even one. That's a pretty, pretty
bitter pill to swallow for most people because you see most people operate with a
philosophy that there is a lot of good and a lot of bad in most people and that
when they stand before the judgment seat of Christ, God is going to put
everybody's good deeds in one side of the scale and their bad deeds in the
other side of the scale and everybody hopes intuitively that the good will out
way the bad. And Paul's argument throughout these first chapters of the book of
Romans is that that's not how it works. He says no one is righteous, no not even one
and that he goes on to give us two reasons why nobody is righteous. Number one
nobody understands or seeks for God. Nobody says understands or seeks for God. He's
talking now about the natural man apart of course from the saving grace of Jesus
Christ. Nobody understands, nobody seeks for God. A lot of people live with the
mistake of notion that that sin is largely the the bad things that we do, the
lying and the cheating and the murderer and the gossip and of course as we'll
see in a few moments. That's all part and parcel of the whole package of sin but
sin doesn't begin with the bad things we do. It begins by not giving pre-eminence
to God who is the creator and the sustainer of the universe. Nobody is
righteous because nobody understands, nobody seeks for God. David means of
100 Huntley Street. I recall him saying one time that if the greatest
commitment is that we should love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul,
strength and mind then the greatest sin that we commit is not so much all the
bad things that we do to one another. The greatest sin that we commit is that we
do not love the Lord our God with all of our heart and with all of our soul and
with all of our mind and with all of our understanding. And on that great
final day of judgment when all the nations are gathered before the throne of God
one of the first indictments that's going to come against people is that they
haven't sought after God. The world is full of people that say well I can't find
God or where is God or is there a God? Yet those same people wouldn't take us
little as fifteen minutes a day to earnestly pursue a knowledge of God and to
try to find out who he really is because the Bible says that anybody that will
seek him and seek him with all of their heart will surely find him. No one
understands, no one seeks for God and he goes on to say then all have turned
aside. Together they have gone wrong, no one does good, no not even one, and then
he goes on on the rest of that passage quoting from Psalm 14 to elaborate on
the sins of the human race their throat he says is like an open grave. They
use their tongues to deceive the venom of asks is under their lips and their mouth
is full of curses and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood and in their
paths are ruined in misery and the way of peace they do not know. The wrath of
God says Paul and Romans chapter one is revealed against all ungodliness and
wickedness of man. It is because people aren't putting God first because there is
no fear of God before their eyes that people pursue the course of sin and
we're guilty today before God in the natural not only because we want
nothing to do with God but because we have nothing to do with God we go around
and we hurt one another and we steal and we lie and we cheat and we deceive and
when God begins to apply the perfect law of righteousness against your life and
against my life when he ways are good over against our bed it can never ever be
the good that outweighs the bad because the bad will always outweigh the good.
That's why he goes on to say now we know that whatever the law says it speaks
to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped in the whole
world may be held accountable to God. Every mouth will be stopped on the day of
judgment that God is righteous in all of his judgments because you see there
is something in the human heart that always wants to justify itself before the
face of God. Have you ever noticed that in your own life and in your own
experience? But God I've got a reason for being the way that I am. Give me enough
time, give me enough effort, give me enough energy and I will somehow make it on
my own. God says it'll never be. Every mouth will be stopped on that final day
everything the human race can have tried to prove it is incapable of being
righteous before God will have been tried and proven that every mouth may be
stopped. No human being he says will be justified in his side by works of the
law since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Paul's argument there is that
God never intended for the law the external revelation of the will of God to be
able to change our lives and to make us righteous before God because it isn't
simply a matter of not knowing what it is that we ought to be or what it is that
we ought to be. It is a matter of not being capable of living the full extent of
loving the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind and
loving our neighbor as ourselves. A lot of people don't understand that when
you stand before a court of law and I've said this before it's not all of the
laws that you kept that are going to decide whether or not you're guilty or
justified. The question is have you broken one of the laws of God. Paul's argument
is all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God we are therefore all
guilty and incapable of being righteous before God and we are therefore under
the judgment of God that's not a pretty picture of the human race. And Paul
elaborates on that in such detail in Romans 1, 2 and 3 not because he wants to
rub our noses in our sin or because he finds it prefers delight in making us
wallow in our misery but to set the stage for the redemption of Jesus because
you see a lot of people don't understand Jesus and a lot of people don't
appreciate or understand the greatness of his redemption because they have
never come to understand the radicality of the depravity within their own
lines. And biblically speaking when the Spirit of God begins to work in your
life he begins to rub your noses in your sin and in your misery with the
purpose of making us reach out to Jesus and the righteousness that Jesus has
come to provide. That's why verse 21 of Romans chapter 3 becomes the watershed
of the book of Romans but now powerful words but now in light of everything that I
have said before in light of man's fallen condition before God but now the
righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law although the law of
the prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus
Christ for all who believe the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus
Christ for all who believe what Paul is saying there is this he says in view of
man's fallen condition in view of our inability to love God with all of our
heart sold strength in mind and to love our neighbors ourselves in view of the
incredible wrath of God that rests upon every last one of the sons of Adam in
view of that he says God himself has stepped into the picture that he has given
our revelation of his own righteousness now the righteousness of God has
been manifested apart from law now it gets a little tricky here please listen
carefully the righteousness of God that Paul is talking about here he uses in a
number of different senses within the context of these verses one of the ways in
which he says the righteousness of God is revealed is by coming into the world of
the Lord Jesus at his dying on the cross when you see God punishing everybody
sins in the person of Jesus then you see in that how righteous God is over
against sin because he says later on in this passage for a long time now God has
been overlooking sin people have been sitting ever since the days of Adam there
has been the occasional time when God has moved in judgment but most of the time
people go around they sinned they live together they they steal they lie they
cheat they commit idolatry in every immaginal possible kind of thing but God
just sort of goes on and nothing much happens and people say where's God where's
the righteousness of God Paul says you look at the cross of Jesus and you see what
happens to Jesus and when you understand that in Jesus God has punished our
unrighteousness you begin to understand how righteous is the righteousness of God
no longer does God turn a blind eye to sin no longer does God turn a blind eye
blind eye to one righteousness in the cross of Jesus he punishes it with
everything is God you ever want to see what's going to happen to people that will
not come to Jesus you ever want to see what's going to happen to people who will
not embrace the redemption of Christ look at the cross of Jesus look at his
absolute desolation his being utterly forsaken by God the Father his being given
over to the very torments of hell and you'll begin to understand the righteousness
of God revealed against all sin the righteousness of God has been manifested it
has been revealed it has been made known in the person of Jesus that's one of
the ways in which the righteousness of God is revealed but there's more God
not only shows that he is righteous but he makes available for you and for me
our righteousness that is the righteousness of Jesus Christ to be received by
faith the righteousness of God has been manifested the righteousness of God
through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe what's our problem before God
where guilty we're unrighteous doesn't matter if we live to be as old as
Methusua will never make ourselves good enough to warrant the blessing of God
Paul says God haven't proven that now now makes known a whole new way of
righteousness in the person of Jesus Christ when by faith we confess our own
sin and when by faith we come to Jesus we become the righteousness of God I
want us to try to understand that because it is so critical in a world and in a
day and age when so many even of God's people go through life wallowing in
their sin feeling under condemnation never feeling good enough to really be
called the child of God when you came to Jesus and you said Lord Jesus I know
that I'm a sinner I know that I cannot make myself righteous before your face
but I understand that Jesus is my righteousness in that hour by the blood of
Jesus not only did God forgive you all your past sins many as they were at
our but he gave to you the righteousness of Jesus the righteousness of Jesus the
only person that ever lived that kept perfectly the law of God was the
person of Jesus Christ and when by faith we are joined to Jesus his righteousness
is both imputed and imparted to us so that we can stand before God and God
looks at you when God looks at me and he doesn't see any of our sin because it's
old been nailed to the cross all he sees is the righteousness of Jesus and
because Jesus was righteous you are righteous which means that by the blood of
Jesus not only can you enter into God's presence because you're a child of
God with all your sin covered but it means that by the spirit of Jesus the
righteousness of Christ is being worked out in our own lives so that as we grow
in his grace and in his knowledge we in fact become increasingly righteous
not only in theory and in standing before God but an actual experience of our
lives the righteousness of Christ through faith for all who believe the key
he says is faith faith is knowing that I cannot do it faith is knowing that I
don't have to do faith is laying hold of the reality
they're standing the intellectual truth not only agreeing with it not only but
putting my trust in my confidence and my hope in the person of Jesus Christ
knowing that he is righteous and because he is righteous I am righteous let me
ask you tonight on what does your self esteem depend what is it you boasting in
terms of who you are and in terms of what matters are you the kind of
individual that goes around and says well somehow I know that Jesus died for me
but oh I don't know if I'm really good enough to call myself a Christian oh I
know that Jesus died and I know that Jesus arose but you know I don't know if
God can ever forgive me for some of the stunts that I've pulled years ago and
they plagued me to this day you the kind of person you sit here
when the spirit of God moves among the people of God and people enter into
praise and the enter into worship there's a voice of condemnation in your heart
that says hey this is not for me I'd rather be out someplace else I'd rather I'd
rather live in my sin because I cannot change myself I've tried so often maybe
you're the kind of person you sit here tonight you look at your own
personality and the things you're good at and the things you're not good at you
decide at the latter out way the former you say to yourself what good is it I'll
never be what God wants me to be Paul goes on to say there is no distinction
since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God they are justified by
his grace as a gift through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ whom God put
forward as an expiation by his blood to be received by faith we're not made
righteous by what we feel we're not made righteous by what we think or by
what we experience or even by the degree to which we have kept the commandments
of God important as it is to be an obedient Christian we are made righteous by
the blood of Jesus and if tonight you've come to Jesus and you've confessed
your sin and you've acknowledged as the Lord and the Savior of your life and
you want to live for him with all the power that God inspires within you then
as you confess your sins and you live in an ongoing state of repentance before
the face of God God looks at you he doesn't see any of your sin all he sees is
Jesus and the righteousness of Jesus that has been imputed and imparted to you
that's what gives Christians courage and boldness to go through life not because
they think they've got it all together but because they know that in Jesus Christ
they are the redeemed children of God are you hearing me tonight I could use
an amen right about here all right there is no distinction all have seen and
fall short of the glory of God they are justified by his grace as a gift the
context here of course is the ongoing controversy between Jew and Gentile the
Jews feeling very self-righteous because they were living up to their own few
select laws looked at the Gentiles and they said those are a bunch of bad
dudes they need forgiveness they need redemption and boy they better come to
Jesus but we good Jews we can make it because we are good morally upright
people and we can do it ourselves unfamiliar you understand what I'm saying
then you'll recognize how easy it is for many of us raised in a religious
environment to think that repentance and faith is something that we share with
people out on the street because they're bad people and you betcha they need
forgiveness and you betcha they need to be straightened out and you betcha they
need to respond to all their calls and you betcha they need Jesus because
they're bad dudes but we are good people we know right from all don't always
live in mind you we know it we know who God is and we know what God wants and
we've been raised with it ever since little children Paul says makes no
difference that's his argument to Romans one two and three there is no
distinction since all have seen and fall short of the glory of God they are
justified by his grace as a gift whom God put forward as an expiation by his
wood to be received by faith let me ask you again what is it you betcha life
thought you're good personality the fact that you've been in the church for
maybe as long as you can remember the fact that you don't run around with
your neighbor's wife you're scrupulously honest in your business you're a man
you're a woman of high moral standing in the world you're nice to your neighbor
and you pray regularly good qualities qualities that God wants to see reproduced
in the lives of his people but not qualities that in our own strength will
justify us before the face of Jesus there is no distinction all have seen and
fall short of the glory of God they are justified by his grace is a gift
Paul's whole argument all through the book of Romans is that because we are all
sinners by nature and by choice there needs to be that time in all of our
lives where we come to the foot of the cross where we acknowledge with the
repentance that is inspired by the power of God's Holy Spirit that all the
things I'm born with and all the things I have inherited and all the things that
I have acquired by virtue of my training and education in and of themselves
cannot make me righteous before God because there is only one who is righteous
his name is Jesus and when I come as a penitent sinner taking even the
greatest things that I pride myself in and lay it all of the foot of the cross
and God imparts to be the righteousness of Jesus to Spirit of God there's
witness with my Spirit that I'm a child of God and he begins to renew me on the
inside and I begin to live a life of ongoing obedience because there is
imparted to me now the righteousness of Jesus it's that message this Paul
that's going to revolutionize and change the whole world remember he said it's
the obedience of faith among all the nations that God's looking for not an
obedience that comes about by arm twisting and by the application of the law not
an obedience that comes about by new social programs economic programs or
political programs important is all of those may be in their place it comes
about by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ and the smallest and the most
insignificant person in the world as well as the greatest and the most powerful
in the riches are all alike reduced and exalted to be in the children of God by
faith in Jesus. Robb's is of our boasting doesn't it we'll talk about that
later doesn't give us anything to be proud of all it gives us is a heart that
overflows in thanksgiving and that wants to love the Lord and that wants to
worship the Lord and that wants to obey the Lord because we have been redeemed
by the blood of the land that's why we celebrate communion tonight that's why
after communion the girls are again going to lead us in in just a time of
worship whereby we we lift up the name of the Lord and we give him glory because
we are redeemed we've been pulled out of darkness we've been pulled out of the
brokenness we have been pulled out of the ruin of life we have been washed and
we have been cleansed and we have been renewed and we share by faith in all of
the blessings of God what I ask you now to take out your hymn books turn with
me to number 389 a song the hymn writer of which understood the gospel as we're
sharing it with you tonight when he said not what my hands have done can save
my guilty soul that what my torturing flesh is born can make my spirit whole not
what I feel or do can give me peace with God not all my prayers and sighs and
tears can bear my awful lot that adverse to thy grace alone oh son of God to me
can pardon speak thy power alone oh son of God can this or bondage break no
other works save thine no other blood will be no strength save that which is
divine can bear me safely through all three verses let's stand together as we
say good.