I’m going to start by sharing an embarrassing moment from my childhood. It wasn’t even really my childhood. I was, I think it was 18, so even more embarrassing. Don’t be happy I’m telling it. But so I was, yeah, I was in high school, and now at this time, I really didn’t have a good understanding of how uh the US postal system worked. I still don’t think it really works that well. But at this point, I had no clue how it was even supposed to function. I grew up in a small town, and they had a post office there, and anytime I needed to mail something, I’ll just go into the post office. I would give them my you know my letters or whatever, and they would just they would do it all. They would take it, they would stamp it, they would send it out. Like in my mind, you just give them the letters, and like you’re done. And so that was the only experience I had. Uh but I was in, I was in Joplin one day, and I had to mail out these invitations. And so Joplin’s a bigger town, a different post office, went in and you know, went through the routine. I was like, you know, here’s my letters, you know, mail them out, do what you will. And the guys like looked at me and slid them back. He’s like, you need to get some stamps for these. So I was like, okay, I bought the stamps, put them on, and it’s like, all right, here you go. You know, are you ready now? And he’s like, yeah, now you go mail them. Um so at this point I’m confused. So I’m like, does this post office not mail my uh my letters? And I was with my friend, and and they were like, hey, I saw this uh collection box at Walmart right up the road. Like, let’s just go to Walmart and mail it from there. And so we left the post office with our letters, went to Walmart and mailed it from Walmart. And I went home, told my parents, and they were like, You did what? Why did you leave the post office and go mail from Walmart? And I remember uh my first reaction was anger at my parents. I was like, you should have taught me how to use the postal system better. You should have explained how the post office works. This is this is you failed in parenting because I haven’t done this right, um, which was absurd. Um the point being in that is that usually when we’re caught doing something dumb or embarrassing or even wrong, when we’re caught dead, you know, red-handed in that, our first reaction is to shift the blame elsewhere. Like we do not like being exposed. We rationalize, we we shift the blame, we try to excuse ourselves. Um that’s our first reaction. That’s the reaction that we see in our text today in Romans 3. You know, so far in Romans, we’ve seen Paul he’s exposed the sin of the Gentiles. Last week, Mike explained how he’s exposing the sin of the Jews, that even though they teach the law, they break the law, they do all these outward practices, but they don’t have an inward heart obedience to God. So they’ve been caught, they’ve been exposed, their sin has been revealed, and now they’re shifting the blame away. They begin to question if God even has the right to judge them. And the question we need to ask ourselves is do we do the same? When our sin is exposed, when we’re caught, when our sins revealed, how do we shift the blame? Where do we turn when we’re caught in our sin? That’s the question that confronts us this morning. Let’s go into our text, starting in verse one. Then what advantage has the Jew, or what is the value of circumcision? So, a little background. Um, like I mentioned, Paul basically just said to the Jewish people, hey, your covenant status, your covenant relationship with God, does not mean anything in light of God’s judgment. It does not excuse your sin. And so the Jews are like, man, I have all these old testament promises. Like God has chosen Israel from among the nations to be his people. He’s he’s promised deliverance for us. Like God has made all these promises, and now you’re saying that we’re we’re bearing his judgment because of our sin. It almost seems like God has failed to keep his promises. They’re asking, is there is there any advantage to even being a Jew to having this covenant relationship with God? Is there any point in having this? So here’s how Paul responds. Look at verse 2. Paul says, much in every way to begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. So what’s Paul’s answer here? Yes, you do have an advantage, actually. God’s given you his very word in this special relationship that you have with him. God has revealed his word to you. Since Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, God has revealed himself to the Jewish people. He’s given them everything that they need to know God, to trust God, to obey him. God’s entrusted them with his word, and yet they haven’t trusted him back. And now they’re blaming God. To students, this would be like if you have a test and your teacher gives you a study guide with all of the answers on it. And the teacher just says, hey, if you memorize the study guide, memorize all the answers, and just put these same answers on the test, like you’ll pass, you’ll be fine. But let’s say you don’t memorize the study guide. You’re like, I’ll just wing it, figure it out. You take the test, you fail. This would be like blaming your teacher and saying, hey, you didn’t, you didn’t give me enough information to pass this test. Even more so, hey, teacher, like, it’s your job to make sure that I do well in school. So the fact that I failed this test maybe means that you’re not doing your job very well. Your job is to educate me. I would advise you not to tell your teacher that. Probably not go well. That’s the objection Paul is dealing with. God, he’s given the Jewish people all the answers. He’s given them what they need to obey him and to express trust in him. And because of their failure, they’re starting to question God. So how does Paul answer this objection? Let’s look at verse 3. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithfulness faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means. Let God be true, though every one were a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. So if we Jews have been unfaithful, does that mean God has been unfaithful to us? Paul says, by no means. Basically he’s saying, not in a thousand years. Like it’s absurd to claim that. He says, if every single person on earth accused God of lying and accused him of being unfair, God would still be true. God in his very character is true. He quotes from Psalm 51 here. This is David’s prayer of confession after he commits adultery, after he commits murder. David has this confession to God. And if you think about David, he’s this chosen king of Israel. Like he has this special relationship with God. He has these promises from God. And yet David says, you are justified in your words. You are justified in the judgment that you bring on my sin. And David’s making the point here that God is just as faithful to his word when he punishes sin as when he rewards obedience. God is faithful even when we are unfaithful. His character, his truth, that’s what determines his judgment. And so Paul’s answer to that first objection. God is faithful even when we are not. And yet the Jews, they bring up another objection here. So let’s see it. Verse 5. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human way. By no means for then, how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come? As some people slanderously charge us with saying their condemnation is just. So kind of a confusing objection at first when you look at it. The Jews are basically saying, okay, If God is just in his judgment on our sin, then we shouldn’t really be punished for our sin because God’s judgment shows how righteous he is. That we’re actually doing God a favor by showing his righteousness by how unrighteous we have been. That if our sin reveals his truth and he is glorified through it, then we shouldn’t really be held accountable for our sin. So kind of a confusing illustration or uh objection, but here’s here’s an illustration that I found helpful. This would be like a man who’s who’s driving drunk and he hits someone, and whoever he hit, you know, this man that he that he hits with his car goes to the hospital, they save his life at the hospital, and then he falls in love with a nurse taking care of him. He eventually marries the nurse. This would be like the drunk driver saying, hey, I can’t really get in trouble because I helped this guy find a wife by hitting him with my car. Something good came out of this, so you can’t really hold me accountable for the wrong action that I did. That’s the argument. Paul pretty much says this is a dumb argument. This is this is absurd to claim that. He says, I speak in a human way. Meaning this is such an anti-godly, like base way of thinking, that he’s saying, I don’t, I don’t want to be associated with this way of thinking at all. That anyone who says this is true should be condemned. The point being that God is judge over the whole world, that the outcome of our actions doesn’t justify our actions, that even the good that comes out of sin, God gets the credit for that. He turns evil into good, not us. God’s standard is what evaluates our actions, not our standard. And so if you look at both of these objections, basically that, hey, our sin questions if God’s faithful to us, or our sin shows how faithful God is and it shouldn’t be judged. They have a common mistake here. Both of these objections place us in the judgment seat and God on trial. We switch places. Say, I’m not really going to accept God’s judgment. I’m gonna level judgment at him according to my understanding of his standard. So, how do we do this today? You know, Paul’s Paul’s writing to Jews here who have grown up in the community of God, who have heard the word of God preached to them over and over again. A lot of us are in a similar situation. We’ve we’ve grown up in church, we’ve grown up in the community of God. We’ve heard God’s word preached to us our whole life. God’s word has been entrusted to us. We have all the cultural practices that we associate with Christianity. We go to church, we we have a right understanding of theology, we have the right family, the right job, the right school, live in the right area. These aren’t bad things, they’re good things. But the question that Paul’s getting at here is have we banked on the fact that just because we’re in the circle of God’s people that we’re not accountable to his judgment. We can admit we’re not perfect, but but deep down, do we get a little bit offended at the fact, at the thought of God calling out our sin? Does that cause us to be a little a little questionable, a little a little frustrated? Like, God, I’ve I’ve been around your people my whole life. I’ve I’m in this circle, I’m doing the right things. Like, how could you judge me? Isn’t it isn’t it your job to make sure I stay on the right track? Going back to the teacher example. Isn’t it your job to make sure I’m faithful? I’m doing, I’m doing the things that you ask. We object that it seems unfair for God to level his judgment at us in every sin we commit. Or we go to the other side. And we may, okay, I am, maybe I am sinning, but we justify our sin by the outcome it produces. Like, fine, maybe, maybe I shouldn’t have lost my temper and my kids, but but hey, they they have to learn somehow. You know, they’re obeying me now. Maybe, you know, maybe I shouldn’t gossip with my friends, but but hey, like we’re forming a deeper friendship here. This is having a good outcome. Maybe I shouldn’t hide this sin that’s in my heart. Maybe I shouldn’t hide the sin pattern that I’m falling into, but hey, I’m still serving. I’m still going to church. I’m still still doing my work at my job. We seek every way to rationalize our sin and to minimize God’s judgment. And Paul responds to us the same way. That God is just as faithful to his word when he judges our sin as when he grants mercy. God is glorified by accomplishing salvation. He’s also glorified by pronouncing judgment. His standard is not dependent on our understanding. It’s not going to change based on our excuses or our rationalization, our justification of why we sin. God’s standard’s rooted in his very being, his very character. God is fully true, fully righteous, always faithful. And because he is, his standard is absolute perfection, nothing less. Absolute perfection, absolute righteousness rooted in his eternal nature. So all of our excuses are going to fall short of that. The problem isn’t with God or his standard. The problem is with us. That we don’t have what it takes to meet his standard, to shift away his judgment. The light has fallen on our sin, and we can’t do anything to get it off of us. That’s Paul’s point in this next section. Let’s start back into our text. We’ll read verse 9 through 18. 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 sin. As it is written, none is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks 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 ass is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and their path are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. So why can’t we meet the standard that God has set for us? He’s righteous. In fact, we’re the opposite. Instead of righteous, we see instead of righteousness, we seek to run away from God. We turn aside from his commands and his statutes. We turn aside from him. Paul, he’s painting a picture of the whole being here. Not only is he saying all are under the power of sin, he’s saying every single part of us is infected with the power of sin. If you look through these quotes, he’s hitting almost every body part. He says our mind and our heart are under the power of sin. We don’t understand God. We don’t want to understand him. We seek to turn away from him in our natural state. Our words are under the power of sin. Says the throat is an open grave. So it’s this image that whatever comes out of it brings death, deceit, bitterness. Paul talks about our actions being under the power of sin. Our feet are swift to shed blood. We seek violence instead of peace apart from God. Everything we do, everything we say, everything we think is tainted by this power of sin. Apart from Apart from God, we are dead in our sin. We don’t desire him. We seek to turn away. Why? If you look at verse 18, he says, there is no fear of God before their eyes. The same The same mistake we make in averting God’s judgment. It’s the mistake we make in our sin. We don’t see God in his glory. We are not directed by his righteousness, by his glory. We can’t even see him in our sin. Instead, the whole of our being is directed by self, by simple desires, actions, thoughts. We are not righteous. Not only is God’s standard perfect and holy, we are the opposite. We are the utmost sinful. Complete rejection of God. And so what’s the verdict here? Let’s look at verse 19. 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. So this is this is Paul’s closing argument from chapter one all the way up till now. He’s exposed the sin of the Gentiles. He’s exposed the sin of the Jews. He’s displayed how God’s righteousness and his standard is so far above any capability that we have. He’s exposed how we seek the opposite. We can’t get this righteousness on our own. And he says, every mouth may be stopped. This is the image of a courtroom, someone standing on trial, and they have all the evidence presented against them. Every piece of evidence, every wrong that they’ve done presented against them. they’re given a chance to defend themselves, And they’re speechless. Their mouth is just open. They’re overwhelmed with the weight of evidence against them. That’s the intention of Romans 3 here for us. That we should be overwhelmed by the weight of evidence against us. That our mouth should be stopped, that no excuses come out, no justification of our actions. He’s shown that we are under God’s judgment. And yet there’s one more objection that Paul has to face. That’s the objection that lies at the heart of all of our objections. It’s the objection that I fall into the most, that you fall into the most. When we’re faced with our sin, when our guilt is exposed, we have one more objection, and it’s this. God, I can do better. I can fix this. Okay, you caught me. Let me make it up to you. Let me fix things on my own. Here’s what Paul says. Look at Romans 3 20. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin. The law is not the solution to our problem. The law shows us our problem. The law reveals our sin. It does not fix our sin. Imagine you’re you’re driving your car and you look at the gas gauge and it says it’s all the way on empty, but then your car dies and you’re stranded, no gas stations around. The gas gauge isn’t that much help in that situation. It shows you the problem. It shows you that you’re out of gas. It tells you what the solution is, that you need to be filled up with gas. But the gas gauge itself doesn’t give you the gas to get your car going again. It just shows you the problem. That’s how the law functions. It shows us the solution. It shows us that we need perfect righteousness, but it also shows us that we have none of it, that we’re completely on empty on our own. And yet, over and over again, we think that we can go to the law to fulfill our need for righteousness. If you’re here and you’re struggling in your relationship with God, it feels like God’s maybe upset with you. He’s frustrated with you. Your first instinct is to go, God, I’ll make it up to you. God, I know I haven’t been faithful. I know I’ve been struggling in this area, but let me make it up to you. I’ll pray more. I’ll go to church more. I’ll fit, I’ll fix this, God. Like, don’t worry, I’ll fix it, and I’ll earn your approval back. That’s like putting water in the gas tank and hoping it fills up your car. It’s not gonna work. The law shows us how desperate we are. And so, what do we do as we’re in this courtroom of God, as all of us are in this courtroom, we’re on trial, all the evidence has been placed against us, and we have no defense. We can’t excuse our sin. We can’t make up for our sin. What do we do? We plead guilty before God. That’s the point. Plead guilty of your sin and ask for his mercy. If you haven’t done this before, now is the time. You can’t make up for your sin. You can’t fix it. You can’t earn God’s approval. Just plead guilty and ask for his mercy. If you’ve been a Christian for a long time, you’re struggling and you’re not sure what God thinks about you right now. Plead guilty again. You are righteous in Christ, but you’re also continuously dependent on that righteousness. You can’t maintain it. You can’t earn it back yourself. Plead guilty and ask for his mercy. And the good news is that God promises to answer. That God’s character is so true and so holy that he has to punish sin. And our sin is so deeply rooted in us that we can’t, that we can’t help but to sin. And yet God in his very character is merciful. He is gracious. And he has promised to take our guilt upon himself in the person of Christ. He has promised to give us the righteousness that we need in Christ Himself. And so plead guilty, ask for God’s mercy, and rely on the righteousness of Christ. Let’s pray. God, we do praise you. We we confess our sin that we are fallen, that sin has tainted every part of us. We thank you that you’ve redeemed us by Christ, that you’ve given us his righteousness as we confess and rely on your mercy. I ask that you lead us in a continual confession, continual repentance, admission of our guilt, and that we cast ourselves upon the righteousness of Christ, that we see ourselves through the eyes that you have given us to look upon Christ. I pray this in your son’s name. Amen.
