Romans Lesson 6

Introduction

Very pleasant good day and welcome to Let the Bible Speak. I hope you have your Bible nearby and that you’ll be getting it open to Romans, the third chapter, where we’ll be studying today. As we continue our verse by verse study of this grand book. If you’ve been studying along with us, perhaps you may recall how that we’ve been talking about that the gospel is God’s power to save. And then from there, from Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, the apostle proceeds to show why all men need the gospel. All have sinned. He first talks of all talks about how the Gentile has rejected God in his knowledge. And then he turned to the Jew and described how the Jew likewise was guilty of sin.

Though he rested in the law and made his boast of God, he did some of the same things that the Gentiles were doing, and therefore, and thereby even caused the Gentiles to blaspheme the very name of God. In our study today, in Romans chapter 3, the apostle seems to be answering some uh an imaginary objector who might really say, Well, look, uh, if God is going to treat the Jew just like he does the Gentile, what advantage does the Jew have? Most parents, I think, are sometimes amazed at how their own children can claim innocence when especially punishment might be uh in store for them if they admitted uh that they were guilty. You know, the mother can come in and say, Who made this mess in this room?

And immediately one will say, I didn’t, I don’t know, or perhaps someone else did it. It almost sometimes seems as though there are some invisible gremlins who are always doing the dirty work because uh children all can say, I didn’t do it, I don’t know. Well, sometimes before God we can be like little children in that respect. And sometimes when we’re guilty, instead of just confessing humbly that we have committed sin, we tend to want to justify ourselves or to rationalize the condition that we are in. And so it was really, even as this letter was being written. Evidently there were some who might object to the very things that the apostle by inspiration is writing. You see, as he closed in chapter 2, he was speaking how in verses 11 and 12 that God is impartial.

He treats both Jew and Gentile alike. In fact, if one has sinned in the law, he’ll be condemned by the law. And if he has sinned out of the law, he’ll be condemned by the standard even out of the law, but the standard that he knew to be right. And on the other hand, if uh if he obeyed or kept the things of the law, he would stand as justified. You see, and really the closing verses of chapter 2, verses 25 through 29, he began to point out how that the Gentiles could be saved also. He said, in fact, where uncircumcision, that is the Gentile natural state, could be counted as though they were circumcised, as though they were as Jews, who were circumcised as a sign of their covenant relationship with God.

1. What Advantage Then Hath the Jew?

And he’s saying that the Jews who may be circumcised according to the law of Moses might be counted as though they were like Gentiles, as though they were uncircumcised. If they failed to keep the word of God, God would not save them. If they kept the word of God, then they would be counted as justified, whether he be a Jew or whether he be a Gentile. But with that basis, then, you notice in chapter 3, verses 1 through 4, a series of questions that have begun to be asked. First of all, I’m reading if you have your Bible open, Romans chapter 3, verses 1 through 4, where he says, What advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way. Chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid. Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged. The question, what advantage then hath the Jew? What profit then is circumcision? Naturally, a Jew would object to the very point that the Gentile could be counted as though he were circumcised when really he wasn’t. And if for 1500 years the Jew has been given the law of Moses and counted as a special nation, as a people chosen of God, what then set them apart? What makes them different? What makes them special? The answer immediately in verse 2, much every way they have an advantage.

But chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. The word oracles really stands for the word of God. Unto them had been committed the prophets and the prophecies. Not only had they been given the law of Moses on Mount Sinai when they came out of Egyptian bondage, but then through the years they had the prophets inspired by God who came to them and warned them when they did wrong and encouraged them and instructed them in what to do that was right, and also foretold of the coming of the Messiah and of the establishment of God’s kingdom. Well, when Jesus Christ did come, they were really at an advantage. They should have known the Messiah. They should have known who he was. They had all the prophecies that foretold how he would be, where he would be born, and what he would be like.

Jesus fulfilled every one of them. They had an advantage, furthermore, that the gospel was preached first to them. In fact, the very text that we’ve said is the theme of this book in Romans 1 16, where the Apostle Paul said, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believeth, he said to the Jew first, and also the Greek. It was first preached to them. For the first seven or nine years after the day of Pentecost, it was Jews that the apostles and the early disciples went out preaching the word to, and it was Jews that mainly obeyed the gospel. But while it was first preached to the Jews, it wasn’t only for the Jews.

They had an advantage, chiefly, in that the oracles of God were given to them. But those advantages that were given to the Jews through the word of God being delivered was conditional. Even in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy chapter 4. The scriptures speak how that while they were given God’s word and would be wise as a result of following, following it, yet there were some responsibilities. He said that in Deuteronomy 4 and verse 6, keep therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?

And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day. Listen to verse 9. Only take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, unless they depart from thine heart all the days of thy life, but teach them thy sons and thy sons’ sons. Later in the book of Deuteronomy, in fact in Deuteronomy chapter 28, it’s a series of blessings and cursings. If they hearken to the word of God, Deuteronomy 28, verses 1 through about 14 speaks of the blessings God would shower upon them. They had advantage. But he also warned, if they rejected God’s word, many curses would follow. Actually, what happened to the nation of Israel?

2. Let God Be True, but Every Man a Liar

Fulfilled what Deuteronomy said. When they obeyed God, they were always blessed. But when they turned their hearts from him, even turned to idolatry, they always suffered consequences that were harmful and hurtful to them. And really, when Jesus Christ came, the fact that they rejected the word of God and rejected Jesus as the Messiah, also brought upon the Israelites, upon the Jews, a rejection by God, because they had rejected God Himself and His Messiah. In fact, in verses 3 and 4, when it says, Shall, what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? Then he answered, God forbid. Yea, let God be true, but let every man be a liar. What’s that really saying is that they say, Well, so what if the majority of the Jews rejected the Messiah or rejected the Word of God?

Does that mean that God is false? God is a liar? Does that make the faith of God without effect? Is the faith of God not going to occur, or what he’s promised not going to happen? And the answer was, it doesn’t depend upon man for God’s promises to be fulfilled. God is true. And you stand up for what God has said and keep God’s word, then always God’s word, you will be vindicated because God’s word is so, and it will come to pass. As Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 18, God, it is impossible for God to lie. He is not a man that should lie. He does not lie. God’s word is so.

3. Let Us Do Evil That Good May Come?

God has commended his righteousness because he has covered our sin through the blood of Jesus Christ. So why don’t we do evil that good may come? In effect, what he they first of all say, Well, don’t you think God is unfair? In fact, when he says that if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? Why would God punish us? And he answers, that’s that’s really faulty thinking. God forbid. How should God judge the world? If God treated every man alike, would that be fair? Would God be just if he treated a sinner exactly like he did, the man who really from the heart sincerely sought to obey the Lord? The man who exercised self-control and discipline and refused the evil and obeyed that which is good, you mean he’s going to be treated exactly like the man who cares not about anything God says?

That’d make God unfair. So this twisted thinking of this imaginary objector. Why, when he says, as Paul said, we’re slandously reported, let us do evil that good may come. He said, That’s what some vainly say. That’s not what the apostle is taught, and that’s not what the word of God teaches, that we ought to keep on doing evil so good may come. In fact, when we get a little further into chapter six of Romans and verses one through four, he kind of raises that point again when he says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, he answers. That’s like saying no ten thousand times, no. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore we’re buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Or if we’ve been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. And then he concludes by saying, know this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Don’t think in terms that the more evil we do it, uh do, the more good will abound, and it’ll glorify God by showing how great is his grace.

That’s faulty reasoning. In fact, as he proceeds, and we’ll talk about in just a moment, what he’s really drawing upon is that all have sinned. And that sin leaves us before God as people who justly deserve eternal punishment, death, eternal separation from God, in fact. We’re going to pause for a moment, though, and when we come back, we’ll conclude by reading these next few verses, uh, right on at least through verse 18, where he describes, even from the Old Testament scriptures, how that the condition of man is such that he’s turned his heart against God. You stay with us, we’ll be back in just one moment. It is characteristic of most men to want to justify themselves, to rationalize their condition and really to think as though we’re really not such bad people after all.

4. There Is None Righteous, No Not One

You can go to most prisons, and you can find that most in those cells will claim their innocence, that they really weren’t guilty, or even if it did it, it was someone else’s fault who caused them to commit the crime that was committed. We have a way of thinking that we’re really not so bad. And yet, if men would come to the knowledge of their own sin and recognize their need of a Savior, then they would be more inclined to listen to the word of the Lord and to obey the gospel. Actually, what the Apostle Paul is doing in this first section of the book of Romans is trying to lay the foundation that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And in the last part of chapter one, he pointed out that the Gentiles had had rejected God and the knowledge, and indeed God had turned them over.

They were guilty of uncleanness and of vile passions, and indeed did not like to retain God in their knowledge, thus they had become reprobate in their mind. They didn’t know the difference between good and evil. But they weren’t the only ones who were guilty. It wasn’t just the heathen and the pagan that were guilty of sin. The Jews likewise were guilty of sin. But in our text of Romans chapter 3, as we’ve already been saying, the Jew had a way of thinking that he really wasn’t so bad after all, and it wasn’t really fair of God to count him as a sinner. And yet the apostle now, in these few verses remaining in Romans chapter 3 and beginning in verse 9, and reading through verse 18, you’re going to see that he’s quoting from their own scriptures.

But by inspiration, he is returning even to look telling them to look at their own scriptures, that from the scriptures they are regarded by God as sinners. I’m reading now Romans 3, verses 9 through 12 to begin. And he says, What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. That’s quite an indictment, isn’t it? To say there’s none righteous. They’ve all gone out of the way.

They’ve all gone aside. And yet, this was not just the apostle as a man speaking. Really, the Jew who understood or knew the scriptures at all recognized that this was really a quotation from Psalm 14. Let me just read Psalm 14 verses 1 through 3, and you’ll see how the similarity is there. I’m reading Psalm 14, verse 1. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside. They are altogether become filthy. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. You see, really, what he’s done is quote this and apply it, where in Psalm he called this the fool who has said there’s no God, and in fact it describes others who have just gone aside.

They’ve turned away from the Lord. There’s none that doeth good.

5. Children Are Not Born in Sin

And try to make an application as though children or babies are born in sin. And they apply these verses. While it does say that there is none that is righteous, all are gone aside. He’s talking about those who are of mature age, those who have ability to go aside. You cannot go aside if you’ve not been in the way. And babies are born in the way, so to speak. Babies or children are not born in sin. In fact, in Matthew chapter three, Jesus said, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. We need to become childlike, humble in spirit, naive in attitude, so to speak. We need to be the child of God and like little children in the flesh.

In Matthew chapter 19 and verse 14, Jesus said, Suffer little children, forbid them not to come unto me for of such or to such belongeth the kingdom of heaven. A child is safe. He hasn’t sinned, he doesn’t need forgiveness of sins, therefore, he’s safe. To such belongeth the kingdom of heaven. A child who dies as an infant is safe. To such belongeth the kingdom of heaven. In fact, in the Old Testament, Ezekiel chapter 18 and in verse 20, God through his prophet Ezekiel said, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Then listen, the Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father. Neither shall the Father bear the iniquity of the Son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

What he is saying in that context of Ezekiel 18 is simply that every one of us stands independent and independently responsible for our own deeds. We do not inherit the sins of our father. We do not inherit the sin of Adam, for that matter. In fact, Jesus himself was born in the flesh, wasn’t he? And yet Jesus was not a sinner.

6. No Fear of God Before Their Eyes

Children are not born in sin. In fact, in Romans chapter 3, he’s not really talking about those who are born in sin. He’s talking about the condition of man who has rejected God in his way, who has gone aside from God’s way. And he says, There’s none righteous. It’s as though to say, all have sinned. That’s the point he’s leading up to. But what he’s doing is really quoting Old Testament scriptures. In fact, let’s read again from Romans chapter 3. Verses 13 through 17, it’s just one right after the other, where he’s quoted from their own law to say to the Jews, Men are in need of a savior. You’re sinners. I’m reading Romans chapter 3 now, verse 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre. With their tongues they have used deceit.

The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. To say that their throat is an open sepulchre, the throat is the organ of speech. And it’s like an open grave, so to speak, the sepulchres where dead men were placed. And it’s like the putrefying smell that might come out of such that is left open. He said, That’s what’s coming out of their mouths. In fact, he says their tongues. They’ve used deceit. Their word cannot be trusted. Now, this is a quotation from Psalm 5 and verse 9. Then he quotes also from Psalm 140 in verse 8, when he says, The poison of asps is under their lips.

What they say is poisonous. That is, it’s hurtful. It even brings death. It brings destruction. They are people whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Again, from Psalm, Psalm 10 and verse 7. Here are people who who cannot be trusted. Their word is no good. Has man gone into sin? Yes. Their conduct is evil. Feet are swift to shed blood. That’s from Isaiah chapter 59 and verse 7. And also in verse 8, destruction and misery are in their ways. The way of peace have they not known. It’s to say that man in his evil is such that that causes hurt to others. Indeed men who do not serve the Lord can only cause hurt to those who are around about them. Men who are evil have done wrong not only toward himself but toward others.

But all through this section as you notice there are quotations from Psalm and quotation from the prophet Isaiah. Man has sinned. But sort of to sum it all up in verse 18, there is no fear of God before their eyes. That’s a quotation from Psalm 36 and in verse 1. What a passage passage to say that man doesn’t fear the Lord. Psalm 36 said the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes for he flattereth himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful. What’s happened is he flatters himself. He lifts himself up rather than reverencing and respecting God and fearing God seems to think he can guide himself. That really describes the condition of our nation at this point in time.

I’ve often said that the greatest uh trouble of our nation is that bottom line we do not have the respect and reverence for God. We’re so busy with the affairs of life here now and the activities of the day that we don’t pause to respect and obey God. Some talk about the the crime rate that has increased in our land and the evil that is being done. And there are those who say, Well, we need to have more prisons and and better institutions of reform. But that isn’t really what’s going to cure the ills of our nation. Until men have a way of turning back to God, truly to reverence and respect Him, we will only grow worse and worse. Evil men wax worse and worse, the apostle wrote in the New Testament.

And so it is when there is no fear of God before their eyes. Men are in depths of sin. And that’s really the point of this chapter. That men who flatter themselves try to guide themselves. And man guiding himself will always fail. As the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 10 and verse 23 said, O Lord, the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps. You see, when man lifts himself up and thinks that he can control his own ways and he has the wisdom of the world to be guided by, that he can be his own God, so to speak, he really is only bringing destruction upon himself. What this context is as actually leading up to, as summarized in verse 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Conclusion

Therefore, all are in need of the gospel, the salvation that is through Jesus Christ. How can God be just and save anyone who is a sinner? And that’s really what’s going to be answered in our next study. In Romans chapter 3, verses 23, 24 through 26, he speaks how we’re justified by the grace of God. We don’t deserve it because we’ve all sinned. And being guilty of sin, we all are deserving of eternal death. That’s the penalty for sin that God established even in the very beginning. But by God’s favor, by grace, undeserved, we can have the forgiveness of sins. But it’s not all done by God. God has done his part, and his grace is for all men. But man’s part is faith. By grace through faith are we saved.

As we study further, we’re going to realize how that sinners who hear the word of God and being convicted of their sin will repent of sin and confessing their faith in the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, being baptized even into his death for the remission of sins. By this kind of faith that obeys, man is saved. Where do you stand, dear beloved? Are you a sinner that’s only trying to rationalize and claim your innocence? Are you willing to admit, I’ve sinned, Lord, I need forgiveness. Won’t you hear his word and obey? Be with us even to the next time. And until then, we bid the grace and peace of our Lord be with you.