WEBVTT 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:22.320 This is Romans three, verses one through eight. 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:26.399 Then what advantage has the Jew? 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:28.480 Or what is the value of circumcision? 00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:29.839 Much in every way. 00:00:30.079 --> 00:00:33.200 To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 00:00:33.359 --> 00:00:34.799 What if some were unfaithful? 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:37.600 Does their faithfulness nullify the faithfulness of God? 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:38.719 By no means. 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:46.799 Let God be true, though everyone were a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:52.159 But if your if if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:54.560 That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? 00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:56.079 I speak in a human way. 00:00:56.320 --> 00:00:57.200 By no means. 00:00:57.359 --> 00:00:59.520 For then how could God judge the world? 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:04.799 But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:07.200 And why not do evil that good may come? 00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:11.760 As some people slanderously charge us with saying, their condemnation is just. 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:13.439 And so reads God's word. 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:14.799 Welcome to you. 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:16.799 If you joined us while we were singing, my name's Mark. 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:18.799 I'm one of the leaders here at the church. 00:01:18.879 --> 00:01:19.840 You're very welcome with us. 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:21.280 If you're new, you're visiting. 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:31.680 Uh we're going to be looking at that uh short but dense passage that Grace uh read from us uh for us from Romans 3, uh just the first eight verses. 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:36.480 So if you have a Bible, please uh have that open in front of you, or you can look it up on your phone. 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:44.879 Even if you don't have a Bible app, you can just Google search uh Romans 3, 1 to 8, and then put in ESV for the English standard version of the Bible. 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:47.359 That's the one that we're we're reading from. 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:57.439 Uh there's a uh there's a book uh entitled uh The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert uh by a lady who just has a wonderful name. 00:01:57.519 --> 00:02:01.040 Uh her name is Rosaria Champagne Butterfield. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:07.599 Um and if you're if you're thinking of baby names, Champagne, uh that uh that might be one to go for. 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:09.599 Rosaria Champagne Butterfield. 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:22.639 She wrote a book called Secrets of an Unlikely Convert because uh before becoming a follower of Jesus, she was a uh a lecturer in uh in queer theory at Syracuse University in in New York. 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:32.080 And she begins her book by saying, How can I describe my conversion to Christianity without making it sound like a train wreck or like an alien abduction? 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:39.360 Uh she says, I did not swoon like some Victorian debutante gracefully into the arms of Jesus. 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:47.520 And at the end of uh one very moving chapter, she concludes simply with the words saying, I had lost everything except for the dog. 00:02:47.759 --> 00:03:00.800 Uh it was a process that caused her to question everything that she thought to be true, everything that she had built her life upon. 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:23.840 And I think that all too often, in fact, uh the stories of people becoming a believer in Jesus has that very disorientating experience where you come to a point and you think, gosh, actually, I need to question everything that I thought was true about myself, uh, about the world, about my place in the world, and uh and what really mattered. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:36.719 And actually, our journey towards Jesus, our journey of faith, can be, at some points, just a very confusing, destabilizing, disorientating one. 00:03:36.879 --> 00:03:40.560 And some of you, I'm sure, have those sorts of stories. 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:49.599 And I'm really glad that you're you're here and hopefully you're moving through that disorientation and coming to terms with what really is true. 00:03:49.919 --> 00:04:23.680 And this can also happen in religious homes, people who are brought up uh in a Christian home, a home uh of faith, maybe that's you as well, that actually as you as you grow up and as you begin to own your faith more yourself, perhaps you go to university and you face for the first time after that kind of sheltered Christian bubble, you face the uh the questions and comments uh of lecturers and classmates, that kind of uh kind of snide, sneering, backhanded, how could you possibly believe? 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:26.399 Nobody really believes this anymore. 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:29.680 That's basically the summary of the theology department in Trinity College. 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:37.759 Uh, nobody really believes this anymore, but um uh or you and so you might think, oh gosh, what is really what is really true? 00:04:38.079 --> 00:04:48.160 And you feel disoriented, and you're you're reconstructing what faith is almost from from ground zero. 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:59.519 And oftentimes then you can think, well, has God changed, or does my understanding of God need to change? 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:02.240 Have I gone it wrong the whole time? 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:09.759 And I think with that sort of mindset, we can maybe have a little bit of sympathy for some of the people that Paul's writing to. 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:15.439 Paul's writing to a church in Rome, and it has a mixed congregation. 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:23.279 Some are uh some are gentile, non-Jews, Greeks, and coming from that Greek philosophical worldview. 00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:26.240 But some of them are from a Jewish background. 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:34.560 They'd grown up with the with the law, they'd grown up with the with the commandments, uh, they've grown up with the the food laws and with circumcision. 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:37.360 They'd grown up going to church. 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:51.680 Uh and Paul writes this letter, and they're finding it really quite destabilizing because they thought that they were God's chosen people no matter what. 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:58.079 That circumcision, keeping the food laws, that all of that was their basis for their standing. 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:07.920 That gave them an eternal benefit, a benefit in terms of salvation before God because of who they were and the things that they did. 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:12.160 That's certainly what Paul thought growing up. 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:17.040 He was an ultra-conservative Jewish man, a Pharisee. 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:22.319 And he had assumed that no matter what, he was on God's inside track. 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:37.279 That he was part of the chosen people, that outside of uh the nation of Israel, outside of the uh of ethnic Judaism, everybody else was just kindling for the for the fires of hell. 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:40.399 That really they were the ones who had the advantage. 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:50.879 But his encounter with Jesus, and you can read about that in the book in the early chapters of the book of Acts in Acts chapter 9, his encounter with Jesus changed all of that. 00:06:51.360 --> 00:07:00.399 He realized that salvation was for all, both Jew and Gentile. 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:09.519 And what's worse, he realized that all, both Jew and Gentile, were rightly under the judgment of God because of their sin. 00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:14.560 That is our settled opposition and hostility towards God. 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:20.560 That that thing in our heart that doesn't like the idea of giving up autonomy and control. 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:24.800 That addiction that we have to me, myself, and and I. 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:30.720 And he realizes that actually that exists, not just in the people over there. 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:34.560 It's really easy to kind of point at, you go, oh, look at those guys over there. 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:35.040 Aren't they? 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:36.639 They're really sinners. 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:39.519 He realizes, oh no, hold on a second. 00:07:39.759 --> 00:07:41.920 I'm also guilty of that. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:47.199 And so we're all under the right judgment of God. 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:56.160 The Greek might be sinning in ignorance, but the Jew is sinning even though they know what God requires and demands, and so they both deserve judgment. 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:58.800 And this is very destabilizing for Paul. 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:08.319 It's a massive change for him, and he knows for his hearers, his Jewish background hearers in the church in Rome. 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:15.120 And so he knows that as he's writing this letter, some of the people hearing it are going to be thinking, well, hold on a second. 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:19.519 Is everything that I've believed a lie up until this point? 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:21.759 Or has God changed? 00:08:22.879 --> 00:08:25.439 Have his promises failed? 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:29.040 What does this mean for how I ought to live now? 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:39.279 How do I rebuild my life and my understanding of the world and my faith on the basis of this new teaching being true? 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:44.320 And that's what these eight verses, densely packed as they are, are all about. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:59.440 It's Paul is anticipating a number of questions that would come from his Jewish hearers about what they assume to be true, and he's seeking to answer them in order to dispel any confusion that they might have. 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:20.879 Really, what he's doing is he's kind of clearing the decks so that when he gives the good news, which we get to finally at the end of chapter three, when he gives the good news, that the bad news and the questions surrounding it aren't still kind of clouding their thinking, and they're going, oh yeah, but what about this? 00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:28.799 And so he's answering some objections in order to clear the way for the good news that he's going to give them from 21 onwards. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:33.919 There's chiefly four questions here, and he deals with them to different extents. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:37.759 So some of the points will be longer, some of them, some of them will be shorter. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:58.960 But before we get into the questions, I want us to note something really important about what Paul is doing, because I think that it's I think that it's quite a good thing for us to realize for our own conversations with people who don't know Jesus or people who have questions about faith. 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:07.279 That is that Paul here is meeting his hearers where they are. 00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:09.919 He knows that they have questions. 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:17.919 He knows them well enough and has taken time to understand their experience and is seeking to speak into it. 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:26.240 He doesn't just have a kind of carbon copy, pull the tract out of the back pocket, bridge to life, well, just read this. 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:39.840 He knows the kind of questions that they're going to ask, and so he's meeting them where they are, seeking to answer those objections that they might have. 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:48.320 And what's even perhaps more surprising than that is that he's treating their questions as legitimate. 00:10:49.519 --> 00:10:56.399 He's going to disagree with their understanding in a whole bunch of ways, but he hasn't just dismissed their questions. 00:10:57.679 --> 00:11:02.879 How often does that happen in Christian circles where it's kind of well, no, just belief. 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:05.360 Stop asking questions. 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:13.039 Maybe that's what you assumed Christianity was about, that it was just a kind of blind faith, you can't question the priest, you can't question the minister. 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:22.480 No, Paul thinks that actually, while he's going to disagree with them, that their objections are legitimate enough that need to be addressed. 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:33.279 And so rather than just dismissing the people and telling them that they should believe without question, he takes some time to answer those objections. 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:43.360 And so he states them, and he doesn't state them in a kind of, oh, I can't believe that you would believe this, but if you do, he states them in a way that they might ask. 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:48.399 Again, it's a mark of respect, a mark that he understands where they're coming from. 00:11:50.559 --> 00:11:53.519 So imagine that you're with someone who doesn't know Jesus. 00:11:55.120 --> 00:12:01.679 Think of that friend, that family member, who isn't yet a follower of Jesus. 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:07.039 Do you know them under well enough to understand what their questions are? 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:09.759 What is it that they would ask? 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:19.840 What is it that they what objections would they put forward when it comes to wrestling with the news of Christianity? 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:29.759 Could you articulate their objection back to them in a way that would cause them to say, yes, that's my question? 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:41.200 And then have you gone to the scriptures to work out, well, actually, how does Christianity answer an objection like that? 00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:52.159 See, we we meet our hearers, we meet our our non-Christian classmates, our non-Christian family members or friends, we meet them where they're at. 00:12:53.360 --> 00:13:03.039 With the questions that they have, we legitimize them, we give them space to articulate them, even though we're going to disagree. 00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:21.919 We're receptive to the process of questioning, and then have done some of the work ourselves in the scriptures, figure out, okay, well, how how can I how can I answer that? 00:13:22.159 --> 00:13:29.360 Or maybe what ends up happening is that somebody fires a question at you and you haven't thought about it, and you're like, ooh, and you have no idea. 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:33.440 Great answer when you don't know, don't try and make something up. 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:36.240 Great answer is, do you know what? 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:37.360 I actually don't know. 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:42.480 There's something really powerful, I think, in in Christians saying, Do you know I don't know? 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:46.720 Because people just assume that we go around believing that we have all the answers. 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:49.360 But to go, I don't know right now, can I come back to you? 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:51.039 And then you've left the door open. 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:54.000 Do you know last week you answered you asked me that question? 00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:59.360 I've actually gone away and you know, I've I talked to my pastor, uh, I had a look in the Bible, right? 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:05.279 Went on to gotquestions.org, and uh and I kind of figured some some stuff out. 00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:07.919 And can I share that with you now? 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:13.679 But you've heard their questions, you've met them where they are, and you've begun to enter into that conversation. 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:16.480 So that's just all method. 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:21.039 Let's get into the four questions then that Paul asks. 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:32.879 The first question that Paul is anticipating comes in verse one, if you have it in front of you, which is basically well, is there any advantage to being a Jew at all? 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:36.799 Why should uh we be Jewish? 00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:53.840 And then see, the Jews thought that being a Jew, circumcised, keeping the food laws, uh that, as I said, that gave them an eternal advantage before God over everyone else, that doing so made them righteous before God, it saved them. 00:14:55.120 --> 00:15:08.240 So then the objection comes, well, I'm sorry, but Paul had demolished that just before by saying, well, if you if you are circumcised, sorry, this is all about circumcision, welcome to you if you're uh new. 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:11.279 I'm just gonna talk about circumcision for the next 20 minutes or so. 00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:18.960 But he was saying, if you are circumcised, but actually you don't keep the law, then it it's kind of like your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:24.159 Because circumcision is a matter of the heart, not a matter of the flesh. 00:15:25.679 --> 00:15:29.679 And then the objection comes in the start of uh chapter three. 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:32.000 Well, what's the point in being Jewish at all? 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:34.240 Is there any advantage? 00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:36.080 And Paul's answer is yes. 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:38.399 Much in every way, he says. 00:15:38.639 --> 00:15:42.080 He says much in every way, and then gives one way. 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:47.039 Uh I think he got a little bit distracted, but he'll come back to it. 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:59.840 Uh he comes back to it and devotes three chapters to it, uh, chapter 9, 10, and 11, where he talks about the advantages that the Jew has in some of the hardest chapters of the book of Romans, which we will get to next September. 00:16:00.159 --> 00:16:02.559 Um, because I need more time. 00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:05.919 Uh but he says much in every way, and he gives one way. 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:14.720 He says it might not be a so it might not be a salvific advantage, that is, an advantage in terms of salvation, but it's still an advantage. 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:17.039 And here it is. 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:24.879 He says that the Jews, to begin with, this is verse 2, to begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:30.559 That is, God spoke to them, not to anybody else. 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:44.799 They had the revelation of the God of the universe, who he was, his character, his works in the world, his law. 00:16:45.600 --> 00:17:02.879 And they got to live for centuries and centuries under that law and had a society that was shaped by God's word, and that is inherently a good thing, whether or not you believe in the God who gives the law in the first place. 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:07.359 That to live under that good rule, under God's good rule, is a good thing. 00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:17.119 So you were entrusted with the oracles of God is an honor and a blessing to them as a people. 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:24.960 It was not just a blessing, it was also a responsibility, which they they took seriously. 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:30.720 They sought to preserve the oracles of God and hand it down from generation to generation. 00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:36.240 So he's saying, Yes, God spoke to you, not to anybody else. 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:44.240 What a blessing, what a benefit that you know the God of all creation. 00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:51.359 Let's rephrase the question and bring it into today. 00:17:52.559 --> 00:18:01.119 You might rephrase the question something like, Well, is there any advantage to being brought up in a Christian home? 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:03.839 Is there any advantage to a Christian upbringing? 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:05.599 And again, the answer is the same. 00:18:05.759 --> 00:18:08.480 The answer is much in every way. 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:14.079 Being born into a Christian family certainly doesn't save you. 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:19.119 Being baptized and being brought to church doesn't save you. 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:27.920 It's not the basis of your righteousness, not the basis of your standing before God, but there are advantages to it. 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:36.000 It is a blessing to be brought up in a house where Jesus is known and loved. 00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:42.240 That's not to say that Christian parents don't also make mistakes with their children. 00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:51.119 But if your testimony begins, if I sit down and you say, tell me your story of faith, tell me how you became a follower of Jesus. 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:59.440 And if your testimony begins with the words, Well, I grew up in a Christian home, you're speaking of a blessing. 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:04.960 You're speaking of an advantage that you had growing up. 00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:07.039 An advantage over him. 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:10.079 Well, an advantage over the rest of us. 00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:18.480 Some of us didn't grow up in a home where where the Bible was taught, where it was believed, where Jesus was was followed. 00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:23.039 And so it took us longer to figure these things out. 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:24.799 But you were brought up from an early age. 00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:29.519 Well, as for me and my household, we we serve the Lord. 00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:30.960 We follow Him. 00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:36.240 I know Christians with Christian parents. 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:43.359 Um, if you if you grew up in a Christian house, I know that there are ways in which your parents will have screwed you up. 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:45.599 Amen. 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:46.319 Right. 00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:50.799 Welcome to being a child with parents. 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:57.279 It happens to all of us in some way or other. 00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:05.920 And so I'm not at all saying, well, you should just ignore all of the stuff that you're currently working through in therapy. 00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:13.759 But just to kind of throw the baby out with the bathwater and say, well, there was no advantage there at all, that's also wrong. 00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:20.480 To start your testimony with, I grew up in a home where Jesus was known and loved is an advantage. 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:25.200 So maybe actually you should thank God for your parents. 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:30.319 It doesn't excuse the other stuff, but there is an advantage. 00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:37.680 And maybe after you thank God for them, you might thank them. 00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:40.319 Just maybe. 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:57.920 For those of us, and uh there are a few of us daughtered around the room, for those of us, myself included, who are convinced of the goodness of uh of baptism for infants, don't leave. 00:20:59.519 --> 00:21:03.279 Some of us baptize infants, and I want to explain why we do. 00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:10.160 We baptize the infants of Christian parents, and in part, this is what we're symbolizing. 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:17.839 The baptism that a child goes through doesn't save the child any more than the baptism that an adult goes through saves the adult. 00:21:18.079 --> 00:21:34.319 The baptism doesn't save the child, but it does point symbolically to the fact that the child, having been born to Christian parents, has a particular blessing by virtue of their being in a Christian family. 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:50.160 My kids have an advantage, a blessing of being part of my household over and against my neighbor who doesn't love Jesus and their children. 00:21:50.240 --> 00:21:50.720 Do you see? 00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:55.599 That's not to say that God can't also pursue them, we pray for them, but this is what Paul's talking about. 00:21:55.759 --> 00:21:58.480 Is there an advantage to being from a religious background? 00:21:58.960 --> 00:21:59.759 So, well, it doesn't. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:02.160 Don't save you, but yes, there is. 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:08.880 Because it's a good thing to be brought up breathing in the air of the gospel. 00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:12.000 You see, that's what Paul is saying. 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:14.640 Second question. 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:28.400 So they say, Well, okay, so the Jews were given the oracles of God, and God promised to bless the world through them. 00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:32.240 But they didn't listen to God. 00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:34.079 They were faithless. 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:38.640 They didn't keep their side of the bargain, as it were. 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:47.839 Does their, and this is the second question, does their unfaithfulness mean that God will now not keep his promises? 00:22:48.079 --> 00:22:52.319 Does their faithlessness make God faithless? 00:22:52.559 --> 00:22:57.440 Or does their faithlessness nullify God's faithfulness? 00:22:58.319 --> 00:23:02.319 And again, Paul's answer here is by no means. 00:23:02.400 --> 00:23:03.279 It's very strong. 00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:07.599 It's basically, God forbid that that would be true. 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:18.720 And Paul goes on to say, basically, that the answer is that if every Jew had been unfaithful, God would still remain faithful. 00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:26.079 That if every Jew had turned from God, God would still remain true to himself and to his promises. 00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:27.680 Let's simplify this by. 00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:29.359 What does all of that this mean? 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:34.960 It basically means this human sin cannot thwart the promises of God. 00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:39.279 Human sin cannot thwart the promises of God. 00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:48.559 In fact, that sin goes to show the extent of God's faithfulness, his patience. 00:23:49.119 --> 00:24:01.359 We see his patience all the way through the Old Testament, in his working with people in spite of their faithlessness, is what we saw when we looked for uh for about three months there through the story of Abraham. 00:24:01.519 --> 00:24:09.920 That in those times when Abraham is faithless, think of Sarah and Hagar, or his dealings with Pharaoh, or his dealings with Abimelech. 00:24:11.119 --> 00:24:14.880 That when even when Abraham is faithless, that doesn't make God faithless. 00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:18.240 God remains faithful and true to his promises. 00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:25.839 It shows the extent of his faithfulness, it shows the extent of his righteousness. 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:30.960 Now then he goes on, Paul goes on to quote a psalm. 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:32.240 This is verse 4. 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:38.880 And if you're looking at the Bible, you see that a little bit kind of is set out differently because it's part of a part of a poem, part of a Psalm. 00:24:39.039 --> 00:24:44.559 So verse 4 says, By no means let God be true, though everyone were a liar. 00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:48.079 That is, even if everyone were a liar, God would remain true. 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:49.599 That's what he's saying there. 00:24:49.839 --> 00:24:56.000 And then he says, As it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. 00:24:57.759 --> 00:24:58.400 What does that mean? 00:24:58.559 --> 00:24:59.839 How does that fit? 00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:03.519 Paul here is quoting from Psalm 51. 00:25:04.079 --> 00:25:10.160 Psalm 51 is Psalm of David that was written after David's adultery with Bathsheba. 00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:20.799 If you don't know the story, if you're digging into the uh into your Sunday school memory, although I'm not sure that we teach David and Bathsheba in Sunday school, but that'd be a great Sunday school. 00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:28.319 David uh David should be leading his army into battle, and yet he doesn't. 00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:41.519 He's at home in his palace and he's walking on the roof and he sees a beautiful woman bathing, and he uses his power as the king to have her brought to him, and he sleeps with her. 00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:49.599 Um and uh she's a married woman, and so she realize and so he realizes oh, crumbs, we're gonna have to deal with this. 00:25:49.680 --> 00:26:08.400 Not only that, but she becomes pregnant because of this, and and so he corrupts basically the whole army uh to bring uh to bring Bathsheba's husband, a guy called Uriah, back to Jerusalem, away from the front lines, in order to say, Well, you've done really well in the battle, come back and have a breather. 00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:15.920 Why don't you go and your wife will cook you a steak and maybe you know see what else happens that evening since you're home and Uriah doesn't go for it? 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:24.480 He's like, Well, how can I, how can I eat steak and sleep with my wife when when all of my brothers are on the front line? 00:26:24.559 --> 00:26:25.920 It would be disrespectful to them. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:27.119 So I'm just gonna sleep outside. 00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:28.319 I'm not even gonna see my wife. 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:30.799 And David is thinking, oh, this is a disaster. 00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:44.000 And so instead, what he does is he writes a note uh to the general, basically saying, see that Uriah is killed, put him where the fighting is most faith, folds it up, hands it to Uriah, and says, Give that to the general back in the field. 00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:45.519 And Uriah is killed. 00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:49.519 So David's an adulterer, but now he's a murderer. 00:26:50.400 --> 00:26:52.079 And he's corrupt. 00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:57.680 He's corrupted the whole political system, he's corrupted his own power as king. 00:26:58.640 --> 00:27:06.480 Finally, the prophet Nathan comes to him, and uh, and God, in his graciousness, just brings David to brokenness and repentance. 00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:11.759 And it is in that spirit of brokenness and repentance that David writes Psalm 51. 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:17.200 And in Psalm 51, he says some just remarkable things. 00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:24.240 Psalm 51, verse uh verse 4, which is just before what Paul quotes, he says this. 00:27:24.400 --> 00:27:39.039 David says, Against you, he's talking to God, against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and prevail in your judgment. 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:43.759 Against you, you only have I sinned. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:46.079 I mean, who's David trying to kid? 00:27:47.680 --> 00:27:50.480 There's hardly a person in Jerusalem that David hasn't sinned against. 00:27:50.559 --> 00:27:55.279 He sinned against Bathsheba, he sinned against Uriah, certainly, by having him bumped off. 00:27:55.440 --> 00:28:01.440 He sinned against the general by corrupting the uh the ranks of the army. 00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:07.920 And yet he realizes something profoundly true. 00:28:09.119 --> 00:28:16.880 That sin is ultimately an offense against God, that he is ultimately the offended party. 00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:22.480 And so it is right that God would judge him. 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:40.079 And so when Paul quotes this, what essentially he's saying is David has realized that it wouldn't be right for God to let him off just because he's a Jew, just because he's the king. 00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:54.480 In fact, God is right to judge the sins of Jews as well as Gentiles, because in his not turning a blind eye, it shows how righteous he is. 00:28:54.640 --> 00:28:55.119 Imagine that. 00:28:55.279 --> 00:29:05.039 Imagine if there was a whole group of people that God just let them do whatever they want, and God just turned a blind eye to all of their actions. 00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:09.440 Wouldn't the rest of the world go, well, how just are you? 00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:19.519 You're judging me for what I've done for my adultery, but here's David over here, and he's done the very same thing, and you're letting him off. 00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:25.279 Do you see David saying, no, no, God's right to apply the same standard across the board? 00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:32.400 That my being part of uh the chosen people ethnically doesn't let me off the hook. 00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:35.119 You're right to judge me, David says. 00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:44.559 Let's see if we can rephrase this a couple of different ways and try and try and bring it home a little bit for each of us. 00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:47.599 I think the first way that we can rephrase it is this. 00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:53.759 Does the presence of bad Christians make Christianity bad? 00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:55.519 Do you know this is what people say? 00:29:55.920 --> 00:30:01.279 That you know, people have done horrendous things in the name of the the church, in the name of Jesus. 00:30:01.440 --> 00:30:05.759 They've done awful things calling themselves a Christian. 00:30:05.920 --> 00:30:17.119 And so the question is: does the presence of bad Christians or bad people who claim the name of Christian, does that mean that Christianity is bad? 00:30:17.599 --> 00:30:21.279 And David and Paul would say, no. 00:30:22.079 --> 00:30:24.880 Do faithless Christians mean that Jesus is faithless? 00:30:25.039 --> 00:30:29.519 No, God remains true despite our actions. 00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:37.599 So if you're you're here this morning, maybe that's one of the things you wrestle with, is actually Christians don't look particularly moral, and sometimes we don't. 00:30:37.839 --> 00:30:39.200 Really sorry about that. 00:30:39.519 --> 00:31:00.000 What I'd ask you to do is not to judge Christianity on us, on our successes or on our failings, but to judge Christianity on the character of Christ, on who he is, not on how faithful or faithless his followers are. 00:31:02.079 --> 00:31:12.880 Another way perhaps to uh to think about this and to rephrase it is to think, well, would God just let me off because I'm a Christian? 00:31:13.759 --> 00:31:16.319 You know, I'm I'm I'm sinning right now. 00:31:16.559 --> 00:31:21.200 There's stuff that I haven't repented of in my life, and and God hasn't judged me yet. 00:31:21.279 --> 00:31:23.440 So maybe he's actually okay with it. 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:26.480 But David would say, but be very careful. 00:31:27.279 --> 00:31:29.839 God applies the same standard to everyone. 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:41.359 That just because you come to church and just because you're committed and you give and you go to community group and you've signed up for the weekend away and and all these things, that you have some sort of inside track, some sort of get out of jail free card. 00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:43.039 Well, that's not the case. 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:45.839 He'd be right to judge us. 00:31:47.039 --> 00:31:50.400 You'd be right to judge us because our sin is ultimately against him. 00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:53.920 Question three. 00:31:54.160 --> 00:31:55.920 These questions get shorter now. 00:31:57.440 --> 00:32:02.079 Question three is, well, this is verse five. 00:32:02.319 --> 00:32:14.799 If our sin, that is our unrighteousness, serves to show how righteous God is, then wouldn't it be wrong for him to judge us? 00:32:15.519 --> 00:32:20.319 You why is he punishing me if I'm kind of doing him a favor? 00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:29.599 Why is he punishing me if my sin benefits him in showing his righteousness all the more? 00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:33.519 And again, Paul's answer is by no means. 00:32:33.680 --> 00:32:35.359 Verse 6, God forbid. 00:32:36.319 --> 00:32:36.960 Why? 00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:53.440 Because if sinners sinning did God a favor, well, that means that he wouldn't judge anyone because everyone is sinful. 00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:55.680 We've all been faithless towards him. 00:32:55.920 --> 00:32:58.640 This is what he means by first six, where he says, by no means. 00:32:58.799 --> 00:33:01.599 For then how could God judge the world? 00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:08.400 So here's the thing: we want a God who is committed to justice. 00:33:08.640 --> 00:33:16.799 There are things in our world that we look at and we point to and we say, those people shouldn't get away with that. 00:33:17.359 --> 00:33:21.920 God ought to punish what has happened there. 00:33:23.519 --> 00:33:26.240 God ought to punish the perpetrators. 00:33:26.799 --> 00:33:29.759 We want a God who is committed to justice. 00:33:30.480 --> 00:33:36.079 We look at the world and think that those who have acted wickedly, justice demands that they're punished. 00:33:36.400 --> 00:33:48.240 But if God is wrong to judge because of our unrighteousness showing how great he is, showing his righteousness, then he wouldn't judge anyone. 00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:49.440 That's what Paul is saying. 00:33:49.519 --> 00:33:52.240 He said, No, no, no, you want a God of justice. 00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:57.839 And so if you're saying, well, why is he wrong to judge me if my sin shows how great he is? 00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:03.920 Well, Paul's like, well, what you're asking for is for God to let everybody off, and that's what you don't want. 00:34:05.359 --> 00:34:20.159 Just because sin deserves, or sorry, just because sin serves a divine purpose of showing his righteousness, the righteousness of God, it doesn't mean that we don't still deserve punishment. 00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:23.599 It doesn't mean that we still aren't to blame for it. 00:34:24.159 --> 00:34:32.320 This question gets rephrased uh oftentimes into what do I, you know, poor old poor old Judas. 00:34:32.880 --> 00:34:35.360 What about poor old Judas? 00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:41.119 He's just he's just doing what was what was foreordained for him to do. 00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:43.199 He's just following the plan? 00:34:43.519 --> 00:34:45.199 And he gets punished? 00:34:45.519 --> 00:34:47.039 How's that fair? 00:34:49.920 --> 00:35:00.320 Well, Judas was one of the disciples, and as we've just seen, insiders don't get out of jail free cards with God. 00:35:01.840 --> 00:35:12.320 But what's more, his actions, while they might have served in God's larger purpose, they do not excuse him from culpability. 00:35:12.960 --> 00:35:16.719 He chose to do those actions willingly. 00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:20.000 He voluntarily chose to betray. 00:35:20.079 --> 00:35:22.079 And so two things can be true at once. 00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:34.400 Judas can willingly, voluntarily, choose to be treacherous towards his Lord, and God can use that for his higher glory. 00:35:35.760 --> 00:35:39.840 It's the same thing that happens at the end of the book, uh at the end of the book of Genesis. 00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:43.760 Remember Joseph of Technicolor Dreamcoat fame? 00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:48.000 He becomes the second in command in Egypt. 00:35:48.079 --> 00:35:50.239 He's the prime minister under Pharaoh. 00:35:51.119 --> 00:36:13.519 After his brothers had left him for dead, sold him into slavery, told their father Jacob that he was dead, acted wickedly against Joseph, sells him into slavery into Egypt, and he rises through the ranks and becomes one of the most powerful people in the land, such that he administrates things so that lives are saved during a famine. 00:36:13.599 --> 00:36:24.159 And he looks at his brothers at the end of the book of Genesis and says, What you intended for evil, God intended for good and for the saving of many lives. 00:36:25.039 --> 00:36:26.719 But two things can be true at once. 00:36:26.880 --> 00:36:38.719 His brothers intended evil, voluntarily, willfully sold their brother into slavery, and God intended it for good and for the saving of many lives. 00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:42.320 So poor old Judas doesn't get off. 00:36:43.440 --> 00:36:45.360 A question doesn't wash. 00:36:54.719 --> 00:36:58.559 And I'm not going to preempt what Paul says there. 00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:03.039 His question is essentially well, why not sin more? 00:37:04.800 --> 00:37:05.840 Verse 7. 00:37:06.079 --> 00:37:14.480 But if through my lie, that is, through my sin, if through my lie God's truth abounds for his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 00:37:15.039 --> 00:37:18.800 Why not do evil that good may come? 00:37:18.960 --> 00:37:22.000 That the good there being the glory of God? 00:37:22.239 --> 00:37:27.360 Why not do evil if it shows how glorious God's grace is? 00:37:33.840 --> 00:37:43.119 So why not go on doing evil that God may be glorified by showing how forgiving He is? 00:37:45.039 --> 00:37:52.480 Paul here, and he will expand on it in a couple of chapters, time, simply says that that is such a mistake. 00:37:53.760 --> 00:37:58.400 That is that's such a wrong-headed way of thinking about Christianity. 00:37:59.280 --> 00:38:06.480 To say that you believe in Jesus for your ticket to heaven and then live however you want. 00:38:07.599 --> 00:38:11.440 Because you think it's simply God's job to forgive you. 00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:17.280 To think that the more that you sin, the more amazing his forgiveness will look. 00:38:17.599 --> 00:38:19.760 Paul says that that is a wicked way to think. 00:38:19.840 --> 00:38:22.320 That's what he means by their condemnation is just. 00:38:22.480 --> 00:38:25.519 It shows that really they haven't understood the gospel at all. 00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:31.199 It's a wicked way to think, to sin so that God's glory might abound. 00:38:31.440 --> 00:38:32.880 Why is it a wicked way to think? 00:38:33.039 --> 00:38:39.840 Well, he tells us that God is never glorified by evil. 00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:46.000 That's why their condemnation is just God is never glorified by our sin. 00:38:50.639 --> 00:39:05.760 You see, in the end, all of these questions, all of these objections that are being raised in anticipation, all of these questions center around the character of God. 00:39:06.960 --> 00:39:08.719 Do I know who God is? 00:39:09.920 --> 00:39:13.440 Is God the God that I thought was true? 00:39:16.719 --> 00:39:18.239 Remember where we started? 00:39:18.559 --> 00:39:22.239 With that feeling of, how do I know what's really right? 00:39:22.400 --> 00:39:24.159 How do I know what's really true? 00:39:24.400 --> 00:39:28.800 Is the God that I thought I knew really the God who is there? 00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:33.920 Essentially, Paul's answer in all of these questions is yes. 00:39:34.239 --> 00:39:36.079 God remains faithful to his promises. 00:39:36.320 --> 00:39:42.559 God continues to be God, God continues to be true, he continues to be committed to justice. 00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:57.360 He says, in essence, to the to the Jew, you might have thought that you benefited from your faithfulness by your own religious observance, when in fact it's only faith alone that saves you. 00:39:57.679 --> 00:40:03.840 But your misunderstanding of God does not mean that God has changed. 00:40:04.320 --> 00:40:08.960 Rather, your understanding of him must come in line with who he is. 00:40:09.280 --> 00:40:13.440 He remains true, true to himself, true to his promises. 00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:18.000 What's more, God is right to judge sin. 00:40:18.639 --> 00:40:24.480 And neither our morality or our or our ethnicity gives us a pass. 00:40:25.599 --> 00:40:27.199 David saw that. 00:40:38.320 --> 00:40:40.719 And our God has not changed. 00:40:42.880 --> 00:40:51.519 Finally, Paul would say, but just because the darkness of our sin makes the diamonds of God's mercy shine the brighter, doesn't excuse the wrongness of our sin. 00:40:52.480 --> 00:40:58.800 God is not glorified in our wickedness, but by his justice and his mercy. 00:41:01.440 --> 00:41:20.960 See, Paul, in a sense, is taking away all of those religious and moral props that a human being might lean on or seek to hold on to, our goodness, our background, our excuses for our sin. 00:41:21.360 --> 00:41:23.119 He's taking them all away. 00:41:23.360 --> 00:41:35.039 But as he strips them all away in place, what he's beginning to show us is the unchanging, perfect, enduring character of God. 00:41:35.360 --> 00:41:41.599 A God who is forever true, a God who is forever just, a God who is forever merciful. 00:41:43.119 --> 00:41:52.639 And so in those moments when you find yourself not knowing what's true anymore, we run into those unchanging arms. 00:41:54.320 --> 00:42:13.519 We ask him to teach us, to conform our understanding of ourselves, of the world, of him, to who he is, to what he has said, to live not relying on ourselves, but on him alone. 00:42:15.360 --> 00:42:18.719 The one who is always faithful to his promises.