Who is Righteous?

It's grab our bibles. Grab our bibles and turn to Romans chapter three,

Romans three. If you don't have a Bible with you, just raise your

hand. We're passing those out right now. Thanks, bro. We're passing

out bibles right now. You'll need those to track along. And there's also

a bulletin if you didn't get that, So just raise your hand if you

need a Bible or a bulletin. We're passing those out right now, and

we're gonna get all sorted and turn to Romans the third chapter. While you

do that, let me just say, since I'm not going to get a

chance to see you before Saturday, if any of you are veterans, I'm

not going to embarrass you by asking a stand up or anything like that.

You know who you are. But if you have served, on Saturday will

be Veterans Day, and I just want to take a moment to say thank

you sincerely. So we wanted to take a moment and say thank you then

that your sacrifice is something that spurs sincere gratitude. Sister, would you come

and read our sermon text for us. We're in Romans chapter three were in

verses one through twenty. This Morning Romans three, verses one through twenty.

Then what advantage has the Jew or what is the value of circumcision? Much

in every way? To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles

of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness

of God? By no means? 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. 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 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? 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 for

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 asps is under their lips. Their

mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood,

and their paths are ruin and misery. And the way of peace they

have not known. 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 by works of the law, no

human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the

knowledge of sin. This is God's word. Amen. When you go to

a good jewelry store to buy a diamond for an engagement ring, some of

you guys should take notes here. Before they bring out the diamond, they

roll out a velvet black background, right, and then they bring out the

diamond and set it on the black background, so that you can really see

what you have on your hands, so that you can perceive what color and

what fasces and what brilliance in all of its brilliance that diamond really has.

And like that, Paul in this third chapter of his Letter to the Romans,

before he brings out the diamond of the Gospel, salvation and redemption by

God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Before he brings out the diamond of

the Gospel, he finishes rolling out the black backdrop of the actual condition of

all mankind. He started with this all the way back in chapter one.

He starts by highlighting the immoral and their accountability before God, and then he

gets to talking about the moralizers, right, those who judge those who are

clearly immral, but they have no excuse because they do the same thing or

the same kinds of things. And Paul makes his way through all kinds of

people to finally get to this statement in our Texas morning, none is righteous,

no, not one. So with these twenty verses that we have here

this morning, Paul completes the rolling out of that backdrop, and he handles

the objections, the what abouts right, Because as he lays this out,

as he talks about the spiritual condition of every person, there are some objections

that are raised, and he specifically specifically handles the objections of those who had

that God's covenant with the Jewish people should at least exempt them from some in

some sort of special way, and Paul makes it clear it does not.

Maybe you have not been in church much, but you've been working on things,

and you're in church here today, and you say, well, I'm

working. I'm here today becoming an even better person. And I'm not sure

you might think that I need to hear about this dark assessment. I promise

you if that's the sort of thing that you have in mind, Like,

I'm a pretty good person and I'm working on be even even better, and

I'm not sure that I need to hear about the artists of my heart.

I promise you that if you would hear and receive what Scripture says about your

condition and the diamond of redemption in Christ, this will be the most important

thing you ever hear in a church. And maybe you've been in church all

your life, and because of that, your life has been pretty clean.

And when you think of your relationship with God, you think God and I

are good. We're okay. God is good. I'm pretty good, and

based on that, I think we're good. Well, if you hear and

receive what scripture says about you. It will also for you be the most

important thing you hear in your lifetime of church going. Because here's what I

am out to convince you of this morning. Here's my case. God is

righteous and you are not. That's my case, and I mean to convince

you of it, not just intellectually right. Maybe a lot of people are

already starting there. I get it. God is righteous. I am not.

I came in here believing that I would do anything to move that idea

further down deep into your heart and life and actions. God is righteous and

you are not. I'm gonna make my case through three steps. Right,

God always is righteous. We're gonna work through our text. Who's righteous?

God always is, people never are, and God's word shows you. Those

are our three pieces. God always is righteous, people never are right,

and God shows you this. So let's jump in. Who's righteous? God

is? God always is? Now I'm going to make that case. Paul

makes that case, and as he does, he does it by handling four

objections for what I call what about here they are? Or here's the first

one, What about God's covenant? Right? What about God's covenant? Isn't

God being untrustworthy. He made a covenant with Israel. And now, Paul,

you're saying this about what it means to be true Israel. Doesn't that

make God untrustworthy? Let read it in verses one and two. Read along

with me. There, then what advantage has the jew or what is the

value of circumcision, which is the sign of that covenant between God and Israel.

Paul's as much. In every way. To begin with, the Jews

were entrusted. They were given to steward the oracles of God, the word

of God. So here's the objection. It's a question about God's trustworthiness.

It goes like this, Paul. If you say that truly being the people

of God is a matter of the heart by faith, then what does that

say about God's covenant with the Jewish people. It sounds like you're undercutting something

that God has declared. And Paul's saying, no, the advantage we Jews

received was a stewardship, It was a responsibility. It was something in trusted

to us. We were entrusted with the word of God. We were given

insight into his character and his ways. But how we handled that responsibility is

a matter of the heart by faith, and I think you would agree that

the fact that God's covenant with Israel creates responsibility and not partiality, means that

God is perfectly trustworthy to assess a person's heart according to that responsibility. You

tracking with me. I got to tell you, this morning's very tiki taki,

this very dense argument that Paul's going. So I'm gonna have to stop

and check on you every once in a while because there are a lot of

moving parts here. This is just one of them. I think you would

agree. I think you would agree with something similar about us today. You

would agree that it is right of God to view your Christian upbringing as a

responsibility, To view your Sunday school class attendance as a responsibility, to view

your recovery program, and any spiritual training that you've received, any Bibles that

you've been a part of, as a responsibility, not some sort of free

pass to avoid his assessment of your heart. Right, So, then God's

covenant with Israel equals responsibility, not partiality. All of your spiritual training and

upbringing equals responsibility not partiality, in which case God's assessment of your heart is

a matter of trustworthiness. He hasn't he hasn't done anything untrustworthy, to not

treat others with favoritism, to not treat you with favoritism. Keep those coming,

man, I need those because that means that your tracking with me.

And that's important because I've just made the first part of my case that God

is righteous because he's trustworthy. Okay, here's the second objection. Second objection

goes like this, what about God's faithfulness? What about God's faithfulness? Verse

three and four go like this, what if some were unfaithful? Does their

faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? Pulses by no means let God be true

though everyone were a liar, as it is written. And then he quotes

David. This is David's psalm of repentance after he's been confronted about his agree

just sin. And David says that you may be justified in your words and

prevail when you're judged. It's talking to God. Right, So here's the

objection. Here's the objection goes like this, Hey, God made some promises

to Israel. Are you saying that God is breaking his promises to Israel because

some of Israel did not live faithfully? Pulses, Not on your life God

always keeps his promises, and he's going to get into that in chapters nine,

ten, and eleven. So right now we're just gonna stick with the

short answer he's saying. Look, consider David, Consider the very king of

Israel, Consider the essential representative of Israel. God made a way to keep

his promise to David and still judge David for his sin, and still call

David to repentance. God is always faithful. He finds a way. And

I think you'd agree that if God promised to judge, and God promised to

call to repentance, and God promised to provide a way of salvation, then

he isn't at all unfaithful When he announces a way of salvation that's different than

what you expected. That's faithfulness despite your unfaithfulness. So then God is faithful.

God is trustworthy. I'm halfway done with the first half of my argument.

It's starting to sound like God is righteous. So here's the third objection.

What about God's justice? Is God unjust to judge us the way that

he does Verse five and six? Check it out. But if our unrighteousness

serves to show the righteousness of God, what should 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? So this third objection goes

like this, If our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, then is

it really fair for him to condemn us. It seems like the more sinful

we are, the more God's righteousness is on display. So maybe God is

unjust to punish what makes him look good. See even some of you snickered

at that. Paul even seems embarrassed to use this line of thinking. He

says, I speak in a human way like this, people might say like

this. Of course, Paul's answers, no. God is the judge of

the world. That's part of what it means to be God. God's judgment

doesn't make God unjust. In fact, Paul says later, when you use

your judgment to criticize God's judgment, the only thing that reveals is your arrogance.

And I think you would agree. Just because God's judgment of sin shows

and puts on display God's holiness, that doesn't make God unjust to judge.

A just judge judges what is wrong, regardless of the outcome right right,

you'd agree that today. Like if a judge were to see wrongdoing and simply

acquit without consequence or correction, just waves it off, that's an unjust judge.

If he sees wrongdoing, if he sees babies tortured, sexual predation on

children and just equits without consequence or correction, it's unjust. It's just for

him to judge. And so also for God to see wrongdoing in your heart,

in your life, to see corrupt motives, to see disregard for other

human beings, to see greedy, self centeredness, or or a perverse way

of looking at other people that makes them just objects of pleasure or objects of

advancement, it's just for him to judge. So when he calls you sinful,

he's being just. So if God is just to judge, and he's

faithful to keep his promises, and he's trustworthy in being impartial, then the

first part of our case is almost made. God is righteous. Here's the

last objection, the fourth one, What about God's glory? It kind of

goes like, this is God being two faced to condemn something that brings him

glory see that verses seven and eight. But if through my lie, God's

truth abounds to his glory. Take a look, 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, gospel teaching has been accused of

this since the very beginning, And Paul says, their condemnation is just so

this argument is similar to the last one, saying, if my lie puts

God's truth on display, if my evil puts God's goodness on display, if

he's glorified, why am I being condemned as a sinner? Why not do

more evil to the glory of God? And at this point Paul just kind

of waves this objection off. He's like, their condemnation is just like,

this is self evidently perverse. God's glory is no use for evil. God

is committed to holiness. So God is always trustworthy. God is always faithful,

God is always just, God is always holy. God is always righteous.

And as you look at these objections, I don't know, for you,

is it like, do you feel like you're interacting with an eight year

old? You know, it's like so many objections. It doesn't really matter

what the objections are. If you are telling an eight year old something they

don't want to hear. They've got more objections than you can imagine, and

they don't necessarily need to be sincerely held objections. Right, it seems like

the big work and interacting with an eight year old is just to get them

honest with themselves, which is so analogous to the work of the Holy Spirit.

So much of the work of the Holy Spirit is just getting you to

be honest with yourself and lay down a whole bunch of objections you don't even

sincerely hold and admit, not just in your head, but in your heart.

God is righteous and I am not. And that's the second part of

this case. I am not righteous, you are not righteous. Let's look

at how the Bible puts it. So who is righteous? God always is,

and people never are. I's sorry. Second point on the screen there,

Here's how Paul begins the second part of this case, verse nine.

What then, are we Chews any better off? No, not at all.

We've already charged that all both Jews and Greeks are under sin. Okay,

it might seem like the Bible is answering the same question two different ways,

But what he's saying is if you're asking if we Jews have been granted

insight and responsibility and stewardship, if we've been entrusted with anything, the answer

is yes. But if you're asking if we Jews have been granted favoritism and

partiality, some sort of free past, the answer is no. We are

all, every one of us living under the tyranny of sin. We're not

exempt. And in fact, I'm going to show you from our own Old

Testament. And then he strings together, he strings together like beads these scripture

passages, some from Ecclesiastes and from the Psalms and Isaiah. He strings together

this composite passage. You see that right there in the middle of chapter three.

You've got this set of quotations, and they're all from kind of different

places. And here's what he's emphasizing with this Number one, he's emphasizing three

different things. Number one, he's emphasizing unrighteousness, sinfulness. This is about

everybody, not just some people. Unrighteousness is about everybody, he says in

the start of it all both Jews and Greeks are under sin. There is

no one who's righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one

seeks for God, all have turned aside. And then verses fifteen through seventeen,

this is important. He's quoting for Isaiah, and Isaiah was specifically written

to Israel against Israel, saying their feet are swift to shed blood in there.

Their paths are ruin and misery. The way of peace they have not

known. So he's saying, who is righteous? Not Jews, not gentiles,

no one is. When it comes to unrighteousness, it's not about some,

it's about all. And then this is the second thing that he's emphasizing.

It's it's not about some isolated thing. It's pervasive. Right, So

Paul takes these passages. He specifically grabs passages out of the Old Testament,

strings them together, and they all include images of body parts. You see

that right, their throat, their tongues, their lips, their mouth,

their feet. Here's what he's getting at. Sinfulness is pervasive. It's pervasive.

Unrighteousness is shot through all parts of us. I actually I talk about

the doctrine of pervasive depravity with my kids a lot, which is funny to

their mother, and I maybe it's not. It's funny to you. And

every time we talk about the Biblical doctrine of pervasive depravity. I always use

this analogy. It's like blue cheese, and I don't know how you feel

about blue cheese, I say, keep it away from me. I don't

need anything that tastes like feet. And that just split the congregation right in

half, right there. But here's the thing, Like, there's no crumble,

there's no crumble of that cheese that doesn't carry the flavor of that mold.

Right, it's shot through. Which is not to say that all the

cheeses mold or that the cheese is as moldy as it possibly could be.

It's just it's pervasive. Right. So for the Bible to say you are

pervasively unrighteous, it's not to say that you are nothing but unrighteous. You

were created good, you were created in the image of God. Right,

you're not as bad as you could be, Praise God. But there's no

part of you that isn't sinful. You're shot through. There's no thing that

you do that is as good or pure as it should be. There's no

little bit of you that we could break off, or a little bit of

your life that we could carve off that wouldn't be touched by sin. When

Paul talks about unrighteousness, He's not talking about something that's isolated in your heart

or a little part of your life. He's talking about something pervasive, which

means you can't righteous yourself out of this condition. Here's the third thing that

Paul's emphasizing here. Unrighteousness is it's not about some it's about all. It's

not about something isolated, it's about something pervasive, and it's about not seeking

God. It's about not seeking God. This is how he starts and finishes.

No one seeks for God, and there is no fear of God before

their eyes. Right. Paul bookends this with something that comes up in scripture

in other places. Our unrighteousness problem is in many ways a worship problem.

Instead of seeking God and fearing God, we live on our own terms for

our own desires. And this is born out in our own experience that even

though God created us and sustained us, even though He deserves our worship,

we don't really seek Him so much as we seek ourselves, and we even

want to recruit God into the job of promoting us. The words to sum

it all up unrighteousness. It's all of us, It's all through us and

it's all about us. That's my case. God is righteous, you aren't.

But there's one more What about that gets tackled right at the end of

this passage. What about the scriptures? What about God's word? What about

the Bible? What about what He's taught us? In other words, if

God is righteous and we're not, why do we have the scriptures? Isn't

it to show God's favor on us? Or at least isn't it to give

us a ladder to climb our way out of unrighteousness? And Paul says this,

God's instructions, by themselves taken up by our pervasively unrighteous hearts, do

not create any righteousness. They reveal unrighteousness. Let's get into that. Who

is righteous? God always is, people never are, and God's word shows

you. Now, also having the scriptures actually makes this point two different ways.

Number One, having the scriptures reveals your accountability, he says in verse

nineteen. 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. As the Polse already said,

there's no one who isn't accountable to God. And now he says that's especially

true of those who have the scriptures, that if you have God's instructions,

you know better if you have a claim on the Bible, that means the

Bible has a claim on you, so that you would be speechless to defend

yourself. Right, every mouth maybe stopped. So if you think of your

familiarity with scripture and the things of God as sort of like setting you aside

for favorable treatment. Now it's a part of God's design for the whole world

to be accountable to him. Having the scriptures reveals your accountability. But not

only that, having the scriptures reveals your sin to yourself see verse twenty.

For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his

sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. And now this verse

the Holy Spirit uses to undo one of the most common misunderstandings to persistently attach

itself to the heart of any religious person. Here's the mistake. Here's the

mistake to think that the purpose of having God's instructions is so that I can

do what I must do to be in right relationship with him. I'm gonna

say it again, here is the critical mistake to think that the purpose of

having God's instructions are so that I can do what I must do to be

in right relationship with God. And Paul says, that's the completely wrong way

to think about God's instructions and your relationship with him. For by works of

the law, no human being will be justified. In as Siet, our

hearts are pervasively unrighteous. Sin has infected our very motives, so in our

flesh, even those things we do that outwardly seem to live up to God's

instructions is a matter of us seeking ourselves instead of Him. Right to tell

a person, to tell a person that to get into a right relationship with

God you must do all the things that God has instructed is like signing up

a dead person for CrossFit classes and a meal kit subscription. These are healthy

things, but they are not going to get you the results you think.

Instead, the result of having God's instructions that Paul is highlighting here is those

instructions show you your sin right, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Paul is saying, one of the main purposes of having God's word is

to see more plainly how far you fall short. So that as you look

into this set of instructions and they look back into you, you see with

the kind of clarity that sinners and eight year olds resist. Oh, God

is really righteous, and I really am not. And this is not so

that God can taunt you or humiliate you. This is so that you will

stop trying to save yourself and turn to the one where saving really is,

in Christ and his grace. And I can't help it. I know I'm

supposed to stop at verse twenty, but I'm going to borrow a little bit

from next week and just read twenty one through twenty four. But now the

righteousness of God has been manifest apart from the law, though the law and

the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus

Christ for all who believe, For there's no distinction, for all have sin

and falls short of the glory of God and are justified, that is put

right, made in right relationship with Him by His grace as a gift through

the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So God is righteous and you aren't.

No matter how dig how deep you dig down, God's instructions aren't a

ladder to climb out of that hole. There are a flashlight for you to

shine around and go. This is hopeless, and the Bible says and whoever

calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now now listen,

I gotta say this because I know it's going through a lot of your minds.

This doesn't mean that God's instructions serve no purpose in shaping how we act.

But there's a difference between one of my sons because he's one of my

sons following my instructions and looking to please me, versus a son trying to

become someone trying to become my son by following my instructions. If my son

is trying to become my son by doing what I'm asking him to do,

that is a pitiful endeavor. Him being my son has nothing to do with

whether or not he follows my instructions. That between his mom and me,

and it is a pitiful endeavor to watch Christians do all that they do towards

accomplishing what only Jesus can accomplish. We receive instructions from God from his word,

and we see new steps of obedience. It's true that we can take

in our own imperfect way, just like my sons try to please me by

following my instructions in their own imperfect way, not towards sonship, though in

sonship, but what we also see when we look into the instructions that God

has given us, we see more and more how we fallen short of the

righteousness those instructions represent. And when we see that, we don't despair,

We repent and even rejoice because the black background of our unrighteousness is showing off

the diamond of God's righteousness, which is gifted to us in Jesus Christ.

God is righteous, and you were not. But you stand before God,

made righteous by his grace in all of its brilliance.