Romans (Session 4) Chapter 3

[Music] well let's start by doing something radical let's borrow hearts well father we just thank you for who you are we thank you that you have created such a unique answer to your greatest predicament that we're going to explore tonight we thank you father for this the epistle to the romans we ask you very sp special blessing on this evening open our hearts and lives to your word and indeed open your word to our understanding that we might grow in grace in the knowledge of the lord and savior this absolutely unique answer to your greatest predicament as we commit this all before you in jesus name amen well we're undertaking a review of the epistle to the romans and we're in chapter three which will start to introduce god's solution to god's greatest problem it's hard for us to imagine that god has a problem but the very his very nature compels a very unique answer to a very unique problem that's what we're going to deal with here now we're going to undertake a review of the most comprehensive treatment of doctrine in the entire bible when you say doctrine that sends chills up many scholars spine but it is this is the core of the whole thing the doctrine of the entire bible summarized here in its most comprehensive form book of romans some people call it the gospel according to saint paul and i love to springboard off an insight from none other than socrates five centuries before christ's birth he's recorded saying it may be that deity can forgive sins but i do not see how and that remark demonstrates a profound insight into the real predicament that escapes many people how can god forgive sins without violating his character and how does a righteous god forgive sins without compromising that righteousness and it's it's only superficial to people who haven't looked at it carefully the more you look at it the more disturbing that issue becomes now this book this epistle was penned by paul we need to understand that paul was very distinct from the other writers in the new testament unlettered fishermen and what have you paul was probably one of the most profound minds that ever walked the planet earth and he uh he was trained in the best schools not only of the jewish culture under gamaliel himself he really was a pharisee of pharisees but he was trained in the best schools in the greek culture he came from a wealthy background so he he demonstrates a profound knowledge of culture on both sides both the jewish and gentile communities and uh jewish by background but he also is a roman citizen and several occasions that shakes the romans as they presumed he was jewish and were about to scourge him he says can you do it to roman citizen and it sent chills down the spine of those administrators they realized they never occurred to him them that he had roman citizen which which involved all kinds of guarantees and he ultimately even draws upon that to go before caesar himself and now this book was written to whom don't take this for granted it is not written to the church at rome there isn't a church at rome there are many churches this was written to the believers not written to unbelievers it was intended to teach students that were already students of the word that were already believers say who founded the church at rome actually paul did although he never went there until later but at pentecost in acts chapter 2 there were many there that had come from rome and later go there so many of the people in rome that had started house churches were really derivative of paul's teachings so he feels a kinship there if he didn't feel that way he wouldn't be writing them because he would not build on somebody else's foundation so he's writing them from the perspective that even though he was he didn't start those churches directly they're his people so he does he didn't feel he was stepping on somebody else's toes if you will by doing that and yet he's writing to something like 28 different people that will be mentioned at the end of the end of the epistle so it it's written to the the believers in rome and individual believers not the church as such in the sense of an organization that those i those concepts emerged several centuries later but uh in the in the early days the the church the group of the assembly of believers were where it wasn't home everything in the book of acts happened in the homes and uh so but having said all that let us try to understand that these believers in rome were known throughout the world they were turning the world upside down and they were known throughout the world at the time and when you realized that they didn't have uh communication they didn't have travel it was all on foot um you know it's really astonishing when you realize it that whether you're talking about solomon or paul or or even more recent years messages were traveled on foot by hand you travel at the speed of horseback and you communicated with you know hand written messages in not much over a generation or maybe two we travel at the speed of sound we communicate electronically around the world it's astonishing for us to realize that in the last century or so how the world has really really really changed but in any case let's move on there is a very key verse in the old testament habakkuk 2 4 that becomes the cornerstone of the reformation and that is alluded to here in not only this epistle but three different epistles this verse habakkuk 2 4 put to death the heresies that grew up in the early centuries of the church the church the early church started understanding the grace of god but within just a few centuries it got eroded away that by the time you get to the fifth century through the 15th century you have that era that we call the dark ages characterized by several things the absence the unavailability of the word of god and the absence of an understanding of god's grace grace erodes to legalism and that was the cloud the dark cloud that hung over for the the world for a thousand years and what broke that cloud the charade of light that came through was their grasp of habakkuk 2 4 the just shall live by faith and that caused a re-emergence of an understanding of grace and that's what the book of romans is all about god's grace and as hal lindsey likes to acronym it god's riches at christ's expense and there are three epistles in the new testament that constitute a trilogy on this verse the just shall live by faith romans 1 17 should express who the just are who are the just romans the epistle of romans deals with that the just shall live how shall they live galatians 3 11 quotes this verse and then amplifies how the just are intended to live by shedding all trappings of religious externalisms none of it and then the third of the trilogy hebrews shows how they are to live by faith just before that hall of faith chapter hebrews 11 we have again habakkuk 2 4 quoted so interestingly enough these three epistles be form a trilogy on this verse and uh it's one of the many reasons we suspect that paul did indeed pen the book of hebrews and uh but in any case the book of romans let's get a snapshot of the total picture the first half of the book eight chapters are on doctrine the first three chapters that we're finishing up that those three tonight constitute the most complete diagnosis of sin we use that term a lot it's all through the bible what do we mean by sin the definitive expression of what sin is is the first three chapters the book of romans we'll go from there to two chapters that lay out the way of salvation we haven't really talked about the remedy in the first three chapters we're just defining the need it makes no sense to deal with the re the remedy until you really understand what the requirement is what the need is and that's what we're intending to do with the first three chapters then we'll deal with salvation chapters four and five and then we get to what might be for most of us the meat of the whole thing three chapters six seven and eight commonly called sanctification what does that mean how does that differ from salvation we'll be dealing with that and then we then encounter three chapters that are dispensational and those three chapters are hopefully will be the death knell to one of the most widespread heresies within the christian body today the concept is sometimes called replacement theology paul will hit that head on in three chapters chapters 9 israel in the past 10 israel in the present 11 israel in the future it's commonly taught in most churches that the promises to israel were forfeit when she rejected her messiah they fall upon the church and the church has somehow replaced israel in god's program of redemption that sounds like just uh labeling or something no it happens to be a very deeply rooted heresy we need to understand we need to hit it head on we're not going to push your foot around on this i've had many people come to me saying gee they're very uncomfortable we get into this area because so many really good people have been mistaught on this subject the issue is in what we believe the issues what paul and the bible says and we're going to look at that we hit it head on israel past present future chapters 9 10 11. they're going to be very very timely for us today going to be very very timely with what's going on in washington today and then the last a few chapters last five chapters i'll call practical their collection of personal notes to personal people that paul appends to this letter before it gets sent off from corinth to rome and so that's the quick thing and we of course you can look at the first eight chapters of doctrine or faith then the dispensational ones call that hope it's prophetic if you will and then the last ones are the practical expressions of love to the other saints in person and so we have in we are obviously in that first group of three chapters finishing that up we talked about pagan man in romans one in romans chapter 2 we talked about more the moral man those people were unsaved but leading better lives than most christians what about them and introduced in the end of that chapter but amplified in chapter three is the religious man and paul uses as an example of the so-called religious man the jew no one is more diligent no one's more rigorously uh adheres to a set of rules and yet where does it all lead and we're going to deal with that this evening let's pick up the last few verses of last chapter by way of review paul says and shall not uncircumcision meaning the gentiles which is by nature if it fulfill the law judge thee who by letter and circumstances circumcision thus transgress the law for he is not a jew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of god so paul is starting to deal with the differences between uncircumcision the gentiles and the the circumcision of the jews pointing out that circumcision of the jews is not enough that's really what he's leading up to here and this is starting to touch on this heresy that we're going to deal with as we go through the book of romans it's a heresy in the body of christ that you and i need to be aware of that god is not finished with the jew they have a future both individually and as a nation the church the the con the the the heresies of the church has taken over the promises that were given to israel that's the concept that's being advanced and that turns out to lead to serious heresies that we're going to deal with in detail of course in chapters 9 10 11 4th coming see the argument in advance that when israel rejected her messiah she forfeited the promises given to her by god the promises the problem with those that view is those promises that we're dealing some of the problems that we're dealing with were unconditional israel couldn't forfeit them if they tried and god goes to rather extreme lengths to demonstrate that that they're unconditional the idea the the heresy is that these promises are now rest upon the church this view widely held is sometimes called replacement theology the church has replaced israel some of it's called reconstruction theology some call themselves dominionists a kingdom now etc and there's a book that was specifically written about this in fact it was written in our apartment when then i lived in an apartment down the balboa bay club in newport beach hal lindsey was in that apartment for a while and wrote a book called the next holocaust which is probably one of the definitive treatments of this whole issue and uh i invite you to take a look at that well let's jump right into romans three verse one paul raises right up front then the question what advantage then hath the jew and what prophet is there of circumcision he just denigrated the fact that circumcision is enough to get you saved well if that's the case what advantage is to the jew and he's going to deal with this head on see the pagans were condemned in chapter one we went through all of that in the first chapter first session moral man can is also condemned before god in romans chapter two and now we're going to deal with the religious people that are also condemned before god and he's going to use this the most surprising example of the jew himself as a religious person see the first question we pray to paul's words in chapter 2 17-24 the second question up here see what advantage has the jew that's from the first verse of 1724 the second question is what prophet is there of circumcision that's the last few verses that we just read at the end of last chapter so paul goes on what revenges the jews is much in every way chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of god and i can tell you right now that nine out of 10 people that read that sentence don't understand what it's saying because the jew they were committed the oracles of god many commentaries look and say sure because they were the custodians they were the scribes it was through them that we got the word of god and that's true but that's not what it's talking about that's not what he's talking about see paul much in every way or saying another way the jew is it's great in every respect well how so paul how is it good see the casual reader would say the jew had the advantage because to him was entrusted the scriptures that's true but that's not what it's talking about the word here oracles the orig to them were committed the oracles of god the word oracles is logion in the greek it refers to divine promises those divine promises were committed to them they were not only the custodians of the text they were the recipients of the promises that's the concept that's there in the greek and some of these promises are not yet fulfilled are they going to be unfulfilled god forbid he's going to go on here okay see the jews were not just the custodians of scripture i don't want to minimize that their diligence their rigor of the scribes is breathtaking the more you study it the more amazed you become and that's why when we discover the dead sea scrolls and get a whole copy of the book of isaiah that was penned a thousand years earlier and it's i think three or four letters just a few letters different from the copies we have today the rigor that they preserved by their methodology is phenomenal when you realize there was no printing no carbon paper everything had to be hand copied but that's not what's in view here unto them were committed the oracles of god what the concept in the greek conveys is they were the recipients of the promises they weren't just the means by which they were you know preserved and communicated they were the ones that they were the beneficiaries of the promises big difference now there's another observation i'll throw out here i want you to be sensitive to do you realize there are no promises given to the church in the old testament really is the church visible in the old testament that's a good assignment for the students we'll figure out some way to put that on the final let's peek ahead in the book of romans chapter 16. let's just take a look ahead check romans 16. paul is writing says now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of the jesus christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began whoops what what's he talking about here the preaching of jesus christ according to what the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began this is something that wasn't in the old testament but now is made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting god made known to all nations for the obedience of faith wow the mystery which was kept secret since the world began this is this was kept in ephesians chapter 3 the first half a dozen verses point out that it was paul's unique privilege to reveal that which was hidden in the old testament ephesians chapter 3 for this cause i paul the prisoner of jesus christ for you gentiles if he have heard of the dispensation of the grace of god which has given me to you word how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery as i wrote before in a few words whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of christ which in other ages was not made known unto the souls of men as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit and by the way the other apostles concur with all this that the gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in christ by the gospel notice the the it's not a question of gentiles coming to faith they did that in the old testament the fact that gentiles would become saved is mentioned by isaiah that's not what he's talking about what makes the church distinct the gentiles can be saved no it's more than that that the gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in christ by the gospel that's something else again and that's what ephesians goes on to detail i won't take okay it's now revealed paul's the instrument by which it's revealed that we would be fellow heirs that's breathtaking to anyone that understands paul did as a pharisee of pharisees and of the same body that's wild partakers of his promise be a partaker be a medicoy a partaker now there's another thing you need to understand there's an interval you need to understand there's an interval between daniel 9 25 and 9 27 9 25 the most phenomenal passage in the entire bible verse 27 is a summary of the whole end time picture we're heading into there's a verse between the two that is after verse 26 and before verse 27. verse 24 in the famous seventy week prophecy lines out the whole scope seventy-seven seventy shimmering are determined upon whom not the church upon thy people upon the holy city this is jewish to accomplish six things finish the transgression make an end of sins make reconciliation for iniquity bring in everlasting righteousness seal up the vision of the prophecy and to anoint the most holy place now we can go through each one of these but clearly they all haven't happened yet so this is still incomplete that's the main point verse 25 is the most breathtaking passage in the entire bible in my view gabriel tells daniel in this unusual visitation he says know therefore and understand that from the going forth and commandment to restore and build jerusalem unto the meshiach nageed the messiah the prince shall be seven weeks and three score in two weeks in the street shall be built again and the wall even in troubled times notice it's talking about the city not the temple the wall the street etcetera from the commandment to restore jerusalem not the temple unto the mashiach nageed messiah the king technically shelby seven plus sixty two night sixty nine weeks from two it's a mathematical prophecy from this point to that point will be a particular period of time but then after the three score in two weeks shall the messiah be cut off but not for himself the people of the prince's shall come shall destroy the city in the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with the flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined now most of you have already studied got a summary of this by way of review that the trigger the terminus aqua the beginning of this is the commandment destroying jerusalem the final point the terminus assad clem is the messiah the king this is recorded in the book of daniel that was translated into greek three centuries before christ's ministry so it's in black and white as a matter of secular history 300 years in advance we know the commandments restoring bill jerusalem we know the decree and the date the question is when the messiah allow himself to be presented as a king when he rode that donkey into jerusalem and they celebrated that very event that we called the triumphal entry now daniels gabriel tells daniel that it's 69 weeks and we know from sir robert anderson's classic work of 1894 that from genesis to revelation god uses 360 day years for lots of reasons so if you run that arithmetic what gabriel is telling daniel it'll be 173 880 days from that decree to the pres presentation of messiah now if you go through the arithmetic it turns out that gabriel's margin for error was a zero because the the years are hundred and seventy two thousand seven forty plus the the dates in the calendar may march 14th april i think and then the leap year so you run through that arithmetic in our studies you can get get all the background so that's that interval now it's interesting that interval shows up in daniel 9 26 it shows up in 24 other places throughout the bible and i think that happens that fascinates me because what does the number 24 signify in the scripture how do you tell you look every place is 24 and see what it's talking about that's how you find out what seven or six or five or ten mean just look every place it appears and draw and summarize that inductively well 24 only occurs one place in the scripture correction two places in scripture it is the priests that david organized in 24 courses and it's the 24 elders in revelation which identify themselves as the redeemed that number seems to refer to the church that's why it fascinates me to see that same interval 24 times in the sacred text the church was born in a miracle in acts chapter 2 and it will be removed in a miracle according to first thessalonians 4 and 1st corinthians 15 the harpazzo now i want you to understand we don't go through all of this this is just by way of a cursory review but do understand and confirm in your own studies that israel and the church are distinctly different they have different origins they have different destinies and your challenge and something you can't do in a quick scratch pad you could do some serious study but go ahead and detail in your notepad all the ways that the church and israel are different israel started in exodus four it was born they went down as a family came out as a nation in exodus and uh they have a destiny that's distinct they inherit the land the church was born in acts chapter two and they have a distinct a destiny that's distinctive different origins different destinies okay in genesis 17 the covenant with abraham god says to them i will make thee exceedingly fruitful and i will make nations of thee and the king shall come out of thee really and i will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for a pretty long covenant you know what it says i think the word everlasting is there to be a god unto thee and to thy seed after thee and i will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land where therein wherein thou art a stranger all the land of canaan for an everlasting there it is again possession and i will be their god and god said unto abram thou shalt keep my covenant therefore thou and thy seed after thee in their generations this is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee every man child among you shall be circumcised and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you okay now there are three ways to become a seed of abraham do you know that three ways you can be a physical seed check your dna maybe you're jewish some of the promises are to those descendants even if they're unbelievers some of the promises that you'll find affect if you're a physical seed of abraham period you can proselyte and become a proselyte into the jewish community that's what they did many did who built the synagogue in capernaum centurion that's interesting believers can get spiritual benefits by doing that the other way as gentiles by union with christ because christ was jewish you haven't noticed okay we need to understand that jeremiah 31 thus saith the lord which giveth the son of for light by day and the ordinances of the moon and the stars for light by night which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar the lord of hosts is his name do we know who he's talking about let's see what he says if those ordinances depart from before me saith the lord what ordinances the sun the moon and all that right then the seed of israel shall also cease from being a nation before me forever whoops thus saith the lord if heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath i will also cast off all the seed of israel for all that they have done saith the lord this is a very dangerous kind of rhetoric because you're arguing from a contrary fact presumption so don't misunderstand what he's saying you see if white can be black and black can be white then israel will end that's sort of a way of getting across the same concept see the world would have to disintegrate before israel would be cast off i can hear it already people write me letters jesus in the world isn't the world going to disintegrate yeah but that's a whole another thing okay now the reconstructionists or the replacement theologians are impugning the integrity of god now some people get really upset because some a lot there are a lot of groups around that have slightly they have views about the scripture that are different from ours and we you know i love what my wife has hanging in her ministry in the hall in essentials unity in non-essentials liberty in all things agape now there are many good scholars have different views about different aspects and because because our desire to be as tolerant as possible i've been often admonished by people on our staff hey go softly on this issue i have to tell you i can't because this issue is a little different than some others because by adhering to this issue you're calling god a liar anyone that hears this is having to do some real twisting with old testament and new testament passages because god is very clear he's gone to such extremes to be clear and unequivocal on his relationship with israel in the future and for us to deny that future is calling god a liar we may not like that term i'm saying it deliberately that strongly it was this view this reconstructionist or replacement theological view that led to the uh anti-semitism in europe that in turn led to the holocaust and why is this so important because it's happening again the same nonsense is being promoted among christians and that's laying the beds the seedbed for the anti-semitism is going to result in a holocaust twice as bad that's coming the first holocaust took one jew and three on the planet earth according to zechariah 13 verses 8 and 9 the next one will take two out of three it'll be a time of trouble such as the world had never seen before that's jesus's words quoting from daniel 12. man they've had some pretty serious trouble in the past you mean it's going to get worse yes let's look look at ezekiel 37 everybody knows about the dry bones of vision and all that this ego says then he said unto me son of man these bones speaking of the valley of dry bones and all that are the whole house of israel behold they say our bones are dry and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts therefore prophesying saying to them thus saith the lord god behold o my people i will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the land of israel and you shall know that i am the lord when i have opened your graves o my people and brought you up out of your graves and shall put my spirit in you and ye shall live and i shall place you in your own land and then shall ye know that i the lord have spoken it and performed it saith the lord wow when jesus rode that donkey into jerusalem and we just talked about it in daniel 9. in luke 19 they record the triumphal entry and he rides this donkey up over the hill from bethany and he sees jerusalem and in verse 41 daniel luke 19 when he was come near he beheld the city and he what he wept over it saying if thou hatch known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace you know she held him accountable for that very day he makes it clear he's holding the kind of light day but then he says a statement that many people miss but now they are hid from thine eyes wow what does that mean jesus creator of the universe announces they didn't recognize the day that was appointed that was foretold to the very day because they didn't recognize it they had their chance now these things are hidden from your eyes israel is blinded are they blinded forever no because we're going to read when we get to romans 11 paul says i would not brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery unless you should be wise in your own conceits that blindness in part is happened to israel until and i love that word hud till the fullness of the gentiles become in israel's national blindness is not permanent it's until what the fullness of the gentiles you come in what's the fullness of gentiles that's the gathering of the church not the times of gentiles that's gentile dominion from nebuchadnezzar to the antichrist the fullest of gentiles is the gathering of the church until the fullness of gentiles be what come in then national blindness will be lifted that's what the tribulation is all about and where do the where do the gentiles have to come in too i wouldn't build doctrine on this but i suspect he's talking about the harpazzo go gathers them and brings them in and that triggers a lot of other things 11 continues and so all israel shall be saved as written there shall come out of zion the deliverer and he shall turn away the ungodliness from jacob for this is my covenant unto them when i shall take away their sins and concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sakes but it's touching the election they are beloved for your fathers of the father's sakes for the gifts and calling of god are without repentance the gifts and calling of god are without repentance they're given once given their given that's interesting they're enemies for your sakes by them being enemies it opens the door to the church so paul continues getting back to romans chapter three we're down to the third verse we're doing great here for what if some did not believe shall their unbelief make the faith of god without effect he's obviously being you know absurd you see some of israel did not believe nothing changed so what if they did god's faithfulness is the issue not our faithfulness praise god shall their unbelief nullify the faithfulness of god of course not it is the faithful of god which is the issue not israel's unfaithfulness we bank on god's faithfulness we're not banking on israel's faithfulness or unfaithfulness and and just to underscore how paul is deliberately being uh observers he says 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 midas mightiest uh must be overcome when thou art judged what he says in the greek is make kenito let it not be so or translate god forbid in other words he said something that intentionally was so absurd you'd get it but to make sure you didn't miss it god forbid let god be true but every man a liar and so on if you don't believe the promises of god has given the jew then you're calling god a liar is what he's saying he's saying that right here i can't escape it paul is calling the reconstructionists the replacement theologians liars not intentionally not maliciously but they are uh unbelief disobedience and lying calling god a liar are the same thing he that believeth in the son of god hath the witness in himself either believeth not god hath made him a liar john is saying the same thing because he believeth not the record that god gave of his son the concepts of unbelief disobedience and calling god a liar are equivalent can't escape it that's what makes unbelief such a disaster it isn't on a skepticism it's when you call him a liar that we got a problem unbelief is simply not accepting god's word psalm 51 let's take a look at david have mercy on me oh god according to the loving kindness according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions in other words he acknowledged him first of all wash me thoroughly for mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin i acknowledge my transgressions that's the key point i acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against thee the only have i sinned and done this evil and thy say that thou might just be justified when thou speakest and be clear without judges wow david confessed his sin acknowledged his ownership his guilt of it and repented that's a key word first john 1 9. let's remember it if we confess our sins he god is faithful and just to forgive us our sins it's his faith unless it's key here and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness to forgive our sins and cleanse us praise god that's the christians borrow so first john 1 9. repentance is essential to the jew as well as every one of us and that's all through the scripture we don't have to beat that to death zechariah 12. it shall come to pass in that day that i will seek to destroy all the nations that come against jerusalem okay and i will pour upon the house of david oh really and upon the inhabitants of jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn from them as one mourneth for his only son and they shall be in bitterness for him as one that is bitterness for the firstborn and for 1900 years judaism has tried to twist this first so it doesn't doesn't read like this except a year ago rabbi yitzhak kaduri the most venerated rabbi in the ultra orthodox 200 000 people came to his funeral a year ago he had a message sealed until one year after his death which has just been opened up and among other things he indicates that this verse is messianic isaiah 53 is messianic the two messiahs mashiach ben david mashiach are the same one all these classic divisions between christian judaism he erased and has really shook up unsettled the ultra-orthodox community continuing this passage here in that day shall there should be a great morning in jerusalem in the morning of hedron and the valley of magiddon and the land shall mourn every family apart the family of house of david apart their wives apart the family of the house of nathan that's interesting you've got david and nathan that's the line through mary not lee george is the legal side and their wives apart family the house of levi apart and their wives apart the family of shemiyah apart their wives apart the families that remain every family apart their wives apart in that day there shall be a fountain opened up to the house of david and to the inhabitants of jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness and i will pour upon the house of david and upon the inhabitants of jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced oh boy and they shall mourn for him as one mourner for his only son and shall be in wooden bitterness for him as one that is bitterness for the firstborn this phrase in zechariah 12 10 and they shall look up me upon me whom they pierced if you look at the hebrew you'll discover that there's a two letters that are not translated an aleph and a towel now when the elephant tower connected they can be used there's four different uses for it one of which is to indicate the direct object of a verb but then there's usually a makef connecting them this is not that this is one of the other four verse uses of it let me say it if i said it in the greek they should look up on me the alpha and the omega whom they've pierced the alif and the tower the first last letter is the hebrew alphabet they don't translate it that way but one can defend that kind of that approach anyway hosea 5 15 god says i will go and return to my place until they acknowledge their offense he's talking about israel because i will return to my place that means he must have left it how long will i leave till they acknowledge their offense and and seek my face in their affliction they shall seek me earnestly and that's of course what the purpose of the tribulation is about and we'll be dealing with that later in this let's go back to the word verse 5. we're making progress here but if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of god what shall we say is god unrighteous who taketh vengeance i speak as a man he's again arguing elliptically what's implied by the way he's saying this is we did god a favor by being so rebellious is god going to judge us for glorifying him that's the kind of logic that's absurd of course that's that is is is see the greek the way he phrases it in the greek it demands a negative answer and we're going to deal with this whole issue when we get to chapter six so i don't want to beat it up here but just to make sure you understand what paul is saying god forbid for then how shall god judge the world see the rabbis knew that the gentiles were to be judged so paul is using an ellipsis on their own convictions the gentiles can be judged but he's pointing out that that by the same judgment the jews also failed that's what he's really building up here for if the truth of god hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory why yet am i also judged as a sinner that's the peculiar argument here and not rather as we have slanderously reported as some affirm that we say let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just though these are ellipses that he's using to confirm his message salvation is by grace not by works that's really what he's building up to here salvation cannot be lost through works it is secure eternally see if you can't be saved by works you're not going to be lost by works because it's not the works it's not either one that saves you it's a 100 job that christ has done grace god's riches at christ's expense you cannot add to what christ has completed on the cross that doesn't mean you shouldn't do works the point is if you're doing the works to be saved you're taking the position that christ's work is incomplete his complete work saved you if you accept it works as a whole another subject we'll deal with later what so what keeps you from sinning you're trying to avoid sin isn't what saves you christ saves you then okay all right why what keeps me from sinning then hopefully a grateful heart when you begin to understand what it cost him you should overflow with love for your savior that's what motivates you that itself is enough to keep you pure but it's what you are expected in response to what he has done paul says what then are we better than they speaking of the jews we as we as jewish they as gentiles he's speaking to the jews here but then are we better than they no in no ways for we have before proved both jews and gentiles that they are all under sin they're all under sin that's this final conclusion we're going to get to here shortly see we are the jews they are the gentiles all are guilty pagan man was at creation that was chapter one moral man was also guilty chapter two last half he doesn't even live up to his own conscience which is inadequate the religious man the jew that's the greatest historical illustration of commitment sincerity that you can find in history and yet it doesn't make it the jews with all their sincerity and commitment cannot save themselves that's his point remember jesus said that in matthew 5 in the serma mountain unless your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and the pharisees jesus won't always enter the kingdom of god what a blow for the jew because those were the professional law keepers they couldn't cut it man that's the key point the case against the entire human race there's 14 distinct counts we'll go through them so quickly the first few deal with man's character which is hopelessly fall flawed we have a genetic deficiency it's called si we're s-i-n-positive verses 13-70 a man's conduct his speech and his actions and finally the cause of all of this as written there's none righteous no not one there's none that understand that there is none that seeketh after god this is romans 10 3 10. all are willfully ignorant we nailed this in chapter one if none seeks then all that seek do so upon god's initiative in other words if none seek god on their own those that are seeking god are responding to god's initiative that's his point and that's gets into election okay in luke chapter four you may recall when he's in nazareth at the end near the end of the chapter he says to them i tell you the truth many widows were in israel in the days of elias when the heaven was shut up for three years six months when great famine was throughout all the land but unto none of them was elijah sent save unto serpa the city of sidon onto a woman that was a widow lots of widows only one two one he was sent okay lots of widows around just the one he said many lepers were in israel in the time of eliza the successor the prophet and none of them was cleansed except for saving naaman the syrian head of the syrian army was in the jordan and all that you remember now any time you and i give something's the scripture you and i might miss the pharisees come to rescue they get so upset with what he just said they tried to throw him off a cliff why are they upset what's wrong with the fact that he saved only one widow and only one leper because he chose two examples both of which were gentiles and there he's talking to a jewish audience they were incensed what he's communicating is the doctrine of election god will have mercy on whom you have mercy all day in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath and they rose up and thrust them out of the city and led to the bravo hill where upon the city was built that they might cast him down headlong wow and jesus answered and they're chasing going now to john we're moving to john 6 jesus answered and said to them murmur not among yourselves no man can come unto me except the father with hath sent me draw him and i will raise him up in the last day every one of you that's come to god has come at his initiative not yours it is written in the prophets and they shall be all taught of god every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the father cometh unto me not that any man hath seen the father save he which is of god hath seen the father verily i verily i say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life has not will get half everlasting life we're gonna explore this whole thing further with the romans eight in an unparalleled tour de force in the scripture romans eight if you get a little slow anywhere through here it seems a little rough hang in there our goal is romans 8. okay but we're down to verse 12 in chapter three they're all gone out of the way they come together because they have altogether become unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one they deliberately turned their backs on the truth they dishonored god instead of glorifying him what use are they they're unprofitable the term there implies like fruit that's over ripe not good for anything anymore it's spoiled they do not follow after that which is good and man does not evolve upwards despite the way we try to organize our entire culture that's a lie they don't demand does not evolve upwards he devolves downward and if you think the schools are destroying our culture you're absolutely right that's their design that's their deliberate intent i hope you don't believe that i hope you check it out read choices brave new schools or dozens of books written on the deliberate plan to dumb down the workforce to be a manageable electorate my wife and i are totally flabbergasted on those few occasions when we watch television at the inanity of the commercials they are stupid and you wonder who are they designed for the public madison avenue knows what they're doing they're not stupid and they're designing those for the mentality of the culture go back and read the federalist papers during the revolution these were pamphlets handed out on street corners and today they're graduate school material moving on verse 13 their throat is an open sep occur that's graphic with their tongues they have used deceit the poison of asps is under the lips boy that's graphic that's graphic he's quoting psalm 5 9 and asp of course was the egyptian cobra that we know of and it goes on whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness you know it's annoying just to be in public in public transportation in an airplane or whatever to listen to the language of average people not just a few weirdos the average person in such follow language that it's just astonishingly offensive man's tongue is a window into his heart and you go through a lot of scriptures on that mark 7 matthew 12 elsewhere and we're going to get to romans 10 that with thy mouth confession is made unto salvation then it goes on it goes notice by the way i was going anatomically you know from the heart the mouth finally to the to the feet the feet are swift to do what shed blood according to isaiah 15. all these are quotes from the old testament destruction and misery are in their ways see man has no real fulfillment except in glorifying god it's astonishing how often we you know in a biography or in some of our entertainment we see a life someone's life and you see them come to the end of their life and you realize it was in futility what did they really accomplish not here to disparage them but nothing if they're not glorifying god that's the long and the short of it and the way of peace have they not known there's no peace if you're separated from god ephesians 6 15 there is no fear of god before their eyes where do you get the fear of god you'll learn about god from the scriptures but where do you get the fear of god answer important surprise in your devotional life study the word of god to learn about god and to fall in love with him the devotion is what you get the real awe and reverence of god he's quoting psalm 36 here and similar to the days of noah all the way and of all flesh has become before me see even in noah's day noah found grace and he and his family everybody else was wiped out that's graphic that gets it across now we know that what things however the law sayeth that saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before god and there's lots of verses on this we don't have to hammer it therefore by the deeds of the law get this now therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in the sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin you know a lot of christians get very enamored with the messianic movement and it is very important for christians to understand the old testament there's a great value in embracing and understanding and even celebrating in a way the mosaic feasts passover and all this learn them study them understand them it's an incredible blessing the danger is as you get into those kinds of groups to start trying to fulfill the law well you got to keep the torah no no no remember romans 3 20. therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in this site that doesn't mean you shouldn't celebrate those things that doesn't mean you don't try to keep shabbat if you feel led to but you don't keep shabbat to be saved by the deeds of the law they're showing and then shabbat courses are dated along before the law but the point is there shall no flesh be justified inside for by the law is the knowledge of sin this is the beginning of the answer from verse 20 to 21 is the big watershed we're going to shift from this dark heavy guilt trip if i can put it that way to paul is going to give us begin to give us a glimpse of the remedy it's acknowledging the reality first of all it's the law to show us what sin is okay that's what the law does it shows us what sid is i remember that water martin once before a denominational group he was being he loved to use the laws like a shaving mirror it shows us our sin but it doesn't shave us we're shaved by grace typical water anyway the second purpose of the law may shock you it's to drive us to sin more you've got to be kidding chuck you can't mean that we're going to explore that when we get to romans 5 verse 20 and 21 but it's also to drive us to our knees to show us who we are and to drive us to our knees and the the answer of course as you probably have guessed but he hasn't built it yet i'm just claiming it is faith in christ alone not the law faith in christ alone he continues verse 20 but now the righteousness of god without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets see but now this links you're coming to the key conclusion he's leading up to here the gospel is being presented as the only remedy something the law can't do the righteousness of god is the primary theme of the epistle to romans jeremiah 23 behold the days come saith the lord i will raise unto david a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth in his days judah shall be saved and israel shall dwell safely and this isn't his name whereby he shall be called the lord our righteousness sid canoe jehovah's just canoe hear my prayer psalm 143 hear my prayer lord give here to my supplications in thy faithfulness answer me in my in thy righteousness and enter not into judgment with i serve it for in thy sight shall no man living be justified see luther noted it's on the basis of god's righteousness not ours that it's all going to be settled anytime we try to be righteous we're denying god's righteousness the only righteousness that counts is one that is given to us not one that we earn psalm 32 this is the one luther quotes this psalm and calls it he calls psalm 32 the paulie one of the pauline psalms luther calls it that um and he we're going to talk about he's going to quote this in chapter four i'm getting ahead of it a little bit but blessed is he this transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed man unto whom the lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile luther recognized in these psalms that echoing in advance what paul was driving home in his epistles isaiah 53 11 and he shall see the travel of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge shall the right my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear the iniquities the whole chapter 53 of isaiah was ratified by rabbi yitzhak kaduri as referring to the messiah despite what judaism tried to teach for so many centuries it's the cross that justifies religion doesn't work what is religion man's attempt to reconcile himself for god it's jesus christ is the most anti-religious person that ever walked the face of the earth this all started in genesis 3 21. when they tried to cover the adam and eve try to cover themselves with aprons and fig leaves and god covered them with coats of skins teaching them in effect that by the shedding of innocent blood they'd be covered that was a levitical object and and of course and david said in psalm 51 deliver me in thy righteousness in david's psalm of repentance deliver me in thy not mine thy righteousness welcome down to verse 22 even the righteousness of god which is by faith of jesus christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of god there's no difference pagan moral jew gentile all have sinned that's the whole thrust of the first three chapters book of romans is to lay down without equivocation the requirement that everyone without exception needs a savior god himself man no matter how perfect he manages to be it ain't perfect enough that's the point striving ain't going to do it accepting jesus christ has already accomplished it the pagan the moral man the religious man have all fallen they'll and fallen keeps falling it's present tense it's continuing short of the glory of god verse 24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in christ jesus there are four critical words here justify being justified what do you mean justify being declared legally without guilt that's what justification means you can be justified you're still not sanctified justified means you're declared innocent declared legally without guilt righteousness righteous is not a process it's all at once you're clean completely by god's declaration justification being justified freely by his grace the word freely there in the greek is durian which means a gift without reason it's not a gift you've earned it's a gift given to you for no cause on your part that's what the word implies okay freely by his grace what's grace on merited favor grace is getting what you don't deserve mercy is the opposite of that it's not getting what you do deserve okay being justified freely by his grace how through redemption that is in christ jesus the word redemption means to be set free typically from a slave market by a ramsey ransom being paid you were purchased someone's paid something you had no hope of ever paying taken care of for you were justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is christ jesus whom god has set forth to be a propitiation there's a ten dollar word huh set forth to be apprecia propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of god propitiation what is propitiation that's tough word isn't it big word greatest it's the greatest love word in the scripture it's built from the greek word hilisterian the lid of expiation which in turn comes its derivative from the hebrew kapyrath which means the mercy seat it's a word for propitiation what do you mean by expiation that's simply atoning or suffering of suffering punishment for some wrongdoing something done or something given to make amends for the wrongdoing this propitiation has been taken care of for us how through the blood of jesus christ for the remission of sins past that are passed through the forbearance of god and there's a whole business of the mercy seat and the capital and all that we can we'll get into later there are here's god's greatest problem it derives from his seven attributes and i invite you to do your own study of the seven attributes he's obviously a sovereign he's accountable only to himself he's omniscient he knows everything he can't learn he can't be disappointed in you because he knows in advance when you're going to blow it he's omnipotent he's all-powerful visible and invisible he's omnipresent we're beginning to grasp that through particle physics because particles that get divided have no locality they're everywhere all at once and we begin to realize that we're living in a simulation and that's even commonly talked about in the advanced physics papers these days he's obviously love that's no surprise to most of you he's immutable he's unchanging that's why we can claim second chronicles 7 14 on behalf of the united states people argue with me about that because i say it's a principle because god's immutable he declares the principle there and of course he's just and that's the problem he's both just and sovereign that links them together that's his problem he can't just forgive lenin out of leniency that violates his character he has the standard of his own character absolute righteousness so the sins that you've committed have to be paid for and nothing short of the death of god himself will avail god had become a man and fulfilled the law on our behalf in our stead that's the whole thing that we're getting into here so that's the problem we're dealing with how can how to be just and yet justify sinful man how can he just see socrates at least grasp the problem most people today don't understand the solution they don't understand the question in the first place verse 26 do declare paul says i say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in jesus jesus paid it all so now he has a basis to justify all of us see that that he might be just the most important purpose clause around this is god's greatest problem that he might be just and yet be the justifier of him jesus is obviously the solution paul is going to be he's setting the groundwork to present as you go forward where is boasting then it is excluded by what law of works nay but by the law of faith by the law of faith faith is taking god at his word not taking god at his word is calling him a liar it's impugning his integrity therefore paul says we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law oh if our messianic friends could just understand this in all their enthusiasm and all their commitment they are putting themselves under the torah and they miss the point not that it isn't worth keeping that's not the point but it's it's it's you it's trying to to justify yourself by deeds of the law abraham was reckoned to righteousness by faith when he was still on gentile ground by the way he was saved in genesis 15 verse 6. circumcision was not instituted until genesis 17. interesting abraham was saved before the circumcision he was saved long before the law was given to moses two chapters before the covenant of the sign of the circumstances placed on his flesh is he the god of the jews only is he not also of the gentiles yes of the gentiles also seeing it is one god which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith that's his point he's really wrapped up under one umbrella jews and gentiles because he's going forward habakkuk 2 4. do we make void the law through faith god forbid yay we established the law that's the purpose it was given to show us what sin is to drive us to sin more to drive us to our knees that's the purpose of law and we're going to develop that we get to chapter five faith in christ alone is the answer okay we have been through the tough part of this book these first three chapters are the comprehensive diagnosis of sin we could have easily spent a year on it each one of these verses is a springboard to a whole study theologically we've tried it in other words it could have been worse gang now we move to chapters four and five and we have the solution you won't appreciate the solution until you understand the problem now we're ready for chapters four and five so the next session i want you to read romans chapter four one abraham and david speak about god's greatest gift and i want to ask you how was abraham saved how was david saved they're different is paul's doctrine contradicted by the epistle of james many people think so we'll try to hit that head on paul did let's stand for a closing word of prayer that's by our hearts father we thank you for this awesome revelation that we all have a desperate need for you that we're in a predicament that we can do nothing to avail ourselves of that nothing less than the death of god was required to get us out of the mess we're in and we thank you father that you sent your son our creator to become a man in our stead and to fulfill the specifications to be a propitiation for us that through his shed blood you would have a basis to have us reconcile to you not by us but by the blood of our savior oh father we apprehend just enough of all of this to realize it's far beyond our ken we just thank you that you've gone to such extremes father such extremes that we might live how you father must have loved us so much as to endure your son to be spit upon to be tortured to go through 30 years of identity as illegitimate so that we could have clear title to be a son of yours father oh father we just pray that through your holy spirit it would reignite in each of us a new passion for these things it should help us understand what you've done for us and that we might avail ourselves of the resources you've placed with us and in us in your holy spirit that we would not only grow in grace the knowledge of the lord and savior but that we might become more effective stewards of the opportunity placed before us we thank you father for who you are and we thank you for the gift of the propitiation available to us in jesus christ as we commit ourselves without any reservations whatsoever and hear hands indeed in the name of yeshua our lord and savior jesus christ amen [Music] you

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Published: Thu Oct 15 2020