The Faithfulness of God

if every man is lost God is true and loses nothing God is not leaning on us for anything let God be true let God be righteous let God be faithful let God be God and every man a liar and perishing does the unfaithfulness of man nullify the faithfulness of God that's the telling question John Piper tackles from Romans 31 to8 in this episode of light and Truth the sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on March 7th 1999 verse one then what advantage has the Jew or what is the benefit of circumcision now you can see what's up here he's expressing in his own words what somebody is objecting in his mind or either as he recalls from many synagogue debates your gospel has undermined the old Testament teaching that the Jews are a very special and privileged people who have many advantages God has chosen them out of all the world he's given them many gifts and you seem to just level them out and if that's the truth if he undermines what the Old Testament teaches if he undermines the elect position of Israel there's no future for this gospel there is no future for this gospel in the world so he has to take a detour and answer this here verse two begins his answer are there any advantages and he answers great in every respect and then he starts what looks like is a list and he never gets Beyond number one in the list he says first of all that they were entrusted with the Oracles of God that's a great advantage to have the word of God God gave them the law God gave them the prophets God gave them the writings they have the Oracles of God and he didn't give them to anybody else in the world before the apostles came on the scene to write the New Testament now he he said there's a list by saying first of all but he doesn't finish the list because he's on a detour in chapter 9 10 and 11 he deals with this whole issue of whether the Jews have a special place in Redemptive history and how his gospel does not undermine their elect position but here he's just parrying the response to try to get back onto the road so he takes this little detour he gives one example why don't you turn with me to Romans 9 and I'll read you the rest of the list just so you'll see what's coming and if you wanted to later today maybe you could go ahead and read how he deals with this huge issue of Israel's election in detail but jump to Romans 9 he's talking about how his Kinsmen are accursed and cut off from Christ and how he loves them and would be willing if it were possible to be damned for them and then he says in the middle of verse four they are Israelites to them belong the adoption as Sons The Glory the covenants the giving of the law the temple service the promises the fathers theirs are the fathers and then the biggest of all from whom is the Christ according to the flesh who is overall God blessed forever amen so there's the list that he never finished now go back with me to chapter three they have an advantage Paul says he is not denying a very special and remarkable place for the people of Israel and yet his hearers are saying wait a minute you can't have it both ways Paul you can't teach in verse 25 and 27 of chapter 2 that jewishness is no better than genti isness and they can be judged by Gentiles and on the other side say there is a Covenant security for the people of God Israel you can't have it there's a contradiction here that's what Paul's up against he's got to answer that so here's his answer in verse three what then if some did not believe so he's going to Grant going to Grant half the premise if some did not believe indeed they have not their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God will it and you you have to understand even if they are judged because he's already pronounced judgment upon them and he'll do it again and again so you got these two things Jews are in large measure in Paul's day unbelieving and perishing being judged even by Gentiles and on the other hand you have Paul saying and God is faithful God Is Right rightous God is true God keeps his promises God is a person of Integrity how can this be verse four he says may it never be May there be no unfaithfulness with God even if some Jews are unbelieving may it never be that God is Unfaithful or unrighteous in fact in verse four he goes farther and he says not only is God faithful and righteous and true in spite of the fact that some Jews are unbelieving but he says he's faithful he's true he's righteous even if every man is a liar and untrue to God verse four rather let God be found true though every man be found a liar now that takes your breath away because I'll come back to this next week we live in a time and in a culture that is so drunk with the centrality of the value of man and ourselves in particular and our rights and our virtues and our esteem that a sentence like this must land on us either with absolute incomprehensibility or rage because what this sentence says is if every man is lost God is true and loses nothing God is not leaning on us for anything let God be true let God be righteous let God be faithful let God be God and every man a liar and perishing and God will stand at the center of the universe glorious and every man in hell if it must be oh how we think poor God poor God poor God Paul the Apostle inspired here has a vision of the universe and of God's Supreme Central value in the universe that is so different than the atmosphere we breathe as to make many parts of the Bible unintelligible for contemporary Americans until the Holy Spirit transforms our values he is saying all right you call into question the faithfulness of God by saying some Jews are unbelieving and therefore I'm not treating Jews with the kind of favor I say may it never be God is faithful God is righteous in fact not only is he righteous faithful and true if some Jews are unbelieving but if every human is unbelieving now how you going to support that Paul how are you going to argue for that and what he does here is remarkable because he quotes Psalm 51 do you remember what Psalm 51 is it's David's Psalm after adultery with Beba let me read you verse 4 of Psalm 51 because he only quotes half of it Paul really has high expectations of his readers here I'm just blown away let me read the whole verse Psalm 51:4 against you oh God David cries out having committed adultery having murdered a husband against you oh God against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight and then here comes the part that Paul quotes So that so now this results from his confession of his iniquity and his unrighteousness so that you are Justified when you speak in judgment against me and blameless when you judge now how in the world does this argument work what is Paul doing in verse four why does he bring in this quote from David let's let's walk through the the train of thought and see if we can get it verse three okay some Jews are unbelieving and indeed they are under God's condemnation they're going to be judged by Gentiles yes but that does not Paul says in verse three nullify God's faithfulness righteousness truthfulness Integrity in fact verse four even if everybody is an unbeliever God is not called in the question he stands he's just he's holy he's true he's faithful his character never is imputed why because David said that God is Justified in his judgment by the very sin that brought it on him here's the the Jew the king Jew who is vindicating God in his judgment on him because of his sin and thus David is saying if I have sinned as I have sinned and God judges me he is righteous so David will not bu their contradiction David doesn't see it their way that if God judg is Israel even the foremost of Israelites that somehow they standing and his righteousness are called into question David won't have it and that's Paul's answer to the objection Paul's been in too many debates to end here he knows there's an objection that's going to be raised here and before he gets back to verse 9 which is back on the road that he has planned out in the book of of Romans he's going to go a little deeper into the detour here and he's going to answer one more objection now this objection is absolutely amazing they're not done yet these imaginary objectors who keep saying no no no the next objection they raised is simply astonishing here they say okay Paul we hear what you're saying you're saying that when we say judgment on Jews for their sin contradicts their elect status and God's righteousness in his Covenant keeping when you say no it doesn't because David himself vindicates and magnifies the justice of God in his own judgment you Paul involve God in a colossal contradiction oh how so well just like this listen if David's unrighteousness or our unrighteousness say our unrighteousness our sin our adultery is precisely what magnifies the justice of God and his glorious righteousness in judging us then we're no longer the in strument of sin we're the instrument of God glorifying and you can't judge God glorifiers contradiction does that sound like a word game to you that's called sestry it's a word game it's Reckless use of of reason it's the way people talk about spiritual reality when they have lost a handle on reality today we would call it spinning let's read it I didn't make that argument up it's in verse 5 here it is but if our unright rightousness say like David's demonstrates the righteousness of God when he judges us what shall we say now Paul gives his own answer here because he cannot bring himself to letting the objector who's arguing here have the say he says The God Who inflicts wrath on such people is not not unrighteous is he and they say yes he is and Paul puts in parentheses I tremble to speak like this I speak like a human I know that in even bringing up this kind of sophistry argument I speak like a human and he says may it never be may it never be that God would be unrighteous to bring judgment upon people whose sin vindicates his righteousness in judgment he will not have it okay you don't have it but what's your answer you got an answer and he does the way he answers it for now till he gets to chapter nine is by showing that this objector has involved himself in three contradictions this word play this gamesmanship with Godly things which brings down his condemnation at the end of verse 8 has involved them in three contradictions of their own principles and he takes them one at a time in verse 6 verse 7 and verse 8 so let's just look at them here's number one he says on your terms this word game that you're playing that says God can judge Jews because if he judges them because they are sinners and David says that their sin highlights his Justice and his glorious righteousness then they are God glorifiers and it would be a contradiction of him to judge God glorifiers if that argument holds he can't judge the world either that's verse six for otherwise how will God judge the the world and you know he's going to judge the world you objectors you dialogues with me you manipulators of language you know he's going to judge the world you want him to judge the world let the Gentiles be damned but if the Gentiles are going to be damned you know good and well God's going to be just in doing it and their sin will be that which highlights his justice as he brings judgment upon them but that too would be impossible on your terms and therefore God can't even judge the world and therefore you got to rectify change your whole theology if you're going to play with games and words like you've been playing that's his first response here's his second response take me for example he says take me think about Paul you don't like me you think right now I'm lying my gospel is a lie my dealing with Israel is a lie you think I'm unrighteous now tell me am I going to be judged as a sinner why do you call me a sinner why am I still judged as a sinner because on your terms not even Paul can be judged you must start blessing me play your game bless me affirm me liar glorifying God unable to be judged speak on Paul that's verse seven let's read it but if through my lie the truth of God abounded to his glory why am I still judged a sinner on your game your game your sestry that's your second contradiction you shouldn't be upset with me you should be thanking God for my message it is so full of lies because I'm vindicating God as he judges me which means he can't judge me it is a game folks it's a game lastly on your terms let's all just go on sinning that's just sin your whole point is our sin glorifies God's righteousness when he judges and so since we are really God glorifiers he can't judge us so let's just all be about the business of sinning so that God gets more Glory by our sinning and thus can can't judge us and that's verse eight why not say as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say let us do evil that good may come he's going to take that up again in chapter 6 to all of this he says and now he's done and he'll get back on the road to all of this he says there condemnation is just and the paragraph whose condemnation people who trifle with the word of God people who play games people who are cornered because something that they see in scripture here's a true thing God chose Israel there special chosen people he loves them and he's a person of integrity and over here judgment upon many Jews even by Gentiles and they look at these two things both they see in the Old Testament and now in Paul's mouth and they can't fit them together and so they abandon one of them and inevitably when you abandon one thing in Scripture that doesn't seem to be reconcilable with another thing you become a suffer inevitably you start playing word games you start using language and quoting scripture and people look at and say that can't be what that text means and the language becomes convoluted let them be accursed he says their condemnation is just I close with one little story from Jesus you think you think this is a small thing to the Apostle Paul was it a small thing to Jesus when he ran into people like this you remember this story they came to Jesus testing him people who had lost reality and were using religious language expediently not to reflect truth but to accomplish political purposes they say Jesus tell us by what Authority you do these things and now he says you tell me something the baptism of John was it from man or from heaven and they go off and we get a little microphone in their huddle they say now if we say it's from Heaven he's going to say why didn't you believe on him and if we say it's from man the people might Stone us because they think he's a prophet so what are we going to do well let's say we don't know okay we don't know and Jesus does not smile he hates expedient language that's politically driven and he says neither will I tell you by what Authority I do these things in other words I don't deal with people like you their condemnation is just so my closing exhortation is don't trifle with the Bible when you find a truth in the Bible and you are persuaded it is a truth and you find another truth in the Bible and you are persuaded it is the truth and you have a heart hard time bringing the two together don't sink into sophistry by abandoning one or two say oh God I will wait and I will be patient and I will study and I will pray and I will listen and I will look to you and I will trust that someday somehow these two true things will cohere and be reconcilable help me oh my God to know how to live in this tension and you will be safe you'll be safe this is light and Truth god- centered preaching to help you see Christ clearly and treasure him truly I'm your host Dan kru thank you for listening on our next episode John Piper continues our 15-part series on God's remedy for the unrighteous with a sermon titled remedy for a deadly diagnosis I hope you'll join us for more resources visit desiringgod.org

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 5,793

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Light and Truth, Light + Truth, L+T, Sermon, Preaching, The Faithfulness of God, Romans, Faithfulness, The Wrath of God, God’s Remedy for the Unrighteous, Romans 3:1—8

Id: bWp7oLiOH40

Length: 26min 9sec (1569 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2024