“Silenced in the Presence of God”
(Romans 3:1-20)
Series: Not Guilty!
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
First Baptist Church Henderson, KY
(5-24-09) (AM)
- Take God’s Word and open to Romans, chapter 3.
We are preaching our way through the book of Romans, verse-by-verse, as we believe it is the best way to learn the Word of God. And we come to a point this morning in chapter 3 where Paul is bringing one of his arguments to a close. Remember that Paul is writing in the year AD 57 to churches in Rome, congregations composed of both Jews and Gentiles. The Gentiles were sometimes referred to as “Greeks,” people of high culture by Roman standards. Paul opens the letter with those incredible verses in chapter 1, verses 16-17, where he says, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith (or “entirely of faith”); as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’”
Then, beginning in verse 18 of chapter 1 and running through chapter 2 and into chapter 3 right through our text this morning to verse 20, Paul shows us our need for the Gospel. You see this from 1:18 to 3:20. Chapter 1 concerns the unrighteousness of all people, including the Gentiles there in Rome, and Chapter 2 concerns the unrighteousness of all Jews. His point is that this incredible Gospel introduced at the beginning of the letter—this righteousness of God—is necessary because of man’s unrighteousness. And Paul writes about that and then returns to God’s righteousness in Chapter 3, verse 21. In fact, look at your Bibles in 1:17. Look at that. Paul says, “For in it (the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed.” See that, “the righteousness of God.” Paul returns to that theme in 3:21. Look there in 3:21, “But now the righteousness from God apart from the law is revealed.” I can’t wait to talk about that next week!
But first, remember that Paul has been teaching that all men everywhere are not righteous, the Gentile of Chapter 1 and the Jew of Chapter 2. Both Jew and Gentile stand in the same need of help if they are going to escape the judgment of God. They need a righteousness that is not their own. And now Paul anticipates that a fellow Jew may hear this and conclude, “Well, if Jews stand in the same need of help as Gentiles, then what advantage is there in being a Jew?” And Paul answers this question at the beginning of Chapter 3. Let’s listen to his answer.
- Stand in honor of the reading of the Word of God.
1 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?
2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.
- Pray.
Introduction:
The message this morning is entitled, “Silenced in the Presence of God.” This is our title because the Apostle Paul is driving home the point that our inability to keep the moral law, the 10 Commandments and so forth, has the effect of shutting our mouths, keeping us from boasting, bragging, or arguing with God. You see that at the end of our text this morning. Look down there at verse 19. It says, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that—(what?)—that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Silenced in the presence of God.
Our fallen tendency is to boast before God, to brag about our accomplishments, to argue with Him about why we deserve things. We say things like, “Well, I’m a good person. I’m not as bad as that person.” Or, “Why have you done this to me since I’ve been trying so hard to be good? The Bible shows us that we’re not as good as we seem to think we are and if we will listen to its teachings we will find ourselves silenced in the presence of God. As Proverbs 30:32 says, “If you have played the fool and exalted yourself, put your hand over your mouth.”
We must recognize that we are all guilty of sin and that we all are locked up under sin’s power before we can appreciate and receive the liberating effects of the Gospel. We must reach the point that we have nothing to say before God except, “I am guilty. I deserve nothing.”
So Paul gives us a few things to think carefully about. He gives us a few things to consider and I want us to think about these things with a view towards correction. First:
I. Consider our Sinful Reasoning before God (1-8)
Verses 1-8 address some faulty reasoning on the part of a sort of “imaginary questioner” of Paul. Paul is kind of like an expert trial lawyer. You can picture him slowly moving around a courtroom, skillfully using the very best of logical argumentation, persuasion, and rhetoric. And in making his case, he raises several questions. The first one is in verse 1:
1 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?
2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.
Paul says that while the Jew and Gentile stand in the same need of help for salvation, the Jew does have some advantages, chief among them is God’s entrusting to them the oracles of God, the Scriptures. That was a blessing, indeed! The Jews were a privileged people who received the Word of God, first spoken and then written down. We’ll think more deeply about the significance of that this evening when we dig a little deeper into this text.
Now this discussion about the Jews leads Paul to address some other possible questions. What follows in verses 3-8 are questions that can get somewhat tricky, but remember that Paul is addressing faulty reasoning concerning sin and behavior. Verse 3:
3 For what if some (some Jews) did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?
A more helpful way to translate verse 3 is, “What if some of the Jews were unfaithful to God? Will God be unfaithful to them?” Paul’s answer in verse 4:
4 Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.”
In other words, “Look, the Jews may have failed God, but God never failed them.” That’s the point. “We may fail God, but He will never fail us.” Even if every man were to lie, God would still be true. And Paul quotes from David’s confession in Psalm 51: “God, You are justified in Your words. You are just. You will always be just.” That’s the idea. And again the point is that although man is faithless and unrighteous, God will remain faithful and righteous. So our unrighteousness really demonstrates God’s righteousness. Our unrighteousness is like a dark backdrop against which is seen the faithful righteousness of God. So Paul imagines someone questioning again in verse 5:
5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)
Paul says, “I’m merely using sinful human reasoning here.” He anticipates that someone wrongly reasons, “Well, if our unrighteousness—our badness—merely brings out God’s righteousness—His goodness—more clearly, then why would God find fault with me? My badness actually highlights His goodness! God should be pleased by my wrongdoing because it makes Him look so good!” The answer:
6 Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?
Paul says, “That’s crazy! In what sense would God then be the Supreme Judge of the world? What kind of a judge would God be if He wanted us to do bad so that He would look good? That’s crazy and sinful reasoning!” But Paul imagines his questioner continues. Verse 7:
7 For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?
This imaginary questioner falsely reasons, “If in fact my badness—like lying—actually promotes or advertises God’s goodness, why then does God judge me at all? Why should God regard me as a sinner?” Paul has already answered this, so he helps this imaginary questioner see the end of his faulty reasoning. Verse 8:
8 And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”? — as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.
Paul says, “Look: if you’re going to use this kind of faulty reasoning, let me help you make your case. You may as well say, ‘Let’s just live like the devil in order to promote God’s goodness! Since our badness glorifies God’s goodness, then let’s just sin.’” And this is what some actually went around saying that Paul was teaching.
Now maybe that all sounds a bit crazy to you, but this faulty reasoning is the same kind of sinful reasoning used by many Southern Baptists. Someone says, “Look: we are saved by grace through faith and we cannot lose our salvation because God in His goodness will keep us eternally secure. So we can live any old way we choose, it really doesn’t matter. Once saved always saved!”
Have you ever heard that? “Once saved always saved.” And the idea is that it really doesn’t matter how much we sin. God in His goodness has promised to save us from our sin so don’t worry about it. It’s used like a promotion of our badness. Now let me say that I believe God sees that the true Christian perseveres to the end. I believe in assurance of salvation. But if this great doctrine of assurance does not produce in us an hatred for sin and a desire for holiness then we are not saved. If we are born again we have new hearts with new desires. The doctrine of assurance comforts us in that when we sin, we are still wearing the garment of Christ’s righteousness. But true Christians do not advocate presuming upon God’s grace and faithfulness.
Now we must move on to our second consideration. We’ve considered our sinful reasoning before God. Next:
II. Consider our Sinful Living before God (9-18)
What Paul does in verses 9-18 is to add Scriptural support to his argument that all are guilty of sin. Remember that is what he has been doing: Chapter 1—the Gentiles are unrighteous; Chapter 2—The Jews are unrighteous. Paul now quotes from the Scriptures to bolster his argument that all are guilty of sin. That is the point of this passage, the universality of sin. Paul quotes several times from the Psalms and once from Isaiah to show that all are sinners. Verse 9:
9 What then? Are we better than they (that is, better than those who in verse 8 had slandered Paul)? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
10 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;
Remember the point here is to stop our mouths from ever saying something like, “Well, so and so is such a good person.” Maybe so from our vantage point, but not from God’s vantage point. To be righteous requires that we are “blameless” before God and our fellow man. None of us is blameless. To be righteous means to live in perfect conformity with the law of God. So you see it makes no difference how good a person is when it comes to salvation. There is none righteous in the sight of God. We are all sinners.
11 There is none who understands
This means that apart from God there is no one who is spiritually wise. No one naturally understands who he is and who God is. This really is an apt description of contemporary man. The natural man dismisses the truths of the Bible and the truths of Christianity and exchanges these truths for lies.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the eminent preacher in London a few decades ago, puts it this way:
Man under sin lacks an understanding of himself, of his own nature, and of his spiritual character. He is content to regard himself as an animal, and he even boasts of that. He dislikes this biblical account of himself as a living soul. He puts himself among the animals. He says that he has evolved from them, that he belongs to them, and that that is his state. He has no conception of the biblical teaching of man, which is that man is essentially a spiritual being meant for God, and meant to live a spiritual kind of life in relationship with God.
And you see this continue to be evidenced in our day some 50 years after Lloyd-Jones spoke those words. We have not changed. Last Tuesday, the media gushed with glee in their reporting of the finding of a fossil to further defend the theory of Darwinian evolution. The fossil is purported to be the so-called “missing link” between primates and humans, supposedly dating back some 47 million years. It was unveiled last Tuesday (5-19-09) at American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Now the fossil is of an animal about the size of a cat with 4 legs and a long tail. It’s a combination of lemur and monkey characteristics. It’s a great fossil and can teach us a lot about some of the earliest primates, but tells us nothing about the origin of mankind. It is an animal that has characteristics of both lemur and monkey, much like a platypus has characteristics of both beaver and duck. That’s what it is.
It was found in Germany in 1983. 1983! That’s the year I graduated from high school, but you see now it is so important. Now it is part of a PR campaign. The History Channel is promoting a special feature just in time for Memorial Day tomorrow. Yes you can visit their website and purchase the book and DVD and read all about this so-called “47-million-year-old fossil of a human ancestor.” The poor thing was nothing more than a small animal with a tail that probably climbed in trees created on day 6 of creation several thousand years ago and is now extinct. But you see man so wants to not believe in God that he will “exchange the truth for the lie and worship and serve the created things rather than the Creator (1:25).”
11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
This phrase, “there is none who seeks after God,” means that there is none who naturally desires God, has a thirst to really know God and to worship God and to live according to God’s will. There are many who claim to be seeking God, but they are really seeking a God of their own choosing. What Paul teaches here is that there really is none who naturally desires the God of the Bible the way a panting deer desires water from the water brook. There is no one who desires to live for God and worship God and be ruled by God. There is no one who naturally desires to love the Lord God with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength.
Perhaps the Christian actually thought he had sought God on his own and received Christ as Lord and Savior without any prompting of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps he thought this to be the case from his standpoint. But he comes to understand he had nothing to do with it because there is none who seeks after God. And so the Christian affirms the truth of the anonymous poet:
I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
he moved my soul to seek him, seeking me;
it was not I that found, O Savior true;
no, I was found of thee.
Thou didst reach forth thy hand and mine enfold;
I walked and sank not on the storm-vexed sea;
’twas not so much that I on thee took hold,
as thou, dear Lord, on me.
Paul continues to stress the universality of sin. He continues in verse 12:
12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”
And then Paul gets very graphic about our sin in verse 13 and following. Perhaps we’ll explore these verses more deeply tonight, but they really explain themselves quite well:
13 “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”;
14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways;
17 And the way of peace they have not known.”
And what is the cause of all of this sin? Verse 18:
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Here is the ultimate reason for our sin: “There is no fear of God before our eyes.” In other words, there is no God in our lives. We do not see God and reflect upon God. We live for ourselves rather than for our God.
Now we must accept the truth of these verses or we will never be saved. We must believe that we are sinful to the core, that apart from God’s grace we are in trouble. This leads to number three:
III. Consider our Sinful Standing before God (19-20)
What is our standing before God? The answer is: we stand before God guilty. Look at verse 19:
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
You see, the effect of the law upon us is that it points out our guilt. We read of how we’re supposed to live—the 10 Commandments, for example—we read them and we conclude, “I hate to admit it, but I find myself frequently breaking these commandments.” And Paul says, “Yes, that is one of the primary reasons God has given us the law: to point out our inability to keep it consistently and live it perfectly.
So the law was given to “stop our mouths,” to keep us from boasting about how good and wonderful we are. No! says Paul. Quit speaking that way! Stop your mouth. “But, I am a good person. I’m not as bad as that person.” No! Stop your mouth!
Be like Job who, after running his mouth a good while before God, repented and admitted in Job 42:3, “I spoke of things I did not know!” That’s the right attitude before a sovereign, wise Creator. We must stop our mouths.
Have you been questioning God? It is natural, isn’t it? But at the end of the day do you stop your mouth from speaking? Do you really trust Him? Can you do as God says through the Psalmist, “Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10)?”
And now this concluding verse, verse 20:
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The law was never meant to save us. It cannot save us. We cannot be saved by keeping it. We cannot keep the 10 Commandments, for example, and hope that by keeping them we will go to heaven when we die. Paul says, “By the deeds of the law no flesh—no person—will be justified (will be declared ‘Not guilty.’).”
Rather, says Paul, “by the law is the knowledge of sin.” That is, the law shows me how sinful I am. The law serves as a mirror. We see our filth. We see what needs correction. The law points us to Jesus.
Paul refers elsewhere—in Galatians 3:24—to the law as a “schoolmaster, or tutor, to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.” Just as a tutor walked with a Jewish boy to bring him to school, so the law walks with us and brings us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
- Stand for prayer.
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