Latest / HBCWestminster / 1.15.23 Romans 3:1-18 Pastor Danny Gardner

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1.15.23 Romans 3:1-18 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, let's take another bite of the elephant this morning. Romans 3, verses 1-18, if you're able to stand in honor of God's Word, as I read the first 18 verses of chapter 3, it says, Then what advantage has the Jew? What is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means.
• 0:32
  Let God be true, though everyone were a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human way, by no means. For then how could God judge the world?
• 0:55
  But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come, as some people slanderously charge us with saying? Their condemnation is just. What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God.
• 1:23
  All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and their paths are ruin and misery. In the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Would you pray with me? The Lord God of heaven.
• 1:53
  We thank you that we have your inspired word. We ask that you would enlighten our understanding of it through your Holy Spirit. We long for heaven's wisdom so that we can be doers of your word and not hearers only. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, having had our balloons thoroughly popped, the author of Romans continues his argument for the condemnation of all people, even those who erroneously, we said, held to their own righteous standards.
• 2:30
  As we talked about last Sunday regarding the Jewish people specifically, their strict adherence to the law or their reliance on their family lineage through circumcision. The apostles smacked between the eyes. Those who claim that they are most assuredly on their way to heaven because they reasoned they are good people or because they've been raised in the church. Two arguments which, by the way, are still held to in 21st century Denver.
• 2:56
  We concluded by stating that the only way to proclaim the true gospel is to begin denying the false gospels of good works and writing our family's faith coattails. I considered titling this morning's message, The Privileged Few, because that is a phrase that we often use. Considering that the Jewish people were indeed privileged, but as I studied, I began to realize that it's not only the Jewish people that were privileged, but indeed all.
• 3:24
  the people of God, Jew and Gentile alike, all share the same privileges. And so I decided instead to call our sermon The Privileged Many. Some of you may know that I began my career in Christian ministry as a full-time high school Bible teacher at the same Christian high school that I graduated from. I taught three sections of 11th grade theology, three sections of 12th grade missions and apologetics. I did this for four years.
• 3:54
  It's funny what you can begin to predict when you teach the same thing multiple times a day over the course of multiple years. By the third time through those lectures, I could predict with certainty at what point students' hands would go up and what question they would ask.
• 4:17
  And so by the third time through it, I knew by the time I hit this point in the lecture, somebody is going to raise their hand and they're going to ask this question. And so I would anticipate as I got to that point in the lecture, the third time through, I would see somebody in the back begin to raise their hand. And as they would, I would try to answer the question that they hadn't even asked yet. And it got really fun to try to predict those things because you would see their hand begin to raise. I would answer it and then their hand would.
• 4:46
  begin to lower and they realized that i was a prophet how did he know it's amazing you know how did he how could he predict with such certainty you know by the time the apostle paul wrote the book of romans he'd been preaching the same gospel for over 20 years he could predict with certainty at what point the hands would begin to go up and what questions would invariably follow
• 5:16
  and he at times would attempt to answer those questions before they were even asked. He does this actually three times in our text this morning, beginning in verse 1 when he says, what advantage has the Jew? You may be wondering, is what he's saying, you may be wondering what advantage is there to being Jewish? What is the value of circumcision? Their question makes sense when you consider the history of the Jewish people. Allow me to sum up.
• 5:44
  4,000 years of Jewish history in less than 20 words. Alright? 4,000 years of history. It began with the patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. And then slavery. And then an exodus. And then rebellion, followed by wandering. And then a conquest. Civil war. Division. Destruction. Captivity. Occupation. Dispersion.
• 6:15
  Expulsion, displacement, a holocaust, and near extermination. For centuries, this is how the Jewish people have lived, in obscurity, dispossessed, always aching for a homeland. The Romans, the Byzantines, the Ottomans, even the so-called European and Eastern Christians treated them horribly.
• 6:41
  murdering countless thousands and even into the millions, all in the name of their religions. Jews in many parts of the world today still suffer for no other reason than that they are Jewish. In fact, John MacArthur has worded it this way. He says, from the purely historical perspective, Jews have been among the most continuously and harshly disadvantaged people of all time. The Jewish people...
• 7:09
  Of all the peoples on earth, the Jewish people have endured harassment in more severe, more frequent, and in longer lasting ways than just about any other people on earth. And throughout all of that, throughout the persecutions and murders and exiles, the two things the Jewish people could always hang their hats on was their possession of the law and their family heritage. That they were in their minds, spiritually and physically,
• 7:39
  distinct they were different than any other people and now the author of romans just spent the entirety of chapter 2 arguing that the jews were in the same position as the gentiles all along so you can imagine their confusion we thought that we were the privileged few and now you're telling us that we're actually part of the privileged many why have we been enduring all of that if you've been following
• 8:12
  But the Apostle Paul's argument, the last three sermons, that when he asks in verse 1, what advantage has the Jew, you're probably ready to respond with, none. There is no spiritual advantage, and so we are probably shocked to read in the following verse, verse 2, much in every way. You probably think, well wait, that's...
• 8:35
  That's the opposite of what you were going to say. You've just said there is no advantage, and now you ask, is there an advantage? And you say, yes, there are many advantages. And you say, okay, well, what are those advantages? We know that it was not their special ability to follow the law. They couldn't obey any better than anyone else. Nor was it their spiritual or special lineage. Their family tree did not...
• 9:00
  So what advantages did they have, the Jews? And I'm going to argue, church, that we, by extension, the people of God, the church even, enjoys many special advantages, even privileges, that others do not. The author of our text enumerates them for us in chapter 3. You might call them, and if you wanted to, write down in four points the four privileges of the people of God.
• 9:29
  The four privileges. We are indeed a privileged people. The four privileges of the people of God. And you'll notice first, the first privilege was that they had been entrusted with the possession of the very words of God. They had been entrusted with the word of God. Verse 2 says, much in every way to begin with, or first and foremost, first of all, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.
• 9:55
  The word for oracles is a derivation of the Greek word logos, translated most often as word. The Jewish people had access to the very words of God. Church, can you imagine such a thing? I hope that you can.
• 10:12
  I hope indeed that the very words of God are sitting open and on your laps right now. We stand for them every Sunday. They possessed the very words of God. They had at their disposal the mind of God written down. And notice that Paul says they hadn't just been given the words of God. Verse 2 says they had been entrusted with the words of God. They had become stewards of the words.
• 10:40
  The implication seems to be that that came not only as a privilege, but also with a sense of expectation and responsibility. They were responsible to do something with those words.
• 10:55
  Poet and hymn writer William Cowper, we sing his hymn, there is a fountain frequently here at the church. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood remove all their guilty stains, right? We sing that hymn often. William Cowper said it this way. He said they, the Jewish people, and they only amongst all mankind receive a transcript of the eternal mind.
• 11:25
  What a cool way to word that. That the thoughts of God have been transcribed. And the church considered the privilege that it is to own a copy of the very words of God, but also understand that it comes with a responsibility. But the problem was that the Jewish people began to focus so much on the privilege that they began to neglect the responsibility of it. And church, are we ever prone?
• 11:56
  To do the same. Turn with me, if you would, to 2 Chronicles in chapter 34. 2 Chronicles 34. This is probably about a 600 page hard left turn in your Bibles. 2 Chronicles in chapter 34. King Josiah, the new king of Israel. King Josiah, you know your Jewish history, was kind of the one ray of sunshine in a whole period of...
• 12:27
  of monarchical darkness in the history of the Jews, King Josiah determined to clean up the temple. He began amassing money to go through and clean up the temple precincts. It had fallen into disrepair because of the laziness and neglect of his forefathers, previous kings. And verse 14, 2 Chronicles 34 and verse 14 says, while they were bringing out the money, that is the money that had been collected,
• 12:56
  to refurbish the temple that had been brought into the house of the Lord. Hilkiah, the priest, found the book of the law of the Lord given through Moses. Can you imagine this? They begin cleaning up the temple and what of all things does the priest find as they start sweeping the temple out? The Bible. He finds the priest found the Bible.
• 13:24
  Verse 15 says, then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan, the secretary, his assistant, I've found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. Shaphan brought the book to the king and further reported to the king, all that was committed to your servants, they're doing, they've emptied out the money that was found in the house of the Lord and have given it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen. And Shaphan, the secretary, told the king, Hilkiah, the priest, has given me a book. Can you imagine this?
• 13:54
  We were cleaning up the temple, and we found this book, and we weren't really sure what it was at first, but as we began to read, we realized, wait, this is the book of Moses. This is the law, and Shaphan began to read the law before the king, and Josiah had never heard it before. He begins to read the law. King Josiah's heart broke.
• 14:18
  he was ruined he began to realize as the the book of moses as the law was being read he began to realize how far the nation had fallen from such heights to such depths he realized how far they had gone astray verse 19 says when the king heard the words of the law he tore his clothes he repented he called on the nation of israel to repent
• 14:44
  To begin to reapply the law. He even says at one point in chapter 34 that we have been cursed. The wrath of God has been upon us. We've been trying to figure out why we were so afflicted. Well, it turns out it's because of our disobedience. So he calls the nation to begin to obey the law. And the blessing of God just showers upon them under the reign of King Josiah. Church, have we not also been given the transcript of the eternal mind?
• 15:16
  Have the very words of God not been given to us, beloved friends, along with that same privilege, but also that same responsibility? What a tragedy it would be if that book became so neglected in some of our lives that it became lost. If that is the case, if it has been so neglected in your life that it's lost, you're so far removed from it, then can I compel you, can I implore you, encourage you to follow the example of Josiah?
• 15:47
  Read it, rediscover it, reapply it, and watch the blessings of God overflow in your life. Equally tragic, I believe, would be the Highlander who daily interacts with the Word of God and yet never shares it with others. We would be guilty, I think, of what Christ describes as lighting a lamp and then hiding it under a basket. We have been given the transcript of heaven.
• 16:16
  And so, church, let us let its light shine. Amen? Amen. Return with me, if you would, to Romans 3. Notice their second privilege, beginning in verse 3. Their second privilege was that they were the recipients of the promises of God. They were the recipients of the promises of God, the people of Israel.
• 16:36
  Became the recipients of some pretty incredible promises. And we're reminded in verses 3 and 4 that God does not just issue the promises. He keeps them. And notice in verses 3 and 4 that he keeps those promises whether we are faithful or not. Verse 3. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? And he says, by no means.
• 17:03
  It is not the last time he will say that statement, by no means. It could be translated never, ever. There is never a time where that will be true, where our faithlessness will nullify the faithfulness of God. He says in verse 4, let God be true, though everyone were a liar. Even if we were speaking nothing but lies, God's word is still true. He will still keep his promise.
• 17:32
  as it is written that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. If anything, our faithlessness puts on display the faithfulness of God. And church, are we not also the recipients of some pretty incredible promises? I would argue yes. What promises they are, consider for a moment just a few. Look at these promises.
• 18:00
  well-known ones. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. There is a pretty great promise that we could stop there. That's good enough for me. I just want to know how to be saved eternally. And he says, here is the promise that God has given his son so that we could be saved through faith. Romans chapter 10 and verse 9, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
• 18:30
  saved first john 1 9 one of my favorites if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness what promises they are and don't forget church that his promises are not contingent upon your obedience blessings may be but promises no he promises to be faithful even when we are faithless
• 18:57
  Their third privilege, beginning in verse 5, their third privilege was that they understood the perfect justice of God. And these next verses, verses 5 through 8, can be difficult to interpret. There's some disagreement regarding what Paul was referring to in this text, but regardless of the possible variances of opinion and even nuances involved, the timeless principle that we are going to distill down, that we're going to draw from these next four verses,
• 19:27
  Is that God revealed clearly his righteous standard so that there can be no confusion about his righteous expectation on us and therefore no complaining when he judges mankind the way that he does. Did you catch that? Here it is boiled down. There's no confusion about what God wants. Therefore, there's no complaining when he gives us what we deserve. All right.
• 19:55
  So let's pause for just a moment before we even get to verse 5 and try to anticipate the next argument. Can you imagine those kids' hands starting to raise, Paul anticipating their question, trying to answer it? Here it is. You just said, Apostle Paul, that our faithlessness puts on display the faithfulness of God, right? If that's the case, then why would God punish me for my sin?
• 20:28
  You catch the argument? If my sin only gives God more opportunity to cause His grace and forgiveness and loving kindness and patience to abound, if my sin gives God the opportunity to show His glory, then why would He punish me for my sin? Instead, He should thank me for it. Look at all of the opportunities I'm giving Him.
• 21:00
  in my life. Can you imagine? What a backward argument. Look at verse 5. If our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, do you catch that? That's what they're saying. What shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? How dare you punish me for my sin, God? I'm doing you a favor. I speak in a human way, he says in verse 6, by no means.
• 21:28
  No matter how men respond to his promises, he is just to either reward or punish based on their obedience. He says that in verse 6, for then how could God judge the world? He continues the same line of argument in verse 7. If through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? Why not do evil that good may come?
• 21:59
  Again, shouldn't I be praised for providing through my sin the Lord with an opportunity to put his glory on display? It is just a backward way of justifying our own sin. And really, the author's point, I think, is clearly understood by this capstone statement he makes at the end of verse 8. It's like an exclamation point at the end of verse 8. He says, some people have slanderously charged us with saying these types of things.
• 22:26
  Backward justification of sin, he says in verse 8, no, their condemnation is just. In other words, we will all get exactly what we deserve. And church, have we not also been clearly given the righteous requirement of God? We know exactly what he demands of us. The only question then becomes, will we be faithful to carry it out?
• 22:55
  I came across this quote from Thomas Jefferson this week. A couple of hundred years ago, he said this. Thomas Jefferson's theology was warped, to say the least. So don't take your spiritual cues from him, but I think he did understand the righteous justice of God when he said, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that his justice cannot sleep.
• 23:21
  Forever, a country cannot continue in sin, never expecting that God will not issue his wrath at some point. And the pattern of our world, even today, the prevalent ideology of our world is to call evil good and good evil, is it not? But we cannot follow the pattern of this world. Romans chapter 12 and verse 2, do not be conformed.
• 23:52
  to this world. The NIV says this, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
• 24:07
  We are the ones, church, who must be willing to call evil evil and good good. We are the ones who understand the perfect justice of God. And therefore, we are the ambassadors for truth on earth. There is no one else. And even if we are the only ones who do it, we must do so. My wife, Hallie, has been wearing a sweatshirt recently I like. On the front, it says, right is always right, even if no one is doing it.
• 24:35
  And then on the back it says, and wrong is always wrong, even if everyone is doing it, the justice of God cannot sleep forever. What a privilege to understand that truth. Their final privilege, and ours, is that because they understood the perfect justice of God, they could therefore draw the proper conclusion regarding their own sin. Allow me to say that again, their final privilege.
• 25:03
  was that because they understood God's perfect justice, they could therefore draw the proper conclusion regarding their own sin. And we're going to notice in verses 9 to 18 that there are no loopholes. There are no exceptions. We are all completely wrecked.
• 25:24
  because of our sin and the apostle quotes from two different psalms in fact you notice this next section probably looks it's formatted differently than the others the others were all in paragraph form now this is more like prose form he's quoting psalms 14 and 53 and it really drives his point home it's funny how quickly we can begin to think of ourselves as better than others
• 25:53
  considering ourselves more important than others, or considering our own needs above others' needs. And there is no better place to find people who want to put themselves first than the happiest place on earth, Disneyland.
• 26:10
  Now, before I say anything negative about it, I do want to reassure my wife that I really did have a wonderful time last week as we celebrated my middle son's 18th birthday last Monday at Disneyland. It was wonderful. I had so much fun. But Disneyland is full of people looking out for their own self-interest, is it not? And most of those people are under the age of 10, all right? You want to find just a human biomass of self-interest.
• 26:39
  It is Disneyland. That's where it is. We all gather there by the tens of thousands daily. Every family begins the day with smiling little kids. And every family ends the day with grumpy, screaming little kids. And you may wonder why. Do you ever wonder by three in the afternoon, why are all of these kids grumpy? They're not supposed to be grumpy. It's the happiest place.
• 27:09
  on Earth.
• 27:11
  When we were there, you know, I have three sons. I've never had girls. I don't understand fathering girls. Disney princesses were never a part of our house, okay? It's just a brand new experience for us. I've had three sons, like I said. I have often prayed to the Lord and wondered if I won't, because I've only had ever sons, if I won't have all granddaughters. My theory is that I've got three sons that I will have nine granddaughters. That's my guess. And honestly, I hope that...
• 27:40
  that's true. Can you imagine a little softball team entirely made up of gardener girls? That would be awesome. I'll figure out, I'll figure out how to coach kids to throw underhand. I don't know, you know, but I would love that. But we just decided with our three boys that we were just going to make a beeline straight for the back of the park where the new Star Wars land thing is. It'd been 10 years since any of us had been there, and so we thought we're just going to go straight to the back. We went to the back because that was huge. No princesses in our home.
• 28:10
  but all Jedis, okay? So we went straight to the back and we enjoyed ourselves. We spent more time there than anywhere else in the park. My youngest son, Chase, had a reservation at a place you can go and build your own droid.
• 28:24
  All the parts and the motors and the batteries and all of these other things, you can program it with different personalities and all of this. And he spent an hour in there just building a droid to his liking. It was awesome. My middle son, Zach, built his own lightsaber according to his preferences. You know, these were the things that we were doing. As we made our way into other sections of the park, we eventually worked our way over to the princess castle where we honestly don't spend a lot of time, all right?
• 28:53
  We just, the fairy land, or whatever they call it, we just don't go to. But we found this, what is, I'm going to call the girl equivalent of Star Wars land. We made our way to the Disney castle, and right next to the Disney castle, there is a little store. My boys were building their own Jedi parts, and all these little girls can go to this little store next to the castle called Bibbity Bobbity Boutique. The Bibbity Bobbity Boutique.
• 29:23
  We didn't know what it was, so we decided to go in. Chase first, then Zach, then Pearson, then Hallie, then me at the back. We go walking into the store. You guys, I didn't take two steps over the threshold before Chase had already turned around and was leaving. This place is worthless.
• 29:42
  There's nothing good in here. It is a place where little girls can go and design their own princess dresses. What color do you want? What style do you want? They will sew in lights, blinking lights inside of the dress so that your light will blink different colors. Then you go to the little makeup station and they'll do a little, you know, whatever glitter on your cheeks and all this. Then you go to the hair station and they pull your hair up in a little bun. They make you into a Disney princess. It's the female counterpart of building your own droid.
• 30:12
  We go in, Chase turns around and walks right back out. I never made it all the way in. I'm already turning around and walking out. Pearson and I are walking out together right outside of the door. There is a dad standing there like this. He sees our family come out. He looks at me. We make eye contact. He goes, sons, huh? I said, yeah. And he goes, well, good for you. He says, this place is the worst.
• 30:40
  walks in he clearly had daughters getting their hair done inside it was so funny i did i did often wonder at about three o'clock as everybody's moods are turning going from the happiest place on earth to the grumpiest place on earth
• 30:59
  Why at three o'clock? Because it takes us probably six or seven hours to get to the point where we begin to actually believe that everything is really about us. And about three o'clock is the first time moms and dads start saying, no, no, you can't have that little princess. You're like, but wait, I am literally dressed as royalty.
• 31:22
  right? You will bow before me, right? I mean, and that's when you start telling the little Jedis and the little princesses, no, and that reality, that fake reality that they have created, that the entire universe revolves around them, that every little girl under the age of 10 is actually a princess, the reality comes screaming home that no, no, you're not. By the time we get to verse 9, it's funny how fast this happened again.
• 31:53
  Chapter 2, the Apostle Paul leveled those people. You're no better than anybody else. And they say in chapter 3 and verse 1, okay, is there any advantage then? And he says, well, yeah, of course there are advantages. You have the words of God and the promises of God, and you understand the justice of God. Of course there are advantages. And it takes them eight verses to come to the conclusion then, because they have enjoyed these advantages, these privileges, that they must be better than everyone else.
• 32:21
  Like, wait, no, we just went through this. No, you're not. Look at verse 9. What then? Are Jews any better off? No, not at all. We've already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin as it is written. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. Again, the author anticipates another improper conclusion.
• 32:50
  They were thinking, well, since the Jews enjoy all of these privileges, surely there is something better about us than everyone else. But no, there isn't a single one of us, Jew or Gentile, who can rightfully claim to be better than anyone else. None are righteous. None understand. None genuinely seek for God with the intention to humble ourselves before Him. None of us do that. Verse 12 says, all have turned aside. Together they have become...
• 33:20
  Worthless. What a stinging word that is. We are, as a species, worthless. Now, that is not to say that we have no value. And make sure you hear this, church. Scripture is clear that the creation of man was the Lord's crowning achievement. You and I are valuable in the eyes of our Creator and Sustainer. Our Heavenly Father sent His own Son to die for you.
• 33:48
  If you had no value at all, he would not have done that. You are loved and cherished, but our striving after eternity, our incessant working to please or to impress the almighty judge of our souls by our inherent goodness will not accomplish what we desire and is therefore worthless. Did you catch that? Our good works are worthless. Why?
• 34:18
  Verse 12 says, because no one does good, not even one. All of our good works really are just filthy rags, as the scriptures say. And as we continue to read, we find that a person's character can really be revealed in one of two ways. First, in our conversation, and second, in the direction that our feet are facing. And I'll explain that in just a minute. Look at our conversation. Look at the value or the...
• 34:46
  The impact of our words, verses 13 and 14, their throat is an open grave. So when we talk, death comes out, is what he's saying. They use their tongues to deceive. We lie. The venom of asps, poisonous snakes, is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. It was Jesus who said in Luke chapter 6 and verse 45, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
• 35:13
  What is in our hearts is what comes out. And when we lie and when we curse, right? And when we break promises and when we speak ill of others, he says, that's really what's going on in our hearts. He again says, Matthew 15 and verse 18, what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. Our words matter is what Paul is saying. They reveal what is truly in our hearts and it's nothing good.
• 35:38
  But notice, not only our conversation, not only our mouths, but also our feet. The path that we stand upon, the steps that we take, the direction that our feet are going. In fact, Pastor Stephen Davey defines holiness as the direction our feet are facing. Are you facing what is evil? Look what he says in verse 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood in their paths.
• 36:06
  are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. Do you see here the direction of their feet show the evil in their hearts? There is no fear of God before their eyes. And so point your toes away from evil. Do not give opportunity to the flesh, but rather flee from evil. Proverbs 4, verse 14. Do not enter the path of the wicked. Do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it.
• 36:39
  Don't go on it. Turn away from it. Pass on. Church, have we not been forced to draw those same conclusions? That there are no exceptions. There is none of us who does what is right. There are no loopholes when it comes to our eternal destinies. The conclusion that we naturally draw after having studied the first three chapters of Romans. And I said that these three chapters combined.
• 37:08
  are the righteousness of God revealed in condemnation, that we are all condemned. And the natural conclusion that we have to draw at the end of chapter 3 is that none of us is good, not even one of us. None of us has within ourselves the ability to do what is good, not even one of us. All of us must rely upon the same grace of God to save us and to sustain us. And this is what we will study next Sunday.
• 37:36
  As we begin a new section of the book, beginning in verse 19, God's righteousness revealed in justification. The law condemns us. Is there a way for us to be forgiven apart from the law? And the answer is, it's got to be a heartier yes than that or we are in trouble. Is there a way to be justified apart from the law? Yes.
• 38:06
  through Jesus Christ, the righteous. And God, thank you for this truth revealed. Thank you for these privileges that we enjoy, that we have your words transcribed and the promises which never fail, that we understand your perfect justice, which will not sleep forever, that we even understand the universal evil that lives within each of our hearts. And so we are pointed toward the Savior. God, thank you for the justification.
• 38:35
  That comes in his name. And amen.