The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to the word made plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently pastor Tony is teaching through the book of Romans. Please open your Bible to Romans chapter 3 verses 1 through 8.

Tony Clark: All right, let's dive into the word of God together. Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 3. As we continue our verse by verse study through the book of Romans, we find ourselves in chapter 3. Uh and you know, we picked it back up in 1st Samuel on Wednesdays going through the Old Testament. We're toward the end of 1st Samuel. And uh and we're in uh Romans chapter 3. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 8 this morning. It's going to be a great time in God's word. And Father, we do thank you that you have brought us to the table of your word.

We pray that now you will speak to us. Give us ears to hear what the spirit of God is going to say to us today, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. Romans 3 looking at verses 1 through 8. The title of this message is I protest. I protest. What what I find so amazing is that we live in a society of protesting. Uh you know, a lot of protesting went on back in the 60s for those of you who are old enough to remember that. It really every decade has had some folks protesting about something. And we we find ourselves here with Paul talking to the believers in the church of Rome.

And you know, of course, with every church you're going to have believers and unbelievers. And there are some folks, some unbelieving Jews that were fooling around and Paul is going to address them. But we we protest about a lot of stuff. Today there's just a lot of protesting about, you know, a mask, a a a piece of cloth on the face or off the face. Um and then even with that, that has been taken across racial lines as well. And and just folks are just protesting about getting a vaccine or not getting one. And folks protesting about that.

And then, you know, there's no, I don't want the vaccine, uh but give me a flu shot. Um what I find amazing is some someone put this on there and it just stuck with me. As far as the the vaccine and all that kind of stuff, it it says you will protest not getting the vaccine. But watch this. But you all for the healing when you get COVID. You all for the medicine to get well. To get when you got COVID. And when they said that, I just I did like the you know, the emoji.

And I said that is amazing. The folks who are protesting the vaccine when they're in the hospital for COVID, they're getting all of the medicine and all of the whatever it takes to get well. So people protest again. Protesting about race, protesting about uh I I I've learned to despise this term uh critical race theory. Um I just I just despise the term because of and and folks that are saying that I just said, you know what, critical race theory wasn't even a term 2 years ago. I said on top of that, well, people who look like me have been going through in this country, it preceded Karl Marx by 200 years.

I I and I just so we protest. So you got folks who are protesting another race, what another race said they've been going through. Then you got a you you you you protest. What I find interesting is the Jewish people have been protesting the Holocaust for years. No one says critical race theory to them. Oh, I leave that alone. So I I just hm My son said this, my youngest son. We have some of the best conversations. You know, my my youngest son basically said, you know, if what people who look like me are saying is critical race theory, Christians have been saying that we have been persecuted in this country and around the world.

Why don't we hear people say critical religion theory? I'll let you sit on that for a minute. I'll let you sit on that one for a minute. So so by way of definition, the definition of protest is to express an objection to what someone has said or done. And in chapter 2, the apostle Paul condemned the self-righteous Jew who was condemning the non-Jews for committing the same sins they were guilty of. Paul told them in Romans 2 in verses 17 to 29 that they were supposed to be a guide to those who were blind and instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes.

And by them committing the same sins that the Gentile world was guilty of, they were given the unbelievers a reason to blaspheme God and Christianity. So Paul anticipates a Jewish protester coming to him in chapter 3 to protest. And that is exactly what took place. Look what it says there in verse 1. What advantage then has the Jew? Or what is the profit of circumcision? Now the protester is saying, what advantage does a Jewish person have? You just told us that having the law of God and being circumcised doesn't save us. That God doesn't show favoritism to anyone according to chapter 2, Romans 2 verse 11.

If this is the case, what does it mean being the chosen people of God? Well, Paul answers in verse 2. Look what he says there. He says much in every way, chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. Now Paul answers, yes, there are special privileges that the Jews had over the Gentiles. Then he says chiefly. The Greek word is proton. And it means firstly, most important or at the beginning. Oh, Paul told them most importantly, you have been given the oracles of God. Now the Greek word for oracles is logion. And it means important sayings or messages, especially supernatural utterances.

It refers to the the words that that came out of the mouth of God that we call the Bible. In other words, Paul was telling them the greatest privilege they were given was the word of God. They were given number one, God's law in Exodus chapters 19 and 20 and Deuteronomy 4 in verse 8. Number two, they were the chosen race by whom the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the savior of the world came to this earth. Then Paul will give a list of other benefits in Romans 9 verses 4 and 5 that we would talk about when we get to chapter 9.

And once again, these privileges didn't make them better than anyone else, but it gave them a greater responsibility to live according to God's standards given to them. This is why you have heard me say many times, knowledge brings responsibility. In other words, we're responsible to live up to what we know about God and his word. Now we owe a great debt to the Jewish people for the preservation of God's word. Some of the things I'm about to say is going to sound so foreign to us. They're going to sound so weird to us. But it's really to our indictment.

Watch this. They were very meticulous when it came to the writing down of God's word. They would you watch this. They would copy God's word letter by letter. I'm talking about not like I got a letter in the mail. No, like a b c d letter by letter. And if they made a mistake, they would start all over again. When it came to the name of God, they felt that it was too holy for man to say. So they would just write the consonants y h w h. This is why today we don't we don't know the exact pronunciation of God's word because of these consonants.

Many have suggested Yahweh. And I'm not going to get into how we got Jehovah from Yahweh, why is w h. I'm not going to get into that. Now the thing about it is they would when they would write the consonants y h w h, watch this. They would bow the heads and say the name. They will go, take a bath, change clothes, change ink before they will continue to copy the word of God. And they did that every time they came upon the name. What reverence they had for God and his word. We so often neglect the reading of his word, let alone if we I was thinking about this in my office.

I said, no, I'm not writing that down, God, but he he he brought it back to my I was just thinking about if we were given that responsibility of preserving God's word, what would the next generation know about God and his word? I mean, we just hurry up and just writing. We wrote our God's name 50 times and the whole thing, you know, but they they they reverenced the word of God. And we neglect just the reading of God's word. We show little reverence to the word of God. Their reverential treatment of God's word was so incredible that when they found a copy of the scroll of the book of Isaiah, they found it in one of the greatest discoveries of our modern time.

Uh they found it in what is called the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. Little Bedouin boy was in the desert, throwing rocks do a boys do. We we well, in my generation we threw rocks. I got in trouble. I broke a lot of windows throwing rocks. And so he he threw some rocks, threw some rocks up in the cave. And he heard like some pottery kind of break. What's this? Went up there and in one of these caves was one of the greatest discoveries. It's called the Dead Sea Scrolls. Now they found almost the entire Bible.

One or two books, you know, uh were not there. The entire Bible. They found one, the book the scroll there was a scroll. We called the book. There was a scroll of Isaiah. This scroll had predated the one we had before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls by 1,000 years. They laid it out and compared it. It was almost identical to one another, even though it was predated by 1,000 years. This this is why we owe a great debt for their preservation of God's word. That was the privilege they were given. The writing down and the preserving of God's word.

What an honor. We owe a great debt to them for doing that. These words that we neglect or we only open up when we come to church or whatever we do. They wrote this thing down and they preserved it for us here in the 21st century. And we can know we have the word of God. Look what it says there in verse 3. It says, for what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Now this protester is saying because there were many Jews who were unfaithful to God and didn't keep his word.

So does this mean that God would not keep his word to the nation of Israel? In other words, God said, you don't keep my word, I ain't keep my word to you. You know, sound like many of us. God is not like us. In other words, this protester is saying, can the unbelief of some cause God to break his word to the whole nation? Paul answers in verse 4. Certainly not. Indeed let God be true and let every man be a liar as it is written that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged.

Paul says, certainly not. He uses the strongest terms he could by saying the self-justifying of the entire nation could not stand up to God's truth. Let God be true and every man a liar. Then Paul uses scripture to justify his position, showing that he wasn't coming up with something new, that there is scripture in the Old Testament to back this up. He quotes David in Psalm 51 and verse 4. And Paul uses verse to show that even though David sinned, watch this, God judged him. It didn't change God plan for David's life. This is so important for us to see what Paul is saying.

Yes, as believers we're going to blow it. We're going to sin. And God is going to judge us for our disobedience. But it is not going to change God's plan for our lives. This is the whole reason why God judges us here upon the earth to bring us to repentance and back in line with his will for our lives. Hebrews 12 and verse 6 says, God disciplines those he loves. God loves us and has a wonderful plan for us. Jeremiah 29 verse 11. I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Yes, God has a wonderful plan for our lives. Yes, we blow it. Yes, we sin. He disciplines us to put us back on track with his plan and his will for us. This is why God disciplines us when we sin, when we blow it because he doesn't want us to miss out on the wonderful plan he has for our lives. So when we get crazy and start doing stupid boneheaded things, he spanks us to bring us back in line with his plan for our lives. Now the protester continues in verse 5. Look what he says there.

But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? I speak as a man. Now Paul anticipates the protester wanting to rationalize their sin instead of repenting of their sin. Huge difference. Notice what I said. He wanted to rationalize his sin instead of repenting from his sin. Oh, does this describe you? Are you trying to rationalize and justify your sin of why it is okay to live with someone you're not married to, playing husband and wife, claiming economic reasons, claiming love, we're in love, claiming, well, the wedding is just around the corner.

Well, when is it? Well, it's 5 years from now, but it's just around the corner. So we we might as well or or or or you justify it by treating that person like a used car lot. You say, what do you mean? Well, you go to used car lot to buy a car. And before you buy the car, you test drive it. So you want to test drive each other first before you walk down the aisle and say I do. See, that's rationalizing your sin. Instead of repenting, you're constantly trying to rationalize and justify why you're doing it.

You know, trying to make it right in your own mind. This is what we constantly constantly do when God's word tells us one thing when we want to do something different or contrary. So this protester was saying if God's faithfulness is not dependent on my faithfulness, then why should I be faithful? And if my sinfulness makes God look good, then why should he punish me? I'm actually helping him out. I'm helping him to look good. In in in so many words, this person was trying to make the judgment of God seeing unjust to punish sinners.

Paul seemed to even be embarrassed to bring this kind of reasoning up that he says at the end of the verse in that parenthetical sentence, I speak as a man. Meaning that only sinful man can try to make a holy God look bad. Oh, please put on your ears right now. Anytime we as humans try to make God look unjust, unfair, or unrighteous for judging us, it is always wrong. God will always be right and we're the ones who will be wrong. Simple as that. Whenever you begin to start rationalizing in your mind why something in the Bible God said or why a certain thing you heard from the word of God and you trying to rationalize why that's not right, why would God do that if God is such a God of love, then why you know, and all that kind of stuff, let me tell you something, just realize you're always wrong.

Always. Whenever we try to make God look bad, make him look unjust, unrighteous, just know, look in the mirror and just say, you're wrong. Because let he already said, let God be true and every man a liar. He've already said that. Now Paul answers this protester's objection in verse 6. Look what he says. He says, certainly not. For then how will God judge the world? Paul it says, certainly not. He was saying, if there is any unrighteousness with God, he will be unfit to judge the world. However, we all know that God will judge the world.

Let that sink in for a minute. God will judge the world. God will judge the Look just look at our world today. How fast we're going down to hell itself. God will judge this world. I'm telling you, I look at things from the time I've been saved a little less than 40 years ago to to right now. God will judge this world. He will. He will. 2 Timothy 4 1 says, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. John 16 verses 8 and 9 for you notetakers says, and when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

Verse 9, watch this. Verse 9 of sin because they do not believe in me. Let me blow you away really quickly here. The one sin that the Holy Spirit is convicting the world of right now is whether you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior. To go to your grave saying, I don't want Jesus Christ in my life is to commit the unforgivable sin. Why is it unforgivable? Because you go to your grave with these words on your lips. I do not want Jesus Christ in my life. The last verse I will bring up of God's judgment is Acts 17 verses 30 and 31 which says, truly the of these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.

Why? Verse 31. Because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained, referring to Jesus Christ. He proves it by the end of this verse where he says he has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead. The world will be judged by one thing. What did you do with Jesus Christ? Did you accept him or reject him? Did you live for him or not? To believe in Jesus is more than mental acknowledgement. There's still a few. It used to be when I first got saved, there were around 70 to 80% of Americans said that they believed in God.

But that's way not the case now. I mean, you're talking 35 uh 40 years later. That that's just not the case. Many people believe that they're a believer because they say, well, I I I believe in Jesus? What do you think I'm a heathen?

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