This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to our daily drive-time devotions to the book of Romans.
This week we are in Romans chapter 3 and as with each week we are taking a week,
five days together to look at a chapter of the book of Romans. These last few
weeks we've looked at the reality of sin in Romans chapter 1 and then chapter 2.

We're going to continue that look at the reality of sin for the first half of
this chapter and then hold on for a refreshing U-turn. The excitement that God
has a new plan shows up towards the end of this chapter, towards the middle of
this week. You're going to be glad that you hung on until chapter 3.

As chapter 3 begins, it's as if we enter the courtroom with Paul for some final
arguments on the reality of sin. He's already made the case that we are all
without excuse, both because of God's creation and our conscience. And he's
shown clearly that we have all sinned, those who know they've sinned, those who
judge others for their sin, and those who seemingly are more moral than others.

And now comes some final arguments. First what I would call final arguments for
the defense in chapter 3 verses 1 to 8. In this section, Paul confronts a couple
of arguments against what he's been saying.

He defends against these arguments. Let me read those verses to you, chapter 3
verses 1 to 8. What advantage then is there in being a Jew?

What value is there in circumcision? Much in every way. First of all, they have
been entrusted with the very words of God.

And then another question. What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of
faith nullify God's faithfulness?

Not at all is the answer. Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is
written.

So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge. But
if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall
we say? That God is unjust and bringing his wrath on us?

I'm using a human argument, Paul says. Certainly not is his answer. If it were
so, how could God judge the world?

Someone might argue, if my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so
increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner? Why not say, as we
are being slanderously reported as saying, and as some claim we say, let us do
evil that good may result? Their condemnation is deserved.

In these verses, the Spirit, through Paul, confronts three specific arguments.
First in verses 1 and 2. What advantage is there in being a Jew?

Paul has said there is no difference between Jew and Gentile in our need of
Jesus Christ. So the question is, well, is there any advantage in being a Jew?
Paul's answer is much in every way.

In fact, he says there's the greatest advantage. Those who are Jews have God's
word in the Old Testament entrusted to them. That is an incredible advantage in
coming to know the reality of who God is and how he wants to work in our daily
lives.

In fact, we're going to see throughout the book of Romans that God shows his
incredible respect and great plan for the Jewish people again and again and
again. There's a second question that's brought against Paul in these verses.
The question is, does our lack of faith prove God unfaithful in verses 3 and 4?

The answer there is not at all. In the Greek, that is meionito, not at all in
NIV, by no means in the Revised Standard Version. God forbid in the King James
Version.

This is a very strong statement, a not in a thousand years could this ever be
true kind of statement. The idea that our lack of faith could prove God
unfaithful is just false. Our lack of faith does not prove that God is
faithless, it only proves that we are faithless.

In this section, Paul says, let God be true, even though we might be false. Let
God be true. Let God be who he is.

John Calvin calls that phrase, let God be true, the primary axiom of all
Christian philosophy. If you really want to get truth, if you really want to
understand the philosophy of truth, the beginning point is, let God be true. Let
God be true and recognize that our lack of faith doesn't prove him unfaithful,
but it shows us to be unfaithful.

The argument here goes something like this. If my unrighteousness shows God's
righteousness, how can I be to blame for my unrighteousness? In fact, my
unrighteousness is even a good thing because somehow it shows God's
righteousness.

Now it's a ridiculous argument, of course. It's like, well, if you're a parent,
it's like one of your kids saying, if my not cleaning my room shows how clean
the rest of the house is, my not cleaning my room is a good thing. You just
laugh at that.

Or it's like somebody at work saying, if my laziness at work shows how
hardworking others are, how can you reprimand me for playing video games all
day? These are just ridiculous arguments, such obvious arguments. So why does
the Holy Spirit, through Paul, even address these arguments?

Because it was an important question of the day. And there's two very simple
applications to the fact that Paul addressed these arguments. Application number
one is, we ask silly questions when we're trying to excuse our sin.

We all do. We get confused. We want to excuse what we've done, even though we
know that it's wrong, and so we ask silly questions trying to make some excuse
for our sin.

We have all kinds of ways of covering our sin, and they all sound just about as
silly as these arguments that Paul was confronting. That's the first
application. But the second application is this, silly questions deserve an
answer.

It amazes me that God's Spirit, through Paul, answered these questions. God took
these questions seriously enough to make sure he gave an answer. If you have
silly questions, ask God.

He answers all kinds of questions because he cares about us. He loves us. Well,
there's a final question that Paul confronts in these first few verses, and
that's the question, is God unjust?

And again, he answers, "Certainly not. " How can he judge us, is the question,
or shouldn't he thank us for our sin, because it somehow shows his grace and
makes him look better, somewhat like the previous argument. And Paul says,
"Certainly not.

That could never be true. " And this brings him to his, what I would call, his
final argument for the prosecution. This is in verses nine to 20.

In Romans chapter three, verse nine, the Bible says, "What shall we conclude
then? Are we any better? Not at all.

We've already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. "
All under sin. In this final argument for the prosecution, the words "all" and
"no one" are extremely important.

Here, we're all under sin. We've all sinned. We're all in need of God.

And we're going to see in the next few verses how the words "no one" come up
again and again and again. This final argument for the prosecution is the
argument that every one of us is sinned, and so every one of us is in need of
God. And beginning in verse 10, Paul brings in, as a witness, five Old Testament
passages and puts these passages together to show that every one of us struggles
with sin, has sinned, and is in need of God.

Let me read for you these verses beginning in verse 10. "As it is written, there
is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who
seeks God.

All have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who
does good, not even one.

Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of
vipers is on their lips.

Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways.

And the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their
eyes. Now, we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under
the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held
accountable to God.

Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.
Rather, through the law, we become conscious of sin. " I cannot imagine a more
scathing indictment of our sins.

I mean, there it is for all to see as clear as a bell we've all sinned. You look
at these verses and they remind us that sin involves our whole being. It
involves our mind.

No one understands. In verse 11, we choose not to understand. It involves our
heart.

No one seeks God. We choose, we desire not to seek God because we want to do our
own thing. And it involves our will, what we decide.

In verse 13, no one does good. We decide to do the wrong thing instead of
deciding to do the right thing and seeking God. Now, some people do this in a
religious way.

Some people do it in a selfish way. Some people do it in an entirely sinful way.
But the truth of the matter is whenever our mind chooses not to understand and
our heart chooses not to seek God and we decide to do our will rather than God's
will, that is sin.

We all sin. In these verses, we're reminded that we all sin by what we say. In
verses 3, 13, and 14, we've all sinned with the words that are in our mouths.

It's amazing the things that we can say. God has designed a snake so that it
can't poison itself. It can't bite down on itself and poison itself with its own
fangs.

But we are not designed that way as human beings. We can poison ourselves with
our own words and others and we do it all the time. We sin by what we say.

We sin by what we do. We sin by how we think. And so this time of Paul talking
about our sins and the struggles we have with sins is summed up in verse 19 when
he says, "So that every mouth might be silenced and the whole world held
accountable to God.

" In truth, what he's saying here is there is no defense for our sin. There's no
defense for our sin. And we're all together in this.

It's not as if we can point a finger at somebody else and excuse our sin through
somebody else. We've all sinned. We've all fallen short of God's glory.

We can't save ourselves. We've all sinned. So what's the verdict?

You would think it would be guilty, but we're going to see tomorrow God's
surprising verdict. The final verdict is not what you would think it would be.