Romans 3:1-20
M. Kelly
June 2, 2013
Paul has been declaring the necessity of the Gospel. Man can not stand righteous before God through the works of the law.
This thought was started in chapter 1:18 and now we are coming to the close of this section.
He is eager to preach the Gospel because the wrath of God is being revealed against all ungodliness. He is closing every door to standing righteous before God. He states that all men are sinners. This is God's view of man, not a man's view of man.
We looked at the
1. Self Righteous moralist~judge others to lift themselves up
2. The Religionist~trusting in their religious heritage, rituals, ceremonies, etc.
Paul brings forth 8 Old Testament passages that the Jews had misunderstood.
Ps 143:1-2 in your sight no man living is righteous
This says the same thing in Romans 3:20...no flesh will be justified in His sight.
V. 10-18 The tongue reveals our unrighteousness quicker than anything! We must apply the Scriptures to our own lives!
Paul has spent much time and energy establishing that we have no righteousness of our own.
The modern gospel, which is not gospel, says you will achieve all your dreams if you just put your trust in God. He will make everything work out for you. This is nothing but self-help teaching. It's destructive.
The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness, but it is revealed with much mercy now. At the judgement there will be no mercy.
History is moving in a direction. Time has a point and it is all moving toward the judgement day.
Lessons:
1. Men do not fear God v. 18
Jer. 32:40 God will put the fear of Himself in their hearts. Why does God have to put the fear of Him in their hearts? Because man is destitute of fear of Him. We do not have it naturally. No fear of violating His laws. His character and authority is not respected. Sin is ungodliness. It means against God! Sin is aimed at God whether we realize it or not. We do not fear God naturally. We fear other men but not God. We should fear Him who is able to kill both body and soul in Hell. Many will not speak certain things in front of men for fear of what they will think of them, but what about things we say outside of hearing of certain people? Does the fear of God restrain our lips??? Men love to appear a certain way in front of others but what about in front of God alone? Where is our piety when we are alone and only God is there? Do we clean the house because we don't want people to know how we really live? Where is the fear of God? To not fear God is to want all the glory for ourselves. No man fears God as he ought. Isa. 57:11;
Mal. 3:5; Verses 19-20 We are accountable to God. Why fear other men? We will not come to the court of men after death.
2. It is through the preaching of the Gospel that men are made aware of their accountability to God.
Paul makes this point in most of the first three chapters of Romans. V.21-22 Rom. 10:14-15 There must be preachers to preach the Gospel so others will be accountable to God. It takes time to preach the gospel to to others. He spends almost three chapters to make man accountable. We want everything now. The Reformation would have never happened in our culture. No one would have taken the time to read what Luther pinned on the door. We want a bumper sticker theology!
Preaching is the means through which God saves sinners!
3. Every mouth should be stopped upon hearing the gospel and every mouth will be stopped by the Gospel. v. 19
It's not that God doesn't remember our wrongs. He remembers all of them, but they were laid upon His Son at the cross. Every sin we committed, every thought, every act Ps. 130:3, but those were laid upon His Son for His people. God is not a neutral judge. God is not only the judge, He is the offended party. There will be no evidence presented that He doesn't know about. There will be no defense. Every mouth will be stopped. That is the problem with sin. We tend to think of what sin does to us and our reputation than God. He knows every fact and his judgement is based on perfect righteousness, perfect judgement. Ignorance, hatred, hiding and getting others to agree with you does not change the reality of the judgement day. We know judgement is a reality because death is a reality.
Ps. 143:2 No man is righteous in God's sight.
God's sight is what matters here...man's view doesn't matter.
Our culture says men need to feel better about who they are. We are to experience true joy in the redemptive work of Christ, but we are not to feel better about ourselves outside of that.
4. The purpose of the law is to condemn. v. 19
Rom 5:20 7:8
The law reveals sin. We see how important the knowledge of sin is. Men want to get rid of the law so they can get rid of sin. Political correctness is an attack on the Word of God.
It is the straight edge of the law that shows us how crooked we are.
Gal. 3:22 The scripture has shut up everyone under sin...
We are accountable to God.
We need to eliminate our feelings when it comes to going to the Word of God. If you only go to the Word of God when you feel like it, you will be a very weak and frail Christian.
Must evangelism goes like this: You have a problem (fill in the blank) come to Christ and He will make things better. It's felt needs that win the day in our culture. This is NOT the gospel! Christ is not a pill to take to fix your problems!
It's only through the Gospel that we see these things are lies. They are lies of Satan! We must start with God's wrath against SINNERS! He isn't angry with sin, but sinners! His judgement will take place and there is only one way of escape and that is through Jesus Christ. The importance of the knowledge of sin is shown in Romans 1-3. It's all about sin, but so many gripe because they don't want to hear about. They must hear about sin and God's judgement if they are to escape it.
5. God is our judge....not other men. We must stand in His sight, not the sight of others. You can go find another preacher that will tell you you are fine, but in the judgement day you will not stand in his sight. You must stand in the sight of God at the judgement! We need the Gospel of God! Stop and be impressed by what Paul shows is the Gospel so far! Preachers are only to preach the promises of God and no man has a right to preach any other message. Our souls and eternal destinations are at stake! These truths are to be applied to us daily! Paul's purpose is to exalt Christ. V. 21-22
🌹🌺🌻Marsha🌻🌺🌹
He is the Α and Ω and everything in between. Îστιν ÏŒ Α Ω. (Revelation 22:13)
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