In his sermon, 'The Chief Advantage Examined,' Jason Dohm explores Romans 3:1-8, focusing on the advantages and responsibilities that come with possessing the Scriptures. He emphasizes the chief advantage that the Jews had, which was being entrusted with the oracles of God. Dohm highlights that while having the Scriptures is a great blessing and privilege, it does not guarantee salvation; it only guarantees exposure to the truth. He explains that God's faithfulness is not nullified by human unbelief, as God's truth and righteousness remain intact despite human failings. Dohm addresses potential objections regarding the role of human unrighteousness in glorifying God, affirming that God's judgment of the world is perfectly righteous and that human unrighteousness is not justified. He underscores the importance of responding to the privileges of having the Scriptures by trusting in Jesus Christ, who is the centerpiece of the Bible. Dohm concludes by warning against using twisted logic to justify unrighteousness and encourages believers to glorify God by embracing the truth and living according to His Word.

Romans 3, 1 through 8. Before I read that, I want to see how well you know a very famous verse in 2nd Timothy that goes like this, the scripture that I like the most is inspired of God and profitable for doctrine and reproof. All right, some of you got that. All scripture is written by God and profitable for doctrine and truth. And we're on the precipice of some amazing truth and doctrine about man, about God, about his goodness, but not yet.

I know you're seeing verse 9 and beyond and say, I can't wait, but today we're here at verses 1 through 8 and these, just like the rest, are just as inspired, just as wonderful, just as majestic, so let us not tune out and say, oh, I'm almost to nine. Let us see there's so much here about God's character, about his truthfulness, his faithfulness, his glory, and the purpose that God's word has for us. So with that, Romans 3, 1 through 8. What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the prophet of circumcision, much in every way, chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe?

Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? 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. But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath?

I speak as a man. Certainly not, for then how will God judge the world? For if the truth of God is increased through my lie to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? And why not say, let us do evil, that good may come, as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, that condemnation is just. Father, thank you for every jot and tittle of your word.

It is beautiful and right and good and magnifies your name. Oh Lord, may Jason's lips be dripping with the glory of God, with magnifying your name, with your goodness, your patience, your long-suffering. God, may our eyes be fixed on you, may we desire you and delight in you, may your word transform us, may we Leave different people more like the son you love. In Jesus' name, Amen. I put the chances that I can get all the way through the sermon without some level of coughing fit at exactly zero.

I feel fine, I'm way past being contagious, I just have the lingering cough that most of us have. Don't be too alarmed, we'll keep pressing on. The title of the sermon this morning is, The Chief Advantage Examined. Paul has been talking about advantages, blessings, privileges that the Jews enjoyed. Now he says before us the great advantage that they have.

That they have. Psalm 19 verses 7-11 The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward." This is the Word of God.

This is what the Word of God says about the Word of God. This is the claim that God Himself makes about the Scriptures that He has given to his people. You can't read Psalm 19 verses 7 through 11 and come away with drawing any other conclusion that this is a great blessing. To have this in hand versus not having it in hand is really the difference between night and day in so many ways. Paul reflecting on Timothy's upbringing on the knees of a Jewish mother and a Jewish grandmother being exposed to the Scriptures and taught the Scriptures.

Paul reflecting on that upbringing says this, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. What scriptures was Paul talking about? He was talking about the Old Testament, the New Testament, hadn't been written. Most of it hadn't been written yet, and what had been written wasn't in large circulation yet. So he's talking about Jesus Christ the Messiah and the subject of even the Old Testament scriptures and how these Old Testament scriptures, if you're raised on the knee of a faithful Jewish woman, faithful Jewish grandmother, they can make you wise for salvation because they contain the object of the faith that will save you which is the Messiah that God has promised to send.

So the Scriptures are a great gift. The Scriptures are a priceless treasure, Though access to Scripture actually guarantees nothing, accept exposure to the truth. The only thing you're guaranteed by having a Bible, reading the Bible, having the Bible taught to you, the only thing you're guaranteed is exposure to the truth. When you come into contact with this book, you are exposed to the truth. Nothing else is guaranteed.

And so Paul does set forth the Word of God as a great blessing and privilege and advantage, but he makes it so clear that it is not infallibly saving. That really is a key point from our text. Let's ask God to help us as we come to our text. God when we consider the claims that you make for your own word in your word, they really are jaw dropping claims. If your Word really is all the things to us that Psalm 19 and so many other places say that they are, what a blessing and privilege to have them in hand.

So we start today just by thanking you for not keeping these things hidden from us, but by giving us a word, the Word of God. And I pray that you would help us to benefit from this exposure to the truth that we have by taking the Bible in hand. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. I am subdividing.

I'm cutting the text in half. We'll look at one through four and then five through eight. But to back up a bit and see how this relates to Paul's argument, I'm actually going to start reading the first subsection by backing up into chapter 2 verse 25. And then I'll just cross right over the chapter marker without even saying so. Just keep going through verse 4.

So I'm starting in Romans chapter 2 verse 25. Please follow along as I read. Paul writes, for circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law, but if you're a breaker of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who even with your written code and circumcision are a transgressor of the law.

Now these last two verses are the punchline. This is really the conclusion of the matter, verses 28 and 29. Don't miss this. For he is not a Jew who is won outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly.

And circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God." So Paul just wraps it up and puts a bow on it. Circumcision is intended to be the inward thing that happens. The outward sign is to just be an outward marker that the inward thing has happened. If you have the outward without the inward, it has no value to you. But it's possible actually to have the inward without the outward.

Now chapter 3. What advantage then has the Jew? Or what is the prophet of circumcision? Much in every way, chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe?

Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? 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. So, in this section, Paul takes up the question, are the advantages really advantages? If you're taking notes on the handout filling in a blank really fills in the blank are the advantages of being a Jew really advantages or or are they not advantages or Or could they even be considered in some ways disadvantages?

Based on what Paul has been teaching, we might be tempted to draw the wrong conclusion. Since greater advantages, greater blessings, greater privileges exposes a person to more responsibility and makes them more open to condemnation, wouldn't it be better to be without them? Now think about that. We pretty much say some version of that every week. Friends, brethren, we're drowning in advantages.

And that's good, but but with these advantages, just understand a responsibility is laid on you with the privileges, the blessings, the advantages. You are more responsible by having more blessings and privileges and advantages than you would have been. You are more open to condemnation if you do nothing with these blessings and privileges and advantages than if you hadn't had them. So you could just draw the conclusion, don't give me any advantages. Leave me without the advantages.

I don't want to be more responsible, and I don't want to open myself up to greater condemnation. What Paul essentially says to that line of thinking is this, there's a door number three. If door number one is to have no advantages, you still have a level of responsibility. You're open to a level of condemnation, but it's not as great. But remember, Paul's been saying, that doesn't mean you're not responsible and you're not open to condemnation, it's just not as responsible and not open to as much condemnation.

Because he's established that if you've seen creation, that tells you something about the invisible attributes of the Creator, and that God has made everyone, even if you've never seen a Bible in your whole life, God has made everyone with an internal sense of right and wrong that we're crossing every day and we know it. So that you might know more than what you can know by looking at creation and what you can know by this internal sense of right and wrong. You might know more than that but nobody knows less than that. So door number one limits your responsibility but you're still responsible to a level. It limits your openness to condemnation, but you're still open to condemnation to a level.

Door number two is to have the advantages of being marked out to be the people of God, have exposure to the truth, and have a framework of godliness, and to be taught spiritual truths, to know things that the other nations don't know about God and His ways, but then to do nothing with that, and that makes you worse off than door number one because you knew more and you did nothing. Okay, But Paul doesn't stop there. Paul is pointing to the fact that those aren't the only two options. You can actually enjoy the privileges and do something with them, respond to the goodness of God in giving you blessings, advantages, privileges, and respond to God's goodness. And that's what God wants by giving you the blessings and advantages and privileges.

God wants us walking through door number three so you actually respond to his goodness So there are two questions in our text What advantage does the Jew have? These descendants of of Abraham and or what advantage is having this outward mark of being a member of the people of God. That's what circumcision is. It's an outward mark that God has put His name on you and claimed you for Himself. What advantages of that.

What does Paul say? Much in every way. Then surprisingly he doesn't give us a list. He's actually going to give us a list later in Romans, but here, he doesn't give us a list of the advantages. He contents himself with just setting forth the key advantage, the big advantage, the chief advantage to them were committed the oracles of God.

They got the Word of God. The NASB and the ESV and the NIV render it entrusted to them, or entrusted the oracles of God. They're both good translations. To the Jews, they were committed, or the Word of God was committed to them or entrusted to them. I have four things to say at this point.

Number one, Scripture is the Word of God. This might seem so basic, but it's important. This is not just another book. This is the book of books. This is the book of pure divine revelation from God to man to tell us things about Himself and His ways that we would never know unless He had given us this book.

It is the Word of God. The words of God were entrusted to the Jewish people, and it was a great blessing. So, just recognize here, Paul is saying, your Bible is the Word of God. 2. Never underestimate the value of having the Bible.

When all of the other nations were languishing in ignorance and darkness, the descendants of Abraham were entrusted with the word of God and it made them very different than the other nations. In spite of all of their failings, their stubbornness, their backsliding, their rebellion, they were still radically different than the other nations of the earth if you take their histories in total. Why was that? God revealed things to them that the other nations were utterly ignorant of about Himself and His ways, and there is tremendous value in that. Number three, understand that having the Word of God is a trust.

To them we're committed or to them was entrusted the Word of God. It's a gift and the gift comes with a stewardship. God means for us to read it and re-read it, to study it and to memorize it and to live by it and to obey it. He has not given us His word as an academic exercise, but that we would be transformed by it into God lovers and God followers and ones who entrust ourselves completely to the grace of God for our salvation. You've been given a gift and a stewardship comes with the gift that you actually consider the great object of the book and that is Jesus set forth as the savior of sinners.

It's meant to transform you. We're supposed to do something with it. We're supposed to believe it at the most fundamental level. You haven't believed the Bible if you don't trust in Jesus. Jesus is so much the centerpiece of all of Scripture.

It cannot be said that you believe the Bible if you don't trust in Jesus. And finally, number four, but though all of the first three things are true, never think that this blessing is infallibly saving. No one was ever saved because they owned a Bible. No one was ever saved because they studied their Bible. No one was ever saved because they owned a Bible.

No one was ever saved because they studied their Bible. No one was ever saved because they memorized their Bible. You are saved by believing in the great centerpiece of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ. So it is a tremendous advantage, but that's not the same thing as saying it is infallibly saving. Paul says to Timothy in reflecting on his upbringing, they are able to make you wise to salvation and that is true.

That is not the same thing as saying there it is infallibly saving if you read it it's magic it's not magic you must trust in Jesus Now Paul takes up an important question and a potential objection. So, we're in a long section where he's going to be identifying your objections and my objections, and then heading them off at the pass and trying to respond to them. If the Word of God often goes unheeded by those who possess it, are you with me so far? Is that true? The Word of God often goes unheeded by those who possess it.

The number of people who own Bibles is large. The number of people who trust Jesus is a lot smaller. I don't know exactly what the numbers are, I just know that's the ratio. Big number of people with the Bible on the shelf, much smaller number of people who actually throw themselves on the mercy of Jesus Christ to be saved. So is that true?

Yes, that's true. So if that's true that the Word of God often goes unheeded by those who possess it, doesn't that mean that God's faithfulness has been rendered worthless? Look at verse 3. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?

That is the question on the table. We know that there are people who have Bibles who won't believe those Bibles. Doesn't that mean that God's faithfulness has been rendered worthless? What's Paul's answer? Certainly not.

By the way, this is going to be a popular answer of Paul to his own questions. We're going to hit certainly not a lot. The King James Version renders it, God forbid, is what the commentator John Murray says about that translation. The formula Paul uses could be rendered more literally as far from it. But it really needs the force of the expression given in our version, God forbid.

So John Murray is working from the King James Version and he's actually defending their translation even though it's less literal. Why is he doing that? He says It would be more literal, most literal, to translate it far from it. But that doesn't do justice to the force of the Greek expression. So even though it's less literal, He defends the King James rendering it, God forbid, because he says that's actually consistent with the force of the Greek expression.

So, you can sort of have the best of both worlds get a literal translation, certainly not, or far from it, but know that actually there's more force in the Greek than comes across into the English. He's trying to say, in the most animated, earnest terms, no way! God forbid! No way! God forbid!

Paul goes on to say, indeed, let God be true, but every man a liar. Let me say a couple of things about this response. First, understand that we're in a long section of Paul anticipating and answering objections, and he's going to do it little at a time. So if you expect him to say everything at every stop along the way, you're going to be frustrated. Like he only touched on the objection.

He didn't fully answer the objection. And I come away from our text feeling that way. Paul, you haven't fully answered the objection. You gave us a response but it's not a comprehensive response. To that I would say let me preach future sermons in the future.

Paul's not writing a paragraph, he's writing a letter so that if we'll be patient and we'll take it all together and take it as Paul gives it to us, we'll end up seeing that he really has given us a very thorough treatment of these things, but he doesn't say everything at every stop along the way. So I'll preach today's sermon today. Don't make me preach next month's sermon. Paul's going to get there. And we're going slower than we would go if we just read the letter.

That's going to be the nature of this, is he's going to touch on certain parts and it won't be comprehensive. But in the end, we'll see it was comprehensive. Second, and this is very important, Paul is not afraid to use axioms. What is an axiom? An axiom is a fundamental truth, so not something on the periphery, something in the center, a fundamental truth which is simply accepted as true and upon which the whole system is based.

Because it's a fundamental truth, it would all fall apart If what you're saying is fundamentally true isn't true, the whole system would spiral out of control and you'd be left with nothing. So you just accept it as true. You can't prove it except by observing that the system you built on it works. The system you built on it doesn't spiral out of control and unravel. It It all holds together beautifully, consistently.

Now, revealed truths about God are very often axioms. Revealed truths about God are very often fundamental truths that the whole system is built on, but that you simply accept as true, and the only way you can really know that it's true is the system holds. Why is that? It's because God is infinite. God is totally without limits and we are so very finite.

We are so very limited that so many truths about God we just have to take on Him telling us He's like that. In other words, how can I know that God has been perfectly good from eternity past and will be perfectly good through eternity future, except that God has told me? He's not getting less infinite. He's not going to be able to shrink himself down where I can satisfy all my curiosities about him. I'm not going to be able to go back from the beginning of time and before the beginning of time or transport myself to the end of time.

He can't subject himself to a laboratory investigation and proof of this. He just tells us he's like this and the system holds. So we believe the axiom. So what axiom from the Word of God is Paul drawing from here? Here's the axiom.

If there's a problem, man is the problem. If there's a problem, it's man, not God. Let God be true, and every man a liar. Rob Ventura is a friend of mine, at least an acquaintance. He's in Rhode Island and he's about to have commentary on Romans published.

So he sent me chapters one through three. So I've started reading and I'll say this. You know I voted some commentators off the island because I just can't read all the commentators. And so I bought a bunch and then the ones I liked I kept and a few I voted off the island. If I started with Rob Ventura, he would still be on the island.

It's really good. He this week quoted Chrysostom, who is a church father. The church fathers were prominent church leaders from the 100s, 200s, 300s, the early centuries in church history. So sort of the earliest church theologians and leaders. Rob Ventura in his commentary says, Chrysostom remarks, if there were a trial and an examination of the things which God had done for the Jews, and also of what they had done to him, the victory would be with God, and all the right would be on his side.

So, if you were less finite, less limited, and knew all of what God had done for Israel, and knew all of what Israel had done to God in their rebellion against God. If there were a trial based on you knowing all the things you don't know about all God had done for them and His faithfulness and all they had done to Him and their unfaithfulness, all the right would be on His side. All the right would be on his side. Even if every man, woman, and child who ever lived from the beginning of human history to the end lined up and said, No, God's at fault. God wouldn't be at fault.

Every man would have to be a liar. God is true. God can only be true. That is the axiom. God is perfectly good and perfectly true.

So after the equals sign, we have God is perfectly good. And on the other side of the equation if you have anything that doesn't equal that it's back to the drawing board with you because it has to equal God is perfectly good and always has been and always will be So if something on the other side of the equations throws that into doubt, you're barking up the wrong tree. Because God is perfectly Good. The whole system is built on that. And the whole system works together beautifully and consistently based on the acceptance that that is true.

Matthew Henry says this, Matthew Henry says this, better to question and overthrow the credit of all the men in the world than to doubt the faithfulness of God. Amen to Matthew Henry. Better to doubt the credit and the honor of every person who's ever lived than to doubt for one nanosecond the faithfulness of God. In the end, God's faithfulness will be completely exonerated, completely upheld. And all of our questions about it will become nothing, will fall to the ground.

Then Paul quotes King David in Psalm 51. God had sent a prophet to King David to say, You are the man. You did that sin. And David's response is this, God, that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged. In other words, when confronted by God, David's testimony was, you're right about everything.

In your condemnation of me, you're right about everything and I've been wrong about everything. Every word God speaks will prove to be true. And every judgment against God will fall to the ground. He will overcome when He is judged. He is the judge.

We are not the judge. It is for Him to judge us and not for us to judge Him. All of His judgments about us will prove to be true, and all of our Questionings of Him and all of our judgments of Him will fall to the ground. Now let's apply this. Is there any advantage to growing up in a Christian home?

Much in every way! And the chief advantage is this, you have the Word of God. When others around you are languishing in ignorance and darkness, you have pure truth revealed to you from heaven in this book that you have in your lab. It isn't infallibly saving, But it can make you wise to salvation because it sends you to Jesus. If you'll read this book and you won't go to Jesus, God is not the problem.

If you read this book and aren't convinced that you violated it in a thousand ways, and that there's only one hope, only one name by which we must be saved, then it's not the book's fault or the author of the book's fault. The author of Hebrews gives us this warning. Listen to Hebrews 4 verses 1 and 2. Hebrews chapter 4 verses 1 and 2. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them. But the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it." So He's talking about the generation that were miraculously liberated from the tyranny of Pharaoh and set free. He's saying the gospel was preached to them just like it was preached to us. It didn't benefit them because it wasn't mixed with faith in the people who heard it. So there were so many blessings, privileges, advantages that they enjoyed, but it wasn't infallibly saving.

You must trust in Christ. You must trust in Christ. If the hearing isn't mixed with faith in those who hear it, it won't profit you. Just listen again, For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith in those who heard it." Before we move on, let's give Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones the final say.

He gives us a rule of thumb. What's a rule of thumb? It's something general that you can apply to most things as a quick test. Gives you a quick answer whether you're on the right track or not on the right track. Lloyd Jones gives us this rule of thumb.

He says, A very good way of testing any view that you may hold is to ask, is this view humbling to me and glorifying to God? If it is, it's probably right. If you're holding a view and you can say, this humbles me and glorifies God, the rule of thumb is you are on the right track. He continues, but if your view seems to glorify you and query God, there is no need to argue or to go into details. It is wrong.

Your holding of you, it makes you look great, but it casts doubt on God, then you have warrant from scripture to say, Let God be true and every man a liar. If it glorifies you, but casts doubt on God, you don't need to argue or go into the details. It's not right. Verses 5-8. Back in Romans 3, verses 5 through 8.

Back in Romans 3, I think I'm going to time my coughing fit for now. Officially at the halfway coughing fit. Verses 5 through 8. That wasn't too bad. Paul continues, But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say?

Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? I speak as a man. Certainly not. For then how will God judge the world? For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?

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. In this section Paul takes up the question Does our unrighteousness and our untruthfulness really deserve the anger of God? If you're taking notes on the handout by filling in blanks, deserve fills in the blanks. Does our unrighteousness and our untruthfulness really deserve the anger of God?

In a way, I think Paul is giving us one objection in two different ways. He says two different things, but I think it really has, just boils down to a single objection. I think this is the one objection. If what is bad in us puts what is good about God on display, Why is God mad at us? If the bad things in me put the good things in God on display, God, why are you mad at me?

Isn't the chief end of man to glorify God and isn't God's glory served in a way by our unrighteousness and our deceitfulness? In other words, doesn't our unrighteousness reveal God to be blindingly righteous? When you compare us with God, doesn't it just show God to be blindingly good as we stand in contrast to that. Doesn't our deceitfulness reveal God to be blindingly true when you see this contrast of how often we're given to deceitfulness and how God is never like that in any way. He is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

The contrast makes Him even more beautiful, even more glorious. So the logic would go, what's the arm? That we are unrighteous, that we are untruthful, does serve his big purpose, which is to put himself on display as glorious. My unrighteousness does serve that purpose. My untruthfulness does serve that purpose, doesn't it?

Now it should be said that Paul wants to distance himself from this line of thought. He says in verse 5, I speak as a man. In other words, I draw out what is actually a blasphemous accusation against the perfect goodness of God from the unregenerate mind of man. So when he's saying, I speak as a man, that's what he's saying. Man in his natural condition, man in his unregenerate condition, comes up with things like this to justify himself.

I'm not saying I believe that. I'm saying this is in the heart of unregenerate man and he thinks that way. Even though Paul knows that it is a blasphemous accusation against the perfect goodness of God. So the question is this, In light of this combination of things that are all true, it is true that we are unrighteous, and it is true that the contrast with our unrighteousness makes God beautifully righteous. It increases the glory of His righteousness.

It makes Him blindingly righteous by contrast. And the same is true about His truthfulness and our deceitfulness. All of that is true in combination, is God unjust to inflict his anger on the unrighteous and untruthful. Because the big objective is to bring glory to God and that brings glory to God so why are you taking it out on us? Paul comes back with his emphatic response, certainly not or God forbid if you want the force of the Greek.

And then he gives us another axiom. The Word of God declares that God will judge the world in Perfect righteousness. I hope you won't make me prove that. I hope you can think of a number of different places in scripture yourself, without me spending time in the pulpit, knowing that God declares that a day is coming when He will judge the world in perfect righteousness. That is the axiom.

That is the accepted truth that holds the system together and that we can actually build upon. Because that is true, that God's Word, which can't lie, says that God will judge the world in perfect righteousness, therefore it cannot be true that He is unjust to inflict His anger. That can't be true. That can't be true. God is right to be angry at our sin and our lies.

And responding out of his righteous indignation, responding out of his righteous wrath, responding out of his righteous anger, is itself righteous, not unrighteous. So in fact the exact opposite of the accusation is true. For God not to care about our unrighteousness and our lies, And not to respond out of His character to our unrighteousness and lies would be unrighteous. God has to be angry because of who He is at my unrighteousness and my lies, and He has to respond out of it to deal with it because He is righteous. To be indifferent to unrighteousness and deceitfulness would be unrighteous and God can never be unrighteous.

Paul concludes his response by taking us to the logical conclusion of such thinking. This is a really helpful approach, often. Take it all the way to the end. So if you trace this line of thought all the way to the end of that road, where does the road take you? Let us do evil that good may come." If you trace out that line of thought, well my righteousness and my lying makes God look very righteous and very true and that's good.

So you just keep following that to the end you end up saying Let's do more and more evil. It'll make God look more and more good Evil isn't actually evil evil is actually the root of good. That's where it takes you. Listen to Isaiah 5 verse 20. Isaiah 5 verse 20.

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil. Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness. Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. In Isaiah 5 verse 20, God is warning us about this kind of warped, twisted logic that turns evil into good and good into evil, that turns God's moral world upside down. It warns us against that.

Whoa, be warned you who call evil good and good evil. Here's what we learn. The unbelieving heart can talk itself into anything. The unbelieving heart can talk itself into anything. The unbelieving heart can talk itself into anything.

It can talk itself into its own unrighteousness and its own deceitfulness into being a kind of service to God that we should pursue further. Paul says that some people were spreading a rumor that the apostles taught this. And that that was slander. That was a darn lie. And that those people deserved their condemnation.

They would be condemned for saying the apostles taught that and they deserved it. Let me say this. When you teach the biblical gospel that salvation is by grace That salvation is by grace alone. That it is a gift. It has not been earned, cannot be earned.

Through faith alone. Not because of anything that I do, but because I trust only in Jesus, His person, and His work. When you teach that biblical gospel, sooner or later someone will say that you were teaching what you never taught, that it doesn't matter at all what a person does. So here's what they'll do. You say that salvation is by grace alone.

It's just a gift and you can't earn it You can't buy it or deserve it and you say that it's by Faith alone. It's just Trusting so that means it doesn't matter what we do. If you teach the biblical gospel sooner or later, some will say this of you, Like they said it of Paul, like they said it of the other apostles. Why is that? It's because the gospel is scandalous.

It's scandalous to the rule keepers of the world who think that they're good because of some outward facade of goodness. When inside they're full of dead men's bones. This is what Jesus said of the self-righteous in the Gospels. It's like a beautifully painted coffin. Beautiful, shiny, perfect on the outside.

You open that up, there's death and corruption on the inside. If you've never been accused of this, maybe you're not saying it right. Maybe you're backpedaling on how scandalous it is that there's nothing we can do to earn salvation. I don't think we should backpedal from how scandalous this is at all. I don't think we should be so afraid that we'll be misinterpreted as saying, it doesn't matter what a person does, we don't believe that, we don't teach that.

But we shouldn't be so afraid that we dumb down the grace of grace. No. Grace is grace and only grace. Faith is the only instrument by which we lay hold of the work of Jesus Christ. Now, how should we apply this?

Let's do it with a question. Has God told us how to glorify Him? Did God tell us to be unrighteous and to lie to glorify Him? It's a question that answers itself. Yes, God has told us.

Matthew 5, 16. Matthew chapter 5, verse 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. When we love God and we love our neighbor, It glorifies God. He has told us how to bring glory to Him in this world.

That God is so amazing that He can use our unrighteousness and our untruthfulness to somehow glorify Himself. And I agree, he is that amazing. That's his glory and his business. That's not your glory and your business. When you're unrighteous and you're untruthful, The glory of God is not in view for you.

That's not what you're trying to do with your unrighteousness and your deceitfulness. That He's so amazing that He can work all of these things to His own glory isn't your business. And it's not your glory, it's God's. It doesn't mean that we're doing him a favor by being unrighteous and being untruthful. Next week, Paul will conclude this section by rendering a verdict on the entire human race.

So he's going to draw some conclusions from this section by section line of argumentation that he's been adding one weight on top of another. I hope it's unbearable weight to anyone who's not trusting in Christ and that you'll collapse under the weight and go to Christ. Let's pray. God, I thank you for the axioms here, these things that we can't go into a laboratory and prove, but that we have proven by experience in Our lives we know that you are true though every man has a liar That you can only be good and you are only good Thank you that this is a rock that we can build our entire life upon. May you find us doing so.

Pray in Jesus' name, Amen.